Sakol is no longer a stranger to the townspeople, but he is still a strange man in people's eyes. Many hunters who have traveled into the forest to hunt have seen the owner of the mana tools shop hammering wooden planks into ten-meter-high trees. Then tie himself up with a rope and slide down a wooden wall slowly.
Nobody knows which mana art Sakol practiced. But the fact that his body slowly slides down against a flat wooden plank is enough to show that this is a mana art used for traveling in flat-steep terrain such as the city walls.
Several residents informed the town guards to come and check Sakol training, but the guards just watched without saying anything. In this world where mages can easily fly over walls. Sakol’s ability is not considered a serious threat. The guards just need to note it down in case there is a problem later.
It only took ten days for Sakol to successfully clear this quest.
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[Game Elements: “Gathering” acquired.]
[Gathering]
[Type: Feature, Quest, Task]
[Genre: MMORPG]
[Description: Allow user to do a gathering task. Beware of monster.]
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[Trash: “1 Rotten Kafir Lime” acquired.]
[Rotten Kafir Lime]
[Type: Item]
[Genre: Cocking]
[Description: A kafir lime that gamer left outside the fridge for too long.]
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Sakol looked at the rotten kaffir lime that emit a pungent smell and break the kaffir lime flesh to look inside. Seeing two kaffir lime seeds, he burst into a smile. Kaffir lime leaves and kaffir lime fruits are an important spice for cooking Thai food. Over the past four months, He misses a lot of Thai food, especially chicken gut stir-fry with Thai holy basil.
Instead of looking at the details of the "gathering" , Sakol walked around looking for pot to plant kaffir lime seeds in the backyard, hoping to get a kaffir lime tree next to the house for cooking. Once done, he check out the new missions that have been added.
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[Quest: Bane of the genre.]
[Type: Plot driving.]
[Description: Perform 10 gathering and delivery tasks. The “Gathering” feature will aid you in the task.]
[Reward: 1 Game Elements ticket (random), 1 Item ticket (trash - random)]
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Delivery Missions: A missions that MMORPG gamers must encounter at least once, the hidden purpose of these types of missions is usually to familiarize the player to the maps and locations of NPCs in the game, but having to do such missions in almost every MMORPG makes gamers tired and do not wanting to do such missions anymore. Every fetching and delivery mission or quest falls into the same pattern.
Sakol wondered if the Game Elements System was using this kind of mission to push him out to fight monsters in the jungle.
Sakol begins by writing flyers to drop off at shops in town, clearly stating that he wants a gathering job that is not too hard and does not mind the small payments. Shops that know that Sakol is the creator of a new road for the townspeople to use are willing to help with the flyers. Some shops need some talk, but everything is done without a problem.
"Mushroom picking?" Sakol asked the owner of the charcoal shop. He went to inquire where he left the flyer, and this charcoal shop was the first one where someone gave him a job.
"Yes, marble mushroom, Fairdew needs marble mushroom to make bandages. You know Fairdew right? The only apothecary in Stonebark. Almost every hunter in this town had to buy medicine from Ferdew before heading into the woods. If you help Fairdew pick marble mushrooms, In addition to getting paid by Fairdew, the hunters in the city will appreciate it." The owner of the charcoal shop explained.
“Is this marble mushroom rare? Why nobody taking this work?” He stated in the flyer that he only accepts simple tasks.
"Marble mushrooms are growing underground, mostly under decayed leaves by the lake, they are hard to find because you can't see it from the surface of the soil, it just takes a lot of time to uncover the leaves. Recently, there are a lot more injured hunters, so the bandages aren't enough. Yesterday, Dr. Fairdew came to buy charcoal and saw your flyer, so she asked you to take the job of finding this mushroom. One coin each."
A coin each considered a fairly well-paid job. The work is simple. The area around the lake is safe outside the southern side of the lake. Payments is not Sakol priority right now, all he wants is to complete the mission.
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[Sub-quest: Marble Fungus gathering.]
[Type: Plot driving.]
[Description: Due to sharp raise in demand, Fairdew, the concoctor needs more Marble Fungus for her bandage making.]
[Reward: 1 Item ticket (Mushroom - random). Fairdew will remember your favor. Hunter in Stonebark will remember your favor.]
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An information window appears on the board when Sakol agrees to complete this task. He read the details and wondered why the demand for bandages had suddenly increased. As soon as this idea arises in the head. The information window has also changed.
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[Chain-quest: Investigate the raise in demand of the bandage.]
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'Chain-quest?' He read the message on the board and determined to ask Fairdew when he dropped off the mushrooms.
Sakol headed to the lake through the road he built. He thought of a hundred days when he used a wooden hammer to dive a wedge into the ground one by one. His body is now stronger than he was in the old world. On the outside, he may not be different from a normal human, but his internal structure is not comparable. He doesn't know how the mana in his body works, but apparently it strengthens his muscles, bones and tendons, as well as other physical potential.
A person who does not practice mana art, like him, also has a strong body. Hunters with mana art training are even more capable. A hunter that jumps three meters high is a sight that can be seen normally. Even he himself can jump a meter and half high without problems despite not having special jumping training.
