Agatha The Legendary Guild Master

I sensed that this cold NPC became friendlier to Shin as he replied:

"Each book cost you 1500 copper coins."

"That's good, I want the two books. Here are 3 silver coins."

I looked more astonished to Shin. From where did he have this new wealth? Additional three silver coins weren't easy money to get. I didn't wake up from my happy surprise when I heard that NPC saying with a rare smile on his face:

"You surprised me young adventurer. I can see you have more silver coins in your pocket. Tell me, are you interested in secret serial dungeon key?"

I looked suspiciously at Shin. If That NPC's words were true then Shin got over 9 silver coins when he returned from the store. How on earth did he manage to get all these coins?

I wanted to ask him in chat directly but he was one step ahead of me as he sent in the chat saying in one word:

"Later."

Then I heard him saying with an excitement he failed to suppress:

"I want this dungeon key, please. Here are 6 silver coins."

"You are a very good fellow to do trade with. Here is the dungeon key. Do you need anything else?"

That NPC face showed a weird smile. He seemed to me that he was very happy with our deal with him.

"No thanks, I don't have any more coins to buy."

"You still have some copper coins. Don't you want to buy something with them?"

I felt worried. That NPC knew exactly how much wealth Shin had.

He didn't intend to make us leave with a single copper coin I believe. All my coins I had previously given them to Shin before he went to that store. I looked to Shin in a worry but he looked not worried at all but rather excited.

"I only have 120 copper coins. What can I buy with it?"

"You can't buy any skill book for sure, but you can buy any forging scroll. I have plenty of forging scrolls here. What forging scroll do you want?"

"Do you have normal scrolls?"

"Yes, but the cheapest of them is way above your little money. Your money can only buy you a forging scroll."

Shin looked hesitated for a few seconds before asking:

"Can I return one skill book I had just bought?"

"Sorry adventurer, I told you before I only accept coins. I'm not a pawn shop."

This NPC was really treacherous! I didn't know what these normal scrolls were.

From their higher price than forging scrolls and Shin's trial to get them, I figured out they must be very unique.

"Ok. I want a rune forging scroll. Here are 120 copper coins."

"You have a good eye adventurer. Here is your scroll. Do you need anything else?"

Shin replied in an obvious regretting tone:

"No, thanks. I'm broke now."

"I hope I can meet you, young fellow, later."

Shin looked at the NPC with doubt then he held my hand and moved away from the stall. He kept his silence until we exited from the village.

He then led us towards the woods again. I noticed the presence of many players there, so he moved deep in the woods. We went a longer distance than when we were fighting here.

The deeper we get, the fewer players we met. Until we reached to a place with no player at all he stopped and turned to look to me. I already knew that he didn't want to speak in a place full of players.

"Now you can speak freely."

"You are smart little silly girl. What we got is a big fortune and we need to discuss what we should do with them."

"You need to explain what we bought from that cold cunning NPC. I don't really know anything about any of these books. But first tell me, how did you manage to get these 9 silver coins?"

"Dumb girl! You forgot that I had collected the equipment that dropped from the 50 players team at the gate of the village?

We killed 44 players and each dropped 2 pieces of equipment. So I had 88 pieces of equipment. Also, I had 13 pieces of equipment from that 10 players team we killed from before."

"Ah, I really forgot. Then what about these books? What is their info and uses that made you that excited?"

Shin smiled but didn't talk. He first got two books. He gave me one and explained:

"First you need to learn this observation skill."

"What is observation skill?"

"It's a must to have skill. Through this skill, you can get all the available info about anything. Any equipment, ore, herb, monster, and even players with disguise equipment like the ones we have aren't immune to this godly skill.

Of course, there are limitations to it, but it's really a very useful skill."

I got the skill book in my hands and tried to know its features but I couldn't. I looked to him and asked:

"How can I learn this skill?"

"Put your hand on the book and think about learning it likes usual."

I followed his instructions. I put my left hand over it and then thought about learning it. I suddenly heard a voice in my ears:

"Do you want to learn Observation skill from this Observation skill book?"

I said without any second thought:

"Yes, I want."

I felt very comfortable warmth seeping into my body. Then I looked at Shin who had learned the same skill and asked:

"How can I use it?"

"Like always silly girl. Think about it when you look at your target."

I kept looking at him and thought of using the skill. Suddenly, there were new multiple rows of info that appeared above Shin's head.

"Player name: Rio in need.

Level: 4

Class: Swordsman "

It was a brief info but it would really help me a lot. If I knew the classes of my enemies, then I could formulate better plans to kill them.

