Summoned to another world, but I'm a coward!
Chapter 2 - I bought so many cheats but I'm still weaker than a villager!
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Rick's first steps in the world of Avendis ended up with him collapsing in a narrow, dirty alleyway. Just as he wanted to get up on his feet, a wave of disorientation hit him. 'This body... it's not my old body. Fuck..'
His discomfort grew as he explored his body more. Not only had he changed his race to the native human population of this new magical world, he also had all of his basic stats normalized to a value of 10. This resulted in abrupt changes to the way he needed to exert his muscles in order to move smoothly.
Luckily, he hadn't taken long before getting enough control over his body that he could stand and walk slowly. Further adaptation would take at least a couple of days. 'This actually doesn't feel quite bad. I never felt as fit as before. My old body definitely had inferior physical stats. It's too bad my intelligence probably got dumbed down a lot. I need to get some quick level ups to get my mind back in top condition.'
Status Name: Mondayle of Huntington Class: Artisan Age: 24 Subclasses: None Level: 1 Fame: 0 Race: Human Health: 100/100 Mana: 100/100 Experience: 0/100 Titles Mortal of Earth: ???. Hidden. Forgotten Nerd: Some nerds are obnoxious in showing off their intellects. Others just plainly repel most potential love interests. You just sit in the corner, forgotten by everyone but your teachers and your mom. Hidden. Attributes Strength: 10 Intelligence: 10 Dexterity: 10 Wisdom: 10 Agility: 10 Perception: 10 Constitution: 10 Luck: 10 Seclusion: 1 Mental Resistance: 1 Free attribute points: 0 Elemental affinities Earth: 0 Wind: 0 Water: 0 Fire: 0 Light: 0 Darkness: 0 Traits Vagabond: You are a solitary traveller whose only home is the roads. When travelling or in the wilderness, you are able to make the best out of limited resources. You tire less quickly when walking, but grow restless if you stay in one location for too long at a time.
Everything looked good for a newbie, even his new name. He really had no idea if it sounded strange in this part of the world, but he hoped plagiaring the name famous craftsman would just make people think he was a wannabe and that many other children were named after those great men.
After looking around in the alleyway and noticing there's no thugs waiting to rob him of his goods, he sat down and checked his belongings. His Lucky Coin Pouch hung from a braided string around his neck. Opening the lip, he could see an illogically large space from within. 'Heh, so that's what spacial magic looks like.'
The first thing he retrieved was his Possessed Chronicle. The cover was rough and old and bound by leather. Its size was small, like a diary more fit for a tween than an adult. Still, having something small might make it harder to scribble his notes, nevertheless it was easy to carry and fit just right through his Pouch if he stretched its lip.
First things first, he needed to wake up his Chronicle. "So, how do I do this? Hello, are you there buddy?"
The book remained remarkedly inert to Rick's prodding. He opened the book and browsed a few pages, only to encounter empty yellow contents. 'Perhaps it needs something to eat. I remember that this book lives off its owner's mana. I need to pump my mana into the book somehow.'
This presented a little challenge. How could I pump energy I never felt or grasped before in my life into an inanimate book? Then he remembered he picked mana perception as a skill. Even though he only got his foot in the door with a mastery of just a measly beginner 1, just having a skill recognized by the System meant that he should gain some instincts or knowledge on how the skill worked. He started to look around, trying to see with his eyes and other senses if there was anything unusual about.
It took longer than he thought. More than ten minutes went past without spotting anything magical. Just as his eyes grew moist and weary did he detect a thin, black stream of.. foggy something. Rick jumped to his feet and followed the stream further into the alley until he flipped away a rotten plank of wood.
An explosion of smells and rot greeted his nose. Rick had to keep in his rebelling stomach as he beheld a dead rat. Already a couple of insects were crawling over the little corpse, chewing it apart. He forced himself to keep watching, ignoring the dead animal and the crawling insects and follow the black stream of gas. 'This should probably be some kind of death energy.'
His deduction was confirmed when he got a blue popup.
Your Mana Perception has increased to Beginner 2.
He already noticed the thin stream of black becoming easier to see. It hadn't become brighter or more distinctive. Rick just felt like his 'mana eyes' had grown a little more accustomed to distinguishing mana from other things.
Elated with his small success, Rick tried to find other sources of mana, only to find the alley to be devoid of any other energies. Even when he tried looking at his own body he hadn't been able to see a wisp of mana. Without knowing how his mana looked or felt like, he had no idea how to summon his mana and feed it to his book. 'Perhaps I should have bought the mana manipulation skill. But no, I just had to be confident I could bumble into the skill so easily.'
He'd shelve this problem for later. Right now he checked his belongings and made sure they were all in place. His Journeyman Crafter's Backpack was rather hefty, and he wouldn't be jogging with all that weight any time soon. Luckily, with his beefed up strength and constitution, his body was robust enough to carry around the pack without getting dead tired.
Summoning up his meager courage, Rick patted his villager clothes and stepped out of the alleyway and into the busy street beyond. His eyes opened widely as he took in the sights. He appeared to have landed into a fairly substantially sized town right beside the main street. From all the wooden shops and other structures, this town didn't look too new or too developed. A few stone buildings including some mansions could be seen further in the distance. The rest pretty much consisted of poorly built shacks and mud houses.
