Hello author here, I would have posted this like 2 days ago but the chapter kept getting longer and longer and eventually what was supposed to be like 1 and 1/2 of a chapter became 1. So this chapter is slightly longer then usual, and still nothing too exciting happening yet but I promise that stuff will happen in like 1-2 chapters. Anyways the first pet will be revealed next chapter. Would anyone like to guess what it is going to be? And rate, comment, and do all that good stuff. If you have suggestions, comment below and Ill try to reply by the end of the day. Also special thanks to RoguePa1adin for giving me suggestions on some of MC's class abilities, Its helped me almost finalize them so he should be getting his class soon. I would say like 3-4 chapters from now, maybe even 2, depending on how I feel like it Also, if you see any mistakes, please mention it below. Enjoy

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(MC) “Status”

Race: Human Level: 3

Class: N/A

Fame: 10 Infamy: 0

Health: 130/130 Mana: 130/130

Strength: 23 Vitality: 13

Agility: 18 Wisdom: 13

Intelligence: 13

Affinities: N/A

[Titles]

“Foreigner of Ferrick”

[Skills]

Cooking – Beginner 3

Wood Cutting – Beginner 4

Construction – Beginner 1

Looking at his skills, Shar couldn’t help but feel proud. However, thinking back, it had not been easy. Two weeks had passed since the incident with the Blue Slime, and during those two weeks, Shar had labored hard each day. Listening to Captain Dalton’s advice, he wandered the village in sought of work; however, many NPCs were reluctant to give him any. Not knowing what to do, he simply continued to wander around the village, talking to various NPCs; finding his efforts to be fruitless, he decided to head back to the village square, to ask Captain Dalton for advice on his current dilemma. However, along the way, something had drawn his attention. Walking closer, Shar could only describe it as large notice board, and upon it were various flyers and advertisements. Taking one of the flyers off of the board, it read:

[Description]

The Hungry Boar is looking for a server to work full time for one week. Tasks include, but are not limited to: serving, washing dishes, cleaning tables and mopping floors. Food and boarding will be provided, and the pay will be 80 bronze coins for each hour worked. For more information, head to the Hungry Boar and ask to speak to Mary.

Although he wasn’t too keen on the idea of working as a server, just by taking a quick glance at the other flyers, he could tell that the job paid a lot better than most, not to mention it did not have any level or skill requirements unlike the other tasks. Although the boarding wasn’t really needed, he was curious to see how sleeping in the game would be like. Having made up his mind, Shar quickly glanced at his map, before heading towards the Hungry Boar.

A short walk later, he had arrived at his destination. Just by taking a quick look, a single word came into his mind: hectic. The place was packed and a huge line up of people waiting to be seated could be seen. Weaving through the masses of people, Shar made his way towards the entrance. Entering the building, he was suddenly stopped by a burly, middle aged woman.

(???) “I am sorry, but if you want to eat here, you’ll have to go back and wait in line like everybody else.”

Not even bothering to reply, he merely handed her the flyer he had ripped off of the notice. Quickly snatching the flyer from his hands, the lady examined piece of paper. Her look of confusion quickly changing to one of joy as she handed him back the flyer.

(???) “Ah, so you’re here looking for work?”

(MC) “Yes, so I would greatly appreciate it if you could direct me to Mary.”4

(Mary) “You’re looking at her; I am Mary Wallace, owner and founder of the Hungry Boar.”

Taking a step back, Mary proceeded to look at Shar from head to toe. Although feeling somewhat uncomfortable, Shar stood still, staying quiet.

(Mary) “Alright, you’re hired.”

(MC) “…..That’s it? You’re not going to ask me any questions?

(Mary) “Nope, you know what they say, beggars can’t be choosers. We’re busy here as is, I don’t have the time to be asking you detailed questions about your life, and honestly I don’t care. As long as you’re here, getting work done, your life out of here doesn’t matter to me, as long as it doesn’t affect me or my business. Here, change into this, you’re starting now.”

