Chapter 15: A Warm Goodbye

A few hours later Vikram was now having a hearty meal at old man Krieg's place. His wife, Samantha, to whom he was just introduced today by the old man was quite a jolly person. She looked like a caring old grandma and seeing how she had treated him till now, that really seemed to be the case.

Krieg who was sitting right in front of him said as he chopped on what looked like a finger bone of some creature, "The outside world is quite dangerous young man, and even with your skills it would be quite hard for you to travel so be on your guard always."

"I'll heed your words, old man. It's getting late so I should be going now." Vikram said as finished eating the dessert.

"Alright, just wait here, I got something for you." Old man Krieg said as he went inside what seemed to be the storage room. While he was rummaging through the store room Mrs Samantha smiled happily at Vikram and said "Looks like Krieg values you a lot."

"What do you mean Mrs Samantha?" Vikram asked as he couldn't understand the intentions behind those words.

"You'll know in a while." Mrs Samantha said as the smile on her face widened.

A few minutes later old man Krieg returned from the room, his clothes were now covered in dust but that didn't dampen his happy mood. He cheerfully went towards Vikram and placed the small chest that he was carrying on the table.

Vikram looked at him questioningly but he soon got his questions answered as old man Krieg said while opening the chest.

"I got these pair of gauntlets during one of my last adventures, unfortunately during that time I was already too old and decided to store them instead of using them. These are my gift to you Rossian, make sure to become a great swordsman and come visit me." Old man Krieg said as he patted Vikram's shoulder.

Vikram also smiled at him as he said "Of course old man, you'll be surprised by how quickly I'll achieve this target." It had been years since Vikram received a gift from someone. Even though it was just a game he could feel some attachment to the old man.

Not saying anything much Vikram stepped forward and gave old man Krieg a hug. Vikram felt the creased hands filled with warmth on his back slowly patting him. After a while, Vikram separated trying his best to stop the tears that had collected in his eyes from falling down.

"Look at you ready to cry your eyes out. It's just a small separation. Come on now, try the gauntlets. I want to see how they look on your hands." Old man Krieg said as he picked up the gauntlets from the box and passed it to Vikram trying to cheer him up.

"Alright," Vikram said as he accepted the gauntlets and started wearing them on his hands. The gauntlets had a lustrous black colour on them which made them look very cool.

"They suit you well and match that sword of yours." Old man Krieg said while nodding.

"Thank you for your gift old man, it means a lot to me," Vikram said

"If you're truly thankful then make sure to become a strong swordsman, strong enough that I can be proud of you when you come back here." Old man Krieg said.

"I will," Vikram said as he nodded with surety and got ready to leave.

"You should go now. Time waits for no one. Remember to keep working hard young man" Old man Krieg said as he patted Vikram on his back and sent him on his way.

The first thing Vikram did after leaving old man Krieg's house was to go to the marketplace. He was thinking about how much his fangs might have sold for, there was also a chance that no one would be interested in them so he had his fingers crossed as he entered the building and saw that the things, he had put up for sale had been sold leaving him happy.

He checked for how many coins he received and widened his eyes…

"2 gold coins…." And this was after deducting the convenience fees from the system. Vikram was really not expecting him to earn his first gold so soon! The moment a player's number of coins becomes equal to 1 gold they become eligible for trading their gold with cash and vice versa.

Vikram opened up the exchange rate window and was left awestruck.

1 gold coin was equivalent to 100 bronze coins and 1 bronze coin would be around 1000 Zk in currency so if he were to sell his 1 gold coin now that would give him close to 100,000 Zk. Which was close to his year's wage.

"Since when did making money become so easy?" Vikram said in surprise but what he didn't know was that it was not that making money in Odyssey was easy but the items he got were rare enough for people to pay that much.

Vikram linked his bank account with the game which took a bit of time as he had to fill in the details carefully. After successfully completing the task, he exchanged 50 of his bronze coins for 50,000 Zk to take care of his regular expenses and then logged out of the game.

Vikram checked his bank balance on his mobile phone and couldn't help but grin because unlike the money he got before this was something he had earned himself. It was already late at night by the time he logged out of the game so he decided to call it a day and went to sleep.

The next day after freshening up Vikram didn't enter Odyssey like usual but instead opened up the forum to search about stuff. He had been piling up a lot of doubts for some time now and it's time that he searched for their answers here.