Master of None

by Shane Walker

  “When we had that meeting, I was able to avoid freaking out because I could focus completely on you and pretend everyone else wasn’t there. Honestly, when I first approached you in Gnometheran, it was one of the hardest things I’ve ever done.

  “The time spent talking to NPCs helped, though. As real as they are, some part of my brain is able to acknowledge that it’s a similar experience to talking to real people, but there’s nothing to be afraid of. It’s like my anxiety decided it doesn’t count for some reason.”

  His breathing had finally slowed to normal and he wasn’t shaking, but he suddenly flushed bright red. “I infodumped. Sorry about that.”

  I gave him a comforting smile. “No worries, man. You just let me know what you need and what you need to avoid. To be frank, I hoped to drag you out of your shell thinking you were just really shy. Now I see it’s an anxiety issue so we will do this at your pace, ok?”

  “Thanks again, Jack. For everything.” he let out a relaxed sigh before looking at the table. “Now let’s make you a trick dagger!”

  There were initial problems with pieces grinding together and the tightness of the mechanisms causing the release and reset functions to occasionally just...not work. Nik and I spent a couple of hours assembling, testing, measuring, disassembling, and adjusting until we had it just right.

  When it was done, I looked down at what we’d made together. When it wasn’t activated, it was a single-blade dagger measuring nearly twenty inches, which almost put it into the game’s Short Sword category. Thankfully it came in just under. It was polished and finished to look just like my arming sword I’d made earlier with the exception of the handguard now being present. It protected me if a Block or Parry went wrong and allowed me to punch someone in the face if need be.

  If one activated the switch on the handle, two more blades popped out, fanning out away from the center blade. One could trap a weapon in the notch between blades if needed. I couldn’t wait to try it out on someone other than Destreza.

  “Looks good, Nik.” I told him when we were done. “Thank you for the help. Now get back in your workshop and decompress. I know this has been hard.”

  He looked almost ashamed again until he realized it was a tone of compassion and understanding. “Thanks, Jack. Maybe I can come back out and help you some more once I recharge.”

  “Take your time.” I said. “I have plenty to do today.”

  32-Lean Production

  I was lucky that this time I remembered to put Zen to work doing something else while I worked on my own projects. I asked what he wanted to do and he said he really wanted to try some Alchemy, so I let him change to that Job and he set to work.

  By the time I got done working with Nik, Zen had managed to produce a comprehensive sampling of the new potions and elixirs we had recipes for. Apparently the group came up with the idea of having the other four Alchemists work on Health, Mana, and our new Stamina potions while Zen set up the samples. This way I could pick what I wanted after testing or examining them and everyone would divide and conquer. It made sure people made what I wanted and didn’t waste too much time.

  “Hey, Jack. Ready to try out all your new products? Hope they were worth it!” Zen said with a playful grin made somewhat unsettling by his sharp fox-like canine teeth.

  “Wait, worth it? How much did these recipes cost us?” I said when I clued in on his choice of words.

  “Rowan had estimated we could get them for about between 10,000 and 15,000 gold, but apparently he assumed you’d buy them yourself because of the price. It ended up being closer to 22,000.” he said as if the money didn’t phase him. As a kitsune I assume it didn’t.

  “WHAT?” was the elegant and very business-like response I gave. We had spent $2200 worth of in-game currency on these. One of them better turn lead into gold or I was going to lose it.

  “Let’s not dwell, Jack. Here’s the rundown of what we can craft now. First, the boring stuff.” he glossed over the obviously pained look on my face and started what felt like a sales pitch. Did this jerk switch to the Merchant Job for this?

  “This group over here,” he said with a hand motion towards a clump of vials on the very end of the table, “is your basic elemental resistance elixirs. You have Fire, Earth, Air, Water, Lightning, and Arcane. There are rumored to be more, but these are the standard types. Each will reduce damage from that element by one hour.”

  That brought me back into the moment and I let out an appreciative whistle. “An hour? That’s impressive.”

  “That’s why we got elixirs instead of potions. The potion version lasts about five minutes. The elixirs were ten times the price but you get twelve times the duration, so it’s more cost effective!” he said as if he were very pleased with the decision to buy the most expensive solution possible simply because of a cost-benefit analysis.. I think the Job he had active might affect his personality.

  “Plus,” he said as he leaned in conspiratorially, “they sell for almost twenty times as much to players!”

  OK, I suddenly felt much better. “Alright, I will take three of each with me. No idea what I’m fighting or for how long, so lets hedge bets.” I said and he took some notes.

  “The next group are stat boosting elixirs. Be warned these have a trade-off. Once they wear off the stat will drop precipitously. You have to time them right or they could leave you weakened in a critical moment. We have one for each stat.” he said.

  According to the description when I inspected them, each one added 50-100 to a stat for five minutes before reducing the stat by double the increase for ten minutes. You could drink another before it ran out to refresh the bonus, but it would increase the duration of the stat reduction accordingly.

