A sudden and total darkness enveloped him, followed by the sensation of quick movement and an abrupt stop. When the darkness cleared he was standing in the middle of a small village that consisted of no more than twenty buildings. He looked around while scratching idly at his beard. He appeared to be in the middle of a square next to a giant boulder covered in dense runework. Around the square he could see an Inn, three shops (Butcher, Baker, General Goods), and a smattering of small stalls selling what looked to be produce.
[Congratulations on taking your first steps in Limitless Online. As part of your starter package you have been granted, in accordance with your skills:]
* Three (3) Days of Trail Rations
* One Hundred (100) Copper Pieces
* One (1) Short Sword
* One (1) Set of Leather Armor
* One (1) Belt Knife
* Two (2) Bushels of Wheat Kernels
* One (1) Hoe
* One (1) Ax
* One (1) Shovel
* One (1) Hammer
* Two (2) Packages of One Hundred (100) Nails.
John blinked at the message and then looked around. He didn’t appear to have any bags or to be carrying anything other than his clothes. An inventory system then, he thought to himself.
“Inventory,” he said aloud and a window appeared showing his current inventory. It looked like he had twenty-five inventory slots, and a money pouch down in the corner. He looked over the items and then nodded.
“You know,” said a grandmotherly voice. “You don’t have to actually say the words out loud.”
John looked about, startled by the sudden intrusion into his thoughts. He looked left, then right, then finally turned around. Behind him he found that the giant rock actually had a circular bench that ran all around the base, and sitting on it was an elderly human woman. She looked back at him with a kind smile as she stood to her diminutive four-foot height and shuffled forward, leaning on an old, twisted cane for support. Her keen black eyes watching him as she made her way forward.
“Also,” she said as she stopped next to John, “you should never just leave your inventory open, or someone might do this.” She then stretched forth her hand, pushing it into the inventory screen and pulling out a package of nails and showed it to a wide-eyed John.
“Inventories are not secured against theft while open, unless you happen to have a skill or spell that prevents it, and such things are rare.” She handed the nails back to him. “Go ahead and put that away and close the screen dear. There’s a good lad. Now sit with Grandma Loren and tell me what you’re doing all the way out here.” She shuffled back to the bench even as John threw the nail into his inventory and closed it, this time just by willing it so.
Taking a seat next to the old woman he mumbled out a ‘thank you.’ She grinned back at him.
“Don’t mention it, I’ve been sitting here all day waiting for players to show up. Yes yes, we know about players, your coming has been foretold by the gods, blah blah.” She waved a hand as if brushing something away. “We even know you view this world as a game. I pity the idiots who treat it that way though. They’re going to find prison is no joke. Where were we? Oh right, you were going to tell me what brings you out this way.”
John blinked, and then stupidly said, “All the main cities were locked out due to too many players.”
Loren snorted. “Not by choice then.” The old woman shook her head. “Don’t worry, you got lucky. The people who started in the core cities aren’t going to have a very good day. The people there hate anyone who was born outside the core; apparently they’re not good enough for them or something. The players that started there are going to find no jobs nor prospects, nor customers if it comes to that. I imagine we’ll be seeing quite the migration to the outer towns and villages in the coming weeks and months. Here, have a candy.” She passed him a small hard candy wrapped in waxed paper. John took it hesitantly. “Don’t worry, I’m not going to poison you in the middle of town. It’s just a Honey Candy.”
Tentatively John unwrapped it and popped it in his mouth. It was, as she said, a Honey Candy. He sucked on it for a moment and then crunched it between his teeth. Immediately a popup appeared.
[Buff Wisdom of the Bees applied.]
A thought pulled up the buff’s information.
[Wisdom of the Bees]
* Type: Buff
* Effect: +1% Mana Regeneration.
* Duration: 1 minute.
His brows went up and he smiled. “Oh good, food does give buffs!”
Loren smirked. “Yes, it does. Better the food, better the buffs. Course what goes into it affects that as well. This is a wildflower honey candy, it gives a short buff to mana regeneration, as you just found out. Other types will give other bonuses. Of course, the bonus also depends on the quality of the maker’s skill and the product itself. This stuff is imported, and it’s not very good. We don’t have any apiarist yet. That’s a bee keeper. Though I dare say you may want to keep some, you’re going to need bees to pollinate some of your crops.”
“How did you…” John began.
“I saw your inventory, remember? The seed bag was a dead giveaway, though I’ll admit the sword and armor have me confused. Planning on doing some dungeon delving on the side? Or just worried about defending your farm?”
