After another 2 and a half hours, John fired off an arrow, finishing off the latest giant rabbit. A golden glow surrounded them both, and a system notification popped up: {Level up}. Exhausted but with wide grins on their faces, they collapsed to the floor. "That's the first step, John," Tommy said, panting. "What have we made so far?"
John opened his inventory to check on all the loot they had gained.
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Inventory:
- Beginner's health potion x10
- Beginner's mana potion x6
- Copper coins: 80
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John divided up the loot, transferring 5 health potions, 3 mana potions, and 40 copper coins. The pair then decided to head back into town. John needed some new arrows, and as they walked, they noticed a new stat appearing in their profile.
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Satisfy: 80/100
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Clicking the question mark brought up a description explaining the stat:
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Satisfy signifies your current hunger levels. If Satisfy drops below 40%, the player will feel hunger, resulting in a 5% decrease in concentration, movement, defense, and attack. There is a 5% increase in debuff for every 10% below 40% satisfied. If Satisfy hits 0%, the player will lose 1 HP per second until death.
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Suddenly, John remembered something. "Tommy, can I see your profile? I want to check something." Tommy sent over his profile to John.
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Character Profile:
Character Name: Tommy/Silverback
Level: 2
XP: 0\/200
Class: Warrior
Satisfy: 80%
Stats:
- Strength: 12
- Agility: 10
- Intelligence: 10
- Constitution: 12
Health Points: 70
Mana: 100/100
Defence: 32
Skills:
1. Intimidating Shout:
- Level 1 5%
- provoke and lower enemy's attack by 5% within a 10-foot radius of the player for 30 seconds
- Cooldown: 45 seconds
- Mana Cost: 20
2. Shield Assault:
- Level 3%
- to bash enemies three times, dealing 100% damage
- Cooldown: 10 seconds
- Mana Cost: 10
3. Inciting Strikes:
- Level 1 10%
- interrupt enemy skills\spellcasting and provoke for 45 seconds
- Deals 150% damage
- Cooldown: 90 seconds
- Mana Cost: 30
4. True Grit:
- Level 1 0%
- Increases defence by 100% for 10 minutes
- Cooldown: 6 hours
- Mana Cost: 60
Equipment:
- Steel Plate Armour (common):
- +10 defence
- Durability: 89%
- Steel Shield (common):
- +2 defence, damage 2-6
- Durability: 85%
- Steel Axe (common):
- Damage: 8-15
- Durability: 87%
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No luck stat, that means it's a hidden stat as he suspected, so no way to tell how powerful 58 luck was. Still, in the previous fights he noticed, as he got more accustomed to fighting and his shots became more accurate, he had a roughly 70% crit rate to Tommy's 30%. The luck stat could be the reason for this, or it could be other factors, stats, hidden class bonuses; there were any number of things it could be. This game really lacked information and players did need to work out everything, like babies fresh out of the womb; the players knew nothing and every moment was a learning experience. Looking over Tommy's screen, he noticed a couple of differences: Tommy had the same points in Constitution but his defense increased by 5 per stat point while John's had increased by 2, so Warriors gained an extra 3 defense per stat point over the other classes. This means each class has an innate ability giving them advantages in certain fields. He could easily guess mages and medics would get an intelligence boost. granting more mana or spell damage/healing. Weapon masters would gain a damage boost from strength. But what a beast master would gain, he could not say. And all this was just guesswork at the moment. This game had many secrets left to be unlocked.
In high spirits, chatting away, the duo entered the town. "Tommy, let's meet back up here in an hour. John's first stop was to restock his quiver. Arrows could be reused but they did diminish: missed wild shots, losing arrows, snapped arrows trying to remove them from the corpse. Arrows would be a constant drain on his funds. Suddenly, John stopped in his tracks and a thought came to him: "Is there a lifestyle skill to create arrows? Blacksmithing, maybe?" With this in mind, John changed direction and headed to the lifestyle training center in the industrial district of the town. Here, players could find instructors like everything else. Not much information was provided, just a small section on the website telling players that lifestyle careers start here if they are worthy.
Finding the building he was looking for quickly, John walked up to the entrance. It was not a grand building, but it was not run-down either. It was a large building built not for extravagance, but to be functional. It looked like a small campus with various smaller buildings behind the main one. John proceeded to enter the building. There was a reception desk with a queue consisting of both players and NPCs. To the sides, various portals in the walls were spaced out in twos, with "entrance" and "exit" written above each. People were entering and exiting through the portals. John watched all this and listened to the chatter around him as he waited patiently in line.
