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Volume 2 Chapter 2 – Preparations and Powerup
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After the escapade with the Slugs and Mushrooms, loaded with new knowledge, the trio got busy. The information that was kindly provided by Snow, the first-born of the Sentient Squirrels. She was now staying with Silva, the first-born of the Sentient Rabbits... who was also their A-Rank quest giver. It could be due to the nature of the game, as after the trio had gotten the high difficulty quest, they met with more Ancients then other gamers could never ever dream of meeting.
Bunny had informed her friends about the potency of Demonic Meat, that could be plundered from the Demon Realm. Since the two had no better suggestions, the trio decided to venture into the unknown. There, they were going to meet with yet another Ancient: Zenon the first-born of the Sentient Deers, a great being that resided deep within the uncharted territory.
To break into the demonic territory, the first thing was for Bunny and Angel to generate the 'Gateway to Hell'. If they were to just lure Demons into the Manor House, Gene having the skill would have been sufficient. Since they were going over, it was necessary for all 3 to have the skill. In times of emergency, having more people with the skill could bring about better plans and strategies into play.
Spending the next weekend swotting for knowledge, Bunny and Angel were both competent enough to gain the required skill and abilities without much trouble. In addition to Demon Realm, the trio also gain access to 'Land of the Vampires', 'World Tree: Yggdrasil' and 'Celestial Palace' albeit lots of complains from the two who did not love reading as much.
Following that, the trio went back to the Manor House to raise their skill proficiency. Opening a portal to the Demon Realm was very easy. By drawing the correct Magic Circle of sufficient size onto a surface and infusing mana into it using the Portal spell, a gateway would open in the middle of the Magic Circle. Depending on the type of Circle drawn, it could be single or dual ways. The size of the circles would determine the max level that could pass through.
Gene, being the more proficient one, inscribed Magic Circles of different sizes in various rooms of the Manor House by carving them into the stone floors. Circles drawn by chalk or ink would deteriorate with time and usage, but by engraving, they would become more permanent and stayed valid for longer. This was done so Bunny and Angel could level their 'Portal' skills more efficiently.
The different size circles were for different levels of the skill. From past experiments, Gene had grasped the estimated size that each level of 'Portal' could use at maximum. Angel mentioned that practicing with the largest possible circle helped the skill level faster, so they kept working on biggest circle their skills could manage, opening gateways to various realms without actually entering.
Portal Skill has level up to Lv5
Maximum level that can pass through your portal raise to Lv250
After 3 game days of constant practice, Bunny finally got her skill to the required level. Angel completed the mundane task earlier because she had the Meditation skill to restore her mana, while Bunny needed to wait for hers to regenerate naturally. Not wasting the wait time, Bunny mimic the Zen Monks she saw on television, during each lull and obtained the Meditation skill too. Sadly it by the time she got the skill, there wasn't much progress to speed up anymore.
With the keys to the unknown obtained, the trio did not rush onward. From Bunny's information source, they would be plundering Lv200 Demons for their flesh, so having higher levels and greater skill proficiencies were required. The default animals would have their levels cap at 150 or 175, so the trio needed to make up the difference in strength. They had agreed to take another game month of intensive training as preparation for demon slaying.
Angel had already left after completing her Portal skill leveling. She had some personal agenda. Besides training, she also had a business to run. Her Brass Cutlery Monopoly had received responds better then expected. Due to the investment, Bunny found her pockets weighted heavily with addition gold... 7,000 extra glimmering gold coins.
The returns for the investment was over 600%, which meant the money the trio pooled together from Tax and Tariffs had turned 6 fold... Bunny had top up her share to 1,000g as she liked round figures, the value made her 6,000g as returns, totally 7,000 in all... Gene had also added token sums while Angel herself invested some obscene amount into the venture. To prevent jealousy from rearing its ugly head, Bunny didn't think about how much her friends actually made.
Gene left even earlier, right after he was done drawing diagrams for the girls. As an Animist Druid, instead of obtaining powers from some great oak tree like other what normal druids usually did, his strength associates not with the floras but the faunas. With most of his skills based around his animals, he could get stronger with more companions.
