Chapter 7: Chapter 7: Character Refinement

<Alert!!!  Alert!!! Alert!!!>

Suddenly the character screen was down, and Jace was looking at the rocky landscape he had almost forgotten.  The sun was a little higher than he remembered but still cast long shadows into the open trail that cut through the hills.  Leaping out from one of those shadows was an elf dressed in black, two short blades aimed at the orc’s chest.  A red border flashed around his vision, and Jace didn’t know what to do.  Luckily the game took over, and the halberd he still clutched swung into action.  As the assassin got close, a dial appeared around his body like the face of a clock, with 20 numbers instead of 12.  The numbers weren’t in any specific order and were in various colors.  The one was white, with numbers 2-11 a deep red.  Twelve and up were purple, with the number 20 a deep purple.

The wicked pole arm swung of its own accord, Jace flexing his powerful arms without thinking.  The blade sliced in at the shorter elf along the number 14 and exploded into his exposed side.  Jace felt a now familiar feeling in his head as the game gave him information.

[Double Critical hit]

[One critical canceled]

[2x Damage? Stun?]

Jace concentrated on the Stun choice for a brief second, and the prompt disappeared from his mind as the black-clad elf froze before him.  Jace’s weapon was already swinging around for another hit, and it flew in along the number eight slot, and blood splattered from the impact into his leg.

After the second attack, the assassin remained motionless, still stunned, and Snowy joined the fun, jumping at the elf and biting into his already wounded leg.  Jace felt a call to action again, and the urge to swing was overwhelming.  This time he took control, bringing his weapon up and around.  The dial appeared again, and he lined up a strike along the number 20, which was pulsing purple.  At this angle, the halberd hit the elf’s exposed clavicle, and his weapon dug deep into the base of his neck.

[Triple Critical hit]

[4x damage.]

Jace didn’t have a choice, and the man exploded before him, body parts and blood flying in all directions.  Despite being an orc, he shrank back from the gory scene, but Snowy seemed thrilled and jumped at the torn flesh, finding a leg to gnaw on.  Only now could Jace hear Gracie screaming in the background, most of her words a garbled mess.

Jace looked around carefully, ensuring no other attackers were waiting for him, before turning his voice inward.  “Gracie.  Gracie!  Calm down.  Take breath.  It’s over.  Now tell me what the heck just happened.”

{You almost %&*$#@$ died; that’s what happened!  I can’t believe that.}

“What happened?” Jace repeated.

{It was Snowy, your wolf.} He could tell she hated using the playful name for such a vicious creature.  Jace also noticed that Snowy was much bigger than before.  Still not as large as back in the cavern, but as a level seven wolf, her head now came up high on his leg.  {She was on the lookout, like a good guard dog.}  Jace could tell from her uneven voice that Gracie was scrolling back through the game data, trying to read and talk simultaneously.  {The thief was hidden well, but Snowy smelled him.  And when she smells prey – and elves are one of her favorite meals – she gets a massive bonus to see them.  Because she is your familiar, when she sees them, you see them.  He was attempting a sneak attack, which would have done a ton of damage, possibly stunning you or knocking you unconscious.  Instead, because you caught him in a sneak attack, he was Flat-Footed, opening up your critical range and allowing you to stun him.  He probably would have normally saved against your stun, but being caught in an attempted sneak attack gives a huge penalty to his saving throws.  He had one critical protection, but you got lucky and did a double.  I don’t think he expected a level seven shaman to have +19 to hit.}

Jace understood all of that.  “How much damage was I doing?”

{Your weapon does 18 damage when you wield it.  It is a Chaos weapon, so, being Ordered, you get a disadvantage for using it, but 18 is still pretty high.  You have +19 to damage, so you did 37 on your first two hits and then over a hundred on the triple crit.  Our poor assassin only had 120 hit points, so it was a bit of overkill.}

“And what about the dial?  Did he see it too?”

{What dial?}

“The dial with the numbers 1-20 telling me where to aim.  I let the game take over on the first two hits, and I’m guessing I rolled a 14 and an 8, but I took control on the last hit and got the 20.”

