I needed to name these little beasts. I thought for a long time and decided on Cassie and Callie. The little girls started to purr in approval even though they were sleeping.
Ok the dodge skill. I decided on tier 4 for 100 experience. I ignored the dodge sub skills for now. I raised mercantile to 4 as well for 100 experience. The last one I needed according to Dmitry was nanite interface. I decided to go a little higher with this skill and purchased it at tier 7 for 280 experience. A notification came up, NANITE INTERFACE INCREASED FROM BEGINNER TO SKILLED, +1 to INTELLIGENCE. Well damn. That was good news. I checked the pad and yes at level 7 skills gave a stat bonus! But I did find bad news. I could only have 23 skills. I wish I had known this fact and was a little perturbed that Dmitry hadn't revealed this very important information. But there was an exception. Each call had a free skill that didn't count toward this total. I went back to my pilot class description and yes at the end I got to choose a navigation skill. I hadn't selected from the four available, topographical, system, interstellar and subspace, because I hadn't needed to at the time. I decided to put it off until I really needed to choose. Ok with only 470 experience left I needed to be prudent. I went to the quest listing.
Gathering quests put forth by the system… A lot of them were plant harvesting based. Most were low experience gains and credits. Well I decided it would be a good intro and if they were local I wouldn’t have to range too far. I pulled up the guide and examined each harvest target. It suggested a botany skill of 7 to harvest. So I needed the skill at this level then why did I buy the guidebook? Was it a good idea to use up one of my 23 slots on this skill? Plant harvesting was relatively safe and shouldn't be too difficult. 280 experience down the tube. BOTANY INCREASED FROM BEGINNER TO SKILLED, +1 to INTELLIGENCE. Oops I could have selected Botany: Planet Earth as a sub skill. This could have saved some experience. Instead I got a whole smorgasbord of knowledge on plants.
I selected 5 local gathering quests. Each offered only 15 experience and 50 credits but all the flora should be found within a few miles of the outpost. I hoped to get them all done tomorrow.
I ate my food and slept well knowing I was safe, or at least I felt safe.
I woke the next morning, late morning, to a cat chewing on my sock and the other hanging from the curtains. “Ok I am up!” I gathered and geared up. I grabbed a quick breakfast in the lodge for 20 credits. Leaving the secure outpost I waved to the Orphean guards. They just gave me a serious look. About a mile out of town I got off the trail and released the cats from the bag. Ok we had 5 flora to find, Black Widow Root, Sunfire Mint, Purple Chalk Leaf, White Lily Stems, and Sheep Mushrooms. I reviewed them all – images, harvesting, and where they normally grow. It took me an hour but I found the white lily stems in open area of the forest, the entire time the cats were bounding and playing. Twenty seven flowers grew in the clearing, I needed 10 for the quest. I successfully harvested 20 stems. I marked the site on my map and started looking for the other plants. Almost immediately a red icon appeared on my sensor map.
Crap I could see the beast, it was strider. No it was more than one. Six red icons appeared to join the first. I gathered Cassie and Callie in their bag and moved in the other direction. The red icons followed me. Damn they had seen me and they had the advantage. I was about 3 miles from the outpost. I would not be able to get to the gates in time. I sighed. What did I have? The grenades? I didn’t know how to use them…Duh buy the skill. I quickly added 4 to the grenade skill, Thrown: Grenade, while moving. 125 experience but well spent and I didn't lament using a skill slot.
With the rush of knowledge I learned how to set the grenades. The could be set with a timer or as proximity. The pack following was closely grouped. I took out 3 of the grenades and set them all for 3 meter proximity and dropped them about a meter apart while running. It worked, the flock stalking me sensed me fleeing and increased their pace to catch me. They were 20 meters behind me when the grenades went off. And boy did they ever. 5 of the seven red dots went out to white – which meant death. Only two left, I unslung my rifle and turned to fire. The beasts that were alive were stumbling and stunned and easy targets. Two shots, two kills. And 210 experience! Wow this was easy. And ding – level 6!