Gene's Companion Mastery allowed him to help up to 4 animal companions, so he was off on a journey to find 2 more... Bunny was rather worried because Gene seemed to prioritize the cuteness of his companions as Accessories rather then combat efficiency or feasibility. The Bear and Worm turned out fine, but she shudder at the thought of him finding other 'unique' ones.
*****
With the first hurdle passed, Bunny's next itinerary was to increase her damage potential. As a Breeder, Bunny had to rely on her animals for combat. Fighting Slugs exposed her fatal flaw: She could add almost no additional firepower to the battle. Even with multiple spells of various elements, her overall damage output was extremely low compared to her level.
Back in the Serabroug Library, Bunny scoured various catalogs for information on increasing her spell damage. Due to her high stats and low proficiencies, Bunny could throw low level fireballs for hours without much mana issues. She was searching for a way to increase damage of each fireball cast by infusing more mana per shot. In other games, there were always ways to channel additional mana into spells making them more powerful, RR should not be an exception.
After wasting one game hour on fruitless search, Bunny approached the librarian for help. She had not done so earlier because a player was taking the library shift; Bunny could easily differentiate players from NPCs by their attire. Most players wore either beginner clothes or things related to their classes, while NPCs like the pretty girl stationed at the counter wore linen tunics.
There were 2 reasons for approaching an NPC. Firstly, they know more: The payment to work at the library could only attract newbies, so asking them about advance stuffs was totally pointless. Next was the title Bunny had, it only worked on NPCs.
((For those who had forgotten, Bunny had the title 'The Knowledgeable' which caused NPCs to give more information when specific questions were asked.))
“Excuse me, can I get some help on locating a book?” Bunny asked politely
“How may I help you?” The NPC librarian replied as courteously
“May I know where are the books on making spells more powerful? I can't remember the exact term”
“Hmmm... I am not sure which you want... but from what you describe, I think you are referring to either of the 2 categories: Mana Empowering and Elemental Mix”
“Yes! Yes! That's the name. Mana Empowering” Bunny acted like an Oscar winner acknowledging something she had no idea about. “Can you kindly bring me the books-s-swiftly, please?”
Slurring on the word s-s-swiftly, Bunny disguised her ignorance of it either being a book or a collection of many. The librarian did not notice anything amiss and went off to consolidate the order as she was paid to do. Bunny need to keep up her image, once a particular NPC knew of her ignorance, it would stop providing the benefit of doubt.
The librarian came back with 4 books on the topic, which Bunny happily took to an empty table, sat down and started reading.
*****
Flazzard was an aspiring newbie Mage who recently started playing RR with the ideal of getting double proficient of Fire and Ice magics. It was common sense that Fire and Ice were polar opposites, which supposedly made them incompatible. Flazzard was a physicist in RL, he knew of many ways where Fire and Ice magic would actually help each other, if they followed RL examples.
When something was placed in ice then fired up into high temperatures, it undergoes a process called Thermal Shock, which could cause fractures even in the toughest structures. Thermal Shock also applied to hot items suddenly cooled, with Tsar Bell being the best example. The biggest bell in the world, made of over 200 tons of bronze, simply cracked and broke when baked by wood-fed fire then splashed with water.
The avatar name: Flazzard could be explained as the combination of Flame and Blizzard, which would signify his source of power if one day he became famous... Gaining fame was not easy, especially with dual focus. Most spell casters were purist, specialized in only one branch of magic. Follow 2 branches of elements meant he had to spend twice as much time to become just as good. For efficiency, he trained on his Fire spells first.
With only Fire Magic, Flazzard would do trials by teaming up with fellow mages. Finding other magicians with Water Affinity, he would test his theories out. From his experiments, he found that timing was the key. Dousing a fire too quickly would mitigate damage, while doing it too late would mimic applying balms to burns.
His actions irritated many but when they did work, the result was beyond astounding. Fighting a bear at Lv43, Flazzard got his teammate to freeze the creature, then threw a fireball at the correct timing. The result totally destroyed the animal to the astonishment of his teammates. Bears that usually took more then a dozens of spells to kill, died with 2 ice spears and 1 fireball.
After the gaining his 80th level, Flazzard returned to Serabroug for resupply and equipment upgrade. Within staff maker’s workshop he waited in line after a girl wearing a extremely loud outfit. Having Rabbit ears as headgear with a classy one piece that comes with choker, cuffs and garters. Like every other man, he stood back and enjoy the sight of the pretty female in sensual clothing until his attention was grabbed by the unique materials she produced for creation of her new staff.
