Chapter 7: Levels and Loot

A new system message flashes in front of my eyes.

You have leveled up! Your current level is 2. You have received 5 stat points that you can use to upgrade any of your stats without doing any activities that are related to that stat.

That seems great. My first level up, aside from the one that got me to level one but I don’t think that that really counts.

I also really love the stat points. I think it’s good to be able to level up your stats without doing crazy stunts like climbing up mountains. I think that I should definitely put some points into health. Only having ten seems like it’s cutting it a bit close if I lose over half of my health points with every fight. I also really want to put some of the points into agility as it was my main weapon in the fight with the poisonous high jumper. Not only did it allow me to move quickly enough to doge some of the beasts attacks it also improved my reaction times beyond what they usually are which was a major component in the fight. Lastly I would like to put a small amount of points -probably just one seeing as I only have five- into dexterity. Being able to better use my weapon would be a super big advantage. I noticed that despite wining the fight my eye hand coordination was somewhat lacking. Over time I will get better at using the knife simply by fighting with it, but I will progress a lot faster if I can actually use my hands.

As for the other stats I don’t think I need to add anything to them. The mana and wisdom stats are of absolutely no use to me right now, because I can’t use any magic. I don’t need the strength stat either because while it might help in a fight it won’t be of too much use. The hides of Poisonous High Jumpers are really weak so I don’t need any strength to help me break their natural defenses.

As it stands, I’ll add 1 to dexterity, 2 to heath which will add ten points and 2 to agility. I open the window that has my stats.

Free stat points: 5

Strength: 2 Agility: 4

Dexterity: 2 Endurance: 2

Heath: 10 (1 point= +10) Mana: 10 (1 point =+10)

Regeneration: 1 Wisdom: 1

Wait what. Why did some of these increase? I guess they happened during the fight and I didn’t notice or maybe they didn’t appear while I was fighting. That’s probably it because I shudder to think of the consequences of a message appearing in front of my eyes during a battle. Getting distracted like that will almost certainly get you killed. The creator AI must have some sympathy for us.

Any way. I put my five points into their respective slots which makes my stats appear as so

Free stat points: 0

Strength: 2 Agility:6

Dexterity: 3 Endurance: 2

Heath: 30 (1 point= +10) Mana: 10 (1 point =+10)

Regeneration: 1 Wisdom: 1

looking very nice, at least compared to what I had before. To someone who has been playing for any sizable amount of time would probably scoff in my face at seeing this but it is definitely an improvement.

I wonder what I got from the Poisonous High Jumper. Roth said I could make some money by killing things and selling their various possessions or body parts so it must give me something. I do hope that I don’t have to skin or gut it though. That seems disgusting and I doubt many players would be willing to do it so something must happen.

I close the window and glance at the place where my slain foe was killed and immediately jerk my head back towards a complete lack of body. Instead what I find is a ball of bluish mist that while being only about half a foot long is similarly shaped to the Poisonous High Jumper. As much as mist can be anyway.

It doesn't seem threatening, but what do I know. I kinda want to touch it, but I never want rushing in blindly to be my go to style. Lets think about this logically. The Poisonous High Jumper doesn’t warrant stealing. Anyone who is able to steal it and leave some type of strange magic in its place is probably not going to go to so much effort for a level 3 monster. This looks like pretty sophisticated magic, not that I could really tell having never witnessed any magic before, but I am pretty sure on that one.

I thinkkk… Wait a second, I could probably just use essence sight on it right?

Wow! I must be the most ignorant player in the game. I need to adjust my thinking to the new world. Most of the old rules don’t apply here and I bet that some decent magic would make it so that none of the past rules apply. Anyway, I need to get on with it and use essence sight.

You have used essence sight on loot mist. Loot mist drops from all mobs who have died and dropped loot. (loot is any items that a monster AKA mob leaves behind when it goes to the afterlife. Alternatively can be used to describe taking items from a body or structure.).

ohhhhh. I have been thinking about this all wrong. My body isn’t missing. THIS IS THE BODY!!!!! I reach down and try to touch the mist with caution. As soon as my fingers get close the blue intensifies in the area I am about to touch and it starts swirling rapidly around that point. When my fingers finally do reach the mist a new window blinks into existence in front of my face.

