by Adam Horne
Elora stood and held her hands in front of her chest. She chanted arcane words and made complex signs with her fingers. When she finished, several flasks appeared on a translucent disc of energy floating three feet above the ground in front of her. She laughed in delight, picked up two of them, and handed them to Kelath.
He popped the cork from the top of one and took a sip. Unfortunately, without a neural interface he couldn’t actually taste the liquid inside, although he could see it was fizzing now that the container was open. A buff appeared that was similar to the one he’d received earlier from the willow bark, except this one regenerated mana. It went away after a handful of seconds because he hadn’t drunk the whole bottle.
“That would be useful for a mage,” said Kelath. “As a rogue, I don’t use a lot of mana for my skills though.”
“Yeah, wizards and clerics need something like this if they don’t want to sit around all the time.”
Kelath still held the half empty bottle in his hand, unsure of what to do with it, so he asked, “Is there a way to recycle these when you’re done with them?”
Elora laughed and rolled her eyes. “Drop them on the ground, silly. They disappear after five minutes.”
“Oh, right.” Kelath grinned sheepishly and let the flask slip through his fingers. It rolled down the embankment and sank into the muddy pond. “Is there anything else you can do with the water?”
“I don’t know. I’ve only drank them to get my mana back.”
Kelath twirled the remaining bottle between his hands, an idea nagging at the back of his mind. The whole point of the game was to try new things and see how the AI reacted to them. It was supposed to come up with novel solutions to the actions of the players and build the game based on their input. He pulled out a piece of the willow bark and held it next to the flask of conjured water, wondering what would happen if he mixed them. He grew nervous at Elora’s questioning look but figured there was no sense in stopping now. He pulled the cork and dropped a few wood chips inside.
Immediately, fizz formed on the surface of the bark, making a constant sound of small bubbles bursting. Orangish-yellow streaks bled out into the water until the entire flask had changed color, then the water stopped fizzing. The piece of willow was entirely gone.
Congratulations! Your Alchemy skill has increased to 1.
You have learned the Regeneration Potion recipe. This is an exclusive discoverable recipe for which you own a patent for the next 30 days.
Kelath’s eyes bugged out when he saw the system message. He’d discovered his first patented recipe, and he had no way to know for sure, but he hoped it was one he could make money with. Elora laughed at him.
“What just happened?” she asked. “You looked really surprised.”
“I created a new recipe. I’m the only one that can make it.”
Elora clapped her hands. “Wow! That’s lucky.”
“And I don’t even know how to conjure the water to make the potion.”
“I can show you how, if you like. Will you teach me the recipe?”
Kelath regarded her suspiciously. His recipe wasn’t two minutes old, and already someone wanted a copy. Visions of his profits vanishing as she flooded the market with regeneration potions played through his mind. For all he knew, he could pay a trainer a few silver to teach him the conjure water skill and not owe her anything. A questioning expression crossed Elora’s face when he didn’t respond, and he felt ashamed for wanting to keep the recipe a secret. Without her help, he never would have discovered it in the first place.
“Sorry,” said Kelath. “I was feeling greedy there for a minute. Of course I’ll teach you how to make the potion.”
“Oh, I don’t need any money,” said Elora. “I was just curious what you would do.”
He found that a little disconcerting. Most people who played games like this scrounged around for as much money as they could get their hands on. There was always better equipment to buy. But Elora had been acting strangely from the beginning, laughing and teasing him like she didn’t have a care in the world. Maybe she really didn’t value the money.
Kelath instructed her to open one of the other flasks of conjured water and mix several small pieces of the bark into it. At first nothing happened, until he reached out and touched the glass himself. Then the wood chips started to bubble and pop like before, and the same orangish-yellow color seeped out into the liquid. When the reaction finally stopped, Elora squealed in delight. She jerked the potion from his grip to examine it, and some of the liquid inside sloshed out and left a fizzy yellow streak down the side of his leather pants.
