Game’s Dogma

A gold coin for producing one scroll.

The great First Scrollcraft Scholar set out on his grand expedition. After burning through his savings, he ended up with a pile of useless Level 1 scrolls and levelled up scrollcraft to Level 2. Even then, he still couldn’t learn the crafting recipe for Return-to-City Scrolls from the alchemist.

It took him a while to find out that the requirement for crafting Return-to-City Scrolls was Level 3 in scrollcraft.

The great First Scrollcraft Scholar gritted his teeth; there was no way back at this point. He had to buy Level 2 blank scrolls and crafted Level 2 scrolls to level up his subclass.

Success wasn’t guaranteed when crafting scrolls. Thankfully, failing the craft still gave experience, though coins used to purchase blank scrolls would be wasted.

The great First Scrollcraft Scholar’s face flushed red when he finally reached Level 3. It was finally his time to shine!

Level 3 blank scrolls cost just three gold coins. He drooled as he thought, Even if I succeed in crafting a scroll once every three crafts, I can still sell it for several times the cost!

It was at that moment the Mercenary Guild made its grand appearance—and Rank 5 mercenaries could receive Return-to-City Scrolls for free.

Plenty of tutorials on how to level up to become a Rank 5 mercenary quickly became available on the forum. Return-to-City Scrolls were gradually dropping in price for an obvious reason: more people were ranking up their mercenary rank. Because mercenary rank was fairly easy to rank up until Rank 5, it could take as short as three weeks for someone to reach Rank 5 if they were entirely focused on it. It wouldn’t take more than one or two months even when going at it slowly.

When such a convenient method to solve the teleportation issue once and for all came up, many players decided to rank up their mercenary rank.

Our great comrade, the First Scrollcraft Scholar, deleted his account in the end.

With his in-game and real-life account’s savings both at rock bottom, he started the forum thread ‘I Hate You, Squandercraft’ before disappearing into oblivion. The comments were mostly three simple alphabets—RIP.

The ‘scholar’ was a bit too impulsive actually.

Scrolls obtained from the Mercenary Guild were untradeable items meant for self-use. Many rich players who couldn’t be bothered to rank up still bought the scrolls. However, the chance of succeeding in crafting a scroll was too unpredictable. You might succeed in one go, or fail ten attempts in a row. The situation probably wouldn’t improve until reaching Level 4.

Even then, the scholar had to craft scrolls non-stop every day for who knew how long before he could earn back his initial investment. Calculations revealed that the cost for becoming a Level 3 scrollcrafter cost around 100,000 dollars.

Only ordinary people would bother making money in such an unusual manner. Among them, how many were willing to dump 100,000 dollars to learn scrollcraft and earn the sum back slowly by selling scrolls for a hundred dollars each? The game was also ever-changing; who was to say that the free scrolls given by the Mercenary Guild wouldn’t become tradable, say, a month later? No one was willing to take the risk, thus no one bothered with the Scrollcrafter subclass, also known as ‘Squandercraft’ or ‘RIP’.

When nearby players heard that such a poor and ragged guy chose the legendary subclass of wasting money, they all grinned mockingly, yet no one went over to give him advice. It was just a game, why did they have to act kind-hearted?

They all thought he was the next ‘scholar’, an idiot who dreamed of getting rich overnight. But what he did next stunned everyone, because Drako Yau didn’t end the dialogue with the alchemist there.

He had of course read the post about the First Scrollcraft Scholar. Browsing the forum was part of his daily routine; he had to know everything going on in the game. Every piece of news or information could have an impact on him who was stuck in the game.

However, there were things the First Scrollcraft Scholar didn’t know. Or rather, because he was so focused on crafting scrolls, he didn’t spare any attention on everything else.

Brush—it was an item which could be purchased from the alchemist. In addition, higher-tiered versions also dropped from monsters or could be obtained through special means.

The scolar never visited the trade centre as his mind was occupied with purchasing blank scrolls and crafting scrolls over and over again.

‘Weasel Brush: Made from fur of weasel tails, it is smooth and flexible. It is suitable for both calligraphy and drawing, mainly for the latter.

Effect: Increase the success chance of crafting a scroll by 15 per cent.’

Buying it at the trade centre cost him 10,000 gold coins, but he didn’t hesitate as he paid the money. He knew there was no gain without paying the price, in a literal sense this time; he was never stingy with worthwhile investments. 

Drako Yau bought a thousand Level 1 blank scrolls right before the players who were mocking him. Under their stupefied stares, he started crafting the low-level scroll, Bright Scroll.

When he reached Level 2, only ten Level 1 blank scrolls remained. He had to thank the First Scrollcraft Scholar for listing out the crafting and experience requirements for levelling up in detail.

Then Drako Yau bought 2,000 Level 2 blank scrolls, before finally stopping what he was doing because he noticed a small crowd was slowly gathering around him.

To them, the First Scrollcraft Scholar was just a forum post and was more of a legend than anything. It was an entirely different feeling when witnessing the birth of a new legend right before their eyes.

Drako Yau shot them a weird glance, stowed away his scrolls, then turned around and left.

When the crowd finally recovered from their daze, they all realised none of them remembered his ID! It was the birth of a new legend! Among them, a player muttered out everyone’s thoughts, ‘Dammit… Man’s filthy rich… He can do whatever the hell he wants!’

Drako Yau of course had his reasons for choosing scrollcrafter.

Subclasses, for most players, were a way for them to make money. However, such a trifle amount didn’t bother him in the slightest. No matter how messed up things were for him now, he was still once the chairman of a top gaming company.

It was all thanks to the glutton he wore, the God-Slaying Demon Extermination Armour.

Even when levelling up was such a tough task in the game’s current stage, the armour still leeched half of Drako Yau’s experience, but it didn’t ‘grow up’ at all.

After it ate the Holy Blessing Scroll, he knew right away how potent it was as a meal for the glutton. It changed by eating a single scroll, to the extent that Chris was able to sense its presence. In contrast, leeching half his experience for a whole month had made no impact whatsoever. Even idiots could tell the Holy Blessing Scroll had an effect on the glutton.

After reaching max level as a scrollcrafter, there was a chance he could craft Holy Blessing Scrolls. Still, the crafting recipe was unobtainable from the alchemist given its rarity. You could only buy crafting recipes for common scrolls such as Return-to-City Scroll and Breeze Scroll. For divine items like the Holy Blessing Scroll, the difficulty of obtaining their crafting recipe must be beyond imagination.

But Drako Yau wasn’t going to give up because of that. Instead of letting the glutton leech his experience without doing anything whatsoever, he might as well be proactive and aim for a potential possibility. In the worst case, he’d simply waste several hundred thousand dollars, a sum he could afford to waste. Some scrolls also had quirky effects which might be useful as a hidden card.

Drako Yau wasn’t short on money, at least for now. What he sought was strength, strength that allowed him to clear everything up and escape from this world.

For that reason alone, he was willing to sacrifice his entire fortune.

Gotta feed this glutton before anything else.

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