Destiny Online: Halo Paladin - Chapter 27

Chapter 27: Best Friend

“What are you doing? (Doge Sticker)”

“What else can I do? Playing games at home. (Bored Sticker)”

“I knew it. You must be playing games at home now that you don’t have to work. Destiny Online, am I right? (See Through Sticker)”

“Oh, I see even an OT Dog like you knows what gaming is.”

“Of course! It’s hard for anyone to not know since the ads are literally everywhere!”

“Are you playing? What level are you?”

Speaking of advertisement, the game spent a fortune in advertising and Nocturne was sure his friend, Fu Wei must have jumped on the bandwagon.

“Yeah. Level 10, Holy Priest. I played a while during the weekend and I decided to use all my annual leave today and stay home just to play the game. (Hehe Sticker)”

“Great. You are probably the only one I know who will take leave from work just to play a game! (You are awesome Sticker)” Nocturne giggled because it felt like something his stupid friend might do.

“I’m telling you, I got myself a good talent, it’s random but it’s good! If I can earn money in the game, I’ll go back to my office and quit that lousy job!”

“What talent did you get? You sound confident.”

“My talent is Alchemy Master. You know about alchemy right? All the combat players in the game rely on alchemy potions, it’s necessary during the starting stage. Potions that clear all kinds of debuff, all kinds of situations, even lifestyle players have to rely on alchemy skills sometimes to craft items.”

Even though Nocturne could not see his friend’s face, he was certain that Fu Wei was giggling stupidly.

“Not bad. What’s your Alchemy Mastery now?” Nocturne decided to play along with his friend’s boasting.

“I’m at 100 Mastery now.”

“You’re fast! Isn’t this your third day?” Nocturne was surprised.

“Not really. I played almost every night since the server opened and I got a buff from the talent itself.”

“Does it mean that you managed to overtake other alchemists in terms of progress?”

“You are so naive! A lifestyle player’s mastery depends on how good or how high grade of a material the player crafted, if you can’t get your hands on high quality crafting goods, it’s impossible for you to overtake other players.”

“Not bad, you understand the game better than I thought. Oh right, do you know anything about Elementary Fire Protection Potion?” Nocturne believed it was time to skip to the point since he had played along with his friend’s nonsense.

“Yup, we will be facing elemental damage from Level 15 onwards. Elementary Fire Protection Potion and Elementary Frost Protection Potion should be the most popular potions in the early stage. I’m saving up money to buy one of the prescriptions.”

“I found a way to get ingredients for the Elementary Fire Protection Potion. And I assure you it’s a steady output.”

“Are you being serious?”

“Yeah, I was thinking of selling the raw ingredients but with you around, Alchemy Master, selling a complete product should earn more.”

“Where are you? Let’s talk face to face.”

“I’m in Lake Town. Call me when you arrive at the auction.”

Fu Wei then went silent, probably on the way to Lake Town.

Nocturne took the opportunity to buy the prescription for Fire Oil and Elementary Fire Protection Potion, he even bought a ton of Fire Sacks.

The prescriptions were extremely expensive, Nocturne was almost broke after he purchased everything.

“I’m here. Come out and welcome me like your boss!”

The moment Nocturne walked out, he saw a guy sticking his face in the window, sizing up the female players inside the auction like a pervert.

“Okay, that’s enough. Let’s go to the tavern and have a talk. How long has it been since we’ve seen each other?”

“Let’s go! But you are buying! I spent all my money on teleportation, I don’t have a penny on me now!”

“You poor bastard…”

Fu Wei was Nocturne’s high school and university friend. Even though they were not as close as brothers, it was not like he had any close friends, both of them spent quite some time together, even sleeping on the same bed in the same dorm.

He was considered Nocturne’s best friend, even though he barely had friends.

When they arrived at the tavern, Nocturne booked a room. He then took the fish that he made and two bottles of rum. He also showed Fu Wei the two prescriptions he bought early.

Fu Wei skipped the courtesy and poured himself a glass of rum.

He said, “Why is it all fish? I don’t remember you loving fish that much.”

“I learned the Fishing and Culinary lifestyle skills. I made all these myself. I thought you liked eating fish.”

“Hoho? You made them yourselves? I guess I’ll have to give it a taste, it’s been a while since I ate the fish you cook. Cheers!”

“Cheers!”

During their internship semester, both Nocturne and Fu Wei were poor, so they rented a room together. Instead of eating out, they usually settled their meals at home and most of the time, Nocturne was the cook because Fu Wei was only capable of making instant noodles.

Fortunately, the two of them shared similar taste buds, it was much more convenient for Nocturne to cook. However, Fu Wei loved eating fish, but Nocturne did not.

Nocturne did not like fish because his mother was bad at making fish and it was always fish soup. Therefore, Nocturne was not overly fond of the dish.

Whenever Fu Wei wanted to have fish, he would add an extra fish during grocery shopping and Nocturne was forced to study how to cook a fish without spoiling it.

To his surprise, after testing a few times, Nocturne realized he was good at making red braised fish.

“Wow! Your red braised fish tastes so much better than before. It seems like you’ve gotten better,” Fu Wei said as he gave Nocturne a big thumbs up.

“It’s okay I guess. The fish is fresh here. There’s no such good fish for you back in real life, even if there is, we can’t afford it.”

“I guess you are right. To us!”

“Cheers.”

…

“Okay, now that we’ve finished eating and drinking, let’s talk business.” Nocturne prepared to jump to the topic now that the meal was at its end.

“How did you get that fish? Are you sure you can get a steady source?” Fu Wei skipped to the point by asking the critical question.

“I found it when I was running my first dungeon earlier in the day. It’s hidden quite well and I think it can give us a steady output. I got five from a single session.” Nocturne did not hide anything from his best friend.

“Which part of the dungeon? If it’s the final boss, we won’t be able to take it down.”

“Don’t worry. It’s at the first boss. I originally thought of spending a fortune to buy some better gear and skill books to solo it but now, with you by my side, I don’t have to worry about healing anymore. Let’s go take it down tonight.”

“Great. There are a bunch of Level 14s in the ranking now, I think they are delaying their leveling because they are trying to run sudden death mode for the first clear achievement. The achievement ranking should be updated in a day or two and when that happens, our potions will be the hottest item!” Fu Wei said excitedly.

“Mhmm, I met a rich female player back when I was a newbie player. She’s generous and she’s an executive member from a big guild. If we can sell the potions directly to her, we might earn a little bit less but we can win her favor.” Nocturne suddenly thought of Beitang Meng.

“Hoho, I see you got smarter, going after the rich cougars are we?” Fu Wei ridiculed.

“Stop joking. I met her in the newbie village. Beitang Meng, from Dreaming Back To Great Tang.”

“Oh, it’s her? Then forget what I said, you won’t be able to win her favor. She’s the guild leader of that guild and she’s the only daughter of Beitang Corporation’s boss. You should know that right?” Fu Wei asked with a surprised look.

“Honestly, I didn’t know. You know I never cared about all this kind of things,” Nocturne said with an embarrassed look.

“You are still the old you, even when we are talking about the ridiculously rich Beitang Meng. What now, are you going to be single and alone forever?” Fu Wei ridiculed again.

“Come on, cut me some slack. This is not what we should talk about. Get your Alchemy mastery to 110, then we will run the dungeon in the morning.’

Nocturne cut the conversation short and kicked Fu Wei out of the tavern.