It had been a while since I came to a town alone with ample time to explore, and I almost didn’t know where to start. The gaping hole in my status window ended up casting the deciding vote.
Veritas
Primary Class: Level 26 Excavator
Secondary Class: Level 1 Demolitionist
HP: 2600/2600
MP: 200/200
SP: 5200/5200
Skills: Break Stuff, Power Dig, Ping, Whallop, Make Explosive, Detonate, Detect Weakness (Structure)
Traits: Fireproof, Ignore Darkness
Proficiencies: Pickaxe, Shovel, Explosives, Alchemy, Basic Seamanship
Heart Deck (1 Slot): Infuse Mana
I’d gotten my Demolitionist class ages ago which was still level one, and I had no clue how to fix it. I knew someone who might, though.
“Excuse me,” I flagged down one of the dwarves carrying supplies into the mountain. “Do you know Gertie?”
“Do you mean Gertrude?” The dwarf called over his shoulder as he picked up the pace, forcing me to jog to keep up.
“Yes,” I huffed, only catching my breath when I remembered I didn’t need to breathe.
The dwarf stopped to point at a nearby tunnel. “Town’s that way. Ask when you get there.”
He shot off again, not giving me a chance to ask anything else. The path was well-lit by smokeless torches hung conveniently on the wall every couple of feet. Ever so often there was a sign.
Leave a torch/Take a torch.
I didn’t bother picking one up as I had the Ignore Darkness skill to fall back on. I often stepped aside as dwarves raced by in both directions.
Why are they all in such a hurry?
Then I saw something interesting. Several dwarves in cheap-looking mismatched armor walked by deeply engrossed in conversation. One of them looked up at me. “Wow. A human. You sure traveled far.”
“You’re players,” I marveled.
He laughed. “What? Did you think everyone was going to roll a human? Did you even check the race options?”
I laughed and admitted I hadn’t.
“Why are you way over here?” The second player asked. “Don’t you know this is a starter town? You’re level twenty-six.”
“Yeah,” I said. “But I’m a miner.”
“No you’re not,” the first said. “Your class says Excavator. Is that an advanced class or something?”
“Or something,” I echoed.
They laughed. “Well, we’re off to kill some cave pests. Good luck with your fancy mining.”
“Thanks,” I called after them as they left the way I’d come.
The city of Drunder was bigger than Under Drunder but the majority of the buildings were significantly smaller. That was all except for a keep that took up the entire back wall of the cavern. My eyes were drawn to it immediately when I emerged from the tunnel. A large crystal embedded in the ceiling reflected sunlight into a series of mirrors that lit the place up. A pair of guards barred my path with a pair of drawn axes.
“State your business in Drunder,” one of them said in a serious tone.
“Questing and adventuring!” I announced proudly.
The dwarves looked at one another before pulling their axes apart. The one that greeted me continued. “Please be sure to behave in a civilized manner at all times during your stay. Additionally, dwarf jokes of any kind will result in your being banned. There will also be no punting…”
The second cleared his throat, cutting off the first. “You may enter.”
“Thanks,” I said as I took a few steps past the guards. “Um, do either of you know where Gertie…I mean Gertrude lives?”
“I don’t know about lives,” the first said. “But she visits the plaza every day.”
“Thanks,” I said again, before stopping. “Where’s the plaza?”
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The plaza turned out to be a beautiful open area in the middle of town lined with shops that had full display windows. In the middle of the plaza was a park with a large statue of a dwarf with water fountaining out of his chin to form a majestic beard.
I looked around for any sign of Gertie or an explosive shop that would tell me where she was. Finding nothing, I decided to visit the first shop I came across.
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Rocks Rock Rocks
“Welcome, Sir,” a balding dwarf greeted me. “Might I interest you in a nice adamantium nugget today?”
I shook my head, unsure what I’d do with it. “No. I’m looking for Gert…Gertrude.”
“Ah, her,” he said with a knowing smile. He poked his head out the door and pointed to another store on the other side of the plaza shaped like a treasure chest. “You’ll find her at the thrift shop.”
“Thrift…?” I hesitated as I took in the gaudy shop, unable to suppress a chuckle store’s name.
One Man’s Junk
“You can always find a deal at the thrift shop,” the bald dwarf said with a chuckle. “Ol Gertie is obsessed with the place. Visits every time she comes back.”
Even from a distance, the store stood out, its golden rood adorned with treasure glinting in the artificial light. I walked across the park, marveling at the beard fountain as I passed by. The interior of One Man’s Junk reminded me of videos I’d seen of the discount stores online. Such places had long since been retired as online shopping and automated item synthesis took off in the latter half of the twenty-first century.
Dwarven players and NPCs browsed shelves lined with bins filled with every sort of thing imaginable. The only difference from what I’d seen, was that it was medieval style. Instead of old tennis rackets and broken computer parts, there were rusty morning stars and chainmail vests.
Gertie wasn’t hard to pick out of the crowd. While her distinctive sandy blonde hair did make her stand out, she was having an animated discussion with another dwarf, whom I could only assume to be One Man, from One Man’s Junk, behind the counter.
“I’m telling you, we found this relic under Mount Kilkenny in Celestea,” Gertie explained, holding up a canister emanating a faint blue light. “It’s worth at least one hundred gold.”
“That ain’t how it works and you know it,” One Man said, crossing his arms. “If you want it appraised, go find an appraiser. Otherwise, the standard is ten gold.”
