“Sebast! Hey, Sebast!” A loud brazen voice knocked him out of his sleep. Groggily, Sebast Koh opened his eyes to a familiar archer’s face, even as he moved to grab his coffee cup lying off to the side. Seeing that it was Emiya with a capital X, Sebast could not be bothered to return the greeting, instead preferring to drift back into some much needed shut-eye. Maybe if he ignored him, he would move off to find some other target to annoy. However, Wong Xiang Jun sat himself next to without much consideration for the man’s private space, subconsciously irking him.

“Hey! How have you been in your levels? Seems to me that you have not been sleeping much.”

Yes, and that is in part your fault, Sebast thought under his closed eyes, clearly remembering the encounter he had with the archer outside Talos’ house and the feeling after the meeting. But that was not said; Sebast only utter a patronizing “mmph” in reply.

“Anyway the Joint Operations I told you about was a big success! I even gained like five levels from it. It was so awesome that I wished you were there to see it.” The guy seems to have made it his personal mission to deny Sebast of his precious minutes before lessons starts.

”Do you know that Derrilene was the original quester for the operation? And she is like … level hundred plus.”

At that Sebast’s ears perked a bit. Players who are level hundred are not very common in Ages Online, especially in the western part of the world which had developed much later than the central continent. It is also partly due to the game still being relatively new in the market as well as because leveling is truly challenging inside. Gone were the days of button mashing and keyboard facerolls; the battles in virtual realities have to be fought by one’s real capabilities, augmented yes, but still fundamentally their own. Sebast had learnt that the hard way with the rats, then the wolves and now the stupid antelopes that taunted him with their unorthodox programming.

“So where are you now?”

“Torintu.” Sebast took another swig of his coffee and idly note that there was barely any effect on his fatigue.

“Ah.” Xiang Jun’s face immediately changed into that of sympathetic concern. “I was there once, and the native antelopes really do give everyone a real hard time. Most people on the forums nicknamed them An-troll-opes, which is unsurprisingly fitting. You can’t really do anything about them I think so I would suggest that you just skip them and move on to the higher level monsters, or head towards Loyderidge.”

All these Sebast had already read up from the forums itself overnight. It was also one of the reasons why he was barely getting by on sleep today. Despite that, Sebast suddenly felt a twinge of appreciation towards this loudmouth and insensitive prick of a person for his concern.

“Hey-“He raised his head up to speak, only to be interrupted by the man himself.

“Oh, the Prof is here. Got to go, talk to you later Sebast.” Xiang Jun bolted off with a hurried goodbye before heading straight for a group of people including the recognizable faces of Beatrice, Ervin and Xing Ting over at the other side of the classroom before Sebast could protest. Then, the professor entered and started his lecture with a short quiz on the previous topic, fouling Sebast’s mood even further.

……………

Shick... Shick…

Beast sat on a rock, staring intently at one of the antelopes that had wandered into his sight, his hands not pausing in the slightest.

Shick... Shick…

Carving has increased to Basic 3.

Carving Speed +2.5%

Strength +1

Dexterity +1

Shick… Shick…

The antelope jolted its head at Beast’s direction at the sound, as though asking what the man was doing. At the sight of the moving knife in his hands, the animal froze for a moment. It was a weapon of murder, a tool that drew blood of many of its kind and cut the skin of the dead. The antelope knew full well how dangerous a human could be but it did not flee. Its curiosity kept it within vicinity of the man and his preoccupation, fully confident that its powerful hind legs would be more than enough to bring it outside the person’s reach within a matter of seconds. Deep down inside, it knew it was born to do this.

This taunting.

Carving has increased to Basic 4.

Carving speed + 2.5%

Your products are now of a better quality.

Shick... Shick… Shick…

Strength+1

What was he making, it wondered. From its primal intellect, the antelope knew the man was making something, just not what. From the looks of it, he was struggling with a bunch of wooden sticks and then slicing them off bit by bit – a pointless endeavor. If antelopes could laugh, this one would have.

Shick…

The knife suddenly stopped. Then, it noticed the smirk on the human’s face. Danger bells sounded and the antelope immediately activated its plan to escape. Electrical circuits fired to bring its limbs to bear against the hard soil, with a pounce and leap that would cover meters in a stride to bring as much distance as it could between them within a short period of time. However, it came far too late. A long wooden shaft buried itself into the antelope’s abdomen, causing its resulting movements to become more of a dying leap of pain than a break for safety. As the animal collapsed into a writhing heap on the ground, Beast got off the rock he was sitting on and slowly walked over to his prey. With a grin of satisfaction that filled the antelope’s dying vision, he smashed down with a force-filled punch, ending its misery as well as his days of fruitless hunting.

So, the throwing spear he made counted as a consumable instead of an equipment. He could make use of this.

Stepping in triumph over the dead carcass of his hunt, Beast released a sigh of relief. Who knew that such tactics would have been effective? It was of no coincidence that of the data he had researched on regarding these animals the night before, that all of the well-known classes reported extreme difficulty in bringing down these mobs with the exception of one class – the bowmen. Those in the archer forums were surprisingly quiet regarding this matter and indeed, despite the antelopes being able to get the better of the melee classes, they could not outrun arrows flying at a hundred meters per second. It was no wonder Xiang Jun appeared sympathetic, with no mention of his own troubles – An archer like him could get by just fine. As for mages, their spells move much slower, so they require a bit of forward aiming to be accurate.

