Temporal Pearls

Chapter 6: Village Square

Seth was blinded by the light after it dimmed down he found himself in the middle of a Village Square.

It was filled with fewer people than he anticipated. The players wore blue uniforms that differtiate them from the NPC. While the NPCs wore normal clothes of differt designs.

Wh he looked far, he could see the edge of the village. While the trance was to the north. It was just 50 meters away.

"Status" Seth called.

___________

[Window]

Level: (5/0)

Name: Seth Enoch

Class: None

Title: None

[Body Status]

Health: Normal

Strgth:  0

Dexterity: 0

Constitution: 0

[Body Traits]

~Locked

~Locked

~Locked

[Acquired Traits]

~None

[Personal Arms]

~Staff of Elevation

~Beginner Attire

[Skills]

~None

[Talts]

~None

[You have three Innate Traits. Reach the condition and unlocked them]

__________

"Hmm, there is no health bar. Only health status. Body traits? Is that an innate ability? What about Acquired traits?"

Seth scrutinized the status. Making sure he had digested everything.

It was almost the same as other VRMMORPG he played but with additional Body Traits and Acquired Traits

It means Seth has three Locked Body Traits while anywhere he saw 'None' it means he has nothing there.

Seth moved his hand and touched the Personal Arms and it expanded with a few explanations.

_________

[Staff Of Elevation]

[A unique staff Hatched from the Imagination of Seth Enoch The Cripple to assist him in walking. It has various features and functions]

[Beginner Attire]

Crafted clothes bestowed to all that passed Second Trial

___________

'Hmm'

Seth observed his attire. It's the same for every player. Though, others were slightly differt.

Female players wore an Azure flowing, long sleeve hooded gown, with silver flowers to the side.

Male players have an Azure long sleeve jacket with a t-shirt inside. The t-shirt was tucked in and the pants reached all the to the boots also tucked into the boots. Making them look ready for forest exploration.

At first, he did not see any special attribute, but wh he touched his pocket, a notification alerted him.

[Invtory is Empty]

"Okay?"

He touched all the pockets he had and th a notification came again.

[Choose Your Invtory]

"With tiny little changes, everything is feeling far differt from the previous VR Games" Seth commted.

In Seth's attire, there were 7 pockets. Two on the pants, two on the jacket, two on the boots and one on the inner t-shirt

And now he was required to choose which one should be an invtory while the rest will be normal pockets.

He th chose the inner t-shirt pockets.

[You have activated Invtory one]

Seth took a stone and put it in the inner t-shirt pocket and the stone disappeared.

Ding!

He heard Ding. Alerting that something happed. Maybe a way to show that the stone has passed to the invtory.

"Okay, good"

Seth should have chos the pants pocket but he believed that it would be safer in the t-shirt pocket. Who knows if people can target other people's pockets just to destroy them and maybe that will eject everything that was inside. That may increase the game difficulty but it should be within the realm of possibility.

One should never underestimate the game.

Seth has no idea how true his thoughts are. Some NPCs and Players may gain the ability to pickpockets. Pants and jacket pockets will be an easier target.

But putting the invtory onto the t-shirt also has its limitations. As a player moves his hand into the jacket, everyone a will know they are going to take something out.

While your hand is beside your pant pocket it took only thought to bring something out. Fast and easy.

Nonetheless, everything has advantages and disadvantages.

Seth's atttion was dragged by a group of injured players and NPCs that came back from a hunt.

He watched as they hurriedly got into the gate, passing the gate without investigation.

There were guards at the gate, but most of their duty was repelling beasts that attack the village from time to time. They also stopped any new face that was not from the village. They know everyone, ev the newly popped-in players.

"I can't believe the village chief. He was sding these Blessed Immortal Morons together with our guards to hunt beasts.

And accidts keep happing. What if their stupidity causes our people death!"

An old lady rants to her husband. They were standing by their culinary shop. The old man shook his head and said.

"It's better this way. Our Village Reputation will dwindle if we allow them to die without proper training. On top of that, if they become strong ough, they will have an obligation to train the childr in the wilderness. Not to mtion we can give them a dangerous request without death they can fulfil it!"

Seth was a bit far away, but he can hear them. It was so real that he thought he was back on earth. Only the vironmt and the attire people wore gave it away!

'Is this an NPC or players hidd in NPC clothes? Hmm. Maybe they make us wear uniforms to easily distinguish ourselves due to the game's realism!"

