Riley dropped a pile of logs down on the ground, letting out a sigh of relief now that his hands were free. “Damn, that took a lot longer than I thought it would. I know gathering in MMOs can be a tedious process at times, but that’s just crazy.”
Azalea nodded in agreement. “I can’t believe just a simple thing like knocking down a few trees can take hours.”
They’d all taken to the forest to collect wood, working until their packs were full. Each slot on the rucksack could hold up to 10 wood, so they could carry twenty a piece. Riley had been the last one to return. Oscar, just as grumpy with how long the process had taken, had announced he was going hunting to work on his skills. That left Azalea, Riley, and Caius to tend to the other tasks that making a long-term camp entailed.
“If only it were as simple as just putting our tents down,” Caius said. “The way it was with older MMO games.”
“I’m surprised you know of any,” Riley answered. “I don’t think I know of any MMOs that used tents, at least in any impactful way.”
“Eh, there was one. It got adopted into full immersion, but it didn’t really last long after that. There were so many different classes and characters you could play. Switching between characters of different shapes and sizes got exhausting. But it was a good game, with a lot of skills. This game kind of reminds me of that one, at least when it comes to the Life Skills.”
“I remember you telling me about that one,” Azalea said suddenly. “Black Desert Online, wasn’t it?”
Caius nodded. “That was another game you would have loved. There was a lot of PVP, but almost half the game was life skills like cooking, fishing, farming, and alchemy.”
“Maybe this game can have that for me,” she suggested. “Well, we’re about to find out in any event.”
Now that she had eighty logs stacked up in one place, she could start on the next step. Working with the hatchet, she began cutting the logs length-wise, producing about four simple planks per log. Not bad, she thought. Now if only she could figure out how to turn these short planks into something useable for building.
“Any ideas?” She asked Caius and Riley. They shook their heads.
“I think you might need nails,” Riley said. “Or at least rope.”
Of course. She’d been so caught up in the thought of this being nothing more than a game she hadn’t considered the other requirements that a house would have. Still, they put the planks together in a pile. Oscar returned shortly after that, half-carrying, half-dragging the body of a deer, puffing with exertion. He laid the animal down beside the campfire they’d created.
“There were some monsters around so I didn’t dare skin and butcher it out in the forest,” he explained, drawing the mentioned tools from his bag. We can use the meat if you want, Azalea. I know the hide will fetch a pretty price.”
With Caius’ help, Oscar quickly dismantled the deer into its relative parts. Azalea felt a little squeamish, so she focused her attention on finding a nearby creek. She’d picked this plot of land because a Terrian in the village had mentioned water in the area. He might have to purchase more than one plot to gain access to it, she thought. When she returned, there was no sign of the deer, save some meat piled on a few of their planks and a thin hide that steamed slightly in the cool air.
“I thought there’d be more than that,” Oscar said, looking down at the small pile of raw venison. “I wonder if it has to do with my skill level, or if this is just how little meat they drop.”
“I think it’s ‘cus the deer is a common animal,” Riley replied. “The game can’t exactly let you farm a crapload of materials off of one little animal.”
Oscar shrugged slightly. “Ah well. I can always hunt more. That proved surprisingly easy.”
“Really? You didn’t mess up at all?”
“Well,” Oscar admitted with a laugh, “I missed the first two that appeared. I took a lot of archery classes as a kid, but apparently, the muscle memory takes a bit to remember.”
“How can we get our hands on other materials?” Caius asked. “I imagine it’ll get real expensive to buy all the nails and metal pieces we need.”
This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.
“It’d be cheaper to buy ingots if we’re making small stuff,” Riley agreed. “But then again, we don’t have a forge, either.”
“It would be even cheaper to get our own raw iron,” Azalea said. “But we run into the same problem there. No way to smelt it down.”
“I wonder if someone in the village could help us with that,” Caius suggested. “If we pay them a small fee, they could smelt down the iron and provide us with ingots.”
“That’s not a bad idea,” Oscar said with a slow nod. “But again. That kind of thing can only be found in a mine, right? Not like there’s going to be deposits of raw iron sitting between some trees.”
