Chapter 7
They were walking towards the north gate that leads toward the Sahara Plains.
"Ah right, monkey slave. How many converted skills did you get?" Jaycee asked.
Denver was disturbed on how he addressed him. "Can you please drop the 'slave' part?" He bluntly said.
"Okay, then, how many converted skills did you get, slave?"
'He's totally not listening at all!'
Denver accepted the harsh treatment and just heavily sighed as he said, "I got five passive skills and one of them is just like what you predicted, bad."
Denver suddenly whimpered like an abandoned dog.
"Here," he looked at Jaycee with tearing puppy eyes and showed him the bad skill he got.
[ Passive Skill: The Book's Nightmare ]
*Spells obtained through books, scrolls, and secret tomes can be learnt twice the base requirements.
*Permanently decreases Intelligence by 5
CP Attained: 100
"Can I see the rest of your skills?" Jaycee suggested.
Without any hints of doubt, Denver gladly showed him everything.
"So you're overall passive skills are mainly focusing on speed. Isn't that great?"
"Yeah, yeah." Denver was dispirited.
They were almost there. The huge northern gate gradually grew taller and taller. As they were planning to head outside, they were suddenly stopped by the gate knights. They blocked the way with their spears and oddly scowled at the two boys.
"You can't pass from this gate onwards." An NPC called 'Northern Gate Knight Martin' said in a very monotonous way.
"This gate is only for adventurers who passed the trial given by the head knight." Northern Gate Knight Felix followed up.
A pop up screen appeared in front of the both of them.
[ A quest 'Find the Head Knight' has been created. ]
[ Find the Head Knight (D) ]
Difficulty: D
The head knight of Silestal Town is supervising new adventurers outside the Southern Gate.
Quest Clear Condition: Find the head knight and obtain your very first instruction.
Quest Clear Reward: +1 gold, +20 experience point and obtain the knight's equipment set ( common ).
Quest Failure Penalty: Affinity with the Silestal Knights will decrease.
[ Would you like to accept the quest? ]
"Yes." Denver blurted.
On the other hand, Jaycee was left standing in confusion.
'I'm a magical class, on top of that a spell caster. Why do I need to get a quest from a knight? Am I also going to swing swords like barbarians?'
"No."
"Eh?" Denver panicked. "What are you doing?! Why are you declining it?! Are you nuts?"
[ You have just declined the quest 'Find the Head Knight' ]
[ Affinity with the Silestal Knighthood decreases from 100 to 50. ]
Jaycee acted indifferently. "Why am I going to get a quest from a knight? I'm a magical class user. Aren't I supposed to be trained by a mage?"
Denver heavily sighed. "I really can't understand you."
"Don't worry. I also don't want to understand you."
Jaycee tapped his shoulder and walked away.
"Where are you going?" Denver chased Jaycee's back.
"To the Southern Gate. It seems like it's the only way out."
Denver can no longer cope up with his irrationality. He turned red as he yelled, "Then why didn't you accept the quest if you're heading towards that direction?!"
"I already told you. Why am I going to accept a knight's quest when I'm supposed to be trained by a mage?" Jaycee acted cool as he replied.
"Forget it. I really can't understand you."
Jaycee's walking pace hastened.
"As I also told you, I don't want to understand you neither. Just stay as my slave and wag your tail whenever I'm going."
After they arrived at the southern gate, Denver headed towards the head knight who was visibly training adventurers outside the town walls. On the other hand, Jaycee roamed outside the walls and unknowingly came to a place where slimes reside.
"So that's a slime," he uttered indifferently.
'It looks like a jelly.'
The way slimes jumped around, Jaycee found it very interesting. He watched the slimes hopping around with such an innocent look.
"This place sure is interesting." He slightly smiled. "Now, what should I do?"
He pondered.
"Status Screen."
He impulsively clicked onto his inventory and aside from the pre-registration items he got, there's also a basic staff lying around the corner.
He clicked the staff and, "Ooh~" he was indifferently amazed.
Upon clicking, the staff slowly materialized into his hand. He glanced the staff from every corner and even checked its description.
[ Basic Staff ]
Rating: F
Quality: Common
Durability: 50/50
Magical Attack: 5 ~ 10
A basic staff given to beginner players.
