After John left the two ladies to have their girl talk, he made his way back through the temple until he arrived outside.
He looked around unsure of what to do next, he currently only had two quests, one required him being lucky in finding a Druid spell tomb, while the other was his class quest that he needed to reach level ten to complete.
Other than that he would have to wait three days to use Guidance again, however since the spell tome quest had no time limit, he was not in any rush.
He decided to explore Thamethalas some more and maybe head over to the adventures hall and see if there were any quests he could pick up.
As he went around the city John visited a few shops to see if he could buy anything interesting now that he had money.
Unfortunately, all the interesting stuff was above his level so he would have to wait, he did, however, sell off the old gear he had just replaced, though he got nothing for his starter gear he got just over one silver for the other pieces.
[Two-handed Bastard Sword Sold for: 1 Silver 50 Copper]
[Rabbit Boots Sold for: 25 Copper]
[Money: 82 Gold 13 Silver 4 Copper>>82 Gold 14 Silver 79 Copper]
John had asked Silver Oracle about selling the gear on the auction house, but she said it was not worth it, the auction house always took a ten percent cut even if the items did not sell and no one wanted gear from the starter village anyway.
After that John went to the Adventures Hall to look for quests and found that they listed them in groups for every ten levels.
Since he was still only level five, he had to of course check out the first wall of quests.
[Gather Herbs for the local Alchemist's guild (Ordinary)]
[The local Alchemist's guild needs a regular resupply on their basic herbs for their potion sales and also their research into new potions.]
[Quest Goals:]
[Briarthorn: 0/10]
[Earthroot: 0/10]
[Peacebloom: 0/10]
[Silverleaf: 0/10]
[Quest success reward:]
[50 Silver]
[Lesser Healing Potion x 5]
[Quest Failure punishment: None]
[Collect Apples for Granny Jones (Ordinary)]
[Granny Jones is getting on in years and can no longer go collect apples herself, she needs them to bake pie for her neighbors' birthday.]
[Quest Goals:]
[Apples: 0/10]
[Quest success reward:]
[Apple Pie]
[Quest Failure punishment: None]
[Wolf Culling. (Ordinary)]
[The local pack of Wolves that roams the forest near the village is growing too big and to feed themselves they have started attacking people traveling to and from Thamethalas, they need culling to stop their attacks.]
[Quest Goals:]
[Wolves Culled: 0/5]
[Quest success reward:]
[50 Silver]
[Quest Failure punishment: Attacks on people will continue to rise]
[Wolf Leather. (Ordinary)]
[The local leather maker has heard of the quest to cull the wolves, he thinks this is a great time to stock up on wolf leather.]
[Quest Goals:]
[Wolf Leather: 0/5]
[Quest success reward:]
[50 Silver]
[Uncommon (Green) Piece of Gear]
[Quest Failure punishment: None]
[Eliminate the Bandits. (Rare)]
[Local bandits have started appearing more frequently and attacking travelers to and from Thamethalas, the local security force would like volunteers to hunt down these bandits and return with their bandit insignia as proof of eliminating them.]
[Quest Goals:]
[Bandit Insignia's: 0/10]
[Quest success reward:]
[1 Gold]
[Piece of Rare (Blue) Gear]
[Quest Failure punishment: Attacks on people will continue to rise]
In the end John managed to get five quests.
Thamethalas had two main entrances, one to the north and the other to the south, the quests he acquired were all based south of the city, so he made his way towards the south exit.
As John left the city the forest spread out before him.
He saw people of all races heading off to do their thing in groups or going solo.
Gone were the new players who all had the same gear except for one or two pieces, here every player was dressed differently.
The higher-level players were easy to spot as their gear was much more refined looking and some even had special effects to it.
John's herb detector skill was going crazy, showing him the outlines of hundreds of different herbs.
John decided to set off in the direction of a large group of herbs his detector skill showed him thinking that maybe he could finish that quest quickly and any bonus herbs he picked he could sell off again after.
As he made his way through the trees he kept an eye out for any apples.
Eventually he came to a large clearing in the forest that was filled with herbs.
As he looked around, he saw that each herb was with its own kind in small patches, and these patches spread all over the clearing making it so there must have been dozens of herbs altogether.
