The Vale of Three Wolves: A LitRPG Adventure (Elements of Wrath Online Book 2)
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Kalmarkat (Town) Contains Life Crystal, Vendors, Quest Givers, Mining Guild, Masonry Guild
A small but bustling town, Kalmarkat is renowned for their extensive mining and quarrying work. Of note is the nearby Markat Hills, where much of the sandstone used to construct the walls of Kalaam was quarried.
A sandstone quarry might very well have some structure that looked like jaws or had sharp outcroppings like teeth. Even if it didn't, the miners gathering around that area would know a lot more about the region than we did. It was certainly a better idea to check it out instead of wandering the deserts for hours.
She arched an eyebrow. “Why there?” Before I could speak, she quickly added, “Not that I don’t trust you. You know I do … but that’s all the way at the very edge of the desert so another good half-hour of riding.”
“Well, look at the notes from the marker.” She mentally zoomed in and expanded the tooltip attached to the Kalmarkat marker, just as I did. “See?”
“Shale, you’re a genius!” Before I could process it, Kayla leaned over and gave me a quick kiss on the cheek.
Well, now I was hot on more than the outside. I cleared my throat and grinned. “Well, I don’t know about that but if you say it enough times, I might start to buy it.”
“Then I better be careful.” She pulled at the reins of her horse, her armored robes flaring as the Sea Horse dramatically turned toward the west. “I don’t want you to get arrogant on me.”
With a self-deprecating laugh, I shook my head as I nudged Pearly with my knees. “Oh, that will never happen, Kayla, trust me on that.” The mighty lizard shifted up on his six legs and started forward, the two steeds keeping pace as we headed to the west.
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Crafting skills are learned and developed independently of your champion's Class and Level. Any champion can pursue any number of Crafting skills and they can be leveled by practice and crafting quests without leveling their main Class. Some Crafting skills are used to gather materials for crafting items (Gathering skills such as Mining and Skinning) and others are used to create usable items and equipment from those materials (Production skills like Blacksmithing and Cooking).
From the Crafting section, EO internal wiki
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Kalmarkat gave off a completely different vibe than Kalaam. While the capital of the Sultanate made me think of a giant serpent, coils folded over each other in a confusing and dangerous mess, this sleepy town was full of wide-open spaces with small sandstone homes scattered around an open square. A minor Life Crystal, still twelve feet tall, sat at the center of the town, casting a soft white radiance over everything. The only other prominent landmarks were the artfully built crafting halls and the ring of monoliths that formed a rough perimeter around the place. With no obvious city wall, the faintly glowing Gems mounted in the pair of monoliths we passed on the way formed a protective ward against wandering monsters.
While all that was interesting, what really caught my eye was the low, rocky hills at the edge of my sight. Unlike the black rock that dominated the rest of the Western Desert, these hills were the reddish colors of the surrounding sands, the bright sun making the quartz in the sandstone glitter temptingly.
“If there was ever a place to find anything sandstone,” I said as we rode toward the Life Crystal, “I think we found it.”
Kayla nodded with a smile. “We still have an hour or so to keep up the search. Let’s link up to the Life Crystal here and ride out?” She glanced around the few townspeople milling about or running around on errands. “Or maybe we can get some more information around town? I know you’re probably bored of all the reading and riding but research has gotten me more arena victories than I can care to count.”
I mulled it over as I scanned the town square. “That’s probably the smart move. At least talking to people is more interactive than staring at waymarkers! We could even ask some of the other players around here.”
Though there were far fewer players here than in Kalaam, there were some. Judging by their looks, at least half of them were crafters, obvious from the drastically different gear than other champions. Picks, hammers, and chisels replaced blades, staves, and shields while their sturdy leathers were covered in pouches, tool loops, and other places to stow gear and gathered treasures.
I only had a passing knowledge of the crafting systems myself. While there was some money to be made in the marketplace for a busy craftsperson, the fact of the matter was that it just couldn’t make the kind of money I needed to cash out on a regular basis.
