Chapter 14: To Learn is to Grow.

As usual, Popo was alone in the Practice Hall. He was cleaning the courtyard when we first arrived. When he saw us, he was delighted and came walking – or hopping – as fast as he could. After exchanging our pleasantries, we told him about the farm quest that he gave us. He had been waiting for the news and when we broke the tidings to him, he was so happy that flying to the moon could not happen soon enough. His praise to us was indeed heartwarming to say the very least. That and also he could enjoy his rainbow carrots once more.

“Po, I don’t really know how to thank both of you.”

“No worries. Just a little help for a friend.” I pushed him away yet another of his furry hugs. Having them twice in the space of a few minutes was quite awkward.

“Oh, I know. Why not I invite both of you to have dinner at my place. My wifey would sure love to receive you both.” Elly looked at me excitedly and I immediately knew what she wanted me to say. I just gave a chuckle as I agreed to Popo’s dinner invitation.

“Come to my house at 7.30pm sharp, po. Don’t be late or the food will be no more when you come.” Popo reminded me.

“Sure. I’ll settle some things first, especially selling the loots.”

“Ahh… the loots. If you have any loots to sell, sell it to Blake, a general vendor who happens to be a friend of mine. Mention my name and he would give you a better price for your items.”

“Cool. I would like that.” I immediately set off, leaving Elly with Popo. He wanted her help to shop around for the groceries. Knowing him, she would end up as the baggage carrier though she was more than willing to do anything for a good dinner for once. Well, whatever. I would leave those two to their stuff. I needed to complete mine before the coming full moon.

*****

“So, how much would I get if I sell all of these items?” With me were a few dozens of rabbit pelts, meats and jellopies and quite numbers of other junks that I had gathered with Elly’s help.

“You said Popo told you about me.” I nodded to Blake, the general vendor whose store was quite well hidden in the back street of the Adventurer Market. It was tough looking for him though I was lucky enough as players around showed me where I needed to go. Perhaps they took a pity on me for I really looked like a proper newbie selling his first loot. There were a few other players checking on the wares in this shop when I first arrived.

“Well, in that case, how about this deal? I’ll give you the best price you’d get by selling them to me. But I’ll need you to do something for me later.” Blake crossed his hands in anticipation for my response which I duly obliged.

“What do you want?” I asked. And I could see a glint of shine within his eyes when he told me what he wanted. “Easy. I need you to get me some crafting materials. I’ll list it down for you the names and the amounts needed. Once you have those, return them to me and I’ll reward you accordingly.”

Another gathering items quest? Seemed easy enough and I needed to do more quests too. No matter how I looked at it, it was a win-win situation. Making myself chummy with a vendor NPC would bring me good stead. “Alright, you got a deal.”

Blake was happy that I received his request. Being on his good side immediately netted me 4 gold and 85 silver coins after selling all the items. He then gave me a piece of paper that contained all the necessary items I needed to gather for him for the quest. As usual, the quest message popped up and I immediately checked it. However, this time I was quite taken aback.

Blake’s Special Request.

I had recently found an old manuscript of crafting and I wanted to try it out. However, I lacked the items to do so. And that’s where you come in. These are the names of the items I need and the amounts. Honestly, I’m not so sure where to get them in the first place. If I knew, I wouldn’t trouble you, right?

x 99 ????????

x 99 ????????

x 99 ????????

x 99 ????????

x 99 ????????

x 99 ????????

x 99 ????????

x 99 ????????

x 99 ????????

x 99 ????????

x 99 ????????

x 99 ????????

x 99 ????????

Quest Rank: Unknown

Completion Requirements:

Return to Blake with all the items.

Quest Reward:

????????

Wow. That was some abuse of question marks. 13 unknown items and I needed 99 each. I thought he would write what he wanted. However, I got the feeling that I needed to register it in my database first before the name would appear. Seemed so anyway.

