"Oh man, I'm going to get such a head start over everyone else…" Donley greedily rubbed his hands, thinking about all the gold coins he would make.
Slay Online used gold coins as currency for the lower levels - while at higher levels, people simply traded unique items instead of gold.
Before the reset, the game was exceedingly popular and millions of dollars were passing through guilds every day.
People would sell the in-game currency for real world currency at a 1:10 ratio - that is, 1 dollar for 10 gold coins. For the starter items, most players would be able to purchase them for 30 gold; of course, this was nothing in the grand scheme of things.
At the height of the game, the best items sold for billions, usually traded by large guild that had backing from many corporations. Even the smaller land plots in the larger game cities would sell for millions - which would soon be covered in advertisements by whichever company afforded such a price.
Of course, everyone was level one now. It was a desperate struggle for wealth. Many guilds would reform and claim their plots of land and compete to be the strongest - all backed by various corporations.
For people like Donley, this was his chance to get filthy rich.
There were hidden quests all over the world, awards for the first kill of world bosses, as well as bonuses for the first-clear of dungeons.
This was a financial gold rush - all of which was taking place around Kai without him even realising it.
Kai simply wanted to enjoy his life and never have to feel pain again.
"Ok, so I'll equip all my gear, give me a second."
Kai equipped his boots - the shoes he was wearing before disappeared and were replaced by some black leather boots. Checking his inventory, there were no shoes in there.
He removed his boots, and on his feet, some shoes appeared again.
"Oh, it must be like a place-holder, to preserve dignity." he thought as he saw the shoes disappear when he put his boots back on.
Next was the hand crossbow - it appeared on his right arm, the one he was most used to.
"Hmm it's not loaded.. Oh right."
He equipped the heavy bolts and the small bolts next, but found he could only equip 50 of the small bolts at a time.
"Good enough" he shrugged to himself. Some bolts appeared around the vambrace on his right hand just behind the crossbow, while a small pouch appeared on his left leg filled the the remaining bolts.
"Oh?" He took a bolt off the vambrace and loaded the small hand-crossbow.
After a moment, a new bolt appeared in a slot on the vambrace.
"Nice!!" he thought, seeing that he had 5 of the small bolts ready to load.
The hand crossbow sat just behind his wrist on top of the vambrace, it was more like a wrist-mounted weapon, sitting snugly on top of the vambrace.
After loading it, he lowered his hand - but this only made him excited once more.
"It folds?! So cool!"
The limbs of the crossbow folded back as he lowered his hand, making it compact as he walked around - though as he raised his arm up again, the limbs unfolded and it was ready to fire.
"Awesome…" he smiled, gazing at it lovingly. For some reason he felt attached to this hand crossbow, but he assumed it was because of the game manipulating his emotions again.
"Ready to go?" Donley asked, seeing the noobs' antics.
"Uh, yeah, just a sec…"
He equipped the heavy crossbow next, it was attached to his back with a sling which went around his chest.
Dollar signs immediately appeared in Donely's eyes.
"F#@%, how did this noob get such a good item? That thing looks so expensive… does he have like 5 things? How did he even get to spawn with this many?"
Donley clenched his jaw as he tried not to yell, silently thinking to himself "I'm gonna get so rich… no, maybe I'll even become a guild leader!"
"Cmon lets go…?" He tried to sound friendly as he coerced Kai.
"Yeah sure.. Just a sec."
Kai finally equipped his silver dagger, which only served to make Donley even more excited. He tried not to look at the dagger, but the handle was decorated with the skull of a screaming demon and he had to glance at it a few times.
"As if the massive crossbow wasn't good enough" he thought as he greedily smiled to himself.
"Ok, I'm ready." Kai said with a friendly smile "Sorry to keep you waiting, and thanks for teaming up with me."
Kai promptly accepted the group invite.
"All good, I like helping new people," Donley said with a shit-eating grin.
"Ugh, this guy is way too naive…" Donley internally shook his head.
After accepting the group invite, Donley promptly checked his class.
"You're a demon hunter?" Donley was shocked, wondering why he had never heard of such a class.
"Yeah, it was recommended so I went with it," Kai shrugged.
Donley still had no clue this was a hidden class only available to citizens, and so he just assumed it was a new class added to the game after the reset.
"Heh, fair enough. Alright, the quest is south of here, beyond a black jungle. There should be a dungeon on the other side of the jungle. The forest is a little higher level compared to us, but we should be able to manage it."
"Sure, just tell me what to do." Kai smiled.
With a nod, they left the south gate of the town.
"Oh man, he didn't even buy any potions" Donley tried to hide his smirk as he walked first, "He's oh so bad…"
Kai noticed a red and blue bar appear in his vision as he left the gate.
"Huh? Hey Don, what are these blue and red bars?"
"Oh?" Donley wondered what he was talking about. "Oh! Right, the red is your health and the blue is your magic. Run out of the red one and you will die - but you will revive back at town so don't worry."
"He's a total, complete, ignorant noob!" Donley thought, absolutely shocked that Kai didn't understand this most basic concept.
"What are these other things down the bottom?"
"Your skills or abilities. You can read about them while we walk."
"Oh - ok.. Good. Thanks." Kai said sheepishly "I completely forgot about having abilities" he thought as he scratched his chin and opened the menu.
As he went to click on the ability section, he noticed there was a map and a party section too.
"Hmm.." he secretly thought to himself as he went to check the party tab.
"He's a barbarian? Cool. I wonder what he's like in combat."
Next, Kai checked his map.
"Oh, cool, it's slowly being revealed as we walk. It even has a compass, quite handy… hmm, an option to overlay? Sure, I'll give that a go."
"Ok, finally, the ability screen. Lets See…"
Kai had three abilities so far - none of which he had used.
[Quick step]
Immediately dash in a direction, avoiding danger.
5 second cooldown.
[Quick reload]
Immediately reload a crossbow, being able to fire again in the blink of an eye.
1 mana
[Heavy Shot]
Chanel mana into a bolt, causing it to stagger enemies and do double damage.
5 mana
"Nice skills I guess?" thought Kai as they crossed a field covered in level 1 beetles. "Interesting how one has a time requirement and the other has mana. I had better check how much mana I even have."
[Health - 25/25]
[Mana - 15/15]
"Hmm… that doesn't seem like much. I will have to save using these abilities."
As they walked, they loosely curled their path around the beetles in the field.
"Ignore these, they will just waste our time." Donley suggested without looking back.
Kai nodded at his orders - though they walked too close to a beetle and had to kill it.
Closing the menu, Kai realised what the map overlay feature did.
In the bottom right of his vision was a semi-transparent map, showing the village he was in as well as his current position.
"Cool." he raised his eyebrows as he followed himself on the map as it slowly revealed the dark forest - with a warning on the map.
[Danger level 1]
[PVP Enabled]
"Hmm, Donley did say it would be dangerous," he shrugged.