"Date?" The rest of the group turned to Maria with curious eyes.


    "Wh-- What do you mean date? We’re not dating." Maria blurted out, she seemed to be getting somewhat flustered.


    "Who said anything about dating?" Arthur asked with a grin.


    The rest of the group picked up on the new topic and ran with it, causing Maria’s cheeks to turn bright pink. She was eventually saved when the developers opened the door and requested the first group to enter.


    The briefing was small, but it mostly focused on the fact that everything was back online, along with a couple small changes that didn’t really affect the first group. The briefing ended quickly and the group was ushered towards their capsule room.


    Arthur noticed that he didn’t really get any strange looks, so they either hadn’t noticed the changes yet, or just didn’t care.


    A little whileter. everyone had entered the capsules and logged in.


    Merlin found himself on the road in front of the rangers guild where he originally disconnected from, rather than the endless rolling fields that served as Gaia’s domain.


    He quickly checked over his equipment, stats and inventory, but fortunately it seemed everything was as it should be. While he was checking his inventory, he took a quick nce at the panther he harvested.


    "Ny kilograms of meat, two and a half metres of panther pelt, fangs, ws, bones, and various organs. I should sell some of this stuff before it goes off." Merlin mumbled to himself.


    He then brought up his stats to make sure nothing had changed there either.


    ┌───────────────────


    ? Vitality = 7 (+6 Base, +1 Title, +0 Soul, +0 Equip, +0 Bonus)


    ? Constitution = 13 (+6 Base, +0 Title, +7 Soul, +0 Equip, +0 Bonus)


    ? Strength = 16 (+6 Base, +2 Title, +4 Soul, +0 Equip, +4 Bonus)


    ? Dexterity = 15 (+6 Base, +0 Title, +4 Soul, +1 Equip, +4 Bonus)


    ? Agility = 12 (+6 Base, +0 Title, +2 Soul, +0 Equip, +4 Bonus)


    ? Intelligence = 6 (+6 Base, +0 Title, +0 Soul, +0 Equip, +0 Bonus)


    ? Wisdom = 7 (+6 Base, +1 Title, +0 Soul, +0 Equip, +0 Bonus)


    ? Charisma = 7 (+6 Base, +0 Title, +0 Soul, +0 Equip, +1 Bonus)


    └───────────────────


    ’Looks like everything is as it should be.’ He thought to himself before swiping the window closed. ’I guess everything is normal, for now.’


    Merlin made his way to the merchants association and walked inside. A different worker greeted him this time around, and Merlin approached him.


    "Hello there. Would you be so kind as to tell me where I can sell animal parts, and also where I could get clothingmissioned?" Merlin asked the worker. "I’ve got arge panther pelt that I’d like converted into a cloak."


    "For animal parts and meat, our closest associated butcher would happen to be just left of our store as you leave. As for a cloak, we’ve got a tailor who works in-store, just approach the counter at the back there." The worker exined while pointing to the other side of the building.


    "What about bones, fangs and ws. Do you know where I could sell those kinds of materials?" He asked once more.


    "The counter at the back handles those too." The man answered.


    Merlin thanked the worker and made his way to the counter at the back of the store.


    "Good morning, how can I help you today?" The woman sitting at the counter spoke up once Merlin approached.


    "Hello, I’d like to sell panther materials, and have a cloakmissioned." Merlin said.


    "Alright, no problem. What would you like to sell?" She asked.


    "I’ve got an entire panther’s worth of fangs, ws and bones." Merlin said as he pulled some examples out.


    "Very well." She said as she reached out and took one of the examples, inspecting it for a moment before cing it on a scale. "Please ce everything you would like to sell in the cart to your left."


    Merlin did as he was asked. Unloading all the panther bones into the cart.


    The woman began inspecting the stack of materials in the cart, she began calcting the worth of each material, before finally turning to Merlin and informing him of the prices.


