《Stuck in a game world with an OP shop》 Chapter One, In a new world?! I found myself in a strange place. > Welcome To **The Game** > As a new player, you are given 500 credits to spend in the shop however you see fit! > When you are ready, choose [next] to continue! Somehow, a box of words appears in front of me. They are outlined by a white border and have a blueish background, and are easy to read. I suppose I''ll choose next. "Next" I say, and the wall of text disappears. In its place, a new box of text appears. >**SHOP** >Weapons >Armor >Skills >Items For now, I suppose I''ll pick items. Frm the items menu, I see many different things. Tools that can be used in almost all aspects of life are available, but nothing powered by electricity or something other than manpower. I check weapons, and I see things like swords and bows. Daggers, spears, pikes, katars, anything you can imagine is there, but some things cost huge amounts of credits! A short sword is only 300 credits, but a baller-ass katana is 700! In the armor category, it is mostly armors of different materials. Nothing too special, but I wonder how some of them even protect the wearer. At the bottom of each armor, there is a listing for Armor Points and Durability, along with Strength requirements. Next, I''ll check out the skills. Wow, there are quite a few things here. Just like an RPG game, there are tons of skills. Unfortunately, most of them cost over 500 credits. I can always buy the things from the other categories, but learning skills are harder. For now, I''ll use my credits on skills. Buy skill: Trapping Buy skill: Alchemy And that puts me at 400 credits used. I guess for my last 100 credits I''ll buy a weapon just to get myself started. If I buy a bow, I can trap enemies and kill them with the bow! But the cheapest bow is 300 credits! Dang, I''ll get rid of Alchemy then. No fancy potions for me. Buy weapon: Bow + Wooden 10 Arrows With the skill of Trapping and a Bow with 10 arrows, I select [Next] at the bottom of the shop menu. >You are about to start a new game. >Do you want to start in a random location or a city? Hm... If I start in a city, it might be easier, but if I start in a random location, I might get lucky! I choose a random location! >Generating random location... >Random location selected, teleporting now. >Good luck! With a flash of bright light, I am in the middle of a snowy forest. At least I''m not in a dungeon, but I don''t seem to be in some treasure room. There are trees on all sides of me, and I don''t seem to have a bow or arrows with me. If this is like a game, then saying something like inventory should work. ''Inventory'' I think, and I''m surprised at what happens next. >**Inventory** >Wooden Bow >Wooden Arrows x10 >Trapping Skill Book Seems good. I take the bow out of my inventory and knock an arrow. It feels good, but I don''t know if I''ll be able to hit anything. I put the bow and the arrow into my inventory and take out the skill book. I open the book to the first page, and I suddenly know everything about trapping! I see some small branches in front of me, and I make a small trap out of them. I don''t know how I did it, but if a rabbit or something small runs over the trap, it will be hung up in the air. Using expertise I don''t have, I make a few more traps in the surrounding area before sitting on the snowy ground. The narrative has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the infringement. I''m a little tired, but I don''t feel hungry. Hm... If inventory worked, then a status screen should work too! ''Status!'' I think, and the menu appears. >**Status** >Name: [Set Name] >Level: 1 >Class: Novice >Credits: 0 >Health: 50/50 >Stamina: 28/50 >Mana: 50/50 >Strength: 10 >Dexterity: 10 >Vitality: 10 >Inteligence: 10 >Wisdom: 10 >Luck: 10 >Attribute Points Available: 0 So, it seems very basic. It looks like my stamina has gone down after doing some trap setting, but I feel pretty accomplished right now. Anyway, it will be getting dark soon, so I should make a place to sleep. By climbing the branches of a large tree, I am able to get a dozen or so feet off the ground and lay comfortably on a branch. Now that I think about it, I should set my name.... I''ll name myself... Homogeneous Khalidius. >You have selected "Homogeneous Khalidius" as your name. Is this correct? Hell yes this is correct. I don''t see anything that could go wrong with a name like Homogeneous Khalidius! Settling down onto the branch, I wait for sleep to take over. The next morning, I look around. There are many small footprints on the ground, and something from my trapper skill is telling me they belong to wolves. Shit, I don''t want to die from wolves. I guess I''ll sleep in the tree from now on. After getting down from the tree, I look for the traps I set the other day. All the traps are broken, and nothing was caught. I guess I have some shitty traps, even though I can set them. I''ll have to improve somehow, and maybe explore. After exploring a little, I find a mountain and a cave to the west. I''ve never been in a real cave that wasn''t lit up by light and had a wooden walkway to walk on, so I kinda felt like an explorer walking to the entrance... but then I remembered several creepy pastas from 4chan and I noped the hell outa there. No thanks, goat man of the caves. As I walked back to the tree I''ll sleep in, I set some more traps that might catch something. As I set the traps, I realize how I probably won''t catch anything when the materials used to make the traps are made from roots and leaves, so I have to think of a better way later. Late at night, while sleeping in the tree, I wonder why the cold doesn''t effect me. I''ve been in snow for two days now, but I don''t feel cold at all. This entire world might be like something out of a game, which would be dope as hell. ''Minimap''. And just as I hoped, a map of the area comes up, but unfortunately, I can only see the places I have been to. Sleeping tree and Mysterious Cave are two places listed. Not too descriptive, but I know the spots. I can also see the locations where I have placed my traps at and... it tells me if they''ve been sprung or not! Dang, it looks like six have already gone off without catching anything. I''ll have to get some string to increase the efficiency of the traps. Chapter 2 Late at night, I wake up to the sound of crunching twigs. Underneath of the branch I am sleeping on are three wolves. Scary fucking wolves. They don''t look bigger than normal, but they still have scary gray fur and big scary teeth and probably eat chubby boys like me for breakfast. Good thing I have the bow, and I take it out of the inventory. Cocking an arrow, I am the bow at the smallest wolf. If I can get any hit at all, I might be able to kill it. Probably not, but maybe. If I miss, the wolf will run into the forest with his little wolf buddies and maybe come back to attack during the day, but if I don''t attack they might come to attack during the day anyways. If I attack now, there might only be two coming back tomorrow, but the surviving two might bring their entire pack back with them. If I don''t attack, the three might come back by themselves. I''ll wait. I try to go to sleep again, and eventually, the darkness takes over and once again I feel the sweet embrace of sleep. In the morning, I get to work. I don''t have anything to sharpen sticks with, but if I break them at the right angle I can make the splinter in a way that will serve the purpose I need them to. With Trapper skills, I am able to construct the traps needed to trap animals, but I can''t make the materials needed for them. I''ve been using rough substitutes until now, but I''m can see how my methods are not up to par with that which a real trapper would use. My traps have yet to catch anything, as far as I can tell, and I might just be wasting my effort. At the end of the day, the forest area around me is an absolute death-field. I couldn''t even escape my tree without triggering a trap. Okay, maybe it isn''t that full, but I''ve got a lot of traps made. I wait in the tree without waking up. All around me, the forest is quiet. Nothing moves and nothing makes a sound. Except for three little piggies come to blow this house down... maybe not the right metaphor. Or is it a simile? Whatever, three wolves are coming my way, that''s the point. Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.Boom! Yeah bitch, get caught! I get out my bow and great ready to kill a bitch, and BOOM! Bitch one goes down! A wolf was hit by a trap and got stuck, and my arrow killed it! Fuck you, bitch-ass wolf! Who da man? Who da mayun? It''s me, mutha fucka! I''ve got to calm down, it was just a wolf. Getting ahold of myself, I search for the other wolves... Damn, I only got one. It looks like two other traps were set off, but it didn''t immobilize any other wolf, and certainly didn''t kill them. In the morning, when I pick up the dead wolf, the first thing I do is take out my arrow. I''ve only got the of these, so I can''t let a single one be lost. I think I can use it again, and I put it in my inventory. With the wolf, I take it and hoist it up onto a branch near where I sleep, but far enough away for the smell to not get to me. It is rather cold around here, so it is not rotting too much, but the blood is everywhere. I hope nothing big is attracted by the smell. After setting some more traps, and using the teeth from the dead wolf to make them more efficient, I gather wood. With wood, I can try to build a wall around my little tree, and maybe have a safe place to build other things at. I also need to make a fire eventually, but I''m not too worried about that. I haven''t eaten since I''ve been here, and I don''t feel sleepy either. I just sleep whenever I want and I guess I would eat whenever I wanted if I had food. Now that I think about it, I should have started in the city. Chapter 3 Chapter 3 When night comes and I have to retreat back into the tree, I have made a pretty nicely sized wall between two trees. I don''t think it would stop a bear or something, but I will stop the wolves. I wait without sleeping, and I can already hear the wolves coming. Their brother is hanging from a branch, not twenty feet away, maybe I should throw a stone at it if I had a stone. I''ve gotten better at this trap laying thing, and both the wolves got hit by my traps! Booyah! I get my bow ready, but I don''t fire it. I need to wait until I know they can''t more or they''re going to die eventually. I have to conserve arrows no matter what. Dang, I just thought about putting the dead wolf in my inventory. Shit, I''ve been putting the bow in and out of my inventory, I should have thought of that! The two wolves stagger up and limp into the forest, leaving a trail of blood. I take a look at my wall and the last remaining traps, and I head to sleep. Sleep is still relaxing after all. In the morning, I add the wolf to my inventory. >**Inventory** >Wooden Bow >Wooden Arrow x9 >Wooden Arrow, Used >Dead Wolf, Toothless I guess that all is reasonable. I''ve got another day to prepare for nightfall, so I gather all kinds of rocks and sticks and add them to my inventory. From what I can tell, there is no limit to how much my inventory can hold, which is nice. I place most of the smaller and larger sticks in the wall, adding another tree distance to it, but keep the throwable sticks and rocks in my inventory. I reset all the traps with rocks and sharper sticks, but I keep the area with my wall clear of traps. I want to see if the wolves can break it. Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings. At night, I climb back into my tree and start something new, making fire. I remember watching an episode of Survival Sissy or something where the guy uses a bowstring to make... DAMMIT! I''ve been needing string this whole time, and I''ve had some on my bow! I can repurpose my bow and arrows to make better traps! However, do I really want to destroy my bow... damn, I don''t. Anyways, back to making fire. I put a stick inside the bowstring after loopdy loopdy-ing the thing and then I move it really fast against a rock. Something like that. I try it a few times, but I don''t manage to make anything close to a flame, or smoke, or fire. I guess it is really cold here. I wait for the wolves to arrive, but it never happens. When the sun comes up, I am safe from the wolves all night. I spend the day making more traps and collecting more sticks and stones. I could explore, but I really want to kill those wolves before I leave my area of safety. If something were to happen and I couldn''t get back to a certainly safe place quickly, I would be dead. I need to do everything I can to ensure that doesn''t happen. The night, the wolves came back. Chapter 4 Chapter 4 I use the minimap to check my traps. One, two, three, five, seven, thirteen, all of my traps slowly go off. As the traps go off, I start to see red dots on the map. Those must be hostile creatures, the wolves that triggered the traps. The only thin is, there are a lot more wolves tonight than the previous few nights. With a quick count, I see that at least twenty wolves are approaching my tree, though it might be less because the wolves move very fast. I have only a small wall covering about 1/6th the distance around my tree, but that does mean my back is covered. With my bow and arrows out, I get ready to shoot any wolf that looks on the edge of life. Quickly, I am surrounded by wolves. Wolves to every side, and BAM! I got one! It wasn''t a great hit but coupled with the damage from the traps, the wolf dies. I don''t see any other wolf that is nearly as damaged, so I put the bow and arrows away and take out some spears I made earlier. Throwing one at a time, I am able to hit three of the wolves with the spears. The spears do not do much damage, but they injure the wolves that have already been hurt from my traps. Once I run out of spears, which didn''t kill a single wolf, I get out my rocks. One rock at a time, aim small miss small. That line from a movie doesn''t help at all and I consistently miss the wolves. Bang, bang, bang, I can hit a few, but nothing that would kill them. Once I''m out of rocks, I go back to my bow and arrows. I''ve got nine arrows, got to make them count. Voom! One arrow, and it almost killed a wolf. I shoot a second arrow and the wolf is dead. Seven arrows left. A wolf almost directly under me is looking up. Wrong move and a single arrow took it out. Six arrows left. I use the other six arrows trying to kill as many wolves as possible, but I only manage to kill one more wolf. Three wolves lay dead on the ground, and all I have to do is wait for morning. I wait until the sun comes up, and a notification comes up. The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation. >Welcome To Tardeyad! >You have survived seven days and nights. >Good job! >As a reward, the shop will open! >From now on, the shop will open every seven days! Oh, cool! With the shop, I can get more arrows! But I need money. I don''t know how to earn money, but I''ve got the wolf in my inventory, so maybe I can sell it. Opening the shop, I get a cool new menu. >**Shop** >Buy >Sell I select sell, and a new menu comes up. >**Sell** >Wooden Bow >Dead Wolf, Toothless I check the sale price of the wooden bow, but it only sells for 100 credits. I check on the sell price of a dead wolf, and it''s worth 20 credits. Not too bad, and I sell it. Then, I go to the buy shop and, holy cow! I''ve got 220 credits! I don''t know how, but they''re there! I immediately go to the weapons category and look for arrows. >**Arrows** >Wooden Arrows >Iron Arrows >Steel Arrows >Orchelium Arrows >Demon Arrows >Explosive Arrows They all look the same, except explosive arrows, so I check out the difference between them all. It looks like wooden arrows do 30% damage modification, while iron arrows do 50%, steel does 70%, and orchelium does 90%. Demon arrows automatically move in the air to hit the target, and explosive arrows obviously explode on contact. Wooden Arrows cost 1 credit each, Iron arrows cost 2 credits each, steel arrows cost 5 credits each, and orchelium cost 10 credits each. Both demon arrows and explosive arrows cost 20 credits each. With only 220 credits, I decide to get 100 iron arrows. I could get twice as many wooden arrows, but more damage will hopefully be better in quick combat. One arrow is almost good enough right now, so using a better arrow might make all my kills one-shots. Chapter 5 Chapter 5 I exit the shop, and trying to open it again. ''Shop''. Sure enough, the shop opens. Closing the shop again, I take out some of those arrows from my inventory. One after the other, I rain a hail of arrows upon the wolves. Death from above, those wolves never knew what hit them! A little over a dozen later, though, I get a very exciting pop-up. >**Level-up!** Oh, yeah, boyee! I have to kill a few more wolves, but once I blow through sixteen total from the beginning of the night, they have all died. Before I level-up, I decide to go down and collect the bodies of the fallen wolves. At 20 credits a body, I should be able to get 320 credits! After collecting the bodies, I go back into the tree and open the shop again. I sell the sixteen dead wolves, this time with teeth, and go to the buy category. Holy cow! I''ve got 990 credits! Papa bless! I must be getting credits from killing the wolves! Super cool! With 990 credits I can get... so much stuff! But first, I need to improve myself. Skills, skills, skills! Opening the skill menu of the buy shop, I see several skill books that I can buy. I really wanted to get a magic skill book, but I didn''t want to be left without any money. Unfortunately, the cheapest magic skill book cost 1000 credits. For now, I''ll go with Archery. It''s 300 credits, but I think it''ll be worth it. Right now, I can only hit wolves that are less than ten feet away, or directly under me, so I really need this skill. Okay, with 690 credits left I head to the tools category. I need an axe, something to make flame, some string, maybe some bear traps, and something to make a real bed out of! I don''t need to sleep, but I get a little sleepy at night out of habit and would like to be comfortable. For 100 credits, I buy an axe. For 50 credits, I buy a shit-ton of string. For 100 credits, I buy a hammock deal. It should be comfortable. Hm... I could use a sword. For 300 coins, though, I''d rather not. A small knife will have to do for now, from the tools category for 100 credits. 340 credits left to spend, and I''ve got a whole shop full of stuff to spend it on. Another skill book here I come! If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it. Skills books. Too many to choose just one! I plan on making a wall around my tree, so Construction might help, but Survivalist might help too. Both cost only 200 credits, but I can only get one right now. I''ll get Construction and see if I can make a nice place for myself up here. Exiting the shop, I open my inventory. >**Inventory** >Wooden Bow, Used >Wooden Arrow x6 >Iron Arrow x100 >Archery Skill Book >Construction Skill Book >String >Axe >Hammoc >Knife Looks like everything I need is here, and 140 credits to spare. I take out the two skill books and consume them. Tasty treats for the mind, and I am filled with knowledge about constructing walls! More specifically, my wall, and all the things wrong with it. For the next few hours, I work solely on the wall. With the construction job, I can make the wall quicker and stronger, and I can use the axe to break large pieces of wood into smaller pieces. Part way into my wall construction, I realize that I need a shovel and some rope, so I buy those two things from the shop with my remaining credits. I check if sticks or rocks can be sold, but neither can. When night comes around, the ground around my tree has been cleared and a wall has been built to protect me from anything that might want to attack. I set the hammock up high in the tree and use the rope to make climbing up easier. With a real bed and an easier way of getting up, I feel really safe in this tree. Night passes, and day eight comes up. There was no pop-up, but I suppose it will be important to remember how many days until the next shop day. Just to check, saying Shop did not make the shop appear. Chapter 6 Chapter 6 To get over my wall, I have rope going up the side of a tree on both sides, and the wall blocking entry from the other sides. This makes it so only creatures that can climb rope or climb over the wall can get inside. Or, I guess flying creatures could too. Or ones that burrow underground. Or ones that are stronger than a pile of sticks. I pass another day by building the wall. Sticks are becoming hard to find, and there are not too many more rocks either. If I want to continue with hardcore construction, I will have to enter the cave. While I can''t build the wall anymore, I start setting more traps. With rope and string, and a knife, I can make many more traps. RIP in peace forest critters. After setting a dozen or so traps, I go back to the tree. I look at my minimap overnight, and I can see several of my traps catching prey, and a few of them losing prey. I can''t see what is in the traps, but I know something was caught, or if the trap was simply activated and did not catch anything. Also on the minimap, I did not see a single red dot, which was good. In the morning of the ninth day, I decide to check out what else I can find in this snowy forest. There is the cave to the west, but I wonder what else I can find. With my minimap on, I travel east. West led further into the mountains, so east must lead down. I will have to walk back up eventually, but for now, I will go down. Going down the mountain, I see several berry bushes, but not much else. I collect some berries and leave. I would take all the berries, but the plant needs to drop some to plant seeds and the other animals of the forest need to eat some too. I don''t see any other living creature, but I just know they are out there. Back at the tree after an unsuccessful day of exploration, I am about to enter the hammock when I remember something very important. I leveled up! With a look at my stats, I can see five Stat Points available. >**Status** >Name: Homogenious Khalidius >Level: 2 >Class: Novice The author''s tale has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.