Abel stood staring unbelievingly at his favorability level. He had reached a friendly level of favorability with a Legend!
Even though it wouldn’t translate into tangible benefits, it opened up so many avenues to high-level information and many other possibilities. He didn’t forget that he still hadn’t finish this chain quest, meaning there was a big chance he’d be able to increase the favorability much further in the future.
‘Stay calm Abel. I have to finish this quest first and the entire chain quest, the latter seems unlikely for the foreseeable future. It’s alright, one step at a time. One step at a time’
He took a deep breath to calm down and pushed down his ecstatic feelings. While it was all good and dandy to be happy about his current circumstance, he hadn’t finished this quest yet much less the entire chain quest.
“I will endeavor to find the location as quickly as possible sir! I believe I might be able to stumble upon the answer within the royal library. However, is there perhaps another route I can take to enter the castle grounds?”
“Of course, but why do you want that?”
“Well… you see, the playe-travelers are always in and around the central square. If they were to see me freely enter and exit the castle grounds then it might cause unwanted troubles that I’d rather not deal with…”
Abel felt a little embarrassed explaining himself but he still told the old guardian the truth. He didn’t want to be surrounded by players trying to take advantage of him where ever he went.
He was sure he’d make it onto the gaming broadcast within the same evening if people found out he already had access to the palace grounds so early on in the game.
“Hahahahaha… big brother really knows how to choose disciples. You two are forged from out the same mold!”
The old man laughed to himself, understanding Abel didn’t want to become famous among the players.
It was just like his big brother, although the old Battlesmith eventually became famous as a blacksmith, he was never known for his combat abilities. Only the few close friends he had adventured with in the past knew of his prodigious strength in battle.
“Of course, there are many paths in and out of the palace child. But you’ll have to wait, I have to clear it with the head Eunuch and it will take a while considering the King’s deteriorating health. It shouldn’t take too long though, a few days at most. After the old king passes, it will be much simpler.”
Luckily, the old man agreed to Abel’s request and simply told him to wait for his news. He would take him in through a less obvious path that servants and stable boys would use.
“At the time, I’ll also introduce you to the little brat that’ll be the new king.”
Perhaps only the old guardian would dare call the crown prince ‘a little brat’.
What Abel didn’t know was that old man Rye was the Royal tutor and he had a pretty close relationship with the past few kings since they had all learned from him. But even if that wasn’t the case, just the fact that he was at least a level 300 Legend afforded him the ability to address the monarch however he wished.
Abel nodded and thanked the old man.
‘I should log off to have dinner, maybe I can still catch Melly and Frankie before they eat.’
Abel decided to stay in the forge to log out since he needed to repair his equipment before heading to the dungeon. He simply pulled up the Panel menu and chose to log off.
Whoooosh
A few seconds later, he was out of the pod and heading to the kitchen. His stomach rumbled from the smell of braised pork ribs that wafted out of the main house.
“Hey, look who came out to eat.”
He had barely stepped into the main house when he saw Frankie setting up the table in the dining room for a change.
“What’s up with eating here, why not the kitchen?”
“Ask Melly” Frankie simply shrugged in response.
Before he could walk around him and head to the kitchen, he saw Melly coming in with a platter of tender pork ribs.
“What the occasion Mell?”
“The kitchen’s dirty and full of clutter, you know I don’t like to eat in there when it’s like that.”
“Just leave the dirty dishes, I’ll take care of it in the morning after I finish my dungeon run.”
“Thanks Abe. You’re the best!”
She cheerfully replied as she went back to get the rice and other side dishes she made.
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While having their meal, Abel filled them in on what happened with his quest. They were both ecstatic and urged him to find the location quickly for better rewards.
After relaxing for a bit with his brother and sister, he headed back into the pod, resuming his preparations for the third dungeon run.
Whooooooosh
He logged back into the game and started repairing his equipment straight away.
The blacksmithing repair skill worked very differently. He had to heat up the weapon slightly and hammer at certain spots that would light up in his interface. As for the leather armor, he had to inject mana in certain places and at certain intervals.
In fact, he also had to inject some mana in certain places when repairing his sword. It didn’t take him much time, around 15 minutes but the mana required was a drain on his MP.
After repairing his sword and armor, he made his way out to the streets.
He had a lot of things to do, he still remembered he had to excavate the entire mine tonight so he planned to head out a little earlier to the dungeon.
It was currently a little after 11:30 pm in Velskryn. Although clearing the dungeon wouldn’t take him more than an hour and a half, just skinning the monsters for loot and mining the walls would take up the rest of the night.
He swung by and picked up a few mana incense sticks since he had used up most of what he had in his forging and repair jobs. Once he was stocked up, he left the southern gates and entered the Hollow Forest.
