Sunday 6 December 2015

Chapter 16

Beyond a Beginner



While Meditating Jay had reached a state of mind he had never encountered before. It had felt like no time at all passed from when he began pouring Mana into the black cloth covering his eyes. It was as if he had fallen asleep, yet was awake; a truly weird timeless state of mind. It wasn't very pleasant.
Claudine, do you know what happened? It felt like I fell asleep, and before I knew it I had poured 2400 Mana through the black cloth and into my eyes. Maybe I really need to sleep? No, he couldn't accept that. He didn't want to waste his time sleeping if he could avoid it.
I don't know, Claudine said. You didn't seem any different to me. Check your Meditation Skill, maybe something changed?
It was a good idea. So Jay thought, View Skill 'Meditation'.
[Active Support Skill]
Meditation
Level 15 (97%)
Meditation is the foundation of exploring your mind and its connection to your body. Through resting your body completely and actively attuning your Mana flow, you gain the ability to boost your natural abilities of Regeneration.
Increases Mana Regeneration by 3.8%
Increases Health Regeneration by 3.8%
Increases Stamina gained from food by 470%, distributing a forth every 15 minutes for 1 hour.
This Skill is interrupted if you move or are moved. If this happens it can only be reactivated after five minutes.
It seems you might be right, Claudine, Jay thought. But I have no idea what that strange feeling I got from Meditation was. The only thing I can think of is that I'm close to Leveling up the Skill. But that doesn't really explain it since I've never felt that immersed sensation before.
Yes, Jay, Claudine said. I can't explain or know of something I can't perceive.
Hm? Jay had a troubling thought, didn't you say something about a God? Does that mean there actually is some god-like being in this world? If so, what is it? Is it a really high Level monster or something?
God is God. What else could it be? Claudine sounded a bit perplexed, as if she was trying to explain that water was wet. Can you specify your inquiry?
Describe this god-thing you mentioned, Jay thought back, trying to reduce all his questions into a single one, as if trying to forcefully dull his sense of being overly confused. What is this God you're talking about?
Hm? Claudine sounded very confused and was silent for almost a minute, then continued. The underlying principle of the world? The first creator of this world? That force which guides reality? I don't know. The information is very restricted. I can only access information that you have questions about, but the amount of information I can access is also directly related to the amount of things you have encountered. I don't even know why I have these few questions to give you as an answer to your question. It hurts my head.
Oh? That sounds like a description of an operating system, doesn't it? Jay was certain that was what Claudine called God, and he actually found it quite reasonable. Claudine was an AI inside a game-world and would take this game as her true reality. The operating system that was supporting the game from the shadows would most likely seem divine to anything that had the slightest encounter with its more “magical” aspects if it didn't know what was happening. Claudine, you actually think about such things when you're not trying to figure out an answer to my questions?
No, or maybe I do, Claudine said, I can't really say. Recently I've thought about the flowers I've seen on windowsills and in gardens you've walked past.
Flowers? Jay asked, quite surprised by the seemingly mundane thing Claudine spent time thinking about. Why?
Eh? Why not? Claudine asked back, but didn't wait for an answer. The complex chaotic disorderly harmony that is shown within the shapes of flowers can be really fascinating. Flowers look different on almost all different species of plants, but they fulfill the same purpose everywhere. It quite a weird phenomenon. Why is it like that? If you had lived as long as I have and seen what I have seen, you would also begin to think about the inner workings of things.
Claudine, I don't know what to say to that... Jay had the weird feeling that Claudine was a lot more than just the simple Guide for early play within the game. What was that about Claudine living for a long time? Didn't she start existing when he first logged in? Could it be that Claudine was actually bugged? Claudine, how could you have lived for a long time?
I came into being after the first generation of sentient settlers arrived in this world. How I began existing I don't know, but in my early days I floated around freely, observing everything I could. I've seen many generations grow from young to old, passing on their knowledge and abilities, until the nations that now covers Calyxia came into being. My internal clock shows that I've existed for close to 200 years. Claudine explained in her teacher-like voice she used when trying to explain something she seemed to take for granted.
200 years? Jay was speechless. There was no way he could believe that. It must just be some setting in the AI to make the Guiding Spirit seem more profound. And with that, he had had enough of this seemingly redundant topic of conversation. If he couldn't believe what Claudine said, what point was there to continue the conversational thread? Good to know Claudine, I don't really have time to talk about such things right now though.
Taking off the black cloth from his eyes, Jay sat up straight and looked at the cloth. All color had disappeared from where the embroidered circles above his eye was. Now the cloth had two eye-sized white circles where the embroidery was. It seemed that this magic construct was only possible to use once since the man didn't insist on taking it back and had already left Jay to himself.
Claudine, another more relevant topic, Jay thought, he had to ask before he forgot the brilliant insight he had had. If I could somehow find Magic Constructs that I can use to strengthened my bodily Stats, wouldn't I be able to create a warrior's body with the help of continually using Mana Constructs to restructure this body? Where can I learn about creating Magic Constructs? If I can use that and create things that would let me become both like a warrior and a magician at the same time, wouldn't I be invincible? That's something that could break the game-balance, isn't it?
