"Y-you… You're only level 1?!!!" The young girl he had ignored on his way out had followed behind him and used inspect while he was concentrating on skinning the rabbit.
'Damn it, I need to pay attention to those around me. Even if I'm close to the city gate and no one dares PK when guards are a stone's throw away, there could always be a lunatic that plays just to PK others'
Abel regretted getting tunnel-vision, it was a rookie mistake he thought he'd never repeat after suffering in the Verdant forest when he was younger.
"WHAT? There's no way he's level 1!" The girl's friends were shocked too but this just added to the slowly sprouting head-ache Abel was feeling.
He turned around and for the first time, actually paid attention to the three girls that had tried to stop him earlier. The one that came up to him and used inspect just now was a short girl with shoulder-length chestnut brown hair. She wore a robe over long pants and a leather chest piece, so it wasn't clear whether she had a physical or magical profession, perhaps it was a hybrid. She had big eyes for her face but instead of looking weird, they made her look like a doll. Her 2 friends were slightly taller than her but not by much. The girl in the middle was wearing a pale-yellow clerics robe without any flourishes and was sporting wavy lavender hair that was obviously adjusted upon character creation. The last girl was the tallest and sporting a simple pony-tail. She wore form-fitting leather pants with knee high boots and a short-sleeved tunic, she also carried a short bow in her hands with a quiver half filled with arrows on her back.
"You know its rude to use inspect on others, right?" Abel asked rhetorically with a low and serious voice. He was quite pissed off at being interrupted and having some of his stats revealed, but there wasn't really a fix for such a thing. Accessories that boasted of hiding your stats were legends in the current stage of the game. The only other way to prevent an inspect from working would be to have a higher level then the one using it.
"Don't change the subject, how could you kill a fierce rabbit on your own when you're only at level 1?!" the short girl shot back as though telling Abel 'I know what you're trying to do', unaware he was truly annoyed with her. Thankfully, it seemed her friends realized and held her shoulder to calm her down.
"I'm sorry for Aria's prior action, we know it was rude but this girl sometimes acts before she thinks, we're truly sorry" The long-haired girl in clerics robes sounded sincere and bowed her head in apology, somewhat reducing the annoyance Abel felt deep down. He merely nodded in response before crouching down to deal with the monster carcass at his feet.
Seeing Abel completely ignore them again caused the short-tempered girl called Aria to almost lose her head in anger. She had grown up in a privileged family and was the princess at home. Although she wasn't malicious, she had never been treated this way in the past. At home she was the apple in her parents' eyes and in school she was the girl every teacher adored due to her bubbly personality, so she had never suffered such cold treatment in all her life. While her two friends grew up in homes that were just as privileged, they had a couple of siblings each so they weren't as spoiled as their short-haired friend.
The long-haired girl simply shook her head, giving Aria a look saying 'Just drop it, you know you were wrong in the first place so don't make a bigger deal out of this than necessary'. While the two girls were having their eye-gazing conversation, their friend with a pony-tail was curiously looking at what Abel was doing. He used the slit in the throat from his last thrust to slowly cut away at the fur pelt with his sword. It was awkward to use a 3-foot sword as a skinning knife but he was doing quite well considering the circumstances. Just when he though he was going to succeed, the carcass broke up into pieces on its own with a majority of it disappearing leaving 2 objects behind.
*Ding*
Skinning Failed
Fierce Rabbit Meat x1
Fierce Rabbit Pelt x1 (damaged)
Abel let out a sigh and got up, finally giving the girls the time of day. They had been curiously looking at what he was doing earlier on but kept quiet without interrupting him.
"What do you want?" He finally broke the silence when he felt it getting awkward, he just wanted to be left alone but it seemed like the more he pushed against them, the most they'd stick around him.
"Why don't you use a proper knife if you're trying to learn the skinning skill" The pony-tail girl asked in curiosity, not understanding what the young man was trying to do by skinning a monster with his sword. Abel just looked at her as though she was asking a non-sensical question when he realized the girl was genuinely curious.
"Because a skinning knife costs 50 coppers at least" He replied truthfully as he had checked out the stores on his way out of the city, he was also hoping he could get rid of them sooner so he could get back to his hunt.
The 3 girls were stunned, they had never had to think about the cost of something if they wanted it but they also knew that not everyone in the world lived a life like theirs. The long-haired cleric girl thought of a way to remedy her friends earlier mistake while also answering her own questions so she softly asked,
"How about we make a deal… we'll pay you for some information, it'll be at least a silver coin for answering our question and perhaps more depending on how valuable the information is. What do you think?"