“Well, I figured if I couldn’t make it as a farmer then I could maybe do some adventuring,” John admitted.
“Not a bad plan, but I wouldn’t spend any points in those two unless you’re going to switch right now. You just don’t get that many to be spreading them about like that. Though I suppose you might get more experience from dungeon delves than farming, in the end you’d be trying to go too many different directions.”
John tugged on his beard. “I can get experience from farming?”
“Hm? Oh Sure. There are two ways to get experience. Killing monsters or doing crafts. Working at your craft, in this case farming, will give you experience. Though less than killing a monster would. Still, it’s slow and steady and will get you there eventually. Of course, the better item you craft, or in this case grow, the more xp you get,” she explained.
“So if I want to increase my farming xp I need to increase my Farming skill?”
Loren bobbed her head from side to side. “Yes and no. Having a better skill will yield better results. However there are other factors too, such as the materials used. In your case it’s going to also depend on soil quality, how well you water your crops, perhaps even what you water them with. What fertilizers you use and so on. All the skill in the world isn’t going to help if you don’t apply it correctly.”
John nodded as he listened. “So how does xp work? I don’t see bars for it or any numerical representations…”
“You won’t,” Loren responded. “While we know xp exists, it’s a silent calculation, much like you won’t find hit points, or stamina. Yes, we know about those things, what you call ‘devs’ decided that you didn’t need that kind of information if you could feel yourself getting hurt, or tired. The only exception to that is Mana, though we don’t know why.”
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“This seems like really specific knowledge for you to have.”
“Well, I’m a scholar, I read a lot of the collected works about Players and what they would expect and wouldn’t know.” She paused to eat another candy before continuing. “To be honest, I’m surprised you actually took the time to sit and listen. From the texts I expected Players to be a lot more… flighty.”
John smiled at that. “To be honest in turn, you surprised me. I knew this was supposed to be a fully simulated world but I didn’t expect the people to be so… um…”
“Real?” she finished for him, even as she crunched down on her hard candy.
John nodded, thankful that the beard covered the rising heat in his cheeks.
“We are real, or at least I choose to think so. So someone else made us and put our lives and world into motion. I understand that some of your own people believe someone else did the same to you. Does that make you feel any less real?” She didn’t seem offended, merely bemused.
“I guess when you put it that way, then it makes a lot of sense. Although that raises a lot of questions about morality that I’m not sure I’m qualified to deal with,” John said disconcerted.
“Does it? I suppose if you treat this like a game, and like it’s not real then it does.”
“If this is real then are the Devs your gods?”
“No, well, not my gods. Most people haven’t done the necessary reading to really understand our world, they believe only in the Pantheon and the creation story set forth. Which is mostly true, the eleven Intelligences that govern our world did create most of it as described. Even if someone else put them into motion and gave them instructions,” she explained.
At that moment a flash of light drew both their attention to where a youngish looking cat-woman had just appeared. She looked around the town with the same interest John must have had when he appeared.
“Ah, it looks like we have a second arrival. I should probably greet her, thank you for taking the time to sit and talk with an old woman,” Loren said as she patted him on the knee.
“Oh, uh, yeah, no problem. Oh! My name is John, it was good to meet you!”
“You too dear, best run along and find a good place to set up before someone else beats you to it,” she said with a wink before standing up and tottering over to the beastkin to strike up a conversation.
“No no dear, you don’t want to stand there with your inventory open… anyone can see inside it…”
John stood as Grandma Loren talked to the beast woman, who seemed a lot more dismissive of the old woman. To be honest, John himself wasn’t sure how he felt. Could NPCs be real people? She’d seemed real enough. But as he told Loren, he wasn’t sure what that would really mean. He didn’t come here to rape, pillage, and plunder. He just wanted to farm and make some money.
He began walking down the straight, single road of the town, toward where he could see the start of the vast plains nearby. As he got closer to them, he realized he didn’t have a plan. He’d been given an ax, but there were precious few trees that he could see. Most of the buildings were made of stone with tiled roofs. What did these people burn in the winter? Who did he talk to about getting land? Grandma Loren implied he should just pick a spot. But how would he…
He stopped and went back to the square. Grandma Loren was now talking to a large orcish man, the cat girl had disappeared to somewhere else. John headed toward the general store; he knew what he needed.
A small bell tinkled as he came through the door and he found himself in a surprisingly well-lit interior. He was greeted by tall shelves covered in goods, and a counter off to one side manned by a large ursine man. What really caught his eye though were the ornate glowing cages hung from the rafters.
“First,” rumbled the bear-man. “Don’t block the door. ’S rude. Second, those are light enchantments, running on Light Mana Stones. You can find the stones near the back..”
