‘hmm caramel macchiato, pretty good stuff been a long time since I drank this’
A cross legged man was sipping his macchiato at a café. The café was kind of lax there were only a few customers beside the man. With the air still dampen and cool since it was only 7.30 in the morning, it was the perfect time to have breakfast. A suave looking waiter delivers his food on to his table.
Having a classic American breakfast, consisting of toast, scramble eggs, piping hot red beans, sausage and the most aromatic bacon you have ever smell. Eating it scrumptiously, his appearance was a bit off despite the way he portray himself. While cross legged, he was wearing a three quarter sweater pant, a ragged t-shirt, flip flops and a pair of shades. There was no fashion sense in his appearance, its only purpose was comfort.
‘waa this is good, should have come here a long time ago’
It was Sunday, after logging off from the game he then went straight to the café with a growling hungered stomach. Luckily for him, the lonely witch from apartment 303 wasn’t awaken yet at that time. He stomach couldn’t withstand the deadly meal she prepared if he had encountered her this morning.
His expression turn blue while thinking about it, shrugging it off he continue to eat until the plate was clean.
‘huhh~~ it would be good if I have someone to eat with’
While sipping his macchiato, a few female joggers run across his view. Yes the café was build beside the jogger’s road, the owner of the café must have the same set of mind as Mera. Setting his sight on the female joggers, he was enjoying it to the fullest seeing all those jiggle as it bounces. As his action was covered by the shades, it was the perfect disguise for the single man. What a perv -_-.
Then a man came to his table;
‘oh ho what do we have here if isn’t Mera’
‘ahh yo ossan’
‘rude as always huh’
‘haha come on we close already right’
‘whatever you say Mera’
Taking a seat beside Mera, his sight then change toward the jogger’s road.
‘how is it Mera?’
‘ahh you miss a lot ossan, they were a lot of jiggle this morning hehe’
‘darn you, you should have call me sooner hehe’
‘come on now, you’re the owner you could see this every morning’
‘say the man who open a tab under my name for breakfast’
‘hehe thanks ossan’
‘huh~ you really taking advantage of me are you’
‘you know how I roll ossan’
‘yes yes, never mind let’s see if we can see any more bountiful harvest for this morning haha’
‘right on ossan’
The old man was one of Mera’s acquaintances that goes way back. His appearance was like of a CEO from a well known company with a dashing suit along with his majestic cane, his whole body exudes a charismatic aura but when he was with Mera all of those vanish. His mind set was the same as Mera if they both encounter together. Then a serene silence surrounds both shades wearing men as they set their sight on jogger’s road. From time to time, both men wear a pervert smile if a female jogger runs along.
/////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
R return back to the game. he wakes up as his virtual body was lying on the bed. Noticing a soft squishy feeling, his eye open up with a barely covered girl sleeping right next beside him.
‘ouh shit did I do something’
Looking around there was no sign of other people,
‘at least the chief wasn’t here, better as well get ready before she wakes up’
Opening up his inventory, he notices that he only have two bows, a dagger, a water canteen, and a tree branch. For clothing he only have the basic default beginner tunic and pant. He only let out a sigh due to his situation right now. He would be dead if he was hit a few time out there. Pondering near the edge of the bed, a thought came to his mind. It was none other than Ailani.
A devilish smile spread on his face.
‘time to get some freebies hehe’
Walking down the red earthen road, he notices that the woodshop own by Faelwen was still closed. He wonders if she had gone away to somewhere else. Not that it matters he then proceed to the large building in front. It was like a private treasure trove for R, the adventurer’s guild.
‘yaaa Ailani!!!’
Glancing around there was no one there; well to begin with she was the only one there, so it’s practically most of the time empty. Now the situation was starting to get weird, usually Ailani would wholeheartedly greet him if he enter the premise but now not even a sound of her was heard.
He then spent almost half an hour searching for Ailani, but it was for naught. He couldn’t find her.
As he walks by the notice board, he then spotted something. Usually the board was empty but a note was hung on to the board.
Reading through it, the note was about retrieving quest for one of the villagers and below it was a scribble with bad hand writing.
‘Ailani here!! If you are searching for me please wait im currently on a quest tehee’
‘damn it, shes not here there goes my new armor, but wait how could an NPC went for a quest??’
