I made it back up to the first [Viewpoint] I found with ease. Copped a feel up and down the rock wall where the hidden exit to the tower was. My fingers hit a handle and I swung it open revealing a ladder going straight up into the dark rock. I left the door open behind me and ascended, giving me the light I’d need without casting while climbing. I reached the top with no trouble and cast my light to brighten up the place.
I kept my pace quick and arrived at the secret exit behind the sink in no time. The Rat King’s corpse that I’d left behind having long since evaporated once Iagan properly looted it. I pushed into the bare room and I sat face to face with the object of my desire. The sink.
Since hearing Plyne’s suggestion of finding a Create Water spell as a must for survival in the Tower I couldn’t get this stupid sink out of my head. I studied the plumbing intensely finding they led nowhere, looping back on themselves. So I was left with one question I couldn’t figure out: if this was a closed system then where was the water coming from?
I squeaked both knobs out to full and brown tinged water flowed out, clearing up after a little bit of time. I placed my ear against the pipe and listened for where the rushing sound came from. It hummed as old pipes do. Tap tap tap. I knocked in several places listening for any subtle changes within them.
Right when I heard something clank inside the pipes something cold fell on my back. I screamed and jumped away, smacking my head into the underside of the sink as water trickled, spilling over the edge and onto the tile floor. Apparently the sink had stopped up and overflowed out onto me. My now wet shirt clung to me as it seeped into the rest of the fabric. I summoned my still damp towel and dried off as best as I could manage and gently tended to my head. No wet up there so I hadn’t busted my skull too badly thankfully. The goose egg that would no doubt show up later would be hidden by my hair. Thank noodles for small favors.
A puddle formed around the base of the sink slowly spreading out as it took over the ground. I tromped through the water and stuck my hand down into the water. Placing my hand over the drain I could feel the pressure on the other side pushing faintly against me. I created a seal and felt the push back increase, the water coming out of the faucet strengthened sending the sink flow lapping around my elbows. I adjusted myself around the side of the sink and kicked at the pipes with my heel trying to dislodge whatever had moved in there.
Clang. Clink plink clunk.
Thunk.
Something lodged in the mouth of the faucet sending water spraying out everywhere. I turned the faucet off which slowed the water to a mere trickle and finally a drip. There was no two ways about it: I was soaked but I didn’t care. Glinting in the tip of the droplets of the faucet mouth was the point of a blue crystal. I pulled out my camera and snapped a photo.
Ker-chunk.
[New Compendium Entry: Item- Crystal (Blue)]
[Classification: Utility Item]
[Notes: Enchanted with- [Create Water] Spell]
It had taken me a while to get it but I’d found a hidden item left behind in the tutorial to help ensure one’s survival through Trick Tower. A survival book for knowledge, an enchanted [Fire] spell gem and now one that would create water in any situation.
The frustration settled in when I couldn’t get the damn thing free after two hours of trying. I stormed to Roqor’s room for back up equipment to get this stupid thing out. The hallway was missing the other torches I’d taken but the one I’d left still burned without abandon providing enough light to not have to grope through the dark. That was nice observation to notate on my watch for later.
It was mostly the same back in the room, papers spread everywhere, books piled all around, a veritable rat’s nest of scholarly persuasion. The bear skin rug over the trapdoor leading to the other side of the mountain remained where it was, staring across the room lazily. The telescope I couldn’t take with me taunted me again with it’s beauty, but I was on the hunt for something that would help me get the leverage needed to free the gem from the faucet so I went back to my task.
I scoured the room this time shoving as many books that would fit into my fanny pack. I’d gotten my use out of the information, but I could still take these to sell elsewhere earning extra coin. As long as they fit they could go into the fanny pack with no weight penalties. I stashed the larger ones in my personal inventory nearing my wimpy personal limitations. Anything else left in the room that could fit into the fanny pack went as well.
Scavenging always paid well even if it was mundane items.
Finally a highlight came up on my HUD when I looked to the dancing fire in the fireplace. A wrought iron wrapped stand sat slightly off to the side and my HUD highlighted a thin handle sticking out that had blended into the dark walls. Like pulling the sword from the stone I pulled a long thin cast iron fire poker out of it’s container. Double the length of the letter opener both the end and the small hook were blunted, and it wrapped back around itself to form a handle and guard. An easy weight that wouldn’t break my limits and something I could wield with no experience and perhaps no weapons penalty.
