by Shane Walker
“Maybe I’ll do that after our business with the Thieves Guild is finished. Thanks, Rowan!” I said. I appreciated all he’d done for me so far and I likely wouldn’t have been able to grow so quickly if not for him. That’s why his request came first. And speaking of growth…
You have reached Level 27!
Now that I saw how the Jobs could boost my combat capabilities, I had no qualms dumping all five bonus points into Intellect. Job points could make up for my combat stat shortfalls, but only my Class could boost my skill cap. Why was no one else building like this? Oh right, it’s because I can barely fight a boss for a dungeon that’s nearly twenty levels below me. Des could have two-shot that beast and I had to do the man-dance with it for several minutes. If you wanted to go on crazy adventures, my build was not the most...efficient.
“Hey boss, I think I found the dungeon’s loot cache!” Des yelled from the back of the room, pulling me from my wandering thoughts about life, the universe, and min-maxing.
“How does it look?” I asked as I walked up.
“Well, there’s a bit of gold, not that it compares to what we make already. There’s also a nice selection of light armor and some weapons.” she said. “I’d heard rumor that the cache in a dungeon was tailored to whoever beat it, so if you came in here with nothing but mages, it’d be a bunch of robes and staves and tomes or whatever the hell those jackasses use.” Her disdain for casters was palpable.
“Something against mages, Des?” I asked, curious as to why she seemed to dislike them so much.
“Oh I’m sure they’re handy in a big fight. That’s assuming you want someone in the back chanting nonsense and taking all the credit instead of learning how to win a real fight.” she spat out. “Sorry, boss. I get worked up about it sometimes. It’s just I’ve worked hard to have the skill I have. Meanwhile those mages aren’t putting in real work.” she finished.
“Ah, I think I get it. Excelling as a swordsman here requires some skill in the real world or a natural talent, but you’re saying that all mages have to do is click to learn spells and remember what to cast and when. There’s nothing they have to do beyond willing themselves to cast a spell so there’s no real skill required.” I said in an attempt to summarize her philosophy and understand it.
“Exactly!” she said, emphasizing the word with the point of her rapier. I’m not sure when she actually drew it and based on the face she makes when she looks down at it, neither is she.
“Look,” she continued, replacing the blade in the sheath on her hip. “I had to bust my ass in the real world to develop the skills I have there. Fencing where I live is full of a bunch of gatekeeping, misogynistic pricks. I had to be twice as good as every asshole there just for them to consider me mediocre. I swear to God you men have fragile egos.
“Do you know how frustrating it is as a young girl celebrating her first tournament win to hear someone you just soundly beat in a fight try to convince himself and his buddies that he was holding back because you’re a girl?”
“I’m assuming that’s rhetorical, but no. I can’t even imagine.” I said completely unsure of how to handle this. When in doubt, go with your gut I guess.
“All I can say is that I don’t know what I would do in that situation. I’d probably hit someone. Like you said though, fragile egos.” I finished with a smile. “All I know is that you’re the most badass person I’ve met in this game. If you’re even a fraction as good in reality, then I’m sure you’ve beaten plenty of humility into those little egos.”
“You’re goddamn right I have!” Her back straightened as she replied. “In fact, I made it my mission to not only beat, but outright embarrass any of the guys I fought. They may hate me for it, but I don’t really give a shit. After that tournament win, they tried to change the rules to eliminate co-ed competition. They said it was unfair for me to fight them! Ha!
“That’s when the cocky attitude really came out. It’s all a faked persona really. I went online and on local news bragging about how he wanted to rules changed because he was scared shitless and didn’t want to fight me ever again. He realized he couldn’t have the rules changed and still look tough, so he rescinded the request. He hasn’t gotten better than 3rd place since then.” Her eyes twinkled as she told me the story. Obviously she was very proud of this.
“I can understand wanting to get back at those guys, but what does this have to do with mages?” I asked in the hopes of bringing the conversation back to the previous point.
“When I first spawned in the city, I ended up running into a couple of lower level mages. They scoffed at my sword and started taunting me by saying I should start over as Cleric so that I wouldn’t get in the way of people that knew what the fuck they were doing.” she said without a hint of the previous mirth.
“Well that’s absolutely fucked. What did you do?” I asked in complete shock that someone would talk to a stranger like that.
“I killed both of them right then and there.” she answered. “The city watch let me off with a warning. Since they would come back, it was hard to call it a murder. On top of that, rather than reprimand the mages for their behavior, the fucking Mages Guild banned me for life. No quests, no training in Enhancement magic, nothing. Ever.”
“Wait, Enhancement magic?” I asked. It was probably the wrong takeaway but I knew nothing about magic in this game.
“Yeah, it’s magic focused on improving your own abilities. It can make you faster, stronger, harder to hit, all sorts of things.” she explained.
As badass as that sounded I knew it wasn’t for me. I didn’t have time to train magic on top of everything else.
