After sitting next to the fire for a quarter hour, Raphael was finally dry enough to end his short stint as Origo's first naturist. As he put on the thin and frayed clothing, his longing gaze fell on the chest.
'I really hope there's something good inside. Otherwise it's going to be twice as hard to get to the nearest village…' he thought to himself, as he concentrated on remembering the different scenarios that could happen. Sadly, it had been so many years that he had forgotten a lot about Origo, more than he would readily admit.
Origo demanded more from players than most games did, as there weren't any handy abilities. If you wanted to be warm, you had to gather wood and find a way to ignite it. If you wanted to eat, you had to find food, make sure that it wasn't poison and then properly cook it, unless you wanted to risk food poisoning. You could say that besides experience in close combat, Origo also required one to amass survival skills.
Within these first three days, many players had died at least once, due to either hunger or poisoning. This caused a lot of them to rage and complain, as they felt that the game was automatically set to Hell Mode.
It was one thing to be killed by a monster or another player, but dying to a badly-cooked stew? This was the ultimate embarrassment, as even some experienced gamers had fallen pray. One such former professional gamer had even gone as far as writing a 10-page-long critique of the gaming developers' inability to properly design a suitable environment.
Thankfully, a few guilds started sharing information, thus most players now had ready-made tutorials on how to not die in a ridiculous manner. Naturally, the guilds were not doing this out of the kindness of their hearts - they wished to gain fame and use it to recruit new members. While this would not bring many, if any at all, skilled players to their sides, every guild required worker bees. After all, what would a guild do, if it did not have any teams to gather materials, resources and coins? How would it be able nurture all of its Blacksmiths, Alchemists and even Cooks‽
Raphael looked around anxiously, before squatting down next to the chest and carefully examining its lock mechanism. While this Dull Chest was unlocked, there was always a chance of there being a hidden trap and a Poisoned debuff would definitely be the end of him.
'I don't have anything to shield myself behind, so my best bet is to open it from the side!' he decided. Raphael stood up and quickly found a lower-hanging branch, which he cut off with his dagger. It took him a few minutes, as the dagger wasn't very sharp, and the branch was still young and full of vitality.
Armed with a long stick, Raphael decided to sharpen one side, so that he wouldn't have to be close. He wedged in his two-meter-long pointy stick into the side of the chest and tightened his grip, as he flung it open, turning his head away just in case.
One second passed…, then two, and on the third second Raphael exhaled as he looked towards the chest that had opened without a hitch. With a spring in his step, he looked at the loot that was now visible.
'Not bad! Three whole things! I guess I amassed all of my luck for this life, hah…' Raphael mocked himself, as his mind wandered to the numerous times he had died to the most convoluted mazes and traps.
Years ago, he had tried sharing his knowledge about traps on the forums, but had soon after deleted the thread. The hundreds of replies mocking him for having the worst luck ever had been very hard to swallow, but not as bad as the fact that somebody had even decided to call him the Magnet of Death. Luckily, he had posted the thread anonymously by mistake, but the moniker lived on as a joke within the game, becoming a part of the Origo slang.
Reaching into the chest, he took out three fairly basic items.
‖ Militia Rations x10 (Consumable) ‖
▸ These military rations were deemed substandard and allocated to local militias. Restores 5 HP per second, for a total of 10 seconds. ◂
‖ Leather Water Skin (Common) ‖
▸ Can hold water, as well as other non-corrosive liquids. Needs to be cleaned regularly. ◂
‖ Wanderer's Cloak (Common) ‖
▸ Discarded by a craftsman as a failed product, due to faulty dyeing. Protects against the harsh elements, but not much else. ◂
+5 Cold Resistance
+1 Defense
Durability: 5/5
'It turns out people are right. Everybody might like big chests, but little chests shouldn't be underestimated!' Raphael thought elatedly. Most players would only receive 1 or 2 drops from their noob chest, most often food and a water container. Receiving a third drop was very rare, let alone a cloak.
Although the descriptions of these items seemed bland, they were all vital to a new player's survival. For instance, eating a couple of the militia rations, which were mostly dried fruit and meat, could remove the Malnourished debuff that Raphael was currently suffering from. Although the debuff didn't specifically state how it would affect a player, Raphael knew that it effectively reduced a player's range of motions and speed by about a fifth.
The water skin could also be considered a very good drop. While only some classes had Mana Points, everyone had Stamina Points. These could regenerate on their own, but it was very slow, hence players would often choose to log out for a short break, while their stamina recovered. Water, as well as other beverages and potions, could either hasten the regeneration, multiply it, or instantaneously restore a player's mana or stamina pool to full. Having a container to fill with water enabled a player to travel much further. The cloak, which some would say was useless, was actually the best out of the three. Resistances were hidden for all players, but some races had innately higher resistances, solely based on the builds of their bodies. While a bonus of 5 to Cold Resistance did not seem like much, it could very well be the difference between life and death if a player had to leave his character out in the wilderness.
Raphael filled the water skin from the nearby pool and happily chewed on the granite-like rations. Soon, his Malnourished debuff disappeared, as well as most of his water reserves. The water skin had a long piece of leather creatively attached near the bottleneck. Raphael made use of it, as he hung the water flask around his neck, letting it dangle in front of his chest.
After refilling his leather container, he stuffed the leftover rations into his pockets, slightly amazed at the fact that neither had any holes in it, and draped the cloak over his shoulders. It was a muted brown, with lighter and darker blotches here and there, a hood and even two pieces of leather on the front, which Raphael used to tighten it so that it wouldn't fall off if he had to run for his life.
Content with his new situation, the gray-haired Thief turned towards the path, a cold glint in his eyes.
"Healthy status? Check! Good gear? Check! Luck status? 42 and above! Time to find myself some monsters and a village!" Raphael exclaimed, as he merrily sauntered off further into the depths of the forest.
A pair of eyes studied his lively figure from afar, teeth bared in anticipation.