Only Trelor was laughing. “He doesn’t need saving!”
“Do something other than saving him and you’re dead,” Keia said, her voice flat.
“No, he seriously doesn’t need saving,” Kris said, putting a hand on Keia’s arm and lowering the bow and arrow. Which had the effect of startling her to the point that she let the arrow fly. Right at Trelor’s heart.
The arrow disappeared before it could reach him though. He didn’t even bother to wave his hand to make it go away. One moment it was there, and the next moment it wasn’t. Talk about an ability that’d be useful to have. I wondered if that was something that could be created within the game, or if it was something that was exclusive to people who worked for Lotus.
“I’m going to ignore that since it was a half accident,” Trelor said.
Keia looked around in confusion. I stopped choking since this joke had clearly gone far enough.
“You asshole,” she said when she realized what I’d been doing.
“Sorry,” I replied. “I couldn’t resist.”
“Join the club,” she said, raising her bow again. Only this time she was pointing it at me.
“What are you…”
Another arrow materialized, and the arrow was lodged in my thigh a moment later. I stared at it for a moment, and then pain bloomed.
“Son of a…”
This time I did fall to my knees, and shards of broken glass crunched up into those knees as I landed them with the full force of gravity and my weight combining their powers. Which sent a fresh jolt of pain coursing through me even as the pain from the arrow quickly dialed down thanks to my pain slider being turned down.
“Son of a!”
“Oh stop being a baby,” Keia said, pulling me up to my feet and hitting me with a small heal that made the pain go away and sent shards of glass tinkling on the ground as they were pushed out of my knees and ankles. “And don’t ever do something like that again!”
“Is it weird that I’m kinda turned on right now?” Kris asked with a goofy grin.
“Yes!” Keia and I both shouted at the same time.
“Okay, so the fun is over,” I said.
“What kind of bonus is the potion giving you?” Keia asked.
I looked at my current bonuses and let out a low whistle. The potion gave even more of a bonus to all stats than simply chewing the flower had, and it lasted way longer too. As I looked at all the bonuses I couldn't help but feel another one of those tingles of anticipation that I got whenever I’d found something interesting.
This could potentially be big. Huge, even. People would kill for any kind of edge in the game, and something like this that gave a blanket bonus to all stats without a level restriction which I would’ve expected from a low level flower…
Well it was certainly going to be interesting to see how interested players were. Or more specifically I was going to be very interested in seeing how much they were willing to pay for something like this!
I let out a low whistle.
“What is it?” Kris and Keia asked at the same time.
I thought about them being able to see the tooltip, and they both leaned forward at the same time which told me they could see it floating in front of me. They both let out low whistles as well when they saw the bonus the potion was giving out.
"This potion seriously gives that kind of bonus to all combat, magic, and healing at any level?” Kris asked.
"Looks that way," Trelor said with a frown. "I can't imagine that was what the intern I foisted potion recipes on intended, but…"
He shrugged. "If they didn’t intend to do that then I'm sure the babysitters will start getting reports soon enough and freak out."
I nodded. “So you’re saying if I want to get this out there to the world and make any profit I need to do it before other people figure out what they can do with it and it gets nerfed?”
“I can’t say anything about internal deliberations one way or another,” Trelor said with a wink. “But yeah. You might get that out on the Auction House sooner rather than later.”
“Yeah, a bonus like that is going to get people to risk Horizon Dawn kneecapping them for using the potions tables out there,” Keia said, her voice an awed whisper as her eyes ran across the potion tooltip again.
“That’s it. We’re going on another flower picking expedition right away!” Kris said, her sudden enthusiasm for gathering and crafting earning a laugh from me and Keia.
“Thanks for the help,” I said, nodding to Trelor.
It’d been a big enough surprise finding someone working for Lotus lurking within the game. Though that was the kind of thing I’d probably do if I was a senior designer on a game like this. It was even cooler that Trelor had been so cool about everything, even if his reasons for providing us with some help fucking over Horizon weren’t entirely altruistic.
"Not a problem," Trelor said, sketching a salute. "Now I think we’ve done everything we can do here. Why don’t you go out there and cause some headaches for Horizon?”
I looked at the goblinsteel in my inventory. “I don’t suppose you’re hiding a forge around here somewhere?”
“Afraid not,” he said. “This place is strictly magic themed.”
“It was worth a shot,” I muttered. “It’d be nice to unload some of this stuff though.”
“Might I suggest a vault near the Auction House?” Trelor suggested. “The goblins are supposed to have some of the best in the game world.”
“You really want me to go to the Auction House,” I said.
“Go forth and conquer a corporation the only way you can. With money,” he said.
“Point taken,” I said.
"So you know where the Auction House is?" I asked, turning to Keia.
"Sure do,” she said. "Let's get a move on!"
48
The Auction House
Five minutes later we stood in front of a massive Auction House.
“This thing is huge,” Kris said. “At least compared to the other buildings in town.”
“Makes sense,” I said. “The palace where money changes hands would be something special in a goblin town.”
