Sirus and the four others appeared in a temple and walked outside to find a bustling city center. The buildings were themed in a European medieval style, with signature stone and wood houses with a cobblestone road running throughout. The sun sat at perfect noon, rays of light poking at every eye in the city. A group of people sat on the stairs, wearing armor and clothing one would expect to see in Hamlet, excitedly approached the five incoming players.
"Hey, guys! I am a member of the prestigious Fire Guild. Do you mind my asking what contribution grade you received?"
Hello newbies! I'm also a member of a special guild, the Darkness guild, and we would love to recruit you guys! What's your contribution grade?"
"Uhhh. . . 2%"
"Huh, that's it? What about you four?"
"96%"
"Like hell you did! I've never heard of anyone getting that high a percent!"
"Ok… Are you going to do anything about it?"
"I don't need to! You can just join our guild?"
"And if I don't want to?"
"We're a large guild. It would be in your best interest to join. Plus, we have your information now."
"Nobody is going to believe you. So…uh… see ya."
He expected the man to get more angry and try to follow him, but he didn't, but he seemed to complain to the man from the other guild.
Sirus walked around the city, finding it not necessarily easy to navigate as many of the buildings looked very similar. The strangest part about it was the naming of some of the buildings.They were marked 'Inn 3' or 'Restaurant 2'. There were restaurants with more creative names, but he didn't know why. Additionally, there were blacksmiths, tailors, and alchemists, but all of those places had names you might expect. Eventually, he came upon what one might describe as the slums. The buildings didn't look any worse, but the streets were filled with people in tattered clothing.
"Please, any gold?"
"Do you have any money to spare?"
"Anything, please!"
"I'll pay for a meal, but only if you help me too. Who has been here the longest or has experience in this world."
A few people raised their hands, and Sirus pointed to the first one who did. It was an older man with a few gray hairs and a substantial beard.
"How long have you been here?"
"Six months."
"Good enough. I'll treat you to a meal if you share your experience with me."
"That I can do!"
"Great."
…
"I want a steak."
"Hamburger."
The foods appeared on plates in front of them, surprising one and exciting the other.
Through mouthfuls of food, he asked, "What do you want to know?"
"I just arrived; whatever you think will be important to a newbie. We'll go from there."
"Alright then. Uhhh, first of all, you can't attack people in the city. Well, you can, but guards will arrest you. Classes are general directions you want your fighting style to go in, like Fighter or Thief, then you can choose specializations, like Shadow Thief or Executioner.
You can get skills in many ways, they sometimes evolve, but the reasons are vague. The big important guilds are the Heavenly and Ranker Guilds. Don't let the Heavenly name confuse ya; all guilds treat anyone not in their guild like shit. Residents are the people that live in the city, some of them are part of the system, some aren't, it's kinda hard to tell.
Questions?"
"Why are you poor?"
"Fair question. Didn't have the courage to do much in the tutorial, but I still passed and got a decent reward. Then I failed the first mission, lost stats, and spiraled from there. I can't get enough money doing odd jobs for NPCs to eat often enough, but we're all starving."
"I think I understand well enough. Thank you."
"Can I add you as a friend?"
"Huh?"
[Player Darren Baker has sent you a friend request.]
"It just means we can contact each other in the future. If you have any other questions, feel free."
"May I ask why you would do so for free?"
"You treated me with respect. You did not belittle my failure despite your success. That's all."
"Fair enough."
. . .
'It's quite funny; I've been wandering around the town so much, I forgot that I actually got rewards and could check my status.'
[Player Name: Sirus Damniel
Lvl: 1
Class: None
Skills: Viewer's Guiding Eye, Knife Arts, Spear Arts, Willpower
Titles: Promising Candidate
Strength: 1
Intelligence: 1
Dexterity: 1
Mana: 10/10]
[Title: Promising Candidate
Grade: A+
Effect: Exp Gained: +10%]
[Title: Conqueror
Completion: 0.0%
The ability of the strongest is built on a long road. Slay great and powerful enemies to unlock the power of a Conqueror.