>Credits: 0 >Health: 50/50 >Stamina: 50/50 >Mana: 50/50 >Strength: 10 >Dexterity: 10 >Vitality: 10 >Inteligence: 10 >Wisdom: 10 >Luck: 10 >Stat Points Available: 5 Of all of these, Health stamina and mana cannot be increased, so I''ll have to work with those other stats. For now, I guess I''ll put everything into Strength. Five points into strength later, and I can feel the difference. Climbing the rope is easier than before, and I feel generally more comfortable. Dawn of the tenth day, I check my traps. With my bow in hand in case I see an animal or some kind of video game monster, I move through the snow towards my triggered traps. In them, I find six hares. Noice. I don''t know much about skinning and draining blood, so I add them to my inventory as they are and continue on my way. I reset all the traps and return to the tree. It is still daytime, and I have quite a bit of the day left, so I decide to check out that cave. The cave is on the face of a mountain, and there are a few close trees to it. With my rope, I am able to climb into a high tree and position myself where I can see the entrance to the cave. With my bow, I shoot a single arrow inside the cave. Ten seconds, 20, nothing happens. I don''t have anything to light the cave with, so for now, I''ll work on making money until I can enter the cave. It sure would suck if the cave turned out to be nothing, but I''ll hope for the best. Maybe I''ll find a magical bead I can drink the dew from and again superpowers. Well, that was a Xuanhuan, and not a video game, but it could happen. Returning to the tree, I work on the wall and set traps again. The wall is getting very high, and spike traps are all around it. Nothing is getting into my home, that''s for sure. I kinda wonder if anything in the shop would help me make a safe place in the forest, but I can''t check for a few more days. Until then, I might try hunting at night. Chapter 7 Chapter 7 Night of the tenth day. Seriously nothing happened. A few more traps went off, so I''ll collect those in the morning. I don''t have to sleep, so I decide to stay up this night. I can see only a few stars in the sky, but that is because the trees cover most of the sky. If I was higher up, I would be able to see more, but the branches would not be able to take my weight. I suppose this will have to be enough for me for now. I thought nothing else was in the night, but I hear something. It''s not the sound of toppling trees. It''s not the sound of broken branches. It is the sound of snow being squished, dozens of square feet at a time. The same sound you hear when you lay in a pile of heavy snow, I can hear it. Something enormous is moving in the snow. Creepypasta! If there is one good thing about this, I will be able to tell where it came from and where it went. Other than that, this sucks. It probably came from the cave, but I can''t start making assumptions. Instead, I should think about getting higher up. I don''t need the hammock, so I put it in my inventory and climb higher in the tree. Another dozen feet up, I think I''m safe. Though I can''t see anything when I look around, I can see two yellow dots moving through the trees. As I look closer, I notice the two yellow dots are coming my way, and they are followed by the enormous black body of a snake. Over 50 feet in length, and with piercing yellow eyes, this is the scariest thing I have ever seen. As the black snake-like body slithers through the trees and comes ever closer to my position, I do nothing. I do absolutely nothing and try to hide my presence. I just want that monster to leave me alone. When the morning of the eleventh day comes around, the monster is gone. I waited all night for it to leave, and it only just started to make its way away from me at the first signs of daylight. When the snake creature did leave, it went to the cave in the west. Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings. From what I can tell, the snake monster purposefully didn''t snap any twigs or trigger any traps, and my wall if fine too. The first thing I do in the morning is check my traps. I increased the number from the previous day, but it seems to have not increased the amount of capture. I place the six hares into my inventory and reset all the traps. I''ve got twelve hares now, and I wonder how many credits they are worth. Probably not much because they are peaceful creatures, but at least I have a lot of them. I''ve got two more days after this until the shop opens, so I need to kill the snake monster before that. I really want to see how many credits it can give me, and I want to get a magic skill book. To prepare, I place many more traps around my wall. These traps don''t aim to capture anything, but instead, aim to maim large animals. With my axe, I can cut large pieces of wood into spikes and ready them for the attack. After a few more hours, night comes and I am waiting in my tree. I moved to the highest branch I could, and now I''m going to wait with my bow and an iron arrow. I''ve got 5 wooden arrows and 100 iron arrows, so I have plenty of ammo to use. An hour or two after the sun goes down, I hear the familiar sound of crunching snow. Only the vibrant yellow eyes of the snake monster are visible in the night, and I follow them with my own eyes. The snakes slowly moves closer to my position, and narrowly avoids traps. BANG! A trap gets set off and impales the snake monster with a wooden spike. I ready my bow at once and start shooting arrows. The snake moves quickly between the trees, panicking, but that only sets off more traps. Bang, bang, bang, the snake keeps getting hit by traps and continues to take damage from my arrows. Even as the snake quickly moves, I am able to hit it with arrows because of my Archer skill. Chapter 8 Chapter 8 Even though the snake is getting devastated, it does not flee. Ten arrows in, I can tell the snake monster is getting worn down. I am shooting stronger arrows, and I myself am stronger than before. Before I know it, I''ve already shot twenty arrows at the snake monster, all of the hitting. I feel like such a cheat, hiding in his tree, but that''s the snake''s fault, not mine. After two hours and all of my arrows, the snake monster is dead. Not only that, I got something special from the encounter. >**Level-up!** So, that''s cool. I guess I''ll use my stat points. I could do another five into strength and get stronger, but dexterity is staring at me like that. I could get.. limber? Flexible? Eh, I''ll just go with strength again. >**Status** >Name: Homogenious Khalidius >Level: 2 >Class: Novice >Credits: 220 >Health: 50/50 >Stamina: 13/50 >Mana: 50/50 >Strength: 20 >Dexterity: 10 >Vitality: 10 >Inteligence: 10 >Wisdom: 10 >Luck: 10 >Stat Points Available: 0 With some pretty dope new strength stats, I go inspect the giant snake. I try to add the snake to my inventory, but it feels a lot harder than other things to add. Its name is a Black Mountain Snake. Neat. There are some really big teeth inside the mouth, but I leave them there without touching them. I''m sure they''re poisonus or something. Day number twelve, and I already killed the huge snake monster. I think I''ll investigate more into that cave later. Or not, I still don''t have fire. Maybe the sounds of fighting scared off the hares, but my traps didn''t catch anything. Without much to do until the next shop day, I practice with my bow. I have the Archery skill, so I don''t need to practice, but I think I will get better somehow if I do practice. I wasn''t very good at trapping when I first started, but now I''m pretty good at it. After a whole day of practicing shooting with the bow and collecting some more berries, not leaving the area of my currently explored minimap, I return to the tree. As I wait high in the air, I think about the cave. As I eat berries in the tree, I wonder why I haven''t needed to go number two. In the deep dark night, the familiar sound of snow crushing can be heard. Like, shit! I thought I killed the snake, so there must be more of those monsters. I look around, and I don''t like what I see. At least four more of the black mountain snakes are slithering through the trees. I only have 84 remaining arrows, which is enough to kill one or two of the snakes, but I can''t kill them all. Stolen novel; please report. Instead of trying to kill the snakes, I wait until morning. Day thirteen, one more day until shop opens. In an effort to raise money, I explore some more. If I can find something to kill with my bow, that would be great. To the west, like aways, lays the mountain and the cave, so this time I travel south. As I travel, I come across a depression in the snow. I take my shovel from my inventory and start to dig. There might be something cool underneith, but I was left disapointed. It was just a small stream, somehow unfrozen. I cover it back up with snow so hopefully it won''t freeze and I continue on my way. An few hours in, I spot my first sign of life. A big bear! The thing is massive, and could probably kill me if I don''t kill it quickly. I take out my bow and ready an arrow. I aim for a few seconds, and then I release. VROOM! The arrow flies, and sticks right into the bear! I get another arrow out of my inventory and VROOM, hit it again. Fuck, this bear is durrable, and it doesn''t take much damage from the two arrows. The bear charges at me, but I take another arrow and shoot it in the face. Dead bear is dead, and I put it in my inventory. I could probably make a baller cloak if I had a tanning skill, so I might get that next shop day. After killing the bear, I return to the tree. I can probably sell it for some nice money, so that''s nice. If I can''t I will keep it an make a cloak. Night of the thirteenth day, I wait in my tree. I just need to wait until the shop opens up, and then I can go to town on those Black Mountain Snakes. Before going to sleep, I check my inventory and stats. >**Status** >Name: Homogenious Khalidius >Level: 3 >Class: Novice >Credits: 320 >Health: 50/50 >Stamina: 50/50 >Mana: 50/50 >Strength: 20 >Dexterity: 10 >Vitality: 10 >Inteligence: 10 >Wisdom: 10 >Luck: 10 >Stat Points Available: 0 >**Inventory** >Wooden Bow, Used >Iron Arrow x83 >String >Rope >Axe >Hammoc >Knife >Shovel >Dead Black Mountain Snake >Dead Black Bear >Dead Mountain Hare x12 Yeah, I''m a badass. Chapter 9 Chapter 9 When the black mountain snakes come, I am ready for them. Pow! Pow! I shoot arrow after arrow into the beasts, hoping to widdle down their strength. With my wooden bow, I realize that I am not getting the most out of my arrows and strength. If I had a better bow, one that I could pull back more on, I would be able to get more damage out of each arrow. That means I have to get a new bow when the shop opens up. Fifty arrows down, and I think one snake is dead. Its eyes are not glowing as brightly as the rest, and it stopped moving. With their one brother down, however, the snakes move into attack positions. There are three other snakes circling under me, and now they are coming right for the wall. The first snake smashes into the wall, damaging it but hurting the snake severely. A few arrows into the head of the snake and I am able to kill it. A second snake, however, breaks the wall and is inside my protective area. I don''t have any but extra stones and sticks I didn''t want to clutter my inventory with, so I won''t worry too much about it. At least, I wasn''t going to worry about it until the two remaining snakes started to hit the base of the tree I was in. For some reason, the snakes seem to not be able to climb things like I thought other snakes could. It could be because they are so large, or maybe they are just retards. Something like that, but I need to do something about the tree. I keep shooting arrows at the two snakes, but the tree is starting to go down. There is a tree to my right, and I put the hammock back into my inventory along with the bow and arrow and I jump over. Something from my increased Strength made the jump easy, and I was easily able to pull myself up. I get my bow and an arrow out, and I resume my attack. A few arrows later, another snake dies. >Welcome To Tardeyad! It looks like the shop is open again! Wooo! Time to sell some stuff! Each mountain hare is worth 5, so I get 60 credits from them, which I guess isn''t too much. The Black Mountain Snake and the Black Bear are both worth a whopping 40 credits! That puts me at 140 credits for things sold. With those credits, in addition to the 320 I already had, that puts me at 460. However, I killed three more Black Mountain Snakes, and it looks like I got 100 credits from each of them! 760 credits and only one snake remains under me, smashing the tree to try and knock it down. Love this novel? Read it on Royal Road to ensure the author gets credit. >**Bows** >Wooden Bow >Iron Bow >Steel Bow >Orchelium Bow >Demon Bow Everything looks nice, and I check out the prices. Iron bow is 500 credits, Steel bow is 700 credits, Orchelium bow is 900 credits, and Demon bow is 2,000 credits. Looks like I won''t be getting the demon bow any time soon, and I pick the Steel bow. I''m left with only 60 credits, but I have a Steel bow which can do a lot more damage than a simple wooden bow. Actually, I can sell the wooden bow, which I do, and now I have 160 credits. With the new Steel Bow, I ready and arrow. First arrow of the bow, and I release it with a huge amount of strength aimed at the snake''s head. Bingo, the snake is dead. Boom, 100 more credits. Tie a rope to the tree branch so I can get back up, and then I jump down and take the snake bodies into my inventory. Each snake body is worth 40 credits, and I''ve got four down here. However, 320 credits are all I need for some dope flame tools. For now, I''ll get two torches for 10 credits each and a skill book for tanning. Tanning was just 200 credits, so that leaves me with 100 credits left. With those, I buy a tanner''s rack from tools. With this, I can explore the cave and start tanning the skins of animals that I kill. Maybe, I will get more money from tanned hides of killed animals. Chapter 10 Chapter 10 In the bright morning sun of the fourteenth day, I look around. The wall is trashed, the tree I lived in for two weeks is toppled to the ground, and red blood covers the white snow. I should think about finding a new home soon. Well, I might as well get started on the cave exploration. I keep my axe in one hand and a torch in the other as I walk to the cave. I will be able to hit any rogue monsters with my axe and the torch if they surprise me, and I''ve got a feeling there are more snakes inside the cave. Nope, nevermind! New idea, I catch sticks on fire and throw them into the cave! Safer! With this new plan, I approach the cave with an inventory full of sticks. I catch one on fire, and then throw it inside the cave. Nothing. The stick is still burning, so I get another stick and throw it inside further. Still nothing. This is going kinda slow, so I open the shop. I sell an iron arrow and buy two wooden arrows. With the torch, I light a wooden arrow on fire and shoot it into the cave. The fire goes out almost instantly. Again, I try to shoot a flaming arrow into the cave, this time, wrapped in bark and fired much slower into the cave. A good amount of cave gets lit up, but I still don''t see anything, so I decide to walk inside. >You have entered a Black Mountain Snake Dungeon! >Black Mountain Snakes will continuously spawn while the dungeon is empty, and will venture outside if threatened! >Good luck with your first dungeon! A dungeon! Cool! With my torch in hand, I adventure further into the dungeon. I was hoping to get some money today and maybe buy something else from the shop, but I guess this will have to do for now. I continue deeper into the cave. For around twenty minutes, I find nothing. Two hours later, though, I find something very interesting. The cave suddenly gets much larger, and a huge empty room opens up. I can''t see anything inside, so I enter. The ground is flat, and the ceiling curves two dozen feet up. The story has been taken without consent; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident. GROWL! From the side of the room, a pitch black movement can be seen! I quickly try to think of what to do, and I run back out of the room. >You can''t exit the boss room before defeating the boss. Fuck me! I run back into the room and try to find somewhere to hide. I''ve been hiding and cheesing everything until now, and I don''t know what to do when I can''t climb up into a tree and rain death from above. Fortunately for me, there is a small undercroft against the wall of the room, and it is too small for the snake to get under. I place the torch next to me so the light will still fill the room a small amount, and I get my Steel bow from my inventory. One Iron arrow flies in the black mountain snake, and an explosion of puss flies from its abdomen. It''s one of the most disgusting things I''ve ever seen, but it doesn''t stop me from firing another arrow. Each arrow to enter the beast causes puss to leak out, similar to a burst pimple of a high school teenager. With ten arrows, I think the beast is dead. This new bow is truly powerful, and it certainly shows when I killed the boss. >**Level-up!** Yeah, and I leveled up. >You have completed the Black Mountain Snake Dungeon! >Hostiles will cease to spawn while you are still in the dungeon, and a treasure chest can be looted at the end of the boss''s room. >Congratulations! After crawling out from the recess, I check the corpse of the Black Mountain Snake. I can put it in my inventory, and it comes up as a Black Mountain Snake Mother. Next, I want to check out the treasure chest! I didn''t see it when I first entered the room, and it probably only appeared when I killed the boss. It looks very expensive, but I can''t put it in my inventory. I open it up, and see what kind of goodies are inside. Chapter 11 Chapter 11 >**Treasure Chest** >Credits x300 >Amethyst Gem >Small potion of minor poison >Iron Cudgel of Burning I don''t know how good they compare to what I have, but these look like great rewards! Amethyst will probably be worth a lot and the Iron Cudgel is enchanted! I take everything from the chest and open the shop. First thing, I sell the gemstone. It''s worth 100 credits, so I don''t have much to scoff at yet. Next, I sell the Cudgel for... 400 credits! Tons of money! Next goes the Black Mountain Snake Mother. Okay, it''s a cool 80 credits. I look at the potion for a few seconds, and I decide to sell that too, even though it is only worth ten credits. I don''t know how to use poison, and I don''t know when I''ll ever get the chance to use it. All in all, I earn 890 credits from the dungeon. It''s not enough to buy a magic skill book, but I''m sure I will be able to afford something else. First thing I buy is 36 iron arrows to bring me back up to 100 iron arrows. Now I''ve got 818 credits remaining. While looking over the skill books, I come across something that would help immensely in these caves, night vision. Not only night vision, but even heat vision, and x-ray vision. X-ray vision is 500 credits, night vision is 300 credits, and heat vision is 200 credits. X-ray vision and night vision are a must, so I buy both of them. I exit the shop and immediately use the two skill books. I look around, but nothing has changed, which I guess is a good thing. It would be bad if the two skills took over uncontrollably. I try to enable just night vision, and it comes on with a thought. I try to use x-ray vision at the same time, and it comes on two. I can turn them on and off at a whim, and now I choose to exit the cave. I can see inside the rock, and I might be able to become a great miner who always strikes the vein. Love what you''re reading? Discover and support the author on the platform they originally published on. I leave the cave and go back to my tree. My once beautiful and magnificent tree! Shot down in his prime! I could move to a different tree, or I could actually build a house. No more sleeping in trees, I''m building a house! I use my remaining credits to buy more rope and string, and I realize how close to nightfall it is. I turn off night vision and x-ray vision, and I climb my rope back into the second tree. Hammock down, and I can sleep for the night. When I wake up on the fifteenth day, I cycle through night and x-ray vision. Both work and are amazing. I also realize that I didn''t use my stat points from leveling up, so I decide to use those. I''m more suited for the rogue type character, so I put my five points into dexterity. I feel a little more flexible, and precise movements might be easier, but nothing much has changed. I guess I''ll just find out later. For now, I start putting up more traps. I want to make the maximum amount of money possible at the next shop day so I can buy more skill books! Magic will be mine soon! Ten traps here, twenty traps here. Big ones, small ones. I should be able to get, like, twenty hares or maybe something bigger tomorrow. I also have the tanner''s rack and the tanning skill. With these, I can see if making products will give more money than selling the whole corpse. I could make rabbit meat, rabbit furs, and I could make oil from the fat. Okay, maybe not that last one, but the other two are something I know how to do. I spend the whole day setting traps, and I return to my second tree. Such a shame. I should get a woodworking skill next. I need to make a real house, just like I told myself last night! Over the night, I don''t see any giant snakes, or wolves, or bears. I think things are going to be a bit more peaceful now that I killed the pack of wolves and completed the dungeon. Chapter 12 Chapter 12 In the morning on the sixteenth day, I check my traps. It is faster to reset a trap than to make a new one, so I can do this much quicker than placing all the traps yesterday. From all my traps, I have to rebuild a few, but I get seven hares, a wolf, and a bear! After putting them in my inventory, I take a look at them and my stats. >**Inventory** >Steel Bow, Used >Iron Arrow x100 >String >Rope >Axe >Knife >Shovel >Tanner''s Rack >Torch x2 >Dead Mountain Hare x7 >Dead Mountain Wolf >Dead Black Bear >**Status** >Name: Homogeneous Khalidius >Level: 4 >Class: Novice >Credits: 220 >Health: 50/50 >Stamina: 50/50 >Mana: 50/50 >Strength: 20 >Dexterity: 15 >Vitality: 10 >Inteligence: 10 >Wisdom: 10 >Luck: 10 >Stat Points Available: 0 From my experience, I know each mountain hare is worth 10 credits to kill, and five credits to sell. A black bear is worth 100 credits to kill, and 40 credits to sell. A mountain wolf is worth 50 credits to kill and 20 credits to sell. A Black mountain snake is worth 100 credits to kill and 40 credits to sell, and a Black Mountain Snake Mother is worth 200 credits to kill and 80 credits to sell. They day is still fairly young, so I have time to explore a little. With x-ray vision, I am able to see anything that might be interesting in the surrounding area, but there is a limit to how much I can see through. I can''t see any further than I normally can, so I am limited by things getting really small the further I look out. I remember that a small stream was located to the