A few hours passed by as Jim slowly recovered from fighting the Alpha Hydragull. He wasn’t physically aching an abnormal amount, the pain of bruises and rips in his skin were as expected, however a new sensation of exhaustion unlike anything he’d experienced before coiled throughout his body. The ache of sleep called for him in waves over the hours and grew from deep within his body and mind.
When Jim was 7 and Luke, his brother, was 8 they both had a serious case of flu, confining the brothers to their beds for a week straight. Their mother Elaine worried and doted over the boys the whole time, bringing fresh chicken soup and that thick crusty bread only she could make each night to their bedsides. This was the closest memory from normal life that compared to the exhaustion he felt, this time however he had no companion to pass the hours watching endless re-runs of Power Rangers and He-man.
In his dreams Jim felt the presence of his brother. He flew through fond memories, of pranking each other by loosening skateboard wheels, cutting holes in the back of shirts and fighting every weekend over extra portions of gran-gran’s strawberry trifle. When they were younger they were inseparable, only the weight and expectations that came with adult life finally separating them when Luke was 18.
He’d planned to go and see Luke as soon as he arrived back from the ISS, to spend some proper brotherly time catching up, making things and fixing up Luke’s farm. Luke had just started dating a girl as well, his first proper girlfriend in years and Jim couldn’t wait to meet her. That thought was nothing but a dream now, confined to realms of the past that Jim had compartmentalised shortly after the reality of the new world settled in.
Jim sat up from his bunk, exhausting a deep breath as he touched his feet to the floor. He opened his Hololens view to see a flood of notifications. He should have been more excited, he’d gained XP, gained levels in skills and had loot waiting to be claimed. As great as that was, and very useful for keeping him alive, It all felt empty, pointless.
Jim was once upon a time endlessly driven toward achievements. His next degree, his next invention, his next car, holiday, or girlfriend. The challenge of gaining prestige had been a core fundamental trait of his character, driving him to great things. Now however, what was the point? He had no family to share those things with, no one even knew what most of achievements meant anymore.
With a sigh Jim started opening the notifications. It was official, level 3.
—----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Notification!
Congratulations, you have reached level 3.
You are now able to select a respawn point upon death.
Respawn option available:
Bunk - The Lavender's Sting
Hammock - Verastor Docking Company
Bunk - Orbital Fortress
—----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
“Orbital what now?” Jim said as he reread the notification.
He closed down the notification and continued his admin, one in particular grabbing his attention, the first he’d seen in a flashing red outline accompanied by a timer.
—----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Loot Notification
You have unclaimed loot.
7 x Stargeon corpses: Common
1 x Alpha Hydragull: Legendary
This loot is available for 30:02.
To claim loot, select “Claim” when in a safe space.
Claim? Yes / No.
—---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------.
The smell came first, along with the purple speckles of light manifesting into 8 distinguishable objects.
These were not objects of a usual game style loot system, no glimmering golden chests, no perfectly sitting canvas satchels tied neatly with string. These objects were messy and made from the remains of the slain beasts.
The room filled with the air of a salty sea, and the stench of fish that had been left in the sun to rot. Seven hip height crates made of bone, flesh and scales dropped from the air onto the surround bunks and tables. They left a trail of damp water and blood as they crashed and tumbled to the nearest piece of floor.
Jim grabbed his nose as the stench burnt his nostrils. He rushed over the crates tapping his watch against each one, making them vanish into a plume of dust as he transferred them to his storage.The Dings of notifications sounded as he slid his feet through the slippery mess of innards strewn across the floor.
As he tapped the final crate to his watch, a thud sounded behind him. A large feathery sack made of claws and intestines blinked at Jim as the huge eye sat in the centre of the sack squinted at him with disdain.
He moved closer to the sack, the eye following his movements. Out of curiosity Jim touched the feathery bag and pushed his mana into what he now knew was the feeling of his Mana-Optic ability. A prompt appeared in his Hololens.
—----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Unclaimed loot.
Owner: Jim Ralfson
Monster: Alpha Hydragull
Rarity: Legendary
This loot is available for 13:25.
—---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------.
