Chapter12: Gate
Finally waking up on an actual bed seemed surreal to Dom. Though he naturally had one throughout his childhood, having had to sleep on the floor for the last 3 years, had shown his just how helpful a bed can be and allowed him to appreciate the simpler things he had taken for granted.
As he got up, a yawn escaped his mouth but instead of still being sleepy, Dom's face was radiating a satisfied grin. He felt great but what excited him more was the prospect of going to a gate for the first time. He quickly turned on the TV to look for any news about any potential gates nearby and was surprised to see more than 5 in a 3-mile radius from the base.
"They are that frequent huh," Dom mused to himself.
But for him this was even better as he would be able to get stronger quickly without being noticed by the government.
After putting a track suit, Dom made sure to equip his invisible armour and his sword as he quickly left for the nearest gate. Naturally he made sure to use the master key he had to lock all the doors of the hideout as he didn't want anyone to accidentally stumble into the base. After all, he still had to use this place due to not having bought another house yet but that would have to wait till later.
The gate he was planning to go to was roughly only a kilometre or so away and Dom managed to avoid being spotted by anyone by not taking any crowded routes. After only 5 minutes at so, what was present in front of him on a vast field was a circle of red energy that seemed to seep into earth from another dimension.
[You have entered a gate]
[Achievement unlocked: first gate]
[Reward: 1000 Shop Gold]
This might've been a lot for most other players but for Don who was sitting on a whopping 35k gold, 1000 more want enough to pique his interest.
"Let's check the shop, at least, to see if there are any changes from yesterday.
Shop:
Gold: 11000
Skills:
*No skills available for purchase
Miscellaneous:
*Lucky draw:
-> You get a random item
Cost: 500 gold
*Enchantment ring (grade: C):
-> This is a special ring imbued with a random power or attribute.
Cost: 2000 gold
*Health potion (grade: D):
-> Restores 25% health but cannot heal severe injuries or severed limbs.
Cost: 500 gold
*Skeleton Bow (grade: C):
-> Bow made of bones. Increases damage by 5%. 5% chance to cause excessive bleeding onto the target.
Cost: 1000 gold
*Mana potion (grade: D):
-> Restores 25% of the user's mana.
Cost: 500 gold
*Phoenix feather (grade: A):
-> Can be used to construct equipment.
Cost: 10000 gold
"So only the miscellaneous section reset, but the skills didn't."
But just to be prepared Dom though that he might as well buy the items in the shop just to be ready for anything. So, he bought everything except for the skeleton bow as he was not planning to use a bow at all. What he was not so sure about was the Phoenix feather, which was a jaw dropping 10000 gold for something with no clear purpose or instruction on how to use it. Basically no one else would be able to afford this and even if they could, they would be better off using the gold to buy skill that they would definitely need to survive.
Realising this Dom felt the need to buy it as this would be something that almost no one else would be able to get and the fact that it was a grade: A item showed that it is a great item, nonetheless.
"Might as well, and I could always find ways to get more gold later but the system shop was random and the item might not return again," Dom convinced himself.
[Would you like to purchase Phoenix feather, enchantment ring, Health potion and Mana potion for 12000 gold?]
After a second of though Dom finally managed to convince himself and clicked yes.
Inventory:
D-rank sword
A-rank invisible armour
Random S-rank skill ticket
F rank wooden shield
F rank knife
D rank mana potion
D rank health potion
C rank Enchantment ring
A rank Phoenix feather
23000 Gold
Dom, who was now already inside the gate, decided to equip the Enchantment ring which gave the enchantment of increasing attack power by 15%.
For now, there was nothing present in front of him as he was only at the entrance of the gate but Don knew that he would encounter monsters as he delved deeper inside.
The terrain was that of a cave and as far as he could tell, what ever was present inside was much bigger than a human due to the sheer size of the cave as well as the markings engraved onto the wall at a height that no human could hope to reach.
Ghrrrgh!!
Dom was alerted by the sound monstrous growl he heard up ahead and moved forwards with caution. Soon enough he was in a standoff against a monster that was twice as tall as himself. Dom currently had no idea what this thing was, but he could tell that it was very strong and definitely hostile.
The being had a darkish red skin tattered with scars and filled with white tattoos. He was wearing what appeared to be barbarian like armour and held a meter long axe with one hand. This was what humanity later came to know as Orcs
Steeling himself, Dominic grabbed his sword and used his all-elemental magic to imbue the sword with fire as he leaped and slashed at the monster warrior.
The monster was pushed back with ease and a deep red scar appeared all across his abdomen and even one of its arms making it unable to attack. This was way more affective than he had expected it to be, and this could be attributed to his high stats as well as the damage increase from Divinity and the Enchantment ring. All it took was a fire ball to finish the battle as the Orc was no longer able to defend against it due to having sustained immense damage. Also, this was not a fireball of mana, but one that was made of Aether instead and the destruction this brought about was incomprehensible.
[You have slain an Orc (level:30)]
[You have gained 2000 Exp]
[You have levelled up]
"Whaaat? That much Exp from one monster??" Dom could help but let out his evident surprise.
Dom was especially confused about the fact that this monster was level 30 but had died within two attacks.
"Well, this is going to be a breeze," Dom exclaimed in excitement at the thought of being able to use the gates as his Exp farm.