Chapter 5:
'Was it its weak spot?'
The fatal blow that caused the s.h.i.+ny area on the scarecrow seemed like its weak spot. Soo Hyuk swung his sword towards the armpit once again.
Whack!
Was it because the sparkle disappeared? Different than before, there was no fatal blow.
'Does it have to sparkle.'
It doesn't seem like a certain area is the weak spot, but a sparkle needs to appear in order for it to be a weakness.
'Agility.'
Soo Hyuk thought to himself as he continued to swing his sword. In Pangaea, besides it being possible to acquire bonus stats of 5 when leveling up, you can also raise the stats through action or behavior. Just a moment ago, it was clear that agility rose because of the fatal blow.
'It would've been great if stamina went up.'
To Soo Hyuk, agility was not a stat he needed. Agility increases physical defense and fatal blow damage, but because hunting was not his primary goal, to Soo Hyuk, it was a useless stat. If it strengthened the efficiency of satiety and his stamina rose, he would've liked it very much; but because it didn't, he was quite sad.
Whack!
[Training purpose scarecrow has been destroyed.]
It was at that exact moment. A message along with the training purpose scarecrow began to crumble. Soo Hyuk walked away from the demolished scarecrow towards the scarecrow that was next to it and began swinging his sword.
Whack!
[Training purpose scarecrow has been destroyed.]
Shortly after, the second scarecrow was also destroyed. Different than the first scarecrow, the second scarecrow did not have any part of its body sparkle.
After Soo Hyuk destroyed the two scarecrows as a condition to complete the quest, he placed his sword inside his inventory and approached the training instructor. It was for the sake of completing the quest.
"The scarecrows have been destroyed."
[Quest 'Destroy the scarecrow!' has been completed.]
[Reward acquired.]
Once he spoke, the quest was completed at the same time. Soo Hyuk opened his inventory. Quest reward of 2 gold along with an armor newly appeared.
"Good job."
Soo Hyuk, who was looking at the armor, focused his attention towards the training instructor as soon as the instructor spoke and closed his inventory.
"It is now your turn to try basic hunting. Catch 5 rabbits and bring 3 hides. The rabbits are outside the town."
You have learned the basic attack method through the training purpose scarecrow. The training instructor is waiting for you to catch the rabbits and bring its hides. Catch the rabbits and obtain the hides!
[Rabbit: 0/5]
[Rabbit hide: 0/3]
Quest reward: Low-grade leather shoes made from rabbit leather
A scarecrow that didn't move was caught. Now it was time to catch a moving rabbit.
"Okay, I understand."
[Quest 'Rabbit Hunt' was accepted.]
After Soo Hyuk accepted the quest, he said good-bye to the training instructor and came out of the training center. It was because, according to the training instructor, the rabbit was outside of town.
'Why did the gold suddenly disappear?'
Soo Hyuk thought to himself as he began walking outside of town. The reward for the Quest 'Rabbit Hunt' was only shoes. There was no gold.
'Are they not giving gold now?'
By any chance, is gold not going to be provided as a quest reward anymore?
'It can't be like that….'
In order to obtain the library pa.s.s, he needs 50 gold. Also, he'll need a lot of gold for the food he'll need to eat while reading the books.
'Then do I need to earn it by hunting?'
Of course, he didn't need to obtain gold through the quest reward only. He could obtain it through hunting as well.
'Sigh.'
After Soo Hyuk finished his thoughts, he let out a sigh and opened his inventory. It was in order to confirm that the reward acquired from destroying the scarecrow of 'low-grade armor made from rabbit leather' was an option.
Limit: None
Physical defense power: 50
'As expected.'
Soo Hyuk confirmed the option as if he expected it and shook his head. The item ranking was 'common' for the 'low-grade armor made from rabbit leather.' Common was the lowest ranking out of the 6 levels of item ranking.
'However, it'll still be better than not wearing anything.'
Soo Hyuk took out the armor and wore it. Although it wasn't a good item, it was better than not wearing anything. A short while after putting on the armor, Soo Hyuk was able to come out of town.
"Hey, you! I was already hitting that one!"
"Sorry. It came out of nowhere."
There was already a big crowd outside of town. In order to catch the rabbits, many users were roaming around. The problem was that there were more users than rabbits.
'It seems like it's going to take a long time…'
If one rabbit rises, five to six users approach it. In this situation, it will not be easy to catch five rabbits. It was going to take a very long time.
'I should move to somewhere else.'
Soo Hyuk decided to move somewhere else. He thought it would be better to go to a place that was a little further away with less compet.i.tion than to stay in this place where there were lots of compet.i.tion between users. And just as he thought, Soo Hyuk was correct.
The further away from town, the number of users lessened and the number of rabbits increased. And as soon as the number of users was lower than the number of rabbits, Soo Hyuk stopped walking.
In order to fill his satiety, Soo Hyuk finished the hard bread leftover from what he ate while walking before. He then took out his sword.
