Chapter 4: Don't work harder, work smarter

Durabo once more found himself outside the library. This time he was even going to leave the plaza of the Tower for the first time since starting the game. Wise from his former folly he had decided upon a plan for the exploration and cleansing of the Catacombs. The first thing to correct was his lack of knowledge in regards to the Catacombs, he was therefore on his way to the Adventurer's Guild. A Guild comprised of people with a support class featuring skills helpful in the exploration and mapping of exotic places. His death could perhaps have been avoided had he but possessed a modicum of their knowledge.

The Adventurer’s Guild was across the town at the southern gate. So it took him fifteen minutes of steady running to get there.

Standing in front of the Guildhouse he must admit that he was a tad disappointed. Perhaps the constant presence of the tower and it minor mirror the library had desensitized him. For the two story tall red tiled quarry stone house did not look at all as grand as a Guildhouse is supposed to in his mind. Shaking his head he put all such things out of his mind as he entered the building. It isn’t fair to compare others to the Tower, it is after all the seat of the ruling council.

The sound of a small bell chimed as he opened the wooden door, announcing his entrance to the middle aged Wood Elf sitting behind a reception desk not unlike the one in the Mage Guild. Reverting to his old polite habits he sketched a shallow bow for his elder before speaking.

“Good day to you, I’ve come to inquire about a map of the Catacombs beneath this city.”

The Wood Elf looked him over from top to bottom and then said:

“Well we have plenty of maps young one, but there are nothing beneath our fair city. We therefore have no maps of these supposed catacombs you speak of.” His tone indicated he thought him foolish at best.

Now that put a kink in things, he had expected them to have a map of them. Especially because they were the tombs of the High Elfs honored ancestors. Something is up if this guild doesn’t know of their existence. Thinking furiously for a moment Durabo came up with a solution.

“Is there a way for me to learn the art of cartography then?” He asked, smiling in an attempt to gain the elf’s favor.

“Certainly, but it will cost you a gold coin seeing as you are not a part of our guild. “ He answered a glint in his eye and hidden laughter in his voice.

He was well aware of the fact that Durabo didn’t have that sort of money. It was more than obvious from the disrepair of his attire.

Every player starts with ten silver coins, more than enough for a months supply of basic food or a basic weapon. Having spent all his time in the library he hadn’t spent a single copper of it, but there was no chance in hell that he could convince the elf to teach him for a tenth of his asking price. The elf had implied that if he joined the Adventurer’s guild he would be able to learn it for less, the only problem was whether you could be a part of two guilds. Few organisations tolerate divided loyalties.

“How is your guilds view on people being part of more than one guild?” He asked, thinking he might as well try it. Mapping of the Catacombs had the highest of priorities.

“No guilds allow for dual membership, and from your tone you are well aware of that fact. Now what guild could you possibly be a part of already young one?” The elf replied, with a look of incredulity on his face.

“Well I’m a novice mage of the Mage Guild. But I really do need to learn cartography, are you…” He didn’t get any farther before he noticed the shock on the elf’s face.

Hurriedly the elf spoke:

“I am truly sorry if I have offended you young sir. Had I but realized I would not have been so impolite.” The elf said, his tone honest and contrite.

Durabo was more than a little surprised by the development, he had not realized the impact it would have to be a part of the Guild. Yet if he had considered it for more than a moment, then how could it not have that sort of impact? Mages are the nobility of the Eislonien realm it is from them that the council is chosen and all top positions is also occupied by these learned men or variants of them. As a direct result of this, even a lowly novice like him, is about the same as a noble born in any of the human kingdoms. This led him to conclude something, the power of classes in Nexus doesn’t rest solely in their abilities.

“No offence taken, I did not declare myself seeing as I’m still new to the title of mage.” He smiled showing the elf that no harm had been done. This was going to take some getting used to. “Are there anyway I can convince you to teach me cartography, it’s quite vital to my future endeavors I assure you.”

Now the elf looked surprised, seems the shock of the title had made him forget Durabo’s original request.

“Of course I will teach you sir, and I would not even think of charging you for it.” A glimmer of the old glint entered his eyes. “All I hope for is that you remember my guilds assistance.”

“Well I’ll be sure to do just that,” he flashed a smile,” if you also provide me with the tools necessary to use the skill.”

