Fenix stood defiant along the side of the road in between me and the crafters working at the guild hall. The stoic act he normally put on was nowhere to be seen, replaced with a twisted expression of pure indignation. I sighed. There wasn’t any way out of this without a confrontation, was there?
“Imagine what the rest of this game would think if their glorious Fenix showed his true colors.” I said. His eyebrow twitched.
Fenix puffed out his chest. “Just here to give you a warning. Stay out of our way, there’s no place for you here anymore.” He said. While it certainly looked like anger, I saw right through what this was actually about. Deep down he was terrified. I didn’t blame him
“What? Worried I’ll upstage you again? Show the world who the real fraud is?” I said, flashing him a cocky grin.
“Coming from some nobody those are pretty big words. Don’t forget, I’ve been the number one player for way longer than you ever were.” He chided. I shrugged. Honestly at this point I couldn’t care less about things like rankings or who was the best at what.
“Lot of good that does either of us now.” I said. As my words hit him, Fenix looked to the side and let out a sigh. It looked like even his infallible ego wasn’t able to suppress his mixed emotions about being trapped in this game.
Despite how much I hated Fenix as a person, at the moment he was probably one of the most important people in this game. Even if he had all the charisma of roadkill once you got to know him he was the most popular star of Annex’s DIVE MMOs, which meant that a lot of players looked up to him and his guild. In the real world that just fueled his ego, but now…
“Word of advice. I have no idea how you were able to get a major NPC faction on your side in less than a day. I have even less of an idea how you think any of this is going to shake out. But be careful. Your little popularity contest doesn’t just affect you anymore.” I said. I didn’t wait for a response. I pushed past him and headed down towards the guild hall.
“Tch. Like you know anything…” Fenix said from behind me. Fortunately he let me go. Part of me wondered why he bothered stopping me in the first place. If I had to guess he probably would have had more to say were it not for the number of people around who could overhear us.
Fortunately for me, we probably wouldn’t interact much.
He’d inevitably wind up wherever the top end guilds are, fighting on the front line to clear the game, and I’d probably wind up picking up the scraps that the lead group left behind. Like he said, I didn’t really have a place there anyways.
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By the time I’d made it deeper into the plaza the line for the crafting stations hadn’t gotten too much longer. Still, it would probably take a while so I may as well spend my time poking around at a system I hadn’t familiarized myself with yet.
I pulled open my menu and went over to my friends tab. Dante, Mari, and Willow, were all listed and were all still shown as being “online”. I wasn’t sure if dying moved you to an “offline” or even “dead” status, but something about seeing all of them still there relieved me just a bit. Furthermore, their locations were the same. All three were in the Golden Fields zone. I half wanted to ask them to check how long it was to the forest, but since they were only level one I didn’t want to force them out of their comfort zone.
What I really wanted to do was try out the messaging feature. It was something that I wasn’t aware of until they had added me just a little while ago and I knew basically nothing about the system. Being able to communicate with other players in real time was a huge bonus, especially if you could use the system in dungeons or while you were out grinding, so figuring out the limits of what it could and couldn’t do was definitely a smart idea.
That just left the hard question of who I wanted to bother with my first message. If I had added Nell earlier then there was a chance I could just send her some complete gibberish and have her ignore it, but that wasn’t an option.
Of the options I did have available, Dante was a definite no. He was a little too… rambunctious for my tastes. I could definitely imagine him stopping in the middle of a fight to answer a text and getting cut in half in the process…
I also ruled out Willow, figuring that she’d probably ignore the message entirely.
That just left Mari and so after gathering my courage for longer than I was willing to admit, I tapped her name, and then the “send message” option that popped up afterwards.
[Yo. About done at the guild hall. How are things going with you guys? Did y’all wind up going hunting?]
The virtual keyboard was awkward, but it was a staple of almost every DIVE game so I was used to it by now. I looked the message over one last time then hit “send” and a whooshing sound signified that it had been carried away.
