ART Of Survival - Chapter 7

Out of the four things, point one and two that was getting his body back into shape and fighting level 0 and weaker level 1 monster were interlinked because he was not insane enough to fight with monsters with his weak body.

‘I am not going to rely on luck anymore, I will rely on myself and myself alone.’ (Auth:- Pfft loner MC…wait I am the one making him like this…) ‘So, that means the first thing I have to do is get some decent gear, I need money ASAP’ Mal sighed.

Mal was doing his daily exercise while thinking about ways to earn money, after completing, he moved out of the cave and started going up the mountain, towards the denser and more dangerous part. After walking for an hour he reached a somewhat flat area where many weird-looking flowers and plants were growing. This is was a place Mal found a few days ago when he was moving around the mountain to find a stream of water.

After the earth was introduced to mana, along with animals, plants also started to change. While some plants were very dangerous, some developed many different abilities. Some plants had the ability to cure wounds faster, some plants made people stronger while some made them faster.

The area where Mal was standing right now was like a paradise of these herbs. After finding it, Mal wanted to use all the plants for himself but now looking at his priorities he was contemplating that decision of his.

“I should probably sell some of these plants for money, that would probably make me have enough money to buy a battle suit and a weapon.’ Mal thought.

After the world was made into a frekin game, there were many things that were changed to fit into the ‘theme’ of our world. Therefore, people started to level up like in games, monsters started to drop items and raw materials, and hence, all of this led to more money-making occupations like blacksmithing and alchemy, these two occupations were money printing occupations. As both the weapons and purified herbs* were hot in demand by the hunter or the players.

Mal wanted to sell the plants he had found here in the secret garden to those alchemists.

“I don’t have a choice, I should sell some of the herbs and keep the rest for myself.” Mal thought as he carefully filled his bag with whatever herbs he wanted to sell. “I should head towards the hunter’s market,” Mal said as he started making his way down the mountain. The market he was talking about was like a shopping hub for the hunters.

The hunter’s market was not far from the mountain where Mal was staying, so it only took him half an hour on foot to reach the market. After reaching the market, Mal saw a person standing at the gate checking the hunter tag of the player, it was like an assurance as it was forbidden for players below LV 4 to even enter the market.

“How should I go inside?” Mal thought as it was impossible for him to enter through the front and back gates. “I cannot even sneak in…” Mal sighed as he saw huge railings surrounding the market, making it impenetrable. He was standing in the dark beside a building looking at the market just like a hungry man looking at food.

“Dammit! I should have known that it would be impossible to enter with a Level 0 status card” Mal cursed as he was getting agitated. He was thinking of various strategies to enter until he saw a party of transmutators and elementalists coming towards the marketplace at the same time from different directions.

“Fight! please fight!” Mal almost shouted out loud, as he now was happy as he had a chance to enter, and as expected-

The transmutators (Auth:- Is this a word? IDK but imma use this word instead of using transformers) as if trying to enter the market first then the elementalists, started walking faster and faster, but their path was blocked by a huge rock wall. “Ara…what a bunch of brutes, I hope you guys won’t mind us going first.” A girly-looking man stepped forward, he was wearing a long green robe and had a wand in his hands.

“How dare you a bunch of sissy little wimps block our path!!” A man from the transmutators party roared as he swung his hammer that made the rock wall crumble. He was ripped and had a Mario mustache on his face, which weirdly complimented his bald shiny head.

“Say that again!” another voice was heard from the group of elementalists.

While these people were fighting Mal was smiling in the corner (Auth:- My man’s a creep) looking at the gatekeeper. Now more people were joining from both sides, having no choice left, the guard finally moved from his place towards the area where people were fighting.

Taking advantage of the situation and not wasting any more time, Mal covered his face with the mask and wore the cape he had prepared, and made his way towards the market.

“Mission Successful!” Mal exclaimed as he finally entered the city, now the second part of his mission was to sell the herbs to a good alchemy shop, ‘I should have researched a bit…I have no idea what is the market price of these herbs,’ Mal was walking absent-mindedly, while thinking about all of this, and guess what? He bumped into a guard.

“Wtf…!” The guard cursed as he turned around to see a person fully covered in black clothes, looking at him dumbly.

‘Fuck my life!…’ Mal was in tears ‘that’s what I get from day-dreaming while walking’ (Auth:- See kids that’s why you shouldn’t drin…I mean you should have awareness of your surrounding while walking, accidents happen :}) Mal was sweating bullets and he had called out to everyone dear to him thinking that this was the end of him, as these days, it was not very rare for people to die and also no one would have cared if a useless LV0 person would have died.

Mal was going to kneel and beg for forgiveness, but lady luck was with him. (Auh:- aka plot armor san) The guard was going to ask Mal for his hunter’s license but, a colleague of his suddenly called him from far asking him to come and assist them in controlling the situation in the front gate.

The situation was way serious than Mal had anticipated as now everyone in the market was running towards the front gate joining in to fight so that they could help their fellow transmutators or elementalists. ‘I shouldn’t waste any more time, as this is the best possible situation for me,’ Mal sped up as he arrived in front of the first Alchemy store. Whose name was ‘Kimya* Herbs and Potions’

Mal entered the store and was greeted by a woman draped in a tight golden qipao, it had green designs on the border and was somewhat a size shorter than what would have been fitting for the woman which was highlighting her perfect curves. This was to attract more customers and this tactic of theirs was working perfectly as the shop was filled with men.

Even Mal was enchanted by the beauty in the golden dress. With much difficulty, Mal moved his eyes away from her and walked towards the counter which said ‘Buying Herbs.’ The person on the counter was a middle-aged man, he was short and looked scrawny, anyone seeing him for the first time would say that he was a harmless old uncle, but on close inspection, one could see powerful water element dancing on his hands and his half-closed eyes were emitting a weird light which had a poisonous feel to it.

Mal after looking at the man’s eyes, hurriedly moved his eyes away as he took out a flower from his bag, looking at the man in front of him closely, he put it down on the table and said.

“I want to sell some of my herbs.”