John woke up to some voices above him and several sets of footsteps.
Shoot, this world doesn't have alarm clocks. Sleeping in is gonna be a problem.
He picked up the torches and swapped the [Blazing Iron Shield] for the [Pumpkin Pie Shield] to continue mastering the food saturation bonuses.
I should probably go collect some more exp till I unlock the obsidian shield.
He waited until the voices disappeared and built his way out. There was nobody around as far as he could see except for slimes who started to swarm around him, so he started walking towards the direction of the village Myne told him about two days ago.
Myne.
"Damn it!" John yelled, slamming his shield into the nearest slime.
Just thinking about that traitor is pissing me off! Why the hell did I trust her? Why the hell did I fall for those nice words! If only I… oh who am I kidding, what the hell could I have done? Even if I had future vision or something, it wouldn't do me any good. I can only focus on growing stronger now, and not on anything else.
John continued to kill the slimes in his path as he made his way through the forest, mastering shield after shield. However, even when it was getting dark, the village was nowhere in sight. It was pretty clear to him that he was completely lost.
"I should have taken that map from her. Why didn't I take the map? Now I'm stuck in a forest and monsters are gonna spawn soon. Dang it!"
John equipped the [Small Spiky Iron Shield], jumped up and slammed his shield onto the nearest slime. But to his surprise, the medium sized slime died in one hit, despite him not touching it before, while some small star shaped particles jumped out of its body.
He looked around until he found another medium sized slime and repeated the process. Just like the last slime, it died in one hit, despite having 4 hp and John only having 3 attacks.
"Oh my god, critical hits are a thing! I completely forgot!"
A ping came from his status and a small exclamation mark appeared on the icon. John opened up the help manual and found a new section on the screen.
Performing a critical strike will deal 50% extra damage
…..
SH*T! There are critical hits! That means that anyone can hit 50% harder and penetrate my defenses! There isn't any form of critical defense either so I have to have an abnormally high defense rating in order to defend myself from people! I mean, I guess I can also hit for 4 damage instead of 3 when I crit with the spiky shield, so that's something.
John looked at the shield he just equipped and raised an eyebrow when he read the Equip Effect it provided.
I didn't even test it until now. How do I use this?
He raised his shield towards the slimes in front of him and pressed on the shield.
Nothing happened.
"Ok, how do I use you? Help me out here, Shield," John said out loud, hitting one of the slimes.
"Ok, how the hell do I use [Shield Bash] wi-AHHH!" without warning, his body was flung forwards and he knocked down several slimes in his path. The small ones died upon impact, while the bigger ones were flung backwards. Though to John's surprise, the slimes didn't jump towards him right away. Instead they wiggled in place for a few seconds before turning towards him.
John looked around in his menu while the slimes continued to jump on him. Soon enough he found the [Skills] section.
[Shield Bash]
0 Damage + Stun 5s
(Cooldown: 10 Seconds)
(Cost: 1 SP)
Weird. Why does it say 0 damage when I know I killed several slimes with it? I guess skills also take base stats into account? Also the stun effect seems very useful. Wait, what's SP again?
John looked around until he found the two small bars next to his HP bar. Instead of the hunger bar, there was a small blue and a light blue bar. The blue one read 10/10, while the light blue one read 9/10. Though after a few more seconds it returned to 10/10.
"Ah, right. I was wondering what SP was used for. Well, this skill has a very short cooldown period and cost, might as well abuse the hell out of it. And if I master it, I'll be able to bash someone with any shield! Time to spam this for faster exp gain. Ah dang, I should have tested this earlier today! I missed out on a whole day. Well, at least this shield will only take…. oh dang, I didn't even master it half way on the first day. Though it's close. I guess I got like 11 to 12 hours left? Eh, I'll leave it on as I sleep. Should be ready in the morning," John muttered to himself as he looked at the shield tree and the shields he mastered today.
[Pumpkin Pie Shield]
Abilities Mastered: Food Saturation Up 6%
Defense: 1
[Cake Shield]
Abilities Mastered: Food Saturation Up 10%
Defense: 2
[Apple Shield]
Abilities Mastered: Food Saturation Up 3%
Defense: 1
[Watermelon Shield]
Abilities Mastered: Food Saturation Up 3%
Defense: 1
[Baked Potato Shield]
Abilities Mastered: Food Saturation Up 3%
Defense: 1
[Cooked Salmon Shield]
Abilities Mastered: Swim Speed Up 1
Defense: 1
[Carrot Shield]
Abilities Mastered: Crop Growth Up 5%
Defense: 1
[Cooked Cod Shield]
Abilities Mastered: Swim Speed Up 1
Defense: 1
Not bad. Not bad at all. But anyhow, I should dig myself another hole for today, and try to find the exit out of this damn forest tomorrow. And what the hell should I do with these stacks of slimeballs? I know Myne said they are sellable, but I probably won't be able to sell them in the capital.
