[ Water slime (Level 5): Capable of using water attacks. Weak against the lightning element.]
'Level 5 huh.' Zack thought as he looked at the slime. It was the first beast he had encountered which was above level 2.
"Status panel."
—
[ Name: Lin Fan
Level: 3
Titles: None
Main Class: Mage
Subclass: None
Stats:
HP: 10 / 10
INT: 10 AGI: 3
STR: 3 DEX: 7
VIT: 2
Available stat points: 15
Current Status: Slightly exhausted ]
—
Zack then put five points in his Vitality, Strength, and Agility. These were important stats for him since a balanced-out mage was more dangerous than one who only focused on intelligence to increase his or her damage.
After he was done with that, he immediately used his movement skill.
"Swift Lightning." He immediately moved behind the slime yet it turned alongside him.
It then shot a spray of hot water in Zack's direction and it looked dangerously close to...
"Lightning sparks," Zack said as he created three lightning sparks at once.
< Critical hit >
< -1900 >
[ Congratulations on being the first person to slay a level 5 monster! ]
[ +100 reputation in the Eizenburgh kingdom. ]
[ 50% exp boost has come into effect! ]
< 1200 exp gained. >
'Holy…' Zack's jaw opened slightly as the level-up notifications filled his ears. He had leveled up from level three to level five now.
[ Achievements have been unlocked. ]
"Auto claim rewards."
[ Acquired mage staffs (rare) (3), Firerager sword (epic) (1), chain mail chest plate (Rare) (2) ]
"What the…" Zack's eyes were wide open as he saw the stuff he had gained from the achievements.
The drop rate was supposed to be very low when gaining stuff from achievements yet he got so many good items.
This was because he had not taken the reincarnated person's luck into account. But despite that, he could already feel a plan brewing up inside his mind.
He stored the items in his inventory before taking out the epic item he had received.
[ Firerager Sword (Epic): A sword created by the great blacksmith James Blitz in his early years of training. Allows the wielder to tap into the fire element and use it for ten minutes.
Special property: The user can summon three fire tornadoes per day.
Cooldown: 24 hours ]
"Well, I can easily fight earth and grass-type monsters now," Zack muttered as he wore the newly gained chest plate.
As for the staffs, he paid no attention to them. Many mages would think that the staffs were good but in reality, they were some of the weakest weapons in the game after the element affinity thing was gone.
Only epic grade or above staffs with special properties could be considered good.
That is why Zack was happily whistling in the forest because of the sword he had gotten. After killing a few more slimes, Zack decided to quit for the day.
Since he was a new player, he had a three days newbie protection and his avatar would automatically return to the last inn he was in.
Otherwise, your avatar would go still out in the wild and any beast or other player could come and kill you.
After waking up in the real world, Zack removed his VR glasses and stretched his body a little. He then went to the kitchen and after eating instant ramen, he decided to check the forums.
The forums had the players talking about how realistic the game felt and how big the world was. Some were talking about where they had spawned and trading information.
Many were even talking about teaming up and grinding exp while splitting the rewards gained between the party members.
But the most interesting post was the one where a guy was talking about forming a temporary guild.
'When guild tokens would be introduced, things would turn chaotic.'
Like any open-world game, Hikari also had guilds. In Zack's previous life, the guilds had controlled a major half of the world.
But to start a guild, one needed guild tokens and the one who used the guild token would automatically become the guild leader.
The guild tokens were divided into five ranks: bronze, silver, gold, platinum, and diamond.
There were only 30 bronze tokens, 20 silver tokens, 8 gold tokens, 3 platinum tokens, and a single diamond token on every continent.
Once a token was used, it could not be reverted back. This was done to ensure that each continent only had a total of 61 guilds. But guild tokens weren't introduced till very later on so for now, Zack didn't need to worry about the guilds.
After checking the time in his phone watch, he decided to go out and take a small walk across the neighborhood.
Hikari had a special feature because of which you could play the game while your body was sleeping. This feature had been the major reason for the game's success since people who went to work could easily enjoy the game while getting their sleep.
You could also set up alarms to let yourself know that your time was over and you had to quit the game. But the real motive behind the game would only be revealed after the first prize ceremony.
Many would start targeting those at the top at the four companies would start hiring the top players using contracts while telling them that they would keep them safe.
This was because the companies didn't receive and secret information about the game from the developers. So to make the most profit, they would hire the players and would take some percent of their income for themselves.
Zack knew that he would also have to sign a contract but he knew who the best company to sign a contract was.
"Who could have known that playing a game would be like planning for a war."
He thought with a sigh and continued his walk.
***
Two days later, Zack was now at level 10 and the first set of balance changes had been introduced.
Just like he had remembered, the affinity system was taken down and the dungeons were open as well. The rankings had opened up too.
[ #1 Lin Fan: Level 10
#2 Elyon: Level 7
#3 Lazy Panda: Level 7
#4 Ninja: Level 5
#5 WolfHeart: Level 5 ]
It was no surprise that Zack was at the top of the rankings but one name that surprised him was the number 5th ranked player.
WolfHeart was a female player well known for having her platinum ranked guild called Wild Ones. But she herself wasn't that strong of a player and barely made into the top 100 ranked players.
Yet this time, her name was ranked number 5th on the list.
'Not only her but the other four are also so highly leveled up. I beat the number two guy by just three levels. In my previous life, the highest-ranked leveled player was only at level five and that was Ninja.
He had no idea who these Elyon and Lazy Panda guys were since they hadn't been there in his previous life. But regardless of that, Zack took them as competitors.
'I should think ahead while knowing that many things would be changing soon. And to make sure that I stay at the top, I have to get Chastiefol.' Zack thought with a resolute expression as he looked at his inbox.
[ Attention! A special quest is open for the top 500 ranked player! ]
[ Flowers of the fairy forest (pseudo myth grade): The special dungeon, 'Fairy king's forest' is now live. The first ten people to clear the dungeon would be awarded greatly.
Rewards: 10000 exp, the chance to choose one of the ten myth grade weapons (you will get to choose the weapon depending on the rank you finished the dungeon on), +1000 fame in your respective kingdom, a title.
Time limit: 4 days ]
The quest that ruined his previous life was now available but this time, the same quest would make his life better.