Chapter 7: Magic

Fiona had been correct. When I logged out of the game and came back to reality, I was hit with a wave of mental fatigue I hadn’t experienced since my student days. I retired to bed after I had answered a few messages that had built up during my time in-game, eaten and showered. Exhausted, I finally collapsed into bed and fell into deep dreams of Baruu and unsettling violence. I woke late the next day to the incessant buzzing. My personal coms device flashed with a muted light even as it made enough noise to wake the dead. I grabbed it and accepted the incoming call. A light flared into life and a 3D representation of Alber manifested in my living room. Alber was tall even by low gravity standard, but his stretched bones caused him to be constantly stooped even still he towered over me. His hair was a frizzy mess and I was certain I could see random bits of fluff or items lost within its depths. Otherwise he seemed cheery.

“Hey hey, buddy, ready to log in?” He asked stretching out to his full height, prompting a loud yawn in response. He frowned at me “Fiona has been messaging me all morning dude, says you caught a grade C monster with that insanely lucky drop. Not bad, not bad. Anyway, get back online.”

“Let me eat and shower first, I feel exhausted still,” I told him rubbing my head with a tired grumble. “I’ll see you at the inn.”

Once I had logged in, Baruu bleated enthusiastically in greeting, floating over to lick at my bald, green head. I chuckled and fended her off, she didn’t put up much of a fight when she realized she would be coddled instead. I sat for a moment, the diminutive Baruu snuggled in my arms; it was a nice moment one that I’d have killed for with similar games I had played in the past on my lovingly restored gaming consoles. To think I hadn’t wanted this little cutie, I mused to myself as Baruu wriggled in my arms. She was incredibly light and while her hindquarters had substance, they were essentially just vapor, it was extraordinary.

When I arrived onto the inn’s ground-floor that served as a tavern, neither Fizzle nor Fiona were anywhere to be seen in the nearly empty room. I took a seat at one of the vacant tables, retrieving the stone fragments I had accumulated while hunting the snow slimes. All in all, I had a tidy little pile of rubble in front of me. Counting out as many sets of ten as I could, I gathered up the first bundle of blue gem-like fragments and thought about reconstructing the stone. At first nothing happened and then it was like there was a mental click, a timer bar blinking into view above my bowled hands as the fragments began to stir. The abilities cast time was ten second and as I waited, I watched as the water attribute stones attempted to arrange themselves into the semblance of a stone. When the timer finished it’s count down the were a dull blue flash and a notification pop up.

You have created water affinity stone (poor)

Stonecraft increased to level two.

You have created water Affinity stone.

Stonecraft increased to level three.

You have created earth Affinity stone.

Stonecraft has increased to level four.

With little better to do I set to work and managed to create an aquatic species stone of poor quality. I checked the item quality of the finished product as soon as the brief, dim flash notified me that the skill had worked. Oddly enough the species stone proved more difficult to reconstruct compared to the magical affinity stones I had created and had taken a few attempts for the fragments of stone to coalesce into a recognizable item.

Congratulations you have created an aquatic species stone

Item quality: poor

Stonecraft increased to level five.

Congratulations you have learned the ability, Identify Stone.

Identify stone

Cast time: thirty seconds

Identify an unknown monster stone. The higher your stonecraft and intellect stat the higher the level of stone you can identify.

Current capabilities: poor, simple.

I grinned, pulling up my inventory window and retrieving the unknown stone that the militia had given me. I felt a growing giddiness in the pit of my stomach, it had started happening the more and more loot I retrieved from slain monsters or quest rewards. I activated the ability and turning the unknown stone over in my hand, as though inspecting every inch of the featureless stone. As though dust were being brushed from the surface of the stone revealing so far unseen patterns of exquisite and intricate detail. A little success jingle played, one that I hadn’t heard before and a window popped up.

Critical success, you have identified a stone one full rank above your current ability, plus two to Stonecraft. Stonecraft increased to level seven. Congratulations you have identified: An affinity stone.

