"What are you talking about? Centipede?" RedBear asked confused. His clueless expression was funny, so Joker, who just lit a cigarette, was chuckling.
"You'll see, just trust me. I need to check something just real quick. Inventory!"
A window opened up in front of him, showing him the items he received after reaching level 10.
Reaching level 10 was the first milestone someone could reach, giving you access to three different things. The first was the guild system, enabling to either create or join a guild. In the past, Joker was a member of a small guild, which was neither ranked somewhere in the middle. It was not very well known, but later on became a part of an alliance, which at one point led to Joker being a rather well known fighter and leader of his own group of people. This time, he wanted to create his own guild early on, which requiered a couple of different things. It requiered gold and a guild certificate, which could be obtained from the system shop.
The system shop was another thing people could access after reaching level 10, which could provide people with a lot of different things. Recipes for potions and forging, blueprints for different kinds of buildings, skill books and other items including materials, weapons and armors, just to begin with. Even though it might be useful in the beginning, Joker knew that items bought from the shop were less efficient than items found from hunting or dungeons, yet they could still prove to be valuable and as it happened, Joker had received four items coupons after he became the 7th player to reach level 10, so he was sure to use them.
The last thing he gained access to was the arena system, which was the one Joker looked forward to the most. The arena system enabled people to compete against each other, in many different kinds of ways, without the risk of killing each other. The different competitions and tournaments could give people incredible rewards, based on how far one would get.
Everybody would get access to these things after reaching level 10, but only some people would reap the extra rewards, like Joker had. He was the seventh person who reached level 10 and was rewarded 1.150 gold, one magic grade item coupon, one rare grade item coupon and two special item coupons, which was a tremendous reward. He could not imagine what the rewards for first place were, still he was a bit surprised that there was six people who placed above him. He was eager to know who these six people were, but as they, just like Joker, refused to publicize their names on the leaderboard, he had no way of finding out. He was a bit disappointed, but there was other things he had to do now, so he tossed the thoughts aside.
"Open system shop!" he said.
A window opened in front of him, showing him a huge list of different items he could choose from. Even though he had more than one thousand gold, which was an incredible amount considering the fact the system just started today, the really interesting items were far too expensive to be bought by him right now.
"Filter blue grade items, weapons and armor!" he said, using the shop's filtering options. Joker would not use any of those, as he knew that every weapon and armor, bought from the shop, would prove to be weaker than a similar item that could be obtained from drops or trasure chests, also the highest item grade one could obtain from the shop, was rare, so there was no way of obtaining epics or legendaries from the shop. While scrolling through the items, he found something that looked interesting, it was a pair of leather gloves with reinforced knuckles, a perfect fit for someone with a martial artist class. And as it happened, there was someone with a martial artist class right beside Joker, so he got those from the shop.
"Hey Red, here, happy birthday!" Joker said, and threw the gloves over to RedBear who caught them. The gloves, like all other items displayed in the shop, were level 10, just like Joker's level.
"My birthday was in April.." RedBear replied.
"I know, I know, just equip them as soon as you can. They'll increase your attack speed and strength so they should be useful to you!" Joker said and looked for the next item. He just spent the magic grade coupon and was now looking for a rare grade item for himself, not knowing what he should pick. There was an incredible amount of choices, like weapons and armors, rings, amulets and other stuff, which he could choose from, but he did not see anything that woke his interest yet, until he came across a pair of steel gauntlets, which looked very promising.
[rapid devil's grip]
Grade: rare (yellow)
Requirements: Character LVL 10, 20 STR
Rare steel gauntlets, imbued with it's last owner's magic.
Effect:
+5% Attack speed
+5% ice resistance
Cannot be frozen
Additional Skill - [Swords of Light]
The silver coloured, simple looking gauntlets looked like they were part of a complete set of plate armor, with no ornaments on them. When Joker saw the effects, he couldn't help but smile. The increase in attack speed was already an insane effect for a level 10 item, but the additional skill [Sowrds of Light] was what interested him the most.
The skill [Swords of Light] was an active attack skill, which was a magic type. When used, light elemental swords would fall from the sky and cover a small area, damaging everything that was hit by them, with a chance of binding creatures for a short amount of time, making it impossible for them to move. The skill was an addition to an item, so it was only possible to use it while the gauntlets were equipped. Joker definitely wanted to get his hands on a [Swords of Light] skill book, as fast as he could, but for now, the gauntlets would be enough, so he chose them from the shop.