The Wood Elf took one look at him, and then smiled from ear to ear. Seems they had an understanding.

Durabo having realized that this place could use an ally had bartered his recommendation of them for materials. Now that might seem greedy to you, but he would mention the Adventurer’s Guild when reporting the quest after it’s successful completion.

It took about an hour to learn the skill, well in truth it took about ten minutes to learn map making, but without being aware of it he had requested the upgraded version cartography. The difference lies in the tools, map making is but the ability to draw an accurate map from data given. Cartography is the ability to gather this data using various tools, and use it to make a myriad of different maps a much more advanced and expansive form of map making. Glad that his habit of using fancy words had actually proved beneficial he headed towards the market district. The next order of business was procurement of various supplies.

It took him two hours to get all that he wanted for the amount of money he had, it would never have been possible if he hadn’t used his title when bargaining with the shopkeepers. When he returned to the library it was with a lot of different items, ranging from preserved food to medical supplies in the form of bandages and salves. Nothing extreme like potions of course, they were way too expensive to be even considered an option.

Durabo entered the Catacombs a different man. Gone was the hunger and wrath of all consuming Fire. Now the halls and passages of the Catacombs will sing to the sound of all the Elements.

He barely got out of the hall that the ladder led down to before five of the goblinoid looking Black Bloods appeared at the end of the hallway probably attracted to the Light from his manifestation skill. Clearly someone was aware of the minor massacre he had caused last time, and had increased the patrol size. Yet they shouldn’t be a problem. Thirty meters between him and their iron blades.

Hands moving like flowing water and the sound of runes on his tongue, he quickly made a sphere of water appear. It zipped across the space separating them and splashed to the floor a few meters in front of the most eager of the Bloods. At the sight the forerunner sped up even further and just as his feet was about to get onto the dry floor again a fireball hit him. In the eyes. Why did he go for the eyes you ask? Well two reasons, one it’s hard to hurt someone when blind. Second, it’s really hard to hurt someone when your head is stopped, but your feet is still moving resulting in you falling on your ass.

The other four Bloods, clearly hadn’t understood the physics of it all for they kept going, and he kept shooting. Three of them got downed that way and lay writhing on the floor in agony. One got past the wet floor and came closer at an alarming pace.

No worries, with another chant and series of sigils Air flew from his hands and pushed on it’s leg just as it took another running step making it fall flat on it’s face. He finished that one of with a fireball to the back of the head. The other four he killed by materializing a rock wall above them and letting it fall. Gravity is a wonderful thing.

Something worried him though. He clearly recalled killing small Bloods like these with a single fireball on his rampage, yet these had all taken two hits to kill. That indicated they were stronger than the ones he killed before. Now monsters in Nexus like Black Bloods do not have classes. Instead they have evolution, the concern here was that the first evolution of these should happen at level ten. They should not have the health nor resistance to withstand his magic at that level. He would have to examine them to see if he could find out what had caused this. Well four of them was not really in a shape to be examined so the last one would have to do.

Turning the body over the first thing he noticed was that it wore clothes of a higher quality than he would have presumed. Not high enough to make it worth looting the ill smelling cloth but close. Unfortunately he could not see any item on the creature that could grant it skills or abilities to mitigate magic. Too bad, it would probably have made all this worthwhile, well more worthwhile than the quest alone. Nothing for it but to keep exploring and killing, this place would have to give up it’s secrets eventually. So thinking he got going again, things to do, monsters to kill.

Durabo started going through the place quite a bit more methodically than he did the first time around. He took it one room at a time, killed anything in his path and slowly but surely mapped the place as he moved along. No dramatics no fanfare, just simple and efficient work.

After every battle he would meditate to go over the details of it and if he found it necessary he would tweak his spells or make new ones. He would at the very least spend ten minutes after every battle in that way. Mainly because if there was a way to increase regeneration it would most likely be through meditation, besides it was good stat training.

Of course he didn’t do this out in the hallways, he would instead retreat to the nearest room and wall it of with Earth magic. The same tactic he used when he had to log off.

The only reason he could do it this way is because all spells had a decay rate depending on the element and the specifics of the chant. When the time is up the elemental energy reverts to mana, the same happens if the person who cast it dies or wills it to. He therefore would be able to dismantle the wall of rock at will, but the enemy would have to break it to enter.

