Spellcraft

by Andrew Beymer

  I walked over to the forge and looked it over, wondering if it was possible to use the thing to craft or if it was something that was only available to goblins. The thing was cold, which was a contrast to other games where forges seemed to be forever hot and ready to go.

  There were no goblins in here to keep the forge going, so of course there was no heat coming off the thing.

  I had enough ore on me that I figured I’d give the thing a try. After all, so far the game had struck a balance between game design and realism, and it didn’t seem likely the devs would put a forge in here purely for decoration.

  "Any idea how these things work?" I asked.

  "No idea," Keia said with a shrug. “I told you the whole crafting thing isn’t my bag."

  "Got it," I said.

  I reached out and touched the forge, and a menu popped up as the thing sprang to life with heat and flames. Okay then. So much for realism when it came to the forge’s design and behavior.

  The crafting menu gave several options for creating things, but unfortunately the supplies I needed to create those things weren't the kind of materials I was mining in this dungeon. There were options for iron, steel, all low level stuff, but I’d been gathering goblinsteel.

  I thought of goblinsteel and the menu scrolled down automatically until I was looking at goblinsteel recipes. Which were all greyed out. Damn. I guess the ore I’d been gathering was way above my skill level when it came to crafting, even if I could fudge the whole skill level thing when it came to mining it.

  I could mine something by tapping it over and over again and winning through shear stubborn persistence. Apparently I couldn’t craft something when I didn’t have the right ingredients.

  "Damn," I muttered.

  "Something wrong?" Keia asked.

  “I’m seeing goblinsteel stuff on the list of stuff I can craft,” I said. I totally intended to go on and tell her that it was greyed out even if it was on that list, but she totally misunderstood my meaning and talked right over me before I could clarify.

  "Really?" she asked, her face lighting up. "Goblinsteel stuff from dungeon raids is really expensive. You could make bank if you could figure out a way to sell that stuff without going through the Goblinsteel Mines raid to get it.”

  “You seem to know a lot about how goblinsteel is farmed,” I said, trying to sound casual and not sure I was doing a good job of it.

  "What are you talking about?" she asked.

  "You seem to know an awful lot about Horizon Dawn and how they operate. How much did you have to do with those terrible things they did?”

  Keia stared at me. I was painfully aware of just how many ways she could poke numerous holes in my body which would turn this into a very bad day.

  Finally she sighed.

  "I suppose I deserved that."

  "You did?" I asked.

  "I did," she said. "I know Torian and some of the other guys who started that guild in real life," she said. "They're the reason I got into the game ahead of the launch date, they got me in with Horizon, but that was before I realized what we were doing."

  "So you never really hated Horizon?" I asked.

  “Before I realized what they were doing in this game I didn't think anything of them," she said. "I'd seen the news reports the same as everyone else about them maybe killing people, but that didn’t have anything to do with me."

  "No one ever thinks it has anything to do with them until they're the ones getting their brains fried," I said. “And they definitely did it. My sister is proof of that.”

  “Like I said, I figured that was all rumor or people making stuff up so they could sue Horizon and get a payday.”

  I glared at her and she held a hand up to stop me before I could really lay into her. As though she was suddenly afraid that I was the one who was going to hurt her and not the other way around.

  "I know that was wrong. You don't have to look at me like that. Some of the things I saw them do… The way Torian moved in and took over and started acting like king asshole… I had enough, so I disappeared into the forest. I've been spending my time trying to do whatever quests I can without getting involved with them, and killing those assholes whenever I can."

  “Did you have anything to do with clearing out the goblins?" I asked.

  Another deep breath. "I did, at first, but that was back when the game was new. That was back before I realized how real everything was. How terrible it was to treat the goblins like they were trash mobs in an old MMO."

  "And so you've been spending your time trying your best to do to Horizon what they were doing to the goblins?" I asked.

  "That's the idea," Keia said.

  "I suppose that's good enough for now," I said.

  She laughed. It wasn't exactly a pleasant laugh, but it also wasn't exactly an unpleasant laugh.

  "That's an awfully big attitude from a lowbie I could kill over and over again if I wanted,” she said.

  "Maybe," I said. "But if you were the kind of person who’d do that to me then that means you're not who you say you are. I guess that’d be a lesson well learned even if it did involve my messy painful death. And losing all the shit I’ve been gathering. That’d hurt more than the messy painful death. I think. I turned my pain sliders down.”

  She nodded and grinned.

  “That’s a good idea. And I guess you're right. I’m not that kind of person. Not for you, at least.”

  “That’s a relief,” I said, grinning back at her.

  “So tell me more about all the goblinsteel stuff you're going to be making for me when you get the right ingredients,” she said. “That stuff seriously goes for a lot! Horizon controls the supply by killing goblins for it and regulating the supply from the Goblinsteel Mines raid dungeon.”

  Right. She misunderstood me and totally thought I could craft goblinsteel stuff because I hadn’t had a chance to clarify my admittedly ambiguous statement on the subject. Well it was time to nip that misunderstanding in the bud.

