Chapter 8 – The Art of Magic

“Welcome back to Fantasy Now!” Amanda’s voice booms over a cheering crowd. Her radiant smile is entrancing her viewers.

“Tonight we got a lot of great highlights for you. We are going to see some of the first footage ever of Fantasy Royale, and we have compiled the best highlights of what has happened so far. Later on in the show, we will present some of our featured storylines and the background for them. We will also release the identities of the players currently featuring our most popular storyline so far; the Avenger Storyline!” Wild cheering erupts from the crowd. Amanda’s grin widens.

“That’s right everyone! And with me today, is none other than Logan Andrews himself. Creator and lead designer of Fantasy Royale!” The crowd start cheering at the moment Logan’s name is mentioned. The cheerful man is sporting one of his brightest smiles yet. A natural showman.

He waves to the crowd and waits for the cheering to calm down. Amanda quickly picks up the pace.

“The players connected to the game only eight hours ago, but we have already seen a lot of interesting developments happening all over the world!” The hype is building as a montage of epic scenes flash across the screen. Small warbands of undead, lizardmen and trolls can be seen marching across various terrains, wielding rusted swords and dented clubs. Groups of orcs, kobolds and humans cut down trees, build houses and mine for ore. A small cluster of harpies soars over a dense forest at night. Their eyes locked onto a small column of smoke rising in the distance.

“As you can see, the players are already hard at work making a name for themselves. Mister Logan…” She turns over and faces her guest. Once more leaning in a way that amplifies the effect of her cleavage.

“Now that the game is out, and the contestants are in game, perhaps you can finally tell us some more about how the game works?” She leans in further, putting on her best seductive smile. Amanda isn’t one to waste an opportunity.

“Please, call me Logan. I suppose I can. But you know… I don’t really feel like it!” The man spreads his arms helplessly and leans back in his chair. His youthful smirk taunting the poor girl.

Not expecting such an answer, Amanda is caught off guard. She giggles to cover up the fact that she momentarily froze. Her years of experience bearing fruits. She quickly gathers herself and presses on.

“You’re quite the mysterious man, aren’t you Logan? Why do you keep your cards this close to your chest?” She asks, lowering her voice and gives him an inquisitive stare.

Logan just stares back at her. Barely able to contain his laughter.

“There is a very good reason why I don’t share this information you know Amanda…” He says playfully.

“Which is?”

…

“It’s boring!” He suddenly shouts. Chuckling at his own joke.

Amanda’s eye twitches with irritation. She’s had to deal with a lot of difficult interview subjects during the span of her career, but none has ever gotten under her skin like this overgrown manchild.

Before she can respond, Logan continues.

“But of course I won’t leave everyone hanging. I’ll release the full ingame wikipedia online after this interview. People can read up on the game to their heart’s content.”

Amanda’s smile stiffens. She starts laughing with Logan, buying some time to collect herself. She has to get out of his pace and regain some control over the interview.

“That is some incredible news Logan! I’m certain a lot of our viewers out there are just itching to get their hands on the wikipedia. There is however, something even more interesting that has happened ingame!” Amanda directs everyone’s attention to herself. She is ready to use the ace up her sleeve.

She waits for the crowd to settle down once more.

“Only a few hours ago, we had our first battle between players!” Cheering erupts once more. Amanda’s smile widens, raising her hands to try calm the crowd. She is just about to get to the good part.

“We bring you live footage from biome D-13! We follow the player Harvalon of The Blair Witch flock who has just launched a massive attack on his unsuspecting neighbour. Let’s see how it goes!” She gestures upwards towards the large studio monitor.

The screen changes, and the focus switches to player view. This way the audience can see the game through the eyes of the player Harvalon. Gliding across the night sky behind roughly two dozen harpy warriors. The all female harpies are all nearly naked with just a tiny piece of cloth covering their private parts. They look like child size women with wings for arms and sharp talons attached to bird legs. A set of needle like teeth announces a second deadly weapon at their disposal. They are clearly a race made up of natural predators.

