Farming, Harvesting

 

But Tongqiu couldn't bear to simply stop levelling and just right away go and advance his sub-class. He decided to stay and level up until he became bored of it, until it made him want to actually get crazy. More than a month away right after having experienced one after another. Having thought so, Tongqiu suddenly remembered that after the Bandit Leader disappeared the quest didn't indicate whether or not he completed it.

When he was thinking about that, there was that similar whitish shimmer above his head as if trying to attract its attention.

Thinking for a little, Tongqiu decided to try and 'tell' the True Wish relic that he wished to reclaim his rewards from the 'Slaughterer Mandate' quest. Sure enough once he did so, at the next moment:

*PING*... you've completed the quest; Quest Type: Main Quest(only one player can ever receive such quest form such NPC), Time Limit Quest: None, Quest Reward: 'Sorrowful Glorious Crown', gold coins+1,500, SP+5,000, Fame+5,000 (because AP can't be received, the rest of the rewards will be appropriately increased). 

[Sorrowful Glorious Crown]: Type: Helmet, Grade: Powerful, Equipment Requirements: True Wish relic's acknowledgement. Attributes: Mind Power +1, INT+24, Effect:MP and Stamina Regeneration+15. Main Quest reward, cannot be dropped, cannot be traded, cannot be discarded. It is capable of evolving with its user.

'Good.' Thought Tongqiu to himself with a smile a little satisfied.

Then, Tongqiu proceeded to slowly kill and kill thorny roses, as there were around a few hundreds all over and if one got too close to them, they'd start coming over directly at such 'prey' without stop. But with his 'essential' weaponry, he could easily aggro only one of them while he didn't have to hit them directly, as long as the explosive waves reached the nearest enemy was enough.

After 40 to 50 minutes of one shot killing, slow killing, one shot killing, and then repeat. As after killing a 'Thorny Rose' with 'Combustion' activated would waste a lot of his MP and Stamina, a slow killing by attacking 4 to 6 times in long range with the bow and once they got close he'd use his dual Sunfacing Brilliant Gladius Sword. By the time he finished with the slow killing, he'd already be quite recovered up, specially if he took the last hit with his 'essential' weaponry, stealing its HP to convert it to MP and Stamina ever so easily.

*PING*... you've levelled up, now LV16, HP+50, MP+50, Stamina+50, main basic attributes+7...

An hour and a half later.

*PING*... you've levelled up, now LV17, HP+50, MP+50, Stamina+50...

Two hours later...

*PING*... you've levelled up, now LV18, HP+50, MP+50...

6 hours and a half later.

*PING*... you've levelled up, now LV20...

Fortunately, the drop of gold coins was now much better now in the hunting areas of the Azure Dragon Sub-Division, or maybe it was because he was specifically killing highest level possible mobs. Whatever the case, he managed to farm a little bit more of gold coins.

Character: Tongqiu

Race: Human — Innate Race Talents: Adaptability, Racial Reproductive Wonder, Warmonger — Race Ability: Union

Level: 20

Class: Evil Saint

Basic attributes: STR: 140, DEX: 140, LCK: 140, REC: 140, WIS: 140, INT: 140, DET: 140, Luck: 20, Charm: 20 (note: DET no longer gives 1 point of both types of defense)

Association: None, Money: 2,530, Fame: 35,495

HP: 4,330, MP: 5,300, Stamina: 5,400

Attack Power: 1,620, Magic Power: 2,460

Physical Defense: 508, Magical Defense: 508, HP Regeneration: 5, MP Regeneration: 15, Stamina Regeneration: 15

Hit Rate: 20%, Dodge Rate: 20%

Critical Hit Rate: 20%, Pierce  Rate: 20%, Critical Hit Damage: 70%

Attack Speed: 120%, Movement Speed: 120%

Core Elemental Resistance: Fire: 0%, Water: 0%, Earth: 0%, Wind: 0%, Lightning: 0%

AP: 0, SP: 6,966

*PING*... - ... - ...an anomaly has been detected several times every time the player levels up... - ... 

Tongqiu: ಠ_ಠ

'Just fix it!' 

