The next day, when Samar logged into the Dreamverse, he received a bunch of notifications from the Auction House.
[Consigned item, Wind Rune Arrows sold successfully. He had received 11 Silvers 40 Coppers.]
[Consigned item, Wind Rune Arrows sold successfully. He had received 12 Silvers 35 Coppers.]
[Consigned item…]
[Consigned item…]
The notifications rang in his ears six times, and his wealth grew from a few pieces of Copper to 81 Silvers and 20 Coppers. 81 Silvers! Suddenly, he had as much wealth as a Middling Guild.
He then checked the notification for automated crafting.
[Used Wood Branches x 516, Condensed Metal Pieces x 510, Meltree Sap x240 units for crafting Ordinary Arrows x 236.]
Tsk! The success rate of the Automated crafting was just as mentioned, 40%. He had wasted 35 Coppers worth of materials to obtain 30 Coppers worth of goods. The only positive thing was he had saved a lot of time that he would have to spend handcrafting each Ash-Gray grade Ordinary arrow.
He decided to only use the Automated Crafting function after leveling up his Rune Arrow Forging Skill to Lv3, which did not seem far away.
—-
Rune Arrow Forging Technique
Novice (Lv2, 216/300)
Conditions for Lv3: Proficiency 300 points, craft a Black-Stone grade Rune Arrow.
—-
The requirements for upgrading to Lv3 were harsh. He first had to replace White-Wood grade materials with suitable Black-Stone grade materials.
He also had to learn the second hymn for any one of the Elemental Runes and master it. Only then would he have a chance of crafting a Black-Stone Grade arrow.
For now, it seemed like he would have to make do with White-Wood grade arrows.
He took out the Strengthened White Fangs and started another round of crafting the Rune-Forged Arrows. His speed was considerably faster today due to the familiarity with the process and increased proficiency.
While it had taken him an hour to create a batch of White-Wood grade arrows yesterday, today he completed the same task in fifteen minutes.
Just as he put away the fifth batch of arrows, he received a call from Stivi.
Wasn't she going to do the solo quest for that skill, Tempest Blade? Why was she calling him now?
He picked up the call, wondering what made her call him in the middle of her quest.
"Samar! Guess who just arrived at Torana Town?" Stivi's excited voice resounded in his ears as soon as he picked up the call.
He had no idea about whom she might be talking about, and he did not have time to care. He was still 2 Gold 20 Silver short of his required amount to purchase the skill books.
He resumed his work as he asked, "Who?"
Stivi noticed his disinterest, but that did not diminish her enthusiasm. She conspiratorially whispered, "An R4 from the Grandeur Guild."
He looked up in surprise, thinking he had misheard, but Stivi had already hung up the call. Then his chat pinged, and he had received coordinates from Stivi along with a message, "Come quickly."
Then another message arrived, "P.S. Meet Zamir before you come."
He quickly tidied up the mess in the Crafting Room and put the newly crafted Fire Rune Arrows and the remaining materials back in his inventory before exiting the Craftsmen Association.
A quick chat with Zamir revealed that he was waiting for Samar near the entrance of Crimson Glade, an Lv 11-15 map. The journey to the map did not take long, and Samar reached it in no time.
"The R4 you are going to meet is
"Of course, I have heard of him! Who doesn't know of the #23 Tanker on the Global MT list?"
The meteoric rise of the ID Violent Bear had been seen as a miracle in the VR community.
Two years ago, this ID suddenly appeared in the VR Planets Top 100 List despite not even being in the Top 1000 in the previous years. His rankings only went up every quarter until he reached the Top 30. Only then did his rise slow down, but it was still rising steadily by a number every season, reaching #23 this season.
"Good! Then you should know how important it is that you make a good impression on him. Ditch that White-Wood Bow and use this Black-Stone Bow for now. If you like it, redeem it using GCP. If you don't, give it back to Stivi."
Samar did as he suggested as he indeed wanted a better Bow. It was not freeloading if he was supposed to pay for it later; rather, it was like taking a car out on a test drive.
The Redwood Longbow, which had accompanied him from the start, went into the inventory, and he equipped the Hunter's Pride Longbow.
