Upgrades and Daughters

Washing his face at the sink, Sven cleared away the dirt and grime of the previous nights activities. Opening his inventory he dropped everything he had collected last night on the wooden floor, bats, toads, slimes and of course his trusty wooden stick, which was his makeshift stave that all new players spawn with. There was two favorite options available to new players at the start of Axiom, either you travel to new areas and buy better weaponry or you grind out the area you're in and craft better weapons.

The first option is better for alt accounts who have a lot of money on their main account to fund the rate of upgrades, however the latter account is better for new players who lack the capital to fund their upgrades. Crafting was cheap, and only relied on time investments to get the drops they need to upgrade. While not a permanent weapon upgrade, the stave would work as an acceptable base weapon to upgrade for now.

Looking at his feet he weighed his options, upgrading his wooden stick with slime would increase the magical bonuses of his weapon, but that doesn't matter to Sven because he can't use magic yet. Looking to the toads he could upgrade the stick with a poison DOT, that could be good. Then he looked to the bats, their teeth sharp and menacing, he could instead upgrade his stick with armor shred, his attacks would pierce more through tankier opponents.

Out of the three, only 2 were useful for him right now, and out of those 2, only one gave immediate damage bonuses. DOT was stronger against stronger opponents, but for the early levels straight up damage increases would be superior. With his mind made up, sven stored the toads and slime and arranged all of his bats in a circle around the wooden stick, casting his hand above the ritualistic arrangement of items, a purple seal appeared on the back of his hand, and in a puff of smoke, the items merged into the stick, warping it horribly.

"Transmute." Sven muttered, a skill all new players start off with, the ability to craft or create items, even none mages can at least use this much. The stick before him had changed appearance, gone was the gnarled oak like branch he'd used all of last night, now it took on a smokey wooden appearance, the end of the stick now adorned with 3 boney spikes protruding outward, menacingly, bits of red streaked through the wood, like veins on an arm.

Happy with his creation he began to walk towards the door, when he noticed a mirror just behind the door that he had missed the night before, walking up to the stained, chipped mirror he took in his new appearance. It was his character he had made a decade ago! He looked just like GateKeeper, he had short, spikey white hair and glowing red eyes like a rabbits, he was tall, almost 6 and a half feet tall, muscular and of fair complexion.

'Handsome.' He thought to himself as he touched his strong jawline.

"Breakfast!" A feminine voice called from the bottom of the stairs, Sven's stomach growled on command, deciding he'd rather waste no more time admiring himself when there was food in the picture.

Walking downstairs, the wooden steps groaned to every foot fall, this inn must have seen years of use. As Sven reached the bottom, the smell of cooked meat filled the air, his mouth salivating. Was it bacon he smelled? He sure hoped so, bacon was every mans best friend, especially if accompanied by a pot of coffee and some buttered toast.

"Right over there, my daughter will see to you shortly." The inn keep pointed to a table at the corner of the room, as Sven walked over to the table he took in his fellow inhabitants, some were poor folk that worked the fields, buying a house was costly, living at an inn was typically cheaper for those without capital. Others were adventurers like him, but none of them had that 'player character' look to them like he did, they were rough looking, hard edges and for the most part unattractive, they stared at him as he passed by them, did he look strange to them? Of course he does, no one here had red eyes and white hair, they probably thought him a freak or worse, a demon.

As he sat down, the looks began to disperse and conversation went back to normal, the low murmur of a group of people early in the morning without their pots of coffee. As they droned, one by one the daughter served food, table to table she delivered the plates of breakfast, Sven took note of what she was serving, the plates contained a couple rashes of bacon and a handful of leaks, sometimes other greenery like pea shoots or carrots, whatever they had at hand, Sven thought. Every time she delivered a plate to a table, she would shyly steal a glance at Sven's table, before bashfully looking away.

Finally when she got to his table, she set the plate full of food before him, it had 1 more rasher than the others had gotten, and a more varied plate of greens, leaks, carrots, peashoots, the whole lot. Sven smiled and thanked her for the food, however she merely blushed and bolted away before he could even finish. Sven looked confused, wondering what it was he'd said that scared her away like a frightened animal? Or was it his appearance? That was it, of course she'd be scared of someone with red eyes and white hair, he must look hideously ghoulish and evil!

Sven wasted no time in wolfing his meal down, it wasn't the most fitting of culinary choices, bacon and carrots and such, but it all tasted nice and it filled the hungry void inside of him that he had built up for himself the night before. Sighing contently, he picked himself up off the chair and exited the inn with a wave of thanks to the inn keeper before he left, belching into the morning air as the door closed behind him.

So, what to do on such a fine morning?