We entered after paying the toll - well, Artemis paid the 15 copper coin toll for me, I didn’t have any money and didn’t want to do the standard newbie fetch quest - Fletcher’s Fetcher, a common-grade quest to collect and deliver at least 15 Flocatrice Feathers - that’d get me the fee to enter for the first time. Artemis didn’t need to pay for herself, a perk of being a non-entry level member of the International Mage Society, or IMS. I could get the same perk by joining the Archer’s equivalent group, The Bow Boys, which does accept female archers, don’t worry, no sexism there. All of these international NPC class organizations started off as guilds a few hundred years ago, according to the lore, and the original Archer’s guild was male-only, but only by coincidence.

Once we were in, I was surprised by how modern it looked. I was expecting a more rural and/or medieval town, but there were four story buildings made with tons of glass, shops with sliding glass doors that opened automatically when someone walked by, and yet the classic fantasy mishmash of robes and plate armor - including one player wearing robes over full plate, to hilarious effect - while clergy in their habits walked next to a few players in bikini armor, and some people, players and NPC alike, were dressed in... denim. Classic military uniforms, sailor’s outfits, and even a couple of people in Earth-like school uniforms were thrown in as well, a cornucopia of clashing styles and contrasting time periods.

“So, uh, I don’t think we ever talked about this, are we splitting up here or going together for a while?”

“You said you had something from your brother in a vault, I want to store some of my stuff there too, and I’ll grab some level 25 gear to replace my current set, so we’re at least headed in the same direction. I know you’re fascinated by all the sights here, but... C’mon, leggo, it should be this way”

As she spoke, she grabbed my arm and tugged me forward, leading me by the hand through a couple of streets and around throngs of people at speeds that, on Earth, could only be achieved for extended periods by people on par with olympic athletes. When we stopped, we were right outside a building with a name that, despite the completely foreign script, I was able to read as “Bank of Ichishiro, we protect what you can’t” which is a little passive aggressive, I think.

“This is the place, should be vault 9671773”

“I’m over on the other side, vault 3542692. Even vaults are individual, operated by a single key, odd are communal, opened by a bank worker if given the right passcode or identity card”

“See you in a bit?”

“See you in a bit”

Rubbernecking around, I went through the line until I reached the worker’s desk, asked for vault 9671773, and gave the passcode... “The Maou Walks Among Us”, the title of the first erotic novel I came across, which, of course, I promptly shared with my dear brother... to his slight embarrassment because, looking back on it, it was very much a terrible attempt at smut poorly integrated into an otherwise decent novel. 

Even I’m ashamed of that dark history of mine, but, well, the author was planning on rewriting it without the smut... maybe I should look into that at some point? Er, hang on, where was I going with this... oh right, why the fuck was that the passcode Momo picked? We had so many other secrets, inside jokes, and memorable experiences others didn’t know about. He could’ve picked the date he first gave me some alcohol, the team name we used for doubles tournaments, the name of his first crush, or anything else, why THAT?!

“The passcode has been received. Follow me”

As I was cringing internally at perhaps my most embarrassing past interest, the NPC led me down a short hallway, to an empty room, and began waving his hands through the air as a series of doors appeared and vanished in quick succession. Eventually, he clapped his hands together, and a single, simple wooden door stabilized in the middle of the room. He bowed as he handed me a simple iron key, then shuffled out with his head still facing the floor, leaving alone in a room with nothing but a door in the middle, seemingly unconnected to anything but the same room it occupied. I walked around it a couple of times, then decided to open it with the key.

Instead of the wall a good four feet behind the door frame, I was greeted by a massive room with gilded walls and a floor tiled with golden coins, extremely ostentatious, but also entirely decorative, as the coins were under a thin glass pane, and the gilding on the walls was perfect, nowhere to start peeling it off from. Inside the room was a table, with a long and thin, almost crystalline looking box on it, as well as a notebook and a small bag bulging with... stuff. Maybe coins, maybe gems, maybe something else, who knows, it’s the last thing I’ll check. First is obviously the notebook, followed by the Pallasite Case, and then the Cloth Satchel.

The first few pages of the notebook were all full of apologies, shitty jokes, and lines like “I wish you never have to read this” because, as I could surmise from the first two lines, this was an inheritance, something I’d only get after he died. After that, some summaries of his achievements and relationships in-game, including a standing invitation to his guild for once I hit level 40. Finally, he gave me what I half expected, his knowledge on how to get the Bladelord class, as well as the dozen or so other swordsman classes he’d accumulated as secondaries.