Displayed at the very top of this window is Level 3 Poisonous High Jumper loot mist. At the very bottom is: Take/Take All. Above that is a 10 by 20 gird of item squares, much like the ones in my inventory, of which only 4 are filled. In the second and third slots are 2 pieces of raw high jumper meat. It looks absolutely disgusting with a vaguely yellowish tinge to its otherwise dark read flesh. In another, the first this time, is a purple and yellow pelt that looks kind of ragged and might just have a few knife holes in it. Well I’m sure that a proficient taylor would be able to make something out of it. In the fourth and last filled slot is a thing that looks like a slimy bag made of Poisonous High Jumper skin. I focus on it and pull up the information.

Poison sack of a Poisonous High Jumper. This contents of this sack can be use in many different ways by craftsmen to improve or make weapons and armor or can be used to a lesser effect for dealing poison damage to some enemies by throwing the poison onto a target. This poison effect will not work on any enemies with a poison resistance or on Poisonous High Jumpers.

That last bit only makes sense. If they weren’t immune to their own poison then they would be constantly killing themselves. Hold on, what’s this? Around the interior border of the window is a vague white light that fades quickly as it moves towards the center.

I close the window and now that I am looking I can see the same white borders around all of the items there. Interesting. I wonder if this denotes how valuable an item is. Well, doesn’t really matter.

I’d better be off to sell what I can to Roth and figure out who to sell the rest to.

…

I walk into Roth’s shop and call out to him “I’m back and I have goods to sell. Where are you”

He comes down from the stairs and looks at me irritably. “There is no need to shout. I’m not deaf you know.”

“Sorry, Just excited. I killed a Poisonous High Jumper today” I look at him expectantly for a response.

“Okay” he says betraying a slight interest“what did you get?”

“I got a pelt, 2 pieces of meat and a poison sack, but I think I’ll probably keep the sack unless it sells for a lot.”

He perks up slightly “the pelt, is it large?”

“I don’t know. I mean the Poisonous High Jumper was pretty big. Here take it and tell me how much it’s worth.” The hide appears in my hand and I toss it to him. Hmm. I think the system is monitoring this conversation. The pelt appeared in my hand without even a though. I’m not going to complain though, it was really quite convenient.

“Roth looks mildly excited and is examining the purple and yellow spotted material from end to end on both sides. “very nice. I can fetch a good price for this if I make it into some armor, it has poison resistance you see. A few rips and tears here and there, but it can’t be helped. This is very nice. I think that a silver and a half wouldn’t go amiss. Does that seem alright to you.”

“hmm I was hoping to get a bit more” I say with a sly grin.

“what do you want?”

“I was thinking 3 silver”

“3 SILVER! Thats daylight robbery I’ll only get a profit of 4 silver including the cost of materials and such. Your price cuts into that.”

“Ha” I say enjoying myself “your a bold faced lier. Those Poisonous High Jumpers are no easy creatures to bring down and I’m betting that there the only ones in the area that will give poison resistance on clothes. Even partial immunity to the kind of damage I got from a glancing hit must be worth quite a bit more than the kind of numbers you’re talking about. Or are your ‘materials and such’ made from solid gold.”

Roth gives me a slow grin. “you’re no idiot, Blade. I’ll give you that. So maybe I’m making a profit a tiny bit closer to a gold. You’ll get 2 silver and be happy for it.”

“sound good” Both of us are on the verge of laughing for no apparent reason. He tosses me 2 silver and my balance goes up making a nice clinking sound in the process.

BeforeI can even thank him a message flashes into being in my vision.

You have gained the skill: Bartering. This skill will increase your ability to get better prices both for purchases and sales. In order to increase this skill it is necessary to get above standard prices from people. Current skill level: 1.

That’s a nice bonus for having a bit of fun. I don’t expect that I’ll make everything I use myself so I will probably engage in trades quite often. Being able to lower prices for the things I buy and get more money for things I sell may well end up being the difference between life and death.

“I would also like to know where I could sell this meat. Do you have any friends who might be interested?” I ask

“Well that depends actually. Could I see the merchandise?”

