by Troy Osgood
Parts of the related event quests had brought players to Spirehold to prevent an assassination attempt against the King. It had been an Instanced Event, Hall and his group having their own instance of that attack while other players had their own. They had saved the King and been granted titles of minor nobility in the kingdom.
There had been a moral and ethics element to the event, not just killing mobs for rewards. The older brother did have a legitimate claim to the throne, and part of the event was the players choosing a side between the brothers. The younger and current King had his record on his side. While not a great King, he was decent and mostly kind to his subjects. Essec had prospered under his rule. The older brother had a claim by birth but had been missing for years and returned with an army of questionable allies.
Hall had always hoped for more events like that but chatter on the forums from other players had most likely pushed developers into going in the other direction for more straight forward events.
He wondered where in the game’s timeline they were now. The developers of Sky Realms Online had tried to keep a progressive timeline for the game, each world event and expansion adding to it. There were some retcons, of course. Any game of the size and scope of Sky Realms Online would have those. The most common was NPCs that had died showing up alive again. But because the story was so deep, those things were mostly overlooked. Really, most players did not care. They played for the raids and the loot, not caring about the story too much.
Hall cared. He enjoyed those aspects the most. Which was why he had enjoyed the Essec Revolution so much. It had been a very story-heavy event.
Guards patrolled the wall, some standing at the gates themselves. They all had names and occupations of “Grayhold Guard.” Each was level two hundred, a level that players would never get to and meant a guard could insta-kill any player.
Or they were supposed to be, Hall thought as he looked at them. They looked like they should still be that high level. Each wore the standard armor of Essec. Chainmail shirt with light green tabard bearing the kingdom’s symbol, a flowing river in front of a stone tower. Metal plates on the leather arms, shoulders, and leggings. Open faced helmets with flared bottom edges. A couple carried long spears, while others had sword and shield.
But they were only level twelve, Hall realized.
Skill gain!
Identify Rank One +.1
City guards had always been level two hundred, no matter what town or city. These guards were killable.
Off to the side was a small shack. The front was open to the city with only side walls and a roof. Inside was a desk and a firepit. At the desk sat another guard, this one an officer, with no helmet. Hall had to concentrate, getting another Identify gain, to get the prompts over the guard’s head, which was the name “Henry” and “Captain of the Guard.” There was something different about him compared to the other NPCs. Hall couldn’t figure it out, some instinct just telling him that this person was special.
Henry the Guard Captain was a quest giver.
Hall approached him, stopping just outside the shack.
“Greetings, Hall,” Henry said, standing up.
That was one feature that Hall had never agreed with the developers on. They had coded all NPCs to recognize and use the player characters names. They said it added to the immersion. It detracted to it in Hall’s opinions. A Guard Captain should not have instantly recognize a level one character with no reputation. That made no sense. The character should have earned some reputation with the area before being recognized.
As the Guard Captain talked, Hall saw a flashing icon of a book at the lower edge of his vision. Concentrating on it, a new screen opened up. Graphically it looked like a book opened to the middle. The leather covers could just be seen, with pages stacked on either side. On the open pages, Hall could see Henry’s speech being written. His Journal was still being updated. A tab on the bottom led to the quest log.
“We’re having a bit of trouble,” Henry continued. “Seems there have been some aggressive wolves in the area harassing travelers. We could use some help in thinning the numbers. Scout Jacobs has also reported seeing some Goblins in the forest. My guards are a bit busy, could you go and meet with Jacobs and see what this is all about? Jacobs can normally be found patrolling just north of the bridge over the Green Flow River.”
Before Hall’s eyes, a new screen appeared. It was solid, blocking his view of everything behind it. Colored like parchment, the ends rolled up, most of what Henry had said was transcribed.
Guard Captain Henry would like your help thinning out the aggressive wolf population.
WOLVES OUTSIDE THE HOLD
Kill Green Flow Wolf 0/8
Reward: 50 copper, +100 Essec Reputation, +50 Experience
ACCEPT QUEST?
Guard Captain Henry would like
you to seek out Scout Jacobs.
GOBLINS AMOK I
Find Guard Scout Jacobs.
Reward: +100 Essec Reputation, +50 Experience
ACCEPT QUEST?
Hall concentrated and accepted each quest. The book icon flashed again. He knew it meant the quests were now in his log but opened it anyway. There they both were, listed under Essec and Cumberland in the tabs. He noticed the other Realms tabs were missing. Were they there before, or only added when he got to the realms? He couldn’t remember.
He double checked the Experience rewards and was surprised they were so low. It didn’t take much at the beginning to gain levels but those numbers still seemed very low.
Closing the screens, now being ignored by Henry, Hall walked out the gate. He pulled up his Character Screen and allocated the five unassigned points. One to Strength, two to Agility and two to Wellness.
