“Congratulations Bruni, Congratulations Roy. I guess the battles to come will only get harder from the next level onwards…” Abel said as the soldiers started getting to work after congratulating the 2 lucky men. Those that hadn’t broken through yet didn’t despair, they only had to work harder for their own advancement.

“Thank you, I can’t wait to get a pay raise! Now that we’re official soldiers, we can get more than 50 silvers a month instead of the measly 12 silver coins as reservists.” Bruni’s eyes had turned into symbols of a gold coin as he dreamt about his increasing wealth.

“Thanks Red Sky! How about you cook up a nice congratulatory banquet for our advancement?” Roy asked as he finished basking in the surrounding compliments.

The duo’s advancement was also quite spectacular. Roy’s arrows turned in a stream akin to a meteor shower as it rained down on the kobolds attacking the melee specialists. Every couple of arrows precisely struck and killed a kobold while bringing no harm to the men just a few inches away. Bruni’s advancement was just as eye-catching as he threw away his shield and danced around the kobold shaman, a swirl of luminescent sword energy was conjured up and cut the shaman into many little pieces before the bugger could inflate and detonate himself into a cursed bomb.

“Uh, I would love to Roy but I don’t have any special ingredients. Unless you can get the captain to cough up some high-end herbs, you’ll have to make do with a meaty porridge for now. Maybe when we get back to the city?”

“Then I’ll hold you to it. Don’t think you can run away from this Red Sky! We all get a few days leave after our return, so we can go to any of the nice restaurants in Stormwatch. You better keep your word, you hear?!

Abel had no idea how he was suddenly on the hook for a congratulatory meal and the meal turned from him cooking to him taking them out but he didn’t mind. He noticed the system notifications about increasing favorability mostly came from Roy, Lard, Bruni, Kaelin and Kel.

It was understandable for Roy and Kaelin to have some favorability towards him as he was fighting by their side, shooting arrows and teaming up to take down enemies. Kel was the first person he met and interacted with the most after his fellow archers while Lard had a boisterous personality and was very welcoming from the onset. Bruni seemed to appreciate his cooking skills, regardless of how meager they were.

While he increased favorability with all the men on the expedition, especially after he enhanced their weapons, those 5 were the only ones that increased to friendly territory. It was at the same level as instructor Cedric and the old guardian. He hadn’t been doing anything special, perhaps this was the reason. He wasn’t arrogant and didn’t put up any airs which made him come off as more amiable to the men. When he factored in his prompt repair, decent enhancement and punctual and savory meals, it made sense.

“I will don’t worry. Just keep in mind that I’m very poor so go easy on my coin pouch, will you?”

“Come on friend, it’s a once in a lifetime event. Most soldiers don’t advance beyond tier 2 so this is a major milestone for us! Treat a brother to a good meal.”

“I already said I will but no matter how great of an achievement it is, it won’t magically add any coins to my current wealth.” Abel wasn’t sure if Bruni and Roy had schemed this together since the latter was sounding a lot like the former.

“Alright alright, as long as you’re sincere then that will be enough.” Roy and Bruni finally relented but they put the meal on the books.

Abel set the matter aside and started setting up a fire to cook their meal and also repair their weapons. He wanted to get his chores over and done with so he could catch up on some sleep. The repairs took so long because of the lacking heat from the open flame and his low proficiency in using the skill. Fortunately, Kel and Lard’s weapons didn’t need any repair since they barely took part in any battles. Their durability was still 99/100 so he didn’t have to repair as many weapons as yesterday.

After he made the porridge and had a meal with the men, he informed them of his departure so he could eat something in reality. He hadn’t logged off all day long and the system would surely kick him out within the next hour anyway. Once he disconnected his Neuro-link, he quickly paid a visit to the bathroom and took a quick shower, he was starting to stink and he didn’t want his pod to reek of his own funky smell. After applying some ointment on his healing wounds and eating a couple of nutrient bars, he washed it all down with a bottle of water and logged back into the game.

Whoooooosh

This time, the men were expecting his return so they weren’t startled by his abrupt arrival. Though they still found the whore ordeal quite fascinating. They started chatting with each other about the peculiarity of travelers as they carried on with their own tasks. A couple of the men were skinning the monsters and looking for loot, others got to pitching the tents, some were assigned to taking first watch while the rest of them were getting some much-needed rest around the central campfire.

They had already placed all their used weapons and equipment in front of Abel’s small fire, aware that he would get to repairing them upon his return. Before he got started on this task, he walked up to the captain and issued a small request.

“Excuse me captain, do you by chance have any arrows in your spatial storage treasure? I’m down to my last quiver.”

“Oh, it took you long enough lad. I was wondering how many arrows you had stuffed in there. I was starting to think your spatial bag was a mythical self-conjuring artifact instead hahaha” The captain said, expecting Abel to come asking for arrows sooner or later.

“I already had quite a bit of stock so I figured I should use it up before I ask for some more.” Abel explained in embarrassment but he only received a chide in return!

