Hoggan was snoring peacefully, face down on the desk as Winter approached. The Craftsman Guild hall was empty, but the furnace was still burning brightly, ready to be used for smelting by anyone who'd wander inside the building even at this late hour. Winter gently knocked on the desk next to Hoggan which shot him up from his slumber in an instant.

“Huh, wha? Who’s there?” He looked around confused, rubbing his eyes as he regained his alertness. “Ah, ye’s back already. Brought the copper ore I trust?” Hoggan looked at Winter expectantly.

“Yep.” He took out 10 ore and placed it on the counter.

Quest Updated!

Quest: Deliver the Ore to Chief Miner Belthas in the basement of the Craftsman Guildhall of Orm Village.

Objective: Deliver the ore to Belthas

Quest Giver: Hoggan the Craftsman

Reward: [Skill: Beginner Mining]

Difficulty: Easy

Restrictions: None

“Great, this oughta make Belthas take ye’ seriously. Take this on down below and tell em you’d like to learn mining. He oughta sort ye out right quick.” Hoggan pointed towards the staircase leading to the basement.

“Thanks.” Winter politely nodded, took the copper back into his hands and headed for the stairs. When he reached the bottom he saw another dwarf walking about, sorting through crates of metal bars. His name above his head read as [Chief Miner Belthas - Level 39]. The dwarf had long grey braided hair that was hard to differentiate from his beard, making his nose and eyes barely visible.

“Excuse me sir, Hoggan sent me to learn mining.” Winter spoke, holding the ore out towards Belthas. Belthas stopped what he was doing and turned to look at Winter, then looked at the ore.

“Is that so? You think getting a bit of copper ore makes you ready to be a miner?” Belthas crossed his arms. “Any idiot can hit a rock and get some copper out of it. True mining is the art of finding the most precious, most valuable metals that the land has hidden from us. Extracting it with delicate care to preserve its raw purity, so that it can be used to forge mighty tools and weapons for all to use. Understand?” Belthas spoke with pride.

“Yes, sir.” Winter felt as though he was talking to a professor, even though he knew it was an NPC. Belthas walked over and took the ore out of Winter’s hand, inspecting it one at a time.

“All of these are no good. But I can see you’ve got heart. When it comes to mining copper, it’s about checking the surrounding stone and chipping away at its surroundings cleanly. That way, you’ve got a chance to find some other useful stones as well, if you’re lucky you might even find some gems. Watch me.” Belthas took a large grey stone out of one of the crates and demonstrated how to pick at it with a nearby pickaxe he grabbed from a pile.

Winter watched intently at the demonstration. He wasn’t quite sure if this was just an event he had to go through for the quest, or if he’d actually learn something about mining in this game from the dwarf, but he decided it best not to risk missing something by not paying attention.

“There, got it? You’re ready to start mining copper more effectively. But other ore is much more difficult. Once you’ve gotten the hang of copper, prove it to me and I’ll teach you how to get Iron.” He said as he finished the demonstration.

Quest Complete!

Skill Learned: Mining (Beginner)

Level Up!: Your accumulated experience has increased your mining skill to level 4.

Mining - Level 4 (Beginner)

Improves your efficiency and skill when mining ore. Higher levels increase your chance of finding rare gemstones and higher quality ore when mining any type of ore you’ve been taught how to mine properly. The chances vary depending on the difficulty of the ore being mined.

Ore Proficiencies: Copper

Quest: Mine 3 or more copper ore of 50% quality or higher and bring them to Chief Miner Belthas in the Craftsman Guildhall basement of Orm Village.

Objective: 0/3 Copper Ore Mined [Quality: 50%+]

Quest Giver: Chief Miner Belthas

Reward: [Mining Proficiency: Iron]

Difficulty: Easy

Restrictions: None

“Thank you for your instructions, I won’t let you down.” Winter said as he read over the notifications and headed back up the stairs. He was feeling quite proud of himself, level 4 already - but it was apparent leveling wasn’t something that happened fast in this game. His next stop was to see the value of his haul.

Using the signs in town and guidance from the guards, he navigated the streets of Orm to find the Market Exchange Tracker, a specialized NPC that kept track of the value of items on other islands, updated once a day. He’d gathered that much information from asking around a few of the shops that were still open.

When he found the building and entered to speak with the NPC, rather than get a menu that had the information he wanted, he was shown a collection of crates with scrolls, all labelled. He located the crate marked with ore, then singled out the scroll marked as copper. Once he unrolled the scroll, he saw a list showing the average selling price of copper ore on each island. His face was filled with disappointment.

Looking through the various islands it seemed that low quality ore would fetch 1s a piece. High quality went for 10s a piece. He did some quick calculations in his head. With 100 silver coins being worth one gold, that meant he’d gathered roughly 6 gold worth of copper. According to Derrick, 1 gold was worth 1 cent. He’d made 6 cents.

