Dave stared at the rocky outcropping that rose over the forest, giving a great view of the land. For two in-game days he had been running towards his destination, when he logged off he looked up how to make houses and crossed that against what Emerilia had in the way of materials.

He would’ve made it to the way point if he had run his avatar in bot mode but he wasn’t willing to risk it.

“Good time as ever to give that Surveyor skill a second chance.” Dave changed direction and headed up the outcropping. It took him awhile but he finally got to the top. He let out a low whistle.

There was a blue and red moon visible in the sky; the sun bathed Emerilia in her warm rays. Trees spread for miles, with glades and the occasional farm here and there. In the distance, he could see Omal and trace out the road that connected it to the rest of Emerilia.

A fresh breeze rolled over him. He closed his eyes and took a deep breath. He opened his eyes and the landscape seemed to change. Without conscious thought, he slowly turned in a circle. His eyes locked onto various items he couldn’t see with the naked eye but he could sense. It was if the land was talking to him and he’d just opened up his ears to it.

For a few seconds, it went on until his Stamina bar was drained. Dave took a drink from his canteen and grabbed some food from his pack. His mini-map was filling with new markers. He wasn’t about to stop yet; he knew there was more out there. A quick look at his map showed that he had a half-dozen new markers.

“So worth the gold.” Dave grinned.

As he waited for his Stamina to recharge some more, he looked at his interface. Notifications were up to the top right of his view. With a click, it would cascade and tell him his latest skill levels.

Down at the bottom left, he had his Health, Mana, and Stamina. The last one was slowly growing. There had been a chat window above it but he’d removed it.

He was looking to get away from things, and having a bajillion messages scrolling past his eyes every minute was not getting away, in his mind.

In the bottom right, there was a mini-map with a compass around it.

His Stamina bar filled three-quarters of the way. Again, he closed his eyes, letting his troubles fade away and feeling out toward the area around him.

His eyes opened; the land was speaking to him. He turned in a full circle, seeing items that he hadn’t noticed the first time. He opened up his map, looking at the various greyed-out items that were littered around him in a five-hundred-meter area. There were ore, animal dens, various plants. What caught his attention was a building; he focused on it.

> Abandoned Cabin.

He checked his map. It was a slight detour, but there might be something useful there. The map went back into its corner with a thought. Dave started his way back down the outcropping and toward the cabin. He looked at the notification panel. The drop-down opened.

> You have found Merriroot

> You have found Yip Fox Den.

> You have found Fresh Spring

“Ugghhh, this is worse than cleaning out my spam filter!” He changed settings, he’d only be notified about his skills, levels and main quests. They would also be hidden away under the notification tab instead of jumping out in front of him.

Stat Increase

Many would have bought a horse or used a portal to travel. You like to move the old-fashioned way.

+1 Strength

“Holy crap! That’s awesome. If I continue training or using one thing a lot, then it will increase. Makes sense—the more you fight, the more Stamina you get, or the more you cast spells, the more magic you get.” Dave winced at a thought. “Ughh, that would really suck to level up your Vitality that way.”

Emerilia gave a pain feedback; it was about forty percent, but it was enough to make you know you got hit. If you increased your Stamina by running and Mana by casting, then you could increase your Health by getting hurt and surviving.

“And that is a theory I never want to figure out, even with the ability to self-heal.” He looked at his low Health recharge; it wouldn’t be much use in battle. Having a high recharge would just make you overpowered as all hell.

After battle, it might be enough to heal minor wounds. It made bringing Health potions, or someone with healing abilities, a good freaking idea.

“My attributes increase through actions. I wonder if I got five stat increases if I would level up again?”

He moved to the next two prompts, interested in the games leveling mechanics.

Active Skill: Sprint

Level: Novice level 5

Effect: 13% increased speed

Cost: 5 Stamina/second

Reward: 500 XP

Level 3

You have reached level 3. You have 5 unused stat points.

500 XP boost for reaching level 5—I will take that! Maybe I should work on my Dodge and try a few more Surveyor checks, get them up to level 5. That XP will be useful. Speed up this run a bit! He tapped his chin in thought.

