Everlast Online

At this moment, Liz was looking through the options of hunting grounds to choose from. In context of the game this was an advisory for monster parts and areas to avoid for the NPCs, but for players it functioned as a guide for where to level up.

There were many options and warnings, even of ensuring not to cross the border into the neighbouring territory.

However, at this time some other things were occuring:

Firstly, Piper was currently taking her break at school. Of course she appears in lessons remotely using holographic technology and has no obligation to appear outside of lesson time, but she still spends time there when not needed in order to talk with her friends, she would spend time with them and walk to classes with them, all while not actually being there. Her lack of physical appearance in the school is really the only thing preventing bullying as there is no means to do so, besides verbal mockery. As in most schools, the biggest topic right now was ELO.

Many had already skipped school to play it, right now Piper and her friends were talking about it.

"I hear the graphics are so real it's almost like being in another world." One girl with blonde hair says, Jessica.

"Yeah, and the NPCs and enemies are so smart they're like real people. What about you Piper?" A black haired girl, Bailey, agrees with Jessica and turns to the other girl at the table.

"Yeah it seems pretty good." She says in response. If one were to not have prior knowledge it would be impossible to tell she was a hologram, her grey hair and black eyes looked so real it was impossible to tell, unless of course you tried to touch her.

"Is that all?" Jess laughed, Piper always had little to say, much too focused on her school work in her opinion. The other 2 laughed a little as Jess started; the 3 were extremely close, Piper and Bailey were not well off in terms of money and most people despised them for that. Even if Basilicus was designed to allow poorer students a chance it was still flooded with the underachieving rich who thought much too highly of themselves. As such finding others you could trust as a poor student was tough.

Bailey had 2 younger brothers and a single mother, they got by in the lower city but only barely. She studied incredibly hard in order to land an excellent job and help her family ascend in the ranks of society, much like Piper. It was this that allowed them to become friends; at first they were in a bitter rivalry for the top spot, both being exceedingly intelligent, until they learnt they were in almost the exact same situation with almost identical motives. With that they became close friends and often helped one another study.

Jess was a 'black sheep' among her family. An upper class girl from City-G who often rebelled against her parents desires, for example she didn't despise poor people as most rich-folk do; her siblings had once spat on Bailey when she visited Jess' house. Ultimately, Jess had a good character and bonded well with the other 2 girls; as a result the 3 of them were extremely close.

Jess, Piper and Bailey become close when Jess had asked for the assistance of the 2 despite being lower class than her. Jess didn't look down on them despite being from such a high ranked city, and so the 3 became close friends.

"Well, I suppose there is more." Piper said after she had stopped laughing, "My sister won a copy and has been able to get quite a bit of money from it."

"Really? How'd she manage that?" Bailey asked, both girls understanding Piper's family situation. 

"She won it in a conte-" Piper was interrupted by another group butting in.

"That whore probably fucked some game store manager." The boy's insult elicited a wave of laughter from their group. Jess stood up, an angry expression on her face, but before she could say anything Piper butted in:

"You would know a lot about being a whore, considering how your sister acts, wouldn't you, Mike?" Bailey Stifled her laugh as Jess chose not to. Mike's face went red in both anger and embarrassment but said nothing in response; ultimately an argument started between the 2 groups for quite a while, until the rich kids left defeated. All 3 had met and liked Elizabeth, having visited Piper's house since she could not really leave due to her condition, so became equally angry at hearing her disrespected. Though inside Piper was beyond furious while she kept her cool externally and Bailey, being quite introverted, didn't say much. Really it was Jess who acted the most angry due to her very expressive nature. Had this been Liz during her school years and someone said such a thing about Piper, her impulsivity would likely have caused a fight, but Piper and Liz were very different.

The moment she saw the group approaching, Piper activated the recording feature of her holographic transfer and only acted after they had spoken first. Even if the students were made up of pompous idiots, the staff were entirely neutral and solved disputes fairly without any bias, and even if there was bias it was usually towards the lower class students; the president, Miss Alexandria, made sure the school maintained everlasting righteousness.