The camera releases from the harpy’s viewpoint and starts rotating in a wide circle around her, giving us a good look at her capabilities. The leader of this pack of hunters is geared differently than her warriors. This harpy has her talons enhanced with metal spikes, further increasing their deadliness. A leather and chainmail tunic is tightly wrapped to her body, and a small, metal reinforced leather helmet is neatly attached to her head.

This peculiar character appears to be of a fighter type, wielding good armor while also being armed with deadly melee weapons. One stops to wonder how this race even managed to craft gear with such odd hands?

The night sky is quiet, and no sound is made as the hunters prepare to descend upon their unsuspecting prey. A few shadows can be seen around a bonfire in the distance. Its fires illuminating the night sky. The owners all but oblivious to their impending doom.

Harvalon already has her plan prepared. Her advisor has carefully scouted ahead and found their target. He is located right beside the bonfire, accompanied by his own advisor. The information provided tells of a green skinned leader dressed in leather armor wielding an unknown weapon. His advisor is clearly a spellcaster but of unknown origin. The game doesn’t allow one to accurately inspect one’s opponent without getting reasonably close. Something the scouts couldn’t risk doing.

It doesn’t matter though. This is all within her calculations. As long as the player doesn’t wear plate armor, her plan has a high probability of success.

She signals for her warriors to start the assault. Quick and precise.

The harpies immediately react and make a dive towards the target. From her spot up high, Harvalon observes how the enemy’s advisor starts shouting. A couple of ice lances shooting up and impaling a few of her harpies.

Too little too late.

The rest of the harpies quickly close the distance and floods the enemy leader, tearing at his flesh. The player yells in terror as a massive wave of feathers and claws fills his vision. His own warriors run towards him, weapons in hand… but it’s too late.

With a last shriek of despair, the player dies. His half-drawn double axes slumps to the ground.

Ork’Grimlar, Orc Berserker of the Bloodied Jaw tribe met his end.

----------

*Thunk*Thunk*Thunk*

“What the fuck is that noise!?” I shout as my slumber is interrupted by an abrupt noise. Dazed, I look around and spot my merry bunch of goblins hard at work, chopping wood and raising support beams for the Granary. “Oh right…” I mutter while I let my head rest on a tuft of grass, slumping my shoulders.

Just five more minutes.

…

*Pling* a sharp noise resounds in my mind. My eyes shoot open to this unfamiliar feeling, and I’m greeted by the good old translucent blue window covering my vision.

Congratulations for surviving your first day!

Players who died during the last day:

Gimley (Dwarf) of the House Of Derpin clan has died to a cave collapse in Biome A-2.

FiftyPercentOffAllWares (Murloc) of the AtFurryFurnitureDotCom tribe has drowned in Biome C-6.

Ork’Grimlar (Orc) of the Bloodied Jaw tribe has been slain by Harvalon (Harpy) of the Blair Witch flock in Biome D-13.

Players remaining: 537/540

I hazily read through the list of players who died. My mind perks as I make mental notes of the small fragments of useful information that reveals itself. The first player, Gimley, seems to have died to a natural accident. So that’s possible huh? Geez. What an unlucky guy. I guess I shouldn’t try out new things myself.

The second guy who died makes me chuckle a little bit. How did that guy even manage to get through the selection phase? Good old fashion spam. Not even this game with its insanely tough criteria to join can’t weed out the spambots. Classic spambots. Can’t beat em. Hope it was worth it!

Oh look. He killed himself due to drowning. And he is a murloc? That’s an aquatic race… Interesting. So even aquatic races can’t breath underwater? I must admit, that’s a load off my mind. I would have severe troubles eliminating a player hiding at the bottom of a lake with my scrawny goblins. The strength of goblins are already heavily underpowered, add that to fighting underwater… useless. It’s good to see the aquatic races can’t hide underwater indefinitely.

And that leaves the third one… wait, what? Someone killed someone already? A cold shiver crawls down my spine. I figured due to the massive scale of the biome I would be perfectly safe for at least a few days. I’m such an idiot! I didn’t even put out any sentries! That poor sucker could have been me.

My eyes wander over the names of the players and their location.

