Razerks' Laboratory(1)
Razerks' Laboratory.
Contrary to the name, Razerk's Laboratory was, in actuality just a small ordinary dungeon, if one were to look at this particular dungeon one would find the words, low level, and, beginner, coming to their heads, for there was nothing special about this dungeon in the slightest, apart from one thing.
The name
Razerk
Anyone who had played Soulkin Online even once would have heard of the name Razerk.
He was a legendary Grand-Sage, one said to have caused the biggest disturbance in the world of potions and magical tools before suddenly vanishing.
Many users have speculated as to what had happened to him, some say he was doing research on forbidden magic and he lost control.
Some thought he got tired and decided to retire and start a family.
There were obviously some more unbelievable theories, such as one which he travelled back in time to save the world from zombies, this theory was surprisingly popular for some reason.
The point is, nobody quite knows.
In the game, any quest a user receives related to Razerk has had massive rewards for the one who manages to successfully complete them.
Not only that, some users will pay good money for information, be it big or small, about Razerk.
They hope to become the first to uncover the mystery behind Razerks' disappearance and reap the rewards and fame that would come along with it.
A group of users were busy grinding levels in The Great Divide, a massive canyon where only monsters levelled 90+ spawn.
Since Soulkin was a relatively new game, the map had been largely unexplored. The Great Divide was only recently discovered and due to the high levels of the monsters that spawn there, you would need a party of people who are on par with the top 500 users or a part of the 20 Grand Guilds.
For reference, the number one Soulkin player was level 107 and had a level 97 Jet Black-Winged Serpent, a level 100 boss monster that would have taken a party of at least 50 of Soulkins best players to defeat.
These users grinding levels were the group of players known as the Invisible Hands, their leader had hoped to raise their level and challenge the deeper parts of The Divide when one of the other members pointed something out.
"Hey big man, is it just me or does that area up there look a bit strange to you?"
The man being asked was the group's leader Dílis. Wiping his sweat from his brow, he looked up at where the other man had pointed to see what he was talking about.
The area where the other man had pointed to had a small indent into the otherwise smooth rock face of the Divide.
"Hmm now that you mention it, it does look a little..."
"a little what?"
"indent."
"indenty?"
"yep"
"what?"
"yes."
"Right...","...well thank you for imparting upon us your eternal wisdom, leader."
"Um...yeah no worries, anyway think we should head up there?"
The user who had originally pointed out the indent pulled out a pair of climbing picks he had stored in his backpack, which the group had prepared ahead of time.
The other three users behind him did the same and they began ascending towards the little hole they had spotted.
The small indent turned out to be a dungeon, the group discussed whether or not to enter.
On the one hand, you could gain great items and fame if you were the first one to discover it, however, due to it being in such a high-level area, they thought it might be too dangerous to attempt.
In the end, they were persuaded by the party leader Dílis to at least attempt it, thanks to it being a regular dungeon they would be able to run away if necessary after all.
They entered after preparing the equipment and consumables they would need and began exploring.
The way this group looted dungeons was quite a bit different from others.
The group would typically split up and separately look for the loot.
They had convinced their leader that this was so that it would maximise their dungeon raid efficiency.
The truth was that the members really just wanted to keep the best loot for themselves, as their leader always tried to distribute their loot evenly, though they were of the mind that if you found it it's yours.
Dílis was looking around near the entrance of the nameless dungeon as he had noticed something was...off, he couldn't quite place it, but it seemed like this specific area was too...smooth?
The dungeon took the shape of a cave as many do, yet something just looked...wrong. One would assume the walls of a cave to be rough and uneven yet in front of him, in a little square patch of the wall, it was completely smooth.
Dílis reached out to touch that small patch of wall but just as his fingertips connected.
*Bing*
A small sound reverberated inside his head before he heard an announcement.
[User Dílis has discovered "Razerks' Laboratory"]
"R..R...RAZERK!!? You mean that mega-famous NPC? and his Laboratory no less? JACKPOT!!"
Dílis continued to celebrate, as he did a small little victory dance "man I can't wait to tell the guys about th.."
He stopped speaking, shocked at what he had just heard
[Current status of owner {Deceased}/Transferring ownership of "Razerks' Laboratory" to Dílis]
"what?" he asked aloud, with a puzzled look on his face, "deceased?" "That can't be right. There's no way the game would just kill off such an influential NPC, is there?"
[Owner Razerk is no more, change the name from Razerks' Laboratory to Dílis' Laboratory?]
"Huh? n-no keep it as is."
[Razerks Laboratory has been renamed to Razerks Laboratory]
"huh? Sure game whatever, let's go with that."
Dílis needed a moment to digest everything that had just transpired.
"This is too much," he mumbled to himself, he took a deep breath to calm himself down before deciding he needed some emotional support.
"I call forth my eternal companion, Summon, Fen," the emotional support he sought after came in the form of a small white wolf, one of the lowest level monsters in the entirety of Soulkin online and quite possibly the lowest level Soulkin available.
For one of Dílis' level, you would expect some high ranking Soulkin, and yet he had but one, commonly referred to as the lowest level trash due to its weak stats.
Many of his own party had criticised him on this fact, saying he is holding them back. Yet at the same time, he couldn't bring himself to get rid of the little guy.
