Dodge Tank Page 2

  You have 1 friend(s) online

  You have 7 guild members online.

  Before I can even guess who the friend is, a private message pops up from Gilly and the software automatically translates it into her cutesy half-elf voice along with the text and emoticons.

  Gilly: Hey! About time you logging in. You hitting the mines? :P

  Gilly loves ending everything with an emoticon when she’s messaging. And it always brings a smile to my face imaging her making whatever silly face she includes. Although we’ve never met outside of the game, I actually consider Gilly my best friend. We joined our guild, The Nasgar Labor Union, at the same time six months ago. And we’ve leveled together ever since. It was rare to find another person who was interested only in mining.

  I did it because I had to, but Gilly? She just got a kick out of everything about it.

  I respond to her through a private message.

  Me: Yeah, I logged outside of Silvertooth last night.

  Gilly: Silvertooth!?? D: That’s a level 40 area. We’d get creamed in there if we run into anything!

  Me: Exactly why we should head there. Everyone knows about the silver rush and the Paxis Mines in the lowbie areas are going to be super overcrowded. But only high level miners will be in Silvertooth.

  Gilly: And what exactly makes us high level miners again? :P

  I laugh at her response.

  Me: Our mining skill is high enough to mine the silver nodes there. We just need to avoid the mobs.

  Then I link an item to the chat.

  Sneaking potion

  Makes the user undetectable by aggressive enemies. Wears off when an action is performed.

  Duration: 5 minutes

  It is rumored the mages of the Ivory Keep created this potion to sneak into dragon’s lairs…

  Me: I got two stacks of these bad boys. One for me, one for you.

  Gilly: No Way! Those things are mega expensive! O.O

  She was right, they cost about 50 credits each, but I got two stacks of 10 for 750 credits in the auction house last week. Prior preparation and taking advantage of discounts is the key to making money in this game.

  Me: If I can turn our four stacks of silver ore today, I’ll be in the money. Plus this high level mine has a higher chance for HQ ore drops.

  HQ stands for high quality. Smiths would use those to forge HQ weapons and armor and as such would pay almost five times the normal price for them.

  Gilly: Okay you’re on. But let me give you something for the potions. :D

  Me: Cool!

  I’m not in a position to refuse, so I don’t. But even if she hadn’t offered, I wouldn’t have asked. Gilly and I share and share alike like that.

  Gilly: I can’t fast travel there yet so I need to run there. Give me about 15 mins. ^_^/

  Me: okay!

  The game allows you to set a teleport point to areas you’ve already visited. For a credit fee you can warp there instantaneously thereafter. But you had to get there the old fashioned way first. I had set my spawn point here last night to cut down on time, but I probably should have sent Gilly a message to do the same. She logs on a couple hours earlier than me most days and logs out the same time sooner.

  I decide to pass the time by trying out one of the nodes inside the mine.

  I stretch my legs in a sprint that depletes my stamina bar steadily, but I’ve got a lot of stamina, so I can sprint for a pretty long time. I hit the mine entrance and the words Silvertooth Mines appears in my vision to denote my entering a new area.

  The mines remind me of the tunnels around my real life container house, although the tunnel walls are roughly hewn as compared to the perfectly bored and smooth tubes created by the Builders. I use my Prospect ability to reveal any nodes in the area just inside the mouth of the mine entrance and several yellow dots appear on my minimap. Unfortunately I don’t have an actual map of the area yet, so the dots are just floating there in space with no frame of reference.

  You dummy, I chastise myself. I really should have bought a map of the area first.

  I have half a mind to ask Gilly to pick one up in town before she heads to me, but I don’t want to slow her down any more. Besides we were just going to stick to the upper levels for today. And with how long I’ve been mining, I’ve developed a pretty decent sense of direction.

  I venture in a bit further and spot a silver node. My blood is already spiking with excitement as I ready my pickaxe and bring up the stats on the node.

  Silver Mining Node

  Durability: 20/20

  Success Chance: 35%

  Not bad. A roughly 1 in 3 chance of a successful hit. My extra experience points put into my mining skill has paid off. But I had a few more tricks up my sleeve to increase my odds. I use my miner class abilities Miner’s Favor and True Strike in that order.

  Miner’s Favor

  Double the effect of your next ability.

  Cost: 15 TP

  True Strike

  Spend TP to increase your success rate by 25%

  Cost: 10 TP

  My TP bar goes down to 30, but my Success Chance jumps to 85%

  Now we’re talking.

  I take a strike at the rock face with my pickaxe and my stamina deletes by 20%. But I hear a tinny ring as my pick axe bounces ineffectively off the surface with a flurry of sparks. What? I grumble at my bad luck. 85% chance and still a failure?

  But I hit the node again and feel the solid connect of a successful mining dig. It’s a pleasant ka-ching sound that gets my endorphins pumping. My strength and pickaxe damage combine to take a healthy chunk off the nodes durability bar.

  Nice. About three hits a node.

  I get it to the last hit and then activate another ability: Gambler’s boon.