John blinked and looked at the man, then moved away from the door as his words registered. “Sorry, I didn’t expect such an… elegant lighting solution,” he explained.
“Expected lamps and candles eh? You’d be right in most other places, but the dungeon not far from here puts out all kinds of Mana Stones, so they’re pretty cheap to use. Give it a few years and it’ll be a major export, then we’ll really see money come into town.”
John nodded his understanding. “I need a few supplies. I’m setting up a farm and I’m honestly not sure what I’m supposed to do to claim land, so if you could tell me about that while I’m here that’d be great.”
The bear man rumbled quietly before speaking. “Claiming land is pretty easy, technically the Emperor owns all the land, but if you can tame it and use it for a year and a day it’s yours in perpetuity. As for how to stake your claim, there’re Claim Spikes in the back, just place one at each of the four corners of your claim and give it some mana, then it’ll show up on the town map, that’s in town hall. It’s the big two story building cross the square.”
“Thanks. I also want some string, and stakes for laying out plots. Can I get those here?” John queried.
“Sure, string is on that shelf there ‘n stakes are over in that barrel. Anything else?”
John hesitated a moment before asking, “who do I talk to about building some structures?”
“Hmmmm,” the bear man hummed. “Most of the buildings round here were all built at the same time, by everyone involved. I’m afraid you’re probably gonna have to do it on your own. Or maybe pay some of the local folk to help ya. But I’m guessin’ you don’t have a lot of money?”
John shook his head and the Ursine continued, “in that case you could try your luck with the dungeon, if you can clear a room or three you might find items worth selling, or bartering. Bit of a crap shoot really; poor thing hasn’t had much to absorb but what we brought with us.”
“Absorb?” John asked.
“Look,” the man rumbled. “It’s not that I’m not willing to help a newcomer out. But I’m not exactly here for teaching. You gonna actually buy that stuff you were talkin bout? Or you just gonna keep jawin?”
John ducked his head. “Sorry,” he said as he started picking through the items in the shop, grabbing up twine, and wooden stakes, then pausing to pick up a tent and sleeping roll as well. He laid the items on the counter and the man behind it grunted.
“Yeah, absorbed. Dungeons absorb things and then can recreate them. There’re laws about giving them too much expensive stuff though. Don’t want to wreck the economy. For instance don’t give a one level dungeon gaulau. Copper and such is fine though,” he said as he moved a paw over each item, eliciting a small glow around each one. “Stakes are one copper each, you’ve got twenty altogether, Twine is five copper a spool and you’ve got five, Bedroll is fifteen copper and the tent is thirty. So, ninety copper total.”
John winced but opened his inventory and pulled out small handfuls of the tiny coins until most of his worldly wealth was on the counter. The big man counted each copper and then nodded satisfied. “Go ahead and pack up your purchases. Also, you can will things into and out of your inventory, it takes a moment, isn’t as fast as opening it and putting things in or pulling them out. But it means people can’t get at your stuff easy either.”
Closing his inventory John started picking up items and willing them into his inventory. It took a moment to get the knack for it down, but even then it required a good bit of concentration; not something you’d want to do in battle then.
“Thank you mister…?” John intentionally trailed off.
“Theodore.” The man grunted.
“It was good to meet you, mister Theodore, I’m John. I’ll see you around!” John said as he started moving toward the front door. Theodore just grunted.
Back outside John started once more for the edge of town, not bothering to stop at the rock as he could see Loren was entertaining three more newcomers; so he strolled down the lane and out past the few nearby farms. He stopped when the road ended and looked out over the plains and considered. I should have looked at that map, he thought to himself. See if there were any features worth investigating.
With a sigh he started walking out onto the plains, looking for… he really didn’t know what. Something. He walked for nearly an hour before he gave up, there wasn’t much in the area, just flat grassy plains far as the eye could see. “Good a place as any,” he muttered and pulled out the Claim Spikes. He oriented himself toward the village and then paced off a square two hundred strides, when he placed the last flag a prompt popped up.
[You have staked out an area of 270,400 square feet, do you wish to claim it?]
* Yes
* No
John focused on the Y, giving his assent.
[Land Claim Formed. Do you wish to register this claim with the nearest town?]
* Yes
* No
Finished, he realized he had no clue what to do next. He didn’t actually have a plan, how could he have, not knowing what to expect? However he’d never really envisioned having to clear a large swath of land before using it, and now that he was here he didn’t really know where to start. Unsure of what to do he decided to log out and take a few moments to mull the problem over.