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Spells and other abilities can have special keywords to denote certain common secondary details. For instance, any active abilities marked "Constant Effect" will not be affected by stats or status effects.
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Scarlet woke up to early morning light streaming through the windows of the inn.
Buff: Long Rest [boosted]
Grants sleep slot buff for 12 hours
+118% Stamina Cap
+118% Stamina Recovery
+6% HP Recovery
+6% MP Recovery
-50% Sleep Effect
...That seemed like a lot more stamina than Scarlet was likely to need in a day. Or maybe fighting and adventuring just used up more stamina than she was expecting.
Scarlet paused. Then pulled up the menu. She felt like she'd had a full night's rest, and now she was a little worried that maybe she'd somehow slept through the alarm to pull her out of the game.
It hadn't even been fifteen minutes in the real world?
She pulled her legs up against her chest and stared out the window. In the street below, players and NPCs alike passed by. People talked with each other, traveled across her view towards their chosen destinations, shared laughs, ate food... It felt so alive. There was a comfort in the sounds of the street that made her heart throb in her chest. Maybe if she didn't have other things to do, she would've just sat here and watched people go by for a while. She couldn't remember the last time she'd had the opportunity to do that in real life.
But she did have things to do, and being out in the sun on an adventure had already been fun the day before. There would always be time to sit back and relax in the future, and she needed to do more grinding so that she could afford better food than trail rations once her sandwiches ran out. Or maybe before then. Dry bread and pork jerky was already starting to get old.
Scarlet straightened herself out and made her way to the door. Just like last night the sounds of the inn were much clearer outside the room, but the inn itself was much calmer than it had been in the evening giving the whole space a peaceful atmosphere even with the clinking of dishes and cutlery from below.
The smells of the cooking food hit her nostrils as she made her way down the creaking stairs. It was enough to make her pause and consider buying something, but a quick look at her inventory reminded her that she had barely any money to her name still. Hot meals would have to wait a bit longer.
The first order of business was refilling her water. There had to be a well or spring around here somewhere, right? And there was. After two or three minutes of wandering it occurred to her to check the map again, after which she had to double back to the street behind the inn, which had a large square well right up against the wall of the inn.
Hard Leather Waterskin refilled: Clean Water x3.
The second order of business was figuring out where to do today's drop grinding. She could always go back to the fields further north, but it would probably be better to see if whatever dropped "wheatmold spores" was low level enough to work on before she switched back to pigs.
The southern outskirts were significantly less "fragrant" than the areas further north were, though the scent of rotting produce was stronger. Throughout the rollings fields of barley and wheat were scattered various white balls of fuzz. Mostly rabbits, but...
Check:
Hungry Wheatmold. Lvl 1, regular enemy.
There were little three legged puffs of mold-mushroom things shambling around in some of the fields instead. Those were probably what dropped the wheatmold spores, weren't they? How convenient.
The monsters were weak, even at her low level it only took a few arrows to take down the little spore puffs. The problem was that they were small enough that once they got stuck trying to clamber past the walls, Scarlet couldn't get clear shots at them over the wall with her bow. This meant that she had to pull her arrows out and stab them to death, and unlike the pigs the mold things were more than able to attack her when she leaned down to swipe at them.
Debuff: Slightly Poisoned [Mold Dust] (30 sec)
-0.5 HP/s
-1 Vitality
May stack to Mildly Poisoned if inflicted further while active.
Scar staggered back, coughing and gagging, waving drifting white dust puffs away from her face. This was going to be a long morning if she kept doing it like this. There had to be a better approach, and she had no idea how much longer it would take to level up.
She glanced a field over, looking at the Feral Rabbits. Maybe focusing on the quests until she had enough money to buy some slightly better gear would serve her better.
Ten minutes later she had concluded that the rabbits were not any less of a hassle. The wheatmolds could poison you, the rabbits were annoying to hit. It seemed like the game's expectation was that enemies of the same level as you still require effort every time. Especially since the rabbits were fully capable of jumping the fences to actually fight back. They didn't hit hard but they hit hard enough for it to hurt. At least she hadn't promised to hand over these rabbit hides so she could sell them in the market.
Ability Advancement: Improved Improvised Strike
Using weapons and items in combat in unintended ways incurs 20% less of an accuracy and damage penalty.
