Chapter 6: A New Friend

I made it back to the eastern gates just after dawn. Baruu after sleeping in my lap for a few in-game hours had become increasingly affectionate. Even now, as I stood before Sargent Miller, the little creature was nuzzling its plated skull into my lower back, thankfully not bleating incessantly in the presence of the Sargent.

“Torsgulf told me he gave you an assignment.” The grizzled warrior said breaking the silence, choosing to ignore the efforts of my companion. “Tell me, what did you find?”

I gave him a brief explanation of yesterday’s events, neglecting to mention the valley I had stumbled across. He nodded as though I was confirming a long-held suspicion about the nature of the origins to the slime infestation that was slowly becoming a problem. When I finished my report, he was silent for a moment then spoke.

“Good work, Chosen one. It’s good to see that some of you are willing to get your hands dirty. Take this writ,” he handed me a slip of parchment. “Across the yard is the quartermasters; take it there and he’ll see to your reward. Dismissed and good luck Mister Opensky.”

I hurried out when dismissed, a smile on the old man’s face as we went, his eyes lingering on Baruu. The quartermaster turned out to be a gnome woman with bubble-gum blue hair and a nauseatingly cheerful attitude. When handed the paper, she had scurried off returning almost immediately with a crate of supplies.

Quest complete

Adventurer work

Rewards: 150 XP

100 gold

Reputation with the meadows edge militia increased

Unidentified monster stone

Basic healing potion

Level up!

You have 5 unassigned attribute points. Spend them before you next level up or they will be assigned to favoured stats.

By the time I was done with my quest hand-in, I took a moment to debate how to spend my stat points, and quickly dumped two apiece into charisma and wisdom bringing it on par with my intellect in preparation for the magic I would eventually receive. The last point I dropped into dexterity, not wanting to neglect it. Alber had yet to log back on as Fizzlewiz. Of course, he had likely only been offline for a couple of hours and like me, did have a job to attend to; one I would be returning to when my mandatory annual leave was up. As such, I found myself wandering the streets of Meadows Edge with Baruu, alone. It was refreshing in a way, as Fizzle proved to be an impatient companion eager to get to the main content on the distant mainland. I was quite content to lazily amble my way through the experience and have fun doing it. I’d had to suffer through Alber as a roommate when we were younger. He was just starting out on this game back when the maximum level was fifty and not the staggering one hundred it was today. That was two years ago now. He’d joined an up and coming siege guild. They made heavy demands of him, which on top of our new roles within the colony, had stressed him out. He had been an irritable pain in the ass snapping for no good reason. I didn’t want to get like that but if I did, I was sure I could step away from the game. Yes, I could do that.

The inns of the starter zone and the general goods stores were free for new players below Level five but that was not where I was headed. According to Katrina, back when we walked through town together when I first logged in to Concordat Online, there was a small specialized market district that housed a few novelty shops. It was to these specialized stores I was proceeding now. I had decided I wanted more potions, something I had decided after reading the item description of the basic healing potion I’d received as a quest reward. I also wanted to get the stone identified from the chest. I wasn’t sure if that was necessarily something I could do in a district dedicated to commerce, but it made sense that there would be a communal place for all a player’s needs.

I stood at the centre of a wide market square in the heart of the Mercantile District of Meadows Edge. There were four roads in and out of the big square, boxed in by numerous shop fronts with riotous displays of strange and wondrous items. Each storefront, comprising of a large window and a brightly coloured door, bore a sign with an etching of what they sold. There was one with a shield which I supposed meant armour could be purchased there, a potion bottle, a crossed sword and bow, a wand and stave. The shops weren’t the only ones open for business either. No, aside from the relatively clear patch in the middle where I stood, there were also rows of market stalls a respectful distance from each of the storefronts. I moved amongst the tented merchants who hawked various foodstuffs and reagents, bags that slightly increased carry weight, jewellery with bonus stats on them. All insanely expensive; well, not the fruit of course. If I focused, the entire place lit up with a sea of green nameplates as NPCs bustled about their daily lives oblivious to me and Baruu.

