Gentle Water was shocked to have found the player whose name was still fresh in everyone's minds. Ethereal, the man who killed the first boss, completed the first hidden quest, and received the first title. Nobody knew exactly how to make a guild yet but Gentle Water couldn't shake the thought that the man in front of her could definitely be the first. Sora and Gentle Water stayed silent for two minutes until a man came up to her and traded over a small bag. She had completely forgot about the trade after she heard that a legend was sitting across from her. Once she received the money she did a quick count before directly handing it over to Sora, the man who had came with the money had a worried look on his face, he was still thinking of the possibilities of him being a scammer. If the man had known that he was accusing quite possibly the number one player in the game as being a scammer, who knows what kind of face he would make.
Sora counted out the money before giving Gentle Water the 100 Beginner Mana Potions and 100 Beginner Mana Potions of Extended Spirit, which she collected before anyone could get a good look at what was happening. Gentle Water had kept wanting to open her mouth to say something but in the end she could only give a polite farewell before leaving. Sora gained 75 Gold in that one transaction. Although the time it took to make the potions was undeniably long, he was also able to get his Alchemy Skill up to level 6 which made up for it. Sora separated 87 Beginner Mana Potions of Extended Spirit for personal use and put the last 50 up for sale, along with the last 30 normal mana potions.
“Mana potions for sale! Restore 200 mana with one drink, great for when the dungeon opens! Not enough? Then buy my other mana potion that boosts your Spirit by 10! That means an extra 100 mana on top of the 200 mana that it refills!”
Sora had instantly attracted the curious eyes of the players around him, mainly mages and healers. They have seen many scammers but none have had such bold claims with their products. A few who heard him decided to give it a shot while the ones who were still apprehensive watched carefully.
“You said an extra 100 mana?”
“That’s right, this potion right here, go ahead and take a look.”
The player who had came up was a man who was dressed in black robes, wearing a hood that even covered his face. The man felt his heart beat a little faster as he picked up the vial of dark blue liquid. Normally a scammer would only show you the vial after they get the money, then run away after they successfully sell the fake mana potion. The man only held the potion for maybe a second before he pulled out 2 gold coins and placed them in front of Sora.
“How much are they? Ah nevermind that question, just get me however many this can buy.”
“25 Silver for the normal ones, 50 Silver for the Spirit boosting ones. What ki-”
“Spirit boosting ones please!”
The man was ecstatic, he had thought that the price would be a little more steep than what it was. Well, he knows that he would definitely overprice players if he had the only stock of mana potions in game, especially Spirit boosting potions. The man took out two more gold coins and also purchased eight of the normal mana potions. Once the players that were watching saw what happened they all lined up, basically fighting for the mana potions. There were definitely not enough potions to supply all the people here so Sora had to disappoint a large amount of players by sending them away empty handed. Sora counted out his money that he made as he tore down his shop near the fountain. Sora had made 107 Gold and 50 Silver from selling his mana potions, while also holding on to 87 Beginner Mana Potions of Extended Spirit for himself.
Sora decided to make one more stop before heading back to Frost Peak Mountain. He walked into a large building that had a bank on the first floor and an auction house on the second floor. The first thing Sora did was deposit his extra Beginner Mana Potion Recipe into the bank, he didn’t really need it right now so it was just taking up space. The next thing he did was go up the stairs into the auction house, where he proceeded directly to the girl with the pointed ears once again.
“Hello Sir, what can I do for you today?”
“I would like to put an item up for auction.”
Sora put the healer staff and Lanche staff up for auction and confirmed the deal on the glass plate. Afterwards he started to browse the auction house for any items that might pique his interest, he had enough money to start investing in items now so he quickly glanced through potential items. Everything currently in the auction house didn’t have a lot of profit margin so Sora left the auction house without buying anything. He decided to go kill Frost Elementals until it was time to meet up with Gzarna.
…..
Sora disappeared into the Frost Elemental cave about a day and a half ago, today he finally comes out with a level up and an inventory full of mana crystals, 544 Small Mana Crystals to be exact. Sora had spent a good amount of time harvesting the Azure Spirit Flowers before and after he left the cave, leveling his Harvesting Skill to 6 and giving him enough of the flowers to make half his mana potions into Spirit boosting mana potions. It was just about time for Sora to meet up with Gzarna for his hidden quest, he had been thinking about it since he began killing the Frost Elementals but couldn’t pull up even the slightest hint of what the quest may be. As Sora neared the base of the hill he could see many soldiers running back and forth throughout the camp. The medical tents seemed to be full and many soldiers could be heard moaning in pain within them.
Sora walked up to the commander's tent and walked inside, Veradon had his face covered with his hands as he pulled his hands through his hair and let out a long sigh. Gzarna was nowhere to be seen so he walked directly to Veradon.
This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.
“Greetings Commander Veradon.”
“...”
“Veradon?”
“Huh?! O-oh it was just you Ethereal.”
“Is everything alright?”
“No, I’m afraid things have gotten out of hand. Our troops were in the final cavern, clearing out the corrupted insects like normal… Then disaster struck. Another tremor spread across the ground and a large chasm opened up within the middle of the cavern, spewing out some kind of demonic energy. A good hundred men started to scream in agony as their skin turned black, horns burst from their heads, and bony black wings sprouted from their backs. Gzarna has stabilized things for now but I’m not sure how long things will last…”
“Is Gzarna still within the cavern?”