Rick turned his head up ahead to a small plaza where some merchants have set up their stalls and wagons. He carefully made his way closer, trying his best to keep from bumping into other villagers and rickety carts barreling in the middle of the cobblestone street. Unfortunately, his sandals bumped into too much stone and junk. 'I need to get some better footware. Medieval fantasy streets are evidently pure crap, sometimes literally.'
Nevertheless, the smell wasn't that bad. Most of the bad smells came from the horses and other animals pulling the carts, carriages and wagons. Curious, Rick spotted a rather clean drain along the sides. 'This town has a sewer, and by the looks of it the construction hadn't finished too long ago.'
Sewers and hygiene were a relatively modern invention in his old Earth. That he could find something as sophisticated as a sewer in this bustling town meant that his fellow Earthlings already influenced the technological development of Avandis.
"Kosha fruits, freshly picked, 3 silvers a piece, you can't get any better than this price!"
"Selling repair services! I can fix up any kind of metal weapon. Name your price."
Besides the small crowd and stalls, two things stood out in the plaza. The first was a marble statue of some heroic warrior at the center. The second was a small fenced portal that had a number of town guards patrolling it. After Rick sat down on a bench next to some greenery he started to focus on being unobtrusive while listening to the conversation.
There was so much to learn just by eavesdropping. Rick realized that he had no problem interpreting the language, though he had to jump through a few mental hoops to stop mentally thinking in English. 'It's a good thing God gave me comprehension of the local language of this kingdom as a freebie. I need to adapt to the local language. Nothing good will come from blurting out some old Earth words.'
Instead of jumping around and potentially making tons of blunders, Rick found it prudent to just take a step back and learn about his surroundings. He watched the town guards keep a respectable amount of presence. He listened to the shopkeepers hawking their wares while their customers tried to haggle down the price. He spotted a number of kids running around or munching on the sweets their parents bought. Overall, the town called Greenwall was a prosperous place.
That was fortunate, because Rick could see many townsmen and other working people performing beyond regular human limits. One laborer was lifting a log even five men on Earth couldn't carry. A female courier whose clothes clearly signified that she was a low earner nevertheless darted through the crowd like an olympic sprinter on crack. From the large amount of people who were able to perform so dazzlingly, it seemed that most adults had already accumulated plenty of attribute points.
'Only kids and teenagers behave within normal limits. It seems the System only showers grown ups with level ups and attribute points. Even though these guys might not have a lot of levels, in a simple brawl just one punch might be enough to crunch his brains.'
The System profoundly influenced the lives of even the poorest of citizens. Such an accessible RPG-like progression system made it easy to pile on a few specialized stats once they were able to accumulate a few experience points. While non-combat activities greatly reduced how much experience they could gain, it was enough to make a person five times stronger or faster than the norm after a decade of hard work.
Luckily, Rick possessed the intermediate Artisan class, which from what he could gather would usually be gained upon level 20 through class evolution. An intermediate crafting class, especially a rare one like his, provided plenty of benefits to make up for the ardouous journey to obtain it. In particular, Rick was looking forward to the experience boost he would receive when he started crafting.
'All of the combat classes that cost more than 2000 points in the Point Shop were already strong. Even though they couldn't compare to the extravagant choices like the divine classes, they still made my heart palpitate. A 3000 point crafting class should not be any weaker in that regard. I shouldn't envy these townsmen who likely only adopted simple classes with shallow potential.'
If Rick wanted to, he could have opted to pick an advanced class. It would have been outright abusive if he started entering Avendis with an Advanced class at level 1. His massively enhanced attribute gains alone would even cause prodigies to weep. Still, those classes represented paths at the end of one's class development, so they held no potential for evolution. Rick wasn't willing to give up the flexibility of class evolution so he settled for an intermediate class.
In any case, Greenwall seemed to be a relatively settled frontier town, built first as an outpost by the Elswick Kingdom. When their war against the Orcs over the mountains had ended, the Kingdom developed the town properly under the leadership of their new King whose statue adorned the plaza.
"King Matt Demonbane, huh." Rick smiled crookedly at the oblique homage to a certain movie star. "I guess he's the reason why this town has sewers."
A couple of other observations made it clear that Earthlings have introduced other technological concepts to this virgin fantasy world. The book seller right at the other end of the plaza boasted that his books were printed by the latest iteration of the so-called 'prentice press'. Some street preacher was loudly ranting about how there was only one God and that the other Gods like the God of War and the God of Fire were all fake and didn't exist. Most people just gave a wide berth to that fellow.
Rick honestly felt a little disappointed that others already made their mark on this world. Somehow, this contamination of Earth-based ideas and inventions already marred his wonder of Avendis. It was like going on a trip to see the ancient Coliseum in Rome, only to find out some random people had renovated the ruins with modern construction methods.
Putting those thoughts out of his mind, Rick focused instead on learning the customs of this kingdom. To relieve his stiffness, he opened his Backpack and retrieved the children's book that introduced the basic geography and peoples of Avendis.
'Hmm.. Avendis is far larger than Earth, and only a couple of continents have been discovered, at least by the kingdoms of the current continent.'
