Rat killing had been uneventful. The tavern keeper, Derek, had taken the group down to the basement where he brewed beer, and from there to an old door that led to a long narrow room filled with broken barrels, smashed tables and chairs missing their legs. It looked like generations of tavern keepers had put things down here with the idea they'd get around to fixing things eventually.

Derek explained there were a lot of cracks in the walls. It was old construction the current tavern had been built on top of. Rats kept coming in through the cracks from somewhere to get at his malt and grain. The quest he offered them gave a smidgeon of EP, a few coins, and a flagon of ale and a meat pie each. And of course, his appreciation for a job well done. They took the quest and were finished a half hour later.

Coming up from the basement, Joseph hoisted up the brace of rodents by their tails and Timmy yelled out "Your rat problems are over, Derek, where shall we dispose of the evil vermin?" A couple of farmers were having a cold ale at a table. They barely looked up. Derek didn't seem to be around, but who was behind the bar got Timmy's interest immediately. The girl was striking! The town of Sedgewick suddenly became much more interesting!

She came around the bar and looked at the rats intently. "My, my, but those do look fierce. Usually I prefer flowers, but a bouquet of dead rodents is so sweet of you!" She smiled at Joseph who stood frozen, staring at her. "Oh my, the quiet type. Well, don't worry, we'll do some small talk when you come back in. Just take those rats out back and toss them over the fence into the pig trough. Those porkers eat anything." Joseph just nodded and headed out the door.

Timmy took a step forward and bowed. "Greetings fair damsel. I am Sir Timothy of Aetheldurst. I am a fledgling Paladin, seeking to do good in the land with the aid of my squire Joseph and my trusty men-at-arms, David, Hugh, and Louis. If you have need of me, please simply ask. I am at your service." Timmy had yet to meet the girl that shiny armor and a high CHR couldn't sway.

This one certainly swayed, but in a way that made Timmy forget what his next line was. She stepped close and allowed him to kiss her hand. "So polite and generous. I'm sure I have a service I need you to help me with." She batted her eyes at him, and then looked demurely at the floor. "It's a very strenuous service though, you'll need all your stamina. Are you sure you aren't tired after your heroic battle?"

David rolled his eyes, knowing where this was going. He grabbed Louis and Hugh and headed for the bar, joined by Joseph as he returned. The barmaid smiled at Timmy. "Glad to hear that; I'm anxious to get started, if you know what I mean. How about I get your friends their beer and then we go spend some time downstairs?" She turned and hurried to the taps, pouring each man a large mug of dark ale and yelling for meat pies from the kitchen for them. She looked over at Timmy and he was surprised to get a quest message.

Tavern quest part 2 of 3: Suzette the lonely Barmaid is in need of help only you can give her. Rewards are increased favor with Suzette along with other rewards based on performance of the 'services'. Accept Y/N?

2nd of three parts? Oh, he saw where this was going. He'd have to make sure his 'services' were of the highest quality. She took his hand and led him down stairs and into the brewing area.

He went to sweep her off her feet, but she moved away from him in a swirl of skirts. "Ha, no time for that now, Sir Knight. You have to haul these kegs upstairs. So glad you could help." She indicated four kegs with the familiar label of Bludgeon Brew. "Bring these up to me at the bar and I'll pour you a fresh Blud for your reward."

The kegs were heavy! Timmy was glad of his extra STR. His companions wisely said nothing. By the time he was done, they'd finished their beers. They were laughing with Suzette and Joseph was telling the story about fighting the named hamster they'd found in the Thornewood. Suzette poured a beer from the new keg of Bludgeon Brew and set it down for him. "Here you go, my stalwart helper, first brew of the new batch. You can be my taste tester."

Timmy eyed the flagon suspiciously. Taste test Bludgeon Brew? It was always the same! That was the point, no matter where you were in the world, you could count on it being the 2nd rate, cheap swill that made it famous. This beer had a dark color and a bit more foam than usual. He took a sip and his eyes opened wide. It was Blud for sure, but good Blud! And he could feel a kick to it. Usually, it took six to eight to even give him a buzz. This was at least twice as strong. He poured half the flagon down his throat and smiled. "Damn good, but you're sure this is Blud?"

