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Vol1 chapter 9
Another Way
Don left the mountain, this time by using the actual path. He had a lot to think about and a few things to do. Don opened his friend list and sent a whisper to Bob.
-Bob, I found out how to open the box. What can you tell me about the Djoma mountains?
Don waited a few moments but no reply was received. Bob may not have been logged on. Don’s friend list had two other people, Smith, who hadn’t left his spot in forever, and his sister who knew lots about Royal Road and odd stuff. He didn’t have another option.
- Lisa, you there?
After a moment came the reply.
- Brother, you’re supposed to use my avatar name here.
- Ok. Sierra, I need some info, do you know anything about the Djoma mountains?
- Hmm, never heard of them, I’ll ask my party.
After five minutes Sierra whispered back.
- Don.... Why do you need to know about the Djoma mountains?
- I got a box that will only open when brought to the peak of the Djoma mountains after it has snowed.
- You can’t go there...
- Why? Is it really far?
- Not just that. The Djoma mountains are in one of the forbidden sections of Versailles. Monsters there are over level 500. Also, you said it will open after it snows, as in, after the snow has stopped. But apparently it hasn’t stopped snowing there for hundreds of years. Stopping the snow would likely be an ‘A’ or ‘S’ rank quest, in addition to defeating the monsters that live there.
Don let out a deep sigh. According to Bob, the box had been received at the end of an ‘A’ rank quest. It seemed that opening the box would require the same if not more effort than acquiring it did. Which meant he likely wouldn’t be able to open the box, possibly ever.
Don whispered back.
- Alright, no mountain for me
- Ok. So what are you going to do now?
Don hadn’t really thought about it. First he’d go back to Smith. Smith had yet to send a whisper that his swords had been completed. Don would likely wait there and hunt the local monsters until they were done, after that he’d either go south to through more unexplored areas or north back to the central continent.
- I’ll hang around here for a while then head out, not sure where I’ll go.
- Ok, we can talk more tomorrow.
Tomorrow was sunday and Don had requested the day off work. Not for Royal Road, but to spend some time in the real world with his sister. Lisa had been upset when he moved out so Don promised every once in a while they would spend the day together.
- Alright, see you tomorrow.
After getting to the bottom of the mountain Don went back to Smith’s place. He passed the cross roads and after scaling the hill saw Smith’s stone shack. After getting closer Don head the tale tell signs of hammering, smith was almost always online. Don said, “Hey Smith.”
Smith stopped hammering, and looked at Don puzzled for a moment. Then as if remembering something said, “Oh yea, Don. I forgot about you. Your swords are ready, finished them last full moon, though I forgot I made the pair for you.”
Smith didn’t have many interactions since he holed himself up in an isolated area for what was likely months if not years in RR time. Smith went to a barrel and pulled out two identical swords that glowed of moonlight. Before handing them to Don he said, “ I have to thank you again for the lense shelf. Ever since using it the weapons I’ve made have been stronger and the rate I’ve been gaining proficiency has increased. This also was the first time I’ve made two identical swords at the same time from the same light, they seem to resonate with each other and have options I can’t identify. I’ve been spending the last few weeks making identical weapon sets to learn more about this resonance, but their options don’t seem to reveal themselves unless used in battle, take a look.” Smith handed Don the pair.
Don gladly took them, they were almost weightless except for the handles. “Identify.”
Dual Blades of Moonlight.
Durability 120/120
Damage 55~60 (Each)
This sword was crafted by a specialist from the light of a full moon along with its twin. When used together they strengthen each other. Other properties unknown.
Restriction:
Level 160
Strength 200
Agility 200
Wisdom 50
Equips:
+10 All stats
+15% Magic resistance
+ Additional increase in resistance to curses and black magic
+ Grants Light based Magic Damage dependent on the phase of the moon.
+ Restores itself in the light of the moon, rate of restoration is dependent on the phase of the moon. Cannot be repaired otherwise.
+ Additional Light based magic damage when the pair used together.
Additional options Unknown.
“Wow, that’s incredible,” said Don in amazement. He would have to almost double his level to equip these swords but it was definitely be worth waiting for.
Smith looked proud of his creation. Don thought of something and asked, “If creating multiple pieces of equipment from the same light at the same time causes resonance, can you make a weapon and armor at the same time? Come to think of it, can you make armor out of light at all?”