{Yes, Gracie said, you can let the game play for you, which is often safer, but if you have any skill in wielding a weapon, you are free to swing away too.  But I don’t know what you mean about a dial.  You just swing at the person.}

“Well, I see a dial when I attack, and it made it very easy to manufacture that last 20, which somehow gave me a triple critical.  Can you tell me how that works?”

{Every weapon crits on a 20.  You also succeed critically when you exceed your opponent’s defense by ten or more.  You get two criticals for 20 or more, and so on.  Your last attack was a 40 against his armor class of probably 15, so you beat it by 20+ and rolled a 20, so that is three crits.  Go pick up his inventory, and I can tell you more.}

Jace looked back to where the assassin had been, having turned away once Snowy started gnawing on the bones.  Now, over the bloodstain, he saw a small satchel icon floating above the ground, looking quite unnatural in the otherwise realistic setting.  Jace picked his way carefully through the gory mess and touched the icon, which picked up the loot.  Jace could tell that Gracie was already going through them without him having to pull up his inventory screen.

{Ah, that makes sense.  He had Shadow Step boots.  He could have skipped through that module without a problem, especially since my paladin had killed almost everything.  It is unlikely that anyone else could make it through as fast, but either way, we shouldn’t stay here long.}

“Can we move and talk at the same time?” Jace asked.

{Probably.  Look at Snowy and try to select her.}

Jace did so, earning a strange look from the wolf, who still had a bone in her mouth.  A few options came up, and he picked Follow Trail.  Then the selection screen disappeared, and he looked around the area.  The first thing that was highlighted was the remains of the assassin.  Jace imagined that if he selected those, Snowy would sniff him, pick up a trail, and follow it back into the module.  Instead, he looked down the path he had been taking away from the mountain, and the winding, stony descent glowed faintly in the morning light.  He “clicked” that with his eyes, and Snowy barked an affirmative and set out at a good pace following the trail.

Jace quickly ran after the wolf, and as he followed her with his eyes, another selection window popped up, and he chose Follow.  Instantly, he felt his legs move on their own, and he tested this new automated mode by pulling up his inventory screen.  As far as he could tell, his legs were still jogging.

“Okay, I’m ready,” Jace said.

{Took long enough.  Once you have your wolf selected, see if she has the Follow Trail ability.}

“No, I mean, I’m ready to talk.  I figured all that out on my own.  I’m jogging down the trail after her with my inventory screen open.  Now, what just happened?  How did that guy come out of the module I just completed, and why did he suicide attack me like that?”

Gracie chuckled.  {That wasn’t a suicide attack.  That was almost your death.  He was making a Sneak Attack against you.  A Sneak Attack is when you attack from the shadows, and your opponent doesn’t see you.  You get to add your Stealth value to your attack, so he probably would have close to +55 to hit, and if he rolled what you did, a 14, he would hit you with 69.  You were in your inventory, so you were considered Flat-Footed and would have had an Armor class of 14.  He would have had a 4x crit.  His weapons do less damage than yours, but he would have knocked you down to half-health in one shot and probably disarmed you in the process.}

{When you lose over half your health at once, you have to make a death save, which would have at least paralyzed you, and the elf could have killed you easily.  If it weren’t half your health, you would have been disarmed and have to pick up your weapon off the ground, which would have given him another bonus to attack, and he probably would have hit you with another crit, disarming you again.  Your other option would be to run, but as soon as you turned your back on him, he could hide back in the shadows and make another Sneak Attack on you.  One-on-one combat is usually one-sided and often depends on who gets the upper hand early.  A thief like him would be foolish to engage you head-on. Fighting between groups becomes far more strategic.  And the fact that Snowy would have attacked him regardless if you saw him first would have played in your favor.  Either way, he wasn’t planning on you having 21 Strength.}

“And how did he catch me so quickly?”

