Birds could be heard chirping outside as the sun climbed ever higher across the morning sky.
Warm rays of sunlight beamed through the nearby window, covering Fel as he lay atop his bed.
Fel, who was laying on his stomach, lazily opened his eyes and flipped himself onto his back.
"I guess it wasn't a dream."
Still laying down, Fel looked up at the ceiling, seemingly lost in thought.
He felt completely refreshed as if months of built-up fatigue had relinquished its grip on his worn body.
A few minutes had passed by the time Fel decided to get up and take a better look at the cabin.
The cabin was small, with seemingly no room to move around in. Shelves lined the walls and crates and barrels were strewn about.
A particularly fancy wine rack stood in sharp contrast with the messy, dilapidated interior.
At that moment Fel thought that the NPC who once lived here, the one whose body was now occupied by Fel's conscience, had his own share of problems.
Unfortunately, alcohol could not solve any problems.
It seemed to be the only organized point in the entire cabin.
As Fel moved closer to the wine rack, he noticed that there was a mirror built into the back of it, giving the rack an interesting aesthetic. It made it seem as if there were twice as many bottles on the rack than there actually were.
Looking through the bottles at the mirror behind them, Fel was finally able to get a better look at himself.
Not minding his dirty work attire, he inspected his features closely.
Fel had long brown, disheveled hair that went down to his shoulders accompanied by a shorter but still unruly beard.
The dark bags under his blue-gray eyes told him that although his mind felt rested, his body clearly wasn't.
The rest of his body was filthy, with his sweat practically gluing his clothes to his body. Fel felt it necessary to at least wash up before he thought of his next steps moving forward.
After looking around, Fel gathered together a large piece of cloth, a bar of lye soap, and a change of clothes. He then put it all in a basket and left through the front door.
Unfortunately, he found there to be no bath or shower in the cabin.
Fortunately, Fel heard a distant rush of water not too far away from the hut. Once outside, he could hear it even more clearly.
Sure enough, there was a worn path leading into the nearby treeline, which was coincidently where the sound of the flowing water could be heard from.
After walking for about 200 meters down the forest path, Fel found himself standing on the bank of a decently sized stream.
After finding a place to put down his basket, he took off his clothes and made his way into the cool water.
From what Fel could see, the water wasn't that deep nor was it flowing very quickly.
He judged the water to be safe by the worn footpath leading to it, meaning it had been used many times before, probably for this exact reason.
The crystal clear water was colder than he had anticipated, but it felt revitalizing,
Times like these made him forget this was just a game. It felt so real, after all.
This was not just to wash up, however.
If he wanted to, he could have spent a bit of money to buy a [Cleanse Stone], a fairly cheap quality of life item that when broken would completely clean the users body of any sweat or grime.
Fel had his reasons for not wanting to use this method just yet.
[Fatigue] was a hidden stat that increased the more stress that was put on the body, and in turn, decreased with rest and relaxation.
Situations such as bathing and relaxing in the cool water of a forest stream increased the body's rate of recovery, which was exactly what Fel was trying to do.
After washing up and redressing, Fel sprawled himself out on a nearby boulder that looked like a lawn chair.
There, basking in the morning sun, Fel felt that his mind was as clear as ever since reincarnating into Ixam. He felt that the accumulated fatigue was mostly gone now.
According to his past game knowledge, the near outskirts of any city tended to be free from any hostile creatures. If not for this fact, he would never have dared to venture out into a forest in a fantasy world full of beasts that could easily kill him.
After all, Fel did not want to waste the second life he was given. Thus he wanted to be as cautious as possible. Especially in a game where everything was out to kill him.
Fel had never before stopped to look at the beauty of nature before. He felt that this was the first time in a really long time that he could just relax without a care in the world.
When he was still living with his uncle, that rundown neighborhood was his world. It was all he had ever known.
Even when he played Ixam with his old character, he did not once stop to look around at his surroundings. The scenery did not matter to him.
