As his vision returned, he received a notification.
Warning: due to uneven terrain, it is not recommended that you explore any mountains, ruins or caves until you have upped your Agility to at least 15 This can be done by using your current Agility, or by using stat points from leveling up
“Now it tells me,” he said to himself.
Crawling around, he discovered that the lack of agility didn’t affect him nearly as much now.
Opening the map interface, he found that it was empty except for a compass.
You cannot view the map until you have reached level 10.
Waving the notification out of the way, he crawled towards the tunnel to the north, as it appeared to have the evenest terrain and an upward slope.
Just before he reached it, he got yet another notification.
Congratulations! You have unlocked the skill Crawling. Rewards: +10 XP (90 remaining to level 2), +10% crawling speed, +1 agility. Level:1
Thankful for that small blessing, he made it the rest of the way to the north tunnel.
Taking a break from crawling in order to let his stamina bar recharge, he noticed a flashing message icon at the very edge of his vision.
Willing it to open, a message window appeared, saying: Due to the difficulty of your quest given at such a low level, you have been given a weapon to assist you in its completion.
Item: Adamant Dagger of Life Stealing
Type: Organic, Divine, Enchanted, Scalable, Soulbound
Damage: 13 (3n +10, where n is your current level)
Info: This dagger will steal life from any creature equivalent to n/2, where n is the target creature’s level, which must be less than double your level. This dagger will stay with you if you die. Due to the divine material it is made of, it has 24 enchantment slots. 4 of these are already used. 20/24 slots remaining.
The space directly in front of him opened up, showing a void-like space, and the dagger fell into his hands, already in a plain-looking sheath.
Analyzing it brought up another window.
Item: Enchanted Dagger Sheath
Info: This basic leather sheath was enchanted so that it would be undamaged by adamant.
Figuring that it was enough to get him started, he attached the sheath to his belt, though he kept the dagger out in order to be ready if a mob attacked.
Getting up, he made his way along the tunnel, glad for the glowing crystals.
After another couple minutes of walking, he reached an area without light and chose to keep going, using the wall for guidance.
After the third time he nearly tripped going forward, he scraped his arm on a crystal growing from the wall and got a notification
Your arm was scratched by [Dormant Mana Crystal] for 3 damage. You will take 1 bleeding damage every 30 seconds for the next minute.
As he read the notification, an idea came to him and he nearly slapped himself for not thinking of it previously.
Returning the lighted portion of the caverns, he used the dagger to cut one of the glowing crystals out of the wall.
You have found [Mana Crystal (Charged)]
Item: Mana Crystal(Charged)
Type: Magic, Crafting Material
Charge: 56/100 (56%)
Information: Can be used for Mana storage and retrieval.
He immediately tried it, filling it to the maximum. As it filled, the glow got brighter until it extended about 20 feet.
Happy that he now had a light source, he got to work cutting a few other gems from the walls, hoping that he would be able to sell them in a city.
He realized he had gotten carried away when he looked at his inventory as he walked back along the tunnel several hours later.
8 x [Small Diamond]
5 x [Small Mana Crystal]
6 x [Small Amethyst]
1 x [Compact Mana Crystal]
2 x [Mythril Ore Chunk]
He also got the mining skill up to level 3, which got him a boost to his mining speed. He hadn’t even realized that he had gotten the mythril.
Reaching the end of the tunnel, he found it was blocked by what appeared to be centuries worth of overgrowth, which explained why it hadn’t been previously discovered. Cutting through the vines, weeds, roots, brambles and who knew what else proved to be an effortless task for the knife, which was still as sharp as when he began, regardless of all the jewels he had been mining.
As he got through the plants, he found himself in a ravine on a mountain. Realizing that it would be painfully obvious that there was a passage there if he didn’t hide it, he turned around, went back and gathered all the plants he had cut up and piled them up over the hole, placing them so that it looked like a bush had managed to grow there.
Congratulations! You have unlocked the [Cache Making] Skill. Rewards: +10 XP (20 remaining to level 2), +5% chance that your cache will remain undiscovered. Level:1
Unauthorized use: this story is on Amazon without permission from the author. Report any sightings.
Glad that he could safely leave it alone, he made his way along the ravine, and upon reaching the end, he saw a city that, based on pictures he’d seen, he believed to be the human capital city, Electria.
It was about a mile down the mountain slope, within easy walking distance.
He was not challenged upon reaching the gate and was just swept in with the crowd of people.
Looking around, he realized that he hadn’t even the slightest clue where to find the market where he could sell his goods.
Spotting one of the city guards, he approached him, figuring that he would know.
“Sir,” he called, “Could you direct me to the market?”
“Of course,” the guard said, turning towards him, “The market square is down this road, just a quarter mile away. But, should Your Holiness really be traveling without an escort, especially in a place as crowded as the market?”
“Your Holiness?” he asked.
“That is your title, right?” the guard asked, checking above his head.
Checking the settings, he saw that his title was set to display above his head and that it couldn’t be turned off, though it could be switched for High Priest of the Gods, which he did immediately.
Checking what would be displayed, he was relieved to see that it had been changed to say High Priest Nox.
Leaving his settings screen, he realized that the guard, whose name was Jorgen, was still waiting for an answer to his question.
“Yeah, that’s my title. Why do you think that I need an escort?”
“The gods have many enemies who wouldn’t hesitate to strike the high priest in order to prevent their return,” Jorgen explained.
