“I’m back! Alice, you still here?”
The living room lights were off, and a sticky note was laying on the dining table.
“Hey! The girls called me out early so that we could beat the line at some cake place. I’ll be home at the same time still so don’t forget to be hungry for dinner!!”
I peeled off the small floral paper square and stuck it to the palm of my hand. The notes were, as I had drunkenly stated one night, a “cuter” method of communication than texts were. Alice loved the idea and bought a few artisanal sets for use, and the supply had been slowly dwindling throughout the past few months.
The beanbag was still a bit sunken from usage, so I puffed it up before immediately ruining its shape by slumping into it. I did a cursory sniff of the VR headset to make sure nothing funky was lingering, and logged back into Equilibrium.
~~~
“Adventurer Magnum D., thank you for coming back! Please take this skill book as our appreciation for your dedication.”
YOU HAVE EARNED THE TITLE(S): Goblin Killer - II; Body Breaker - II; Brutal?! - III; Party Player - I; Fearless - I!
The Instructor’s Clearing was the quietest I had ever seen it — probably because the time was perfectly in between when the late night gamers finally passed out and the “normal” sleep schedule gamers would wake up. All three instructor sections were still busy, but there was no crowd to fight through. It probably didn’t help that it was the dead of night in-game, covering everything in a sheet of darkness.
On the bright side, it would likely be sunrise by the time I made it out to the forest. Being able to fight in the sunlight would be a nice change of pace.
Training Skill Book: Shoot - Arm yourself with a bow and fire off an arrow! Or a slingshot, a crossbow, or anything else that fits your fancy. There’s nothing like the physical response of ammo leaving your hands!
I thanked the Ranged Instructor for the gift and used the skillbook, enjoying the tingling sensation of another skill being added to my character. I interacted with the orc instructor again to check up on my mastery progress, pulling up the notepad feature at the same time.
“DO NOT FORGET TO ASK NPCS ABOUT THE GRAHOB GRAHBLE!!”
“CHECK HOW SKILL CASTS WORK? CAN YOU LEVEL MASTERY WITHOUT USING THE SKILL?”
“PRACTICE EVASION WITHOUT USING ROLL!”
The reminders that I set the night before took me a bit by surprise, earning concerned gazes from nearby players when I physically flinched backwards a few inches. I pushed them to the side after regaining my composure, some heat lingering in my face.
Surprisingly, my skills menu was relatively clear of notifications. There were a few upgrades, but nothing as exciting like more branching upgrades.
Bolt - Concussive Blow +II: Perhaps the sight of watching your enemies stagger backwards is growing on you! This denser form of Bolt has become a bit more familiar. You understand this skill better, refining the concussive force.
Stab - Spear +II [MANA]: Keeping the business part of your weapon further away from you is smart. Maybe that’s why spears are so popular among the untrained. The MANA enhancement causes the tip of your spear to crackle and spark with power. You understand this skill better, refining the MANA consumption and destructive power upon striking a target.
Block - Wall +I: A thin wall of energy is projected outwards, becoming solid enough to become a hindrance in the physical plane. You understand this skill a bit better, allowing you to project the wall with slightly more tangibility.
Stolen story; please report.
Roll - Low +III: A vague tumble of the body that’s low to the ground and inconspicuous. Perfect for avoiding slower attacks! You understand this skill much better, decreasing the wind-up time before the roll.
Pummel - Spear +I: If it can be swung, it can be done. Despite not being the blade end, the shaft behind it could technically be considered a staff. Loosely. You understand this skill a bit better, refining its power upon striking a target.
All of my skills had gotten a decent boost, which was a welcome sight. The lack of numbers were annoying as usual, but I figured that the boosts must be mostly cosmetic. While Seb’s party fought well, none of their skills seemed to be strictly stronger than mine, especially when considering that they had put at least another full day or two’s worth of grinding into the game.
If I was a betting man, which I wasn’t (refer to Chapter 1 for why), I would say that the pure power increases were probably noticeable to be felt, but not high enough to warrant mindlessly grinding. Unless of course, the player was extremely attached to a particular skill for an incredible period of time. Even then, it could be debatable if the skill got significantly stronger, or if the player was more comfortable with the skill’s usage.
My finger paused on the dull text of Dash for a moment. I had taken the skill off my loadout because of Seb’s party invite, but despite going solo again, I wasn’t convinced that it was worth a valuable slot. Being able to run faster was definitely nice to have, but I wasn’t sure if it was all too useful.
I glanced at Pummel softly glowing above it, tempted to swap the skills around.
Might be better to ask Alice what she thinks.
I flipped over to the titles to check if there were any interesting developments before I went to grind.
Goblin Killer - II: The blood of dozens of goblins dyes your hands a crimson red… If this was an alternate universe, maybe you’d have actual trauma on your hands, but most goblins in this game are your run-of-the-mill, pillaging little monsters. You have a bit of notoriety with goblins, making them all a bit more aggressive.
Body Breaker - II: A good physical bashing is always a great time. Breaking limbs and bones is a solid way to limit your opponent’s mobility and cause them an inconvenience, but you’ve done it enough for the System to notice. Keep it up and you might get a bonus from it.
Brutal?! - III: Sometimes, it’s better to let everyone know that your style of fighting is… on the more personal side.
Party Player - I: You joined a party for the first time!
Fearless - I: You fought a Named Monster for the first time!
YOU HAVE EQUIPPED Bodybreaker - II!
Despite the lack of clearly listed stats, I figured that there had to be a hidden effect for combat with a label like that — especially if it kept going up. One of the videos that came up during my morning jog had mentioned that there was an option to toggle title visibility for PvE content, so that people couldn’t publicly shame others for their equipped titles.
The Brutal title did lurk in the corners of my head, but I pushed those thoughts away.
Neither Artemia nor Freddy were at the guild reception, which was expected since they were supposed to be working. An attractive blonde guild receptionist was working at the desk this time, but the scripted conversation suggested that I had finally run into an NPC receptionist. The quick transaction was quite refreshing as the receptionist barely batted an eye as she confirmed my goblin kill count and calculated the rewards – which was a nicely weighted bag of copper and the remaining Blank Training Skill Book.
I stopped by the dwarf blacksmith to buy a Copper Dagger to replace the many subpar used goblin daggers that I had been constantly cycling through. It was an expensive purchase, but if it speeded up my upcoming grinding session, it was well worth the money spent.
Barely a dent compared to Alice’s Tabula Rasa skill though…
Anyways, I wouldn’t be able to save that amount of money for that long. The goblin camp was going to require potion and equipment budgeting, and I had yet to find any easy alternative sources to obtain those.
Which, I suddenly realized, was a completely incorrect opinion. Liz, Patricia and multiple NPCs had already mentioned crafting, so it was likely that I could refine my own potions.
The main issue with that plan was that I didn’t have the time to gather the raw materials to create potions. There was a local market area that some players had set up, but the prices I happened to hear seemed ridiculously high — even more so than the potion store.
I softly shook my head to clear my thoughts. The worries about the crafting aspect of the game could wait until after my grinding session. I slung the spear across my shoulders and entered the northern forest.
You have left the zone: New Training Forest: Outside the Village!
NEW LOCATION FOUND! New Training Forest: Northern Forest HAS BEEN ADDED TO YOUR MAP!