《Road to Babylon [Abandoned]》 Chapter 1: Heroic Spirit Gilgamesh Chapter 1: Heroic Spirit Gilgamesh ¡°Tell me, Weed-nim what is power?¡± Hearing such a question out of the blue made Weed confused. ¡®Perhaps he¡¯s asking because some classes are different and in order to find the one that best suits me he¡¯s asking about my view on power, if that¡¯s why then...¡¯ In truth Rodriguez had first thought that Weed might be Geihar von Arpen¡¯s successor but quickly wrote it off as he doubted Weed was the sole unique one. ¡®Yes, I will wait for one who is more suited to be his successor instead of this...this...cur...¡± Rodriguez had just wanted to give him a quest to attain one of the unique classes as he had given many persistent adventurers before as retribution for any slight he had taken. The best part of about it was the quest were near impossible and the class was hard to bring out their true skills unless they had the patience to nurture the class. Finally Weed gave his answer. ¡°My answer is wealth. As the saying goes money is power.¡± Usually Weed would have answered something with a white lie, a half truth, but if he did it might affect which class he received and as such he did not want. Of course if it was a class like a merchant than he would point blank refuse. Upon hearing this Rodriquez cupped his chin with his hands as he thought about the greedy bastard¡¯s answer. Most would have answered that was something more on the terms of speed, strength, or skill. But for him to give something as materialistic as wealth, that completely surprised the sage. Still within the numerous quest related items that sage possessed one just might fit the description. ¡°Please wait for a few moments while I retrieved the necessary item.¡± Saying this the Rodriguez left the room and returned within ten minutes but he was not empty handed as within his hand was a palm sized medallion made of gold. Upon seeing the item Weed was sure that it was valuable by a large amount even for high level players. ¡°Weed-nim, here is the answer to your question.¡± Barely restraining himself Weed took the medallion from Rodriguez¡¯s hand and tenderly held it in his own.
Medallion of the Oldest King: Durability: 1/1 The medallion that signified the journey of hero whose name was lost in time. Not much was known concerning him except the fact that all traces of his kingdom was scattered throughout the world leading experts to believe that he once ruled the world as king.
Tirring!
Road to Babylon You may be the reincarnation of the unnamed hero whose name was lost in time. However in order to find out you will need to undergo a trial in order to test your worthiness. Difficulty: S Requirements: Possess the Medallion of the Oldest King Rewards: The power of the Oldest King Quest Restrictions: Once quest has start it, it cannot be abandoned. Can only be done by one person
[box border=1 cellpadding=0 cellspacing=3 width=80% bordercolor=#202020 bgcolor=#f5f5f5][col colspan=4 valign=middle width=100% bordercolor=#202020 bgcolor=#f5f5f5][pc]Would you like to start the quest?[/pc][/col][col colspan=2 valign=middle width=50% bordercolor=#202020 bgcolor=#f5f5f5][pc]Yes[/pc][/col][col colspan=2 valign=middle width=50% bordercolor=#202020 bgcolor=#f5f5f5][pc]No[/pc][/col][/box] Seeing this Weed¡¯s eyes widen. For a user like him who was only level 13 receiving an S-rank quest was near unheard of. But it must have be doable since the requirements was to possess the medallion and Rodriguez did give it to him so beginners like him could do it right? But a small part of him still did not fully trust Rodriguez, he did trust quest just not the person who gave it to him. ¡°I thank you, oh great sage.¡± ¡°Nonsense, once you completed the quest please come back I would greatly love to hear you tale.¡± After the small talk Weed left, intent on training. Remembering the quest that the Instructor Docke Lancer had asked of him before Weed quickly went to the Basic Training Hall in order to accept it. Once he accepted it he traveled with the Rosenheim Army forces to the Lair of Litvart. The biggest reason for this was to level himself up so he could prepare for the quest that he would undertake. The friendship he made with the soldiers was just a bonus as well as practicing his cooking, bandaging, bow and arrow, handicraft, and repair skills on the soliders. Not to mention the increase in his leadership stat.
Weed wanted to curse and throw a tantrum and preferably kill hundreds of thousands of players while he was at it, just like he did in the Continent of Magic.* Problem? He was back at level effin 1! The quest took him 3 weeks, 3 months in game! And during those times he died numerous times. Not only that he missed events that he could¡¯ve taken advantage of such as the rescue of the Baran Village! Those precious rewards that he missed out on! It was such a horrible experience that Weed consciously and actively repressed those memories. You know what the worse part of dying was? Losing your skill masteries at 5% to 7% each time you died, never mind the fact that he died so many times that he was back at level 1. Before he started Weed started the quest he was over level 50 and now he was a level 1. Never once in Weeds mind was there such a thing of being over prepared. Usually the skill degradation would stop at the level at 0%, but if you died too much without increasing the skill level...well let¡¯s just say it wasn¡¯t pretty hence Weed spending a whole week without sleeping trying to get his mastery back up. Sleep...who needed it anyways? Certainly not Weed. When they were at a decent level, Weed spent the next 2 weeks (In-game) fighting like a madman against hordes of monsters in way to regain his levels. The lost of sleep during this time would have normally decreased most people¡¯s efficiency but for Weed it just increased his fervent determination. Finally Weed was satisfied when his level was at 89, but it was not enough for Weed. His biggest problem was leveling up his Gate of Babylon and Blood of the Gods. Blood of the Gods was more straightforward as Weed noticed that whenever his level increased his mastery would increase as well and he was currently at beginner level 8 and close to level 9. Gate of Babylon on the other hand was far harder to increase, It did not rely on repeated usage but rather on the user¡¯s wealth. Weed realized that during his time when he created items with his craft skills and deposited within the gate the mastery would increase, so it seemed that it did not matter if it was gold or items both would increase mastery. It was quite useful to carry so much item but there was no battle usage. On the upside he would never have to leave the dungeon when his bags were filled to the brim as he now had an unlimited hyperspace to store his weapons in. Because of the time that Weed spent training used up the durability of many weapons and he did not bother to equip armor as he wanted to increase his endurance stat as well as fighting spirit. But now that he was at a reasonable level it was time to create suitable armor and sword for himself. He had received a class unique weapon from his profession quest but he was currently unable to wield it.
Ancient Sword: Ea: An unique weapon that was born before the concept of sword was even realized. It is a weapon forgotten by legend and time like the wielder himself and is ultimately the symbol and strength of the king who wielded this grand weapon. It seems to contain an unknown power but as the sword¡¯s strength is unlocked as its wielder grows stronger, you are currently unable wield even a fraction of it. Durability: ? Damage: 50~100 Requirement: Must be the Legendary Heroic Spirit Gilgamesh Level 100 Effect: Locked
He needed to be at least level 100 not to mention even stronger if he wanted to unlock the weapon¡¯s special effect. He already leveled his repair skill to 10 so he learned blacksmithing. Why buy weapons or armor from a store when you can simply create yourself? Of course that was not all he did when he learned to forge from the guild in Serabourg, he also learned fishing from a fisherman, architecture from the Building Guild and tailoring from the Tailor Guild. His class allowed him to learn any skill to grandmastery so why not take advantage of it? Weed knew that when you advanced in craft skills you gained additional stats to make up for loss of battle skills. His profession as Legendary Heroic Spirit Gilgamesh did not give him any skills. Rather than a skilled master he was more of a warrior with brute strength. Weed desperately wanted to learn battle skills but before doing that he needed to sell all the loot he gathered and not to mention all the raw materials he had to create new items. First he would create numerous items increasing his mastery and then he would work on the ores. This way his handicraft skill was likely going to be higher equaling higher quality armor for himself. First though he needed to grabbed the other player¡¯s attention. With that in mind Weed walked out into the woods of Citadel of Serabourg. ¡°Summon [Plain Axe]¡± Saying those words a golden orb floated above Weed¡¯s hand as a wooden handle emerged before eventually revealing itself as the name suggest, a plain woodcutter¡¯s axe. It was among the numerous drops that Weed had obtained from the monster he called. If you were to look closely you could have swore that the trees shivered when Weed grasped the axe with both hand and his eyes gleamed at the trees. Hours later where once stood a patch of land filled with trees was now filled with tree stumps along with wood shavings courtesy of Weed who used the tree trunks to manufacture wooden beams. He kept the sizable tree branches or parts within the gate, who knows if he would need to use them in the future as materials for sculpture or even fuel for fire? Weed placed his engraving knife back as he finished scraping off the final imbalance on the last wood beam. ¡°Summon [white paper]¡± Once again an item appeared in Weed¡¯s and only this it was materialized through golden particles. He would have liked to have manufacture the paper himself but he alas he did not have the necessary skill to do so forcing him to buy each sheet of paper for 50 coppers each! The agony that passed through him those moments. He didn¡¯t need the building to be a fortress or even a decent shop, just an outside stall enough to attract attention and enough space to showcase all the japtem he had. With in that mind Weed began to draw on the paper for the building he was planning to build. Satisfied with the plan Weed began to build but when he nearly finished he came upon a dilemma, his skill Gate of Babylon was unique and his alone but if he openingly used it people might get suspicious. The solution was very simple he needed to build a small back room where he could summon the items or japtem without people seeing. It required Weed to cut down a few more trees and a couple more hours but it was worth it. When Weed was finally finished the stall was easily 10 meters wide, 3 meters tall, and 5 meters long. Not to mention his architecture skill rose up to beginner level 4. With a snap of his finger the stall, if you could even call it that, vanished into golden particles. Opening his menu he checked the inventory to see that the stall was in it. Normally within the world of Royal Road you had to carry everything on you either using backpacks or not, you did not have a hyperspace where they could store items. But with the Gate of Babylon it was different, not to mention it was unlimited space! It was a feature that no players until Weed gained had in Royal Road. If he openly displayed there was no telling how many people would go after him for both bad and good. Walking back towards the city gate Weed purposely chose one of the fewer used gates. Making sure that no one was looking Weed summoned the stall once more and pushed it closer until the city guards could see him. Ignoring them Weed began to hang up some of the japtem on the hooks or tables he made. He then took out the small portable furnace as well as the anvil, and hammer. Finally after Weed was satisfied he set up a campfire and began to cook. Afterwards Weed sat down onto the mat he set up and took out a needle and strings along with some wolf leather. It was all part of his scheme while he made clothes the smell from the still cooking food would attract customers. By now a few players had passed by him but none of them paid him much notice. Like this Weed slowly but sure began to attract attention as more and more users paid attention to him and his tailoring skill had by then risen up to beginner level 8 when he finally ran out of materials to make clothes from. Thanks to his handicraft skill the results were that of higher skilled craftsmen who solely focused on the skill. When Weed finally looked up he saw a small crowd had already formed most of them were eyeing his newly made clothes as well as salivating due to the smell of Weed¡¯s simmering soup. All of them seemed to want to talk, but held back due to the poor clothing that Weed had that not even a beggar would wear. Finally a brave young girl game up. Weed judged her to be Cleric class due the staff and leather armor she wore. Seeing a potential customer Weed gave her his best smile and said. ¡°Hello do you want to buy anything?¡± Hearing Weed¡¯s voice the Cleric seemed to calm down as she realized Weed wasn¡¯t like some wild beast due to what he wore. ¡°Ummmm, I want to look at that one.¡± She pointed to one of Weed¡¯s more recent creations the [Wolf Fur Robe]. Weed smiled and nodded as he brought the robe down and handed it to her who upon inspecting the item eye¡¯s widen. It was not a surprise to Weed who knew how hard it was for Clerics to get new armor not to mention his creations had benefits equivalent to armor ten levels above them. Weed knew that the moment she held it was sold, but he kept his patient smile as if waiting for the customer to decided whether she wanted to purchase the item. ¡°How much?¡± ¡°Normally I would be selling it for 5 silvers, but since you are my first customer I¡¯ll charge 3 silvers!¡± The girl practically shoved the money into his hands into Weed¡¯s hand in joy at how cheap it was now. If it was a shop she would have been charged 10 silvers and it would inferior equipment of the same level. But Weed¡¯s manipulations were not done yet as he walked over to his simmering soup and took out one portion of it into a bowl and handed it to her. ¡°As I said before you are my first customer so I would also like to give you this.¡± Seeing Weed¡¯s ¡®kindness¡¯ the girl smiled brightly at him before taking a sip out of the wooden bowl that Weed sculpted beforehand. Her eyes widened as she realised her vitality rose up significantly. Quickly downing the soup she ran back into the crowd before coming to the front once more dragging a few more users, presumably her friends. ¡°We would like 5 more bowls of food please.¡± Weed smiled and said of course as he prepared five more bowls. ¡°That will be 5 silver.¡± Normally it would be ridiculous to pay 1 silver for a single bowl but after hearing of the effects from their friend they didn¡¯t care as they too gulped it down and marvel at the results. Thanking Weed the party left to hunt while the buff was still in effect. But Weed hardly heard them as word of his magic food had quickly spread through the crowd and more and more people began to buy his food. Of course there was only so many people that Weed could serve so while people waited they checked out what else Weed was selling namely his light weight armor he made from the skins of monsters he massacred. The japtem was not ignored either as people who needed them for quest also bought them but the biggest buyers were merchants who bought them at a low price and sold them to NPCs at a higher price for profit gaining many levels. In fact Weed¡¯s current biggest customers were the merchants who bought as much japtem that could fit in their wagon. It was also part of Weed¡¯s scheme as they could easily drive into the city to sell and quickly come back. Even Weeds first few light armor sold quickly despite the low level since Serabourg was a city where many players started. Weed was just outside the city gates so users could easily shop there without the danger. Of course provided that you the patience to wait in line that consisted more of 200 users, and it was still growing. By now Weed¡¯s stall had become famous that many users from other kingdom was traveling there to buy his items. But despite Weed¡¯s vast amount of items that he had created it came to an end as everything sold out. User were disappointed as they saw Weed¡¯s empty stall. But they were once again surprised as Weed went to the stall¡¯s backroom carrying back ores. Once again the crowd watched him work, only this time they watched him melting the ores before giving them shape and then hammering it down to into shape. Many users could tell that his first creation was a low level equipment no matter how outstanding it was for it¡¯s level and many began to leave. However those who had watched him sew from the very first day had a different thought. ¡®No way, don¡¯t tell me that he was leveling up his tailor skill when he began and now he is going to level up his blacksmith skills too! Now, that I think about his cooking skills must be very high too!¡¯ Thoughts like those began to rise among a small percentages as they reevaluated their opinion on the seemingly poor tailor. But despite Weed¡¯s work on his blacksmith skills, he was still selling the very popular food that he made. Although Weed¡¯s supply of raw ingredients had depleted players freely gave them their just so Weed would make them food, hence Weed¡¯s continuing profits. However due to Weed¡¯s limited supply of ores he quickly ran out of materials to use. Seeing this Weed took out the week gear and weapons that he had made or were dropped by monster and melted them once more in order to forge more weapons and armor. By now Weed had spent approximately 3 weeks in front of the city gates, doing nothing but selling and raising his skills with no fighting at all. But it was 3 weeks well spent for Weed as the satisfaction of his skill gaining levels was enough. When Weed finished a item it was sold within the day as people who have heard of Weed¡¯s mastery of the blacksmith began to pour in although unlike those who came for the his tailoring they had to wait for the item and when the item was finally finished people began to bid in order to win it since many people wanted it. Part of this was because Weed¡¯s metal creation was in short and limited supply unlike his leather armoring and clothing that he made since he used up all of his materials before people began to buy from him. People kept pouring hoping to buy rare equipments at a much lower price than those who already established themselves, but one day Weed just disappeared even the stall disappeared. People waited weeks at the location or visited every day hoping the master craftsman would come back up but to no avail.
Weed walked the streets of Serabourg with a genuine smiled on his face, gone were the rags that he had worn and their place was a newly made leather armor he created from skin of werewolves that he had hunted. No one would be able to recognize him from the poor looking seller of merchandise outside one of Serabourg¡¯s gates. And the reason for his big smile was because he had made 10,000 gold. But to his dismay the skill level of Gate of Babylon was only at beginner level 2 even with 10,000 gold, but Weed was still happy because of that 10,000 gold. Walking to the blacksmith guild Weed greeted the members as he walked towards one of the work stations. Sure his portable furnace and anvil worked but for the best result it was better to work in a facility with all the tools available. Once there Weed took out several silver colored orbs from his waist pouch. People were under the impression that the best materials to make armor was natural and pure lumps of ores, but that was wrong if you mixed different metals together in certain percentages the combined product would be the best. It was a recent skill that Weed had gotten when he leveled his Blacksmiths skills. First Weed made the core parts, the helmet, the gauntlets, pauldrons, battle skirt, and boots. Those parts were easy but now was the hard part for Weed as he made overlapping armor pieces to fill the gaps the core parts left. Although it wasn¡¯t his first attempt the final result were still less than what weed wanted. But Weed was fine with that, in exchange for more maneuverability Weed had sacrificed some defense.
Shiny Armor Set Durability: 85/85 Defense: 39 A full armor knight set made from a mixture of melted ores. As a result the defense is higher than normal. The design is unconventional as it decreases defense in certain areas in exchange for more maneuverability. Restrictions: Level 100 or higher Effects: Agility +10
It wasn¡¯t bad per say, certainly better than most armor but it wasn¡¯t to Weed¡¯s standard. But Weed wasn¡¯t done as he took out the Engraving Knife and began to etch a angelic design onto the armor. The side of female angel was etched onto the breast plate while the other pieces had cross like designs along wing design.
