Author’s Corner: Me again! Just wanted to pop in here and mention that I am doing my best to read everyone’s comments, and if anyone has any questions or comments on the story to post it after the chapters. Since I’m basically just typing as it feels right, I can incorporate suggestions into the story pretty easily, as long as it still flows well.

And yes, sometimes typing ‘as it feels right’ ends up with seemingly stupid decisions like him choosing a Half-Elf rather than a far more interesting race. However, it also brings in things like the gene therapies which raise the chances for him to become an even more interesting race.

Before I get to the chapter, I apologize for not being able to post a second one yesterday, as the annual turkey ritual consumed much of my time.

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Once again making my way through the town, I eventually stopped to ask for directions to someone able to teach me alchemy. The answer I got nearly made me fall flat on my face from embarrassment, since apparently the alchemy shop was right next door(tree? Next tree? No, I’ll go with door) to the giant tower of magic.

Calm down Falenel… It’s not your fault.. it’s a genetic trait of men to be unable to ask for directions… I tried to make excuses for myself while saying and making my way back. At least this way, I was gaining a bit more time to wait for my magic to recover. Need to add a technique to recover faster, or learning how recovery works to my to-do list…

Once I reached the fabled alchemy station, I was rather surprised to find that no other players were lining up to learn the trade. I mean, who doesn’t want to be able to concoct their own healing potions, if there isn’t a limit to the amount of trade skills you can learn?

My question was further relevant when I got inside and noticed the busty, silver eyed elf manning the counter. Or, was she a half-elf? Her ears didn’t seem quite as pointed as the other elves, and her chest was a bit larger than normal for the race. As she saw me come in, she directed a kind smile at me. “Welcome, how may I help you?”

Her voice caused me to snap out of my mild delusions and get back to what I wanted to do. “Right, sorry. Yes, I’m interested in learning about alchemy. Would that be alright?”

She thought about it for a few moments, and then nodded her head. “Yes, that would be fine. But I need to ask a payment, first. The basic alchemy set costs 70 copper, and I’ll need you to either provide the herbs you use to practice, or pay for their cost.”

I likewise nodded, seeing that this was entirely reasonable. However, I decided to ask something else that had been on my mind. “What all does alchemy cover? Just curious.”

She smiled a bit more at my question. It seemed not many actually cared to ask for the details. “Well, as I’m sure you know, the basic levels of alchemy involve mixing together different types of potions. However, as you become more skilled, you also are able to do more. For instance, a master alchemist could make a potion, but they could also develop ways for more permanent effects. They could also make poisons, bombs, or even play with a creature’s genetic make-up.”

I blinked, a bit surprised hearing that. Obviously, I figured they could do poisons, and maybe even bombs, but this sounded like the answer to one of my earlier problems. “You mean gene therapies? I’ve heard about those, but didn’t know what kind of skill was needed to create them.”

She kept that same smile as she nodded her head again. “In order to master alchemy, it’s necessary to learn various other disciplines, such as chemistry and biology. For gene therapies, you just mix in a touch of genetics, and can get a pretty good result. The only other profession that covers all of the needed skills to make them are doctors, and they are similarly at a high degree of mastery.”

Well, that suddenly made alchemy far more appealing to me! “Thank you very much, miss.” I was just about to turn around and leave to go hunting for the resources I would need to learn alchemy when something occurred to me. “This may sound like a silly question, but are there any devices or techniques that will accelerate learning in a given field?”

I asked this because of how long I could imagine it taking someone to learn everything needed to become a proper alchemist. It could take years for someone to build up to the master level, decades even, if there wasn’t some kind of assistance. And given what I’ve learned from my fighting and magic practice, the system did not tend to help much in terms of learning. I actually wasn’t sure what the levels in skills gave at all, aside maybe a very slight bonus to success.

It took her a moment to think again before she nodded. “You must be asking about Skill Shards. Their use isn’t that widespread, and many frown upon it, but certain professions are able to create gems which hold the knowledge of a skill. This information has to come from someone that actually has the skill, and only contains that person’s knowledge on it. Say for example, I assisted in creating a Skill Shard for alchemy. Whoever used it would know everything I chose to put in the shard, and nothing else. They wouldn’t get any personal recipes, secret tricks, or anything that one typically develops when they learn the skill themselves. They also would not know anything I didn’t know about it. So… there might be a plant considered extremely common in other areas, but if I’ve never seen it, the shard I helped create would not grant them any knowledge about it.”

“I see…” It took me a moment to piece together this information. I’d probably need to go to a big city to find these Skill Shards, but I would definitely find one. Maybe there is one that I could use to make me better with the bow or something. “Doesn’t that mean that if someone made a Skill Shard for a type of magic, whoever activated that would learn all of the different spells that person chose to record?”

