Chapter 8: Trust is something earned, not given

Being sent on a witch hunt is all fine and dandy, right up until you see their handy work for yourself. At least that is what Durabo concluded as he watched the seven great iron cages with a quiet sense of dread while the shadows came out to play.

Now what elicited this dread in him was not the cages themselves, although they were big ugly cages wrought from rusted and pitted pig iron. No it was as one might have guessed their contents. Inside the cages were seven people, well what was formerly people fast becoming something else. Both young and old, male and female, all turning into something else. Something beast like, massive and monstrous. The tearing of flesh, growth of fur and natural weapons was understandably quite painful for the victims subjected to the transformation.

Yet what made Durabo truly fearful was not their pain albeit horrible, it was the knowledge that a witch capable of this sort of curse was incredibly powerful. This could prove to be a more troublesome task than first anticipated.

While he stood there lost in dark thoughts he heard a slight clearing of a throat. The same sound used by people all over the world to call attention to themselves.

He turned around and found himself facing a young woman, red eyed and harried looking. Although her natural beauty was quite apparent even tarnished as it was.

“I’m sorry miss, I was stunned by the horror before me and didn’t notice you.” Durabo said while he, with the help of his stat, kept his face and tone neutral.

She looked him over for a moment before answering, even in such a state the NPC gave him a once over.

Her sad brown eyes studied the cages for a moment before replying.

“Polite for a traveler.” Her gentle almost inaudible voice said. “If you’ve come seeking adventure, there is little of that left in this place.”

For a moment he contemplated telling her, he had come to solve this problem, then he stopped himself.

According to the Codai a witch capable of this curse, would have a class of at least adept level if not higher. For the moment he did not have the power to defeat a witch of that level in single combat, therefore tipping the witch off too his purpose would be a bad idea until he had a better grasp of the situation.

“Well, I came here simply as a stop on my way to the north.” He flashed her a small smile. “But what kind of adventurer would I be if I didn’t try to help this village?”

She almost smiled at his words, then she her eyes glanced at the cages and her face froze.

“I’m sure a lot of the villagers can use your help. “ Her voice trembled as she spoke, and the tremble became even more pronounced when she continued. “I’m afraid that my family trouble is too big for any one person to solve. Even though we know who did it.”

That was surprising, he would gladly take her suspect, but once burned twice shy. From now on he would know the motivations of those giving him info before trusting said info. Besides it’s almost too easy to just get handed the name of the witch not even ten minutes after he sat foot in Fursreach.

“I hesitate to ask, but would you care to explain?” Durabo said, his face grim. It didn’t need mentioning that anyone would ask that when confronted by the sight of the cages.

Her hands balled into fists gripping the rough homespun of her winter dress as she answered.

“My name is Lisette, and if you want the story come with me.” Lisette said, then spun around on her heels and headed for the log house next to the biggest one in the town. Smoke curling its way out of the small stone chimney peaking out through the thatched roof.

She was clearly a person of status in Fursreach since her house was one of the biggest and most well built in town.

As Durabo followed her through the door and into the small hallway he noticed that Lisette took of her shoes so he did as well before following her into the small kitchen. The kitchen had a small oaken table with a bench on one side and small stools on the other. Durabo decided that sharing a bench with Lisette would not be advantageous and sat down on the stool opposite her instead.

“Well the one behind this is a local girl.” Lisette said and her voice turned sour. “Because my husband married me not her, Rosalee cursed him and his family. They were merely childhood sweethearts and she still expected to marry the future Speaker.”

Durabo’s intuition twinged as Lisette spoke, indicating something didn’t add up. He just couldn’t pinpoint what yet. He had questions, and he had every intention of finding the answers before killing the witch. There was still almost three ingame weeks before the time limit of the quest was up and he fully intended to use that to train before confronting the witch. Well that and figure out what was going on here, since he would never take a quest at face value anymore.

“I saw seven cages not one, who else did she curse?” Durabo asked, although he already had a good guess.

The witch had cursed one of them with a bloodline curse, as evident by the family resemblance between most of those in the cages. Well the family resemblance before they turned into ravening beasts.

A small tear drop appeared at the edge of Lisette’s left eye as she replied.