“Pah!” Gertie spat, turning to see me. “You! Tell him where I got this. Tell him it’s valuable.”
I examined it.
Unknown Device
Appraisal Skill Required: 57
“How would I know?” I asked, suddenly wanting to find an appraiser so I could copy the skill.
She scoffed. “You were there when I found it. Well, right after I found it in any case.”
“That mountain had a name?” I asked.
She rolled her eyes. “Of course it did. Every mountain does. How else would we tell them apart?”
I knew major mountains got names but never paid much attention to lesser ones. That would mean the hundreds of mountains I’d seen in the Rocky Mountains when I was a kid all had names. Gertie turned her attention back to One Man which left me with a little time to look around. Besides hand-me-down weapons and armor, there was also an assortment of other items. One section stood out in particular. Flasks and beakers that reminded me of high school chemistry filled a whole row of bins. They ranged anywhere in value from one copper up to one hundred gold coins.
“What’s the difference between these?” I asked a dwarf who was eyeing one of the cheaper ones.
“I don’t know?” He said with a shrug. “I’m just looking for something with a stopper to keep my ale in. For medicinal purposes, you know?”
“Uh-huh,” I said slowly, examining the most expensive one.
Potion Bottle of Holding
Crafting Item
Uses: Unlimited
Durability: Indestructible
Special: Auto-Refill
Price: 100g
“Well, that’s fancy,” I sighed, setting my sights lower. “Can’t afford it though.”
Next, I inspected the ones in the least expensive bin.
Potion Bottle
Crafting Item
Uses: 1
Durability: Fragile
Price: 1c
The item quality improved as the price went up. At first, paying a little more meant the bottle could be reused. The more expensive ones gained durability perks such as shatterproof and unmeltable. A few of the expensive ones had special traits as well.
Potion Bottle of Preservation
Crafting Item
Uses: Unlimited
Durability: N/A
Special: Preservation
Price: 50g
Potion Bottle of Warming
Crafting Item
Uses: Unlimited
Durability: N/A
Special: Heat Preservation
Price: 25g
Potion Bottle of Chilling
Crafting Item
Uses: Unlimited
Durability: N/A
Special: Cold Preservation
Price: 25g
Even though I had some gold thanks to the bounty on the pirates, I decided to go with the cheap ones. I grabbed one of the bins containing the one copper bottles and took them up to One Man who was still haggling with Gertie.
He ignored her latest round of arguments and counted up the bottles in the bin. “I count one-hundred-forty-seven. I’ll let you have them all for one silver, two if you want the box.”
I stashed a couple of the bottles in my inventory. They stacked, so I shook my head. “No thanks on the bin. I don’t need it.”
“Fine,” he grumbled. “One silver it is.”
“I’m taking my business elsewhere,” Gertie snapped as she slipped the device back into her bag.
“Wait!” I called after her as I scrambled to dump the rest of the potion bottles into my inventory and race after her at the same time.
“What do you want?” She asked, clearly still irritated that I didn’t help her.
“I need your help,” I said, taking a step back from the seething dwarf. “Is there a special way to level a secondary class?”
Gertie’s expression softened. “Oh, that. I don’t want to discourage you but you made a mistake choosing my class along with my brother’s. Let me explain. If you chose two adventuring classes, there would be trickle-down experience. Fifty percent of the experience you get in your primary adventure class would also be applied to the secondary one. It doesn’t work that way with gathering and crafting-based professions. Those types of experience don’t stack like it does with adventuring. Take your classes for example. Your primary gets its own experience along with any you happen to get for killing things. Your secondary class, which just so happens to be Demolitionist, only benefits when you use its class skills directly.”
“What if I chose a gathering class as my primary and adventuring as secondary?” I asked.
She laughed. “That’s even simpler. All adventuring experience would go to your secondary class, even if you got it using your primary gathering skills.”
“So, what you’re saying is I just have to blow stuff up to level Demolitionist, right?”
Gertie snorted. “That is a simplified way of looking at it. You will eventually level if you chuck bombs all over the place. However, it’s much easier to level Demolitionist if you use the skills together the way they are intended to be. Come with me, and I’ll show you. You might want to set your bind point here before we go.”
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We walked for what felt like an eternity through winding tunnels, eventually, leaving Mount Drunder and heading over to another mountain that was even more full of holes.
“This was Mount Bountiful.,” she explained. “We found some of the biggest deposits in here but it’s been depleted for some time. I brought you here because it’s abandoned.”
Together, we made our way into the main shaft at the base of the mountain. Gertie led us up several levels before taking me to another exit halfway up the mountain. She pointed at a glowing spot just inside the cave. “Tell me what you see.”
“Those are weaknesses, right?”
She nodded. “That they are. You’re going to exploit them. Here, take this and stick it to the wall. I assume you know what to do with it?”
“Is this C4?” I asked, examining the item at the same time.
A Lump of Clay
Crafting Material
“No!” She guffawed. “What level do you think you are? Do you think I’d give explosives to a child?”
“Well, no,” I admitted, feeling the blood rush to my face as I did what she asked.
“Very good,” she said after inspecting my work. “Now what do you do?”
“Make Explosive?” I asked as I made the clay explosive.
“Very good,” she commended. “Now, we leave the mountain before you detonate. I’m not like my foolish brother. I like to be in a safe place before I make things explode.”