We had arrived at the northern gate of Blackport. Immediately inside the wall was a set of Barracks. Not for the guards, but for the Empire’s soldiers. Across the street was our goal; the soldiers’ training ground. At the moment it was empty, except for a couple of men sitting at a table, playing a board game.

“Okay, before we get there, I need you to remember two things. Don’t be rude, which includes don’t be using a Native’s name unless they’ve introduced themselves. The second is, when the soldiers come to train, thank them for their hospitality and leave the training grounds without a fuss. Oh, and a third thing, I need you to train until the soldiers come around,” I warned my guild mates while we were still outside of earshot. As we approached, I used the last of my mana and observed the two men.

Eredykus Hawthorn - Imperial Soldier, Sergeant - Level 74

The first showed up as expected, but for the second guy I only got a bunch of question marks. Which meant he had a magic item hiding his identity. However, from my time gathering information about Blackport I already knew who he was. He was Utemous Brightsteel, the commander of the Imperial soldiers stationed in Blackport. The sergeant’s high level did surprise me. Most Native had trouble getting past level 50, and level 75 was when your class became a Tier 2 class, which was a major power boost.

As we got close to them, I stopped at a respectful distance, and waited for them to acknowledge us. They were playing some kind of chess, but with five different boards in different heights. I recognized it as something the Natives called Fate, shortened for Fate of the World. It was a game representing the End Times. The green pieces where the Nine Ancient Races, while the red pieces were the invaders. That was about all I knew about it, since I had never had the time to pursue leisure activities in the game.

We waited for a few minutes in silence, well mostly silence; Blaze kept shuffling his feet. The Sergeant finally looked up at us after taking one of the Commander’s pieces, “What can I help you with?”

“Greetings, we’ve just arrived in your world, and was wondering if we could use your training grounds, to familiarize ourselves with these bodies?” I tried to set a professional and respectful tone.

“We don’t offer training to Travellers,” he grunted and turned back to the game.

“My apologies,” I quickly said, “We don’t wish to impose on your time and ask for training. We merely wish to use your facilities, since we already have an instructor amongst us.”

He grumbled a bit, and took a closer look at me, “You don’t look like much of a fighter. Or a magician.”

“I’m neither, I’m a crafter. I’m merely trying to get my guild situated, before I seek training on my own.”

“Very well, but if any soldier shows up, your friends better get the hell out of here,” he barked the last bit, and turned his attention back to the game.

“Thank you,” I gave a small bow, and quickly led the others into the training ground. Blaze started to say something, but Kira quickly shushed him. The training ground was fairly large. Plenty of room for fifty people to spar with each other. There was also dummies and targets along the city wall for target practice. As well as a few free standing dummies to beat up.

“Okay, this training ground is special compared to the other. Inside it, recovery rates are doubled, and even health will recover at ten percent per minute, if you’re resting,” I explained.

“Holy crap,” Blaze exclaimed. And was pretty loud about it.

“Indeed, so it’s a good place to train. But first, Meditation,” I said, before sitting down in the classic lotus position. I placed my hands on my thighs, palms facing upwards, with my thumbs and index finger touching. Immediately I got the prompt I expected.

You’ve unlocked the skill Meditation, do you wish to learn this skill at this time?

Yes/No

After learning the skill, I addressed my guildmates, “You need to assume and hold this exact position. Don’t worry, the game makes it easy to get into the position, and it won’t be a strain to hold it for hours. And unlike real meditation, you don’t need to clear your mind. You can chat or think profound thoughts, or not so profound thoughts. The only part needed to regenerate mana, is to hold this position. Starting out, it’ll only regenerate five mana per minute. For each mana regenerated, you gain one experience point.”

The others quickly sat down and meditated. Ed had a sceptical look at first, but after getting into the position, he had one of slight confusion. Probably because, how easy it was for him to get into the position, which should have been a struggle given his size.