{You just completed a SIM, which stands for Single Instance Module.  When you enter a module, the game creates a copy for you to play in.  There might be a dozen other people currently trying to pass it, and they all have their copy.  If they die inside, they get deleted along with all their items.  But when someone passes a SIM, their version of the module becomes locked into the game.  Anyone who was currently in that module gets kicked out.  Any module-specific items they might have collected are deleted from their inventory. From now on, anyone who enters that module will experience the completed version.}

“So that thief was in the module when I passed it and was kicked out.  This told him that someone had solved it, so he raced through to try and catch me at the end and steal the crystal.”

{Either that or he was a camper.}

“A camper?”

{Someone who camps out at the entry to a SIM that hasn’t been completed yet.  When you try to enter a SIM, you get a prompt to enter alone or join with someone who is already in.  That person has to accept you as a party member, so you can’t just join up with strangers, but you get to see who else is in a SIM when you try to enter.  If you ever try to enter and don’t get a prompt, that means no one is currently in the SIM, or it has been completed.  A camper keeps testing the SIM until it shows it is clear and then races through it.  Or, if you know there are 4-5 people in the SIM, you can camp out at the opening, wait for a bunch of people to get kicked out, and then race in while they get their bearings.}

{Every month or two, someone loads a dragon SIM.  Those are very popular.  Campers will sit outside the entry and cheer on all the brave adventures who enter, often even lending them spell protections or magic items to help them finish the task.  Then when they pass the level, everyone races in to try and split the treasure.  Often a SIM will not have a back exit like this one did, so the person who passed it will have to walk out the same way he walked in, and a dozen greedy adventurers will be storming in to kill him to get the treasure.  Those get bloody fast.}

“I assume there are other modules that are not SIMS?”

{Yes, there are MIMs as well.  These are Multiple Instance Modules.  Everyone who enters them creates a unique copy, and then when they pass them, that unique copy remains, and other people can still try the module on their own without having to play someone else’s completed version.  These modules offer fewer exclusive treasures and usually specialize in experience points and teaching people how to play the game.  Sometimes MIMs have unique prizes at the end so that the first person who passes it gets the item, and everyone else who completes it gets a lesser version.}

Jace looked through the loot he had collected so far as he listened to the explanations.  “So how does this Halberd I have work?”

{It is a level 10 Chaos Halberd +3 with +4 to Trip and the Coup de Grace ability.  It is one of the best weapons I have ever seen.  But it is not very good for you.  You are Ordered, not Chaotic, so you get a -2 for all its attributes.  For each even level of a weapon, it does an additional one point of damage.  Halberds usually do 13 points of damage, but at level 10, it does another 5, and because it is a +3, it does a total of 21 damage.  For you, it is a level 8 +1 weapon, so it only does 18 damage, which is still good, but you can find something better eventually.}

“What does it mean that it is Chaos?”

{You can cast chaotic magic.  Well, you can’t, but others can.  It is a popular magic for battle mages who already do a lot of damage with their weapons.  Often the magic will do nothing, but it will occasionally explode for massive damage, so it works well with the halberd.}

“And the Trip and Coup De Grace?”

{Trip is a combat maneuver for suckers.  Don’t try it.  Coup De Grace lets you attack a helpless opponent, and they must save against the damage or die.  It is a very noble and paladin-like thing to do.  As I said, probably not the weapon for you.}

“Is it time for spells now?”

{Yes, you get three.  I suggest Armor Totem, Damage Sink Totem, and Mana Bank Totem.}

“Ah, the mysterious totems.”

{Yes, they are unique to shamans and immensely useful.  They are especially broken for your character.  A totem is a statue or altar you can create with your mana.  In your case, you have to erect it on stone, and then you need to stay connected to it by a path of stone.  As long as you are and you stay in range, you get the benefit.  Right now, because you have the +2 totem range feat, you get a range of 12 per level.}

{The Armor Totem lets you spend 10 points per level, and then you have Spirit Armor equal to your level.  So for 70 mana, you can have +7 to your armor class.  The good thing about Spirit Armor is that it doesn’t use up any of your armor class skill.  Right now, you have 15 points in Armor Class, your boots use up one of those, and the other 14 are divided by 2, which adds to your total AC.  Every medium character has a base of 10, so with Spirit Armor, you have 10+7+7+1, which is a whopping 25 AC, which is excellent.  You always want to be a little higher than your attack bonus.  The best standard armor in the game is full-plate, which gives +10 AC and uses up 10 of your AC skill.  If you wore that, you would have 10+10+2+1, only 23.  And yours will get better as you level up.}

“Sounds broken to me.  Isn’t that too powerful?”