The Elswick Kingdom was a predominantly human kingdom, but was open to other races. Rick confirmed that with his own eyes when he saw that at least a quarter of the people in town were dwarves, elves, lizardmen and of more exotic origin. It wasn't entirely harmonious, but it could have been much worse. The book already stated that many other kingdoms in the temperate continent of Oarwa were ruled by a small group of races, with everyone else being reduced to second-class citizens or outright slaves.
Fortunately, humans were the most prevalent race in the Oarwa continent, and had a presence in most other discovered continents. Though weak and unremarkable, as prolific breeders they settled everywhere like rats.
Rick settled down and alternated between devouring the rest of the book and listening to the conversations around him. He especially took note of the prices being bandied around. He learned that coppers were enough to buy a single bite of bread, while silvers could be spent on most basic goods and services. A single gold coin could be exchanged for a decent weapon or a tumble with a high-class courtesan. 'Seems like my gold can last me quite a while. It should be since it was worth some actual points.'
If he thought of coppers as cents, silvers as dollars and gold as hundred dollar bills, the prices started to make a little more sense to him now, though price inflation was much less severe compared to his old world. 'Right now my first goal is to learn more about the world while making enough of an earning to offset my stay at an inn.'
He learned there were several kinds of places he could bunk in. The traditional inns offered security, privacy and decent stew. Most well-to-do merchants and high ranked adventurers stayed in those places. For day laborers and the other poor people without high quality skills and classes, they stayed in hostels where a bunch of beds were propped together in as tight a space as possible. Rick didn't feel comfortable leaving his Backpack full of belongings in a room of dubious people.
There was also the adventurer's guild. They provided a range of services, including cheap rooms for beginners. Unfortunately, registering at the guild came with a lot of obligations, such as following combat training and completing a quota of missions. From what Rick heard, while the names of high ranked Adventurers and their groups were bandied around like sport stars, the low ranked Adventurers were treated as barely anything better than beggars.
At least that answered his unspoken question why there were so few bums and other homeless people on the streets. It seems like living in a world where the System existed made it easy to teach basic combat skills to even the most untalented villagers. Those second and thirdborn sons with nothing to inherent from the farm and some frustrated women running away from rotten marriages could all easily join the Adventurer's Guild if they didn't have any other ways to make a living.
Unlike Rick's image of adventurers as a noble and couragous calling, adventurers were treated like lowborn cannon fodder keeping the surrounding forest clear from rampaging monsters. The story might have been different if the region hosted a profitable dungeon, but at this time adventurers mostly had too much fighting potential and not enough brains. 'Kind of like rednecks toating their guns in public.'
The only reason why they weren't treated worse was that the region was prosperous in herbs, wood and other special materials. The monsters that made their lairs in the surroundings were also good sources of hides, horns and other reagants. Seeing that most adventurers had to risk their lives outside the town walls for even the lowest ranked gathering quest, Rick gave up registering at the Adventurer's Guild. He sat around until the end of the day when the sun started to dip below the horizon.
Your Seclusion attribute has increased by 1.
'Well that confirms my suspicion that I can train up attributes outside of level ups.' Rick smiled happily, relieved that his hours of sitting while occasionally trying to avoid getting noticed was not in vain. Besides his quality Backpack, nothing else about Rick drew any special attention. He tried to make the pack less conspicuous by rubbing some dirt over its surface, making it seem it had survived a long trek in the woods.
Then, he stepped up and trudged to find an inn. He dodged busy laborers heading back to their little shacks and weary townsmen heading to the taverns for a drink. He finally found a decently nestled establishment just off the main street that catered to merchants. Opening the door and heading inside, Rick found the atmosphere to be neat and cozy. Not a lot of customers were at the table eating dinner, but those that did wore clothes that even to Rick's untrained eyes looked upscale.
"Hail to Demonbane, mister." A middle-aged matron greeted him behind the counter. Her eyes glanced a little disdainfully at his poor clothes but took a good look at his Journeyman Crafter's Backpack. 'Yes, yes, I have money, don't worry about it lady.'
"Hail to Demonbane. How much for a seven-day?" Rick offered the obligatory greeting of Elswick that he'd heard a thousand times already. The hero worship he'd heard about Matt Demonbane had already driven him crazy in his first day in Avendis. 'This guy has such a hard-on for himself that he's resorted to plagiarizing Hitler.'
"Ten silvers for a single person room, fifty silvers for a seven-day. Your stay comes with free breakfast but you'll have to pay for lunch and dinner. Parking for wagons and carriages is free for the first day, but you'll have to pay extra for the care and feeding of your animals."
Rick smiled wrily as he opened his Lucky Pouch and retrieved a gold coin. "No wagon. I've got everything I need on my back. Can I also have some stew brought to my room?"
"Of course mister. I'll bring it up to you later and retrieve the bowl in the morning." After returning his change, the proprietess led him up two stairs and passed him his inn key in front of a small door. "Have a good night."
For the price, the room was passable, as large as a poor college student's dorm room. It had a bed with a decent stuffed mattrass and some sheets, which was the important thing, and included a table and a seat, a closet, shutters and some kind of magelight that lit up automatically when he entered. Putting down his pack in front of his bed, Rick sat down in front of the table and retrieved his Chronicle, still sleeping as ever. "How am I going to wake you up?"
