"Hah phew," Apex wiped his forehead he had just killed another group of Trunk-gators while searching in the night. He purposely took longer and travelled around the forest to remember its layout and markdown descent locations for the journal guide he'd been writing.
And as he got up to search he soon arrived at the west end of the forest he could tell because in a mix with the forest were Standing and broken pillars.
"Where the fuck is this place!?" Apex bellowed he had been walking for at least two hours killing Trunk-gators left and right.
He stood in the centre of it all gazing at the uprooted stones and pillars with wild archaic symbols. He didn't remember the lore of this place, 'Something about the dryad I think,' but he didn't care.
'Uh, alright it says there's a cave between a pillar and tree marked in an upside-down v so were,' he paused looking around none of the trees or pillars were leaning together and most on the ground were shattered and broken into pieces.
'I passed the lake to get here so what am I doing wrong,' he paced back and forth looking at the map again he wasn't paying attention and hit a rock slipping and falling.
Thud.
"Ugh fantastic," he got ready to push himself up, 'What the?' he noticed one pillar leaning though it wasn't connected to anything which, 'What if they're not connecting like one in front and the other behind.'
He got up and started walking around every pillar he could, "Haha I found it!" He smiled and dashed into the space between the leaning pillar and tree. Looking around he found a brown spot surrounded by grass.
'This must be it!' he smiled and started digging with a shovel that was part of his farming equipment, 'Is it a ton of gold? A rare Item? Oh, maybe it's a guild token! If so I can sell that for a shit ton of money!'
Clack!
He felt his shovel strike something solid, "Hii!" he couldn't stop his glee as he dug around and dragged the chest into the open field. There was a lock around it, but that was to be expected.
He took out a lock and pick and was ready to open the chest.
Clack, SHUA!
"Yes!" he shouted twice to the skies as a golden light burst out of the chest. It was blinding as the night was disappearing rays of sunlight shot through the forest bathing him and the chest in holy light only for a moment, and it disappeared, he looked inside, "Oh my god..."
He grabbed the chest and lifted it...
Bam!
"WHAT THE FUCK IS THIS!" he threw it into another tree in rage there was no gold or item just the broken ring and another map!
"Aargh!" He fell on his back, "why pixie I thought we were friends," he called her name only the wind whistled in response. She was the Ai and god of the game meaning she oversees and makes all the decisions.
He sighed and got back up to the chest, 'Maybe the ring will be something epic like merlin's ring,' he got back up and walked over.
He picked up the other half of the broken ring and took it out of his inventory.
[The ring of growth has been reunited.]
"Yes obviously," he didn't wait for the option since it was a stupid question.
Shua!
This time he was bathed in a golden light as the two rings joined their crack mending in blue flames, "Holy," he felt the sun's rays gazing on him as if he was about to wield something precious.
[Ring of growth has been recovered]
[Ring of growth (White)]
[Do you want to bind yourself to the Item?]
"The fuck!" he screamed hurling the ring into a tree!
Before slammed against it though it stopped in midair "Eh?" and came back at him!
Bam! -30!
"Gah fucking hell!" he recoiled falling again! 'Ah, my beak or nose whatever something broke!' He writhed there in pain for a good minute before coming back to his senses, he sat properly and calmed himself.
'Alright, maybe I deserved that, what ring is this anyway?' He thought for a moment before accepting this would mean the ring was permanently bonded to him, it couldn't be stolen or lost. This kind of Item is a must for many but at the same time, it meant drawbacks.
[Ring of growth (White)] [0/1000]
[Skill1: Limit break [0 Ap] [duration: 10 min] [Cooldown: 24hrs]
[Skill2: [Locked Tier 1 required to unlock.]]
[Its growth will grow alongside yours one thousand of the same ranked or half of the corresponding above rank Items are needed to increase its power.]
"..."
Apex stood there having repositioned himself he leaned back against a tree in thought, 'This ring...' he closed his eyes and massaged his temples, "I bound myself to something no, breath."
[Limit break] [0 Ap]
[This ring can store excess attribute points to be used in battle temporarily, regular Attribute points are the same, 1 special point can be converted into 2 attribute points to store in the ring. The higher the rank the higher the conversion rate.]
This ring was extremely too good, but it's not the best Item in the game, but it what it could do was what mattered most to him. Two skills the other he had to become tier 1 so basically in three months. Perhaps two if he rushed.
With that beginning skill he could already see himself standing at the end of a lot of battles, 'I have 32 SP points meaning 64 AP for the ring, meaning in any situation I can easily increase my power, arcane or body stat, this skill is insane,' the more he thought about it the more terrified he became.
Not for him for his enemies.
"I don't need SP points other than learning skills from NPCs, the special stats and the tier advancement skill list I don't need to hold onto too much."
The ends of his beak curved into a smile, the issue of upgrading it didn't seem like an issue for him yet.