Angelic Armor Set Durability: 92/92 Defense: 45 A full armor knight set made from a mixture of melted ores. As a result the defense is higher than normal. The design is unconventional as it decreases defense in certain areas in exchange for more maneuverability. The holy designs etched into armor further increases the defense and strength of the armor as well as lightening the weight. Restrictions: Level 100 or higher Effects: Agility +15 Stamina +15 25% more damage against undead 25% decrease in damage from undead
Weed whistled as he marveled at the armor. It was easily categorized under rare. Paladins or Holy Knight users would robbed for this armor. Well the target group for him to sell would be low since the armor would last up to at most 200. But still many people would pay for it. Weed originally was going to make another sword for himself to use, but thanks to his blacksmith mastery the requirements to equip armor and weapons was lowered therefore he could equip the ¡°Angelic Armor Set as well as the Ancient Sword Ea. Everything was perfect now. Having done all he could for now Weed¡¯s was itching for battle. Of course it wasn¡¯t just for the sake of battle, but to level. He was on a time limit and he needed to gain valuable items he could not only to pay for Royal Road¡¯s monthly fee, but also to support his family. Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon. Weed¡¯s current goal aside from leveling up was to discover new dungeons. If he did so his fame would grown and not only that there is a higher chance to gain unique items and higher experience. Finding new dungeon was not easy as the millions of players among Royal Road had already discovered the more obvious ones and taken advantage, but some still remain unexplored even after they were discovered, such as Eerie Swamp. The answer soon became obvious when Weed arrived as the foulest stench greeted his nostrils. Calling disgustingly nasty would be an understatement. But Weed persevered as he walked away a mile so the stench wasn¡¯t as prevalent and took out some skin from the monsters he killed on his way. Quickly and efficiently, Weed made a mask in order quell the stench even for a little bit. Putting it on Weed made his way back to Eerie Swamp, and carefully made his way deeper. The swamp had limited light as the distorted trees¡¯ leaves blocked the sun leaving little but patches of light through, the ground had a few patches of grass but not much and only under sunlight. But there was a dim light source in the form of flowers. They were rooted into the murky ground with a pitcher like petal directly under the flowers that snatched any bug that wandered in. As Weed wandered further in he could see why no one ventured in if they ignored the smell. It was sweltering hot especially with the humidity as well as the pesky flies. However Weed who had already experienced the life poverty these were nothing to him! The monsters roaming around were of the insect variety such as giant flies or swamp mantises. But all of them had a single weakness, their unprotected joints! Insects may have hard exoskeletons comparable to armor but like all armor the joints could not be covered or they would be sitting ducks, a fully covered duck but a duck nevertheless. Dodging a sweep from the foreleg of the mantis Weed kneeled down and towards the Mantis underbelly and with several slashes severed the remaining 3 legs attached to the thorax of the monster. The mantis hissed at seeing his legs dismembered and dismembered with the exception of its two forelegs took to the sky as the protective shell covering its wings move allowing him take flight. Weed seeing was not about to let his prey go and screamed. ¡°Summon spear!¡± When summoning an item from the gate if you shouted a general item category a random item of that type would appear and in this case a spear appeared. Twisting his hips as he stomped on the ground Weed launched the spear it pierced one of the mantis¡¯ wings forcing it onto the ground once more. Weed had discovered one annoying fact within one hour in the swamp. Unless the monster came in a swarm they would flee if it seemed they would get killed. Weed compensated by making spears that he could launch in order to pin the monsters to a location purposely using heavy materials. Despite the apparent size of the monsters, they wear deceptively light. Of course not all monsters were like that but many of them were. The reason why was due to the exoskeleton that Weed collected, they were very light yet durable. Thinking of this Weed began to strategize how to sell them as most classes that could not wear heavy armor suffered from low defense. If he could make armor out of them then business would boom for him. Unfortunately he did not have the necessary skill as a blacksmith to use shells as materials for armor. Even Fabio the leading blacksmith, from Weed¡¯s investigations did not have the skill to do so. Before Weed could finish extracting the materials from the dead mantis however the rumbling ground alerted Weed of the incoming monsters once more. It was a common occurrence for them to come, swarms of ants. Even for him Weed knew that it was time to retreat despite his reluctance to leave the body that still had a good amount of materials. The ants were vicious. They did not individually hold much health and rather easily went down after one or two strikes due to their thin exoskeleton, but it didn¡¯t matter they would overrun you with sheer numbers and quite easily due to their unnaturally high strength stat and not to mention their toxic bites.. Not even level 200 users would want to challenge them alone. Quickly Weed ran away but he knew that unless he found a hiding spot he would quickly be overrun, but already having experienced this many times Weed once again ran up a tree. Luckily for Weed those giants ants unlike their real life counterpart had a bad sense of smell so they couldn¡¯t trace him and they weren¡¯t smart enough to track his footprints either. Seeing the ground covered in ants, Weed knew that they weren¡¯t going to leave anytime soon so he summoned one of the reddish exoskeleton he had extracted from a centipedes he killed and began to cut off the top part with his Engraving Knife. Weed hated being idle even if it was waiting for monsters to turn away so he sculpted while he waited. Hand sized sculptures that he could easily make without making any large sounds or requiring a large amount of space he didn¡¯t have sitting on a tree branch. Weed made ants, mantises, flies, centipede, everything he saw and defeated and if possible from the exoskeleton of the monsters he defeated. It wasn¡¯t long before Weed ran out of insects to carve, so be carved something else. It was mindless at first but as Weed continue to whittle away the exoskeleton it gradually took shape. Before Weed knew it took the shape of Seoyoon. Despite the small size it was a near replica of her features from what he remembered of her due to the dinner, except she was no longer sitting but rather standing. A beauty with a murderous gaze. Without realizing Weed spent more and more time to whittle out the details that he did not care to do on the insect sculptures. When he was done a window popped up.
Fine Piece: You have completed the Beautiful Berserker! Despite only being the size of a hand, the details painstakingly carved into this sculpture has guaranteed its place in the hearts of many warriors and inspire them to continue! If you show this this to warriors their intimacy with you will increase. Artistic Value: 200 Effect: Increases attack by 78% Increases stamina recovery by 20% Effects stack with other sculptures. Number of Fine Pieces created: 1 You have gained 23 Art stats
Weed smiled, it was fine piece! Even if a mastered sculptured carved something it could not be considered a fine piece unless a sculpture devoted his heart and soul into the work and it was acknowledge by other users. Not only that his sculpture mastery leveled up from beginner 9 to intermediate!
Fame rises by 50 points Art stats rises by 10 points Endurance rises by 10 points Vitality rises by 10 points Intelligence rises by 10 points
But he would have to be careful when he explained what it was made of. If it ever reached Seoyoon ears that he carved her or even did out of a dead insect...he could already see her massacring him 100 times. The horror!
Weed continued to search for any dungeons and after hours he finally found it. The entrance had been hidden due to it being under the trunk of a giant tree.
DUNGEON: You are the very first player to discover Lazarus¡¯ Lair Every day for one week, double EXP and double item drops. The rarest items will drop from killing the first monster of each type. Subsequent kills will drop common items.
Weed without waiting climbed down the hole and when he reached the ground he had to squint his eyes to adjust to the light. Unlike the top the dungeon had far more flowers of light inside giving a brighter appearance. It wasn¡¯t long before Weed encountered the first monster, it was a humanoid insectoid a meter taller than himself. It was too strong and Weed was forced to flee. Oh, how the mighty had fallen. Before when he was still on the Continent of Magic, he would have not needed to hide but rather just plow through it. This only gave more motivation for him to better himself. Weed continued to scout the dungeon and made several notes of the monsters available. The first monster he had encountered was a mantis captain far stronger than most of the roaming monster inside. Weed whose current level was 96 had the equivalent stats of 150 level user. But the average level of monsters there were 160 ten level higher than his. But Weed was more tenacious than a cockroach and picked off the weakest monster he could take off one at a time. It was before long that he reached level 100 and when he did...
Blood of the Gods has exceeded beginner level 10 and has reached the intermediate stage. Additional 30% to all stats Religions will respect you Holy power are increased Holy attacks directed towards you are decreased Attack Power will increase as health decreases 50% health: 25% additional attack 10% health: 30% additional attack Additional 10% resistance to all magic Additional 10% statuses Adds 20% resistance to harmful statuses
New Skills: Wisdom of the Gods Eyes of God Golden Rule
+50 to all stats +100 to fame +50 to Divinity Dignity Stat attained
50 additional stats, that was 10 times better than when he reached the next stage of his skill. His class could be truly called a person of brute force, but Weed reserved his judgement until he could see his other skills.
Wisdom of the Gods As the level of divine blood within you changes so does your thought process and mind. Beginner Level 1 Stat reductions are decreased by 5% regardless of circumstances Additional 5% to Wisdom Blessings and buffs are increased by 10%
Alas it was another skilled that passively boosted his stats. But what caught Weed¡¯s eyes was the decrease of stat reductions by 5%! Within Royal Road when you died you lost stats and experience for your skills by the last 5 points you increase since for each level you gain 5 points! But within this whenever he died stat reduction was reduced by 5%, no other player has reportedly attain such a skill. It would have been better if it was concerning skill mastery but Weed wasn¡¯t going to complain.
Eyes of God having attained a higher level of divine blood within you your body has changed accordingly. Now your eyes have attain some of the perceptiveness of the gods. Those that gaze into your eyes will know of your divine heritage. Beginner level 1 Able to see faint traces of mana Illusion or trickery effective is decreased Accuracy increased by 10% Critical rates are increased by 5%
Weed was deep in thought about this skill. It was true that he had noticed a strange amount of colors within his site, so it must be him seeing magic or mana. It was be useful when he battle magic users, but how much he did not know. And the other benefits seemed to be geared more towards archers as he had perfect control of his body so he did not need the system assisted accuracy system. It would still help him.
Golden Rule People are blessed with innate gravity that attracts riches and you stand above. Beginner level 1 Monster will drop more money by 5% Monsters will drop more items by 5% When selling items NPCs will pay more depending on your fame Additional 10% to luck stat
¡°YES!!!!!!!!!¡± A skills that made monsters drop more and made him richer!? Weed loved his class at that very moment. Forget the lack of fighting skills, he loved that skill. Monsters who were drawn to Weed due to his loud shout made various noises as they found their ¡®prey¡¯ and pounced on him ready to kill. They were massacred by Weed who had a rotten smiled glued permanently onto his face for the new few hours as he hunted gleefully. The monsters were no longer monster but mere pinatas that he would bash until his prizes came out. Monsters began to speak in fear of his name, calling him the reaper. He didn¡¯t care if they were dead he would keep killing and killing and killing until there was nothing left. The dungeon only had 4 levels and when Weed cleared the fourth level he was greeted by a set of large heavy doors. Thanks to Eyes of God Weed was able to see large concentration of mana behind the doors. His skills said faint traces of mana but he was able to dense amounts of mana meaning the boss monster behind the door was a magician class monster. Up until all the monsters he fought were not magicians but rather melee types. They had fearsome appearance but they were far from the strongest of monsters that roamed the Versailles Continent. Still the highest monster that roamed the dungeon was level 185. The boss¡¯ level should not be too much higher right? Weed knew that he would not win the first time he fought against the boss, he needed to get some information. Usually it was the scout¡¯s job but he was only 1 user so he had to do it. Quietly Weed open the large doors and had to widen his eyes before he could even see through the dense darkness. Slowly Weed was able to see a faint green light in the back but that was it. But that wasn¡¯t all Weed saw, thanks to his skill he could see a hunched finger filled with mana. The color was sickly green just like the light. ¡°Welcome mortal. It has been some since someone has set foot within this room.¡± The voice was raspy as if it has not been used for a long period of time. Weed¡¯s senses screamed of danger as he refused to moved closer and instead summoned a bow and arrows. Arching the arrow back he let it loose a single arrow but before it reached the target it was blocked by a wall of magic that had sprung up. ¡°Don¡¯t you know it is impolite to interrupt someone when they are speaking. No matter, I was in need of a new subject for experiments anyway and you seem to fit the bill with those precious eyes of yours.¡± Weed knew it was going to be trouble so he took a step back as he prepared to but his foot got stuck much to his surprise. Still keeping some of his attention on the boss Weed looked down to see the heel of his foot attached to a giant spiderweb. Then it was a rumbling before a evil laugh with silent intervals rebounded throughout the cavern walls. Weed saw for the first time the boss¡¯s face and also his name, The Mad Alchemist: Lazarus. His face as opposed to the monster that were insect becoming humanoid, Lazarus was a human who gained insect characteristics making him far more disgusting. Then the cave lit up as Weed could see wall covered by numerous giant spiders that were encroaching upon him. It was long before that he was trapped by an unaccountable number of webs. Even with his high stats he was unable to escape and soon he died. As a result of his death he was unable to log back in for 24 hours as penalty. Lee Hyun was beyond angry. ¡°Why? Why must these unfortunate things happen to me!? Why?¡± Not only had he been forced back to level 1 when he was over level 50 and he stepped into the lair of a monster that could trap him! With not being able to log back in Weed began to gather information on Royal Road once more all the while planning his revenge. 24 hours later Lee Hyun prepared the necessary food that his sister Hayan would need to eat by just simply reheating. Once he logged back in he immediately went to check what he had lost. Thankfully he did not lose an equipment...but all the experience for his skills had dropped by at least 5% once more! It seemed that only those related with him leveling up the skills by doing had their experience reduced so skills such as Gate of Babylon and Blood of the Gods were fine. But still flashes of him dying hundreds of more times came into his mind. ¡°Yes, Lazarus will die a painful, very painful death for doing such a thing to me!!!!¡± After Weed repaired his armor with his repair skills and buffed himself by cooking some food he had gathered from the insects he set out to gain his revenge. It was a simple plan. In fact the very region gave him the necessary manpower to take down the boss monster or rather bug power. He did not use Ea this but rather a bow and some arrows. Quickly searching he found his target the [Titan Ants] that had he had fled from so many times before. First he launched the spear at it then riddled the body with arrows. The ant was unprepared died within 2 attacks. The biggest danger of killing those ants were that they exploded 25% of the time depending on your luck and that bright light gathered more ants so killing them was not a good died. But for Weed he wanted the ants to chase him. Unfortunately it took him more time as the ants just seemed to not want to explode. Finally at the 6th ant it exploded. It wasn¡¯t long before ten more ants gathered. Weed killed half of them. Weed ran away on the tree branches will taking shots when he could killing more ants until it no longer mattered. Once the swarm of ants reached a certain point they would continuously gathered more without any of their numbers being killed. Weed led them through a wild goose hunt through the swamp deliberately taking long turns until he reached the entrance to Lazarus¡¯s lair. To Weed¡¯s surprise there was nearly an equal amount of monsters that he had hunted 24 hours ago, well insects did spawn fast so it must because of that Weed thought. But today he couldn¡¯t stop and dodged the monsters, If the ants looked to be lost Weed would kill one to get them on his trail once more. Weed led the swarm to the entrance of Lazarus dungeon within 2 hours. It wasn¡¯t something anyone else could do as they would run out of stamina quickly something Weed offsetted thanks to his high endurance and cooking buffs. Large groups of users could not do so either as the chance of them of the falling behind and killed was very high. Finally Weed kick the door open loudly and shot severals arrows in, and then used two daggers to climb up the wall on the side of the doors until he was directly above the entrance. This was the trickiest part, as he had deliberately made the ants fall behind so he had time to climb up. Spotting the ants Weed shot several arrows at them alerting them of his presence as they charged towards him. It was at this moment the large spider within the cave came out. The two different invertebrates set their targets against each other. And the clash of bugs began...well sort of as spiders were not bugs at all. For Weed he stayed out of it and even if the ants spotted they could not reach his place since he covered the wall around him with a slippery substance he had cooked. The spiders could pin him down, but they were too busy fighting off the hordes of ants. It took hours but the giant spiders eventually died. While the amount of spider was large, the ants had a near unlimited supply of soldiers constantly going down the dungeon reinforcing the battle. All the while Weed gave a rotten laugh especially as he heard Lazarus¡¯ screams of pain. tr]
Status Window
NameWeedProfessionLegendary Heroic Spirit Gilgamesh
Level119RaceDemigod
TitleNone
Fame422
Health10,670Mana8,930
Strength611Agility588
Wisdom116Intelligence89
Stamina139Vitality159
Fighting Spirit198Luck65
Endurance102
Leadership51
Divinity78Dignity2
Art198
Attack889Defense256
Magic Resistence
Fire5%Water5%
Earth5%Black Magic5%
[p=left]Increase Health and Mana by 50% All stats increased by 50% Enables you to equip any items regardless of class Enables you to learn any skills regardless of class Enables you to master any skill up to grandmaster Enables Nobles and Royalty to treat you with respect Alignment changed to Chaotic Good Grants Divinity Stat Adds additional Fame and Reputations points whenever you earn them Race changed to Demigod Number of stats slots increased to 25[/p]
Author¡¯s Notes: If you are wondering why everything seemed so quick paced with no action or quests. That¡¯s because at Weed¡¯s current status he wants to regain the lost skills and levels that he could¡¯ve gain in those 3 months and hence his endless focus on grinding. Next chapter will be more on interactions and quests. And if you are thinking of how OP his class is...well he is probably going to be as OP as you think he is. *As for those of you who are wondering what sort of Quest Weed did, well you¡¯ll see later but not now. Part of the reason was because I know the basic outline but I wanted to make it more epic but I don¡¯t know how at the moment. Chapter 2: Kings Chapter 2: Kings "Next time I should definitely find a more efficient method to kill the boss. Preferably one that doesn''t involve me waiting several hours." Weed mumbled to himself as he was sifting through the remains of Lazarus'' cavern. The ants were only interested in meat so they had carried Lazarus corpse and the remains of the dead spiders away and out of the cave, presumably to their lair. One of the main reason''s Weed chose the ants to be his executioner was because they only wanted food and would ignore any items that dropped. Although it was too bad he wouldn''t be able to extract any materials from the dead bodies. He did get the last hit on Lazarus just out of spite and as a result his level rose by 4! Unfortunately since Lazarus had been carried off by the ants he couldn''t loot it. Weed was however compensated for this by the fact that he could ransack the various skill books within the cavern. Due to the age however most of them had rotted away. "Tch, he didn''t even have the dignity to keep his stuff in decent condition much less good condition." Weed said being extremely disdainful Lazarus even though he was dead now.