The eye followed his hand as he pulled away from the bag.
“Are you alive? Blink twice if you’re alive.” Jim said to the bag.
The eye continued to stare.
“Ok, just a bag?”
The eye blinked twice.
“You understand me?”
The story has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.
The eye blinked twice.
“But not alive?”
The eye stared, blankly.
“How are you answering me if you’re not a living thing?” Jim asked, gesturing in confused aggravation.
The eye again, continued to stare blankly.
“Well now I feel bad, you’re harmless. I’m going to absorb you into a dimensional storage facility, blink twice if that’s ok?”
The eye paused in a squint, seeming to have an inner thought.
Then blinked twice.
Jim tapped his watch against the sack and the eye closed tightly.
—----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Loot opened
Monster: Alpha Hydragull
Rarity: Legendary
Items:
Crafting material: An Eye of Horus
Use: An ‘living’ eye that if crafted with the right materials will become a bonded item to you.
Crafting material: Alpha Gull feathers x 54
Use: A strong, magical resistant material for use in creating clothing and armour.
Crafting material: Alpha Gull talon x 2
Use: A hollow talon material that can be refined into a weapon component.
—---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------.
Jim closes the notification and inspected his inventory in further depth. His local storage was nothing special, filled with a few common and uncommon ranked items. His storage bay however, the one on the “Orbital Fortress” that he could access through the watch he received from Dux was a treasure trove of rare items, mainly to be used in crafting.
Jim made his way up to the main deck of the ship. The deck now gleaming as if freshly polished showed no sign of the blood and guts Jim knew covered the length of the ship in the wake of the monster battle.
“Hey Twill! How far are we away from a city? Also can I borrow a mop?” Jim asked as he jogged up the stairs of the upper deck.
Twill stood proudly as he manned the huge wheel steering the ship, his right hand aiming a long spyglass into the distance and he adjusted the course every so slightly.
“There’s a port where we’re landin’, probably around an hour from now. How come? Glad to see ya’ back on your feet by the way.” Twill said as he collapsed the telescope into a small tube, placing it in his pocket.
“Well, I claimed my loot and…” Jim was cut off.
“Oh you didn’t do that in the bunk-room did you? We just finished cleaning the damn first mess up.” Twill said with a painful expression.
Jim clenched his teeth in a smile, giving an apologetic shrug towards Twill.
“I didn’t know they’d be like that. You got that mop?” Jim said, as he looked around the deck shyly.
“Paxx!” Twill shouted. “Go find Paxx, he’ll help.”
“No honestly, I should sort out the mess, I didn’t help with the mess up here so I should sort this.” Jim quickly exclaimed.
“Nonsense, Paxx is like a magic fairy godmother, loads of magic to clean up nasty mess like that, he’ll sort it a lot quicker than you will.” Twill said, adjusting the wheel again ever so slightly.
“Cleaning magic?” Jim asked incredulously.
“No, just imbued items, some levitation and as you know a keen eye for the dirty things in life.” Twill let out a chuckle, Jim following suit.
“You did well out there earlier by the way. However, that reckless move to get back to the ship was not cool.” Twill said seriously.
“Yeah the whole jet powered hammer was a spur of the moment idea. Worked out ok though.” Jim said as he tapped the tip of his hammer thankfully.
Twill turned to face Jim, his eyes sharply focusing.
“This time it did. I’ve seen far too many wannabe’s try shit like that and end up dying the true death. I’ve buried far too many people for a lifetime and I don’t want to bury anymore. Plus I like you, the team likes you, you’re a good man. Promise me when we’re after this Skinwreaker that you’ll be less reckless.”
“But what if the plan fails? Like with the Gull?” Jim asked.
“Then we go to the back up plan, and if that fails we run for it. After that fight earlier we still have some weaknesses in our abilities, and we’ll be planning tonight to fill those gaps.”
Twill grabbed the wheel with both hands as the two stood looking out towards the misty landmass closing in.
“Sure thing buddy, I’ll stick to the plan.” Jim said as he placed a hand on Twill’s shoulder.
***
As Paxx flicked a wand in his hand the mops and buckets danced in motion, cleaning and swilling the bunk room of the salty and bloody remnants of Jim’s loot.
