“Well. It seems that I can read your Status, as is appropriate. Note that any time you remove your ring, I’ll know that you did so. I put it on you while you were being healed. It lets me into your mind, and that loss of connection will certainly not go unnoticed. More importantly… you’re a trapper? What exactly does that class do?” Lung-Tze reached without looking and pulled a book from one of the shelves, and summoned a glowing white rod of Mana to write with. Kraant could sort of vaguely see that the book was titled “Classes of the Poor: Vol. 5” and felt somewhat insulted.

“I can make traps, and sense and disarm traps made by others. I can butcher animals that fall into the traps, but I personally never bothered. There are Butchers for that. I can also use tools to improve my trapmaking, but I never found any tools or materials that weren’t made of pig iron or wood, and wood was too expensive to waste on traps that deep in the mines.”

“…I see you’re smarter than I thought. Even the geas can’t compel intuitive leaps, so your succinct description of the job is interesting. What are Butchers?”

“Butchers slaughter and dismember corpses of animals and creatures to create crafting materials that Cooks and Leatherworkers use for food and clothing.”

“…Almost word-for-word from the book. Interesting!” Lung-Tze licked the cracked and dull scales around his mouth. “What are Magi of Life?”

“…I assume Magi is the word for more-than-one Magus.” Kraant hated this Geas! Even questions he wasn’t quite sure he understood were answered to the best of his ability- after all, that’s what he thought Lung-Tze wanted, no matter his own opinions. “Life Magus is a class that grants a certain amount of control over living matter and beings. I don’t know much more than that, only that Detect Living and Ward: Living are both spells gained at level 1 of the class, and that I had no idea I carried the class before now. Oh, and I suppose that Regenerate 1 is probably part of the class as well, although I’d never been dismembered before, so I can’t be sure. Actually, I probably was dismembered, but don’t remember it. It can probably upgrade. GHA!” Kraant gasped for breath. Apparently, he thought that Lung-Tze would rather hear all the details than allow Kraant to breathe, so Kraant couldn’t catch any air until he was done reciting facts. Or, rather, each realization forced him to continue to that Lung-Tze wouldn’t think he had finished.

“…Duly noted. Well. You have the day off, so to speak, until I can gather some test subjects. Try to reach level 4 in Trapper, 2 in Life Magus, and create at least 3 basic traps that I can set and test, and I want all of that done before this time tomorrow. You may rest as required by stamina, but any spare time should be spent wisely.” Lung-Tze left the room, and Kraant heard the click of a lock. He was trapped here. He chuckled inwardly at the irony, then wondered what irony was, then collapsed due to a sudden and intense headache.

Nathaniel woke up.

Nathaniel hungered.

Nathaniel made some ramen and rubbed his forehead. Apparently, extended VR Cocoon use really did cause the headaches that all the reviewers bitched about. So. That was fun. His ramen dinged, or rather his microwave dinged, and Nathaniel sat down at his computer.

First was to check the forums for “Life Magus”. No results. Not surprising, since the world of Final Escape was only, what… 6 hours old for the Early-Access users? Next, Kobold. He saw that Kobolds were one of the “other” races that hadn’t yet been given a page on the official website or a decent Wiki entry, so he himself posted the Attribute minimum/maximum values. No reason not to help out, right?

He tried searching for “Irongem Mines” and got a very basic entry that said they were on the far nothern edge of the main continent, and that they were established in the lore as a very significant source of irongems. Big shock there. He then tried searching for a profile name of “Atatoskr”, his IRL… well, girlfriend was a bit much, but significant other was probably safe… anyway, for Samara’s character name. They’d agreed on character names ahead of time, so that once they unlocked friend lists they could add each other. Atatoskr was not on the company’s list of taken usernames, which Nathaniel found strange. Oh well.

Nathaniel figured that, due to the time dilation (1 hour to 10 in-game hours), he had plenty of time to write for a little while and let his headache subside before getting all up in Kraant’s style again. He wanted to plan out his adventure as much as he could, so that he could start putting out videos worth watching as soon as possible. He had to get out of this tutorial area, which (assuming it was the same as in the Beta) was simply a matter of reaching a certain threshold of strength for his class. An archer might need to be able to accurately hit a moving target, or a crafter might need to craft their first piece without assistance. He had no idea what a Magus would need to do- he hadn’t had the VR cocoon until the last day or so of the Beta test and he spent most of that as a Spellsword. He wasn’t even sure what criteria a player needed to meet to play a spellsword in the full game, but it was considered an advanced class that you couldn’t just start with.

Anyway, once he got out of that horrible place… he’d probably rely on his Trapper class and head into the woods. Kill some things, get a handle on the magic system, and hopefully by the time he got to a decent-sized town away from wherever the newbies started, he’d be a little stronger than most. That way he could get the benefits of skipping the starter town entirely, while also getting some good experience- both in EXP and actual knowledge. He rubbed his hands together in old-style cartoony villain greed.

Man, fuck real life. Let’s go back to the simple problem of trying to please a magical dragon.

Kraant had moved since he remembered collapsing. He’d been in the middle of a big room, but now he was on a cot in a much smaller room. He looked around, and realized that he was locked inside, or rather, that he was stuck inside- there was no door to lock. He chalked it up to magic, and then got to work making the traps that Lung-Tze wanted, hoping to multi-task. He remembered a few that he could craft without any need to carve or use tools, so he made those. Worse than the lack of tools, however, was the lack of material. He had to get creative. Luckily, it seemed like his 2 spells per day had recovered, so he could cast Detect: Living or Ward: Living. He knew instinctively that he didn’t need to choose which spells he would have access to, but that he had to rest for at least a full 4 hours to even potentially recover a spell-slot. So, he was flexible but limited in his casting abilities. Presumably, that would change as he came to grips with his newfound Magus class. He cast Ward:Living on the door, after a few failed attempts, and was rewarded with a skill notification.