“Foolish boy, the army pays for these supplies, it doesn’t come out of our own pockets. While you aren’t a soldier or even a reservist, you are still part of this expedition. Next time you are on such a task, don’t be too shy to ask for supplies. I didn’t remind you earlier because I want this to be a lesson you will not forget.”

The captain tried justifying his reasoning. Perhaps the old man’s words had some truth to them but Abel didn’t protest. He felt like the captain was actually too cheap to mention it earlier, if he could get by with own supplies then he wouldn’t have heard this self-righteous explanation. Abel could only grumble inwardly to himself as he took 200 more arrows from the captain and went back to his little fire.

He started heating the most beat up and worn out weapons first, starting from the swords and then moving to the spears. He would carry out the enhancement right after the repair and his proficiency in both skills was shooting up like a rocket. Before he knew it, he advanced both skills to Trainee, bringing down their usage requirements.

Mend and Repair (Trainee 6.1%): Quickly repair weapons and armor of low durability.
Cost: 9 Mana and 14 Stamina Points every 20 minutes.

Weapon Enhancement (Trainee 1.2%): Sharpen and tune weapons to increase attack damage, defense or attack range by +10%
Cost: 10 Mana Points.
Cooldown: 25 seconds

The repair skill cost went down by 1 mana point and 1 stamina point while the weapon enhancement skill’s cool down went down by 5 seconds. Unlike most of his other skills, these 2 skills didn’t have the prefix basic so they could be leveled up all the way to the Legendary Rank. Doing so was very difficult but if he could actually achieve it one day then they would probably turn into something else entirely.

Most basic skills could only reach Expert in proficiency, the skill would have to be promoted to its intermediate equivalent after tier 1 to reach Master and the intermediate skill would have to develop again to an advanced skill after tier 3 if you wanted to reach Grandmaster. Abel wasn’t sure what it took to level a skill to Legendary, perhaps reaching the Legend rank in class was a prerequisite but he couldn’t be sure. Just because the skill level was called Legend didn’t automatically mean the tier of the class had to be a Legend as well.

‘These are future matters that I shouldn’t be thinking about, I need to concentrate on the task at hand. If I finish quickly then I get to sleep properly tonight…’

Abel shoved these superfluous thoughts to the back of his mind as he continued with the task at hand. He had a couple more spears and the shields to take care of, the latter being more time consuming when it came to repair. By the time he finished repairing and enhancing all the equipment, it was nearing 1 am in Veridia’s time zone. Just the spear, sword and shield belonging to Kel and Lard that he didn’t have to take care of shaved a couple of hours off his work time.

The crackling of the central bonfire mixed with Lards deafening snores was the only sound that could be heard. He didn’t know how the men could sleep with such a loud noise right next to them, maybe they had gotten used to it after 2 years of training alongside one another. Abel shook his head as he informed the captain of his departure, receiving a lazy wave in response. He figured it meant ‘go do what you must, just don’t bother me kid’.

This time, he stepped beyond the perimeter and told the night watchmen currently on duty of his departure before pulling up his Panel and logging out. He didn’t waste any time in his user home, swiftly disconnecting his Neuro-link.

Whooooooosh

Abel got out of the pod and decided to head to the kitchen. He wanted to have a small snack beyond those bland nutrient bars, they were tasteless and all they did was satisfy one’s hunger. In fact, they drummed up some negative memories for him.

When he was very young, the PNC’s income support was getting siphoned by a greedy middleman in their local government so Grandma Meng could barely afford feeding 4 mouths 3 times a day. There were several nights when the old lady would lie with a smile, saying she had already eaten dinner and the bit of food she made was only for them.

They also had to make do with these nutrient bars for lunch at school. Abel had barely started primary school back then and many of the children that didn’t suffer as much from the binary eclipse would ostracize him and make fun of him, they actually made a little song about it. They would sing in their naïve but evil little voice “Abel is unable to have lunch on the table” and would only stop once a teacher came into the room.

It didn’t last for long; Grandma Meng had sold off her husbands prized boat to help them through that tough period of time. That corrupt official was discovered after a major audit took place all over the Emerald Isles and he was fired and imprisoned if Abel recalled correctly. Though the government only compensated them partially as some of the siphoned funds had been spent by the corrupt official, but it was still a better outcome then what would have happened in Xiaowen’s Earth.

‘Little kids can sometimes be more evil than villains…’

He shook his head with a smile and laughed at these old memories as he looked around the kitchen for something light to eat. Unfortunately, it seemed like Frankie and Mell hadn’t gone grocery shopping yet so there wasn’t much in the fridge.

‘uh… whatever, I’ll just go and get some sleep. If I wake up early then I can fry some eggs from the chicken coup.’ In the end, he decided against eating and left the quiet house, he figured Melly and Frankie were either in-game or asleep as the house was eerily silent.

He made his way back to his courtyard and crawled right into his comfy old bed. He didn’t forget to set an alarm at 3:30, just in case he overslept. He didn’t think this would happen but he would rather be safe than sorry. Just a few seconds after he locked his phone, his mind drifted off into a deep abyss of slumber.