Aaron's mission requires him to kill fifty regular zombies while mine wants me to gather fifty kilos of wood.
After moving on a different hunting ground, I searched for a tree with a medium-sized trunk around three-foot thick. I used Energy - Sharpen to create a one-foot energy blade, then began chopping on the tree. This one tree should be more than enough to fulfill the required amount.
With my training, I could level up and reach level two to learn the skill, but with Aaron around, everything became much easier. I had someone who protects me while also having the chance to safely farm zombies at my own pace. I don't have the perseverance he had when it comes to clashing with zombies repeatedly, so most of the time, I take a rest after three to four kills. Additionally, his presence allowed me to focus on chopping down trees.
It took more than ten minutes before I could chop a good portion from the tree, and decided to brute force my way through. I weakened the surrounding of the trunk and forcefully kicked the tree causing it to fall in the other direction.
Now that I successfully chopped the tree, I realized that I can't store it in my inventory. I decided to cut the trunk in half and into much smaller pieces. Only after cutting them into one meter each did I stored them in my inventory.
"Are you done?" Aaron asked after killing another zombie. The spear pierced cleanly through the eyes and only exerted enough force to destroy the brain. He pulled the spear back and caused dark blood to pour out from the hole.
He knelt on one knee and looted the dead zombie. Seconds later, the body disappeared and turned to fragile crystal flakes that crumbles when touched.
"I really hate low-level zombies. They don't drop anything useful except for the shards."
Essence shards are a type of transparent crystals that drops from all types of corrupted monsters. There are little known uses to them and they were not popular among the people. If used, it gives a small amount of XP to the user. It could also be combined into a higher tiered shard or into a complete essence stone, which can absorb the essence of a dead body, absorbing some stats into it.
Upon hearing his dislike about the shard, I immediately showed interest in it. I went back to the road and stood next to him, then said: "If you don't want it, you can sell it to me. I'll buy them at one gold each."
"Oh, you have gold?" Aaron asked in surprise.
Of course! I don't have gold. I shook my head then added, "It's a loan, a loan! I'll pay you back when I have the gold. How about I make you a new spear? It only had a durability of one hundred. After a hundred thrust, it would finally get destroyed. With the way you're swinging that around, you're lucky if the spear last until night time."
"Oh, I'm interested. So how much per stick?"
"It's not a stick, it's called a spear..." I replied then calculated the time and effort used to create one spear. Afterward, I raised two fingers while smiling. "Twenty gold per piece."
"Are you serious? Do you know that a standard alloy sword costs around one hundred gold, while an alloy dagger is priced at fifty gold? The marketplace sells them all."
"Toriq Guide?"
"Y-you also knew the guide?"
"Of course! He's the most trusted among the beta testers. The guide also says that the market opens only at night. You could buy from general stores and other 24-Hour stalls but the price would increase or even double. Besides, you specialize in spears which cost around eighty to ninety gold. Since we're already acquainted with each other, I can give you a discount. Ten gold each."
The Toriq Guide was a starter guide where it helps players save the most money while gaining the best possible results in return. The alloy weapons were damaged goods with half durability remaining, sold at a cheap price. If you were skilled enough, those weapons were enough to get you some levels and complete a few missions.
Aaron appeared contemplating about my offer, then asked: "So, we can just trade with shards, right? One gold per shard?"
"Yap."
Aaron ordered two spears and I started crafting them on our way back. We actually made the rookie mistake of not registering our teleport rune location in the plaza. We just took it for granted and thought the game would automatically give us the runes and set the Capital Plaza as default.
I bought the essence shards from Aaron since I naturally have use for them.
The essence shards have a secret ability that other people don't know. Not many people know this except for my father's friends.
That essence shards can be used to store energy.
Father discovered that those shards could be used as small batteries with a huge amount of storage. It has been used to power a lot of things from small lamps to working transport cars, depending on the quality of the shard used. High-quality shards can power a high-speed scooter for at least a month before needing a new one.
The most important discovery made by accident was the different types of elemental energy an individual had. Most people had no elemental energy but there were six elements known to mankind.
The four basic elements; water, air, earth and fire, together with light and dark. People who have elemental energy have an advantage when fighting a non-elemental energy user.
I don't have elemental energy and I'm totally fine with it. I don't really like fighting and I prefer doing research most of the time. I need the essence shards as batteries for future projects. There are no benefits in absorbing them as XP since you could easily kill a zombie whenever you like.
We returned to the outer border of the city with 30% XP and the players running back and forth made the city feel alive. It was already late afternoon by the time we returned.
I've collected two stacks of one hundred pebbles and I can use them as throwables until I built my own ranged weapon. Now, if I want to create everything that I need, I need to assemble a workshop. That would be impossible with my current financial status and I should probably focus first on my personal tools. They should have a multi-tool here, right? Please sell them... I don't care what version you have.
As I was focused on my problems, I didn't realize that I was following Aaron towards the Administrative Building.
"Are you going to submit your mission now?" I asked.
"Yeah. Thanks to the stick you made for me, my clearing speed increased and I was able to get ahead of everyone," he answered.
"Not everyone," I said while watching a player run past us wearing a chest plate with an alloy sword strapped on his waist.
"Tch. Must be a beta tester. It's natural that they'll be ahead. They know a lot more than us and they really didn't tell everything they know on the forums. Beaters. I hate them." Aaron said.
"Calm down. Let's go and submit our missions before more players come here in swarms."
The two of us submitted our missions and received our corresponding rewards. I received fifty gold and one hundred points in my agent ranking. I only need nine hundred more to get the chance to rank up into a Rank 1 Agent.
Aaron received two hundred fifty gold and five hundred points in agent ranking.
We accepted another hunting mission while waiting for the marketplace to open. With the prior experience and cooperation we had, we were able to kill one hundred zombies in just two hours despite the number of people hunting for them. I also managed to chop down a decent sized tree and take them as my own resources.
This time, we set our home portal at the plaza and the return trip was much faster.
After getting our rewards from the Administrative Building, we added each other as friends in the holowatch, so we could communicate whenever needed.
We then bade farewell and went on our ways. He said he wanted to explore the area a bit, while I teleported once again to the R Park plaza.
I searched for an empty space and sat down on the ground. I then started shaving the chopped wood trunk into multiple one-meter and two-meter long sized shafts. I currently have three hundred gold. It might seem a lot but with how things were priced at the market, I might as well be called poor.
Well, seeing the discouraged look of players coming out of the teleport portal, I gained extra vigor as I sharpened the spears faster.
I finished crafting a one-meter spear in just one minute. With all the cutting that I've been doing since the afternoon, the expertise of Energy - Sharpen has already reached 40%.
When I started crafting the second spear, someone happened to pass by and became interested in my product. Unfortunately, he didn't have any gold and only had essence shards plus random scraps.
The man was not an avid gamer but was not good at the game. He said it himself and I pitied him a bit.
I traded the second spear for all some essence shards and some of his metal scraps.
With me sitting in a visible place, the trade was seen by a lot of players and more people became interested in my goods.