Time Skip

Enzo transferred the recipe to Hephaestus after they shook hands to seal the deal.

"What metals does the synthesization recipe require?" Enzo asked.

Hephaestus paused his reading and a large smile appeared on his face.

"You're chasing a vampire bloodline right?" He asked.

"Yeah."

"Then I think I should keep it a surprise until you have the fully synthesized symbiotes. You're going to love it."

"Haha. Okay, just let me know when you're ready and I'll give you my unbound symbiotes."

"Good, and if you get any other blacksmith recipes just let me know. I feel like we will be able to start a great partnership in the future."

Enzo and Hephaestus shook hands once more before splitting up. Hephaestus went back to his teacher's shop and Enzo went back to the Dungeon of the Vengeful.

~

A week and a half later, Enzo walked into the treasure chest room of the dungeon.

On that second day when he returned to the dungeon after talking with Hephaestus, he had to wait in line to enter the dungeon, but after the third day players were able to enter as often as they wanted.

This allowed Enzo to run the dungeon as often as he wanted, which was frequently because one dungeon run gave way more experience than hunting for the same amount of hours in the forest would have given.

Enzo took 10 hours out of each day to create low grade health potions, but after a week passed other players seemed to figure out about the method as well. Enzo had to lower the price of each low grade health potion to just 50 silvers, giving him 45 silvers in profit for each bottle.

However, just as he predicted his store name carried much more weight than any store created by other players. Most players and NPCs would choose his store over others even if his potions cost a little bit more, because the quality was guaranteed.

Only a few other player owned stores became successful within the week, and tens of others failed just as soon as they were created.

Because he was splitting his time between leveling and making money, Enzo was still only in the top 50 on the leaderboards.

However, he was now level 13 and had 748 gold and 34 silvers while most of the other players in the top 50 only had less than 400 gold coins to their names. There were obviously some exceptions, like Hephaestus who started his own blacksmith shop and quickly became a reputable smith in the Kular Kingdom. His wealth was probably just as much as Enzo's, if not much more, but Enzo didn't want to damage his pride by asking.

As he had leveled up three times during the past week, Enzo gained an extra six stat points. He put three of them into strength, one into agility, and two into intelligence.

His stats menu now looked like this:

[Title(s): Crotch Collector ] [Name: Enzo]

[Species: Fae]

[HP: 490/490] [Mana: 50/50]

[Rank: 1] [Level: 13(8500/15600)]

[Class: Monster Slayer] [Subclass: Alchemist]

Stats

[Available Stat Points: 0]

[Strength: 13 (+2)] [Agility: 15 (+1)]

[Vitality: 5 (+2)] [Stamina: 5 (+1)]

[Intellect: 7 (+1)] [Luck: 2]

Skills: (Insight) (Predator's Mark) (Inspect) (Separate) (Combine)

[Friends list]

[Forums]

[Log out]

The two point increase in his intellect had a different effect than what he thought it would have. The standard rule for RPG games is usually that intellect affects your mana capacity, but his mana pool didn't increase at all when he upgraded the stat. Instead, it affected something that should have been more obvious.

Enzo's brain functions felt much faster than usual after the two point increase in his intellect stat. Everything around him felt slower than it did before, but it was actually just that his processing speed was faster.

Enzo quickly realized how important this stat is and how he would need to focus on it in the future. The two stat points per level were starting to feel like not enough. There were so many stats that needed to be upgraded, but only two of them could be chosen at each level up, and it was getting exponentially harder to level up.

Enzo observed the amount of experience points needed at each level, and he realized it literally is an exponential increase. The experience doesn't increase linearly like it usually does in games.

Almost a minute after Enzo was transported out of the dungeon again, the next system message came.

Ding!

[Announcement: The next system update will commence in 1 hour. There will be 8 hours of downtime where players will not be allowed to play the game.]

[Announcement: …]

The announcement rang out ten times before another screen with the update notes popped up.

[Second Game Update Changelog:]

[A streaming and video platform will be added into Legends Reborn Online to allow players to share their moments with the world. They will be integrated into the player interface and easily accessible to all players. More information will be given in the article released on the official website.]

[The first world auction will be taking place 5 minutes after the game goes live again. Players will be automatically teleported to the auction house if they decide to participate and will be sorted into their seats based on their wealth. More information will be given by the auctioneer before the auction.]

Enzo quickly read the changelog before running back to the Silverwind Inn.

He could have easily just logged out at the dungeon because he would be teleported just five minutes after logging back in anyway, but he wasn't willing to take that risk.

Enzo found out about the death penalty in LRO a few days ago, and it was much worse than he thought it would be.

After death the player would lose four attribute points in random stats and their current experience bar would be reduced to zero before they get teleported to their spawn point or the nearest graveyard if one is not set.

This penalty is extremely harsh because the player basically loses two levels without actually losing the levels, so they would have to be two levels above their peers to have the same amount of stats.