“Right now, I’m building skills and the like quickly as I’m a low level. If I bring my stats up the old-fashioned way, then I can use the points later. I haven’t seen a time limit on the stat points for levels anywhere.”

Active Skill: Surveyor

Level: Novice Level 4

Effect: 11% chance to see surrounding landmarks.

Range: 620 m

Cost: 5 Stamina/second

“Who’s the man? This guy—that’s who.” Dave did a little dance and moved his arms in a circle. He looked around to see whether anyone could see his antics.

“No one around to tell me to smarten up. I’m liking this place more and more! Should have my board meetings here.” Dave shook his head. Those thoughts were for the real world. Here he was going to have fun!

He continued on his path for the Abandoned Cabin. He ran at trees, dodging at the last second, or jumping over little shrubs. He didn’t want to get into fights but the extra XP boost would be nice indeed!

He got to the cabin with some Stamina to spare. He didn’t go directly to it, but stayed in the trees around it. He crouched down and moved around the area, looking for traps or why the hell the place was abandoned.

It was a simple cabin: one chimney, wood-shuttered windows, and a door that had been ripped from its hinges. Although it was simply built, it was also sturdy. Whatever had taken the door off had been a big sonofabitch.

New Active Skill: Stealth

You know how to use the shadows to your advantage. Your Peeping Tom fantasies come to life. The guard will hunt you down, you pervert!

Level: Novice level 1

Effect: 5% chance to remain undetected (reduced in direct light). When in Stealth, attacks have a higher chance to stun and gain a critical hit. May your aim be true.

Why does this game think I’m some kind of debauchery driven pervert?

Dave looked at the place, feeling a need to go inside. First, he used his Surveyor skill. He looked around, feeling a worn path leading to the cabin; he could feel a bear wandering around, looking for a meal a few hundred meters away. He knew that he wasn’t reaching out to the full distance of his Surveyor skill. It was more sporadic than up on the outcrop.

Must be the trees and crap in the way. Dave grinned at the realism. Someone might be able to figure out what was around them by looking for it, but if there was something in the way stopping them, then you were just shit out of luck.

He walked around, using his skill a few more times to get a better image. Still, nothing more came up. He moved forward, keeping low as he looked at the door. Two perfect burn holes had cut through the hinges.

Fire magic, if I was a betting man. Dave walked into the cabin. It was pretty old, with holes in the roof and the floor rotting away in places. He noticed a small blue indentation in the fireplace. He brushed away some of the old soot and pressed the indentation.

Click! Dave looked to the old pelt that was in tatters on the ground.

He kicked it aside and a trapdoor opened. You wouldn’t have known it was there unless you pressed the hidden button. Even after years, it fit seamlessly with the rest of the floor. A stairway led downwards.

Cool underground trapdoor thingy in an abandoned cabin—nothing could go wrong here. Might be a necromancer’s lair for all I know! Even as he complained, a grin grew across his face.

He stepped down a step; the stairs went down for a while. Dave moved slowly, really hoping no one was home. He pulled out his blade, holding it in his hand. His hands were sweating as he half expected something to jump out at him. The trapdoor closed and he was stuck in darkness.

Well shit, I thought Dwarves were supposed to be good in the dark!

New Passive Skill: Night Vision

You go into the darkness ready to piss yourself, but now you can at least see what’s going to leap out and kill you.

Level: Novice level 1

Effect: 5% increased night vision.

Racial bonus: Dwarves, even half-Dwarves, are at home in the darkness of mines and their empires dug underneath mountains. +25% increased night vision.

Now we’re talking.

Dave could see around the room he came to in greater clarity. There was a table in the corner opposite the stairs; it extended along the far wall with various tools and items on it. To Dave’s left, there was a perfect silver floating oval. It was about seven feet tall and four feet wide. Gold, blue, black, and white runes ran along its edges.

Dave could feel the power radiating off it. The Dwarven side of him was in awe of the workmanship; the human side wondered how much he could get for it.

He took another step and lights started to turn on. Dave looked around in alarm but nothing shot him. Then he saw the panel to his side. It was a bunch of flowing characters but most of them were red. Just three were blue, in the form of a triangle. Dave pressed the three at the same time; there was a click and the red colors of the pad disappeared.

