The Treasury (3)

Lennon and Tabsi were led to the treasury, the guard orcs bowed down to them before unlocking the doors. There was a flight of stairs leading down towards another stone door, with torches lighting up the cold, dark space.

Ognar took out a key, shoved it inside the keyhole and the door was unlocked. Inside, one could see numerous precious herbs, quite a bit of gold coins, some weapons and a bunch of precious material here and there.

But what caught most of Lennon's attention was where the blue string led to, there was a glass jar containing a couple small, red, dimly glowing balls. However, he still had to keep up the act of being an emissary, so he stuffed some coins and herbs into his inventory as he walked down the treasury.

The more Lennon took, the more depressed Ognar got, they were supposed to be the village's backup resources. But what could he do? The mighty elves would crush him if he were to resist, and deep inside, he wanted to help out the elves.

- Look, look! They somehow have strength beads!

- I know, that's exactly what the skill was aiming for, make sure to keep up the act until we get out.

Tabsi had messaged Lennon when she had spotted the jar full of red balls, but her face remained expressionless as to not round up any suspicion. Lennon eventually arrived in front of the jar.

"Emissary of the elves, those are pills which are able to permanently enhance one's strength, I believe they will be useful in the upcoming war"

"Yes, I believe so too, may I inquire how you managed to obtain these? From what I know they are quite rare indeed"

"Unfortunately I cannot answer that question, I apologise but the jar has been left by my ancestors from long ago, and I only know of their usage."

"I see, then I shall be taking them, but do not worry. The elves are generous, we repay our favours tenfold"

"That's very reassuring to hear, please take as much as you want"

Beads, they look like small spheres of different colours. The colour indicates the stat which it is able to increase. When a bead is consumed, it can raise a stat by 1 permanently, and there are no restrictions to how many you can consume. However, it should be noted that they are extremely rare, and there are only a couple ways to get them.

'This is great! Now we have an even further head start'

Lennon's original plan to 'widen the gap' was to gather as many beads as possible. Whether they be strength beads, vitality beads or any other, they are all extremely valuable and rare. The easiest method to get them is to get the first kill on hidden bosses, so they can only be farmed at the start of the game. There are other ways to get them, such as from quest rewards and they can be dropped from certain monsters, though the chances are extremely low.

- There are fourteen beads in that jar! There wasn't any information on this back in Tisixa right?!

- Yeah, but I have a slight hunch on why that might be.

Fourteen strength beads are converted into fourteen stat points, which is equivalent to gaining over thirty levels.

'There's no way this would be hidden if it was known, so it must be because it was consumed by something other than a player'

Monsters, they can also consume beads, and at one point, a named boss suddenly appeared in the Thinnest Forest which wiped out hundreds of players.

- Remember the 'Orc Guardian Incident'?

- Yeah what about it?

- Well, the Orc Guardian had obviously consumed these fourteen beads some way or another and gained a bunch of strength and evolved.

- Ah, that does make sense, but now these beads are in our hands hehe.

- We'll split it later, focus on getting out for now.

- Aight, don't mess it up~

- I should be saying that to you

"This should be enough, the elves will be extremely grateful for your kind donation, we will definitely repay you handsomely when the war finishes."

"Of course, we orcs are also grateful for your visit to our village, the presence of the elves will surely make our village thrive."

'Unfortunately your village won't thrive any time soon.'

There was an event back in Tisixa, a couple years after release where the orc village was completely steamrolled, and the Thinnest Forest completely deforested.

"Then, I bid you farewell"

Both Lennon and Tabsi bowed at the exit of the village.

"Farewell"

—

"I can't believe that actually worked though! That was impressive, even for you!"

Tabsi was currently praising Lennon, they had safely arrived back inside the Alcronia Kingdom, and discussing the feats they had just accomplished.

"Heh, looks like the skill was actually useful. Now then, let's split up these beads"

Lennon's original plan was to go around hunting hidden bosses, and that was still the plan. The fact that they now had a bunch of extra firepower would just make it a lot easier.

They decided to split it evenly in the end, even though Lennon had much less strength points than Tabsi, they would be getting way more beads later, so it wasn't something to fuss over. Now their stats were looking much better.

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Username: Lennon

Level - 54

HP - 230/230

MP - 280/280

Class: Storyteller

Race: Human

[Strength - 28] [Vitality - 23] [Agility - 21] [Intelligence - 28] [Lore - 0]

You have 17 unused skill points

Skills ↓

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Lennon's strength stat now looked more fitting for his level, though both his vitality and agility were quite low.

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Username: Tabsi

Level - 51

HP - 260/260

MP - 250/250

Class: Spellbinding Brawler

Race: Human

[Strength - 33] [Vitality - 26] [Agility - 25] [Intelligence - 25] [Power - 26]

You have 8 unused skill points

Skills ↓

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Tabsi's stats were pretty high, mostly due to her high starting stats because of her class. Her strength was around level eighty due to the strength beads, and it looked like they could finally start hunting down some hidden bosses.