Master of None

by Shane Walker

  “Oh ho! First thing’s first, my boy! Let’s take care of the mining situation. Would you mind sharing your Resource Management information with me?” I was hesitant at first, but I agreed and Poppil was presented with the information regarding production and limits.

  “Oh this is good, indeed! The silver output is unexpected, but welcome. We can start working on staffing and have it up and running by tomorrow. Fully staffed, you should be generating 3500 Iron ore and 350 Silver ore per week.

  “In addition to what’s listed, I’ll let you in on a Gnomish secret: Gnome Miners can find a significant amount of hidden, random gemstones within mines like this. Generally this works out to about 10% of all ores mined coming with a gemstone. Based on the size and output, I’m guessing it will be about 770 gemstones a week. Averaging around 10 gold per gemstone, you’re looking at 7700 gold per week in gemstones alone! These are, of course, base numbers. As you expand and add miners and supervisors this number will increase.”

  I almost spat out my drink at the amounts. He noticed it and laughed. “Oh, that’s nothing my boy. By my estimate, your little mine should soon enough make you one of the wealthiest men in the region. Except for maybe some of those merchant folk who seem to have their fingers in everyone’s pies” I couldn’t help but dream of how much real money this mine would translate into when it was all said and done. Poppil quickly brought me back down to earth. Well, that or whatever the name of this planet is supposed to be. I didn’t have time to read all the lore. “Now, that’s before expenses and also assumes you can sell it all.

  “And that’s where the bad news comes in.” He said as he slumped a little in his seat. “See, we simply can’t use this much iron right now. I’d say we can buy 1000 a week, plus all the silver and gemstones, but you’ll have to sell the rest elsewhere.”

  “The human capital,” I muttered in response. “The guys we took the mine from said something about the humans being in desperate need of steel and keeping the mine was their way of ensuring that continued. I should be able to easily sell it once I can get it there.”

  Poppil perked up again. “Yes, the Human city would be perfect! In fact, if you can pay us for drivers and caravan guards, we can bring weekly shipments in once you’re able to set up an arrangement.”

  Always an angle, eh?

  Poppil and I continued to drink and discuss the mine and plans for the future. We decided that, for the time being, the best usage of the Management Points was to get the smelter, set up a connection between the two of us, and then save the last 100 points for whoever I make a deal with in the city.

  Next priority after that was to add a second rail system to double current productivity and then save up to expand the third floor. It should take a week to get the first batch of points for the rails, and then about two more weeks afterward to get the points for expanding the silver floor and hoping we find more veins.

  When we turn to discussing pay for miners, though, my heart sinks a little bit. His estimate is that I need just under a hundred Gnomes working for me. Fifty-five miners for all the miner slots available right now, eleven guards working inside the mine to guard miners at a 1:5 ratio, eighteen outside to work in shifts of six men (well, gnomes…), three drivers for the weekly deliveries to the city, and five guards per caravan wagon.

  Just manning the mine and deliveries ate a big chunk of my profits, but I couldn’t complain. There would have been no way for me to actually operate the mine on my own. There were too many nodes to mine and guarding and transporting the ore would have been too much for one person. If Poppil was getting a little better deal for his people I wouldn’t mind considering he could have refused to help and tried getting me to give him the mine instead.

  With the staffing numbers more or less figured out, we topped off our drinks and proceeded to toast the new business partnership. The clink of our glasses touching was accompanied by the sound of a system notification as well.

  You are now considered a “Friend of the Gnomes (Gnometheran)!”

  Reaching this status with a faction allows for you to receive friendly reactions from NPCs, guaranteed food and shelter (unless hiding from punishment for a crime against a faction at least Neutral with this faction), and the maximum benefit of your Trade related skills when dealing with this faction.

  “With your new standing in our town, I believe you’ll find that the merchants provide you with some fantastic offers for whatever you have to offer!” he said with a knowing grin. I got the feeling he got a pop-up telling him the same thing I got, but from his angle.

  The last thing to deal with was pay for all my new employees. The gnomes working the mines and caravans would likely be very unhappy if they had to work their first week or two for free while I set up all of my trade agreements, so I offered to pay their first week’s wages from my share of the loot. I’d love to have split the cost with Nik, but these were supposed to be my employees and therefore my responsibility. I just hoped I had enough to make it through the week.

  This move definitely surprised Poppil. It seemed the workers were going into this assuming they’d have to wait on back pay. Poppil maked it sound like such a problem was a pretty common occurrence in new operations like this and that most of the folks that owned these resources never considered the people that were doing the work for them. They sounded like awful leaders.

  Bonus Skill Levels received!

