I put Mutt and Jeff to the side as I pull on my VR rig and feel the buzz of electricity flow through my body as the neural jack connects to the implant at the base of my neck. It’s a standard implants for all citizens. Even gimps like me get one at birth, thankfully.

As the system boots up, my vision and senses fade for a moment.

And then all at once the main menu screen bursts to life with an all too familiar musical theme that sends sparks of excitement and anticipation racing through my body. I’m all at once at work and at play, ready for my fourteen hour shift in the virtual mines of the Fantasy World of Nasgar. I check my access credits and top up my account to cover the fourteen hour play time, paying 5 credits per hour. The daily and monthly passes work out cheaper, but mining is not a guaranteed profit maker and going in the hole is a lot easier to swallow when you’re risking a week’s work of food rations rather than a couple month’s worth of rent.

I check my avatar next.

He’s modeled to look like me, except more cool looking, of course: Short black hair, a chiseled jaw, with a buff bod instead of a scrawny one and legs thick like tree trunk instead of thin like tree branches. I pull up my character stats.

Account: [email protected]

Name: Reece

Sex: M

Race: Human

Class: Miner

Level: 6

Strength: 8

Determines melee damage and requirements for heavy armor

Dexterity: 3

Determines melee accuracy, critical hit chance and activation speed of ranged weapons

Agility: -10

Determines dodge ability, attack speed and requirements for light armor

Intelligence: 6

Determines spell cast speed, technique points and potency for Elemental Magic

Mind: 8

Determines magical defense, technique points and potency for Celestial Magic

Vitality: 14

Determines stamina, HP and regeneration speed.

HP: 79/79

Stamina: 152/152

TP: 55/55

The stats go as high as 99 max. Each time you level up, you’re awarded one or two attribute points to place wherever you want. I put most of mine into Vitality, because mining takes a crap load of stamina. I glare at my -10 agility. Thanks a lot glitchy nervous system. With an agility like that I pretty much couldn’t not get hit by almost anything and it would take me a year to hit them back. Worst still, I can’t even raise it. No matter how many points I put in there it stays at -10. It also means I lack the stats to wear anything not considered regular clothing.

Luckily miner’s gear doesn’t count as armor. It’s regular clothes with special skill bonuses. As a miner I really only have two skills. Perception and Mining. I list them to check their current levels.

Perception: 59 +13

Mining: 74 +22

The first number is my base skill level and the plusses are my bonuses for gear, which is what I check next.

You are equipped with:

Initiate Miner’s overalls +5 perception +12 mining +2 Vitality

A pair of coveralls designed for the strenuous rigors of mining.

Initiate miner’s helm: +8 perception

The lamp on this helm makes seeing into the darkness much easier.

Rusted iron ring: +1 Str

A simple iron ring that has seen better days…

And then there was my most important item. My pickaxe.

Iron mining pick +1: +2 Str +10 mining

A sturdy tool perfect for chipping away at hardened rock.

It’s pretty decent gear for a level 6 miner. I try to keep up to date as much as I can, but with the amount I have to pay back for my game time as well as help the family, I normally don’t have too much extra money to spare for gear. The mining pick alone set me back 500 credits on the auction house. But it was a steal for that price. Most times the crafters sell them for twice that. I probably lucked out with some high level player who got it as a drop and just wanted to get rid of it quickly to free up inventory space.

The ring is my other prized possession. I dug that up as a rare find.

That’s my other big reason for mining. For every node mined there was an extremely small chance of unearthing buried treasure. On the net streams there are vids of miners finding rare armor and weapons that could sell for hundreds of thousands of credits. That was what added an extra bit of excitement for me. That rare chance of striking it rich and making my family’s dreams come true overnight.

Just the thought of it has my juices pumping and rearing to go.

I confirm my selection for class and then access the Fantasy Shard of Nasgar.

My senses go dark for a second time and then I emerge into a new world…

It’s always kind of awesome logging in. But for me, it’s literally like being born again. As my avatar materializes on the Steppes of Andor, my senses come back to me in full 3D overload. I feel strength in my legs and I can stand on my own. That alone is a miracle worth logging in for. The time is noon day in-game and a gorgeous blue sky is overhead dotted with puffy white clouds. A cool breeze whistles over the sparse steppe land of low grass and white rocks protruding from the ground like half buried bones.