—-
Hunter's Pride
Grade: Black-Stone
Equip Requirements: Lv 10
Attack: 9 - 11
Range: 20
Agility: +2
Accuracy: + 5%
—-
He immediately saw a huge boost in his attack power. It would not be difficult to deal damage in hundreds to any monster in the Crimson Glade. At least he thought so, but Zamir was still not satisfied.
"Did you level up any of your skills yet?" The older man asked, watching him critically to see if there was any other equipment he could help replace.
"Not yet. I will do that right now."
After he had acquired the Ranger Class, he could upgrade all the skills related to the Ranger Class up to Lv10 by sacrificing some of his Exp. Only after a skill had reached Lv10 would he be able to advance the skill's tier from Lv 0 to Lv 1.
He had not forgotten about leveling up his skills but rather couldn't sacrifice any Exp points without regressing in levels. That was the case until today.
He had accumulated 2640 Exp points from using the skill Invocation while crafting the Rune-Forged Arrows. He quickly invested 2000 of them in Rapid Shot and the remaining 600 in Power Shot.
[Congratulations! Your skill, Rapid Shot, has leveled up to Lv10.] [Congratulations! Your skill, Power Shot, has leveled up to Lv3.]
The damage dealt by each arrow of Rapid Shot had increased from 80% per arrow to 90% per arrow after leveling up, while the damage of Power Shot had increased by 3%.
His Status window now looked something like this -
—---
Samar
Level: 10 (2985/3100)
Race: Deathless (Elf)
Faction: Coven of Elves
Reputation: 470
Combat Class: Ranger (Tier 1)
Life Profession: Invoker (Amateur)
HP: 257
MP: 165
STR: 31
AGI: 31
VIG: 11
INT: 9
Unused Stat Points: 0
—-
[Hidden Stats Unlocked - 2]
DEX: 10
WIS: 1
—-
Ranger Class
—-
Masteries - Bow Mastery: Initiate (2864/3000)
Active Skills -
Rapid Shot (Tier 0, Lv 10)
Power Shot (Tier 0, Lv 3)
Homing Arrow (Tier 1)
Counter (Lv 1)
Passive Skills
- Evasion (Lv 1)
Utility Skills
- Rune Arrow Forging Technique (Novice, Lv 3)
—---
Invoker Class: (Amateur, 198/1000)
Rune Inscription
Hymn Invocation
Deep Meditation
—---
Zamir was finally satisfied with the boosts and allowed Samar to enter the Crimson Glade.
"Good Luck!" He wished him as he walked onto the narrow path disappearing into dark red thickets.
As soon as he entered the Crimson Glade, the air around him became humid and sticky, as if he had entered a locked room where the Sun had not shined for a long time.
The temperature became cooler as he advanced deeper, and surroundings became darker, taking a shade of crimson red. The trees, vines, leaves, bushes, even the soil… everything was in a reddish-colored hue.
A few minutes into the map, and soon he encountered his first foe - a lone Scarlet Skirmisher.
—-
Scarlet Skirmisher
Lv 12
Attack: ★★★☆
Defense: ★★☆
HP: 1200
Skills: Blood Strike, Blind Burst
—-
It was a Kobold with red and brown stripes on its fur which helped it blend into the environment. What was astonishing was that it lacked eyes and ears, making him wonder how it perceived its surroundings.
The Scarlet Kobold cautiously moved in his direction, holding a shoddy spear with both hands and using its paws to scout the terrain ahead.
He did not wait for it to move an inch closer and activated a Power Shot aiming at its red upper body. The arrow glowing with subtle power whistled through the forest and pierced Kobold's shoulder.
-282
A damage number far larger than his expectations popped up, showing the might of Power Shot. And it was not even a Critical hit!
The damage enraged the Scarlet Skirmisher. It suddenly found its direction as it charged towards him.
In response, he quickly activated the now Lv10 Rapid Shot and rained a burst of arrows on the monster.
-94
-235 (Crit)
-110
- 523 (Lethal Strike)
The Scarlet Skirmisher collapsed to the ground even before it could touch Samar. Even if the Lethal strike had not been triggered, it stood no chance of survival.
Samar's damage numbers had reached so high that the Scarlet Skirmisher would not have survived the Rapid Shot skill itself.
[You have killed a Lv12 Scarlet Skirmisher. You have received 505 Exp.] [Bow Mastery +2.]
Closing the notifications, he collected the shoddy, Ash-Gray grade spear it had dropped and moved towards the coordinates Stivi had shared with him.