Green Flow Forest was thick with trees. Tall and wide. Pines, oaks, and maples. Leaves fell, birds flew through the branches. Small bushes dotted the ground. The dirt road continued through the forest, as wide as he was tall. Hard packed, with ruts. Fence lined the sides for about fifty feet outside the gates. He could see the random small animal running through the forest, across the green grass.
As thick as the trees were, there was still space to move between them. Enough space to fight or ride a horse. As real as the developers had tried to make the world, there were some concessions that needed to be made. It was a game, after all.
Or had been, Hall amended. If that mail was right, this game was now his life.
He thought of the others in the Inn, how some had been panicking, not believing. Very few had appeared like the Elf Duelist, Cutfast. He had seemed eager to embrace this new life. Hall wondered how many were like himself? He had always been practical, trying to only care about things he could control. He couldn’t log out of the game, that was out of his control. The only thing it seemed he could control was his actions in the game.
So why not just do what he would have been doing?
Play the game.
If this was a joke, it would end soon enough. If not a joke, he had a new life to live so might as well get started.
Hall walked casually down the road. For the most part, anywhere there was a road was safe to travel. Only those areas related to specific quests were dangerous and then only to those under the quest.
As he passed the last bit of fence, he paused and looked at a small rabbit in the forest. It was busy chewing on a plant. Thinking about it, a green arrow appeared above the rabbit and pointing down at it, along with another Identify gain. The creature’s name, Green Flow Rabbit, appeared below the arrow. The name was a light gray, indicating there would be no experience from killing it.
But the deer that had just appeared beyond it, that name was in white.
Pulling the javelin from the special holder on his back, Hall took aim. Drawing his arm back, he let the short spear fly. It streaked through the air with a slight whistle, the ends moving up and down. He heard a thud as the missile hit the deer. He saw the health bar appear with the hit and quickly disappear as the creature wa
s killed in one blow.
SLAIN: Green Flow Forest Deer
+25 Experience
Skill Gain!
Thrown Rank Two +.1
The corpse was glowing, a thin and low line of light around it. Not the sparkle effect he remembered but it still indicated loot. He quickly ran to the corpse. He felt his booted feet hit the hard ground, felt the uneven forest floor. Roots, rocks, sticks snapping under his steps. And when he got to the deer, he found he was breathing heavy.
Vitality - 2
He stared at the message that hovered in front of his eyes. That was new. He pulled up his stat sheet and saw a new bar below HEALTH and ENERGY that was labeled VITALITY.
Health: 20/20
Energy: 20/20
Vitality: 12/14
The number quickly climbed back to 14, and he was breathing normally.
Interesting.
Hall wondered which of his Attributes controlled the Vitality regeneration. Most likely Wellness and Strength.
He wondered how eating and sleeping, or lack thereof, would affect that number as well as the others. Those were things that had never been considerations before. Would they be things he would have to think about now?
Looking down at the glowing deer, he concentrated on it to open up the looting window.
Nothing happened.
Even if there was no loot to be had, a corpse still had the looting window.
How did it open now?
Staring at the deer, he tried to mentally will it to give up the loot. Nothing happened.
Feeling like an idiot, knowing he looked funny and it wouldn’t do anything anyway, Hall reached out and touched the deer.
As he did so, a new message appeared before his eyes. The words were written on an open scroll, nothing to indicate who had supposedly written it.
Congratulations on your first successful kill.
Like before, some creatures drop loot.
Unlike before, it is now up to you to discover what that loot is, figure out how to collect it, and how to harvest any possible materials.
Hall made the message disappear, he’d worry about who wrote it later, and studied the deer. He tried to remember what loot a deer dropped. They were common in almost all of the forested zones in the Realms, and all had relatively the same loot. The animals only dropped one item. A gray item, Deer Antler, good for only a few coins. With the right skills a Venison Steak could be carved from the meet as well as Leather Hide.
He reached down and pulled at the antlers, trying to pull the bone growths off. They did not budge, he just lifted the dead deer’s head up and down, thumping it against the ground.
There had to be some trick, he knew. The answer was probably simple, easy to figure out.
Hall tried to reason it out. If the game was real, then some aspects that had previously been taken care of by the game mechanics would now be real. That was what the message had hinted at, he realized. With a sigh, he drew his dagger and began cutting at the antlers where they jutted out of the deer’s head. After some time and work and blood, the antlers came off.
You have gathered:
Deer Antler, value = 5 silver
The buck had been an eight pointer. Not the largest set of antlers, but they were still wide and spread out. He wondered what he was supposed to do with it now. There was no way he could carry the antlers, and they were essentially worthless, so why bother? That’s what the gathering message had said; the antlers were gray and worthless.
But it hadn’t. He hadn’t bothered to read it that closely, thinking he knew what it said. But now something nagged at him, something he had glanced at but not registered.
He quickly pulled up his Journal, and there it was. The Deer Antler was now a white item and had a pretty decent value for a level one creature.