"How has all this never been gathered before?" John wondered out loud before bending down and starting to gather the first patch of herbs next to him.
[Quest Update]
[Briarthorn: 1/10]
[Briarthorn: 2/10]
He gathered the herbs one by one but when he was moving towards the third patch, he heard voices behind that made him look round and frown when he heard what they said.
[Quest Update]
[Peacebloom: 4/10]
"See I told you he was here" said a female elf with a bow on her back.
"Yes, yes well done, but look what we have here, why is this place so full of herbs?" Asked the male elf in the center who carried a staff and seemed to be the leader.
"Who cares, let's just kill the noob human and then gather them ourselves afterwards, this haul will make us a tidy profit." A third elf said as he spun his dagger.
"Aww but I want to get back to Lord Nature to get my reward." The female elf with the bow whined before she showed a perverted grin.
"You whore, is it really such a reward being able to make out with Natures Guardian for only five minutes while he gropes your tits?? If you want a real make out session why not come to me, I will give you more than five minutes." Said another male elf who had a shield on his back and a sword at his side, while giving the female a perverted look.
"Fuck you, even though you're a guardian the same as Lord Nature, you can't even compare to his magnificence."
"Bitch, you only care about his magnificence because of his father's position." The guardian spat back.
"Enough you two, you're embarrassing us." The leader said before turning to John.
"Human, do you know the mistake you made?" He asked.
John gave them a blank stare before he cast inspect on them all.
(Inspect)
[Name: Natures Guardian team member Taeral]
[Race: Elf]
[Class: Sorcerer]
[Level: 15]
[HP: 460/460]
[MP: 200/200]
[P ATP: 19 (Physical Attack)]
[M ATP: 64 (34+30(M ATP)) (Magic Attack)]
[END: 29 (18+11(DEF))]
[Name: Natures Guardian team member Eletha]
[Race: Elf]
[Class: Hunter]
[Level: 13]
[HP: 400/400]
[MP: 180/180]
[P ATP: 40 (27+13(P ATP)) (Physical Attack)]
[M ATP: 19 (Magic Attack)]
[END: 30 (16+13(DEF))]
[Name: Natures Guardian team member Tasar]
[Race: Elf]
[Class: Thief]
[Level: 14]
[HP: 420/420]
[MP: 190/190]
[P ATP: 45 (30+(12+3)(P ATP)) (Physical Attack)]
[M ATP: 20 (Magic Attack)]
[END: 36 (17+18(DEF))]
[Name: Natures Guardian team member Kieran]
[Race: Elf]
[Class: Guardian]
[Level: 14]
[HP: 520/520]
[MP: 190/190]
[P ATP: 31 (20+11(P ATP)) (Physical Attack)]
[M ATP: 20 (Magic Attack)]
[END: 45 (17+28(DEF))]
(So, the leader Taeral is the only one that is level fifteen and enters a new gear bracket while the other three are in the level ten bracket since gear upgrades every five levels.)
(Eletha is the lowest level of the four and her stats are nothing to worry about.)
(Tasar's stats are also nothing to worry about, but thieves can apparently stealth so it might be a good idea to take him out first in case he tries to run after going invisible.)
(Shit Kieran is a tanky bitch, his endurance is almost as high as mine and I have all those extra stat points from the start, I guess that's mail armor for you, shame for him his attack sucks though.)
John scanned the parties' stats trying to come up with a strategy quickly before he replied to their leader Taeral.
"And they tell you that the elves are the most dignified race, it seems that doesn't apply to the younger elves."
"Excuse me?" The leader said as they all frowned.
"You do realize how much you two just fucked up?" John asked, looking at Kieran and Eletha.
"What?" They both asked confused.
"It's obvious why you're all here, Natures Guardian sent you to teach me a lesson because I was together with Silver Oracle right?"
"It's good you know what you did wrong, but you still have to pay for your mistake." Taeral proclaimed righteously.
John rolled his eyes before saying.
"Oh please, stop pretending to be all self-righteous, we both know you're only as self-righteous as Natures Guardian pretends to be, and those to just proved that."
"Why you?" The leader hissed angrily.