south, so I think I will build my house there. A stream might be useful for several things, including smithing if I decide to do that. Either way, I kinda want to take a hot shower, though I don''t know if I would feel it. This content has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere. With my bow out and an arrow ready, I proceed south. I reach the stream quickly with my added dexterity and strength. All I can see from the surface is a depression in the snow, but my x-ray vision can see the water flowing underneath and my minimap shows the stream too. I look downstream with x-ray vision, and I think I see something moving. With my bow out, I approach the moving group of creatures. From what I can see at the large distance I am away, there are between four and eight of them walking in a close formation. I quickly move between on and off with my x-ray vision, and I quickly move through the snow without making a sound. I don''t make any sound, but the snow is noisy as hell. As I move within sixty feet of the group, they notice me. "Who is there?!" One of the group shouts, and they fan out to point their weapons in my direction. Now, I can see there are only five of them. This is the first person I have heard since I was teleported into this world. I don''t want to come off as a weirdo, but I also don''t want to come off as a weakling. "I''m here!" I say, and I raise my body to be as tall as possible and raise my bow in the air. "Homogeneous Khalidius!" Totally a bad-ass name. "He''s got a bow!" One of them says, and two of them pull a bow off their back and sheath their swords. "Hey, I don''t want to fight!" I yell to them. "I''m a traveler. Can you tell me where the nearest town is from here?" I am not too far from my tree, and I plan on going back to build my house, eventually. "Are you here for the holy blade of Saint Nordas?" One of the people ask, and they lower their sword. The four others keep their weapons raised. I don''t know anything about any holy blade, but Nordas sounds like Nord, which is a race is Skyrim. Therefore, I would like to see this holy blade, but I want to find a nearby town more. Chapter 13 Chapter 13 "I just need to know where the closest town to here is." I hope these people can tell me a direction, or tell me how long to follow the road. If it''s over five days, I''ll just stay here. "The nearest town is about sixty miles that way," Says on the people, pointing south. "There is no trail, but if you follow the stream down you should hit the town eventually." Sixty miles would take me quite a while to travel. It would take me 15 hours or so if I traveled constantly and didn''t take any breaks. I don''t have to sleep or eat, so this is entirely possible! "Thank you," I say to the people, and I lower my bow. "Papa bless." "What?" One of them asked me. "It''s nothing, have a safe trip." With that, I go back to my area of the forest. I decide to visit the town tomorrow after I tan some of the rabbits and the wolf and the bear. They will probably be worth something cool, which is nice. The clothes I have on now are bloody and a little torn, so I could make new ones too. Back at the tree, I take out my tanner''s rack and the supplies to tan with. I don''t know much about tanning, but I somehow do. All thanks to the tanning skill, I can cut the hide off a hare and turn it into some nice leather. I''ve also got some meat, and I can make that into something to eat. I don''t really have the skills to cook it, so I don''t die from some disease, so I''ll just keep it in my inventory for now. Six hares, a wolf, and a bear later, I have the pelts from the bear and wolf and the hares. I hold off on turning them into leather so I can see what will sell for more. I also have meat from the wolfs, the hares, and the bear, but I hear meat from a wolf taste bad, so I decide to use that for making traps, along with the hare meat in other traps. If I can get more bears, that would be awesome. I get a lot of fat from the bear, and I save all that in my inventory. I think I can make torches with fat. If I can''t, I can sell it. The story has been taken without consent; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident. When night comes, I climb back into my tree and lay down in my hammock. I really want to have a nice house built, but I need things like nails and wood to build it with. A hammer, a door, a real bed. I hope I can buy them at the nearby town, but I guess I''ll find out tomorrow. In the morning of the seventeenth, I choose to first collect from my traps. Five hares, three wolves, and two bears. Nice haul, but I will have to tan them on a later date. I check my inventory one last time, and head back to the stream. I don''t set the traps because I won''t be back for a day or two. I don''t want anything hung up in a trap for days while I''m away. >**Inventory** >Steel Bow, Used >Iron Arrow x100 >String >Rope >Axe >Knife >Shovel >Tanner''s Rack >Torch x2 >Dead Mountain Hare x5 >Dead Mountain Wolf x3 >Dead Black Bear x2 >Leather x1ft >Mountain Hare Hide x6 >Mountain Wolf Hide x1 >Black Bear Hide x1 >Black Bear Meat x200lb Really nice amounts of stuff, I hope it sells well. I reach the stream in a few minutes of walking, and I have my bow out. It is early in the morning, and I left that meat in the traps all night, so I might find something lurking about. About an hour into my trip, I see a pair of wolves. Either my bow is really strong, or I am really strong, because I killed the wolves with two arrows, each one going through the wolf and into the wilderness, never to be seen again. Well, two more dead wolves for me. Two more hours later, I see another three wolves. I start to think there might be a wolf dungeon around here somewhere, but the three arrows I shoot go right through the skulls of the three wolves, not bothering me at all. Five arrows down and five additional wolves added to the inventory. Chapter 14 Chapter 14 Over the course of the remaining ten and some hours, I kill two black bears and six more wolves. One arrow is enough to take out each wolf, but I need two arrows for the bears, of which I am able to recover one. Reaching the town at the edge of the snowy forest, my inventory has changed only in the amounts of things that I have. >**Inventory** >Steel Bow, Used >Iron Arrow x87 >String >Rope >Axe >Knife >Shovel >Tanner''s Rack >Torch x2 >Dead Mountain Hare x5 >Dead Mountain Wolf x14 >Dead Black Bear x4 >Leather x1ft >Mountain Hare Hide x6 >Mountain Wolf Hide x1 >Black Bear Hide x1 >Black Bear Meat x200lb A very nice haul, if I do say so myself. The edge of the town has guard posts with arches in them, and I walk into the town without anyone stopping me. The archers are probably just for wild animals, and maybe monsters like those black mountain snakes. It is very late at night, and I can''t find a single shop open. Lucky for me, there is a tavern open and delicious smells coming from inside. I open the door to the tavern and see almost a dozen people sitting at tables around a large fire in the center of the room. "Welcome, traveler." Someone says to me, and I look over to see an extremely short man. "Hi," I say to him, and I walk towards the bar. "Can I get a room for the night?" I ask the man behind the counter, wiping a glass. "Sure, but it''s going to cost you 20 credits." Huh, so he can use credits too? Does that mean that everyone can use the shop on one day of the week? One thing I need to learn, however, is how to make physical credits. My credits are part of my stats, not my inventory, so I can''t take them out and hand them to the man. "I''ve never done this before, so can you tell me how I give you credits?" I hope I''m not asking something too strange. The look on his face does not change, and he gives me a straight forward answer. "Yeah, you just have to hold out your hand like this," The man put his hand out like he wanted to arm wrestle, and I did the same, grabbing his hand. "And say Transfer 20 credits. If you don''t want to transfer the credits, it won''t be done, but you have to say the phrase out loud and want to transfer credits for the transfer to happen." Find this and other great novels on the author''s preferred platform. Support original creators! Wow, this is a really helpfully system. Money can''t be stolen, because it does not have a physical form, and it can''t be taken by forcing the person to say the magic words. Credits are basically theft-proof. "Transfer 20 credits." I say, and I decide to check my credits really quickly. 1350! Holy molly, I can buy a magic book! The man behind the bar walks out and shows me to a room, and I walk inside and close the door. The warmth of the tavern is nice and feels strangely better than the cold of the wilderness. I don''t really have any possessions not in my inventory, so I lay down on the bed and try to sleep. I want to wake up early to explore the town. The next morning, the eighteenth day. Just three days, including this one, and the shop will be open again. It is still very early in the morning, so I go to the outskirts of the town and get out my tanner''s supplies and tan the hides of the animals I killed. >**Inventory** >Steel Bow, Used >Iron Arrow x87 >String >Rope >Axe >Knife >Shovel >Tanner''s Rack >Torch x2 >Leather x1ft >Mountain Hare Hide x11 >Mountain Hare Meat x24lb >Mountain Wolf Hide x15 >Black Bear Hide x5 >Black Bear Meat x1,000lb >Black Bear Fat x50lb I don''t need the wolf meat, so I throw it out. I''m actually surprised at how I''m carrying over a thousand pounds of weight, but I guess that is just the magic of the inventory. Once I finished dealing with the waste from the harvesting and moved everything I needed into my inventory, I went back to the town. A few shops are open already, but I check the butcher first. I''ve got 1,000 pounds of bear meat, and I want to sell! Chapter 15 Chapter 15 "Good morning," The man at the butcher shops says from behind a counter, and I can see that he is cutting meat. "I have some bear meat I want to sell." Hopefully, being blunt will get me money quickly. I''ve got a lot to sell, though, so I might have to visit other places. "How much do you want to sell?" He asks and looks up. "I''ve got a thousand pounds." His eyes bulge for a second, but he contains himself. "I''ll give you a credit for every pound." Yes! I think he''s going to buy all of it! I wonder what I should do with it, though. I don''t see anywhere good to place it, and the counter with the clean meat definitely wouldn''t work. "Alright, where do you want it?" I ask him. "You can bring the cart around back and I''ll unload and weigh it." Hm... doesn''t he have inventory too? People have statuses, so they probably have inventory too. "I''ve got it in my inventory." He looks shocked after I speak. "Oh, I should have guessed that you were an adventurer," He says and puts away the meat he was working with. "Come around back with me and we can sort everything out." I don''t know what he means by me being an adventurer, but I follow him anyways. I want to keep the hare meat to use in traps, but I want to sell all of the bear meat. After about an hour of weighing meat, I sell a thousand pounds for a thousand credits! So much satisfaction hearing him say "Transfer 1,000 credits". I now have 2350 credits, and I move on to the next store. There is a general store not too far away, so I go there first. I will probably be able to sell everything there, and I hope I didn''t get a bad deal on the meat. Coming out of the general store, I feel like a fool. The woman working there, 10/10 hot babe by the way, told me I could only sell at places that specialized in the product, as per regulation from the merchant''s guild. If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it. Next, I visit a tailor. The man inside is nice, and he buys the leather and the hides from the hares, the wolves, and the bears. He gave me 10 credits for each hare hide, 40 credits for each wolf hide, and 100 credits for each bear hide. I feel like a totally boss walking out of a tailor shop with 1210 additional credits! Woo! With all this, I''ve got 3540 credits. Total G. I need to build a house, so the next few places I visit are for building my house. I have a general idea of how to build a house because of my construction skill, and I know what materials I need. Each piece of the wood for constructing the long side of the house if 50 credits. Each piece of the short side is 30 credits. I need about 18 long pieces and 18 short pieces, so I''m looking at 1440 credits for the wood alone. It''s not even going to be a particularly nice looking house. I can get all the nails I need for 10 credits, and I can get a hammer for 20 credits. I can get a saw for 20 credits. I feel kinda ripped off for buying the axe from the shop-day, but I can''t turn back time. A door is going to run me 100 credits, and I decide to skip getting windows. A roof for the snow will cost quite a bit, so I''m looking at another 400 credits for just that. I need to get some gray gobbly-goop, and that cost yet another 200 credits. All in all, everything is 2190 credits. After buying all that, I only have 1350 credits left, and I feel kinda poor without my money. I can''t do anything about not having tons of money saved up, so I head to some more shops to spend more money. First, I need a bed. I get the best bed, because I need something soft to lay my glorious butthole on. 200 credits hurts, but I pay it. I thought about buying a lamp, but then I remember my night vision! I leave with just a bed, and I''ve got 1150 credits. With these remaining credits and everything in my inventory, I go back to the tavern. Chapter 16 Chapter 16 I''m going to wake up early tomorrow morning and go back to my tree as fast as I can. I don''t want to travel at night in cast some giant monsters patrol only at night, even though I might be able to take them out with my awesome skills. I have to pay 20 credits at the tavern again, but oh well. In the morning, just like I said, I head off to my tree. I can use my minimap to find the fastest route, and it only takes me 12 hours to get back. Along the way, I meet two black bears and four wolves, but that is it. Once back at my tree, at the beginning of evening of the 19th day, I set my traps. I use the hare meat to bait for larger prey, but keep some traps for hares. Once I go back into the tree for the night, I check my inventory. >**Inventory** >Steel Bow, Used >Iron Arrow x81 >String >Rope >Axe >Knife >Shovel >Hammer >Hand Saw >Nails >Large Wooden Beam x18 >Short Wooden Beam x18 >Wooden Door >Cob >Thick, Long Wooden Beam x10 >Soft Bed >Tanner''s Rack >Torch x2 >Mountain Hare Meat x2lb >Dead Mountain Wolf x4 >Dead Black Bear x2 I''m a poor bastard now, but at least I''ll have a real house soon. Well, I guess 1330 credits can''t be called poor. There is one other good thing too. >**Level-up!** Yeah, it happened sometime while I was traveling, and I kinda time-skipped over that bit so here it is now. >**Status** >Name: Homogeneous Khalidius >Level: 5 >Class: Novice >Credits: 1730 >Health: 50/50 >Stamina: 50/50 >Mana: 50/50 >Strength: 20 >Dexterity: 15 >Vitality: 10 >Inteligence: 10 >Wisdom: 10 >Luck: 10 >Stat Points Available: 5 I decide to get five points into strength to make this whole house-building thing easier, and then I go to sleep. Sleep is such a comforting thing, I''m not really sure why I even both with it. I would like to jump from tree to tree, shooting arrows at anything that moves under me. Eh, maybe I''ll focus on a rogue build after all. Help support creative writers by finding and reading their stories on the original site. Morning of the 20th day, and I check the traps. I might be over-hunting, because I only get three wolves. six hares, and a black bear. I decide to not load the traps today, and instead, I take everything into my inventory to wait for a bit. I''m going to start building my home today! I go to the perfect spot by the stream. It''s less than an hour away from my tree, and I can have a fresh supply of water every day. I start by clearing the ground with the shovel. It takes a while, but I am glad I picked to increase my strength. I don''t get tired after cleaning a large space to build the house at, about 30 feet from the stream. Before I start anything, I line up 7 long beams with the door. Using the saw, I cut a whole for the door through the seven beams, and then I get started setting everything up. The first layer of beams goes down, and then each layer over that is set to overlap, and I use nails to help fix the beams together. Having an inventory is great because I can choose where the beam comes out at, so I don''t have to do too much heavy lifting. The door frame is placed and the door goes inside, and then I place the long beam to lock the door in place. Everything looks good, and I can use the wood I cut to make room for the door to help hold the beams together. Once all the beams are placed down and nailed into place, I get started on the roof. The roof takes a little longer, but I get it with a whole lot of nails. Once the walls and the roof are all on, it''s time for cob. I don''t know much about cob, but Mr. Construction skill does, he says to slap it all on there. I go crazy with the cob, and the entire house is covered with it, inside and out. I feel really accomplished, looking at my house from the outside with night vision on. It has already gotten dark slightly, and I decide to bunker down inside the house for the day, after tanning the hides of my dead animals of course, and placing the bed. Chapter 17 Chapter 17 >Welcome To Tardeyad! That is my favorite thing to see in the morning! Time to check my inventory and credits one last time before visiting the shop. >**Inventory** >Steel Bow, Used >Iron Arrow x81 >String >Rope >Axe >Knife >Shovel >Hammer >Hand Saw >Nails >Torch x2 >Mountain Hare Hide x6 >Mountain Hare Meat x26lb >Mountain Wolf Hide x7 >Black Bear Hide x3 >Black Bear Meat x600lbs >Black Bear Fat x80lbs With all this, I also have 2040 credits. Two magic books for me, thanks! I open the shop, and I can''t wait to check out what kinds of magic I can afford! >**Magic Skills** >Basic Fire Magic >Basic Water Magic >Basic Earth Magic >Basic Plant Magic That is all I can afford. It isn''t much, but I have a feeling that I have a long road ahead of me. These four magic types look cool in their own way, but I think I''ll start with water magic because there is so much snow around here. After that, I think I''ll get earth magic. Can''t go wrong being able to control rocks and stuff. Now that my kill-earned credits have been used, I''m going to sell my materials to see what all my hard work utilizing skills has earned me. Surprisingly, everything is worth the same as it was in the shops in the town. 600 credits for the bear meat, 300 credits for the bear hides, 280 credits for the wolf hides, and 60 credits for the hare hides. That makes 1240 credits for everything. It''s not as much as I had before, but I just know I''m going to find some good skills to buy with this. Back in the shop, with my 1280 credits, I buy several skill books. Survivalism, which I''m not entirely sure what it will do, is my first skill book. For 300 credits, I''ll be able to drink my own piss. Yay. Next, I get heat vision for 300 credits. Now, I''ll be able to see those pitch black snake things. That''s 600 credits, so I think I''ll choose something for combat now. I could get Sneaking for 300, or I could go all out and get NINJA for 600. I think about it for a second, and I get ninja. I''m a freaking ninja now. A NINJA! A legit game assassin. The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation. Exiting the shop, I use the newly purchased skill books. Basic Water and Earth magic, how to turn all this bear fat I''ve got into oil, the ability to see hot things easily, and the ability to move completely silently! I have 80 credits left, though, so I decide to spend them on demon arrows, four of them. With my demon arrows and my steel bow, I head to the Black Mountain Snake dungeon. Before entering the cave, I turn on night vision and heat vision and head inside. With heat vision, I can easily see when I am coming up to one of the giant snakes. With one shot of the demon arrows, the Black Mountain Snakes die. This is too powerful, I think to myself. The demon arrow seems to aim right for the spine of the snake, or impaling its brain. I kill five of the Black Mountain Snakes before I reach the boss room. It seems like five of the snakes will spawn at a time, and they do not respawn for a while. With the demon arrows, I make short work of the boss. Just one arrow through the head if enough to kill it, and I continue on to the treasure chest. >**Treasure Chest** >Credits x300 >Opal Gem >Iron Daggar of Frost No potions this time, and I think I''m going to sell it all as soon as I can. I don''t think I can do anything with the Black Mountain Snakes or the mother, so I just sell those whole to the shop. From everything in the dungeon, I got another 1780 credits. I could get used to this. I return to the house and try to think of what to spend it all one. It would be good to have some extra credits to buy a skill when I really needed it, but I can probably earn credits for the skill before the shop day comes up. I joked about getting a mining skill earlier when I first got x-ray vision, but now I might actually get it. If I got mining skill and a blacksmith or weaponsmith skill, I could start some serious business. Chapter 18 Chapter 18 I decide to get Mining for 200 credits, Smelting for 200 credits, Smithing for 300 credits, tailoring for 300 credits, and I check out tools for the tools I need to start these professions. I can get a smelter for 100 credits, an iron anvil for 100 credits, a grind-wheel for 100 credits, an orchelium pickaxe for 300 credits, and all the little things I need for the remaining 180 credits. It''s nice to spend everything in one go. I learn all the skill, and sleep through the night. Day 22, and now I want to test out my magic. I''ve got water and earth magic, do I try to manipulate the snow some. It doesn''t work. No matter what I do, I can''t see to move the snow at all! I hope this is just some part of the skill being basic, so I uncover the stream and scoop some water out with my hands. With this water in my hands, I try to imbue water magic into it, and WOW! I can make the water move with my thoughts! I move it like a snake in the air, but then I realize how useless this power is. Okay, it might help with cleaning things, but not really much for fighting. I can''t even control ice with it. Next, I decide to check out earth magic. There is a cliff not too far from here, so I think I''ll start my mine there. I might be able to convert the Black Mountain Snake Dungeon into a