Alfred, accounting for Nik’s shorter stride, how much longer will it take to get to the mines?

“Gnomes are surprisingly quick when moving on an open road, sir. That said, it only adds about 50% travel time in spite of the fact he’s roughly half your height.”

Forty-five minutes, eh? Plenty of time to go ahead and clear the air.

“Nik, I have a bit of a confession before we get to the mines.” Nik turned to look at me with nothing but curiosity. It says a lot about someone when they can look at you in response to that without preemptive fear or anger, without looking at you like they just realized you screwed them over. It says they’ve never had someone admit to screwing them over.

It says they had a better life than me.

“What I said earlier about needing the things we bought, that was a con. Now, before you think I screwed you out of your money, you need to understand this wasn’t malicious and I have every intention of making us as much money as possible. First off, do you know what con man means?”

Nik slowly shook his head at me, clearly unsure of where I was going. “It’s short for confidence man. Basically, a con man builds up your confidence in what he’s trying to sell you, whether it’s a product, service, or his crazy sounding plan. The modern equivalent would be social engineering.”

I paused for a beat to make sure it didn’t look like I lost him so far. “What I did used the same concept, but not to take your money for your own benefit. I knew my plans would work and would benefit both of us, but we’ve only just met. That means if I laid out my plans and asked you to have faith in me, a reasonable person would just say no and we’d both miss out on the opportunity to invest in our future.

“I’m not entirely certain why I felt the need to tell you this, honestly. Maybe I just didn’t want to feel like I was screwing over my first friend here.” At that, he stops dead in his tracks and looks at me.

“Why would you feel like you’d screwed me over?” He had a point. I guess normally this would just be a friend talking a friend into going along with some crazy idea. “Once upon a time, I was screwing people over this way. I’ve stepped away from that life, but I guess it felt like I was up to my old tricks.”

Nik thought about this and I guess decided it was a good enough answer for him. “I-if you mean what you said about n-not trying to screw me over then I’ll trust you. It would be nice to have some f-friends.” he said without being able to hold eye contact. I knew then that his stuttering was more nerves and shyness than anything. I smiled in response.

“Thanks, Nik. Next we need to work on your confidence!”

***

The rest of the walk was pretty enjoyable. Nik and I made small-talk about what we’ve done in previous games and what we expected to do in this one. Nik wasn’t as interested as I was in making money in the real world. He heard that it was a game where you could do practically whatever you wanted-something beyond the typical MMO of “Loot, Level, and Quest.” He was right and it was something you could feel very quickly in-game. The whole world feels alive.

The gnomes told us before we left town that it would be fastest and safest to follow the road, so we did. Normally I’d want to start grinding XP as soon as possible, but getting to know Nik was more important. As Alfred predicted, it took around 45 minutes to reach the marker on the road letting us know to branch off the main path and head towards the mine.

“Here’s the safe-spot the mayor told us about. Based on my guide we’re safe once we light the bon...I mean the campfire.” Nik seemed like he still didn’t trust it. “You’re sure we’re safe?” he asked. I looked to Alfred for confirmation and he nodded.

“Yep! It’s part of the in-game mechanics. These things are located all around the wild areas of the world and allow players a place to recover and log out safely for the night. While we’re in the area of effect, monsters can’t get near us and other players can’t hurt us or steal from us. As far as I know, they aren’t even aware of us while we are in here. I guess that’s a safety feature to make sure you can’t get camped...so to speak.”

With a bad pun under my belt, I started unloading everything we didn’t need right then, except for a pickaxe for checking out the mine. Time to kick some low-level kobold ass!

“Alright, Nik, so what can you do during combat?” Nik straightened his back a bit trying to look proud. “I have basic proficiency with a crossbow and I have a few small grenades and traps I made in the first few steps of the Artificer quest chain.” OK, he’s ranged support.

Alfred, are there parties in this game?

“Yes, sir. As is typical in role-playing games, you will share experience and be able to track party member’s positions and Level, Class, and HP/MP/SP status. To create a party, simply think about creating a party and adding someone to it.”

Easy enough!

Party Created

Party Members 1/5

You have invited Nik to join your party!

Nik has accepted!

New Skill!

Leadership

Level 1

You admitted to lying to him and he chose you as his leader? Have you considered a career in politics?

Party members receive half damage when struck by other member’s attacks.

Note: Increasing this skill adds new bonuses instead of increasing a set bonus.

Party Members 2/5

Name: Nik

Class: Rogue

Level: 4

HP: 100/100

MP: 450/450

SP: 140/140

“Whoa, you’re a couple of levels higher than me already? Guess that quest chain gave solid XP for something where you never had to leave town. And 450 MP? Someone is stacking Intellect!”

Nik gave a proud grin at that as we started making our may towards the mine entrance. “It’s required for certain crafting skills. Things like grenades require me to pump mana into them to stabilize them. My trainers said later I can use it to create magical weapons and eventually even make gadgets that aren’t physically possible without magic.”

Interesting.

“Hopefully you brought along plenty of those grenades. Your job is to stay back and give ranged support. I’ll be try to sneak up on them and fight up close. You stay back and out of harm’s way. And please warn me before you through any grenades at what I'm fighting.”

Nik thinks on this and agrees with a nod, although he does seem nervous now that I've mentioned grenades. “If you can, try to pull with that crossbow mounted on your arm. It won’t do as much damage as mine, but it’s a good opener for someone who is going to rely on melee anyway.” he adds on.

