They were both back in the dark room in the mansion underwater. "You passed my test. Follow me," said the spirit as it opened a circular trap door on the wall. There was a tube that sloped downwards. This was the sea races, equivalent of a private/secret staircase. They mostly swim. Hence, these tubes are more comfortable for them than a staircase.
Shadow followed the spirit down the staircase. They ended up in another floor where various armaments, gems and other valuable tools were there. As he reached the room, the spirit raised its arms as a couple of objects flew into its hands.
"This is the gem, you have come in search for," said the spirit opening his left hand. A violet colored gem sculpted like a shark was lying in his hand. Shadow immediately took it out of his hand.
Quest Updated: Save the merman prince: Return the gem to Erdunol.
"These you can consider to be an acquaintance gift as well as my gratitude for helping a prince of my race," said the spirit opening its right hand. In it there were a pair of white shiny throwing knives. "They are made from the tusks of the same animal. Hence, you can always one to find the other as long as you have one with you," continued the spirit.
[Walrus throwing knives] (BlackIron Throwing knives, Upgradeable)
Level 10;
Requirement: Strength: Level x 3;
Attack Power: +25;
Special effect 1: Holding one indicates the location of the other tusk;
Special effect 2: Ignore Defence: 20%;
Can be upgraded by absorbing the 200 life essences of sea monsters.
Durability 25/25;
"This is an old relic of this place. Though it has lost almost all its power, I hope you can find good use of it," said the spirit.
"Thank you, respected spirit," said Shadow taking the weapon from him. Though he can equip it right now. He could surely make good use of it when he reached level 10. Good weapons are the hardest kind of armaments to come by. Even if he didn't get daggers, he could do a variety of attacks with a pair of throwing knives like these.
"You better take leave now," said the spirit pointing to the tube from which they entered the room. Balthazar had wasted more than 2 hours without getting experience. He was eager to get out of the lake and finish the quest.
He quickly made his way out of the mansion. He put on the disguise of bandit again and directly floated up to the surface of the lake. He occasionally saw a few bandit groups trying to kill the lake monsters. But it was the same state as before with the bandits still not able to gain an advantage.
He went into stealth as soon as he reached the surface of the lake and made his way to the prison where the merman prince was being held. He found the prince in the same condition.
"Noble prince, I have retrieved the gem you have asked for," said Shadow holding out his hand with the shark shaped obsidian gem in it.
"Thank you for your help, adventurer," said the prince as he took the gem. "Could you give me back my imperial token," he asked. Shadow had hoped that he could keep this token which game him the capability to move easily in waters, but it looked like the system wouldn't allow it.
He returned it with a glum expression. The prince placed it back in the location he removed it from. "You have been of great help to me. Please, let me out of this prison. Be sure to run out of the camp once the alarm sounds," said the prince. Shadow immediately started picking the lock on the prison gate.
As soon as he opened the gate alarms sounded out. The prince came out hurriedly from the prison. "I hope you will accept this," said the prince putting a pair of swimming goggles into his hand. "Though it isn't as effective as the token, it isn't very bad and is resembles the gear which humans use," continued the prince as he ran towards the lake.
Quest Completed: [Save the merman prince]:
Time taken: 2 hr, 3 minutes
Performance: Outstanding.
Rewards: Experience +2000; Merman Reputation +30; Erdunol's swimming goggles;
System: Quingol Reputation -50;
"Quingol Repuation? That is hardly ever useful," thought Balthazar as he made his way in a direction opposite to the lake. With the alarm sounding, most bandits would check the prison and immediately make way to the lake. With the quest completed, he didn't care about the merman anymore.
Moreover, the returns of the quest were also good. It was hard to get 2000 experience at level 9 in these plains. Most monsters were level 7 ones. The only level 8 monsters, he saw were the leopards. He wouldn't get much experience from killing them in these 2 hours. So, he considered these 2 hours well spent.
