Am I... First in the World?

[You have unlocked the Gathering skill. You can now collect herbs and plants.]

"I'll right. Now that you know how to collect herbs, please get me 50 Green Herb that can be found in the fields around here."

"Sigh, is that all?"

Samuel let a relieved sigh escape, only to start sweating again.

"Oh that's just to replenish my stocks. After you got used to it, you still owe me that favor. Please come back quickly, handsome."

[Herb Collection]

Beth's shop is short on low level potions after the great influx of players. Help her get her business running again by providing the necessary materials.

Mission: Collect at least 50 green herbs.

Rank: -

Time limit: 2 days.

Samuel left the shop with a heavy heart. NPCs in this village are way too merciless. She would probably ask me to do something insane.

"Why is there no skill to reverse time? Sigh, well let's get started."

Samuel exited from the east gate. Its 20:17 now, so the game has been up for a little more than 20 hours. People have started to organize themselves a little now, so he could see lots of noobs looking for parties outside.

Samuel spent 53 minutes gathering the herbs and learnt something about the game. The exp rates are very slow! He collected 89 green herbs, even more than Beth asked, but his gathering skill was still at 40% proficiency. And that's level 1. Who knows how many levels there are.

After rounding the green herbs collected to a hundred, he came back to the shop. He was eager to shoot his bow, but he felt like he should finish this quest first at least. Besides, he gave his word that he would bring her any herb. A man's word are more precious than gold! Samuel believed in that.

"So slow. You took longer than I thought."

"I brought some extra since you have nothing here."

"Oh my, you really like me don't you? Sorry, but you're not my type. I like older macho men."

[You have completed the quest Herb Collection.]

Rewards:

1 silver.

Favorability with Beth +20

Beth is now Friendly.

Hidden Reward:

Favorabilty with Beth +5.

Gathering proficiency +50%. ( 1% for each herb extra ).

"Alright, now that I have my stock back let's talk about your exciting quest. I need an herb called Moon Herb for a special potion. It grows at the Moon Forest, near to lakes where Moon's energy is concentrated. Also, you have to deal with its protector. These herbs are always accompanied of strong monsters."

[Moon Herb Collection]

You owe Beth a favor and she's redeeming it. She asks you to bring a Moon Herb, a special herb among low levels herbs that gained special properties by being bathed in Moon's energy in higher concentrations.

Mission: Get a Moon Herb and bring it to Beth. They can be found near lakes inside the Moon Forest.

Rank: E

Time limit: 7 days

"As I thought... This is impossible."

Samuel was looking at the mission's rank as he said. The Wolf Extermination quest was really hard. If not his luck in finding an higher ground, he probably wouldn't have been able to complete that quest. And that was just F+ !!

An E rank quest... He couldn't even imagine it.

"George, have you finished any equips?"

"I have used most of the bad quality leather to grind exp. I'll be starting now on your equips so I'll need 30 minutes to finish it."

"Ok. How's your alchemy?"

"I can make basic healing potions with green herbs but that's all. I need to create my own recipes or find them to make more potions."

"I'll come back with green herb for you in 30 minutes. Meet you at the fountain again."

Samuel was itching for some action, but his rationality convinced him that, with the impending doom of an E rank quest, he had to prepare as best as he can.

When half an hour passed, Samuel met at the fountain with George. George again surprised that Samuel already had two gathering skills since most players haven't got one. Samuel bought another two stacks of 300 arrows while his friend made potions. Receiving 20 potions from George, he was finally ready. His new equips were chest armor, pants and boots. George couldn't make anything out of the last normal quality skin.

[Wolf's Leather Armor]

Rank: Common

Type: Leather

Defense: 2

[Wolf's Leather Pants]

Rank: Common

Type: Leather

Defense: 2

[Wolf's Leather Boots]

Rank: Common

Type: Leather

Defense: 1

Movespeed: +1

Samuel didn't mind any other equip except the boots. Because he'll be kiting whatever is protecting the herb, he needed more movespeed. Although, if it's a wolf monster as he suspected, it would hardly make a difference.

Still, Samuel thanked his friend and went to the Forest. Some players were hunting in parties at the outskirts of the forest. There were a lot of deaths around. Since he was going deeper this time, he decided not to kill those monster and just pass through.

Samuel avoided any group of wolves that he saw, until he saw another lone wolf. This one was alert and noticed Samuel as soon as he shot his Double Shot skill. The wolf charged with blood red eyes. Samuel saw the distance decreasing fast and switched his weapon after shooting another arrow. Archers could equip daggers to fight at close combat, if necessary.

Samuel felt his concentration rising. The wolf charged straight at him. Its bestial instincts rejecting any strategies against such a7 weak human.

Samuel dodged under the wolf awkwardly and made a cut under its belly. It became a critical attack. The wolf became vigilant, not aiming for high attack to the neck anymore. It was walking around Samuel while looking for any weak point. The wolf suddenly attacked again, aiming for Samuel's torso this time.

Samuel avoided, but still took damage by the claw that hit him. He didn't forget to hit the wolf with his own dagger though the damage wasn't high.