“Why would it matter?” I ask suspiciously.

“Because sometimes the meat is poisoned. It takes an essence sense ability of level five or above to detect it though. If you try to sell poisoned meat to someone they will think that you’re trying to rip them off no matter what the real reason is. You build a reputation like that with a shop owner, not only will they give you bad prices and refuse to hand you any survivable quests, they’ll gossip with other shop owners so everyone starts doing it. Same thing happens if you get caught trying to pull anything else. In short, always check your merchandise or ask the person your selling to, to do it beforehand and if you absolutely have to do something like that don’t get caught.

“good to know” I say with a nod. Tossing him the meat I also add “before I forget do you know how much a poison sack from a Poisonous High Jumper is worth”

He is staring at the first piece of meat intently and his answer is absent minded sounding “No I don’t, but if you really want to check you could ask at one of the potion shops around town. Be carful to check 2 sources and tell the second one what the first said, that way your more likely not to get ripped off.” He puts the first piece of yellow tinged meat back onto the counter and picks up the second one putting it up to the light.

“Thanks, I appreciate all the advice you’re giving. What’s the verdict on my meat?”

“This one is bad, but the first one I looked at is fine. For raw Poisonous High Jumper meat anyway. I recommend you sell both. Even though you would probably have to pay someone at a butcher shop to to take the bad stuff, a decent potion maker might be able to make a poison potion that can be thrown at enemies so you could sell to them.”

“Thank’s Roth. Would you mind marking those spots on a map for me.”

“Sure, no problem.”

I think “map” very hard and a plain scroll appears in my hand. I unfurl it and am faced with a huge blank map of the 2 continents and the major islands (including the Demon Island) appears in my hand.

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Sorry about the lack of map. I do have a picture, but can't upload it. I'll try to fix this at a later date. Wouldn't hold my breath though.

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Moving my fingers in a reverse pinching motion (with the center of the “reverse pinch” being demon island located at the bottom left), like I used do with the tablets at school ,I am able to see a small patch of land that isn’t the same pale brown color as the rest of the area. Zooming in on this more I eventually magnify it to the point at which I am able to make out individual streets of the village and surrounding area. Roth explained to me during out talk about maps that everyone is given the map to their starting village automatically which is why I am able to see this without purchasing or drawing my own maps.

I toss the map to Roth and he deftly catches it with his left hand barely taking a glance at it while rummaging around in the counter. He must have a really high dexterity stat after all this time. I guess thats why he was able to do it. He finally finds what he was looking for and stands up holding a massive quill. This thing is the size of my face and twice as long. Dipping it into a small bottle of ink that I hadn’t noticed already sitting on the counter he bends over and starts marking up my map with locations of the shops that he mentioned earlier.

I start walking around the shop looking at different odds and ends. I stop when I notice a fine leather belt with high quality sheaths for knives that would definitely be an improvement over the plain belt I have now. It comes in at just 7 copper too. Definitely putting that on the shopping list. Although I’ll refrain from doing anything just yet. I can’t count on getting a steady income from monster hunting so having some spare cash as a cushion for food, water and shelter is a good idea.

When Roth finally finishes and places the massive quill back in its place under the counter, he tosses my map back to me and ushers me out of the store. I reopen the map and turn right heading back towards the main square. About halfway to the center of town I find a the closest marked place on the map. It’s a nice looking restaurant with an amazing smell, decent outside seating space and a rather chubby chef in the inside area wearing a white uniform. He looks jolly and appears to be quite polite when taking the orders of a couple, but the minute he leaves their table he starts shouting loud enough to be heard out on the street, ordering the other waiters and servers about as though they were solders.

I carefully pick my way through the mostly filled tables and end slip through the door. Making my way towards the chef I, bump into a few tables, but get only dirty looks in return. When I finally reach the chef he glances at me and then continues shouting at the young waiter who is cringing and blushing under the hail of insults and orders.

After about 30 seconds with no end in sight I tap the shoulder of the chef and he turns angrily to me. The relieved waiter sends me a look that clearly states: Thanks, but don’t expect anything in return because I’m not going back to that. What is it that you want little girl. He says rather condescendingly with a dismissing wave turning to look for the waiter who clearly had offended him in some way.