“Not only my husband has she cursed, but also my children as well as my husbands parents and grandmother.” Lisette said and then continued with an oddly regretful voice. “I’m the only one with the family name Blackbriar that hasn’t been cursed. Yet I can’t do a thing about it”

At the end of her last sentence Lisette started sobbing quietly, her eyes staring into nothing. Whatever emotion or thought that had driven her to speak to him had clearly lost the battle with the complex swath of emotions anyone would feel in her current situation.

Durabo felt a sympathetic pang of pain in his own heart, how would he feel if everyone who meant something to him suffered while he stood by able to do nothing but watch? In his opinion Lisette probably handled it better than he would, and if anyone told him she was a mere program, he would dare them to say it to her face, right after having given them a taste of Fire.

He pondered for a moment, and then concluded that she would likely want some privacy. He therefore stood up and slowly left the house, trying as best he could to leave quietly.

Now it was probably too late to hunt, and it would be a waste to do so if he could get a quest for it tomorrow anyway. So for now he would try to find an inn, a trusty source of both food, gossip and shelter.

Fursreach was a small hunting settlement, and back on earth, towns with less than a hundred inhabitants would never have an inn, yet Nexus being a game world resulted in there being one right next to what is presumably the Speakers log house.

To his surprise Durabo found that the taproom of the inn had people in it. Well customers to be exact he expected there to at least be an innkeeper present. The five forlorn people nursing some stale brews all turned to watch him the moment he opened the door. Clearly they were all regulars and no more people used to show up this time of day.

Durabo just gave them a polite nod and headed for the bar where a young man stood, polishing a glass with a white piece of cloth of all things. The cliche was oddly reassuring for Durabo

“Evening, would it be possible to rent a room for a while?” Durabo asked, while studying the young innkeeper.

The man looked him over, and as always there was a sense of scales weighing him behind the young man's eyes.

“Well it will cost ya some coin, but it’s possible.” The innkeeper said, then asked. “What brings an elf like you all the way up here from your cozy Tower?”

Now that was a surprise. That he was an elf was clear, pointed ears had a way of making that obvious. The surprising thing was the fact a relatively sheltered innkeeper was able to spot that he was mage.

“Coin is no problem, and if you need a deposit I’m more than willing to put one down as well.” Durabo said and then a hint of mirth crinkled the corners of his eyes as he continued. “How did you know I was a mage?”

“Well I have a touch of the sight and you’re brimming with mana.” The man grinned while answering proudly. “Now I just need two silvers and I’ll get you your room key. Oh and I think mom still have something hot in the kitchen if you have a need for something to eat.”

Durabo took a the coins out of his inventory and handed them over while he considered the offer of hot food. He had no idea when he would get his hands on more money and truthfully he only needed to stave off the decline of his satiety, but like most people he enjoyed warm food and good drink more than some dried jerky or other alternative semi preserved food. In the end it wasn’t that hard of a choice, he had plenty of gold from having monopolized a dungeon and he wanted to enjoy the little things in this game as well as the big ones.

“I would love some hot food.” Durabo said smiling, and then added. “Can I get it sent to my room?”

“Sure, It’ll be about ten minutes before I bring it up though.” The young man said, then put forth his hand. “By the way my name is Lucas.”

Durabo just stared at the proffered hand for a moment, and then force of habit kicked in making him shake it.

“Durabo, nice to meet ya.” He said, slipping into the more informal mode of speech he uses in the real world.

Durabo got an odd look from Lucas as he did so, a hint of surprise evident on the NPCs face.

“Well your room is just up the stairs third on the left.” Lucas said, the hint of surprise still on his face as he left to go get his food.

Lucas was not the only one feeling something was off, how come he hadn’t just shaken the hand like a normal human being? Well that might actually be it, like a human being. Thinking it over he could only name two elves and both were someone he was more than familiar with. Well one was a colleague and the other something else, a deep breath and his heart once more calmed along with his mind. Durabo only spent eight real life hours a day in Nexus, yet that resulted in him spending a day ingame for every day he spends in the real world. Clearly the habits off his new second home had rubbed off on him.

While he pondered these things, Durabo ascended the narrow wooden stairs and found his new room. Now the room was just that, a room. No more no less, a small bed with the classic white linens and a small rug placed right beside it between the door and the bed. Everything made of the same light colored wood as both the house itself and all the other furniture around. It actually looked a little like a Swedish log house.

Durabo moved the soft rug a little further away from the bed and sat down on it, settling into the now old and familiar lotus position. He would have time to come up with a plan for what needed to be done during this nights meditation before dinner was served.

