A half hour later I waited at the North gate. I now wore a full set of Common vendor Chain armor, with socks. I had a new short sword and even a fancy quest rewarded Heavy Rabbit cloak.

Bronze Short Sword (white)

Quality: Common

Durability: 30/ 30

Weight: 1.2lbs

Type: Short Blade

Crafter: Unknown

Properties: 12 - 18 Piercing Damage.

Restrictions: None

Bronze Pot Helm (White)

Quality: Common

Durability: 50/ 50

Weight: 3.1lb

Type: Chain

Crafter: Unknown

Properties: Head: 15 Armor

Restrictions: None

Bronze Chainmail Shirt (White)

Quality: Common

Durability: 50/ 50

Weight: 20lb

Type: Chain

Crafter: Unknown

Properties: Chest: 25 Armor

Restrictions: None

Bronze Chain Pants (White)

Quality: Common

Durability: 50/ 50

Weight: 15lb

Type: Chain

Crafter: Unknown

Properties: Legs: 20 Armor

Restrictions: None

Bronze Chain Boots (White)

Quality: Common

Durability: 50/ 50

Weight: 3.2

Type: Chain

Crafter: Unknown

Properties: Feet: 10 Armor

Restrictions: None

Bronze Chain Belt (White)

Quality: Common

Durability: 50/ 50

Weight: 3.21lb

Type: Chain

Crafter: Unknown

Properties: Waist: 5 Armor

Restrictions: None

Heavy Rabbit Cloak (White)

Quality: Common

Durability: 25/ 25

Weight: 7lb

Type: Cloth

Crafter: Hub Leather Guild

Properties: Back: 5 Armor

Restrictions: None

All my spending had given my inner green eyed beast a heart attack, as it raged seeing the few coins we possessed slip through its fingers. I tried to console the beast saying armor and weapons were an investment, and would pay dividends.

Ace stood next to me spinning in circles giggling as his cape flapped. I had found out that in addition to carrying small amounts of items Ace could also were gear. He wasn’t trained in anything other than cloth, but I gave him any I found. He seemed rather proud of the Shabby Rabbit cloak as he chased it. While waiting for Lien to show, I read the city chat log.

Kneevor: My friend just logged out but he is just standing here now. He hasn’t responded to any PMs or anything.

Ivor: WTB Rabbit Pelts! Pls Shout!

Beastboy: You should give him a hard shove. That should wake him up.

Kneevor: Dude you’re a dick! He fell over and is now laying there all stupid!

Roxx: WTB Bags of any kind!

Beastboy: Haha dumb ass

Trishia: My friends all got tired of the slow EXP here and logged off. They went back over to our other toons. But their characters are still here.

Beastboy: Hey baby want to meet up at the tavern? I have a little tool I’d like to show you.

Trishia: lol little is the key word.

Beastboy: Bitch! I’ll find you and kill you

I blacklisted Beastboy and kept reading.

Merlin: WTS 4 Slot Pouches! 1 Gold!

Merlin: Kneevor, Trishia I think it’s a new feature of the expansion. You know to help, like increase realism. Log off and your toon stays. Like I’ve even been able to take things from the stiffers. But like watch out the guards don’t like you doing that.

Merlin really? Some people had no imagination, but he may have had a good idea. It sounded like something the devs would do and it explained all the people just standing around. Although if you could steal from, or maybe even kill a player while they are offline… I shuddered at the thought.

Lien chose that moment to finally show up. “Sorry I had to find the Acolyte quest giver. She wants something from the kobolds too.” Huh, class quests. Where was I going to get class quests from? On a whim I told Lien to wait here for a moment and ran across the street to the training grounds where the warrior class trainer was located. Sure enough after a brief chat I got a quest from him.

New Quest

Kobold menace

Description: The kobold plague continues to assault the city of Hub. Travelers are afraid to go far from the safety of the walls. Guard Captain Stuart wants you to help reduce the plague.

