Abel was currently browsing the weapons and armors available throughout the smithy, seeing as how it was now evening, the monsters would be even stronger due to the lunar bane cycle.
But this also meant the EXP would be 10% more. With each increment in strength due to the lunar bane cycle, the EXP given would increase respectively. There were actually many players that only hunted at night. It was either due to difference in time zones to their location in reality or it could just because of the increase in EXP gained.
When they hunt in a party of 5, it would be much safer as their fault tolerance in each monster encounter would be greater than a solo battle. They would head out at night and come back to the city during the day. But that was a minority of players, the most hardcore gamers, with most of them starting in other regions with very few such players in Veridia.
"May I take a closer look at this sword?" Abel pointed to a weapon he had been eyeing.
It had a simple and unadorned design. The hilt was wrapped in faded leather that looked it would make a comfortable grip while the cross guard was straightforward with minimal embellishments.
"Good choice sir. Although the overall aesthetic is practical, it is a reliable but unassuming weapon for novice adventurers. This was crafted by senior apprentice brother Iron-finger just a few days ago!"
The NPC was a potential blacksmith at the smithy, he wasn't even qualified as an apprentice yet and had to work at the shop before he could start learning the craft.
"Inspect"
*Ding*
[Rustic Sword]
Attack power: 35-39
+2 STR
+5% critical hit chance
Durability: 50/50
Requirements: Level 5, STR 20
Description: A sword crafted by Iron-finger, the latest apprentice under Expert-Smith Burnheart of the Verdia Kingdom. While not as sharp as it could be for its material, it has adequate durability.
"How much is it?"
Although Abel wasn't at level 5 yet, he would be soon. He was already 60% through level 4 and should reach the next level before the final room on the third floor. He felt he needed more damage output against a monster that would probably be tougher than the Rat Lord.
"It'll be 3 silvers and 30 copper coins sir" The young attendant smiled in response.
"Alright, give me that leather helmet and your cheapest pick axe as well."
Abel pointed to a helmet he had seen earlier when he was purchasing his arm bracers. He had asked for the price back then and was told it was 2 silver coins. Although the helmet only added +3 to defense, it also added +2 to agility. Being a non-essential armor, it was more expensive than a chest piece, boots or pants. While he wanted the pick axe to try and mine out the ore's he had seen in the dungeon.
After taking a look around, he came across a leather chest armor that seemed sleeker yet studier than his current one.
"Inspect"
[Rustguard Jerkin]
Defense: 15
+3 AGI
+5% to negates critical hit chance
Durability: 40/40
Requirements: Level 5
Description: Crafted by Black-Iron, Expert-Smith Burnheart's eldest apprentice and specialized armorer. The smooth curves prevent strikes from wearing down its durability and gives a chance to negate critical attacks. It offers its wearer more agility due to its design.
"And how much is this leather armor?" Abel steeled his heart and asked for the price. It wouldn't do to just raise his attack. He needed to raise his defense as well.
"Good eye sir. Eldest apprentice brother actually specializes in armor unlike master who is a weapons smith. This piece costs 4 silvers and 80 copper coins." The attendant seemed extra respectful of his eldest senior apprentice brother and answered while looking at the armor longingly.
"I'll take it" Abel grit his teeth and carried out the transaction.
'Just like that, more than half my savings are gone. No wonder people are spending money on this game instead of making it.'
Abel thought as he remembered what Samuel the technician told him. He couldn't imagine how hard it would have been to make enough coins to purchase all this equipment. If it weren't for the 35 silver coins he'd made through selling information about the training citadel and the treasure mine of a dungeon he found, then Abel would be a lot less impressive looking right now.
"The weapon and armor you left behind have been repaired sir!"
Another young attendant came up to Abel and gave him his sword and armor he had left for repair. After paying his total bill of 11 silver and 50 copper coins, he equipped his old armor and sword and placed his newly purchased goods into his new spacial bag, then swiftly left the money-sucking shop behind him.
'I need to clear out the dungeon tonight! Anything less than a full clearance isn't acceptable.'
Abel planned out his night in-game as he weaved through the streets of Velskryn, swiftly exiting through the southern gates. He quickly left the cacophony of shouts and haggling far behind as he made his way into the Hollow Forest.
