Chapter 17- Another Encounter

In the end, Abel was forced to carry 2 umber wolf pets by hand as his sack was bulging with loot from his hunt. He had successfully skinned 3 out of 5 monsters with the 2 failures giving him some damaged teeth and a bit of meat.

'I need to get a spacial bag, I can't go out for long hunts if don't even have the space for loot.' Abel had a long list of things he needed to buy but the enchanted spacial bag was at the top of this list. He couldn't bear the thought of having to leave some loot behind because he couldn't carry it all. The cheapest enchanted spacial bag would cost around 20 silvers but they had the capacity to easily hold 10 times his current loot without affecting his weight. The most ideal would be to get a spacial accessory such as a ring, belt or necklace but that was far beyond Abel's current financial capability.

As he made his way through the city streets, he formed a long list of skills he needed to learn and things he needed to buy but first and foremost was selling off his loot and buying some bread. He passed by dozens of players trying to sell their wares but he ignored all solicitations, he wanted to offload everything at an NPC store before making his way to the training citadel. He had under an hour till his 9 pm appointment but he wanted to be there a little early.

'Universal Bazaar… here it is' Abel read the sign for the shop and stepped inside.

"Tring Tring"

"Ah, you're back again. Was the knife to your liking sir?" The chime upon entry sounded out and the young NPC clerk looked happily surprised at the guest that came in.

"Yeah it was, it helped ease the skinning process by a lot. This time I'm here to sell instead of buy, you said that you also buy monster parts?" Abel replied to the clerk's question and then asked if what he was told earlier was true.

"Yes of course, we'll buy all monster parts other than the meat. Show me what you've got and I'll appraise it, if its agreeable to you then we can make an exchange" The clerk swiftly replied and made his way from around the counter, he stepped up to a large table in the middle and spread a cloth, gesturing for Abel to put his goods there.

Abel put down the pelts in his arms and then slowly took out all the other parts. He realized he had hunted a surprised number of monsters in the mere 3 and a half hours he was outside. While the majority of the time was spent looking for monsters, skinning them or bypassing other players, he had a decent haul for his first solo hunt.

"Fierce Rabbit pelt x2 but they're both damaged -2 copper coins, Stone-Toothed Rat teeth x2 and 2 others with damage -6 copper coins, Stone-Toothed Rat tail x1 -1 copper coin, undamaged Fierce Rabbit Pelt x 7 – 21 copper coins, Fierce Rabbit claws x3 -6 copper coins, Umber Wolf pelt x4 and 1 more with damage - 26 copper coins, Umber Wolf claws x4 -21 copper coins and Umber Wolf teeth x1 that are damaged -1 copper coins. Alright the total will be 84 copper coins. Is that acceptable?" After a quick scan of the goods, the clerk quickly gave Abel a price for everything.

'Not even a silver and I still have to fix my sword too… hopefully the meat can get me a good price' Abel inwardly grimaced at the difficulty of making money but he knew this was due to the low level of goods he had.

"Sure, that's fine by me. Could you perhaps point out a trustworthy tavern or establishment that would be willing to purchase the meat I currently have?" Abel showed the 3 different types of monster meat he had on him.

"Ah, we can also purchase the stone-toothed rat meat for 12 copper coins. As for your earlier question, you can try out any of the taverns, they should give you the same price for such low-quality meat. They wouldn't bother scamming you over such an amount." The clerk quickly took the rat meat on the table, with a simple refinement they could create a low-level toxin that would sell for 100 times the price, earning him a greater commission.

"96 copper coins, here you go dear customer. Would you like to purchase something while you're here?" The clerk tried to solicit a sale when he noticed Abel eyeing the spacial bags on the shelves, but the young man eventually tore his gaze away and responded with a shake of his head.

After putting the rabbit and wolf meat back into his much lighter sack, he made his way back onto the city streets and started walking to the Artisans' square, the location with the most blacksmiths in the city. He found a random tavern by the name of "The Roaming Chalice" that bought off all the meat for 44 copper coins, bringing his total savings to a total of 15 silver and 30 copper coins since he spent 10 copper coins on 10 loaves of black bread. Thankfully, a player's money could be stored in a traditional inventory without the player having to actually carry around a sack of coins but it was the only thing in-game that could be stored in such a way.

He had heard that some special equipment bound to the player could also be stored in such a way. But other goods such as weapons or monster parts had to be placed in a physical container, whether a traditional bag or a storage spacial treasure.

When players were PK'ed by others, the winner would only be able to take the equipment the dead player was wearing without accessing their storage equipment but the dead would also drop some of their money too, ranging from 10%-50% of their wealth depending on several factors.

Players can also choose to deposit their coins in several banks that operated throughout the world of Faeron but that would incur a certain expense in fee's every month.

'Hmm… I should drop off my sword to get mended and hurry up to the training citadel, it's already 8:35.' Abel looked at the time in his field of view and hurried his pace. He stopped by one of the many smithies still operating and inquired about the cost to fix up his sword. Thankfully, it would only cost 25 copper coins, approximately 5 coppers for every point in durability. He left his sword and told the attendant he'd pass by to pick it up in the morning since he couldn't wait and swiftly made his way back to the central square.