Grade: S+]
! After completion reaches 100%, unlock skill Conqueror
[Skill: Novice Dagger Arts
Increases dexterity by .1 when fighting with a Dagger
Grade: E]
! Stab 1,000 enemies to evolve skill to Basic Dagger Arts
[Skill: Novice Spear Arts
Increases dexterity by .1 when fighting with a Spear
Grade: E]
! Stab 1,000 enemies to evolve skill to Basic Spear Arts
! Use a spear as your primary weapon to unlock common Fighter class: Spear Master
[Skill: Courage
Minor resistance to mental debuffs]
! Resist fear against higher level enemies 100 times to evolve skill to Willpower
'These all do nothing. I get that my expectations were high, but that is disappointing. How many things do I need to kill before it gives me anything? And these skills are too vague to really mean anything, but a ten percent increase to skill experience is substantial.'
Sirus thought about the application of his abilities while he walked to the center of town, finding the Commissioner.
"Welcome, Adventurer! There are some missions we would love if you could handle!"
[Quest: Kobold Extermination
Grade: F
Description: A debut into the world of mercenary work! Try your hardest! Even small mobs can cause the strong trouble.
Conditions: Extermination: Kill all enemies within the time limit
Success: +.2 strength, 2,000 Gold
Failure: -.25 random stat, -500 Gold]
! Kill all Kobolds without setting off a trap +.5 Intelligence
[Quest: Ogre Killer
Grade: F
Description: A debut into the world of mercenary work! Try your hardest! Even a single mob can cause the strong trouble.
Conditions: Elimination: Find and Kill the Ogre within the time limit
Success: +.2 Strength, 2,000 Gold
Failure: -.25 random stat, -1,000 Gold]
! Kill the Ogre within 10 Minutes to receive +.5 Strength
'The variation here is minor, death by a thousand cuts or one big hit. My weapons are shit, and
I would feel much more comfortable if I knew more about Ogres or Kobolds than TV on Earth.'
"Can you tell me the best way to defeat Ogres or Kobolds?"
"Oh, of course not! These missions test your capability; what kind of test would it be at that point?"
"Yeah, alright, I thought so."
Sirus left without selecting a mission, visiting the only place he had yet to go.
"Welcome to the library! I am the head librarian, Patyna. Is there anything I can help you with?"
"Do you have any books on monsters, specifically Ogres or Kobolds?"
"Oh yes, though I do have bad news. Books are expensive to make, so if you do want to read any books regarding monsters, I will have to charge you 100 Gold per 15 minutes you spend here, which should be long enough to find what you need. Of course, leisure books are still a free option!"
! Read leisure books exclusively for at least 60 hours to receive Title: Voracious Learner
! Read all history books to unlock Common Artisan Class: Historian
! Read all monster books to unlock Common Artisan Class: Zoologist
! Read all language books to unlock Common Artisan Class: Linguist
! Read all history, monster, and language books to receive rare Artisan class: Professor
'Woah, that's a lot of shit! Reading is boring as hell though, so no.'
"I will pay."
"How impressive that a new adventurer like you has money to spend! I'll show you to the
monster section."
. . .
Ogres: Unwieldy, ugly Giants with enormous strength and even more rage.
- Usually uses a club for close combat and boulders for ranged combat.
- Avaricious greed for treasure and willing to eat anything.
- Can be lured using their strong sense of smell with meat or blood
- Yellow, tan color, human-esque appearance, approx. 12 to 13 feet tall.
- Evil creatures. They have no morals and do not care for even their own race.
- Ogre blood and testicles are alchemical ingredients and can be sold
Kobolds: Small, vicious creatures with a propensity towards caves and traps
- No specific weapon of choice, though traps are extraordinarily common
- Resentful to other races due to their small stature and weak nature
- Predominantly live in overcrowded caves, filling each entrance with intricate traps
- Cruel torturers, if captured, you should legitimately consider suicide.
- Kobold skin is craftable into items and is somewhat valuable.
"This is valuable information. I was going to try to take on the kobolds, given I figured it would be similar to zombies in terms of a weak swarm, but I guess not. Separately, these entries don't include recommended levels or assumed stats of the monsters, meaning they likely weren't written by players, meaning there are likely a substantial number of NPC mercenaries, or were."
Sirus left, going to the Shopping district, specifically the alchemists. There were a few different alchemist shops, but he couldn't find a substantial distinction between the products of each. However, they each seemed to have a specialty category, like healing, buffs, or debuffs.
