Origin A.R.S. (16 page)

“That’s definitely a major jump!”

Rhea closed down her map screen then smiled at him. “Yep. You will want to stick to the roads when traveling between towns. It is incredibly easy to wander off and end up in a high level zone.”

Scott took that bit of advice to heart. Something nagged at him a little, though. If she was as old as she claimed, and had traveled so widely, why was her level so low? He could not restrain himself, so he asked her.

“Hmm, oh that? You can’t obtain an adventuring class till you’re an adult...but you knew that, right?”

He started to say something then stopped. He did not want to admit his lack of common knowledge more than he already had, but he also did not want to lie to her. Instead, he changed the subject. “Is there a better hunting zone for us than here?”

Fighting slimes was easy enough, but due to how they had to share experience, and the slime’s low level, it seemed like a good idea to head to a better spot. The slime multiplication trick was neat, but it had taken quite some time to find the first one.

“Um, maybe. If you’re up for fighting opponents that can wield weapons, we can go try our luck at a cave that I have heard about.”

“A cave? Wouldn’t we need lights?”

“I can take care of that. We might want to head back to Victory Station first.”

She pulled up her map screen and pointed to a zone to the west of their current location. “This forest area has a small mine. It used to be used for mining various types of ore, but it is abandoned now. There should be cave bats, possibly a few slimes or cave rats, and a weak goblin tribe there. I’m not sure exactly where it is, though.”

Scott looked at the map then grinned. He pulled up his own map screen and compared the zone to his quest leads and location markers. “Maybe it is the
Red Rock Mine
?”

“You already know about it?” She asked, mildly surprised.

“I spent a lot of time in the library recently learning about the area. I don’t know as much about zones and the like since they were never mentioned in the books. I did learn about a few different areas though.

“A few? You must have fifty places marked on your map!” Her eyes widened significantly.

“What can I say? I wanted to know a few places to go in my travels.”

She noticed something on his map screen then asked, “These glowing spots. Are those quest leads?”

“Ah, yes. They are places that I have heard of that I might be able to complete a few quests.”

“Askrida, that’s a town three zones from here.” He had her curiosity piqued.

“Ah, yes. I was told that Askrida was having a bit of trouble with Corpse Rats.”

“Corpse Rats? Do you intend to go help?”

“I guess. I’m not sure what the trouble is, but if I can help I will. I do want to train more first.”

“I suggest we do. The monsters between here and Askrida can reach up to level six, though locations like that mine might go a few levels higher since people explore such places less frequently compared to simply traveling through the land.”

Scott laughed softly. “Yes! Finally, something to hunt besides level one critters.”

Rhea giggled at his enthusiasm. After collecting their wits, the happy adventurers turned back from hunting the low level slimes and started back toward town. They had to sell off their loot and buy a few supplies.

Along the way Rhea bid Scott to stop. She had seen something useful.

“What are those, herbs?”

She nodded and a happy smile rose upon her face. “Yes! They are the final ingredient that I need to make Fairy’s Cure.”

“What’s that?” asked Scott.

“That’s the basic healing and restorative tonic that I learned to make. It does a little bit of everything, but it’s weak. You can use it to heal minor status effects, and slightly restore health and mana.”

“Wow, useful!”

“I think so, too. Do you mind if I use some of the slime core and essence to make it?”

“No, go ahead. Use whatever you want. We both earned them.”

“Thanks!”

In the end, she used four of the slime cores and ten of the essences. They sat on a fallen log and chatted in a friendly manner while she compounded the medicine. It took over an hour, and during that time they witnessed many people coming and going from the forest in the distance. They were not on the road, currently. They had cut across the countryside to reach the slime forest since normal monsters in this area were too weak to be a threat.

“There had to be a few hundred people going through there on the road.” said Scott.

“Yes, the road leads to other zones, but I’m sure many of them went to the forest to try and hunt slimes.”

They had not run into anyone on their brief hunting excursion, but that had no doubt been due to the location that they entered the forest. Scott longed to find a less crowded area that did not have as much overhunting to decrease the spawn rate.

“I wonder why I rarely saw people fighting rats and rabbits...”

“Neither of them drops gems. The trick that I showed you is a well-known tip for hunting slimes. A large party could probably farm a single slime all day if they took turns killing off all but a few of them at a time.”

“That would mean that they would earn tons of slime cores.” Scott felt as though he understood why the cores were not worth much by themselves.

“Yes, no doubt. Of course, a large group would get very little experience from such low end monsters. This is a hunting spot based on money. Even if they somehow were to manage to kill a thousand slimes per day, they would have to share that money many ways.”

Scott ran the numbers. If a ten person party hunted one thousand slimes. They would probably split around three thousand to five thousand experience, depending on their level. Higher level members might not get any experience. It would take several days of hunting at that rate for him to gain another level.

The Fayth distribution would only allow them a few hundred Fayth per member if it was evenly distributed. They might gain a hundred aquamarines. He guessed they might be worth around three hundred Fayth each from what Rhea had said. They probably earned four or five thousand Fayth each after selling everything.

Of course, they would probably earn one thousand ability points each. He nearly salivated, thinking about that! Though, the likelihood of actually killing one thousand slimes per day was low.

He suddenly realized something. Scott slapped himself in the forehead, startling Rhea.

“What’s wrong?” she asked in concern.

“I just realized why adventuring equipment was so expensive! People overhunting slimes and similar monsters will probably drive up the price of things due to inflation.”

