Finding Objects

Ash lay on the bed, frustrated. What he read on the first page of the diary added to his desperation to escape the game.

"System," he called the system in a weak voice.

Ting.

A screen with a more complex display appeared before him.

Ash frowned.

'The screen's appearance has changed,' he thought as he studied the screen.

Inventory, Statistic, Level, Skill, Map, Stage, Setting, and Guide.

"Why didn't it have a display like this from the start," he grumbled.

One of the causes of his frustration was the constant ting-ting-ting-ting sound, so he pressed Settings, trying to find an option to turn off the damn notification sound.

Because of the notification sound, he almost died by the Assassin yesterday.

Ting.

A screen shows the settings display. A few lines made him grin with delight.

[System notifications ON.]

[System notification OFF.]

"Aha! Got it!"

Immediately press the option to turn off the notification sound.

Finally!

Then he tried pressing Stage on the main screen, and a screen appeared before him.

And this time without any notification sound!

Still grinning, Ash traced the Stage screen with his eyes.

[Stage 1.]

[Player obtains the Quest.]

[Success in completing the Quest will increase the Player's Level.]

Ash pressed Quest.

[Player: Ashborn Locke]

[Player Number: #23875]

[Quests:

⇒Get the Magic Ring inside the Giant Spider of Kulam Cave.

⇒Find The Supreme Magus' Grimoire at the Oriental Hotel.]

Ash put his left hand under his head as a pillow and thought, 'What does inside the Giant Spider mean?'

He pressed the map screen and looked for the location of the Quest in question, and the distance to its location.

'Hmm, the nearest is the Oriental Hotel,' he thought.

He closed the map and quest screen, then pressed Stats.

[Player: Ashborn Locke]

[Player Number: #23875]

[Level: #1.5]

[Stats:

⇒ Strength: 5

⇒ Endurance: 5

⇒ Agility: 5

⇒ Intelligence: 5

⇒ Magic: 5]

[Extra Points: 90]

[Profession:

⇒ Hunter: Level: #3]

[Sword Skill:

⇒ Shadow Dance: Level: #4]

Ash pressed Guide ⇒ Points and read its contents.

[Points ⇒ Obtained if you get an item.

⇒ Regular Item: 1 point.

⇒ Special Item: 10 points.

⇒ Rare Item: 20 points.]

Ash went back to look at his stat screen and saw that the number of points he had received was 90 points.

Two Rare Items meant forty points. And the Tenebris sword was a Special Item. So the remaining forty points were from regular items.

'Hmm..'

He pressed Skill on the Guide screen.

[Skill Level Up ⇒ Obtained if you successfully catch prey.]

When he killed the boar, his Hunter skill increased by one level. This means that from Globlins and Robber, he gets one level each.

Meanwhile, his Sword Skill was at level four. It went up by one when fighting boars, up by one when fighting patrolling goblins, up by one when fighting robbers, and up by one when fighting assassins.

[Stats:

⇒ Strength: 5

⇒ Endurance: 5

⇒ Agility: 5

⇒ Intelligence: 5

⇒ Magic: 5]

[Extra Points: 90]

He pressed the Guide option which explained Extra Points.

[Guide.]

[Extra Points: Extra Points can be allocated to the Player's Statistics.]

'My guess is correct, Extra Points can be allocated to Stats,' he thought.

Then he allocated twenty points each to Strength, Endurance, Agility, and Intelligence. The remaining ten points he allocated to Magic.

'What is this magic actually for? There are no Skills or Profession for Mages,' he was confused.

But Ash started to understand how to play this game, and he could find out the Magic stat was for, later.

What remained urgent to do, was how to complete the Quest.

***

Ash woke up in the morning with a slightly stiff body. While doing some light stretching exercises, he remembered that he had not checked the chest at the other passenger cabin.

"I'll do it later after lunch," he decided.

He also had breakfast on the bow and then read the Captain's diary while leaning on the hull.

The fiftieth day.

Today is the day I have lived on this island for forty-nine days.

This island is very comfortable for old age, but I'm still young.

I really want to go back to my time. But what can be done?

I will find a way out of this and I will definitely see you again, my son.

Ash skipped the pages that only contained the author's outpourings. He didn't want to drift back into despair.

He turned to the next pages and read what he thought was important.

Day two hundred and thirty-eight

I remember when I first came to this world.

I met several players and we worked together as a team to complete missions.

And I also met John, a player with thirty years in the game, who also owns a team. The team consists of many players from all professions.

John also explained that most Finding Objects players group up to level up quickly.

That's why my team and I have joined John's group.

And we often have wars between groups...

Ash was stunned to read it.

The war between groups...

How could he survive if he was alone?

***

Ash entered the passenger cabin which contained a large box.

He wondered what was in the chest.

The chest was locked with a large, rusty iron padlock. There was nothing special about the chest, all sides were made of black wood and were clean without any carvings.

It was about one meter in height and one meter in width.

With the crowbar he got from the first cabin, he pried open the padlock with force.

Clang! Clink! Clink!

The padlock came loose and fell on the wooden floor noisily.

Carefully, Ash used a crowbar to open the chest and then took a look inside.

It contained gold coins. Lots of gold coins!

The wooden chest was filled to the brim with it.

Ash's eyes widened.

'What are these coins for?' he thought in confusion.

He tried to pry out the coins with a crowbar, in case there was something underneath

Suddenly the chest closed with a loud bang.

The crowbar that Ash used to dig up the crate broke in two.

Ash was surprised.

And even more surprisingly, the end of the iron crowbar he was holding was neatly cut off, as if it had been sliced with a very sharp knife.