Return to Jorgaldur Volume I: the battle mage

Beginner's area (II)

While he was wondering what he could do about the lack of weapons, he noticed a line above his parameters: Eldi Hnefa.

He felt extremely embarrassed by his name ingame, a name that, at that time, had looked cool and that meant Fist of Fire in a language that he didn't remember. Now it was embarrassing, but at the same time nostalgic, especially the first part. Gjaki and Goldmi called him Eldi. And Melia. He sighed, he could not stop thinking about her, not anymore, and he was afraid that his expectations could be far from reality. He did not even know if she was real, if she was alive, if he could find her or if she would feel something for him.

Eldi decided to focus his efforts on the immediate problems, and put aside those that were out of reach for the time being. The memory of Gjaki reminded him of something that she had told them, about weapons hidden in the beginner's area that most players didn't know existed, including him.

Gjaki had read all the forums, guides and tricks at her fingertips, and this was one of them. And although then they were already unable to use it, Gjaki liked to show off her knowledge of the game, and she had explained that they were hidden in small caves hidden by bushes. And she also had told about being weapons that adapted their level to the player, but only until 10.

Eldi looked around, but the tall vegetation hid any track, so he had no choice but to methodically explore the stone walls. Maybe they didn't exist, but it was worth trying.

He spent at least a couple of hours until he found them all. Surely he wouldn't use many of those weapons, but he preferred not to take anything for granted.

He had been healing his scratches every time his mana recovered completely, also increasing his compatibility with the spell, which had already reached 5. Now it was a little more powerful and cost a little less. One unit of mana less, to be precise.

He went back to the square, from where could be seen the paths that he had opened with the sharp axe with which he could cut the vegetation easily. And, once there, he decided to try the three skills available, one for each of his main weapons: hammer, spear and battle axe, all of them two-handed.

Unlike the level, the compatibility with weapons, spells and abilities had been kept as ingame, and it was 10 for those three weapons, for those three abilities, and for the fire spell, which showed that their use in the game had gone beyond the initial levels.

He approached one of the dummies, clearing the path and the surroundings, and wielded the two-handed axe, his favorite weapon. Unlike the level 100 spear he had tried before, he could use it easily, as if he had always done.

The first thing he did was strongly hitting the dummy, creating a small notch. Then, he used Double Edge, not only getting to hit it stronger, but intuitively turning the axe with great speed and giving a new blow with the other blade, and feeling the slight fatigue caused by the skill.

He did the same with the hammer, sinking the dummy's head when using Devastating Blow. And with the spear, finishing destroying it when using Perforating Impact. Then, he waited a minute in front of the dummy's remains, thinking how ridiculous those skill names were.

"It doesn't seem to regenerate," he told himself.

In the game, the training dummies regenerated after being wiped, but it wasn't working. Maybe magic no longer worked in those ruins, or maybe reality, if it could be called that, was different from the game. So he went back to the square to do another test, while checking that he was halfway through level 2 and that his parameters had risen slightly. That surprised him, because in the game they only improved when reaching a new level, so he had no choice but to accept that his knowledge about the game may not correspond exactly with that reality.

Back in the square, he wielded a mace, a weapon that was not suitable for his profession, so he could afford to lose it. With care, he cast the fire spell and a flame enveloped the head of the mace. Before ending its effect, he put his hand to the flame and touched it, without suffering any damage, neither he nor the mace.

Curious, he picked up some stems that he had cut, the driest ones he found, and he repeated the procedure, taking the mace to the cut herbs and burning them. The flame of the stems could burn him, but not the one from the mace.

He then decided to make another experiment, and after clearing the area around and behind another of the dummies, he pulled out the bow and arrows he had found in one of the caves. It was not a weapon with which he had compatibility, so he could only raise it to 5 if everything was still like ingame, but he thought necessary to have a long-range weapon.

It must be said that he missed many shots while his compatibility was raising to level 2 and his aim was improving, wasting a lot of time picking up the arrows again and again. As expected, he couldn't improve it beyond 2 using the dummy, that was the limit of these in the game, Then, he tried an arrow imbued in fire with an acceptable outcome: the arrow wrapped in flames hit the dummy, but it didn't catch on fire. He hoped it would be more effective in other objectives.

"Oh, I have leveled up."

His stats had improved a bit, but more than improving when he leveled up, it seemed that the improvement was continuous. He thought that if that virtual screen that he was seeing in his mind showed decimals, he would see them increase little by little. The best news was that he had unlocked a blessing and a skill that increase speed. They were Steel Body and Rabbit Spirit.

"Seriously, what's up with those names?"

He could see in his parameters how the blessing increased his defense by 20%, while the skill improved his agility and speed by 50%, as well as he needed his healing spell again after using his new speed recklessly in a too damaged square. It had been too tempting for someone who had spent his last years with very limited mobility.

And once he had tested his new skill and blessing, he decided to squeeze the dummies to their fullest while still familiarizing himself with his limited arsenal to a new-old world. He knew that he could level up to 3 using them, although it was very slow and nobody considered it worthwhile, since it was much easier, faster and fun to go out for leveling. However, he was supposedly no longer in a game, and he wanted to be as prepared as possible.

Therefore, he decided to increase his level as much as he could, as far as any dummy remained standing. He also wanted to increase the compatibility of all weapons to level 2, no matter they would be worthless for him. Just in case.

Then, he would have to seriously think about crossing the portal, because he neither wanted nor could stay in the safety of that place forever.