“If we had a tank…” I said.
“Might be pushing it a bit… maybe once more people have gear…”
“Are you two seriously considering taking on two scorpions?” Kelsey asked, her tone incredulous.
“No…” I admitted. “I just really want to give it a go…”
“The rewards for defeating six rounds are supposed to be pretty good.” Daisy said from near the door. “Should be over a gold and some gear…”
“Should be?” I asked.
“Not heard of anyone getting this far. Most get stopped by a swarm on the fourth or fifth fight.”
We headed out the door and instead of having to walk back through the rooms, found it led right back to the antechamber.
There were four chests. I walked over to the one with my name on it. Reached down and opened it. The box itself was empty, but I received 6 notifications.
‘You have been awarded 1 gold and 6 silver pieces.’
‘You have been awarded 1 Certificate of combat proficiency for the first time clearing of floor 2’
‘You have been awarded 1 Everflow flask of water for the first time clearing of floor 3’
‘You have been awarded 1 Central Requisition Voucher for the first time clearing of floor 4’
‘You have been awarded 1 Attunement Point for the first time clearing of floor 5’
You have been awarded 1 Magitech glasses of Analysis for the first time clearing of floor 6’
“Magitech glasses of the Sharpshooter? So cool!” called out Kelsey. She was now sporting a pair of biker goggles. “Bonuses to accuracy over range!”
“Customised loot to our playstyle?” I asked. “Mine are analysis.” I retrieved them from my [Inventory]. They were a solid black Shield style of sunglasses, seemingly creating a black screen over my eyes.
‘[Magitech glasses of Analysis]
Part of the Magitech Engineer set (3 piece set)
Eyes
“These glasses help you to see and understand Magitech devices”
Grants visual access to the Magitech engineer system views.’
I put them on. Nothing changed in my view, which in itself was surprising considering how opaque they looked before I put them on.
“Mine are the Glasses of the Healer. Looks like it can highlight injuries, and allow me to better focus my healing on the areas it is needed…increases chances of critical success healing… Nice!” Daisy said. She equipped hers and a pair of rose-tinted round glasses appeared on her face.
“I got the glasses of the Wayfarer.” Sam said coming in last and now sporting a pair of sports sunglasses. “Bonuses to navigation and additional sailing features. I think it is safe to say though, we all got a style upgrade from that fight!”
“Did you all mostly just get the money?” I asked
“Yeah, you only get the money for floors already cleared.” Daisy confirmed. “That was my first time clearing floor 5 though. The extra attunement wasn’t as bad as the first one…”
“That was not fun,” agreed Kelsey.
“This mean your attunement debt is cleared?” Sam asked me.
“I think so. It’s gone from my status screen.”
“Attunement debt?” Kelsey asked.
“I got bumped to attunement three from a quest reward, but it was more a temporary loan to three and not an upgrade.” I said. “I think it is why I can use rank 3 spells and everyone else seems limited to ones. What is the Certificate of Combat Proficiency?"
“Professor Shiva of the Arctic school gives you a quest for it, if you have been referred by the proctor at the Spell Forge.” Sam told us.
“Oh.” I exclaimed. “You must have been the student he referred, earlier today!”
“I remembered what you had said back on the island and it all made sense. Then I had to meet up with this one and make sure she doesn’t do anything silly.” He said, pulling his niece into another hug.
“SAM!” Kelsey humphed, but made no effort to stop the hug.
We headed over to the door, which slid open letting us out into the field surrounding the assessment center. The grumpy one was staring angrily at us.
“I hope your deaths were painful.” He growled at us. “That is what you get for ignoring the advice of those who know better.” I let out a chuckle.
“The Level 6 awards are cool looking customised sunglasses!” Daisy shouted out to the people milling around.
“How did you get past the swarm?”
“I used Fireball, but I’d expect any of the AOE spells would work.”
“Lies!” the noob tank shouted out in response. “We all know magic sucks ass.”
“You might want to go and check out the Spell Forge again. The trick to casting spells properly is available.”
“No, Dom, we are done.” Daisy said to the sulking tank. Sam and I left her alone to finish with the boy.
“How was Commander Daniels?” I asked him. He shook his head and rolled his eyes.
“Protective of her baby, but she was ecstatic to have her back. Once she was satisfied I hadn’t done any harm to the Curiosity, she started to give me a tour of the city and then some soldiers came and fetched her, so a kind sergeant did it instead. I have a quest to go and see the Commander this afternoon for an assignment. I’m hoping it is a path to a ship… I really want to get back out there.”
Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
“I should have done that years ago.” Kelsey said joining us. “I think I am done with this for today though. I let him drag me through Deep Sea World, and I think I want to go explore what else the game has to offer.”
“You are welcome to join Kelsey and I.” Sam said. “I think we are done here as well.”
“I need to stick around for my friends, we need to find a public terminal to get our guild formed.”
“You have a guild creation token? Dominic tried to get one earlier, and you need a gold token for it. Part of the reason we were farming here was to build up enough to pay for one.”
“I got a gold merit token on the ship.” I said, choosing not to mention the three others I had in my [Inventory].
“You can find some public terminals on the ground floor of the administration building.” Kelsey said.
“You will need a full group though to make a guild. Ten people.” Daisy said.
“Ten?”
“Yeah, it seems like five is the max for some things like what we just did, but you can have up to ten of you acting together in the field.”
This was something I was going to have to raise with the others, I looked at the three with me. I was mostly sure Sam would fit in. Daisy struck me as the right sort. Kelsey was a good kid. I was just contemplating how to ask if they would mind giving us a hand with the guild creation when the door slid open and my five friends strutted out all wearing sunglasses and some stylish boots. I think it was safe to say they must have hit the seventh floor.
