บท 4: Meeting

For the next two hours, I wandered all over the town. During my trip, I've encountered numerous quests. They are mostly gather quests, delivery quests, and kill quests. I'm mostly done with the delivery quests as most of it only required to deliver things within the town. As a result I've gained 7 silvers, some common equips and a map of the map and its surroundings. I was also quite lucky and managed to learn some basic Berserker skills from an NPC.

[Charge] (Active Skill)

Charges toward a target, stunning the target for 2 seconds.

Cooldown time: 30 seconds. Range: 3-10 meters.

[Force Strike] (Active Skill)

Performs a powerful strike on the target immediately, dealing 100% of melee damage with a 5% chance to trigger an additional attack.

Right now, I'm in the Black Market. Hearing the rules of the challenge, I've immediately remembered this from the novel. From what I remember, a successful attempt would result in a high level skill book. There is also a chance of acquiring a dark gold item.

I readily accepted the challenge and prepared myself to dodge the incoming bullets. As the timer reached zero, I immediately dashed away from the starting line.

Xiu! Xiu! Xiu!

Multiple gunshots echoed in my surroundings. Despite that, I kept my focus and dashed towards the finish line.

As soon as I went past 25 yards, the gnomes used automatic muskets and begun to fire wildly.

I moved in zigzag motion while using my sword to deflect some of the bullets. When I was near the finish line, I saw one of the gnomes attempting to change guns. To prevent that, I immediately dive rolled towards the finish line

Total time spent: 15 seconds. Estimated record time of 18 seconds for Copper Prize broken.

"Ladies and Gentlemen, a round of applause! This Warrior has passed the challenge!" The Gnome administrator announced loudly.

System: Player was the First to pass the Copper Challenge and break the record. Rewarding player with 1 Silver Coin and Berserker Skill [Thunder Strike].

After completing the copper prize challenge, I proceeded to try the silver prize challenge. The silver prize challenge was a lot harder than the copper one. Instead of three gnomes, there were 5 gnomes shooting at me. Additionally, at the last part of the challenge, they even used a gun that shoots out blasts of magic. Fortunately, I was able to act fast and managed to complete the challenge. Upon completion, the gnomes awarded me with another skill book.

I immediately looked at my bag and searched for the awarded skill books.

[Thunder Strike] (Action-type)

Requires: Melee Weapon

Borrows the power of thunder to deliver a powerful strike onto the ground, dealing 100% physical damage to all surrounding enemies. Inflicted targets will have 50% speed reduction for 5 seconds. This skill will generate a large amount of aggro. Rage cost: 20 Cooldown time: 8 seconds

[Eagle Eye] (Passive)

You now have the ability to thoroughly search the enemy's weak points. All attacks will now ignore 50% enemy defense.

I quickly celebrated upon reading the skill descriptions, thinking of how useful these two are. Without a second thought, I clicked and learned the skills.

After leaving the black market, I continued to do one of the delivery quests. Upon completion, I finished the quest and was rewarded with a Cooking Skill and another quest. This quest requires me to bring a parcel to a person living in the Dark Moon Valley. Before going outside the city, I bought some stock of food, potions, bandages, as well as some other useful items.

During my travel to Dark Moon Valley, I've killed some monsters increasing my level to level 3.

At this moment, I've already reached the quest destination. Looking around, I found a smithy beside the flowing creek. There also three humans present within the clearing; two players and an NPC. The NPC wielded a steel hammer and was hammering at a crimson ore.

I nodded at the two players in greeting and went towards the NPC.

"Master Jack, Mr. Butch asked me to deliver a parcel for you."

"..."

"Master Jack?"

"..."

Seeing the NPC ignore me, I joined the two players standing at the side.

"Hey, do any of you two know how I can complete this quest. The NPC keeps ignoring me."

One of players answered me. "I think we just need to wait. We're already standing here for quite a while."

"I guess I have no choice but to wait, huh." I muttered to myself

"Yeah, Oh, I am Black Cloud, a Cursemancer, and this here is my friend Ye Feng, a Swordsman."

I became dazed hearing their names. Isn't Ye Feng and Black Cloud the ign of Shi Feng and Blackie? I did not think that I would meet them this early.

Before delving deeper into my thoughts, I greeted them back.

"I am DarkNorth, a Berserker."

Time slowly flowed by, bit by bit. While waiting, we made some small conversations to avoid dying of boredom. After almost 30 minutes, Blackie can't hold on any longer and complained to Ye Feng.

"Brother Feng, are we still going to wait? It's already been half an hour now." Blackie said.

"We have to wait. Without patience, he won't give us the Quest." Shi Feng affirmed.

"Ye Feng, you're a Beta Tester?" I asked him just to make a conversation

"No, I just have some more information regarding the game." Answered Shi Feng

"Then, can you tell me what quest will he give us?" I asked them. My memories of the early chapters of this novel were already fuzzy. Honestly, I skipped most of the details when I was reading the novel.

"It's a quest about killing some monsters. At the end, he'll teach us forging and award us a title related to forging."

"Oh, that's useful"

We continued talking with each other. We've also discussed of our experiences in the game. After some time, the NPC suddenly asked. "Do you three have an interest in Forging?"

"Yes, sir. We've loved Forging since we were young." Shi Feng immediately said.

The middle-aged blacksmith nodded his head, saying in a satisfied tone, "Then since you love Forging, I can teach it to you. But first, could you help me retrieve 100 pieces of Meteorite Ore? They can be found on the West side of Crimson Star Mine."

"Of course. We would gladly be at your service." Shi Feng respectfully answered.

System: Hidden Quest 'Road Of Forging' accepted. Player is requested by Forging Master Jack to obtain 100 pieces of Meteorite Ore from Crimson Star Mine.

"Hey, is it alright if I join the two of you? It would be more convenient if the three of us teamed up to gather these ores as there are a lot of monsters in that area."

Blackie looked at Ye Feng asking for an answer. Upon seeing him nod, he added me to the party excitedly.

///

Crimson Star Mine was the nest of Level 4 Kobolds. These monsters loved ore the most. They would spend every day mining within the mines. As such, Kobolds were born with great strength. However, they had short limbs. Because they stayed underground for long periods of time, their range of vision was short. They could only detect enemies within a 35-yard distance. This distance was also the maximum range of attack for a mage.

There were many Kobolds walking around the mine's entrance. An entire group of them would be attracted even if only one of them was attacked.

[Kobold]

Level 4

HP 420

"Here. First, have some food and drink to fill ourselves. We'll start work after that." Shi Feng brought out and handed us a Black Steel Beer and an Apple Pie.

Upon eating the apple pie, all of my attributes increased by one point. Additionally, because of the Black Steel Beer, my vision started becoming hazy. When I looked at the distant Level 4 Kobolds, their Levels were suddenly reduced by 2; becoming Level 2.

Seeing that phenomena, I quickly asked Shi Feng "Huh, aren't they level 4 monsters? How come they suddenly became level 2?"

"Some food items produce special effects. For example, there are even food items that would increase a player's luck."

I became quite shocked hearing this. When I was reading the novel, I just ignored this effect. However, seeing its capabilities, I found out how useful it is. Imagine if I get my hands on a food item that would allow me to solo a Lord rank boss. The thought of its drops made me drool in anticipation.

"It seems like Cooking is quite useful." Answered Blackie

"Alright, let's start then. A bottle of Black Steel Beer's drunken effect only lasts 30 minutes." Shi Feng stood up. He took out a Smoke Bomb and walked closer to the mine's entrance. Then, he threw it at the group of Level 4 Kobolds; there were currently over ten of them there.