There was one thing Chan Si could never go wrong doing, and that was farming, but farming by itself was unlikely to accomplish her ultimate goal; it simply made all her other methods easier. She could farm experience, she could farm money, and she could farm items. Any farming she did would accomplish all three to varying degrees, but there would be difference between them based on what she chose to farm.

Of course, that didn't mean she should always move to the optimal farming spot if doing so would take too much time, as traveling from point A to point B was the least efficient thing she could be doing with her time, so she had to factor in that travel time and her expected amount of time that she would then spend in the new area to get the true efficiency of the decision to change to a new location.

Plus if she had any future plans after that, she would need to factor in the difference in travel between her current location and the new location, to the future location. There were many aspects to consider in even something as seemingly simple as choosing a farming spot.

For most this amount of consideration over such minute details would result in being unable to actually accomplish anything, but for Chan Si who could split her brain into six and merely have her self that was least busy think about things for her, it was a simple task.

With her overall goal structure sorted, Chan Si next considered what options she had for immediate activities that Gearme could perform that fit with her goals.

Option one was simple, he could level. She had two suboptions under leveling, either leveling via farming or quests, or a combination of the two. With research she already knew the most efficient enemy she could farm for levels, a level 2 enemy in the Grandoise Waste known as the Hellbiter Scorpion, a fire element based scorpion monster. Their farming area had them spread out enough that she could perform her most efficient farming routine without ever actually fighting, killing precisely one enemy every four seconds.

Over a period of 120 seconds she would be able to kill 30 scorpions with her base attack. By removing one base attack and adding in three Quick Shots instead - sadly she could not add a fourth because it would take her 32 seconds between each quick shot due the four second normal firing speed - her maximum farming rate could be thirty two enemies in 120 seconds, or to simplify, 16/min. Each scorpion would grant precisely 101 XP; 100 for a level 2 enemy, and a 1% bonus for being 1 level over her own level. That would equate to 1616 XP per minute.

She needed 10,000 XP to go from level 1 to level 2, meaning she would hit level 2 in six minutes and twelve seconds. Of course this did not account for travel time, as she would need to walk five minutes at her regular pace to get to the farming area, and five minutes back, which drastically reduced the overall efficiency.

Of course, not only would she get experience, she could pick up the loot as well. The four seconds time between each kill would be the perfect time to do so as well, so she wouldn't even need to factor in extra time for loot acquirement, though even if she had to she would still do so.

The average loot drop of the scorpions was worth 30 copper coins, the lowest tier currency. In the same amount of time it would take her to kill the scorpions she would kill precisely 100 of them, which would equate to an average total loot value of 3000 copper coins. 100 copper coins were worth 1 silver coin, so this equated to 30 silver coins.

The other suboption under leveling was to quest. She had mapped out the common quests in the area she could complete the quickest factoring for travel time, and it was not as efficient in either experience or income, though there were a few she could select and fulfill on her way to farming the scorpions that would net her an overall increase in experience at the cost of some income.

In either case the main advantage of questing was preparing for later quest chains that could provide decent gear.

Sadly she would not be able to do this kind of quest mapping as easily once she left the starting areas and levels, but that was part of the reason she planned to rely on farming over quests in general.

Besides leveling, she could focus on income farming. She had an overall more efficient method of making money immediately thanks to the Provisioner background. She could pick up various free materials all throughout the marketplace thanks to this background and use them to craft common items which she could then sell to the NPCs. Because this was the starting area for the Provisioner background, the starting level common consumable items of all types had such low demand you couldn't even sell them to players, because they would be outright unwilling to pay more than the NPCs.

She had read guides that put her per-minute income at 2 silver coins. In the same nearly 16 minutes she would spend walking to farm, farming, and coming back, she could instead earn 32 silver coins, an increase of 2, but more notably level her crafting [Skill] instead of her character level, allowing her to quickly transition into greater money making methods.

She had another option, she could choose to do neither and immediately begin walking towards the point she had calibrated as the shortest average distance for all her characters to meet up at, factoring for the difference in starting time. But she already did not plan to choose this option, she merely made sure to list it for her own considerations.