Once he gets attached to something, Dílis is the type of guy to find it difficult to let go of, Fen included.
At the end of the day, he understood that Fen was only a bunch of data which made up the world, every action, sound, even smell wasn't real and yet he still couldn't convince himself that Fen hadn't emotions of his own.
He believed, that if the day came where he was in a very dangerous situation, that Fen would appear to save him, despite knowing that the game wouldn't allow such a thing.
"Alright, thanks bud, I'm good now," he said, as he petted Fen on the head, "Return to the land from whence you came, Cancel Summoning, Fen."
After composing himself enough to move on, he once again touched the little stone square, this time a small transparent blue status window appeared
[Open door (YES/NO)]
Dílis tapped the yes icon on the screen and after a moments delay, he heard a rumbling sound coming from behind him.
He turned around to see the rough interior of the cave descending, leaving a cloud of dust as it finished.
"Woah a secret entr..ko!...*cough*, *cough*, ah Jesus why does this game copy the worst parts of real life?"
After Dílis composed himself and managed to clear the dust from his eyes and cover his mouth, he made a small mental note to himself.
You see dust, you run.
After the dust had cleared, he peered inside the room. There was a long bookshelf carved into the walls of the room, filled with books of varying shapes and sizes.
The wall closest to the entrance had various bottles filled with mysterious liquids, lined up with nothing to identify their contents at all.
However, the thing that had caught his eye was the desk at the end of the room, not because of the desk itself, nothing that strange about a desk, after all, it was the skeleton hunched over, unmoving, that was more shocking.
Dílis had played enough video games to know that he should be ready for a fight, a skeleton wouldn't be such a big deal, but a higher levelled mob like a lich would provide him with an early death.
*shweeeenk*
Dílis drew his short sword in preparation for a possible confrontation, his weapon was nothing to be scoffed at, he had spent 10,000 gold,£100, to pay for it but he knew that it would be a wise investment because of everything he could do with it.
He started slowly approaching, eyes flitting about looking for traps, he was closer, five, no four more steps before he reached it.
three.
two.
*crunch*
Reflexively, Dílis swung his sword, decapitating the skeleton
*Bing*
[ [+10] Notoriety for desecrating a corpse, shame on you]
There were two types of recognition one could earn in Soulkin Online, Fame and Notoriety,
Fame made you become popular among NPC's and could gain you discounts and better reception no matter where you go.
Notoriety makes you hated by NPC's and has no positive effects whatsoever, needless to say, you do not want a lot of notoriety
"Wait, what?", he looked down to where the crunch he heard came from, to discover his foot on top of a couple shards of glass.
"Wait, so if I made that sound and the skeleton was really just a skeleton then that would mean..." looks of horror, shame and embarrassment all appeared on his face in quick succession as he hid his face in his hands.
"Dear god, I'd like to apologise and say that was my bad, but seriously what was with that notification "shame on you" it's not like I meant it."
He was trying to justify what he did, knowing full well that he was in the wrong.
"I would like to sincerely apologise Mr skelebro," realising he had not only desecrated his corpse but had now given him a stupid nickname he once again felt sorry and decided to check his name.
-Activate: Skill Name+Inspect
Inspect was a beginner level skill, one would gain after completing the tutorial, it allowed the user to inspect the status and name of other users if they showed hostility towards the player unless they have used an item or skill to hide their status, in which case nothing will show up.
This skill had no effect on Monsters of any kind.
Inspect can be used to find the basic features of items, weapons and armour, however, it is typically useless as what you can gain from using it could normally be perceived by the naked eye.
If one wished to know the stats or special abilities of an item or piece of equipment, one would need to buy a special scroll of appraisal, a skill commonly associated with monsters. However, due to the research conducted by Grand-Sage Razerk, humanity had gained the ability to use the monsters exclusive magic through the use of scrolls.
"It's not a great skill but it has it's uses I suppose," Dílis mumbled to himself as he used the skill on the skeleton.
*Bing*
[A skeleton]
"hmmmmmm I bet you think you're funny, don't ya game?"
He took a deep breath, alright he said as he started rubbing his hands together
-Activate: Skill Name+Inspect
As he yelled the last word, he stopped rubbing his hands and opened up his palms towards the Skeleton in front of him, like he was casting a spell.
*Bing*
[The skeleton of the Legendary Grand-Sage, respected and loved by all, also the man whose corpse you desecrated]
He stood there for a moment, stunned at what he had just read.
"Ah, in hindsight that makes sense, it is his lab and all, it would be weirder to find someone else in here wouldn't it?"
"I feel like, I've committed some terrible crimes here haven't I?" he winced at the thought of what he had done, being found out by the kingdom.
"I'll get back to you," he thought as he left the body of the now headless skeleton and decided to go to the books lined up along the wall.
"Let's see... what were you reading, eh?"
-Activate: Skill Name+Inspect
*Bing*
[It's a book, if you're curious what it's about, try, I don't know, reading it]
"Who...who came up with these responses? For some reason I really wanna punch them right now, fancy that", "truly an immersive game", "but jokes on you game, there's nothing written here."
*Bing*
[Flip it jackass]
Dílis flipped the book.
It was there, in black ink, the name.
He had lost this round.