'I should also leave a message for Melly and Frankie telling them to have dinner without me. Open Panel Menu' Abel quickly remembered when he was about to enter the training citadel, he couldn't have them waiting on him when he figured he would be busy learning archery throughout the night. He swiftly appeared in his user home and quickly wrote out a message through his user interface, sending it to both Frankie and Melly and then logged back into Faeron.

After making his way into the training citadel, he actually ran into the 3 girls he had met earlier in the day. He was somewhat surprised at the encounter as he didn't expect them to actually come, they seemed like rich people that would buy their way out of everything so he couldn't imagine them putting up with the training courses provided here.

"Red Sky, what are you doing here?" Sophie also seemed to be a little surprised, evident by the tone of her voice. Her 2 friends looked on in interest as they hadn't expected to see him here either. From what they understood, he had passed his basic weapon course and gotten his sword so there was no need for him to come by the training citadel anymore.

"Ah… I-I'm here to learn something else…" Abel replied truthfully, seeing no point in hiding the reason he was here, but he held back on saying what the other weapon was.

"What… how? They told us we can only learn a single weapon's skill" Aria asked, thinking Abel had held back on the information he had given to them earlier. While her 2 friends also had similar thoughts, they waited to hear his response before jumping to any conclusions.

"Well, if you break a record you can get an extra reward… I didn't mention it earlier because I honestly thought you wouldn't even bother coming here much less break the record. Did you pass the obstacle course already?" Abel didn't mince his words and honestly told them his earlier assumption about them.

What they heard from him was shocking enough. They had struggled for the past few hours to try and pass the obstacle course and knew the record was 15 minutes and 33 seconds. What helped them tremendously was that they hadn't altered their physical parameters except adding some beautifying touches that all girls would choose to do. By the time they finally passed the "fledgling" course, they needed to log out to take care of some affairs in the real world.

As if to further reinforce what he just said, Instructor Cedric showed up behind them, ignoring the girls and looking straight at Abel

"You're a little early kid, but that's a good habit to have when making appointments with others. If you can learn how to use the bow as quickly as you learned the sword then I'll have a nice surprise waiting for you!" The instructor still spoke with his thundering loud voice, startling the 3 girls out of their dazed thoughts.

They turned around and saw an old but strong looking instructor looking appreciatively at Abel, while Abel was happily surprised at the notification that popped up.

*Ding*

Instructor Cedric's favorability towards you has increased.

"I'll simply do my best and hope that it doesn't disappoint you instructor!" Abel replied with a bit more enthusiasm after he saw his favorability increase. While instructor Cedric seemed to be a normal NPC that wouldn't aid him beyond the training citadel, he knew his final reward would depend on his performance and the instructors' favorability.

"That's a good mindset to have lad, now follow me!" Abel quickly followed his instructor and simply nodded in farewell to the group of girls, thankful their earlier questioning came to an end.

While Abel disappeared into the distance, the 3 girls were left dazed at what they'd just witnessed. They couldn't have imagined that the seemingly random, somewhat good-looking guy they came across was actually a beast when it came to the training citadel. They fully understood what it meant to break the obstacle course record since they had just experienced it themselves. While Mia passed it the fastest since she was the most athletic of the 3 in reality, Sophie and Aria quickly followed suit after their friend gave them some advice on certain parts. But it still took them the greater part of the day to actually finish.

"That guy should be quite strong in real life if he finished it in a quarter of an hour, I don't even know how that's possible" Mia spoke out in a stupor.

"Did you girls forget how he made quick work of that Fierce Rabbit, he made it look so easy even though he was 2 levels lower than the monster" Sophie recalled their first meeting and quickly connected the dots, figuring out Abel had to have had some combat training in real life to be so good in game.

"Hey, where do you think his sword went? I didn't see him carrying a spacial bag or accessory but his sword was missing, you think someone stole it?" Aria curiously asked, she hadn't seen any rings or accessories on Abel so a storage treasure was out of the question and seeing as he had to get a sword from the training citadel further reinforced the fact that he didn't have the money to spend on in-game items.

"I doubt someone strong enough to overpower him would want his starter sword, while those that would covet it wouldn't be strong enough to take it by force. I guess he's getting it repaired which means he hunted a lot of monsters after we left him earlier today." Mia guessed what was most probable, also coming to the same conclusion as Sophie, Red Sky was quite skilled in real life.

"I doubt someone so strong will stay unknown for very long, but at least we're 'friends' now" Sophie smiled and felt thankful she had decided to add him as a friend, but she quickly changed the subject remembering what they had to do in the real world, "Come on girls, we should log out and get ready for school. I'm not sure about you but if I'm late, my parents would definitely confiscate my pod."

At the mention of their school, all 3 girls grimaced and ran to the closest inn to log out in succession.