I probably had only needed to use one grenade. Oh well. I put the cats down and turned to leave. The blast would attract others and there was not much left to harvest and even though the eggs brought a good price I didn't want to search for the nest. I moved away quickly for an hour on high alert before returning to looking for more flora. The cats found a small crop of sheep mushrooms and brought them my attention to it, I patted them both. Two harvestable. Needed 5 total for the quest so not quite there.
Trapping through the woods was enjoyable especially with most of my gear in the storage space. I didn't miss my backpack at all. I stopped around noon to eat and feed the cats. Sitting on a rock with my faux cheeseburger I noticed a yellow icon at the edge of my sensor. It was moving toward me. I unslung my rifle and waited. A large bull appeared, no not a bull, a hairless buffalo. The cats turned and started stalking the beast that was 100 times their size. Were they reacting to me pulling my rifle? Well I didn’t want them getting squished. I lined up the bull and started firing quick focused shots at the head. After the fourth shot it fell. The cats immediately started crawling all over the slain bull as if they had taken it down themselves, well the 30 experience was mine. I decided to put my skinning skill to work. The meat should be salable to the lodge.
I decided to call it a day and head back to the outpost. I was lucky to find a spot with the purple chalk leaf on the way back. I was able to harvest 30 leaves off the tree. I waved at the guards as I passed through and went straight to Zelda to turn in the two completed quests. “Good afternoon Zelda! I have some quests to turn in.” She returned my greeting with a smile.
I put 10 white lily stems and 10 purple chalk leaves on the counter. The screen appeared behind her and I confirmed the quest completions. 30 experience and 100 credits. Fantastic! I checked and the quests were repeatable but the experience dropped to 14 but the credits remained the same. I accepted the two quests and put another 10 of each flora and gained another 28 experience and 100 GC. I decided to hold onto the remaining red chalk leaves to see if the experience increased over time. I was guessing this was a game of supply and demand. I tried to chat up Zelda but she just smiled and gave short responses. Well I tried. I just sensed amusement from my furry companions as they lounged in my carry sack. I left to go talk with Dmitry.
Dmitry was trading with a minotaur so I waited till he finished and the beastman left. “Good to see you again, comrade! How are the cats?” I released the beasts and he went to get them a bowl of milk before we continued. With the cats occupied I relayed my days travels. He interrupted me, “Ah comrade you made an error. I wish you had come to see me. We could have upgraded you sensor suite for flora, and then all you would have needed to do is scan a sample of each flora target and it would appear on your map.” Well damn. I wasted a skill slot and most of my day. Dmitry brought out samples for each plant and mushroom from his stocks and I scanned them after paying 300 credits to upgrade my sensors. He also brought more than 20 other useful local flora to scan. I then purchased a preservation capsule to keep them fresh. It was roughly a cubic meter so I also brought my storage space to 5 cubic meters, the max for my DS. 1250 credits. Unfortunately I found the grenades cost 250 credits each. So I only bought 4 to increase my inventory to 9. I also gave him the hide from the bull I killed as a thank you for all his help.
It was dusk when I made it to the lodge. I talked with the inn keeper for a while not learning anything too interesting about the Orpheans. I sold the meat I had for 90 credits to get it out of my inventory. I pre-paid a months rent…400 GC…which should save me 200 GC in the long run. I went to my room and let the cats out to play while I ate dinner. I checked my stat sheet while laying in bed.
Experience
2258
MAX
Strength
15
82
Constitution
10
The narrative has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the infringement.
61
Stamina
11
62
Agility
15
69
Speed
10
34
Intellect
16
88
Aether
0
22
Channeling
0
77
Charisma
3
18
Luck
2
2
I decided to burn some experience. I added 4 to intellect, charisma, and stamina. I enjoyed the brief flare to my body from the upgrades. I had 3 unassigned points from level gains. I put all 3 into agility as it helped with my rifle skills. I yawned, tired. I closed all the screens and rolled to my side to sleep. Shortly later I felt the cats curled up next to me on either side.
