Inside a damp cave.
Thin sunlight refracted through the cracks on the stone walls and fell on a mossy rock.
Buzz, buzz, buzz!
A bold Blood-Sucking Mosquito was flapping its wings and swaggering blatantly across the air.
It was unaware of what kind of ruthless hunter it was facing.
Swoosh!
A forked tongue sprang out swiftly, and in the blink of an eye, this delicious mosquito was engulfed into the belly.
It was a young Explosive Magic Frog with lightning attributes.
Unfortunately, it too did not know what kind of cunning and patient hunter it was facing—
Whoosh!
The whistle of wind appeared suddenly.
The specially crafted frog-catching net arrived in an instant and held it in its place, all its struggles ended up futile.
The hunter, who had been hiding for a long time, skillfully took out a slightly rusty dagger and ruthlessly ended the life of the Explosive Magic Frog.
...
[You've killed 1 Explosive Magic Frog, killing a total of 164,250 Explosive Magic Frogs. You've set a new record in the milestone - Yuntai Mountain Frog Hunter.]
[You've received 1 XP]
[Your magic resistance has been increased slightly]
[Your magic resistance has reached 100% (cannot be further increased)]
[You've completed the first Mark of Evil mission, and you've gained the expertise: Ten Years One Sword]
...
"Ten years."
"I've finally become a little stronger."
In the cave, Roger lamented.
However, he didn't stay in this emotion for too long. After skillfully handling the body of the Explosive Magic Frog, he followed the path in his memory and withdrew from the cave area quickly and carefully.
In this dark and humid place, he was not at the top of the food chain; as a magic frog hunter, he may be just a slightly stronger prey in the eyes of other monsters.
Ten minutes later, at the foothills of Yuntai Mountain.
Walking on the gravel road overgrown with grass, Roger couldn't help but squint at the midday sun—it was as dazzling as in his memory.
"How long has it been since I've seen such bright sunlight?"
Inexplicably, he felt a little moved.
It's been ten years!
In the past ten years after he had been teleported here, he had spent every single day with the Explosive Magic Frogs: Before the sun came out at dawn, he would climb up the mountain to hunt for frogs; under the moonlight at dusk, he would then return home to rest.
Long-term activities in the caves had allowed him to obtain [Dim Light Vision].
But correspondingly, when he was bathed in the sun for a long time, the system notified him that he had received [Strong Light Punishment].
This meant slight dizziness and temporary slight loss of vision.
Fortunately, he had already finished all his work today and was on his way home.
From Roger's experience, this downhill path shouldn't be dangerous.
"But I shouldn't lower my guard at any time."
"This world is way too dangerous..."
Thinking of this, Roger secretly activated Hermit Ranger's professional expertise [Qi Divination].
[Qi Divination Technique (1st Circle Expertise): Able to avoid bad luck and gather good fortune, can inspect friend and foe]
[It consumes 2 points of stamina and 2 points of energy every minute when activated.]
...
If God could tell Roger in advance that downloading that strange profession model would cause him to teleport, then he would definitely not do it.
Unfortunately, there was no "if".
Roger was a young, long-time internet addict. He started playing games since he was a kid and had been playing for more than 20 years.
Just before he teleported here, he was into an unpopular DND-like game.
As a classic representative of "huge in addiction but lacking in skill", it was only natural that Roger was stuck at the first stage.
For an entire week, he had been in a deadlock with the boss at the end of the stage, a cunning mage lord.
The final result was that he had fled ninety-nine times.
Therefore, he had no choice but to take opportunistic tricks.
As a result, while he was looking for a game modifier on the Internet, he found a profession model made and uploaded by a fellow netizen.
That was a profession called [Hermit Ranger].
Roger fell in love with it at the first glance.
[Hermit Ranger] was a cool profession designed based on ancient Chinese chivalrous heroes and western mythical rangers.
The most important thing was that this profession had an extremely high magic resistance.
The designer claimed on the post that he hated mages.
So the profession of Hermit Ranger was designed to counter mages.
Since Roger had just been abused by the mage lord for a week, he was overjoyed when he saw this profession model.
He couldn't wait to click download.
Then, he got teleported.
...
[Basic information: Roger, 24-year-old human male, profession Hermit Ranger, LV5]
[Attributes: Strength 9, Constitution 9, Agility 11, Perception 12, Intelligence 11, Charisma 9]
[Expertise: Steadiness/Qi Divination/Seclusion in the Crowd/Light as a Swallow/Ten Years One Sword (New)]
[Skills (Life): Gathering 49, Herbs 49, Climbing 49, Peeling 25, Wilderness Survival 20...]
[Skills (Combat): Hiding 49, Raiding 49, Hermit Ranger Weapon Specialization 49, Nimble as a Rabbit 49, Taming Animals 49...]
[Special: Mark of Evil / Kill Order]
[Resistance: 100% Magic Resistance...]
...
An hour later.
Roger lay comfortably on the bed in his cabin, checking the attributes panel.
"I finally got the first Mark of Evil."