Her head nodded again as she looked at me. “That’s right. However, most people don’t want to take that gamble. There are only two pieces of information that can be understood from a Skill Shard without activating it if you have it scanned. The first is the type of skill put in, and the second is the level of mastery the information qualifies as. Since a single shard can only hold one type of skill, it’s impossible to sneak more in, at the same time, the scan will cross reference the amount of information stored with what is currently known on the networks to determine how high it is. When making one with a magic school, you could easily just put in your knowledge of how that school of magic works, and a few advanced tricks to make it more effective without actually putting a single spell in.”

You have learned and understood the nature of Skill Shards+2 Intelligence

I was slightly surprised by that, but decided to thank her again and leave. In my inventory was only thirty copper coins, not nearly enough for the lessons. Before leaving, I made sure to ask what kind of herbs she was looking for for the training. Then, after realizing that I had no idea what a common fireflower or blood weed looked like, I had her show me a picture, which I quickly sketched in order to remember them. Surprisingly, my little sketch actually gave me a new skill as well.

New Sub-Skill Acquired!Sketching - Basic Level 6

Exp: 50%

Used for various different skills, this ability allows you to create decent sketches quickly, capturing the image of an object or expressing an idea.

Current applicable skills: None

I wasn’t really that surprised by the skill itself. I played several artistic characters in other games, and had managed to pick up a few skills that transferred over to real life, such as drawing. What I was surprised about was the skill’s level. Rather than Beginner Level 1, like every other skill I had started as, this was Basic Level 6. Did that mean that my real life skill had managed to transfer over to the game, and that was the level it deemed I was at?

If so, this would be fairly interesting. I decided later to test out a few other skills I had picked up from games, but wanted to wait for a bit since none of them were immediately useful. In most VR games, the system would help correct mistakes when you used an attack, and only help you better visualize what it was you wanted to create for more artistic skills. So, the only skills that I managed to actually remember from my time in other games were drawing, mechanics, and hacking.

Thinking about that last one brought a small grin to my face. One of the less successful VR games was shut down just a year after its launch because its skills were too realistic, and the skills it taught included criminal ones like hacking. After the game was shut down, I actually tested what I had learned, not really thinking that it would help me at all. I was a bit paranoid, to be honest, because what I hacked was the police database, to set up a link that would warn me if they listed me as a suspect in an ongoing investigation. A few weeks later, I realized how dumb that was, and went back in to remove it. Thankfully, the cops never came busting down my door. Of course, I wasn’t really sure if hacking would work the same here, since a lot of the more advanced technology is infused with magic. Maybe advanced hacking would include magical hacks?

Back to the present, I decided to test my luck and head out of town, stopping by the quest board and picking up a horned rabbit extermination quest. Unlike the ones offering directions, the actual quests had instructions to remove the quest leaf when you accepted it.

Quest Accepted!Culling the Herd

Rank ☆ Extermination

The local horned rabbit population has started growing out of control. Hunt down at least 10 Horned Rabbits to complete this quest.

Time Limit: None

Rewards: The rabbit corpses may be sold to the town guard for a reward. Reward depends on quality and amount of rabbits.

Failure: None

I noticed the star on the quest, just like the ones that appeared for spells. However, this was an empty star, so maybe it only counted as half value? If that was the case, then this should be a very easy quest to finish.

On my way out of town, I saw other players heading in the same direction. A few of them were also holding leafs like mine, which I guessed meant that the quest was reposted for others to take. Looking through the few players, I made my way over to Jacobs. “Hey, you on the rabbit extermination?”

He looked over to me and nodded. “Yeah, and I need to find a few smaller trees. Going to try to get carpentry. Take it you’re on the same mission.”

I chuckled, nodding my head back to him. “Pretty much, but I’m looking for herbs instead of trees. I’m grabbing alchemy.”

“Feel like teaming up for a bit, then?”

Jacobs has invited you to join a party!Accept? Y/N

I smiled, and accepted his invitation. Looking at the party window, I saw that he was already level three, which irked me a little. Likely he went out and hunted a bit before grabbing a quest. “So, since it looks like you know your way around better, any idea where the horned rabbits hang out?”

“Yeah, they usually wander around in small groups a bit to the west of town. I came across a few of them earlier when I was practicing a new spell, but I didn’t know I could have turned over their corpses for a reward. Was a bit disappointed when they didn’t drop any loot.”

I couldn’t help but laugh at that. “Remember, this is supposed to be ‘completely realistic’, so it’s not like a little bunny is going to swallow a pair of boots to hand out to whoever kills it.”