D-13? … My eyes blink a few times, trying to snap my mind back to reality and out of the depths of my slumber. That’s my biome! What… who… how? I feel the panic creep into my mind, bringing chaos to my thoughts. A trickle of sweat runs down my green forehead. My avatar’s bodily functions mirroring my state of mind.

My skin crawls and my lungs are gasping for more air. I’m already on my feet and restlessly pace around the embers of last nights bonfire. It takes several minutes for me to calm down and recollect the remaining shards of my sanity.

I fucked up.

I wasn’t prepared.

One of my neighbours has already fallen, and another player has assumed the mantle of top dog. The bonus experience and loot he must have gained must be huge! What are the benefits for a leveled up player anyway? He must have gained something for first kill. What if he can now summon more units than the rest of us? That’s horrible! The rest of us must be days, maybe weeks behind! What is to stop this guy from preying on the rest of us? He is in my damned biome for fucks sake!

Once more I feel the panic creep up on me. I take a few deep breaths, trying to calm down before I waste more precious time.

How did Harvalon do this?

My mind once again peruses the information available to me. He is playing a harpy. Shit. Does this game have races capable of flying? I mentally beat myself up over the fact that I didn’t consider it at all. A flying force has always been superior when it comes to mobility and recon throughout modern history. Why not even more so in a medieval setting? I can’t picture my goblins wielding heat seeking missiles any time soon…

Hrmpf. Naah. The boon of having a flying race must come with some heavy penalizing. Elsewise, it would be far too overpowered. It’s a daring move to choose a flying race blind. Harvalon must have had a plan to this.

What is he thinking?

Mulling this question over in my mind for a few minutes, I come up with nothing. Damn. How did he do it? It’s so risky. He must have had a plan that accounts for the risk invested in it… How did he… How would I do it?

A couple of scenarios quickly pass through my mind, and I analyze the strength and weakness of each one.

There is one strategy in particular that comes to mind.

If I were Harvalon, I would use one of the most time tested strategy game tactics out there. The one popular go-to strategy in any newly released strategy game. It’s a timeless classic in its own rights. The tactic was aptly named for the game in which it was invented, late in the twentieth century.

It must have been a Zerg Rush.

The simple and brilliant strategy of spawning a massive amount of the cheapest warrior units you can muster and quickly send the entire pack of them all at once to directly target a single objective, destroying it by overwhelming your opponent before he is prepared.

Taking his flying units into consideration, and the element of surprise, this must be the best tactic to defeat an enemy with the least amount of losses possible. Ork’Grimlar probably didn’t see it coming. I certainly wouldn’t.

I’m both scared and impressed about the prowess of Harvalon. Being able to deduce this possible strategy from the limited amount of time we had to peruse the available races available to us. Genius. This player is top notch. And he is so close…

What is his next move?

I can only assume Harvalon will continue his rampage through the biome. Even accounting the losses of a Zerg Rush, considering he probably spawned close to thirty warriors, he should still have me beat in fighting force with at least a two to one ratio. Probably more.

Shit. I’m not ready for this.

The best way for someone to beat a Zerg Rush has always been to focus on strong early defensive structures. Damn. That’s not possible for me. It would take far too long, and the Harpies would just fly straight above them.

Fuck.

What else can I do? I can’t spawn an army to match him quickly enough, and what is to stop him from just rushing straight at me? I got nothing.

…

I need to hide.

The only tactic available for me is to just hide. Staying out of sight and hoping for the enemy not to single me out and rush straight at me. It’s a good short time plan, but not a good one overall. What’s to stop him from constantly harassing my troops, killing them off one by one before hunting me down en-masse?

There is no coming back from that.

I try to rack my brain for a good answer, but none come to me. It quickly dawns on me that I need more information. Harvalon could be here at any time. Although he could be attacking any of the three other players here. I hope so. I need time.

Luckily he also needs information. He needs to send out scouts and prepare his attack. Considering the time we had available yesterday after we had logged in, and adding the time spent finding his opponent… also scouting out his targets… he must have struck at night. Allright. That’s a reasonable assumption. There is a lot on the line, and a player like Harvalon most likely won’t do anything foolish by attacking without having his bases covered.

