*Click*
Clara put the belt around her waist and it started to hum.
"If you turn it off, it will activate its main feature to save you if you fall from a high place," Holl explained.
"Wait… it works when I turn it off?"
"Yeah. It works on reverse logic, like the doors of that one pizzeria in a game. Anyways, turn it off and try it out!" he exclaimed as he approached the ship's open door. Hol had already long disappeared, making Ellis groan as he imagined the mess he would have to fix later.
Clara pressed the one button she saw and the humming stopped. Simultaneously a weird lightness spread across her entire body as if she had suddenly lost over half her weight. She made a small jump, but instead of only raising herself a few inches, she flew all the way to the ceiling before slowly moving back down.
"Woah! I feel like I'm an astronaut on the moon!" Clara exclaimed, bouncing up and down.
"Haha. Yeah, I said something like that too when I first got mine. It's mainly to save people from falling to their deaths in case they fall off of an island, but also cause it's fun to hop around like that. I wouldn't recommend using it all the time, as it does cause muscle loss. Additionally, you'll feel your offensive capabilities decrease," Ellis explained as he stepped out of the ship. "Now let's go. We have to get two things from this place before we leave."
"What are they?"
"Well first, armor for you, and 2 weapons I ordered for you beforehand. And the second is Hol, as he probably emptied out a bar or two by now."
Ellis stepped onto the island and Clara crawled down the stairs, holding the railing. In front of her, she saw a sight completely different from what she thought a floating island would be like.
Instead of a beautiful forest and a waterfall flowing down, she was met with a city bustling with life. Numerous tall pipes erected from some of the buildings, smoke pouring out of them. As far as Clara could tell, a wall barely taller than she was surrounded the entire island. Houses were packed inside without leaving a single nook or cranny… that is, aside from a few pathways between them.
"Wow!"
"Yeah, definitely a sight to behold," Ellis smiled. "This island is where pretty much all quality weapons, armor, and machinery comes from. It can be costly, but it's definitely worth the trip. Follow me."
Ellis led them through the crowded streets. He made sure to not go too fast so that Clara wouldn't lose sight of him as they made their way through.
"Nope, nope. Nope. No. No-wait, yes! Here we are!" Ellis muttered and pulled Clara into a building with a large hammer above the door.
Inside, Clara saw a clean tile floor under her and several sets of armors decorating the entrance hallway inside thick glass causes. The hallway led straight to the table where a tall muscular woman sat with her feet raised on the table. Her hair was tied in a messy bun and she wore a loose short top that was the same color as her dark blue shorts.
Man, I wish I had the type of confidence and body to pull off an outfit like that.
She was holding some kind of glowing stone tablet in her arms and tapping away at it. Lights flashed from the tablet and it turned completely red.
"Dang it!" the woman with a thick accent yelled, slamming her fist on the counter and making Clara jump. "That sweaty 'ol drunkard!"
"Hey, Tiffany!" Ellis called out to the woman. "Still getting beat in Bow Art Online?"
"It's Hol again. He keeps attacking my guild! And he just took out one of our gold mines!" she yelled, slamming her hand into her table again, punching a hole in it. Clara took a step back and hid behind Ellis as he approached the woman.
"If you need some help, the Tank guild is always ready to help the Platinum Hammer," Ellis said, pushing some gold towards her. "I'm here for the request I made a week ago."
Tiffany turned off her tablet and walked into the back of the shop.
"She's uh… what was she playing?" Clara asked, pointing to the tablet.
"Oh, it's just a pretty popular game here in this world. The only multiplayer game worth playing. You capture territories, gather resources, make armor, and take over territories. It was developed by the old farming hero, but the guy supposedly sucked at the game himself. Hol on the other hand rose up the ranks so much, and now he just rampages through the server whenever."
"How are the rankings counted?"
"There are several. The amount of gold you have, the area you own, and the power of your army. There are several large guilds that own massive chunks of land on the universal server, but Hol alone owns almost a fifth of the map."
"Wow. That sounds fun."
