Chapter 9: First Steps
As the scene in front of Yuki changed once again, a menu showing four different areas appeared in front of her. Above it was a message that said: [Please choose a starting village.]
Each icon was an image of the village with its name and basic information. The four choices were…
Flim Village, a village on the outskirts of the Wandering Forest. The surrounding area flourishes with flora and fauna.
Miir Village, a village that sits at the bottom of the Gand Mountain range. Many types of ores and gems can be found in the area.
Sloso Village, a village in the Eternal Plains. Many varieties of monsters can be found in the Eternal Plains.
Kiloko Village, a village that sits on the edge of Deaths Gorge. Many sightings of rare monsters could be found around the area.
"Each place seems to have its own specialty. But my choice here is not hard. Flim village is the only place I can start if I wish to hopefully make enough money in the next few days to cover rent and eat." Yuki, firm in her decision, hit the icon for Flim Village.
The scenery instantly changed, and Yuki found herself in the middle of a village under a huge statue of a woman with swords surrounding her body. Her arm was stretched out as if she was commanding the swords, and by the way her feet were sculpted, it made it look as if she was floating in the air. Yuki looked around and was shocked to see how real everything looked. There were a lot of people all over the place running around. People were shouting left and right, trying to sell their goods. Yuki could only guess that those in the same kind of attire as her were players. Besides this little detail, it was hard to figure out who was an NPC and who was a player.
A gentle breeze caused her black hair to flutter a little while the sounds of birds chirping could be heard all around. "Well… I should get busy..." Yuki looked at the small clock at the top left of her HUD and saw that about twenty minutes had passed in the real world. There were two timers, each marked differently. One was the game time, while the other was the real world time.
Yuki looked around and tried to determine the road that led out of village. From which she could see, there was the main road that cut right through the village, which she was currently on. The buildings of the village seemed to be a fusion of ancient China and ancient Europe. There were no tall buildings from what she could see. The tallest building was only four floors. It was very different from the cities that now cover ninety percent of the real world.
"For now, I will follow this main road to the end and see if it leads to the exit. If it doesn't, then I will ask someone for directions. Although it would be kind of embarrassing to need to ask someone how to exit a village you were already in." Yuki mumbled to herself as she walked forward, heading down the road.
A smile rose on Yuki's lips as she walked around looking at the sights. For her, someone who was always in the city, in run down areas, to see such beautiful scenery was like a dream come true. Up until now, Yuki has only played the old Pac Station 20 that she salvaged from the used bin at the game store, Game Heaven. While the graphics were amazing on the screen, seeing it like this firsthand was a whole different experience.
As she walked, she did not notice the females she walked by taking glances at her. This was to be expected. As a female in real life, Yuki was very cute. She had used her own facial features and adjusted them slightly to make them more manly, but in the end, she still looked like a young pretty boy, and most girls liked looking at handsome men. This was the same for the NPCs as well. They were not coded to be realistic for nothing.
Once Yuki reached the gates of the village, her eyes were filled with lush greenery as a wide grassy area spread out in front of her, and just beyond that was a dense forest. Yuki saw many players out there killing what looked to be rabbits. They were the size of a large dog and had long pointy ears that pointed skywards. However, even though they were rabbits, they did not look cute at all. They had long, sharp fangs that hung from their mouth with drool dripping from them. When they opened their mouths, they had three rows of small razor sharp teeth. The most dangerous feature about them was the two pointy horns on their head resting a little under the ears. These horns were used to ram players, trying to skewer them in two. When Yuki focused on them, she could see a small bar at the top of her HUD that showed its level, health bar, and name. They were called Devil Rabbits and were level 0.
"I do not think I should be fighting those just yet. I should work on my main task... " Yuki once again mumbled to herself as she scanned the plants in the area. 'Just in view, there are already a bunch of useful herbs. There is a ton of chamomile and lavender. If I were to make a Health potion, it would be useful, right? So what would a health potion be made of? Maybe I should have checked the market price and the trade skill guild first...'
Yuki sighed as she realized she was in too much of a rush. 'At any rate, since I am already here, let's fill my bag with herbs.'
Yuki did not have any other way to make money as she saw it now. She could try grinding monsters and leveling up, but from what she read, the only good items at this level that might drop would be of the uncommon quality. But the drop rate on such things is so low that it would make farming for an uncommon item a waste of time. Especially since by the time you got one, you would most likely be way over its level, and it would be useless to you.
"Time to get plucking, I guess..." Yuki said out loud, trying to hype herself up. She hoped that after everything, she did not make a big mistake. She was basically putting everything into one basket in hopes that it would bring in the income she needed. She knew this was a huge risk, and she was not usually one to gamble like this, but she was desperate at the time.
But now, everything was set into motion. The one who would soon cause storm waves throughout all of Soul Fusion Online had taken her first steps to become one of the most legendary players ever known.
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