I equip my pickaxe and feel the wooden shaft in my hand, real like anything I’ve touched IRL (in real life). The air is sweet and I inhale deeply to rid myself of the stink of the real world.

I couldn’t get enough of this place if I tried.

An automated greeting pops up on my chat bar.

**==Welcome to Crystal Shards Online==**

You are connected to the World of Nasgar

If has been 00 days 7 hours and 23 minutes since your last login

You have 1 friend(s) online

You have 7 guild members online.

Before I can even guess who the friend is a private message pops up from Gilly and the software automatically translates it into her cutesy half-elf voice along with the text and emoticons.

Gilly: Hey! About time you logging in. You hitting the mines? : P

Gilly loves ending everything with an emoticon when she’s messaging. And it always brings a smile to my face imaging her making whatever silly face she includes. Although we’ve never met outside of the game, I actually consider Gilly my best friend. We joined our guild, The Nasgar Labor Union, at the same time six months ago. And we’ve leveled together ever since. It was rare to find another person who was interested only in mining.

I did it because I had to, but Gilly? She just got a kick out of everything about it.

I respond to her through a private message.

Me: Yeah, I logged outside of Silvertooth last night.

Gilly: Silvertooth!?? D: That’s a level 40 area. We’d get creamed in there if we run into anything!

Me: Exactly why we should head there. Everyone knows about the silver rush and the Paxis Mines in the lowbie areas are going to be super overcrowded. But only high level miners will be in Silvertooth.

Gilly: And what exactly makes us high level miners again? : P

I laugh at her response.

Me: Our mining skill is high enough to mine the silver nodes there. We just need to avoid the mobs.

Then I link an item to the chat.

Sneaking potion

Grants user undetectable by aggressive enemies. Wears off when an action is performed.

Duration: 5 minutes

It is rumored the mages of the Ivory Keep created this potion to sneak into dragon’s lairs…

Me: I got two stacks of these bad boys. One for me, one for you.

Gilly: No Way! Those things are mega expensive! O.O

She was right, they cost about 50 credits each, but I got two stacks of 10 for 750 credits in the auction house last week. Prior preparation and taking advantage of discounts is the key to making money in this game.

Me: If I can turn our four stacks of silver ore today, I’ll be in the money. Plus this high level mine has a higher chance for HQ ore drops.

HQ stands for high quality. Smiths would use those to forge HQ weapons and armor and as such would pay almost five times the normal price for them.

Gilly: Okay you’re on. But let me give you something for the potions. : D

Me: Cool!

I’m not in a position to refuse, so I don’t. But even if she hadn’t offered, I wouldn’t have asked. Gilly and I share and share alike like that.

Gilly: I can’t fast travel there yet so I need to run there. Give me about 15 mins. ^_^/

Me: okay!

The game allows you to set a teleport point to areas you’ve already visited. For a credit fee you can warp there instantaneously thereafter. But you had to get there the old fashioned way first. I had set my spawn point here last night to cut down on time, but I probably should have sent Gilly a message to do the same. She logs on a couple hours earlier than me most days and logs out the same time sooner.

I decide to pass the time by trying out one of the nodes inside the mine.

I stretch my legs in a sprint that depletes my stamina bar steadily, but I got a lot of stamina, so I can sprint for a pretty long time. I hit the mine entrance and the words Silvertooth Mines appears in my vision to denote my entering a new area.

The mines remind me of the tunnels around my real life container house, although the tunnel walls are roughly hewn as compared to the perfectly bored and smooth tubes created by the Builders. I use my Prospect ability to reveal any nodes in the area just inside the mouth of the mine entrance and several yellow dots appear on my minimap. Unfortunately I don’t have an actual map of the area yet, so the dots are just floating there in space with no frame of reference.

You dummy, I chastise myself. I really should have bought a map of the area first.

I have half a mind to ask Gilly to pick one up in town before she heads to me, but I don’t want to slow her down any more. Besides we were just going to stick to the upper levels for today. And with how long I’ve been mining, I’ve developed a pretty decent sense of direction.

I venture in a bit further in and spot a silver node. My blood is already spiking with excitement as I ready my pickaxe and bring up the stats on the node.

Silver Mining Node

Durability: 20/20

Success Chance: 35%

Not bad. A roughly 1 in 3 chance of a successful hit. My extra experience points put into my mining skill has paid off. But I had a few more tricks up my sleeve to increase my odds. I use my miner class abilities Miner’s Favor and True Strike in that order.