“Thank you so much for showing me! That’s the first recipe anyone has taught me.” She hummed to herself as she checked out what was left of her potion. “We’ll have to group up and kill some goblins for you to learn conjure water. You’re welcome to any other wizard skills I know, too.”
A window popped up saying he’d been invited to join Elora’s party, and he accepted the invitation. She practically pranced across the grass on the way back to the canyon.
* * *
When they arrived, the area outside the mines was as crowded as before. He led Elora to the same spot he and Througar had camped the day before and explained the plan to her.
“The last time I did this, I had a warrior friend in my party to tank the goblins. One of us will take some hits, but since you’re a wizard, we should be able to do more damage and kill the enemies faster. I’m going to use stealth and stand between those two campsites. You wait at another campfire over there and pull any goblins you see. That way, we’ll cover a larger area. Yell when you have one, and we’ll both attack it.”
“Got it!” Elora smiled and trotted over to the place he’d pointed out. “By the way, wizards have a spell that grants a magic barrier to absorb some of the damage we take. It’s not enough to keep me from losing hit points when fighting solo, but with two people, we should kill the goblins faster. I’ll only need to rest to regain mana.”
“That sounds useful,” said Kelath. “Maybe I should learn that skill, too.”
“It won’t help you. The spell won’t function if you’re wearing anything heavier than light armor, so it’s only useful for wizards.”
“That sucks. I wonder why they did that.”
“I heard that during the beta, all the fighters were learning it. It was overpowered when combined with heavy armor, thus the restriction.”
“I guess that makes sense. Let’s get into position before the goblins at these camps respawn.”
Kelath snuck to where he’d camped the night before and scanned the area. While he waited for something to fight, he opened up his character sheet and looked at the skills. Like when he’d partied with Througar, a small table with his party member’s skills filled the bottom half of the window. Listed there were the skills fire, ice, two-handed weapons, light armor, magic barrier, and conjure water. He checked the box next to conjure water so that any experience he gained from skills Elora used would be credited to it.
It wasn’t long before a goblin spawned between Kelath and Elora. It wasn’t close enough for him to reach with his dagger, so he pulled a throwing knife and hit the unsuspecting mob in the back of the neck.
Sneak attack success.
Poison applied.
The goblin yelped in surprise then charged, brandishing a club. With no further need to be sneaky, Kelath yelled that he’d found one and readied his dagger. Elora waved her hands and chanted the words of a spell. About the time the goblin reached Kelath, a bolt of fire singed the side of its head and continued to burn its hair for a few seconds. The goblin brought its club down on Kelath’s shoulder then turned to go after Elora. Her spell must have done critical damage, the only way other than a taunt to draw these mob’s attention away. Kelath smiled as he aimed the point of his dagger at the monster’s kidney and lunged.
Sneak attack success.
The goblin screamed in frustration but continued on towar
ds Elora. Kelath stabbed again at the monster’s arm as another fire bolt caught it in the chest and rags sizzled. He ended the fight with a pair of swift cuts between the ribs.
Elora laughed with delight. “We got one! That’s the first goblin that hasn’t been stolen away from me. I haven’t received credit for anything since the rabbits in the starting zone.”
“Why don’t you take the loot then? I’ve already killed enough to be halfway done with the quest.”
Elora looked surprised. “That was your goblin. Are you sure?”
“I figured we’d stay here long enough for both of us to finish the quest. We can take turns until we each accumulate ten of the necklaces.”
“Thank you!” Elora reached down and pulled the necklace off the body. She took the coin purse and pulled a pair of leather gloves from the goblin’s hands, holding them out to Kelath. “You might be able to use these.”
Kelath took the piece of armor from her and held it in his hands. After a few seconds of concentration, he could see its attributes.
Goblin Leather Gloves: Provides a +1 bonus to Dexterity.
“Wow, these are magical!”
“Yeah, items like that are kind of rare, at least until we get another level or two.”
