[Next day.]
"…"
"Fuck me!"
(I went to sleepy early so I could log in earlier, but still! What kind of bullshit is this!)
(Why the hell is so many players.)
(Jezus.)
(…)
[Forest]
(And… Of fuking course there are players here as well… Fuck…)
(Of fuking course cannot be too easy.)
(Well… What about the areas deeper in?)
Phantasia began heading to the deeper parts of the forest.
(…)
(There is still a lot… But not as many as I encountered near the entrance. But still a lot.)
(However, probably more players would get here.)
(I saw a lot of players in the grass fields and the city.)
(Fuck….)
(…)
(Honestly, I want to the higher level areas, but that will be suicidal.)
(I have only starting equipment and I saw some players here having different equipment than the starting one.)
(Not only that, splitting my class points onto multiple classes did made my main class, poison mage not being able to level up.)
(….)
(Should I just murder people here?)
(…)
(Nah.)
(I would get killed.)
(I'm not some overpower main protagonist or anything, so a bunch of players, even low level ones can just gang up on me and just kick me to death.)
(I can probably just hunt normally, obviously slower, but without much problem.)
(However, probably this place will become war zone between players AND I need to get out of this place before that happens.)
(…. It would been nice if I could somehow deal with the players, while not expiring myself…)
(Poison smoke? Nah. People would see me and the smoke isn't that big or anything.)
(Use tamed monsters?)
(Nope. They are too weak and people will kill them without problem.)
(PK in open, also nope. Trying to kill somebody from distance with crossbow? Nope. This crossbow doesn't have enough power.)
(…)
(Well, my hands are tied up… LITERLY.)
(I can't do anything.)
(So yea…. No evil for now or I get fucked way too much.)
(Let's keep it quiet for now.)
Pretty much, I went around, hunting monsters and gathering materials.
The monsters… Well, it was obvious that leveling up speed would be bit slowed down, since I was no longer the only person in the forest, but as for the materials, it wasn't necessary that bad.
I saw some people gathering materials like me, but not like there was a lot of players. I guess players in this city doesn't care much about the production classes and focused more on combat… This isn't surprising one bit.
Well, I have the materials for the alchemy, but the problem still stood with money.
I need to buy bronze ingots if I want to continue training my blacksmithing skills.
I have an option to simple just focus on alchemy for now, make potions and sell it to the adventures… But that would make some problems and big one at that.
With some many players here, it would make hunting around here much more.
I need not only materials from the wild BUT I also need things from monsters.
And by the look of things, hunting does give right now more exp. I did noticed that I got bit more exp when I made some better stuff, but nothing much.
So, the best way to level up right now is to hunt.
Honestly, I cannot craft or train right now with the current circumstance.
I mean I'm glad that the game is popular and all, BUT FOR FUCK'S SAKE! Isn't this too many people from get go!?
For fuck's sake…. Well, I do need to stock up materials if I want to lock myself in the private workshop and all in order to train… So, it's not really that bad that I cannot experiment and train, since I would have been forced to hunt either way.
Pretty much, the entire day was about hunting and gathering stuff.
I completed some side quests like find lost cat or deliver stuff, it wasn't anything interesting or good, but at least pay was good.
[Common Crossbow]
[Rarity: Common]
[Attack Power: 8-14]
[Item attack power may change depending on the ammunition used.]
[Common Crossbow Bolt]
[Rarity: Common]
[Attack Power: 7]
[Common Light Armor Set]
[Set: Torso, pants, boots, gloves.]
[Rarity: Common]
[Armor: 20]
(Well, its not that good, but its at least far better than the starting equipment.)
(I didn't had any time to make my own potions, so I just brought some.)
[Weaken Healing Grass Potion]
[Restore 12 HP.]
(This potion seems… More transparent than the regular healing grass potion. Did they mixed more water in order to have more potions?)
(The effect ended up being reduced by whole 13 points.)
(Well I get their point with mixing in water to create more potions, but I think people would get more interested to the normal version instead.)
(Anyway, I guess I should head to deeper into the forest.)
(There are probably some players on their way here, but definitely not as crowded as parts of the forest near the grass field.)
Phantasia left the city and headed straight to the forest and after a while, he made his way to the deeper parts of the forest.
[Few moments later.]
"Shit!"
[Evil Rabbit – Level 13]
(Why the fuck rabbit monster is stronger than a wolf?! What kind of sense is that?!)
The rabbit monster charged straight at the Phantasia, forcing it to fire [Poison Shot] and finish off the monster.
[You have leveled up.]
"Fuck me!"
(Why the fuck a freaking rabbit is not only higher level than wolf but also much stronger?! Shouldn't it be other way around???)
[You have obtained: [Evil Rabbit Feet]. [Evil Rabbit Meat].]
