There was just a slight problem however, for lying beside the Moonglow flower basking under the light of the moon was a wolf with beautiful fur of pure silver. Easily twice as large as the previous wolves he had encountered, this was no doubt the leader of the wolf pack in the Argent Forest – the fabled Silver wolf. With its head low and eyes closed, it appeared to be napping; the wolf did not even give notice to Beast’s entrance.

For a period of time, Beast did not know what he should do. At the present, the so called ‘rare boss mob’ of the Argent Forest was right in front of him, right next to his original objective. This was no coincidence and he knew that the beast was there to protect the equally rare bloom. Even if it was coincidence, there was no chance the wolf will not react if he approached it. What he could do now is to attempt a stealth grab at the Moonglow flower and run before the wolf could realize and retaliate, or he could just outright attack.

Yet, a boss monster’s level would definitely be higher than its minions. Beast had no idea if he could handle the Silver wolf by himself at a mere level ten, much less the potential reinforcements it could call. Unless…

Beast sighed. This might be ridiculous, but it could just work out.

Turning back into the woods, Beast searched in the vicinity of the clearing for wolves to kill.

………..

Beast approached the silver canine, watching it intently for any signs of movement. If his plan goes smoothly the beast would not have noticed him, yet. Covering himself in layers and layers of wolf skin, he would smell like a friend instead of a foe at least until he was right up close.

A few meters in, one of the wolf’s ears perked.

Then another.

Then its eyes flew open and stared at the strangely dressed human looking back at it in frozen shock.

“Awwwoooooooooooooo”

“Damn!” Shedding his disguise entirely, Beast bounded backwards to give himself distance between the two of them. His original plan had failed; Time for plan B. Whipping out a burning torch, Beast then proceeded to run along the perimeter of the clearing, lighting up the torches he had placed before. When he had ran a full circle, Beast slammed the last torch into the ground just as the first of the reinforcements the Silver Wolf had called came into sight. No less than a dozen minions, ‘adds’ as gamers like to call them, were all ready to tear him into pieces, only being prevented from entering the clearing by the searing heat of the flames.

Thus began the timed boss battle under the pale moonlight. He had to finish this before the torches burn out.

With a roar, Beast rushed towards the center of the arena where the Silver Wolf with his knuckles clenched for a punch. The Wolf who had been watching him warily the whole time deftly leapt to the right, causing his attack to hit thin air. A second later, Beast felt a crushing impact akin to a huge boulder at his side, knocking him flying. When he landed, it took his all just to stand back up. The animal had head-butted him, and it hit like a truck too. With just one blow, his health had dropped by almost half.

“Prime: Renew. Prime: Renew.”

The Vanadic Tome fluttered to its sole page, invoking the power of the Ceremonial Sword of Lanos twice and refilling him back to health. In turn, his mana pool fell by a flat four hundred points.

Three more uses left. He could not afford to be hit again. Another three more hits like the previous damaged suffered could be enough to kill him.

But there was no time to think. Jaws of sharp teeth were mere inches from his face when Beast hurled himself to the ground to avoid it. Taking the opening caused by the wolf’s leap, he punched out and was rewarded by a sharp yelp of his foe. Snarling, the wolf swerved right back and charged in for another head-butt, only barely avoided by a well-timed roll on Beast’s part.

This exchange of blows continued, with lunges and punches mixed into the fray. Approaching the battle cautiously and defensively, Beast tried his best to avoid the wolf’s attacks and so far he was having success. However, he was running out of time. With every punch he dealt, the torches he had set inched closer to burning out.

Then a sudden gale blew, causing the torches to flicker madly on the edge of being extinguished. Beast’s heart almost leap out of his chest as he prayed for the torches to withstand the wind, and only breathed a sigh of relief when the gale passed.

Crunch!

“Urgh!”

In his preoccupation with the torches, Beast had momentarily let his guard down. This resulted in him suffering a painful bite from the Silver wolfs jaws as his health drained all the way down to the critical zone. Chugging a down a potion, Beast quickly muttered and invoked the renew effect another two times, depleting most of his mana pool just to recover the lost health. Now he could only go for broke or go home via the death mechanism.

But under this desolated night with a rapidly diminishing time limit, his chances were honestly speaking, very bleak. In other words, the battle seemed hopeless.

It was then Beast decided to do something very stupid. He had been making stupid decisions ever since the start of the game, so why not one more? Standing his ground when the Silver Wolf came charging in like before, the lone gamer screamed into the darkness of the trees.

“Damn this game. Damn this job. Damn this quest. DAMN YOU!”

