Zectas Volume I: Enigmatic Village of Nanahuatl (8 page)

 

 

- Attacked by dire fox. MISS.

 

 

Smoke was more than ready for them. The Dire foxes were hitting nothing but air. He was not the same man as he was before.

 

 

With the continued tsunami of dire foxes it only took 15 hours of continuous hunting before he reached 10,000 dire foxes.

 

 

He had killed his 10,000th dire fox and gained its ability but now he was stuck. If he would step away from the wall he will surely be surrounded and killed.

 

 

Smoke decided to continue fighting until he can come up with a solution. It has been 1 hour and he still hasn't come up with an answer.

 

 

He decided to gamble on his fighting ability and stepped away from the safety of his wall. The moment his back was exposed, all the of the dire foxes surrounded him from all sides.

 

 

Surprisingly Smoke manage to dodge the attacks from the back. It was all thanks to his new ability: Cunning of the Dire Fox. Which allowed him to sense the attacks from the back.

 

 

Slowly Smoke managed to get to the entrance of the Fox Hole. He didn't even have the time gather the loot because of the relentless attacks from the dire foxes. He decided to come back again once he had acquired a basic job.

 

 

Smoke was really cutting it close inside the Fox Hole. He was starting to feel hungry and his stats were almost cut off by 75% due to hunger.

 

 

As he ate to restore his satiety he pondered on his found theories so far. The reason why the monsters of the plains did not show their abilities to users was because once they encountered them they would already have a basic job. You can switch to other jobs but you can never switch back to being a novice.

 

 

Smoke felt really special because of the rare abilities that he had acquired. Just how many users could there be who had started in a remote village outside of a main city. He made a mental note to ask Darius for some more information when he reached Nanahuatl Village.

 

 

His return journey took 19 days(ZECTAS TIME) as his movement speed increased a bit with the increased level of Agility of the Horned Rabbit.

 

 

Once he reached the entrance of Nanahuatl Village he immediately noticed the different atmopshere. There were kids playing near the fountain. While the grown ups where doing repairs on their shops.

 

 

Smoke just found out that the families left in the village had their own specific trades. There was a tailor, a tanner, a farmer, a fisherman. and somewhat decent blacksmith called Darius.

 

 

Everyone greeted him as they saw him near their shops. Smoke then stopped by Darius' house to inquire as to what caused this pleasant development.

 

 

Darius told him that the Fish Dam that they originally thought to be only as a food source gave another benefit. It encourage everyone in the village to get some exercise and use their dormant muscles. Darius continued to give him praise for his great contributions in restoring their village.

 

 

Smoke then remembered his question for Darius. He asked if the ability learned from the 10,000th killed monster would be available for all monsters. Sadly Darius told him that this was not so. The monsters on the fields and the plains were a special case.

 

 

Darius then told Smoke that he did know of a monster but it was far away in the North Eastern Kingdom of Matotl. As they talked more about monsters near the Village Smoke asked about the Maneator.

 

 

Darius continued to tell him that it was a monster bred by a dark wizard whose level was past 400. It was made to possess great cunning, endurance and sadism. It was originally placed in the hidden dungeons of Coatl City and served as a guard to the city's treasure. It somehow managed to escape carrying the key to the city's treasury.

 

 

It would take at least a party of 5 whose level was all above 80 in order to subjugate that monstrous beast. Smoke was convinced of those levels. He had personally seen the foolish attempt of a party whose level didn't even reach that.

 

 

As their conversation went on. Darius remembered that Smoke had originally wanted to go to Coatl City and he inquired what was in Coatl City that he hurriedly rushed out of the village on the first day.

 

 

"Well, I was actually hoping to get a basic job change but right now I'm in no rush to go to any of the main cities. I want to increase my abilities as much as I can. I want to get stronger so that no one will have the opportunity to take advantage of me."

 

 

"If its a basic job change that you are looking for there is a hidden basic job available here. Its also my job as well. Although I have already gotten the master form of the job."

 

 

Smoke's eyes became wide as saucers. There was a hidden basic job right here in this forgotten village. Maybe that was the reason why he was able to start here. He asked Darius how to get the the hidden basic job.

 

 

Smoke eagerly accepted the quest. Initially Smoke thought that this old man was nothing more than just a beggar. What with his shabby clothes and all. However Darius showed him many abilities. It looked like this old man had multiple jobs at the same time.

 

 

Even though Darius looks like some frail old man but when he taught Smoke the Dual Wield Ability it looked like he had the fighting ability of a Great General. He knows about blacksmithing, dual wielding, fishing, construction. Except for cooking the rest of these abilities are specific to certain jobs.

 

 

Smoke also wondered why he was able to learn dual wielding when he thought that it was specific to thieves and assassins only. Darius then told him that there were 3 other jobs who could learn that ability. Novice, Master Blacksmith, and his hidden Job.

 

 

"So do I just go about and ask the family heads for their family token?"

 

 

"Even though everyone here already considers you as a trusted friend it won't be that easy. Asking them for their family token is like you asking them to give up their son or daughter."

