I forgot to upload here. Sorry! I've been totally scatterbrained this past week. Ch. 12 coming up next. 11. Spoiler Baxter trotted heavily down the stairs, drying his freshly washed hands on his shirt as he half listened to the chatter of Olivia as she helped carry groceries into the house. The soft murmur of his mother’s voice as she responded was as gentle as always, whether it was her humouring Olivia’s exuberance, or coaxing Baxter’s… well, in any case she was a patient and understanding woman. Olivia had a paper bag in each arm as she walked through the door, grinning widely at him, asking, “Wanna grab the heavy stuff for us?” Baxter glanced out the front door, at the long, long walk to the driveway where the car was reverse parked. He swallowed a breath, putting on a strained smile. “I’ll start putting things away.” Olivia’s smile faltered, but she didn’t comment and just made her way to the kitchen, setting the groceries down on the large square island and making her way back out to the car for another trip. Baxter began stuffing the green groceries and other cold things into the fridge higgledy piggledy, leaving them wherever there was room for them without any system. His mother wandered in with a pack of toilet paper stuffed under one arm and a bag in the other, juggling the delicate balance of trying to set one down without completely dropping the other. All it took was one look for her to become immediately exasperated with his “help”. “Potatoes don’t go into the fridge, Bee.” Putting on a completely perplexed face, she pushed the bag onto the island countertop and let the toilet paper drop to the floor, immediately trying to fix his disorganised arrangement. “If you want to help, focus on the pantry. Oh God, bananas go in the fruit bowl thank you.” She handed off a bunch of bananas, and Baxter bemusedly took them, glancing around the kitchen for the fabled fruit bowl. He generally didn’t pay attention to anything that wasn’t packaged in plastic. “Oh. Sorry.” He finally set the bananas down tentatively on a nest of half-ripe oranges piled into a clear glass bowl, then set about packing away mysterious tins of beans and diced vegetables. He knew his mother kept buying them, and they definitely disappeared from the pantry over time, but he never saw them get used. Olivia slammed a bag of groceries down, declaring, “That’s the last of it. So, as I was saying, when I asked him for recommendations on extra materials since I couldn’t really understand some of the ones he showed in class, and he was like, ‘Uh, everything you need to know was in the syllabus, if you’re struggling to understand maybe you should hire a tutor’, to which I’m like. Um? Maybe if I’m struggling it’s because you just make us watch powerpoints and movies every class and don’t teach us anything. I mean, I didn’t say that because he’d probably dock my grade just to be a dick, but like, for real…” Baxter tuned out the sound of her voice. University was a completely different world that he didn’t belong to, and watching his mother cheerfully nod along to his cousin’s stories just gave him this petty, frustrated feeling of… resentment? Jealousy? Olivia was a year younger than him, but already knew what she wanted to do with her life and was blazing her way through further education to grasp it. He’d spent the last sixteen hours sleeping, eating, playing a game, and almost crying because he embarrassed himself in front of an AI at one point. His parents had stopped asking him ‘how was your day’ years ago and really, he couldn’t blame them. He poured himself a glass of juice and steered his way to the door, pausing for a moment as he considered excusing himself, but the two of them weren’t even looking his way. Baxter grimaced to himself, heading straight back to his bedroom without a word. He put his juice down on the desk, reclining in his desk chair, but didn’t immediately dive back into the game. He needed a break from the intensity of the VR, but more so he just wasn’t in the immediate mood to play. Tucking his legs underneath him and wrapping his arms around his knees, he gazed blankly up at the ceiling. It wasn’t anyone’s fault but his own that he had become an outsider in his own home, amongst his own family. But that just made the spiteful feelings of bitterness all the harder to swallow. Had he been the victim of someone else’s plot, it would have been easier to… excuse it? Accept it? Fight back? Who knows. But he had a family that was nothing but loving, supportive, and earnestly trying to help him get over all his… crazies. Yet all he did was recoil away, and then resent them for moving on with their lives instead of living stuck in stasis like him. Self-pity was so easy to wallow in. Unlike seemingly everything else in his life, it came so easily and naturally to him. For fuck’s sake, he couldn’t even put away groceries without somehow fucking up. He felt his cheeks burning in embarrassment just remembering his fuck up. There was a knock at his door seconds before it creaked open, nothing more than a polite warning. Olivia leaned in, blinking at him. “I just wanted to say bye before I left. I’ll probably come over Sunday for board games.” “Mm.” Baxter gave a noncommittal reply. Olivia hesitated, clearly reading his mood but not sure whether trying to talk about it would make things better or worse. In the end, familial concern won out over caution, and she made her way into the room, sitting on the bed and staring at him. “What is it?” Baxter glanced at her. “What’s what?” “What’s the thought that you’re obsessing over right now? You get stuck in these neurotic cycles, Bee. So what is it?” Baxter played with a loose thread hanging off the leg hem of his pyjama pants, giving a one-shoulder shrug. “Nothing. I’m fine.” Her staring wouldn’t let up though, so he threw out the first random excuse that come to mind, “I just messed up a bit in the game, got into a disagreement with some other players. But it’s fine, we… we talked it out.” “Okay, did you talk it out as in you actually talked and reached an amicable conclusion, or did they talk at you while you just shut down and walked away from the conversation? Because there’s a difference.” Olivia commented, not pulling any punches. Baxter pulled a face at her, sticking out his tongue. “Actually, I ended up joining their clan, so eat it.” Olivia’s face lit up, and she leapt up from the bed, bounding over to him and wrapping him up in a tight hug. “Yay, Baxter’s socialising with human people!” Baxter pushed at her, feeling slightly suffocated, choking out, “Boundaries, Liv, please.” “Sorry, sorry.” She threw her hands up, taking a quick step back. “See, I knew you could do it if you just opened yourself up to the possibilities.” He rolled his eyes, telling her softly, “Dial down the smugness or I’ll quit purely to spite you.” “Spoilsport.” Olivia ruffled his hair excitedly, then excuse herself, “Okay, I’ll leave you to it. Don’t feel pressured to talk to people if you don’t want to, keep going at your own pace. Progress, not perfection, okay!” “Yeah, one day at a time, sing like no one’s listening, shoot for the moon and suffocate among the stars, blah blah blah. Go, go, hurry up and go contribute to society.” He shoved her away gently, ducking his head down and hoping the searing heat from his spreading blush wasn’t radiating off him so much she could feel it. The door closed behind her with a soft click, and Baxter gently rubbed the prickly feeling of the blush away from his face, calming down his erratically beating heart. Notch ‘praise and positive reinforcements’ up to another thing he didn’t have the emotional stability to take on board comfortably. Although he was still feeling slightly morose, at least the short exchange had somewhat evened out his mood, and he wasn’t feeling the listless desire to lie on his back and haunt his own memories for every fuck up he’d been responsible for in the last week to get upset about needlessly. He spun in his chair, glancing over at the VR rig and debating whether he should get straight back into the game, or take an hour long nap to rest his eyes and brain a little. Fingers drumming against his desktop, he weight up the pros and cons. Cons: the constant visual stress would probably give him premature macular degeneration. Pros: actually, his eyes were already pretty shot and it was unlikely to get noticeably worse within the immediately timeframe. He could also finally turn in the class quest now that he had all the gathered herbs. Finally, he’d just gotten power-levelled to LVL. 18, which meant not only did he now have the DoT he gained at LVL. 15, but at 18 the Menders’ class got three new debuffs at once. Self-care, or shiny new toys… Who was he kidding? Baxter drank down half the juice, moistening his parched throat, and set up one of the three? Four? Glasses of water that had migrated to his bedroom over a period of weeks to be close at hand to ward off dehydration headache, then set up the rig. The VR tech definitely encouraged long play sessions if only because of how much work it was to put on and take off. Before logging straight back into the game, he opened up a browser and headed to the LO forums. He’d already made a fool of himself aplenty, and decided to learn about some of the basics he’d missed out on due to not having played the tutorial with his second-hand character. So far he’d just taken for granted that he would understand how to play based on his previous gaming experience, but was coming to understand that although there were a few mechanical similarities between MMORPGs and standard RPGs, the expanded scope of the game and multiplayer aspect of it changed many aspects of the game in ways he didn’t even consider. For example, aspects of a single player game would allow players to freely grind until they became ridiculously OP, but now that he was sharing a sandbox with other people, one that had competitive and cooperative balance issues, the road to levelling his character was far more steep, littered with hidden pitfalls. When he finally logged back in, he was alone in the fairly high leveled area five of the Sylvan Woods. When he’d logged off, he had automatically been booted from the team, but after checking his flist he saw that Sunwoo and BZ had logged off anyway, whilst Milk had completely left the zone - in fact, she’d left the entire continent. He frowned as he saw the list of half a dozen unfamiliar greyed out names, momentarily recalling once again that he was playing a second hand account - these were probably Olivia’s friends. According to the dates of their last logins, most of them had dropped off playing, as the most recent play time was almost sixteen months ago. He hesitated for a second, but figured this was his account now either way and so deleted them each one by one. He also checked the other tabs of his social menu, and found that besides False Infernum, he was still part of an inactive clan too, thus promptly resigned from it. As for guilds, it seemed it was too early days for Olivia and her friends to have established anything like that. With his social links all cleared up, it was type to do some maintenance. He was finally able to complete the alchemy quest, and luckily there was something else he could do while he was in the area, something he’d been putting aside for too long to focus on other things: he was almost level twenty, but still running around with beginner level gear. Using SOUL CALL, he teleported straight to Sylgrenia. He’d already checked the map and the local Menders Guild was nearer to the base of the city, so he made use of the smaller elevators in the city to quickly descend the tree, rather than taking the scenic route down the long spiral pathway. Even with his loan, he could already guess he wouldn’t have enough gal to buy a completely new set of gear for his current level, so to begin with he find some subquests that offered money rewards. It was lucky that this kind of ongoing live service game would always have a glut of side content, as well as daily quests and tasks players could do to keep them coming back to the game, so the question of where he might find these quests wasn’t hard - the Menders Guild. The Menders Guild was an NPC-run guild where, like