Since then, Shar worked at the Hungry Boar, and despite the work being hard and labor intensive, it came with a lot of benefits. During times where there were few customers, Mary would often teach him the basics of cooking, and by the third day he had gained the Cooking skill, and since then gotten it to Beginner 3. However, the greatest benefit of working at the Hungry Boar was the fact that nearly all of the villagers were regulars, allowing him to gain intimacy with the majority of them. In fact, many of them had found out that he was a temporary worker and would often offer him jobs, asking him to work for them once his contract with the Hungry Boar was over. Because of this, Shar was given the opportunity to try new things, learning various skills along the way.

In the afternoon, Shar would often help Mr. Williams carry logs back to the village; in return, Mr. Williams had taught him how to properly and efficiently cut wood. He would also sometimes help construct new buildings when they were low on workers. Although Shar had no prior experience in construction what so ever, he would often help out by bringing and moving building materials, and eventually, with much begging and pleading, Mr. Ferrick had agreed to teach him the basics of construction, eventually granting him the Construction skill. Of course during this time Shar had been getting paid; although it wasn't much, it had accumulated to quite the sum, considering that he had very little expenses. Most of his workplaces provided him with meals, and he would simply log out whenever it got dark. Not only did this mean saving money, since he didn't have to pay to stay overnight at an inn, it also gave him time to fulfill some of his real world needs like eating and going to the washroom. In the end, he had accumulated an impressive amount of currency: 86 silver coins and 27 bronze coins (Note: 1 silver coin is roughly equal to 10 dollars, meaning 1 bronze coin is around 10 cents, since 100 bronze=1 silver, 100 silver=1 gold, 100 gold= 1 platinum).

Having finished helping out Mr. Ferrick, Shar headed to his next destination: Market Choice. Market Choice was a small general store run by Mr. Warner, a somewhat elderly man that was in his early 60s. Apparently, Mr. Warner had used to own a large adventurers store near the capital, but had one day suddenly decided to sell his store, most of his goods and move to Ferrick in order to live a quieter life. Bringing his family along with him, he opened up a small general store specializing in every day goods and groceries.

Unfortunately, due to his sudden departure, a lot of the goods from his old store were not sold in time. Not knowing what to do with the huge amount of various items, Mr. Warner had just decided to bring it along with him to Ferrick, storing all of it in a large warehouse next to his house. Since then, those miscellaneous goods had been left untouched, simply collecting dust inside of the large warehouse. Mr. Warner would have sold them, if not for the fact that the items were unsuitable for his current store; the village did not have very many adventurers, and most of the leftover goods consisted of random pieces of armor, a couple weapons, and maps of various dungeons located throughout the continent; objects that ordinary villagers would have no use for. Although Mr. Warner did not particularly care about selling these goods, he did care about the fact that they took up a lot of space in his warehouse. In fact, this had not been an issue until recently. Despite the village being placed in a remote location, it had been growing at a steady a pace; in fact, the population of the village had grown to the point where Mr. Warner’s small store had difficulty keeping up with their demand for goods. Therefore, he had decided to expand the store; however, there was one problem. Expanding the store meant that he would need more space to hold his extra stock; however, due to the large amount of miscellaneous items, space within his warehouse was lacking, and this is where Shar had come in. Finding out that he was a foreigner whose plan was to explore the vast continent, Mr. Watson had agreed to pay him a small wage in exchange for having his warehouse cleaned and organized. Although Shar would have normally declined, Mr. Watson had also agreed to sell him one item that was stored in his warehouse for an eighty percent discount, which had prompted him to accept the offer.