John looked around for a moment and then shifted his gaze to the shield on his arm. He brought the slimeball closer and watched as it disappeared.
Is there a limit to how much you can absorb?
John pulled all of his slimeballs from his inventory and threw them all into the shield.
Apparently not. At least I got an infinite trash can if I need to get rid of something.
He started to dig a staircase down using the [Wooden Shovel Shield] and [Wooden Pickaxe Shield], but instead of hitting stone, he hit diorite. He continued digging down through it until he hit a small patch of copper ore.
Wow, my luck is great! Come to think of it, I should make myself stone tools as well.
John pulled out the [Crafting Table Shield] and made himself a full set of cobblestone tools, which he quickly absorbed for new shields.
[Stone Hoe Shield]
Abilities Unmastered:
Equip Effect: Crop Growth Speed Up 7%
Special Effect: [Stone Hoe]
Defense: 8
[Stone Axe Shield]
Abilities Unmastered:
Equip Effect: Wood Chopping Speed Up 7%
Special Effect: [Stone Axe]
Defense: 8
[Stone Pickaxe Shield]
Abilities Unmastered:
Equip Effect: Mining Speed Up 7%
Special Effect: [Stone Pickaxe]
Defense: 8
[Stone Shovel Shield]
Abilities Unmastered:
Equip Effect: Shoveling Speed Up 7%
Special Effect: [Stone Shovel]
Defense: 8
[Stone Sword Shield]
Abilities Unmastered:
Equip Effect: (2 Slash Resistance)
Special Effect: (5 Slash Resistance)
Defense: 8
"Wow…. These have the exact same defense as the previous set. I mean, both planks and stones have the same hardness, so I guess that makes sense? Well, I'm not gonna complain, better tools for me. Now for these new materials."
[Diorite Shield]
Abilities Unmastered:
Equip Effect: (1 Defense)
Defense: 6
John mined up some more diorite until he had enough to craft everything he could.
[Polished Diorite Shield]
Abilities Unmastered:
Equip Effect: (1 Defense)
Defense: 6
[Diorite Slab Shield]
Abilities Unmastered:
Equip Effect: (1 Defense)
Defense: 6
[Polished Diorite Slab Shield]
Abilities Unmastered:
Equip Effect: (1 Defense)
Defense: 6
[Diorite Stairs Shield]
Abilities Unmastered:
Equip Effect: (1 Defense)
Defense: 6
[Polished Diorite Stairs Shield]
Abilities Unmastered:
Equip Effect: (1 Defense)
Defense: 6
[Diorite Wall Shield]
Abilities Unmastered:
Equip Effect: (1 Defense)
Defense: 6
John crafted a few more blocks of polished Diorite to see if there was a polished version of the diorite wall, only to be dissapointed at its absence.
Well that's disappointing. Still find it weird that pretty much every item can be a shield, but at least I can now get 4 defense points a day for almost two days. Am I missing something though?
John threw the rest of the diorite things into his shield except for a slab and three blocks or normal diorite, and looked around the hole.
"I'll do copper in a bit, but why do I still feel like I'm missing something? Is it the stonecu- STONE! I forgot the stone stuff! And cobblestone things! Oh my god why am I this slow?! Also, I need a stonecutter asap, so that I can get all of the 30 something different copper things without wasting a bunch of copper. I just need one iron ingot and I'll be golden."
[New Crafting Recipes Unlocked]
Hm? Ah, right. Forgot this was in minecraft.
John opened his inventory and pressed on the small book under the crafting grid. It showed him all the available crafting recipes, both craftable and not craftable currently.
One of the easily accessible ones would be a grindstone and the different oak wood items. Well, I also have the copper stuff. I guess I'll do it tomorrow, and master [Shield Bash] for now.
John equipped the shield and dropped down onto the makeshift dirt bed before quickly falling asleep.
[MEANWHILE]
Motoyasu got out of bed and opened his status.
