Zectas Volume I: Enigmatic Village of Nanahuatl (6 page)

 

 

"Thank you for sharing your loaf with me young dark elf. However at the risk of sounding to presumptuous I was hoping that you could spare another loaf? Perhaps even 2 or 3?"

 

 

Smoke wanting to see the feat performed once more gave him 3 loaves of bread. The old man took one loaf of bread and swallowed it in less than 4 seconds, then then the next in 3 seconds. It seemed like he was trying to lower his time after each attempt.

 

 

"Thank you once more my friend the dark elf. I am called Darius. If you could perhaps give me your name so that I could call you that instead of calling you dark elf?"

 

 

"Right... I'm called Smoke. I'm still a novice at the moment but even legendary heroes were once novices themselves."

 

 

"That is true. I like your optimism Smoke. So were you able to reach Coatl City?"

 

 

Smoke suddenly remembered the traumatic experience of being tortured by the Maneator he also pictured Tristan laughing at him instead of just running away. With clear anger in his voice he answered.

 

 

"Unfortunately not. I met a couple of snakes as I was about to reach the city."

 

 

"Odd, I thought the snakes stayed within the forest and not in the fields. Ahh did you try entering a forest then?"

 

 

"Yes I did. I really should have listened to your advise and stayed on the safe route that you gave me."

 

 

"Yes you should have. Although I can sense much potential in you Smoke but at the moment you're not strong enough to face the monsters inside the forests."

 

 

Smoke only nodded in agreement. True at the moment he wasn't strong enough but someday he will be. As long as he sticks to his plan. Through the tedious process of grinding every possible ability that would put him at a greater advantage. He knew that having high levels were great and all but abilities are the real deciding factor.

 

 

"I'm aware of that too but I don't plan to stay this powerless forever. By the way you're familiar with the monsters on the plains and the fields right? Can you tell me something about their abilities? Like the agility of the horned rabbit ability? Or if the armored armadillo also has an ability that you can learn?"

 

 

Darius looked troubled. He was fidgeting as he answered.

 

 

"I'm afraid that I'm not familiar with that ability that you have mentioned. I didn't even know that you could learn abilities from monsters."

 

 

Smoke was sad. He had hoped to get some kind of confirmation about his theory that if he kills 10,000 armored armadillos he would learn a new ability.

 

 

Well there was no other way to know for sure but to try it out himself. Smoke bid farewell to Darius as he told him that he needed to start his training.

 

 

Smoke spotted his target. taking out his knife he dashed towards the armored armadillo. He noticed that his dash was significantly faster than before. Once he reached the armored armadillo he let out a barrage of attacks.

 

 

+ Attack hit armored armadillo. CRITICAL HIT. Damage 1.

 

+ Attack hit armored armadillo. CRITICAL HIT. Damage 1.

 

+ Attack hit armored armadillo. CRITICAL HIT. Damage 1.

 

 

- Attacked by armored armadillo. Miss damage. 0

 

 

+ Attack hit armored armadillo. CRITICAL HIT. Damage 1.

 

+ Attack hit armored armadillo. CRITICAL HIT. Damage 1.

 

+ Attack hit armored armadillo. CRITICAL HIT. Damage 1.

 

 

- Attacked by armored armadillo. You've taken damage. Health -2

 

 

+ Attack hit armored armadillo. CRITICAL HIT. Damage 1.

 

+ Attack hit armored armadillo. CRITICAL HIT. Damage 1.

 

+ Attack hit armored armadillo. CRITICAL HIT. Damage 1.

 

 

- Attacked by armored armadillo. You've taken damage. Health -2

 

 

+ Attack hit armored armadillo. CRITICAL HIT. Damage 1.

 

+ Attack hit armored armadillo. CRITICAL HIT. Damage 1.

 

+ Attack hit armored armadillo. CRITICAL HIT. Damage 1.

 

 

- Attacked by armored armadillo. Miss damage. 0

 

 

Smoked noticed that he managed to make 3 attacks for 1 attack of the armored armadillo. The armored armadillo's attack also misses a lot more now. His agility of the horned rabbit ability showed its true splendour.

 

 

Smoke's initial estimate of needing 1 month needs to be recalculated. Since he can now devote more than 20 hour's a day into the game it would probably be less than 2 weeks before he manages to kill 10,000 armored armadillos.

 

 

As he continued slaughtering the armored armadillos at the rate of 3 minutes each. Something unexpected happened just after just 4 hours into his hunt. He received a status message.

 

 

- Beginner knife's durability has reached 0. Beginner knife is broken!

 

 

 

 

The armored armadillo continued attacking Smoke, now that Smoke has stopped attacking the armored armadillo, it took this as an opportunity to dish out more damage. Smoke just tried to evade them as much as he can.

 

 

Unable to attack with the broken knife Smoke did what naturally came to him. He made a fist and started using that to hit the armored armadillo.

 

 

With just his fists Smoke managed to make 1 damage point. Seeing this he continued to pummel the armored armadillo. It didn't really make any difference since the damage on the armored armadillo was always 1 anyway.

 

 

After 14 hours of repetitive armored armadillo hunting. He started to feel hungry and thirsty. Since he didn't move far away from Nanahuatl Village he didn't see any rivers or stream. He then remembered that there was a fountain inside the village. Smoke then headed back into the village.

 

 

As Smoke started eating besides the fountain Darius casually strolled out of his house and sat besides him. Smoke laughed as he knew what was gonna happen next. He gave Darius a loaf of bread and watched as he gobbled the bread.

