Chapter 10：Seeking Improvement

After his interrupted attempt at a nap, Marius no longer felt the need to sleep. Instead, he decided to meditate.

He formed the Squirrel Swarm in his mind, remembering their attack formations and how he could best counter them.

Killing 27 Elemental Squirrels was not a difficult task. In fact, Marius felt that he could improve his efficiency if he tried a little hard.

Reaction speed.

If there was one factor that made someone more or less likely to succeed in anything, it was how quickly they learned to react. Some could even say the faster the reaction, the more instinctive the result.

Marius had observed this, not only in his travels and experience with Martial Arts but also with business.

The corporate sector was an ever-changing and competitive beast. The slightest change in variables could determine the success or failure of a company.

Reaction to change.

A thought occurred to him as he meditated. "Why only 27 Squirrels?"

Throwing stones into the tree's could trigger the Swarm, why not test out how many he could pull? Afterall, if he could slaughter 27 of them, why couldn't he slaughter 100 at once?

Smiling, Marius thought through this idea. It would require him to improve his swordsmanship in the game. He needed to be able to move quicker, attack faster and hit his target with much greater efficiency.

A plan formed in his mind as he mapped out his assault.

When 5:30 came, Marius went to the kitchen, taking out one of his frozen meals.

At 6:00 he would begin his operation but first. Nourishment.

2:00:00

Beginning the timer, Marius ran as fast as he could to his grinding spot, taking care not to be spotted. The Woods had become a favored grinding area, yet few people choose to disrupt the Elemental Squirrels.

After reaching his destination he picked up stones, placing them in his inventory. After he had around twenty, Marius began his operation.

He took out the first stone and triggered the Elemental Squirrel Swarm. But this time, instead of bracing for combat, Marius dashed forward, rolling under the furry storm before throwing another stone at the treetops.

Another rustle foresaw the second Swarm.

Smiling, Marius started his slaughter. Except for this time, he had an objective.

With the additional monsters to kill, Marius was cautious about taking damage. Even if each attack from the Squirrels was negligible, with over 50 of them, they could easily wipe him out.

Thus, strategy.

The squirrels, were pieces of data, with pre-set operations and attack sequences. Marius had long learned how to take advantage of this flaw of programming. If the Squirrels could adapt to the situation, then Marius would be in trouble.

"Maybe that will be something in the later game?" Marius thought as he abused the system.

It took him less than 5 minutes to clear the 50+ swarm. Marius felt a little fatigue from his victory and reflected.

"This is a more efficient way of farming them. But it definitely takes its toll."

After a moment, Marius decided to try it again. He triggered the two swarms again and slaughtered his way through them again. This time it only took him 4 minutes.

The next time he did it slightly faster.

More confident, Marius decided to increase the number of Swarms but was careful of his fatigue.

By the end of the hour, he had mastered taking on four Swarms, even managing to increase in efficiency by leaps and bounds.

0:34:53

Marius looked at his timer and decided to end his training for the day. He was tired and could feel the fatigue had built up more than he wanted.

He logged out of the game early and lay in bed, old and exhausted. He didn't care how much experience he had earned, or how many Elemental Stones he had obtained. Those things were material and had less value to him at the moment.

What he felt was pride. The pride that his skill in the game had improved. The pride that he had managed to find his limit and for every purpose that he cared about, exceeded it.

He hadn't felt that level of achievement in decades and, he felt he could sleep well, knowing that he had made something incredible happen.

That night, the nightmares did not haunt the old man, the memories were kept at bay and he slumbered. The first restful sleep he had enjoyed in so long.

Over the next few days, Marius employed his training schedule.

Two 2 hour forays into the game a day, pushing the limit of his abilities.

Followed by periods of rest.

Marius kept a strict timetable, organizing his gaming hours so that he hit the slowest traffic times in the game.

He didn't want to be seen while he trained and he certainly didn't want anyone to learn about how valuable the Elemental Stones were.

On the forums, he tracked their value. A stack of 27 mostly sold for 30 Bronze coins though industrious people tried to get a premium price of 50, others clearly wanted to be rid of them and sold for 10. And there were many such trades, just waiting to be accepted.

If Marius wanted, he could buy several of these stacks with ease. His liquid funds had grown exponentially with his grinding.

The time to buy them was coming soon.

Marius was close to reaching Level 10.

His strategy for the Squirrel Swarm had increased his efficiency by a huge margin, even though some sessions made him quit with time to spare.