And so they agreed to spread out and look for such a mine. Even if they didn’t have a way to use the materials, they felt better doing something, and they could sell whatever they dug up. Azalea and Caius went their own way, heading north away from the village and toward some mountains they could see in the distance. Riley and Oscar said they were going east, to search through the forest.
“What do you think of those two, Azalea?” Caius asked. He’d waited no longer than it took to get out of hearing range before asking the question. “Think they’re alright?”
“Why?” She asked, surprised by the questions. “Do you think there’s something shady about them?”
He was quick to deny that. “No, I’m just making sure you’re alright with them. You know i don’t want to be making all the decisions around here.”
A faint smile curled his lips, and she rolled her eyes. He was so good at mimicking a serious manner when he wanted, and he usually did it just to mess with her. “I think they’re fine. Sure, we don’t know anything about them, but that’s the point, isn’t it? They’re strangers. We’ll get to know them in time, and if they turn out to be griefers or they try to sabotage us, we can just part ways.”
“That’s true. Well, as long as you’re alright with them.”
“Still thinking you might not play this game for that long?”
He didn’t reply to that question right away, his eyes scanning the forest around them. He’d chosen to create a little stubble on his face for this character, she thought. He seemed to be going for a more rugged appearance this time around. She thought she quite liked the small change. It made him look like a veteran warrior.
“I don’t know,” he finally admitted. “At first, I thought this game was kind of rough around the edges, like it was unfinished.”
“And now?”
“I still think there’s a lot to the game that hasn’t been touched on. But… I don’t know. I can’t shake the suspicion that there’s something special about this game. It’s almost as if some of the best parts of my favorite games were selected and thrown together into this.”
Azalea glanced around at the trees, then back in the direction of their campsite as if she could actually see it. Of course, this forest was thick, and they’d barely gone a hundred yards before they’d lost sight of the pile of planks they’d created. “It doesn’t feel patched together to me.”
“That’s my point,” he said, raising his eyebrows. “We heard nothing about this game before we got that email. This is a new game, from a brand-new studio. It should all have a rough sort of texture to it. But it… doesn’t.”
Azalea thought she knew what he was getting at there. It was something he talked about a lot. Caius, or rather Dale, loved talking about game mechanics, and the way that the industry as a whole had changed over the years. He got very long-winded about it at times, but Azalea never had a problem listening, seeing how happy the subject made him. He would always talk about games that were “diamonds in the rough”. Games that blew their competition out of the water, and set a new standard for gaming for the next few years.
“You think this might be one of those revolutionary games, don’t you?”
He nodded solemnly, but there was an unmistakable gleam in his eyes that belied the cool facade. “I can’t be sure, of course. We haven’t played long enough for me to form a real opinion. But it’s starting to feel that way.”
“Well, I hope you’re right,” she said. “I know you like games that require a commitment.”
He nodded again, this time allowing a grin to break through. “That’s true. I do love the grind.”
The Grind. It was an abstract concept that long-time gamers like Dale always talked about. The art of putting hours of time and dedication into a project or game they enjoyed. She liked gaming. She even loved it at times. But for gamers like Dale, it was more. More than work, more than a passion. It was a drive. She thought she had that in a quieter way at times, with the farming and exploration games she’d taken a liking to. But could she have something for a game so tedious as this one?
After over an hour of walking, following a small but well-marked path between the thick trunks of the forest, they came across a substantial clearing. A decently-sized river ran through it, almost as if it were deliberately placed. And on the far side, there was a raised chunk of earth, easily fifteen or sixteen feet tall, more a small hill. And it had an opening, like a small cave.
“This might be just what we’re looking for,” Caius said, pointing to the opening. They crossed the river, splashing through the cold water and coming to stand at the opening. “Yep, that’ll do the trick.”
Azalea stepped forward to stand beside him, trying to peer into the cave to see if she could make out its interior. As soon as she did, text appeared in her vision, explaining exactly what they were looking at.
[Abandoned Medium Iron Mine]
[This untapped mine is unknown to the local population. Monsters and Wild Animals may call the space home.]
[Would you like to purchase this Medium Iron Mine (2 plots) for 20 Yemon?]
Without hesitation, she confirmed. “Yes!”