Here another one. And now it's proofread.
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"Looking for fellow merchants to create an expedition group to the city of Fiora!! Can also join an already created expedition group that will go to the city of Fiora."
For a week, Chrono was desperately trying to create an expedition group to the city of Fiora. He shouted occasionally while selling his wares at his shop. Half way to the city of Fiora, there is the Mountain of the Fallen God. Of course usually expedition groups will make a detour but that is Chrono’s real destination. Although its strange, Chrono tried to do something about his recent quest. The storage room is the life blood of a merchant, he needed to do something about the quest.
After 2 more days, Chrono finally gathered 15 more merchants for the expedition group. Getting in a party is hard enough for a merchant since merchants have zero combat ability. Looking for an expedition group is a lot harder since not many want to travel in a big group.
Hiring a few mercenaries is very risky for a merchant because there is a chance of betrayal even with the merchant’s "contract" skill. While in contract, mercenaries are unable to attack the merchant who hired them. But they can leak information to bandits. Mercenary clans can provide a trusted escort party but it is rather expensive for Chrono. Only established merchants can hired an escort party from a reliable mercenary clan. Low level merchants usually gather around 10 to 20 fellow merchants and share their money to hire an escort party. Usually, one escort party from two reliable mercenary clans each are hired. This is to minimize the chance of betrayal.
The next morning, the expedition group was doing their final preparation before departing from Mafoso. The merchant wagons were full of trading goods and food supplies. Wealthier merchants have bigger wagons but Chrono doesn't have one. Wagons cannot be brought into the city. Usually when the wagon arrives at the city entrance, a store keeper will take over the wagon and the goods will be stored in the storage room. Since Chrono cannot gain excess to the storage room for the time being, there is no reason for him to rent a wagon.
Every merchant pulled out their contract letters to form a contract between the escort party and between merchants themselves. Trust is an issue in a merchant world. After 2 hours, finally the expedition group departed from Mafoso.
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Northwest in Mafoso at the user respawn place, a user logged in. Death in Emperor Saga will make the user unable to log in for 24 hours and their character will respawn at the nearest city. There is item drop penalty and level drop penalty too .This particular person died when hunting an Ancient Dragon alone.
"(I think that dragon almost died too. I will take my revenge)"
Seth head back to the Mountain of the Fallen God to get his revenge and gain his level back. Unexpectedly, the third Emperor is quite reckless.
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In the expedition group, non-combatants each have their own role. For a veteran travelling merchant, they have exceptionally high cooking skill thus making them take the cooking role. Some merchants have the medic skill to heal the escort party after each battle. There is also merchant that has a high alchemy skill that can create potions and aid the escort troop by throwing bombs in a fight.
Chrono role was mostly using the blacksmith skill. He fine tuned and repaired all the weapons and armor for the escort party. There is other merchant that has the blacksmith skill, but Chrono is the best blacksmith in the expedition group. It's common sense for fighting class users to want the best one to take care of their weapons and armor. In his spare time, Chrono made a dagger and light sword for himself to prepare for a dangerous situation. There were times a few of the mercenaries asked Chrono to make a weapon for their friend or for themselves.
Chrono blacksmith skill finally got to advance level 1 in this expedition. Now, Chrono gained excess to gun creation. Due to extra expensive materials, guns are not a favorable weapon for hunting. Gun materials can cost up to 100,000 gold! And the bullet cost can vary from 10 silver to 100 gold per bullet. Its an expensive weapon only for the wealthy. But guns have one special trait, it doesn't take the user’s stats into account for damage. Gun damage only depends on what type of gun and bullets are used. Because of this, even level 1 users can kill level 100 monsters with a gun. But it is an expensive way of hunting and a big gun recoil can even kill the user. A veteran merchant almost always has a gun as a last means of defense.
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Chrono who aimed to go through Mountain of the Fallen God, was willing to use all his fortune for a gun. In the city of Mafoso, he managed to collect 2,000 gold thanks to his diligent trading and his frugal way of living. In the expedition group, he managed to get the materials for a gun from the merchant goods and the escort party’s monster loot.
"(I will make a rifle)"
Chrono took out his blacksmith tool to make a rifle. He made a simple 1.2 meter long rifle. But the barrel could only fit one big bullet and instead of normal gunpowder, he used a more potent powder that could even destroyed a big tree, "ancient powder". After he finished making the rifle, he continued to make the bullets.
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In the Continent of Apollo, Plain Serugol.
There was only despair for the army fighting Kongol. They were already fighting Kongol for 2 days, a hefty amount of allied forces were killed in action. And a lot of users logged out either from getting scared or too tired of fighting Kongol for 2 days or 12 hour in real world time. The game considered users that log out in the middle of conflict dead and they received the same penalty.
Now, there's only 1/3 of the army remaining. And Kongol’s Last Rampage gave no sign of wearing out any time soon. When the army was about to give up, Kongol suddenly stopped and his big orcish figure disappeared.
"........He logged out?"
" It seems so, maybe he was disconnected"
"........he dropped his axe"
But they decided to leave the 1.8 meter axe since it was too big and it took 3 users to lift it. And they were still in disbelieve of the situation.
".....Unexpected."
"Maybe he got tired too...its been 12 hour in the real world."
"Still...unexpected."
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During the expedition, there were a few times monsters penetrated the escort party and reached the merchants. During these time, one skill proved indispensable.
"Fake Death!!"
"Fake Death!"
"Fake Death!"
Three merchants used the "fake death" skill simultaneously. The monsters passed through them as if they had already died. Chrono’s "fake death" skill was now intermediate level 1. The skill rose pretty fast but it did not give any real benefit accept making the enemy think the user died. But even in fake death mode, the user could still be killed and they were actually more vulnerable in fake death mode. Thus making this skill near useless. But for a non-combat class, "fake death" may save them a lot of times.
When reaching the Mountain of the Fallen God Chrono said goodbye to his expedition group. Of course he didn't tell them he planned to climb the mountain as they would think he’s crazy. In the vicinity of the mountain, Chrono was terrified by the sight of the high level monsters. Collecting all his courage, he tried to sneakily walk between the monsters.
"(Here goes nothing)"
But the monsters immediately noticed him. Realizing he was in danger, Chrono unleashed his secret weapon that would get him to the peak of the mountain.
"Fake Death"
One of the monsters thought he was dead and passed by him. But another one came and sat beside him. The monster didn't attack him but if he showed any sign of life it would be a true death. Chrono needed to wait.
"(Maybe its not a good idea)"
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In continent of Guntzel, City of Kahn located beside the wasteland.
A person came out from the respawn place. Grass, the second Emperor had died and respawned here.
"Finally....a city....And a person". Grass hugged the NPC guard while crying.
4 days ago. Grass was wandering around wasteland while laughing"
" Hahaha!! The monsters are still weak." He killed a monster in one hit.
"Hahaha!! The night sky in the desert is great."
But after a day his laughing stopped. No matter how long he walk there was no sign the wasteland would end. Without food and water, he could not fill his satiety and slowly his stamina diminished. Finally he died of dehydration in the middle of the wasteland. Unexpectedly, the second emperor is an idiot.
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After 1 day, a group of monsters slept beside Chrono’s "corpse"
"(Not a good idea)"