The only thing he cared about then was the feeling of superiority he would get upon killing or looting.
It hadn't even been that long since he had been doing those things, but Fel felt he had undergone a complete shift in mindset, even going as far as to pity his old self.
Only now did he stop to consider the feeling of emptiness that he was trying to cover up by doing all of those selfish things in his past.
But now, it was different.
He knew what he wanted to do now.
There, lying atop that boulder amidst the fantastical scenery, Fel made a decision.
A decision to reach the pinnacle of Ixam.
To stand at the peak, and experience everything the game had to offer.
He wanted to see the world.
Fel felt that this was his way of getting back everything he had missed out on due to his unfortunate past.
However, he knew better than anyone that setting out into the world as he was right now would be suicide. He was not nearly strong enough yet.
Fel reasoned the first order of business would be to change his class to a [Warrior] and then to get his hands on his weapon of choice.
The spear!
***
Approximately 12% of Ixam had been discovered and documented at the time of Fel's death.
This included the entirety of the game, including all of the various realms.
The mortal realm, Atlas, was where every player started.
"Realms" were different worlds, each drastically different from one another, but no players had figured out a way to leave Atlas yet, which was the starting realm. Only ancient texts and documents depicted the existence of other realms.
Players were able to choose which city in whatever kingdom on whatever continent they wished to start on, as long as the location was a beginner location.
"Beginner" starting locations were classified as being Level 0-25 maps. However just because a player had reached level 25, it didn't mean they could take on monsters of the same level.
It all depended on the class, items, skills, and battle sense of said player.
While the game tried to cater to the enjoyment of every player, Ixam was not a "fair" game. Most players found the game enjoyable, but only a select few persevered.
Whether these players made it because of luck or innate skill and talent was widely talked about and addressed by the player base. However, it was no lie to say that every one of them were extraordinary.
These players had all passed a certain threshold to get achieve their current success.
This threshold was the 3rd class advancement, which was unlocked at level 300
Most ordinary players could complete their 2nd class advancement as long as they put forth the effort and hours but after that point, the difficulty went up exponentially.
This did not mean they could not level up past level 300, however. It's just that going to leveling maps or taking on quests at level 300+ without a 3rd tier class would most likely result in failure.
This was due to the difficulty of the 3rd class advancement quest.
Every 100 level was a major milestone, where a player would undergo a qualitative change if they advanced their class. It was to the point where level 299 players were not able to compete with level 300 players who had undergone their class advancement because the difference was too vast.
As the company behind Ixam never confirmed nor denied a level cap, no one was sure how high someone's level could really go. Although many have theorized that it caps out at around level 1000, this was just a rumor.
At the time of Fel's death, he was level 402, and after numerous tries was not able to complete his 4th class advancement.
The last time Fel had checked, the player who held first place on the global level ranking leaderboard was level 531. Judging by the fact that man had made it a fair bit into the 500s, he had most likely completed his 5th class advancement.
As Ixam had only been out for about a year, this speed of progression could already be seen as very fast. After all, 1 year in real life equaled 4 years in the game.
But the truth was that the amount of EXP needed to level up at such high levels was extraordinarily high.
Although higher-level quests and monsters gave more EXP, there was a higher risk of failure.
There were 6 stages of difficulty monsters as well as quests could fall under.
They could either be classified as [Common], [Rare], [Unique], [Epic], [Legendary], and [Mythical]
Epic weapons were the mainstream "top tier" weapons that even regular players had a low chance to encounter. Selling even one of them would give a player enough money to not have to work for months.
There were very few legendary weapons confirmed to be owned by players, and mythical weapons were only depicted to exist in ancient texts.
As for monsters, their difficulty rating was an indicator of their attributes as well as their intelligence. What they all had in common was that they all had much higher health than any player of the same level.
However, that was no longer an advantage against Fel, who now had the increased health of an NPC.
No longer having to worry about health, Fel surmised that any future battles would be battles of strength and wits.