I can also assume his troops has to rest for the night. Good. That gives me more time. It’s also reasonable to assume he attacked his own closest neighbour. The logic for his next move should then be to attack the neighbour on the other side of his starting territory, securing his position with a defensive buffer incase something goes wrong. It should take several hours for him to cover this distance. He also needs to scout for the enemy’s base.

A quick estimate tells me that at best, I should have at least six hours before a potential assault.

Ok.

Time to get my ass in gear.

Looking around, I can see my goblins are all hard at work. The Granary is coming along nicely as the foundation and flooring seem to be completed. Or maybe just close to completion? No matter. They are making progress.

My lumberjacks each felled a couple of trees last night, and they are all going through the strenuous activity of stripping the branches off and splitting the log into workable lumber. This is hard work and it doesn’t look very efficient considering the axes they use look like little more than sticks with a sharp rock attached to it. Adding the fact that they also suffer a severe debuff through the ‘Weak’ racial trait, they are actually moving along at a good pace.

My foragers have collected a nice pile of roots, berries and mushrooms. Inspecting them, I check their properties.

Foraged Edibles

Consumable food. Foraged type. Increases morale by 5 when eaten for 24 hours (effect does not stack with same food type).

Degradation: ???

Ooh, that’s nice. As I suspected, it’s a different food type than the meat I started with. It gives five morale for twenty-four hours once consumed. It also doesn’t stack with the same food type. This should mean I can stack the morale buff with the meat type of food. But how? My goblins only eat one meal per day, and they refuse to eat more portions. Believe me. I tried. During my drunken stupor last night I announced that all goblins get to eat as much food as they want. I should consider myself lucky that none of them wanted more. Not even my goblins with the [Glutton] perk! Although they did eat two portions the first time they ate. Weirdos.

Hmm. I can probably combine them if I get a cook. Right. Need one of those asap!

My hunters sit by themselves by the pool of water. I almost didn’t notice them. Apparently they caught a rabbit, a chipmunk and a bird last night, and they are now busy skinning their kills and separating the meat, leather and feathers. Nice. I didn’t expect them to actually do all this, and it should help with upping my resource count. I really need to consider getting some craftsmen as soon as possible.

Sigh. So much to do…

I better check my resources. I walk over to my big pile of stuff and look it over. The pile has lessened somewhat since yesterday. A great pile of pinewood, grass and meat is gone. Some assorted foodstuffs has been added as well as a couple pieces of stone. Seems like my masons are making progress too!

The biggest decline in my resources appears to be grass. Grass is one of my most needed resources for building. Shit. I don’t have anyone to gather this, do I?

“Gut!” I yell while looking around, trying to locate my advisor.

“Not so loud youngling!” A voice shouts behind me. Pain assaults my senses as my vision goes black.

“Fuck that hurts!”

As my vision clears, I turn around and stand face to face with Gut. His hands are clenched around his wooden staff slash beating stick. I stare directly into his bloodshot eyes. Gut must have one hell of a hangover.

“What the fuck man. Djeez. I’m sorry. I didn’t see you. Calm down.” I say, trying my best not to snap back at him too hard. There is no reason to ruin our relationship before it has fully sprouted. “Our grass stock is dwindling. Do you know which workers can gather more?”

“Grr… younglings… tssk… yelling for this…” He grumbles. Clearly dissatisfied. “You need a goblin with the [Gatherer] profession.” He finally snorts.

A gatherer? Duuh. I should have figured. I actually did consider picking one of these professions yesterday, but I figured they were similar to my foragers. But wait a minute. An entire profession just to gather grass?

…

Are you kidding me? Is that even a thing? Why… An image of a goblin walking around telling everyone he is a professional grass collector appears in my mind.

Naah. There must be more to it. I shake my head.

Sigh. I’m just going to spawn one and see what he brings me.

Being a new day, I get to spawn three new goblins. I was initially planning on spawning three new warriors, but perhaps I have to give up a spot. Considering how weak my fighters are, one more shouldn’t make much of a difference, should it?

No.

