Marcus awoke early, he wanted to get back into the fray but he still had another 3 hours to wait. He decided to go for a jog around the neighborhood.
Marcus was never a very physically adept person. He wasn't overweight but neither was he fit. It wasn't until he had graduated university that he had begun appreciating exercise but his depression had always been a hinderance to his fitness.
Marcus had been doing light exercise since he had returned to his younger self, working on conditioning his body. He wasn't trying to build muscle mass or get jacked, he just wanted his body to be better toned and where he wouldn't be sweating and wheezing in the event he ran around the block.
It took him nearly an hour to get back home, his body covered in sweat and his clothes drenched. You would have thought he had been caught in a downpour. He grabbed an apple and returned to his room and took a shower and checked the timer…
<48 minutes remain…>
Marcus decided to hop back on Flutter and as he did he noticed so many people were streaming. He had competition now, there was everything one could imagine, elderly people fishing, young people cooking, parties slaying mobs, dungeon runs, etc.
He checked the announcement feed and felt a little disheartened, all the achievements pertaining to Vhul had been cleared out. Marcus had inadvertently, cost himself a lot of bonus points and more importantly Fame. He also wasn't expecting to be locked out of the game due to a death. At least he saved Lisa from the punishment he thought.
'The twins would probably would have given the game up if she was locked out' Marcus sighed to himself. He was sitting in an empty room while waiting for the game to launch. As people began realizing that he was live they started to pour in and to his shock he was the most viewed streamer of The World.
He began socializing with his chat talking to them about what he had been up to yesterday, tried to hype them up about what was going to happen today, and assure them that he was going to catch up fast.
Despite all the information he had provided, he did keep a few secrets to himself, as well as the too well hidden gem of the Illusory Forest. This was his target today. Grab his gloves from the Bragos Brothers, upgrade his remaining equipment to level 10, and head to the forest.
It was home to many monsters and they all had a hidden effect. They dropped enchantment runes. This was a feature of the game that wasn't fully fleshed out at launch and it wasn't until later that the profession became available. The only way to use the runes was to bring it back to the old hag in the center of the forest.
She did it for coppers on the item but the most enticing of this proposition was the fact that the rarest of the runes was the scholar's runes, which each increased the amount of experience gained from all sources.
He would head to the Illusory Forest and grind the mobs there until he had a full set and would then begin his contract farming. Unlike with the quests NPCs give the player, the contracts from the Hall provided players with a nice bonus to experience and as the targets were unique variants, they were often higher level, stronger, and gave much better exp drops.
***
Marcus finally was able to log back in and did so immediately. He was bombarded with friend requests and finally was able to see all the accepted requests he had sent out. His friend list had jumped from 3 to 15. These people would make up the core of his guild whenever he was finally able to make one.
Mawu instantly messaged him asking him where he was and Marcus advised he was at the hall in Vhul. Mawu and Lisa immediately came running up as they had been waiting on him nearby.
"Thank you for saving me, I'm sorry to hear about the death penalty, I feel terrible!" Lisa apologized as he bowed towards him.
Marcus smiled and patted her shoulder "I'm just glad it wasn't you who had the penalty."
Mawu bowed towards Marcus as well "We received some good rewards from the chests, we both agreed you should have them.
Marcus opened the trade window and a ring and an amulet was inside.
Rank: Green
Level 10
No Class Restriction
Durability: -/-
STR+1
AGI+1
END+1
[Set Equipped 1 of 2]
Set Bonus 2/2 doubles all stats provided
Rank: Green
Level 10
No Class Restriction
Durability: -/-
VIT+1
FCS+1
INT+1
[Set Equipped 2 of 2]
Set Bonus 2/2 doubles all stats provided
Marcus was elated. He had planned to run the Wolves' Den until he had gotten the set but the twins had given it to him.
"You guys, this is too much! I only gave you guys 1 silver, each of these would be worth way more than that!" Marcus said, "I can't cheat you two out of these items, you guys were the ones who finished…"
Mawu put his hand up interrupting Marcus and shook his head "We wouldn't have been in there if it wouldn't have been for you and on top of that, you wouldn't have died for our mistake. This is our apology to you."
Lisa nodded in agreement and Marcus smiled and bowed to the duo "Thank you, this will really help me out. We should go back and run it a few times so you both can get your own set." He said.
They both shook their heads "We're already level 17, we'll get better options as we level up. What are you going to do?" Mawu asked.
Marcus stroked his chin. "Guess it's time to go grind! I should turn in this quest before heading out."
Lisa smiled "we'll help you! What were you going to farm?" (The process of killing the same monster over and over for fast exp)
"I'm gonna hunt contracts!" Marcus smiled "with you two it will definitely be faster. Mage and Rogue huh?" Marcus asked. Knowing that later on at Tier 3 when they were able to unlock Beast Master and Druid they had to choose Rogue and Mage.
"Yeah, with you as Squire, we figured this would be the best option to round out our little party." Lisa said.
Marcus nodded "Good thinking. I think it's time we expand our party, I'm gonna go run some errands when I'm 15 I'll reach out to you guys to begin the contract farming.