"Welcome to my Potion Shop. If it's cheap, I'm selling it. It is the best you can buy for the price you pay for it."
[Item: Lowest grade Poison
Effects: Bitter taste, muscle spasms, and loss of precise muscle control.
Cost: 2,500 Gold]
[Item: Lowest grade Instant Recovery Potion
Effects: Quickly recovers physical health and reduces pain]
Cost: 2,500 Gold]
[Item: Lowest grade Adrenaline Potion
Effects: Provides immediate strength and dexterity boost but causes a weakened state afterward]
Cost: 2,500 Gold]
[Item: Lowest grade Stamina Potion
Effects: Reduces the rate stamina is lost by 10%]
Cost: 2,000 Gold]
[Item: Lowest grade Haste Potion
Effects: Loosens the muscles and provides greater flexibility]
Cost: 2,000 Gold]
[Item: Lowest grade Regeneration Potion
Effects: Long lasting potion, reduces bleeding, increases natural regeneration]
Cost: 1,500 Gold]
[Item: Lowest Grade Focus Potion
Effects: Sharpens the mind. Causes state of mental fatigue afterward]
Cost: 1,500 Gold]
[Item: Monster Lure
Effects: Strong smell of dead animals and blood.
Cost: 1,500 Gold]
"Yeah, hey. Is there any precise effect? These all seem quite vague."
"There is, and there isn't. There's a limit to what stats can be raised by lowest-grade potions. If you have high strength, the adrenaline potion probably won't do much, same with haste and dexterity."
"Oh, ok, thank you."
'I have no idea how my stats or abilities affect the potions, so the best option seems to be poison. The book said they'll eat anything, so I just need to buy something it wants to eat. The monster lure is probably also a good idea if I want to make it within the time limit.'
[Possessed Gold:5550]
Sirus went to a shop labeling itself as a butcher and was confused that meat was being sold, and expensive too. The restaurants were cheap and served anything. The most surprising thing was Orc, Rockbird, and Griffin meat, going for up to 3,000 Gold per pound.
"Holy cow. Literally. This is pricey!"
"It's good meat, with good effects, from rare monsters. Were you expecting to get it for a nickel?"
"Well. No, I wasn't. I'm not too picky. Speaking of, could I buy your meat scraps, or rotten meat, like where you throw it away? It's fine if it's bloody!"
"Um… we drain and sell the blood, so that's not really an option. But if you really want it, I probably have around 40 pounds of Viperfish that one of my guys didn't store properly, so it went bad. If you promise to take all of it quickly, you can take it for 500 Gold. But please don't eat it."
"Done and done!"
The final stop: a weapons merchant.
[Item: Iron Sword]
[Item: Iron Longsword]
[Item: Iron Shortsword]
[Item: Iron Daggers]
[Item: Iron Cutlass]
[Item: Iron Spear]
[Item: Iron Axe]
[Item: Iron Gauntlets]
[Item: Iron Poleaxe]
[Item: Iron Halbert]
[Item: Iron Flail]
[Item: Iron Shield]
[Item: Iron Hammer]
[Item: Iron Lance]
[Item: Iron Scythe]
[Item: Kobold Leather Whip
[Item: Iron Throwing Knives]
"Uhhhh. Wow, this stuff is so… iron-y and… diverse."
"Ah, you're new, are you? In the fighter class, there are 15 weapon specializations you can have, I'm surprised your guild didn't tell you."
"I'm not in a guild."
"Are you serious? That's a rare sight, your types die quickly. Anyways, Most of this is from apprentice blacksmiths and made of iron. There isn't even a substantial enough quality difference for me to bother putting on prices since you can estimate costs from the amount of iron. The range is three to six thousand gold, knives being the cheapest, lance being not."
"Any recommendations?"
"Cutlass' are for pirates; whips are hard to learn; judge the rest based on preference."
'Something I've never understood is people's obsession with swords. They're convenient as secondary weapons given the ease of carrying, but they lack power or versatility compared to a halberd. With one of those, you can smash, stab, slash, and parry all in one.'
"Halberd."
"Alright, 4,000 Gold."
"How much is a dagger?"
"1,000"
"I'll take that too, then."
'Oh, I'm so fucking broke now.'