by A P Gore
“Why are you here, Formationist?” The earth elemental, or should he call him Earth Boss, spoke in a deep growling voice.
“I’m Jon, sir. May I know your name as well?”
The boss lifted his hand—as big as the ten-foot-wide tree trunk—and placed it on the armrest of the stone throne, sending some stones bigger than Jon’s fist flying at him. He had to do some quick acrobatics to avoid being struck by the flying debris.
“My people call me Gargarth the Golem.” The golem’s voice boomed, like he only had one volume setting.
Jon felt like he was standing in front of a domestic flying jet engine. Pushing his heels on the stone pavement, he somehow steadied himself. “Gargarth, sir, what business do you have with me?” There shouldn’t be anything the boss needed from him. Or was there? Did he want to take revenge for Jon killing his friends?
“I need your help.”
Jon’s jaw tightened. His heart constricted. “My help?” He patted his chest. Compared to the golem, he was like the thousandth part of an ant. What help could he possibly be?
Gargarth smiled, or at least its non-existent mouth twisted. The sound he made seemed like a chuckle. “I’ve waited for you for a thousand years, and finally you have arrived. Formationist.”
Ah, it was something related to his class. Damn, why couldn’t he have gotten some other class like Runesmith or Ritualist. He’d read that Ritualist was famous these days. It looked epic. If he had that, he could protect his whole town with one single ritual, but here he was, collecting measly crystals to make a lotion. God, why did he become a Formationist?
“Please tell me, sir. I’ll try to help to the best of my abilities.” Or disabilities. Of course, he only completed the sentence in his mind.
The boss sighed so hard that Jon was thrown to the ground. Didn’t the big pig-head understand his own size? Why was he trying to throw him away?
“Three thousand years ago, my ancestor, the elemental god fought with Akara—the black dragon lying dead outside. Though my ancestor won, he suffered a serious injury and needs to recuperate. To do that, he needs one million earth elemental cores. A full-grown core.” He sighed again. This time Jon was ready, so he managed to not fall down.
“Unfortunately, only one in one thousand of my children grow a full core. The rest of them stop at half a core. I wish I could help them...”
So, did he want Jon to help him grow the cores? And thank god, Gargarth’s ancestor didn’t feed on the half cores, or Jon would have turned into a dead fly by this time. At least the 73 crystals in his bag seemed safe. For now.
Gargarth continued. “The only way for my children to grow is to feed upon the dark dragon blood, but the corpse attracts attention from outsiders. Fortunately, one of your ancestors set up a formation for me to hide the dragon corpse. For the last one thousand five hundred years, it worked like a charm, hiding the scent and view of the dragon from the outside world.”
A surge of pride rushed through Jon’s heart. He was a Formationist after all. A great one, indeed, who would help a big boss like Gargarth.
“But recently, the formation has weakened. I need you to fix it.”
“Me?” Jon stared at the golem, surprised.
The top eye flickered and then vanished, only to appear in front of Jon’s face. “I can see you are of no use to me right now, but you have a chance to grow into a glorious Formation Master—maybe more.”
Jon took a step back, his balls shrinking because of the talking red eye.
“Come back once you become a Formation Master and fulfill your promise to me. You have one year.”
“Promise?” When did he promise?
System: Quest Update
Epic Mandatory Quest accepted.
Become a Formation Master in one year’s time and come back to restore the Formation of Illusion for Gargarth the Golem.
Quest Reward: Unknown.
The golem continued, “As a token of my generosity, I’ll let you take as many half-grown crystals as you want from my storage.” The boss waved his hand, and a huge three-meter-tall stone door opened below his throne. Looking at the position of it, just below the boss’s ass, no one would dare to steal anything from it.
Jon’s eyes reflected the golden light that leaked out of the door. That golem was a rich guy, and he had given free access to Jon. How could he refuse?
Chapter 39
Jon’s heart shrank to the size of a pea when he stepped between the boss’s legs placed around the door.
