“I hope that it went well,” Oeister said when Vultressant was ushered into his workroom. In response, he set five crystals on the table in front of the Sage and sat down across from him. “Excellent! I’m glad that you were able to handle the Devourers. I thought that you would.”
Vultressant received a notification that he had received experience, although not quite the promised 5% of a level. He reviewed the quest notes, and the discrepancy was due to his leveling prior to completing the quest.
Slightly annoyed, he shrugged. “We fought an elite one that gave us a run for our money, but the normal ones were manageable once we protected our ears from their scream attack.”
“A scream attack?” Oeister looked confused and went over to one of the many bookshelves.
“Yeah, there was no evidence that the Crystal Devourers could pass through rock, but their scream mostly put a stun debuff on us.”
Oeister sat down and leafed through a book. “Sorry, but there was no mention of any scream attack. I will make a note of that,” he said as he began writing.
“I thought that you had fought them before.”
“No, but I did speak to a group of Dwarves who had, and I did some scrying to learn the rest. Now, scrying is not perfect; it can give incorrect information or miss some things. My info from the Dwarf group could be incorrect as well, but it sounds like most of my information was accurate.” Vultressant clearly remembered having the impression that Oeister had fought the Devourers himself, and he was still annoyed. He would have to ask more and better questions in the future. His thoughts must have been apparent by his expression, because Oeister held his hands up in a defensive gesture and said, “Sorry about the mistake. Can I do anything to make up for it?”
Vultressant thought a moment. “I have more crystals; can you make us one of the nullification thingies that you are going to make?”
Oeister put down his hands. “I can do that, but I’ll need two ruby essences.”
Vultressant nodded. “I have those. Can you show me how to do it?”
“You can watch, and if you have all of the requisite abilities and skills, you will have a chance of learning how to do it, but it took me over a year to be able to create anything, and this is more advanced than what I had been able to learn.”
Vultressant agreed and gave Oeister an additional five crystals along with two of the ruby essences. He hadn’t consulted the rest of the party about using the resources this way, but if he returned with a powerful magic item, then there should be little in the way of complaints. The item would only have a single use, but the ability to nullify a spell or effect would no doubt be valuable to the party. There was also the chance that he could learn how to make the item.
Oeister brought everything over to a work table, and then he left the room and returned with a large stone bowl that looked like a mortar. There was no sign of a pestle, so Vultressant was relieved that the Sage wasn’t going to just grind up the crystals that they had so painstakingly harvested. Oeister placed the bowl on the table and filled it with crystals. He then reached into his robe pocket, producing two essences. He set one of them down on the table next to the bowl. He held the other crystal and placed his free hand just over the bowl, palm down. He cast a spell.
Vultressant activated his HUD and targeted Oeister. Oeister’s status bars became visible off to the side of his vision. This way he could determine the mana cost of the spell while he watched what was actually being done. As Oeister’s mana touched the crystals, they began to glow with a soft purple light. After just a few minutes, the Sage had exhausted just over 12% of his mana, and the crystals started to glow more brightly. The essence he had been holding disappeared, and he picked up the second one. Another minute passed, and the crystals began to change shape; they looked to be melding together. In another minute, he was done. Oeister had created a crystal ball about the size of a grapefruit, and he had spent about a quarter of his mana.
Vultressant received a notification: You have learned the recipe: Disruption Crystal. He clicked on the recipe:
Recipe: Disruption Crystal
Ingredients:
Arcantine Crystals: 5
Ruby Essences: 2
Tier 2 Fire Treated Granite Mortar: 1
He focused on the mortar, but no new information was given.
Oeister retrieved a hinged box lined with some fabric and placed the disruption crystal within. He closed the box and brought it to his desk before returning to place another five crystals into the mortar.
“Can I try this one?” Vultressant asked before he could begin.
Oeister looked at him in disbelief. “What?” he asked.
“Can I make mine?”
Oeister cocked his head and looked at him as if he were a crazy person. “Seriously, you learned the recipe?” Vultressant simply nodded, and with disbelief still clearly in his eyes, the Sage handed over the two essences.