"My magic resistance is full now, and the attributes of the new expertise are also pretty good."
...
[Ten Years One Sword (1st Circle Expertise): Every time you fight, your first three attacks will be accompanied by four layers of 'Accumulated Energy']
[Accumulated Energy: The power of attacks is increased by 100% per layer]
...
A satisfied smile appeared on Roger's face.
This was an affirmation of his ten years of hard work.
Ten years ago, he got teleported to this planet called [Mystra].
He had nothing, only the profession model of [Hermit Ranger].
After learning about this world from an old man in the town, he warned himself, 'Don't be unfettered, be steady at all times!'
This was due to two main reasons:
First, because Roger was very self-aware.
This world was somewhat similar to the game world.
And he knew very clearly that in the field of games, he was undoubtedly an absolute noob!
Even if he got teleported here and obtained a profession model, it was impossible for a noob to suddenly become an expert.
As for those scenes where the main character started a killing spree just after transmigration, he better leave it for others.
When you are a noob, you have to admit it.
The best way was to grow at your own pace and accumulate your strength.
Therefore, every time someone invited Roger to go for an adventure, his response would be:
"Maybe next time."
"I'm not going."
"I'm not very strong..."
...
Second, this world was extremely dangerous!
According to the creation myth commonly circulating in Tongma Town, this world was composed of nine planets.
The smallest of them was the [Mystra] where Roger was located.
Mystra used to have a very glorious civilization, but that had long since become the past.
The rumor was that the creatures on the land had offended the God.
The furious God bombed Mystra with 19th circle spells for three days and three nights.
All tall buildings were razed to the ground.
Fertile lands turned into deserts.
These were not even the most terrifying thing.
The survivors of this catastrophe were horrified to find that as a consequence of the 19th circle magic explosion on the planet, large amounts of magic had constantly wafted over Mystra—the large amounts of lingering wild magic had become a curse.
Under the radiation of the magic power, more and more people or beasts were deformed into monsters.
Of course, some people also benefited from the densification of magic.
They were the adventurers who emerged from the [Mystral Wasteland Era].
But compared with the terror that breeds from the shadows, human beings were too small.
Few adventurers who walked alongside Roger ten years ago were still active in Tongma Town.
About one-tenth of them had gone to the south, where there was a greater abundance of magic power, to seek opportunities.
As for the others, Roger did not want to recall.
May they rest in peace.
...
It seemed that Roger's choice was undoubtedly correct.
Through hard work day after day, he finally became a little stronger and truly possessed the ability to get out of Tongma Town.
Of course, there was another reason why he stayed in the Novice Village for ten years.
This was related to the profession [Hermit Ranger]:
As a Hermit Ranger, Roger did not possess particularly outstanding attributes.
His six main attributes were only a little higher than the average person of Mystra (9 points on average) and slightly inferior to the adventurers.
Hermit Ranger's skill set was ordinary, and the expertise set was also only slightly unique.
The only distinguishing feature, which was worth noting, was that [Hermit Ranger] came with two initial special abilities, namely [Mark of Evil] and [Kill Order].
The former was exactly what had forced Roger to become the natural enemy of the Explosive Magic Frog.
...
[Mark of Evil: You can choose to lock the Mark of Evil on a monster species, and through continuously killing the same species, you may get extra attribute bonuses.]
...
For example, the attribute bonus that he gained from the Explosive Magic Frogs was an increase in magic resistance.
In the process of killing the monsters, the Mark of Evil will accumulate constantly on a progress bar.
When the progress bar was full, the [Hermit Ranger] would receive a special expertise as a reward.
Correspondingly, after this, he could no longer get any new attributes from that kind of monster.
It could be considered as "graduation".
After getting this special ability, Roger tried killing some common little monsters around Tongma Town:
Killing the Yellow Wind Rabbit improved his hearing.
Killing the Bush Fairy increased the X ability.
Killing the Little Earth Monster enhanced the affinity of the earth element.
...
Honestly, they were all useless attributes.
Until that time.
He conveniently dropped the mark on a young and ignorant Explosive Magic Frog while collecting some herbs.
Then, the story of the frog hunter on Yuntai Mountain began...
The initial magic resistance of the Hermit Ranger profession was 40%.
Ten years of career as a frog hunter allowed Roger to accumulate his magic resistance to 100%——
If one day he accidentally became a mage killer, then the 164,250 Explosive Magic Frogs must be fully responsible.
...
Now, Roger, who had completed the first Mark of Evil, felt relaxed from head to toe.
He knew that his accumulation during the past ten years was enough to get him out of Tongma Town.
He lay on the bed and used [Qi Divination] to calculate a divination for himself.
The result showed that he would have good fortune tomorrow, and it was ideal for him to travel and kill the opponent.
...
The next morning.
At Tongma Town Lord's Mansion.
Roger sprinted here alone and tore off the reward offer poster that had been hanging for three years.
"Corpse Demon, here I come."
He was about to turn around and leave but was stopped by two tall guards.