The first order of business was to see if I could make use of the skills Oforf showed me. I took out the blank cards and got to work.
Chisel
Card Battle Card
Deals 1 point of damage to an enemy stone monster
Carve
Card Battle Card
Adds 1 point of defense to a single stone monster
Infuse Mana
Card Battle Card
Add 3 Attack to a single monster
Harden
Card Battle Card
Add 3 Defense to a single monster
As far as the card game went, they were mundane. That wasn’t what I made them for though.
“Can I get a block of ice?” I asked a waiter when he stopped by to refill my drink. Mary was still busy with the large party of players at the other end of the bar.
“Where do you think you are, Permafrost?” He asked with a chortle.
“Ice cubes then?” I asked hopefully.
He nodded and brought me a glass of ice water. I chugged it and fished out one of the cubes. Chiseling and Carving were a problem. Both required tools that I didn’t have. I tried using my new ice pick and got an error.
Warning: Proper tool required.
Infuse mana worked though I wasn’t entirely sure what happened. Inspecting the ice made me chuckle.
Ice Cube
Element: Ice
I had to inspect a non-infused one to see the difference.
Ice Cube
Consumable
Both tasted the same, and neither killed me. Next, I tried Harden on the ice. Once again, nothing outwardly changed. The description was even more confusing.
Ice Cube
When I tried to eat the hardened ice, I chipped a tooth. I didn’t know that was possible in the game. It was like trying to eat metal. Needless to say, Harden lived up to its name if nothing else. I also learned that teeth grow back in The World.
Across the bar, it was apparent that Mary wasn’t going to be available anytime soon. I gave up on meeting with her and returned to Stormbreak so I could tether myself to one of the dwarves. They all sat hunched around the fire in the longhouse alongside several barrels of what I assumed to be ale. I tethered myself to the closest dwarf before taking a seat beside him.
“Welcome back, Lad,” Grom bellowed a little too loud when he noticed me. “Let’s see if we can’t level up that human alcohol tolerance of yours.”
My original intent had been to tether and log out for the night but a not-a-dwarf had just challenged my liquid honor. Besides, I wanted to know how the game handled getting drunk.
“What is this stuff?” I asked as I received a wooden flagon filled with a rich amber liquid.
Gertie slapped me on the back. “That’s called Miner’s Delight, boy. See if you can keep up. It’ll put hair on your chin.”
I took a sip and was surprised. It was quite good. The ale tickled my throat and left behind a warm feeling in my stomach with every gulp. Drinking wasn’t the same as it was in the real world. No matter how much I drank, I never got full, and better yet, never had to pee. There was also no risk of organ damage and hopefully no hangover in the morning.
“Another!” A dwarf I didn’t recognize shouted and another flagon was shoved into my hands.
I downed that one and the next, wondering how many it would take before I felt something. Several flagons later I had my answer. A wave of dizziness washed over me, making it a struggle to remain upright even though I was only sitting.
Your Alcohol Tolerance has increased. (2)
This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it
Judging by the laughter of the dwarves, they were very aware of exactly what my tolerance was. I vaguely recalled being given several more after that. The world spun and everyone was having a good time. We sang the songs of our people, mostly out of tune. I had no clue what anyone was talking about but what I didn’t care. The dwarves welcomed me into the fold like I was a member of their family.
I didn’t detect any hostility until a shrill voice erupted from the other side of the room causing several dwarves to flee in terror. I looked up to find a strangely familiar woman towering over me with her hands on her hips. Only, her rage wasn’t directed at me.
Once the last dwarf left, she knelt beside me. Her voice was much sweeter when speaking to me. “I’m sorry that took so long. Those stupid players didn’t want to stop drinking until they passed out.”
I knew the feeling. Drinking was fun, especially in the game.
The woman sighed. “From the looks of things, you’re about there yourself. Oh, well. I guess we should get you to bed. Err, I mean, log you out. Come find me again next time.”
I wanted to say something but speaking felt overly complicated. Before I could do anything, she kissed me on the cheek and stood.
You have been disconnected.
Coherence flooded my mind and I sat upright. I was back in my apartment completely sober.
“Mary!” I gasped, trying to log back in.
Warning: You will be intoxicated in game for the next 3 hours 48 minutes and 12 seconds. Are you sure you wish to log in?
I sighed. It was a good lesson. Besides, I was tired. My only regret was I had no way of contacting Mary. I was going to have to remedy that soon. In the meantime, there was someone I needed to contact.
“Hello?” My brother sounded like he was in a battle when he answered.
“What level are you?” I asked, using our standard greeting.
He snorted. “I know you’re higher than me but I just hit fourteen. The World Tree is amazing. We just arrived in Haphes and I can see it even though it’s about fifty miles away.”
“Fifty?” I asked. “That place is huge.”
“I’m in a place that translates as Hundred Miles Forest,” he began. “We picked up a lot of quests to cleanse the forest when we got here and have been killing monsters as we go. I’m told the elves around the World Tree offer some rare advanced classes.”
“That sounds amazing,” I said as I eased into bed.
“What level are you?” Jed asked.
“Twenty-five,” I replied. “We got attacked by pirates on the way to Permafrost.”
“That place sounds cold,” he ignored my level. “I wish pirates attacked us. We would have wiped the floor with them.”
“I sunk their ship,” I announced, eager to show off.
“Really?” He asked. “How did you do that? Did they let you use the cannon?”
