A new week came, second after the Age of Gods got out, and like last week players gave their all into leveling and trying to come on top of everyone else. After a couple of first days where everyone was booing the Universal Gaming for making an impossible game, came a moment of recognition, when players decided to stop complaining and started to immerse themselves into the game. Even forums quieted down a little.
Forums are platforms to share things and knowledge between players, but since there were so little things that could be shared and everything was important, a very small number of players shared something with each other. There were players on them of course but not in the number when the game was released. But one little thing is enough for the forums to explode, it will only take some time.
For me, one of the food things was that school was always in the before noon so that I can continue playing without worry. Marco played whenever he wanted, but Wolf had shifts, so he sometimes played when the game was in its night hours.
In school, I gave the test to every class I had today which gave me an opportunity to browse through the forms a little. As I said there were not that many interesting things to read about. The only thing worth noting was the PK system. Every game had it's on PK system, this was no different.
First of all, players killed by the monsters lost one piece of equipment and 10% of EXP until next level. PK players, on the other hand, lost two pieces, or even more if their PK value surpassed a certain number of kills. Also, they lost 30% of their leveling progress. Even worse was if they were caught.
One post on the forums said that a certain group of people from the Asian server got killed by the same player. When they found out that their number is almost a dozen they made a deal to catch their enemy, which they did. They knew that the prison system should be implemented in the game also, so they brought him back to the village to the guards. He was tied with the rope in the guard house for 10 hours, one hour for every killed player.
PK players said that if you want to remove your red status, which could be seen with Appraisal above players head, you need to wait outside the village for as many hours as needed and not to get caught, or to kill a certain number of monsters. Since monsters are not that easy to beat, waiting and hiding was an easier way.
It seems that reward I promised to the students worked since most of them worked diligently on their tests during the class. Maybe some of them may reach 80%. But just maybe. I talked with Maria and Anna during the breaks about the game and how are they doing. They were done with the farming and now they are founding different ways to raise their levels. I could only give them some tips from my experience, and tell them to try to gather herbs or to explore the further vicinity of their village and maybe find something useful.
When I told them to always pay attention to their surroundings and described them my close encounter with the bear, they both gasped. Anna covered her mouth with her small hands and I think Maria saw me in a new light.
, It must have been scary, right professor?" asked me, Anna
, Not as much scary as surprising and exciting" I said with great confidence in myself, well, after it happened and when I fell on the ground I then realized how dangerous it was. Ha ha ha ha."
Both of them started laughing with me, which made me very happy. I rarely talked to girls so this was one of the rare opportunities. After some small chat about our school matters, we started going to the classes.
After school, I went straight home, had lunch with my family and after superficially looking through the tests I logged into the game. Marco and Wolf were both online so we chatted a little about the game and what are we doing at the moment.
I didn't have to go to receive the quest again, but I had to go get my daily provisions, so after I went to the temple I exited the village and started my herb hunting. Since I almost cleared the forest I decided to go around the village from the fields and then finishing my day at the forest in the evening.
Beyond the fields was another forest so I went there first and then started going south. There were a lot of herbs in this region so it was really easy gathering them. They were the same as yesterday since the region was covered in them and it was their season. Like in reality, in the game was also autumn so the herbs that were still there were only available now. This made me think about the winter. Since there are almost no herbs still alive in the winter I should also gather herbs for my own use.
By the time arrived at the cemetery I had an almost half full bag with the herbs. When I arrived at the Little Rock I had my lunch and started going up in the hills. In the hills, I gathered herbs whenever I found one and I also tried to do some training. The only time I used my staff was against the Rage Beast so I wanted to get used to it more. Since I didn't use any kind of weapon before and will probably use this staff in the future I wanted to see what kind of actions I can do with it.
Well, there were not many things I could do without experience. I didn't know any kind of staff technique. Do only thing I can do was to just beat the trees with the staff. One strike from above and then one strike from the side. Then again and again. I thought simple was the best.
At least that is what I heard from Wolf. As he is a policeman he was well versed in different kind of martial arts. He said that the most important thing was the basics. So I thought that the basics of staff techniques were strikes. And I practiced that way.