He spent fourteen days just mapping the first floor of this dungeon that’s how massive the Catacombs are. His tactics evolving after nearly every fight in order to correct faults or weaknesses in them. His stats rose to new heights his use of magic became more sophisticated. He even begun to understand the Serenity stat and how to train it. Everything seemed to be just peachy. Or at least he thought so until he met this bastard.

In front of a doorway stood a Black Blood like no other he had seen before. Tall and slim, surrounded by what Durabo had dubbed goblins. What made him so different? One word, finesse.

Not only was he a able to command the others with astounding cunning, he was also stepping in and attacking every time Durabo showed an opening making the fight against the ten goblins that should’ve have been a cakewalk a friggin nightmare.

Dodging yet another rapier thrust from the odd Black Blood he kept his hands moving and his chant flowing, sending yet another fireball against a goblin. Thankfully killing it, nine and a bastard to go.

Why haven’t they mobbed him yet you ask?

Anticipating a situation where he getting mobbed was a possibility he had designed an earth spell to counter that situation. It was a simple wall across the hallway big enough to make it impossible for more than one to come at him at a time. The problem was that he had to split his focus between the current goblin in the opening and the bastard with his mile long rapier thrusts. Another chant complete and yet another goblin dead. Eight goblins and a bastard to go.

The true threat in this fight was the bastard, the others he would be able to kill without too much trouble given time. He would have been dead already if the swordsmen was willing to risk death in a rush against him, but he was playing it smart. Letting the goblins wear him down, probably hoping he would run out of mana before it ran out of goblins.

Now there was only two goblins left, time to enact the plan. Instead of pushing the one behind the first back with Air magic he let it come too dodging the blades of them both instead. Slowly he herded them up against the wall, taking stupid chances and dodging their blades by the barest of margins to do so. When they finally were caught in the corner he quickly fired off two fireballs killing them both for half the mana he had used till now.

Durabo took a deep breath, now only the bastard was left. And the swordsmen looking rather pleased with himself strode through the opening and stood en garde. Almost as if he wanted a fair duel.

Durabo slowly took a similar pose and then a smirk appeared on his face.

“Thank you for falling for it.“

Fast as greased lightning a fireball appeared. The Swordsmen tried to dodge, but couldn’t as he had no space to do so standing besides his wall and all. The fireball hit him in the eyes momentarily blinding him. Dodging the wildly swinging rapier Durabo fired yet another fireball spell, this time at his hand, disarming the swordsman. Fireball after fireball then rained down on the poor creature as Durabo used some of his abundant mana to finish it off.

Durabo studied the creature after having killed it, and something in the back of his mind told him something was off, the same as his passive did. He just couldn’t pin down what it was yet.

For once he actually had something worth looting. The rapier appeared to be of passable quality as did the dagger meant for the off hand of the one wielding it. So he put them in his inventory before rising to study what the creature had guarded. A doorway with a set of stone stairs leading down. Dammit he knew it couldn’t be as easy as just this floor. Just had to be more now didn’t there.

Low on supplies and the company of others after having spent a fortnight down in the dark he decided to head back up and get some more provisions, it would be nice to see the girls again also. Down here in the dark the only thing that enabled him to even remotely guess what time it is was by using his last log on time as a reference. So when he after an hour of jogging through dark hallways and rooms came up the stairs in the library to the warm rays of the last bit of sun he wasn’t in the least surprised by it.

Now having a pretty good idea of where the girls would be he headed upstairs taking the steps two at a time. Before he opened the door to the kitchenette he slowed down and strode in casually. Seeing her sitting at the table, eating at the time they would eat was rather heartwarming. As she looked up he spoke:

“Missed me?” he said, with the usual smirk on his lips and barely hidden joy in his voice.

Silendra carefully finished eating the piece of bread in her hand before answering.

“Clearly not as much as you missed us, judging by the sweat on your brow.” Silendra said, with a playful tone yet serene face.

Well if she wanted to play he was game. In no way hurried he walked slowly over to the table and sat down in his usual chair.

“You know me well enough by now Silendra to know that sweat on my brow does not equate hurried.” He replied.

A crooked smile appeared on her rose colored lips:

“I sincerely hope so at least.” Hint of forbidden thoughts in her blue eyes. “ Why are you back? Not that I am the least bit unhappy that you are.”

Taking a moment to push certain not to be mentioned thoughts out of his head he collected himself in order to answer her question.

