Having gathered the Dew Berries, Arthur headed to the highway for the Gerbils.
"Despite being called a highway, it is basically just a dirt road. A wider dirt road…" Arthur said as he reached the highway. "Now then, where are those gerbils?"
The gerbils would move around and make holes in the highway. This was detrimental to the people that traveled on it. The caravans especially had issues since the wheels of the carts could get stuck or even be broken from the uneven path.
'That should be them…' Arthur soon spotted a bunch of holes in the distance.
As he got closer to them, he saw just how extensive they were.
"This part will need a proper repair for sure." Arthur looked at the highway that was more holes than the highway.
But the gerbils couldn't be seen there right now. All one could see were holes.
~KIKIKIKI~
Arthur didn't have to wait long though as activity could be heard.
~SHING~
Arthur held the Key Spear and was ready for an attack.
"THERE!" He swung the spear to his left, slicing just above the holes.
~KIIIIIIII~
[-40% HP]
Dietrich had sliced through a dark brown creature with long nails and teeth. It was about the size of a cat and was a rodent.
'Dragon's Insight!'
>Dragon's Insight has been successfully activated!<
~DING~
——
Target: Large Trunel Gerbils
Rank: Common
Level: 10
Type: Animal/Beast
Info: A beast that is often considered a pest and likes to destroy roads and highways. They dig and create long tunnels that can weaken the road above, causing them to get damaged.
(more information is available)
——
Arthur didn't bother checking any extra information as he knew the Gerbils were very weak. They were one of the lower types of mobs that even lower leveled players could kill.
'The Large Trunel Gerbils don't have much strength, but hitting them is the issue…' Arthur thought as he swung the spear to the right. "Drat!" he cursed as the Gerbil ducked back into the hole.
~SLICK~
Arthur swung the Key Spear back at the first injured Gerbil and killed it in one go.
[Critical Hit!]
[Fatal Hit!]
[-60% HP]
>Player Arzhur has killed a Large Trunel Gerbil!<
>Player Arzhur has obtained 1% Experience<
The Gerbils were rather weak and could die in a few hits thus all Arthur needed to do was to make sure he could hit them.
'This quest isn't hard, it's just a bit annoying.' Arthur thought as he continued his slashing.
It was like a slightly different version of whack-a-mole. Except there were gerbils instead of moles, and a spear instead of a hammer. Still, it ended up taking Arthur around fifteen minutes to kill all of the large Trunel Gerbils.
>Player Arzhur has killed a Large Trunel Gerbil x 21<
>Player Arzhur has obtained 21% Experience<
>Player Arzhur has leveled up!<
>Player Arzhur has obtained 10 free stat points!<
The killing of the last gerbil also gave Arthur the final bit of experience needed for the next level.
"Eight more levels to go." Arthur said as he brought up the stat screen and saw the improvement.
~DING~
——
Name: Arzhur
Level: 12
Class: Dragomancer
Title: 1. Dedicated Kestrel Village Adventurer
2. One who uncovered a secret
***
HP: 100%
MP: 100%
Stamina: 100%
Hunger: 100%
Experience: 0%
Free Stat points available: 20
***
<Physical Stats>
Strength: 13 -> 14
Toughness: 13 -> 14
Agility: 13- > 17
Dexterity: 10 -> 13
Vitality: 11 -> 12
<Non-Physical Stats>
Wisdom: 12 (+3) -> 13 (+3)
Intelligence: 8 -> 9
Will: 16 (+4) -> 17 (+4)
<Hidden Stats>
Synchronization: 75%
——
He also added five of the free stat points to his agility and dexterity.
"I need to be faster." Arthur was now seeing the changes he needed to make.
He was saving up the free stat points for when he really needed them instead of adding them all at once.
Normally players would use their free stat points right away, as they needed the growth that came with it, but with the Dragomancer class that grew in all stats at once, it was a bit more easier.
Arthur had a lot more leeway in what he could do and had the luxury of holding back on the free stat points for later. If he was ever stuck in a fight against a foe that he couldn't overcome, he could always add more stat points as needed.
