Now that Finn had money to spend, he went to buy all the necessary things he needed.
First, he visited the village armor shop, where he bought black leather armor that protected his chest and legs.
He also bought a black cape with a hoodie. It was inlaid with fur so he wouldn't freeze to death during the cold forest nights.
Finn planned to sleep on the tree branches, so he didn't buy a tent.
And lastly, he bought a scabbard for his dagger, and with that, he was ready to go.
He left the village through the south gate and headed towards the forest.
On the outskirts of the forest was a scorched meadow where players were fighting small, red human-like creatures that had horns on their heads and a burning tail.
These were Fire imps, and they were the easiest monsters to kill around the Dragon's Maw Village.
Players didn't spawn in with a weapon, so they had to grab a sharp branch and work together to kill their first monster.
They could then sell its corpse and buy a weapon that would enable them to kill more monsters and get stronger.
The first kill was always the hardest, but villages were made to have a weak monster close by that the new players could easily kill.
Well, every village but Dragon's Maw Village, and one of the main reasons people hated this village was exactly because of these fire imps.
Not only did they fight back, but they were also strong enough to wipe the floor with any new players they faced.
Not to mention the fact that the player's only weapon, a branch, would get instantly burned to ashes.
The only way to kill them was by lending each other money so that the players could buy a single weapon they could then share between each other or by fighting with stones.
As the first spawn villages were random, there were rarely any people that knew each other, so nobody trusted each other enough to choose the first method.
There were some people who were using stones to fight, but most of these players had never fought anyone in their lives, so using a rock to fight an evasive imp that could cause them burn wounds was not something a new player wanted to do.
If a player died, they would spawn in a graveyard that was next to their starting village, so there were a lot of people who died just to spawn and run back to die again.
Finn also wanted to join the "fun," so he chose a lone imp and ran to fight him.
The group of 3 players following Finn wanted to strike once he entered the forest, so they chose to wait by also killing the imps and leveling up.
The three players became friends upon meeting each other in the Dragon's Maw Village, so they used the method where they shared their money to buy weapons.
Meanwhile, Finn sneaked up on the imp by slightly crouching down, and before the imp could notice something wrong, he quickly jumped on him and sliced the imp's neck with his dagger.
This was a simple assassination technique that Loki had been teaching him these last few days. It was simple yet extremely effective.
[You have killed a Fire imp - level 1 and gained 10 exp]
Finn knew he needed 100 experience points to level up, so he put the corpse into his inventory and went to find a new target.
Soon, he once again saw a lone imp, so he sneaked behind it and quickly sliced its neck.
[You have killed a Fire imp - level 1 and gained 10 exp]
---
This went on for a few hours because there were almost no lone imps spawning, and if they did, they would get instantly jumped by other players.
And because Finn relied on assassinating the imps and not fighting them, he had to hunt them when they were alone and not in a group.
Nonetheless, he kept hunting until he finally saw a new blue window pop up.
[You have killed a Fire imp - level 1 and gained 10 exp]
[You have leveled up to level 2 and gained a free attribute point]
[You have gained a new skill Sneak]
Finn opened his status screen to check his new skill and add an attribute point that he just acquired. Players could boost one of their stats with these points every time they leveled up.
Name: Chained_Trickster
Class: None
Level: 2 (0/250)
Skills: Sneak (1%)
Attributes (+1): Strength 10, Intelligence 19, Endurance 12, Agility 16
Titles: Loki's blessed, Owner of the black feather
He clicked to add his attribute point to strength, making it 11, and then went to look at his new skill, Sneak.
Name: Sneak
Mastery: 1%
Type: Passive
Ability: When sneaking, your steps have their noise reduced by 10%. The percentage rises with higher mastery.
"Not bad. I must have gotten this skill by killing all those imps without fighting them head-on and just sneaking behind them."
Finn chuckled to himself with a smile as he kept looking at his first skill.
In Second Life, players could receive skills just by doing an activity a certain number of times. Just like one gets better at doing something the more he does it in real life.
All those skills start at 1% mastery but can be raised to a higher percentage over time as the player keeps doing the activity he did to gain it, or if it was an active skill, by simply using it.
There was no mana in Second Life like there is in other RPG games. Instead, the skills made the players tired if they overused them.
Mages would get a headache if they used a powerful spell or a weak spell too many times, and warriors would feel their muscles ache.
Players could force themselves to use the skills even if they were in pain, but that could make their bodies burst like a bubble.
Finn looked at the sun, which now had a warm orange color as it was slowly setting.
It was evening, and soon it would turn dark, so he stopped hunting imps and started walking towards the forest.
He realized that imps didn't really pose a challenge for him, and they were only giving 10 exp each, so he decided to hunt some stronger monsters in the forest while searching for the blacksmith's son.
Finn also planned to sleep on one of the tree branches to get used to sleeping in the wild since he wouldn't return to the village for quite some time.
Once the group of three players saw this, they also stopped hunting and started following him into the forest.
They watched him hunt and were quite scared of his assassination techniques, but as long as they gang up on him and do not let him sneak away, they should win.
All three players were level 2, so they thought that Finn had no chance of surviving.
---
'You are being followed by three people.'