  For your forethought regarding the wants and expectations of your future employees, you have been awarded bonuses to Management and Leadership! Recognizing the importance of workforce morale shows great Management and business acumen. The willingness to sacrifice a bit of your own personal wealth and comfort shows true Leadership and inspires those underneath you to perform and push to go above and beyond!

  Management and Leadership are now 10!

  So, the game can reward your actions with increases like this even in the more...abstract skills. It also seems to think that offering to pay out of pocket for this is going above and beyond, hence suddenly gaining a total of ten skill levels between the two skills. I thought to myself as I re-read the notification.

  Wait, another notification? I heard the chime pop up right after I read the first notification the second time.

  At level 10, Management grants you the ability to hire a supervisor for any resource you own. Supervisors maintain order and efficiency at any site they are hired for. As a result, production for any resource is increased by 50% when a Supervisor is assigned there.

  Whoa! Having a supervisor working for me is HUGE! I’d honestly worried about how the mine would run without me here. I assumed the miners would be nameless automatons, but if they will improve with a supervisor then maybe they actually had personalities? I was really seeing just how deep this game went.

  I told Poppil I could hire a supervisor already and he was ecstatic. He apparently already had someone in mind but said that supervisors would run about twice the guards’ salary. Additionally, he asked that I come to him in the future if I required any additional supervisors and he would do his best to find one with the appropriate background.

  Poppil then explained to me that the gnomes’ incredibly analytical and detail oriented minds were perfect for positions increasing the efficiency of major operations such as this. As they were world renown for this, many workers who find themselves working for gnome supervisors tended to do so without complaint as they recognized the gnome would be fair and effective as a supervisor.

  Looking back over the Resource Management info, I took stock of the massive increases in Production and Management Point accumulation. Instead of our original plan of first purchasing an Additional Rail and then saving up for other upgrades, I came up with a new idea. With the increase in Management Points, we could expand the third floor at the end of the first week. Within two weeks after that, we could add another level if we wanted. Instead, we planned for expanding the third level after week one, adding three new rails after week two, and then ex
panding all levels of the mine starting from the top as we accumulated enough points.

  With the addition of the supervisor, my potential net profits went through the roof! Even with the limited sales, I was already making almost 10,000 gold a week. That was a $1,000 a week just for owning the mine. Once I started selling the rest of it I would make a little over five times that amount. That was nearly a six figure income in real life just from owning a mine in a video game. I almost decide to essentially quit the game as soon as the trade deals are worked out, but that just wouldn’t be good enough.

  I didn’t start this just to end up settling for upper-middle class. I want to make things better for myself, my family, and even my friends -assuming I still had any by that point. I hadn’t heard from anyone in the year since I’d gotten out. Maybe they wanted nothing to do with me. Maybe they just weren’t sure what to say. Either way, this wasn’t enough money to really make a difference. Not yet, anyway.

  Saying goodbye to the mayor, I made my way back to our now well-guarded cart of loot only to find El looking at something longingly. “What’s wrong, El? Looking to get out of the trainer business for a career in mining and now you’re interested in my assortment of pickaxes?”

  “You wish. Then you could just hide me in the mine and pretend I never beat your ass!” she retorts. It earned some chuckles from a couple of guards that were around for my first day. I felt my face flush but it quickly subsides. She did beat my ass after all.

  “If you guys think you can do better, I’d love to watch you go a round or two with her.” I said with a mocking tone. The guards all suddenly had no reason to laugh.

  “I can already tell you got all of the required skills up to an acceptable level,” she continued. “And honestly, your bonus reward was going to be some magical swords. That being said, those highly enchanted daggers make me believe you don’t need swords, but you are going to ask me to teach you how to use them.”

  “Very insightful, El. If you suddenly don’t want to give me swords, what did you have in mind?” I ask. She looks back at the cart and I’m finally able to figure out what she’s looking at: the black dragon’s hide.

  “Another skill, I think. And some of the best armor you’ll ever see.”

  After that, El told me that this was going to take awhile, I worked out a plan with Nik and the gnomes that we would stay here until the first shipment from the mine is ready. Once it was ready to go, we would ride to the capital with the new Iron ingots in tow.. After this plan is brought up, it does make the most sense considering we need to show any potential buyers that we are supplying quality materials.

  El was excited to get started immediately, so I decided to wait on selling off our spoils. I followed her to a house in a back corner of the town that was somewhat set alone. Obviously, it was her house, but I didn’t expect to see tanning racks in the front yard.

  “Some Rogues believe that there is no need for them to learn how to work leather. Those Rogues have never had to survive in hostile environments for extended periods. Nor do they realize what happens if everyone suddenly decided they didn’t need to bother learning the skill. I’ll tell you what would happen. We’d have no more Leatherworkers!” she says without taking a breath. The last part is said with a sad tone as if she believes the world would simply stop spinning if that were the case. I didn’t expect her to show such passion for a crafting skill.

