After lots of experiments, Sela found as a captain she only had decision to decide how the communal XP or loots are distributed. Oh, bummer! Lots of nefarious ideas got nixed just like that.
But the team was progressing well. They could now fight two elites even if they spawned together or a section had three elite mobsters. Unlike the first time when they had to give up much of their comrades like and run away like cowards.
Because they knew that Sela was incharge of XP distribution, they didn't bother much about it. If it was Jack or Arjun or even Artha, the situation would have been a lot different. In between breaks, while Artha was still manhandling the elite rabbits, the talk turned into gift crates.
"You think our village will have a gift crate with skill book?"
"How easy it would have been if I have 'Resurrect' skill! I could have revived you back everytime you died. No need to worry and play recklessly like before." It was the lament of the healer. Yes, even the healer was a hothead.
Artha, the busyboy didn't pause but asked, "Is there such a skill? You do realise that most of the skills in various games don't apply in this one."
"I'm not a noob. I'm a veteran healer in more than ten games. I know how to collect rumours and this skill is a bona-fide real skill within the game."
Other razzed him. " How do you know?" "Come on man, spill it. How did you find it out?" and so on. Seriously, they made more noise than a bunch of bunnies. Really.
Would a veteran spill beans on how to gather rumours or information? No chance.
The drops from elite monsters had stopped being very good. The regular monsters were now dropping only task related drops and potions most of the times. Potions were basic ones too. Is this subtle hint from game to move on and not hog the initial sections? Or is it because of some other reason.
They had no option but to move on. They would focus only on longest cleared two routes and travel till Sela felt comfortable and then turn back. Sela was money god today. Her every wish would be a command. Yes, the members had paid back the money they had borrowed from her but they made some money thanks to her. Can't forget the monetary help so early.
Sela sent a query to Artha. She too wondered if any of the guilds in the village got any special skill or attribute book. Why ask Artha? Duh! He was only one with link with the guilds. If any of the Indies got such special book, that one had not spilled the beans even to his bestie.
It was nearly afternoon by the time they staggered back from dungeon. If a newbie dungeon was this bad, how bad would be other dungeons? Don't have imagination. Don't need one to know it would be grueling sessions all the way.
Artha wore another set of boots and ran towards the village. He finally was getting hand of using various items for various purposes. It was a quick visit. Edgeless Sword was a joyless person when he came to meet Artha. The transactions happened in a jiffy and he left before Artha could ask about gift crates.
Ish!
Clear the trader bags as much as possible, run towards Bloody Rose guild areas. Yes, today would be the last day. And man, did he learn that girls hold grudges. Yes, inspite of having a sister, he never felt girls were petty. Now, he was proved wrong. They gave him a hell mode training session as a parting gift.
Yes, it was a gift. Thanks to this session of learning, Artha's chances of dying while farming in monster fields reduced from eighty nine percent to whopping eight five percent. Few more sessions like this, he would be on the level of regular guild player.
Thanks to teaching session, he had worn through few sets of items including his staff and boots. On top of it, he was unable to collect resources too.
Assuming that guilds had already sorted items, he sent requests from himself to all his guild and workshop customers he had about much needed few quest related items. Not much, just one or two of each material listed. Fair price guarantee. If not in coin, then by barter.
Sun Lord was first to call him. "What the heck did you send such request? Don't you know the first rule in business - never show your hand? "
"I'm trader. Buying and selling is my forte. How can I buy if I don't request for what I want? How can I buy if there are no items which I want to buy?"
"Seriously?"
"Relax. This is just first volley. I sent requests to all. So I need it for myself or for my customer, you people have no idea about it, right?"
"So you are saying you need these not for yourself but for others."
"Well, it's first step for a long term deal. That's all I can say. I never asked anyone of you what you found in the gift crates you bought. I won't. This is a way of allowing you, my customers, some privacy. And you will be needing few things that were not present in the gift crates you bought. No one would voluntarily disclose such information. What will you do?"
"Find where to get such items and go there myself." Sun Lord was succinct.
" We are talking about items within the gift crates, my friend. So, first thing is to find out if anyone has the items you need. Then use a middleman or a broker to purchase it without inflating it's prize too much. To ensure my client got better deal, I have mixed few other things too."
Never mind the fact that the client was himself and he had requested all the items he knew of, whether he needed for quests or not. Time to get few samples and make a killing before these guilds horde them like crazy and maintain monopoly.
"How to decide the price? They are rare items. Especially when we don't know which maps have them."
"Reader's secret." Artha said, trying to appear mysterious. He failed. He didn't have the face or the panaché to appear so.
Artha didn't mind. This was long line fishing. Good if it hooks a fish. No worries if it didn't. The odds were long anyway.
He rushed towards training room this time. He didn't want to make the same mistake he did yesterday. A stint in cleaning and sorting things out. A long jog to chat with various NPCs who were starting to make the village centre lively. Back to the nook to read the book. Yes, he succumbed to make more money and bought the biggest gift crate sold after he raised his level to six and dumped it in one of the inn rooms.
Some might be wondering, why not sell it? Was no one buying these big babies? Transactions over the budget allocated? Fine. He could open and use the items himself or sell individually.
Yes. He could do that. What stopped him was what happened previously. The last time he recieved a gift crate, at the time of character creation, it had multiplied many times and he needed to rent a room in the inn just to store those things. This crate was obviously bigger. If the items inside had multiplied like before, he might need a warehouse to store the things. And don't you know it, blessed immortals were not allowed to use the storehouses in the villages. If allowed, most of the guilds would have paid pretty price to have a safe place to keep their stocks.
Then he should have just waited. Waited till he left the village or he found a way to get a warehouse to buy the gift crate.
Two problems - he had no idea when he could be able to leave the village and he had no chance of renting a warehouse. Was there a warehouse in the village? No idea. The village chief or others can claim that there was no warehouse, what to do then.
The next problem - he had no idea if there would be a chance to buy gift crate in later dates. The gift crates were just that- gifts from gaming company to players. They could stop at any moment and none would be wiser.
Better is to buy the crate. Just in case, you know. With enough quantity, he could offset the price even later, much later.