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Mari’s reply came when I was about half way through the line, so about fifteen minutes later. I’d kind of figured that the message had failed to send until the notification of her reply startled me and made me jump. Hopefully nobody else in line noticed…
[Sorry! Yeah! We were hunting some monsters! Things are going well! What were you doing at the guild?]
The fact that I had even received a return message was a good sign. That meant that you could still communicate with someone even if they weren’t in the same zone as you. It also seemed like even in areas with monsters you were able to send messages back and forth.
That was pretty standard for regular games, but Eld was anything other than that. I was half expecting her to not be able to reply until after they’d returned from their trip.
[Just selling some stuff from my hunt yesterday and upgrading some gear.]
[Gotcha! We’re about to get started again, so I’ll let you know when we finish! Good luck with your gear!]
[Good luck with your hunting.] I replied, returning my focus to the people in front of me.
I honestly kind of resented the fact that I had access to a clock no matter where I was. Normally if I had to do something as annoying as stand in a line I could let my brain just zone out and think about something random and before I knew it the time was gone. However having a menu that always told me the exact time meant that as the agonizing forty minutes that it took me to reach the front of the queue ticked down I couldn’t help myself from taking a peek at the clock over and over again.
Part of it was that I was definitely waiting for a message from Mari and so even though I was more than sure I would get a notification if or when she did get back to me I kept pulling open my chat log anyways just to double check.
To my relief, though, eventually the people in front of me cleared out and I was left standing in front of three players standing in a line in front of some crafting stations.
The one on the left had a loom, the one in the middle had some knives and strips of leather, and the one on the right had a forge for metalworking.
When the player that was guarding the queue (I really was not envious of whomever got stuck with that crap job in a video game) waved me in I made a bee line right towards the metalworking station.
“’Sup?” A bald player in a blacksmith’s apron nodded to me as I approached, his hands never left the pockets sewn into the sides of his pants.
“Yo. You make weapons from monster parts?” I asked.
“Yup. Bit more annoying than that, though.” The guy said, swiping at his menu. After a minute a new window appeared in front of me that was kind of similar to the one that Sonnson had used when he was reforging my weapon yesterday night.
“I’mma only cover this once cuz I’ve had to give this speech for hours, so pay attention.” The guy said. I gave him a sympathetic look and did my best to absorb as much info as I could.
“Monster parts are only one part of making an item. The other part is a natural resource, namely metal, or in some cases wood, leather, and cloth. That means that on top of the stuff you get from fighting you need the raw materials that make the base of the equipment as well.”
I clicked my tongue. That made sense, but I hadn’t even thought about it. Naturally, I didn’t have any of the requisite materials besides the monster components, a fact that the smith seemed to see coming from a mile away.
“Now before you say anythin’ I’m gonna take a wild guess that you’re not walkin’ around with pockets full of Iron ingots?” I shook my head and he returned a wry smile.
“Figures. The good news is, we got a whole heap of basic materials sittin’ around back here. Bad news is, unlike the upgrades these mats ain’t free. We had to buy em from the guild with our starting Gold and some donations, so we gotta charge you a mark up.” My coin purse never felt more empty. I was about to give up entirely and try to just pawn the parts off for raw Gold but the player beat me to the punch.
“Lucky for you, we also take monster parts in trade for the materials. So we’ll do it this way. Load all yer shit into my menu, and that’ll show you what I can make with my skills and what I’ve got on hand, combined with what yer givin’ me. Pick out what ya want, and we’ll see what we can do.”
Buddha. This bald, beautiful man was the Buddha.
I hurriedly complied and dumped all of the resources I’d spent my first precious few hours gathering into the menu and a whole list of options appeared. There were so many items listed that they didn’t even all fit on my screen.
“The tabs along the top are the kinda gear that you can make. There’s a button on the left right about here that will filter by only skills you already got.” He said, pointing his finger through my open menu.
