Dream Stream Reality: Publisher's Pack Books 1-2: (A LitRPG Adventure)

by Derrick Burke

  This guy just lets everything out on his face with no filter at all. Quite funny to watch, really.

  “Apprentice, I have just the task to get you out of the crafting hall and off on an adventure,” he states. “Bring me one hundred gems so that we can enchant as much gear as we can. If you bring me more, that would be even better!”

  Ifalna smiles before agreeing. “It would be my pleasure. I’ll try to get you more than just one hundred though. Wouldn’t want the other nymphs to go without.”

  Ifalna has accepted a quest that is linked to ‘Clear the way I’.

  I open my quest tab and check out what changed.

  Gathering Quest Update: Clear the way I.

  Rarity: Normal.

  Details: Artisan Miner Faland needs his miners to be able to access the iron ore deposits deeper in the forest; however, the beasts there are too high for the miners. Escort the miners to the ore deposits and return with at least 200 iron ore. Artisan Enchanter Pottle also requires 100 gems. More ore and gems equal more experience.

  Conditions: Protect the miners. Return with at least 200 iron ore and 100 gems.

  Failure: Possible death of miners and loss of respect with Artisan Miner Faland and Artisan Enchanter Pottle.

  Reward: Variable experience. A weapon or armour piece from Faland’s stock. An Artisan-level enchantment on a single piece of gear.

  Ah, now that’s more like it. It’s so much easier when we can just get everything out of the way at once without having to traipse back and forth. I’m going to have to make sure we get the other gathering quests from all the profession trainers here before we go.

  “Excellent! I look forward to getting my hands on some more gems,” Artisan Pottle says. Then his eyes brighten and he claps his hands together as excitement fills his face. “Wait! You said you gathered quite a few gems from your bronze casting? Spectacular!”

  Searching my Mining bag, I see that there are twenty-five malachite and twenty-five tiger’s eye. Pulling them out, I set them on the counter next to the daggers. “Would you be able to enchant most of our gear with these?”

  Ifalna takes a moment to do the math before shrugging. “You know what? With our current gear, then there is enough for each of us to have a second-tier enchantment on all our armour. We can always just override them later if we have to.”

  “Sweet!” Kazzrak says excitedly. “While you power all these up, I’m off to learn Engineering. Come find me when you are ready.”

  Kazzrak walks off towards the trainer with a whole lot of gadgets and gizmos lying around haphazardly on several countertops.

  “If you are going to take all these gems, then you’d better not think that these count towards your tally,” Artisan Pottle says with a huff and walks off back to his bench.

  “Cheers, Ifalna,” I thank my friend. “I’m off to get Jewelcrafting, though I’m not sure if I’ll be able to get anything levelled up if we have no more gems.”

  Alright, now where is the next trainer? Looking around, I spot a female nymph leaning over a bench, peering through jewellers’ glasses as she carefully sets a gem into a ring.

  Guess she must have her own private stash, eh?

  Walking over, I introduce myself when she leans back, admiring her work. “Hi there, I’m Sybaal. Would you be able to teach me Jewelcrafting perchance?”

  The nymph jumps half out of her chair with a squeak before she spots me and fixes her glasses to sit properly again. “Don’t sneak up on people like that! Sheesh!”

  I laugh. “So sorry, I didn’t know you were that skittish. So, can you help me with Jewelcrafting? That ring you made looks amazing!”

  It’s amazing how I can actually see the nymph blush. “Well, of course it’s amazing! I’m not an artisan jewelcrafter for nothing. My name is Rhonda, and are you sure you are willing to sit still for hours on end, making wire and carefully setting gems into jewellery?”

  Artisan Jewelcrafter Rhonda would like to make you her apprentice. This will use up your last profession slot. If you change later, you will lose any levels gained in this profession permanently.

  Accept?

