Calvin smiled as he brushed off the sweat from his brow. The dirt from his gloves smeared, leaving a light streak behind before he squatted down to stare down the small wagon he was filling up.
The straight lines were a far cry when he had first started. The zig-zag of those ‘lines’ made him giggle. Now they were half harvested as he slowly moved back and forth.
You would think that a digital world would be more kind and add a better farming system than that. It was half realistic, and half system assisted. It still required hard work, but your rewards could be well worth it.
This year, however, things would be showcasing quite the harvest.
His batch of potatoes showed that its base stats and bonuses provided by this year would exceed everything he had ever farmed. careful curated.
Leave the original to sprout, which in-game time was nearly a year. The [S] grade potatoes could last for a very long time.
Now those sprouts were planted and they would in turn grow more [S] grade potatoes. Golden potatoes were the lifeblood of high-end adventuring. When properly cooked, they could last for months while also giving incredible buffs.
Adventurers would pay top coin for such items.
The coin that he would then use to refurbish the farm more, and he continue his life as a high-end farmer. Simple though it was, it was also full of fun.
Calvin smiled.
It was tedious, hard work, but his skill sets had also improved immensely since he had started. Those old days of digging random rows and endlessly grinding his various skills finally paid off.
Now he could plant anything, given the right materials and seeds.
He had raised everything possible within the world, but he required to move the house whenever he wanted to raise the various crops that required different fields. Shadow crop. Celestial crop. Netherworld. The elemental lands.
Void crops were some of the most interesting to grow. The required soils and intricate leylines.
Which is why he was now planting material crops. Simple but quick to grow when compared to the other crops of the world.
It was a rewarding thing he had fallen into. He had tried so many jobs when…
“Hey there old man!”
Calvin blinked as he looked to his left and saw a group of adventurers walk up to him.
“I see you been busy! Good crop almost ready?” the lead man asked as he sauntered over.
His gear glowed a hellfire red, and the various jagged weapons he wore gave off its own aura of death and destruction. His T shaped opening of his helmet showed his smile as he walked up eying the wagon of golden potatoes.
His party was equally outlandish. They were all decked out in high-end gear.
From my understanding, and system assistance, I could tell that they were well nearing the 5 digit level cap.
Which if you included the rebirth system, means they were not just a party of casual gamers.
Player ID: Jing Suul, Class: Crimson Berserker. The leader stared at me and his grin was from what I had learned, was a mask. Fake. A smile that was unfriendly.
“Listen, I understand that you have worked really hard. We are not crooks. A gold coin for every potato we take.”
I stared at Jing with a frown. A gold coin was literally 1% of their base worth. The [A] class golden potatoes.
These were S class and thus ten times more valuable.
Yet, my written rules were ironclad. I could not break them.
“Sir, please grant mercy. I am but a simple farmer,” I begged as required of my current job and my meek facade.
“Hahaha!” Juul laughed as he wrapped an arm around my shoulders. His high strength stat simply picked me up like a ragdoll and glued me to the side of his armor.
“Hey, boss! These are [S] class!” a lightly armored player exclaimed as he began to pocket the picked potatoes.
“I understand… please help yourself, heroes,” I said as I slumped against the player’s armor. I was powerless to stop them anyway.
“That's right! I am fair, don’t worry Mister Farmer,” Juul said as he let me go and tapped at the air. The status window for him opened up and he withdrew a string of coins.
Their dull luster and my system assisted eyesight revealed 100 bronze coins.
The story has been taken without consent; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.
Why the man wanted a string of coin rather then a bag confused me. Humans often didn’t make sense.
With a firm action, Juul opened my hands and placed the string of coins into my hands.
I thanked him. As required.
I had barely taken a step when the thieving man stepped up to me. In a step, he went from the wagon to my side.
One of the other players, a female mage, lit my small wagon on fire. Player ID: Singing Ballad, Class: Voidblessed Archmagi. She laughed as she watched the small wooden wagon ignite into a pyre of ethereal flames.
“What's that? Thanks, old man!” the thief yelled out as he snatched away the coins. His actions however revealed his class. Player ID: Edmond Blueberry, Class: Shadow Stalker.
“What!?”
I looked up to see the mage who was now staring slack-jaw at my wagon.
We all turned our eyes to the pristine wagon. Her attack spell was a variation of the first level fire spell, create fire. It was an enhanced version that imbued rebirth stats to form a true flame.
Yet my small wooden wagon had endured. In fact, as I stared at its stats, it had only done 0.1% damage. The wagon was made from core wood from the tree of Yggdrasil. Ethereal flames were its weakness, but her small duration did nothing more than singe it.
In fact, given an hour, my wagon would also heal 1% durability.
A must for any traveling farmer.
“Huh, that's neat,” Juul said as he rubbed his chin and crouched in front of the wagon. He tapped at it then used his class attack, Berserk Chop. The enhanced first-level skill dug the wagon into a small crater.
