It was a particularly sunny day, as a elderly man made his way through a park, when he came across a child staring at the ice cream vending machine greedily. With a smile he REPLACEed some money into the vending machine and asked, “I heard you made a ruckus at school and ran away. I had a feeling I would find you here, well which flavor?”
The child looked up at the man with his mouth pouted and then pressed “F17 – Chocolate Chip”.
They made their way towards the more shadowy regions of the park after dodging past couples who were enjoying basking themselves in the sun. They finally found a bench and took a seat.
“I’m glad to know, I am not the only one who dislikes the sun. It’s been getting hotter and hotter every year, you know. In my time, summer was never this hot.”
The young child licked away at his ice cream that he held, unconcerned with what the stranger next to him said.
“Are you enjoying your ice cream?”
The young child continued to lick away his ice cream.
“It is good that you are enjoying it. You should enjoy everything so much. Do you enjoy eating ice cream?”
The child nodded.
“Then, why don’t we meet every week. Just like this.”
The child nodded again.
“If you don’t understand something at school you should just raise your hand and ask the teacher. No point keeping quiet about it.”
The kind elderly man got up and left. The child continued to stare at his back, he wanted to say thank you for the ice cream but couldn’t find the courage to do so.
*BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP*
Lee Jun woke up with alarm going off – ‘The subconscious mind really is a mind of its own, should have thanked the old man then. Alright back to Royal Road Elementarem Vim!’
After seeing all the information on how Theodore taught common blacksmithing skills, Lee Jun realized that it could be that he has taken on a true apprentice as yet. There were not many who knew Rodriguez or Snappy, if one were to leverage on that, then Weed would be very different from all the other apprentices Theodore had. It was this hypothesis that gave Lee Jun the courage to believe that Theodore’s skills were not common but unique. After logging in, Weed found himself at the Eastern Gate where he had last logged out. There were four guards stationed there, who weren’t there last time but Weed didn’t think much of it. However as he walked through, the soldiers stopped him.
“Who are you?” The soldier on his left asked.
“Weed.”
“Where do you come from?”
“I went to visit Theodore Balkan the Travelling Blacksmith for some amour. I live and have been brought up in Lavias City, the most blessed city in all of Versailles.”
TRRIIIINNG!!
- Proficient in Lying and Deceit has increased ~ Beginner level 3 – 3%! -
The soldiers looked at each other and thought to themselves, ‘A true patriot of the kingdom.’
“Please be more careful Elf. The land outside is dangerous for someone new here. Please enter inside quickly.”
Weed invested 15 skill points into stamina, 20 to agility, 20 to strength and 30 to defense. Doing so was highly beneficial as it meant that he could run for longer distances without tiring. He covered the entire stretch from the Eastern Gate to Rodriguez's ranch in one day; he laughed at how it had originally taken him nearly seven days to cover the same distance. Though it wasn’t really comparable as Weed was pushing a wheelbarrow which consumed more stamina, but to Weed it was the same distance thus so to say it was 1 day vs 7. He felt stronger and faster than before.
Upon reaching, the ranch entrance he could see Lisa teaching students how to use the bow and arrow. ‘Same as ever.’ He then marched into the house and found Rodriguez sitting comfortably in a rocking chair sleeping.
“Rodriguez the Wise!” exclaimed Weed excitedly. For an elf, one would mistake Weed as mannerless, players would think of it as poor relationship building skills, Weed thought of it as saving time. When pressed with matters of urgency, all the politeness and courtesy of the world could head straight out the window for all he cared.
Rodriguez woke up with a surprise, he wasn’t used to being called by his name. He turned his head around in surprise. “Why Weed! What brings you here? You are safe and unhurt I see. Did you run into any troubles?”
Weed wondered if it was worth mentioning the three idiots who bothered him but decided not to. Rodriguez on the other had was expecting to hear a story about how miraculous he escaped Shadow’s clutches, so when Weed said there was nothing that happened he was quite confounded.
“Then have you already found a suitable ring?”
“No…”
Rodriguez did not hide his disappointment. He had been dreaming that Weed presented him with a ring most apt for Lisa. Of course Weed had no way of knowing that and he couldn’t even begin guessing that NPC’s in RREV were capable of dreaming.
“Never mind that, I promise you the most spectacular ring ever for Lisa. However, to do so I need a little bit of help.”
‘Most spectacular ring ever?’ Weed certainly did grab Rodriguez’s attention. He wanted to get the best ring his gold could offer for Lisa. “Yes go on, I am all ears.”
“I met Theodore Balkan son of Utmiz Balkan.”
“Theodore…Theodore…where have I heard that name before? So familiar yet so vaguely distant….”
“The Travelling Blacksmith? The lone wandering dwarf?” Weed suggested a few titles to nudge Rodriguez in the right direction.
“Oh Yes! I remember him alright, quite the bloke if I may say so myself. Absolutely wonderful and a complete delight. But why did you go to meet him, a blacksmith? Weren’t you going to learn a melee profession?”
