chapter 8 - The Draco Store

When he got to the place Zokar told him, he found a somewhat big building with a big sign that said 'Draco Store' and it had the logo of a dragon enclosed in a circle.

He had to admit that he had seen similar logos with the same idea in other places, but it still looked good, and he liked how the outside looked, so he opened the door.

"Hello?"

"Ohoho, hello there, it's been over 5 years since I last saw a red scale, so this is a rare sight. What brings you here?"

When he joined, he suddenly felt an energy he could only describe as magic. Largon also knew that magic couldn't be perceived by non mages or sorcerers unless it was powerful, so the magic here should be great.

He looked around and found a lot of interesting items, all on wooden shelves. This seemed like a quality item shop, as there were armor sets, swords, bows, potions, and all types of stuff.

He quickly took a glance at one of the items, an awe inducing armor set seemingly made of fire dragon scales, and he felt a shiver after seeing the price: 3 gold.

The reason was that unlike the copper silver ratio, which was 100, you could only get one gold after 1000 silver.

He later responded to the man.

"If you are Thoren, which I'm pretty sure you are, I have a gift from Zokar."

"Well, lets see what that old lizard has prepared this time, as he certainly has a good eye"

Largon thought about how he was the one who approached him, and not the other way around, but he continued nonetheless.

He showed what he had ready: 20 salamander scales and 20 fireblooms.

"Oh wow, these are some good stuff, has he finally gotten out of his hot chamber and done anything that is not blacksmithing for once?"

"No, it was me who did that"

"Well, you are skillful, for the level you seem to be"

"Well i did have some help"

"Yeah it would be impossible for you to do it alone but i don't think you had help that overpowered you"

"Well yeah…"

Largon wandered in the store for a bit when Thoren made a request.

"Hey, you know something that would excite that old lizard?"

Largon didn't know if it was a rhetorical question, so he just let him continue

"Could you get Zokar 10 komodo dragon claws as a gift back?"

Largon then got a quest notification:

QUEST RECEIVED: Gather and deliver the gift

Requirements: Deliver 10 komodo dragon claws to Zokar

Reward: 1 silver, 42% friendship increase with Zokar and Thoren and a 30% discount from the Draco Store

[Accept] [decline]

"Yeah! But where could I find them?"

Largon asked as he hadn't heard about them before, and just realized that he might had made a bad decision not knowing the level of the beasts.

"Well, the closest location, and the place where the lowest level appears, is in between this village and the Karten City."

He recalled hearing about that city, as it was the closest big city, and the main destination for players after being satisfied with their growth in the newbies' village.

The moment players migrated was normally around the level 12 mark, and at around level 15, players started getting skills and titles tied specifically to their class.

People also started to join guilds at around that level, but he also remembered reading in a forum that a lot of the NPCs actually formed part of a guild.

Other guilds were almost entirely made out of them, most notably, at least on the Elragon Empire, as he was sure the others had a similar system, was the royal lizard guard guild, who focused on the protection of Eragon's well being.

"Well, i've got some things to do"

After an extensive search, he found that the komodo dragons lived on a savana like environment. Igor like that although the game tried to be realistic, it also took some liberties, as too much similarities could be a bit repetitive, and after all, games are meant to be a break from reality.

He also found out that his opponent was quite fast, but its main quality was its attack.

It's a very strong bite that also gives off some venom that could shock and weaken the target.

He found it compelling to be in defensive mode when he would face them, but he also had to keep in mind that he had to kill them, so he had to make a plan.

For now, he had to think about actually getting there, as it would be a one day trip just to get there, and another day would also be spent coming back.

He also found out he had to get past a small desert that had some stray monsters, such as foxes or snakes.

So keeping all this in mind, he prepared everything he might need. He also thought that he would be able to level up from the monsters before the fight.

He also didn't want to bother any of his companions, so the next day, he just went to the road.

Having traveled for 3 hours, he thought that this would just be an uneventful trip, as he hadn't seen anything interesting, minus three level 4 snakes that weren't even venomous or poisonous, so it didn't pose a challenge, but he changed his mind when he saw a giant level 7 beetle.

It was almost 2 meters long, and one tall, and it definitely had a threatening look.

He tried attacking first, and he managed to hit, but his foe just took 5% DMG, and it attacked back with its mouth, which thankfully Largon dodged.

Had he been only a moment too late, and he was certain at least 50% of his health would be depleted, so he had to be carefull.

He did another round of attacks, but making sure it couldn't escape, he activated his fire breath and managed to deal 20% DMG, not counting the extra from the burn debuff, that actually made that damage double.

It then became enraged, so it tried to charge him with its big black beetle body, but Largon skillfully dodged.

It was clear that although his opponent wasn't weak, it was certainly no match, so after fighting for about five more minutes, the encounter ended with a dragon breath.

From killing it, he got a low tier beetle exoskeleton and a level up.

He spent his free skill point on dexterity, so now his stats looked like this:

Stats: 8 STR 5 DEF 6 DEX 6 ENG

After this fight, he only had to encounter some more low level snakes until he was finally able to reach the savannas.

His trip lasted a whole 8 hours, but he managed to level up once, and get a lot of loot from the snakes and the beetle, so although it was a bit more boring than he thought, he was still grateful that he was able to somewhat retain some energy, as he had not fought a lot.

After a small break in the real world, he decided to continue.