Juul looked at it again, and there was no sign of his strike.
“Well well well… I guess we got a new wagon!” Juul screamed as he cheerfully pulled at the wagon.
[Wagon owned by NPC ID: Calvin, Class: Venerated Farmer]
The system stopped him from putting it into his inventory.
The assembled stared at my class, which made sense since it was rare to meet master tiered NPCs. Most NPCs had a level cap for both their base levels and their class levels.
“Well, that sucks…” Edmond said with a sigh. He kicked the dirt, and an emote of tears popped above his head. “…for you.” He finished as he threw something at me.
My world blurred as a dagger struck me.
The damage value was nearly a trillion as I fell lifelessly to the floor.
The entirety of my upper torso vanished with the strike.
Juul burst out laughing. He tugged at the wagon again, but the system spat out the same message.
[Wagon owned by NPC ID: Calvin, Class: Venerated Farmer]
Juul growled as he waited for a few seconds before tugging on it again.
[Wagon owned by NPC ID: Calvin, Class: Venerated Farmer]
Juul screamed as he kicked it as hard as he could. It didn’t even wobble.
[Wagon owned by NPC ID: Calvin, Class: Hidden Boss]
Juul raised his giant sword and began to chop at the immortal wagon.
“Boss!” the gruff voice of the fourth man screamed out. His heavily armored frame clattered as he moved forward to stop the distracted berserker.
[Conditions met. Unlocking system fight. Updating core files. Executing the optional fight.]
My body disintegrated into motes of light that then formed into a new body of light.
The system adjusts the weather, creating a cloud of darkness in a unique instance. Only Juul and his party would see this.
The group of eight smiled as they watched my form. They began to excitedly chat as there were only two hidden bosses ever found and they only came out during special server events.
Hidden Bosses all had the option to drop [Zero] grade gear. Near perfect server items that would only drop by sheer luck.
In the ten years of “World MMO” there were only a dozen confirmed drops of [Zero] grade gear.
“Hurry up and die!” Juul screamed as he watched my spawn.
—
“How many forms do you have!?” Juul screamed as he fought my proto-egg fifth form rise from the shadow realm that the world had turned into.
The first form, farmer.
The second form, beast.
The third form, true beast.
The fourth form, demon.
The Fifth form, true self.
I watched as the exhausted party refresh themselves. My egg form pulsated, giving them a chance to refresh. I was an endurance fight vs my sister's speed fight and my brother’s pattern fight.
After five minutes, my form cracked. Blood leaked onto the ground creating small creatures that swarmed the warriors. Their levels were in the low hundreds, but there was a timer before the next set would spawn.
I was designed during the early days when the level cap was much smaller and the rebirth system did not exist.
The party sighed in relief as the system showed off [Final Form].
It was going to be a quick fight as their over geared, over leveled characters would pulp me as quickly as they did to my first four forms.
[True Self Realized]
The system dinged as those words were system announced and my winged self was born.
I was human, but with elegant white angels wings that offset the two horns growing from the side of my head.
My designer had always wanted an elegant super monster to be born from a hideous monster.
“Finally!” Juul screamed as he unleashed one of his strongest attacks, Berserker Barrage.
The eight dozen hits smashed into my frail form.
I was barely taller than the average human, and I wore only a loincloth.
The hits smashed into my nude form.
The three-digit damage floated up and Juul stopped and stared.
He had been smashing my other form’s body with heavy damage. Each fight took less than 5 minutes and yet he had just encountered his first set back.
I lifted my arm and slapped him across his helmet’s cheek.
Juul was hit from my arm. It limb created a sonic boom and his body was thrown to the side with another, smaller sonic boom. He dug a trench into the ground as stopped nearly a hundred meters away.
His HP was still draining when he crawled to his feet. The various status ailments shook him as he was stunned, dizzy, blind, confused, and he was resisting mortal wounds from my powerful attack.
I stared at my hands. The rest of the party was attacking me but I was curious at what had just happened.
My status window opened and I stared at it with confusion. I stared at the other players and called up their status windows and compared the information.
I was much higher. I wondered how this was possible. Was this a manifestation of being a glitched NPC? There were so many changes in the 14 years since I was born for the very first-anniversary system event.
The seven players watched as I smiled. A handsome cruel smile that had the two females and one male making a heart emoji.
I raised my hand and unleashed my fury upon them.
—
Windsore: Did you watch that raid video?
Elem: With the Angel of Calvin?
Rudy: That was amazing!
Link: Hero would like to know more!
Junkling: WTT wind ores for fire ores!
Glam: Well the coordinates lead to an empty patch. That hidden boss is either patched or it wanders around.
Corbin: Read the Forums! We are trying to track him down!
Killbane: Killing Killers recruiting! Only require level 1000 and anything above R rank!
Lila: I want to meet him and ask him to marry me!
Culdor: 100 crystal coin reward for his information leading to him!
Juul: 101 crystal coin reward for info leading to Angel Calvin!!!