Extra Credit
Page 17
Having to re-summon Fred was getting to be annoying and I wanted to get him bound as quickly as possible, so I put the last two points into Bind Minion.
Fred’s bones were broken beyond repair, so I gathered his one intact leg bone to replace the one I’d used on the cat and added the rest of the bones to my scrap pile. My luck seemed to be with me a little at least as I sifted through the bones, as I was able to scavenge a pair of his teeth.
I put the shortsword and shield in my bag and then prepped the Nighthunter bones for animation. In comparison to my tiny form, it seemed huge, but rules-wise it was still a medium creature, and as such, I could raise it.
I cast Minor Create Undead and then followed that up with Bind Minion, the cat taking Fred’s place in my undead “legion”.
I looked the cat over. Its claws and teeth were likely better weapons than the goblin’s sword had been.
“I think I’ll call you Tom,” I said to the cat, naming it after a cartoon character from my youth. The cat’s name tag changed accordingly, and I nodded, turning back towards town.
I paused for a second, looking the cat up and down again. It’s big enough, maybe this could work, I thought and ordered the cat to kneel down so I could climb onto its bony back, holding on to its spine as it stood and started to walk.
After less than five steps I found myself flat on my face, nursing some bruises.
Skill Check: Failed! – You do not possess the necessary skill!
“Oh well, it was worth a shot,” I said, picking myself up and heading back through town towards the mine. There was money to make.
***
22
With my minions on guard, I skirted the southern edge of town and headed back to the mine, keeping an eye out for whatever had been stalking me earlier.
I made it to the mine without incident and performed a quick search to make sure there were no rats present before getting down to business.
It took a little while to find a good mining spot. My initial site at the end of the mine shaft only had a single node, which was three too few for my purposes, but moving a short distance down the tunnel resulted in a cluster of six nodes.
I moved through the casting of Dark Blessing with a feeling of anticipation, turning Rusty into minebot number three and equipping him with a not-so-shiny pick.
Soon the sound of four picks striking stone filled the tunnel and chunks began to fly while a Skeletal panther prowled the area in search of any rats.
I lost myself in the rhythm of it all, pausing now and then to collect the piles of ore building up at each minion’s feet before it despawned.
Occasionally the veins would run dry, and we had to move, but as my Mining skill increased, so too did the range of my prospecting ability so finding a new site didn’t cause too much of a delay.
Hours later my alarm went off, telling me it was time to log out for the night and get some real sleep.
I scanned my logs. My Mining skill had increased to level eight, upping my success rate but also dropping the amount of Mining experienced for each success to zero.
Shrugging, I collected the rest of the ore and took stock of the results of my six hours of work.
I counted up the ore coming to an amazing two thousand nine hundred and fifty-two Copper Ore and nineteen Uncut Malachite. Quite a nice haul! After smelting I’d have two hundred and ninety-five ingots with a few ore left over. At the current going rate of four silver per ingot, it would net me one hundred and eighteen-ish gold, with another fifty-four from the malachite, assuming everything sold.
All together a haul of just under $39.00 for my nights work. Taking into account the time it would take to smelt everything, another hour or so, I’d be bringing in right around $4.00 an hour.
It wasn’t a stellar wage… or even a living one, but if you could rake in the dough mining copper then everyone would be doing it. It was a solid beginning though.
With the gold made from mining copper I could improve my gear, level up my Mining skills, get more minion miners going, and then move up to a higher-grade metal where the margins would be better.
First to tin, and then to iron, and if I encountered any silver or gold veins along the way, those would be gravy.
I swapped out my skeletons’ picks for their melee weapons and frowned when I noticed the deteriorating condition of the Mining tools. I’d probably have to replace them before the next excursion or they might break down mid shift.
Oh well, I thought. Gotta spend money to make money.
I made my way out of the mine, and logged out, a large yawn escaping as I pulled off the headset and set it to charge.
Tomorrow’s going to be a busy day, I thought. I had to smelt all of my ore and visit the auction house, and then work on improving my yield.
My human skeleton Yuri performed much better than the goblins, so replacing Rusty and Tiny with human minions was a priority, and if I could get my hands on some dwarf bones it would be even better.
From what I remembered reading on the forums, the next undead creation spell was available at level ten and would allow the creation of the fleshier undead types, which were somewhat more intelligent than the skeletal minions and therefore potentially better workers.
Both potential improvements led to a single conclusion: I’d definitely need to level up my character more if I wanted to improve my profits.
***
23
My estimates on the amount of actual sleep required must have been off by a bit because I slept through the alarm, waking up to a call from my wife. I blearily answered and mumbled a greeting, perking up a bit when my son came on the call and started making faces at me.
I pulled myself out of my half-sleep and talked about the plans for the day. April and in-laws were taking the little guy to a local petting zoo and Diego was super excited. Well, as excited as a toddler can be.