"This may be a new world, but we're still British. We know how to line up, hey fella," said a player behind him. The name "Steel Heart" rang a bell in his head, but he could not recall where from. Responding and engaging in light conversation was not a strong point for John. He was not the type of person to just talk to random strangers, but the other party seemed oblivious to John's lack of interest.
"So, what are you here for, mate? You look like an archer. Are you looking to learn the Fletcher skill and make your own arrows?" The mention of Fletcher caught John's interest. "What did you say? Fletching? Yeah, I assumed it would be something like blacksmithing. I guess I'm here to learn fletching," John replied, more engaged with the other party now.
"Haha, no, friend. There's a skill called Fletcher, but blacksmithing is needed to create the arrowheads. But you're in luck." Thumping his chest in pride, Steel Heart continued, "I'm a blacksmith, and I have a quest to create 70 arrowheads to be accepted as a beginner blacksmith. Yeah, you will get a class quest when you register. I'm just lining up to register as a miner, then I will be hitting the fields. It's going to take me time to set up, find, gather some steel, and then forge the arrowheads. But why don't we exchange info, and I can do you a good deal on them? What do you say?" Sending across a friend request, John accepted, and Steel Heart agreed to contact him when he had some arrowheads created.
It was John's turn in line, and he said his goodbyes and walked up to the receptionist. After taking some basic details like name and career path, she directed him to a portal. "The 3rd portal on the right will take you to the fletcher's workshops."
Stepping through the portal, John was transported to another part of the complex. He stepped out of a portal on the other side, looking around at what seemed to be a large functioning workshop. There were various tools and arrows at different stages of completion. He spotted an older man who looked to be in his 70s, examining an arrow. Walking up to him, John greeted him, "Hi, sir. I'm looking to learn the art of fletching. I dream of creating the greatest, strongest arrows, and I humbly come here to learn from the wisdom of the master craftsmen." John filled the act with humility and flattery. He may not be good at small talk, but he had a way of manipulating a situation to his advantage.
The old man looked up at John, a look of annoyance on his face. Then, he looked back down at his work. Changing tactics, John spoke again, "Forgive me, sir. You're clearly busy. I'm sorry for interrupting you. I will wait over here until you're finished and not disturb you again." Pointing to a bench in the corner, the old man looked up again at where John was pointing, made a low grunting noise, and turned back to his work. John went to sit down on the bench. With nothing else to do, he opened his profile page to check his updated stats
th to improve his damage output and relying on his passive stat gain in agility for now to keep that stat growing. This was the best solution he could come up with currently to place his stats. His class was still unknown to him, other than agility, which clearly seemed to be a major stat for his class. The rest was all guesswork. Closing his profile, he continued to wait patiently. Twenty minutes went by without any signs that the old man acknowledged him. Starting to get agitated, he started to fidget in his seat. Then, the old man looked up for the first time, staring intently at John. "Kid, do I look like a receptionist To you? You waltz in here, interrupting my work with your gibberish. I'm Roland Swift. Normally, I would chuck you out on your ear for disturbing me, but I'm in a good mood today, kid. So, I will give you a chance. Take a look at this," showing John an arrow. An item description popped up in front of him.
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Arrow of judgment (legendary)
Fires an arrow that ignores defence and courses 40,000 damage to the target
Upon impact courses an explosion that deals 15,000 damage to target splash damage in a 50 yard radius
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Looking at the arrow speechless, was he really seeing a legendary item? "This boy is my masterpiece, my life's work, and you come in here spouting nonsense about creating the best arrows? Ha, don't make me laugh, boy. But since I'm in a good mood, like I said, I will give you a chance. Make and bring me back one uncommon arrow, and I will teach you everything I know. Show me you're worthy."
A quest appeared in front of John
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Class quest B ranked
Create one uncommon arrow and return to Rowland fleet
Rewards
Fletcher class skill apprentice level
Rowland fleet to become your instructer
Accept yes/no
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He's first quest and it was B ranked that normally meant high difficulty the reward was also apprentice level it was a whole level jump other players had to start at beginner and grind to apprentice there was no doubting he's 58 luck had something to do with this outcome quickly accepting not wanting to take any chances this quest would disappear Roland handed john a piece of paper this is the blueprint to make an arrow "making an uncommon arrow that will depend on your luck and skill I doubt I will be seeing you again kid" laughing he looked back down at his arrow seeing there was nothing left to gain here John turned to leave bidding Roland goodbye in the end he still needed to buy some arrows for now