SUMMONERS TALE
Barely containing his excitement as he passed through the villages western entrance, Godric spared a polite nod for the npc guardsmen and players camped nearby before turning his full attention to the hunting grounds before him.
To prevent easy access for bandits and monsters, entire swaths of forest had been magically transplanted from around the village walls, leaving a stretch of leveled ground encircling the small forest village. It was in these cleared areas that newbie players matched themselves against their first enemies, Rabid Rabbits. Unlike many of the other races, elves greatly respected nature and creatures of the wild, so much so that they would kill anyone seeking to do harm to nature. Because of this nature-loving attitude, the designers of Royal Road had been forced to rework all of the normal monsters found in elven territories, after all it was hard for newbies to train on rabbits and foxes if they were being hunted by elven guardsmen at the same time.
The change wasn't all that different however, they simply placed a 'curse' on the many forests that turned the creatures rabid or feral, due to this the elves had no problem putting the poor creatures out of their misery. Rabid or feral monsters were only the slightest bit stronger than their docile counter parts but they could aggro despite their low levels and gave a few points more xp, not enough to make a difference in starting locations but enough to make up for the added difficulty.
Basically, all this meant was that Godric could gleefully hunt without repercussions from the village guards but he would need to be careful at all times, especially deeper in the forest as foxes and wolves would attack with little to no provocation. Putting that aside for later, Godric decided to start his hunt with some Rabid Rabbits, his high stats would definitely allow him to easily hunt on his own but it was prudent to see how well he could do in a real fight before moving on to stronger monsters.
Picking an individual rabbit off to the side, Godric moved a decent distance away and raised his staff towards the small creature. Prepared to attack, he took a single deep breath and focused, making sure that he properly remembered the words that had showed up in the spells drop down menu. All spells in royal Road required a chant at beginner levels, the more he leveled the spells, the more of the chant he could omit and the faster he could cast the spell.
"Power of mountain, might of earth, Rock Bullet."
From the ground just a few centimeters in front of his staff, three streams of earth flowed upward, compacting and condensing together until a stone roughly the size of his fist was formed. Once formed, the stone blasted forwards at high speeds, not as fast as an actual bullet but more like if it had been thrown by a professional baseball pitcher.
'That took about two and a half seconds to chant, form and fire.' Godric frowned, watching as the stone streaked across the small distance. 'That's slow but considering that the original cast time is 5 seconds, I'm not really in the position to complain.'
It was the somewhat ludicrous cast times that made magic spells unusable for the melee classes in battle, all magic classes had reduced casting times.
Crossing the distance in what seemed to be an instant, the stone impacted solidly with the rabbits side, dealing over 50% of it's max hp in damage and sending it rolling a few feet. However, the rabbit was quickly back on its feet and racing towards him, its eyes glowing red in rage as it ignored the bleeding gash torn into its side. Godric didn't panic however, he had started attacking from quite a distance and the first blow had knocked the rabbit even further away, he had plenty of time to fire another Rock Bullet.
"Power of mountain, might of earth, Rock Bullet."
You've dealt a fatal blow!
The second rock bullet struck the creature head on in the face, its enraged state preventing it from even thinking of dodging aside, this was more than enough to kill it. With a small splash of blood, the rabbit turned grey and vanished away, leaving nothing but a small pile of loot behind. Walking to the pile, Godric picked up what looked to be the rabbits pelt and some teeth, it was all mostly worthless but he would keep them as they could come in handy as crafting materials.
"I think that went well." Godric spoke to himself, reviewing the short fight. "I'm sure it'll be harder with stronger monsters, especially with such a delayed casting time but I should be able to handle most things in this area. I'll definitely need to party with a meat shield or two later on."
Nodding to himself, he headed off to find another rabbit to fight, Royal Road was a game that heavily depended on natural reflexes and skill. If he hoped to survive for long as a mage, he would need to gain as much combat experience as he could before moving on to stronger enemies, there was a reason foxes and wolves were considered terrifying by all new players.
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"Hah, how exhausting." Godric sighed, dropping down onto the ground and leaning against the village wall.
He'd spent the last couple hours hunting and testing each of his spells, only pausing to meditate when his mana ran low before continuing with the hunt once more. In that time, he'd managed to kill several dozen rabbits, gaining him 4 easy levels and quite a lot of crafting mats, mostly just pelts, teeth and a couple pairs of ears as rabbits didn't have much else to drop.
In addition to his 4 levels, Godric had gained a few stats points from his spell casting and a brand new stat, the stat was the mages equivalent of the Fighting Spirit stat warriors gained and he'd gotten it after a dozen fights with the higher level rabbits.
