Chapter Fifty seven
Atharva was pondering why guilds felt he would be redundant soon. It can't be just because he showed only few cards. If he showed that much, it would mean he hid few better ones. Common sense, really. Guilds would think similarly too. Still, why?
As he read posts and posts about the dungeons, Atharva got more inkling of what changes might happen in the village later. And he got an inkling of why he was not considered a danger.
Dungeons didn't just give massive XP and weapons, they dropped lots of potions, potion recipes, designs etc. As the player level increased, their HP and MP would rise too ( thanks to free attribute points given at level up) and the current potions would become useless as they won't be able to give much HP or MP. The players would depend less and less on the basic potions sold now and go for better ones. Unless, he sells those, his shop would be closed due to lack of customers.
He was still a glass cannon but he had not added any more attribute points because he hadn't felt much difficulty in facing monsters. How could he? He was a ranged player, playing with well maintained teams, of course, he would not be suffering.
As he read more and more, he felt the itch. He took wanted to enter the dungeon. To be more accurate, he wanted to be leader of the dungeon. Just imagine how many items he could get due to multipler factor in a single run. The chances of guilds allowing him was none to minus one.
He should wait for Sela and others. Sela knew he would not cheat out of monster drops, so she might agree. But killing monsters in open and in dungeons seemed a bit different? Would he get a slot to play with them in dungeons?
Ah, why was he thinking those things? The chances were he would not longer be playing when Sela or others enter the dungeons.
The chat groups were all posting their meet up and coziness. This would be the last day of merriment. Tomorrow, results would come and it was back to grinding in real life.
He got calls from all the family members, telling him to relax and let go. They wanted to come to him on weekend but he stopped them. He had to stay back to talk about education loans and this place was costly to the extreme (According to Atharva, atleast). He promised that as soon as his work with the education loans and scholarship department was over, he would call them and they would decide about meet up then.
A new day in the game
So, he threw his hands metamorphically and started the prep work. The vegetables and fruits were entirely different from the real life, so were the meat. Still he had prototype of cutting, so he just followed the procedure.
Fast forward to nearly an hour, he finished his work and he escaped the jaws of hell.
He didn't realise cooking was so tedious and laborious process. Wonder how the real life cooks, mothers, sisters, chefs felt. No wonder it's called labour of love. It was pure labour and there would be no thanks in the end.
His next favourite pit stop- Zoya. He was ever thankful for her suggestion to be a trader. He made so much credits off the game, under the name of being a trader. As he was a bit late, Zoya was going back to work. She had put a huge board near the entrance already. No stock. Come later. Zoya was angry 😡. She had not slept properly in a week and she could not work properly through out this week. She gave a task to Artha to rearrange the potions and clean the shop as she had no patience to do that anymore. She kept on mumbling, cursing few people.
Artha cleaned up the place. It was mainly rearranging and reshuffling few shelves of potions. How hard can it be? Not much. He just had to rest twice, drink water and eat and apple, that's all.
He really wanted to know the real reason. He had seen his mother doing the same, getting angry at untidy home when she was struggling with other work related problems. But just like before he lost the guts and like a coward, he silently did the work and left, didn't even ask for the task reward.
The NPCs were angry. The blessed immortals were reckless thus their growth rate was reduced. But today, situation changed. They were using external aides liberally but were not so hotheaded. So how could the villagers be able to replenish the stock in the shops? And these silly apprentices. They were just good for nothing right now, hogging forging rooms and more.
Artha unwittingly pushed the village NPCs towards the cliff. Well, how he did? Not directly. He only gave few, a bit more than few, potions to be sold to Indies as consignment to one of the guilds. And, that became a spark to start prairie fire. Here was one silly player, using external aides and surviving longer and getting more XP. So, why can't we? Get the potions, use the weapons to the extreme. Chew apples like there was no tomorrow and drink, drink water like you are in desert. Obviously, not that exaggerated. But a subtle change in methodology while playing, can change a lot when taken as whole.
The consignment payment was by coins. Can't be helped. Each day, one of the guilds would take charge to sell these potions to Indies and indies only. It was decided in the meeting. What Artha didn't know that was there was another meeting, in real life for the rotation quota. That meeting was not for the faint hearted. Claws unsheathed, teeth bared, furs falling everywhere. Unless you are used to it, such meetings might scarcity you for life. Literally.
The search for dungeons was still happening. Believe it. Artha saw it, he had to participate in it. After all, he was grinding in high level maps with elites and reserves. Man, oh man, were they crazy or what. They just destroyed the maps. No denuding, no collecting till even respwaning slows down. No, no, no. Might is right. If I can't find it, you don't have to exist, at all.