6***Hobside Village
"The f***?!!! You already have a level!" That's Angus. Apparently she is the type of person to blow things out of proportion.
I was telling her that was at lvl1 already and I was almost at lvl2, which if you ask me, isn't all that impressive.
'I mean, isn't this rate of leveling normal in an MMORPG, seeing as I killed a Kangerat to get my first Mastery, and an unusual Achievement to boot?'
I felt a small tingle at the back of my head as I thought about that. It almost felt like I forgot something, but I couldn't quite put a finger on it...
We are currently walking to the next village to sell our loot and make new equipment. Well, to be more specific, her loot. The only thing I killed was that Kangerat from earlier, and because that was a team effort I still had to split the loot with her thanks to the rules of the game (though because I saved her and killed it she let me have the hide, bones, and a leg).
"Yeah, what's the big deal?" I asked, "Though if it is this easy to level up then we can probably reach lvl20 in no time." I added as an afterthought.
"Not usually." Angus commented, "Normally you need to bring a mastery up to lvl2 or kill four monsters like the last one to get to lvl1. Are you sure you're telling me the truth."
"Pretty sure yeah." I replied. I started racking my brain for answers but to no avail.
*notification music*
"Oh! It's the Lore hunters!" I said out loud as I quickly opened BMO Share and checked their post! It was a continuation of their previous video, where they found some more evidence connecting Dusty Banshee and The Goblin King in an old spot called the Blue Chill Mines through connecting events that happened there with events that happened in the new Salted Peaks that the game dropped!
"Weirdo..." Angus mumbled so that I couldn't hear, and continued on.
Then a thought occurred to me, "Don't Achievements give you exp?" I wondered out loud. Apparently Angus heard me.
"Yeah they do," she replied to my question, "but not nearly enough to make you jump a level."
"I see...." The conversation ended there, with me lost in thought. This really is strange...
'I wonder how the next town's preparations are going.' I thought to myself, my mind drifting off the topic
____
HOBSIDE VILLAGE
"What do you mean about this isn't enough!!!" I exclaimed.
"Exactly what I said. There aren't enough bones here for you to make a proper bone knife." The craftsman in front of me tried to explain calmly. However, I was anything but calm right now.
We are now at the next village, Hobside Village, and needless to say, it was just as I expected. Everywhere was buzzing with the festive atmosphere!
Decorations lined the walls, banners were hoisted to represent the village colors, dancers were rehearsing their glorious dance, and their was even a stall preparing fireworks!
And this wasn't even were the event was being held!
Therefore I bear no shame in saying that I got caught up in them as well, to the point where Angus had to drag me away from everything and reminded me that we had something to do here. Regardless, however, I was still in a giddy mood.
That was, of course, until this guy decided to tell me that I can't even get a measly bone dagger! Probably should have stopped myself from selling so many bones all at once...
"*Sigh.* It doesn't matter anymore." I said, feeling deflated. I really wanted to start working on getting my Blade Mastery so that I can start using swords, but I can't even get the cheapest thing on the market! I might as well go out and try getting some loot.
'Maybe I'll try for my Unarmed Combat Mastery now.' I thought to myself flatly.
I turned around to start walking out of the door, when he called me back.
"Wait, maybe I can make you a wooden shield with that huge bark in your inventory reinforced with your bones." He said, sounding..... hopeful? Plus it seems that he has access to my inventory when he's going to craft. He must be at least a lvl30 Craftsman. Either way though, it didn't matter to me.
"Sure, whatever." I replied and he instantly relaxed. Maybe he doesn't want to lose potential customers or something.
"Excellent! Could you choose a design?" He asks, pulling up a menu for me.
I half-heartedly lifted my hand and let my finger fall on one at random.
"Strange choice, would you like to change it?" He commented, but I was far from caring at this point.
"This will do thanks." I said with a bored voice.
He shrugged, deciding not to push it, and proceeded to make the shield for me.
"Here you go sir, one Round Shield." He said after, a minute or so.
Weapon Obtained!: Round Shield.
I checked out my belt for its stats.
Belt:
Round Shield (hp: 60, blk: 20, dg: 15, crit: 3)
Eh? What's a regular shield doing with damage and critical damage stats? And I thought that the blocked damage would be higher!
The craftsman seemed to have noticed the confused look on my face for soon after giving me my shield, he explained, "That Round Shield is an attack type shield designed for players that specialize in Shield Combat, so the damage it can block has been reduced to accommodate attack and critical damage."
I see, so that's why he asked me if I want to change my choice. This would have been a waste of money and resources if someone was just using the shield for blocking alone, but since my only damage dealing mastery right now is the shield combat mastery, this shield is actually a great asset.
"Thanks for crafting this. I appreciate it." I ended up saying.
