Chapter 4: Pluffy

After waking up in the simple room early in the morning Kris goes to the main room and eats breakfast there. Several other people are doing the same thing. Some of them seem to be grouped up and have the looks of adventurers to them while some of the others are probably small merchants who try to sell something in town.

Although yesterday was literally over after the training today Kris really starts his plans. It is to train in the morning, doing some general quests afterwards to gather some general knwoledge and get a feeling for how people live and behave in this world and then research in the library in the evening.

So once again after walking through the whole town to reach the training grounds he repeats the same warmup as yesterday and then grabs a sword to work on the movements the instructor teached him. After some time Instructor Larry comes over to supervise Kris for a while. He corrects a bit of the stance and points out that the movements should not be as rough but more fluid. To work on it instead of just repeating different swings he advises to connect them and make some little combinations while trying to keep the flow of it alive.

In Kris opinion nearly nothing changed and he still moves like a monkey but Larry seems to be satisfied at least a little bit so probably there is some progress he is making. Todays training ends a bit earlier than yesterda. There is no stat gain at all and it is still unknown if it's possible to attain skills through this training. Stat gain will thus be a very slow but steady progress but its obvious that later every point counts in big fights so who is Kris to be angry at this. He still chose to play as Kera so if he would already be frustrated at the harder training he could just stop already.

After that and eating one more bread while moving across the street in the direction of the Adventurers Guild he enters it and is a bit disappointed to not find a room with tough-looking, beer-drinking people being spread throughout the room.

In reality (or not reality as this is inside of a game) the situation is that there are some people standing in front of one of the rooms walls, some lone people sitting at a few tables and a man standing behind a counter who is probably responsible for this guild. All in all it feels rather empty.

The receptionist is a middle-aged man who is busily speaking with some adventurers at the moment who seem to be players too as they ask him about how to become adventurers and how to start the first quests.

Apparently you just have to register at one Adventurers Guild and drop a bit of your blood on an identification stone they provide for you. After the registratioon is complete every Guild across the land will be able to recognize you using that stone and with it you can accept quests and claim the rewards later.

There are several different rankings and it is able to climb in those through completion of quests or placing really high in certain tournaments in bigger cities. Most people will be part of the 'Common Ranks' that range from F-rank to A-rank. People belonging to these ranks complete quests from deliveries and gathering quests to mercenary quests.

After that are the 'Advanced Ranks', 'Knight Ranks' and 'Master Ranks' but the receptionist does not further explain those. There also seems to be a 'Hero Rank'. Currently only 5 people in Acros have the 'Hero Rank' because the accomplishments to get that rank are insanely high and only really important persons are giving Hero-ranked quests out.

To register there is also a fee of 10 bronze which covers the costs for those identification stones and the guild earns money through every quest that is given out because the questgiver have to pay a small administration fee that is higher the higher the quests rank is.

After listening to this explanation IKris registers along with the other people who were originally asking these questions and now he only has 90 bronze left from the initial 1 silver. The quest board is the next destination only to notice that nearly every easy quest is already taken and not many remain. Probably because many people already came here on their first day and didn't spend a day training before. Since not many quests are left he just grabs one of them, accepts it at the counter and is on my way.

Deliver a packetType:QuestDifficulty:GMiss Evans expects to get a little special packet of wood from the lumberjack. Deliver it to her.Rewards:10 Bronze, ???

The lumberjacks house is outside of town. Just behind the Northern Gate and across a little plains area it is at the front of the forest. So it is not that far away. Alas the way should be fine even without a weapon in Kris logic.

What he really did not expect is the plains area out of town to be that nice. Right after leaving the town it starts and if you walk in a straight path after some miles there is the forest. On both other sides the plains area stretches further along the river and if this were the real world it would definitelly be a famous vacation spot.

In the area many little animals are jumping around and some people fighting or trying to fight them can be seen. Hearing the name of those they are named 'Pluffy' and look like some kind of mix between a fluffy Kirby and a rabbit.

PluffyMonsterLevel:G- A little fluffy peaceful living animal that was thus named 'Pluffy'.

Though they look harmless their jump is not a bad attack if one is unprepared

Looking around while walking on the road further north towards the forest and lumberjack there is a person that strugles against these little animals. 3 Pluffys are attacking him at the same time with their quick movements and fast jumps.

But the only problem this guy has is not paying attention and not even trying to dodge. He just tries to run to 3 of them and hit them with a wooden sword to notice that they dodge while oneself does not and is thus losing the fight.

Initially Kris did not want to fight here but now this is just too pathetic. So he decide to 'save' that person and get a little bit of fighting experience along the way. So the first fight starts as some kind of crappy rescue mission. Hitting the first Pluffy with a kick after it jumped towards the nearly dead guy and quickly getting the attention of the other 2 the idiot is save for the time being.

-2 (13/15)

Fighting without a weapon with the physically weakest race against the easiest mobs present. People would think that dealing 2 damage to them is impossible because it is this low but under these circumstances it can happen.

