Gaming, to think such a beautiful hobby would be muddied to a point that nobody is thinking of having fun anymore. At least, not the way it used to be. Same goes for me, in my past live, I had 4 characters in Ekolia. I grinded levels for each and every one of them, and they serve different purposes. Be it a paladin to act as a tank, a wayfarer for scouts, a wizard for a firepower, and a jack-of-all trades to act as a dummy practice. All to help my friend progress.
Dola, that cute little puffball, I kept nibbling on her cheek cause of how fluffy it is. But that’s not why I like her. That’s not why I helped her. The both of us made a promise before she went into my sister’s arm, to find joy in what we do. In gaming.
As I opened my eyes, I’m awaken to a busy encampment with wooden buildings in different variety of heights all around me. Cola Boyo, StripCold, CopyCat Magenta, these buildings are obviously made by other players. From an inn, a bar, and a marketplace. It’s sufficed to say that it’s more like a village than that of a camp.
‘Now, what would one have to do after that World Restoration patch, I wonder. Obviously, training before going into the portal. But why would I waste my time on that?’
‘As I don’t have any firepower, I should get one. Which I assumed to be the point of those little animals before the gate, but assuming that everyone is now in Realism Mode.’
‘That makes it easier.’
Some twerp with her mom probably, he got a sword on his hip. Grinning a little as I walk bump into them.
[Kurira]: “Oh, sorry.”
[Girl]: “No, my bad.”
In that split moment, I have her sword in my hand, but I decided to let it go and just smile when I’m walking away.
“Goodness, watch where you’re going, dear.”
“Yes, mom…”
Grin falling out of my face as I walk out of the encampment, “No.”
‘It’s too easy.’
And so, with empty hands, I decided to go to the forest.
It doesn’t take me long for me to find out where I am after my first encounter with a beast. Long ears, a common beast walking in all four, those fangs.
{Rabbit Wolf / Level 5}
Busy with its prey, eating and munching on it.
‘Lorkhan kingdom… or what, is it empire now?’
‘There’s a lot of things that have changed, but I doubt it alters the core of it all.’
How would one without any firepower defeat anything at all? Well, they would need to turn that 0 into 1, and there’s a lot of ways to do that. Be it stealing, helped by others, or maybe go through the proper way that is the new tutorial zone. But all are too easy for me.
Right now, I don’t have anything. But if I don’t aggro those wolves, those goblins, that giant fucking T-rex, I wouldn’t even need to crouch.
There’s a flower I want.
{Greenbloom Stinger / Uncommon}
A three-petal flower with a spiky and sticky body. Just need a little pluck out from the roots, and then I move on to the next one. A blue mountain flower and a very tricky double flower living on the side of a river. There are so many crocodile-like creatures sitting close by.
{Nimbus Petal / Common}
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{Bridgeroot / Uncommon}
I got an abundant of them, thankfully. Next is getting a lot of yellow fruit from down the cliff and takes out their seed. They also taste good, but not the seed, they’re extremely sour.
{Ferula Seed / Common}
The last piece of ingredient would be the carcass of an undead goat. Now, how would someone without a firepower kills it? Well, I necessarily don’t have to hit them with anything.
I aggroed a couple of them until they decided to roll into a cliff and I just dodge them.
{Thokk Bone Marrow / Common}
Of course, I just keep doing that over and over again until my body can’t take it and I had to sleep it off for the day. But now it’s morning, and I have all the ingredients on hand.
I start working on my first masterpiece by smushing that thorny flower.
*Mush*
*Mush*
Certainly, one would need to have an alchemy table to make something extraordinary, but what I aimed to make doesn’t necessarily need that kind of preparation. This nothing but a simple concoction. I even prepared some filtration for water before boiling it.
I also made sure to separate the sticky liquid off the flower’s stem, and have the petal as garnish before I mush it together with the goat’s bone marrow.
