by Shane Walker
Again, Rowan looked at me as if for the first time. Maybe he thought of me as a cutthroat and greedy bastard at first. Now he must have finally thought of me as a real person with multifaceted goals. The strangest part was I was started to think the same of him. Sure, he was an NPC in a game, but conversations like this felt so real.
Without a word, he stood and went back into the main store area of the building. I wasn’t sure what to do, so I sat and waited for him hoping I hadn’t somehow offended him or caused him to change his mind.
A few moments later, he returned and motioned for me to follow him. “I closed up early. The next part is going to take some assistance. Follow me, lad.” he said. Through a doorway and corridor, I was led to a sparring room not unlike Des’ dojo. Rowan went to the opposite side and pulled two sparring longswords from a rack on the wall. Both were dulled and lacked sharp points. Sure, they’d hurt, but they were much less likely to be fatal.
“A bit of advice, lad.” Rowan started as he took his first stance. “There’s no more noble a reason to acquire wealth than to use that wealth to help others. That said, that same altruism with your wealth puts targets on the backs of you and everyone you help.
“See, some folks are going to see that money go to others and they’ll want it for themselves.” he continued as he began going through warm-up drills that I did my best to imitate. “They feel entitled to what others are getting. The worst part is, sometimes those same folks got as much or more money than you. They just think they’re supposed to get a piece of the pie no matter how full they already are.”
Finishing his spiel and his drills, he turned to face me. “Ready?” he said less than a second before launching himself at me. His attacks were fast and brutal. Only my high Dodge from both skills and items kept me from being destroyed in seconds. If not for that, Rowan would probably be waiting for me to wake up to continue our training.
“Don’t rely so much on your dodges with a longsword. Parry me and counter the attack. You have a longer reach and more blade to use than you do with your twin daggers, so take advantage of that.” Rowan chided me as he continued his barrage.
Having a single weapon was an incredibly unusual feeling after using two weapons for so long. I found myself constantly having to stop my empty hand from coming up to parry or catch an attack. Rowan was only willing to put up with it for about ten minutes before holding up his hand to signal he was stopping. Once he had my attention he went to the rack again and grabbed an odd looking dagger which he tossed to me.
The first thing I noticed was that it was longer than Boldsbane and Gnomesgain, and it was much heavier. It also featured more protection for the hand. “That blade ye got is called a main gauche. It’s a type of parrying dagger.” he said, answering the unasked What the fuck is this? that I was holding onto.
“You can match my reach with the longsword, but you’ve got that dagger to knock my attacks out of the way.” he explained. “Save it mostly for thrusts and slashes from the side. The way you fight, you’ll leave yourself wide open on anything else.”
After that, I was starting to think I was destined to use two weapons at once for the rest of my time in game. Our spars were nothing like before. I was able to Dodge, Parry, or Block nearly every attack he sent my way. After awhile, I was even seeing the openings these created and took advantage, scoring several hits on Rowan’s chest, arms, and stomach. I thought he would need a break after the hits until I realized every blow was being stopped by something under his clothing.
“How the hell are you still standing?” I finally asked in frustration after a particularly hard blow to his stomach.
“Guess you figured out I’ve got something on underneath, eh?” he replied as he began to explain the mystery. “Elven chainmail is what it is. It’s lightweight, tough as hell, and thin enough to wear under regular clothing.
“Speaking of, you don’t cover your armor when you walk around but you really should.” he continued. “I have some clothes that should fit over your armor when you visit the Thieves Guild. You don’t want them to see those leathers you’re wearing. They’re obviously magical even to someone who doesn’t have the skills to identify it.”
I’d completely forgotten about covering it as El had suggested. I guess people I’d dealt with either didn’t have enough Perception to recognize it or just didn’t pay enough attention. I thanked him for the offer and took a break to look through notifications. My training was certainly paying off.
New Skill!
Longsword
Level 1
+1% Attack Speed/+1% Damage per skill level
Your Longsword skill has increased to Level 2!
Your Parry skill has increased to Level 11!
That was a respectable skill gain from the relatively little time spent sparring. It still wasn’t enough, though. “Alright, let’s continue.” I said readying myself for more abuse.
Whereas our most recent spars had been close matches where I was able to defend myself with relative ease, what happened now was something else. It took every ounce of focus and skill I had within me to protect myself from the barrage of attacks that came towards me. It took nearly five minutes before I was able to counter any of the attacks. Even then, it was a glancing blow that would have caused little to no damage with or without the elven chainmail.
Just landing such a weak hit seemed to drive Rowan to push harder as he attacked with abandon. Each sword stroke led to another and another. He may have been able to launch a more successful offense than me, but my defense was nearly impenetrable as I became more acquainted to using the parrying dagger.
