Ethan walked forward and was now standing directly near the undead corpses he had killed earlier.
"If I hadn't gotten the spatial ring earlier, this would have been a hassle". Ethan thought as he had a small smile on his face. He walked beside the corpses and poured a little Mana into the ring.
SWOOSH! An extremely strong suction force came out if the ring, but it only lasted for a millisecond. The corpse right next to him disappeared completely.
"Hmm! No loot in this one". Ethan didn't even blink as he continued to move from one corpse to the next. After all, he wanted to make sure that there was nothing he missed, especially equipment.
Utilities and equipment were very valuable in the early stages of the game. In the first three months, the best piece of armor the top players could find were only bronze grade while majority of the players were decked out in common grade armor and using equipment of the same grade.
Any common grade equipment that appeared during the early stages would quickly be bought out by those bug guilds for their top players as soon as it appeared. So Ethan was going to make as much money from the early stages as he could.
If someone could here his thoughts, they would have cursed him to death with their saliva. Not only did he have precious active and passive skills, he already had a silver grade space ring yet he still wasn't content in the slightest.
"Oh! There is something here!" Ethan exclaimed as pulled out a piece of equipment from an undeads corpse. This discovery was surprising as he had already steeled himself to expect nothing from these undead.
With gleaming eyes, Ethan picked up the piece of equipment and was overjoyed to find out it was a weapon.
<< Poison dagger: Common Grade >>
<< The dagger tip is infected with a acting poison called the Undead Virus, albeit low level. Grants the following stats >>
<< Damage power +4/ Stunned effect: places the infected in a stunned state, duration depends on the strength of the opponent >>
<< HP loss: Infected will loss -5 HP points per second for 5 seconds. Duration might be extended depending on the strength, HP and endurance of the infected >>
<< Warning: HP loss effect and stunned effect has zero effect against the undead >>
Compared to the stats of weapons he had used in his previous life, this common dagger was very.... Low end. He was in an undead map and this dagger apart from slashing was basically useless against the undead, however it was somewhat useful against other players.
However, it could be considered as a treasure in the early stages of the game. Nevertheless, Ethan did not plan on keeping it for very long.
After all, the prize for clearing this map was a growth type soul weapon which would grow depending on the user themselves. Since he was here, he might as well collect the soul weapon as it would be used for much more in his hands than in the hands of that cocky bastard Bloodstorm.
"Forget it! the weapon is useful for me until I can replace it. I can just give it to Eric later when am done with the map". Ethan sighed to himself as he stood up.
He continued to search through all the corpses and storing them in the spatial ring. In the end, he ended up with about 15 copper coins. This was actually a good amount at the start of the game.
Ethan turned around to look at the medieval castle that was quite a distance into the city. He steeled his resolve as a determined yet wary look appeared on his face.
Just because he was a little bit stronger didn't mean that he was going to overestimate himself. This place was definitely no farming ground for players of his level.
The other players probably wouldn't realise it but he did as he was a reincarnated person. How the hell would a map that would gradually become level 50 in the future be so easy for players to clear? Back then, only the primary boss had been cleared, however the rise of the undead was something Ethan couldn't figure out in his past life.
If the Map was cleared, why did the difficulty increase to level 50 and why were there still monsters years later. In the game, there was no such thing as monster respawn. A monster killed would be equivalent to having one less monster in the game.
Only players could respawn, albeit slowly however it came at the great cost of their future potential. "Am here already, aren't I? Let's get some answers".
Ethan didn't stand still anymore. With a dagger in hand, he advanced forward, going deeper into the city.
Meanwhile, in the same city, about a couple minutes earlier...
Four young adults, two males and two females were fighting with a group of undead goblins, however they didn't seem to be handling it very well as their facial expressions were very tense.
However the fact that they hanging in there was more than enough proof to verify their skill as they worked together and fought back to back against the undead goblins.
Despite the fact that goblins were regarded as one of the weakest level of monsters and would never be able to advance past level 5, these undead were simply on another level of strength and speed compared to the originals.
Their pale, deformed faces were both horrifying and nauseating at the same time that would invoke a deep urge to puke from anyone. Even these four who were considered elites of their families were not an exception and were holding it back through sheer willpower.
Since when had they ever had to endure such a stench? However, as elites, they didn't panic and continued to attack precisely while conserving as much stamina as they could.
"Freaking Zombie goblins, taste my fist!" A male yelled as his fist struck a goblins abdomen. A damage attack of -55 appeared above their heads from the opponents full strike.
"Annoying goblins" The youth didn't back down as he continued to aim and land hits on the undead bodies despite the fact that it irritated him to no end.
A female in the group was different from the rest who were attacking, instead of dishing out punches, she weaved in within attacks as she displayed her movement technique to the extreme while avoiding the undeads attacks.
Despite the fact that she made it look so easy, beads of sweat appeared on her head it was definitely no easy feat to dodge five goblin attacks at once. However, she had to deal with it as she continued to move.
"Damn it! This game is really realistic. They don't even give us any weapons for beginners. How are we supposed to deal serious damage to these things!" Another youth said as he nimbly dodged and gave out another punch.
His punches were strong, however they only dealt about -37 damage points which was a noticeable difference from the other male youth. Seeing this, the other male youth who had slightly blonde hair smirked as he continued his attacks.
His blows became fiercer and more precise as he wanted to make himself look good as much as possible. Even going as far as to use his incorporated techniques from the outside world to deal higher amounts of damage.
If not, his original damage would barely reach -34 points. The group had started out fine at first but the rapid regeneration of the undead HP was enough to put an inconvenience in their attacks as those who were low on HP would back away and were quickly substituted by their Compadre's.
