Extra Credit

by J. Arthur Klein

  Would you like to learn the spell “Necromantic Bolt” (Yes/No)?

  I mentally selected “yes” and the scroll dissolved into purple mist identical to what had happened with the book.

  When I finished absorbing the cloud from the spell scroll, a new message appeared.

  You have learned “Necromantic Bolt.”

  Necromantic Bolt

  Range: Long

  Type: Offensive

  Requirements: Somatic

  Harness necromantic energy and shape it into a bolt to destroy your enemies.

  Balaka watched the entire process, nodding once it was complete. “Good. As you can see,” he said, gesturing to the garden, “we have a bit of an infestation on our hands. Go and kill five of the nasty little vermin and bring me their corpses.

  QUEST UPDATE: Training Part 1

  Rid the vegetable garden of the groundhog infestation.

  Criteria: Kill 5 Groundhogs. (0/5)

  Reward: +25xp, Beginner’s Weapon.

  “Hmmm,” I said as I moved into the garden area and looked for my first target. I spotted a small furry groundhog nearby, nibbling on a cabbage. I tried to analyze it to get an idea of how hard it would be to kill, and was rewarded with a new update.

  Universal Skill Unlocked – Perception

  Perception – This skill allows the user to gain information on a selected character or object. Focus on a target and information will be revealed. The amount of information is dependent upon your level in this skill and the level of the target. A color-coded scale is used to denote difficulty in opponents. Grey = Weak, White = Equal, Yellow = Medium, Orange = Hard, Red = Extreme, Purple = Dream On

  A small tag appeared above the rodent’s head in white text, identifying it as a < Groundhog >. It was white, so it should be level one. We were the same level, so I should be able to take it.

  I focused on the groundhog and willed myself to cast my new spell and smiled as a ghostly image of my right hand appeared in my view and performed a series of three gestures.

  I watched blankly for a moment, then quickly tried to catch up to the images, attempting to mimic the gestures as best I could.

  When my hand was mostly lined up, the ghost-hands turned green, but when I got out of sync, or performed an incorrect gesture, the color changed to yellow and then to red. My late start had doomed my first casting, so I failed.

  As the spell fizzled, a blue bar labeled “Mana” appeared at the bottom of my display with a small portion of it empty.

  Casting Failed

  I started again, this time following along from the start. As I completed the first gesture, my hand began to glow. The second gesture built upon that glow, and the last gesture completed the casting with a throwing motion that launched a bolt of dark purple energy straight at the groundhog.

  The bolt streaked across the cave and slammed into the groundhog’s side, knocking it off its feet.

  A red bar appeared over the groundhog’s head and drained until it was half full. I was busy congratulating myself on the successful casting when the rodent hopped to its feet and charged towards me, hissing and spitting.

  “Oh shit!” I said and backed up.

  As the groundhog got closer, I realized I was applying my normal perspective to things. In real life, groundhogs were little cute things, but to my pint-sized kobold, the groundhog was the equivalent of a large dog.

  I rushed through the gestures of the spell again and sent another bolt flying towards the charging rodent. The spell blasted into the groundhog again but failed to finish it off.

  There was barely a sliver left in its health bar, but it didn’t seem to care and was quickly closing the distance between us. I tried to cast another bolt, but lost my concentration when the creature leapt on top of me.

  I raised my hands to keep its jaws from my face, but the force of the attack knocked me backwards to the ground. I felt a sharp pain in my thigh as the creature’s hind claw ripped through my pants and scales.

  A red bar labeled “Health” appeared at the bottom of my display above the mana bar and drained to about sixty percent full.

  I’d read that you could feel pain in this game but wasn’t prepared for it being quite so realistic. The pain distracted me for a critical second as the groundhog shifted and bit into my arm, its giant incisors ripping into my flesh.

  ATTENTION: HP Critically Low!

  I screamed, and in a panic did the first thing that came to mind: I bit the damn thing back.

  Racial Ability: “Natural Weapons” Unlocked

  Natural Weapons – Kobolds possess sharp teeth, claws, and tail, which are weapons in and of themselves. Not the most efficient of weapons, but they will do in a pinch!

  You have killed a Groundhog! You have gained 10xp!

  My mouth was full of a warm coppery taste as I pushed the groundhog off of me, trying not to gag. I spat the rodent’s blood out onto the ground and tried to wipe the remnants off of my tongue and sat down to catch my breath.

  My hit points slowly returned to full and the pain in my thigh and arm faded as the magic of MMO out of combat regeneration took hold. Once I could move again without pain, I grabbed the corpse and dragged it over to the trainer, wondering what he wanted me to do with the thing.

  Balaka reached out and grabbed the corpse by the scruff of its neck, opened up a small satchel hanging at his side, and stuffed the corpse into it, defying all known physics.

  Quest Update - Groundhog Corpses Returned 1/5

  “That was close, Apprentice,” he said with a toothy grin. “You should probably start from further away, no?”

  If looks were daggers, he would have been bleeding out on the ground, and it was only the purple text floating over the albino’s head that kept me from doing something stupid.

  < Master Balaka – Beginners Necromancy Trainer >

  He reached into his bag and pulled out another scroll, offering it to me. “Maybe this will help as well”.