Besides these three primary options, she could have Gearme continue wandering the city and just seeing what he might stumble across, and reacting accordingly. However, she had already received confirmation on the accuracy of the wiki information, and the starting areas could said to be extremely well mapped already; if they had secrets, they were extremely high leveled ones with many requirements.

Although, that did remind her that one option for her would be to hit up the various starting areas once she was very high leveled. Of course, the provisioner starting area was an exception, as there were tons of high leveled characters already there, for the area's market. Once she left, her return would be for the market as well, and little else outside of potential quests, or passing through.

So her real choice was to focus on leveling her class (with a subchoice of leveling speed focus or long-term gear focus), or her Provisioner [Skill] while making slightly more money, and opening up faster money making.

Chan Si ultimately decided to level her Provisioner [Skill] first, because she knew of higher level farming areas she could begin with if she leveled the skill enough to make enough money to purchase sufficient gear.

This would reduce her travel time the most!

She could not be 100% certain this was truly the most efficient option, as there were countless cascading effects of her choices that she would be unable account for from pure ignorance alone, but this was why once she finally settled on a decision, she stuck with it, and would not change her mind.

Thus, Gearme set upon Chan Si's plan. He wandered to the nearest NPC merchant stall and began rummaging through a barrel, pulling out glowing magical grasses, one after another. The NPC merchant was an overweight man with an annoyed expression on his face, as if to say ‘Oh, another player rummaging through my things’.

Of course, the Provisioner background did not actually take the items out, just phantoms of the items. If a player actually took an NPC's real items without paying for it, then the guards would be called and they would be fined heavily, or killed if they couldn't pay the fine!

Not only would they be killed, but being killed by city guards forced a log out penalty for a period of at least eight hours to begin with, and growing longer with repeated infractions. There were weirdos who made alt accounts just for the purpose of racking up the longest log out penalties. The most recent record was up to a period of fourty five days!

Nearing the end of the phantom materials expiring, Gearme began refining them into potions immediately. The Provisioner background did not require any special tools to make its items because all its items were common, it could make all its items by hand.

To onlookers it appears as though Gearme was rapidly crushing large number of herbs before pulling out water-filled flasks out of his backpack and popping them inside, shaking vigorously as the flasks were put back inside the backpack, and in the same motion pulling out more herbs.

The flasks of water were not considered materials, they were automatically produced by the system for any potion making. Crafting was not automated in any sense, merely the [Skills] also provided the requisite skills.

Even so, Gearme's efficiency in making the potions was as if she was a practiced expert, not wasting a single motion. The guide Chan Si had read for making money had assumed an average person's rate of working, but Chan Si was fast enough that she was on pace for making forty silver in the sixteen minutes, instead of only thirty two!

She was a newbie too, it was just she was too dang intelligent, as soon as the basic skills had been put into her head she had immediately figured out how to optimize her workflow.

Every crafting [Skill] had a maximum level of 999, though nobody had achieved the maximum level. Most people would not have sufficient practice to obtain Chan Si's level of skill until they reached level 300! And that was for the actual alchemy class, in the case of making potions. The Provisioner class, due to its focus on crafting many different things, even a level 300 Provisioner would be unlikely to reach Chan Si's pinnacle.

Over the course of forty minutes of nonstop crafting of potions, Gearme crafted 100 silver worth of potions, which converted to the next level of currency, was 1 gold coin. Gold was actually not the top level currency in Guild Tree Online. After gold was platinum, after platinum was violet steel, after violet steel was dragon brass, and finally the top tier currency, worth 100 dragon brass, were spirit stones.

Dragon brass could not even be automatically converted by the system into spirit stones, one had to instead complete a 99 floor dungeon known as the Spirit Tower, after which one would be able to access the topmost floor where one could exchange 100 dragon brass for 1 spirit stone. After that, one would have permanent access to the topmost floor for exchange.

