The designs of weapons and equipment varied up to level 10 but hardly any of them would be of use to him except a pair of daggers which could be used at level 10.
"The blackrock crystal is a premature version of the magic crystals with some impurity causing it to have an adverse effect towards the canine family. You can also access better weapons made by me in exchange for resources or ask me to craft you weapons," said Kade as another list popped up showing various weapons, their attributes and costs. Most of them were higher level weapons and equipment and required resources than money.
Of the things he could use, only a level 5 black iron dagger could be bought by using coins. He quickly bought the dagger and decided on a few other items which he could use.
[Swift dagger] (Black Iron Dagger)
Level 5;
Requirement: Strength 15;
Agility +2; Attack +18;
Special Effect: Swift blade: Improves attack speed by 10% for 10 seconds. Cooldown: 5 minutes.
Durability: 20/20;
"Thank you, Master Kade," said Shadow as he bowed to the NPC and left the blacksmith shop. The best way to continue in the game is to take the village heads quest to clear up the path to the city. He directly went to the village headman to take the quest. The crowd around the headman's office subsided as the quests for the hunting monsters in blackrock hills or Arwild forest.
He received the quest from the headman as soon as he received a call from Quiet Fire. "Hi, hope you are still in the village. We just reached the temple and submitted the quest. You won't believe what we manged to raid from the goblin champion and the mine."
"Stay by the temple I am coming to meet you," said Balthazar as he ran to the temple. At the temple entrance Merlin met him instead of Quiet Fire. "They are inside finishing up the quest. We got quite a haul from the quest. Few decent pieces of armor were looted from the chests in the lair. But mostly it was resources and mining tools. We got a couple of designs which could be used by you," said Merlin as he initiated a transfer of designs and resources to him.
Balthazar immediately accepted them and noticed that most of the materials had been iron ore or blackrock crystal. It looked like being the first to attack the goblins mining operation had it advantages. The designs were for Goblin chest armor and plate greaves.
[Goblin chest armor] (Black Iron armor)
Level 5
Materials Required: Refined Iron Ore x 2; Blackrock crystal pieces x 3;
Requirements: Endurance: 10; Strength: 8;
Defence +16; Vitality +12; Intelligence +2;
[Plate greaves] (Black Iron armor)
Level 5;
Materials required: Refined Iron Ore x 2; Blackrock crystal x2;
Requirements: Strength :12;
Defence +8; Strength +4; Movement speed -4;
Special skills: Kick Daze: Allows you to perform a quick kick to the head which would cause monster to be in a confused state for 6 seconds. Cooldown: 3 minutes.
"They are going to be quite popular and you have also provided me with enough resources to craft them," said Balthazar having a look at all the resources given to him by Merlin.
"Yeah, I guess we can mine more in the hills once we go there to get the dungeon. We found a few goblin mining and refining tools. They are a lot useful in getting refined ores from the mines. We actually had spent about 5 minutes mining there as Tang didn't want to leave without collecting all the resources she could from the mines," said Merlin.
"So, shall we go to the dungeon or should I make more equipment for now?" asked Shadow. It was awfully tempting for him to go to the Forging Association to get forging on the new equipment. The designs and equipment offered by Kade were even more tempting. But all of that could wait as the special dungeon would soon be explored by players and being the first to discover chests or missions or first kills have the own advantages and it is time sensitive.
"Obviously, the dungeon. The faster we explore the better. I already think that we are a bit late and have been very angry with Tang for wasting the time she spent mining at the goblin camp," replied Merlin. Being a veteran at gaming, he was quite sure of his priorities in game. Balthazar was glad that he chose a competent partner to work with in the game.
Suddenly a bright light enveloped Merlin as he got upgraded to level 5. "I hope that the experience from the quest would pull all of you to level 5," asked Shadow expectantly.
"Yes, it sure did. I hope they got some other quest. We spent a lot of time at Blackrock hills. There is a high chance that similar quests would also be found in the Arwild forest," said Merlin expressing his opinion. "If Quiet Fire does ask the deacon of the temple, I am sure that she would get another quest."
Merlin's thoughts definitely had virtue. But Balthazar doubted it and even if they did get a new quest, Arwild forest having lower level monsters would definitely not provide much experience. As he was thinking that it wouldn't be possible to get any more quests from the temple, Quiet Fire came with the rest of the team.
"Come on, let us get to the dungeon. We got another temple quest to complete after that," said Quiet Fire as soon as she joined Merlin and Shadow.
"You another quest?" asked Shadow in a surprised voice. He couldn't believe that they got another quest from the temple.
"Need to gather snake bile and clearing up the path to the city. Some NPC was poisoned, and they need the bile to create an antidote. The killing of monsters along the path is just an additional request. Not a necessary requirement to complete the quest," answered Quiet Fire.
Balthazar never expected that Quiet Fire would get a quest similar to the quest he got from the village head. If that were possible, he would have taken it himself. "Can you share the quest?" he asked.
"Yes, but only for a team of 5 members," replied Quiet Fire awkwardly. They had already formed a new team of five members with Merlin. As Merlin occupied Balthazar's previous place in the team, such situations were bound to come. Balthazar realized it as soon as he asked her that question.
"Cool! Let us check out the dungeon first. I believe it is a seven-person team dungeon. Anybody has a suggestion for another member, or shall we try with us six?" asked Balthazar changing the topic so as the avoid an awkward conversation.
"How do you know that it is 7-man dungeon? I asked quite a few guilds already and they have tried only 5 man and no info was seen in the official website or forums yet," asked Merlin.
"I got the administrative privileges for the dungeon. I can see it on the associated menu," replied Balthazar.
"You got administrative privileges too. Damn! Why did I go to the Arwild forest instead of the blackrock hills? I lost on a great deal. Can you change the charge to teleport to the dungeon?" asked Merlin. "That would allow you to have great control over your source of income."