  “OK, give me two each for Strength, Agility, Vitality, and Endurance. I just hope I don’t have to use them.” I said. I really didn’t want to see how bad things could get with that after effect.

  “Finally we have the third group. This is the miscellaneous group. Most of these are ones you would likely not be interested in as they involve boosting things like magic, your ability to hold your breath, et cetera. We do have a few that I think you’ll like.” he said as he pointed to the third and most varied looking group.

  “First, is Stoneskin. It makes your skin impossible to cut or pierce by anything equal to or lower than your level for ten minutes. Anything higher than you deals half damage.” he said as he handed me a bottle of brown liquid that almost looked to have pieces of rock floating in it. I told him I wanted three and he wrote it down.

  “Next is the Charming Potion. This will make you more convincing when you attempt trades or try to talk someone into doing something they normally wouldn’t.” That sounded perfect and I told him to make me three of those as well, for now.

  “Finally, we have a truth serum. Anyone who drinks it is incapable of hiding the answer to, or lying in response to, any question you ask. It even works on other Adventurers.” he said. This one seemed to concern him.

  “Jack,” he started. I was worried he’d beg me not to take it. “This is the only one we could make for awhile, so please use it carefully.” He gave a knowing smile as if he read my thoughts and heard my concerns. This guy just got me.

  With that settled, I had him switch back to Alchemist to help with the elixirs. I knew they’d take awhile to make even with the four people we had already.

  Next, I made my way to the Tailor section, where Lily and Haydon were working with what appeared to be circles of fabric with rune drawn on them. “What are these?” I asked.

  Haydon looked up and seemed to only now realize I was there. “Oh, these are storage bags! Sydney helped us figure out how to make them. When the bag is bunched up and all these runes point at each other, it creates an extra-dimensional space inside to store things. With how much stuff you’re taking and the fact you don’t need any clothing made, we figured this would be our best way to contribute.”

  “Actually, I’m working on a sash for them.�
�� Lily added. “My skill isn’t high enough to create those, so I’m working on something more mundane to help out.

  “You know, I never got a chance to say thanks, Jack.” Lily said with a suddenly solemn expression. “I lost my job right after I got my rig, so I would have been hosed if you hadn’t come along.”

  “No worries. I’m glad to have helped.” I said, giving her a friendly pat on the shoulder. “And we’re happy to have you around. Keep up the good work!”

  Not sure of what else to do, I went over my equipment to see if there was something I might want to work on. This promptly reminded me that I still had unenchanted, generic shortswords. Granted, they were actually Gnomish Longswords and fairly well made, but they could be better. I decided I’d rather fix these up than make new ones since I didn’t use them much now.

  With the Third Eye Goggles and my experience forging, it was easy to spot problems throughout the weapons. Small dents along the blades, places where the metal had been unevenly hammered. I spent a couple of hours heating, hammering, cooling, and repeating the process several times. It was a little bit different compared to making one from scratch as I wanted to maintain the integrity of the original design.

  Once it was all said and done, I took them over to my finishing area and sharpened and polished the blades. Afterwards, they were near-perfect swords. The item name was upgraded to Masterwork Gnomish Longsword. The base damage had gone up by one, the bonus from Agility went from 20% to 25%, and the Strength bonus went from 5% to 10%. They weren’t the best swords in the game by any means, but they were definitely an improvement. They’d need an enchantment to improve any more.

  Speaking of enchantments, that was about when Syndey showed up with her work and immediately started eyeing the swords. “Hey there, Sydney. What do you have for me?” I said, trying to get her attention back on the task at hand.

  “Oh! Right! Sorry, Jack!” she said with a start. “I finished your weapon enchants! I hope you like them!”

  I took them from her and checked the stats. They were impressive.

  Sherlock

  Arming Sword

  Base Damage: 5

  Bonus Damage: 25% STR, 25% AGI

  Attribute Bonuses: +10 STR, +10 AGI, +15 INT

  Arsene

  Trident Parrying Dagger

  Base Damage: 2

  Bonus Damage: 30% AGI

  Attribute Bonuses: +5 STR, +15 AGI, +15 INT

  Skill Bonuses: +5 Parry

  “Holy shit, Sydney! These are incredible!” I said.

  “Really? Do you think so?” she said with a blush.

  “Of course they are! That’s seven levels worth of spendable attribute points.” I said, not understanding how she didn’t see how good these were. “I’ll get a huge boost to my Skill cap, too!”

  “Oh.” she said with a hint of disappointment. “I didn’t realize you were so keen on attribute boosts. You might not like this as much, then.” She pulled out what looked like a stick wrapped in cloth.

  “It isn’t anything particularly unique, but the damage is high.” with that she looked at them and then at me waiting to gauge my response.

  I looked down and confirmed my theory that the object was, in fact, a stick. It was about twelve inches long and covered in runes, tapered so it ended at about half the diameter it started at. It was made from some wood I didn’t recognize. Since I didn’t use magic, it took me a minute to register what I was seeing, but this was a wand! I gently picked it up to inspect it.

