Gallant was already gone when I woke up. Yawning, I got up from my bed and took care of my usually business. Twenty minutes pass by after I took care of my grooming and usually ordeals. Time for me to get... Wait. Shit, did Gallant give me any money to buy breakfast?! Looking around the room, I venture high and low. Sighing in defeat, I toss my pillow across the room. Underneath my pillow, a brown sack sat there.
"Yes!" I grabbed it and peer into it. I lay it out on the table. One hundred gold coins sat on the wooden table. The glimmering shine reflecting off of the coin blinded me slightly. I think I hissed at it. The light was too strong with it. I stopped my randomness to focus on today's objective. Training, leveling, and learning. Oh wait, I forget one. Training, leveling, learning, and making money. I took out a piece of paper and write down all the skills, abilities, and perks I have.
Defeat Inheritor
Vampire Lust Curse
Demi-God Black Knight
Special Divine Cursed Art
Death Knight Mode
Skills:
[Level 155 Dual-Wielding]
[Level 155 Heavy Armor]
[Level 155 Medium Armor]
[Level 155 Light Armor]
[Level 155 Martial Arts]
[Level 1 Cursed Armor]
Perks:
[Tremendous Strength]
[Tremendous Agility]
[Tremendous Stamina]
[Increased Knowledge]
[Increased Resistance to Elements]
[Black Knight]
[Deception]
[Determined Resolution]
Abilities:
[Pressure Realm]
[Teleport]
[Hidden Rank]
[Piercing Rank]
[Dual Cross Slash]
[Dual Barrage]
[Dual Strike]
[Armor Strike]
[Intimidation]
Eyeing at the list, I picked it up and shred it to pieces. Goddamn it! Most of the stuff I wrote down are part of my black knight class. Leaning against the chair, I can feel a part of my soul float out of my mouth. Wait. I can gain a skill if I can kill someone right... I should do that right away then. Obviously, I need to kill someone outside of the city. There will be bandits and other beings trying to kill me if I venture out there by myself.
Taking the hundred pieces of gold, I went downstairs and ordered up some ale, cheese, and bread. Consuming these pieces silently, I eavesdrop on the nearby conversations. The latest gossips talked about a variety of things. They range from something serious like murderers in the city to small little problems like goblins kidnapping people. Well, of course it could be a serious matter for someone else if someone they loved were to be kidnapped by these goblins, but it seems to be a daily thing. Venturing out in the wilderness is always dangerous. I heard two guards talk about Emperor Titus. I sip a bit of my ale, tuning in to their voices.
"Did you hear about that Emperor Titus placing a bounty on some royals?"
"The Grahams family right?" My eyes were locked onto them, absorbing every ounce of information I can hear.
"Yeah, those guys. It is a pity to hear that the Emperor has turned on his loyal subjects."
"Well, there was a reason. Apparently, the genius Brynhild was sleeping over at their mansion. Of course the Emperor would try to seize her. You know how many accomplishment that girl has done? She a genius of this era of course."
"Along with several others." the other man remarks, "She obviously escaped. No one can place a bounty on her. Now, back to the subject at hand. It seems like the armies returning from their campaigns from the west and east are going to be returning into a trap." Right, I forget about them.
A few of my brothers and sisters were given the task to exterminate armies from afar. My father sent them out to expand their wealth, ties, and impress Emperor Titus. They should not know about the situation that happened at the mansion. I cannot remember every family member that was a general of an army. Shrugging this off, I cleared my glass and plate and head out of the city.
Exiting the city from the west, I travel down the dirt road before I followed some smaller paths leading away from the main travelling route. Walking for thirty minutes straight, I did not bump into anyone. I slump against a tree, cursing at my rotten luck. Well, I spoke to soon.
