Heralds- The Proving Grounds, page 12
The items she could make were listed according to skill level, so she picked the option in the lowest bracket, the only one available, that cost the least resources. Waste not, want not. It was a pair of metal boots. Sabatons.
The crafting pane presented to her after selecting it had space for several options, but they were grayed out. Apparently copper sabatons were pretty uniform. Later stuff might be more interesting.
She made two sets of sabatons before the smelter dinged again and she repeated the process of emptying it and starting it again. Smelting did improve her skill… but her mining skill, not smithing. Oh well, it was practically a passive gain. It didn’t take long before the skill ups mentioned were green instead of white. She knew enough from the beta to realize a green experience gain meant you were on the cusp of getting nothing at all.
She broke down the items she made with no intention of using them. It was a loss on the materials end, but she didn’t fancy trying to sell eight hundred pairs of newbie plate boots, either. Especially not to Bulron’s friends. Those prices had been terrible, and there had been no talk of a discount in their negotiations.
As she smithed up more things she graduated to making copper gauntlets, and then vambraces which covered the arms. Or were they just the forearm? Or were those bracers? Games didn’t exactly have uniformity to their armor terminology. Arm armor. Had an articulated elbow.
And yet that seemed a tad silly since it was made of copper. Real copper would be too weak to hold that shape for long, especially with someone beating on it with a club or something.
At fifty skill points she moved onto bronze. Better, but still not great for armor. Then again, it did have an age named after it. Nobody talked about the copper age because there wasn’t one.
It was… better? Sort of. She had the option of adding an etched design to the bronze pieces of armor, though only one style was available. It appeared others would unlock as she advanced. That was kinda neat.
She ended up wearing a matching set of bronze armor. It looked nicer than her old rusty gear, especially with the fancy etching around the edges. Some of the bits were less than optimal on a resources versus experience scale, but that didn’t matter for now.
The suit added pauldrons to cover her shoulders, which her old set and the copper designs had not provided. It seemed helmets were only a thing from iron onward.
With plenty of resources at hand she could get there, if she worked at it. It wasn’t like any of it took a long time, and she had plenty of…
She glanced at the clock in the menu.
12:37 a.m.
“Son of a bitch.” She blinked at the clock a few times. “Wow.” She had spent more than an hour at this without realizing it.
She shut the menu and closed the crafting pane. Damn. She made her way to the map room and laid out the two additional bronze sets there. Anna and Bulorn were most likely to see them there. There was no evidence anyone else had crafted anything, or had any intention of going back into the crafting room.
Her inventory was still cluttered with materials, and she probably wouldn’t want to mess with that first thing in the morning. She wandered back over lethargically, opened up one of the chests, and dumped in the crafting materials.
She paused at the anvil on her way out. She selected it and paged through the recipes. How far out was iron? Crafting had not given her any leveling experience, but she wasn’t too far from ten anyway.
78/100 skill in armor smithing. She wasn’t that far off. She could manage it in the morning.
She swapped to the weapon pane. She hadn’t spent any time working that skill up, but even the lowliest weapons might be better than hers and Sam’s. Hell, maybe everyone’s.
The copper ones were pretty bad, the bronze ones were just a bit better than hers… she scrolled though the list.
At the end there was a strange entry.
“Restore Relic.”
She tilted her head. What was a relic? The option was lit up, meaning it was something she could do.
She selected it. The window showed one relic in her possession. A rusted old hunk of junk in the shape of a sword.
Huh. She had forgotten all about it.
The crafting window wanted a ridiculous laundry list of materials. Five of every kind of metal she had heard of, and five more of several kinds she hadn’t. The kicker was ten bars of “true silver.” It being last on the list would mean it was the highest level metal for crafting in the game.
Well, so much for fixing the rust lump.
Then again… she turned and opened the chests.
All of the materials were present. Even the true silver.
Hmm. Definitely not a normal thing. It was super expensive to make it work. This had to be some end game thing that she had stumbled upon very early. Or they were all over the place and the materials were the problem. At any rate, it didn’t seem entirely fair that she had access to both already. Hell, restoring the thing would probably make a high level item that was useless to her.
Though it might gave her a good hunk of weapon smithing experience. Allow her to make decent weapons for her friends. Shave some time off trying to work the skill up.
She picked up the required materials and could barely walk the handful of steps back to the anvil. It was a lot of freaking ingots.
Once she made it back to the screen, a green “restore” button greeted her. She pressed it.
A timer appeared and spun down after a few seconds. It didn’t take long. Pretty much the same as crafting a pair of boots.
A bright flash caused her to shield her eyes.
When she opened them again the crafting interface was closed. A sword lay on the anvil, perfect and new. It was shining in the weak light of the forge. Its blade seemed to be where all the true silver had gone. It was brighter than iron or steel. The hilt was the gold and other precious metals it had wanted. The handle was wound in a tiny, intricate chain of alternating gold and silver links.
It looked super uncomfortable to hold… but fortunately that didn’t really matter. She picked it up gingerly. Such a beautiful thing was well beyond her level, obviously.
