I awoke in the morning to a very nice announcement, I had gained a point in vitality, likely from the beatings that the instructor had put me through. I smiled, then frowned. With all the hunting I’d done recently, why hadn’t I gotten a level up? Especially with that boss mob I’d hunted, I’d have expected to have a much easier time of it. I trawled the forums for a while, then found out something that all the power levelers had noticed. Once you reach a few levels over a mob, they start granting next to no experience, so the boss was probably the only thing that gave me more than a pittance of it. I shrugged, then decided to go out and do some more hunting. I only had two more quests to complete before I could take the test to raise my rank in the guild and go hunt some bigger monsters.

I grabbed my spear from the side of the bead, and headed out of the barracks I was continuing to stay at. Maybe I should consider moving up to a proper inn, those beds were way uncomfortable. I shrugged, I didn’t really have the money, at 5 silver a night it was enough for ten beginner pots, and with how little they had started to recover, I’d likely have to upgrade them soon, and that would probably be a nasty expense. Hopefully when I started hunting something bigger I could make some more money.

I soon arrived at the gates and went off to hunt some orbs. After slaughtering enough of them to complete another quest, I went into the forest to do some more warg hunting for my second quest. After killing my first one, a friendly pop up informed me that I had gained a level. Took it long enough, I thought. Smiling and putting the point into wisdom, I continued to hunt wargs, but ended up finding so many herbs that I had enough to turn in for that quest before I was even halfway through with the warg quota. Deciding that I didn’t have to even bother with the rest of it, I turned around and headed back into town.

Once I reached town, I grabbed the quests off the board and got into one of the ever present lines and waited to turn my things in. After reaching the front, I decided to ask something that had been bothering me.

“Hey, who would I go to to learn how to properly harvest these things? I’ve had a few people mention it to me, but I don’t know where to go to learn.”

“Well your best bet is just head on into the main guild building, ask at the counter and they can probably get a guy to show you for an hour or two how to figure it out”

I thanked him, then headed in. First would be the combat examination, then would come learning how to properly harvest these things. Once I got in, I got my number and sat down, but had barely reached my seat when I got called for. Going up to the counter, I spotted the same woman I’d dealt with on my first day here, Sable, sporting her ever present business smile.

“Hello again, what can I do for you today?”

“Well I completed my ten quests, and was also wondering if I could get someone to show me how to properly harvest items from the monsters.”

“First let me see your guild tag for a second”

I passed it over, and she put it up against a heavily rune inscribed surface, likely something which could tell how many quests I had completed.

“I see you’ve completed the necessary tasks, I’ll get the combat instructor to come do your test for you.”

I thanked her, then waited as she came out with a large man, whose name turned out to be Oskar. He then guided me through an exit and we found ourselves at a small little open air arena, a smaller version of the training grounds that were at the temple.

“So from your guild tag, you’re a mage, so first, show me what you can do” he said, pointing to one of the targets, likely the same regenerating ones that I was used to. I nodded my head, then went through my small spell repertoire, smashing, impaling and freezing the target.

“Ok, seems competent enough, you didn’t use a guide from the grimoire, and didn’t make any errors with your spell patterns.” I tilted my head, befuddled, there would be players who would be using the guides or making mistakes even after they’d hunted enough to take the test? Maybe they were from a party where they could leisurely sit back and slowly sling spells, but it wouldn’t be a very good long term strategy for them.

“Now then, I see you have a spear, let’s see how you use it.” I took a step back, my experience with the skinny instructor warning me that this was going to be a bad idea, but I nodded my head regardless. I wanted to be able to take the two star quest, and I wasn’t going to back down at just a little pain. He went over to a box, grabbing a training spear for both of us, and dipped it into the red powder. It seemed I would soon be covered in again. He handed my spear to me, then stepped back, taking a stance as I took my own.

I waited for a moment, but he just sat there, so I figured I was going to be the attacker. I stepped in and stabbed out lightly, trying to keep my spear controlled so I wouldn’t be knocked off balance if he knocked it to the side. Of course that’s exactly what happened, his spear in two hands going up and to the right, sending my spear tip flying wide. I pulled back quickly though, expecting an attack to come after that, but he continued to do nothing. This time I stabbed out as his foot, trying to at least get some of the red powder on him, but it was easily deflected. This went on for a few minutes, me trying to stab him, even trying to feint one direction then sweep the spear in a different direction, but he just repeatedly sent my spear off nowhere near him. After a while, he stood back up straight, and started talking again.

“Alright, that’s enough, you seem to have a competent grasp of how to use your spear, you’re no master, and it will be years before you are, but at least I know you won’t stab yourself by accident. I was wondering why you’re only using one hand though, that seriously limits your spear work.”

“Well I try to keep one hand open for spellcasting, I’m not quite comfortable with it in melee combat yet, but I hope to be able to use both in the near future.”

Oskar put on a small smile before replying. “Yeah, it takes a lot of practice to be able to do that reliably, you’ll be exploding yourself for a while. You’ve passed the examination by the way, I could’ve passed you on your magic alone, but I wanted to see what you could do with that pig sticker.”

I got a big grin on my face, I could do the two star quests now! We headed in, me being oh so thankful that I hadn’t ended up covered in powder for once, he hadn’t attacked me once. We went back to the counter, he said some words to Sable, and I handed over my guild tag which she placed on a different part of the runes I couldn’t see as it was covered by the counter. Handing it back, she gave her congratulations. I then remembered to ask about the harvesting thing, and Oskar piped up and said he’d be glad to show me.

