Interlude: Barracupid
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Barracupid - his real name is known as 'Jacques' - stormed into an enchanter's shop, shoving open the flimsy wooden doors. The owner of the shop, a level 13 {Enchantress} by the name Sami, looked up from her work, unperturbed by the interrupted. She watched with tired eyes as {Archer} stomped over to the counter.

"Sami!" he shouted, pulling his bow from his inventory and slamming it on to the stone countertop. "I need a [Create Arrow] enchantment."

"That's expensive. And you're flat broke," the Player replied bluntly.

"I'll expose your true identity to the world!" the {Archer} shrieked.

Sami rolled her - er, well, his - eyes. "Dude, it literally doesn't matter anymore. Turns out Shawn337 is a girl using her older brother's old account and we hooked up. Chicks dig it when guys use female characters, apparently."

"That-well-"

"Gimme coins or get outta my shop," the {Enchantress} said.

"Come oooon! I can pay you back after I kill that stupid hacker!"

Sami scowled. He'd heard talk of hackers for hours now; something about a weirdo messing with the code of an NPC and turning it sapient. It was so utterly stupid and ridiculous and he was tired of people talking about it!

"Go away when you scrounge up some legitimate currency," he growled, turning away from the other Player.

Barracupid huffed, snatching up his bow and re-equipping it. With another huff, this one really displaying his displeasure, he stormed out of the {Enchantress's} shop.


If Sami won't enchant my bow, the young Frenchman thought, I'll have to do it myself!

So Barracupid made his way toward a well-known NPC Trainer named Chen - why the NPC had a Chinese name when it had no distinctive Asian features, the {Archer} had no idea. What he did know was that the Players who went to Chen to train up skills came away with no complaint! From the stuff they said on the wiki, Chen would charge a few gold coins in exchange for its services.

Barracupid had managed to convince his mother to pay for some more gold with her precious credit card and now, his coin purse held a hefty sum of one-hundred-fifty gold! Plenty of money to get a [Enchanting] skill up to level 5 which, from what the wiki told him, let his character comprehend minor conjuring enchantments.

As the Player approached Chen's usual place of existence, he considered what he should do. A regular [Create Arrows] enchantment would last for about a year or so - in-game time, that is - and you can create up 10 arrows with 20 MP in a span of 30 seconds. That's one arrow for 2 MP every 3 seconds.

"Welcome, Player, to Chen the Expert Enchanting Trainer!" the NPC exclaimed, throwing out its arms as Barracupid neared its stall. "A level 1 [Enchanting] skill costs 10 gold! The cost increases by 10 for each level."

The boy grunted, pulling all one-hundred-fifty coins from his purse and throwing it the NPC. "Get me [Enchanting] level 5," he said, returning to his thoughts. The NPC didn't flinch when the money hit it; the smile never slid off of its face. It simply picked up the gold, stored it away, and went about teaching the Player [Enchanting].

As Barracupid idly stared at the NPC through his screen, he thought about what he was going to do. A [Minor Create Arrows] enchantment is way weaker than a normal one, though. The wiki said you can create up to 5 arrows with 50 MP in a span of 50 seconds. That's one arrow for 10 MP every 10 seconds. Weak! But it's all I can do, for now. I've got 15 MP right now thanks to my accessories. My Charisma is 6, so that's 6 MP regenerated every minute. That's-oh, I'm done.

"Your currency is not adequate to move on to a higher level," Chen said, stepping back into the stall. "Please receive more-"

Barracupid was already walking away, looking up the ingredients for a [Minor Create Arrow] enchantment. All that was required besides a [Enchanting] pen - which he had - was low-grade wood charcoal dust. He smirked, pleased with the ease he handled everything.

That hacker didn't know what was coming to him!

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