Because of the reward that I received from reading the book, I decided to open my character status.

[Gray Rain]

[Undead][Sorcerer]

Lvl: 1

Attack: 1-3

Defense: 10

Health: 163

Mana: 0

Favor: 3

I wanted to see what the addition of the 5 Intellect had done to my stats, so I maneuvered around the character screen until I was able to locate them.

Strength: 1

Agility: 1

Endurance: (8+1)

Defense: 10

Intellect: (15+5)

I was a little perplexed about the +1 for Endurance and the +5 for Intellect, but then I immediately remember my weapon.

[Tome of Wisdom] (White Tier)

Attack Power: 1-2

Intelligence: +5

Endurance: +1

Passive: Reduces the mana cost of spells by 10%.

Level Requirement: 1

Ok, time to get some crystals and start casting spells! I immediately walked out of the library and began walking down the long narrow hall. I then realized that I didn’t know where to actually find the crystals. I paused and took a deep breath.

Dread filled my heart as I turned around and marched back into the prison that I had just escaped from. The book was still sitting at the table, so I sat back down and began thumbing through it.

I found on page 113 a reference to the mana crystals. The book referenced Fundamentals of Mana Vol 3 for further information on mana crystals.

“Library Catalog,” I said with a melancholy voice. I immediately typed in Fundamentals of Mana Vol 3, and was met with a nasty surprise.

Error, request could not be processed. Requirements: Completion of Fundamentals of Mana Vol 2.

I sat there staring at the screen, my mind blank.

WTF!

Since when did reading a book have prerequisites! I wasn’t certain, but I had a tingling sensation in the back of my mind that that I was being duped. Someone, somewhere was watching me at this moment and they were laughing at me, I could just feel it.

I typed in Fundamentals of Mana Vol 2. and began to silently sob. I knew what I was going to have to do, and I wasn’t looking forward to it.

…

Approximately 4 hours and 500 hundred pages later, I had completed volumes 2 and 3.

On the bright side, both times that I finished a book, the system rewarded me as it did previously.

You have gained insight to the workings of mana. Mana is an important source of power for your class. You gain +2 Intellect.

This gave me a total of +4 Intellect. The game was at least rewarding me for the mind numbing tasks that I was performing.

I had learned more about mana manipulation, magical creatures, apparatus for mana enhancement, and most importantly, mana crystals.

According to Vol 3, creating a mana crystal requires the profession of jewelcrafting. In Dreamscape the 7 primary job professions are as follows: jewelcrafting, blacksmithing, leatherworking, tailoring, enchanting, woodworking, and alchemy.

Jewelcrafting is the art of cutting jewels and crafting jewelry.

Blacksmithing is the profession of forging metal weapons and armor.

Leatherworking is the skill of forming leather armor from animal hides.

Tailoring is the art of creating light armor clothing from different linen.

Enchanting is a profession associated with using ancient runes to imbued weapons and armor with power.

Woodworking is the art of crafting bows, arrows, and staves.

Alchemy is the profession of making various potions and poisons from an assortment of herbs.

Each character is allowed to choose only one primary profession. In addition to the primary professions, there are 7 secondary professions; fishing, cooking, farming, music, tracking, construction, and acrobatics. Characters can learn all of the secondary professions.

According to the book I had just read, combining a sapphire, emerald, ruby, and a diamond creates a mana crystal. The quality of the stones determines the amount of mana that can be stored in the mana crystal.

I walked out of the library hopefully for the last time in my life. While relying on my map I was able to navigate out of the old stone building and into New Hope Village.

The city was abuzz with excitement as hundreds of sorcerers ran around. Many of them were buying from stalls, talking to various vendors, haggling with other players, or just enjoying the scenery.

I started walking through the town and began looking at the signs above various shops in an attempt to find a jewelcrafting teacher.

As I walked by a group of players, one of them glanced at me and froze.

“Hey, hey, look at that guy.” He whispered to a group of his friends. The rest of the group immediately stopped what they were doing and began to stare at me.