mine, but it might make the Black Mountain Snakes stop respawning. I hope to farm the dungeon in the future, so I can''t go messing things up over there. I place my hand on the stone wall and try to extract some stone, but almost nothing happens. A tiny amount of rock comes protruding from the once flat wall. I get a little disappointed, but then I remember my Intelligence stat is only 10! I just need to increase my stats! With newfound hope for my magic skills, I start working on a mine. With the orchelium pickaxe and the shovel, I can move large amounts of rock from my mine. I have the equivalent of super-strength with my high strength stat, and I easily move the pickaxe to break the rock of the ground. If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation. >**Status** >Name: Homogeneous Khalidius >Level: 5 >Class: Novice >Credits: 0 >Health: 50/50 >Stamina: 34/50 >Mana: 38/50 >Strength: 25 >Dexterity: 15 >Vitality: 10 >Inteligence: 10 >Wisdom: 10 >Luck: 10 >Stat Points Available: 0 Just a quick look at my level and stats, and I go back to mining. I am able to remove a large amount of stone and rock, but I don''t know yet if I''m getting any ore, or if there is any ore around here. Fortunately for me, however, Mining Skill allows me to identify ores, and x-ray vision helps me see inside the rocks I pull up. With night vision and x-ray vision, I can actually see inside rocks and the stone walls of the mountain easily. I don''t find anything noteworthy on my first day, but I have a lot of stone to work with. I need to set up from support beams in the mine while I go deeper, but that will have to wait until tomorrow. The mine is only three or four feet wide, but it is tall. I am a tall guy, so I need a lot of space to move around in. I think I''ll place support beams every 5 feet. It might be too close, but I don''t want any collapsing to happen on me. The reason I can make the mine so thin is because I can put all the extracted stone into my inventory. To facilitate all this, I''ll be visiting the town soon. For now, instead of going to sleep, I work on the rock I''ve got. I can make a wall around my house with the rock, but it''s not really shaped to fit nicely in a wall. Instead, I decide to do whatever I can with the rock to get the iron out. With my hammer, I break the rocks into smaller bits. I need a bucket. Once I''ve got all the stone smashed up, and only the relevant iron parts still in front of me, I get out the smelter. Chapter 19 Chapter 19 I put some coal inside the smelter, load up all my iron bits on my shovel, and light the coal with a torch. Once that''s done, I dump the iron ore inside and get to work on the air-infusing mechanism. It takes a lot of work to put air inside the smelter, but I''ve got to get the temperature up really high. After a dozen or so minutes of pushing air inside, I pull the iron out with some prongs and place the lump on the anvil. With one hand holding the prongs and one hand holding the hammer, I smash the shit out of that lump. After a while, I''ve got some spongy mass, which is what I was aiming for, and I put the wrought iron to the side and work on the remaining iron inside the smelter. Early morning on the 23rd day, I have about a pound of iron. I can''t really do anything with it, and I wonder if I should just forget all about this mining thing. Instead of letting that get to me, I decide to spend all day mining. I try to use earth magic to keep the roof smooth, and I can feel my mana running out. As I mine for the whole day, I also feel me stamina running out. When it happens I take a break for a few minutes and then I''m all good. I can alternate between mining and using magic, but I have to take a break after using magic because it is not enough time for the mana to regenerate all the way. I would think of a way to increase the mana and stamina I have left, but that is probably the Vitality and Wisdom stats. I would rather use my stat points on increasing intelligence to make my magic more powerful. I leave the mine and feel really sapped. Something about doing hard labor all day makes me want to hire people to do the work for me. I could get some miners to help, but then I would also need a place for them to stay, and need to make the mine bigger. With a bigger mine comes the need for more safety precautions, and I don''t think I''m ready to do that quite yet. For now, I''ll mine during the day and smelt at night, as long as I don''t run out of coal. Although, if I can get more powerful magic, I can forgo the use of coal all together and just use fire magic. That would probably take a while to get, and that still wouldn''t solve my problem of having to push air into the smelter. Well, the air is only used to allow the fire to get hotter, so I won''t need the air in that case. Even with that, I might not even need the smelter. If my fire magic gets hot enough, it might be able to straight up melt the iron by itself. The narrative has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident. In the meantime, I use the night to smelt the iron ore I took up from the mine. Iron is supposed to stick together inside the smelter when it gets really hot and falls to the bottom, so I can take out all the left over gross stuff and throw that to the side. I plan on making a wall eventually, but not quite yet. In the night, I use a lot of coal and get through a LOT of iron ore. When I''m all done with everything and decide to use water magic to help wash myself off, I''ve got six pounds. Morning of the 24th day, and it is as good of a time as any to check my inventory and stats. I''ll also check all the skills I have while I''m at it. >**Status** >Name: Homogeneous Khalidius >Level: 5 >Class: Novice >Credits: 0 >Health: 50/50 >Stamina: 34/50 >Mana: 38/50 >Strength: 25 >Dexterity: 15 >Vitality: 10 >Inteligence: 10 >Wisdom: 10 >Luck: 10 >Stat Points Available: 0 >**Inventory** >Steel Bow, Used >Iron Arrow x81 >Demon Arrow x6 >String >Rope >Nails >Coal x43lb >Axe >Orchelium Pickaxe >Knife >Shovel >Hammer >Hand Saw >Grind-wheel >Torch x2 >Mountain Hare Meat x26lb >Black Bear Fat x80lb >A shit ton of stone >Wrought Iron x7lb >**Skills** >Trapping >Archery >Construction >Tanning >X-Ray Vision >Night Vision >Heat Vision >Ninja Movement >Survivalism >Mining >Smelting >Smithing >Tailoring >Basic Water Magic >Basic Earth Magic Looking at everything I''ve got, I realize that I won''t have any money in a few days when the shop opens again. I''ve got some iron, but I don''t know much that will be worth. I should also be working on leveling up so I can increase the power of my magic. Chapter 20 Chapter 20 To combat my money problems, I set my traps again. With ninja movement, I can move through the trees much faster, but it still takes me a while. I decide to use 20lb of hare meat in the traps so I only get the good animals from them. I want to get some wolves so I can use my tailor skill to make things. With a single pound of iron and some leather, I might be able to make some nice knives. I decide not to mine today, and I instead look for more monsters like the Black Mountain Snakes that I can kill. With a demon arrow out in my Steel Bow, I move without making a sound. I see a bear, and I can kill it in one shot. I know this, so I switch to iron arrows. If I close a demon arrow, it would be like losing 10 iron arrows. I easily kill the bear with one arrow, and I continue on my way. There is nothing in this forest. It begins to get dark out, and I decide to return to the house. I can travel at night with night vision, and I have heat vision on too, so I don''t have to worry about any animals or monsters surprising me. I explored the forest all day, and I only found one bear. I have to leave this forest soon if I want to earn more credits. I should visit the town tomorrow and see if any other dungeons are nearby. On the 25th day, I check the traps and head to town. I skipped a few days setting traps, and I was happy to see a bear and seven wolves. With this, I think I am going to completely stop my trapping. I don''t want to over-hunt the forest, and I think I have enough for now. With two dead bears and seven dead wolves, I head to the town 60 miles from here. It takes all day, and I don''t see any bears, but I kill another five wolves, bringing my total to 12. Each wolf is worth 50 credits, and each bear is worth 100 credits, so I work out that I have 800 credits from killing animals. At the town, I pay for a room at the tavern for 20 credits. Now I have 780. This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report. In the morning on the 26th day, I head to the general goods store. From the woman working there I learn that there is another town just 30 miles south. We are currently in the area known as the Gray Forest, and the mountain range I live so close to is Black Mountain. Even further into the mountain range are the Obsidian Peaks, and among them is the holy sword of Nordas. Apparently, Nordas was an ancient warrior who threw his sword through a big bad guy and never collected it. A few hundred years later, someone found the sword and said it belonged to Nordas. Nobody was able to pick the sword up, so now it is a holy site inside the mountains. While in town, I sell the bear meat for 400 credits, the tanned hides for 200 credits, the wolf hides for 480 credits, and 100 credits for all but 10 lbs of the fat from the black bears. That puts me at 1180 credits for things sold, and 780 credits that I already have, making it 1960 total. I need 2000 for the Intermediate magic books or basic lightning magic, so I''m going to save up. Instead of waiting the night in the town, I decide to see how much my seven pounds of iron are worth. They are only worth 10 credits for each pound, so I keep them and head to the next town. I will have to remember to make my iron into something before the shop day so I can see how much my own fabricated tools sell for. I travel all night long to reach the next town by road, and now that I have the next town on my minimap I will be able to walk straight from town to town. Chapter 21 Chapter 21 The second town I see is a little bit larger than the last. Iron still sells for only 10 credits, and I''m not missing anything from not waiting to sell my materials. There is an alchemy shop in this town, but I decide to pass on it. While I am here, I come across a place I''ve always wanted to see. >Welcome to the Adventurer''s Guild! Oooh yeah, time to adventure and stuff. I hope I can find some quests to kill monsters that have the location of the monsters. If I could find a party, that would be good too. I remember a group of people from a few days ago. They might have been a party. I walk inside the adventurer''s guild, and it''s a wasteland. Well, there just aren''t many people. "Hello," I say to the woman behind a desk at the end of the hall. The hall is big, but she is the only worker there. Oh, and she''s hot. "Welcome to the Adventurer''s guild." She says, not looking up. She''s a bitch. Hot, but a bitch. "Do you have any quests for monster subjugation?" I ask her. I remember subjugations being a popular type of quests in video games, and I have to start somewhere. "Check the bulletin board. Bring any quest you want to take to my desk." She says, pointing at a board on the left side of the hall. I walk over to the board and look at some of the quests. There is also a large map above the board, apparently of the surrounding area. Judging by the distance from this town to the one I came from, the map covers 500 miles. I see the obsidian peaks and the holy sword of Nordas. I also check my minimap, but looking at the larger map did not add anything to my own map. The quests are outlined very simply. >**Quest** >Rank: D >Details: Gather 10 Horned Beakle Root. >Reward: 100 Credits >**Quest** >Rank: E >Details: Gather 5 Rock Gaul Eggs. >Reward: 150 Credits Most of the rank D and E quests are the same, to collect some ingredient that I''ve never heard of before. The one to collect eggs seems a little dificult, but I don''t know anything about Rock Gauls. As I read all the quests, only the rank C, B and A ones interest me. You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story. >**Quest** >Rank: C >Details: Kill 6 Black Tailed Fortilers in and around Black Mountain. Retrieve the fangs and tails. >Reward: 600 Credits >**Quest** >Rank: B >Details: Kill 10 Iron-Back Devil Hounds in the Obsidian Peaks. Retrieve the hide. >Reward: 1000 Credits >**Quest** >Rank: A >Details: Kill 1 Fire-Tipped Dragon in the Obsidian Peaks. Retrieve the entire body. >Reward: 5000 Credits I don''t want to pretend to be an expert on this whole monster killing thing, but I am taking that Rank A quest. Maybe not today, but I will someday, just you wait. For now, I''ll start in relative safety and take the rank C quest. I don''t know what a Fortiler is, but I can probably kill it. I take the quest poster and take it to the woman at the desk. "I''ll take this quest." "Have fun." She took one look at the quest poster and took out a paper from her desk and wrote a few things down. Without reading what she wrote, I left there. She didn''t seem too happy to be working there, but I can understand. In such a magical world, I would hate having to work behind a desk. I''m not really sure what to do now, so I check my minimap. Gone WILD! The minimap shows the locations of the Fortilers! They are a little more to the west than my house, but it should only take a day or so to get there if I hurry. I leave town quickly without looking at anything else and start straight towards the quest markers. I ignore everything on my way to the quest markers. I don''t have my bow out, and I don''t want to bother with getting it out and readying an arrow. It is midday on the 27th day, and I''ve got a lot of distance to cover. Chapter 22 Chapter 22 I run through the forest late into the night, and I keep running even after that. Or, I would if my stamina did not run out. I would have to increase my stats to have more stamina, but I don''t want to do that. I still want to increase my magical abilities first, so I''ll work on Intelligence before I raise Vitality. Late in the night, I see that most welcoming screen. >Welcome To Tardeyad! The shop is now open, and I can see what kind of things I can buy and sell. >**Status** >Name: Homogeneous Khalidius >Level: 5 >Class: Novice >Credits: 1960 >Health: 50/50 >Stamina: 34/50 >Mana: 38/50 >Strength: 25 >Dexterity: 15 >Vitality: 10 >Inteligence: 10 >Wisdom: 10 >Luck: 10 >Stat Points Available: 0 >**Inventory** >Steel Bow >Iron Arrow x81 >Demon Arrow x6 >String >Rope >Nails >Coal x43lb >Axe >Orchelium Pickaxe >Knife >Shovel >Hammer >Hand Saw >Grind-wheel >Torch x2 >Mountain Hare Meat x26lb >A shit ton of stone >Wrought Iron x7lb I don''t have anything to sell other than the wrought iron, but it is only worth 10 credits for the shop too. I decide to sell 6 pounds and buy Intermediate Fire Magic for 2000 credits. I learn the skill book and then continue moving through the forest. While running for a few minutes, I wonder if the shop has any skill books that increase stats. Probably not, but a man can dream. I continue for a few more hours until I reach the first quest marker, one of six Black Tailed Fortilers. The fortiler looks like a giant monkey with huge fangs hanging out its mouth and a larger than necessary tail. I take an iron arrow into my bow and shoot the Fortiler in the head. The arrow zooms at lightning speed and inserts itself into the Fortiler''s head. The fortiler turns to face me, and it screeches! "Ckreee!" The monster was damn loud, and now it''s charging at me. I''m not having any of that, and I get another iron arrow out and shoot at the fortiler. The arrow goes into its chest, and it keeps moving. A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation. At this point, I need to do something do I don''t get wrecked by this giant ape. I look around, and there is a low branch I might be able to grab onto. I jump up and grab onto the branch, using my 25 strength to pull me to safety. However, I did not prepare for the climbing abilities of the Fortiler. With two jumps, the Fortiler jumps on the trunk of the tree and then jumps to grab onto the branch I''m on. Before it pulls itself up, I jump off and think about what I can do. I just bought Intermediate Fire magic, so maybe I can put that to the test. With my right hand up, I try to summon fire. It took me a few seconds to use the water and earth magic, but I can see how being a few seconds from death might make me learn fire magic faster. The fortiler jumps down from the branch and is right next to me, and it takes a swing at me with its claws. Before I can dodge or run away, I am slashed and fall down. > -14 Shit, that''s almost 30% of my health! Time for drastic measures! "Give the power of bomb-ass memes to my fire! Papa bless!" I shout, and the fire roars from my hand and throws the monkey back! Bam! While the fortiler is down, I get another arrow out and kill that bitch. >**Level-up!** It''s been a while since I leveled up last, I wonder if it has to do with killing new monsters. Before I go to fight the next fortiler, I''m going to use my stat points on intelligence. With these points, my magic will get 50% stronger. >**Status** >Name: Homogeneous Khalidius >Level: 6 >Class: Novice >Credits: 100 >Health: 36/50 >Stamina: 8/50 >Mana: 12/50 >Strength: 25 >Dexterity: 15 >Vitality: 10 >Inteligence: 15 >Wisdom: 10 >Luck: 10 >Stat Points Available: 0 The Fortiler gave me 100 credits, even though it is much stronger than the black bear. It is kinda on the same level as the Black Mountain Snake, but a little more resistant to my arrows. Instead of using iron arrows, it''s time to switch to full demon arrows. With a demon arrow in my bow and the Fortiler in my inventory, I move on to the second quest marker. Chapter 23 Chapter 23 A few minutes later, I see the second Black Tailed Fortiler. It looks terrifying like the last one. If I ever make a haunted house, I''m going to plaster the bitch with pictures of Fortiler faces. For now, I can start with killing the Fortiler. I release an arrow aimed at the Fortiler''s head, and it swerves to the side to delimb an arm. Nasty, but now the fortiler knows my location. In addition to having one less arm, the fortiler is now screeching loudly and running towards my location. I get out another demon arrow, and this one zooms right through the head of the fortiler. I''m down two demon arrows, which comes to 40 credits. I have four left, so I''m not completely out, but I think I will stick to iron arrows for now. Iron arrows do not hurt so much when I lose them, so I can afford to fire a little faster at enemies. Once again, I take the whole body of the Fortiler in my inventory, but this time, I am unable to find the demon arrows. The next fortiler is close, so it only takes me a minute to reach it. With one arrow, I damage its leg, inhibiting its ability to charge me. The fortiler still screeches like the other two, but I am fast enough to get a second arrow out and fire it. The first Fortiler died after a few hits with arrows and a blast of Intermediate Fire magic, and the second fortiler died from two hits of demon arrows. This third fortiler brushed off the second arrow and continued to run towards me, slightly limping. I let the fortiler get close, and then I meet it with an explosion of fire magic. I didn''t say anything cool like Papa Bless this time, but my meme magic still worked. Three down and three to go, I head off for the next one after taking the dead fortiler into my inventory. About twenty minutes later, once I''ve killed all six fortilers, I decide to head back to my house. The shop day will last for a few more hours, it is probably only four or five in the afternoon. >**Inventory** >Steel Bow >Iron Arrow x64 >Demon Arrow x4 >String >Rope >Nails >Coal x43lb >Axe >Orchelium Pickaxe Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.