I could feel my understanding of the fighting style increase as we went, with each block, parry, or dodge further pushing me to better understand how to not get hit. I’d spent so much time playing the crafter and the business man that I hadn’t time to truly appreciate the thrill of combat in a couple of weeks. It was an exhilarating rush that I didn’t realize I was missing it. It seemed my fear of battle was replaced with a craving for adrenaline.
After more than ten minutes solid of defense with only a couple of attacks of my own we both stopped, saluted, and fell on our asses completely exhausted. We both looked at each other for a moment before laughing at ourselves for the absurdity of the last few minutes.
After we had settled down and gotten both our laughter and breathing under control, Rowan spoke up. “Holy fuck, lad. I’ve never fought a person as hard to hit as you are.” he said with no small amount of admiration.
“Thank you!” I replied. “All the time spent with the Dagger Skill makes the parrying dagger feel incredibly natural.”
Medium Trait obtained!
Skill Synchrony
Requirement: Successfully use an unknown skill related to a skill you know, but to the level of the known skill (You used Two-Weapon Fighting at the level of proficiency of your Dual-Wielding skill!)
Effect: You can learn new skills immediately up to the level of a related skill!
Note: The new skill can only be learned up to your available skill levels based on Intellect
New Skill!
Two-Weapon Fighting
Level 18
+1% Attack Speed/Parry per Level
Note: Two-Weapon Fighting is the skill for using two different weapon types at once.
Your skill in Block has increased to Level 9!
Your skill in Longsword has increased to Level 10!
Your Parry has increased to Level 20!
Your Two-Weapon Fighting has increased to Level 20!
Achievement Earned!
Talented: Increase ten skills to Level 20
Reward: 1 Free Level, +5 Intellect (World first, double reward!)
After the sudden gain of a Level 20 skill I’d run out of room for skill levels, so it was great timing for that achievement. I threw five level up points into Intellect and five into Agility. The free Intellect combined with my class levels to give me room for fifty more skill levels.
Of course, the excitement over the new Trait and levels was pretty quickly smothered by the reality of my last bit of training. He said the fastest way to level up early levels of Tracking was, much to my chagrin, reading fucking books about it.
So I sat for four hours straight just reading about types of tracks, basics about determining direction and speed, things to look for like broken twigs and branches to show passage of a creature, all sorts of things that somehow crammed into my head in such a short amount of time.
Your Tracking has increased to Level 10!
I guess six levels in four hours without having to do any real work was a good thing, but it still felt shitty compared to the thrill of hands-on learning. I mentioned as much to Rowan and he responded by explaining how the same “hands-on” training with Tracking would have really been me getting lost in the woods for a day or two trying to follow tracks I didn’t understand. He also said skills that were better learned by reading in the early levels were, thankfully, uncommon.
That said, so much for having lots of available skill levels. I mean, I lost thirteen of the fifty to those delayed skill increases and another six from Tracking so it was an improvement, but it still felt like losing potential somehow. On the other hand, I had one more new notification to enjoy.
New Job!
Ranger
Requirement: Longsword 10, Dual-Wielding (Or Two-Weapon Fighting) 10, Tracking 10, Crossbow (Or Bow) 10, Stealth 10, Herbalism (or other survival skill) 10
Bonus: +1 Tracking per Level, Bond with and Summon an Animal Companion
“Wait, summon a what?!”
25-Long-Range Plan
I didn’t really want to get caught up thinking about what sort of Animal Companion a guy like me would end up with, especially in the city, so I ignored it for the time being. I thanked Rowan for everything and said goodnight. He told me I had a couple of days before he would be able to get me an appointment with the Guild, so that was perfect for what I had planned.
When I returned to HQ I was relieved to see that Nik was still online and working. I was hoping to clear the air between us and hopefully get his assistance with what I had planned for my hand crossbows. With that in mind, I gave a few hard knocks on the blast door of his workshop.
The sight that greeted me was not what I expected. Nik was absolutely beaming when he saw it was me. His clothes looked like he’d gotten into a wrestling match with a spider made out of knives and lost badly. There were cuts on his face and arms that were still trying to heal. Still, after his attitude towards me before, the smile was honestly the weirdest part of this.
“Nik, I was hoping to talk to you if you had time.” I said. “You seemed pretty angry with me the other day and I was hoping to figure out what the issue was so I could fix it. I’m sorry if I’ve upset you somehow.”
The smile disappeared from Nik’s face and was replaced with horror, then confusion, and finally understanding. “Oh, sorry, Jack. I get like that when I’m hyperfocusing on something. I didn’t mean to make you think I was angry at you.” he said.
Well, that was a relief. “I’m glad to hear it.” I said. “I’d hate to have hurt my best friend.” He looked shocked again.
“Best friend?” he said meekly.