Scar glanced up from the rabbit she was currently trying to throttle against the pavement so it would hold still for her to stab more. Oh! Abilities leveled through use, that was actually very-the rabbit bit her hand and wriggled free when her grip loosened. Scar felt her eye twitch as she drew her bow and snap-fired an arrow into the rabbit's back.
+1 Tattered Rabbit Hide
It didn't really make her feel better. She sighed and stood up, idly flipping through her inventory. Surely there had to be a better way of approaching all this, right? A specific item caught her eye. The "soft kindling" she'd make during the tutorial gave her an idea, it might not be super useful on its own but if this game maybe supported stuff like lighting enemies on fire that could make grinding out here less of a pain.
But for that she was going to need materials, or at least something to light fires with. That should be cheap enough to buy once she'd sold a few monster drops, right?
After a few more rabbit kills to finish up a quest, she made her way back into Trevas proper, and then up to the marketplace. It was a large, wide open square. It didn't actually feel like much of a market right now, only a few sad NPC stalls were scattered around the cobbled plaza. But there were players, there were lots of players. Arguing, talking, laughing, cooking... It felt like there were more players here than she'd seen in her entire time in Worldwalker so far.
"Hey! Newbie! Crimson Scar!" Scar looked around, and saw a tall, broad-shouldered and dark skinned woman in what seemed like regular worker clothes with the nametag 'Charcoal Iris' waving her down.
Scar paused, looked around again, and hesitantly approached. "Sorry, do you need something?"
Iris flashed her a grin and handed Scar a stick of something. "Nah, I'm just on newbie duty right now sweetheart. Ain't seen your face around here yet, I'm guessin' you need to know how the place works?"
Food Item: Roasted Root Veggie Kebab [Crafted: Good]
Grants food buff for 1 hour:
+75% Stamina Cap
+60% Stamina Recovery
+10% Cold Resist
+1 Vitality
+1 Perception
Scar blinked, and nodded. "Ah. Yeah. I'm still... Finding my way around. Apologies." Scar looked back at the kebab. It looked good but she still had a couple hours of buff time left from breakfast.
Iris smiled and leaned against the wall beside her. "Feel free to hold it for now, ain't gonna go cold in the inventory." Scar blushed slightly and put the kebab away. "If you're here to buy stuff, sugar, just look 'round 'till you see the sign for it and head there. Don't worry if it looks like there's multiple folks at a spot, only so many a' the good craftin' spots so folks hafta take turns. If you need t' offload some goods, go talk to Uncle back at the center. I promise ya that another player'll pay better coin than the NPC shops." Iris gestured to various points around the square before pointing to the center. That all seemed pretty straightforward.
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Scar gave a bow and began to hurry off in the direction Iris had gestured. "Thank you ma'am!" Scar heard a round of laughter behind her, and another voice teasing Iris. And then Scar was into the crowds before she could hear Iris' response. 'Uncle'... So who would 'Uncle' be, so that she could get what she needed and back out to the fields.
Scar just about tripped over a man at the center of the crowd hurrying in the other direction. "Ah! Sorry! I wasn't looking where I was-" she helped the man up and her apology froze in her throat as she saw the nametag: 'Uncle Moneybags'.
'Uncle' cackled as he took her hand and hauled himself back to his feet. White mustache, a tiny shock of white hair on a round head, almost a full foot shorter than her, dressed in a black coat. "Don't worry, don't worry. If I haven't learned to look where I'm going yet either after having this happen to me five times a day since I signed up I can't hold it against you either, Miss...?"
Scar took a moment to respond, then startled, "Ah! Sorry. Call me Scar. Are you perhaps the 'Uncle' I was told to find?"
'Uncle' gave her a mock salute. "That sure would be me! You have something you're needing to sell off? You look new, hides and spores?"
"Um. Yes."
Uncle Moneybags gave a melodramatically deep bow. "Well then, welcome to the Worldwalker player exchange. Proper player shops aren't added yet so we've all set up this market ourselves best we all can. For your wheatmold drops you'll want to head all the way to the back, with all the cauldrons. For the hides head up to the tailor's shop, needle and thread sign. Ask for Joey, think he's the one handling distribution right now." Uncle placed a short casting rod against the ground and leaned on it like a cane. "Now, before you get in on all this you need to know a couple of ground rules. We're still ironing them out so they're not hard and fast yet, but you should still try to follow them. You listening?"
