Day 7 - July 18:36

After his hallucinations had faded One was quite impressed about this game. He never had experienced such a rush before in his life and now a game gave him the biggest high. Really frightening what such technologie was able to accomplish. Now that he finally felt normal again, he realised what he had been imagining. While the colours ran wild, the sun had become a coin he tried to grasp, the beer bottles had been trees and the cushions running past him were simply rabbits. Aside from those cunning little monsters deceiving him to be soft pillows, he pretty much hurt himself falling off trees and smacking himself while running into them.

It was a miracle he did not kill himself. The wolf had vanished alongside the goblin corpses as well but proof remained that all of this happened. One at first thought he might have hallucinated the whole incident, yet he spotted a tattoo on his neck and throat when he looked up his image in his profile. Dark lines formed a couple of symbols on the former bite marks. While wondering about them he also spotted something new in his buffs.

[Lycanthropy: You have been cursed. To trigger the curse you have to kill 1 other player. Time towards activation: 23 Days.]

Interesting. Looks like One was a werewolf now? This could be a very powerful tool. One decided to kill the first other player in PvP that he would meet. He was really curious what would happen. Although the curse seemed to activate only on Day 30? Most likely they made days resemble months ingame but kept the full moon for a once in a month event? One did not bother to think about it any longer. It was lucky enough that he survived the bite and the curse, the indication on his name told him he was more likely to gain the curse than others.

[Fenrir affiliation: 20% attack speed for allied wolves / +80% domesticating to wolves and dogs / heightened chance to gain lycanthropy]

It really seemed more useful than before. If he ever was recruiting wolves into his personal army other players would not dare come his way impolitely. One was still weirded out that he had not spotted a single other player. The 75.000 € cost for the Alpha 706 was no reason for that. Player numbers should have skyrocketed by now. This virtual reality was just too impressive. He hoped that it would not need long for him to find someone. Trading information might be the most valuable thing right now. A head start would allow him to kill others more easily and gain something that way.

One shook the awkward feeling the wolf venom left in him and headed back to his quest. Specifically he continued to hit this damn rusty chest. After hitting it for a while longer his daggers durability got dangerously low. 12/300. The iron took quite the toll on it. Immediately One took measures. He equipped his [Hammer Level 1] and started repairing the dagger. It took a while but he was able to fully restore it to 300/300 durability.

[You gained Title: Apprentice of Weapon Repair I]

[Apprentice of Weapon Repair I: Your talent with handling weapon repair allows you to repair simple weapons faster and more accurately than others. +50% repair-speed with Craftsmanship. +5% repair-speed with Builder-Repair.]

Looked like the [Builder I] job mastery was only able to repair simple weapons and very slowly at that. One would have to learn some craftsmanship later on. It would be very practical to produce weapons or gear from nothing and keep them it steady shape. Depending on the material you could get very good weapons in most games. Shortly thereafter One continued to hit away at the chest. After a couple minutes the lock finally broke.

[You have successfully unlocked: [Iron Chest: Very Rusty]. Opening it will reveal its contents.]

One immediately opened the chest. He was quite happy with the contents.

[You received: [Goblin Hunter Ring of the Mountains]. +20% damage against Goblins.]

[You received: [Soul Dagger Stage I].]

[You received 6 [Copper Coin].]

[You received 1 [Silver Coin].]

[Soul Dagger Stage I]: A dagger that can be bound to the user's Soul. Through craftsmanship and training it may be enhanced. [Ritual of Dagger’s] required to Soulbind.]

One never received coins or money before. This was a first. Quickly he looked it up in his inventory. There now were three more icons below the inventory spaces. One clearly indicating gold, but was shadowed out, and the others indicated silver and copper. He hovered the symbols with his finger.

[Copper] - [A coin or piece of metal in your possession that can be used as currency in Midgard. 100 pieces of copper amount to 1 piece of silver.]

[Silver] - [A coin or piece of metal in your possession that can be used as currency in Midgard. Silver may be worth a lot, but only 274 pieces of silver amount to 1 piece of gold.]

[Gold] - [A very valuable coin or piece of metal that can be used as currency in Midgard. Very valuable and hard to get by.]

That seemed pretty basic to One. A lot of games used this currency system and it never failed to work so far. The exchange rate of 100 copper for silver was used very often too, although he found it a bit weird for 274 to be a number of exchange. It made calculating the lower ranked currencies much harder. Hopefully mining ores could gain him some money later on, as he did not notice any creature dropping coins.

A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.

One placed the newly found dagger in his inventory and headed back to his quest NPC. Ubba, the Dagger Master would give him his first token. Only nine more to go, then One could finally finish this sacrifice quest he spent so much time on already. Nearly a whole week had already passed, and he did not really do much in regards of leveling or fighting.

After a brief walk up the woods towards the lake and around it he found out his new master disappeared from the fishing spot. Great. Wonderful. One sighted. Quickly he looked for anything indicating where he disappeared to. Luckily he found a small trail that was clearly used frequently after a while. Immediately he followed it to chase Ubba down. Soon a cabin appeared in a small clearing. Grass was growing everywhere alongside a small garden with vegetables. Clearly the NPC was a hermit. If he lived so far out in the woods, away from all the other priests he most likely retired to enjoy the rest of his life. Sadly for him One would interrupt this peaceful arrangement. He needed his tokens!

