Alpha World Book One: Gamer for Life

by Daniel Schinhofen

  The goblin was fixated on the elf though. She dodged, taking a glancing blow before running towards Alburet. “Help, please,” she cried out as she ran at him.

  Alburet nodded as he spoke the words again for another Fire Blast. Before he could cast his though, Bob launched one hitting the goblin in the chest. “She did ask nicely,” was Bob’s response to Alburet’s raised brow. Shaking his head, Alburet tossed his second Fire Blast, catching the goblin in the chest and frowned at only doing 18 damage. He sighed, noting the damaged leather the goblin was wearing.

  The elf darted behind them as Alburet stepped forward and prepared to attack the goblin. “I’ll heal you,” the elf panted as she came to a stop behind Bob.

  “Keep your light off of me,” Bob said without malice as he cast another Fire Blast.

  Alburet grunted as his attack connected with the goblin’s knee and pulling its attention to himself. “I got it,” he said, “give me a second to get more aggro, Bob.”

  Bob paused in his casting as he had been asked to do, watching his master get hit hard. “You should dodge more,” Bob said with a chuckle.

  “Smart ass imp,” Alburet hissed as the cut really hurt him. “I should make you tank.”

  “Squishy imp, remember? And it would lower my happiness, which is so close to the next level,” Bob laughed.

  Alburet was about to reply but a second swing gashed him, leaving him breathless for a second. A white light encircled him gently and he sighed in relief as the pain vanished. “I love that.” Alburet laughed, landing another attack on the goblin’s chest, giving up on trying to do just head shots.

  Bob just sniggered before he cast another Fire Blast, “Which part do you love, the pain or the healing?”

  “He sure is a lippy little bastard isn’t he?” the elf said.

  Laughing, Alburet parried the next attack, “Oh, yes. My fault though. I told him to be himself. Now I’m wondering if that was such a good idea.”

  The next Fire Blast went wide, “Oops, I missed,” Bob chuckled, “Can’t aim if I’m nervous I guess.”

  “Ha ha,” Alburet replied as he slammed his staff into the goblins chest and shoved it back a step, “If you miss again before this mob dies I think I shall invoke a five minute silence for you. Since you don’t need to say anything to cast your spells it shouldn’t affect your damage.”

  The next blast caught the goblin square in the face, killing it, “Woohoo, no silence for me.” Bob did a little jig, laughing wildly.

  The healer shook her head, “He’s a bit weird. The only other Summoner I’ve seen was bitching about his imp not helping as it should, though, so maybe this is an improvement. But gods, it must get annoying.”

  Alburet touched the corpse which vanished, leaving a bag behind. Touching that, he blinked at the notification, “This one had supplies.”

  LOOT:

  1 Supply cache

  “Oh! I still need three of those,” the healer said with a smile. “I’m Marysue, by the way.”

  Alburet groaned at the name, “I’m Alburet. Really, you named your healer Marysue?”

  She sighed, “It happens to be my real name as well. I always get that when I play online games, maybe it’s because I always play a healer.”

  “Could be, considering a Marysue always wants to help others,” Alburet agreed. “It was your mob so I guess the supplies should go to you.” He stood up, turning away from the bag on the ground, “Why are you trying to solo out here anyway?”

  “Wasn’t my intention,” she said, picking up the supplies. “My friend is late and I have no idea why.”

  Alburet said sympathetically, “Want to group up then? We can split the supplies evenly while we do.”

  “Sounds great. Trying to solo as a healer sucks unless it’s undead, then I can fuck them up royally,” Marysue grinned. “So, you are the de-facto tank since the imp doesn’t want me to heal him.”

  Groaning, Alburet sighed then gave his best depressed robot voice, “Don’t talk to me about pain, I know pain.”

  “I’m Bob,” Bob said, showing his many pointed teeth to Marysue. “Don’t mind him. He does surprisingly well as a sponge.”

  Alburet was about to reply when he saw a goblin running towards them, “Next one is up.” He threw a Fire Blast as the goblin closed the distance, having just enough time for a second one before the goblin was in melee range. “Two shots in. Light him up, Bob,” Alburet called out as he parried the first attack from the goblin.

  The next half an hour went smoothly for the most part. Alburet was all but reduced to tears a few times when he was hit in the head after failing to dodge, until Marysue healed him. She finished getting her five supplies while Alburet had just gotten his second and found they didn’t stack.

  “The supplies don’t stack? What a farce,” Alburet said with a sigh.

  “That’s why it’s only five for the minimum quest,” Marysue replied. “Most of us only have the default twenty slot bag still.”

  Alburet chuckled, thinking of his hundred slot backpack. “Yeah, that can get interesting if you have other stuff in there already.” He looked into his dusty satchel which had no more room and sighed as realized that he’d forgotten to sell the crap from the prison. The extra set of ragged leather from a goblin and a rusty short sword had filled up the rest of the bag. “Anyway, if we could find an actual tank we could see about pushing into the fort.”

  “Mary,” a deep voice boomed.

