Beta 1.0 Test

by Harley Vex

  "Still bad!" I continue to sprint under the burning trees. Heat wraps around me. I cough. My Oxygen bar appears and drops, but slower than it did in the mine. Common Ghouls cry out behind me as they try to follow, and the skittering legs tell me that the centipede monster is back on my trail.

  And still I press on, through a world of burning trees and bare branches. I look up. The moon's setting, but not fast enough. I've got maybe ten more minutes of darkness.

  One of the Common Ghouls starts taking damage. It must have brushed a burning tree. That part is working. Circling around might be my best bet. My Oxygen bar has dropped by a quarter. Where am I? I can't see the dark area in front of my house anymore. Just fire. Branches.

  "Figure this out, Mike!" I whirl. The centipede thing closes in, rearing back and showing its blocky segments. Instinct takes over. Despite my shaking, I dive forward, swinging my Hatchet, and the creature hisses, recoils, and flashes red as it takes damage. The underside is vulnerable. Then I back off, allowing it to rear back again, and I deliver a second and third blow, one right after the other, and then the monster curls up into a ball, rolls across the ground, and dies in a puff of smoke.

  I've found its weakness.

  Now I've got to get out of here while no other mobs are on me.

  I spot a brown thing that looks like a Dreadmoth Plate on the ground, but I jump over it and run back in the direction I came. There's no time. My heart thumps as I spot the darkness of unburned forest and the pit that surrounds my tree farm. The first tree of the two farmed rows catches fire, revealing two Lavaworms that have spawned in the pit. I run past a piece of Raw Duck on the ground and past my farm.

  Three Common Ghouls and two Lavaworms approach. I'll never survive the fight or have the time to clear the trees I need.

  There's just one thing left to try.

  I bolt past the mobs just as a Lavaworm starts crackling and I burst into my house, knowing I'm shutting myself in a tinderbox. The sounds of monsters surround my base, letting me know that stepping outside is death. The first crackling of the actual fire fills the air. Outside, my whole tree farm goes up, and it's just thirty blocks away.

  Sheer terror grips me and my ears ring. I'm trapped.

  Candi has got to be face-palming right now.

  Then I turn my gaze to the ceiling.

  "Mike, do something. Now."

  Then a light bulb goes on.

  If I can get on the roof, I've got a chance. But that'll only work if no Dreadmoths are up there.

  A Lavaworm peeks into my window, unseeing, while a Common Ghoul pushes in beside it. I check my Loot Crate, possibly for the last time. Common Soil. Peat Bricks. Crap Torches. Nope.

  Fertile Farmland.

  And my Wooden and Clay Pails...both still full of water.

  I equip the sixteen Fertile Farmland, thanking my Swamp Ghoul farm and the wonders of compost. Then I equip both Pails, move the Common Soil I've dug from my pit into my hotbar, and pillar my way up to the ceiling, stopping only to cut open a hole big enough for me to fit through.

  But once I've pillared to the top and standing above the chaos, I curse more than once.

  My entire tree farm has caught quickly since all the leaves are—no, were—touching, and a pair of trees closer to my house now sport flames. I've got a minute or two. Common Ghouls take damage down below, though Lavaworms hop happily through their native environment. There's no time to look at this. Already Dreadmoths are spawning above me, one by one, now that hardly any monsters can spawn on the ground.

  I place a rectangle of dirt on my peaked roof, trying not to slip down the slopes, and glad that my house is dumb and simple. I can't imagine doing this with a mansion. I leave the dirt-filled entry hole free, working as fast as I can, setting up two rectangles of dirt that look like crap. I add a second layer to both, placing a Fertile Farmland block in the middle, and then I irrigate both with a water block.

  My pulse hammers in my ears. My back prickles. I smell smoke. The crackling increases, and smoke blocks rise on my right.

  From the front of my house.

  Death has reached me.

  And as if taunting me, the few Common Ghouls below cry out as they take fire damage.

  I tense. I've come this far. I will not let Salvos Corporation take away Natalie's future. My future.

  "Not today!" I shout, digging out my layer under my irrigated Fertile Farmland block.

  Water cascades down both sides of the roof from the new source block. Hissing follows as the water then touches the fire on the front of the house, putting it out.

  The trees burn like they're ticked off. I do the same to the other dirt rectangle, leaving only the clod of Common Soil under the pail's worth of water. A second gush of water runs down both sides of the roof, bathing my house in a pixelated, protective blue layer.

  And no more smoke rises.

  I stand on the center of my roof, right on the Common Soil I've used to pillar up, and then I collapse to my knees. It seems the whole Scattered Forest is burning now, the spread only stopped by the cliff, and every monster except for a few remaining Lavaworms and the Dreadmoths is gone. And the Dreadmoths that remain all descend to the burning trees, catch fire, and blink red until they die.

  "Mike, you did it," I mutter, pushing myself to my feet. "But you're not quite done yet."

  And as I stand, the pentagon sun slowly rises on the near-apocalypse.

  CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO

  "And this, ladies and gentlemen, is the Mike Wattles Dreadmoth Destroyer, Version 2.0."