There was more, of course, but it was mostly tips regarding the weak points of various monster categories, shortcuts to raising NPC affinity, and so on, which I’d go through at a later date, when I needed it. 

The case was made of a translucent, glassy material with metallic bands throughout, or perhaps it was metal holding a bunch of crystals together? Either way, it was very pretty, and the material allowed me to see that within it was... absolutely nothing, or so I thought until I opened it. It was indeed a storage-type item, containing a red-bladed sword that was otherwise a twin to the one I currently used, and a bit of paper, covered by densely-packed, handwritten words, smudged with a few tears and some scratched-out bits here and there.

“To my dear brother - If you’re reading this version of this note, I didn’t make it through surgery, or perhaps, I didn’t even live long enough to go under the knife. I’m sorry for leaving you - though, if you’ve already read my notebook, that’d be quite obvious. I got this Sun Sword from my guild’s raid on the Sun Dragon yesterday. I want you to have it, and I hope you can use it to get the Trueblade class at the very least. It’s a big step up from a simple Swordmaster, and getting it early will help with grinding your level up to the minimum to join Aspirations. Speaking of levels, you probably started as an archer, right? I got a good drop a few months back, and I couldn’t bear to sell it in case you might need it. It’s a gem of dual-classing, but I found a legendary one. I wish I had one of those, I only managed to get an epic for myself. Swordsman-Archer is a pretty good pick, most common is Swordsman-Mage, followed by Mage-Healer and Rogue-Archer, then Swordsman-Archer in fourth place. A balance between melee and ranged classes is good if you’re going solo, and for a guild, many raid bosses have phases where they’re immune to certain ranges of attack, so it’ll help you not be dead weight for part of the raid. Anyways, I’m out of space here, and don’t feel like adding another bit of paper to something you’d better not read, so... that’s all from me, your beloved brother” [Penned by Momo-N-Gaia]

Damn... even when I was making it clear that I’d never play... he was still preparing for me to play with him later. If it wasn’t protected by the system as a finished item, it’d be stained with a few more fresh tears. 

“Also, Momo, you dolt, you forgot that paper has two sides. The back is blank... you could’ve said more, you know? Fucking hell, why can you make me cry so much just by being an idiot?”

=========

In the satchel was a gem shining with a yellow aura, and a load of coins also glowing yellow, though these were only glowing figuratively - gold has a tendency to do that, after all, despite not being of legendary rarity. I’d seen pictures of that gem before, though those had had a blue aura, or occasionally purple, plus one picture of one with a red glow, the only mythic gem of dual classing ever publicly revealed or auctioned.

“Well, first things first, there’s no reason not to use this gem. RMT for VR games is highly illegal, so even if I were to quit, I couldn’t earn anything IRL from selling it. I guess I could give it away, but... to whom? Artemis?”

My moot ramblings were cut off by a system message, asking me if I wanted to set a second main class now that I’d used the gem of dual classing. Given Momo’s step-by-step walkthrough for the swordsman class tree, as well as my extensive IRL training... well, I dropped it before it became extensive, but I continued to spar against Momo a few times a week... whatever, due to the cheat sheet and IRL practice, picking the swordsman class was a no-brainer.

After that, I grabbed the Sun Sword and noticed that, unlike the Moon Sword, it hadn’t bound to me... perhaps because it’s not something that would normally? The latter was bound because it was a newbie reward. 

“Let’s fix the issue of the Sun Sword not being bound... after all, what would I use the Equipment Binding Stone on, if not a mythic? Heh, if this was a novel or a play, that stone would be a good example of Chekhov’s Gun”

Chuckling to myself at the thought, I pulled out a donut shaped black stone with white spiderweb markings and a silvery-blue aura, then pressed it against the hilt of the Sun Sword. I jumped in surprise when the stone exploded into hundreds of small black ribbons that wrapped around both the hilt and my arm, literally binding it to me, but only for a few seconds. After that, the sticky black ribbons vanished, and I got a notification window.

Well then. I guess that’s pretty much everything from here... besides, I guess, the box itself. On Earth, pallasite is meteoric in origin, so maybe the Meteorite Belt could absorb it to grow a bit? Depends on if a box with no spatial enhancements counts as a storage-type item, or just a container, as well as if it has to be equipment. Sometimes the descriptions are more specific than the requirements, after all...

