Chapter Four: Living the Dull Life
Chapter Four: Living the Dull Life
“Morning, Olto,” I greeted him upon returning the next day.
“Mm,” he replied.
After logging in, I raced to the fields, where I was greeted by the sight of our two farms teeming with lush crops.
“Whoa! Olto, you’re a genius!”
“Mmm!”
“This is exciting stuff, man.”
Okay, so it wasn’t like I grew all of these, but I did help water them. Besides, this was my farm taken care of by my tamed monster, which basically meant I did half of the work, right?
“All right, time to harvest!”
“Mm!”
Olto and I set to work pulling out the herbs we’d grown. Apparently, even the simple act of harvesting gained you XP for your Gathering and Farming—halfway through our harvest, I had already raised both skill levels by one.
Today’s yield also included several five-star crops, thanks to the plant booster. So far, so good. I let Olto keep the bulk of our harvest so that he could propagate each plant.
“I’ll use the rest to concoct some items.”
The first thing I chose to make was spinach-infused food rations. Since I’d gone to the trouble of cultivating the spinach, I figured I’d do a taste test before shipping them out. I could consider growing some more spinach if they tasted good.
I opened my recipe folder, and a list of gray ????s appeared before me. These were recipes I hadn’t unlocked yet and thus couldn’t be selected. Once I had all the ingredients for a particular item, the recipe would change from gray to white and become selectable, although I had to make it at least once to find out what it was called.
I selected the sole white ???? from the list and started cooking in Auto Mode. This food item required one each of the following ingredients: spinach, edible grass, and water.
I followed the instructions and chopped the edible grass and spinach on the chopping board that came with my simple cooking kit. After that, all I had to do was simmer them in water. It couldn’t get any easier than that. If this were anything like cooking in real life, I would end up with a bunch of boiled greens. However, given that this was a game...
Once again, I heard a familiar Poof! and that goopy mush transformed into four bars of food rations, defying all laws of physics. The normally brown, hard, and bland energy bars were now a deep spinachy-green.
“Hmm. That doesn’t look appetizing at all.”
They might’ve made a different impression had they been a lighter spring green or the color of matcha, but alas, they were a dark, earthy green color, which clearly screamed bitter and revolting. I’d probably be sick of them after one bite.
At least, despite this recipe yielding one bar less than usual, the resulting product was more effective than regular food rations.
Name: Food Ration (Spinach Flavor)
Rarity: 1 / Quality: 4★
Effect: Recovers hunger status by 37 percent.
These bars were far more filling, and as I’d anticipated, their quality was also much higher. Until now, I had to eat five of those disgusting food rations a day to fill me up; now, I only needed three of them.
“Let’s try one, shall we?”
I steeled myself and took a bite out of the green food ration.
“Ngh...! Bleurgh!” I spluttered.
I couldn’t believe how awful it tasted. The harsh, bitter taste that spread in my mouth could scarcely be called food. I almost spat it out, but managed to swallow it with some effort.
“Tastes way worse than before...!”
I’d rather eat dirt. It was easily the most unappetizing thing that had ever crossed my tongue. Never was I going to cook this item again.
“Mm?”
Olto looked up at me curiously with that cute little head tilt of his.
Why not just give the rest to him? flashed an evil thought through my mind. Honestly, he might eat anything I asked him to, no matter how bad it tasted...
“Mmm.”
D-Damn it, what’s with those innocent eyes?! He clearly expected a tasty treat from me. St-Stop, don’t look at me like that.
“Mm?”
Gah, forget it! No way I could give him something so disgusting.
“Th-That reminds me, Alyssa gave me some extra honey carrot juice.”
Olto visibly perked up at those words. He clearly had a sweet tooth.
What should I do? I couldn’t not give him the juice now.
The foul aftertaste still lingered in my mouth, though. Crap. The more I stared at it, the more appealing the drink looked.
“Mm!”
Olto tugged at my robe, and I came to my senses with a jolt. R-Right, Alyssa told me this juice was for my monster.
While I would have given anything for that sweet beverage, I could just eat something tasty once I logged out of the game. This was Olto’s treat. I had to give it to him before I gave in to the temptation.
“Here you go, Olto,” I said, handing him the juice.
“Mm? Mm!”
“Happy?”
“Mm-mm-mm!”
Olto pranced about happily, then bowed as he took the juice from my hands, as though he were receiving some kind of award. Placing one hand on his hip, he proceeded to down the drink in one gulp, like an old geezer drinking a refreshing fruity drink after a bath. Man, that looked like it would’ve hit the spot. Olto, who usually wore little expression, was now beaming from ear to ear.
“Glad you liked it.”
“Mm-mm-mmm!”
“Whoa, you ready to work already?”
“Mm-mm-mm-mm-mm!”
“Hey, s-slow down!”
Olto started working at a furious pace, his hands and feet a blur of movement. It was as if I were watching him on fast-forward.
“Totally different from when I gave him honey dumplings.”
Did his work ethic change depending on what type of food he was given? Talk about a crafty little rascal. It was good to know, though. Maybe I need to try experimenting by feeding him different types of food from now on. I wondered how he would react to less tasty food items.
Did this have something to do with your monster’s attachment level, which was said to exist as an Easter egg feature? In that case, perhaps it would be better if I fed him foods that he did like.
“You probably won’t get anything this tasty again for a while, though,” I mumbled under my breath. I had gotten the juice from Alyssa for free, but normally this stuff was 500 G a pop—hardly something I could afford daily.
“Now, on to the next one.”
With the ingredients I currently had, my viable concocting options were medicine and low-grade potions.
“Might as well start with some medicine.”
And step up the quality while I’m at it. I figured I could make the pills without assistance now that I’d made them a few times. The steps were all the same, anyway.
I mixed some four-star salve-making plants and purified water together, then ground them to a paste. Lastly, I infused the gooey substance with a bit of magic.
“Five stars? For real?”
“Your Concoct level has increased.”
As I suspected, the higher the quality of your ingredients, the more XP you gained during crafting. My Concoct skill shot up a whopping two levels at once—though it probably helped that I was so low level to begin with.
Name: Medicine
Rarity: 1 / Quality: 5★
Effect: Recovers 15 HP. (10-minute cooldown)
It seemed like medicine recovered only one additional HP for every one-star increase. I guessed this was why it was said to be useful only in the beginning of the game.
So what, though? What mattered was that I’d produced a grade-A product! It turned out that crafting things manually did produce higher quality results, provided you could make them properly.
“Let’s add a little twist next.”
Unlike Auto Mode, Manual Mode didn’t provide any assistance. On the flip side, that gave you more room to be creative. You could add ingredients that weren’t included in the recipe or tweak the crafting process to produce all sorts of alterations. If you succeeded at creating a new dish, you could add it to your inventory as one of your very own original recipes, which was the kind of thing every nerd dreamed of.
Now then, how shall I go about experimenting?
Why not check the forums, you say? Boooring! Unless I was risking an ultra-rare, once-in-a-lifetime ingredient— in which case I would be sure to scour every source of information possible—coming up with ideas yourself and experimenting was part of the fun. Since I was only making medicine and potions for now, consulting the forums was a last resort. Besides, the devs might have released some new recipes or methods of concocting with the official launch. I wanted to do things my way first, without any help.
“Maybe I’ll try mixing it more.”
I dumped the ingredients into the mortar and ground them together with a pestle. Usually, I’d stop grinding once the ingredients were all mashed up, but this time, I continued mixing until the mixture became runny.
“Hmm, guess that didn’t work.”
Unfortunately, that resulted in no changes to the medicine I made. Although it still had a five-star rating, I couldn’t say it was worth the effort, considering I’d spent five times longer than usual making it.
“Get real. I can’t expect to succeed on the first try. Moving on!”
This time, I transferred the liquid into a pot and tried simmering it on a portable stove, both of which had come included in my simple cooking kit. I worried that switching over to cooking utensils halfway through might cause some problems, but thankfully, that didn’t seem to be the case. Once most of the water had evaporated, I returned the mixture to the mortar and infused it with magic.
“What is this? Looks like medicine, but...”
Name: Medicine (Powder)
Rarity: 1 / Quality: 3★
Effect: Recovers 17 HP. (10-minute cooldown) - Status Ailment: Thirst
All of my attempts thus far had resulted in items in pill form, but this time, I had managed to produce some powdered medicine. Was it because I’d boiled off the excess water? It gave the user more HP, but also a negative status effect in exchange.
Thirst was a type of status ailment that occurred in dry areas such as deserts. It lowered your stats until you drank water and also made you incredibly thirsty. Why would I use an item that had way more negative effects than positive, though? Unless I had no other choice, that is.
“As far as experiments go, I guess you could call it a success?”
All right, let’s keep the momentum going. This time I tried the opposite operation, straining the mashed-up ingredients with a cheesecloth. Unfortunately, I didn’t have the right type of cloth on hand, so I improvised by using the hem of my Blue Robin Robe. I wrapped the gloopy mixture in my robe, squeezed hard, and extracted the liquid from it.
“It worked, but...”
My robe was now stained green, and its durability had dropped slightly. Well, that could be fixed if I repaired the durability...right? It would suck if I had to walk around in a green-stained robe forever...
“I’ll cross that bridge when I get to it. Gotta concoct this item first.”
Name: Medicine (Liquid)
Rarity: 1 / Quality: 3★
Effect: Recovers 8 HP. (5-minute cooldown)
Interesting. This time, I got liquid medicine packaged in a neat little bottle. God knows where that came from. Although it recovered less HP, it had a shorter cooldown.
“Hmm. Looks like there’s plenty of room for improvement. Didn’t know there was so much to concocting. Let’s try experimenting with low-grade potions next.”
I started preparing for the next round of experiments, grinning at the two types of medicine that had been added to my original recipe folder.
Time to put my newfound knowledge to use.
I had to say, I was pretty excited. The last time I had experimented like this was in high school. I had to be careful, however, since I only had two each left of my medicinal herbs and life sunflowers.
“Let’s see... How about I tweak the recipe before mixing everything together?”