A party of orcs and goblins appeared before me. They start to chat among themselves, pointing to me on several times. Orcs and goblins are usually hostile. The small green men raised their ropes, snickering at me. The orcs step forward to display their brute strength, flexing their muscles as they tightened their hold on their weapons. These silly orcs tried to use [Intimidation] on me. They have to true a little bit harder to frighten me. Oh wait a second, this will be my first time fighting an orc.
These creatures have slightly longer arms than most humans. Their faces consist of an ape-like or pig-like face. Fangs protrude from the corner of their mouths. Well, some of the orcs have small fangs while the others stick out like a warthog. These orcs have light brown skin along. Now, the little green men were at least three to four feet.
Why are they smiling as if they already won?
The arrogant little goblins. They did not have any armor covering them- that's a huge mistake against me. They wear brown rags cover their bodies. These ten goblins consists of brown little pointy hats, tank tops,, pants, and shoes. Do they really think small daggers can scare me? At least their shield can cover a third of their body. Those three goblins holding the rope will die in an instant.
The ten orcs, on the other hand, have heavier equipment. Their body has metal plates covers a good portion of their body. Their arms, legs, and chests were covered. Some of the orcs wear helmets. I can see some silver chain mail under their metal plates. Staring at their expressions, they were being egotistical towards me. My nerves got the best of me.
Everyone thinks they can easily kick my ass huh? The start to chat once more among themselves. The goblins were doing the same as well. One of the orcs said these words to me. He points at me, ushering out these words.
"You, woman, be sex slave." Each word, the orc made a long pause. These orcs had a hard time talking in human tongue. Well, that was not the issue at the moment. The issue I have was the fact that these assholes wanted me as a sex slave. You know what...
This will be quick. I promise Gallant not to reveal my powers, but if all the witnesses are dead, no one will know, right? My hands seize my blades from my waist. In a mere second I dash through all of them moving my blades silently against each body. The twenty bodies land onto the floor. I minced them into pieces. I used my tremendous agility to run past all of them following up with [Piercing Tornado].
Well, a bit of an overkill. The bushes and trees nearby turned into pieces as well. The leaves were sliced and the trees revealed numerous slashes against the truck. Right, I should not use these powers ever again. UNLESS its an emergency.
Well, lets see what skills I gained.
Skills gained: [Level 3 Mining]
[Level 2 Crafting]
[Level 2 Kidnapping]
[Level 1 Bondage]
[Level 1 Traps]
[Level 1 Disarming of Traps]
[Level 1 Enslavement]
[Level 1 Daggers]
[Level 1 Axes]
[Level 1 Shield]
[Level 1 Spear]
[Level 1 Beast Training]
[Level 1 Steal]
[Two-Handed Stance]
Perks Gained: [Strengthen Skin]
Abilities Gained: [Roar]
Language Obtained: [Orc and Goblin]
I picked up a bunch of abilities. Staring at them, I know I would not be using most of them. The hell? There was a skill that involved bondage- wait. No, I should just ignore that one for now. I remember I gained that kidnapping skill back when I killed one of the Emperor's knights. How would this help me? Well, I can save it for later.
There was something I forget to ask Brynhild. How do I rank up? I gain so many benefits, but ranking up will require me to absorb a bunch of skills. For an average person, all they need to do to level up one skill up every ten levels. For example, a rank one warrior will have skills like this.
[Level 1 Swords]
[Level 1 Light Armor]
[Level 1 Shield]
Basically, from these skills, one can assume that the warrior is a swordsman. Moving on... A rank one warrior has skills ranging from level 1 to level 9. When they hit level 10, they rank up.
[Level 10 Swords]
[Level 5 Light Armor]
[Level 9 Shields]
Now the above levels show that the person has reached rank two warrior. To increase in ranks, you will need to level up in one skill. Anyone skill. Most advance warriors and mages take their time in mastering whatever skill they main. One can level up the other skills, but it will not help with your rank. Well, this does not apply to people who want to be a mage and a warrior. To level these skills up will take a lot of years though. I was a rank nine mage AND warrior. It took me at least ten years to get up there.
