When Zen returned with his pink slime hearts, Ben dropped his smithing hammer. How did Zen turn up with so many pink slime hearts for someone who looked like he was as gentle as a lamb? Honestly, even if Zen failed to collect those hearts, Ben would have given him a better weapon.
===
Quest: Ben’s Apprentice Part 2
Requirements: Purchased a weapon from Ben
Objective: Collect Smithing Materials
99/5 Pink Slime Hearts
Reward: 40% Friendship Bonus with Ben
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“C-can I turn in the slime hearts?” Zen asked after Ben did not reply for a good while.
“Designated firewood chopping area? It’s just behind the weaver’s hut near the potato fields. Everyone in this village chops their firewood there although most of the time, the men will do it,” Ben told Zen.Hearing that there was a place designed for firewood chopping in this village, Zen wondered why the game developers included this detail. Was it really necessary? There was also a system restriction. Something felt fishy.When Zen found the firewood chopping area, he unloaded all the firewood he collected onto the ground. The designated chopping area was rather simple in design. Most people would not register the straw-thatched shelter with only an old axe stuck on the tree stump used as a wood splitting workbench.Zen tried to pry the axe from the tree stump, but the item would not budge
Swish!Swish!Swish! Swish-swish!Zing!Crack!Even though it was impossible to break into a sweat in the virtual reality, Zen felt as if his body was on fire after practising the art of swinging something in his hand. These dull daggers were hurting Zen’s hand more than the firewood. The grip on their handles made his hand blister, and even though his virtual character looked flawless, Zen could feel the pain they caused after swinging the daggers a hundred times.As a chef, Zen did not have a chance to find out if he was ambidextrous. He only knew that he was taught to use a knife in his right hand to avoid bumping elbows into other cooks in the kitchen. Sometimes, he woul
A wooden sword.Zen scrutinised the new blade Ben gave him. It felt like an ordinary wooden sword. This couldn’t be, right? Surely, there must be something special about it.“Inspect!”===Item: Wooden Training SwordDescription: An ordinary wooden training sword good for beginners to practice with.Effect: Attack +1Durability: 100/120===With unshed tears in his eyes, Zen trudged back to the designated wood chopping area. The durability was slightly higher than those dull daggers. However, this was made from wood. How ridicu
As it turned out, Zen did not spend too long chopping five hundred pieces of firewood. In fact, he found a rhythmic system to place fire logs and chop them. An interesting discovery while practising his swings was the use of combo points.His Bladeless skill only guaranteed a critical chance, but the combo affected Zen’s total damage caused over time. The more he succeeded in the combo, the greater the sense of concentration. Time could slow even if his physical speed increased. Zen saw more than he could understand, and the experience felt like an out-of-body illusion when he understood where and how to chop the firewood logs to make them crack into halves. It was so quick, but Zen felt a strong tug at the back of his mind, guiding his hand to where the weak points were.Sometimes the feeling eluded him, but when it happened, Zen was becoming better at s
Helping Ben to create the weapons the shady merchant needed was a lot simpler than he thought. Initially, Zen was prepared to hammer his hands off, trying to work with metal bars. However, he soon discovered that this part of the quest was more of a reflex game with an added difficulty of strength control.Basically, it was a rhythm game where Zen needed to wait for the moving meter to enter a strike zone to hammer the heated metal. It would automatically change into a different shape one step closer to the ideal end product if he succeeded. If he failed, the metal would cool a little and remain unchanged.Zen also learned that not all his hits had to be hard. It was actually better to watch the colour of the metal to decide if a hard hit or a soft heat was required. If he was working with a metal that was bright red, he should hit it softly. Hammering it too h
Not many knew about Zen Taro’s contribution as a gaming legend before he was sent to this death pit of a high school. Gaming wasn’t something most people could afford anyway unless they were wealthy civilians with successful businesses supported by the governing mafia family in their district. It was mostly done as a form of entertainment where gamers shared their perspective of the gameplay with others over a stream channel.Zen Taro was one of the only gamers who did not reveal his face and rarely recorded his gaming sessions. He only streamed whenever he was attempting a new world record. It didn’t take long for the name ZT to become very well-known in the community. To date, many of his accomplishments remained unbested, and nobody came close to his godly skills.More importantly, ZT raised the standards of gaming guides that soon became indispensable to the community. Not all gamers were as experienced and attuned to gaming mechanics as ZT was. Then again, they did not have all t
Zen made dinner, and the smell attracted its first customers before even he was finished.“Oh, sorry about this afternoon. I got too carried away with wrapping up the quests on the first floor and missed the time. Can you taste check for me?”Sasha’s sullen expression lit up at once, but Oritha kept her distance. They were completely decimated by the dungeon boss at stage nineteen and had to resort to farming for boss drops for the rest of the guild that afternoon. It was annoying how difficult farming boss drops were. If it weren’t for the reviving penalty fees, they would have continued to push on with the new floor boss raids.“It’s great!” Sasha commented. “Is this meat sauce?”Zen nodded and poured the thickened
Oritha released Zen, who collapsed bonelessly into Liu Feng’s waiting arms.At some point during the tickle torture, Zen could only receive what he was given against his will. What could he say? Liu Feng was far too skilful with his hands for any resistance. The Seer sees it all. There was nothing he could hide about his body from the expert.