And the reward too was unknown. Man, just my luck. I wished I had better quest than getting all these weird quests with even weirder rewards. If I was not wrong, it all started with Popo’s earlier request of me. One of the things I had learned so far was the quest rewards were not the usual like how any other game would reward its players. Or maybe it was just my damn luck after all.

“Take your time, alright. I’m not sure whether it works or not, but if you ever have the items with you, you know where to find me.”

“Alright. I’ll give my best.” I bid farewell to him as I went on to my next part of my checklist of things to do; learning some skills. And to do that, I needed to find those who could actually teach me those skills. My earlier experience playing this game and what I saw from other players told me that there were some skill masters scattered around in the city. All I needed to do was to look for them first. If newbie players could learn a few skills early in the games, this was a good indication that those skills were easier to find and learn.

*****

When I started to play NPO, I basically had a few ideas I wanted to explore to make my character fit into the following criteria; to be able to survive and thrive in the harshest conditions. It might sound simple to some, as I did not mention about being the strongest, fastest, most accurate and such. Most players tend to focus their naïve romanticism on those notions. Two schools of thoughts prevailed; they either must win at all cost or must never ever lose. They strived to fit into certain criteria that they ‘the hero’, must be the best-est of the best. In the real world and in-game, if they thought they were strong, wait until they met another player who would one-up them or two. In my squad, I was not the brightest kid on the block or the smart alleck. If that was so, I would be in college rather than a soldier.

But that was how I became the so-called one of the Five Legendary Demon King back in LIXXO. I was not the strongest, nor the fastest, nor the most dexterous even. But I was the hardest to kill. Like a cockroach, I would survive anything thrown to me. And at the end of the day, I would thrive and conquer my enemies. In times of war, the victor was not found amongst the dead.

In fact, I wanted to name my character as CockRoach but seeing that it was bugging me a little being called that way, I renamed myself as Ghost. I had my reasons too for choosing this name.

The first key to my success was to survive. And the best and most economical way was through healing and support skills. The way I’d seen it, I was pretty sure those two type of skills weren’t high on everyone’s list, even in NPO. Like they said, those type of skills were reserved for a pacifist, newbies or even dumb players who couldn’t fight to save their lives. And supporter-type players were often treated as the pariahs of the party. How wrong could these people ever be?

In LIXXO, I was a healer first then cross-classed into a fighter once I ascended a certain level. I thought I wanted to reverse it this time; being a damage dealer and a tank first and then changed to it healer and support type. But the whole plan was thrown out of the windows with Elly’s arrival and my poor financial conditions.

In NPO, there was no class and we could learn any skills. We could then cross skills and select which skills we wanted to use that suit our playing styles. The current limit of the skills one player could have was a hundred. Beyond that number, a player could opt to delete any skill of his choice to accommodate the one that he wanted by using certain means.

“So, you wanted to be a member of the Valhalla’s Church?” The priest asked me when I enquired about learning healing skills. I shook my head.

“Nope. I just wanted to learn healing and support skills, not being a member of your religion.” The priest looked a little amazed at my admission but he kept his calm.

“In that case, we are sorry to tell you that we could not teach you no more than the Basic Skills.”

In NPO, skills could be divided into 5 levels; Basic, Intermediate, Advance, Saint and Forbidden. There were rumours that some skills existed that did not belong amongst these 5 levels. However, no one had come up with the list or seen anyone using it.

“Basic is enough.” The priest looked at me quite intently as he rubbed his chin. “It’s a pity that you do not want to be one of us. You seem to have the quality to be a good healer.”

Yeah right. Say whatever you wanted to say, but I knew better than to fall into these cliché traps. Lick my arse a little and I might be inclined to believe my own hype.

“Not now, priest. I have something I must do first before I decide on anything else. I’m still a newbie.” I gave a polite excuse so that he would not pester me anymore. And to my surprise, he agreed easily.

“Yes. Yes. You need to gather your more wisdom with you before carry our name. Very well. I shall let you learn our Basic Healing and Support Skills. Which skill books would you prefer to purchase?”

