The End with New Beginnings_The End

Liam stood in the long line at Processing Center #34. He had tuned out the world on the bus ride here. Now he had his backpack weighing him down while the line shifted slowly forward. His parents told him he was lucky to get selected in the lottery. At fifteen he didn’t think he was. He wanted to wait for the end with his parents and sister. His sister had also been selected but her bus ride took her to Processing Center #39, seventy miles north of him. The only good news was they would see each other in the Palladium Online.

The last six months was a whirlwind. The Earth was doomed to be assaulted by an asteroid swarm that was projected to have hits over 45% of the planet. Scientists only expected about 0.01% of higher life forms to survive the first five years post impact. The SEC, also known as Space Exploration Corps, had a theory to save the human race. There stasis pods for long distance travel allowed bodily functions to be slowed to about 1% of normal, meaning a person would age about a year for every hundred years in the pod. During testing they found the mind was alert and active and needed stimuli to avoid insanity. SEC teamed with a virtual reality firm to create an environment for the mind to interact with and this allowed 88% to maintain mental stability up to 34 years out. There were estimates they had deduced during testing that could raise this higher but they were yet untested.

SEC knew they couldn’t get everyone into space so they built underground facilities using BORING tech and set up fission power stations to power the stasis pods. They were working feverously to build 205 such facilities in the least likely impact areas and were on pace to complete 98 such stations before 0 HOUR. There just wasn’t enough time to get them all complete by there was the human will.

Liam was part of the first group to be selected to be put into stasis. His high test scores in high school and excellent athletic ability made him a prime candidate. Also the fact both his parents were low level administrators at SEC probably hadn’t hurt his and his sisters chances.

Each station was designed for 32,768 pods. The math meant only about 3 million of 15 billion people on Earth could be saved. That was 0.0002% of the population, he was lucky. Although no one under 10 or over 40 was eligible for the lottery. And your odds in the lottery were supposedly higher based on your fitness and school test scores. Those under 10 could not safely undergo the strenuous implant process and anyone over 40…well the scientists predicted a minimum of 800 years before the Earth could recover enough from the impacts. However the consensus was 2,000 years before the atmosphere would allow for human life again. That meant Liam would be 38 physically and 2,018 years mentally when he was revived.

He was now at the first stage of processing. A woman in a white coat had Liam put his hand on the scanner. He felt the prick in his thumb drawing blood. It took two minutes to genetically confirm his identity. The women handed him a package and told him to head into the facility 4 and to lab number 78. Liam numbly walked forward. He had wished his parents had been at least able to get both him and his sister to the same facility but his mother had elaborated on the massive amount of politics in regards to building the centers and favors that needed to be bartered. That made him think of his bus ride here. Everyone had been under twenty except two people in the back looked in their mid 30’s and had a strong resemblance to a certain politician on TV.

Liam arrived at the lab and went inside. An operating table was there and a nurse told him to undress and put on the supplied uniform. He placed his heavy backpack down. It contained a lot of things, mostly pictures and letters from his family, small memorabilia and two .45 Colt pistols with ten loaded clips each. That was his dad’s idea. His dad was probably one of the brightest minds of the century. He was always thinking ten steps ahead. He was worried that when everyone awoke what condition they would be in and what sort of resources would be available. There was supposed to be a 200 year supply of food and water available for the revivals in 2000 years at each installation but things never go as planned.

James changed slowly but finished before the doctor arrived. The doctor eventually arrived and talked to the nurse. He had James lay down on the table and placed a mask over his head and drifted into oblivion.

The process was intense and time consuming. This is why they had needed to start processing groups three months before Zero Hour. Besides the neural implants James would be getting muscle nodes and circulatory bypasses. The implant allowed him to interface with ZEUS, the master AI controller for Palladium. The muscle nodes and circulatory bypasses would facilitate his stasis submersion and revival. After the surgery he would have twenty days to heal and then be put into stasis and log into Palladium.

When Liam awoke he was in immense pain. He screamed. A nurse came in quickly and checked him and the screens next to his bed. She said something about 18% rejection. Before he could focus through the pain and ask a question she must have put him back asleep. The next time he awoke he ached all over and his chest and lungs burned but it was tolerable. His arm felt very stiff as he reached over to a monitor to look. He didn’t understand a thing other than the date. He had been unconscious for eight days.

His removed his wires and tried to stand. That brought a nurse in who pushed him back into bed and reattached the lines. Liam asked for food and water but the nurse said his IV was taking care of his needs and he needed to avoid solid food as it would make stasis more difficult. He relaxed and went back to sleep. Over the next twelve days his nurse took care of him and talked to him for at least an hour out of the day. Her name was Candice and she was scheduled to be in the last group going into stasis. She encouraged Liam to study the game manual.

The game manual. It was unlike any other game Liam had played growing up. It was suppose to be a fantasy and science fiction mash up. The science fiction part though would take a few hundred years to develop. Striving to get into space and exploring other worlds was suppose to alleviate the boredom according to SEC. The game was extremely intricate and the manual just brushed it in large strokes. The truth behind this Liam knew unlike most of the other 3 million people hoping to be saved. The game was still developing. There were thirteen A.I.s governed by Zeus. These A.I.s created the world and its RPG style systems. The world was quickly aging 100,000 years to be prepared for the first players. Liam would be in that group with another 30,000 or so players. The A.I.s were acting as gods…guiding the development and history of the world and some 50 million inhabitable planets in a galaxy of 2 billion stars. The processing power was immense and each A.I. was housed in a 3 million square foot underground facility. They were all linked together and to the 205 facilities being built. This allowed everyone to play the game together. It would allow Liam to find his sister as well. There would also be a forum created by the players to help each other out and form guilds. There was also a game reset when revival was close. The reset was supposed to focus on real world skills of surviving the apocalypse environment. But Liam was not supposed to know that. His parents had also reinforced that the base game was not pointless. How well he did could have benefits. What those benefits were they didn’t know.

Liam was apathetic still and had trouble focusing on what material the game had supplied so far to developers. Worst case scenario is he could figure it out when he logged in. It was getting close to his time to go into stasis. He was allowed one last call with his parents. They were all smiles on the video call and he could see his dog, Flicka, barking in the background at the screen. She had been his best friend throughout high school. He knew his parents were trying to be positive and happy for him but he started crying anyway. This made his parents cry too. The call lasted over an hour but after Liam felt better. He had some closure.

He talked with his sister next. She was all excited about the game. Apparently at her facility she had been interacting with other teens in center and they planned to form a group. She invited Liam but he was hesitant. He definitely wanted to see her regularly in the game but didn’t want to commit to a new group of people he didn’t know. She was also rambling on about the game mechanics and excited about the opportunities. Liam just nodded and burned her face into memory. When the call ended Liam went to the terminal and decided it would be prudent to start. The manual was over fifty thousand pages. A lot of it was the world history and there were hints of other things evolving on other planets as well.