“What! Is he and [undead][sorcerer]? How is that even possible?” A girl blurted out.

“Shhh, don’t make fun of him” the guy whispered.

“I wasn’t making fun of him, it’s just… how is that possible? The [undead] can’t use mana, so how is it possible that he is a [sorcerer]?” the girl said inquisitively.

Feeling justified about the struggles that I was facing, I stopped and faced the group. “Ya, I don’t really know what’s going. I’m just trying to figure out if there is any way to fix this.” I said the last part while gesturing to my rotting corpse.

“Ya, that’s crazy. Oh, I’m sorry I didn’t introduce myself.” She reached out her hand and I reciprocated the action. “Pepper Flame is the name, these are my friends Jack Grass and Viper Bane.”

“Hi, I’m Gray Rain.” I responded. I then proceeded to shake the hands of Jack Grass and Viper Bane.

I focused on their characters and their names appeared.

Lvl 5 Sorcerer

Lvl 4 Sorcerer

Lvl 4 Sorcerer

“Its nice to me you guys.” I paused and a though popped into my head, “Have you guys happened to see any one else that is an [undead] [sorcerer]?”

“Sorry, you are the first one we’ve seen.” Pepper Flame responded. “I wonder if there are any in the other starting areas.” She trailed off.

“Social Tab,” Pepper Flame said. A small blue window appeared in front of her. She deftly navigated to a section where she could search for other players.

I couldn’t believe I didn’t think of this before. I walked over next to her and pressed my body closer to the group as I peered over their shoulders. Jack Grass and Viper Bane gave me a look of contempt, but they didn’t say anything.

In the player search bar, she filtered the results to [Undead], [Sorcerer]. 10 results appeared.

Lvl 1 Sorcerer---Online

Lvl 1 Sorcerer---Online

Lvl 1 Sorcerer---Online

Lvl 1 Sorcerer---Online

Lvl 1 Sorcerer---Online

Lvl 2 Sorcerer---Online

Lvl 1 Sorcerer---Online

Lvl 1 Sorcerer---Online

Lvl 1 Sorcerer---Online

Lvl 1 Sorcerer---Deleted

I was overjoyed! There are other people that were going through the same thing as me! I quickly looked at the names. Lol Taco had managed to reach level 2, I wonder if he figured out how to use mana, or if he is using mana crystals.

My eyes paused on the last name.

Lvl 1 Sorcerer---Deleted

While thinking out loud I said, “What does the deleted part mean?”

“It means that they gave up and they are going to reroll their character.” Pepper Flame said matter-of-factly.

“But if they want to reroll their character, doesn’t the game make them wait 3 weeks before they can play again? I said while looking Pepper Flame in the eyes.

I was suddenly taken back by her beauty. Pepper Flame was a [high elf] with crimson red hair and eyes to match her name. She was probably around my age, approximately 5.5 ft. tall, and her slender figure could even be seen underneath the cloth robe that she was wearing.

I was afraid that I was blushing, but dismissed the thought because I realized that I was a rotting corpse.

She continued onwards not noticing my embarrassment, “Ya, but I guess Orange Flavor realized that it was impossible to be a [sorcerer] as an [undead]. If I were you, I would put in a ticket to talk to a GM.”

A ticket is a request to talk to a Game Master. A GM is someone that works for the company that operates the game. In situations where players are experiencing glitches or problems in the game, then they would contact a GM.

“Well, I hate to be rude,” Pepper Flame said, “But, I got to get back to leveling if I want to be the best. Good luck figuring out your situation.” She waved as she walked away, followed by her two admirers.

Be the best? I wonder if she meant what I think she meant. “Social Tab,” I said. I tried looking at the rankings for the top players, but currently there was no one in any of the five cities. Whenever players chose a city as their home city, then they would be ranked according to the other players in that city.

I typed in the keyword [sorcerer] and organized the list so that the highest level [sorcerer] would be at the top. My eyes almost popped out of my skull, which is probably possible considering that my body is decaying.

