Now you may be wondering how the quest went. Well, it objectively went all right considering I knew nothing about the sword skills, and you cannot log out mid-combat. I was just wildly swinging the sword at the wolf-like creatures. The wolves were not wolves at all, yeah they looked like wolves, but the similarities ended. Their howls could paralyze one in fear. Their saliva was a potent acid that could melt through swords. I had to utilize the skill Aura of the Damned, but I had to gather all the hounds in one place. It was challenging to gather all the aggro and get the beasts to chase me to a nearby cavern. I had seen the cave on my way into the town and figured it would either be an excellent way to complete the quest or to spell my doom. I ran into the cave, not knowing what to expect. Surprisingly it was lit by a luminous moss that grew on the walls. As I went deeper and deeper, the beasts followed. Finally, I hit a dead end. As the beasts were about to leap on me and end my life, I activated the skill. With 10 minutes remaining on the timer, I made the best use of the five seconds of paralyzation of the beasts. Taking the katana and slicing off their heads as quickly as I could. By the time I reached a kill count of twenty, the five seconds had worn off, but the tunnel was providing a funnel effect keeping them from all ganging up on me. Unfortunately, I was starting to tire as my HP and Stamina bar were in the red. I had only hit a kill count of about forty-eight. I sighed in exhaustion. I leaned back on the wall, falling into a hidden nook that was concealed in the shadows. The last two beasts passed by, going down into the dead end. I slowly walked up behind them, doing my best to hide my breathing and footsteps. I rubbed some of the luminous moss on me to cover any scent the beasts could track. With one swift strike, I beheaded both in quick succession. I then heard a ping from the holographic console.

[Wild Beast Roundup Complete]

Rewards:

Sword Skill Swift Strike

50 Beast skins [Value 1,000G]

Objectives 1 & 2 Completed

Reward

Skill Tracking acquired,

Hidden Objective Complete

Funneling Effect

(Use the environment to your advantage)

Reward

Map of the Mysterious Cave

I looked at the rewards, shocked. Was I the first to complete the hidden objective because it didn't seem like anyone had explored the cavern before me. I looked at the map of the cavern, and It was amazing. It appeared that this cavern is full of treasures, but the cave would require you to mine the minerals. I also needed to sell the pelts and repair the sword. The blade had dulled by the time I had finished, and the durability was near gone.

The unfortunate thing was that I had made a promise with the NPC in the village. Creating a contract verbal or not was enforced by the game apparently. As my disguise skill had gained some XP when I was wandering around the village and helping people. It had gained a level allowing me forty-five minutes of use compared to the level one default of thirty minutes. That was the only good news about the level up. As the cooldown timer was in effect when the level up happened I still have about one hour and thirty minutes remaining. Apparently hunting the beasts didn't take a full two hours. I also knew that exploring an unexplored cave with a heavily damaged weapon would be a fatal idea.

With no way to return to the town and no way to sell all the beast skins, I decided it would be best if I tried to level the skill [Swift Strike]. So I started swinging my sword through the air to see if that could help me level up the skill.

Skill Quest Created by Repeated Motion

By repeatedly swinging your sword you have created a skill quest. These quests level up skills and can help create new skills.

Objectives:

Swing your sword [0/50]

Dedication is key [0/500]

Wow you're still going [0/1000]

Hidden Objective [0/?]

Rewards

1, 2, 3 Skill swift strike level up

Hidden Objective [?]

Honestly, this wasn't the worst quest I could have gotten. How long could it possibly take to swing a sword one thousand times? The answer was a long long time apparently. An hour had passed and I had only completed the first objective. I still had thirty minutes until my skill [Disguise Set] would be able to be used again. Perhaps I would need to buy a wooden training sword to use. As it took twenty stamina to swing my regular sword one time my stamina completely regenerated after ten minutes and I could swing another five times. So I accumulated sixty swings by the time the hour was up. Five times per ten minutes was less than ideal as the sword though worn down still took away more stamina than a wooden sword would have.

By the time the final thirty minutes were up I had gotten in fifteen more swings. Bringing my total amount up to seventy-five swings. But during this time an odd notification had popped up in my HUD.

[For training and persevering while swinging your sword you have gained the title novice swordsman. This title has the benefit of reducing stamina consumption to 10 per swing.]

I looked at the notification incredulously. If that was true I could do ten swings every ten minutes. I was so pumped up at the thought that I swung my sword for another hour. Which led me to get another small bit closer to the goal of one-thousand swings.

Yet again I activated [Disguise Set] walking into town under my human disguise. I first stopped at the adventurer's guild where I sold all fifty of the beast pelts. I gained one-thousand gold from that venture. I then walked to the blacksmith shop and called out upon entering

"Good Smith I need your assistance." as I could see the man sitting behind the counter of the shop today.

"What is it that you need there young one?"

"I slew over fifty of the beasts outside of town and my sword needs repairs. I came to honor the agreement."

"Well, I'll be usually the people new to this town disregard their agreements. Sure I will fix your sword but it will take about twenty minutes. Feel free to browse."

"Okay, I will."

Thus I again looked around the blacksmith shop. One thing I learned while fighting the beasts was that I needed some form of light armor. So I went off to look for an affordable set. Wandering around the store I yet again saw various armor and polearms neatly displayed by the wall and swords hanging on racks. Once I had reached the farthest back corner I had found a relatively cheap set of bronze alloy armor. The price was only one hundred gold but I planned to haggle a bit. I carefully carried the bronze chest plate, shin guards, boots, and helmet to the front of the shop placing them on the counter gently as not no put a dent in them. The smith came out from the forge carrying my sword looking as good as new. Now I knew I would have to haggle as repairs are never cheap unless you can provide the materials.

"Okay, so repairs and a bronze armor kit. I believe that will be 150g, dear customer."

"Ah, Mr. Smith the bronze armor just like my sword has no special abilities so I was thinking more like 130g "

"Bah, I lowered the charge for sword repair because you honored your word. However now you are trying to run me out of business by cutting prices!"

"Well, since I am a man of my word. I will come back in 72 hours with some raw ores for you in exchange for giving me the discount. I will even buy a pickaxe at full price. How does that sound?"

"If you come back with raw ores I won't charge you more than 25g for repairs on the sword or armor. I will give you a pickaxe for free if you buy at 150g."

"Mr. Smith you drive a hard bargain but I will do it."

Inside I was smiling gleefully as I had just gotten a great deal. He never specified which sword or armor he would give me the solid price of 25g on so that means it applies to all and any I purchase from him. The system registered it as a verbal contract and will apply penalties to whoever breaks it first. Admitted it only will become an active contract if I fulfill my end of the agreement, but I had that map of the cave and it showed that there were several ore deposits along with many monsters. This would be great.