Miner’s Favor

Double the effect of your next ability.

Cost 15 TP

True Strike

Spend TP to increase your success rate by 25%

Cost 10 TP

My TP bar goes down to 30, but my Success Chance jumps to 85%

Now we’re talking.

I take a strike at the rock face with my pickaxe and my stamina deletes by 20%. But I hear a tinny ring as my pick axe bounces ineffectively off the surface with a flurry of sparks. What? I grumble at my bad luck. 85% chance and still a failure?

But I hit the node again and feel the solid connect of a successful mining dig. It’s a pleasant ka-ching sound that gets my endorphins pumping. My strength and pickaxe damage combine to take a healthy chunk off the nodes durability bar.

Nice, about three hits a node.

I get it to the last hit and then activate another ability: Gambler’s boon.

Gambler’s Boon

Decrease success rate by half but increases the chance for multiple and rare drops.

I spend my last 30 TP and see my success rate drop to 40%

It’s a risky move but the payoff is worth it in my books.

I go for the hit and get the painful ring of failure again.

Darn it! With a failed last hit, the node disappears and I wind up empty handed.

Just my rotten luck.

But I get a big chunk of experience points from my failure and my exp bar jump from about a quarter to nearly halfway full. That’s another cool thing about Crystal Shards Online. Even if you fail it’s a good thing, because you get an EXP boost. I guess it’s the principle of learning from your mistakes or something.

I have to wait for my TP to regenerate before I can go for another try, so I just wait at the same node until it re-spawns. When it does, I repeat the process but get a success first two hits this time. I then consider my next move. I could go for the third hit and collect an almost guaranteed silver ore.

Or, I could double down and pull Gambler’s boon again.

I weigh the options.

If I play it safe I get something, but if I double down I’ll get a two ore drop, minimum. That would make up for my last failed attempt. Plus, what were the chances of me failing twice in a row?

I hit Gambler’s Boon and go for it!

I strike with my pickaxe and get the massive Ker-Ching! of a HQ ore strike!

Woo-hoo!

I get another big chunk of EXP and when I check my log for the drops I can’t believe my eyes.

Critical Success!

You find: a chuck of silver ore.

You find: a chuck of silver ore.

You find: a chuck of silver ore.

You find: a chuck of HQ silver ore.

You find: a treasure box.

Damn! 3 ores, a HQ, plus a treasure box??? My heart is pounding with excitement. It feels like I’d won the lottery. I don’t care what those other players say about mining. It can be darn exciting at times.

A tap the treasure box to unlock it, hoping it’s something super rare inside. Something I could sell and maybe change my station in life right away. I cross my fingers as the item unlocks itself from the chest with a flurry of fanfare and exploding stars.

You open a treasure box!

You find: a copper coin.

You find: a Scroll of Shadow Copy

My hopes deflate like a balloon when I see the untradeable tag. That makes it even more worthless than the stupid copper coin. I couldn’t even sell it to an NPC. I know the scroll is something I can’t use but I click on it anyway just to see what it is.

Scroll of Shadow Copy

Teaches the Ninja ability Shadow Copy

Level 12 Ninja Only

Create a copy of yourself using shadow magic that absorbs your next hit.

Cast Time: 1 Second

Recast: 15 seconds

Great… a free hit every 15 seconds? What a cheesy and useless low level skill. I’m just about to junk the thing for inventory space when the ground shakes beneath my feet. It feels like an earthquake. One that’s coming toward me at a high rate of speed. I turn to see a mountain troll running toward me while releasing a deafening roar.

Mountain Troll

Level: 40

Highly territorial, Mountain trolls will attack intruders on sight. Although not very clever, they are savage warriors who can take large doses of punishment as well as dish it out.

Elemental Affinity: Earth

My blood turns to ice as the 12 foot tall monster charges me. Its ripped muscle jiggle beneath its gray skin as it runs and snarls. Its yellow tusks jut from its lower jaw like daggers and a huge stone club that’s bigger than I am swings in its meaty palms.

The reptile part of my brain thinks I’m going to die even though I know it’s just a game and I freeze like the helpless prey I am.

I attempt to shield myself with my pickaxe as the massive club slams down on top of me. My vision goes deep red with the force of the hit and while there is no pain, I get a massive vibration that denotes the impact.

I have an out of body experience as I watch my avatar, clad in my mining gear collapse to the ground face down. And then two words hover over my vision.

YOU DIED