Once Alex and Nicolas issued the command, the old crinkled parchment seemed to age rapidly. Its corners curled in and decayed, the parchment turned from a pleasant coffee brown to a sickening gray.
As it decayed, it slowly blew away from a non-existent breeze that carried it into the great beyond, despite the enclosed nature of the forge.
Alex stared at the rotting remains of the precious item as they blew away to who-knows where. Alex immediately felt a sense of regret, it was true there would be better times to use it and now he no longer had the option, he was looking at it in a whole new light.
"Well, no point crying over it now" Alex thought.
As He was regretting his decision, a screen popped up, showing a map of what Alex assumed was the forest.
From the shape of what he had shown on his map, he was confused on the scale of the revealed section. The shape was irregular and it was hard to tell whether this was the true perimeter of the forest.
Thankfully, there was a marker on Alex's position, or the forge's, and from that, it was still hard to say. There was no scale, so Alex could only assume that it wasn't the full forest.
Alex peeked around the screen and asked Nicolas "Hey, what you're map look like?"
"Not so good" came Nicolas's annoyed reply "mine shows the mountain range, or at least part of it"
As Nicolas replied, a screen popped up Infront of Alex and, Alex assumed, Nicolas.
[the use of the item 'map of discoveries'
Due to two players in the party using the same item, the players are allowed to sacrifice the use of one, to enhance another
Do you wish to enhance]
"Should we?" Alex asked.
"Probably" Nicolas replied with a thoughtful tone "I mean, we either have one area to search and more immediate safety, or we could have two areas to search and less immediate safety, however we may have more secrets to find"
"True" Alex replied "immediate safety is the concern, so let's go with enhancing my map"
Nicolas nodded and pressed the air, where Alex assumed his screen was. After a little while, the screen in front of Alex changed.
[Player 'Nicolas' has chosen to sacrifice the effect of his item 'map of discoveries'
Due to this action, the effect of your item 'map of discoveries' has been amplified]
As Alex finished reading, the map display in front of him began to change. Though it was faint, Alex could hear the sound of a pen scratching on paper, it was a satisfying noise that reminded Ales of his school days. After some unpleasant thoughts came up, he quickly stopped that train of thought.
Focusing his attention on the map display, Alex saw that the map was being filled in, as if some invisible cartographer was sketching out the map as he watched.
After the map was done filling in, Alex took a look and began to examine it closer.
Once again, it was hard to tell how Much of the forest was covered, but Alex assumed it was a decent chunk.
The shape had changed, so it meant Alex at least knew that the forest didn't have the same shape as the shown area.
Alex began to wave his hands randomly and throw out random phrases until the map zoomed in.
"Are you having a bad trip?" Nicolas asked.
"Just figuring things out" Alex replied, slightly distractedly.
"Can you do that without looking like you ate too much glue as a child"
"Nope"
Ignoring Nicolas, Alex returned to the map, which had now zoomed in on a single clearing. While puzzling over how too zoom out, Alex took a closer look at the clearing.
There was nothing special about it, apart from the fact that it was oddly circular. Alex sighed and began the task of understanding how to zoom out.
After much infuriated flailing, Alex decided to give up for now and come back to it later, for now, he was more interested in the details of his class.
"Status"
[Player ID: Jack Aubrey
Player level: 1 (0/200)
Player class: Beast Forger
Str: 5
Dex: 5
Con: 5
Wis: 5
Int: 5
Cha: 5
Hp: 100
Mp: 100
Free stat points: 12
Skill paths: Basic beast forging (Novice) 0/100, Basic spatial magic (Novice) 0/100, Minor blessing of nature 0/100, Wendigo's skull 0/100, Wendigo's tribal tattoos 0/100, Minor divinity of crafting 0/100, The crafters dimensional key chain 0/100
Free skill points: 6
Equipment: The first beast forger's tool belt, Basic smithing attire, The crafter's dimensional Key chain, Wendigo's skull]
Alex looked at his status while pondering.
"Hey Nicolas"
"Yes" came Nicolas's disgruntled reply.
"Have you played this game before?"
"Yes, why do you ask?"
"Just wanted to know what you would recommend doing in terms of levels and skills?"
"Well you said you where a crafter, so I would say for now, put your stats equally in dex and con for now, with a little in strength, and upgrade your crafting related skills"
"Not to disregard your experience, but how will that help us survive the forest. I get the dex and con thing, but even if I was to make a good weapon, we will most likely try to avoid confrontation, so the weapon would nearly be a last resort, and I have much better options for last resorts" Alex reasoned.
"Well the reason is that you can get XP from crafting, and its proportional to how good the weapon is, so we want to level you up as fast as possible"
"Can't argue with that" Alex shrugged, while allocating his stats and skill points.
[Player ID: Jack Aubery
Player level: 1
Player class: Beast forger
Str: 8
Dex: 12
Con: 12
Wis: 6
Int: 6
Cha: 6
Hp: 240
Mp: 120
Free stat points: 0
Skill paths: Basic beast forging (Novice) 5/100, Basic spatial magic (Novice) 0/100, minor blessing of nature 0/100, Wendigo's skull 0/100, Wendigo's tribal tattoos 0/100, Minor divinity of crafting 1/100, The crafters dimensional key chain 0/100
Skills: Property change
Effects gained:
Basic Beast forging (Novice):
1/100: Con and Dex +1
2/100: Slightly More materials harvested per summon
3/100: Skill with hands becomes slightly better
4/100: Slightly More materials harvested per summon
5/100: Skill 'property change' is granted
Skill: property change (lv 1)
Cost: -
Effect: Allows the user to change the properties to what the user desires
At level 1 the skill is only able to change the basic properties of the material (example: Wood to metal)
The most basic necessity of the beast forger, without it, the task of making ego weapons would be an almost insurmountable feat if they did not have the luck of the gods.
