Hemirtal, Draft 01, CH 08 (Patreon)

“Anton!” James yelled as the farmer became visible on exiting the wheat field. The man was still standing by the house, hands on his hoe. Hadn’t the programmers given him a life?

The farmer turned and waved. “Welcome back, William!” He disappeared into the house and was back by the time James reached it, holding a few loaves of bread. “I can’t tell you how grateful I am you brought Ferdinan back.” He offered the bread. “Take this, it isn’t much, but it’ll help you on your journey.”

The red tab for the quest log flashed as he took the bread. He placed it in his inventory then unhook the sword off his belt and offered it to Anton. “Thank you for lending it to me. It saved my life.”

Anton seemed surprised to see the sword again and hesitated in reaching for it. Was that a sign James could persuade the farmer to let him keep it? And James surprised himself in hesitating to try. This was a game, Anton and the swords were there for him to practice his skill. He should just take it.

“Thank you,” Anton replied, taking the sword and holding it reverently.

“I’m wondering if,” James began and a flicker of worry crossed Anton’s face, “you can tell me what these are for,” he continued, seamlessly switching direction and taking a handful of Gremlin twines out of his inventory. Anton tried to contain his relief, and James found himself admiring the work.

The facial expression, the body language. As much as Anton hadn’t seemed real in their first encounter, or even as he returned with the bull, when it came to the sword, someone had gone in deep to convey the attachment.

Anton looked at them, then shook his head. “I don’t know. A crafter would be in a better position to answer that question. There are a few of them in town.” He motioned to the raising lines of smoke.

James glanced at them and nodded. “How far is the town?”

“About an hour using the road,” Anton replied.

“That would imply there’s another way of reaching it.”

“There are hunting paths through the woods if you want to come into town with something to trade. Those will take longer, even if you don’t take the time to hunt.”

James looked at the sword again and Anton tightened his hold on it. “I’m not exactly the hunter type, thanks for the quest, and I hope Ferdinan doesn’t run off again.” He turned and walked back to the road. “Come on Barkley,” he called, looking over his shoulder. Anton was going back into the house, leaving Ferdinan unattended. The bull, for itself, sniffled the ground and walked toward a patch of orange flowers.

“You know,” he told the wolf as it fell into step, “I’m really not comfortable with how I acted back there. Why did I hesitate in taking advantage of an NPC in a game with a system designed for me to take advantage of them.”

Barkley sneezed and trotted off to go smell a small tree.

James opened the quest log.

Quest Completed: Ferdinan is off smelling flowers.

Reward: 3 loaves of bread. 1 Fame, Anton the Farmer’s gratitude.

Quest Update: It’s time to get social

Get to know the people of Shimmerland, 1 out of 5

Help the people of Shimmerland, 1 out of 5

Rewards: Unknown, +1 level in Persuasion

He brought up the setting for the log and adjusted the window to open only in the bottom right corner when a quest was completed or updated, showing no details. That would let him know what he needed to look at. That was one of his complaints about many of the games he played. He ended up with so many quests that keeping track of which one was active wasn’t easy, or who he needed to go talk to for the next step in it. He did the same for his skill levels. Knowing where he was at skill-wise was a good idea.

He looked at the bread.

Fresh bread

Fresh bread is a food baked from flour, yeast, and water. It heals 20 hit-points, and gives a 2 minute Regain Stamina Buff.

Regain Stamina.
The Regain Stamina buff doubled the stamina regeneration for the duration of the buff.

Twenty hit-points was significant right now, but James suspected that in the long run, or for players with a high constitution, the stamina regeneration would be the appeal.

Barkley returned and whined, a yellow ‘hungry’ tag over its head.

“You need to rank up your killing skill,” James said with a chuckle, giving him one of the gremlin meat. “If you can even do that.”

That reminded him he wanted to look into a few things. He brought up the help file, resized it to only take half his field of vision, then the transparency so he could still see the surroundings as he read.

Buying skill points.

Skills can be raised by spending Fame. The cost is based on the current skill level and is calculated such: (Level + 5) X 1.5. The cost for purchasing a new skill is dependent on its rarity.

