Class Quests Gained:
Harness the Wild – Track and kill three named beasts and use their Essences to craft a single item. Reward: +2% Vitality, +5% Resilience, +8% Cunning, Primal Crafting Upgraded.
Primal Predation – Find the nest of an Indomitable Thunder Tyrant Queen, slay it, and meditate upon the journey while bathed in its blood. Reward: +5% Resilience, +7% Cunning, Passive Skill Unlocked: Predator’s Might.
“Interesting,” Chase muttered, before turning his attention back to Ricardo. “Have you ever heard of an Indomitable Thunder Tyrant Queen?”
“I cannot say that I have,” he answered after a moment, before asking, “did ya receive a quest?”
“Two,” Chase answered, before showing them to Ricardo. “I already have a skill called Primal Crafting, which improves the quality of the stuff I make using materials taken from the beasts I’ve slain, and I’ve also got a perk that makes those items better, so it’s looking like that’s the overall theme of my class.”
Ricardo was nodding as Chase spoke, before he asked, “What's the effects of Predator's Might?”
“I have no fucking clue,” Chase answered. “I don't get the details on what the skill and perk rewards do until I've completed the quest granting them, and I'm limited to purely passive stuff thanks to my curses. Predator's Might could be a skill to enhance me during a fight, but I'm not sure what form it'd take if that's the case. Either way, I don’t have the means of completing them right now. Instead I’m going to either fix my shield or start looking for something I can hunt to harvest a replacement from.”
Ricardo nodded, turning to look at the turtle shell leaning against the wall, before his gaze shifted back to Chase, “Well, if ya don’t need me, I think I’m going to do some more research from some books I took from the Tutorial.”
Chase waved a hand as he picked up his shield, “Go for it, let me know if you find anything that may be important.”
A companionable silence filled the cabin, broken only by the turning of pages, the sound of writing, and Chase’s cursing. Several hours later, Ricardo spoke up.
“I believe I may have a solution to ya problem,” he said, setting down his book.
“Oh? I hope so because I was just about to throw in the towel,” Chase said, glaring at the turtle shell in front of him.
“Have ya checked the crafting interface yet? From what I've read in this book, the Network provides assistance with making things,” Ricardo explained, spinning the book around so it faced Chase and pointing to a section.
Picking up the book, Chase began to read. Apparently, it was all but required for anyone with a crafting focused class to unlock the crafting interface. The interface took a lot of trial and error out of the mix, and items of a high enough quality could even push the crafter to level up. Which led to a very important question…
“How do I unlock the crafting interface?” Chase asked, more than a little annoyed. He remembered his dumb ass self in the beginning thinking that tutorials were overrated, but he was really wishing he’d gone through one.
Ricardo shrugged, “I don’t know. I’m sure there’s some way to do so, if it wasn’t available automatically. But without access to more information on the Network I can only go by what’s in these books, and I haven’t had time to…Chase?”
It wasn’t what he’d been intending, but Ricardo’s words about more information reminded Chase that he’d entirely forgotten about another part of the Network that he’d unlocked. Moving to the Network Interface, he waited impatiently as the screens appeared and he started navigating through them.
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Finding the Auction House that had been unlocked, he started searching for anything that might be related to the crafting interface, and soon found paydirt. As well as a serious issue.
“Well, I found a way to unlock it, the problem is that I am flat broke,” Chase said aloud, looking at the price tag. “What the fuck was a Kylin Token?” Chase muttered to himself, making Ricardo frown, then a smile bloomed across his face.
“Wait here!” he exclaimed, and dashed from the room, leaving a confused Chase behind.
Chase heard a door open and close, and then silence. Sighing, he turned his attention back to the listing for the item, hoping he could find more information about what a Kylin Token was. After a few minutes of searching through the Auction House, he finally found something.
Kylin Tokens were a currency introduced by the Network when it spread to new universes, and were used for all transactions involving the Network itself, and the stuff involving the Network was often so much better than stuff from before its arrival that they almost inevitably replaced the monetary systems from before. The Network didn't ban previous currencies, but within a few decades they were almost inevitably purely kept for a collection or for personal reasons.