“They must be worth quite a bit then. I wouldn’t feel right taking them.”
“Yeah, I could probably auction them to another player for at least a gold, but we’re working together. It’s better you get some use out of the gloves. If we find something a wizard can use later, I’ll take it in exchange. Deal?”
“Deal,” said Kelath with no hesitation.
He turned the gloves around and slid them onto his hands then opened his character sheet. His dexterity score had been 8 when he created the character, so he expected to see that it had increased to 9. Instead, it had stayed the same, and now there was a line underneath it that said, “+1 bonus.”
“Do you know why this says I have a bonus instead of increasing dexterity?” asked Kelath.
“Equipment bonuses aren’t the same as the points you put into your attributes,” said Elora. “If they were, the system would become completely unbalanced. If you had an item in each armor slot with only a +1 bonus, it would double your stats.”
“So how does the bonus work?”
“Nobody knows for sure. The most popular explanation is that you’d need a +10 bonus to a stat to equal one of the points spent at character creation.”
“So I’d need an armor piece in all ten slots with a +1 bonus in order to increase my actual dexterity by +1.”
“Yeah, it’s so characters won’t become overpowered too quickly.”
“I guess that makes sense.” Kelath held his hands out in front of himself and flexed his fingers. The haptic gloves he wore in the real world projected some tension on his hand, simulating the rigidness of the armor. “I’m always surprised at the level of detail they put into this game. I only have a basic VR setup, but it’s so realistic.”
“You wouldn’t believe how real everything feels with a neural interface.”
Kelath’s eyes jumped from his new gloves to stare at Elora’s face. “Are you using one?”
“Yeah.”
Kelath whistled in appreciation. Neural interfaces weren’t cheap, so if she was able to afford one, it was no wonder she hadn’t cared much about the money that could be made from making regeneration potions or selling the gloves they’d found. She’d probably transferred real-world money into the game. It would explain why she already had upgraded robes despite only killing her first monster outside the beginners’ area a few moments ago. Before he could ask how the interface changed the experience of playing the game, Elora pointed off to his right and started chanting the words to a spell.
Another goblin had appeared, this one wearing a threadbare robe. Elora’s fire bolt jumped across the intervening space, hitting the mob in the chest and setting it on fire. It responded by casting a spell of its own, an ice bolt that covered Elora’s left leg in frost. She was already casting another spell as Kelath dashed towards the goblin mage. By the time he reached his target most of its health was gone from the fire bolts that continued to hit it every couple seconds. Kelath stabbed, scoring a sneak attack, and the enemy fell backwards to lie on the ground.
Congratulations! Your Conjure Water skill has increased to 1.
Kelath searched the body, finding a necklace for his quest and a handful of copper coins, before returning to where Elora was now seated on the ground. She drank from one of her flasks of conjured water. Since she had done most of the damage to the last monster, she had used a lot of her mana.
“I learned the skill to create water,” said Kelath as he dropped to the ground beside her.
She took another sip from her flask before saying, “That’s great! Are there any other wizard skills you want to learn?”
“I haven’t thought about it.”
Kelath opened his skill sheet. Conjure water had disappeared from the list of skills he could learn from party members and was now listed under his miscellaneous skills with a number 1 next to it. He scanned the names that remained and stopped at the ice skill. If he knew how to cast ice bolts, it would be easier for him to control enemy movements. It would have been useful to slow down the cleric that had chased him from the area earlier. The sooner he got out of range of an enemy, the sooner he could hide using stealth. He checked the box next to the ice skill so it would receive extra experience and unchecked conjure water.
“I’m ready now,” said Kelath after closing the window. “I’m going to learn how to cast ice spells so I have some form of crowd control.”
“I prefer fire,” said Elora. “It can ignite the enemies and do extra damage.”
“I already have poison to do that. I need a way to slow down pursuers.”
“Good idea.” Elora dropped the empty bottle she’d been drinking from and stood. “I’m ready to kill some more goblins.”