I have to consider defence. I can summon the gatherer tomorrow… If I survive. I can’t allow myself to be dragged into the crafting aspects in an unforgiving game like this.

Opening my summoning list, I quickly tap the summon icon for the [Goblin Fighter]s three times. A brief flash of light masks the appearance of three new goblins in our midst. Clean slates.

Inspecting their gear, I notice a new piece of equipment. One of my goblins spawned with a cracked wooden buckler along with his wooden club. Cool! I hadn’t considered the possibility of shields on goblins yet. My first goblin tank has been born! Looking over the two other goblins, I make a note of their weapons. Another rusted spear and a dagger. A good haul all in all.

I tell them to follow me. I have a special task in mind for these little buggers.

I need to talk to Gut. I throw another glance over at my pile of resources, seeing if I forgot something.

I did.

Hardly visible, a small pile of odd looking plants are piled up behind the foraged food. I thought it was part of the food first, but these plants look… odd. The plants have thin light green stalks with leaves that look a bit like moss. A weird thing really. I inspect one of them.

Moss Stalk

Herb. Healing type. Alchemical Ingredient. Doubles natural regeneration time when ingested.

Oooh! This must be the work of my herbalist! I had forgotten about that fellow. A healing herb! Awesome! I need those. Lots of those. Gotta get myself an alchemist as soon as possible.

…

My list of goblin priorities has grown long.

…

Meh. I need weapons first I guess. At least the herbs don’t seem to have a degradation effect like the food. I’m just going to let my herbalist stack these herbs up for later use. Ingesting them seems like a waste of resources when I already have the effects from the pool of water. Anyway, time to have a good old talking session with grandpa Gobbo.

I walk about and try to locate Gut. He usually lingers close by. It doesn’t take long for me to find him, as I’m drawn in by some loud snoring near the pool of water. Really? Did he fall asleep this quickly?

…

Insomniacs everywhere must hate him.

I stand above him, attempting not to give in to the urge to abruptly wake him. Damn. Too tempting…

“Morning sunshine!” I shout softly. I’ll postpone my rude awakening schemes until he has grown more accustomed to me. There is a limit to how much of my bullshit a person can take at a time. Have to spread it around, you know?

His eyes shoot open violently. Signs of a massive adrenaline boost hitting his cerebral cortex.

“WHAT!?” He shouts at me.

Woah. If normal Gut is grumpy, it’s nothing compared to what I’m now seeing.

“I’m sorry Gut, but there are important matters we must attend to.” I tell him. Softening my approach.

“Grrr… If this is another question about your words of power…” He grumbles. “I’ll beat you until you resemble a hobbit.” His eyes pierce me. Annoyance clear on his face.

Taken aback, I try to explain about the system messages that tells of our possible impending doom. Gut raises himself into a sitting position, quietly taking in every word. I wasn’t certain he understood my explanation about the blue windows and detailed descriptions of who killed who and where. No matter, he appears to understand everything. As my explanation finally ends, I tell him of my guesses about the likely strategy of our opponent. He nods solemnly.

“This is dire news youngling…” He mutters. “We must make preparations with due haste.”

“Yeah about that…” I speak up. I turn around and reveal the three goblin fighters following me. “Think you can assign these three to sentry duty? I reckon we need to cover the approaches from our west, north and east.”

Gut gives me a cold stare. He really isn’t happy. After a moment of silence, he hobbles away with the goblins in tow, starting a long tirade about my shortcomings and the worthlessness of elves as he goes.

“You should also keep an eye on the sky. There are harpies about!” I shout after them, causing Gut to send me another glare of death. My goblins gives me a courteous nod to signal that they understand. “Oh, and stay hidden! Don’t be seen.” I add to my order. I’m not sure why, but I have a gnawing sensation in my stomach telling me it’s necessary.

Before they fully depart, another thought strikes me.

“You two.” I point to my spear and shield & club wielding goblin. “Go swap weapons with two of the other club wearing goblins.” I order them. No need to let my most powerful weapons go unused, is there?

Right.

As my goblins scurry over to the sparring area, handing over their weapons, I watch them scamper after Gut into the woods. Good. I feel safer already.