He spent two days reading the histories. The first 10,000 years revolved around the time of the dragons. The gods guided their arrival and ascension. Then the god Lucius created a race to enslave the dragons. This race was the Aerinu. They had powers to make dragons submit and they fought for power among themselves. The Aerinu grew bold over the next ten thousand years and challenged the gods for power. They were cast down hard and some individuals fled to other planets in secret. At this point I could see the clear plot line. Once we gained power and got into space we would eventually have to defeat the Aerinu. Well the next 10,000 years was the time of the elves, who had been slave playthings of the Aerinu. The elves had a tiny amount of Aerinu blood which gave them their immortality. They had peace for about 8,000 years in there era before a portion of their race was corrupted by Lucius and became dark elves. The battle was vast and bloody and the dark elves fled to under the earth. The next age of 10,000 years involved the rise of goblin kin and dwarves. It was unclear where both races arose from but I guessed Lucious played some role. They battled each other fiercely with the powerful elves taking no sides. The dwarves built massive defensive structures and mined metals to fuel their war machine. The goblinkin bred fast and was difficult hold back. Toward the end of the age the dwarves sought an alliance with the elves to eradicate the goblinkin forever. The elves declined the offer and the dwarves fought alone against the growing tide for a thousand years. With the dwarves on the brink of extermination the elves swooped in and pushed the goblinkin back and used powerful magics to slow their prolific breeding. The dwarves never forgave the elves for waiting so long to join the fight and animosity between the races developed. The next age was the Age of Demons. Unleashed by orc shamans from another realm or most likely planet. The dwarves retreated under the mountains and to their fortresses. The elves were forced to fight the powerful demons and their imps. The demon lords forced the elves away and turned their own magic on them. As once the elves cast powerful magics to limit the breeding of goblinkin the demons did the same to the elves. Many elven clans fled to ‘far off’ places to avoid destruction. And so the elves started to fad from existence and the demons ruled the world. In the next age the gods stepped in and introduced the Angelics, the sworn enemy of the demons. The bloody battle ensued and eventually a pact was reached for both sides to withdraw from the ravaged planet. As the planet healed from the titanic battles that were fought the beastkin races arose. Each diety favored one race of beast kin and had them as worshippers. An age of balance was struck between the beastkin, remaining elves, dwarves and goblinkin. Small cities grew that traded with each other. Tension started to wan between the races and prosperity ensued. The next age was the age of magic. Lucius didn’t like the peace on the world and introduced infused more magic into all peoples and then promoted conflict through his avatars. The goblinkin and dark elves joined forces. The dwarves and elves built a soft alliance. The beastkin were divided and choose whichever side suited their interests. Great magics were unleashed. Cities were destroyed and rebuilt. The war was ended by the elves once again cursing the goblinkin and the beastkin that sided with them. The curse affected their mental abilities making it difficult for them to access magics. The dark elves shielded themselves from the curse but with their allies now unable to support them fully they retreated once again. The next was the first age of man, once again it was Lucious who is rumored to have brought this destructive force. Man arrived and enslaved the beastkin while the elves and dwarves retreated to safe havens. Soon man controlled the majority of the planet. With nothing left to conquer they fell upon each to seek supremacy. Somewhere toward the end of the age the beastkin revolted and slew many of their masters. Now in the 10th Age a new race is being introduced to the planet, The Outworlders. This of course refers to the players which I was soon to be one. We are going to enter near the middle of the 10th age. The gods have been setting up the planet for our arrival. Making dungeons, setting quest lines, making NPCs, balancing the races and cities, making zones targeted for certain levels, introducing new monster variants. It was a great story line and it hinted at a lot of things for future in present. I only had about three days remaining to study the game play as I got absorbed reading the history. But I had gained a lot of lore. I knew the names of the first Seven Elven Kings and the names of a dozen of the first dragons. I knew all the races and their descriptions and many of the monsters that inhabit the planet. I knew basic geography and where ruins were likely to be left and possibly powerful artifacts. I was going to live in the legend! How was I now excited? It was like reading Lord of Rings and then being transported there to participate. I was ready…broken out of my depression with a new focus. I spent the last three days intently studying the game mechanics. I slept as little as possible while I crammed for my next life.

There were eleven base classes: artisan, bard, builder, druid, monk, priest, ranger, rogue, scholar, warrior, wizard.

The artisan was basically a craftsman. They had massive bonuses to the craft they choose and could dabble in others. The bard was a jack of all trades. The builder was very interesting in the bonuses they got and a special ability called corner stone. It allowed them to have a sphere of control from their cornerstone where other players were required permissions. The sphere was fairly small to start, starting at a five foot radius and extending out a foot every level. Not awesome… but in a game without level caps…could be interesting. The druid was attuned to nature magic and body transformation. The monk was a disciple of the body and could gain psionic skills. The priest had to worship a deity and had a faith score. The faith score ranged from 0.1 up to 3. It acted as a multiplier for their mana pool, so doing deeds to make their deity happy was very important. The ranger was a woodsman/scout. The rogue was a thief/assassin style. The scholar was a basically a nerd. It was hinted that this path might lead to be an engineer later on. The warrior was the fighter and the wizard had access to the most powerful magics. Now every class had the ability to specialize further but you had to select a class first.

I narrowed my choices to builder, ranger and scholar. I had to think about the long game like my dad. The builder could set up a strong base of operations and could be the first to build starships. The ranger was an explorer and I had a vast amount of knowledge about the planet. The scholar could become an engineer…but the mix of technology and magic probably would not occur for a few hundred years. I was mulling it over when they came to get me.

I followed nurse Candice to the elevator and there were eleven other teens there waiting. We descended quite quickly down 2500 feet to the stasis chamber room. It was a large square room with a high ceiling and Floor 10 printed on the walls everywhere. Tons of equipment I had no clue to its functions doted the room and large pods were in neat rows in the center. I did a count 64 row with 64 each. And floor 10…we were the very first group going under. Well not quite. My pod was 56, meaning four groups had probably already been installed. I waited as my turn came. The pod was 10 feet high and about 12 long. It cracked open to reveal a chamber. I already knew the procedure as it happened. I lay down in the center and they connected the forty seven leads to my body and then the jack to the port on my skull. Then I would be put to sleep. The chamber would be closed and filled with bio gel suspending my body. Then there would be an exchange of stasis fluids for my blood and my body would be put into cold stasis with just my brain being fed and active. The helmet was the most uncomfortable part. It was very tight and cold against my shaved head. But before I knew it I was asleep.

I awoke on a couch in a living room. It was comfortable and I tried to go back to sleep but was wide awake. I sat up to a large window looking out on a green backyard with trees. I stared for a while before I heard someone clear there throat. I turned and a very attractive women with straight blonde hair and blue eyes was sitting in a leather chair.

“Welcome to Pallidum player Liam. I am here to help you create your character and answer your questions.” Her voice was melodic and I was taken that such a beauty was talking to me. Damn it was a game but it was so real. I could smell the sofa mustiness and I think her perfume.

“What is your name?” I blurted out. Not that I had any chance with a computer program. But I couldn’t focus with her staring at me, evaluating me.

She smiled and I could have sworn she winked at me! “Marabelle. We should start with your character stats screen. Just focus on the thought Character Sheet. You will be able to customize it with your thoughts.” I followed her advice and a blue translucent screen appeared before. I preferred a lighter blue and it changed to a paler blue. It asked me to confirm the change and I thought ‘yes’. Wow that was easy. I scanned the sheet.

Class

None

Race

Human

Specialization #1

None

Specialization #2

None

Specialization #3

None

Level

Experience

Strength

Constitution

Stamina

Agility

Speed

Intellect

Aether

Channeling

Charisma

Luck

Seeing I was ready she continued. “You will see all your stats are at 5 except for luck. Luck can only be increased through quests, unique skills and gear. Your race is currently human but you can select from elf, dark elf, any of the beastkin, dwarf, orc, goblin and human. I can show you the benefits of each selection if you wish.”

