Chapter five - Scrooge!!

According to Ava, talents were inherent traits. She was just trying to bring it to the surface. When Atharva was reading about the grades of the talents, he had some theories too. Though the grades started at F, the chances were that the talent pool would have minimum of E-.As it was launch date, the talents selected would not be shabby at all. So, the minimum grade would be E. There would be splatters of higher grades in cheapest version using players to show that the game was 'fair', especially during launch time. So the chances of him getting a better talent was highest now.

Ava materialised a big ancient looking bowl filled with colorful tokens. All were blank though. No symbols or words to help in 'guessing'.

His talent turned out to be.....

A multiplier. Based on chance. So, the multiplier could be 5x to even 500x. In Ava's words, it was a super, super talent.

Atharva just got doubts though.

Will the multiplier work when he sold things?

Would it work when he purchased something?

Would it work on money when others pay him?

Would it work on money dropped in loot?

Would it work on the money he might get in a quest?

Would it work if he....

Poor Ava. Even she got confused. Furiously, she threw a old scroll at him." Go and read the fine print yourself, you Nitpicker!!!"

Who wouldn't get angry on being perstered for more than 5minutes, with nitpicking every answer given?

Just like that, Atharva got a title.

Title- Nitpicker

Type - Special

Details - Find even the tiniest details of the things that interest you.

And.... the talent got changed too.

The scroll now had a heading - Bonus Seeking Scrooge .SSS grade. Atharva looked at the heading and looked at the fairy. She huffed angrily. Oh heavens! She was so cute. She turned even cuter when she was angry. No wonder, brothers tormented their sisters. Who wouldn't if they get to see such cute faces?

" I renamed the talent. The new name suits you to T."

It did though. All the system given items would get a bonus multipler. The system would decide if there is an option to upgrade instead of multiply and if there is, he would be asked for his choice. On the other hand, he could get the multiplier to all his things except for money and few other important resources as an active skill. He just had to give up some XP for each multiplication. Also, he could not multiply same thing again and again. No spamming allowed.

Atharva was happy with it. He may give up some XP, not level up faster. But in return, he would have loads of items to sell.

" Say Ava, this chest was given by the system, right? Will this bonus multipler work on it too?"

Ava got gobsmacked. She marked him as money grubber. Thanks to that mark, he had to suffer a lot. But that's another story.

" Before opening the resource chest, have you decided how to progress?" Ava is intelligent, she pushed the entire matter away. It works like a charm, guaranteed to work every time.

Atharva turned serious. He only learned a bit of types of players while researching the game. The important thing to do right now was to select the class and distribute the attributes. In the end, he went as a mage. Why? Because, they would venture alone in the maps. First choice was a thief. Later it could be upgraded to assassin. They can roam around the map happily if they have enough skills to camouflage themselves. But many gamers had cautioned against it unless they had great awareness and it excellent melee skills. Atharva was playing seriously for the first time, no doubt his battle awareness would be in noob level.

Let's be honest. He chose mage because the attributes aligned with the lifestyle jobs he had planned for himself. He had plans in that direction.

The base stats or attributes for mage was skewed towards more wisdom and spirit. This also satisfied the vain thought he unknowingly had of having higher intelligence and knowledge.

As he had only 15 attribute points to put across 5 base stats, he prioritised magic damage and mana. As he didn't want to be a glass type player, he had to increase a bit of stats like constitution, strength or dexterity.

Name - Artha

Talent - Bonus Seeking Scrooge

Title - Nitpicker (special)

Job /Profession- Mage

Level. -0

Attributes:

Strength -STR - 2

Constitution - CON - 2

Dexterity - DEX- 2

Wisdom - WIS - 5

Spirit - SPI- 4

Basic Hidden stats-

Luck

Charisma

Health/HP - con x10- 20

Mana/ MP- spi x 10-40

Attack speed -Dex x2- 4

Movement speed - (Dex +Con) x 1 -4

Defense - (Str + Dex) ÷2 - 2

Magical defense -(wis+Dex) ÷2 - 3.5

Fatigue-0%

Before Atharva could start questioning again, Ava decided to dump him into the game. Out of sight, out of mind. Good riddance!

After a kalidoscope of colours, he manifested near a fountain in the park, near the centre of the village.

Only the text greeting him - 'Welcome to the Village No. 17622' told that this was the game. Otherwise everything was too real.

Even as he was marvelling the scene, few more players materialised. A blue dot with '0' etched in it was visible over their hair, as though it was part of their hair accessories.