Magic Sphere A rather common techniques used by the Mage Knights of various kingdoms centuries ago. The sphere''s power is made to fit the user''s mana. However with the advent of elemental magic that did not require a natural affinity the technique lost popularity and was eventually lost through the ages. Rank: D Requirements: Intelligence 150
A breakthrough! Among the various skill books that were available Weed had finally found a combat one! The various struggles he had undergone with absolutely no combat skills at all! Weed almost wept with tears of joy, he probably would have if it was actually a sword technique. However it would still be awhile before he could learn the skill as his intelligence was only 89. Weed did the calculations. If he placed all of his 20 points into intelligence with the additional benefits from his skills and class then he would have 128 intelligence points and that would require 12 more levels before he could reach 150. Weed began to ponder on the thought. He was already a jack of all trades in the crafts area being a sculptor, tailor, blacksmith, and cook. In fact Weed had planned to learn additional skills when he had the chance such as jewelry crafting and even enchanting. In fact he wanted to level up all those skills to grandmaster level. His class allowed him to learn any skill to master level, be it magic or physical. So if Weed wanted to he could be both a master in magic and melee unlike other classes that were often limited to one area of expertise or multiple ones but they were weaker than the ones that focus on one area. Still it wouldn''t be good if he started out as a jack of all trades for combat since it would lower his overall combat ability. Thinking about it Weed decided he would continue his quest for power through physical means while supplementing it with magic when possible before focusing on magic. After all he only had one skill book relating to magic at the moment and most of his stats were devoted to and would continue to develop towards physical combat. Deciding on the issue Weed place the skill book within his gate and continued to throw all the books and tomes into the gate. Most of them were related to alchemy and not to mention the copies but Weed took them all even if they had rotting spines and bookworms eating through the ancient pages within them. This was an absolutely huge catch. Up until this point there had been no alchemist class or skill even existing. Well there were NPC alchemist but they required you to have some foreknowledge about alchemy or an unknown level in herbalism before they would even think about taking you on as an apprentice. So no player had ever become an alchemist. Realistically and objectively speaking. The alchemy skill should have been discovered ages ago because of the location of the skill books, within a swamp that a single party of players about level 200 could conquer. But it absolutely reeked and that was the only thing stopping people from conquering the land. The users sense of smell and delicate sensibilities of finding insect like monsters ''gross'' and thus avoiding them. Weed however had no such compunctions and was thus able to completely ignore the smell that would''ve driven grown sewer workers to their knees at its absolute foulness! Driven on by thoughts of profit weed continued and this allowed him to reap absolutely massive profits. If one had alchemy the expected profits would be beyond huge. Weed had heard that they could even make potions and potions were expensive luxuries that were few and far between and to be vigorously hoarded and saved for the rare moments of need. Unlike most healing techniques that took a certain amount of time for the full effect or any effect to apply. The potions simply needed to be consumed and the effects immediately happened and couldn''t be interrupted apart from having the potion knocked out of your hands or having the container it was in break. Not to mention the many books...er scrolls of Lazarus'', the Mad Alchemist''s, personal recipes! They were one of a kind. Well until the next group of users killed Lazarus who would respawn after a lengthy period of time. Weed however doubted anyone would come on account of the terrain around the dungeon After ransacking what he could Weed left the cavern and headed back into the spacious cave full of stalactites and stalagmites. It was relatively clean since it wasn''t really that long after the Titan Ants had left killing most of the monsters on the way so most of the monsters had yet to respawn. Weed did come across a few straggling or lost ants, to which he mercilessly slaughtered. Once he made it to and out of the entrance Weed slightly grimaced. Even for someone as stout as him staying in such repulsive place had its limits and he was fast approaching his. Deciding to come back when his level was higher Weed left the foul and disgusting place that was the Eerie Swamp¡­ more like Vomit Inducing Swamp. Weed took a detour for a bath in the lake. ''Perhaps they made the game a little too real. Ugh I can still smell the stench.'' Weed had to spend hours scrubbing himself raw before he moved onto his clothes, his armor and finally polishing everything before the stench finally disappeared. But once he was done it made Weed feel much better. Hunting there reminded him too much of the times when he was younger and had to work in factories and sweatshops with foul levels of hygiene, he had tried with his considerable willpower to repress the memories but they still came out when he took too much joy and was summarily distracted when the ants were ripping Lazarus limb from limb. Along the way back to Serabourg Weed garnered the attention of many users due to the unique design of his armor. It wasn''t that there wasn''t armor as good as Weed, not that users could tell without identifying it, but the engravings Weed made is what made him stand out. Having had enough of the attention Weed decided to unequip his armor, it was however done with great reluctance. He wanted the high quality equipment but without the attention it brought. Having thought about this Weed decided to make a cape. Going with the same train of thought. Weed mused that he could make several pieces of armor from different materials with the same design making them a set. When equipment is equipped that are of the same set they created a union effect that the individual pieces couldn''t thus making the whole set greater than the sum of its parts. Adding a cape as an extra piece would let Weed increase the set effect and his profits to roughly twice as much as normal because the set effect would be worth that much. The first thing Weed did when arriving back into the city was go to the various tailor specific shops to buy well material... obviously of all kinds. He bought all colours of the textile materials from purple, to black even white and dark blue made an appearance with its opposite in the form of red tagging along. Material of all qualities were bought by Weed. From beginner level items such as pelts from rabbits and foxes to intermediate quality material in the form of Deer pelts. A cape looked simple to make, but in truth it was not as there was a specific shape one had to make like a rolled out cone with the top part cut off. Most people made the mistake of using a square piece of course if the piece was too round that was bad. Also the fabric had to be a certain thickness. Of course the just having the fabric cut out in a certain shape would not cut it. You also had to consider where the cape would hang or if the cape was directly connected to the armor. But the effects of the cape would be increased exponentially if you added jewelry onto this thought Weed made his way towards the Jewelry-Crafting guild in order to learn the craft the guild was named after, Jewelry-Crafting. The guild master contrary to Weed''s exception was a gruff man with a thick beard who looked perfect in a blacksmith''s workshop with the exception of the glasses with incredibly thick lens. Despite the man''s seemingly clumsy hands he was working with great dexterity on what seemed to be a golden necklace. Weed wanted it, hell he wanted anything that was worth something. He knew nonetheless that he could not or it would raise the NPC''s enmity. Craftsmen more than anything hated to be interrupted while they were concentrating on their work. Weed could sympathize, since he too was the same. Just envisioning getting bumped on the shoulder while pouring metal such as gold or iron and having that spill over your workstation was enough to drive many good craftsmen into a rage. Weed himself would be no exception. While waiting for the skilled Jewelry-Crafter to finish Weed took out a relatively small sapphire that he had taken from Lazarus''s lair. His level in sculpting was intermediate 3, and thusly making small statues out of common materials such as wood or stone just didn''t cut it for him anymore. Plus jewels were far more aesthetically pleasing to look. It was like the jewels themselves were demanding justice from Weed as he crafted them. Demanding he do his absolute best. And this time instead of mindlessly crafting the sculptures like he did when making Seoyoon, Weed pictured his beautiful sister, his precious sister. The basic outline was carefully etched into the jewel first, then a clearer detail of the body was etched into the jewel and before long the body itself and the clothing could be told apart. Gingerly smoothing out the rough edges to give the picture of smooth skin and the softness of the sundress despite the hardness of the gem. Finally Weed began to shave away the face of the sculptor giving way to the beautiful face of his sister. Triing!
Fine Piece: You have created the Carefree Woman The material used to create this fine piece was a flawed sapphire. Despite the phenomenal difficulty in sculpting a gem, the talented artist through patience has created a piece of art worthy of appreciation. Artistic Value: 490 Increase charm by 70 points Increase water affinity by 30% Effects stackable with up to two other sculptures Number of Fine Pieces Created: 2 You have gained 33 points to the Art stat You have gained .9% water magic resistance Fame has increased by 10
Sculpting has increased to intermediate level 4
It was good and he could obviously tell that the woman was smiling, but...it wasn''t Hayan. It looked like her but it simply wasn''t Hayan. It perplexed Weed to no end as he continued to eye his creation with a critical eye he tried to discern where he went wrong and why it wasn''t Hayan. Weed heard the clapping as he removed himself from his hyper focused state. Looking up he realized that the head of the jewelry crafting guild was clapping at him and like a block that held the silence giving way the other observers who were looking were also clapping or at least started clapping with the block removed. It seemed that Weed was too focused on sculpting his precious sister. As an inexplicable amount of time had passed without himself realizing it. "Amazing, in all my years I have not seen a sculptor with skills such as yours. I am Dimond the head of this guild, may I enquire as to why a skilled sculptor such you has come to the Jewelry Crafting Guild?" Seeing this as an opportunity that had opened up due to his artistic creation thanks to the sculpture in his hand, he had gained the guildmaster''s respect Weed stood up from where he had sat down to steady his hands to sculpt and bowed deeply. "Greetings Dimond-nim, my name is Weed and I have come here to learn the art of jewelry crafting so that I may further refine my sculpting skills." "It is indeed. As honorable a reason as any. However Weed-nim I cannot just teach it to you even after seeing you create such a masterpiece before my very eyes. In order to learn the art of Jewelry crafting you first prove yourself by creating a ring." Saying this Dimond gestured towards a line of workstations within the guild building. Weed nodding as he walked towards the weathered and old station that had seen more use than any of the other stations lined along the walls, he sat down looked at the tools with a critical eye discerning what would be of use for the ring he was about to make. Taking out a single gold coin from one of his many pockets Weed gingerly placed it within one of the stone melting cups and placed it over the small magical fire that was burning intensely in the workshops corner. He was going to craft a gold ring! Once the golden coin had turned into a small puddle of glowing golden liquid in the stone cup he removed it from the fire. Looking around for a mould of some kind because he didn''t have the foresight to make one himself he spotted it in the opposite corner to the fire. It was small and clearly well used ¡­ a bit too well used after grabbing it and gently prying it open as to not damage it in anyway he discerned that there was no pattern in the mould he nodded to himself as he closed the mold after filling in some minor leaks and began to gently pour the metal into the mold or he would have if the metal was the right consistency having cooled considerably since he took it of the flame so he had to put it back onto the fire to heat it up again When he had finished pouring the gold into the mould he began running through the various designs in his mind for what to engrave onto it later. He did this simply to pass the time because he needed the molten gold within the mould to set. Normally Weed would have cried tears of blood at having to waste gold like this but in his mind right now he wasn''t wasting gold he was making gold literally. The ring that he was making well he''d already planned to sell it for at least 2 gold. A quick tap to the side of the mould let him know that it was ready. After gently prying the mould open again he noted that the gold was slightly set and he could probably bend the gold with just his fingers alone it was still malleable enough that he could deform his ring if he wasn''t careful. Taking all the care one would when handling a delicate piece of art worth billions of won he delicately ¡­ Oh so delicately held the blank form of his ring and expertly ignoring the goggling of the idiots surrounding him because he was holding a molten hot ring ¡­ in reality he didn''t even feel the pain because of his ridiculously high endurance stat. He began to carve lines that ran from a centerpiece of the ring to the sides linking up at the back as if the ring itself was a clip. with that minor task done he began the real reason for taking the ring out early he gently as if guided by an invisible force started shaving off layers of gold from all around the ring layers not even millimeters thick began to waft of the ring wherever his knife went the soft delicate gold shavings soon followed. Before long he had finished the task and putting the ring back down on the bench to cool he began looking through his inventory for another knife to use as the steel had warped his current knife. Weed put it down and let it fully cool. He could have made the square he had just finished carving into the ring when it was cool but then the edge would have looked too sharp and Weed wanted it to be soft edge. In truth had he just left the ring to cool without doing anything Weed knew he would have gotten the skill regardless but there is nothing wrong with showing off once in a while. Finally the ring was cool enough for Weed to use his engraving knife without it warping the metal to etch the design he planned in his mind with clear and sharp detail. First he used his engraving knife to delicately shave the rough edges down to make it smooth removing the excess gold that managed to seep into the cracks from where the two moulds connected. Then he began to slowly carve a design into the ring. It was almost like sculpting only the finished product on the ring would be flat and not 3 dimensional. Thanks to his high handicraft skill and his hard earned abilities with sculpting Weed was able to create a high quality ring. One half of the ring held the design on an angel with a heavenly background, while the other was a horned devil on top of a hellish background the lines carved in earlier being expertly hidden within the designs. "In all my years..." The instructor gasped and was absolutely amazed. It showed in the way he looked with honest enrapture at Weed''s creation. Needless to say he got the skill.
Ring of the Paradox Despite being originally a simple and plain golden ring, the artist who created this ring was a skilled sculptor and due to his skills the ring became a great piece of art that many will debate the ring''s design due to the beauty and controversy. Options: The wearer will appear 10% stronger to other plays and mobs within 50 levels (Above or Below) The wearer will appear 10% weaker to other plays and mobs within 50 levels (Above or Below)
Weed promptly left the guild building once he learned what he initially went for. The jewelcrafting skill and bought the necessary tools and moulds to create jewelry. But there was still one thing that befuddled Weed and that was the sculpture he made of his sister earlier or more like attempted to at least. Even now it still continued to nag at him. So once he found a comfortable spot he took out another decently sized jewel and began sculpting his sister Hayan. It took him hours but it was eventually finished only this time Hayan was in her school uniform carrying a bag he agonized over it however because it was still shallow and wasn''t Hayan. Frustrated Weed began carving another piece...and another...and another! Until he had finally created over a dozen different sculptures of Hayan and spent more than SIX hours working at before his patience finally hit its limit. "I don''t get it! I perfectly depicted how Hayan should look but why is it different!?" Weed finally cried out in a fit of frustration and startling the people who were watching him. He had already noticed small group of onlookers looking but none of them bothered him probably because they could tell how focused Weed was. "I mean I carved it to how I look at Ha-" Weed cut his sentence mid word as he was hit by a utterly startling epiphany. ''That''s right...I''m sculpting Hayan on how I look at her and not at how she looks at the world or even me. It doesn''t look like Hayan because I''m not carving Hayan ¡­ I''m carving my vision. My version of her. I''m not actually carving her at all!'' Realizing his error Weed once more began to sculpt with another decently sized gem only this time thinking at how Hayan acted or looked at the world around her instead of how he looked at Hayan. Trrrinnnng!