"To make a masterpiece, the materials must be extravagant" Octavius the first beast forger
Minor divinity of crafting:
1/100: All stats +1
Skill points: 0
Equipment: The first beast forger's tool belt, Basic smithing attire, The crafters dimensional key chain, Wendigo's skull]
While looking at his status, Alex remembered the contents of his inventory and noticed a major flaw in Nicolas's plan.
"But I don't have any materials" Alex stated, plainly.
"You must have some" Nicolas said, with little concern "all crafting classes get at least some basic materials"
Alex checked through his storage again, and pulled out the low class summoning stone.
[Low class summoning stone
A stone that allows summoner classes to summon a contracted creature.
40% chance of an E-rank beast, 30% chance of a D-rank beast, 20% chance of a C-rank beast, 10% chance of a B-rank beast]
"How do you use this?" Alex asked Nicolas.
"I think you just crush it" Nicolas replied, puzzled "but why do you even have that? That's for summoner classes only"
"I chose a fusion Job to start" Alex replied, realizing too late that if Nicolas was part of the night or day faction, he had just made himself a target.
Nicolas stared at Alex before shrugging his shoulders and saying, "same"
Alex sighed with relief, but didn't let his guard down fully, he couldn't tell for sure if Nicolas was lying or not.
Telling himself not to worry about it till they where out of the forest, Alex crushed the fragile stone, and watched as the world around him melted into nothingness.
What replaced it was an empty void.
Simply nothing.
Then, in the void, a small flicker of light sprang into being, like a small beast, opening its eyes for the first time.
The small light flittered and meandered around the void, before coming to rest in front of Alex.
It hovered there, for a few seconds, as if it was greeting Alex. Then, the light began to dim, quickly at first, but slowing down when the last flickers of light were ebbing out.
A little flustered, Alex began to frantically reached out his hands, in a pathetic attempt to stop the light from dying.
Once his hands were around it, the light finally died. Alex looked expectantly at the place the light had died, waiting for something to happen.
Alex was met with a blinding flash of light, that sent him reeling back, clutching at his eyes.
After writhing about on the floor for a minute, Alex opened his eyes to the stunning scene around him.
The void, that was moments ago barren and lifeless, was now alight with vibrant colours. It was if a God had personally painted the scene before him.
Through the dazzling colours, Alex saw countless beads of light, pulsing faintly in the wash of colours.
As they stood in their chaotic pattern, one bead of light broke away form the pattern and began to dance a rhythmic, formless, and seemingly directionless Waltz.
As the small bead of light pranced its way across the void, other beads of light, of all different sizes, began to follow suite. Just one at first, then more joined, gradually, until the entire void was filled with dancing beads.
It was like they had all joined in on some great ball.
Eventually they all came together to form a massive egg shaped construct.
The egg was about the size of a chihuahua, and glowed so brightly that Alex could not look at it directly. As the egg hovered in mid air, massive cracks raced along the egg, spewing a rancid purple ooze, covering the invisible platform Alex was standing on.
Hurrying backwards as quickly as he could as to not step in the purple gunk, Alex watched as the the egg cracked, more and more, spilling more and more purple sludge, until the egg shell finally gave in and fell into the sludge.
The ooze was now smoking and giving of, what Alex could only assume, was toxic vapour.
The ooze eventually stopped spreading and began to retract, forming a massive pile.
Twisting and convulsing, the pile began to mold its shape, forming a long slender body with no legs, an intimidating, speak and aerodynamic head with curved horns behind its head, giving the illusion of a crown, and two curved fangs that stuck out of its mouth like two sabers.
The ooze slowly dripped off of the creature's magnificent figure, revealing a magnificent, patterned, purple and black, scaled exterior.
Slowly the creature opened its cold and unfeeling
"Are you the one who summoned me?" The creature asked in a soft, yet threatening tone.
"Ah... Well, you see.. I... Uh" Alex stuttered and stammered, unnerved greatly under The glare of the gigantic snake.
While struggling to find the right words, a notification popped up in front of Alex.
[Congratulations player 'Jack Aubrey' for summoning the C class monster 'Venomous void snake'.
Beginning dismantlement phase.
Int is not high enough, less materials will be harvested.
Wis is not high enough, less materials will be harvested.
Basic beast forging is not high enough, less materials will be harvested
3...
2...
1...]
As Alex stood helplessly by, the snake began to emit a brilliant white light.
The beast only managed to shout "what have you done to me!?" Before it burst into a thousands of pieces.
Alex stood, dumbstruck, for a good minute, before he finally recovered. He looked at the place where the serpent had once stood, what remained in its place was a pile of neatly chopped bones and muscles.
Alex reeled back in disgust at the sight of the gore, then he immediately began to look at the pile with interest.
Not only was there bones and muscle but also bottled blood, and what Alex assumed where blood vessels. There where even some unidentified organs that Alex couldn't recall from his biology class, granted he had never been the best at biology, but even he was sure these organs came from no creature on earth.
The centerpiece of the mound of gore was a massive snake skull, Alex was sure that it could quit comfortable fit on his head if he was not wearing a deer skull.
As Alex was going over the contents of the now, presumedly, dead snake, Alex heard a high pitched squeeky voice come from behind him.
"Tell me what you have done to me human or your death shall not be painless"