Chapter 14 - Forage?

When Saachi started playing in previous life, the division of labour was clear. Elite would remain elite. Class workers would be class workers. Dregs would remain dregs. Only chance of escaping from this hell was to learn skills or be a better talent. A person with better talent in monster hunting...and not yet played "Escape" even after so many years.... once in a blue moon probability. But talent in lifestyle skills...more probable. He had witnessed this sort of bargain then. Then he had been envious of other person. Wow, better salary and even better placement.

Few months later.... that person was so tired and bored, that he was ready to stop playing but even for that he would have to pay huge price as breach of contract. He had shared all the good things happened to him and how slowly he was pushed into the hell.

Saachi was greedy in this life time. He wanted money, connections and more. He wanted contracts, deals but was not interested in measly salaries. This was still first day of game after its launch.(In game, it was second day. Not in real life)

These people were just fishing. Most of the time, it was just waiting for an opportunity. After 'friend'ing important people of clans, groups and guilds, Saachi got ready for another foray out of village. He still had lots of quests to complete.

Quests in the game could be compulsory ones, thankfully they were not available in novice villages. Failure to complete them could lead to huge penalty. Quests could be one off type, do it and it's done, don't do - nothing changes.

Quests could be repeating, like procurement quests of few NPCs. For example, Chef of the dormitory asked for 3 pieces of wolf meat, every time. In such cases, you could get as much of ingredients as possible and keep on triggering the quest. The bonus or rewards would stay same each time.

Then there were hidden quests. It took special and specific conditions to trigger. Whether quest is completed or not, it would not be generated again.

But favourite among players were progressive quests. Quest given---> completed satisfactorily ----> a new quest with slightly more difficulty given, with the rewards obviously better than previous ones. But to trigger these quests, one should have completed basic quests, the quests which gave so called basic skills.

Today our MC decided to complete foraging quest. Quest was easy, but reaching the xxx valley was difficult. So he went to hunt hens, which were stronger than level 1 mice. Hopefully, he would level up.

Yes, even after playing for so long, Saachi was yet to level up. The grinding, or to be precise, attempt to kill in manual mode had taken long time and his consumables, durability of wand - all had hit rock bottom, thus he had to shift to alchemy.

Today, he had topped up consumables, increased durability of weapon, had extra wands inside very small inventory bag. Warriors, or players of physical way, had sold off the weapons which were of no use to them. So the level 1 wands were very cheap.

The lessons were not forgotten entirely. So mice hunting was a bit easier. The multiplier made each kill a joy. So with just 2 kills, he leveled up.

Ding!

Free attribute points, 1 precious skill point. Bonus, maps outside of village was unlocked. Multiplier effect - 6X on..... attribute points. He unceremoniously dumped them in soul way- wisdom, intelligence, spirit. Constitution and agility got 3 points each. Strength- remained loser.

So, even though Saachi was level 2 mage, he had very high attributes. Power of his offensive spells were similar to higher level mages.

Now killing hens became easy though they had high attack, high defense and extreme agility.

He still used same small fire ball for killing. With higher intelligence, the magical attack power had increased drastically. Add the multiplier bonus, he finished collecting items in that map easily. In between, he tried foraging in the field even though chances of getting good items were low. This was a chance to increase proficiency in foraging.

Manual foraging meant plucking off flowers leaves, leaf buds, fruits, seeds even roots or tubers. The "identify" skill would just identify the plant, tree or mushroom etc..But only after handling and removing it, the portion removed would be identified. It would say the item was used in so and so recipe or just give random data.

The data mad people or those loving experiments could use these items to make new recipes. Many higher end recipes had multiple versions because of this type of substitution.

Hens murdered. Cocks killed. Chickens made orphans. Deal done. Back to village to fulfill the quests.

----*----

We shall have a moment of silence for those GM or support staff, who are monitoring Saachi's account, to be precise- Niyam's account while keeping tab on all the bonuses. This guy got bonus after plucking few things. Then a bonus again when he handed them over. Finally, a bonus again as he has leveled up after get EXP from finishing quest.

Level 1 to 2 took nearly one and half game days but from level 2 to 3, just few hours. That doesn't make sense at all.

Thankfully, the novice village was now having batches of newcomers and this one escaped from notice. It meant Saachi could have few more worry free days.

As it was nearly evening, he decided to enter Alchemy trial room.

Then he heard the announcement.