  Gambler’s Boon

  Decrease success rate by half but increases the chance for multiple and rare drops.

  I spend my last 30 TP and see my success rate drop to 40%

  It’s a risky move but the payoff is worth it in my books.

  I go for the hit and get the painful ring of failure again.

  Darn it! With a failed last hit, the node disappears and I wind up empty handed.

  Just my rotten luck.

  But I get a big chunk of experience points from my failure and my exp bar jump from about a quarter to nearly halfway full. That’s another cool thing about Crystal Shards Online. Even if you fail it’s a good thing, because you get an EXP boost. I guess it’s the principle of learning from your mistakes or something.

  I have to wait for my TP to regenerate before I can go for another try, so I just wait at the same node until it re-spawns. When it does, I repeat the process but get a success first two hits this time. I then consider my next move. I could go for the third hit and collect an almost guaranteed silver ore.

  Or, I could double down and pull Gambler’s boon again.

  I weigh the options.

  If I play it safe I get something, but if I double down I’ll get a two ore drop, minimum. That would make up for my last failed attempt. Plus, what were the chances of me failing twice in a row?

  I hit Gambler’s Boon and go for it!

  I strike with my pickaxe and get the massive Ker-Ching! of a HQ ore strike!

  Woo-hoo!

  I get another big chunk of EXP and when I check my log for the drops I can’t believe my eyes.

  Critical Success!

  You find: a chuck of silver ore.

  You find: a chuck of silver ore.

  You find: a chuck of silver ore.

  You find: a chuck of HQ silver ore.

  You find: a treasure box.

  Wow! 3 ores, a HQ, plus a treasure box??? My heart is pounding with excitement. It feels like I’ve won the lottery. I don’t care what those other players say about mining. It can be darn exciting at times.

  I tap the treasure box to unlock it, hoping it’s something super rare inside. Something I could sell and maybe change my station in life right away. I cross my fing
ers as the item unlocks itself from the chest with a flurry of fanfare and exploding stars.

  You open a treasure box!

  You find: a copper coin.

  You find: a Scroll of Shadow Copy

  My hopes deflate like a balloon when I see the untradeable tag. That makes it even more worthless than the stupid copper coin. I couldn’t even sell it to an NPC. I know the scroll is something I can’t use but I click on it anyway just to see what it is.

  Scroll of Shadow Copy

  Teaches the Ninja ability Shadow Copy

  Level 12 Ninja Only

  Create a copy of yourself using shadow magic that absorbs your next hit.

  Cast Time: 1 Second

  Recast: 15 seconds

  Great… a free hit every 15 seconds? What a cheesy and useless low level skill. I’m just about to junk the thing for inventory space when the ground shakes beneath my feet. It feels like an earthquake. One that’s coming toward me at a high rate of speed. I turn to see a mountain troll running toward me while releasing a deafening roar.

  Mountain Troll

  Level: 40

  Highly territorial, Mountain trolls will attack intruders on sight. Although not very clever, they are savage warriors who can take large doses of punishment as well as dish it out.

  Affinity: Earth

  My blood turns to ice as the 12 foot tall monster charges me. Its ripped muscles jiggle beneath its gray skin as it runs and snarls. Its yellow tusks jut from its lower jaw like daggers and a huge stone club that’s bigger than I am swings in its meaty palms.

  The reptile part of my brain thinks I’m going to die even though I know it’s just a game and I freeze like the helpless prey I am.

  I attempt to shield myself with my pickaxe as the massive club slams down on top of me. My vision goes deep red with the force of the hit and while there is no pain, I get a massive vibration that denotes the impact.

  I have an out of body experience as I watch my avatar, clad in my mining gear collapse to the ground face down. And then two words hover over my vision.

  YOU DIED

  Chapter 3 Gilly

  I spend a half second sighing to myself for incurring such a stupid death. I watch the Mountain Troll passively stand on top my corpse for a moment before slowly returning to its preset patrol route. I should have figured a mid-level zone like this would have roaming aggressive mobs. I check the timer that has appeared at the side of my interface which is now counting down from 58 minutes 32 seconds. At zero I will automatically respawn at my home point. The only other thing I can do is hit the respawn button early.

  I can also just wait and look around the immediate area by panning my vision. The hope is that a healer will come along and be kind enough to give me a raise. Then I’ll only lose a little bit of experience. But when you respawn, you lose not only a big chunk of experience, but you then have to make your way back to your corpse to get all your items back.

  My chances of a random healing mage running by, however, is slim to none.

  I’m just about to hit the respawn button when a message comes through from Gilly.

  Gilly: Hey I’m at the mine entrance. Where are you??? D:

  I at least can chat back, but I decide to not waste time telling her all the details.

  She’ll know soon enough anyway.

  Me: I’ll be right there.

  I hit the respawn button and my vision fades to black. And then it’s like I’m logging in again. Except this time I’m buck naked expect for my avatar’s standard issue boxers. I check my exp bar and am chagrined to see that I lost almost half of what I had just earned. Another automatic message then pops up.

  You have respawned.