Quest Type: Class

Difficulty: Hard

Outcome:

Kill Kobold Miners : 0/15 Kill Kobold Soldiers: 0/10 Kill Kobold overseers: 0/5

Reward:

Guard’s Blade Guard’s shield 50 silver

Failure: Drop the quest

“Hey Ace, go tell Lien I am going to check with the Magician trainer too. Then wait with her for me.” The boy nodded, and ran off. Feeling a little guilty, I turned and ran back in to town. Half way there I had to stop. I was breathing heavy and had a realistic stitch in my side. “What the hell,” I gasped. Gasping for air I bent over double. Then I saw my Stamina bar. Empty. Those Devs were insane! A couple intense minutes passed and finally my stamina began to slowly refill. Standing up straight I stretched the stitch out and continued onward.

Upon entering the Magicians tower I stopped in amazement. The first floor was set up as a shop. It was a cross between mad scientist’s workshop, with beakers bubbling odd contraptions emitting pulses of light and a library, with shelves upon shelves of books and scrolls. A quick glance around showed no trainers though. An annoyed looking shopkeep did watch me closely as I moved to the stairs leading up. The second floor had the center of the tower clear. The outer wall was lined with book shelves, tables full of alchemy supplies, enchanter workbenches, and other contraptions. The Magician trainer stood next to the stair well. Again a brief chat and I had another quest.

New Quest

Kobold Thieves

Description: A merchant carrying magical supplies from Hub to Ender was attacked by kobolds. Magician Pleasa wants you to recover some of the lost supplies.

Quest Type: Class

Difficulty: Hard

Outcome:

Magician Scrolls: 0/10 Magician Amulets: 0/5 Magician Potions 0/15

Reward:

Magician’s Ring Potion of lesser mana x5 50 Silver

Failure: Drop the quest

Closing the quest window I turned to leave, then stopped. Walking over to the Alchemy trainer I asked, “Hey do you teach Herbalism?” The trainer sighed and put down a bottle, then turned to face me. His face was covered in black soot. It looked like one of his brews had not gone as intended. The man looked me up and down. “Aye, I teach Apprentice Alchemy and Apprentice Herbalism.” I nodded, “Is Herbalism still a Professional skill?” That was important because you could learn any number of them, where as you could only learn two Crafts. The man narrowed his eyes, “It is and always has been.” “How much?” “My skills are ot for the soft of heart, or for those without a stable hand. One may think it is just picking flowers and mixing pretty liquids! I’m here to tell you it is not just that! The wrong flower or the wrong liquid and you may Poison your friend who you were trying to heal. Worse you could nick your finger on a Bloodbloom and fall into an enchanted slumber for 100 years!” I let the man say his speech then asked again, “How much to learn them?” He sighed, “1 gold each.” I nodded and pulled out my last two gold and handed them over.

Alchemist wants to teach you Apprentice Herbalism. Do you accept?

Yes / No

I quickly hit the yes button. It was always good to have the gathering skills. Even if you never made anything with them the resources could always be sold at auction for a good price.

Alchemist wants to teach you Apprentice Alchemy. Do you accept?

Yes / No

Now I paused Alchemy wasn’t my favorite skill to learn. It was useful though. You never had to worry about buying potions and antidotes. They also sold for decent prices on the auction, but it wasn’t well …fun. With a mental shrug I clicked yes. I could always unlearn it if I desired.

With a sigh I felt my coin purse only 23 silver and a handful of copper left to my name. The poor house looked like it may have one more in it tonight. Shaking my head I went back down stairs.

“Since I am here I might as well look around,” I thought out loud. The shopkeep just glared at me. The shop had some nice things. The spell books were mostly all between levels 5 and 25, but two were Level 3. Heat wave (Rank 1) and Trip (Rank 1). Heat Wave was a Low Level AOE, which made it great for crowds. Trip was the first crowd control spell Magicians had access to. Both books were a gold each. I also found the same spells in scroll form for 50 silver each, still outside my price range. With a sigh, I turned to go. “You should look at the Aether Crystals.” The shopkeep was pointing at a small bin. Moving over to it I looked inside. The bin was full of crystal like objects of varying shapes, sizes, and colors. Some were perfectly round, others looked like raw quartz. They came in more colors than I could name. They ranged in sizes from a basketball to as small as my thumb nail. I examined a basketball bright red one.

