HC:Pacifist | Ch. 188 - Gourmand

Roth hadn’t been expecting a title like this related to eating and a rare one of all things. Among his many titles, most were common and uncommon. Titles that were rare and above were difficult to unlock, and the guilds kept information about them under lock and key.

Brian, for example, was a long-time member of Pegasus and was privy to valuable information on the guild’s activities. He had access to valuable information on different races, quests, maps, dungeons, professions, and titles. But, even so, Brian had only been given access to information on titles that were uncommon and below. This went to show how valuable rare titles were.

Roth remembered all his adventures with the [Power Truffle] and how he found a [Snake Fruit] down in the sewers. Those had been the first two stat-boosting vegetarian ingredients he’d consumed. But how many players had been lucky enough to do the same? How many players had had the luxury of eating these prized ingredients early on in their journey in AstroTerra?

Roth stared at the description of his new title. He wondered if there were vegetarians like him who refused to eat meat inside the game. Most likely, players who arrived from the Green Woods never got their hands on a [Power Truffle] and went hunting the elites around cities, getting and eating a [Wolf Fillet] or similar cuts of meat that permanently boosted stats, thus barring them from ever getting [Vegetarian Gourmand].

Perhaps there was even an equivalent for players who only ate meat, a [Meatatarian Gourmand] title, or something similar.

However, due to Roth’s unique journey, he’d been lucky enough to eat a [Power Truffle] and a [Snake Fruit]. Finally, with the [Golden Acorns], the [100-Year-Old Ginger Root], and the [Camel Queen’s Milk] he bought and ate in the market today, he was able to reach the five-ingredient threshold necessary to get [Vegetarian Gourmand].

He picked up the extra golden acorn he had purchased earlier for the Leafies and put it in his mouth.

The vitality of the forest strengthens you.

+1 wisdom;

+1 nature affinity.

As he chewed on the sweet, crunchy acorn, his mind was already working at full-throttle, thinking of ways to get his hands on another [Power Truffle] and [Snake Fruit]. He knew that the [Power Truffle] was on sale in the reputation store, and he imagined the same would be true for the [Snake Fruit] if he could figure out where their reputation store was. Perhaps, spending reputation coins to buy these consumables would be a solid investment later on.

Opening the auction house’s window, he purchased yet another [Golden Acorn] for the Leafies. It felt wrong to keep all the good stuff just for himself.

After this shopping spree, he had a little over a thousand gold left in his inventory. He grimaced as he realized that this amount was the same as the bounty that Pegasus had offered to entice all players in Hilsford to serve Roth’s head on a silver platter to Loki. It was a lot of money, but it felt so little. He wanted to purchase several things, but hopefully, this much money would be enough.

*

Blue Creek Town was one of the largest fishing villages in Green Country. Players who wanted to pursue fishing often started in the Water Caves. However, if someone wanted to start their fishing career in Green Country, this was one of a handful of fishing towns players could go to. It had a population of over 500 NPCs.

Zin looked at the fishing village on the horizon. He had to give it to the Ogres for pioneering the concept of keeping a pet village. They let hivies contaminate all the NPCs, which didn’t take long,  swept through the village collecting event points, and then waited for the village to reset with new NPCs. They would then leak that this village wasn’t infected yet, and players on the alien side would come running to start the whole process again. Although most guild farming teams only stuck to smaller settlements, as was characteristic of Ogre, he had gone for something more ambitious.

“Wait here,” he messaged his squad. He had brought his assassin team, which was made up of 100 rogues with a skill set that focused on damage-dealing and stealth. Even though they all had good gaming sense, there was no one that Zin trusted more than himself to do recon. After all, their target was the guild leader of the Ogres.

Zin turned on his [Camouflage], faded into a puff of smoke, and reappeared on the roofs of the fishing village. Some NPCs were walking around, going about their business, but the village looked quite empty. This probably meant that the Ogres had recently finished a harvesting cycle and were waiting for the village to be repopulated again so that hivies could come and create more prey for them.

Jumping from roof to roof, Zin spotted a small forested hill that afforded a good view of the village and, judging it as the location where he himself would have set camp, moved toward it. Zin wasn’t sure if he was the strongest player in the game, but he was confident he was the fastest. In seconds, he arrived at the hill and found the Ogres’ campaign tent. It was made of camo-patterned cloth, which helped disguise the structure against the green and brown background.

He didn’t dare go into the tent alone. Ogre had that annoying pet who would spot him immediately if he came too close. But that didn’t mean he couldn’t glean any information. He started doing a headcount of how many Ogre players were here. Previous intel said there would be fifty players.

With his squad of 100 rogues, he could divide them into three teams and have them stealthily approach thirty-three selected targets. Once he gave the order, they could just perma-stun and instakill most of this squad of Ogre players. Then, they could crush the rest using the sheer strength of numbers, thus enacting Loki’s revenge.

However, Zin had already counted sixty players and kept finding more. He frowned once he spotted heavyweights from other major guilds here, too. He spotted Manny from Cerberus, someone he respected and dared not look down on. He was one of the few players in AstroTerra who had come close to killing him. He then found Kraken and ColdHand coming out of the tree line and approaching the campaign tent. These two were very troublesome opponents, too. At least three of the top ten guilds had gathered in this back-of-the-woods place. What was going on here?