Vultressant followed the example by placing one essence on the table and holding the other. When he focused on the crystals, he could see areas on them that glowed slightly, and that was where he sent the mana. The crystals quickly absorbed all of the mana that he poured into them, and by the time that the first essence disappeared, he had spent 500 of his 530 mana. He picked up the other essence and continued while closely watching his mana. He had learned his lesson about spending mana once he hit zero, so he monitored it closely as it dipped towards zero. He waited until he was at one mana, then activated his enhanced mana regen ability to restore his MP.
The crystals slowly started to form into a ball. Initially the edges of each crystal were clearly visible, but after a minute or more of focus, they began to smooth. Soon after, the lines faded, but he could still sense that the crystals were separate. In another minute, however, the five became one, and his crystal looked exactly like the one in the box.
Oeister retrieved another box, and Vultressant checked his notifications. One told him that he had successfully created the item, and the other alerted him to the fact that he had learned the skill transmutation and that it was now level one. “How did you get your mana back?” Oeister asked, handing him the box.
Vultressant placed the globe carefully into the box. “I have an ability that lets me refill my mana pool.”
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Oeister shook his head. “Of course you do,” he said dryly. “When you were less than half way done but below 10% of your mana, I wondered how in the hell you had even learned the recipe if you were that far away from being able to make it. It wasn’t a total shock when you suddenly had full mana. You do seem to have a lot of very useful abilities.”
Everyone in the party had abilities. He had always felt that his were in the bottom half with respect to usefulness. Certainly Ewtain and Maroftis topped the list; the Berserker could regenerate and was immune to fire and had other racial abilities, and the Night Stalker had that prescient reflexes ability that helped him dodge away from most attacks, and his mental wall ability had proven invaluable against the Demon of Shadows that they had fought. His enhanced mana regen ability was probably the best ability remaining among the other group members, but his language sense ability was a little weak. Both of Taloc’s abilities helped him be a better Ranger, so Vultressant believed that his one good ability fell short of the heightened senses and see invisible combo that the Ranger had. He wished that he had Isla’s ability to level his skills faster, but learning languages had given him some much-needed stat bonuses, so he felt that he was ahead of her. Vanya’s abilities were bad, so she was at the bottom of the group in that category. “You must have some abilities of your own,” he said, pulling his eyes away from his creation to look at the Sage.
“Sure, but nothing like doubling my mana.” Oeister looked exasperated; he turned in a huff and went to store his new item in his desk. Vultressant considered his ability again, and he had to admit that it was a very powerful caster ability. Maybe he was above Taloc in the rankings. While it wasn’t a listed ability, his knack for learning skills and spells was pretty great. He thought about it: other than the language skills, which were tied to an ability, everything that he had learned quickly had been magic-related. He must have some pretty high magic affinities to be able to do that with such ease.
“Any other quests for me?” he asked hopefully. “We’re having a set of armor enchanted tomorrow. Then we’re doing a mission south of town in a few days, but maybe we can bring you back something while we help out the council.” If he could get two rewards for doing one thing, that would be ideal.
Oeister looked at him, and his face grew serious. “I doubt that you will be going south,” he said slowly.
Vultressant waited for him to say more, but nothing appeared to be forthcoming. “Why not?” he finally asked.
“The Orcs have been raiding the surrounding areas to the northeast, and the council has been looking for every able body to help combat the threat.”
He remembered seeing the Orc camps on the way to and from the Dwarven hold; Jallik had commented on their numbers being larger than he had ever seen. It could just be something that the creators of this world had put into motion. “Do you think that this is just some story arc for the game?”
Oeister considered the question. He prepared some hot tea by magically bringing a pot of water to a boil. He offered Vultressant a cup and sat down. “I don’t know how much of this world is programmed, if it is at all. I have lived in this town for a long time. There have certainly been encounters with the Orcs, and a clan has attacked now and then, but this is different.”
“This is a game, or at least that’s what we were told at the start.”
“This can still be a game without the designers dictating what is going to happen. They could have captured others like us, given them memories, and inserted them into this world. Maybe they keep some of their original personalities or just do whatever the designers want them to. I’ve met people with strange memory gaps, speaking of things they believe they once knew but can no longer remember. So, that theory is certainly plausible.”
“What gaps?” Vultressant asked.
Oeister narrowed his eyes as if gauging how much he already knew or suspected. “Some have had thoughts that their name is not their given name, like they had another name at some point, but they just can’t remember what the old one was or why they chose the name that they have.”
