9

Name: Vindictus

Race: Human

Class: Ranger

Sub-class: Archer

Level: 9 EXP: 3600/4500

Health: 208/208

Mana: 180/180

Strength 18

Vitality 16

Agility 18

Dexterity 10

Intelligence 10

Speed 17 [Boots +1]

Points available: 0

Skill Points: 3

[Boost Summon – Level 1]

[Harvester Skill – Level 2]

[Alchemy – Level 1]

[Smithing – Level 3]

[Leatherworking – Level 4]

Izak walked out of the tannery and headed towards the south and then at the last minute he realized that he was about to make a huge blunder. He looked at his quiver and realized that he was getting low on arrows. He went to the general store and picked up a hundred more arrows and hoped that it was enough. It was not that he did not want more but that was all the store would sell any player in a day. Even though he was one of the only players that could afford the hundred arrows for a silver. They would be a lot more after they left the beginner villages and this was also to prevent a greedy player from buying a bunch of arrows and then selling them once they were out of the village.

Once he was satisfied with the number of arrows that he had be made one more stop. The temple was in the center of the village and while it stayed open all the time, they might not sell things all the time. He had not purchased anything last time so he was not sure. He walked in and saw an old woman who was dressed like a nun. He used her appearance to figure out how to address her. "Good evening sister. Would it be possible for a commoner like me to purchase some holy water from you?"

"Now what would a young man like you need with holy water?"

"I have been given a task in the cemetery and I would like to be prepared."

"What a fortuitous meeting. If you are willing to assist me, not only can I sell you a little holy water, but I would be able to gift you a few bottles as well."

"What is it that you need sister?"

"There is a crypt in the cemetery that has become corrupted by evil spirits. I need someone to go and rid the crypt of this evil and place this special statue on the Dean family alter."

Was this the trigger for the hidden quest that he heard about? The person that wrote about it was not clear on how they got it they only wrote on how they cleared it. He was not sure if he was strong enough to handle the mission by himself but he was more than willing to give it a try. "Of course, sister. I would be more than happy to assist you and the church of the sun in this matter."

"Very good. Here is the statue and the holy water that I can provide you with this purpose in mind."

Izak took the items and store them in his inventory and then used some of his silver and bought several more holy waters and a powerful healing potion. It was a lot stronger than the ones that he made. It would be a great addition to his arsenal in the crypt. With those purchases he was almost out of any coins except for the gold ones and he did not want to use them yet. He would need them in a few days after he got out of the beginner village and then the system would update. Not only would the system update to allow user to convert money back and forth it would also open up the auction house. The developers did not do it on opening day to make sure that it didn't crash with the huge inrush of people.

As he walked out of the town, he pulled two bottles of the holy water out of his bag and quickly dumped them into the quiver of arrows. This was a trick that archers would learn later that he could take advantage of now. Each bottle of holy water could treat ten arrows. Now the arrows that would normally not be of much use against undead now would be able to do full damage. This was the one thing that might make this dungeon possible. As he walked along, he saw several players that were running back towards the village as fast as they could.

"Run there is a pack of wolves coming. Something is not right."

Izak looked at them and drew his bow. He swapped out his quiver of arrows to not waste the holy water ones and sent a few arrows flying. He was barely aiming since there were so many of them. He did aim every few arrows at his target, the alpha. "Is one of you a guardian?"

Now that the arrows were slowing the wolves the crew had enough time to talk. The smallest man in the group answered. "I am a guardian."

"They have been cut back enough that I think we can finish them. If you stop about thirty yards from me, we can end this quickly."

"Are you serious? You are only level three."

"If you die, I will let you kill me and give you a silver coin."

The man quickly got ready to turn. He hit the thirty-yard mark and then stopped and used his 'Taunt' skill. All of the wolves quickly focused on the guardian. The only one that was able to resist the skill was the alpha, who was still really enraged at the damage that Izak had managed to do.

Izak smiled and drew back another arrow but this time he took the time and aimed right at the eyes of the beast. He let it get within five yards to almost guarantee a hit and then let the arrow go and then he quickly dropped his bow and pulled out his enhanced long sword. The arrow hit the wolf in the eye and it howled in pain. When it howled, it threw back its head and exposed its throat. Without any hesitation Izak darted forward and sliced the sword across the beast's neck. Normally a ranger would have trouble with a sword but since he was in independent mode, he could use the sword but he would get no game assistance.

That slash was enough that the head flew from the alpha. Once it fell, he quickly picked his bow back up and started sending arrows at the remaining wolves. He looked back and saw that the players that were with the guardian stopped when their friend did. They were not going to leave him to die and the outsider seemed to have an idea. Izak was happy to see that all of them turned. With the alpha gone the rest of the wolves were relatively weaker and the damage started to mount. A few more arrows from Izak and the rest of the wolves quickly died.

"If you guys do not mind, I will take the haul from the alpha and you guys can have the rest is that okay?"

The guardian walked over. "You can have it all man. I do not know if we could have made it back to town without you. I am Brick. I am the guardian of this small band of misfits."

"I am Vindictus. I am more than happy with only the alpha. I am working with leather as a life style class and this hide would be a huge benefit. Also, can I offer you some advice?"

"Of course."

"With the stature of your character I would invest a few points in agility and dodge a few more blows than taking them all. At this stage you will be fine but once you get to facing stronger monsters outside of the village you are going to put a lot more pressure on the healer. So, after every few vitality points add one to agility or even dexterity. If you add it to dex you can shift you shield enough to occupy the monster without taking damage and save your block for an emergency."

"I can do that?"

"Yes, you can. A lot of veterans of other games do not know this and will put a huge burden on the party's healer."

The other three players who were waiting off to the side heard this and came closer. "Are you a beta tester? Oh, sorry my name is Wall Flower."

"I was not a beta but I have a cousin that was and I am also a person that does a lot of research on anything that I want to do."

Brick spoke up. "Even though your level is a little lower than ours you have a good eye. Would you be willing to team up with us?"

"I can't. Well, I should say that I am in the middle of the specific solo mission. If you give me a day or maybe two and I will be more than happy to travel with you and offer any guidance that I can." His account notification pinged and he had four friend requests. He accepted all of them. "I will message you when I get done with my mission. Oh, and if you are trying to level up at night do not forget that the strength of the creatures at night is a lot higher but the experience you gain is also more. Go to the north gate and go just out of the range of the city guard. Lure a few over and if they get to be too much you can simply come back in the range of the guards. This is the only gate that the guards are close enough."

"Thank you, Vindictus we will keep that in mind. Go ahead and clean all of these up guys and leave the alpha to Vindictus."

Izak cleaned the leather and usable things off the alpha wolf and the hide was in perfect condition. He had a lot of gains for this little side trip. Now to the crypt.