“Damn”

That’s really all there is to say, so I didn’t waste my breath and instead just put the box into my inventory, attached the Sun Sword to my belt on the other side from the Moon Sword. Due to their... unique shape, and the fact that I didn’t have a proper sheath for them, I could only stick them through my belt with the blade facing up, meaning I’d have to draw them with a reverse grip and flip them around immediately after. Then again, their blades are somewhat short, so I could go for some even closer combat with some impromptu elbow blades... yeah, no, never learned how to fight like that. I have learned how to spin a blade, so I’ll just do so and wield the swords normally.

“Well, that’s... that’s really it, huh? I kinda expected you’d give me more, but this is so you, Momo... give me a good starting point, some tips, and then throw me into the deep end, how many times have you done that? You wouldn’t be a very good parent with that teaching style... fucking hell, you’re making me... no, I’m making myself tear up for the umpteenth time”

After a good sob and another look around the room, I left, eyes still a bit swollen from crying and tear stains on my cheeks. I asked the NPC to close the room, got 183 gold coins (and some change) as a refund for the unused time, bringing my total to 233 gold, with the 50 in the bag Momo gave me and... yeah, that’s all the money I’ve got right now. It’s quite a bit for a newbie, but it’s not much for a top player like Momo. He did say that he gave all his gold to his guild, and that when I joined I’d be allowed to withdraw some of that for personal use, but, again, that’s pretty far in the future, Aspirations requires you to have a fourth tier class at at least level 50, or a comparable hidden class, if you want a chance at joining.

Meanwhile, I’m the most basic level 1 Swordsman, and a dime-a-dozen level 20 Sniper. That being said, I should contact someone in the guild to let them know that he did, in fact, die. I’m not sure how much he told them about his condition, but I have no doubts about him telling them that he might not ever log back in before he logged out for the last time. 

“Hmm... Let’s see... I remember the IGNs of four players in Aspirations. Let’s go with the one Momo actually knows IRL. Send message to player Ram-Dam-Ash-Stick”

“Okay... how about Lord Narcuaad?”

“White Powder?”

“This is going to come as a shock to you, but I figured I should let you - well, your whole guild - know, that Momo-N-Gaia, my literal IRL flesh-and-blood brother, died on the 14th, due to complications with the surgery to remove his brain tumor. I don’t intend to ask for a backdoor entry to your guild via connections to him, I don’t intend to ask for anything, actually. I just thought you should know that he won’t be coming back. If you or anyone else, for instance, RDAS - who has met Momo IRL and might be the most familiar with him - would like to set up a meeting to verify my identity and the authenticity of my information, I’m currently based in Ichishiro, where he left me an inheritance including a signed book and a note. Respectfully, Gaia”

After reading over the text I’d dictated, adding some punctuation and fixing a mistake in the voice recognition, I confirmed that that’s what I wanted to send off, waved away the message telling me it’d been sent, and continued waiting for Artemis. I didn’t have to wait too long, as just a few minutes later, she came out wearing a few new bits of gear, including a sapphire colored pair of boots and a stereotypical witch’s hat. Unfortunately, the black and yellow hat didn’t go well with the white and blue color scheme of the robe, boots, and staff, but her blue hair does fit that theme.

“Maybe hide your hat? Your hair would look much better with that outfit than the jarring hat, in my opinion”

“You think so? Maybe I should, then. I was gonna look for a better-looking hat, but if you like it, sure, why not?”

Three air-pokes later, and her hat vanished with a comical poof animation, leaving her entire ensemble - undergarments included, which I could tell as she didn’t close the robe all the way - to be made of white and blue, barring a bit of silver embroidery on the robe, and the black straps on her boots and bra.

“Also... if you’re going to leave your robe open like that, bloomers were an excellent choice. Love the shade of blue”

“Eh?”

She looked down, noticed that her unmentionables were not only mentioned but visible, and ruined the blue and white look with a bit of bright red. She quickly tied the waistband of her robe, hiding her bloomers, at least, but leaving a clear view of her cleavage and a bit of blue peeking out from beneath her white robes. I mentioned it, and try as she might, she couldn’t close the robe up top.

