Starting from Zero

Book 2, Chapter 9

The Ring of Stars

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"Of course it's hopeless!" The guild master teased, "Or do you think you can just find some connections with the Dark Palace and waltzing in?"

"Ugh. I'm just a little starter warrior, when can I make a name for myself?"

Then I took out the ring I never managed to identify. "My Luck is supposed to be high, but I've tried this ring hundreds of times without success!"

"Wha--wait!" The guild master suddenly gazed at the ring with his eyes glittering. "Where did you get this?"

"This ring?" I raised it in front of my face. "I got it from a system reward. No idea what it is, I can't Identify it. Oh right, You are an Appraiser! A little bit help ok?"

He picked up the ring carefully.

"Appraisal fee is 10,000 gold!"

"What the fu--" Did I hear what I hear?!

"I'll identify it for 10 thousand gold. Now don't think it as expensive, believe me, as long as you got this ring everything will turn into your favor!"

"Really?" Well now I really want it but...I checked over my pockets and only found 32 gold in there.

"I don't have that much money!"

Clark suggested: "Now just help him out! I'll pay the bill."

I thanked Clark gratefully. "That's too nice of you. Consider the money as my debt, I'll pay you back when I can!"

The guild master carefully moved a painting on the wall away. There's a safe hiding behind it. This old man took out three keys from three different parts on his body to open the safe, revealing a nicely-crafted metal box.

"Now this is my secret treasure. There's nothing in the world it can't identify!" Then he placed the ring on the table, and opened the box lid while aiming at the ring. A golden ray leaked out from the gap and shined upon the ring, after a colorful flash, the whole ring turn black. The decorative bat on the ring disappeared, leaving a big ruby behind.

The guild master put back his box and returned the ring to me. "The ring can trigger a quest for you. Since ur good friend with this hammer guy, (this is how guild master calls Clark. While Clark calls him "scammer guy".) I'll just tell you. Take this ring to the Sanctuary of the Earth Mother, located at the Eternal Neutral Land, Oskar, to get the quest. I dunno what you will get from it, but this ring is special-grade Artifact, it will definitely give you something nice! But the ring is pretty high leveled stuff, you'd better try the quest when you've reached level 500 or more!"

I just kept nodding. But when I checked the ring's attribute I froze.

Clark asked in a hurry, "Come on, what is it? I was a big help here and you can't just keep me hanging!"

I swallowed and said: "The ring is called the Ring of Stars, it takes your highest base attribute, and modifies every other attribute to that level. Magic Attack +20%, Magic Speed +20%, grants you the knowledge of all Dark spells, +20% resistance against all spells, Mana +20%, converts 20% of the damage you take into your Mana, all skills +2, Luck +7."

"Maaate!! Now that's something beyond terrific. I never know there are such overpowered Artifact out there! With those base attribute buffs you're going to become superman! So now all your base attributes are 13 right?"

I equipped the ring, and yes, they are all 13 now! I'm starting to regret. Why didn't I put all my points into one single attribute?

"Yeah, all 13!"

"Huh?" The old man asked with disbelief. "How come you have such high base attributes? Even if you chose a main one to add up, 13 is still too high!"

I scratched my head, "Oh sorry I didn't tell, I'm that only one player who got 4 rewards from the start. Then I chose Divine Demon as my Race. It got more points then others!"

"What?" He's even more shocked. "Well people sure can't judge a book by the cover! It's nice knowing ya, hahaha!

But on the other hand..." The old man paused. "You'd better keep it to yourself. Nothing good will come if too many know about this."

"Yeah. I know." Too bad my Companion Slot is determined from the start. Otherwise I can have dozens of them with such high Charisma!

"What's your level now?" Clark asked all of a sudden.

"70. Why?"

"Still long way to go. Work harder! You should have done better with the help of Dark Dragon Lord!"

"Of course I will!"

After some other chit-chat with the old man, I departed again for more grinding. This time I bought 4 packs of Wreath Pills from King Chemist's shop. I ate all my stock from last time! Before I left, I sold all the equipment I picked up before and bought three Town Portal Scrolls for Lost City. (Every city got its own portal scrolls. They teleport the user to the specified city, rather than the nearest city.) (*)

When I left the gate I started to consider about where to go next. Definitely not Dark Valley, those low level zombies can't give me much exp now, and there's no way I can deal with those high level Undead Fighters who just come at me as human waves! I found a place called the Monster Forest on the map, it says the place is suitable for level 50-150 players, a lot of monsters there are good at piercing defenses.

I decided on my destination. Now Lucky is big enough to be my transport outside the city. We reached the forest pretty soon. It looks creepy. Outside the edge I can see white mist flowing among the trees and I can't make out what's in there. But according to the map the place isn't that dangerous, so I collected my courage and entered the forest.

The ground is slippery with tree roots covered with green moss crossing the path everywhere. I marched forward awkwardly with hands and feet.

Now I remember, that Ring of Stars can teach me all Dark spells right? I searched around the skill list and only found something called Dark Mist, which can reduce the humid air around and makes me feel a bit better. Everything else is useless! There are more than 300 Dark spells, with only two healing ones, several support spells, and a dozen half attacking half protection ones like the Dark Mist I just used, all the rest are attacking spells! Now I know why Dark Mages are powerful. There are barely any Dark spells which aren't meant for causing damage!

While I'm complaining, Lucky sent me an alert. I quickly got into fighting stance. Our first target is about to appear!

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(*) Town Portal Scroll, the author used "回城卷", which probably came from a traditional Korean game. It teleports the player back to the nearest city. I'll call it "town portal scroll" here. This item in Diablo allows you to travel back to the dungeon as well, but it's only a one-way return in this case.