I recalled the last potion I made having some residue at the bottom. I wanted to try and get rid of that.
First, I removed the thick veins of the medicinal herbs and life sunflowers, as I only needed the soft leafy parts for my concoction. I hoped it didn’t turn out that all the medicinal properties were concentrated in the bits I just removed. Next, I brought some purified water to a boil. According to my assessment, this did not alter its properties any. I wondered what would happen once I used it for potion-making.
The remaining steps were the same as medicine: I just had to mix the ingredients together and infuse them with magic.
Name: Low-Grade Potion
Rarity: 1 - Quality: 5★
Effect: Recovers 40 HP. (10-minute cooldown)
All right! Five stars, baby! What did I do right? The ingredients were exactly the same as the three-star potion I made last time. I knew that I’d gained one star by concocting in Manual Mode—where did the other star come from?
“Let’s try adding the purified water as is.”
This time, I ended up with a four-star low-grade potion.
“Looks like boiling the water affects the results.”
That was a neat discovery, although I probably could have found that information online.
Was that all I could do for now? Wait a minute, I thought, I should dry some plants as well. While dried ingredients couldn’t be propagated, they improved the overall quality of crafted products. I might be able to take advantage of this fact and boost the ratings of my items even further. Fortunately, I still had some low-quality poison hemlock and paralyzing plants left.
“Olto, do you know anything about drying stuff?” I asked him.
“Mm?”
“No?”
“Mm...” Olto hung his head.
“Hey, no need to look so glum. I don’t know anything either.”
My final experiment was to leave the poison hemlock and paralyzing plants in a well-ventilated area. If my hunch was correct, stuff like this typically took around twenty-four hours to dry.
“This place seems nice and breezy.”
I hung the plants from the wall of the toolshed on my farm. This area was well-lit, so it seemed good enough.
I guessed that was about it. Guess I’ll head out and make use of my time in the meanwhile.
“I should fill in that map on my way to the Farming Guild.”
Leaving the farm to Olto, I decided to stroll around the Town of Beginnings by myself and continue working on the map.
The South District seemed like a reasonable place to start, seeing as that was where our farm was located. I also made sure to deliver some spinach to the Farming Guild on the way. My guild rank was supposed to go up once I was done with this mapping quest.
After several hours of walking, I had covered about half of the South District.
“Man, this town is larger than I thought.”
If I were to simply walk from one end of the Town of Beginnings to the other, it would probably take less than an hour. However, strolling down all of the streets and filling in the map took considerably more time than I expected. Even so, there was enough to see while walking to keep my interest.
The town’s realism was especially evident during daytime. The cobblestone streets felt rough and bumpy beneath my feet, and grass sprung up from between the cracks. Rocks in the shade were covered with moss, while weeds in sunny areas sprouted tall. Even the walls had newer bricks in places that appeared to have been patched. The attention to detail was really something. If you wanted to feel like you were on vacation in Europe, all you had to do was log in to the game and stroll around this town.
“Oops, didn’t realize how far I’d come.”
Before I knew it, the Magical Beasts Guild was right in front of me. Given its remote location, situated on the border of the South and West Districts, it was obvious it didn’t rank very highly in terms of social status.
While I was already here, I decided to enter the guild. The scenery outside was great, but I’d been walking for some time now and was about due for a change of pace.
“Hi.”
“Welcome to the Magical Beasts Guild.”
The woman that welcomed me wasn’t the raven-haired beauty, Barbara, but a charming, freckled blonde bombshell. I half-expected a thick American accent out of her.
“Where’s Barbara?”
“She’s not here now. She’s on her lunch break.”
Huh. I figured event characters and guild receptionists wouldn’t change, as was the case with most RPGs. I guessed even NPCs had to take breaks if you wanted to keep things realistic.
“Might as well check out the available quests while I’m already over here.”
The last time I came, I hadn’t bothered checking the whole list. I doubted there’d be anything new after only half a day, but still, it’d be nice if I could find something.
“Hmm. Guess there aren’t any new quests after all.”
There were, however, a few that caught my eye. I had ignored these quests last time because they seemed difficult to complete, but now felt like a good time to attempt them.
“I can probably do this one alongside the mapping quest.”
Labor Quest
Requirement: Pick up litter in town.
Reward: 300 G
Time Limit: Three days
The quest sounded pretty underwhelming; the description further stated that the Magical Beasts Guild simply wanted someone to pick up the trash in the areas outside of the Central Square so that the monsters they were taking care of wouldn’t accidentally eat them during their walks.
What are they, dogs?! Not that I was complaining, though. It was just the thing I was looking for! I accepted the quest, and received a surprisingly capacious item basket with straps along with a set of ordinary-looking tongs from the receptionist. So I was supposed to use these, huh? I certainly looked the part of a garbage collector. That, or an old man picking chestnuts in autumn.
“Well, good luck. Your quota is one hundred pieces.”
“Roger that.”
Perhaps I should start by searching the area around the guild. What sort of trash were we talking about in the first place? Empty cans? No sooner had I wondered that than I discovered something in front of the guild. It was a small pebble that I would surely have missed under normal circumstances.
“Is this trash?”
It appeared that litter was indicated by a green marker, now that I’d accepted the quest. Other pebbles were left unmarked, so it looked like I couldn’t just pick up any old piece of junk. This quest could turn out to be more complicated than I thought, but no matter. Challenge accepted!
“Okay, let’s fill in the map and pick up some trash.”
What kind of lame-o collected garbage in a VR game? I had to do it if I wanted those contribution points and XP, though. I continued to mindlessly pick up trash, which included a variety of items such as withered grass and broken vases. Once I’d gathered over twenty-odd items, I checked the map, which indicated that I was almost done with the South District.
“Next stop, the West District.”
I moved to the next area and resumed my litter-picking task while walking through the West District. Both quests were going swimmingly at the moment. There were, however, a few things that bugged me.
“Hey, isn’t that...?”
“It’s Silver-Haired. I’m sure of it.”
“S-Silver-Haired? You mean...?”
“A silver-haired Tamer without a monster...”
I felt like everyone was staring at me, and there were whispers here and there. Okay, no, it wasn’t just a feeling; I was certain that I was the center of attention. These people obviously knew who I was.
Mirei had supposedly leaked my information to around fifty players. The gossip network would have grown even further if those fifty had blabbed to their friends and acquaintances. And there you had it—an entire village of people who knew my secret. If the first fifty players had each talked to five people, and those two hundred and fifty had done likewise, that meant there were at least fifteen hundred and fifty people who knew my identity.
Rumors were terrifying. I was starting to feel like everyone I saw knew about me, although I could just be overreacting...
“Not like there’s anywhere to run to, though. Just gotta ignore them,” I sighed.
I was sure they’d all forget about me once an event started, so I just had to bear with it until then. At least, I hoped that would be the case. Spare me! I begged as I continued on my way, trying my best to ignore the blatant stares.
I stopped caring so much once I lost myself in my tasks. By nightfall, I was completely immune to the gawkers, and I was able to casually shrug off any whispering I heard on the way.
“That’s mostly it for the West District.”
The problem was that while my mapping quest was smooth sailing, finding garbage was proving to be a challenge. I had only managed to collect twenty-two pieces, despite having walked all over the West District.
“At this rate, I’ll clear all four districts and still not make my quota.”
If there were twenty-odd pieces of trash per district, that added up to roughly eighty pieces in total. That was far from my goal of one hundred.
I had, however, noticed something along the way.
“I can definitely see a green marker over there.”
The spot in question was a canal about seven to eight meters wide, which ran parallel to the main street located in the center of each district. A green marker was bobbing in and out of the water.
“Hup!”
I crouched down by the side of the canal and attempted to pick up the piece of trash using my tongs. Thankfully, the item was floating close to the edge, so I didn’t have to wade in.
“Gotcha!”
My guess was correct—the green marker turned out to be trash. While the end seemed nearer in sight, this discovery was also bad news.
“Means there’s most likely more trash hidden in the canals, right?”
I was able to find this scrap from the shore since it was in the shallow end, but I couldn’t say the same for trash buried deeper in. That meant I would have to go into the water at some point.
“Guess that’s it for today.”
It was already past 10 p.m. Darkness had cloaked the entire area.
I’d gotten so caught up in picking rubbish that I’d totally missed my chance to see the town during golden hour. That was a shame—I vowed to catch the sunset tomorrow. That being said, the town was captivating at night as well. Between the streetlights and starry night sky, the medieval European-esque town was a marvelous sight to behold. Still, that didn’t change the fact that it was already nighttime. Wading into the canals to collect garbage was out of the question.
Due to the game’s commitment to making everything as realistic as possible, the bottom of the canals was coated with some sort of slippery, mosslike substance. I doubted I could complete my task in the dark without any incident. Worst-case scenario, I might even die an impossibly embarrassing death by drowning in the canal.
As if people weren’t talking shit about me already. I could never live it down if that happened.
However, entering the canals seemed unavoidable if I wanted to meet my goal of one hundred pieces of trash.
“...Tomorrow. I’ll wait until it gets light.”
I logged in to the game at sunrise the following day.
The seeds Olto and I had planted the previous day had grown and were ready for harvest. I had, however, made one unfortunate discovery.
“Can’t we grow anything higher than five stars?” I asked Olto.
“Mm-mm,” he shook his head in reply. Five stars appeared to be the limit for crops grown on our farm.
“Do you know why, Olto? Are you not skilled enough?”
“Mm! Mm-mm!”
Olto grabbed my robe and jumped up and down in protest as if to say it wasn’t his fault.
“Chillax! I was just kidding!”
He then squatted down and began patting the ground.
“Something to do with the soil?”
“Mmm,” Olto nodded. Bingo. So the soil was the culprit, eh?
“Well, can’t do anything about that. Guess five stars is good enough, though. It’ll still rake in the cash.”
Aside from the various herbs, there was a strange clump of grass. It looked like Olto had planted something in the one remaining slot.
“...Some kinda weed?”
No matter how many times I tried to assess it, “Weed” was the only result I got. What the heck was it? The plant didn’t have any flowers, and its leaves were similar to that of basil.