Mid morning the cats woke me again, hungry. I feed them. Ok today I would get my green thumb and harvest like crazy. I left the gate and waved to the guards, and they actually nodded acknowledging me! It must be the charisma increase. Good to know. I had walked only 100 meters before my map showed a sheep mushroom 15 meters off to my right. Yes! I started ziging through the woods and by noon I had completed all 5 quests, well 4 since I already had the purple chalk leaves. Best of all. No violent creatures trying to kill me! I started to try to double up on some quests and after three more hours headed back to the outpost.
I waved to the guards as I went straight to Zelda. 498 GC and 143 experience. The credits had gone down but I did notice the experience had returned to 15 for the ones I turned in yesterday. The question was if my gains would be enough to stay ahead of the CURVE? No, I needed better daily returns. I opened the quest offerings.
I sorted by system only quests. Then by local, then by experience. The top quest showing was a dungeon clearing quest. Dungeons? This was an RPG. The entrance was 13 kilometers east of the outpost and listed the level as 5. The experience for clearing the dungeon was 2500 and the credit reward was 10,000..., no it was 10,000 experience and 40,000 credits as it assumed a group of four. The only question was how difficult was a level 5 dungeon. I said my goodbyes to Zelda and went to get advice from Dmitry. I think Zelda did have a look of disappointment as I left her? But that was probably my imagination.
Dmitry was helpful, “Level 5 dungeons? Huh, that would be the suggested level of a squad needed to conquer it. So 4 players each level 5 or higher, a rather easy delve. If you wanted to solo the dungeon you should be at least level 15 and have some heavy armor and one combat skill of 23.” Dmitry explained. Crap, not feasible. I told Dmitry about my boring day while the cats played. Then left to retreat to my room at the lodge. While eating dinner I looked to my skills. I needed something to help me with experience and gathering credits. Monster harvesting quests gave more experience than the flora ones but with the cubs in tow I didn’t want to risk them. There were some alchemy quests. Alchemy was based in magic, mix the ingredients and infuse it with magic. I really did not like chemistry. I also did not have any magical ability. Hmm, I opened my character and purchased Channeling and Aether at level 1 for 10 experience each. My mind seemed to open up, like a void that was being filled. I felt, well the best description was complete.
Aether was my capacity to hold magic Aether, and Channeling was my ability to restore it and funnel it into magic. Reveling in the feeling I raised both to 2. It was addicting, the feeling. I raised them both again to 3. I only had 56 experience left. Ok the alchemy skill. I used 32 experience and raised alchemy to 2, my 15th skill. Knowledge flooded my mind, Ok I needed recipes and an alchemy kit. I would have to see Dmitry tomorrow.
I left the early, leaving the cats in the room despite their protests. I spent 4 hours with Dmitry. I purchased an alchemy kit and four recipes using local ingredients. Three of the potions were applicable to quests and the fourth could be sold at good profit. The recipes were a minor under water breathing, well it basically filled the lungs with a super oxygen rich fluid that gave the user 5 minutes or longer to hold their breath. The longer part depended or the quality of the brew. The second was a goo that you sniffed. It closed off all ability to taste and smell for an hour plus. The third raised the stamina stat for an hour. And the fourth grew new body hair where it was applied. The issue I had was each potion required 50 Aether to imbue when it was finished brewing and I only had 30. So I would need to raise my Aether to 5. I returned to my room and left the alchemy kit and took the cats to go foraging.
I had areas where I knew the flora grew. According to Dmitry the Aether soaked environment would make the foreign plants grow faster, possibly overnight. My plan was to divide my harvest between quests and alchemy. Gathering went quickly and I even found a spot that had Burgundy Weed. It was a quest I hadn’t taken because the environment was not right for the weed but apparently the deep rocky gulley was cold enough for it to grow and still get enough sunlight. The only interesting part of the day was a Shriek Hawk tried to get one of the cats. I was extremely confused when the red dot appeared directly on top of us. The shield on Cassie activated and caused the bird of prey to miss. A snap shot with my rifle grounded the beast and two more shots put it down. Cassie and Callie attacked the dead beast with a vengeful fury and feathers went flying everywhere. I needed to be more careful. The dead beast was level 4 and my cats were both level 1. How did I level the two cats? A question I should ask Dmitry.
