“This zone is bullshit,” the human warrior yelled. “Why the hell do they have red necromancers with orange minions in a tin mine?”
“It’s a player you tool!” Gavin shouted. “You attacked a player!”
Sev finally seemed to hear what his friend was saying and stopped fighting. I cut off my current spell, but wasn’t quick enough calling off my minions.
Larry’s pickaxe crashed through the man’s helmet and into his skull, dropping him to zero and sending him to respawn.
“Ahh… sorry?” I said to the remaining player. “Sometimes it takes a second or two to get them to change what they’re doing.”
The human sighed and a notification popped up.
Gavin Proudmoore has offered his surrender. Accept? (Yes/No)
I chose yes, not wanting to have to kill their team’s smart one.
PvP Terminated. Hostile Party has Surrendered. You win!
You have gained 0 Prestige for defeating an opponent less than half of your level.
“So… what’s the deal with your trigger-happy friend?” I asked, kneeling down to see if my Scavenger ability had created anything fun on the player’s corpse.
I didn’t notice any of the normally sparkling bits that would notify me of that skill in action but did see a small glowing pouch. It was labeled as “PVP Spoils” and inside were a couple silver coins.
“Did these come from his inventory?” I asked.
Gavin nodded. “Yeah, if you start a PVP and lose, the game drops some of your coin as loot. Idiot must have turned off his PVP notifications for some reason, otherwise it would have asked him if he was sure he wanted to attack you.”
I laughed and tossed him the pouch. “Give him his coin back when he respawns. He’s going to need it for repairs. I’ll take something much more useful to me from him.” I said with a wide grin, taking out my knife.
The dissection was quite profitable. I even got some experience from harvesting some new alchemical components. All told, the human warrior yielded one human skeleton, one “Heart of a Warrior”, and five doses of “Blood of a Vanquished Foe” before dissipating.
Gavin watched with a mixture of horror and fascination. “Did you just cut up my friend for parts?” he asked.
“Yup,” I said, holding up each piece in turn. “One human skeleton destined to join my undead legion one day. One ‘Heart of a Warrior,’ likely useful in some potion or other that I don’t yet have a recipe for,” and holding up the vials of blood, “blood of an idiot, well, not really, but that would be a good name for it, hah. ‘Blood of a Vanquished Foe.’ Again, something for later when I learn more recipes.”
He sighed. “Well at least it was worth your time. But now I’m going to have to mine even more to fix the idiot’s armor.”
“I could save you some time,” I offered. “I just finished my own mining. I could sell you the tin ore cheaper than the Auction House. How much do you need?”
Gavin got a faraway look in his eyes and started counting things loosely on his fingers, mumbling numbers to himself as he did some calculation. “I need about four hundred and fifty more ore to finish up what I promised to make him, with a little cushion for repairs.”
“I’ve got that much. I’ll sell it to you for eight copper a piece,” I said, beginning the negotiations and watching as Gavin calculated out the total cost.
The blond sighed. “I don’t have that much. I could probably do five copper tops. Most of my coin is tied up in half-finished pieces of armor. Leather is pretty expensive. Even the little bits I need to make the strapping on the plates.”
I looked at the human. His name was gray, so he was likely low level as well, which made me feel a little pity for him. But I was in this to make money for my family, so I couldn’t just give stuff away, and definitely not for less than I could make on the auction house.
“Do you have any finished armor pieces that would fit my skeletons? I’d be willing to trade value for value.”
He glanced into his bag and his eyes went blank for a few seconds before he replied. “I’ve got some very basic bronze chain mail pieces that I made for another friend that I could trade you. He won’t be logging in for a few days so I’d have time to replace it. I’ve even got some copper alloy plate I had made that we never used because bronze was so much better that I could throw in on top of that, enough to reinforce two chain suits at least.
I thought about it for a minute, doing my own math. Buying the original hauberk had run me two gold with a helm, the hauberk being one and a half gold of that, and the full set of bronze chain was close to six. Enough for about a hundred ore at market price. The plates I was clueless on, but the bronze equivalents ran almost three gold for the body set, so I figured the copper would probably be around one. So, he was offering up eight gold worth of stuff. I could work with that, and we’d both get a deal as I was sure it cost him a lot less to make it.
“Alright,” I said. “I’ll trade you the ore for the chain set, plates, and twenty gold.”
The human thought about it for a few seconds and then sighed, agreeing to the price. “Fine. It’ll save me hours toiling away here and listening to Sev bitch about it.”
He held out a hand a small table appeared between us with an interface similar to the inventory format. One side for each of us.
I put the ore into my side, watching the stacks fill up twenty-three slots on the table, and he added the armor and coin to his own.
There was a small accept button on the lower right of the interface, so I pressed it. He did the same, and the table rotated around. The armor and coin accessible to me, and the ore to him.
I called Gimli over and equipped the new chain pants, boots, and gloves, as well as all of the copper plate add-ons, making him look like a proper tank.
The new set of chain I gave to Larry and added the coif as well for some extra defense.