Most magician staffs were made of wood, on rare occasions there would be silver or mithril. What the girl produced was a huge carrot... Flazzard guesstimate that unique root to be about 2m length and 15 cm in diameter. Following that, the girl produced a bloodstone the size of a goose egg... even if bloodstone could be melted and reforged, having such a size was rare.
The NPC staff maker was surprised by the odd materials, but after some talks with the girl, he agreed to create a staff from the weird items. Two more huge carrots were passed over the counter before the rabbit-girl left the shop. Flazzard could hardly take his eyes off her due to her uncommon request, but was called back from his daze by the staff maker taking his orders.
After purchasing a stocked staff, Flazzard proceed to market to resupply. His last stop in town would be the mage guild, to learn Ice related spells. Knowing that after purchasing the spells, he would become agitated wanting to test them, who wouldn't be excited when given a new toy. He chose to restock before letting his emotions go wild.
Mages in general were not very rich, Flazzard's basic fire skills had reached intermediate ranks due to creative usage, so he intended to start training for other spells. Between Greater-Fire and Basic-Ice, Flazzard had many mental struggles... in the end, getting another beginner spell-set won, due solely to his name. In RR spell systems, ice belonged to water-series, so that was the new spell-set he aimed for.
“...Come on! I am just asking for a 10% discount, it's not like I am robbing you or anything”
A crisp androgynous voice reached him as he entered the Mage Guild. There, he saw the same girl, in her unique Rabbit-outfit, doing intensive negotiation with the guild clerk.
“I told you, we only give discounts when you buy a set, not individually” The clerk was unrelenting.
Flazzard guesstimate the old clerk to be in his 60s or late 50s, but his vigor showed otherwise, bargaining with the rabbit-girl like street hawkers over the prices, as he continued.
“If you buy a set, then I don't mind giving you the discount that is rightfully yours, but what you are purchasing is individual spells from random elements. How am I going to answer to the guild if they question me about it?”
“This is just like bulk buying, I am getting 16 different spells, isn't that enough for a discount? When I bulk buy potions, they gave me a discount of 25%, why is there nothing like that here. I am not even asking for that much, just a tiny 10%. Can't you even do that?” the girl said before stuffing something into her mouth and start chewing
If you find this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the infringement.
“No can do, rules are rules, don't make me say it again. Unlike potions that you will keep drinking like a fish since you don't even have decent armor, spells are a one-time event. Will you even learn the spell again after you have done it... Even if you want to, you can't” The clerk retorted while mimicking the rabbit-girl's actions.
“Hmph! Are you sure those are rules... or are you simply just incompetent at doing calculations... If you are, I can count for you... I know old people are only good at simple addition, calculating a discount will be tough on those brains going senile.” The rabbit-girl snorted then went into personal attacks.
“Ha! This youngling think she is so smart. It's just some coppers, if you have trouble filling this small little difference in price, don't even bother about getting the higher rank spells, they will cause you to bankrupt. The cheapest intermediate spell cost gold... you know what gold is? maybe you have not even seen a gold coin before” The clerk sneered back.
“Its not about money, I don't really care about those few coppers, I am talking principles here. I don't want to break my rule of not getting a discount when I am doing bulk purchase. Are you some Con artist at work? Swindling 1 copper or 1 gold, what's the difference, fraud is fraud...”
Just hearing the conversation, anyone would imagine two red-faced hagglers at each others throat, but seeing the exchange was a different experience. When Flazzard entered the guild house, the sight could only be described as bizarre. What he saw was the 2 persons involved sitting at the counter sharing a plate of shrimp kebab, while throwing insults at each other.
Due to the distance from any large bodies of water, the price of shrimps was expansive in Serabroug. The dish they were sharing easily exceed 2 gold... yet those two were arguing, like their lives depended on it, over a discount that was worth at most 20 silver, a tenth of what they were eating. Not to mention they were doing it between mouthfuls, which caused long speeches by one party while the other was chewing.
“Hello there! What can I do for you?” Noticing his presence, the clerk turned to greet him amiably.
