Chapter Hundred and nine

Artha has some EQ, not much but some. He had elder siblings to teach basic knowledge about emotional quotient. Most of the time, it was to snatch the candies or sweets he had saved for long time. But still...end result is what matters when it comes to growing up.

So, on second run of the day into the dungeons, Artha didn't even mention gift crates.

Sela had purchased the updated dungeon list. The pattern of clearing the dungeon was different this time. This time, they would follow the route mapped the longest till they could not fight back, then they would backtrack to complete second longest mapped route and so on. No more running away just because there were two elite rabbit monsters in a single section.

Why the hurry? Don't ask. You'll not find the answer anyway. Jack reminded Artha as they were reconfirming all the stocks, back ups before the dungeon run.

The early sections were easy, breezy. If you can't murder a puny level four normal bunny even after doing so many dungeon raids, you are just fit to be lifestyle player. (Other than Artha, many had joined various groups, to enter the dungeon.)

They had many practice sessions, aka, previous dungeon raids. So, this should be a breeze, in initial section.

It was. The initial sections didn't change much. If you want, you can just remember when they will spawn or where they'll rush from. It was that consistent. Only the initial sections though. Once an elite monster was spotted, the situation changes, just like that. No more memorizing. Pattern altered each time from there on. But that's why playing games so fun, right? Other than Artha, every one of the teammates understood the concept.

Artha just had to realise that even livestreaming dungeon raid would be useless for other people as the monster pattern altered greatly. Yeah. The moron was just thinking of the ways to maximize money making, even if he was not making the said money.

A fruitful dungeon raid. They didn't have enough time to complete the second longest completed route. It was time to wrap up. Artha had a massive mini auction and milked all of his teammates 's coins. Can't be helped. Few of them had played few pranks on him in the beginning. Retaliation is a must. Especially, when he found way to make more coins out of it.

Unfortunately, there was no recipe even after searching soany elite bunnies. But, nearly all of the team members had back ups, multiple, for all of their items. Yes, most had repair counter marked. Which meant they were of top quality. That's why it was a fruitful run. Another good news was, no members had died within the dungeon.

Now, the important part. Reach the village safely. The PK was increasing. The collateral damage was getting too much. The guilds didn't have time to handle these pests. They were in the hurry to finish the quota and unbox the gift crates.

They left the dungeons and literally ran towards village, holding their strongest weapons and wearing garments with strongest defense all around. Never mind the loss of stamina. Surviving is the most important thing. This run was exhilarating. Artha did not have time to do anything but to collapse on bed in the room. Log off.

In the VR lobby, he started searching for the answers.

Was there any timer on gift crates?

No.

Would the items decay as they grow older? No one had answer. Who would buy a gift crates and leave it aside for few days just to see the effect? And how will you even know there was any changes in the first place?

But he found out that the items were fixed the moment the gift crates were purchased. So if you buy a crate when you are level six, your crate will have level five and level six items. If you are really lucky, a level seven item too. But if luck is too poor, you may end up with level three items or very basic level consumables.

So, all he had to do was to rise his level to level six, buy a crate and use some of the XP to multiply few items and come down to level five. Good plan.

Let's just hope that few guilds are still waiting for costliest gift crates. If need be he would sell his crates to his tier one customers in a sly. Maybe even his regular customers too. He just has to make up some nonsense to tell why he had so many crates. He would have a whole day to think of a reasonable reason.

He then watched unboxing videos. Only word he had, fancy. One of his theories was actually right. None of the items within those crates had items which would be useful beyond the village level. Yes, there were rare items. What's the use when they all had repair counters. Are you going to store these heavenly things to use them beyond the village or use them here to proclaim yourself as expert?

But Artha didn't mind storing things. Even if they become trash once you leave the village, he had found various ways to use them. Right now, he didn't have the skills necessary to utilise the plan. But he would surely get those skills sometime later.

The costliest gift cartes also came with something called skill book or attributes book. Finally! Finally, this game introduced such books. These books would become holy grail for the experts of any kind. Having a skill book meant you could have one extra skill that others. Having an attribute book meant, you were stronger than others of same level.

Just imagine - you can use the skill five times before you have to drink a mana potion,so there is a pause. But the opposite mage had attribute book, which he used to increase his intelligence and mana also increased. He can use six skills in a row. So while you are drinking mana potion, the sixth skill hits you and you lose.

Or you find a skill book but it needs one of the attributes to be at certain amount. But you don't have free attributes now. It would take days to reach to next level. You buy the attributes book to raise the attributes and use the skill book.

But there were lots of doubt regarding these books. Were there blank books? Or the material inside was fixed already?

So, if one decides to auction off a skill book, if it's a blank book, the price it would fetch would be sky high. An Archer buys the book and it has archery related skill. A thief buys a book, it will have thief related skill. So on. But if the skill is fixed...Holy heal or Revive skills- only healer classes would use those. Arc lightning - only a lightning mage would buy it. So if there was only one lightning mage attending the auction... whatever he decides is the price.

Similarly, in attributes book - would the book allow the player to allocate attribute points or was it fixed beforehand? So this book gives two points to agility, this one gives five points to spirit etc or will it be like- this book has three attribute points, please allocate them as you wish. Obviously the second option will net you more money when sold.

None of the livestreamers who got skill book or attribute book mentioned these details. Not a single one. Atharva checked personally using search for 'skill book in gift crate' 'attribute book in gift crate' and various words. Nada. Not a single one. Yes. You maintain your confidentiality and someone in that village will buy those hot potatoes from you by paying sky high price but you can't cheat your audience by leaving them hanging. Wait, why are these livestreamer had another video. Oh! Oohh! They had to post another video to show they sold those books. Else, be ready to die many times in next few days. Guess these players would be livestreaming every moment in the game till the heat comes down. Having a treasure even for a little time is tiresome.