“Well I’ve realized the depth of the Catacombs and need some more provisions in order to continues cleansing them.” He said an smirked. “ Besides I discovered to my dismay that I did indeed miss you girls company.”

A slight blush tinged her cheeks as she replied, to Durabo’s great surprise.

“It is a little late for you to go out buying provisions, but to your luck we have some in storage. “She said still blushing.”I did anticipate you would need some eventually.”

“Thank you, I’ll just grab them from storage on my way down again.” He replied with a grateful smile while rising. “Do tell Sylphie I said hi.”

First order of business done, he could now get on with the last bit. Durabo headed downstairs once more, this time to the spell training circle. He had realized that the reliance on manifestation of Light as a light source was inefficient and carried risks, so he would therefore attempt to design a light spell.

Sitting down on the hard stone floor he assumed the lotus position as he always did while meditating. He focused on his breathing trying to find the zone within himself that allowed for the designing of spells. Due to the fact he meditated a lot nowadays it took him no more than a moment. The challenge now would be to find a chant that actually works. Since he had no tomes to guide him in this he was traversing completely new ground, metaphorically speaking.

So in order to speed up the process he would use a simple sphere as the basis, the same sphere as he used for the fireball thereby making that part of the process quite a bit easier.

Now for the chant he would need light that illuminates and reveals things, almost the complete opposite of the light Sylphie uses. Wait a minute, that concept is actually pretty good, for the type of mana needed, all he needs now is something to increase the density of it thereby making it last longer. Philosophizing for a moment more he decides on some concepts and connects them with words in rune tongue. The final concept? Medium sphere worth of illuminating sunlight simple right? Gently he connected the concept and mental image.

Opening his eyes he found a sphere of light in front of him lighting up the whole room in gentle light. Seems like the concept was more than good enough for his purposes. Well two Windows did crowd his vision to confirm his success.

Spell Recorded:Your grimoire has recorded a spell.

Would you like to name it?YesNo

‘Yes’ he thought, thrilled with his entirely self made spell. ‘illuminating medium sphere.’

Due to actions taken or done you have gained skill experience and stat points+5% Affinity: Light

+ 10% Grimoire Experience

Unfortunately the meditation skill and the stats from it had dwindled with time until he now needed to spend hours meditating to receive any visible rewards, yet he still faithfully meditated as much as possible. A little is always better than nothing.

Durabo derived a great sense of pride from the fact he was able to design a Light spell so quickly. It might be the simplest in the world, and it only lasted for five minutes until needing to be recast, but it was still something he had accomplished by his own merits.

Once more he headed down into the darkness, this time while casting a light sphere every twenty meters to light his way and make the spell into muscle memory. He had not yet learned how to make spells that follows the caster else he would have made it do that but his was plenty, it didn’t put nearly as great a strain on his mana pool as manifestation did.

Although he had been gone from the Catacombs no more than a couple of hours he was wary he still didn’t know where all the Black Bloods were coming from. So it took more than two hours to reach the stairway to the second floor.

The stair were carved from bedrock like the rest of the first floor, but when he sat food on pure uncarved rock after hundreds of steps down he was more than a little surprised. A few words and sigils later his new spell lit up his surroundings.

He was in a giant cave in the bowels of the earth. Here nothing was carved, nor worked. Instead it all looked like some created in the times of the Celestial Serpents. Massive Stalactites hang from the darkness above and enormous stalagmites rose upwards from the ground reaching for their kin above. Truly a magnificent sight.

Slowly he walked among the great shapes, reverent. He would have to map this place, and it would be a nightmare to do so, but for the moment he had to secure the cave and make certain nothing in it were trying to kill him.

In the end it took him half an hour to cleanse the cave of all the evolved goblinoid Black Bloods in it. It wasn’t that hard though. The evolved Black Bloods looked not unsurprisingly a lot like orcs. Just grey skinned instead, which led him to believe that here might be some sort of relation between the two races.

While mapping the cave he found a small tunnel that led to yet another cave, so it would appear that this floor consisted of a series of caves connected with tunnels, this would require him to evaluate his current mode of combat, but it did seem like fun. Besides this was clearly not a part of the Catacombs, yet he had not received a notice the quest was complete. Something was definitely off about this whole thing.