R was now thinking hard about it, prior MMORPG doesn’t have any NPC who are able to do quest by their own.
Now he started to feel that this game here was like another world. Considering that even the NPC have their own will not following a routine dialogue. It was like talking to a real person rather than an automated robot.
Piquing his interest, he then grabs a hold of the note. A blue screen then open ups
————————————————————————————————
Quest: Retrieve the Heirloom Gem
A gem own by a large family, desperate to gain it back from a thief. The result of capturing of the thief came to a naught. Interrogated by the authorities, the information from the thief told that the gem was lost during his expedition in a cave located at the base of the volcano of Kolo Island.
Difficulty level: E
Quest requirements:
Find the gem
Reward:
1 gold from the owner.
————————————————————————————————
‘hmm cheap reward but since im trying to find Ailani its fine’
With a smirk on his face he left the building while equipping his bow.
Arriving at the town border, a group of rabbits and foxes was there out in the field. Minding their own A.I business, they were grazing the grass field accompany by the sea breeze.
‘huh~ walking along this road seems nice, thank god I chose a tropical island now then lets train some aiming’
Drawing his bow, he then hit them one by one as he leisurely walk along. With him being level 8, his attack was a one hit kill. Well it was a measly level one monster so it wasn’t hard to kill them. The loot was all left behind as it was a hassle picking it up from a far.
Most of the monster he hit was at his maximum range. Right now he can hit at the 40 meter range. Some of the arrows still miss due to turning off the system guidance but he still can accurately shoot it.
Crossing over the field he then travels through a lush green forest. Based on the map he stol… get from the adventure guild the location of the cave was just across the forest. As he strolls along, he encounters a few monsters here and there. Most of the monster was wild dog like and only came one or two at most.
It wasn’t really hard for R to eliminate them, shooting the arrow as fast as he can two are the most he could kill before it reach him. It would be bad if he was ambush with more than 3 monsters.
Before he knows it, a group of wild dog starts to surround him in mere seconds. A pack of wild dogs consist of 6 tails are staring at their prey. With each of them circling him in a 5 meter range, they were prepared to pounce on him.
As an archer he was at a disadvantage position. Bow and arrows wasn’t made for short range combat. He would really die after a few bite from those wild dogs. Plus with his mediocre armor, it was certainly a death situation.
Then it begins, a single wild dog ran and pounce toward R. as swift as wind he draw and release the arrow. Keeping his calm even against multiple enemies, the arrow was released and embedded between the eyes. Killing it in one go, only a critical sign appeared.
As it fellow pack die, the other dogs swiftly pounce at him in one go. Noticing the incoming attack, R swiftly draws again as fast as he could knocking down another one before their attack could reach him.
With 4 more to go, another one was targeting R wrist, noticing it he twist himself in a 360 degree and bash the head of the dog with the bow. The resulting spin cause the other dogs to be minorly hit while being knock back to the distance.
Still alive on the ground after being bash by the bow, R immediately release a point blank shot instantly killing it.
The other 3 dogs bark in unison, hinting a cooperative attack. a three pronged attack from each side it was an attack that hard to evade.
The distance between them was only 2 meter, those wild dogs attack were fast and swift. One was targeting his heel, another one targeting his head and the last one targeting his body.
With his calm face, he retaliates ducking the first attack as he sweep the bottom dog with a technical leg sweep. It hit accurately into the dog face. While he spun an arrow was hold by his hand, at the instant he does the leg sweep the arrow was forcefully lodged into its head.
The upper dog was avoided nicely while ducking. Again he draw his bow and hit the confuse dog point blank. At that moment the avoided dog again try to pounce R.
He smack it with the edge of the bow rendering it unable to come close to R. then crackling sound could be heard as the bow start to crack in certain places.
Ignoring those sound he then swiftly draw and release another arrow as the dog shows a futile effort to pounce him.
Critical hit sign appeared again as the arrow was hit between the eyes.
6 corpses of fallen wild dogs surround R, a lone man with a bow and arrow was unscathed in short range battle. If anyone could see this it would certainly astound them. His sheer reflex and battle instinct was above the average person. People would wonder what kind of man he is but that was for later story
An eye of a cold blooded person linger around his eye, suddenly his bow disintegrate into fine light blue particle.