He received a few respectful looks and glances but no one bothered him. It seemed he had built up a reputation of a loner after so many different groups invited him, only to get refused.
'When I start making some good money I'll get Frankie and Melly a pod so we can play together!'
Abel didn't care much for friends. If people treated him with sincerity and respect then he would reciprocate but he wouldn't go out of his way to please others. He had been through too much to care about the thoughts and opinions of people that don't matter to him.
The life experiences of Xiang Xiaowen also played a role in reinforcing this mindset. His other half had lived a pretty normal life beyond his extra duties at home. He had been betrayed by those he viewed as 'brothers' and cheated on by the girl he thought he loved. Perhaps he hadn't personally experienced the worst the human heart could muster but he had seen plenty of it in the world around him.
It was slightly different in Xiaowen's Earth, the countries were more duplicitous yet public about it as there wasn't a supreme power to enforce the laws put in place. In fact, the so-called superpowers on Xiaowen's Earth would partake in the hypocrisy while piling onto their own interests.
Even Abel had seen such things in this Earth as human greed and malice truly knew no bound. While the coalition did its best, a few rotten apples would always show up in its hierarchy every now and then.
Thankfully, his world had a much better outcome than his other half's Earth. He put aside these idle thoughts as he started concentrating on the areas around him. He didn't want to get jumped by a large pack of Umber Wolves or give away the dungeons location to a party out hunting.
Abel slowly made his way through the woods, constantly on the look out for any players. Thankfully, he didn't come across any of those sly Umber Wolves. Although he had no reason to fear them, he didn't want to waste his time on a cunning monster when he had a treasure mine of a dungeon waiting for him with double EXP.
After circling around for 15 minutes, killing some small monsters and confirming there was no one else around, he finally entered the dungeon.
Once he was inside, he finally lit his torch and made his way to the room with all of his loot. He placed the bow into a space in the bag followed by the quiver. He then started stuffing most of the loot afterwards.
He had sold off all the Sergeant Rats Meat he had but there was plenty of other monster parts left over. The Rats meat alone made up 37 stacks! The Rat's teeth took up 34 stacks while the Rat's pelt took up another 12 stacks. He left the rats tail for another run, although it was the cheapest at 1 copper coin, the sheer amount should be enough for 3 or 4 silver coins!
'I still have 13 hours of double EXP, hopefully I can clear the dungeon before then.'
Abel slowly made his way down the stairs, ignoring all the ores for the time being and descended onto the third floor. Unlike what he was expecting, there were also 3 pathways here but no burrows on either side. He slowly crept down the right-most corridor and saw a gathering of upright rats!
There were 12 of them in total, standing around and squeaking at one another.
'They all seem to be Rat Lord's…'
Abel wanted to use inspect to gauge their level but he was a little worried they'd all combo him to death. He assumed they were level 7 at the very least, like the one he had fought before. He thought for a minute before coming up with a possible solution.
'Let's see if I can bait one out with an arrow'
Abel put aside the torch and pulled out his bow from his spacial bag. He notched an arrow and tried to aim for one of the shadows in the distance. Thankfully, these monsters seemed to have a terrible sensing range and they couldn't actually see him.
Wooooooooosh
-15
He quickly put his bow into his bag and picked up his sword in one hand and the torch in the other.
'Pheeeeew thankfully only one was aggro'ed, now I just need to pull it back and hopefully, it won't call on its brethren'
Abel was ecstatic at the first part of his plan succeeding. He still remembered how that group of stone-toothed rats at the entrance came running after hearing the first one squeak. He pulled back by another 20 meters to the start of the path before putting his torch and the sword at the side. He pulled out his bow, notched another arrow and fired a second shot.
Woooooosh
-15
Swiftly putting away his bow, Abel readied himself for battle.
'The Rat Lord already lost 10% of its HP, let's see if I can kill it before it squeaks out to the others'
As the monster advanced to where it felt the attack had come from, Abel activated his movement technique and swooshed to its side.
'Serpents Dance'
-40
-35
Clang
Clang
-50
-45
Abel swung out in a double slash as quickly as possible. During the third swing, he swiftly twirled his sword to block the monsters attack. After blocking 2 strikes, he side stepped again going to the monsters' blind spot before slashing at it 2 more times. Just as he saw the sign of its combo skill activating, he used his own skill!
