[Protection of the Vampire Hunter(Temporary)]
[Description: You have been given a protection charm by a Semi-Mid Vampire Hunter. All damage taken by the creatures of the night will be reduced by 20%!]
Taking a look at the blessing I wondered if I could go hunt the undead but then recalling that horde in the forest, I put that idea at the back of my mind. While I do need to increase my level faster, and this charm certainly would be helpful, but against that many? Clearly a suicide.
Plus the dagger's durability won't hold out for long. I tried to be as neat with it as possible, but that too has a limit.
I stretched a bit before looking at the gloomy night around me.
The chilly wind blew against my face, while my eyes sought protection in the lamp fire outside the closest house. And slowly moving towards the centre of the settlement, I looked at the three paths leading to each portion of the objectives I needed to finish.
To the north was the deep forest area of the undead sighting, and given its night, I will probably find undead, with finer quality and denser quantity. I was skilled enough to run away from them, but since that was all I could do, there was no reason for me to go there.
West would lead me back to the Vampire hunter so that was another way crossed.
Finally, the south-east path which was connected to the main road that led to the major towns and cities. While I do not need to go to the Main Town, the quest regarding the road cleaning and blue flowers can be completed. If I am lucky, I can even find the ring and finish the ring quest, though it would be rather tiresome with the lessened visibility.
"Let's finish this before dawn," I mumbled before I took out the fire stones and used them to increase my fire affinity.
Being a [human], my affinity for all the elements is 0, so I need to start from scratch. And while it is easy to increase it in the beginning, as you reach higher percentages, it becomes more complex to increase it even by a single percentage.
One of my initial goals is actually to get 20% affinity in all elements, which is something anyone can do as long as they have a general idea of how to increase the element's affinity.
[5 Fire Stones have been used! Affinity with fire increased by 5%!]
And then, using a nearby rock as I pour a bit of my mana into it.
[Glow!]
Neat! I smiled as I walked towards the South-East, humming in a low voice as I kept my guard up for any surprise attack from my surroundings.
…
[Location: Liwa Town]
As the night fell, the excited players slowly distributed themselves according to their needs. Some went to fulfil quests, some decided to search the town for special rare quests and hidden places, while many simply went to explore nearby settlements and such, hoping to level up faster and get stronger, in case they could get their name written in the rankings.
And one of the main reasons behind the sudden rush of levelling up was the name on the rankings that a certain player unlocked on the first day of the release.
[Player Rankings]
[1. Ezekiel - Level 7]
[2. ]
[3. ]
[4. ]
[5. ]
One must know that in order to be on the ranking you need to be at least Level 5. And the fact that not one player was able to reach the rankings, even hours after Ezekiel did, spoke volumes about the feat that he did.
Some speculated that he might be cheating, others believed that he might have stumbled upon some form of rare quest. Though one way or another, there wasn't a single person who was not talking about Ezekiel right now.
"You need 250 Exp to reach level 5. Which means this Ezekiel guy was at the very least killing monsters 2 levels above him," an orange-haired mage spoke with a pout as she looked at her own status.
[Miralda - Level 4]
"Well, Marie. You shouldn't compare yourself to others. Killing 20 monsters while choosing a path of a healer isn't something normal either," spoke a man wearing white from top to bottom.
Even though this white noble-like clothing didn't give him any buffs, it represented the organisation behind him, the Emperials. Something that his father was pouring all his money into, hoping to get a strong standing within the world of Arcadia.
[White - Level 4]
The above duo were Daniel and Marie, the two friends who visited Mikeal's home on his birthday. And currently, they were training in the adventurer's training hall to improve their skill level.
Maria [Miralda] was a Pixie Wind Mage whose side job was a healer. While her main focus was wind magic, she was also focusing wind wind-associated healing magic so that she could support Daniel in his adventures.
Though for now, she was just spamming [Wind Gale], a low-level wind skill, slowly increasing her experience with it, and in turn, increasing its level to an acceptable point.
As for Daniel, he wanted to become a knight, hoping to get into the Kingdom's Empire Soldiers, rise in status within the Kingdom and then in turn help his father by providing internal information of the Kingdom.
Thus he chose the race human, and the class Guardian, which would further evolve into Knight as he reaches level 50 in the future. It was the shortest path to knighthood, hence the obvious choice for him.
Similar to Marie, he was also practising his sword skills, namely [Parry] and [Stab], trying to max them to Level 10 and evolve them.
"Hey, Marie. Do you think we can kill a few high-level monsters to level up faster?" Daniel asked as he looked at Marie, clearly getting bored with this monotonous exercise he was doing.
"I tried and was able to kill a level 4 goblin. Though it took me an hour to kill him, barely giving me 20 Exp. Trust me, it is better to kill the same level monsters since you can kill a dozen in 30 to 40 minutes and get more in return. Less dangerous as well," Marie spoke with a pressed smile before continuing to cast wind magic.
"It's basically cheating then… that guy… just how did he do it," Daniel said, taking one last look at the rankings and then continuing his training as well.
***
***
[Location: Inara Settlement!]
***
[Quest: Clean the Roads(Complete)!]
[+100 Exp!]
[+5 Favourability towards Inara Village]
[Quest: There is danger on the opposite side too(Complete)!]
[+100 Exp]
[+8 Favorability towards Inara Village]
Cleaning the grass was easy as I simply burnt it down using the fire torch that I brought from the village. While doing so, I ended up attracting two stray Level 2 goblins, completing the second quest as well.
And finally, because of the reflection of light from the torch, the silver ring that I needed for the other quest was easily pinpointed. Though in order to return the ring and complete the quest I need to wait until tomorrow morning, which will take some time.
"Hmmm. Seems like I am done with all things I could do for today," I mumbled as I returned to the settlement and walked into the inn where I first spawned in the game.
"Quiet the hard-working lad, aren't you?" Tiera spoke as she sat behind the counter, reading a red coloured book of sorts. Unlike the morning, she was now in a plain white dress, probably her sleeping gown, though this too, added a certain tinge of charm to her character.
"It's alright to work a lot, but mind your health as well, okay? Youth sure is meant to be spent in adventuring but taking care of your body and mind is equally important," she lectured me as she flipped a page of the book.
And slowly looking at me she gave a calm smile as she added," anyway. Go and get some rest. It's already midnight, better to let the creatures of the night have it."
Her words concerned me a bit but she simply stood up and then went inside her room. I saw her children peeking through the doorway before the door was closed.
And standing there by myself, I sighed before going up to the inn area, before I lay on the bed and moved to [Log out!] of the game.
Since the game time is 3 times the normal time, I believe about 6 hours might have passed in the real world.
[Save Point Confirmed!]
[Logging off!]