The next day I logged back into Terrane: Online. The events of the previous day were fresh on my mind as I booted up the visor. The white light flashed, and I found myself once again in the market place. I had no objectives today, so I decided to explore outside the city. I found my way back to the gate I had previously used. As I passed through the gate, a familiar voice greeted me,
“Hey you, you should be careful out there, don’t go into the forest until you get a little stronger, there have been monster sightings recently”
I turned towards the voice, and saw the same young guard as yesterday. I glanced around me before approaching the guard.
“What’s going on?” I ask
“Well, recently a skilled hunter had gone missing while in the forest. We hired a mercenary band to investigate, but none of them returned”
Hmm, is this a quest? “Is there anything I could do?”
The young guard looks around before replying, “well, if you were able to find out any information on what’s going on out there, I’m sure the city would be willing to pay”
“How much?”
“I would think a SP would be a reasonable price for the information. So, will you help me?”
Quest: Find out what is happening in the forest. Rewards: 1sp. Do you accept Y/N?
Yes.
Quest added
“Alright, I’ll look around for you”
“Oh thank you so much, you might want to buy some equipment before taking this on. It never hurts to be safe”
“Okay, thanks for the advice”
I walk off thinking over that conversation. A quest from a guard in a starter zone sounds like something simple. Either way, I should probably buy some equipment. Suddenly, an idea pops into my head. I open my menu and check to make sure he’s online. Nice, he is. I decide to call him. After a brief pause a voice speaks.
“Hello?”
“Hey this is Elli, I was wondering if you had some time to spare”
“Uhh, yeah I think I have a bit. Go to the east end of the city, I’m at the smithy right now”
“Alright, I’ll be there in a few”
I hang up the call and begin to move. The gate I have been using was at the north end of the city, so finding my way to the east was pretty easy. As I neared my destination, I noticed the types of buildings changing. These building, unlike the ones I’ve seen before are much more industrial. If I were to guess, this is probably the crafters district.
I see a strange building. The building is without walls, instead it is an roofed hut, with several people working at different stations. I spot a familiar figure, who’s massive stature dwarfs the other… well… dwarves. It was almost comical seeing the eight-foot tall beastman working next to four-feet tall dwarves. The elephant beastman was loudly smashing a hammer against a iron. With each resounding hit, I involuntarily flinched. Jeez that’s loud. Jorven stops smashing the hammer as he lifts up a large sword from the iron. He hands it off to one dwarves, who takes the sword, which is taller than him, away. Jorven sees me and approaches.
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“Yo, what’s up”
“Not too much you?”
“Just repairing a sword for a paladin”
“Cool”
“So, whadda ya need?” he moves onto the reason I’m here
“I talked to a guard at the gate and I got a quest”
“Ohhh, was it to investigate the forest?”
“What. How did you know?”
“That’s a starter quest, most players have done it already”
“Oh, so what is it?”
“Well, that’s a secret. You’ll have to do it yourself and find out”
Interesting. I wonder why he isn’t telling me anything.
“The guard at the gate said I should get some equipment…”
“Yeah, I would recommend getting a class before trying to tackle that quest”
“A class?”
“Yeah, classes are great. When you play this game with a certain style, the system will offer a class. For example, if you sneak past enemies and steal items, the system might ask if you want to become a thief. And since Terrane: Online is a generated game, we don’t even know how many classes there are” Jorven rattles off some reasons before getting to the important stuff, “The game really starts after you get a class. The class will give you abilities and skills, and you will start being able to level up.”
“So what class are you?”
“Me? I’m a metalsmith. It’s an subclass of blacksmith”
“Subclass?”
“Yeah. After you get a class, you can advance that class to a form of subclass. For me, I started as a blacksmith, then after working almost exclusively with metal, the system offered me the class metalsmith”
“Wow, what does metalsmith do?”
“Well, as a blacksmith you can work with all the basic metals, and until you get a subclass. As a metalsmith, I can smith metal with more efficiency as well as working with high quality metal”
“Cool. I wonder what class I should get?”
“Well, just do what feels right. If you don’t enjoy your character, you could always just make a new character”
“Alright. Thank you Jorven, you’ve really helped me”
“No problem Elli, if you need some metal worked, just let me know”
We wave goodbye as I walk off. What class to get. I was pretty useless against that rabbit, so probably not a combat class. Hmm what to do. As I walked through the craftsmen district, I spot a certain eccentric character by a caravan.
“Hey Fredrick!” I call out
“Hello miss…”
“Elli, I guess that neve came up yesterday” I pause for a moment before asking “How would I go about becoming an alchemist”
“Oh ho ho, little miss Elli thinks she has what it takes to become an alchemist does she?!” Fredrick coyly asks
“Well I was just asking”
“If you want to become an alchemist as great as I you must preform a feat. A test so hard, so complicated that only the great I could accomplish it!”
“Well, what is it?!” his excitement was infectious
“Are you sure you want to know?”
“What? Yes! Tell me”
“Okay, okay. All you have to do is create a potion of level 5 or greater!”
“…that’s it?”
“Well missy, look at the potion you made yesterday”
I checked my inventory and looked at the vial of poison. Level 1 poison it said. “What?!” level 1?
“Yes, level 1. To make a potion of level 5, you need level 5 ingredients. And I’m the only one who has them”
“How much for them!” now that I have a goal, nothing can stop me!
“Nope, I only sell to full-fledged alchemists. If you want the ingredients, you have to find them yourself”
“Find them myself? Where would I even start with that?” I may have rushed myself with the whole ‘nothing can stop me’ thing.
“All you need to do, is find level 5 ingredients in the wild. You need at least two level 5 ingredients, and one level 5 solvent and then you just need to craft it. Doesn’t seem as simple now does it?”
Before he even finishes speaking I’m off. I just have to find level 5 ingredients. Easy, maybe there’s some in the field outside the city.
“Wait where are you going? I’m not done talking!” I tune out what Fredrick saying so I missed it when he says, “Don’t you want to know where the ingredients are?”
It’ll be hard to find these ingredients, but if I put my mind to it I will succeed!