Null affinity stone

Item quality: common

Grants a creature with an unassigned affinity slot access to the Null school of magic.

Baruu bleated at me, loudly enough to snap me away from inspecting the various stones I had crafted. Baruu now seemingly over her initial skittishness turned out to be quite a docile little creature, content to relax on a bed of clouds somewhere overhead. Now though her gaze was trained towards the stairs against the sidewall of the tavern. Fiona was standing at the bottom of the stairs, eyes scanning the steadily filling room as the locals came in for a rushed lunch of broth and bread before returning to their afternoons' work. As I was an orc, green and hulking, I stood out amongst the more flesh-coloured races of varying sizes around me. She saw me and waved scurrying over, hoisting her chubby caterpillar the best she could. When she reached my table, her eyes danced over the stones and she whistled.

“You were busy hunting weren’t you.” She commented, skirting the table to sit across from me, bringing up a grey featureless window in front of her. I was curious as to what it was but when several small piles of fragmented stones appeared it became clear. It was her inventory menu. So that’s what I looked like to others when I went through my menu or looked at quest text. Cool. I tried not to eye her stone fragments greedily, I was getting around ten experience per stone I crafted and I wanted to see what else the Stonecrafting skill had in store for me. She noticed me though and gestured at the piles on the table.

“Go ahead you goof, but I want the completed stones.” She warned, but when I nodded at her and began separating out the piles of fragments, occasionally using my identify stone skill to figure out what some of the stranger looking stone was. It seemed if the magical affinity or the species was rare, I couldn’t do anything with them until I grew the skill higher. In the end I had created a common earth stone, some common elemental species stones, and the rest I couldn’t yet identify or there weren’t enough fragments to complete a whole stone. I pushed the newly reconstructed stones and the remaining fragments back towards Fiona. She inspected each in turn then clapped her hands excitedly when she examined the elemental species stone.

“Oh, excellent! I was hoping I would come across one of these, I have a planned build in mind assuming Glitters here gives me the magic type I want.”

“You don’t get to choose?” I asked, watching Baruu lick at the faintly glowing mega pillar.

“Nah,” she demurred. “Its’s part of the programming; the creature’s AI gets to sculpt its own evolution by shedding elements that are no longer beneficial to its evolutionary progress. So, for example Glitters here has the radiant, earth, and umbric affinities. He will give me one of those elements when I reach Level four, which is the level you get magic at by the way.”

I nodded before flinching at a loud slamming noise from somewhere behind me. Baruu, startled, rose into the air, currents of air gathering in front of her in a vaguely crescent shape. I lowed at her mimicking her to get her attention, I cooed until the little lady had calmed down then turned to the noise. Fiona was standing; her face was half amused and half embarrassed. I turned, lying in a heap was a tiny bundle of limbs in a short brown robe. Above the heap hovered a ball of violet fire. When I focused on the name which read “Violet Level 4, Fizzlewiz’s companion”. So, the heap on the ground was Alber, I turned back to Fiona unconcerned, she sat a moment later when it was clear Alber was fine.

“What happened?” She chuckled nervously as Fizzle waddled over to join us, rotating his shoulder as though trying to work out a kink. His face was bright scarlet, and as he passed the taverns’ patrons chuckling into their mugs, I watched it turn from embarrassment to boiling rage.

“I tripped on the fucking robe.” He griped sliding in next to Fiona at the table, I say slid. I mean hopped and scooted. “Look at all these yocals laughing at me,” He grumbled, shooting dark looks at some of the patrons not othering to disguise their amusement. “If I had Snorg I’d rip through this town.”

“Good thing you can’t,” Fiona soothed patting his arm. “Good news, Blue here has picked up the stonecraft skill.”

“Oh yeah?” He gestured and another opaque grey window appeared followed by assorted piles of fragments appearing on the table between us. “Get to work then and it’s about time you got a monster of your own,” he snapped.

