Chapter Eighty eight

Dungeons were money makers, right? Not really. The initial investment is too much. On one hand the dungeons give more XP and loots but it wrecks weapons, equipments. Another thing is your stamina gets used up too much too fast. You will be concentrating so heavily, fighting desperately, it would be a miracle if stamina doesn't get used up or fatigue doesn't pile up.

But as Artha had seen in Zoya's shop, the stamina potion or stamina recovery potion which could pull the stamina bar out of red, was not considered basic potion yet. It was just second day of opening dungeon. The monster levels were not that high that stamina loss was not that noticeable. Right now, resting between different sections and munching apples gave enough stamina to clear the next section. The situation would change in later stages though. Fighting a kid for a minute, fighting a adult for a minute, fighting a well trained man for a minute - all were different, though the fight is just for a minute. Similarly, the players in this village were still fighting kids, occasionally adults. Not too burdensome. The situation would change so drastically that it was mentioned in some forum posts that the players were chugging not just one but two stamina potions even before clearing a segment.

Zoya was not selling them cheaply. The guilds desperately wanted to hoard them as they all knew the importance of stamina potions but they were not ready to shell out so many coins for it. This recipe would solve the problem. In long run. Various considerations were there. Whether the apprentice potioneer was good and loyal? Could they get all the raw materials? Would the apprentice potioneer able to make the potion? What would be effective cost of such potion? Would the guild be able to invest so much wealth at this juncture?

Ten minutes was not enough. So Sun Lord and Baccara both closed the communications simultaneously without any other word. If they had to attend the auction, they had lots to do. And Artha was so sneaky to sell these items at this time, they grumbled.

Talks like this needed back up from higher management. Baccara had easier job. She dumped all the headache to current guild head and escaped. She was just a puppet anyway when it comes to these business deals.

The guild leaders of Dragon Slayers and Bloody Rose had to go to safe place, log off temporarily to access the VR lobby and contact others.

End result - millions of credits to Artha's account. There was no giving away gracefully when it comes to get better resources to guild. Bloody Rose won beautifully. They had to. Artha didn't know but Bloody Rose was lagging behind in few key villages. This gave them a chance to rush forward here.

The data generated after more than a week of game launch was immense. There were few people who were good at expostulating and they had made few deductions.

From the looks of it, the next stop for players would be more likely towns. The players were not equipped to face difficulties or suffer from levels of NPCs persent in basic cities, forget about capitals.

Still, escape from villages would take nearly a month or more. Villages were no longer just a short stop before real adventure.

Based on architecture, backstories, clothing and as such, the villages were likely last stand of civilization. Good news was that none of the villages opened up were anyway near the borders. Bad news that if the game was not forcing players to fight desperately, it meant it had other things in store.

One of the ideas pitched forward was that the village level would be able to be played even beyond level 10 or any cut off level decided by the game. The basis for that assumption was the game's repeated assurance of game subscription fee being based entirely on how much and how better the player players.

There was even a rumour running around that villages would swallow a coin a day as subscription fee. Which meant the fees for players in towns or elsewhere would be even higher. For players, especially casual ones, playing in villages and towns would be more satisfying and worth spending those coins. Any futher, they have to invest time, patience and techniques.

After the impromptu auction, Artha went merrily with Bloody Rose team to massacre monsters in fields. He didn't divulge other items he had. He happily co-operated and fulfilled heavily modified order list and didn't make faces. Or commented on it.

After suffering long time within the dungeons, he understood the way he was playing in these fields was not proper way. He wanted to incorporate whatever he learnt and include in his regular fights.

Another walk back to the village. A tiny detour towards makeshift market near dungeons just to check the prices. Another round of visiting NPCs and collecting XP and coins.

He completed the quest issued by Zoya in the morning. He could have done that as soon as she had issued but he waited till now.

And....found the difference between tasks and quests finally.

Quest - Search for potions - I

Zoya is facing shortage of many potions. Provide her the potions she needs to help her in need.

Status - Completed satisfactorily. Within time limits.

Completion grading - A+

Rewards - A follow up to this quest.

Appreciation from Zoya.

xxx XP, yyy coins.

A small chance to have business opportunity later.

Zoya had already given coins. And instead of just getting XP for finishing task, he got rated and recieved both XP and extra coins. As rating was A+, the multiplier was quite hefty. The amount of rose gold coins he had was astonishing, to say the least. Is it a wonder that he got another idea to make even more money. Afterall, the situation was quite suited for it too.

While muling about the feasibility of the plan that had germinated in his mind just now, he walked around. His legs took him towards Smithy.

He had one important problem to solve here. The probability of solving the problem was, however, very low.