When Vultressant awoke, he was in a bedroll; both of the suns were high in the sky. He looked around and saw that Vanya was the only other member of the party in the area. She was sitting on the ground with her bandaged leg extended and her other leg tucked underneath her. She appeared to be making a potion. He attempted to ask, “Where is everyone?” but it came out in an unintelligible croak.

Vanya looked over at him with concern in her eyes. “There’s water behind you. Drink some, then try to talk.”

Vultressant looked around and spotted the waterskin; he grabbed it and drank deeply. He felt the fluid moistening parched tissue in his mouth and throat. Feeling a little better, he tried to focus his thoughts. He had several questions, but he determined that it would be best to have Vanya answer what she deemed best. He eventually just said, “What happened?” in a barely audible whisper.

Vanya still looked concerned. “You extracted the essence from the big guy, and then you collapsed. You’ve been out for nearly half a day. Are you okay?” She scooted over to him and examined his eyes. “You seem to be fine. Does it hurt anywhere?”

Vultressant felt exhausted but otherwise fine, so he shook his head. “Thanks, doc,” he said with a croak.

Vanya blushed a bit, but she said, “I am the healer.”

“Very true,” he said. He pulled up his HUD and tried to determine exactly what had happened. There were three identical notifications warning him that he was performing an action that required mana points when he had none; there was a notification indicating that he had successfully extracted the essence from the large Gnoll; there were two more informing him that he had increased his extract essence skill by one level; and the last one informed him that he was out of energy. His level in extract essence was now four, and he checked the skill description, but there was no mention of any sort of mana point cost to it. Vultressant dropped his HUD and turned to Vanya. “It looks like I passed out from using mana points when I didn’t have any left. I don’t see anything on extract essence that indicates that it requires any mana. Any idea?”

Vanya nodded. “It does appear to cost some, but you were also probably using the concentration skill. When you focus on something, you have a better chance at success, at the cost of some of your mana. I usually see it when I’m shooting arrows. I don’t really have much in the way of combat spells, so I tend to use the points for accuracy when I’m shooting the bow. I haven’t really noticed any increase in damage; it seems to only increase my hit rate. I’ve even seen a rapid mana decrease when I’m attempting a potion, but usually only on difficult ones. Most potions require a spell skill to infuse the effect. My mana goes down whenever I’m crafting one of those potions. Concentration is pretty useful and helps greatly, and I believe that only the two of us have it.”

Vultressant agreed with Vanya’s assessment. “This might just be the sort of skill that only the spellcaster classes get, but if you can use it for arrow shots, then maybe not. It seems similar to how endurance works in many games. I was performing a task that was strenuous on me, and it began to cost me mana to maintain my focus, concentration, or whatever. Then I ran out of energy. Is there something that can be done to turn off the mana leak, or is this a passive thing?”

Vanya shrugged. “I haven’t found anything that can turn it off, and the amount seems small, so it’s unlikely to cause us much trouble in a battle. The mana that I lost over the entire battle was less than the cost of a single bless spell. I think that I used less than 15 mana overall while using the bow.”

“I was at 12 mana when I noticed the warning prompts in the interface, and that was after at least a few minutes of trying to extract the essence. I believe that I had more than 200 left after the fight was over.” He thought about the end of the battle. “I had to use my mana refresh ability at the end of the fight, and I think that I only cast bolt of fire twice after that, so I should have been at 230 give or take after the fight. I extracted the essences of two Gnolls before I did the captain guy, but I stopped early on a third one; the essence was fading, and I wanted to do the captain before his faded as well. If they all cost the same, then that’s 60 mana each! That’s the same as my personal shield spell, and it’s my largest cost.” Remembering his new spell, he checked the spell point cost of that one. “Well, actually, I now have a spell that costs 70 to cast, so not quite my largest.”

“Well, the extract skill must require mana,” Vanya said. “Only the two of us can do it, and we’re the only two casters. It makes sense. Wait, what new spell do you have?”

“I can cast the air spell that the captain did. It’s called wind wave,” he replied. “To your other point, I agree that it makes sense,” Vultressant said, still frustrated. “The problem is that there’s no indication of how many points it costs to use, and there’s no record of the mana loss. Basically, I’m just going to have to watch my mana as I do it, but that’s a distraction that I could really do without—extracting essences is strenuous as it is.”

“I would think that the last one that you did, the captain guy, had a higher mana cost than the others did,” Vanya said as she accessed her inventory. She held up an essence vial that glowed green. “They gave it to me to hold for you.”

Vultressant was about to say ‘you hang onto it’, but he hesitated. He appeared to be stuck in this world, and while he had a strong belief in group loot, there was no guarantee that he would be with all of them for the duration. He knew all of them either personally or virtually, so he thought that it was likely that they would attempt to stay together, but anything could happen.

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Vultressant had three goals in this world: to stay alive, grow stronger, and develop his economy. In most games unlimited lives was common, so only the latter two mattered and they often went hand-in-hand, but here he had to avoid death. Games usually had a penalty for dying, such as loss of experience, loss of equipment, loss of money, or some combination of these. He had also played games with permadeath, but he preferred a less harsh death penalty in his games. He wanted to make sure that he could obtain the funds necessary to protect himself in this world. The essences were likely materials for creating something, so they were probably valuable.