  It’s really easy to forget she’s an AI running an NPC.

  “No time to waste! We have to get you trained!” she said as if her own sadness was derailing us and it was my fault.

  El was right in that she wasted no time. I was immediately tasked with unloading all of the hides, komodo included. She said it’d be the best way to learn the skill and get a few early levels without wasting dragon skin. Also, she said it may work as a good material for covering sections of my body exposed by gaps between dragon skin pieces.

  The process of Leatherworking is pretty disgusting, to be perfectly honest. Tanning leaves the worst smell I’ve ever experienced.

  El showed me chemical ratios and how best to deal with cleaning the hide prior to tanning. I got a skill notification while tanning my first piece as El continued talking a mile a minute.

  New Skill!

  Leatherworking

  Level 1

  Allows you to create leather armor and items. You receive a bonus to working with any hides you skinned yourself.

  I was learning my first real crafting profession! I had some gathering skills already, but I’d needed a crafting skill to put them to good use. It put me in a good mood as I started cleaning all the rest of the pieces of hide. The notifications after put me in an even better mood.

  Your Leatherworking has increased to 2!

  Your Skinning has increased to 10!

  Holy shit, this part works both skills! I frantically started cleaning al of the remaining pieces back to back and at the end I’m rewarded for my effort.

  Your Leatherworking has increased to 8!

  Your Skinning has increased to 12!

  The time flew by as El talked me through what I would need to do to cut, shape, and connect pieces in the way I wanted them to be. First, she checked my measurements. I couldn’t do this part myself, obviously, but she told me that most Tailors would be more than willing to give me my own measurements for a very small fee if they somehow changed later.

  With measurements in hand, she showed me how to draw it out on large scrap pieces of material that I could then use as a pattern to end up cutting the pieces needed out of the komodo hide. This work rewarded me with more levels as a result of the combination of my practical exercises and El providing a non-stop stream of information regarding the craft.

  Your Leatherworking has increased to 10!

  Minor Trait obtained!

  Apprentice of Leather

  Requirement: Leatherworking 10 and Skinning 10

  Effect: 25% chance of creating high quality items capable of receiving enchantments (Increases with quality of materials)

  Note: Higher levels in both skills will unlock improved versions of this trait.

  El looked at me for a long moment as if she was trying to see something in my face. Finally she sees whatever she was looking for and says “Oh you hit Apprentice already? Fantastic!” Then she came and patted me on the back with a big grin. That’s about when I noticed that the training that took hours has only been about forty-five minutes.

  “I think you might just be my new favorite pupil! We need a break from Leather for a bit though. It’s time you learn to use those daggers you’ve got going to waste there on your hips.” And with that she walked off back towards the training grounds.

  As I fell in step behind her, I called up my favorite posh Englishman.

  Alfred, what the hell? How has it been less than an hour?

  “Special time dilation for menial and repetitive tasks was intended to encourage players to pursue additional non-combat fields. Any time spent in training these crafting skills or actual crafting that is estimated to take more than a two to three hours is compressed to minutes. Additionally, any combat arms training such as repetition and drills as opposed to practical training against a player or NPC opponent is also compressed.”

  Oh. OH. The realization hit me when I realized what I could do with seven days.

  This is going to be a good week.

  15-Training Seminar

  We’d been sparring for nearly an hour when I finally saw an opening I thought I could use. When we first got to the training fields, I started to unsheathe my new daggers until she reminded me how much harder they hit and that she’d rather not feel it. Well, assuming I hit her.

  She handed me some basic daggers to borrow during the training. They were identical to what I would have gotten if I’d picked daggers as my starting weapons. After using the short swords for so long, they felt tiny in comparison. On the other hand, I appreciated the fact that I’d be able to attack much more quickly with t
hese.

  She was also using basic daggers like those I had. I’d been punished several times already with quick, shallow cuts on my shoulders, biceps, and forearms for overextending. I’d also gotten some cuts on the face after she got tired of me playing it too safe. In those situations, she’d send a feint towards my abdomen with her main hand, only to slash my cheek with her off-hand.

  This time, I’d managed to pull off a feint of my own. Baiting her with a half-committed slash from the right, I waited on her to decide it was another “teachable moment” and go in to slash my arm. When she did I was ready and deftly snapped the hand back before knocking her hand away. This created an opening, but not the one I was planning to attack. As she went to block with her other hand, I was already bringing my off-hand up to push her arm in the same direction the other went, opening the flank opposite where I had originally telegraphed an attack. Two quick slashes got me what I was waiting for.

  You hit El for 2 damage!

  You hit El for 2 damage!