As with most other VRMMOs, all the best gear, especially Gems, were found through hunting or questing, leaving most crafters behind in the overall meta of the game. Still, people just starting out, especially if they had rich friends to help fund them, could get a big head start by getting inexpensive crafted gear, and besides, there was always a need to have consumables for raid encounters and whatnot. Raid guilds subsisted on the best potions, foods, and Crystals to give them the edge in big fights. It simply left the 'hard good' crafters in a terrible spot.
Kayla was already off her mount, the Sea Horse disappearing in a splash of salt water as she raised her hand to the Life Crystal. “Good idea. They said it was a Mining and Mason’s Guild out here, and I doubt there’s any better place to get stone than those hills.”
Thin golden beams of the binding ritual sprang from her hand and the Crystal simultaneously, meeting in the middle and twining together into a solid thread. I mimicked her action as I dismounted, linking Shale’s soul to this crystal in case we ran into … difficulties.
Your soul is bound to the Kalmarkat Life Crystal!
Should you be killed or use an Escape Crystal, you will reform at this location with 15% of your maximum Health Points and Elemental Power.
“That was my thought exactly.” I grinned as I turned to her. “They have to run that entire range. If anyone’s seen something that looks like jaws, they have.”
“Hmm.” A bemused smile played across Kayla’s face as she brushed the sand off her robes. “I still have my Teleport Gem set for Granholm, in case any more business with Crystalfire pops up while we’re hunting for the Ring.”
“If I keep complimenting your thinking, will you take that as honest praise or think I’m trying to flatter you to death?” Maybe it was all the heat but I hadn’t meant to say that aloud. I froze the moment I asked it. My experience with women was minimal at best (being wheelchair-bound and poor does that to a man) and I didn’t know if I had shoved both of my armored feet into my mouth or not.
Thankfully, the answer to my question was a smile and a laugh. “You’ve got at least three more compliments left before you lay it on too thick.”
I blew out a sigh of relief. “Good.” Shaking my head, I shrugged at her. “Sorry, I haven’t wrestled a mountain lion in fifty-two eons.”
Kayla’s laugh didn’t stop, but I was pretty sure she was laughing with me, not at me. “Filter, right?”
My next sigh was a put-upon one. “Exactly.”
The hand on my shoulder was cool and comforting, as it had been every time so far. “Well, let’s get to it and see if we can get rid of that stupid thing, okay?”
We decided to follow a similar strategy as we did in Kalaam, splitting up to cover as much ground and question as many people as possible. As close as we were to our goal, I was still ready for a long haul. While Kalmarkat was a flyspeck in comparison to the capital, it was still sizable, and the players here were constantly on the move or wrapped up in refining ore or crafting items.
It turned out that my concerns were wholly unfounded, though not because of any of our efforts, intelligence, or ingenuity. No, our swift salvation was entirely because of our newfound fame.
As Kayla and I were about to start on our separate ways, someone shouted above the din. “Holy breadbox! Firsters!”
We had barely taken three steps from each other and that shout brought us both to an immediate halt. Finding the source of the
shout was easy because said source didn’t stop with that one outcry.
“Hey! Over here!” The waving arms, shouts, and thumping of boots on the sandy stones of the plaza caught my attention, and a second later, I focused on the guy. I wasn’t the only one. Beyond Kayla, several other players had stopped to stare at the smiling Ember that skidded to a stop in front of us.
Everyone’s avatar carries a bit of themselves in their appearance due to the limitations of the NSAF link so I could tell that he was a fair bit older than me, maybe in his mid-thirties.
Surprisingly round-faced for an Ember, the guy looked to be round in shape as well, but that may have had more to do with his bulky explorer’s gear, layers of clothing, bandoliers, and pockets than his actual bulk. With skin so dark red it was almost black, shocks of orange hair sticking out of folds in his turban, and intense gold eyes, the tradesman balanced an elaborately decorated pickaxe on his shoulder, multiple Gem sockets standing out prominently along its length.
