Chapitre 5: Starting Stats

Liam sat on a rock, right outside the novice village, and opened his status screen. Next to him, a couple of people were already fighting the rabbits and squirrels which were beginner level beasts.

However, Liam was not in a hurry. In fact, he didn't plan on gaining any experience points for now. He calmly willed his status screen and first took a look at things.

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Name: Chang Liam

Species: Human being

Gender: Male

Level: 1 [0/200]

Title: N/A

Class: N/A

Health: 10/10

Mana: 10/10

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Stamina: 2

Intellect: 2

Strength: 2

Defense: 2

Vitality: 2

Agility: 2

______________

Ha Ha Ha! Liam chuckled at the sight of his familiar pathetic starting stats and quickly closed the screen.

The beginner stats ranged from 0 to 20 depending on each individual's prior condition.

Liam being very malnourished and his current body lacking any physical training, it was no surprise that his starting attributes were all on the lower side.

After all, he had started with the same stats last time as well, but the difference was that he now knew what to do.

This small difference in abilities at the start might not seem much but ultimately it slowed you down and pushed you to the bottom, even before the game began.

Liam shook his head sighing and then opened his inventory. There was a worn out pair of pants, a shabby looking mismatched pair of shoes, a sleeveless shirt, ripped here there, and lastly a rusted long sword.

These were the beginner items that were uniformly given to all players on entering the game, all Level 1 and all pretty much useless.

But since Liam was currently in his underpants, he still took these trash items and equipped everything. The three items of clothing each gave 1 defense point and his previous 2 defense immediately went up by 3 points.

This boost wasn't really that much but roaming around half-naked sometimes ticked off certain NPCs and Liam couldn't possibly remember each and every single NPC's characteristics. So to be on the safer side, he threw everything on.

After the issue of clothing was resolved, Liam then opened the map feature to check where he was.

Beginner players typically spawned in novice villages that were on the outskirts of towns and cities and Liam had spawned in Coldwater village.

It was a small village without many resources in the northern part of the Gresh Kingdom. "Hmmm… So an hour walk to the next town… Alright. Let me start."

Of course, it was also possible to reach the next town in a much shorter time but Liam took the roundabout main route frequented by villagers and merchants.

He did this because he didn't want to come across any wild beasts and be forced to fight them. Not that he was too weak to fight these beasts. Rather he wanted to keep his slate clean.

And so, while others busily hunted for wild beasts and starter quests to increase their level, Liam alone leisurely walked over to the next town.

It took him a little longer than an hour, but just like he had wanted, he reached his destination without any hitch.

Thankfully, unlike cities, towns did not have any entry fees, so he was also able to smoothly walk past the town guards.

"If I remember correctly…" Liam paused at the entrance of the bustling town and sucked in a deep breath before he scurried along the crowded streets.

Compared to the novice village, Basla town was a much bigger place and had several stores and vendors and even an auction house.

Liam directly headed towards one of the more flashy buildings in the northern part of the town, the bank.

But he didn't enter inside the bank, as it required a certain reputation and fame to borrow money from the bank. Rather he entered a small building on the same street, just a couple of blocks away from the bank, with a sign that read 'LeeLani's Pawn Shop'.

Inside the shop, a fat salesperson was sitting who revealed a big suspicious grin as soon as he saw Liam walking in.

"Hello. Hello. Good day to you, young man. What brings you to my small establishment this fine morning?"

Liam rolled his eyes and bluntly replied, without bothering with the formalities and fake niceties. "I need a loan of 100 Gold coins."

He knew that there was no point in trying to butter up this fatty as all the loan sharks in the game were extremely cruel and cutthroat.

"Oooo… What a big sum for a little fella like you. Good. Good. Youngsters have to be ambitious! I like your courage young man!"

"But should I give it to you or not? Hmmm..." The shopkeeper rapped on the desk in front of him, looking at Liam up and down.

"Alright. I have decided. This is your lucky day. Though you don't look particularly reliable, I will still loan you this sum of money."

What a scam! Liam sneered inwardly.

The man was spouting a lot of big nice words, but at the end of the day, it was all lies because he would just about loan anything to anyone. The interest rate was just that outrageous!

[Ding. Received a loan of 100 Gold coins]

[Ding. Interest: 10 Gold coins a day]

[Ding. If the full amount is not returned by the end of the week along with the interest, the player will be stripped of everything and permanently imprisoned.]

[Ding. You are the first person to receive a loan.]

[Ding. You have obtained the title 'Rolling in Debt']

[Rolling in Debt: When the title is equipped, it gives a 5% bonus on auction house settlements]

Liam stared at the notifications not knowing whether to laugh or cry. Even though the title hit a little too close to home, he was still happy with the small surprise bonus. He chuckled wryly and left the pawnshop.