Smith shook his head. “No, forging with light isn’t like forging with metal or leather. After being formed Light can’t be heated, tempered, and shaped into something else. It keeps its shape and breaks if you try to change it. That’s one of the reasons the repair skill has no effect on it. To create armor I would need to make it in segments then attach them together into a single piece with light. The times I’ve succeeded in doing so yielded poor quality armor that restricted movement. I’ll master it eventually but for now I’ll stick with weapons.”
Don nodded in understanding and said, “I see, too bad. Imma blade dancer so the more I stand out the better. These swords will help a lot but a full body set of moonlight armor and matching swords would be awesome.”
Smith nodded and said, “Yea, especially if I managed to make each piece resonate with every other piece. Though such a thing would have an extremely high level requirements. Come back when you’re level 300 and I’ll think about it.” Smith smiled, knowing he was giving the low level Don a goal even higher than his previous goal of being able to equip the moonlight swords.
Don bowed, smiled and said, “I will do my best Smith.”
Don left the Veiner mountain ranges and walked to the crossroads. It was here he could either return to the central continent or explore the southeast. At first unexplored sounds like adventure but Don’s time in this area proved that wrong. It was danger and death to the unprepared, and Don wasn’t ready for it. Also Don found out he wasn’t the first to come this far south of the eastern part of Versailles either. With the exception of an out of the way wolf cave, Don had not received one message that he was the first to discover something. There were other people here, all likely stronger than Don. He needed to grind until he was ready to match the challenge. And since he was going to return at level 300 to see if Smith was true to his word anyways, that would be a good time to do start exploring the south.
But until then, he needed somewhere he could reliably train, Don started running north.
Don woke up the next day at 9:40am and ate breakfast. In the living room of his apartment was his skinny six foot tall room mate, Logan. When Don walked out Logan said, “Morning,” and went back to watching the recording of his favorite show that was on last night. Logan wasn’t exactly a man of few words, but the two didn’t share that many interests. Don liked computers, old school pocket watches, and DBZ. Logan liked sports, women, and staying out all night at sport bars with woman. Don couldn’t say he wasn’t jealous, Don had fewer real girlfriends over his lifetime than he did fingers, of one hand. And he didn’t know how long his current one would last. Logan on the other hand went out with a different girl every week, not including his weekend girlfriends and one night stands. Logan wasn’t the most handsome man in the world but he knew how to be with a woman, and that was what Don was jealous of.
After eating breakfast Don got into his car and drove to his old home to pick up his sister. She was waiting at the drive way and jumped in the car. Don asked, “So, what do you want to do today?”
A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.
“Can we go to the history museum? There’s a new space exhibit.”
“Alright, sounds good.” Don’s sister enjoyed assimilating random facts, a museum was like a candy store to her. Don didn’t mind though, he hadn’t been to the museum in a while, and the price to get in was less than he thought he would be spending today.
After a forty minute drive they arrived at the museum and Lisa was off like a leaf in a gust of wind. She went from exhibit to exhibit memorizing the details on each one before moving to the next. This would’ve seemed odd if it weren’t for the fact that there were a dozen other people doing the same thing. Don picked up a brochure at the front desk that explained that when you left the museum you could take a test that asked questions about the exhibits, the prize for those who got more than 95% on the test was a scale model replica of the Traveler, the first manned spaceship to fly to Mars. It was a clever way to get people to come and learn and pay for admissions.
After twenty minutes of running around and reading they arrived at the space exhibit, Don was of course memorizing info as well, he wanted that shuttle too. Don walked through to the life sized replica of the room in the Traveler where the astronauts spent most of their days. It had six high definition thin screen TVs with computers that had emulators for every game system as well as thousands of video games on each. Don once read a newspaper article that asked the men what games they played the most on the way there. All of the astronauts were from the same generation born a few decades prior, the games they listed were old games on older systems like Elder scrolls V, a game that came out before Elder scrolls online became the standard of fantasy video games for the decade before Continent of Magic came out. After admiring the living space and the TVs, Don found the plaque and read through it.
Traveler free room.
This is where most of the astronauts spent their three month journey to Mars. Everything within can be controlled, temperature, pressure, lighting, humidity, all to keep the astronauts as comfortable as possible.