Restriction: Only for sorcerers and spell casters.
After getting hand of the basic staff, a hopping slime in front of him gradually caught his attention. It was hopping back and forth and the hopping sound was oddly annoying.
"Now what should I do."
He browsed his skills and only found basic debuff skills, which any support classes commonly have.
[ Active Skill: Root ]
Rating: F
Skill Level: 1/40
*Cast an ingrained root that immobilizes an enemy for 5 seconds.
Mana Cost: 75
Cooldown: 30 seconds
[ Active Skill: Shock ]
Rating: F
Skill Level: 1/30
*Lowers by 20% the dodge rate and movement speed of enemies for 10 seconds
Mana Cost: 50
Cooldown: 45 seconds
[ Active Skill: Sharpen ]
Rating: F
Skill Level: 1/30
*Boost an ally weapon's physical damage for the next 10 seconds by 30%. The basis for the boost depends on the ally's equipped weapon physical damage stat.
Mana Cost: 100
Cooldown: 60 seconds
He impassively closed his status screen and approached the hopping slime.
"Root," he casted a skill without any forewarning.
[ The target 'Slime' has been rooted for 5 seconds. ]
He stood in front of the rooted slime and slammed its head with his staff.
[ You have dealt 15 damage to the target. ]
"So I can also use my staff like this. This game sure is interesting."
Before the root disappeared, Jaycee slammed the slime with his staff one more time.
[ You have dealt 26 damage to the target. ]
He backed off in an instant after the slime hopped back and enraged at him.
"Now what should I do? He looks really annoyed."
'Should I run? Spell Caster's really are useless in one on one battle.'
However, even if he wanted to run, the slime did not let him escape.
"Blrblrb!" The slime hopped in rage and aimed constant tackles at Jaycee.
On the other hand, Jaycee dodged its every tackle as if he was dancing in a melody. After thirty seconds, he rooted the slime onto the ground and slammed its head twice before the root disappeared. He continued this tactic for almost five minutes and on his final slam,
Slamm!
"Blrb!" The slime's health gauge reached zero, and its dead body slowly dissipated into the air.
[ You have defeated a slime! ]
[ You have gained 50 silver. ]
[ You have gained 2 sticky mucus. ]
[ You have gained 6 experience point. ]
"I never thought killing slimes will be this hard." He flopped down in exhaustion and stared at the bluish sky.
He slightly gave a brief sincere smile and mumbled, "This is not bad than I initially thought."
After taking a rest for just a minute or two, he resumed his slime hunting despite the difficulties. He killed around two to three more slimes for maximum of five minutes each, and finally reached the next level.
[ You have defeated a slime! ]
[ You have gained 61 silver. ]
[ You have gained 1 sticky mucus. ]
[ You have gained 4 experience point. ]
[ You have leveled up! ]
"I should have taken that quest only if I knew that I'll end up using my staff like this."
[ You have gained 5 stat point. ]
[ You have gained 5 skill point. ]
"Hmm? Skill points?"
Jaycee opened his skill window and pondered.
"So to level up skills, you need skill points." He impassively closed the skill window and resumed his slime hunting with his staff. "Well, never mind. I'll rack it up for now."
***
On the other side, Denver finally finished the quest given to him by the head knight. Almost everyone who accepted the head knight's quest was tasked to hit the scarecrow dummies for a hundred times.
"Phew! Finally done with this dummy hitting."
[ You have successfully finished the quest 'Basic Training (F)' ]
[ You have gained 1 gold. ]
[ You have obtained 'Light Armor' ]
[ You have obtained 'Light Helm' ]
[ You have obtained 'Light Gloves' ]
[ You have obtained 'Light Boots' ]
[ You have obtained 'Light Pants' ]
[ Affinity with the Silestal Knights rose to 150. ]
[ Affinity with the Silestal Head Knight greatly rose to 170. ]
[ You have gained 20 experience point. ]
[ You have leveled up! ]
[ You have gained 5 stat point. ]
[ You have gained 5 skill point. ]
"I wonder what Jaycee is doing right now."
Slamm!
Slamm!
Swiissh!
Swiissh!
Well, Jaycee was still basically repeating his tactic to defeat some low level slimes. It's called the 'Root, Slam and Dance' tactic.