It did not take long for the players of Bloodlines Online to realize that leveling up would not be easy.
Not only was skill progression slow and game resources finite but the early game creatures for leveling were not the simple weak beasts.
In every starting city the first creature encountered was the slime.
As in most games the slime is one of the weakest creatures that can be found but unlike most games the slimes of Bloodlines were actually not easy to kill.
Blunt force did not harm them much, piercing attacks did very little, slashing attacks did cause severe harm but only because it removed chunks of their body on lucky angles.
Magic also did not do much as mages couldn't even apply their elemental damage until they actually reached a certain prerequisite the game would not reveal.
It was not until a lucky player who was streaming their gameplay actually managed to one shot a slime using their basic spear did anyone make progress.
When attacking the slimes most people immediately assumed these creatures were not the simple fantasy novel slime with a core you could aim to break to kill the creaturw as no core was visible.
That is.... until a random elven player struck the slime in a strange angle, practically missing the thing, did people learn that these slimes actually did have cores.
Translucent cores full of fluid and a glass like stone, wrapped in strange tendrils like a jellyfish.
Players quickly spread the word and soon everyone was striking the slimes like well practiced slayers as this core was always at the same place in the body.
Some players when turning the cores in for bounties would be lucky enough to learn that they were actually the central nervous system of the slime and each time they carved a chunk off they would only do significant damage because they hit these tendrils.
Players in the starter villages quickly got curious about exploring the world though and many made frightening discoveries.
The starter villages were peaceful only because of barriers made around them that kept anything above lv5 out.
After more exploration many players even began to post on forums about the number of elderly and young in the villages.
Investigating this fact lead players to learn that the villages were actually made as safe havens for the young and the retired, safe havens sustained by the slaying of slimes to provide cores for the mana to fuel the barrier.
Another discovery that quickly caught the attention of players was the sight of a slime absorbing another slime.
This slime left behind a puddle but grew slightly and after enough if these absorptions... grew to lv. 2.
The slimes could grow stronger which was interesting for players but most did not actually care about it since it simply meant more xp.
While the entire playerbase was climbing the later of experience... someone else took a different path.
~
Ezekiel when entering the game after his character creation was done decided to explore the village a bit and while he was wandering around he found something that seemed to be ignored by most players.
A large area with two distinct buildings that each contained a sandpit with dummies for practice.
Approaching out of curiosity he was greated by a man in armor.
"Hello young man, you seem to be the only otherworlder in our little village that has shown interest in the schools."
Ezekiel simply nodded and waited for an explanation attempting to be polite by not interrupting.
"Well on the left we have the martial school where you can learn to channel your mana into your skills to use them to their full potential, we also teach the art of using weapons."
Ezekiel was surprised now that he couldn't see any players training... it seemed pretty important.
"On the right you will see the magical school where you learn to harness your mana for casting spells."
"May i enter the magic school? Im a mage."
Quickly speaking up now that he has heard this he did obviously interrupt the man which made him feel rude at first before the man laughed.
"Ah if only all aspiring, young mages were so excited to practice with their mana. Many call it boring."
He hands Ezekiel a badge from a bag and gives the young man a small salute.
"Study hard young mage and surpass your peers."
Ezekiel entered the magical school with a nig smile already very excited to begin practicing.