Gargarth’s legs were so huge, if he had to wrap his hands around one leg, even fifteen of him wouldn’t suffice.
A gust of musty, damp air struck him as he stepped inside the storeroom, like it had been closed for ages. Pinching his nose between his fingers, he turned his face to get some fresh air. Instead, a red eye stared at him from inches away.
The shock was so sudden, Jon nearly fell on his ass.
Damn! What did it want from him?
“Go in. Didn’t you kill my children for these crystals?” The angry voice lashed out at him. It was like the boss had a split personality and the detachable red eye was his angry other half.
Without worrying about the smell, Jon dashed in. The red eye floated just behind him, watching everything he did. Jon could feel its intense gaze focused on his back like the point of a spear.
“Go to the right and take as many crystals you want. But if you touch anything else...” The growling voice turned threatening.
Jon shivered. “Of course, I won’t.” Turning away from the red eye, he took in everything inside the storage bin.
Holy fucking moly. It was a treasury. Gold coins, crystals, and all sorts of items. There were thousands of them, and this was just the beginning. Deep inside the room, something emitted a mesmerizing dark purple light. Instinctively, Jon knew it was something precious.
Too bad he couldn’t get his hands on it while the eye watched him so closely.
“Don’t even think about going over there. Your flesh would be rotten before you get there,” the red eye warned.
Sighing inwardly, Jon walked straight toward the mountain of brown-gray crystals. At least he’d gotten something out of this encounter besides death. Something was always better than nothing. And everything was better than dying.
One by one, he started putting them in his bag. Each one was a half-formed crystal of strengthening. Looking at the small mountain of crystals, even if he took ten thousand it wouldn’t put a dent in the big boss’s storage. So, like a hungry beast, Jon started shoveling the crystals in his bag without worrying about how many he took. After an initial five seconds of amusement, the action turned monotonous, and Jon started glancing around. He just wanted to know what other kind of loot this boss had.
As his eyes darted around, they fell on an old parchment paper. It was yellow and quite dirty, but something was strange about it. The diagram on it shone with vigor, like the ones in his journal of the Formation Master. Curious, Jon cast perception on it.
Blueprint for Tower of Balegost
Building Class: Advanced
A replica of the Epic tower. Although a replica, it possesses the strength to shroud a five square mile area around the tower in a shroud of darkness. Enemies entering the darkness will lose the ability to hear anything, and their vision will be reduced by 50%. Allows the owner to set multiple parameters from inside. Can be upgraded up to Unique Level. Requires an Associate Builder to build it.
Material Needed: Root of the undying tree, dark gold stone...
And then there were a bunch of things mentioned that Jon had never seen or heard about. If only he had something like this in his arsenal, he could have pushed back the beast tide easily. Damn, those requirements. Even the Associate Builder would be hard to find. In the game, players and NPCs were ranked by the levels they achieved in their skills or professions. 1-9 would be Novice, 10-19 Initiate, 20-29 Apprentice, 30-39 Associate, and so on. So, finding an Associate builder would be quite difficul
t. Not only would that player need to be at least Apprentice level overall, he’d also need his Builder profession at 30+ level. Jon didn’t even know if the nearest town had someone like this.
Yet, he wasn’t ready to let go of the opportunity. He had to get his hands on the blueprint at any cost.
“What are you doing? Be quick. I don’t have the whole day,” the red eye said.
“Mr. Gargarth, sir. I was wondering if you have some water somewhere here. I need to take a sip, or else I’ll die of thrust.” A bald-faced lie, but Jon had to do something and get his hands on the damn blueprint.
“Okay,” the red eye said, and a glass bottle with crystal clear water appeared in front of Jon.
So much for that idea. Jon thought the red eye would step out for a bit.
What else? What else could make the red eye leave him alone for some time? The purple thing, what if someone tried to steal that purple thing? But how?
Underground Vines.
