~‌ ‌1.10 ‌-‌ Ranks of The Adventurer ‌~‌

The Drunken Ogre

2nd Lifeday of The Full Moon

Flea woke up to the morning’s five bells. The Gnome had spent most of the previous night farming the rabbits and gathering plants. He only stopped farming late into the night when he started to drift off. He found he could use the lamp from The Tower, attaching it to his belt, and was able to see well enough to keep killing rabbits and gathering herbs all night. Finishing his night’s grinding, Flea went to The Drunken Ogre and passed out, forgetting to level up.

He was leaving the inn when he bumped into one of the guards. Asking for directions to Sveny’s shop, Flea was able to find the place and turn in the quills to Sveny. The leatherworker paid him one silver and 40 copper, and a Copper quest chit.

Sveny also showed Flea some of his work as well as how he treated the quills. He would boil them in a colored dye, then flatten them with a mallet once soft. He then sewed them into the armor, making various patterns. Sveny explained that the quills helped deflect most slashing types of attacks but did little to stabbing or crushing blows. A full set of quill gear would set someone back a hefty 30 silver coins.

I should save up for a set before I leave the island.

Flea’s next stop was Grom’s smith, selling his hundred and five iron ore for five silver and 25 copper. Khorwin was there working in the back, smelting his ores. He greeted him, but left once he got his quest chit and coins. Flea checked his journal before heading to the Adventurers’ Guild, making sure the quests showed completed.

Quest Journal

Sveny requests ten terrorbear quills. [Completed] Return your chit to the Adventurers’ Guild Rebeca has requested five silver ore. [Completed] Return your chit to the Adventurers’ Guild

Swinging by the Adventurers' Guild, he turned in the five quest chits to Nueleth. She took his tags and then promoted him to Copper II. Grabbing the same five quests again, he spotted a new quest on the board. Flea collected that one as well, finding it to be an escort quest for the town.

Speaking with Nueleth again, he made sure she added his name to the escort quest’s adventurer list. Nueleth let him know he was the third to register for the five available spots. Leaving the Guild’s Hall, he visited Krem, selling the seventy-two hides he farmed the night before for one silver and 44 copper, and getting his chit. His next stop was Gronky to sell most of his rabbit meat for one silver and 50 copper. Silverfang paid him two silver and 67 copper for his horns, Hollyhock, and Thistle. He had almost left without getting his quest chit from Silverfang, turning around to grab it and leave.

With over 11 silver to his name, Flea decided to head to The Bloody Boar for training. He then proceeded to get his ass handed to him by the training dummy for the next three hours, till the four bells tolled, signaling the midday break. Flea could now reliably hit one of the five targets every time, but hitting the second before getting a wallop was still beyond him. Zelkan had Flea stop with the bells and told the young Gnome he would be back later in the evening around the evening’s three bells if he wanted to train more. With Zelkan going to be gone for eight hours, Flea decided to head back to the inn and level up.

Leaving The Bloody Boar, he headed home to The Drunken Ogre. Upon arriving, he asked Dross for lunch to be sent to his room in an hour, paying him and going up to his room. The Gnome took his time getting cleaned, then relaxed in the bath. Later, back in his room, Flea ate lunch and then checked over his stats as he crushed the forty-six cores he farmed the night before.

Absorbed 46 Dull Cores

+ 141 Energy

He spent 137 of the 158 energy he had. Spending 63 energy on Dexterity 3 & 4, 50 on Constitution 2 & 3, 24 on Strength 2. Leaving him with 21 energy. Confirming his selections, he immediately fell back onto the bed asleep.

Flea

Lv. 1

19.60

Gnome

Earth

0.22

Copper II

21 Energy

2

Strength

➕ [36]

3

Constitution

➕ [40]

4

Dexterity

➕ [45]

0

Intelligence

➕ [9]

0

Wisdom

➕ [10]

20

Magic Bag 🛈

➕ [25]

Congratulations!!

You have reached Level 1.

You are now on the path to help your species thrive. Keep pushing yourself towards the first significant Milestone at Level 10.

When Flea woke up, he was surprised by the new pop-up. He had wondered how players would level. Flea felt his body had changed ever so slightly. It wasn’t a vast improvement, but he felt somewhat sprier and just a bit healthier, like breathing in fresher air.

It appears that attributes don’t take effect till you reach the next level. How many attribute levels make up a player level? I’m guessing five, but I’m at nine now. I will have to test it out next time.

Leaving the inn, he glanced over at the clock tower, 5:30 in the evening. He headed towards the North Gate and found Telen on duty.

“Hey Telen, I got extra silver ore. Do you still need any?”

“Oh, yes, please. I’ll buy any spare you have for six copper apiece. It’s lower than my grandmother pays for it, if you don’t mind selling it cheaper to me.”