the other primary class guilds, players could find a teacher in order to switch class. The guild also offered dailies that were unique to Menders, unlike the general dailies offered to all players which often had combat quests that put support or crafting classes at a disadvantage. The rewards of general dailies he had access to at his level were high sil payouts as well as rare mats or consumables. The benefit of class-specialised dailies was that they gave money and a choice of gear for rewards, and at least one piece would be Uncommon rarity, and occasionally even a Rare gear would pop up. Although custom crafted gear would always be better - maintaining the relevancy of crafting classes - and veteran players who had crafted or picked up stronger, nicer looking gear over their playtime would scoff at these quest rewards, for newer players who didn’t have the money or support to buy gear, or players like Baxter who levelled their character without updating their gear, it was a great way to keep their loadout more balanced with their class level. In Sylgrenia, the Menders Guild and the Alchemists Guild were physically combined to form the Healers Guild building, which only felt natural considering how complementary they were as job paths. It was also convenient for Baxter, since it would allow him to apply for some dailies from the Menders Guild and then immediately head over to the Alchemists side of the building to turn in his Green Thumb quest. The guild was built fairly deeply into the Sylgrenian tree, and Baxter had to walk through a long corridor dimly lit by glowfruits to get there. Eventually the corridor path opened up into the enormous space of the guild’s main hall, which was brightly lit by orbs of condensed light that magically floated on their own, like a series of miniature suns. The deep location allowed the guild to have more vertical space, giving it an airy feeling even though it was carved so deeply into the trunk. The entry space of the hall was raised slightly, each side flanked by a double set of stairs leading to the second floor balcony that wrapped around the entirety of the hall. There were a few shallow steps leading into the hall proper, and centralised in the hall was the main reception and information counter. The counter was completely circular, allowing players to approach it from any direction, and staffed by three NPCs in smart looking clerical attire. There were quite a few arched corridors leading off to various amenities and spaces, such as the practice grounds for Menders, the stores and labs for Alchemists, the class mentors for players seeking to job change, and so forth. But most of the doors arranged around the main hall space were tightly closed, likely nothing more than textured walls to give the appearance of a sprawling and busy guild. It was Baxter’s first time visiting a guildhouse, but he was relieved to find that it wasn’t very busy. Most of the characters inside the guildhouse were NPCs, and appropriate to the location at least 50% of them were elves. There were very few players currently in the guild, or at least in the main hall portion of the guild, and they were more or less evenly split between the main reception and the line of notice boards that took up the entirety of the upper levels’ left and right walls. He ignored the upstairs for now, and directly made his way over to the reception, speaking to the closest NPC to the front. She was the first halfling NPC he’d seen, and was standing on a stool so she peer over the countertop. Her curled, platinum blond hair was cut into a bob, and her ringlets caused her already short hair to bounce up even higher so it was above her chin, with the tips of her protruding pointed ears just barely peeking out the sides. She looked extremely fluffy and cute, making her far less intimidating than the tall, sombre-looking elven NPCs. “How may I help you?” She chirruped in a melodic soprano, bouncing slightly on her stool. Baxter clenched his hands slightly in his sleeves, taking a deep breath and forcing a smile. An NPC was as good a thing as any to practice some social skills on, even though it made him feel slightly foolish. “I’m…” He paused, realising he wasn’t sure how to respond. In other games, a menu of options would be presented, but the UI of LO was pretty minimal, and he was forced to think for himself what to respond with. The official wiki for the game he’d looked up was was actually somewhat sparse with basic descriptions, and had only mentioned that the primary class guilds offered work, with no specifications on how to actually apply for dailies. With no idea what to ask for, he ended up responding vaguely, “I’m looking for work.” The halfling gestured to the noticeboard on the upper level to Baxter’s right as she spoke, “Yes! For Menders, you can find various jobs and requests posted on the Bounty Board to the right. If you’re in a hurry, I can also recommend some jobs suited especially to your experience level.” “Ah.” Baxter glanced up, feeling his cheeks go a little pink. Obviously! No, no, keep it together. Despite his level, he was still essentially a newbie so it was fine to make these kinds of mistakes, right? Besides, she also just offered to recommend him some work specifically for his level, so this was still a perfectly valid method of seeking jobs, rigt? He softly coached himself, taking another calming breath. “Please recommend me some jobs.” “Very well.” The halfling reached under the countertop, shuffling at something he couldn’t see, then pulled out a stack papers and splitting them into two piles, placing three papers in one and all the rest in the other. “For a Mender at your level of skill, these are the most suitable quests we have, please browse for the ones you’d prefer. The ones on the left aren’t urgent so you will have until the end of the week to complete them - of the three provided, you may pick one. The requests on the right are fairly urgent, so we do ask that you complete it by the end of the day. You may accept three of the urgent requests for now, but once you have handed them in you may accept more.” “Uh, g-got it.” Baxter picked up the smaller pile first. The turn in date for the weeklies was Sunday afternoon in his timezone, and although it was already Thursday he felt he had time to turn in at least one of them. The first required catching five of a certain rare spawning variant mob alive, a task best suited to Menders with their low damage output and wider variety of debuffs and CCs. He immediately discounted this task as he wasn’t familiar enough with the mob specified to know the right hunting grounds, and also didn’t feel he could rely on the RNG of when the spawning enemy type would be a rare variant. He might spend the next four days camping the spawning ground waiting for one of them to be a variant and end up not rolling any. The second task piqued his interest: Something Rotten the State of Sylvalon The spirits of the woods have alerted us that Voidrot has begun to spread its tendrils across many of their sacred sites. It seems even these consecrated grounds are not immune to the tide of corruption currently sweeping our world. While this news is concerning, our first priority is to purify and reinforce the protections on each location, as the spirits rely on the holy energy of these sacred sites for nourishment and without it they will die. Without the spirits, there will be nothing protecting the woods. Objectives: Purify the eight sacred sites scattered across the Sylvan Woods, and reinforce the barriers protecting them. Devilwood Grove (0/2) Winhill Wilds (0/2) Littlewood (0/3) Ancient Grove (0/1) Rewards: 1 Gal 250 Sil and Iron Rod or Ash Cane. Although the locations were spread out, it wasn’t hard to complete within a day or two. The only reason it was a weekly quest rather than a daily quest was because it was designed to be the sort of thing someone could leisurely do over the course of a week as they moved around the map fulfilling other tasks. Although the rewards were comparatively lower because of this, it had the benefit of being a surefire success. The third one was another that relied too much on getting lucky with RNGs, so he quickly settled on the second, setting it aside before moving on to the next pile - the dailies. The sorts of dailies available were like the weeklies, but more compact; there a couple quests to catch a rare mob variant, another quest to purify corrupted areas but their locations were within a single area. Baxter marked them both as “maybes” in his head, then flipped through the others. There was a request to escort an NPC on a bounty trip - the sort of thing designed to help players practice party dynamics to an extent - and a couple of simple, generalised delivery quests. Although he had no interest in party dynamics, he still accepted one of each of these last two because they seemed interesting and he wanted to try a variety of quest types, and picked up a monster catching quest for his third. Bounty: Something Sparkling in the Woods! The other day when I was gathering wild vegetables, I saw something sparkling through the trees. It looked like an ashridge hog, except it was green and sparkly instead of brown. Nobody believes me, but I definitely saw it! Please someone catch it so I can show everyone I’m not lying. Issuer: Yunessa Hazelfern Objective: Capture the rare ashridge hog alive. Rewards: 650 Sil and Lesser Health Potion (Medium) (5) or Lesser Mana Potion (Medium) (5) Hiring: Need Heals We’ve received complaints about a mossbear appearing near Wildling Fort. Since nobody else wants to deal with it, I’ve decided to volunteer. Only… it will be my first time doing a hunting job by myself, and I’m not really confident… I think it’s safer to take a Mender along with me. Don’t worry, you can leave the fighting to me, just get me there and back in one piece and I’ll split the bounty with you. Issuer: Cpl. Kavessin Oakensnarl Objective: Keep Kavessin alive. Rewards: 900 Sil and Padded Longcoat Delivery: Charitable Donation Seems like some idiot from the Alchemy Guild was trying to raise creeping fumewort out in the woods. That stuff’s banned for a reason! Naturally, the whole plot of it went wild and it took the combined efforts of the Third, Fifth, and Sixth Outpost to clear it all out - too bad they ended up going through their entire stock of antidotes in the process. Well, it was one of our Alchemists so I guess we should give them some kind of compensation or something, so we’ve generously decided to donate all the practice antidotes made by our apprentices to the various Outposts. We just need someone to deliver them. Oh, and tell them there’s no need for thanks. It’s all in the spirit of the Healers Guild. Issuer: Guildmaster Winternettle Objectives: Deliver the supplies to the three designated Outposts. Third Outpost (0/1) Fifth Outpost (0/1) Sixth Outpost (0/1) Rewards: 780 Sil and Topaz Silver Circlet or Padded Coif Baxter passed the four chosen quests over to the halfling clerk. “These will do.” “Thank you. I see this is your first time accepting Guild Requests, so I need to inform you that you are required to pay an acceptance deposit for each request. Upon completion of the request, your deposit will be returned to you along with the reward. If you fail to complete the request in the time allotted, your deposit will be forfeited to the guild. Do you understand?” The halfling gently shuffled the rejected papers into a pile and returned them to the space beneath the counter, leaving only the four accepted requests. “O-oh, uh. Yeeees? How much are the deposits?” “These three are 80 sil each, totalling 240 sil. This request requires a deposit of 200 sil. You will be required to deposit 440 sil to accept them all.” It seemed just accepting daily quests willy nilly and failing to complete them came with a small penalty, but the cost was nothing compared to the rewards. He obediently ponied up the money and the NPC requested his character journal, opening the pages up to the subquests section and magically binding the papers to it, after which she advised him that he was required to report to the quest issuers before completing the task. And with that, he had formally accepted his first subquests.
