Chapter 1-35 : Grinding Days (part 1)
Now that I need to make money to pay for my swimsuit and new weapon, I decided to go to the guild and see if there are quests I can complete.
By the way, each town in this game has its own church and adventurer guild, meaning there’s also a guild here in Ijard Town, so I don’t have to go back to Erst Town.
This will be my first time hunting around Ijard Town, so I don’t know what kind of monsters I will fight, but hopefully, I can make money and level up my skills at the same time.
In a virtual game like this, there are normally two types of skills. The first one is called “character skills”, and the other is called “player skills”. Character skills are basically the abilities implemented in the game by the system, simply put, the abilities your character can use in-game, such as【ATK Boost】,【Stealth】,【Storage】, etc., while player skills are your own abilities as a gamer. For example, the way you fight, how fast you can move, how well you handle your weapon, and how quickly you make decisions in a battle.
Improving your player skills is not that simple. You have to keep playing the game until you get used to it. It’s like when you practice doing something in the real world. Practicing playing a guitar, practicing soccer, practicing cooking, or anything else. In this case, you’re practicing playing the game to become a much better player. After all, unlike conventional games where you use a controller to play, a virtual game like this is much more complex.
After walking for about ten minutes from Walter’s shop, I arrived at the guild. The guild building in this town is not so different from the one in Erst Town.
I went in and immediately approached the quest board. Many other players were looking at the board too, searching for quests.
「Hmm… Let’s see…」(Alice)
I’m not familiar with the northern area, so I don’t want to go too far from the town. For starters, I picked some easy quests.
ー Hunt ten Tree Pythons (reward : 2000G)
ー Hunt ten Forest Serpents (reward : 2000G)
ー Hunt one Earth Viper (reward : 1000G)
Erst Town has bears and wolves, Port Town Haven has spiders, and Ijard Town has snakes, huh? I see…
I’ve never fought snake monsters before, but I think I can manage.
I brought the quest forms to the reception for approval and left the guild.
Before I start grinding, perhaps I should check the current level of my skills.
I opened my UI and went to the [Skills] tab.
ーーSKILLSーー
Skill Points : 10
Equipped Skills
【Japanese Sword Mastery】Lv 1
【ATK Boost】Lv 24
【AGI Boost】Lv 29
【DEX Boost】Lv 22
【Perception】Lv 21
【Stealth】Lv 15
【Appraisal】Lv 26
【Storage】Lv 20
【Sever】Lv 13
【Cat’s Eye】Lv10
Special Skills
【Hunter】Lv ー
Inactive Skills
【Sword Mastery】Lv 30
【Gathering】Lv 22
【Swimming】Lv 17
【Nursery Rhyme】Lv 16
【Butcher】Lv 15
【Growth Acceleration】Lv 12
【Compound】Lv 1
【Cooking】Lv 1
Some of my skills have leveled up quite a bit, especially after fighting Levy at the lake and killing many Erst Wolves and Erst Bears afterward.
The skill that has leveled up the most is【AGI Boost】probably because I used it to dodge Levy’s water bullet barrage back then. It’s level 29 now, so I think it will reach the max level, which is 30, and evolve into【AGI Boost+】soon enough.
My【Appraisal】skill has leveled up too. Probably because I tried to appraise Levy when they were still in Leviathan form. It’s just my guess, but perhaps I can level up this skill faster if I appraise strong monsters.
However, there’s one skill that hasn’t leveled up yet. Even though I’ve fought Levy and the monsters in the forest, my【Japanese Sword Mastery】is still level 1. It’s a branch skill I learned after my【Sword Mastery】reached its max level. I wonder if it’s hard to level because it’s a branch skill, but I hope I can level it up at least to level 2 this time.
Before continuing, I think it’s better if I equip the skills I want to level up today. First of all,【AGI Boost】and【Japanese Sword Mastery】are my priorities, and the other skills will be…
Let’s see what else I want to level up… Hmm…
Honestly, I still don’t really understand what【Nursery Rhyme】does, but whenever I use this skill, I feel somewhat energetic. The description of this skill doesn’t explain anything useful, but I think it’s kind of a self-buff skill or something like that. It doesn’t hurt to level it up, I think.
With that in mind, I equipped【Nursery Rhyme】skill and put【Appraisal】on the ‘inactive’ slot in exchange. Also, I kinda want to level up【Cat’s Eye】too so that I can see better at night, so I keep it on the ‘equipped’ slot.
I think I’m all set. If there’s a skill I want to level up, I can always equip it later. Now, it’s time to head to the forest!
ーーーーー
After leaving Ijard Town, I headed to the forest north of the town where I could find my targets.
Before proceeding into the forest, I took out Levy’s Summoning Stone and summoned them.
「Levy, come out. It’s time to work.」(Alice)
「Kyuu~!」(Levy)
Levy appeared with an energetic voice and immediately hopped onto my shoulders.
「Today, we’re going to hunt your friends!」(Alice)
「Kyu?」(Levy)
Levy tilted their head in confusion.
「Well, they’re not exactly your friends. They’re more like your… kin, I guess? I wonder if Leviathan is a type of snake… Well, anyway, we’re going to hunt snake-type monsters.」(Alice)
「Kyu.」(Levy)
Levy nodded as if saying, “I see”. Seems like Levy doesn’t mind killing snakes.
I smiled at Levy and proceeded into the forest.
The trees looked kind of different from the other forests that I’ve visited, probably because the climate is different here in the northern area.
At first glance, the trees didn’t look strange, but then I noticed the bark of the tree a few meters ahead of me starting to move slowly.
No… It’s not the bark itself that is moving. There’s something on the bark.
ーSsssshhhh…
While I was wondering, I heard a snake hissing from the direction of the tree.
That’s right. It wasn’t the tree bark that was moving, but there was a huge snake wrapping its body around the tree trunk.
Its skin was brown and had a pattern that looked a lot like tree bark, so it was hard to notice.
「That’s… A tree python? No, A giant Tree python, to be exact.」(Alice)
As a matter of course, it’s a monster, so it’s a lot bigger than normal tree pythons. I think it’s five times bigger. It’s really huge.
「That’s our first prey for today. Levy, are you ready?」(Alice)
「Kyu!」(Levy)
「Alright, let’s do it!」(Alice)
I drew my wakizashi and dashed forward.
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