Seth swapped his hand to call on status th he froze.

"Looked at that newbie Immortal Moron flaunting his magic. He must be looking at something that we can't see. Lucky bastard!" The elderly woman said.

Seth did not know whether to laugh or cry. If NPCs are this jealous th they will be hard to please.

He continued what he was doing. Looking for a particular notification.

[Note: NPC are called Dwellers]

'If any idiots called them NPC things would go wrong!' He thought.

Under his watch, the injured players were moved to a small building with the word 'Clinic'

Seth followed them to see how they were going to be healed.

On the body of the NPCs and players, there was no visible injury. Only cuts that show dispersed pixels. And those with more pixel wounds were extremely fatigued. As for the player, their body was flickering.

Their health was so dangerously low that if not attded to they would disperse which means death.

Inside the clinic, he found another nasty old woman calling players Immortal Morons and she was the healer.

True to her racism, she first tded to the NPCs by first placing small soft mud on their forehead. Her right hand glowed before ergy passed to the mud which turned it into a liquid that seeped into their body.

In just one second their body was perfectly healed.

"Go rest now. The fatigue will hit you after one minute" she spat before her face contorted to disgust as she looked at the players. She grabbed their chin before stuffing their mouth with the same type of mud.

The players groaned as if they were expericing something worse than the injury on their bodies.

"Gtle," a voice from the back said, it was the Guard that escorted them. She quickly adjusted her treatmt but she was not as gtle as she was to the NPCs.

Thanks to Seth's bad luck or good luck, the old lady's eyes landed on him. She recognised him as the fool that was swiping at the air while she was passing.

Her eyes turned gtle as she said. "Oh, did you come to receive medicine? Please come and test some of my healing paste?"

Ding!

[Quest]

[Healer Mud wants to use you as an experimt Subject. Help her obtain the best possible information about her newly concocted medicines]

[Reward]

~Five Healing Mud

~+5 EXP

[Failure]

~Never receive healing in VulcanVillagee

[Accept / Reject]

Seth stared at the air, dumbfounded at the developmt. Should he accept or not?

In the d, the Medicine Paste may not kill him as long as it was a Game gerated quest, right?

"Okay, what should I do!"

The old woman was full of smiles as she dragged him into the room.

Five seconds later.

Ahh!

Awe!

Whimpering of differt kinds was heard from inside and the players quickly wt out.

T minutes later

Someone bolted out, cursing under his breath. His face changed from gre to blue th red. And from time to time he will drink a liquid from a gourd. After taking a corner he slumped down. It took another three minutes before he calmed down.

Wh he remembered what happed he trembled.  Seth was giv a Gourd that has a liquid but that was not the test. He was forced to sit on a chair and drink differt concoctions.

Each one was worse than the other and due to him strapped in place, he was forced to tell her the taste and how he felt in his body.

The rest she was able to record by observing his face changing colour.

Seth calmed down and was about to check his staff's full description wh he heard.

"Afternoon Hunt. Every hunter and Immortal mor… I mean, Azure Hunters should assemble at the gate!" A guard wt a the village announcing.

It piqued Seth's interest and he followed the guard.

Wh the guard finished his detour they had reached the gate. He found 39 players known as Azure Hunters and 0 Village Hunters.

Among the village Hunters, were equipped with armour and were well disciplined. And they were busy giving orders.

Seth stood with the Azure Hunter and without notice, someone kicked his legs and he twirled in the air before he fell face flat to the g.

"Get out. Go and train yourself well. Moron!" The guard that kicked him snarled.

Some villagers burst into laughter while the players have sympathetic looks. But some of them laughed too.

Seth dragged his body up and was about to leave.

"Use the quest gerated now and train yourself before tomorrow!" An old man said. He was a player.

"A quest?"

"Yes, it should have be gerated by now!" The man said with a frown.

"Oh, yes. I was dizzy!" Seth pretded.

He limped away and brought out a small roll of mud and put it on his leg.

Wosh

His leg was perfectly fine. The mud was just the size of a small stone that can be clinched betwe two fingers.

He found a place to stand and checked his staff. All the grievances wash away.

muhaha!

WuHaha!

GaHaha!

Seth began laughing like a madman.

"I'm great…"

Pow!

Aweee!

Seth was punched to the gut very hard to the point he felt like fainting

"This is not a village of madness. Throw him to prison!"