by Brian Simons
“Otto should know by now to just give me a discount the first time. And I’m pretty sure your stomach is in ‘knots’ because you ate an entire goblin. You have no one to blame for that but yourself.”
“I’m a Gourmand class! Eating is what I do. I wanted to see if there was a buff for finishing all the meat. Turns out, there wasn’t. It did restore the rest of my HP to full though.” Sal beamed at this accomplishment. Daniel knew how high Sal’s Constitution was, which meant his HP was through the roof. It also meant they wouldn’t have to wait around for his HP to regenerate before they entered the raid dungeon that just opened up.
“But I just think,” Sal said, “that if the NPCs are run on artificial intelligence, they might have feelings.”
“Not to mention,” Sybil said, her voice thick with impatience, “that if you’d invest more than, I dunno, one measly skill point into your Haggle ability you’d succeed more often and we wouldn’t have to go through this every time we buy supplies.”
“But then, dear Sybil,” Daniel said, tapping a finger to his temple, “I wouldn’t be able to invest that skill point in something more useful, like my sword fighting skills, now would I?”
Otto respawned behind the counter more quickly than usual. He grabbed a few health potions from the shelf behind him and stuffed them into his pockets. “If you’ll excuse me,” he said, “I have an errand to run.”
“Huh?” Daniel was surprised. He’d never seen Otto leave his shop before.
“It’s a quest, if you must know. Try not to steal anything while I’m gone.” Otto walked out from behind the counter and left the shop.
“Well that’s a new one,” Sal said. A few moments later, Otto materialized again behind the counter.
“What’s the matter, Otto,” Daniel said. “Quest got the better of you?”
“What?” asked Otto. “What are you prattling on about? Just buy something and leave.”
“Ok,” Daniel said. “How about you cut me a deal on some potions and I’ll get out of your hair?” He activated Haggle again.
“You good for nothing… Fine. Five percent off, if it gets you out of here any faster.”
“Attaboy,” Daniel said, fishing in his gold pouch for coins. “We’ll take four greater health potions.”
Daniel pocketed the vials and dropped the gold coins on the counter. “Always a pleasure, Otto!”
“Go away, Daniel_the_Maniel!” he said as the three adventurers left the small shop.
Before long they’d meet up with Marco, their team healer, and check out the special raid dungeon that opened up conveniently close to Havenstock. Today was shaping up to be a good day.
5
Travail Server 215 Automated Intelligence Log.
Running routine game balance analysis…
Analyzing available player statistics…
Analyzing challenge level of existing quests and bosses…
Challenge level: incalculable.
Identifying calculation problem…
Calculation problem found: unauthorized relic item / illegal relic item properties.
Source: unknown.
Game balance: unbalanced.
Compiling new quest sequence to rebalance game mechanics…
6
Coral materialized in the middle of a grassy meadow. The late morning sun warmed her face as a gentle breeze carried the scent of flowers to her nose. It reminded her of cherry blossom season in Fairmount Park. Whatever these nanos were doing, they were doing it well. This game was immersing all of her senses. Travail was a beautiful, serene place. If she had to spend the rest of her working days somewhere, this seemed like a pretty good choice. Then the thought struck her, how do I get out of the game? What if I need to eat?
As if sensing her thoughts, a message box appeared:
Welcome to your first day in Travail! Travail is an immersive interactive game world. We think it’s better than real life, and we hope you agree. However, if you need to return to real life at any time, simply think about quitting. Travail will save your progress and remove your avatar from the world at large until you log back in.
In the meantime, why not get acquainted with your new life? Walk into nearby Havenstock to set up a bank account, buy some supplies, and learn about the combat system. Even if you don’t plan to fight monsters or square off with other players in the Arena, it’s always handy to know how to defend yourself.
Warning: Travail does not permit logging off during combat.
The box disappeared once Coral finished reading it. Havenstock must be that city up ahead. Coral walked along a dirt path that led away from the open field, past a few farms, and then into an area packed with people and small buildings. The city buzzed with activity. Other players ran or walked in every direction. Many had impressive suits of armor, robes, or other outfits on. Coral looked down and realized she was clothed in a ragged pair of pants and a ratty shirt. What kind of a self-respecting Seamstress would dress herself this way? First order of business: find a change of clothes!
Is there a map?, she thought, and a map appeared before her. The city itself was sprawling, with a residential district to the east and a shopping district to the west, each of which stretched on for many blocks. The bank was just ahead, only a short walk into the shopping district. Coral started to zoom out on her map, but the size and scope of Travail was bewildering. It seemed to expand for miles into forests, hills, mountains — she zoomed back in to focus on the task at hand. She followed the map to the bank and walked up to an available teller.
“I’d like to open a bank account please,” she said.