“Hmm. What is this? Did Olto plant some random weed to try and raise his Farming skill?”
Although it had the highest rating available—a whopping ten stars—it was still a weed. It didn’t matter how high-quality it was if it didn’t have any effect. It was probably on the same level as rocks and other miscellaneous baubles.
The more I looked at it, the more it reminded me of basil. Actually, I was pretty sure it was. It couldn’t be anything other than that.
“Hmm.”
I plucked the weed and put it into my mouth, then slowly chewed on it. Even if it turned out to be poisonous, I doubted it’d be enough to kill me.
The next instant, I froze in shock.
“It is basil!”
The taste was undeniably that of fresh basil. I was sure of it, as it tasted like the basil I’d grown at home before. No matter how many times I tried, though, my assessment still told me it was nothing but a weed.
“Huh? How...? It’s just a weed, right?”
There was a weed outside our farm that resembled a bird’s-eye speedwell. I pulled it out and bit into it, only to spit it out immediately.
“Blegh! Yuck!”
That was definitely a weed. It tasted earthy and bitter, not to mention it made my tongue tingle. You could hardly consider it edible. Data-wise, this weed and the one from our farm were exactly the same, so why did they taste different?
“You have successfully grown and harvested a weed. You have fulfilled the requirements to unlock a new skill.”
As I stood there racking my brain, I heard an announcement inside my head. It looked like I had fulfilled some sort of requirement, thanks to Olto. I looked through my list of skills and found one with a star next to it, a sign that it had been acquired within the last twenty-four hours.
“Plant knowledge?”
The description merely stated that it granted you knowledge of the plants of this game. Based on what I’d seen so far, though, I imagined it was some kind of ability that allowed you to differentiate weeds from one another.
“Hm... Costs two points.”
Since I currently had four skill points, I could obtain it if I wanted to, but... I wanted to save my points for acquiring combat skills later on.
That being said, I was intrigued. Acquiring Plant Knowledge might enable me to find new ways to use weeds. Besides, I didn’t think I could focus on the game if I left my curiosity unsatisfied.
“Aight, let’s do it!”
The moment I obtained the skill, the name of the weed in my hand changed to “Basilil.” Moreover, the Effect section now bore the words “Edible” in addition to “None.”
Name: Basilil
Rarity: 1 / Quality: 10★
Effect: None. Edible.
It was called a “basilil,” but judging from its taste, it seemed safe to assume that it was the same as basil.
Excited by this discovery, I assessed the other weeds around the farm, which were all properly named now. Most of them had a six-star rating or above. I also found some more basilil. I wasn’t sure where Olto got his hands on basilil seeds, but apparently they could be found all over the Town of Beginnings.
As I carried on with my assessment, I came across an interesting weed.
Name: Tulip
Rarity: 1 / Quality: 7★
Effect: None. For decorative purposes only.
Decorative purposes, eh? Well, it was nice to look at. I wondered if there was any chance I could sell it. Players might ignore a weed like this without so much as a glance, but NPCs might show some interest. Maybe I should try growing some tulips? I thought.
I gave Olto the tulip bulb I just plucked, which he proceeded to propagate into two. So, propagation was possible.
I had to say, though, it was kind of weird that even tulips could be considered weeds if they had no special effects. On the other hand, edible and fragrant weeds like basilil might be useful for cooking.
“Might be a good idea to grow weeds when I can. I’ll start with some basilil and tulips.”
Thanks to these humble weeds, I had made several new discoveries. There really was a lot to this game.
“Okay, let’s get today’s batch over and done with.”
Time to get experimenting again! For starters, I concocted the following items using Auto Mode, all of which I was attempting to concoct for the first time: Paralyzing Potions, Poison, and Hemorrhaging Potions. They were beginner-friendly recipes, and easy enough to make.
Once again, I tried various cooking methods, such as mixing the ingredients differently and parboiling them, but to no effect. On top of that, higher-quality ingredients proved to be more of a challenge to make use of, the ratings of the finished products not improving as much as I would’ve liked them to.
The poison and paralyzing potion I made had a five-star and four-star rating, respectively. Their quality was still fairly high, though, and my Concoct and Cooking skills had leveled up, so I guessed the results weren’t too shabby. My biggest discovery was that using cooking utensils during concoction raised your Cooking skills. Regardless, since I was using five-star ingredients, I assumed I’d be able to produce a six-star quality item if I did things right. This called for further research.
Also, you didn’t think I was done experimenting, did you?
“Meet my assistant for the day: Olto the Gnome!”
“Mm-mm!” Olto exclaimed, punching the air.
“Wow, you seem pumped.”
“Mmm.”
I decided to put Olto’s Luck to the test.
I handed him the leftover low-quality ingredients and tasked him with stirring things—an easy enough process. Olto moved the pestle back and forth, clearly enjoying himself. He looked just like a little boy, playing in the weeds.
Watching him brought back one of my childhood memories of gathering weeds and grinding them to a pulp, resulting in a weird, amorphous blob. I had then applied that paste to my friend’s wound like some kind of Chinese herbal remedy, and was smacked by my parents until I cried...
“Mm?” Olto looked at me questioningly.
“Oops, now’s not the time to stroll down memory lane. Whatcha got?”
“Mmm.”
“You ground them up just fine, buddy.”
Despite his lack of Concocting skills, Olto was able to help me with the process. Unfortunately, I didn’t get the results I was hoping for. If anything, the quality of the finished product had decreased thanks to my unskilled assistant.
“Hmm. It was a long shot anyway.”
“Mm...”
“Don’t worry, it’s not your fault. I’m the one who made you do it.”
I could put his Luck to the test some other time. While I had no clear prospects, I was sure something good would come of it.
“Phew, all done now. Guess I’ll go to Alyssa’s while Olto’s working on the farm.”
I decided to make a trip to Alyssa’s store to sell the low-grade potions, poison, paralyzing potions, and hemorrhaging potions we made today. Wait, I should check the plants I was drying before I go, I thought. I assessed the herbs I’d hung from the wall of the toolshed, which showed no apparent changes. They were just regular poison hemlock and paralyzing plants.
“Still the same, huh?”
Was I missing something after all? Or did I have to dry them for longer? Oh well, I’ll leave them for a few more days.
“I’m heading out for a bit. Take care of the rest for me,” I told Olto.
“Mm-mm,” he replied.
I left Olto in charge of our farms and made my way to Alyssa’s stall.
“Hi,” I greeted Alyssa.
“Oh hello, Yuto. What brings you here today?”
“I’d like to sell these. How much do you reckon they’ll fetch?”
“Holy cow! These are top-grade! Wh-Where’d you get them?” she exclaimed.
“Huh? They that amazing?”
Sure, they were high-quality for a rookie like me, but I hadn’t expected a former beta tester to get such a shock.
“Well, duh! Five-star poisons are, like, top-ranking Craftspeople quality! The most I’ve ever gotten is six stars, and only a handful at that!”
“I-I see.”
I’d better not tell her about my farm then. It seemed like a critical piece of information, so it was probably best to keep it to myself until my farm took off.
I was surprised that other crafter-types didn’t produce much higher-quality items, though. It most likely wasn’t a matter of skill, but ingredients. I had Olto and my plant booster to thank for that.
“Well, I have my ways.”
“Aww... Oh, well. I totally understand you not wanting to give up your precious secrets. You’re selling these to me, though, right?”
“That’s what I’m here for.”
Spraying your weapon with some of these items would temporarily grant a status ailment attribute. Not exactly something I needed at the moment, given that fighting was off-limits.
“I can buy the five-star poisons, paralyzing potions, and hemorrhaging potions for 600 G, and the four-star ones for 350 G.”
“Seriously? That much?”
“Of course. The higher the quality, the more effective the item. After all, you can give bosses status ailments in this game, even if the chances are pretty low. Items with higher ratings have a better chance of granting negative status effects and are super effective in early boss battles, so frontliners would do anything to get their hands on them. Even master-level NPCs can’t create anything higher than five stars, so the prices skyrocket for six-star items and above.”
I had no idea. That made sense, though. Who wouldn’t want to use an item that could poison or paralyze bosses, even if it was only in the early stages of the game? Aiming for a six-star rating might be a smart move.
“Okay. The five-star low-grade potion will be 650 G, the four-star 400 G. With medicine, it doesn’t really matter how high the quality gets; 50 G apiece is the highest I’m willing to go.”
Medicine sure was cheap. Maybe I should keep them instead of selling them. The rest could go, though. I wanted to make some cash fast.
“Also, these green food rations are 10 G each.”
“...For real?”
“Mhm. You made them with spinach, didn’t you? No one wants to buy these—they’re absolutely revolting. Once in a while, someone who wants to torture themselves or has a high tolerance will buy them, but that’s about it.”
It looked like the food rations were notorious for their hellishly disgusting flavor. I didn’t want to eat anymore of them either, so I might as well sell them if I could.
“That’ll be 3,230 G altogether.”
It seemed like my plan to make a killing with my farm was finally taking off. Heh heh heh, this is the life! Although Alyssa was looking at me strangely, I couldn’t help but grin.
After selling her my potions and medicines, I returned to the farm to help Olto. Once our work was finished, it was back to mapping and picking up trash.
“We’ll tackle the North District today.”
The North District was pretty much uncharted territory. The only time I had passed through that area was on the day I first logged in and headed to the Northern Plains. According to the map, its layout was similar to the South and West Districts, so I doubted I’d get lost.
“Let’s go!”
“Mm-mm!”
Olto was joining me today. I figured we’d find more trash if there were two of us, plus we might stumble upon some interesting weeds.
Stopping to assess each plant for its usefulness made the time pass by quickly. Shortly after noon, we had filled about half of the map. However, I was starting to feel mentally drained. We’d been walking the whole time, and being on the lookout for items used up a lot of my energy. I was getting a bit bored too. Still, thanks to Olto, I managed to not give up on the tedious task.
“Mmm, mm-mm-mmm-mmm.”
Having him humming cheerfully by my side gave me the motivation to keep going, even when I was fed up with mapping. If I had been on my own, I would have given up by now and come up with some excuse to take a break.