How could he channel mana when he didn't have any experience with magic?
Then he slapped his head. "I frigging forgot that I bought two spells."
It should really count for something when he had to spend Points to gain the knowledge on how to cast two minor spells. He first focused on casting Alchemical Fire. As soon as he put his mind into it, he felt as if he vaguely remembered some feelings and concepts that he already knew, but just remembered. 'This is really weird.'
Ignoring his confusion and discomfort, Rick mechanically tried to follow the instructions his instincts and vague knowledge told him. He felt something move underneath the skin of his arms. A narrow, hot channel of something strange creeped upward and ended at his fingertips. Pressure built up underneath the tips until suddenly a small fire erupted between his hand.
Rick stared with fascination at the pure display of magic. He reveled in the feeling of exercizing his new magic muscles and senses. Now that he looked closer, he could vaguely spot a purple thread of mana underneath his veins, following the countours of his body until it transformed into red at the end before turning into fire.
Your Alchemical Fire spell has increased to Beginner 2.
Now that he knew what to look for and how to squeeze it out of his body, Rick ended the spell before he spent all of his mana. He took hold of his Chronicle and gently imitated the Alchemical Fire spell, skipping the complicated process of turning the mana into fire. It went remarkably easy, and through Rick's Mana Perception he could see that the small book was eagerly gobbling up his injection of mana.
Your Mana Perception skill has increased to Beginner 3.
After draining half his mana, the book stopped its gulping. The Chronicle vibrated before humming to life. Its cover pulled back as if ready for Rick to start writing. He waited a few moments longer, only to grow a little disappointed not much else happened. 'I thought it would immediately behave like a pet, but it seems I need to nurture this Chronicle over a longer time.'
Sighing, Rick retrieved a pencil and started organizing his thoughts. He started writing the first day of his diary, taking an extra long time to detail as much as he could remember from the Point Shop while his memory still last. He gobbled up the stew a waitress had delivered in the meantime, and condensed a mug of water when his throat started parching.
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When Rick finally woke up next morning, he didn't even remember when he finally went to bed. After getting downstairs for a quick breakfast of last night's stew, the budding Artisan planned out his next moves. He pulled out his squirming Chronicle and opened an empty page.
My goals for today
1: Read one of the books I bought from the Point Shop
2: Try to gain easy experience and level up a bunch of times
3: Craft something that can sell
Rick planned to read one of the biographies while figuring out his solution to his money and level situation. Fortunately, Artisans like most crafters gained experience and could level up simply by crafting. The problem was that he couldn't wastefully experiment with all of his crafting disciplines if he wanted to recoup his losses. His eavesdropping at the markets had made it clear to him that he couldn't just hammer a few planks into a chair and put a price tag on his creation.
"It's all about the guilds, huh. Every fucking profession has a guild."
If he tried to use his woodworking skills to make furniture, the Woodworking Guild would disapprove. At the very least they would go make trouble and test how easy it was to break his work. The only way to avoid their wrath is to register at the guild, but that wouldn't solve anything as all the crafting guilds were strict on skill masteries.
The way things usually went was that aspiring crafters would apprentice themselves to a senior journeyman or master craftsman. This way, they not only built up their skill masteries, they also learned a wide variety of recipes or blueprints and gained connections in the craftsmen community. They were all rather insular institutions that disdained outsiders without any references from notable patrons. And this applied to pretty much any field of crafting, whether it was blacksmithing or enchanting.
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'What I need to do is try to create a product that won't make the guilds shit all over me. That doesn't leave much... except for pill refining, maybe.'
Technically, pill refining was a subbranch of alchemy. It was a relatively new field that hadn't really spread to this part of the continent yet. There was a chance to corner a market that nobody else could fulfill. 'Potions are too big and cumbersome, let alone fragile in many combat situations. Dimensional storage items like my Pouch and Backpack cost too many gold so hardly anyone can really carry a lot of potions in the first place.'
The region around Greenwall was a dangerous area filled with dangerous monsters and poisonous plants. Adventurers nevertheless braved the dangers in order to harvest the valuable bounties from nature. Rick can easily imagine how he could take advantage of these environmental conditions.
'There is an abundance of poor adventurers who might be willing to buy cheap pills. It doesn't matter if my products are crappy with my beginner mastery, a single quick pill might mean the life or death of a wounded warrior. I can produce the pills from buying the materials the adventurers harvest. The Adventurer's Guild is buying them at rock-bottom prices anyway, so if I offer to buy them with a slightly higher price I'd get enough materials.'
Considering the substantial death rate of low-ranked adventurers, the entire system the Adventurer's Guild was maintaining differed little from slavery. Still, that wasn't any of Rick's business. He just needed to buy low and sell high. Just enough until he got bored of the place. 'I've got the Vagabond trait to keep in mind. I can't stay here forever and slowly grind all my skills like a turtle.'
With a pretty good plan in mind, Rick left the inn and stepped outside to a fresh new start. First, he walked around the markets, carefully inspecting each product or service for sale in order to get a further sense of the local economy. He then visited the local apothecary, but found the shopkeeper to be remarkably unhelpful once Rick expressed a little interest in crafting medicines himself. 'Well, I can see how it would piss him off if a competitors walks up to him and asks for tips.'