Before heading up here in the cold north he had absorbed some new books on magic into his grimoire. Two of them had special relevance to what he would be doing for the rest of the night. One was the book about split streams and drawing more than one type of mana from his mana pool at a time, the other was the book about Ice magic.

Since he was in the north anyways, he might as well grab the chance to get ahead in the type of magic that was reinforced by the climate instead of using one that is weakened by it.

To understand how Ice magic works, one would first have to understand how the mana pool of all living beings work or some of its limitations at least. Well how the mana pool of all normal living beings work, there must be exceptions out there somewhere.

At any given point in time two types of mana is all that can be pulled from the mana pool. Why is this relevant one might ask? Because Ice mana is really just a combination of Fire and Water mana. The plan for tonight should be to find the best type of Ice mana for direct damage attacks, that is the Ice mana with moderate to high durability and high sharpness.

A knock sounded on the door, a moment before it opened and Lucas stepped in with a tray on which something smelled delicious. He placed the tray right in front of Durabo and straightened his back before heading for the door.

“Thank you Lucas, it smells absolutely delicious by the way.” Durabo said as he opened his eyes and looked up at Lucas.

“I thought you were meditating, so I didn’t want to disturb you.” Lucas answered then added with a grin. “And of course it smells delicious it my ma’s long simmer stew.”

Durabo couldn’t help but smile a little at the young mans obvious pride in his mother's cooking, it reminded him of his own near worship of his mother’s home cooked meals.

“Is it alright to come down with the tray tomorrow or do you need it when I’m done?”

“Tomorrows fine, I’ll just wash it first thing along with our own bowls.” Lucas said and then left closing the gently behind him.

After Lucas had left, Durabo took the white cloth away from the bowl and took a sip of the ale in the mug beside it. The smell of old fashioned stew and the earthy taste of a good dark ale lit a fire under his hunger and he consumed all of it within five minutes. He was forced to admit that Lucas’ mom did indeed make a mean stew, it might even come close to his own mother’s.

Done eating he once more closed his eyes and sought out the place within himself where he could make new spells.

As he had gotten more experienced in meditation time had started to lose all meaning, so he was by no means surprised when it felt like days before his five minutes to log off alarm sounded. He was just about to lay down on the bed and log off when he realized that he wouldn’t be back before a day had passed. So with a certain amount of haste he ran down the stairs, placed the tray on the small bar counter and hurried up into his room and lay down on the bed, just as he was forcefully logged off.

********

Sebastian logged into DTUs teaching space in the hub and quickly found a place somewhere in the back of the lecture hall he was assigned today. While he did spend a lot of time in Nexus it had not impacted his grades notably and he had little difficulties following any of the lectures or completing their assignments.

Today they had a lecture on the finer details regarding the time dilation of capsules and what it might mean. It was something he found quite interesting so he was immersed in the words of the young woman giving the lecture, when he sensed someone sit down in the chair beside him. He turned his head about to give the customary head nod to his fellow student when he saw who it was.

“What can I do for you today Michael?” Sebastian asked, his voice and face neutral.

Michael raked his right hand through his shoulder length brown hair, a nervous tick of his, and then seemed to steel himself as he answered.

“Kevin and I have thought things over and we might’ve been too hasty when we left you out.” Michael said, and continued with a small hopeful smile. “We were kinda hoping you would be willing to patch things up. Twelve years are a long time to just throw away over a disagreement.”

Four months is a long time to think about things, especially when he had used about the same amount of time in Nexus. His anger had subsided quite a bit, on the other hand he had some time to think about their friendship and a few things had become apparent.

Sebastian locked his eyes upon Michael's warm brown eyes and asked.

“What has changed since you two come seeking my friendship once more? Let me guess you need me for something or at least think I could provide you with some advantage.”

Michael looked hurt as he answered.

“I admit we were wondering whether you played Nexus and hoping you would join us, but for me at least that’s secondary to getting my old friend back.”

Seeing the look of both hope and hurt in Michael’s eyes Sebastian determination faltered.Then something occurred to him.

“Why would you want a mage on your team?” Sebastian asked his steely eyes piercing.

“Hah I knew it.” Michael said with a huge grin, his old self appearing for a minute. “I’m sorry to say it Frost, but someone beat you to the punch.”

Sebastian couldn’t keep the frown of his face.

“What punch would that be?” The frown coloring even his voice.