*

Trampler watched as the guild’s envoy unloaded the cargo in the clearing. The old man was a retired businessman and one of the guild’s best merchants. He had a refined set of clothing, but Trampler had never once seen the man without a straw in his mouth. He wondered if there was some sort of in-game benefit to doing that or if it was just an inexplicable quirk that the man had. Despite it granting him a grandfatherly, country look, the rest of his clothes were made of the finest silk, and even the carriage he used to transport the goods was made of beautifully carved wood, a true treasure. Once the merchant finished dumping the cart’s contents, he left at the slow, steady pace of a retired carefree man. Trampler nodded approvingly at the pile of golden cereal left behind.

“Now what, captain?” asked Ray, one of his team members.

“Now, we wait. The shield is impenetrable. This is supposed to grant us access,” he said, pointing at the pile of cereal.

“Tsk. What a waste,” Kevin, another one of his troopers, said.

Trampler couldn’t blame him. This was [Windy Wheat], a delicacy that could only be farmed by farmers level 30 and above. Moreover, it was an ingredient unique to the Sky Islands. There was at least ten gold worth of cereal in this pile. Whatever. It was the guild’s money, and the guild had deep pockets.

He squatted and waited. After several minutes, he finally caught some movement. A tiny little ant came across the shield, appearing as if by magic, and landed on the cereal. After a few moments, it disappeared. Then, two ants appeared, and then a third. They worked together to cut loose the grain from one of the stalks of wheat and carried it through the shield.

After a few moments, another team of four ants appeared, then five, then ten. As time passed, more and more ants crossed the shield and disappeared into the pile of cereal.

The Lord of the Woods accepts your offering.

+1 reputation with the treeants.

“Only one? After we gave it a whole pile?” protested Ray. “What if it had just been common wheat? These ants have a fancy taste!”

“What’re you gonna do?” Trampler said as he pushed his hand against the barrier. As he reached out towards it, the previously impenetrable invisible wall disappeared, and so did his hand. Grinning, he stepped through the shield and discovered the giant tree, just like the guide promised. Trampler instinctively raised his shield and positioned it between him and the high-end boar that swung its axe a few meters away. He tried to inspect the NPC to no avail.

He stood, fear-struck for a few seconds, not daring to move a muscle, but the boar ignored him. There had been nothing in the guide about that monster. The humanoid boar just kept swinging its heavy axe without even glancing in his direction. Fine. He would just ignore the NPC back. He didn’t want any trouble. He was here to explore the new map like BlueFire had ordered him.

The other three Ogrelords crossed the shield, showing similar reactions at the sight of the boar.

“Is it safe, captain?”

“I think so. It’s just ignoring us.”

“Wow! What a tall tree! I haven’t seen anything like it in the game!” spoke Lara, one of the most powerful hydrokinetics in the guild.

“Who would have known that such a secret was hiding in plain sight on a beginner map.”

“What’s up with the sheep over there? I’ve never seen any sheep in the Green Woods before.”

While his squad looked at what had been hidden behind the shield, Trampler walked toward the tree and located the small hole the ants were disappearing into. “OK, people. Gather round. Get the potions from the guild. It’s time to enter Antioch. Do not attack the ants under any circumstances. Got it?”

Hearing his troops’ agreement, Trampler gulped down the [Miniaturizing Potion] and then the item BlueFire had provided them with. Just as the guide had promised, they shrank to a 100th of their usual size.

Trampler checked the timer in the upper-right corner of his vision. The stacked effects of [Miniaturize] would last them one hour. If need be, each of them had ten more [Miniaturizing Honeydews] in their inventory, which should last them for half a day. They had that long to find a way to get more of it. The supply of expensive consumables wasn’t infinite, and the number one priority in their mission parameters was guaranteeing a steady supply of [Miniaturizing Honeydew].

“I can’t believe the developers hid this kind of feature from players for so long.”

“Come! Let’s enter the city. There’s no time to waste.”

The entrance to Antioch was a hole hidden under the tangled roots of the tree, with many ants entering and leaving. “Whoever found this place is a top-notch adventurer,” commended Lara.

Trampler kept a blank face, but inwardly, he agreed. To be able to find this shielded tree and then the gateway to a new world region while being bold enough to spend a [Miniaturizing Potion] to make it down there showed incredible insight and bravery. “No time to waste, team. Let’s go.”

The four players followed in after the many ants carrying food and pieces of leaf. Before they could progress far into the tunnel, the tunnel closed ahead of them.

When Trampler inspected the wall, he saw that there were two turtle ant elites clogging up the tunnel. “Now what?” he heard Ray say.

Trampler had read the guide many times and couldn’t remember seeing any references to this. According to the guide, all they had to do was enter the tunnels, not stir up trouble, and find work to do. But how were they supposed to do so if they couldn’t even enter the city?

“What should we do?” asked Kevin as his chain-mailed, gloved hand fastened around his spear.

Trampler pondered for a few moments, “According to the guide, to gain access to the stores of Antioch, we have to find work to do. The player who discovered this probably got a reputation bonus with the ants as a reward and could enter the city right away. We’ll have to do it the hard way.”

“But what kind of work should we do?” asked Lara.

“I don’t know. Just split up and do as the other ants do.”

The team skedaddled. Kevin and Ray followed some of the ants up in the trees, and Lara went after some ants disappearing into the grass. Trampler was already running toward the pile of cereal at the shield entrance. He would help the ants carry the cereal in and, hopefully, be allowed entrance into the city this way.

Ch. 187 - Shopping Spree

INDEX

Ch. 189 - Addendum