All except for a single blue name bar, that read ‘Fiona Bjornsdottr.’ From the looks of it, this person was making a beeline for me. She emerged from the crowd. A human woman with short red hair. She moved at a light jog, some sort of large gelatinous larva or caterpillar in her arms. She called out to me, hiking up the bug in one arm to free the other to wave enthusiastically.

“Hey,” she shouted at me from across the marketplace, waving frantically and drawing a few looks from the NPCs. “I’m Fiona.”

I waved back at her dumbfounded as she closed the distance between us alarmingly quickly. One moment she was barging past merchants the next she was right in front of me hand extended in an Earth-like gesture. We, the far more civilized Martians, fist-bumped; less germs you see. But puzzled, I shook it anyway; it was a game world after all.

“Uh hi, I’m Blue” I said, introducing myself as she shook my arm with enough force to nearly pull it from its socket. She relented after a moment and I continued “How can I help you, Fiona?”

“Oh, right… I take it Alber didn’t tell you I was joining you both.” She panted, though I doubted she really needed to. “I’m a… let’s say friend of his, making the transit to Mars, so I’m online all the time. When I saw him autogenerate a character I just had to join in. He explained that it was to show you the ropes. So, I decided to help. I was with him when you got the big loots.”

This story has been taken without authorization. Report any sightings.

“Oh” I said, stunned. “The big loots, was it?”

She sighed exasperatedly at me then turned to Baruu, exclaiming a squeal of delight seeing the small creature floating nearby. Not even making the effort to stand Baruu lay in a bed of clouds like something out of an ancient Earthen cartoon. How did that old song go? Flagon, flagon, fight the dragon? I don’t know, I returned my attention to Fiona as she fawned over my little monster.

“N’aawww, isn’t she a cutie.” She said patting Baruu’s head. The treacherous little beast welcomed her affections while she, apparently, had run away from me initially. I pouted at Baruu who blinked at me, trying to look innocent. “I got this big lug,” she informed me readjusting her grip on a chubby transparent bug I hadn’t noticed her carrying. Now that it was up close, I could see various balls of light floating deep inside.

“He’s a fairy-light mega pillar.” She informed me finally giving up and setting the chunky beast on the ground. Baruu floated down to investigate, the two seemed to get along as they weren’t killing each other. Which was good. “So, what’s brought you to market? Here to trade your cow for some magic beans?”

“Nah, nothing like that,” I chuckled, “I got some gold from a quest so I thought I’d buy some healing potions. Since I don’t have any magic yet, I have to get up close and personal. I’ve also got a pile of stone fragments and an unidentified monster stone of some sort, but I don’t really know what to do with those."

She nodded as I listed off my basic wants, then stooping and picking up her monster she turned and began leading me deeper into the Merchant District. Baruu and I following along haplessly as she wove through side-streets and alleyways to a location known only to her. We didn’t travel far; our destination it seemed, was a squat little shop tucked away in an alley between a tavern and a clothing store. Inside there were various objects associated with magical practice; crystal balls, decks of cards, stuffed animals even a birdcage with a humanoid skull in it. The eyes of the skull were lit with cold blue flames, seemingly watching Fiona and I. She turned to me, unconcerned by the creepy skull leering at us from within its cage.

“I take it he didn’t bother his arse explaining profession skills, am I right?” She waited for me to nod then continued. “Aside from combat, adventuring, and magic skills there are a bunch of others that provide a bit more utility if you invest the time and resources in them. You said about your stone fragments; well, this is the place. The owner can teach you the skill for a cost, it’s a steep price mind you.” She warned me, I swallowed.

“How much gold?” I asked opening my inventory window to double-check it was still there.

“That would be the measly price of fifty gold.” Said a smooth, cool voice with a practiced professional tone. “And you, miss Fiona?”

The speaker was some species of elf I noted, as he seemingly materialized behind the counter. He had dusky blue skin and long pale grey hair. He didn’t look like the elves I had seen in the cinematic, but then again, I hadn’t seen orcs with blue eyes either. His nameplate read as ‘Vespenon, Stonecraft trainer.’ Then a small bag appeared in my hand pulled form my inventory, taking half my gold with it as I winced. If the market stall prices had been anything to go by, I didn’t think that I would be able to afford one health potion but I sighed and put the bag of gold on the counter. Fiona was standing aside with a grin and a thumbs-up, she was a friend of Alber’s after all, she was bound to be weird.

