After picking a blue herb by his foot and placing it on his inventory, Argus scanned the premises for any monster that he could attack and farm. There were about 2 to 3 low level parties around him, but the sheer size of the Verdant Plains prevents the area from being crowded. Each of them was about a hundred meters or more from each other.
Not even 10 seconds has passed and Argus finally found his first prey. A mound of earth half a meter tall rose from the ground, before a hideous creature of exposed and wrinkled naked green skin bursts out of the mound. It was a [Naked Mole Goblin].
It’s standing in an upright position, with its head elevated as high as it can to survey its surroundings. The two arms that it has doesn’t have any discernable fingers, but instead have claw-like appendage that are seemingly stuck in a single position meant for digging earth. It quickly spotted Argus and let out a shrilling shriek.
Instead of using
“I think this is how it goes…” Argus tried to remember the exact script as he writes it. He paid the [Naked Mole Goblin] no mind as it slowly strides itself closer to him. “Tch. I didn’t expect that Rune spells and Fire spells have this much difference in their scripts. I might have to learn the fundamentals all over again…”
Half way towards Argus, the [Naked Mole Goblin] all of a sudden burst into movement. It ran as fast as it can to Argus, with both of its claw-hands raised in the air, ready to be brought down on him the moment the monster enters striking range. At the rate that it’s going, it’s going to reach him in roughly 2 seconds.
This didn’t faze Argus, as frankly, he’s too focused on scripting to pay any attention to the monster. Errors in the script were continuously erased and edited as he writes it, hence, the reason why he’s taking such a long time.
“I should have tested this first before coming here.” Argus thought to himself, but quickly removed it from his mind as he needs all of his attention in scripting.
Just as the [Naked Mole Goblin] jumped up and started bringing its claws down on Argus’s neck, a thin line of orange fiery energy about the girth of his forearm shot out from his open left palm, directed right at the [Naked Mole Goblin]’s head. The line was perfectly straight and stretched out all the way towards the sky, seemingly going on forever.
Although it made no sound at all, everyone in the Verdant Plains saw the beam as it made a small puncture at the blanket of clouds before disappearing a second later. It wasn’t quite day yet, and the dark sky is just starting to light up, so the bright beam of flame pretty much contrasted against the darkness of the whole area.
You have discovered the spell
The [Naked Mole Goblin] crashed down to the ground, with plumes of smoke rising from its punctured head. The spell instantly killed it as much of the monster’s head was now nothing more than an empty hole.
Argus looked at his mana and was surprised to see that it’s already at half. Obviously, the culprit wasn’t the spell, but the numerous errors that he had made when scripting. He took out a carving knife and immediately harvested the monster’s heart before the system removes the body from existence.
“At least now I can just use the system to cast it.”
While looting a dead [Fermer Orc General], Mephistoz managed to pickup the sound of approaching people. He quickly bagged all the looted items and immediately climbed on top of the nearest tree.
“They’re not leaving the plains anymore.” A male voice says. “Aah, this is boring. I really want to kill someone.”
“Leader said to just wait them out.” A monotonous female voice replied. “He knew this was going to happen.”
“Yeah, I know. But this is boring.” A subtle rustle sounded from the two. “Hey, what do you say we do something to pass the time, eh?” The man’s soft, but obviously malicious voice dominated the otherwise silent forest.
“Oh, get off me! The next time you try that I’ll slit your throat.” The reply from the female voice was harsh and unforgiving.
“Hahahaha! Chill! I’m just trying to pass the time.” At this point. The two finally passes beneath Mephistoz, enabling him to see them. The man was tall and is wielding a halberd, while the woman holds a longbow, with two quivers of arrows fastened unto her back.
“Wait.” The woman suddenly halted. “Look, someone’s been here.” She then pointed towards the dead world boss that Mephistoz had just killed.
“Ah, that’s probably just some turf war or something.”
“No, you idiot! Look at the wounds. Those are some precise cuts. World bosses typically start decomposing after 5 minutes of dying. That means the one that killed this was just here earlier.” Suddenly, a sinister smile flashed on her face. “We might get to hunt someone after all.”
“W-wait!” The woman desperately tried to get the words out as chains strangle her neck tightly, restricting air in her lungs. “P-please, let me live. I…” She looked at the items that her companion dropped after his death. “I’ll do any… Anything…”
Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
“Then…” Mephz looked down on her from the huge branch he’s currently sitting on, strangling the woman with the chains from his kusarigama. His eyes burning with intense bloodlust that the woman dared not even look at them. “I’d like you to die, please.”
“No… please…” She started crying as she begs for her life. Mephistoz ignored this, tightening his hold even more. This caused the woman to let out shrilling strangulating sounds as her body start to shake uncontrollably from the fear. “You liked killing new players that much, right? How does it feel to be in the same position, where someone stronger than you hold you at their palms?”
Unable to reply due to the tightness of the chains, the woman simply tried to loosen the choke with her hands while desperately gasping for air to breathe. Her feet struggling to tip-toe on the ground to prevent herself from being fully hanged.
“Aaah, I’m bored.” Mephistoz laughed. “Well, good bye.” With a quick snap of his arms, he pulled the chains towards him with intense force.
“Crack!” The quiet sound of breaking bone flooded the forest’s serene silence. A cathartic sigh escaped his lungs in the form of a heavy exhale. “Damn. I missed this.” He whispered to himself with a demonic smile plastered on his face.
Argus spent the entire time picking herbs and plants that can be used for alchemy, and farming trash mobs for their materials, until daybreak.
