Chapter 18

~ Trouble in Dragonis ~

SW/SW/SW

“I heerd from Elvaria zat you zpent your Perk on something stupid. Of all Perks you chose ze Ancient Force…” TongsisQueeN’s oblivious remark hurt him a little.

Embarrassed, Ace used his hands to cover his crimson colored face, “Don’t remind me of that again, please…”

She sighed, “Be more keerful next time. Seeing how low ze legendary equipment drop rate ist, the Perk ist basically near to yuzless.”

“Can I undo it?”

“You can. Vith cash and it’z hella expensiv. Zey hav to make a living, you know?”

Ace let out a desperate moan, “My first Perk…”

“It’s alright, Ace. Just liiv vith it. Vho knows, maybe you’ll get legendary equipment vor real in the near future?” she pat his arm in a reassuring manner. “Choosing ze vrong Perk ist not ze end of ze verld, Ace.”

After moping for a long time, Ace let out a sigh. “…yeah, you’re right. Thanks, Tongsis…”

She gave him a huge grin, “Super! Zat smile suits you best! You know vhat, let’s do a quest! It’ll cheer you up vor sure!”

“Quest, huh? What kind? I’m kind of bored of Gathering Quests…”

To his surprise, QueeN snickered.

“What’s so funny?” Ace felt kind of insulted.

She leaned towards him and whispered, “Hav you heerd of Taming Quest?”

Ace arched his brows, “Taming? You mean we have to tame a monster like it’s a cat?”

“Ja, something like zat. It’z fun, you know? Ze monsters are zcary at first, but zey’re super cute once zey’re tamed! You’v got Taming skill, right?”

“…mine is called Control Beasts…”

QueeN slapped her head, cursing, “Mein Gott! Forgot zat you’re a Summoner! But you gotta do it at liist once. It’z fun! I guarantii it!”

Sighing, Ace lifted his hands in surrendering manner, “Alright, alright… let’s go.”

As expected, QueeN cried in joy and sent him a party invitation. Ace accepted it.

“Are we really gonna do that quest? I don’t have the skill to tame animals,” although disagreeing, Ace kept following her out to the streets.

“Oh, yeah!” she answered happily, “no vorries! QueeN here haz it covered!”

“You mean you have the Taming skill? For taming monsters? Are you supposed to be a Mage instead of a Shaman?”

“Vell, I may be a Mage, but it doezn’t mean zat I can’t learn it. I just got it zree dayz ago.”

“From where? Chests? Boss?”

Tongsis laughed, shaking her head, blonde tresses swaying around elegantly, “Of courz not! I learned it from ze trainers. There’re many trainers zroughout Tel Nevos who you can learn skills from! You hafta hav Black Coins to pay. Nothing ist free! Logically speaking, the more useful the skill ist, ze more expensiiv it vill be to learn.”

Yep, this online game was becoming more and more like rogue-like games. “So, where did you get them?”

“From quests. Just browse zrough until you find Black Coins in ze revard panel. Ze quest ve’ll going to do vill give you some Black Coins as a revard.”

Ace covered his mouth with one hand. His expression was utter shock. Holy shit. He’d get rare coins just from hanging around with a guild member. Was this the power of a guild?

Ace waited for QueeN to finish looking for a quest. Folding his arms, he looked around for a familiar face and then let out a silly laugh. Of course there wouldn’t be any. This was not a real world. Everyone had different name and face.

Ace secretly hoped for Nia or Alisa to join him. They could hunt, have fun, and laughed together—just like in the real world.

“Vaiting long?” QueeN appeared beside him, “found an easy quest. Ve each hav to tame a Bibbit. It’s a ball-like bunny. Cuddle-able and super extra cute!”

“C-Can we really tame them? These Bibbits?”

“’Courz yeah!” QueeN grinned from ear to ear. After rummaging through her inventory, she tossed him two packs of ration and ten apples. “Zey like apples and can’t get enough of ‘em! Ze rations are vor you.”

“Oh, thanks... but is this okay? Buying me these stuff…”

She laughed, slapping his back in a friendly manner, “’Courz okay! Don’t be so tense, Ace! Ve’re friends!”

Friends.

Ace’s heart warmed at the thought. Why did it feel so… comfortable and powerful when he repeated that? With QueeN, he no longer felt the loneliness he always had.

Friends, huh?

Finally he was able to smile confidently, “Thanks, Tongsis.”

She gave him another slap before lifting her fist mid-air, “Zat zmile suits you best, Ace. Listen, can you zmile more? It makes your day divverent. In a positiiv meaning. Pluz, you’ll make otherz happy just by looking at you.”

“Promise,” Ace nodded.

“Great! Zen let’z go! Ve hav zose Bibbits vaiting vor us!”

They departed to Dragonis Plain.

0000

Bibbit indeed a cute creature. Their bodies, white and furry, were in a size of a basketball and their eyes were as green as the plain they lived in. Generally docile, they would attack if threatened. Their attack consisted of firing their target with condensed air shot from their small bodies.

