Chapter 6

Crafted Future

June laid staring at the ceiling, her eyes lost focus. The feeling wasn’t sleep; it was more akin to that state between sleep and being awake. She could feel her body becoming less corporeal in a sense. The allure of the dark felt far more comforting than it had since she came here, but June had a feeling that she couldn’t quite give in, yet. A sense of obligation made her want to explore her new situation. Her curious nature singed doubt and concern with its fire, turning the lingering strands gripping at her mind to ash.

Finally, being able to calm the storm inside, her natural curiosity returned to the fore. The giddy excitement she got when she was truly invested simmered in the back of her mind.

June shook off the memory of the robed nightmare from last night eating at the edges of her emotions. Resolute, she wanted to give in to her curious nature. It was the one thing she felt a little safe with right now, so she dove off into its refreshing waters.

June held up her right hand, she looked at the glowing gem embedded within. The Class Gem still held that gentle purple glow that she saw when it first came into her possession. The Class Gem had to be her next goal, it oozed an increased sense of importance. As she stared at, it almost teased her with its pulsing light. Though despite that glow, the Gem sat there, frustratingly inactive. She couldn’t figure out how to better utilize the mysterious rock.

The skeleton tried to will it to respond, nothing. Exasperated, she even tried tapping it. Thinking through what happened over the last day, she felt a twinge of guilt. “You idiot,” she whispered to herself.

The frustrated undead saw the solution when she thought back to Bullin’s advice. June pictured the Mana orb of her core, she then envisioned the tendrils of black Mana being sucked into it. June turned her head and stared at a random spot on the floor.

Visualizing the sphere, she mentally commanded it to appear. At first, nothing happened. June continued to struggle with the concept. As she tried to visualize her goal, distracting thoughts washed in whether she wanted them to or not. Over the next few minutes, her ability to focus waned. She even felt her body begin to tighten and strain. She decided to take a different path, instead choosing to return to the redoubt of knowledge she was more secure in.

June pictured that black void again, trying to fall into it. She just needed to see her core and that void floating before her. Try as she might, she couldn’t quite form the visual. Defaulting to an old trick, she pictured something new. A wave of relaxing and hopeful energy washed over her in that instant. The girl pictured her favorite memory, a peaceful forest, filled with the songs of countless birds. The skittering of squirrels running through branches accented the scene, immersing June in a sense of tranquility.

June had always felt much more comfortable within a day-lit forest, blown by a gentle wind, than anywhere else. At that moment, tranquility slithered along her limbs, putting her body at ease. June was able to relax, finally, and she could picture the realm of shadow, at last. When she did that, the orb finally formed.

After the orb formed within the void, just in front of her, she eagerly swam towards it. The undead reached out and grasped it, letting herself be taken by the sucking feeling she keenly remembered. Her awareness snapping back from the formless void, she was aware of the bed again. The rotating mass of energy showed up in that spot on the floor, as if on cue.

She rolled off of the bed and squatted in front of it, much less nervous this time. Unlike before, when the shadows danced in the horrifying uncertainty of the unknown, the dark tendrils sat still, as if waiting to be commanded. June concentrated on the image she was trying to create. She tried to force the Death Mana into the orb as she had done earlier. To her surprise, the appendages seemed to eagerly bend into shape. As they did, that familiar image of an eclipse entered her mind’s eye once again.

As she watched and waited, a slithering tide of shadows eagerly poked its way into the chamber. Just like before, it was slowly twisted and rolled into a point, before being consumed. As one crop of shade burned in the rolling fire of the sphere, more waited in line, eager to be eaten. Like rats scurrying stupidly to their deaths, they leapt into the fiery void from their nooks of stone and shadow.

The ebb and flow of energy twisting its way into the core was almost without end, and with unquenchable thirst, the core drank them all in. Angry waters of its surface twisted and opened, allowing more points of entry to form on its porous face. The shadow rushed into the new entryways, pulled into a mass of screaming shade deep within.

Within the core, invisible to June, the ball of shadow was unwound. Her core worked furiously at its task. Like a weaver spinning glittering thread, the core twisted the unspun shadow. The new shape of the darkness was alive with light, as the core spun threads of itself into the living weave.