It was actually faster than the multitude of people that were hunting the Large Boar or Grey Wolves. From a number standpoint, the Large Boar yielded much more experience, at least 140 for a player at level 8-9. While the Grey Wolf yielded far less, they were easier to survive than the Elemental Squirrels.

However, that experience was usually spread amongst teammates. Even if one went solo, the sheer number of players that swamped the area was enough to grind any players experience farming to halt.

On average there was close to around 1000 Large Boars that were in a respawn rotation which was exceeded by the Grey Wolves which had around three times that amount. And well over 100,000 players competing for them.

So even though the Elemental Squirrels only gave 60 exp, Marius had a monopoly of them which allowed him to takes huge leaps to the top.

Outside the game, Marius took pains to continue with his exercising. Strenuous activity was not an option. The old man could barely take his own weight to do a push-up or a chin up. Squats were absolutely out of the question as well. His knees had long since become incapable of such punishment.

So he worked his way through his forms. Pushing himself a little harder each day. Not to the point of exhaustion, but to the point where he could feel his endurance, or at least willpower, growing.

On the fourth day of doing this, Marius finally attained Level 10.

(Congratulations. Player Midnight Solitude is the first player to reach Level 10 .)

(Rewards: +10 Luck)

(Silent Night has Leveled up to Level 10)

Customized Weapon - Silent Night

Level 10 - White Grade (0/18,000 experience)

(refine by using 100 Iron Grade items to upgrade to Iron Grade)

Attack: 15

Defense: 12

Intelligence: 15

Spirit: 12

Dexterity; 18

Skills: Unlock at Gold Grade.

Smiling, Marius quickly finished off the last of the Squirrels before checking his timer

1:03:32.

Plenty of time.

Turning, Marius ran towards the Village, not stopping until he made it to the Shopkeeper.

Checking his inventory, he saw he had almost 4,000 Elemental Stones. In his wallet, he had stored an astronomical amount of coins.

With Marius' training scheme, he had barely used any aids. Bought no equipment or items, using only his Silent Night and good old hard work.

As such, he hadn't spent any funds since he wiped out his first Elemental Squirrel Swarm and hadn't used an Item since killing the Boar King.

Taking into account the excessive number of Squirrels he had slaughtered over the past few sessions, Marius had earned an excess of 770 silver coins. Adding his rewards from killing the boar King he had well over 9 gold coins to spend.

With a grin, he opened his Trade tab, searching for Elemental Stones. He was welcomed with over 100,000 listings, all within the price range he felt was acceptable.

Resetting the listings to go from Lowest to highest, Marius started buying Elemental Stones in bulk. Slowly, he watched his liquid funds drain as his inventory was filled with Elemental Stones.

After purchasing in bulk for nearly 15 minutes, Marius had only 100 silvers left in his wallet and around 34,000 Element stones to trade with the shopkeeper.

Without a second thought, Marius stepped into the store.

It had been a few days since Marius had last entered the store. Back then, it had been empty, now it was full of players.

Frowning, Marius stood in line, waiting for his turn.

"Hey, I managed to kill a Large Boar today," An Assassin said to his friend.

"Pfft, more like you stole a Large Boar kill. You Assassins don't have the power to take on those monsters."

The conversation caught Marius' attention. His game knowledge wasn't very deep, but he had enough of an understanding to know what the conversation was about.

"Well, there's no other way to level up now. All the big guilds have consolidated their power in the Woods. Ardern owns the Grey Wolves and Winnie P owns the Large Boars. How else is a solo meant to get by?"

Marius smiled. The Assassin was wearing the Grey Wolf set. It had become the most worn set because it was the only decent equipment obtainable outside the smithy.

"Well, they'll probably hunt you down if you're are not careful." The Assassin's friend warned him. "Winnie P doesn't take things like that lying down."

Marius made his way to the counter and was welcomed by the shopkeeper.

"Young Adventurer, welcome back."

Marius smiled. "I see business has picked up for you. I'm hoping to make a trade if you are still willing."

The shopkeeper beamed. "I'm glad that you remembered." He said as the menu popped up.

Without hesitation, Marius purchased 2,998 Lightning Stones, 998 Wind Stones and Spend the rest on Fire Stones.

Marius was a little disappointed that he had to do this. Embedding an Elemental Stone to a weapon did not cost much, only 10 silvers each. The problem was that the weapon in question had to have a slot for the embedding to be done. Silent Night only had 4 Slots and Marius did not know if more Slots would be unlocked in the future.