“Would you be able to escort me for the day, then, since I will not have the funds to hire an escort until after I make a visit to the market to sell some goods?”
“Of course, High Priest Nox.”
You have entered into a temporary alliance with City Guard Jorgen. He will guard you for the day so long as you hire protection using your money that you make selling goods.
You’ve received a quest: Priestly Personal Protection
Type: Unique
Requirements: Hire an escort to protect you while in this region of the world or until you should reach level 100
Rewards: Protection, the passive ability [Peace of Mind]
Accept? Y/N
Selecting yes, he said, ”It’s a deal.”
Leading the way toward where the guard indicated, he did his best to acknowledge everyone, knowing that reputation could be increased by the slightest thing in games like this.
Reaching the market square, he walked over to a nearby smithy, where a stocky dwarf was working. The guard stopped just inside the door, prepared to defend him.
While he waited for the dwarf to finish whatever it was he was working on, he took a look around the shop, hoping for a few good pieces of armor that he could equip with his mage and priest class.
The best light armor there was a leather and chain breastplate which was just barely light enough to qualify as such.
Item: High Priest's Spirit Leather Breastplate with True Silver Chain Meshing
Type: Divine, Spirit, Organic, Celestial, Crafted, Scalable
Quality: Masterwork
Durability: 12000/12000
Weight: 6.98 kg
Armor: 55 + ((Faith/10) + personal level)
Info: Recently repaired by the Dwarven Master Smith Korbin, this chest plate is enhanced by Divine and Celestial magic and imbued with ectoplasm for defense against spirits
Requirements: 500 Faith, Elite Magical Class, level 5, 3 Strength, 8 Wisdom
Bonuses: Doesn’t impede the casting of divine or celestial magic. +1 Vitality per level, +1 Intelligence per level, +1 Wisdom per level, +1 Agility per level, +½ Strength per level, Grouped players get 33.3% of bonus
He was so distracted with reading the stats on this armor that he hadn’t realized that the dwarf had finished the stuff that he was working on until he heard a gruff voice right behind him say, “That’s 7000 gold pieces.”
Jumping, he spun around to find that the dwarf smith had managed to get to 3 feet away without him noticing.
Looking at the tag above the dwarf’s head, he saw that the dwarf was the same one that repaired the armor.
“Master Smith Korbin, I came in to sell some materials that I gathered.”
“Well, get on with it then.” the dwarf said impatiently. “I don’t have all day.”
Bringing up his inventory screen, he retrieved one each of the diamonds, amethyst, mana crystals and mythril ore.
As soon as he brought out the mythril, the dwarf grabbed his arm and forcefully dragged him to a back room.
Once there, the dwarf calmed down considerably, “Don’t carry things like this in the open! That’s a good way to get yourself mugged!” the dwarf said, barring the door, “If you had mentioned how many valuable materials you were carrying, I would have brought you back here to begin with.”
“I take it mythril is more valuable than I thought?” he asked.
“It’s worth an easy 200 gold to the ounce!” the dwarf exclaimed.
“And I have a pound and a half of ore, which when refined will be worth around 4000 gold,” he said slowly.
“Exactly. And you just took it out in the main area of the shop. I’ll give you 100 gold for each of the diamonds, 75 gold for each of the amethysts, and 150 for each of the mana crystals.”
“What if I charge the Mana Crystals?”
“I’ll pay an extra 20 gold each.”
“40.”
“10, but I’ll hold the breastplate you were looking at in the storeroom for two weeks.”
“It’s a deal,” he said, reaching over to charge them.
Pulling out the compact Mana crystal, he asked: “How much can I get for this?”
“500 gold for the compact one.” the blacksmith told him. “Say, if you only sell this kind of material to my shop, I’ll give you a permanent 5% discount.”
Trade agreement: In exchange for only selling smithing materials to Korbin, Korbin has offered a 5% discount on any and all Items for sale in his shop. This agreement will last the duration of one year
Do you accept? Y/N
Selecting yes, he saw that the dwarf was practically beaming, and got the feeling that he had been played by the NPC.
“Can I buy some basic armor so I can defend myself?” he asked, “It wouldn’t do you any good if I was ripped to pieces while getting materials.”
“I’ll give you some basic iron armor free of charge.”
Accepting the armor, he thanked the smith before leaving the shop to go and find Goodman Square, an area of the city that the guard had said was where most honest people went when they were looking for employment.
Arriving at the square, he only saw two warriors there. Seeing that one of them was a player, he immediately steered himself in that direction, figuring that a player would be more open-minded about a job with high chances of death. As he got closer, he saw that the player’s name was Nychta. He was 6 feet tall and looked to be a light elf, with blonde hair and green eyes.
“Hey, Nychta, would you be interested in a job?”
Looking me over, he replied, “You couldn’t afford to hire me.”
“Are you sure about that?” Nox asked, taking out out a couple of gold coins.
“I’m listening.”
“I need someone who can guard me indefinitely, paid monthly. How much do you want?”
“400 gold per month.”
“250.”
“375.”
“300 paid for the next two months in advance, and a 33% share of all loot and experience.”
“Make it 315 gold a month and it's a deal.”
“Done.”
With a handshake, he transferred the 630 gold.
You've completed the quest: Priestley Personal Protection. Rewards: [Peace of Mind], a passive ability
Ability: [Peace of Mind]
Type: Passive
Info: You’re sleep is 10% more restful when a guard at least 10 levels above your own is nearby.