{You are broken.  Most shamans will have 12 Constitution, which gives them no bonus to AC, meaning the Spirit Armor is the only bonus they are getting.  Also, it has a range.  If you wander through a large dungeon, you must cast it every 84 feet.  If you are in a city or a wooden building, it won’t work.}

Jace nodded, understanding that a shaman was meant to be a supporting character, and he needed to prepare his battlefield to be effective.  “How long do they last?”

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{As long as you stay in range, most totems last indefinitely.  Physical attacks can destroy them, and they can be dispelled by magic.  But as long as you keep in range, they will last as long as you do.  If you move out of range, they will last one hour and disappear.  If you move out of range and then back in range within that hour, they will still work for you, and the hour is reset.}

{I also gave you Damage Sink, which is what it sounds like.  You pay ten mana per level, and the totem will absorb damage equal to your hit points at that level. It basically gives you double the hit points, and all damage goes to the totem first.  Once it exceeds its limit, it will disappear.  Because of your huge Constitution, this spell is pretty broken too.  The last spell is a Mana Bank.  You can use as much or as little mana as you want to cast it, and it will store that mana for you.  Then, in combat or at any time, you can double your standard Mana Generation by pulling the extra from the totem.  It will disappear when it is empty.}

“How do I cast spells?  Do I have to memorize them or prepare them first?”

{Normally, you have to memorize them, but not with totems.  We can go over general spell casting when you get a “normal” spell.  But for now, stop running, and I will show you.}

Jace exited his character screen and instructed Snowy to stop.

{Okay, instead of looking up, look down behind your cheekbones.}

Jace did as he was told and saw a bar to pull.  When this window slid over his vision, it didn’t block it but instead looked like a translucent computer window with three icons.  They each had a unique symbol, and he had to hover his eyes over each to get the name of the totem to pop up.  Eventually, he selected the Armor Totem, and the screen disappeared.  He felt he was holding the spell with his eyes, like clicking and holding an icon on a computer screen and then moving it around.  Finding a rocky patch, Jace released the icon, and a stone pillar rose from the ground until it was waist-high.  Jace was given the choice of how many levels he wanted to set it to and chose seven.  A rush of energy left him, like a gust of wind hitting him in the back and racing through him.  He almost lost his balance for a moment but recovered before falling.

{It’s like the recoil of a gun,} Gracie said, seeing his reaction.  {You’ll get used to it.}

Jace looked down and saw he was wearing a shimmering vest of armor.  It looked like stone, but it didn’t impair his movement at all.

{It isn’t going to stack with your current armor, which you should probably take off anyway.  It is Deceptive, and since you are Honest, you get penalties for using it.  When you get to town, you can buy cheap, non-magical armor for when you travel or don’t have access to stone.}

Jace removed the chainmail his orc came with and spent a few moments admiring his new look when another thought struck him.  “I think I leveled up when I killed that thief.  I heard that shrill cord again.”

{He was at a higher level than you, so you should have leveled up again.  When you kill someone, you either get all of their experience or the difference between your current level and the next one, whichever is less.  He was at level 15, so he had over 4 million experience.  The difference between levels 7 and 8 is 32,000, so that is what you should have got.}

Jace checked his screen and saw he was up to 82,000 exp now.  This gave him +2 to Strength skills, and he put one in Melee and one in Damage.  He also got one in Constitution and one in Spirit.  He put these in Hit Points and Mana Pool.

“It looks like I need another Strength feat.”

{So, let me understand this.  When you attack someone, you see a dial of 20 numbers, and you can pick which you want to use for the attack?}

“Yes.  That’s how it was when I attacked the thief back there.”