[22 SP points have been converted into 44 AP points and stored in Ring of growth.]
After that, he equipped the ring and checked the market, "Well damn," everything he put up has been sold out the bidding for the Breaker.
[All products breaker steak have been sold.] [₤48,200 have deposited into your account.]
He whistled seeing the money fill his bank account soon he could move out of his house.
"Alright time to get moving ah," a yawn escaped him as he stood and stretched he spent the next hour travelling back to the city and purchased multiple copies of blank books to write in purchasing a total of 40,000 all this cost him.
One blank empty book cost a little under 850 Bronze, you don't have to do the maths it cost him 34 gold. He was as rich as a Baronet right now without having the title.
...
Whilst in the carriage he soon finished copying his document into the guide books, solo, elite and a hardcore package he also drew in here them maps with decent grinding locations in the Jaws Forrest something he had to find out whilst treasure hunting since he couldn't remember all of it.
"And done," he closed the third book and smiled to himself, everything he wrote he done himself he went to the library to read about customs and locations of places he mentioned and wrote he accepted quests that would result in decent rewards but cancelled immediately.
This was so Pixie the AI and God watching over everything wouldn't get suspicious of him I mean you can't just hop into a game never explored and know everything about it without any leaks or preconceived notions that would set up alarms.
If you're wondering how cooking the epic breaker steak did not set any alarms it was one of the short scenes in the trailer of the game that along with Hints to some upcoming events it was the quest he was doing.
Next, he copied all three journals into the empty ones he bought the first thousand were for free players and solo players the next for Elites wanting to make a name for themselves and the last for hardcore players and guilds.
[Solo Guide] [Price: ₤80] [Quantity: 11,000]
[A guide for those who want to have fun and make light money on the side.]
[Elite Guide] [Price: ₤150] [Quantity: 19,000]
[A guide for those who want to make rankings and have their names known also information on buildings in the city.]
[Hardcore Guide] [Price: ₤300] [Quantity: 10,000]
[For those who want to take the rankings by storm extra information about shops and building guilds and information and building good relations with NPC merchants.]
"Alright," he smiled and put them up on the market why not do so digitally? Well for one he wrote it meaning to copy this one would need to write the entirety of it out and second soon enough others would catch on and other guides would appear in the market as he was first he could set himself as the go-to person for information and data.
With that, he got to the Inn and logged out.
...
Meanwhile, inside the game a group of four players had finally entered the city they weren't the first to recently arrive, this was a familiar group with two fox beast women a female elf and a dragonkin male.
"Wow! Isn't this place amazing!?" Satya exclaimed to her friends who were also taking the city in. The silver fox beast woman Re-bunny was first to speak.
"Calm down we have to first get ourselves acquainted here to how things work," she touched her chin formulating a plan Until her red friend beside her spoke up like the first time staring at the market.
"That might not be a problem have you seen what Apex just put up for sale."
"Eh? That guy we're seriously talking about him so what he was first here and beat a boss solo big woop!"
Arnold the Dragonkin spoke, "She's got a point I'm sure I could solo If I had his avatar," he had green scales with lighter green tattoos all over him.
The orange beast woman scoffed and shared her screen. Soon enough while he slept all his journals were being rapidly sold.
[2nd January 2120 Saturday 9:12 am] "Mn..." Apex groaned in bed. He woke up and tried to push himself out of bed, only to flop. 'I need more power!' he tried again to push himself, but the urge to sleep was stronger! Flop! 'Uh, I can't win!' he struggled once more, with some epic music to fuel him. The song reached its best part. "Ha!" he pushed himself out of bed. He got up, looking back down. 'One minute wouldn't hurt,' [10:03 am] One minute became another until he fell back into sleep, "Yawn... I regret nothing." Moments later he left the shower with his phone in hand, "The hell is with the internet?" He checked YouTube the moment he entered and found a video on him to be on the recommended page. "Who is Apex? Frances hidden expert. Hahaha, I'm not hiding," he laughed changing himself and heading downstairs, on the table he found breakfast already made with a letter for him, "Thanks, dad." He scrolled more and paused
"Oh, he put the guides back up," Blackswan said checking the market like before. "Hold on, Apex!" Arnold called out to the pink man, "yes?" he turned back to the green dragonkin. "Are you going to attempt the Tre-Ent Dungeon?" he asked emphasising the word attempt. "Yes I am, and before you ask I plan on doing it solo," Apex didn't want to share the loots, and he was going to attempt every difficulty and wanted to do it alone. "What that's insane, you're insane! It doesn't work like that, you can't solo everything!" Satya shouted she felt like she just met the most egotistical person in her life thinking he could do anything alone because of some achievement that made him popular. Although some of her hate came from jealousy as she calculated how much he made honestly, and now he had just doubled that. "I beg to differ," Apex shrugged and left, he needed to learn his potion-making skill. ... Apex was sitting in a grey r
