Creating skills, Making a friend

[Skill Generated: Pickpocket]

Skill: Pickpocket

Skill Level: 1/5

Rank: C (A at max skill level)

Cost: 1-5 MP

Skill Creator/Generator: Player Kirou

Description: This is an alternate version of the skill [Steal] from the Thief class that was self-learned by Player Kirou. This skill allows the player to take something from a targets' body or inventory. The item taken can be anything on the target excluding quest items and the rarity or amount depends on the skill level, target level in comparison to the skill user, and the amount of time the skill user's hand is on the target's body. Luck also plays a part in deciding the item taken.

Kirou had just been going on a hunch but he was glad to see that it paid off. In addition to that, when he opened his palm, he noticed that there was a copper coin resting in the middle of it. He wagered that it must have been the fact that he finally obtained the coin for why the skill creation was successful.

'Looks like I should take some time to practice the old skills during this trip. It seems that they might come in handy later on,' Kirou thought to himself as he reminisced the old days when he had just started his life as an assassin.

*****************

South of the village within the forest is inhabited by rabbits, wolves, and other wild beasts. In this forest, a fit youth with tan skin with tribal tattoos on both sides of his upper body was currently heading deeper inside. This youth was wearing coarse linen clothing that didn't look like it could pass through some bushes without being damaged and was equipped with a dagger strapped to his right leg. This youth is obviously Kirou.

Kirou had walked past multiple people on his way to the forest. He had seen a few of the monsters he would need to hunt as well but he gave up on them as other players were currently crowding the area. Kirou decided that instead of staying and competing with those players in the shallow areas with weak monsters, he would rather head deeper into the forest and fight their stronger variants. At least that way he could experiment with some of his ideas without any eyes watching him.

After walking around for another ten minutes, Kirou finally ran into a beast that matches one of his quest targets.

Monster: Gray Wolf

Level: 3

HP: 250

Skills: Bite, tackle

Seeing the beast, Kirou didn't immediately attack it. Instead, he surveyed his surroundings to make sure there were no other players or beasts in the area. After being sure of this, he made sure to circle the beast and entered it's blind spot before he started approaching it.

Unknowingly, his body started getting into a certain stance and the sound of his footsteps disappeared. Even his heartbeat lowered to such a degree that one could have mistaken it to have stopped. Kirou was currently in a state of extreme focus, similar to the times when he had done assassinations within towns where he had to be both quick and silent.

Before the wolf could even register that someone had gotten so close to it from behind, Kirou had already pounced on it. He used his left hand to grip the wolf's lower jaw and lift it's head up slightly while he used his right to wield the knife slash the poor wolf's throat. Within the same breath that he finished the slash, he plunged the blade within the wolf's ear, killing it on the spot.

Crit [-95]

Crit [-160]

Both attacks managed to land critical hits on the wolf and both were exceptionally high damage modifiers for Kirou with his current stats. The wolf fell to the floor as a corpse, not three seconds after the battle started. As soon as the battle ended, Kirou received some announcements.

[Generating skill....]

[Skill generated: Silent Steps]

[Generating skill....]

[Skill generated: Ambush]

[Generating skill....]

[Skill generated: Cutthroat]

Kirou didn't even pay attention to the three skills that he had just created as he was paying attention to the white light that just enveloped his body.

'Did I just level up?' thought Kirou to himself.

He had looked up details to the game before and with the info provided by Shang Yin to him earlier that day he knew what leveling up meant. His thoughts were more focused on the white light itself as he felt a vague familiarity with it.

'That should have just been me gaining enough experience points to level up. Why does this remind me of the training I did back then?'

Kirou's thoughts would go unanswered as he had no one to direct them to. He spent a few seconds like that until he remembered what he was supposed to be doing. With the wolf corpse still in front of him, Kirou used his knife to make the slit along its throat wider to allow blood to drain from the corpse faster. After that was done, he turned the wolf over and used the knife to cut open the corpse. He then proceeded to skin the corpse and remove the organs. By the time he was done, five minutes had passed and he was now left with the bones, fur, meat, and teeth of the wolf. The rest of the body just disappeared after those were extracted.

Looking at the items he had obtained, Kirou nodded his head at the results he had obtained.

{Obtained 2x excellent quality wolf fangs, 3x excellent quality pieces of wolf fur, 1x excellent quality wolf skull, 5x excellent quality pieces of wolf bones, 4 lbs of excellent wolf meat.}

The grades he had received for them were quite surprising since he wasn't trying for this grade. It was here that Kirou remembered Old Wolf's words to him from before:

'For things you don't understand, it's fine to just follow the advice given by others blindly but if it is something you yourself are proficient in then do it your way. You won't be disappointed with the results.'

Looking back, it seems like Old Wolf was hinting at this when he said those words. Kirou then stored his gains and continued deeper into the forest.

'Let's hope this applies in other areas as well,' Kirou thought as he walked.

*******

Kirou was currently on the outskirts of the forest. He was currently gathering some plants for the village pharmacist. He wasn't very good at it. Whether it be gathering the plants themselves, taking specific parts themselves, or storing them, he always messed up at one step or the other. After doing this for a while Kirou stopped touching the plants and decided to look around for another player to ask for help.

After roaming the forest outskirts for a while, Kirou finally found another player gathering herbs. The player was a female elf. She had blonde hair and was dressed in ivory green clothing. She was currently kneeling on the ground. Kirou was about to approach her but stopped in his tracks when he noticed what she was doing. The elf was currently digging out the plant by the roots and carefully placed it in a container before she placed it in her backpack. She then stood up and faced Kirou.