“The one where you prove to us and the rest of the world that we were idiots for ditching you because you would choose to be a mage.

There have been a few gameplay videos uploaded in the last month by a group of mages calling themselves The Prime Elements, they’ve cleared content that no one else would have been able to do. Frankly they terrify me, especially their leader Gaia. ” Michael shook his head and took a breath before adding. “Well them and others have proven mages are just as useful as every other standard class, they just take a little longer to get off the ground.”

Sebastian had for a bit forgotten the simple fact that for a decade Michael, Kevin and him had been inseparable. Of course he knew that Sebastian had set out to prove them wrong.

That someone else had already done it for him drained a lot of his motivation for being the best mage he could be. With a thorough mental shake he got himself together and his mind found it usual equilibrium. He would deal with his former friend first, then he could get down to figuring out his new goals and motivations.

“So now you come wanting to be friends again, since it has been proven I could be of use ingame?” Sebastian couldn’t keep a hint of anger out of his voice as his eyes grew stormy.

“Come on man, it’s not about that. “ Michael said, his voice entreating.

“Well if that’s the case I’ll consider it, but know that I won't under any circumstances play Nexus with you. You blew that chance.” Sebastian said while smiling, but not a friendly one rather one that showed his incisors.

Michael studied his face for a bit, then nodded. Clearly he could see that he would get no more than that out of him at the moment.

*******

Durabo logged back into the game to the warm glow of the afternoon sun through his rooms window. As well as a message floating in the air in front of him.

Update 01.00.00Gateway To Nexus has now been updated with its first ever update to ensure that the players can play the best game possible.

Due to player feedback indicating a large amount of the games difficulty lies in the lack of sound information and not the content itself which is not what we wanted from this game.

The greatest challenge of a game should be finding solutions to problems by cooperating with fellow players and using your resources in creative ways, not trying to figure out how the most basic things in the game actually works. Therefore a large amount of content has been changed so as to increase transparency as well as a new game manual have been released.

The game still has mysteries even when it comes to skills, but they are no longer something that are integral to the game. Those seeking the thrill of discovery and experimentation still have the chance to do so, but players are no longer forced to.

Examples of changes:

All skills text now include a section called Factors indicating how the skill was acquired as well as its progression.

Class change notification now shows the class information for the available class.

Quests now indicate the probable rewards and not only the ones you have negotiated or been informed about.

Quests also have a recommended level to indicate the difficulty of the quest.

Update screens can now show what activities led to the increase if enabled in options.

A myriad other things have been changed as well.

The details of the changes and reasoning can be found online on our website, as well as through customer service.

Reading the message Durabo nods to himself, smart company. No one likes to be frustrated just because they can’t activate a skill or find a class. This way the true challenge comes into focus, be it how to defeat a certain boss or how to make the perfect weapon.

Even though he hadn’t found a new reason to play this game yet, he was not the type to leave a task undone that he had committed to.

First up, leveling so he actually had a chance against this witch.

To make the leveling faster he went down to the notice board in the inn. Notice boards in the game was a way for NPCs to recruit people to do their quests, They could be found in inns and market squares around Nexus, basically a quest hub.

He had already decided that the quest he would take should be hunting, extermination and all other types of quest that gets him into combat. That would reward the most exp as well as make him improve his skills the fastest.

Looking at the board he started to regret that decision, since every single quest involving the killing of a beast required you to take the carcass back to the city for consecration. Apparently the speaker had to talk to the beast spirit and get it too rest in peace before you could do anything to its body.

That part of the quests really put a twist in his plans. On the upside all quest would be turned in at the square after the consecration ritual at midday.

There were standing quests asking for wolves, snow hares and rabbits, snow leopards and snow foxes. The quest rewards per carcass so it should be farmable. Besides it makes sense for a fur trappers village to need creatures that normally provide fur. There was also a quest to exterminate a nest of Black Bloods to the east. As well as quests to kill special beasts but they were way out of his league at the moment.

Well the Black Bloods was definitely a go since it only required the gem like substance from their brains as proof, thereby making that the easiest one to do.

Now Durabo had at least the semblance of a plan. He would head east and kill Black Bloods until he hit the early forties level wise and then he would travel back towards Fursreach, along the way back he would kill and collect any of the beast that where on the farmable list until his inventory was full. This would both serve to raise his level to the bare minimum as well as hopefully gain him the trust of the people living seeing as he would have helped them contain a threat in the form of Black Bloods.

