Chapter 67 - Trade Skill books (1/2)

Even after two years when he created his account in his past life, he could see that its difficulty didn't decrease much after the upgrades. The game company insisted that such a quest would enable the player to get better acquainted with the different options the game could provide allowing them to improve their co-ordination and techniques and have a better experience with the game later.

In fact, the Metis technologies didn't really care much about the players enjoyment. It insisted on this quest as the scientist believed that hard quest would improve the players compatibility with the somnium technology. Also, it would have an unconscious effect on all player to improve their physical abilities.

So, Shadow could only imagine that the quest wouldn't be simple or easy at all. It would need people in large numbers to attempt the quest as it happened in his previous life or they could level up. Seeing that it just became a town and new territories opened, it would be best to explore them before the craze for the special dungeon 'Cave of Wargs' subsided.

It was always a rule in games that dungeons would provide more experience and resources than farming in the wild. After that came quests. Everybody considered that quests gave better rewards. So, most would try to complete the dungeon runs before they go and attempt the quest for clearing the path to the city.

Assuming the best-case time to finish the dungeon in 60 minutes and having a total of 6 possible runs per day, they could assume 6 hours to be spent by most players at the dungeon. Let the worst case be 4 hours. This still gave Shadow a significant advantage to explore the plains and with these thoughts in mind, he suggested that the explore the plains instead.

”At least, let me pull your levels up. The plains have good farming spots. Then you can go and attempt the quest like others. I have already explored that area in stealth during your attempt with elite dungeon. There are a lot of monsters and without being ready, we would face a situation similar to the hell mode,” said Shadow.

”Fine, if you could raise our level quickly. We can still attempt the quest afterwards. The quest is supposed to be a valid one till we reach level 10 anyway. We wouldn't be able to enter the city without reaching level 10 even if we finish the quest,” said Quiet Fire.

”Ya, it would probably make the quest a bit easier. Let us try and see. It is always better to get a hold of farming spots early to level up. We lost our chance at the hell mode of dungeon. This is the best time to improve our levels,” agreed Tetsujin.

With both Quiet Fire and Tetsujin agreeing, the rest also decided to try and see. During their attempt at the dungeon, Slaine as suggested by Balthazar took Rudra, Brick, Light and Roll to explore the plains in a 5-man team.

Brick Wall was a guardian, Perennial Light a Druid and Duck 'n' Roll was an assassin. They had been playing games with Slaine for a long time and were already working from the workshop that they prepared.

They had mostly moved along the river and targeted boars. With a team, isolated boars were good targets if one had a proficient team. All the thief needs to do is aggro the boar towards the team and they ambushed it. It was easy to agro the board and it wouldn't run away. A couple of control skills or a decent tank would provide them the chance to whittle down its health.

Slaine also used poison on his arrows and along with their ambush tactics, they had a decent hunt in the plains. Farming at the plains was easy. All one had to remember was to pull isolated creatures into ambushes and not waste their time with docile monsters if they didn't have enough control skills. Farming in this manner allowed them to quickly gain experience and crossed level 6.

This way, Rudra, Slaine and the other three made their way towards the river. The river was one of the places that they didn't explore well as it had a higher concentration of monsters. Even if most of them were docile one's, accidentally causing more than one boar or other kind of monsters wasn't appealing as they were all higher leveled monsters than the team.

Slaine and Roll had the highest perception among the group. Roll went closer to the river and he could see that the river also had monsters, but they were small fishes and moved at a fast pace continuously. He felt like it is a waste to even attempt attacking them.

Slaine attempted to shoot a couple of them but as soon as the arrow touched the water the fish swam away as if it noticed the attack. He made a few more attempts, but they were all futile. They also could see few monsters which looked like crocodiles in the river, but these monsters were just still. Moreover, they were at level 15.

{Langstonia] (Common Monsters)

Level 15;

HP: 7000/7000;

Langstonia were monsters similar to crocodiles. But unlike crocodiles they were fast on both land and water. They had a length of 2-3 meters with 3 feet long legs which allowed them to move around easily on land. But like crocodiles these reptiles spend most of their time in water. The only moving monsters that were in range and had similar level were fishes.

It looks like the game only allowed them to catch fish by fishing or getting into the water to attack. But looking at the langstonia, any such thoughts evaporated instantly. The continued to attack the monsters along the river in the same fashion as before. After a few minutes, they saw an isolated cabin on the banks of the river.

The cabin was large and had a large fishing deck that extended on to the river. There was a crippled old person fishing in a wheel chair while a guard was on the lookout on the deck. As they approached the cabin, the guard immediately came towards them with his sword.

”Why are you here?” asked the guard rudely pointing his sword at them. The guard was a level 15 character and had a yellow mark on him indicating he was a neutral NPC.

”We are just adventurers from the Blackrock town. We are exploring the region and hunting a few monsters,” answered Rudra before the guard would get any doubts. If he was a neutral NPC, there might be a good chance to get a quest from him, if he talks to them in a decent and respectful manner.

”Don't frighten them, Bill. Send them to me,” said the old person in the wheelchair suddenly. The guard led them to the deck when they could notice the old guy. The old man had grey hair cut like that of a soldier, bright green eyes which almost sparkled and wore what looked like a guard uniform. From the uniform, it was apparent that he was high-level personnel among the guards.

He was definitely a mage as he had a 5-foot long sceptre in a stand attached to the wheelchair. The sceptre had scarlet blade at the end instead of a gemstone like the usual ones. It was a very odd one.

As the old guy turned around in the wheelchair, they noticed that the wheelchair was also powered by magic and had runes flashing on it. There was a pressure that couldn't understand pressing on their minds when he came closer.

[Battlemage Arius Wright] (NPC - Light Faction)

Level: ??? (Crippled)

HP: ????

”Don't be frightened,” said Arius and at the same time the pressure they felt suddenly disappeared. It was clear to them that the old man was a very powerful NPC.

”Respected Sir, we have been given a quest to explore the area and hunt monsters in the plains to make it safer for the new town. This quest was given by the guards,” said Rudra before anything was asked of him.