! {New Potion has been created}
* Magenta Vitalis / Epic / Increases All Secondary Attributes by 10 for 2 hours / Requirement: 80 Vitality
! {Requirement has been met}
* Brew your first potion
* Brew an Uncommon potion
* Brew a Rare potion
* Brew an Epic potion
! {Quest Received}
* Alchemy / Uncommon / Embrace the nature / Requirement 1: Brew a Rare Potion / Requirement 2: Consume a Rare Potion and receive the full effect / Requirement 3: Brew 25 Potion / Reward: Class Change into [Alchemist] / Condition: None
* Path of Alchemy / Rare / Embrace the nature of your ingredients / Requirement: Become [Alchemist] / Requirement 2: Brew an Epic Potion / Requirement 3: Consume an Epic Potion and receive the full effect / Requirement 3: Brew 100 Rare Potion / Requirement: Book of Living Nature / Condition: None
“80 Vitality?! What do you MEAN?!!”
‘Urgh, I thought it’s just gonna give me toxin or whatever, but nope!’
“Change of plan!”
If this is what the game wants from me, then it’s gonna get it.
There are a lot of recipes out there that one can create even without skills or mana. They just have to know what they have to make. And so, I spent an entire week, scavenging for alchemical ingredients without killing a single enemy.
Munching on a delicious burger, a fry and that spicy ketchup.
[Kurira]: “Mmmph.”
It’s been days, a week, yeah. Eating trash and leftovers. Rakuri looking at me, disgusted.
[Kurira]: “What?”
Shaking her head in disbelief.
[Rakuri]: “A whole week and you have nothing to show for it. I saw a fucking trash bag outside and I know for sure we don’t even have a single trash bag in our house.”
[Rakuri]: “God, I don’t think you’ll survive long without me.”
[Kurira]: “Hey! Don’t get ahead of yourself. I never said I needed your help, and you bought this for me when I didn’t even ask.”
[Rakuri]: “I already got $800 in my bank account, and I spent $2000 to get all the necessities for the kitchen plus $15 for this meal. And I wanna know how you can spend an entire week and not even have a single cent, again, to show for it, hm?”
[Kurira]: “I’m working on it, okay? Jeez. You can spend all your money on yourself, it’s okay. I’ll be handling the house.”
[Rakuri]: “When? When?!”
[Kurira]: “Soon.”
[Rakuri]: “How soon?!”
[Kurira]: “Tch, seriously, what’s your problem?”
Tapping her arm as she pouts and looking away. I continue to munch on the fries and milkshake until she responds.
[Rakuri]: “I wanna get kitted again.”
Shrugging.
[Kurira]: “Okay?”
Nervously playing with her mouth.
[Rakuri]: “I’m serious. You um… you’re not like, um…”
[Kurira]: “What?”
[Rakuri]: “I wanna have some augments!”
[Kurira]: “Okay?”
[Rakuri]: “Why you—.”
[Kurira]: “Seriously, what?!”
[Kurira]: “I can’t stand always being so tired because of these bones! These, these flesh, Kurira! I wanna get kitted, I wanna get some augments! I promise I won’t be a whole cyborg, but I at least want to rock my old stuff from— you know!”
[Kurira]: “Well, do you have the money?”
[Rakuri]: “I’m working on it!”
[Kurira]: “Why do you keep yelling?!”
[Rakuri]: “Aren’t you angry?!”
[Kurira]: “Why?!”
[Rakuri]: “Because you don’t want me to get kitted!”
[Kurira]: “When did I say that?”
[Rakuri]: “Aren’t you?!”
Kurira squeezed her brows as stinging pain surged to her forehead. She massages it.
[Rakuri]: “Aha! See, I know you don’t want me to!”
[Kurira]: “Rakuri! Shut the fuck up!”
[Rakuri]: “…”
Tight lipped and zipped.
[Kurira]: “Goddamn it, why do you need my permission to do that?! If you have the money, then go for it, you dumbo!”
Grimace as she looks away, grabbing her arm.
[Rakuri]: “It’s okay, right?”
She said as she looks at me in the eye.
I don’t like it when she keeps probing for confirmation, but I know why she did it, and it doesn’t come from a place of annoyance, but more of anger. From me.
Clenching my mouth as I nodded.
She smiles as she grabs my hand, “Thank you.”
We took our seat and continue our meal. That conversation we had, Rakuri was right. It’s been a week and I really have nothing to show. Hell, I’m still at level one. But that’ll change soon.