An hour later, when Bjorn was finally able to re-enter the game, his mood that'd only just started to recover dropped back down to a new low.
Aside from a small handful of coppers and the magic orb material that dropped from the chicken field boss before, the only thing in there was his original rusty dagger.
'My stats are high enough to kill people without having a good weapon now… but there are some people a few levels above me, and there might even be a top few grinders closing in on Lvl 15. If they get decent classes, it might be tough to beat them, even for me.'
Many players would also be picking up armor items soon, and his total damage would decrease vastly.
Instead of running around 1-shotting people, the underequipped Bjorn would probably struggle any time he ran into a group of decent players.
Furthermore, he still didn't know the full situation that was transpiring back in the forest. If that high-level shadow mage really did keep track of him, Bjorn's life could become hell in Northun.
'There was that bolt of lightning right before I died, it seemed to be striking at that guy, but I don't know if it stood any chance at winning. Running into a Lvl 71 Shadow Mage in a small town like this is insane luck. I doubt there is anyone else who can compete with him.'
When he opened up his system, Bjorn was shocked to see that his quest was still active. Just as he was looking at it, the status changed to 'completed'.
-
Ding!~
You finished the quest, 'The Guard's Daughter'!
Contribution- 3%.
Angelica's state- Concussed, mildly injured.
Rating- D-.
-
Bjorn's face turned uglier as he watched his XP gauge rise by a small amount.
'System, why would you even make a quest like that available?! There's no way any player could've completed that!'
Bjorn didn't receive an answer, and he continued raging at the built-in AI.
'Piece of trash. I guess I'll stick to hunting other players, it's the one thing you can't keep me from doing!'
Bjorn's fingers clenched around his rusty dagger as he headed out of the city and made a beeline for the forest.
While he could kill other players just outside the safe zone and potentially drop a new weapon, if he was surrounded in his current state, he could potentially die again.
'I bet this stupid system is the one who made me drop all of my good gear, too. At least in the PvP part of the game, there was no RNG.'
-
Ding!~
It was not, though I am quite happy with the outcome.
I, unfortunately, can not affect your drops.
-
'Oh, wonderful. It's not even hiding its hatred of me now!'
As he entered the woods, Bjorn spotted another player, and immediately charged at them. Before they had a chance to react, he had already sent a powerful fireball directly toward their head and slashed at their neck with his trashy dagger.
A faint blue shield appeared over the enemy, completely nullifying his fireball and causing a small shower of sparks to fall over the player.
Bjorn's dagger was a bit more successful, but the damage from it was quite pitiful.
-
Entwalkerman44
Lvl 13.
-
The player was at a higher level than Bjorn, and he definitely had much better gear. After just a couple of days of playing, this fellow already had a powerful magic defense item.
As he saw the player's slow reaction to his attack, though, Bjorn's eyes lit up.
A lone player with a slow reaction speed?
More like a pile of loot waiting for him to take some items off the top.
'Heh, who cares about getting a weapon? I want that magic shield! Give it to me!'
Bjorn charged back at the player, launching a second fireball at their head. This time, the translucent blue shield didn't show up to block the attack, though the fireball's damage was still weakened substantially.
Once again, the player's response to his attack was slow, and he didn't manage to counter Bjorn's damage at all.
"W- wait! Peace!"
The kitted-out player waved his hands in surrender.
"I just bought all of this gear, I don't want to lose it!"
"Eh? Then why did you leave the safe zone?"
Bjorn ignored the other player's surrender, cocking back his arm as he prepared to throw another fireball.
"Please! My guild leader will kill me if I lose any of this stuff!"
Bjorn's eyes only hardened as he heard the player's words.
'A guild? Hmph, someone trying to steal the resources of this town. My guild will be the only one here, this town isn't big enough for two successful ones.'
The place Bjorn planned to set up wasn't exactly in Northun, but it was fairly close. This city could serve as a starting point while he and Rogn focused on expanding and building their true base.
"Drop a good item for me!"
Bjorn easily broke through the player's flimsy attempt at defending and launched a flurry of blows, each of them slicing away small chunks of his health bar.
'Ugh, so annoying having to hit someone this many times! This is why I hate tanks!'
Bjorn emptied his entire mana pool into the player before he finally collapsed into a cloud of light motes.
'So damn annoying. Now I'll need to wait until I get some mana back to even continue hunting, there's no way I can do this without any spells.'
Bjorn's face brightened up a bit when he saw the item drop. A pearly green necklace lay on the ground, a series of runes engraved on each bead.
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Emerald Experimenter's Pearls (Epic)
INT +3%
WIS +3%
MDEF +10
Passive: Blocks the first spell to strike the wearer. Cooldown: 2 hours.
-
Bjorn equipped it with a smile, and the passive effect was immediately activated.
A gnarled and twisted root shot up from the ground in front of him, and it would've impaled him if not for the necklace's effects.
'Shit! I'm damn lucky this necklace's skill was refreshed when I picked it up!'
Bjorn swiftly backpedaled as more roots started shooting from the surrounding ground, and in the distance, he could see a red name steadily advancing through the trees.
It was… a tree.
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Wandering Ent
Lvl 16
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'Really?! I kill a player named Ent, and a max-level wild Ent shows up?? I don't even think I can kill this thing without a weapon, its regen is probably too high, and I have no mana!'