  Yes/No

  I quickly accept and get straight into it. “Wonderful! I’m so glad I have someone as talented as you as a teacher. I’ve heard there is a shortage of gems and other materials available. I’ll get whatever you need for you, just ask.”

  Surprise flutters across her face. “Well, I’m all set on copper and bronze. It’s the silver and gems that I am sorely lacking now. You say you want to help? Find someone to smelt me at least one hundred silver bars and collect the gems that are within the ore. Bring both the gems and the silver bars back here when you are done.”

  You have accepted a quest that is linked to ‘Clear the way I’.

  Gathering Quest Update: Clear the way I.

  Rarity: Normal.

  Details: Artisan Miner Faland needs his miners to be able to access the iron ore deposits deeper in the forest; however, the beasts there are too high for the miners. Escort the miners to the ore deposits and return with at least 100 iron ore. Artisan Enchanter Pottle also requires 100 gems. Artisan Jewelcrafter Rhonda requires you to smelt 100 silver bars and to collect the gems from the slag ore. More bars, ore and gems equal more experience.

  Conditions: Protect the miners. Return with at least 200 iron ore, 100 gems, 100 silver bars and their gems when smelted.

  Failure: Possible death of miners and loss of respect with Artisan Miner Faland, Artisan Enchanter Pottle and Artisan Jewelcrafter Rhonda.

  Reward: Variable experience. A weapon or armour piece from Faland’s stock. An Artisan-level enchantment on a single piece of gear. A ring from Rhonda’s stock.

  Well, that was a sure-fire way to make things quicker.

  Sybaal: Hey, guys, don’t forget to ask all your trainers specifically if you can help them gather any materials that they are lacking. I have a combined gathering quest for Mining, Blacksmithing, Enchanting and Jewelcrafting. You guys accepting will just update the main quest.

  Ezekial: I’ll get right on that.

  Dosan: Holy shit, that is a lot of mats we need to find already. I hope we aren’t expected to do this all at once.

  Ifalna: Meh, it will be fine. We have to focus on the escort aspect of the quest though.

  Kazzrak: Agreed. Mats come second.

  Now that that’s done, time for the tediousness of learning a new skill. I haven’t done Jewelcrafting inside the game before and only dabbled every now and then when someone paid really well in the real world.

  “Rhonda, my friends and I will head off soon to get the materials, but would you be able to show me the basics of Jewelcrafting while I’m waiting for them?” I ask oh so politely.

  “Well, I’ll be. An apprentice who actually wants to learn. Come over to this bench and I will go through how to create your first copper ring.” Rhonda moves over to another bench and begins placing quite a few copper bars on it.

  She does the actions as she says them. “So, you begin at level 1 with copper and move up to bronze, silver and gold, learning how to set gems and be more elegant with your jewellery as you level up. To begin, place the bar in the forge just like so.

  “Take it out when it is nice and hot, but not at the melting point. Careful about that or you will have to recast the copper into a new bar. Take the hot bar and use a small hammer on the anvil to make a tiny point on one end. Then press the point into the right-sized hole on the metal drawing plate attached to the bench. Use a pair of pliers and grab the point, pulling the hot metal through the hole and creating wire like this.”

  “I see, so the different-sized holes are for different pieces of jewellery, then? What size is the one for rings?” I ask, getting the gist of what she is doing.

  “Yes, different holes for different purposes. The one I am using is actually the right one for rings. You will be finishing this one, though you will need to cut it off and heat it again. You will then use this wire-twisting mandrel
to create the rings and cut them to size.

  “The final step is to melt some copper in a small crucible and gently touch the join to the melted copper. It will join the two pieces nicely. And that’s it for now. Come see me when you stop getting levels with making these rings.”

  “Right,” I say, getting to work as Rhonda goes back to what she was doing.

  Taking my time to begin with, I follow all the steps, and soon enough I have a massive spool of copper wire. Following the rest of the steps, I make my first ring.

  You have created a Simple Copper Ring.

  Your Jewelcrafting level is now 11.