He actually received the most help from the Adventurer's Guild. Despite not being an adventurer himself, the receptionist was open to another source of life-saving medicines and recommended buying a book on local monsters and herbs. Though the price of a gold coin was an extravagant price, Rick hardly hesitated opening his pouch to toss out the coin. 'Hm, interesting. It seems my luck isn't that bad. I definitely remember I had one silver coin less yesterday.'
With a valuable source of information at hand, Rick waved the receptionist goodbye and went back at the busy plaza. For the rest of the day, besides taking a break to eat he spent his time devouring the regional guide and the biography of some famous dwarven weaponsmith.
You have gained the passive skill Herb Lore!
You have gained the passive skill Appraisal!
The regional guide was definitely worth the coin. While Rick still had to figure out the pill recipe by trial and error, he already had a vague idea which ingredients constituted a minor health potion. With this new Herblore skill he could spot the ingredients he studied in the wild and it would also help him in their appraisal now that he finally learned that essential skill. 'The appraisal skills were cheap in the Point Shop, but it's just so elementary that I getting it with own effort was a no-brainer.'
Only the biography lowered his mood. While a lot of the things he read were too unique to dwarven culture to apply to his situation, he nonetheless felt as if he was too naive until now. The various crafting guilds did a lot more than collecting dues and making sure their standards were met. Sabotage, blackmail and hiring assassins were the ways in which craftsmen fought against each other. When the only regulatory authority in your field are your fellow crafters, things could potentially get dangerous.
Your Seclusion attribute has increased by 1.
'It's actually more dangerous not being a part of a guild.' But Rick had made his choice at the start. He would not tie himself down to any organisation and rely on his nonconfrontational plans and stealth skills to avoid attention. 'I'm still a level 1 newbie for now, but I'm not going to bow my head forever when I get my masteries up.'
Like yesterday, Rick ended his evening by writing down his thoughts in his Possessed Chronicle. He also dedicated another section with a summary of ingredients and potential pill recipes. Naturally he also hadn't forgotten to feed the Chronicle with mana. From the way the Chronicle purred happily at the end, Rick had a feeling he was going in the right direction. 'This little thing will be a lot of help once he's awake.'
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The small pill furnace belched a filthy cloud of black smoke.
Your experiment has failed to produce a pill.
You have gained 1 experience.
Rick sighed as he opened the lid and threw away the gunk. He then condensed some water with his household spell in order to clean the insides. The trash bin already stored fifteen previous failed attempts. He went back to his Chronicle laying on top of his portable work table and noted down the results of this latest experiment.
Your Condense Water skill has increased to Beginner 2.
At least he got a bonus out of this work.
"Hah, I gotta tell you kid, you should stop fooling around with that fancy pill refining shit. None of them new cultivator skills make any sense." A drunkard sitting in the dirt said while taking another swig of his jug of wine. "Just go back to the Alchemy Guild and rent a workspace and make some real medicine for a change, not some quack counterfeit."
Annoyed, Rick didn't bother responding. For some reason this retired drunk was perceptive enough to ignore Rick's attempts at hiding in plain sight. 'He must be a retired soldier or adventurer with his scars and all. It's never a good idea to mess with a veteran. Who knows how many friends owes him favors.'
Rick prepared another batch of ingredients and cast his alchemical fire spell yet again.
All Rick needed to do was follow his plan. When he spent 1000 points to acquire pill refining as a skill, he knew the price would be worth it somehow. And when he started making his pills, he could feel it somehow. Compared to other crafts like woodworking or blacksmithing, pill refining had a light and ethereal quality, as if it wasn't quite real. It made sense in a way, as the old crafts used very established tools and methods to work wood or metal.
Pill refining on the other hand tried to do the job of alchemy, but with mana as an active ingredient, catalyst and fuel source. Regular alchemists were accustomed to creating potions, salves and powders through the use of various processes and tools. Pill refiners merely prepared their raw ingredients and inserted them into a pill furnance with specific timing and order and utilized their mana, or 'qi', to transform, react and merge the disparate ingredients in a single coherent whole.
Naturally, to replace all of the different processes of regular alchemy and make it all fit in a single pill furnace required exceptionally delicate mana control. That was where the 1000 point purchase came in. Just by possessing the beginner mastery, Rick was able to use his newly found pill refining skill and fumble his way through most of the tedious parts. In other words, Rick possessed a rudimentary but solid foundation to develop his skill.
His only problem was that he lacked pill recipes. Due to his Artisan class, he won't have any big successes when following a standard recipe, but it would have helped if he had a guideline. By fumbling around with the ingredients of the most simplest health potion that can be mixed with the local ingredients available, Rick felt as if he was reinventing the wheel.
Your experiment has failed to produce a pill.
Your Alchemical Fire spell has increased to Beginner 3.
You have gained 1 experience.
Rick released another curse as this latest attempt ended up in another slurry of black pudding. He knew he was getting closer to success, though. He felt it when the experiment neared the end. It felt like the ingredients started to merge, only to fail halfway. For his next attempt, he could try to follow his previous steps, only to take another direction just before he would usually fail.