After I collected a certain number of herbs I gained Herb Gathering skill, given that fact I assumed that staff-related skill could be born if I practice enough with it.
A little bit of staff practice and a little bit of gathering this day passed in an easygoing manner. I collected 5 batches of herbs and gained 2500 EXP making to level 4. To bad that the week-long buff expired yesterday, but this kind of leveling was rewarding nonetheless. I also gained one endurance point from my practice. Not bad for a days work. Still, this won't last long maybe a day or two and then I would need to find a different method to raise my level.
I was right, after two days there was no need for more herbs in the village. But my gains were significant. I gathered 10 batches of herbs in two days, which made me level 5 and I also gained one point in both endurance and strength. I am certain that this kind of leveling won't happen again, Raising level by collecting herbs was probably a one-time thing. Not that it bothered me. I was very satisfied that I had this kind of easy quest to raise my level. I can only pray to gods that sometime in the future I can get quests this easy. Not likely but not impossible I thought.
But what am I going to do now? Chief said that I should go to him in five days time for the leather armor. I had one more day so I should find something to do. The obvious solution was staff practice. One whole day practicing with the staff should bring some benefits. So I did it. After I came from school since I had some time until lunch I went through some moves with the staff in my room. Since I didn't have a staff I could only move my hands up and down, left and right. Good thing no one came in the room. They would think that I am crazy for sure.
I also graded the tests and what do you know there was actually a half a dozen students who reached my 80% limit. I could only think what should I reward them with. I was honestly surprised. I thought maybe one or two of them could make it by some miracle, but it seems that, ... let me see how much exactly of them made it, ...five, six, seven, ... seven. Seven of them in total. Not bad, that is seven times more, then in my time at school. Of course, only I had the highest grade in my generation. If Age of Gods came out then maybe there would be more interested students in history, or maybe my promise of reward had something to do with it. Well, I will think about reward over the weekend.
After lunch, I entered the game and first went to the temple. Since today was practice only day, I didn't know to which god to pray. I chose Perun at the end, first to see what kind of buff I could get from him and because he was the main god. Who knows if he will get mad if I don't pray to him from time to time. His blessing was very peculiar. It gave a player 5 points in strength and 5 in intelligence. Two opposite attributes which don't complement each other. But that wasn't all. As the main god, Perun also gave 5 additional lightning damage. Lightning gave a decent stun chance so this fact proved Perun was very generous.
I also went to the well to fill my flask and then to Donar's wife to get a meal for today. Then it was time to find a quiet place somewhere so I can practice in peace. Players finished with the farming couple a days ago so they were also trying to find alternative ways to raise their levels. I needed to find a place without any commotion.
Where could I find a deserted place where no one goes? There were two options I could remember. One was a cemetery, which I immediately ruled out and the other was the area around the Little Rock. These two places were empty of players most of the day. There was nothing around them so rarely someone visited these two places. I decided upon Little Rock because there were some old tree husks which I could hit all day without concern.
Not much time was needed to reach my destination and as soon as I got there I started my practice.
One hit from above, then one diagonally, then from the side and one from below. I wanted to hit from any angle possible. This should enable me to have a decent amount of possibilities in my fighting style, in my future fights, with any kind of an opponent.
This staff was easy to wield, thanks to Master Donar's meticulous craftsmanship. After all, he made it, especially for my use. After strikes, I started practicing thrusts. Even though thrust was a move mainly used in spear techniques, they could be also used with staff. Staffs and spears were similar in design, the only striking difference was a blade on top of the spear. Nevertheless, staff could also be used for thrusts if for only one reason, to break the balance of your opponent.
Since I wasn't well versed in martial arts I could only try my best, with any kind advice Wolf can give me and my own imagination. Imagination was also important. Wolf said that martial artists also practice with imaginary opponents so that they could be ready for any kind of a situation. I also tried using my imagination to create an opponent for myself, but since this was my first time I could only do so in the smallest steps.
Practice makes perfect, every accomplished older person used to say and keep saying this proverb. By the end of the day, I gained one more strength point and as I predicted I did manage to learn staff related skill.
Staff Mastery
Passive Skill
Level 0 beginner level 0.1%
Damage with the staff has a 5% increase