I activated my Scavenger skill, claiming the tail before dissecting the rest of the creature for its skeleton and a few chunks of meat.
Without any additional surprises creeping around in the darkness I was able to summon the rest of my minions.
I glanced between Yuri and Rusty, debating which would make a better workhorse. From a purely defensive perspective, it would make more sense to pick the goblin, Rusty, and leave the human Yuri to guard, but I wanted to see if there was any difference between a human skelly and goblin skelly in terms of mining performance.
Curiosity won out over practicality in the end and I replaced Yuri’s axe with one of the picks I’d obtained when cleaning out Mine Shaft Eight.
Another ritual of Dark Blessing later and I had another skeleton capable of making me some money.
I took out my pan and gathered some dirt, added some water, and swirled it around, marking the nearby nodes on my map once again.
Mining Skill Check (Prospecting) Success! You have gained 10 Mining XP!
I sent Rusty to stand guard at the end of the corridor and set an alarm for one hour. As the timer started to tick, I ordered Tiny and Yuri to each start mining, each on their own vein and started on my own.
The system messages began rolling in, distracting me from my efforts. Annoyed, I focused on hiding them for the time being and sighed as they disappeared from my view.
With that distraction removed, I worked out a slow rhythm for myself, focusing on accuracy more than speed and keeping my pace such that my stamina regen could keep up. On average I was able to make attempts every ten to fifteen seconds, breaking off a chunk with every couple of hits.
I got into the routine. Aim, strike. Aim, strike. I entered a bit of a trance until the timer went off, telling me the hour was up. I ordered the skeletons to stop mining and took a look at our efforts.
First, I gathered the ore piled at my feet, counting out one hundred and five copper ore and two uncut malachite. Tiny’s pile had sixty-six ore, and Yuri’s eighty.
My thoughts that the human skeleton would produce more that the goblin were correct. I guess I’ll need to find some more human skeletons, I thought and added it to my mental to do list.
I started to do the math in my head, two hundred and fifty-two ore gathered… eight more from the remnants of my previous haul to make things even.
Twenty-six copper bars after smelting, at four silver per bar would give me ten gold and four silver which would then sell for… two dollars and fifty one cents..
Still a little underwhelming with the additional minion, but copper was the lowest rank material after all, and that total wasn’t counting the malachite, smelting time, or any other unknowns.
I read through the logs. I’d gained several levels in Mining which would increase my yield in the future, but I still worried that it might not be enough.
Once I’d reached rank four, the XP I received for each success dropped to seven per, then to five per once I’d hit fifth. It dropped again once I reached rank six, giving only three per success and would likely continue to diminish as my skill improved.
My hour-long trial complete, it was time to head to the surface and see just how big a time sync smelting was going to be… and complete the tutorial quest.
I turned system messages back on, gathered my minions, and headed towards the surface.
Another rat scurried out of the tunnels between me and the exit, the last mistake the rodent would ever make.
I blasted the little bastard with a Necromantic Bolt and sent all three of my minions to attack. When they were done, the rodent was so full of holes that Dissection didn’t even give me the option to try for its hide. Its skeleton joined the rest in my bag.
I dismissed my minions outside of Darr’s shack and tucked them into my bag before entering and heading towards the forge fire.
“What do ye think yer doing back here, lizard man?” the Dwarf said, glaring at me.
“Smelting?” I replied, gesturing towards the forge fire in the back.
The dwarf considered it for a moment and then nodded. “Ye make a mess and yer ta clean it. Understand?” he grumbled.
“Of course,” I said. It was still a little disconcerting to hear the added hiss when I spoke, but what should I expect from my reptilian mug?
I headed to the fire and took out my crucible and mold, setting them near the fire, and willed the smelting process to begin.
A ghostly overlay of the crucible sitting in the fire appeared, showing where to place the tool. I placed the crucible in the indicated spot and an interface appeared, showing the capacity of the Beginner’s Crucible to be fifty ore.
Seeing that gave me hope, if I could smelt more than one ingot at a time it would really cut down on the time needed, and if the beginner version of the crucible could handle fifty ore, chances are the more advanced types could process even bigger batches.
I started a timer and added the ore, watching each piece almost instantly liquify as they entered the crucible. Once it was full, it turned green and a new guide image appeared, showing the metal being poured into the mold.
I gingerly touched the crucible’s handle, surprised that it was cool to the touch. Go, go game mechanics! I set up the mold and poured the liquid metal into it. There didn’t seem to be a lot of room for error, but that could also have been due to my Mining skill.
The indentation in the mold filled in seconds. Once full, the ingot immediately popped out of the mold and clattered to the ground. The molten metal continued to spill from the crucible, repeating the process over and over until all five bars were complete.
I stopped the timer as the final bar popped itself free of the mole. One minute, soup to nuts. Perfect.
QUEST COMPLETE – Mining Tutorial – Stage 3/3 – Smelting
Criteria: Smelt copper ingots from the ore collected. (5/5)
You have gained 100 Mining XP.