And all caught up! You can read chapters eleven and twelve on ScribbleHub too. 12. Spoiler Baxter asked directions on where to find Alchemy Master Widu and Guildmaster Winternettle before exiting conversation with the halfling NPC. The left side of the guild was designated as the Alchemists’ space, where he could find Widu, while the right belonged to the Menders, and down the middle was the Guildmaster’s office, where he’d be able to see Winternettle. He intended to turn in Green Thumb first before attempting to complete the subquests. The class specific subquests wouldn’t be cancelled because of a class change, he just wouldn’t be able to activate them until he switched back. He told himself it was better to prepare a little for the amount of travelling he’d be doing, but really he was just impatient and excited to finally try out the game’s crafting system. He had played dozens and dozens of games in his life that employed all sorts of crafting systems. Starting from when he was ten and first began to receive a limited allowance from his parents, he’d scrimp and save and buy those sorts of sprawling RPGs with lots of subsystems and hundreds of hours of potential play to get the most out the expensive purchase, and they’d naturally become his favourite sort of game just because it was the type that was embedded in him since childhood. He had a deep fondness for these kinds of time-wasting, filler crafting systems developers came up with, and had seen the entire gamut: from the boring - or streamlined, depending on your perspective - point and click selection that would immediately craft an iron dagger or twelve with the press of a button, to the ones that required you to arrange your sticks and rocks in just the right shape on your crafting table in order to make yourself a pickaxe, to the fun little blacksmithing rhythm games that straddled the line between repetition and keeping you on your toes while you toiled away at your smithy. This was Baxter’s first time seeing the alchemy labs of the Healers Guild, and he was initially taken aback by the breadth of them. He’d expected them to be mostly ornamental, to give off the feeling of an active lab while actually just being props and textures. But some of the rows and rows of various equipment were being actively engaged with by other users. Other alchemy sets were sitting, clean and untouched and ready for use. Some players worked alone, focused on their personal projects, while others were cooperating with each other, screaming at one another to pass certain ingredients or to check the furnace or to keep an eye on the distillation. He kept his head low and stayed on the outer edges of the lab, inching his way around the noisy room and towards mezzanine at the far end of the room that acted as the official office for the Alchemy Master, giving a perfect view to overlook the entire room. Alchemy Master Widu was standing by the railing, staring hawkishly at the alchemists below. Although he was an NPC, he really gave off the feeling of a real teacher, glaringly watching over a rowdy class of students and ready to pounce on anyone misbehaving. He was a human rather than an elf, but even without the towering height of the elven species, he still gave off a great sense of presence and gravitas that made him a little intimidating to approach. For Baxter, it was the feeling of being back to those dark, miserable school days. Whether it was the students or the teachers, everyone had looked at him with those same cold, disgusted eyes. He had the urge to stop, turn around, and walk away. Yes, there should be other alchemy masters, right? He realised, after all, what about players who begin on another continent? Right, right! I don’t have to be here! It didn’t matter even if he told himself that it was only an NPC, that they had no real thought or autonomy. The only thing that mattered was how much Baxter feared and detested those familiar eyes. He turned tail, readying to flee, but a cold, slightly angry voice made him freeze up. His hands were shaking and it felt like his arms had gone limp, unable to control his character anymore. “I remember you.” Baxter tasted vomit in the back of his throat. “Are you finally ready to-” He tore off the headset, uncaring at the possibility of damaging it. Either a sob or vomit was working its way up his throat, and he instinctively did as he had always done to contain his anxiety; clamping his teeth down onto the soft flesh of his arm and biting as hard as he could. It didn’t matter how many years it had been. All it took was one little thing to remind of just how pathetic those long teenage years had been, and he was a nervous wreck again. It took about ten minutes for the shivering in his body to abide. His jaw had locked after all that time, and he felt a slight twinge of pain as he had to force it open to free his arm from his bite. His teeth had dug too deep into his skin, causing a popping sensation when he finally tugged them loose. He shakily rubbed the saliva off his skin with his shirt, feeling the dimples he’d left in himself. He hadn’t broken skin, but the indentations were already dark purple and would take a day to fade. Only now did Baxter fully remove the VR rig, taking a moment to calm his breathing and regain his composure. This wasn’t a downslide, he promised himself. It was just a small episode. When he finally managed to centre himself, only then did he get up and rummage through his closet. He grabbed a fresh set of clothes, then scanned his bedroom for where he had left his towel. Oh, there it was… in a crumpled heap below his book case. Holding it up to his nose, it smelt damp and musty. Well, that’s what happened when you left it in a pile for days. He pulled open his bedroom door, heading down the hall and pausing to grab a clean towel from the linen closet before making his way to the bathroom. The cream tiles and flower accents gave the room a warm homey aspect rather than a sterile, cold feeling. He turned the shower on first, allowing the water to heat up while he undressed. He gently set his fresh clothes and towel down on the sink bench, then tossed his musty old towel and discarded clothes into the laundry basket. He caught sight of himself briefly in the mirror, but quickly averted his gaze away from the pallid face, heavy eyebags, and greasy, mussed hair in revulsion. The shower was running hot enough to immediately turn his skin a cooked lobster shade of red. Anxiety and thick humidity weren’t a healthy mixture, and soon enough he was dizzy and lightheaded enough he couldn’t even see. His vision span every time he opened his eyes and he felt like his head was simultaneously so heavy it was crushing his neck, yet about to detach from his body and float away like a balloon. He’d already sat down on the floor of the shower as soon as he stepped inside, but was soon lying on his side, one arm slung over his head. Everytime he inhaled, water would gush in alongside air, and he allowed the feeling of being halfway drowned to wash over him. The times when his brain was too sick and sluggish to work were the best for him. The neuroses that forced his thoughts to work at a million miles an hour, always arriving at hysterical conclusions, was pulled slowly to a halt. Anxiety quietly turned into dissociation. By the time he climbed out of the shower, there wasn’t an inch of Baxter that wasn’t scrubbed clean. His neglected hair had finally been washed to a silky smooth shine, fluffing slightly after a vigorous towel dry. He pulled the sleeves of his jumper low, hiding his hands inside, then made his way back to his bedroom. His mother stood anxiously on the stairs, phone in one hand. He paused, eyeballing her in disbelief. “It was just a shower.” “I’m sorry.” She sheepishly smiled. “You were just in there for a while…” “What did he say? I couldn’t hear.” His father’s voice came through the phone, sounding tired. Baxter rolled his eyes, trotting over and leaning into the mic. “I was washing my hair. I had to do two rounds, okay?” His mother turned off speaker, and raised the phone to her ear, turning on her heel and hurriedly walking down the stairs, “A-as I was saying, I was thinking dumpling soup for dinner…” Baxter gazed after his mother softly, then turned and returned to his room. Although it made him sad to see them so easily worried about him all the time, and it was embarrassing at times, being reminded that his parents cared about him was fundamentally a good thing. He’d long stopped wishing to get better for himself, but knowing about his parents ongoing unease made him want to get better for them. Sometimes at least. But then he remembered how much easier it was to just… carry on as he always had been. Thinking about it, he’d only gotten roughly five hours of sleep. His unstable mood could be blamed on tiredness if he wanted it to be. Eyeing up the softly flashing light of the computer that he hadn’t properly turned off, he decided it was better to just sleep off his current mood. Opening up his bedside table draw and rummaging through, Baxter finally found the bottle of pills. He eyed up the used by date - six months expired. Well, it would probably be fine. At worst they just wouldn’t be very effective, right? He dry swallowed a pill, popping the lid back on the bottle, then crawled under the bedcovers. Sunwoo’s phone had been vibrating in his pocket the entire way through class, but after a cursory under the desk look, it had just been messages from BZ. He’d never met BZ in person, but Joakim - Grimlocke - apparently knew her through a crafts club. He’d passed on a very nice pair of mittens from her that were sadly a bit too small for Sunwoo, but he’d given them to his younger sister and she seemed to like them, so he’d passed back his thanks. At some point they’d all agreed to trade contact info to make coordinating a team to do raids easier, and from there the four of them had naturally clicked. He waited until he was on his way out of class before answering his phone, ducking to the side of the hallway to avoid holding up foot traffic. The bulk of the messages in the group chat were random photos of various craft projects that were in a half completed state from BZ and Joakim, or little updates on the new burger place that had opened up near campus that no one was willing to be the first one to try out. The last few messages were a short exchange between BZ and Joakim: BZ: