Grandma's Recipe Book

Alden smiled at the little girl, although his smile was much more mischievous than he wished it to be.

The little girl simply looked up at the bread and asked, "For... for me?"

Her voice was soft, so much so that it could barely be considered audible. Nonetheless, Alden nodded his head, urging her to take it.

After receiving his confirmation, the girl snatched the loaf of bread from Alden's hands and finished eating it in mere seconds.

Then, as if looking for something, Alden's eyes scanned the area, before locking onto the girl's lap. There, he found a small puppy.

"Your puppy seems injured... is there any way I can help?"

Even though NPCs in Realms Online were highly intelligent, even when compared to humans outside the game, this little girl who was homeless at such a young age was simple and naive. She barely questioned Alden as he tried to help.

The girl nodded, and her soft voice echoed, "...Herbs."

At the very same moment the girl responded, a panel appeared in Alden's view.

-[Grandma's Recipe Book]-

Description:

This young lady needs help! Her dog is injured, and only a remedy from her Grandma's own recipe book could help! The thing is, she lacks ingredients, so collect them!

Objective:

(0/15) Collect Sonita Herbs

Reward:

??????

-[Close]-

'Exactly as described by the magician player. This is great. Sonita herbs can be found right outside of Cedar Town, and the only enemy to worry about is the common "Dire Boar" monster.'

In actuality, unless someone was a ranged player or a decently experienced melee player, fighting level 2 monsters as a level 1 player was nearly impossible. "I don't have to worry about that though," Alden thought aloud.

After all, at least right now, he was probably in the top 100 when it came to skill level in the entirety of Realms Online!

Soon after receiving his quest, Alden exited the alley. On his way to the outskirts of Cedar Town, he noticed a long line of players outside of the forge. "They probably want a quest?? It IS the only other relevant place here, besides the mayor's residence."

By now, every player in Cedar Town should have bought their weapons. Just in case, Alden scanned the line for any relevant names.

'No recognizable experts, guess it's none of my business.'

With that thought, Alden continued on his way. Technically, that line of players would receive the quests they wanted, but the quests they would receive wouldn't contribute much to their progression.

-

After arriving in the field outside of Cedar Town, Alden was immediately greeted with the sight of tens of sonita herbs.

They were only distinguishable from the grass around them due to their yellow tips and somewhat thicker blades. In order to retrieve the herbs without damaging them, a player had to scoop up the earth beneath them as well.

"Good time as any to get some foraging proficiency."

Besides the 9 basic classes, there were also "professions." These were side jobs that any player could acquire with practice. They were also the reason creators were deemed useless.

Since anyone could learn alchemy or forging... why even be a creator?

Of course, creators still had an inherent advantage in this area, but at the same time, they lost many of the combat capabilities other classes could wield.

Alden knelt down before the first Sonita Herb he could find, making sure to keep an eye out for any Dire Boars as he did. He scooped up the herb, being careful to not damage the roots as he did.

'Smells of lemon...'

Then, once retrieved, the herbs disappeared from his hand in a blue flash, and a notification appeared in the corner of Alden's eye.

System: "Foraging Proficiency +1! Profession screen unlocked!"

Immediately, Alden opened up the profession screen, and a new panel appeared in front of his eyes.

-[Professions]-

Initiate Forager: 1/100

-[Close]-

Although only a single profession was listed, it was a large boon in Alden's opinion. When a player unlocks a profession, they receive multiple bonuses in that profession's activities. As an initiate forager, there was a 0.2% chance for the herbs he foraged to be upgraded to a higher level!

'Meaning, if I forage 100 of these common Sonita Herbs, there is a 20% chance of one of them becoming uncommon! This would have a great impact on any recovery potions crafted with the herb.'

As Alden continued to forage herbs, he heard a sound in the distance.

"Krek..."

Immediately, Alden's head jolted in the direction of the sound. He recognized the noise, and what he saw affirmed his guess.

"A dire boar... looks like I'll be getting a good amount of experience this time," Alden declared.

[Dire Boar: Lv. 2, Common, HP: 71/71]

The best time for a player to attack a monster was before the monster noticed them. Not only would this have a chance of confusing the monster, but it also increased the chance of that player critically hitting the monster.

So, Alden stayed in his kneeling position, slowly retrieving the battle axe on his waist. The reach for this particular beginner axe was especially small, similar to a tomahawk, but the double-edged blade provided plenty of power.

'If I sneak attack it, this will be quick.'

In fact, Alden would have no issues doing so. After all, he knew the weakness of these boars.

'They live around here because their favorite food is sonita herb! It's the perfect bait.'

Alden quickly retrieved 5 sonita herbs from his inventory and placed them down in front of him. The grass around here was too dangerous to maintain, so it was the perfect height for Alden to hide in.

Next, Alden hid in the tall grass near the herbs he placed down, trying his best not to sneeze as the tall blades grazed his nose. At any moment, the boar would pick up the scent of the herbs.

"Kre- Krek!"

The boar rushed in Alden's direction, ready to eat the 5 herbs. A huge haul, especially compared to the one or two herbs it could find in a day.

As soon as the boar was aligned with Alden's direction of attack, Alden shot up, cocked back his axe, and slammed it onto the boar's back! Even though his axe was met with resistance, Alden was able to leave a deep wound on the monster.

Above the boar's head, a damage number appeared.

-57!

"Nice, a crit!"

The boar squealed, before turning to face Alden. Its health bar appeared after it received damage, and it only had about 1/4 of its health left.

With the sharp horns attached to its front, the boar charged Alden.

"Sorry man, you're good XP!" Alden said as he slammed the axe down on the boar's head.

["Dire Boar" defeated! Level difference of 1 detected, experience multiplied by 1.5! You received 100 experience!]

Alden's experience bar shot up, and his body took on a golden glow as he leveled up. "100? Just enough for a level. That's good."

He wouldn't be surprised if he was the first person in the entirety of Cedar Town to level up. It wasn't as easy as he made it seem. And the gap would only continue to grow.

'In 3 days, players will be level 10. In 2 weeks, players will only be level 15.'

The time it took to gain even a single level 11 years from now would be 6 months! And now that he was level 2, grinding the Dire Boars would become much slower too.

"Still gonna do it though. Killing boars and harvesting herbs... sounds like a fun hour-long grind."

It wasn't like the quest couldn't wait. In fact, he would have to grind for his own herbs after receiving the reward anyway.

Alden quickly allocated the 3 stat points he received from leveling up into strength. 'I only get 50 job experience from each level, I can only get enough for a skill upgrade in 3 more levels...'

For now, he would just have to grind.

Alden rushed back to foraging herbs, gaining 1 foraging proficiency each time he did. Around every 10 herbs he collected, he would catch sight of a dire boar. He even leveled up once during the process, putting 3 more points into strength!

After almost an hour of grinding, it finally happened.

System: "Foraging Proficiency +1! Requirement met, upgrading to Apprentice Forager!"

System: "You are the first Apprentice Forager in the Sorus Empire! Awarding 100 Sonita Herbs, 25 Sun's Tears, and 1 Death Root!"

Alden grinned. Not only was he the first to rank up in the empire, but the rewards were almost excessive! The reward of 100 sonita herbs saved him an entire hour of foraging, the sun's tears were rare herbs, and the death root was an extremely valuable herb for crafting poison!

'This is perfect. I better get going though, after an hour, some players should be level 2. They'll start grinding here.'

However, just as he was about to leave, Alden received a notification.

"You have received a friend request from user 'Death Knot.' Would you like to accept?"

Alden only nodded, smiling at the notification. "Baron finally sent the request!"

This time, he wouldn't take his friendships for granted.