Weed frowned, this was not what he expected from Rodriguez the Wise. Maybe all that he knew about the NPC characters was true, they had nothing to do with Royal Road. Just common names, common cities and similar topography. “Old man! You sent me to him! Remember, Snappy’s owner?”
Rodriguez was confused he then sat down to think… “Oh yes! You are absolutely right! I did send you to him. I apologize I completely forgot he was a blacksmith, I think I mistook him for some other grand warrior. But who did I mistake him for?”
The author's tale has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.
Rodriguez scratched his head and thought about it as Weed patiently waited. It wasn’t the purpose of his visit but he was happy to gain whatever information was available. “No I just can’t seem to remember. I guess I am growing terribly old.”
“Well it would certainly have been of great help, if you could remember but I wanted to discuss my plans about the engagement ring.”
“Yes go on…”
“Well I was thinking the best and most suitable ring would be a ring that Lisa described. Could you please let me know a little bit about Lisa and her preferences?”
“Lisa…I’d say timeless. One word to describe her would definitely be timeless. She hasn’t changed much since I last remember and when I say unchanged I don’t mean by appearance. Her appearances have certainly changed a lot but I would incline more towards her personality. She has always been so kind and caring. Though she may be old, back in the days she was a gem of a beauty. All the noblemen of the land would come seek her hand. She was the prettiest flower ever that blossomed in all Versailles.”
“Yes, I know what you mean. Her demeanor is most elegant, it’s a charm that I could not understand why before. But now that you have explained it to me it makes complete sense.”
Rodriguez nodded in agreement.
“Well I will certainly be able to find such a ring and I absolutely promise you it will be the only one of it’s kind in all of Versailles just as Lisa is.”
Rodriguez was most happy when he heard these words, for a thousand gold coins one could buy a house but not jewelry as beautiful as Weed described it to be.
Weed continued, “Think about it, a unique ring! Truly an expression most befitting of love as unique as yours!”
Rodriguez nodded in agreement once again. He was most excited by what Weed had to say.
“However…” Weed paused and frowned. Seeing Weeds expression, even Rodriguez curiosity peaked. He needed to immediately discover what obstacle prevented the boy from finding the ring! “We have one problem.”
“Yes?” Rodriguez asked impatiently.
Weed narrated to Rodriguez the quest bestowed upon him by the dwarf. Rodriguez listened patiently however he did not see how learning blacksmithing would get him the ring he so desired. He hesitantly put forward his concern to Weed.
“That? That’s simple, I intend to make one.” Weed replied as if he was already a master level blacksmith.
Rodriguez wasn’t quite convinced, Weed had painted an image of the most beautiful and spectacularly singular ring for Lisa. Rodriguez was guessing that Weed was still FF/001 and he knew no blacksmithing, it would take years to reach a high enough level to make a ring so wonderful as he described.
“I think Weed, is mistaken if he believes that he can make a ring so fabulous in 3 months. It not possible to master this profession even if you spent a lifetime at it.” Rodriguez sighed, so much for the unique ring.
“I agree.” Weed replied dully, “However, Theodore said he would help me if I cleared the test.”
Rodriguez eyes sparkled, it was one thing if Weed a newbie made the ring and it was completely a different story if Theodore a legendary blacksmith made one.
TRRIIIINNG!!
- Proficiency in Lying and Deceit has increased ~ Beginner level 3 – 50%! -
“Yes, I can now see what you mean. The ring would indeed be spectacular.” Rodriguez acknowledged.
“Yes, imagine as it would become the talk of all of Versailles. Your love of Lisa would become the envy of everyone!” Weed added greedily as he hoped to snag Rodriguez with such an enchanting tale.
“Yes! Absolutely! You are absolutely right! Why did I never think of making a ring for Lisa!” Rodriguez said with vigour.
TRRIIIINNG!!
- Proficiency in Lying and Deceit has increased ~ Beginner level 3 – 89 %! -
Weed sighed, at least the lies were worth something, other players might not get anything for lying. What he wondered was whether this was a good thing or a bad thing? He was even more worried if his lying skills became a habit in RL. There were studies on how players picked up RL skills through VR gaming, this brought a lot of media scrutiny to the point it was also shown that people could pick up bad habits as well. However, VR gaming companies claimed otherwise, there was no final say on this matter. One of the by-products of this however was the birth of a new organization VR-PETA. Just like the sister organization RL-PETA, this organization targeted VR companies for directing players to hurt VR creatures. They often claimed how VR gaming was a bad influence on RL animal welfare thought they never had any proof to back this claim up.
Weed wondered if he revealed his quest to anyone what would they think of it?
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Authors Note:
1. So I have written about 96 pages, 39,000 words, 4000 lines. I have been thinking and decided when I hit 100 pages, lets do something special to celebrate. Will think about it more in detail latter for now please enjoy this short sneak preview :) (UPDATE: to celebrate, I wrote an additional 26 pages for release, 10K words and 1K more lines).
2. Editing Credits: Knaivvs
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Connect to Royal Road – Elementarem Vim next Chapter?YesNo
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