The carriage rolled to a slow halt before the pace gates, its wheels crunching against the gravel. Before it rose the pace – an immense and brooding mass of darkened stone, with towers half-swallowed by creeping fog. The walls were thick and unadorned, built not for beauty, but for endurance. Their matte surfaces appeared well-worn.
Max took a moment to admire the austerity of the magnificent structure. The moment didn't st long.
“Halt! Who goes there?” A pair of guards blocked the gate, holding halberds.
Max climbed down from the carriage. “I am Gun, a knight of Prince Virtus, here to report for duty.”
“Of the crown prince?” The guards scrutinised Max with doubt. “Do you have a crest badge?”
“Badge… Oh!” Max remembered the item bearing the royal emblem that Virtus had given him the previous day and took it from his inventory. “You mean this?”
The guard looked surprised. “Yes, that’s it. Please wait a moment.”
Walking over to a checkpoint by the side of the gate, the guard spoke into a communication bead, waiting momentarily for a response before returning with a more rexed demeanour.
“You may pass. A maid will direct you from the front entrance. Welcome, Sir Gun.”
Max nodded, impressed with the security. Paying the coachman, he entered and proceeded directly to the main entrance.
“Hello, Sir Gun.” As the guard said, a maid emerged from the building. “Prince Virtus is currently engaged in a meeting and has requested that I guide you to the alchemy b in his absence. Please follow me.”
“Alright.” Max responded simply.
…Truthfully, Max wanted to ask for a guided tour of the whole pace, but after seeing the tense looks of the guards and other staff, he decided not to. They could undoubtedly tell that he was a pyer by his bright red hair, and to Max, after seeing the list of crimes which needed to be curbed in the recent patch, he couldn’t fault them for staying vigint. Even so, after enough time passed, they would realise he had no intentions of dropping babies or poison down the pace wells.
‘Unless… No, never mind.’
Max quickly silenced his intrusive thoughts and took the opportunity while he was following the maid to inspect the inner pace. Although the interior was significantly more colourful than the exterior, the hallways were still highly minimalistic, with no paintings or tapestries to speak of. Instead, the walls were mostly bare, only occasionally showing learning materials such as provincial maps and the words of wise poets.
Ascending a spiral staircase, Max saw that there were still guards even on the third floor of the building. Unable to withhold his curiosity, he appraised one of them:
[Human: ‘Chester Lestrade’, Level: 62, Threat Level: Deadly]
‘Powerful!’
Luckily, the guard did not have an anti-appraisal artefact like Virtus, so Max was able to see his details clearly.
‘Wait, this guy isn’t even a knight, just a regur guard… Why did Virtus bother to recruit me if they have people in the level sixties just standing around?’
Max suddenly felt a severe sense of inferiority.
“We’ve arrived.” The maid stopped in front of an ornate door. “The alchemist will be inside. I will await you here until your discussion comes to a finish.”
“Okay, thank you.”
‘Come to think of it, why did Virtus want me to meet an alchemist? Isn’t that a bit random?’
Max pushed the door open and was immediately smacked in the face by a wave of pungent odours. Inside, an alchemy b was sprawled out in organised disarray, with long workbenches sagging under the weight of gssware, alembics, mortar bowls, and other tools and equipment. Books and scrolls were crammed into every open crevice, spilling from shelves and piling on the floor in heaps. Max directed his attention to the opposite end of the room, where, alongside a collection of unidentifiable powders and what looked to be an animal skull, a frizzy-haired old man stood hunched over a boiling fsk while mumbling to himself.
‘Great, so we’re going with the mad scientist trope.’
Max’s thoughts and his actual words were different. “Hello, you must be the alchemist.”
“…”
‘Yup, definitely a mad scientist.’
Noticing that the alchemist was not ignoring him and was only deeply absorbed in his work, Max ignored the acrid, metallic smell in the air to move closer.
“Excuse me.”