Observing this ranking system, one could say that it will be easy to get to rank thirteen. There are several problems to this. Once you hit rank six, leveling up your skills will become a pain. Another reason why people dictate themselves in one skill is to expand on their knowledge. Think about fire. If you are a mage, you can cast fire in many ways.
Well, in this world, there are Laws and Principles that furthers one understanding about fire. Depending on the method of training and learning one undergoes, one could takes years or a few months to level up their fire skill.
Laws of the Scorching Sun explains how one can manifest their bodies in flames. To literally do this, the fire user must meditate and concentrate their focus to self-teach themselves. They have to witness something that involves fire. If one was to observe the movement of lava within a volcano, they can expand the Laws of the Scorching Sun. The basic fundamentals to understand it comes from the flow of fire. One must understand that fire should not be controlled in a harsh manner. By doing this, it only limits the fire's true potential to shine. Fire must be loose and free.
The basic premise is to allow fire to engulf oneself entirely. Now, this will hurt if someone has no heat resistance. If the individual has heat resistance, then they will have to toy around and unlock the mysterious of this law to actually use it. Rank thirteen mages and warriors have a couple of laws and principles they mastered. If one is able to unlock and master these laws and principles, they can easily rank up to thirteen in no time.
I know I can recall some of these laws and principles, but it is pointless if the skill level requirement is not up there. I have no skills in magic right now, and I have no need to unlock the principles of dual-wielding. Oh, yeah, you can think of laws and principles in this way for warriors and mages. They are an ability that you can unlock after your intense training in them.
The tale has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.
Take [Dual Barrage] for example. It come from the dual-wielding principles of using two swords. It starts off by explaining the fundamentals of using two weapons at once. It tells the reader how to manipulate both swords in different ways. After that, it displays several new principles that can be used to form this ability together. It shows various techniques, speeds, and methods one can use. [Dual Barrage] has been fused with three original principles. Dual-wielding haste, accuracy, and focus.
Dual-wielding accuracy tells you how to make every strike swift and clean. Any slight delay will ruin one's attack. When using two blades, you have to follow up your attacks and hastily chop down your enemies. Now, depending on your technique you want to use to accomplish the speed aspect of this principle, that is upon the warrior's discretion. Once you master this principle, you have to master the other two.
Once you gained insight on these principles, you have to fuse them all into one. This will help you finalize an ability of your own or out of the books.
Brynhild is considered a genius because she has made up her own principles and laws that resulted in "Defeat Inheritor" and whatever other abilities she created. I sigh in amazement at how that blonde accomplished such a feat. Well, back to my original problem before I started to think about all of these concepts.
How the hell do I rank up?
I have several skills at level 155 already. Hell, it should have made me a Demi-God rank, but it seems like I have to have a ton of skills at level 155 to be a Demi-God rank. The question will be how many? The rate that I can increased one level to 10 will take me a whole day. If I was patient, I could easily waste ten years to get back to my original level. Although I do not have this luxury. The only solution right now is to kill these enemies to level up my skills.
Wait a damn second. Turning around, I bang my head against the truck of a tree. Shit. This world of mine, yeah, it will be the end of me. This world has their rules and systems with many beings that do a ton of different things... What am I rambling about?
Societies. Sure, I can go kill numerous orcs and goblins as I venture through these woods, but they belong to certain factions of their race. Obviously, I am a human. They can easily place a bounty on me or send an entire army on me. They can lock me out of their civilization and spread word of my infamy. This can be applied to any race actually, not just orcs. I will have to kill certain beings carefully if I did not want to cause trouble. Actually, there should be some weak tribes or factions out there.
I am too ignorant of this world. I hope that these orcs and goblins came from a small clan. If I meet an intelligent orc, I will have to talk to him or her about certain tribes around the area. Well, the sun is about to set. I will need to loot...
Another problem. I should consider planning out these simple issues. I eye at the twenty dead bodies. How am I suppose to carry all of this loot?! That's it. My body just falls onto the floor. My back slams against the ground, my mouth ushering a scream. I clutch my head and spin on the ground.