"You can join the Tank guild. I'd like to say I own it, but realistically I'm just the face of the guild. We are ranked pretty high though," he replied. A sound of a piece of metal dropped onto the table as Tiffany returned.
"Sorry, but ya own order is still in the works," Tiffany replied and handed two knives to Ellis.
"Thank you. Man, you went all out with these this time," he said, looking over the refined blades.
"Ya welcome. And ya better bring the cooking hero with ya next time, I wanna see some floating knives and cool skills," the blacksmith replied with a smile. Ellis paused and looked at Clara.
"Um… hi," Clara mumbled, raising her knife. The blacksmith looked in confusion for a moment while Ellis handed her the knives and pushed the piece of ore into her gem.
"I uh… sorry," Tiffany mumbled, turning away, embarrassed.
"It's ok. Everyone has said something like this ever since I came here," Clara sighed, looking into her status.
[Unobtanium Knife requirements not met]
[Refined Unobtanium Knife requirements not met]
[Gravity Knife requirements not met]
"Aw, I can't use these yet," Clara whined, looking sadly at her status.
"What? Why? I spent like 4 days working on those two!" Tiffany exclaimed, looking at Clara in confusion.
"Oh, no no no! I can use them, I just need a way higher level than I do right now. I need to be level 50 for the first one," Clara explained, pointing to the gem.
"Aw, I was looking forward to seeing cool floating knives," Tiffany complained, grabbing the knives out of Clara's hand. "Anyhow, what else can I do for ya? Armor I presume?"
"Just a beginner set for now. We'll come back when we get more levels," Ellis replied, pointing to some chainmail on the display case.
"Sure, let me get ya measurements, and I'll refit it for ya."
Ellis handed Tiffany a piece of paper and she went to get armor, while Ellis pulled out a small tablet and tapped away in the corner, leaving Clara to awkwardly stand on her own. Thankfully, there were no other customers at this time, which was surprising considering the hundreds of people outside.
"Alright, how does this look?" Tiffany asked, dropping a set of chain mail onto the table. It was just a simple set of chainmail without any color. A small round circle with a weird scribble sat at the bottom, which Clara guessed was the signature.
"It looks fine to me. Right?" she asked, turning to Ellis. The hero glanced over the armor and nodded.
"Should do fine for now. We can get you custom stuff later when we get some cool monster materials. How long will it take to resize?"
"To this small size? About a half hour. I can ping ya after I finish, how about that?"
"Seems fine. Let's go, Clara, we should pick up Hol before he causes trouble. Also, here is a party invite," he said, leading Clara out of the store.
Clara accepted the invite, leaving the chef's party and joining the new party. His name appeared with the jar symbol and a level next to it.
[Ellis - Level ?]
"What? How high is your level?!" she asked. She tried to look at the stats, but everything was grayed out or full of question marks.
"Can't you see-oh right! You can't see my level if it's lower than half. I'm a little over 100. Hol is even higher, but he has been around here for a while," Ellis explained, leading Clara through the busy streets. Finally, they made it to a road that was a bit more spacious and Clara got to look around.
Several food stalls were placed all around, and larger shops that sold anything from magic crystals, medicine, and herbs, to magic crystal balls and tablets.
"This place sells everything!" Clara marveled over the different clothes and accessories on display.
"Well, not everything. You should see the central marketplace on Ground Floor. Now that's where everything is sold," Ellis corrected. "Every merchant stops by there at least once a year to sell their products.
"What's sold there?"
"Anything. Armor? Check. Accessories? Check. Custom cakes? Check. Giant tv's? Check. I think they even sell the magic crystal tables for gamers to play Bow Art Online. Oh! We're here!" Ellis suddenly stopped right before a building with a wine glass above the door.
"Is that the bar?" Clara asked, trying to move out of the way of the people passing by.
"Yeah, wait here, I'll be in and out quick," Ellis said, equipping a large ominous-looking jar with blood-red fangs poking out of a black cylinder. He opened up the door and disappeared into the building. A few moments of silence followed, before Hol was blasted out of the door, on fire, and with a burning bottle in hand.
