The teacher was speaking constantly in the background as their desks, which were also screens, showed the animations and slides she had prepared. Kai, however, was looking outside the window, not paying much attention.
Soon, the last class ended, and they were free to leave. Kai had to edit his recording and upload the video, so he immediately got to work after entering the clubroom. Jayden and Sora were talking about the missions in Stonebinder City. Even though the city was massive, the players, due to their low levels, could only trigger missions up to E rank. It was rare to even get a mission ranked D right now.
Hearing them, Kai looked up and typed on his holo, 'Did you guys find the thing I was talking about?'
Sora noticed the bright screen and stopped mid-sentence, replying to him, "No, we even asked NPCs, but there was nothing about this Illness mission."
'Hm.. How close are you now?' he asked.
Sora took her holopad out. However, it was Jayden who got up and placed it in the middle of the table, trying to "help her out." The hologram activated, showing their updated locations. They were quite near—just one or one and a half in-game days' traveling distance. They were together, most likely riding doubles since Jayden was a new player.
Kai pointed out a few villages near their locations. They would have to take a slightly roundabout route, but they could cover it with at most a two to three-hour difference. Pointing it out, Kai said, 'These are the villages where you can start this Illness mission. It's a rank C one.'
The rank was quite a surprise to them, but they both nodded anyway. Kai had given them the task of pulling useful information around Somnium and the nearby Stonebinder City if they were free. Jayden was free most of the time, and he did gather quite a bit of info. Sora did the job much better and faster, though.
Remembering the pile of ingredient-gathering dust in his inventory, Kai asked, 'Did any of you learn the skill Basic Forger yet?'
"I don't have the skill, but I do have a skill book for that. I got it from one of the most annoying E-rank missions in Stonebinder City. It was the most recommended one.." Sora replied.
'Good.. It's a basic skill for crafting as a Spirit Forger. If you're not using it, will you trade?' Kai asked.
"I don't have enough SP. I was going to learn more battle skills that are available to me before learning that.."
Kai showed her the info of The Mantle of The Hollow King. Both the skill and the equipment were easy to get once they passed level 20. She liked the attributes of the cape and agreed to do the trade.
Basic Forger was a very basic yet important skill for crafting. A Stonebinder Spirit Forger class player could use the various ingredients available and search recipes to create unique charms and effects. It needed spirit, which was what Stonebinders called an infusion of mana and life energy.
There was another class in Stonebinder called Earthshaper, which mostly used spirit to manipulate earth and stone. There were class-specific skills that needed to be learned, and each gave the user mastery over something. Not everyone could do everything—some could create weapons out of solid dirt and stone, some could only create shields, some could set up formations and traps, while some really powerful skills let a player become a literal golem and fight. Some were even able to connect with natural greenery and some beasts, creating unique playstyles suited to different kinds of players.
Sora was a Spirit Forger class, while Zayden was an Earthshaper. Spirit Forger had a crafting aspect, but that was just a side thing—their main skills revolved around boosting themselves or others with spirit, healing, and setting up formations, in which they were slightly better than Earthshapers since they could create tools needed to trap people. Basic Forger was a class-specific skill and only Spirit Forgers and Hexmancers (Who could use both species' crafting skills, having both genes in their bodies) could learn it.
Kai completed his video editing—there were two this time. One about the journey he had gone through and the wolf pet he had made—The poor beast was barred entry inside the town, so Kai had to let the guy go.
And another video fully dedicated to the dungeon—he had used the simplest method to clear it for this purpose. Hopefully, others would see it and learn to tackle the dungeons with simple yet effective means. The boss fights were not going to be easy for everyone, but at least it would show that in its base form, it could be defeated the fastest.
None of the people he had invited came to visit the club. Most probably hadn't even started playing yet. They would soon enough—the day after tomorrow was when the online store was going to launch. That would bring all kinds of players into the game, making it much more chaotic.
Kai went home along with Mimi, in her car, and soon after lunch, started the game. He had informed his mom and Mimi to do whatever they wanted for a day and a half in-game, which was close to 7 hours in real life. He had told them—including Sherry and Jor—that they would go to the 10-person dungeon tonight.
Kai had decided to spend the time trying out the ingredients he had gathered. He couldn't do much without the Basic Forger skill, which unlocked a crafting lab in their interfaces. But he did remember a few recipes for simple charms and effects and could prepare those ingredients and buy them, so he would just have to craft them once he received the skill. It should be a 1 SP skill, so Kai was okay with the cost. It was one of the essential skills, and in time, all crafting classes who could learn it would learn it.