“I really hate my rack. I even reduced it from my IRL size when making my avatar, but evidently not enough. Too few things change size that dynamically, they mostly just scale their normal shape to fit the user’s height”

“Believe me, I know, my Torn Tunic got torn a bit more trying to fit over these stupid things. Super tight even after I got it on”

“Oh, it’s not normally that ragged?”

“Nope. The holes are normally far smaller and less inconveniently positioned”

The conversation topic had gone in a weird direction, leaving both of us a bit flushed, so we turned away from one another and fell silent for a time.

“Hey, uh, Artemis? Where’re we going?”

“Oh, I was following you”

“Damn, I was going where it looked like you were headed’

“Well... uh... wanna get some better gear for you?”

“Yes please, I’m dying to get out of this stupid skirt”

After a brief check of the map, we turned 180 degrees and made our way to the shopping district, where modern display layouts clashed with medieval products, like halberds and full plate armor, the latter of which was hilariously positioned next to a mannequin with a straw hat, fingerless riding gloves, running shoes, crop top, and short shorts. Into a store bearing more of the latter kind of displays we went, and I came out wearing a pair of pants (men’s pants, they had actual pockets) and a form-fitting graphic tee bearing a cartoon design on both sides. 

Fittingly, it was that of a stick figure archer, pointing its bow at the moon, which had a face and an arrow in its crater-eye. Well, that was the back, the front had the “before”, where the unharmed moon was taunting a stick figure. Not that you could see any of it through my brigandine, but the blouse I’d had under it before was too loose. I suppose I could set my armor to invisible while in town, but... I like the look, if you ignore the gap between my waist and my lower legs.

Moving on from the cosmetic clothing section to the functional gear shops, most were carrying common gear with some meh uncommons at best, so we quickly headed to the auction house. There, we unsuccessfully bid on a few items, before eventually managing to obtain the Greaves of the Swarm, and even a Rare+ piece at that. Cost me 56 gold, but that’s well worth it in my opinion. Equipping that, the Swarm set effect was fully activated, and I finally looked like... well, an anthropomorphized black ant wearing a shiny black belt with two glaringly colorful sheathless swords hanging on either side. But more importantly, I got a huge boost to movement speed and stealth, plus some damage reflect and... well, that’s really it, but that’s not too shabby, right?

“Now, we both have a full main set of gear, but I’m the only one with any accessories. Let’s get you something. Ring, earring, necklace, or bracelet, which would you prefer?”

“Hmm... not an earring or a necklace, the former’s kinda feminine and the latter would draw even more attention to my chest. A bracelet could catch on a bowstring, so that leaves a ring”

“Rings it is. I know of a few good ones you can rarely have drop around here, many of which end up in the markets from time to time”

“More stall-diving?”

“Nah. There’s a guy who you could call a scalper for accessories. If they show up, they end up in his shop half the time. A tad expensive, but you’ve got plenty of gold for a common or uncommon one”

So, with a tiny girl leading the way, I soon found myself in front of a literal hole in the wall. Xiao Wuya’s Shiny Collection read the sign above the entrance, and within were a few display cases sparsely adorned with rings, necklaces, gem-like stones, and other bits and bobs. I moved over to the case showing mostly rings, and was surprised by the price tags, ranging from a few hundred gold to almost thirty thousand.

“The cheap ones are over here, Gaia. I found one you’ll probably like, it’s only 89 gold - which is rather cheap for an accessory”

“I can tell, given these price tags here”

My voice was dry, my arms were crossed, and Artemis was rolling her eyes in my general direction. But, upon inspection of the ring in question, I had to agree, it was quite good, I couldn’t not buy it.

=========

A bow hotslot is an archer’s dream, and even if limited to bows, this being a hotring should still have bumped the price up to a few hundred gold. The reason it isn’t that expensive is the other limitation, the one on the grade of the bow. An uncommon weapon is usually outclassed by the time you can afford to spend hundreds of gold coins on a single piece of gear. Sure, you can get away with using common and uncommon armor, accessories, and consumables for a while, but... if your damage output sucks, nothing else matters, you’re screwed - unless you’re a tank or support for an established party.

Handing over 89 gold to the shopkeeper dressed in a plague doctor outfit and a pair of black wings, I quickly equipped the ring on the middle finger of my left hand and stored the Stargazer Bow in it, then I glanced over the rest of the so-called “cheap” accessories. I was tempted by the effects of the Obsidian Pendant, but I didn’t like how low it’d hang when I took my armor off - and I had a feeling that Artemis wasn’t particularly enthused by my aesthetic tastes in armor, meaning I’d probably be hiding it sooner or later. 