>Knife >Shovel >Hammer >Hand Saw >Grind-wheel >Torch x2 >Mountain Hare Meat x26lb >A shit ton of stone >Wrought Iron x1lb >Dead Black Tailed Fortiler x6 Back at the house, I tan the hides from the fortiler. I make one hide into leather, and I decide to make the rest into tailored outfits, that is at least until I learned I needed sewing materials. So, I leave five tanned to sell to the shop. Once everything is made, I sell the five tanned hides for 75 each, totaling 375 credits. With the money from the kills, that makes it 975 credits I now have. I kept the fangs and the tails because I can''t make those into hides and the quest needs them. In the next few days, I''m going to visit the closest town and get support beams for the mine, then return to the far away town to turn in the quest. I''ll get another quest to spend time on, and I can also mine for more iron or other ores. With the one pound of wrought iron I have left, I use my Smithing skill to flatten the iron into something resembling a knife. Once that Is done, I take out the grinding wheel and place it on the ground a few feet from the smelter. This time, instead of using the torch to light the smelter, I used my Intermediate Fire Magic. From what I can tell, the magic took 25 mana per second to use, but it was able to quickly heat the inside of the smelter. When I have the knife sharpened to my liking, I place leather around the handle and put it in my inventory. Among my other items, the knife I just made appears. >Low-Quality Knife This doesn''t bother me much. I will get better at making knives with practice, and I already have a good enough knife to get me through other things. Instead of keeping my first knife, I go to sell it. In the shop, the knife is only worth 30 credits. Not a lot, but it brings me up to 1005. For 200 credits, I buy the skill Sewing. For 50 credits, I buy materials I will need for making things with cloth, and for 100 credits I buy 100 yards of cloth, and for 100 more credits I buy 100 pounds of coal. Chapter 24 Chapter 24 I still have over 500 credits, so I think I''ll get a new skill. I don''t have woodworking, so I''ll get that for 300 credits. For 200 remaining credits, I buy the skill Cooking. I don''t have to eat for some reason, but sleeping feels good so I will assume that eating does too. 55 Credits left. I don''t know what to buy, so I buy a bucket for 50 credits and have 5 left over. Before the night ends, I cook some hare meat over a fire. There are plenty of sticks in this forest, but they are all damp and cold. Luckily, I can blast them with fire magic to dry them right up. The hare did not taste good, and I almost want to throw the rest away. I know I will use it later in traps, so I keep it anyways. Overnight, I use the Woodworking skill to craft things from wood. Little things like spoons and knives. I tried, and failed, to make a fork, but I don''t really need a fork when I can just eat off the stick like earlier. I wonder how bear meat taste. I can make handles for tools out of wood, which would probably be better than just leather. I should also think about other ways of increasing the quality of my smithed weapons. I will wait until the next shop day before smithing anything else into weapons. For now, I need to complete quests and mine. When I get tired of woodworking, I go to sleep on my bed. The morning of the 29th day, I set traps and set off towards the far away town. Along the way, I kill seven wolves, but I ignore the bears. I only saw one bear anyway. In the far away town, I will be able to turn in the quest for 600 credits. After that, I''ll take the rank B quest and head to the closer town. I move really fast through the trees, but that doesn''t stop me from only making it to the far away town the next day. Really early morning of the 30th day and I am unable to purchase a room. I only have 5 credits, and I need 20 for the room at the tavern. In the meanwhile, I''ll just practice magic outside the town. Basic magic costs 10 mana per second to use, and my mana regenerates at a rate of ten mana per minute. There is no water nearby, so I use Earth Magic to make a bowl and then use Fire Magic to melt snow I placed inside the bowl. One thing that kinda sucks about going straight to Intermediate is the lack of fine control. I can''t control my Fire Magic like I can my other two, so I might have to buy Basic Fire Magic from the shop next shop day. In any case, from now on, I will start by buying the basic magic skill before any higher rank. There were Advanced magic books in the shop along with Legendary books. Each increase in the skill level doubled the price, so I don''t think I will have enough credits to buy them for a while. The story has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation. When morning came around and the Adventurer''s Guild opened, I went inside to try and turn in the quest. "Oh, you finished it, good for you," The bitchy woman at the desk said, taking the fangs and the tails. "Hold out your hand." I held out my hand, and the woman transferred 600 credits to me. "Do you keep all the credits for the guild?" I asked her, and she sighed. "Just for this branch." She replied. "Then why not take the credits and run? What stops you from doing that if you hate the job so much?" I ask her, but her mood seems to worsen. "As a condition of the slave contract, I am not allowed to leave the Adventurer''s Guild and I may only use the credits for Guild-Approved purposes." Slaves... I haven''t seen or heard about slaves in this world, but I suppose I would be crazy to think there weren''t any. Plenty of light novels have slaves in them, why would this video game world be any different? Time to get my harem of slave bitches and explore a labyrinth. After turning in the quest objectives, I get the rank B quest. >**Quest** >Rank: B >Details: Kill 10 Iron-Back Devil Hounds in the Obsidian Peaks. Retrieve the hide. >Reward: 1000 Credits Chapter 25 Chapter 25 I should be able to complete it in a day or two. From the name of the monster, I can guess that the hide is made from actual iron, so I might have a hard time killing them with the bow. I will also have to go into the obsidian peaks to find them, which will be an adventure on its own. With 605 credits, I can now buy some things from the closer town. Leaving this town immediately, I reach the closer town in only a few hours. It is late afternoon when I arrive. From a lumber shop, I can buy Support Beams to use in the mine. Each beam is a foot in diameter and costs 25 credits. After thinking for a while, I suppose I would only need to use supports if I was going to make the mine wide, which I don''t plan on doing. I plan on going down to get more valuable ore, and hopefully in larger quantities. To be on the safe side, I buy three supports for 75 credits, bringing me down to 530. With the new quest and a few supports for the mine, I get started on the return trip back to my house. I''m going to spend one day at home before heading into the obsidian peaks. If I can get home on the 31st, complete the quest on the 32nd, reach the far away town on the 33rd, I can spend the 34th and 35th in the town to sell my materials and buy more skills. Just like I thought, I was only able to get home on the morning of the 31st day. On the way back, I was able to kill four wolves. I check my traps, and five of them have wolves in them. That puts me to 16 dead wolves in my inventory, and I leave the traps unset. I have all day to goof about here, so I start working on tailoring and sewing to create some leather armor for myself. Sewing is a long task. I should get someone else to do this. Damn, now that I know slaves exist I can''t help but want to start my slave harem! I probably need 100,000 credits or something huge to buy a person, though. I''ll try to think of this like old America. In the late 1800''s when slavery last existed, a slave cost about $800. Compared to that time, that much in today''s money would be, like, 30x more, so $800 would be more like 24,000. I''ll wait until I have at least 24k credits before looking for a slave market. Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon. I finish making Leather Boots and I put them on after taking my old shoes off. They feel really different, but I''ll keep them. With a second wolf hide, I am able to make the leather for a set of Leather Leggings, and two more wolf hides to make Leather Armor. I choose not to make a helmet so I can have better visibility, even though I could just use x-ray vision to see through the helmet and make it full-face. I drop my previous clothes in a corner of my house and walk outside in full Leather Armor. I can''t feel the cold, but at least I feel a little more protected from whatever might try and attack me. The day still has a long way to do, so I decide to spend a little time in the mine. I don''t need to mine at any particular time, but I think it would be best to smelt during the day, and I can travel to the Obsidian Peaks at night to increase the amount of monsters or animals I find. Before I start mining, however, I take out the three wooden supports from my inventory. At the mine entrance, I increase the size of it so that the supports will fit. I have to make the supports a little smaller with my saw, but it is easy work and makes the entrance to the mine look nice. With that taken care of, I try to use my earth magic to seal the roof of the mine. I used my x-ray vision to see small cracks in the stone from when the load-bearing stone was removed, but nothing major that would make me want to run for my life. My mana runs out after a few seconds like I thought it would, and I proceed to enter the mine for a day of hard work. Chapter 26 Chapter 26 While I mine, I have a lot of time to think about things. Sometimes I think about poisonous gasses hanging around inside the mine, but for some reason, it does not bother me. Just like I am not affected by cold, or hunger, or sleep deprivation I am not affected by the lack of air in the mine. I also think about the items I have sitting at the house. There is the smelter, the iron anvil, the grind-wheel, and the tanning rack. I don''t have any maximum capacity to my inventory, that I know of, so I could put them all inside of it so that nobody could steal them. I learned a while back that inventories were not something that only I had, and that people called Adventurers had them too. The class ''Novice'' might have something to do with adventurers, but I''d like to think I''m just special. At once point, eventually, I will have to find out. For now, I''ll just pile everything up outside the mine. One pile for the stone I''ve already sent through the smelter, and one pile for the stone I haven''t. I get about 10 cubic feet of stone removed at the end of the day, and I put it all down in one pile. It weighs a ton, but I''ll have to smelt it later. I wonder about collecting obsidian from the Obsidian Peaks, but then I figure it would be foolish to think the mountains were actually made of obsidian. After taking a good look at the pile of rock I took out from the mine, I place it all in my inventory. I also gather up the other tools I have laying around my house and put them in my inventory. I should think of a way to automate smelting stone to get the iron out of it, but it would take too long. I plan on leaving here eventually and start my career as an adventurer all over the continent. Instead of smelting the stone I just got, I hit the road to the east. The party of people I met a while ago were headed to that holy sword of Nordas in the Obsidian Peaks, and I don''t know any other way to get there. I can see on my minimap where the Iron-Back Devil Hounds are, but I can''t see any ledges I wouldn''t be able to climb. Find this and other great novels on the author''s preferred platform. Support original creators! Along the road at night, I don''t see any wolves in the short time it takes to reach an opening in the mountains. To the west of my house is a straight cliff, and to the southwest is an area where things become much rockier and steep, but the path now in front of me is winding between peaks of rock, gradually climbing upwards with stairs. I take to the stairs and wonder when the last time I saw stairs was. Two hours into the hike, I pass a pair of travelers. "Papa bless," I say to them as I pass. "Nordas bless," They say, and we go our separate ways. I continue on the path for about another hour before leaving to advance towards the nearest quest market. With my strength, dexterity, and ninja skills, I am able to reach the quest marker in a dozen minutes. The hound is a little smaller than the wolves I''ve been killing so easily, but the entire body is covered in iron, like legit iron armor. I don''t see a single weak spot on its body, except for the head. Even though it is called ''Iron-Back'', even the legs and tail have iron on them. Before I even get out my bow and an arrow, the hound spots me. It probably smelled me with its nose, but I can''t do anything about that now. The hound starts running in my direction, and I take my bow and a demon arrow from my inventory. I don''t know much about demon arrows, but I hope it can pierce the iron protection. Before the hound is able to get close enough to bite me, I release the demon arrow at its head. The arrow zooms through the air and corrects its position to hit the hound directly in the head, impaling its skull. However, that doesn''t seem to kill the hound. Chapter 27 Chapter 27 I quickly release an iron arrow, this time, hoping to save on costs of arrows, but the hound dodges to the left. The hound is now too close for me to get another arrow in, so I use intermediate fire magic to push it back and give myself time for another arrow. This iron arrow is enough to hurt the wounded hound badly, and I kill it after one more arrow. With the hound dead, I lay down on the snow covered ground. I am exhausted, my mana is low, and I used more arrows than I wanted. I need to think of a way to kill the wolves without using my whole supply of arrows. Unfortunately, I can''t get back any of the arrows I used against this hound, so I''m out a demon arrow. Next shop day, when I refill my arrows, I will think about going full Orchelium and having a decent amount of demon arrows to hold me up during a pinch. In the meantime, I am glad I have the skill trapper. I take the hound into my inventory, and then I set off. As I approach the second hound, I step almost 100 feet away from it. Instead of attacking it, or trying to snipe it with my bow, I get started with making traps. I don''t want to use any mana, of which I have recovered all of it, so I stick to rope and rocks. I make a few traps that will hoist the hound into the air, and a few traps that will drop a rock on it. In total, it took about 20 minutes to prepare, in which time the hound wandered off a bit. I easily track down the hound and shoot an arrow at it from far away. The iron arrow bounces off the side of the hound''s hide, and it turns my way. "Come get me, you stinky sack of shit!" I yell, and the hound runs towards me. I start to book it towards my traps as fast as I can. The hound can run much faster than me, but I had a very decent headstart. I turn back one time to shoot an arrow at its head, and then I reach the traps. The hound was moving too fast to be hit by the dropping rocks, but that same speed was what doomed it for my other traps. As the hound ran, it interested with a string trap, tripping it. I shoot another arrow at its head, this time going in a little bit. The narrative has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident. The hound gets up and starts to move forward, but not before my next trap goes off. A rope on the ground is wound tight around the hound''s front leg, and a falling stone pulls the hound into the air. Once in the air, I am able to attack its unshielded underside with my bow. With three arrows to the soft skin, I kill my second Iron-Hide Devil Hound. Seriously bad-ass name. >**Level-up!** Baller, but I don''t know what to spend the points on. With Vitality, I could spend more time running from place to place. With Wisdom, I could cast magic for longer. With Strength, I could mine for more iron. With dexterity, I could... Climb faster? Intelligence was really the only choice. Once I can use my magic to burn through stone to retrieve pure iron, then I''ll work on the other stats. >**Status** >Name: Homogeneous Khalidius >Level: 7 >Class: Novice >Credits: 1730 >Health: 50/50 >Stamina: 50/50 >Mana: 50/50 >Strength: 25 >Dexterity: 15 >Vitality: 10 >Inteligence: 20 >Wisdom: 10 >Luck: 10 >Stat Points Available: 0 But I also forgot about luck. If I increase luck, who knows what might happen. For now, I''ll stick to making myself stronger. If I get too good of luck, I might become weak. I''m also happy to see that my credits are at a cool 1730. Each hound must be worth 200 credits, the same as the Black Mountain Snake Mother. The remaining eight hounds died similarly. The terrain became gradually more mountainous and less forested, but my fire magic was enough to knock the hounds over so I could get their unprotected side with my arrows. My magic was a little stronger, and I thought about saving up for the next magic skill book, Advanced for 4000. I might get Intermediate Earth and Basic Lightning magic next to increase the range of things I can do with rocks and just to see what lightning can do. Chapter 28 Chapter 28 Instead of going back the same way I came up the mountains, I go directly to my house. It took the entirety of the 32nd day to finish the quest, and I only get back to the house at night. Before falling down any steap cliffs, I set rope to help me get back up so I can fight the Iron-Hide Devil Hounds again. As a reward for myself, I put the leather armors into my inventory and take a nap on the bed. I wake up when it is still dark, presumably on the 33rd day, to the sounds of clawing at the walls of the house. I instantly fill with fear and place the smelter from my inventory and place it behind the door. With this, at least the door won''t be knocked in. With x-ray vision, I look through the wall of the house at a pack of twenty-some Iron-Hide Devil Hounds. In such a situation, some adventurers might get scared, but I was actually relieved. I did not think the hounds would follow me this far and feared a bigger monster that I had seen so far had wandered towards my little home, smelled human inside, and decided it wanted a snack. I re-equip my leather armors and wait on the bed. I don''t have a sword to fight up close with, and I don''t want to risk burning down the house trying to make one inside. I have fire magic, but I don''t think I can use it on the hounds outside the house. The thing I can do is take my rocks and create a wall inside the house. With the wall made, I can completely block off any hound''s attempts at getting at me, and I can shoot them with my bow. Sure, the rocks are heavy and would normally fall to the ground, but I can use Basic Earth Magic to fuse the rocks together, creating a solid wall! My plan is absolutely flawless, and I get started on the wall. Instead of making the wall far back inside the house, I made it right up to the door, behind the smelter. Once the wall is made, with a few openings in it for me to shoot through, I open the door and allow the hounds to attempt to smash inside. The smelter is sufficiently heavy enough to prevent them from moving too much, and the smelter is prevented from moving by the rock wall. If you find this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the infringement. With my bow, I start taking out the hounds. Arrow after arrow, I rain hell upon the Demon Hounds. Once my mana increases beyond a point, a use earth magic to make spikes in the haul of the smelter, which makes small cuts on the hounds. I get down to the arrows and I think at least five hounds died. I can''t see very much from here, but the hounds have retreated to circling the house before moving in to attack, at which point I release an arrow. I want to keep the rest of my arrows, the 10 remaining iron arrows and three demon arrows, so now I switch to all fire magic. I can use intermediate fire magic for one second before running out of mana, so I take the smelter back into my inventory and direct fire magic out as a thin stream between the two sides of the doorway. I have to be very careful about not starting a fire on my wooden beams. Morning comes and the last few hounds run off. I am tired, and I have this big wall I have to remove now, but it was all worth it. I take a few hours to break apart the wall and place all the stone back into my inventory, and I return the smelter back to its original condition. Outside the house, I am thankful I used wooden beams a foot thick to build the sides of the house with. There are claw marks everywhere, and I fear I will have to rebuild the house soon. On the ground, I can''t salvage a single arrow, but I do find the corpses of 13 hounds. Oh, and did I mention I leveled up? >**Level-up!** Chapter 29 Chapter 29 It is so strange that I level up from fighting so many of these hounds, but I can''t level up from fighting a lot of wolves and bears. Leveling up must have something to do with fighting new monsters and gaining new experiences. I decide to use the points on wisdom, to see where my mana takes me. >**Status** >Name: Homogeneous Khalidius >Level: 7 >Class: Novice >Credits: 5930 >Health: 50/50 >Stamina: 50/50 >Mana: 13/75 >Strength: 25 >Dexterity: 15 >Vitality: 10 >Inteligence: 15 >Wisdom: 15 >Luck: 10 >Stat Points Available: 0 Almost 6k credits, which is huge! I see that my mana has increased at a rate of 5 per 1 point in wisdom, which is great. I can now use magic for 50% longer, and my recharge rate for mana also increased. I don''t have any for sure way of telling, so I will just have to observe it in action. For the 33rd day, I decide to visit the far away town. I want to turn in the quest from the Adventurer''s Guild and buy ingredients for alchemy. Although Alchemy was a skill, ingredients were not something I could buy from the shop. It''s a shame, but some things just can''t be bought. While I''m at it, I might as well look for other magic books that can''t be bought from the shop. It takes me about 20 hours to reach the far town, so I arrive some time in the early morning of the 34th day. I could spend the night at the tavern, but this time, I decide to spend the night working on the hides of the Iron-Hide Devil Hounds. From each of the hounds, I am able to get approximately 60 pounds of iron! Screw mining, killing these things is where it''s at! Thinking about the quest reward, a measly 1000 credits for ten of these gold mines! Screw that, I''m telling the bitch I''m dropping the quest! I take the iron from each hide and get 780 pounds! With such a bomb-ass source of iron, I won''t ever have to mine, unless I can find a location for orchelium or demon ore. When morning comes around, the Adventurer''s Guild is the first place to open. I go inside, walking tall, and I slap the quest poster on the desk. "I want to cancel this quest," I say to the woman at the desk, and she looks up. This story originates from a different website. