(Harlow)

Name: Harlow

Race: Human (Citizen)

Mana: 500 / 500 (MP)

Health: 500 / 500 (HP)

Class: Weaponsmith

Sub Class: Factotum

Level: 90

Primary Skill:

Spearman, Rank: Master

Smithing, Rank: Master

Rune smithing, Rank: Master

Engraving, Rank: Master

Secondary Skill:

Chef, Rank: Master

Tracker, Rank: Master

Miner, Rank: Master

“Okay, got my pickaxe, hunting knife, pots, pans, and utensils.” I placed each item into my rucksack. I never went on a quest unprepared. I work early and spent an hour carefully packing every item I might need.

Be prepared. You learned that in the scouts. If I someday forget everything from my past life, I guarantee my time in the scouts would never fade. Dwelling in the past was an unhealthy pass time, so I turned my thoughts to what rations I should bring. I liked Stella. She was a real peach, so I packed the good stuff. I’d treat her to my fine cooking.

After all, she, like so many others, was ignorant of some truths about this place. It took me a while before I noticed them, but most people hadn’t. I can’t complain. I made them work to my advantage.

My pocket watch chimed the timer I set. I know pocket watches don’t chime. Mine does. I made it myself. I crafted the pocket watch, then etched the runes that let me set timers and different alert sounds. This week it was the chime of little bells. That meant it was time for me to get going unless I wanted to be late.

Shouldering my rucksack, I locked up the shop, leaving a quick VI message for my regulars. I took a moment to watch the sun lift over the horizon. The light shone on the wheat and surrounding streams, bathing the landscape in hues of red and gold. Sunrises and sunsets were so magnificent here.

I wanted to stay longer, but I had to get going. The Fairy Gate closest to the city was a mile down the road from my home. I’d get there first unless they left earlier than me. Stella might have. He doubted Jaxson would have.

I had nothing against the man, but people talked. Now I take all gossip with a grain of salt. But when you hear the same thing over and over with minor variations, that usually means there is some truth. He was an incredible adventurer but a party boy and a womanizer. Citizens and players couldn’t die in Balor Online. But getting killed was painful. In fact, I knew for a fact that some citizens lost their minds because they died too many times.

Despite my virtual immortality, I took dying very seriously. I made a point of avoiding death. In the thirty-plus years I’ve been to Balor Online, I’ve died twice. Both were unavoidable, but I learned from both instances. It’s why I ran a shop, why I collected my materials on my own or bought them.

I shook my head and focused on the here and now before I let my mind wander to unpleasant places. I reached the Fairy Gate before the others and sat down on a stone bench close by. I set my rucksack down and made myself comfortable.

Twenty minutes later, Stella arrived. She gave me a wave before dropping onto the bench beside me. “Okay, I should have picked a later time,” she groaned and slumped against me. “I need coffee!” She whined, kicking her feet. I laughed and took out a thermos and poured her a hot cup of coffee.

She snatched the cup out of my hand and gulped it down. When she had finished the cup, she looked at me with wide adoring eyes as if I had the answer to the meaning of life. “Want more?” I asked.

She nodded her head and held out the cup. I chuckled. I couldn’t help it. She was too cute when she was like this. Early morning was not her time of day. She wasn’t an early riser, but she forgot that when excited. Put a cup of coffee in her hand. She was as adorable as a puppy.

When she had her third cup, she was more herself and gave me a sheepish grin. “Sorry about that. Thanks for the coffee,”

Chuckling, I put the thermos and cup back into my rucksack. “It’s alright I used to be the same way. Try switching to tea. It's better for you.”

She gave me a horrified expression. “Give up coffee? Hell, no, that’ll be a cold day in hell.”

“Funny you should mention that I heard there is a part of hell that’s actually frozen over.”

She swatted my arm, laughing. We chatted about local news and mutual friends when Jaxson stumbled into view. He looked pale and sweaty. “You alright there?” I asked him. Obviously, he’d stayed out partying instead of getting any sleep.

He doubled over panting like he ran a marathon. “I’m fine, just not a morning person.”

Bullshit. Balor online might technically be a game, but a lot of things translated over into this world fine. Like the look and smell of a booze hound just rolling out of bed. I turned my attention to Stella giving her a pointed look. “We’ll collect the Magnite first.”

She looked from Jaxson to me, then back to him before nodding her head. “Right, that should be the easier of the two.” She walked up to the offering bowl and dropped enough Gold for three to pass through the Gate.

Stella went first, then Jaxson, then me. When I passed through the portal, heat assaulted my body. Unbearable heat.

“By my command, cool my target, Heat Ward!”