“You don’t look tired at all,” I commented.
“Mm!”
If anything, he seemed to be getting more excited walking around town. He now had a spring in his step. Other players also smiled at the sight of Olto humming and skipping. Guess no one can resist his cuteness. That didn’t change the fact that I was almost at my limit, though.
“Maybe I oughta do something different for a change...”
Was picking the trash in the canals my only option? If I decided to go that route, I’d have to do it while it was light outside and could still see properly.
“Is it safe to go into the canals, though?”
First of all, how deep was it? I could tell that the riverbank was shallow, but how about the middle? It probably wasn’t that deep, since it wasn’t even big enough to fit a boat, but...
“Hmm...”
“Mm? Mm-mm?”
As I stood in front of the water, weighing my options, Olto suddenly nudged me from behind. He apparently couldn’t understand why I wasn’t going in.
“Hey, no pushing! Quit it!”
“Mm! Mm-mm!”
I said, don’t push! Why was he pushing me even harder?!
“W-Wait! I mean it! Stop pushing me!”
“Mm?”
Olto cocked his head as if to ask, Huh? You don’t want me to push you?
“Where’d you learn how to do comedy?”
“Mmm.” Olto scratched his head sheepishly.
“Er, that wasn’t a compliment.”
“Mm?”
“Quit acting so surprised.”
Watching Olto made me forget all of my worries. I felt like an idiot getting worked up over nothing. Besides, hadn’t I made up my mind to do my very best with him?
If people want to gossip, then be my guest! I’m doing things my way! Seeing Olto gave me just the (figurative) push I needed. My next move? Scavenging sewage sludge.
I decided to start at the end of the North District’s canal and make my way down towards the Central Square.
“Can’t believe I’m playing a game just to collect garbage and trawl in the mud...”
I already had enough rumors racing around about my title: this was just icing on the cake.
“Eh, no point fretting about it now.”
I waded into the canal to get an idea of how deep it was.
“Okay, not too deep.”
The water was deepest in the middle, but even then it only came up to my belly button.
“Mm-mm! Mm-mm!”
“Olto! Don’t push yourself! You look like you’re about to drown!”
“Mm.”
“Oh, so you can swim.”
I was about to help Olto, who had been floundering with his head barely above water, when he began doing a breaststroke. Even though he didn’t have Swimming skills listed, it looked like he could still swim. Man, I almost freaked out for a second there.
We then began picking up the trash in the canal. Unfortunately, the green markers were completely submerged in water and were only visible if we got close enough. It seemed unlikely that we’d be able to find them at night.
Heading south down the canal to the Central Square took us over two hours, during which time we only managed to gather five pieces of trash. That wasn’t worth our time and effort at all. If we collected five pieces each in all of the canals, though, that would amount to twenty in total, which meant we’d reach our goal of one hundred.
“Hmm, might as well get it over with.”
I set out to pick up the litter in the south and west canals as well, and was able to collect a total of sixteen pieces in the end. However...the reactions I got were far from positive. I could have ignored them if they’d just been whispering, but some of the players who were aware of my identity openly jeered at me. That big old basket on my back certainly didn’t help.
“That respawning bastard really is something else. Can you believe he’s picking up trash in a game?”
“For real. That’s Silver-Haired for ya!”
“Bwa ha ha! You’re the best, Silver-Haired!”
Grr, keep talking! It looked like deleting a few idiots’ accounts didn’t do much to get rid of the trolls!
There was something else that bothered me more than their taunts, though.
“Silver-Haired? They talking about me?”
True, I had received the title, Silver-Haired Pioneer... Was that their nickname for me? Hm, seemed it could take longer than I thought for the rumors to subside.
“Nah, it’s probably just them.”
Oh, how naive I was.
I continued to eavesdrop on the people whispering about me, and every single one of them referred to me as “Silver-Haired.”
The equation probably went something like: Silver-Haired equals joke title equals me. Even players who didn’t know who I was might catch someone else calling me Silver-Haired and go, Oh, that’s the guy with the stupid title.
“Just carry on...” I heaved a weary sigh.
It wasn’t as if I could do anything anyway. I hadn’t expected to get a nickname based on my title of all things, though... I wished I’d been dubbed something cooler.
“Mm-mm.”
As I wallowed in my misery, Olto gently tapped me on the leg, as if to cheer me up.
“Thanks, Olto.”
If I asked people not to call me by that name, I’d only be giving them more ammunition. Ignoring them was my best bet.
“Guess we could head back to the North District and resume mapping.”
Tuning out the chatter around me had allowed me to focus on collecting garbage. If I kept this up, I could finish mapping out the North District, and pick up all the trash there. At least there was one silver lining.
Sadly, it was already after sunset.
“Let’s wrap things up tomorrow.”
“Mm.”
After logging in again, I dove back into my crafting, something which was quickly becoming second nature. Both my Cooking and Concocting skills were leveling up nicely.
“Y’know, wasn’t I supposed to be a Tamer?”
Somehow, out of all my skills, my Concoct level was currently the highest.
Whoops, almost forgot to check on my dried herbs before heading out.
“Huh? Garbage?”
The poison hemlock and paralyzing plants that I’d left to dry on the wall had darkened in color and were now labeled Trash. They were pure rubbish, which wouldn’t even count towards my trash-picking quest. There was nothing to do except chuck them in the bin.
“...Well, that didn’t pan out. Suppose I should check the forums before I screw that up again.”
Whatever, moving on. I decided to pay Alyssa a visit to sell the stuff I’d made. Though I was feeling a bit dejected, my mood gradually improved as I walked. Encountering a few bumps along the way was inevitable when experimenting. Failure breeds success. I was sure this lesson would come in handy one day.
I arrived at the square and sold my items at Alyssa’s store as usual. I also replenished my supply of honey dumplings for Olto, at 50 G apiece.
Purchases aside, I still managed to net 4,450 G. All right! I now had over 15,000 G! Today was the day I got a new farm and a mushroom log!
However, I still had another day of mapping ahead of me first. In order to buy mushroom logs, I needed to raise my guild rank. Today’s destination was the East District, which I had been putting off.
“Whoa. Hits you different seeing it up close.” I sighed as I gazed up at the enormous tree, the symbol of the East District.
This district was totally unlike the others, both in architecture and scenery. Better check the map to see what the terrain is like. The first thing that stood out was the massive lake that occupied the northern area of the East District. The Aquatics Guild was located here; there you could fish and practice driving a boat.
Just beyond the eastern shore, beside the outer walls, was a small patch of woods managed by the Forest Guild. While there was nothing stopping players from entering it, it wasn’t exactly a treasure mine or anything. Members of the Forest Guild used it every now and then for practice, but that was about it.
Standing almost smack in the middle of the East District was a giant tree called the Lakeside Sequoia, officially 256 meters tall. The story went that this tree produced the water filling the lake, the canals, and the outer moats of the city. Although this towering giant was visible from anywhere in town, seeing it up close really blew you away. The roots alone were as thick as a regular tree trunk, and the sight of them entwined with one another, snaking around and through the lake, was impressive. Water cascaded from a massive hole in the trunk into the body below, which made for a truly spectacular and whimsical view.
I could have stared at the sight all day, but I had to get moving.
“Time to get cracking with these quests.”
I traipsed through the East District, plugging away at filling in the map. The varied landscape kept the walk interesting. At this rate, I could probably get the job done early. As I silently collected trash, I heard a Ding-dong! sound from a loudspeaker.
“This is an announcement from the management team.”
“Huh. What could it be?”
“Today marks four days in-game since the official launch of LJO. We would like to share the data we’ve collected so far.”
What do you know? It was already noon. Ninety-six hours had passed in the game—exactly one day in real life.
“Data, eh?”
I opened the attachment I’d just received.
“Wow. They’ve even listed how many players have gotten each skill.”
The player with the highest base level was now at level 18. They had to be a beta tester and a total recluse. As much as I respected their efforts, I didn’t feel as envious as before. After all, I’d made up my mind to go at my own pace with Olto.
I scanned the rest of the list to see if any data might be relevant to me.
The first thing I looked for was data related to titles. There were only five players who had received titles so far; naturally, that included me, as the one with the greatest number of deaths. Although I had mixed feelings about my title, it was still nice to feel like I belonged to an exclusive club.
Next was the number of Tamers. Out of 33,076 players, there were only 78 of us. That meant our population was only about one-tenth that of the largest group, Soldiers, which comprised 803 members. Given how unpopular Tamers were, that wasn’t too surprising. Still, it was kind of sad.
Another thing I noticed was how many more Summoners there were than Tamers, probably owing to a popular series whose main character was a Summoner. There were 541 Summoners—about seven times more than the number of Tamers. For some reason, that really irked me.
The player with the most tamed monsters currently had seven beasts. I had nothing but envy for this person. Here I was with only one monster, whereas this lucky jerk already owned seven. Sure, Olto was cute and hardworking and all, but as a Tamer, I wasn’t about to be satisfied with just one beast.
Tamers could tame more monsters by leveling up their Monster Taming and Command abilities. At level 1, you could tame one monster for each of those skills. After that, you could tame one additional monster whenever either skill level reached a multiple of five. Since my Monster Taming ability was at level 5 and my Command ability was at level 3, I could, in theory, tame up to three monsters. Seeing as I possessed zero combat skills, however, that was going to prove to be a challenge...
Hmm, what else? I wanted to read up on farming-related stuff too. The top farm-owner currently had twelve farms and even owned land in other towns as well. I supposed that was fair for an actual Farmer-type player.
Other than that, there wasn’t anything in particular that caught my eye. I definitely didn’t want to see how much money other people had. I looked forward to more data updates, though, which were scheduled to be released once every four days from now on.
Additionally, there was apparently going to be some sort of event starting in ten days—three days in real-world time. While the details hadn’t been disclosed yet, it was set to occur in the Town of Beginnings. What kind of event could it be? Given my current state, though, it was possible I might not even be able to participate. Better work on raising those stats.
“Right. Back to the grind,” I roused myself. Only about half of my objectives left to go.