The group left and the 3 girls continued their conversation.

"Anyway, my sister won a visor in a contest." Piper explained, "She really loves the game, says she's gotten a good class and skills."

"What's her class?" Bailey asked.

"She didn't say, hell she didn't even tell me the name of her character." Piper laughed remembering how excited her older sister was as she talked about ELO. She had talked for ages about the game but never said much about herself except she got really lucky with her skills and class.

"Well whatever." Jess says, "Though, you guys heard about that Smokey player. I think Golden Radiance posted about them on the forums and the dev team got involved."

Jess pulled out her phone and showed the page where the leader of Golden Radiance had posted about Smokey.

[My guild members have recently come into contact with the player Smokey and it was honestly quite unpleasant. Not only did she harass, follow and attack them, but she also used abilities that were only available at high levels in the beta. I was shocked to learn about them since what she did should only be possible at level 100, I don't even know how she got them. It's really sad to see how the gaming world has degraded to this. Honestly, be better]

There were a lot of comments about this statement, a lot of people calling Smokey a cheater or a hacker and a lot of people feeling bad for Golden Radiance. On the other hand, there were just as many people who called bullshit. Golden Radiance often did this and had made just as many enemies as they had fans, they would intimidate someone and when it didn't work out slander them..

There was a lot of discourse over it until Arthur Pendra himself intervened, responding directly to Golden Monarch's post and pinning the response:

[There is a lot of discourse right now about the current BEST player in ELO: Smokey. I'll jus clear all this up, there is absolutely no chance that she has cheated and the implication she has is ridiculous. Golden Radiance's guild members just got more than they could handle when they attacked her and are now choosing to complain here. Anyone who continues to say Smokey cheated or hacked the game will be banned from using the forums. Thank you, hope you enjoy Everlast Online - Arthur Pendra]

This shut down almost every response as people who continued to say she was cheating found their accounts ended up banned. Many people didn't like that Smokey was referred to as the best player either but those complaints went unnoticed as many just laughed at Golden Radiance being called out for their bullshit.

"Golden Radiance is just spouting more bullshit." Jess said, putting her phone away, "My douche of a brother has a friend who is a higher up in that guild and apparently it's full of people like them. Even the leader is a real asshole apparently." She was pointing at the still seething group of kids glaring at them, the ones who had just approached them.

Golden Radiance were notorious for bullying other players and using their influence as one of the mega-guilds to always get their way, within the gaming community a lot of people hated them, though just as many were desperate to join.

"It's a shame that they're lying about this." Piper said, the other 2 nodded, feeling bad for this Smokey lady, it reminded her of the nickname an older neighbour had for Liz and her before their parents abandoned them when they were young; perhaps that was why she was feeling a slight connection to 'Smokey'. Soon the break period ended and classes resumed.

Liz was now making her way to a hunting area, unaware of all the efforts Golden Radiance was making to force her to quit the game or submit to them.

She was presented with many options for how to get stronger, she didn't want an area that would be too easy as it wouldn't give her any decent levels. She chose an area with a decent rank and a high average mob level: [Swampy Jungle (D)], with an average mob level of 25-60.

Rank and average level worked independent of one another, though higher ranks often had higher level mobs it was not a rule.

Liz chose this option since many of the issues the swamp posed were easily solved by her undead: The enemies were mostly lizardmen who hunted using thermal vision, for which none of her undead possessed, her or the summons; second the lizardmen hunted in groups, as such when paired up with unfavourable environmental conditions players would struggle to hunt anything at all. (A/N: Realise it's not clear. Lizardmen hunt and track with thermal vision but are perfectly capable of seeing normally. Therefore, can't track Liz and her undead but can see them)

As it was, very few players entered the forest, not many could contend with such high levels and even fewer could handle the lizardmen themselves; so, it was only the overconfident players who entered the swamps.