Looking at the huge mess in front of him, Shar immediately regretted his decision. Miscellaneous goods could be found simply spewed all over the warehouse, although the warehouse was easily large enough to contain all of Mr. Warner’s old goods and more, the issue lay with the fact that the items appeared to have been just thrown in, without any thought. Making sure to not step on anything important, Shar, somewhat unwillingly, trudged through the warehouse, preparing himself for long task ahead of him. He began categorizing each item by type and putting them into a pile, each pile consisting of a particular type of good. Some items on the other hand, did not seem belong to any particular group, putting these aside, Shar focused on what he could do. After three days of cleaning and sorting, he had managed to put every item into their respective piles, proceeding to place them onto shelves. Just when he about to finish, he faced a particular issue. The pile of misfit items had been left untouched; having no way to organize them, he simply placed them all onto a single shelf, deciding that Mr. Warner would not likely care, before heading out to notify him that the task was done.

Bringing Mr. Warner along with him, they entered the warehouse. Upon seeing how well the job was done, Mr. Warner let out a small gasp before walking deeper inside the warehouse to have a closer look. Walking around while examining each shelf, Mr. Warner asked:

(Warner) “You’ve done a good job boy, and I am guessing you already have an idea of what item you want to buy?”

In fact, throughout the entire duration of the task, Shar had been keeping track of all of the items that had caught his interest, knowing that he would have to choose one sooner or later. However, as the days passed and he managed to categorize more items, the choice became overwhelmingly tougher; a lot of the items were useful and had unique qualities, making it difficult for him to make a concrete decision; in addition, he would also have to take into factors like level and price of the item, although he would be getting a large discount, an eighty percent discount would do him no good if the item was worth hundreds of gold. In his head, he kept going over the benefits and negatives of each item, before doing it again and then again, over and over. By the last day, when he had almost finished categorizing each item, he had come to the conclusion that he would have to ask Mr. Warner for more time before he made up his mind, but that all changed when he came upon a particular item. Light blue and emitting a subtle white light, the sword immediately grabbed his attention, lifting the item carefully with both hands he looked at it intently until a screen popped up:

Tier: Rare

Level Requirement: 10

1 Handed Sword

[Stats]

Attack: 60-70

Deals an additional 5-10 cold damage

Durability: 25/25

“Made from the tooth of a yeti, this sword possesses an extremely sharp edge. Rumors have it that the sword contains a bit of the yeti’s innate ice magic.”

The sword was perfect; its level requirement was low, meaning that it was more likely to be affordable. It also meant that Shar would be able to wield it soon, and having a strong weapon early on would definitely help him level up quickly. The sword also dealt an absurd amount of damage compared to other swords with similar level requirements, making it the best item to choose.

(MC) “Yeah, there was this swor-“

As he was talking, Mr. Warner had tripped, causing him to grab the nearest shelf nearby in order to keep himself from falling. The sudden movement had caused the shelf to shake a bit, causing a small black box to fall to the floor.

(Noises) “Thuk, thuk, thuk....”

He watched as Mr. Warner picked up the black box. Around twenty centimeters wide and thirty centimeters tall, the box seemed out of place in Mr. Warner’s warehouse. Many of his old goods looked intricate and possessed unique features, the small box on the other hand, had none except for the fact that it was pure black. Although he was somewhat curious about the contents of the box, he was worried to open it without permission and had planned to ask Mr. Warner about the box once the warehouse was organized, but had forgotten to do so due to his thoughts being so preoccupied by the rare sword.

(Warner) “So you were saying something about a sword?”

Just as he was about to reply, Mr. Warner, checking to see if its contents were damaged, opened the small black box, pulling out what appeared to be an egg around the size of a small football. However, what caught Shar’s attention was not the egg, but the mysterious contraption around it.

(MC) “What is that Mr. Warner.”

(Warner) “It’s an egg.”

(MC) “I know….I am asking about the contraption around it.”

(Warner) “Ah this? It’s a small stasis lock; it prevents the absorption of mana.”

(MC) “Why is there a stasis lock on an egg?”

(Warner) “Do you know nothing boy, the egg isn’t just any egg, it’s a creature egg. Creatures eggs need to absorb a certain amount of mana from its environment before it can hatch, so many shop keepers use stasis locks to prevent the eggs from gathering mana so that they don’t hatch before they are sold.

