Artha knew few items gave attribute bonus or buff for limited time. That was one of the reasons when cooking was considered good lifestyle choice. That was relatively cheaper and faster to rise up in this profession too. That was the general consensus.
Now, Artha was thinking it was a lie. Cooking might look easy in the game but no way would the gaming company allow such path breaking or balance altering method to be easy or so freely available. From what he had heard from players, independent or otherwise, they all seemed to consider cooking as rudimentary skill, something to help them in a pinch but not worth the effort. But chef, being a chef was considered difficult. Chefs were more focused on creating culinary experiences, exploring flavours and colours and smells. The attribute bonus or buff was secondary consideration. As the chef used premium products more often than not and utilizes many superior skills, they were thought to cater only the rich and powerful. If a bowl of rice made by a chef costed 20 bronze coins but a cook sold them for 2 coins a bowl, the poor and coin conscious would run towards the cook but the rich would order from the chef.
From the look of it, Helzin dressing was a premium item and Wulrum was a high level chef. Even the scraps from his table provided so much bonuses.
As a Scrooge recognised by the fairy in the beginning, he didn't feel awkward about keeping the things which gave buffs or bonuses. As to the method to clean them, well he would think about it later on.
After he finished the job which had slowed down a lot, he went to Vinzo to get task rewards.
Everyone in the village was happy as they were getting more coins as task rewards. This had offset the problem of limited resources. Common people are like that. They consider what is in front of them and don't think the inter-relations at all. Though Artha didn't have deep knowledge on economics within the game, he was happy in having extra coins. Even a single coin extra netted him few dozens to hundreds of extra coins. How couldn't he be happy?
He was excited about the access to reading nook too. Because till now, only part of the village was accessible to the players, and even there, only parts of the shops were available for players to move around. Ask any player how does the back room of Tavish's place looks? Do they know? No. They don't even know if the back room is smaller or larger, was it a workplace or a storing room. And this is a place which needed lots of ventilation and airing.
Call them Nosy parkers, players always wanted to expand their horizon. If it includes NPC space, all the better.
When Artha was shown the nook, his enthusiasm deflated. A old fashioned small desk and even smaller writing stool crammed into space between two walls. What nook is this? Who would sit comfortably and spend lazy afternoons reading in this cramped dark space. I want to protest!
He nodded at Vinzo, exclaimed at his ingenuity to have an extra usable space. Now to the actual question, can he read sit and read that massive tome? Can he copy it in this cramppy writing area?
When Rumi packed everything required to copy a book, he got a whole set of paper, a pack of quills and an inkpot. If it was real life scenario, he would have to waste few sets of papers even before he could get a sentence written. Hopefully, this game would not make it that realistic.
He opened the book 'True ways to distinguish A million herbs'. It was written by His exalted Presence, The Royal Sage, Gilmit Muraad in his earlier years. This copy was made by discipline of Clear Meadows, Quintal Xanaz. Heavy names, though Artha didn't have a clue on who they were.
As he turned to first page, thankfully it proved he was inside the game. Even the feel of parchment, the crinkly feel, the ups and downs due to writing all felt like that book was real. The progress bar dispelled that illusion.
After loading for some time , it showed a message which would rate one among the ten most hated messages ever. ' Error! Error!'
When he clicked on the message, he got the explanation. His wisdom attribute was not enough for him to read, comprehend and remember. So, he slowly increased the attributes he had kept in reserve for leveling up twice. Only when there was a single attribute left, did the error message stopped and the loading image restarted.
When loading completed, it showed that he had read with concentration without moving for hours together to completely read, comprehend and memorize. Give him a textbook, he would not mind spending time like that. To do the same inside the game? Why would he? Infact, why would anyone?
Let's skip that and go to copying the book. When he got everything ready and started, just started to write, another error message.
'Cannot be copied'. If Artha had power, his anger at Zoya would have burnt her ten times already.
The plan on becoming a potioneer apprentice had to be shelved. No other way appeared in his mind. Feeling vexed on losing a way to earn money, he rushed towards the monster map. It was the best way to vend his anger. Poor monsters. They got blasted again and again. The attack power had raised tremendously and Artha had also found few tricks to increase the damage, after all the teachings of the tank.
The way he was venting his anger, it was no wonder that the space around him remained empty. It was sort of the good deal too. Sometimes his Mana ball would blast even before reaching the monsters. If it was in the vicinity of the players, they would have suffered due to friendly fire.
Tch! Poor boy! Wonder if his girlfriend cheated on him or his boss nixed his report or his brother stole the inheritance? The nearby players made many stories in their heads for the reason as to why a player would play so violently. Slowly, the matter spread in a weird way and Artha got a bizzare backstory without his knowledge.
"You think we should team up with him?"
" What? You just saw some mage with more attack and you want to dump me? He is a glass cannon. What will happen if he can't fix the aggro and monsters kill him and the team?" The mage was aggravated, his eyes red and moist. If a girl looked like that, the team would have dropped the world at her feet. But it was a boy. The team members shuddered and maintained space from him.
" Huh! You think you have enough juice to heal him again and again? What should we do if your heals are on CD? Die? If you want to team up with him, just get out of this one and join him?" This was from one of a jealous swordsman. The healer who wanted to let him join was a pretty girl. Her heals were not that great but within acceptable range. The team members had been ecstatic to get a normal healer who was a girl, a pretty girl. Now this cabbage was running towards the pig. Who wouldn't get angry?