Starting from Zero Vol 1 Chapter 5

Chapter 5 — Job

Walking out of the Occupations’ Guild, I began to consider how I was going to train.

First, I came to a pharmacy named Yun Shan. Bearing the pain, I spent six copper coins to buy a small red potion. Ah! I only have one copper coin left! There’s no helping it, I’ll have to slowly collect more by defeating monsters!

I only managed to leave Cold Jade city after running for approximately twenty minutes. This large city was different from the beginner’s village precisely in that the land area was so d.a.m.ned large. Once I was out of the city, I reached a gra.s.s plain, and there were many yak here. I remembered that the official introduction had mentioned that yaks were level 27 monsters, and that they would only retaliate when attacked, they will not gang up on people either. Beginners’ level-grinding would all depend on these.

Finding a yak that was apart from the herds, I rushed to its side and slashed at it instantly. With a single attack, a red 200 floated above it’s head. Angered, the yak pawed at the ground twice with its front hooves before charging at me. Dodging sideways, I avoided its attack and followed up from behind with a hack to it’s back legs.

“Ding” The system prompted, “The yak’s leg area has been injured. Its mobility is decreased by three points.”

So attacking different areas has different effects! It seems I’ll have to research on this a little. It’s just as well that there are so many experimental targets here. Who cares, I’ll just chop the one in front of me down first. Quickly, the yak turned back and rushed at me again, but like before, I dodged the attack. When I was just beside it, I slashed at it yet again. Successfully deducted 500 points from its HP. It seems the attacks the monsters in suffer differ with each attacked part.

Supplementing that attack, I hit that yak again for a normal 150 points, and the yak instantly fell to the ground. In quick succession, I cut down four to five more yaks and finally concluded that a yak’s HP is approximately 1000 points. It looks like this fellow is a low resist, but high HP type.

Upon finding the rhythm, I began grinding frantically for levels, and before an hour had pa.s.sed, I was already at level 24. I took a look at the rankings… d.a.m.n it, are these human! Right now, the first place in the rankings is taken by a Warrior by the name of Big Swords Kill Many Men, who is currently at level 32. Following close behind is a level 31 Warrior, and there are two to three people in every subsequent level. We’re still only at the initial stages of the game, but people are already so compet.i.tive… Won’t they get even scarier in future?! I really don’t get how these fellows train. My fast level-grinding is because my attacks are perversely high, so how did these chaps rush so fast!

No way! I must overtake them, I’ll need to find some shortcuts. Oh, right! I’ll go take a look in the forests, who knows if I just might find some high leveled Boss, those would be good fodder for leveling!

I looked at the bottle of potion on me.

It’s no good, I have to buy a few more to bring with me. Checking my inventory, I already had, hehe, 79 copper coins. Hey, who knows, I might even have enough money with me for my job certifications. I’m going to go try my luck.

As I was running back to the Occupations’ Guild, I was already at level 25. This time around, I headed towards the job management counter. It was again another beautiful elf behind the counter.

“h.e.l.lo, I’d like to carry out my job authentication.”

“Alright. May I know which professions you’d like to authenticate?”

“I’d like to get the certification to become a blacksmith, breeder, as well as an appraiser.”

“Oh! You’re a player with prizes! To become a blacksmith, you will need to foot the administrative fee of twenty copper coins. It will be thirty more for breeder and another thirty more for appraiser.”

“Ah? So much!” Red-faced, I felt for the 79 copper coins I only had. I guess this young master will also meet with occasions where he’s stumped by a copper coin! “I only have seventy nine, so I’m still short of one! Can I authenticate two jobs first?”

The elf beauty covered her mouth and giggled. “You’re really interesting. If you have seventy nine, then seventy nine it shall be!”

“What? You’re saying that seventy nine copper coins is fine too?”

“Yes!” She laughed harder.

Hurriedly, I handed over the copper coin. I watched her write on a few doc.u.ments at the counter  and proceed to keep them. The system prompt suddenly sounded, “Player Zi Ri has become a blacksmith and is awarded the blacksmith skills — Mining, Forging and Processing. Player Zi Ri has become a breeder and is awarded the breeder skills — Capture and Rear. Player Zi Ri has become an appraiser and is awarded the appraiser skills — Identify and Familiarise.”

“New skills! Hehe, I wonder what use they have!”

Seeing that I seemed to be completely clueless, the elf beauty took the initiative to explain. “While journeying or killing monsters, a blacksmith’s Mining Skill will allow you to see ores and minerals that can be mined, as well as directly find materials required for smelting from monsters.

The Forge skill allows you to process raw materials into weapons or defensive armor, but currently, because your forging skill is at level 0, your rate of success will be very low. In the process of forging equipment, if you fail to forge successfully, the equipment and materials will both vanish, so it would be better if you first use materials of low value to level your skill. Processing is for upgrading equipment. When you find precious stones or other special materials, you can process them onto your equipment to raise the equipment’s stats. However, note that if the processing fails, you will lose all materials and the processed equipment might randomly lower in stats, or even break.

A breeder’s Capture skill is to catch magic pets. Beast Tamers by profession are unable to catch magic pets. Although they depend on magic pets in battle, the only way they can obtain magic pets is through purchasing them. Of course, if players have both the main profession and the job like you, they will not need to buy the magic pets separately. The Capture skill can not be used negligently. Although all monsters in can, in theory, become magic pets, but if the monster that’s caught is too high leveled, you will only get counter attacked and killed.

I also need to remind you, the captured targets can only become magic pets. The servant familiars that a Beast Tamer controls are spirits of deceased magic pets, and not the magic pets themselves. To get a servant familiar, you will first need to kill a magic pet, then use the Capture skill on it. You have to act fast, because thirty seconds after a magic pet dies, it will be gone, and it can not be captured as a servant familiar anymore. Rear is a more long term skill, and it is mainly through appropriately matching the pet with its food and training to make it more powerful. An appraiser’s Identify is used for comparison. With this skill, you can automatically recognise an equipment’s stats. This skill can be used on monsters as well as other players. There is a certain probability that you will be able to read out their names and all their stats. Meanwhile, the skill Familiarise is a little more special. It is to increase a weapon’s attack strength. For example, if a weapon has a hidden property that makes it hit for double its firepower, then a person with the Familiarise skill will be able to use that hidden double firepower property of that weapon, while those who do not have this skill will not be able to unlock this property.

Alright, the introductions are complete. If you have any more questions later on, you can come ask me as well.”

“Thank you! I’ll definitely return again. The next time I come, I’ll bring a box of cosmetics for you.”

The elf beauty’s smile grew more radiant. “Really? You can’t be lying to me!”

With great difficulty, I left the great hall. The elf beauty just now was clearly excessively pa.s.sionate, could it be that this is the effect of high Charisma!

Haha! Now that I have so many skills, I definitely should not let them go to waste. I’ll be going into the mountains in search of treasure.