After a week of working at the restaurant he managed to worm his way into the job of busboy. This job consisted of cleaning tables, and doing whatever else people needed done. Really the job wasn’t any better than being a waiter, but it allowed him to work in the kitchen occasional which is why he wanted it. After a week of getting to know the kitchen staff he managed to switch jobs to kitchen helper where he finally learned the cooking skill. At this point, having achieved his aims, he could quit, but because he was still stuck in the town for another week game time he decided that he might as well stick with it till then.
Finally the day he could leave the city came.
“Shame you're leaving. With a bit of work you would make a good chef.” Shana said.
“Thanks for the compliment, but I want to see the world and have adventures.”
“You foreigners all seem to be obsessed with adventure. Still, you stuck around longer than most of them. Here, a reward for your hard work. If you're going to go gallivanting around you'll need something like it.”
*Ting*
General Purpose Knife
Durability: 20/20
Damage: 3-4
This small knife is useful for a variety of tasks.
His eyes widened slightly in surprise at the unexpected gift.
“Thanks, I really appreciate it.”
“Don't mention it. If you ever get tired of the adventuring there's a job waiting for you here.”
With that she turned back to her work without saying goodbye, but what she had said was enough.
After saying goodbye to some of the other staff Skylar set out feeling excited about the future.
“Statue Window”
*Ting*
Status WindowNameSkylarTypeHumanLevel3Fame0TitleNoneClassNoneHealth106Mana102Health Regen/sec0.03Mana Regen/sec0.12Strength10Agility10Vitality10Intelligence10Wisdom10
“Skill Window”
*Ting*
Cooking Skill: Level 2 — 25%Axe Mastery: Level 2 — 60%Cleaning Skill Level 3 — 12%Illustration Skill Level 3 — 11%Painting skill Level 1 — 0%
He had 134 copper. Maybe enough to buy a very low end Axe. With that he should be able to go hunting with some of the other newbie player and pick up some exp and loot, but first there was something he wanted to try.
Taking out a piece of wood and started to whittle it with his new knife.
He was really curious about material manipulation in this world. Taking raw materials and shaping them into new useful forms (i.e. crafting) seemed to require skills. Yet some forms of material manipulation seem to be possible without skills. For instance he was able to cut wood with an axe before he learned any skills at all. So he wondered, what would happen if he tried to shape a complex form out of wood without knowing the required skill?
So far it wasn't going very well. His hands seemed clumsier than they did in real life, and he had to concentrate very hard to get the results he wanted, but he kept at it, and slowly the wood began to take shape.
Five hours later.
*Ting*
Crude Mask Created
Durability: 1/1
This crude mask was created by a complete armature. It's impossible to tell what the mask was made to depict.
New Skill: You have learned Carving Skill
So it would seem that you can learn at least some skill by doing things. So far he had learned two skills that way; Axe Mastery and Sculpture Mastery. Learning both those skills had had one thing in common, effort. He'd put a lot of effort into completing a task, and then a skill had suddenly appeared. Perhaps this game had been designed to reward hard work. Either that or maybe the designer was a masochist who liked the player to suffer.
Examining his work closely he decided that it really was crud. You could barely make out what it was at all.
“Justice Man...”
When he'd been younger he'd loved justice man. Really he'd been obsessed with the show going so far as to create his own justice man costume including a mask he carved out of balsa wood. The reason he'd learned to draw was because he was such a rabid fan that he wanted make his own justice man comic book. Latter on his obsession transferred over to other things. Other fantasies took justice man's place. Now he wasn't even sure what he had ever liked about the character.
Justice... what's so good about it anyway. The powerful make the rules and they call those rules just. If anyone disobeys the rules they use force in order to punish them and they call it justice. So basically power is justice, and power is not always used for good.
Perhaps I'm being a bit too cynical he thought to himself. The society he lived in really wasn't such a bad place, and the laws he lived under were fair enough for the most part. Part of getting older was learning that things can't always the way you want or think they should be. Really the truth was that he had simply outgrown Justice Man.
Putting the mask away he started to walk to the weapons store taking a short cut through some residential shacks.
Suddenly someone bowled into him knocking him over.
It was Maria the NPC he'd worked for in the past. She was breathing hard, and she had the wide eyed look that people only get when they are truly panicked.
“Maria, what wrong.” He asked helping her up.
She looked like she didn't recognize him for a second then her eyes became focused.
“Skylar you have to help me. He has my brother.”