‘Travelling at night is much more convenient. But the rogues will definitely get some night-vision skills after their first advancement. Thankfully, that should still be a while away.’
He thought about how long he could comfortably travel at night before he had to be cautious of others as he was during the day. A player’s class would be able to advance after reaching certain thresholds, the first of which was at level 25.
Below level 25, all professions would be unranked and it was also referred to as the zeroth tier.
Once a player hits level 25 they gain the ability to advance to the first tier. At level 50 they can advance to the second tier and at level 100 the third tier. It carries on every 50 levels for the fourth and fifth tier but to advance to a Legend, you’d have to increase it by 100 levels- reaching level 300.
There were also several other conditions that had to be met such as certain skills reaching a specific level and rank but that was more dependent on the class a person had. It differed from one profession to the next but the commonality was that there were conditions beyond just the level of the player.
Abel got rid of these idle thoughts as he found himself standing before the sentries once more.
‘Let’s try to finish this quick’
‘Ecliptic Slash’
+1 EXP
+1 EXP…
He took care of the sentries with a single slash from his sword skill and skinned them on the spot before descending down to the dungeon.
He didn’t stop to take a single break throughout the entire first floor, only taking a bit more time to inspect his recent gain from the trap chest. It was actually a blueprint for the earlier Rat-Tooth Dagger he had strapped at the end of his back.
‘What a great gain! I’ll need 2 Rat Teeth and a Nocturnium ingot to craft it, but it should sell for a better amount than the iron dagger considering it’s a level 5 weapon.’
Abel suddenly paused as he thought of all the ore he would excavate.
‘I should smelt them into ingots! I can use some of them to make the dagger. Even if I end up selling them, ingots would definitely sell for more than the raw ore.’
After making this realization, he happily went down to the second floor and carried on with his massacre. He only took a small break once to refill his depleted HP and stamina before going down to the third floor.
‘Ah shit… I forgot to get some arrows again, ugh next time definitely!’
He suddenly recalled he forgot to buy arrows yet again, this was a great opportunity to gain some proficiency with the bow. But perhaps it was for the best, baiting them out would take too much time, he already had a lot to do on this dungeon run.
After clearing out the third floor, he got started in skinning all the monster’s he had killed. After skinning a room of monsters, he’d mine out all the ore so he wouldn’t have to go back and forth between the different rooms for different loot.
The new high-grade spacial bag was making a huge difference. Although he spent a lot of time mining out the walls and skinning the monsters, once he was done with a room he didn’t have to come back to it again.
He was like a scourge devouring every single bit of worth, room by room, not leaving behind anything of value. Even the damaged monster pieces he’d usually toss aside from the off chance his skinning skill failed him was packed up this time!
By the time he was done with cleanly sweeping up the dungeon, it was close to 7 am. He had received a whisper from Coinweaver an hour ago, telling him he was at the house waiting for him with his share.
Abel quickly replied, informing him he’d need another hour at least.
Mining the ores had been the most time-consuming task but it was much faster than his first attempt.
His skinning skill had nearly reached the third stage in Trainee, bringing him a lot more success and with the aid of his title, he had gotten a lot more loot.
He had also raised his pick axe proficiency to Trainee while his basic sword proficiency finally topped the list of his proficiency skills at 76% of Trainee, nearly reaching Adept.
‘I’ll level up again by the time I go through this dungeon tomorrow’
Abel realized he also wasn’t far off from reaching level 7. The monsters on the third floor were the only ones giving him decent EXP while the floors prior were giving him much less. It was simply the amount monsters that added up all together that was still making it somewhat worth it.
‘But it’s just like I thought, after a week of clearing this dungeon perhaps only the Ferocious Rat King would still give me some decent EXP.’
As Abel cautiously made his way back into the forest, he thought about all the loot he had in his possession. He was feeling thankful for his new bag as he didn’t have to waste any more time going back and forth.
His spacial bag was more than half filled with all the monster loot and ores he had mined which was quite an accomplishment.
He had been quite lucky this time as he only failed in skinning a few times while his increased skill along with his title granted him much more loot than ever before. Just the normal Stone-toothed Rat loot he had in his bag took up 108 slots!
‘I’ll probably make much more silver from the normal monster parts, they just kept on coming without end.’
As he recalled his gains on this dungeon run, he suddenly felt like he was printing money instead of playing a game.
He quickly shook his head to get rid of these ridiculous thoughts, he knew it wasn’t easy to make wealth for the average player but he couldn’t help but have this feeling creep up in his heart.
‘I have to stay grounded… sure, it might feel like I’m printing money now but this will all get spent on just a couple of items later on’
After reminding himself of his growing expenses as he levels up, he shrugged off the feeling of a nouveau riche and started trekking his way back to the city.