Sudden enlightenment hit him, so while drinking the water, he secretly cast Underground Vines and sent them for the purple thing from below the crystal mountain.
System: Congratulations, you have drunk the Water of Life from the personal spring of Gargarth the Golem. You gain +2 Constitution.
What the heck? Jon glanced at the water bottle in his hand and then gulped everything in one go. Water of Life? This was crazy, gaining +2 Constitution permanently by just drinking the water. Holy shit!
Unfortunately, no new notifications came, nor did his stats change further. Guess it was a one-time effect. Nevertheless, a unique one.
“Hurry up, Formationist. I’m detecting some disturbance. You have five minutes to gather the crystals.”
Jon quickened his pace. Actually, he had collected over three thousand crystals before he drank the water, but he was buying time for his vines to do their work. But what was taking them so long?
A sudden message popped up in his vision, and at the same time the red eye disappeared.
System: Your vines have touched the Crystal of God. Evolution Initiated.
Seizing the opportunity, Jon plundered the blueprint and 3 more documents lying nearby, and then he grabbed a ring, and something called Duplication Construct. He wanted to take more, but he was afraid the red eye would come back.
“You ant! These are yours, aren’t they?” The red eye shouted and two rope-like vines dropped in front of Jon. “You sent them on purpose to distract me and steal something from the treasury, didn’t you?” The red eye growled, and then a beam of red light shot from its eye and enveloped Jon, rendering him locked. “Now, show me your bag or die.”
Jon swallowed. This was bad. How was he supposed to get out of this? But he would happily die rather than show the red eye his bag. Death wasn’t something he was afraid of anymore.
The red eye chuckled. “If you don’t, I’ll use Eye of Truth and view the contents myself.”
Jon bet, it would have smirked if it had a mouth to show.
The eye continued, “And if I find one, I’ll paralyze you and eat non-essential part of your body, then heal you and repeat it again.”
Jon was in a dire situation. If the boss had the spell he just mentioned, he was out of options. The only option remaining was suiciding.
Chapter 40
Jon stared back into the red eye, his mind running at lightspeed, trying to come up with a way to die. If the red eye cast its spell, god knew what would happen to him.
“Gal, Formationist, come out. We have an emergency. The Formationist must go.” Gargarth’s growling voice boomed inside the chamber.
The red eye turned to look at the door. “This...”
As soon as the eye shifted its focus, Jon was released from its paralyzing stare. Jon stepped out of the storage room, hiding a smile. It was a near miss. Damn, it was scary enough to make him feel like puking. Death wasn’t an issue. He could die ten times, but there were many things that red eye could do. Like the eating part it mentioned. How would he save himself from that?
Suddenly, a bunch of possibilities popped in his mind. All because of having no body. In theory, if he had been tortured, he could log out. But without the physical body, his hard log out option was grayed out. He didn’t understand how Laxania had separated his consciousness and body, but whatever it was, he couldn’t just get into a year of torture in the game.
Damn! That sly fox, Baltazar, had gotten the best deal out of this. If Jon had presented these facts to the humanitarian court, he would have gotten a much better deal. Even ten times better compensation than he’d received from Baltazar.
“Formationist. Take this.” Gargarth threw a golden medallion at him.
Swiping his hand in the air, Jon caught it. The round golden medallion had an intricate pattern all over it.
“Your ancestor left it with me. It’s a key to access the Trial of Formations realm. You can use it twice, so be wise. And bind it to yourself.”
The red eye floated in front of him and threw the vines at him. “Take your junk with you.”
“Now go,” Gargarth said as Jon put the vines in his bag.
A white beam of light wrapped around him, and everything went blank.
The next moment, he appeared next to the huge tree that had earned him the tier 2 formation.
Sighing, he glanced at the dragon corpse. It held many secrets, but he couldn’t go back there.
Maybe another day.
Jon turned and marched toward his village. Only thirty hours remained before the beast tide, and he needed every minute to set up everything properly.
