I had no control over my body; it was like being trapped in a dream. Oh, I must have fallen asleep.
“See? Nobody’s around! Relax now, Charlie,” Lucas said in a sweet voice right into my ear. His big hand patted my long hair and assured me with his smile. I looked up to him and bitted my lip; the fear building up in my belly dissipated, and I grabbed his hand.
“I will protect you, so don’t be afraid.” He had to yell because of the plane’s engines, and I still couldn't hear him properly, so I just smiled as he caressed my cheek and lips. Loud sound of siren rang, and the ramp lowered. I peaked outside and my heart stopped when I saw the height. We walked together to the edge, but with each step my fear forced me slow, ultimately to a crawl.
“You can do it! I believe in you, Charlie!” His warm breath reached my ear, and it tingled. For some reason, a pleasant feeling spread throughout my entire body. Oh, I knew the reason, but didn’t want to admit it. Despite my inner hesitation, his confidence helped me to make the last step and finally jump out.
Back in my apartment, I woke up on the floor and massaged my temples. What happened, what was that? It felt so real to be a dream. Was I imagining things? Crap, gaming long time in these old… I meant, in these brand-new-but-still-bad capsules could do that to my body for sure.
Putting on a spare bra that was lying next to the sofa, I asked, “Tin-can, how long was I out?”
“Twenty-Six minutes.”
Hm, yes, I passed out, damn. “Call Lucas.” I crawled near to a capsule and rested my back on the metallic surface. It still smelled like a brand-new capsule - the smell you often can find in hospitals. Ugh.
Connect to his device didn’t take long, and soon his face popped up at the tv. “Hi Lucas,” I waved at him. “It took me longer than I expected. Y’know the old creep wanted to touch all over me…” I half-joked.
I struck gold, because his face twitched before he sighed. “Charlie… Do you still want to go to Patrick’s?”
“Yup, we could,” I nodded. “But before that… I passed out, and I had a strange dream. Do you remember if we ever tried to jump out of plane and I feared heights? You helped me to calm down and jump.”
“What? Wait there!” he yelled in surprise and closed the call. What the hell?
Shrugging, I decided to at least make myself presentable before he shows up. To his credit, he arrived in a record time of ten minutes; just as I finished my shower and walked out with only a towel.
“Charlie!” He hugged me with a trembling voice. “Your stupid computer let me in. What were you thinking? We need to crush it! You can’t trust anyone! We need to talk about all of this, your change, your memory, future, you hear me?”
I nodded, but kept quiet. I hadn’t shared his sense of urgency; why was it so important to talk? Because I passed out when I exited my experimental capsule? We held hands, and I guided us to a sofa; I still had two beers behind the backrest and offered one to him.
“Lucas. You were in the military as an operative, right?” He nodded, so I continued with a smile, “See, when I try to solve problems, kingdoms fell. When you try to solve problems, you create empires. I need your help.”
As we both drank beers, I explained my dream and everything that bothered me. Yes, I was talking for a long time and I hid only the fact I came from future, Lucas wasn’t ready.
“Charlie, you can’t just ignore problems, it will destroy you from the inside.” He carefully caressed my shoulder, threatening the stupid towel to fall. I forced a smile, but that small thing made me smirk and feel uneasy. It showed how much he cared, but not as a brother anymore. Different thing, but similar at the same time. I hope my body won’t change me, I still prefer girls, beauties like Lisa.
“I have been this way since forever; you know that. I have been a coward. When I faced a bigger problem, I fled to the pub, and the problem disappeared,” I said after a while of consideration, lowered my head and rested it against his shoulder; it felt somehow natural. Was it the hormones, or maybe something rewriting my brain? We lived in a simulation, after all.
“I trust you, Lucas; I trust you will do the best for both of us. Now, I need to do what I can do the best - play the game. You need to do what you do the best; whatever that is.” He didn’t answer. I finished my beer and smiled at him.
