Abel was slightly jogging back home after having a fruitful visit to his hunting grounds within the forest. He had another 2 rabbits tied up and swinging with his arms, this time he chose to set up a different trap in the hopes of catching another boar. He had placed the inedible rabbit organs as bait and would check on it the following day, even if it didn't catch anything, he would have to replace the bait as it would slowly rot over the next 24 hours.
Abel walked into the house and found Frankie and Melly finishing up their breakfast with his share placed on the kitchen counter.
"Good morning, I hope you two had a beautiful day!" Abel spoke cheerfully with a meaningful grin on his face.
"Scram! Just wait till you get a girlfriend and see how I tease you to death." Melissa responded like always, a little bashful and a little annoyed.
"What took you so long? Just yesterday you were bragging about being so proficient with the snare…" Frankie totally ignored his earlier comment, completely used to Abel's playful banter with them. Instead he was curious as to what took Ablel so long to get back, they were about to wash up and then head off to work.
"I was setting up the big one, we're nearly out of bacon." Abel replied while he was putting the rabbits into a basket, "By the way, could you pick up some wood from those crates out back today? Ask Reggie if he can drop them off, it's not like you can carry them back or take them onto a bus." Reggie was Frankie's friend and colleague at work, he was one of the cargo handlers for the warehouse and would either be at the docks for a new shipment or out back in the warehouse if he didn't have a delivery or pick-up scheduled.
"Sure, don't worry about it. But why do you want some of that wood? Its cheap industrial made compressed carton that's only good for bearing a load." Frankie asked in puzzlement.
"I plan on digging a small burrow and setting up a small fence to keep these two and have them breed." Abel replied as he washed up at the sink before grabbing the pan cakes and fruit on the counter. "I might not have as much time to go out in the future… I-I'm not sure yet but I figured I'd plan ahead and try getting these two to breed since I managed to catch a male and female."
"It seems like Faeron is going well since you appear busy." Melly jumped in after hearing that Abel wouldn't have much time, guessing it had to do with his first night gaming.
"Yeah, the start will definitely need a lot of time investment… especially if I want to make some money within the first month" Abel replied honestly but didn't explain the details of what he'd achieved, keeping it vague till he really turns a profit.
"Hey, don't stress yourself out about earning money. We're here and we'll have your back bro!" Frankie sincerely spoke, aware of the impending expenses Abel had in the next few months.
"Yeah Abe, we'll help you cover the annual payment and just pay us back when you can" Melly also chimed in, afraid Abel would burn himself out over earning money from the game.
"It's not about that... of course, I know you'll have my back but that's not an excuse to not do my best. Otherwise, I'll never really make any money. Don't worry about me, I've got this!" Abel replied cheerfully, touched at their concern but it only reinforced his commitment to investing more time and effort in the game. "You guys should go and get ready, it's already 8:30. You shouldn't give sleazy Samson an excuse to dock your pay. Leave the dishes, I'll take care of them."
With the mention of time, Frankie and Melly sprang up and went to wash up and change into their uniforms, swiftly leaving the house with a breeze. Before heading off to work, Melly reminded Abel not to make any dinner since she felt like having some cheese and beef pies and Frankie volunteered to swing by Savory Crusts, the number 1 (and only) pie shop in town since he gets off work a little earlier than her.
Abel leisurely finished up his breakfast and then cleaned up the kitchen and washed the dishes. It was an ingrained habit that Grandma Meng cultivated in them, to never leave dishes unwashed in the sink otherwise they'll accumulate into a pile that'll take an hour to clean. After placing some carrots and radishes into the basket for the rabbits and cutting the knot tying them up, Abel went to the Frankie's old courtyard and quickly got the boar pelt out of the tub, stretched it out after a squeeze and placed it to dry.
He was starting to a feel a little drowsy but he figured he better finish the rest of the chores around the house before taking a quick shower and getting some sleep. He didn't tarry after making his decision, he went out to put some more grains and seeds for the chickens and got a few eggs out of their straw bedding while he was cleaning up the chicken poop. After vacuuming the house, he cleaned his bathroom before taking a quick shower to wash away the sweat he worked up. As soon as his head hit the pillow, he was fast asleep and woke up naturally 4 hours later, just slightly after 1 pm. He lay there in his old yet comfortable bed and just stayed like that for a few minutes before rousing himself up. He brushed his teeth and made himself a simple sandwich for lunch before hopping back into his pod.
The cascading colors came from the darkness around him and fixed themselves up to create his link to the virtual world, once he logged in through his user home, Abel found himself standing back in Velskyrn's central square.
The area was slightly less congested than last night but that was understandable as a lot of people would be at work or in school right now while those currently online would be out killing monsters or doing quest.
Abel still overheard plenty of people shouting out-loud, looking to fill up their party before heading out.
"Looking for a healer, any healing profession above level 7 is acceptable. We're going to raid the Beginner's Maze that's a short distance outside the north city gate!"
"We're missing a warrior to tank hits, we'll cover your back! New warriors are fine so long as you're level 3 or above."
"I said scram! We aren't a charity, we won't carry you for another minute when you can't even solo a fierce rabbit!"
"Hey… Hey you, you with the sword! Come join us, we're going to the Hollow Forest to hunt some stonespine squirrels."