Loki updated Finn, who kept walking deeper into the forest.
'Hmm? Three people? Must be some players who saw me win the gold coin… Whatever, if they want to give me free experience, who am I to say no.'
The three players kept following Finn, but they kept a small distance from him so he wouldn't know they were there.
While walking behind him, they were waiting for him to enter a clearing where they could ambush and kill him.
Suddenly, Finn walked behind a thick tree, leaving the three players' vision. They ran to the tree, but when they reached it, he wasn't there.
The three players were messaging each other through the game so they wouldn't have to talk out loud.
"Where is he? He must have noticed us following him. Quickly split up and find him. Crow, you go right, Firefly, you go left, and I will run straight."
The player with the black mask messaged his two friends as he started looking for Finn.
Before he even got far from the tree, though, the masked player's vision was blocked by a blue system window.
[Your party member Crow5546 died]
He panicked and quickly messaged his other friend to group up with him, and after 5 minutes of waiting for him, he received a message from the system.
[Your party member BrightFirefly42 died]
'How did this happen? He is supposed to be at most level 2, so how did he kill them so quickly? It must have been a beast... Fuck, I can't see anything in this darkness.'
The player kept looking around himself, and his hands started trembling from fear.
It was night, and there was darkness everywhere he looked. Every shadow looked like a beast waiting to devour him.
'Should I just log out? No, I'm not a pussy!'
The masked player thought as he started walking in the direction of the village.
Suddenly, a voice sounded behind him.
"Boo!"
He quickly turned around while covering his face with his arms to block any incoming strikes, but when he did, he saw Finn staring at him with a creepy smile.
The masked player felt pain in his chest area, and when he looked down, there was a dagger stabbed into his heart.
"Impossible… how-"
Not being able to even finish his sentence, he turned into light particles and disappeared.
---
After hiding behind a thick tree, Finn quickly ran to a different tree, using the darkness of the night as his cover, and waited for one of the players chasing him.
As soon as the player Crow tried running past Finn's tree, he had his mouth grabbed from behind and his throat sliced.
The light in his eyes quickly diminished, and he disappeared without making a single sound.
The player Firefly wanted to go avenge his friend, so he ran to where Crow had died, but when he arrived, he saw his friend's money pouch on the ground.
Feeling like something was wrong, he pretended to bend down to grab it.
Finn used Firefly's moment of carelessness and tried to slice his throat, but Firefly's feeling was right, and he jumped to the side, leaving Finn's attack range.
"You bastard! You will pay for that!"
Firefly shouted as he started running towards Finn.
He used his sword to do a wide horizontal slash towards Finn, aiming for his head.
Finn crouched, dodging the sword, and jumped on Firefly, tackling him to the ground.
Firefly didn't expect Finn to dodge his strike, so in his fall, he let go of his sword, and when Firefly fell, he hit his head on a rock, which made him feel dizzy for a second.
This second was all Finn needed to swiftly pull out his dagger and stab it into Firefly's throat.
Firefly turned into light particles with his eyes wide open, feeling regret and disbelief.
After catching his breath, Finn got up and went towards the masked player.
He let fear do its thing on the last player, and once he looked like he would break down any second, Finn scared him, which made the player reflexively cover his face, and Finn used this opportunity to stab his heart.
[You have killed the player Crown5546, level 2, and gained 50 exp.]
[You have killed the player BrightFirefly42, level 2, and gained 50 exp.]
[You have killed the player GrimReaper444, level 2, and gained 50 exp.]
[As the players you killed had an ill intention towards you, you will not be penalized]
'You are like a one-trick pony with that assassination technique. It also worked this time only because all those things aligned together. I will have to teach you some new techniques, or you'll die once you meet a stronger opponent.'
Loki was right, Finn had the darkness of the night, and the players were amateurs.
The fight with Firefly made Finn realize that his assassination techniques were strong, but they had their faults, and if he ever failed at assassination, he would have to know how to protect himself in a fight.
So, Finn immediately agreed to be taught by Loki, wanting nothing more than to get stronger faster.
He then looked at the place where the masked player was standing when he died.
"Let's see what dropped this time... a mask?"
Finn tilted his head in surprise and picked up a mask that the last player dropped when he died.
The other two players dropped their money pouches, which gave him two silver coins.
When a player got killed by another player, there was a high chance he would drop some of his coins, and there was a small chance he would drop one of his items.
The mask was fully black without any facial features. It only had two small, devil-like horns on the forehead and two holes for the eyes.
Finn tried to check if it had any effects, but it was just a normal mask without any abilities that only served the purpose of hiding its wearer's identity.
He decided he would wear it from now on to not reveal his face while doing some high-profile things like his trivia game.
There was a community site for Second Life where people could post about their experiences, and Finn was slowly gaining popularity there.
Players that were cheering for him in the crowd during the trivia game shared how he knew everything, and more people started to get interested in him.
He was lucky that the players back there didn't know about the record function that could capture any moment of the game through a player's eyes, so nobody but the players that were in the crowd knew what he looked like.
Finn put the mask on, and with his black cape, he became almost invisible in the night.
Suddenly he felt a gaze on him, and when he turned to see what it was, he saw bright red eyes staring at him from the shadows of the forest.