'What a shame!' Manco shook his head, admiring the masterwork crossbow. It was quite a powerful and versatile ranged weapon for this level. He would prefer to hold on to it for a little longer, but he needed it to upgrade the gun.

"Here goes nothing!" He placed the crossbow onto the altar and a prompt popped up in front of him.

〔Activate "Altar of Union"?〕

"Yes."

〔Warning: This will sacrifice "Gwyndham's Repeating Crossbow" to upgrade "The Collector." Proceed?〕

With a sigh, he selected 'Yes' again. The altar emitted a blinding light, causing him to close his eyes. When he opened them again, the crossbow was gone, leaving only the gun floating in the air.

〘 The Collector 〙☆

> Type: Derringer (One-handed)

> Damage: 20-21 (piercing) + projectile damage. Range: 30m + projectile range.

> Ammunition: Magic Crystals. Capacity: 20

> Description: I see you have upgraded it. Are you suuuuuure that was your best choice? Cause, y'know, you've only got once chance. Probably should've told you that before you upgraded it. Oops! Well, now you know!

> Weight: 1.0 kg

> Durability: 1/1

> Effects:

- More Dakka: Capacity + 400%! (Requirement to unlock: Deliver the killing blow on 1 controller type boss. Completed)

- ??? (Requirement to unlock: Kill 5000 corpse-eating creatures. Progress 4793/5000)

- Fragile: Durability-1 upon owner's death

- Fickle: 100% chance to drop upon owner's death

- Soul tethered: Up0n being dr!pp#d, automat##ally ret__n to the b0und lOcation. (Current bound location: loc.cottage_gwyndham, loc.village_mist)

—.—

The Soul Tethered effect had been transferred, which was exactly what he was hoping for. Though the display glitches were somewhat worrying. This weapon was definitely not intended to be in the game and was likely to be bugged. Adding new upgrades on it might worsen the bug.

"I'll just see how it goes," he sighed "Hopefully it's just a display bug." Regardless, he should have a contingency in place in case this weapon became unusable.

The next step was to increase the durability, and the most straightforward way would be to reach the first milestone. To do that, he needed to kill about 200 more corpse-eating creatures, which would also unlock the second effect. He noted down several creatures that could fit the criteria and where to find them.

At this moment, Mahn Li was pretty sure that the bonus stage was put in this particular place for a reason. The enemies down here perfectly matched the type required to unlocked the next milestone, and there was conveniently an Altar of Union to upgrade the gun.

Observing the stat closely, he found that 30% of the crossbow's damage (which was 34-38) had been added to the gun. It's a shame it wasn't 50%, but at least the chosen stat was Damage and not Range. He did not entertain any hope that durability would be transferred. After all, the merge only took the sacrifice item's main attributes. For weapon they were damage and range (in case of a ranged weapon), for armor they were armor rating and damage resistance. General attributes like durability and weight were never transferred.

Looking at the taunting description, Manco could only shook his head . Fortunately, he had already known that when it reached the next milestone, the gun's durability would increase. He was sure its former owner died at least once and still did not lose it. Otherwise, he would have agonized for days thinking of what else he could have chosen for the upgrade.

Having checked the cave to make sure he missed nothing, he climbed back to the surface, noting that the two bodies had despawned, probably because Lug and Bolt had looted them clean. He left the temple and saw that it was still dark outside.

He found his way back to the main road and headed south-west. It took him a better part of an hour to reach the village. At that point, the in-game clocked showed 7 a.m.

He gave his inventory a once over. His armor set was heavily damaged during the bonus stages, so he left it at the armor smith to be repaired and donned his old tattered clothes.

Deciding to log out and take a break, he walked to the tavern. Upon entering, he saw the same party of low-level players sitting at one of the tables. The shaman girl was with them, looking down at the table. Like yesterday, they were arguing amongst each other. However, after listening closer, he realized they were criticizing the girl.

…

"How stupid can you be? When I said to stop healing, you stop! What else is there to think about?" A muscular berserker, who seemed to be the group's leader, growled at the girl.

"I did, but they kept attacking me! So I had to heal myself!"

"Those moths attacked you BECAUSE you were healing yourself! Dumbass! Jeez! I'm done talking to you!"

Turning to the rest of the group, he asked: "So, what's next?"

"I'm rerolling! What a waste of time!" A thief-type player replied.

"Yeah, this place sucks balls!"

"Yeah, me too! Where will you start?"

"Eastern port of Wienna." The thief answered.

"Seriously? That's place is packed!"

"Still beats the hell out of this place! More people, more opportunity. Worse come to worst, I'll just pick up trash items no one needs!"

"Ha! In your dream! There's already a crap ton of forum threads for that. Hand-me-downs aren't that easy to come by. No one gives anything away for free!"

"Whatever. I'll take my chances. I'm sick of this place!"