“We should probably sort out what loot we have.” she said, finally bringing us back to the task at hand. “Thanks for listening, Jack.”
“Wait, I’m not ‘boss’ now?” I asked in surprise.
“Not all the time!” she said with a mischievous grin. “Avoiding your name was a bit of a distancing technique, if I’m being honest. After my first encounter with other players I wanted to keep everyone at arm’s length, but you seem OK. I guess I can consider you a friend.”
“Thanks, Des. Let’s see what we have.”
Demon Horn Dagger (x2)
Base Damage: 3
Attribute Bonuses: +10 Agility/+5 Strength
Skrum’s Assassin Leathers
Agility +20
Endurance +10
Stealth +5
We both agreed that those went directly to Zen, who happily accepted. Apparently, as a part of his abilities as a spirit, he could effectively absorb equipment into his very being and recall it as needed. This was to be his standard equipment for any combat until we found something else for the non-Thief Jobs.
Additionally, we had the loot from Skrum’s descendant to look through.
Earthshaft’s Earthstaff
Base Damage: 1
Attribute Bonuses: +20 Intellect/+30 Willpower
Skrum’s Legacy (Ring)
Set Piece 1 of 3
+10 Intellect
+10 Willpower
Skrum’s Legend (Ring)
Set Piece 2 of 3
+10 Intellect
+10 Willpower
Skrum’s Lifeblood (Amulet)
Set Piece 3 of 3
+25 Vitality
Heirlooms of Skrum Earthshaft (Set)
Set Bonuses: +5 Intellect/+5 Willpower/+5 Vitality
Note: When worn by someone with Demon Blood, Strength replaces Intellect and Agility replaces Willpower on all pieces, and all bonuses are doubled!
Thank fuck I looted that Shaman before Skrum was fully formed. He would have crushed us with an extra fifty each to Strength and Agility, I’m sure. No one had any issues with me taking the entire set and staff. I’d have to get training in Staves before I could get the bonuses, however. I sent a quick message to El just to make sure she couldn’t train me and we took off for the exit.
When we got back to HQ, I was completely exhausted. I’d played
more lately than normal and it was taking awhile for my body to adjust. I decided it was a good stopping point, so after introducing everyone in the company to Zen and giving him permission to roam the area, I said my goodbyes logged out for the evening.
Sleep hit me faster than it had in awhile, which I was almost grateful for. Unfortunately the dreams came with it.
I was sitting at the counter of my favorite mom-and-pop diner drinking coffee and talking to Ella and Joseph about things. They knew what I’d done and what I was still doing at the time, but they didn’t judge for it. They said they knew I wasn’t a bad kid and that I was just doing what I felt I had to in order to survive.
I was just explaining to them how I was going legit. I’d told the crew earlier that night that I was getting out of the life and going to college or something. They were so proud of me that they were almost in tears. They said they’d prayed this would happen someday. I knew, too, that if they did pray for me, it came from a place of love. These people had fed me at my hungriest and asked for nothing in return. I couldn’t wait to pay them back for their kindness.
I excused myself to go to the restroom situated at the very back. I’d just gotten to the urinal to relieve myself when my phone buzzed with a text message. I pulled it out of my pocket to see who would be texting at this time of night and felt my blood run cold as the text was displayed on screen.
I say when you’re out. Consider this as me saying “you’re out.”
My mind raced trying to figure out what to do. I knew one thing: I needed to get away from the diner. I quickly finished up and flushed before washing my hands. In hindsight it seems silly that I thought of hygiene in a time like that, but it’s probably what saved my life because before I could finish washing the diner became a cacophony of guns firing and glass breaking. In seconds the sounds of war shattered the peace of that small diner.
I dropped to the bathroom floor immediately, thankful for the older construction of the building that meant the door was real wood and thick enough to provide a modicum of protection. I laid there for what felt like hours or maybe just a minute before the sound stopped and I heard tires peeling off in the distance. I ran out only for my heart to break.
From the way their bodies were positioned, Joseph tried shielding Ella with his own body, but there were just too many rounds being fired for him to stop enough. They both lay behind the counter in an embrace- their final one I supposed. It wasn’t fair. They didn’t deserve this. No one did. I was crying so hard I didn’t even hear the police pull up and enter the building. They wrapped me in blankets and gave me coffee and asked questions.
To this day I don’t remember what they were asking me when I finally spoke up and said “I want to make a plea deal.”
“Wait, for what?” the detective asked.
“I will confess to certain unsolved crimes in exchange for leniency. Also, I will implicate multiple other individuals in this and other crimes as well as provide proof in exchange for further leniency and reduced sentencing.”
Some folks didn’t understand why I did what I did, but there were a lot of people that knew what Jospeh and Ella meant to me. Those that knew me best were surprised I didn’t hunt the motherfuckers who did it down and kill them myself.