“Yes, she’s currently the only thing holding the corrupt energy at bay with some weird silver orb.”
“I will report to her immediately and see if there is anything I can do.”
“Alright… Be careful Ethereal.”
Sora went directly towards the cavern but stopped on the way there, a group of players with a very familiar face popped out of the jungle and entered the camp. The NPCs didn’t seem to care and continued to run from place to place. Drazi was at the head of the team with three others behind him, they had what looked to be a healer, an archer, an assassin, and Drazi was a mage. At first Sora was going to continue forward but he suddenly stopped, thinking about the different possibilities that lies ahead. Sora didn’t know what would be within the cavern, he could be walking into his death for all he knows. Sora made a decision as he walked towards Drazi.
“Boss, it looks like we finally made it through the jungle.”
“It was a lot harder than we thought, we had to sacrifice Jed to those snakes…”
Drazi suddenly trailed off as he watched Sora walking towards their group, he recognized him from the armor he was wearing and realized that it was the same man he had seen walking through Frost Peak Village before his team had left. The other team members went on guard as Sora came towards them, Drazi didn’t seem to mind as he also walked forward to meet him.
“Boss, what if he-”
“No need, he doesn’t even have his weapon drawn.”
Sora and Drazi met up, both measuring the other person silently for a while before finally starting a conversation.
“Is there anything I can do for you today?”
“I’m not going to beat around the bush, I’m about to do something that I have no idea about and could possibly lead to death. Although it’s dangerous, it’s also a hidden quest so I would like to complete it if possible. If you're interested the I would like to propose that we trade, my hidden quest for help from your party.”
Drazi was a little taken back, it was hard to meet someone who could be so up front about things like this. Normally Drazi deals with the higher ranked players of games and has learned that most of them are hard to trust. If it was one of those people within Sora’s shoes then he could have not even mentioned the hidden quest and hogged it all to himself while saying that there was just some boss that he needed help with. Drazi thought for a second, he needed more information on this player before he would make any rash decision. Just as he was thinking about trying to get more information about this player Sora revealed some of his player information.
Ethereal, The Honored
Level - 41
Drazi had his suspicions but didn’t dare to assume that the man in front of him was Ethereal. Ethereal had already turned into somewhat of a legend, even amongst the top tier players. Drazi himself had just barely hit level 39 and he was considered within the top 1% of players, yet this man had already hit level 41. Sora didn’t release any other information publicly, he trusted Drazi to some extent but not his party. The party had already reported sighting of Ethereal to some of their friends right as the information was revealed. Sora wanted to avoid doing something like this but didn’t really have a choice if he wanted to earn the trust of Drazi. After pondering for a while Drazi finally accepted the invitation and Sora invited him and his party into his group.
“B-boss, shouldn’t you be the leader?”
“We are only here as helpers. Don’t think you are high and mighty in front of someone who is offering to share a hidden quest with us.”
“H-h-hidden quest?!”
“That’s right, so let’s make sure we aren’t dead weight or he might change his mind.”
“Yes sir!”
Drazi seemed to have a good hold on his players, they may be lacking a little in character but they followed orders from Drazi with resolution. Sora kept his end of the deal and shared the quest with all the players. As soon as the quest was received the archer and the assassin both left the party. They were trying to take the quest and run so they could do it with their own group, it was very embarrassing for them when they checked and the quest they had just received was gone. Drazi was furious, apparently he has not yet made a good example of what happens to guild members who betray his trust. Drazi wielded his staff, prepared to fight, but Sora acted before he could even start chanting a spell.
Sora activated his Ring of Forgiveness as he used [Relentless Pursuit] on the archer, the archer barely had any time to respond and was only able to get off one attack which resulted in a number that was only double digits. Sora had 112 defense and 1700 HP, resulting in a pathetic amount of damage being dealt to him. With a [Concuss] and a [Slash] the archer had already fell into a critical state, he tried to drink a health potion as he came out of his stunned state but was met with a swift death instead. The assassin reacted with a flurry of attacks as soon as he saw his friend die but each attack was parried easily. The assassin was confused what the debuff he was getting was, each time he was parried the amount of something called ‘Unworthy’ would go up. It was like a slap to his face when he was being called unworthy by the game, which resulted in even more sloppy attacks. After ten parries Sora used [Slash].
-1,150
Not only did the man have to take 100% extra damage from [Vanquish the Weak], he was also unlucky enough to take a critical hit, resulting in a one shot death. Drazi and the healer both had shock written on their faces, what kind of damage was that? He also got hit once by the archer but the damage he took wasn’t even a fraction of his health. Sora didn’t even have a red name after killing two players, meaning he also had some kind of item or skill that stopped the PK debuff. Drazi had almost forgot that the two dead players were the ones who betrayed him as he stood there in a stupor. After coming back to his senses Drazi immediately put a kill order on the two rogue players, meaning anyone who sees them are to kill them if possible. Drazi still wanted to make an example out of disobedient players and decided that the punishment should be more severe this time, what if their guild offended this guy who could one shot one of the best players Drazi has?
“I’m sorry for my guild members actions, they will be put on the kill list for their failure.”
“It’s not that big of a deal, the quest can only be done if they stay in the party with the original quest owner, they just made it easier to get rid of the untrustworthy teammates before we start.”
“No, either way I am sorry, they fall under my jurisdiction and I should have properly trained them… Either way we are short two people now, should I get some other players from my guild?”
“That won’t be necessary, I know two people who can fill the spots.”