“Nearlllly done my dears. You Mr Lootypants made a proper mess here.” Paxx said judgingly at Jim.
Jim shook his head in embarrassment. “Yeahhhhh, sorry about this. I didn’t know they’d be made of monster remains. What’s wrong with a good old magic chest?”
“Because chests are made by people, and loot is… loot! It’s always been that way, how did you not know?” Paxx said.
“How are you controlling all of those mops at once?” Jim asked, dodging the question.
“Practice, of course.” Paxx said, suspiciously eyeing Jim.
Jim said as he watched the mops flip and slide around the floors. “Is it an ability, or a crafting skill that lets you do that?
“A bit of both. You won’t be able to use this type of magic I imagine, being a Mul. Not many of that race around, it's very rare to meet one, let alone be in a team with one.” Paxx waved his wand in a circular swoosh, the mops and buckets collapsing into themselves and vanishing.
“Yup, I can use magical items, but I can’t channel mana into magic like that. Could I be really cheeky and have a look at your wand?” Jim asked cautiously.
“I loveeeee when a man asks me that.” Paxx said with a wink and smile, passing the wand to Jim.
The wand was surprisingly heavy, made from what looked to be polished white and gold marble or ivory. Its handle was a reflective leathery coating, with a small wrist strap embossed into the wrappings.
“It’s a beautiful piece of crafting, seamless.” Jim said, inspecting the wand.
“Should be too, that was made by Escanor himself.” Paxx said proudly.
“You know Escanor?” Jim asked pryingly.
“Ohhhhh I know Escanor alright. I could tell you a few stories about him.” Paxx for the first time since Jim had known the gnome, looking flushed in the cheeks.
“We’re talking about Escanor the Forgemage here right?”
“We are. The one and only. How do you know him?” Paxx asked.
“Only through reading about famous crafters. I want to do my expertise and speciality in making things.” Jim said.
Paxx nodded in agreement. “A good decision, you won’t find a finer example of wand craftsmanship than that in the whole of the kingdom.”
Jim paused his breath for a moment, pushing his mana towards his eyes. He had started to feel the mana movements in finer detail since ranking Mana-Optic to Novice 7. He could fairly move mana from the retinas through to the lenses and pupils, moving the concentration of mana to focus on different depths and layers of items.
As he examined the wand with his basic understanding he could see the layers of runic cogs built into funnels up and down the length of the wand.
“Do the layers of crafting magic funnel and focus mana in your wand?”
“They do indeed, you have good senses. What else can you feel in that wand?” Paxx said, as he took up a floating cross legged seat in the air, watching Jim inspecting the wand.
“There’s different layers of configuration too? Can you adjust the magical focus from these small notches on the handle?” Jim asked excitingly.
“Correct. The wand will only configure for me, no one else. I can change the focus of it depending on what school of magic I want to use.” Paxx nodded with a smile.
Jim turned the wand in his hands, looking at the detail of the underlying cogs and runes in as much detail as his eyes could stress.
“The layers of magic in this are incredible. Wow.” Jim said in awe.
Paxx clicked his fingers and the wand whipped out Jim’s hands, flying through the air to it’s owner. “Well, you’ll make a good forger with that passion. If you’re ever in Jual tell Escanor I sent you, I’m sure he’ll give you some time to talk.”
“Jual? Is that a city?” Asked Jim.
“It’s much more than just a city, but once you’re there you’ll know why. Now, time to get packed, we’ll be making landfall shortly I imagine.” Paxx dropped his feet, conjuring a small satchel bag into existence.
“You have a dimensional storage right?” Paxx asked.
“Sure do! I’m already packed. Thanks for letting me see that wand, catch you on deck!” Jim waved as he left the room. As he ascended the stairs the ringing of distant bells chimed. Jim leant on the side of the ship, looking onwards towards a small town. A singular grey stone watchtower overlooked the hamlet, a small dock crept into view as black birds began to flock above The Ender.
“Burnie, main sails down! Filbert, eyes on the town. Lads, man your positions for docking!” Twill boomed the command from the upper deck.