Noticing his bow break, his face turn back into the careless and aloof character of him.
‘ehh shit my bow broke, aww damn it didn’t notice that bow durability turn to zero, I guess it pretty much affected after using it as batting bat but luckily..’
He open up another blue window,
[tr]
————————————————————————————————
You have level up!!
————————————————————————————————
His level was now exactly level 10, a perfect time for him to use new bow given by Faelwen.
Holding it felt a little bit special, well it was his first gift from a player. He then continue his journey to the cave. He was wasting time due to the confrontation with those pack of wild dogs.
‘those dumbshit dogs, wasting my precious time heh’
Walking along the ground road, he grumbles as he was cursing his fate of meeting those troublesome dogs, he would prefer to kill monster one by one and not wasting his energy fighting all of them.
Once in a while he would encounter lone monster which he eradicate quite easily with a few arrows. As he travel deeper into the woods, the monster was getting stronger by the second but most can still be kill with 2 or 3 arrows.
Most of the monster he encountered was plant based usually with an appearance of walking stump or walking flower. Some were also mammal based usually wild dogs or small size boars.
The boar’s hide was a bit tough thus the usual number of arrows needed was quite a lot. At one time he nearly been hit by a boar that he needed to jump step backwards to avoid the attack but unlucky for him the boar manages to graze him.
A big chunk of his health points disappear from the full red bar that he always maintain. As countermeasure for the boar, he quickly exterminates it by concentrating the shoot to its eyes.
After 3 hours of tireless walking, R managed to arrive at the base of the volcano. His eyes spot something as he cross a narrow bridge that connects the ridges of the edge of the forest and the base of the volcano.
What caught his eye was a side shop that resembles a dango tea shop. The shop was shaded by a large single tree. His mouth was watering all over thinking about those sweet dangos. Since 3 hours ago he hasn’t eat or drink at all and the satiety bar was getting lower than the 10% mark.
‘helloo’
He said hello as he enter the premise, it was empty yup it was empty. After looking around for awhile he then spotted a woman wearing a short length kimono lying on the ground behind the counter sleeping.
Her face clearly shows she was not one of those native here, if by facial features R would said she looks like an oriental people.
Nudging the NPC, he wasn’t so patient right now as he was clearly hungry for dango.
Then she open her eyes;
‘fuee!! Who are you!! Argh’
The lady bump head with R as she unsuspected raise her head without warning.
————————————————————————————————
You have loss -40HP
————————————————————————————————
R monolog
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Damn it this woman, 40HP?? What kind of head do you have?
‘hey you what are doing here, are trying to rape me!!’
She back away while trying to grab a hold of the knife at her back. she clearly misunderstand this situation
‘hey dango ‘
‘what do you say my breast??!’
‘no dango’
‘what do you mean gobble my breast’
‘dango’
‘im not tolerating this anymore come here im gonna stab you you freaking pervert’
As she motion herself to stab the hunger driven dango R, a smash hit to her head from behind.
‘owww’
‘where are your manner Kasumi!!’
‘that hurts oyaji, by the way he’s a pervert and want to motorboat my breast what a vile crea-‘
Another smack land to her head
‘owww oyaji T-T’
‘Silence!! He’s our customer we need to treat him with respect and honour’
‘but my brea-‘
Another blow to her head, now no other voice was coming out from her only a reaction of pain was express.
‘he clearly said dango and not your breast, to begin with it sound too much of a difference I still wonder how the hell you could interpret it to that, anyway go get some dangos and tea for our customer’
After their quarrel was over, the old man turns his view to R while bowing 90 degrees.
‘im sorry my dear customer, please forgive my daughter insolence as to attone for her behavior the dangos will be on the house please customer have a seat’
Gesturing to R to sit at a nearby porches.
In R mind he was already planning to use this situation as his advantages but food come first, leaving the devilish thing aside for the moment. R agrees with a nod.
Taking a seat he then take the time to distribute his status point, putting it all into dexterity. He was focusing on firepower to amp up his attack.
Viewing his surrounding, it was empty not a soul was there only the sky the tree and the ground was present. He was lucky to have found this shop, it would be to lonesome if he hadn’t met someone even if they were a NPC.