“Make money with this game? You kidding me?” He shouted out in disbelief.

“Not with low quality copper, that’s for sure. Woof!” A familiar voice spoke from behind him. He turned to see Ruffily entering the building, though she headed for a crate that had weapon prices listed across the islands. Winter turned to look at her after putting the scroll away.

“How would you do it?” He asked.

“Me? I’m not interested in that… but I imagine if you make the copper into items and sell them, and work your way up to higher level materials, you’d make money easy. Not a lot of players are selling high quality iron, and I don’t think anyone’s gotten high quality Mithril yet. There’s even a couple types of ore in the game encyclopedia that no one has found yet. High quality iron is where it's at right now though. Woof!” She said as she rolled out a scroll on Iron weapon values. “Most players are in that level range, and crafted stuff is usually better than the stuff the dungeon bosses drop. Woof! You make some high quality iron weapons and enchant them, you’ll be making at minimum 2000 gold per craft.”

“That’s like 20$. Is that hard to do?”

“Lots of hard work, quests and grinding to get there. Woof! Enchanting is a crafting profession that can only be learned by a class that uses magic. Most people who learn magic classes don’t bother with leveling blacksmithing. You also need good hilt material from woodcutting and leatherworking, or silk from weaving. All of it really comes together. Woof! You can work with other crafters, or try to level it all yourself to make the most money, but that takes a lot of hard work.”

“So it all depends on if its more efficient and profitable to make it all yourself, or if it's better to outsource some parts.” Winter put his finger to his chin.

“But crafting isn’t the only way to make money. You can make money doing almost anything. Hunting, building, performing, or getting a job as a knight or mercenary. Lots of guilds pay a lot for high level players to help in castle sieges. Woof!”

“Got it, I’ll have to figure out the best method. Thanks again for all the information.”

“No problem, woof! You can add me to your friends list if you have any more questions. I’m happy to help out newcomers to Orm! Woof! The population is small so we gotta stick together!” She smiled while tapping her menu a few times until he got a friends request.

“Sure, let me know if I can help you with anything too.” Winter accepted and smiled back as he left the building.

Now that he knew it wasn’t worth to sell the raw ore, it was better to use it to start leveling crafts. In order to be self-sufficient, he first stopped by a few other shops to see what it took to make his own copper Pickaxes.

Winter’s next step was to barter a good price on 50 copper. He was able to trade them to a farming player for 50 fresh apples that restored 20 hunger each, and ate a few to fill his hunger back up. He decided to go all out and get all of the available gathering professions after learning he’d need wood to make his own pickaxes. He started by trading in as much copper ore as necessary to get the funds for the tools.

By the time he’d gotten all he wanted done, he left the Craftsman Guildhall with 3 new gathering quests, and purchased 3 new tools. He’d gotten a quest to learn Woodcutting, Herbalism, and creature harvesting as well as bought a copper axe, a copper skinning knife, and another copper pickaxe. After his trading was done. He was left with 500 copper ore and 23 silver.

The sun began to rise in the village of Orm as he headed to the western edge of the village. Before heading out he checked the simulation time, noting it was getting on past midnight in real time, and deciding to call it a day. He ended the simulation and stepped out of the Sim Box to hear the buzzing of an incoming phone call.

“What’s up?” Eli answered.

“You’re finally out, what’ve you been doing?” Derrick answered.

“Just messing around in Orm, why?”

“You were on the news. Keldan live streamed himself pking you, bragging to everyone that he killed Makarath’s son.”

“Oh yeah, that guy was really happy about that. Made a weird speech and everything. Jeremy’s fault.” Eli said nonchalantly.

“Keldan’s the top player at our school, he’s got a lot of fans. Sorry man, it’s my fault this happened.” Derrick apologized.

“Relax, who cares?”

“Everyone online is making a big deal about it, everyone’s talking about how Makarath’s son started playing and are wondering how good you’ll be.”

“Oh… people take this stuff way too seriously. I’m just trying to figure out how to make some money.” Eli yawned. “I don’t get any penalties for dying at level 1, right?”

“Nah, you don’t drop gear until level 6, and the logout penalty only goes up to 6 hours at level 6 too. They’re the ones who take a penalty. Pretty big one, since they killed an innocent level 1 player. They lose a lot of fame points.” Derrick reassured him.

“Then it's no problem if I stay level 1 right, no one will bug me? Unless they’re idiots.”

“Hah, yeah I guess. You’re planning on staying level 1?”

“Dunno, I’ll see. Gonna crash, let’s go again tomorrow.” Eli replied

“Ahhhh! I knew you’d have fun! Alright sweet, cya tomorrow.” He said with enthusiasm before hanging up. Eli plopped in his bed and fell asleep.