April 9, 2036
Onille idly walked towards the city park and found himself an empty bench to sit on, he engaged in one of his peculiar hobbies, which is people watching.
Onille doesn't mean mean any harm with such an activity, he merely wishes to keep in touch with society as well as sunbathe. The bench experienced the full UV rays of the sun and burned Onille's bum when he sat down. Closing his ears Onille overheard a pretty interesting topic behind him, he took a quick glance and found that it was a couple sitting on a blanket under the nice oak tree shade, they were happily chatting with each other about a game.
Specifically a VR game called Epic of the Gods... Onille perked his ears and eavesdropped on them.
"Yah I recently read from the game forums that there's going to be an update today"
"Really? It's been so long since the last one" the girl replied.
"It's a minor update and it should be finished instantly."
'SHEESH this guy is purposefully not getting to the point!' Onille internally shouted.
"So it's about the time! I've read that instead of 12 hours of game-time, they increased it up to 16 hours!" The man excitedly explained.
"Thats not minor at all" Onille mumbled.
"OH? and why'd they make such an update?" The girl asked.
"You know how we are literally sleeping in the 12 hours we play the game right?" The guy asked.
"Yeah?"
"The company announced that sleeping in such an amount of time is unhealthy, so they calibrated the helmets so that we can only sleep for 6-8 hours, and be physically awake for the remainder of the time!" Said the guy.
After hearing what he needed Onille stood up and headed back home for his daily work out.
[Update Timer: 11:59]
Logging back in the game, Insania manifested inside the looming gate and opened the World Map, she headed straight towards the Teleportation Platform without even glancing at the city prior.
She stood on top of the platform and payed the beastkin Mage manning the Teleportation Platform 5 gold coins.
After a blinding light, and a nauseous feeling she finally saw it! Mortar City!
She jumped off the platform and briskly went towards the merchants district of the city to find a Leather-shop.
...
She found one without much hassle and went inside.
Tiring Tiring
She heard the chimes and contemplated on the five major production based classes for beastkin race namely the Leathermaker or Leathersmith, the Bone-sculptor which is self explanatory, then the scalesmith. Which is a specific Smith class that only handles scales... The Steelsmith, the brother of a Blacksmith but is far more specialized in handling metals, steels and ores.
The Cloth-maker or.. In human terms Tailor which specializes in soft materials like cotton or thread...
The Jeweler, which of course... Makes accessories from almost anything.
"How can I help you miss?" a short beastkin shopkeeper greeted Insania with a soft voice. At first Insania was at a loss of words she thought all beastkin males were hefty and buff but that was a stupid misconception of hers.
"I have an equipment that needs to be customized to fit me." Insania answered politely.
"Very well! let us take your measurements miss" the shopkeeper beamed with joy. Insania stared at the small beastkin smiling at her
"No no! you misunderstand! I already have a wife and child, she'd kill me if I were to disrespect our customers." he hurriedly defended himself because of Insania's gaze.
Insania lowered her guard and let the fragile looking beastkin take her measurements. From her waist to the width of her legs and the length of her arms, she couldn't help but feel molested but she held an indifferent expression.
"Ok done... Are there any personal improvements you want? " the shopkeep asked.
Thinking a bit, Insania did want a lot of changes.
"First the Bracers... Its the remains of a bears arms.. I want you to make it skin tight but still firm and hard from my palms up to my biceps." Insania paused then continued.
"Secondly I want you to make it black, like night black."
"Do you want the gloves and the sleeves to be attached together?" The Beastkin asked.
"Yes, as long as it doesn't change the attributes at all... You can let your creativity go wild." Insania knew that custom made items were expensive Probably 40+ gold coins depending on the maker but she didn't care.
"For the Armor, I don't need too much changes... As long as its comfortable and not too restrictive, Also..." Blushing a little bit, Insania pointed on her chest and continued.
"Prioritize on this part here"
"Do you want it covered or half covered? In my opinion its not even that big." The shopkeep shrugged.
Onille couldn't understand why she felt hurt hearing that. She shook the strange feeling away, huffed and growled, then continued.
"I want to cover it... but I also don't want it to be too compact, maybe add zippers on it so that I can breath a bit." Insania gestured like she's pulling an imaginary zipper up and down.
"For the Aruks Severed Feet I want you to turn it into shoes... Human-styled shoes preferably heels. If you also have time can you turn the remaining parts of the item into knee socks?"
"I can, those are pretty curious preferences there, but I won't judge.. what do you wish to do with the claws?"
"You can remove it.. As long as it doesn't change the item attributes, you can do whatever you want." Insania said and the shopkeep nodded
"For the Aruks Hide.." Insania gulped and heaved a deep breath. Firming her resolve she spoke up.
"I want you to turn it into skin tight trousers that still provide excellent flexibility and durability"
The shopkeep couldn't help but whistle... To him, this beastkin really had a weird fashion sense... Its almost too human... After all beastkin don't wear skin tight items. They prefer baggy pants that's unable to reach their knees.
"Is it too bizarre?" Insania asked gulping.
"No not at all... Its a fairly easy task..." The beastkin smiled.
"About the head... You can do anything with it... But I don't want its attributes to change. Use your judgement how it can synchronize well with my other requests."
"For you to give me this much freedom, for such a great item..." The shopkeep was at a loss after scanning the Aruks Severed Head. Its really a one of a kind item for beastkin standards, thats because a majority of beastkin crafted items usually don't have the Wisdom attribute, but this one has it.
"Don't look at me like that. I trust you... So where's the paperwork? I'm in a hurry you know..." Insania chuckled after seeing his shock.
"Ok... when will you want the items to be finished?" the shopkeep asked.
"How long will you be able to make all my requests?" Insania didn't blatantly say a deadline because that would instantly make her items more expensive than it needs to be.
"I can do it in 2 or 3 days... Ok heres the papers." The beastkin went inside a room after getting the order papers. Insania heard a bit of coughing when the man closed the door. She threw the items in the basket and heard a ruckus outside. Hurriedly reading the papers Insania bit her finger and signed the paper with her blood. The order paper states that she can pay once the item is done... But that would be a hassle and Insania wanted to see what's outside..
Dropping 50 gold coins she exited the shop and followed the crowd of players and NPC? its actually pretty hard to differentiate players and non-players in this game so she wasn't sure.
"Woah it's Leonardus!" the beastkin screamed incessantly and rushed towards a certain direction. Insania's ears perked she too wanted to meet the Legendary Heavy-weight Brawler Leonardus.
Following the crowd they gathered at a fountain, there Insania saw Leonardus shouting at a human? This human was wearing full plated steel Armor with intricate design that makes you think he's some knight in service to Royalty, he confronted Leonardus with a stern expression without showing any signs of fear.
Leonardus is a legendary sensation in the game, his feats and exploits shined like a beacon that attracted everyones attention. In real life Leonardus is a retired Heavy-weight Kick-boxing champion but no one knew that until an associate of his... probably his close friend exposed his real identity.
In Epic of The Gods the ranking system works very differently, because it only shows the number one highest leveled player inside their respective nations and Leonardus is the number one in the entire Beast-Empire, his associate even bragged that Leonardus was 2 months behind the other players, how he caught up is still a mystery to this day. Insania slowly got closer to the front to hear the conversation.
Insania heard something she didn't expect and eagerly listened like the rest of the crowd.