*Ding*

+ Level up

+5 STR

+5 END

+5 DEX….

‘I leveled up much quicker than I thought. It’s still pretty early and this floor looks to be quite large. But I’ve also burnt through all my bandages… I shouldn’t have cheaped out over healing supplies.’

Abel had been killing Lobster Clawguards and Crabby Scuttlers for the past hour and a half. The former was still manageable as they were quite slow but it was the latter that proved to be more difficult. Although he wouldn’t lose more than 120 HP after every battle, bringing his HP back up burnt through his supplies of bandages and he was now left with a few ointments and 1 potion. His cheapness was now rearing its ugly head and came back to bite him in the ass!

‘Open Character Stats.’

Name: Red Sky

Level: 9

Profession: Battlesmith

Alignment: Neutral

Title: Rodent Ravager

Reputation: 50

Health (HP): 470/560 (+100)

Mana (MP): 230/390

Attack: 151-156

Defense: 65

Strength (STR): 82 (+18)

Agility (AGI): 59 (+29)

Endurance (END): 62

Toughness (TGH): 40

Vitality (VIT): 46

Wisdom (WDM): 18

Intelligence (INT): 39

Resilience (RES): 15

Dexterity (DEX): 54

Luck: 8

Satiety: 34

Stamina: 57

‘I should rest up and make some food to eat… I’m such an idiot! Cooked food will definitely give me a buff.’

He was still regretting having not topped up on healing supplies when he thought of making some food to pull up his HP, satiety and stamina levels. He recalled the benefits of the snake meat he had cooked and eaten with the mercenaries. Even if the buff was only a few agility points or something like that, it would still prove beneficial when fighting monsters.

Abel wasn’t really to blame, he had been so frugal at the beginning of the game due to his poor financial ability that he got accustomed to grabbing some black bread from his bag instead of cooking.

‘I need to change my mentality, I can’t keep eating black bread as my level progresses. I have to get used to cooking. In fact, the cooking skill at higher levels should provide even more benefits. No wonder professional cooks are highly regarded by high-level NPC’s.’

He recalled the ridiculous prices he had seen at some restaurants in Velskryn but back then he had attributed it to the extravagance of nobility not realizing the solid benefits behind such food. He shook his head and pulled out the firewood he had purchased. That was when he noticed he still had that large battle axe he took off Grimfist.

‘Maybe using this axe will deal more damage. Even though my proficiency with the axe is still at greenhorn, it does much more damage than my sword, more than the 9% increase my proficiency skill adds.’

Abel realized how thoughtless he was for constantly using the sword, although he leveled up his proficiency with it quite quickly, he had a feeling he’d have to have higher proficiency with multiple weapons to advance in the future.

It might not be relevant at the lower tiers like tier 1 and 2 but his lack of proficiency with a variety of weapons would definitely start restricting his growth in the future. His bow proficiency was already pretty decent at 33.8% of greenhorn while his pick axe proficiency was at 1.2% of Trainee. But he definitely needed to bring up his other weapon skills.

This was the downside of having such a hidden profession. It might provide great benefits with the increase in stat points and all the useful skills but it would definitely demand more out of the player as they tried to advance it further. He wouldn’t know for sure what the requirements were until he reached level 24 but he had a feeling these assumptions of his were correct. The profession wouldn’t have given him “All Weapons Proficiency” if he only had to master 1 or 2!

‘I should really reorganize my spatial bag. I have a lot of crap that’s accumulated there but then I’ll have to rent a storage...’

Abel let out a sigh after he thought things through, either way he’d have to make some sacrifice. Whether he rents a space or buys another spatial accessory, both options would cost him. He shook his head as he looked through the other things he had on him. Although he thought about using his new short bow to try attacking the monsters’ eyes, he got rid of this thought after mulling it over. First of all, it would ruin one of the more expensive monster parts he could get as loot which would bring down his overall haul from killing them. Secondly, the environment of this dungeon would restrict him from using a bow. The passageways and tunnels would twist and turn, not really providing a suitable space for him to shoot at the monsters.

He shook his head after rummaging through his spatial bag and got started in making a fire. He got one of his daggers and scrubbed some shavings off a piece of wood to make some kindling, easily lighting it up with his flint. He then lathered some salt and pepper on the lobster meat before spearing them on to the skewers he had. He slowly roasted 3 sticks of lobster meat as a tantalizing aroma spread out. Although 2 sticks would be more than enough to bring his satiety level to full, he made an extra one to pull up his HP instead of making use of his depleting and consumable healing supplies.

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“Inspect”

[Grilled Lobster Meat]

Satiety: +60

+5 TGH (1 hour)

Description: Grilled meat of the Lobster Clawguard. Not the most efficient cooking method for this meat but definitely still delicious.