Oh, speaking of, hidden gear provides most of the additional effects - barring ones that rely on the physical properties of the gear itself, such as the on-punch bleed effect of the Gauntlets of the Swarm - but won’t have any of the defensive or offensive strength modifiers. You can’t hide accessories, however, for reasons I can’t really wrap my head around. Artemis was wearing a pair of clip-on eardrops made out of some kind of white stone, with either gold or copper or maybe bronze holding the stones to her ears. I suck at telling those metals apart.

“Artemis, you want anything? I’ve got some go-”

“I’ve got over six thousand saved up from my time as a crafter, keep it for yourself”

“Aaaand reee-jected. I just wanted to repay you for helping me out like this”

“And I’m still feeling guilty about taking both of the legendary drops, okay? I really ought to have paid for that ring, or a better one, honestly, but we’ve already agreed on how to handle the distribution... even though, to me, that plan feels disadvantageous to both sides somehow”

“Yeah, I’m losing out on the Starlight String, but I’ll get a good bit of gear later on, and... I guess you could say I’ve now got something tying us together until you can find someone competent enough to work that kind of material”

“Great tactic for picking up a girl, I guess?”

“That’s not - I didn’t mean it like that. You know this game a hell of a lot better than I do, and a second party member makes a lot of stuff easier, not to mention it’s far less boring to play with someone you can enjoy the company of than to play alone”

She shrugged, then stuck her hand out.

“Well then, let’s get going... Mister party member”

“Of course... Miss totally not a romantic interest”

I shook her hand as I spoke, and she put on a fake hurt expression when I said the second part. I had to say it, the flies on the fourth wall need to understand that this is a romance-less story. Plus, it’s funny, really, the cutest pout I’ve ever seen. Like, I-took-a-screenshot cute - and sent her the pic soon after we left the crow’s overpriced hoard.

“Wait, this... damn, Gaia, I didn’t know that this sort of face could be so pretty. I should make it more often”

“You really shouldn’t. I’m sure other faces would look just as good on you, ones that wouldn’t make me look like an ass to passersby who don’t know the context”

“By other faces, you mean... Murder, faceripping, and company secrets?”

I lost it. I fell down laughing in the middle of the street. There’s no better response in that situation, I think, and the fact that she said that with a straight face made it ten times more effective.

“Okay, I’ve had a good laugh. Let’s go gambling”

“That seems random, but I’m game. What’ll we gamble on?”

“Loot boxes. And it’s not that random, I find my luck is better when I’m in a good mood, and those are kinda scarce as of late”

“Ooohhh... yeah, I can see why that’d be rare for you recently. I’m generally only lucky when it really counts, but then I’m really lucky... I guess it’s some kind of heavenly compensation for taking my sight IRL?”

A short walk later, we arrived in front of a shop that could only be described as a miniature circus tent. Inside were a couple of people and a lot of boxes. They were color-coded, the box’s color corresponding to the max rarity of the items inside, the ribbon’s color showing the minimum, and the design on the box showed what kinds of items you could get. Depending on those three factors, each box had its own price. The cheapest was a plain green box with a white ribbon, costing only 25 silver per box, or you could buy five for 1 gold.

Meanwhile, the most expensive two were both 100,000 gold per box, one of them was plain silver with a silver ribbon, meaning you’d get a random unique item for sure, the other was a black box decorated with swords, bows, lances, staves, and other weapons, with a golden ribbon and silver frills on said ribbon, meaning you’d get a legendary, mythic, or relic weapon, the frills showing you also have a chance at a unique.

I hunted through the options for a while, before settling on six boxes. Three showed potions, arrows, and scrolls, indicating consumables, ranging from uncommon to legendary, for 10 gold each. Another one had the leaf and bow mark of the elf race, indicating elven items, as well as a phylogenetic tree over a bowl of water, indicating racial baptism tokens. The box could give anywhere from rare to mythic, but as there’s not a huge difference between the rarities for racial baptism key items, it was still relatively cheap, 35 gold. Finally, a pair of boxes patterned with books, ranging from common to epic, for 25 gold each. All in all, 115 gold... almost everything I owned after buying that ring and the cosmetic clothing, actually. I should sell some of the miscellaneous drops I’ve got lying around in my inventory, at some point in the near future.