"Eyo! You're burning my damn vodka!" he yelled, spit flying out of his face. Raised his hoe and tried to call out a skill, but Ellis was just a bit faster.
"Erst Contain! Change Container!"
A large jar appeared around Hol's hand, trapping his weapon, and then changed into a jar made of mirrors.
"Whirlwind Strike!" Hol responded, slamming the container onto the ground. However, instead of just shattering, a burst of air slammed into his torso and launched him over the gathered crowd. He slammed into one of the food stalls, spraying food everywhere.
"MY CABBAGES!" the owner screamed in horror, looking at Hol.
"Sorry! Excuse me!" Ellis apologized, running up to the man. He handed the owner a bag of coins and picked Hol up.
"Let… go!" Hol grumbled, half continuous.
"Clara, follow me!" Ellis yelled, walking back to the blacksmith shop. Clara squeezed through the crowd, trying to catch up to Ellis and the protesting Hol.
==}—
"So, how is it? Is it too tight anywhere? It's better to say it now before it becomes a problem later."
"It's perfect," Clara replied, moving around in the chainmail. It wasn't loud as Clara expected, and a lot lighter too. She hopped in place to make sure the armor was properly equipped and smiled.
"Ok, then we're ready to start," Ellis replied, raising his jar.
"Nuuuuuuuuu! I wan go bak to ber!" Hol protested, spilling his bottle everywhere, but Ellis ignored him.
"Brace yourself, Clara. Portal Container!"
"Brace for wha-AAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!"
Clara shrieked as a binding light surrounded her and the ground disappeared. She flailed her arms around, trying to grab onto anything to stall her fall. However, the sensation was over before it started, and Clara fell face first onto a soft ground. Blades of grass tickled her face as she gasped for air.
"WHAT WAS THAT?!" she screamed, looking around wildly.
"That was a portal skill. I threw one of my jars down onto the main land right next to a large village so that we can start grinding as soon as we can."
"Why couldn't we land here on the ship?" Clara whined, brushing the dirt off of her chainmail.
"It would take too long. Plus, you should get used to teleporting now, since you'll use it a lot more later. Oh, right! Remind me to get you some sand later."
"Sand?"
"It'll make sense later. Oh, look! Here come some slimes!"
Ellis pointed to the forest and Clara saw a blob of blue goo slowly roll towards her.
"Wait wait wait! What is that?! Ellis!" Clara yelled, backing away from the rolling blob. It turned towards Ellis, but he equipped a glass jar and it switched back to Clara.
"Ellis! What do I do Ellis!" Clara yelled, walking away from the monster. It started rolling faster so Clara began to run in the other direction with all her might. The blob sped up again and was slowly catching up to the hero despite her best efforts.
"ELLIIIIIS!" she yelled. The slime behind her jumped in the air and was about to land on Clara. She shut her eyes and began to swing her knife around wildly as she screamed her head off.
*Splat*
One of the attacks finally landed and the slime broke into two smaller slimes. Clara continued to attack wildly with her eyes closed until her attacks finally landed until her status gave her notifications.
[+1 EXP]
[+1 EXP]
"Huff, huff, huff. Did I get them?!"
Clara panted and looked at the small blobs of goo on the ground.
"Nice. Though I'd recommend keeping your eyes open next time, and also aim," Ellis commented, picking up a piece of goo. "Now absorb it into your weapon and see what you get."
Clara kneeled down and pushed a piece of slime into the gem of her knife and saw a new icon pop up.
Blue Slime Knife
abilities locked equip bonus: +2 attack
mastery level: 0
Sha swapped to the weapon and grimaced. The knife was shaped exactly like her normal knife, except it was a semi transparent blue knife.
"Ew! It's wet and slimy!" Clara complained, holding the knife away from her face with the tips of her fingers.
"True, but it's an extra two stats. Plus, it'll master in a few hours or less since it's a pretty basic form. Oh, I think more are coming."
Clara looked in horror as a bunch of blue blobs began to roll from between the trees. From where Clara was standing, it looked like a small river was slowly moving towards her.