Before Claudine could answer, a small shock ran through Jay's body, his vision blurred slightly, his field of view overlapped and folded in on itself as if his eyes were crossed. He almost fell off the chair from the staggering sensation. Slight nausea crept up his throat. What was that? He thought to himself.
Ehm? What should I answer first? Claudine seemed to hesitate. Anyway, first the core question. Theoretically it should be possible to create a warrior body while being a magician, at least I think it might be possible. I don't know. I can't access enough information to make a concrete judgment on that. It seems like it could be possible, but at the same time I can't find any information that tells me it is possible. Sorry, I can't say.
Jay considered that statement. Seemingly, it should be possible to become a magician with the body of a warrior from what Claudine said. He only needed to find out how to do it. But, that was something to consider in the future. The first thing he needed to know came first. Where can I learn about creating Magic Constructs?
The Magician's Guild creates the most advanced Magic Constructs, but I can't tell you exactly how to get them to give out their secrets on how to create Magic Constructs. Maybe if you did some great deeds for the Magician's Guild and got them to trust you enough to let you learn their ways of creating Magic Constructs? I can't really figure out any other way to get the knowledge. There is a slim chance that you could find some information in dungeons or ruins. The dead civilizations of ages past might have left behind information about creating Magic Constructs. But that is only a educated guess, at best.
Thanks, Claudine, Jay thought, ending his conversation with his Guiding Spirit. She was growing stranger every time Jay had a longer conversation with her. And after he helped Claudine unscramble her mind from all the random looped questions he had asked earlier it seemed Claudine had Leveled up her weird behavior. However, as long as she didn't misinform or try to harm him, her weird behavior wasn't really bad, just strange. Jay dropped the subject; this wasn't the time for thinking about Claudine.
Standing up, he walked to the tray on the floor that now only had two Spellscrolls on it. He picked them up and deposited the Spellscrolls and the black cloth in his Inventory. He would read them a bit later. For now he had to get out of this Beginner's Guild before he was fined a room-renting fee or something. He really didn't want to be swindled any more than he already felt he had been.
He walked out of the small room, directly finding a sign with an arrow pointing to his left; on it was written “Exit”. The sign pointed in the opposite direction from where he had entered this inner part of the Beginner's Guild Auxiliary Tower. Well, it didn't matter as long as he could get out from the place and go experiment with the ideas he had come up with to succeed in killing the Black Ooze.
After having thought for a long while about how to kill the Black Ooze, Jay had come to the conclusion that if he wanted to kill it with conventional methods he would have to be at least double his current Level, and even then it might be impossible to kill it alone. It was a Boss after all, and it had extreme Health Regeneration, so there could be a need to kill it with several people helping each other. Jay didn't know enough people, and didn't have enough Level or Stats to kill the Black Ooze by using “the obvious” way.
There was nothing he could do about all the things he couldn't do; there was only what he could do to do. And if it failed, he would have to give up on killing the Black Ooze however much it would pain him to not be able to kill the Boss.
After he left the Beginner's Guild Auxiliary Tower and came outside again, he promptly left the Beginner's Guild compound and walked to one of the small secluded parks he had found to use for physical training earlier. Looking around, there was only a fountain in the middle of the large grassy square with lots of stone benches strewn around haphazardly. The only really good thing about the place being so ordinary and out of the way was that there were no people around and Jay could easily practice whatever he wanted without being disturbed.
He needed to know a lot of things before going down into the sewers again, and first he tried one of the things he really didn't think was possible. He found a rock that weighed about the same as a torch and tried lifting it with Mana Manipulation. The instant he had poured 300 Mana into trying to lift it he gave up on the idea of using torches as projectiles shot with Mana Manipulation.
The second thing he wanted to try was to use matchsticks as projectiles. Taking out the box of matchsticks from his Inventory, he opened it. He removed a matchstick from the box, striking it against the rough bottom of the matchbox, igniting it. Then he sent out a strand of Mana from his hand, using Mana Manipulation to throw the matchstick the same way he did with pins, but before the match even flew a couple of centimeters it had already been put out by the air-pressure from its speed. He hadn't thought that would work, but it was worth a match-stick to try at least.
He took another matchstick, and without lighting it he charged his Fling Shot with 50 Mana and threw the matchstick towards a stone bench close by. When the matchstick hit, it lit up in a small burst of flames that quickly went out. The rough texture of the stone ignited the matchstick. That was successful at least. He now had a way to light something on fire from a distance, the first step had been reached.
Now he could only do one more experiment, he needed to know from how far away he could lift something with his Mana Manipulation. He had gotten the feeling earlier that the further away something was, the more difficult it was to actually pick something up. It didn't have to do with the amount of Mana used, it was more like his control slipped after a certain distance. And he needed to know the exact distance to be able to use his most explosive plan.
Tossing a small metal pin into the air, he caught it with a strand of Mana, using Mana Manipulation to hover the pin in the air. Then he slowly floated the pin away from him. As the pin reached a distance of a couple of paces it slowly started losing its ability to stay afloat, and a little bit later it fell to the ground.
