Chapter 20 - Stat Up

I'm not lost anymore. And I can say that with pride.

Why?

It's because I don't want to go somewhere. I went for a walk in the city with no desire to visit someplace. That way, I never get lost.

I'm so smart!

All right, let's stop joking around. 

Right now, I went for a walk for three purposes. 

The first is to memorize the layout, streets, and various areas in the city of Rishtonbell. 

While the second goal is to raise my Basic Statistics by doing culinary tours.

The last one, the third, I want to make sure the places I know are existed in this city or not. I also want to search and greet the NPCs known as Quest Giver.

So! My little adventure begins!

Yes… of course, I have to visit the Adventurer's Guild, I need to meet up with Vier. But then I realized something, we promised to meet at the third bell and now, the second bell hasn't rung yet.

Therefore, I have a lot of free time. So, I decided to take advantage of it by exploring the city.

I don't want to get lost anymore. That's why I want to memorize the layout, streets, and various areas in the city of Rishtonbell.  While doing that, I planned to do some culinary tours.

That's right, it's about raising my Basic Statistics by eating monster meat, it's about the Unique Skill, Heart of Monster effect. 

The explanation say I could get Stat Point by eating monster meat at a certain amount that is 1,200 grams. 

I looking forward to it and It's a good idea for me to raise my Basic Statistics as soon as possible!

So, I do buy one kind of snack in large quantities then ate it with gusto! All the snacks are gone to my stomach but…

"Why don't I get stat points?"

I pondered about this issue and decided to conduct simple research. Then, I buy another snack and ate it.

< Strength up! STR +1 >

I do get Stat Point now. It's weird so asked a few questions to the snack vendor. I do this for few times and in the end, I concluded.

The monster meat I eat must be fresh. I will not get Stat Points if four hours have passed after the meat was taken from the killed monster. Cooking the meat didn't change anything, I still got Stat points.

And… it surprises me. I ate eight different kinds of snacks in large quantities and I didn't feel full.

< Endurance up! END +1 >

< Strength up! STR +1 >

< Agility up! AGI +1 > 

Yes, I got five miss but I still get stronger.

Now, I don't know if this also applies to Magic Stones. I mean this fresh, four days limit.

I didn't get an answer to that mystery because I never bought Magic Stones. And honesty, I didn't dare to eat the Magic Stones.

I mean, eating a stone! Who wants to do that?

But I know, in the end, I will eat the Magic Stones. It's just a matter of time before I did it.

Now, let's raise my Basic Statistics first. I will continue this culinary tour for another jackpot. So, for now, I chose a sandwich filled with thick meat and a fairly spicy red sauce.

With snacks in hand, I walk. My destination? Everywhere. I want to search the Quest Giver NPCs and some places I know.

Ding! Ding! Ding!

That's the ring of the second bell.

About this, the second bell I just mentioned. They're time markers. No tool has a function to tell the time like a watch or a wall clock in this city. So, they're using a big bell to tell someone the time.

The first bell rings at six in the morning. The Second bell at nine in the morning, the third bell at twelve in the noon, the fourth bell rings at four in the afternoon, and so on until it returns to the first bell. 

One day is divided into eight bells.

Now, because of the second bell, I only had three hours before I had to meet VIER. So, let's go back to explore the city of Rishtonbell.

The scenery in this city reminds me of the middle ages. A time when knights were still walking in the streets.

Beautiful old architecture, stone-paved streets, unique street lamps, passing horse- no? Yellow bird-drawn carriages? Anyway, those things and others else tell someone that the city is extraordinary.

Rishtonbell is also filled with other fantasy things. What I mean here are the citizens that come from different races. Different fantasy races! Elf, Beastkin, Dwarfs, Humans, and several other races live together peacefully.

This city was wonderful.

< Health up! HP + 2 >

"Oh! Lucky! I got an extra HP! Now, let's buy another snack."

This time, I bought a spicy kebab wrapped in white bread shaped like a DVD.

Then, with the snack, I admire the beauty of Rishtonbell, and also to memorize the streets in this city, I recalled something.

I recall I have to search for places I knew in Ark Fantasy Online and the NPCs known as Quest Giver.

So, to the place, I wanted to visit I walked. The first place I found is Arm's Shop. It's in the north of the shopping area.