Kelath returned to his spot. Over the course of ten minutes, several goblins spawned close to them. They weren’t able to claim all of the enemies due to other players stealing a few, but after they got their third kill, another system message popped up.
Congratulations! Your Ice skill has increased to 1.
A new spell called “ice bolt” appeared on Kelath’s command bar. He activated stealth and waited for another mob to appear. Thirty seconds later, a goblin wizard materialized in front of him, and he clicked the icon to cast the spell. Immediately, he dropped out of stealth, and the goblin saw him. It started casting a spell of its own. His ice bolt flew out and struck the goblin’s legs while a fire bolt flew back at him and scorched his arm. Spells with status effects generally did less damage, so his attack only removed a sliver of the enemy’s health. He pulled his dagger and sprinted across the campsite while yelling to get Elora’s attention. Between his stabs and her fire bolts, the mob went down quickly.
Elora walked over while he looted the body and said, “Looks like you learned your first ice spell. What do you think?”
“I had to leave stealth to cast it.”
“That makes sense. You have to recite the incantation, and that causes noise.”
“It will be helpful when I need to run away from something, but it’s not as useful as I thought it would be.”
Elora shrugged. “Maybe you’ll think of something else you can do with it.”
Her comment made Kelath pause. Spells normally targeted enemies, but he had no idea if they could be cast upon other things. He chanted a few words, and a bottle of conjured water appeared in his hand. He popped the cork from the top and held it in his left hand while he cast an ice bolt with his right. The magical water fizzed as the chunk of ice bobbed up and down before dissolving like the willow bark had done before. The potion took on an azure hue.
Elora gave him a quizzical look. “What are you doing?”
“Trying something.” He raised the flask in a toast then took a drink from it. His health dropp
ed steadily, small damage counters rising over his head for several seconds before the potion wore off.
“Your face turned blue!” Elora laughed so hard she doubled over.
Kelath held the flask up and peered at it. “This is worthless. Who wants to drink a potion that hurts them?”
He fit the cork back into the neck of the bottle and threw it on the ground. Unlike when he’d discarded empty bottles before, this time the glass shattered. The liquid inside sprayed out, coating the ground in a slick sheet of ice that spread out several feet from where he’d dropped the potion. When he tried to walk, he slid around and had to move slower to keep his footing.
Congratulations! Your Bomb skill has increased to 1.
You have learned the Ice Bomb recipe. This is an exclusive discoverable recipe for which you own a patent for the next 30 days.
Chapter 9
Elora stumbled backwards in surprise. “What was that?”
“It said I learned the bomb skill. I can make bombs.”
“Oh, I have to try this!”
Elora pulled out a flask of conjured water and cast a spell on it. A fire bolt hit the top of the water and sizzled. The liquid took on a reddish tinge when the fire finally dissipated. While she was creating a bomb of her own, Kelath walked around to test out the effects of the ice bomb. He couldn’t run as fast as normal, so he assumed it was similar to the effect of the ice bolt spell, although perhaps the ice bomb wasn’t quite as strong. When he reached the far side and could stand without sliding, he conjured three more flasks of water and created extra bombs for himself.
As he was finishing up his preparations, Elora yelled, “Goblin wizard behind you.”
She readied the bomb she’d made and threw it at their target. It smashed on the ground at the goblin’s feet, the glass shattering to release a spray of liquid that spread out from the impact site and ignited in a fireball. The creature screamed as it was engulfed but didn’t catch on fire. It began casting a spell in retaliation. Kelath prepared to throw his bomb, and a targeting reticle appeared on the ground. Apparently area attacks didn’t automatically aim for the current target, and he had to use the joystick to specify where he wanted to throw. In the excitement of the fight, he had difficulty concentrating on keeping his hand steady, and the reticle jumped around erratically for several seconds before he could center it on the goblin. He pressed the button to throw the bomb, which landed a little to the side but still close enough to cover the mob.