Thanks to the lake, which covered approximately half of the landmass of the area, it took less time to map the East District. Once I’d filled in the Central Square, I’d be done with the mapping quest. However, things weren’t going as smoothly with my other task.
“I still need five more.”
No matter how hard I looked, I couldn’t find the five remaining pieces of trash. What I found instead was an interesting shop.
“Um, were you here yesterday?” I asked the shop owner.
“Of course! I’ve never taken a day off in all the twenty years I’ve had this place!” he replied.
The store that I had stumbled upon was a florist selling a colorful array of flowers. It was located in one of the alleys off the main street stretching from the Central Square to the East District. There were both single-stem flowers and bouquets available, with a wide variety to choose from. I’d been down this street many times, and I was pretty sure this shop hadn’t been here before... I peeked inside, my curiosity aroused.
“Whoa, impressive.”
Aside from cut flowers and potted plants, the florist also sold preserved goods such as potpourri, and dried and pressed flowers—basically every kind of flower you could think of. Using my Appraisal skill, I assessed some of the flowers outside the store. Other than their names, the descriptions were all the same, be it cosmos or carnations. Like tulips, they had no effect and were purely for decorative purposes.
Makes sense, though. Without my Plant Knowledge, I probably wouldn’t have been able to find this place. After all, without that skill, this florist would just be a weird little store selling weeds. Who knew such a (literally) hidden gem existed!
I took a whiff of something that looked like potpourri, and the scent of lavender tickled my nostrils. I could have fun with these, even if there weren’t any visible effects. If I could make use of these kinds of fragrances, I might be able to use weeds for concoctions and alchemy too. I decided to take a look at the other knickknacks around the shop.
“Is this a pressed flower? And also a bookmark?”
Name: Pressed Flower Bookmark (Cosmos)
Rarity: 1 / Quality: 4★
Effect: None. To be used as an accessory.
I hadn’t realized there was an Accessories category. That was cute. Unlike potpourri, it didn’t have any scent, so it really was purely for decoration. The bookmark baffled me, however, as I’d never heard of there being any readable books in LJO.
“Actually, I wonder.”
In some games, you could go to the library and learn new skills and recipes from books. I didn’t think there were any libraries in this game, but now that I’d seen this bookmark, I was having second thoughts. Perhaps you could find some in later towns. That said, I lacked any form of language skills, which were most likely required to read books. Or was reading another ability that players possessed unconditionally as a basic attribute, just like our Appraisal skill? It could also be that I simply hadn’t met the requirements for obtaining a new language.
“Guess I’ll buy some potpourri and a bookmark for now.”
The total came to a mere 300 G. Now that’s what I call a bargain. I figured I better try to learn a bit more while I was at it.
“So, are these actually useful for anything?” I asked.
“Hey! Watch your mouth, boy!” the old man NPC glared at me.
Oops. Guess that was kind of rude.
“Sorry, my bad. It’s just that they both say ‘No effect,’” I hurriedly apologized.
The old man nodded, seeming appeased.
“Eh, no biggie. Are you an otherworldly traveler? Y’all apparently possess some sort of Appraisal skill, if I recall.”
“That’s right.”
“Well, I’m not sure what kind of effects you’re looking for. They’re nice to look at and make good gifts, but that’s about it.”
They really were just ordinary flowers then.
“In that case, do you happen to buy flowers as well?”
“Huh? Do you grow flowers, son?”
“Right now, I’m only growing a few tulips.”
“Tulips aren’t very popular in this town. I can buy them for 10 G apiece, though.”
Talk about chump change. I was better off cultivating basilil in that case; at least I might be able to cook with it. It didn’t seem like I could make a lot of money from weeds.
The old man then showed me some seeds.
“Hey. If you’re growing flowers, think you can grow these?”
“What are those?”
“Wild strawberry seeds.”
“Huh? Strawberries?”
“They’re like regular garden strawberries, but they grow in the wild. They’re not sweet at all, but they still smell nice, so people like to add them to tea. I don’t sell herbs at my place, but I’m kind of fond of these, so I tend to keep ’em in stock. Unfortunately, the old woman who was collecting them for me got sick and had to retire. I’ll pay you 20 G each if you can grow them for me.”
“Why not grow them yourself? Or is it too difficult?”
“Not at all; it’s easy if you own a farm. It’s just that people prefer to grow vegetables. I can’t grow them because I lack the necessary skills. Well, how about it?”
Delivery Quest
Requirement: Grow and deliver ten wild strawberries.
Rewards: 200 G, red mint seeds, and blue mint seeds.
Time Limit: None
True to his word, the wild strawberries were worth 20 G each, which was practically nothing. Regardless, I chose to accept the quest. It felt like a good idea to fulfill residents’ requests. Besides, I was curious about the mint seeds. They probably didn’t have any special effects, but they were still herbs I hadn’t encountered before. Growing both basilil and mint would give me more options.
“Okay. I’ll do it,” I replied.
“Great! I’m counting on you, my boy!”
With that, I acquired five wild strawberry seeds.
“All right! Let’s go find the rest of that garbage!”
Wanting to get the job over with and return to my farm as soon as possible, I wandered in search of trash, braving the curious stares of elves undergoing stealth training in the forest and dwarves fishing by the lake. Despite my best efforts, I was still unable to reach my goal of one hundred. It looked like I had no choice but to search the canal.
“Guess there’s no way around it.”
The question was, what would I do if I couldn’t find any trash in the last remaining canal?
“That’d mean I’d have to search the lake.”
It would suck if I had to dive underwater, seeing as I currently lacked both the equipment and skills necessary.
“Pleeease tell me I can find them in the canal.”
I began looking for litter in the East District’s canal, praying for a fruitful search. Things went smoothly at first; I managed to find a couple of pieces of trash. This time, however, I ran into a problem with my mapping.
“Hm? Something’s not right. This bridge isn’t on the map.”
I was looking at a large stone arch bridge that stood over the canal, which was unmarked on the map. While the map in my status menu showed this bridge, it was nowhere to be found on the map I had received for my quest.
“Hmm. Is there something here?”
I’d walked all over town, but hadn’t seen any place like this. Scrutinizing the bridge turned up nothing; there didn’t seem to be anything out of the ordinary.
Could it be rigged in some way? I decided to search the bridge more thoroughly, sensing the possibility of an event.
The next thing I did was dive under the bridge, where I discovered...
“...A door?”
There was an iron door affixed inconspicuously below the bridge. It was obscured by the dark, and was the same grayish color as the stones used for the bridge, which made it almost impossible to see unless you got up close.
I gripped the door handle and pulled.
“No dice...”
Try as I might, the door was either locked or rusted, and showed no signs of budging.
“Do you need a key for this?”
It would probably open during an event or something. I guessed I had no choice but to give up for now.
“Hmm, don’t remember reading anything about this.”
I didn’t recall seeing anything about a landmark like this during my initial research...
Oh well. It wasn’t like I remembered all of the events that were mentioned, so it must have been pretty insignificant. I wasn’t so hardcore of a player that I’d memorize every single subquest, especially the ones I didn’t intend on completing.
“Whatever. I’ll make sure to remember this place, though.”
I gave up on trying to open the door and resumed my garbage-collecting task. My quest was more urgent than some stuck door. The sun was starting to set, too, so I made haste moving through the canal.
“Hey, there we go.”
At last, I had met my goal: one hundred pieces of trash. I was cutting it pretty close; ten more minutes and the sun would have set entirely.
“Just gotta head to Central Square now and fill in the rest of the map.”
After successfully filling in the entire square, I started back towards the guild to make my report, when I heard yet another announcement.
Ding-dong!
“Congratulations.”
Huh? What were they congratulating me for? Something good, I hoped.
“As a reward for not killing a single living being since your first login, you will be awarded the title, ‘Thou Shalt Not Kill.’”
“Seriously? Another title?”
Weren’t titles pretty hard to obtain? If I remembered correctly, there were only five titleholders at the moment.
“Well, look at me go. Gotta say, though, the way this is written...”
Something about the overall wording reminded me of a certain samurai with an X-shaped scar on his cheek.
How had I managed to obtain this title, though? As per the description, you needed to have zero kills since logging in, but why announce it now? It was currently 6:18 p.m., so it didn’t seem like the time had triggered it. Or, wait. My total in-game playtime was now at 96:02. Maybe it had been at exactly 96:00 when I heard the announcement?
Based on these facts, it seemed like in order to obtain the title, “Thou Shalt Not Kill,” you needed to have spent ninety-six hours in-game from the time you first logged in without killing any monsters or animals. Though it was by mere coincidence that I had avoided killing anything, this was undoubtedly a stroke of luck.
Awesome! Let’s see what this baby gets me!
Title: Thou Shalt Not Kill
Effect: You have gained 3,000 G and four bonus points, as well as a special skill, Hold Back.
Hold Back: Prevents opponent’s HP from dropping to zero on your next normal, skill, magic, or item-based attack.
The rewards were better than my first title, the Silver-Haired Pioneer: I had gained additional bonus points, not to mention that Hold Back was a far more useful skill than Flee, especially for Tamers. While lowering your opponent’s HP improved your taming success rate, you didn’t want to deplete their HP completely and accidentally defeat them. It would be a while before I could make good use of this skill, though.
“Hold on. I can probably sell this info too.”
Alyssa might have gotten wind of it by now, but it didn’t hurt to try. As tempting as it was to keep things to myself a while longer, money was more important to me. Either way, someone else was bound to discover this title eventually. Making more money to buy land and mushroom logs seemed like a smarter option.
“No time like the present.”
I decided to pay Alyssa a visit before reporting back on my quest.
“Busy as always, it seems.”
Seeing all of these stalls in the square at night reminded me of a festival. There seemed to be more players, now that five days had passed in-game since the official launch. There were others who had gotten off to a late start, with plenty of newbies around, which was probably why the Town of Beginnings was so crowded. Most of them would likely be moving on to the next town soon, so the population was probably at its peak right now.
“Hey, Alyssa,” I greeted her.
“Hey. Fancy seeing you here this late,” she replied.