  I blink the sleep from my eyes and whirl, eyeing my glorious creation. Sure, I'm not doing a stream right now, but I want to bask in this moment all the same. I've been playing for several in-game days to make this happen, and though I'm exhausted, I've got to add my finishing touch.

  I pace in front of my tree-farm-turned mob trap, watching as the two rows of trees continue to burn for all eternity. The faint smell of smoke fills the air as the pentagon sun sets behind me.

  Someone is watching.

  If I could edit in some home improvement music over this I would, but I'll settle with my commentary. I can always record a tutorial when I stream this later.

  "The Destroyer goes to work as soon as night falls," I say, continuing to pace. "Two rows of ten burning trees provide an irresistible light source for the nomadic Dreadmoths. They are drawn to the only very bright place in the area, as I have cut down the other burning trees in the Scattered Forest."

  I motion to the rest of the biome, which has gone darker...but not completely. Small light sources make up a grid everywhere. I had enough Peat Clumps in my inventory, it turned out, to make a ton of Crap Torches to place on the ground after I cut down the burning trees and ended the forest fire. Now I'm facing a sea of faint orange-yellow dots on the ground.

  "Peat Torches serve two purposes. I underestimated them until now. They are just bright enough to prevent mob spawning on the ground, which keeps the player safe from roving Common Ghouls and Lavaworms. Better yet, Dreadmoths want nothing to do with them. Preventing ground mobs from spawning at night also ensures that more Dreadmoths will spawn in the air, thanks to the mob cap. Look. There's one now."

  I point into the sky where one, then two, then four Dreadmoths spawn against the emerging stars. The last of the sunlight fades, but I feel safe as I retreat around the rectangular pit and into my shelter for the night. My feet click against the Common Stone bricks I've used to line the pit. Hey, I might not normally beautify things much, but I'm sure Candi's watching.

  The twenty trees continue to burn, the brightest torches for miles. The Dreadmoths descend as I circle to the Common Plank Steps that lead down to Level Two.

  "When the Destroyer is ready to work, the player retreats to the underground level of the Destroyer and to the waiting area." I reach a pair of doors I've set in a Common Stone Brick frame, open them, and step inside to a dim area lit with several more Peat Torches. A large glass window—made from the panes
I've gathered—reveals the flowing water of the pit and the glow from the burning trees above.

  I motion to the water stream, which hails from a bunch of Irrigated Fertile Farm blocks on the far side of the pit. "Water flows from a source for about ten blocks on flat terrain, so if you want to build this, be sure to include a step or two if you want it to flow further. The flow renews at the step when you do that, as you can see. This trap is eighteen blocks wide."

  No Dreadmoths screech yet, but they will. I don't have much time to talk and be heard.

  "At the receiving end of the pit, there is another drop off and another, one block wide stream that flows to the player," I continue. "The entry to this stream is only one block high, which is too large for Dreadmoths to enter. Wooden slabs allow in items, but not mobs. They also stop water from flowing into the last channel and screwing up the flow."

  Without the slab barrier, all the pit water flowed into the collection channel and just stayed there instead of flowing towards me. "A new stream, from a different Farmland block, flows under the slabs and carries the mob drops to a collection point."

  A bloodthirsty screech sounds above me and I flinch, though I've heard the sound a million times. "There's our first victim of the night!"

  I run across the waiting area, which is also eighteen meters wide—and press my face to the window. Two Dreadmoths approach the burning trees above, and one catches fire and takes damage. It dies in a puff of smoke as the second one starts to burn and a third approaches. The first one's drops land in the pit water and flow towards the collection channel. Two Polished Dreadmoth Plates and one Silk.

  "When mobs die from fire damage, they drop cooked versions of their loot," I say. The three items fall into the last channel and flow towards me, bobbing up and down in the water, and stopping when they reach the end of the stream.

  "And there, ladies and gentleman, is an infinite supply of Polished Dreadmoth Plates and Silk. Armor, anyone?" I flex my green-plated arm and beat my chestplate. My leg plates clank a bit as I walk over and collect the drops. "I'm sure larger pits can be made and that there will be a way to automatically collect and store drops in the future, but I think the caves might hold the answer to that." Several more screeches sound and more drops rain into the pit. A few pieces of loot sizzle and vanish as they hit the burning trees, but it's no big deal, and cutting the branches off them all minimized that issue. "We'll be exploring the caves soon, and this time I'm prepared. Thank you to Salvos Corporation for this awesome Beta 1.1 update. I have so many Polished Dreadmoth Plates and now my armor bar is full."

  As I finish speaking, I let a grin split my face.

  And just as I predict, I fall through darkness as I get logged out. On the other side of a blink, I'm standing in the blue light of the Salvos Simulator.

  And Candi is standing at the door with Matt, Don, Liz, and Kevin.

  "Hey," I say, removing my helmet. I'm sure I'm still wearing my grin.

  She smiles, and I know I've done well. "I know I should have logged you out earlier, but your performance was awesome." Candi's holding her laptop under her arm and I know she's been watching me.