"Sure, ask away but make it quick, I'm already behind schedule" Abel thought for a moment before agreeing, he'd hear what they had to say first before deciding whether to answer them. He also figured it'd be the quickest way to get rid of them.
"How did you get so strong... I mean, how did you increase your stats when you're still at level 1 and without a profession?"
Abel figured there was no harm in telling them, seeing as he'd make at least 1 silver coin out of it, "The training citadel… if you pass the obstacle course, you'll get a chance to learn a weapon skill and throughout the training you'll increase your stats. You might even gain a new stat depending on the course you take. After finishing the training course you'll get a free weapon" Abel held up his sword and now it all made sense to the 3 girls. They had thought he was a high-leveled player that spent all his savings on the sword after gaining a profession and would've never expected him to be a level 1 newb. Though now that they thought about it, even if they were higher leveled then him, they wouldn't have been able to easily solo a fierce rabbit even when they were a level higher than the monster. Aria felt a mix of shame and embarrassment at her earlier actions and her own lack of skill.
"Though it sounds simple, I honestly doubt you'll be able to endure the training." When Abel thought about the hours of repetitive swinging, dodging, thrusting and maneuvering and the fact that he'd have to endure a similar training tonight, he couldn't help but shudder on the inside, but the next second he steeled his resolve to continue. He couldn't afford to wimp out over something so insignificant in the grand scheme of things.
"Why? Is it hard? Or is it painful?" The long-haired girl seemed to be the leader among the 3 girls, or perhaps it was because they saw she was amiably talking to the young man that her friends didn't interrupt.
"No… well, if you get struck by the enchanted dummy then perhaps it'll be a bit painful. It's just very boring and repetitive. Can you dodge around a puppet with the same movements for an hour? Or swing a sword for hours on-end with few breaks in between? I don't know what the other weapon courses are like but it was like that for the basic sword training." Abel thought for a moment before continuing, he wanted to get as much money as possible so he truthfully explained everything he knew. "Actually, I think you can pause the training and carry it out over a few days but I needed a weapon so I did it all at once."
The girls were stunned once again as what he told them basically cemented the fact that he was brand new to the game. They were also thankful he had explained everything so clearly, at least they wouldn't make the mistake of thinking they either carry on or fail. They asked a few more questions about the first obstacle course and the different instructors and Abel answered them to the best of his knowledge.
"Thank you for answering our questions, the information you gave us is quite important, even if we don't end up going to the training citadel, just knowing about this is enough." She decided to send him an appropriate amount in relation to the information he revealed, not too much out of pity and not too little by taking advantage of him.
*Ding*
Sophie would like to transfer 15 silver coins, Accept?
Yes/No
'Yes'
*Ding*
Sophie would like to add you as a friend, Accept?
Yes/No
'Yes' Abel actually wanted to say no at first but he felt awkward doing so right after accepting her payment. He also figured he might stumble on some more information later on that he could sell to them so in the end, he agreed.
"I'm guessing you don't have anymore questions, right?" Abel asked just in case but he wanted to quickly run back to the city, buy a skinning knife and come back to hunt. He had already wasted 10 minutes talking to them but he also made a profit of 15 silver coins so he asked out of civility.
"No that's all, thank you. By the way, you probably already know but I'm Sophie, our little chili-pepper here is Aria and that's Mia" Sophie introduced her 2 friends that were quietly listening on the side.
"Red Sky" Abel gave out his character name and simply nodded his head before putting the loot in his sack, signaling his intent to leave.
Once Abel was far away, Sophie looked at her friends and smiled, "So, what do you girls think?"
"We have to go, of course! We suck at killing monsters" Aria was the first to speak up, not shying away from revealing the truth of their current skill-set.
"Talk about yourself, at least I deal some damage… sometimes" Mia couldn't help but mumble in response, knowing full well how terrible her aim was with her expensive bow and costly arrows.
"Hahahaha, I think Aria was quite honest in her description of our skills" Sophie spoke out in mirth but her eyes couldn't help but reveal a longing for adventure. She was a girl that longed for excitement, but her lofty status in real life would never allow her to go out and fulfil her wishes.
"Also… we have to thank you for provoking him, Aria. If it weren't for that who knows when or if we would have ever learned about this information" Sophie couldn't help but chuckle as she remembered the cause of the whole incident.
"Sister please, I'm already half embarrassed to death… not only was I wrong about him being high-leveled, but also about him being a sucker that we can fool into helping us" Aria couldn't help but cover her red face when she remembered how off-the mark she was about the young man. He didn't care one whit about their beauty or companionship and seemed eager to get rid of them.
The 3 girls giggled and talk among themselves as they made their way back to the city, unaware that they'd see the young man named Red Sky a lot sooner than they predicted.