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there. "It too hard for you?" She says, and she turns the paper around to read it. "I just don''t feel like it," I say, and then I walk out of there. A few minutes later, I realize I didn''t get another quest. Well, I can never go back there again. As I walk around the town, I am a little disappointed at how small it is. There really isn''t much here. I decide to visit the alchemy shop, because why not. "We need 34 Valburner, 17 Flounfly, and 6 Frostglow." Someone is already in the shop, and he is talking to a very old woman at a counter. On the counter is already four piles of strange materials. "Right, right," The old woman says, and she makes a note on a piece of paper, and then takes out three jars from under the counter. She counts each of the materials and puts them into piles next to the other four. "That''ll be 1,830 credits." Damn, alchemy is expensive! "Transfer, 1,830 credits." The man says, and then he takes the ingredients into his own inventory. He turns to leave, and he looks at me. "You, are you a lone adventurer?" "Yeah," I say back to him, not sure what to say. He is the first adventurer I''ve talked to, at least knowingly. He has a sword in a sheath on his side and is wearing steel armor. I don''t have a sword or even a bow equipped, but I do have leather armor on and not clothes like a regular person. "Good, how would you like to earn some credits by traveling with my party?" I don''t know what to say. I want to explore, but I just learned about this great source of iron. I could make so much money from those hounds! "Well, where are you going?" If he is going somewhere nearby, then I''ll bite. If not, I''ll pass. "We are going to visit the Holy Sword of Nordas." Oh, what luck. I''ve been darn close to there before, and I can get back home easily. Shouldn''t be a problem. "Sure I''ll go. I live quite close to there, actually." The entire trip should take two or three days, including the time it takes to go from the holy sword back home. "Excellent," The man says, and he walks behind me. "Finish your business here and come follow me." Chapter 30 Chapter 30 "That''s alright, I just wanted to see what the inside looked like," I say, and follow him outside. I might have wanted to buy some ingredients, but not at the price he bought them at. I might buy a herbalism skill so I can pick my own ingredients. We walk into the town further and come to a high-class inn. Outside, two wagons are stopped and loaded with bags. We both walk inside, and the man is greeted by someone. "You''re back, Arnold!" The man says standing up from his seat. "You got the ingredients we need?" That''s what this man, Arnold, must have been doing at the alchemy store, buying ingredients for this guy. "Toyle, this is... hey," Arnold said, turning back to me. "What''s your name?" He wants to know my name? "It''s Homogeneous Khalidius." I say, proudly." "Pff, homo." Someone laughs. I can''t believe they would laugh at such a cool name. "Is that really your name?" Arnold asks me. I guess it isn''t as cool as I thought. Something went wrong naming me this, so I''ll try to change it later. "Just call me Khalid." I say to them. I''ll change my name later. "Okay then, join us at the table, Khalid." Arnold says, and we both sit at the table. Toyle sits back down at a different spot at the table. While the people at the table talk, I decide to change my name to something respectable. >**Status** >Name: Homogeneous Khalidius >Level: 7 >Class: Novice >Credits: 5930 >Health: 50/50 >Stamina: 50/50 >Mana: 50/75 >Strength: 25 >Dexterity: 15 >Vitality: 10 >Inteligence: 15 >Wisdom: 15 >Luck: 10 >Stat Points Available: 0 I tap the name spot and remove all of it. I need a new name, and a dank one. A bomb-ass name! Something that can''t be stopped! Something that can''t be stumped! Trump train! I need a first and last name. I don''t want to go with God Emperor Donald Trump, or just Donald Trump. I could choose a powerful name, like Ichi, but I don''t think anyone here will get it, and I might get called itchy. I need a name that resonates power. Chris Meme! Time to make some kissing pranks gone sexual! I change the name in my status menu, and that makes me wonder if I can change the other values. >**Status** >Name: Chris Meme >Level: 7 >Class: Proficient >Credits: 5930 >Health: 50/50 >Stamina: 50/50 >Mana: 75/75 >Strength: 24 >Dexterity: 15 >Vitality: 10 >Inteligence: 15 >Wisdom: 15 >Luck: 10 >Stat Points Available: 1 Well well well, it looks like I can change where I have my stats allocated. For now, while I''m not doing any intensive fighting or crafting, I''ll just leave things how they are. Actually, I will probably be leaving with this party today or tomorrow, so I need to use my iron and leather now. I''ll need a lot more coal, though... "Hey, guys," I say, trying to get the other''s attention. Arnold and Toyle and the others look my way. "I have to take care of some things before we leave." "Yeah, that''s fine." Arnold says, and I get up. "We are leaving tomorrow morning, so come find us here at sunrise." After that, I leave the inn. I''ll come back to get a room for the night. Stolen content warning: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences. There is still a lot of time left in the day, so I plenty of time to make things from my iron and leather. I first visit the blacksmith and buy coal. I need a lot, so I get 500 lbs for 500 credits. Next, I visit the clother and buy 100 more yards for 100 credits. After buying these things, I go to the outskirts of the town and get to work. I first change my stats around to have 10 in strength, 50 in dexterity, 10 in inteligence, and nothing wisdom. With the 120 ft of leather I had, I was able to make 5 full sets of leather armor, helmet included. It was just getting a little dark, so I had plenty of time until morning and the party would leave. For smelting, I decided to move my stats for 20 strength, 10 dexterity, 20 inteligence, and 20 wisdom. With those stats, I took out the Smelter, the Iron Anvil, the Grind-Wheel, and the bucket. I first filled the bucket with water and filled the smelter partly with coal. I have enough iron to make a sword, about 3lbs, and I use fire magic to quickly increase the tempurature of the smelter. After some heavy work and placing a wooden handle on the sword, I let it cool off in the water and check its name in my inventory. >Low-Quality Sword I really didn''t think it was that bad. Dishearted, I put all my tools away and head back to the inn. I get a room for 30 credits and sleep like a baby. Tomorrow, the party will be leaving the town, and I asked an inn worker to wake me up tomorrow so I can join the part. There are no alarm clocks here, so I have to make due. >**Status** >Name: Chris Meme >Level: 7 >Class: Proficent >Credits: 5200 >Health: 50/50 >Stamina: 50/50 >Mana: 100/100 >Strength: 20 >Dexterity: 10 >Vitality: 10 >Inteligence: 20 >Wisdom: 20 >Luck: 10 >Stat Points Available: 0 >**Inventory** >Steel Bow >Leather Armor x6 >Leather Leggings x6 >Leather Boots x6 >Leather Helmet x5 >Iron Arrow x10 >Demon Arrow x3 >String >Rope >Nails >Coal x635lb >Cloth x434ft >Axe >Orchelium Pickaxe >Knife >Shovel >Hammer >Hand Saw >Bucket >Sewing Kit >Blacksmith Tools >Tailor''s Equipment >Smelter >Tanner''s Rack >Iron Anvil >Grind-Wheel >Torch x2 >Wooden Spoon x5 >Wooden Knife x5 >Mountain Hare Meat x15lb >Mined Stone x1750lb >Iron x777lb >Low-Quality Sword >**Skills** >Trapping >Archery >Construction >Tanning >X-Ray Vision >Night Vision >Heat Vision >Ninja Movement >Survivalism >Cooking >Mining >Smelting >Smithing >Tailoring >Sewing >Woodworking >Basic Water Magic >Basic Earth Magic >Intermediate Fire Magic Chapter 31 Chapter 31 When I was woken up by a staff member, I was greeted by the always-welcome, familiar screen. >Welcome To Tardeyad! "The party will be leaving soon, and are currently in the lobby." The man who woke me says, and he walks out of the room. "Thank you." I try to say to him before he leaves. I don''t have to get dressed or anything, and I can just equip my Leather armor and walk out of the room. Outside, Arnold is wearing steel armor while the four others of his party are getting equipped. Apparently, they must not be adventurers like us. "Ah, good morning, Khalid." Arnold says as he spots me walking up to him. This reminds me of something I didn''t ask the other day. "Hey, how many credits are you paying for the help?" I ask. I won''t be doing this for free, even though I want to see how I fare against other members of this world. "I''d say 100 credits sounds fair, wouldn''t you?" He says, and I almost laugh. I can earn 100 credits in a few hours, I don''t need to travel with these people for days! Of course, I''m not going to say that. "That''s fine, I''ll wait outside," I say, and walk out the door. Outside, the three wagons are filled with people in regular clothes. Several of them are shaking, and I think of myself as fortunate to not be affected by weather. But I still wonder, what can I do for them? I open the shop and look around. First, I should sell the armor I made last night. Jetski woo! 2,400 credits for the five armor sets I made! That puts me at 7,600 credits! Next, I sell the sword. Only 30 credits, but let me see if I can do something about that. In skills, I can get Weaponsmithing for 300, so I get that. Armorsmithing is also available, for 300, so I get that too. I need some more combat abilities, so I get Swordfighting for 300 and make a tough decision. Iron arrows cost 2 credits, but they are not enough anymore. If I want to fight stronger monsters, I will need to get either orchelium or demon arrows. I might as well go full-power with demon arrows, but they cost twice as much as orchelium. I could wait on fighting more powerful monsters, I''m doing good where I am, but I want to level more! If you spot this story on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation. I decide to stick with Iron arrows, but I get 3 of them. I get 3 of them, and I get three more. Did I say three? I meant 300. I get 600 iron arrows for 1200 credits. I''ve got 500 credits left, so I also buy 12 demon arrows to bring those up to 15, and I buy 13 explosive arrows. That leaves me 5,000 credits to spend. As I look at the remaining skills I can buy, I can''t help but think I''ve forgotten something. I''ll craft myself a sword later, so it''s not that. I don''t need a new bow. I''ll just get Basic Fire Magic, Intermediate Earth Magic, and Intermediate Water Magic. Welp, that''s everything. I look over at the people on the wagon, and I instantly remember what I was forgetting. I was going to get something to help them... "Hey, do you all want a torch or something?" I ask the people on the wagon. A few look over to me, and only one speaks. "If you would have something like that..." Something like a torch? Yeah, I''ve got two. I get one out of my inventory at it springs to life in my hand. I reach up and hand the torch to the young man who spoke to me. "Thank you, adventurer." Before I walk back inside, another man in the cart says something that gets my attention. "That''s no ordinary torch, that''s a real dungeon light." Once the man spoke, everyone on the wagon looked at either the torch or myself. Something up? "What''s so special about it?" I ask the people of the wagon, not really directing my question at any particular person. "You don''t know?" One of the people looking at me says. "A dungeon light is a torch that will never go out. They are named dungeon lights because they are mostly found in the walls of newly formed dungeons. Most naturally formed dungeon lights are looted during the first few days of the dungeon opening." He says, and I am surprised. This measly 10 credit worth torch is really something so special? Chapter 32 Chapter 32 "How can you tell it is a dungeon light?" I ask the same man. "Well, a normal torch would almost flicker out and die in this cold, however, your torch was just fine." Oh, I guess that is true. I can''t feel the cold, so I don''t know exactly how cold it is right now. "I have another, if you want it," I say, taking the other torch from my inventory. "Please, sir," A woman says to me, leaning over the side of the wagon. "Give the other torch to the other wagon. This one will be enough for us." Gosh, she makes it sound like they are super valuable. I go into the shop once again and look for something to sell. I decide to sell seven pounds of iron, and buy seven more torches. "Please, I have more." I say to the woman, and I take a torch in both hands. "I''ll give three to each wagon." "Thank you!" The woman says, and she takes a torch along with a woman sitting next to her. "Nordas bless." After giving away three torches at that wagon, I give three torches to the other wagons. Apparently, they were already used to the freezing cold from the long trip they had before reaching here, and were all hoping for Saint Nordas to warm them once they reached the Holy Sword of Nordas. Whatever, Saint Papa Johns is all I need for religion. A few minutes later, the party from inside the inn come out. "Hey, where did you all get those torches from?" Arnold, the first to leave the inn, asks. I hope this doesn''t become a big deal. "The adventurer there gave them to us," Someone in the wagon said. Yeah, just snitch on me when he asks, why don''t yah. "Those torches will go out soon, and any stray breeze will send them back to freezing." Arnold said, and he got up into the driver''s seat of the wagon. "No, sir adventurer, these are dungeon lights." Someone in the wagon corrected Arnold. It''s kind of funny, hearing the people in the wagon talk like they are talking to a noble or something. If you encounter this tale on Amazon, note that it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it. "A dungeon light?" Arnold questions, looking at me. Hey, I just found out too. "Yeah, I had a few of them, so I''m letting them hold them for the trip." I say, not taking it as a big deal. I really want to just get on with the trip. "You... You do know dungeon lights are illegal to buy, sell, or trade, right?" Arnold tells me, but, what? You can''t sell it just because it never runs out? "Why not?" I ask him, hoping to get some answers. "To stop people from taking dungeon torches from inside the dungeons, the Empire set a ban on buying, selling, or trading dungeon torches. Anyone caught doing so is to be sent to prison." Damn, that sucks. I can get a huge amount of these, but I can''t sell them for a profit. "Make sure you takes these back when we reach the destination. For now, climb into the passenger seat of the last wagon." Arnold said as he looked at me. I start walking towards the last wagon in the row and I see a beautiful woman sitting in the driver''s seat. I can''t wait to have a kissing prank gone sexual with her. I climb up and sit next to her, but she doesn''t say anything. Why not? "Hi, I''m Khalid." I say to her in the smoothest way I can. "What kind of weapon do you use?" She asks, not having any of my moves. "I use a bow." I reply. "I hope you''re good with it, the Iron-Back Devil Hounds can be almost impossible to kill with a bow." Yeah, I know. I had to resort to trapping them. "I''ve killed a few on my own." I say to her. It is quite funny how my experience with fighting Iron-Hide Devil Hounds matches up with this trip. "Ooh, that''s doubtful." She says, and officially enters bitch territory. I don''t say anything to her for the rest of the trip. We travel on the road for about ten hours before reaching the closer town. It took a little longer than when I ran by myself, but I usually took a direct path that the wagons would not be able to go. Chapter 33 Chapter 33 "We''re in Obserdine now, only an estimated twenty hours to the Holy Sword." "We have a choice to make," Toyle said, looking behind him at the people in the wagons. "We can continue to the Holy Sword now, or we can rest here for the day. Which one will it be?" I kinda hope it will be stay here. There are still about 11 hours left of the day, and I still want to make some swords from the iron I have. I figure since the worth of each piece if determined by how much material went into making it, and iron swords are the easiest to make. "Stay for today." Someone says. "Keep going." Someone else says. "We don''t be splitting up!" Arnold says over the sounds of the people. "To make it a safer trip, we will wait here for the rest of today and leave early in the morning, perhaps earlier than the sunrise!" Arnold takes control and everyone settled down. Some are pleased with the outcome, some aren''t. I personally am. "And please return the torches to Khalid." He adds. I take the torches back from everyone, along with additional thanks. Once that is done, Arnold tells me we will meet up back here tomorrow morning, and that I should be here before the sun rises. With that, we go our separate ways. I stay outside the town so I can take my smelter and the rest of my tools out to make some swords. With my increased mana and my increased magic power, I am able to better create swords. With the weaponsmith job, I am able to further increase my sword crafting ability. I create my first iron sword in a few minutes with the help of some Intermediate Earth Magic smoothing out the three iron I used in it, and It looks quite nice. I place a wooden handle on it and set it in place with a push tang. With my first sword made, I decide to check its value in the shop. Three iron should make it worth at least 60 credits, which is the worth of three leather. Unauthorized content usage: if you discover this narrative on Amazon, report the violation. Well, I know it was going to be higher, and 120 credits are just what I wanted! With this new knowledge, I get started on a second sword. I can use earth magic to form the iron into sword-shaped rods, and then use my weaponsmithing skills to make the finer adjustments. I finish off the sword with a little grinding, and then use earth magic again to make the handle and pommel. With this method, the sword still sells for the same price, so I start to produce them quickly. On average, at the end of 10 hours and 30 minutes, just 30 minutes before the shop closes, it took me 15 minutes to make a sword. This only allowed me to make 42 swords though, so I was only able to use 126 iron and sell it all for 5040, which is good and all, but I know I could get more. I could buy Advanced Fire Magic for 4,000 and lessen the time it takes to make each sword, but it would also increase the time I need to wait for mana to recover. I could buy Basic Lightning Magic just to see what it was all about. Nah, time to get some of the skills I''ve been holding off on getting. Crafting for 200, Alchemy for 200, Medic for 500, Multi-Shot for 200, Sculpting for 200, Identification for 1,000 which I was really holding off on getting, Herbalism for 200, Hawk-Eye for 300 to see further, Dead-Eye for 1,000 to slow perception of time, which I only didn''t get because it was so expensive and doesn''t say how much it slows, and that leaves me at 1,240 credits. Because I''m almost out, I buy Basic Plant Magic. I don''t know how it works, but it might do something useful. I buy four more torches and then I wait for morning by making more swords. Chapter 34 Chapter 34 Four hours later, I''ve made 16 more swords and make one of them really good for myself. Using the four torches, I am able to make the fire very hot, but I still need to use more coal to top off the heat. For the one very good sword, I use two more iron to give the sword extra weight and make the fire extra hot with Intermediate Fire Magic. It''s still just an Iron Sword in the inventory, but it takes its own slot. I haven''t reach steel level for heat, so I still need to work on my Intelligence and get Advanced Fire Magic eventually. I meet up with Arnold and the gang at the outskirts of town, and we leave. Nobody asks me what I was doing coming from outside the town, so I hope they only thought I was just practicing. It''s the 36th day and we are heading towards the Holy Sword of Nordas. I don''t believe in the same faith as these people, but they don''t seem like some crazy cultists. I gave them the torches back, and everyone was thankful again, but I can''t help but wonder what these people are going to do for the return trip. Surely they can''t plan on spending the rest of their lives at some holy monument, can they? A covered wagon or carriage should really be used for this kind of journey. Part way to the destination, we are attacked by wolves. "Wolves, right side!" Someone from the middle wagon yells, and I pull out my bow with two arrows. I look to the right, and four wolves are coming out of the forest and staring down the wagons. "Kill them, Khalid!" The woman next to me says, and I shoot my two arrows. Once they are out of my hand, I get two more and place them in the bow. I see the first two arrows each hit a wolf, and I lease the next two, as hitting a wolf each. Like that, four wolves are dead. "That was quite quick," The woman next to me says. About time she realized my greatness, and I jump out of the wagon to collect the bodies. "What are you doing?" Reading on this site? This novel is published elsewhere. Support the author by seeking out the original. "I''m just going to collect the bodies for skinning later." I say and I start putting them in my inventory. "Just hurry back," She says, and I can tell I lost any respect I might have just earned. At least I can make some Leather armor out of this later and sell it for a big chunk of credits. We continue on the path for quite some time while taking many turns. I don''t understand why someone with earth magic didn''t come along when building the road so they could flatten everything, then these turns would not have needed to happen. Traveling for a long time is super boring. I miss plains and trains and cars. Why can''t some super fast monster pull the wagon? Why can''t a dragon or something attack and we all get to fight it? At least I can use my x-ray vision to see through the armor and clothes of the lady folk in the wagons. Hey, I can''t help myself. Just a peak. What they don''t know, can''t hurt them. Without seeing any hounds, we reach the massive wooden ramparts of the shrine in the mountains. The path was wide enough for only one wagon at a time, and I wonder what would happen if a wagon needed to go past us. Would we have to go all the way down and start back up? "We are here," Said someone in the cart. "Thank Nordas we are done," Someone else said. Everyone is bustling and looking around at the ramparts, opening to get a look at the insides. With my x-ray vision, I can already see inside. From the wooden ramparts, there is a small decline towards a fire pit in the center. Surrounding the pit is... well, it''s like the scene from Berserk inside the cave, minus the orgy. "Everyone, hand back the torches, this is where we part ways," Arnold says, and the people start to pass the torches back to me. I take the nine torches, and we arrive at the gate. Chapter 35 Chapter 35 "Travelers seeking entrance. Twenty-five!" Toyle was the one to shout, and he said the number of us coming as well. "Open the gates," Someone from inside the ramparts said, and the wooden doors opened outwards towards us. With the doors open, the wagons moved forward once more. It took a few minutes, but we steered the wagons to the side and unloaded all the people. A few other wagons were inside the ramparts and stood to the side like ours did. "We were lucky to not encounter any beasts on the trip," Arnold said, walking up to me. "Here, 100 credits for your time." Arnold reached out his hand, and I took it. He then transferred 100 credits to me. I don''t really know what to do now, so I''ll visit this holy sword they keep talking about. "So, what''s so special about the sword?" I ask someone who sat, basking in the warmth of the fire. "Legend has it," The man spoke, not opening his eyes. "Saint Nordas forged the sword himself from the blood of ten thousand demons." Wow, that sounds seriously hardcore. It''d be cool if I could forge such a sword one day, but I haven''t even seen a demon yet. "That''s cool," I say to him. "I know, right?" He says, and we both enjoy the fire, though I can''t feel it. After some time of just standing, I decide to ask him another question. "So, is it always like this, or is something special happening?" "It''s always this amazing," He says. Alright, fruitloop. I start to walk away from the fire and approach the entrance to the shrine. I think I''ll make my own shrine later, something with pizza on it. As I approach the exit, I see one of the people from the party I didn''t talk to. "So how long will you all stay up here?" I ask the man leaning against the wagon. "We''ll stay for four days and then head back." He says, not very interested. I can tell that he''s probably done this before. Support the author by searching for the original publication of this novel. I leave the shine, somewhat disappointed. It''s either the 37th day or very close to being so. I thought the shrine would be some cool location with circus performers or something, but there