    "We’ll take the fangs at four copper each. Three copper for the ws, and ten silver for the skeleton." She said while calcting the numbers on an abacus. "That’ll be sixteen copper for the four fangs, fifty-four copper for the eighteen ws, and ten silver for the bones, for a total of seventeen silver coins."


    "Deal" Merlin agreed with the prices, and he finalised the deal.


    "Now for your second request, you would like to have a cloakmissioned?" She asked, "Do you have any specific style or materials you would like?"


    Merlin pulled the panther pelt out of his inventory and ced it on the counter. "I’d like you to use this, and the style doesn’t matter as long as it has a hood."


    "Very well. We can do that." She said as she took the panther pelt behind the counter. "What would you like to do with the excess material? We can take its value off the cloak’s price if you’d like."


    "That works for me." He said, before a thought came to mind. "Do you have any way of incorporating this into the design too?"


    Merlin pulled the crude fire stone out of his inventory and showed it to her.


    "We do, however that will increase the price." She said, pulling out the abacus once more. "The end result will be thirty-six silver pieces and six copper."


    "Sounds reasonable." He agreed with the price, handing over the amount and the stone.


    "Here’s your receipt, please don’t lose this." She said as she handed him a small wooden card that was covered in engravings. "Please show this to the receptionist when you’re ready to im your cloak. Pleasee back for it after three days."


    ┌───────────────────


    [Merchants Association Receipt. (Unique)]


    This receipt holds unique identification for a purchase made at the merchants association.


    ? Time left to wait: 71 hours, 59 minutes, 32 seconds


    └───────────────────


    "Thank you." Merlin said as he walked out of the store.


    As he left the store, he noticed that the atmosphere outside had changed. People seemed to be making their way over to the wall, as if something had happened.


    ’I’ll check it out in a minute.’ Merlin said to himself as he ran over to the butchers he was pointed to earlier.


    While not nearly as big as the merchants association building, this butcher was still surprisingly big. Merlin made his way inside, he immediately noticed the temperature drop around him as he entered.


    Merlin rationalised that they were probably using magic to keep the temperature low in their storage rooms to keep the meat from spoiling as fast, and the cold temperature happened to be leaking into the rest of the store.


    "Hello there, how can I help you?" Arge friendly man asked.


    "Hey there, I’ve got a harvested panther from myst hunt. Someone at the merchants association told me that this is the ce to go to sell." Merlin exined himself.


    "panther meat you say?" The man asked as he walked around the counter. "We do buy that. Do you have it on you right now?"


    "Yes, I’ve got it stored away." Merlin said. "Would you like me to take it out here, or do you have a specific ce for it?"


    Merlin was eventually lead into one of the back rooms, and as he suspected, it was much colder than the rest of the building.


    He ended up selling eighty of his ny kilograms of meat, deciding to keep ten for himself, just in case he needed to utilise his ghoulish tendencies passive in a pinch. He also sold all the panther’s internal organs, but he decided to keep the panther’s dder, which still had liquid in it, as he believed it may serve a purpose in the future.


    Due to the parts being dealt with so cleanly, something that probably wouldn’t have happened had he not done it in such a prepared environment with quality tools provided to him, he earned four gold pieces and an additional six silver.


    ’Harvesting is so overpowered in the early game.’ Merlin thought to himself as he said goodbye to the butcher. ’Although it does take a while to do, so I cant just waste my time skinning every creature I see.’


    Merlin threw the money into his inventory and quickly made his way towards the wall where everyone was heading. He climbed the hill and approached the crowd that had formed near the gate.


    Merlin squeezed his way through the crowd, where he saw arge group of wounded individuals making their way towards the rangers guild. Merlin noticed that a few of the ones being carried around were quite clearly dead. Some were just missing limbs, but others seemed to have had their throats wed out.


    "What on earth happened?" Merlin muttered out loud as his eyes locked onto a beautiful brte with an angered expression walking behind the group.