Fine Piece: You have created the Precious Little Sister The sculpture of a pure little sister. It is slightly muddled by the artist''s own view but there is a deep amount of thought that went behind the sculpture''s creation. When people look at the sculpture they can somehow feel the perfect and precious little sister that was behind the artist''s motivation as he made this lovely piece. Artistic Value: 800 Effects: Health and Mana regeneration increases by 22% for 12 hours. Fighting Spirit increases by 12% for 6 hours Vitality increases by 130 points for 4 hours. Effects stackable with up to two other sculptures
Number of Fine Pieces Created: 5 Fame has increased by 30 Vitality permanently increases by 1 Wisdom permanently increases by 5 Intelligence permanently increases 4
It was a breakthrough! Weed had finally sculpted his little sister and not only had he sculpted his sister he now understood the sculptor profession better. A sculptor must consider the object or person he is sculpting he must view it through the eyes of others and through their own eyes. "Umm, hello sculptor-nim but are these for sale?" It was a young man, in fact most of the onlookers were male drawn in by the beauty of Weed''s sister. Weed big brother instincts long thought buried surged to the surface as he glared at the man while he hastily placed all the sculptures he had made into his bag and stood up before stating in an incredibly loud voice. "My sister isn''t for sale!" he exclaimed. With his piece said Weed left the dumbfounded crowd in his wake as he left rather hastily ¡­ to protect his sisters virtue! After finally solving the mystery that had confounded him for so long Weed finally was able to return to his original objective: levelling up his jewelry-crafting skill to intermediate! Weed strategy was the same as the time when he had levelled up his blacksmithing, tailoring and cooking skills. To create a stall on the outside of a city gate which coincidentally happened to be the exact same place weed had chosen before. Summoning his stall Weed pushed it to the exact same place and once more sat down. Only this time he took out and set out the various japtem from the Eerie Swamp. Once he started the cooking process Weed took the branches that he had previously cut off from the trees and cut off wood he had used to make the beams that created the stall and cut them into small blank pieces. Afterwards he began to carve circles out of them and then into shapes. Each pair of circles had a different design with painstaking effort taken to ensure detail. Sometimes it was ovals or even diamond, other times it was asymmetric in shape. But once Weed was done he used the shapes to create the moulds he would use to make metals pieces to attach to the circles with the metal pieces to carve as ornaments for the earrings. At nothing short of an incredible rate weed had finished making enough jewelry to occupy a decent amount of his store from necklaces to earrings to rings and even bracelets and anklets were made by Weed. Normally it would not be possible but thanks to his high handicraft and sculpting it was made possible. Weed noticed that just like in real life you needed more than one skill to be more than slightly successful and improve beyond the normal person who would only focused on one skill. Doing such easy work with the wooden jewelry thanks to his handicraft skills levelled him up quite easily. But there was a limit to the wood he carried since he hadn''t made or collected anymore and it wasn''t long before he had started to use metal out of necessity to make jewelry and those took considerably longer to produce. It wasn''t long before the first customers started to come. Unlike last time he wasn''t dressed in clothes that made him look worse than a beggar. Most of his customers were low level female beginners. Since they were a low level they couldn''t afford regular the jewelry that often costed more than 5 gold unlike Weed''s cheaper ones that sold in silvers and coppers. Even if they were made from low quality wood they were pretty. The main selling point as it were but they also gave stats boosts. Although it was only 1 point since the material used to make was just wood and not having been enchanted yet left them costing small amounts of silvers. Weed had planned to eventually learn the enchanting skill however his intelligence wasn''t anywhere near high enough for now so he put it off till later¡­ much later. "Hey! You''re that guy that was selling the armor and clothes weeks ago weren''t you!?" One of the customer around the front of the small but growing crowd had shouted in surprise. He was a wizard judging by his equipment and staff. Weed gave him guileless business smile and replied. "Yes it was me, is there anything I can help you with ... would you perhaps like to buy something, A new robe maybe?" "Ah, yes I need a new robe can you make me one?" "Of course you should remember from before as long as you bring me the materials I''ll make anything you like." "Really!? Thank you so much." the played had exclaimed in joy. Having said that that the user handed Weed a craft item. While running the stall and at the same time Weed began to sew the user a new robe with his phenomenal multitasking skill. His jewelry crafting skill rate slowed to a mere crawl because of that announcement earlier but his tailoring skill did rise rather quickly as a result. The requests didn''t end there as more player ended up commissioning him to make them equipment too. Weed of course accepted them all since they were literally supplying him with what amounted to be an unlimited item supply and they were even paying him for using their items! The experience that came with making items was negligible on its own but it all added up rather quickly. Talk about double dipping. "Weed-nim!?" Looking up to see who called out his name, Weed found himself looking at the rather stunned visage of Pale, Surka, Irene, and Romuna. They hadn''t seen each other since that night when they hunted foxes together. They had changed much from their days as low level players. Now Surka was wearing a short sleeve cheongsam and kung fu pants, Irene was wearing a white vestment with a short cape, Romuna now held a staff along with black mage robes, and Pale was wearing leather armor as well as his new and higher quality bow. "Long time no see, Pale-nim, Irene-nim, Romuna-nim, Surka-nim." Weed greeted them as he continued sewing. It was all methodical for him since this was the way he had worked when he was a child in labor and found ways to remove himself from the pain of constantly sewing under horrible conditions that the places he worked at had. "You didn''t respond to any of our whispers so we thought you quit Royal Road for some reason." "No, I was just very...busy." Weed muttered darkly as an ominous aura sprung up around him making it rather clear that they shouldn''t ask. During the time when he had to regain his skill masteries. He deliberately turned off the whisper function so that no one would bother him. "I-I see." Irene replied as she succumbed to the suddenly intimidating aura that was being emitted by Weed. "Excuse me for a moment." Having finished the robes he was working on he quickly and efficiently gave it to the user and received his promised 5 gold in exchange. "Did you need anything?" he asked politely. "Oh, no, not really." Romuna said, they had just been surprised at seeing Weed after all. But their joy at seeing one of their first friends on Royal Road gave them an idea. "Yeah actually, why don''t you join us next time when or when you have time?" "Yes, that''s a great idea! Even if you are a tailor we''ll protect you!" Surka boasted much to the other''s silent disapproval. As seen by their slight glare in Surka''s direction. It was a common conception that craft classes were weak at combat, since in their eyes Weed was currently tailor they did not see him as a fighter even if they have seen him fight before. "Oh! I don''t mean it that way. I mean if something overwhelms you, you can leave it to us." The others sighed and racketed their glare up a bit at Surka''s even worse words. Weed felt no need to correct it so he allowed to carry on that misconception. His real class was truly unique, even among the secret classes. Plus he had no real class battle skills yet so he could pass himself off as a craft class player if he was careful not to let them see his real health or mana. "Great! Whisper us when you have time." Saying those words the group left. They probably joined the line to ask something from Weed before they knew of his identity, but now that they know it was Weed they could ask him another time. With them gone Weed''s business proceed as usual. Finally after several days Weed''s jewelry crafting skill reached intermediate. Not only that thanks to his continuous hard work his handcraft had reached advanced level and gained a new skill known as Mind Hand.
Handicraft Skill reached Intermediate level 10, and transformed to Advanced Handicraft level 1. You gain a bonus when using hand tools and an increase in damage with all weapons. You can now learn certain skills related to the craft. Hand combat skills can now be learned regardless of profession.
Mind Hand: After achieving a near-legendary level of dexterity, you can summon the mythical "third hand" using your mind. Using the "third hand", it is possible to manipulate objects and even attack enemies. However, it is not possible for your "third hand" to use any skills. Mana consumption per second: 2
Logging out for the day Lee Hyun finally did what he had been putting off ever since he returned from the ''swamp of stink'' as he had coined it. As he was more concerned with leveling his jewelry crafting skill. Weed took the pictures from his capsule and uploaded the images of the appropriate items onto his selling list. Since he had a triple diamond rating on the website, his items would show up on the first page before they were sold. Weed had estimated that the items would cost at least 100,000 won since they were taught a never before seen skill, but because it was related to a craft class he estimated that the value would drop considerably as not many people wanted to be a crafter. Afterwards Weed went to bed but not before offering a small prayer for the profitable selling of his items. As expected, Weed from the Continent of Magic was still a hot topic among many players. The popularity was only increased by the fact that many users from the Continent of Magic migrated to Royal Road and the broadcasts CTS done thanks to acquiring the account.
"Weed! He''s posted something and its from Royal Road!"
"Beginner''s Introduction to Alchemy! It''s something no one has gotten before! Of the millions of players only Weed has discovered such a skill!"
"It''s weird, why has Weed only posted items from Royal Road now? Its been out for about 2 years now."
"Who cares, what I want to know is why is it a craft skill and not combat skill. Has Weed chosen a craft class?"
"Weed the Dark Knight choosing a craft class!? Are you crazy, there is no way Weed would choose such a weak class!"
"Yeah, you''re right he must have stumble upon doing exploring a super high level dungeons that Rankers wouldn''t even dare to go!"
"True, but why haven''t we heard anything from him until now though?"
Like this the discussion continued concerning Weed''s presence in Royal Road. Many people wanted to know more and the items Weed posted gave no clue to his whereabouts or even his general region! The commenters desperately wanted to know Weed''s status within Royal Road. As Weed was THE symbol of professional gaming. In fact several people bidded just to have a chance to meet Weed. The auction was set to end in a week allowing the price to rise higher and higher. When Weed woke to his surprise the bid had already reached over ?200,000. "Hmmm, maybe I''m underestimating the rarity of the alchemy skill." The thought that he was famous never once crossing his mind. Well it didn''t matter to Weed so long as he received a good price for the item. Weed proceeded to make breakfast for Hayan and himself before he started excercising follow his routine designed to keep his body in top shape. It was important to keep a healthy body after all. A strong mind rests in a sound body he believed he had heard someone spout before while he didn''t believe in much he certainly believed in this. Once again Weed logged back into Royal Road after climbing into the capsule after a shower. Since generally when one changed armor they had to literally take it off instead of it magically appearing as it did in older MMOs most people looked for spots without prying eyes to change. Of course Weed could use his gate of Babylon, but that would attract attention. He''d just finished this thought when he spotted a place he could change and ducked into it. Once he once again wore the Angelic Armor Set Weed equipped the Angelic Cape. It was the last cape he made before he left the outside of the gates yesterday. He had made several in his practice for his final one and he sold the ones he used for practice. The one he currently wore was embellished with embroidery of the angelic woman he had sculpted onto his armor and used two pin like jewels to connect it to his chest armor over his pauldrons. The hands of the women themselves resting around his broad shoulders with her hands coming to the front to give the allusion that she was pinning the cape together. Her embroidered hands holding the ''jewel'' pin in place giving the combined effect of the angelic woman closing his cloak and embracing him at the same time. Like a king about to leave for war being embraced by his wife who would faithfully wait at home for him to come back to. The cape increased his dignity as well as loyalty and commanding abilities. Perfect for when he large amount of npc soldiers. Now after finally seeing the results and the effectiveness of his new class, Weed had finally calmed down enough to remember about what Rodriquez had requested of him before he left on his cursed quest for the class. -"Nonsense, once you completed the quest please come back I would greatly love to hear you tale."- Within Weed''s mind this was no doubt a followup quest. Weed had done his research and found out Mankind''s oldest recorded epic, the Epic of Gilgamesh, once he found out about his class. "Halt! What is your business here stranger?" Just like the last time Weed came here the soldier repeated his inquiry. Did the soldiers have a manual on how to greet people? "It is at the request The Star that I have returned. Surely you remember me? The man who waited out the front of his doors until The Star of Wisdom gave in and allowed me to meet him." As if suddenly struck by lightning, the soldier remembered Weed, as he was a peculiar and THE most persistent man he had ever met. "I see, I do remember now, in fact I have even heard small tales of you Weed-nim." "Have you? I would love to talk but would you inform the Star of Wisdom that I have returned and succeeded?" "Yes, I will. Please wait here while I deliver your message Weed-nim" Having said his piece the soldier hastily walked into the gates to inform Rodriquez. If this was before, the guards wouldn''t have even entertained the thought of helping him deliver a message but with his fame resting at a respectable level of just over 600 points mostly in thanks to his persistent sculpting. The guard delivered the message without so much as a thought of protest. The sculptor class gave fame and other increases in state whenever a sculpture was created, depending on the sculpture itself the increases could vary from magic affinity to just physical attacks. However Weed was another class entirely, the bonuses he gained from sculpting was not as much as a sculptor. But that was easily offset by the stat increase due to his unique class. Opening the gates to the round mansion the soldier came forwards and bowed to him likely out of respect. "His highness welcomes you with open arms." As soon as he had finished he moved out of the way allowing weed to progress on his way into the mansion owned by Rodriquez. "Speak, Weed-nim let me hear of your tale." Rodriguez said as he welcomed Weed to have a seat. Weed began his tale making sure to embellish where he could but not too much never know when pride could get you killed. He of course he omitted a few details in order make his journey seem all the more heroic.
Once he had sufficiently leveled to what he deemed was a sufficient enough level Weed gingerly took out the medallion when he was in a secluded area away from any and all prying eyes of course he was even paranoid enough to make sure no animals of any kind were around. [box border=1 cellpadding=0 cellspacing=3 width=80% bordercolor=#202020 bgcolor=#f5f5f5][col colspan=4 valign=middle width=100% bordercolor=#202020 bgcolor=#f5f5f5][pc]Would you like to start the quest?[/pc][/col][col colspan=2 valign=middle width=50% bordercolor=#202020 bgcolor=#f5f5f5][pc]Yes[/pc][/col][col colspan=2 valign=middle width=50% bordercolor=#202020 bgcolor=#f5f5f5][pc]No[/pc][/col][/box] "Yes" Immediately Weed''s vision was engulfed with golden lights forcing him to close his eyes else he risk temporarily blinding himself and when the lights he could still clearly see through his eyelids cleared he tentatively opened his eyes and was Utterly Stunned Speechless. The site that greeted his eyes amazed him so much it left him stunned in awe for more than a few minutes. The ground was comprised of golden sand as far as the eye could see, aside from the golden colored rubble that was obviously from old buildings that perhaps once existed on these lands. Actually the ground was stretched as far as the eye could see and Weed would later find out that it was only 10 miles in diameter and the ground was more like a floating island surrounded by a golden aurora. In front of Weed was what amazed him the most. It was like a castle merged with a temple, an absolutely ancient and circular styled temple. It was obviously old ancient even as seen from the numerous cracks and it too was golden, but despite it seemingly made of pure gold the structure was somehow not gaudy. Buried within the sand was from what Weed could were numerous sculptor of warriors. He could see knights, desert warriors, and all kinds of warriors from around the world and different times. Looking around Weed could see no other point than to walk towards the large structure, but to Weed it seemed too simple. First Weed crept closer towards the rubble as a way to hide himself as he looks around for any sign of made Weed''s suspicion even worse when there was none. It was an S-ranked quest so there should be some difficulty. Setting onto his next target Weed crept closer to a warrior with long dark hair wearing a golden helmet, a long shirt that reached past the knees made of square metal plates each the size of Weed''s whole body, and a iron sword and shield. Weed practically salivated at the thought of collecting the materials used to make the golden sculptures, but stopped himself from touching at the last moment. He hadn''t completely made sure it safe yet, plus he didn''t know where to go even after he collected the materials. First Weed walked around the sculpture that was half buried into the sand. Nothing was standing out about except it''s excellent quality. Tentatively Weed neared it and with slight hesitation knocked on the sculpture and back away immediately behind a cover. He was afraid that the sculpture would suddenly become alive as they were the only thing in plain sight that could pose a threat to him. Weed waited for at least thirty minutes before sighing and going back to the sculpture. Taking out his engraving knife Weed began to carve a chunk of the gold off all the while staring at the sculpture careful for any movement or at least he would''ve liked to as the sculpture began to move as he feared. Thanks to the mastery of his body the shaking ground did not hinder his fleeing actions in the slightest bit, but unfortunately there was a wide gap in levels between him and the statue it was made apparent too when the towering golden statue appeared in front of Weed. Its face set in a rictus of rage and anger that he just managed to catch a glimpse before it dropped its sword on him bifurcating him. What a way to die. Weed banged his head on the wall next to his capsule repeatedly at his stupidity. He even proclaimed his stupidity repeatedly¡­ and loudly. "Stupid! Stupid! Stupid! Stupid! Should''ve known not to touch those monsters!" Weed repeatedly berated himself for letting his guard down. It was an amateur''s mistake that he had made. It was obviously a trap, he had tricked himself into thinking that the sculptors were inanimate after he only hit it once. 24 hours after his death which he used to tend to the animals living at his house and exercise. Weed returned once more and this times carefully moved surveyed the sculptures making sure to mentally map their locations. Looking around Weed noticed the items he dropped after he had been killed and carefully moved closer to pick them up, all while wary of an attack. Thankfully for him the attack did not occur and he regained his item. This time Weed carefully snuck towards the temple all the while careful not to make any noise and avoid the direct vision of the warrior sculptures. It seemed all was going well, but Weed wasn''t going to let his guard fall again. And once he stepped within a certain radius of the temple the sculptors came to life and Weed''s life ended once more. It was frustrating, but Weed was nothing but tenacious. He returned once more and got killed, but he determined the boundary of where the sculptors would spring to life and and end his life. Weed then tried a different tactic: Kill the sculptures while they were still inanimate. He died numerous times and each time he attacked a different part to determine how much damage he could do. The result? Not even a single hit point was dropped from any of Weed''s attack. Even if it was the strongest monster 500 levels higher than his if Weed got one attack in, the monster would have dropped one health. But the sculptors didn''t so Weed concluded that he had to find a method to avoid the sculptures. By this point Weed had already died over 20 times and his levels had dropped to the thirties within 10 days. Normally that would not have been possible as the penalty for dying was the user unable to log in within 24 hours, but thanks to Weed''s consecutive deaths it kept dropping until it was only a 4 hour penalty. Not that it made Weed any happier as it only sped up the loss of his levels and even his skills! In between those time before he was allowed to log on, he visited a dojang and even faced the Ahn Hyundo, the master of the dojang and world famous sword practitioner, with a steel sword no less! Afterwards Lee Hyun had influenced all the members of the dojang to play Royal Road, but that''s a story for another time. Normally skill mastery stopped being dropped at 0% but as penalty for the large number of death without increasing them at all they decreased in level too! It was one of the worst form of torture Weed had ever endured. From that point on Weed tried every possible thing he could think of, even the ridiculous ones. Hell he even discovered a buried stone path that led to the front entrance of the temple, but it was obviously too much of a trap so Weed didn''t even try it. He died many more times and finally was desperate enough to walk on it towards the temple...he was butchered and killed. Weed stopped counting the number of deaths he had after 57 since that was when all his skill mastery became 0, at beginner level 1! Freaking one! It got to the point that even Weed despaired and began to contemplating on whether or not to delete his character and start a new one. It was at this moment when Weed stopped caring that he walked towards the stone path, his shoulder slouched, his every step slow and full of burden. When he saw the animated sculptures running towards him, he only whispered, "Stop" To Weed''s great surprise, they obeyed him and stopped. To Weed who had lost countless lives trying to accomplish this effect fell forward and his knees hit the ground relieved. But once that happened the sculptures started to move and they killed him once more. But for Weed it signify a great accomplishment as he began to analyze why they had stopped. First of all he was standing on the stone path and he spoke the word stop. So he had to order them to stop or do it while on the stone path. Second they only moved once again after his knees touched the ground so he had to be standing or it was a time limit. Weed experiments more and discovered the conditions: 1. He had to walk on the stone path 2. He had to order them to stop 3. He had to keep walking 3 simple conditions that drove Weed to the brink of despair. But it was all in the past now and Weed gave his vulgar smile once more as he stepped passed the temple doors. Tiirrrrring!