Vespenon picked up the bag of gold and held it in front of the skull, for a moment the eyes of the pair glowed the same pale blue but then it was gone. Satisfied, the elf tucked the gold under a counter and produced a thin leather-bound booklet. I’d never seen a real book before, I reached for it, picked it up and a notification appeared.

You have purchased beginners guide to stonecraft.

This is a skill book, like magic tomes this book will impart one skill to the reader. It will grant access to the stonecraft ability up to a maximum of fifty. For further ranks see a trainer or read the accompanying volume.

Would you like to read the book?

To answer I cracked the book open, the ink faded from the pages, travelling up my hands and then fading into my skin as if absorbed into my body. Another notification popped up; the system didn’t seem to have a problem interrupting me when I wasn’t in combat.

You have gained the profession [stonecraft]

You have learned the ability [reconstruct stone: Poor]

The notifications their contents read disappeared promptly, Vespenon had seemingly disappeared as well. Fiona motioned for me to follow her back out into the cramped alleyway. She inspected me for a moment.

“How long have you been online?” She asked me, arms crossing across her chest.

“I’ve logged off for a couple of hours here and there.” Now that I really thought about it, I had been playing from early morning and hadn’t thought to check the time. Three days had passed in the game, so I could easily have been playing for six hours in real-time, maybe more. Alber wasn’t great with specifics. “Probably longer than I should have, it’s been three in-game days, but I logged out for two of the night cycles.”

She rolled her eyes and started moving, presumably back the way we had come, away from the skill trainers. Sure enough, she followed a route not bothering to share it with me, but we didn’t travel in silence, oh-no, indeed she seemed to be scolding me.

“I knew you’d be just as obsessive as Alber.” She was striding purposefully a few feet ahead of me, fast enough that I had to jog to keep up. Baruu floated nearby chasing some sort of insect but never straying too far from me and always just out of reach. “I’m going to get you back to the inn to log out. And then mister, you are going to eat then go to bed. Prolonged sessions are mentally exhausting and can have adverse effects on the brains neurochemistry.”

When we got back to the inn, she shoved me towards the stairs, and only when the door to the small room that served as my spawn location and log out spot in town came into view did she excuse herself. But she couldn’t log out, I knew. Transits were long and uneventful voyages and given the limited space people making the long trip from Earth to Mars were put into a waking stasis, their minds free to wander the Virtunet or as in Fiona’s case, play CO. I sighed, settling onto the bed, Baruu landing and nuzzling into my side I closed my eyes and logged out.

End of first session report, you may skip to the next chapter.

Blue Opensky Level Three

Stats:

STR: 12

DEX: 11

CON: 15

INT: 15

WIS: 15

CHA: 15

Zero available ability points

Features:

Orc racial bonus +2 strength, +1 constitution.

[Frenzy]

Ki resource unlocked. (5/5)

One Ki per wisdom point over 10 WIS.

Skills:

1 handed axe: 10

Armor (Shields): 6

Stone Craft: 1

Armor (Medium): 3

Dodge: 5

Survival: 1

Physical conditioning 1 (Passive)

Abilities:

Reconstruct stone

Wild Blow

Frenzy

Baruu LEVEL 3/5

Stats:

STR 8 (10)

DEX 13 (15)

CON 8 (12)

INT 14 (15)

WIS 14 (15)

CHA 16

Features:

Mammalian species

Elemental species

Traits:

Cloud stride

The creature has the natural ability to walk on mist, clouds, vapor, and air. Duration 1 hour. Cast at will.

Affinities:

Air magic: 13

Water magic (locked); unknown

Nature Magic (locked): unknown

Earth magic slot. (locked): unknown

Abilities:

Tailwind

Increase the movement and attack speed of the target by 10% for 5 seconds

Wind shear

Deliver 5 to 10 points of wind attribute damage to the target.

Tackle

Stomp