“I don’t want to know what the hell I just disabled.” Dave exhaled as he looked around the room in more detail now that the magical orbs of light were on, patting himself on the back for his work with Perception. “Cozy.”

Along the wall in front of him were tools of various kinds, including diagrams and schematics. Dave looked them over. They seemed like various components of something large—and powerful by the amount of soul gems it needed.

“Well, no one else is going to use it.” Dave pulled off his bag and threw the various tools and components into his bag.

“That’ll be useful.” He found refined ingots of iron, steel, as well as one gold and ebony ingot. He found some petty, lesser and common soul gems as well. Not a bad haul at all!

Soul gems contained pure energy they could be used to charge all manner of magical devices.

Some higher-level bosses had been reported as using the soul gems to regenerate their Mana pool. Once all of the power from a soul gem was used, it would shatter, as the forces that held the power within it at bay destroying itself.

They went in the bag as well as he looked around. All that was left was the tables and the mirror thing. Dave tipped his bag upside down on top of the mirror. He pulled it down the mirror and it went into his bag.

Mirror of Communication

Can allow people to talk across long distances instantaneously. Your magic level is too low to understand more.

Quality: S

Durability: 5000/5000

Charge: 123/400

Dave whistled. He didn’t really see the need for it when he could talk to any Player he wanted to with his chat function. Sure looked cool, though! And it will sell for a few gold, even with only a fourth of the charge!

He looked around the room with a pleased expression, looking at the wall where the mirror had been. He saw a blue hole lower down. He looked through his inventory. He pulled out some keys he’d found and started working through them.

After a few different keys, a panel in the wall pushed forward.

“Breaking and entering—come on, Dave.” Dave grinned and put the keys in his bag.

Dave paused as he pushed the panel to the side, looking out for traps. There was a simple drawer behind the panel. Again, Dave took his time with the drawer.

“Found you.” Dave saw a thin wire coming from the side of the drawer and going inside; it looked like spider webbing. It was surrounded by a red halo. He thought of pliers and pulled them out of his bag.

“The blue one or the red one?” He shook his hand as if he were nervous, snorting before he cut the flimsy wire. The red halo disappeared. His notifications blinked. Dave checked for any other traps and slowly opened the drawer.

“Fuck me sideways,” Dave said.

There were four grand and two greater soul gems just sitting there. Pure energy moved through the perfectly translucent ovaloids. They seemed to dance slowly. The mesmerizing light was a dance of all the colors. Like a pearl shined to perfection, moving around in a wave of light and beauty.

Dave shook his head and put them into his bag with care. They were the highest-tiered soul gems. With them, he might be able to recharge the mirror.

He pulled out a chest filled with coins. He grinned and poured it into his bag. The coins auto-sorted. If there were ten silvers, then they’d turn into a single gold; same for if there were a hundred coppers.

“Wish I had this back home to deal with spare change.” Dave sighed, coming to the last belonging in the drawer. It was an intricately carved box. On the front, there was an anvil; around it, there were People of all races, beating on a piece of metal. There were more scenes with people working the bellows or the final product. The box was a masterful work of art by itself.

Dave opened it slowly. There weren’t any traps, so he opened it all the way. In his hand, there was a snow globe with a forge in it. It was incredibly detailed. Dave grabbed it.

Portable Smithy

The portable smithy shakes with power. Do you want to use it?

Cost: 250 Mana (You do not have sufficient Mana)

Dave looked at the little globe with an awed look.

“Check out abandoned cabins,” Dave said as he put the forge-snow globe back in its case. He patted the case, admiring the artwork again, and dumped it into his pack. He was about to leave when he looked at the lights. It would be nice to have some light orbs instead of fire to light his way.

“If you’re going to steal, might as well rob them blind.” Dave pulled out his pickaxe and went to the closest light.

“I’ve been working on the railroad.” He chipped around the magical orb. It came free after careful excavation.

“Now how the hell do you turn off?”

The light turned off.

“Handy.”

The notification panel blinked again.

New Active Skill: Mining

You return to your Dwarven roots, breaking rocks and being rewarded with ore and the distinct smell of sweaty nuts for your labors. Honestly, you can build empires but you can’t take a damn bath?

