Pride of craft, chapter 1
*FLASH*
In a flash of light, Amariss appeared in the center of Serabourg, she stumbled a little, suddenly disoriented, and the glare of the sun blinded her for a moment, making her eyes hurt.
She blinked away the tears and without even looking around ducked under a shadow.
‘The hell was that? Felt like I was glaring at the sun, not looking around…’
While she rubbed her eyes and tried to recover her vision, her appearance drew a good deal of attention from the other users and NPCs alike.
The four common game races are human, elf, dwarf and orc. But truth be told, orcs were not unlocked yet and although there are a great number of elves and dwarves, usually players prefer to be human.
As such, most players actually go out of their way to make themselves look human, and it was not only for themselves, NPCs accept only the three races, as orcs are in war with humans, because of that, most non-human players prefer to go for their race’s own kingdoms.
So, it was rare for a non-human to start at a human settlement, as playing this way is harder than normal.
That was one of the information present in the tutorial… Which our heroine skipped…
Amariss finally managed to open her eyes a little, enough to look around herself. She was under the roof of a grocery store, the shopkeeper already glaring at her, ready to call the guards if she entered, there were a couple of people watching her with curious, amused and wary eyes, she couldn’t differentiate between who was a player and who was not, so she just settled for glaring at everyone.
Her harsh glare was enough for a couple of easily cowed people to look away, though some seemed even more amused at her. She did look cute after all, glaring or not.
“Stat window”
Stat Window Character Name Amariss Alignment Neutral Race Drow Class Undecided Title N/A Reputation -50(untrusted) Health 100 Mana 200 Strength 15 Agility 18 Vitality 10 Wisdom 18 Luck 0 Intellect 20 Leadership 0 Attack 3 Defence 0 Magic Resistance Fire 5% Water 5% Earth 5% Wind 5% Black Magic 5% Spirit Magic 15%
Night Vision(Passive)
You are one the Drow, you were born underground, as were your parents, your grandparents and your ancestors since ancient times, with time, your race became adapted to it and thrived in the darkness. Unfortunately, for that your kind suffers with both the sun and strong lights.
You can see in the dark, regardless of how dark it is.
Bright lights blind and hurt you. Harsh drop of accuracy under the sun.
— Racial Trait —
Attuned to Magic(Passive Level 1: 00.0% experience)
You are gifted with the natural talent in magic that would put many to shame. For you, magic is your birthright, yours to command and wield like none before.
Fire, Water, Earth, Wind and Black Magic Resistance +5%.
Spirit Magic Resistance +15%.
Can ignore requirements when changing class to mage.
— Racial Trait —
“Information: Drow”
Drow — “Those who survive are strong”
The backstabbing cousins of elves. Long ago, the dark elves entered a war against the other kinds of elves, with their magic that excelled even against the other kinds and with the blessing of the night they believed to be the superior race.
They had, however, forgotten to take into account the fact that they were outnumbered. As such, when the war was almost over and the end of their race seemed inevitable, a small group migrated for underground and closed all entrances to their last shelter.
They were the ancestors of the drow.
Life as one of the Drow is hard and unrelenting, backstabbing, betrayal, ambushes, plots, all this and even more can be found in any of their underground cities, when you add in the natural talent for magic and the fact that most Drow are physically stronger than their fair-skinned cousins… Well, there’s a reason their population is only enough for 3 cities…
A drow trusts no one, and in turn is trusted by no one, the only thing they respect is power and guile.
(For more information, visit the nearest library)
“Well… On one hand it gives me a lot of advantages… On the other hand; it gives me a headache…”
The shopkeeper was getting really mad, so she decided to continue viewing the information later. Squinting her eyes she eyed another shadow made by a wall close by and hurried to it, looking down the ground. That was going to be an annoying disadvantage… Maybe she could find some sunglasses?
“Inventory window” She called and eyed her meager belongings.
“10 pieces of bread and a canteen… That’s not going to work… Should I log-out and come back later when it’s nighttime in-game? But it’s going to be annoying to track time, times moves faster here, and I’m pretty sure most places close down at night… damn it…”
Sighing in frustration, she spent a few minutes moving her new body, getting a feel for the subtle differences between her real and virtual bodies as well as what exactly she could do with this new body.
She was amazed how her new body seemed made for speed and graceful movements, she tried a couple steps of some dance she picked up sometime during high school, then a couple of exercises and even some acrobatics she would never have the courage to try on real life.
After being satisfied with what she had, Amariss started planning her next step. She knew she couldn’t leave the city for four in-game weeks, so her level was mostly locked for now. And with her eyes there was no way in hell that she was going to stay outside.
Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author.
“A job then… And sunglasses… Shouldn’t be hard…”
It was unfortunate for her, that she knew nothing of the fact that her race drew unwanted attention from the residents of the citadel and she herself had no reputation with them, as such, Amariss was thrown out of the grocery store, the library, refused work at a fruit stand and denied entrance at the jewelry store.
“If I didn’t know better, I would think someone messed with my game on purpose…”
Just as she was contemplating giving up her plans, someone approached her.
“Hey miss, need help?” A tall player, probably playing warrior class and probably many levels above her by the armor he was wearing had approached her, offering a kind smile.
Amariss, however, did not trust that smile. This player was nowhere near her level, and usually should have no reason to talk or help her. It was easy to see that her traveling clothes were the basic equipment issued to every new player, and she had seen this guy inside the jewelry shop she was denied entrance. No, he could see she was a newbie, one who couldn’t even get a job to survive. Strictly speaking, there was no gain in helping her.
