Starting from Zero

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I followed Clark to the second floor. It happens to be a small quest room. He asked me to sit down and went into another room. Soon he came running back with a blood-red long sword in his hands. He put it in front of me. "This is a sword I forged when I just finished my apprenticeship. See if you can use it."

I lifted the sword and started checking it. It\'s a very ordinary long sword, without any decorations, everything looks standard. But for some reason the blade is emitting a red glow.

I looked at the attributes.

Long sword: Soul Guardian of life steal,

Attack 25-40,

Attack Speed--Fast,

15% Life Steal,

Dexterity +1,

1% chance of knockback.

Good stuff! Especially the attack speed and life steal feature. In [Zero], a weapon\'s Attack Speed has 5 levels: Very Fast, Fast, Normal, Slow and Very Slow. Most short weapons are Normal, long ones are Slow. A Fast weapon is really rare, let alone Very Fast weapons! This sword is Fast and can absorb HP, the absorb rate is good too. A really precious weapon for a warrior type!

Out of fear that I may not be able to use it, I quickly looked at the attribute requirement.

Level 29,

Strength 370,

Dexterity 170.

Ha! I just hit the mark. Now I\'m level 29 with Strength: 13 x 29 = 377, Dexterity: 6 x 29 = 174. All barely above the line. I\'m so lucky!

Seeing no reactions, Clark thought I couldn\'t use it and started to comfort me. "Hey Ziri, mate, don\'t get depressed! I made this one out of an accident. It\'s good but the Strength requirement is too high. Low level people can\'t use it while high level people got better weapons so this sword is somewhat useless. I just kept it as a momento of my works. It\'s my first product after all!"

(With my high Charisma we soon became good friends and he started to call me "mate".)

Then I realized I haven\'t answered Clark\'s question, "Oh right! No that\'s not it. I can use it, it\'s perfect! How much does it cost?"

Hearing these, Clark told me with excitement: "Well it ain\'t useful for me anyway. I\'ll just charge you the base cost, 7 gold. Here you can take the other 6 gold back."

I didn\'t decline. For I don\'t have much on me either, I need to buy some potions later! Besides, Clark isn\'t someone to haggle over such kind of matters. I just need to help with his business in the future.

I equipped the sword, took out the shield I picked up outside the city and looked at myself. I\'m wearing all kinds of stuff, a total mess actually. But at least I managed to cover myself up.

When I\'m just feeling good about it, Clark interrupted: "Oh dear what is all these junk?! This black, white and that--red thingy, you look hideous!"

"Why? I think it\'s good! At least I\'m fully armored!"

"You call that fully armored? Where is your helmet? Shoulder armor? Gauntlet? And belt, tasset, and what about cape? You can wear six rings but you only have one!"(In [Zero], a player can wear ten rings in theory. But only the ones on your index, middle and ring fingers will have effect. Other ones are considered decorations!)

I interrupted: "I have another one here but I haven\'t identified it!"

"Right. That makes it two rings. You need another four! And you don\'t have amulet, no bracelets either. Two bracelets can bring you lot of buffs! And head accessory? None?"

Damn! I thought my set-up was decent, but after what he said I feel like a beggar!

"Alright. Today I\'m gonna dress you up even if it means I need to throw money in it. If other undead citizens saw you walking out of my shop like this, my reputation will be ruined! Come, take off everything and lemme see how to improve it!" And then Clark began to help me undress.

I ran away. "No, nononono! I can\'t take free stuff from you again. I\'ll just level up and come back for some better equipment later!"

Clark thought about it and nodded. "True. You will be leveling fast, you need to change your gear pretty soon anyway. How about this, Tell me your base attributes, I\'ll prepare a level-200 Dark Knight set for you. The highest level is 1000 but once you reach 200 your grinding will become nice and slow. Work hard till then!"

"Thank you!" I thanked him while jotting down my points and handed it over to Clark.

The instant I left Clark\'s shop, King Chemist snatched me away in a blink of an eye. He seems to have been hiding there for a while now. He\'s slim but he\'s strong! When we reached his shop I realized that it\'s not too far from Clark\'s. Only several storefronts apart.

King Chemist came to me with a bunch of meds and an evil smile on his face. "Hee hee. Let me introduce you about these medicine." He took out a black-ish pill. "This is called the Wraith Pill. It\'s all black but it\'s effective!"

"What does it do?"

"The main effect is health recover. Each pill gives you 500 HP, with twice recovery speed compared to those red potions you bought from other cities. How about it? Neat stuff eh?"

"Is it expensive?" Nothing good comes cheap. I\'m sure of it.

"Expensive? Of course not! I told you we\'re \'effective AND cheap\' and I meant it! The pill comes in packs, each pack cost a gold."

"What? That\'s rip off!" I quickly jumped to the exit.

And the King Chemist dragged me back even quicker. "Calm down! Just listen until I finish. You will know this is actually cheap!"

"Go ahead then!"

"Right. First, each pack contains 10 pills. Which means a silver for each pill. A normal big health potion in other shops costs one silver, and they only recovers 300 HP, besides their effect is slower than my pill. Now tell me, is it cheap or not?"

Now I think about it, yes this is quite a bargain! "The price is good!"

King Chemist got more excited upon hearing my approval. He quickly brought out a pile of Wraith Pills and said: "If you buy 10 packs now you get another for free. Whaddya say?"

"I only have 9 gold on me!"

"That\'s no problem. I said I\'ll give you a 20%-off. 11 packs for only 8 gold!"

"Thank you very much!" I jumped out of excitement!