I was prepared for this. “I wish to select human.” Humans got three racial benefits. They received two racial perks when created and also get one additional skill slot to start and one additional skill every four levels instead of every five levels. I hadn’t had a lot of time to study the racial perks as the list had about 200 for human. Beastkin didn’t get to choose as their subrace determined their two racial perks. Goblins had a large list as well. Dwarves, elves and orcs had a list of around 20 to choose from. Each of the other races outside of human gained an extra stat point every level instead of the greater frequency of added skills. You see each player can only learn 10 skills at level 1, humans start with 11. They can add one more skill every five levels, every four for human. So by level 100 humans would have 36 skills while other races would have 30 and an extra 100 stat points. Six extra skills over 100 stats? Yes, but also as one of my racial perks I planned to select ‘Adept Learner’ which gives me one additional skill at level 0 and another bonus skill every 25 levels. This would give me 41 skills at level 100 compared to 30. And all skills add stat points every prime level. So at levels 1,2,3,5,7,11,13,17,19,23….ect. So if I got all 10 of these skills to level 23 I would make up the lost stat points. It was supposedly fairly easy to raise a skill to 7 and moderately difficult to raise it to 23. I hadn’t quite read enough to discern it. With my other racial perk I was torn between ‘Aerinu Blood’ and ‘Magical Affinity Earth’. The ‘Aerinu Blood’ was just cool because you could tame a dragon. But that was only if I had planned to become a ranger and specialize in beast tamer later. That was not my plan. So I would select ‘Magical Affinity Earth’ which would give me the skill Earth Magic Free – yes not counting toward my total and the free spell to boot ‘Stone Throw’.

“You have twenty free stat points to allocate before we continue.” Marabelle said for the second time. Sometime my mind wanders. I was not too sure where I was going to go with my points. I hadn’t quite gotten that far because I had not chosen my class just yet. What did I want to be? I wanted to be relevant and independent. Yes all three classes fit that description. I had already dropped the ranger from my mind set. Builder. Scholar. Builder. Scholar. Builder…Yes that felt right. I must have been thinking for a while because my guide was sitting down sipping a drink of blue liquid. Her perfume was fantastic. Focus. Ok builder. I should focus on strength and stamina as my primary early on and intellect and Aether later. You see I planned to utilize my earth magic to help build later. I thought about my increases. +5 to strength, +5 to stamina, +2 to constitution, +2 to speed, +2 intellect, +2 aether, +2 channeling, +1 charisma and +1 to agility. I know min/max characters would lead to quicker character growth but that was not where my head was at. This is where I was now living and I didn’t want to find myself lacking in a situation. Plus I had a head start. The remaining players would come on slowly over the next 5 months. There was going to be a large advantage to starting on day one albeit a few hours behind some others.

When I placed my last stat point Marabelle primed me again. “Now you have two racial perks to choose. I can help you sort the list to help you. You will want them to meld well with the class you plan to choose.”

“No need I am selecting Magical Affinity Earth, Adept Learner and the Builder class.” I said with confidence. Something was also tickling the back of my head about Marabelle but I couldn’t place. Something familiar. Her eyebrow arched when I made my selections but she just continued.

“Ok Liam. You have learned the skill Earth Magic. And you have learned the spell Stone Throw. And have selected the class builder.” She said as she appraised me.

I turned to my screen as notifications came up and I viewed them.

You have learned a new skill: Earth Magic! Earth Magic associates with the stat constitution. You can now learn Earth Magic Spells and can learn the Skill Stone Magic and Metal Magic. Your current skill is 1.

You have leaned a new spell: Throw Stone (required Earth Magic 1)! Throw Stone manifests a stone and hurls it at a target. Your chance to hit is based on your marksman skill. This spell costs 10 mana to cast, with a cast time of 3 seconds and has a range of 31 feet. Damage is 2-8. Current Spell Level is 1.

I know it sounds like crappy damage but it scales quickly. The low damage was 2 x level and high damage was 4 + 4 x level. That means at level 10 the spell would have a range of 40 feet and do 20-44 damage.

Now, I didn’t know I needed the marksman skill so that kind of sucked. Oh well onto my next notification.

You have selected the class Builder!

You gain one free skill in the builder sphere at level 7!

You gain skill progression in the builder skill sphere 20% faster!

You gain the unique object: Cornerstone!

You gain the unique bag: Builder’s Bag!

You cannot learn any combat abilities.

Your progress is 20% slower in melee combat skills.

You cannot learn any magic combat spells.

You are now Level 1!

You have 5 stat points to allocate!

You have 2 skill points to allocate!

Yes so there are a few downsides to the builder class. So not being able to learn combat abilities or combat spells is a huge shortcoming. But the loophole is I could gain them as rewards from quests or as how I had already cheated the system and gotten my Throw Stone in character creation. Getting experience in questing was going to be difficult and I would not be a lynchpin in any combat party. Builders are built to get accomplishment experience by completing projects. I almost regretted my decision but I had a plan. Also I was not aware I would get the bag. I went to inventory and checked it out.

Builders Bag, Soulbound, Indestructible, Upgradeable. The bag unfolds to a 3 foot diameter and has ten slots. Objects can be placed in stacks of 100. The bag weight is always 10 lbs.

Wow this was huge. The basic bag players start with had ten slots and can only stack 10 and weighs 10% of the contents. I could essentially put 1000 cut trees in my bag and walk around no problem!

I was being prompted to select my free builder skill. Looking at the list I knew I wanted carpenter so I could start building. I selected it.

You have learned a new skill: Woodcraft: Carpentry! Carpentry associates with the stat stamina. You can now learn wooden structure plans. Your current skill is 7. As your chosen builder specialization this skill advances 20% faster!

Congratulations you have reached Novice Rank as a Carpenter you can select one of the following additional benefits:

* SPEED 1: Build Wooden Structures 20% faster

* HEALTH 1: All Wooden Structures you build have 50% more hit points

* UNIQUE 1 (Builder Only): Any wooden structure you build more than 50% of has a 5% chance per your carpenter level to upgrade one level in quality but will require twice the build time

* EFFICENCY (Builder Only): Any wooden plans require 20% less materials

Yes the skill would advance 40% faster as my two bonuses stacked…but the benefits at novice was new. I knew you became you became a novice at level 7 of a skill but didn’t know of the huge perk. The system that was created by the AI gods was based on prime numbers. So each skill went up in levels but whenever you hit a prime number the skill advanced a rank as well. At rank 5, level 7, you became a novice. At rank 10, level 23, you became ‘Skilled’. At rank 15, level 43, you became an ‘Expert’. I hoped at each named rank I got to select again! Of course I selected number 3. Once I hit level 20 in the skill it would be a 100% chance! I was feeling good…maybe because I had just gained 5 stat points in stamina from the skill as well!

Marabelle was waiting patiently for me and then it clicked from the lore I had studied for the last few days, one of the gods was Maable. Could this be one of the AI gods? I risked it. “Ok, Maable, I am ready to proceed.” Her reaction was an instantaneous grin.

“Ah, I see you figured me out. You are the first but only a few players have come by me. Yes all of the gods are sending avatars to help players in their creation. I will give you a reward when you are done here. Let see, we can do appearance next and you should allocate your five stat points as well.” I thought briefly and passed on altering my appearance. I wanted to remain in form as is. It was a part of the reason I choose human. The stat points went to +3 strength and +2 intellect.

“OK next you can choose 4 skills at level 1.” OK so I hadn’t had a lot of time to study the skills. There were hundreds and probably would be more introduced over time. I lay down on the couch.