Arrived at the Mausoleum of Heroic Spirit Gilgamesh! Quest complete
What greeted Weed''s eyes was a room filled to the absolute brim with gold and treasure of every imaginable and even unimaginable kind. There was even weapons and armors, but just as Weed took a step forward a light blinded him once more, just like when he was first teleported into the area. When the light died down Weed was greeted with a scene straight from a historic film. He was standing on the highest platform on what seemed to be a pedestal made to give offerings to the god. Standing next to Weed was what seemed like a priest and all around at the ground were countless dark haired and dark skinned people surrounding the pedestal and bowing down. Weed realized that it was like a cut scene from the games once he learned that no one could see him. Then it happened. A giant ray of blinding light appeared from the heavens and blinded the people while covering the priest whole, when it stopped the priest was carrying a blond haired and crimson eyed baby that seemed to radiate the aura of royalty, The Royalty of Royalty. A KING!. The priest then raised him into the air and screamed in a hoarse voice for all to hear. "All Hail King Gilgamesh, Son of the Gods!"
You have witnessed the first moments of your past life as the King of Babylon Gilgamesh! Unique Class: Heroic Spirit Gilgamesh Attained! Blood of the Gods Skill obtained! Gate of Babylon Skill obtained!
Then the light engulfed Weed once more and brought back into where he had first disappeared from. Weed felt cheated. He had returned to being level 1 with zero mastery in any skills in return for a bunch of skills that only raised his stats. It didn''t seem fair to him and not only that he didn''t get to keep all the treasure within the mausoleum either. And...well you of course knew that he threw a tantrum but you already knew that.
"...nd that is how I learned that I am the reincarnation of the legendary King of Babylon." Weed finished to the now stunned Rodriguez. "...by the blessing of Freya!" He cried as he stared at Weed in a new light. Immediately bowing down to Weed. "Please forgive my previous insolence oh child of the Old Gods, Forgotten King of the Past."
Forgotten King Title obtained! Effects: Charisma +50 Charm +50 Loyalty of soldiers and citizens +5%
"No, no please stand up Rodriguez-nim." Weed said as he helped the Star of Wisdom back onto his seat. It wasn''t out of kindness of any kind but rather for intimacy points that Weed put on the benevolent mask. "If it was not for your guidance I would have never knew of my past life. It was entirely thanks to you that I discovered it." "Your majesty, you''re too kind." Rodriguez stood up and sat back down onto his chair but with a more subservient air to him as he conversed with Weed. "Never in my life did I think I would meet a child of god, please excuse my earlier rudeness." Weed smiled. "Oh no, you are the one that is too kind. Say I have a question, have you given anyone else such a quest?" Weed knew that there could be others like him that completed a quest and perhaps even gain a better class than him! He had to find out all his potential rivals. The sage seemed to pondered on whether or not to say but reluctantly decided to. "Plenty. I have given them to plenty of...promising adventurers such as yourself. Alas none but you have succeeded. Of course I only know of those who I''ve given too. Perhaps others might have received such quests from the sages of other kingdoms." "I see." Weed said in deep consideration. So sages from other kingdoms possess quest items like the one he received. That meant there were rivals from the powerful central continent. "Sage I have to ask is there any requirement that the adventurer must fulfill in order to accept the quest?" "Of course. The adventurer must have an attribute that corresponds with item associated the lost heroes. I have no knowledge of the heroes myself but using my insight as a sage and determine certain characteristic of the items left by the heroes. If I deem the adventurer possessing enough of the same characteristic then I will bestow the item to the adventurer." Weed nodded as he heard this. Absorbing the information Weed concluded that the way you conversed with NPCs had a major impact on whether or not you would be able to obtain the quest. Of course the user had to have a certain characteristic meaning that many users wouldn''t be able to accept or even know about the quest just based on the fact that they weren''t compatible. ''If I''d known about this, I would have researched heroes from legends more and maybe said something to get the class of King Arthur not Gilgamesh. I mean most of it is brute strength! I need skill as well although the stat boosts is very good.'' "Did any adventurer meet the requirement for you to give them such an item in recent time?" Weed wanted to keep tabs on his possible rivals and if possible allies with him as the leader of course. The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation. "Ah, I see your majesty is interested in those like you." The sage said more to himself than for Weed. "In fact a just the other day a young lady qualified for such a quest." "Really? Would you give me the honor of telling me her name?" "The honor would be mine, her name is Larda." "Could you describe her, if possible I would like to meet her." "Oh, she was quite young. Hmmm around her 20s? And beautiful, but there is room for her beauty grow, but what stood out was her silver hair." "I thank you, if you would excuse me I would like to search for her before started her quest." Weed said as he prepared to stand up. "Your majesty, before you leave would consider coming as my guest to King Theodarren''s banquet to celebrate his majesty''s 78th day of birth?" The sage asked with sincerity in his voice and eyes that were clearly filled with hope so much so it was blinding! Weed didn''t even need a second to consider as he agreed. After all no one else had ever been invited yet to meet the king of any kingdom within Royal Road. The most users did was the lower nobles. It was also a good chance to raise his intimacy with them just like he did with the soldiers. But compared to them, intimacy with nobles and the king himself was far more valuable. The date of the birthday was set to in a fortnight. Walking out Weed began his search for Larda. He had two desired outcomes. The first one was to make her a friend so in the chance that she did succeed she would be his ally, and as for the second outcome it was for him to attain the item one way or another so that he could give it to someone who would be more likely to follow him. However after hours of searching, Weed concluded that it was beyond hopeless. Even though Rosenheim was considered rather slow and relatively new due to the majority of the higher level players and even in the central continent, it was still quite a popular spot for beginners to start and thus even finding one person even though you knew the name was beyond hard. In addition there was a rather sizeable chance Larda has already accepted the quest. If it was anything like his quest, Weed concluded that she would have likely given up. If an analogy was to made with the people people who passed the Basic Training Hall. Then if less than .00004% pass the training hall then people who could pass the special class quest like Weed were less than .0000000001%! Those people Weed concluded would be his biggest rivals. Fortunately so far he had not heard a single thing about another person like him... unless they were hiding it like Weed was. Weed''s motto was to not waste anything and make use of everything including time. Remembering his friends more specifically. Romuna''s and the others offer to party together Weed contacted them post haste and arranged to meet them outside one of Rosenheim''s gates. When Weed arrived he saw that Pale, Surka, Romuna, and Irene were already there. When Surka saw Weed she waved her hand wildly towards him. "Nice to see you so soon, Weed-nim." Irene proclaimed in her bubbly voice... "Glad to see you came Weed-nim! We were planning on hunting Orcs." Romuna said as she slipped her arms around Weed''s as if they were a couple. "Don''t worry I''m level 128, so I''ll protect you from the Orcs." ''Isn''t'' this suppose to be the other way around?'' was the somewhat incredulous thought from weed. "What level are you Weed-nim?" Asking out of the blue was Pale. It was generally considered impolite to ask another player about his levels unless you shared a close friendship since many things can be ascertain from just a player''s level. Weed even sensed a small bit of hostility from Pale, it seemed that Pale was rather interested in Romuna. Weed didn''t care. In the first place Weed''s class was abnormal so normal logic could not be applied to him and it was furthered skewed by the abnormal amount of states that leveling his crafting skills afforded him. Knowing this Weed easily told them his level as he slipped his arm from Romuna''s grasp. "119" was the succinct answer he supplied the party. Pale looked rather satisfied and quite a bit smug as he himself told Weed his own level. "132" Seeing as three of the five users already introduced their levels, Irene and Surka felt it would be rude not to inform Weed of their levels. "Mine is 117," Surka said a bit embarrassed. "Out of the four of us I died the most so...ehehe..." Surka trailed off with the uneasy laughter clearly waiting for someone to fill in her. "Mine is 129, one level higher than Romuna''s, but that would only be because I''m the healer so I have a higher survival rate, small as it may be. I really want to use a sword and fight too though." Irene said as she let her apparent boon and regrets out to the party. "Well now that''s done, onward. Tonight we slay the hated Orcs." Saying her sentence as if she was the hero of an epic quest Surka pointed forward ''towards our goals!'' could almost be heard as she struck a pose. The silence that followed was absolute crushing for one simple reason! "Surka-nim, that''s the wrong direction." "..." An uncomfortable silence stretched on for a few more moments before they moved on, ignoring the faint blush on Surka''s cheeks.
The journey to the border of Brent Kingdom was to take about two days by horse but Weed being the materialistic and stingy bastard that he was built a wagon from scratch using nothing but his construction skills and the surrounding forest. Not only did this reduce the number of horses they would require from five to two it also allowed Weed to store exponential amounts of japtem whenever he wanted since he did not want to use Gate of Babylon in front of his party members. The group who had already been flabbergasted by the magnitude of crafting skills Weed had were even more baffled by his additional skills, shocked to the core would be a more apt term in truth. "Weed-nim¡­ exactly how many craftings skills do you have?" someone chimed in, Weed however wasn''t paying attention and answered absentmindedly. "Hmmm? I''ve Blacksmithing, Tailoring, Sculpting, Cooking and Jewelry Crafting at intermediate. Construction is only beginner sadly" There was real remorse in his voice when he said that. As though having FIVE crafting skills at intermediate meant almost nothing to him! The four: Irene, Pale, Surka, and Romuna could stare with their jaws not functioning correctly and producing incomprehensible sounds at amount and level of Weed''s many skills. For the rest of the travel albeit brief it was. They could only stare at Weed in apparent awe of his hard working nature. To raise a single crafting skill to intermediate was already mind boggling and tediously boring but to level five to intermediate!? That was also politely ignoring the giant pink elephant that the Construction skill was in this instance. "Alright we have arrived." Having said his piece Weed dismounted from the wagon seat, while the other four stepped down from within the wagon in a daze because they were still slightly in the throes of bewilderment at weeds crafting skills. Currently they had arrived at their destination just at the edge of the forest and slightly into The Great Plains. Smoke could be seen lazily wafting and drifting on the air currents the origin of the smoke however was not so serene as the smoke itself was from the Nomadic Orcs that the area they were in was rife with. "Okay before we go we need to prepare." Having said this weed began to systematically retrieve the items from his ''inventory'' starting with a small but good quality wood powered stove with wood already loaded, followed swiftly by cooking utensils and pans. The ingredients that followed were swiftly turned into sense tingling and stomach satisfying food before them in weeds nimble hands and fingers. Having done all the major preparations for the cooking he started removing the items he would need to apply the blacksmithing bonuses. As a side note he also brought out his Tailoring equipment needed to give buff''s, A worn hand washer and a single slightly worn iron. Holding his hand out vaguely in their direction Weed said (Read: Demanded). "Give me your armor." Much to the confusion and consternation of his current party members. "I have intermediate blacksmithing skills. I can polish your armor and give it boosted defence and possibly stat increases.." Upon hearing Weed''s explanation the party members were still a bit hesitant, however following Pale''s example gave whatever metal armor they had on them and in their inventory to Weed for him to use his alleged in their eyes Armor Polish. The act of polishing the armor wasn''t anything special simply repeating actions he''d done thousands. Possibly hundreds of thousands of times before. Under his experienced hand the armor was brought back to its initial lustre and polish as well as increased defense. Making the items looking ''fresh from the blacksmith''. "This!?" "Is this the advantage of a blacksmith!?" "Amazing!" Seeing the amazing results a intermediate level blacksmith could produce, Pale and co were truly and utterly dazzled by the results. "Next give me your clothes." In todays society such a line could be considered awkward at best and altogether degrading not to mention uncivil. But at this time and place after having seen weed turn their old armor into fresh of the press items the normally composed party all but shoved their clothes onto him with eager compliance. Weed took his party member''s clothes and using his Ironing and Hand Washing skill increased the defense of the items once more. Weed however wasn''t finished rolling out his surprises apparently as he served his beef stew that wasn''t really beef stew. Random monster part stew would be a much more apt term for it. The parts used in making this stew shall remain unlisted for even the most staunch of stomachs wouldn''t be able to handle. But the party didn''t know about this simply thought it was a delicious stew. (Jacob ''Reaper'' Smith, "I pity them. Sniff") But that wasn''t enough for weed. No, it was not as he briefly reached into the small bag on his hip he pulled out the two best sculptures of his sister made from expensive jewels and one of his best Seoyoon sculptures. The statuses and buffs given from one sculpture alone almost made Irene feel useless but all three? Let''s just not go there. Pale, Irene, Romuna and Surka who had previously underestimated the player known as Weed now looked at him with a new light they wouldn''t be down on their knees and worshipping him anytime soon but he did get moved quite a few pegs up in their minds. Make that a LOT more pegs. "Weed-nim..." Once they finished preparation the party headed out to hunt the Orcs. The group didn''t take long at all to spot their prey within the open plains. Although the plains seemed barren and empty it was only because they were only at the edge of Orc territory and as Orcs were known to reproduce rapidly and thus needing resources at an exponential rate. Finding Orcs was hardly the most difficult task. Killing them however¡­. "Irene-nim buffs." "Got it." was the succinct response before the buffs rained down upon them. Irene as the Cleric was in charge of increasing their stats using her buffing skills and also in charge of healing when necessary. Of course that was just the basics, a competent healer knew how to time the support skills as well as managing their mana they knew when to and not to heal their allies. They knew when you buff you and debuff enemies. A good cleric could save an entire party. As Pale was the long range attack being the group''s sole Archer, he struck first while Weed and Surka whom were the acting vanguard rushed forward. Pale under specifically given advice from Weed struck first with a poisoned arrow so that the damage would be continuous even if he used skills or just regular attacks. "Surka, we only need to prevent them from progressing! Don''t attempt to kill. Only weaken them evenly so that Romuna''s magic can finish them off!" Weed had decided to forgo the usual honorifics that he normally used as in the heat of the battle any action longer than necessary could cost him victory. It was also why he kept his sentences short, clipped if you will. Surka unleashed her Heavy Step skill. A single kick to the ground after using a skill to leap into the air for the extra momentum that the skill, Heavy Step, required. The resulting attack decreased the six Orcs'' health with minimal effect but the true purpose of the skill was made apparent when the enemies fell to shock and were unbalanced from the shockwaves the skill had produced. For skilled players or monster like Weed for example could rely on their real life training to ignore the shockwave and continue but for clumsy monsters such as Orcs, the effect was immense. Weed rushed passed Surka holding two extremely different swords, in his right hand he held Ea and in his left the Angelic Knight Sword that he had crafted earlier to compliment his armor. But what stood out most wasn''t the sword. Not even the angelic sword that he held, No that right was reserved for the shield floating behind his back as if held by an invisible hand. In truth the shield really was held by an invisible hand, courtesy of his skill, Mind Hand. With no combat related skills, but pure martial arts Weed attacked all six Orcs while they were still suffering the effects of Heavy Step. Once they showed the first sign of recovering Weed leapt backwards with Surka who was staring at his floating shield. Well it wasn''t like she was the only one. No one had seen a crafter, they couldn''t however determine what crafting class he was due to his apparent skill in numerous areas, with such battle prowess but well, really it was the floating shield that got them a never before seen skill! Deliberately aiming at the legs and toes Weed disrupted their sense of balance further when he could and whenever an Orc attacked him with a club or blunt weapon he used his Mind Hand to bring the shield forward to block the attack. Normally he would have been pushed back but thanks to his high stats Weed did not even budge. Hell he actually let in a few critical blows so that his health would lower into the red zone and a few glancing blows when his health was getting too high in order to raise his endurance and fighting spirit. ¡°Weed-nim, Surka get back now!¡± someone in the party hollard at them. Hearing Romuna¡¯s signal the vanguard duo attacked with one last vicious attack before leaping back just in time to escape Romuna¡¯s Inferno Tempest. A miniature tornado made of pure flames. The poison coupled with the damage done by Weed, Surka, and Pale with the final addition of Romuna¡¯s magic had utterly destroyed the party of Orcs. Normally users would cheer or even celebrate at destroying Orcs that were about ten levels higher than them but the party wasn¡¯t quite keen on celebration at the moment, rather they all had a question they wanted to ask Weed. ¡°Weed-nim, how did you make that shield float like that!!?¡± Surka being the youngest member of the group had absolutely no problems vocalizing her question in a rather loud manner. ¡°It¡¯s called Mind Hand. It¡¯s a skill you attain once your Handicraft skill to advance levels.¡± Weed said rather casually. ¡°Wait, hold on. I think I misheard. Did you say advance level?¡± Romuna voice was tinged with more than enough disbelief and incredulity to get the point across. ¡°Yes.¡± was the instant succinct answer from weed. ¡°Why didn¡¯t you tell us earlier!?¡± was stated by more than one incredulous party member. ¡°It isn¡¯t really a crafting skill. It¡¯s more of a support skill for crafting skills as it gives you a third hand. Any other questions?¡± Weed said as he internally sighed at his ¡®friend¡¯s¡¯ Mixed up expressions ranging from stupefied to bewildered. ¡°Weed-nim, I realized that at the beginning you took a lot of the hits aimed at you, but as your health got lowered into the red danger zone, you easily dodged the Orcs¡¯ attack. But whenever your health was rises above the red zone you deliberately got hit so that it stayed in the red. Why?¡± As was expected of Irene, she had been keeping tabs on everyone¡¯s health even in the midst of battle. ¡°That¡¯s simple. If you¡¯re health is in the red your endurance rises more.¡± Weed said quite proudly. ¡°In fact the attacks no longer hurt, they feel ticklish instead. The childhood friend of three plus a sister registerd what he said before and stared at Weed as if he was some kind of alien machine clad in human skin. . ¡®Is he an NPC?¡¯ ¡®No, even an NPC would also feel the pain.¡¯ ¡®Is he even a creature of the earth!?¡¯ ¡®HE MUST BE SUPERMAN!!!!!!¡¯ Were the collective thoughts of the party staring at the alien machine that was weed. Their thoughts unable and unwilling to listen to any attempts to reign them in ran rampant in their heads destroying what self control they had left before at some unseen or unheard signal they unanimously sighed before turning a flatly adamant look on Pale. It took Pale no more than a few seconds to promote weed to Party Leader.