I wanted more than anything to be with them to share the experience, but I had a job to do.
After the call I made myself some breakfast and took a hot shower, gradually shaking the funk. Mentally revitalized, I made myself comfortable and logged back into Argos Online.
I appeared in the clearing before the Sommervale mine in the middle of a deluge. The rain was coming down so heavily I could barely see a foot in front of my face.
A strong gust of wind sent me stumbling, catching hold of my robes and lifting me off the ground. I dropped to all fours and forced my way through the storm to the nearby smelting building, using my mini map to navigate through the storm.
I stepped out of the rain and glared down at my soaked robes, grumbling as a breeze followed me in. Darr gave me a curt nod with only a hint of glee at my current state in his eyes, which was a major improvement. I rushed over to the forge and basked in the heat, drying my robes and warming up a bit.
When I was feeling human - err kobold – again, I got to work smelting. The next hour went by in a blur of activity. Heat, pour, pop, heat, pour, pop, on and on with few breaks in between. As I picked up the last of the bars, I looked over to see Darr watching me.
“Yes?” I asked him, a bit grumpily.
“Don’t ye get testy with me, little lizard man. I was just gunna tell ye that ye should move down to shaft four or five if yer burning through copper like that. Those levels ‘ave tin veins, and if ye get real lucky ye may find a touch o’ gold or silver too. Ye gotta watch out for the damn rock elementals, but ye can get more ore from their remains when ye kill em. I’ll even make it worth yer while. I need some tin for a project fer me ma. Ye bring me a hundred tin ore and I’ll give ye a piece of gear to help ye with the harder metals.
QUEST AVAILABLE – Tools of the Trade
Darr has requested 100 tin ore for a personal project. Bring him 100 tin ore.
Criteria: Tin Ore supplied to Darr – 0/100
Rewards: 100xp, 100 Mining XP, Choice of one Journeyman’s Mining Tool.
Accept? (Yes/No)
I nodded while packing up my
things and said, “Alright, Master Darr. I’ll head down to that mine tonight and have your ore after that.”
“See that ye do!” said the dwarf, “And if ye find any earth-hearts, I’ll pay ye a good price fer ‘em, or trade ye for better equipment!”
“Alright, I’ll give you first dibs on any earth-hearts I find,” I called back as I left the building. The rain had ended, but I was relieved to see the sun was still hidden behind a wall of clouds.
I buffed up and made my way back to town, sticking to the road and keeping my eyes out for danger. The woods were much more peaceful in the morning, and I made it without any incident.
My first stop was the Auction House to see how my auctions were going and post the new metals up for sale. I entered the auction building, moving past a few other players who were staring intently at their respective kiosks.
I headed to the clerk’s station and handed over my receipts. He flipped through them and headed into the back room, returning a short while later with a single receipt and a small bag that clinked when he set it in front of me on the counter.
“Mr. Kababala, all of your current auctions except for this one has sold,” he said, handing me back my receipt for the malachite auction. “All together your sales total twenty-two gold pieces, less the ten percent auction fee.”
I gathered the receipt and coin. Nineteen gold and thirty-five silver added to my satchel. Enough to justify the upgrades I had been eying. But first I had to put the latest batch of bars up for sale.
I headed over to the closest Merchantrix kiosk and started things off with a quick search for copper bars.
The price per bar had fallen a little to three silver, eight copper per bar, but there were only three stacks at that price. I debated buying them out and then reposting at the previous four silver, but decided it wasn’t worth the effort for two copper a bar.
I created auctions for most of my bars at the current market price. The remaining fifteen bars I posted up as two stacks of five, and then five listings for individual bars.
I priced the stacks of five at the old price, and the individuals went up for five silver a pop.
With nineteen malachite I could probably start selling stacks as well. I created three stacks of five gems each with a unit price at twenty-seven silver, a little less than the going price of the single gems, and then posted the four single gems at the same price as my existing auction.
The selling portion complete, and nineteen gold in my pocket, I tabbed over to the “buy” tab and started shopping.
First, I replaced my robes with a set of uncommon cloth armor that doubled the stat bonuses from my class robes. The loss of the discount to animation spells was pretty immaterial since I could just put the robes on if I needed to do any intensive animation casting.
Next, I replaced my footwraps with gear more suited to my class, gaining a bonus to Intelligence. I did the same with the hand wraps. A one percent casting speed bonus wasn’t as useful as the stat bonuses the new gloves granted.
The selection of gear was limited due to my size, but there seemed to be enough lower-level gear to suit my needs. Come to think of it, people would be more likely to sell things in my size since they couldn’t use them, and at low level the gear might not be as cost effective for crafters to salvage for raw materials.
I found a nice belt as well that would boost my shielding magic by ten percent which was much better than my current elemental belt.
All together I ended up spending nine gold on armor upgrades, a hefty investment at this level where loot was usually in the single digits of silver, but worth it in the long run.