So, I would need to learn my skills from a skill book. Other than being taught directly, bestowed upon or by training oneself, learning from the book was considered to be the easiest. Though the skills level would be severely limited, never exceeding the current knowledge of the author. Basic skill books were easy to be found and could be bought from various NPCs. The others were harder to obtain though. And magic skills of any kind could only be learned through books, bestowed or taught, never by training. Once learned, the efficiencies and the levels of the skills could be increased in many ways, most notably by frequent use. Every skill has their own proficiencies level, differed from each other.

“How much per book?”

“The Basic book would cost you 1 gold coin each and we have 5 volumes of those.” Whoa. Pricey. I just had under 5 gold coins and since I won’t be spending all on buying skill books, I would just choose the one that I would often use.

“Give me the one that could heal my life.” I wanted to heal my HP during or after the battle. To heal by resting was too slow for my taste. And this skill would come in handy too during an emergency.

“In that case, Volume 1 would be suitable for you. Is there anything else?” I shook my head. “That would be enough for now.”

For now, I would let Elly do her job first unless the situation required it. I was more interested in the party dynamics and balance. But coming from a solo player like me, that was quite a shock if anyone were to hear it. But I knew better when I served my time in the Special Force.

After paying for my purchase, I took my leave and proceeded to the next stop. I went to a local magic store and bought another skill book at the price of 2 gold coins. Even pricier than the first skill book. Hopefully, all these skills would come in handy. Once I reached an isolated area, I took both the books out and learned it skills.

You have learned all the skills from the ‘Basic Healing and Support Skill Book Volume 1’. Obtained Heal, Respite and Stone Skin.

You have learned all the skills from the ‘Basic Asgardian Magic That Everyone Should Learn Volume 3’.

Obtained Poison, Rot, Forget-Me-Not and Eewww!.

As usual, I would always check on the effects of the skills I had learned.

ACTIVE SKILL: HEAL Level 1

Descriptions: Heal a minimum 250HP or 5-10% of HP to any target.

Cast Time: 5 seconds.

Area of Effect: Single

Mana Consumption: 7MP

Cooldown: 30 seconds.

ACTIVE SKILL: RESPITE Level 1

Description: Restore your Stamina by 50.

Cast Time: 3 seconds.

Area of Effect: Self/Ally/Party Members Only

Mana Consumption: 15 MP

Cooldown: 2 Minutes

ACTIVE SKILL: STONE SKIN Level 1.

Descriptions: Decrease physical attack damage sustained by casting over a magical protective barrier. Girls, no worries. Your skin won’t turn into stone. Effect last for 30 minutes.

Area of Effect: Single

Cast Time: 5 Seconds.

Mana Consumption: 20 MP

Cooldown: 2 Minutes

ACTIVE SKILL: POISON Level 1

Descriptions: Gradually lower target’s HP by means of poison. Works only on living things. Increase taunt level. Effect last for 120 seconds.

Area of Effect: Single.

Cast Time: 5 seconds.

Mana Consumption: 10 MP

Cooldown: 1 minute.

ACTIVE SKILL: ROT Level 1

Descriptions: Cast debilitating effects on your target. Works on all things. Increase taunt level.

Area of Effect: Single

Cast Time: 4 seconds.

Mana Consumption: 25 MP

Cooldown: 1 minute.

ACTIVE SKILL: FORGET-ME-NOT Level 1

Descriptions: Increase charm level temporarily. First impression counts. +5 Charisma for the next 1 hour.

Area of Effect: Self/Ally

Cast Time: Immediate

Cooldown: 10 minutes.

ACTIVE SKILL: EEWWW Level 1

Descriptions: Make everyone avoid you like a bad breath. -10 Charisma for the next 30 minutes.

Area of Effect: Single

Cast Time: Immediate

Mana Consumption: 5 MP

Cooldown: 2 minutes.

Now came the challenging part; skill rotations. I had no doubt that most players would have the same skills as I did. However, the skill rotation might defer depending on their play styles. Some might have it, and some would not. For me, it was a must. Injudicious use of skills would not only hinder one’s ability to fight for a long time but also be the detriment of others, especially in a party. I could test this on the training dummies and some monsters later on.