Finally, the alchemist turned around. “Red hair… Ah! You must be Gun. I’ve been waiting for you. Please take a seat. Oh, there are no seats… sit on the table then.”
…After a moment of hesitation, Max awkwardly brushed some tin cans aside and sat on a nearby workbench. “You’ve been waiting for me?”
“But of course! I needed someone to run errands for me, and so Virtus immediately offered up your freedom. You have no issues with that, right?”
‘Ehhh?’
“No objections were heard. Moving on, I heard you are an archer? I happen to have an assassination target for a man of your profession.”
“Assassination target?” Max’s ears pricked up. He had not expected this. Maybe the work in this pce would be more interesting than he expected?
“It’s a bird.”
“…”
‘Nope.’
“I need you to kill a gale falcon. It’s a small, fast-moving bird which uses wind magic to evade capture. It typically flies at high alt– Hey, at least try to hide your displeasure. I haven’t even finished expining yet.
“Huh? O-oh, yes sorry.”
“As I was saying…”
‘He read my facial expression? NPCs can do that now?!’
This was not a feature that existed in HoL… Come to think of it, was there even a difference between NPCs and real humans anymore? They acted nearly identically…
‘It’s a little creepy, but awesome at the same time.’
“Because gale falcons are native to this world, their bodies will not disappear upon death, so you should collect one and bring it back here for me to use as ingredients.”
‘Ah.’ Max realised this was why NPC corpses did not disappear after the battle at the orc compound yesterday. Unlike NPCs and animals, which were native, pyers and monsters consisted of introduced species. ‘Some unexpected l–UGH! L-lore.’
Max was nearly knocked off the table when the alchemist randomly threw a container at him.
‘He suddenly threw a box at me mid-conversation? What kind of person does that?!’
“Specifically, I need its heart. The heart is infused with magical properties, so I need it for a project. When you get the bird, stick it in that thing and shut the lid. While it doesn’t look like much, it’s actually a magic tool which will help keep the body cold and preserve it.”
Max massaged his ribs where the container had struck.
“When you catch one,” the alchemist continued, ignoring Max’s silent compint, “I want you to bring it back here immediately. The longer you take, the more its quality will decrease. Gale falcons are fairly rare, but there have been sightings in the Pernix Pins to the south of here… Anyway, that’s it for the details. Any questions?”
“Just one.”
“Shoot.”
“To check that I’m understanding this correctly, you want me to travel to an out-of-the-way section of grassnd to locate and neutralise a tiny, rare bird, in order to give you a fresh sample for some sort of strange alchemy experiment you’ve been wanting to perform?”
“Yes, precisely.”
“Okay, I was just making sure.”
Mission: Bird Hunting (1)
Difficulty: Hard
Description: A strange alchemist of the Eleutherian royal pace has tasked you with acquiring the heart of a gale falcon and bringing it quickly back to him.
Milestone 1: Obtain a gale falcon heart and present it to the alchemist within six hours of the falcon’s death
Reward: Unknown. The reward will increase with rapidity of heart transport.
Accept the mission? Y/N
Not wasting any time, Max accepted the mission and immediately went to exit the room. The smell in here was really bad.
“Ah,” Max stopped, “I forgot to ask for your name. Is there a title I should call you by?”
He wanted to know the name so he could compin to the prince ter about being given such a menial and boring task.
“No title, just call me ‘Ambrose’. Much like the prince, I dislike needless formalities.”
“Ambrose… Well it was a pleasure meeting you, Ambrose.”
“No it wasn’t.”
Max shut the door behind him. ‘Damn, he can read minds as well as faces?’
Stationed outside the room, as she said she would be, was the maid. Upon noticing Max’s return, she swiftly approached and pushed two items into his hands. One was a heavy pouch, while the other was a red-and-gold painted cube.
“Hm?”
“I have a message to convey from the crown prince. He says you should ‘quickly grow stronger’, and that to help you accomplish this, he is providing funds for equipment, along with a high-quality warhorse.”
