Chapter 180 - Welog Town (2/2)

These two active volcanoes were considered forbidden areas till players reached tier 3 but there were a few dormant ones surrounding it where the monsters ranged upto tier 2 level 70. Though it had many monsters it couldn't be considered a good farming ground as the numbers are quite high and also a few of the higher leveled monsters would suddenly come to the low-level areas occasionally causing huge losses to the players.

It was a volatile place where forest fires and the likes are common. One needn't even be suprised if a blob of lava or rocks rained on them from the sky killing them. Even if a player keeps his pain and burn setting to a minimum of 1% to feel the surrounding burning to death suddenly due to lava rain is an experience which most players wouldn't want to risk.

In spite of all this, players still attempted to kill these monsters as they can find ores and even gems as the go deeper lying on the ground. There would also be a lot of igneous rocks that could be found on the ground and even on trees which when broken would also have different kinds ores. There would soon be players who just go to search for ores by wandering in the place as even areas with low level monsters would occasionally give ores like Dark Iron and crystals like Jades. So, it will end up being one of the popular places for player who want to test their luck.

Currently the forest around the Welog town has level 15 beast common to the forest, but Balthazar wanted to increase his levels fast. So, the volcano region is actually a good place to grind for player who go solo. Moreover, the monsters tend to leave decent loot too.

The main problem was that he currently didn't have a way to quickly get to the Welog town due to lack of mounts, so he had to make way by foot. Without having been registered at a place one couldn't use teleportation portal to travel to a place either. That was the main reason, why everyone had to discover a town before being able to teleport, except in cases where a quest guided them to it. Without mounts which aren't introduced yet, it would be very time consuming to get there, but he decided to go there anyway as it would help him increase his level while he could also help the guild establish themselves towards the direction of the Jarko town.

The path to Welog town was a mild forest. Being a town connected to the White Heart City and as it is not one of the beginner towns, there is a clear path to it made by the NPCs and a few watchtowers and restaurants along the way. Thus, the players didn't have to worry about monsters attacking them in large numbers in the path. Players actually try to get out of the path in such scenarios to attack and explore the surrounding forests. Currently, most players are trying to explore all the surrounding areas in hope of getting lucky after they heard of the fort that was discovered by the Crimson Realm guild.

This behavior of the players made his journey a solitary one till he reached a watchtower. Even while running at his best speed it took him 15 minutes to reach the first watchtower along the way. The watchtowers in between the ways weren't just a tower but were like a small encampment of guards having a proper stockade with a hotel, restaurant, bar and warehouse so that travelers either adventurers or NPCs could spend the night if there was a need. The security and the number of NPCs at the watchtower also varies based on the number of players using that path.

These places tend to be crowded as they also have a quest board at the watchtowers. The quests could be either resource gathering for the guards or killing special monsters or guarding NPC convoys. Players would realize later that gathering reputation would also allow them to post quests at such places, which could even be accepted by NPCs, but the details would depend upon the reputation of the individual concerned. Sometime, NPCs might even try to cheat the players in regard to the quests.

Balthazar had no plans to pursue any quest. He only disguised himself and went to the watchtower areas to see the players and if any known guilds or team were there. Knowing the future, he was continuously planning on getting more trustworthy and powerful allies in the game. But he didn't find anyone of much value and just had some beverage at the restaurant to quickly replenish his stamina before going ahead. He continued in the same way for the next two watchtowers before he found something interesting in the last watchtower before the Welog town.

The thing he found wasn't related to any player, but it was a quest to gather specific item from location of the volcanos. The quest was to gather the firestones that would be found in the abdomen of the salamandrids that would be roaming near that place. These beasts ranged from level 18 to level 20.

Most wouldn't even realize the quest nor would be interested in it due to their high level, but Balthazar was reminded of a very common use of these firestones and something else that would be found at that place. The firestones could be used to provide lights and used as consumable if one had lanterns. It could also be used to increase the quality of normal fire that could be used for forging or alchemy which would help increase the success rate of weapons and potions.

But these weren't the most interesting things to Balthazar as it is not easy to get the blueprints for lanterns and he had already been using advanced workshop which has better fires. So, using the firestones for improving fire was of no use to him, but he knew something that is very useful. The salamandrids are almost always accompanied by fireflies when they are resting.

If he could use stealth and get close to a few he could put them in jars and with help of a tamer use them as light sources at night-time. The fireflies would also need to be properly supported to grow in level along with the player, else it would become victim to attacks of other beasts if the player attempts to farm monsters at higher levels. So, it is best if he tries to get hold of them at a lower level. He also knew that once the light stones and lanterns came into existence, the number of fireflies that were spawned were decreased by the game administrators and it becomes much harder to tame fireflies at that time.

At this stage, exploration of places as night and some dark caverns are very hard. Use of a tamed firefly or a group of them would make it very easy for a team to continue in the wilds at night-time instead of staying at towns or cities. So, it would have a lot more value than anything he could think at this stage of the game.

So, he took the quest and decided to attempt it rather than other things. It would also enable him to raise his experience faster at night. He is already having trouble finding a decent forging or engineering design to work at nights to increase his experience and level and this would only get worse at higher levels. Having a firefly tamed would allow him to farm monsters at night much easily and would help to increase his experience faster.

He quickly made his way to the Welog town and registered himself. The town was exactly as he had remembered. It was a small town with no specific features. There were woods all around the place and it was a small town almost like a beginner town. The only difference is that all the monsters in the surrounding areas and most of the NPCs were at least at level 15. The towns size would only increase once the number of players visiting it regularly increases.

After registration, he decided to go to the White Heart City. At this stage, tamers wouldn't be in large number in kingdoms and even if they were, they wouldn't be popular. He asked in the Crimson Realm guild chat on his way and found that no one knew of a tamer NPC or shop in Welog town. So, he had to go to the White Heart City where he knew the location of the pet shop. A pet shop always had a tamer or group in charge of it.