“Thanks man,” the human said. “And sorry about Sev. Hopefully he’ll have learned his lesson. Look me up if you need more armor. I’ll give you a discount. Fifteen percent off the Iron Fang’s prices.”
“Once I get my own crafts in order, I’ll extend to you the same. But for now, I need to run. I’m already an hour past when I was supposed to log off. Later!”
I exited the mine and checked to see if the smelting hut was open, but the door was closed and the inside was dark so I’d have to finish up in the morning. I dismissed my minions, collecting their skulls logged off, falling asleep almost as soon as I took off the headset.
***
28
I woke up on time the next morning and experienced a brief moment of panic when I saw the clock before I remembered it was Spring Break and I wasn’t hours late for work.
Crawling out of bed, I performed my morning routine and then settled in to eat breakfast and have a call with the fam.
My wife was having a day to herself while my little man spent some quality time with the grandparents, so we made it a quick call since everyone was itching to get their day started.
Once my hunger was satisfied, I headed back to the bedroom and logged in, excited to get an early start on the day.
As the game came into focus, I glanced around. It was a cloudy morning. Wisps of fog still rising off of the moist ground outside of the smelting hut as the morning sun crested the horizon.
Darr’s door was open, so I headed inside and found the dwarf working at the forge, smelting what looked like bronze.
“Ye get me tin ore, lizard?” he said as he finished up his current task.
Putting my biggest kobold grin on, I replied, “Of course I did. Even got one of those Earthhearts you wanted.”
Greed flashed in his eyes at the last, and he headed over. “Give it here, give it here.” he said, holding out his hands.
“We haven’t discussed price yet, Darr, and after that runaround you gave me to teach me Mining, I’m not feeling very generous.” I said, getting the stage set.
“Aye. I did ye a diss
ervice there, lizard man, but yer kind and mine, well, they don’t usually be gettin’ along. But I’ll tell ye what. Ye sell me the Earthheart and I’ll give ye a letter from meself that ye can use if ye ever find yerself talkin’ to another o’ me kind whose head is just as set against ye as I was. How’s that fer ye?”
Something to work around the negative reputation penalty with dwarves? I thought. I’ll take it.
Trying not to let my excitement show, I replied, “Ok Darr, I can agree to that. Now what will you pay me for the heart? Or what can you trade?”
He headed back behind his counter and placed some items on the table. “These’ll give ye a decent bonus ta yer skill and take less o’ a beating than yer current tools. I can give ye either five gold fer the heart, or one o’ these. These’re also what I’m offering for the tin I asked ye to get, so choose wisely.
I examined each of the tools. The pick gave a nice plus two to Mining which would help me out quite a bit due to the level cap. The pan had a bigger range of scanning, and the crucible could melt up to a hundred ore at once. I wanted all three.
“Could I buy one of these from you, Darr?” I asked, gesturing to the tools.
“Sorry, lizard man. ‘Tis against the guild rules ta sell ‘em. I can only hand ‘em out in reward fer services rendered or trade ‘em fer more Earthhearts if ye find ‘em.”
“Alright. I’ll trade you the Earthheart for the pick,” I said and handed him the small item. He slipped it into his own pack and then wrote my letter of recommendation, handing it to me with a begrudging smile.
I tucked my new pick and the letter into my pack and pulled out the ore he’d requested.
QUEST COMPLETE – Tools of the Trade
Criteria: Tin Ore supplied to Darr – 100/100
You have gained 100xp. You have gained 0 Mining XP (100 reserved).
He accepted the ore with a small nod of gratitude and gestured to the remaining tools. “Which’ll it be?”
After a little thought I chose the improved crucible. Having a bigger detection range was nice and all, but speeding up smelting, even by a few seconds could help me maximize my profits.
Our transaction complete, Darr sat down behind the counter and started fiddling with something, so I left him to it and headed over to the forge. There was work to be done.
With the new crucible things went a lot faster. All one hundred and thirty-four tin and four silver bars were done in less than thirty minutes. I gave thanks to the merciful devs for the very tangible difference between the apprentice and journeyman gear.
With the smelting done, I headed over to the auction house and put my new wares up for auction. None of the items I’d posted before bed had sold yet, but it had only been a few hours so it wasn’t too much of a surprise.
Searching for tin showed that the current market price was nine silver a bar, which was more than it had been yesterday when I did my initial research. I put six stacks of twenty up for eight silver and eight copper a bar, and then three stacks of five at the current market price of nine silver a bar.
The last ingot I posted for nine and a half silver.
Silver bars were much more expensive, running close to three and a half gold per bar. I put up the four silver bars at the going rate.
The gems were worth a bit more than I anticipated. Uncut Aquamarines were selling for six gold each, and the emeralds were a whopping twelve gold a pop.
I posted the Aquamarines in stacks of five, with the left over getting its own single auction. Each emerald got its own separate listing as well.
Once everything was posted, I did a quick search for better equipment. The available improvements at level nine were negligible compared to my current gear, which was disappointing.
I managed to find some more appropriately sized shields for my minions at a good price and picked them up along with some harnesses that would allow my skeletons to sheath their weapons when mining, saving me the effort of swapping out their gear manually. That ran me another couple of gold.