Level: Novice level 1

Effect: You cut through rock easily, finding ores and gems beneath. 5% chance to get higher yield of materials from ore vein. 5% faster at mining.

Cost: 10 Stamina/second.

Racial Bonus: Dwarves are the mining powerhouses of Emerilia. +15% Chance to get higher yield of materials

New Spell: Touch of the Land

You are in touch with the Earth. When your pick hits stone, it seems that you’re at home. You can look at an area and feel out the area’s materials. At higher levels, people will think you can sense Mithril.

Level: 1

Effect: Ability to sense mineral deposits or disturbances in the ground around you. (Touch) Lasts for 20 seconds.

Range: 50 m in every direction

Cost: 40 Mana

Affinity: Earth, Dark

“Duh duh duhhnnn. Got a freaking spell—bah bah BAhh!” Dave did a little dance and put his hands to the floor. He closed his eyes. A word of power fell from his lips.

The earth reacted to the old language, forgotten through time. It was like an echo. Dave felt a ripple emanate from him, spreading out to the surrounding area.

A prompt filled his vision.

Magical Circuits

You have found a complex series of magical circuits. Are you interested in trying to learn from them?

Cost: 100 Mana, Destroy Magical Circuits you study

Reward: Unknown

Y/N

Dave had spent 40 Mana; it would regenerate in six minutes, bringing him up to the necessary 100 Mana. He looked through his inventory. The soul gems could restore his power, but they were too much power for him to handle. He’d waste potentially thousands of Mana points. He went to his notifications again.

Passive Skill: Perception

Level: Novice level 5

Effect: 15% chance to find hidden details.

Passive Skill: Night Vision

Level: Novice level 3

Effect: 9% increased night vision. (+25% Racial Bonus)

He went back to his character sheet. “I still have 5 points for reaching level 3.” He looked over the stats. He put 2 into Intelligence, 1 into Strength, and 2 more into Agility.

Character Sheet

Name:

David Grahslagg

Gender:

Male

Level:

3

Class:

-

Race:

Human/Dwarf

Alignment:

-

Unspent points: 0

Health:

1100

Regen:

0.28 /s

Mana:

120

Regen:

0.50 /s

Stamina:

150

Regen:

1.00 /s

Vitality:

11

Endurance:

9

Intelligence:

12

Willpower:

10

Strength:

15

Agility:

20

With the new points to Intelligence, he gained 20 Mana points instantly. It took him another impatient minute until he was at 100 Mana.

He focused on the magical circuits that he felt in the ground. His magic connected to them, using his Touch of the Land to understand their structure. It started to pull it apart, piece by piece, faster and faster. Dave saw how energy was transferred through magical circuits. How circuits could be used and manipulated. The circuits were destroyed with the passing of his magic.

Magical Circuits

Disassembling the magic circuits led to more knowledge than you thought possible. These traps were made by a powerful practitioner of the six Affinities. As they knew of the six, you, too, now know.

Reward received: You have learned how to form Magical Circuits. You have unlocked the Affinities: Dark, Light, Air, Water, Earth, and Fire.

+6 Intelligence

+3 Willpower

You can now view Affinities

New Active Skill: Magical Circuits

There ain’t no wires in this place. Magical power is untamed power; with magical circuits, you can tame that power into other items. Like a coffee maker. Too bad Emerilia doesn’t have coffee. Oh, and screwing up Magical circuits. Boom.

Level: Novice level 4

Effect: 11% chance of creating better Magical circuits and understanding them.

Cost: Dependent

As there had been traps from all of the Affinities, it seemed that it had crossed over to activating his own magic Affinity levels.

“I really don’t want to know what those traps were.” Dave’s head hurt from the massive amount of Mana he’d poured out of his body. The circuits must have been a high level to give him those stat point boosts.

Overall, he was feeling pretty damned good about himself.

He took another look around before he left the weird basement and headed out of the cabin. It felt good to be out in the sun. It was getting chillier as night was quickly approaching.

He checked his location, found the hill he was looking for, and took off. He still had quite a distance to go. Again, he got into the rhythm of sprinting for as long as possible, and then jogging when his Stamina got low. The pack weighed considerably more; even with the reduction to 40%, he’d thrown in a lot of refined metals and the big-ass mirror.