“Hope you don’t have anywhere to be Maable. I really am not sure on this.” I said.

“No problem I have 289 avatars active, this is just one of them.” I stopped and pondered what is must be like to be experiencing 289 things at once. Ok back to work.

I should choose skills that are going to be difficult to learn. I could probably learn weapons by swinging them in a training yard for a few hours. Magic would be important but getting spells difficult. I know I wanted Stone Magic. I could get Water Magic as well… I figured any builder skills I wanted would be easy to get once I started. Alchemy? It seemed like a good choice as well. But then I would need Herbalism as well. I looked over the magic choices for the fifth or sixth time and finally decided. Well if my plan proceeded as I had thought… Yes those are good choices. Stone Magic. Alchemy. Herbalism. Enchanting Magic.

You have learned a new skill: Stone Magic! Stone Magic associates with the stat channeling. You can now learn Stone Magic Spells. Your current skill is 1.

You have learned a new skill: Alchemy! Alchemy associates with the stat intellect. You can now learn alchemy recipes. You can now learn the skill Alchemy: Poisons and Alchemy: Potions. Your current skill is 1.

You have learned a new skill: Herbalism! Herbalism associates with the stat intellect. You can now identify level 1 flora. Your current skill is 1.

You have learned a new skill: Enchanting Magic! Enchanting magic associates with the stat channeling. You can now learn enchanting recipes. You have unlocked the skills Enchanting: Imbue, Enchanting: Runes. Your current skill is 1.

I looked through and made sure I didn’t make a mistake. The Alchemy: Potions skill was required to make more powerful potions. With just alchemy I could follow the recipe and create base potions. Enchanting was the same way. The Imbue and runes skills were needed to create permanent magic items. My enchanting was temporary. The runes magic was very interesting because runes were permanent until destroyed. Really an enchanter needed to master all three facets of enchanting. Maybe I had just wasted a skill? That soured my disposition. Well I still had 8 more skill slots I could learn in game.

“Ok last thing Liam is your starting gear. I have prepared this based on the skills you have chosen.” Maable said.

Builder’s Canvas Shirt, Indestructible, Soulbound, -2% Fatigue while using builder class skills

Builder’s Canvas Leggings, Indestructible, Soulbound, -2% Fatigue while using builder class skills

Builder’s Shoes, Indestructible, Soulbound, -2% Fatigue while using builder class skills

Builder’s Belt, Indestructible, Soulbound, +2% faster build speed while using builder class skills

Basic Alchemist’s Bag: 10 slots, stack 20, contains mortal & pedestal, distillation apparatus, kettle, alcohol burner, 20 empty vials, weight is 20% contents

Basic Herbalist’s Bag: 15 slots, stack 20, weight is 20% contents, organics do not spoil while inside

Carpenter’s Hammer, +5% speed of building

Carpenter’s Saw, +5% speed making boards

Scroll: Mold Stone Level 1 spell

10 gold

Both bags had fairly narrow openings. The other items were awesome as well. I was worried it was going to be difficult to acquire spells. I tried to learn it and received a message.

You can only learn 1 spell per 10 levels in intellect. Currently you have 1 available spell slot. You may choose to ‘forget’ an old spell and lose all progress and ability to cast it to learn a new spell as well.

That was right. I remember reading that. Spell classes could learn one spell per 7 levels in intellect. I guess it made sense. Otherwise everyone would learn dozens of spells. And it also meant a warrior who required 15 levels in intellect per spell would probably only know one or two spells at most because their focus was on other stats. Game balance. I declined to learn the spell for now.

“And now for that special item for knowing who I was…” Maable held an item in each hand, “Choose!”

I looked at both items. I shouldn’t be able to identify them because I didn’t have the skill to do so yet but their magical stats showed up anyway.

Lumberjack’s Axe (Rare), Weight 4.9 lbs, Damage 18-24. Durability 200/200. Does double damage to flora. Blessing of Maable = +2 luck

Book of Architectural Plans (Uncommon), Inn (IV), Barracks (IV), Stable (IV), Small Tower (IV), Small Manor (IV)

I held my breath. The plans were not rare but incredibly valuable. I did a quick search by accessing the auction house, which currently only held NPC postings, and each Level 4 plan was worth between 100 and 250 gold! The axe on the other hand was also very valuable. An item that was similar around 500 gold. But it had a stat increase in strength, items with the luck stat were probably more valuable and I did not see any. I am sure once players started contributing to the auction house that would change along with prices. I did not have a weapon besides my throw stone spell so a backup weapon was smart and I had planned on buying an axe. The plans would allow me to start working immediately and avoid adventuring. I could even sell one or two of the plans and gear up. But my instincts took over and I reached for the axe.

“Now you can choose your starting location. Here are my suggested options…” Five places lite up on a map on my display. One was close to where I wanted but still about 200 miles from my desired location.

“Can I start in Asheron city?” I asked. Maable started at me.

“You have my curiosity, why would you choose this location?” she asked.

I decided to give her my reasoning. The world had about twice the land area as Earth and there were three locations which I identified as meeting my needs from my game map studies. “I know Asheron is smaller city but it also on the border of the Jakki kingdom close to the untamed wildlands. It only has one small low level zone directly south for levels 1 to 20 which makes grinding difficult for levels. But the road north runs into the Bleached Cliffs before splitting west and east. This zone is for levels 20-50 and where I plan to build an inn at the crossroads for trade caravans and players. The forest west at the fork is for levels 40-60. The road east goes to the orc lands for levels 50-80. Then there is the bleached cliffs. Although they are a 2000 foot climb they lead to the Unbroken Plains for levels 70-100. The Bone Dessert is just beyond for levels 110-160. So if I can level up to 20 in Asheron and they set up an inn with my cornerstone at the intersection I can facilitate a rest location and establish a trade local. There should be some ancient ruins along the Bleached cliffs as well. I think it will attract quite a few adventurers.” I said in a long breath.

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“Alright Liam. I will meet your desired location. Good luck!” She had a genuine smile as she waved her hand and I faded away. I appeared in the mages teleport guild room in Asheron. I was quickly ushered out. I made sure all my gear was comfortable and headed toward the south gate. It should be quick to level up some skills. I examined the city as I went. It was mostly wooden buildings of poor quality, one or two stories. The shops were run down and didn’t appear to have very good quality goods. I did stop in a leather workers shop to get some armor. I also purchased a Huntman’s Bag.

Soft Leather Chest Protector, Weight 15 lbs, Durability 30/30, Armor 2, -1% Movement Speed, 10 silver

Heavy Leather Boots, Weight 3 lbs, Durability 40/40, Armor 1, 6 silver

Soft Leather Gloves, Weight 0.8 lbs, Durability 22/22, -4% fatigue when wielding melee weapons, 1 silver

Basic Huntsman Bag: 10 slots, stack 20, weight is 9% contents, meat and hides do not spoil while inside, 4 gold

I suited up and put my builders shoes in the builders bag. I arranged the Builders bag on my back and put my three other bags and my axe on my belt. The game wouldn’t allow magical bags to go inside other magical bags. It took a few minutes to get used to walking with everything but soon I didn’t even notice.

When I reached the gate two guards questioned him about his business. Liam told them planned to hunt some low level monsters. I managed to get my first quest.