Gracie was silent for a while.  {Do me a favor and tell Snowy to hunt for food.}

Jace dismissed his inventory screen, looked at Snowy again, and selected Hunt from his familiar’s options.  The wolf sniffed eagerly at the ground and air and bolted into the few trees off the trail.  Jace was still automated to follow her, and he ripped through the low branches.  Soon they came upon a chipmunk who was terrified of the wolf.  As soon as Jace got close, the border of his vision flashed red, and when he looked at the chipmunk, he saw the dial again.  This time all the numbers were deep purple except for the one.

{Is the dial still there?}

“Yes, it is.”

{I’m not going to ask you to kill the chipmunk, but you could swing through any number you wanted?}

“Yes, watch,” Jace had mercy on the creature and attacked through the one.  The halberd stuck into the ground just in front of the chipmunk.  The near-death experience jolted the small animal from the fear the wolf had cast on it, and it scampered off into the woods.

{I don’t know how that is possible, but if you can get 20s that easily, I will give you the Extra Crit feat.  Now when you roll a 20, you get two crits.  It’s usually an all-or-nothing feat, but it should be impossibly over-powered for you.}

“Well, it looks like we’ve done six impossible things this morning.  Time for breakfast at Millyways.}

Gracie paused.  {I assume that is a reference to some pop culture thing, but I don’t know this one.}

“Look it up.”  Jace laughed at his operator and then glanced down at his wolf.  Snowy looked dejected at the failed attack against the animal she had tracked down for her master.  She looked up at Jace and whined.  “It was just an experiment, girl.  Besides, you just ate that yummy elf back there.”

Snowy was suddenly happy again and howled at the pleasant memory.  Jace only rolled his eyes at what he had gotten himself into.  The wound on Snowy’s side had healed when she was brought down to level one and then back up to eight with him, but fresh blood was now on her face from her recent meal.  Jace returned to the path with Snowy in tow and sent her off down the trail again with him in pursuit.  “Is this game always so bloody and violent?”

{You can adjust that in the settings.  Most people consider it a perk.}

Jace didn’t need direction to explore his character settings and soon found a screen with half a dozen dials.  There were filters for Gore, Nudity, Sexualization, Profanity, Elements, and Pain.  They could all be adjusted from None to Severe, and all but one was set at Medium.  The gore was at High.  Jace wondered how much worse it could get if he upped the gore one final spot to Severe.  He decided not to try and slid it down to Mild.

He also understood why some of Gracie’s words were garbled to him.  There was a profanity filter.  “Dare I ask what the difference between Nudity and Sexualization is?”

{Nudity is how you see others, and Sexualization is how you present yourself.  If you move your Nudity slider any further down, there are some places you will go where everything will be a confusing blur.  However, you can drop your own sexualization down as far as you want.  At None, you will walk around like a genderless Ken doll, and if you crank it up to Severe, as an orc, you might have trouble walking.}

Jace shuddered at the thought and pulled the Sexualization down to None.  When he did, he saw that he lost a lot of the muscle definition in his abs and arms, and vanity required he push it back up to Mild.

“What is Elements?”

{Mostly the weather, but also heat and cold from other sources.  If you are adventuring in the desert or the arctic, you might want to turn it down so you don’t suffer, but knowing there is fire, wind, or cold nearby might also be an early warning of a magical attack.  Same thing with Pain.  If you turn it all the way down, you might not realize how much damage you are taking in a fight.  There are other HUD (Heads up Display) settings you can play with that always show you the weather or wind or constantly show your health so you can dial these down.  Most archers like to keep the elements up to feel the wind.  Just remember, any time you enter a settings screen or your inventory, it will always take a full round.  Never do it in a hostile situation.  If your enemy sees your eyes roll up, they will attack instantly, and you will die.  You are Flat-Footed in your inventory.  So, pick a setting and stick with it.  If you enter a tavern that is too hot or smelly, or the waitresses are all topless, deal with it.  Checking your inventory or settings is the most common way newbies die.}

Jace understood and left the elements at Medium but dragged the Pain down to Mild.  He hadn’t gotten hit yet, so he didn’t know what to expect, but he figured less pain was better.