“When we signed up for the game, we all gave a name that we would use for our characters. None of us used our real names; they’re just names that we had been using online in games for a long while. Maybe we’ll lose ourselves in the game.” Vultressant paused, thinking. “The people that live here that aren’t playing the game—where do you think they came from?”
“I’m not sure,” Oeister replied after a pause, but Vultressant had the feeling that the Sage had at least some idea. “There are children and even babies here, so it’s possible that the people that are here were all born here.”
“But at least some of them have a game interface like ours.”
Oeister barked a laugh and gestured around him. “So, the fact that some of them can use magic is totally plausible, but it’s crazy if they have a high-tech gaming interface? What if that is simply magic as well? Or, what if the technology gives them the ability to use magic?”
Vultressant thought about this, realizing he had no answers. While it seemed strange to think of the technology and magic aspects as the same thing, he had to admit he had no counterargument. “I suppose that this could be some sort of open world game,” he admitted. “Let’s table this discussion for now. What do you know about the Orcs?”
Oeister took a sip of his tea. “I know that there are several clans, and each one is usually ruled by a Shaman. They also have a Shaman hierarchy. Apparently, there is now some Warrior type that has not only taken control of his clan, but he has united some or all of the clans and placed them under his rule as well. Normally it’s a Shaman that rules a clan, with a Warlock being a rare exception. There are no records of a Warrior ever being a clan chief. Ildul has the resources to fight off a clan or two if Orcs start to encroach on their area, but from what I’ve heard, there are six different banners all fighting together. There’s likely still a lot of infighting between members of different clans, but they have coordinated attacks on the villages surrounding the city. There’s been a surge of refugees that are now being housed within the city walls.”
Vultressant hadn’t noticed any additional people in Ildul, but they had only just returned. He might have just failed to notice the difference, but certainly some of the others would have if the news was accurate. He wondered why he was questioning the information. Maybe it was the incorrect information about the Devourers. “Six, you say? How many clans are there in total?”
“In this region of the world, there are reportedly nine, but two of those are a long way off, and the last report of them being out this way was over fifty years ago; they are not among the six known clans that are here now.”
“Fifty years? Do you think this world is that old?”
Oeister considered the question for a moment, started to speak, and then thought for another moment. He steepled his hands and said, “The inhabitants of the world certainly believe that this world is their home. If this is a planet, and I believe it is, then we could be anywhere in the universe. I didn’t take any astronomy classes, but I don’t recognize any constellations, and the two-sun thing is pretty different from Earth. I was a big fan of the Star Gate series, and that was the first thing that I thought of upon arriving here. They didn’t mention any sort of time lag on the show, though.” He shook his head in annoyance. “Whether the people here were born here or brought here like we were, it doesn’t really matter. They act as if they have been here all of their lives, and the game interface is a natural thing for them. They don’t have an inventory system like we do, but there are storage containers that function similarly. Those are rare, but I have met a few people that have them. The natives choose a class at some point in their lives that can be as early as puberty but normally occurs when they are young adults or adults. Unlike us, they don’t go through a character creation process, but of course, they may just not remember doing so.”
“I suppose that I need to get used to thinking of this place as real, especially since it looks like we’ll be here for a while.”
Vultressant considered the prospect of fighting Orcs, but there was still a chance to pursue the quest to the south. “Could you check on the location of that fountain to the south again?” he asked.
Oeister chuckled. “Sure,” he said, retrieving the box that contained the scrying crystal that he had used for Vultressant, Taloc, and Maroftis previously. With a wave of his hand, the crystal glowed, filling the room with lavender light before going dark. “It’s still there, but remember the fonts that stick around and only jump once they are used are going to be guarded by something tough, so make sure that you bind somewhere safe.”
“We can always scout it out and run if the guardian is too much for us.”
“Unless it’s strong enough to one-shot you.”
Vultressant had not considered that possibility, and he chided himself for the oversight. They had no idea what the level cap was or if there was one at all, and he had played enough games to know that a tenth-level party had no business walking into a dungeon with level 80 mobs inside. He promised himself he’d be careful if they went searching for the fountain. “Understood. Thanks for the info,” he held up the box containing the disruption crystal, “and for this.”