Note to self, ask Gallant for a storage ring. What are these storage rings? Storage rings are like a miniature banks where you can shove a lot of things in there. Billions of gold coins, giant furniture, carriages, antiques, stone statues, and many other objects can fit in these rings. They do have a limit, but it will take a while to actually reach it.
Nobles and anyone at rank ten or above are given a storage ring. My parents should have gave me one, but they wanted me to stay in the house. They did not give me a storage ring because of this. Now, I wish they did.
Whatever. I eye at the corpses and pick up the best armor piece off of them. Well, the armor pieces I can carry back. Well, if I had [Inspect] equipment, I can easily see the value costs of these items. Like I said, whatever. I took two coils of rope and attached it to my belt. Obtaining their gold coins from their corpses, I added it to my sack. Looting the dead bodies, I was surprise to find metal cuffs on one of the goblins. What can I use... I just attach it to my belt.
These orcs wear rings? Leaning closer to their hands, I stare at three to five rings on each hand. I think they cost a lot? Well, I can easily shove these in my belt. I took most of them and store them along my belt. Analyzing the weapons and armor, I decided to take the best looking equipment from the dead.
Carefully walking through the forest, I walked back on the main route back to Zezrious. I paid the guard the entrance fee and went to the local vendors. Once again, I lack any knowledge to determine any price. Before I went to the counter with my loot, I eyed at the price for most of their weapons, memorizing the prices. The loot I was holding was made out of silver. Heading to the seller, I dump the items onto the counter. He takes one minute to inspect them.
"All of this, a thousand gold coins." I am guessing that this silver did not cost much. I accepted it. The price for the silver stuff he was selling ranged from a thousand to two thousand. Despite the loot being in best condition, it seems like it was not selling. The man stopped and says to me, "Will you be here tomorrow? It seems like I have ran out of money." My face twitched at this, but it seems like this man had a good business. Of course he will be here tomorrow.
"Yeah, I will be here tomorrow. I will pick up my money tomorrow."
Walking to the jewelry store, the rings I dumped on the counter gained a better profit then I thought. For every five rings, the man decides to give me one hundred thousand coins. Dumping all thirty rings on the counter, he gives me seven thousand coins.
This was an issue. Can I store seven thousand coins in my damn belt?!
"Do you sell a storage ring?" I asked the man.
"Yes. They costs one million gold coins." WHAT!? My face tensed a bit. I stared blankly at the man. Changing up my question, I asked him, "Do you have those small storage cards." These storage cards can only store money in them. And the worst part about these devices- it only holds up to ten thousand gold coins.
"That will be one thousand coins." There was no choice in the matter. I separated a thousand gold from the seven hundred I received. The man takes it back, handing me the card. I swiped the card over the remaining six hundred coins and went back to the tavern. It was getting late.
A certain store caught my attention. Roars and animal sounds can be heard from the entrance. Turning to the noise, I walk into the store. A monster shop? There are a number of creatures locked behind bars. These creatures hold a rank that range from one to ten. A variety of creatures like wolves to spiders to the ferocious dragons. What amazed me was the price for some of these creatures.
A small infant dragon can be a rank ten. However, the price can vary from eighty thousand coins to one hundred thousand. Now, the medium size dragons range from one hundred fifty to two hundred. Lastly, the larger dragons costs five hundred to nine hundred thousand gold.
A young woman approach me, asking, "Hello there ma'am. Are you interested in buying a pet?"
"I am just looking around." I replied. This female seems to be a young teenager. Her short blonde hair was tied in a ponytail as her blue eyes observed me. She displayed a puzzle face after she stares at me for a minute. She wears a plain yellow gown and leather boots. I bet she was going to ask why a rank one warrior was in her shop.
