Sora went into the store that was across from where he was selling his fish and started to scan through the various items. He picked up a chest and leggings made from a black colored leather with fur tailored into the inside, an average looking iron sword with a sharp edge, a small dagger that has grooves at the base of the blade, and a few red potions that gave off a warm light. He went up to the owner of the store and placed all of the items on the counter.

“Greetings adventurer, will this be all for you today?”

“Aye, I wish I could buy more, but I doubt I’ll be able to afford it. The quality of these items are truly top notch, my pockets are already feeling empty.”

“Hahaha you sure know how to distinguish a good item. I’ll be sure to give you a fair price to make sure your pockets don’t leave here empty, within reason of course.

Sora was a master at this from his 10 years of playing in his last life. Everyone likes to be complimented, even NPCs. All it takes is a little flattery for a price difference of 10-20% which may not seem like much but when you add it all up it can be an extraordinary amount. He ended up buying all the items for only 20 silver. If he hadn’t flattered the owner then it was possible he wouldn’t have even been able to afford everything. He stored the remaining 6 silver and collected all his items.

[X1 Dark Leather Chestpiece obtained]

Rarity - Common

Durability - 35/35

Defense - 4

Requires - Level 5

“Chest armor made from the hide of a black wolf.“

[X1 Dark Leather Leggings obtained]

Rarity - Common

Durability - 35/35

Defense - 4

Requires - Level 5

“Leg armor made from the hide of a black wolf.“

[X1 Hardened Iron Sword obtained]

Rarity - Common

Durability - 40/40

Damage - 7-10

Requires - Level 5

“A Sword made from Iron that has been reforged and layered, making it exceptionally strong.“

[X1 Parrying Dagger obtained]

Rarity - Common

Durability - 20/20

Defense - 3

Requires - Level 5

“A small dagger with grooves used to catch and defend against bladed weapons.“

[X4 Beginner Health Potion obtained]

Rarity - Common

Uses - 1/1

Requires - Level 1

Cooldown - 1 Minute

“A potion that gives off a warm feeling when held. Can cure wounds when consumed.“

+Restores 100 HP

Sora walked out of the store, satisfied with his purchase and itching to finally be able to wield a sword again. The parrying dagger was something he used a lot in his last life and was one of the reasons that he was able to become such a legend. Each battle he fought would be an intense match where his opponents could rarely hit him thanks to his parrying dagger skills. Many others thought it was a cheat like weapon and decided to buy their own, what followed was many forum complaints on how hard it was to use the parrying dagger, thus earning him respect for being able to use it so easily.

After walking down the town for a while he came across a gated area with scarecrows dressed with a shirt that had a red target on them. He walked into the arena and equipped his sword and parrying dagger. He selected a target and began slicing at it, after about 2 hours of repeating the same attacking motion a notification appeared.

[Slash Skill obtained]

Cost: 5 mana

Cooldown: 5 seconds

-Attack that deals 150% Damage

Sora basically ignored the notification and switched his attack style, he started to use the hilt of the sword to bash at the target for another 2 hours.

[Concuss Skill obtained]

Cost: 10 mana

Cooldown: 10 seconds

-Attack that deals 50% of Strength as damage and stuns the target for 2 seconds.

After 4 hours of constant swinging Sora’s body was soaked in sweat, he checked the time and decided to take a small break from the game. While playing “The Divine Path” your body is put in a semi coma like state but it is still recommended to keep your body in peak condition. Not much sleep is required but you do need to eat every now and then. Sora made a light snack, freshened up, and instantly went back into the game.

…..

[Welcome back, Ethereal]

Sora was still standing in the middle of the training yard, double checking all of his stats and equipment.

Ethereal

Level - 10

Damage - 39-42

Defense - 26

Mana - 100

HP - 100/100

Strength - 60(+5)

Agility - 10(+5)

Constitution - 10

Dexterity - 10

Endurance - 10

Intelligence - 10

Wisdom - 10

Spirit - 10

Luck - 0

Fame - 0

Faith - 0

Sora already had two uncommon armor pieces and a offhand defense item, because of that his defense stat was fairly high. His HP was only at 100 but that's only because the buff from eating the Roasted Flat River Fish has worn off. He nodded his head slightly and started walking back towards the river where he fished. After crossing the river, he headed in the same direction where he directed Blossom and LeeLee and entered into an area called Silver Wolf Hill. He stopped before he exited the cover of the forest and ate a Roasted Flat River Fish, this boosted his HP up to 200 and sated his hunger. After he finished he readied his weapon and slowly exited the forest.