The reason this exchange was important is that there were many NPC merchants in the game who would only accept spirit stones for their wares, which one could not get anywhere else. The topmost floor of the Spirit Tower had only been unlocked recently by a few of the top guilds, before that Spirit Stones were an unobtainable currency. Some players theorized that as players continued to explore the game, there could even be currencies above Spirit Stones that also required unlocks.

Right now the highest level player in the game was only level 510! They had not even reached what many assumed to be the player level cap of 999 - although the system did not announce any sort of character level cap, people made this assumption because 999 was the announced level cap for crafting [Skills].

In the same amount of time, Gearme's level in the Provisioner [Skill] increased for 1 to 5, which would allow her to craft an even more profitable item from the guide. Forty minutes to reach level 5 in a crafting skill while nonstop crafting was actually quite slow in comparison to most crafting skills. This was a balance decision in the game design.

The Provisioner [Skill], unlike other crafting skills, could obtain an infinite amount resources from any resource node, thus was basically guaranteed to be able level the skill as long as they found a location full of resources appropriate for their level in the skill. Other crafting [Skills] would need real raw materials, which they would need to harvest themselves or purchase.

Thus, the Provisioner skill actually leveled three times as slowly as other crafting [Skills]; even with Chan Si's optimizations in workflow, she was significantly slower in leveling the [Skill] than an average person would be in other crafting [Skills].

Early on this was not too much of an issue, as the early levels in crafting [Skills] would pass in a blank of an eye either way. However, as she continued to level Provisioner, she would need more and more time, delaying her access to better common items and thus more money. However, this was fine by her, she did not primarily pick Provisioner to make money with, she had picked it to save money with! Even at lower levels, the crafting [Skill] would meet her needs.

With the 1 gold coin that Gearme had earned, it would not purchase him even a single piece of decent uncommon gear for level 1. The game had been running for so long, the price inflation for things good at the lowest levels was tremendous; at least 10 gold was needed. That would get Gearme a decent uncommon pair of boots or gloves.

The next highest priced slot would be the head slot, followed by the pants slot, then chest slot, then weapon.

Normally chest slots were more expensive than weapons, but it was not easy to find a decent oversized bow without level requirements. Above that were accessories. However, Gearme did not need to fill all gear slots at this lowest level, and was only interesting in gloves and pants.

Starting at uncommon, gloves could have a climbing bonus attached to them, meaning that even for Chan Si who did not have have any natural skill in climbing, she could scale dangerous terrain. As for pants, there was a specific pair of pants that Chan Si planned to purchase for Gearme.

They were known as the Golden Silk Pants, and were a specific rare drop without a level requirement. They offered no stats or [Skills], and most players wore them for fashion. However, the Golden Silk Pants had a specific use for Gearme - the pants doubled the value of any common enchantment placed on them. Enchantments were a consumable item that could be applied to any gear, with the number of enchantments maximum being based on the rarity. Common items could be enchanted once, uncommon items twice, rare items three times, and Legendary items could be enchanted five times.

With the Golden Silk Pants doubling the value of common enchantments, it was equivilent to having six common enchantments!

Common enchantments were considered trash, most players didn't bother with them, even Provisioners. Thus, Golden Silk Pants were not in high demand even for a Rare levelless item. At most, they would be purchased by fashion-collectors, meme-collectors, and people hoping there would in the future be new common enchantments they could exploit.

Although Chan Si planned to buy more later for the third reason, for now that would be a waste money, she planned to purchase the Golden Silk Pants for entirely different reason. It would cost her sixty gold to do so.

Once she reached level 20 [Provisioner], she would be able to craft an enchantment known as [Heightened Senses]. Heightened Senses offered very few benefits, it would merely increase the distance one could sense, with a percentage bonus to ranged attack distance as well, of 15%.

With three copies of heightened senses, doubled due to Golden Silk Pants, Gearme's attack range would be slightly less than doubled. The [Heightened Senses] enchantment could not be placed on gloves, only Pants and Helmets, but level 1 helmets all had weird drawbacks, so Chan Si did not care for them unless she felt that the drawback would be exploitable.