was nothing like that. Just a bunch of people gathered to stand around a fire in the middle of the mountains. I decide to cut through the mountains to get back home, but as I saw something with my x-ray vision, ahead. I normally only look out for monsters, but this time, I saw a person fighting one of the Iron-Hide Devil Hounds, and they were winning. With Hawk-Eye, I was able to zoom in on the action, and I could see a beautiful woman, ripe for the kissing prank, fighting the hound with a sword in each hand. Her blades moved quickly and alternated between being used to push the hound away and slashing at its unprotected underside. The display of swordsmanship was certainly something I was incapable of, though I did not know if Swordfighting Skill would make me as good as her. As the battle came to a close, the hound tried to pounce her with all of its effort but the warrior impaled the underside with both her swords. I wonder if I should say something, or just wait until they pass. "Come out, whoever you are," She said, looking in my direction. I know she did see me, because I was currently hiding on the other side of a large rock, impossible to be seen from her direction. "Any wild beast would smell you from a mile away." Hey, that hurt. Then again, I can''t remember the last bath I had... "Hello," I said, turning off my extra visions, except night vision, and walking out from behind the rock. "That was an impressive fight." I should be polite. I know exactly where I want this conversation to go, somewhere that I can challenge her and end it with ''I get a really quick kiss.'' It works 100% of the time. "You, are you a native around here?" She asks me. I''m not really from this world, but I''ve been here over a month. Chapter 36 Chapter 36 "I''ve been here for a few weeks," I say to her. Maybe she needs help with the local terrain. I haven''t been up this mountain much, so I don''t know what is up there. "Do you know anything about the Fire-Tipped Dragon seen around these mountains?" Yeah, I know about it, but only from the quest in the adventurer''s guild. If she is planning to take it on... I want to watch! "I don''t know anything. Are you planning to fight it?" I ask her. "If I can track it," She said, raising her head and sniffing the air. "I can kill it." She must have a special nose. Apparently, she was unable to smell anything and went to look at the hound she killed. After looking at it for a second, she put it in her inventory. "Would you mind if I watched?" I ask her. Watching someone kill a dragon would be like watching a super realistic movie. She''s got painted black armor on, and not sparkling white like I would have preferred, but beggers can''t be choosers. "You want to watch a life or death battle?" She asks, looking my way. "Yeah, I was going to take the quest tomorrow or the next day, whenever I made it back to town." Maybe not that soon, but I actually wanted to try getting some more rank B quests before something rank A. "If you think a fight with one of these puny hounds is impressive, I don''t think you will survive even watching a fight with a dragon." She says, but she can''t scare me. "I won''t get in the way, I just want to see first-hand how strong they can be." It''s true that I want to see how strong a dragon is. It will be cool. "No, now go home." She says, and she walks away." She turns her back to me, and I use my Identification Vison on her. >**Identity** >Name: Valery Odule >Level: 83 Wow, a level 83! She is way stronger than me! I watch her walk off into the mountains, and I continue my way home. For now, I''ll turn the rest of my iron into swords and maybe work on getting steel. I need to get stronger. I can''t imagine all the things I''ll be able to do at level 83, but killing a dragon will be easy, I''m sure. This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there. I see three of the Iron-Hide Devil Hounds on the ways back, and I kill them each easily with my bow and magic. After fighting the first one with fire magic, I discover that my skills are still set of smithing swords. It wasn''t a big deal, but I need my bow more than magic to kill the wolves, so after losing a little health to the first hound, I switched around my stats. I reach the house soon, and I am greeted by the nearly destroyed house. I don''t think I''d be able to sleep soundly knowing the house might be destroyed by those hounds again, so I need to do some reinforcing. I bought Basic Plant Magic on the shop day, and today is as good as any a day to use it. I learned that I didn''t need a free hand to use magic, but I still like to feel the mana coming from my hand. I switch my stat points so I have 10 Intelligence and 10 Wisdom and then I use the plant magic, just to get a base of my abilities. At ten intelligence, the wood barely moves. Just like with Earth magic, when I could only get some bumps to appear, I need to increase my intelligence to make real improvements. With my stats at 30/20 for Intelligence (I) and Wisdom (W), I tried again. I can use the magic for twice as long, and the wood grows back faster than before. I could spend the rest of the day doing this, or, I could just forge more swords and buy wood for a whole new house. But then again, I could move to a big city. It is kinda lonely out here in the forest, and I want to find more dungeons. I should check back at the adventurer''s guild for the map, or see if I can buy one at the close town of Obserdine. I really should have learned the names of the two towns I''ve been visiting a long time ago. Chapter 37 Chapter 37 After a little more than a minute, I use all my mana. I use my earth magic when forging just to make sure the iron doesn''t fall apart in the smelter... it just hit me, I need a forge. If I had a forge, I would probably be able to make steel! But the shop day is so far away! I''ll just have to ignore the possible loss of profit and get to work on these swords myself. I can probably make a forge out near the house, but it won''t be able to be placed in my inventory. With my shovel, I clear some area for the forge to be. With my stats still in place for strong magic, I use Intermediate Earth Magic and the stones from my pile at the mine to create the walls of the forge. I need to leave some holes for air, and I place the 13 torches inside, along with some stones to help hold the heat and some coal. After about an hour, I have the forge I want. It is big enough to make a sword in, and nothing else. I won''t be making anything other than swords, so this s fine. I change my stats to have more on strength, and I get to work. Before I start with forging iron swords, I tan the hides I have. I have four wolf hides and three hound hides, and that nets me 32 feet of leather and 180 pounds of iron. Quite the haul. The first sword went well, and I see a small increase in quality. I think it''s kinda cheap how swords are called the same things when they are made from the same material, but for some reason, my first sword and knife were low quality. The rest of the swords went fine. The 37th day comes to a close after 18 hours of smithing swords, and I get 72 done. If I was going to make steel swords or higher quality iron swords, it would probably take me a lot longer. For now, until I can increase my strength and magical abilities, I''ll stick to iron swords. It''s the 38th day, and I''m not sure what to do. I don''t want to spend the whole day making swords, like I did the previous day, but I don''t think I would be able to climb the mountain to get a look at the fight with the dragon. A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation. Fuck it, bomb-ass memes come at a price! Time to scale the mountain! >Level: 7 >Class: Proficent >Credits: 1200 >Health: 50/50 >Stamina: 50/50 >Mana: 75/75 >Strength: 20 >Dexterity: 15 >Vitality: 10 >Inteligence: 20 >Wisdom: 15 >Luck: 10 >Stat Points Available: 0 I get all my crafting stuff and the torches back into my inventory and set off towards the mountain. It will take me about five hours to get back to where I was last night because I placed ropes to help me get back up. It''s the morning of the 38th, and I was able to reach the location I saw the woman at. I killed another hound, and took the whole body into my inventory. I''ll skin it when I get back, but right now I want to see some dragon fights, or maybe just a dead dragon. With multi-shot, I am able to fire three arrows at the same time. I have pretty good aim, and when combined with Fire Magic, I can kill the hounds with only six arrows, fired in two volleys. As I reach higher in the mountain, the number of hounds increases, and I am intercepted by fortilers too. After three hours past the spot I met the woman at, I had already fought three fortilers and five of the hounds. I still haven''t gained any new levels, so I do think that I need to fight new monsters to level up. As I continue, the snow starts to thin and I stop seeing any creatures. >You have entered the Fire-Tipped Dragon Realm! That''s nice, but I don''t see anything too special. Nothing changed color and no battle music started to play. I''m a little disappointed, but at least I now know that I will be seeing the dragons soon! Chapter 38 Chapter 38 With ninja movement, I am able to climb the rocky peaks easily and advance further in the mountain. I use my x-ray vision combined with heat vision to try and find monsters or dragons, but I don''t see anything. I understand why they call it Obsidian Peaks now. All the snow on the mountain tops have been smelted and the underneath rock seared. I would hate to be under the fire of a dragon, but it brings up a good question. Would I be affected by fire magic? I''m not affected by normal fires like the torches or the smelter, so I don''t know. I''ll just have to find out, though not willingly. Twenty minutes later, I see it. A magnificent and beautiful creature, dipping and diving in the air. It is huge and red, with tiny flames covering its entire body. In this instant, I am glad that I fight with a bow and wouldn''t have to get up close to it. As I move closer, I see that the dragon is in combat with non-other than the woman I saw the other day. It couldn''t have taken her a whole day to get up here, so she must have been fighting that dragon for over 24 hours! That''s crazy! I get out my bow and nock three demon arrows. Like any other monster, I wanted to see how much damage a demon arrow did to it. With three, I would be assured that something on the dragon would be hurt. The woman doesn''t look like she can use magic, and is instead using a crossbow. Occasionally, she pulls a potion from her inventory and drinks it. I use Identification Vision on the potion bottles, and they are a mixture of Large Potion of Large Health, Large Potion of Large Stamina, and Large Potion of Large Fire Resistance. Attached to the arm not holding the crossbow, she has a green shield strapped. If I fire at the right time, I should be able to hit the dragon at any height, so I just have to wait for an opportunity where my shot won''t interrupt her. I think we name was Valery. And so I wait, and I watch round after round of the dragon coming in to attack and Valery either dodging it or taking the hit with her shield. It is amazing how the shield withstands the blasts from the fire breath, and the way Valery holds her own against the physical attacks is just magnificent. Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on Royal Road. However, I don''t know how much longer she can keep going. She''s been fighting this dragon for probably over a day, unless she went to sleep after entering the dragon''s realm. I have no way to tell, however, so I don''t try to think about it too much, I just think of how I can help. No, I don''t want to kill-steal, I just want to be of some help. Unfortunately, I don''t have much choice. With a powerful hit from the dragon''s claws, Valery is knocked backward and onto the ground, where she brings her shield up to cover her face and body as much as she could before the next strike. In some majestic movement, the dragon flips itself over after hitting Valery, and for a moment it flies backward. While flying backward, the dragon shoots fire from its mouth and Valery, and I take my shot with the three demon arrows. Voom. Voom. Voom. Crush. It didn''t sound exactly like that, but the three arrows each went inside the dragon''s mouth as fire was being thrown out, and must have hit something inside the dragon. I knew this because the dragon immediately fell over and hit the ground, hard. Valey rolled over and took one look at me, then put her crossbow and shield away and took out her two swords. Their green metal shined brightly in the flickering flames of the downed dragon as Valery approached, and I knew the Fire Resistance potions were doing their job. Valery further approached the dragon and stuck her blades into its side, but she was thrown back by a sudden movement of the dragon''s wing. All I could do was watch as the dragon made a quick turn around and took a sizable bite out of the side of Valery. Chapter 39 Chapter 39 I have to do something. I take three more demon arrows from my inventory and release them at the dragon, but they bounce off the skin. How tough is that thing? Not to mention, what kind of arrows was Valery using in the crossbow then? Next, I take out three explosive arrows. I haven''t used these before, and I''m not sure how much Valery will be hurt in the explosion, but I know she will die if the dragon is not killed. When I release the three arrows, two of them miss the dragon and hit the rock behind it, but one hits. The resulting explosion blasts the dragon back, but the dragon then takes to the air. I could follow it, but from the bottom of my vision, I see the rocky top of the mountain breaking away. As the rocks break and fall, a line of darkness looms on closer towards Valery. I have to get to her location before she falls into the newly created hole! With ninja movement, I jump from rock to rock and at the same time put my bow away so that I can move stats into Dexterity(D) and Strength(S). With 25 stat points in both S and D, I feel myself moving towards Valery at a faster rate, but before I get to her, she falls into the mountain. I only look in for a moment before jumping in myself. It is my fault she is falling into this abyss, and I have to save her somehow. It''s dark, so I turn on my night vision and look around. I suddenly realize that I don''t know what to do when we have to stop. I have plenty of rope, but that would only have helped me when we first started falling. I don''t have wind magic, but I do have over 400 feet of cloth. I can''t make a parachute in the second or two it might take me to hit the ground, so I instead just start taking the cloth out of my inventory and piling it up in front of me to block the fall. I can remove things from my inventory very quickly, and I don''t need my hands to do it, so I also move all my stat points to put everything into Vitality, leaving ten for the rest. It leaves me with 200 health, which I will need for padding on the fall. Splat. Fuck. Hurts. Shit. Everything hurts, I feel like shit, I really fucked up, and I could even hear Valery splat on the ground. I don''t want to look around. I have to look around. I open my eyes and use night vision and heat vision, in case anything is nearby. I don''t see anything, so I take a look at Valery. She is under some of the cloth, so I have to move it to get to her. Shit, I hurt too bad. I need to check my stats. >Name: Chris Meme >Level: 7 >Class: Proficent >Credits: 2500 >Health: 8/200 >Stamina: 163/200 >Mana: 50/50 >Strength: 10 >Dexterity: 10 >Vitality: 40 >Inteligence: 10 >Wisdom: 10 >Luck: 10 >Stat Points Available: 0 I''m running really low on health. Taking a quick look around, I don''t see anything, so I lay down to catch my breath. I know Valery is under me, dead, but I feel my health increasing. At 40 health per minute, I only need 5 minutes to heal everything. Once five minutes pass, I put my stats back where they should go. 25 S, 15 D, 10 V, 20 I, 10 W, 10 L. After this, I might need to increase luck some. At the bottom of my pile of cloth, of which I moved into my inventory as I found undamaged pieces of, Valery''s broken body lay. Part of her side was eaten by the dragon, and the rest of her was smashed against the ground from the fall. Strangely, there is a glow coming from her lower abdomen, around the naval. I take off a small amount of her armor and clothes to check what the glow was coming from, and it is a ball of light. Support the creativity of authors by visiting the original site for this novel and more. When I touch the ball of light, a screen came up. >Credits x630 >High-Quality Orchelium Sword, Sharpness3, Unbreaking2 >High-Quality Orchelium Sword, Sharpness3, Unbreaking2 >High-Quality Orchelium Crossbow, Power4, Unbreaking2 >High-Quality Orchelium Dager, Sharpness7, Unbreaking2 >High-Quality Orchelium Round Shield, Protection4, Unbreaking8 >High-Quality Orchelium Crossbow Bolt x687 >Torch x3 >Leather x4ft >Orchelium x2lb >Large Potion of Large Healing x32 >Large Potion of Large Stamina x12 >Large Potion of Large Frost Resistance x6 >Large Potion of Large Fire Resistance x18 >Large Potion of Large Lightning Resistance x9 >Rope >String >Sewing Kit >Dead Black Bear x2 >Dead Mountain Wolf x5 >Dead Black Tailed Fortiler x18 >Dead Iron-Hide Devil Hound x22 I give it a moment of thought, and this must be Valery''s inventory. She had such great weapons with her, and must have put the swords in during her fall. Did I kill her? If I wasn''t on that peak, would Valery have killed the dragon? Sploosh. What... the fuck... is that... ?! >**Status** >Name: Chris Meme >Level: 7 >Class: Proficent >Credits: 2500 >Health: 50/50 >Stamina: 50/50 >Mana: 50/50 >Strength: 25 >Dexterity: 15 >Vitality: 10 >Inteligence: 20 >Wisdom: 10 >Luck: 10 >Stat Points Available: 0 >**Inventory** >Steel Bow >Iron Sword >Iron Sword x15 >Iron Sword x72 >Leather Armor x1 >Leather Leggings x1 >Leather Boots x1 >Iron Arrow x682 >Demon Arrow x9 >Explosive Arrow x10 >String >Rope >Nails >Coal x371lb >Cloth x34ft >Axe >Orchelium Pickaxe >Knife >Shovel >Hammer >Hand Saw >Bucket >Sewing Kit >Blacksmith Tools >Tailor''s Equipment >Smelter >Tanner''s Rack >Iron Anvil >Grind-Wheel >Torch x13 >Wooden Spoon x5 >Wooden Knife x5 >Mountain Hare Meat x15lb >Mined Stone x1750lb >Iron x856lb >Leather x32lb >Dead Iron-Hide Devil Hound x6 >Dead Black Tailed Fortiler x3 >**Skills** >Trapping >Archery >Swordfighting >Multi-Shot >Construction >Tanning >X-Ray Vision >Night Vision >Heat Vision >Identification Vision >Hawk-Eye Vision >Dead-Eye Vision >Ninja Movement >Survivalism >Crafting >Sculpting >Cooking >Medic >Mining >Smelting >Smithing >Weaponsmithing >Armorsmithing >Tailoring >Alchemy >Herbalism >Sewing >Woodworking >Basic Water Magic >Intermediate Water Magic >Basic Earth Magic >Intermediate Earth Magic >Basic Fire Magic >Intermediate Fire Magic >Basic Plant Magic Chapter 40 Chapter 40 I look around, with Night Vision and Heat Vision, and some big black creature with a thousand pointy teeth in its mouth is coming towards me. It is moving slow, but the body looks gelatinous, and almost a liquid. I take the items from Valery''s inventory and place them in my own, then I start to back away from the thing. It''s a 20-foot high worm, or maybe worse, a leech. As I back away, the leech puts its entire mouth around Valery''s body and sucks her inside of itself. I think I''m going to throw up. I did this to her. If not for me, she would be going home to her family, not being eaten by some jelly leech after falling 200 feet and dying. I get out one of Valery''s swords and hold it in front of myself. It''s only meant for a single hand, so I remove my left hand and take out Valery''s shield. I don''t any experience with a shield, but I at least have the Swordfighting skill. Instead of waiting for the leech to get close enough to me to bite, I use fire magic and torch the bitch. I can use basic magic for 5 seconds, or intermediate magic for two seconds. I choose intermediate, and I rush forward with the sword before the leech can react to anything other than the ball of fire in its face. I slash downward at the lower section of the leech''s mouth, and green blood falls to the ground of the cave. When the leech is hit, it moves its head upwards and away from me, but quickly falls back down. I have ninja movement, and I roll to the side. With another slash at the leech, it drops even more green blood, but it still has fight in its body. I partly dodge and partly block an attempt by the leech to eat me as I dodge to the left, and I get another slash in on the leech''s mouth. As the leech rears back in pain, I put the sword away and get Valery''s crossbow and a bolt out. The crossbow is easier than I thought it would be to pull back, and I release the bolt through the leech. The leech dies from the bolt, and I put away Valery''s equipment. This book is hosted on another platform. Read the official version and support the author''s work. >**Level-up!