Entering his workshop, Tetsu started looking around.

 

The room didn’t change much since the last time he got here.

 

The only thing that actually changed was that most of the Artifacts that he made were now replaced with piles of coins and other riches.

 

He looked at his two staples.

 

Counting, he saw that in just one month, he now got 1098598 bronze coins, 76389 silver coins and only about 547 gold coins. He really hoped he got more out of it.

 

The number of bronze coins was still slowly growing more and more.

 

 But that was still not enough.

 

To get actual money in the real world, the player had to either exchange 10 levels for around 100 Yen, which only allowed for one week of food, or exchange in-game currency into actual money. Tetsu would have managed to get his required sum log ago, if it weren’t for the fact that the in-game weight was ludicrous. To get one single yen. He needed 50 gold coins. 50! He only saw empire merchants and dealers get that amount. You most also take into account that 1 gold coin has the same weight as 100 silver coins. And 1 silver coins have the same value as 100 bronze coins.

 

Tetsu was in no way poor. No, even he wasn’t that hypocritical. But that was only in game. If someone decides to earn by playing Rencarnia, the players were actually encouraged to go out and farm levels, because that was the fastest way. It was also the most dangerous. That was how the players decided to balance the game towards not only other players, but also the in-game characters.

 Looking around, he saw that he managed to accumulate about 17 more levels.

It wasn’t too surprising that it was so low, however Tetsu did hope that it would be slightly higher.

But he knew why not all players were ready to sacrifice their hard-earned levels for some better gear. Aftar all, leveling up in Rencarnia was also extremely difficult.

 

For getting Levels, a player needed EXP, or the other in-game currency known as experience. Players got those by completing quests, killing monsters, and so on.

 

There were different ways for getting EXP, but it was the most important thing to players.

 

But the players also needed EXP for other things. For buying skills, a player had to sacrifice EXP, for leveling these skills up, the player needed to sacrifice EXP. For levelling up attributes, the player needed EXP.

 

Everything revolved around getting EXP.

 

And if the player wishes to use a really powerful weapon, like, a Hammer that shoots lightning, the player needs to have specific requirements. Most importantly, he needed to have a high enough level to use the artifact, or else something worse could happen.

Returning back to the lightning shooting hammer, even if the player had done all quests and finished all requirements for using the hammer, but his level wasn’t high enough, then the hammer would kill him on the spot. Probably by lightning.

 

Tetsu tried it in his first playthrough, but then realized it was just tiring.

 

EXP, unlike levels and artifacts, could not be stored in the room. They always remained with the avatar. Should he die, the player losses all his EXP, and the grind begins from zero.

 

Tetsu in his first playthrough also realized that some players were capable of just stealing the EXP he managed to inquire.

 

But after finding out that one of the fastest ways of getting both coins and EXP was by having other players give them to him, he decided to just be a smith.

 

And also, the game balanced the power scaling of players by making leveling up incredibly difficult, the bigger your level was.

 

At the beginning it was really easy, but the amounts of EXP needed for leveling up the avatar were rising in an extremely big rate.

 

To Tetsu’s knowledge, the highest level a player achieved was 68, and only two players managed to do this. The first one was the necromancer, who Tetsu sadly had the pleasure of knowing, and his killer, who then disappeared not long after.

 

It is said that he went north, but those are only rumors. Some players and even NPC’s believe that player not being a player at all, but a game character.

 

Remembering that player, Tetsu went towards his trophy room, and between many documents and artifacts, he found an amulet in a form of an 8-pointed star. After being freed from the necromancer, Tetsu found out that some players started worshiping this

player. After financially supporting the building of the Church for the new religion, he now was officially a member one of high council of that new Religion, and he held quite a lot of respect and power in there. It did look more like a cult than anything else, but Tetsu didn’t really care about that. And Tetsu having a high position in there he now had the amulet. Strangely, when he died, the amulet returned into his room, which wasn’t actually normal for amulets. Tetsu guessed it was just a bug in the game, but he didn’t actually care.

In fact, he didn’t really believe the player to be an in-game character as the members of that religion would want you to believe. He only helped them out because he wanted to somehow repay the dept to the player who freed him from the necromancer. Tetsu was never able to find him, so the arising of the cult was the next best thing. Sure, there were characters like the hero, but Testu actually met the guy, and got a quest from him. Players don’t get quest from other players. Only from NPC’s.

 

The Cult of the dark knight describe the player as a man wearing the armor of a paladin, but unlike having a really bright armor which almost looked like being made out of gold, the players armor was made out of brass. In his left-hand, the player carried a round shield made out of golden emeralds and the shield was also described with having small diamante spikes at the corners, which supposedly allowed the shield to be used as a chainsaw in battle.  Tetsu didn’t find it the least bit strange. He saw once while he was playing as a dwarf that a player used a Canon in the form of a tuba, and the player shot out boulders of burning metal while playing the weapon as if it was an instrument. A shield that was also a chainsaw at the same time wasn’t something to strange.

 

In the players right hand, he is said to carry a black great sword with red runes carved into them. That was the same weapon that killed the almost unkillable necromancer.

That wasn’t the only thing. Even though he looked like a supposedly dark paladin, unlike them he did not wear a helmet. In fact, he was described as a white bald guy with a really round face covered in scars, missing a left year, a stone like expression, dark eyes, and an      8-pointed star on his bald head.

 

The amulet that Tetsu was currently holding was described to be made in the same way the star looked on that players head.

 

The player wasn’t known to make acquaintances, joining a party or anything else. In fact, the only people that say to have seen him were either players that were in the north, players that joined the northern barbarians or the some of the high members of the Cult.

 

Nobody knew his name, he never talked to anyone. Then one day, some player said that he was friends with another player that spend most of his time in the cold north, and that the players friend during his quest met an NPC who heard from his brother who heard from his other friend that they saw how during their fight against an army of undead, a man in dark armor appeared followed by an army of demonic, who then wiped out the undead. That man then heard how one of these creatures cried out: “LONG LIVE GUTS!!!”

 

Was it true? No one knew, but this knew spread between players like wildfire, and everyone, including members of the cult, started to call him like that.

 

Was it the same player? Tetsu wasn’t sure, but if it was, he couldn’t even imagine how high his level must be.

 

It is also possible that the new guy was also simply someone else that just looked like him.

 

However, Tetsu now had what he came for.

 

He put the amulet on, put some other artifacts in the shop that he made during his absence, went out, and just tried to pass by the large crowd that tried to talk to him while also begging for a small discount.

 

Tetsu didn’t really take them in notice, just said that he can’t change the price of the artifacts because it was the admins that made the prices, and not him. Tetsu of course lied, but didn’t mind too much.

 

The Wood elf who screamed at him a few moments ago was now angrily staring at him, but remained quit.

 

Tetsu left the city, and bought a carriage ride to carry him towards Walgrod, the city where the main basis of the cult of the dark knight was.