I really felt for how many times baldy must have done this before now to have this down to such a science. After a few swift pokes on the menu I was left with two choices of sword, and only one piece of armor. Honestly I wasn’t hoping for a lot but this… this wasn’t great.
This content has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.
Checking over the material requirements for each of them it seemed that one of the swords and the chest piece came from the Timber Wolves I had fought, where the other sword was a basic sword made using only ore that was stashed behind the counter.
Fortunately, the chest piece didn’t share materials with the swords at all, so I could safely say that I was getting that.
The only choice I had to make was between the swords.
The two options were the Iron Spatha, what looked like a slightly longer version of the sword that I already had with a small boost to all of its stats across the board.
And the Wolf’s Fang Straight Sword, a blade that had over 20% more attack than my current blade, but also had a lower accuracy stat, meaning that it would be harder to get the most damage out of it unless I was playing at my best.
Still, 20% more attack would easily make up for a little bit of increased variance in the amount of damage I would deal, and I may as well use some of these monster materials while I had them.
The other big thing was the number of reforges. The Iron Spatha was able to be upgraded a total of six times, where the Wolf’s Fang was only able to be upgraded four.
Logically that meant that the Iron blade would eventually be more powerful, but there was one big factor that made me think it was a trap. The rare materials needed for an upgrade.
Since materials from Timber Wolves were needed to craft the Wolf’s Fang, I figured that it would be rare Wolf materials used in reforging. Where the iron sword probably needed rare ores or gems from mining, a skill I didn’t know.
It was for that reason that I selected the chest piece and the Wolf’s Fang from the menu, and hit accept. The smith looked at me from behind the counter and rested his hand on his chin.
“You sure you don’t wanna keep more of this stuff? Never know when you’ll be gettin more.” He asked. I shook my head.
“I’m lanning on moving over to the next town tomorrow morning. I don’t think I’ll be getting any more of ‘em.” I replied. He seemed to take my answer in stride and nodded.
“Right. Then I’ll put as many materials as are necessary towards the ore for the items and the rest will be Gold. Sound good?”
“Sounds good.” I replied, clicking confirm on the crafting menu in front of me.
A few minutes, and more than a few swings of his hammer later, and the bald smith walked back over to me holding a new breastplate with a one handed sword resting on top.
I accepted the items and immediately equipped them through my inventory screen. I would be lying if I said I wasn’t disappointed in the fact that the chest piece basically looked exactly like my old one, but this one had three carvings that looked like quills carved right into its center fanning out in three directions.
I guess that made sense, it was made using “Iron Tale Barbs” from the Timber Wolfs and was combined with regular Iron Ore and some leather, the same as my normal Light Iron Cuirass.
The weapon was a little bit different. Where my previous sword was a double edged flat blade that reminded me a little bit of a roman gladius this one was about five inches longer and a little bit thicker. It also didn’t have a ridge going down the middle making it much flatter.
The blade itself had a texture on it close to the cross guard that made it look like it had a carving of wolf’s fur. Being made from the fangs of the Timber Wolves I guess that made sense.
Oh! Right!
“Hey, uh, is there any way I could also get this reforged before I leave?” I asked, remembering what Sonnson had said the night before. I had no idea how many materials I had that were used in upgrading it, but even pushing it to +1 was better than nothing.
“Sure! You got enough shit here to push it to +3” The smith took the blade back from me and another menu opened. Well that was certainly a surprise. “What stat?” He asked.
Thinking back I’d previously only put one point into strength because it was the easiest stat to see value in, but now that I had three chances… “Two in Strength, one in Accuracy.” I said.
“Coming right up!” He said, pulling the sword out of its sheath and grabbing some of the remaining materials from his inventory.
“Since this shit can fail I’m gonna do them one at a time. First one’s free, want that in Strength?”
I nodded. I’d forgotten that these upgrades could fail… that stirred a very familiar anxiety in my chest. Many games had an upgrade system, and many of them were surer annoying… Hopefully the game was forgiving with the earlier weapons and it wouldn’t take too many tries.