  Alburet looked over to see the romance novel hero, complete with tight leather armor jogging towards them. The newcomer’s long blonde hair fluttered in the light breeze as he came towards them. Alburet noted the kite shield and sword the guy had in hand.

  Marysue looked over, smiling, “Hey Gerald. Took you long enough. What happened to being here this morning?”

  “Yeah, sorry about that,” Gerald said as he came to a stop next to them. “I forgot to set my alarm. Did I miss anything?” Gerald turned to Alburet while taking a half step towards Marysue in a slightly possessive way.

  “I’m Alburet. I was helping her survive since you hadn’t turned up and she was being chased by the goblins.” Alburet said, sighing inwardly as he crossed Marysue off the possible fun times list. “Now that you’re here, we can think about heading into the keep and staking out a corner. A group that came out earlier said that the armbands drop inside.”

  Gerald eyed him for a moment before smiling, “Well, thanks for helping her out. I’m up for going inside the walls, as a Defender I can tank with the best of them as long as Mary backs me up.”

  Mary blushed slightly, “Oh stop. You’re a much better tank than I am a healer. Let me toss you an invite, and if we can get another two DPS we can even try the dungeon once we hit level eight.”

  Alburet perked up, “A dungeon? There’s a dungeon here?”

  Laughing, Gerald nodded, “You must not have done much in the beta. Goblin Fort is the name of the area as well as the name of the dungeon. The entrance is the main doors of the main keep building. In fact, since me and Mary are level seven already we should just grab two more DPS now and grind the interior walls until we can step into the dungeon.”

  “I’m close to seven, but not there yet,” Alburet added, “I like the idea though. Let’s do it.”

  Mary turned to the field and raised her voice, “Need two DPS to level to eight and try the dungeon.”

  The ten closest people who weren’t actively engaged in a fight came running over shouting that they wanted in. Mary took a step back, holding up her hands as they bore down on her. Gerald stepped into the way speaking up, “Calm the fuck down, damn it, or none of you will go.” That brought the players up short but they still tried to talk over each other.

  “Yo, one at a time. Our healer has final say,” Alburet said, using his command voice which shut the people up. “Better. Let’s start with you,” he tapped the player nearest him.

  Each player introduced themselves, stating their class and level as Albure
t pointed to each. Once they had run through the ten people who wanted to go, Mary took the level eight Elementalist Dwarven male, Rocksure. She also took the level seven female Lunari Berserker, Fluffball as the fifth party member to round them out. “Sorry folks, that fills us, but we might run it multiple times. If we do I’ll cycle different people in for the quests, okay?” Five players had already left, in various degrees of huff as soon as she’d chosen the initial party members. The three players left readily agreed to be on standby for their chance.

  Mary laid out the ground rules for the group, “All loot is round robin. I do suggest if it is an upgrade for one of us that we hand whatever it is off to the one who can use it most. Once we hit the dungeon, remember boss loot is based on group composition and we should each get a drop from the end boss. If the other bosses drop stuff we’ll go with need before greed with a random roll to see who wins either of those categories. Any objections?”

  Alburet took in the info silently but smiled when no one objected to the loot distribution. “So, we ready to rock and roll? Oh, Gerald, before we pull let me hit you with my five minute buff.”

  Gerald nodded, “Okay, let’s head over to the gate.”

  Fluffball fell in beside Alburet with a shy smile, “You know you’re playing the weakest class, right?”

  Rolling his eyes, Alburet looked over at the tiger stripped Lunari, “I’ve heard that. I didn’t want to put up with the smell of rotting flesh like like the necro, but wanted to be a pet class so here I am.”

  “Rotting flesh smell? You playing full immersion?” Fluffball asked with wide eyes, “Doesn’t that hurt?”

  Laughing darkly, Alburet nodded, “Oh yeah, which makes me so happy we have a tank now. Even with the magic healing it still hurt like hell when I got cut.”

  “You a masochist then?” Fluffball asked, glancing at him sideways.

  “Normally closer to the opposite of that,” Alburet chuckled. “Let’s just say that I play fully immersed for a reason I can’t disclose.”

  “Interesting,” Fluffball said as she licked a hand and smoothed out her fur next to her ear like she was grooming.

  Alburet snorted, turning his head away, “Fricking cat.”

  “Hey, no making fun of me grooming if you play with full pain enabled while tanking mobs. After all, I’m just role playing,” Fluffball said, her skin under the fur tinging red.

  “Lunari can blush?” Bob spoke up for the first time since the group had filled.

  “Holy shit, your imp talks?” Fluffball exclaimed, looking back at the imp.

  “Better than he does at times,” Bob laughed.

  “He is a right pain in the ass is what he is, but he helps,” Alburet replied.

  “Helps? Who has killed more mobs since we joined up? Me, that’s who,” Bob replied, strutting slightly.

  Rocksure glanced back, “Dude, you let that thing talk to you like that? The other Summoner I know has his muzzled, he got tired of it talking back.”

