The First Milestone

"Beta tester? You?" Manco couldn't believe his ears. "No offense, but shouldn't you be more… experienced?"

They were sitting inside the tavern. It was noon, and they were the only customers.

The bartender, Gregg, was idly chatting with one of the barmaids while cleaning the counter. There was a faint smell of cooking wafting out from the kitchen.

"Yeah, you're right," Cordelia said, looking down at the table in embarrassment. "It's like this…"

She briefly explained her situation. The short version of it was that she signed up for the whole beta testing phase, which lasted one year. Because of some family business, however, she missed most of it and only participated in the final month. By that time, her friends had all vastly out-leveled her, and they could barely play together. She wanted to play a healer, but her friends pushed her to play as an archer to fill out their squad.

Mahn Li didn't know what to make of this. In his mind, he had always pictured the Beta Testers as formidable individuals with superior skills and knowledge of the game. This particular person, however, clashed strongly with that belief.

'Is she telling the truth, though?' He thought.

"So now you're back to the village and rejoin them?"

"Probably. I'll just ask for my item back first. If I feel like it, I'll join them."

"What do you mean 'your item'?" His heart skipped a beat.

"That thing they give us at the end of Beta, you know? As a token of thanks for participating. You've got one too, right?"

"I… Of course I do. Yeah." Manco replied. Cordelia had quite reasonably assumed he was a beta tester as well, "Why do you have to get it back? Did you give it away?"

"Yeah, mine was some archer accessory. I didn't like it, and another person in my group got something suitable for the healing class. So we switched items. When the server reset and I recreated my character, the item she gave me was gone! My friends all said they had their item in their inventory after character creation."

As Mahn Li didn't join the beta testing phase, he had to speculate based on Cordelia's words. It seemed the beta testers were rewarded with Beta Gears at the end of the testing phase. At that point they could freely swap with each other. After that, the server is reset and the characters were wiped, but the information on which character had which items were remembered. When the game officially launched, the items were deposited to the newly created characters.

"Did you check it carefully to make sure it was a Beta Gear?"

"Beta Gear?" The girl asked back, puzzled.

'Damn it!' Manco held his tongue. The term 'Beta Gear' would only be coined several months from now.

"I mean, the item awarded for completing Beta Test. Did you notice its effect?"

"I'm not really sure. My item had an orange name, and we had several items with orange names," those were items with the 'unique' rarity level, "So my friend probably made a mistake and gave me a unique item instead of the Beta reward. I contacted her and she said she had two items in her inventory."

"Sure, that's probably it," Manco nodded. A better explanation would be the girl's 'friend' noticed how much of an airhead she was and tricked her. Of course, he kept that to himself.

They were silent for a moment as Manco considered his options while Cordelia fidgeted nervously in her seat.

"What's in it for me?" he asked.

"Uh…" she looked at him and scratched her head.

"…"

"Uh… you're right. I've got nothing to give you. And you've helped me plenty already. Right, I'll find another way!" She said dejectedly and turned back to her mug.

'Hmm, she doesn't have a bad personality.' His evaluation of the girl raised a little more. Despite her inexperience, she had been trying to rely on her own strength instead of using her charm to goad others into doing the dirty work for her.

He did not enjoy getting slowed down to babysit someone, but he might make an exception for her. In fact, even if she didn't ask, he would have traveled to Broken Hill by himself. If there really were beta testers there, things would get interesting.

"Alright, so here's the deal," he said, and she looked at him hopefully. "I need to change my plan a bit, but I'll accompany you."

"Really? Thank you so much!" Cordelia said and smiled brightly. She reached out and touched his arm, but hastily withdrew her hand: "Sorry!"

"It's alright," what a strange girl. "How long do your friends stay there?"

"They told me they would be there for another two days. I'll send them a message to confirm it."

He waited a few moments for her to send the message. Then she furrowed her brows and looked at him.

"Yes. They said they'll leave in two game days."

"That's 24 hours from now," Manco said and checked the timer for the milestone unlock.

> Time remaining: 02:22:31

"What's your schedule?" he asked Cordelia, then hastily added, "I mean when can you play?"

"I can play for about 12 hours a day," she answered. She took out a piece of paper and wrote down her playing time, which was neatly divided into two three-hour sessions and three two-hour sessions scattered throughout the day.

"Wow. You have an actual timetable for this?" Manco asked, impressed. Most new players would just play for as long as they can and only adjusted when the game started interfering with their daily lives.

"Yeah. I've spent a lot of time on it," she answered with a smile.

For the next half hour, they figured out how to travel together during the next day. Cordelia lived in a different time zone, so it took a while to figure out the specifics. Both of them would have to shift their schedules to accommodate each other.

"Alright. So I'll see you here in… three hours. Right?" Cordelia said, inspecting the sheets of paper filled with their respective schedules which have been lined up to have 3-hour gaming sessions together.

"That's correct!" Manco nodded. They bid each other goodbye and logged out.

Two hours later, Mahn Li logged back in. He stopped at all the stores to sell off unnecessary items and top up on his supplies. When he was almost done, a notification popped up.

〔Second form unlocked〕

〔Transform weapon?〕

'Finally!' He grinned.

He rushed back to his room on the tavern's second floor. With bated breath, he took out the gun and laid it on the table, then selected 'Yes.'

All of a sudden, the room around him flickered. It was so brief that he was almost convinced it was just a trick of the eye, but he knew better.

'Might be another glitch,' he thought.

The tiny derringer pistol floated in front of him. Then it started to transform.

It began increasing in size and the barrels lengthened until they were about as long as his hands. Then four more barrels materialized out of thin air and fused with the first two in a hexagonal arrangement. The six barrels form a cylinder that attached itself to the cylindrical frame, which extended gracefully into a curved grip with a large trigger guard. Finally, a big percussion hammer appeared above the barrels.

The transformation was over in mere moments, and Manco caught the new gun when it began to descend. He immediately noticed the new form was quite hefty. The coloration had also changed. Most of it was bronze-colored, except for the grip which was dark brown.

As he held the new gun, another message popped up.

〔This is it, buddy! No more free handouts. You're on your own from now. Good luck!〕

"Thanks," Manco said to no one in particular. He had reached the same milestone as the previous owners did. From now on he was truly in uncharted territory.

〘 The Collector (Second form - Allen)〙★★

> Type: Gun (One-handed)

> Damage: 30-31 (piercing) + projectile damage. Range: 10m + projectile range.

> Ammunition: Magic Crystals. Capacity: 30 (5 per barrel)

> Description: As a great man once said, sometimes the only safe place around is behind this weapon.

> Weight: 1.5 kg

> Durability: 3/3

> Effects - General

- Fragile 〈Details▼〉

- Fickle 〈Details▼〉

- Soul tethered 〈Details▼〉

- More Dakka 〈Details▼〉

> Effects - First form

- Double tap〈Details▼〉

> Effects - Second form

- ??? (Requirement to unlock: ???)

- ??? (Requirement to unlock: ???)

- ??? (Requirement to unlock: ???)

—.—

The damage per shot was increased by 10, but the range had reduced compared to the first form. Most importantly, durability had increased to 3. It wasn't much, but enough to allow him to take more risk.

What made him even more excited was that there were two empty stars next to the name, letting him know this form could be upgraded twice. In addition, the 3 locked effects seemed to promise another milestone, which would lead to even more upgrade slots.

Putting away the gun, Manco went downstairs. He had about one hour to familiarize himself with it before Cordelia showed up.