'Perhaps it was not a bad idea to start as an Artisan without any recipes. I get the feeling that Artisans thrive in this sort of exploration. At least in the field of alchemy, it's not about finding the best medicine or the most efficient processes. It's about enjoying the endless possibilities and trying to grasp hold of the more elusive ones.'
If he was a xianxia protagonist, he would currently be obliged to spout philosophies of how his Dao of Alchemy was about making the impossible possible while other alchemists and pill refiners pursued more limited visions. Still, Rick had to admit it was a good way to look at his current outlook on pill refining.
'You could say that my personal Dao is the Grand Dao of Flight. I yearn to fly free in the skies, unbound by any tethers to the worlds above and below. My wings beat faster than my pursuers. I hide deep within the most obscuring clouds. I may occasionally land and make my presence known with my droppings, but I will always take flight after a rest. Swift! silent! Soaring! All of creation rests beneath my wings and none of the heavens above are any wiser!'
"Mondayle, be careful of that! Don't throw it away!"
His thoughts painted a grand image, so much that he almost threw out the contents of his furnace reflexively if not for the drunkard's warning. Rick's eyes turned round as he beheld the new System message.
Your experiment has succesfully produced a new, unique pill.
As the inventor of this pill, you have gained the right to name this pill and influence its description.
As an Artisan, you gain increased experience when refining the next ten successful pills, and they will provide additional bonus effects. When refining more than hundred of the same pills, you will suffer escalating penalties to success rate and experience gain.
Your Pill Refining subskill has increased to Beginner 2.
Your Wisdom attribute has increased by 1.
You have gained 150 experience.
Level up! You have achieved level 2.
"Well fuck. I guess all that melodramatic Xianxia shit does help with this kind of crafting." Rick had a minor understanding of how this time his attempts at refining a pill became successful. Other than modifying his refining methods to avoid the obvious pitfalls from his previous experiments, he also maintained a different mentality throughout the crafting process. His mood mattered. If he kept being depressed and thought constantly of failure, then it was no surprise his pills turned into pudding.
"C'mon kid, upon up and lemme see if you cooked up anything decent." The drunkard urged him, almost sloshing his jug of wine when he bumped it against Rick's shoulder.
Sighing, the young Artisan picked up a tweezer, opened the lid and carefully retrieved the pill. At first glance, it looked rather dull. The pill appeared as a solid, light brown capsule, as if it was a tiny failed cookie. He utilized his recently gained Appraisal skill to obtain more details.
+40 Health
Regenerate 1 Health per second for 10 seconds
+7 Agility for 10 seconds
Accumulate 50% healing fatique Description: This pill is an artisanal variant of a lesser healing pill that not only heals but also aids in escaping dangers. The desires of its creator has been infused into the refining process in such a manner that it has elevated a small portion of the medicinal potential that rested in the ingredients used.
"That's a mighty fine little pill you have there." The old man commented appreciatively. "It doesn't heal as much as a minor health potion though, what a pity."
Healing forty health was a respectable result for a pill refined by someone with only Beginner 1 mastery. Minor health potions usually fluctuated from healing 50 to 80 health depending on the quality. The most important thing to Rick right now was that he was the only supplier of these pills that also boosted agility. A boost of seven agility was not much to experienced adventurers, but it might make a difference to those low level dredges.
As for healing fatique, it was a standard mechanic that made the next source of healing within a minute half as effective. Certain Alchemy Masters were famed for concocting supreme medicines that boasted lower healing fatigue, but Rick couldn't even dream of achieving that kind of performance. The only other way to counteract healing fatigue was to obtain special traits or raise your constitution to very high levels.
Right now, Rick staked his hopes on this little brown pill. If the budding Artisan was smart in selling the pills, he might easily recoup not only the raw materials he wasted getting this far, but also replenish his slowly dwindling gold.
First, he needed to give this pill a name. Since it was his very first successful crafting, Rick wasn't hurried and carefully contemplated its name. 'I could give it a simple name like Emergency Pill, but I feel like that would be a disservice. No matter what, I have infused my emotions in the creation of this pill, so in accordance with Xianxia conventions it needs a flamboyantly exaggerated name to pay homage to its mystical creation.'
"This is my first successful pill. I shall name it.. the Swift Crane Rebirth Pill!"
You have successfully named your new creation as the Swift Crane Rebirth Pill.
The recipe of the Swift Crane Rebirth Pill has been registered in the System. Subsequent creations that greatly resemble this recipe will adopt this name by default.
You have gained 1 fame.
Do you wish to sign your new creation with your Artisan's mark?
Rick declined to sign his pill even with an alias. He was just a Beginner Pill Refiner, after all. It took an enormous amount of conceit to take pride in inventing and refining a Beginner level recipe. Besides, he wanted to avoid grabbing attention. 'Once these pills are circulated in Greenwall, I'll probably attract the attention of the local Alchemist Guild. They pretty much have an oligopoly on healing potions here and don't appreciate outsiders intruding their comfortable arrangements.'
Greenwall was a frontier town connected to only a handful of trade routes to larger towns and cities. A few merchants trying to get rid of their potions here wouldn't raise the ire of the Alchemy Guild, but once someone floods the market with thousands of specimens, they might attract calamity if they hadn't made any arrangements beforehand.