That was just one of many “What if” scenarios. I didn’t have time for those. I was busy reliving what did happen. Over and over and over again. It was not a restful night of sleep.
30-Tools of the Trade
The next day I woke up sweating and miserable. I adamantly refused to even attempt to unpack my feelings about the dream so I showered, snagged breakfast, and hopped into the game as quickly as possible. I desperately needed a distraction.
When I logged on, I took a look at my character information, especially Skills and Jobs. Some of my crafting skills were falling behind thanks to some of the distractions I’d faced the last couple of weeks. I decided to spend some time working on catching everything up until Rowan said it was time to meet the guild.
The worst offenders were Blacksmithing and Glass Working. I had some ideas but I wanted to talk to my resident Alchemists, Harry and Carol, first. I needed to check out their gear.
“Morning, guys. How’s everything going over here lately?” I asked as I walked up to their area. They were spending the morning tending to their greenhouse and harvesting the plants that had to be harvested during sunrise while they still had the morning dew on their leaves. Apparently certain ingredients had special windows during which they had to be harvested or it would change their properties when used as ingredients.
“Oh good morning, Jack! We’re just getting our morning harvest out of the way. Some of these magical plants need to be harvested in the mornings while they’re still wet with dew for them to be effective. It keeps it interesting compared to normal gardening! Anyway, you didn’t come to hear me ramble about my garden. What can we do for you?” Carol asked.
“Well, I’m hoping you can help me to help you.” I said. “I understand these facilities that are provided by the game’s property system don’t include all the equipment you might need. Is there anything you guys need? I’m hoping to work on some of my skills today and making more equipment seems like a good place to start.”
“Actually, there are a few glass pieces we need.” Harry said. “It definitely didn’t include some of the rarer devices we could be using to make better concoctions.”
“Well, let’s sketch them up and I’ll get to work!” I said and told Alfred to get a Glass Working area set up in the building so I would have furnaces specifically for me. While I was at it, I put up a Forge and an Alchemy workstation for myself. I needed my own area to work so I could focus. I rushed construction on Tier III versions of everything. Being the boss had its perks.
Harry was the one who’d been researching what they needed so he sat with me and worked up designs for what was missing. Apparently they were all fairly rare, so any NPC selling them was selling them at a massive premium. That obviously meant it was a seller’s market so I needed to find a way to make more of these once I had plenty for my Alchemists. Having done a small bit of research on Glass Working, I knew there was a way to blow glass using a mold to reduce time, so I aimed for that goal.
Once the sketches were done to Harry’s satisfaction, we created a prototype sculpture with some clay Carol was kind enough to get for us. It took longer than expected to get everything right, but we finally had it perfect. I told him I’d hopefully have some real working versions later in the day and headed to my private work area that had just finished.
First thing was to switch to my Smithy class to make sure I got some decent bonuses. They didn’t help as much as I’d hoped, all things considered. It was probably because I was working on something out of the ordinary. The flip side would hopefully be that that translated into more experience.
After several failed attempts I was able to create a simple mold based on the prototype sculpture. Thankfully the failed attempts also gave improvements to my skill levels.
Your Blacksmithing skill has increased to 13!
Your Glass Working skill has increased to 8!
I didn’t expect the Glass Working boost, but Alfred explained it was because I was making my own tools for Glass Working use. I’d likely get something similar for crafting the actual Alchemy tools.
With this realization, it hit me that the depth of the Skill system had been completely lost on me this entire time. If I could use one crafting skill to improve another by making my own equipment, what else was I missing?
Instead of spinning my wheels all day thinking about what I could possibly do, I decided to focus on what I could do right now. With that, I set about taking all of the Chemistry and Alchemy equipment I could get my hands on and making molds of it. It was a lengthy process involving casting duplicates in metal and then finding metal with a lower melting point than the other metal, but still a higher melting point than the glass I’d be using. Once that was done, I was abl
e to quickly create multiple pieces at once in my glass blowing area using the new molds.
Your Glass Working skill has increased to 11!
Your Blacksmithing skill has increased to 14!
Your Alchemy skill has increased to 16!
It felt pretty good getting increases in that many Skills all at once, but I needed to step it up. I looked over some options and realized that I could change out the sand for the glass! I’d been using regular sand that the game automatically used for anything I made with the skill. I quickly sent a message to Rowan asking if there was any special or magical sand in the shop.
After a dramatic pause he responded in the affirmative, adding that there was very little use for it outside of certain magical spells and rituals. I immediately asked him to send over every grain of it he had and to just send me a bill. Twenty minutes later I had what I wanted and set to work.
One type was red and used for special fire magics. Another was blue and somehow used for water and ice magics. I was really curious as to how sand could be used for water magic but it was an issue for another day. The one that really caught my eye was the purple sand. The description Rowan included said that it was a special sand that could soak up magical energy and hold it in. This was the first one I tried in the furnace.