Baruu answered, lowing reproachfully at Fizzle, floating closer to me as she inspected the diminutive gnome. She remained high enough above us all that she was still out of reach. She seemed terribly unconcerned by Violet, indeed the burning ball of purple goo floated placidly behind its owner. Fizzlewiz, now noticed Baruu and all her fluffy glory for the first time. He stared for a moment then began to laugh, his anger ebbing in an instant as he regarded my small ovine beast.

“What the sweet fuck is that?” He squeaked between breaths, wiping tears from his eyes. Fiona, like any good friend, slapped him up the backside of his head. He shot back a glare and rubbed at the spot. “You sure that’s a C grade monster?”

“Pretty sure,” Fiona told him as Baruu settled atop one of my broad shoulders. “Clearly has two species traits”

“Yeah,” I affirmed getting excited at the prospect of monster talk with these two veterans. “Mammalian and elemental. She also has four elemental affinities”

The two looked at each other for a second then back at me. I felt a sinking feeling in my guts for some reason. Fizzle leaned back.

“Does it have any doubled-up affinities?” Fizzle asked, leaning across the table to peer at Baruu, “Cause if not, then you might have a problem.”

“Why does having two affinities the same matter?” I asked, growing concerned. “Surely you want a creature that’s as versatile as possible to contend with the world?”

“That’s not the issue,” Fiona gently explained as Fizzle facepalmed, possibly realizing this was likely his fault. “It’s good that Baruu has multiple magics at her disposal but when you next level-up she is going to transfer one of those affinities to you, that’s how players get their magic.”

“You’re clearly going for a tank build, but you might have to change that up if you don’t get a magic type that’s suited to it. Hell, my first playthrough I wanted to be a badass swordsman riding on a dragon but Snorg passed on his air affinity, and with it went the possibility of any real flight.” He explained with a sigh and eyed Baruu for a moment before continuing. “Most players tend to double up on magical affinity types for the monster’s they’re raising as the extra element is always passed on along. It’s why until I logged out yesterday, I was feeding this thing fire stones until they took. When I hit level four, Violet passed on the extra fire affinity.”

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I nodded then flipped through my menus finding Baruu’s monster page. I reviewed the familiar array of stats noting that her stats had increased again but they still weren’t where they were supposed to be; she had been Level five when I caught her after all. I had grown used to thinking of Baruu as female after Fiona had addressed the creature as such, I checked the page and found the confirmation I needed. In her species information it listed gender: female. I didn’t really understand why it mattered but I shrugged and looked to her affinities table.

“Air, Water, Nature and Earth.” I told the two, Fiona nodded and Fizzle began scrambling to get down from the bench.

“Come on, we’re going to get you two to Level four and then we are going to that dungeon you told me about, Fiona.” He informed us as he stood atop the bench, yet to dismount the other side, his purple ball of fire floating close to his shoulder.

“That sounds like a good idea, it’s a little bit down the coast.” Fiona added, sending part invitations to both Fizzle and I. When I accepted, two more sets of bars appeared, Fiona’s had a small crown indicating her as the party leader. Two-party notifications popped up the first requesting my accumulated map data the second offering to share the accumulated map data from Fizzle and Fiona’s adventures. I examined the resulting map excitedly. Fizzle had mapped most of the fielded region south of Meadows Edge town. My own meanderings revealed a much smaller area by comparison but included the small valley where I had contracted with Baruu by accidentally hitting her with my relic grade monster stone. Fiona’s route showed the docks, an area I hadn’t travelled to myself yet, she’d then followed a beach to a ledaig which met forested hills that then joined up with a wooded region to the east of the area where Fizzle had been doing his grind. Though unlike the areas explored by Fizzle and I, the wooded region had a drawing of a gateway, the name of which was yet to be revealed.

