"These are some high tier elixir ingredients! Where'd you get them?"
"Trade secret."
"Well aren't you special. I just want to know how these plants were made! My textbooks just tell me what they do! At least tell me the environment they were in!"
"Really? Look at their names. Moonbloom? Bloodroot? Where do you think they came from?"
"Yeah, I guess so. What do you want me to do with them? I can make them into elixirs for you, or just buy them off you straight."
"What can you make?"
"Two or three mid-tier potions. Potion of Necrotic Empowerment, Potion of Shadow Mancing and maybe a Draught of Dark Magic."
"Their cost being?"
"4,000 Gold, 15,000 Gold, and then 17,000. In that order."
"Huh? Is that just to make them?"
"More or less. Alchemy with higher level ingredients is extraordinarily difficult. And at that price, it includes insurance for the materials if the potion fails. Plus there's some added ingredients, it's not just those four plants."
"And how much would I get if I sold them to you?"
"Probably around 112,000 Gold. A fair sum for a newbie."
"Wow, yeah, I think it is. Thank you. I'll come back with a decision later today."
Sirus left to find a weaponsmith, and a nicer one at that.
"Hello and welcome to Adventurer's Arsenal! Watch'a need?"
"A Halberd, a shortsword or dagger, and some throwing knives."
"Budget?"
"It depends. I have about 28,000 to spend on me, but there's stuff that I don't want to sell, but can for 112,000 gold. What would be the difference?"
"At a price range of 28,000 to 112,000. Definitely out of the iron tier, but not within anything like Mithril. I can offer all the weapons you asked, custom, in steel at about 25K. For around 112K, I could probably get you Ironwood, Darksteel or Cold Iron, depending on what you want."
"The differences being?"
"Ironwood is more flexible, and magic resistant, so fast and good against spellcasters. Darksteel is durable, and similarly magic resistant. Cold Iron is better than iron, and good against Demons."
"I'll just take the steel. And I don't need a custom order. I don't know enough about these weapons to make an informed decision about customizations."
"You're the boss."
[Item: Sharp Steel Halberd
Grade: D
- Increases slashing and penetration by 6%]
[Item: Poisoner's Throwing Knives
Grade: D
- Grooves allow for better application of poison. Sheaths are airtight]
[Item: Fighter's Shortsword]
Grade: D
- Special leather grip that absorbs sweat and improves grippability.]
'These are probably the best for the price. The enchantment on the Halberd is adding a lot to the cost, but none of the other optimizations were good and I can afford it.
Come to think of it, I don't think grippability is a word. Is graspability a word? Holdability? Whatever.'
"The Halberd, sword, and five knives."
"Alright. Do you want poison with that?"
"If it was fries, maybe, but not poison."
"Okay then. 24,758 Gold."
[Possessed Gold: 3,674]
Sirus left and went back to the alchemist and bought the same poison as before.
'The dark magic I saw was way more interesting than the shit I have! Fireball's are cool, but fire is already a preexisting thing that can be made with other methods. But summoning? Possession? That looked so perfectly theatrically interesting. I should become one, then make my own cave and become some weird reclusive villain. Speaking of, the hidden Soul Reaper Class seems to be part of that cave. If dark magic is the direction I want to go, returning to that cave is probably my best option, but only once I get stronger.'
Sirus spent the remainder of the day at the training grounds, getting more used to the weight and balance of his new weapons. Whenever he brought out his dagger, he was reminded of killing the man in the cave, but did his best to suppress it. He didn't necessarily feel guilty, but more so felt uneasy about the whole thing.
After a few hours, Sirus left to find the commissioner, confident in the level of his advancement.
"Welcome back! It's been a week or so! I assumed given your rapid growth, you would get overconfident and take a mission that killed you! Silly me!"
"Not entirely wrong, but I have taken it slower."
"On that subject, you are past the point of having missions straight given to you, though your choices are still limited. What difficulty rating do you want?"
Sirus stood in thought for longer than she was expecting. From what he understood, he has had massive growth compared to other players, and didn't necessarily need to risk it every time. He had the strength to slow down, but decided against it, knowing that taking the shorter route would lead to a slow death, and only risking it all would lend to the chance of getting beyond the game.
"I'll take a D-rank."
[Quest: Hobgoblin Extermination.
Grade: D
Description: The evolution and proliferation of a Hobgoblin in the Pyrenees Forest has caused an outbreak of Hobgoblins. Protect the merchant convoy alongside other mercenaries until you reach the town of Tyroll.
Conditions: Protection: Prevent the Convoy from taking damage or losing merchandise.
Success: Depends on contribution, 15,000 Gold
Failure: -.5 random stat, -7,500 Gold]
! Kill the Hobgoblin War-chief and his Royal Guard alone to receive recieve Item: Hobgoblin's Necklace
"I don't really want to work with others, but upgrading a skill so easily sounds amazing."
[Mission Accepted!
Teleporting to: 384728932752
Time Remaining ~ 72:00]
"Knights guild, over here!" "Coming!" "Yeah!" "See you!"
Sirus teleported to the edge of a bustling town, in a flat dirt area with around 10 carriages inside and people teleporting in. He tried to walk into the town, but was unable to get beyond a barrier.
"Hey! New guy! System won't let us go over there. Not part of the job."
"How do you know? Have you been here before?"
"...Of course? I guess you're not in a guild, or in a shitty one. This is a repeatable mission; we use it to train new players like you. It's an easy way to get money without too much risk."
"Makes enough sense. Is there a limit?"
"No, but rewards decrease for each repeated time. I pretty much gain nothing at this point. I'm Micheal Sheaffer by the way."
"Sirus Damniel. Nice to meet you. Oh, now that I have you, I assume you would know this; does time work the same here as it does on the outside?"
"Yeah. I'm surprised you haven't noticed already. Time goes by 100x slower here. This mission lasts a few days, but we'll be out in an hour or so."
"That's so cool, thank you!"
"Excuse me, everybody. I am the leader of Blue Swan Merchant Company, we're moving out now. Please do your best to protect my cargo!"The man walked off to one of the wagons and Micheal said his goodbyes then rejoined his group. The trip the first day was relatively monotonous, most of the players walked alongside the wagons, on occasion, fighting small groups of goblins, but the cargo was only ever hit by a few stray arrows.
'Nobody has died yet; what kind of stupid ass mission is this? I should've done a C Grade mission.'