  "You logged me out three hours ago," Matt said, crossing his arms and pretending to pout.

  "Mike, we've been waiting an extra three hours to go to dinner," Liz says. "What were you doing in there?"

  "He can't tell you, unfortunately," Candi says to her, sneaking a wink at me. "But it was very important."

  Could this day get any better? A tingle runs down my spine at my good fortune. And I almost lost everything. I shake my head, glad to air out my scalp. My stomach rumbles and yes, spending so much time around running water has done a number on my bladder. "I'd love to go to dinner. What time is it?"

  "Almost ten," Liz says. "We told Val we'd join her at the restaurant."

  "And Natalie, too," Don adds.

  I let my mouth fall open. "Natalie." I can tell her the good news. I'm not out. How could Salvos kick me out when I've just turned something meant to kill me into something that's taken me to the next level?

  But as I step out of the Simulator, Candi turns her wink into a warning gaze. It's gone a second later, but it stays with me as I rush into the changing room.

  Am I not out of the woods yet? Will Salvos decide to get rid of me after all, just because they feel like it?

  Once changed, I meet Candi in the parking garage. Turns out we're taking two cars to the restaurant and we've got to hurry since they close at midnight. I check my phone, mind fuzzy, to see that Natalie has texted me.

  It's just one message: Guess I'm moving in with you.

  Huh? I text back.

  Remember that report that got left out? Yeah.

  I gulp. So her boss did get rid of her.

  The jerk, I say, only not in those words.

  It's fine. The stress is already coming off. I just feel relieved, though I'm going to have corporate look at the security cameras and investigate. Dad's saying just to find another job, but I'm not letting this go. Weird about the stress, huh?

  I breathe out as I get into the passenger seat of a Mercedes. I barely even notice as Candi gets in beside me.

  "Mike?" she asks, lifting an eyebrow.

  "I'm glad I got a lot accomplished today," I say, letting nothing important slip. I know that Candi still has her required phone strapped to her thigh and it could be listening in. If I'm not careful, Salvos could pick up that I'm onto them.

  "Yes. You sure did," Candi says.

  We're alone in the car. The other is already pulling out of the parking garage, the others in tow. I can only wonder what Don, Kevin, and Mike are speculating.

  "I think I'm making good progress." That's a question, not a statement.

  And Candi gets it. "I think so, too. That invention of yours will make a great tutorial. And the others, too. The thing is, trees are hard to light and most things won't keep them lit."

  I grab my seat. Yes. I'll be staying on. And earlier today, I thought me and Natalie were done for. I want to tell Candi my sister did lose her job, but now that I've got the means to fix things for her, at least in the near future, it doesn't feel urgent. And I don't want Salvos to know my weak point has just gotten weaker.

  Because they'll use that against me.

  After what I've done, they've got to hate me, and hate that they can't get rid of me easily. Whatever's in the hidden part of the contract must not allow them to kick me to the curb for no good reason. So Salvos has a weakness, too. That's what Candi is trying to tell me.

  Candi puts her hand on the gearshift and I remember the unspoken no dating rule. But there's something there. There has to be. An urge to place my hand over hers sweeps over me, but my heart thuds and I can't do it. The thought is way more terrifying than any peat fire.

  "Why did Salvos choose me?" I blurt instead. Why did you choose me and fight so hard for me?

  She pulls out of the parking garage as the GPS hammers out instructions. "We chose you, Mike, because you are undiscovered talent. And I hate to see talent go undiscovered."

  I hope that bodes well for Natalie, too. "Did you go through a phase like that?" What if she chose me because I'm a charity case? Candi knows my deal.

  Candi smiles. "You can say that I did. I've had to rebrand and figure out what worked and well, never mind. We needed a player like you and I was going to make that happen. You deserve a chance."

  I let go of my seat as we roll under streetlights and stop at a traffic signal. "Thanks?"

  "And your sister deserves a chance, too. You're both awesome players."

  "Why did Salvos pick you to pick us, CandiofSummer?"

  She laughs. "Good memory. However, I'm not at liberty to say." Candi swallows and continues driving.

  I hold back my sigh, feeling like I'll never figure Candi out.

  "Just be careful, Mike," she says as we pull into the restaurant where I can see Natalie and Val already seated at a table. "There's so much more in Salvosera you haven't fou
nd yet. You've barely scratched the surface."

  I get out of the car. "Got it." Despite Candi's aloof manner, I sense we're a team. All of us. And no matter what happens, we're going to get through this together.

  END OF MASTER CRAFTER, BOOK ONE

  DEAR READER

  Thank you for reading Master Crafter, Beta Test 1.0. This book has been a passion project for me and I'm glad that you picked it up.

  If you liked the world of Salvosera and want to see more, please consider leaving a review or sharing this book with your friends. I must admit that this book is experimental and there are a lot of unknowns as to how it will be received, so leaving a review or sharing with your friends will let me know how to proceed with this budding series. A second book may be in the works when that happens.

  A Harley Vex newsletter is in the works, so check the back matter of this book regularly for updates.