After fighting like that for 5 minutes. The wolf life was at 28%, but Samuel was at 10%. He only had 5 hp remaining. Even so, he felt confident he could win. Although he never learnt how to dodge efficiently, the reason which each dodge was made awkwardly, he got used to the wolf patterns. For the last 2 minutes he didnt even lose hp.

After 3 more minutes, the wolf was dead. Samuel sat tired on the ground. Maintaining that level of concentration was really draining. Luckily, the wolf didnt endure another minute, otherwise, it might not have been defeated.

"Although it's hard, it's still doable. Fighting really is the best in a game."

Samuel ate food to recover. He was analyzing the fight he just had. He could keep with the wolves movement if he didnt get agitated. Also, looks like LEO tries to incorporate some gimmicks to make it more realistic. Aiming and evading may receive some help from the system, but there's no certain hit. At least not for now. Attack to vital area like head or heart are always critical strikes. Using that logic, attack to the leg or arms can never be critical. Unless there's a vital organ there.

"So martial arts should be useful here. But that advantage should probably be less pronounced at later stages of the game."

Samuel finished recuperating his body and mind and got to work. He kept fighting against lone wolves. He almost died twice, discovering that every wolf has slightly different attributes. He was lucky with his first one, that one was dumber than average.

"Another level up. Guess I'll be leveling agility for now. Vitality will help me take one or two hits more, but agility is my lifeline."

Samuel stared at the lake in front. He searched around the whole lake but couldn't find any herbs who fit the description.

As he was looking around, the day turned into night and the full moon started shining.

The moonlight gave the lake another appearance. Silvery reflections in the light gave him an idea. He followed the reflections direction and found it. A silver looking herb that gave a strong reflection to light. It was hidden at day but at night it would shine brightly.

After carefully checking around and finding nothing unusual, he crouched down to collect it, his awareness high on every movement at the surroundings.

Samuel caught a slight movement at the lake water and immediately jumped back. Just in time to evade a water blast that hit just where he was.

"I was waiting for you, protector."

A very big turtle slowly got out of the water. It was as tall as Samuel himself, maybe a little higher. Its eyes glaring at the intruder that coveted its treasure.

The big turtle slowly positioned it self right in front of the Moon Herb and threw another water blast. It's mouth was like a water cannon!

Samuel took his bow and arrow after evading the last attack. The tree behind him toppling over.

"That's dangerous if it hits, but I guess I'm lucky to get this kind of boss. This kind of boss is the easiest one for me. It's specialized for defense and attacks at range. Any other class might have despaired here, but at this range as long as I'm careful I can avoid its attacks."

Indeed. The turtle attacks consisted basically of water blasts. Even warriors could die in one hit receiving those blasts at close range, and mages are still trying to get their first skill. The difficulty of this boss was its attack power and defense. So as Samuel evaded the blasts, he kept aiming for the turtle eyes. Hitting anywhere else dealt only 1 damage anyway. Even if he missed, it still hit at least the head so he wasn't losing arrows for nothing. The turtle had around 1000 HP, Samuel had 399 arrows remaining. He was about to give up when hit the eye for the first time.

-15!

"15 damage. That means I need at least 43 criticals to kill it and can't miss more than a single arrow. Though missing completely will be difficult."

Because the turtle was guarding the herb, it didn't move much. But to not let a single mistake while evading was taking it's toll on Samuel's mental energy. 40 minutes keeping that up, the turtle did something new. It hid in its shell. Samuel saw a green number appearing above it.

+10, +10, +10.

"S***, I don't have arrows for another round."

Samuel mind gears turnes really fast and got to a conclusion.

"It started healing at 10% hp, regenerating 1% per second. It might stop if hit, but it should heal for a minimum of 40 seconds since it's the kind of turning the tables skill."

Even while fighting, he never once forgot why he'd come here. For the Quest!

Samuel ran in the turtle's direction and started collecting the herb. As a quest item, he needed 10 seconds to collect it while the turtle had 35% hp already.

As soon as he got the herb, he ran away from the turtle. He jumped when he heard a noise but was still hit in the arm by a glancing blow.

-49

1 HP! And that's just a glancing blow which reduced damage by 50%.

Samuel didn't stop even for a potion. Only when he was outside the range of the turtle he stopped running and sighed relieved.

"I should keep away from anymore quests in the future. I have some insane bad luck for quests!"

After resting for half an hour, he went straight back to the village. The wolves at the way back were enough to level his Double Shot up and his skinning.

Beth noticed him as soon as he got inside.

"My, you actually came back alive. Grind said you were capable, but I thought he was exaggerating."

"No, please treat me as an incompetent. I'll die if there's a next time! I'm serious!"

"Thanks for bringing me this. You're right that this assignment was out of your league so I reward you something especial."

[You have completed Moon Herb Collection.]

Rewards:

3 silver

1 Invisibility Potion

Favorability with Beth +5

Hidden Reward: A job related skill book

Samuel went directly from level 4 (31%) to level 5 (56%). That exp and skill book made it worth it the risks.

[The first ranked player is at level 5. System will be updating in 10 minutes. Any players still on will be forcefully logged off by then. Any damages caused will be the player's responsibility. The game will be back online in two hours.]