We went north after leaving the inn, taking an arterial road into the docks. Much like the main thoroughfare, the road to the docks was packed with wagons and NPCs bustling about their daily business and yelling to one another within the crowd. We kept to one side, dodging beggars and drunken patrons being evicted from many of the different tap houses that lined the street. The docks themselves were at the foot of a steep cobbled slope that promised to be a tough ascent when we returned from our adventuring. Three piers built of thick timbers and several small crude pontoons made up the dock itself. It housed many different sizes of vessels ranging from rowboats to ships with tall masts. There was a collection of squat stone buildings at the foot of the hill and in the distance a sturdy looking lighthouse overlooked the bay. As we approached, all three of us were hit with an automatic quest notification.

To the mainland!

Speak to harbourmaster Riggs to leave the island and head for the mainland. Warning! Once you leave the island you cannot return to any of the tutorial zones. As such, you must be at least Level five before you can embark.

Objectives: reach Level five.

Fiona accepted for the party, something I did not know a party leader could do, and we continued past the huddled buildings and the neatly arrayed motley of ships towards a stretch of rock-strewn sand. Calling the land closest to the dark grey seas a beach would be generous. Much like the terrain I had traversed past the eastern gate, it possessed the same craggy stone fallen from the mountainous heights above. The sunlight was fast fading by the time we began crossing the sands and we hurried to get to higher grounds sooner as we cast wary looks at the tide marks, well above even my own huge height. As we climbed towards the forest just after nightfall, Fizzle came to a stop, Fiona, and I turned to look at him. He was further down the hill, his monster casting him in an eerie purple light. He was doubled over, clearly gasping for breath. I glanced at the bars in the top left-hand corner of my vision. His Stamina bar was depleted and flashing a warning.

“I…” He heaved a gasping breath, sinking to the rock and boulder-strewn ground. “Need you to carry me Blue.”

I grunted my ascent, descending the distance to him in a few bounding strides. He looked up at me; sweat-drenched, his long, cultivated eyebrows bowing but not yet completely collapsed from their sweat saturated mass. Reaching down I grabbed him by the belt of his brown robes then hauled him up, carrying him like a bag.

As I turned away, Baruu began bleating loudly prancing nervously around in the air, Violet’s flames flared and sparked menacingly as she began circling both Fizzle and I at an ever-increasing speed. Glitters was in an item which looked suspiciously like baby harness that Fiona had created using the leatherworking skill. I smiled wryly to myself as I considered having one made for Fizzle. There was a rumbling coming from nearby, we all froze then ducked behind rocks in tandem. Something large came over a rise ahead of us however I couldn’t make out its features hiding behind the rocks as I was. Violet certainly wasn’t helping matters; the burning creature gave off a constant source of pale light and seemed unwilling to leave her master’s side. Fizzle was looking a little better I noted with a glance both at him and stamina bar, the former was no longer panting, and the latter was slowly filling. I set him down and opened the party chat.

Fiona: I’m close enough to identify. It’s a rare, Moss Hide Elder Worm. Level five. I think we can take it.

Fizzlewiz: Blue might be enthusiastic but he is still a noob. If it’s a Moss Hide, its likely nature aligned, is it insectoid or serpentine?

Fiona: Insect, looks like a big earthworm with teeth. Definitely has the earth typing again, you’ll be able to deal base fire damage to it, but it’s unlikely to burn entirely. Blue, do you have Ki techniques?

Blue: Yes. I have Wild Blow, I can use it five times before I’m out of Ki. I also have an increased attack speed if I use my racial ability, Frenzy.

Fiona: Okay so here’s the plan. We’ll send Glitters and Violet further down the slope a little bit, have them make a light show. The worm should crawl over to investigate, maybe get some food. Blue, I need you to get down there with the little ones. Get its attention when its close, Fizzle and I will ambush it.

I nodded my affirmation, received a slap on the back from Fizzlewiz, and a reassuring thumbs-up. I turned back to look at Fiona but she had vanished, Glitters was crawling towards me with surprising speed. Baruu, who was being unusually quiet, had floated to the ground and was currently cowering near me. She looked up at me with big, terrified goat-like eyes.

