However, the information made me frown deeply. The formation wasn’t all that complicated, but it relied on the presence of mana gems to function, and fairly large ones at that. “Is there a way to artificially manufacture mana gems?”
“No, they only form after years of mana condensing and purifying in a single location. This most commonly happens on asteroids, where they can be left undisturbed for long periods of time. In your world, where mana was just introduced, finding a mana vein would be impossible. However, there is an alternative that you might be able to do, a more primitive method that doesn’t need mana gems.”
“Alright, well don’t keep me in suspense over here…”
“If you refine an element seed of all seven of the primary elements, with each one being at least medium quality, and then combine them like you did when making your grove… You can create an enchantment on a large glass sphere that creates a similar effect. However, in this case, a circle will need to be drawn around the city and linked to the enchantment.”
I groaned as she mentioned that. While it was possible for me to do that for Oakland, there was no way I’d be able to make that for every city on Earth! “Anything else, that doesn’t require druid abilities?”
“There is one other. There are ways for mages, druids, and priests to all set up the barrier. For mages, it is the spell formation. For druids, it is the seeds. And finally, for priests they must construct an altar to their patron and pray for protection for their city. I didn’t mention that one first because, although it is the most common one, your world has yet to accept the pantheon. Building altars to what others perceive as false gods would create more problems than it would solve.”
“True… so we have one that can’t be done, one that shouldn’t be done, and one that is simply very hard. Why does it have to be a medium quality seed collection?” I glanced to Celeste as I asked that.
“Ah… well, that was an estimate based on the size of your city. Larger cities would require high quality, or even perfect seed combinations. The point is for the energy to be poured into a large glass sphere, with an enchantment of cycling mana. That will cause the mana to shift and spread out, keeping it from gathering in one place with enough density to spawn a monster.”
“I see… so smaller cities would only need low quality seeds, yes?” I looked up in thought, and quickly got a confirmation. “Well, that’ll be useful information. Do any of these methods have expiration dates?”
“Not unless the focus object- the glass sphere, formation circle, or altar- are destroyed. Otherwise, they will continue on indefinitely.” After saying that, Celeste suddenly giggled. “Well, it seems that Yang finally made her first staff… by singing to it.”
I suddenly recalled looking into my grove and watching her in her bird form sing to a tree to help it grow. “Huh, thought she would have lost that habit when she evolved. By the way, you said that Natural Craftsmen had the potential to create items on the same level as most technology, but how is that possible? No matter how you look at it, a wooden staff will never match up to a plasma staff, and a bow will never match up to a rifle, right?”
Celeste raised her lips into a grin as she looked back at me. “Ah, but it’s precisely because they use natural materials that they can do it. And the best is from formerly living creatures. After a creature dies, and its soul dissipates, the aura is left withered, a shadow of its former self. You saw that when you studied your scale armor. But because of that hollowness, that emptiness, those items have far more room for improvement of their auras.
“A weapon made of only natural materials can support roughly two or three times the enchantment as a processed item. With that, you could easily create a staff that can match up to a plasma weapon, or a bow that will never miss its mark. And with the Natural Craftsman able to modify the auras of natural items in the same way that you shapeshift yourself, they can create high quality items more easily.”
I felt myself smiling as I thought of that. If she was right, then I could get another good set of items. Maybe even better ones than my plasma weapons. “How much would it cost to get a Skill Shard for a Natural Craftsman?”
Celeste blinked, looking as if she hadn’t considered it. To be honest, I hadn’t either until just now. However, it was the easiest way to train Yang up without spending weeks for her to understand. “I.. don’t know. But let’s find out!” I felt my body standing up before I even had the chance to accept, and we raced over to the terminal. Turns out, the basic skill shards for advanced class skills cost one gold each. At least, if you buy them from a reputable store. Looking at my funds, I saw that I was lacking quite a bit.
“If I take the time to restore my grove, and then make another few batches of pills, I will be able to afford that pretty easily.” Next, I looked up Skill Shards that had information on cultivating mana. While I didn’t expect instant affinities with this, being able to use it to teach Yang how to cultivate would be helpful. And since this was information for only a basic class skill, the cost was only twenty silver. However, it only contained information about how to isolate an element and cycle it to begin cultivating. Identifying the element you wanted was left up to the user.
“I can help her find the right elements, Falenel.” Celeste spoke up reassuringly. “We’ll need to teach her Aura Sight first, and then from there I can show her which elements to focus on.”
“Alright. We’ll do that after she has the class.” There was one more thing I was interested in, and I found it rather quickly. A Skill Shard containing the auras of various sentient races. This one was obscenely expensive, costing ten gold per race, unless you had a letter of recommendation from a hospital. While some races may still be worth it, I didn’t really want to spend that much. In the end, I decided that I wouldn’t buy any Skill Shards, aside from the two for Yang.
Looking over to the terminal, I decided to ask it a question. “Why don’t the creators of Skill Shards simply use them on themselves in order to mass produce them?”