I am a little ticked off right now, but taking a deep breath I am able to calm down enough to speak in a calm and civilized manner. “I’m looking to sell some meat that I recently acquired.”

“I’m in no need of meat, we get a regular shipment from another town.”

“really” I say calmly, but with my hands clenched into fists “I thought that Poisonous High Jumper meat was somewhat rare.”

He turns to me in incredulous surprise. “Poisonous High Jumper meat? You really expect me to believe such nonsense? You have not a stitch of decent armor, your knife is better suited to scraping mud off boots than fighting and you probably were given life by the gods less than a day or two ago. I don’t believe, for a second, that you could have defeated a poisonous high jumper so I suggest that you leave my shop promptly as I don’t take well to liars.” The last part was said menacingly accompanied by a knife that appears in the chefs hand seemingly from nowhere.

“I am in a rather unique position” I say with the same calm cold anger “I have the ghost class which allowed me to sneak up on the beast.”

He scoffs “ha. You think that I would be fooled with such simple tales as this. You could certainly have snuck up on the beast with stealth, but with a level one as I am certain you have, you would never be able to slip away while in combat.”

It is getting harder and harder to control my anger and all of my muscles are beginning to clench, but suddenly I relax everything and a slow smile spreads across my face. He is confident. Confidence can be a weakness. “really. So sure?” I ask.

He looks slightly unnerved by my sudden change of emotion, but not enough to back down. “Yes, I will stand by it. There is no way that you could have the skills to take down a Poisonous High Jumper.”

“How about a wager then. If there’s no way I could have taken one down?”

“Sure” he says with a derisive laugh “2 copper?”

“I was thinking more along the lines of 2 sliver” I counter

“You have 2 silver? If you can show me that you can pay up then I’ll be happy to take your money.”

I think hard and the money appears in my hand. I use the reflective surface of one of the coins to angle a ray of sun into his eye (Just because he’s a business opportunity doesn't excuse him from being a jerk to me before). He jerks his head back from the sudden glare then eyes the coins.

“I haven’t the faintest idea how you could have possible gotten that much money so quickly, but as a new champion you will be able to get on just fine without it, all of the other champions do after all. Well then, lets see your ‘proof’ so I can debunk it and we can both get on with our lives.”

I focus on my inventory and when it comes up I will my two pieces of High Jumper meat into my hands. Unfortunately this game has rather accurate feelings and the feeling of slimy raw meat squelching in your palms isn’t exactly a great one. Oh, shoot now my coins are going to be all slimy too. Wait a minute, I can’t feel them any more. And looking at the money counter it looks like they’ve showed up back here. Huh, well thank you whatever programer (or program) that wrote the code to do that.

The chefs eyes widen and his face becomes startled with a hint of amazement. Unfortunately it only lasts for a fraction of a second before a confident mask replaces it, but he can’t hide it completely so his face doesn’t look isn’t nearly as self assured as it did before.

“Th-this proves nothing” he counters “y-you could have a friend with more experience and gear who might have given it to you. Yeah, yeah that must be it. of course you couldn’t kill a high jumper you were just given the meat. You were probably given the money you showed me earlier too.” As he says this last part he visibly relaxes, shoulders unclenching and face becoming less tight. His fake confidence face from before also comes to be more real.

I crunch my lips together in displeasure. “I earned this meat with my own blood, through a hard fought battle with a dangerous beast. If you won’t take my word for it then what can I do to prove that I’m not a lier. Name your test”

“very well” he says with a smile that looks as dangerous as the knife that had appeared in his hand earlier“If you can replicate the feat of killing a Poisonous High Jumper with one of my apprentices there to confirm it then you will win the bet. I’ll even throw in a lifetime 10% discount off all items in my restaurant. That’s how sure I am that you won’t be able to do it.”

I grip harder than is strictly necessary as we shake hands to confirm the bet and to my amazement a shining chord of blue light wraps around both of our arms, entwining where they meet. If I were to hazard a guess, I would say it might not be a good idea to not pay up now (I know that that was a double negative and I really don’t care).