  “I bet that imp doesn’t rock like I do, then,” Bob said, smirking.

  “Whatever. Summoners suck anyway,” Rocksure sneered as they approached the gates.

  “One incoming,” Gerald said, spying a Goblin Scavenger exiting the gates and heading for them.

  Alburet stepped up, casting Retribution onto Gerald by slapping his back to finish the spell. “You’re good to go,” Alburet said, prepping his Fire Blast.

  The fight was over in seconds, with Alburet and the others being able to focus on doing damage. Gerald sighed, “So weak. Let’s get in there.”

  The group hurried through the gate and hugged a wall once they were inside. Alburet caught sight of over thirty goblins, all running around the interior along with two other full groups of players in the back corners, pulling steadily. They came to a stop in one of the front corners and Gerald nodded to them, “Alburet, your spells are the weakest so just pull them in one at a time to start with.”

  Sighing inwardly at again being called weak or useless, he nodded. “Bob, don’t cast until Gerald has it, but after that feel free to go to town.”

  “You got it, master,” Bob said rubbing his hands together and bouncing a little in anticipation. As he did a pop-up appeared before Alburet, who glanced at it with a smile before closing it and going to pull the first mob.

  Constantly allowing your imp to follow his heart has raised his happiness.

  Bob’s Happiness has reached Content.

  Your Minion receives a 25% boost to stats and damage.

  “Okay, game on,” Alburet called out, targeting the closest goblin. The Goblin Shieldbearer level eight, 700/700 health was wearing studded leather of bad quality and carried a tower shield and a spear. Alburet clenched his fist and opened it. “Die in a fire,” he called out threw the Fire Blast past Gerald, smacking the goblin in the side.

  “Wait, what? That can't be the standard casting for that spell,” Rocksure said as he waited for Gerald to gain aggro.

  Alburet chuckled, “It wasn't, but it is now. One of my first abilities was Personal Spell, which let me change the motions or verbal components of my spells.”

  “You took that over the other choice?” Rocksure said shaking his head, “Dude, you got to be a newb.”

  Alburet didn't respond to Rocksure, but began to shape his next Fire Blast as Gerald had already hit the goblin twice. “Alright Bob, let's do this.” Twin Fire Blasts hit the goblin in the side as Gerald was slowly spinning the mob so its back would be to the group.

  As the blasts hit, Rocksure hit it with some kind of ice spell which seemed to slow it and did minimal damage. Fluffball leapt in with her sword, hacking at the mob and taking a chunk off its life. Her fur glowed with a faint red aura as she triggered her combat ability.

  The fight went smoothly, with Marysue easily able to keep up with the damage the goblin did to Gerald. Gerald was laughing as he fought, clearly he didn’t have his pain sensors turned up past nerf bat levels. Fluffball seemed to enjoy herself as well as she savagely sliced into the back of the goblin. Rocksure had used an electric spell of some sort as his main damage spell.

  The first mob dropped some copper which was automatically split evenly across the group as well as a small bag. Mary nodded, “We shall go in alphabetical order for loot. Take your turn, Alburet.”

  Alburet touched the bag and got a blue arm band with a shield icon on it. “Arm band.”

  “It have a shield on it?” Gerald asked to which Alburet nodded. “So they kept it the same from beta,” Gerald smirked. “They have a 25% drop rate off the goblins in here and a 50% chance inside the dungeon. We’re all ready to go puller. Keep an eye on Mary's mana. If it's above 50% just pull the next one when we get the one we’re fighting to 100 health.”

  Nodding, Alburet picked out the next closest goblin and began to shape his spell. He found the Goblin Swordsman level eight, 650/650 health also in the same leathers as the last one, but carrying a rusty sword. “Die in a fire,” he called out, sending the spell flying into his target.

  “So stupid,” Rocksure said sadly, shaking his head. “Wasn't the other choice a flat damage increase?”

  “Yeah, but it would only have affected...” Alburet cut off, stepping behind Gerald and casting Retribution on him. “My weak damage reflect and my Fire Blast.”

  Rocksure shook his head, “DPS is DPS. What you took isn't even a utility ability, just a cosmetic one.”

  “Enough of the criticism,” Marysue said, “just do your jobs.”

  The group fell into a rhythm for an hour, pulling and killing mobs with little difficulty. Alburet hit level seven, gaining a new spell while Fluffball, Marysue and Gerald all reached level eight. Dropping all his points into Intelligence this time, he checked his new spell.

  Sap Strength: Mana cost: 50. Duration: 1 minute. Removes 10 strength from the target. Point your finger at the target and say the words, 'Sap Strength'. (You may modify this spell due to an ability.) Alburet tapped the area and changed the words to
just 'Weaken', accepting the change.

  Nodding he looked at the others who were all looking at him, “Sorry, was checking my new spell. I'm ready to go now.”

  “We were thinking of going into the dungeon now, actually,” Gerald said. “It’ll be harder for you, but the rest of us are at the normal level now.”

  “Are the mobs level eight inside?”