“So, what we need is another player.” Kenda asked. “Assuming you three would like to join us.” We had pulled aside to talk about their fights. Kenda had Cone of Fired their swarm which came up on the fourth floor and they managed to defeat the two scorpions by the skin of their teeth, Peachy and Kenda both went down, and he got a last blow in just before he would have died and it would have ended the fight.
“Voice is on his way. He just got off the elevator,” Jacobs announced.
We headed over to the library, as it was my token we were using, Sam promoted me to group lead of our party and I invited the other five to it. I added Voice to my friends list and remotely invited him to the party.
The ground floor of the administration building was predominantly a library. Rows of bookshelves covering a huge variety of subjects were available for reading. The thought of getting lost and just reading some of them certainly had an appeal. Daisy led us over to one of the corner rooms which was filled with computer terminals.
“It’s mostly a library catalogue, but here you can access Civics Services,” Daisy said pointing at an icon. “The button for guild creation is here.” I saw it as she said it, and I clicked.
A form popped up on the screen. The first question was the most important. And it gave us all pause.
`Guild Name: ‘
“Jacobs’ Heroes.” said a person who should, on principle, be ignored.
“Peachy’s Posse.” There is a good reason the pair of them got married.
“Voyagers without a clue.”
“The Great Boots Club”
“The Custodians of the Last Light”
“Voyagers of the New World.”
“Have spell will use it.”
“Seal Cub Clubbing…”
“Overlords.”
“Oh, that one is already taken.” I said after typing it into the box. “I guess we aren’t the first to create a guild.”
“Let’s call ourselves after the thing we are all going to do anyway,” said a voice from the doorway. The man had gone for the dark and mysterious look, and was sporting a set of heavy armour in the Wardens style. “Vax, sorry, Aenara is already poking her nose into how the system works, don’t deny it. Dark is intending to learn the crafting system.” Dark nodded in agreement. “Kenda is planning some kind of farm project. Peachy will be in that library next door the moment she thinks no one is paying attention.”
“Unread books. I have no excuse.” Jacobs pulled her into a hug.
“If I'm not mistaken, Bench Press as we speak is on a desert island Macgyvering something up.”
“Probably an Airship.” Kenda muttered.
“G will be looking for the most optimal combat build he can.”
“Can’t deny that.” he agreed.
“And I, like probably all of you, want to know what the heck is happening here. We are all seeking knowledge. We are the Seekers of Knowledge.”
“Hey it’s free!” I said having typed it in.
“Because it’s lame.” said Jacobs.
“Put it to a vote, all in favour?” Nine yeys, one ney. “The Yeys have it.”
‘Guild Type’
I ticked the boxes for exploration, crafting, PVP, and PVE.
‘Public or Private’
Did we want to be viewable on the public guilds list? I selected private without a second thought.
‘Domain’
It was a drop down list with the option between none and South Harmony Institute of Further Technology and Engineering. I didn’t see any reason not to, and so I selected SHIFTE for the guild’s domain.
I selected next, and then after checking it, selected the confirm button.
A dialog box popped up asking for me to insert my guild creation token and a slot opened on the side of the terminal.
The machine swallowed my token and our interfaces started flashing.
We all checked our HUDs to check out the new screen and see what being in a guild gave us.
-- A live broadcast stream --
“Welcome to MMO Daily. I’m your host Victor.” a man with slicked back hair said into the camera.
“And I’m Maisey. In today's news, it’s just Velkaria’s second day and already there has been a huge upset.” The woman sitting next to him behind the desk said.
“Most of the players who got to the city had reported that the Magic system was broken and just not worth using. Spells took too long to cast and seemed to do less damage than hitting it with a stick. Well one player revealed that to be a lie.”
The video switched to a clip of a smart looking redheaded woman dressed in a black leather outfit suitable for exploring. Her hand outstretched and a series of spells was flying out of it. Then an orb expanded into a huge ball of sparking plasma. The video cut to another video of the same woman in a different part of the shooting-range, a small bead shot out, much like before only this one suddenly expanded into a huge fireball.
The video switched back to the news hosts.
“The player went on to explain how to approach spell casting, you can find a copy in our premium services.” The woman said.
“In other news, Quenten Strake announced the formation of the Overlords Guild and has opened recruitment to any Human player who wishes to help them become a world dominating force. You can find the affiliate link below.”
-- BenchPress --
The waves lapped against his ankles, he could feel the grains of sand on his face and arms. George pushed himself up into a kneeling position and looked around. He had washed up in the middle of a crescent cove. It was the sort of beautiful locale that he loved to go to on holiday. Dehydrated. He needed to find a source of water, of shelter and then food. Survival 101. He got up and headed inland.
He eyed the stone next to his path. Yes that would do. He picked it up, tested its weight. He followed the path further in.
He’d found a stick, right length, thickness. Even had a branch sticking out to help him secure the rock to it.
George was in his happy place. He had found water, and next to the water he found a dry dock. He’d been planning on making a catamaran from a couple of trees, but in the dry dock there was a small boat someone had been repairing. Died repairing, if the skeleton in the corner was to go by.
It wasn't big, but it was big enough for the seas near coasts. He was confident his skills were up to that much.
He had the tools. He had the resources. He had a challenge. It was a good day for George HackenSchmidt.
A pop up appeared on his HUD.
‘Aenara Ravenscroft has invited you to join the Seekers of Knowledge’
George grinned. Now he had in-game contact with his friends. It was a great day!