Modern Age Online

Kaleb remained anonymous, but let the system mention the Jack-Mage. He figured it could serve as a hint to others. Almost immediately the system generated message displayed in front of Kaleb and, he assumed, every player logged-in.

*System Message*

Congratulations to the following players who have discovered the first 10 secret Archetypes/Jobs/Classes. All of these are available to players who buck the norm and try to push the limits of Modern Age Online. Work hard and please enjoy the game.

1. DeathGuy–Job: Doranok

2. Anonymous–Class: Not Shared

3. Anonymous–Class: Einherjer

4. RollnHnys–Job: Breaker

5. Kuzan–Archetype: Not Shared

6. Daengche–Job: Not Shared

7. Twists–Job: Grand Unavlor

8. Anonymous–Archetype: Not Shared

9. Nast1–Class: Not Shared.

10. Anonymous–Archetype: Jack-Mage

Kaleb nodded at the list before he looked down to see Daivor still staring up at him. The small Gnome shook his head and walked off. Grumbling at Kaleb’s last words.

“Well, that’s ominous as hell.” Daivor grumbled before he moved back to his work, shouting over his shoulder. “Since you have finished with your epiphany, how about you rest your magic and complete your friends armor!”

Kaleb smiled, flushed with his recent discovery and his new Archetype. As he looked down at the Ifrit skin, he swore he could feel it pulse with power. It even seemed to glow, the red-orange skin bright and vibrant against his metal workbench. He could make out his two Imprintings on the bottom right of armor.

As he looked it over he realized: He only had a piece of of Enchanted Ifrit skin. He still needed a back piece, a gorget, pauldrons, and vambraces. He would use the gorget to connect the back and front piece of armor, then attach the pauldrons at the shoulders. Another question came to him and he turned to see Daivor finishing another Enchanting Glove.

“Will the Enchantments cover the whole armor once I add pieces to it?” Kaleb asked.

Daivor wiped sweat from his forehead and nodded. “Sure, you have to supply it with more Mana though. It shouldn’t cost more Mana than you used to Imprint though.”

Kaleb nodded and was about to head into the kitchen and get Daivor his small glass of water. But he stopped himself and checked his Mana. He was at around 20 MP, so instead he stuck his hand out and focused on his magic. A yellow glow shined from his palm and he heard a small clatter from his kitchen. Soon, the small purple plastic cup he had given Daivor came floating through the doorway.

Kaleb could feel himself getting tired as the cup slowly floated toward them. Kaleb mentally commanded the cup to fly faster, hoping to save MP. There was a sudden spike of pain in his head and the plastic cup smacked into his hand, sloshing a little water over the sides. He set the cup on the table as he put his cold metal hand to his forehead. It was like he had a sudden intense headache, but now the pain had dissipated.

Daivor chuckled at him as he moved over to the plastic cup and picked it up with both hands. After the Gnome had finished drinking he asked. “You use too much Magic or did you alter the spell too quickly?”

Kaleb checked his MP before answering. 5/100 MP. “I’m guessing the latter. I tried speeding up the spell halfway through.”

Daivor nodded understandingly. “Next time do a more gradual speed up. Instead of slowly increasing the Mana drain, you sapped all Mana needed all at once.”

Kaleb nodded as he went back to his work. He collected the cut pieces of the Ifrit skin he was working on. Unfortunately, it didn’t look like any of the pieces were big enough for his needs. So he went back to his living room collected a few more pieces. Once collected, he cut out a gorget and several more pieces for the pauldrons. Kaleb was about to connect and shape the pieces when Daivor stopped him.

“Remember to water treat it first.”

“Water treat?” Kaleb asked.

“Yeah. First soak it in cool or room temperature water for about 10 minutes. Next you soak it in hot water. Don’t soak it in hot water for too long though or the leather will become brittle. After a few minutes in the hot water, you take it out and shape it how you want. Then let it dry for several hours, Now the leather should shrink, but the Resizing Rune should fix that.” Daivor explained, taking another gulp of his water.

Kaleb tried to commit the Gnome’s steps to memory. “What does all this do?”

Daivor chuckled. “Hehe, it stiffens up the leather nicely. Ifrit leather is already tough on its own but the water soaking should give you a good boost.”