“Hello gorgeous.” I smiled to my new baton as my compendium registered it.
Ker-chunk
I nearly skipped on my way to take another literal whack at getting the gem out of the sink. Three reverberating and satisfying smacks later the gemstone shot down into the sink with a scratchy clink. I dismissed the baton to my fanny pack and snagged my prize. There glimmering in the water droplets that rolled off my hand was a sapphire colored stone the size of a large blueberry, although it was flat across the top with a brilliant style cut set into it’s facets. I gaped in awe.
Now, I make some money with my stream, but I’m definitely not pulling in enough revenue to just outright buy gemstones of this caliber. I had a few lying around my room but those were the more common types like amethyst and selenite that you buy at those rock and gem shows that pop up every now and again in the city. This sink stone was a rock hound’s wet dream, literally.
Noodles, how it sparkled so perfectly as I twisted it around the light playing in the facets. This deserved a picture, so I set my stage carefully. Balancing the gem on it’s side on the edge of the sink to see extent of the cut on the stone, I set my camera lens up close bringing it into the immediate foreground. The focus shifted automatically thankfully and I summoned my next props: my water bottle and the selfie stick. In order to get the shot how I wanted it I wouldn’t be able to hold the camera and get the effect I wanted. The selfie stick provided my work around: holding onto the handle let me control the shutter with my mind.
I steadied my arm holding my camera mace and uncorked my water bottle ready for my makeshift shoot.
Ker-chunk
Ker-chunk
Ker-chunk
Water spilled over the edge of the basin and onto the floor as my compendium updated. I picked up the stone before it got carried over the edge by the strengthening ripples and waves left over from the shoot. I held onto it as I looked through the pictures. I took two extras to be sure I got a good shot, but I was captivated by the first.
The sharply drawn focus on the gemstone at the front of the sink put the faucet fading blurry into the background. This helped hide the illusion that the faucet was still overflowing the sink, when in reality it was water pouring behind the spout from my water bottle that was splashing into the basin. Silver blue ripples glistened in the light breaking the surface in waves and in the center proud and glamourous was the blue stone. A single tiny droplet rested on one of the cut faces, a liquid accent that looked like a tiny rhinestone. The compendium updated once more placing this one as the main image for the general crystal entry.
I sighed in relief. The gemstone wasn’t technically a secret but it was worth investigating and obtaining. I went to warm myself up by the fire in the other room and was dry in no time. I checked my watch, I’d left Iagan about three and a half hours ago and the time read fourteen-twelve. I mentally translated back to regular people time— no. No. NO! I was done with it! I applied myself for the next twenty minutes learning how to work my damn watch and finally FINALLY got it changed to standard time.
Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
While celebrating my triumph over a brainless machine, a pink whisper notification sprung up on my HUD disrupting me.
Mr.BigwIggy whispered to [The Group]:
MykaReviews whispered to [The Group]:
A little while later Iagan poked his head through the gap behind the sink. His boot found the water on the floor with a splash and he looked around the room perplexed. He looked better, his health and mana bars had moved back to full once more.
“How are you feeling?” I asked.
“Fine now that I could sleep a bit. What happened in here?” He asked gesturing to the water on the ground.
“This happened.” I summoned my camera and pulled up the picture. I held it out to him and he took it his eyes widening for a moment as he registered what he was looking at. In the split second I knew he’d move to look at me and then back to the picture I summoned the stone between my fingers in a victory peace sign. He gaped just as I did when he saw it materialize, looking between the photo and the real deal.
“Holy shit, don’t move.” Iagan muttered quickly as he flipped my camera around back at me and clicked the button.
Ker-chunk
I blinked in surprise, all of it happened in a single moment. Iagan flipped it back around looking at the image with a grin. He all but shoved the camera into my hands and there I was: cheesin’ real hard holding out my tiny stone with smug triumph. The background was out of focus but that placed me in a sharp crisp outline against it. It looked nice enough for a split second snag from someone not proficient in the [Photography] skill.