After five minutes my mana was full, thanks to the double regeneration rate of the training grounds. The others had not used Observe as many times as me, so they had finished faster than me. Standing up, I smiled at Kira who was basically bouncing where she stood.

“At character creation, when you learned your abilities and spells, you should’ve automatically learned how to activate them, correct?” I asked. After getting a round of confirmation, “I can’t really teach you a lot, since I don’t know how to fight. So that’ll be for Kira to teach you. We’ve already talked about which skills you should pick when they unlock. And remember it’s very important that you leave your tenth skill slot open.”

“I’m not sure how training Summon Elemental can be worth it. The manastones are pretty expensive,” Ed frowned.

“You need to learn how to control them, and it’ll earn you XP.”

“But they cost one gold to summon, and they only last ten minutes,” he complained, “I only got ten of each, and I’m not sure where I can buy more.”

“Indeed, there’s not really a place dealing in manastones in Blackport, which is why I’ll be making them. And while it might be expensive, remember you can control them while you do other stuff. So you can earn more XP quickly. It’s also better to train with them here where it’s safe. If you have to learn how to use them when fighting mobs, you might end up dying, and then you lose everything,” I countered, and reminded him that dying to a mob or a Native meant that you dropped everything.

“Fine.”

“Okay, last thing before I go,” I said, “Don’t be afraid when you see a small ball of light appear in front of you. That’s just me sending you a message, using the Message spell. Just touch it when you’ve time to hear it.”

“Won’t that distract us in a fight?” Kira frowned.

“No, because it won’t appear when you’re fighting. It’ll only appear when it won’t be dangerous for you to be distracted. Anyway, I got my own training to tend to. When the soldiers show up for training, come find me at the Butcher. Ask any Native and they’ll know where he is. Just remember it’s not a butcher but The Butcher,” I emphasized the last part before heading out. As I walked away I could hear Kira starting to give directions.

When I was around ninety meters away from the training ground, I stopped and cast Message five times. At my low spell level of zero, it took twenty one seconds and five mana to cast each message. As it levelled up it would become faster to cast. The messages just said “This is a message,”, and I sent one to each of them. Netting me five XP per cast. 

Though I still had mana for another five casts, it would not earn me any XP. Unless I started to send messages to someone else. That was because there was an hour long cool down on each person. Not on sending additional messages, but for earning XP. You could only earn XP once an hour per person. Which meant that it was quite the drag to train the spell.

However, it was a necessity, it was the only way of reliably communicate long distance. Sure there were magic items that could do the same, but they had long cool downs and was very expensive.

After I finished sending the messages, I continued my trek to the Butcher, and quickly found someone to use Observe on and deplete my mana. He was located in the northeast part of the town. The houses became smaller and more dilapidated the further I walked. The northeastern part of town was the the poorests part, but it was much worse off than I remembered. I had to stop and ask a few times before I finally found the Butcher.

The shop was located next to a square that was really run down. The walls of the well had started to crumble, and besides the shop, the rest of the houses were ramshackled shacks. A far cry from what I remembered. The statue was also missing. Which made sense. In my past the square had been one of prosperity. The shacks had been small well built houses, and there had been a statue of a player named Almighty Al. He had never told anyone how he got a statue of himself erected in this place.

Shaking my head, I turned my attention to the shop. In the back corner of the property there was a small house, and there was a low rickety fence around the property. The property was almost three times bigger than the house; most of it taken up by a huge cloth pavillion. The pavillion shielded the work area and shop from the sun. Meat lay on a few tables that acted as counters. It seemed very unhygienic to have meat out in the open like that, but it was a game and sometimes the logic was weird.

Behind the counters were a lot of large bags with glowing runes on them, as well as some work tables. The magical bags were popularly known as Corpse Bags. You could place a corpse or carcass inside it without it spoiling. Some of the very expensive ones also decreased the weight and size of the carcass while it was in the bag. The Butcher himself was at one of the work tables, butchering what looked like a wild boar.