“And rightly so. You’ll want to spend a little dough upgrading those duds, am I right?”
“Perhaps,” she said. She didn’t plan on spending real money on the game, but she was too embarrassed to tell the bank teller that — even if the teller wasn’t a “real” person.
“Just fill in your name, the name of your banking institution, and answer the security questions that follow. We’ll connect with your bank to ensure your account becomes available. The process takes 24 hours.”
“Thanks. Can you tell me the exchange rate?”
“One U.S. dollar will buy you 1 gold in-game. You can exchange 10 gold for one dollar.”
That meant that the second someone bought gold, it lost 90% of its real money value. “That’s outrageous!” Coral said.
“I know!” the teller responded. “This time last year it cost $10 per gold, now it’s only $1. Things are really looking up!”
All a matter of perspective, it seems.
Coral left the bank and saw a steady stream of other people in rags similar to hers. She followed them to a combat training area where someone in a guard’s uniform called out some basic instructions, which he simply repeated over and over.
“Melee combatters benefit from strong strength attributes. Those of yous with strength bonuses, pick up a [wooden starter sword] and take a crack at them training dummies. Dexterity’s for ranged hitters, because it makes yous more likely to hit ‘em. Take a [wooden starter bow] and some [starter arrows]. Anyone with loads of intelligence, pick up a [wooden starter staff] and start spelling some spells at the dummies.”
Some training that was. As a Seamstress with a Dexterity bonus, Coral figured she’d start with a bow and arrow. She took a wooden starter bow from an open chest full of them and a quiver with a handful of cheap arrows. She had never held a bow and arrow before so she took a moment to look at them closely. Then she saw notifications on her screen.
>> Wooden Starter Bow: It doesn’t get less fancy than this! No combat bonus. Durability: 10/10.
>> Cheap Arrows: Are these pigeon feathers? No combat bonus. Durability: 5/5.
As she equipped the weapons, an animated practice dummy bounded toward her. It consisted of a horizontal wooden beam for arms, a vertical beam to hold it up, a cloth bag stuffed with straw for a head, and a larger sack for a body, stuffed with more straw. It bounced around in fro
nt of her waiting to get shot, like a magically enchanted scarecrow with a death wish.
Coral nocked an arrow and shot it at the dummy. It struck its wooden arm beam. A few other arrows missed completely before she got the hang of it, hitting the main body on most tries. Sure, it was close range and the dummy wasn’t exactly trying to dodge out of the way. But for someone that had never shot an arrow before, Coral felt a nice sense of accomplishment. She wondered if she had leveled anything up yet but no, the training dummies provided zero XP. When Coral fired off the last of her arrows, she was ready to quit training. She wondered what to do with her bow.
Then an inventory screen appeared, with twelve boxes for carried items. She had a sewing kit, and she added her wooden starter bow to the bag. It disappeared from her hand. Her inventory screen also displayed a lifelike image of her avatar. It showed her long brown hair, her fair face, even her freckles.
Coral had modified her avatar’s hair to look more like her real life hair. Somehow, the Starter Kit nano had created an accurate approximation of what her face and body looked like, so she decided not to modify that. Judging by the number of people running around with supercharged physiques, not everyone in Travail took the same modest approach Coral did.
The inventory screen had boxes filled in with each item Coral wore, and many empty boxes for items she didn’t wear yet. There were spots for a necklace, rings, a hat, a belt. She’d have a long way to go before she was fully adorned.
The real question was how she was going to level up her Seamstress skill. She wanted to start making and selling clothes, but that required training first. Likely that entailed grinding away at sewing something useless like tablecloths until she got to a level that let her create clothing patterns.
She pulled up a screen that explained her character’s starting attributes.
Name:
Coral_Darning
Gender:
Female
Race:
Human
Class:
Seamstress
Level:
1
Diplomacy:
10
Constitution:
10
Dexterity:
11
Defense:
10
Intelligence:
10
Strength:
10
Spirit:
10
HP:
200
Stamina:
10
MP:
20
Skill Points Available:
0
XP:
0
XP to Next Level:
100
Ok, only 100 experience points to the next level. That didn’t sound so intimidating. And leveling up should improve her other attributes. Most of them made basic sense at this point, but her eyes lingered on two attributes she wanted to learn more about. Explanatory boxes popped up and faded away when she finished reading them.
Diplomacy: Your charm and wile. Affects ability to haggle in shops, complete certain quests, and convince NPCs to take or stop action.
Stamina: Your ability to endure. Dictates maximum stamina points. Stamina points are used automatically for strenuous tasks like running and swimming. When you run out of stamina, all physical movement will be slowed greatly.
Neither of those seemed very important. Coral didn’t plan on wheeling and dealing, nor did she think she’d need to do much running or swimming. She was just an old-fashioned gal looking to make her way in the world, one stitch at a time.