Just as he thought like, as if something enjoyed the irony one of the weird Black bloods appeared from the shadows. This one like the other carried a rapier and a smirk on its face like it had already won. Damn he was getting tired of these smug bastards. He began a chant while doing sigils as quickly as he could, hoping to catch the Black Blood of guard. It didn’t work. Just he was about to complete his spell the Black Blood spoke, a single word and his mind was consumed by it.

Fear. Mind numbing fear.

He felt the dread of the rabbit before the fox. The complete and utter acknowledgement of his impending doom weighing down his limbs. Like a deer caught in the headlights he stood still hoping against all reason that he wouldn’t be noticed. Slowly death approached him a gleaming piece of iron in its hand. Death’s eyes promised the coming of his end. Then like a ray of light a thought rose to the front of his fear addled mind.

‘That is not death.’ At the thought he wrenched his eyes away. ‘I will not bow down to anything!’

Slowly he started to rise, through a titanic effort he forced himself to move. Now death, no the Black Blood was mere meters from him and he could feel the terror rising in him again, making his heart beat like a drum in his ear. Knowing he had little energy to resist left, within himself he looked the monster in its eyes and thought:

‘Manifestation: Fire’ And Fire answered him like it never had before. Heat flashed in front of him and he could feel his own skin melting, yet he kept the fire going. If he was to die here, he would make sure that he did not die like a sleep for the slaughter.

He saw the face of the thing before him change in the moment before he blacked out. His mind no longer able to handle the pain.

When he came to he was in excruciating pain. So he quickly boxed his body in with Earth magic and logged off.

*******

The lid of the capsule opened and Sebastian rushed out to his bathroom and looked at himself in the mirror. Slowly his hands rose to his face, touching the stubble on his cheek, assuring him of what his eyes told him. He was unburned and unhurt. He sank to the floor, taking deep breaths to slow his labored breathing.

He knew that Dragon studio had made a program to monitor your mental health. Making sure you couldn’t experience anything in their game you couldn’t handle. Yet he hadn't realized what that actually meant until now.

If they know what you can handle, they can take you right to the limit.

Status Window:

Spoiler : Status WindowName:DuraboGender:MaleLevel:13Experience:43%Job:NoneRace:High ElfCombat Class:MageSupport Class:NoneTitles:Novice Eislonien MageExpendable Stats:HP:620HP/s:4,3MP:4494MP/s:5,25Stamina:620STM/s:8,6Satiety:30kSAT/s:-1Basic StatsStatBaseBonusTotalAgility:553388Charisma:43043Endurance:22022Intelligence:16153214Strength:22022Vitality:62062Wisdom:8520105Advanced Stats:Concentration:163Serenity:17Willpower:10Affinities:Air:21%Earth:22%Fire:24%Light:18%Water:23%

Skill Window:

Spoiler : Skill ListCombat Skills:Skill nameSkill RankSkill LvlSkill EXPGrimoire (Passive/Active):Novice2310%Intuition (Passive):Novice83%Mana Feed (Passive):Adept523%Manifestation: Air (Active):Adept17%Manifestation: Earth (Active):Adept217%Manifestation: Fire (Active):Adept1086%Manifestation: Light (Active):Novice2158%Manifestation: Water (Active):Adept143%Mastery: Air Spells (Passive):Novice237%Mastery: Chants (Passive):Adept484%Mastery: Earth Spells (Passive):Novice2459%Mastery: Fire Spells (Passive):Adept764%Mastery: Light Spells (passive):Novice477%Mastery: Magic Staffs (Passive):Novice10%Mastery: Sigils (Passive):Adept487%Mastery: Wands (Passive):Novice10%Mastery: Water Spells (Passive):Adept498%Running (Passive):Novice533%Third Eye (Active):Adept12%Support Skills:Skill nameSkill RankSkill LvlSkill EXPCartography:Novice713%Charm (Passive):Novice64%Language: Rune Tongue (Passive):Adept232%Meditation (Passive):Novice2412%Subconscious Note-taking (Passive):N/AN/AN/AWriting (Passive):Novice169%

Hi there fellow penguins :)

So I forgot to ask last time so I will do so now instead. How did you guys like the reappearance of Sophia?

On another note, damn those fight scenes are hard I hope they came out alright nevertheless though.

Oh and this have been read through only once before being posted so do point any and all errors you find.

As always enjoy and comment if you like. :D