Only after he reached Level 4 did he stop killing and finally look at his status and notifications, along with the loot.
He had 8 stat points to be allocated, and after thinking for a while, he put 2 points into Strength, Awareness and Agility, while putting 1 point into Intelligence and Physique. After all, Charisma was a stat that cannot be directly affected by Stat points, only increased through quest rewards or penalties.
Next he took a look at his inventory
[Inventory (1.7/50 kg)]
[5 copper]
[Lv 5 Goblin Core x 15]
[White Goblin Club x 9]
[White Goblin Knife x 4]
[White Goblin Bow x 2]
[White Goblin Arrows x 23]
[Unknown Skill Book x 2]
[Lv 1 Variant Slime core shards x 11]
[Lv 1 Variant Slime Sac x 4]
With this much loot, Axel was rather satisfied. This time around, he looked at the time before making any decisions and realised that there was still a few hours left before the servers shut down. But these goblins at the outskirts could no longer provide him with enough exp to level up quickly, which was why he would have to venture deeper into the map.
The Lv 0 map was unique in the sense that all the slimes were Lv 0, with the only Lv 1 being the Variant slime. Players would generally have to spend a long time grinding away in this area before they can enter the Lv 5 map, since these maps had monsters starting directly from Lv 5. These maps also had monsters that ranged all the way up to Lv 10, the closer you got to the centre of the map, unlike the Lv 0 map. This was the case for almost all general maps except the Lv 0 maps.
Therefore, as long as Axel ventured deeper, he would face stronger monsters, allowing him to level up faster.
Soon enough, he had crossed a few groups of Lv 5 Goblins, but he simply ignored them by staying out of their detection zone, before finally coming across a group of Lv 6 Goblins.
'Still too weak'
After grumbling in his mind about not coming across any Lv 9 Goblins, Axel ventured further into the forest. By now, he had already pulled ahead of all the players, at least in Vain, since everyone were either enjoying the game in the city, completing quests, or were clearing mobs in the Lv 0 map. On the leaderboard, which encompassed the entire domain of light, the highest player was only Lv 2.
Axel on the other hand was already Lv 4, and would most likely reach Lv 5 or even 6 by the end of the day. The reason for this was rather simple. Every level required double the exp of the previous level to level-up. This was why it would take him a more and more time to level up.
By the time people reached Lv 200, a soft cap would be applied of 10 times the exp from the previous level. In his previous life, only a handful of players were able to grow past Lv 200, with most of the players remaining below Lv 150. Those who reached past 150 were likely to appear on the leaderboard, just like Axel, with the weaker ones being hunted down for equipment and exp.
[You have discovered a new mission map: Goblin camp Lv 5 map]
[You have gained 5 Fame in Vain]
[System: You have entered Goblin camp Lv 5 map]
[System: You have acquired the Quest: Survivors]
============
Quest: Survivors
Status: In Progress
Task: Eliminate the goblins in the Goblin camp
Completion reward: 5000 exp, 50 copper, +10 Fame in Vain, ???
Failure Punishment: None
Note: The surroundings of Vain have been plagued by countless beasts. Eliminate this infestation of Goblins and relieve the citizens of their fears.
============
Hearing the string of notifications, and reading through the quest's description, Axel grinned. He finally found the place he was looking for; the place with the highest density of Lv 8-9 mobs, and the location of the Boss monster.
'Hehe, time to grind'