Many players laughed as Liz entered, not having summoned her undead on the way; too busy mapping out the area.

"Another idiot gone to lose a level in the swamps."

"That kid won't last a day."

"It's funny that so many idiots are throwing their lives away, I'm glad ELO doesn't have level barriers."

Liz ignored their snide remarks, sneering at the fact she would easily be able to handle the field.

As soon as she was out of sight in the outskirts of the hunting field, Liz began summoning her entire army of undead.

Levelling up is going to be easy. Liz laughed to herself, The only hard part is getting my skills up.

She walked for a bit, gradually filling out a map by using the skill the second it went off cooldown. She had yet to find any monsters, a downside of them not being able to track her.

"This is going to take forever!" Liz yelled, "I wish I could just get them to map this place!"

Wait! Liz had an epiphany, Why can't I?

She had yet to try using the mapping skill through her summon so she didn't know if it would work or not. She immediately tried the skill, her warriors could not map the area but the hounds could. Liz began cheering frantically, levelling up had become that much easier. 

Liz found an area that was not submerged in water and sent her hound, with some warriors as extra 'muscle', out in order to scout. The rest of the skeletons remained behind to guard her as the map began filling up in her mind. Liz was laughing merrily as she sat on a rock, unlike her skeletons she was not wet as she hovered over the swamp water on her broom, she had become better at balancing on it so could stand up on it as it floated along.

"No better time than now." Liz said, pulling out the completely unused [Alchemy Kit] she had received. 

It matched the 3 items Liz had retrieved from the bandits for Mary: A cauldron with a built in heating function; scales to measure the necessary ingredients; and a mortar and pestle to properly grind up the items.

The kit also provided other tools, like a knife to cut up herbs. Liz was glad to have all this, unaware that lower grade kits had barely anything more than a cauldron.

So, with the help of her hands Liz began preparing potions. The materials for the basic MP and HP potions were incredibly common so Liz already had piles upon piles of them in her inventory, but she soon realised the difficulty of the task she was attempting.

More than a full day passed by within the game, lunch was approaching, Liz had filled up 34% of the [Swampy Jungle] map by having the hounds use the skill as soon as it went off cooldown. This was due to the small area of the field with it being low ranked and the skill levelling gradually up to level 5; despite all the other advancements, her map being so clear as top show many nests of Lizardmen, those being spawning points, Liz had only managed to make 1 successful potion:

[Poor MP Potion (F-)]

[Poorly produced MP potion made by <Smokey>. Recovers MP by a tiny amount. Almost inedible due to taste] (A/N: Not putting exact values since it would be too much of a hassle, sorry)

"What the fuck." Liz sighed, seeing the results of her latest attempt, writing notes in the little book she had seen and bought before leaving the city. This allowed her to more clearly understand the art of alchemy as she could order and review her notes. Liz's proficiency had risen to 6%, and yet she could barely make anything worthwhile. The only positive was her stock of ingredients was so large she could keep trying to produce more potions.

The time limit of her quest had been reduced by a day, and Liz had not made any progress. Of course she had not tried to kill any monsters, but her lack of progress was slightly annoying. She sighed, before stretching slightly.

"Kill anything that comes near or threatens me." Liz ordered the warriors, also ensuring the hounds' orders to keep mapping were present and finally converting 10 thousand more credits before logging out, leaving her with only 1141 gold.

Since she was not in a safe zone her body would remain in the world, open to attacks. Thankfully, as a summoner she had little to worry about, unfortunately the levels of her character and skills would not increase if she was not logged in, preventing summoners to AFK farm; still despite the danger it was lunch time.

Liz went and washed up, before sitting at the table.

"Hey." Liz said, smiling widely at Piper, "I've sent you some more money for us."

"Oh." Piper said, pulling out her phone only for her eyes to go wide, "DAMN! How the hell did you get 10,000 credits?"