great job on the catgirl get BZ: we need moar star power LORD OF SHADOW: what catgirl? why wasn’t I consulted? not a noob right?? LORD OF SHADOW: experienced players only, no dead weight, clan rules BZ: DOWN WITH MEN!! THIS IS THE ERA OF CATGIRLS!! BZ: if u wanted screen recruits, u shouldve volunteered to be clan leader LORD OF SHADOW: I’m the SHADOW leader. only lame pretty boys prefer the spotlight ;3; LORD OF SHADOW: acting in the shadows… an agent of chaos… Ash Was Here: oh is that your ninja way or something you fucking weeb LORD OF SHADOW: vote to kickban the goblin +1 Ash Was Here: vote to change lord of dipshits name to “weebfucker” +1 Sunwoo laughed softly, typing in a reply one henpecked letter at a time. Lee Sunwoo: Are you callig me a lame pretty boy? Lee Sunwoo: Oops, I meant calling. Lee Sunwoo: Sorry. LORD OF SHADOW: you said it, not me There was a lull in the conversation, so he returned his phone to the back jeans of his pocket after confirming the time, and decided to pick up groceries on his way back to the house. The sharehouse wasn’t too far from campus, or at least it was closer to the university than it was the supermarket, so he ended up taking the long way around before arriving home. By the time he got back it was already starting to turn dark, and he gave the car horn a honk to let the others know he was home and to help him carry things inside. When Ash and Joakim came out they were still bickering, walking stride in stride while lightly shoving each other. “You staying for dinner again?” He asked Ash as he handed one of the lighter bags over to her. “It’s free food. Of course I’m staying for dinner.” She snorted, rolling her eyes. The girls dorms had fairly lousy wi-fi, so Ash had at some pointed requested to set her gaming rig up at their place to play after one too many drop outs during a raid. Being able to play in the same room together had its advantages, so Joakim had reluctantly agreed in exchange for Ash chipping in for the internet bill. Sunwoo carried the bulk of the shopping, trailing in last after the two of them. “Dinner for three, got it. I can play for an hour after dinner, but then I have homework.” Joakim and Ash groaned at the same time. “An hour isn’t gonna be enough! Someone posted the drop rates for the Ouzel, and by the looks of it we’re going to have to do Temporal Tower runs all night if we all want one.” Joakim admonished, already getting antsy. “I’m gonna get my bird, Sunwoo. I’m going to get my fucking bird, and I’m going to name it Owlexander, and if you stand in my way I will kill you.” “Oh, Owlexander, nice, I get it.” “Eh, right? Came to me last night in the middle of volleyball after someone pegged me right in the face with a spike.” Sunwoo waited for the two of them to finish as he calmly unpacked the groceries, finally cutting in when it seemed they were getting off track, “I only have one hour, little undergrads. If you need a fourth after that, just use the matchmaker.” “But without you we have no tank!” “Without him we have no healer.” Joakim and Ash exchanged worried glances. A party of three DPS? Other players would drop out as soon as look at them; only someone as easily pushed around - no, sorry, they meant accommodating, only someone as accommodating as Sunwoo would entertain this kind of ridiculous set up, and play the role of tank and healer so the three of them could gleefully run around bashing things to their heart’s content. “If you need a healer, use Bright Eyes, if it’s just support even a lower levelled Mender can do it.” Sunwoo suggested. “And Ash can play tank.” “Ugh, if I wanted to play tank again I wouldn’t have made you buy the game.” “Pause. Who’s Bright Eyes?” “The new member, keep up shadow leader.” Ash sniped. Joakim tapped his chin thoughtfully, eyes gleaming. “A healer you say. Go on…” Ash drew up a dining chair, sitting down and making herself comfortable as she watched Sunwoo fuss about the kitchen, explaining, “It’s probably not a good idea. We played a little with her today and, how do I put this…” “Nicely please, Ash.” Sunwoo warned. “Nicely. How do I put this nicely. She’s a… raw talent. A diamond in the rough.” “That’s what you said about Sunwoo.” Joakim doubtfully pointed out. “Sunwoo got good!” “The first thing he said to me when I asked if he was going to be the team tank was, Oh, I didn’t know there were vehicles in this game.” “She’s not a Sunwoo, I promise. She’s definitely played games before; she has both the instinct and reflexes for in-battle decisions, and a definite knowledge of mechanics. If I had to guess, I’d say this is just her first time playing an MMO - or maybe any kind of multiplayer game.” Ash analysed, drumming her fingers against the kitchen table. “She doesn’t have any idea how to act within a party dynamic with other live players, and she’s definitely never played a healer before. I mean, her level was pretty low so the amount of support she could give was limited, but she didn’t even bother with the basics like casting a defence buff on the tank.” Joakim eyeballed her warily. “So what you’re saying is…” “She’s a DPS playing a healer.” He burst out laughing, leaning against the kitchen counter for support. Well that was just what they needed! Including Sunwoo, they had three tanks in their clan and exactly one healer. The ratio had originally been a lot more even, but the none of the new classes released in the recent expansion had been support roles, and when their players had excitedly switched over to try the new classes out, they’d been left with only a measly Paladin to rely on. Originally BZ had been the best healer in the clan, but even she’d switched as soon as she saw the Gunslinger. “Okay, let’s kick her.” Joakim decisively said. “No!” Sunwoo and Ash spoke at the same time. Though outwardly their attitudes were polar opposites, they both had a disposition that was weak to small, vulnerable creatures. Besides, getting kicked out a clan the same day you had been pushily recruited was not only blanket shitty, but also just a surefire way to discourage new players from continuing the game. MMORPGs thrived on having a diverse and supportive community, but they were also in constant danger. A multiplayer game without a large enough user base that showed steady growth wasn’t enough to justify the cost of servers, especially for a smaller company like the dev team who had created LO. A live service game that didn’t grow because new players struggled to acclimate to complicated MMORPG systems, or left because they felt excluded from the innately cliqueish community, was a game that was destined to die. Of course, that didn’t mean veteran players were required to sacrifice their own enjoyment of the game to teach clueless newbies who may not even remain an active member of the game. “That’s not necessary. Like I said, she’s unpolished gem!” Ash argued. “She has game knowledge fine, she just needs practice coordinating with a party. We can’t just sit around hoping to get an experienced veteran healer to join us. They don’t join understaffed clans struggling to make enough members so that one day they might make a guild, they go straight to the guilds that can already give them GUBs and full benefits.” There was a palpable frustration in her embittered voice. It was an unspoken rule of the game that while guilds could try to lure away members from one another, they shouldn’t poach members off clans - it was considered punching down and unfair spirit. But an unspoken rule meant not everyone heard it, and they’d lost their share of members to poachers. Even Sunwoo had caught the eye of one of the bigger guilds - a versatile tank-healer player was valuable to the PVP guilds after all. Considering he was only playing the game to support and hang out with his friends, he’d turned down the offer fairly firmly, but that didn’t mean others would if given the same offer. But that was the problem with getting members just to raise numbers. Players joined clans on the promise of better benefits and ranking once they made guild, but upon realising that it was going to take longer than they’d thought, unless they were in it for their friends and community, they’d end up just joining one of the established guilds instead. In LO you could be in up to five clans at a time and it cost nothing to join or leave. Joining a couple different promising clans was common for this reason - throw out a couple nets, see which lands you a big, fat fish first. But you could only be a member of one guild at a time, and it came with both a signup and retirement fee. Most players, once they joined a guild they’d stay for life rather than bite the retirement fee (Of course, if another guild offered to cover the cost as part of their headhunting offer, that was a different matter). The exact amount of the fee was dependant on the guild type, but it was set at a high enough price to effectively discourage players from frivolously jumping from guild to guild. Joakim rested his chin in his hand, lulled into thought. It’s not like he didn’t understand where Ash was coming from. He also had the same frustrations, but was approaching it from the other direction - where Ash was tired and frustrated of losing members, and wanted to put more effort into cultivating real relationships with their members to try to promote clan loyalty, he looked at this tactic with cynicism. What clan loyalty? A lot of their members who’d joined up with other guilds had come to them, apologising with a laugh and assuring them of course they’d still stay in the clan and play together, but “if” False Infernum ever made guild, naturally they’d sadly have to leave. He didn’t want to get attached to another potential asset only to receive yet another smirking “sorry, but let’s just be friends” apology. Why would he put in the effort to train up a reliable healer for the benefit of some guild with a better offer? He was stubborn, but so was Ash, and Sunwoo was always on the side of the peacemaker. Let’s all be friends and that nonsense. There was no way to resolve it in a way they’d all be happy, but it was two against one, so he was forced to begrudgingly relent. “Fine. She can stay in the clan, and if you want to train her, feel free. But that’s going to be your project, which means your responsibility. So if she ends up leaving-” “You can say ‘I told you’ so if it makes you feel better.” Ash rolled her eyes. Joakim rolled his back.