"Pardon my rudeness ma'am," the woman said politely, "Can you explain to me why a rank one warrior is here? Most of the time, rank three are the lowest people to enter our shop." Again with this damn system. One day, I will be above you all! I let out a defeated groan. How many times must I hear the same rank one bullshit?! Time for me to fight back.
"So are you saying you do not want my money?" She jumps at my response. That was a bit cute. She hesitated, nervously eyeing at me.
"My a-apologies. I mean it. I do not wish to anger a potential customer. No matter what, I hope you can browse at our wares. I did not mean any harm by saying that. I-it's just that... You are gorgeous..." She seems to shy away from her compliment, but it soothed out my frustration. A question pops into my head.
"What sort of creatures do you accept."
"Any creature that ranges from rank one to ten," she answers quickly, "Most of the time, we will negotiate a price that is acceptable if you were to sell them to us. Depending on their conditions, skills, size, we can buy it for a fair price. Sometimes, it is better than the original cost. Do you want me to give you an example?"
I eye at the dragons from earlier. "Like those dragons? Right? The size vary upon their costs right?" The woman shakes her head, somewhat.
"Those dragons are not of the same element and race. The prices do fit for their sizes, yes, but depending on their rarity and other factors, they can determine the price. A regular baby dragon, lets say a fire one, will costs at least fifty gold coins. For a medium sized fire dragon, double the price. Then triple the price for the large version from the medium sized dragon."
"So fifty thousand, hundred thousand, then three hundred thousand? Sounds good..."
"Well, if you plan to buy one for regular means or for a companion," the woman answers, "If you want an exquisite creature like a shadow dragon or a skeleton dragon, they will costs about five hundred thousand. And this is for a baby one." I choked on my own saliva.
"What?!" My surprised voice caught the attention of some nearby customers. They ignored me after a few seconds went by. The woman giggles at me, saying, "Yeah. That is how we run our business here. Well, most poachers around here tame rank three to seven creatures. It is extremely rare for people to get rank eight or higher." Listening to this explanation, I wrote it down as a mental note. Capturing monsters meant sound like a good money making business. Time for me to hammer her with beast taming.
"Does the skill level help tame beasts?" The woman nods her head.
"The higher the level, the chance of success increases. There are rare cases where a low level taming ability can actually control a high rank creature." Raising my eyebrow, the woman continues her explanation, "If the creature willingly submits themselves to you... then you can tame them. There are also cases where you can beat them into submission. I refrain from using such violence if you plan to sell said creature."
This method sounds like my cup of tea. Only problem will be my rank. How can a rank one warrior tame a rank ten dragon? Did she cheat? Did she steal the dragon? Who knows. My god, the issues of being a rank one warrior has no bounds!
Now I can see why most rank one peasants or people have a hard time living. The standard living to even make money will require you to be a rank three warrior or mage.
I thank the woman for talking to me. Before I left, she apologizes to me again.
"Please come again." She bows and went back to work.
Well, what a day. I earn some gold coins, but now I have some problems.
[Level 1 Beast Training]
What the hell is this ability? After I killed those twenty weaklings, I thought I read [Beast Taming], but it says training. It will help me once I find the right monster companion, but I need something that can tame these creatures. My god, why are things becoming harder for me to achieve! Entering the tavern, I paid the tavern keeper ten gold coins for tonight. Opening the door, I just land on my bed. Well, first, I have to take off this armor and wash myself off.
A few moments after I cleaned myself, I land on my bed. Hugging the pillow, I let out a scream. Too much is on my agenda. I need to talk to the local orc tribes to find a group of people I can kill. Secondly, I need to get a beast taming skill to increase my wealth. Lastly, I need to figure out how to rank up.
Despite all of this, I was glad this day was alright. I did not bump into any high rank enemies and I have gained some new skills I can toy with. These orcs will be my test dummies for now. I can instantly kill them, but where's the fun in that?
It is a bit lonely without anyone in this room though.
My arms squeezed the pillow tightly to me. I close my eyes and fell into deep slumber.