As the Mana weave twisted in on itself, it bound tighter and tighter. The twisting mass burned with a barely contained heat. After what felt like hours, the coiled snake of fire and ash came to rest. June had consumed a steady stream of the Death Mana, so much so, that only the faintest whispers of pain and death remained within her chamber.

Like a torrent, her core had washed over every bit of shadow, snuffing and drowning it, before snapping it up. The ravenous hunger frothed one last time before its surface stilled. Not a shred of wild undeath remained. The energy had been drowned in unholy waters. Waters that had no ears to lend to the pained pleas of the damned.

As the core settled for the moment, June felt refreshed. She snapped back to her current reality in that moment. Gone were the core, the void, all of it. She felt at ease. Not even a hint of worry rested in her conscious mind.

Steadily, she raised her hand once again, what she saw surprised her. The Class Gem glowed with a vibrant violet light. Though it didn’t blind her or anything, she almost wanted to block it out.

She tried to relax, letting herself be taken by the gentle pull of the Gem. The next instant, she felt a slight pulling sensation. Her awareness was being drawn to the Gem. The uncertainty buried in its beam of power was pushed to the back of her mind.

Her gaze bore into it, seeing something new, a glittering star. She focused on the star, and the pull grew stronger. And then, in a flash, a new status window appeared before her.

Name

June Vallentra

Race

Undead (Skeleton)

Magical Offense Defense Crafting Arcane Prowess Tier 2

Death Magic Tier 2 Level: Total: 1 (Summoner Tier 1) Class Points: 7 Attribute Points: 0 Magic Affinities Combat Affinities

Death Magic (Racial)

Strength

Endurance

Agility

12

8

8

Willpower

Intelligence

14

14

Passive Perks

Active Perks

Mana Sense

N/A

The item she had received from that rotten horror had been activated and was now listed on her status screen. Curiously, it was the only source of skills she could see.

With a complete focus, June stared at the window. June meandered through the details she had, and how they compared to the MMO.

Arcane Prowess as an ability in Duneria Online was a simple way of scaling your Mana pool. But June hadn’t yet figured out what her Mana “pool” was in this living world. She thought through the ability scores listed, which weren’t a thing directly in the MMO. Instead, the game simply showed you Attack and Defense values for your various physical and magical attacks. If you were a mage, you would see damage and defensive values for all the magic types. This new character sheet didn’t include that, adding a layer of perplexing frustration to June’s search for new information.

Death Magic was the one thing that worried her most. She thought back to the prompt from when she first gained her class and realized that magic worked differently here. She hadn’t gained access to a complete library of spells here.

Turning the possibility over in her head, June came up with the only feasible solution she figured was plausible. The prompt mentioned schools, so she guessed that each type of magic further broke down into separate lists of spells.

The prospect of more details she had missed sent her spiraling into a litany of questions. She needed to know more about the Mana, and what differences they held. June added the proposal to the list of questions she wanted to ask Bullin about. Sensing he was the only source of information she had.

The point totals were one point of familiarity. You could spend Class Points to gain both new spells, and other abilities, both physical and magical. The skill system was also a mix of both helpful and confusing new information. The Tier system was in the MMORPG as she remembered it. If it worked the same here, that would mean each level would give her some points to spend. And as she gained more powers, she would increase in the overall number of Tiers. Duneria Online had ten tiers of main abilities, others had less. And since she saw the same style of information in her glimpse of Bullin’s stats, June assumed that was the case here.

Guessing against the leveling system of Duneria Online, she assumed that she would be given a total of 700 Points to spend if she reached the game’s level cap. If the Tiers and magic system worked the way she assumed, June would likely have to put a lot of time into finding out how to acquire more skills and spells. Combining the realizations, a build started to materialize in her head, theory crafting was going to be much more important here. She had no idea if she was truly immortal, as undead in many RPGs often were. That meant she had to be extremely careful.