'Ecliptic Slash'
-140
+200 EXP (+10%)
'That was easier than I thought…' Abel couldn't get over how easy this battle was but when he thought it over, it made sense.
First of all, while he assumed the monsters level, he knew the monsters' stats and skills which took away the advantage of surprise. He also didn't have to face the Rat Lord while surrounded by Rat Sergeants' either so it lowered the difficulty further. Finally, he had a skill of his own to use that tripled his damage!
'I should skin it, I can't have it lying in the middle of the corridor.'
Abel decided to skin the monster right away as it could impede his next hunt. Besides, he wanted to wait until his skills were off their cooldown before attacking again.
*Ding*
Skinning Successful:
+Rat Lord Meat x2
+Rat Lord Teeth x2
+Rat Lord Pelt
After putting away the loot, he took a quick look at his mana and saw it was still 60% full. He figured he'd take down another monster before using a mana incense stick. He didn't want to waste his Harmony Breath right now since it had just gotten off its 1 hour cool down.
Abel repeated the bait and attack strategy over and over again while taking minimal breaks to replenish his mana and stamina. He would swiftly skin each monster after every kill and he collected quite the amount of loot.
Although this tactic took a while, it was worth it as he couldn't imagine going against a dozen combo's at once. Each bait and attack would take approximately 3-5 minutes, so he took an hour to clear out the first pathway.
After clearing the room where the monsters were congregated, he went in to take a proper look and saw more of those shiny black ores. While they didn't give off the same luster as the ore he found in the chest, they looked to be of a higher quality than the ones in the walls of the second floor.
Abel's eyes swiftly turned into credit symbols but he held himself back and made his way to the leftmost pathway. He repeated his earlier tactic of baiting the Rat Lords before attacking them. Just after taking out the tenth monster, he leveled up!
*Ding*
+Level up
+1 to All Stats
+10 Health
+10 Mana
'I can equip my new sword and armor now!' He took off his old armor and sword, switching them out with their new counterparts.
'Open Character Stats'
Name: Red Sky
Level: 5
Profession: None
Alignment: Neutral
Title: None
Reputation: 20
Health (HP): 220
Mana (MP): 140
Attack: 77-81
Defense: 34
Strength (STR): 30 (+6)
Agility (AGI): 28 (+6)
Endurance (END): 22
Toughness (TGH): 16
Vitality (VIT): 22
Wisdom (WDM): 14
Intelligence (INT): 14
Resilience (RES): 11
Dexterity (DEX): 14
Luck: 4
Satiety: 87
Stamina: 59
'My defense is still a little low, but there's nothing I can do about it. I just have to dodge and block more attacks until I can afford better armor.'
After taking a quick look at his new stats after equipping a stronger weapon and armor, Abel went back to slaughtering the last 2 Rat Lords. He made quick work of them and was actually tempted to attack them together but he refrained from doing so in the end and simply baited the first one out before killing them successively.
As he made his way to the central path, he took a look at the little remaining space within his spacial bag and thought he might have to leave behind some cheaper monster parts. He suddenly stopped in his tracks as he saw something weird in the last chamber.
There were no Rat Lord's around, neither were there any other monster except for a single humanoid figure. He couldn't make out the monsters features due to the darkness but as he got closer, he realized it was a completely different Rat monster that he had never heard of.
When the light of his torch finally shone on the monster before him, he saw a muscular humanoid rat that would be no different from the beastkin were it not for some special features.
Its eyes were completely black with red pupils and had long black claws for fingers. It had thick brown whiskers on its cheeks right below a black and disgusting looking ball for a nose. It had 4 fierce fangs protruding out of a mouth filled with smaller sharp teeth and a tail that looked like it could be used a whip.
Abel had a feeling this would be the last monster in the dungeon but he also had a feeling it would be his toughest fight. Without any canon fodder around, he decided to use inspect to glean some more information.
"Inspect"
[Ferocious Rat King] (Boss Monster)
Level: 9
Attack: 55-58 (+10%)
Defense: 33 (+10%)
HP: 1100/1100 (+10%)
SCREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEECH!!!