“LORD.” KRON HURRIED toward Jon as he entered through the back gate of his village. The palisade, almost two meters high, looked sturdy from the outside, but it was weak, having only 10 durability. If a monster damaged the wall for 200, the wall would crumble automatically.
“How many herbs did you find?” he asked, rubbing his chin.
Kron bowed his head slightly. “I’m sorry, Lord. We only found eight hundred seventy herbs. Enough for ninety percent of the wall.”
Jon tapped the hard dirt road with his leather shoes, thinking. “How does this plant grow? From a seed?”
“Nope, Lord. They grow from stems.”
“Do you need the stem for the lotion?”
Kron shook his head.
“Hmm.” Jon pulled a thousand crystals from his bag and handed them to Kron who arched his brows upon seeing them. “Give me around two hundred stems once you pluck the leaves for lotion. Keep the remaining with you. Also, is Grimish back yet?”
“Not yet, Lord.”
“Okay. Once he comes back, ask him to come to my hut. Also, get me those stems ASAP. I’ll think of a solution.” Jon raised his hand to dismiss Kron. Curiosity boiled inside him to check out the loot from Gargarth’s storage room.
Once he reached his hut, he sat cross legged on the ground, ignoring the little stones pricking his ass.
First, he pulled out the old, smelly, worn-out papers. The first one showed the same vigor he had seen on the dark tower blueprint.
Book of Construct Resurrection
Tier: Semi-Sentient Skill
Level Requirement: 49
Allows a player to resurrect any non-living structure to its peak state. Cooldown Time: 10 days. Cost: 5000 Spirit/Mana.
What the heck? A skill book? And a semi-sentient tier one, at that? What was this semi-sentient thing?
Jon made a note to ask someone about this once he had the chance. Putting it back in his bag, he cast perception on the second paper.
Blueprint for Advance Locomotive Design
Item Class: Rare
Equipped with a defensive mechanism that can rival an archer tower, the advance locomotive can travel one hundred miles in an hour with no need of any animal carrying it. It works like a magical item, but doesn’t require any Rune or energy (Mana/Spirit) battery to run on. Instead, it uses the power of sun and wind to operate at optimal capacity.
Storage Capacity: 2000
item stacks.
Requirements:
Master Engineer.
A wind type Emerald monster crystal.
1000 wood blocks.
500 iron blocks.
Prismatic Gold Tin.
A car that ran on air and sun power. Wow! So, not everything in this game required magic to operate. Although it wouldn’t help him right now, it was a good find in all.
He cast perception on the third book.
Book of Plant Regeneration
Tier: Common
Allows a user to regenerate an injured plant with a 40% chance of success. Can’t regenerate a dead plant, and can’t grow a plant from the seed or stem.
Requirement:
Herbalism level 1
System: Congratulations, your constant hunger for knowledge has gained you better perception. +1 Perception.
Now this was something useful for him. Maybe. But it was related to plants, so he was happy that he’d learned a new skill.
Pressing his hand on the paper, he pushed some Spirit into the book.
Do you want to learn the spell Plant Regeneration? Yes/No.
Yes.
A green light shot from the papers and hit him right between his brows, imbuing the knowledge inside his mind. This was the fastest method to learn a new spell. Spell learning in BlackFlame Online came in two forms: Class spells, and books of skill. But the books of skill were rare items, as only a Journeyman-level player (level 40-49) could create a book of skill. And one could only learn the spells that fit in his class’ purview. For example, he wouldn’t be able to learn the Fireball spell, even if he found a book of skill for it, because it didn’t fit with the Druid class type. Then there were passive skills. Those could only be obtained through special training or doing the thing himself, like his Spirit Manipulation or Pain Attunement.
Plant Regeneration
Level:1
Allows you to regrow an injured plant. Can’t regenerate a dead plant or grow a plant from a seed or stem. Chances of regeneration: 40+n. Where n is the level of the skill. Cost: 50 Spirit base + Variable based on the plant status.