  Fireball Wand

  Intermediate Wand

  Uses 1 charge to launch a fireball up to 50 feet. Each fireball explodes on impact to deal 200 damage to anything within a 10 foot radius.

  Charges 5/5

  Holy shit. Was this the kind of power I’d given up for Master of None? Sure there were only five charges but that was a lot of damage to throw out in a large area. This was certainly going to be a hell of a backup plan.

  “Syndey, I don’t know what to say. This is incredible!” I exclaimed.

  This seemed to be the response she’d hoped for. “I’m glad you like it! I wish I could have made something you could use more, but I had to sacrifice charges for damage.” she explained. It made sense that there had to be some sort of balance between damage and charges.

  “One more thing, Jack. Can I take those swords? I can tell they’re high quality like your arming sword and parrying dagger, so I can put plenty of stat bonuses on there!” she said after working up some nerve.

  I couldn’t pass that up. “That would be great! Can you have them ready tomorrow?”

  “I can have them ready tonight!” she said. “I’ll drop them off when I finish.”

  While I was waiting on her to finish her new project, I decided to gather up all my equipment we’d worked on during the day and organize and prepare it for my mission. Nik had cranked out a metric fuck-ton of ammo and flash grenades. Thankfully, he had our new Leatherworker put together some bandoliers for me. The idea was to load several bandoliers but only wear one at a time. When it ran dry, I’d store it in one of my storage bags and pull out and equip the next. It seemed pretty clever as long as I didn’t run out in the middle of a fight, so it was on me to keep up with how much was left in any given bandolier.

  The Leatherworker had also helped me make all new sheaths for my weapons: my literature-named arming sword and parrying dagger were sheathed and connected to my belt; my daggers were sheathed on the small of my back parallel to my belt; finally, my newly enchanted short swords were mounted on my back with the pommels and grips sticking up just barely far enough for me to reach them. Speaking of the short swords, they provided another big boost in stats.

  Castor

  Gnomish Longsword

  Base Damage: 5

  Bonus Damage: 15% STR, 25% AGI

  Attribute Bonuses: +5 STR, +15 AGI, +20 INT

  Pollux

  Gnomish Longsword

  Base Damage: 5

  Bonus Damage: 15% STR, 25% AGI

  Attribute Bonuses: +15 STR, +5 AGI, +20 INT

  Her items were providing an absolutely massive boost in stats and I had such a huge cushion in Skill levels that I wouldn’t fill in quite awhile. In addition I’d picked up some massive gains in experience from the work I’d done with my Jobs.

  Alchemist jumped an incredible seven levels, so I spent all the points into Willpower like I had before. The Intellect and Willpower for some of these non-combat classes was getting ridiculous. Not to say it wasn’t ridiculous for Rogue already.

  Smithy went up by four levels, which was still pretty good. I’d put most of Smithy’s points into Endurance so far, so I put all of these into Strength to get the bonus point investment for the stats almost even.

  With those gains, I’d been able to get two more levels in Rogue as well. I quickly dumped the ten points into Vitality and got an extra 100 hit points. It was an important stat that I didn’t get a lot of from items and hadn’t invested much into myself. Sooner or later I would get hit and I wanted to make sure it wouldn’t get me killed.

  With the new items and levels, my stats were looking pretty good. I was almost feeling like I could take on anything. Thankfully I was spending the next day getting my ass handed to me by Des to bring me back down to earth.

  33-Outside the Box Thinking

  “You ready, boss?” Des said from the other side of the sparring ring. She was out of her normal casual clothes and wearing her combat gear, which was just a few pieces of leather armor covering vital spots and worn over some lightweight fabric. She had replaced the rapier from last time with a slightly modified dueling sabre. And by slightly modified I mean the tip was sharpened, turning it from a point scoring tool into a killing tool. She’d explained she wanted to be more prepared to throw more slashing attacks in the mix when we sparred.

  I had one more day before whatever favor I was going to be doing for the Thieves Guild, so Des was helping with my combat Skills. Helping was a bit of a stretch sin
ce she was really just kicking my ass over and over hoping I would get a few Skill levels from it.

  “Probably not, but no choice now.” I sad as I drew Castor and Pollux. My Short Swords skill was at a whopping eight, so it needed to be built way up. In my infinite wisdom, I decided that the best way to do that was to just get my ass handed to me repeatedly by arguably the best 1-on-1 fighter in the game right now. If this were real or if she didn’t work for me, there’s no way in hell I’d even bother with this. In this situation, however, fighting someone so much better than me would lead to vastly accelerated improvement.

  That was the true beauty of the sparring and training rooms like this, though. You could gain the benefit of Skill increases one gains when fighting a superior opponent, but here it was without the risk of dying. Honestly, we still weren’t sure what happened when you died in the game. Of course, none of us were keen on finding out either.

  Des’ first attack, as always, was a thrust aimed directly at my heart. I moved to parry and sidestep, hoping to riposte and put her on the defensive. Riposte, she’d told me once, was a fancy word for counter-attack. I liked it and felt like I knew what the hell I was doing when I said it, so I kept using it.