Day transitioned into night. Everything took on a slight green tinge as Dave’s night vision kicked in. His Stamina was draining faster than before. He continued running since he was only a few hours away. His pack rubbed into his shoulders, causing them to chafe. He tried to hold them to try to reduce the friction.

“Thank you, Siven.” He panted as he looked at his boots. His feet hurt, but he hadn’t got blisters yet. He wished he had something other than the cloth pants and shirt to wear. They were itchy normally; now they were actively trying to erase his nipples off.

“I never want to run a marathon in my life,” Dave whined, even though he kept going.

A few hours later, he stopped at a river. He used Touch of the Land; there wasn’t much in this area other than some berries. He grabbed them and started munching. He took off the bag and started tending to his ailments.

I should have grabbed a healing spell.

He pulled his feet out of his boots. They were raw from all the walking and he could feel blisters forming.

“That’s the good stuff,” Dave sighed as the cold water soothed his feet.

He opened up the notification about Agility; he got a point there. It was only after he accepted the notification did it go toward his stats. Even with the extra points, he showed as level 3. It seemed only quests and levelling up his various skills would allow him to increase in overall level.

It was more incentive to do quests and follow along with the game. Dave wasn’t interested in that. He thought of the globe and his hill. He pulled his pack on; the poultice was pushed into his chest by the weight.

At his best speed, it took nearly three days from Omal to the hill.

Dave grabbed a piece of bread from his bag, munching on it as he sprinted off. Once the sprint died, he continued to eat, energy coming back to his tired limbs. Even though his Stamina was recharging, his body continued to hurt, as though he had lactic acid buildup.

“Need one of those foam rollers—a small tree might work.” He continued his eating and running until the land started to rise. He looked at his mini-map and zoomed out. He was nearly at his hill!

He took his time. At any rise he found, he used Surveyor and Touch of the Land. He looked at the scrolling information: a good number of herbs to make food from and some dens for various animals. He wandered to the small stream. It was fifteen meters wide and one meter deep at its lowest, moving at a good pace. It curved around the hill, leaving a nice plain to one side of the hill. It would be perfect for fields. He looked at the rising hill; it was covered in trees.

The hill gently sloped upwards along one side. Along all the other sides, there were sheer cliffs. He jogged up the hill, taking in the sights as he got higher. His Stamina recharged; once he had about 30, he activated Surveyor.

To the south, there was a large gouge in the land that led to the sloped side of the hill. To the east, there was the river and the plains. In the north, there was a large mountain range that extended to the west side. It was a number of kilometers away, about the same distance as Omal.

Information on rock formations, different animals, caves: all of it filtered into Dave’s mind and onto his map.

By reflex, he reached down and felt the area around him. It seemed to stop, hitting something at the edge of its range. He sensed magic draining into the thing he’d touched. Curious, he sent out another pulse. Again, he found that same odd creation and its hunger.

Affinity levels

Dark

10

Light

10

Air

10

Water

10

Earth

10

Fire

10

Quest: What Lies Below

You sense an item as old as Emerilia.

Reward: Unknown

Will you investigate?

Y/N

“Maybe later.” Dave dismissed the prompt.

For now, he didn’t want to deal with it. Instead, he looked around, judging the grade of the hill. It was large, nearly ten kilometers across at its peak—more than enough room for what Dave wanted.

He wandered around, finding a nice place near the edge of the rise that faced northeast. He could see the river and the mountains in one glance. It was above the tree line, so he could see for kilometers in every direction.

He cast Surveyor again and new information appeared.

“I’m going to need a fishing rod!” He laughed, taking off his pack, and sat down to take in the beauty of the place. No cars, nothing to pull his attention: just him and Emerilia.

It felt as if the pressures that had been pushing him into the tight hole for the last couple of years were fading away.

“First, camp. Then we’re going to start seeing about this damned house!” He pulled out his small tent, which was little more than a waterproof skin, two poles, and pins. He put his sleeping mat down and looked around. He pulled out the shovel he’d bought from Brenna after going to Siven’s and Darryl’s. Having a bag of holding made it a lot easier to grab the extra gear.