The reason Gearme needed to have nearly double the attack range - the attack range on oversized bows was already very far - was that there was a specific mountain nearby. By climbing to a resting point near the top of the mountain, Gearme would be able to look down on a group of level 12 mobs known as Toxic Mountain Lions. Their HP was immensely high in comparison to the level 1 Gearme, though thankfully their physical defense was relatively low for their level, with an effective HP of 3410 against physical attacks, so he would need ten shots to take them down. That was forty seconds of firing, or thirty seven with a single quick shot thrown in.

If Gearme tried to take thirty seven seconds to take down an enemy on flat ground, they would reach him in less than half that time even with the ranged increase. However, due to needing to climb the mountain, the Toxic Mountain Lions would be much slower, and Gearme would be able to safely pick them off. The additional distance on the weapon was needed to be able to reach them from the appropriate safe spot.

This was a trick that, as far as Chan Si was aware, only she knew about!

It was a spot she had seen in a video, and with her knowledge and intelligence she was able to calculate the distances required and that triple-enchanted Golden Silk Pants would barely allow for the trick on the oversized ranged weapon classes like Ballista. It wouldn't be something anyone else would have discovered by chance, because it would require them picking such a class, starting in this area with the [Provisioner] background, buying Golden Silk Pants and enchanting it with something that is considered not useful in the general case and even less so for Ballista who already has high range, wander to that specific spot, and discover they could kill fast enough.

If they had access to such resources to waste on such a casual thing, they would be better off just getting whatever rich friend they clearly had to power level them! Only someone like Chan Si, who could precisely analyze the situation quickly enough, would be able to discover such a thing purely based on theoretical possibility.

As a level 12 monster, Toxic Mountain Lions had a base XP reward of 3000! With an XP bonus of 11% for the 11 level difference, it was 3,330 experience, so Gearme would level to 2 in just four kills - Gearme could also do a quick quest on the way that would take five additional seconds, lowering it down to three kills - although she would lose out on 1% more additional experience on the fourth kill as a result, leveling to 2 in one less kill would speed up that fourth kill enough to make up the difference.

This was from level 1 to 2 in just 116 seconds, not even two minutes - a much better rate than killing the scorpions.

Although Gearme needed to do a lot of leveling of the Provisioner [Skill] first to get there, that needed to be leveled anyway, and the gear he was going to purchase with the money was going to be useful going forward. Not only this, but although it would take a while to get to the camping spot - fifteen minutes - Gearme could level at that spot up until level 8, before it was no longer the most efficient option.

But the main reason Chan Si wanted Gearme to farm this spot was not even that it was the most efficient plan up until level 8, but that Toxic Mountain Lions had a decent drop chance on gear which increased resistance to Toxic damage, which would be required for the next step of her plan, which was to fight the miniboss of the Toxic Mountain Lion area: a level 16 Rare creature, the Toxic Mountain Lion Queen.

The Toxic Mountain Lion Queen would usually require a group to take down. However, Chan Si was confident that with level 8 on a Ballista with sufficient Toxic resistance to face-tank the Toxic Mountain Lion Queen's ranged attacks, Gearme could take her down, which would allow her to access a level 16 Rare Loot Pile. Doing such a thing solo at level 8, it was not something most people would dream of, but was possible for Chan Si.

Such a high level Rare Loot Pile so early in one's leveling career, the average income she would gain from this even if she found zero items she could use for Gearme would be astronomical for level 8! It did not matter all the preparation that had to be done with leveling the Provisioner [Skill] because Gearme had to level it anyway, this was about having the greatest efficiency possible of what was leveled when, using everything to maximum advantage for the situation Chan Si found herself in. Being a higher character level would do nothing to level Provisioner faster specifically until it reached a high enough level that a better spot was needed, so it was natural to start with Provisioner [Skill] first.

With Chan Si's plan in mind, Gearme worked tirelessly at crafting. He had only barely hit level 12 in Provisioner making the [Extra Crispy Mystery Meat Kebab] food item when it was time for Chan Si to log into her next character, Pickapart.