“Oh, wow, so that really was you…” Mephistoz commented behind Argus as he witnesses a [Naked Mole Goblin]’s head get punctured by the
“I take it you’re done?” Argus replied without looking back at Mephistoz, deciding to just take out his carving knife and harvest the monster’s heart. “What bosses did you fight?”
“Eh, nothing impressive. Just some [Fermer Orc General]s. I actually killed more gankers than monsters…”
“Gankers, huh…” Argus contemplated on Mephz’ mention of them. “I’m actually surprised there are gankers this close to newbie areas. I mean, what do they get out of killing noobs?”
“I know right. Lot of them too prowling the forest. They’re pretty shit though, both their moves and their gear.”
“Good thing you got out. I know you can handle a few couple of them, but from what you’re saying, there’s a lot of them. That could have gone very badly for you.”
“I didn’t fight them. I just did some occasional ambush.” Mephz began spinning his kusarigama while walking towards Argus who had just finished looting the monster’s corpse. “They seem to be members of the same guild, or at least organized in some way, though.”
“Huh?” Argus perked up upon hearing this, his eyebrows furrowed. “What do you mean?”
Mephz looked at Argus suspiciously, unaware of the gravity of what he had just said. “Err, well, they were talking about shifts and some person they just call their ‘leader’ or something like that.”
Seeing Argus have that look in his face again, Mephz just laughed silently. He knew that no matter what he does, he can’t get Argus out of that ‘extreme contemplation’ mode. It was something that he’d always done, specially regarding skill trees and fight strategies.
“Organized ganking in a starter city?” Argus dove into his own world of speculation and ponder. “Why? What do they get out of this? Items from players in this area are generally shit tier and is certainly not worth trading reputation for. What does low level players have that’s worthy enough to raise their crime?”
Argus’ mind began scanning his memory for all the possible valuable items that are obtainable by new players within the area of Facilis, but no matter how much he thinks, there’s just none. “Maybe it’s not an item…” He pinched the bridge of his nose. “A quest? But that would just cause them to gank on their own accord. There would be no need for an organized ganking as proven by the quest “Alter Mind” 3 years ago. In fact, that would just encourage those gankers to backstab each other to fulfill the kill quota.”
After what felt like minutes, Argus finally got out of his own world and looked at Mephz. “I don’t know.” He defeatedly said.
“You don’t know… what?”
“Why they’re here. They’ve probably encircled the whole Verdant Plains since there was also one at the Karite Ranges where we met.”
“They’re here to gank, aren’t they?”
“Yeah, I mean—” Argus interrupted himself. “Why they’re ganking this place in such an organized way. I’d understand if it’s just some independent gankers who do it for fun, but from what you told me, there’s so much more to this.”
“Is there really? Aren’t you just overthinking things?” The two began walking towards Facilis.
“Hah? When did I overthink things?”
“Always?” Mephz teased Argus.
“aLWaYs.” Argus teased Mephz back by copying what he said in a mocking way.
Mephz swiped his kusarigama at Argus, but he was able to narrowly dodge it by ducking.
“Anyway, when’s Fort going to log in?”
“Gilver.” Argus corrected him. “I don’t know. Probably shortly. I don’t even know what time it is now in the real world.”
“I bet he’d be surprised to find out I’m playing again.”
“Yeah, he’ll definitely be surprised.” Argus examined the alchemical materials he’d gathered. “Now we just need Honiden and the squad will be complete again.”
“…like the good old days.”
“Though, I think we need a healer so we don’t make the same mistakes before.”
Argus and Mephistoz looked at each other, waiting for each other’s response.
“Naaaaah!” Both of them simultaneously exclaimed while laughing.
Upon arriving at Facilis, the two briefly separated as they do their own things. Mephz sold all the loot and drops that he got from the world bosses and the gankers, while Argus went to the crafting district to dabble in alchemy.
There were only 2 alchemy stations in the whole district. As expected, most were forges and tailoring stations, since newbie players don’t really use potions that much and would rather focus on metallic weapons and armor, as well as cloth and leather armors.
Argus checked the first alchemy station, named “Merry’s Brewery.”
“Welcome!” A male NPC greeted him. There was only a reception table at the immediate entrance of the shop.
“How much for using the stations?” Argus got straight to the point.
“5 gold!” The NPC exclaimed.
Argus was surprised at how low it was, since on most cities, the usage of stations, let alone alchemy ones, could easily go as high as 100 gold per item crafted. Like a hungry wolf that’s been starved for days all of a sudden meeting a defenseless foal goat, Argus pounced on the opportunity and immediately accepted the deal.
Due to the fact that the economy in Aefell is entirely player driven, there are no NPC shops and everything is run by the players where an owner of a shop or station can hire NPCs or even other players to facilitate the shop. In fact, a large majority of the items in the game are made by players one way or another. This means that the economy isn’t static, and it changes depending on the demand of the current market.
Argus thanked whatever invisible economic forces were at play to cause the usage fee of this particular alchemy station to be as low as 5 gold.
Upon paying, he was escorted to one of the doors on the hallway right past the reception. Inside was like a modern-day laboratory, but without all the modern, fancy equipment. There were flasks, boilers, mixers, and even a huge cauldron just standing by the window.
“Thank you for using our station! Do note that any damage to our equipment will be shouldered by you, so please do be careful.” The NPC then bowed at Argus and then closed the door, leaving him alone inside.
“Alright, time to make some money.”