“Oh this place is special all right,” Keia said.
The facade out front was white marble with gold inlaid at various spots showing symbols of a scale and goblin faces. Statues of goblins ran around the second level staring down, though I got the feeling I was looking at statues depicting notable goblins and not grotesques that would make an appearance on a human structure.
A steady stream of players moved in and out of the place. I knew from my research early into the morning that the Auction House connected to auctions all around the game world, so anything sold here could be bought and sold to anyone anywhere in the game world in a bit of game design that put mechanics ahead of realism.
“It’s fitting, you know,” I said.
“What’s fitting?” Keia asked.
“This monument to capitalism here,” I said. “It’s fitting this is the place where we start our journey.”
“Slow your roll there Mr. Keynes,” Kris said with a snort. “You’re just a dude with a bunch of ore and a bunch of pissed off competition right now.”
I stuck my tongue out at her. She responded by reaching out like she was going to grab it, but I ducked and stepped through the front entrance.
I half expected someone from Horizon Dawn to try and stop us, but there were only goblin guards here. One of them looked up at me, and then elbowed the one next to him. They both looked at me and then started whispering back and forth.
For a terrified moment I thought maybe Horizon Dawn had figured out the whole Writ of Nobility thing and I was about to be bent over and taken to Pound Town, population me, vis a vis those sharp pointy swords that could’ve doubled as kitchen knives for a human.
Only they didn’t make a move to attack me, and I figured it was time I had a conversation with one of the goblins who’d saved my ass a few times, eve
n if I had no way of knowing whether or not these particular goblins had saved my ass.
“What are you doing?” Keia hissed as I detoured towards the goblins guarding the place.
“Winning hearts and minds,” I said.
I got down on my knees in front of the goblin guards. They both eyed me critically, but they weren’t trying to gut me or looking at me like they’d like to try and gut me, which was a big improvement over how they looked at Horizon Dawn.
“Yes this is the Auction House,” the goblin on the right said with a long suffering sigh that said he did this sort of thing a lot. “Walk up to the…”
“Thanks, but that’s not what I need,” I said.
The goblin blinked. “It’s not?”
“Nope.”
“Then what could you possibly want?” the goblin asked, its voice telling me that I was probably the first human since the game launched who’d ever bothered to talk to him for anything that didn’t involve obvious directions or instructions.
“I wanted to thank you guys,” I said. “You’ve saved my ass a couple of times, and I appreciate it.”
“You… I… Well… Um… Thanks?”
The goblin’s ears wiggled. I didn’t know a whole hell of a lot about goblin body language, but from the way the little guy stood just a little taller he seemed pleased.
“No need to thank me,” I said, patting him on the shoulder.“You’re the guys saving my butt whenever Horizon Dawn tries to cause trouble. Pass my regards on to your coworkers and captain.”
“I will,” the goblin said. “Thank you.”
On a whim I pulled the coin Rezzik had given me on my first day in the game. The coin he said marked me as a friend of the goblins. I figured it was possible he’d been yanking my chain, but I also figured it couldn’t help to flash a little bling.
So I flipped the coin through the air. The goblins’ eyes went even wider when they saw what I had. I held it up at them and then disappeared it back into my inventory.
“Good talking to you gents,” I said with a nod.
A notification popped up letting me know my reputation with the Goblinsteel Syndicate had gone up again. It didn’t go up to the point that there was a status change, but it was still nice to know that was working.
“Good idea there,” Keia said. “Get on their good side. We can use that.”
“Well that and I really am thankful for what they’ve done for me,” I said. “I’d be lying if I said I didn’t have an ulterior motive kissing up to them, but they also deserve kudos for saving our asses.”
“They’re NPCs in a game,” Keia said. “I might not like what Horizon Dawn was doing to them, but at the end of the day they’re ones and zeroes that sound awfully close to reality when they’re being slaughtered. Doesn’t make them real.”
I looked at the goblins grinning and chatting with each other and casting the occasional glances at me. They seemed a hell of a lot happier than they’d been before I chatted with them.
I thought to Rezzik. To how real his terror had been on that first day when he was convinced he was about to die.
“I don’t know about that,” I said, taking in the Auction House interior.
A steady drone of voices surrounded us even though it wasn’t all that crowded. Maybe they added the sound of a crowd to make the place feel busier than it was. A little hyperreality in the middle of virtual reality.
A small smattering of players chatted with goblin auctioneers who stood on a raised platform that ran around the outside wall of the Auction House interior.
"So how does this work?" I asked. “Same as any other game with an Auction House?”
"Would you believe I have no clue?" Keia asked.
"I do have trouble believing that, actually," I said.
"What can I say?" she said. "Torian didn’t let other people handle putting the gear up when he got it, and I never found anything in my adventures that was worth taking to the Auction House.”
“Wait, so how is he getting that gear from Horizon?” I asked. “They aren’t creating the stuff for themselves in the game somewhere?”