Aether of Meteor (Blue)

Quality: Rare

Durability: 1000 / 1000

Weight: 0.01lb

Type: Aether

Crafter: Unknown

Properties:

0 / 1,000,000 Knowledge

Restrictions: None

Attach this Aether to your weapon to start earning knowledge.

I had never heard of Aethers before. Were they a new Jewelcraft item? Or were they something else? Turning to the shopkeep I asked, “What do these do?” He smiled they teach the wielder new spells and abilities, all the while learning themselves. The greater an Aethers Knowledge the more powerful the spells and abilities it imparts. I greedily looked up the price list and stopped cold. The cheapest was 97 Platinum or 970 Gold. Slowly turning to the shopkeep, “Why did you tell me to look at these? The man grinned evilly, “I love that look when someone sees something they truly desire, and the crushing realization that they can’t have it!” I stormed out of the tower with the shopkeeps laughter echoing in my ears.

Turning back to the north gate I again started to run. This time watching my stamina bar. When it got low, I would walk and let it refill. The streets were starting to become crowded with players who were just frozen there. Most didn’t pay any mind to where they logged off and as such they logged out in the middle of the road, or in a doorway. I actually saw a group of guards picking up players and moving them out of the way. Approaching the gate I heard a chime.

New skill! Running (Rank 1)

You are becoming skilled at running. You will suffer 11% less STA loss from prolonged exercise.

Hey that was cool! Breathing heavy I stopped near Lien and avoided her annoyed look. “Ready?” She had her arms crossed over her chest and was tapping one foot impatiently, “You sent the boy to tell me, and then you made me just wait here! I should of left the damn group and went on my own!”’ I walked past her and out the gate. Then called back, now we are waiting on you. Lien said some very un-lady like things but caught up.

Character Sheet for: Azriel Starblade.

Name: Azriel Starblade

Race: Human Class: Apprentice Magi

Level: 1 Exp: 50 / 1,000

Strength (STR): 15

Muscle: 7 / Endurance: 7

Dexterity (DEX): 10

Agility: 5 / Instinct: 5

Constitution (CON): 10

Health: 5 / Resilience: 5

Intelligence (INT): 15

Logic: 7 / Mind: 7

Wisdom (WIS): 10

Perception: 5 / Conviction: 5

Charisma (CHA) 10

Appearance: 5 / Personality: 5

Luck (LUC): 2

Hit Points (HP): 180 / 180

Mana; 170 / 170

Stamina: 12.5 / 12.5

Character Points (CP): 5 / 7 Talent Points (TP): 0 / 0

Renown (REN): 250 / 1,000

Fame Level: 0 Unknown Deity: None

Faith (FAI): 0 / 1000

Titles: None

Achievements; Famous Family: Starblade.

Deeds and Properties: None

Spell Book

Skills:

Perception (Apprentice): 1 / 75

Running (Apprentice): 1 / 75

Abilities:

Armor: You can proficiently wear Cloth, Leather and Chain armor types.

Shield: You can proficiently use Light shield types.

Weapons: You can proficiently use Dagger, Short Blade, Axe, Mace, and Crossbow weapon types.

Professions:

Alchemy (Apprentice): 1 / 75 ©

Herbalism (Apprentice): 1 / 75 (G)

Spells:

Detect Magic (Rank 1)

Fire Arrow (Rank 1)

Light (Rank 1)

Magic Missile (Rank 1)

Read Magic (Rank 1)

Social

Friends: None.

Enemies: None.

Family: Ace Starblade.

Clan: None.

Guilds: None.

Nation: None.