(Well, even though its way harder opponent that the wolf, the drops are nice and there is even quest related to them and they give good amount of EXP.)
(But when fuking 3 of them fuking ganged up on me, it was fuking mean!)
(They even fuking bullied my wolf to death!)
(…)
(Well, at least I managed to tame one of them… But still… Rip wolf… I kind of released it afterworlds since it wasn't useful any more to me.)
(Anyway, there is bit more players than I thought… They must have been hunting nonstop unlike me.)
(Well, its not that bad at least. There is no massive number of them in here, for now that is.)
(So, I shouldn't have big trouble hunting.)
(Still, its bit disappointing that the only few things I found were this.)
[Wild Berry]
[Sour taste]
[Appel]
[Just apple that grows on trees.]
[Forest Mushroom]
[A mushroom that taste nice grilled.]
"…"
(None of these are alchemist materials, aren't they? They are more for cooking…. Well, I did saw a chef class and all… I don't need to eat, but I still get special benefits that comes with… Eating?)
(…)
(Huh… So there are food items that can give you buffs then?)
(…)
(Anyway, hunting is bit noticeable bit harder than before.)
(But I'm leveling up at good pace, but not good enough.)
(I guess I need to level up my poison mage and the monster using classes.)
(It would be also great if I had some better equipment than this if possible, but I don't have time to make my own equipment right now, so that leaves only buying equipment from the NPCs…)
(…)
(Fuck… I really need a lot of money if I want to continue my alchemy and blacksmithing research and training, but I also need materials from hunting monsters.)
(I wonder how others players will do it? Will they work together with others players or something with person A hunting the materials and B using materials to make items?)
(Well, lets just play like your average joe for now.)
(Still, that big talk about being evil, but I literally did nothing!)
(I mean I did murdered somebody, but that guy was a troll, so would that even count as evil?)
(I mean, I can commit some evil stuff, but I would get fucked too much.)
(…)
(Yea… I think I have long route before I can become a villain.)
(Still, is there really, I cannot do expect hunt, earn money and then train?)
(I mean, it would be bit weird if I somehow was a successful villain from get go or something.)
(I'm not some overpower character or anything right, but it would have been nice I could…?)
"…"
Phantasia suddenly stopped moving as he looked to his right.
"…"
(Weird…)
(Did somebody burned something here?) – though Phantasia while inspecting the bottom of the tree near the ground where the grass was dark.
"?"
(No wait… Its only look burned?)
(…)
(It's not an item…. It's just regular grass?) – though Phantasia after plucking some grass.
(But why is it black? Is it ink or something covering it?)
"…"
"?"
Phantasia looked around the grass found nearby behind one of the trees he found a discarded shattered bottle.
(What is this?)
(…. It's doesn't look like the bottle used for potions that you can buy.)
(…)
(Is it bottle of ink?)
(…But it looks old? It seemed that like it was left behind years ago?)
(I did heard that it takes several years for the ink to fade…)
(But… Why is it here in the first place.)
(…)
(I did not saw a single NPC in this forest what soever and that ink bottle seem to have been here for few years.)
(Is it just a random trash?)
(…)
(But wait… Isn't this ink…. Weird?)
(I mean, this is grass and all, so it would grow and all other stuff, so why is it… Pitch black even now.)
(Not only that… It doesn't look like it was spilled on accident? … It was intentional. It's not very big, so it's easy to miss, but the shape was made like that intentional. Somebody made it like that intentional 100%)
(…)
(Something is off.)
Phantasia looked around himself, making sure that there was no players near him.
After making sure that nobody was here, he began looking around the area where ink was spilled.
(…)
(Nothing… I don't see any ink or anything noteworthy around it.)
(…)
(No.)
(There is something off about this ink.)
(Its not some randomly spilled ink or anything like that.)
(Lets see again…)
(The ink is spilled on the grass around the tree and it's shaped like [ ) ]….)
(…)
(Wait…)
Phantasia began walking in one direction for some time, walking quiet far away before returning.
(…No. I think that was wrong direction…. What about the opposite?)
Phantasia walked past the tree that was marked with the inked ground, got behind it and began heading in the straight line.)
(…)
(…)
(…)
(!)
After walking for some time, Phantasia path was blocked by the tree standing directly in his way.
HOWEVER!
The tree had a same ink covered grass in the [ ) ] shape.
(I was right! It was intentional!)
(When I walked in the opposite directions, there were nothing but trees and there was nothing noteworthy.)
(But after I took the opposite direction, there were 0 trees on my path, until I ran into that tree AND it's also marked!)
(There is no mistaking it!)
(It's a path!)
(And I can definitely guess, that there maybe something worth on the end of this path!)