5 5 - Player's Coming
Cain's dad did not touch a single penny of his son's fortune. He created his son a bank account and deposited the check straight away. Everything but 500 thousand was locked however, as neither Cain nor his father wanted him to be a hasty spender.
For the time being, the office building acted as a meeting place for the one man guild. On the second day, the shareholder arranged a meeting with two members of the press. They came half heartedly, but only came at all because there was a man with money involved. 'Why would he have lied about something so childish?' They reassured themselves.
Cain revealed his status as well as his inventory. The reporters were immediately hooked. Witnessing something that broke the physics of reality, this was the scoop of a lifetime. They headed outside. Cain repeated the same run, but only hit 30 mph. It was probably just adrenaline at that time. The reporters were not that impressed, but looked at the potential. If he could go 30 mph from 5 weeks of practice, could he hit 100 mph with a year?
What's more was that Cain had discovered the party command. It could be used for beings other than players, so he used it with the reporters. Heading to the goblin lair, Cain geared up. "This might get dangerous, so stay behind me. This is bad if you don't have armor."
Sacrificing some durability to demonstrate the traps and armor, the purple forcefield deflected twenty arrows. The reporters were speechless. If the growth of players had more potential, then the world really would be changing. They were witnessing it firsthand.
Cain led them all the way to the boss room. The bold reporters did not want to miss a single clip. [Heavy swing] Using a skill gained from swinging the bat a thousand times, Cain annihilated the boss in one hit. He was still using the same bat from the beginning, and it was beginning to show metal fatigue.
The shareholder also gave information that was new to Cain. D class Goblin Armor was similar to knife-proof fabric. The C class version was much more durable. However, the B class armor was only slightly worse than a low class bulletproof vest.
He sold it like a positive benefit, but the reporters were probably already titling their articles something threatening. "Players, the new danger to society! Can withstand a .22 bullet with armor made in a shed!" Cain could only see problems.
From then on, life became busier. More reporters came afterwards, and he'd show them the same things. One news platform even got to leak footage of his school fight, so they asked for an interview in the news station. Cain did not know it, but he was slowly becoming a celebrity.
The news spread like wildfire. In schools around the world, players began popping up out of the blue. People who had seen the message beforehand had overlooked it; then went on with their lives. What was surprising was that only high schools were affected. There were no other reports of 'tests' anywhere else.
Countries began creating laws and programs to allow players to fight with parent consent. Even the most strict of countries allowed their children to participate in Instances. This all happened within one week. By the time Cain returned to school, people had seen his face everywhere on different news platforms.
In the time that he was interviewed, Cain did not reveal how to get the Instance dungeon skill. With its danger, he didn't want people using it recklessly. He nearly died twice. The main reason he showed the whole thing was so that players could avoid the mistakes he made in the process.
He returned to school the following week. Players were the talk of the school. Amy caught up with Jack at the locker.
"Hey, I saw you on tv... Is your guild open for recruitment? I would like to join." Cain was sure the shareholder would enjoy the idea of growing the guild. "I did the dungeon for a while. I even got a sword." Swords were rare drops. Even Cain hadn't gotten one yet.
"Nice! I haven't really done any grinding this week."
"Such is the life of celebrity.. Your whole free time is going to disappear." Amy laughed. She was completely right. While Cain did not want a leadership position in his guild, he was starting to have second thoughts. Leading a guild with his friends wouldn't be so bad.
Cain watched the world prepare for the coming of players through the next few weeks. His dad helped him move his bed to the instance home, as he could sleep two times quicker. All Cain did was upgrade his dungeon and home instance. The work led to a 1:4 time ratio on both instances.
He could not afford to fall behind new players. After setting out different goals and problems, Cain began to solve them.
The first problem Cain solved was the need for a lead between new players. He didn't want to stunt the new players' growth; just ensure his own. He did this by using his upgrade skill to create time ratios. The next problem Cain saw was his full inventory. He tried making a chest with wood but it had no effects. It wasn't until his inventory filled up completely that he was given a true solution.
'Fill up your inventory - Access to the shop' The shop was empty except for one item: The chest. Within it could be stored 100 kg worth of items. It had a game screen that appeared rather than opening like a chest. Cain ended up stacking fifteen of them in his home instance, as they did not need to be physically opened.
He could also sell his useless junk. The shop gave fractions of gp for every item, and every time Cain felt like he was being ripped off. Even still, he made enough money to upgrade his instance and afford the chests. Keeping things like daggers and the boss' club, he planned to sell them to players later. Perhaps he could get more than the 10 gp shop value for them.
The shop left him with an empty inventory. After using all of his gp, the dungeon's time ratio was a good 1:5. He was only able to upgrade it once. The last of Cain's goals was answered two weeks later. Cain had grown his stats considerably during the time that passed.
His main goal was to find a new instance dungeon, but he found another option. Whether it was a skill that had to be found or something he had to accomplish, he needed a way to get swords. The boss hadn't dropped the sword he needed until last week. He was going to use the sword, but it was not durable at all. One run took out 4% of the durability.
He did at least 200 runs every day, so only having a sword for 25 runs was not a good option. To save on gp, Cain used his time ratio to focus on making armor himself. One dungeon run resulted in around 10 gp (If he sold his items). It took 5 gp to make a piece of armor, so he had to save wherever he could.
Also, by using the fast craft skill, he could not gain production experience. So, in the process of making new armor, he leveled his production tree to 10. This unlocked some items in the shop.
An anvil and heat forge were different items he could buy. Cain looked through his items to see what he might be able to use as metal. Strangely, he came back to the goblin bone.
Goblin bone was incredibly small. Other than being junk, it had no other use. It only sold for 1/10th of a gold point, so he only kept them to experiment. Cain bought and placed the anvil, as well as the massive forge.
He also bought an Ingot cast and a pair of metal tongs to hold it. Finally he bought charcoal and a crucible. Using the crucible, he melted the goblin bones. Pouring the liquid into the ingot cast, he was able to form a new metal: Goblin steel.
Cain proceeded to create more ingots. It took him 5 hours to melt 400 ingots. He had 2.5 hours before he had to meet Amy at the guild. (In real time this would be 30 minutes.) Cain looked up more videos on YouTube.
Learning how to forge a sword, he did his best to make one. It turned out terribly. There was a reason he made 400 ingots. Hammering sword after sword, he threw his failures into the sell shop.
At the end of his time, he was only able to make two good ones. One C quality and one D quality. In total, he forged 23 failures. Leaving the home instance, he instantly arrived at the guild. (He entered his home instance from the guild, allowing him to teleport back when he left.)