After his run in with the Bloods in the depths below the library Durabo had done what he always does, and read up on his homework. In this case Bloods and how they function.

There was a lot of different strains among them including elemental variants, yet at their core they all came from the same base stock, the grey skinned bloods like the ones he encountered. The type of nest all depended on their Broodmother, for it was from her genetics that all the others were made, if she was born a variant her whole nest from the lowliest to the biggest would become variant of the same type.

As a matter of fact he found the Bloods to be quite fascinating, seeing as they reminded him of a cross between the insect like species from an old school RTS game and goblinoids from fantasy.

That fascination might also be a big part of his reasoning for heading towards their nest first, seeing as he has never fought them when they had a Broodmother.

Problem was how the hell would he get there, he could of course run but that was a highly inefficient mode of transportation, even though it was good training. Then again the whole reason that they wanted them gone or culled was because the nest was no more than two days travel by foot away. Meaning the village was within the rooming range of some of the bigger and more brutal types of Bloods when the nest got to that point in its cycle.

In the end it all came down to money, as with so many other things in this world. He would take a look around Fursreach and see if someone had a mount or something like it for an affordable price.

Plan now set he walked away from the board after accepting all the farmable quests as well as the Black Bloods one, and walked over to the counter. This time it apparently was Lucas’ shift seeing as it was a twenty-something years old woman standing behind the counter.

“Hi there, my names Durabo.” Durabo asked her, a small smirk lifting the corner of his lips as he saw her look him up and down in a way that suggested something besides professional interest. “Mind if I ask you a few questions?”

“Not at all, ask me anything you like.” She answered smiling. “And you can call me Anna.”

“A pleasure to meet you, Anna. Now do you know where I can acquire a mount of some sort or some other form of transportation?”

Anna looked pensive for a moment, clearly thinking about something more than just a mount.

“Well, I might know where you can get one. Problem is it’s a Hawthorne mount, and they are no longer sanctioned by the speaker.” Anna said, clearly not comfortable giving him that tip.

Durabo smiled a boyish smile and said with a hint of mischief in his eyes. The speaker did not frighten him in the least.

“I’ve never been one to follow the rules too closely, where might I find the Hawthorne’s?”

Anna studied him for a bit, clearly deciding whether to tell him or not. Then she breathed a small sigh and told him.

“If you’re determined, I’ll mark her house and ranch on your map. Don’t get your hopes up though, apparently there was some plague or something amongst the stock some years ago.”

“Thank you Anna, I owe you one.” Durabo said with a wink and a smirk.

The blush all the way too her ears seemed to suggest what she would like to do with that favor.

Durabo’s habit of training his charm skill and charisma stat every chance he got seems to be working well, almost every female NPC reacts to him in some way now. Well flirting had always been something he enjoyed, so he would probably be doing it anyway even if he didn’t get anything but fun out of it.

His map was something new though, he didn’t think the game had one. Yet when Anna fiddled around a bit a window appeared before them and she marked the ranch at the edge of Fursreach on the very basic but still functional map.

It took Durabo an embarrassingly long time to figure out that this was probably one of the many changes the update had made to the game. He thanked Anna once more and then walked out of the inn. First thing he did was not to head towards the north where the Hawthorne ranch where, no it was to open the map once more and check it out.

What he saw surprised him a great deal. The map might seem utilitarian here in the north, but everywhere he had been personally had greater details, equal to what a normal map would have based upon basic observations. What really got him riled up though was the map of the Catacombs, every thing was there, all the measurements taken by him to the best of his abilities with cartography.

His interest and curiosity now thoroughly peaked he opened up his info on his cartography skill.

Cartography(Passive)Rarity:UncommonRank:NoviceLevel:16 23%Description:Effects:You have mastered the art of making simple maps and have learned to make a great variety of maps. As well as using different tools in order to make precise maps with a great amount of information.

Sub Skills:

Auto Mapping(Passive):

Factors:

Taught by the Adventurer’s Guild in VetasAble to use complex tools of the trade.

Able to create a variety of maps.

Durabo couldn’t help a smug smirk from appearing on his face, and then he thought:

‘Show skill: Auto Mapping.’

Auto Mapping(Passive)Rarity:RareRank:Sub skillLevel:N/aDescription:Effects:You are able to gather and record information subconsciously on your minimap.