** Oh, yay, that''s nice to see with all the shit going on right now. She''s in there, though. Valery is inside the leech, and I have to get her out. I can''t just leave her body inside there to rot. I have to get her out. I need to bring her back home, to someone who can give her a proper burial. With Valery''s dagger, I cut open the leech. Green blood, gallons more than possibly contained inside, freely flowed out through the cuts and made a deep puddle on the ground. With x-ray vision, I can see where Valery is mixing with the stomach contents of the monster, and I fish her out fairly quickly. Once Valery is out and a few feet from the monster, I get some cloth from the pile and use it to clean her a little. With some Water Magic, I also summon some water to wash her off. Once Valery is as clean as I can get her, I put her in my inventory. >Dead Valery Odule Damn, this sucks. Now I have to get out of this cave, somehow. Before that, though, I''m going to use those five stat points. >**Status** >Name: Chris Meme >Level: 8 >Class: Proficent >Credits: 3280 >Health: 75/75 >Stamina: 75/75 >Mana: 50/50 >Strength: 25 >Dexterity: 15 >Vitality: 15 >Inteligence: 20 >Wisdom: 10 >Luck: 10 >Stat Points Available: 0 Five points into Vitality will help survivability, and I''m going to run out of here as fast as I can, so the increased stamina will help. With these adjustments, I run. I can''t see a way out with night vision, but I run. I can''t see a way out with heat vision, but I run. I can''t even see a way out with x-ray vision, but I just keep running. Stamina is the amount of time, in minutes, that I can perform at maximum strength. With running my all, which is exceptionally fast, I can run for and hour and fifteen minutes. Chapter 41 Chapter 41 Of course, I don''t get the chance to run for that long. Before even five minutes to running, I run into another one of those leeches. This time, with my bow and iron arrows, I kill it in six shots to the mouth and collect its body. I can''t see anything that would be craftable from it, except maybe green paint. With the Black Leech in my inventory, I went on to kill endless waves of the leeches in the cave. For some reason, the leeches did not the depths of the cave, or somewhere above, but instead came from inside the walls. True to their gelatinous appearance, they oozed from tiny holes in the wall and grew to be anywhere from 10 to 20 feet long in height and 30 to 50 feet in length. For killing the leeches, the bow is the obvious choice. Swords are not able to do enough damage to the slimy textured skin of the leech without getting extremely close where being swallowed by the leech would become a huge risk. With a bow, I can use multi-shot to group three arrows inside the mouth of the leech. It usually takes two sets of three to kill a leech, but sometimes takes three or four. The more I hunt, the more I realize how having a large amount of extra arrows would be beneficial to these little expeditions. When the next shop day comes, I''m going to buy at least 500 more iron arrows. I could switch to the crossbow, but I don''t have the ability to use multi-shot with it, and iron arrows are doing a fine enough job by just piercing the skin of the leeches. After killing 15 of the Giant Black Leeches, as they were called by the Identification Vision, I came up to a small stream. There is nothing in the stream, and it doesn''t look particularly polluted. I could follow the stream for a while and see where it takes me. If the stream leads out of the cave, great, I would like to see the surface again. If the stream leads to an underground stream, fuck me. Without much of a choice, I follow the stream. This story originates from a different website. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there. As I follow the stream, the cave gradually becomes smaller and smaller. If I try to imagine how this place formed, I would think that it was once filled with lava which gradually drained out. If that is true, I could very well be following the cave to the center of the earth. Kinda cool, but not really what I want. I suppose if the leeches are living down here, something else has to be as well. Or at least, there are some plants. I hope it''s another living thing and not just leeches and plants. I keep going down the cave, but I see something ahead. It has been a long time that I''ve been walking, and I don''t exactly know what time it is. It was the morning of the 38th when I left to see the dragon fight, which I totally regret doing now, and it''s probably been a day since then, or more. Anyways, the things that I see is a village. I know, strange to see a village in the deep dark cavern, but I see the outlines of buildings and some torches lighting the infinite darkness. I really hope they aren''t vampires or something. As I walk to the edge of the village, two spear warriors come out to greet me. "You there," They say, pointing their spears at me. "How did you get here?" Well, let me tell you. I was fighting a dragon when I fell through a hole in the top of the mountain and survived by pulling 400 feet of cloth out of my ass. "I broke into this cavern from the top of a mountain very far back that way," I say, pointing back the direction I came from. "I was unable to get back out. Do you have an exit this way?" I think I can see a red glow in their eyes. Damn, they are vampires. Chapter 42 Chapter 42 "Sure, you can reach the surface by going up a shaft we have to the edge of the village, just follow me." Says one of the men, and I am very surprised. I thought they''d want to suck my blood or something. "Oh, thanks," I say, and I follow him. "So, what is a village doing down here anyway?" I ask as we walk towards the village. "We are here for the collection of Giant Black Leeches. They produce a large amount of blood that can be combined with certain alchemy ingredients to supplement the need to suck blood in many vampires." Oh, well that sounds convenient. "Do you have a place I can sell some? I killed quite a few trying to get here." I ask. I hope they aren''t some kind of protected animal they raise from birth or something. "Sure, I would be surprised if you found anywhere willing to buy them other than us." He says, still walking. The other man stayed behind and is watching the darkness from where I came. "How many do you have?" "I have 15," I say. They are mostly intact too, so they should have a lot of blood in them. "You adventurer types sure can carry a lot with you. I''ll take you to the company store just over here." We walk a bit more, and we reach a shop in the center of the village. Everything in the village is unremarkable, probably because of the low light conditions. "Thank you," I say to the man, and I step inside. Inside the store, there are many things on racks all over the place, just like the general stores of the two towns I''ve already visited. "A human..." The man behind the counter at the far end of the room says, and I can see that he is a vampire as well. "Yes, I found my way here on accident and I collected some Giant Black Leech to sell," I say, walking up to the counter. "Ah, that''s good, we always need more for our brothers of the night around the world." He says, and he walks to the right towards a hatch in the counter. "Follow me out back and we will measure the blood we can get from them." The vampire leads me out back and up to a giant vat of some sort. It looks like one of the things beer is made from, but I know it has leech blood in it, so I am grossed out. Unauthorized tale usage: if you spot this story on Amazon, report the violation. "Place the leech here on the ground and I will place it in the vat. Then, I will drain the blood and give you a measurement for how much we got out." He says, and points to an open area in front of both of us. "How much is the blood worth?" I ask as I place a leech down from my inventory to where he pointed. "We will pay two credits per gallon, which is far more than anyone would pay elsewhere." I know he is trying to make it sound like I''m getting a good deal, but I can''t imagine selling blood by the gallon anywhere. We go through all 15 of the leeches and get an average of 120 gallons out of each one. At 2 credits per gallon, that makes 3,600 credits for the whole amount in my inventory. "Thanks for the business, would you like to buy anything while you are here? Not too often that we get outsiders." He asks me as I prepare to leave the store after getting my credits. "Well, what kind of vampire things so you have?" I ask, and he gets a big smile on his face. "You''re in the Black Death Leech Farm, a home to vampires more than 1,000 years old. We have anything you could want." He says, with a smile. I seriously doubt the 1,000 years thing, but I''ll check out what he has for sale. "What kind of bows do you have?" I ask him, and he walks me over to a shelf of bows. I use Identification Vision to look at them. >High-Quality Iron Bow >High-Quality Orchelium Bow >Demon Bow Only three of the bows were distinquishable at any way. I don''t think I''ll buy them though. Chapter 43 Chapter 43 "Here we have some of the best bows forgable. Here in our little village we have a master smith who has worked on bows for several decades. All of these bows were forged here, excpect for the demon bow you can see here," The man pointed to the demon bow on the rack. "They look nice, but not anything better than what I already have. What do you have here that I can only buy here?" I ask, and he starts to think of a bit. "Well, we do have some vampire slaves, if you are into that kind of thing." "How much?" I ask him, wanting to get a solid price. I want to buy a slave. Hopefully a really sexy one. "Well," He says, scratching his chin, and his red eyes brighten slightly. "We have a few labourers for 48k credits, and we have some females for 70k credits and up." Damn, that''s way too much, and a lot more than I expected. "That is a little more than I expected," I say to the man. "I''m afraid I don''t have that much." "Well, vampires are known to have a lifespan of anywhere from 100 to 2,000 years, so you could have a slave to serve both you and your descendants." That''s nice, but I don''t think I want to share with my descendants, thank you very much. "Is there an inn I can stay at, in the village? I have some raw materials I would like to refine." I ask the man. If I an turn the rest of my iron into iron swords, or even better, steel swords, I might have enough. "There is an inn, but you would be the only human there, and nowhere in the village will buy from you. Other than raw materials, the village will only buy manufactured goods from other villagers." Well, I don''t need anyone in the village to buy from me, I can sell it all to the shop. Selling to the shop is the best way too, because that way I don''t have to worry about over saturating the market with iron swords. Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on the original website. "That is fine, thank you." I say, and then I leave. Outside the store, the guard is waiting for me. "I''m going to stay in this village a few days. Can you show me where the inn is?" I ask. I hope I''m not asking too much from him. "Sure." He says, and he starts walking. "We don''t get visitors very often, and much less often from other races." I continue to follow the man until we reach the inn. I can tell by the sign outside that says ''INN'' in very large letters. It must be hard for normal people to see down here, with the limited light, so I really am lucky with all the different visions I have. "Thank you," I say to the man, and I go inside. Inside the inn are several vampires, and not a single human. I go up to the counter and talk to the woman behind it. "Hi, I would like to get a room here." "A human..." She says, looking me up and down. I can tell the others behind me are also looking. I don''t like it. "Certainly, we are 30 credits a night." "I plan on staying several days. Can I have the same room reserved for that time period?" "Of course, just pay the amount for each day you want the room for." Good, I need to stay at least three nights if it is the 39th. If not, It doesn''t matter much, 30 credits won''t kill me. "Okay," I say, and I take her hand. "Transfer 90 credits." With that, I have my room. The woman gave me a key to a room on the second floor, and I went inside first thing. Once inside the room, I take a look at myself and realize I am filthy. I need to do something about this. I leave the inn and walk to the edge of the village. The stream leads around the village, so I go back the way I came and meet with the man who did not follow me inside the village. Chapter 44 Chapter 44 "Hi there," I say to him as I walk closer. "Would it be alright if I do some smithing out here?" I ask him. "Sure, just watch out for Giant Black Leeches. They like to pop out of the walls sometimes." Yeah, I know. Walking past the man, I go about 200 feet before getting to work. With my stats moved to have more in magic related stats, I make the forge. I will have to buy more torches and coal on the shop day, but for now, I will have to make due with this. With Intermediate Earth Magic and my stats moved for better magic control, I heat up the iron to make it more malleable for the earth magic. I only need to shape the iron into a general sword shape, and then I can make the actual swords tomorrow. I really want to make steel somehow, but I fear I won''t be able to get the fire hot enough. With those thoughts, I get to work. I hold the iron together with earth magic, then place it in the fire to heat it up to the point that I can shape it into a blade easily. I might not be able to make steel, but I can make iron swords quickly enough. I abandoned trying to make steel after a few dozen minutes, and I went back to making iron swords. At the rate that I make the swords, I can make four in a single hour. This is due mostly to my earth magic allowing me to shape the blade to a certain degree. I still have to pound the blade to make it nice and hard, but I can remove most of the impurities with the earth magic, somehow. With earth magic, every mineral feels slightly different. At higher levels of Intelligence, the difference is more notable. The difference is like water and ice, both technically the same thing, but in different states of being. From my knowledge of science, I know this isn''t true, but for magic, it is. I am sure that someone without the ability to use magic and without my knowledge of how iron is made would not be able to smith a sword as fast as I do. Funny enough, I can make exactly 100 iron swords in a day if I make them each in 15 minutes and don''t have to take any breaks. That is, of course, not how things happen, so I am not able to make that many. This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it. At any rate, I don''t know when I will be able to make high-quality weapons. I haven''t been to many stores, but High-Quality seems to be something as a baseline in the vampire store. Maybe I won''t be able to sell normal quality swords anywhere other than the shop day unless I want to take the price for scrap iron. For the entire 39th day, I made swords. I actually didn''t know when the day ended, so I just made 100 swords and called it a day. Sometimes I wonder if my ability is too much of a cheat. I take out my status menu. >**Status** >Name: Chris Meme >Level: 8 >Class: Proficent >Credits: 8,830 >Health: 50/50 >Stamina: 50/50 >Mana: 75/75 >Strength: 25 >Dexterity: 15 >Vitality: 10 >Inteligence: 20 >Wisdom: 15 >Luck: 10 >Stat Points Available: 0 It''s just too good. And what does Class really mean? I give it a tap. >**Class** >Proficient Gamer >You are able to interact with the world like a game. You are unaffected by temperature or exhaustion. You do not need to eat, sleep, or drink. You may craft items in 1/100 the time normally required. You may acquire loot directly from monsters at the sacrifice of their corpse. You may freely redistribute your stats. You may access the Tardeyad shop every seven days. >Next Stage: Expert >Requirement: Kill an S rank beast, or someone at least level 50. That''s... quite interesting. My class is not adventurer, but is actually gamer. Hehe, just like the manga. Well, this class really does explain a lot of the things I am able to do, among other things. I am mostly interested in the acquiring loot. How the heck do I do that? There was a ball of light over Valery when she died, so maybe it is something like that. Chapter 45 Chapter 45 I am not the only person with the inventory, so maybe other people can loot the inventories of people the same way I am able to loot monsters. In any case, I will have to figure it out later. For now, I want to get some sleep at the inn. I put everything I can back into my inventory and take a look at myself. I am filthy. After using some water magic to clean myself off, and using some fire magic to dry, I head back to the inn. I go to my room, and then it''s lights out. I assume it is the 40th day because I can''t see the sun, and I decide to visit the blacksmith. I can''t see any signs pointing to where the blacksmith would be located, but I can hear the distinct clanging of steel hitting steel. As I get closer, I start to see the light from the forge as the blacksmith works a piece of metal. "You can place an order inside shop with my wife." The blacksmith says, banging on a piece of steel, and not looking up at me. I go to the building just a little further away and go inside. Inside the building are many weapons covering the wall. From this, I can tell this is a weaponsmith. "Hi," A grumpy woman is behind the counter. She doesn''t look like she wants to be here. "Do you want to buy or sell?" Geez, I can tell that she is only being forced to work here by her husband. However, for me, that is a good thing. If she doesn''t want to be here, then I can probably get a good deal. "I was looking to buy some steel or orchelium," I say to the woman, and she points a pile of metal bars on the side wall. "The gray ones are iron, the brighter ones are steel, and the green ones are orchelium. The price is above each stack." I walk over to the piles of metal bars. Each one seems to be 5 pounds, but they are more expensive than I thought. Four hundred credits for a steel bar, 1000 credits for an orchelium bar, and 200 credits for an iron bar. If I bought metal bars, I wouldn''t make a profit selling forged swords. Sucks, but I will have to survive off the materials I find myself. This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there. "Thank you, but I don''t think I''ll be buying anything today," I say, and I leave the shop. The woman doesn''t say anything on my way out, and I turn to walk the direction the blacksmith is not in. There really isn''t anything I can do down here except for forge more swords. If I wait two days, or something like that, I will be able to sell everything I have to buy a super sexy slave, but I could leave here and get a real slave. From what I know, vampires need to drink blood, so that is one caveat to getting a vampire, but I could just get another vampire slave, or buy a bunch of that fake blood stuff. Either way, I should spend the next few days forging swords and seeing where that gets me. If I don''t have enough money, boo hoo, if I don''t like the slaves they have here, oh well. I go back to the same place I was at yesterday and build a forge again. The more I think about it, the more I want to buy more of the dungeon torches. Even if I can''t sell them for credits, I can use then to power the forge. I want to reduce the amount of coal I use so I don''t have to buy more every shop day. Ideally, I want my smithing process to be self-sufficient. For the remaining one and a half days, I forge swords like nobody''s business. One hundred and forty-six iron swords later, I use all my coal up and get ready for that ding that signals the start of a shop day. Announcement Hi, I wrote this just to have fun, and the synopsis says it all. If you aren''t subscribed to H3H3 on youtube, go do it. This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there. I won''t be writing anymore chapters, but I hope you liked the story so far. Bye. Chapter 46 Morning of the... 42nd day. >Welcome To Tardeyad! Ah, just what I like to see, and exactly what I needed. I need to sell a ton of things from my inventory so I can afford a slave. I still don''t know for sure that I want to buy a slave, but I might as well have enough money to buy one if I see a good one for sale. In my inventory, I have 233 iron swords, which are worth 120 credits each. After selling them all, I have 27960 credits. That''s a lot of credits, but not enough to buy anything too amazing. I still need more. There has been a couple skill books that I''ve been passing over. They would only do things that I can already do, but faster. Because I need to find ways to make money faster, these skills are just what I need. From the credits I already had, I now have 36790, more than enough to get these skill books. >Craft - Create a product from ingredients. Must have previously created the product by hand. Consumes ingredients. >Loot - Retrieve lootable items from a dead creature. >Dismantle - Retrieve crafting ingredients from an item. Destroys the item. I get the three of these for just 2,800 credits. It''s funny how such an amount is hardly anything to me now, but was an unobtainable amount less than two months ago. with these skills, I can do something about the intense amount of dead bodies in the inventory. In my inventory, I have 15 Iron-Hide Devil Hounds, 21 Black Tailed Fortiler, 2 Black Bears, 5 Mountain Wolves, and 15 Giant Black Leeches. For the Iron-Hide Devil Hounds, I keep their iron and discard the corpses, which can''t even be used as food. That''s 900 pounds of iron. For the Black Tailed Fortiler, I can get 18 feet of leather from each one, equaling 378 feet. For the Black Bears, they each give 200 pounds of meat and 24 feet of leather. That makes 400 pounds of meat and 48 feet of leather. Each Mountain Wolf has 8 feet of leather, making my total from them 40 feet. The Giant Black Leeches don''t have any parts that can be sold, but I''m keeping them for feeding any vampires I come across.The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings. In my inventory, I have fifteen Iron-Hide Devil Hounds, twenty one Black Tailed Fortiler, two Black Bears, five Mountain Wolves, and three Giant Black Leeches. I use the Loot skill to take iron from the Iron-Hide Devil Hounds, leather from the Black Tailed Fortiler, meat and leather from the Black Bears, and leather from the Mountain Wolves. I''ve use the skill on a Giant Black Leech to see a result of one-hundred and five sacks of Black Leech Blood. After taking one from my inventory, I see that it''s just a black sack. It''s very gross, so I place it back in my inventory and wipe my hands off on my pants. Since I can, I loot the other two leeches. After all the looting, my inventory has a total of 400 pounds of bear meat, 1318 pounds of iron, 502 square feet of leather, and 350 sacks of blood. I take a last look at the forge I was using the previous day, and I activate my Craft skill. Just like with the Loot skill, a list of items appears. In the Loot screen, they were corpses in my inventory that could be looted. In the Craft screen, they are items I can make with the items in my inventory. I choose to make iron swords. With the iron in my inventory, I can make 439 swords. However, I want to keep some of my iron with me, so I only make four hundred. I then sell these swords, which earns me 48,000 credits. It''s a good amount, but still not enough. This leaves me with 82,990 credits. I could afford a cheap female slave, or a laborer or two, but I want a high-class slave. I also need to buy more cloth and coal. Heck, I''ll buy five hundred pounds of coal for 5,000 credits and I buy 300 yards of cloth for 300 credits. Now I have 77,690 credits. Now... slaves, magic, or skills? Announcement #2 I''ve started a new fic that I plan on updating regularly. It''s here:https://royalroadl.com/fiction/11674 and it uses the same shop but no inventory and is in third person. And there''s zombies. I might update this fic in the future if I can think of something for my MC to do. It''s been so long that I''ve forgotten just about everything I did for worldbuilding.This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. 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