With a grim emote and a yes sir attitude he approached Ubba. “Sir, i am back. I found the soul dagger.” The middle aged man ignored him for a little while, then he finally spoke. “Huh. Did not think there would be any soul weapons in that cave. So the goblins clearly did not kill you. Urrgh, what a pain in the ass.” He reached for the soul weapon One handed him and inspected it thoroughly. “Yes, yes. This is good enough. Here take the stuff i promised you.” Ubba gave him the token and a skill book.

[Completed: Quest: Soul Weapon: Dagger]

[Received: 1x [Token of Skill] 1x  [Skill Book: Flying Dagger: Pierce I].]

Immediately One checked the skill book. It was not possible to use it. Maybe he needed to learn how to use dagger properly first? “Master, i cannot learn this skill, can you teach me?” One asked not only out of curiosity but also to maybe trigger a quest for more [Token of Skill]. Ubba ignored him as per usual, but since the unwanted visitor did not leave by himself he started to talk. “Over there is a practice trunk made of a cut down tree. Use your wooden dagger and practice. Real skill comes from practice. Now leave me alone, i don’t like you. Pretty harsh words, but One shrugged.

[Received Quest: Dagger Training]

[Train until you reach [Weapon Mastery: Dagger Beginner I: 0%]. Use the training tool to do so. Fighting without practice is just fooling around.]

[Reward: [Token of Skill].]

Immediately One turned towards the wooden tree stump that reached about 2 meters high. Dry grass mats were bound around to make the hits bounce of. Tirelessly he started hitting the soft target and after a couple of minutes One made up strike combinations, since the hitting grew pretty boring. The sky went slowly darker and night was ultimately fully present. Nearly an hour passed and just as he asked himself how long this would take, and if it even worked, when he finally received his mastery.

[[Weapon Mastery: Dagger Beginner I] learned.]

[Indicates the current level of skill the user possesses with dagger weapons. +10% Damage while using daggers. Currently able to use 1 dagger at the same time.]

One checked his inventory. His theory had been right. Finally he was able to use his skill book. Immediately he read it.

[[Flying Dagger: Pierce I] learned.]

[The user throws his dagger towards his target. The target suffers piercing damage that ignores 20% of the target's armor and has +5% higher chance to deal critical damage. After the thrown weapon hit the target it takes 2.5 seconds to reappear next to the user. Cooldown: 9.5 seconds.]

One was calculating this in his head. Using the skill would mean he was not able to use the weapon for 2.5 seconds in addition to the travel time. Putting that aside he finally had a skill to use while running away and thus was able to kite his enemies now. His critical hit chance increased for the skill to 12% as well. At least as long as he used the wooden dagger. He had no idea how strong the soul dagger would be. Quickly he headed back towards Ubba. “Sir, can you help me equipping the soul dagger?” Ubba looked up to him. “Hmm. You are still here. I see you trained. Here take your reward.”

[Received: [Token of Skill].]

Only eight to go. Ubba continued to talk. That was a first. He normally never talked this much in general. “You need a bloodstone and a soulstone to equip a Soul Weapon. I will give them to you, but first i want to see you train. Don’t come back unless you trained a lot, you hear me?” One was sure this was the next quest for a token. “Yes, sir.”

[Received: Quest: Training for Blood and Soul]

[Objective: Further improve your dagger weapon mastery until you reach [Weapon Mastery: Dagger Beginner II].]

[Reward: [Bloodstone]; [Soulstone]; 8x [Token of Skill].]

One went right back to the training trunk, prepared to finally test out his new skill. He thought to himself Flying Dagger: Pierce. Immediately his hand threw his dagger in a graceful fashion. The dagger flew out with a stunning dark blue light. The movement felt very familiar, as if he had done that countless times in his life already. Like walking or riding a bike. The dagger was so fast you could barely see it. It flew past the target and vanished into the high grass though.

Immediately as he heard the sound of impact the dagger started to reappear on the right side next to him. There it hovered just in reach and slowly more and more parts got together and became solid. Then it flashed slightly for a brief moment and One knew he could reuse the dagger. He grabbed the weapon and threw it again, using the same familiar motion, this time without thinking about it. Immediately the skill was activated and the dagger crashed right into the target, where it immediately started to vanish. It felt very satisfying to use this ability, although in close combat it would leave him quite vulnerable. One spent the following night to raise his mastery level.

Day 8 - August 04:42

[You reached [Weapon Mastery: Dagger Beginner II].]

[Indicates the current level of skill the user possesses with dagger weapons. +10% Damage while using daggers. Currently able to use 2 dagger at the same time.]

One was pleasantly surprised. He thought it would take a lot more than just this to be dual wielder. Sadly he had no additional dagger. But that would change in a second. He hurried back to the cabin, where his master slept. Without knocking he entered and woke Ubba. “I have trained, Sir. Can you-” Faster than he could have ever imagined the NPC got up of his bed, stepped into his range and kicked him flawlessly in the gut. One had no chance to dodge at all. He crashed right through the open door and flew a couple more meters before he came to a halt.

[You received 107 damage.]

“Don’t you fucking dare wake me this rudely! Come back when you have learnt manners you damn little prick!” Ubba closed the door behind him as he walked back inside. It started to rain. That was really unexpected. One sat stunned in the dusty entrance area of Ubba’s home, which slowly became muddy. The speed and the action of the NPC really took him by surprise. He nearly died again. The rainfall steadily washed over him as he rethought his actions.