Since I was done with learning new skills for the time being, now was the time to check on a botanist in the city. Unfortunately for me, currently this city had no residence botanist. It was weird to know that it was the case but from what I heard on the streets, all the botanists were summoned to the Royal Capital. No one knew the reason why since this situation was not exclusive to this city. Other cities within this Kingdom too had all their botanists summoned. Weird timing indeed. In that case, I better not waste any more time and go to Popo’s house instead. I could always arrive early for dinner and help if needed.

*****

“How’s the food, Ghost?” Elly asked midway through our dinner.

“I think it’s… uhmm… alright, I guess.” The taste bud in NPO was done in such a way that the food would taste the same in the real world. Burnt omelette tasted like a properly burnt omelette. Again, I did not know how those people who created this game did this and many others, but I was damn well impressed. So impressed that I did not talk the whole while and continued to munch on. Though I still needed to eat real food in the real world, and I would take a constant break but man, it never ceased to amaze me how much the NPO’s world looked and felt so real. My mind wandered off when Elly asked me again her earlier question.

Looking at her sitting in front of me with her puppy eyes, I then turned my gaze to the other two host whom they themselves too were looking at me with anticipation. It made me a little restless. Honestly, I did not think it was good at all. But I was trying to be a good guest thus the white lie. However, I received a surprise confession from Mimi, Popo’s wife as he grinned next to her.

“Elly made that, you know.” She gave a chuckle and then continued, “But I don’t think she had any aptitude for cooking at all.”

“Uhhmmm…” Elly let out a soft whimper and looked at me pitifully as the two couple delighted themselves further with her mishaps in the kitchen earlier. Retelling me the stories, I could not help but to actually be amazed that the house was still in one piece and the dinner was served perfectly, except for the one dish that Elly prepared.

“Oohh… I see…” I just chuckled a little looking at the singed mark on her blonde hair and those bandaged fingers. She did try to impress me with her cooking skills, but alas, for someone as beautiful as her, this was something that she was not blessed with.

“B-But… I want to eat good food too…” She pouted a little. Only when it came to food that she acted like a little child.

“You can just buy those. No need for you to cook.” I said to her as I continued to munch on the burnt omelette. Honestly, it was not that bad if you could forget the burnt and over seasoned taste. It tasted like a charcoal dipped salt water. But honestly, I had eaten worse food than this.

“But it’s not the same. I-I…” She was surely a spoilt child. But she did have a point though. To be healthy, eating proper food was a given. Cooking one would be economical in the long run too. The money I could save could be used for more important things later on.

“Alright, alright. How about if I cook for you instead. How does it sound?”

“Really?” I just nodded my head. Elly was delighted and told me, “Mimi could teach you how to cook. She’s so good at it.”

Upon hearing those words, Popo beamed with pride. “You could say that many times, Elly. That’s why I married her.” Heh. Taking all the credits, wasn’t you little rabbit?

“And you are supposed to buy those items she wanted instead of…” Popo’s face turned pale when I wanted to tell his wife how Elly was his errand girl all these while. He immediately jumped on the table and covered my mouth before I could finish my words. His actions took everyone by surprise, especially Mimi. She looked at us, gasping at the idiocy and discourtesy of her husband treating the guest.

“Shh… don’t tell my wife about that, please?” Popo whispered in my ears. I gave out a mischievous smile. “I see. I got your dirt on you now, you rabbit.”

“I’m not a rabbit. I’m a Bunnian.” Whatever, rabbit. You looked like one, moved like one and that rainbow carrot on your plate just confirmed to me that you were a bloody rabbit.

“Anyway, you can make breakfast for us tomorrow. Help my wife in the kitchen, right Ghost?”

I did not answer. He tried to change the subject. Clever bastard.

“Right, G-H-O-S-T?” He purposely mentioned my name slowly, reiterating his desire for me to keep quiet.

