“Reggie I’ve finished tidying up the storeroom so unless you have something else that you want me to do, I should probably get going,” I said to my boss who looked up from the computer that h had been working at and blinked.

“Oh, that’s right,” he chuckled as he glanced at the clock hanging on the wall behind me. “You have that thing today, don’t you?”

That’s right,” I nodded in agreement. It had been almost a week since we had started training for the Quest in the Barrows and we were finally confident that we were strong enough.

“Well, your shift is over for the day,” Reggie said. “And you have the next two days off so you can tell me all about it when you get back.”

“Thanks Reggie,” I replied as I turned to leave. “I’ll do that.”

Things had been much better at work after Janice had been fired and Reggie and Donna had finally let me start walking to and from work in the past couple of days now that we were sure that Dermot wasn’t going to cause trouble. I waved goodbye to the employee who was manning the register as I walked out the door. The employee’s name was Harry and he had been working for Reggie and Donna for almost as long as me. He was a couple of years older than I was, but we got along pretty well. Or at least we got along better than Janice and I did. Not that that was saying much.

“Enjoy your time off Tyler,” Harry said as I walked past him. Harry wasn’t interested in games like Cameron and I were, but it was nice of him to encourage me all the same.

“I will,” I nodded as I walked out the door. After glancing around I headed down the street to my flat.

I didn’t have to stop off at the store today since I had been shopping the previous day. Thankfully, I had actually succeeded somewhat at my original goal in the past week and had sold a number of the items that I had made to shops or to other players on top of what I had given to my Party members which meant that my budget wasn’t quite as tight as it had been. I only made about $15 but every little bit helped when you were living alone, and I could do quite a lot with a little bit of money.

“Hey Katy,” I said as I walked in through the door. “Can you let the others know that I’ll Log In in a few minutes?”

“Sure Tyler,” Katy’s voice replied from the speakers embedded in the ceiling.

True to my word I quickly heated up some dinner and got ready to enter my VR Rig. As I clambered inside the muggy metal box, I sighed in irritation. Hopefully, I would start making some proper money soon so that I could buy a more modern Rig. I had upgraded my Rig enough that it could still play modern games, but it still didn’t have the modern conveniences that newer Rigs had.

Modern Rigs were set up so that you could stay in them much longer than older models like my own. While you were inside the Rig it would inject you with a cocktail of nutrients and vitamins intravenously while also taking care of your waste. Naturally, this meant that you had to get into the Rig naked but that was a small price to pay for the ability to stay in your Rig for up to a week at a time. Eventually you had to get out to have a proper meal and sleep but if you brought the right Rig it would even stimulate your muscles slightly while you were using it which for some people was more exercise than they normally got which meant that it was even possible to lose weight while playing a game.

In fact, I was planning on buying the best Rig that I could afford if I managed to get the job as an Admin for Soul Core Online. After all, if I was going to be working from within the game full-time it only made sense for me to be able to be online as much as humanly possible.

A few seconds later I found myself in my personal space with Katy who was already waiting for me by the door that was our entry into the world where we spent a lot of our time.

“Hurry up everyone’s waiting for us!” She exclaimed and I chuckled as I headed ver. It was still amusing to me that an AI like Katy who had been involved in creating the world of Soul Core Online was so excited about taking part in what in the scheme of things was a pretty Low- Level Quest but I couldn’t deny that I was excited as well.

We stepped through the doorway and immediately headed downstairs to where the others were waiting for me. The gear that we were all wearing was considerably better than what he’d had a week earlier thanks to the sheer amount of time we had spent Crafting and grinding.

I was still wearing the Breastplate that been made from the first Armored Rabbit that we had killed but everything else was new. Most of what I was wearing was just the most basic leather armor that Fern had been able to make but I was also wearing a new pair of cloth gloves that Evie had made for me. Their Stats weren’t all that impressive, but I was able to insert a single Soul Core into each piece of armor that we were wearing which had increased our power by a pretty significant amount even with the weak Cores that I could make.

I even had a new spellglove that I had made myself and a new naginata that was slightly more powerful than my previous one. Warren had made it by melting down the Terror Bird Beaks that we had looted and fixing it to a haft that Fern had made.