The guards are upset with the forest night roosters in the woods to south of town. The guards in the barracks on the south wall have trouble sleeping at night with the noise. Kill 10 forest night roosters and bring the heads as proof. Reward: Improved Relationship with Asheron Guards, 10 silver, 100 experience

I accepted the quest. I may not be able to complete it right away since the forum bestiary showed the roosters levels were between 3 and 5 but hopefully soon. Outside of the gates land was cleared for about a mile. There were high grasses and some scattered farms. The road was not well travelled. The west gate had the road to the main city states. The grasses along the side of the road came up to my waist. Ok first part of my plan was to level up my Throw Stone spell. I wandered into the grasses seeking prey.

It didn’t take long before I spotted a small rabbit. I initiated the spell and my hand moved in a pattern and I felt the mana surge in my body. It was like goose bumps travelling from my core to my hands. I small stone materialized in my hand and zipped at the rabbit. It missed by five feet! Crap. The rabbit looked up, seemingly unconcerned. I cast the spell four more times missing each time. Finally on the six cast the rock struck the rabbit and it turned on me. I managed to cast the spell one more time, still missing before it got to me. It leapt at my chest and I felt the impact but didn’t take any damage. I grabbed my axe and swung at the rabbit and missed. Finally on my third swing I connected and killed the rabbit. Shit that was intense and the rabbit was a mess, I didn’t even try to harvest anything from it. I checked my combat log. I had taken 5 damage in the encounter. My stone had done 10 damage and the axe had done 22. The rabbit did a max of 5 damage but my armor reduced that by 3. I also had a flashing notification I read immediately.

Through your efforts you have uncovered a new skill: Marksmanship. Do you wish to learn this skill?

Through your efforts you have discovered a new skill: Axe: Two handed. Do you wish to learn this skill?

Hell yes! I thought it would take a few encounters to get the prompt…maybe my luck stat had a role in this?

You have learned a new skill: Marksmanship! Marksmanship associates with the stat Agility. You can now learn the skills Marksmanship: Thrown, Marksmanship: Projectile. Your current skill is 1.

You have learned a new skill: Axe: Two Handed! Axe: Twohanded associates with the stat Strength. Your current skill is 1.

I added my mana, stamina and health bar to my character sheet and looked it over.

Class

Builder

Race

Human

Specialization #1

None

Specialization #2

None

Specialization #3

None

Level

Experience

Strength

Constitution

Stamina

Agility

Speed

Intellect

Aether

Channeling

Charisma

Luck

POOLS

Total

Regen/Min

Hit Points

290/295

0.71

Stamina

326/335

0.91

Aether

111/170

0.42

Damn only 2 experience. And my horrible regen rates for my combat pools. The game based a full regen on eight hours with bonuses from one relevant stat. Hit points were constitution, stamina was stamina and channeling was for Aether. Certain classes got bonuses to regen as well. I think mages got double the regen for Aether and warriors got 50% for hit points and stamina. I got no bonuses for my class. Well that is why I had chosen alchemy. I should be able to brew some potions to compensate. Speaking of…

I started looking for flora I could gather. I found two different types of flowers and three plant roots that were highlighted with my skill in the area. I intuitively knew how to get successfully gather them. It was a pain and I wished I had purchased a small knife. I gathered a stack of 20 for each of these. As I was finishing a notification flashed.

Congratulations you have raised your Herbalism skill to 2! You can now identify tier 2 flora! You have gained +1 to Intellect!

That was great and all but now two other plants were highlights in my vision while my herbalism was active. One was the stock of different flowering plant and the other was the root of a bush. I sighed and collected 20 of each of the new ingredients. I brought up my skills to look them over.

UNUSED SKILL SLOTS

Unused Skill Points 2

Skill

Level

Tier

Percent

Stat

Read Write Speak: Common Tongue

Earth Magic

Con

Woodcraft Carpenter, Novice

Stam

Stone Magic

12%

Chan

Alchemy

Int

Herbalism

48%

Int

Enchanting Magic

Chan

Axe: Two Handed

Str

Marksmanship

Agi

Oh I forgot about the language. Everyone started with 23 in common tongue. Other races received 23 in their own race as well at character creation. I would have to learn other languages through quests or skill books. Well my build looked ok. Even with my focus on maxing the number of skills I had I was already down to six. The skills appeared in my list in the order I had learned them. Which was fine for now. I still needed two important skills, woodcraft: furniture and mason, to build structures and equip them with furniture. I also had my two unused skill points from gaining my first level. I would hold on to those for now.

Time to rabbit hunt! I continued through the tall grasses grinding on rabbits. Most of them had about 20 health. Since they were not monster class the experience sucked but I was here to raise skills. I spent about 7 hours hunting before it started to get dark then I could hear the night roosters. They sounded like wailing babies. No wonder the guards wanted them taken care off. I returned to the city gates. I had managed to kill 35 rabbits and had 26 whole rabbits to sell. The other corpses were smashed in overkill. I think there was a special ranger skill that made the killing blow less likely to destroy the harvest. Anyway I had suppressed the notifications and brought up my spell list with anticipation.

Spell

Level

Rank

Percent

Cast Time

Mana

Damg Low

Damg High

Range (feet)

Stone Throw

33%

3 seconds

4.08

12.24

33.28

Ok not great. Then again I was hunting mild prey. Skills advanced faster against dangerous prey above the players level. It also looked like I was getting a slight modifier for the spell from my stone magic skill! I had not been aware of this. I brought up my skills list and looked at again.

Yes it looked like it was 2% per level. Fantastic. It looked like the spell leveled three skills every time it was cast! Earth Magic, Marksmanship and Stone Magic! Now I was not too upset having to learn marksmanship. This was probably going to be my only combat spell I would be able to learn. I had dreams of leveling it to 200 and smashing opponents with massive boulders…only if.

I walked through town and went to the butcher’s shop. It was just about to close so I quickly unloaded my rabbits for a few coppers each. I also purchasing a skinning knife from the butcher. My goal this evening was to find someone to teach me cooking. Almost all cities had someone with a short quest line that would give a cooking skill book as a reward. Also my satiety bar was dangerously low. This ‘hunger’ bar basically required players to eat. A player could never die from hunger in the game, but once it zeroed out a player took a penalty of 30% to all stats and could not regen stamina or their mana pool. There was also a fatigue bar for mana and stamina. It amounted to three times your pools. If you used that complete amount in an 8 hour period you would be hit with a fatigue debuff for 10% reduced across all stats. There were ways to increase your fatigue pool, items, potions, abilities, ect.. . My builder’s shoes for example. I just mention this because I had mana fatigue burn from my rabbit battles.

After asking around I was directed to the best food in the city at the Dusty Rhino. It was a nice place and only had a few open seats. I sat in the corner and ordered the special of the day and a fruit wine. The special was ‘Black Vulture with a Red Gravy Sauce’. It was fantastic and even had some warm heavenly nutty buttered rolls with it. It was basically Thanksgiving on a plate. The vulture tasted like herb roasted turkey and gravy was like buttery mashed potatoes with cranberries. The food even gave buffs.

You have recovered 100% satiety. Your fatigue pools are increased 21% for 12 hours. You gain +4% health regen for 9 hours.

The bill reflected the meal at 9 silver. I needed to talk to the chef. I talked my way past the waitress to the kitchen and found two cooks. An older women and a younger women worked the kitchen. The younger women was skillfully cutting vegetables while the older women was adding ingredients to large kettle. “I would like to complement the chef of such a fantastic meal,” I said allowed. Both women looked at me. “It was the best meal I have ever eaten and was hoping to learn a small part of your skill in the kitchen.” I was still uncertain who the primary cook was but I was assuming it was the older women so I had fixed my gaze to her. The younger women would probably be considered attractive if not for her ragged outfit, her pulled back hair wet with sweat and dirty hands and face.