“Ah, yes. Adventurers and hunters can make a lot of money. Though, you can’t hunt the same monster forever to any good purpose.”

“Ah yes, they’ll stop spawning when you are around.” Scott knew that much. He rarely saw rabbits anymore, and the rats refused to even show up when he was around.

“We’re probably around the limit for the slimes in this area, too. I wouldn’t be surprised if that one only showed up because there were two of us. There is also the ability, experience, and Fayth limit. ”

“What limits are you talking about?”

She finished making her medicine then turned a soft smile in his direction. “Once you reach a certain level, or defeat the same monster a specific number of times in a given month, you’ll stop gaining anything from fighting them.”

“I see! So, when does the level-cap come into play?”

“Level-cap? Oh, you mean when defeating a monster stops giving you a reward?”

“Yep, that.” He smiled at her and she returned it in kind.

“Well, it varies. Usually, it will become obvious because you get half as much experience. Two or three levels after that the experience will drop to zero and you’ll receive half of the Fayth. Another two or three levels later, and you’ll lose the capacity to gain ability points.”

“Hmm, so what... when you’re about ten levels higher you won’t earn anything from a monster.”

“Sure, right now that is probably true. At higher levels it might stretch out a bit.”

Scott rubbed his chin. He would love to exploit such a cheaty method of acquiring ability points like the people hunting here. Maybe there would be slimes in the mine? They were supposed to be a possibility as a cavern inhabitant and would be a slightly higher level.

“Alright, I’m done. It turned out well I think.”

She showed Scott a glass jar filled with a clear water-like substance. “This is how an elf makes money from hunting slimes.”

“Oh?”

She grinned. “Fairy’s Cure is a low-tier healing tonic but it is worth the same amount as a medium-tier healing potion. We could get two thousand Fayth for this potion, easy. A merchant would sell it for several times that amount”

Scott nearly choked when he heard that. “Are you kidding?”

“Nope. Of course, it requires a lot of ingredients. Some of them don’t grow around here. I would have to buy them. So, profit wise we would probably only gain six hundred Fayth.”

His eyes lit up! “Please become my personal pharmacist! I’ll work you like a beautiful dog!”

She snorted at him. “Beautiful dog?”

“Yes, one of those Frou-Frou ones that wear clothes and fancy hats.”

Rhea giggled at his stupidity then shook her head. “I’m happy to make medicine to sell, but it isn’t something I can do in large amounts even with the ingredients.”

“Really, why not?” He smiled at her.

“I’ll be put in prison for being an unlicensed alchemist and merchandising without permission. You have to be a member of merchant guild to sell more than twenty potions in a month. If you’re caught overselling you can go to jail for a year and end up with a massive fine.”

“Ah, still... it would be a nice bit of extra money I suppose.”

“Yes, it will.”

Scott smiled at her. She had really been an amazing person to run across. She was so kind and patient with him. Rhea was definitely a special sort of person.

As though she could sense his thoughts, she leaned against him and put her head on his shoulder. Scott could not help himself any longer. Slowly, he slipped his hand around and rested it gently on her hip.

Rhea’s eyes widened for a moment then slowly closed. She wanted to enjoy the moment, the first time Scott had ever given her a hug on his own without her prompting it or holding him first.

After a few minutes she looked up at him. He looked down at her. Slowly, inexorably they began to move their faces toward each other. Lips parted.

“Scott...” she said sweetly.

“Rhea...” he said gently.

On the cusp of a sweet kiss a loud snore broke the spell. Scott blinked and looked down. Rhea’s head had dropped suddenly. “What... Rhea!”

He patted her face and shook her a little. Several minutes passed and he began to grow desperate. Had she been poisoned earlier? Was she sick? Did a monster cast a spell?

Scott looked around frantically for some sign of why this was happening. Just as he was about to put her over his shoulder and try to carry her to town, she woke up.

“Dammit...” she said, in a very un-Rhea-like manner. Her beautiful face was pressed into an adorably angry frown.

“Rhea! Are you alright?” Scott took her by the shoulders and made her look at him.

She glared at him for a moment then blinked. “Oh! S-sorry, yes.”

“You just passed out then woke up angry. What happened?”

“I’m not angry... at least not at you.”

Scott tilted his head to the side and looked at her with an expression of confusion etched onto his features. “Then, what happened?”

Rhea sighed softly. “I... well; sometimes I will fall asleep for no good reason.”

“Do you need some sort of medicine? Is it a curse?”

She blinked then jumped back a bit and started to wave her hands around in front of her. “No, no... I just... Ah... Just have a condition. It comes and goes.”

“Really...?”

She nodded her head vigorously. “Uh, yes. Yes, and um... I know it will sound weird, but sometimes I’ll have to go off by myself for a bit... by myself.”

“Ok, but can you tell me why?”

She shook her head then bit her lower lip. She shrugged her shoulders in an adorable way and nervously said, “I... uh... have to do elf stuff?”

“Elf stuff? Like what?”

She waved her hands around again then said, “Just stuff... Girl elf stuff...”

She turned his head up and acquired yet another confused expression. What the hell was girl elf stuff?

“S-speaking of which, and don’t think this has anything to do with you or anything, but I am kinda gonna have to go do some of that for a while.”

“You need to go do ...elf stuff... right now?” asked Scott warily. His mind turned to several strange and unusual thoughts.

She nodded quickly and tried to smile, but she ended up acquiring a strange expression. She somehow looked both constipated and on the verge of releasing a massive bit of flatulence at the same time. It was a complicated and curious sort of expression.