Oh, I almost forgot about this thing! “Good call. Now stay here, I think we’re getting close to the entrance.” We quickly found a good spot for Nik to fire from cover and I started sneaking my way towards the entrance.

Holy shit do movies make this look way easier. Everything here is trying to make noise just from me looking at it.

“Yes, sir. Do try to minimize your silhouette as well. A standing human silhouette is not a shape that naturally occurs in nature, typically, so it is easy to spot.”

Oops. I’m really starting to wonder if I can pull off this whole Rogue thing in a game like this when I get the notification.

New Skill!

Stealth

Level 1

Fun fact! You learned this skill because they COULD see you right now, but they don’t. Yet. I’m not sure which is worse: Hiding from your past or hiding from creatures as pathetic as kobolds

1% harder to spot when hiding

Note: This skill is affected by environmental factors (light levels, walking surface, etc.) and the perception abilities of your enemies

OK we really need to talk about these notifications, Alfred.

Realizing I’m about to hit the treeline, I take a knee as gently as I can and pull a couple of bolts out of the small quiver I received with the crossbow. Looking into the clearing I finally get a good look at the kobolds themselves. They’re small, maybe Nik’s height. With rat and lizard like features, it looks like they tried to wrap leather scraps around themselves as an extra protective layer over their tattered cloth scrap clothing. I’m definitely sensing an overall scrap motif with how they dress. Those spears seem sharp enough to do the job, though. I may have chosen a bad spot for Nik to stand. He's not going to have a safe shot from there.

I really need to work on tactics.

Nocking the first bolt and holding the second in my firing hand, I steady my outstretched arm with the other hand and do my best to control my breathing in spite of the excitement of finally entering combat in this world. I already know roughly the basics of how to breathe and how to fire the weapon. I guess it’s from starting the game with the skill.

Inhale

Exhale

Pause

Fire

Kobold takes 10 Sneak Attack (x2) damage!

Kobold defeated!

You earn 10 XP!

Skill Increase!

Stealth

Level 2

You managed to hide long enough to kill the least dangerous monster in this world! Fantastic! Clearly you have become death incarnate...

2% harder to spot when hiding

Note: This skill is affected by environmental factors (light levels, walking surface, etc.) and the perception abilities of your enemies

Skill Increase!

Gadgets & Trick Weapons

Level 2

Well you might not be smart enough to make them, but you’re sure as hell able to use them with a passing level of competence!

+2% Damage & -2% Chance of Device Failure

Ignoring the notifications that are just being downright mean, I manage to get the second bolt nocked and fired at the second kobold that’s now running towards me.

Kobold takes 5 damage!

Well, I guess that’s a start. Both swords out, I charge in to meet my foe.

Skill Increase!

Dodge

Level 2

WOW these things are bad at this. Especially if YOU are making it look easy.

+2% Chance to Dodge

I see now what El meant about training from the best to make someone great! This thing moves slooooow compared to her. Half of its attacks I can just sidestep with minimal effort. It’s coming after me with what I can now see is a fairly well made iron spear, and it is not very good with it at all. After a few easily dodged sidesteps, I decide to end it.

The kobold goes for another one of its incredibly telegraphed thrust attacks and it seems like a perfect opening. Using my off-hand sword, I push the spear to my left as I step to the right. With the techniques El taught me, combined with some slight intuition granted by the skill itself, I’m able to change the trajectory of the attack without reducing the momentum. The same momentum that carries the kobold forward just a few extra, fatal steps that allow me safely into its guard. That’s the problem with spears: let the enemy get too close and suddenly it’s an over-sized, unwieldy club. With no way for the kobold to block my follow-up, my main-hand sword easily takes his head and ends the fight.

Kobold takes 5 damage!

Kobold defeated!

You earn 10 XP!

Skill Increase!

Parry

Level 2

Don’t get cocky! These were the rookies of the worst combatants you could possibly find.

-1% Stamina Depleted

Skill Increase!

Dual Wielding

Level 2

Good job managing to use both weapons in tandem to defend AND attack. Even though you were against a completely untrained opponent that was caught off-guard!

+2% Chance to Hit(Off-Hand)/+2% Attack speed

Skill Increase!

Short Swords

Level 2

It’s almost like this was too easy...Hope this doesn’t lull you into a false sense of security!

+2% Chance to Hit/+2% Damage

Oh no. That was easy. Dropping back into Stealth, I start looking for more kobolds. Every other game that has the little bastards in them, the danger is from their numbers. They don’t send their champion to beat you in glorious one-on-one combat, they just overwhelm you. Alfred, is there a way to communicate directly to party members? I don’t exactly have a chat window. That does mean no trade chat though, so silver linings I guess. “Yes sir, there is. It’s just like how you communicate with me, but think about your party instead of me.” Thanks. “Hey Nik, if you can hear me, this is the party chat. You just have to think what you want to say and I will hear it.” I could almost hear him jump as soon as I started. If I wasn’t in full paranoia mode about getting ambushed by kobolds I might have laughed. “Is this how it works? Can you hear me Jack?” the response comes up in my mind seconds later. “Loud and clear, little buddy. Move up to where you saw me shooting from and give cover me. I don’t want any patrols coming through and catching me by surprise.” After I get an affirmative from Nik, I feel somewhat better about taking my time out here. At least nothing can sneak up on me now.

“Hey Nik, there’s a group of kobolds trying to sneak up on you.”

Well, shit.