Except that it wasn’t.
The sword was named Soulshine. There were a set of parenthesis after its name that had “Level 9” written inside of them. Was that because she had made it at level 9? Had she wasted the potential of something great by doing it now?
There was a moment of fear before she shook her head. It didn’t matter. No one knew she had made it, for good or ill. She would hang onto it. Maybe give it to Sam.
Er, or not. It was tagged as soulbound, and stated that Jeneve Lightheart had restored it.
Dang.
Well… it was a hell of a lot better than her shitty starting sword. She swapped it out, a shining, jewel encrusted sheathe appearing at her side.
Yeah, that was low key.
She’d look up relic items in the morning. Maybe it wasn’t a waste. Perhaps something useful could come of it.
She tilted her head as she walked out the door. The chat box at the bottom had been rattling off the skill ups as she went. The latest one was odd… due entirely to the restored relic.
“Your skill in Weapon Smithing has improved! (107)”
Her skill had been precisely zero before. Huh. Even if it was a paperweight, it had gotten her to iron weapon smithing without wasting any time.
Neat.
12
Jen groaned when the alarm went off at 7:00 a.m.
It always went off at seven. It hadn’t even occurred to her half asleep mind to change it. She hit the button to shut it off and sat up. She had trouble keeping her chin up.
“Blegh.”
It didn’t smell right, either.
She hadn’t set up her tiny coffee pot.
This was going to be a long morning.
Twenty minutes later she was drying her hair and sipping coffee. She almost felt conscious.
She still intended to head out this morning. Yesterday had been a wash. It was unlikely Sam would go, but she would offer anyway. Fresh food sounded good. Any food other than pizza, really.
It didn’t take her long to get ready. She put her hair in a ponytail and plopped on a ball cap. Time saver. She didn’t have anyone to impress.
Sam lived in the next building over. Jen knew the code for the door. She knew most of them. They weren’t exactly secret, so much as they kept out people that didn’t live on campus.
Sam’s door was shut and no light came from beneath. She knocked softly.
There was no response.
She knocked harder.
A sound amazingly similar to a shoe striking the far side of a door was the only reply.
“Hey, we doing breakfast? Get up.”
The response was rather muffled. “I will stab you in the goddamn eye.”
Well, Sam wasn’t up and about then. Oh well. Jen shrugged. “Okay, see you later.”
The deli was surprisingly empty for eight in the morning. Then again, most of the campus was empty and that was the source of most of their business, so that made sense. Jen got her usual and sat at her usual table.
She tried to find out about what was happening in the Proving Grounds on her phone. Still a lot of confusion. People logging in for the first time had no idea what was going on and ended up dying and screaming on any forum they could find. The official ones were still down.
Weird.
Then again, maybe it was just super moderation. No forums, no trolling. No spamming. No whining.
Peace. Tranquility.
Like a graveyard.
Not exactly ideal for feedback, though.
There wasn’t much news of use. Some reports of Tobin Ironblood here and there. Never far from his raid group, apparently. He was a crafty one. Definitely hard to get to.
Oh well. She looked up relics instead. With any luck, she’d find another one later if she had wasted that one and made a crappy low level item out of it.
It took a moment to find mention of them… she almost spit out her coffee as she paged through the article.
Relics are extremely rare unique items. Only thirteen exist in the game files, and only four are confirmed to have been found and restored over the course of the alpha and beta. Of those, only two were returned to their “Glory” state by the user taking on the appropriate quests and fulfilling the numerous conditions.
Far from everyday items, Relics are weapons of terrible power that can shift the balance of a nation in the hands of the right person. None has ever been restored except by a player already at the level cap, but speculation based on data mining suggests they are designed to adjust their level to match the current wielder. They are soulbound once restored and unable to be unequipped, but only until their owner dies. The weapon can then freely be looted by anyone, and they will become the new owner to whom the weapon will become soulbound, and so forth.
For this reason, owners of Relics tend to avoid PVP confrontations. The final days of the beta saw the two “Glorious” Relics in question, Sureflight (a longbow) and Greatfang (a dagger) change hands several times as the largest two remaining nations duked it out. The final two, Heartwood (a staff) and Justice (a great hammer) were likewise claimed several times, but their strength paled in comparison to their fully restored peers.
When Troy (a somewhat unoriginal name for a kingdom), the aggressor in the conflict, claimed both of the fully restored relics the conflict ended. The opposition on all sides fell away in less than a week. Troy became the single most powerful nation in the late beta, claiming more than sixty five percent of all controlled land.
Most players, of course, would be delighted to own a Relic. But the fact of the matter is, most will never even see one. They are initially not that much more powerful than epic quality items, but they tend to have unique effects and appearances which cause them to act as rallying points for players. Fully restoring them to their “Glory” state makes them much more powerful over the course of numerous steps. Whether they come for the glory these weapons earn, or in hopes of snatching it up when their champion falls, the result is the same. People flock to them.