Instantly, I was like a cool blanket had enveloped me. I opened my eyes and noticed a blue glow on my flesh. I gave Stella a thumbs up. Magnite unfortunately was a rare ore found on the island of Fire. The island was volcanic and, as the name suggested, was covered in fire most of the time. The only good thing was the island was home to just two inhabitants. Trolls and Fire Demons.

Trolls were big, grey, and horned. They were humanoid in their general appearance. I once met a She-troll that was beautiful and a Male Troll I would have thought handsome. Trouble was, their culture believed the more hideous the scar, the more beautiful you were. Now don’t get me wrong, men and women love scars. Some scars can be very sexy. But the kind of scars they thought were sexy made my stomach turn.

I once faced a mountain troll champion who was considered the most handsome. His scar was a giant gash the ran along his skull. Parts of his brain were exposed. Incidentally, that’s how I killed him. I shoved my spear through the gap in his skull and scrabbled his brains. All monsters and NPCs vanish when they die, and I was grateful. I really didn’t want to pick troll brains off Gae Bolg.

Now fire Demons while they sound nasty were relatively average. Most capped out a forty and were mostly used for XP farming. You had to kill them by destroying the head in one shot or their core. If not, then their bodies shattered into a dozen pieces and those pieces morphed into more demons. Hence XP farming. Get a few parties together, spawn a small army and then kill said army for a decent amount of XP.

Well, I wasn’t interested in fighting multiple fire demons, so I hoped Jaxson was as good as people seemed to think he was. Admittedly, he was looking better than when I first saw him. The real question was, could he keep that up?

A bellowed challenge caught my attention. A fire troll stood not ten feet away, beating his chest with one fist, holding a massive obsidian club in the other. He bellowed, again and again, proclaiming his demand for a fight. A jagged scar crossed over his chest, providing a perfect target. I hefted Gae Bolg and threw her. She sailed through the air and skewered the troll. He cried out in agony and rage as his body disintegrated into death.

Fortunately, Trolls were solitary creatures, and even when they gathered, they were obsessed with single combat. Even if there had been more of them, they would have been challenged one at a time. It made fighting them easy. As easy as fighting trolls was, I wasn’t interested in fighting trolls. I just wanted the Magnite. The sooner we got it the sooner I could get back to the forge and start experimenting with the recipes I would get from Stella.

Jaxson clapped slowly, mockingly. I gave him the side-eye wondering how mad Stella would be if I ran him through with my spear. No. Best not to dirty my girl with his blood. “Let’s go,” I told them. I led the way since I knew where the deposit was. I never thought I’d get the chance to come here and collect the ore. Admittedly, coming here with no one was a quick way to die, hence why I never came before. Stella was the only person I could stand to be around for any length of time.

The deposit was on the outer rim of the island, meaning the heat was manageable and the veins of lava were scarce. We ran into two more trolls that Jaxson was kind enough to dispatch since he all but demanded it. At first, I was reluctant to let him fight, sure he would get himself killed. To my surprise, he killed the troll quickly and efficiently. The next one after that fell just as easily, so by the time we found the deposit I felt okay with him watching my back.

Anyone with a pickaxe in Balor Online or BO for short can dig up ore deposits. But those with the Miner skill can get double or triple the yield than the average person. I had that skill and an Adamantine pickaxe, so I would get the best possible yield for my efforts.

Magnite was a grey stone with streaks of red and black. Some called it blood ore. The deposit was medium-sized. Normally, I would just take a little and leave the rest for others. Not this time, though. I’d need as much of the ore as I can harvest for myself.

Lifting the pickaxe, I brought it down on the deposit, again and again, stopping only to collect the shards of Ore I hack off. Stella and Jaxson stand guard but except for the trolls from earlier, there was no trouble. Thirty minutes after I started, I exhausted the deposit and drained my stamina bar. Be prepared. I took out a Stamina potion and downed it restoring my stamina bar to full. I’d need the energy to carry all that ore home. I hefted the back with a grunt and trudged back the way we came.

A citizen’s personal inventory was an infinite space with no weight penalties. The downside to this was you could only carry items, not materials. Now some materials like crystals can be considered items, so it was a loophole of sorts, but Ore was solidly in the material category. That’s where the rucksack came in. Like any game, it allowed me to store items, and it had a high carry capacity, but the Magnite deposit was bigger than I had originally estimated. That meant the bag was over the carrying capacity and I was now suffering the over-encumbered debuff.

I had planned to stop and cook something that would hopefully lighten the load just a little.

After an hour of trudging along, I suggested we stop and eat.

“I could eat.” She agreed. “By my command, cool the air around me, Greater Heat ward.”