“I come bearing information.”
“Is that so? You never fail to surprise me. Let’s hear it then; I’m excited.”
Well, don’t set the bar too high already. What if she wasn’t impressed?
“Uh, well... You might already know this info, but it’s something to do with titles.”
Upon hearing that, Alyssa twitched, and her expression suddenly turned serious.
“D-Don’t tell me you got another one?” she asked under her breath, after making sure there were no other players nearby.
I was taken aback by her seriousness. I would feel kind of bad if she already knew about this. In fact, I was pretty sure she did...
“Yeah, I did actually,” I replied in an equally small voice.
“Do you also know how you obtained it?”
“It’s just a guess, but I think I do.”
“R-Really?”
“Yeah. It happened earli—”
“Gimme a minute,” Alyssa cut me off, thrusting her right hand in front of my face. Her left hand clutched her chest.
“Huh?”
“I need a moment to calm down. I wasn’t expecting such big news,” she wheezed, taking a deep breath.
Over the top much?
“You might already know about it, though.”
“Well, do you see your title here?”
Alyssa showed me a list of titles that the Quick-Eared Cats were apparently selling details about. There were eleven titles altogether, including the three unique titles that had been awarded on the second day. That was a lot fewer than I’d expected. Luckily for me, the new title, Thou Shalt Not Kill, wasn’t on the list.
“Is that it?”
“Not very many, eh?”
“Yeah.”
“That just shows how difficult it is to obtain titles. It’s much harder than you think.”
“I had no idea.”
“So, how about it? Is it on this list?”
“Nope.”
“Seriously? That’s amazing!”
Alyssa appeared to have reached the peak of excitement: her cat ears were sticking straight up. LJO sure put a lot of thought into detail. Who knew, maybe my halfling ears moved as well, and I simply hadn’t noticed it. Cat ears on beautiful girls were cute, but it was kind of creepy to imagine a guy like me twitching his ears. Or perhaps it wouldn’t look that bad since my avatar was good-looking...?
Alyssa’s excitement continued to build as I was lost in thought, my eyes glued to her cat ears.
“Ooh, I’m so glad I talked to you! Am I good or what?!!! You don’t even get how incredible this is, do you?”
“Guess not.”
To be honest, I was baffled by the degree of her enthusiasm.
“Can other people acquire that title as well,” she asked, “or is it a first come, first served kinda deal?”
“Don’t think so. Pretty sure it’s not exclusive.”
“You’re sure about that?” Alyssa leaned forward and brought her face close to mine.
“Y-Yeah,” I replied.
“All right. I’ll pay you 3,000 G.”
“What?”
“That’s how valuable your information is. Scratch that—I’m willing to pay more depending on how useful your tip is and how much you can tell me about the conditions for obtaining this title.”
“For real?!”
My heart began to beat faster as it finally dawned on me just how much my information was worth.
“So, what kind of title is it? I’d like to see your stats too if possible.”
“Sure thing. Here you go. It’s called ‘Thou Shalt Not Kill.’”
I showed Alyssa my Titles section and told her what I knew so far. I also showed her the log from when I’d acquired my skill and shared my observations on how to obtain this title. As I finished up my explanation, though, she suddenly yelped.
“Wait a minute!”
“What’s wrong?”
“This skill...” she gasped, pointing at the Effect section of the title with a quivering finger.
“You’re telling me this isn’t a Hold Back attack, but just Hold Back?”
“Yeah... What about it?”
I had heard of a Hold Back attack before. It was a type of wand and mace art that left its target with 1 HP no matter what. My skill, called simply Hold Back, was more advanced in that regard, since it was effective when attacking with items and magic as well.
“...It’s a new skill,” she said.
“Come again?”
“I said, it’s a new skill!”
“New skill?”
“...We haven’t found anything like this, not even during the beta test. It’s a totally new skill that no one else has gotten yet!”
Did that mean I was the only person who had obtained it so far? Didn’t that make it a rare skill?
“You’re bluffing.”
“Am not. If you don’t believe me, see for yourself! It’s not on the list that was sent out this morning.”
She had a point. That list had also included the number of people who had obtained each art and skill, so the name should have been on there if at least one person had learned it. I quickly took a look at the data from this morning. As Alyssa implied, there was no art or skill called Hold Back on the list.
“You’ve gotta be kidding.”
“Looks like this skill belongs to you and you alone at the moment.”
This was beyond my imagination. I could scarcely believe it. Who knew it was such an impressive title? Was it true that no one had gotten this during the beta test?
“Well, you’re usually pumped and eager to battle when you’re first starting out, right?” Alyssa explained. “Even if you don’t fight any monsters, you might obtain food by fishing or hunting. Not killing anything for four whole days since your first login is almost impossible when you don’t have any information to go on.”
“I see.”
“Unless your playstyle is seriously skewed, that is. Like you, for example.”
“R-Right-o.”
I most likely wouldn’t have gotten this title if Olto had been capable of fighting. No one would pass up a chance to fight monsters in the beginning, and very few would probably lose from the get-go. Even if they messed up their character design, they still had time to rebuild their character if they did it immediately. I was sure most people would opt for a redo.
“Will you buy this info then?”
“I’ll buy it for 25,000 G.”
“Didn’t you say three thousand...?”
“That’s including the price of the currently exclusive deets about your skill. Info about the title itself is bound to sell like hotcakes too.”
“But you can’t have killed any monsters since logging in if you want to obtain this title.”
That ruled out almost all of the current players. Would people actually want to buy that sort of information? However, Alyssa seemed fully confident.
“Not to worry. We have roughly ten thousand newbies coming in soon, and in six real world days’ time, we’ll get the second and third waves of players, who number over a hundred thousand. Besides, unless you’re a hardcore gamer, your playtime in real life so far would only amount to half a day at most. Some players are also considering redoing their character build. This is valuable info for people like them. After all, this is a title that’s definitely obtainable.”
And there you had it—I had just earned a surprise 25,000 G. I was rolling in dough!
How should I use this money? Even if I bought another farm and a mushroom log, I’d still have over 30,000 G left. The possibilities seemed endless. Time to go and get that log!
“Right, I’ll be going now!” I bowed to Alyssa, ready to take my leave.
“Hey, wait up,” Alyssa called out. “What do you say we exchange friend codes?”
“You wanna become friends with me?”
“Yep. If we become friends, I’ll shoot you a message whenever I have any interesting tidbits to share. In exchange, I want you to sell me any useful info you might have.”
“Are you sure? Me, of all people?”
Unlike Alyssa, who was a top ex-beta player, I was merely a newbie who had sort of lucked out.
“Yeah. I’d love to.”
“Seriously, I just got lucky this time.”
“Well, let’s hope your lucky streak continues.”
Eh, whatever. I’ll take her word for it. Befriending a knowledgeable beta tester hardly seemed like a bad idea.
“Okay, I’ll send you my code.”
“Thanks.”
Alyssa sent me hers as well—a successful exchange.
“Looking forward to more exciting news!”
“Wouldn’t count on it if I were you.”
Alyssa waved after me, and I left the square with a spring in my step.
Online Forum [Famous Players Megathread] Players Currently Rising to Fame, Part 1
This is a thread that discusses players who are already becoming a household name due to all the ruckus they’ve been creating.
188: Anonymous
>186
So you don’t know Ashihana’s whereabouts yet?
189: Poof
Huh? Weren’t they in the Southern Town yesterday?
190: Quagsire
Ashihana’s constantly on the move in search of ingredients. It’s hard to pin down their exact location.
191: Poof
But I was hoping to ask them if they could make me a wand! Bummer.
192: Quagsire
Doubt they will. Ashihana’s the kind of person who only makes stuff they want to. Almost everyone who asked Ashihana to make wands for them got shot down. Apparently, they’ll take a request or two every now and then, only if you bring them rare items or pitch interesting ideas.
Don’t push it though, or you’ll end up getting reported, which is never a fun time lol
193: Dog Who Prefers Cats
One of my friends got Ashihana to make them a bow.
That went down well since they brought some rare wood with them.
194: Poof
Okay, I’ll start by looking for some rare wood then.
Got no time to learn a Logging skill though, so I’ll probably make do with one of the stalls.
195: Anonymous
Good idea, although there’s no telling where Ashihana will be by that time.
196: Quagsire
Unlike Bomber, who’s always making bombs in the Western Town. That’s practically her home now.
197: Anonymous
Bomber? Oh, you mean Rikyu.
198: Poof
I’ve heard people call her Pyro.
199: Anonymous
Rikyu has way too many names.
Master of Explosives, Blower-Upper, Bomber, Pyro—that’s four already.
Who knows, there might be more that we haven’t heard of yet.
200: Poof
I vote for Pyro.
201: Quagsire
I like Bomber. Her glasses and robe remind me of Huntsman × Huntsman.
Considering how fast she churns out bombs, I bet there’s secretly three of her lmao
202: Dog Who Prefers Cats
Guess everyone does associate bombs with her. I vote for Bomber too.
203: Poof
Gotta say, her bombs are super effective. Bet there’s some kind of key to making them. They’re about twice as powerful as the bombs my party members make.
204: Quagsire
Duh. We’re talking about a top alchemist’s prized recipe. All we know is that her process involves Alchemy, Concocting, and Forging skills.
Countless Craftspeople have attempted to recreate her bombs, but none have succeeded so far.
Can’t ask Rikyu for the recipe either since she’s way too socially awkward.
I really hope that her weird chuckling is just part of the role she’s playing.
205: Anonymous
I’m partial to Bomber too.
Obviously, if you were a crafter-type and discovered a special way of making things, you’d want to keep it to yourself. It does give you an edge, after all.
While I’d love it if she made more, I’m in no position to tell her to spend all of her spare time making bombs.
206: Quagsire
Honestly, I feel like as long as we paid her enough and gave her the proper facilities, she’d gladly knock herself out lol
But whatever. Shall we move on?
207: Anonymous
Sure. Number seven is the Purple-Haired Adventurer, aka Siegfried.
208: Poof
He’s one of the three unique titleholders, right? I heard he already has a steed. That true?