“Ah good one.” I said. Focusing back on the gem, I held it out depositing it in his hand. “I want you to have this.”
“What is it?” He asked rolling it along his palm like a stuffed rolly polly.
“A gemstone enchanted with the spell [Create Water].”
Iagan’s brows shot up in surprise. “And you found this in the sink?”
“In the pipes. Took a little while but I knocked it loose with a poker I took from Roqor’s study.” I nodded back down the hallway.
“How did you know this was here?” He asked with a laugh.
“The sink didn’t connect to the wall.”
Iagan leaned over to look, “That was it?”
“Yep. Didn’t make sense so I came back to investigate further. This is the tutorial area, Roqor wouldn’t just shove you off only for you to die of thirst the first three in game days you played.” I explained. “So there had to be something in the sink that created the water.”
“Alright I can follow that, but why are you giving it to me?” Iagan asked offering the stone back.
“Your sword has two slots on either side of the guard that can hold a gemstone. I think you should put this one in there.”
Iagan pulled out his sword with a conflicting look but added the blue gem to the free socket. He held it out and activated the magic in the two gems. Flames ignited racing up the edge of the blade, creating a halo of orange light around it. From the point of the sword tip came a soft bubbling as a trickle of water ran down the flat edges sputtering across the heated blade and flames. Fire and water met in a hissing war of dominance over who would rule.
Steam overcame both, roiling along the length of the blade, leaving enough room to not scald the wielder. The cloud lingered and trailed as Iagan swung it through the air in wide arcs.
My camera fell into my hands the instant I called for it.
Ker-chunk
Iagan stood mid step in a wide slash the steam obscured the whole blade hiding it in the trail of cloud left around him. My compendium entry for [Adventurer’s Standard Long Sword] updated, adding this picture to the smaller sub pictures featured in the article. What caught my eye was a table in the information section that read:
[Socket Gemstone 1 + Socket Gemstone 2= Combined Result
Known Combinations
Water+Fire= Steam]
“There’s other combos of stones!” I gasped reading it aloud.
“Oh hey, I got another title quest called ::Rock Hound::.” Iagan perked up checking through his own notifications. Another of my compendium quests slowly transferred over as we stayed in a group together.
“We’ll have to try to find more gemstones to swap out with and find more combos.” I made a mental note to keep special watch out for other enchanted gemstones. “Also I need your help with something.”
Iagan sheathed his sword, blue gem facing outward on his hip. “Alright, shoot.”
I led him back to the [Wizard]’s room and pointed to the telescope. “Do you think you can break the telescope off from the stand with your strength level? I want to take it with me but it won’t fit in the fanny pack.”
Iagan dismissed the whole telescope into his inventory. “Okay, ‘s that it?”
“You took the whole thing.” I balked.
“You wanted it.”
“Yeah, but not the whole thing! I don’t want to always offload things onto you like a pack mule. That’s not fair.”
“You just gave me a gemstone worth god knows how much gold. The least I can do is lug a telescope around, besides what’s the point of having a large carrying capacity if you don’t pick stuff up?”
I paused. He had a point. Strength was never my favorite skill to level in other games so I would make frequent trips back just to off load into my personal banks and auction houses. Maybe I should try that style of play next time around.
“Well still. Thank you but if we can find someone who can separate it, let’s get it separated so I can carry it in my fanny pack where it won’t take up space for other more important things.”
I looked around the rest of the room for anything else worth taking. The rest of it were things like furniture pieces, with Iagan taking the matching sun and moon themed candle sticks. I went back over to the guest book that we’d all signed on our entry. Iagan’s username was directly under mine. No further names had appeared so it seemed like there were fifteen beta testers left roaming the world, not including me. I’d found Iagan and knew that DevinTheGr8 had passed through Green’s Peak not too long ago so maybe I’d run into him sooner rather than later and add another beta to my quest. I took a picture of the page, so I didn’t have to worry about committing to memorizing everyone’s classes.
I waved the notification away as I studied the paper. There was a healthy mix of all them without too much crossover. Looks like the other people were also aware of who took what classes when choosing their own.