And just like that the fight statrs while the 'saved' person just walks away as if he was never involved in this fight or had anything to do with it. Typical player you could say. The Pluffys try to just charge into Kris and either jump with the aim to headbutt or jump with their feet forward like some kind of ninja attack but after seeing him dodge everytime their coordination starts a little bit.

During all that time he does not bother to attack as the most important thing in fights for weak but fast people is to dodge in time so this is a perfect training for later. The Pluffy's tend to make similar attacks all the time. If they are kinda fast before they jump most of the time they would try to make a rather low headbut and if they slow a bit right before their jump they use that extra energy to perform a higher one. Without a far charge way the kick is their preferred action. 

Now that the observations are done the counterattack can begin. The next time 2 of them start their jump one of them goes low and the other one high. With a quick step to the left the first one is dodged and after a light kick to the other one, stopping its jump, followed up with a smash to its stomach and gaining a bit distance again the first real act in the fight is done.

-5 -4 (4/15)

The third Pluffy starts to sprint and then jump towards where Kris was a second ago but trying to finish the first one quickly he dashes towards the Pluffy that is still on the ground from the earlier atack and a quick kick to finish it. But this was enough distraction for the last Pluffy to hit a succesful high jump against my back.

-6 (0/15)

-8 (87/95)

Now that only 2 of them were left it was a rather easy fight without another hit. But if even without any weapons and being a Kera at the same time gives an easy 4-5 attack kill how could anybody else with a weapon not be able to defeat those? Not his problem though. Although Kris feels a bit ashamed of himself for getting hit like that. With a bit more patience the first one would have been dead anyways.

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Notification: Battle - WinEnemies:3 PluffyReward:15 XP, 2 Bronze

These kills gave a total of 15 XP, 2 Bronze and some battle experience that is always nice to have. But only having 15 of 1000 XP for the level up to level is really enough information for anyone to know that these should be considered the easiest prey there is even for Lvl 1 noobs. Having to kill 200 of them for the first level up does not really feel worth it.

Not satisfied with the low amount of experience gained after the fight the rest of the way was rather uneventful. For him though all the plants and trees were something worth studying. Having some capabilities as alchemist may be useful in the future so learning about various plants and alchemy in general is one of the things to look for in the library and in town.

Although it is called a lumberjack it is more like a house with a pile of wood beside it than anything else. But a village probably does not really need anymore.

"Hello, I am here to get the package for Miss Evans."(Kris)

"It's over there, table on the right side of the house"(Lumberjack)

Without further conversations the package is picked up and he walks back to town without fighting anything this time. Since the direction of the next goal of the quest is given finding Miss Evans house is not very difficult and so Kris gives her the package and receive the reward of 10 bronze. Everything pretty much boring but since there was a ??? in quest rewards he kinda hoped fo more.

Maybe if he behaved more polite she would have given him something to eat? He will never know but will test something like that in the next days. At the moment it may be unrelevant but maybe later on if there are bigger quests hidden rewards may become the main target.

Without further ado Kris walks to the library after eating some bread which are reduced to 6 now.The library is an older building built out of wood with stone reinforcements and does not seem to be in its prime. Some wooden planks should be replaced but it still is an impressive building and the biggest one he has seen so far.

Upon entering and looking around a more important thought began to spread again. What is the most important topic for him right now?

The history of the world can wait until he plans to leave town or something that needs his understanding happens. General understanding of the world should be a priority but what would that be here? Definitely a book about general understanding of magic because with there being a magic guild in town it seems to be available in this world.

Researching about the concept of monsters in Acros is important too but that can wait a bit because he already found a training spot and the mosters nearby don't seem to be hard to attack at all. For later opponents research is a good idea though and the training will help further with it.

After some time of thinking Kris turns around to the librarian who seems to be a bit amused about a Kera entering the library just to stand around for some time.

"Good evening, mister. Are there possibly be some books in this great library that could give me a general understanding of magic?"(Kris)

"Hah of course. I am Armand, the main librarian of this place and there are of course many books explaining that subject. You may want to go to the magic guild though. I already directed most 'Travelers' there who wanted to learn magic."(Armand)

"That will not be a problem. As long as there is an explanation I can understand it and leave for the magic guild later once I see the need to do so. Furthermore there will be a surplus of people going there from what you said and they will probably go teach them as fast as they can and not go deeper into the matter so I definitely prefer reading here until everything calms down."(Kris)

"Hohoho alright. In the bookshelves with the numbers 12-16 on the first floor you will find everything you need. Be warned though that damaging those books will cost you dearly and leaving with them is not allowed. I would recommend you to start with 'The Way of Acros" written by Grandmaster Bartlmes Lienhart. It is easy to understand but at the same time very detailed regarding all simple ways of magic."(Armand)

Looking at Armand once more, who looks like he would be around 60 on Earth but that may be different here, who knows how old the people of Acros are, with silvery hair, some signs of age clearly visible in his features and very deep and wise blue eyes the first evening in the library began.