(MC) "So the egg can still hatch?"

(Warner) "Yes, and before that, you were talking about a sword?"

(MC) "I changed my mind, I'll take the egg instead."

(Warner) "Are you sure boy? Creatures aren't easy to take care of, they need a lot of attention and won't be that strong until they mature. The creature might not even be useful for combat, it would be wise to know what species it is before you buy it, but even I can't tell that you.

(MC) "I'll take it either way, how much will it be?"

The idea of having a small, cute animal as a pet was enough for him to take the egg. He had always wanted a pet ever since he was a young kid, but his mother had never allowed him to have one due to her germaphobia.

(Warner) "Well the price usually varies drastically depending on the species, but since I have no clue, I'll sell it to you for 50 silvers, taking into account the eighty percent discount of course."

(MC) "50 silvers? You mean the egg normally costs 2 gold and 50 silvers?"

(Warner) "You think creature eggs are easy to come by? Eggs are usually guarded heavily by their parents so very few adventurers actually attempt to take them, making them a rare commodity. Plus there is a huge a demand for them, creatures have a wide variety of uses, and many nobles buy them to use as pets or guards, why do you think there are dozens of every other item, but only a single egg?"

(MC) "But even then, 2 gold and 50 silvers for a single egg?

(Warner) "You're lucky I am even selling it to you for that price, even the cheapest creature eggs are usually sold for at least 3 gold each.”

(MC) "Fine, I'll take it"

Somewhat reluctantly handing over the fifty silvers to Mr. Warner, Shar asked:

(MC) "How long do you think it will take before it hatches?"

Handing the egg over, Mr. Warner replied:

(Warner) "Probably a couple days, if you have any questions just come back and ask me, I may be old and somewhat senile but I know quite a bit about raising these things, and here's the 19 silvers and 20 bronze coins for your three days of work.

Receiving the money, Shar thanked and said goodbye to Mr. Warner.

(MC) "Thanks Mr. Warner, I'll see you around."

(Warner) "See you around boy, if you need any more work, just come back. I could always use a worker like you around here.”

(MC) “Ah ha, thanks for the offer Mr. Warner. I’ll keep that in mind.”

Leaving the warehouse, Shar quickly removed the stasis lock from the egg before heading over to the Hungry Boar, the long day of work had made him quite famished. After eating a hardy meal of bacon and eggs, he decided to retire for the day. Checking into a small inn, he quickly went up into his room and placed the egg on top of his bed before logging off. This was because he had found out that the egg could not be put into his inventory without the stasis lock, probably due to it being considered a living creature. Although he would have preferred to just sleep in game, he had not been getting a lot of sleep in real life due to playing the game almost nonstop and desperately needed some. He had found out that although sleeping in game somewhat helped, it was definitely not a good replacement for sleeping in reality.

Logging back onto All World Online the next day, the first thing Shar did was look at the small white egg. The appearance had not changed at all, and the egg showed no visible signs of hatching anytime soon. Putting the egg back into a small knapsack that he had purchased the other day, Shar headed into the village to complete a couple more tasks, before heading back to the inn and logging off. The next couple of days in game had gone by the same way, he would log in, check the egg, go complete some tasks, go back to the inn and then log off; however, today was special, the egg, which normally showed no signs of hatching, had started to shake occasionally, almost as if something was trying to break through the hard outer shell. As the day progressed, the shaking had slowly become more intense, and by the time he had retired back to the inn, the egg was practically rocking back and forth. Anticipating that the egg was about to hatch, he placed it onto the soft linens covering his bed.

(Noises) “Krrruk, kruk”

Visible cracks had started appearing onto the egg, slowly getting bigger as the creature inside continued to struggle to break through.

(Noises) “Crack, crack....crack.....”

The egg had finally cracked open due to the relentless assault, revealing the mysterious creature inside.

(MC) “Eh?”