As Alexander exited the cave he saw two rather fresh corpses lying at the side of the cave entrance. They had slit forearms and their outfits seemed to fit into the middle ages. They were probably from a nearby village and were abducted ba the necromancer to use their blood for the summoning array.
´The quest said that it was a beginner necromancer. I probably was his first summon and he probably was only slightly stronger than regular people since he needed an array and human blood as a medium to summon a skeleton magician. But this does make me wonder how humanoid and semi-humanoid players were spawned the first time. An undead can be summoned, but what about something alive, were they born? I think it is more likely that they were summoned with a hero summoning ritual like in an isekai anime.´
Alexander doesn't know this yet, but the plot that was used was a gigantic summoning ritual that would summon a few heroes to every single altar of the good gods. So the player base of all three types was distributed rather evenly over the whole world. This also meant that some players started of in a better area and might even directly get rare quests that would allow them to level up quickly, since nobility and farms tend to give different rewards for quests. Of course it wasn't completely random. People from the same area would spawn closer to each other than people from different continents. Monstrosities of course wouldn't spawn in any towns or cities but mostly in the wilderness, a few undead would be exemptions, since there were a few suicidal necromancers that thought it would be a good idea to summon undead in cities to cause chaos. So you could say that Alexander was seriously lucky that he was summoned in the middle of nowhere.
He looked around hoping to see something that would help him decide on a direction to go to, but all he could see were trees and more trees. Wait is that... a bush? Since the map function didn't allow him to see areas that he hadn't explored yet he didn't even know in which direction the next town was. Not that it would be a good idea to head there now, considering that everyone would be out to kill him and him not being strong enough yet to defend himself.
´Hmm I don't see anything remarkable that I could use as a guide. I guess the best option to find a town would probably be to walk straight till I find either a river or mountains and follow them till I find at least a settlement. On the way I will just fight monsters and level up. The most logical thing would be to find a small settlement and „clean" it up since humanoids and semi-humanoids give me the most XP, plus it would fit the image of a Lich, even though I still am skeleton magician.. Well we will see.´
This might sound cruel or evil, but considering how the game was set up with players gaining more XP when killing NPCs and players of other types it seemed kind of obvious that conflict between these types would be a big part of the gameplay.
As Alexander walked through the forest he could hear all kind of animals. Mostly birds though and the occasional roar which would normally be followed by the roar of another beast. While he was walking he thought about different things, about the possible applications for arrays in casting spells above your own level, the implications of the [Focus] option of the staff and about why the hell he was thinking about this stuff instead about things like how the game works, and ´Oh look at that pretty bird. How would it taste if I ate it? Or generally how does food taste in game? Can I even eat considering that I am an undead?´. But his thoughts were disturbed when he saw a small lake, you could even just call it a better pond.
´Since this game is highly realistic this means that animals and beasts need to eat and also drink. So if I just wait here for a bit there should be a few animals I could kill to level up. The beginning seriously sucks for monstrosities. The others probably get beginner quests and we have to kill animals out in the forests. I will have to check out the forums after I log out.´
He searched around the pond for a spot he could at least hide a bit at and finally found a rather sturdy, slightly larger tree he could climb to a certain degree. After he climbed up the tree he began to wait. His Mana had already recovered a few minutes after he left the cave. The [Runic Barrier] was kept active all the time though to prevent any unforeseen circumstances.
After waiting for about an hour a group of about a dozen boars arrived to drink from the pond. Sadly they arrived from the other side of the pond, so Alexander would either have to engage from a distance or risk getting spotted to get closer to them.
´Well I am a mage, so I will just try to bombard them with a few fireballs.´
After the first three reached the water Alexander cast [Fireball] five times which summoned five small fireballs which shot forth with a short delay between each. The fireballs flew rather quickly and the first struck one of the three which were drinking directly killing it. This alerted the others which instantly tried to get away while wildly squeaking.
Two of the other four fireballs missed but the explosion was still strong enough to kill one which was directly between the two explosions. The last two struck two boars that were stunned from the other explosions and killed them.
[Fireball leveled up!]
Alexander was slightly annoyed though since he neither felt like he gained any XP. There wasn't even any XP bar on his status where he could check if he gained any. But at least [Fireball] gained a level.
He got down from the tree and walked around the pond while the remaining boars got up after recovering and then scampered of while the rest was already nowhere to be seen. As Alexander got closer to the boars he took out he could suddenly feel a kind of energy bubbling in his Mana-Core which he felt to be XP.
[Level up!]
´Ah. This explains why I didn't get any XP just now. You have to be near to the corpse to get the XP. So no super-long range sniping. But it seems like at least the first level are rather easy to level up. I don't think there was a level-cap mentioned, so you should theoretically be able to level up infinitely.´
He used his staff to break of the tusks of the biggest boar to maybe use them later. Alexander sadly didn't know how to process the rest of the bodies though so he could only leave them there.
´Considering that my staff uses a refined rat skull as a focus I should also be able to use a boar head, but I don't know how to refine the skull or how to attack it to the staff. The humanoid and semi-humanoid players can probably just look for a craftsman or enchanter to do it for them. If these are even the professions you need for something like this.´
[Name: The Ancient One
Level: 2
Race: Undead
Class: Skeleton Magician
Strength: 6.5 (+0.5)
Constitution: 9.5 (+1.5)
Intelligence: 22.0 (+4.0)
Mental Fortitude: 19.0 (+3.0)
Agility: 6.5 (+0.5)
Dexterity: 6.5 (+0.5)
Available Points: -
Skills: [Fireball II - The most basic fire-attributed skill. Launches a small explosive fireball at the cost of an miniscule amount of Mana. Level II - Slightly increased damage and enlarged AOE.]; [Runic Barrier]
Physique: [Mana Conducting Bones]]