Chapter thirteen, also available on ScribHub! Yesterday I saw Shazam! and ended up uploading it a little late. Shazam! was really good, and like a lot of the DCU solo titles, extremely fascinating. It was like this bizarre mix of a heartwarming family drama movie, a coming-of-age superhero comedy movie, and then also an OH GOD OH JESUS CHRIST horror movie. 13. Spoiler After Sunday training, Ash showered at the gym before heading over to the boys’ house. Since Sunwoo was visiting his parents for the long weekend and wouldn’t be back until Tuesday, it was just Joakim there. She circled straight around to the cramped backyard, filled with the various trash piles Joakim insisted were all “conceptual modern art”, and let herself in through the back door. She stopped by the fridge, making herself a hasty sandwich since she couldn’t bum off Sunwoo’s cooking for the next couple days, then made her way to the spare bedroom that had been hastily designated the study, crammed with three sets of VR rigs. Joakim was already playing, of course. Ash had no idea how the hell he could stay afloat with his course work when he seemed to constantly be playing games. But then again, she was pretty sure she had never seen or heard about him sleeping either. She tapped Joakim on the shoulder, letting him know she was there, and he waved a hand at her irritably. Judging by the quick finger movements of his hand, he was either in a fight or in the middle of crafting, and didn’t have time for distractions either way. She shrugged, sitting down on her chair and shovelling her sandwich into her mouth while watching him play. When you were in game, the movements felt natural and immersive, but from a spectator’s perspective, it looked absolutely ridiculous. Apparently one of the larger tech companies was in the process of developing capsule technology in conjunction with neuroscientists and a certain decades old and intensely popular MMO, but they were hitting a wall with certain safety precautions. Although in pop culture the idea of capsule VR tech looked and sounded exciting, it essentially involved putting the participants in suspended animation and projecting their dream consciousness into a massive interlinked network. Right now the technology was still at least a decade or two away - and that was only if they were being optimistic - and was being funded by medical companies for patients in comas. The idea of casually jumping into a capsule pod for a totally immersive gaming experience was a far-off dream. So instead Ash was stuck watching Joakim flail around like an idiot. She dusted breadcrumbs off her hands as she finished her sandwich, swivelling in her chair toward her portable PC and VR rig. Once the rig was on and she had entered the game, it bypassed the login screen and defaulted straight to her main account, the dokkaebi Goblin Milk. After sitting up from the bed she had logged off from to give her character the “Well Rested” 15% EXP boost, the first thing Ash did was check her flist to see if Master Jellyfish was online so she could pick up her order. After confirming and sending them a quick message, she exited the inn bedroom and headed downstairs, then straight for the crafting quarter of Reaper’s Garden. Although the submerged necropolis city had next to no lighting besides the bioluminescent deep sea fish drifting by outside the magical barrier, all the demihumans - plus catwomen - had passive night vision racial perks, causing her UI to automatically kick up the gamma in the dim environment. Although it gave everything a kind of ghostly blue-ish tint, Ash always liked the ookie spooky atmosphere it gave. Combined with the very minimal, naturalistic background noises the game used instead of traditional musical scores, it gave the main city for The Gloaming faction an eerie, unsettling feeling. Reaper’s Garden had always been less populated than the other main city hubs, since before the expansion there had only been two playable demihuman races and even now after the expansion, not a lot of players were immediately jumping on the new undead race. There was very little bustle for Ash to make her way through to get to the crafting quarter. Pushing open the door, she glanced around the player store. A variety of off-the-rack gear was on display with full confidence despite the unmanned counter, since the game didn’t allow players to steal from other players’ stores, but it was basically all just mass produced practice gear that had one or two above average perks anyway. It wouldn’t be worth the blacklist to steal. She made her way to the counter, cursing her character’s low eyeline. She leveraged her hands on top of the counter, pulling herself up so she was half on top of the dusty stone countertop, hollering into the back. “Jelly, I’m here! Is it ready yet?” The front of house was separated from the smithy in the back by a ragged black curtain, which was pushed aside by a massive hand as Master Jellyfish made his way through. His oni character was a hulking seven foot monster, with ashy red skin and a single broken off horn on the left side of his head. His shaggy grey hair was tied back in a ponytail, but the front bangs were so thick they still obscured half his face, leaving only the squashed nose and wide mouth with a single jutting tusk visible. He wore a simple looking blacksmith’s apron and thick smithing gloves over a pair of trousers and little else, but despite their plain appearance, they had the faint blue sparkle of Rare gear. “Mhm, one set of LVL. 60 Witch armour and weapon set.” He set the gear on the counter for Ash to inspect. The armour was all leather gear, which would give her some debuffs to her mana pool and mana use efficiency, but on top of the improved defence of leather gear over cloth, it was also imbued with buffs to up her firepower - basically, less attacks but more damage. The weapon set was a broomstick and grimoire, each delicately crafted. The shaft of her new broomstick was made of polished blackrot wood that would give her benefits as a demihuman while riding it, while the tail bristles were made from the twig branches of a screaming ash tree. The grimoire’s vellum pages were made out of a variety monster hides, giving them inconsistent thickness and texture, but more versatility, then bound in the hide of a lindworm. Right now the pages were blank and it would need to be taken to an Enchanter before it could be used as a proper Witch’s grimoire - at the moment it wasn’t good for anything more than a blunt object to bludgeon mobs with. But this wasn’t an issue. Ash’s Enchanter class was almost LVL. 90, and she’d already gathered all the mats she needed for the ink. Reinforced Leather Witch’s Hat | LVL. 60 | Leather | Head | Rare Required Class WITCH | Required LVL. 55 A leather witch’s hat made from the hide of flameridge boar, reinforced with wyrm scales. Bonus(es): +10% DEF, +5% to fire damage, +5% to blight damage, +5% to MAG damage for additional each piece of equipped Gear when wearing the Master Jellyfish Goblin Milk Armour Gear set (to a maximum of +25%) Warning: This Gear is too heavy for your class, -3 WIL, -3% SPT Made by: Master Jellyfish Redingote of Horrors | LVL. 60 | Leather | Head | Rare Required Class WITCH | Required LVL. 55 A leather redingote made from the hide of the Vukodlak (LVL. 45). The fur trimmings on this stylish coat is sure to keep the wearer warm, if you ignore the smell. Bonus(es): +20% DEF, +15% to void damage, +5% to dark damage, +15% more mana and vitality gained from drain attacks, +5% to MAG damage for each additional piece of equipped Gear when wearing the Master Jellyfish Goblin Milk Armour Gear set (to a maximum of +25%) Warning: This Gear is too heavy for your class, -3 WIL, -4% SPT Made by: Master Jellyfish Reinforced Leather Gloves | LVL. 60 | Leather | Hands | Rare Required Class WITCH | Required LVL. 55 A set of soft leather gloves made from the hide of a flameridge boar. The knuckles have been reinforced with wyrm scales. Bonus(es): +2% DEF, +5% to fire damage, +5% to blight damage, +5% to MAG damage for each additional piece of equipped Gear when wearing the Master Jellyfish Goblin Milk Armour Gear set (to a maximum of +25%). Warning: This Gear is too heavy for your class, -2 WIL, -2% SPT Made by: Master Jellyfish Embroidered Leather Belt | LVL. 60 | Leather | Waist | Rare Required Class WITCH | Required LVL. 55 A leather belt made of flameridge boar hide, with delicate embroidery using the thread of a thundersilk spider. Bonus(es): +4% DEF, +5% to fire damage, +5% to electric damage, +5 inventory slots, +5% to MAG damage for each additional piece of equipped Gear when wearing the Master Jellyfish Goblin Milk Armour Gear set (to a maximum of +25%) Warning: This Gear is too heavy for your class, -2 WIL, -2% SPT Made by: Master Jellyfish Prosperous Dress of Ruins | LVL. 60 | Leather | Lower | Rare Required Class WITCH | Required LVL. 55 A dress made from the processed hide of a wyvern, surprisingly soft and silky against the skin. It has been embroidered using the thread of a thundersilk spider and the thread of an avaricious silkworm, giving it a luxurious appearance. Most importantly: it has pockets. Bonus(es): +18% DEF, +12% to blight damage, +8% to electric damage, +8% drop rate for rare materials, +5 inventory slots, +5% to MAG damage for each additional piece of equipped Gear when wearing the Master Jellyfish Goblin Milk Armour Gear set (to a maximum of +25%) Warning: This Gear is too heavy for your class, -3 WIL, -4% SPT Made by: Master Jellyfish Boots of Horror | LVL. 60 | Leather | Feet | Rare Required Class WITCH | Required LVL. 55 Fur-lined boots made from the hide of the Vukodlak (LVL. 45). Bonus(es): +2% DEF, +5% to void damage, +3% to dark damage, +3% mana and vitality gained from drain attacks, +5% to MAG damage for each additional piece of equipped Gear when wearing the Master Jellyfish Goblin Milk Armour Gear set (to a maximum of +25%). Warning: This Gear is too heavy for your class, -2 WIL, -3% SPT Made by: Master Jellyfish Decayed Broomstick | LVL. 60 | Heavy | Alternate | Rare Required Class WITCH | Required LVL. 55 A broomstick made from blackrot wood, carefully processed to avoid oozing, and the twigs of a screaming ash. It has an eerie appearance, and gives off a haunting cry when riding it. Bonus(es): +10% efficacy of mental attacks, +12% to void damage, +16% to dark damage, +8 INT Demihumans: +18% movement speed when riding Dokkaebi: +16 DEX Handicap(s): -20% to stealth when riding Made by: Master Jellyfish Phantomsong | LVL. 60 | Heavy | Channel | Legendary Required Class WITCH | Required LVL. 55 A blank grimoire made of the assorted skins of countless monsters, stitched together with the thread of a blightsilk spider, bound in the processed hide of a lindwyrm. It carries a desolate aura. Bonus(es): +6% to all elemental damage, +12% to drop rate for wealth, +6% to blight damage, +10% INT Warning: This Gear requires Enchantment before use, player will receive NO bonuses until the grimoire has been completed Made by: Master Jellyfish After confirming the custom equipment fulfilled her specifications, she paid the remaining fee through the purchase contract and the gear was immediately passed into her ownership. Going through a traditional trade wasn’t necessary for players that owned a store and had a mercantile license. They just had to set up their shop’s purchase contract and after the client agreed and paid the deposit, practically everything else would be automated. “Tell Grim that if he doesn’t have the rest of his mats by next Saturday, I’m going to sell his slot to someone else.” Jelly commented before returning to the smithy out the back, not waiting for Ash’s reply. Although his non-refundable deposits were high, Master Jellyfish was one of the best smiths on the server. He was a triple threat, with almost LVL. 100 in blacksmithing, leathersmithing, and carpentry. Before the expansion, LVL. 100 was the cap, but after fan demand, players