His original plan was to embed as many Fire, Wind, and Lightning Stones as he could. Additional Fire damage appealed to Marius but he had to let wiser minds prevail.

In the time he had, he could not farm the excessive number of Elemental Stones he wanted, let alone to refine them all to Level 5. And now that he had purchased so many Elemental Stones, someone was bound to become interested in them.

And he had to admit, pierce damage was more viable than fire damage.

His plan was to raid high-level grinding maps, which meant he would have a massive level suppression reducing his damage. He would need to deal damage that bypassed defense or he would be helpless against the higher leveled monsters.

So the Lightning Stones were a must and though Marius desired the Fire damage, Wind Stones would increase his attack speed which was simply more usable.

As it was, he could refine 3 level 4 Lightning Stones and 1 Level 4 Wind Stone. The rest would be Fire Stones which he'd sell at a premium when he got to the City.

Marius hoped that the effects of the lightning Stone would bypass most of the defense of any monster he would have to face. It would make sense that the piercing effect would stack. If not, then he would have wasted the slot. But if it did, it would be an extremely overpowered tool.

Finishing his business, Marius turned to leave when three Warriors burst in.

"Super Nova! Don't you dare run away." The lead warrior shouted, heading towards the Assassin.

"It's Winnie P." A player whispered as the Warriors passed.

The entrance of the warriors caused a commotion as players turned to looks at the confrontation.

"The hell do you want?" The Assassin shouted.

"You've been stealing Large Boars for too long. You're being given your notice. If you enter The Woods again, you will be killed on sight."

The Players in the shop were dumbfounded. Just how arrogant did a guild need to be to annex a grinding map let alone force people out on the punishment of death?

Marius looked at the three warriors. He guessed that they were about Level 8 or 9.

Smiling, Marius turned his communications on. He'd left them off since he started his training and saw multiple messages from Proud Master.

Ignoring them, he sent a friend invite to Super Nova before speaking.

"What kind of name is Super Nova for an Assassin?" He asked, looking directly at the man in question. "I mean, come on. It's totally inappropriate."

All eyes in the shop turned to him.

"Who the hell are you?" Super Nova spat.

Marius smiled. "I am the man who's going to fix your problems. Now accept my friend invite."

The Assassin was stunned for a moment before doing as he was told.

(Super Nova has accepted your friend request)

"How the hell are you going to help me?" Super Nova asked.

"I'll get to that. How many times have you stolen their kills?" Marius replied.

"A lot."

Smiling, Marius turned to the Warriors. "I can guarantee that he won't Steal your kills again. However, banning him from The Woods is a bit extreme. How about we come to an agreement?"

"What are you talking about?" Super Nova messaged. "you haven't told me your plan."

"Just relax" Marius sent back, giving the Warriors a bland smile.

"And how do you think this will go?" The lead Warrior said, his hand gripping his sword.

Marius forced himself not to laugh. If they were out on a map then the gesture would have been a threat. Here, in a safe zone. It was a joke.

"I am currently on a quest that will earn me a number of Pure Elemental Stones," Marius replied, "If you contact your Guild leader and he agrees to remove the kill on sight order, I will personally give him 50 of these stones."

"Hah. A quest? There is no such quest." the Warrior laughed.

Without speaking, Marius took a Fire Stone out of his inventory and tossed it to the Warrior.

A moment passed and the warriors face paled.

"My name is Midnight Solitude. If you're Guild Leader doesn't contact me in 5 minutes the deal is off. Hurry up." Marius spoke coldly.

"Brother Solitude. That's way too much," Super Nova sent.

"It's nothing.," Marius replied. "What level are you?"

"Level 7." he replied

"Have you completed the Elemental Squirrel Quest?"

"No. I don't really do quests."

"Good. When we are done here go to the Village Leader and keep asking for quests until he gives it to you. Then come back here and speak to the shopkeeper..."

Marius gave Super Nova a detailed account on how to complete the quest and how to obtain the even greater treasure.

"But. The Elemental Squirrels are too hard to farm." Super Nova replied.

"That's just because you aren't trying hard enough. Take your time. Build a strong foundation and use your head. farming them is extremely easy once you get used to it."

Marius ended his conversation with Super Nova as a communication came through.

(Prime has sent you a friend request. Will you accept)

Marius accepted the request

"You are the Leader of Winnie P?" Marius asked.

"Hey Super Nova. What is the Guild Leader of Winnie P's name?"

"Prime." Super Nova replied.

"Yes, I am," Prime replied.

"Perfect," Marius replied. "I have some business with you."