After everyone save weed rebooted their brains after the mass shutdown that the party ventured further into the desolate plains that was the The Great Plains. Killing any and all monsters even if they had no inclination too. Weed¡¯s orders coupled with his unfailing dedication to destroy any and all monsters fueling it led to many more opportunities to battle with each other. Working in tandem with everyone in the party increasing the hunting speed¡¯s and thusly the loot rate. This continued on for a while before the inevitable fatigue set in clinging to them sapping their will and bodies of any will to continue further at all. They collectively would have left hours ago if they had a choice but as it was they never even got to open their mouths to complain such was the speed and fervor that powered their hunt for monsters. The speed of Weed¡¯s campaign for vengeance against any and all monsters was slowed considerably because he allowed minimal (to him) time after each battle before beginning a new one. The party was unanimously wishing for death or wishing for the death of Weed in equal parts. As the battle raged on around them with wave after wave of enemies they group slowly but surely became ¡®Brothers in Arms¡¯. Brothers forged through combat together, forged and tested in combat together. This drastically increased their already great teamwork to ever new heights. ¡°Surka you know how we all hated when our parents made us stop playing Royal Road and how we laughed ourselves silly when we they got addicted?¡± ¡°Yeah?¡± was Surka''s entirely exhausted reply. ¡°I wish that never occurred and that our parents is making us get off NOW!!!!!¡± Romuna answered this question with a minimal nod of her head. Saving her energy for future battles, they knew by now that nothing would stop this torture short of death but that was entirely unacheivable because of two factors. Weed and Irene. They were beginning to develop a phobia of healers and healing items. Bandages in particular, when you¡¯re young a bandage seems like a miracle cure able to cure you of all that ails you but now. In their eyes it was a diabolical device used to prolonging their exposure to the torture that was known as Hunting with Weed! After what seemed like days of nonstop hunting. Well technically they did experience days of hunting due to the capsule¡¯s ability to speed up time by a factor of four, all them were on their last legs both spiritually and mentally. Their minds making them think their limbs were made out of lead but Weed didn¡¯t even seem winded like he hadn¡¯t even thought about resting anytime soon. Heaven forbid actually stopping for awhile! ¡°Irene heal!¡± Weed commanded like a proper party leader should. The heals rained down swiftly upon them after Irene finished her healing chant / words of power needed to activate the skill. Everyone glared at Irene. No they hadn¡¯t grown a new found hate for Irene, just her now anathematized damn class. And even then when she ran out of mana Weed just used his advanced First-Aid with bandages to heal them!!! (Jacob ¡®ReapeR¡¯ Smith think this is some unique form of torture. I really do!) DAMMIT!!!! When Weed and co first arrived the Great Plains was quite literally littered with herds of Orcs and now...well let¡¯s just say that they might go extinct if Weed continued to hunt the Orcs on the Great Plains. ¡°Alright, go home and get some rest.¡± Pale and co couldn¡¯t believe their ears, had Weed just given his permission for them to leave the tortuous hunt?They could already envision it, their bedraggled and messy hair with their heads falling onto their pillows with the pillows making a whoosh sound as the air in it left with the onslaught of weight from the new head on it. Closing their eyelids and releasing the mental tension on their spiritually abused muscles. It was a heavenly sight that they were all but salivating over. ¡°You have a few hours to sleep, about two to three times more than normal. I have to go to town and sell all our japtem.¡± Weed the merciless declared! CRACKK!!!!!!!! That, was Pale, Romuna, Irene and Surka¡¯s heart shattering along with their mind and bodies as Weed dropped the figurative bombshell on them when they all had finally thought they would be able to escape the Hell Hunting with Weed. With the way things had been for the past few days with Weed allowing minimal sleep (Read: Minimal for him) time, they were at their wit¡¯s end. Following this announcement they all but screamed to the heavens, ¡°NO WAY!!!!¡± Weed just stared at them as they froze at comprehending what they just done. They have seen their leader fight, kill, and plunder the poor Orcs. They had witnessed firsthand the destruction and terror he was capable of inflicting and instilling into his enemies, they had learned the fear of god watching Weed and now... they had just defied him. They all mentally whimpered as he looked at them as if sizing them up while rubbing his chin in thought. Perhaps he was thinking of ways to kill them! Moments passed before Weed finally sighed as if admitting his defeat. ¡°Fine, make that two hours to sleep, I¡¯ll be back in eight game hours since you¡¯re all so eager to continue hunting.¡± With that said Weed the Merciless left before any objection could be said. ¡®That was close, I didn¡¯t think they would object to staying and waiting for me to come back while I returned to sell the japtem. While they weren¡¯t looking I loaded some japtem into the Gate of Babylon and if they come with me, I would have to wait to sell them.¡¯ The journey towards the nearest town didn¡¯t take as long as Pale and co would have thought mostly due to the fact that Weed had stored all the japtem including the wagon into his Gate of Babylon and he made a beeline straight to town, directly cutting through Lycan Forest. Any monster such as the Great Wolves and Werewolves that inhabited the forest that came in between him and his goal or just generally into his line of sight were promptly cleaved into two by Weed. He would¡¯ve stopped to strip them of any and all usable materials but he was short on time so he didn¡¯t. This action, or rather inaction hurt him so much that he shed tears of loss at the loss! Once he arrived outside the town, the name of the town for which he didn¡¯t particularly care enough to remember or had forgotten, Weed immediately took out both of the wagons he had stored discreetly and used the horse to pull one in while he pulled the other wagon in himself garnering much attention from the local residents and the nearby users. Both wagons were filled to the brim with japtem and some literally spilled out. Weed naturally kept the more valuable and usable items such as ores and jewels to himself and by proxy in the Gate of Babylon, pure and low grade they may be but using his crafting skills he could easily enough pull out high quality items from them to a certain extent at least. Due to the time constraint Weed had planned to sell it directly to the store itself but then a certain merchant class player came. ¡°Hello, I¡¯m Mapan. You planning on selling all that japtem?¡± Immediately Weed¡¯s business face appeared and it exuded a visage of friendliness. ¡°Yes, of course I am. I¡¯m planning on selling it in the city since it would be worth much more.¡± Weed easily saw through the veneer of confidence on the merchants face to the fear and insecurity in the merchants eye. ¡°No! I mean that wouldn¡¯t be efficient at all! You have to travel all the way to the capital by yourself and pull the wagon too since you only have one horse, BUT! With me here I can easily make up for the difference in prices. You see I¡¯m a merchant and if you sell to stores here, the profit would be 2% of the original price. If you sold at the city it would be 3%. I could pay at least 15% more than the stores and when in bulk, I''ll pay at 18% more. I would be buying with only 2% margin left for me." Mapan said rather proudly. As a matter of fact he had just graduated from a beginner by reaching level 101. Users level one to 100 were considered beginners in the eyes of the majority of players and those level 100 to 200 were considered average. Weed, being the shrewd businessman that he was waited a while, appearing on the outside to contemplate to see if any of the surrounding merchants would offer a better deal and with none forthcoming, he finally complied with the merchant, Mapan. The process was time consuming and tedious because Mapan didn¡¯t have enough gold on him to purchase much in bulk and with each time he bought and sold the amount he could buy and thus sell making the profit and amount he could buy from weed increase exponentially. It wasn¡¯t long before the mine known as Weed was dry of resources for the merchant. With his mountains of Japtem sold weed set a cracking pace back to the others, spriting most of the way. Yes sprinting because he had a tag along with him and he was sprinting to make sure the path was clear, the tag along was none other than the merchant that had found the mine of resources known as Weed. Merchant Mapan! The poor fool. Mapan had somehow gotten the thought that if he follow Weed there would be riches for him because Weed was a jackpot of resources. Now, let¡¯s set aside this to pray for Mapan¡¯s future as a honest merchant and moral person. That which will be inevitably and horribly disfigured by Weed. He could have grown to be a honest man and middle class business man. But no, he traded that to become a corrupt executive that made trillions of won every year that would never get caught for his under the table and back alley deals¡­ that actually doesn¡¯t sound so bad. But back to the present, Mapan had offered him extra space with his wagon to store Japtem, for which Weed didn¡¯t care for since he had the Gate of Babylon. But what Weed actually wanted and had shrewdly invested in was Mapan¡¯s service as a merchant and worth as a future connection he could cash in with time, if he managed to survive the trauma of Hell Hunting that is. Once he arrived back at the meeting spot he spotted his four friends staring at him with a exceptionally serious look. All of them were standing side by side actually looking at him with an adamantly accusing stare. ¡°Weed-nim, how much longer is it going to take?¡± Irene was the first to speak, sounding utterly exhausted. Running of fumes if you will. Of course that was actually very true. ¡°Weed-nim, we¡¯ve already spent days nonstop hunting Orcs, if we hunt anymore with the amount of sleep we¡¯re currently getting we won¡¯t be able to function in real life anymore!¡± This time it was Pale¡¯s agitated voice that made Weed look at him. Agitated didn¡¯t even begin to describe the expression that Pale¡¯s visage was set in. ¡®Hmmm, he seems quite energetic for not being able to function¡¯ Romuna and Surka then added their quips about Weed¡¯s hunting methods and like the other two before them it went into Weed¡¯s one ear and out the other. ¡°I see...¡± Weed said with almost heartbreaking sincerity. Seeing the usually indomitable Weed like this and because of them made party feel absolutely horrible. Like someone had taken the cutest baby hare in the world and just slammed on the ground before stomping on it nonstop. ¡®I see...Weed must have been lonely that¡¯s why he partied with us so much nonstop.¡¯ ¡®Weed-nim must have been lonely the past month.¡¯ ¡®Poor Weed-nim...¡¯ ¡°I had received an invitation from Sage Rodriquez, The Star of Wisdom, personally for King Theodarrin¡¯s birthday. I was only invited, but I thought that if you all grew stronger maybe I could get you guys in...¡± ¡°Weed-nim...¡± was the shaky reply from one of the girls, she sounded like she was weeping tears of some description, it was hard to tell. ¡°To think Weed-nim was doing this for us...¡± collectively came from the boys of the party. Of course Weed originally had absolutely no intention of inviting or rather the confidence in inviting them to come along. When they arrived back at the capital Weed would have asked if he could bring them since this way they would also receive quests that he himself could participate in or at least nurture a relationship between themselves and the nobles. Naturally this wouldn¡¯t be as free or he wouldn¡¯t be the man known as Weed. Weed would and will exploit it as much as possible. He was only one user and thus could not cultivate all the relationships between a user and a noble. As some nobles would refuse to talk to him because he talked to another noble. Having multiples along to forge connections would be great negating this problem as they could get in the good graces of nobles while he went for the nobles that offered him the best connections, political or otherwise! It was a wondrous opportunity for the childhood friends of three plus a sister. No one had ever had an audience with the ruler of any kingdom or empire. The most so far had been the lower ranking nobles and now Weed was offering them a chance to meet even dukes not to mention the KING!! ¡®To think the person I met was such a big catch!!!¡¯ Mapan internally thought. Mapan who had started in Rosenheim Kingdom knew of who King Theodarrin was, actually any user of some competency would recognize most of the ruler¡¯s names, unless they were deemed insignificant as rulers of places out of the way and of no value. He had started earlier than Weed and his party but that was due to the hardships he had to endure as a merchant.
¡°Wow, Weed-nim you are so amazing!!!¡± Surka said with reverence and awe in her voice as she twirled around in her stunningly simple attire but held an ephemeral beauty about it. It was the attire that Weed had all but demanded they wore. Having acquired permission for five other people to accompany him Weed sewed new clothing and armor for them. Of course it wasn¡¯t free and it wasn¡¯t like the material used to make them were actually high grade, rather they were common items made to look high class and they didn¡¯t offer much defense compared to their battle equipment but they held far more grace and were many times more elaborate and extravagant than their battle ready counterparts. Their effects raised the charm and appearance of the wearer and since their main purpose was to raise intimacy with nobles their manners and clothing would be play an absolutely massive role in getting the attention and forging the connections. From those connection a possibility of friendship could spring forth for some. Surka had a istylish long coat with detached sleeves along with a skirt made of ebony wolf leather for its lustre. As for armor, it was stunning, silver greaves along with armguards with sapphire pieces embedded in them, giving it the overall appearance of a fine yet functional piece.. Pale on the other hand snappy green long coat however it only covered his right leg and was sleeveless on the right side. The color was obtained by using Dye Making skill Weed had attained upon leveling up his intermediate tailoring skills. Incidentally as a result of collecting herbs to make the dyes Weed had learned the Herbalism skill. Unlike its counterpart Medical Botany / Herbalism which focused solely on the medical herbs, Herbalism focused on a broader range of them, from herbs used to makes dyes. The cooking herbs commonly found in stores that he could now gather and last but not least it allowed him to gather medical herbs too. Speaking of which, Weed thought that he should start to make potions but at the moment he didn¡¯t have any of the material that he could use to speed level his skills and the lower level potion instructions were frankly quite useless. Even NPCs didn''t buy them for 1 copper and frankly the amount of money invested into the skill at low levels to level it simply wasn¡¯t worth it. But going back to Pale, he had a stylish leather made belt with metallic straps to hold his quiver if he wanted to at his waist and stylized armor from his left hand up to the shoulder. This time it was etched with ruby fragments running along predesigned lines in the leather being used to hide blemishes in the relatively low quality leather. Romuna had a dress made of a soft black and subtle crimson fabric that was embellished with gold strings that monsters they hunted before had dropped. Her dress had detached arm sleeves and the shoulder part of the dress was made black frilly lace. To finish it all off Romuna ruby fragments was laid out in a delicate ruby rose like design on the lace collar. Irene¡¯s dress was much like Romuna except instead of black it was white, instead of red it was blue, and more conservative as it didn¡¯t have the detached sleeves and lace. It was made this way to accentuate her position as a priest, her attire giving her a slightly naive aura that was generally associated with priests which created a nice dichotomy with Romuna¡¯s more revealing attire as a fire mage known to be more ¡®fiery¡¯ pardon the pun. Known to be much more outgoing than the generally shy priest or rather how the nobles would perceive priests and fire mages. And last but not least was Mapan. Out of the six of his was the most elaborate and ornate. His attire was similar to that of a real life business man, in other words a suit a tie combination, just minus the tie and replace it with a cravat. Of course it was that plain as it would have a negative effect for the nobles, so Weed used more of the gold string to embellish as well as a rose like design on his cufflinks and on his cravat, shiny, black leather shoes and pants. To finish the look off a white silk like scarf worn in a priest like fashion. Being a merchant class his appearance played a minor role in his ability to sell japtem. If it was an NPC he was familiar with then his state of dress would not matter, but if he was traveling to a new city then how he dressed would affect his presentation. NPCs not do business with him if he was too poorly dressed, similarly if it was too gaudy then they might try to rip him off. But for nobles it was best to dress in a manner that presented experience and wealth since they didn¡¯t deal with small fries. Of course this is Weed who had made the clothing for the gathering of nobles and the king. Even with them being guests and having the monumental task of impressing and forging connections with the nobles Weed didn¡¯t use new jewels to embellish the clothing. No, he used offcuts from when he was sculpting and he also recycled pieces of fabric and material he still had lying around from when he had set up his stall. Anything to save a copper, this was how he became known as Weed the Materialist! Perhaps out of friendly concern he didn¡¯t tell the party that, after all who would want to wear offcuts and discarded jewelry if they knew? No one was an exception even himself. His Angelic Armor Set had changed into the Heavenly Armor Set. Nothing changed much except Weed had gilded the whole metallic armor in gold and added a few fragments of rubies too. Naturally gilding it hid away the etched designs in which Weed had to cut into to make them appear once more giving the impression that it was covered in silver lines. The angel was giving a tiny sapphire fragments lined up into a circle around her pupils imitating the fact that the human iris was actually a mix of variation of the same color. ¡°Your majesty, please I have prepared a carriage for you.¡± Rodriguez said to Weed as he led them outside to his gate to reveal two carriages with four horses attached to the reigns each. The horses were all of them same color, chestnut, and each had powerful muscle as evident by the bulging on their fur. But large and powerful they may seem, they were incomparable to a warhorse. A warhorse was even larger and where the carriage horses had stamina they lacked the power of war horse that gave their riders, typically knights, the penetrating power they needed. The journey to the castle hardly took ten minutes yet for Pale and co it was agonizing and unnerving for them. They were making Royal Road history! And they were only at around level 130, none of the other high level players or even rankers and accomplished such a thing yet! For Weed it was a good ten minutes as he started to work on another sculpture, this time made of emerald. The arrival at the castle could be nothing less than grand as their was trumpets announcing their arrival. Weed and Rodriguez proceeded in as if it was natural while Pale and co gaped in amazement before they chased after the two. If they thought the arrival at the castle was amazing then they were even more surprised at the ballroom hosting the king¡¯s birthday. The inside was absolutely gigantic and filled with rows of banners, most of them depicting the symbol of the Rosenheim Kingdom and what would seemed to be the house symbols of various nobles. Immediately the group separated from Weed as they each tried to strike up conversations with various nobles, at first it seemed like the conversation would go well but it wasn¡¯t before long the nobles lost interest in them and found rather lame excuses to leave such as recognizing another noble and this happened several times. At a loss the group sought out Weed only to be surprised to find him engaging in quite a casual and almost friendly topic with a noble, a duke no less! Fervent in their determination to find out the difference between, the group stayed within hearing and eavesdropped on Weed¡¯s conversation. The way Weed talked was completely different! He flattered the duke, but it wasn¡¯t overdone but in a rather casual yet reverent tones and done in between talks of other topics. The duke seemed absolutely enthralled with Weed, not only that Weed would purposely leave out some sentence as if he didn¡¯t want to talk about it and the duke would insist in which Weed would finally ¡®give in!