who purchased the Abomination of the Desolate had it raised to 120. Within the past three years, there were many players who had managed to level a crafting class to the base max, a few even managed to level two classes to the max, but almost no one had managed to level three or more, and no one on their server so far. The resource cost was crazy high, and blacksmithing in particular had a notoriously poor success rate on crafting. That’s why a lot of crafters who managed to gain enough clout, like Jelly, began setting up a system where their clients needed to provide the materials for custom jobs. At first players complained, but pretty soon they realised the devs had more or less foreseen this exact eventuality - after all, players could set up their shop’s custom purchase contracts to allow for payments through items too, not just currency. Now it was pretty much the norm for crafters who were in demand to include materials for the custom job in their deposit fee. She equipped her current gear first, throwing her old equipment into the back of her inventory, then when she was done she bothered to contact Joakim. Opening up her flist, Ash saw his location was currently in a lower levelled raid dungeon, but wasn’t in a team, so it was likely he was doing prestige runs - solo dungeon raids at an increased, gruelling difficulty available to players who had beaten the dungeon at least once, that gave better rewards. Figuring he was probably concentrating, she held off on sending an IM. She could just pass on Jelly’s warning in person when they ate later this evening. She was mildly surprised to see another name on her list of online contacts however. Bright Eyes hadn’t logged in for the past few days, so as she saw the lit up user ID, Ash hesitated for a second, then decided to send a message. Goblin Milk: I was gna go hunting in the Maggot Lair for blight mats and test some new equipment in a minute, issa a good training spot. want in? There was a moment of silence from the other end, which Ash pretty much expected, but was then slightly surprised to hear the ding sound of a response. Bright Eyes: sorry, not who you think Bright Eyes: im just playing for my cousin for a bit Bright Eyes: ill pass on the message tho Bright Eyes: (sounds friggin gross btw) Olivia logged off, back to the main screen, then took the headset off. As she shook out her hair and began taking off the rest of the rig, she confirmed, “Okay, I handed in the alchemy quest items, then went back to that beast people continent. You got a notice, something about losing bounty tokens due to a failure to turn in quests? Plus, someone called Goblin Milk asked if you wanted to go hunting in some place called the Maggot Lair? Sounds nasty. But otherwise, you’re good to go.” She set everything down on the desktop, standing up and stretching. Baxter stood by the bed, anxiously tugging his sleeves down over his hands and curling his fingers up inside, eyes darting from the floor to the computer. “Thanks.” He paused, then added, “I just… couldn’t deal with that NPC.” “It’s fine, I’m happy to help.” She reassured him softly. Although having his anxiety triggered by just an NPC in a game probably wasn’t a good thing, when it came down to it, she’d prefer he struggle with NPCs over real people. “You gonna come down for dinner?” “If I’m hungry.” Baxter mused dismissively. Right, that was a no, then. “Just don’t play all night.” Olivia warned, making her way downstairs and leaving him be to play his game. Baxter waited until he could no longer hear her footsteps before sliding into his desk chair, taking his time to set up the rig and keeping his thoughts steady. He’d been unable to play at all the last few days, spending most of it in and out of a benzo-fuelled fugue. The mental block in his head of wanting to progress, but being anxiety-riddled at the thought of that oppressive alchemy master, had left him paralysed with no idea which way to go. It wasn’t until his father reminded him this morning that Olivia was coming over for board games night that he thought of appealing to her for help. He felt cowardly and pathetic at not even being able to talk to a single NPC, but the relief at having someone else deal with the problem was immense. When Baxter loaded back into the game he was in Deiso att Ghwerdun, still beside the Soulstone Olivia had used to teleport him. He was back at LVL. 1, wearing the shabby equipment of a novice Alchemist. Opening up his map, he noted the locations of the Alchemists’ and Menders’ guilds, before tucking it back away. Although they were located close together, which would save him a long hike, unlike in Sylgrenia where they were merged into the Healers’ Guild, here on the beastfolk continent they were independent. He headed to the Alchemists’ Guild first. Most of the primary class guilds seemed to be located near the Soulstone’s of each hub city, so it wasn’t a long walk. Compared to the subdued, ethereal fae beauty of the tree-borne elven city, the capital hub of the beastfolk had a warm, festive, mediterranean atmosphere that put you at ease. Many of the buildings were designed to be open air, avoiding the suffocating feeling of claustrophobia Baxter experienced in Sylgrenia. Colourful flowering plants in hanging baskets gave the brightly painted buildings some further flavour, and curtains of sheer, vivid fabrics hung over the open doorways as a form of pseudo-privacy. The Alchemists’ Guild had a small front of house that was a completely open courtyard, with the front reception split between NPCs helping players with tasks and questions, as with the Sylgrenian Healers’ Guild, and a storefront selling both generic potions and potions made by players. All the reception staff were beastfolk, but unlike the trim, professional outfits of the staff from the Healers’ Guild, they wore relaxed, summery clothing with no consistent uniform except for guild badges on their chests. It was the little details perfectly captured the feel of each city having their own unique culture. He paused by the reception desk, asking the clerk - a horned rabbit from the “lagolope” race, according to the wiki - for directions to the alchemy labs, then continued on. The alchemy labs of Deiso were outdoors, protected from the elements only by a canopy, with beautifully overgrown trellis fences separating the labs from other areas. It definitely didn’t feel like the sort of cool, dry, controlled environment more suitable for alchemy work, but Baxter couldn’t help but appreciate the laissez-faire approach. The alchemy master for the Deiso branch of the Alchemists’ Guild was a wolfman, and he was currently sitting at his workstation with his feet propped up on the desk, a book folded over his face as he slept. Baxter grinned. This was definitely more his speed. Since the beastfolk capital city was a combined hub for all the beastfolk, the facilities here were a little more expansive than the elven city, but it was still a bit more crowded than in Sylgrenia. Picking out a workbench near the edge of the labs, he set his journal down and flipped through to the alchemy section that had been automatically added with his new class. It included a few base recipes, and as his level increased more recipes would appear. Opening his inventory, he took out the novice alchemy gear and set it up on the empty space provided on the workbench. Although the labs provided a more complete set of equipment which would give higher quality results, he intended to make himself familiar with novice gear provided. It was a set of four different tools, and although their uses were more limited due to their small size, this also made them far more portable than a full work station. For quick potion crafting out in the field, they were more than enough. The set was made up of: a mortar and pestle, naturally, as well as a retort and a calcinator for distillation and calcination respectively, and finally a small crucible oven. With everything set up he began crafting his first potion - the most standard and iconic novice potion in any game: the antidote. Although as a Mender this potion was mostly superfluous to him, it was good to keep some in case he ran out of MP, or if - when - he ended up switching to a different class in the future. For his first try at alchemy, Baxter chose to carefully follow the recipe in order to get to know the feeling of it before trying to branch out and explore his own recipes. Common Antidote Purified magic water Wetirweed Dandafluff bulbs (2) Manapenthe venom Final product: 2-5 bottles. While imbuing magic into the flames, distill water until it becomes crystal clear. Carefully pluck the leaves off a stalk of wetirweed until you have approximately 1 cup. Cut the bulb off two dandafluffs, wash, and then carefully peel off the tunic. Wash again. Grind the dandafluff bulbs until they become the texture of a gritty paste. Milk a manapenthe tongue (always use gloves) and slowly warm the venom over a low heat until it turns a milky lavender. While the venom is still warm, mix it with the dandafluff paste. If the venom cools, it will turn dark and become highly toxic, thus will need to be carefully disposed of. Your venom mixture will be ready when it turns from milky lavender to milky blue. Soak wetirweed leaves in mixture until it turns from milky to crystalline, leaves have become bloated. Slowly sieve mixture into purified magic water base. Allow to cool, then bottle. Although the recipe called for purified water as a base, it was unfortunate that it required him to steadily apply magic while it distilled, thus he wasn’t able to set it to distil on its own while working on other things. His alchemy almanac made a note that “purified magic water” was actually considered its own basic recipe. This wasn’t just flavour text. Any recipe that was considered “mastered” to a certain level became possible to auto-craft, and what this meant was that as long as he practiced the water distillation to a certain level of mastery, in future recipes that called for purified magic water as a base, he could skip the first step of distillation to save time and tedium. Since water was a universal medium for alchemy, there was a well located in one corner of the open air labs. As this was for practice anyway, he rented a pail for 20 sil, filling it up at the well and taking the whole thing back to the work station. With roughly three gallons of water to work with, he began the monotonous process of distillation. After filling up his retort and setting it in its stand over the burner apparatus, a beaker set up beneath the neck to receive the distilled water, he browsed the basic alchemy skills available in his skill tab to measure how to proceed. “Imbuing magic” was originally somewhat vague as far as instructions went, but one of the novice skills Alchemists began with was “Arcane Emenation”. ARCANE EMENATION | LVL. 1 | 2-10 MP p/sec Focusing your mana into your hands, steadily release to imbue the target with magical energy. For best results, make sure the amount of mana being released is consistent. Baxter stealthily looked up to examine what the other players were doing, and after getting a rough idea he looked back down at his work bench. He mimicked the postures he saw, cupping his hands around the burner and concentrating on activating the skill. Immediately his MP began to drain, and with his level reset to 1 the bar quickly crept downwards, faster than he could manage. The flame immediately flared up, sputtering with an intensified magical glow. He hastily cut off his spell, but not before he had less than a third of his MP left. When he picked up the beaker of distilled water and examined it, the results of his ANALYSIS were disappointing. Purified Magic Water (Substandard) | LVL. 1 | Common Water that has been purified using a magical flame with an inconsistent mana flow, resulting in a substandard product. Anything made using this as a base may have unexpected side effects. Can be used in alchemy.
