by Kris Schnee
Stan wasn't sure what he could do with a tongue and teeth, but he used the dagger with a slow, awkward cutting animation to take them and some fresh frog legs. He was going to need a better knife; this one was too stabby.
With his loot he got back to Central Island and sold the frog legs to the pub's kitchen. (Different cook this time.) While he was there he ran into Dominic, the mage he'd helped kill. The guy was a bit better equipped now with some traditional leather armor, a couple of knives, and a leather-bound book. "Uh, sorry," Stan said, pausing next to his table.
Dominic startled, then laughed. "Don't worry about it. I got the wand you gave Alaya."
"Those look like decent knives. Want to swap one for this?"
"They're just basic copper. That one's iron, and sharper."
Stan said, "Yeah, but I need something for harvesting monster parts and yours have edges."
Dominic traded blades. Stan said, "Thanks. Did you switch to thief or rogue or whatever it's called?"
"Not really; I haven't got an official class yet. Been doing more magic but I wanted a real weapon. Meanwhile people keep arguing about the magic systems and I've been messing around with both wizard and shaman."
Stan sat with him. "Are there immortals involved in this? For them it's 'real' physics."
"That's part of the argument. They get all the time they want to practice, and a few want to hit the highest possible power level and lord over everyone else."
"There's got to be a way to wring some kind of advantage out of that, for us poor meat humans. How do I get into magic other than owning a wand?"
Dominic said, "It's mostly up on the wiki." Stan hadn't read that part yet. "The wizard system is about puzzles of runes where you tap and say them in a certain pattern. Like, if the next rune is red, that means jump three places forward. You get canned, controlled effects that way. You start by buying scrolls and casting from them. The shaman system is more about attaching magic elements to you and then whipping out a combination of those. It's more freeform."
"That's what you were doing with that speed spell?"
"No, that was the runes. Instead, you can get a wand with basically any materials, and then the game gives you a choice of a starting element based on the design. You learn more elements by using magic in dramatic situations. Like, beat a fire monster and you might get 'Fire'."
"Sounds easier," Stan said.
"Yeah, but the effects are more of a grab bag. You don't get 'a fireball with X radius', you get 'a fire effect' and you might have trouble tailoring it to what you want. Also the spells can't be prepared in advance, I think. I have to pick one system eventually and I'll probably stick with wizard."
"Not interested in giving that wand away, are you?"
Dominic smiled. "No, I'll sell it. Are you doing anything? Want to go hunting monsters?"
"If you've got a light source we could do the mine, so I can get some metal for making arrows. But I want to make a wand first."
* * *
Back in the workshop, Stan checked his inventory. How about mangrove wood and that chunk of amber? It sounded like he didn't need anything specific. He used the woodworking tools to make a simple rod with the orange "gem" snapped into an indentation near the end, then added a little decoration by carving some grooves along the sides. He wasn't ready for a snooty British magic school but it'd do. He equipped the thing and said, "Now what?"
A fanfare played. [Crafting result: Simple Amber and Mangrove Wand. "Manger? Ambrove?"]
Then: [With a wand, you can begin learning Shaman-type magic. If you want to, select one of these words of power.] The camera went to third-person and a cloud of shimmering words appeared. [Wood, Growth, Plant, Sap, Sun, Energy.]
Stan turned toward Dominic. "If I pick Wood, can I start reshaping wood by magic?"
"I don't think so. You might be able to make small bits of material? That's why it's a little hard to start; there's no verb to practice with."
He did need to make some arrows to sell to Alaya if they met again, but wasn't sure the Wood element by itself would be up to that. He touched "Growth". "With this one I can probably practice on plants."
A more elaborate happy tune played, and his stats appeared:
[Stan Cooper
PRIVATE INFO
Account type: Standard
Mind: Tier-III
Body: Human
Main Skills: Club, Dodge, Woodworking, Inspect, Merchant
Talents: Pack Man
Shamanic Magic 1: Growth
Save Point: Crown & Tail Pub
PUBLIC INFO
Note: Woodworker for Hire
Class: None]
With a couple of torches and crude stone-bladed picks, Stan and Dominic headed east again for some mining. East-1's music was subtly different from Central Island's, more subdued due to the lack of a town. Another party of explorers was hacking its way through the valley ahead of them. "Is the mine instanced?" Stan asked, eyeing the other group warily.
"I think so, unless you want to join up with them."
"Not really."
They lit torches and ventured into the mine. "Have you got any good spells for this?" Stan asked.
"I got a spellbook, so now I can prepare two spells in advance. I prepped one of the speed boosts and one of a classic magic missile. Give me a few minutes and I can refresh them."
"Why not two missiles?"
"Because then we'll need the speed and I'll kick myself."
Stan said, "I thought you were using scrolls to cast."
"Yeah, until I put each spell into my book. Besides casting the prepared copies I can use the book like a scroll, but that's just as slow as the scrolls were. It's a tradeoff."