I don’t like having to use my fighters as generic scouts. This will halt their progress in advancing their proficiencies with their weapons. It’s necessary though.

It only takes a few minutes for Gut to return. The mage takes up position besides me. Mumbling a select few curses under his breath.

I do my best to hide a smirk.

“Got any ideas on how we can prepare?” I eventually ask him, hoping to derail his growling. He eyes me suspiciously.

“No, youngling. This is a trial only our Chieftain can solve. We will follow your command and help as best we can.” He says, once again showing glimpses of his sincere side.

...

Well shit. I was hoping for more.

I find myself facing a close to impossible task. I’m outmanned two to one, versus a flying opponent nonetheless. My tiny goblins are at a serious disadvantage. If it only had been a land based enemy, I could at least hide behind a goblin meat wall. Now I’m left with precious few options.

I have to consider my available options. So what do I have? Racking my brain, I come up with a small list. I have thirteen fighters, twenty workers, Gut and myself. Not the most versatile of assets. If I only had a building completed or a cave, I could hide in there, thus eliminating their aerial superiority.

My fighters only have melee weapons as well. They’re good in a brawl, but I’m lacking in anti-aircraft capabilities. Only Gut and I have ranged attacks. But I suppose that only leaves Gut, since I need to hide.

That’s it. This fight is solely dependant on Gut.

Reaching this conclusion, I do something I probably should have done yesterday. I inspect Gut.

Status Screen

Name: Gut

Race: Goblin

Tribe: Dark Fangs

Mana: 6th rank

Rank: Advisor

Class: Mage

Skills

Class skill (Passive): [Enhanced Mana Manipulation]

Spell Mastery: Level 20

-Fire Specialization: Level 15

--[Fireball]: Tier 1

--[Flamethrower]: Tier 2

--[Fire Blast]: Tier 3

-Blood Specialization: Level 10

--[Coagulate]: Tier 1

--[Bloodrush]: Tier 2

Melee Mastery: Level 5

-Staff Specialization: Level 5

--[Power Bash]

Equipment

Main Weapon: Tier 3. Enchanted Oak Staff (100%)

Secondary Weapon: None

Head: Tier 4. Enchanted Black Silk Cowl (100%)

Chest: Tier 4. Enchanted Black Silk Robe (100%)

Legs: Tier 4. Embroided Black Silk Pants (100%)

Hands: None

Feet: Tier 1. Leather Boots (100%)

Bag: Tier 2. Utility Belt (4 Slots),

Items: Mana Stone (Medium)

Woah. The information dump momentarily stuns me. I didn’t expect there to be an overview as extensive as my own. Reading through it, I can’t help but think Gut has some really badass things going on!

Like every Goblin, Gut also has an equipment tab. But unlike my lesser goblins who have nothing but worthless tier zero equipment, Gut sports some gear that seems to be superior even to my own! Tier four clothes! That’s so unfair! I’m supposed to be the boss around these parts… aren’t I?

…

Grrr.

At the very least, I have more skills than he does. Gut is only proficient at magic, whereas I can brag about several utility based abilities. He can keep his silly Fire and Blood magic. I much rather prefer to have several...

Wait… why am I happy my subordinate lacks abilities?

…

For fucks sake Greg.

Shaking my head at my own repeated stupidity, I move on and pretend those last few seconds don’t exist. I blacked out. That’s all. No biggie.

Gut has a few things I don’t. First of all, he has an item. A mana stone. Going by the logic of my gaming experience, I suppose that’s some sort of magical battery pack for spell slinging. I shrug. As good a guess as any, isn’t it?

He also seems to have a mana rank of the sixth rank. Cool! I wonder how much that is? Can I unlock it too? I really want it...

“Can you tell me of your mana rank and what it means?”

“Grr…” He grumbles at me. He takes a deep breath before he starts explaining in detail about the art of magic.

Apparently, there are twenty ranks of mana. The rank can only be increased by constant spell usage. The ranks determine how much magical power you have to cast spells. The scaling system is quite simple in fact. The magic system in this game consists of spell types of different tiers, and those tiered spells have a cost associated with them. For one rank of Mana, you can cast two tier one spells, half a tier two spell, one quarter of a tier three spell and one eighth of a tier four spell. A tier five spell requires every single one of the twenty mana ranks.