“Hey Art, what’d you buy?”

“Spell books, spell books, spell books. 21 boxes, total of 400 gold”

“Whaaa, so many?”

“A mage can never have too many spells, y’know”

“Yeah, but are you feeling lucky?”

“Not really, hence why I’m brute-forcing the odds with quantity”

That’s... not a very good idea.

“Well, Gaia, open one up, c’mon, I can’t wait to see what the lucky feeling brings”

“Okay... elven racial baptism item, let’s go!”

I untied the green ribbon, lifted the lid, and... was met with a golden light, a legendary.

=========

“Well then. Guess I’m saving that one until I can meet some moon elves with a tier 3 archer class. I’ll buy another of these boxes, hopefully it won’t be as limiting”

Two minutes and 35 gold later, I had a generic Rare+ token:

“Gaia, you’re stupid lucky. First the Moon Sword, then your titles, and now pulling a legendary from your first loot box? Not just that, but a useful legendary?”

“Yeah, yeah, it’s your turn. You bought three times as many boxes as me, I’ve opened two, so you open six”

“Fair ‘nough. I’ll save the best for last, so green box, white ribbon, five draws, leggo!”

White, white, green, white, green. Of those five, only the second common was earth magic - Grade I, Sand Wall - but the uncommon right after was spatial magic - Grade III, Bent Fabric - which she needs more of now that she’s an Earth Star Sage. She put aside the other uncommon, the grade IV fire magic Resistant Fire Ring, to learn later, and put aside two of the three common spell books to sell, as she’d learnt both of them before. The third, which she didn’t plan to try to sell, was the most useless spell book of them all - Grade I mind magic, Change Mind - as it’s the most basic spell every white mage learns at level 5. It’s not that she didn’t want to sell it, but she couldn’t, as there’s no market for it. If it was the basic spell for, say, fire or water, mage knights would bid crazily for it, but very, very, very few classes can use mind magic besides white mages.

“Aight, now one white ribboned blue box. Gimme something good please!”

Blue light shone as she opened the lid, indicating something good... probably.

“Hmm... It’s earth magic I don’t have, I’ll take it, but it doesn’t seem that useful. Ore Arrow, consumes metal or crystal containing stones to create an arrow with properties depending on the type of ore used. I feel like Stone Spear is likely almost as strong and has far less stringent casting requirements. Well, whatever, it’s your turn now”

“So it is. I’ll go for a skill book too”

If I was a standard swordsman, maybe that’d be an exciting pull, but I’m going to mostly be an archer, so it’s mostly useless to me. I mean, I’ll still use the book, it’s a good skill, but gimme something better.

Artemis got a solid streak of minimum rolls, getting a few spells to learn for the sake of spell collection, and a decent number of books to sell for a pittance compared to the price of the loot boxes they came from. I went to open the other skill book box, and was met with purple light.

“Oh hell yeah!”

I saw an Epic, I saw an arrow on the cover, I saw “shot” in the name, I got excited, it’s an archer’s skill! But no, it’s for healers.

“Fuuuuuuuck you gaaaaaaame!!!”

“Uh, Gaia? This is actually a pretty good skill for you. Given your accuracy, you could easily hit the right body part from several dozen meters away, meaning... well, you could easily top up a level 30 tank’s HP, let alone mine. And, like, neither of us have any healing skills right now, so... this will save us some potions”

“And how do you expect me to use this book? I’m short a rare title of a rare type, or I’d have to go and get a tier 3 healer class when I don’t even have a tier 3 archer class”

I’m mad. First of all, it’ll be really hard for me to even acquire the skill, and once I do, I don’t have any healing spells or skills to use it with. Plus, even then, why should I be the one to dish out the heals when I’m the de facto frontline who needs to be dealt heals?

“How many titles do you have right now?”

“Eight...”

“And of those eight, two are life-based? Or is it one epic?”

“I’m gonna guess that it’s my two [Spawn]-prefix titles, my lone epic title seems more like it’s death-based”

Puffing up her chest, pointing her nose in the air, and radiating an aura of smugness at her deduction, she dropped a truth bomb that dealt a critical hit to me.

