As they arrived back at the small harbor the group of six entered into the same room with a good view of the ocean as before and the same man in a suit as before greeted them.
"Here is you reward."
He tossed each of them a bag of 20.000 gold coins and Leon got a [Quest complete] notification.
"I thank the Holy Order for their great work and ask you to excuse me and the adventurer for a short while."
As he said this, the five knights instantly eyed the man suspiciously.
"I should let you know this man is a Holy Knight as well, and if you hurt him you will not be forgiven."
Number 337 was spoke with a soft tone even though it was a completely undisguised threat.
"Please do not worry yourself, I only have some personal business with him."
Number 337 nodded.
"I understand, but if you hurt him remember that the church will deliver swift judgement."
"Yes sir!"
The knights left the room with a short bow at the man and closed the door behind themselves.
"Now then..."
The man gestured at Leon to sit down and Leon followed what he was told to do.
"What do you want me here for, if I may ask?"
The other man was currently in the process of cleaning his round golden-rimmed glasses with a piece of cloth from the table.
"We have a deal for you mister... Leon. Do you happen to know any fellow adventurers on this island?"
Leon definitely didn't, he hadn't seen a single players since he got here, that was a fact. But was this an invitation for him to meet his first other Ayer? To be honest the AI felt so real to him that he hadn't even thought about being lonely, but maybe meeting another player would be nice.
"I do."
He had much to gain and nothing to lose, so why not.
CHARISMA CHECK FAILED
A small window appeared in the top left of his vision and quickly disappeared. he was sure of what this meant, the AI in front of him didn't believe him.
"I see... Well if you have some money we can get you access to them. It's 5000 to buy someone out of captivity, but I'll give you a minor discount so it's 4950 for you. So if you'd like to do so you just need to pay up. I'll also give you a free tip, as courtesy."
Crap, the other man was now asking him for money because he had too low charisma. But, his [Bartering] skill was proving to be useful... for a 50 gold discount.
"Alright."
He placed the money on the table, compelled by the promise of information about other players.
"Fine then, please come with me."
He still has about 30000 Gold, so Leon didn't feel too bad about his choice.
He followed the man through quite a few doors and corridors, and found himself standing among a few different prison cells.
"Over here."
The man gestured towards a cell in the far right corner of the room. The cells were actually particularly well-lit and looked alright to live in. As Leon moves toward the cell, he noticed the name tag and his movements became quicker.
"Are you alive in there?"
The man in a suit knocked against the prison cell bars.
"Yes!"
A particularly enthusiastic voice came from inside the cell and the head of a brown-haired and green-eyed short boy peeked his head out. He was wearing the same clothes as Leon but less tattered.
"OH! You're a player!"
The boy looked no older than 12, he was rather short but he needed to be older than 15 to register and not be around an adult, meaning he was just short and childlike in appearance.
"I've been on this island for a week now! It's sooooo boring, and the guards keep catching me sneaking into the medical bay. Hey, if you break me out of here I'll give you a cool item."
The boy proudly displayed a piece of rope with a rainbow scale tied to it.
First Work [Class-F]
Accesory
- 1 INT
+ 1 STR
Description: Clearly the first work of an inexperienced crafter, shoody craftsmanship and materials that can be found washed up on the beach were used to craft this. There is no apparent meaning to wearing this unless to motivate the young crafter who made it.
"No thanks."
"Ugh..."
The boy turned his head to the ground and then looked up again with renewed confidence.
"I really need to get out of here anyway! If you free move I'll support you as much as I can, and I promise that you want that."
"You think so?"
Leon was interested. Did the boy having something he could want?
"Yes! You see, I have chosen the enchanter, crafter and constructor skills, and I know that I will become the best craftsman ever!"
The boy seemed very excited as he proclaimed his goals.
"What have you made so far?"
"This!"
The boy held out three exact copies of the [First Work] he had made.
"Maybe this is fate, I do need someone to let me out of here so I can work on new things. I'll be your personal craftsman for a while if you do, what do you say?"
"Sure."
Just as Leon said this the man in a suit opened the cell door.
"This man has paid your bail, so you are free to go."
He said and then noted something down on a piece of paper.
"Try not to commit more crimes."
The man in the suit guided them back through the corridors and the other boy followed behind Leon, skipping forward.