*Ting*
Help Maria's Brother
Support the creativity of authors by visiting Royal Road for this novel and more.
Maria's brother needs your help. You better hurry or you might be too late!
Difficulty level: D
Quest requirements:
Familiarity with Maria
Be in the right place at the right time.
Reward: Unknown
Difficulty D. That's impossible. There's no way he could handle a difficulty D quest. He opened his mouth to refuse, but seeing her expression he just couldn't do it.
“Ok, take me there. No better yet, tell me where it is and go look for more help.”
*Ting*
You accepted the quest.
“By my shack. Hurry.” She said and ran off.
Maybe he should have asked for more detail, but it was probably better that spent her time finding someone who had a higher level.
He reached the shack quickly and saw a warrior covered in red paint holding a child up by his clothing shouting in his face. It was that jerk from the restaurant again. The one who thought he was a NPC. What did the girl call him again... Grage that was it.
So now what? Judging by Grage's equipment his level was somewhere over a hundred. There was no possible way Skylar could win in a fight. He should just turn around and leave. Let someone deal with it. He’d be a fool to interfere at his level.
He took the mask out of his pack and put it own. If he was going to be a fool he was going to be a fool anonymously. Especially when there was a risk of angering high level players.
"Put him down." he said.
The guy just kept going. He was so enraged that he probably didn't even hear.
“Put the boy down!” He shouted.
Finally turning away from the boy the man gave him a confused look.
“Who are you?”
“A warrior of justice.” he said doing his best Justice Man pose.
“Are you an idiot?”
Obviously he wasn't a fan of the show.
“Why don't you let the poor kid go?”
“No way. Look what he did to my armor. It's ruined! Do you know how expensive it was!”
“I'm sure it was an accident. Right kid?”
“No way! That creep was harassing my sister again. He deserved what he got!”
Stupid kid.
“You know now that I look at you more closely I think you look good in red. A crimson warrior. What could be more iconic?”
“Get the
“Wait, I have the cleaning skill at intermediate level (a lie). Maybe I can get the paint off.”
“How do I know you telling the truth?”
“Look I'm obviously a noob so I can't hurt you right? So what do you have to lose?”
The man scowled at him.
“Fine, if you can get the paint of I'll let the kid go. Otherwise I'll kill both of you.”
“Ok, but why don't you put the kid down. It's too difficult to clean you with you holding him like that.”
“No way. Do you think I'm stupid? If I set him down he'll run off.”
“I have some string. Why don't you let me tie him up for you?”
He looked thoughtful for a moment.
“No, I'll tie him up myself. I have fairly high Rope Skill.”
That's kind of disturbing.
“Let go over there. There's a trough of water I can use.”
“Ok, but don't even think about trying anything.”
“Scouts honor.”
Like I'm a scout.
*Ting*
You failed to clean the item.You failed to clean the item.You failed to clean the item.You failed to clean the item.
“It doesn't look like it's working.” the warrior said.
My skill levels to low. There's no way this is going to work.
“Wait a second. I have a potion which temporarily increases your skill levels.”
“There's no potion like that.”
“No really. I got a few from this crazy alchemist in purple robes. I have a few of them, do you want to try one?”
He paused for a second obviously thinking it through.
“Nah, you'd probably try and poison me.”
He's smarter than he looks.
*gulp*
*Ting*
30 second to self destruct.
Well it's all about timing now.
*Ting*
You failed to clean the item.You failed to clean the item.
“It's still not working.” Grage said.
“Are you sure? I think I see a clean spot.”
*Ting*
25 second to self destruct.
“There's nothing there. I knew I shouldn't have listened to you.”
“Just give it a little more time.”
*Ting*
20 second to self destruct.
“I've already given you enough time.”
“What's the rush? I thought you like this armor.”
*Ting*
15 second to self destruct.
“I know. Maybe I just need to use another potion.” Skylar said.
“I'm telling you there's no such thing as skill increasing potions. That alchemist ripped you off.”
*Ting*
10 second to self destruct.
“But he had such an honest face.”
“That's it. I'm through waiting. You and the kid are both...”
*Ting*
5 second to self destruct.
“But I love you.” Skylar said throwing himself on him. Embarrassing, but desperate times call for desperate measures.
Grage turned red with rage and started to sputter out barely coherent sentences.
“Get the
Suddenly there was a deafening sound and everything turned white. Shortly after Skylar was logged out of the game.