Vultressant decided to hang onto the essences, so he took the offered vial. He thanked her before examining it more closely. His HUD labeled it the same as the other essences that lacked the ‘lesser’ tag that he had found previously. He had no idea why this one was green, but he hoped that it was because it was better in some way. It had certainly been far more difficult to remove than any of the others had been. He inventoried it and looked around. The bodies of the Gnolls had been placed next to the hillside in a line. Vultressant thought that it was odd that they hadn’t just put them all in a pile, but upon consideration, the line would have made it easier to search them if that was the reason. He still saw no one else in the area, and he asked, “Where is everyone?”

“They’re out scouting the area. Ewtain is probably close, but he’s getting good at not being seen.”

“Even Maroftis? How is he, by the way?”

Vanya smiled. “He was up quickly, and he was totally fine within an hour of you passing out.”

Vultressant felt his eyes bugging out, and he whistled. “That regen is pretty awesome. I swear that guy is a luck box.”

“Well, I wouldn’t want to be a lizard,” Vanya said as she went back to her potion work.

Vultressant shrugged. “It doesn’t seem to bother him.”

“I know,” Vanya marveled, “and he isn’t even mock-complaining about it. Online, he was either complaining about not getting any loot that he needed or gloating about always winning the rolls for the cool loot that did drop.”

Vultressant laughed. “Yeah, if I didn’t know him, I would say that he rigged the RNG for the loot rolls.”

“He’s too honest for that?” Vanya asked.

“What? No. He’s just not tech-savvy enough to pull it off.” Vultressant took a moment to consider. “And what you said, too. If he could, he might do it as a joke, but he wouldn’t do it to try to steal the loot from us.” He laughed. “He wouldn’t be able to contain himself if he pulled that off—he’d brag about it instantly.”

Vanya completed concocting her potion and promptly drank the contents. She made a face as if she had eaten an entire lemon and said, “Bleah, that stuff is horrid.”

“What does it do?” Vultressant asked.

“It speeds up my metabolism and my recovery time at the cost of needing to eat more.”

Vultressant nodded. “Maroftis has that, and that’s probably why he’s eating all the time.”

Vanya frowned and shook her head. “I think that his is ‘slow’ metabolism.”

“Wouldn’t that mean that he would need to eat less?” Vultressant asked.

“Presumably, but my guess is that his regeneration ability requires extra energy to function, and that’s why he has the hunger that he does.”

“I suppose that makes sense,” Vultressant conceded. “It also might be a horrible lizard monster thing, though.”

As Vanya laughed and they saw Ewtain coming towards them. “You finally up, slacker?” he called out.

“Who knew that soul sucking could be so tiring?” Vultressant shot back.

“Yes, delicious, delicious souls,” Ewtain said with a hint of a laugh. “When you turn them into a magic item, I’ll be suitably impressed, but until then, no more sleeping on the job.”

Vultressant made a hand gesture as if he were fanning smoke away from his face. “I just wanted to get out of body-moving duty. Did you find anything cool on them?”

“Not much on them, but Vanya found something,” Ewtain replied and then looked to Vanya. Vultressant turned to her for an explanation.

Vanya went into her inventory and pulled out a sack, then showed it to the Wizard. It was filled with bluish metallic rocks.

“What’s that?” Vultressant asked.

“The metal is cobalt,” Vanya said, “and I sensed it and had the others get it. My locate ore triggered, so it apparently has a passive aspect. When I focused on the ore, the ability worked much better, and I could pinpoint exactly where they had stashed it.”

“How did you find it on the bad leg?” Vultressant asked.

“I drank a healing potion. It improved my leg somewhat, and I’m able to get around with some help. Maybe drinking one or two more potions would have the leg fully healed, but there’s no reason to waste valuable materials unless we must.”

Personally, Vultressant wanted her to drink another potion, but he agreed with managing the resources they had. The metal that she’d found was interesting. He’d heard of cobalt before, at least as a color, but he hadn’t realized that it was also a rock. Actually, since Vanya’s locate ore ability had been used, it must be metal. “How do you know it’s cobalt? Did you study rocks in school?”

Vanya rolled her eyes. “Did you take a class on the Gnoll language in school?”

Vultressant looked a bit sheepish. “Uh, fair point, but in my defense, you could’ve actually known about rocks before being here.”

She put a hand on his arm. “The ability is what gives me the knowledge. There’s also now a writeup in the interface.” She appeared to be reading something in her HUD. “It’s apparently very strong and can be used in weapon and armor making, either as an alloy or to coat the item.”

Vultressant nodded. “Sounds great. It’s too bad that none of us have any crafting ability.” Vanya looked at him as if he were daft, and she motioned to the potion that she had just made. “Again, point taken. Maybe that nap messed with my head.”

“Sure, it was the nap. Let’s go with that,” Ewtain mocked.

“Maybe you’re concussed,” Vanya suggested. “Did you also get hit in the head?”

“No, but since much of what I do is mental, maybe the strain caused something like a concussion. I’m not sure.”

The others came back from scouting. “He’s finally awake, I see,” Isla said.

“Yep, back from the dead,” Ewtain confirmed.

“Enough, guys,” Vultressant said. “What did you find?”

“There apparently was another group of Gnolls out there,” Taloc said as they reached the camp.

“Did you guys take them out?” Vanya asked, looking hopeful.

“King Kong did for us,” Maroftis said with what the others hoped was a grin on his face.

“It wasn’t that big,” Isla corrected.

“Whatever. Big ass ape,” Maroftis said, waving a claw in a dismissive gesture at Isla. He switched to Koraken, and Vultressant translated the rest. “It was hanging around a fountain, and there were Gnoll bodies in the area. It looked like a couple of them had taken a rock to the face, and one of them was missing an arm. The ape was probably defending his territory.”

as probably defending his territory.”