Money Woes

After the ceremony ended, Samar felt the significant changes in his body. He felt as refreshed as when he had taken the Mytherium Body Bath for the first time. His Stamina Bar had also been restored by nearly 50%, meaning it wasn't just his imagination!

Most importantly, he was now a Tier 1 player. 

The Tier of a player determined how effectively the player could use his stats. While a Tier 0 player struggled to use just 50% of his stats effectively, a Tier 1 Player could use 60% of his stats. 

This meant there was a difference of minimum 10% between both players' Attack Power or Defense Power without equipment. 

Before Samar could check his Status Window in detail, Instructor Dhron approached him, handing him a golden skill book.

"This is Homing Arrow, a special skill which is the culmination of knowledge of Panjal City's Ranger Hall. Use it well."

"You can also peruse the Ranger Hall Library and use Merits or Coins to exchange for skills," Instructor Dhron said, pointing to the door behind him.

Finally, the treasure trove was open for him!

Samar almost had tears of joy in his eyes. He had had to make do with just one skill, Rapid Shot, for a long time. He had received Power Shot just yesterday, and now he would be able to get his hands on even more skills!

Obtaining skills in Dreamverse VR was one of the pain points for players. The situation was so bad that quite a few players were leaving the game every day.

There were even rumors on forums that three of the Top 100 Guilds had withdrawn their investments in Dreamverse VR because of its insanely high initial difficulty level.

The living proof of this rumor was Samar himself! 

He had struggled for two weeks in the game without class with just one skill. When he did become an Elven Ranger, he was the first player to do so!

If his condition was this bad, one could imagine how badly the other ordinary players must be faring. 

This insane difficulty level made Dreamverse VR almost unplayable. A game, which was supposed to grab 90% of VR industries' market share, was on the verge of flopping.

Anyways, Samar could do nothing about the woes of Imagine Corp. If they wanted to earn a profit, they shouldn't have made the game so darn hard in the first place.

Samar shook off the random thoughts in his mind and quickly learned the special skill, Homing Arrow.

—

Homing Arrow (Tier 1)

Cooldown: 10 Seconds + Attached skill cooldown.

~ The arrow homes in on a target and deals a critical hit without fail.

~ Can be attached to a single target, lower Tier skill to grant it the effects of Homing Arrow. Once attached, the skill cannot be replaced.

Number of Skills attached: 0/1

—

This was a never-miss skill that guaranteed a critical hit! Moreover, it could even be attached to another skill and grant the same effects to it on top of original damage!

It was a great skill by itself, but if it was attached to another single-target skill, the damage it dealt would be monstrous. Yes, it required the other skill to be a tier lower, but still, this was too OP!

Samar's eyes glinted with excitement. He could already imagine the possibilities this skill had opened up for him. 

Say it was attached to a Tier 0 skill like Power Shot, a skill that dealt guaranteed 180% damage. The Homing Arrow would multiply the skill's damage to 450%, and there would be no chance of missing the attack!

"No wonder it was the treasured special skill of Panjal City's Ranger Hall," 

Samar thought with satisfaction.His eyes then turned to the closed wooden doors of the Library of Ranger Hall. 

If the pattern until now was any indication, he knew it would not be easy to get his hands on the skills inside the library.

Even though Samar's pockets were empty, he still decided to enter and check the prices to prepare the funds for the next time.

Centering himself, he pushed the door open. Just being in the presence of so many skill books aroused his passion.

Samar looked at the hundreds of thousands of books placed neatly on shelves, and greed filled his heart. He could not wait to own them all!

Picking one of the books from the shelf nearest to the door, Samar checked its description, his eyes darting directly to the price.

—-

Multishot (Tier 3)

~ Allows you to shoot 5 arrows at once.

Cost: 50 Gold or 10 Merits

—-

"50 Gold! Are you kidding me?" Samar exclaimed at the outrageous cost. 

Then he noticed the Tier of the skill book. It was a Tier 3 skill book that he could not learn until reaching Lv 50, and he felt a little better.

After spending some time in the Library, Samar discovered all sorts of marvelous skill books, ranging from Tier 0 to Tier 4. However, even the lowest of Tier 0 skills cost about 10 Silvers, 10 Silvers which he did not have.

Samar had spent all his coins back in Barbarian Village to purchase materials for his Arrow Crafting Skill, so let alone 10 Silvers, he did not even have 10 coppers in his pocket.

Paying with merits was out of the question. After checking hundreds of skill books, he estimated the tentative value of a Merit to be 5 Gold at this stage of the game.

Its value would only grow as the game progressed, as there were limited methods to gain Merits, completing achievements being the only one known to players.

Samar skimmed through the numerous skills and shortlisted a few. To buy all of those skills, he would need 1 Gold 30 Silvers. It was not an impossible goal. With a clear amount in mind, he exited the Library.

"Leaving without buying anything?" Instructor Dhron asked, noticing Samar's empty hands.

"Un. Everything is too expensive," Samar replied, unable to hide the disappointment in his voice.

"Pity," Instructor Dhron said, nodding in understanding. "The next time you want to enter the library, you will have to pay an entrance fee of 1 gold coin."

"What!" Samar could not believe his ears. The sum total of 4 Skillbooks he wanted to buy was only 1 Gold 30 Silvers. Yet, a player had to pay a gold coin just to enter again.

Taking note of Samar's shock, Instructor Dhron leaned closer and said conspiratorially, "If you buy Skillbooks worth more than 3 Gold or pay with merits, I'll waive off the fee."

3 Gold? Merits? Is this a joke? 

Samar looked at the Instructor speechless but Dhron paid it no heed. He winked and patted Samar on his shoulder before returning to his seat, nonchalantly.

Samar exited the Training Hall, with utter despair. Only thoughts of earning money filled his mind.