Skill Notification: Spellcasting

You have cast a spell as a Magic-based Class! You are now capable of critical successes (and failures) when Spellcasting. The odds of a critical result are (Class level/Spell Level %), modified by Luck. Currently: Class level 1, Highest Spell Available: level 1 1%-1%

Neat! He’d also reached level 2 in Ward: Living, which was progress toward the overall Class level-up demanded by Lung-Tze. Hopefully another cast when this one wore off would level him up, or else he’d have to forcibly injure himself so regenerate could take effect. He was pretty sure any Class would gain experience through activation of a Class Skill or Ability, even if (like Regenerate) it was already at max level.

It took a little bit of doing, but he was able to use Ward: Living to create a few traps, although they barely counted as traps. They did count, though, and got his Craft: Traps art to level 4, as well as his Trapper class, and his unfortunate need for materials got Regenerate to kick him over the threshold of level 2 as a Life Magus.

He’d realized fairly early on that the only materials available to him were himself and his cot, and since he wasn’t sure how Lung-Tze would react to the cot being dismantled for parts, Kraant had been forced by the Geas to dismantle himself for parts. He’d carefully figured out exactly what he needed, how to get it, and then used Ward: Living on his feet to push the skin and flesh away from his bones. He hadn’t realized that the marrow inside a bone would get crushed too, so his feet were screaming in agony from inside and out while he plucked his talons (which were not classified as living, apparently) and all the bones he could reach. He even managed, with much pain and difficulty, to extract one of his shins.

He hated this Geas.

One trap had mostly consisted of a patch of floor, slickened by the blood spilled when his foot tore itself apart trying to get away from itself. This patch was augmented by a talon, placed roughly where he thought Lung-Tze’s head might land if he were to slip, and that extra risk was just enough to get it recognized as a Trap, and not just as a mess. The second trap was his leg bone, tied to the ceiling with what scraps of flesh and loincloth he’d managed to tie together, nailed to the ceiling with another talon so that when the door opened, assuming the door was where he thought it would be, the makeshift club would swing at about Lung-Tze’s head level. The last trap involved the manacle that he’d slipped off his ankle while his foot was being regenerated (and he hadn’t thought about how badly Regenerate would hurt while Ward: Living was still active) and left on his cot, so that it would draw the eye away from the opposite corner where he practiced his Stealth, holding a handful of the bones he hadn’t needed or been able to use.

Lung-Tze arrived almost as soon as Kraant finished, without any sort of door opening at all. He simply appeared in the middle of the room, and looked around.

“…Why is there so much blood?”

“Well, you wanted me to make traps but I only had access to myself, your cot, my loincloth, and my manacles. I had to ward the bones of my foot against flesh, and when my flesh was repelled it was enough to spray blood all over the room.”

“I see. Creative. Show me your status.”

Identity and Attributes

Name

Kraant

Power

2

Load Cap.

40

Race

Kobold*

Control

5

Stamina

50

Age

22

Charisma

3

Spells

0/2

Size

3’11”

Morality

0

-

-

M.Class

Magus* 2/10

Knowledge

3

-

-

S.Class

Trapper 4/10

Sense

2

-

-

HP

15/15

Luck

6

-

-

MP

0/30

Authority

0.5

-

-

* Denotes special, hidden modifiers. These can be examined only by the statholder or a Divine-level Appraisal.

Classes

Life Magus

2/10

8%

12/144

Trapper

4/10

2%

6/302

Skills, Abilities, Arts, and Spells

Skills

Abilities

Arts

Spells

Endurance

1

4%

Regenerate 1

MAX

MAX

Craft: Traps

4

5%

Ward: Living

4

23%

Detect Trap

2

3%

Stealth

4

8%

Sculpt: Flesh

1

0.5%

Detect Living

1

89%

Engineering: Mechanical

1

0%

Equipment

Head

Torso

Lower Body

Arm, L

Arm, R

Leg, L

Leg, R

Hand, L

Hand, R

Accessories

Loincloth

Iron Manacle

Iron Manacle

Iron Manacle

Claws

Claws

Iron Ring of Limited Telepathy

0

0

0

1

1

0

1

1

1

0

Interaction Status

Physical

P. Def.

7

P. Dodge, Complete

0.5%

P. Atk., Melee

2

P. Atk., Range

0

Social

S. Def.

3.5

P. Dodge, Partial

5%

Soc. Atk.

4.5

Blend %

3%

Mental

M. Def.

3.5

M. Conceal

1.5

M. Atk.

0

Retain %

3%

Legend

Kraant was dissatisfied with his life as a trapper in the Kobold-controlled Hematite Mine 175-B, and left his home and clan behind. He was able to last a few days before his first encounter with the Higher Races, and was captured by a band of elven bandits. He was sold into slavery, brought to the Irongem Mountain Mine 34-C, and used for organ storage. He was nearly killed by Rrrobert, but was saved by the timely intervention of Lung-Tze. He was put under Geas by Lung-Tze, due to his special Main Class of Life Magus. His training has been painful and brutal, but he suspects it will only get moreso as he learns what a domain of “Life” truly means.