"Ding!"
"Congratulations! You have defeated the Rock Golem and earned a First-Kill Reward."
Whoosh—
A golden badge materialized right in front of Ares. Intricate dragon markings were etched into it, with two crossed swords at its center.
"Congratulations! You have obtained the 'Novice Hunter' badge. Wearing this badge grants you an extra 1% XP bonus."
Ares's eyes lit up.
An XP bonus? That basically meant leveling his talent faster. Score!
He happily pinned the badge on himself, then turned to check out the Rock Golem's gigantic corpse. A faint golden glow hovered around it—loot spilling everywhere.
Ares went over, gathered everything, and stuffed it into his Inventory.
• Earth Element ×5
• E-grade Heavy Earth Armor ×1
• Hammer of the Earth ×1
• Cracked Stones ×8
• Gold Coin ×5
Not bad at all! Five gold coins just from this kill.
Ares took a look at "Hammer of the Earth":
[Weapon: Hammer of the Earth]
[Quality: D-grade]
[Level: 25]
[Attack: 15–30]
[Attribute: +6% Crit Rate]
Sure, it had decent stats, but it was heavy, and using a hammer didn't suit his style. He decided to keep it tucked away and maybe sell it at the auction house later.
"Time to keep grinding," he said to himself. He needed a ton of beasts to farm more EXP.
Just as that thought crossed his mind, a whole pack of wild boars rumbled into view—at least twenty of them.
Ares charged forward without a second thought.
They were only Level 13, so it wasn't much of a fight. He dispatched them easily, and when they died, the ground was littered with loot. Thanks to his talent, taking out twenty-three "Plains Boars" netted him +2 base attributes, automatically assigned to Defense.
The catch? His Inventory was nearly full.
Ares decided to head back to town, clear out his bags, sell off whatever he could, and see if there was a bigger storage pack for sale. He was not about to keep making trips back and forth all day.
On his way, he ran into a few more groups of beasts, which he also mowed down, completely overstuffing his Inventory.
Eventually, he arrived at the main city and followed the signs to the auction house—a bustling marketplace in every major hub, full of both player listings and NPC merchants. If you couldn't find what you needed from the player side, you could always check with the NPC traders.
First, Ares cleared out as much space as possible: everything not bound to him went up on the auction platform. The system then gave each item a base estimate, letting you raise or lower the price from there. To prevent chaos in the market, any listing cost that exceeded the system's estimate ended up taxed proportionally—and the bigger the markup, the heftier the tax.
After a few minutes of fiddling with his listings, he was left with a handful of bound items he couldn't sell, items whose use wasn't immediately apparent. Nothing he could do about that.
"All these back-and-forth trips are a total waste of time," he muttered. "Time is everything around here—I need a solution."
He started browsing the auction house for a bigger Inventory or maybe a quick-return item. Without one, he'd be stuck running to and fro nonstop.
The top listing turned out to be a Staff of some sort, E-grade, going for 1,000 gold. And that was just E-grade! Scrolling down, he spotted a D-grade greatsword with a whopping 88,888 gold price tag, and he just about choked.
"Holy crap, daylight robbery or what?"
But Ares didn't really get how crazy-low gear drop rates in Oracles were. Weapons, especially, were painfully scarce, so even mediocre stats meant sky-high demand.
Sure, gold was tough to farm, but at least you had a shot at it. Actually getting a weapon drop, though, was pure luck. Despite the inflated prices, there were always buyers willing to cough up the gold.
"If weapons are that rare, they cost a fortune. But maybe an everyday item like a bigger Inventory will be cheap, right?"
He kept scrolling through the listings for recall-type items or upgraded storage. Quickly enough, he found a massive purple-gold Inventory with a 1,000-slot capacity—but it was listed at a jaw-dropping 99,999 gold.
Blinking in disbelief, he closed that tab and checked his items currently awaiting a price appraisal. The system's base estimates turned out way lower than he expected. Whatever—he decided to mark them up by 20% over the system's value, then hit "Sell All."
Within a minute, a notice hit the auction house about a huge wave of new gear. Many players who'd just left their newbie villages were thrilled to see items priced way below typical market rates—and with better stats to boot. They pounced on the chance, snapping everything up like crazy.
Less than ten minutes later, all of Ares's listings had sold out. People started complaining in the channel:
"Was that it? I barely saw a single staff before it vanished!"
"Dude, I want a weapon—any weapon, man, I'd even settle for hacking away with a giant eggplant right now!"
Ares, meanwhile, watched his gold count blast from single digits into the five-figure range. Not enough for that bigger Inventory, though, so he grabbed a recall scroll and headed right back to the plains. Another hour of grinding left him loaded up again, so he returned with a full stash.
This time, as soon as he listed everything—at a 50% markup over the system estimate—it still sold out in a flash.
He watched his balance shoot from five digits to six in seconds and smiled, instantly picking up the 1,000-slot mega-Inventory. Then, with his new storage, he set off again for the Howling Plains.
And for the next two days straight, Ares did nothing but grind. At dusk on the third day, he finally saw his Talent EXP hit 100% once again.
A brand-new Talent was just around the corner!