No one knows what the Devs have planned for Relics upon the game’s eventual release. Some believe they were merely a tool to help lands change hands more often in the beta, and others point out snippets of interviews where Devs are themselves quoted as not being overly keen on keeping them in the game. Only time will tell.
She blinked a few times.
Well, time had told. The outdated snippet didn’t tell her everything… but it told her a few things. Her sword was one of thirteen weapons. No one had ever seen her specific sword before, though that was true of the majority of them. Worse, if she died anyone could pick it up.
That was worrisome, even if it took someone of equal status to “kill” her. It might be a boon in their mission, but there was a danger to using it. Attention was going to gather around a relic. And falling meant the other side got stronger.
Ugh. She needed to know more but that was all she could find. It was soulbound, and she had already equipped it without realizing what she was doing. So she might as well use it to make sure she didn’t die and lose it to the other side, or worse, some random passer by.
Being immortal and all, she was relatively safe…
Unless Sam decided she wanted it. Maybe she would make better use of it. Or Bulorn. He was a better fighter. Maybe she should tell them and let them figure out the best thing to do with it.
But in the back of her mind… a tiny voice told her that was a mistake. It was hers. She had found it and she had restored it. No one had any idea she had a Relic. No one had any idea that anyone had a Relic yet. Given the requirements for finding and then restoring one, it was very unlikely another would appear during the early access period to challenge hers.
Would it upset the event if it appeared? Sam would surely take it into battle if she had it in hand. Bulorn might as well. And then the event would be over, because the other side’s chances would take a nosedive.
She frowned.
Hank would know. She’d ask him when she saw him next. In the meantime… she would have to think of something else.
The sword was visibly unique, but maybe she could do something about that. In the beta she had run across scabbard items that gave passive benefits and changed a weapon’s visible sheathe. That would at least get rid of the jeweled shining beacon at her hip. Even the shittiest leather scabbard would work to hide some of it… she hoped.
She was the first one on the island, near as she could tell. All the other Heralds were offline.
Slackers. It was going on nine in the morning. Sam should be up at the least. Jen had already bugged her.
She set to work in the crafting room. She had weapons to make and a final push to iron armor… but she started with leather working. Unfortunately even the worst scabbard item required fifty ranks of leather working.
She got to work on it.
The shining sword was hidden under an unassuming leather scabbard as soon as she could swing it. Swing it, ha, sword pun. By 9:30 a.m. she had it equipped and had a set of level eight leather armor for Sam as well.
She swapped over and looked into crafting weapons. Iron weapons required 100 skill to make, but only required the user be level eight to wield, though their strength was rated at level ten. It didn’t take her long to make a long sword for Sam, as well as a few more for the sake of practice. Anna used swords. Bulorn had had an axe last she saw. It might be on par or better for all she knew. Didn’t matter. Skill points were skill points. A shiny new dagger for Sam as well, just in case.
She opted to add all the flowery and intricate designs she could onto the swords when the crafting process allowed. It wouldn’t make them look near as detailed as the one at her hip, but it might help.
With the weapons handled she went back to metal armor. Iron weapons only required level eight. She wanted to see if armor was the same.
It was almost 10:00 a.m. before Anna stuck her head into the crafting room. “Knock knock. There isn’t actually a door so… wow, how long have you been at this?”
“Awhile.” Jen shrugged. Hours, all things considered.
“I found the armor in the map room, assumed it was for me? Because I’m selfish like that.”
“One for you, one for Bulorn. But I’m about halfway done replacing it with better gear.”
“Swanky.” Anna wandered inside and looked around. “Cramped in here. You only working on armor?”
“Nope.” Jen absently pointed to the table the iron swords were piled on.
“Yeesh.” Anna picked one up. “Busy little bee.”
“Eh… it helps us, right?”
“Right.” Anna nodded. “Good thing I made it to level eight last night. I can barely use this.”
“Good. Means you can use the armor, too.”
Anna leaned back on the tailoring table. “Now I feel bad. I didn’t get you anything.”
“Feh.” Jen swept her arm, pointing at the other tables. “Go nuts. After I’m done making armor, and if Sam ever shows up, it’s leveling time.”
“Might prefer to get in on that.”
“Then murder things in my name, and we’ll call it even.”
Anna grinned. “That I can do. You have my vote for Great Herald.”
“Pfft. That’s not a thing.” Jen chose to add etchings to the armor. Her own set of iron got a wavy Celtic knot sort of edging. The one she was finishing up for Anna had hard edged scrolling designs instead. Since those were the only two designs she could add… Bulorn’s set, assuming he wanted it, would be plain. Making it gave her skill ups whether he ever used it or not.
“It’s not a thing now. Eventually, when we are to act, we’ll need someone to be in charge.”
“Somehow I don’t think that will be me.” She opened a trade window with Anna and dumped the armor in. The helmet required level ten, but all the other bits only required level eight. Jen had yet to equip her own set. She had just kept making stuff.
“Thank you.” Anna bowed her head. “And, why not you? The rest of us were not exactly diplomatic last night. Bulorn maybe, but his style of diplomacy is rather… aggressive.”
