Chapter 4: The Crappy Wand
One of the reasons why Simon chose Dane to be his host was that he was staying in Riveredge town. It was a very peaceful place, with almost no crime. The town did not even have a mercenary group. But it was not always like this. Thousands of years ago, Riveredge town was actually a military settlement tasked with overseeing the development of the war with the Darkness Faction, a group of extremist magicians that thought they should lord over everyone else.
It was at this period of time that the great wizard Elliot came into the spotlight. He reached heights that few ever had. Unfortunately, after 5 years of indirect combat between him and the leader of the Darkness Faction, they met face to face. It is said that the battle lasted for over a day, in which the landscape was ravaged.
Finally, Elliot managed to defeat his opponent, but at a heavy price. He knew it would not be long before he died too, so he decided to bury himself and the headquarters of the Darkness Faction under a new formed mountain. It is considered one of the 13 sacred places of Zeryann, but no one has ever found it. Inside of it are the riches and inheritances of both the Darkness Faction and the legendary magician Elliot, and it's value is no joke.
Of course, Dane knew exactly the location of the entrance and the way to access the treasures, but it was an impossible task for him to try it. The area known as the Forgotten Tomb was a little bit too much. It was a level 150 area in the game, and there was a reason. The items, artefacts and knowledge left by those legendary magicians were too valuable. If a level 1 player managed to get that inheritance, it would be enough to rival level 50 players, and that is a little bit too much. That was the reason why all the monsters in the area were at least level 120.
Riveredge town was one of the noob towns of the game. It was meant to be the starting point for players aspiring to play the magician class. Once, by a strike of good luck, a level 13 player encountered the entrance of the ruins. He was killed almost immediately. He then gathered all players he could find to try and raid that area. The result was a beautiful scene where over 5,000 players died in less than 5 minutes. That was the level of difficulty.
Dane, after leaving the inn, walked around for 15 minutes before reaching the town exit. There was only one guard wearing leather armour. The entrance to the Forgotten Tomb was on the east side of the mountain. One had to enter a cave that was formed like a maze. At the exit of the maze, was the entrance to the inheritance area. After going through the map of the area from when he created the game, he immediately left the town.
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After 3 hours of hiking, Dane reached a very well-hidden part of the mountain. There were no signs of human activity whatsoever, and even the animals looked like they were avoiding this place. After taking a look around him and confirming he was in the right place, he took out a scroll from his ring.
The scroll looked like it was an antique and was exuding a very special air. If a regular person ever saw it, he would feel extremely uncomfortable. The pressure, though, seemed to not affect Dane. He just unfolded the scroll and moved his mana into it.
"Randwen, on the name of Jadar, ruler of the thunder tower, I command you to come to my location immediately. If possible, bring with you three elementary spellbooks." As soon as he finished saying that, he stopped his mana flow and the scroll began glowing in a greenish light. A few seconds later, the scroll disappeared and a green lightning bolt was sent flying towards the north.
Dane then sat on the ground. He was looking rather pale and was sweating profusely. 50 points of mana were really not enough. He had 200 Quest points, enough to upgrade his stats to match a level 20, but he chose not to do it.
"Using a rank 6 scroll while being level 1 is surely a difficult thing." Dane said while he sighed. He waited to be over here to call Randwen because he did not want the magic undulations to be sensed by others. That was he took the risk of venturing to the mountain.
Even though he remembered that he could at the very least escape from every monster in this area, he still felt useless. After being the most powerful person in this world, he was now reduced to a regular young man. The only means to defend himself was a dagger. As he was thinking of this, he decided he needed to speed up some of his plans.
"System, how many inventory points do I currently have?"
[Beep! Responding to player, you have 1,730 inventory points. You can choose to convert Quest Points to inventory points in a 1:10 ratio. If you convert all of your quest points, you will have 3,730 inventory points available. Do you wish to convert?]
"What is the ratio for stat points and experience points exchange?"
[The ratio for stat points is a 1:1 ratio. It is not possible to exchange quest points for experience points.]
"Damn, you always have to make my life miserable…"
Dane's plan was very simple. He was going to obtain resources by relying on Randwen and then make a trip to the Thunder Tower. There, he could start learning spells using the tower's library. Even though all items were converted to materials, it was very possible that it only referred to crafted materials such as scrolls, equipment, weapons, enchanted items and the like. The basic items like gold, mithril, and spellbooks were likely to be kept on their current form, so he could start from scratch.