“Ah, I see. Please thank the prince for me. Also, give him my apologies for suddenly disappearing yesterday. I encountered some unique circumstances which tied my hands. At least, it is unlikely to happen again... Sorry, I shouldn’t ask you to serve as a messenger.”
“No, it’s fine.” The maid smiled. “I will let the prince know. Would you like me to escort you back to the entrance?”
“No, it’s fine. I remember the way.”
Max put the items in his inventory and left for the staircase, contempting his next moves. This was an unexpected development, but it actually worked out quite well for him. He could spend some time levelling up and building up his viewerbase before accepting more responsibilities.
‘Viewerbase…’ Max was reminded of a certain bald head.
Bringing up his friends list, he typed out a message:
[Gun: Hello Lemon. Thank you for your help in getting my suspension lifted. If there is anything I can do for you in return, just let me know]
A response came through only a few seconds ter:
[Lemonade: Haha no worries, man! What are you doing right now?]
[Gun: Ah, I just got a mission to hunt a wild bird. It seems like a very difficult and arduous mission; I might not be able to handle it on my own…]
[Is that so? Hold on, I’ll see if any of the others are free to help]
“Eh?” Max blinked. “Wait, he didn’t take me seriously, right?”
[You have been added to a new Group Chat! Members (6): Delt0id, Depressed_Derek, Gun, Jasmini, Lemonade, Ruby_Fme]
“Ehhh?!!”
[Lemonade: Hey guys, is anyone free to help Gun with his hunting mission?]
[Delt0id: Nah, doing PvP]
[Jasmini: Ruby isn’t here for another hour, so the timing is bad. Maybe ter!]
Max hurriedly typed a crification message, slightly flustered:
[Gun: It’s fine! I can handle it on my own. I don’t even know how far away it is]
…
[Lemonade: Derek, you’re the only one with a horse, you go help]
‘H-he ignored me!’
[Depressed_Derek: Do I have to]
[Lemonade: Yes]
A few seconds passed in silence.
[Lemonade: Also, Gun went viral this morning, so he will get a lot of views when he starts streaming]
[Depressed_Derek: Okay, I’ll do it]
Max’s eyes trembled. ‘This… This guy is an opportunist!’
[Depressed_Derek: I’m not in the capital though, so it will take me an hour or two to get back. Is that still good?]
[Gun: That suits. I have some other stuff to do in the meantime]
Max figured there was no reason to decline. If anything, he felt bad that he might be offering this ‘Derek’ guy a bad deal. Although it was true that he was receiving a lot of media attention now after having been suspended and unsuspended, it was mostly negative coverage. Despite there not being any proof of him cheating, the court of public opinion was heavily stacked against him, which was part of the reason why he’d been procrastinating starting his stream this morning.
Also, the stream might be boring. After all, he would just be hunting down a bird.
‘…Oh well, I’ll just have to do my best to make it interesting.’
Leaving the pace, Max set course for his next destination… the shopping district!
Virtus had given him some money for new equipment, so he would definitely go and buy some gear. He vividly remembered his struggle with low-penetration beginner arrows at the orc compound, as well as how he nearly died immediately following that event from having no healing potions.
It was time to stop messing around!
Navigating using the system map, Max reached the commercial district and was lucky enough to find a dedicated archery store. Not wasting any time, he made a beeline for the arrow section, wanting to find some armour-piercing arrows like the ones he saw at the bazaar yesterday.
“Armour piercing arrows… check!”
“Blunted arrows? Should I use them for the bird maybe…? Nah.”
“Regur arrows… check!”
“Incendiary armour-piercing arrows?”
Max’s attention was captured by the st arrow type.
Item: Incendiary AP Arrow
Grade: Rare
Weight: 110g (~1700 grains)
Effects: +100% Penetration, +15% range, -50% damage, -50% bleed chance. When ignited, creates smoke and inflicts 10 additional ‘burning’ damage on the target per second while lodged. There is also a chance of the arrow-tip breaking off inside the target when a removal attempt is made, due to the fire damaging the structural integrity of the arrow. This chance has a base value of 5%, increasing by 1% for every second the arrow burns and is scaled by material (e.g. the arrowhead is more likely to break off in bone than soft tissue). Smoke inhation will also cause damage.