“Second point strength too?” He asked, the blade already having been forged into a +1 weapon while I was lost in my thoughts.
“Accuracy.” I said. This way, if the third failed I’d have one of each stat point and not have to deal with the Wolf’s Fang’s lower accuracy stat as much.
“Gotcha” he replied and brought his hammer down to tap the upgrade materials one by one before bringing it down and hammering into the blade. Instead of the blade simply leveling up after one hit, this time it took several before the blade flashed and the player put his hammer down.
“Lucky you. Last one’s strength. 67% on this one, you good with that?” That was probably referencing the odds of success. Honestly they were pretty low, but I didn’t really have much to lose. As I’d said before once the sword was made I wouldn’t be hunting the monsters that dropped its upgrade materials any more so it’s not like I’d have the opportunity to push it farther.
“Yup.” I said. The smith cracked a smirk and got back to work. This time his hammer danced along the blade, hitting over and over on different points. I wanted to ask him if there was some sort of crafting mini game but the last thing I wanted to do was distract him and cause my blade to fail an upgrade.
After an agonizing few minutes, the hammer struck down one last time and the blade flashed a brilliant yellow.
“Not bad if I do say so myself! A +3 Wolf’s Fang Straight Sword. 2str 1acc.” The smith proclaimed, throwing the blade into its sheath and passing the whole package back to me.
“Thanks, seriously. “ I said, grabbing the sword and feeing its weight in my hands. Something about the weapon just felt right… I couldn’t help but smile, there were few feelings in the world better than the feeling of getting an upgrade.
“Don’t mention it, let me ring you out.” He said, tapping at his menu and clearing out all of the materials that hadn’t been used in the forging.
At the end of the transaction I’d come away with a new sword, a new piece of chest armor, and 750 Gold. All in all, I couldn’t be happier. I turned back to the player behind the counter and nodded my head.
“Thanks uh…”
“Takuro.” The bald guy said.
“Thanks Takuro!” I replied, waving to the smith as I walked off to the side of the road and let someone else take my place.
“No prob’ Don’t go dyin on us any time soon ya hear!?” He called after me before turning to greet his next customer. Not planning on it.
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As I climbed the slightly inclining road leading up and out of the Guild Plaza I decided to check my messages one more time, just in case.
Sure enough, when I pulled open my menu the message icon was flashing. Huh. Guess I was more absorbed in that than I’d thought.
[we’ll be heading back after the next pack of monsters! Plan to meet up in 60?]
Of course the sender was Mari.
From the time the message had been sent about thirty five minutes had passed… I felt a little bad that I hadn’t checked, but there was nothing I could do about that now.
[Sorry, upgrading gear took longer than I thought. Still planning on the same time?]
[Yep! Same time, left side of the patio in the central plaza.]
[Alright, works for me. Thanks for the update, and sorry again.]
[No worries! See you soon!]
With my new gear tucked safely away, I walked off towards the central plaza.
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It was amazing how fast the mentality of the players trapped in the game shifted. In spite of the dream that had left a good number of people completely catatonic, The mood in the plaza at the end of the second day was electric.
The sounds of cheers and toasts filled the air as I walked through a line of stalls towards the well lit patio. Parties were combing through stalls, players were dashing in and out of side streets and buildings. They were probably doing quests even this late at night. The whole city felt alive again, just over half a day after it had almost seemed like the spark of life would be forever lost.
I guess that made sense. “Death” was such a nebulous concept at this point in my life that being told, and even being shown, that I was inches away from dying at any given time hadn’t really sunken in. I don’t think that part of the game would ever be normal, but at the very least it was good to see that we were still able to move forward despite the looming danger.
I made my way up the steps of the patio and onto the deck on the left side of the spire. There, carved into its relief, were twelve small names. Each one was about the size of a pencil if you were to hold it up against the rock. Had Fenix not pointed them out earlier, who knows how long it would have taken to find.