By that logic, there are the kind of people who would then exclaim how kind this man may be, offering help when there is no reward in return, and some people may feel indebted for him.
Amariss, did not. She did not trust people, she did not trust pure intentions, and she certainly didn’t believe in the kindness of others…
“No” She brushed past him, looking at the ground.
“Hey, wait, I just…” He started, moving after her, but she ducked into an open doorway while out of his sight.
Immediately intense heat reached her, together with the smell of iron and fire, the next thing she realized was the rhythmic sound of metal being hit.
One, two, CLANG, one, two, CLANG, one, two…
A few people raised their heads from their own works, but deemed her unimportant and went back to whatever they were doing. No NPCs glaring at her, no curious bystander, and while it sure was hot, the only lights came from the forges.
It was the blacksmith guild.
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Rosenheim was a relatively new kingdom, away from the central continent and the higher level players. A handful of pioneers had migrated to it, but ultimately, there was only a couple of real high level players in it, the average level of a player was around 80.
Because of that, the demand for production classes was a lot smaller here than anywhere else, there just wasn’t enough people buying to make it worthwhile and the higher leveled materials were harder to come by and had higher prices. This meant that there were even fewer crafting classes in Rosenheim than in the rest of the continent.
All because there just weren’t enough high-level players around.
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Amariss was sitting on a crate, back towards the wall, away from most of the people inside the guild, watching as a dwarf hammered with patience and skill a red-hot sword.
In real life, Amariss had trusted only herself and her own skills, but there are some times where even someone like her has to accept others can do something better.
She did not believe in people, but she believed in skill. It was for this reason she was watching the blacksmith.
In life her skills had failed her time and time again, but maybe… In this game…
*sssssshhhhh*
The dwarf cooled the sword in water, examined it for a few seconds, nodded and placed it together with other he had made the previous hours before glaring at the girl perched at a crate.
“What d’you need?” Blunt, somewhat harsh and to the point.
Amariss almost smiled, different from the player from before, this she could understand. She had in the previous hour estimated that this was one of the masters of the guild, and now that he had finished his work he had no excuse for avoiding talking to her, even if he didn’t like it. He was after all, supposed to greet new people coming and going.
“I want to learn how to make my own weapons”
The dwarf raised an eyebrow, and a couple of people raised their heads, curious.
“A cave-elf wants to create weapons? What, magic not enough for you missy?”
She had thought long and hard about that while watching the people in the guild and waiting the sun to go down. Magic would sure to make her powerful, and her own racial trait would give a great advantage for her.
But at the same time, mages were party players, they needed someone to tank the enemies, and a cleric for when things went wrong. It was also a costly profession, and most mages depended on friends who would constantly hunt with them for any sort of profit.
Because of that, Amariss opted against being a typical mage, sure, she was planning on going to the library and mage’s guild later to see if there was anything she could learn without becoming a squishy mage, but for now she needed both something to do and a job.
The blacksmithing guild usually received many orders the players could complete if they had the skill, if Amariss became a member she could immediately petition for a job, and while she certainly would not have the skill to complete the work orders, the guild always needed someone to make the deliveries.
Making deliveries was one of the best ways to get to know NPCs in town and Amariss hoped that with that she could finally get normal treatment from the residents.
Of course, she could not tell the dwarf that the skill was just a means to an end; that would get her kicked out of the guild so fast it wouldn’t even be funny, she could try flattery, but the tone of the man pissed her off, so she raised her chin and answered in a prideful voice.
“What better weapons to wield than ones I made myself?” She was completely missing the question he asked but she simply didn’t care.
He stared at her for a few moments before shrugging and taking a broken shield, motioning for her to move to one of the work stations.
“I know you’re lying but I don’t really care, come here, I will teach you to repair this, if you can do a good enough job, we will talk about blacksmithing…”
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In the end, it took a good 3 hours before Amariss could repair the shield by hand. As soon as she finished and swiped the sweat from her forehead a pop-up appeared.
You have gained a new Skill: You learned how to repair.
“A good enough work I suppose, seems you’re not your average cave-elf…” The blacksmith commented as he examined the shield, looking for imperfections.
Amariss didn’t even attempt to hide the intense dislike from her face in being called a cave-elf.
“You may be able to repair something with time, but that’s not enough you know? We have a bunch of weapons and armors our military sends us every week for repairing, get to work on it, when you’re not fumbling around with a hammer anymore I will teach you blacksmithing”
The long way of a repairman
Before you can create your own weapons, you need enough experience repairing a good deal of junk. The blacksmith guild gets a new shipment of broken equipment every week, go through it and raise your repair to intermediate level.
Difficulty level: F
Rewards:
— The right to learn Blacksmithing.
— A share of the payment for the repairs.
Amariss nodded, that much was expected, things were not so easy to get something just because you asked someone; the world was give and take after all.
You have accepted the quest.
When night came and the guild closed, Amariss had repair beginner level 2, a crate full of weapons going for the barracks and her body was hurting from all the work she did earlier.
She eyed the moon, now that the sun was not trying to burn her eyes off, she could finally appreciate the beauty of the outside.
“Wonder how much these are worth?”
The answer was 36 coopers, 3 for every piece of gear she had fully repaired. For comparison, the sunglasses she needed cost 4 silvers.
Though she did wonder why the recruit who greeted her seemed so enthusiastic to learn she had taken the quest.