As soon as I walked onto the property, the Butcher called out without looking up, “Be with you in a minute.”

I waited and took the chance to observe him. He was very efficient at his job. He was about my height, looked to be in his late fifties and carrying a considerable bulk. Most of it muscle. Every stroke with his knife was precise and economical. And depending on the cut, he changed knives or cleavers often.

When he finished the last cut, the boar carcass dissolved into motes of barely visible lights. Left behind was a pile of bones, a couple of tusks, a pile of meat, some fur and a floating ball of blood. He quickly grabbed a glass jar and held it under the ball of blood. The blood slowly floated into the jar. He quickly put the cork lid back on the jar.

“Hello, the name’s Blaine. How can I help you, Stranger?” he asked as finally looked up.

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“Hi, my name is Damian. I’m a Traveller, and have just arrived,” I greeted and walked up to the table he was standing at. I noticed that the tables acting as counters, had small runes carved into them. Most likely something to prevent spoilage, keep insects and all that away.

“Ah, it’s that time already?” he muttered, scratching his short grey beard, “Well, what are you doing here, shouldn’t you be down by the guard’s barracks and learn how to fight?”

“I know my limitations, I’m not much of a fighter. I would be more of a danger to my party than to my enemies,” I smiled ruefully, “Which in part is why I’m here. I was wondering if you had an extra set of butcher knives I could buy? And what I was really hoping for was that I could impose a bit on your time and pick up a few tricks for the art of Butchery.”

“There’s nothing wrong with that. But if you’re just looking to carve up animals for a bit of extra loot, you’d might consider a dagger instead. Cheaper than a whole set.”

“No, I want to do it right.”

“Okay then, a whole set of butcher knives will cost you ten gold. Last chance to change your mind and buy a dagger for a single gold piece,” he offered once more, while rummaging in a crate next to him. He pulled out a leather case, when I confirmed that I was still interested in buying.

Opening the leather pouch with money in it, I saw that I had 5 platinum coins, 2 gold and 15 silver. As soon as I thought about taking out ten gold, one of the platinum changed into twenty gold pieces. The game was effective in regards to handling coins. If I at some point had twenty gold coins they would automatically change into a platinum coin.

I handed him the ten gold, and he waved for me to follow him. He took me over to an empty table. On the way he had grabbed one of the Corpse Bags. He put it and my new knife set on the table. From a crate underneath the table he grabbed two glass jars. One was empty and the other was filled with a clear liquid. He then arranged four empty crates; two on each side of the table.

“Okay Damian. First thing first, I’ll show you how to butcher one of the horned rabbits. It’ll probably be what you’ll end up butcher the most starting out. They spawn like crazy ever since they got twisted by the Rupture,” he said and unpacked my new set of knives. I took a quick moment to just Inspect the set. There was not a lot of interesting information about the kit, except that it added +1% chance to success when using it to butcher a carcass.

As Blaine showed how to butcher a horned rabbit, I paid close attention, because I had never done it in the game before. Nor had I done it in real life. I had just been a collector of data and strategist. All something that relied on my own abilities, not on those of my avatar.

When he finished and the motes went away, there was a plethora of loot, and he continued his explanation, “The first thing to do is get the blood in a jar, the Gods’ magic which forms it into this floating ball, only last ten seconds. Leaves quite the mess if you don’t. It’s especially valuable from magical creatures like the horned rabbits. They’ve got magic in their blood, so it’s more valuable. Used in alchemical concoctions when it’s magical. If it’s not magical, it can still be used to make a good blood sausage. If you manage to get any blood, it goes into the empty jar right here. Remember to seal it, or it’ll spoil more quickly.

“Next is the eyes. You need to be quick about them as well, otherwise they dry out. Eyes from magical creatures are the only eyes that drop, but they’re also valuable because they’re used in the creation of magical ink. Used for spell scrolls and magic contracts. That sort of stuff. They go into the jar with the solution in it. Then you’ve their horn, also a very important part. It’s also magical, so it can be used in all kinds of alchemical concoctions, like manastone solutions. It goes into this crate.