“Don’t worry ‘Ruu,” I whispered soothingly to her. “It’s going to be okay, there’s only one of it and six of us. You’re going to stay here and help Fizzlewiz.”

The little lamb continued to look up at me, shrouded in a comfortingly cool mist and I felt a little ache in my heart. I needed to get it together, the worst that could happen was we’d all get eaten and we’d respawn or start again at the inn or something, the monsters would just be there with us as they were when we logged back in. But as she trembled next to me, I couldn’t help but give her a reassuring cuddle before I began creeping down the hill with Glitters in my arms and Violet streaking a distance away to get the attention of the creature. Once in position, I set Glitters down who, after nudging it with the tip of my boot, released a series of dancing lights that whirled around with some speed, flashing in a threatening pattern. Violet appeared, growing larger as she got closer, zig-zagging as she went, launching off small bolts of purple fire. As the worm creature surged forward, I readied my axe slamming the weapon against my shield as Violet zipped past, circling back to support in any way she could, Glitters crawled off to a safe distance. I didn’t blame him.

The worm was massive and writhing as it undulated its way across the ground, much faster than the snow slime matriarch I had fought previously; churning up stones, earth, and sand as it came at me. Maw wide, much of its earth-coloured body coated in thick layers of green mosses. It hissed as it reached the dancing lights left by Glitters. It wavered on the spot for a moment, seemingly dazed. I focused on the creature; its nameplate lit up complete with a silver shield icon as well as another icon I hadn’t seen before. I focused on it and found out.

Status condition, stunned, 3 seconds remaining.

I didn’t hesitate, I closed the distance dodging and ducking the glowing orbs swinging my axe wide. As the creature shook off its stunned condition, I closed the final few paces triggering my wild blow ability. The creature, thick as a grown man had some scorch marks across its many-eyed head and its health bar had a small amount of damage already. When the axe met its body, biting into the heavily muscled flesh, I reflexively swallowed as next to no health left its bar.

Wild blow 24 + 3 slashing damage.

Moss hide Elder worm resists slashing damage.

Moss hide Elder worm takes 15 points slashing damage.

In response the worm, with horrific speed, darted its head forward extending its large, circular toothy maw. I brought my shield up but the block didn’t take, the creature hit me and barrelled me over, driving me to the ground. It kept me pinned beneath the shield and I flailed ineffectively at the creature with my axe, unable to trigger wild blow with my greatly reduced mobility. Every time the creature shoved me, forcing me through the dirt like the blade of a plough, my HP reduced steadily, getting alarming close to half health from crushing weight bearing down on me.

It reared back suddenly, yanking me back onto my feet; its health bar emptied by at least twenty percent. Fiona was on the creature’s back, twin daggers plunged into a crease between two segments of the worm’s body. I downed my basic health potion as a flurry of fiery bolts slammed into the creature’s head and neck. Fizzle was stood astride a large boulder; spamming fire magic, he had very little chance of missing. I advanced pounding on my shield and bellowing at the creature, trying to lure it further into the minefield of different coloured lights. A notification lurked at the edge of my vision, but didn’t intrude during the combat. My Ki however dipped by another point as I slammed my shield and roared at the beast, so something had happened. Its head snapped to me, eyes filling with malice; oh yes, it had definitely done something. I turned and ran, it followed me right into the minefield of light.

Then several things happened all at once. One of the orbs that impacted the worm flared brilliantly, eliciting a low guttural hissed scream of displeasure and confusion. The other detonated into a cloud of spores that cause the mosses on the worm’s back to darken. The stunned icon flaring into existence again for a total of six seconds, as well as a ticking purple skull indicating poison damage. Glitters was not to be fucked with, I noted; he was kind of scary. Hell, everything about this game and its players were scary; even now, Fizzle was cackling maniacally as he, Baruu and Violet hammered spells into the creature, stripping it of HP faster than I had ever seen before. While it was stunned, I charged the creature and spent another point of Ki on another wild blow, another fifteen points of slashing damage. I grunted displeased; Fiona’s daggers were doing a stand-up job compared to me.