[Spiky Iron Spear]
Abilities Mastered: [Chaos Thrust]
Attack: 11
Defense: 7
"Alright, now I can use [Chaos Thrust] with any spear!" Motoyasu exclaimed as he swapped to the [Copper Spear]. A groan was heard from behind, where Myne layed in bed next to him.
Motoyasu put on his clothes and armor, quietly sneaked out of the room of the inn and walked downstairs.
Ren and Itsuki were already down there, looking at a few papers pinned. Their parties were both at different tables, talking amongst each other. Motoyasu walked past them and went to greet the heroes.
"Hey guys, what are we looking at?" he asked, looking at the papers. They were all written in a language he couldn't understand, and sadly his spear only translated verbal speech.
"Quests. The money the king gave us isn't going to last forever, so Ren and I thought we should take on some quests. But…."
"We can't read. Also none of these quests pay well," Ren finished, pointing to the board and the numbers under them. Motoyasu assumed that it was the reward as the coins were drawn next to them. The one Ren pointed to had 1 silver and 75 copper coins on it. Motoyasu looked at the rest of them and noticed that none had a gold coin, and barely any had over 50 silver on them.
"Do you require any help?" a woman asked, walking up to them. Motoyasu turned around and smiled. But before Motoyasu could start flirting with ther, Itsuki pointed to one of the papers with the highest reward.
"Could you tell us what this quest is?" he asked. The woman looked at the picture and turned to Itsuki.
"A new mine was found recently, but after the first wave monster spawn rates have spiked, making cave exploration extremely difficult. So there are quite a few escort quests popping up here and there. That one is for the extermination of the Warden in a deepslate cave at Lute village."
"I see. Is there any quest for slaying a high difficulty monster?" Ren asked, taking another look at the board.
"Hm… well other than the usual Overworld mobs, you can try your luck by going to the Nether fortress and fighting wither skeletons. Their skulls sell for a lot since the spawn rate is extremely low, even with a looting three sword. But the constant wither effect they place is extremely dangerous, and they usually spawn in packs. And gathering shulker shells will also yield a high reward since finding ender cities is hard and you have to walk over the void. However there are no quests for those types of things."
"What do the skulls sell for?" Isuki chimed in while Motoyasu took a step to the side, shifting uncomfortably.
"Last I saw… 1 gold a skull?"
One gold for some skull?
"And the shells can sell for up to 25 silver each."
"What is the fastest way to get to the Nether fortress?" Ren continued.
"You can go through the portal next to the church. The toll to get inside is quite expensive, but since you guys are heroes, you would get in for free. B-but I wouldn't recommend going there with the armor you currently have! The nether is quite dangerous, even for well equipped adventurers!" she quickly warned them before Ren tried to walk off. "The air temperature can burn your lungs and dry you out in minutes without fire resistance gear. Plus the wither skeletons give the wither effect, so you would need potions to heal the effects and accessories for wither resistance!"
Motoyasu smiled and walked forward.
"Thank you for your concern, but I assure you, we will be fine. We're heroes after all," he said, raising his spear and changing its form.
"I… suppose you're right. Good luck heroes," she replied and walked off. The second she was out of earshot, Motoyasu turned to Ren and Itsuki.
"So… does anyone know what 'wither effect' is?" he asked. Itsuki shrugged and Ren sighed.
"Another thing we don't know," he said, shaking his head. "I guess for now we should get Fire Resistance Armor, level up to level 40, and then figure out how to hunt some skulls," Ren said, opening his status.
"Agreed. But we should probably go to different fortresses to avoid losing exp," Itsuki replied.
"Is exp really that big of a problem? I mean, it doesn't seem like getting it is too hard. And we would probably grind monsters for materials faster together," Motoyasu asked, looking at his spear. "Are we even sure that we can't get exp together?"
"Come to think of it, I don't think we ever checked. Wanna test it out later?" Itsuki asked, turning to Ren.
"Sure," Ren nodded.
"Hey, what about me?" Motoyasu asked them.
"We'll tell you the result later," Isuki replied.
"Alright. Well then, good luck. I'll see you later today!" Motoyasu said, walking off to buy some breakfast. He quickly purchased a piece of beef and gobbled it up on his way upstairs.
Motoyasu carefully opened the door and tiptoed inside. He picked up the map Myne gave him and took a look at it again. It was a pixelated piece of paper and it showed everything just outside the capitals front gate. Directly in front is the slime area, then came a huge forest and just beyond that was a village.