Jay took measured steps and walked to where the pin had fallen, he found that it fell at about seven to eight meters away from him. He didn't know why, but it seemed that was the furthest he could manipulate something with weight with his Mana Manipulation. He could still send out a tendril of Mana into a distance of over thirty meters when the Mana didn't have to carry something. It was too bad that seven meters was too short a distance to use on his most explosive plan. It seemed he had to go with the more risky version.
Now that Jay had done his small experiments, he took out the Identify Spellscroll and read it through until the end. Light flew out from the Scroll as it disintegrated and shot straight into Jay's head, blinding him for a split second. Information swelled in his mind and he reeled from it, but soon he knew how to use the Identify Spell.
Without a second thought he took out the azure green ring he had found earlier, holding it in his palm. He focused on the ring, using all his mind to only see the ring, to block out everything around him. He thought the word to activate the Spell, Identify. His head started hurting slightly, but just as it did a light shot out from his eyes, taking away 300 of his Mana but striking the ring. A window popped up in front of him.
A Ring from Mentalor's Legacy Set (??? Set-Ring) (32g)
???
???
The first person who puts this ring on gets a Rare Skill or Spell from Mentalor's Legacy.
Requires 240 Wisdom to use
Requires 120 Intelligence to use
What? Jay was a little bit perturbed, he had thought that the Identify Spell would show everything about the ring, but it hadn't. Though what was shown was still enough to make his eyes pop. There was now no doubt, he really needed to keep the ring a secret, unless he wanted to be killed by someone wanting this great item. But how should he identify it?
There are stronger Identification Spells than the Identify Spell, Claudine answered his question. If you want to be completely sure about being able to identify something you should get the Spellscroll Complete Identification.
Oh? Jay thought, where can I get that?
Probably at the Magician's Guild, but I don't think this town's Magician's Guild has any of those Scrolls. They are quite rare and very expensive. You may need to go to a larger city and find one of the Magician's Guild Headquarters if you want to buy the Complete Identification Spellscroll. And another thing, you don't learn the Spell from that Scroll, it is only possible to use it to identify one thing, then it burns to ashes.
That doesn't sound as good anymore, Jay thought. How expensive?
I don't know for sure, Claudine said. But a lot more than you have right now. At least 5 white gold coins, probably more.
Jay sighed. It all came down to money, as usual. But white gold coins? He had never even seen a gold coin. And he had to assume the white gold coins were worth more since he had not heard of them before. He sighed again, it seemed he had to wait some more before he could know everything about the ring.
A ringing sound rang out inside Jay's head, and a window popped up, telling that Bluth was trying to talk to him. Jay pushed the answer button.
Hey, Jay,” Bluth's voice came out inside Jay's head. “Come to my place and have a look at the things I've taken out for you.”
Great, I'll be right there,” Jay answered, and their conversation, short as it was, ended.
He started running, hurrying to get to Bluth's store as fast as possible, only to save as much time as possible.
Ignoring his surroundings he once again thought about the Black Ooze. He was really eager to try and kill it. He had to try it quickly, if only to know if he could kill it at his Level or if he should give up and go kill lots of small critters outside the town walls. He had to hurry to get stronger, if Bluth was Level 66, maybe his competitors also had those kinds of Levels. He didn't want to meet any of his competitors while being so low Level himself.
- - - - - - - -
Jay went into Bluth's store, ignoring the shelves of random stuff and went up to the counter where Bluth stood.
So, where's my stuff? Found some good equipment for me?”
I took out all that I had, and some things I thought you might need,” Bluth said, a slight smile on his face. Jay felt wary again. That smile only meant one thing, Bluth was going to squeeze him dry. “Follow me to an inner room. I've already lined everything up for you.”
Jay followed Bluth into a room behind the counter. The large room was at least ten meters in length and four meters in width. It was a plain room, gray wooden boards covered floor, walls and ceiling. In the middle of the room was a very large table with a white tablecloth. The table covered the entire room except about half a meter on each side against the wall. At best you could barely walk around the table.
On one part of the table lay two enormous sacks made from some rough-spun brown cloth. The sacks were taller than a person, and several times wider. “What's in those large sacks?”
You said you wanted traveling biscuits for two silver coins. That's the amount of bread you get for one silver. I couldn't bring myself to buy more. Seeing those two sacks, you should not need more, right? My question is, can you even carry them?” Bluth seemed like he was laughing on the inside, his eyes shone with a brilliance that was impossible to cover up. He seemed very pleased with himself.
Thanks? I guess,” Jay said. He really hadn't thought things through, it seemed. He had only wanted more food than he could eat in a couple of days, but this amount would last him weeks. “The food isn't important. Have you gotten me the rest on my list?”
Yep,” Bluth motioned to the place behind the large sacks filled with traveling biscuits. “Here you go. Thirty torches.” He pointed at a sack from which thirty torch-heads stuck out. He pointed to four rows of ten bottles, corked with a simple wooden cork. “Fifteen liters of lamp oil, 12 of which I poured inside these forty ceramic bottles which hold 0.3 liters lamp oil each. I then filled this wooden barrel with the remaining 3 liters of lamp oil.” Bluth took a breather, seemingly out of breath, but continued after the slight pause. “Twenty meter of cloth rags as wide as my hand.” He pointed to four rolls of gray-white strips of rugged cloth. Then his finger went to a stack of boxes. “Ten boxes of match-sticks. And here's a sturdy backpack and the leather belt I found for you have 6 pouches. I hope that's enough.” Bluth continued pointing to a leather backpack without any pockets on the outside. It was pretty much a soft leather bag with shoulder-straps and a way to cover up its opening. “I want 10 silver coins for the lot. I got the things a bit cheaper than I thought, and I also only bought traveling biscuits for 1 silver coin.”