Out of the sixteen there were:
2 [Adventurer]s
1 [Barbarian]
1 [Caveperson]
2 [Detective]s
1 [Healer]
1 [Knight]
1 [Monk]
1 [Priestess]
1 [Ranger]
1 [Rogue]
1 [Swordsmaster]
1 [Tourist]
2 [Wizard]s
Looking to the usernames involved in the beta everything made more sense. The popular streaming community called ‘The Great Eight’ were all accounted for one right after the other in order. These streamers constantly hosted collabs and group streams in the popular free to play online games.
Of course I watch them all.
They’re the pinnacle of gaming friends in You-niverse. Apparently they all live together in a shared multi-bedroom house where they also film their daily life content for Clipz. Their individual channels ranging well into the millions of subscribers, they settled into their usual preferred fantasy roles: Hawkeye39 as a [Rogue], ThatSunNova as a [Knight], Hellen_Bed as the [Barbarian], Spiketrike a [Wizard], Major.Bedhead the [Swordmaster], Mr.Doctor_Pepper naturally a [Healer], Claradelle as a [Priestess], and finally xTiredHero as an [Adventurer].
I recognized TrinityInfinity and Devinthegr8 as the two [Detective] classes. Brotato-Salad the [Caveperson], GitsandShiggles a [Monk], Pupcakewithsprinkles a [Ranger] and finally Teh3vilW1zard the [Wizard].
They were all out there somewhere among the floors and I had absolutely no idea where they would be. The Great Eight would most likely be in their pack which left the last six as the ones who would be harder to find.
“Hey Iagan, did you get a quest when you met me?” I asked. Iagan stopped to think, tapping through his wrist HUD.
“No, I don’t think I did.” He shook his head. “Why?”
“Well you might be getting one soon. I need to find the other beta testers to complete a side quest.”
“Why do you need to find the other— oh hey: a quest.” Iagan said getting distracted with the pop up.
“I would assume that it’s to get everyone together for a group picture.”
If Iagan didn’t get the quest when he met me did that mean the other beta testers didn’t get it either? The Great Eight would be the easiest to ask since there’s so many of them that just their proximity to each other might be enough to activate it. I made a note on my watch I would have to organize those later tonight and refresh myself on what’s been going on. I had barely had time to stop and analyze the new mysteries, secrets and questions that kept popping up as a result of learning more about this game.
Speaking of secrets. I looked back up toward the ceiling to find the sporadic crystals still dangling in midair, their secret safe from below. Iagan didn’t seem to notice or pay attention to them at all.
“Hey, wanna see something I found?” I ask, climbing up one of the now bare bookshelves.
“Up there?” He asked skeptically watching from the ground as I walked around to where I’d get the best view of the secret.
“Yeah, now come on Mr.I’m-going-to-shove-myself-into-the-ceiling, I know you’re not afraid of heights.”
Iagan got up top and guided himself around the room using the wall. He walked across the other tops of the bookcases till he arrived at mine and he looked out to find the secret floating in the air. The floating gemstone logo of Roqor Studios.
“So this [Secret] was here the whole time?” He asked. I nodded.
“There were three in this tower that I found. Getting them all gave me a reward of a healing potion so it was worth it to look everywhere.”
“Yeah, I don’t think I would have found this one for a while. Nice find.”
We both got back down and I showed him the trapdoor under the bear rug fulfilling the final secret Iagan needed for the tutorial and he recieved a Healing Potion as well. Iagan also took the liberty of rolling up the second bear skin of (Good) quality and adding it to his inventory to bring back.
“That everything?” He asked.
I looked around the room for anything else that might be of interest to us, going so far as to look under everything for one last pass. It was gutted and we’d made out like bandits. Over a hundred books, stacks and stacks of paper both used and blank, three inkpots, two quills, Roqor’s personal wax seal in the same design as the studio logo and three blue and gold glitter wax sticks. Iagan had taken the larger items: The telescope and tripod, the sun and moon candlesticks, a closed glass lantern, and a small cooking cauldron that matched my new baton.
“Yeah.” I nodded in satisfaction at our scavenging.
“You’ve got a plan for all this stuff right?”
“Oh trust me, this will all be worth the weight to lug around.”