I also had another new weapon that should be more useful than my naginata for taking down the undead that were going to be fighting at the barrows. It was a quarterstaff that was capped with iron on both ends. It wasn’t as good as my naginata and I hadn’t had that much time to unlock the Skills and Stats for its Soul Core, but it was still a good addition to my arsenal.

And I wasn’t the only one who had picked up a new weapon. Fern had actually got her hands on a pair of knuckledusters that she was growing increasingly fond of thanks to the Skills that had gotten for them that allowed her to Stun enemies. She had even taken to using one when she wasn’t grinding for Soul Points just so that she could use those Skills. We were all in agreement that this was actually better than dual wielding knives like she had before since her Stuns allowed her to lock down a single enemy if needed if things got out of control. Fern hadn’t really used the Wand that I had made for her all that much since she had ended up spending a lot of her money on her new knuckledusters, but she had decided that she would be buying a Dark Magic Core when she saved up enough money.

As for our two magic wielders they had both picked up new Magic Cores. Evie had picked an Air Magic Core which had given her a method of keeping foes at a distance as well as a newer spell that allowed her to Buff someone’s speed which had proven to be particularly useful. As for Kelly she had decided to pick Fire Magic to increase the party’s damage output. The area damaging spells of Fire Magic combined with Earth Magic which gave her the ability to manipulate the battlefield had proven to be a very nasty combination allowing her to cut smaller groups of monsters off from the others and bombard them from a distance with explosive fireballs and more recently walls of fire.

Katy hadn’t picked up a new weapon, but she had decided to take one of the Wands that I had made and had picked an Ice Magic Core so that she could slow enemies down before bombarding them with arrows which had also proven to be quite effective.

Finally, Warren had spent most of his time and money on making new armor for himself and as such he was currently equipped in some impressive looking Iron Plate Armor. However, he had also picked up a new Magic Core of his own the other day. To my surprise he had decided on a Nature Core and the first spell that he had unlocked was one that allowed him to heal someone over time. He hadn’t actually had a chance to use it yet, but we were all quite excited by the possibilities that it was going to give him going forwards.

Even with all of this I knew that we were only scratching the surface of the things that we would be able to do in Soul Core Online once we started to go to different places and fight more monsters. What’s more at Level 10 we would unlock the ability to have to sets of equipment that we could switch between which opened things up even more. I was still only Level 9 right now, but I was really looking forward to that when I finally Levelled Up. Levelling Up had become much more difficult in the past few Levels but that was partially because we had started to reach the point where we had to travel pretty far afield to find monster that were actually worthwhile for us to fight.

Once we were done eating our breakfast, we made our way out of town and started heading in the direction of the Quest Marker for the Barrows that Harmon had asked us to investigate. Luckily, there was a road that we could follow most of the way that was patrolled occasionally by the Ponson Guards, so we didn’t really have to worry about being slowed down by monsters for the first part of our journey. However even with that it was going to take us the better part of the day for us to get to the Barrows.

As such I decided to take one last look at my Equipment and other things while we walked along the road. A quick look around told me that the others were doing the same which didn’t surprise me since it wasn’t like we had an awful lot else to do. I decided to take a look at my new Naginata first.

Terrorsteel Naginata

Item Tier (Rarity): Journeyman (Rare)

Required Level:6

Damage:

1-Handed-9 to 15.

2-Handed- 12 to 20.

Damage Types: Piercing and Slashing

Core Slots:

1 Skill Core Sockets

2 Support Core Sockets

This naginata has been made by mixing ground Terror Bird Beaks with iron.

10% chance to cause Bleeding on hit.

The naginata’s blade was reddish in color thanks to the addition of the ground Terror Bird Beaks and serrated. According to Warren the serrated blade wasn’t the thing that allowed it to cause the Bleeding Effect on occasion. It was actually caused by adding ground the Terror Bird Beaks which was quite interesting to me and I was looking forward to finding out what effects other rare ingredients would have if we added them to weapons.