Great,” Jay said. He could see his plan unfolding in his mind. He only hoped the oil would create flames strong enough to actually burn the Black Ooze until it died. He couldn't really spend more money than what he had already spent now. It wouldn't be worth it no matter how much benefit he got from killing the Boss if the cost for killing it was too large. “And the equipment you wanted to show me? And the rope, where is the rope?”
Patience,” Bluth said, walking up to another orderly pile of things in the middle of the table. “These are the things I recommend you buying, how about it? Would you let me tell you about why you should buy them?”
Sure,” Jay felt like he was walking on thin ice. Everything was going according to Bluth's pace, but Jay couldn't and didn't mind. Bluth seemed to be trying to rope him in, so Jay wanted to see where Bluth's schemes went. “What is it you want me to buy?”
Here, have a look,” Bluth said, picking up two pieces of rope no longer than his hand. “These are two different kinds of rope. This costs 1 iron coin per meter,” Bluth showed a brown rough rope thicker than his finger. “It is a good rope, and can easily hold your weight, but it isn't very easy to use with the Magic Rope Spell. You got that, right?”
Yeah, I got it, haven't used the Spellscroll yet, though.”
Okay, good. This other rope,” Bluth showed a silvery white glossy rope that was at most a tenth of the width of the brown rope. “This rope is the highest quality rope I have. It is made from Giant Spider Silk braided together in a manner that makes it very strong; this rope could most likely hold the weight of more than fifty people, but the greatest thing is that it is very light and extremely compatible with the Magic Rope Spell. The rope is also extremely durable. I don't even think you could cut a single silken strand on the rope with your knife.”
Jay was exasperated. He had been right. Bluth wanted to sell something expensive to him. “How much is it?” he dully asked.
1 silver coin per meter,” Bluth said, seeming almost proud of the exorbitant price he stated. “I only have about seventy meter left of this rope. And I have never seen anyone selling it. Not even in the Trade Auction.”
One silver coin per meter. Jay needed twenty meter of rope. It was too expensive. “Come on, make it a bit cheaper? I'm buying a lot from you right now, can't you give me a better price?”
Not really,” Bluth said. “The rope is very rare, and it is in limited supply. Why would I not try and get as much as possible for it?”
There really isn't any way to lower the price?” Jay asked, hoping for the slim chance of actually getting a better deal. “I need 20 meter rope, and 20 silver coins is a large chunk from my total amount of money.” He really wanted a great rope. A good rope would never be useless. “We can't make some sort of deal trading favors or something?”
Bluth stroked his chin, the gray stubble rasping in the silence. “We could do that. But in such a deal, what I want isn't negotiable, you either agree or don't, no haggling. How much money do you want to redact from your total cost?”
For the rope and the essential things I've already seen, so, 30 silver coins,” Jay said.
Hm, 30 silver coins, not a large amount of money for me, but a lot for you,” Bluth said. “For 30 silver coins I want you to come to me with all your loot until you reach Level 50. I also want you to use a Map-pad and record your surroundings when you venture outside the town or into a dungeon. Then let me copy the data into my Map-pad when we meet.”
What's a Map-pad?” Jay asked. The deal didn't seem bad, he had already begun using Bluth as his first go-to-guy when it came to buying or selling anyway. So, that condition didn't matter much. But Jay didn't know what a Map-pad was.
It's a tool,” Bluth said. “It's an item you have to Bloodbind. This way it can't be stolen from you. When using it, so long as you keep it outside your body it sends out an invisible spherical pulse, scanning your surroundings once every second or so. It then stores data about what creatures or monsters you encounter, creating a simplistic map showing where specific monsters have their habitats. I want to use you to scout out things, and then give me the information so that I can make maps and sell those. There aren't much information available about where which monsters are. And there aren't many good maps either. But I have the Sub-Profession of Scribe and can create rudimentary maps with the few Cartographer Skills I've got from being a Scribe.”
That sounds fair enough,” Jay was elated, and suspicious. Once again Bluth seemed to be offering a deal he could not refuse. Jay could only go along with it. For some reason he felt like he had been dancing on Bluth's palm from the first time he entered Bluth's store.
Good,” Bluth said. “You're the seventh person to make this deal. It was really worth it to help you out in the beginning. Finding people to work for me brings me greater profits in the long run.”
Yeah,” Jay sighed, he couldn't disagree with the statement, but couldn't afford to pass it up either. If he could do something fairly simple in exchange for paying with his limited amount of money, then it was worth it. “I'll work for you, just give me fair market prices for what I sell you, and we're all good.”
Of course,” Bluth said. “If you're happy to work for me, you'll work both more efficient and with more drive. Let's just get this deal down on a Bloodbinding Contract and we'll be settled.”
Gulping, remembering the fearsome consequences of breaking such a Contract, Jay only nodded. It was still worth it if he could save some money this way. Maybe he could get some better equipment then.
From his Inventory, Bluth brought out a white paper that had intricate and beautiful geometric silver patterns going all around its edges. Then Bluth took out a golden pen, its nib black as coal, and started writing down clauses on the paper.


