Age of Gods - A VRMMO Story

While he waited for the sixty-second timer to count down, Thomas examined his gains and shook his head at the title. It wasn't exactly all that useful. He didn't plan to, or even want to, run through dungeons alone all the time. Thomas worked much better on a team where he could support better fighters with great gear and items. Just thinking about fighting even stronger nightmare difficulty bosses alone made Thomas rub his still aching chest. Feeling something sticky he looked down and noticed that his leather armor was coated in a splatter of the goblin generals black blood. It had been deposited there when the goblin general had backhanded him with its wounded arm.

This was a little surprising to Thomas because every time he'd defeated a dungeon monster it had dissolved into dust. Yet, even though the goblin general was dead and dusted, its blood was still coating his armor. As he was still contemplating that, the timer finished counting down and he was teleported to the entrance of the dungeon. He got an odd look from the official when he noticed the black blood covering Thomas's chest. After checking out of the dungeon he made his way to the adventurers guild. It was time to turn in a massive number of quests!

He garnered fewer looks than he expected while he walked through the streets with black blood splattered all over his chest. He supposed it was a common sight to see blood covered adventurers. When he stepped into the guild building no one paid any attention to him at all. Thomas ended up standing in line for nearly forty minutes before he finally stepped up to the receptionist. He spotted her eye twitching a bit when she was his appearance, but she maintained a professional smile as she asked, "How can I help you this evening?"

Thomas retrieved his guild card and held it out towards the receptionist, "I've got several requests to fulfill. I've got nineteen sets of goblin mana crystals, twenty-five sets of elite goblin mana crystals, and the goblin generals helmet to turn in."

The receptionist accepted his card while her eyes very clearly widened this time, "You have...", she did some mental math real quick, "... 315 mana crystals to turn in?"

Thomas nodded his head with a smile, "That's correct."

He actually had over 440 mana crystals but had decided to keep six of the smaller goblin crystals and 136 of the slightly bigger elite goblin crystals. The receptionist stood from her seat and straightened her skirt with her hands, "Please follow me into one of the rooms we use for larger transactions."

Thomas followed her to one side of the guild building where she stepped out from behind the service counter and opened a door leading into a short hallway lined with more doors. She opened one of them and led him into a small room with a wooden table and two chairs. She gestured towards the chairs, "Please have a seat while I fetch a cashier and appraiser to check your materials."

Thomas sat down while the receptionist left the room. Just as he was beginning to relax the door opened and a middle-aged man with a short dark beard peeked into the room, "You Thomas?"

Thomas nodded to the man so the man stepped into the room, "I'm John and I'm here to check the mana crystals you want to turn in. Please place them on the table."

Thomas stood up and started dropping mana crystals onto the table. Fortunately, he could somewhat organize things inside of the storage ring. Not perfectly, but he could place the goblin crystals on one side and the elite goblin crystals on the other. He'd used his crossbow bolts as a divider between them as well. Before long, Thomas has set out 190 goblin mana crystals, 125 elite goblin mana crystals, and the goblin generals helmet.

John got to work right away and quickly checked over each mana crystal. They only took about five seconds each, but with so many of them, it still took John nearly half-an-hour to check over all of them. By the time he was done, he looked tired, "Alright. I've confirmed all 315 mana crystals and the goblin generals helmet. You have completed the basic goblin hunt quest nineteen times, the elite goblin hunt quest twenty-fives time, and the goblin general hunt quest once." John looked incredulously at Thomas, "Give me a moment to gather your reward."

John left and returned just a few minutes later with a large bag of gold in hand. He set the sack of coins on the table with a loud thud and smiled at Thomas, "Your total reward comes to 4,900 gold."