"The Way of Acros" may seem like a book that explains everything about Acros if you only look at its title but that is not true at all. Maybe there is no need to clarify which subject this book is about because the author is a 'Grandmaster', whatever title that may be.

Just how Armand said the book explains all general aspects that may be important for people that want to practice in magic. Probably this or a similar book is or was used in teaching people about magic.

Mana theories:

Acros mana theories:

"The Way of Acros":

Just as expected Acros world is based on Mana. It is explained as a power that surges through everything. The amount of mana is determined by various factors. I will list them from general to more detailed descriptions

1)Every living and non-living thing has the same amount of base mana depending on its size

2)The further away one is from the center of Acros, the lesser the mana-density wil become.

Meaning that on a mountain there is less mana than in a cave deep under the earth.

3)While in theory everywhere should be the same amount of mana there seem to be areas where the mana-density is higher or lower, more is not explained

4)Mana in the air is rather low. Mana in water is mediocre and mana in solid materials is high. (Maybe mana is in connection with density??)

5)Living beings are able to gather more mana into their system through manipulation of the mana in their surroundings (mana in atoms seems unlikely though because the amount of atoms won't become higher while ones mana can become more)

My mana theories:

-Mana is in every living being and is able to be stored through absorbing it from other living beings and generating it oneself (Unlikely cause its everywhere)

-Mana is tied to atoms (Unlikely cause "The Way of Acros" explanations)

-Mana is generally everywhere but gathers only around certain materials like ores which can be used to access and add this mana to ones mana system (Unlikely but maybe those ores do exist)

-The world is gifted with mana from the Gods and through practicing and ranking up in magic the gods reward one with a higher mana capacity. (possibly, who knows how big of an influence the gods in Acros have, you have to consider everything)

-Mana is within the blood or behaves similar to blood throughout the body with a seperate system where it can 'flow' through (unlikely cause mana is everywhere)

Sadly the more detailed complex workings of mana are not mentioned and everything regarding that direction is up to my own theories. Probably advanced informations like that will only be available for people of the highest positions or it is not even known at all.

I will probably have to look into this subject later again on my own or once I gain access to sources mentioning it, no use thinking about it now without even experience in manipulating mana.

At the end of the book several different types of magic are mentioned. These different elements of magic are Fire, Water, Earth, Air, Life, Death and Arcane. Every race has one element that seems to be easier for them to master but can generally learn everything.

For Humans this is Fire, Water and especially Ice as a variation for Nordics, Earth for Dwarfes, Air for Rapiders, Life for Elves, Death for Dersirs and Arcane magic for Keras.

Further explanations are not given but there should be no problem solving this problem while being in a big library with a whole general magic area to explore.

At the end of a long night reading about the different types of magic, Arcane magic seems to be regarded as 'elementless' instead of actually being the 7th element for many people but 1 interesting sentence is stuck in my memory that is out of a little book that was in the corner behind the other books and explained more about Arcane magic.

'If magic is based on mana, then all elemental magic is based on Arcane magic, thus depicting it as elementless is right as it contains every element.'

This may be true as another book explained that thhere is no actual difference in how good each race can handle their special element compared to the other races. The only difference is that for Humans for example using Fire magic seems to be almost by instinct and everyone else has to train to the point of being able to use Fire magic just like them but once that point is reached the difference becomes nearly nonexistant.

Magic:

There are 7 different types of magic, often regarded as 7 elements

These are Fire, Water, Earth, Air, Life, Death, Arcane

Each race has one element they that feels more natural for them to use:

Humans: Fire; Nordics: Water; Dwarves: Earth; Rapiders: Air; Elves: Life; Dersirs: Death,

Kera: Arcane

Elements:

Arcane:

-May or may not be the foundation of all other elements

-strong element of Kera so research important!

Just at the moment of seeing the first rays of sunlight shine through the windows noticing that a whole night was spent researching in the library without eat nor sleep the first thing I do is eat some bread while leaving the library to enjoy the starting day.

During the night Armand seemed to check upon me regularly and it was written on his face that he did not have an hour of sleep this night and ended up staying up all night seeing how concentrated I was on my research.

"Next time I will not let you stay here all night long, even a poor librarian like me has to get some hours of sleep and close up the library during that time. Was the time atleast worth the effort?"(Armand)

"Oh, yeah, sry for that. And yes it was very helpful, thanks. I promise next time I will get a hold of myself and remember the time. Have a nice day (and possibly some sleep)!"(Kris)

Sadly for Kris the night of information gathering did not give him a single stat point. If there wouldn't already be the confirmation in his own skill that stats are possible to train he would probably think it is unlikely for that to happen after this night.

Status WindowName:KrisLevel:1Race:KeraGenderMaleClass-AlignmentNeutralTitles-Fame0Infamy0Heath:95/95Mana:125/125Stamina:111/111Satiety:100/100Strength:6Endurance:6Vitality:7Agility:11Wisdom:14Mind:13Intelligence:11Luck:10

SkilllistTraits:MemorizationSkills:Kera's PhysiqueBeginner 13%