TWO ANNOUNCEMENTS AT THE BOTTOM! 14. Spoiler Baxter waited for his MP to gradually return, then rolled up his proverbial sleeves, cracking his neck and preparing for round two. Water was more or less an infinite resource while he was here, so now was the best possible time to practise control over ARCANE EMENATION. He refilled the retort to full, then stood back and carefully examined the distillation equipment, thinking. Simply activating the skill would cause a full output that would fluctuate as his MP gradually drained, resulting in a substandard product; which meant there had to be another way of using it. The fact that the item description gave a variable number for MP usage suggested this. Plus, the same way some skills, like ANALYSE, could be used manually or automatically to give different results, he was sure there was a “manual” way to use ARCANE EMENATION. However unlike with ANALYSE, where you could proc the skill by physically examining a material, there wasn’t an obvious clue as to how you could “manually” proc this one. Should he check the forums? No. After thinking about it, Baxter decided he’d rather figure this out on his own. He would appeal to the forums as a last resort. In a traditional console game, something like tapping the skill button at timed intervals would be an option, but the UI and controls of LO wasn’t like that, and there was also a small latency lag between the activation of ARCANE EMENATION and the mana output. If framed diegetically, it took time to control the flow of mana through your body down towards your hands, and to then project it. Ah, hands! Baxter gently hit his palm with his fist as the thought struck him. He didn’t know how to directly control the output of the mana since it was a switch-on switch-off skill with no variation, but the release point was still his hands, which he had complete fine motor control over thanks to the VR rig. Deciding to chase this hunch, he lit the flame, beginning the distillation process once again. This time he held his hands further away from the flame. The mana emenation was represented by a distortion in the air, similar to a heat blur, tinged with a faintly golden glow. Although mana was still rushing out of him an uncontrolled pace, at his current distance the glow just barely reached the flame, adding just the faintest tinge of magic to it. After once again filling the beaker with a respectable about of purified magic water, he turned off the distillation flame and inspected his product. Purified Magic Water (Substandard) | LVL. 1 | Common Water that has been purified using a magical flame with a weak mana flow, resulting in a substandard product. Anything made using this will have weaker results. Can be used in alchemy. Baxter breathed in. Although the name of the item was the same, the descriptive text was different, and he was unable to stack them in his inventory - meaning that they were counted as separate products. Although the deeper mystery of how to control the mana usage itself remained, this proved that there were other factors he could still control. He tried a couple more experiments, focusing on the use of his hands and using different gestures while the skill was active. The result of his experiments were this: first, in order to avoid complete chaos and frustration, the spell would automatically “target” the desired location designated by the player sightline - in this case, the distillation flame. Second, the spell only described it as focusing and then releasing mana from the “hands” - thus, his initial method of merely cupping his hands with the palms facing toward the flame caused the entirety of the surface of his inner hands to outflow mana, creating maximum output. By changing his hand gestures - for example, splaying his fingers and angling his hand so that only his fingertips would emanate mana - he could control the output. The smaller the surface area the mana flowed from, the smaller the mana usage. The smaller the mana, the weaker but more consistent and controlled the result. Third, as with the variable EXP gain when it came to battle experience, there were similar mechanics at play with levelling crafting - there was a very clear downward curve on recurrent EXP gained from just crafting the same thing over and over, but then also further bonuses and penalties depending on if you were repeating the same rote actions or, like he was, experimenting with new approaches. Baxter gazed down at the roughly dozen beakers of purified magic water neatly arranged in a row. By the end, he’d more or less managed to hit his stride, and after this it was just a matter of practice. He’d even reached LVL. 2 simply by refining the distillation process, the level up slightly expanding his mana pool - but only slightly. At his current level, the quality of magic water he could create was still limited by his small mana pool. To offset this he lowered the temperature of the distillation flame, vying a lower but consistent mana output stretched over a longer period of time, against a higher but fluctuating mana output over a shorter distillation period. The result: Purified Magic Water (16) | LVL. 1 | Common Water that has been purified using a magical flame with a steady mana flow. Should produce reliable results. Can be used in alchemy. He held the single bottle of water representing a stack of sixteen items in his hand, swirling the purified magic water around. After distillation, once he added the item to his inventory it was automatically bottled. After various practice attempts at distillation, he’d boiled through the entirety of his first pail of water. The final results were varying degrees of substandard purified magic water he’d poured out, and these sixteen bottles of standard purified magic water he considered usable. The next step was the various prep work. Since the antidote recipe had an element that was time sensitive, it called for the preparation of most of the other ingredients beforehand. He had five stalks of wetirweed on hand already from his quest, and more than enough dandafluffs. Eyeballing it, completely plucking one stalk of wetirweeds would roughly produce a cupful of leaves, so he set aside three stalks for three attempts, and kept the rest away in his inventory. He placed six stalks of dandafluff beside them in preparation. First was the time consuming process of plucking the leaves. Since it was essentially a variety of common waterweed, the leaves and stalk were rubbery and slipped in his grip. The leaves were difficult to pluck, and he ended up tearing them off in bits and pieces as he struggled to maintain a hold. Although the recipe didn’t specify what state the leaves needed to be in, the result of his first attempt was pathetic, and he stopped a third of the way through. When searching around his workstation didn’t turn up anything useful, Baxter paused and looked up at the sleeping Alchemy Master at the other end of the courtyard. Looking down at the sorry state of his leaves, he hesitated. No, there wasn’t a need to talk to the NPC, right? There was still another avenue available. He opened up his Social Menu, finding Goblin Milk’s name lit up as online - though she was currently listed as being in a raid dungeon. He paused for a second, but figured if she responded, then she responded, and if not then, well, not. Bright Eyes: quick Q - do you have experience with alchemy? I need to pluck some wetirweed leaves but it’s not going well. He closed his IM page quickly after sending, putting it out of sight and out of mind to avoid obsessing over whether or not she’d respond, returning to studying the wetirweeds. With a frown he realised that it wasn’t anything as simple as the leaves being attached to the stalk, but rather that the stalk was formed by the leaves tightly nesting over each other and gradually stacking up, something along the lines of a bulb vegetable like a scallion. The area where the leaf formed into the stalk was thicker than the tips, so it was only natural that they would tear off near the thinner midsection of the leaves. His study was interrupted by an abrupt jingle, indicating he’d received an IM. Milk’s replies were sloppily typed, obviously hurried out, but Baxter felt a heat in his face that she still took the time to respond at all. Goblin Milk: o ya u need a prep knife Goblin Milk: it doesnt come w the beginning alchemists gear so u gta buy Goblin Milk: but any smithy or the alchemists guild will sell u basic novice utility knife Baxter glowered at his IMs, feeling instantly frustrated. This was the cyclical, interconnected nature of social games. Because you had to battle to level, you got hurt, so you required potions to heal. Potions were a fundamental item of the game so they were comparatively cheap, but were still a cost drainage and NPCs would only stock standard variety potions. For better potions, you either had to pay fees on the market for player-made potions, or made your own - so you became an Alchemist. But in order to craft potions, an Alchemist needed materials and tools. Some of the materials they could gather themselves, but others could only be harvested by the pertinent gathering class, and as for tools, well, they needed to be bought off an NPC or crafted by a different kind of crafter - or the play could take up a second crafting class, starting the loop over. The only shortcut was a support network of players who could cover where your character build lacked - no need for Alchemists to make their own tools, as smiths in the clan or guild could make them for them, and materials could be gathered by battle classes and kept in a communal storage for use. In the end, while the game could feasibly be played solo, it fed off being played socially. He glanced at his player wallet - after various costs, he had 3 gal and 246 sil. Although the weapon last time had been pricey, it was a little higher levelled and from a travelling merchant that was upcharging. As he was only buying a basic novice utility knife from a local merchant, he was certain this amount would be enough. Baxter packed up his gear and cautiously picked his way over to the alchemy master. Although he seemed to be dead asleep, presumably he was a central quest giver, so there was no way he wasn’t interactable… right? “Ahem. Uh.” Baxter stood before the desk, clearing his throat hopefully. The wolfman didn’t stir, so he continued, “Hello? I wanted to, to ask-” “You have to wake him up first.” A player called from a workbench behind Baxter, causing him to jump. “...oh. H-how do I…?” The player - a dragonkind who modelled their avatar to be more on the animal end of the spectrum - stared down their snout tiredly at him from beneath their goggles. Baxter meekly fiddled with the hems of his sleeves, unsure if he’d perhaps made a faux pas. Then, the dragonkind threw a flask full of something bubbling straight at the NPC. It exploded upon impact, turning into a noxious looking green smoke from beneath which there was a loud thump and some intense coughing. The hulking form of the wolfman NPC clawed his way up off the ground, hacking and wheezing the gaseous fumes out of his lungs. “That usually does it.” The dragonkind told Baxter crisply before returning to their work. “Ah! - oh, uh-” Baxter panicked, nervously glancing between the player and the NPC, but once the smoke cleared the NPC seemed mostly unperturbed, only distractedly fanning away a last few vestiges of coloured fumes. No one else in the lab had so much as raised their head, so this was probably common, but an awkward part of him felt embarrassed to have forced such a commotion over nothing. “What - hRUGHK! - was it?” The wolfman scratched at an ear, blinking down at Baxter sleepily. There was no trace of annoyance in the model of his features, only a kind of barely-present laziness. “Uh, well, I, I needed a utility knife, and-” “Oh, sure, guild store is just through there.” The wolfman yawned, righting his chair and setting himself back down in it. He slung his feet up onto the desk once more, linking his fingers and resting them on his stomach. “Anything else? I guess I’m meant to guide novitiates like you, normally.” Baxter winced a little at his dismissiveness, shaking his head quickly. The wolfman nodded, at first in understanding, but then eventually he literally just nodded off, returning to his dozy state. With his chin nestled into his chest, he’d begun to softly snore, rejecting any further conversation. Baxter felt his cheeks flaming a little, giving