This chapter has been proof-read by: jjsw123

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The first week of business had been slow, only a few adventurers came with monster cores ranging from level 20 to level 60, nothing impressive really. Next to me was a flower pot I was using to practice my [Gardener touch] ability during the off times.

Same pattern, grow poisonous plant, eat poisonous plant... After a week of that, I had already levelled up [Gardener touch] and [Poison Resistance] to rank (B). Finally being able to grow rank B plants has given me the option of growing valuable plants and selling them.

Plants of lower rank were mostly useless, it was like being able to grow dandelions... But now I could grow plants used for lower rank medicines. As the sun was setting, I packed my things and prepared to leave for the night.

As usual, before going back to the Inn, I sneaked out of town and flew out of the safe zone in my wyvern form. Once in the forest, I would turn into my snake form and hunt for a while. Since I was so close to a town, the monsters weren't worth calling opponents.

I was quite slow in my movements but I had many abilities making up for it. With my massive amount of strength, the vines I grew with [Vines Hell] were now as hard as iron and had ranked up to rank D. I could either immobilize my preys with vines, blind them by spitting on them, or even paralyze them with [Viper Bite]

Then I could execute them with a single [Tail whip] which had also ranked up to rank B. I don't understand how some players can spend all their time grinding their skills... It was boring as hell. When I had nothing to do, I had to keep forcing myself to use my abilities to rank them up.

The easiest ones to level up were [Terror Eyes] and [Sad Puppy Eyes]. I simply had to wait for the cooldown time to pass then reuse it again and again. Thank to my dedication, both skills were now Rank B as well.

During my nocturnal hunts, I had to be careful in avoiding players who roamed around but thanks to my snake ability to “taste” smells, it wasn't too hard. I would also remember to identify every plant I saw for the first time to grow my [Gardener touch] library.

I had never worked this hard in my life. So when I went back to the Inn, I always immediately fell asleep like a rock. Today was no different, I had killed many monsters and was going for a bath. I enjoyed bathing in the middle of the night since I had the inn's massive hot spring to myself.

I undressed myself in a gentlemanly manner, carefully folded my clothes to avoid any wrinkle and entered the warm spring water. There was a dense cloud of vapor hovering above the water hindering my visibility.

I installed myself in my regular spot and began to relax in the warm water.

*Splash*

The faint sound of movement in the water made me open my eyes and stare in the direction the sound had come from. Not being able to see anything wasn't too much of a problem as I started sticking my tongue in and out of my mouth. I wasn't alone in the bath.

“I wasn't expecting to see anyone in the bath this late at night.” (Kneeko)

[...]

“I know you're there... No need to be timid. Actually I don't really care. I'm just here to relax.” (Kneeko)

“Uhhmmm, you sound young... How old are you?” (Woman's voice)

What the hell? Is that the first question you should ask? After quickly analyzing the situation I assumed it was because she was embarrassed to be alone in a bath with a guy. The fact that my voice sounded like a child and I looked like a child should be reassuring to her.

“Hhmmm... 8 years old?! Maybe...” (Kneeko)

“Ho!” (Woman's voice)

Immediately the sound of water splashing came closer and closer to my location. Eventually I could see a head slowly moving my way through the fog. I say a head since she was submerged up to her neck and was hiding her body underwater.

“My name's Irene, who are you?” (Irene)

“Kneeko...” (Kneeko)

After answering her I bent my head backward and stared at the beautiful starry sky. I wasn't interested in doing small talk and honestly wanted to be left alone.

“Mmm... Since you stay at this hotel you must be a noble, right?” (Irene)

Look like she want to talk... Just my luck.

“Sighhh... Yea...” (Kneeko)

“Which family?” (Irene)

“... The “Notyourbusiness” family” (Kneeko)

“Ho.. Never heard of the Notyo-... Hey!!!” (Irene)

“Kuhuhuhuhu* Sorry, you seem nice but I’m here incognito, so please avoid asking too many questions ok?!” (Kneeko)

I wasn't looking at her but I guessed she was pouting with an angered face.

“I'm older than you! You should learn to be more polite.” (Irene)

“I get it... Sorry big sis!” (Kneeko)

She became red like a tomato but didn't seem angry anymore. She wasn't bad looking, a small circular face, brown hair reaching her shoulders, purple eyes and cute pink lips. I could only see her head but I estimated her age to be around 13 to 15.

“Soo... Did you come here with your parents?” (Irene)

“No.” (Kneeko)

[...]

“Uhhh... At your age, I wasn't allowed to stay up this late.” (Irene)

She was timidly touching her index fingers together in a shy way. My guess was that she didn't have any friends her age around here and was trying to befriend me. Since she was staying at this luxurious Inn, she was most likely nobility. All I could think of was “smells like trouble”.

A bit annoyed, I cut short my relaxing time and stood up. My little pecan nut was dangling right in front of her eyes making her jump back and cover them.

“Kyaaa!” (Irene)

“Good night Irene.” (Kneeko)

I quickly dried myself, dressed up and left to my room. The next morning I went down to the dining hall to eat breakfast. Today was some kind of meat pie with vegetables. I have to admit it was quite tasty and I was totally absorbed in my meal.

“Good morning!!!!” (Irene)

Dammit...