  Well, that was easy. The wire must have helped there.

  Unfortunately for me, the rings and wire stop granting me experience when I hit level 40.

  Before I have a chance to ask Rhonda if I am supposed to start working on bronze now, I’m interrupted by party chat.

  Ifalna: Well, I’ve finished filling all the gems with mana. I had to keep letting my mana refill, so I went and learnt Tailoring and Mining as well. I’ve updated the quest with Tailoring mats too.

  Dosan: Oh, nice, I did the same for Herbalism and Alchemy. Learnt Engineering too.

  Kazzrak: Same for Engineering.

  Ezekial: Ditto for Skinning, Leatherworking and Herbalism. The quest is maxed out now, I believe.

  Sybaal: Nice work, everyone. I have Jewelcrafting too, so I think that is everything. We ready to go do something more physically exciting?

  Kazzrak: Oh, I am so down for that.

  Ifalna: I’m already at the entrance to the hall.

  Sybaal: Meet you all there.

  Something has been nagging me for a while now that I have been forgetting to do. As I’m walking over to the others, I check over my stats and slap myself in the forehead. Sticking with the current build I have, I input my new stats.

  Character Statistics

  Name: Sybaal

  Race: Dragonkin

  Class: Spell Sword

  Level: 27

  Health: 440

  Stamina: 440

  Mana: 1800

  Attributes

  Strength: 34

  Dexterity: 44

  Constitution: 44

  Intelligence: 105

  Wisdom: 103 (dual class + 53)

  Luck: 29

  Charisma: 25

  Resistances

  Holy: 25%

  Shadow: 25%

  Fire: 25%

  Frost: 25%

  Nature: 25%

  Lightning: 25%

  Poison: 25%

  Disease: 25%

  11

  Arriving at the entrance to the hall, I see that I’m the last one to make my way over.

  “Did you guys put your stats in after getting level 27?” I ask.

  Everyone gives me a funny look before Kazzrak has a light bulb moment and laughs. “You didn’t? That’s hilarious!”

  Rolling my eyes, I now wish I hadn’t mentioned it. Now I’m going to get shit for that for a while. Distraction time.

  “Never mind that, then,” I say, looking at Ifalna and gesturing at my armour. “How are we going to do this?”

  “Well, pretty simple,” replies Ifalna. “All you have to do is unequip your items and put them on the ground, and I will enchant them one after the other. I have enough mana for that in one go. Just tell me what stat you want to stack. Obviously, I won’t enchant the items that we received from Lord Varim. I’ve already done mine.”

  “Righteo then, I’ll have intellect,” I say, and very quickly we are all standing in our cotton shirts and pants. Our armour is laid out in neat piles.

  “Dexterity for me,” says Ezekial.

  “Intelligence for me too,” says Dosan.

  “Constitution, please,” says Kazzrak, flexing his dwarf guns as he grows double in size and grins. “I need to get bigger muscles and more health.”

  We all laugh at his antics. He must have popped his Enlarge cool down.

  Ifalna begins the process of enchanting all our gear with an intense look of concentration. Kind of looks like she has constipation, to be honest. I hope she doesn’t pop a vessel. Kind of glad I didn’t choose Enchanting if that is what I would look like.

  “By the way, the potions I cooked up aren’t up to scratch yet, but I’m going to dole them out to the group that we have to bring with us,” proclaims Dosan solemnly.

  “Ah! I would have thought you had all left already, how wonderful!” Elder Sylan exclaims excitedly as he enters the hall.

  “Oh? Why might that be?” I inquire.

  “We have had a report of finding a kobold village a few hours’ walk away from here when searching for the iron ore on the old maps. More towards the fortress, actually,” replies Elder Sylan with a grin. “Occasionally we get the wandering kobold this way, thieving whatever they can before stealing away in the dark. We’ve never been able to find them before.

  “The group who found them are the highest-level ones we have, my own daughter among them. They are the group of miners we would like you to escort safely there. Rid the Glade of the kobold menace once and for all.”