a self-conscious glance around the room. Although one or two people gave him a few loaded smiles, most of the players were focused on their own projects and didn’t really care about his awkward interaction. He kept his head low and hastily exited the courtyard toward the indicated area. He stepped into a colonnade pathway, making his way quickly to the domed, circular building at the other end. A glance at a painted sign indicated this was the “Alchemists’ Guild Store and Rental”, likely the one he’d been told about. The guild store likely functioned similarly to a company store, or was at least modelled after the concept, offering purchases exclusively to guild members. As he stepped into the building, he was immediately surrounded on all sides by storage - crates, boxes, barrels, sacks, bottles, so forth arranged in higgledy piggledy fashion in total afterthought. A team of lagolope NPCs were running to and fro, moving stock from one stack to another in rote form he couldn’t make heads nor tails of. One lagolope stood upon an overturned crate, overseeing the organised chaos and compulsively checking a clipboard in his grasp. He had a humanoid face with extremely softened features that gave him a babyface, and a head of curly hair, but the long rabbit ears and jackalope horns pushing through the curls gave him away as one of the lagolope crew. It was the first one Baxter had seen that veered away from entirely animalistic features, though. “Uuuh, e-excuse me, I was told to come here f-for a utility knife? Um, actually, while I’m here I’d, y’know, like to know if there’s any, any y’know, sort of c-common use, uh, things- tools I should buy?” Baxter called, sidling closer to the apparent team leader. The NPC lowered its clipboard to give him a good look. “New member, huh? Yeah, they don’t give much more’n the very basics in those novice kits, but what can you do, the Guild’s gotta earn its income somehow.” The NPC laughed, flipping through a few pages of his notes and pulling out a sheet from the pile, handing it over. “Here, this is a complete list of our stock of tools and their prices. As for what’s gonna be most useful to you, depends on what you’re plannin’ on makin’. If price is a problem, well, good help is hard to find these days. Do a couple of favours for me, and I might see to handin’ over some stuff as thanks - keep it quiet though.” Baxter stilled. Had he just… triggered a sidequest? The game didn’t offer any helpful pop up windows informing him either way, but functionally this seemed like a sidequest. “Do these favours have a time limit?” He threw out the question, cautiously testing the waters. “Nah, nothin’ that pressin’ or I’d handle it myself, or let one of these morons do it. Just some side tasks I haven’t gotten around to doin’ yet. Interested?” Baxter immediately nodded. There was no investment or potential lost in just accepting them, only eventual reward. Can’t Find Good Help Anywhere The Alchemists’ Guild orders their tools from the local smithy, The Missing Hammer, and to keep down prices they buy the work of smithing apprentices in bulk - of course this means the quality isn’t all there, but these are just practice tools for novices like yourself. The Guild’s got an order of new stock that was meant to be arrive yesterday, but no one from the smithy has arrived to deliver it. Storemaster Farfoot cannot check out what the hold up is himself as he has his hands full keeping his eye on the store, so has tasked you with running down to The Missing Hammer and picking up the order for him. Objective: Pick up the stock of new tools from the blacksmith The Missing Hammer and bring it back to the Guild. Rewards: 200 Sil and Novice Utility Knife Bring Out Your... Living? Sometimes alchemy calls upon the use of… alternate materials. Nothing illegal - parts harvested from the races of the three recognised alliances are strictly banned - but monster parts often play a key role in alchemical studies. These parts are often required to be as fresh as possible. In the case of the allafax heart needed by Acolyte Alchemist Grimclaw, it needs to be so fresh it is still beating. Concoct a soporific potion and find a way to use it to drug an allafax, then bring the creature back to Storemaster Farfoot. Objective: Concoct a soporific potion (recipe not provided), then use it to drug and bring back an allafax. Rewards: 450 Sil and a Small Scale Set He set aside the second quest for now, both because he didn’t have an immediate need for the scale set, and because it required leaving the city to complete. He noted down the location of the designated blacksmith on the map, then made his way out of the guild. Holding up a hand to block out the sunlight, he recalled the rough path to take in his head and made his way through the city, toward The Missing Hammer smithy. The primary guilds were located at the top of the city near the Soulstone, while the NPC crafting stores were located way down the bottom near the entrance of the city. Although the main street of the city tread a long, winding, hairpin turn pathway that zigzagged down the mountainside toward the sea, there were many narrow side streets and alleys that created a more or less perfectly straight line from the top to the bottom of the city, at least for pedestrians. Actually, the walk was pretty relaxing. Previously, Baxter mostly just kept his head down and hurried through the city as fast as he could since crowds made him feel nauseous, but the backstreets of the city didn’t have many people and he was able to go at his own pace, admiring the attention to detail on the architecture of the city. When looking at the buildings from afar, they seemed to mostly smooth, solid walls, but up close - or maybe it was just here in the backstreets - there were more details to them. Some buildings had beautiful mosaic decals, usually depicting natural life or seascapes, while others had designs painted on them. Oddly, although the city was much more constructed than Sylgrenia, the abundance of window planters and creeping vines and hanging baskets of flowering plants that integrated beautiful colours into the city gave it a much more green, gardeny feeling to his sensibilities. Although the walk was a straight line, it was still essentially a hike down the side of an entire mountain. By the time he was halfway there, he decided to speed up to a jog. Luckily one of the quality of life features the game had thought to implement was infinite stamina in hub areas like the main cities, so he was able to cut down his time by running all the way down to the crafting quarter. Like most of the NPC businesses in Deiso, the bulk of the crafting stores were partially outdoors and covered from the elements by pergolas or canopies, with only the storehouses or living quarters designated to enclosed buildings. The open air smiths and workshops were intermixed with NPC-run stalls and street stores, giving the entire crafting quarter the feeling of the kind of carefully conducted chaos of a street market. There even seemed to be designated lots for players to open up temporary street stores, as there were more than a few crafting players who had rolled out a blanket and set up a variety of their works intermixed with the NPCs. Although it was lively, it was the kind of atmosphere that made Baxter feel particularly nervous, like his own consciousness was being drowned out by the riotous cacophony around him. Rather than cutting straight through the thick of things, he took the long way of circling around, pushing through toward the smithy. Although the heat was somewhat diminished by the open air and wind, the atmosphere of the smithy still had a heavy, sweaty tangibility that stuck, cloying, to Baxter’s skin. The head of the smithy was surprisingly a female NPC - a stocky woman with nearly entirely human features except for her slit pupils and tufted lioness tail. She was swarthy and muscular, her skin and clothing stained with soot and sweat. When she caught sight of Baxter, her tail immediately perked up. “Hey, little lady! Y’need a hand with anythin’?” Her sonorous voice had an underlying laughing tone, and her lips tilted in a lopsided grin, the upper lip lifting to reveal elongated canines. She was boisterous, commanding, with a large physical presence and tomboyish confidence. In a few word, she was extremely his type, so he was dreading this conversation. Baxter fumbled for his character journal, almost dropping it in his haste. He flipped hastily to the last page of his quests, showing off the subquest given to him. “Th-the, uh, the Alchemists’ Guild sent me.” The catwoman leaned forward, staring critically at his quest slip. Finally, she heaved a sigh, leaning back and crossing her arms. “Yeah, I figured this’d happen eventually. Was hopin’ we could weasel a little extra time though.” She tilted her head, humming in frustration. “Truth is, we’ve had a bit of a resource crisis. Some bullion ants have made their nest in the mines we source most of our iron ore from, so we haven’t got any metal to work with. All our orders are backed up.” Baxter felt his stomach lurch slightly. This kind of plot twist felt like a quest chain, so the next conclusion would be… “Th-then, do I have to, uh, do you want me to, d-deal-” The NPC interrupted him with a boisterous laugh. “Clear out the ant nest? Oh, goodness no! This is a whole nest we’re talkin’ about! We’ve put in a joint request with some of the other merchants at the battle guilds, askin’ for them to clear it out. We should have the minin’ operation up and runnin’ again within the week, hopefully. Which is why I was hopin’ to find an excuse to stall for time with some of our clients, like yourself, but, hmm… no, we took the work, we still have a duty to fulfil it.” She sighed regretfully, patting Baxter heavily on the shoulder, causing a rumble in his shoulder from his rig. He exhaled roughly. He really didn’t want this quest to turn into a protracted questline. “The problem is supply to meet our demand. Tell you what, there’s a blacksmith master over in the sunscima district who always keeps an oversupply of ores on hand. He’s a cranky old fogey, but if you can talk him into sellin’ us some of his ores, we can put your guild’s orders on rush.” Ah, and there was the other shoe. This smelt like a trading sequence questline. “Sure.” Baxter tiredly agreed. “Why not.” As always, I'm late to update here. Sorry! My mental faculties are around 0. Two announcements. First, for those not on ScribbleHub: Pressing backspace everytime I type an "a" is soul-draining, and I can't keep it up for an entire chapter, and I can try to write on my phone but it takes me a lot more time that way, so, it is what it is. Secondly, something more exciting~ An exclusive preview for NUF, I've been trying to put together a nice cover for SHLO, scrapping a lot of sketches and things, but I arrived at a mock up I kind of like and a friend of mine (kinomatika@twitter) very kindly stepped in and offered to ink it for me. Here's a preview of just the sketch, can't wait to show you the finished product: Spoiler As you can probably tell, the cover illustrates the PCs of Baxter and the main supporting cast, so now you have a visual idea of how they all look online.
Gluck bb, I hope you can get a new keyboard soon. AND AHHHHH OMG THEY'RE ALL SUCH QTS!!!!!!!!! Fufufu, maybe one day you'll make another illustration showing how the gang looks irl vs their online avatars.
Uh.. I noticed the story disappeared from scribblehub, and while searching for info came across here and made an account. Are you okay?
While I commend your initiative in tracking down an author you like, I think you may have had better luck on Scribble Hub, where the novel went missing. This author hasn't posted on NUF in months, but was last active on SHF just two days ago.
That's probably a good idea xD I forgot their username over there else I'd probably have done that first (Note: I have since looked at their stuff here, found their username there, and asked on SH)
If anyone can come up with a better title for this story, I might republish it on SH and try working on it again. I just need a fresh start and SHLO was always meant to be a placeholder title...
I can't think of any offhand, but I'm glad to hear you're feeling better and might work on this again. Maybe now people will stop coming here to hunt you down, too~
Thank you. ;-; I feel like the only person who came out of 2020 feeling mentally healthier than when they went in haha.