“Alright, alright. Fine. I’ll make breakfast.” I used to make breakfast for my squad back in the Special Force but I was not sure how well I could translate that skill here. After I agreed to keep his secret intact that he finally climbed down from the table and took his seat once again.

*****

After dinner, the four of us sat by the fireplace and chit-chatted throughout the whole time. Especially those three. I just kept quiet and listened to them. My mind was filled with how I wanted to rotate my skills.

“I heard from Elly that you made her tank and gave her my equipment, Ghost?” Popo asked me as he saw me sitting absently. I just nodded at him. “And what do you do, po?” he continued despite my attempt not to engage the conversation for now.

“Enjoy seeing her arse getting whooped by rabbits,” I let out a laugh that made Elly the more embarrassed. Popo looked stumped. “Well, Popo. For our sake, a well-balanced party is a must. First, we must survive. Then thrive. For that, I did get hold of some skills that might do the trick.”

“So, you learned new skills, Ghost?” Elly finally inquired about my afternoon’s activities. I just nodded at her.

“Oh, new skills? What're the skills about?” It was Mimi’s turn to ask me. Seeing that it was no harm telling these people about my next plan, I gave them my answers. Unfortunately, it was met with Popo’s hysterical laugh.

“Y-You call t-that pitiful thing skills, po?” He rolled on the floors a few times while laughing. Did I say something funny? Somehow, this bloody rabbit was getting on my nerve. “You sure are clueless and lack brains, po!” If I was not in his house or fully stuffed from the earlier dinner, I would definitely roast this rabbit instead.

“If you need real and proper skills, I’ll bring you to meet someone, alright. Casting Poison and buffing yourself are for sissies, po!”

I wanted to whack his brain out of his skull, but to my pleasant surprise, Mimi did that for me instead. She glared at him and Popo stopped cold. “One more time you say things like that, you will sleep outside, you useless rabbit!”

And this was my turn to laugh at him. Serve him right for laughing at me. Just because I chose something different or do something that most people never do didn’t mean I was any less brainy or clueless as they were. At low levels, it was easier for me to try new things out that I never tried before.

“Sorry about that, Ghost. That husband of mine is one trick rabbit. He knew nothing that people like us are going through. Or anything about party balance.” Mimi might have noticed the steam that came out from my ears and tried to calm me down.

“It’s alright, Mimi. I’m used to it. People calling me brainless and clueless about things that they themselves do not understand. And they came in a bunch too nowadays. As if they knew any better coming from that high and mighty chairs of theirs.”

Mimi glared once again at her husband. With her ice-cold gaze, she sure was the one wearing the pants in this house. And this time, Popo came to me and pat my back, perhaps trying to apologize to me. Well, it was all well anyway. To be honest, I used to be bothered about it when playing LIXXO but after a while, I knew better than to follow the herd.

“Talking about parties and whatnot, the Royal Capital has been busy lately. I had never seen so much activities since the last siege. A few parties and guilds had been summoned up.”

“You mean when Our King, Aldemar Thoran lay the siege towards this land?” Elly asked Popo as she sat below on the wooden floor while Mimi tended her long flowing blonde hair from a high chair.

“Yeah. I too had been summoned, together with my wife to the Royal Capital.” Oh, those two rabbit couples were being summoned by the King? That was odd. Something like that did happened back in the city when I was looking for botanists. I asked around and the answers were the same; they had been summoned by the King. And it was not just limited botanists too judging from Popo and Mimi’s words.

“It was odd to know that there were no botanists when I went looking for one.” I decided to chip in. My curiosity was piqued and I wanted to know more.

“Botanists? Why are you looking for them?” Mimi asked of me suddenly. Looking at Elly, I took out the sapling from my pocket.

I continued to explain what Bill and Martha told me about the sapling as I showed it to them. They listened intently and at the end of my explanation, Mimi cracked a wide smile as her husband looked at her.

“Well, if you don’t mind, maybe I could help you.”