The group was amazed by the tactic cooperation of the undead, even if it was just a game. However it also gave them a headache as it consumed more stamina.
"Die!" The youth with slightly blonde hair finally had a chance when he saw an undead with barely 30 HP remaining. Seeing this, he was definitely not going to miss the chance and dashed forward, wanting to deal a quick blow and be the first among them to kill a level 2 undead.
The undead had wanted to retreat but he moved a step faster and arrived before the undead. However.
<< Congratulations to Player Neo for successfully becoming the first player to reach level 1 >>
<< Congratulations to player Neo for reaching level 1 before the estimated time. Rewards: 1 silver grade Mystery Box >>
"Huh?" The announcement was too sudden and the youth was so stunned that he forgot about the fact that he was in the midst of a battle. Not only did his absentmindedness cause his fist to miss, but he also tripped and fell because of the sudden interruption in his movement.
THUD! The youth fell to the floor as he did a barrel roll. In that split second when the announcement appeared, he was so shocked that his brain was temporarily formatted along with all his guidance and instructions in combat causing him to make such a blunder.
However, the only compensation he received was that he wasn't the only one. Everyone else on the team also had a over exaggerated reaction just like him, however his was the worst as no one else fell head first to the floor.
At this moment, they were all shocked. How the hell did someone else managed to reach level 1 before they did. One should know that they had come across these undead goblins by chance but they still hadn't made their first kill.
However, someone else had directly reached Level 1, this was simply incredulous. Unknowingly, they all started increasing their damage output with little care for their stamina at the moment.
About two minutes later, the last goblin out of the 1 dozen goblins or so had been slain. However, nobody made any witty remarks at the moment as they were still processing the grand announcement.
"I..... I think I had a breakthrough in my agility and movement speed". The first female spoke who had been the one that was constantly dodging the undead attacks. Originally, she would have been very happy that she had increased her prowess even if it was just one or two points.
After all, she wasn't like the others who were hardcore fighters but her strength wasn't bad either. Despite that, she only had about 7 points in strength and her agility was completely maxed out. Now she had 12 points in agility and 11 points in movement speed.
(TL: I think that's very far from someone we know, Hehe!)
However, she was no longer in the mood to talk about it, however, she had to say something if she wanted to take off the silence. However, nobody responded to her or even congratulated her on her breakthrough.
This made her to feel more depressed. Although she knew it wasn't exactly important in the face of the announcement, a lady was still a lady after all, and liked being praised for their hard work and achievements.
She put on a pouting face and scoffed a little.
"Who the hell is this Neo guy?" The slightly blonde youth didn't congratulate her but instead asked the general question that everyone wanted to know.
He turned his head to look at the other three but both the earlier girl and the other male shook their heads indicating their thoughts.
These youths were all above 19 years old with the youngest being the earlier girl who was only slightly over 20. The rest were all 21 and 22 years of age and judging front their battle with the undead goblins, it could be easily deducted that all their stats weren't low.
In fact, apart from the other girl who only had 7 points in strength, the other three all had their stats maxed out showing that they were at the peak of human realm. They each had also achieved a breakthrough in their at least two of their stats just like the girl had so they could be considered as geniuses of their respective backgrounds.
"Qing Yang! Your Redhood guild is considered the best guild in the west province when it comes to gathering information. As the son of the Vice Guild leader, how come you haven't heard of this Neo".
The slightly blonde youth turned his gaze to the other brown haired male as he asked.
However Qing Yang only shook his head with a slight frown. "I have no idea. Unless its some nameless nobody who is a gaming expert or a real expert disguised with a new name, I have not heard of it before".
Despite the fact he had given two possible reasons, every single one of them automatically ignored the first option as the first one made absolutely no sense to them. Also, they would never acknowledge that a nameless nobody had actually trumped them to be the first to actually reach Level 1 when they themselves were quite far from that level.
Apart from the first girl, the other three all had something in common. They had all become actual awakened hunters in the real world. Not only where their strengths top notch among their generation, but some of them could even compare to those old monsters in real life strength.
"Despite the fact that my Redhood guild is well informed, as a descendant of an aristocratic family, your Su family should be no weaker than mine background Su Mo".
Qing Yang retorted while Su mo frowned. Not only were their strengths impeccable, but their backgrounds were just as impressive. Qing Yang was the son of one of the major guilds in the west province, the Redhood guild, ranked third in overall strength.
As the son of one of the two vice guild leaders, he didn't disappoint his father and had awakened a month earlier as a Low level B rank hunter. Su Mo who was from the Aristocratic Su family was slightly better in terms of talent and had awakened a B rank as well albeit a little higher being at Mid level B rank.
"This should be some hidden expert who doesn't want to reveal his or her identity. As for the reason why such an expert is here in the game, its either for leisure or for self training". The other female among them who had never spoken a word finally uttered.
As soon as she spoke both Su Mo and Qing Yang fell silent as they listened to her words attentively. Then they nodded their heads and agreed as her explanation made sense.
"In fact, not only is that person a hidden expert, but there is a chance that he or she is most likely here in the undead ruins. After all, we are definitely not the only ones here, we just haven't crossed paths with the true experts in our world. Anyone that powerful would have surely received the token to enter just like we did".
She placed her hands on her chin and seemed to be deep in thought.
"In any case, we should keep an eye out. I can investigate using the permission of my krill family".
If Ethan were here, he would most likely be shocked to see that the woman speaking was none other than the younger version of Annabelle Krill herself.