209: Quagsire
Yep. Apparently, he’s the only player who has one at the moment. I haven’t seen anyone else with a steed, so it must be true.
210: Poof
Wonder how he got one?
211: Dog Who Prefers Cats
Siegfried and I know each other, so I asked him personally. He told me he spent almost all of his bonus points that he got from being a beta tester on his character build. Still, all he got was a packhorse, the lowest of the low. He seems okay with it, though.
As a side effect, he’s put almost nothing into his other stats, skills, and bonus attributes. His Riding skills make him pretty strong when he’s mounted, but he struggles with mobs like Wild Dogs once he’s on the ground.
212: Poof
I don’t think I want one after all.
213: Quagsire
Why go to all that trouble to get a steed? You can buy one once you reach the latter half of Zone Three, can’t you? No need to rush.
214: Dog Who Prefers Cats
Dude takes his role-playing seriously, and the reason he’s so well-known is because he always announces himself.
The steeds you can obtain in Zone Three are either packhorses, donkeys, or ostriches and are assigned at random. You can’t choose their color either, not to mention they’re pretty stubborn. As a knight, he was hell-bent on getting an obedient white horse.
If you want a horse, he’ll gladly tell you how to get your hands on one.
His horse’s name is Silver, by the way. Seeing him yell “Hi-Yo, Silver!” is really cringey.
Like, what are you, some kind of Lone Ranger? I thought you were a knight!
215: Anonymous
Well, different strokes for different folks lmao
216: Poof
True that
I have to say, it’s nice how the three titleholders have their own names. Makes it easier to remember them, unlike Pyro.
Kinda annoyed by how many nicknames she has.
217: Dog Who Prefers Cats
You’re really rooting for that name, aren’t you, Poof? lol
But that’s precisely why she has so many monikers. People tend to stick to the ones they like or come up with their own.
The Ruby Red Explorer was also known by many names during beta—Queen Crimson and Queen of Gathering, to name a few.
Nowadays, people just call her Ruby Red Explorer or Ruby Red, though.
218: Knocker
She seems pleased with the moniker. I’ve also seen her boasting about her title before.
Titleholders stand out, plus they seem kinda special, doncha think? I’m jealous. Although, I guess having a title ain’t all sunshine and rainbows.
219: Anonymous
And that brings us to player number eight, Silver-Haired. Out of the bunch, he’s the only person who’s been attracting negative attention.
220: Dog Who Prefers Cats
I feel sorry for him. His title makes him stand out in a bad way.
His nickname has become widely known, too, which makes info spread further. While his name hasn’t been leaked, it’s a well-known fact that he’s a silver-haired male Tamer.
221: Poof
Some player was leaking his personal info, right?
The devs seem to take that sort of stuff seriously, so I take it they got banned?
222: Knocker
Yup, they got banned, all right. The devs have publicized the details. Their intention is probably to send a message so that sort of thing doesn’t happen again.
Side note, Silver-Haired didn’t call the devs himself. An anonymous player did.
223: Poof
Good job, whoever that was!
People will probably think twice about bothering him now.
224: Dog Who Prefers Cats
From what I heard, it was the top Tamer, Amimin—the fourth player we discussed—who reported the incident. One of her acquaintances apparently saw her make the call, so I’m pretty sure it’s true.
I hear Amimin’s really nice to other Tamers, even though she doesn’t open up to other people at all. I tried to greet her once, but she hid behind a turtle! *sob*
By the way, don’t you think the naming conventions are kinda weird?
We’ve got Silver, and Ruby—but then, Purple? Shouldn’t it be Amethyst or something?
225: Quagsire
Some idiot apparently complained about that to the devs, saying, Why aren’t they consistent? They should all be the same.
They got a reply.
226: Poof
Wow! What’d they say?
227: Quagsire
Shut up, fool. It’s the creator’s intent! Leave LJO if you have a problem with it!
228: Poof
What?
229: Anonymous
Well, something along those lines. They said it in a really nice way, of course.
The person who filed the complaint was intimidated by their response and stopped making a fuss after that.
230: Dog Who Prefers Cats
Nice going, devs.
231: Quagsire
Well, there are always bound to be players who complain about every little detail. By not giving in to them, they’re setting the tone for future cases.
Or, it might just be that they don’t give a shit about sucking up to players, since there aren’t many in-game purchase options.
232: Poof
In any case, I’ve made my decision—I’m not getting on the devs’ bad side!
233: Anonymous
When did this become a conversation about the devs XD
234: Knocker
What is Silver-Haired doing now, anyway?
235: Poof
That’s a good question lol. I’d like to know too.
Do you think he’s still in the game, considering how he died three times on the first day? He’s got to have messed up his character build, right?
Maybe he’s already had a redo, and Silver-Haired is no more.
236: Anonymous
Nope, he’s still playing.
237: Quagsire
If you can call that playing.
Just yesterday, I saw him with a basket on his back picking up trash. I mean, who does that in an RPG?
While I commend him for sticking to his initial build and making the most of his situation, I almost cried at how wistful he looked. I seriously felt like I should be cheering him on.
238: Poof
Picking up trash...? That some sort of quest?
239: Anonymous
Labor Quest
Requirement: Pick up litter in town.
Reward: 300 G
Time Limit: Three days
Never seen anyone else do this quest.
240: Quagsire
I’m not surprised. Three days of your time for a mere 300 G? Who the hell wants to do that?!
Hunting near the Town of Beginnings is a hundred times better than that. Bet the payoff is significantly better, too, considering the amount of XP and money you get.
241: Knocker
You could say that Silver-Haired is a rare breed—even the verifiers are reluctant to do this type of quest.
He truly lives up to his name, Pioneer lol
242: Dog Who Prefers Cats
True. Doing stuff like that is how you make unexpected discoveries.
I’d love Silver-Haired to stick to what he’s doing and forge his own path.
243: Poof
Agreed. Ignore the haters, and keep up the good work, Silver-Haired!
244: Quagsire
I’m rooting for him too. You could even say I respect the guy; I couldn’t do what he’s doing.
If only I could add him to my party and level him up! I’m worried that he’ll actually quit at this rate.
245: Knocker
Looks like y’all are concerned about him after all XD
246: Anonymous
lmao he secretly has a lot of fans, huh?
***
The sudden influx of wealth was making me somewhat reckless with my money; I had already bought and eaten three skewers on the way to the Farming Guild. For food that wasn’t even real, it sure tasted amazing.
“Time to make my report,” I muttered, back at the guild once again.
I marked the mapping quest as complete, and sure enough, my rank increased by one. I now had more options to choose from at the shop. First off, it was time to buy the item that had been on my wishlist the longest.
“I’d like a mushroom log, please,” I told the old man behind the counter.
“Right-o. That’ll be 4,500 G,” he replied.
I could finally grow some red panther caps. It had been a long and arduous journey.
“I’d like to buy more land too.”
Better buy another farm while I could afford it.
“I’ll take the 6,000 G one agai— No, hang on. I can afford the 10,000 G option now.” If I remembered correctly, the most expensive upgrade came with a barn. “Can you tell me more about that one?”
“Sure, ask away.”
I asked the old man all sorts of questions. To start, the barn was apparently more of a wooden shed, roughly the size of a small bedroom. It came with a small desk, chair, and shelving unit, and could also be used as a makeshift home (no renovations allowed). You couldn’t store more oversized items in it, nor could you designate it as one of your login destinations, so it really was nothing more than a rest area.
One mildly exciting feature was the automated fertilizer-making machine. At 30 G a bag, fertilizer wasn’t by any means expensive, but this would likely save me a bit of change in the long run.
The most important addition was the toolbox, which had an inventory system that monsters could use as well. This would allow Olto to keep the items he harvested automatically in mint condition while I was gone.
The only downside to this was that the barn took up quite a bit of space, which left you with just ten farming slots. Even so, I was keen on having a barn.
“All right, I’ll take the 10,000 G. Oh, and one 6,000 G grade as well.”
I also bought one 2,000 G patch for growing weeds. No point trying to improve their ratings when they had no special effects. The bare minimum ought to suffice.
“Thanks, sonny.”
I checked the shop’s offerings to see what else I could buy. I was on a shopping spree: all self-control had gone out the window. A typical case of sudden wealth syndrome.
The seeds at the guild were the same as the ones sold at the general store. As I perused the store’s inventory, a bag of 2,000 G premium fertilizer caught my eye. While it could only be used on one square, rather than the entire field, it was ten times more effective than regular fertilizer. Purchases of this item were limited to three bags per person. It also appeared to be quite rare, only restocked once a week.
I currently had 21,220 G. If I wanted it, I could afford it.
“Okay, I’ll take your whole stock of this, plus some blue carrot and amber pumpkin seeds!”
If I had some premium fertilizer, I could speed up the growth process of plants that were slower to mature. Perhaps I could even boost the quality of low-level herbs to five stars. I had already decided I would use the fertilizer on my green peach sapling. Probably best not to spend any more money right now, though.
“Better get outta here before I buy anything else.”
I left the shop and went to check on the land I had just purchased. A new patch and a dingy little shed now stood next to the farms I already owned. The barn had appeared instantaneously; I’d reckoned that building it would have taken a few days, but I shouldn’t have been too surprised considering this was a game.
“Mmm! Mm-mm-mm!”
Olto rushed to my side, tugging at my robe and pointing at the barn excitedly. Seeing a shed appear out of thin air was apparently a shock to him.
“Surprised?”
“Mm!”
“Don’t worry. I just bought them at the Guild.”
While it looked like an ordinary shed on the outside, the inside was cleaner than I expected. Finally, I had storage space.
“Awesome! There’s even a fertilizer tank outside.”
Now, what to do with my new farm? I was also unsure whether I should start using the premium fertilizer I just bought. Using it on local plants would be a waste, wouldn’t it? Shouldn’t I save it for rarer, higher-quality crops? Now that I’d come down from my shopping high, I could feel my purse strings tightening again.
“Guess I’ll use it on the green peach for now. I’ll think about the rest later.”
“Mm?”
