The players looked at the shopkeeper with a dumbstruck expression.
"You can fucking do that?!!" a player shouted, who had spent his entire day farming rabbits. The problem with farming rabbits was their high Agility, which new players found challenging to catch, hence spending days completing the quest.
However, David didn't care about others' reactions; he walked close to the Butcher before whispering in his ears, "Do you have any information about the Slime King? I have heard that it drops Slime Gelatin, which can account for some delicious food."
The shopkeeper was silent until he replied to David, "I don't know."
"I wasted ten whole coppers on you! Damnit!" David stomped his foot angrily and dashed out of the shop.
He quickly went to the Florist, Tailor and Potion Maker and handed each of them the required materials to finish his quest.
[ You have Completed the Florists's Quest. Reward: 100 exp, +10 % Favourability with the NPC ]
[ You have Completed the Potion Makers' Quest. Reward: 100 exp, +10 % Favourability with the NPC ]
[ You have levelled up]
[ You have Completed the Tailors' Quest. Reward: 100 exp, +10 % Favourability with the NPC ]
A few hours later,
"None of those guys had any information about the Slime King.", David grumbled, chewing on another morsel of bread.
"Did Rose scam me? She seemed so innocent!"
David had tried to ask the Blacksmith but refused to talk to him, saying he was busy with work.
"I need to do his quest before he talks, I guess", he thought.
David had already reached level 2 and was only a few hundred experience points away from the next level. He quickly messaged Tom, asking him if he wanted to hunt wolves together.
-ring-
The reply came in an instant.
"Was he waiting for me to text him?" David quickly opened the inbox, where Tom had marked the wolves' location.
LadySlayer420: My Party Members are busy; we can play by ourselves, come quickly
David knew the location of the farming spot for wolves, but he quickly decided to dash towards the location marked by Tom.
"Oh, I forgot", he muttered, quickly allowing one stat point to Agility while the second one to Mana.
"These are the most important stats. Strength might be useless for me. I need Mana to cast more spells and Agility to dodge against those Melee bastards who come too close."
David noticed quite a few players were already present at the spot, hunting for wolves in their party.
"Where is he?" he asked, trying to find Tom. He noticed a guy fighting wolves using a sword.
"Might be him!" he thought, running towards the guy. He decided to surprise Tom and catch him off guard as he crouched behind his back and suddenly jumped in front of him.
"I am here, buttercup!"
David looked above and noticed that it was a guy with a big nose and small eyes.
"eww", David muttered.
"David, is that you?" another voice rang out, and David looked to his side, noticing it was his friend Tom.
"Tom! I was thinking what suddenly .. happened to your face", David muttered, looking at the guy before him.
"Here I was waiting for you, and you are calling another man buttercup, not cool", Tom grinned. "You do have nice taste in men, to say the least."
"Shut up! Let's go farm those wolves!" David shouted as he dashed towards a pack of wolves, with Tom behind him.
"Show me what a mage can do!" Tom shouted from behind, and David summoned his staff, lunging towards the pack of wolves.
"Hey! Don't the mages fight from behind?" Tom halted his sprint as he looked at David with a dumbstruck expression.
David was smashing his staff on the head of the wolves, knocking them out one by one. He looked back and noticed that Tom was standing still. "What are you doing standing there like a scarecrow? Come join me, you fool", he shouted, smacking the wolves like a madman.
[You have defeated a level 4 Aberrant Wolf. You have received 10 exp]
[You have defeated a level 4 Aberrant Wolf. You have received 10 exp]
[You have defeated a level 4 Aberrant Wolf. You have received 10 exp]
....
[You have levelled up]
"Why were you standing still? Look at how many wolves I killed, I even levelled up", David said as he puffed up his chest, proud of his actions.
"I feel bad for the wolves who had to face you. Let's get you to level 5 today, newbie," Tom smirked as he rushed into a pack of wolves.
David decided to aid Tom as he cast a barrage of Lesser Fire Spells, shooting them towards the wolves and providing backup to Tom.
[You have defeated a level 7 Aberrant Wolf. You have received 10 exp]
....
The Game of Orion had a special rule to prevent players from exploiting low-level monster farming. A player would only gain experience points if they defeated a monster higher than or equal to their level. This promoted the players to fight stronger monsters.
Elite Enemies gave five times the experience of a regular enemy, whereas Boss monsters gave ten times the regular experience.
"He is pretty good", David muttered as he noticed Tom clear through a pack of wolves with relative ease. "He must have focussed on Strength and Agility, but he needs to increase his mana to use the Magic Swordsman class fully."
He decided to join in with Tom, as his Mana was still regenerating from his previous barrage of spells.
"What the hell are those two doing?" the players looked at the two maniacs, one who was killing the wolves with extreme precision, while the other was beating the wolves to death using a staff in their hand.
"HEHEHEHEHE", laughed Tom as he slashed through the wolves.
"HEHEHEHEHE", laughed David as he smacked the shit out of the wolves.
The two of them continued this for half an hour, after which David finally reached level 5 and Tom had reached level 8. This rapid pace of levelling up was contributed by the fact that they created a party, which meant the experience points were shared between them.
"We need to reach level 10 before the dungeons open", Tom said to David as he picked up the loot from the wolves he killed.
"Don't worry, I will be that level soon. Then you can add me to your party, and we will clear the dungeon." David smirked as he picked up the large number of drops he had obtained from killing the wolves, which was enough to complete the Blacksmith's quest and earn him some money at the same time.