[p=center]Spiritual Presence: Allows you to call on sagely intellect temporarily, weaker monsters can be brought to their knees within your presence. You can't allocate points to this stat, it raises spontaneously due to your actions, especially if you fight monsters for a long time or confront monsters stronger than your current level.[/p]
It wasn't that great of a stat as every character eventually received it or its counterpart and it didn't seem to do much, it could stop weak monster from attacking you unprovoked even if they would normally aggro but the times that happened were few and far between. Still, the stat didn't need him to pour points into it, leaving him to add his twenty new points into his vitality and intellect.
Each level up would net him 5 points so he'd decided to go with a 2/3 split, two for vitality and three for intellect, wisdom was a stat mainly used by priests and monks, it had little bearing on a mage so he could leave it to grow on it's own.
[quart=Character Name,Race]Godric,High Elf[/quart][quart=Alignment,Level]Neutral,5[/quart][quart=Profession,Title]Earth Mage,None[/quart]
Character Stats
Fame
0
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[quart=Health,Stamina]660,380[/quart]
Mana
2280
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[quart=Strength,Agility]38,44[/quart][quart=Wisdom,Intellect]165 (30),192 (30)[/quart][quart=Elemental Affinity,Spiritual Presence]15,13[/quart]
Vitality
46 (20)
Luck
0
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[quart=Attack,Magic Attack]14 - 19,67 - 70[/quart][quart=Defense,Magic Resistance]0,0[/quart]
As he was satisfied with hunting rabbits, Godric decided to take a break and try his hand at crafting before moving on to foxes, he'd stocked up on quite a lot of herbs and rabbit materials to make a few pieces of equipment and foodstuffs. Nothing he'd found could be used to make potions but there was enough fruit and spices that he could make some jam for his bread and spiced rabbit meat stew.
Pulling out the portable cooking set, which was just a pot and frying pan with magic circles drawn on their bottom, he set about frying the meat while the water boiled. As that was happening, Godric also pulled out his sewing kit and tried fashioning himself a new hat, his current one looked like the traditional hat witches were often portrayed with and it looked quite ridiculous on him.
Time passed as he busied himself with his crafting skills, his cooking skill was high enough that he didn't burn the meat but he'd pricked his finger a few times while sewing and had yet to produce anything remarkable. His best was a simple toque like item and despite being quite bland in appearance, it looked much better than his current hat but the stats sucked in comparison, especially when the set bonus was taken into account.
'Still, I can get by without the set bonus, I just need to make a decent hat first.' Godric mused, one eye focused on his system-assisted sewing hands while the other was on the pot of boiling stew.
This narrative has been purloined without the author's approval. Report any appearances on Amazon.
It was as he was looking at the Rabbit Meat Stew that an inspiration hit him, there were a few items he could add to the hat to enhance it more.
Pulling out a pair of long grey rabbit ears, Godric set about sewing them to the best hat in his small collection, even as he did this he noticed the ears transforming from real and bloody rabbit ears into cotton stuffed replicas. Another quirk of the system that players normally ignored when crafting with organic materials.
It took him a few minutes to add the first ear, then a pause as he downed a delicious bowl of soup to replenish his satiety, then another handful of minutes to sew the second ear on. Deciding to stick with the toque motif, Godric also attached a pair of fluffy rabbit tails on string to the sides of the hat, creating an item that while still silly in appearance, didn't look quite as bad as his current hat.
The stats were nothing to sniff at either.
Rabbit Ear Toque.
A cute little hat fashioned from a cute little bunny, great for keeping your ears warm.
Durability: 18/18
Defense: 14
Equip:
* +5 Vitality
* +10 agility
* +10 intellect
* +5 Wisdom.
Limits:
* Agility 20+
* Intellect 20+
* Level 8.
The level was higher than he could wear at this point but he could easily gain three levels before it was time to log off, Rabbits were level 6 at minimum and he was still gaining decent xp from them, the level 9 foxes would give him more than enough xp.
Having crafted a decent enough hat, Godric tried his hand at making some other items but he soon found that he'd used too much pelt in the creation of the hat, leaving too little to do much else with. Sighing in annoyance, he put the tailoring materials away and decided to try another one of his crafts, a small stack of gems and wooden branches appearing from his inventory one after the other.
The gems in question, twenty in total and all of them quartz stones, had been purchased from the jewelers guild on his way to the equipment store and had set him back 15 gold, a veritable fortune for a newbie player. Still, if he wanted to put his Gem related skills to good use, he would have to spend a good deal of money or take up mining.
The wood he'd pulled out was just a pile of simple branches he'd picked up from the forest floor, there was no lumber mill in elven territory and chopping wood himself was a good way to get ganked by the village guards.
With his supplies piled in front of him, Godric drew his carving knife and set to work, alternating between wood and gem to grind his two skills.
You have created Cracked Quarts Gem.
You have created Splintered Oak Staff.
You have created Flawed Quartz Gem.
You have created Cracked Birch Staff.
You have created Cracked Quartz Gem.
You have created Splintered Birch Staff...