There was a cacophony of noise from all around him but Abel ignored them all, even those asking him to join their team. Since he was carrying a good-looking sword for a low-level, people had the mistaken assumption that he was at least a level 7 warrior or swordsmen. Although they were curious as to why the rest of his equipment was the starters outfit, they figured he'd saved up everything to buy the sword after getting a profession.
The highest-level player currently known was only level 19, the elite would be at around 15 while a majority of the players were under level 10. Faeron was different from other games and you could get a profession on the first day from any of the guilds, all it would cost was 10 silver coins which was about 35 coalition credits on the virtual currency exchange at the moment. Of course, this didn't include advanced classes or special and hidden professions, the former required a higher level while the latter two required a bit of luck and some fate.
At first, Abel was planning on getting a swordsmen class but after his experiences and new memories, he decided to switch to a ranger instead. He could wield a sword with both hands or dual wield with short-swords, he would also get the mastery skill for archery. The main reason he changed his mind was because a ranger would unlock the dexterity stat that would also aid him in blacksmithing.
Abel put aside the thought of a profession for the time being and made his way to the large map beside the bulletin board. He couldn't be late on the instructor and he needed to see if he could learn the skinning skill on his own so he was on a timer. It was currently 4:15 in the afternoon according to Velskryn's clock so he had 5 hours until his meeting with instructor Cedric. When he thought about his journey back and forth and the need to be a little early instead of risk being tardy, he figured he actually had a little over 4 hours to grind some easy monsters and try to learn the skinning skill.
'I'll limit myself to 3 hours, maybe less depending on how I fare against the monsters when the sun goes down. If I can't handle the fodder at the city gates when they're at their weakest then I should stop thinking about killing them at night… besides, I still need to come back and find a place to sell my loot.' Abel scanned the route to the southern city's gate, it was the closest one from him, after he found an easy path through the winding city roads he started jogging there right away. He stopped by the well in another district's square and filled up his canteen, he still had 4 pieces of black bread with him and he could also buy some food since he figured he wouldn't have enough time to learn the cooking skill either.
'I'll leave the food till after the hunt… Ah so much to do and so little time, it's fine, a handful of water at a time can fill up a lake so I'll just have to do my best every second I'm online.'
Within 15 minutes he found himself standing beyond the city walls, before him was a small clearing with some shrubs surrounding a wide dirt road that eventually led into the Hollow Forest. Deep within the forest was one of the local dungeons, unlike other games where dungeons would lead to a separate space, dungeons within Faeron were part of the world and were special locations where monster would gather. If the dungeon wasn't regularly cleared, it would cause an outbreak of monsters that could potentially lead to a city-wide quest. Such things were likely to happen in other cities but Abel doubted anything like that would happen so close to the capital of a Kingdom, there were simply too many high-level NPC's. The city guards would also use these locations to train their fresh recruits from among the NPC's.
"Hey big brother, you wanna team up with us?" a cute looking girl with short-hair came up and asked while fluttering her eyes, unfortunately for her, Abel was naturally taciturn and was on the clock to finish the tasks he set for himself.
"No" He couldn't be bothered saying anything more as he scanned the shrubs in the distance for any movement. He drew his sword as he got closer and left the stunned girl behind.
"Hahahaha serves you right for thinking you could hoodwink to get that big brother into carrying us" A couple of her friends caught up with her and began to tease her but Abel was already gone and didn't overhear much of what they said.
He was currently scanning the area and looking out for any small monsters that would jump out at him. While this close to the city he didn't expect to find any medium sized monsters or anything above level 5 for that matter. That was fine as he wanted to test out his sword proficiency and try to get a skinning skill. Sure enough, after half a minute of careful prodding he saw a bush shake from the corner of his eyes.
Abel jumped back and swung his sword at the not-so-little carnivorous rabbit that jumped out. It was the size of a golden retriever and had sharp claws, grey fur and 4 fierce teeth protruding from its mouth.
"Inspect"
*Ding*
[Fierce Rabbit] (Normal Monster)
Level: 3
Attack: 8-10
Defense: 5
HP: 120/150
Abel couldn't see all its details since his inspect skill was still too low. Inspect was a skill that every player could use on anyone and anything but doing so with higher leveled monsters and NPC's would earn their ire, which is why he never dared use it on instructor Cedric.
He managed to slash it in its chest but the fierce rabbit was out for blood after getting injured. Compared to the dummy at the training citadel, the rabbit was a little slower but not as rigid in its movements. Nevertheless, it wasn't something that would trouble him, Abel managed to dodge with a sidestep and slashed his sword again, then going in for the kill with a lunge at the monsters' neck.
-40
Critical Hit
-100
*Ding*
+20 EXP
Would you like the system to process [Fierce Rabbit]?
Yes/No
'No' Abel replied instantly, although the system would give him random loot ranging from the hide, meat, claws or fangs, it would deprive him of the chance to learn the skinning skill. He had also noticed 2% of his EXP bar fill up, he needed to kill another 50 of these critters just to get to level 2 so he had plenty of chances to practice. He knew the EXP was this high because the monster was higher-levelled than him and he was alone. If he fought with a party then the EXP would be distributed amongst them and while safer, it would be much slower way to level up for him. He was about to crouch down and try skinning the beast with his sword when he felt an invisible wave wash over him and a voice reached him from some distance behind.
"Inspect"