Akiol soon recovered, it was only a small amount of mental fatigue anyway. He then took a look at the item Scorpion dropped.
First was the skill stone, Akiol was incredibly interested in it. He pulled it out of his inventory and held it. Soon as he did a screen showed:
[Skill Stone: Aura boost: speed (1/3)]
'One of three? Does that mean I need three more stones to get this skill?'
Akiol did not know but he crushed it anyway. A notification soon popped up:
Akiol pushed on the name.
[Aura Boost: Speed
Boosts the speed of the user by 40%
User can spend remaining time too increase speed boost: 1 second = 2%
Max 200%
Cost: 200 mp
Duration: 1 minute]
A fantastic skill, but Akiol didn't have enough mana to use it. This meant he had some grinding to do, levels to be obtained.
First up, turning in quests. Akiol had a peaceful walk back to Veryl's house, a nice break from the tough fight. He soon arrived and knocked.
The door creaked open and Veryl was standing there.
"It's you again, did you defeat them already?"
"Yes sir, I am confident your position will not be exposed."
Veryl nodded approvingly and stated, "I suppose you should be rewarded for your efforts, take this." He then tossed something at Akiol.
It flew extremely fast at Akiol, he barely managed to catch it. He realized it was a skill stone. Giving his thanks he started to leave, before he went however he pointed out, There's a leaf in your hair Veryl."
Veryl was stunned and reached for his head, soon finding a small leaf. He looked in the direction Akiol was but found no one.
"I wonder, did he know?" Shaking his head Veryl closed the door.
Akiol crushes the skill stone he got, it came from the founder of the adventurers guild, how could he doubt it?
The skills information was like so:
[Power Sense (passive): Allows the user to gain a faint understanding of their target(s) strength. Grows with more use.]
'If only I had this before I fought with scorpion. This series of quests had unexpected benefits that's for sure.'
Opening his inventory he inspected the other items he obtained from Scorpion.
[Scorpion's Dagger (1):
The first of a pair of daggers forged from the twin-tailed scorpion's stingers. Retaining some of the paralyzing poison.
Attack:35
Agility Requirement:20
Strength Requirement:15
When paired with Scorpion's Dagger (2) rare chance to affect paralyzing to opponent.]
[Scorpion's Dagger (2):
The second of a pair of daggers forged from the twin-tailed scorpion's stingers. Retaining some of the deadly poison.
Attack:35
Agility Requirement:20
Strength Requirement:15
When paired with Scorpion's Dagger (1) rare chance to affect poison to opponent.]
A fantastic pair of daggers, considering the effects and high damage. Akiol wasn't sure if anyone could dual wield daggers right now, but he decided to hold on to them.
Akiol had already attempted to get a class when he initially entered Red Bush Village, but he found out that all the class teachers were for learning skills of the first class. He researched this and found out you pick your class during customization! This meant Akiol was robbed of a class, robbing him of potential beginner skills, but allowed him to wield a larger variety of weapons.
With every curse there is a blessing and vice versa.
Akiol made it to the town hall, turning in his escort quest gaining the rewards.
While experience seemed easy to get, since everything was percentages. It was actually just a translation of values. For every ten levels the experience you normally get from a quest gets reduced. So if a quest while you were level 29 gave 40% experience that meant if you made it to level 30 before turning it in would adjust the reward!
Akiol gained some money from this quest as well. To prevent the loss of money by dropping, all transactions were made in a menu, with coins acting like an online banking service. While players could still withdraw some physical coins still. No purchases could be made with npc's with it.
Akiol needed to be stronger, the fight with scorpion gave him an unpleasant reminder that his skill will not be able to cross a large level gap. So Akiol did quest after quest, he avoided escort quests, since those take longer. From fetch quests to subjugation quests. He even found that little girls cat while doing one. Since he didn't have the quest he instead gained a title:
[Kind: gain a small increase in favorability to NPC's.]
A nice bonus, but it wasn't his goal. Akiol farmed quests until level 37. He stopped playing since he got a notification that he has been playing for eight hours straight. The time was 1:3 ratio with one hour in real time. The designers of the headset claimed that they could go even higher, but didn't since long playtime could lead to unexpected side effects.
Akiol took a look at his status, after leveling and putting some stat points in it looked like this:
[ Name: Akiol ]
Level: 37
Exp: 65/100%
Race: Monster (Lesser Slime)
HP: 200/200 (Regen 10 HP per minute)
MP: 300/300 (Regen 1 MP every 5 seconds)
Stats:
20 Strength
20 Aglility
20 Dexterity
20 Defense
30 Intellect
Free points: 5
Equipment:
{None}
Skills:
Form
Roll
Leap
Absorb
Aura Boost: Speed
Power Sense: (passive)
Titles:
Kind
Gold: 176
Akiol had absorbed his sword so nothing showed equipment, he found this to be useful. If there was any appraisal skill.
Akiol decided it was time to log off, it was also recommended by the system. Akiol soon opened his eyes, seeing a faint reflection in the visor. He attempted to get up but found his body twitched and failing the initial movement. The soreness from his training had kicked in.
'Best to take it a bit easier next time.'