Next, I searched through the “Simple Weapons” selection: Knives, staves, rods, clubs, daggers, and Slings. I limited the search to items that would help with my class skills, and nothing useful popped up.
The knives available were on par with my Utility Knife in terms of skill use, so I decided to pass.
The available selection of jewelry had a lot of promise, but also a hefty cost. Rings, necklaces, bracelets, and earrings were all listed with a variety of stat bonuses.
I bought two rings, a necklace, two bracelets, and two earrings, all focused on my main class stats, shelling out another four gold and three silver for the lot.
A quick search showed that my old boots, gloves, and belt were worth only a few copper at auction, so I tossed them into my bag to sell to a vender.
I collected my purchases from the clerk and changed into my new gear, reveling in the feeling of power as my mana pool and regeneration increased.
I’d spent a giant junk of my cash, but it was worth it for the stat bonuses.
I opened my equipment screen to take it all in. All together my Intelligence was up by nine, my Wisdom up by five and my Agility was up by one.
Right Hand:
Left Hand:
Head:
Torso:
Legs:
Gauntlets:
Boots:
Right Wrist:
Left Wrist:
Cloak:
Tabard:
Waist:
Ring1:
Ring2:
Neck:
Tail:
Bag:
Wait, what’s that? A spot for wearing something on my tail? I headed back to the kiosk and searched for the tail items at my level.
There were only three results. The prices were steep but seeing one with a bonus to both Perception and Scavenger sold me. I purchased the Ringsheath and ran over to the clerk to collect it.
The device was a series of connected rings that covered the last six inches or so of my tail. I slipped it on and blinked a few times in surprise as the Perception buff sharpened my senses and moved my tail back and forth to make sure the device wouldn’t go flying whenever I made a sudden movement.
My personal upgrades complete, I headed out of the auction house and towards the town’s shops to pick up some cheap gear for my minions. For the time being I decided to focus on outfitting Yuri.
I didn’t want to spend any coin on the goblin skeletons as I hoped to replace them soon, and anything that fit them was unlikely to be reusable on my future human minions.
The axe I’d acquired in the mines was a decent weapon so I had no need to replace it, but getting some armor was a must. To the blacksmith!
I headed back to the smith’s shop from earlier and found the same lupin woman sitting behind the counter.
“Welcome back, little lizard man. How did your meeting with our friendly neighborhood Mining instructor go?” she said with a wry grin.
I narrowed my eyes and glared at the woman, which just made her laugh. When her laughter settled down, I replied, “Once I completed his errand, it went fine. I’m pretty sure I got a bit more than the normal adventurer would have though, but in the end, it paid off.”
“Well good for you,” she said. “I know. I should have warned you, but then you might not have gone, and if nothing else, I do enjoy making that surly dwarf squirm. But still, I apologize. It wasn’t a very nice thing to do to you.”
She hummed in thought. “I’ll tell you what. In return for using you for my entertainment, I’ll give you a ten percent discount on one item from the shop.”
I continued the glare for a second or two, and then nodded. “Alright. I’ll accept your apology… and your discount.”
“Great!” she responded and set a large catalog on the counter before me. “Let’s show you what we’ve got!”
The Iron
Fang
-Weapons
-Armor
-Shields
-Smithing Supplies
I browsed through the armor selection, settling on a bronze chainmail hauberk and a bronze helmet with a nasal bar. The suit cost me two gold after my discount, but added some survivability to my human minion. And as an added benefit, I found out it could be upgraded with plates later on.
The shopkeeper accepted my coin, and I tucked the armor in my bag to keep until I next summoned Yuri.
It had been a very productive morning, and with some orc hunting as the next item on my list, the potential was there to be even more so. But first: Lunch.
***
24
After lunch I logged back in and headed further into the forest. The area was a lot less creepy in the afternoon and the light filtering down through the canopy was dim enough that I could see without too much irritation.
I summoned my minions and equipped them for war, storing their mining tools in my bag. Yuri looked quite formidable in his new armor, ready to take down some pig-men.
I followed the map further into the woods, heading directly west towards a thicker section of forest. I cast Dark Shield on myself and shuffled some items in my inventory to make the Bone Dust and leg bones needed for my debuffs easily accessible.
Movement in the trees ahead caught my eye, and I ordered my minions to freeze. The movement resolved into a trio of green-skinned, boar-faced orcs grunting to each other in their own language as they made their way through the woods, coming towards us.
In the front was a large male with two brutal looking tusks sprouting from his lower jaw, the edges chipped from use. Behind him were two slightly smaller orcs, their tusks half the size of the first.
I focused on the group. The leader rated as yellow while his two companions were white.
As they got closer, I was able to make out more detail. The raider had a pair of wicked looking hand axes hanging from his belt and the warriors were armed with a rusty butcher knife and a rusted longsword, respectively.