Of loot and skills

John took a deep breath, looking at the garden around him cleaning itself of the cattle gore after the boss kicked the bucket too. The air slowly smelled fresh again, nothing indicating that a fight had just happened except for his slightly charred gear and the broken fountain behind him.

It took his Gamer’s Body a few moments to work away the painful feeling in his chest. After managing to get up and walk to the corpse of the boss, he tried to regain the arrows from his face but could not dislodge them, neither could he be bothered to look for his arrows in the thick brambles, and when he looked at his inventory, seeing that he still had 40 arrows left, he decided not to bother; instead, he tapped the corpse’s hand with his foot, seeing the orc, helmet and all dissolve into smoke.

John picked up a small stack of cash, as well as a green stuffed boar, small foam tusks adorning it. Lastly, John looted a fist sized rock with a hole in it. He tossed it into his inventory to be looked at when he was outside of the barrier.

John walked back to the chest in the fountain, and opening it up, he found a few golden coins, a silver bracelet, a small buckler and a ring with a shiny yellow gem embedded in it.

After giving the garden one last glance, John raised his hand, closing his eyes as he shattered the barrier, finding himself in his living room once again.

John saw a pop up hovering in front of himself as he walked to the kitchen to get a drink, switching into his casual clothes as he went.

Quest cleared.
Clear a dungeon on your own 1/1.

Reward: Ensnare Skillbook
1 skill evolution point

John tapped the skill evolution point, curious as to what it actually was.

Skill evolution point: A way to develop a skill further than its maximum level. Use this on skills that have attained their maximum amount of experience to evolve them and start the cycle anew.

John then put his attention on the skillbook.

Ensnare Skillbook
When consumed, the skill Ensnare will be learned. Ensnare does what it says: it ensnares an opponent, preventing movement by binding them in vines. The vines can be broken through with sufficient strength or magical power.
John nodded to himself as he walked back to the living room, flopping down on the couch while sipping his coke. He saw on the clock that it was almost 2 pm, so he had spent quite some time in the barrier, but he still had enough time to do some other things as well.

John put the book on the coffee table in front of him, taking out the loot he got from the orcs one by one. He had a pile of copper ‘coins’, around 20 of them; he was thinking he might be able to smelt them all into an ingot or something, maybe Old Fred would know.

Next John pulled out a rather strange weapon. It was a hammer, made from simple, crude stone, but it was surprisingly sharp to the touch.

Sharp Hammer
Damage: 2 slashing damage + 1 crushing damage
Through sheer luck or stupidity, the orcs made a blunt instrument capable of cutting. Don’t ask me how or why they made it, they just did.
Requirements: Strength 3 Agility 1

Not something John would want to use, but he guessed it might be sold to Old Fred? If not that, then he could always see if he could scrap it for crafting materials.

Thirdly, John had four pebbles. They were round, small, very unassuming.

Holy Pebble
1 holy damage
Small pebbles that remained after some orcs accidentally destroyed the statue of their guardian deity.

That was all the loot he got from the orcs he hunted until he got to the actual castle. Next he pulled the items the final boss had dropped out of his inventory. Starting with the rock with the hole in it:

Orc Fleshlight
A rock that orcs jam their dicks into as a masturbation tool. This one has seen little to no use, though if I were you, I would still wash my hands. It does not provide any sexual stimuli for anyone with an Intelligence above 5

John threw that into the bin right away, under no condition did he want to have anything to do with that, not now, not ever. He shuddered at the thought alone.

Orc’s Best Friend
A stuffed little boar made by orc mothers for their children. They are treasured possessions for any orc. Soft, clean and able to make anyone smile.
Gift Item

Then he moved on to the items he got from the chest.

Buckler of Blocking
A round, oaken buckler lined with iron for stability, the shield is quite durable and has been enhanced to increase the blocking chance.
Properties: Chance to block + 13%
Requirements: offhand, Strength 12, Endurance 8

Silver Snake
A bracelet finely crafted by the ancient silversmiths of Meltaria two hundred years ago. It was inspired by the legend of the ancient snake Ouroboros, the snake that ate its own tail.
Requirements: none

John looked closer at the bracelet after reading the description, starting to make out small carved scales in the bracelet, two small eyes carved in the skull of the snake and finally two very small, cute fangs. John thought it might be the perfect gift for Cynthia together with the stuffed boar; putting the bracelet down with, it he took a look at the last item, the ring.

Ring of the Penitent
A silver ring with a shard of penite embedded in it. Used by the old Meltarian priests to boost their restorative powers. The Ring of the Penitent was said to increase the holy properties of the wearer.
Properties: + 20% effectiveness for holy spells.
Requirements: Wisdom 30, holy spell.

“Well, that one is useless to me then. Guess I will be selling it. But overall, not a bad haul, I almost leveled up and found a few gifts for Cynthia. Thanks, Gaia,” John spoke to the ceiling.

While speaking, John took up the skillbook. A prompt soon appeared asking him if he wanted to learn it. Realizing that he severely lacked crowd control, he didn’t hesitate and hit yes. Knowledge about the new skill filling his brain quickly, seeing the new skill take its place on his character sheet.

With one quest reward taken care of, John looked over his other skills, searching for a skill that might be worth investing his skill evolution point into. To his surprise, he found out that Common Bow Mastery was full of exp but had not leveled up to uncommon. The other ones that might be useful were Observe and Gamer’s Body or Gamer’s Spirit.. When John out of curiosity tapped Gamer’s Body, he found out that it could not be upgraded. The same was true for Gamer’s Spirit. With that knowledge, it was a match between Observe and Bow Mastery.

Actually, this is not that difficult a choice. Observe already tells me everything I need to know and more. I do not want any more details about people I observe, I mean, what if the upgraded version starts showing me their biggest kink!? I am totally going with Bow Mastery here, John thought, hitting yes when he got asked if he wanted to upgrade Bow Mastery to uncommon.

Skill: Common Bow Mastery. (passive)
You know how to use a bow to hit most unmoving targets. Damage with bow and arrow increased by 5%.
Similar effects do not stack.

Upgraded to:

Uncommon Bow Mastery. (passive)
You have mastered the basics of bowmanship, giving you the ability to move and shoot accurately most of the time. You can fire two arrows at once with a penalty to accuracy, increased penalty when moving. Damage with bow and arrow increased by 10%.
Similar effects do not stack.