‘It’ll bring up my defense by a couple of points for an hour. Not bad, I guess the crab meat can increase STR or AGI instead.’

It would probably take a long while for his cooking skill to increase but that was only more of a reason why he should start cooking instead of consuming the tasteless black bread. He actually skewered another 6 sticks and planned to cook some more food now since he had a fire going. He didn’t want to waste the fire he had started over such a small meal and he could always store the food for later.

While the second batch of skewers were cooking over the flame, he devoured the food before him in a matter of minutes. He was prepping the third batch of meat to cook when he heard some scuttling sounds from behind him and got up right away.

‘I guess a monster was drawn here from the smell, I hope it isn’t another lobster. Even if they’re omnivorous, they shouldn’t be cannibalistic.’ Abel thought, unaware that crustaceans were indeed cannibals in nature.

He put away his goods and sheathed his sword, pulling out the Skullsplitter Axe instead. A few seconds later, he saw a Crabby Scuttler darting in his direction. He should have figured it was this monster with all the sounds it made coming his way. He readied his axe but failed to block the first strike that also stunned him for 3 seconds. This was the first time he actually got struck by the monsters’ offensive skill as every other time he had been hit by a normal attack. The monster attacked in earnest with normal strikes when it saw its stunned prey.

-75

-49

-48

-51

Clang

He finally blocked the fifth attack before it could stun him with its skill again. The skill would make the corals on its claws glow for a second before it struck out but he found it much more difficult to block with an axe than with his sword. He didn’t want to take any risks so he activated Harmonic Breath along with Serpents Dance and zoomed to its back before it could react.

‘Ecliptic Slash’

-224

-78

-77

The damage he dealt was much greater than his Flameforged Longsword, the axe itself had a higher attack and added more strength. The downside was his lack of experience in actually using the axe, but with Serpents Dance and Harmonic Breath bringing his stats up significantly, he danced his way around this monster and kept striking at it joints from the back.

-76

-79

He wasn’t able to get more than 2 hits in before he would be forced to move again. Swinging an axe took longer than slashing with a sword. Overall, his damage efficiency hadn’t actually increased but instead, he was forced to utilize his skills due to his lack of practice with this weapon type.

-81

-41

He slowly kept at it, striking twice before jumping to another spot until the monsters HP finally hit 50% and activated its defensive skill. His Serpents Dance still had 10 seconds till it ended so he tried to attack as quickly as possible before he his overall speed went down.

Unfortunately, he had to slowly grind down its health over the next couple of minutes as it proved too difficult to take it out when its defense increased by 100%. He swung to its side and slashed again before finally killing it with another Ecliptic Slash.

*Ding*

+800 EXP

‘I should switch back to my sword. No use in using an axe when I barely know how to wield it, I should practice on easier monsters and stick to using something I’m already accustomed to.’

He quickly put his axe back into his spatial bag and got down to deshelling his latest kill. He realized how foolish his earlier thoughts were, he seemed to be having an off day as he was doing silly things ever since he stepped foot in the dungeon. Eating black bread when he could cook now, consuming bandages when he could eat the monster meat he harvested and now, using the axe when he never used one in combat before.

While he definitely had to bring up more of his weapons skills, he shouldn’t be doing it in a dungeon where monsters were nearly twice his level. He could only kill them in the first place and on his own no less due to his higher than average stats, his special class along with his great equipment and strong skills. Even though a lot of players would be able to kill a Lobster Clawguard on their own, they would find themselves dead very quickly when they came across the Crabby Scuttlers.

Thankfully, his HP went back up by the time Harmonic Breath ended. After tidying up his loot and unsheathing his sword, Abel started heading deeper into the dungeon. He took down some lone Crabby Scuttlers but would detour around them if there was more than 1 of them in a room. He made sure to jot down the paths he took so he wouldn’t get lost later on as every room and passageway seemed to be identical.

He carried on killing monsters for the next few hours before a notification popped up before his eyes.

*Ding*

You have a new message: Abe, the pods arrived but there was a small mishap. Don’t worry, I’ve called in reinforcement already but you should come out!

‘That doesn’t sound good, I hope everything’s alright with the delivery.’

He had left a note for the couple not to wait on him for breakfast but asked them to notify him through his pod when the delivery arrived. They could send him a message through the interface on the pods exterior.

Every NeuroNex pod would have this feature because not every virtual world would be accessible to outside communication. While there were some virtual worlds that could be accessed through normal phone calls or text messages, Realm Quest wasn’t one of them.

He took a look at the time, it was currently 2:23 pm in Veridia which meant it was around 11:20 am back on Luminara. He backtracked to an area in the dungeon he had cleared a while ago and pulled up his Panel to log out.

He wanted to see what this mishap Frankie mentioned was all about and what he meant by reinforcement. He also figured he’d make some lunch and take a bathroom break before he would log back into the game.