As if trying to appease Tongqiu, another prompt from the system popped up in front of him right after his thoughts.

*PING*... the anomaly has been identified. 'Journeyer' seems to have an impossible amount of Mental Prowess, hence the system isn't capable of reading the stat 'Mind Power'. Every time the 'Journeyer' desires to know his exact amount of 'Mental Power' stat, the player will have to take some time while thinking 'I want to check my Mental Power stat', we apologize for the inconveniences.

Sigh. Slightly annoyed, Tongqiu followed the instructions but after a while nothing appeared. 'What the fuck? Am I actually getting scammed?' 

Nonetheless, he did another try, if that thing didn't showed up after a few minutes, then yes he surely got scammed.

After 5 minutes of brainlessly thinking...

*PING*... - ... - ... Mental Power: 336.

Tongqiu: ༼ つ ◕_◕ ༽つ

'How, why and thank you' where the words that Tongqiu would be saying if it wasn't because of how befuddled he'd become.

'Those are big numbers, yup. So... how does it work?' Poor Tongqiu still had a smile on his face, if only he'd know that the system couldn't currently identify the usefulness of the 'Mental Power' stat, how would he react?

'Well, at least I know it increases or something my Mental Prowess, right?... Right?!'

Feeling played by the system, Crestfallen Industry and what not, Tongqiu merely decided to frustratingly head towards one of the areas he saw in the forums that contained some beginner Gardener herbs that are possible to harvest.

When he arrived, the first thing worth noticing was the fact that no other soul was visible, it was as if no one cared about such LV1 type of harvestable plants/herbs. 

'Oh right, most people already advanced too much that such low-level items surely mean nothing to them... now I feel a little embarrassed being around here, huh.'  Tongqiu thought while slowly crouching over here and there, following or rather, mimicking the instructions and little videos shown in his branch skill for his Sub-Classes. 'Forge and Create'. Strangely, for what it would seem to be a sub-class branch skill for a Craftsman, Blacksmith or Tailor, was instead a Blacksmith, Miner and Gardener. He didn't know if it was really so, but taking into consideration that those who selected a class for themselves could already have 3 sub-classes instead of 2 gave him the idea that perhaps other sub-classes were unavailable for that same reason. Meaning, he wouldn't have to worry about all other necessary procedures to get a new sub-class every time he unlocks a 'slot' for them over and over again. Or that was at least what Tongqiu would expect, and hope.

As Tongqiu kept on harvesting and harvesting like a mad man, in the sense that he was capable of doing that for so many hours without stop. 

After some time, he finally completely maimed nature all around the harvesting area. It was then, something unexpected happened...

*PING*... you've provoked the Lord of this territory by depraving it of life. You're actions won't be pardoned, prepare for battle!

As soon as the notification popped up and Tongqiu insta-read it, he understood that those 'incapable' devs have put some sneaky action for the greedy, this area was probably not the only place like so. 

While he was thinking in reproach, a small-scale earthquake, merely that of the harvesting area- started to become more dangerous as in the center of the harvesting area, the earth started to crack open every now and then as if a fat ass person put on clothes with buttons and that person suddenly stretched. The sound was so crude that it gave one the feeling of having their ears 'licked' by it. What came from such sounds was an ever increasing in size hidden by the dirt and some boulders figure of an enormous turtle that seemed to have merged with a plant type monster.

As soon as Tongqiu caught sight of the little hill, its information appeared before him:

[Rose-Tormenting Giant Tortoise]: Type: Plant-Beast, Grade: Lord, Level: 22, HP: 18,000. A giant tortoise that was about to fall into the wrong path was miraculously saved by an unknown mysterious rose that was close by at the moment. In gratitude, the giant tortoise allowed the mysterious rose to live in withing himself. When in actuality, such offer was a mere trade.

Skills: [Thorny Lunge], [Sudden Stomp], [Self-Destructive Rose].

'Oh?! I can see their skills now!'

Twang, the noise of a bow's string being left loose was heard as an out-of-this-world sound of an explosion followed it. Even then, the repeated sound of a bow's string being pulled, then left loose never stopped.

-8,021, -7,709, -8052, BOOM, BOOM.