All of them were around level six. It was disastrous if one was surrounded.

Ace fed one of them the apple and felt in a total bliss. How cute! If only he could take one to the real world as pet…

Meanwhile, QueeN was chatting (making high ‘yip’ sounds) with several Bibbits, who amazingly listened with great attention. Ace felt kind of jealous with her skill.

“Do you study their language, too?” he couldn’t help but ask, seeing how vocal she was.

“Nein, it vas automatically tranzlated, you know. Others vithout Taming skill may hav a hard time understanding animals.”

“Dang, now I really want that skill…” Ace collapsed onto the grass back first and went cloudgazing.

It was so peaceful here unlike the real world…

Tilting his head to his right, a small smile made its way to Ace's mouth as he watched QueeN feeding and talking to the Bibbits.

Everything indeed tasted better with friends…

Several minutes later he got up and tamed more Bibbits. It earned him much EXP and he leveled up to four. To his surprise, his WIL and PER increased by one.

Ace spent two points in CHA and two in INT.

They finished the quest. The EXP reward was satisfying and he was close to reach another level up to six. Also he earned himself four Black Coins. Neat! Three points were spent on INT, two on CHA, one on STR, and the rest went to VIT.

WIth that they returned to Dragonis.

“You dirty cheater!”

The accusation gained Ace and QueeN’s attention. They turned their heads to the central marketplace to find several people arguing. Curious, they got near.

It was Lord_DPS and Maria being surrounded by some unknown players.

“That’s DPS,” Ace remarked, “what’s he doing there?”

QueeN frowned and bit her lower lip. Apparently she recognized some of them, “Oh, no. Zose two are vrom Muhehehe. Zis won’t be good…”

A blonde woman whose haircut similar to Dora pointed a finger at DPS, “I knew it! I knew it from the start that you cheated! Who else did?”

“Do you have any proof?” Maria demanded, protecting DPS.

“Proof? Proof? Proof, you say?!” she repeated, each question ended with a tone higher than before. “You need proof?! Just look at his inventory and you’ll know! There’s a Soul Slicer in it! You know that the drop rate is almost zero! Plus it’s not an ordinary Soul Slicer! It’s rarity one plus two! Getting plus in any weapon drop is the same as cheating!”

Soul Slicer? Oh, was that the name of a sword the last boss used? The sword which had 0.00 something drop rate?

Ace’s jaw dropped in realization. DPS got the sword? Holy cow!

“He is just lucky is all,” Maria didn’t lose her composure. “All this time, DPS has been building his LUCK stat to boost the Soul Slicer’s drop rate. It’s not fair if you call that cheating.”

“Oh yeah?” the Dora-girl challenged, “and do you ever know how large his LUCK is? It’s completely hidden, you fool! I bet you’re in league with him! You Travonka are cheaters!”

“I suggest you watch what you are saying,” Maria frowned. “We are not cheaters and we are deeply insulted to be accused so.”

“Ha! Like I care. You want a fight here? Then let’s fight!” the blonde taunted, readying her dual swords. “Bet you’re bunch of weaklings like you were in the last Guild War! To hell with PvP, I’ll kill you right now!”

Looking around in panic, Ace saw the sky changed color into deep red. Scared, he turned to QueeN for guidance, “What the hell’s going on?”

“It’z ze Guards. Zey’re coming.”

Spoiler: Status

AceKivras

EXP Chart*

Atk: 5

HP (230/230)

Level 6

2557/3560

Def: 6

MP(330/330)

Human

1003 to lv. 7

M.Atk: 31

Eiredrahl the Impure*

Summoner

2300 Coins

M. Def: 15

Travonka

4 Black Coins

Minimum piety

ATTRIBUTES

POTENTIAL

Equipment

Ancient Force

STR

6

Worst

Head

Circlet

VIT

9

Bad

Neck

Amulet

DEX

9

Bad

Body

Robe

PER

9

Bad

Back

-

INT

24

Superb

Arm (main)

Staff

WIS

11

Best

Arm

-

WILL

12

Best

Waist

-

CHA

21

Superb

Legs

Pants

* (tap to see)

Feet

Shoes

(Help)

Skill

Description

Level

Healing

VIT

Lets you recover your HP over time

3.109

Staff

VIT

How proficient you are swinging your staff

2.098

Running

VIT

Affects your running speed

3.453

Light Armor

DEX

How effectively you act while wearing Light Armor

8.249

Evasion

DEX

Helps you to evade attacks easily

8.544

Casting

INT

This skill helps you power up your spells

6.937

Meditation

INT

Gradually recovers your MP

6.265

Herbology

INT

Lets you identify any herb to its fullest potential

6.734

Control Magic

WIS

Prevents your ally to get hit by your spells

4.207

Memorization

WIS

This skill slows down the decay of your unused skills

3.813

Literacy

WIS

Allows you to read more difficult spellbooks

6.175

Control Beast

CHA

Lets you control higher-level Summon Beasts

7.931