Suzette smiled, glad the new recipe was appreciated. She poured a free flagon for the rest of Timmy's crew. "Oh, it's Bludgeon Brew. I use their special recipe that gives it that distinctive flavor." She looked around, conspiratorially and lowered her voice to a stage whisper. "But I add a bit of local malt and a secret ingredient. I'm calling this brew 'Blud Dark'.”

Timmy finished his flagon, and brought out coins. "Blud Dark it is then. Let's have another round."

===================================================================

His crew called it an early night. Joseph reminded him of their plan to lay low for a few days. Just as well - the lonely barmaid seemed to be not getting his rather direct hints. They retired to the inn for dinner and an early night.

Once alone in his room, he spent some time going over his character. To date, he'd been in on 29 boss kills for a total of 37 Core Skill points gained. Momco was spending a fortune buying information on bosses from the various guilds and sending out their own scouting teams. Besides his personal crew, Timmy had a support group of another 20 adventurers doing various tasks. He and his crew ground out EP every day for hours. They tested skills, went over new builds, and more than once chucked it all and started over.

Name:TIMMYtwb34

Level: 5

Class: Custom

(Shining Paladin)

Base

Per Level

From Stats

Total

Health

100

50

150

500

Stamina

100

50

150

500

Mana

100

50

240

590

Stat:

Level

Cap

EP earned

Bonus

Total

STR

8

9

3000/3600

+1

9

DEX

5

5

2000/1000

5

AGI

5

5

2000/1000

5

CON

5

5

2000/1000

5

INT

2

5

275

2

WIS

5

5

3000/1000

+1

6

CHR

5

5

2000/1000

5

PER

2

5

225

2

TAINT

restricted

-

-

-

RAD

0

5

10

+1

1

Core Skills

Attack

Defense

Melee

30+30

Mitigate

30+30

Ranged

5+5

Evasion

15+15

Magic

5+5

Resistance

20+20

Crafting

Harvest

Armorcrafting

15

Animal products

0

Skill 2:

0

Herbs, flowers, bark,fungus, fruit. timber

0

Skill 3:

0

minerals, gems, stone

0

Core Skill Points

Earned

Used

Converted

38

17

21

Skills

Stat

Level

EP

P/S/T

Mace

STR

5

1000

Primary

Healing Aura

WIS

5

1000

Primary

Poison Resistance

CON

5

1000

Primary

Side Step

AGI

5

1000

Primary

Rapier

DEX

5

1000

Primary

Battle Leader

CHR

5

1000

Primary

Powerful Blow

STR

5

1000

Secondary

Minor Healing Touch

WIS

5

1000

Secondary

Mental Resistance

INT

1

75

Secondary

Furious Charge

AGI

5

1000

Secondary

Heavy Armor

CON

5

1000

Secondary

Shining Aura

CHR

5

1000

Secondary

Shield

STR

5

1000

Tertiary

Undead Slayer

WIS

5

1000

Tertiary

Demon Slayer

RAD

0

10

Tertiary

Ancient Lore: Religion

INT

2

200

Tertiary

Armor Repair

DEX

5

1000

Tertiary

Detail Oriented

PER

2

225

Tertiary

The list of options for a custom build was limited. There was a balance to it. If you built a custom class, you could get exactly the skills you wanted, but your core skills were basic. Take a class like warrior that had restrictions on skills, and you could select a lot of interesting skills that would enhance your class.

Custom Core Skills

Description

Cost

Identification 1

Gives information on an item or creature of levels 1-5 even if you are a lower level. A pre-requisit for Identification 2

10

Increase Health 1

+50 points to health score

5

Increase Mana 1

+50 points to Mana score

5

Increase Stamina 1

+50 points to Stamina score

5

Tier 1 Ceiling increase.