He had tried to use 5 of his fastest type of basic attacks he could possible use, but the damn thing only lasted for about 3 hits before it easily fell down, not even allowing the 'mysterious' rose to self-destruct and give him a little bit of enjoyment or something.

*PING*... you've successfully killed a Lord graded BOSS 'Rose-Tormenting Giant Tortoise', LV22. As a reward: SP+220, Fame+220.

'Hmmm... I wonder if...' Tongqiu's face right now could be described in two ways; one was that of a greedy and sly fox that found a way into getting easy food and not wasting their time nor effort on it, two was the face that many devs -if they could see him- would understand as the 'a dev true terror' in Rising Essence in the possible future.

Fully recuperating his MP and Stamina thanks to the stealing effects from his weaponry, Tongqiu headed towards the nearest harvesting area at full speed. Which was a lot considering a normal player would need to have 200 raw DEX points to reach 120% Movement Speed, that was like a full glasscannon LV40 player while he himself already had it at LV20 and increasing.

***

Tongqiu arrived at the next area, he was soon met with the same kind of atmosphere from the previous area. Seeing how bountiful and 'full' of riches this place was made Tongqiu rub the palm of his hands a little along with an evil grin plastering on his face all the way until he finished his harvesting.

'Thinking about it, it's a bit sad that once I take everything and leave nothing left the spawn will take 3-4 days for it to go back to normal. That just means I won't be able to abuse this, sigh...'

While the greedy and lusting for battle, or rather SP, Tongqiu was about to finish harvesting his last couple of herbs and plants, an even more unexpected situation developed.

"Hey, you!! Drop down all the items on you and you won't lose a level, you shit head!"

"Yeah! That's right motherfucker! Our guild rules this place, get the fuck outta here before we drop you down to 0, fu-fucker!?" At the last few words from this voice, he saw a wild Tongqiu with his always on eccentric mask, approaching him quite fast, faster than even bards or assassins he'd seen play around other like cat and mouse without end! He was obviously so shocked that he didn't realized Tongqiu stopped merely 20 meters away from them.

"Hey guys, do you mind picking that one lonely herb right at your feet?" Tongqiu said as he pointed his left handed gladius at them. Then he continued: "I just need you to do that for me, please? I won't attack you for it nor anything, just do it yes?"

Towards this gentle approach, the vulgar and ready to flaunt around their small guild's no-one-knows-about name group of people simply stared back at him, speechless. Tongqiu saw this and as an impatient feeling arose withing him, one of the girls in the group which looked to be the youngest, from 16 to 19 years old probably, did as he asked them.

Her mannerisms were quite innocent, and when she crouched down to pick the little herb up ever so skillfully, the other people made way so as to not appear to try and take advantage of her position of crouching. Even as she gazed down at the herb, a trace of gentleness and happiness from harvesting arose from her eyes as a smile formed so delicately on her young face.

'Aw.' With an expression of 'I shouldn't have' Tongqiu was about to warn them from actually not doing so, but the just and righteous Tongqiu was a little way too damn late.

CRWAAACKRKCRKCK!

As another small hill broke free from the ground, the area where it 'ascended' towards the upper side of the earth was exactly where that little group of idiotic vulgar people were. The next scene was that of a few of them flying about in the air, some did 360º, some others even went for a triple at that! Unfortunately, the little girl that picked up the herb was instead in the perfect middle of it all, hence the ravenous, demonic like monster with half a meter long teeth mouth easily engulfed her right into its throat... what kind of death can be worst than this? Taking into consideration how one can't log-off in the middle of battling someone, anything. One can only log off in such circumstances if the system has sensed obvious extreme stimulation to one's heart and brain. 

However, the little girl seemed brave, really brave! As if just to put tremendous weight on Tongqiu's shoulder, muffled yet extremely sharp shrieks resounded without ceasing from withing the belly of the gecko-like monster. Which had long spikes-like hair as well as a horrifyingly mutated big mouth, too much that it made a huge contrast with the size of its own body.