“Then you’ve the meat that goes into this one. The fur in that one, and lastly you got the bones, which goes into this one. Any questions?” he asked, after having put away all the loot and turned around to look at me.

“Yes, what do you mean by twisted?” I asked. It sounded familiar, but I could not remember exactly why. It had been years since I last played the game.

“Figures that the Gods didn’t tell you much. Well the Rupture was a few months ago, the start of the Second End Times. These portals to other worlds started showing up, and the Invaders started pouring out into our world. At the same time there were a few changes to our world. We Natives can’t be resurrected any longer, which is why the Gods brought you Travellers to help us. You’re not hit by the Curse like we are.

“One of the other changes was in a lot of different creatures. Not all species, but many of them. They became more aggressive, and started to spawn more frequently and in larger numbers. Even the Dungeons have become more deadly. The horned rabbits are one of those creatures. We call them twisted creatures, because they were changed by the Rupture.“

As soon as he started talking, it all came back to me. It was not that I had forgotten completely, it was just that many of the smaller details were buried in the deepest parts of my memories. Especially since I had not thought about them for years. There were two other things that was special about twisted creatures. They were the only creatures you could obtain trophies from, except for the Invaders. The other thing was that they had a chance of respawning, so if they managed to kill enough players, they could learn and become much harder to kill.

“I see, thank you for explaining and showing me how to butcher a rabbit,” I said.

“Well, now we’ll see how well you’ve learned,” he guffawed, and a prompt appeared in front of me.

Quest Offered

Type: Normal

Slaughtering of Hapless Bunnies

Blaine Hardstone wants to see if you paid attention to his instructions. Butcher 12 rabbits.

Reward

Nothing

Do you wish to accept this Quest?

It was not a really impressive quest. Especially the lack of reward. However, there was a hidden reward. If you accepted the quest, you would be provided twelve rabbits to butcher. You would not get to keep the loot, but any XP gained from butchering them would double. Thanks to Blaine’s Mentor skill. So without hesitation I accepted the quest.

“Good,” he nodded and then pointed to the corpse bag, “There’s twelve rabbits in that bag. Since you’re new, the quality might swing a bit. Normally I would separate the loot by quality, especially of blood and eyes, so as not to lower the value. However, the quality you get starting out is not up to my standard anyway, so it doesn’t matter. Now get to it.”

“Thank you,” I said to his back, as he promptly walked back to his own workstation. I turned my attention to my own table and brought one of the rabbits out from the bag’s inventory.

I had hoped for level two or three, but all of them were level one, which meant they would give the least XP possible. The first one I grabbed was a brown one. Which meant it knew earth magic. The horned rabbits came in six different colours. Silver for air magic, red for fire, brown for earth, blue for water, white for light and black for dark. The black one was the rarest, followed by the white. The other four with the basic elements were about the same.

Putting the rabbit in the middle of the table, I studied it for a moment. It looked like the pictures I had seen of an earth rabbit, never seen a real one since they had become very rare. The only difference was the horn. The horn was a small bone protrusion from its forehead, about half the length of my thumb. I judged it weighed about three kilos. Done studying it, I grabbed the first knife as Blaine had showed. I carefully made an incision around the neck and the four legs. After which I got the prompt I had expected.

You’ve unlocked the skill Butchery, do you wish to learn this skill at this time?

Yes/No

Accepting the skill, I went on to pull up the crafting overlay and turned it to manual. There were two ways you could craft; automatic and manual. If you crafted automatically your avatar did the work for you, while you could watch movies or browse the internet. Anything you posted was on a twenty minute delay though, to make it inconvenient to circumvent skills like Message or the Adventurers’ Association’s messenger service.