Somewhere, in the distance, she heard the mooing of highly distressed cows. Were people attacking those poor creatures? If they were, there might be piles of unwanted cowhide. If she could get that tanned, maybe she could stitch together a new outfit…
7
Daniel stood outside the stone arch tapping his foot. “Where is he?” he asked.
“Maybe he’s stuck on a timed quest?” Sal said.
“Marco should know better than to get stuck on a solo quest when we’re supposed to rendezvous for a raid. This raid requires four players,” Daniel said. “Now what do we do?”
“We wait,” Sybil said. Until they had a fourth, it was all they could do.
The three of them stood in a grassy field, not far from the farms that extended from the south of Havenstock’s city center. A team of four players ran through a corn patch and hopped over a log fence on their way toward the stone arch. They breezed past Daniel, Sybil, and Sal and ran right through the arch, their footfalls echoing upward as they descended the stone steps beyond.
Daniel attempted to walk through the arch himself, but an unseen force stopped him. His avatar walked in place, feet treading at the ground while the stone arch forbade him entry. He looked like he was on an invisible treadmill. Oh well. The dungeon would be instanced anyway, so whatever loot that other team got wouldn’t interfere with their own raid.
“Maybe we could pay someone to come with us,” Sal said. “Although, without a healer this could be tough. I don’t mind waiting for Marco.”
“After 24 hours this dungeon shuts down and the stone arch descends back into the ground,” Daniel said. “It’s a one-off event, not a permanent game feature. We can’t wait for Marco forever.”
Just then, a young woman appeared on the horizon. Coral_Darning. Her name floated above her head until Daniel dismissed it. Her long brown hair blew behind her with the wind. She wore the same tattered shirt and pants all Travail noobs started out with.
“She’ll do,” Daniel said. “She’ll die the second we get in there, and then we won’t have to split the loot with her.”
“That’s cold,” Sybil said, “but efficient. It would certainly be nice to get a little extra cash out of this raid. Times are pretty tight at the moment. Besides, she’s brand new. She can’t have anything to lose.”
“Hello!” Daniel called out. The woman looked over at him and then walked over.
“Hi,” she said.
“Coral Darling, today is your lucky day,” he said. “My friends and I need a fourth to raid this dungeon. It’s only up for 24 hours, so it’s now or never. But don’t worry, we’re pretty strong.” He did a bicep curl clutching the hilt of a broadsword. “We’ll keep you safe.”
“It’s Darning. Coral_Darning. Just Coral would be fine. But I don’t know. There are some players killing cows by that farm over there and I was hoping to take any of the cowhide they left behind. I need to work on my Tailoring skill.”
Daniel gave Coral a hard look. All he could see were her level, race, and class, but that was information enough.
“You’re a Level 1 Seamstress? You can’t stitch leather for a few more levels.” God, Daniel thought, hasn’t she checked the in-game wiki? I bet she doesn’t even realize that she’s the one that will have to skin the cows herself. A nice little bundle of clean cowhide doesn’t just appear out of nowhere.
“Ah,” Coral said, “then I wonder what I can start with. Maybe regular cloth?”
“Good idea,” Daniel said. “Maybe then you can swap out this Raggedy Ann look. In fact, I think some of the mobs in this raid dungeon drop cloth. Every color of cloth. You can have all of my cloth. Ok?” He couldn’t help but slip into a juvenile tone, like he was talking to a toddler. In fact, “toddler” would be an improvement for her. She had all the common sense of a newborn. Luring her into an early death could be a mercy for her if it gave her the chance to reincarnate as something less worthless than a Seamstress.
“And we’ll pay you!” Sal said.
Daniel gave Sal an exasperated look. Given the likelihood of imminent death, paying her was pointless. She’d die and then the gold would disappear forever.
“Yes. As Sal said. We’ll pay you after. Ten gold.”
“And cloth,” Coral said.
“Yes, and cloth. Do we have a deal?”
Coral stood motionless, apparently deep in thought. No doubt weighing the triviality of 10 gold (worth a
real world dollar) and the possibility that the gold could buy her items that would help her level up faster. “Ok, I’ll do it. Before we go in, I have this bow but I ran out of arrows shooting at training dummies. Does anyone have extra arrows? I never planned on actually killing anything around here, but if I get in trouble I’d like to try scaring a few monsters away.”
“Sorry,” Sybil said. “No archers here. Just wave your bow around like you mean business. They’ll get the hint.”
“Ok.”
The four of them passed through the stone arch and began their descent. The underground air quickly became cold. Not that it bothered Daniel any. He had a full body suit of steel plate armor insulating him from the chill. He wondered how Coral would handle it though. Oh well. First noob mistake: entering a dungeon unprepared. She’ll learn.
