A couple of days later, Nash received a text from the Manager of the Game Center. He was nervous to see the check. His video together with Tristan's and Amahan's had divided the viewership of the players evenly.
No, one video reached 200 million views. He had hoped that the higher management would see that, and would grant him a $15,000 check despite not reaching the quota.
He was in front of the door of which behind it would inform him if he would be able to pay for his brothers' education fund this month.
Too nervous to remember his manners, Nash immediately opened the door and entered. The Manager was surprised to see him come in.
"Oh, Nash, finally decided to skip the formalities of knocking on doors, ey?"
"Oh, I'm so sorry sir, I just... wanted to come in right away."
"I bet you are. Who wouldn't be excited to get their paycheck? Listen, before anything else let me assure that I tried my best to reason with the higher ups. But they just wouldn't budge."
The manager handed Nash a paycheck worth $10,000. It means he has to skip another month without depositing any money to his brothers' educational plan.
"I see, so it's still $10,000. I guess it's only logical since I didn't reach the quota. I just hoped that they would see that the competition is just tougher this time."
"Yeah, I pointed that out to them as well, but they just wouldn't give in. Anyway what have you been doing with the in game money that Zectas has been paying?"
"I've used some of them as an investment on a village that I'm staying in."
"Oh, you haven't bought game items yet and sold them online for real cash?"
"Well, I haven't actually entered any of the main cities yet. But I think it's about time that I did. I was planning on doing that in the next few days after I've gained a few more levels, increased some of my skills and finish off a monster that's been on my mind for a couple of months now."
With a determined look on his face. Nash started heading back home. He needed to get into Coatl City as soon as possible. Although he felt that with his current level and abilities he would only be easy prey for other players. He started making out his action plans for the next couple of days.
Donny held the eskrima stick just a few centimeters before Nash's face. The three brothers had been doing daily eskrima practice sessions in the morning for the past 3 months.
Donny uses too much strength in their practice that Nash has no way of overpowering him without hurting him. Resulting in his utter defeat.
As for Seth, he got quite exceptional at wielding the rubber knives that the Grand Master gave them. Nash could no longer keep up with him as well.
Six out of ten times Seth always gets to disarm Nash's rubber knife. In the same situation with Donny, Seth also uses too much force that Nash is afraid to put in more strength without hurting Seth.
Both Seth and Donny also continues to practice eskrima in the afternoon with Grand Master Cacoy.
At first Nash dominated them both. But as the weeks progressed he was beginning to see that he was slowly being left behind by the two.
Donny had clearly taken a liking to the eskrima sticks as he was seen always carrying the sticks around. Even in school he brought the sticks with him. He asked for a big bag with a secret compartment where he could hide the sticks.
Of course he never brought them out at school but he just liked the feel of the sticks as he touched them through his bag.
Meanwhile, Seth took a liking to the knives specialty. He found the practicality of the situation where a potential mugger would be using a knife.
He first started mastering the bare-handed techniques and then moved on to the rubber knives.
Nash always reminded them that if they were in a situation where they are being mugged it's still better to just hand out their items rather than risk their lives.
He wanted them to understand his intention for them to learn martial arts. It should only be used for self-defence and self-discipline. He didn't want them to become some heroic vigilantes.
Both of them promised not to go against actual muggers and to keep in mind that they are not super-heroes.
Their Mima Daphne enjoyed watching the brothers practice so early in the morning. Even if it gets really cold outside.
Nash couldn't be prouder of his two brothers. They were really serious with honing their eskrima skills and he didn't hear any problems in school either. Which only indicated that they didn't abuse their well trained abilities.
Smoke opens his eyes and starts looking for the two books that Darius gave him. He was told that those two books contained vital information that would make things clearer.
Right after he got his Beggar job. He came to know that there was a sixth family token. He was filled with questions. What exactly was his Beggar Job? Who was the owner of the sixth family token and where is it located now?
His questions were ignored. Darius told him that he will not proceed with the discussions about the 'Beggar Job' and the 'Sixth Family Token' until he has acquired the books' knowledge.
The books were entitled 'Secret Societies of Zectas' and 'The Enigmatic Village of Nanahuatl'. Each book required 48 hours in order to acquire their knowledge.
Smoke was troubled once he saw the total number of hours that the progress bar indicated. His modified polyphasic sleeping pattern the 'Ubernash' required him to take at least four 25 minutes of sleep within a 24 Hour time period.
He found that he could last at most 15 hours without taking a 25 minute nap and still function properly, without any health issues.
If he would skip this it would totally ruin his sleeping pattern, endanger his health and cause severe migraines.
In order to solve this dilemma. He did some experimentation with the behaviors and restrictions of 'acquiring knowledge'. He held the two books at the same time and started his experiment.
Both of the books' progressbar started. He sat down and waited for about 10 minutes. He double checked the progressbar and saw that both books indicated 47 Hours and 50 minutes left before acquiring the knowledge.
He then logged out of Zectas while holding both books. After a few seconds he logged in once more. He checked both progressbars and saw that it indicated 47 Hours and 51 minutes left.
His experiment was a success! Although there was a lag of about 1 minute in the progressbar but that didn't matter much to him.
