Spirits are incorporeal yet they exist. They are like ghosts yet unlike them because they are alive. Ghosts are simply earthbound souls of creatures that died with regrets and thus couldn’t pass on. The thing that keeps them in this world and binds them to it are their regrets. Having died means that the being became undead and this corrupts the being, it becomes a creature that is used in bedtime stories to frighten children. They are just suffering souls and although normal physical attacks will pass through them, they are vulnerable to magic, especially to holy magic and weapons coated in magic or made of certain metals.

Spirits are ‘living’ souls that are in this world, they were bound to it not by regrets but by mana. It was a coincidence that the souls bound to the world through mana but when some had others followed. These souls became known as the spirit race and of course over time they changed to what they are known as now. Spirits ‘age’ just like most of the other races in their case it means the diminishing of the amount of mana that bound them to the world, they can’t breed yet the amount of spirits never seems to diminish. This mana is in a way the mana of the world itself and it flows through them binding them to it, but it is not the kind of mana that is used to cast magic spells. This flow of mana is easily disrupted even by physical attacks. This is why newborn spirits are weak to physical attacks as well as the other forms of damage.

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After that night’s performance of the puppeteers they held a party because the ill puppeteer had gotten better. Well it was also a farewell party for Gorlois because the return of the puppeteer meant that there was no more work for him. The puppeteer troupe counted 4 puppeteers and their families, they were actually a travelling troupe but they had decided to stay in Ran for 2 years. Gorlois hadn’t even taken the trouble to learn their names because although they all had a kind of A.I. to him they where still just NPCs. Well he knew what the name was of the head puppeteer because most of the time he had been with him between the performances, trying to learn his pieces.

The head puppeteer’s name was Thimen and he was an easy going older man. Thimen was the guy who had written the scripts and maintained the puppets.

There was an abundance of food not that Gorlois could eat it as a spirit which was a pity actually. That spirits can’t eat is in a bliss, because he never had to eat the barley bread that the game had provided him and he also would never know the bad foods normal players had to eat in extreme situations, but of course it was a curse as well, because he couldn’t eat (and receive the buffs of) the good delicious food that some players cook themselves or is provided during in game quests and events.

Earlier Gorlois had asked if he could take one of the puppets with him when he would leave but Thimen had denied because he needed all of them for his plays, so now Gorlois tried again and asked him,

“I know that you can make puppets and, well I have to leave the troupe tomorrow but I still would like to use puppets so can you learn me the skill of how to make them?”

“I fear that you are wrong I cannot make puppets I just maintain the ones I got from a famous woodworker. The woodworker should have died by now but if you are persistent you could try to find information about him and his skills in his hometown. The town is called Notamotua and is located around 10 km east from here by just following the main road to the east”

New Quest: The Puppet Maker

[p=left]You should find information about the maker of the puppets in his hometown Notamotua.[/p]

[p=left]dificulty:[/p][p=left]- F[/p][p=left]Requirements:[/p][p=left]- Having asked the head puppeteer about his puppets[/p][p=left]- A certain degree of friendship and trust with the puppeteers[/p][p=left]Rewards[/p][p=left]- unknown[/p]

After giving the quest Thimen continued,

“Well still I could teach you something you might need as I feel bad for you leaving with nothing but money. It’s a means of defence and yes I know that you cant protect yourself with a weapon like we sometimes have to do while travelling. The way of protecting I’m talking about are illusions. I know of illusion skills as puppeteers are illusionists in their own way and while learning the profession of a puppeteer myself I learned them from a teacher.”

“I would happily learn them”

Thimen went to his cart in which he and his family lived and after a little while he came back with a book that he gave to Gorlois.

Gorlois of course saw that it was a skillbook and quickly read it.

New skill: Illusion Mastery (passive) [beginner lvl 01: 00.00%]

[p=left]Makes illusions easier to cast and more effective[/p]

New skill: Illusion [beginner lvl 01: 00.00%]

[p=left]Creates a small illusion which only affects the target visually and which is easily seen through. Lasts only a small while[/p][p=left]Mana costs: 100 mana[/p]

New skill: Illusion of Pain (active) [beginner lvl 01: 00.00%]

[p=left]Creates an illusion of pain. Damaging the target over time and draw powerful emotions out of it due to the pain. Is active till cancelling.[/p][p=left]Damage: 1/sec[/p][p=left]Mana costs: 5/sec[/p]

This book's true home is on another platform. Check it out there for the real experience.

After their conversation the party went on till the next morning and Gorlois said goodbye to the troupe and they wished him luck of course.