  I looked at the greyed out stuff on screen again. I felt a twitch. There was something to what she was saying. Something I could use against those Horizon Dawn assholes. Assuming I could figure out how to craft something at a damned forge, and find lesser metals that I could use to level my Smithing skill to the point that I could do goblinsteel stuff.

  "I can't make anything right now," I said with a sigh. "That's the problem. Goblinsteel looks like it’s beyond my skill level as far as crafting is concerned, even if I can dig it out of the ground. I probably have to start working on lower-level stuff like iron and work my way up. I'm honestly surprised the game even let me mine the stuff."

  "That's how the game works," Keia said. "If you try to do something that’s above your skill level it’s not impossible. It just might take a little longer. Think about all those failures you had when you tried mining."

  "You mean failures where you insinuated you were going to kill me if I didn’t succeed?” I said. “Either way, it looks like it doesn’t work that way with crafting. Goblinsteel stuff is greyed out. So’s the lower level stuff, for that matter. Maybe this forge is busted, but I think it’s beyond my skill level. I bet if I had some iron I’d be able to make something. It wouldn’t be worth anything, but I could make it.”

  "Hey, those death threats were only motivation! Also that’s totally weird that crafting works like that. Literally no other skill in the game works like that. Lotus doesn’t put invisible walls in front of players.”

  “Maybe,” I said, glancing at the crafting menu again and wondering if I was missing something. All I saw were greyed out items I couldn’t craft and lists of items like wood and iron and nails and leather I didn’t have that went into those recipes. I’d have to get some and try that out later when I wasn’t in danger of certain death.

  “Whatever. I’ll figure it out,” I said. “For now, though, what else do we have in this room?"

  “More crafting stuff," Keia said with a shrug. "Like I keep reminding you…
”

  "…That's not really your thing," I finished. "I know. You keep coming back to that."

  “You came back to it last time, and it's the truth," she said.

  I looked around the room. Most of the stuff I could figure out based on what it looked like. There was a universal language in games like this when it came to crafting. The forge was obvious enough. There was something that looked like a fletcher’s table in one corner based on the arrows above the thing. There was a leather working station if the animal hides over the thing were anything to go on.

  Though something slightly different caught my eye as I assessed the workshop and all the possibilities it offered: a table with jewels spread across it that glowed faintly. Jewels like what I’d been getting as I mined goblinsteel. That table called to me.

  It was also glowing. Like there was something there I was supposed to use.

  “What's that table there?”

  She looked at the glowing table and then back to me. She shrugged as though to remind me what she'd already told me repeatedly.

  "Right," I said. "You have no idea what any of this stuff does. Not even the weird glowing table.”

  “That table isn’t glowing,” she said.

  That sent another shiver of excitement running through me. The table wasn’t glowing for her, but it was for me. I tried to contain my excitement, but it was difficult.

  I had that feeling that was always there when I was onto something. I walked over and grabbed a gem to inspect it.

  "Those gems are useless," Keia said. “Don’t even bother.”

  "What's that?” I asked.

  "Trust me," she said. "There are plenty of people who raided those tables thinking they'd found a fortune, but merchants won’t take anything for them. They’re worth less than the scrap you loot off of mobs in starter areas.”

  "Interesting," I said.

  When I inspected the gem it was the same as the gems I’d picked up mining. I grabbed them and tossed them in my inventory, ignoring the noises Keia made. I couldn't shake the strange tingly feeling running through me. A feeling I only got when I had a sneaking suspicion I was on to something.

  "Here goes nothing," I said as I placed my hand on the table.

  A menu popped up letting me know I’d discovered a crafting table of some sort. I had high hopes based on the gems I’d picked up that I was onto something interesting here. Something everyone else playing the game had apparently either overlooked, or if they had discovered it they were keeping it to themselves.

  I figured I was golden either way. If it was something no one else had discovered, which I doubted considering the game had been going for a month now and there were plenty of people exploring the place, then being the first to find something like this would be unlikely but amazing.

  And if it was something someone had discovered, but they were keeping it to themselves? Well then I still had an advantage, because if somebody was keeping something to themselves there was usually a good fucking reason for it.

  I felt another tingle as I saw the title up at the top of the interface. My breath caught. This was everything I’d hoped for and then some.

  Spellcraft Table

  "What is it?" Keia asked.

  "Something wonderful," I breathed.

  34

  Spellcrafting

  "I always fucking hated it when people said stuff like that in the movies," she said. "Like does it really take all that much extra breath to actually say what's going on rather than hitting me with a cryptic but grammatically appropriate line?"

  I held up a finger. For a wonder she went quiet. She made a good point, I loathed that trope too, but I needed to concentrate. There was something going on here, and I was fairly certain it truly was something wonderful.

  I just wasn't sure how wonderful. That would take some experimentation. Was this the sort of Spellcrafting that would let me break the game, or had the devs gone with something lame that was only there to provide minor bonuses and raid enhancements rather than limitless game breaking potential?