"Ellis, I don't think I can deal with all that," she shuttered, pointing to the approaching river of slime. But the man took a step back and smiled.
"It's only a couple of slimes. You'll be fine. We'll help out if it gets too bad, right, Hol?"
Ellis turned to his friend and frowned. Hol was sleeping on a nearby rock with several slimes attached to his body, trying to dissolve him. But all that did was make a noise similar to flesh sprite being poured into a glass, mixed with a soft clanging noise.
"Ok, I'll help you if things… Clara?" Ellis turned around, but the young hero was already gone.
"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!"
A scream was heard from behind him and he turned to see Clara running away from a tsunami of slimes.
This is gonna be a long day.
==}—
"Phew," Clara let out a sigh of relief and dropped to the floor. Blobs of slime were covering her hair and clothes, but the armor seemed to stay completely clean, with all the dirt and slime sliding off.
"Level 5. Well, not bad for a first day of grinding. The amount of slimes out today was way over the norm," Ellis congratulated her, mumbling the last part.
"This… this was above the normal amount? And you did nothing to help?!" she yelled, stomping on another rogue slime.
"And you handled it! Rule number 2, be prepared to adapt to anything," he replied, reaching into the pocket of his shorts, pulling out a small crystal tablet. He then looked at the sky and back at Clara.
"Ok, we have about an hour to burn before we gotta head to the first hourglass. Then we will fly to Boomerang Island, and then tp to the first hourglass. Then register you and get ready. And then test the methods for you, and so on. Man, we have a lot that needs to be done later," Ellis mumbled, tapping away at his tablet.
"So what do we do now?"
"Hm. Well, did that slime weapon form master yet?"
"Oh, it did. Finally I can swap out now," Clara replied, changing her knife back to its basic shape. "I also unlocked some of the forms from the kitchen now. Like this basic knife set."
Clara's slimy knife turned into a cleaver and she looked at its status.
Used Cleaver
abilities locked equip bonus: basic food recipe 1
mastery level: 0
The stats were better than her slime knife, but just about the same as the basic knife, despite being larger, however, it was the effect that confused Clara the most.
Weird. What does this mean?
She asked Ellis and he equipped the crystal jar.
"The weapons have an auto craft function in their status. This can be used to automatically craft different things by using some sp and a bit of time. Now the only downside is that you either have to absorb a material that will give you a weapon form with a specific recipe effect, or you must make it yourself first enough times and the weapon will record it."
"Wow. That sounds super convenient. Why not have it auto cook meals or craft weapons all the time then?"
Ellis tapped the gem on his jar and a sandwich suddenly materialized in his hand. He handed it to Clara, who looked at it in confusion.
"I auto crafted that sandwich. Give it a try."
Clara bit into the sandwich and thought for a moment.
"It tastes… normal? It's not bad, but it isn't good either. It's just… is."
"Yep. The result will always be of normal quality. For example if you have a bunch of almost spoiled or rotten ingredients for a soup or salad, you can try to make it yourself, but you will have a salad with rotten ingredients. If you auto craft it, the quality will be raised to normal. But if you have some legendary, god blessed, divine carrot, and you auto craft it into a carrot cake, you will get a normal carrot cake."
"I see. So it does have some limits, but I suppose it can be used to not waste a bunch of ingredients. That doesn't sound too bad," Clara mumbled. They took a quick snack break and Ellis led them deeper into the forest. Clara looked through the knives in her kitchen set.
Most of these are some different recipes. A few ingredient preparation bonuses. A dissection bonus? I'll have to try these out later.
"Ah, there you are," Ellis exclaimed, making Clara look up from her status.
In front of them was a large blob of red slime. It didn't seem to notice them and instead slowly bobbed up and down.
"I think it's asleep. Should we leave?" Clara tried to back away.
"See, if we had years before the end of the world, aka waves, then yes. But we do not."
"I don't think I can take that thing on though!"
"I'll help you."
"By doing what? Attracting it here?!" Clara exclaimed, raising her voice.
