CHAPTER 2: WORK, READ & TRAIN
‘How stupid I’m....’ After checking my purse a few times, I realized that Reuben only gave me 3 gold. And with all my money included, I still needed 8 silver and 40 copper more to pay all the items.
Thinking for a while I decided trying to negotiate with the shopkeeper for a discount. “Hmmm…. Sire, can you give me a discount for these. Great merchant like you will surely giving me some discount to buy these much items,” even though I wasn’t that good with words, I still tried to use flattery to gain the good side from the old merchant.
As I suspected, my words wasn’t have any effect to the shopkeeper. But luckily for me, since I’m a regular to the shop and I was working for Reuben, that old merchant willingly to give a little discount. “Well, since you buy these much and I know Reuben for a long time, I’ll give you these for 3 gold and 15 silver. That’s all the discount I can give you lad.”
“I really appreciate your offer, but can you give me a little more discount. I still lack 3 silvers and 40 coppers to pay you. I can go back to Reuben and ask for more money, but we’re in tight schedule and need these materials as soon as possible.” I decided to tell the truth to the old merchant. Actually I could try to flatter that old man more and begged, but since I’m not that good with words I didn’t do that. It’s also not my style to beg for other people.
Looking at me, the shopkeeper thought hard for a while and then said, “Fine, I’ll take all your money and give you all of these if you do something for me first.”
Ding!
Fame +1 for a successful bargain
Ignoring the popped up window, I quickly answered the merchant, “Sure, what can I do for you?”
“Follow me,” the old man walked his way to the back of the store and I was following him. “I just got lots of supplies and needed them placed in my storeroom,” reaching the destination the old man said while pointing his finger to the boxes.
Ding!
The cost for a deal
For the deal you made with the old merchant, that man needs you to help him moving 218 boxes of items to the storeroom.
Difficulty: F
Reward: 3 silver and 40 copper reduction on the purchase’s cost
Requirement: A deal with the old merchant
“I’ll do it now,” not wanting to waste any more time, since I had a time limit with my other quest, I quickly started moving the boxes. Luckily for me, the room is only few steps away from the boxes.
Actually, the quest is impossible for the level one player like me. But because I already trained myself in the training hall for quite some times, I already gained 14 rises in strength and with the strength gained from seeing the sculpture of The Lion Monster last night, which was still active, it’s a possible for me to lift ten boxes at a time. It took me more than 30 minutes to finish the job.
Ding!
Quest Complete!
“Huff.. huff… Can I take my purchase now?” I said those words while panting from the overwork.
“Sure my friend. Nice to do business with you,” the merchant said to me with a huge smile on his face.
Without wasting any more time, I quickly took all the groceries and run my way to the restaurant. I know that I have less than five minutes to finish the quest, so I ran like my life was on the line. In the last minute, I finally reached my destination.
“Huff… huff… huff….” Panting hard, I gave the groceries to Reuben before falling on my knees, “Here you go.”
“What took you so long?” Reuben was a little annoyed for me to take quite some time to finish shopping, but he still relieved that I bring him all the materials needed.
“Let me take some water first,” while still on my knees, I took my canteen out and drank the water inside. After that I explained everything that happened before.
Ding!
Quest Complete!
The Chef’s Request
The chef is happy for you successfully bring him all the materials needed for his job. He also appreciate your trouble to fulfill his request.
Difficulty: E
Reward:
20 silver
Cooking skill
Fame +2
You gain a level
Your relationship with Reuben increase by lots
“Is that so? Sorry to trouble you that much Liang,” Reuben smiled and then took something in his bag and handed it to me, “Here’s some silver to pay you back for your service and all of your money spent.”
“I’ll also teach you cooking skill if you wish to learn it,” the chef added that statement right after I took the silvers.
“I’ll gladly take your offer,” I answered with a huge smile showing how happy I was having that chance to learn cooking skill.
Ding!
Skill: You learned Cooking
‘This is great, not only I regain my silvers and some extra, I also gain the skill and a level,’ I was happy with my achievement since it was the best achievement so far and a lot different than any other rewards gained from all of the previous quests I did before. Of course I understood that it was nothing compared to the higher ranked quest I would do later, but enjoying it for a little bit wasn’t bad.
“Then I will take my leave if you don’t have anything else for me to do,” I decided that since I already gained the cooking skill, there was nothing else I could gain in that place. I could keep working there and collect some more money, but I could do that elsewhere. I better moved myself to the other place where I could learn one of the skills I wanted in my list.
For your information, there were a few skills I intended to gain before I took a warrior profession. In the top of the list were cooking, repairing, smithing, and item identification. Cooking is a must since it would help a lot when adventuring. Smithing is a skill I will gain later when I increase repairing into intermediate level. Even though it’s not that important for me, but having smithing in earlier stage will help reducing the cost for buying equipment and when I have the money later I can buy better equipment from a skilled blacksmith or gain better equipment from monster’s drop. Repairing skill is what matter more, since it will reduce the cost of repairing my equipment and also reduce the time to go back to civilization when hunting far from village or town. As for item identification, I couldn’t find any method to gain it with ease. In the information I gathered, the skill could be learned by paying quite sum of gold or in some cases a chance to learn that skill will arise after finishing a quest. That’s why I decided that I will start my adventure life after learning cooking and repairing first since smithing will be gained later after increasing repairing and the chance for me to get item identification at the moment is low.