Lvl 5 Sorcerer Lvl 5 Sorcerer Lvl 5 Sorcerer Lvl 5 Sorcerer

…

The girl that I had just met was one of the top [Sorcerer] players in the game. I flipped the search parameters so that I could see who was in last place. Unsurprisingly, it was me. I was ranked 20,019 out of 20,019 for the [sorcerer] class. The [sorcerer] class was the rarest class in Dreamscape, only 1% of the 2 million players are sorcerers.

I decided to put in a request to talk to a GM. My ticket went as follows:

“Hi, my name is Gray Rain and Dreamscape placed me as an [undead][sorcerer], which is silly because the [undead] can’t use mana. I think there has been a mistake, please contact me as soon as possible. Thank you”

And immediately got a response from the game system.

Due to unusually high ticket volume, there may be a longer than average wait time. Approximate wait time: 20 hours.

I would say that I was surprised, but considering how my day had gone so far, I wasn’t. I determinedly pressed onwards to find a jewelcrafting teacher.

After about 10 minutes of searching I finally found my teacher. Her name was Sarah Hammond.

Lvl ??? Intermediate Jewelcrafter.

“Hello, I would like to learn jewelcrafting as my profession.” I said while trying my best to smile warmly.

“Oh yes of course, let me help you.” She immediately turned around from the bright blue gem that she was polishing. I noticed that she was a human woman with dark brown hair, and was close to 6 ft. tall. She had an old leather apron tied around her waste that seemed to fit her perfectly.

When she saw my rotting corpse she hesitated. “Um, oh yes you wanted to learn jewelcrafting. Are you sure, you can only chose one primary profession?

Would you like to learn jewelcrafting as your primary profession?

“Yes,” I said confidently.

Congratulations, you have learned jewelcrafting as your primary profession.

You have learned, [mining]. [Mining] is a skill used to extract valuable ore from clusters of rocks, requires a pickaxe.

You have learned, [forge]. [Forge] Convert raw ore into bars of metal, requires furnace.

You have learned, [prospect]. [Prospect]: requires 5 raw ore, potential to find a gem within the ore, destroys the ore in the process.

You have learned, [Chisel Jewel]. [Chisel Jewel] while using a chisel, gems can be cut to a desired shape.

“Wonderful! Here let me get you all of the supplies that you’re going to need.” She said while quickly running to the backroom.

The sound of boxes shifting around and things being moved across the floor could be heard. After a minute she returned with a pickaxe and a chisel. After handing me the items she said, “Would you like to learn the pattern to make these items?”

[[[

Pattern: [Simple Copper Ring] requires level 1 jewelcrafting to learn.

Materials needed to craft item: 2 bars of copper

Cost to learn: 5 copper coins

[Simple Copper Ring]

+1 Random Stat

Requires lvl 1

]]]

[[[

Pattern: [Simple Copper Necklace] requires level 1 jewelcrafting to learn.

Materials needed to craft item: 3 bars of copper

Cost to learn: 5 copper coins

[simple copper necklace]

+1 random stat

Requires lvl 1

]]]

[[[

Pattern: [Simple Copper Setting] requires level 1 jewelcrafting to learn.

Materials needed to craft item: 1 bar of copper

Cost to learn: 5 copper coins

May be faceted to a ring or a necklace. A gem can be held within the setting.

]]]

Currency works in the game as follows: copper coins are the lowest form of money, think of them like pennies. 100 copper coins is the equivalent of 1 silver coin, and 100 silver coins is the equivalent to 1 gold coin. The game had given each player 20 copper coins to start with.

So I spent 15 of my 20 copper coins to learn how to make the three patterns.

Patterns are the designs required to make an object within a profession. Once learned, they will not be forgotten and the item can be produced as long as the player has the materials.

You have successfully learned [Pattern: Simple Copper Ring]

You have successfully learned [Pattern: Simple Copper Necklace]

You have successfully learned [Pattern: Simple Copper Setting]

Time to venture out into the world and get the gems I need to create a mana crystal!