[Jaws Forrest]In the centre of said forest surrounded by trees was in itself a larger tree, but this one had a pitch-black opening in front this was the dungeon of the forest, the Tre-Ent Dungeon outside were a gathering of player forming groups to tackle the dungeon, and inside a group of five were hard at work fighting wooden wolves.Pak! -77Re-bunny dashed and stabbed one of the wolves in the side with her knife and kicked it away.Her friend black swan was also fighting against a wolf of her own and in-between as Arnold the green dragonkin holding an Iron shield facing three on his own."Satya!" he shouted to the elf behind him."I know!" she waved her staff and a green light surrounded him. He shouted to the wolves a red aura forced itself on them drawing them to him, and he swung with his sword slashing all three.-76! -76! -87!Eventually, after their hard thought battle, all the wood wolves died.Finally, Satya
"Holy shit!" outside the dungeon in the jaws forest camping beneath a tree was a group of four these were the saviour guild and that shout belonged to Arnold.He out of the three were shocked watching the video of Apex's beat down against the group of 10.Satya the elf glared at him, "Did you have to shout like that?""I'm not apologising to any man seeing a stick shoved up another guy's ass or kicked in the balls can feel his pain, my shout is justified."She crossed her arms mumbling, "I wish you felt that pain," to herself.Besides the two where the red fox woman Blackswan, the silver fox woman Re-Bunny were scrutinising the video ignoring their friend's comments.Blackswan nodded to herself having learned something, "I think we should send this to all our guild members," she said to her friend.Agreed, "The way he fights..." Re-Bunny said."He's got anger issues for one, and two this isn't a game I just realised that from w
They botch clashed shaking the roots beneath them their continuous exchange of blows reverberated in the air! 'Damn! For being made out of wood your seriously tough!' He grunted dodging beneath one of its massive swings slashing upwards! -80! 'Yes!' this wooden yeti has 80 Energy meaning its attack and defence were the same so long as it doesn't have an energy skill, and the ring of growth allowed him to increase his strength boosting his power to equalling the mini-boss. Slash, slash! "Roar!" A green aura pushed Apex back slamming against the moss walls. Crack! -20 Hp Health: 280/300 Mana: 200/200 Energy: 600/650 'That was magic,' He coughed up blood looking up at the Yeti it sunk its fists in the ground growing into vines wooden spikes started shooting up from the ground heading towards him. "Nope," he said flying back to gain distance, but it didn't stop the spikes from rooting, with a second glance he notice
Outside the white pod hummed to life opening Felix waltzed out in a daze, boy was he tired he wasn't sure what time it was.[2nd January 2120 Sunday 01:40]"Oh," he gave and flopped on the bed.'I wonder what dad would say about moving house?' those were his last thought before he fell to sleep.Somehow Felix magically woke up just before his alarm and shut it off."Old habits die hard," he smiled getting up from bed, some light stretches and a warm bath, and he headed down for some breakfast."Dad?"His father sitting with a cup in his hand nodded to greeting back before pointing to the table with a serious look on his face, "son take a seat.""Sure... is everything alright?""I'm asking the questions here, I. Ah got a call from the bank something about freezing your account your statement has increased and when I heard the amount..." he stopped glancing at his son.Felix nodded already knowing where he was going
[Monday 3rd January 8.45 AM]Thirty minutes later Felix stepped out of his shower, "was it the right choice to move to such a big house? I'm not planning on anything big..." he said to himself.On the way back he realised how big his new home was this was demanded a lot of things."If I move again it'll just seem like I'm bad at handling my money, should I put a job application?"He stepped out dressed in some casual clothes and called another taxi to school.Another half-hour and he arrived in front of the building, white prestige high school, he waited by the gates a while."Hey, Felix!" Jack shouted from afar behind him his sister Claire, "Hey guys." he greeted back."So you and Lisa are finally dating~" Jack cooed wrapping an arm over him, "took long enough.""Lisa called me making sure she didn't dream it honestly it was cute," Claire admitted, "congrats you're now a decent person again." she grinned."So we'r
"I have to say I never imagined I'd meet the Apex you became a sensation the moment the game was released," Mr Flank said oozing awe."Well it is the Exon company's last game," Felix shrugged passing the corridors.As he went by each classroom he felt eyes dart towards him, "so how quickly did the word go?"He turned to his teacher the man in question just chuckled and opened the door to the classroom compared to what he was expecting the class was early quiet as everyone was glued to him.'God this is suffocating,' he glued walking to his seat the heads of his classmates following his every move."Scarlet please talk to me," he turned to his new girlfriend something he never thought would happen to beg.Scarlet met his emerald eyes smiling she held up a calculator, it was maths, 52,128,356."... Oh," he muttered, "yeah everyone knows you're rich now," she giggled turning back to class.Before he could say anything a random stu