  Muttering under my breath, I took unrolled the scroll and read it.

  Necromancy skill check – successful! “Dark Shield” spell identified.

  Would you like to learn the spell “Dark Shield” (Yes/No)?

  Of course, I thought, and absorbed the resulting purple mist.

  You have learned “Dark Shield.”

  Dark Shield

  Range: Touch (Self)

  Type: Defensive

  Requirements: Somatic, Verbal,

  Craft an invisible shield of dark energy to protect yourself from damage

  Duration: 10 minutes + 5 minutes per spell rank.

  After thanking the smug bastard, I began casting the new spell. Another ghostly hand appeared in my view along with a line of text at the bottom. As the hand went through the gesture, the words began to highlight karaoke style. My first attempt at the spell was an utter failure. I was laughing way too hard at the karaoke mechanic to even attempt the gestures, let alone the incantation.

  Regaining my composure, I started over. I moved my hands through the wide sweeping gestures, drawing a series of concentric circles in front of me as I chanted the karaoke spell, “protegam ab obumbratio”.

  With each gesture and word, purple energy gathered around my hands and formed into a disk in front of me. When the spell was completed, the disk grew into a bubble, which extended to completely surround me before fading from view.

  A small icon in the shape of a purple shield appeared in the bottom of my display next to my health and mana bars with a small fifteen-minute timer ticking along next to it.

  I let my mana fill back up and headed towards the nearest groundhog, staring at it until my Perception skill kicked in and I could see its name and hit point bar. Like its dead brother, this one was white.

  I braced myself and cast a Necromantic Bolt into it. As soon as the first one left my hands, I immediately started casting the next, tagging it with the second bolt as it charged towards me. My third bolt hit it right in the chest as it leapt at my th
roat, snuffing its life-force out mid leap.

  You have killed a Groundhog! You have gained 10xp!

  The groundhog's momentum carried its corpse onto me, colliding with my unseen shield but still bowling me over with its sheer mass.

  I sighed and pushed the corpse off and dragged it over to my trainer. He stuffed it into his bag and gave me a nod of encouragement.

  Quest Update - Groundhog Corpses Returned 2/5

  As I moved away, I heard him comment, “If I were you, I’d get out of the way next time.”

  I growled softly and continued my hunt, targeting a groundhog at the edge of my spell range. I blasted it with a trio of bolts and made sure to jump to the side as the third bolt left my hands so I wouldn’t get knocked over again. The groundhog’s dying leap sent it skidding past me, saving me a few feet worth of corpse dragging on my way to turn it in.

  You have killed a Groundhog! You have gained 10xp!

  Again, I dragged the corpse over and watched it disappear into the trainer’s bag, waiting for his next insult, which surprisingly didn’t come.

  Quest Update - Groundhog Corpses Returned 3/5

  The final two rodents died just as quickly, the hardest part of the entire thing being the physical effort of dragging their corpses back to Balaka.

  As he stuffed the final corpse into his bag, I felt a warmth begin to form in my chest and burst outwards in a rush of pleasure.

  Quest Update - Groundhog Corpses Returned 5/5

  QUEST COMPLETE: Training Part 1

  You have gained 50xp!

  CONGRATULATIONS! You have reached Level 2!

  You have gained 2 Intelligence!

  You have gained 3 Attribute points and 4 Skill points!

  Your Hit Points, Mana, And Endurance pools have increased!

  NOTE: Free use of Skill Points will be disabled until the completion of Training.

  I collapsed to the ground, breathless, trying to quantify what had just happened. Leveling up was quite an interesting experience: a rush of endorphins that didn’t quite match anything I’d experienced before in real life. It was definitely a great bonus to the leveling process.

  Seeing Balaka staring at me impatiently, I stood up and motioned for him to continue. “Good Work! Let’s head back to the workshop and get you your reward!” he said, gesturing for me to follow as he walked back into the cave system.

  As we walked, I allocated my stat points: one to Intelligence, one to Wisdom, and one to fortune. Eventually, I’d probably need to add to the other attributes, but for the time being getting my main spell casting stats up and theoretically increasing my chances for better loot were my priority.

  The trek back to Balaka’s workshop was spent in silence, neither of us really the talkative type. When we finally arrived, the albino took one of the groundhogs out of his bag and plopped it onto workstation between us.

  Next, he removed a small book from his bag and put it on the table in front of me. “This book will teach you how to properly dissect a specimen and harvest all of the pieces that you will need to truly harness the potential of our class.”

  I took the book and opened it up, flipping it to the first page with writing on it. The drawings inside reminded me of a biology textbook. I scanned the first page, answered the anticipated prompt in the affirmative and watched the book dissolve into mist and be absorbed.

  You have learned the “Dissection” skill!

  Dissection – This skill includes knowledge of the basic anatomy of common animals and humanoid creatures, and the ability to separate them into their component parts.

  I glanced down at the groundhog corpse and mentally activated the new skill. Several grayed out icons appeared hovering over the body. The first was a picture of a skull, the second a piece of meat, and the third a stretched hide. I tried to select the skull icon and frowned at the message.