He started digging when an alert appeared on his view.

System Message

You have been playing for eight hours. As per regulations, you have twenty minutes before mandatory log off. Please preselect actions to occur when you log off.

Dave felt as if more than just a few hours had gone by. Still, he wanted to play more. Dave sighed and dismissed the prompt. He went to the logout menu.

Log off commands

You might be leaving but your character is still here. Leave commands for them to complete while you’re away.

(Beware: if you have your character stray into danger and they die, it will count as a normal death. Only soul-bound items will stay with you.)

“Okay, I want you to dig a hole from here, to here, to here, to here.” He walked to the four corners of his area. “The sides are to be clean. It should be four feet deep and level. Once that’s complete, start stripping down trees and cutting them down. Whenever I am gone, remember to eat and drink from the bag. Whenever your Stamina is at full, use Surveyor; whenever your Mana is at full, use Touch of the Land. Once it’s depleted, continue your job until either your Stamina or Mana replenishes. Mark the closest rocks that you find.”

System Message

Are you happy with your commands?

Y/N

We advise sleeping (Saving) before exiting.

Dave laid down on his bed mat. A revolving circle in the corner of his sight showed for a few seconds with a SAVED icon glowing. Dave logged off and came to inside his shrine. He sat up and looked around the room. The robot was waiting nearby with a beer and sandwiches.

“Thanks.” Zane stood. Already he’d started thinking of himself as Dave; that was going to get a bit confusing for a few days.

He took a sandwich but he didn’t feel hungry.

Weird.

He wandered around the house; his music was playing. He felt tired and let loose a yawn. Maybe it was time for some sleep. He had two hours until he could play more.

First, he went to his home office: checked emails, sent replies, and confirmed details or sent them back for revision. His whole company was paying for itself out of savings, though that wasn’t inconsiderable. They could haul in an asteroid worth as much as some superpowers yearly GDP in a week. As they were in limbo, there was the GDP of Spain hanging out on the Moon shaped as refined metals.

Everyone along the path got a part of the overall profit, from finders, to miners, to refiners, and everyone in between. They had more money than they knew what to do with, but Zane kept paying their regular wages.

His people were loyal and even if it was just a pittance of what they normally got, it was the premise of it all. It was also why so many of them were willing to move if the company moved.

He’d been going through reports on the Japanese delegation’s visit when he stretched. It was odd; it felt as though he’d gotten his second wind. He yawned as if he had just woken up from sleep instead of been heading to bed.

“Jackie, coffee please, and get Suzy to contact me when she’s up. Give her a few hours at least. None of that waking her up immediately crap!” Zane said.

“Yes, sir,” Jackie said.

Zane saw bright lights down his neighborhood. Someone was throwing a party, it seemed. Lights came on as he walked. There was a time when he would have wanted to go to a party like that. Now, well, he was more interested in getting back into Emerilia.

His hunger fell away; in fact, he felt pretty satisfied.

“Hmm,” Zane muttered, drinking his coffee.

“Something the matter, Mister Zane?” Jackie asked.

“No, nothing.”

“How was your game?”

“Good! Exciting—feels so real! Let me know as soon as I can get back in. I don’t have much work left to do anyway.” A smile spread across Zane’s face. He was excited to see what zombie him had been up to!

“Yes, Mister Zane,” Jackie said.

Zane drank his coffee and wandered around his house. Finally, he gave in and headed down to his sanctuary and started to look over people’s attempts at crafting.

He rolled his shoulders, both them and his back getting tight. Must be from sitting in a damn chair all the time.

“Hey, Jackie, look up the wikis on crafting. Specifically, I want to look into house building.”

“Certainly, Mister Zane. Would you like diagrams as well?”

“You know me too well, Jackie.” Zane smiled as holographic images floated around.

She showed him how to build a basic house; he went into defenses as well as farming and a bit about smithing. Although he could wait to learn it in the game, the lock picking had really showed him that prior knowledge really did help.

“The five hours is up,” Jackie said.

The tension was still across his body. He’d been focused on gathering information but it felt as if he’d been working out. “Thanks, Jackie!” Zane was only too excited to jump into his chair and pull the headset back on.

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