“No, its alright, I will wait for the outcome if I can get the same discount” Flazzard answered
Turning back to the girl the clerk asked:
“Do you have anything more to say, I got a new customer”
“You go tend to him first while I prepare ammo to bargain for 9%, since you are not budging on 10.”
The girl nonchalantly replied while feeding herself another BBQ shrimp.
The clerk looked at them flabbergasted... then he broke into laughter.
“Hahaha... it has been so long since anyone can best me in a haggle... Missy, you win... I will give you a 10% discount on all sales, no thanks to the shrimp kebabs... You can proudly tell everyone that you have bested the Hard-Headed Jonathan from the Mage Guild.”
Turning towards Flazzard, Jonathan continued:
“But the offer is only for the missy, you get none of it!”
“What if I buy a spell set, you mentioned shaving a tenth off if someone buys a set” Flazzard asked
Jonathan the clerk wore a strange facial expression when facing Flazzard... something between squinting, grinning and scowling... then he relented
“Alright, you win too, so which set will you buy?”
New title: The Opportunist
By appearing at the right place at the right time, you bump into situations that you can capitalize on. Not missing out on the opportunity, you gain something that cannot be considered rightfully yours as you have not put in the required effort.
+10 Wisdom
+10 Luck
Chance to meet more opportunities when title is equipped
After purchasing all 6 beginner water spells with an unexpected discount, Flazzard also obtained his first title. Happy with the windfall, Flazzard considered the rabbit-girl to be his lucky star and waited for her to finish her purchase. He was yet again surprised by what she bought: 16 beginner spell which were spread across all elements.
After the girl had done her shopping, Flazzard introduced himself and learned her name as 'Bunny'... somewhat expected due to her outfit... then they both made their way towards the Skill Testing Ground. Where else would one go after learning new spells?
*****
Mausoleum of the Unknown
This small dungeon was also term as 'Skills Testing Ground' due to the mud golems that reside within. Mud Golems were Level 50 monsters with huge chunks of health and defense that were comparable to lv200 monsters elsewhere. Balancing out their superb tanking powers, they had slow, predictable and rather weak attacks that made them easy targets to practice new skills or spells. Being called 'advance version of Basic Training hall', the mud golems gave little exp and drop nearly nothing.
None of the guilds wanted to claim this dungeon as efficiency on leveling here was worse then fighting bears in the open forest. Another reason was the proximity to Serabroug. It was so close to the capital, that high level players often came to practice their newly acquired skill on the golems. No amount of guards could stop a lv200+ player from steamrolling over them and proceeding into the Lv50 dungeon. Lv200 was the minimum for class upgrade, and many would gain bonus skills and spells from the advancement.
Bunny and Flazzard arrived at the mausoleum within half an hour of traveling. Without wasting time they set off to test their newly acquired spells. After flinging normal spells for a while, they went into more personalized disciplines.
Flazzard started his solo Antipodal Fracturing, his self-named way of destroying things by using Thermal Shock. He would first try to heat them up then douse them in cool water, followed by freezing them before sending fireballs. Due to his intermediate Fire skill, the heating up was faster then the cooling effect of his Beginner Ice skills. This led to much more success by freezing first, it also came with a positive side effect of slowing the enemy down from the cold.
Bunny on the other hand played with her newly acquired knowledgeable on Mana Empowering. Following instructions from the books she had read in the library, Bunny was able to channel up to about twice as much mana per spell. The limit was due to her low Wisdom stat. By improving the stat, she would be able to channel more for even greater firepower.
Watching each other practice, the duo decided to trade secrets.
Flazzard gained much from Mana Empowering. By lowering the cost of icicles, he threw a larger quantity of them, effectively cooling his target by a greater degree. Investing more mana into the fireball, it packed a higher temperature. By making the thermal difference much greater, the result caused a more destructive shock.
Bunny didn't lose out. Not only did she learned the Antipodal Fracturing, using that as the base, she enhanced other spells she had. Throwing a Fireball pass a Windwall effectively increased the size and power of the basic fire spell. Drenching enemies with water increased effectiveness of lightning spells, making them AOE.