After a moment, the terminal answered in a monotone voice. “Possessing too many skills on a single person will cause higher level skills to decline. In order to not suffer from this side effect, the creators will only absorb the information of skills which they already possess, in order to expand their knowledge.”
“Huh… well, that explains that.” I shrugged, moving back over to my seat across from the skill school. “I don’t even really know about the ranks passed Advanced. Do you have information on that, Celeste?”
The AI appeared next to me again, nodding her head rapidly. “There are actually five ranks beyond that. The total list of skill ranks is Beginner, Basic, Novice, Intermediate, Advanced, Expert, Master, Grandmaster, Legend, and Godly. There are almost no instances of anyone possessing a Godly level skill, aside from the incarnations of the gods themselves. For regular people, Legend is considered the true peak skill level, and represents knowing everything there is to know about the skill.”
I chuckled slightly as I thought of that. “How much would a Legend ranked Skill Shard cost, I wonder.”
“Going by the pricing standards they listed on the terminal just now… a Beginner level skill would cost half a silver, a Basic level one five silver, a Novice level one fifty silver, and an Intermediate level one would cost five gold. That means they increase by tenfold each time. An Advanced level skill would cost you fifty gold, then five hundred gold for a Expert level one. A Master one would be five thousand… but I suspect that the price would shoot up even higher than a million gold for a Legend ranked skill.”
Hearing the estimated price made me gulp. I was considering it amazing that I could earn one or two gold a day, but hearing that a Legend rank skill, the epitome of perfection, would cost me a million gold… And that was just for one skill, mind you. I also realized that the basic price of 1 gold for a class skill of an advanced class could even be considered cheap, as long as it was at least of the Novice rank. “Okay… going to forget any dream
s of buying Skill Shards to quickly advance my skills. However.. what about ships? Do you know how much those cost?”
Celeste laughed lightly as I asked. “I knew that eventually you would ask that. You think about having your own ship all the time. A basic shuttle capable of interplanetary flight costs one hundred gold. This is without giving it weapons or anything, just the most basic version. If you wanted a cruiser like the Nostromo… You’d need at least twenty thousand gold. And then the maintenance fees, ammo, and so on would raise that even more.”
My shoulders dropped and I suddenly found my feet very interesting. “You sure know how to ruin a man’s dreams… you know that, right?”
“It’s what I’m here for, Falenel… it’s what I’m here for. Ah, looks like Yang is just about to finish up. Since she found out her singing Nature Magic works, she was able to complete it faster than I expected.”
Just as Yang was coming out, I got a message from my AI, alerting me that I was getting a call at home. Dammit, can’t they wait a few minutes? Well, I’ve got time thanks to the time difference.
When Yang came out, I congratulated her on finishing the training, which made her grin broadly and leap at me for a very tight hug which I should not have allowed to continue nearly as long as it did. However, after that I took us all back to the hotel, paid for the next two weeks, then transferred everyone to my grove so that I could log out and see what is happening in the real world that would need my attention.
Sometimes, I look back and wish I could have just stayed logged in.
Chapter 17: Blood Calls to Blood
When life becomes a game, to what heights can we rise as we play? When the world becomes a lie, how far can we fall? Until now, I had never really considered it. After I had gotten out of the game, Faraday had called me for a consultation. I hadn’t understood why until I got to the scene.
The address he had sent me was a house on the other side of Oakland, and when I got there, I nearly spilled what precious little was in my stomach. Once I got past the police inspection out front, and made my way to the living room where Faraday was waiting for me, I saw a man thrown about in a gory mess. Arms, legs, even individual fingers had been separated. Aside from some police VR games, this was my first crime scene, and it felt like something broke inside me.
Blood was sprayed everywhere, and the only thing worse than the thought of his organs being part of this mess, was seeing that they weren’t. Blood, meat, and bone were all there, but aside from that… “This is the third one in three days.” Faraday said next to me as he looked at the scene. “Normally, we’d never let a civilian within thirty feet of this, but you’ve been in the ‘game’ the longest.”
As he said that, I finally noticed why I was here. Off to the side of the room was a painting in blood on the wall. Two words, written above a series of symbols. “Game Over…”
Celeste… the symbols? I didn’t want to look at anything in this room, so I asked the AI in my head for help.
“Sorry, John, but I don’t recognize any of them. If they’re runes, they’re too misshapen to be discernable.” She spoke up solemnly from behind me.
“If you called me here… they’re using magic or something?” I glanced over to Faraday, if for no other reason than not wanting to look elsewhere at the moment.
“Near as we can tell. Our mages aren’t leveled up enough to be able to identify how it’s done. Hard to level a diviner. But there are no identifiable tool marks, the skin doesn’t appear to be torn, and as you can tell, we can’t find a trace of the organs. It’s like they just fell apart.”
“And… that was at all the scenes..?” I pointed over to the message on the wall, refusing to look.