Inside, the tunnel sloped downhill and dripped with water. Stan snorted as he compared it to the right-angled maze Ludo had shown him. He kept an eye out for skeleton warriors. The layout was simple, not surprising for a primitive mine, but the path branched out into a gallery where a few pillars held up the roof and every wall looked covered in stony green moss. He inspected it and saw, [Malachite. Copper ore. Rarely found near tin ore, for game balance.] The thick roots of some large tree extended down here and gave them a sense of tentacles coiled along every surface.
Stan said, "I figure we'll get attacked in a moment?"
"I haven't been here before, but probably." Dominic took out a pick and began a mechanical animation of hacking at the nearest wall.
Stan began doing the same, saying, "There's probably an advanced mode for better results. Try that."
Sure enough, a menu invited him to use one. Much like logging, he could tap specific bits of the wall at certain times to raise the chance of getting some ore with each strike. Stan realized he was focusing on it, and broke away (spoiling a streak of good hits with associated sparkly effects) to make sure nothing was stalking him. There was only darkness outside the pool of light from the two torches on the floor. Stan used Inspect on the empty space and got, [You don't see the Devourer. How reassuring!]
A small pile of ore littered the floor in jagged chunks, along with plain stone. Stan began gathering it up while Dominic worked. Dominic said, "Is your inventory full yet?"
"No; I have two bags and extra carrying ability."
The mage's pick snapped. "Yeah, should've brought extra picks. How's yours?"
Stan's own was worn out too, what with the shoddy stone blade. "We're climbing the technology ladder from the very bottom. This one's about done, too." He gave the wall another tap, knocking loose a chunk of ore.
And then the roof collapsed in front of them. The gallery rumbled, they tumbled to the floor, and the torches went out. There was nothing to see.
Dominic groused, "If I'd predicted a cave-in we'd have gotten monsters."
Stan called out a little too loudly for his dorm, "I'm sure we won't get attacked by a flimsy golem made of gold next!"
Dominic said, "Let's see if I can re-light these." Sparks appeared and then one of the torches flared
back to life. The exit tunnel had collapsed into a pile of rocks.
Stan stood and walked around, trying to pull or push the rocks. Nothing moved. The inspection message on the new stone barrier was, [That old-time rock and roll.]
That wasn't very helpful. Stan looked it over himself. "Can you get my torch too?"
"It's buried, I think. And we've got one near-broken pick left."
Ludo wouldn't have provided this problem without some way to solve it besides dying. The barrier had some small gaps, but too few to squeeze through, what with the dirt and stone and tangled roots. "Maybe this calls for magic. Any tips?"
Dominic said, "For the shaman version? Take it slowly."
Stan brought up the magic interface. A rippling grid of dots and other shapes appeared all around him, marked by tutorial messages as the local magic field. He had a single icon he could drag into the world and try to maneuver toward the roots, but there were shifting, shimmering obstacles and spikes in the way. On Stan's first attempt, he had to take a few steps back and forth to move the icon past some stubborn blocks, and then had the Growth icon hit a spike anyway and pop. After a short cooldown period he tried again, this time taking an indirect route that made him turn all the way around while dragging the icon along with his character's hands. In third-person it looked like he was dancing around, trailing a green streak. He maneuvered the marker through 3D space and finally touched it against one of the roots, causing it to grow wider and crack against the fallen stones.
"It's working!" said Dominic.
Stan cast the spell again, letting the mage point out likely spots for it. Soon the boulders rumbled and a few toppled off of their pile, clearing a path to squeeze through. Stan pumped one fist in the air.
Just then, the rocks shifted further and another one tumbled into place. Dominic cursed but then said, "Never mind. Do that again, while I shuffle spells."
Stan managed to break open another path through the rocks, and then Dominic set off two rapid-fire castings of his speed spell. "Go!" said Dominic. They hustled through the new gap just in time to escape the mine before the rockslide blocked the way again.
"Still got the ore?" said Dominic. The game made him sound out of breath.
Stan checked his inventory; he'd been able to fill half of it before running out of picks. "Yeah. Good work."
Back outside, they spotted that other adventuring party again, not mining but building. The four sword-wielding heroes had put up a little stockade of logs lashed together with rope, and were starting to rig up a roof.
Stan approached, saying, "What are you building that for?"
The guy with the coolest armor said, "We're setting up a base. Looks like nobody's claimed this land yet."
"I don't think anyone can. This island resets every so often until someone finds a Stability Gem for it, and I don't know how those work."
"Wait, what?" said one of the others. "You mean the hut will just vanish?"
Stan turned to Dominic. The mage nodded and said, "Yeah. It's still a wild island, so the best you can do is a temporary camp."
Stan said, "Try Central Island?"
"That defeats the whole point of not being in the village," the leader said. He and the others argued, setting off some other lingering disagreement among them. They all drew their swords.
"Whoa," said Stan, jumping backwards.
One of the adventurers said, "Yeah, I don't even care enough to fight you guys now. I've got better things to do than waste another evening." He crouched on the ground and started logging out, making an exit icon appear above him. The others argued and then agreed on logging out, too.
Dominic asked Stan, "What was that about?"
"Bad planning. Though it seems like Ludo should have just warped them to a good location or something."
"Nah. By messing this up they'll learn."
