-----
I looked around Acorn's home. The young boy had a small kitchen, a stove, and some kitchen utensils as well as pans and pots, so it was all set to do some cooking. The boy really all lived by himself didn't he?
Poor thing. I could cook for him like I did for my daughter… which reminded me of something.
I had leveled up to Level 3 yesterday, so I wanted to check my Status first, because I ended up forgetting about it because I was too sleepy.
-----
[Player Name]: [Planta]
[Race]: [Dryad: Lv3/20]
[Race EXP]: [750/3000]
[Job Class]: [Farmer: Lv3/20]
[Job Class EXP]: [750/3000]
[Satiation]: [72/100]
[HP]: [70/70 -> 90/90]
[MP]: [320/320 -> 370/370]
[STR]: [17 -> 22]
[VIT]: [17 -> 22]
[DEX]: [17 -> 22]
[AGI]: [28 -> 40]
[INT]: [47 -> 59]
[WIS]: [50 -> 60]
[LUC]: [35 -> 40]
[Race Skills: 4/10]
[Spirit of the Forest: Lv1], [Photosynthesis: Lv1], [Green Magic: Lv2], [Life Drain: Lv1]
[Job Class Skills: 5/10]
[Agriculture: Lv1], [AGI UP: Lv1], [Tame: Lv1], [Cooking: Lv1], [Farm Animal Companion: Lv1]
[Summons: 1/1]
[White Goat (Female): Name: Belle: Lv2]
[Tamed Monsters: 0/2]
None
[Skill Points: 10]
[Stat Points: 10]
[Equipment]
[Spirit of the Forest Robes]
[Bracelet of Nature]
[Crown of Spirit Wood]
[Seed Pouch]
-----
Huh, I see, they increased just the same amount as before. Maybe if I evolved, I could increase the stat increase I gained per level? Although it seemed unlikely, seeing how this was a VRMMO game, there was probably some balancing which prevented people's status all bloated with gigantic numbers, right?
But it felt nice to have some more MP, I could do a bit more of things now…
The guide spirit emerged at my side, he was a bit late.
"Should I use my Stat Points in Mana again?" I wondered.
"A mage's most important status is not INT or WIS, it's actually MP, so yeah, the more fuel you get the more you can fight and therefore the more damage you have," said the guide. "What's the point of increasing your spells' damage by a small percent when by increasing your MP you can just fire another spell and deal even more accumulative damage at the end of the day? Although perhaps at later stages when you got way too much Mana to care, you may invest in INT."
"I see…! Okay then, all to MP once more, it is an important stat to conjure magic and do pretty much anything," I said.
I decided to increase my MP by +20 by spending 10 Stat Points, and after that, I glanced at my available Skills from the Skill Tree…
-----
[Skill Tree: Dryad]
[Plant Synthesis: Lv0]
[Life Drain: Lv0] PICKED
[Spirit Magic: Lv0]
[Natural Charm: Lv0]
[Daughter of Nature: Lv0]
[Spiritual Shield: Lv0]
[Plant Companion: Lv0]
[Nature's Rage: Lv0]
[INT UP: Lv0]
[WIS UP: Lv0]
[MP UP: Lv0]
-----
[Skill Tree: Farmer]
[Tame: Lv0] PICKED
[Cooking: Lv0] PICKED
[Brewing: Lv0]
[Crafting: Lv0]
[Sewing: Lv0]
[Fishing: Lv0]
[Alchemy: Lv0]
[Robust Body: Lv0]
[Farm Animal Companion: Lv0] PICKED
[Farming Tools Usage: Lv0]
[Terrain Adaptability: Lv0]
[Soil Manipulation: Lv0]
[DEX UP: Lv0]
[HP UP: Lv0]
-----
"Hm… Oh! There is an MP UP Skill…" I said. "Is it good?"
"UP-type Skills are always good, but they increase stats based on percentage, as of now your stats are too low to see too much of a difference, but as they grow bigger and bigger it is where they begin to shine," said the guide spirit. "Leave them for mid-game, perhaps."
I see… Well, eventually I could pick anything I wanted, but there were slots for both race and job, so I cannot go all out either… I needed to pick a few Skills and probably level up some. Although I had to keep in mind that non-passive skills that are leveled up usually required more mana to work. So for some skills, their leveling might wait until I was higher level so I could keep up with their necessity for MP.
So I should just pick the Skills that I need for now instead of thinking in the big picture for too much for now… I got my farm animal, so how about I get my plant pet too? And… Hm, what else should I pick? Ah, that one Skill seemed like what I needed yesterday. I've always wanted to do this, but I've not done it for years since I was a teenager with dad…
[You have exchanged 6 Skill Points!]
[You learned the [Plant Companion: Lv1], [Daughter of Nature: Lv1], and [Fishing: Lv1] Skills!]
I decided to save the other 4 Skill Points for later, as I wanted to use them whenever I needed them, that way I could probably boost the power of Belle if things got risky by leveling her skill up, or maybe getting another skill if the situation called for it. After all, always having some of these points saved didn't seem to hurt!
Now, these three Skills I selected are pretty good, and they will bring me a nice amount of help and things to do. I really wanted to fish yesterday, but I needed the Skill. However, now that I've finally obtained it, I'll catch some fish and cook it!
-----
[Plant Companion: Lv1]
As a Dryad, your connection with Nature is superb, to the point that you're able to channel your spiritual and magical power and summon a Plant Familiar to aid you in battle. As a summon, they can level up on their own and gain Skills and Stats through that method.