Reluctantly, she broke from her pondering. June decided to look around these new quarters for anything of use. She tried to interact with the gem next to the door, but the door still woudn’t budge. Assuming that it couldn’t be opened without help, she turned to the bookshelf and desk that dominated the rest of the room. The dusty old wood was beaten from years of use. Whatever they once held had been long removed. The previous occupant must have had all of their possessions removed. June stood from the creaking chair in front of the desk and explored the surrounding walls.

A few small carvings could be found on the stonework around her. Spooky faces with flaming eyes dominated the few details she could make out. The faces she could make out seemed to be screaming. Most of the finer elements were covered in dust, and try as she might, she couldn’t clean them off enough to make them out. As she tried to decipher the carvings, a loud knock threw her concentration.

“Come on out,” yelled the familiar voice of the blue-skinned dwarf.

June heard a small whooshing sound and a click, the wooden door opened from the outside. Striding over to the door, she pulled it open. By the time she stepped out into the hallway, the dwarf was gone. The burning questions in her mind carried her on light feet as she strode down the hallway, back towards the workshop.

Entering the same workshop she had left in a stupor yesterday, June saw that it had changed in a notable way. For one thing, it wasn’t unbearably bright and hot. In fact, it felt pretty comfortable. The black forge remained lit, but this time it burned with a soft orange light. June felt a bit of normalcy creep into her mind.

Bullin was hunched over a wooden table that June hadn’t seen before. Looking past him, she saw that multiple crates had been moved around, she guessed that the table had been pulled out of some unseen storage. The workshop itself looked even more ramshackle than yesterday. Crates were thrown around in near-total disarray.

“Welcome back to the land of the living,” chuckled the dwarf.

“I wouldn’t call this bullshit living,” June retorted, as she stepped carefully through the mess. Glancing around, the forge room looked reconfigured for some new tasks Bullin had in mind.

The rotund man was hunched down over the wooden table with a few things out in front of him. A large sheet of blackened leather dominated the surface. Bullin was currently grinding something in a mortar and pestle, before turning some unseen substance into a small stone bowl.

Looking at the dwarf closer as he worked, June noticed something new. He wore the leather apron from yesterday, but hung around his neck was a periapt she hadn’t seen before. The metallic surface of the amulet was adorned with a handful of small gems of a deep blue hue. Squinting, she noticed the effigy carved into its surface, a blade with its hilt encased in a sort of stone or ice. The blade was set into the metal in black, with the stone surrounding in a contrasting light blue.

June repeated the same steps she had last night, now focusing on the amulet. She tried to unfocus her vision as she had last night, trying to see the Mana flowing around. The amulet seemed to emit a new kind. She saw blue sprouts of smoke flowing towards the small stone bowl sitting on the table he had just dumped something into. While her attention was focused on the amulet and his work, Bullin noted the meager blue glow to the skeleton’s eye embers. He smirked.

“Practice a bit, did we?” he asked. His eyes walked up and down the form of the skeleton, stopping with the violet embers burning in their eye holes.

Her awareness turned towards his face before she tilted her head in a questioning manner. “Huh?” she said.

“You learned how to use Mana Sense,” he said plainly.

She had noticed the perk listed on her character sheet, but hadn’t realized that’s what she was doing until now. “What does that do, exactly?” she asked.

“You’ve seen the little whips of Death Mana. They’re all like that. Imagine each Mana type has a form like that. Since you were just scanning my amulet, you probably noticed the Water Mana coming off it. Each element has a Mana associated with it, and talented mages can warp them to work spells.”

Turning the idea over in her head, June supposed that like Duneria Online, each school of spells had an element attached, if Bullin’s revelation was indeed how it worked.

“But that’s not really my area of expertise, I know this,” said the dwarf as he slapped the leather in front of him. “Today, you’re going to learn how to put that Mana Sense to use, to actually make something.”

Before she could stop herself, “But why?” burst from June’s mouth.

“I know you have a lot of questions, but before I teach you fully, you need to understand some basics about how this all works,” said Bullin in response.

Bullin pointed to the anvil behind them, on it sat a small hammer and steel chisel. June picked them up and inspected them closely. Within the metal danced a few runes carved into the surface. They remained dull and lifeless.