¡¯ They learned more tips from listening in on Weed for over two hours, they made sure that it wasn¡¯t overt and took turns to eavesdropped after Weed left the duke for another noble. The biggest trick they acquired was that to maintain the mysteriousness of their pass and ability. No noble would be truly interested in their abilities and past of they straight out told them, after all they were only level 130s. But if they pretended to be humble and insist that they are nothing special in a rather casual way they would seem more special and bonus points for mentioning their best moments in a casual way and downplaying making it seem that they had accomplished something even greater! With this knowledge Pale and co smirked or smiled at each other and left for their own targets, the party was already half over and they needed to make use of it now. Of course they weren¡¯t experienced as Weed but they made far more progress and grew more accustomed to speaking with nobles. As for Weed himself, he was currently listening to the king talk about his past and how he established the great kingdom known as Rosenheim. He gave a few quips of admirement when he should generally just listened. Earlier he had gained an incredible amount of Art stats from looking at the priceless decoration such as paintings and statues within the castle and even better he acquired the ability to make Rosenheim noble clothing after talking with a few nobles. The same applied to his cooking skills as he sampled the food and even took some into the Gate of Babylon when no one was looking. Naturally he conversed with several nobles yet none of them seemed to give him any quests although they did express interest. It was after conversing with several nobles that Weed decided to finally speak with the king who had kept his eyes on Weed for nearly the whole party. It was at the moment when Theodarrin finished talking about his past did the look in his eyes change. ¡°I noticed that you have an unfinished sculpture on you.¡± The king said as he eyed the unfinished emerald sculpture poking out of Weed¡¯s pockets. This of course was a deliberate part on Weed as nobles were very interested in art and having it poke out of his pocket made great conversation and raised his value in their eyes. ¡°Ah yes your majesty.¡± Weed said as he took the unfinished emerald piece out and showed it. ¡°Unfortunately I have not finished this, but perhaps you would like to see my other masterpieces?¡± ¡°Do show, in my years I have not seen another sculpture with such mastery at such a young age save perhaps Zahab himself.¡± The king easily spoke of the taboo subject known as Zahab but Weed easily ignored it as if he didn¡¯t know the secret history. Instead he took out the same three pieces that was used to buff him and his party during the Orc hunts. ¡°Marvelous.¡± The King couldn¡¯t help but admire the exquisite detail on such a small scale. ¡°But I can¡¯t help but wonder why a king such as yourself, not to mention carrier of the god¡¯s blood would do such a laborious work?¡± Seeing this as a chance Weed gave a humble smile. ¡°Ah, but your majesty I am an admirer of human ability and crave the ability and knowledge of all things. People say it is strength and I agree but on the same level I admire art and as such taught myself these techniques.¡± Hearing Weed¡¯s words the king¡¯s eyes that was gazing at Weed changed once more. ¡°Please call me Theodarrin after we are both kings.¡± Weed smiled victoriously inside but outward gave a as you wish look. ¡°As fellow kings, warriors, and admirers of art I have a favor for you.¡± The sincerity from the king¡¯s words held no falsehood and for Weed it was the moment he was waiting for. ¡°If it was within my ability I will do so and push myself to my limits for a fellow king, warrior and admirer of art as you have said.¡± ¡°Thank you,my friend. I have no doubts that within a year¡¯s time I will leave the kingdom and the rulership to my heir, but I want to remain not physically but as a symbol and legacy for all to see. I want you to build my tomb.¡±
Author¡¯s Note: So...this is kinda a transitional chapter in my view since Weed has a better accomplishment in the next chapter with building the King¡¯s tomb and all. Of course it won¡¯t be pyramid and sphinx. It will be something crazy and awesome. Also for events that are bound to happen and is already covered by the novels such as Weed¡¯s entrance to college or the Princess Knight event, well I¡¯ll mentioned them but mostly in passing. I¡¯m sure you guys don¡¯t want me to retell events and would rather be interested in newer scenes and plots :3 Also for the percentage I made, I¡¯m assuming 10 million players play the game world wide. Well that¡¯s what I think I remember reading so correct me if I¡¯m wrong. Truth be told I actually wrote like half of it in one but suddenly lost motivation due to getting sucked into reading Ark and Arifureta on Japtem and then I got sucked into Mushoku Tensei. It¡¯s epic XD Jacob ¡®ReapeR¡¯ Smith Approves of this chapter! I¡¯m glad to have helped beta this chapter and get it ready for everyone that will read this chapter! (Incase you still haven¡¯t figured it out, I¡¯m the new beta reader! XD) 5/31/15: I just realized what happened. When I first posted it, it was whole. I think some part disappeared due to the update that occurred. Chapter 3: Personification of a King (Fixed) Thanks to The Legendary Reaper for being my beta reader :) Chapter 3: Personification of a King Within the circle in front of the King¡¯s castle within Serabourg countless players and NPCs alike mingled. While the site wasn¡¯t exactly a go to place as hardly anyone was allowed to meet the king, in fact no player had met the king. It was however, still the center of the city and as a result numerous players crossed the circle. Royal Road experts estimated that there was at least a year until a player would have an audience with the king much less a quest, but they were wrong as a single player clad in shiny armor walked out. Accompanying him were spears that appeared on both sides floating in midair and launching themselves and imbedding into the ground. The sound and very action of it was loud to say the least and players began to gather as they saw the knight like figure walking out the gates of the castle. They had expected the knights and soldiers of the city to detain the shiny knight however instead a small entourage of the kingdom¡¯s knight seemed to follow behind him. A wave parted from the surrounding players as the knight walked out of the gates as no one wanted to be in the way when the spears embedded themselves into the ground and be killed or the risk of being attack. The figure was mysterious and no one knew his level so no one knew the figure¡¯s attack power or what class he was. Certainly no one knew what magic he used to be able to summon the spears like that. Suddenly the knight stopped as a giant stone pedestal appeared in front and the figure walked up on top with the knights walking around towards the pedestal¡¯s four corners and stood guard there. Standing atop of the stone pedestal the players could see the mysterious figure in clearer detail. The embellished cape was widened to reveal the shiny gold armor with an angelic woman outline in silver along with the jewels used to decorate the armor. The helmet was golden just like the other pieces of armor and completely covered the mysterious figure¡¯s face except for the mouth. Two wings made of the same material came out of the sides. The figures mouth opened and like the people who saw this quieted and soon others followed creating a domino effect. ¡°Adventures! I have received a B-rank quest from His Majesty, King Theodarren, the ruler of the Rosenheim Kingdom!¡± The effect was immediate as an uproar began. No one even within the central region, even the highest level player BardRay, had received an audience from the king much less a quest. It was the first time in the history of the Versailles Continent. Immediate requests for the methods used to gain such a quest began to fly from the spectators mouths. Sadly, perhaps not so much, the words lost cohesion in the veritable storm of words from the spectators. The mysterious player allowed the shouts to continue for a few moments before he snapped his fingers and two gigantic spears, twice the size of average short spears, appeared following the laws set down by the game engine, they obeyed gravity with the apparent additional outside force and promptly embedded themselves into the stone pedestal next to the players creating a sound that was absolutely and utterly deafening. ¡°The King requests a grand structure built for his service, I can¡¯t do it alone!¡± The crowd seemed to wilt at this before the more perceptive among them noticed that the mysterious man hadn¡¯t continued and was surveying them. Because of this they were among the first to notice that he was waiting for something. They were right. ¡°However, in a stroke of good fortune and some expert haggling, the king has consented me the right to share this quest!¡± The mysterious player boomed. ¡°How can we join!?¡± was the majority response to that. ¡°You have to share with us!¡± It was a natural response after all. Hardly any players had yet to received quest of such rank after all. It would not be false to claim that in the current mood he had worked the crowd into that they would pay for such a quest. In fact... The mysterious man spread his arms in an open gesture before clapping them, the resounding boom quieting them all as they watched in stupefied awe as he started speaking, booming his voice for all to hear. ¡°Comrades! Don¡¯t squabble for have we not all chanced into the dungeons of versailles be it for fame, gold glory! This quest, is for all of us as are we not brothers in arms? ARE WE NOT ADVENTURERS!?¡± There were none in the crowd that weren¡¯t swept into the cheer that followed. The mysterious golden man allowed them their cheer before he commanded their attention again with another clap. ¡°However, I¡¯ve not only spent much of my time and resources acquiring this quest but lost much too, for this I ask a small fee of one gold per person who wishes to join so I may be reimbursed for my toil in acquiring this quest. This is, of course not mention the fact that I shall be funding this quest from my own pocket.¡± it was implied but not said that he was asking for their contribution to funding of the quest along with their help. The almost palpable excitement coupled with the figures almost royal appearance that appeared to be benevolent to all created an effect. That effect was that all the players gathered couldn¡¯t bare to think anything negative about this, not with the way the mysterious man had laid it all out for them. So swept up in the atmosphere that they did not even bother to use their brains to figure out that the golden man actually needed their help and not the other way around. Such was the thought process of humans that when they bought something they would then convince themselves that whatever they got that it was worth it. ¡°You¡¯re the best!!¡± ¡°To allow us to join on this quest for only 1 gold, you¡¯re such a kind person!¡± ¡°Such a noble person, you are the epitome of chivalry!¡± Words of unmitigated praise started flowing from the crowd with no stop in sight, they rained their praise and gratitude down on the mysterious player. Everyone quieted when he held his hand in the air like they had before. Such was the power of the mob mentality. ¡°The quest is to build the king¡¯s last resting place, in other words his tomb! Such a quest requires a large amount of coordination so,¡± Using his hands the figure elegantly gestured up towards a player dressed in an ornate suit. ¡°Please sign up with Mapan here. I will require your class as well as your level in order to effectively coordinate. You will have a day to sign, don¡¯t worry if you can¡¯t sign up today because you can join anytime as long as the quest is still unfinished. And one last thing, the more you do in the quest the higher the rewards!¡± The crowd erupted into cheers and quickly the first few players in the front tried to rush towards Mapan in order to be the first to sign up. Chaos was the result but thanks to the player in golden armor¡¯s charisma and leadership a line soon formed.
Weed gave his characteristic cruel smile once more as he watched the mindless sheeps fall under his control. Where nobody could see him of course, he wouldn¡¯t want the sheep cottoning onto the fact that he wasn¡¯t what he portrayed himself to be. Pale and the others could only watch from the castle windows as Weed masterfully manipulated the crowd of players into his unknowing minions. Under the pretence of giving them a B rank quest as if it was some high honor Weed would milk them for all they were worth. They knew that Weed was manipulation them and that they were probably better off not doing the quest...but even they weren¡¯t exempt from his manipulations. IT WAS A B-RANK QUEST FROM THE KING! Already they could feel the stares of the servants from within the room they stood watching Weed. They were staring them as if asking, ¡°Hey why aren¡¯t you joining? You have to help our great king you know?¡± If NPCs who worked at the castle gossiped about how they stood by as everyone else worked to build the tomb of the king, then their intimacy would no doubt drop. It was as if they were between a rock and a hard place. With no other choice Pale, Romuna, Surka, and Irene began to walk down towards Mapan to sign up. Not knowing what was happening to his friends Weed and the first few people who signed up were walking to several locations where the tomb could lie. Finally Weed settle on a patch of land that was facing the entrance of the castle. It was relatively flat and could easily be smoothed to make a good foundation. As a king, Theodarren would want to watch his kingdom as he had in life, so why not in death? What better place was there but in front of the main gates? But there was a problem as a small hill blocked the way... ¡°The hill has to go...¡± Players would later regret not running away the moment those words left Weed¡¯s mouth, at least until they were brainwashed again.
The internet was buzzing with excitement as news of the B-rank quickly reached everyone¡¯s ears. A quest of at least B-Rank given directly from the king to a player. The fact that it was to build a royal tomb did nothing to deter the excitement as various players traveled towards the Rosenheim kingdoms in order to join the quests as news of the recruitment method easily surfaced. Players who were not at the location eagerly waited for videos of the event to surface from the participating players. But to their surprise none came for an unknown reason. Until finally KMC broadcasted the quest and the excitement turned into horror. It started out innocently at first as they saw one of Serabourg¡¯s hills, the one near one of the city¡¯s gates and could be seen directly from the castle, being attacked with various spells and skills making a long trench. Next they were seeing various mages using spells to slice blocks out of stone or a warrior using high levels sword skills to cut the stone but either way, a large block of stone was being slice. But then the horror came as they saw players carrying those very stones with their bodies. It looked like they would be crushed by the weight of those stones any moment as they trudged towards the cleared and even site placing stone after stone.
-What the hell is this!? They were incredulous. -Is this a concentration camp or an execution ground!?¡± They were mortified. -My brother said he accepted the quest, I have to stop him!!! They were horrified.
Yes, the emotions that had spurted forth from the many jealous had turn into pity and sadness for those whom had participated. No longer did they consider the players at Rosenheim kingdoms lucky but rather pitied them with the pity reserved for those who were being turned into slaves without even knowing it.
Shin Hye-Min, or rather Maylon at the current moment wept tears of joy as she stood in line for the soup that the quest receiver who shared the quest was giving out. When she had first started Royal Road she had suffered hours and even months due to her ignorance and low reputation but she persevered and quickly leveling up and realized she was talented at the game. However when she joined KMC she saw several others with greater talents than her and many great adventures. She was envious of their adventures, their talent it was plain and simple.She wanted her own adventure. Not the second hand retellings from the adventurers themselves. Although building a tomb was not exactly a great adventure it was still a B-rank quest. In fact she had given a live feed towards her superior who were greatly interested in the quest. But as a Dex attributed character her strength was fairly low and it felt with every stone she was closer to being crushed. Her only relief was when she stopped to fill up her satiety. Looking at the Winged Knight, a name given to the quest giver due to no one knowing his name and instead named him based on his equipment, she should have felt nothing but hatred and loathing but instead Maylon could only feel happiness and respect. Even though she could only see the knight¡¯s mouth she could see his sincere smile and great humility. Judging solely by his armor he was obviously a high level player and could be somewhere else doing other things after giving the orders, but he remained and instead fed each and every player with food he made by himself. With ingredients from his own pocket no less...and with the grass he pulled from the ground but no one cared. All that they cared about was after hours of laborious hard work was the deliciousness of the grass porridge going down their throat. He could even remember each player¡¯s name and how many stones they carried. She could see several players ahead of her crying in happiness. (Really? Happiness?...) ¡®What a wonderful person, I hope I can get closer to him.¡¯ Fortunately for the poor soul she would later meet her boyfriend and forget any romantic thoughts about the false knight.
When the all the bricks were in place, the mausoleum was slightly shaped like a short fat hourglass only square instead of the original cylinder. It was rather plain, but it was easily 5 stories tall with 4 floors. Once it was done players from all over watched as the winged knight suspended himself and began to sculpt out curves as well as simple but incredible ridges. It was simple but increased the beauty 4 folds. Afterwards the windows began to appear on the structure as well as sculptors of knights guarding the various corners and halls within the mausoleum. But what couldn¡¯t be seen was the network under the structure being built. Large underground grounds with enough room for unaccountable number of treasure and wealth. There were three layers each filled with either 4 or 8 rooms and in the final layer was a single room linked to all the previous layer¡¯s room. Viewers who stayed enough to watch as the structure was built were awestruck. It had taken a surprisingly short time under the command of the Winged Knight, and people were awestruck when the inside were viewed. It was sparsely decorated but there were sculptors of knights as wells as lavish carpets filled with tapestries. On the walls were paintings that were from the castle depicting King Theodarren in various parts of his life brought straight from the castle. KMC who Maylon worked for had an increase in rating thanks to the footage Maylong brought. Of course they had to edited so to leave out the more...tortuous parts and make it more beautiful. Coincidentally as the construction was being broadcasted a group meeting was held. While they were a new media company, they knew that Royal Road was only to grow popular and they had to seize the chance in order to grow. Of course there were some risks, but no risk no gain was the saying. ¡°Does anyone know who the winged knight is?¡± ¡°No, it seemed that only the merchant¡¯s name was giving since he was the one people signed up from.¡± ¡°It can¡¯t be coincidence that the winged knight¡¯s name wasn''t given. He must have a reason to keep it hidden.¡± A thoughtful silence perpetrated as the Production Director, experts and script writers fell into silence. ¡°Tell me, what is Shin Hye-Min doing?¡± ¡°Currently she is decorated the inside of the mausoleum.¡± ¡°What about the winged knight?¡± ¡°From our source of information, he seems to have taken a group of miners and mages with him towards one of the mountains.¡± ¡°A mountain? He already removed the hill in front of the city gates in and made a direct road to the mausoleum. So for what reason does go to a mountain?¡± ¡°We don¡¯t know, but it¡¯s definitely different from before.¡± The production director rubbed his chin as he thought about the new information, before he decided to take a gamble. ¡°Tell Shin Hye-Min that if she is able to to get the winged knight¡¯s contact information and tell him that the KMC want¡¯s to propose a contract for him.¡± ¡°What? but director, we don¡¯t know who he or she even is. If we get into a contract it could be a lost cause.¡± ¡°You have a point, but I want to risk it. Think about, Royal Road has been out for 2 years now, and the most players have been able to do is raise intimacy with Earls at the very most. Even BardRay is only acquainted with a few Barons. Yet this person, not only met with the king he received a quest.¡± The members thought over the completely logical argument and found that they couldn¡¯t poke any holes in it, eventually after some hemming and hawing they agreed.