"Yes, it does, and I have no intentions to change it for now. But I can have us go there without any charge as you are in my team," answered Shadow Tyrant.
"Can you allow a guild to use it for free?" continued Merlin with his questioning.
"Dude, I just have a few privileges. I don't own it. It is not like I own the dungeon. It is just free because I am leading the team. Now, do we have anyone else we can recruit, or shall we continue with just the six of us?"
"Let us go. It would be a lot easier with the six of us. I doubt we would be able to find anyone trustworthy and capable enough to join us," said Merlin as he began walking towards the teleportation point.
It seemed that most of the players have already reached level 4 and at this stage corrupted forest hell mode was the only one which gave decent experience but can only be used once per day. So, they began to move towards blackrock hill to hunt blackrock wolves for experience.
Shadow and his team quickly teleported to the dungeon 'Cave of Wargs'. He realized that quite a decent number of players from other villages had already reached level 5 and were going through the dungeon. He realized that most of the players were guild members and he had to be quick if he intended to gain any good equipment or resources from the dungeon.
"I want to try the elite mode directly. You guys have any objections?" he asked turning around to look at Merlin and the girls.
"I am all for it. I really like to team up with someone who enjoys a bit of risk," said Merlin gesturing with a thumbs up.
"Won't our trials at elite dungeon be limited than the ordinary one? I think it is best if we try the ordinary one first," chimed in little white feet.
"I agree with her. It is too reckless to try the elite mode directly," added Blinding White to little white feet's argument.
"I think I can increase our attempts per day for the dungeon. Now are you girls willing to try?" asked back Balthazar. Though the game didn't permit him to do so he wanted to try out the elite dungeon. If they fail, they can still attempt the ordinary mode a few times and then try the elite another time. They get two chances at the elite dungeon per day. It wouldn't be too late if they attempted it afterwards, but he didn't want to miss the chance of first kill or the chests he would get hold of in the elite instance of the dungeon.
"It is not that bad. We can try out the elite mode," said Quiet Fire looking at Blinding and little white in an attempt to persuade them. "It isn't that hard, and we won't lose our chances at elite dungeons either."
With Quiet Fire and Tang voting for attempting the elite instance of the dungeon, the elite instance became the obvious choice. He immediately went to the cabin to request the NPC to open up the cave for them. The NPC at the dungeons would be protecting the area and had all controls to open temporary portal to allow players to enter them.
It was an NPC he recognized and in turn was recognized. It was Rickard Holt at the cabin. "Ah! It is you adventurer. I am glad to meet you though it is expected as I am designated to guard the cave and you obviously wouldn't stay away from this quest," said Holt.
"I am glad to see a friendly face too. I came to go to the elite instance. Now, I know where to find you in case I want to meet," replied Balthazar. "Not hoping to stay here that long," said Rickard Holt as he opened up the elite dungeon.
"Need any torches for the cave?" asked Holt holding up a few torches. Balthazar immediately checked the price and found that Holt was selling them to him at a reasonable price. He quickly brought a few and the team jumped into the portal.
They were immediately teleported into the cave. The entrance was exactly the same the cave entrance he remembered. A violet light fell on to the walls from the interior of the caves, causing it to have an eerie look and it lowered the visibility range of the players by a lot.
He gave Merlin the torches he brought as he entered the cave. "It was definitely a good idea to buy torches for this dungeon. I guess it pays to have a few NPC acquaintances. By the way, I found a good sword, level 5. Hope one of you can use it," said Shadow Tyrant holding up the scimitar he got off the worgen.
"It has got to be better than using the one I have now," said Tang immediately taking the scimitar and equipping it.
"I will go ahead and scout the cave first. You follow behind slowly," said Shadow Tyrant as he walked into the cave in stealth. He quickly moved forward into the tunnel. It was the same as before but there were a few wolves sleeping on the ground for every five to ten metres, he took into the tunnel.
[Hungry wolves] (Common monsters)
Level 4;
HP: 600
He immediately informed his team about the wolves. There were also a few small caverns branching out from the tunnel. He walked in to the first one he found that there was a large warg sleeping in the cavern. Balthazar had seen Wargs before in his previous life.
They were quite popular in territories owned by worgen and were commonly used as mounts by worgens and even known as pets or mounts in other empires too for they were known to be very vicious and powerful. But this was much smaller compared to the ones he remembered.
[Blackrock Warg] (Elite monsters - Wargs affected by the blackrock crystals losing their vitality and strength.)
Level 5:
HP: 2500
"Well the description of the monsters dissolves my doubts about these wolves. It seems just like good luck that the portal opened up in the blackrock hills which suppresses the canine family.
He realized that the Cave of Wargs might be a lot more dangerous as the number of wolves in the tunnel would be like a warning system to the wargs and it is going to be a lot difficult to fight them. But then he realized that the solution to this would be having multiple assassins in the team.
Well that is one option which he could think of immediately as the assassins learn cheap shot at level 5 which could be used to effectively solve the problem of attacking wolves without disturbing the other and stopping the chain of sleeping wolves.
There might be other options for doing the same, but he wasn't sure about the skills of other classes. They could still attack one at a time with a single assassin, but that would be a very slow process.
He immediately contacted Merlin to check if any other classes had the similar skills as they would need to chain their stuns. But only other skill with similar effects was terror wave which Merlin had. But it was an AOE skill which might have effect on other sleeping wolves.
He had the others wait at a safe distance while he went and used cheap shot on the wolves. As soon as he used cheap shot, all those that had long distance attacks rained their spell on the wolf. Though he couldn't take out the wolf alone, with the help of other, he managed to kill the wolf within the stun duration of 4 seconds which the cheap shot provided.