He smiled wryly at the comment, but nonetheless nodded his head. It wasn’t long before we were out of the city. “So, what kinds of spells do you have? I saw you walked off with the elemental class earlier.”

“Yeah, so far it’s just a Wind Bullet, Gust, and a hold spell. I’d say I could shoot them with my bow but… I can barely hit a target when it’s not moving, and rabbits are known to be fast. You?”

“I’ve got a repulsion spell, and a slow with damage over time.”

I tilted my head at the description. “Gravity crush?”

“Pretty much, yeah.”

“Couldn’t you use that spell to do weight training? Well, once you have the mana to keep it active, anyways.” I idly thought, and heard a chuckle from next to me.

“Maybe if I was aiming to be a muscular mage. I’d rather work on combat spells for now.”

After saying that, we heard a ruffling of leaves and stopped. Off in the distance, were cute little fluffy bunnies, with a long horn on their heads that was half the size of their body. In this particular group there seemed to be four of them, so we looked to each other and nodded. Neither of us were new to games, so it wasn’t that hard to know a basic plan. I’d fire my hold spell while he launched his damage over time, and he’d keep that up while I fired my attack spells.

And, for the most part, that’s actually how it went down. I felt silly thinking about the chant I had recited over and over in the tutorial, and this time merely focused on the feeling of mana I had while casting the spell. Once I had the mana ready, I shot it down into the ground, and focused on the four fluffy sacrifices. My mana sought out nearby roots and launched them from the ground, making the rabbits try to flee.

At the same time, Jacobs was focusing his own spell, and the rabbits suddenly fell to the ground, finding it hard to stand properly. My roots weren’t as badly affected, and managed to securely wrap around three of the four rabbits. The fourth managed to escape the area of his spell before it could be caught, and vanished into a bush. Still, three out of four isn’t bad right? Now that they were held, and apparently unable to break free, I fired a single Wind Bullet at each of them, which seemed to do the trick. There was a sickening crunch from the combination of pressure from the two spells before each rabbit was dead. Unfortunately, I didn’t see the last rabbit before it charged out of the bushes, its eyes glowing red. Before I could even react, it had speared my leg with its horn. The same leg that the rat had gone for in the tutorial. The same SPOT on the leg. What is it with these monsters?!

Leg Vs. Rabbit-20 HP

Biting back the pain, I swung my dagger down at the rabbit which was thankfully stuck trying to pull itself out of my leg. Stop twitching! God, that hurts! I was able to feel every tiny movement of its horn as my dagger seemed to fall down unnaturally slow. Why does pain always make things seem to take longer? After what felt like an agonizing minute, the dagger finally finished its descent, completely severing the rabbit’s head from its neck. “God, oww, fuck that hurts.”

Jacobs, just now becoming aware of what had happened over here, looks down and goes wide eyed at the rabbit head now stuck to my leg. “Fuck, they can be vicious. Remind me to practice that repulsion spell me…”

“Yes, yes, later. Can you help me get the fucking horn out of my leg first?!” I almost growled out. In my opinion, I was handling this fairly well. I was stabbed through the leg, with the full sensation of pain, and not screaming bloody murder. What did I get myself into? Even deaths in other games had never hurt this much!

After pulling out the rabbit’s horn, I paled because another window also appeared.

There is a hole in your leg.-5 Bleed

That hole doesn’t look too good..-5 Bleed

Hey numbskull, you’re bleeding!-5 Bleed

I was at a loss for what to do, neither of us had any healing spells. And this was taking away five health a second! Another eleven seconds, and I die just from bleeding out. Did that thing spear an artery or something?

That thing speared an artery or something.-5 Bleed

Fuck you game! I did the only thing I could honestly think of, and cast my Nature’s Grasp spell again, this time on my own leg. It always works in movies, right? Cut off circulation to the injured area, and you won’t bleed out!

Thankfully, this seemed to work, because the bleeding messages stopped appearing and my natural health regeneration took over. Altogether, I had lost 40 points of health, which took four minutes of sitting on the ground to get back. I wasn’t just doing nothing though, because I was happy to receive another window when the bleeding had stopped.

You have leveled up!

I quickly opened up my character information to see what rewards I had received from leveling, before the game had a chance to find some excuse to rob me of it again. A new section had been created at the bottom telling me I had five points to spend. After debating on it for a few seconds, I dumped three points into my agility, and the last two into my wisdom, giving me…

NameFalenelRaceHalf-Elf(Woodland)TitlesN/AFame0Level 290.00%ClassNoviceHealth90/90Health Regen0.15Mana180/180Mana Regen0.05Strength12Wisdom16Agility16Intelligence18Dexterity14Charisma9Vitality9Luck14Points Remaining0