With everything in my inventory, I felt none of the previous weight I had been carrying on my back. After all the talk about the gaming system being based on military grade mixed reality and real technology, how did they explain away this?
Chapter 5 – Hunting with Kline
Kline and I split up to sell quickly at the market before continuing into the forest. If at all possible I wanted to try and purchase a better weapon before we got started again.
Already there were hundreds of players crowding the main street. It was wide enough to have cart after cart lining either side. These merchants had their goods laid out on top of their carts and some had extra tables with goods. Near the city gate, there were even carts in the middle of the road, splitting this wider section in two. The actual businesses with buildings behind the row of carts had signs hanging over the crowd above their doorway. Plenty of room was given so that there was a way in and out.
I found a merchant within the first block of the village gate. A stern looking woman with a pale green bonnet and an apron over her azure dress had an item crowded cart. It had a variety of weapons, armor, preserved food, and beverages. Her cart was made of wood with large spoke wheels and a thick board fastened over the wagon bed underneath. She had a donkey tied up behind her against a log building. The cart was far too heavy for her to handle alone.
Noticing me, she didn’t leave the side of her cart as she hollered much louder than necessary for me to hear.
“Hey son! In the market to buy or sell? April will treat you fair!”
“Both,” I replied, probably too low for her to hear and walked up to her cart. Might as well price things with her while I was here.
“Let’s see what you got.”
Opening my inventory, I was looking for…
“The trade button is on the bottom.”
Here. I clicked the raised chrome text where she said it would be.
My 80 lbs. of raw pork and the tusk sold for 3 silver and 38 copper. It left me with 4 silver and 38 copper in total.
“Take a look and I’ll give you your coin after you are finished shopping.”
She was a thrifty little merchant.
There were other places for fresh food, but there seemed to be no weapon or armor specialty shops nearby.
April had little paper tags tied with string onto each piece of merchandise. Scanning through the equipment I found my 4 silver was actually a good deal of money for so early in the game. It compared pretty well to the prices from the tutorial.
All of the weapons were laid out on a thick, stained wool blanket. With 4 silver I could easily afford a rough quality item in the bronze category like a short sword, ax or spear. It was equivalent to what I had gotten during the tutorial.
This is more like it. I grabbed a bronze spear that would be more useful for a situation against a creature like the boar. Then I found a round wooden shield that had been leaning on the side of her cart. Just to be safe, I bought some hard biscuits and two jugs of water.
She had armor laid out, but I didn’t bother with it yet. Everything was leather-based, so finding a breastplate or chainmail was a ways off.
As I left with a little more than 1 silver in my pouch April called out abnormally loud like before. “Discounts for return customers!”
I decided I liked her.
***
It was another five minutes before Kline and I found each other. He had upgraded his club and was now wielding a bronze woodcutter's ax. Besides being more expensive it was also a two-handed ax and not the tiny hatchets that had been available until now.
We both still wore our dust-colored newbie pants and tunic. They were honestly much better put together garments than what I was used to. Things in the real world weren’t designed to be this durable.
“Hey man. Were you thinking of heading into the forest?” Kline asked.
I nodded.
With a fist to his chin, Kline wrenched his head to either side, popping his neck. “About 3 more pigs and I can afford a full suit of leather armor. I gotta look good you know.”
It wasn’t like me to let an opportunity for a good quip go to waste.
“Are you saying I don’t look good in this?”
Smacking me on the shoulder, his goatee completely shielded his mouth, leaving only his scrunched up eyes showing his grin. “You have been chosen out of billions of people to wear dirt colored pajamas before the world! Now, how’s a man supposed to fight in dirt pajamas?!”
Recovering from his swat, I shook my head, unable to hold back laughter. Dirt-colored pajamas was a pretty accurate description actually.
“I have to agree with you.”
“Then we will get along fine. Not sure I could trust a guy that willingly fought in pajamas.”
“I guarantee you that this wasn’t my first choice.”
“Ah ha!”
I tried a few things to discover a party system as we walked, but nothing seemed to work. Perhaps we had to level up before it would become available to us.
Kline seemed to have no real knowledge about gaming. He was oblivious to the concept of what a party system was.
I was able to see the amount of experience I had gained from fighting the boar. Over three-fourths of my experience bar was full. It was a small silver bar placed under my health bar.
We walked toward the forest, me with my shield and spear, and Kline with his two-handed ax resting on his shoulder.
By now there were hundreds of players spread out in the woods, mostly in groups. The field had been cleared and there seemed to be no respawning of monsters or animals. We had gotten lucky killing the boar since they seemed to be in limited supply.
Three dark green creatures huddled around something we couldn’t see. There was no indicator of what they were, but the large heads, dull green skin, and large yellow eyes reminded me of goblins from other games. The forest wasn’t filled with much underbrush, but there was enough that it had concealed our approach.
They stood only three and a half feet tall.
We didn’t approach them with much strategy. Kline motioned to me to take one side, and he gestured he would take the other.
With a nod, he rushed forward, leaving me off guard.
I quickly scrambled to attack the other flank.
Finally, with something to clear my mind from the shock of our first fight, adrenaline filled me and I flew.
I was the first to attack, beating Kline to the enemy. My well-practiced psychotic cry caused the three green men to jump. People would be watching. It was time to put on a show. I jabbed with my spear scoring a clean hit in the back of the closest goblin.
Kline wasn’t one to let me outdo him. He nearly cleaved one in two from the top to bottom with his ax. It was immediately killed, but my goblin started shaking spastically to try and get the spear loose of his back. I had missed his heart and struck too low. It wasn’t easy to pull my spear out of the creature’s body.
As it finally came out, the third goblin had slipped into my blind spot under my shield. Sneaky little toad!
Suddenly pain shot up my leg where the creature had bitten my calf. Just above my Health Bar a number popped up and the bar went down slightly.
-13 Damage
A sickening feeling welled up in my gut.
I frantically scraped the green monster off my leg with my shield. His small size was easy to manipulate. As he bounced away, I was glad we got to attack first, because these things were quick. His yellow, bloodshot eyes mocked me, as they scrunched up in what must have been a grin.
Thankfully he was caught off guard by Kline’s ax. In two swings the creature was dead.
Level 2
You have reached Level 2!