“‘Don’t worry about the coin. It’s not going to put me in the red. I have twenty-five on me. I can sell twenty of them to you. I still need five to turn into your grandmother tomorrow for her quest.”

“Thank you, Flea. These will help out with my training. Grandmother only lets me use so much to train with before she melts it back down to craft the rings she exports to Shezzan.”

“Shezzan?”

“Shezzan is the harbor town our schooner travels to, to reach the mainland. It’s named after the river it borders. The river being named after the dragon that is said to inhabit the river or so the myth goes.”

So that's the next zone adventures head to after Noto.

“Don’t worry. I won’t be leaving for a while, Telen. Do you need any more silver if I get my hands on it?”

“Please, I'd like to get good enough with the craft, so I don’t need to pull guard shifts anymore.”

Flea waved his goodbye as he walked down the path, ready to commit rabbit genocide. Stopping midway down the dirt path, Flea had a thought come to him.

Where were the rabbits coming from, he was told they were probably coming out of a portal from the Beast Moon, but he hadn’t seen any portals so far.

Flea had never seen a rabbit spawn, yet they seem to repopulate themselves. He decided to sit down and watch the players killing rabbits. It didn’t take him long to notice the rabbits coming out of burrows around the fields.

So they spawned down in their nests, or were all those borrows connected?.

Flea liked the idea, it made the world seem more realistic than just having rabbits materialize out of nowhere. He got up and walked down to the fields ready to farm.

He noticed it as he killed his first rabbit. He was faster than before, and he swore time slowed down ever so slightly while he fought. The Gnome kept farming even after the day's end three bells tolled. He decided to skip training tonight and level up more. When darkness came, Flea pulled out the lamp, attached it to his belt, and kept on going.

Starting to feel the drain of constantly farming, he decided to stop for the night even after trying out a new ration and some water. They failed to give him the boost he needed. In the ten hours he farmed the rabbits, the rogue almost filled his bag with rabbit items.

Walking back to the gate, Flea took inventory of his magic bag. If he were going to do long grinding sessions, he would soon need to upgrade the magical item. Flea knew the twenty-first slot cost 25 energy. After that upgrade, he had no clue. He would figure that out tonight.

Magic Bag: 18/20

Noto Town Spawn Crystal

??? Lamp

Iron Daggers

Cook's Camping Set

P.Butter Travel Ration: 4

Canteen: 2/3 Water

Canteen: Water

Silver Ore: 5

Lesser Health Potion: 3

Rabbit Meat: 100

Copper Quest Chit: 2

Rabbit Meat: 94

Rabbit hide: 100

Rabbit hide: 72

Dull Core: 100

Dull Core: 7

Rabbit Horn: 100

Rabbit Horn: 72

12s, 313c

At the North Gate, one of the guards he hadn’t met yet stopped him.

“Where did you get the lantern?”

“It was in the basement of The Tower in the forest,” Flea said as he pointed in the direction of the tower.

“How in the hell did you get into The Tower without the Dryads killing you!?”

“Excuse me? What Dryads? The only thing we ran into was terrorbears on the way back. Oh shit, my buddy did get killed in the middle of a field, and had no idea what killed him. Something did giggle as I ran back towards the town.”

“Dryads,” the guard said as he spat on the ground, then continued to speak.

“They live deep in the forest on the east end of the island. They’ve prevented anyone from getting close to the tower for decades. How did you and your buddy get inside?”

“That’s the odd thing. We didn’t travel to the tower through the forest.”

“Could you perhaps elaborate?”

“We were in the mines harvesting ore when we decided to go deeper in to investigate a shrieking noise we heard. Finding ourselves at a dead-end, we turned around, coming back to the cavern. The damn mine had changed on us. Instead of three paths, there were now five. We traveled the mine shaft we assumed would lead us to the surface for hours ending up at the same damn spot again. The entire time we could hear the shrieking every so often, and something was draining our health as well. We ended up using all our rations to keep our health regenerating. Eventually, the shaft broke into the basement of the tower, and the lamp was on the table, so I took it.”

“You should tell that story to Lieutenant Brunick. He would have a great interest in it. The lamp you have on your hip is a magical item, and I assume you are already bound to it. If you had not, you could have sold it on the mainland for a Royal easily. Unbound magic items are rare as they are usually passed down through family lines.”

Shit, I had no idea. I’m not bound to it. But I’m not going to let him know that.

“Yea, I was bound to it by accident when I grabbed it with my wounded hand. I had no idea it was a magical item at the time.”

“Luck of the Adventurer. Make sure you find Lieutenant Brunick tomorrow and tell him the story.”

Flea bid farewell and walked back to the inn. He had some experimenting to do.

Absorbed 107 Dull Cores

+ 364 Energy

He decided to upgrade Dexterity one level costing him 45 energy, and noticed his level went up to 2.

Ok, so you level up every five attribute points.