Zeryann's magic learning mechanics were very simple. Since the game was a virtual reality, your thoughts could be read. So, by thinking of a very specific spell model the spell got activated. Of course, gathering energy was also part of the process, but it was done almost automatically. Dane had learned a lot of spells while playing and developing the game, it was his favourite part. To his despair, he realized that all his knowledge of spell models had been wiped out, presumably by that idiotic god.
But now, since he needed to have at least a small amount of power, he was bent on starting to learn magic right now, even if that would alter his future path.
"System, open the inventory exchange window, I want to buy something."
[System inventory opened, please select a category. Books, weapons, armours, materials, minerals…]
"Shut up, just show me the wands available."
[Category: Magic Catalysts.
Fire Staff of the Dragon God – 500,000 points.
Thundercloud Wand – 500,000 points.
Wand of the Black Snake – 500,000 points.
Grimoire of …]
The system just showed basically every item that was programmed into the game, even if it was only mentioned in lore. As such, there were a lot of overpowered items in the inventory. Dane just kept staring at the list with both eyes and mouth wide opened. After mumbling some more profanities, he finally talked again.
"System, limit the results to uncommon and rare qualities. Also, the wand should have a casting time and power bonus."
[Parameters adjusted. Three items fit the criteria.
Black Sparrow Wand (rare) – 300 points. The wand was created by a deceased necromancer, its power still has lingering senses of its victims.
Black Magic casting time reduced by 10%.
Black Magic power increased by 20%.
Stored spell: Summon Lesser Undead (can be cast 5 times a day.)
Elder Cherry Wand (uncommon) – 750 points. A wand made by a perfectionist. It is highly versatile and adaptable.
Casting time reduced by 20%.
Power increased by 20%.
Darwin's First Wand (common) – 1,500 points. This wand, although it seems unremarkable, has an almost infinite potential for evolution.
Casting Time reduced by 5%.
Power Increased by 5%.
Mana requirement reduced by 5%.
Stored Spell – Rank 0 spell – Spark.]
"1,500… System, why is the third wand so expensive if its effects are far worse than the others?" Dane already had a thought in mind, but he nonetheless needed to confirm it.
[Darwin's First Wand is the wand the Legendary Magician Darwin first crafted. It is made from extremely rare and valuable materials, including a transcendent quality core. The price is calculated by the raw materials. If sold separately, the price would be around 70,000 points. Its value is lowered so much because of the bad craftsmanship, bad effects, bad design, and bad compatibility with the average magician.]
Dane stopped listening after hearing about the transcendent core. Not all wands had cores, but the really good ones always did. A core is the solidification of a magician's insights in spellcasting, so the higher the rank of the magician, the better the wand. Dane was just thinking of what he could do with this new wand once he got it but felt cold all over his body once he heard about the bad compatibility.
"System, why does it have a bad compatibility with magicians?"
[The wand is crafted in such a terrible way that the materials used conflict with each other. Even though the cast time would usually be reduced by 5%, this wand would instead increase the casting time by 50%. Of course, the exception is the stored spell.]
"So that's how it is… I was starting to wonder if it was a problem with the core. That would be such a disaster…"
[Player has nothing to worry about. The core is of the transcendent quality and has a mana storage function. Also, it is a neutral core, so the quality is almost perfect.]
"WHAAT? Neutral?" Dane was surprised at this remark. Wand cores usually are of the same elemental affinity as its creator, that is why a neutral core is so rare. Even at his best moment, Simon only managed to craft a semi-neutral core, and it too was transcendent. A magicians magic control played a very big part in this, so there was no helping. Dane had no doubt that this Darwin was, although a crappy wandcrafter, a prodigious magician. "Buy, now. Darwin's First Wand. Buy. NOW!"
[Beep! 1,500 points deduced. Darwin's First Wand successfully exchanged.]
After hearing that message, and learning from previous experiences, Dane closed his eyes and stretched his hands. After a second of waiting, a heavy piece of wood fell right on them. Ecstatic and still not opening his eyes, Dane started to touch the wand while smiling. This lasted for a few seconds, then he knitted his eyebrows and stopped.
"What are these things… It should not be comfortable as a handle…" Dane then opened his eyes and felt like crying. The wand was… well…
"WHY THE FUCK IS THIS WAND SHAPED LIKE A DICK!?!?"
CREATORS' THOUGHTS 
Crimson_Rogue
Crimson_Rogue Hi there! I hoped you enjoyed it. There were some minor changes made in the previous chapters, so I recommend you read them again if you are having a bad time making the numbers match. As always, please let me know if you find any mistake. Thanks!
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