Scar nodded quickly, this did not seem like the kind of player to tick off. "Yes, I'm listening."
"Follow up on your deals and agreements as best you can, you're only as good as your word. Don't give other players a hard time if they beat you to a sale or can't give you what you want, we're all doing our best here so no abusing other shoppers and sellers. And finally, no trying to strongarm other players into giving you their goods so you can hike up the price, we don't take kindly to scalpers around here. That's all! Have a good day Miss Scar!" Uncle saluted her again and hurried off into the crowd-towards a sign that seemed to mark out a bakery.
It took Scar a few seconds to process the conversation before she remembered she was in a crowded square and began moving towards the tailor's.
The front of the tailor's shop was a chaotic mess. An array of tables spilled out into the street, covered in fabrics, thread, and needles, attended by a small crew of players working on the clothing or moving between tables. Sometimes people came in and out of the shop itself-it seemed like there wasn't enough room at the interior crafting stations.
Scar stepped up to one of the tables that didn't look occupied by another customer. Before she even had time to ask for assistance, 'Little Joey', a very large man in a light set of workmans' clothing stopped in front of the table. "Buying or selling? Make it quick I can barely keep up with the requests today."
Scar fumbled with her inventory panel and dumped the rabbit hides onto the table. "Erm, selling. I-"
"Oh thank god the rookies were running out of material. Are you willing to take part of your payment as a satchel equip?" Joey dropped a small pile of coins and a small carrying bag onto his side of the table.
"U-uh. Sure?"
"Great, thank you." Joey snapped up the rabbit hides and pushed the coins and bag to Scarlet. "Bring more hides if you can, we're paying almost triple the NPC shop rate right now there's just not enough material for everyone."
A girl back in the sewing tables called out, "Vest is done Joey! I need more materials to get on with the bandages batch!" Joey darted back through the tables, leaving Scar with the stuff he'd deposited.
+25c
Item: Rabbit-Hide Satchel [Crafted: Common]
Pouch Slot Equipment.
Allows using items in combat. Filled with: Nothing - 0/2 slots filled - 100% durability
+10% Consumable Speed
Oh. That was actually useful. Scar pulled the hood of her cloak up over her head and stood back up. She looked around for anything that might be useful for what she needed next. There. Nondescript bag sign. That would be a general store right? And it was less crowded than everywhere else. She darted through the crowd until she reached the door, just about sighing with relief when she got inside and the noise of the crowd in her ears quieted a bit.
"Bit loud out there huh? Want a drink?" Scar looked up-the store was in fact much quieter. Two tables of players, with one player offering her a place at their table.
Scar paused for a moment again, "Ah... Yes. Thank you." She made her way over and sat down between them all. The blonde knight who'd waved her over, 'Her Gilded Majesty' passed her a cool mug of something orange. Scar took a sip and coughed. It wasn't bad, but it also definitely wasn't what she was expecting.
Drink Consumable: Chilled Carrot Strain [Crafted: Simple]
Grants drink slot buff for 30 minutes:
+30% stamina cap
+40% stamina recovery
+20% Heat Resist
+1 Perception
She took another sip, the juice was definitely very carroty, but it was cool and refreshing and after all the running around she'd been doing it felt like the best thing she'd drunk in ages. She quickly drained the mug, then blinked as she felt her eyes tune slightly more into focus with the buff. "Ah... Thank you. Thanks."
Gilded smiled and waved a hand dismissively, "Don't worry about it. It's hard to get good chilled drinks around here, and you looked like you could use some refreshment."
The player to Gilded's left, a white haired slim male in blue mage robes named 'BlueGlacier' thumbed over a page in the book he was reading and glanced up. "And not even a thank you, Gild?"
Gilded laughed and leaned over to put him in a headlock, immediately drawing out protestations and flailing, "Yeah of course thank you, you goober. We'd still be drinking lukewarm barley water and ale if not for you." She finally released him and turned back to Scar. "Anyways, I'm Gild, that's Blue. Last of our little party is Toby." Gild pointed at the other player at the table, a guy fully wrapped in leather and metal armor so even his face was covered named 'Salty-Tobias'.
Scar nodded, "Thank you. You can call me Scar. I am... New here. I suppose you could probably guess that."
Blue glanced up, "Really, everyone's new here still aren't we? Worldwalker's only been up for a couple of hours, hardly enough time to really settle in as a community."