But no matter how much Motoyasu looked at the map, the layout in Emerald Online and this world's layout barely matched. The villages were in somewhat similar places, but the forest was completely empty from monsters other than slimes, and mines were all over the place. But what surprised him the most was when a tree disappeared pixel by pixel right before his eyes. He pointed this out to Myne, who replied that maps update themselves in real time and always had.
Motoyasu looked at the map one more time, trying to spot anything familiar, but eventually sighed and put it away into the bag.
"Sir Motoyasu, is everything alright?" Myne asked, getting out of bed.
"Of course it is. Morning Myne," he replied with a smile. "I was just talking to the other heroes about the quests downstairs."
"Was there any particular quest that caught your eye?" she asked while putting on her clothes and armor.
"Well… no. I'll continue leveling up till I hit level 40, so that I can take on better quests," he said, raising his spear.
"Good luck, Sir Motoyasu. I'll take Lesty and Elena to the spa while you're busy grinding."
"Alright. And when we're done, I'll get us dinner," Motoyasu smiled.
"Of course. See you then," Myne replied, grabbing her sword. Motoyasu smiled and waved before he walked out the door.
He made his way out of the inn and began walking out of the capital, exchanging greetings with random people that stopped to greet him. With all this it took him half an hour when he finally reached the field in front of the swampy forest. Itsuki and Ren were talking to each other and pointing to the exp orbs on the ground. Itsuki was the first to notice Motoyasu coming towards them.
"Oi, Motoyasu! Over here!" he yelled and waved. Ren just nodded at Motoyasu.
"So… what's the result?" Motoyasu asked, stopping in front of them.
"No go. The exp orbs just disappear when we try to collect them. Watch," Intuski replied and stepped closer to the orbs. They slowly made their way towards him, but when they touched his leg the orbs cracked and faded.
"Huh. So we really can't level together. That's a shame. But I guess we can still fight together or go on adventures together since levels aren't that important or hard to get."
"I guess. Well for now I'll continue grinding levels over there. If any of you have items you don't need, send them my way," Itsuki replied and started walking into the direction he pointed. Motoyasu turned to Ren, only to find him walking in another direction. He sighed and turned to face the slimes.
"[Lightning Spear]!" he yelled, sending a large lightning bolt at the wave of slimes approaching him.
…..
"[Chaos Spear]!"
*ding*
"Phew," Motoyasu opened his status and looked at his level.
[Level 35]
"Nice. Just one more day of grinding to go and I can get started on those quests!" Motoyasu said excitedly. The sun was beginning to set so Motoyasu started heading back, looking out for his fellow heroes. He spotted Itsuki and Ren walking back together and quickly ran up to them.
"Hey guys, wasup?" Motoyasu asked the two. Itsuki seemed a bit confused, and Ren was upset. He was holding a large red and black sword in his hand.
"Nothing good. This is the sword with the Meteorite skill," Ren began.
"You already hit level 40?! Nice! Show the meteorite skill," Motoyasu exclaimed.
"That's the thing. I can't. My SP bar apparently isn't high enough," Ren explained. "[Meteorite Sword]!"
Ren swung his sword in the direction of the forest and the tip glowed for a moment. But just as soon as it came, it faded.
"My current max SP is 10, but the skill requires 20 to be used," Ren explained.
"None of your methods upgrade your stats directly?" Itsuki asked. "I used quite a bit of slimeballs to upgrade the maximum soul. But even then, it'll take me three more days to get to 20."
"I could use large slime souls and hope for the right enchant, but it could take me quite a while since it's random," Motoyasu commented, looking at his spear.
Ren sighed and opened his status.
"No. I can only upgrade stats, and MAYBE get a soul special effect if I get lucky. Well, I guess the stats on this form are good at least," Ren sighed and did a few practice swings. Suddenly he ran forward at incredible speeds and chopped a slime in half.
"Woah! How much speed does that thing give you?" Motoyasu asked.
Ren opened his status and looked at the stats again.
[Glowing Obsidian Sword]
Abilities Unmastered:
Equip Effect: [Meteorite Sword]
Special Effect: (50 Blast Resistance)
Mastery Level: 0
Attack: 150
Defense: 40
Speed: 10
The screen shook for a moment before the level bonus activated.
[Glowing Obsidian Sword]
Abilities Unmastered:
Equip Effect: [Meteorite Sword]
Special Effect: (50 Blast Resistance)
Mastery Level: 0
Attack: 210
Defense: 56
Speed: 14
"Almost triple my base speed. And the attack is way over quadruple what the blazing iron had," Ren replied.
