Chapter Sixty

Atharva had to pack up and vacte his loft in the campus the next day by 9 a.m. Mrs Briggs had arranged his stay in a posh hotel, Stanley's. So he just had to pack and go enjoy the hospitality.

He rechecked the packing. He would not have enough time in the morning, after he logged off from the game. Today would be the last day he would play within the campus, as a student. Next time, he would be free adult, with a degree and loads of education loans. Will it alter how he plays? The probability was high. After all, the VR games were played based on brain impulses and it's noted that a happy mind will be more clear. Probably, because he is free, he can play exuberantly, embracing his youth. Or it might reverse, he is playing it not as relaxing timepass but as money making enterprise and now he didn't have the tag of student, thus have to walk out of ivory tower to the brutal society.

And this sentence he never understood. Coming out to face the society. What, you don't think there is no society within hallowed grounds of college or an institute? Oh, please! Kids make the worse sort of decisions. They are impulsive, don't know the limit which they can't cross. Even if they did, their parents or family will rescue them. Atharva still felt the four years he spent in this place was even worse than any society out there. Harrasment of all kinds, bullying of all kinds, all sorts of posturing, bending over the back to please some one, expectations - he had seen all, suffered all. Would the so called society be any different? He had been managing his own finances too when he was in the college. Unlike the blessed few, or many, in this campus, who had whole teams dedicated to care, pamper and manage assets. He was already living in a pocket society which seemed even more brutal.

Coming out of this philosophical rambling, he took few silly pics for posterity and got ready to enter the game.

Artha started his game day with the usual, picketing, sorting garbage. Either he was getting better or there was less garbage to dispose. He hoped it was former. Then a stint as prep cook. While he was cooking, he thought of various things. Nope, it was not like what is this item, where did one get it, what is the use. He could see more details when using the skills. So he didn't waste his brain cells in such matters.

No, he was wondering who eats this food, why is the cook always busy and making such food. Let's be honest, those people who can have shops near Village centre though look poor should be rich enough to pay enough for a chef to make their breakfast or any other items.

He was stirring broth as he wondered will there be parcel service, will it be hot later on, will the effect of broth still be present if it turns cold. But finally, he stopped thinking such things (why was his mind so wandering today) and finished his stint. His shifu justed waved him off and continued to work on the wok.

Then, Artha refreshed himself with water and apple and walked out. The feel in the village was a tad different. Zoya was not so angry. Why? Tavish was still smiling and distant as ever, the apprentice still manned the shop and did the repair works.

The tailor was busy, busy. Every one wanted extra storage space and had prebooked few storage bags. Though he had given few blessed immortals few tasks to gather materials to make it, none had brought it back. It made sense though, the materials would be either rare drops or from high monster level areas. How could the players at the current level get them. Artha also got the quest. Bingo! His guess was right.

As he saw the reward for the task, his mind itches. If only he could get those materials!!! He wouldn't mind using all his extra XP he had saved till date to multiply to the max. The reward was so tempting. Will the other collecting jobs in higher maps also have so tempting rewards? Or is this just to disparity in demand and supply? Hmmm.

The mentors hated nitpickers but loved over enthusiastic blessed immortals. On top of it, Artha had chosen neutral mana ball blast as his first skill. It was meh! Why? Theoretically, it could evolve into fire ball blast, ice ball blast even the rare lightning ball blast. In all the cases, mana was being manipulated. So mana ball blast was a prototype. Who would choose that when there are advanced versions? One - studious, curious. They just want to learn. Artha was not that. He never talked or discussed anything related to that topic. Artha was practically blank when it came to such sort, not even having a wrong basic foundation from other games. And he didn't have any ideas in that direction. How could he when he was thinking of making money all the time. The other type who would go for prototype are those who had no thought of their specialisation, how the job would progress as fire mage, water mage, wind mage or even ice mage. These people had no goals. How can they move on and on this never ending path? No wonder the mentors didn't like him much.

Let's not even think of his nitpicking behaviour which he used to get max rewards. Isn't it a wonder that they hadn't muted him or banned him from entering the hall? Artha shrugged. Win some, lose some. He had met real life equivalent of these mentors, so he knew he could do nothing about the situation. Still...he was antsy. He was nearing level 5.

To be more extact, he would be beyond level 5 if he had put his recent XP into leveling instead of storing it to multiply. He had purposefully diverted the XP to storage side to be in the middle of the group. He knew his strength. He was not front-runner. He didn't have enough game gyan to be elite or even a reserve. He was not profient enough for that but if he got levels similar to those...yeah, no sir, thank you, will be happy as a simple bumbling trader, hungry for credits.

Level 5 was small watershed, level 10 a big one. Other the those experts, whom he had not seen at all inspite of playing with elites and reserves in 2 different guilds, majority had already reached level 5 and added another skill to the arsenal. That was the reason why he could get more.