The young women spoke first, “Ya like the fare tonight? It was mostly left overs from the week. Come back on Monday and I will have something spectacular for ya. As for lessons, I don’t have time for no charity.” She returned to cutting ignoring me.

I took a hint from her speech, “I can pay. Hoes does one gold for a few short lessons sound?” She stopped and pondered the question.

“Two gold for two lessons. You can be here and I will help you learn during breakfast.” She stated plainly before turning to look at me.

“That sounds like a bargin!” I mustered as much enthusiasm as I could. I pulled the two coins out and placed them on the counter. “I look forward to learning from such a beauty as yourself.” I said as I deported. A little flattery never hurt and I did think she was attractive under the sweat, grim and dirty clothes.

I went to the inn two blocks down to get a room. I couldn’t afford the Dusty Rhinos prices to stay there and it really didn’t matter where players stayed the night. My funds were getting low so I wanted to conserve them as well. When I went to my room and opened the door I was back in my character creation room. This is where you went whenever you checked into a room or logged out. It was basically a single story house. I could buy upgrades to it as well from game currency. I was hoping my builder skill would also allow me to do something here eventually. The TV had a database full of all the movies and TV shows. It had a few news channels. Mostly about peoples exploits in the game. The highest leveled player was Gunther and he was already level 7. The video showed him working his way through a dungeon. I turned it off and went to the bedroom to sleep. The manual said to help keep sanity you should sleep like normal even though it was not required. I made sure my alarm was set and feel into oblivion. I did dream that night which was weird but I couldn’t remember my dreams when I woke. I dressed and went to the Dust Rhino for my first lesson.

The young cook was named Fiona. And she was very good. She worked faster and more precisely than any master chef I had ever seen on TV. She started me cooking eggs. I had to cook them four different ways and then properly season them. I noticed none of my dishes went out front to the patrons. They were tossed in a large bin that Fiona said would go to the pigs. I was not distraught at all. After nearly 3 hours I finally had something she deemed a success. Fiona smiled at me said I could eat the dish and then come back tomorrow for my final lesson. Now I was never a ladies man but I do think Fiona liked me. My intense focus and following her instructions closely probably helped.

Unfortunately I did not get a prompt for the cooking skill yet. My eggs were really good but only gave me 40% to my satiety bar. I would spend the rest of the day hunting rabbits.

I travelled through the city again learning landmarks and where important buildings were. There was an adventurers hall which I would have to visit. A small library which I planned to visit when I returned tonight. The Baron’s estate. A mages guild tower. The traveller’s guild, which is where I had arrived. That was all I logged into memory on my way to the gate. The guards asked me how the rooster hunting was going and I just said I was making progress.

Rabbit hunting was easy and after I killed 14 I leveled up!

You are now level a level 2 Builder!

You have 5 stat points to allocate!

You have 2 skill points to allocate!

I applied my stat points, +3 agility, +2 aether. My ability to hit was important and marksmanship relied on agility. My Aether pool was also too small and I didn’t want mana fatigue every time I went out. I planned to go after bigger prey now. I wandered further away from the city, killing 6 more rabbits before finding my first fox. I attacked without thinking and it charged me. I hit it 3 times before we engaged in melee and I had to pull my axe out. It took two hits before the fox fell. I checked my combat log. It did 7-8 damage with each hit and I had been hit twice. It took about 100 damage to bring it down. Not a tuff prey at all but the experience was much better! I received 19 experience! I was only getting one experience for each rabbit now so the fox was worth the minimal extra risk. I began seeking out foxes. Making sure not to get much further away from the city. I didn’t want to run into any more deadly prey until I could get better gear. In the end I managed to get 30 more rabbits and 19 foxes. I received my notification for level 3 again and applied the stat points to +3 agility, +2 aether. I had again suffered mana fatigue. I would have to see if there was an item out for auction to help. I had avoided skinning the animals I killed just putting them in my hunter’s bag. I had the skinning knife but I decided to not waste a skill slot on it. I figured the knife could make harvesting flora easier.

I returned to the city and went to the butcher. I got a silver for the foxes and the same few coppers for each rabbit. Not a great haul. I stopped by a street vendor on the way to the library to get a few meats on a stick to replenish my satiety. It was ok but offered no buffs. The library was a two story stone building. When I entered I learned I had to join which cost me 5 silver. I received this neat little copper card with my name on one side and a picture of the library building on the other.

I had to ask the librarian for help. She brought a young NPC scholar over to help me. The scholar was a plain looking women in her early twenties. Her dark black hair was tied back which accentuated her facial features. Her name was Bella and she helped me locate a few history books on the bleached cliffs. I got lost in the volumes as they were much more detailed than the general history I had read before entering the game. I even received a notification to acquire a new skill. Palladium: Lore. I was torn on how useful the skill could be. Eventually I caved and accepted the new skill.

You have learned a new skill: Palladium: Lore! Palladium: Lore associates with the stat Luck. Due to your current knowledge of the world of Palladium your Lore skill will start higher. Your current skill is 14.

Holy bananas! Luck stat? There are no skills that associate with luck. At least none that I had found. And why not intelligence? That would make more sense. And starting at level 14? It had to be all the studying I had done on the world history. So the days I spent reading it had paid off ten fold! I had another notification.

Congratulations you have reached Novice Rank in Palladium: Lore you can select one of the following additional benefits:

* Have a 15% to identify ruins

* Learn the new skill Read/Write/Speak: Aerinu

* Gain Basic Membership Access to all libraries

* Not Available, Intellect Stat too low

I started to sweat. Each option was incredible. I went online to the developing forums and looked for Palladium: Lore. No one had posted anything. Then I looked at gaining novice rank. Apparently every five tiers you got to select a benefit from a skill like my carpentry skill. People thought it was reflective of your game play as to what was available. Some people thought it was dependent on random chance and your luck score. I really wanted to know what option 4 was. It didn’t even say how high my intellect needed to be to see the option. Could I select it? I tried and it seemed to approve and I confirmed. The menu disappeared. Crap had I just lost my opportunity and got nothing for my selection? I looked over my character sheet and under my Palladium Lore skill it had question marks and a note will unlock at Intellect 100. I felt a little relieved and thought it must be good.

I was also debating if the builder was the right choice. I had not used any abilities yet from the class and just seemed to be grinding monsters. Well I choose the builder for its benefit in future game play. In fact the statistics on the blog showed of the 8,568 players logged on so far and there were only 29 with builder classes. So we were unique at least. I finished up my second day in the game somewhat happy with my progress. In my living room the TV showed Gunther reaching level 11 a few hours ago. Man that guy looked focus cutting down the red eyed wolves in the dungeon. He was impressive and his gear had been upgraded from yesterday as well. I needed to do the same.

I slept and awoke to my alarm and rushed off to my cooking lesson. Today Fiona had me making a baked egg dish. I must have burned twenty before one came out ok. I was disappointed to not be offered the cooking skill again. Fiona just smiled and said how well I was progressing. She said two more lessons and I would be on my path to being a great cook. She gave me two lists of ingredients to buy one for tomorrow and one for the next day. I said I couldn’t afford any more lessons. She waved me off and said since I was a dedicating myself to the craft they were covered in my initial payment. I didn’t argue. The first list had 9 ingredients and the second one 12. I could buy them all at the market in the city. I did so immediately before going out and hunting foxes today. It took me an hour to track all the ingredients down but I learned the setup of the market. I was becoming familiar with Asheron and it was starting to feel like home.