Next, I brought up the information on my new spellglove. We had only finished making it the other day and I was looking forward to finally using it.

Initiate’s Spellglove

Item Tier (Rarity): Journeyman (Uncommon)

Required Level: 6

Magic Power: 8

Core Sockets:

1 Skill Core Socket

1 Spell Core Socket

This spellglove has been made by talented but inexperienced Crafters.

It was almost 3 times more powerful than my old spellglove but other than that it wasn’t really all that different. In fact, all that was really different was that it had a slightly more complicated engraving and was made of slightly better materials. Apparently, the next tier of spellglove would also have an extra Support Core Slot but that was pretty much all that was going to change other than Magic Power until my Crafting Skill got a whole lot better.

Next, I brought up my Skills Screen to see the new Skills and Spells that I had unlocked in the past week. I had only Levelled Up the Soul Cores slotted into my currently equipped weapons a couple of times in the past week but even then, I had unlocked more Skills and Stat boosts for all of them.

Zeke’s Soul Links

Current Links: 4 Skill Links

Basic Glaive Core

Level: 7/10

Soul Points: 83 /250

Skills

Slash: 150% weapon damage. Cost: 15 Spirit. Cooldown: 3 Seconds.

Sweep: Attacks all enemies in front of the user dealing 70% of weapon damage to all targets. Cost: 25 Spirit. Cooldown: 2 minutes.

Lunge: Launches the user in a certain direction dealing 120% of weapon damage +10% per meter travelled up to a maximum of 10 meters. Cost 30 SP. Cooldown 1 min.

Thrust: 150% weapon damage. Cost 15 Spirit.

Cooldown: 3 seconds.

Additional Stats

+2 Dexterity, +2 Constitution.

Basic Spellglove Core

Level: 7/10

Soul Points: 88/250

Skills

Improved Ward: Creates a small shield that absorbs a base of 30 damage +250% of Magic Power. Cost: 25 Spirit. Duration: 15 seconds. Cooldown:20 seconds.

Barrier: Creates a stationary shield that absorbs a base of 30 damage +30% of Magic Power. Cost: 40 Spirit. Duration 30 seconds Cooldown: 2 minutes.

Repulse: Creates a wave of energy that knocks back anything in 1m of the user. Cost: 25 SP. Cooldown: 30 seconds.

Additional Stats

+3 Intelligence. +1 SP regen.

Ranger Core

Level: 2/50

Soul Points: 3/25 (This Soul Core can only gain Soul Points by completing special Quests.)

Skills

Detect Truth: Allows the user to sense when someone is lying. Cost: 20 Spirit. Duration: 1 minute. Cooldown: 5 minutes.

Additional Stats

+0.5 to Spirit regen. +0.5 to HP regen

Basic Lightning Magic Core

Level: 7/10

Soul Points 39/250

Spells

Jolt: 200% Magic Power as Lightning Damage. Cost: 20 Spirit. Range 5m. Cooldown: 3 Seconds.

Static Shield: Creates a field of energy around you that returns a base of 5 damage + 10% to anything that attacks you. Cost 25 SP. Duration: 2 min. Cooldown: 1 min.

Lightning Stream: Creates a large lightning bolt that deals 50% of Magic Power per second. Cost 20 Spirit/per sec. Cooldown: 30 sec.

Enchant Lightning: Enchants your equipped weapon with lightning magic increasing the damage of any attack by 50% of your Magic Power. Cost: 35 SP. Duration 1 min. Cooldown: 2 min.

Additional Stats

+2 Intelligence.

+1.5 Spirit regen.

Basic Medium Armor Core

Level: 3/10

Soul Points: 10/50

Dodge Roll: Cancels any action immediately as your throw yourself into a blindingly fast roll. Cost: 10 SP. Cooldown 20 sec.