A bubble of protection measuring 10 by 10 ft surrounds us. I loved the magic in BO. It made me feel like a kid again. I set up my cooking station over a magma vein, letting the natural surrounding do some of the work. Today’s lunch menu comprised Wild boar loin chops, stir-fried vegetables, and wild sauteed mushrooms wrapped in flatbread. Stella’s moans of ecstasy had me preening like a peacock.

“How did you make this so good?” Jaxson asked around a large mouthful.

“I’m just that good,” I replied, biting into my wrap.

The truth was, there was a secret to it. Most people would use the cooking menu to generate the foot with ingredients they had in their inventory. The food produced was satisfying, but if you skipped the menu and cooked the food yourself using cookware and utensils, the food was of superior quality. I’d compare it to gourmet food.

Now don’t get me wrong I’m not getting a big head over here. I’m just stating a comparison. I’m sure my cooking would be subpar back in my previous life. I loved cooking in my previous life. I thought about opening a restaurant. Ultimately, I decided against it. When most things become work, they stop being enjoyable. I enjoyed cooking. I didn’t want that to end.

The reactions of the other two over my cooking reminded me that I should try cooking for what few friends I did have. Yeah, maybe next week I’d have a dinner party. Those were still things, right? One thing I kept very quiet about was my age. In Bo, I looked to be in my mid-thirties or early forties. I was double that age now. I was among the first citizens in BO. None knew that, of course, I always kept a low profile. I often wondered how old Stella was. She appeared young, but sometimes she had wisdom in her eyes that made me think she was older. Of course, wisdom didn’t always come with age. I knew plenty of people my age who were dumber than a box of rocks.

“We shouldn’t spend too much time here. More trolls or demons might show up.” Stella’s words pulled me out of my musings. I quickly finished my lunch and packed up everything into my rucksack. Stella was right. We were lucky nothing ambushed us. In my defense, how often do I get a chance to cook for others? Never, that’s how often.

The rucksack still weighed a ton. Halfway to the portal, a dozen fire demons crested an ash-covered hill. They spotted us and charged. Fire demons were humanoid in shape, with fiery veins running up along their bodies. Flames sprouted from their heads like hair.

I was about to drop the rucksack before Jaxson stopped me. “We got this. Just hang back.”

Stella winked at me. “We got this. By my command, swirl and release the torrent, Aqua Barrage!”

A deluge of water hit the fire demons, sending billows of steam into the air. It didn’t hurt them much, but that wasn’t the point. Cooling off fire demons weakened them. I watched as Jaxson charged in blade glinting. His movements were a study of grace in motion. He cut on the demon in half, using the momentum to swing around and slice another demon. He used the momentum of every attack to carry into the next one.

I know they told me to let them handle it, but I didn’t like sitting on my ass during fights. I picked off a few demons with Gae Bolg. You know, just to help. The battle was over in minutes. Jaxson gave me a cocky salute.

“Thanks for the assist.” He said before sheathing his sword.

“That’s a nifty spear. How do you make it return to you?” Stella asked, while appraising Gae Bolg.

“Trade secret,” I told her before returning the spear to my inventory. Hiding the specific skills and sells that you imbue your weapon with should always be a priority. Every skill and spell has counterspells. If you know the exact skill or spell your enemy uses the easy, they are to counter and eliminate. As much as I liked Stella and I sort of trusted her, but there were some lines you didn’t cross if you wanted to make headway in BO.

“Boo, spoilsport.” She teased.

Another hour and we were back through the Fairy Gate. I set the rucksack down and rubbed my aching shoulders. “Man, I’ve never had to carry this much. I think my shoulders are ready to fall off.”

“I had that happen to a doll I had once,” Stella commented.

I gave her the stink eye. “Come on.” I shouldered the damn bag again and trudge up the road to my forge. I led them around back to the rear entrance of my workshop. I all but cried when I dropped the bag for the last time. At least for now. I dropped onto a stool and was started when a pair of soft hands began massaging my shoulders.

“Relax. I’m just trying to help.” Stella said as she unknotted my muscles.

“Thanks,” I said sincerely. It was incredible how realistic BO was. Aches and pains IRL were the same here. Muscle fatigue, sore muscles, sprains, and even muscle spasms. I can’t tell you how many times a day I fall into bed with muscles screaming in agony. Stella’s message was just the ticket. I indulged for a few minutes before I stopped her and put all the Magnite away. I had to fill more than one container with the ore.

“One task down, one to go.” I blew out a breath. “Basilisk hunting yay,” I said unenthusiastically.

“Hells yeah!” Jaxson said, clapping me on the back. “We kicked ass earlier. We’ll kick ass again.”

“Can’t wait,” I grumbled.