Apho's POV
Every time I walk, I have a great feeling on my waist. It's because of the light sword that I have. Today, I shall kill a lot of slimes for my side mission. Pixi said that we need to go somewhere first so we are still not going outside this kingdom. I continue to walk while she always flying on my left shoulder.
"Now go left and we will reach our destination." She told me while pointing that direction.
I follow what she says and turn left off the main road. We are still on the main road of the kingdom and I continue to walk. After a few minutes, she points her finger at a shop. I easily recognize it because of the look of the house and some players swarming there.
"That's the merchant shop" She explained as I was thinking about it.
Merchant shops usually have a big tent for large coverings of space for their wares.
"Here are 20 silver coins. Buy 'one healing potion' and the rest of the coins are yours" She continued while she was giving me some coins coming out from her hands.
I assume that these coins are from her inventory, which I found it cool to watch her easily release the coins from her small hands. I notice that there is a magic circle on her hands hence deducing that this little trick she's doing is magic or skill. The normal way must be different then. After it, she positions herself again on my left shoulder. There are a few players who are also buying there. I am not a social type of person so I will make this quick. I walk towards the shop and a little girl greets me.
"Umm w-welcome to our shop... Feel free to search for what you need!" She energetically greeted me while her fingers were fidgeting and went back to handling other players
I walk inside and search for the healing potion Pixi asked. There are a lot of raw materials, which can be useful someday. I search even more and near the counter, is where the potions are. I took one and the lady from the counter sees me. She looks alike the little kid earlier but a bit older.
"Oh, a healing potion? One bottle cost 12 silver coins" She said while looking at me then I walked towards her to give her the right amount of silver coins.
"Thanks for buying! Do you need something else?" She asked while smiling and taking the coins. I shook my head in response to her question and left her shop.
"You did a nice job, Apho" Pixi said as I handed over the potion but she refused.
"That's yours now. It's a little preparation for our battle later." She responded to me.
I hold the healing potion in my right hand, thinking about how I can put this on my inventory. Later on, while we are walking, I ask her.
"How can I put this on my inventory?" I asked while showing the potion to her.
"Ahh sorry! I forgot to teach you about it" She giggled a little then flies in front of me.
"It's easy as long as you can focus." She continued as she showed me her hand.
"Think directly about the item or items you want to release," She said then a silver coin showed on her palm.
"It actually requires 'magic', which I will teach you someday." She continued explaining while I focused on my own palm.
I remember asking her how to put it inside my inventory … not release it from the inside. I show my palm with coins and the potion then stares at her.
"How can I put this on my inventory?" I repeated to her and she got pissed off and stared at me as if she wants to kill me.
"Let me finish, okay??" She ranted then turns back into a good moody fairy.
"Now to put it back, it's almost just vice versa from before. Focus on your palm to your inventory. Focus enough and the item will slowly disappear and will be shown inside your inventory. Putting items to your inventory won't consume 'magic' so don't worry about getting a lack of 'MP" She explained as the coin on her palm slowly disappeared.
I am just simply listening to her and after that, I try it on my own. I focus on my palm with the coins and a potion then think about my empty inventory. I continue to stare at my items and after a few seconds, five to be exact, they slowly disappear.
"Oh wow! You easily did it on your first time. And you put them all at once even" She said while looking around my hand.
I want to try on releasing something but I am eager to use my sword already so I lose focus on it. I put down my hand and Pixi flies to my left shoulder.
"By your eyes, I know you have quite the bloodlust and excitement there. Let's go to our main destination" She said as I started walking forward while my left hand is holding my sword.
A few minutes while we're walking, Pixi points her finger to the humongous gate between the two high towers.
"Look! That's the entrance and exit of this kingdom." She said as we continue to walk.
Looking down below the gate, there are quite a few amounts of people wearing heavy armor. Pixi explains that they are the 'Guards of Piedras'.
"You wouldn't want to fight them, because once you do, they will identify you as a 'threat' to this kingdom." She continued to me as we are getting closer to them.
We just pass by and casually walk outside the kingdom. The guards are not moving even an inch. They surely are NPCs but it's weird that Pixi is also an NPC but acts like a player. But I wonder what the worst-case scenario is if I become a 'threat' to them. Looking at my surroundings, mostly I see coffee-colored terrain and mountainous rocks all around the further plains. As Pixi says earlier, there are a few places that have water.
"Try to walk or run around this place, monsters are just EVERYWHERE." She exclaimed.
I walk a few steps to a big rock and jump to the top of it. Slimes are jumping around from the north, on my left and right, just everywhere. I notice that there are 2 different colors of slime: One is normal slime, which is blue colored, and the other is camouflaging at the brown terrain.
I jump down and draw my sword. I swing it around and it feels very comfortable on my arm and wrist. I could literally handle this one-handed.
"Swing your sword at the enemies, not in the air!" Pixi ranted as she kept flying around me.
There's one slime aggroed jumping towards me. It's about as big as what I remember on some other games. The slime is wobbling as it stays on its spot and stares at me. It has a cute 'owo' face which makes me stare at it too for a few seconds.
"Just kill it, Apho" Pixi said as if she was giving a bored voice.
The slime suddenly jumps towards me. I instinctively swing my sword at it, making it fly a little bit away. A long green bar suddenly shows up on its top. From full bar, it decreases by half. Naturally, that bar is the health of this slime. I rush towards the slime and slash it one more time with full power. It slowly disappears into dust and it leaves a silver coin and a slime ball.
"Good job for your first kill, Apho!" She said to me and I looked at her you-finally-killed-it face.
I like the part where it only requires me to hit the slime two times before it dies and it disappears in front of me after death. The satisfying feeling of your first kill in any video game is surreal. I pick up the loot and focus on my palm to put them on my inventory. After that, the mission screen appears. My Side Quest is glowing. Pixi flies unto it and explains something to me.
"I have quite a lot to explain to you but let's focus on this first," She said while pointing at the missions.
"Every time you start a mission, it will show your current progress and other requirements to complete the mission." She said then I clicked the 'X' button she was pointing to exit.
"Let's kill more slimes and loot their balls!" She continued and that sounded kind of awkward to me.
There is another slime approaching me. I gripped my sword harder and slash the slime one-handedly two times and killed it. After looting it, Pixi flies in front of me.
"Do you see the green bar at the top of the slime earlier?" She asks me. I nod while staring at her.
"That's the health bar of the enemy. As you can see, if that green bar is emptied, the enemy dies and disappears. There are some cases in which the enemy has a blue bar below the health bar, that's the magic bar of the enemy." She explained to me.
I already figured it out earlier but thanks for explaining anyway, typical tutorial stuff that you can't really avoid. I put my sword back into the leather sheath on my waist and search for the slimes around me. To my east, there is a group of 4 slimes jumping around. I hold my sword's handle as I prepare myself to run toward the slimes. I suddenly hear Pixi giggling which makes me stop after noticing it.
"Heh! I have something to show you, Apho." She said as she flew to the group of slimes and she signed me to follow her so I walked at the same pace as she flies.
"What will you show?" I asked her out of curiosity while looking at her.
"Just watch"
-To be Continued