Bang
Bang
Bang
Abel was currently hard at work, forging the second Viper's Stiletto. He still had a lot of Nocturnium ingots and even more raw ore, he just didn't have time to refine them into ingots.
He had swung buy several different shops and sold off the monster loot he had in his bag from the emerald creepers. The snake skins and snake teeth he had on him fetched him a decent price, making 22 silver coins, recouping his travel expenses and then some.
After offloading his loot, he swung buy the blacksmiths guild and rented out a forging room for 2 hours. Their prices were indeed fair but their flame was very lacking. He realized he might have been spoiled with the mystical flame in old man Rye's forge but it wasn't a big deal overall. The forging would just take a little longer and he'd have to re-heat the blade more often when working on it.
He had also gotten a couple of higher grade handles, even though he still had a couple of those cheap pommels left but they couldn't be used to create a stiletto type dagger. If he had some time then he figured he'd make a couple more eagle beak daggers and sell them off since he had a lot of iron ingots taking up a few of the slots in his bag.
He wiped the sweat off his forehead and took a look at his recent creation, its sleek design along with its glinting edge would send a shiver down anyone's spine. He admired it for a few second before taking a deep breath and looking at its stats.
"Inspect"
[Viper's Stiletto]
Attack: 47-50
+10 AGI
Durability: 48/48
Special: 5% chance to cause poison -10 HP every 5 seconds for 1 minute (x3 stack)
Requirement: Level 10
Description: A dagger designed by an esteemed blacksmith. Its glinting edge warns of possible damage over time and its sleek blade is designed to deal swift and harmful blows. Crafted by Xiang to near perfection.
'Damn it, I was just a little bit off from a perfect result.' He let out a sigh of frustration, he really thought he had succeeded in a perfect dagger this time. It was better than the first blade he forged but it was still ultimately off from a perfect result.
'I still have a little less than an hour to go. Should I make the eagle beak dagger or refine the ores into ingots…'
He thought things over for a minute before deciding to do the latter. Although he currently had a lot of space in his bag, it wouldn't do to just leave the ores as they were. He had to refine them eventually so he figured he'd get it done now.
He stepped out of the room and headed to the reception, he needed to extend his usage of the room further if he wanted to take care of this chore. After informing the front desk about his current need to extend his rental and also use some ingot molds, he was informed the molds would be free if he paid for a single day which was only 20 silver coins.
Just a week ago, he wouldn't have dreamt of spending around 100 credits to rent a forging room for merely a day but here he was doing just that.
'I need to change my mentality, I'm a multi-thousandaire now hahaha'
He chuckled inwardly at his own lame joke when he recalled he had 10,000 in his savings account and more than 7,000 in his current account balance with the latter still increasing with each click on his video.
'No wonder those streamers and content creators are always so loaded, just a few videos would be enough to pay the bills for an entire year.'
As he lamented about the difference in earnings, he made his way back to his rented forging room. He always knew there were other ways to make money quick and easy but he wasn't cut out for live interactions and silly reaction videos. He could never understand how people watch such things but to each their own.
Not everyone enjoyed fishing or hunting like he did, though he started these things to earn some quick cash growing up, he came to enjoy these activities over the years. The peace and calm as you wait for a fish to hook onto your rod or the preparation and ingenuity in crafting a natural trap in the woods, just waiting for your prey to fall into it.
'Everyone has their own path in life, that's what make the world so beautiful I suppose…'
He thought of various things as he got to crushing the ores he had in preparation for smelting them. He made quick work of the ores before him and put them into the smelter, once they separated from the dirt and filth that was still stuck to them, he got to hammering out the remaining impurities within.
Slowly, he worked through all the ores he had, crushing them, hammering them and smelting them down. By the time he poured the last batch into the prearranged molds, it was already past midnight back on Luminara. He left the mold to cool down on its own and pulled up his panel to log out.
Whooooosh
He saw the same icon flashing on his screen but he put it off till later, he just wanted to get some sleep for now so he logged out of the NeuroNex and stepped out of his pod. After brushing his teeth, he slipped into his old and comfy bed and instantly fell asleep.
By the time he woke up it was just past 3:40 am. After washing up, he decided to step out for a jog. Exercising Tai chi was great for his joints and muscles but he figured he should add some cardio to his schedule. It wouldn't do to only exercise his muscles but lose his fitness in the process.