“So why do I need these?” asked June.

Bullin pushed two small stone bowls in front of her. “One’s called Infusion Oil,” he said, pointing to the bowl containing a viscous and clear liquid. He then indicated the other dish, containing glittering sand that looked like pulverized glass, calling it Mana Powder. “You’re going to use those, and I want you to channel Mana into them. Think of the feeling when you channeled mana into your core. That pull?” he added in a questioning tone, before continuing. “I want you to envision the opposite effect, in a way. Imagine a thread of your Mana flowing into the hammer, like you’re pushing it out.”

Bullin directed her to dip the blade in the oil, then into the powder, and said, “You’re going to use that, then make Runes in this here leather.”

She inspected the chisel and hammer and decided, “what the hell, why not try this weird shit, too.” A shrug of her shoulders was the only outward response. But there was a problem, she had no instructions on what to do. She knew that Bullin wanted her to prepare some kind of image, but she did not know what.

Before she could think of what to stamp into the surface of the leather, Bullin spoke up. “Just focus on what you know,” commanded her new teacher in an encouraging tone.

Resolving herself to try, she dipped the chisel into the oil, then into the powder. Placing it against the darkened cured surface, she raised the tool, ready to strike.

June let curiosity take over, falling back on the stability she had felt while working with her core. June imagined herself pushing the mana outward. A small thread of Mana snaked its way out of her purple core, before being ensnared by her force of will. Directing it to flow towards the tool she held aloft, she pictured the Runes on its surface flaring with faint blue twinkle.

As June hefted the hammer, she felt something fire off in the back of her mind. Someone watching her from across the room would have seen the tool in her hand glow with a glimmer of pale light.

Thinking back to her crafting time in Duneria Online, she went with what she knew. Starting with a primary Rune she knew from the MMO, she decided on the common Sun Rune. The simple dotted circle was hard to achieve with a straight edge, but she tried her best. This basic Rune was used in spellwork to help lay a bedrock for some enchantments and scrollwork, setting a base layer of magic power.

As she swung the heavy hammer down, a ringing sound bounced around the room, traveling like a bullet. The ricochet of each strike on the chisel resounded off of the stone walls, sounding a bell carrying gleeful and high-pitched tunes.

Next, June decided to go with another plain Rune, two, in fact. A classic upward triangle was easy to achieve, the Rune for fire. She placed one above and below the Sun rune. When she struck with the hammer, the oil and dust would be deposited into the indent she created. After she pounded in a piece of a Rune, she returned the chisel to the mixture to reload it for the next pass. Each time she did so, a brief rush of power vibrated through her hands, and June had to fight to keep them steady.

As wisps of the embers from the forge danced around her form, the hammer dinged away at the piece on the table. Following the impactful sounds came a shower of sparks. All manner of colors bounced around, landing on the floor, gliding down on a silent wind. Mixtures of blue, gold and green sparks flew around the new crafter, covering the area in a beautiful shower. With a series of staccato taps, the runes completed. After the shower abated, a new status window appeared in front of June.

Item Gained

Name

Holy Primal Leather

An incomplete material item.

Dark Primal leather imbued with a Holy enchantment.

Rarity

Magical

Grade

Material

Affinity

Life

Effect

Holy Damage Aura

This was it, that beloved crafting system she had spent hours learning and perfecting. It was this that drew her to the game. Sure, Duneria Online was a basic fantasy MMO on the surface, but it offered something that many other competing games didn’t—true and meaningful customization.

The item and spell crafting systems were second-to-none. Where most online video games are content with crafting items using recipes, Duneria Online took it a step further. The game had a huge litany of spells and components you could choose from, and so many more waiting to be discovered. And it was that discovery process which defined the early weeks of the MMO.

By using the in-game editor, there was nothing you couldn’t achieve, if you knew how. The first players made basic magical items with primitive enchantments; a flaming sword, a freezing ray scepter, you name it. If it was present in some fantasy story somewhere, someone churned it out during the opening days of the MMO. But the developers were not content to just let plain items be the focus of this system, the amount of customization was incredible.