Sighing, Kaleb moved to his kitchen. He found two decent size pots and set about following Daivor’s instructions. The largest pieces were the back and chest pieces; both would barely fit in the pots he had prepared, but he got them soaked. He heat-soaked the leather pieces one at a time and shaped them carefully using his own forearms and chest as a base. Once everything was fully soaked, he opened his garage door and let everything dry out in the sun. Once he had finished, he received a nice little surprise for all his work.

*Congratulations*

Working with the skin of dead animals has granted you the Leatherworking skill. Good for you, you monster. Shoes, Sofas, Armor, or anything in between, the speed and skill in which you make things out leather shall grow to impressive heights.

Leatherworking–Beginner Lvl 1

You have an easier time crafting things from leather. Both speed and quality shall raise as your skill increases.

Chance for durability increase when crafting leather gear.

Leather crafting speed increased by 2%

Kaleb sighed as he watched the skin drying in his driveway. Next he had to complete something for Vivienne and Varlin. He had mentioned giving Varlin a Focus containing the heart of the Ifrit and all Vivienne needed was a wand. He moved back into his living room and found a few of the boxes labeled Bones. He was hoping he could use Ifrit bones to craft a wand and maybe wrap the handle with the skin or something else.

He grabbed the cooler that had the Ifrit’s heart and moved back into his lab. As he sat the cooler down near the table, he saw Daivor stiffen before the Gnome slowly turned toward him. Kaleb stared at the Gnome for a second before he set the rest of his load down.

“What’s up?” Kaleb asked.

“What do you plan on doing with the heart?” Daivor asked licking his lips and looking concerned.

Kaleb shrugged. “I wanted to see if I can use a piece as a Focus for Varlin. The Sorcerer guy from the other day.”

Daivor exhaled loudly, rubbing a hand from his forehead down to his beard. “Geez! Good, you had me worried you were jumping into Dark Magic or something.”

“Not today.” Kaleb laughed.

Daivor gave a half smile half grimace as he moved to the edge of the table and looked over at the cooler. “Bring it up, I’ll show you what to use. What are the bones for?”

“Vivienne’s wand. I think I can magically charge a piece of leather or something and wrap it around the bone.” Kaleb answered as he brought the heart out of the cooler and up to the table.

He grimaced in disgust as he held the black heart. It felt slimy and wrong although it didn’t feel wet from the ice in the cooler. Kaleb thought it felt like the Mad Witch Korrigan’s Focus he had once held. The heart was the size of his head and had massive purple veins coming out of it. As he stared at it he thought he could make out gold writing etched around the heart. But once he turned it to the light to get a better look they disappeared.

Daivor gave a grunt. “That’s smart. They sapped some of the Dark Magic off with those golden runes.”

“Should we be concerned with what they are doing with that Dark Magic?” Kaleb asked causing Daivor to freeze for a second in thought.

Eventually the Gnome shook his head. “I wouldn’t. If they are using it for an evil purpose than that’s a level of trouble you don’t need.”

Kaleb was about to ask more but Daivor clapped his tiny hands and continued. “Now! Let’s get in there. Get a knife and cut a long seam down the middle of the heart. Not too deep though.”

Kaleb went along with Daivor’s orders, finding a small pocket knife and cutting a seam in the heart. Once he had finished he turned to the Gnome.

“Now reach in there, you’ll feel something small, but hard. Yank it out! No reason to be gentle.”

Kaleb swallowed loudly before he tentatively reached a finger into the heart. A few centimeters in, he felt a hard rocky circular object. Hooking his finger around it he yanked as hard as he could. The object resisted for a bit, before it gave and he yanked it free. As he did, Kaleb swore he heard an echoing scream come from somewhere in the distance.

Kaleb quickly set the rocky ore like object down on the table. The heart felt slimy but the thing he had just pulled out was wrong. He knew it on an instinctual level; it was like the primal part of his brain had woken up and just KNEW this thing was evil. The feeling went away as soon as the object left his hand but Kaleb remained shaken. Fucking Game scared the shit out of him. Kaleb thought as he shook himself. Holding that small round object had been the first time the game had legitimately scared him.

Daivor backed up from the object before he looked up at Kaleb. “Don’t just stand there! Get the thing into some salt water and cover it with something silk.”