This Arm's Shop was named Hammer Tears. Inside the AFO, the store is famous for its complete stock of weapons and armor. A Player could find Basic Grade Equipment to Superior Grade Equipment. This shop is also famous for its affordable prices.

Pieces of equipment grades?

Here it is, Basic - Common - High - Advance - Superior - Rare - Unique - Legendary - Ancient - Mystic Grade.

Yeah, it's too much and hard to remember. Often, I forgot about it.

Anyway, I walked for some time and in the end, I found the Hammer Tears. Just like the Adventurer's Guild, this shop in this world was bigger than those in the game.

I peered into the store from the sidewalk. Thanks to it, I know that this store sells a variety of weapons and armor. As for how complete the items they sell, I don't know. I also didn't make sure of it because I didn't do Windows Shopping.

"Knowing this store exists, is enough to make me satisfied." I nodded and walked back. I went to find other places.

Time passed, right now, I'm in front of Green Fort, a headquarter of the knights. I visited this building because I wanted to meet Captain Shen Luck, one of the Quest Giver NPCs. 

Quests given by Captain Shen Luck have a reward in the form of Prestige Point. Someone who collects quite a lot of Prestige Points could become a knight. They can access the kingdom's military facilities to obtain a wide variety of Special Arte.

To obtain some of that Special Arte, I intend to collect Prestige Points by working on low-level quests. 

Unfortunately...

"Stop right there, miss!"

"Except for military personnel, no one allowed in!"

"Please leave this place immediately or we will arrest you!"

The soldiers kicked me out. 

Little disappointed, I walked to the next place.

The third place I want to go to is Rusty Knife, a hidden shop. In addition to being a store that sells dozens of rare items, this store also becomes the center of underground auctions. Rusty Knife's location is on the inside of an alley in East Slums.

And... umm... yes… that's right. The store is in East Slums. So... I didn't visit it. Because of Eclaite's memories, I become too afraid to step into that slum. That place reminds me of Eclaite's trauma that she got in her early years as a slave.

< Strength up! STR +1 >

So... Yes! I turned around and walk away the moment I got that notification. And lucky, again, this snack gives me Stat Point.

Rusty Knife is well worth a visit. Therefore, one day, I will come back when I've grown strong or when I have a reliable friend.

For the next few tens of minutes, I visited the Church of Light, Stone Axe Traven, Ibis Cemetery, and Trixxa Market. 

I also tried to meet the Quest Giver around those places. But, disappointingly, I couldn't find some Giver Quests. And when I managed to find one of them, I couldn't get a quest. In the end, I just made small talk with them.

I got nothing and my legs aches. Didn't want to force myself, I decided to take a rest by sitting on a bench under a shady tree.

This place is on the edge of the park. Therefore, every once in a while, I can feel fresh, gentle breezes cooling my body. To recharge my energy, I started eating snacks that I bought along the way here.

I bought Meat Bun, Meat pie, and Meat Patty. I bought quite a lot because I liked the scent of these snacks extremely much. And yes, I don't know which snacks use fresh monster meat.

It's a gamble and it was a meats festival!

"Am I going to be fat?"

I didn't know and I will think about it later. Now, let's enjoy these twenty-one servings of snacks I bought.

Can I eat all these snacks?

I'll answer "Maybe" I was able to give that answer because I realized one strangeness that happened to my body or rather to my stomach.

My stomach has a great capacity. I had eaten sixteen varieties of snacks before dealing with all these snacks and I was still not full.

I feel like I can still eat more.

And yes, I didn't forget to buy a drink to accompany the snacks I bought.

"I didn't want hiccups and I was thirsty. One glass of fresh fruit juice is a thing I need. No further ado, let's dig in!"

And I ate my snacks while enjoying the scenery in front of me. In the distance, high in the sky, I could see some Flying Ships moving around. I also saw a Sky Island moving slowly because it was blown away by the wind.

Moving my head to look ahead, I was greeted by a scene where knights, adventurers, and citizens from various races passed by. All of them were so out of common sense. They shouldn't exist in the real world. But look, in here, they're alive and they're walking right in front of me. 

The day before yesterday, I was still playing Ark Fantasy Online. But now, I'm in this fantasy world. All of this happened so suddenly and I...

I still can't accept this reality.

I wanted to find someone to exchange feelings, thoughts, and experiences about this. I want to be open to that person, I want to complain, I want to scream how unfair this is.

I want to... Vent to someone else?

I don't know… and I hit miss in all those snacks.