I spent the next five minutes smelting all of my ore into bars, raising my skill closer to seven and ending with a total of twenty-five copper bars.
Making sure that everything was as clean as it had been when I arrived, I gathered my tools and headed out.
My eyes welcomed the cool darkness of night, but I had no clue what would be open in town when I got there. With a wary glance at the surrounding wilds, I summoned my minions and swapped out their mining picks for axe and sword.
With just a hint of paranoia, I decided to play it extra safe and took out some goblin bones and animated a new Fred, handing him the stone shortsword and banded shield.
That done I headed towards the village, keeping my eyes open for any surprises. I heard movement a time or two, but my Darkvision was unable to penetrate the shadows of the surrounding hills. The starlight was just enough to shift my vision into the normal light spectrum.
The source of the movement stayed in the shadows, or in my imagination, and I made it safely to town. The night guards provided directions to one of the few establishments that was still open: the auction house.
Argos Online, like the MMORPGs of my youth, provided an in-game auction house to facilitate trade between players. Most cities, and any major towns worth travelling to would have a branch of the Auction House, and that branch would always be open for business.
It wasn’t free. The game collected a small percentage of all transactions as a fee, but it was a steal when you factored in the convenience.
The building was empty except for the Auction House clerk, a scholarly looking human with a close-cropped black beard, the barest hint of gray speckling the edges.
“Good evening,” I said, giving the clerk my friendliest grin.
He gave a bored nod in return and gestured to a small kiosk looking device standing against the wall to the right of his desk. “All auctions are available through the Merchantrix,” he said. “Come see me once you have completed your business and I will retrieve your items or coin.”
I moved over to the “Merchantrix” and tou
ched the single gemstone glowing on its surface, opening a new interface.
It was pretty typical for an MMO. There were two main choices: Buy and Sell, with an adaptive display that shifted based on what was selected.
I chose “buy”, and the interface shifted to present a plethora of filtering options. I set up a search for copper bars to check the current market price of copper bars and was happy to see they were in demand.
The average price per bar was hovering just over four silver. There were outliers too. Someone was asking for ten silver a bar, and there was one auction that had a stack of twenty bars for only twenty silver, most certainly a typo. But their mistake would be my gain.
I selected that option, clicked “buy” and confirmed my choice, jumping on it before someone else could pounce, and a small drawer slid out of the kiosk.
Please deposit 20 Silver Pieces to complete your transaction.
I put the coins in the drawer and it closed, the interface glowing briefly green. Seconds later a small slip of paper appeared on the top of the device and a message appeared.
Present you receipt to the local clerk to obtain your purchase.
I took the paper and presented it to the clerk. He looked at it briefly and walked into the back room, returning a moment later with a small stack of copper bars on a tray. He put the tray on the counter before me and motioned for me to take it before walking away.
I took the bars and added them to my own, bringing my total up to forty-five, and then returned to the kiosk.
When the interface popped up, I selected “Sell” and followed the instructions to set up my auctions. I set a starting price, and buyout price. From what I remembered from my gaming days, the buyout price was pretty much always used for crafting materials. If a craftsman needed a material, they weren’t going to want and sit around waiting for an auction to end.
I set my price to four silver even, making it the cheapest option for copper bars in the listings, putting two stacks of twenty bars up for auction.
After each auction was set, the Merchantrix collected the materials via a larger drawer and provided a receipt to allow me to claim my proceeds once the auctions were complete.
The final five ingots I put up for sale individually, with the cost set to five silver. Sometimes craftsmen just needed one of a resource to fill out an order, so I’d present the option. It was more expensive per bar, but they wouldn’t have to buy an entire stack to get the one needed.
I looked through my inventory and saw the uncut malachite sitting there. I toggled back over to the “Buy” side of the auction house and searched for the uncut gems.
“Nice,” I said with a whistle. Uncut Malachite was selling for almost three gold a piece, so I quickly set up auctions to sell off the gems while the price was right.
I still had a decent bit of coin, so it was time to upgrade my gear. I set the filters to eliminate anything that couldn’t be used by my race, limited the search to my current level, and added my class to the mix.
Each additional criteria diminished the list of presented auctions, but in the end there were still several hundred options to go through.
I searched through the Armor pieces first. The majority was trash: ragged cloth, or clothing with no bonuses whatsoever, but mixed in here and there were some decent pieces.
None of the bonuses were good enough to replace my class robes… but then again, no one said I couldn’t change clothes when I needed to cast my animation spells...
I filtered the list further, restricting the list to magical gear only and the list shrank until there were a few decent options. Unfortunately, buying a complete replacement set would wipe out the coin I had managed to collect so far, so I had to make some tough choices.
In the end, I limited my armor purchases to a Raven’s Skullcap that would give me another plus one to Intelligence for nine silver.
Next, I searched the jewelry, reading through the bonuses on all the rings and necklaces and grimacing at the price. The minor bonuses available weren’t worth the cost with my current budged.
