While Eisen took far longer to level up than most players at level 2, he fought with fervor and rage. His fighting style had become erratic and careless, and he received several wounds from the wolves he fought. By the time he had reached level 3, he had used all 10 of his minor healing potions.
"What a waste of money," he sorrowfully sighed. His heart ached painfully, watching over 100 copper disappear over the course of a few hours.
During this time, he had completely filled his inventory with wolf pelts. The current urks-to-coins market wasn't doing very well, so there was no point in amassing too much wealth; that would only put a target on his back.
Instead of gathering the more expensive Trash-ranked equipment, he gathered twenty stacks of wolf pelts. Each stack was 25 pelts, and each pelt was worth 2 copper coins. Altogether, his inventory was worth 1,000 copper or 10 silver.
He whistled at the amount of wealth he had accumulated. However, not many players would be able to do such a thing.
A large part of why most players could not amass such wealth simply from killing wolves was due to the costs needed to farm wolves.
Most players had a far less complete grasp on the attack patterns and movements of wolves. Even with his careless and reckless fighting, Eisen had mastered the strategies and attacks of the wolf packs.
Players wouldn't bother with such useless knowledge; after all, once they reached level 2 or 3, they would move onto more powerful and bountiful prey. However, Eisen had a deep-rooted hatred for the wolves.
His rage and hate forced him to grow and learn after repeatedly dying and fighting the wolves, until he had completely mastered the beasts' attack patterns.
Therefore, Eisen got hurt far less than most players. He didn't require as many potions as other players. Most players would burn through over 50 minor healing potions, or around 5 to 6 silvers, during the same amount of time grinding as Eisen had spent. However, Eisen only spent 20% of what they did for 10 healing potions.
He had to pay less money for replacement equipment or repairs, since his efficiency allowed him to obtain replacement items from the wolf drops before his equipment broke and became scrap materials.
Eisen, having no reference point to look at, felt disgruntled at how fast he burned through swords. Unlike armor and other equipment, which you could save durability by dodging attacks, weapons required continual use and therefore obviously broke down faster.
During his grinding from level 1 to 3, he had broken over seven swords, one of which Eisen had really liked for its good stats and cool name.
Compared to most players, Eisen was doing fairly well. Comparing himself to top-notch players and experts would be arrogant and unrealistic. However, Eisen was arrogant and unrealistic, and definitely compared himself to top-notch players and experts.
"I bet I'm doing way better than those dumbass players," he snorted derisively.
Eisen also lacked even a shred of humility.
After fully filling his inventory, he headed back to Mudbrick Town; he had forgotten to purchase a pouch or some sort of storage item the last time he was there.
Once again, he walked back in silence. The path was empty and completely devoid of people. By now, Eisen had gotten used to the incredible realism of the virtual reality game, and was familiar with this particular path. He wished he was faster, as he dashed down the path on his way back to town.
'Speed and movement Skills are apparently really rare though,' he thought. 'Maybe I should check the auction for some Skill books. The wolves haven't dropped any; my damned luck must be terrible.'
While he was internally cursing his bad luck, he had already arrived at Mudbrick Town.
He approached a leather-worker NPC and grudgingly bought a pouch.
"This is a daylight robbery! 1 silver and 20 coppers for just a crappy pouch!?" he exclaimed.
The portly woman who was handling some drying pelts grunted back at him. "Take it or leave it, you ungrateful rascal."
"Who're you calling a rascal, you b*tch!?" he swore aggressively at her.
"Get away from my shop, you hooligan! Go do something useful like culling the wolves in the forest, you brainless thug!" she shouted back at him.
"Oh yeah? Guess what, I've been doing just that." He smirked arrogantly, displaying his 20 stacks of wolf pelts.
Suddenly, the leather-worker's eyes widened, and she looked at Eisen with a shocked expression.
"I'll buy these off of you," she quickly said. "You can use that money to buy the pouch."
Eisen was also surprised. A notification had appeared.
[Pelts for the leather-worker lv. 1]
[500/5 Wolf pelts lv. 1 - Trash]
[Rewards: 10 coppers, 8 EXP]
[The kind-hearted woman who manages the leather-worker's shop has offered a price for wolf pelts.]
[Due to your negative relationship with the Quest-giver, the rewards have been modified accordingly!]
[Rewards: 10→8 coppers, 8 EXP]
While it was off-putting for Eisen that his rewards had decreased, he was ecstatic that he had finally found a quest. He immediately gave all the beast hides to the middle-aged woman, and received 4,000 copper. This amount of money would leave most players drooling.
'40 silver!?' he exclaimed excitedly, looking at his account balance. Now, he had a total of more than 55 silvers in his possession.
He also watched his experience bar flash and sparkle with a golden color, as he suddenly received 800 experience.
From level 0 to level 1, a player needed 1,000 EXP. From level 1 to level 2, a player required 1,300 EXP. From level 2 to level 3, Eisen had needed over 1,700 EXP. The 800 EXP he had just received pushed his experience bar to just over a quarter of the way to level 4.
Clearly, this was a less well-known quest for most players. Otherwise, every player's levelling speed would be similarly explosive and speedy.
'Could it be?' Eisen laughed internally. 'Is this my fortunate encounter that will start my journey to becoming the best player in the world?'
He chuckled softly aloud. He purchased the pouch from the old lady, who looked at him more favorably now. A little more than 1 silver was nothing by pocket change for him now.
Eisen proceeded to walk towards the auction house with a slight skip in his step. His first day in the game, and he had already made so much progress. He haughtily looked at the other players, most of whom were around level 2 or 3. Level 4 players like Eisen were incredibly rare.
He entered the towering auction building of stone bricks and timber. Inside, incredibly special items sat in cases of glass. In the front of the building, there was a stage where a presenter displayed items currently available with a slightly humorous commentary.
"Today, let's start off our auction with a special item! The flame daggers, for when your boyfriend gets a little too close to another woman," the charming, suited man chuckled aloud.
Eisen opened up the auction virtual display screen, and began scrolling for anything that caught his interest. Seeing nothing particularly interesting, he filtered out most of the items, leaving only Skill books.
Searching through a majority of them, he saw mostly Skill books for other classes.
After adding an additional filter, leaving only Fighter Skill books, he began browsing in earnest.
"Moonlight Slash seems very good, a combination between a movement and damage-dealing Skill," he mused. "However, the auction will probably drive the price up quite a bit."
He glanced at his account's balance, before smirking. "Nothing more than I can handle though," he said haughtily.
Eisen decided to bid for the Skill book.