Wazif, 16 Ember Mystic
I recognized the guild tag immediately as the ‘fan club’ set up by the excitable Nahma, my biggest fan in the game. Yeah, the success of our group in being the first to complete the quest line to unlock Crystalfire Keep had attracted more attention than I thought possible. In fact, it was Nahma that Burndall was supposed to be having a meeting with in the upper levels of the deep dive Internet that very moment.
“Uh, hello there,” I managed to get out. I was still trying to parse this whole ‘fame’ thing, to be honest.
Kayla did me one better, performing a graceful curtsy in front of the Ember. “It’s a pleasure to meet you, Wazif. You’re with –”
“The FFC, yeah,” Wazif cut in, I think more from excitement than lack of manners. He thrust his hand out toward us. “It’s a real honor to meet you two in person!” He laughed a bit self-consciously. “Well, I mean really meet you. I’ve seen your whole group a couple of times in Granholm during your run to unlock Crystalfire Keep. Heck, I was there the day when you guys won it all!”
Kayla and I took turns shaking his hand. It didn’t hurt to play nice with the people who liked you, even if it was still a hint creepy. “Nice to meet you,” I replied, trying to sound as comfortable as I could.
Wazif was grinning ear to ear as he planted his pickaxe against the ground and leaned on the end of the handle. “Wow.” He managed to collect himself after a moment of star-gazing. “What are two next-level folks like you doing slumming around the Western Desert?” Leaning in, he lowered his voice to a conspiratorial whisper. “More Crystalfire stuff, like some secret post-chain quests?”
I glanced over at Kayla, slipping into group chat so we could figure this out in privacy.
Shale: What do you think we should tell him?
Kayla: Considering how secretive Crysta was acting about the whole Promise quest, I wonder if we should try to handle this in a similar fashion.
Shale: Makes sense. Besides this is, well, pretty personal, right?
Kayla: Exactly.
Wazif glanced between us during the uncomfortable silence, and I admit I felt a little bad about it. Still, this was personal business. The last thing we needed was for our already eager fans to start gossiping about our relationship statuses. Who was I kidding? They were almost certainly doing that already.
Thank God, Kayla had more refined social skills than I did. She deftly flashed one of those glowing smiles of hers and matched Wazif’s lean and volume. “You could say that. It’s definitely secret stuff and we’d really appreciate if you kept this under your turban, if you catch my drift.”
The Ember’s eyes literally flashed with glee as he nodded, gesturing as if he was zipping his lips shut. “On my honor as a Master Miner, your secret is safe with me.”
I hoped my own smile looked to be one of general affability instead of relief. “Thank you.” After a quick sidelong glance at Kayla, a look she answered with a nod, I leaned in myself. “You know, maybe you can help us out. I’m guessing you know the nearby area like the back of your hand, right? Fully mapped and all points of interest marked?”
At that prospect, the miner stood up and puffed out his chest. “I most certainly do! While I don’t like to get my hands dirty in a fight, I’ve sneaked around every nook and cranny of the Western Desert and the Markat Hills, not to mention a few points beyond. You could say I have more fun in EO seeing new vistas and strange places than getting in fights.” Wazif laughed sheepishly. “I don’t know how you two do it, tanking and arena fighting. The feedback hurts too much for my tastes!”
Up close, I could tell from the cut and look that his gear, while horrible for a straight-up fight, looked like Grade S crafter’s gear. That stuff was built for survivability and boosting tradeskills, as well as a generous amount of individual Gem slots. It gave them a lot of openings for utility stuff like Eagle Eye (good for sighting gathering areas and paths to safety), Teleport, and Shadow Walk (for sneaking past hostile MOBs to get at the goods) but rarely had linkages to make them overpowered for combat content. All in all, Wazif definitely looked like he knew what he was talking about in this regard.
Kayla folded her hands in front of her and bowed in thanks. “Then you’re just the person to help us out.” She nodded to me. “Shale will invite you to the group and we can talk about the specifics in the privacy of group chat.”
As with most of her ideas, it was a smart one. More of our fellow players were starting to realize who exactly Kayla and I were and thus starting to gather and observe.
