Her blunt words made him chuckle. “…yeah, yeah I do.” He tried to brush his messy hair back.
“Yeah…” Igna sighed. “I get that you don’t visit the city often, or at all, but we need to get you some new clothes.” She pointed at his tattered clothing. “Something with defensive enchantments perhaps?” She suggested.
“Those are expensive, Igna. I don’t have much gold yet. I haven’t been grinding for it at all.”
Igna smirked. “Don’t worry about that!” Her bright, cheerful smile was almost blinding. “My treat!”
Despite Kyle’s best attempts to refuse, he soon found himself being dragged towards Arceum, the city where nearly all players resided in. The trade capital of this world.
“But Igna!” He tried to refuse for the tenth time within the last hour, only for her to shut him up, and point straight ahead as they climbed a hill.
The city of Arceum entered their view as they reached the top of the hill. Surrounded by tall and thick
“Don’t touch it,” Kyle warned Igna as her hand reached for the cursed blade within the wooden box. “It’s apparently cursed, and I don’t know what it does.” The crimson haired woman shot him a quick glance. “Cursed, huh?” She muttered as she pulled her hand back. “Most interesting.” She leaned forward and looked at the weapon carefully. “Are you going to sell it here?” Kyle hesitated. “It’s of no use to me. I can’t risk a curse – what if it kills me?” He shrugged. “You could sell it in the auction and buy something defensive with those funds.” Igna suggested as she reached for the lid and closed the box. “You’ve been levelling since we last met, haven’t you? You’re probably beginning to notice the shortcomings of your class.” Kyle nodded. How couldn’t he notice them? “Lack of mana, lack of healing and sustain, lack of mobility.” He shrugged. “I don’t know how to cover these.” Igna smirked. “Well, what are your strengths?” Kyle pursed hi
Sitting on the soft cushions of the couch on the balcony overlooking the auction hall, Kyle couldn’t help but feel very much out of place. Until now, the most luxury he had anywhere within this game had been his fur covered bed in Cacophus’ cave. “There’s still some time before the first items are shown.” Igna cheerfully said. She fitted right in here. She had immediately gotten a glass of some kind of juice and was drinking it while sitting comfortably. She didn’t out of place at all. Not one bit. “Right,” Kyle muttered. He simply couldn’t relax. “Oh, by the way,” Igna placed her glass of juice on the table beside her. “Kyle, a week from now, the patch I talked about will happen.” The young man flinched. “Oh, right.” He had completely forgotten about that. “Yeah, that’s next week, isn’t it?” Igna nodded. She leaned forward, her intense gaze on him. “I’m worried. What if you don’t survive the maintenance?”
“What?” She smirked as silence covered the auction hall. A second passed, then another, then a third. Eventually, the auctioneer declared her the winner, and soon the man with the moustache, suit and top hat opened the door to bring her the box containing the cursed blade. “It was a pleasure to do business with you, madam.” He said with a bow, then handed Kyle a bag full of gold coins. All two thousand of them. Kyle thanked the man, and as soon as he left, looked at Igna. “You could have just told me you wanted it!” he hissed. “You didn’t have to pay all this money for it.” Igna raised her chin with pride. “You fought tooth and nail for that blade, risking possibly your life. I’m not about to rob you of whatever opportunity you’ve earned.” She then smirked. “Besides, seeing your expression was worth it!” She started giggling after trying to mimic his shock. Kyle let out a sigh. “Well… thanks I guess.” He chuckled softly, but from how nobody even tried
The wealthy side of the city of Arceum was about as breath taking as one would expect. The white marble villas and mansions on either side of the road look almost unreal. Everything was incredibly clean, spotless even. Not a single fallen leaf on the ground, not a single weird or overgrown patch of grass in the lawns. “Is this where the player houses are?” Kyle asked as he looked around. The more he looked, the less real all of this seemed. Being too perfect was a thing, and this place was exactly that. Too perfect. Too clean, too symmetrical, too orderly. Igna nodded. “Most of the wealthy buy these villas. Me and my friend bought one of the smaller mansions at the very end of the street together, it’s mostly pointless to spend too much gold on these places since the housing and land claiming system will soon be put in place.” Kyle fell silent. She was right, it made no sense to spend money on any of these, even if they looked fairly nice. Too nice. He shook
Caille scowled. Igna had just shown her the spoils of the auction, and the eldritch witch had just finished inspecting them. “So, the blade is cursed, and the amulet seems too good to be true?” She asked after a few moments of silence. Kyle nodded and Igna affirmed as well. “It just seems impossible that they would sell something so useful,” She added, pointing at the amulet. “Maybe whoever sold it was a martial class?” Caille suggested as she carefully took the amulet in hand. A small panel popped up. ‘The Spirit-Spring Amulet: Increases the wearer’s maximum mana by threefold, increases the wearer’s mana regeneration by threefold.’ “Ah,” Caille nodded. “Yes, I do agree with you. This does seem too good to be true.” She placed the amulet back on the table and turned her gaze to the cursed blade. “Why don’t we start with this?” She suggested before getting up. “Sure,” Igna muttered, then shot a g
Dinner was delicious. Caille had quickly proven herself to be an amazing cook, though why they ate, or even bothered cooking anything was beyond Kyle. Did normal players also feel hunger? “What do you know about attunement?” Caille’s voice startled him. He shrugged. “Nothing, actually.” He admitted. He had never come across an item that required attunement to be used, nor did Cacophus ever talk about such items. “I see,” The eldritch witch pursed her lips. “Alright, I’ll give a very basic explanation since this is somewhat important.” She leaned back on her chair as she started to explain. “When you attune to an item, you and the item get bound to one another. It’s a magical bond that no outside force can break.” She tapped her finger on the wooden surface of the table rhythmically as she spoke. “The number of attunement slots you have changes from class to class though. To begin with, all characters, regardless of class, gain one new slot every twenty five l
‘Kyle – Lv. 30 Summoner INT 27 | WIS 20 | DEX 10 | STR 10 | CON 20 Mana:270 Available Points: 0 Skill Points: 5 Achievements: Lich Killer, Topple the Mountain Lord, A Summoner's First Steps Player Kills: 16 Glory: 80' Attunement Slots: 1 - The Spirit-Spring Amulet’ Caille inspected the panel carefully. “Excuse me,” She muttered as she glanced at him for a split second, then tabbed over to his spells and skills panel, and inspected that. “I see what you did.” She eventually concluded. “You’re a solo player, so you needed some Constitution as to not get one-shot. You also have a powerful summon, and a raven that can act as a scout. Smart,” She pursed her lips. “You lack healing and pro
Cacophus’ report was surprising extensive. He had an answer to each of Kyle’s questions, and by the time he finished speaking, Kyle felt he already knew everything he needed to know. He almost didn’t feel the need to visit the two groups. But what if there was a quest? That possibility alone prompted him to hop off the bone throne, and head out. “I’ll be back… probably some time tomorrow.” He let the Lich know before he left. Once he was outside, he summoned the Raven first. “Go,” he said with a smile on his lips. “Towards the elves, scout for me.” The large raven cawed, it stretched its wings wide before taking off. Kyle hesitated for a moment before speaking again. “Come forth,” He said softly. “Fallen Knight Aoris.” From the magical mist, the armoured knight appeared. “I see no enemies,” She stated coldly. “And I sense the raven is scouting already. Why have you called for me, Summoner?” Kyle started walking, gesturing her to follow him. “K