“Well of course!” I assured him. “I wouldn’t have been able to do any of this without your help in the mines, Nik. Plus you’re the first person I met and you started out by offering to help!”
The statement seemed to get him back on track. “That’s actually why I’m glad you’re here, Jack. I’m fulfilling my original promise. I told you I could m-make better arm crossbows.” he said with his chest puffed up and full of pride.
He quickly darted into his workshop and returned moments later carrying a well-crafted wooden box with a gold inlay along the edges and corners. Across the top in a beautiful calligraphic script were the letters “JA” which I assumed were for my name.
“This is my way of saying thank you for everything you did for me and what you’re doing now. I get to play this game the way I want without worrying about being able to afford tinkering like I do.” he said as he sat the case on the table and motioned for me to open it.
When I did I had to catch my drool from falling onto the velvet lining. Inside were two very well-made arm crossbows, only they were much different from mine. The bodies and limbs were metal instead of wood and they both featured split limbs instead of a single piece limb like my current base model. The decision to split the limb was so they could fold back and make the design more compact.
Also, there were straps with strings on them that seemed to line up with my fingers. “Try them on.” Nik said, helping me pull them out of the case. “Make sure to put your fingers through the loops like this.” he continued as he showed me which finger went through which loop.
Once I had both on I took a second to move my arms around to see how it felt. Surprisingly, they were even lighter than their bulky ancestor I’d been wearing since my first day in-game. Also, there was nowhere to load bolts.
“Umm. Nik, how do I load these bad boys?” I asked him, hoping he didn’t somehow forget such a critical feature. He simply smiled and handed me an oblong cartridge of some kind.
“Slide this into that opening on the back.” he said. “Each one of these has five bolts and they feed into the crossbow from underneath the string and limbs. Also, it’s automatic when the string is drawn.”
With that shocking explanation out of the way, Nik proceeded to blow my mind by showing me how they worked. The loops running to my fingers connected to lines that could perform previously manual functions like reloading and firing the crossbows. He had even gone so far as to make sure that the motions to fire and reload it didn’t interfere with holding swords or daggers, which I was thankful for. I was more happy about the reverse being true: holding swords and daggers didn’t activate the crossbows.
“Nik, I don’t know what to say.” I finally told him once I had a feel for their use and had acclimated to the weight on both arms. “These are incredible. Thank you!”
“You’re w-welcome.” he replied. “It was the least I can do. If you need anything else made, please let me know! I can never repay what you’ve given me here.” the gnome said as he gestured to everything around us.
“Actually,” I said, feeling guilty for asking for more so soon. “I do have an idea for something.”
Several hours later I was marveling at my new hand crossbows. Each was made of the same materials as the arm crossbows along with the folding limbs. Nik used his ability to magically charge things to imbue the limbs with the ability to move in and out on their own when activated. That made it so that a regular button could be used as a switch to open and close the limbs. He’d perfected his cartridge design on the arm version, so these could use the same system. It still would need to be drawn manually. The upside was that I could carry them on my hips like pistols.
As for drawing the string? That’s where the contraptions attached to my hips came in. They were fairly simple, just a couple of hooks secured in place to act as catches. By hooking the string and pushing down, I could reload both hand crossbows simultaneously. It would be much more efficient than using several weapons as I’d done at Rowan’s range. It was time to see just how good it was, though.
While Des was gone for the evening, her dojo was still open to me as the owner of the property. I also had the ability to modify it, which was what I did. I added a basic target practice area onto the side of it and found the option to rush construction for double the Management Point cost. Since I hadn’t built anything new in awhile I had plenty of points to spare, so I had it finish immediately. It wasn’t as complex as Rowan’s but it could be upgraded later. I just needed it for the proof of concept.
Thunk! Thunk! Thunk! Thunk!
“Holy shit, Jack!” Nik exclaimed as I put all four bolts into the target within the span of around two seconds. “Those shots are supposed to have a base three damage pl
us the Agility modifier, which should be insane for you! This could probably destroy a boss in seconds. We should sell these, right?”
I tensed up at the thought. Something Rowan said was coming back to me. He said we’d have to fight to protect what we had. It occurred to me that we might be selling too much of our power. We needed to make sure we had plenty of tricks and tools that others didn’t, just in case.
“No, we need to keep this to ourselves for now. I’m not sure I trust other players with something like this that could be turned against us so easily.” I said. “At least with the flash grenades, we know to look away, unlike the monsters we fight.”
Nik contemplated my response and seemed to agree. We both decided to call it a night and said our goodbyes. I walked to my office as it was my preferred spot to logout from so that I’d be there when I logged in and decided to ask Alfred about something bugging me.
Hey Alfred, what’s with the Animal Companion thing? I asked once I was relaxing at my desk.