Chapter Forty four

As soon as Artha entered the game, he created a new chat group for his tier 1 customers. He wore his cloak and started cleaning up in and around the inn. Maybe because he was doing it voluntarily, he acquired another title, 'Protector of Environment '. It made segregation of waste better and the items were salvaged better. Wohoo! It's better to be proactive and not wait for the task to be given. Should he try it in other places too? Maybe he'll get few more titles.

Artha somehow got a screwed idea that titles are easily available in the game. In the village with over five thousand players, players with atleast one title could be counted in two hands. Players with two titles, there was only one - Artha. Titles were that rare and would become even rarer as the game progressed. A child reciting hundred stories is a marvel, worthy to be noted. An adult doing the same, why should it be noted. So as the players became stronger and stronger, they had to do heroic feats of massive proportion to earn titles.

Not many noticed a cloaked player cleaning up the place. It was a brand new day. The players were brimming with energy, they just collected tasks if not done yet, collected potions, repaired items and ran towards maps to conquer them. Apart from few necessary players who had set the stalls, nearly all of the players were now spread across the maps.

A new topic was gaining traction in the forum. The usage of sleeping bags.

There were not many rooms available in the inn and rooms were too costly. For the regular players, sleeping bags were ideal solution for countering the debuff. Many villages even rented out these along with selling. If one didn't want to spend time with debuff, he could just rent a sleeping bag and escape the curse/debuff.

Many cursed the game for being hungry for coins. This game was asking coins to do anything extra beyond the basic level. Was the game half filled golden pot? How much ever it consumed coins, it still remained hungry for more. And the game was so thick skinned. It kept on asking coins shamelessly.

Artha didn't know about it. Heck, he didn't even know that he could pause and enter lobby of the game to link with external world via forums, chats, SMN( social media network) platforms and more.

As the cook in the inn was busy, he didn't disturb him and started his daily round of greeting the NPCs. He greeted everyone including the guards. Zoya was grumpy, Tavish still smiling and Peehu had no time to chatter. Zumi hummed some song and dusted his shop. He knew not many would come to his place yet. Majority of his current customers were villagers. The mentors were either snoozing or pretending to be snoozing. Maybe he should increase his level before talking to them again, to get some new tasks.

Artha purchased items at all places. Took new tasks, handed over old ones. Tried to learn more about the people in the village, the structure of this world, anything.

He also gave different ideas to NPCs. Whether they worked or not, he didn't know. But the habit of managing household economy in shoestring budget had given him variety of ideas. Some of them might work within the game. Who knows?

He also put standing request to all members of stone heads galore team for any noteworthy items among monster drops. The estimate was one in millions to one in billions. But there were so many players and they hit monsters so many times, they were bound to get some items sooner or later. Currently most items dropped apart from monster body parts, task items were potions. That's why no one had truly felt the lacking of potions. Thanks to potions from monster drops, the rationing of potions didn't hinder players much. And true to what mentors tried to brainwash, the players were actually playing better when they tried to depend less on potions.

As Artha started monster grinding, he was finding that he was playing better than yesterday. The AI must be calibrating in the background. He could not think of any other reason of why he was getting better playing. Nope, he didn't even think that maybe, just maybe, it was because he had played and hunted these monsters for so long that he could predict the monster movements and anticipate their actions.

It was not just Artha, many players felt the game was becoming better. Playing this game was the best idea ever.

Few of the regular customers had messaged Artha asking whether he was selling potions that day too. He agreed but the time of delivery was bit later.

He was now kill stealing with permission. His comrades were from stone heads galore team. The good part was as there was level difference, XP gain was more. The chances of 100+ multiplier bonus was also more. As he was killing the monsters, the monster drops he accumulated were also more. As he swallowed MP potion, he eyed his inventory space. He could solve today's supply of potions with just monster drops, no need to use XP to multiply items.

He tsked. How wonderful it would be if he could kill steal in higher level maps too. He could maybe complete the apprentice application quest too.

That would be just a dream though. Not many independent teams were as strong as his comrades. Even if they were, they were not trust worthy. If there was no need for him to go to and from to village and denude the maps, he would have asked to permanently play together with this bunch of lunatics. Not that they would have agreed. They got together to play for some time and then they went away their own ways. Without Sela, these bunch of thrill seeking monsters would not have come together.

His messengers of money god pinged him, so he chose a bit high point to stay and bombard the monsters from single location. So now he could chat and not focus much on his positioning. Even a single successful hit would get him lots of XP. What he lacked now was XP.

What he didn't know was that the good friends had almost come to blows over the inventory bag deal. They had fought, their people had fought. Fortunately, it was a verbal battle and the boys over Sun Lord finally had proof that out talking girls out of an idea was a impossible task. So the Dragon Slayers guild was purchasing 100 slot inventory bag and Bloody Rose guild would walk away with 200 slot one. But this purchase costed them dearly.

This time the customers were seeking a different way to pay. Bartering was time tested and excellent way for purchasing items. However, the guilds didn't have items for bartering. Even if they did, Artha might not need them. Instead of paying completely with credits, they would pay in part by credits and any other way. Artha had to decide the other way.