“So 25% of your titles are life-based, and you seem to be getting titles at a rate of about three or four per day on average. You’ll hit that prereq before Tuesday”

“Geh, my archnemesis: unreasonable expectations of sustainability”

I took another screenshot of her expression, this one showing her trying desperately to not laugh so she could maintain that smug image. Sending it to her pushed her over the edge, her hands going from balled up on her hips to clutching her sides as she began laughing her proverbial ass off.

“Okay, me next. RNGesus, please gimme some rare shit”

The series of blue and white lights that followed proved that to be a poor choice of words, as despite pulling two rare books, both of them were, objectively, shit pulls. One was a spell she already had, Stalagmite Forest - which, yes, is a decent spell, but the base-level book is so easy to get that even the rare level III version of the book she pulled is dirt-cheap - and the other was Lightning Spray, which has absolutely horrible fuel economy... high damage though. Super high damage. I didn’t miss out on the opportunity to point out how she’d literally asked for that, though it took me a few tries because I kept giggling.

“Stop laughing. See if you have better luck”

“I’ve already proven myself to have better luck than the shit you’ve got”

“Shaddup”

Well, my last three boxes were all identical - consumables, minimum of uncommon, max legendary - so I opened them all at once. And wouldn’t you know it, despite the lights being three different colors - green, blue, and purple - the drops were almost identical too:

Oi oi oi, one of these things is not like the others. I get why the third one is purple, it’s a potion with permanent effects, well deserving of being an epic, but the only difference between the first two boxes was the quantity dropped.

“Luuuckyyyy... I’d say I’d kill for that, but it’s really just two levels of MP growth for me, and it’d be even less if I manage to reach a tier 4 mage class. Use it yourself, that’s gotta be at least four levels for an archer, right?”

“But I don’t need as much MP, so y-”

“Keep. It. For. Your. Self”

“Yes ma’am”

Her steely tone made me give her a snappy salute as I acquiesced. I could tell what she was thinking behind the disguise of “it’ll be more useful to you”, she didn’t want to feel more in my debt, and she definitely would have felt guilty about taking a roughly 20% MP boost from me so she could have a mere 5% increase to her own MP, even if she does have far more useful ways to spend that 20 MP than I do.

“Hey, Gaia, why don’t we go gather some mob drop fetch quests so we can grind your swordsman level a bit, make some money, and raise NPC favorability?”

“First, can we find some sheaths for these swords? Like, actual sheaths... not this stick-it-through-your-belt crap I’m referring to as ‘sheathing’ these swords”

“I don’t think we’ll find ready-made sheaths for things with such a unique shape, but getting a pair made to order shouldn’t be too hard. You wanna go NPC or player made?”

“Is there a difference?”

“Player-made generally has little in the way of additional effects or stat buffs, but are often a lot cheaper and easier to commission. NPC-made custom gear tends to have actual effects beyond the normal you’d get for shaping some metal into a given form. However, it’s more expensive, and you might have to do a quest for the NPC to fetch some supposedly needed materials, or an entire quest chain to raise their favorability up enough for them to accept complicated commissions. Your sheaths, your choice, Gaia”

Hmm... that’s a tough one... let’s go with the NPC-made sheaths. I’ve got the gold - I think - and having more options on your gear is a good thing. Plus, those quests will likely involve me fighting something, so it helps with that goal too.

“How much does an NPC-made sheath tend to cost?”

“How would I know? I don’t use swords”

“Oh... right”

An awkward chuckle was shared, a bit of silence followed, and then we wordlessly turned towards the shopping district we’d just left, to search for a blacksmith. What we found was a gazillion weapon shops and no weapon makers. When we asked where we could go to find one, we had to grease some peoples’ memories, but we were eventually pointed in the right direction.

“Shad Smith-Baker. A fitting name for a blacksmith, I guess”

“Oi, I ain’t no blacksmith, I’m a weaponsmith and a toolsmith. No iron fences and cutlery will be made here, okay? Take those orders on over to ol’ Ivan, he’ll make you anything for the right price”

“Well, it’s a good thing what I’m looking for is a pair of sheaths for these blades”

I handed him the moon sword while showing the sun sword, and I could see a fire light up in his eyes.

“Ooh, this is a good blade. Tell me, who made this?”

“If myths are to be believed, the Moon Goddess made the one you’re holding”

“Humph. Maybe it’s been blessed by her, but I doubt an immortal being like her would’ve forged a blade that a mortal swordsman could wield like it’s nothing - especially a mortal swordsman who’s only level 1”

I shrugged, as there wasn’t really anything I could say to refute those words.