He had enough of this. All these suffering he had undergone since he had started Ages Online, starting from the unwanted profession forced upon him to the equipment restriction to rolling around the muck of the forest and wrestling with wolves just to get one stupid flower. He had enough.

And he did not care if his body would break from the aftermaths. Channeling all his indignation he had felt and suffered into one single punch, Beast lashed out right when the Silver Wolf lunged.

You have taken a critical hit!

- 455 HP!

You have temporarily lost function of your right arm.

You have dealt a critical hit!

You have gained a new skill: Desperado Backlash!

Your Bare-handed Mastery had leveled up to Basic 3!

The instant his punch connected with the skull of the silver wolf, Beast felt the bones in his entire right arm crack, or seemed to crack as this was only a virtual reality game. There are still the young children and moral guardians to consider.

At the same time he was also assaulted by a bunch of notification windows which he ignored in favor of the Silver Wolf. The beast had been dazed by his desperate attempt and now was the perfect opportunity to strike. With his arm numbed by the recent impact, Beast strode towards the wolf while swigging down the last of his potions and gave a flying roundhouse kick to its face, sending the monster crashing to the ground. He did not let up, straddling the wolf next and started raining punches down on its skull with his good arm. Even when the wolf snapped back in retaliation, he simply shoved his useless arm down the beast’s throat as he bashed the side of the wolf’s cranium.

-510 HP!

Preventing the animal from retaliating by using his arms to stuff its jaws, the silver wolf never recovered. After pounding on the beast’s head for long enough, Beast locked his legs around the dying animal’s neck and twisted it, finishing it off. Then he laid there, spent by all the exertions he had done within the past few hours.

You have leveled up.

You have leveled up.

How strong was the Argent Wolf anyway, if it could bring him up two levels straight? The torches were almost dead by now and frankly he could care less about traversing through the stupid forest again, but he still had things to do. Fishing out the broken sword of Lanos, Beast mechanically set about skinning the Silver Wolf for its leather and meat. When he was done with that, he plucked the Moonglow flower from the center of the clearing, just as the torches went out and let in the hordes of wolves eager to avenge their fallen boss.

You have died and suffer a 24hr lock out penalty.

………….

Beast re-emerged into the streets of the ever-bustling city of Rydelin a refreshed man, though he was very much anxious of his stats and skills. To his pleasant surprise, his death this time only caused his luck and dexterity to drop by a single point each, while his skill levels were mostly unaffected.

A stroke of luck, nothing more, although him leveling up right when he died might have mitigated some of the stat loss. This form of death penalty really makes players paranoid about simply giving up their lives; if he was not wrong, there was a member on the forums who had reported a total of twenty points in stats deduction. Nobody knows if that was true or not, and nobody wanted to find out.

In any case, the Moonglow flower was safely in his inventory and thus he could now complete his quest. Before that though, he had a few things to settle. Another item he had gotten for his trouble was the Argent Wolf Hide, but the strange thing was that the hide was glowing in the same bluish manner the sword of Lanos had before. However, no matter how he looked at it or tried to wear it, the hide could not be worn. Beast sat down at the curb of the street to think. The glow was an obvious product of the Detect Magic skill, which indicated that the hide has magic and possibly artifact abilities. Yet there seemed to be no way for him to use it at the current point of time.

Unless the skill was indicating what the hide could potentially be, as a material for crafting an artifact.

That would definitely make more sense. Stashing the silver wolf skin back into his back, Beast turned to the other thing he had gotten from the stint in the forest which he had no time to check previously.

“Desperado Backlash window.”

Skill: Desperado Backlash

Active (Only in impending danger)

When activated in the face of impending danger, this skill will add additional force into your strike at the cost of facing higher risks. Fortune favors those who take risks.

+100% damage dealt

+50% damage taken

Like its name, the skill is a dangerous one. Beast wondered if he would even find the chance to utilize this to the best of his ability, given how he had mentally sworn never to do something foolhardy like punching a charging animal head-on ever again. He could think of some situations that it would come in handy but all in all, it was a pretty average skill that probably will never see the light of day. Beast dismissed the skill window and set off to accomplish what he had died for.

Talos the merchant was easy to find. Outside his house at the end of Market Street, a new shop had sprung up overnight, with red bold letters spelling out “Talos’ Potions” hanging high above. From what he could see on the shop front, it appeared that the main items for sale were health potions ranging from small to large, just like the ones he was given for use during his quest. In front of it, a relatively long queue was formed with players ranging from newbies to higher level veterans.