Factors:

Gained by having the Cartography skill as well as the Subconscious Note Taking skill.Your minimap will automatically be updated with all pertinent information.

His face froze, she was the one responsible for him having that skill. Yet another thing to remind him of her.

A few deep breaths and his mind fled into the calm of serenity. He had things to do, monsters to kill and while he could not make his feelings disappear he could make them insignificant, at least for a little while.

Durabo’s mind once more nominally calm, he headed towards the northern edge of Fursreach. The Hawthorne’s had mounts to sell, and he planned to buy one if he didn’t have to sell his arm to pay for it.

Five minutes later he found himself in front of yet another of the ever present log houses. This one if anything bigger than the speakers. Behind it was a big barn looking thing that might be the stable made of stone. Well if one needs to house, big and ferocious beasts with different abilities scrimping on the materials might not be the brightest of ideas.

He had barely knocked on the door when it opened and a young woman with mousy brown hair and a soft face answered it.

“What do you want?”

Durabo surprised by her hostility stalled for a moment, speechless. Until he realized that not everyone would be friendly, and it wasn’t necessary for them to be so.

“Well I was hoping to purchase a mount from you.” Durabo said and then added with a small smile in an attempt to charm her. “That is if you are miss Hawthorne?”

She froze for a moment, a hint of some deep emotion flickering across her face. In the wake of this emotion her anger seemed to only have increased.

“I have no mounts to sell, least of all to a traveler.” She said seconds before she closed the door on his face with more a bit more force than was strictly necessary.

A big sigh sounded in the frigid air. That had proven to be a big waste of his time he couldn’t help but conclude.

He checked his minimap once more, and then set out towards the local nest. If it was impossible to get a mount, he would simply have to run.

*******

Durabo stood on a small rise, looking down on a big round opening in the earth bathed in the cool morning light. A whole lot of the goblin like Bloods were going to and from the tunnel, dragging kills and the like down into the depths. No doubt in order to feed their Broodmother.

They were all naked as the day they were spawned, and their skin wasn’t the grayish green that he had seen before. No they had white skin, with hints of purple at their joints.

If it weren’t for his Third Eye he might have wondered about that, but with it he could clearly see the deep purple light of mixed Fire and Water mana flowing through their veins. This nest wasn’t just a nest, no it was a nest of Ice Bloods.

He almost felt regret for the fact he had to kill the lot of them, they were a rare breed.

Then again, had they been normal Bloods this would almost have been too easy, he had only seen a few of the orc like Bloods. Indicating that this nest was a young one, if they weren’t resistant to his new favorite magic they would have no chance at all.

The rise he was on was about forty meters from the opening, meaning that the Bloods were barely within reach of his magical might.

With some sigils and a two second chant Durabo cast two spears of clear blue ice towards the cluster of Bloods below, killing two of them instantly.

The plan was for them to now come running at him all at once, well all the ones in sight while he rained down death upon them. All the Bloods he had met until now had been ferocious mindless beasts unless under the direct control of an elf.

Things did not go as planned, instead of the twenty plus small Bloods rushing him they all turned around and headed towards the tunnel the moment the bodies dropped. Eerily in step with each other.

That gave him the hint he needed to figure out their behavior, the god damned Broodmother. The ones he fought had all been without a mother, of course they would behave differently.

Well a new plan would have to be enacted, this Broodmother could not be too experienced, else she would have simply swarmed him instead of retreating to protect her underlings. If she wanted him to come down there and get her, she was gonna be more than a little surprised. As if he would step foot in there without knowing what awaited him.

Oh well, time for some good old school sieging.

With his eyes constantly moving he walked down the small hill at a leisurely pace. When he got to the two Bloods he drew his knife split their skulls open and dug out the big crystal filling almost their entire cranial cavity. Removing the small amount of viscous brain matter surrounding them in the process. Looting was definitely not always the fun and rainbows people make it out to be.

Done with the gory stuff for now he once more rose and walked closer to the tunnel entrance. About the size of a small gate albeit rounder and with more jagged edges. How the hell had they made a nest in this densely packed earth and bedrock? It did not look like it had naturally formed.

When he stood just inside the entrance on the steep ramp going down and looked at the almost horizontal edges it made sense. Toolmarks were clearly visible and seeing as all the Black Bloods he had ever read about didn’t use tools, it could only mean this had been done by something else. Perfect.