Chase leaned back in his chair, rubbing his temples. The world the Network supported felt convoluted at best. Just when he thought he was starting to get a grasp on it, another layer revealed itself, complicating everything further. He glanced back at the Auction House listing, the price in Kylin Tokens still glaring mockingly at him. The door swung open and Ricardo burst in, panting slightly, his hands clutching something small and metallic.
“Found these!” he exclaimed, holding up what appeared to be five small, intricately designed coins. “I remembered these were given as rewards when we completed the Tutorial! I don’t know how much the crafting interface costs, but these should…”
“One thousand, Ricardo,” Chase cut in, his voice heavy with resignation. The hope that had sparked in his eyes dimmed as he gestured towards the screen displaying the prohibitive price.
Ricardo’s face fell slightly, but his usual enthusiasm wasn’t quenched so easily. “Well, we have a start, right? Five Kylin Tokens are better than none! Maybe there are ways to earn more without having to dive into some deadly battle or impossible quest.”
Chase’s gaze turned to the sword that had almost been used to kill him the other night. It wouldn’t get the benefits of his Perks, but it just might be useful after all…
Ricardo nodded, his gaze following Chase’s to the sword. The wheels were clearly turning in his mind, and he turned back to Chase, “Maybe we could sell items ya don’t need, see if the elves have an excess of anything?”
“That was my thought,” Chase said, standing up and making his way over to the sword.
Picking it up, he returned to the Network Interface and fiddled around with it until he figured out how to put an item up for sale in the Auction House. The screen shifted, showing a rotating image of the sword, and a number of arcane, incomprehensible symbols spread across it, some having lines pointing to different parts of the sword.
After roughly thirty seconds, the symbols shifted, turning into comprehensible English.
Dokkalfar Execution Sword (Rank L) – A blade forged by a master craftsman from the bones and blood of a beast that had achieved a state of transcendence, the execution sword was designed with killing in mind. Its sharpness is only exceeded by its durability, and the æther contained within the blade has been woven into its structure to enhance its sharpness and durability, further increasing its ability to inflict harm. Additionally, Necromancy and Curse spells will find it a suitable focus.
Suggested Starting Price: 100Ҟ
“Well, nine more of those and I’ll be golden,” Chase muttered as he set a duration of six days for the sword to be up for bid. Ricardo chuckled, a quick flash of his teeth in a grin.
“Or just one sword that catches the right buyer's eye,” he said optimistically. Chase couldn't help but smile a bit at that; Ricardo's enthusiasm was infectious.
Turning back to the screen, Chase tapped 'Confirm' to finalize the listing. A confirmation beep sounded, and the screen flashed briefly as the item was officially posted in the Auction House.
“And now, we wait,” Chase said. “In the meantime, let’s go ask the dokkalfar if there’s anything extra that can be sold.”
~*~*~*~
It turned out to be a good thing that Chase and Ricardo had gone to check in on the dokkalfar, as the survey and scouting teams had mistaken the presence of a beast on the hill they wanted to build on as a part of the hill. From the dirt and grass that was on top of the beast’s back and looked to actually be growing out of it in places, Chase didn’t particularly blame them. But it did make his lack of a shield much more of a pressing matter, since it looked like a twisted mix of armadillo and dinosaur with a spiked ball on the end of its tail and was nearly as big as a monster truck.
“I don’t suppose you know what that thing is?!” Chase yelled at Ricardo as he started running towards it, pulling his pick from his belt as he ran.
“A glyptodon, but they’ve been extinct for eleven thousand years!” Ricardo shouted, lifting up a hand, a red circle with mystic symbols within it.
The glyptodon must have noticed their presence, as the spiked ball at the end of its tail started swaying back and forth, and a growl came from its body. As Chase got near, the dokkalfar who had been surrounding it fell back, the shamblers that they’d brought with them to the hill having long since been smashed by the tail or crushed under its feet.
It tucked its head under its spherical shell, and then did something that caught Chase off guard. Its tail slammed into the ground, then flung in Chase’s direction, a boulder the size of his car flying towards him.