James whistled.

“They really don’t want us to spend points on that, do they?” he told Barkley, only to realize the wolf had wandered off again. “Alright, where have you gone to now, Barkley?”

An arrow flashed over the long grass a hundred yards away.

“That’s useful.” James brought up Barkley’s interface and located the find command. If he accumulated more than one companion he’d have to test how finding each one worked.

He returned to his research.

Raising Attributes.

Raising attributes can be done in three ways. Activities, purchasing points, quest rewards.

Raising attributes through activities

Every action that depends on an attribute contributes to raising it in a small way. To know which attribute an action will raise, look at the associated attribute to the skill used. Some activities, such as lifting weights, only serve to raise an attribute.

Raising attributes through purchasing points.

Attributes can be raised by using Fame to purchase their increase. The cost is calculated such: the next attribute level X 5

James didn’t bother with the quest entry since he already knew what it would say. Buying his increases to one, or two would make sense, and at ten Fame, it wasn’t overly expensive unless quests were rare, but after that? Unless there was a way to buy Fame, doing it through activities would be the best way, just like with skills.

Buying Fame.

At this time Hemirtal doesn’t allow real-world money to be used for in-game purchases.

So that’s a no. James looked for someplace to make notes. He wanted to list the order he wanted to do things in.

Taking notes.

You need to buy a book to take notes in.

Of course.

He read through the skill as he walked, making mental notes of which would be of use to him. Leadership was another social skill and it added to his Persuasion. So he’d have to figure out how to gain it or buy it when he had enough Fame. Combat-wise, he’d stick to the bow, one-handed sword, and shields. He didn’t plan on being combat-heavy in his two days here, but the gremlins were a reminder that as with most games, fighting was at the core.

Welcome to Shimmerland.

You have crossed the border of the town of Shimmerland. You are now in a safe zone. There are no monsters within the border of a town. Player versus Player combat comes with a penalty of bad interaction buffs with the town’s residents unless it occurs in an approved arena. Shimmerland does not have a combat arena. Killing another player comes with the penalty of immediate expulsion for a minimum of 30 days. The duration can be altered by the town controller. Non-violent player versus player interactions come with a variety of penalties but are dependent on being caught in the act by the militia or the other player.

You can set your spawn point to the town by going to the town center and activating it there, or by buying a home, or long-term leasing a room. If you do not renew a lease, your spawn point will reset to your last point.

James was mildly annoyed the window had popped up to take his entire field of view, but it ensured he didn’t miss it. The information was useful. So long as he was inside the town’s border nothing could happen to him without someone paying for it. Pickpockets were a thing, so he’d have to watch his inventory, and watch himself once he got the skill, but he could deal with losing an item or two. Setting his spawn point to the town was his first order of business.

He dismissed the window and resumed walking.

A whine behind him made him stop. Barkley was pawing at the ground, looking at James plaintively.

“Come on, Barkley, we have a town to reach.” The wolf stepped forward, hesitate, stepped again, and slowly reached James, whining the entire time. James crouched and rubbed the wolf’s side. “What’s wrong, Barkley?”

Towns and Wild Animals.

Wild Animals are considered monsters, and therefore, stay away from towns and larger settlements. Companion wild animals are not immune to the compulsion to stay away but can be compelled to enter. Town militia will not attack a wild animal companion.

“I guess you don’t want to come,” James said, noting the returning hungry tag and giving the wolf another piece of gremlin meat. He could force the wolf, but how miserable would it be?

“You’re just another NPC, why does it matter that you look like it hurts you to be here?” Barkley looked up from its meal and licked its lips. James sighed. “Okay, get out of here. Go back to hunting rabbits and try to catch them this time. I’m not going to be around to feed you.”

Do you want to release the companion: Barkley

Yes/no?

He hesitated. “Yes.”

Companion: Barkley, has been released from your control

The wolf took off running in the opposite direction and James stood, watching until he could no longer see Barkley. He turned to head toward the now visible buildings stopped after a few steps as a howl sounded in the distance.

“Missing you too, Barkley.”

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