Liz laughed slightly, as her younger sister pestered her. In 2 days she had gotten more than double what 2 months of work would have gotten her.

"This is amazing." Piper congratulated, standing up and hugging her older sister, "I'm so proud of you!"

"Pip!" Liz laughed, "You know I'm the older one right. I should be the one proud of you."

The pair laughed until they both returned to their seats.

"Now you just have to maintain this level of income and all our problems will be fixed." Piper joked, not expecting her to actually be able to keep up 10 thousand a day.

"Don't you worry about that. I'm practising alchemy and soon I'll be able to make even more money, daily, than I had been previously." Liz was entirely serious, before showering she had looked over the forums, frowning slightly at Golden Monarchs post, but seeing how important the community considered potion making. Potions were a vital resource and soon she would be making the big-bucks.

Piper didn't entirely believe her, Liz was often overly confident. Her impulsivity led her to do things that didn't always work out, even if she meant the best; but Piper hoped at the very least Liz would have fun with it. With lunch finished, Piper headed back to class and Liz back into ELO.

She awoke upon the stone she was on previously, not being in any way disturbed. She couldn't even see the corpse of a monster near her.

She looked at the map, being now 45% complete and decided she would keep trying on MP potions for a while; she also saw the time on her quest had gone down the exact amount of time she had been logged out, except it counted in Galdrash's time.

Her proficiency gradually rose until she could regularly create the [Poor MP potions], setting her now at 9% proficiency. Liz felt that the buff gained was slightly better than before and that she was close to being able to make [MP Potions]. Once she could regularly make those, she would be on easy street; there was a secondary tab, mostly unused, on the auction tab that allowed players to sell to other players. Very few people had used this and none were using it to sell potions.

Unlike other life-style crafts such as blacksmithing or tailoring, potion making had no real life equivalent. Medicine had stopped being made by humans in 2083 after an incident where 154 people died due to a mistake made by drug manufacturers. All drugs and medicine were produced by machines. People still studied medicine, but now that was purely theory, and Liz seriously doubted any of those people would be playing ELO as an alchemist. On the other hand, tailoring, cartography and even blacksmithing to some extent were enjoyed by people across the world for either competitions or just because they liked it; Potion making was not a craft people could just start and as such needed to buy recipes while other crafters could just make items based on what they already knew.

So, with her summoned hands she began going over all the information available to her, trying to push herself into 10% which Liz believed would allow her to make actual potions. Liz moved as an amateur would, even the commands she gave the hands were not the most ideal, but any apothecary around would be shocked at how quick she was improving.

Liz did not realise the advantages present to her: Her hands moved exactly as she wanted them to, even in ways a hand shouldn't be able to move, allowing her to complete 2 tasks at a time by using them as a second pair of hands. The alchemy kit was a C-rank item, meaning she already had more facilities than most other apothecaries are presented with as they begin the craft. Finally, the skill [Apothecary (C)] was a step up from the skill [Brewing (D)] which provides much less guidance and no additional recipes to learn from. Looking over her notes she finally thought she had finally discovered what she needed and put the plan into action.

She began changing how she did things, and right as black smoke began coming from cauldron Liz infused more mana and saw the results of her actions within the cauldron:

[Poor MP Potion (F-)]

[MP Potion (F)]

[MP potion made by <Smokey>. Recovers MP by a small amount. Very bitter an unappealing taste]

Inside the cauldron were 2 blue bottles of liquid, one she had expected and another she began to celebrate. She had done and with the action her proficiency rose to 10%; all that was left was to refine the process to consistently make actual [MP Potion]s, Liz was riding high. Especially as her [Puppet Hand] skill gained a level through this.

But now was not the time to refine; now was time to fight. With her 50% complete map, the skill resting nicely at level 8, Liz was ready to reach that level goal.

"Let's go gator huntin'." Liz said in a silly accent.