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Back to the story, just right before I left the place Reuben stopped me and said, “Wait Liang, I still need your help to finish the order. Since you already learn cooking skill you can help me finish the job faster than if I do it alone.”
Ding!
The 100 breads
The chef needs a help to make 100 breads for his customer and since you already learned how to cook, he asks for your help in this matter.
Difficulty: F
Reward: 5 silver, 5 Reuben specials and some experience for cooking mastery.
Requirement: Good relationship with Reuben and already learned cooking skill.
Thinking for few seconds, I decided to take the job since it will increase the skill I just learned even just a little bit. “I’ll gladly help you, but I don’t know anything about baking bread.”
You have accepted the quest
“Don’t worry, I’ll teach you about it,” Reuben was happy that I accepted the job.
After that we started to work with all the materials I bought before. Even though I was asked to help Reuben making bread, but I just did some trivial things like taking the materials that Reuben needed and gave it to him, putting the bread into the stone oven and keeping the heat in the oven steady by kept burning wood under it. While all the delicate things were done by Reuben himself. Even though it was not much for me to do, but I at least knew how to make bread and also gain 2 level increases in cooking.
“Thanks for your help,” Finished with the job, Reuben gave me my rewards with a smile on his face. It consisted of 5 silvers and 5 Reuben specials. Reuben special is bread that has a value of single silver each with a 20% stamina reduction when eaten. It also has a major increase in satisfaction when eaten.
“Thank you and see you later chef,” I was happily accepting the rewards and left the restaurant with a very good mood. Reaching level 4 in cooking after finishing just a single quest surely will boost anyone mood even just a little. Not only that, having 25 silver in my hand at that moment and a huge possibility of it increasing in the future would guaranteed a slight better equipment when I finally decided to leave the city for an adventure. Also with 5 Reuben specials in my hand, I wouldn’t need to bother spending some money for food in few days time, it also gave a slight increase in training time too.
Since it took quite long time to finish the job, I skipped going to the library and just gone straight to the training hall to train. Of course I didn’t forgot to see the sculpture first for stats boost and fill my canteen. I ended that day by fully training in the hall and gained few stats.
The next day started, and as I planned yesterday, I didn’t go to the restaurant to work. Instead, I walked my way to the smith a few blocks away from the training hall to get my next skill. Actually I wanted to go to the most famous blacksmith in Serabourg where lots of player already learned the skill, but while I worked in the restaurant I heard information that there’s another blacksmith that excelled in repairing equipment than any other blacksmiths in town. Knowing that, of course I changed my plan and moved my repairing skill’s learning place to that location.
After walking for about fifteen minutes and ate my breakfast on the way, I finally reach the blacksmith and walked my way to the counter in where I met with a small boy who was working there.
“Hello, can I help you?” the young boy greeted me with a smile
Looking at that, of course I politely answered with a smile on my face too, “Can I meet with the owner?”
“What do you need with Mr. Black?” the boy asked still with a smile on his face.
“I want to ask for an apprenticeship with the smith here,” I explained my purpose coming to the place.
With that explanation, the boy suddenly lost his smile and then said with an annoyed tone, “Wait a minute.”
‘Hmmm…. What’s with the sudden change of attitude?’ I thought after seeing that. But it’s quickly washed away as I met with the owner and also the smith of that place.
The smith is a bulky old man with lots of scars on both hands, he’s quite tall and of course muscular from all the hard work he did. He’s bald but have a thick white moustache on his face. His eyes are sharp and his nose is humongous.
“What do you want for me young one?” He asked me with his rowdy voice.
“Just as I explained to your employee, I want to ask for an apprenticeship with you. I want to learn how to repair an armor and a weapon,” I politely stated my purpose to him.
“Hmmmm….” The old smith humming while he took a good look at me closely, maybe he wanted to inspect me. After a minute passed, he finally said, “Nope, I can’t have you as my apprentice. You still lack the strength and vitality. I only accept someone with at least forty in both strength and vitality.”
‘How did he know of it,’ I really couldn’t help but wondering how the smith learned my lack of stat with just a look. But I decided not to think deeply of it and then said, “I see that I need forty for both strength and vitality to become your apprentice. Fine then, I’ll be back in a couple of days.”
Don’t know why, but the boy looked happy and smiled hearing my conversation with the smith. He clearly gave a brighter smile than before.
“I’ll see you soon,” I said that as I left the place. Both the boy and the smith watched me leave for a while and then gone back to their place afterward.
‘Let’s see, where shall I go now?’ leaving the blacksmith, I was wondering what should I do know. I could go straight to the training hall and continuing my training so I could gain some stats faster. I already gained 11 stats in strength and 10 stats in vitality, so with the bonus from seeing the sculpture I just need 3 stats in strength and 4 stats in vitality to achieve the forty stats mark. And with the additional 5 stats from my level up, I just need two more stats, but I decided not to use my bonus stat now and would use it later. That’s mean I would need around 3 days to train fully in the training hall.
‘But I need to read in the library for my wisdom and intelligent,’ then I suddenly remembered that I already skipped one day reading in library to finish the work in restaurant yesterday. ‘I guess it’s better to take it slow,’ knowing that I still had less than 2 weeks in game time before I could left the town, I decided to take it slow and gone to the library first for now.
Author's note:
I know it's not much, but here is chapter 2. I hope you all enjoy reading this piece and I'll gladly accepting anyone who want to point out grammatical mistakes for me.
The next chapter will be out in around 10 days or more, it will be two chapters out at that time.
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