Stan said, "It would've been simpler to just pop up a window telling them to consult the wiki, or better yet warning them of the exact rules. Anyway, we've got an opportunity here since they abandoned their stuff and it'll get erased." Stan walked around the attempted fort or hut. "Let's take it."
"I don't think that'll fit in our inventory. It's just wood and vine rope anyway."
Stan stepped back and pictured the small walls of wood crashing horizontal, then riding the waves. "A raft..." He turned to Dominic again and said, "What do you need, in order to make a boat or a raft protected while you're offline, anyway?"
The mage grinned. "What happened to consulting the wiki?"
"One minute." Stan put down the Talisman and picked up the Slab to check. Fan experience said that offline storage required getting a special item called an Anchor Stone, which was guaranteed not to be available within a few islands of Central Isle. Unlike the items he carried, a raft wouldn't vanish and reappear along with his character when he logged out and in. To get a permanent raft, then, he'd need sea transport to a distant island. And he couldn't use the practically ready-made raft right here... well, next to his character in the game world... without being able to commit to staying online for hours of searching! "Ugh. What a pain."
Dominic said, "It's not a total waste. We can take the rope."
"Yeah." Stan started disassembling the fort to harvest that. He could use it, or sell it back to the owners if they returned first.
They made it back to Central Island. It was getting late for both of them, and Dominic had no interest in smithing, so Stan offered to smelt the whole batch of ore for them. "See you around!"
* * *
He was too busy to play for a few days. Over breakfast on a Friday, Stan found Eddie and Mina together eating pancakes. He joined them with his own regulation-size stack. "I'm going into town today; want anything?"
Even before buying the Talisman he'd been in the habit of using his time off to run errands for the other Community residents or even for Baron Hal. There was extra scrip in it and he'd enjoyed finding all the pawn shops and garage sales and other places to scrounge. He suspected some of his fellow residents just liked watching Stan scurry around to do their bidding.
Mina said, "Kitchen's low on fruit; the shipment never came. And can you find a new air pump for soccer balls?"
"Can't you fix it?" said Stan.
"It's kind of smashed."
Stan fired off a text message to Hal, asking if he'd authorize Stan buying fruit (and getting SCS credit).
Eddie fidgeted with his food. "I'm fine. Hey, um... I mentioned the game to Mina. Started training in math with it, but it's also got me doing essay-writing. Ought to be good test prep."
Mina asked Stan, "Are you using it for education, too? I thought you were running around fighting orcs."
"No orcs yet, but it's a mix. Feels like I've been learning a few things."
Eddie showed Stan an article on his Slab, headed, [Major price drop coming for controversial "Uploading" procedure.] "It keeps getting cheaper."
Mina rolled her eyes. "Stan, Eddie's now obsessing over this thing just because it's going from billionaire suicide to multimillionaire suicide. I blame you." She smiled, but there was some exasperation in her tone.
"Still way out of reach for the likes of us," Stan said.
"That's what I said. People ought to stop talking about uploading like it's some miracle cure for everything. It's already showing up as gossip on the Community forum."
Stan didn't use the official forum much, but suddenly recalled Mina posting comments here and there, often at the end of locked threads. "Wait a minute. Are you one of the 'opinion guides' now?" One of the people deciding what could be written and shared.
"I volunteered, yeah. Why?"
"If people want to talk about the game" -- they'd all been avoiding using its name -- "then they should be allowed."
Mina pointed her fork at Stan. "Somebody's got to make sure we don't start a cult over the latest tech. The forum doesn't have to be censored outright. Just, you know, nudged in the right direction."
Stan didn't have a
good response to that. It was the Community's job to make sure everybody was safe and healthy, and as frequent lectures put it, that included mental and social health. He said, "If you feel like joining in, I can try to wrangle a third... piece of hardware for it. Or you can borrow mine."
Eddie had been picking at his food quietly, but he brightened at that. "Join us," he intoned.
Mina laughed, but didn't sound completely sincere about it.
* * *
Stan combed the town's junk shops and scored a usable pump from Goodwill along with some other odds and ends. At the grocery store he tried the trick he'd learned of going around to the produce section and showing his Community ID.
"Hey again," said one of the grocers. "Come around back."
Behind the store they had boxes of fruit and vegetables that were being thrown out per standard schedule, giving off a smell of dangerous over-ripeness. They might be good for another day or two if someone picked through them. Stan got to spend a small amount of scrip that wasn't his own to get these cast-offs. Then he got fascinated by the pallets.
Six wooden pallets were piled by the door. He ran his fingers along the rough wood and nails, and smelled the sawdust. He could make a raft in real life! Or board up the windows against zombies. Or add an awning to the patio, or build a jigsaw puzzle, a toolbox, a birdhouse. Like the food, it was raw material that didn't have to be fit into a specific recipe or blueprint.
What if I could see everything this way?
The grocer said, "You okay, kid?"
Stan shook his head. "Yeah. Daydreaming."
"You can have the pallets if you can transport them."
He wanted to, though he had no specific plans. Once again, he had no way to carry that much wood and his borrowed scooter barely had enough space for his current haul. "I can't; sorry." He noticed a display of white flowers that had started wilting and been tossed out with the produce. "How about those?"