I laughed. “Well, it did involve a Cannonball.”
He snorted. “Lucky shot! I’ll make my way up there once I get established at The World Tree. With fast travel, I should only have to travel from Kingsport.”
“Where is The World Tree?” I asked. “Everfrost is to the north.
“It’s south,” Jed replied. “By the equator. Haphes should be marked on even your map. That’s the continent. Do you see the big tree in the middle of it? That’s the World Tree.”
“I can’t wait to explore all of the continents,” I said, looking at the map and all the continents neither of us had been to.
“You’re going to take your sweet time again, aren’t you?” He asked.
“Maybe,” I shrugged even though he couldn’t see me.
“Are you not gonna raid this time?” He asked.
That was an interesting question. Under normal circumstances, we raided in every MMO we played. This game was different though. It had a lot more meat than any of the others I’d played. Still, there allure of challenging the game’s most difficult content was too much to pass up.
“Of course, I’m going to raid!” I exclaimed.
He harrumphed. “You hesitated.”
“Yeah,” I paused again trying to come up with a good defense. “But the game is so good.”
I know it was lame but it was also true.
Still, Jed got it. “It’s fine. Have your fun but don’t forget there’s still dessert after the meal.”
The joke was on him. It was all dessert for me.
“Don’t worry, I won’t forget,” I placated him.
----------------------------------------
I woke with a start. Did I remember to tether myself? How long was I asleep for that matter? I forgot to set an alarm so the house AI didn’t wake me. Rubbing the sleep from my eyes, I made my way to the living room and logged in. Mundane things like eating and going to the bathroom could wait.
A blast of cold air struck me the moment I arrived. I found myself marching alongside Nelly in a long procession of dwarves and sleds laden with supplies being pulled by huskies.
“Where’s Sasha?” I asked.
Nelly shrugged. “Last I saw her she was with you. Did she remember to tether herself?”
I shrugged. “I don’t know. She said she was going to tether to one of the dwarves before logging out.”
“Why didn’t she tether to you?” Nelly asked. “She was with you half the night, right?”
That was a good question, and one I didn’t have an answer to. “I don’t know. On the bright side, she changed classes. She’s a Card Battler now.”
“Really?” Nelly asked. “I don’t know how I feel about that. On one hand, she picked the same class as me but on the other, that means we can play more.”
“Don’t worry, she got a cursed deck,” I said, hoping to soothe her. “Anna says it will make her very different than you.”
“No fair!” Nelly whined. “That deck sounds awesome. I couldn’t beat any NPCs until you gave me that Wrecking Ball card.”
I quickly added. “Anna made a new deck for you. She gave it to Sasha for you.”
“She. Needs. To. Log. In!” Nelly snapped. “Right now!”
Sasha didn’t log in. We walked in silence for a while, and I was considering logging out to eat breakfast when Nelly poked me. “Are there any monsters around here? Do you think we can get some experience without falling too far behind? They are marching kind of slow.”
The landscape around us all looked pretty much the same under a blanket of snow. While there were some trees littering the countryside, the nearest mountains were quite a distance away. We hadn’t encountered any monsters but that didn’t mean they weren’t out there. Perhaps there was a road somewhere under all that snow that we couldn’t see.
I had an idea. “Bind yourself to one of the sleds. It’s similar to tethering but works while you’re online. I noticed it earlier when I fast-traveled with Sasha. If you set your bind point to a moving target, like the boat or this sled, you can fast travel back later.”
“But what if I’m too late and it’s already headed back to Stormbreak?” Nelly asked, worried.
“We aren’t going to be gone that long,” I reassured her. “Let’s go on an adventure until you have to log out. You can get some levels and I’ll get to see what a Card Battler can do.”
“Okay! She said, pumping her fist in excitement.
And we were off. Both of us set our respawn points to one of the sleds. It became obvious very quickly that we had been traveling on a path. While the snow had been maybe a foot deep, it quickly grew to several by the time we’d gone twenty yards.
While Nelly stomped around and complained about it, I decided to work on the problem. Snow was a density problem. I was sinking in it because I weighed a lot and the snow was packed too loose to support me. The first piece of the puzzle was obvious, and I’d done the solution before.
I closed my eyes and focused on lowering my weight just like I did when climbing a wall or starting a Super Jump. That part was easy. The second I had no simple answer for. I needed a way to expand the area around my feet. I’d seen it done in movies with special shoes or other makeshift solutions. Since I had neither of those, I decided to put my new skills to use.
I started with Infuse Mana, pushing it into my shoe and then the snow around it.
“What are you doing?” Nelly asked, using my distraction to justify taking a break.
“I’m trying to make snow shoes,” I replied, packing snow around my foot.
Remembering the lesson Oforf taught me, I infused the snow with mana before using Harden. That first try nearly ruined a perfectly good pair of boots. Both of my feet looked like the bottom of a snowman and were too heavy to move. While I successfully packed the snow onto my shoes, I’d been so excited I forgot to make the design functional.
After a little trial and error, I managed to break the snow off using my newly acquired ice pick. The second attempt was much better. I made a pair of flat disks out of snow and set my shoe on top of them before infusing the whole thing with mana. When I cast Harden, the design looked much more functional. After that, I made a pair for Nelly and we were off.
Twenty minutes later, she whined. “This is pointless. I think I’m going to fast travel back.”
I held up a hand. “Wait. I think I see something.”