Directing the mages and miners Weed ordered them to relentlessly dig into the mountain whether through skill, magic, or even brute force. When they tired or were injured he would go towards them and bandaged them while feeding while saying words of sadness at what happened if they were injured giving the image of a kind, yet somewhat aloof knight. Of course Weed¡¯s motive were far more sinister as he simply did not want an idle worker and continuously pushed them until fatigue made them equivalent of mindless drones for Weed. On the brighter side however, their mastery of the skill they were using would skyrocket afterwards... It was a long and arduous work, from the sky it looked as if someone took a very sharp sword and sliced a chunk out of the mountain. Like someone used a knife to slice a the middle part of a cake and then took it away leaving only two half circles left. Of course the slice hadn¡¯t exactly been removed yet...hence the hundreds of players pulling the chains embedded into the slice and pulling with all their might. If they thought that carrying the brick was the worst thing ever then they would soon gain a new action that they would even hate more. Progress was even slower after the slab of mountain was pulled out, and nothing seemed to make sense as to the actions following it. The slab of rock was slowly but surely being chiseled through the combined efforts of hundreds of players under the order of the winged knight who at the same time cooked his now famous grass porridge to feed the players. But unlike the mausoleum where the players knew what was happening and could see the progress when people couldn¡¯t make heads or tails of was happening especially if it was their own work suspicion would begin and the target was obvious. But before a rebellion could occur as if a god¡¯s helping hand lent his...well hand as a series of photos surfaced the internet. It was a photo of the work site high up from the air. A single photo could only capture a piece of the whole site. So it took several for a reconstruction of the whole site. Naturally the pictures had actually been on the net for a few days, but it only had recently gain notice as each series of photo that was uploaded changed bit by bit. Looking at the latest series of photo people could obviously see the shape of a sword. It amazed players that a single person could have such an ambition as to create a giant sword, media that didn¡¯t even cover gaming news covered the story and detailing how amazing it was considering the game mechanics and how it worked. Filled with a sense of pride that they were doing something great the players working renewed their efforts and gave 150% vowing to never doubt their great leader anymore. Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on the original website.Finally the sword was done or at least the general shape. Having nothing to do they could only watch as the winged knight took out a chisel as well as a hammer and began to sculpt away. Some got bored and left but they always came back to be amazed at the progress that occurred while they were gone. It was amplified by the pictures appearing on the internet detailing the progress. After the fact that the progress could only seen from the sky hundreds of pictures began to appear from other players who could fly. The winged knight would occasionally stop and disappear for a day but he always came back. Players thought that the mountain sword was finished once all the details was carved out of the simple but sturdy sword. They were wrong as the winged knight would sculpt at the sides of the blade. It was giant picture carved into sword, one side depicting a fierce ruler who won numerous battles. Afterwards the players were made to flip the sword as the winged knight etched into the blade a picture of a wise king who ruled with confidence. People watched with bated breath at what the knight would do, but one day it just disappeared causing mass panic as to what could have happened. Who could¡¯ve stolen such a large object without anyone noticing?
Fort Ohdein was a strategic point in the Versailles Continent and was a main intersection through many trade routes as well as having numerous training grounds. In the beginning the Oasis Guild , Prosperity Guild, and Wings of May Guild had captured the Fort. But due to its immense value the greed of the Prosperity Guild caused it to betray its allies and take the fort for themselves. Attempts at negotiations were made but they failed and so the Oasis Guild that comprised of mainly mercenaries left but the Wings of May Guild who joined an alliance with the Balkin Guid sought vengeance and with the help of enlisted soldiers aimed to topple the fort walls and reclaim Fort Ohdein back. It was a conflict that had been brewing for weeks and on the day of the fateful battle numerous media stations and freelancers had sent in their workers to catch firsthand footage and at the moments millions of viewers looked at CTS Media¡¯s coverage. One of the workers had gotten lucky and stood next to Nofortuna and was interviewing him and would later accompany him into battle to capture as much footage as he could before dying. The player known as Nofortuna was quite an accomplished player, having leveled up to 292. And now he was going to charge into battle against the invaders of Fort Ohdein to claim victory. The more he killed the more influence he would have. Looking at his fellow guild members he could help but feel a sense of pride. Each and everyone of them were handpicked and raised by him, and behind him were the NPCs he had painstakingly raised from level 10 to 250. A few would die but the survivors would become stronger. CREAKKKKK Seeing the gate open he knew it was the moment where blood will submerged the grassy plains surrounding the Fort. Raising his sword Nofortuna waited until he could see the charging invaders. But he didn''t order them to fire just yet, they were still far too apart to do any real damage. Seconds¡­minutes passed before he finally yelled, "FIRE" Like comets from the sky the magic of the mages rained down upon his foes, like rain arrows struck down his foes. He ordered with confidence and full of experience at the mages who were stationed to attack in intervals increasing the maximum damage as well as ordering the archer to kill any high targets with precision. It was a glorious sight as fire, water, stone, lighting, wind rained down upon the Prosperity Guild and Balkan Guild men. Nofortuna let this continued until finally he raised his sword once more and yelled, "CHARGE!!!" The mages stationed He along with the vanguard of the army charged forward, Nofortuna¡¯s bloodthirsty smile inevitably appeared of his face as he and his meticulously bred war horse galloped toward his newest victims. ¡°So eager to die huh?¡± Nofortuna whispered as he saw a player who had immense speed and sped past all of his comrads, or was it an NPC? No matter, for Fortuna he was just a foolish warrior who would become his first victim for the battle. Then suddenly without warning the blue sky became the blackest void. Utterly confused and baffled at the change he and his comrades stopped their charge as the target of their charge disappeared and was instead replaced with darkness. Nofortuna and his men could see darkness covered with what seemed to be tens of meters of ground to their left and right and then suddenly stop revealing the bright glow of the sun hitting the grass. Seeing that he could not find the cause on the ground or ahead of him as if everything had just disappeared as he only saw darkness ahead he looked up. Nofortuna could see a black line like void in the sky and it was growing bigger with each passing moments, but still Nofortuna couldn¡¯t help but wonder what caused the sky to turn dark. Incidentally did you know that fortuna was Latin for luck and fortune? BAAAAAAMMMMMM Viewers and players alike gasped as they watched the scene happened before their very eyes. One second they were charging ahead to meet Nofortuna and his men and suddenly a giant light brown object of gargantuan proportions appeared and just smashed them. The battlefield was stunned into silence as no one knew what to say at the event. Hell some were still process what happened and then suddenly the object that caused the massive truce disappeared and everyone could catch a glimpse of who stood within the mayhem as the dust caused from the impact split apart revealing a golden armored knight wearing a winged helm. ¡°I-I-it¡¯s-s THE WINGED KNIGHT!!!¡± Like that chaos erupted as with no warning the winged knight sprinted forward and the giant mountain sword reappeared in the knight¡¯s hand and smashed any fighters, NPC or players under it. The Wings of May Guild and Balkan Guild fighters could watch in stunned silence as the Prosperity Guild ran away from the knight and his absolutely massive weapon. Not even fortress walls could stop the knight¡¯s whose cape became blood red from all the soaked blood and his greaves movement. Each time the sword would appear and disappear with each movement of the knight¡¯s hand. Had they had a clear mind they would have realized that all they needed to do was just close the distance between and stayed out of his hand¡¯s way. But only the top rankers would be able to discern, no even then there was doubt among them who could think so clearly under the pressure of something they never faced before and absolute fear. And with one swing the castle walls collapsed.
-What...the...hell...just...happened... -Who is that guy!? I knew he was special. He recieved a quest from the king and had great leadership abilities to make those people willingly like slaves for him and that he had great artistic abilities as well as great combat skill judging from his armor but how the hell!?!? -What level is he!? -Does anyone even know his real name? -No, we have no information on him and only called him as the Winged Knight -The better question would be how is able to make that giant sword disappear and reappear[/td]
Previous inactive forums blazed with new posts to the point that smaller servers crashed due to the heavy strain of posts that couldn¡¯t keep up on what players and Royal Road historians would later call the Massacre Battle of Fort Ohdein [td]
King¡¯s Mountain Sword A blade that was sculpted out of a piece of a mountain as opposed to being tempered out of metal. Despite so the blade has been sculpted and refined by a sculptor of great skill and the very blade tells the tale of King Theodarren. However due to the immense size of the sword few could wield it despite the low requirements to do so. Durability: 9342/ 11,809 Damage: 10,000 Requirements: STR 15,000 +
Weed sighed as he glanced at his largest sculpture up to date...well weapon would be a more appropriate term considering what the game interpreted it as. But it didn¡¯t feel right to him. Logging out as he looked at the latest picture of his handiwork Weed sighed. The series of pictures that suddenly appeared on the internet was not a coincidence as they were also Weed¡¯s handiwork using his minions...I mean friends. He simply told them to use a scroll that he had bought that allowed them to fly for a limited to capture the picture and uploaded. It worked like charm as the sheep became even more mindless under his iron rule. Frustrated Weed had logged onto to hunt. Sculpting for long hours despite the reward at the end was still stressful especially on such a large project and so Weed would occasionally disappear to hunt when he was too stressed out or out of ideas. Then it came to him as Weed saw the blood run down his cylindric sword. He had sculpted a sword for the king who had won hundreds of battles, but the still but a virgin having not tasted the blood its enemies. And Weed knew the perfect place. Having slipped by into the ranks of the invaders Weed patiently bided his time as he watch the canon fodders either be pierced by arrows or burnt to crisp by fire, electrocuted by lightning, frozen by the frost, diced by the wind, and crushed by the rocks. And the the castle gates opened Weed saw his chance. Using his highly cheat like speed gained from his class Weed sprinted ahead of all the others and when he was at an appropriate distance manifested the King¡¯s Mountain Sword onto the poor sods as they were all crushed like insects under the boot of a tyrant. Seeing the blood coming from under the sword Weed let out a low but deliriously evil chuckle as he lips twisted into the cruelest smile that would the devil himself run away in fear. Having tasted the blood Weed made the mountain return to the Gate of Babylon as he surveyed the surrounding, then someone called him the moniker that his slaves...I mean willing participants called him. It was his signal and Weed unleashed all if his speed as he charged at the stunned members of the Prosperity Guild who ran away from fear. That day Weed had unleashed unspeakable horror onto the battlefield as he slaughtered the players and NPCs alike and even crushed the formidable walls of Fort Ohdein. Once the battle was over, Weed changed out of his armor and into his robes. Slipping into the ranks of the invaders the Winged Knight had disappeared from the Battlefield like a phantom. Weed was quite happy as thanks to the mass murdering...or cleaning in Weed¡¯s mind he had gained over ten levels and two new titles. If there was one complaint Weed had it was that all the armor and items had been crushed leading to their immensely lowered value. Alas Weed could only picked up the bent and crushed armor and gear. He could always recycle since the base materials were quite good. Once he was away far enough Weed re-equipped the Angelic Armor Set and materialized the sword that ended so many lives.
ARMY OF ONE
SLAUGHTERER OF THE BATTLEFIELD
Once the King¡¯s Mountain Sword reappeared Weed observed it once more. Having been made from the parts of a mountain the sword was quite absorbent and had absorbed countless lives tainting the blade into a deep dark red with a lighter shade filling the indents that he had carved depicting King Theodarren¡¯s life.
Sword of Rosenheim Kingdom The sword sculpted from a mountain near Serabourg made to be the personification of the king into a sword has been completed. Created under the hands of a skilled swordsmith and used in the hands of an equally skilled warrior the sword peerless and all warriors who gaze upon it are awed by its history short as it is. Durability: 3923/ 11,809 Damage: 15,000 Requirements: STR 12,500+
It was perfect. Weed spent the next few days along with a his sla--workers to carve out a large slot into the mausoleum where the sword would rest harkening back to the legends of King Arthur and the sword in the stone. Next he acquired the help of a high level mage to send him flying sky high. Falling down towards the earth Weed knew that he only had one chance as one wrong move could destroy both the mausoleum and the sword he spent so much effort to make. Plus it would be a pain to find the blood of a large gathering of players that would be enough to soak the whole sword in. But in the sky one thing caught his eyes. It was an enormous island in the sky. Sure it looked to be a giant cloud but Weed could make out the structures of building among numerous other discrepancies that a cloud should not have. Immediately Weed recalled the book he had taken with information concerning the City of Heaven. Weed resolved to explore the undiscovered land but right now he had something important he must do. Calming himself Weed held his hand in front of his chest as if he holding a sword upwards where his head was despite him being upside down and then summoned the Sword of Rosenheim Kingdom. The Earth rumbled and quaked when the sword embedded itself into the mausoleum causing all watching to stumble and fall over.
Masterpiece! You have created the Personification of a King! Created by a sculpture is both a warrior and king as well as an admirer of art like the King this was built for the tales of the artist will spread far and wide along with the rise of fame and reputation. Personification of a King: The sculpture has created through two parts: a mausoleum created from thousands of bricks as well as a sword created from a mountain that has seen battle. This sculpture will become the symbol of the Rosenheim kingdom and will aid King Theodarren to protect the kingdom even in death. Artistic Value: 8,700 Effects: Those who access the monument will gain the Protector¡¯s of the Kingdom Courage buff, increasing Health and Mana regeneration by 30% for a day. Movement speed increased by 15%. Strength increased by 40% Maximum health increased by 15%. Stamina increased by 25%. All stats increased by 20. Warriors will gain 10% extra benefits The soldiers and knights of the Rosenheim will gain a 50 point increase in all stats. The soldiers and knights of the Rosenheim will perform at 200% efficiency when repelling invaders This effect does not overlap with other sculptures. Total number of masterpieces completed: 4
Sculpture mastery reached Intermediate 9th level. This allows construction of even more delicate and detailed sculptures. You have created a masterpiece.
  • You gain 1 point in each stat.
  • Fame increased by 1,090.
  • Art increased by 23.
  • Endurance increased by 23.
  • Stamina increased by 15.
New Title! You earned a title of ¡®Master Artisan Of The New Era¡®.
  • Honorable title for having extraordinary dexterity.
  • Honorable title for having created the largest sculpture and bring forth a new era in art
  • Granted only to the best artisan.
¡°Kukukukukuuuu.¡± Weed chuckled evilly. ¡°As expected creating this boosted my stats to an unknown degree.¡± However one thing Weed was unhappy about was his name mentioned as it would linked him to the mass slaughtering and possibly give a target to the grudges he created. Weed decided to make himself anonymous.
Personification of a King: Created by a sculpture is both a warrior and king as well as an admirer of art like the King this was comissioned by. The tales of the artist will spread far and wide along with the rise of fame and reputation. However only tales will circulate but never a clear name as the artist wished to remain anonymous. The sculpture has created through two parts: a mausoleum created from thousands of bricks as well as a sword created from a mountain that has seen battle. This sculpture will become the symbol of the Rosenheim kingdom. This will allow king Theodarren to watch over his kingdom, The Rosenheim Kingdom in death as he had in life. Artistic Value: 8,700 Effects: Those who access the monument will gain the Protector¡¯s of the Kingdom Courage buff, increasing Health and Mana regeneration by 30% for a day. Movement speed increased by 15%. Strength increased by 40% Maximum health increased by 15%. Stamina increased by 25%. All stats increased by 20. Warriors will gain 10% extra benefits The soldiers and knights of the Rosenheim will gain 50 increased in stats The soldiers and knights of the Rosenheim will perform at 200% efficiency when repelling invaders This effect does not overlap with other sculptures. Total number of masterpieces completed: 4
Having completed the tomb all he needed to do was report his success and with that mind Weed made his way towards the castle. ¡°INTRODUCING HIS MAJESTY WEED-NIM!!!!¡± Upon walking into the throne room Weed was greeted with glamorous welcome as nobles clambered for him. The king himself even walked down and hugged the stunned Weed like a long lost brother before he could even compose himself at the scene before him.
You succesfully completed the quest. Fame increased by 840. You received 5760 reputation points of Rosenheim Kingdom. Level up. Level up. Level up. Level up. Level up. Level up. Level up.
¡°Weed my brother in all but blood and a fellow king I thank you on the behalf of all those of the Rosenheim Kingdom. Not only have you gone beyond building my tomb but also a great protector for my kingdom and for that I am forever grateful.¡± ¡°I...¡± Weed was stunned but at the king¡¯s words quickly recomposed himself. ¡°Of course my friend. I simply thought what a king would want most and that is the the prosperity of his kingdom and did my best to create something that would both give membrence to you and protect your beautiful kingdom. ¡°As I said, Weed you are great king. Better than I ever was at your age. Your kingdom will be great. If you ever seek aid, the Rosenheim Kingdom is your faithful ally! All the others, who assisted the construction of the tomb will receive their appropriate rewards. Your service to the royal family is great, and I wish to reward you. But before that come! You simply must join my family for a meal and meet them!¡± Saying those words the king almost dragged Weed with him, however Weed was ecstatic. He did not expect such a great boost to the Rosenheim Army, but it did create a very happy king who would introduce him to his family and the next king. For Weed a spoken word of alliance was too frail and establishing a relationship with the next king will allow him to create a stronger friendship and alliance when Theodarren died.
-author¡¯s note- Well this is relatively short compared to the other chapters...but yeah. Anyways there wasn¡¯t really much going on only the construction of the tomb but it was significant part of the story and did take at least a week of real world time. On another note does anyone else beside me think that Fort Ohdein is suppose to be Fort Odin?