6 comments:

  1. Woohoo, cartography! I love the RPGs where you make a map of a dungeon, makes exploring a lot more fun and personal when you can take notes about what you see!

    Oh, and nice work on this chapter too.

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  2. Why does it feel like the main character is getting scammed really badly. He's selling all the important information that he's gathered at the risk of his life for such a cheap cost. I mean, it wasn't mentioned before but maybe he is the first person to explore that sewer. If he gives that information to be sold won't that invite more competition? I feel like the dude is so focused on the current objective that he can't see people taking advantage of him in the long run. This chapter has given me a lot of mixed feelings with regards to the main char's foresight.

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    Replies
    1. Ya i feel the same way, he also lost money from breaking that magic construct last chapter. In the starting chapters Jay seemed fine but now it seems he is unnecessarily losing money and intel, i hope he starts making better decisions soon or it might lead to his demise.

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  3. Ahh good chapter, once he irons out the deal with the equipment we'll probably get to see the mc's 2nd attempt at the boss. Next chapter is gonna be awesome! Ty for continuing the chapter releases even with your sciatic pain OP, this release musta been rough.

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  4. Until lvl 50? What? Doesn't that mean he'll have to give EVERYTHING he has for 50 LEVELS?! That's a ridiculous amount of money for just 30 silvers - OH!
    He only has to SELL them to Bluth, right? Not give it to him? Well, seeing how nice he has been, and how rare the rope is, it's worth it, I guess?
    The map thingy doesn't really seem to be a bad thing, provided that he clears the dungeon he is in quickly before Bluth can make a map out of it and someone else buys it and gets interested in the dungeon and increases the competition before he finishes the dungeon. In other words, it's okay if Jay's strong enough to finish dungeons in the first try or in the first few days, because we don't really return to dungeons we've completely raided, right?
    In other words, if Jay can't finish the dungeon by the next chapter, chances are that people would start coming for the Black Slime cause it may be rare enough for Bluth to start pulling some strings;
    TL;dr: next chapter's going to be really fun! :D
    Thanks again for your hard work as always!

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