With a loud thump he placed his biggest earth wall as a lid and set out in the same direction as the tunnel were headed. If this cave had been made by intelligent beings there must be at least one more exit, he needed to find it and set up shop there as well. If he played his cards right he wouldn’t even have to kill all of them in order to loot them. Judging by the influx of food he saw, they had a rather high consumption of it.

It took him half a day to find the other entrance, it was not in a direct line from the other ones tunnel, instead it was south a bit and hidden in a small valley half a kilometer away. Durabo put a lid on that one also and then sat down to await the return of the Bloods out hunting.

Regrettably he could not use the time to meditate, he no longer had any awareness of his surroundings when doing so.

He was counting on the Broodmother being naive not stupid. The only chance she had now was to kill him, and even a child would realize that.

Since he had been the last thing the Bloods saw before retreating it would be a logical thing to conclude he was behind the blockades, if so might there not be a chance they would disappear if he died?

As he sat there with nothing better to do, he pondered what reason he had to keep playing the game. Since he had decided not to play with his old friends, and the world already knew the worth of mages he felt like a rudderless boat, adrift without destination or purpose.

By the time the sun set he had come no closer to an answer. The drive to become the best had been lost, it no longer mattered. On the other hand it was also a weight of his shoulders, he had never cared much for the limelight, he always thought being in it tended to blind you to too many things.

When dusk turned to true dark he cast a spell, one that acted as a normal campfire, just without the firewood.This Broodmother might be really clever waiting for him to get tired and less alert before initiating the attack. That or she was stupid enough to already have all her Bloods inside.

There in the dark, he sat not watching the fire and thought deep thoughts. Not about his purpose for that line of thinking clearly would have no end anytime soon. No he thought about all the different things that could be done with magic. He thought of healing and curses, debuffs and dots. Trying to figure out what made those spells tick. For if this game was in any way, shape or form like most other VRMMORPGs the four elements should be the basic building blocks of all magic. Well Mana would be the most basic, but that were neither here nor there. If so he should be able to do spells that had at least some of the same characteristics as those magical abilities.

When he thought that last thought his passive twigged, clearly stating he was onto something, just as he was about to chase down that though he heard the sound of snow being deformed. The advantage of a magical fire, soundless if one wants it to be.

He stood up and found himself surrounded by a hundred or so Bloods. Just at the edge of the fires light. He really should have thought this thing through. They might all be level ten or below, but a hundred of them could still kill him.

Durabo couldn’t help a grin from appearing on his face. Now this was going to be a battle.

As if the Bloods knew what the smile meant, their ghostly white shapes rushed him from all sides.

Durabo threw up walls of ice, diverting them, making them come at him from one place, in the one opening he then made clear ice appear.

After that it was basically a turkey shoot for him as they rushed him across the slippery surface. He could hear the scratching of small claws on the walls around him, but he knew they would not fall any time soon. He killed them two at a time with ice spears, and if they came within ten meters of him they got pushed back with an Air spell. After twenty of them were killed that way they withdrew.

They were not far away though, he could hear them behind his walls of Ice.

This would be the point in time where things could get interesting. He did not think the Broodmother would let him be or give up, she knew that if she didn’t break him here and now she probably never would and that would be the doom of her nest.

All motion behind the wall stopped. The thought of the Broodmother deciding to give up crossed his mind, the the first Bloods appeared over the rims of his walls. There feet barely hit the ground before the rushed towards him. Dashing across the ten meters between them and him. He killed two with his Ice spears spell and then started casting the second spell just as three more appeared over the wall.

The sound of his pulse sped up in his ears. He might have underestimated this Broodmother. As the thrill of the battle started to rise within him, he quashed it. This was not the time for feelings, no now was the time for the calm of serenity.

Durabo killed two more and was then forced to use an Air spell to get some breathing space, now they were too close for spears he started using Ice shards instead. Going after their eyes and joints, hoping to slow down and hinder them.

Dodging and weaving, using an Air spell here, a patch of Ice there. His clothes started getting torn, his blood flowing, yet they paid for every drop with ten of their own.

He started missing, having to compensate with more spells for the mistakes.

His focus started slipping he reverted to using single Ice shards instead of two because he simply couldn’t handle two at a time anymore.

He could feel an ebb in the flow of opponents and saw himself surrounded by corpses. Their corpses as big a hindrance for them as for him, but they can afford to pay the price of slipping or tripping, he can not.