He also leveled up from all the experience he gained on completing the quest. He was level 9 now and he didn't assign the free attribute points he got from the previous level up. He had a total of 12 free attribute points to assign.
Character: Shadow Tyrant (Human)
Affiliated Village: Black Rock Village
Title: None
Job: Assassin
Level: 9
Exp: 1800/3600
HP: 3300/3300; MP: 1200/1200;
Physical Attack: 98
Defense: 68; Attack Speed: 66; Movement Speed: 68; Willpower: 21; Balance: 32; Focus/Search: 42; Reflect: 1; Magic Resist: 20; Luck: *; Charm: *;
Attributes: Strength 57, Agility 56, Endurance 27, Intelligence 22, Vitality 39, Perception 23.
No Special Racial Attributes or weakness.
Free Attributes Points: 12
He put 6 points each in endurance and perception to finish up the free attribute points left. He decided to improve his defence so that he could finish up the quest of clearing the path to the village.
As soon as he came out of the camp into the plains, he checked the time in real-life. It was a few minutes to 3 p.m. He had about 6 hours left in the game before he had to go to training with Lucius.
With this done, he began to check the merman goggles. As he was opening the inventory panel, he saw a notification at the equipment panel. "Shit! Did some equipment get broken during the fight with larians?" thought Shadow.
Fire and lightening attacks usually make equipment lose durability. Unless the equipment completely broke down the equipment panel wouldn't show notifications. He could always get equipment repaired at a shop if it wasn't completely broken.
As he opened the equipment panel, he saw that the notification was from the mask of shadows. He expected unique equipment to be a lot more durable than the normal ones. He heard that it was one of the few advantages that a unique equipment provided.
When he selected it, he got a completely different surprise. The notification was not for a loss of equipment but to upgrade the equipment. He had 92 life essences absorbed before the latest quest and in the quest, he killed 432. It had crossed the requirement of 500 for the mask.He happily selected the upgrade option from the mask.
[Mask of Shadows] (Unique Mask, Upgradeable)
Level 5
Bound to Shadow Tyrant.
Focus/Search +10; Willpower+10; Magic Resist: +10;
Intelligence +8; Vitality +5; Perception +5;
Increase Free attribute points by 2 points for every increase in level.
Passive Effects:
1. Enhanced Stealth: Stealth can't be detected by higher-leveled monsters up to 5 levels higher.
2. Enhanced Perception: Can identify higher-leveled monsters up to 5 levels higher when they are in stealth.
Equipment can be leveled up to level 10 by absorbing the life essences of 500 creatures of the dark faction.
Additional skills:
1. Shadow Clone: Instantly creates a clone with 50% of the attributes and all equipment and skills. It can be controlled by the user. Duration: 30 seconds; Cooldown: 5 minutes.
2. Shadow Swap: Can swap one's position with that of an ally or clone. Cooldown: 10 minutes.
3. Disguise: Can change one's appearance to another form. Cannot change to another occupation or race. Duration: Persists until any damage is received or till the user stops the skill manually;
Cooldown: 20 minutes. (Warning: Higher-level monsters and NPCs would be able to see through your disguise.)
The only upgrades he got were in level, intelligence and will-power. The duration for shadow clone also increased. But Shadow was still disappointed in the upgrade of the mask.
He luckily managed to get hold of life essences of the required monsters. If not for these lucky encounters, he would have to spend a lot of time to upgrade it. This issue still persisted if he wanted to continue to increase it to level 10.
He also had received the goggles from the merman prince, which he hadn't checked yet. From what the prince told him, it would allow him to explore underwater areas.
[Erdunol's goggles] (Diving Tool)
Level 5;
Special effect 1: Allows you to breathe underwater for 30 minutes.
Special effect 2: Improves your vision underwater by 20 meters.
He decided to make his way back to the garrison behind the town. He checked quest for helping the garrison against the monsters. The number of monsters killed were 107 monsters. He had been killing monsters from level 5 He channeled his hearthstone to reach back to the Blackrock town.