“That’s right. We call him the Gamer, but the symbols he leaves are different every time. We’ve sent someone into NeoLife and had them copy them over to be examined, but they don’t appear to be runes. Rather, they’re a language, but an alien one. That is the language of the bajra, an alien race inside NeoLife that is capable of altering their appearance at will. No identifying traits, no other unique abilities. What we need from you, is to help us figure out how he did it, and how to stop it from happening again. I’ll tell you what I can, but a lot of the information is confidential, for obvious reasons.”
I nodded, and quickly excused myself from the room. I could examine it without having to look at that, and all I needed to know was if there was a magic I recognized. If not, I could theorize, and maybe come up with an idea or two. After I found the nearest trash can and vacated my stomach.
“You okay, John?” I heard Celeste ask from behind me, but really, if I thought about it she had it even worse than me. I can forget what I saw eventually, but she was built to record, to remember. “Don’t worry about me, okay? I can handle it.”
“Still.. ugh…” And back in the trash can.
After I was certain I had tossed up everything I had eaten in the last week, my stomach finally settled. Closing my eyes, I sent my mana out towards the living room to investigate. Even though I could ‘feel’ it, at least I didn’t have any images to go with it. And right now, I was glad for that. When my mana touched the first body part, I felt an almost overwhelming amount of magic, a dark and dreadful power that made me pull back my senses as if I was afraid it would notice me. Weakly, I called out to Faraday, who came into the room and grimaced as he saw me kneeling next to the trash can.
“Find anything, aside from ‘leftovers’?”
“Not funny… There was magic, alright. And it was dark.” After a moment, Celeste had been able to actually identify the school of magic, thanks to the Identify software. “Blood magic. Able to control an organic body in unspeakable ways. Even with the message on the wall… there’s no guarantee your killer was ever even here…”
Faraday raised a suspicious eyebrow at that. “And how do you know that information?”
Letting out a weak chuckle, I looked back at him. “You know those AI bracelets they give you in the game?” When he nodded, I tapped my head, making his eyes go wide. “Got a little helper. One of the perks of my magic.”
“You know, if you can do that for others, it’d be a huge help, especially to investigative teams.” He thought idly while glancing to me.
“Sure, I’ll get right on it. Who should I perform magical brain surgery on first? I’ll have you know I ended up in the hospital when I did it to myself, by the way, and it was not a total success.” That seemed to dissuade him pretty well from pressing the issue. “I do have another thing for you from the game, though. Not sure if it’s been made public yet, was going to tell you next chance I got.”
“What is it?”
“I know how to stop monsters from spawning.”
As if those words were magic of their own, Faraday rushed me back to the station and away from the gruesome crime scene. On the way, I explained in detail about the three methods that Celeste had found to prevent monster spawns. Faraday had the same thoughts as me about which one was the most easily usable, and planned to make a report to his chief when we arrived.
When we got to the station, he had me sit in the waiting room while he went off to talk to the local chief of police. Every now and then, I heard a loud shout, and gradually got the idea that maybe I wasn’t supposed to be called in the first place. However, it seemed that he was saving the best for last, and eventually a man came out to greet me. He had a strong, athletic build despite the fact that he was visibly gaining in years, some of his dark hair turning grey.
“Carl says that you are able to stop the monster spawns. That true?” I recognized his voice from the brief call when I had been offered the job as the police’s mercenary.
“I’ll assume that’s Faraday, and yeah. I haven’t tried making the items necessary, but if I can manage to do it, shielding a town the size of Oakland is possible.”
I hadn’t gotten the chance to reveal that specific detail to Faraday before we got here, so the reveal made the chief grimace. “What about big
ger towns?”
“It takes higher quality materials for bigger towns. At most, I can make the stuff for an Oakland sized city right now.”
He gave a resigned sigh, and nodded his head. “There’s been a rumor that there were methods to stop monster spawns altogether, so we had some officers discretely check in NeoLife. Naturally, we can’t do the priest or mage methods, due to religious and practical reasons. And none of our officers took a druid class.”
“Not surprised. Most of you went diviner, right? Easiest way to do investigations.” When I said that, he nodded his head again.
“Right, but we had heard that doing this required all of the basic elements to have a level of mastery to produce the materials. Even though you are one of the beta testers, it was believed that you wouldn’t be able to help for quite some time.”
I chuckled lightly. “Well… if you can give me a minute to wash my mouth out, I can get started trying to make it at home. It will probably take me a couple days, at least, and interrupting just makes me start over with whatever I’m doing. I’ll also need you to provide a large glass sphere about…” After getting the measurements from Celeste a moment later I continued. “Five feet in diameter. It’ll go in the center of town. Finally, the magic circle needs to be drawn around the entire city before it will work. If you have any enchanters or mages researching spell formations, they should know how to do a magic circle. If not, you’ve got nearly two weeks of NeoLife time to figure it out.”
World Seed: New Rules Page 13