I could also know much info like monsters info without the need to ask Shin every now and then. It was an awesome skill that I liked a lot. Shin smiled and said:

"Now you won't need to ask me in every step you make, lousy noisy girl."

"Don't be happy so soon, I will always ask you none the less."

We laughed then he took out all the books he bought from that NPC. There were 23 different skill books in front of us. Shin first separated them in different smaller groups.

There were two identical groups each had 7 skill books. These were the skill books of lifestyle players. There was another group of 5 skill books and two groups each had two skill books.

These 5 skill books group was the auxiliary skill books group. The last two groups were CC and AOE skill books. After he finished his organization he stood in front of these big skill books and said proudly:

"These melee class skill books will be enough for both of us till we reach level 30 at least."

"Do they have an expiration date?"

"You know that you have this nasty habit of asking very silly questions. There is no such a term here in our tech empire. What I meant is at level 30 many players will be stronger than now.

These skills will limit our fighting abilities and many players will have suitable counter skills for ours. So by level 30 we either upgrade our skills or dump them totally."

"How can we upgrade these skills?"

"Any skill has a Mastery value. Each time you use the skill successfully you will one Mastery point or MP.

If you successfully hit a higher level or grade monster and managed to cause even 1pont of damage, you will get double MP. Each skill has a fixed upgrade rules.

Basic grade skills are the ones you learn from the start. Intermediate grade skills needed 10K MP. Advanced-grade skills needed 20K MP. Expert grade skills needed 40K MP.

Master grade skills needed 100K MP. Sovereign grade skills needed 500K MP. God grade skills needed 1M MP. So you either you managed to upgrade your skills or you dump them and use more powerful skills."

"I would rather upgrade them all."

"That would be difficult. The more powerful the skill is, the longer its cooldown becomes. So in every fight, you might only use these powerful skills once.

The easiest skills to upgrade are those passive skills but they are the weakest."

"But finding new skill books will be hard, right?"

"Not that hard. When we reach town, the dungeon system will be opened. Also, we will have a couple of Boss Field monsters. These two usually drop skill books. Although their drop rate is very low, we can get them from there."

I didn't like low chances at all in my life. I made up my mind and then declared my decision:

"I will upgrade these skills."

"This is not possible. For each skill, you need to use them 10k times. That is a lot of uses, especially to these powerful ones. If you want my advice, you should focus on one or two skills.

At least when you reach level 30 you will have two trump cards up your sleeves."

His words made sense. I was much excited about these skills. Shin started by the biggest group of them pointing to each skill book of them:

"These lifestyle books are very essential to you. If you needed to make unique Mechas in the future, you need to hone your skills from now. Forging skill book gives you access to the blacksmith world.

It's just the preliminary stage, but with it, you are eligible to use forging designs to make different pieces of equipment. Alchemy skill book is the same. It makes you a preliminary alchemist.

Machinery skill book is very unique skill book. Mechas are built from different types of ore. In addition, they have different machinery systems inside them.

The more powerful these systems are, the stronger these Mechas can get. You need to raise your grade as a machinist if you are really serious about Mechas."

"I'm really serious. It's my dream you know. I want to build a full legion and cause great terror to my enemies, especially those arrogant aristocratic families."

"Then you have a lot of work ignorant girl."

I ignored his usual teasing and pointed to the remaining four skill books asking:

"What about those?"

"That is mining skill book. It will grant you the class of basic miner. It is a very important and useful class. Every time we are out in the wilderness you can mine different types and grades of ore.

These ores will help you a lot in your blacksmith and machinist classes. The same applies to gathering skill book, which grant you the class of herb gatherer. Herbs are very important to your alchemist class.

Collecting skill book will give you the skill of collect. This skill will be useful. Every time you kill a monster you can get additional resources from his body by using this skill.

The last skill book is helpful at battles, especially PvP. There are nasty classes which are very difficult to deal with if you don't have this skill. Those are thieves and assassins.

This skill is the perfect counter for any stealth class. You can discover any hidden enemy in a certain range near you. Of course, it's not that omnipotent but the higher you go with this skill the fewer enemies you will miss."

They were really a mix of very practical skills. There were skills useful during leveling, some after killing a monster and some during fight. I liked that mix. I looked at the second biggest group and asked:

"What are those auxiliary skill books?"

"These are very important and rare skill books. These skills don't affect you but they affect your weapon.

They grant your weapons additional stat points for some period of time. That would turn you into a god on the battlefield. This book, for example, added double the Strength stat to your weapon for ten seconds.

That means when you use any skill with your weapon, you will Attack value that equals to the weapon Strength points plus triple your Strength stat points.

Even you face a player higher in level than you by 5 levels you can kill him with ease in ten seconds. These skills are godly skills in PVP battles."