Trials of a VRMMO Healer

Chapter 8 - Sweet Child of Mines

The next day after dinner I logged on to EO, eager to see what Lily had come up with for me. I had stayed in an inn close to her shop, so I made my way over and asked the young man at the counter if she was in. A few minutes later Liger Lily emerged holding a hammer and presented it to me. It was a massive warhammer crafted from horn and steel. The head had been fashioned from the horn, though the shape had been refined and shaped. One side of the horn had been sharpened to a point while the other was flattened out. I was worried that it might feel unbalanced, but it was anything but. Splitcrag's horn was apparently extremely dense. Well, it was a fantasy world, after all. The hammer's name was 'Earthsinger' and while the stats were good; far better than my previous weapon, best of all were the effects.

[Light Focus: This weapon can be used as focus to cast Light Magic. Spells cast with this weapon are cast at 80% of their normal power.]

The penalty to my healing spells was disappointing, but what made it better was the next effect.

[Prayer of the Mountains:

When equipped: Every time you deal damage with this weapon, you gain a point of Mountainsong.

When activated: You gain a 50% boost to Light Magic cast with this weapon as long as Mountainsong is active. Activating this effect causes Mountainsong to begin draining.]

In other words, I could fight with the hammer and store up better healing, then activate it to drain healing charges when I needed them. The Mountainsong status only lasted 30 seconds, so if I stopped fighting, it would fade away. It was an effect made just for me. Actually, that was literally true.

"It's perfect. How did you get it like this?" I asked.

"Actually, I didn't have to do much to it. The effect was more or less on the horn already, I just had to tweak it and add the light magic focus effect. It could probably be upgraded, too, but it'd be tough to handle without some advanced skills and I didn't know what you had."

"Are advanced skills like complex skills?"

"Not exactly, they're what we call skills that evolve from simpler skills. Like how [Crushing] might become [Warhammer] or [Mace], depending."

"Ahh, but I thought [Crushing] just boosted my attack. Why not just require a certain level of that?"

"All the basic skills provide a straight up stat boost, but advanced skills can grant abilities. Better weapons are usually gated behind advanced skills, because they're more specialized, you know?"

"Makes sense," I said. I had no idea if I wanted to specialize in [Warhammer], anyway.

"So, are you ready to head out?"

I was confused. "Where are we going?"

"Hm, the Amaras Mines are probably the best place to get the materials we need. I could probably solo it but I don't feel like using up consumables and I'm pretty sure you don't want to pay extra to compensate me, right?"

"I guess not. Oh, is this for the armor?"

"You got it. Plus a little extra exp never hurt anyone, right? You said you came from Ourth... what were you doing over there, anyway?"

"It was my starting town."

"You're a newbie? Even better!"

We chatted as we made our way to Illium's south gate. Unlike Devlin and Kiira, Lily was quite forthcoming about her real life. She was younger than me, being in her mid 20s, but we both had boring day jobs and had gotten into EO as an escape. Lily's primary skills were crafting related, but she did have two other combat specialties. First, she had a crossbow and pick that could be used in a pinch, but her main skill was, well... When we'd exited the city, she held up a gem and a massive cat with tawny fur and brown stripes appeared — a liger.

"This is Paws. He's my friend, bodyguard, and I can ride him." I nodded nervously and climbed aboard as Paws took off like a rocket. I wondered if Paws could tire and Lily explained that he could, but since he wouldn't be much use in the Amaras Mines, it was fine to tire him out traveling there. It barely took an hour to reach the foothills where we'd find the Mines. Lily dismissed her pet and looked over at me. "Shall we?" she asked and bowed. I held Earthsinger and ventured inside.

One time, I had been inside an abandoned gold mine while on a field trip and I remember how oppressive it felt to be in that confined space, feeling like the weight of a mountain was pressing down on me. The Amaras Mines were much bigger, having been designed to accommodate multiple players exploring them, but the chill and the dark were far more intense than anything I had experienced in other games. At least I was smaller than in real life, which did make things less claustrophobic.

"Oh, we're not there yet," Lily said, spearing a bat-like monster, the third we had encountered, with her pick. "This area's mostly for new crafters. We're going much deeper."

The mines were a maze and I wondered how Lily was able to find her way around. It turned out she had a high [Mapping] skill, as well as [Dark Vision], so it wasn't nearly as nerve-wracking an experience for her. We made our way through the cave until finally we reached a downward slope that lead to a narrow passageway. I gasped as we passed through it. It was a glittering chasm, maybe 1000 ft deep and easily twice that wide. I couldn't even see the ends of it to either side. Luminescent water poured down from the inky blackness above and broke on crystals that jutted out from the walls. Clinging to these walls like spider webs were bridges of wood and rope, scaffolding that seemed to be at once ancient and in good repair. I turned to Lily, who just grinned at me.

"Welcome to the Deep Trove."