Watching Bunny, Flazzard was thrown into deep thought. He wasn't seduced by her beauty, nor was he bewitched by the charming ways she fought... he was enchanted by the variety of ways she worked the spells. He knew that his Antipodal Fracturing was far stronger then any intermediate spells, even more powerful then some of the advance ones. Here, right in front of him, the girl made several more of those overpowered spell within the few hours they trained.
Being tempted, Flazzard instinctively wanted to follow Bunny on her path of becoming multi-elemental... But he stopped himself before falling deeper. To each their own, even if the new path offered enigmatic power with sophisticated basic spells, Flazzard would want to follow his own destiny. He had an ideal and he would not allow the lure to override his goal.
When he reached Advance-Rank for both Fire and Ice, he would prove that the most powerful skill in the whole game was his Antipodal Bomb a mixture of the highest rank spells that was purchasable from the mage guild: Flame Destruction which would detonate like an atomic bomb, shattering everything encased in ice by Piercing Blizzard... the real source of his name: Fla...zzard
Just like all other gamers, Flazzard had kept a trump card he would never shared. It relied on Mpemba effect which enabled him freeze things that contained water at a much faster rate. Unlike the Antipodal skills, the game AI recognized the phenomenon and turned it into a skill called Flash Freeze to signify its greatness and power.
This trump card was kept in secret until desperate need arose or when he decided to claim himself as the greatest elemental wizard in RR.
*****
After training for a game day, Bunny waved goodbye to her new friend. She had learned from this friend about combination effects of different spells. Relating back to her fight against the giant slugs, she now understood why her damage was beyond pathetic. Originally, with her low skill proficiencies and mastery, her spell damage was already low, she decreased them further by carelessly overlapping without thought and caused the spells to hinder each other.
Due to her previous ignorance, she had unwittingly used Water Gun to extinguish the Flame Pillar, stone debris from Rock Bullets weakening the Wind Blades and using Fire to cleanse the Dark Curses. By changing her spell rotation, she could already improve her damage output by half. Adding a better weapon, greater spell repository and channeling mana to enhance each individual spells, Bunny believed she could double or triple her damage to the slugs.
Thinking about the new weapon, Bunny start her journey towards Serabroug. She had requested the staff maker to create a unique staff using carrot and refined bloodstone. The bloodstone was processed by Angel using her smelting techniques, it cost lots of raw ores but it should turn out to be a great investment as refined bloodstone was known to be a good magic catalyst.
As for the carrot. She had Silva grow for her a special species of carrot which she used as batons. To the outside world, Silva was an Ace Breeder, the best in Serabroug, but inside, his actual profession was a agriculturist. Genetic engineering of plants was his forte with carrots being his specialty because Silva was a rabbit. The carrot batons Bunny used, although raw and unprocessed, had durability comparable to maces made of steel.
The staff maker was shocked by the stuffs she provided, but using her unique title, she coaxed him into creating the unique type of starves. As precaution, she even threw in extra carrots although she was sure that woodworking did help with carrot carving. She had seen a Fruit-Art contest held within RR and the top 3 were woodworker, the result strengthen her belief.
Reaching Serabroug, Bunny immediately went to the staff maker. As with her expectation, the staff came out well. It was an elegantly carved carrot as long as her baton, which was 1.5m in length. A goose egg sized bloodstone was etched at the top. Lacquer coated the length of the staff enhancing the orange shine of the root. It was indeed a masterpiece from visual point of view.
Looking closer, Bunny check the stats to see if the quality matched its beauty.
The First Carrot Staff
Durability 75/75.
Damage X~X.
M.Damage: X
The first staff to be made from a carrot. Although the carrot is as tough as wood, it is essentially a food item, so durability drops slightly. The creativity of using food materials to make a weapon is unheard of thus this staff gives its user extra Wisdom and Intelligence for the innovation.
Restrictions:
Level: 150
Strength: 20
Intelligence: 200
Wisdom: 100
Effects:
+30 Charisma
+55 Intelligence
+55 Wisdom
+20% Spell accuracy
+70% to all healing skills
Happy with the staff, Bunny packed it away, payed the staff maker lavishly with tips and was on her way to her ranch. After doing logistics for Sera-Ranch, Livart Rest-Stop and her Manor House, she would be spending the rest of her time leveling up with the animals killing slugs.
She had gained enough information to power up, what's left was the training itself to improve her level and proficiencies.
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