"Wow, I'm only six levels away from the Obsidian Bow. I should get it by tomorrow. Shame we don't have SP to use the skill for now," Itsuki sighed and closed his status.
"Actually, there still could be a way," Motoyasu exclaimed.
"What's that?"
"Accessories!"
""What?""
"He should be right arouuuuuuuund… here!" Motoyasu pointed to one of the stands on the market. Almost all of them were closed, and the few that weren't, were packing up. The stand Motoyasu was pointing at was one of the latter.
"Excuse me sir!" he said, poking the man's shoulder lightly.
"Huh? Oh, Spear Hero! I'm sorry, but I'm already closing up my shop," the man replied. But then he looked at the two heroes behind him.
"Could you stay open for just a few minutes more? My friend here needs something to increase the maximum Soul Storage," Motoyasu explained. The merchant looked at him, then at Ren, and then back at Motoyasu.
"A what now? What is Soul Storage?" he asked.
"You know… maximum amount of Soul Points you can have. Like mana, but soul," Motoyasu tried explaining.
"I… I have no idea what this 'Soul' is. I have accessories that can increase your MP storage, or increase your stats, but I have nothing for whatever you mean by soul," the merchant replied, pointing to the things on display. "Take a look if you want, maybe you'll find what you're looking for."
Motoyasu sighed and looked at Ren.
"Guess you'll just have to do with mastering equipment bonuses," he said, putting his hand on the sword hero's shoulder. Ren sighed and shrugged him off.
"I'll figure it out," he replied as he picked up the accessory. Motoyasu walked up to the stand and picked one up. It was a small silver bracelet and a small dark blue gem in the middle.
[Silver Lapis Bracelet]
Effect: (7 Lightning Attack)
Motoyasu put it back and picked up another one.
[Silver Lapis Bracelet]
Effect: (7 Blast Resistance)
[Copper Redstone Ring]
Effect: (3 Attack)
[Golden Lapis Hairpin]
Effect: (8 Max HP)
He looked over at Ren who was looking over all the accessories, and Itsuki, took a look at one of the accessories that looked like a miniature bow keychain. His eyes sparkled and he beckoned Motoyasu over.
"What's up?"
Itsuki handed him a keychain with a miniature spear on it.
"Copy it," he whispered.
"Thanks," Motoyasu whispered back, while Itsuki picked up a sword keychain and walked over to Ren.
Motoyasu opened his status and looked at the accessory and the new spear.
[Golden Diamond Keychain (Spear)]
Effect: (12 Mana)
[Golden Diamond Accessory Spear]
Abilities Unmastered:
Equip Effect: (2 Accessory Enhance)
Attack: 7
Defense: 5
Motoyasu put the accessory down and walked over to Ren.
"Found anything good?" he asked.
"Sadly not," was all Ren said as he put down the accessory. Itsuki suddenly jerked up and turned towards the merchant.
"Do you have anything for 'wither resistance'?" he asked.
"I'm sorry, I'm all sold out of them. Wither resistance is one of the most wanted accessories, so it sells out quickly. And the enchant itself is hard to come across," the merchant replied, rubbing his neck.
"That's a shame," the bow hero mumbled. Ren sighed and turned around.
"Thank you for your time," Motoyasu replied, following the other heroes. They began making their way to the inn.
"Well, now we know how to get wither resistance. All we need is to find a merchant that sells it and we'll be ready to take on the nether!" Motoyasu said excitedly.
"We shouldn't rush to get in there though. We still aren't completely sure what we're up against," Itsuki warned him.
"Well, that may be true, but whatever it is, we'll face it together, right?"
"Sure," was all that Ren said. Instead he seemed to be more interested in his weapon forms. "Let's call it a day and meet up tomorrow."
"Alright. Are you gonna continue leveling?" Itsuki asked as they approached and walked inside the inn.
Ren nodded and walked off to his party. Itsuki disappeared upstairs and Motoyasu sighed as he walked to his room. Myne and the girls still haven't returned. Motoyasu sighed and tossed his armor to the side as he collapsed onto the bed.
The spear hero opened his status and looked through his spears
I should save all the souls for the status enchant for my [Glowing Obsidian Spear]. If I get a boost to SP I'll be able to use the skill easily.
He sighed, equipped an unmastered spear and drifted off to sleep.