  You have 24 game hours to retrieve your corpse before your items become lootable to other players. Untradeable items will be lost!

  A game hour is about fifteen minutes in the real world. So that gives me eight hours before I basically lose everything. Good thing I set my respawn point to the Steppes of Andor, right outside the Silvertooth mines. I sprint back to the mine entrance and see Gilly waiting there, peeking into the darkness of the opening, perhaps expecting to see me come running out.

  Gilly’s avatar is as cute as her name.

  She’s a half-elf, which makes her about as tall as a human. About five foot four compared to my six foot two. She wears her raven hair short, which matches nicely with her olive complexion and shows off the slight point of her ears. Her wiry body has a wee bit of tone to it too, like a fitness model, but I rarely see her like that though. Most times her figure is hidden beneath a set of miner’s coveralls similar to my own. I notice she already has her miner’s helm on too.

  I give her character a quick examine.

  Name: Gilly

  Sex: Female

  Race: Half-elf

  Class: Miner

  Level: 8

  Guild: Nasgar Labor Union

  Level 8? She must have leveled up before I logged in this morning.

  As I approach her from behind I call out to her. “Yo.”

  Gilly turns and her deep green eyes go wide with surprise as she stares at my mostly naked body. She then burst out laughing, which is what I figured Gilly would do when she saw me. She has a great laugh too, deep and throaty and hearing it is almost worth me taking the death.

  She bends over at the waist still laughing. “What the heck happened to you? Did you die?”

  I sigh for dramatic effect. “Yup.”

  She places her hands on her hips and stares at me some more. “Oh well. At least I get to take in that hot bod of yours.”

  I blush a little, despite the fact that it’s Gilly talking here.

  “What killed you?”

  “A Level 40 mountain troll.”

  She jerks a thumb toward the mine. “You went in already?”

  I nod.

  “So the potions don’t work?”

  “I dunno. I wasn’t smart enough to use one.”

  She laughs again.

  “And they’re stuck on my corpse now, of course.”

  Gilly hefts her Pickaxe on her shoulder and grins. “Looks like we’ll have to sneak in the old fashioned way then. Let’s get you un-naked, partner.”

  Gilly takes the lead as we enter the mine. We form a party and I get to see her stats in the corner of my HUD, underneath my own.

  Gilly Level 8 Miner

  HP 92/92

  STAM: 130/130

  TP: 80/80

  It’s the sort of bare minimum information you need when you’re in a party fighting tough monsters. For us though, it’s mainly a convenient chat tool, since we’re both not planning to get into any combat here.

  As Gilly ventures ahead I get a close up look at her pickaxe resting atop her well defined deltoid. At the same time I can’t help ignore the sway of her hips even in the baggy miner’s gear.

  HQ Steel Pickaxe +3: +15 Mining +15 Vitality +25 TP

  Only the finest steel was used to forge this crème de la crème of mining tools.

  It’s a darn good pickaxe and I have to admit I’m a little jealous of the stats. I know it’s also one of Gilly’s most prized possessions. It’s a quest item she got by trading a hundred iron ore and a hundred chunks of coal to an NPC back at the miner’s guild. I helped her with the quest. But I couldn’t afford to do the quest myself, since I still need to sell most of my ore to pay for rent and stuff. I’ll get to doing it one day though.

  As we get close to where I had died, I touch Gilly on the shoulder. “Hold up. The troll roams past this part.”

  “Okay,” she says and we wait for the monster to show up.

  It doesn’t take too long. Within a couple of minutes the lumbering giant appears, dragging its club behind itself on the ground. It makes a lot of noise and I marvel at how I could have been so distracted not to have heard the clearly obvious warning mechanism the devs had programmed into the mob. As it gets closer we back down the tunnel the way we came, making sure to keep out of it
s agro range. You could never tell exactly how far that range actually was, but more than thirty feet was usually a good rule of thumb.

  We keep backing away until finally the troll stops. It looks around for a while and then it turns and continues back the way it came. Gilly and I immediately begin to follow it, again at a safe distance.

  “How much damage did it do?” Gilly asks.

  “Enough to kill me in one hit.”

  “Check and see. It’d be nice to know how many hitpoints we’d need to survive a hit or two in this area. They look pretty slow. And if we could survive an initial hit we could probably run away from them.”

  I pull up my detailed combat log. There are only two entries.

  The Mountain Troll hits you for 237 damage.

  You are defeated.

  I tell Gilly the outcome.

  She winces. “Eesh, these things hit mega hard. Guess we won’t be coming back here till we’re like level twenty or something.”

  I nod in agreement and keep a close eye on our distance to the troll. Finally I see it lumber past a small glowing tombstone with my character name hovering above it.

  “There you are, Reece!” Gilly announces pointing ahead. And then she turns back around to give me a sly grin. “Although I am going to miss my eye candy.”

  “Wait till it’s your turn,” I retort, but I still managed to blush a little under her lingering gaze.

  We wait for the troll to be well and out of sight before I rush forward and collect the gear from my tombstone. The contents come zipping up my HUD in a big wall of spam.