Fox hunting was interesting. I ran into my first mini-boss. A very large rabbit. The beast did 15-18 damage a hit and was damn quick too. I lost 213 health in the battle while it took 500 damage to take him down. I think the beast qualified as my first monster because when I went to retrieve the corpse I got a surprise.

Rabbit King Corpse (Rare)

Ring of the Rabbit King (Very Rare) – unidentified

I was so excited I went back to town immediately, The rabbit king corpse sold for 3 gold! That was good since I was low on funds and the ring cost a gold to identify at the mages tower.

Ring of the Rabbit King (Very Rare): +4 to speed, Leap Attack Skill does 20% more damage

Unfortunately I could not learn the leap attack combat skill but the +4 to speed was very welcome. I equipped the ring. I had also leveled with the death of the rabbit king brining me to level 4. I added my stat points again +3 agility, +2 intellect. I figured I needed to start increasing my intellect. I was now also comfortable with my agility and would switch focus next level.

I decided to try my hand at alchemy today rather than go back looking for foxes. I needed a recipe that included my ingredients. I showed the alchemist in the shop what I had and he gave me two recipes that could use the ingredients I had.

Alchemy Recipe: Mana Fatigue Resistance – increased mana resistance pool by 20% for 24 hours

Alchemy Recipe: Stamina Restoration – restores 200 stamina over 10 minutes

Both recipes cost one gold. I purchased both and a few hundred vials. I would leave the vials in my room and make my potions there. I went back to my room and worked on the potions. It took about five minute to make each. It was not overly difficult. I was able to make 10 of each potion and raise my alchemy by a point. I was even offered the Alchemy: Potions skill but passed on it for now. Each potion could sell for about 50 copper. So I had just made 10 silver in two hours.

I returned to the library and Bella had already set aside some books for me. She had a big grin on her face the whole time and her hair looked different and so did her face. Makeup? She definitely was more beautiful than yesterday. I spent the next four hours reading of the last 100 years of the lands surrounding the Bleached Cliffs. Bella came in frequently to check on me and gave me water and tea. When I had finished for the night I thanked Bella and went to my room.

The next day cooking was pretty intense. The ingredients were for a spiced meat pie. It took me all morning to get everything right, the amount of ingredients, the rest time, order of adding ingredients, cooking the ingredients on the stove, making the crust and heat and cook time in the oven. It was actually pretty fun with the beautiful Fiona guiding me. The final product was delicious but no extra buffs. I left Fiona and walked toward the gate to the south. I needed to focus on my combat skills and harvest supplies to make my potions. I planned to get at least one level today as well. Tomorrow I would work on my carpentry skill and try to learn the masonry skill.

I used my potion of mana fatigue resistance. It tasted like chalky seawater. But it definitely helped my long grind. I had no mini boss encounters and ended up with 40 fox kills and 39 rabbits kills. I also filled my herbalism bag with ingredients. I leveled today as well and added all 5 points to intellect. I also got a notification.

Rabbit Slayer I – Your dedication to eradicating these innocent creatures has earned you a permanent +10% damage vs rabbits

I had passed the 100 rabbit threshold. I was closing in on the fox as well. Unfortunately I also was not getting any experience from rabbits anymore and only about 5 exp for each fox. I needed bigger prey. But before that I needed better armor. I returned to town and sold my harvest. I noticed the price had gone down slightly. I was saturating the market. I definitely needed to go after more profitable prey.

It was fairly late when I wandered into the library. Bella was excited to see me and shared her dinner with me. It was a bland pork sandwich. She then researched with me. I was trying to find the locations of ruins. We read the accounts of the nobles who once ruled the region and tales from caravans passing through. The most interesting account was the discovery of an old dwarven tower that was wrecked but the location was only 20 miles from the intersection where I had planned to build my inn. We worked through the night and enjoyed each others company.

At sunrise I left to go to the Dusty Rhino to learn to cook. Fiona was happy to see me and I got to work. Today I was cooking a blackened boar roast. I had enough ingredients to try eight times and I failed all eight times. I had to go out and purchase more at the market. It took 3 more attempts under Fiona’s direction to get a success. Then I was hit by a notification.

Hidden Quest Completed: Apprentice to Master Cook! Cooking skill 7 learned! Recipe for Blackened Boar Roast (V) learned, Recipe for Spiced Meat Pie (V) learned! Recipe for Herb Keisha (V) learned! Recipe for Vegetable Omelet (III) learned! 250 experience!

You have learned a new skill: Cooking! Cooking associates with the stat Intellect. You can now learn the skills Cooking: Baking and Cooking: Confectionary. Due to your current knowledge of cooking your skill will start higher. Your current skill is 7.

Congratulations you have reached Novice Rank in Cooking you can select one of the following additional benefits:

* You can successfully substitute one ingredient in a recipe with another

* Food you cook can add one buff

* The food you prepare tastes 1% more delicious per your cooking level

* The food you plate always looks and smells fantastic!

That was awesome. I got the cooking skill for free! I did not have to spend a skill slot since it was a quest reward. And it was at level 7 and I had three tier 5 recipes and one tier 3 recipe! What a huge boon! I needed to select an option. If I wanted to be an inn owner the 4th option seemed like the smart way to go but as an adventurer the 2nd option was best. The other two options were not appealing at this time. I selected the 2nd and looked at the recipes again.

Blackened Boar Roast (V), adds +1 to all stats for 2 hours, +85% satiety

Recipe for Spiced Meat Pie (V), increases health regeneration by 25% for 2 hours, +80% satiety

Recipe for Herb Keisha (V), increases stamina regen by 30% for 1 hour, +50% satiety

Recipe for Vegetable Omelet (III), increases virility by 10% for 4 hours, +35% satiety

All were great except the vegie omelet. I wondered if the buff assigned was random as well. Fiona handed me a salt dispenser. It was of good quality. “A personal reward for ya.” She said before quickly giving me a kiss on the cheek. I stared into her blue eyes for a good minute while she blushed.

“Perhaps when your are not busy we could…umm…get something to…I mean go for a walk?” I stumbled through the words. She smiled as I was sure I was now blushing as well.

“I cannot as my contract with the inn requires me to work sunup to sunset. But please visit.” Her smile faded a bit. I didn’t know what to say other than committing to visit her. I looked at her gift.

Endless Salt Shaker, the salt in this shaker magically refills at midnight

That was a precious gift for cook. It was large and probably held about a cup of salt. I gave Fiona a hug and we lingered together before I relented and left the inn.

It was early afternoon and I had to work on my building skills today. So I went to find work. I was soon directed to the builders guild hall. It was probably the nicest two story wooden building in the city not owned by the nobility. I walked in and found the common had beautiful wooden chairs. After speaking to an old man it cost me 20 silver to join the guild so I could get access to the jobs board in the back.

There were some 200 jobs listed. They paid anywhere from 20 copper for putting up a dividing wall in a house to 500 gold for building a stable and carriage house at a nobles estate. I found a job I liked. Bring 200 wooden planks to the Anderson farm, reward 2 gold, 100 experience. My thought was I could go to the forest and cut down some trees and cut them myself. I didn’t know how long it would take but I could also hunt while I was harvesting along the edge of the forest. Fortunately the old man let me know there was a tax of 5 coppers for every tree I cut down. I paid him 20 silver and got a deed to cut 400 trees from the forest to the south. I could have travelled into the forest and cut them down out of sight but I was not sure the penalty if I got caught.