Roughly an hour or so later, Godric finished with his carving, leaving him with 7 flawed quartz stones, 13 cracked quartz stones and a pile of 13 splintered or cracked wooden staves. As he had no natural skill in woodworking or gem cutting, Godric had mostly left the crafting to the game's system assistance which was why he'd produced a large number of failed products as his skill level was still quite low.
As a consolation, he'd only cut himself five times and the resulting wounds had been quite minor.
Smirking at the large gain in experience points for his two skills, Godric decided to save his flawed stones for a later time and use the cracked ones to further level his skills. Taking one of the cracked gems and a cracked staff, Godric held the gem to the staff top and activated his gem faceting skill, watching as the small gem seemed to sink into the wood until only the smallest amount of the gem was sticking out.
You have created Cracked Staff of Earth.
"Identify."
Cracked Staff of Earth.
A pathetic staff, not even the most desperate of mages would use it.
Durability: 3/10
Damage: 1 - 3
Magic Damage: 2 - 4
Equip:
* +1 Intellect
* Spell Cost of earth magic is reduced by 0.05%.
Limits:
* Level 1.
"Wow, that's terrible." Godric sighed.
While there was a chance to upgrade the weapon by faceting more gems to it, there was no point with such a pathetic weapon, it would be a waste of his remaining quartz. Besides, he gained more experience from creating a new tool than from upgrading an existing one.
You have created Splintered Staff of Earth.
"Wow, that's even worse." Godric grimaced after identifying the weapon, the splintered state made it so that this staff actually caused the wielder a small bit of damage while equipped.
Regardless of the pathetic state of the crafted weapons, Godric continued on until he had 13 cracked or splintered staves of earth, all of which he could trade for a few coppers when he next visited the town store. A bonus to his perseverance was that his woodworking, gem cutting and gem faceting skills had each gained a level, making the work somewhat worth it.
Finished with that branch of his crafting skills, Godric picked up one of his failed staves and moved on to the next part, placing an enchantment. As he had an enchanting level of 4 from his reading, he was capable of placing one of two known enchantments on the staff, the number of enchantments he could memorize and place would eventually grow as the skill leveled up.
Right now however, he could only place an enchantment to increase intellect or increase strength. As it didn't matter which enchantment was placed to level the skill, Godric swapped between the two as he enchanted the 13 weapons, the enchantment skill only requiring a mana cost at this low level, higher level enchantments would require mana and a crafting material.
Each use of the enchanting skill costing him 250 mana so Godric could only enchant the first 9 before he had to meditate, ten minutes of which fully recovered his mana and allowed him to enchant the final 4 staves. The finished product wasn't much better than when he'd started, he'd only been able to add 4 intellect or strength to each weapon, it was quite pathetic as far as he was concerned but the skill was still low level.
"Finally finished." Godric sighed as he placed the last staff in his inventory. "I can't believe it took three hours to grind my crafting skills and I barely got a level in each one, no wonder people complain about the crafting classes."
Still, he knew that having a good level in various crafting skills would come in helpful later, at the least it would be a good way to make and save coins in the future.
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Finished with his crafting, and noticing there was still a few hours until sunset, Godric headed into the forested area outside the gates. Feral Foxes only spawned in the woods surrounding the forest but were quite difficult to hunt as they could easily hide in the bushes and undergrowth of the forest, this mean't that they could often gain the first attack and would be close enough to land a couple hits before he could chant and retaliate.
With his low health, this could easily spell his death unless he teamed up with a tank or thief class. Still, with his list of skills and high stats, Godric was willing to give it a try before retreating.
"Guardian stone, stalwart defender of the mountain, Earth Barrier."
As he completed the chant, a brown tinted, transparent dome of energy appeared around him, protecting him on all sides with the power of earth.
"Power within, protection without, Barrier."
This chant called a light blue, transparent dome into existence within the brown dome, the two barriers serving as protection from outside forces.
Godric had already gained a level in Earth Barrier when he'd discovered that he could cast both barrier spells at the same time, this had been mentioned online but it was such a small mention that he'd practically forgotten about it until he'd cast Barrier before his Earth Barrier dispelled. Rabbits didn't deal much damage but they were good enough for leveling his barrier spells, the spells only gained experience when they were damaged, much like how attack spells only gained experience from causing damage.
As Earth Barrier was level two, the barrier's heath had risen by twenty points, putting Earth Barrier at 120 hp and Barrier at 100 hp. This gave him a shield capable of handling up to 220 hp of damage before he began taking damage, 220 was more than enough for him to cast Rock Bullet 6 times against rabbits, foxes would probably allow him to cast it 3 or 4 times. The only issue with the barriers was that they permanently lowered his mana until dispelled, this left him with 400 points missing from his overall mana, a whole 4 casts of Rock Bullet missing from his arsenal.
Still, foxes shouldn't be all that much stronger than rabbits and as they didn't work in groups, he could hunt and rest as per usual.
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