"Equip!" he said, the gauntlets immediately appearing on his hands. Even though the gauntlets were a system shop item, they were great, so Joker was pretty happy about obtaining them.
Now for the last two coupons, he immediately knew which items he was going to get. Special type items were nothing that could be equipped, but their value could prove to be higher than equippable items. He chose to get a basic forge and a basic alchemy lab, which could be used for crafting. Both items appeared as small crystals, which he put into his inventory. The crystals were consumables, which could be used to set up the forge or the small lab in a random chosen place. Joker had tried both forging and alchemy in the past, but dropped both at one point, as his warrior class had not given him any bonus in crafting, still it would be useful to own both, because he could set them up as soon as he found a forger and an alchemist. But that still had to wait some time.
He was still left with 1.150 gold from reaching the global ranking. While he was still in the system shop, he found the next item, which was an essential item for him to get. The guild certificate, which would enable him to create a guild, cost 1000 gold, which left him with 150 gold. There were other ways to obtain a guild certificate, which would take some time, but Joker chose to not waste his time and buy it immediately.
Owning a ceritificate was the first condition one needed to fullfil before creating a guild. The next was that, except for the creater, the guild master, there was supposed to be at least four other people, each level 10. Joker was already LVL 10 and owned a certificate now, there was also RedBear, whom he would soon get to LVL 10 too. For the other founding members, he knew who he wanted to choose, so he put the guild certificate aside for now.
"Let's go inside!" he told RedBear, pointing towards the supermarket's entrance. Now that all the goblins were gone, it was safe to enter and he wanted to get some food and other stuff, before searching for the next people on his list.
"Is there something inside?" Redbear asked him, clenching his fist after equipping the new leather gloves Joker got him from the shop.
"Yes, food and water." Joker told him, laughing at RedBear's confused face.
"We should stock up on as much food and water as we can grab, because we're going to leave pretty soon." he went on to explain.
"Centipede?" RedBear asked, turning his head a bit.
"Centipede!" Joker simply replied, grinning and giving him a pat on the back. The people around them who lsitened in, also went in to loot the supermarket.
"Isn't this looting? This is a crime!" someone said behind Joker, who did not even bother to turn around before replying.
"Sure, if you don't want to loot it, nobody's going to force you to. But just think about it, after everything that happened right here on this parking lot, don't you think that the police should have arrived by now? Nobody's going to punish you, get some food and survive, nothing else matters right now!" he said, not turning back and just entering the supermarket. He sent RedBear to grab as much food and drinks as possible and went on to look for something else. Getting food was no problem for him, he knew how to hunt and which plants were eadible, so he did not bother with grabbing food, he was looking for something else. He broke a door, which led to the supermarket's storage and there he found what he was looking for. The boxes of cigarettes in front of him disappeared into his inventory, which was almost completely filled up now, so he slowly made his way back, looking for RedBear.
"Red?"
"I'm here!", RedBear replied, waiting for Joker to come back. There were lots of people, now rushing throught the supermarket and grabbing everything they could, Joker also saw some people who he did not remember seing during the fight with the goblins. They probably watched from their windows and came rushing when they saw everyone else taking food fom the supermarket.
"Let's get back, I promised I would answer the questions the other guys had."
The people who fought with them were already waiting outside after they filled their inventories, looking at him. Joker saw that Ruby was with them, her bow strapped on her back, eating an apple.
"Ok, let's not stay outside for now. Can anyone open the door to that?" Joker asked, pointing towards the roll-up gate of an underground garage. One of the residents living in the building above the garage said yes and led them there opening it with his keys and letting the people enter. There were dozens following Joker, who made his skeletons and golem wait outside, before telling them the most basic things he knew. He told them enough to boost their chances of survival, but not enough to make them question how he knew all of that. When one person asked, he simply lied and told them he found a skill book that burned all that knowledge into his brain, by that point nobody doubted his words.
After a few hours, the small Q&A was over, so Joker and RedBear went out of the garage and stood in the middle of the street, next to his summons. The people were now scattering and doing different things, trying to set up a safe zone, like Joker had advised them to do.
"Ok, we're done here for now. Are you ready to go?" he asked RedBear, who simply nodded.
"Will you tell me about the centipede now?"
"Mehh, not really. You'll see when we get there." Joker said laughingly. He lit a cigarette and took a drag, looking back at the people, honestly hoping this safe zone would fare better than the one he had been to in the past, which he somehow doubted. As he and RedBear walked away, he tossed the cigarette away, before it was halfway finished. Thinking of the safe zone he had known left a bad taste in his mouth.