As soon as Sora left the cover of the forest he was met with two snarling wolves that approached him cautiously while positioning themselves on either side of him. Both of them were level 8 -Black Wolf- and continued to circle Sora until he made the first move. Right as Sora started to move, the wolves jumped at him intending to sink their fangs into his neck. Since Sora had fought thousands of these types of wolves in his previous life he already knew how they would react when he began moving, that’s why Sora instantly dove forward and under the black wolf in front of him. Now both black wolves were in one direction and it lessened the pressure from fighting two at the same time. Sora got back up and used [Concuss] on the wolf that he dove under, dealing over 25% of the wolf's health and stunning it. Afterwards he focused on the second wolf, using [Slash] and basic attacks to take away 20% of it’s health before the second wolf lost it’s stunned status. Sora used his parrying dagger to block one of the wolves attacks while he pulled away from the other. After dancing around the wolves and attacking when he had the chance his [Concuss] came off cooldown. He used the same strategy as he did last time, stunning one wolf while fighting with the other. After repeating this same strategy 4 times both wolves fell with a yelp and dropped some loot.

[X6 Copper Coins obtained]

[X1 Black Wolf Hide obtained]

Sora gathered the loot and started making his way around the base of the hill, he continued using the same strategy against wolves when he needed to and made swift progress around the hill. After traveling and fighting for 30 minutes he finally made it to the other side. After all that fighting Sora still didn’t level up. His EXP progress was at 80% and only needed a bit more to level up. Sora took a quick survey of the area before he started fighting more wolves that spawned at the base of the hill in the area he was at. He kept fighting wolves for 2 hours before finally he got what he wanted. Along the treeline where the forest meets the plains there was a wolf which was glowing in a blue aura, it’s fur seemed to be made out of rock and it strayed further from the rest of the wolves. Level 10 -Hardened Black Wolf-

In the 2 hours that Sora had been fighting he ended up leveling up to level 11 and hardly ever lost health, when he did lose health he would just wait for a couple minutes to regenerate it back to full. Sora ate another Roasted Flat River Fish to reapply his buff and headed towards a small path near the edge of the forest, just out of aggro range of the wolf. He pulled one of his pebbles out of his inventory and threw it at the wolf. As soon as the pebble made contact Sora ran as fast as he could down the path.

-0

What a pathetic amount of damage, but that’s what you would expect from a pebble hitting a monster with boosted defenses. Sora continued to run while the Hardened Black Wolf followed shortly behind him, he continued running this way for 5 minutes and had planned on taking a few hits but thanks to his Scaled Boots of Waterwalking he was able to gain a little more distance from the wolf when he went across a river without having to slow down. He finally saw a small cottage with chickens running around it, he made sure the wolf kept aggro by chucking another pebble at it and continuing to run towards the cottage. Once he reach the cottage he suddenly stopped and rolled backwards. As the wolf jumped Sora was suddenly under him, leaving the wolf flying towards the nearby cottage. The wolf slammed into the cottage before turning around to face the man he had been chasing.

Sora readied himself to fight and charged towards the wolf, opening his attacks with a [Slash] followed by [Concuss] disrupting the wolf's attack.

-21

-30

His attacks barely did any damage, only shaving off 10% of the wolf’s health. Sora began backing up, readying his parrying dagger for when the wolf attacks. Just as the wolf attacked Sora parried the claws to the right, making the wolf fall awkwardly to the ground and gained an opportunity to deal more damage with basic attacks followed by another [Slash] when the wolf went to attack again. Sora attempted to parry again but the wolf didn’t want to be pushed to the ground again and used the weight of it’s body behind the attack.

-44

It’s attacks hurt but Sora quickly repositioned himself behind the wolf, getting in two unguarded attacks before the wolf attacked again. Now that the wolf was putting all of it’s weight into his attacks, they became very predictable. Sora was able to dodge almost every attack while using [Slash] and [Concuss] when they came off cooldown. After 3 minutes of a hard fought battle, the wolf fell to the ground and dropped a some coins and a small orb of blue light.

[X1 Silver obtained]

[X23 Copper obtained]

[Hardened Essence obtained]

-Used to enchant armors and weapons, increasing defense and durability.

Sora quickly put the loot away and looked towards the door of the cottage. Standing in the doorway was a thin but tall man dressed in farmer's clothing.

“Hello good sir. Do you live here?”

“Mhmm, it’s usually a very quiet place where I can peacefully farm but recently the wolves have been getting out of control. I thought that it wasn’t a big deal but now this monstrosity has shown up here too.”

“True, usually the wolves around here don’t have fur as hard as rocks, he put up quite a fight before I was able to take him down. Is there perhaps anything I can do to help?”

This is why Sora had taken so much time to lure the wolf to this area, it was a hidden quest that could only be activated by bringing an enchanted wolf to this cottage and killing it. The quest system in “The Divine Path” was a lot different than any other MMORPG. Most MMORPGs have an abundance of quests to choose from, so many in fact that you could be running around with fifty quests at once. “The Divine Path” wanted a simpler system of adventuring where quests were actually quite rare to receive, this is why Sora went through so much trouble to start this quest.

“Normally I wouldn’t put someone through the trouble but you seem to know how to fight these wolves. Down this path is a place called Silver Wolf Hill, it is the main territory of the wolves that roam around these parts. At the top of the hill is a large wolf with a silver coat of fur, killing it should make the wolves more afraid to come out of their territory. Show me the silver fur of the wolf as proof that you killed it and I will give you a special reward.”

[Quest Received]