Collecting the antler was worth the time and effort, it seemed, but he still wasn’t sure how he was supposed to carry it. All he had was his small belt pouch, the same bag that all characters had. The pouch never changed size on the outside, just the inside getting bigger. Everything fit inside, it had the appearance of a small leather bag attached to the character’s belt, the design changing to match the characters style
Could the antlers fit inside?
Worth a try, he thought as he opened the pouch.
In the past, the reaching into the pouch action pulled up the inventory screen, and he picked the items he wanted. That put the item into his hand as he withdrew it from the pouch. Reaching in, he could feel a giant empty space, much larger than what it should have been. The pouch wasn’t big enough to hold the sixteen slots worth of items he could currently carry but then it had never been physically big enough to hold all the items he normally carried.
Shrugging, he placed the tips of the antlers into the bag. He could feel a pulling against the antlers. He pulled them out, closing the pouch.
“What the hell?” he said aloud and looked around to see if anyone was near. He had this section of forest to himself.
Opening the pouch, he pushed the antlers in. The pulling was there again, but now he realized it was helping him. The antlers fit into the pouch, disappearing inside. Outside the pouch, they were the same size but he saw a strange distortion at the point they touched the shadowed opening of the pouch. They seemed to shrink down to nothing. Opening his inventory screen, he saw a small icon of the antlers appear in the first slot. Concentrating on it, the name and value of the item appeared.
Five silver would be a good start, he thought as he crouched down and studied the dead deer. He had a feeling that finding someone that would buy the antlers would be harder than collecting them. The days of being able to sell everything to the General Goods Market was going to come to an end, most likely.
The deer was big and heavy. Dried blood had leaked from the wound made by his javelin.
He drew his dagger and took a deep breath, having no idea what he was doing.
…Figure out how to collect it, and how to harvest any possible materials…
The line from the message was key. How to harvest. That meant he had to figure out how to get the hide and meat from the animal if he wanted it to sell or salvage anything.
Taking a deep breath, Hall drew cut a long line down the deer’s chest. Blood leaked out the wound, getting on his dagger and his gloves. The smell was what got to him and made him turn away, gagging. Never before had he experienced smell in the game. There had been no need, but now the smell was overwhelming.
It made him want to puke.
Slowly, getting his breathing under control, Hall went back to work. He tried to breathe through his mouth only, and it helped. Some. The dagger shook in his hand, not making a straight line. He pulled and tore at the hide. Getting to the rear of the animal, he cut a line up the side and then back to the front before cutting down to his original point.
He was left with a large square of deer hide and the exposed insides of the deer.
He could see the muscles, the organs, blood leaking out everywhere.
Success!
You have skinned: Tattered Deer Hide
Skill Gain!
Skinning Rank 2 +.2
Skill Gain!
Survival Rank 2 +.2
Another new feature? What was Survival? What did it mean? And he had learned Skinning just by doing? Without training? That was handy. The hide didn’t appear that tattered, not to his eye, but he was new at this skinning, apparently.
There should have been blood and guts, or something, hanging off the hide but it was pretty clean. It looked like the icon that was normally in his inventory, when he knew there should have been more he needed to do. At least, there would have been if this had been done in the real world.
It was going to take some getting used to. A lot of getting used to. Some of the game mechanics were still in effect, most of them. But others had been changed to make the realism that much more. And some, like the hide, seemed to be somewhere in between.
Stuffing the hide into
the pouch, he started to cut a hunk of meat off the deer. He held it in his hand, looking at the raw meat.
Success!
You have harvested: Venison Chunk
Skill Gain!
Survival Rank 2 +.2
1:00
The timer was counting down. He had less than a minute. But to do what?
Unlike the hide, the meat needed to be prepared, and he had no idea how to do that.
Cursing, Hall threw the chunk of meat onto the deer. That was useless. He’d have to figure out how to harvest meat from the animals it seemed, trying to remember where the nearest Skinning Trainer was located. There was one in Grayhold. Or, at least, there had been. He hoped the trainer was still there. But taking the meat had not brought a Skinning prompt but a Survival prompt. The new Skill had something to do with harvesting meat from animals. He would need to figure out what that was and soon.
Standing up, wiping the blood off his glove as best he could, he turned around and headed for the dirt road. Something else nagged at him, and he turned back. His javelin still stuck out of the deer’s side. It had been more than a minute, at least ten or more. The javelin’s cooldown was done, and it should have returned to the holder on his back.
Walking back, he grabbed it and wiped the blood off on the deer. He examined the weapon again.
JAVELIN
Attack Power +1
Damage 1d6
Range 30 Yards
Durability 6/6
The Special Ability of the javelin was missing. Before when he had thrown it, the weapon would appear back in his shoulder harness after a minute, ready to throw again. But that, apparently, was gone now, nerfed out of the game. When he had first looked at his equipment back in Grayhold, he hadn’t realized the Cooldown and Return Aspect of the weapon had been missing. Another thing he was used to seeing that it had become background.
