[System: Please confirm that you wish to hide name from the leaderboard. You will not receive the benefits that come with having you name on the leaderboard.]
The benefits that the system was talking about was basically a bonus stat of having your Fame all over the server rise by up to 5, depending on your position on the leaderboard. Something like this was definitely useful, but it could also be gained by other means, including quests.
If he had to sacrifice a measly 5 Fame, in exchange for being able to level-up and complete quests in peace, then he would definitely agree with it.
On the leaderboard, there were already a few players, but no one whose name rang a bell with Axel, meaning they were most likely just casual players who did not achieve anything too great in the future.
This also meant that he had a head start compared to the rest of the players who would join into Evolution Online later on, and he would naturally not waste it.
As a started, he was given 5 copper and nothing else, to be used for buying the beginner equipment and begin his journey to level up.
He did not waste any time idling around at the teleportation and went directly to the auction house to buy the items he needed, Only to realise the auction house was currently completely empty.
'Ah! The game was just release, and barely 100 to 200 players must have joined Roland, from that, barely 30 would have decided to spawn in Vain, since Roland currently has no capital.'
Only after a week would Vain be announced as the capital of Roland. Until then, every city would have an equal spread of players.
But Axel could use this to his advantage! No one knew the worth of properties this early in the game, if he could get enough money, he could buy up most of the land in the capital for cheap before it was announced as the capital, and by the time it is announced, their valuations would grow exponentially!
But this was just a rough plan, that lacked the most fundamental variable for it to succeed, money.
With his current 5 copper, he could not even rent out a property. He would at least need a few silver to rent something. But renting was not a method to earn money, it was a method to lose money. The real income came from buying land, and either building something you wanted onto the land, or renting it out to other players or guilds later on in the game. Either way, buying land was naturally the best option for Axel, but for that, he would need an incredible amount of money.
With his goal for the next week already decided; money and levelling up, Axel left the auction house and using the faded memories about the location of the beginner NPC shops, he made his way through Vain.
On the way, he passed by countless NPCs, and the occasional player. In Evolution Online, Players had their names written in white floating above their heads, while NPCs had nothing, seemingly the normal humans. The moment you killed a player, your name would instantly turn red, and the more you killed, the darker it would get. If you attacked a player, they had the right to attack and kill you without their name turning red. But that would not make you lose too much besides a single piece of equipment and 50% of your experience. However, if you killed a player and your name turned red, you would drop all your equipment and lose a whole level. In his previous life, Axel had been baited into attacking a player, who had purposefully kept his level incredibly low so that he would be instantly killed by any random attack, and his team members could loot all the equipment from the poor soul who was baited.
In Vain, fighting was forbidden, and any fighting, with NPCs or other players would result in the guards coming over and putting you all in jail for anywhere between 1 day and 5 days. If you killed someone, the guards would also kill you on the spot. This was why, entering a city, town or village while your name is not white was tantamount to suicide.
The few players he passed by were all white players, having only beginner equipment they had just bought, while others had no equipment just like Axel. The latter being a lot more common.
Finally locating the Archer shop, Axel entered.
With a crisp jingle of a bell, the door to the shop opened and Axel entered.
[System: You are the first to enter Beginner Archer Equipment shop. You have gained 10 favourability with shop owner NPC Bard. You have gained 1 fame within the city of Vain and 1 copper. This shop will now show on the map to all players]
Axel was temporarily stunned, before a devious smile was strewn across his face. Immediately, he left the shop, and visited all the other shops that had not been visited by a player yet and had not shown up on the map.
[System: You are the first to enter Beginner Warrior Equipment shop. You have gained 10 favourability with shop owner NPC Drax. You have gained 1 fame within the city of Vain and 1 copper. This shop will now show on the map to all players]
[System: You are the first to enter…]
…
After wildly running around Vain like a headless chicken, and visiting all the shops he could enter at his current level 0 level, Axel had received a total of 15 fame, 1 from each of the 5 profession beginner equipment shops, 1 from the church, 1 from the potion's shop, 1 from the pet shop; which required a level of 5 to purchase a pet but you could still enter, 2 from the taverns of Vain where you could satisfy your hunger and spend leisure time, after all, this was a game not a competition, and a whole 5 fame from visiting the mercenary guild branch. Along with the 15 Fame in Vain, he had also received 15 copper, which was actually what he was after.
His total assets, in just about 10 minute's had quadrupled in size to 20 copper! It should be known that for a level 0, it takes about 100 level 0 monsters to level up, taking anywhere between 1 minute and 10 minutes to kill a single one of them depending on the skills of the player and their profession. And each level 0 monster only had a 20% chance to drop a copper, and only a 1% chance to drop 2 copper. At most, he would not even be able to get 4 copper if he had gone grinding mobs in this much time.
But now, he had a lot more copper, and he could do a lot more, after all, money was a tool that, if used properly, could reap incredible outcomes. However, he had to first plan out what he was going to use the money for and how to maximise his gains.
Axel sat down at the side of the road to not block the passage of any carriage and began thinking...