Description: A non-standard, incendiary armour-piercing arrow, fitted with a bodkin point arrowhead. Contains a fmmable compound mix wrapped in linen under the arrow tip, which needs to be lit via a fuse. This design is resistant to being extinguished via air travel and is most commonly used against fmmable structures. Crafted by an expert arrowsmith.
“Oho, you have a good eye there!” The shopkeeper emerged from the register. “Those are the most devastating arrows we offer at this establishment, crafted by an ex-military arrowsmith! First, a fire compound is put in a criss-crossing linen wrapping around the arrowhead. Then it is sealed in tree resin to make it waterproof! When using it, the fire compound is ignited using a fuse-lit capping charge, with the timing of lighting the fuse being used for timed shots. The structure is manufactured to direct the fire forward, so it packs a mean punch, heheheh~.” The old man chuckled. “Whaddya say, interested?”
…Max wasn’t sure what to do with all this unsolicited information.
“To be honest, I don’t really like this kind of arrow. Although it might be good to keep for emergencies, I… hmm…” Max massaged his temples.
“What?! Don’t like? What do you mean don’t like?? This is the perfect arrow! It’s the masterpiece of the store!!”
“It’s not the perfect arrow. Firstly, the aerodynamics are hindered by the linen pack, so it doesn’t fly straight or far. The added weight also shortens the flight distance. Then you have the cost of the extra materials and crafting time, raising the price by a rge amount. Also…” Max broke off. “Never mind, you get my point.”
Looking at the shopkeeper, Max realised the guy was shaking like a leaf.
“U-um, it’s still a great arrow for emergencies, and close range, so…”
“…”
Discerning the man was only heartbroken and not angry, Max decided to just let him recover for a few minutes and looked around the rest of the store. Although there was a rge selection of bows to choose from, Max was quite happy with his current bow, so he didn’t even bother browsing. Instead, he found a section stocking magical equipment.
“Woah!!!” There were some really good items.
Item: Infinite Quiver
Grade: Rare
Durability: 1600/1600
Description: A small quiver imbued with storage magic – it stores up to 1000 arrows. This quiver will only hold five arrows at any given moment and will automatically refill from its repository in a FIFO (first in, first out) manner to sustain this number when any arrows are removed. When storing arrows, the storage magic is interfaced via the quiver’s underside.
Item: Anemometer
Grade: Rare
Durability: 1200/1200
Description: Magic tool which numerically measures wind speed and direction. The quality is high, so the measured values are extremely precise. Shows values on a mana-powered digital screen to three decimal pces.
Max’s eyes sparkled brightly.
…
Leaving the archery shop, Max moved in joyful strides. Although he already spent over two thirds of the gold he’d amassed, it was all good! It was all good, because he’d obtained valuable magic equipment instead. Virtus had told him to go buy equipment, after all.
‘Wait.’ Max paused and looked down at his clothing. ‘He… meant armour, didn’t he?’
Max became acutely aware of the fact that he was still wearing beginner clothes.
“…It’ll be fine! Metal armour is overpriced anyways, so I’ll just snatch up something more low-key.”
Max went into another store and came back out with a set of stylish bck leather armour.
*Gasp* “It even came with gloves!”
The armour set came with gloves and bracers, both items which would make him more comfortable while shooting his bow. Although he thought leather would be low-key, it actually looked quite fshy, so it only made him stand out more… Not that Max cared. If the armour did its job, that was good enough.
‘It better do its job, because I’m all out of money now.’
Magic equipment was really expensive.
Checking the time, Max saw that he still had about an hour left to kill. Thankfully, it was also at this moment that he happened to see an alluring sign across the thoroughfare.
‘Css advancement trials this way' →