I fiddled with the filter, looking for items that had bonuses to Mining and found a few, but again the cost was more than I could afford.
I bought a pair of basic wooden shields for Rusty and Tiny, and replaced their current weapons with some basic bronze shortswords.
The auction house had them cheaper than I’d seen them listed in the NPC shops, so it was worth the six silver. Finally, I picked up one more mining pick to have ready for when my Dark Blessing skill was high enough for a third mining skelly.
I took the receipts to the counter and collected my gear, popped on my new hat and tucked the rest into my satchel.
The night air was nice and crisp, and it was time to do some hunting and head back to the mine. I was just over a hundred XP from my next level, so if I could find something worthwhile to kill, I’d be able to raise my Dark Blessing skill up to six and put a third minion to work.
***
21
I headed out of town in the direction of the forest, stopping briefly to buff up and re-summon my minions. The mark on my map for the orc slaying quest seemed a good place to find some XP. I was still hesitant to go into the woods alone at night, but my prospects were limited so I turned in that direction and began the hunt.
A few minutes after the lights of the town faded in the distance, I heard a rustling off the side of the path and froze. I dropped into a crouch and peered in the direction of the sound but couldn’t see anything.
I willed disposable Fred to head towards the noise, watching closely as he moved through the woods. With a rustle from above, a large dark form dropped out of the trees and slammed him to the ground, knocking his hit points down to a sliver.
A large feline head reared back, barely dodging Fred’s flailing shortsword. I caught a brief glimpse of yellow text spelling out the attacker’s name.
The cat dodged aside as my other minions closed and let out a savage roar. I cast Cripple on the beast to slow it down. My minions would need every advantage I could give them.
Fred pulled himself upright, and I directed my shield wielding minions to form a line with Yuri in the back. His superior height and reach allowing him to swing over the smaller goblin’s heads.
I positioned myself in the back, casting Necromantic Bolts at the Nighthunter whenever I had a clear shot, knocking off chunks of its health bar with each hit.
Enraged by its wounds, the cat gathered itself and leapt, using Rusty as a springboard to leap over the shield wall to claw me.
I tried to dodge, but the panther was much faster than me even with the debuff and its claws cut four lines of searing pain down my chest, dropping my health to just under half.
You are bleeding!
My health started to trickle away as the cat reared back to strike again. I clutched at the wound and backed away.
Using the cat’s fixation to their advantage, my minions struck. Rusty drove his shortsword deep into the cat’s side, scoring a critical hit.
The cat flinched away from the blow, landing closer to the other skeletons. Tiny bashed the injured Nighthunter with his shield, stunning it for the second. Yuri struck, burying his axe in the cat’s spine and finishing it off.
The mighty hunter dropped lifelessly to the ground, its corpse landing next to the skeletal remains that were once named Fred.
You have killed a Nighthunter. You have gained 100xp
I sat on the ground, holding my wounds as my health ticked down from the bleed effect. I chugged a healing potion when my health reached the single digits and sighed as the magic restored enough of my health to survive the rest of the bleed.
I examined the dead cat, hoping to scavenge something useful from the damned thing, but sadly the corpse remained dark.
As my health slowly began to regenerate, I targeted the kitty and activated Dissection. Some new icons appeared in addition to the normal skull and hide: a tooth and a claw
. Everything but the skull was of yellow or higher difficulty, so I played it safe and selected the skeleton.
The progress bar filled up and voila, one Nighthunter Skeleton.
Success! You have obtained a Nighthunter Skeleton! You have gained 25xp!
CONGRATULATIONS! You have reached Level 8!
You have gained 2 Intelligence!
You have gained 3 Attribute points and 10 Skill points!
Your Hit Points, Mana, And Endurance pools have increased!
Yes! I put the attribute points in their normal spots and then opened my skills.
<><><> Racial Skills <><><>
Darkvision: N/A
Natural Weapons:1
Scavenger:7
Stealth:1(2)
<><><> Class Skills <><><>
Cloth Armor:1
Dissection:7
Necromancy:7
Simple Weapons:1
<><><> General Skills <><><>
Perception:3
Survival:1
<><><> Spells <><><>
Bind Minion:5
Control Undead:1
Cripple:1
Dark Blessing:1
Dark Shield:1
Drain:1
Mend Bone:1
Minor Create Undead:7
Necromantic Bolt:7
Psychometry:1
Rot:6
<><><><><><><><><><><><><><><>
Unused Skill Points:10
<><><><><><><><><><><><><><><>
I needed to spend five of those points to get Dark Blessing up to where I could have another mining minion, leaving me with five. I could only raise the skill up to eight, so putting any more points in it past the minimum required to get the extra target wasn’t worth it yet and wouldn’t be until I reached level eleven.
I put the allotted five points into Dark Blessing and then upped my core skills of Necromancy, Dissection, and Scavenger. It was getting a little difficult to manage all of the minions I had now, so I decided to hold off on raising my Undead Creation.
Extra Credit Page 16