I left with a smile on my face and passed through town and out the gate. Maybe I could get my first rooster today! I checked my stats as I walked.

Class

Builder

Race

Human

Specialization #1

None

Specialization #2

None

Specialization #3

None

Level

Experience

1269

Strength

Constitution

Stamina

Agility

Speed

Intellect

Aether

Channeling

Charisma

Luck

POOLS

Total

Regen/Min

Hit Points

380

0.95

Stamina

375

1.02

Aether

345

0.88

Not bad for a level five builder. I would need to add a skill to raise my charisma as I didn’t want to spend leveling stat points on it. It looked like the foreman skill would be best. I wondered where I could learn it? I ignored the rabbits and foxes as I approached the edge of the woods and looked over my skills.

UNUSED SKILL SLOTS: 6

Unused Skill Points: 10

Skill

Level

Tier

Percent

Stat

Read Write Speak: Common Tongue

Earth Magic

13%

Con

Woodcraft Carpenter, Novice

Stam

Cooking, Novice

Int

Stone Magic

45%

Chan

Alchemy

19%

Int

Herbalism

88%

Int

Enchanting Magic

Chan

Axe: Two Handed

56%

Str

Marksmanship

11%

Agi

Palladium Lore, Novice

19%

Luck

So cutting down the trees would probably not raise my carpenter skill but cutting the boards would. So that was good. The only skill I had at level 1 was enchanting. I didn’t know what possessed me to take the skill. Well I would read the forums later and see how to level it or just go to the mage’s tower in Asheron. I came to the first tree unhindered and started swinging my axe. It only took about 10 swings before it fell and crashed to the ground and then I was surprised as an injured forest night rooster lept from the braches and attacked me. The first strike did 27 damage to me! I was in the shit. I began a back and forth with the beast that was about half my height. It lunged at me feet first. I tried to avoid as much damage as possible as I swung my axe to reduce its health. It finally died and I was so relieved. I had lost 250 health! To an oversized chicken! I confirmed it was a night rooster before bagging the beast. I would have to wait 3 hours to regen my health. I drank a stamina restorative potion and alertly trimmed the branches. Each branch just took a single swing and I was done in minutes. I then took out my saw.

It ran through the tree like a hot knife through butter. My skill kept the boards straight and ten minutes later I had ten quality boards. I only had to touch them to get them into my builder’s bag, thank you game mechanics! Being a game the AIs probably didn’t want the gathering to be overly labor intensive and waiting for the wood to age would make it painful. It took me about twenty minutes total to harvest a single tree in boards, so I could gain 30 boards an hour roughly. My two-handed axe skill increased slightly and I was also offered a new skill.

Through your efforts you have uncovered a new skill: Lumberjack. Do you wish to learn this skill?

I thought about it for a few minutes and then accepted yes. I planned to be away from large cities building my inn and resource gathering would be useful.

You have learned a new skill: Lumberjack! Lumberjack associates with the stat Strength. Your current skill is 1.

I began to inspect the trees looking for the night roosters and I was offered another new skill after twenty minutes.

Through your efforts you have uncovered a new skill: Awareness. Do you wish to learn this skill?

It would be a very useful skill and helped with a lot of other skills so I accepted it.

You have learned a new skill: Awareness! Awareness associates with the stat Intellect. You can now learn the skills Awareness: Combat and Awareness: Sense Invisible Creatures. Your current skill is 1.

That was very interesting the sense invisible creatures was not on the master skill list I had studied. Combat awareness was a staple of any adventurer but I would be happy with just awareness for now.

With my new skill I located a sleeping night rooster up in a tree. I moved two trees over and started chopping it down. It came down and I was ready for action but nothing happened. I proceeded to harvest the tree and remained vigilant the rest of the day. As dusk was approaching I took a speedy retreat to the city to avoid the night roosters. I was 100 yards from the woods when I heard the first calls. I had made off with 133 quality boards and 17 high quality boards. A little short of my quota for the quest but a good start. I had increased my axe skill to 4, lumberjack skill to 4 and awareness skill to 2. Not bad gains for a few hours of labor!

So I still decided not to learn my spell mold stone. The spell allowed your hands to mold stone like clay and had a high mana per second cost to it. I wanted the spell Create Stone for building. It was a tier 5 stone magic spell. Which meant I needed both earth magic and stone magic to tier 5 before I could learn it. It also cost 100 gold. But my intellect was at 28 now meaning I was close to being able to learn three additional spells. I told the guards I managed to get one of the roosters today and they cheered my efforts.

I went to the enchanters hall in the mage guild tower to look at enchanting spells. Even though it was late I managed to find someone to deal. They had a huge assortment of spells. The tier 1 spells gave +1 to a stat. You had to buy that specific spell for that stat. Other enchantments increased regen of one pool by 10%. One nifty spell was called the Cleanse spell. It kept the garment it was cast on always clean and increased its durability by 10%. That was cool. Not something I would use a spell slot on though. Now all these enchantments only lasted 30 days. The time would increase with the spell level and enchanting skill but generally 30 days. And why would you level up a tier 1 enchanting when you could learn a high tier spell that was more effective? So I was just getting a spell to level my enchanting. I decided to use two of my valuable skill points and raise enchanting to 3. That way I could get the tier 3 version of the health regen enchantment.

Spell

Level

Rank

Percent

Skill

Cast Time

Mana

Duration

Effect

Enchanting: Health Regen +20% (III)

120 seconds

250

30.60

20.45%

I was charged a lot for the spell and only had a few silver left after the purchase. I used the money to buy some cheapish rings to hold the enchantments. I cast the spell on my first ring. With the high mana cost it would take a while for me to regenerate the pool. I went to the Dusty Rhino and finagled a free dinner from Fiona. Then I spent a few hours in the library with Bella. Creating rings as my mana pool allowed. I had four rings ready. I could wear 10 rings so that was my goal. Being an enchanter sucked. If the mana cost rose when the tiers then an enchanter would constantly be renewing enchantments on their party as they expired. And all their spell slots would be filled with non-combat spells. I guess it would be a great non-adventuring profession. And once they learned the runes and imbue portions of enchanting they could make permanent enchantments. Well I did not plan to be an enchanter, I just thought the skill sounded fun until I actually tried it. Now I was stuck with so I had better make use of it. Raise it up and get the stat points at least.

I went home and made potions all night. I needed money to buy some better armor if I was going to cut trees down with the threat of the roosters.

The next day was my fifth day in day. I sold my potions for a modest sum. I drove down the market slightly on those two specific potions. Oh well, not like there were any other players to complain.

Through your efforts you have uncovered a new skill: Marksmanship. Do you wish to learn this skill?

You have learned a new skill: Marksmanship! Marksmanship associates with the stat Agility. You can now learn the skills Marksmanship: Thrown, Marksmanship: Projectile. Your current skill is 1.

Quest Night Rooster 1/10

Nurse Candice, Dog Flicka, Fiona, Bella (librarian)

Gods Lucious (evil, domination), Marabelle/Maable (life, creation)

Races – Aerinu

10,000 Dragons

10,000 Aerinu

10,000 Elves

10,000 Dwarves/Orcs

10,000 Demons

10,000 Angels

10,000 Beastkin

10,000 First Great Magic War

10,000

The End with New Beginnings

目录