“Hey ! It's you... Again.” (Kneeko)

“Bhuu you don't seem happy to see me.” (Irene)

“Just tired...” (Kneeko)

“What are we doing today?” (Irene)

“WE” ??? I paused for a while, then started rubbing my temples. Sighhh* I got myself a stalker...

“I don't know about you but I have work to do.” (Kneeko)

I resumed my meal trying to ignore her.

“What kind of work?” (Irene)

“Remember my family name?” (Kneeko)

“Notyourbusiness?” (Irene)

“Bingo! Have a nice day.” (Kneeko)

I quickly engulfed my meal and left toward the exit. I walked to the market place, and got back into my tent waiting for adventurers to come sell monster cores. After seeing some very high level adventurers, I wondered how they had managed to level up so quickly.

I went on the game website and looked at the top 100 high ranker and the #1 was already over level 250!!! Actually from what I could tell, there was 20%+ of players with level higher than myself. Some could be explained by them having paid more money to get early access to the game, but the rest was purely grinders.

Grinders are people who don't care about enjoying the game but only want to be in the top 100 high rankers. They find ways to get a lot of EXP and keep repeating the same actions again and again. Others make a lot of EXP by teaming up against strong monsters and quests.

NPC's didn't count since this world already had over a few thousand years history. How is that possible you ask? Well father explained that the game world was going at 5 time the speed of the “real” world. Its was only 5 time since the human brain couldn't support the burden of a higher speed.

But for NPC's, it's different. Since they are digital, they can support time acceleration by thousands times that of the real world. So for a few months before the game release, they had kept this world running at crazy speed, allowing the wildlife and everything else to proliferate.

Thanks to that, there are legends and past histories giving depth to this world. Thanks to that, you could find hundred years old monsters and such.

During dinner time, a group of 3 players entered my tent and looked exited. One of them was a warrior, the other an archer and the last one a mage... The classic adventurer trio... The big muscular warrior walked toward me and pulled out a monster core as big as a fist from his pouch and placed it on my table.

“What would you give us for this, rich little man?” (Big Warrior) He was wearing a giant smile that made me excited to see what this core could be.

“Let me see. [Identify]” (Kneeko)

Monster coreSpecies:Frost Basilisk (Variant)Level:167Monster Rank:Medium highRarity:Very Rare

*Guhuhuhu* Finally something worth purchasing. After a quick market analysis, where I compared prices with item of equal value, I estimated this core to be worth around 90 Gold. As for reference, a farmer, his wife and two children could live a year off of 1 gold piece.

“Uhhmmm.... If you sell this on the free market you should get around 90 gold. I can offer you 150 gold for it. Since you are a group of three, money should be easier to split than an item. But in the end you are the ones to choose, money or a weapon of equal value?” (Kneeko)

The trio was now looking at me with sparkling eyes after earring my offer.

“We all agreed to exchange this for a better weapon for me. Having a better weapon means that we will be able to take on harder quests and compensate them in return.” (Big Warrior)

“I see... Quite the noble companions you have there.” (Kneeko)

The trio smiled at each other, proud in the strength of their friendship.

“Alright... Sword, war-hammer, battle axe... What is it that you want?” (Kneeko)

“Well a longsword would be best...” (Big Warrior)

“You're lucky, I do have one. [Identify]” (Kneeko)

As a demon lord in AL1 I had many minions in my army, so I collected precious weapons to give to my generals. Once again they were coming in handy.

WireWolf27 (Player)Race/Species:HumanLevel:97Class:BerserkerTitles:-Desert explorer

-Dune worms slayer

-Brainless slasher

“I do have the perfect sword for you, but it requires level 120...” (Kneeko)

The big warrior became very excited after I said that.

“That's alright! I will reach level 120 in no time! I'll take it please!” (WireWolf27)

“I understand.” (Kneeko)

I pulled a long sword out of my inventory and gave it to him.

“Thank you! [Identify]” (WireWolf27)

Agathon's long swordMinimum level:120Durability:9900/10000Rank:BRarity:Unique-Damages: 20-50

-Higher chance of doing critical damages

-Frost effect

“Hooooo! Guys! This is fucking amazing! TOTALLY WORTH IT YAY!” (WireWolf27) He said while brandishing the sword toward the sky.

“Thank you for your business.” (Kneeko)

“Sure thing kiddo! Thank you!” (WireWolf27)

After this the forum went even more viral. As for me, I was salivating while inspecting my new monster core.

+++

STATUS:

PROFILENAME:KneekoLEVEL:88GENDER:MaleMONEY:4486G 37S 22CRACE:Gardening Viper (Very rare)MONSTER RANK:LowHEALTH:2150STAMINA:600MANA:4190STRENGTH:635(M)INTELLIGENCE:404SPEED:7DEXTERITY:1(H)VITALITY:150 (+50)CHARM:40LUCK:8AGILITY:7RESISTANCE:125 (+50)(S)ENDURANCE:45SKILL POINTS:30FAME/INFAMY:-1670 (Mostly Evil)CLASS:-------------------TITLES:☑ King of the pond

☑ Toxic PowerhousePASSIVE SKILLS:Amphibious (E)

Obscuro Poison (B)

Poison Resistance (B)

Viper Neurotoxin (A)ACTIVE SKILLS:Gardener touch (B)

Poison Spit (D)

Sad puppy eyes (B)

Tail Whip (B)

TerrorEyes (B)

Vines Hell (D)

Viper Bite ©