 

 

Smoke gave his last loaf of bread to Darius. Without any bread left Smoke now ran out of food. He decided to try his luck with Darius if he knew some useful information.

 

 

"Darius, do you happen to know how to use this piece of meat?"

 

 

"Meat? Well obviously you cook it and eat it."

 

 

Well that much was obvious but Smoke wasn't sure if this was possible in the game. Since he didn't have any cooking tools that he could try to use in the first place.

 

 

"You do need to have cooking utensils and cooking abilities in order to cook edible meat though. Would you like to come to my house I can cook that meat for you?"

 

 

Smoke was relieved that Darius was somehow useful aside from his entertaining act of swallowing his bread whole.

 

 

As they entered the house Smoke found it to be somewhat decent even if it looked a bit on the shabby side you could clearly see that the house was clean and organized.

 

 

"While I whip us up some yummy grub just sit down and watch this master chef cook. Just how many pieces of meat do you want me to cook anyway?"

 

 

"Well you can cook these 5 pieces. I have over 1000 pieces of rabbit meat on me anyway."

 

 

Darius suddenly stopped preparing the cooking utensils. He slowly turned around and faced Smoke.

 

 

"Smoke I know that we have only just met but I was wondering if you could give me all of those rabbit meat. I desperately need it."

 

 

Smoke was already a little annoyed at how this old man kept begging for his bread but now that he heard Smoke has a lot of meat he wants to take all of his food supply.

 

 

"I'm sure that you are hungry but surely you can't finish all of this meat by yourself. Can't you settle for 10 pieces of meat?"

 

 

"10 pieces of meat? Well that would be too little. Can you please increase that amount to maybe a 100?"

 

 

Thinking that 100 pieces of meat was a high amount but then again he wasn't gonna run out of meat anytime soon anyway so he decided to agree with giving him 100 pieces. Smoke decided to think of it as a payment for Darius' cooking the meat.

 

 

Smoke and Darius ate the delicious rabbit bbq. With Smoke's satiety satisfied he decided to continue on his hunt, he still had that unbelievable quota of 10,000 armored armadillos after all.

 

 

This arrangement continued on for 5 days. During meals Smoke and Darius would usually share in some idle chit chat. Smoke noticed that Darius' body was starting to gain some meat. Actually Smoke was expecting him to be really fat now. After eating 100 pieces of rabbit meat each day. However today Darius was silent.

 

 

"Smoke, it has been a couple of days that you have provided me with meat. That is why I feel like I can trust you with this secret."

 

 

 

After seeing the system notification Smoke smiled. He was hoping that something like this would happen. He was curious as to what this useful information could be.

 

 

"First I'd like to teach you the ability of cooking."

 

 

Smoke was glad he had the opportunity to learn the ability. He had read in the forums that you would need to pay an NPC 5,000,000 zecs in order to learn the ability. Some users use this as their source of income, they would open food stalls in the main city.

 

 

Both Darius and Smoke stood up and headed for the kitchen. Darius showed him how to use the utensils and how to prepare the rabbit meat.

 

 

 

What Darius was making wasn't the usual bbq rabbit. It was instead rabbit stew. He took out some form of herbs and added it into the pot. He then motioned for Smoke to follow the same process.

 

 

So this is what it meant that it could contain certain effects. The HP regen is not that long though it must be because of my low ability level.

 

 

"Now that the stew is done, I'd like you to bring the pot and follow me."

 

 

Smoke placed the pot inside the cart that was prepared and followed Darius outside of his house. They walked 5 doors down Darius' house. Darius knocked on the door and a faint 'Yes, come in' was heard.

 

 

The sight before Smoke crushed his heart. There was a family of skinny people waiting for them. Darius then proceeded to feed them. He motioned for Smoke to do the same. While feeding them Darius introduced Smoke.

 

 

Darius told them that it was he who has been providing the rabbit meat this past few days. Everyone smiled at Smoke. They gave him praises and thanks. It took all of his will power to stop from crying at such a scene.

 

 

These people are just NPCs but why does it feel so real. He told them that he would continue to provide them with food and asked if there was anything else he could do to help them improve their health.

 

 

As they stepped out of that house. Darius faced Smoke and told him that they would still need to do this at least 4 more times. As there are still 4 families in this similar situation. Smoke readily agreed and continued to follow Darius from house to house.

 

 

"This was the reason why I asked you to give me 100 pieces of meat. Truth be told after the last 5 days I have seen the improvements of their conditions but I think it would be faster if you could somehow provide more."

 

 

"I totally agree with you. I still have around 500 pieces here I'm gonna give that all to you right now. I will also continue to hunt for horned rabbit meat as well."

 

 

As Smoke said those words he recalled his current problem. He doesn't have a weapon anymore. It didn't matter when it came to attacking the armored armadillos but the damage that he did on the horned rabbits was now also 1 because he was only using his bare fists.

 

 

Noticing the troubled look on Smoke's face. Darius asked him if something was wrong?

 

 

"Well I don't mind hunting for horned rabbit's meat, its just that my knife broke and now I can only do a damage of 1 on the horned rabbits."

 

 

"Why didn't you say so. Aside from being a great cook I'm also the village's best blacksmith. Since the real blacksmith left the village I'm the only one left that could do some smithing. HEHEHEHE."

 

 

Smoke was shocked to know this. He thought that Darius was just a cook but now he learned that Darius could also do blacksmith tasks. Whats up with this old man. He sure has a lot of abilities.