“No idea,” she said. “The gear would appear in Torian’s mail, and from there it was up to him to put it up on the Auction House and send the profits he got back.”
“You’re sure he only put it up on the Auction House for Horizon?” I asked, wanting to be absolutely sure.
"I'm pretty sure someone has to physically list something on the Auction House," she said. "At least Torian was always going on in guild chat about how he was the only one trusted to do it. He was also always going on about how much he was making from Horizon for being their errand bitch.”
"Wait, they’re paying him to play the damn game above and beyond giving him money so he could get into the early access?” I asked.
“That’s what he made it sound like,” she said. "Good work if you can get it, right?"
"I guess," I said. "But how did he pull that off? How the hell did he get in contact with Horizon to get in early in the first place?”
"I don't know?" she said. "He was always going on about how he had an uncle who worked at Horizon. I always thought he was full of it, but maybe that's how. Either way, he became their point of contact in this town, and he’s totally let it go to his head."
"Sounds like something Trent would do," I said.
“Look, sitting here chatting about our mortal enemy is all well and good, but maybe we should get a move on before those mortal enemies make an appearance?” Kris asked, glancing at the door.
I shrugged and walked up to one of the goblin auctioneers. They were a study in contrasts from the goblin guards or Rezzik.
The guards and Rezzik had an undercurrent of fear and desperation. Like they knew Horizon Dawn might decide at any moment to end them. Rezzik had literally been running from that fate, after all.
These auctioneer goblins had an air about them. As if they were the supreme beings at the center of their world, and they knew it. They also didn’t have that undercurrent of fear. Maybe they knew on some level that Horizon Dawn needed them to ply their wares. Maybe they were simply too full of themselves to ever conceive of a world where they might be in danger from an external attack.
The auctioneer regarded me with a look that wasn't entirely pleasant. The corner of the goblin’s mouth turned down as he took me in. As though he wasn’t particularly pleased with my relatively noobish attire.
And here I’d hoped I was getting a good thing going with the goblins. Oh well. I got the feeling the ones running the Auction House were probably cut from slightly different cloth than the ones who were wielding cudgels and swords and keeping the peace in town.
"I don't know what you think you'll find here with me, but if you're looking for trinkets and lower-level starter equipment you would be better off checking the central bazaar around the town circle," the goblin said, his voice sounding a hell of a lot more cultured than the goblins who wielded the cudgels and swords and kept the peace in town.
"Are you sure about that?" I asked, bristling at this treatment. "Because I have some items I needed to list."
The goblin sniffed. Apparently that was the universal signal for getting rid of the riff-raff whether we were in some fancy place in the real world or dealing with some snooty goblin auctioneer who thought he was too good for my money.
Not that I’d ever been to a fancy place in the real world to have someone look down their nose at me. The fanciest places got on our level of the arcology were tweaker dens where they’d managed to scrounge actual cushions to pass out on rather than the grimy dirt floors covered in a century of ground up trash.
"Again, I don't think you'll find much of a market for your low-level trinkets here in the Auction House. Everyone can go out and slay wolves for a little spare coin. Which means there's something of a glut of wolf pelts on the market at the moment. You're not the first one to think of something like that, though they never stop to think through that you need to have
a market for the things you’re selling.”
"What about these?" I asked. I pulled up my inventory and selected one of the Nhewb’s Blessing potions. The thing still glowed with a faint yellow light. I guess that hadn’t been a trick of the light back in Trelor’s Oddments.
The goblin’s eyes went wide as he regarded the potion. He reached out to grab at it with a clawed hand, but I held it back just out of his reach.
"Oh no," I said, my voice dripping with mock severity. "I wouldn't dream of sullying your precious Auction House with my swill," I said. "A special potion, to be sure. I’d dare say it’s worth more than a wolf pelt, but I understand if it isn’t good enough for your fine establishment.”
The goblin sighed and rolled his eyes. "More of that strange enchanted stuff from beyond? I have to give you credit for stealing it from our new overlords, but we don’t take kindly to theft around here. If this was stolen I will have to report you to the guards and they will notify the parties it was stolen from. I can guarantee they take a very dim view of people trying to sell their property, for all that there’s no law against it. Might makes right and all that.”
He sounded bored. As though it wasn’t a big deal that Horizon Dawn was artificially controlling the markets by beating the shit out of everyone who sold something they didn’t approve of.
I was good and pissed. I’d gone to the trouble of learning how to craft potions after gathering all these petals fair and square, and this goblin with a quarterstaff up his ass was threatening to turn me in for selling my own shit?
"If you're talking about those assholes from Horizon Dawn then no. I only touch their stuff when I’ve killed them fair and square. There’s no Thief Mark on these,” I hissed, referencing a little red border around stolen items in the inventory that meant they could only be sold to less than reputable dealers. Not that I’d seen one personally, but I’d read about it in my research last night. “I made these potions myself, thank you very much.”
The goblin gave me a considering look. As though he was looking at me with fresh eyes. Then he examined the potion again with a more critical eye.
Spellcraft Page 37