The arcane sounds of the rune language once more flowed from his lips, as his hands flowed through the sigils of the Ice shard spell while he dodged yet another Bloods attack. When he was finished with the spell pain seared a path through his head, and to his horror he saw the little blue bar in the corner of his vision blink. Out of Mana.

Thoughts that were so clear now turned sluggish. Resorting to pure instinct Durabo started breaking joints and throwing Bloods.

Time flowed and he found himself looking around waiting for the next attacker yet found no one alive near him.

Air rasped in and out of his mouth in big gulps, his body and clothes drenched. The two bars in the corner of his vision both blinked.

He opened his status window, and then laughed like a maniac. He had twenty HP left. So close, but man had that been fun.

Compiled gains report: 449% Experience

2% Affinity: Ice

6 Agility

12 Endurance

8 Serenity

11 Strength

7 Vitality

If you wish to see a detailed report including skill experience and factors please go look at your play logs.

Status Window:

Spoiler : Status WindowName:DuraboGender:MaleLevel:39Experience:37%Job:Silver InquisitorRace:High ElfCombat Class:MageSupport Class:NoneTitles:Firecaller, Novice Eislonien MageExpendable Stats:HP:1430HP/s:11,3MP:16981MP/s:7,1Stamina:1430STM/s:22,6Satiety:30kSAT/s:-1Basic StatsStatBaseBonusTotalAgility:7367140Charisma:551065Endurance:83083Intelligence:405129534Strength:36036Vitality:1430143Wisdom:10240142Advanced Stats:Concentration:173Serenity:39Willpower:84Affinities:Air:25%Earth:26%Fire:30%Ice:7%Light:25%Lightning:5%Mind:31%Nature:1%Water:25%Resistances:Air:5%Earth:5%Fire:11%Ice:5%Light:5%Mind:5%Water:5%

Skill Window:

Spoiler : Skill ListCombat Skills:Skill nameSkill RankSkill LvlSkill EXPControlled Manifestation: Fire (Active):Novice710%Focus: Spells(Passive):Novice1123%Grimoire (Passive):Adept1377%Intuition (Passive):Novice112%Mana Feed (Passive):Adept1439%Manifestation: Air (Active):Adept754%Manifestation: Earth (Active):Adept102%Manifestation: Light (Active):Adept137%Manifestation: Mind (Active):Novice73%Manifestation: Water (Active):Adept865%Mastery: Air Spells (Passive):Adept689%Mastery: Chants (Passive):Adept121%Mastery: Earth Spells (Passive):Adept94%Mastery: Fire Spells (Passive):Adept1296%Mastery: Hand To Hand (Passive):Novice1745%Mastery: Ice Spells (Passive):Novice1594%Mastery: Light Spells (passive):Novice1583%Mastery: Magic Staffs (Passive):Novice87%Mastery: Mind Spells (passive):Novice57%Mastery: Sigils (Passive):Adept1164%Mastery: Wands (Passive):Novice129%Mastery: Water Spells (Passive):Adept1121%Running (Passive):Adept118%Third Eye (Active):Adept977%Support Skills:Skill nameSkill RankSkill LvlSkill EXPCartography (Passive):Novice163%Charm (Passive):Novice1712%Cooking (Passive):Novice32%Language: Rune Tongue (Passive):Adept263%Meditation (Passive):Adept752%Subconscious Note-taking (Passive):N/AN/AN/ASurvival Skills (Passive):Novice844%Tailoring (Passive):Novice10%Writing (Passive):Novice1836%

Hi there fellow penguins.

Long time no see, or write…

I will not apologise for my long absence as this is a hobby and something I enjoy, not a job. That being said I will explain. I just started going to uni and the 50-60 hour weeks has left me drained and a tad bit myopic.

Good news though, I am now back and ready for action and do hope you will still read my story even though it hasn’t updated for so long.

I have made a slight update to my way of handling skills. I tried to avoid sub skills as they are a pain to handle but have now included them. This has forced me to change one skill as far as I know, but there might be one or two more of those directly mentioned in the story that should be changed.

The text describing the grimoire skill in chapter 2 has been changed as a result.

I have also been doing some hardcore worldbuilding and planning while I was away and I look forward to telling all you penguins my story.

The promised info page will go up at some point this week, but it will not contain anything near all the info regarding skills at once.

I will instead try to do a little bit of work on it every once in awhile.

Now see ya around penguins, and as always I hope you enjoyed my humble story.