Jace had just dismissed his screen when Snowy stopped.  They were now at the end of the trail, the deep forest before them.  Snowy was growling into the trees, apparently sensing more prey, but she stayed by her master’s side for now.  Behind them, the hills looked vast, and the mountain hovered far away above them.  How far had they run?  As Jace looked back, he saw a plume of fire, and smoke rose high into the sky.

{Someone is fighting for the chance to kill you.  Let’s not waste time.  Check into the travel node.}

Jace searched around but only saw trees before him.

{It looks like an exaggerated street sign,} Gracie clarified.

Then Jace saw it.  The thick wooden pole with arrows hanging off it blended nicely with the tree trunks.  He tried to select it with his eyes but got a negative beep.  He ran closer until he was only ten feet away, tried again, and was transported to a map screen.

{Good, you’re safe now.  Unless you choose the location you just were in, no one from that module can get you.  I’d love to send you to Safe Haven . . .}

Jace saw the town on his map as one of the few available places.

{ . . . but I don’t think our hosts would agree.  That is where our bosses are.} Jace heard her pull away from the microphone again and the muffled sounds of her arguing with someone else.  {No, I can’t send him there.  That is a PvP zone, and he can’t enter until he is level 10.  I’m sorry, I didn’t write the code.  Those are the rules.  He has to level up first.}  A pause.  {No, you can’t do that?  Haven’t you played before?  The only way to exchange equipment between non-party members is in a PvP zone.  As I said, I don’t make the rules.} Pause.  {Oh, yeah, that is a great idea.  Why don’t you ask your boss if he is okay with inviting Jace into his party?  You’d think they would have sent someone who knows what he is doing.  I’m sorry.  You are just going to have to wait until he gets to level 10.}  Pause.  {I don’t know.  A day?  A week?  He made level 8 in about an hour.  Who knows?}

Jace heard the familiar static sound of Gracie adjusting the headset again, and she was back at full volume.  {Sorry about that.}

“No worries.  It sounds like you have it rough over there.” Despite everything, Jace didn’t want to admit that he was starting to enjoy this adventure.  “Where do I go?”

{You need a god.  Go to Centerville.  There you will find a temple that looks like the front of the Whitehouse.  Go inside and tell one of the priests that you are lost and need direction in your life.  He will present you with several deities but turn them all down until he offers you a quest for self-discovery.}

“You speak as if you’re not coming with me.”

{Yea, I’m sorry to pull a Gandalf on you, but I am beat right now.  I’ve been up for 20 hours preparing for tonight, and things got a bit more stressful than I anticipated.  I need to look after Conor and then get some sleep so we can tackle this fresh tomorrow.  Plus, half the time, these deity quests are private anyway.}

“Will I need sleep?”

{Do you feel tired?}

“Not at all, but how will my body survive?”

Jace heard a rustling that he assumed was Gracie turning to look back at his body reclined in the chair.  {It is 2 am over here.  As far as your body knows, you are dreaming.  You should be fine for several hours yet.  I will hook up an IV tomorrow morning, and if this takes as long as I think it will, I will strap you with some muscle stimulators and a catheter.}

“You know how to do all that?  Are you a nurse?”

{No, I am an operator for ROI.  It comes with the territory.  Trust me; I’m a professional.  And you will do fine on your own.  Conor was right; you are a great player and should be able to handle this module with no problem.  With 20 Constitution, you can go quite a while without needing to rest.  But if you get any fatigue alerts, find an inn and sleep.  If you need money, find a shop and sell something you don’t need.  Right now, you have a bunch of legendary items that most stores in Non-PvP zones won’t buy, but you should find some junk items soon enough.  Goodbye.}

“Bye, and thanks.”

Jace heard a click, and he felt alone.  He was floating in a nether realm looking at the map.  He couldn’t see his body, and he couldn’t see Snowy.  He saw Centerville on the map in front of him, carefully selected the town with his eyes, and everything went black.