  Dissection Unsuccessful - You are missing a tool necessary to perform that action.

  Balaka grunted and gestured to the corpse. “At your current skill level, based on the complexity of the thing you are dissecting and potentially other skills you might have, you might be able to get one, two, or sometimes even three components from a single body. The difficulty of each attempt will be relative to your knowledge of the uses of the components. Be wary, a single mistake can ruin the entire thing.”

  He reached into his bag and produced a small knife sheathed in leather. “This is a basic utility knife that can be used for several harvesting skills. It is not ideal for our particular craft, but it will suit for now until you can obtain a better, sharper blade,” he said and handed the blade to me.

  The sheath had a long leather strap attached to allow for it to be worn as a makeshift belt. I tied it around my waist and drew the blade, examining it closely.

  < Utility Knife >

  A basic blade that can be used in combat or for various crafts such as carving or skinning.

  I looked back to the body and saw that the icons were no longer gray. The skull icon had turned white while both the meat and the hide icons had changed to orange.

  Balaka gestured to the corpse. “Harvest its bones. Those will be the most important for our next training topic.”

  I selected the skull icon which had started glowing. Above the corpse, a progress bar appeared and the body itself transformed into a blurry blob vaguely reminiscent of the groundhog it once was, a callback to old school MMO crafting.

  When the progress bar was full, the blurred body resolved into a small pile of cleaned bones.

  Success! You have obtained a Groundhog Skeleton! You have gained 5xp!

  “Not bad for your first attempt,” the trainer said, tucking the skeleton into his bag and plopping the other four corpses down in front of me. “Now see how many more you can liberate from their fleshy prison.”

  QUEST RECEIVED – Training Part 2

  Dissect the 4 remaining Groundhog corpses.

  Reward: 50xp, Small Bag.

  I raised an eyebrow at his choice of words as I pulled the top body off of the pile and activated the skill again. The options of bone, meat, and fur appeared with the same difficulty coloration, so following instructions; I selected the skull icon and watched the progress bar start to fill.

  Success! You have obtained a Groundhog Skeleton! You have gained 5xp!

  This time the blurred shape resolved into two pieces: a pile of bones and a deboned corpse. Focusing on the remains I could see the skeleton option was now grayed out, but the hide and meat options were still available. I selected the meat and began the process again.

  Dissection Failed!

  All that was left after the progress bar finished were the bones from the first attempt and a bloodstain on the table where the fleshy sack had been. I shrugged and pulled over the next corpse.

  I started to select the skull option once again but stopped when I noticed a slight glow coming from somewhere underneath the corpse. I rolled the body over and saw that one of the claws on the groundhog’s back foot was glowing. I focused on it to see what was going on.

  Racial Skill Unlocked: Scavenger

  Scavenger

  Able to find worth in things that others view as trash, this skill gives kobolds a small chance at salvaging usable materials from otherwise worthless things. When looting or performing other gathering tasks, there is a chance that additional materials may be obtained.

  I touched the glowing claw, and it disappeared from the corpse and appeared in my hand.

  Success! You have obtained a Groundhog Claw! You have gained 5xp!

  The item didn’t reveal any additional information when I examined it, so I just put it down on the desk and continued working on the quest, dissecting skeletons from the furry little bodies.

  Balaka scooped up the bones as soon as they appeared, adding them to the rest of the collection in his bag. I got unlucky with the last try, destroying the corpse without getting anything out of it, but three out of four wasn’t too bad.

  QUES
T COMPLETE: Training Part 2

  You have gained 50xp!

  The albino trainer clapped his hands. “Excellent! Here,” he said, handing me the bag where he’d been stuffing the skeletons.

  “I’ve put the scrolls for your next spells inside as well. However, before you can make use of them, you will need to increase your rank in Necromancy.”

  Attention: Skill point use unlocked for the Necromancy skill.

  That was a pretty clear indicator that I needed to up my skill, but I was curious as to what would happen if I tried to read the scrolls without raising the skill first.

  I opened the bag and looked inside and couldn’t help but laugh. Instead of an actual bag, the inside was a two-dimensional screen showing a four-by-four grid.

  Five of the boxes were occupied with pictures of groundhog skeletons while two boxes had small scroll icons. Below the grid was a digital counter that read “Currency: 0p 0g 0s 0c.”

  Reaching into the bag, I focused on removing the scrolls and grinned as they disappeared from the grid and appeared in my hand. I put them back into the bag and they disappeared and returned to the grid.

  I grabbed the groundhog claw from the table and added it to the bag and then took the scrolls back out for my perusal. I opened up each scroll and tried to read them.

  Necromancy skill check – failed! Your Necromancy skill is insufficient to use this item.

  Necromancy skill check – failed! Your Necromancy skill is insufficient to use this item.

  Experiment over, I mentally willed one of my skill points to be added to the Necromancy skill. The point disappeared from my unused pool and Necromancy increased to two, my entire body glowing for a second with a dark purple light before fading back to normal. Skill raised, I tried reading the scrolls again.

  Necromancy skill check – successful! “Rot” spell identified.

  Necromancy skill check – successful! “Lesser Create Undead” spell identified.