‘here you go heh!’
The craze daughter of the owner serves R a plate of dango with a cup of tea. By the look of it she doesn’t really like R. well to be exact its her problem to begin with its not R fault that she thought of R as a pervert.
To R its more of a nuisance, but as he shrug it off, he enjoy his treat.
While eating the dango, the owner sat down across of R with a smile on his face. with a weird look across R he wonder if this old man have any purpose than giving him free dango.
‘so what’s business do you have here mr.wanderer?’
Oh so he do know that R was a wanderer, my guess was the A.I was created with system to recognize the difference between wanderers and native of the land.
Staring at the old man, he finishes eating first before proceeding to answer the old man interest.
‘im here to go to this cave, do you know where it is?’
The owner smile broke a little hinting something was wrong but he try to cover his expression as best as he can. Normal people would certainly not notice the difference in attitude and expression but for R he could distinguish these things.
Through countless time of observing people reaction and personality he managed to know that the owner was quite shocked after seeing the name of the cave even after maintaining his poker face.
‘haha so what adventure do you seek there dear wanderer’
‘cut the crap old man, there’s something is it’
‘ugh’
‘so are you gonna tell me or not? It doesn’t matter if you told me I will still go there’
‘huh very well, these stubborn wanderers always want to face danger’
‘carry on..’
‘this is the cave of Motarak, usually the monster level inhabiting there was around 15 to 20 but’
The dango shop owner paused for a moment hesistant to tell the R
‘come on old man, I got no time for pausing at this moment’
‘heyy you treat my oyaji with respect!!’
The owner raised his hand hinting to daughter to stop retaliate, he then continue to tell R about the cave.
‘well after my daughter went for an inspection to procure some ingredients the cave was now lurking with monster level at average 40’
‘I see’
‘other than that, it seems the cave master has awoken’
‘cave master??’
‘yes, Motarak the eradicator is a boss monster that stand tall at level 100, many wanderer perish under the flame of Motarak’
‘wanderer?’
‘yes there are other beside you my wanderer, but most of them didn’t come from the forest that you cross through, most of them came from the port town Lakui located north west of the island’
‘I see didn’t know there were other town beside Kolo island town’
‘well there are only here to conquer the boss monster Motarak since the reward gain by it will reward you valuable weapons and treasure’
‘oh ho that seems interesting’
‘excuse me my dear wanderer may I ask what your current level is?’
‘oh level 10’
‘what!!!’
‘what!!!’
The pair daughter and father simultaneously shout out the word from their mouth
‘are you crazy you would die if you step into that cave’
R only stared at both of them while feeding himself some squishy soft dango. The dango truly melts in your mouth, it was like heaven.
R then responds to their growing curiosity of how a level 10 archer would survive against Motarak.
‘well to begin with im not there to kill that Motarak and secondly im there to retrieve a gem lost by a thief, its one of my quest’
Both of them went silent, their disbelief on seeing a weak level wanderer wanting to enter a heavily infested monster that was above in his level seem to be ridiculous.
‘but you must know that the cave right now is lurking with monster much stronger than you?’
‘yeah I know so?’
‘so how are you gonna fight them?’
‘did I say I want to fight them?’
‘eh what do you mean’
R stare at them, he really doesn’t want this conversation to drag on much longer.
‘you don’t need to bother, I can handle it’
Getting up from his seat, R was ready to leave the shop but the owner once again stop him by blocking him from the front.
‘wait!! If you must go there, I insist you taking along my daughter’
‘eh?’
‘eh? Whatttt!!! Oyaji!!’
‘now tell me why should bring her?’
‘since you show me you have a lot of confidence, please bring my daughter along to procure some ingredients for our dango. It would be much appreciated’
‘and what would I get from this deed of mine’
‘hmm I will reward you with 1 piece of gold’
‘then denied’
‘eh wait please I beg of you, im afraid of my daughter to go alone and if we do not have this ingredients we cannot produce our dango’
R could only grin in his heart seeing this man desperately begging for his help.
‘then how about this if do this task for you, I will claim 100% ownership of the shop’
‘what!!! That’s blasphemy, I wont give it to anyone and not any stranger’
The owner lash out with a fit of rage he demeanor changed instantly from the calm collected to a rage of fury, but R softly spoken to him in a counter like manner.