It was no wonder after all, since Talos’ potions is the first potion shop besides the relatively much more expensive player shops to have been opened in Rydelin. Before Beast came along and completed the Babysitter quest, players had no choice but to fish out a large amount of coin to pay for healing items from the black-hearted player alchemists that usually come from Loyderidge seeking to exploit this potions monopoly. A single large health potion could cost as much as one gold piece so it was a huge relief for the local player population when Talos’ Potions finally opened.

“Hey, dude. Please queue.” An irritated player called out. Beast merely ignored him and continued straight to the front.

“Talos.” Beast greeted, to which the potions merchant returned with a smile. “I have brought it.”

At that, Talos’ face showed visible excitement. “Really, my friend? Come, come on in!” Dropping all that he was doing at the moment, Talos and Beast entered the merchant’s home much to the annoyance and amazement of all the players in the line.

“He-hey! What about us?”

“Who the hell is that? Why is the NPC going with him?”

“He called him a friend? Did I hear correctly?”

To many of the player population, NPC intimacy was a myth. Many did not bother to cultivate friendship with what they viewed as peripheral and disposable characters. All they were concerned about were themselves and their levels. Quests were merely away to provide them with sweet experience to level up so they typical just bulldoze through as many of them as possible, much less interact with the NPCs who give them.

Inside the house Beast took out the Moonglow flower, much to the delight of Talos.

“Oh my goodness. You really did it! Thank you.” The merchant was practically jumping for joy, grabbing both of Beast’s hands in gratitude. “Now my experiments can finally be completed!” Beast’s attention was not on him though; He was looking at the bluish Moonglow. Did it glow like that before? More importantly, why was it that he had not notice before that the glow similar to the Silver hide and the Sword of Lanos before it?

Maybe it was because this is the first time he had seen the flower clearly since it was pretty hard to discern it in the night.

Before Talos could take the bloom, Beast snatched it back to the confusion of the merchant.

“I am sorry Talos but give me a moment.”

“Uh… sure, my friend.”

“Moonglow Flower item window.”

Moonglow Bloom

Quest Item.

A flower that blooms only under the light of the moon. It had absorbed much of the moon rays over time and thus holds much of its energies within its petals. The Moondew it creates are known to have powerful healing capabilities. The flower wilts under the sun, until the night comes around once more.

Value: -

Beast gave a puzzled expression. How could there be no artifact tag? There was only one way to find out. Holding up his Vanadic Tome in one hand and the flower in another, Beast declared. “Artifact Identify.”

You have failed to identify an artifact

Knowledge of Ancient Artifact had increased to Basic 2

Stunned by the failure, Beast dazedly handed over the flower to the waiting merchant. It was not an artifact after all, which meant that the Detect Magic skill does not necessary point out potential artifacts. What was more surprising though was the skill level up. Beast almost wanted to slap himself in the face. With his gaming experience, how could he have forgotten that failure increases skill experience as well? Granted, it might not be as much as identifying a real artifact but it was better than nothing when one does not have an artifact to identify.

Talos had by then disappeared to his back room to stash the flower away. Emerging back with his hands cupped, the NPC bowed, passing a handful of silver coins to Beast. “I could never repay you enough.”

Drrring!

Talos’ Experimental Potion – Completed

With your forage into the Argent Forest, you managed to retrieve the legendary moonlight flower required by Talos for his experimentations. With this, a new line of potions will soon emerge as items for sale in Talos’ potions.

+5 Fame

+10 Public Relations with Caerheim

+900 Exp

You have leveled!

Killing the Argent Wolf had brought him close to leveling, so it was no wonder that the quest completion brought him up another level. At the back of his mind, Beast made a mental note not to try any of the ‘new potions’ in the future; He had no desire to taste the rat tails that went into making them. Bidding goodbye, Beast exited to the streets a new man.

First and foremost, he was definitely going to try and identify everything from this point on. It might not be a profession he wanted, but damned if he were to neglect any aspect of it. Furthermore, the prospect of uncovering hidden lore and finding hidden artifacts sounded like a good adventure that would be well worth his time. Besides, if he could ever find enough artifacts on his journeys, there is a very good chance that his end game potential would be exceptionally stellar.

Next, he was going to find a good leather worker for his wolf hide and thirdly, he was going to plan out his post level ten route from here. Beast already had a place in mind for his adventure outside of Rydelin, namely the Fort of Lanos where the player seller acquired the Rusty Sword. If he were lucky, he might be able to find more similar artifacts there which he would finally be able to equip on his bare and empty body.

Without a backward glance at the angry stares of the mob outside, Beast turned the corner and left to search for a secluded spot to do his identifications.