"Is there anything I can help you with Mr. Wolf?" asked the elf while sizing Kirou up.

"Sorry to disturb you, Ms. Elf. I was just curious if you could give me some pointers on how to collect the plants." Kirou said this while scratching the back of his head.

The elf woman raised an eyebrow before speaking, "Before I give you any advice, how about you show me just how proficient you are before I give you any pointers?"

Kirou nodded before approaching a plant to show his hand. He went through the steps slowly and showed the female elf his results. "Tell it to me straight, is there any advice you can give?"

The female elf chuckled before speaking, "Objectively speaking, there is nothing wrong with your skill in gathering plants. If anything, it's actually quite good."

"Thanks but I'm sensing a 'but' coming in your explanation."

"That's true. You have the skill to harvest the plants but you lack the knowledge on how to treat the plants themselves after you have harvested them. Take that plant you just harvested, it needs to be stored in a special case or solution after leaving the earth. Considering you are playing on full manual mode, that needs to be done or the harvested plants will drop in quality from the initial harvested rank. The speed of deterioration depends on the plant itself. The one in your hands can last for a few hours while the one I took out earlier would only last a few minutes. Clearly not enough time to finish my other quests and make it back to town to turn them in."

Listening to her words, Kirou then looked at the plant he just harvested and noticed that it had a timer on it next to its quality.  Thinking up to here, he checked his other plants and noticed they all have a timer on them as well. Kirou couldn't help but sigh in resignation when he saw this. His best harvest was just average quality and if he waited too long then they would drop to bad quality. Having to turn in items of those qualities would give him a bad grade. Kirou would like to avoid that as much as possible.

"Sigh, is there a chance you would be able to help me collect some plants of higher quality Ms. Elf?" asked with exasperation in his voice.

"I don't mind Mr. Wolf but I still need to collect some items from the beasts in the forests so I won't have enough time," replied the elf.

Hearing her words, Kirou's eyes lit up, and spoke, "How about this, you tell me what beasts and materials you need from them and I will collect them while you collect the plants for me and we'll trade each other for the items when we're done. Sounds good?"

"That's perfect. Let's do that. Let's add each other as friends so that we can message each other when we are done. My name is Reya by the way," spoke Reya as she sent Kirou a friend request.

"My name is Kirou," said Kirou as he accepted the friend request and they both exchanged their lists. After settling that, Kirou was about to walk away when he remembered something and ask, "Do you have any requests for the quality of the beast materials?"

Reya turned to Kirou and started thinking about the question. She wasn't sure how good Kirou's skill in harvesting those materials would be so she gave a noncommittal answer, "Just get whatever quality you can find. My skill in harvesting from beasts isn't great, to begin with, so I'd really be good with items of average quality. Thanks for this." After Reya said this she went about harvesting plants.

'I wonder what her reaction will be after she receives those items,' thought Kirou with a smile as he entered the forest.

*******

Reya the elf was currently waiting on the outskirts of the forest. She and Kirou had parted ways over twenty minutes ago and she was currently sitting under a tree waiting for Kirou to return. She had finished harvesting the plants for a while now. She had messaged Kirou a few minutes back and he told her that he would be there soon. She wondered how his trip went.

'I hope he was able to get all the items at average quality. I need them at that level to get the skill points from the village head, '

After another minute or two Kirou finally appeared from the forest and walked towards the seated Reya. Seeing him approach her, Reya rose to her feet and met him partway.

"How was your trip?" asked the elf girl half curious, half anxious.

"It was quite a good haul if I do say so myself," said Kirou with a smile on his face. Hearing those words, Reya released the breath she didn't know she was holding.

"Well, let's conclude this trade then. Shall we?" Reya then sent Kirou a trade request and Kirou accepted. They both placed the requested items in the trade window and pushed the confirmation button. With that, their trade was completed and their business dealings over.

"Now that that's settled, you mind if I ask you something?" asked Kirou after checking his spoils and raising an eyebrow.

"What do you want to know, Kirou?"

"Where did you get the knowledge on how to handle the plants? I'm positive that I talked to pharmacists and florists in Elderwood Village yet I never learned about how to handle those plants. Was this knowledge something from your own life or your starting village," asked Kirou out of curiosity.

"You could say it's a mix of both. I work at a florist shop during the days. Also, in my starter village, Thousand Wood Village, there are elves dedicated to taking care of trees and plants in it. I happened to ask them about the plants before I left the village. They gave me the info on how to deal with the plant storage before I left the village."

Hearing her words, Kirou could only shake his head in helplessness. It seems that he would have to take a trip to an Elven village if he needs the knowledge he needs for dealing with plants.

"Anyways, thanks again for the help. I'll head back to my village now to turn in these quests," said Kirou as he turned to leave.

"Same to you Kirou. You saved me a trip into the forest so I'm thankful for that. Let's party together when we get to the main city," said Reya as she waved goodbye to Kirou. Kirou waved back while walking away.

After parting, Reya finally remembered to check the quality of the items that Kirou had given her. He didn't seem like the type to deceive her but she was curious about what he got her. When she checked her storage and looked at the items, she couldn't help turning back to look in the direction that Kirou left in.

'How on earth did he get these?' thought Reya with a hand over her mouth.