‘calm down owner, im just stating my right as the benefactor of this premise, wouldn’t it be bad for you if close down due to not having enough ingredients’
‘hah! Be gone with it I will ask help from another wanderer’
‘but from the looks of it the place doesn’t seem to be that populated wont you agree?’
The owner could only contain his anger, the wanderer in front of him was right the location of his shop was not very strategic for him and the usual customer were random wanderer that want to explore the cave of Motarak.
Silently observing his opponent, R was meticulously thinking on how to drive this good owner to the corner. It wasn’t personal but he’s just an NPC, R was only playing the game through his own measures.
‘how about this then, the ownership of the company would be totally mine at first..’
‘why you!’
‘wait im not finish, but if the revenue of the store increase I would change the ownership accordingly’
The owner was bewildered for a while, he would not expect that kind of suggestion
‘why do you want to increase the revenue?’
‘I just see potential in it, so would you agree my dear owner’
A sly devil grin was carved to his heart as he proposes that to the owner.
the owner could only let out a sigh of regret stating that he had to willingly agree
‘I agree’
‘eh?? Oyaji!! Are you serious?’
A blue pop up window open
[tr]
————————————————————————————————
Quest: Procure Dango Ingredients(REVAMP)
Once a famous dango tea shop but now barren as the location of it was too deep into the rural areas. Due to the heavily infested monster lurking around the cave the secret ingredient to make that one of a kind dango was hard to attain.
Difficulty level: F
Quest requirements:
Procure the secret ingredient
Reward:
Ownership of the Dango Tea shop
————————————————————————————————
R monolog
It would be my pleasure old man, lady luck is always smiling upon me or I would said the devil’s luck hehe
‘Since I would go there with another quest I would be back quite late but don’t worry an agreement is still an agreement I would put my honor on it to accomplish it’
The owner could give a solemn nod, devastated by the scheme of R he would lost his dango tea shop if he completed the task.
Her daughter Kasumi retaliate by lashing out at R
‘why you despicable I knew it you were bad omen’
Charging to R with the intent to injured him, her father stop her from doing the inevitable.
‘stop kasumi!’
‘but oyaji’
‘I said stop!! This is my decision as I am the owner’
‘but I am your daugther’
‘silence! Follow my order dear daughter and help this man for our sake’
‘ugh fine’
Kasumi dash into the inner room of the shop with full of rage in her heart, R could only express a blank face.
In his heart this girl would be troublesome if she had to follow
But the quest already stated that she need to follow so at least he has to oblige to that rule
Giving a slight bow to the owner, the owner reply it with a 90 degree bow at least he was now much more willingly to give the ownership, R guess was he probably had figure out what R was planning to do.
He then went up the slope that direct him to the cave. Up on the slope was a big tree hanging by the edges, if see from above a trail of river flow down in rapid gush.
R takes his seat underneath the shade of the tree to wait for Kasumi
After a while Kasumi was light step running toward R with a big bag on her back.
It was enormous it was twice her size, now he wonder what kind of ingredient that he had to obtain.
‘since we will be working together just you know I put up with this just because of my father, you understand me wanderer’
R who was quite tired of handling her absurd personality just nod with the intention to agree, he had no time wasting energy of talking to her, gesturing her to follow him. She unwillingly follows him by his back.
Along the way, they had met a few monster that resembles dry old wooden stump with three eyes walking around. They were slow in movement thus eliminating them was a cinch for R.
Kasumi care less about this monster since she could also handle it by herself.
After a half an hour of hiking they then arrived in front of the cave. Bones were piling around the edges of the cave giving of a menacing feel.
R who didn’t give a them a damn about it, enter it casually but Kasumi was still frozen on her feet not moving an inch.
‘yaaa come on we don’t have time’
‘heh I get it im going now’
But after 5 meter of distance of entering the cave, something was coming toward them. R could see very well from afar due to his passive skill.
A woman was running in full speed with her chest jingling up and down. The attire was very familiar very skimpy looking.
A loud sound stomping was heard from her behind but he cannot make up what is it.
Then he heard the woman said something after getting a distance that was able to see his silhouette.
‘hey you!! Run!!!!’
‘Ailani??’