Shopping done, I was at a loss as to what to do next. I was only a few hundred XP from hitting level ten. Level ten was another milestone level, so it should come with some nifty new skills.
I didn’t have any quests, so I went looking for a jobs board or quest board or whatever the equivalent for Argos Online was.
I was on my way to the Silver Fish to check for leads when I saw Cedric, Leilani, and Kelikk coming out of the inn. I waved in greeting as they headed my way.
“Hey, Kababala. Good to see you,” Leilani said with a smile.
Kelikk’s greeting was a much more painful slap to the back while Cedric just nodded.
“Hey guys,” I said. “Could you point me towards the quest board or wherever I can pick up some quests?”
“Quest board?” Cedric asked, confused. “What’s that?”
Leilani stepped in. “It’s an old school MMO thing, Ced. They used to have static bulletin boards where you could get repeatable quests or bounties or the like.”
“They don’t have quest boards in Argos,” she continued. “There’s a herald in the inn that handles all the quest giving. Guess they want the players to have some sort of interaction with an NPC, especially to get rewards. No instant items in your inventory here.”
“We just got a couple quests,” Kelikk said. “You want to join us for a bit? We can share them.”
I considered the offer and nodded. Things would be much more efficient in a group, with a much better chance of gathering more components and the like from Dissection, even sharing.
“Sounds like fun,” I replied and accepted the party invitation that followed.
“Welcome to the team,” Cedric said.
Kelikk grunted. “Wait a second while I share the quests.”
QUEST SHARED: Trouble in the Northern Woods [D]
Reports of an Ogre rampaging through the northern woods have reached the local constable. They are not equipped to handle such a monster so have put out a bounty on the Ogre.
Criteria: Slay the Ogre Marauder in the Northern woods.
Reward: 200xp, 1 gold
Accept? (Yes/No)
QUEST SHARED: Eviction [D]
Bandits have been causing issues on the northern trade route. Follow them to their source and eliminate them.
Criteria: Clear out the Bandit Lair to the North of Sommervale.
Reward: 500xp, 5 gold.
Accept? (Yes/No)
QUEST SHARED: Stolen Goods [D]
The Telquist Merchants guild has reported one of their caravans missing. The caravan was carrying a special delivery of cloth that they would like returned.
Criteria: Recover Stolen Cloth 0/10
Reward: 100xp, a 10% discount with the Telquist Merchants.
Accept? (Yes/No)
I accepted all three quests. “What’s the D for?”
Cedric began to snicker and opened his mount to respond but Leilani cut him off. “Phrasing, Kababala. Phrasing.”
I realized what I’d said and had a good chuckle before she answered, “It means the quests are tied to a dungeon. We think the ogre is the boss of the bandit lair that the other quests are tied too, so we’re planning on clearing it out today.”
“Sounds good. So, what did you guys want me to do? DPS? My minions can serve as off tanks or DPS as well if we need them all. Each one cuts into my mana a bit so I’d rather not have them all going when I’m not running solo.”
Kelikk stroked his beard in thought. “More damage is always a good thing, but if it’s tight quarters, then I think you’re right and maybe just one, or two at most.”
“Also, I don’t think I can heal them,” Leilani added. “My spells all say living target.”
I shrugged. “That’s fine. I can fix them up between fights. Just gotta keep them from being totally fragged or their bones become useless.”
C
edric smiled. “Okay! Let’s go kill some bandits,” he said and lead the way out of town.
As soon as we left the town’s perimeter, I summoned Gimli and Curley and had them trade weapons, making Gimli look pretty similar to his donor.
“Hey Cedric,” I called, and all three of my companions turned to towards me.
I gestured to the dwarf skeleton and mentally commanded it to dance, laughing as it obeyed, breaking into a pretty amusing jig similar to Irish step dancing.
“Is that him?” Cedric asked and gestured to Kelikk.
I nodded, and he started cracking up.
Kelikk just looked confused, as did Leilani.
“Oh, that’s great,” Cedric said, turning to Kelikk. “Hey bro, at least your bones can dance.”
Leilani giggled as it clicked, but Kelikk still looked a bit clueless so I filled him in. “That’s your skeleton, Kelikk. Or it was your skeleton in the meat suit you were wearing when you died to the orcs. Rinse, re-use, reanimate, and all that.”
“Hah!” the dwarf laughed, turning to Leilani. “Next time we’re at a family function you’ll have to call up Kababala to summon you a skeletal me to dance with you on the fast tracks.”
Our laughter filtered through the trees as we made our way towards the dungeon.
***
29
The quest markers on my minimap all led to a single point deep in the woods north of Sommervale where the woodlands bordered the mountains.
The journey was uneventful, and eventually we reached the area indicated on the map.
There were five bandits lounging around the outside of the entrance to an old, abandoned mine, judging by the rusty and broken tracks and pile of carts stacked as a makeshift barricade in front of the opening.
Two of the bandits had bows and the rest were armed with short swords and daggers. Their clothing was in pretty rough shape, and they looked like they lived a pretty rugged life.
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