The battle continued like this for a few more minutes, our respective resource pools and health bars getting terribly close to empty. Fizzle nearly went down when his fire spells finally pissed the worm off enough to make him a priority target. I’d spent the last of my Ki to get the creature’s attention again, when the creature eventually succumbed to its massed wounds; the killing blow came from my final strike against the creature, a desperate slash to stop it from advancing on my diminutive friend, but this also shattered my bronze axe’s head.

Exhausted, I slumped to the ground and watched fascinated as Fiona skinned sections of the monster that had not disappeared with the usual light show. All stone fragments and unidentified stones were handed over to me for identification. I accepted them, sorted them then checked my notifications. Baruu nuzzled into me, her own mana pool nearly empty but holding up better than the players in the group.

Ability unlocked: Challenging Shout

Cost: 1 Ki

Cast time: instant

Challenge a single combatant to an entire group to a fight, getting their attention.

Level up

Level four, you have five unassigned attribute points, spend them before your next level up or they will be assigned to the previous set of stats.

Magic affinity slot unlocked; you can now learn one style of magic.

Alert. Baruu would like to deepen your bond. Would you like to undergo the ritual to tie yourself to Baruu? In doing so you will inherit a magical affinity from your creature and the exp earned will be split between the two of you. Yes/no

“Guys, guys!” I called excitedly. “I’m about to get my magic!”

They gathered around, I noted that Fiona had levelled up and that Glitters looked less blue than before but then it may have been the effect of the light reflected down at us from Agaria’s two moons. I stared at the notification and then at Baruu who was floating by me, looking at me with intent. She lowed at me softly as if telling me it was okay and to go ahead. I tapped yes and was presented a new pop up.

Baruu has been watching you since she joined with you. She has passed on the magical affinity she feels will serve you best

Congratulations you have earned the Earth Affinity.

Resource unlocked: Mana

Congratulations you have learned the following earth domain spells:

Gem Shot

Stone skin.

I excitedly checked my spell list, a new tab appearing on my character screen. I found the spells under the newly acquired earth magic. I read the spell descriptions aloud to my friends.

“Gem Shot, conjure a magical gem that streaks towards the target dealing five to fifteen earth attribute damage. Stone skin: for ten seconds your skin hardens like stone reducing weapon damage types by ten percent. Those are the spells I got. Thank you Baruu, this is perfect.”

Baruu bleated and lowed at me, seemingly happy as she sprang excitedly into the air circling the group as we gathered at the corpse.

“So, how do we handle the chest?” I asked as Fizzle hauled the small container to us, red-faced and constantly shifting his grip. “Do we all get something or is it like rock, paper scissors?”

“Naw,” Fizzle said as he dropped the chest unceremoniously at our feet. “It’ll give us the option to roll for it but most people just talk about who it would be best for and assign it that way. It’s fairer sometimes, unless the guild or party you’re in are a bunch of dick bags. But given that you’re a noob and have no idea and Rachel – that’s Fiona’s IRL name by the way, has just made the switch to the Mars server as she’s moving here, you two can have the best of it, I can just bank stuff from my main later.”

“Now don’t you go doing that, Alber.” Fiona said pointedly, making sure to use his real name and loudly at that; he winced. I understood that there was some sort of taboo in using real-life names in-game. “We all clearly have different builds, there shouldn’t be much conflict for gear unless it’s a monster stone. Besides, we will need that gold to entertain some of the noob’s wilder ideas.”

We opened the chest and a handfull of small windows opened displaying the items contained within. There were a couple of good quality monster stones, one an elemental species stone and the last pf the stones was an abomination species stone, whatever the hell that was. The last item was an unidentified silver-coloured ring which we agreed Fiona would hold onto to get identified when we got back into town.

With the monster vanquished, we continued our ascent towards the entrance of Fiona’s dungeon.