Fantasy Star Online's

7. Unusual Being Weak

Ryzen and the Thief-class player had arrived in the northern forest. The forest is where low level monsters inhabit just like Greenfields, but it has some rare monsters and one mini boss monster that will appear after 2 hours—real time—every time they are defeated.

"What do you want to do in this forest, without carrying a gun?"

The player armed with the arrow stops and looks at Ryzen.

"I went through a quest, to collect 50 Normal Stones in this forest."

The iris of the player's eyes moved to the upper left corner then to the right, and looked back at Ryzen. He held his chin as he asked, "Did you bring pickaxe?"

Ryzen tilted his head, while his eyebrows shot upwards as if showing a wondering face. A few seconds later, he realized something.

"Don't say...!"

"True, to collect Normal Stone, requires a pickaxe, more clearly is to mine," said the player while nodding slowly.

Seeing Ryzen's reaction, the player could only sigh and shake his head. He opened his inventory and took out an item in the form of an axe with crossed eyes made of iron.

"Wear this," said the player, offering an axe with crossed eyes at Ryzen.

"Oh, thank you...."

Ryzen accepts the axe, but just as he is about to touch it, a reddish transparent panel suddenly appears.

{Does not meet the requirements to use "Iron Pickaxe"!}

"What's wrong?" ask the player.

"Say, I didn't meet the requirements to use it" Ryzen said, pulling his hand back.

The player also pulls back the pickaxe and examines it, after a while, he stares at Ryzen.

"What level are you at?"

"I'm just playing, so it's still level zero, hahaha," Ryzen replied as he scratched his head.

The player showed no reaction, his expression remained flat as usual. He turned around and walked further into the forest.

"Follow me," said the player in a soft voice, but Ryzen was still able to hear.

Confused, Ryzen followed after him having no other choice. Then, they arrived at a place filled with rocks, ranging from his loot to large chunks.

The player walked over to one of the boulders whose size almost matched it. With a pickaxe in his hand, he lifted it up and then smacked it into the stone.

BAM!

In one hoe, the pickaxe stuck to the chunk of stone. Then, the chunk of stone slowly cracked from the pickaxe to spread all over and shattered into pieces.

"You can take it," said the player, returning his pickaxe to the inventory.

Ryzen could not help but be surprised at the scene, his eyes wide open like a ping pong ball. After the female player's voice reached her eardrum, she regained consciousness and closed her eyes several times before looking at the player.

"Ah, yes, thank you very much!"

The player nodded in response to his thanks, "Then I go first."

Then the player leaves, but before he disappears from sight, Ryzen exclaims to him, "Wait, what's your name?"

The player stopped and glanced back while saying, "Call me Moon."

"Moon's? all right, I'll remember that. I'm Ryzen, one day, I'll repay you for this, " Ryzen said.

"I'm looking forward to it" Moon said then disappeared into the forest.

Ryzen looked at the small stones scattered on the ground, after checking, it was really the item he was looking for. Ryzen began to gather everything, which turned out to be over 50 stones in number. After 5 minutes of collecting, he finally finished.

"Fuhh, it's finally done. Now just send him a chat," Ryzen said wiping his sweat, although there was not really any sweat pouring out.

Ryzen sends a message to Laiten through the chat feature. After which, he looked at both of his palms while contemplating.

"So, like this it feels to be weak and helped by others." Ryzen murmured.

For Ryzen, who used to be a top player in his old game, and always worked alone or the term solo player. Of course, as a person who has long been a strong figure, then suddenly became what it is now, is a surprising thing, even though all that happens only in the game.

———

Name: Ryzen

Level: 0

Guild: —

SP: 0

STR 3, AGI 3, INT 6, VIT 2, LUCK 4

Karma: 0

———

Everything is still the same as before, nothing has changed. Ryzen pressed the word written with an underscore, which read 'More', which is located between Status Point (SP) and Karma. Then a new panel appeared.

———

HP 105

MP :100

Defense :3

Resist :5

Evasion :1

———

The panel displays other statistical data, arguably more detailed statistics of its strength. Can be seen from the names such as; HP, MP, Defense, Resist, and Evasion.

Ryzen closed all the panels, then took a deep breath and exhaled.

"My goal here is to make money, not to have fun and be the strongest, but .... I'll get it!"

Returning, Ryzen left the forest with a bright and lively face.

Arriving at his meeting place with Laiten, which is in a small blacksmith's house filled with the scent of lead and so on. Ryzen enters the house, and sees Laiten and an old man who has no cursor, forging a sword.

Ryzen did not want to bother him, so he decided to rest on a long wooden bench not far from the blacksmith's workplace. While waiting, Ryzen was looking through the FSO forum he accidentally found while checking the 'Social' panel'.

On the forums, he found a great many useful topics for beginners. But, he did not open up the topic about such, Ryzen preferred to check out the Forum Mall, a place where players could sell or buy items from other players. The purpose he opened the Forum Mall was to find market needs, such as what goods are needed and much in demand by players, then what kind of goods fall into the rare category, such as, sold at a high price.

After about 10 minutes of diving at Forum Mall, Laiten, who was done with her work, sat down next to Ryzen, to see what she saw. But, it seemed Ryzen did not notice it due to being too focused on that panel.

"Hee, are you interested in buying something there?" ask Laiten.

"Hmm, not really. I'm checking the needs of the players again" Ryzen replied spontaneously.

"Hee...."

5 minutes later, after feeling a touch in his hand, Ryzen finally noticed Laiten. He looked at the orange colored hair in the corner of his view.

"When are you here?" ask Ryzen.

"Daritadi" answered Laiten.

Then Laiten stood up and looked at Ryzen with a big smile while closing her eyes.

"A-what's up? by the way, I've collected the materials you want."

Ryzen closed the Forum panel and opened his inventory. Then, Laiten held onto his shoulder, leaving Ryzen a little surprised.

"Are you interested in being my partner?" ask Laiten enthusiastically.

And coupled with the next sentence, it added to his shock.