Treasure Hunt

"Hah phew," Apex wiped his forehead he had just killed another group of Trunk-gators while searching in the night. He purposely took longer and travelled around the forest to remember its layout and markdown descent locations for the journal guide he'd been writing.

And as he got up to search he soon arrived at the west end of the forest he could tell because in a mix with the forest were Standing and broken pillars.

"Where the fuck is this place!?" Apex bellowed he had been walking for at least two hours killing Trunk-gators left and right.

He stood in the centre of it all gazing at the uprooted stones and pillars with wild archaic symbols. He didn't remember the lore of this place, 'Something about the dryad I think,' but he didn't care.

'Uh, alright it says there's a cave between a pillar and tree marked in an upside-down v so were,' he paused looking around none of the trees or pillars were leaning together and most on the ground were shattered and broken into pieces.

'I passed the lake to get here so what am I doing wrong,' he paced back and forth looking at the map again he wasn't paying attention and hit a rock slipping and falling.

Thud.

"Ugh fantastic," he got ready to push himself up, 'What the?' he noticed one pillar leaning though it wasn't connected to anything which, 'What if they're not connecting like one in front and the other behind.'

He got up and started walking around every pillar he could, "Haha I found it!" He smiled and dashed into the space between the leaning pillar and tree. Looking around he found a brown spot surrounded by grass.

'This must be it!' he smiled and started digging with a shovel that was part of his farming equipment, 'Is it a ton of gold? A rare Item? Oh, maybe it's a guild token! If so I can sell that for a shit ton of money!'

Clack!

He felt his shovel strike something solid, "Hii!" he couldn't stop his glee as he dug around and dragged the chest into the open field. There was a lock around it, but that was to be expected.

He took out a lock and pick and was ready to open the chest.

Clack, SHUA!

"Yes!" he shouted twice to the skies as a golden light burst out of the chest. It was blinding as the night was disappearing rays of sunlight shot through the forest bathing him and the chest in holy light only for a moment, and it disappeared, he looked inside, "Oh my god..."

He grabbed the chest and lifted it...

Bam!

"WHAT THE FUCK IS THIS!" he threw it into another tree in rage there was no gold or item just the broken ring and another map!

"Aargh!" He fell on his back, "why pixie I thought we were friends," he called her name only the wind whistled in response. She was the Ai and god of the game meaning she oversees and makes all the decisions.

He sighed and got back up to the chest, 'Maybe the ring will be something epic like merlin's ring,' he got back up and walked over.

He picked up the other half of the broken ring and took it out of his inventory.

[The ring of growth has been reunited.]

"Yes obviously," he didn't wait for the option since it was a stupid question.

Shua!

This time he was bathed in a golden light as the two rings joined their crack mending in blue flames, "Holy," he felt the sun's rays gazing on him as if he was about to wield something precious.

[Ring of growth has been recovered]

[Ring of growth (White)]

[Do you want to bind yourself to the Item?]

"The fuck!" he screamed hurling the ring into a tree!

Before slammed against it though it stopped in midair "Eh?" and came back at him!

Bam! -30!

"Gah fucking hell!" he recoiled falling again! 'Ah, my beak or nose whatever something broke!' He writhed there in pain for a good minute before coming back to his senses, he sat properly and calmed himself.

'Alright, maybe I deserved that, what ring is this anyway?' He thought for a moment before accepting this would mean the ring was permanently bonded to him, it couldn't be stolen or lost. This kind of Item is a must for many but at the same time, it meant drawbacks.

[Ring of growth (White)] [0/1000]

[Skill1: Limit break [0 Ap] [duration: 10 min] [Cooldown: 24hrs]

[Skill2: [Locked Tier 1 required to unlock.]]

[Its growth will grow alongside yours one thousand of the same ranked or half of the corresponding above rank Items are needed to increase its power.]

"..."

Apex stood there having repositioned himself he leaned back against a tree in thought, 'This ring...' he closed his eyes and massaged his temples, "I bound myself to something no, breath."

