Chương 3: Crafting Unlocked

George had just spent his gold on a worthless upgrade. Purchased: Button upgrade. Auto-click once per minute. The button flashed. His click counter ticked up by one. He should have saved the gold for another memory instead. One click per minute meant 1, 440 clicks a day—only a few minutes of manual work.

"Can I get a refund?" he said and pressed the button, but no reply came. As he resumed clicking, he ran the numbers. Level two at 1, 000. Level three was 2, 500. He hit level four at 4, 800 and level five at 8, 060. The gap between levels was growing. Levels were coming quickly now, but soon he'd be clicking for hours or days just to reach the next one if the level-up thresholds continued to grow.

If his estimate of the thresholds was even remotely close, by the time he was level fifteen, he was going to need to churn out 50, 000 clicks for another level. If he continued to click at the rate of 1, 000 clicks every three minutes, that was three hours of clicking for one more gold, which meant gold was about to become a scarce commodity. He was going to need to find a way to click faster—not only for the gold, but for the timer.

Each time he thought about the trial timer, it appeared in his vision with an updated countdown. 06: 41: 44 The clicking slowed the timer considerably, which seemed like a good thing. He couldn't stop thinking about how the figure who talked to him in all caps had said, " If you survive the first trial." If the trial was something George might not survive, he wanted to delay it as long as possible. He kept clicking.

He had decided to buy another memory on the chance that he would remember something about how he had gotten here in the first place. Or to see the boy again. But the person that spoke in all caps had warned him about that, hadn't they? As if on cue, the button flashed again, and his click counter increased by one. If George was going to be in here for days, he would need to set aside gold for food pellets. And what about the other options? Upgrading the button could help him click faster.

A porthole would be great if it helped fill in some of the story of where he was. Maybe there were other people out there that he could communicate with. He kept clicking as he thought about all this, and soon another achievement notification appeared. New Milestone Achievement: You've reached 10, 000. Bonus unlocked: Interface Upgrade—Status The word "Status" appeared in his vision next to his click counter.

"Status, huh?" George said. When he said the word, more text appeared in front of him. Status Name: George Race: Human Gold: 2 Skill Points: 5 After a few seconds, the words disappeared. George sighed and flexed his hands, stretching his fingers out. Whoever was behind the text in all caps was a jerk, but they were right about one thing. There were no doors in this room. But if he could buy a porthole, maybe he could buy a door eventually. Which meant he needed more gold. Which meant a lot more clicking.

He was due for another level in the next few thousand clicks. It arrived 15 minutes later. 13, 853 13, 854 New Achievement: Level Six Stolen content warning: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences. +1 Gold +1 Skill Point Would you like to buy anything in the store? Yes or No?

"No," George said and kept clicking. He wanted to see when he would hit the next milestone and what the reward would be. He thought it might come at 15, 000 clicks, but it didn't come until 20, 000. New Milestone Achievement: You've reached 20, 000. Bonus unlocked: Choice of three upgrades Store • Food Pellet • Upgrade Cradle: Porthole • Upgrade Button: Automatic Click Increase • Upgrade User Interface: Continuous Store Access • Random Memory • More Options Choose the first of three upgrades. Now we're talking.

Three upgrades. And judging by the fact that the store items no longer had their prices listed, these were three free upgrades. He was starting to get a little hungry, but it was nothing that couldn't wait. So no food pellets. Besides, he should use his free upgrades on the expensive ones. Without hesitating he chose the most expensive upgrade and said, "More options." Purchased: More Options. The choices on the store expanded as new options were added.

Store • Food Pellet • Upgrade Cradle: Porthole • Upgrade Button: Automatic Click Increase • Upgrade User Interface: Continuous Store Access • Random Memory • Double Income • Unlock Skill Tree • Familiar • Pain for Gold • Select Amenity • Basic Store Upgrade Choose the second of three upgrades. Double income would mean that he would get two gold for each level instead of one, right? That had to be worth choosing.

The skill tree had to be related to the skill points he was getting in addition to gold every time he leveled up. And the familiar? Was that like a pet? And what was going on with the one that just said "Pain for Gold"? George sat there for a while reading the screen and thinking. He simply didn't know enough to make the best decision. It was going to be a guess. None of these new options had prices on them, so he couldn't just buy the most expensive one. Instead, he said, "Unlock Skill Tree."

Purchased: Unlock Skill Tree. Would you like to access the Skill Tree?

"Yes." Skill Tree (unlock path for 5 skill points) • Unlock Martial • Unlock Crafting • Unlock Mental • Unlock Astral • Unlock Physical • Unlock Magical • Unlock Sinister • Unlock Primal • Unlock Entropic • Unlock Bloodpact Would you like to assign any skill points? (Total skill points: 6) Astral? Sinister? Bloodpact? Once again, George was in the dark. At least he knew what the words martial, physical, mental, magical, and crafting meant.

But he couldn't see how the first three would be useful at all in his current situation. Seeing that option did raise the unsettling question in his mind of whether he might need to fight something eventually. He thought of the trial timer ticking down. Skill points at least seemed to arrive as often as gold with each level-up. If he regretted his decision, he could unlock one of the others in five levels anyway.

"Crafting," he said at last. He picked it partly because the others seemed so strange. And something about it appealed to him. Crafting meant building things—designing tools, maybe machines. Maybe he could make something to tap the button for him so he could get some sleep in a few hours. Maybe he could make a weapon if he needed one. Or a way out. Crafting Unlocked Would you like to assign any skill points to Crafting? (Total skill points: 1)"Yes."

Crafting Menu Level One (one skill point to assign) • Draw • Push • Bind • Separate • Reduce • Expand • Spin • Bore • Raise • Lower • Unlock Crafting Menu Level Two—20 gold Suddenly George was tired. And annoyed. Yet again, he had to make a choice he knew nothing about. The menu items told him nothing.

"What the hell is this? Just give me the best one," he said aloud to the ceiling and clicked the button. Random selection assigned: Draw. Choose the third of three upgrades. He didn't need to think about it for long. Pain for gold sounded like nothing he wanted to be a part of. Familiar was too mysterious.

"Double income," he said. Why not? Purchased: Double Income. George looked up at the ceiling and then laid down. His head hit the button of course, and the click counter rose by one. He grabbed it and threw it across the room, where it hit the curved ceiling and thumped to the floor. The click counter rose by one again. When he looked at the click counter in the corner of his vision, he noticed a new button called Skills. He said, "Skills" and another menu opened to reveal his one skill, draw.

"Draw," he said, but he couldn't tell if anything had happened. He sat up and waved his finger at the wall, thinking he might use it like a pen.

"Draw," he said again. Still nothing. Then he felt something bump against his leg. He looked down and saw the button standing on end like a hockey puck balanced on its side. George gave it a push, and it rolled a few feet away until it wobbled and fell over. He looked at it and said, "Draw." It slowly stood on end again and began to roll toward him. He reached his hand out to it and it changed course and rolled into his palm. He tossed it away again.

"Draw," he said, and the button obediently rolled into his hand. He resumed clicking.