"So, still Eastern port of Wienna?"

"Yup!"

"I'm going too!"

"Me three!"

…

One by one, the party turned into ribbons of light and disappeared, leaving the shaman girl alone at the table. She looked at the empty seats, sighed, then stood up. Seeing Manco, she gave a tired smile.

"Hi!" she said, "you're a player too, right?"

"Yup," he nodded: "What's that all about?" He sat down at the table and motioned for her to sit down.

"Yeah, well, I joined them to level up. Didn't end well."

"What happened?"

"We entered this cave and fight some insects. It's really weird. Those moths just made a beeline to me and attacked me. Whenever I healed someone, the moths attacked that person as well. It really messed up our formation. After four of us were killed, we decided to go into the woods. Most of the animals avoided us, and the few that didn't were really tough and dangerous. So we tried the cave again, but the same thing happened."

"You guys were fighting Cave Moths, I presume?"

"That's right."

"Yeah, that's what I thought. Those things are drawn to the light. Your totem shone really brightly, so of course they were drawn to you. When you healed other people, the lighting effects marked them as targets as well. As for the woods, most of the animals here tend to avoid large groups. If your party looks too threatening, they won't attack you."

"Oh! I didn't know that!" She said, embarrassed, "Oh, I'm so sorry! I forgot to introduce myself. I'm Cordelia," she said, holding out her hand.

"I'm Manco," he shook her hand, "so what are you gonna do next?"

"I'm not sure," she said, plucking a dry leaf out of her hair, "I'll think of something. Probably crafting and some odd jobs."

"Good thinking," he nodded: "Tell you what…"

Opening a trade window, he gave her the spare materials cluttering his inventory: rope, strings, claws, teeth, pieces of pelts and leather.

"Accept the trade," he told her. "Make something out of those. You're what? Level…3? So you can still get some XP out of simple recipes. Processed leather, necklaces, bracelets and so on. Equip what you can and sell the rest for money. What kind of weapon do you have?"

"Uh. I only have my staff." She answered, holding a short wooden staff with the symbol of an owl carved on it.

"Do you know how to use it?"

"Um… No, not really."

"Do you have a favored weapon?"

"Uh… No. I played as healers in most other games. I tried archer, but I didn't really like it."

"When you get enough money, buy a bow. And a knife or club for close quarter fights," off her surprised look, he continued: "Combat is unavoidable in this game. Even as a healer in a party, you still have to hold your own in a fight. Now you're all by yourself. If you only heal, then who kills the monsters?"

Realization dawned on her that he wouldn't be carrying her. Still, she firmly nodded. "I see. Bow and knife it is, then."

"For the first ten levels or so, raise your Strength, Coordination, and Awareness. No, scratch that! Your class is Water Shaman, right? So each level, you gain 1 Int, 1 Wil and 1 Awareness. Focus on Strength, maintain Coordination at about 80% of your Strength or more, and you're good to go. If you're really bad at dodging, increase Constitution so you'll survive longer. But try and learn to manually dodge. Don't rely on your healing."

Cordelia nodded, her brows furrowing with concentration.

"Did you learn all the masteries around here?" He asked, tapping the table.

"Uh. No. I was in a hurry to level up, so I didn't really talk to anyone," she answered, her cheek flushed red, "I saw those guys and joined them right away!"

"Right…" Manco nodded. He shared with her the locations of the mastery trainers. Then he explained the need to be self-sufficient, and how crafting, especially potion making, was important for everyone, especially for solo players.

"See that board? Check it. Find something you can do by yourself. If you don't find anything, try again tomorrow."

"Oh, yeah. It's the quest board, right?"

"Stick to the edge of the woods. Either trap or shoot the rabbits or squirrels. Then skin them," he added as she shuddered, "It's not as bad as it sounds. Later, when you're more confident, head in deeper. Just be mindful of your environment, don't get surrounded, and always keep a relatively safe path for retreat."

"Uhh. Yeah I'll try that. I can learn trapping here, right?"

"Yes. Check the map for the trapping supplies seller. He'll teach you. Also, try talking to everyone, especially the ones that sell stuff. You might get something for free, or get some easy quests."

Realizing what he just said was a random disorganized mess, he asked again "You got all that?"

"Yes! I've memorized it all! Thank you!" Cordelia nodded enthusiastically, a big grin on her face.

"Alright, good luck!" Manco said, pleased that she seemed willing to do the work by herself instead of asking him for help.

"I'm logging out now! Good luck!"

"Thank you! I'll do my best!" Cordelia stood up and gave him a small bow, then skipped out of the tavern.

"HEY! You didn't pay!" The bartender shouted after her.

"Sorry!" She ran back in, drop a few coins on the bar then ran out, her face beet red.

Chuckling, Manco headed upstairs and entered his room. As he lied down on the bed, Mahn Li selected "Log out" and felt the world fading away.