Raises ceiling on maximum of a stat to 1 point over current Tier cap. Max of 5 points may be spent per stat. Cost is 1 for level 6, 2 for level 7, 3 for level 8, 4 for level 9, and 5 for level 10.

variable

Melee Damage 1

Your weapon melee weapon attacks do more damage . Damage +10

5

Ranged Damage 1

Your ranged weapon attacks do more damag . Damage +10

5

Spell Damage 1

Your weapon attacks do more damage in melee . Damage +10

5

Melee Damage 1

Your weapon attacks do more damage in melee . Damage +10

5

Magical Mitigation 1

You take less 3 less damage from Magical attacks.

5

Physical Mitigation 1

You take less 3 less damage from physical attacks.

5

+ Attack core skill

Increase one Attack score by +5 (Capped at double starting skill level.)

1

+ Defense core skill

Increase one Defensive score by +5 (Capped at double starting skill level.)

1

+ Harvest core skill

Increase one Harvesting score by +5 (Capped at double starting skill level.)

1

+ Craft core skill

Increase one Crafting score by +5 (Capped at double starting skill level.)

1

Replace a Tier 1 skill with a new skill at level 0.

The old skill and EP earned with it is lost forever. The new skill must be one you can normally take.

1

Physical Mitigation 2

You take less an additional 5 less damage from physical attacks. (total of 8)

10

Oath of Light

Earn the Oath of Light by slaying a demon. +1 RAD

5

Magical Sense

You can almost see magic. Sometimes taste it in the air

2

Assuming you earned the core skill points, of course. A casual player or crafter might not even encounter a boss. They took a lot of time to find, either following up rumors or exploring new areas. Maybe when dungeons were found and opened up it would be easier, but for now the hunt for elusive bosses took a lot of time. Luckily, he had a lot of help from Grandmother. She had scout teams out finding bosses for him. His team just had to travel around and then not die when facing off against them.

This didn't go over well with the other part of the family, but Timmy had long ago ceased to care what they thought.

How to spend them was something he was constantly thinking on. And the constant stream of ‘advice’ from his advisory team had long ago got tiring. Some things had been obvious. He had raised his cap on Str by 4. With the 1 bonus point that would eventually get him to level 10 in STR. It was highly suspected that having one or more stats at 10 was part of the requirements to move to Tier 2. That had cost a whopping 10 points.

Twenty-one points had been spent raising his core skills. This was essential. Without raising the core skills, his abilities just wouldn't get better; lots of debate on this one though. If raising core skills was essential, and took Core Skill Points from bosses, then how in hell did a casual player get past Tier 1? Maybe special quests? Still so much they didn't know.

Oath of Light was a must. Getting his first point of radiance went a long way to opening up more quests from the local Paladins' guilds. Five points well spent; and meeting the requirements to take it had been difficult.

Another paladin had reported to their network that the ability was offered in the Capitol. Disappointingly, it wasn't available to him. "Go do some great deed and earn your light!" Great deeds included killing very evil things like demons. Demons were scarce but his crew did manage to take care of a Warlock who was terrorizing a small village. His imp familiar also counted as a demon and that was enough to let him buy the skill. This also gave him his only points in Demon Slaying.

It had seemed good at the time. It was a restricted skill only available if you also took Lore: Ancient Religions and Undead Slaying. He was sure in the long run he'd need it. But demons weren't something you just found running around in the woods.

He still had 8 points to spend. He'd been debating for quite a bit but it was obvious that he wasn't at the top of Tier 1 yet. There would be more bosses to kill and more points to spend. Six more points went into raising his core skills; almost done with those.

The last two points went into Magical Sense. He so wanted to increase his CHR. His ego was still stung by being out smarted by the ‘lonely’ NPC barmaid. She acted almost real; well, not quite. Real girls never turned down his advances that way. It was good to be rich and handsome. Next Boss that went down he'd pump up his CHR and come back for another try. He suspected he needed to get at least CHR and possibly WIS to 10 for Tier2.