  If it was raid assistance then it’d be next to useless. If it was limitless gamebreaking potential then I could think of a certain guild funded by a certain soulless heartless multinational entertainment conglomerate that was waiting for a good ass kicking.

  At least it looked like this time around I had what I needed to get started: those supposedly useless gems rattling around in my inventory. I pulled one out of my inventory and held it over the Spellcrafting table as a warmth washed over me.

  Something popped up on my heads up display to go along with that warmth washing over me. Something that made me want to whoop with joy.

  You have unlocked Spellcrafting!

  Sub-skills:

  Spell Infusion: Add spell abilities to items.

  Disenchant: Destroy items for a chance to learn their Spell Infusions.

  Spell Insight: Learn spell abilities from creatures, players, or the environment and apply them to your Spell Infusion.

  Congratulations! Go forth and make awesome shit. Try not to blow yourself up along the way.

  That tingling that told me I’d found something wonderful was threatening to overwhelm me. Like I was on the verge of a really bitching case of the shakes.

  "So do you want to tell me what's going on?" Keia asked.

  "Did you throw away all of your Horizon gear?" I asked. “Like do you have anything that has stats on it you wouldn’t mind parting with? It doesn't matter what it is, as long as it has stats of some sort.”

  "I threw it all away," she said. "Why?"

  "Never mind," I said. "Kris is going to be pissed off about this, but this will have to do."

  I pulled up my inventory and pulled out Kris’s Horizon blade she got off that noob she’d killed. It made my skin crawl to even have the thing in my inventory, it was a reminder of those assholes who’d killed Diana, and honestly I was sort of glad to be rid of it.

  Especially if getting rid of it helped me figure out a new game breaking toy.

  Assuming this even worked.

  I looked at the blade and the red faintly glowing runes running up and down the thing. Only now there was something different about it. Their glow pulsed in time with my hand running up and down the sword’s length, and I felt a pulsing coming from deep within the sword as well.

  "What are you doing?" Keia asked. “Do you and the sword need some alone time?”

  "I have no idea," I said. "I was hoping that…"

  A new tooltip popped up.

  Disenchant?

  "Yes," I said, licking my lips.

  "Yes what?" Keia asked. “Yes you want some alone time with the sword? Because that’s a little… What the ever loving fuck?”

  The pulsing grew more intense. It seemed to pulse in time with my own pulse. That strange resonance moved up my hand and arm as it was surrounded by a red mist the same color as the runes that sparkled and crackled with the pure raw energy of the spell infusion I was pulling from the sword.

  A moment later a notification popped up that my Disenchanting skill had gone up by one, and my overall Spellcraft skill had also raised by one. Which meant both of them had gone from zero to one.

  I’d take it.

  Another tooltip popped up. This time I really did get a small case of the shakes as my eyes darted across the text.

  You have learned the Spell Infusion Lesser Fire.

  Adds the potential to deal a small amount of fire damage with every swing.

  Hey, you! Watch where you’re swinging that magic!

  Requirements: A weapon with an Elemental: Fire slot. A gem that can accept an Elemental:Fire Spell Infusion.

  "Can I see your sword please?" I asked.

  Only there was no response from Keia. I turned to look at her. Her eyes were wide and her mouth hung open.

  "What?" I asked.

  "How did you do that?" she asked.

  "It's the Spellcraft ability," I said.

  “The what?” s
he asked.

  “Spellcrafting,” I said. “It’s usually called something like enchanting in other games?”

  “Never heard of it,” she said.

  “You seriously mean to tell me no one has bothered to learn this in all the time you’ve been playing? This sort of thing is a game changer!"

  "I mean a lot of people have grabbed those gems and touched that table before, but I haven't heard of anyone discovering some special crafting ability,” she said. “No one figured out how to suck the magic out of swords after feeling them up. That’s for damn sure!”

  "Are you sure it's not because someone just hasn't bothered to pay attention to their tooltips when they touched the crafting table?” I asked.

  "No way," she said. "Watch."

  She walked over. Put her hand down on the table. Looked at me blankly.

  "Am I supposed to be seeing something?" she asked. “Because I’m coming up with a big fat blank.”

  "There should be a tooltip that pops up," I said. "And a menu that gives you the Spellcraft option? You're not getting anything like that?"

  "Nada,” she said.

  "Weird," I said. “It popped up for me the moment I touched the thing.”

  “Yeah well I got nothing here,” she said. “I’m not doubting you since I saw that light show you just pulled, but it’s not working for me.”

  Outwardly I was trying to play it cool, but inside I was ecstatic. Not only was this an ability nobody else had discovered, but there was a possibility I might be the only person who was able to use the ability. Assuming the reason no one had discovered this was because that Spellcraft table didn’t activate for them.

  Maybe it was like that Writ of Nobility. There were requirements that had to be fulfilled in order to use the Spellcraft ability, and somehow I’d unlocked it when no one else had. Or anyone who had unlocked it was keeping their fucking mouth shut.