Gorlois wandered around the town now jobless of course and well as he really didn’t know what to do next, he just went to the city gates because he wasn’t actually confined in the city by the four week period. He was still lvl 1 and weak as his only attack was his illusion of time that he learned the evening before. When Gorlois saw that in the area before the gates the rabbits where pretty much annihilated by human beginners, he thought that he could have a try at it as well.

So he found himself a rabbit that wasn’t taken by any of the other beginners and used Illusion of Pain on it. Rabbits have 60 HP as the lowest lvled mob they are not that slow either. So when Gorlois had attacked him with his skill the rabbit attacked Gorlois and hit him for 20 HP. The next 60 seconds Gorlois had to run because he could take only four more of those hits and of course he didn’t really want to die. After 60 seconds the rabbit finally died after becoming enraged from the pain and hitting Gorlois 3 more times. The illusion of pain skill had risen by 10% though and Gorlois got around 10 exp, of course it would take 90 more exp to get to the next lvl. After meditating he went against a rabbit again because he wanted to lvl before going to Notamotua, this time he got hit only 2 times. When he had killed 8 more rabbits he lvled up and put his stat points into wisdom as he already kind of knew that he would become a magic based character, Illusion of Pain lvled up as well, doubling the damage it gave.

He had grown bored of killing rabbits already after only killing ten of them this was mostly because it took time to replenish his mana and health after killing one and in that time he could do nothing of course. The rabbits dropped nothing but their corpses and those corpses didn’t disappear at once but stayed there for like 20 minutes before disappearing if the player didn’t pick it up. Of course the player could also only pick up parts of the rabbits like their skin or meat, two things that were wanted by the merchants and other players close by the gates. Gorlois had picked up one of the rabbit corpses because he wanted to try possessing it later.

It was around noon when Gorlois went to the east in the direction of Notamotua for his quest. He stayed on the paved road because the mobs didn’t go on it, only robbers and bandits did but Gorlois was lucky enough not to encounter those. He used invisibility while walking because he wanted to train it, it could become useful later on after all. The skill only made him a little more transparent and thus harder to see from afar. This actually saved his live because there was a bandit castle a little bit from the road, but the lookout didn’t notice him until it was too late to call the rest of their group to lay out an ambush. So his trip to Notamotua was very uneventful and boring he only saw trees and rabbits and other small herbivores that where nibbling grass at the roadside, not dangerous unless he would attack them himself.

He arrived in Notamotua in the afternoon and as he arrived he noticed that there were no players and that there were far less villagers outside than there where homes for them, the village was almost deserted and most of the houses where in a state of decline. When he asked one of the villagers why there were so few villagers in the village, the villager ignored him and with lifeless eyes he went on with what he was doing which was cutting wood. It seemed that the whole village was once oriented at the production of wood and processing of wood as the forest around it was partially cut down and the fact that there was a rundown sawmill. He asked a 3 other villagers but they all ignored him so in the end he had no other choice than to try asking the mayor.

He went to the biggest house in the town as it was kind of obvious the mayor would reside there. It was kind of weird but he was just let in by a very old lady, probably a servant, and immediately led to the mayor that was an even older man that asked Gorlois,

“Are you the adventurer that was asked to save my village? It is already to late, it isn’t needed anymore we are a lost cause.”

Gorlois was surprised because that wasn’t even the initial cause of his travel and replied,

“No, I came here for information about a puppet maker, but now I would like to know what’s happening with this village as well.”

“The village lost its treasure and thus it is declining. A simple adventurer can’t find this treasure and it is closely related to the founder of this village, he was the maker of puppets you just talked about. This house was once his before he died and left me as his successor, but with him dead we lost the treasure and the village slowly declined after that. Most of the people that once lived here have already died. Like I said a simple adventurer can’t find this treasure but still you are free to try and fail.”

Quest updated: the puppet maker

[p=left]The treasure of the puppet maker is lost and thus the Notamotua village is declining. Uncover the secret of the village and stop its decline[/p]

[p=left]Difficulty:[/p][p=left]- D[/p][p=left]Rewards:[/p][p=left]- unknown[/p][p=left]Penalty upon failure or abandoning the quest:[/p][p=left]- You might lose a great opportunity, won’t be asked for this quest again.[/p]

Gorlois then asked the village chief,

“Can I freely look around here and at the church and saw mill?”

(the only three noteworthy buildings in the village the rest of the buildings are only little better than shacks)

“yes of course but you will probably fail”

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Author's notes

1. hope that I won't be inconsistent from now one, but point the inconsistencies out and well I'll rewrite or give an explanation, I guess it is because I as author know my own ideas better than you the readers. >.<'

2. I still hate those bbcodes

3. It took a little longer than expected to write this chapter (I will try to make it weekly but well we'll see if i can keep that promise)

4. Well if you see a horrible grammar mistake please point it out and suggestions and opinions are always welcome