[Limit break] [0 Ap]

[This ring can store excess attribute points to be used in battle temporarily, regular Attribute points are the same, 1 special point can be converted into 2 attribute points to store in the ring. The higher the rank the higher the conversion rate.]

This ring was extremely too good, but it's not the best Item in the game, but it what it could do was what mattered most to him. Two skills the other he had to become tier 1 so basically in three months. Perhaps two if he rushed.

With that beginning skill he could already see himself standing at the end of a lot of battles, 'I have 32 SP points meaning 64 AP for the ring, meaning in any situation I can easily increase my power, arcane or body stat, this skill is insane,' the more he thought about it the more terrified he became.

Not for him for his enemies.

"I don't need SP points other than learning skills from NPCs, the special stats and the tier advancement skill list I don't need to hold onto too much."

The ends of his beak curved into a smile, the issue of upgrading it didn't seem like an issue for him yet.

[22 SP points have been converted into 44 AP points and stored in Ring of growth.]

After that, he equipped the ring and checked the market, "Well damn," everything he put up has been sold out the bidding for the Breaker.

[All products breaker steak have been sold.] [₤48,200 have deposited into your account.]

He whistled seeing the money fill his bank account soon he could move out of his house.

"Alright time to get moving ah," a yawn escaped him as he stood and stretched he spent the next hour travelling back to the city and purchased multiple copies of blank books to write in purchasing a total of 40,000 all this cost him.

One blank empty book cost a little under 850 Bronze, you don't have to do the maths it cost him 34 gold. He was as rich as a Baronet right now without having the title.

...

Whilst in the carriage he soon finished copying his document into the guide books, solo, elite and a hardcore package he also drew in here them maps with decent grinding locations in the Jaws Forrest something he had to find out whilst treasure hunting since he couldn't remember all of it.

"And done," he closed the third book and smiled to himself, everything he wrote he done himself he went to the library to read about customs and locations of places he mentioned and wrote he accepted quests that would result in decent rewards but cancelled immediately.

This was so Pixie the AI and God watching over everything wouldn't get suspicious of him I mean you can't just hop into a game never explored and know everything about it without any leaks or preconceived notions that would set up alarms.

If you're wondering how cooking the epic breaker steak did not set any alarms it was one of the short scenes in the trailer of the game that along with Hints to some upcoming events it was the quest he was doing.

Next, he copied all three journals into the empty ones he bought the first thousand were for free players and solo players the next for Elites wanting to make a name for themselves and the last for hardcore players and guilds.

[Solo Guide] [Price: ₤80] [Quantity: 11,000]

[A guide for those who want to have fun and make light money on the side.]

[Elite Guide] [Price: ₤150] [Quantity: 19,000]

[A guide for those who want to make rankings and have their names known also information on buildings in the city.]

[Hardcore Guide] [Price: ₤300] [Quantity: 10,000]

[For those who want to take the rankings by storm extra information about shops and building guilds and information and building good relations with NPC merchants.]

"Alright," he smiled and put them up on the market why not do so digitally? Well for one he wrote it meaning to copy this one would need to write the entirety of it out and second soon enough others would catch on and other guides would appear in the market as he was first he could set himself as the go-to person for information and data.

With that, he got to the Inn and logged out.

...

Meanwhile, inside the game a group of four players had finally entered the city they weren't the first to recently arrive, this was a familiar group with two fox beast women a female elf and a dragonkin male.

"Wow! Isn't this place amazing!?" Satya exclaimed to her friends who were also taking the city in. The silver fox beast woman Re-bunny was first to speak.

"Calm down we have to first get ourselves acquainted here to how things work," she touched her chin formulating a plan Until her red friend beside her spoke up like the first time staring at the market.

"That might not be a problem have you seen what Apex just put up for sale."

"Eh? That guy we're seriously talking about him so what he was first here and beat a boss solo big woop!"

Arnold the Dragonkin spoke, "She's got a point I'm sure I could solo If I had his avatar," he had green scales with lighter green tattoos all over him.

The orange beast woman scoffed and shared her screen. Soon enough while he slept all his journals were being rapidly sold.