Players could snap together parts and form fairly basic items. You could slot a sword together by connecting the pommel, handle and blade. The enchanting system was equally simple, with necessary Runes that could be drawn on to impart effects. Even with the limited Rune options, possibilities were nearly unlimited. If you wanted a fire sword that shot out balls of purple flame when you swung it, you just needed to find the right Runes.

This was yet another thing that this world took and turned on its head. The new reality wanted everything done manually. The prospect suited June just fine, the ability to be more creative than she had in any other game was exciting.

But before she could inspect her new creation more closely, Bullin pushed her away in a huff. “Do you realize what you just did?” shouted the visibly angry dwarf.

“Yeah, Holy Primal Leather. I mean, I guess it’s not what I expected; but at least it worked, right?” June said, confused.

To make his point, Bullin placed his thumb down on the surface of the cured skin and held it there. A slow sizzle and a wisp of smoke punctuated the next few seconds.

Nearly slapping herself, she responded meekly, “I’m a fucking idiot.”

“Yea, ya are, but that’s OK,” said the perturbed smith, withdrawing his singed finger. “I’m going to help you not be so stupid in the future. Now let me go get something.”

Bullin walked away from the enchanting table and rummaged through a nearby crate. The grumbling of the dwarf couldn’t be heard over the crash of him throwing things out of the box. A minute later, he found what he was after, a pair of heavy leather gloves and a set of battered metal tongs. The pitted metal tool almost dripped with Death Mana, even June’s mostly untrained eye could see it plain as day.

Grabbing the leather with the tongs, the upset dwarf slammed it down on the anvil with one hand, and he grabbed a huge hammer with the other. As he hefted the hammer, it glowed with cobalt light. “You might wanna stand back,” he said, just before slamming it down.

Even June could feel the buildup of power. Sensing imminent danger, June dove behind the enchanting table, with a whispered “oh shit.”

A concussive wave slammed around the room, sending several tiny implements pinging off the walls. A noise like a clap of thunder boomed out, deafening anyone unfortunate enough to have working ears. Fortunately, everyone here was already dead. The sound that followed the bomb of magical energy was a slight crackle as the Sun Rune had been obliterated from the surface of the Primal Leather.

“Doing runework is lesson one, lesson two is that most enchantments aren’t permanent,” said Bullin as he lifted the hammer from the scorch mark that was June’s previous runework.

“Well, maybe if you had given me some direction, that wouldn’t have happened,” shot back the undead, now peeking from over the table. She stood, dusting herself off.

“Tut-tut,” scolded the dwarf. “I was getting to that.” He reached inside the front pocket of his apron and pulled out a small bound book. “Read this tonight when we’re done here. The Runes here should be committed to memory, mostly for your own safety.”

Bullin then commanded June to help him clean up the mess in the forge chamber. Over the next few minutes, they picked up scattered tools, and June became a bit more familiar with the layout of the place. June took the opportunity to ask her instructor about mana. Having seen her core firsthand, Bullin admitted that her’s was unlike his own, or any other that he had seen. He did say that others in the Tomb might be able to instruct her better when the time came.

“I am curious about something,” inquired the dwarf as they worked. ”I would like to know where you learned any Runes at all. You know a bit about this world, but many things seem to have confounded ya.” he questioned, as his gaze bore into her.

Thinking through his question, June decided on her course of action in a split second. Quickly, she tried to clamp down on the panic blooming in her chest. Trying to avoid suspicion, she went with a lie. “I’m not really sure where I came from,” she lied. “Stuff is just so...hazy,” she said, struggling to feign confusion.

Bullin looked their fellow undead up and down for a few seconds, before nodding slightly.

“Well, I have some thoughts about how to fix that, but that’s for later.” spoke the dwarf, in a somewhat mysterious tone.

“So what are we doing now?” asked the curious skeleton, as she hefted a crate onto a stack.

“Next, I’m gunna teach you how to gain levels!” shouted the dwarf. As he nearly danced across the room, June couldn’t help but feel like she was about to be put through the wringer again.