"So you're Leon? You should hide your nametag."
Leon turned to the boy, wondering what he was saying. The players level and name were usually displayed above their head in games like these as well as a title. But Leon had noticed he could only see it in Dreamland when he focused on someone. But for the other boy he could also only see his level and title.
Newbie (LV. 10)
"Just go to settings in the menu and turn hide name on. The forums say it's really useful when fighting other players so they don't track you down easily later. Oh, I'm Rehn by the way."
Leon hid his name. He also noticed he had two titles, Rat Slayer and Newbie.
He kept the Newbie title on as he didn't feel like being called Rat Slayer.
The two were given permission to leave and Leon left to the market Square together with Rehn.
"Where are qe going then?"
It was definitely nice to have a player with him, Leon thought so at least. But it was a fact that Rehn was full of energy and bounced around like he had swallowed a liter of sugar. He always needed to have something to do, and talked to just about everyone that passed by.
"First we'll be buying some new armor, then I think we should buy some materials. You only told me three of you skill trees, I need to know the fourth so we can buy good armor for you."
Really, Leon just wanted to be able to see if Rehn was just a full crafter or if he actually had a combat skill. He doubted they would be able to buy any armor with really good state boosts for the money he had.
"Right! I forgot. It's healer."
"Healer, huh?"
This might be for the best. Leon didn't have many combat skills nor did this boy, but a healer and a Holy Knight may be a good combination. Something like a a Tank and a Healer, but then they would also need a DPS. DPS was what the damage dealers were called in MMOs, it was short for Damage Per Second.
But even so, Leon didn't even know if Holy Knight was a DPS, Tank or an all-rounder. But at least he knew what kind of armor Rehn should have.
He guided Rehn to a Gear store next to the General Goods store, giving a quick greeting to the girl at the Monster Part stand on the way there. He had come to her multiple times with a bunch of small creature parts, some more expensive than others.
As Rehn entered the store he started inspecting almost every piece of gear in there without Leon even having time to say anything. Well, he shouldn't worry. Leon also needed to inspect some armors and weapons, to see which was the best for it's prize.
After a while of inspection he finally settled for the set he wanted.
Reinforced Leather Curiass [Class-C]
Chestpiece
+35 DEF
+2 STR
Description: A hardened leather Curiass, useful for protecting against slashing and blunt attacks.
Leather Undershirt [Class-D]
Chestpiece (underpiece)
+5 DEF
+1 AGI
Description: A simple and inefficient undershirt made of leather.
Reinforced Leather Pants [Class-C]
Leggings
+17 DEF
+ 2 STR
Description: A pair of leather pants reinforced and hardened for battle purposes.
Steel Longsword [Class-D]
2-handed
+25 ATK
+2 STR
Description: A regular steel longsword.
It seemed weapons were rated differently from gear. Even though this sword was far better than his old one, it was still only D-class.
This set cost him 8000 Gold, and he hadn't even chosen a set for Rehn yet.
Just as he started thinking about it, Rehn approached him with a bracelet in each hand.
"I want these."
The moment Rehn said this, Leon noticed the price tags on each of the bracelets.
"I'm only paying for one."
He had no intention of spending a lot of money on a player who he didn't even know whether they'd be his companion for long or not. Each bracelet also cost 5000 Gold, which was quite expensive when Leo got 4 items for less than the price of two bracelets.
"Alright. I have 6000 gold myself."
"Good, the I'll pay 4000."
Bracelet Of Average Healing [Class-C]
Accessory
5% Increase to healing skills power.
Description: A regular iron bracelet with healing runes.
Bracelet Of Average Smithing [Class-C]
Accessory
10% Increase to smithing item quality.
Description: A regular copper bracelet with smithing runes.
It was obvious what the boy was going to use these for, and Leon was quite alright with this.
They bought the items and Leon equipped his. The dark brown leather curiass covered his chest while the lighter brown of the undershirt accentuated it in color. Meanwhile his pants were not too tight sitting but neither too lose with their protective kneeguards. His shoes were still the same ragged ones as before and his head was still fully exposed, yet his defense and attack had gone up exponentially.
"Let's go to the jungle for a while."
Leon told Rehn. He was going to hunt something now, hopefully without dying.