“We are stronger together than alone. Don’t worry, if you tell me to jump, I will kick you to the butt.” As Lisa taught me, I hugged him in a same fashion, and added, “I have a main quest coming, I need to prepare for it, thus I need sleep. Please take care of yourself and do not destroy Tin-can. I need him for reconstructing my body back.”
He finally came to himself, clenched his fist and resolutely said, “I understand. I will help you. Together, we can do this, Hawk will suffer.” Who? What a bird had to do with all this? Whatever. With that problem out of the way, my mind calmed once again and the stupid pain in my chest subdued.
No, you won’t consume my soul, mister fear, or whatever are you!
With a loud ringing sound, Tin-can woke me in six hours; that damn idiot! I wanted to storm into the living room and smash him to the pieces, but my memory of setting the alarm came in time to stop me from touching an empty bottle of beer.
Because of my change, my sense of smell improved, so I had to take another shower. Great. Once I logged in, I went first to the village’s armory; I had to get a better weapon that my pathetic staff.
A warm light of torches illuminated countless shields, swords, and spears hanging around the wall. The owner decorated the supporting wooden beams with miscellaneous items like horseshoe or nails. Neat. At the back of armory was a counter from one wall to another, and village soldier nervously stood in front of it.
“I am running low on everything! You can’t just barge in and say nonsense. Scram!” Sturdy man sitting behind yelled at him and gestured even to me to go away.
The young soldier shook his head and sidestepped from my way. Merchant's direct stare stung at my pride of veteran gamer girl, I wasn’t some village punk rubble, but I calmed myself and said, “Sir, I want to buy things, not receive. I am-”
“A paying customer?! Why didn’t you say that sooner? What your heart desire?” His transformation into a kind merchant was scary.
“I want your advice, because I am a Priest, yet I have skills that require a melee weapon. I know there are excellent weapons with a long reach, but I don’t know exactly what type would be the best,” I said in a low voice, because the soldier looked at me with an odd stare. After I checked him by sideway glance, I caught him examining my butt. Oh, I see, no problem. Wait, no!
“A long-range melee weapon, you say? Hm, for your level I have only a rare whip, but it is expensive. Folks are using swords, lances and such classics, not whips.”
He pulled out a whip from an old dusty chest, and it sparked in the dim light. A black leather covered the handle, and at it had a blue crystal fitted on the bottom. Its long main body was made of many strips of dark blue leather. Damn. I was drooling at such an amazing sight.
[Whip] Quality: 3-rare ATK: 5-6 Restriction: Level 5 Armor-pierce: 3 Effects: twice the damage if the target’s armor is pierced, otherwise damage is halved Price: 10g
“That’s fine, I take it.” Without a second thought, I handed him ten gold, to which he blinked a few times. Have I overpaid? I’m rich for a day, and that’s the result. Terrific.
Quickly grabbing the gold coins from his counter, before I could change my mind, he added, “Young Priestess, the whip is only a one-handed weapon. You can buy something to hold in the other hand.” That’s true. I almost left the shop without getting the most of it! What’s wrong with me?
“I would love to have a shield, but I can’t, I am a Priest. So perhaps a dagger?” I debated out loud and was searching through the display cases behind him.
“I have shield exactly for you!” The man ran to the storage and room and dragged back another old, almost broken chest. It creaked as he pulled it over the floor and opened with an enormous wave of dust. After a few curses because of the dirt, he handed me a cute silver bracelet big enough to put it to the middle of my forearm.
[Magic shield] Quality: 4-exceptional DEF: 3 Restriction: Level 5, 20 INT Activation cost: reserve 20 mana while the shield is active Price: 100g
What?! I always thought Magic shields were magic swordsman exclusive! Wait. I bit my lip to stop my excitement to show on my face and shook my head. No more overpaying!
“How long did you store this junk? Someone must have made a joke of you,” I said as calm as I managed to. Hiding one’s excitement is the way, isn’t it?
“I thought a fine Priestess like you will find a good use of it. I was wrong.” He stored the shield back, and my greedy eyes followed it.
“Alright, better than nothing. I will give you fifty gold for it.”
If you come across this story on Amazon, it's taken without permission from the author. Report it.