'That one!'
He went towards the rabbit closest to him and began swinging his sword.
Whack!
As expected, the training purpose sword did not cut. It seemed like the rabbit was. .h.i.t with a club with a dull sound and collapsed to the side.
'This doesn't feel right.'
The graphic being excellent wasn't always a good thing. However, it was just a game. When Soo Hyuk played different virtual reality games in the past, he killed many rabbits. He walked towards the trembling rabbit that was trying to stand up and swung his sword once more.
Whack!
The rabbit collapsed again. And the following attack from Soo Hyuk stopped its movement. At that moment, Soo Hyuk was able to see one window. The window allowed you to check the item that was dropped.
'Oh, hide!'
The dropped item was a rabbit hide needed in order to complete the quest. Soo Hyuk pressed the acquire b.u.t.ton and smiled delightedly as he looked at the rabbit hide that came into his inventory. Soo Hyuk closed his inventory and began walking as he looked for the next rabbit.
And when he caught his fifth rabbit.
[Level up!]
Soo Hyuk was able to level up. First, Soo Hyuk acquired all of the dropped items. He caught five rabbits and earned four rabbit hides.
'How much would 1 hide be?'
Although he completed the quest, there was still 1 hide left. Soo Hyuk antic.i.p.ated how much it would sell for and closed his inventory. He opened the character window.
Level: 2
Experience: 1%
Vitality: 600
Mana: 200
Satiety: 65%
Strength: 10
Agility: 11
Stamina: 10
Wisdom: 10
Bonus Stats: 5
It was to get the bonus stats.
"It would be best to put the stats in stamina?"
The most important stat to Soo Hyuk was stamina. Soo Hyuk thought for a short while, then invested all of the bonus stats into stamina and closed the character window afterwards. And thereafter, in order to go back towards town, he began walking.
"Ah! s.h.i.+t! Stop trying to steal!"
"Liar, I killed it first?"
The town entrance still had lots of users and a small number of rabbits, which caused fights to arise. Soo Hyuk pa.s.sed the users and went inside town, towards the training center.
"I've caught them."
Soo Hyuk arrived at the training center and spoke to the training instructor.
"Where's the rabbit hides?"
The training instructor asked Soo Hyuk.
'Wasn't it an automatic completion?'
Soo Hyuk thought the training instructor's question was a little odd as he opened his inventory. He thought it would be an automatic completion, but he had to take out the hides and give it directly.
"Here you go."
Soo Hyuk took out 3 rabbit hides and handed them to the training instructor. The instructor accepted them and placed them behind.
[Quest 'Rabbit Hunt' has been completed.]
And then a message appeared.
'Why didn't the message to acquire reward appear?'
Different than before, the acquire reward message did not appear. Soo Hyuk saw the message and wondered as he checked his inventory.
Soo Hyuk checked his inventory and became fl.u.s.tered.
'Why isn't it here?'
The reward for the quest 'Rabbit Hunt' was shoes. But there was no difference in the inventory from when the rabbit hides were taken out. Was it because the reward-acquired message did not appear?
It was at that moment.
"It's over here."
The training instructor held out his hands. Soo Hyuk saw the training instructor's hands and was able to see the shoes he was holding in his hands. It was clearly, the quest reward 'low-grade leather shoes made from rabbit hide'.
"I'm sure you must've been fl.u.s.tered. Up till now, acquiring the reward automatically was out of consideration. However, for future applicable quests, you will need to receive the reward directly from the NPC whom gave you the quest."
Soo Hyuk was able to understand why the reward-acquired message did not appear. The automatic acquired rewards up till now were out of consideration for first time players.
"What I'm saying is."
The training instructor was not done speaking.
"It means that the relations.h.i.+p with the applicable NPC is important. Depending on the relations.h.i.+p, the stated reward could be enhanced or weakened."
The quest reward is not fixed. Depending on the relations.h.i.+p with the NPC whom gave you the applicable quest, the reward may differ. It can become even better or it can become worse.
"Thank you for letting me know."
Soo Hyuk replied to the training instructor. Until now, the emotionless training instructor, smiled.
"You understood well."
The training instructor spat out words that were difficult to understand as he withdrew his hands.
'What the?'
After he said thank you, Soo Hyuk tried to obtain the shoes, but became fl.u.s.tered when the training instructor withdrew his hands. Meanwhile, the training instructor held out his hands again.
'Sword?'
There were no shoes in the training instructor's hands. A sword, the training purpose sword could not compare to the sharp sword that was being held.
"Take it."
The training instructor spoke as he saw Soo Hyuk's bedazzled face. Soo Hyuk came back to his senses when the instructor spoke, and received the sword.
[The training instructor's gift: sword has been acquired.]
As soon as the sword was accepted, the message appeared.
'Was it because I said thank you?'
The quest reward was clearly shoes. But, he believed the reward changed because he said thank you.