Beast would never have though that projectile speed would have a significant effect on the game. The developers of this game really thought of everything.

Without any ranged capabilities to think of, Beast could only come up with the next best alternative, such as the throwing spear that he had utilized just now. It was a primal way of hunting, but effective all the same. Now that it worked perfectly, it seemed that he could look forward to having some antelope meat soon.

Spotting another antelope nearby, Beast readied his second wooden spear and hurled it while imitating the action his P.E teacher used to do once at a javelin throw session. The slight flourish when the spear left his hand gave it a spin that made it seems like a tunneling drill flying towards its target, only for the antelope to jerk away at the last minute. Impacting the ground at a violent torque, the wood splintered and broke into pieces while the animal fled.

Okay, maybe not so perfect after all.

…….

As Beast slowly cook the pile of meat he had hunted over the past few hours over a fire, his eyes moved over the most recent notification windows.

Dexterity +1

Throwing Mastery has increased to Basic 2

You have leveled up!

The number of spears he had carved and used to throw – about a hundred in total - had also brought his carving skills to Basic 6, allowing him to carve up to stone. Even with that however, he was not about to use stone skewers anytime soon. Soon, the aroma of cooked meat began to waft from the fire.

“Maybe I should invest in a pot or something someday.” Beast muttered to himself. “Not everything tastes good barbequed.”

Besides, his experience with previous games told him that the cooking skill was an excellent investment should he managed to gather up useful recipes that provide powerful buffs to aid in survivability. Skewers were never going to cut it. Steeling his resolve, Beast suddenly stood up and disappeared into the town, only to return a few minutes later with a pot in hand and some vegetables in another. It might have cost him a solid gold coin and then some from his five but the results were worth it.

You have learnt the recipe: Venison Stew

When consumed, provides

+10 strength

+10 dexterity

+10 stamina

for 4 hours game time.

When he drank the soup, Beast could actually feel strength flowing through his whole body. Just like the stats of the buff, the sips he had were absolutely delicious. So was the smell, and the smell began to attract players just like the time outside Rydelin.

“Is that antelope meat? Wow! How did you manage to catch them? “

“How much would you accept for a share of that stew?”

Without looking up, Beast replied, “50 copper, but only if you bring some vegetables to add to the pot.”

Time to regain back his investments.

50 coppers was a hefty ten times increase from back then where a skewer was sold for only 5, but this time it was antelope meat which was such a rare commodity on the market that should warrant the 1000 percent increase. It would seems that the other players agree with him as well, for a moment later many of them are appearing with freshly bought vegetables in their hands, causing Beast to continuously adding slabs of meat and refilling the water in the pot. It did not take long for the pile, forty odd slabs in total, to disappear into the hungry stomach of Beast and the players with some even asking for multiple servings. In the end he earned back 25 silvers.

Cooking have leveled to Basic 5

Your dishes will taste better.

All Stats +2

Cooking speed increases by 5%

Packing the extra skewers he had set aside for his own use into his bag, Beast bade farewell to the satisfied players around him. With his food supply settled and a level and then some in skills gained from the hunt, it was about time he start heading for the Fort of Lanos up north over the Tarron hills, but first there was something he had left hanging he should do before he depart.

First, he picked up 30 healing potions at the potion store. Then, he sold off the miscellaneous items he obtained from the antrollopes. Now for the last thing he would do.

Approaching the town gates, Beast recognized what was Guard Apollon who had given both him and Shadun a quest to clear out the bandits. A quick wave got the latter’s attention.

“Hey! I have completed what you asked of me. For the sake of Torintu and Caerheim, the bandits should plague you no more.”

Some choice words like ‘for Torintu’ and ‘for Caerheim’ were used.

“Oh thank goodness! Thank you so much. You have done us a great deed.”

Clear the Bandits – Completed

The bandit hideout had been thoroughly cleared of all bandits. They should no longer harass the caravans running from Rydelin to Torintu and the town will enjoy peace from raids and robbery for the time being.

Rewards:

+ 50 silver

+ 5 fame

+ 15 public relations to Caerheim

You have leveled up!

Now he was ready.

“Could you render us your aid once more, adventurer?”

Or maybe not. It seemed like the intimacy from the quest before had unlocked another. Though Beast really wanted to get moving on to the Fort of Lanos already, there was no harm in hearing the guard out. At the most he could make a detour or something when he comes back.

“You are too polite, Sir Apollon. I could not be more eager to help the town of Torintu if she needs me.”

“Indeed, spoken like a true man.” The guard nodded in approval. “Recently, Loyderidge had conducted an operation to drive out the trolls near the city. As a result some of the stragglers had settled in the Tarron hills near here and pose a serious threat to the town and its inhabitants. Please clear them out, or kill at least a dozen of them.”

Troll-Slaying

The joint operation conducted recently in Loyderidge had caused a migration of trolls over to the Tarron hills near Torintu, disrupting the local ecosystem and farmlands. Guard Apollon request that you deal with this threat for Torintu.

Difficulty: D+

Note: Rewards are different for partial clearance and full clearance.

The Tarron hills are a wide-spanning mountainous area that ranged from Torintu to Corelia beyond the plains of Marr. One actually needs to go pass the Tarron Hills in order to reach Fort Lanos on the other side so it was indeed lucky that they are on the way so Beast could simply complete this before reaching the Fort. Simply, being the key word he would soon regret.