As soon as he was teleported to the Blackrock town, he went to the leatherworking and blacksmith shops to repair his equipment. Both his weapons and armor lost durability due to the fire attacks of the larians. It was in his best interests to have them repaired before he continues playing the game.
He quickly made his way back to the garrison and met the soldier at the gate. As soon as he reached the gate, the soldier recognized him and asked, "You found anything, adventurer?"
"There is a Quingol race bandit camp by the lake at the end of the river," said Shadow pointing towards the river. A couple of notifications quickly popped up informing him of completing the quest.
Quest Completed: [Help the garrison against the increasing menace of monsters]:
Monsters killed: 107; Investigated the lake area and found Quingol bandits.
Rewards: Experience +1270 (1070+200);
"Thank you for the information, adventurer. I will make sure that the commander is made aware of it and will take precautions that the bandits won't spread," said the soldier. "Please, inform if you find something else. We would also reward you for killing them."
New Quest: [Kill the bandits and investigate the surroundings of the lake] (Difficulty: Moderate)
Description: Kill the Quingol bandits by the lake. Can be shared with 4 others (0/4).
Progress: Bandits killed: 0
"New Quest?" thought Shadow. He only expected that the soldier would take a note of the information and the previous quest of investigating the plains would continue. "It looks like there is more to the quest of the bandit camp," thought Shadow as he made his way toward the path. He could still complete the quest of clearing the path.
He had contacted Merlin and Tetsujin. They were already working along with Rudra and the rest of the team to clear the path. It seems like once they all reached level 8, they decided to go and have another try at the quest. They had already come in contact with the group of monkeys and went through them with relative ease. They had better equipment this time and higher level which allowed them to kill them.
After the monkeys were done, they had also encountered a couple of cougars and a bear, but they managed to easily take them down as these were monsters which tend to move alone. But as the went ahead the number of monsters that they encountered kept increasing.
They soon encountered a pride of lionesses which had them stuck again like the situation he had with monkeys. These were all level 8 monsters. They had attacks similar to the cougar. They
They asked Shadow to join them, but he knew that this situation would continue as the moved forward. If they didn't get into the forest and kill the leader of monkeys and the pride, these groups would attack them together at the end of the path before he could reach the city.
So, he didn't want to waste his time with the quest yet. It is better to have them all reach level 9 before he attempts to finish the quest. They would probably continue in their attempts for quite some time. He could attempt at making a few equipment to increase his experience in the meantime.
He hadn't used the Forging Association contribution points till now. He also had quite a few resources now, which he could use to exchange for good designs. With the idea in mind, he went to the Forging Association.
He went to Kade and first asked for the list of available designs. He moved through the list and decided on the on a few items, he could create with the materials he had with him. He already had 120 contribution points and had still not used the designs for the plate greaves and goblin chest armor.
Among the designs that were available, he was most attracted in the antelope dagger which was a level 8 weapon. There was also a level 10 halberd that would be very famous, once players realize the difficulty of reaching the city. Weapons were always in great demand compared to the other equipment.
Moreover, all kind of weapons required blacksmith which didn't apply for other kinds of equipment. So, selling weapons at this stage of the game would earn him a lot of money, especially when many were racing to reach the city.
[Antelope Daggers pair] (BlackIron Daggers)
Level 8;
Materials Required: Antelope horns x 2; Refined Iron Ore x 2;
Requirements: Strength: 30;
Attack Power +30;
Durability: 25/25;
[Stag horn halberd] (Black Iron Halberd)
Level 10;
Materials Required: Stag horns x 2; Refined Iron Ore x 4;
Requirements: Strength: 30; Agility: 15;
Attack Power +40;
Special effect: 10% chance to cause a bleed effect of 30 HP per second for 5 seconds on successful hooking.
Durability: 30/30;