That way he would have a better chance of surviving.
"Now to clean these up." Arthur quickly got to butchering the Large Trunel gerbils.
He originally needed to take something from the Gerbil as a proof of killing them, but that wasn't all Arthur wanted.
'My Butcher Skill should be just enough to get the second material…' Arthur first cut off the two long incisors of the Gerbils and stored them away.
>Player Arzhur has obtained Mid quality Large Trunel Gerbil Incisor x 1<
This was the item that would be serving as the proof of the kill. But what Arthur wanted was hidden in the body of the gerbil. He slit open its belly and searched around for a particular part.
"Here it is… its hard to find being so small." Arthur held what looked to be a dark green colored organ. 'I'll have to be careful with this…' he thought as he sliced the top and bottom parts of the organ.
>Player Arzhur has obtained a Low Quality Gerbil Gall x 1<
"Phew~ Good, it didn't leak." Arthur looked at the small gall bladder in his hand finding it to be fine.
This was the second material that could be obtained from the Large Trunel Gerbils. It was something that was hard to harvest if one didn't have the butcher skill at a decent level. Without that, the chances of harvesting the gall bladders were rather low as they would become useless with even a small nick.
If the gall bladders were cut and started to leak, the liquid inside them would go to waste. It was this liquid that Arthur wanted.
——
'With this, I'll have a small supply of potions.' Arthur thought to himself as he stored the gall bladder of the gerbil carefully.
The use of Large Trunel Gerbil galls was something that would be discovered later on by players. It was found by a player that was potioneers and used it in research and ended up being able to make a healing potion.
The best part was that these could be obtained in bulk as long as one had a butcher skill and merely needed to be combined with Dew Berries to make a better quality healing potion.
"Now to just finish all of them…" Arthur got to work and spent about twenty minutes in harvesting the materials from rest of the corpses.
>Player Arzhur has obtained Mid quality Large Trunel Gerbil Incisor x 20<
>Player Arzhur has obtained a Low Quality Gerbil Gall x 14<
Of course, even with the Butcher skill, Arthur wasn't able to obtain the galls from all gerbils. Some he had damaged while attacking at the start, thus he couldn't obtain the gall from them. And there were some that Arthur ended up damaging while harvesting the organ.
'This is good enough for at least five potions.' Arthur estimated. 'Though the Dew Berries will be a bit lacking. I can still dilute it though. At my current HP it should be more than enough.' He estimated.
>Quest updated!<
>Player Arzhur has killed the large Trunel Gerbils and obtained proof. Please deliver it to the Adventurers' guild to complete the quest!<
The quest notification also popped up, urging Arthur to finish it.
"Hmm… I got plenty of time to return." Arthur said as he looked at the time.
It was still 10 am, thus he had 14 hours left to use.
"Good thing I'm on the highway. Returning will be easy." Arthur muttered before running back to the Roran town.
Even if the highway was damaged, walking on it was no issue for individual players. Arthur reached the Town in less than fifteen minutes and quickly made his way to the Adventurers guild.
"I'd like to submit proofs of job completion," Arthur said to the clerk waiting in the jobs section.
"Of course. Please show me the requested items." The clerk responded.
Arthur placed the Dew Berries as well as the Incisors of the large Trunel gerbils on the counter, allowing the clerk to check them.
"Everything seems to be in order. The two jobs you have taken shall be deemed complete." The clerk stated, prompting the notification to pop up again.
>Quest Dew Berry Gathering has been Completed<
>Player Arzhur has obtained 5 Silver Coins as a reward<
>Quest Highway Gerbil Subjugation has been completed<
>Player Arzhur has obtained 12 Silver Coins as a reward<
>Player Arzhur's reputation in Roran Town has risen!<
Arthur smiled at the notification and took his reward, keeping the 17 silver coins away.
"Thank you." Arthur said before taking his leave.
His next destination was none other than the potion shop.
This content is taken from fr(e)ewebn(o)vel.𝓬𝓸𝓶