Wazif’s smile was big enough I was worried he was going to split his face in two. “I’m ready when you are!”
I was already sending the invite with a quick mental tap at my Herald pane before he could say a word. That’s when we all got a bit of a shock.
Warning! Your group’s quest ‘An Answer of Violence’ is limited to two players!
Expanding your group beyond the two players who initiated the quest will result in all Quest Items going inactive, as well as a suspension of all Quest Objectives. No progress will be made in the quest until your group returns to its original composition. All Quest Items will reactivate at that time.
Do you wish to continue and allow Wazif to join your group?
I’d seen that warning a couple of times in the past. There were certain quests that had strictly solo components, and I knew there were dungeons that limited access to groups of limited sizes. If there was any bigger clue that this had something to do with the Ring of Promise, I couldn’t think of it.
"Wow," I muttered in confusion as I canceled the group invite, "I'm sorry. I didn't even know this was that kind of quest."
“Huh,” Wazif pondered aloud. “I didn’t know there were any duo quests around these parts … or at all, to be fair.” Smiling, he shrugged. “Not a problem. Even if I can’t accompany you on your whole quest, it would still be an honor to help the Firsters for as long as I can. Why don’t we head out of town? You can tell me what you need on the way.”
Kayla smiled. “Thank you for being so understanding but are you sure?”
“Kayla’s got a point,” I added. “We seem to have a bad habit of attracting trouble, the fighty, stabby, killy kind of trouble, and it will be hard to protect you if you’re not in the group.” The guy was going out of his way to help us. It would be rude not to try to keep him alive in the process.
Conjuring up a whistle that looked more like a bird-call than anything else, Wazif waved off our concerns with a literal wave of his free hand. “Bah, I’ve wandered the length and breadth of the wilderness in these parts. I know how to keep myself safe.” He turned away, about to summon up his mount. “I’d be doing the FFC a disservice if I didn’t help out some Firsters in need!”
“If you’re sure, you’re sure.” I nodded as I summoned up my Lizard’s Horn. “Let’s ride while we still have time on the clock.”
A moment later, we were all mounted, Wazif taking the reins of a purp
le-plumed Desert Strider. We left behind a bit of a stir in Kalmarkat, no doubt the players who had seen us gossiping with their friends and guilds. Hopefully, that wouldn’t come back to haunt us. Wazif’s Strider wasn’t as fast as Pearly and certainly not as swift as Kayla’s Sea Horse, but it was quite a bit faster than old Snowy. It wasn’t long at all before we had left Kalmarkat behind, out past the ring of wards and into the burning desert before reconvening at the sandstone marker pointing to the town along the main trade road.
Fortunately, none of our gossip squad followed us.
As we reined into a rough circle partially concealed by the waymarker, Wazif’s bird pecked at the occasional insect crawling through the red sands. “I don’t think we have anyone to overhear way out here.” The gregarious Ember leaned forward in the saddle, his gut bulging a bit. “So, what is it you are looking for, my friends?”
Though it did little to make me feel better back in my wheelchair, I instinctively conjured up the cultist’s canteen and guzzled down the water. While I did, Kayla actually answered our new friend’s question. “We’re trying to find a particular landmark that is supposed to be west of Kalaam.” There was a moment’s pause as the Nix remembered the exact wording. “Sandstone jaws, that’s the clue to finding it.”
The canteen dissolved into flickering light as I finished off the water. It did make me feel a bit better under the harsh sun, but I knew it was purely a psychosomatic reaction. “There’s a bit more. We’re supposed to remember three wolves, two supplicants, and one gate, whatever that means exactly.”
Wazif mulled over our words for a moment, unrolling his own virtual map as he did so. “Well, I think the ‘two supplicants’ part is self-explanatory, no doubt why your quest is locked to a two-man group.” He hummed to himself as his gaze moved slowly over his map, occasionally snapping back to center as he scrolled and recentered it with a flick of his chin. He had a pretty high immersion level, I could tell.