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Chapitre 6: Crafting room

Liam clutched the small pouch containing 100 gold coins and walked out of the pawnshop, the pouch weighing heavily on his hand.

Currently, in the game, people were still haggling for copper coins, while he had already borrowed 100 gold coins!

The currency denomination was not too complicated and pretty straightforward. One hundred copper coins equaled a silver coin and one hundred silver coins equaled a gold coin.

Gold was the highest currency and items and consumables of bigger values were often traded in gems rather than coins.

The exact value of every gem differed and they typically ranged from several hundred to thousands or even higher number of gold coins.

So considering everything, a sum like 100 hundred gold coins was an astronomical amount to a Level 1 character.

However, Liam confidently hopped onto one street after another and ran across the town, only stopping when he reached the familiar Trade building.

He walked inside and went to one of the open windows.

"Hi, I would like to rent a crafting room," Liam asked the sales representative.

The woman nodded and took out a medallion from under the desk. "That will be 10 silvers."

Before paying her first, Liam grabbed a sheet of paper from a stack on the side and scribbled on it with the pen tied to the counter. "I would also like to buy these ingredients." He handed it over to her.

The lady looked at the paper, her eyes slightly widening in shock. Everything listed was extremely expensive and she now held the scrawny-looking young lad in front of her in much higher regard.

"That would be 100 gold coins in total sir. If you give me a few minutes, I, Lana, can personally deliver all the items to your room." The woman batted her eyelashes, even introducing herself, and gave a coy smile to Liam.

He was amused, but he was not a noob and he didn't have time to mess around with NPCs. "Alright. Thanks." He muttered bluntly and then walked over to room no.5 which was the number on his medallion.

[Ding. You have entered a crafting room.]

[Ding. Your chance of success in crafting is now increased by 5%]

A couple of system notifications popped up in front of him, which Liam swiped away. He then sat down at the center of the small room, leaving the door open.

Soon, Lana arrived, flashing a big smile on her face. She bowed and greeted him again, revealing her ample breasts, and then took out all the items one by one from her inventory.

Within a minute, the small room was completely filled with various things including a big cauldron, several packets of herbs, bones, vials of blood, and lastly two big pails of clean water.

Liam nodded in satisfaction. "That'll be all. Thanks." The NPC flashed another coy smile before closing the door and leaving the room.

"Here we go." Liam calmed himself down and then first started by activating the rune on the cauldron which simply required him to place his thumb imprint on it.

This rune enabled a user to regulate the heat produced by the cauldron but something like that required Liam to have a much higher level and huge amounts of mana at his disposal, not to mention more control on his mana usage.

The current him simply pressed his thumb against the cauldron once and then removed his hand to activate the automatic heat regulation. Though it was not that great, it was still decent enough to serve his current needs.

Liam then started unfolding the herb stalks, while waiting for the water in the cauldron to reach a rolling boil.

"Ginseng. Maricharin. Linti root. Bonasitu." He took the herbs in his hand one by one, smelled them, remembering their texture and their properties which had already been deeply drilled into his brain.

There was a time in the past when he had been a slave. He and several others were forced into doing dull manual labor from dawn to dusk collecting herbs from a mountain.

But that was just the beginning and in fact, that was one of the more pleasant memories he had. He had experienced far worse things in his life.

"Hai! Let me not dwell on the past." Liam smiled bitterly and started adding the herbs to the boiling water. He added them in a specific series according to the recipe that he remembered.

In 'Evolution Online' there were many ways to obtain recipes for crafting but Liam's method was a unique one as he was replicating everything from his mind.

Once the herbs were added, the boiling water in the cauldron turned into a shade of light yellow.

Liam then added the beast bones and drops of blood at the same time which turned the liquid into deep red in color.

Almost immediately he backed away, just in time to avoid a powerful roaring aura that seeped out of the cauldron.

[Ding: Body Cleansing Low Grade potion created]

[Ding: Body Cleansing Low Grade potion recipe obtained]

[Ding: You have acquired the trade skill Alchemy]

[Ding: Your Alchemy skill proficiency has increased to Beginner Level]

The temperature in the small crafting room instantly shot up and Liam was drenched in sweat from top to bottom. The crafting room had suddenly become his personal sauna!

"Looks good enough." He nodded in satisfaction and then started unbuttoning his shirt to reveal his bony weak body.

He removed his pants, shoes, and his underwear as well and when he was completely naked, he stepped into the sizzling boiling cauldron.

[Ding: Health -1]

Danger notifications immediately started popping up, but Liam leisurely made himself comfortable in the cauldron.

Though it was a huge vessel, it was still awkward for him to fit his entire body inside, submerging it under the boiling red liquid.

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