Don stared at the plaque for a moment. He hadn’t been thinking about it, but after reading the words ‘pressure’ and ‘humidity,’ Don’s mind went back to the box that could only be opened on the peak of a dangerous mountain after it stopped snowing, something that hasn’t happened in hundreds of years. What if, in Royal Road, Don built a chamber where the pressure and humidity could match those of the peak of the Djoma mountains after it snowed? Don put the thought away from now, with a small smirk hidden on his face.
Two hours and sixty questions later Don and Lisa left the museum, each with a large box in hand containing a scale model of the Traveler. They stopped at the fast food restaurant Faz Shack, and discussed the museum and Royal Road while eating chicken. In Royal Road Lisa was a level 190 Assassin. She used her innocent appearance to approach her target then used the knives hidden in her dress to quickly strike vital points. At the moment she was grinding to level 200 with her party, when a normal class reaches level 200 they can advance after going through a quest. When an assassin advanced they could either specialize in stealth, shadow, and ice, or they could specialize in deception, distraction, and fire. Lisa wanted the latter, she wanted to become a Crimson Assassin. They were not as good with infiltration and secrecy but they were better at fighting in parties in the front lines because they could debilitate their opponents quickly.
Don also shared some of his experiences with Lisa, the details of his acquiring of the Blade Dancer class, the dance class, the journey to Mt. Ketsdale with the gnome Bob, he shared all the little details he thought his sister would find interesting.
Don was happy he was playing Royal Road, it gave him and his sister more things to talk about. Half an hour and a bucket of Faz’s famous chicken fingers later they went back to Don’s car and he drove his sister home.
When Don got home he logged onto Royal Road and immediately sent another whisper to Bob, hoping he would be on.
- Bob you there?
- Oh, Hello Don, have you been well?
- Yes, and I found out how to open the box.
- Truely? Where did you learn it?
- The master I was looking for had been around the world a bit and had seen one before. Though its contents are not known.
- So you know how to open it but cannot do so. Please explain
- It is made of two types of extinct wood, one that swells when not at the right pressure and one that swells when not at the right humidity. The only place in the world where the wood shrinks to the point you can open it is in the Djoma mountains, After it has snowed.
- ...The Djoma mountains you say? My, that is tricky. Its been snowing there nonstop for 800 years.
- Yes, but I need to know if those conditions can be re-created artificially.
- Hmm, a novel idea.. Hmmmm, Yes, I do believe there is something like that. There are potions and reagents that require specific conditions to be made. Alchemists use shelf with a glass case in which all conditions within can be controlled. But the one’s I’ve seen are too small for that box. I don’t see why you couldn’t make one given your skills. The instructions are not difficult and the materials are easy to come by. The problem though is that to successfully recreate something so specific you would need measuring instruments within the case that allow you to perfectly match the required settings. Those instruments are not easy to make and I don’t know where you could get the info for the settings.
Don had considered most of this. His biggest concern was whether or not artificially re-creating settings would open the box in this game, but if there was already system that allowed it, then cheating the system using the system could work. At least it was worth a shot.
Don whispered back
- As long as the right materials have the same properties here as they do in the real world, I can make a gauge for both of those on my own. I can guess the pressure if I know the height and the humidity after it snows is about 50%.
- Is that right? Well then, good luck.
Bob sounded rather impressed at Don’s statement, though Don wasn’t completely sure of it himself. When younger he took everything apart and figured out how many things worked. With a heavy liquid and a thin glass tube he could make a pressure gauge, with a tiny weight and a string that changes length at different humidities he could make a humidity gauge.
Of course there was still the matter of the making the controlled climate chamber. A sealed glass case large enough for the box wouldn’t be hard to make, but removing enough air from it to match the pressure of a mountain and getting it to reach 50% humidity was be a challenge. Either way, the first thing he had to do was get supplies. A month’s distance away was a large town Don and Bob had passed through on their way there. It had a large variety of stores and it may have what he needed.
Don started running, he remembered every fight on the way there and knew where the mobs were located, he had several months of fighting to make up for and he didn’t want to skip a single one on the way. The first were the beast mobs that filled the mountains, level 60~90 creatures that came in packs of thirty to fifty. Don wanted to face at least three packs before moving onto the next area of mobs, by the time he arrived at the town he wanted to be level 100.
Chapter 10 The Unexpected End viewtopic.php?f=185&t=1702
Chapter 8 The Master of Mt. Ketsdale viewtopic.php?f=185&t=1672
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