  Quest: War with the neighbours I.

  Rarity: Unique.

  Details: Elder Sylan would like you to rid the Glade of the kobold menace.

  Conditions: Remove the threat of the kobolds.

  Reward: Unknown.

  Accept?

  Yes/No

  The gamer in me is squealing right now. A massive gathering quest as well as a kill quest at the same time. This one is interesting though. It reminds me of the ones we did at the start, as it is also unique. I accept it without hesitation.

  “That is an interesting quest, Elder Sylan,” I say, nudging the others.

  Apart from Ifalna, who still looks like she’s having apoplexy and kidney stones at the same time, the others grin when they see the quest log.

  “We shall be glad to rid the Glade of these fierce kobolds.” Dosan grins.

  “I take it the group who reported this matter will be ready to go shortly?” Dosan asks, impatient to get going.

  “Of course,” Elder Sylan replies with raised eyebrows. “They had only just started their eight hours of outside training and gathering. They have already had their meals and are ready for us to meet them below, on the ground.”

  “Done!” Ifalna exclaims with a loud sigh. She pulls out a cloth from her bag and wipes her sweaty face with it. “I’ve increased each piece of your gear with an enchantment suited to your class. We should get more rings so we can increase it by quite a lot more, considering we can each have four of them.”

  We all grab our newly enchanted gear and equip them.

  Now I have everything I’m wearing enchanted with Intelligence, and it’s all soul bound. With my gear alone, I have an extra 75 Intelligence to make a total of 180. This in turn increases my second highest stat Wisdom to 140.

  Quite a lot of stat points for the second day of the game. I shudder to think how much it would be to pay someone for the upgrade of all these enchantments.

  It’s now so much safer; just in case we come across something that can take us out, we will resurrect with all of our gear. Though I think we already killed the major boss of this area, so we may be waiting a while before we can really be tested again.

  “I was just in the process of doing that. I’m now up to bronze rings, so that should be good enough to start until we get a lot of extra surplus ore for ourselves,” I state confidently.

  “Wonderful!” says Ifalna with a groan. “I’m going to have to be the one who enchants them, aren’t I?”

  “It’s not that bad,” says Ezekial with a not quite so contained grin as he elbows Dosan in the ribs. “It could be worse. You could have the runs for some reason or another when you have to enchant our gear again and be out of stamina due to running back and forth from the bathroom.”

  “You had better not poison me,” Ifalna says, death staring the pair. “Otherwise you might have a standing-i
n-fire moment and I accidentally forget to heal you. I might even be kind enough to push you in myself. Don’t stand on the edge of a volcano any time soon.”

  We all break out laughing at that, with Elder Sylan looking very confused.

  “I go to all this trouble for you all and this is the thanks I get?” mutters Ifalna loud enough for everyone to hear before raising her voice. “I’m going to unlearn Enchanting and go pick some bloody flowers. I’m a High Elf after all. Maybe I’ll go find some bloodthistle and see how high I can get.”

  “Aww, Ifalna, it’s not that bad,” Kazzrak says with a grin and looks like he’s about to say something else.

  “How about we all head down and get some good old smacking done?” I cut in, frowning at the rest of them.

  Deciding that we need to get started, I take the lead on the way back up. We exit onto the main branch we came in on. Everyone follows me, and as we reach the lift, everyone gets in, although with a bit of squishing.

  Some elbows may or may not have smacked into some well-deserved ribs by accident on the way down.

  Absently, I glance at the time. 10:00. Not bad for us all to get quite far in our profession levelling.

  The descent to the forest floor is quite relaxing, if a bit squished. The atmosphere and the artistry that have gone into creating this masterpiece of viewing pleasure is quite breathtaking.

  As we are lowered closer to the bottom, I can see that there are several groups of nymphs gathered under the canopy. There are several that are also waiting to get up, using different lifts.