"Um sure... I guess." he replied with a confused look on his face.
He probably thought I would want a redo, or worse, a refund, but I wasn't in the mood to be mad at a good thing!
I paid for my shield and, with Angus in tow, I made my leave. "Be sure to come to me if you want to craft anything else!" he shouted, almost as an afterthought.
"Will do!" I yelled back.
____
Angus said nothing much in the craft shop, but she wasted no time in reprimanding me when we left.
"Why did you buy that useless shield?" She asked, disappointed.
"My only weapon Masteries are Heavy Shield and Shield Combat." I explained.
"Wait, so let me get this strait! you actually didn't have a single mastery before you fought that Kangerat!" she exclaimed.
"Um, yes?" I answered back. Actually, now that I think about it, why did I do that. I normally think about the consequences before doing anything, even eating a bowl of cereal! (Don't ask)
My usual game style is to find a weak monster and use hit and run tactics until they die so that I can get used to the controls and see what I can do for combos.
The prospect of playing this game after all this time must be getting to my common senses.
"Okay, that's it! I'm officially done with you!" she declared. She can be so weird sometimes.
In any case, garbed in a tunic for armor (crafted from the hide that I looted and an extra one from Angus, and by that craftsman before) and armed with my new shield, and Angus with her own tunic and two bone daggers, we ran into the outskirts of the village.
____
Area2: Outskirts of Hobside Village
"There should be some faster and more powerful opponents than the ones that we faced in the Grasslands, like wild cats and sub-urban wolves." I thought to myself.
"Mhmm, and you know this how?" Guess I was thinking out loud. Correct me if I'm wrong, but Angus sounded skeptical when she asked that.
"Eh? I looked it up on the game's website." I answered, surprised by her question.
"Right." she replied in a tone that was as close to sarcastic as one could get.
Just as expected, after looking around for a while, we found a spot where wild dogs and cats infested the area! Not to mention they were fast with reflexes that almost outclassed ours! Might have been a bit too much to come to Area2 after only killing one mob. I must have hit somewhere important when I saved that puppy if I'm forgetting the basics like a noob!
We got surrounded fast, the onslaught giving us no time to retreat!!! Jeeze, what is this place, the spawn nest?!
'No, the spawn nest wouldn't be this close to the gate.' I rationed. 'Then what's up with this place?!!'
They gave us a run for our money. For every ailing minute, they had us dodging, blocking, parrying, and inflicting blows to waves upon waves of them, ambushing some when we had the chance. With me being lvl1 and Angus at like level five by the looks of things, I'm still wondering how we're even still alive!
They gave my new Shield Bash skill quite the workout in the process and I found myself eating Apples like crazy ( I bought a ton of them while I was in the village because they were cheap for the event) to rapidly restore my essence.
Every time we thought we were done and were just picking of stragglers another wave would be upon us!
All in all, by the time the waves stopped coming and the rest of our oppressors decided to leave us alone, my tunic was almost in shreds, my hp. and essence levels were almost fully depleted, my shield was becoming busted, my Fatigue was on its way off the charts, I was down to 3 apples, and it was already 10 mins. past 5 in the morning in real time! That's almost 2 days in here!!!
'Were on earth did the time go?!!' I thought to myself, going in shock as the realization that what felt like an hour or two, was actually days long!!!
On the plus side though, were at least 73 corpses lying in our wake (most of them being the effect of Angus weaving her way through them.) and counting!
If it weren't for the monsters being no different from the Kangerats, save for their reflexes and tougher defenses, and the meat provide by Angus that kept our HP up, plus me running interference while keeping her alive, we would have died hours ago!!!
That said, I think its safe to say that we went a bit overboard.
I looked at my blood soaked shield in awe. The damage was stupid high for a shield, and even if the blocking was low, their attacked were weak enough to stop their attacks!
In any case, we both got a lot of exp. and so much loot we couldn't even carry it all!
We had to settle with looting all the corpses and carrying what we could with us as we left the rest in a sort of large indent under a tree (made safe by my Improvisation Mastery) and went back to the village to sell the stuff and repair our equipment. I I finally got myself a bone dagger and a new tunic (made by wolf hide this time).
Angus had to log out to do something and said she will be back later before logging out before. By 5:30 real time, I was rushing to log of to meet my mother so I can eat and get back to playing, my hands shaking in excitement from the 2 day ordeal!
'I'm having an adventure!' thought to myself as the world around me faded out 'I was too busy trying to live the last 2 day, so I couldn't really enjoy it, but I was having an actual adventure!' I was practically squealing in my head by now, and had I had my way, I'd turn straight back right then and there!!
...
I wonder though...
If I knew what was going to befall that village later, would I have been so eager to get back?