 

 

It was obvious that a job quest wouldn't be something as easy as retrieving an item and showing it to the NPC. Especially if its a hidden job quest.

 

 

"So can you tell me where I can get my first family token?"

 

 

"Of course. You can get your first family token right here."

 

 

Darius went to a closet and took out a small statue of man sitting down with his right hand stretching out as if trying to grab something. The statue looked like the famous statue 'The Thinker' only that its hand was stretching out.

 

 

+ Received Darius' family token

 

 

 

 

Agriculture is a Dangerous Field.

 

 

Nash was just doing some finishing touches on his 3rd Video upload for ZECTAS. His 2nd video was about him attacking the armored armadillos. He was doing a damage of 1 with his beginner's knife until it broke forcing him to use his bare fist for the usual 1 point damage.

 

 

He expertly edited out the part where he learned the passive ability 'knife mastery' from breaking the beginner's knife. He was hoping that the results will be just as big or maybe even bigger than the first video. Hoping that everyone would still find him as hilarious but things don't always go the way we want them to.

 

 

His second video only got 223,335,161 views less than half of his first successful video. Nash was scared about the check that he would be getting with this kind of numbers.

 

 

Fortunately Nash's manager from the game center argued on his behalf and told the higher management that it is still a really high number and it would really be unfair on Nash's part to set the first video as a standard.

 

 

Nash thought of his manager as his 2nd father because of how much he always thought about his well being. He got a check for $15,000.00 and was told that from now on they would now be following certain standards.

 

 

As such the minimum amount that Nash could get would be $2,000.00 for videos with 0 up to 5,000,000 views. For videos that would reach 5,000,001 up to 199,999,999 views would be $10,000.00. For videos that are 200,000,000 up to 500,000,000 will be $15,000.00. For videos beyond that there will be a deliberation between the higher management.

 

 

Nash didn't really understand how they came up with those numbers. He just understood that if he didn't have high numbers he wouldn't be getting any money.

 

 

He desperately needed that money since he decided to become a pro gamer. After all this was his new source of income, replacing his 3 previous jobs.

 

 

After reading the comments on the 2nd video Nash discovered that people found it redundant they even went on saying that he was a 'trick pony'. Sure it was still funny but watching the same 'comedy routine' gets old really fast.

 

 

Nash needed to quickly change his approach. Unfortunately he had no other videos to show. He could show them the forgotten Village of Nanahuatl but that would mean that the rest of the world will now about this serene little village.

 

 

It was his little piece of sanctuary that he had always been looking for. He wanted to preserve that sanctuary for as long as he could.

 

 

"Well here's hoping that they will find this video more interesting."

 

 

He uploaded his 3rd video about him entering a hidden cave. There he found hordes of dire foxes. He was attacking the dire foxes with such blazing speed and dodging their attacks as if he knew each attack was coming. The intriguing part of it all was that this novice was using dual wield. A skill thought only available to thieves, assassins and their hidden variations.

 

 

He took out the bacon from the freezer and prepared the frying pan. He brewed a fresh pot of coffee. He quickly finished making breakfast. It was still 5am but this is already much later than the time he usually prepares breakfast.

 

 

He called his brothers to join him. As Nash no longer needed to leave the house for work. He decided that for breakfast and dinner he and his brothers will eat together. The 2 younger Smoaks found this very tiring but readily agreed.

 

 

This was their own special time of the day. For almost 20 hours Nash was inside ZECTAS earning money for them. They really wanted to join in saying that maybe they could bypass the age requirement or something.

 

 

Nash strongly told them off. He has been working so hard so that the two of them will get to finish their college education. It is enough that their departed parents only have one son who doesn't get to finish college. Besides it could compromise his game account seeing as they could detect that they are related.

 

 

"So Nash, why is it that you're pretending to be so weak that you're not able to kill those practice monsters?"

 

 

"I told you Donny, it's a secret. I can't tell you the reason. Knowing you I'm sure you will tell your classmates and then they will tell their older siblings. Then I won't have enough leverage over everyone else. Do you get it now Donny?"

 

 

Donny the youngest of the 3 brothers still wanted to know how Nash does it. Everyone kept on saying that he was using a video editor but after having his videos uploaded to the official site of ZECTAS everything was cleared.

 

 

"Come on Seth, help me convince him to tell me how. I've been telling my classmates and friends that the famous novice in ZECTAS is actually my brother and they don't believe me, they kept saying that if he really was then I should know how he does it."

 

 

"Well Nash already gave you his reason right? Do you want to give Nash's secret away? Besides if they don't believe you that your the famous novice's real brother then they aren't friends worth keeping. You don't need to prove yourself to a friend. Do you understand what I'm saying Donny?"

 

 

"You guys keep saying 'do you understand Donny? do you understand Donny?' but your the ones who don't understand my situation. I feel like you've forgotten how it was like to be 11."

 

 

The three brothers laughed and enjoyed their special time together.

 

 

After breakfast Nash got back to his room and checked to see if there was anyone who noticed his latest video. It has just been 45 mins since he uploaded the video and already there were 25,789,227 views.