“If you’re not gonna make me the sheaths-”

“Oh, I’ll make ‘em. Just need some materials I’ve been lacking recently. Ain’t nobody who’ll bother collecting wheatstones, and while it’s not required, I’d love to throw in some pig iron and some other things too”

As he spoke, a quest popped up before me.

“Wha’d'ya say? Can you get that for me?”

“Yes, we can”

“Out of curiosity, what other things are you thinking of adding?”

“Well, sand salt could be interesting, and if you happen to find some yeet yeast, ooh man, that’d be the best”

I checked, and the second and fourth sets of question marks were replaced by Sand Salt (common) and Yeet Yeast (uncommon) - the quantity needed being 70 and 4, respectively. Sand salt can probably be found near the saltwater river that runs along the southern side of town, while yeet yeast, as Artemis later told me, is a drop from a plant-type mob rarely found in the starfall forest. Among those who’d checked the “frequently posted jokes” thread, it was common knowledge that, in this game’s world, pig iron is not the crude result of putting iron ore in a blast furnace, but literally the drop from an armored boar that roams the marshlands to the southeast of this town, as well as in places near pretty much half the starter towns. As for wheatstones, they’re a really hard grain (actually metallic, not stony) that grows in the plains north of town. They’re actually supposedly Ichishiro’s unique specialty export, but there’s not much of a market for them anywhere, so... the amount they export isn’t even in the top ten highest exports, not by volume, weight, nor value.

“Art, what do you say, should we go for the bonus?”

“Of course! We might’ve wanted to skip the yeet yeast due to how hard it is to find the mob that drops it, but it can be bought pretty easily, though it’s not gonna be very cheap. Three should cost about 20 gold - expensive, but likely worth. Improvements from these sorts of quests usually compound exponentially, so while it’s not worth as the first or second bonus, as the third, it almost certainly will be. That’s a big issue for player crafters, as were we to do the same thing, we’d get a pretty much linear increase”

I see... that’s an unfair system.

“Hmm... any other food-type monsters in the area around town? I wonder if any of them are the question marks we’ve got left”

“Buttterbee Honey might be one of them, or Oinkmints. That’d come from the nests of a rare mob in the Starfall Forest, and a drop from a common plant-type mob in the area where we can get pig iron. I say we start in the north, and work our way around clockwise. What say you?”

“Fine by me, top priority is wheatstones, and bottom priority is the hard-to-find stuff in the northwest”

With a plan established, we bid farewell to Shad, and walked towards the northern gate. On our way, I remembered something we forgot to do, namely, have me stop by The Bow Boys branch office to register, so I could start working towards getting Dedicated Archer status, and obtain a free pass for the town gates. It didn’t take long to get my Fletched Neophyte card, and with it I got another quest that was quite literally just “shoot 500 arrows”... well, it also had a requirement that you be at least a tier 1 archer class, but that’s a given for basically anyone who fulfills the other part - if you can fire 500 arrows and not kill 3 types of monsters or go through standardized training, you’re hopeless as an archer.

“Actually, Gaia, it’s getting kinda late, I ought to get going. Let’s meet up at the north gate in 10 hours?”

“Yeah, sure. Wanna exchange some kind of IRL contact info?”

“Uhh... why not”

Two private messages later, we both logged off. I sent her a friend request, made myself a meal (beef bulgogi over garlic-infused rice, plus some shaved carrots and green onions as garnish. More or less traditional), once again toppled over backwards due to compensating for the wrong center of gravity, set my alarm, and hit the hay.

CaTastrophy427

I'm so sorry this took so long, I've been feeling rather under the weather for the last few months, plus other things have been occupying my rare few good days. I had 90% of this done over a month ago, but I just couldn't bring myself to finish it off, tie it together, and do a triple check for things to edit. For everything, I sincerely apologize... órz

Usual shameless plug for my other novel (will write the next chapter of that next) and my discord server but there's no flair to these this time, I'm too tired right now lmao. Hope you enjoyed reading this chapter, next time I'll try not to be this late (well, it's not like I have a schedule to be late to, but I'll try not to take so long)

Edit log:

1.1

Spoiler

Added color bc that didn't transfer over from my doc FSR

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