Anyway, the gecko monster was feeling kinda awkward, he simply gazed around and saw how some of those it didn't managed to eat managed to successfully die by becoming a little bit of meat paste once they struck against the ground. However, that girl was really brave, it was still possible to hear her screaming without stop from its belly. Tongqiu's face was numb now, nothing could surprise him right now.

Then the gecko, as if tired from that heroic little meal it took, made weird motion from its head as movement from some kind of substance could be seen going from its cheeks all the way to its belly.

'Probably acid.' Thought the guiltless Tongqiu. And sure enough, once those moving motions arrived at the belly of the monster, even more screams were heard. They were even more muffled than ever, but after a couple few seconds, both gecko and Tongqiu realized the minimal amount of sound they could hear... it was... it was... more shrieking but this time in obvious pain.

'Okay that's enough, hehe.' Foolishly laughing at the situation, Tongqiu took out his now 2 meters gloom-dark verdant bow with his left hand and put himself in the perfect position. Then he extended his right arm for a second with his hand making a grabbing motion as the arrow appeared with its metallic-grey and dark-like abyss pitch-black essence around it that was 99 cm large and 2.5 inches thick. He took his favorite stance and, at the moment he aimed the featherless arrow was now having its essence around converging into one at the other end of its shaft, its information came to be:

[Crazy Low Gecko]: Type: Monster, Grade: Lord, Level: 24, HP: 23,000. A gecko that's been surviving and evolving among magical beings as well as flora. At least 10,000 years old.

Twang. This time, Tongqiu precisely used only 4 arrows as he easily killed the thing. With perfect precision, he shoot the head non-stop until it died so as to avoid killing the girl too. It wasn't he didn't wanted to but, if he did something that he didn't intend to do, well wouldn't that turn to be extremely embarrassing?

*PING*... you've successfully killed a Lord graded BOSS 'Crazy Low Gecko', LV24, as a reward: SP+240, Fame+240.

While he took a glance at his rewarding glorious acts, he started to ogle around here and there to see if that girl was still alive, if not, good. But if she was alive, then how could he explain himself? He obviously wouldn't kill her, if he did he'd feel horrible. Not because of decency, but because he had no right to kill such tenacious little girl, it'd be overkill- and give no SP so no worth.

Between the dirt all turned upside down and the disgusting looking acids from the gecko's belly, Tongqiu finally saw some movement a few meters away from him. When he went closer towards the movement, he saw a human shaped figure moving its legs on the air like crazy while laying their back in the ground. He could also discern a little mouth trying to move, as if trying to completely close, yet he also heard multiple gulping sounds...

"Hey, are you into geckos or something little lady?" As Tongqiu finished speaking, the movement of the figure stopped. Tongqiu could swear he 'saw' the figure lost all hope and welcome all shame.

'Ah, I'll just let her free as the good samaritan that I am.' As he finished pulling the little girl body out of the... whatever's gecko, the girl finally got free -or not?- from the disgusting gecko as she looked at her savior.

"Oh?! I-I-It's you! But, but... you made this happened, you, you!!" As the girl's face was turning ferocious and her eyes turning blood-red. Tongqiu reached his hand towards her head as he pusher her back into the slimy thingies of the gecko with a face that said 'this has nothing to do with me' wide eyed and innocently, as he simply turned around and left.

"MBmmbamdamsdamm!!! Mbtbrbfbcbkbrb!!!!" Muffled cries once again, but this time Tongqiu simply thought to himself: 'Muffled sounds again, I'm sure she is apologizing but that it's too late.'

...

A few minutes after he left.

"There she is! Hurry up help her! What the fuck are the healers doing!?"

. . .

As that little girl was now sitting in a chariot which could be rented from npcs, she was now breathing still somewhat heavily as her eyes slowly turned to a normal humane appearance.

"Miss Sylda, was it you who slayed the gecko? Some of the players from the party that accompanied you managed to recognize it was a Lord grade BOSS. Were you able to?" Asked a well dressed man towards the little girl.

'Sylda' merely glanced back at him as she hoarsely answered: "If I did such a thing, then why is our guild still not famous yet? So much for a damned hidden class."

 

...

---

Author's Note: The first hidden class player?! (◕‿◕✿)