Gild scoffed, "It's been almost two weeks in-game, Blue. Give the girl some space."
Blue turned another page in his book, "My point is that nobody has everything totally figured out yet. There's no meta, we've barely explored the map as a playerbase, and half the players online have yet to hit level 3. Give yourself time to ease into it all, Scar."
Scar nodded slowly. "I suppose... I guess it's also... Everyone's just so nice? People keep just... Giving me things. Advice, items, directions... I'm not really... Used to this kind of community interaction. Let alone in an MMO."
Gild gave a shrill, delighted laugh, "I know! I can hardly believe it's all real players! You can count the number of actual jerks we've run into so far on one hand!"
Blue spoke up again, "Sorry Miss Scar, you seemed like you were in a hurry before. Did you need something?"
Scar sat up straighter, "Ah! Yes. Sorry. I'm looking for something I could use to add fire to my attacks. Or at least set enemies on fire in general."
Blue stroked his chin, "Shouldn't be too hard, lighting items ignite on their own so you could in theory just use a candle or torch. Do you have a pouch equipped? You can't use regular items or consumables mid combat without a bag."
Scar pulled her cloak to the side, showing her satchel to the other players, "Yes, I have one right here."
Blue gestured to the NPC behind the shop's counter. "Go buy yourself a couple of candles then, Scar. Set them in your pouch and you'll be able to use them in fights. I don't know how well it will work overall, but it's worth a try, right?"
Scar stood up, and Gild smiled at her and waved. "Let us know how it goes if we run into each other again!" Scar nodded, and moved to talk with the shop NPC.
-15c
+5 Candle Stubs
Candle Stubs placed in Rabbit-Hide Satchel!
Scar waved goodbye to the trio as she stepped back out into the crowded market square, then weaved through the crowd once more to get back to the outskirts.
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The candles did help. The rabbits didn't catch fire easily and would run circles around her while she tried to swing at them so it wasn't much help there. The wheatmolds on the other hand lit right up as soon as she got the candle close.
You are now Slightly Poisoned!
Of course, one swing was all it took for them to blast her with mold dust, forcing her to stop and pull back every few kills to let the poison wear off. And if she kept going like this she was going to start burning through her salves too. She wasn't going to have nearly as much to bring back to Jacko as she wanted if she had to constantly take naps to recover her health.
A thought struck her. She pulled another "arrow" out of her quiver, and with her other hand set the candle stub's weak flame to it. It took a couple of seconds, but the flame caught. She nocked the arrow, drew back the smoldering piece of wood against her bowstring, and took a deep breath.
New Ability: Fire Archer
Use a fire source to ignite your arrows before firing! This greatly reduces your attack rate and somewhat reduces your accuracy, but gives your arrows a chance to inflicting Burning or Burned, based on a reduced chance of the fire source's ignition strength. Certain arrow types may preserve ignition strength better than others.
+1 Wheatmold Spore
Scar silently pumped her fist in the air. Suddenly all this mob grinding was going to go way smoother, and all it took was a 'spark' of inspiration.
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Open Topic: Market Chaos
>So what's the deal with 'Uncle Moneybags'? Why do we trust the literal monopoly guy with the player economy.
>Everyone was arguing over the NPC store crafting stations a few days ago, and trying to buy and sell resources from the fields to crafting focused players was turning into a huge mess of arguments, and he just kind of showed up and organized everybody.
>Yeah he's pretty much the only reason there is a player economy.
>im so glad everything works now i dont want to go out and die to goats again.
>And he's not like. Taking a cut of the profits?
>He kinda does? You've seen how he runs the resource sales and stuff. He charges a little bit of cash as a 'finders fee' to people who want to outbid the crafting circles. But I keep seeing him not charging that fee to people. I think he actually just. Enjoys doing this.
>i think he's insane there's no way a rational person would be that chipper while doing retail management twelve hours a day.
>Do you think maybe he's level grinding by doing this?
>what? why? how would that give him xp?
>Same way that spam crafting is letting the really intense crafter build players level up their stats and crafting skills at the same time.
>oh yeahhhhh...
>"Social Skill: Middle Management."
>God I'm not even sure I'd be surprised at this point.
>I got the gardening skill from trying to hack through a hedgemaze you could tell me that just about anything in this game has an assigned skill and I would believe you at this point.