I asked about compensation and he shrugged, saying not to bother. The two of us then left the guild and headed out to the gates. After a short walk, we arrived at where the orbs liked to gather and he had me kill one of them. I acquiesced, impaling it with an ice spear, killing it instantly. He then brought me over and took out a knife he’d had sheathed on his hip. He then proceeded to make a cut around the mouth of it, and I started turning green at what I now knew was going to happen. He then made a cut up and down the middle, then proceeded to peel the skin from the poor orb. I watched in horrified fascination as the flesh underneath came into view until he finished, cutting around the gangly legs and pulling the skin free. He then handed it to me before giving me some advice.

“It may not look as pretty as the ones you can get from the goddess, but it’s far more durable, and you’ll get a good deal more money out of them. Now as for the orb stone, just find this small protrusion on their back, make a small incision, and reach in and grab it out.” He pulled out a stone dripping in blood, I’d wondered how the counters at the guild ended up covered at that stuff, and it seems I was learning.

“But won’t the blood end up staining the backpacks? And what do we do with the body?” I asked.

“Nope, they keep themselves clean somehow. And as for the body, they fade away after a bit, similar to how they appear. Now it’s time for you to try one.”

I took a deep breath before impaling another orb, and went over to it with trepidation. I borrowed his knife, I’d need to get one of my own later. I then started making the incisions he made, and he guided me as I went telling me where best to cut, then how to use the knife to slowly peel away the skin. About halfway through, I had to step back for a while to get my nausea under control, but eventually, I finished.

“Now for orbs and wargs, it’s usually not worth the time to harvest them properly, but the crafters appreciate it, and you’ll need the practice for when you harvest something a bit bigger. Now let’s go off and I’ll show you how to skin a warg. You also want to collect their incisors, those are useful for alchemy as they collect mana for some reason.”

I followed him as we went into the forest, and not long after, we spotted a warg, killed in, then got back to the skinning. This one was much more complex, making cuts around the scaly paws and along the legs and tail before slowly peeling away the skin in the same way that we had with the orbs. After showing me how to get out the teeth, we went off and found a treant to chop up. The treants were much easier, and thankfully far less messy, only having to make a small cut along the vines and take out a smaller vine with a brighter green color. Having showed me the basics we headed back into town, him advising me to eat something as it would settle my stomach. I agreed, and got out some of my dried meat and crappy bread to snack on.

Once we arrived at the guild he gave me some last advice before heading off. “You can get a book that details how to harvest all the monsters we know about at the counter. It will be completely worth it if you manage to hunt something big.”

I thanked him and did just as he had suggested, getting the book for a gold. I then headed off to the boards to see what requests were there for two stars. This time, there were only two hunting requests, one for a moki, and one for a moglin. If naming convention in this game followed most other games then it would probably be some sort of goblin variant. I smiled, finally something normal out of this worlds bizarre mobs.

I then headed off to Merin’s shop to pick up my armor. Once I arrived, Merin greeted me with a massive smile, trying to sidetrack me into a conversation while I did my best to keep her on track about getting my armor. After a while of our little verbal disagreement, I got my armor, and quickly escaped, I would put it on outside if only to avoid being in that shop any longer. I found an alleyway, but quickly realized I didn’t actually know how to put it on with all the straps and stuff holding it together. Sighing, I headed back into the shop, and Merin was all too glad to help me out, chattering the entire time about one person getting married, another having an affair, your average gossip. Once I got it on, making sure to remember how all the straps attached, I escaped.

When I had gotten out, I took a good look at my new armor. The chest piece was actually two pieces of hardened warg leather, attached by straps of softer leather, possibly also of warg origin. There were two shoulder guards attached the same way, and both shin guards and bracers made of the same hardened leather. It honestly looked quite cool to me, the scales still on the leather making it look almost like scale mail. I smiled, finally some protection.

I then went off to the training area, it wouldn’t hurt to get some practice in before the day was over. Snaking my way through the crowded merchant quarter, I soon arrived at the temple and went in, I was planning on meditating until I got another point of wisdom, and then I would probably go back and practice my spear some more. I was getting a bit used to sweeping attacks with my spear, but I wasn’t quite comfortable with them, so I would have to pick on some of the training dummies for a while.

One wisdom point and One dummy who refused to remain mutilated later, the sun was starting to go down, but for once, I wasn’t actually too tired. Deciding to log out rather than stay in game, I hopped off and went to find some food in real. Deciding to do some research after I’d made my pancakes for a very late breakfast, I pulled out my phone and decided to search up on what the moglins and moki were. Luckily enough, the moglins were indeed similar to goblins, but just slightly twisted.

They had a tiny body, smaller than their oversized head, and their four limbs were much too long for the rest of them. Their arms and legs also had an additional joint, making them look like their limbs were broken. The moki on the other hand, were like giant komodo dragons, except their skin was so pale you could see their muscles and veins underneath, the veins looking like black tendrils crawling throughout their body. I shook my head, what was with these game devs and bizarre mobs. I got up from my chair, stretching from the tightness my body felt from not doing any activity but sitting in place doing nothing while I was in game. It was time for me to exercise, so I pulled on some sweats and a loose shirt and headed out the door to go for a short run. Along the way, most the chatter I heard from other people seemed to be about Sanity Online, making me smile at how ubiquitous it had become. After working up a sweat and feeling mostly exhausted, I headed back to my apartment, it was time to go play some more.