His theory was that as long as the book was 'equipped' to his hand before logging out then once he would log back in those books would still be equipped. Since this was also the behavior for equipped weapons.
So the rule that a player must be holding the book at all times in order for the progressbar to continue only applies during the time that he is inside Zectas.
Smoke was in a sudden state of euphoria. Finding out new discoveries in the game was like a drug to him. He could now safely acquire the knowledge of these two books.
Now that Adder was back he could move more freely without the need of both his hands. So he decided to acquire the knowledge of the two books simultaneously.
He summoned his private army to give them some instructions. They would do this while he was still acquiring the knowledge of the books. He ordered some special tasks for the members of his private army.
Jinggu and Sharur were instructed to gain the poison resistance ability. Since going to Mandragora Forest would take too long. He instructed Vijaya to help them. With her falcons’ ability poison beak, replicating the poison damage from the poison slimes should be easy.
Sharanga was ordered to create a trap strong enough that even a mountain troll or a giant could not escape it. It also needed to have the ability to be deployed quickly. Ichaival asked if he could help her as it's very dangerous for a person to travel alone... or some similar excuse that Smoke found amusing. He agreed and had the two start working on the trap.
Thyrsus was given certain coordinates on his map. With his ability 'Falcon Vision', he was instructed to scope out the whole forest of his destination. Smoke wanted exact dimensions of the forest and locations of every possible vantage points that they could use against the master of that forest. He also told him, that no matter what happens only his falcon should enter the center of the forest.
As his private army dispersed Smoke heard Sharanga talk to Ichaival.
"You do know that the construction of the trap still happens inside the village right? The testing isn't going to happen for another couple of days. So you don't need to defend me or anything..."
"Oh, but you could still use an assistant right? Don't worry I'll be useful and won't be a nuisance at all."
The special activities that Smoke planned weren't only for the members of his private army. He also had planned a special training menu for himself.
From the last few days of monster hunts and quests, Smoke had reached level 72. However with his job change to Beggar. All of his equipment's attributes were cut down to 25% of their potential.
He thought that the penalty would only incur if there was a job requirement on the equipment. at least that's what he gathered from the description of the 'Beggar's Adaptation' ability.
However that was not the whole truth. He soon discovered that the Beggar's Adaptation would take effect all the time. Regardless if there was a job requirement or not.
He checked the bonuses that he got from the 'ModBlackSniper Armor Set' which confirmed his theory. It's bonuses were cut down to 25%. He tried out his composite bow and he only managed to do 350 damage instead of 1,400.
Fortunately, the abilities that he had painstakingly raised over the past few months were unaffected. His ability 'Agility of the Horned Rabbit' which was pinned down at Advance Level 4, still gave him +420 Agility.
His 'Cunning of the Dire Fox' which greatly increased over the last quest. Just recently rose to Intermediate Level 9 and gave him a range of 280 meters to detect the presence of an enemy.
These discoveries from his Beggar job were the basis for his special training menu. He would focus on the things that were unaffected by the Beggar job since he still didn't know much about it.
He asked Adder to join him in the nearby forests. They went to a forest that had monsters who had levels of late 50s to early 60s. The monsters were mostly rabid raccoons, iron owls, and stone deers.
The monster that Smoke was looking for was the rabid raccoon. They have high agility and very fast attack speed. They were the perfect guinea pigs for his experiment.
He stood in front of three rabid raccoons with the two books still tightly held in both his hands. He then began taunting them. Immediately the three monsters attacked Smoke.
- Attacked by rabid raccoon. MISS. damage: 0.
- Attacked by rabid raccoon. MISS. damage: 0.
- Attacked by rabid raccoon. You've taken damage. Health -831
- Attacked by rabid raccoon. MISS. damage: 0.
- Attacked by rabid raccoon. MISS. damage: 0.
- Attacked by rabid raccoon. You've taken damage. Health -828
- Attacked by rabid raccoon. MISS. damage: 0.
- Attacked by rabid raccoon. You've taken damage. Health -828
- Attacked by rabid raccoon. You've taken damage. Health -830
- Attacked by rabid raccoon. MISS. damage: 0.
- Attacked by rabid raccoon. MISS. damage: 0.
- Attacked by rabid raccoon. You've taken damage. Health -829
- Attacked by rabid raccoon. MISS. damage: 0.
- Attacked by rabid raccoon. You've taken damage. Health -833
- Attacked by rabid raccoon. MISS. damage: 0.
- Attacked by rabid raccoon. You've taken damage. Health -828
- Attacked by rabid raccoon. You've taken damage. Health -829
- Attacked by rabid raccoon. MISS. damage: 0.
Smoke's lifebar displayed (30,214/36,850 HP). Unlike tank jobs like Knight, Paladin, or Chevalier, the Beggar job didn't give much HP boost.
He was raising his abilities 'Agility of the Horned Rabbit' and 'Cunning of the Dire Fox'. But ever since he began using the bow he never got in close range to the monsters. So he had no need to use his dodge ability often.
Adder and Igniz were ordered to keep watch for other monsters. Especially the iron owls since they have a range attack called 'feathered arrow strike'.
Igniz was quick to chase the iron owls hiding up in the trees. While Adder was busy defending Smoke's back from any potential range attacks since his 'Cunning of the Dire Fox' can't detect those kinds of attack.