There was a drawback to automatic mode though. For Butchery it did not change your chances of success, it just removed some of the loot you could get. You could not get the bone, blood or the trophy; a rabbit’s foot. Most players did not care about the bones or trophies anyways. The bones because they held little worth, only worth a copper for a single rabbit’s bones. The trophies were unpopular as well, because their purpose was not discovered until almost a year into the game.

The trophies was the reason why I had grabbed Greater Transmutation. With the spell you could merge trophies and create powerful talismans. Each set of trophies had a special effect that only it could choose, but there were also others that was common to all trophies. In the case of the rabbit’s foot you would need one of each colour, and you could create a talisman that could provide Luck. Luck meant higher success when crafting, extra damage when fighting and lots of other things.

After changing the setting to manual crafting, I took a look at the overlay to see what my chances for the different kind of loot were.

Horned Brown Rabbit

Carcass Level: 1

Butchery Level: 0

Carcass Size: 1

Effect of Butcher Knife Set: +1%

Quality based of Skill Tier: Below Average

Chance of Higher Quality: 0%

Chance of Lower Quality: 6%

Possible Loot

1 pound of bones - 99%

1 piece of horned rabbit meat - 89%

1 extra piece of horned rabbit meat - 79%

1 horned brown rabbit fur - 49%

0.1 liter of horned rabbit blood - 39%

1 horned rabbit eye - 29%

1 horned brown rabbit horn - 19%

1 extra horned rabbit eye - 9%

1 horned brown rabbit’s foot - 0%

Base experience: 10 XP

Stamina Cost: 30

The knife set increased all of the chances by 1%, except for the trophy. Which meant I had a 19% chance instead of an 18% chance of getting the horn for example. 

I changed to another knife and then made an incision from neck to tail, being extra careful not to pierce the stomach and ruin the rabbit. It was one of the drawbacks to manual mode. If you were not careful, and did something wrong the attempt would become an automatic failure. However, when you had become proficient in doing it, the speed of butchering would depend on you, not on a calculated time made by the system. For example, the time for automatic mode would be four minutes in this specific case. I hoped I would be a bit faster than that, either way, the data I had collected in my previous life, showed that manual mode was better than automatic mode; as long as you applied yourself.

Afterwards I put the knife to the side and grabbed the rabbit. I held its front legs with my left hand, and put two fingers of my right hand beneath the skin at the nape of the neck. It was harder to get my finger in there than Blaine had made it look; but after a bit of a struggle I got my fingers in between the flesh and the skin. I then started pulling backwards on the skin, and slowly I peeled the skin off the rabbit. It ripped a few places, but not enough to ruin the butchering. When it was off, I put the rabbit down on the table again. With the cleaver I chopped off the feet and head, and peeled off the last bits of skin on the legs.

The last step was cutting it open from the bottom to the sternum. Luckily I did not need to clean out the guts. As I finished the last cut, the rabbit started to dissipate into motes of light. I quickly looked at the event log.

>You’ve finished the butchering of a Horned Brown Rabbit, level 1. 30 stamina spent.<

>Roll for loot: 17.<

>Roll for quality: 37 - Quality remains Below Average.<

>You’ve gained 18 Butchery XP.<

>Blaine Hardstone’s mentorship rewards an additional 18 Butchery XP.<

Perfect. I quickly grabbed the blood and put it in the jar. I had only gotten one eye, instead of two. If I had rolled a 9 or lower instead of 17, I would have gotten both eyes. Then the other items went into the crates as instructed. With the roll of 17 I had gotten all the loot except for one eye, and of course the rabbit’s foot, which was impossible to get with my level. The fur which had been ripped a bit, showed no signs of those rips.

“Not bad, it seems the Mother smiles down on you,” Blaine said with his back still turned to me. He was referring to the Goddess of Luck, who mostly went by the moniker Mother, not by her name Essit. More importantly though, I was pretty sure he had not turned back to take a look even once, ‘So how does he know how well it went?’

Shrugging, I grabbed the next rabbit and went back to butchering rabbits.