This forces the magic caster to preserve his magic as best he can, since the mana ranks only restore every morning. With a mana rank at six, Gut can cast twelve tier one spells, three tier two spells or one and a half tier three spell. That’s not a lot. Not much at all really... Although Gut guarantees me that the potency of his spells more than makes up for it.

I have to just take his word for it. I would have asked for a demonstration, but I fear I can’t afford to risk him expending his daily spell quota.

I keep questioning him about the magical system.

The spells available to learn are directly tied to the [Spell Mastery] skill tree. Each race has affinities for different types of magic. Goblins aren’t considered one of the races that is most proficient at magic, so our race only has two affinities available to us. Fire and Blood magic.

As mentioned earlier, there are five tiers of magic available. Anyone can learn tier one spells, but tier two spells require a magic specialization of at least level five. The level requirement increases exponentially from this point on. Tier three spells require a specialization of fifteen, tier four require twenty and the tier five spells require a whooping specialization level of thirty!

I suppose that’s a lot. But for the power those spells contain, it should most definitely be worth it. Grinding those levels must be horrible though, considering how few spells he can cast per day.

…

I’m interrupted by a momentary flashback of all the grinding I did last night to gain only a single specialization level to my crossbow. And that was only to level eleven…

Holy mother of green baby jesus.

Grinding magic spells is impossible! What the hell…

I cast a quick glance at Gut. He stares back with a worried look. Something is amiss. No way this makes sense. Just… No.

Every single game I’ve played earlier, there has always been a way for mages to replenish their mana. There must be some sort of trick he is withholding…

Wait a second!

His mana stone!

“Gut! Tell me of your mana stone. How does it work?” I eagerly ask him. My instincts screaming at me.

Gut smiles back at me. I’m correct! I just know it!

“There is, youngling.” He says. There is a hint of pride in his tone of voice. Maybe I’m imagining it? “Mana stones such as this one allows me to replenish my mana reserves by up to six ranks once a day.” He holds up his mana stone. The information from earlier said it was of a medium size.

Jackpot!

I knew there had to be something! I freaking knew it! This glorious little rock doubles Gut’s effectiveness in battle. What a valuable piece of treasure! But why didn’t he tell me earlier?

…

This game. The developers seem to intentionally force the V.I.’s to withhold some information until the players specifically ask for it. I can admit I understand why they do it… but…

For fucks sake! It’s annoying as hell!

How am I supposed to play this game the best I can if my own advisor is unintentionally withholding information? This just feels wrong. On so many levels. If I could, I would open a support ticket and complain to the admins. This is the most pointless and annoying feature of the game, and it kills my immersion.

A flair of anger burns within me.

…

“FUCK YOU LOGAN!” I yell out of the top of my lungs. My sudden outburst startles Gut and the goblins close by.

I needed to vent some steam, and I start to feel a little better. If you can’t fight the system, join it. If you can’t join it… then rage at it?

Anyway. Moving along I first need to…

:’{

My thought is rudely interrupted by the infamous blue prompt.

Tssk. I start smirking. Serves you right you ass.

…

Heh.

Right. Back to the situation at hand. I don’t actually know if Harvalon will even attack me. For all I know, he is currently focusing on building his base while savoring his experience lead. Even if he decides to attack, there is only about twenty-five percent chance I’m the target. My logical thoughts slowly unties the tight knot in my stomach. There is no need to worry. I’m not that unlucky.

Time to move back to the most pressing of my issues. I need to know…

A loud shriek fills the air from the east.

I quickly turn and face the general direction.

“What the fuck was that?” I shout confused. A low grumbling sound echoes from my side.

“Enemies.”

My eyes scan the general direction I think the shriek came from. My mind automatically activates my [Eagle Sight] ability. It’s about then I spot it. A small birdlike... thing hovers just barely above the treeline to the east. I quickly inspect it.

Harpy ???

???

“What the hell…”