After jogging to his old hunting ground and back, he got started with the Yang-form's different steps when he got back to the yard. He reckoned he should purchase a wooden sword to get started with the Yang style sword-form. He would have liked to make one himself but he didn't have the time, even with the decrease of his sleep, the game took up most of his day.
He took a quick shower after finishing the cool down exercise and reapplied his ointment before heading to the main house, intending to make some breakfast. He wasn't sure if Melly and Frankie would be waking up on schedule since they changed to part-time work but he figured he could whip up something quick and check up on the bacon in the fridge.
While he was frying the last batch of pancakes he saw a sleepy Melly walk into the kitchen.
"After you start regularly using the pod, you wont need so much sleep anymore."
"Even after that I think I'll still sleep the same…"
"Heh, that's what I thought too. Can you make some eggs while I check on the pelts outside?"
"Sure, go ahead…"
He passed by the sleepy Frankie carrying out his morning ritual and went to check on the rabbit pelts and boar hide in the other courtyard. He took out the rabbit pelts from the tub of water and squeezed them thoroughly before stretching them out, they just needed to dry out and they'll be done. On the other hand, the boar hide could finally be removed from the solution. Its current tub was full of fur since he was using the off-hair tanning method for the leather. Once he chucked out the solution and placed the pelt back in to a tub of lukewarm water, he headed back to the main house to enjoy a hearty breakfast.
"By the way, when you log in you can go to a guy called Coinweaver and get some equipment from him, he has a shop in cinderfall district called Loot 'n Stuff but leave that till after you finish from the training citadel. Did you guys think about what profession you want?"
"Bro, this is maybe the third time you mention it. We get it, so don't worry about us. As for professions… I think I'll go for some type of warrior, I'm naturally pretty big so I think learning the sword and shield would be pretty decent."
Frankie was the first to reply but Abel quickly burst his bubble, "Unless you can beat my record in the obstacle course, you can only learn 1 skill. But don't worry about it, learn the sword or spear and just get a shield warrior profession. You can learn the shield skill when you get it and just advance to shield bearer or knight if you want…"
"I want to learn archery, since Frankie will be my tank then I can deal damage from a distance." Melissa spoke up afterwards
"Good choice, an archer has a lot of advancement paths. If you want to wield magic you can become an Elemental Archer or if you want to specialize in pure archery you can advance to Marksman then Sniper or Sharpshooter. It also has a couple of rare advancement paths that tread the line between both like a Trickshot Trickster or Dimensional Deadeye."
"How come all these cool sounding advancements path are for archers only?" Abel chuckled at Frankie's childish response but he explained to his best friend that every profession has some rare advancement directions.
"A knight has the possibility of advancing to a Dragon Knight, the difficulty in doing so is immense though so don't get your hopes up, you'll need the approval of a True Dragon and that's not something you can just get. I've only read about a few such Legends in the world's lore but I have no clue how you can achieve such a thing. There's also the Dark Knight but similarly, I don't know much about it. You also have some 'cool' sounding advancement paths and there are even more if you choose to become a shield bearer instead like; Ironclad Juggernaut or a Shadowblade Sentinel."
"Did you learn all these things at old man Rye's? We haven't come across any of this online or from TV…" Melissa asked in wonder, this was the only possible explanation she could think of since Abel seemed to know much more than the typical player.
"Yup, that study of his was an absolute treasure trove of information. I haven't even finished it all and I learned so much already, if only this quest didn't send me away from Velskryn."
"It's honestly good you went away, although we appreciate all your help little bro, we want to try and make it on our own instead of being handheld the entire time. Those friends of yours can show us the ropes and we'll handle it from there."
"They aren't friends, they're acquaintances."
Frankie and Abel got into another one of their bickering spats while Melissa merely rolled her eyes but she happened to agree with Frankie. They were thankful for everything Abel had done but they wanted to try and make it on their own. They couldn't keep sustaining themselves in the game by relying on their little brother.
The trio enjoyed their breakfast in leisure without the hurry to head out for work, the couple didn't have to clock in so early in the morning anymore so they took their time eating and cleaning up before they went their separate ways. The duo went to take care of some chores while Abel headed back to his room to log back into the game.