"Hey, how about you sell this to me. I still have a couple of silvers in my pouch."
Rick's eyebrows rose in surprise. "I thought you're already retired. Do you even need this kind of pill? I'm planning to charge a lot more for this pill than a normal potion."
The drunkard lazily waves his hand. "Nonsense. What's your price?"
"Seventy-five silvers."
"Great Gods! That's more than I used to earn in three days back in my younger years!"
The price Rick quoted was three times more expensive than the minor healing potions the local apothecary sold. He had carefully considered the pricing and thought the final amount to be reasonable to a certain segment of the market. After all, this pill not only combined instantaneous healing, it also provided a small but potentially lifesaving boost to agility.
He also had to consider the economics of his business model. His low mastery resulted in a lot of failed refining and waste. He had to recoup his investment and running costs, so Rick dared to be greedy in quoting such a high price.
The drunkard grumbled some more, but after he heard that Rick would charge this price for the common quality pills, the man relented and forked out the silvers. Rick eagerly received the silvers before the old man left for the nearest tavern.
"Good luck to you Mondayle. I hope to hear your name again when you make a career out of this shit. Hail to Demonbane!"
'I hope that never happens because that's when people will start to hound me. Luckily, my Forgotten Nerd title automatically decays my fame.
Finally left with some peace and quiet, Rick wrote down the recipe along with his thoughts before resuming his production. He spent the rest of the afternoon using up his dwindling ingredients, eventually resulting in producing ten uncommon and fifteen common quality pills.
Swift Crane Rebirth Pill Type: Medicine Pill Quality: Uncommon Effects upon consumption:
+40 Health
Regenerate 1 Health per second for 10 seconds
+7 Agility for 10 seconds
Accumulate 50% healing fatique Description: The Swift Crane Rebirth Pill is an artisanal variant of a lesser healing pill that not only heals but also aids in escaping dangers. The desires of its creator has been infused into the refining process in such a manner that it has elevated a small portion of the medicinal potential that rested in the ingredients used.
Swift Crane Rebirth Pill Type: Medicine Pill Quality: Common Effects upon consumption:
+35 Health
Regenerate 1 Health per second for 10 seconds
+5 Agility for 10 seconds
Accumulate 50% healing fatique Description: The Swift Crane Rebirth Pill is an artisanal variant of a lesser healing pill that not only heals but also aids in escaping dangers. The desires of its creator has been infused into the refining process in such a manner that it has elevated a small portion of the medicinal potential that rested in the ingredients used.
Not only did he produce plenty of pills, he also gained a large amount of experience. The production of uncommon pills netted him a large amount of experience, though not as much as the first pill. For the common pills, he only gained a pitiful 5-10 experience points, just enough to bump him up to level 4. Furthermore, he was easily able to advance his skills due to the fact that they sat at the starting threshold. Rick just needed a way to use them effectively in order to advance his mastery.
Your Alchemical Fire spell has increased to Beginner 5.
Frequent use of Fire spells has increased your Fire Affinity by 1.
Your Condense Water spell has increased to Beginner 4.
Your Pill Refining subskill has increased to Beginner 3.
As a parent skill of Pill Refining, Your Alchemy skill has also increased to Beginner 2.
Through the use and complex manipulation of various types of mana, you have gained the Mana Manipulation skill.
Your Mana Manipulation skill has increased to Beginner 2.
Your Intelligence attribute has increased by 1.
All in all, not bad for a day's work. He savored the gains while he could, since it was unlikely he'd make such quick gains again as his masteries required vastly more experience the further they advanced. "I think it's time to level up. Status Window."
Status Name: Mondayle of Huntington Class: Artisan Age: 24 Subclasses: None Level: 4 Fame: 1 Race: Human Health: 100/100 Mana: 70/140 Experience: 23/2000 Titles Mortal of Earth: ???. Hidden. Forgotten Nerd: Some nerds are obnoxious in showing off their intellects. Others just plainly repel most potential love interests. You just sit in the corner, forgotten by everyone but your teachers and your mom. Hidden. Attributes Strength: 10 Intelligence: 14 Dexterity: 16 Wisdom: 11 Agility: 10 Perception: 10 Constitution: 10 Luck: 10 Seclusion: 3 Mental Resistance: 1 Free attribute points: 18 Elemental affinities Earth: 0 Wind: 0 Water: 0 Fire: 1 Light: 0 Darkness: 0 Traits Vagabond: You are a solitary traveller whose only home is the roads. When travelling or in the wilderness, you are able to make the best out of limited resources. You tire less quickly when walking, but grow restless if you stay in one location for too long at a time.
His Forgotten Nerd title and Artisan class already provided free intelligence and dexterity attributes upon level up. Rick had felt the difference every single point had made. The attributes didn't scale linearly, meaning that his 16 dexterity wasn't 1.6 times nimbler than someone who had 10 dexterity. He actually felt the difference should be no more than about 20%, though his measurements were too vague to be certain. 'At the very least this doesn't mean someone can totally dominate someone else when they are just a couple of levels apart.'