Next, he upgraded his magic bag twice, finding the cost went up 25 every time. He spent the rest of his points before mentally hitting the confirmation.

Flea

Lv. 3

19.60

Gnome

Earth

0.24

Copper II

21 Energy

3

Strength

➕ [48]

4

Constitution

➕ [50]

6

Dexterity

➕ [63]

3

Intelligence

➕ [36]

3

Wisdom

➕ [40]

22

Magic Bag 🛈

➕ [75]

Congratulations!!

You have reached Levels 2 & 3.

Flea woke up to a prompt congratulating him on hitting levels 2 & 3. He couldn’t believe how amazing he felt. It was as if his real body improved overnight. When you leveled up or got more muscular in Phantasmal Realms, you didn’t feel the difference. You could carry more in your packs if you got more strength, and the damage you did was more significant when you attacked (if you were strength-based). You didn’t feel those changes; you just knew what your avatar was capable of doing. Here he could feel down to his bones that he was stronger and faster than the night before.

Thinking about the night before and what the guard said about the lamp, Flea decided to soulbind it. He didn’t want to lose it during one of his late-night farming sessions.

Flea went to all the shops to turn in his two quests and sell the rabbit parts. He made a hefty nine silver and 178 copper, almost doubling his current coins. Stopping by the Adventurers’ Guild, Flea turned in his two chits and asked Airthiel to explain the Guild’s ranks a bit more in-depth. She agreed to explain it to him. She grabbed a parchment from a stack behind her and gave it to Flea.

Adventurers' Guild Ranks & Divisions

Copper

I

II

III

Tin

I

II

III

IV

Iron

I

II

III

IV

V

Gold

I

II

III

IV

V

VI

Tungsten

I

II

III

IV

V

VI

VII

Cobalt

I

II

III

IV

V

VI

VII

VIII

Orichalcum

I

II

III

IV

V

VI

VII

VIII

IX

Adamant

I

II

III

IV

V

VI

VII

VIII

IX

X

Mithril

Ranked

Quests points required for Division rank up.

I

II

III

IV

V

VI

VII

VIII

IX

X

3

5

10

15

25

30

40

55

75

100

“From this table, you can see the ranks start at ‘Copper I’ and end with ‘Adamant X.’ From here, Mithril Adventurers are ranked individually. We currently have over fifty thousand Mithril ranked adventurers within The Guild. Their ranks are #1 to #10,000, and those over 10,000 are rankless. To become a ‘Copper I,’ a new adventurer needs to complete three quests of the same rank to get their tags. You did this with the first three quests on the board. You then needed to complete five more Copper level quests to rank up to ‘Copper II,’ completing that yesterday. Next you will need a total of ten copper chits to reach division ‘III’.”

“What about going from ‘Copper III’ to ‘Tin I?’”

“You need to complete three Tin ranked quests once you’re a ‘Copper III.”

“How do they decide the ranks for Mithril?”

“Every two years, The Guild’s Leaders releases a list of the new rankings for Mithril. The leaders of The Guild use a multitude of factors when deciding the new rankings. Quests and deeds of valor rank them up the most, but they also hold huge fighting tournaments every year in the major cities that adventurers use to help their standing as well.”

Thanking Airthiel, he left to spend some time at The Bloody Boar and well get bloody.

Flea went through the rest of his peanut butter travel rations to keep his vision from going red during the four hours he challenged the dummy. The Gnome had figured out how to hit his second target by tossing a dagger before the dummy got close, then following up as he would usually have done. Zelkan congratulated him on only taking six hours to hit the second target. It was now the new record among the adventurers on the island. The Dwarf also suggested Flea go to The Whetstone and buy a bandolier of throwing daggers, so he didn’t lose his main blades during a fight.

The entire time Flea had trained, more players had shown up. There were now players in almost every section of the basement working on some type of rogue skill. Zelken had seemed to somehow know more players were coming and had help for each basement area ready to go.

After dummy training, Flea spent the next two hours on his lockpicking skill. The doors had custom devices instead of door handles on the back. Flea used the crude lockpicks provided to start his training. Unlike Phantasmal Realms, where you moved one pick around the lock and then held it still, before turning the second one to see if the lock moved. If the lock didn’t move and you applied too much pressure, the pick would break.

Here, you held the torsion wrench ever so softly while you moved the hooked pick to feel the tumblers, pushing them till they clicked into place. The biggest challenge with this was detecting a trap tumbler. The pressure was slightly more rigid than the others, and if you pushed on it too hard, it would set off the trap in the device, shooting soot and air into your face.

Flea was able to figure out how to bypass the traps easily in those two hours. Zelkan’s aids had him on a level three configuration by the time his two hours were up. Happy with his progress, he went back to The Drunken Ogre at day’s end bells, refilling his canteen at the fountain on the way back. Back at his room, Flea refilled his supply of travel rations from the chest, then laid down on his bed and logged out.