“Fifty? I paid seventy gold for this heirloom! I can’t go lower than eighty.” His face palled as he hid the chest. Was he bargaining or serious?
“You got cheated, right? I will reimburse the cost for you and sprinkle it with five gold, seventy-five then,” I haggled back and sweetly smiled.
“You cheeky… Fine, it's yours.”
I happily strode out of the Armory and evaded the angry soldier by going to my next stop - the Enchantment-Alchemy shop. My first thoughts were about how to spent the nine hundred gold, so I browsed the most expensive things. And oh yeah, one of them caught my eye.
[Ring of mini Alchemy] Quality: 5-epic DEF: 3 Restriction: Level 5, 20 INT Effect: shrinks normal potion to small size Price: 800g * use the ring maximum of 10 second after creating the potion
The ring was beautiful; the creator decorated red runes all around it with small ruby stones, and it glowed in purple-red light. But the price was so high… That meant that only me, The Exploiter, could justify it. Well, if this new exploit will work. Even though the shop was void of any customers, I grabbed the ring before anyone could snatch it and presented it to the lady at the counter.
“Welcome again, dear! You chose a lovely ring, but you are at the start of the Enchanting journey. You should reach Enchanting at least at the beginner stage before delving into alchemy.”
“Lady, I am an Expert Enchantress now,” I explained to her with a big smile and clutched my ring. My precious.
She laughed and then offered me a quest in a loving tone, “if you are an Expert Enchantress, then I will sell you the ring and even give you two bags of supplies for free.”
“I’ll show you how good I am,” I accepted the offer and moved to the center of the shop, where it was most spacious.
Removing my Tiara from my head, I put it down and placed an Essence on its center and dusted it evenly all around. Next I focused on the rune and drew gently all the contours.
As the old pervert taught me, I took my sweet time and gradually pushed my mana in, not rushing it. It was harder to focus, but I didn’t struggle as much with keeping the mana in. The rune glowed and sucked the dust from Tiara; for the first time I was enchanting, and I quickly replenished the dust. The red snowflake gloved with a nice red light, and I presented it to the lady.
[You enchanted the Wreath Tiara. Rating: 83%]
[Wreath Tiara] Quality: 1-common Effect: +1 INT Enchanting: +6% fire resistance * use the ring maximum of 10 second after creating the potion
Her eyes widened and handled the item with care. “I have never seen someone so talented. For you to reach an Expert in one day! Amazing! Even though your enchanting speed is slow, worse than most novices, you can improve. Remember, the speed isn’t everything.”
Even exploiting has its flaws. She handed me two bags full of supplies, expensive ones! One bag was for Alchemy and the other for Enchanting. The bags were super useful, because they could hold up to eighty different stack of items. My inventory was limited to forty items, so it was a big upgrade. Finally, some decent gear. For my shopping spree, I put a pile of recipes on the counter.
“Dear, have you forgotten you can learn only a three recipes per stage? Yes, you can learn twelve runes as an Enchantress, but only three for Alchemy.”
Damn, yes, I forgot. I had a hard time as a blacksmith, because I learned three swords and not small daggers as I should have. Oh, the times I spent in the mines… Sighing, I got rid of most of the recipes; no point to waste the precious slots with normal quality.
[Rune of Agility] Quality: 1-common Effect: Adds Agility to equipment Ingredients: 1x Enchanting powder Price: 20c * use the ring maximum of 10 second after creating the potion
[Agility Potion Recipe] Quality: 1-common Effect: +5 Agility for 10 minutes Ingredients: 1x Alchemy Reagent, 1x Rodumbine Price: 10c * use the ring maximum of 10 second after creating the potion
[You have learned the secondary job: Alchemy]
[You bought cauldrons x10]
[You lost 825 gold]
The last thing I needed was ten cauldrons. One cauldron was as big as a small pot, at least the iron-black one, short enough to handle in one hand. The lady had warned me once again that I needed only one, but little she knew I needed exactly ten, no more, no less. The newly found Exploit was waiting.