My preservation case was 80% full and it was close to sunset so I headed back. A bright flash and thud threw me hard to the ground. My shield had activated. A long range attack. I took cover from the direction of the attack. A tree nearby imploded throwing footlong splinter shrapnel. The cats took cover under a log and hissed at the unseen attacker. I looked from cover and saw movement. A goblin. Damn I hated those creatures. It was maybe seventy meters out and slightly up hill. Ok my shield was at 57% and slowly rebuilding strength from its battery. I could make one mistake and not die. I looked at the terrain. An easy trail ran up hill to my right…if I fled the goblin would probably follow me down the quickest path. I pulled out two grenades and set them for proximity and rolled them to either side of the trail. I scooped up the cats from their hiding place and started to retreat using trees for cover but trying to keep the trail path to me. Then I heard a loud snort from a boar and the goblin came racing down the trail on one of the boars.
I tossed the cats and thought hard ‘hide’. This was going to be ugly. I was only 30 meters from the grenades and hid behind a rock bringing my rifle to bare. The rider and mount hit the grenades and the rider and beast were thrown right, then left quickly. The boar was definitely dead its abdomen crushed. The goblin was moving and crawling disoriented its shield depleted. I started firing my rifle unmercifully until I was sure the creature was dead. 240 experience from the goblin and its mount.
I examined the corpses, Player Timoell: Natalian Goblin Ranger Scout Level 9, Nantalian Worg Level 4
What? Wasn’t that the name of the goblin I had killed when this craziness started? I gathered all the gear that was salvageable and headed back to the outpost with haste. The guards acknowledged me with a nod. I went directly to Dmitry’s shop.
He was alone. “Welcome back! You are still live so it must have been a good day!” He went to retrieve milk for the cats and they ate while I expounded on my day. “Yes, it probably was the same goblin. Players are respawned at a cost of 100,000 GC per level or if you do not have enough GC you lose 100,000 experience per level. If you don’t have either you will not be respawned but someone else can pay the fee.”
“This seems to be fairly important information,” I said exasperated.
“Ah, comrade don’t be upset. The cost is so high you would not have been able to afford either fee. You should sign with a corporation and get respawning fees written into the contract. This is a harsh world. Truthfully I am rooting for you but we are both just ants in a world of giants. There were four legendary dungeons found so far…one in the Amazon, one in India, one in China and one on Mars. This is very bad news for us. Why? Well legendary dungeons are very rare, usually there is just one in an entire new solar system and sometimes there are none. But four have already been found with less than 3% of the system scouted. What makes legendry dungeons so unique? Legendary dungeons have Elder artifacts. That means even though players can not use the transport system they can travel here in star ships. Powerful players are coming here. And by powerful I mean they have levels in thousands and dozens of minions with levels in the hundreds.”
“How long do we have” I asked after a pause.
“At least 4 months, maybe as much as 5. My advice for you is level up and get to the station then relocate to another system that will be less exciting. So run away or get wiped.” Dmitry finished in seriousness.
I laid out the goblins gear, some damaged, and got 7,894 GC. Less than the last time but my mercantile skill told me it was a good deal. I went to my room and worked on potions after increasing my Aether to 5. It was exciting after my first success but quickly got boring. It took about 30 minutes to refresh my Aether to imbue the next potion but that was about how long it took to brew the concoctions. I worked well into the night. The cats slept.
I got a few hours of sleep before heading to Zelda to turn in quests for potions and flora. 3,855 GC and 302 experience. Crap, 16 hours of hard work and I barely got any GC and credits compared to killing the goblin. I did gain a level, level 7. I added my bonus point to agility. I needed to think. I returned to my room and went to lay in bed while the cats ate. I did need to get off the planet in say 90 days to be safe. I needed a goal for level. Level 50? And a ship? And possibly a crew? I opened a catalog for ships that Dmitry had given me.