"I'll tank some attacks, you hit it with a knife," Ellis explained.
"What if I don't have enough attack?!"
"You'll be fine."
"How would you know? Can you se-?"
*PSHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH*
*CRACK*
Clara looked to her side in horror, seeing the tree she was next to reduced to a half melted stump, covered in red slime which continued to dissolve the wood.
"Oh sh*t! Erst Contain!" Ellis yelled as a best of red slime was flung at Clara. However it was blocked by a purple cylinder that appeared around Clara.
After a few seconds the cylinder disappeared, and Clara saw the red slime launching attacks at Ellis, who either blocked it with his jar, which was now decorated by bright sun patterns, or slapped them away with his free hand. Overtime, she noticed that the jar began to fill up with light.
The slime leaped into the air and attempted to crush Ellis under its weight, but Ellis jumped out of the way and aimed his jar at the beast.
"Solar Blast!"
A bright beam of yellow light erupted from the jar and crashed into the slime. The beam blasted through the blob, turning the slime to ash. The remaining parts of the monster crashed onto the ground and splattered everywhere. Clara ducked behind a tree until the slime wave passed.
[+11 EXP]
"Well, it was a bit stronger than I expected," Ellis mumbled. A large part of the slime started to wiggle around.
"Clara, be careful when absorbing it, cause the slime is slightly acidic," Ellis said, stomping on the slime several times until it stopped moving.
"Slightly?!" she exclaimed, pointing to the melted tree. As if to reinforce her point, a nearby tree melted and collapsed.
"You should see the black slimes. Now those are a menace."
"Black slimes?"
"Yeah. So, slimes appear in all colors of the rainbow, with the weakest ones being purple, and the red one being the strongest. But there are also black slime which rest in caves and stick to ceilings. Apparently they are acidic enough to melt through armor if they gang up on someone," he explained. "But the weapon form I got from it gives pretty high acid resistance."
"Got it, stay out of caves," Clara nodded and kneeled down to absorb some of the red slime.
[Requirements for the Red Slime Knife have been met]
Red Slime Knife
abilities locked equip bonus: "Erst Slash"
mastery level: 0
"Huh."
"Whats up?"
"I got a weird bonus with quotes around it."
"Ooh. Does it have Erst at the start?"
"Yeah. Why?"
"Well well well. We are finally moving onto the next part of weapon powers. That is a skill. Remember the containers and blasts I used before?"
"Erst Contain?"
"That's the one. If you call it out, it activates the skill. Technically you can just think the words, but yelling it out is easier."
"So if I just do Erst Slash!" Clara yelled, raising the new knife. A green glow surrounded the tip of her blade as her sp bar dropped by a decent amount, but other than that nothing happened. She frowned and lowered her knife, only for a green slash to jump from her blade and hit a nearby tree.
"Wow. We really hate the trees today, don't we?" Ellis laughed at Clara's reaction, who jumped back in shock.
"What was that?"
"A skill. They take what attack we have, add a stat multiplier and an effect, and then throw it forward. It's also one of the things that we have that normal people don't. That portal thing was also a skill. However, its cooldown is quite a long time. Speaking of portals."
Ellis walked back to the field where Hol was still sleeping.
"OI! WAKE UP!" Ellis yelled, kicking Hol in the leg with all his might. The man leaped up and swung his weapon around a couple of times as he tried to gain his bearings.
"What?! Who?! Where?!" he yelled and kept looking around until his brain fully woke up. He turned to Ellis and groaned. "What do you want?"
"We need a portal to the hourglass. Then I'll return us to the ship after registering," Ellis explained, pointing to Clara.
"Already? Didn't we just arrive?" Hol looked up in confusion. "Oh."
"Yeah, you passed out for the whole grinding experience. Now less talking and more tping," Ellis urged him, clapping his hands together.
"Fine, fine. Give me a moment, " he grumbled. "Portal-"
"Wait, I'm not-!"
"-Farm Tool."
Clara tried to protest, but it was too late. With a flash, the trio was gone.