This Summon will be loyal to you from the get-go and doesn't count as a tamed monster. It can develop on its own and require food and care. Every 3 Levels of the Skill, you can summon a new companion.
Each Level slightly increases the strength of your Plant Companions. If a Plant Companion dies, it can be summoned again, but 50% of their gained strength will be lost, and they will start with zero closeness with you again, so make sure to take care of them and not sacrifice them!
Max number of summonable Plant Companions: 0/1
-----
It had almost the same description as the Farm Animal Companion Skill. I guess there might be some sort of classification for all these skills, which I'd call Summon-type Skills. They let you summon a new monster every three levels, so maybe I could use the Skill Points into these Skills and get even more summons!
However, the guide spirit told me that the more summons I get, the more mana they'd cost since they progressively get stronger when you summon them. A second summon cost a lot of MP to summon, and he said even if I leveled up the skill, I wouldn't have enough Mana to summon it… So I had to wait a bit. He said this was a "newbie trap" that made them spend all their skill points in summoning skills which end up being useless because they're low level.
Only the summoner class can get a lot of low-level summons, I suppose. Well, Dryad and Farmer Combination gets two, and also the Tame Skill, so that was a pretty good combination, I just had to find the ideal monsters to tame, some cute ones would be good!
-----
[Daughter of Nature: Lv1]
As a Dryad, a Forest Spirit, you are the daughter of nature itself, whenever you're close to a place with a high concentration of nature such as a forest, you receive a great enhancement to all your stats and magic capabilities.
While being close to a place with a high concentration of nature, your Stats increase by +20%, your HP and MP regeneration is enhanced by +20%, and any ally near you receives an enhancement of +10% to All Stats and HP and MP Regeneration per Skill Level.
Additionally, there's a 10% chance for nature surrounding you to protect you from lethal blows.
-----
This was another stat-boosting Passive Skill, much like the others, it did something very simple, it made me stronger in the forest! I was never leaving this place I guess… If I walked outside the forest and went into a mountain or a city, I would significantly weaken… but Dryads are impressively powerful in the forest, wow!
I did a good job in picking this Race, it was very strong.
And lastly…
-----
[Fishing: Lv1]
Grants access to the ability to fish in game. Real life abilities can be transferred to the game, however. As the Skill level increases, you become better at fishing and to apply fishing techniques, while you have a higher chance to catch fishes of higher qualities and rarities. Additionally, it increases damage dealt to Water-type monsters by +10%.
-----
And here's fishing! It seemed that it was a pretty good choice to make. So this game had its own system for fishing and there was a whole group of fishes you could get from different locations! It was like real life, but perhaps even better with even more fantastical fishes you could catch and cook.
Also it gave me a bonus to damage dealt against water-type monsters… I didn't know if I was ever going to use it, but it seemed to be useful. I wonder if fishes would fight against me when I catch them, after all there's bound to be some monster fishes, right? So perhaps it was to help me in dealing damage to them and defeating them.
I used to fish with my father when I was a teenager, and I always liked to pick up fish, but after that, I often freed them, I didn't like to kill them… my father did all the killing though, as he caught fish to eat mostly.
Still, we used to take pictures of our catches, and inside of his house there's a big space in the wall with pictures of me holding all sorts of fishes we caught in rivers, lakes, and even the sea… I should go visit my parents soon, bringing Elena as well. I think it should be fun, but I miss them a bit.
Anyways! I should first go fish something, I will leave Acorn sleeping here, he seems healthy so he's not sick or something, he seems to be just very tired… I crawled down the tree and jumped over Belle.
"Belle, let's go there," I said, as I showed her the mini map, there was a big shallow river nearby that I saw that was filled with fishes, so we quickly moved there.
"Mee!"
Belle was a strong goat, she immediately began to carry me on her back towards that direction, galloping as if she were more of a horse, it was quite impressive.
When we reached the river, it only took around five minutes, she was very fast. I jumped out of her back and reached the cold forest floor. I saw the crystalline river there and heard the sound of the water flowing which really soothed my heart.
I looked into the water and then I decided to do some fishing.
"Alright, time to fish—Ah, how do I fish without fishing tools?!" I cried. "G-Guide! Is there a place I can buy them?"
"Hmm… There is the Market City I told you about, which is also used for Game Events that any player can teleport to," said the guide spirit. "You can go there and find someone selling fishing tools, but they're expensive, even the lowest grade. This is because players themselves craft everything, so there is a bigger value to the time they spend making things… After all this game doesn't drop equipment, people have to craft absolutely everything out of dropped materials and gathered/mined materials."
"I-I see… I guess that's a big realistic part of this game." I sighed. "How do I fish then…"
As I thought about it, I looked into my hand, and a genius idea emerged in my mind.
I slowly turned my hand into a strong and long, green-colored vine and checked if it was good for fishing. It seemed good enough! No need to buy anything expensive, I was now using my own arm as a rod! It cost only a bit of Mana and that was fine.
I shaped the tip of the vine into some small flower in the shape of a long, pink-colored worm, and then put it in the water.
"W-What are you even doing? Wait, it is working?! The game is allowing you to fish with your hand?!" asked the guide spirit. "That's… I guess it is okay?"
"If the game doesn't give me tools, I'll become the tool- UWAH! Someone bit me! Oh, the fish!"
A big fish suddenly took the bait!
-----