“For you, Olto. Got you a mushroom log and some premium fertilizer. Use the fertilizer on the green peach.”
“Mm!”
Olto gave me an affirmative salute and carried the mushroom log to the farm. I knew his strength was higher than mine, but it was still a bit nerve wracking to watch him waddling along with a log bigger than himself.
“You can grow these now, right?” I asked.
“Mmm,” he replied, propagating the red panther cap I gave him. Unlike herbs, which transformed into seeds, mushrooms apparently reverted into spore form. The result was a slightly suspicious-looking red powder. Olto sprinkled the powder onto the mushroom log, followed by some water from the well.
“Is that it?”
“Mm.” he nodded confidently.
“If you say so. I trust you.”
The mushrooms were in good hands now. For our new farm, I had Olto propagate the rest of the herbs and weeds I had, and planted them alongside the vegetable seeds I’d purchased.
“Man, look at all these crops. Am I a Tamer or a Farmer?”
Time to head to the Magical Beasts Guild before I forgot who I was. I had to complete my quest and earn those contribution points too.
“See you later, buddy.”
“Mm-mm.”
I bid Olto goodbye and set off for the Magical Beasts Guild. Thinking about it now, the quest I was about to report on was the trash-picking quest... That wasn’t very Tamer-like either. After I marked the quest as complete on the notice board, Barbara called me over.
“I’ll take your garbage now,” she said.
“Here you go.”
I handed her the entire item basket, and she began checking its contents.
“Um, these three aren’t trash. Here, you have them.”
Barbara’s words made me panic for a second, but to my relief, I hadn’t failed my quest. Phew, thank goodness. I proceeded to inspect the items she had picked out from the trash.
“Water pumice, eh? Don’t remember picking this up. Where’d it come from?”
This was typical of an RPG event. The next item was a small pouch, which contained seeds inside.
“Those are chamomilé seeds.”
The old me wouldn’t have appreciated them in the least, but now that I was better informed, I was ecstatic. Chamomilé was probably similar to chamomile, in which case it would likely have many uses. I would definitely ask Olto to grow them for me. The last item, however, baffled me. It was a key-shaped item, simply labeled “Unknown Key.” What was it for? As I examined it, wondering what it might go to, Barbara congratulated me on raising my guild rank.
“Congratulations. Your guild rank is now at rank 2. You can now buy and sell tamed monsters.”
“All right! Finally!”
As was suggested, the guild had a secondhand market for monsters. You could sell the creatures you tamed in order to earn money, or buy monsters that were harder to obtain. It was one of the most widely known Tamer-specific features in the game, so I was glad that I could finally make use of it.
“Would you like to check out the list?” Barbara offered.
“Yes, please!” I responded a little too enthusiastically. I couldn’t help it; I had been dying to use this system.
Unfortunately, my excitement was short-lived. The monsters currently listed for sale were all incredibly weak. My limited selection might have been due to my low guild rank; the only options available to me were level-1 Fanged Rats, Gray Squirrels, and Rabbits—all tamable creatures found in Zone One. Of course, even if they were beginner monsters, they might have been stronger if they had been hatched from special eggs created through breeding, or a unique specimen like Olto, but...apparently I just wasn’t of a high enough rank to buy special monsters just yet.
“Hmm, I don’t wanna waste one of my slots on a total dud...”
Not now, I decided. At least, that was what I thought, until I found something intriguing at the bottom of the list.
“Eggs?”
“Yes. Eggs require a bit of work, so they’re slightly cheaper than buying a fully grown monster.”
Obviously. With monsters born from eggs, you had to wait for them to hatch before you could tame them.
“Still, there’s a chance of receiving a monster with higher stats.”
If two monsters of the same species reproduced, their offspring would belong to the same species and inherit both of their parents’ abilities. In those cases, you had a slightly better chance of obtaining a unique or powerful specimen. Interbreeding, however, was where things got a bit tricky. The resulting offspring would belong to either breed, but you wouldn’t know which until they were born. In some cases though, breeding certain monsters together could create an entirely new species. The point was, although buying eggs was a risky business, there was also the possibility that you could get your hands on a powerful monster. Of course, you had to be prepared to deal with potential disappointment as well.
At the moment, there were three eggs available. One of the three was a Fanged Rat egg, one a Rabbit egg. Even though the offspring of either of these two could potentially be stronger, I didn’t find them very appealing. The third one, however, intrigued me. It was a cross between a Honey Bee and a Little Bear: both were native to the forests in Zone Two. I remembered them since they were part of the creatures I could obtain with Advanced Tame. Despite my current rank, it looked like I could still buy them in egg form.
“A bee and a bear? How does that work?”
“Eggs are created by combining the magic of monsters that are highly compatible with each other, regardless of species.”
“Compatible...? Aren’t bears supposed to be honey bees’ natural enemies?”
“Well, they both like honey.”
“Seriously?”
“Seriously.”
Never mind, not gonna think too hard about that. All things considered, this egg seemed promising. Regardless of which monster I’d get, it was bound to be pretty strong. It was like choosing between a trooper and a vanguard. It cost 3,000 G, which was more than five times more expensive than the other monsters, but still, I had to have it.
“I wonder...” I muttered.
“So, what will it be?”
“Hmm. I can leave my egg here until it hatches, right?”
“Of course. We have an incubation room on the second floor for eggs. You can retrieve them once they’ve hatched. We’ll send them to the ranch if you don’t have any available slots in your party, or to your home base if you’ve set up one.”
This wasn’t something I had to worry about yet, but if your party was maxed out, the monsters you hatched would usually get sent to the ranch. I knew nothing about this ranch, though—where it was, how your tamed monsters got sent there instantly, whether it was big enough to house every single monster every Tamer sent, or who was in charge of it. In short, it was a system that allowed you to hang on to monsters that you didn’t have space for. Though it should go without saying, your monsters wouldn’t level up or grow while they were at the guild ranch; it was more or less a storage box.
However, things were a bit different if you had a home base. Depending on the size of your base, you could station a number of monsters there, which would gain you all sorts of bonuses that weren’t obtainable while they were at the ranch.
Home bases came in all shapes and sizes. If it was shaped like a house, your monsters would cook and clean for you; if it was more like a farm, your monsters would grow automatically. Actually, it was because of the bonus you could get by placing a monster with Farming skills on your farm that Olto did farm work without being told to.
“But this monster can’t farm, and also it’s from Zone Two.”
Still, this could be my only chance to obtain an egg this rare. All right, I’ll buy it!
“I’ll take this egg, please.”
“Very well. Would you like to keep it at the guild or buy an incubator? If you have a home base, you can set up an incubator yourself.”
“Wait, you can buy incubators?”
That was news to me. During the beta phase, there had been no option but to hatch your eggs at the guild. This had to be a new function.
“You can. We use the lowest-grade incubators for the incubation room. It’ll take a while for your eggs to hatch, not to mention there are no bonuses either.”
“You get bonuses from hatching eggs?”
“If you use a more advanced incubator, it’ll grant your monster some bonus, such as a slight increase in initial stats or change in skills.”
“Aren’t I better off buying one, then?”
Hatching eggs myself seemed like a much better option.
“I would say so, yes. A few things to note, though. First, personal incubators are disposable and will disappear after one use. Eggs will also disappear unless you place them in an incubator within one week of their creation date or day of purchase.”
That meant you couldn’t hoard them to place in more expensive incubators later on.
“I hear you can also create incubators through Forging or Alchemy.”
Interesting. I was keen on trying that out, although it’d be ages before I could, seeing as I didn’t have the right recipe nor ingredients. However, the fact that they were disposable bothered me.
“How much do incubators cost?”
“Borrowing the ones at the guild is 100 G. If you’re buying, the cheapest one will cost you 2,000 G, which gives one of your monster’s initial stats a +1 effect selected at random.”
That wasn’t much of a boost. I could afford it, though. Buying one along with the egg would set me back 5,000 G, but maybe it was worth it.
“This is a list of incubators we sell. Since your guild rank is at rank 2, you can only buy the ones up to here.”
There were two types of incubators available to me: the regular incubator, which cost 2,000 G, and the growth accelerator, which cost 4,000 G. The growth accelerator gave one of your monster’s initial stats a +3 boost.
This wasn’t even up for debate. Clearly, the growth accelerator was the way to go. That would leave me with roughly 8,000 G, but so what?! Heh heh heh. Time for maximum power, baby!
It seemed easy enough to use; all I had to do was place my egg in the incubator and wait. I didn’t have to leave it indoors either, as the lid would keep the egg safe.
“See you later,” said Barbara, bidding me farewell.
I returned to our farm and immediately went about setting up the incubator. I selected the device from my status window, and was immediately presented with a prompt asking if I would like to place my egg in it. I chose ‘Yes,’ and the incubator appeared before me with the egg already inside.
“It’s bigger than I thought.”
Both the incubator and the egg were larger than I expected. The egg was slightly bigger than a bowling ball, and would probably take both hands to carry.
Obviously, the accelerator was even larger—about two sizes bigger than the egg it contained—and was rather futuristic in design. It was a round, egg-shaped metal capsule with a circular glass window on the front, which allowed you to see its contents.
“Mmm?” Olto eyed the device curiously.
“Oh, this? It’s an egg, and an incubator!”
“Mm-mm!” Olto pressed his ear against the accelerator, listening intently.
“Can you hear anything?” I asked, doing likewise. All I heard was silence. Olto, however, continued to listen, as though he did hear something.
“Any idea what kind of monster we’ll get?”
“Mm?”
Apparently not. Judging from his behavior, however, I had a feeling he would welcome this soon-to-be-born hatchling. Although I had no idea what our newest addition to the family would look like, it basically meant Olto would be getting a younger sibling. It wouldn’t hurt for them to get along.
“Kinda worried about leaving it out in the open, though... Wonder if we can move it inside the barn?”
Much to my surprise, it was lighter than I expected, and I was able to carry it with ease. I even managed to set it up in the barn without any difficulty. Yup, this seems way safer.
“At last, I’ve got myself a fighter!”
“Mmm!”
Now, it was simply a matter of waiting.