Additional Stats

+2 Dexterity. +1 Agility

Not only had my older Soul Cores Levelled Up but I had obtained a new Medium Armor Soul Core that had given me a new Skill and some more Stats as well as several Support Cores that boosted my Stats even further. The others had also obtained Soul Cores for their Armor. Warren was the only one among us who had picked up a Heavy Armor Core which gave bonuses to Constitution and Strength as well as a Taunt Skill that he had been using as often as possible while we were grinding for Levels. Fern and Katy chosen Medium Armor Cores just like me and finally Kelly and Evie had picked Light Armor Cores which provided boosts to their Intelligence and SP regen as well as a Skill called Meditation that increased their SP regen when they were stationary.

While none of these Cores offered as much in the way of Skills as our Weapon and Magic Cores, they did provide useful increases to our Stats and I was planning on getting a Light Armor Core as soon as I could afford it. Luckily for me there were two types of armor that could have an Armor Core slotted into them: The Chest Piece or a Helmet. Katy had explained that this was so that people could mix and match different types of armor and increase the variety of possible builds even further.

However, what the Soul Links Screen didn’t show was my Support Cores which was slightly irritating but then it wasn’t like you had to keep track of their growth. In fact, it was rapidly becoming obvious that Support Cores were meant to be swapped out as often as possible. This made a certain amount of sense, but it also meant that it was slightly harder to keep track of them. I now had almost all my Support Core Slots filled up with Cores that gave 2 or 3 extra points to a certain Stat which had left my Stat Screen looking completely different from the way that it looked even a week ago.

Name: Zeke

Level: 9

Next Level: 13%

Health: 220/220

Combat Regen: 2 per sec

Spirit: 230/230

Combat Regen: 3 per sec

Strength: 5

Dexterity: 12

Agility: 11

Constitution: 8

Intelligence: 10

Charisma: 2

Physical Defense: 27

Magical Defense: 15

Physical Damage:

1 Handed 11-16

2 Handed 14-20

Magic Power: 13

I had focused on increasing my Agility, Dexterity and Intelligence as much as possible with more minor increases to my Constitution and Strength. I had almost decided to increase my Constitution even further but had decided that increasing my HP regen was more important. Those HP regen Support Cores had been among the most difficult to get my hands on especially considering the rarity of the ingredients that you needed to make them as well as the fact that Warren had wanted them as well. In the end we had split the 5 HP regen Cores that I had managed to either make or buy using our party’s funds with me getting 2 and Warren getting 3 since as the Tank he needed both HP regen, and Constitution more than I did.

Most of the rest of the trip to the Barrows was pretty boring. We only encountered one monster, a Level 7 Dread Cougar which was a fairly powerful monster for how close to town it was but nothing that we couldn’t handle. In fact, things only got really interesting after we got off the main road and we started noticing dead trees and other plants. What was even more interesting was the complete lack of wildlife. While most people were more interested in the monsters that roamed the world of Soul Core Online that didn’t mean that normal animals, particularly birds didn’t exist. However, we didn’t spot any at all the entire rest of the way towards the Barrows which were about as foreboding as one might expect. The barrows were massive mounds of earth surrounded by dead and rotting vegetation, but it wasn’t this that had me worried. No, the things that had me worried were the two Level 10 Skeleton Guards at the stone entrance to the Barrows.

Not only were both of these monsters a higher Level than any of us but they were wearing armor and carrying spears. Their equipment wasn’t in very good condition, but they were still the first monsters that we had encountered that had weapons and armor.

“Well, what do you think guys?” Kelly asked as we hunkered down behind a fungus covered fallen tree.

“Well, this is definitely where we need to be,” I replied. “And if that’s what is waiting for us at the entrance, I don’t think that we’ll be able to go that far in what I’m going to go right ahead and assume is a Dungeon.”

“I think that you’re right,” Katy agreed. “On both counts but we still need to take a look around inside.”

“Alright then,” Evie sighed. “So, do we draw them off or just meet those guards head on?”

“No point risking them having back up,” Kelly decided. “Let’s draw them off and ambush them. That will give us a chance to see how powerful they are as well.”

“Alright,” Warren said. “I’ll draw their attention. You guys get into position and let me know when you’re ready.”

We all nodded and started to spread out. Fern was the only one among us who currently had a Stealth Skill but everyone had a ranged attack anyway so we were pretty confident that we would be able to ambush these Skeletons easily enough.