Kaleb didn’t bother to argue as he quickly went into the kitchen and grabbed a cup of water, some salt, and a piece of his front window curtain, which he hoped was silk. Once he had everything on his workbench, he poured the salt into the water. Once done he stared at the small inch-wide object, not wanting to touch it again. He glanced up at Daivor to see the Gnome shaking his head vigorously. Sighing, Kaleb took a deep breath before quickly grabbing the thing and dropping into the cup.

He gagged as he sat the silk piece of curtain over the cup. Daivor quickly moved forward and chanted as Kaleb covered his mouth and looked on. The silk cloth tightened around the edge of the cup and Kaleb could see the water bubble slowly as Daivor chanted. Once the Gnome was done Kaleb looked a question at Daivor.

“We need to purify it. That is pure dark magic. There should be more of them in the heart too. They are like magical polyps that accumulate in the heart. The older the magical creature the more polyps form.”

Kaleb nodded as he looked at the bubbling cup of salt water. “What does it do when it’s purified?”

Daivor smiled wide. “It becomes a Mana stone. They are good for holding or focusing magical power.”

Kaleb nodded before a thought came to him and he swallowed loudly. “Do I need to grab one for Vivienne too?”

Daivor rubbed his chin before he nodded, smiling wickedly. “You should probably get as many as you think you can. They are incredible useful and precious.”

Kaleb grimaced as he stared back at the heart.

5 stones, 5 cups, and several loud gagging sessions and Kaleb called it quits. He was in his kitchen trying to throw up, cursing the game mechanics for making him feel like this. Daivor was chanting his spell again on the cups Kaleb had aligned on the workbench. As he turned off his faucet Kaleb heard Daivor finish chanting.

“That’s some awesome willpower you have there, boss. You are a stubborn one all right.”

Kaleb swore he could hear the smile on the little bastard's face. He walked back into his lab and glanced at the 6 six cups lined up on the table. He shook his vision away from the cups and walked over to the box of Ifrit bones. Without looking at the Gnome or the Cups of Evil, Kaleb asked.

“How long till they are purified?”

Daivor chuckled this time. “Haha! They should be good to go in an hour or two. You going to work on the lady’s wand?”

“Yeah, hopefully I can shape one of these into something usable.”

“Shouldn’t be too hard. Ifrit bones are very dense, you could probably even use the metal lathe you have there to trim it down.” Daivor said.

“Won't that waste a lot of the bone?” Kaleb asked.

Daivor gave a half nod. “Yeah, but are you really hurting for material right now? If you want to save the material, you’ll have to crack a bone down to a manageable size then stick it in the lathe anyway.”

Kaleb didn’t want to waste any material if he didn’t have to so he took the long way. He found a long bit of bone that Daivor thought was the tibia. Luckily the Ifrit’s legs had been shorter than its arms. Kaleb clamped the bone onto a nearby table and did everything in his power to break it in half. Kicking, Punching, his rail shooter, all proved useless until he finally gave up and angrily took a sledgehammer to the bone. Even then it took several hits.

Once he had the bone split, he set it in the lathe and trimmed it down further. Eventually he had a foot long bone-white wand. The trickiest part had been creating a groove in the handle where Kaleb wanted to set the Mana Stone. But Kaleb managed it he felt that his Metalworking skill had somehow helped with his fine tuning but he couldn’t be sure. Kaleb turned to Daivor to see the Gnome back at work on another Enchantment glove.

Looking at the cups of salt water he saw that they were still bubbling. Assuming that meant they were still ‘purifying’ Kaleb gathered some smaller pieces of Ifrit leather and sat at on the garage floor, wrapping the handle of the wand. He sighed as he let his mind get lost in the work. Wrapping the handle didn’t take long, but Kaleb found it oddly relaxing. Unfortunately, his quiet relaxation was broken by the loud shattering of glass.

Looking up sharply Kaleb saw that Daivor was frantically chanting as one of the glass cups had shattered and the black Mana Stone was bubbling and shaking harshly on the table. Kaleb jumped up and ran over as Daivor was pushed back on the table by some unseen force.

“What the hell is happening?!” Kaleb shouted.

Daivor turned toward him face scrunched in magical effort. “Gragh! The damn thing is fighting back!”