As soon as he confirmed how to spend his points, his head began throbbing with an intense migraine. Something wasn't right, no way should he be in this much pain in a game. He threw open his window to get fresh air, but choked on the air coming in. Some horrid stench assaulted him. What was going on?

Far, far away he heard the pealing of a bell. A golden bell in a white tower. He saw it in his mind's eye. He saw the warriors in white and gold armor mount their warhorses and thunder out the gate. He wanted to go with them.

The Darkness Rises!

Once again Dark Magic is loose in the world. As a of the Light you are called upon to face the forces of Dark Magic when it rises in the world. Will you join the Crusade against the Dark? (Y/N)?

He accepted, of course. Obviously, spending those last few points had put him over some threshold and triggered a new quest. Possibly even a quest to push him up to Tier 2.

His headache was gone. He could still smell the stench, but he felt like he knew the direction it was coming from. Time to wake the crew and get moving. There was probably some boss out there roaming around the town that needed killing. Hopefully it would be a challenge.

===================================================================

Suzette couldn't breathe; there was no air in the capsule, and nothing coming in from the nutrient tubes. She pounded on the top cover, but it was latched shut. She hit the panic button, and yelled the Safe word that should have alerted someone, but nothing worked. She screamed....

...and woke to Ozzy holding her and trying to wake her up. She was drenched in sweat and couldn't talk. It took several minutes until the dream faded. He held a glass of water to her mouth and she drank.

"...sorry…"

"Not your fault Suzy."

"No, but still - I woke you up. I didn't invite you to take half the room because I needed a nursemaid." She got up and started throwing on clothes.

"Bah. Sleep doesn't matter to me much. Rolly and I have been staying up most nights doing stupid things to level up some skills. Two or three hours and I'm good to go. Wasn't sleeping well anyway; feel edgy." Ozzy tossed on his own work clothes. He'd worn through too many pairs of pants and shirts made from the local cloth and had some leggings and a sleeveless tunic made of sedgebeast hide.

Ben had helped get that done with their leather workers. The thick pants resisted the wear and tear he put on clothing. Heavy leather gloves, and his bloodstained apron completed the outfit. It was part of his daily routine now to clean and oil all his leather after each day’s work.

"So then, what are we doing up so early?" Ozzy got his tools. It felt wrong to not have the two cleavers, and the meat hook in the apron and the hammer on his belt.

"I'm going to go start some new kegs in the basement. How about you help move some of the finished kegs upstairs for me? I'll make us breakfast first, but you have to get the eggs."

Descending to the tavern's first floor they heard voices outside. Through a window they saw Sir Timothy run by, followed by his party of followers. All were outfitted for a fight. "I guess they can't sleep either." Suzette mused.

"I'm not sharing breakfast with them." replied Ozzy. Bad enough I have to brave a henhouse in the dark. Ozzy stepped out the back of the inn and crossed the courtyard towards the henhouse. It wasn't there. A few broken boards and bloody feathers were all that remained of it. The stench of rotting meat was suddenly overwhelming. He started to turn at a noise when he was hit hard enough to knock him through the air. He landed in the street next to Sir Timothy and his squire, Joseph.

You have been hit by a Charnal Daemon! You take 80 damage from the blow and another 20 from impact with the ground. Because of your mitigation, you take 50 damage from the blow, and just leave a dent in the road.

You are stunned for 1 round.

Ozzy shook his head to clear it. Timmy stepped over the top of him and advanced on the monster. Hugh dragged Ozzy out of the way. Louis grumbled." Meat monster and a butcher. Ten to one he's been building it in a lab and it got out of control. Told you it was the butcher."

Everyone received a quest notification.

Something is Rotten in Sedgewick!

The Dark Magics have found a place of slaughter and infected the discarded pile of parts and pieces with the essence of an ancient deamon. The Charnel Daemon will devour all in its path to grow stronger. If not stopped, it will turn Sedgewick into a charnel pit and kill all within.

Defeating such a foe is a defining quest for a follower of the Light.

Timmy tried to identify it, and failed. "Oh shit. It's at least level 6. This is a Tier 2 Elite Boss."