“Cooriiaaaaan!” A voice called, pulling my attention away from the pillar and towards the edge of the platform. Normally, I would have had trouble finding Dante and Mari in a crowd this dense, given that they were even shorter than I was, but Willow almost acted like a lighthouse with her head of pure white hair perched well above the crowd.
I walked over to the table where the three of them were already seated and sat down.
“Sorry I’m late.” I said. Mari just shook her head.
“Don’t worry about it! We hurried back so we actually got in a bit ahead of schedule.” She said.
“Food’s on us tonight, so go nuts!” Dante said, grabbing some sort of steamed bun and shoving the whole thing in his mouth in one go. I wonder if you could choke to death in this game..?
“We’ve got a bunch of stuff here, but if you’d like to visit the stalls just let us know what things cost and we’ll pay you back, okay?” Mari said with a smile.
I nodded towards her and looked over the spread that had been laid out on the table in front of them. She wasn’t kidding, there had to be ten different kinds of food laid out on the table in front of us. Grabbing a bunch of whatever looked good I started quickly stuffing my face. Between practice this morning and the business at the guild hall this afternoon I hadn’t gotten a chance to sit down and eat lunch, so dinner, especially free dinner, was a godsend right now.
The conversation drifted from the game, specifically the quests that the three of them had all met on during the first day, to previous games that we’d all played, to what had happened the night before, before finally ending on a pretty random discussion about monster movies.
Early on I’d learned that my fears of being the guide for a party of crafters was pretty far off the mark. Willow was a tank using a sword and shield. That much was easy to figure out just by looking at her. The fact that she didn’t even remove the heavy armor while eating, though, added to its comedic bulk.
Dante used light leather armor and one handed axes. Apparently he wanted to use two of them at once, like some sort of crazy fantasy viking… I could see it. So a mobile melee fighter, similar to me.
Lastly, Mari was a magic user. Specifically she used a book to cast holy magic. Her goal was to become a healer, though at level one it turned out that she didn’t have any healing magic. That was pretty standard, though. If you made a class that could only heal and not do any damage then you wouldn’t be able to beat even some of the most basic quests, so most healers started with a weak damage spell and got their healing stuff a little bit down the road.
That surprisingly left us with a fairly balanced composition, minus our obvious lack of ranged damage. That was a pretty big issue, but in the starting zones that we’d be going through to reach the next town I doubted that the game would have many enemies that required range to deal with. Those were usually reserved to dungeons or dangerous areas in later zones where party play was the norm and solo play was much more discouraged.
Throug the rest of the night there were a few bombshell revelations that had been brought up. It turned out that Dante and Willow had known each other from raiding together in Infinite Dungeon. Mari was running around town and they all met up to solve a quest yesterday evening.
After hanging out until after dark they formed an impromptu party and after the dream they all decided to visit the meeting that happened earlier this morning.
After hearing about the limited availability of guild quests thanks to Levin they decided it would be best to move on to the next town so that they wouldn’t be left behind as resources started getting gobbled up.
I guess this meant I was off the mark when I figured that Dante and Mari were siblings, though the similarities in their avatars seriously could have fooled me otherwise. The real bombshell though came from Dante himself, who casually let it slip that despite his avatar’s youthful appearance he was in fact in his fifties.
Even Willow, who had known him long before this, never knew that the guy who played a character who could easily pass as fifteen was actually firmly in his middle age… The shock of that revelation kept us laughing and chatting long past sundown.
Eventually once the conversation had died down and the food was all gone we decided it was time to go our separate ways. The three of them had rented a small room at a different inn to save money, so they retreated for the night with the promise that we’d meet tomorrow morning just before sunrise. With all of my preparations done earlier there was nothing that I could do besides return to my own room and go to sleep.
I was so tired by the end of everything that had happened I didn’t even worry about whether or not I’d be visited by another one of those dreams. Fortunately, the second night passed by in peace.
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And so it was that I’d found myself heading back out into the Golden Fields early the next morning. This time in a party with other players for the first time since the start of the game.