Nevertheless, 18 attribute points represented a vast bounty that could change his fortunes. The question was where to put them. If he raised his intelligence, wisdom and perhaps perception, his success rate when crafting would substantially be improved. Yet his thoughts turned into a different direction. 'Most low level crap don't require high attributes when I want to craft them. At this stage, it's more dependent on mastery and luck. The synthesis of my Swift Crane Rebirth Pill could be attributed to preparation and luck in equal measures. I can always build up my preparation, but raising luck is impossible no matter what I do.'
He could raise the attributes related to crafting when he performed any crafting related actions. This was no secret. People also commonly knew that it was easier to raise their attributes when they were at a lower value. If Rick wanted to plan for the long term and make the most out of each free attribute point, he'd have to spend them all on the qualities that were hard to train.
"I'm going to do something stupid. I'll dump my remaining sixteen points into luck."
Status Name: Mondayle of Huntington Class: Artisan Age: 24 Subclasses: None Level: 4 Fame: 1 Race: Human Health: 100/100 Mana: 70/140 Experience: 23/2000 Titles Mortal of Earth: ???. Hidden. Forgotten Nerd: Some nerds are obnoxious in showing off their intellects. Others just plainly repel most potential love interests. You just sit in the corner, forgotten by everyone but your teachers and your mom. Hidden. Attributes Strength: 12 Intelligence: 14 Dexterity: 16 Wisdom: 11 Agility: 10 Perception: 10 Constitution: 10 Luck: 26 Seclusion: 3 Mental Resistance: 1 Free attribute points: 0 Elemental affinities Earth: 0 Wind: 0 Water: 0 Fire: 1 Light: 0 Darkness: 0 Traits Vagabond: You are a solitary traveller whose only home is the roads. When travelling or in the wilderness, you are able to make the best out of limited resources. You tire less quickly when walking, but grow restless if you stay in one location for too long at a time.
Just seeing that gigantic 26 luck already made Rick laugh. Unlike when he raised his strength, he felt nothing in his body had changed or transformed. Luck was something he still couldn't grasp even though he likely had more luck than 90% of the people in Avandis. He might very well be right in thinking that nobody would dare squander 16 precious attribute points on luck when all the other ones provided immediate and clearly defined benefits.
'I'm not one to follow the crowd. I need to make the most out of the 3000 points I spent on acquiring the Artisan class. While dexterity and intelligence and other basic attributes are important when crafting normal things, to create something really unique requires serendipity.'
Rick had the feeling the more he built up his luck, the more his Artisan class allowed him to fudge the strict requirements of existing recipes or stumble upon completely new creations. 'I'm like a gambler in Vegas putting all my chips on a single bet. Time will tell whether I'll win big.'
At that moment, a loud bell rung in the distance. Other bells followed that single sound, obviously starting a town-wide alarm. The merchants at the plaza hastily packed up their goods while the shoppers simply ran towards their homes.
"A Great Bloodneedle migration is flying past our settlement!"
Event Quest: Great Bloodneedle Migration Quest Description A rare migration of predatory monsters has crossed the path of Greenwall. These vicious bird monsters number in the thousands and are all attracted to easy sources of blood. Greenwall's population needs the protection of every able man and woman to withstand a large loss of life.
Contribute to the defense of Greenwall by providing aid in any way you can. Any significant action that helps resist the onslaught of Bloodneedles will earn you Greenwall Merit, a temporary currency that can be redeemed for various rewards after the attack ends.
Killing Bloodneedles earns 1 Merit. Other actions such as healing wounded guardsmen or rescueing beleagered townsmen also rewards Merit. Do your best to save Greenwall! Quest Progress 0 Merit earned. Success Conditions Earn at least 1 Merit. Failure Conditions Do not earn Merit. Event Quest Rewards Redeem Merit for various rewards. Merit can be exchanged at the guard headquarters up to fourteen days after the attack ends.
"Fuck!" Rick cursed as he regretted not choosing a defensive skill or two to weather this sudden storm.
Feeling the urgency, Rick clumsily dismanted his portable pill furnace and stuffed all his gear in his Backpack. He had no idea what kind of monster a bloodneedle was, but from the mere fact that they could fly sent him to shivers. The town walls provided no obstacle to flying animals. Occasionally, he had already seen expert archers shooting down solitary flying monsters. These marksmen might be able to handle a small flock, but even they could be drowned when hundreds of birds came at the same time.
"Hold your positions! Buy time for the Great Lord and Ice Master Feyer's return!"
While most locals appeared to have found shelter with practiced ease, many confused visitors and foreign merchants were stuck outside. All of the inns, taverns, bars and shops had closed shut their doors, unwilling to admit any distressed people inside the safety of their walls.
"The first wave is coming!"
"Ahhh help me!"
Flashes of needle-thin red dove from the air and into the streets of Greenwall. Many guardsmen met the wave with upraised shields, but others had their bodies pierced. Rick only avoided getting hit himself by huddling behind the statue of Matt Demonbane.
Screams echoed everywhere as the wounded had their blood sucked out by the cat-sized birds embedded in their bodies. It was an excrutiating way to die and Rick positively turned paralyzed at the threat of death. 'How the fuck could this have happened right after I upgraded my luck?'
Luck worked in mysterious ways. Evidently, even his 26 luck failed to prevent such a calamity from befalling him. Right now, all he could do is find some overhead shelter and rely on his hiding skills to ride out this storm.