Look at the short blade in his hand. This is the only weapon in his mana tools store, a single-edged blade made of five-millimeter-thick steel. Sakol relies on his "Snapping" skills to examine the machete and see that the blade is not flat and smooth, whether the thickness of the blade or the smoothness of the surface. But this is a weapon that is forged by hand. This level of weapon is enough for self-defense in areas around the lake where there is no serious danger. Ironically, he owns a magic shop, but the weapon used is an ordinary metal sword. While almost all hunters have weapons that can charge with mana to enhance their abilities.
Sakol is nostalgic for his smart phone, If he has his phone with him, he can capture the picture of rich forests and magnificent lakes in front of him. The lake is called Silver Sand clam Lake or Sand Clam Lake. The eastern part of the lake is a sandy beach filled with sand clams. But since the meat of these sand clams are filled with sand, the townspeople do not like to collect it for.
Sakol breathes in the fresh air, takes moisture from lake water, and stretches two arms into the sky. He turned his gaze left and right, thinking about how to start searching for marble mushrooms. It is now that the information window shows itself to him.
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[“Gathering” feature activated. The Marble Mushroom location indicator will display the area approximate of 3 meters for each mushroom.]
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Similar to many MMO games, the ground where the mission targets glow up like a circle of lights spreading across the forest. Three-dimensional hologram of the mushroom floating above the glowing circle area showing what kind of raw materials is in this glowing area. Sakol walked to the first glowing circle about fifteen meters away and used a stick to uncover the surface. In less than a minute, he found a white marble mushroom embedded in the ground, with the top slightly emerged from the topsoil.
This marble mushroom is the size of a ping pong ball, the skin is soft to the touch, like a sponge cake and has a delicate aroma.
Universal gathers mushrooms in a cloth bag and wanders the forest in search of the next mushroom. Fairdew needed thirty mushrooms at least, and he was sure that thirty mushrooms could be collected within an hour.
While collecting this mushroom, Sakol also recalled hiking shoes that are suitable for working in such a forest. Ever since he came to this world, he misses a lot of things. Toothbrushes, toothpaste, cell phones, internet, soft drinks, air conditioning, hot pot, coffee and, most importantly, computer games.
The fact that he is a country man who lives in a buddhis temple, relies on rice bowls donated by villager to feed his life. Therefore, he does not have the opportunity to experience entertainment like a normal child. He also remembers how he started learning English by opening a dictionary to play Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past and translating English into Thai one word at a time. He played a donated Super Nintendo game with an old CRT TV while the kids in the village played PlayStation 3 game.
He's played many multiplayer games, but he always got back to single-player games. Perhaps because he was annoyed dealing with his teammates in multiplayer games, he was more than happy with the plot of single-player games. Some single-player games have NPCs to help, and often these NPCs are shown to have a single brain cell, but he still prefers these single brain cell NPCs over his teammates who are human but have two brain cells.
Sakol spent only forty minutes collecting thirty mushrooms. "Gathering" allows him to quickly find mushrooms. He returns to town and heads to a medicine store located on a corner of Stonebark for delivery.
This pharmacy is smaller than Sakol’s store, but the storefront now has dozens of hunters standing scattered around. Each of them has a strong body, dressed in leather armor, carrying weapons, both swords, spears, and bows. Males and females in the group’s ratio about six to four, unlike in Sakol’s old world where women's bodies strength is inferior to men. Women in this world are superior on mana control and able to use mana in complex way. While men will have the ability to use mana in an explosive way. Both genders have their own strengths and weaknesses. Therefore, working together to reduce blind spots and reinforce strengths is necessary.
"Redstone’s store owner, are you here to buy medicine?" asked a young hunter. He was a hunter who saw Sakol practicing Wall Slide skills in the woods several times when he went in the forest for hunting.
"Nah. I am here to hand a Mable mushroom to Fairdew," Sakol replied. He didn't expect the short answer to dazzle the hunter’s eyes.
"What are you waiting for, hurry up," a hunter pushed Sakol into the store as if he had been waiting for him all day.
Sakol frowned. He did not understand that if marble mushrooms were necessary and, in such demand, then why did nobody go picking the mushroom?
He suppressed his curiosity and looked at the pharmacy again. In this store there is a resemblance to his original world clinic. There's a lot of people outside the store. There were an equal number of people waiting on benches inside.
On the left side of the store is a bench for patients, and on the right is a counter table and medicine cabinet filled with hundreds of small drawers. Deep inside the store there is an examination room, which is now in use.
"Dr. Fairdew, someone delivered marble mushrooms." A hunter shouted. The people in the room, when they heard it, stared at Sakol with a surprised look in their eyes. Their reaction also made Sakol even more confused and suspicious.
The door to the examination room opened immediately, as if the people in the room had been waiting for his arrival since morning. A woman dressed in a knee-length working robe, full of pockets, walked out of the room and stared at Sakol before frowning.
"You... the one who handed out the flyers for hire, right?" she asked. Her tone was soft, clear, calm, and comforting. Dr. Fairdew is a skinny woman. Her height is about 160 centimeters, pale white skin, blacked circle under her eyes is so define like she sleeps at late-night all her life. Her clear jaw line contrasts with the slender neck. Hazel hair tied up behind the back. On her neck was a strap with glasses strap, which had multi-colored lenses.
Sakol said nothing but handed her a cloth bag full of marble mushrooms.