The next morning, I woke up bright and early, not to play games but rather to perform my duties. After dressing and brushing my teeth, I headed out.
My first task was to buy 3 servings of breakfast. Afterwards, I headed to the girls dormitory and called Eris. Within minutes, she came down, wearing a sky blue miniskirt along with a dress shirt. Her two sources of pride were precariously
pressuring the buttons on the dress shirt. Thankfully, she had also noticed this and
wore a T-shirt inside of her dress shirt.
I stood in front of the gate, glanced at her, looked away, and then couldn't resist and peeked at her again. She was truly gorgeous, but unfortunately she also held a grudge against me.
Like before, Eris gave me the evil eye as soon as she saw me: "How long are you going to stare at me? I'll be taking the breakfast and you should hurry back and raise your level in. After all. after all, you work for me... If your level is too low, I would feel ashamed."
I took a deep breath and promised: "I promise to not disappoint, I'll be taking my leave now."
"Wait.." Eris suddenly called out, she paused for quite a bit before articulating her next words: "Leo, I want to ask you..before, were you really a
part of Special Ops?"
I was taken a back by the question: "Huh, why are you asking about that?"
"I only want to understand. I don't trust what Zinon says, how can a Special Ops who's killed someone before be as shameless as you? All you do every day is leach off of our food and game time..." ( costs about 154 yen, 156 cents per minute to play)
While speaking, she kept peeking at my face, widening her smile when she saw that
I started looking downcast. As expected, Eris was still out for revenge. Her
happiness was built from my pain.
I tightened my fist before replying: "It doesn't matter if you don't believe what leader Zinon said. All that matters is me being able to protect you. I'll be heading back now."
Without so much as a glance at Eris's, I started to walk back to my dorm.
"Oh, you're angry? You can't be that easily angered right?"
I turned around and mustered the sunniest smile possible and said: "M'lady, you
really know everything! Don't you?"
Looking at my face and hearing my voice, dripping with sarcasm, she knew that she
hadn't gotten under my skin. Her frustration at having her victory taken away made
her stamp her foot in anger: "Hmph, that's enough, I'm going back to raise my level."
"Okay, have fun playing!"
On my way back to my dorm, I nibbled on a meat bun and thought about what I
would do today in. So, my goal today should be to get to Ronoa City. Thus, I
would be able to at least keep pace with the majority of players in. At the very least,
I should leave Newbie Village. Staying there would be pinning myself as a loser.
….
After returning to my dorm, I immediately logged into, sliding the metallic helmet
Over my head.
"Shuaa"
Instantly, the darkness was replaced with a blinding Iight. I was still in Wild Bear
Forest. I carefully looked around. Yup, Julian of Western millis and his companions
had left. It was probably because they knew that I had logged off and waiting
around for me to respawn was useless. After all, they, like me, were trying to get to
Ronoa City, so any grudges could be settled there.
I revived in peace after l checked my surroundings one last time.
After a golden light, I was in control of my body again. In the empty forest, I opened
my inventory. Phew, when I died I only lost a couple of potions and not any of the
important things. From my inventory, I took out Bramble Thorn Sword.
The sword caught the light and shined brightly -
[Bramble Thorn Sword] (white Iron Tier)
Attack: 21-35
Strength: +3
Level Requirement: 8
….
The 21 to 35 points of attack from the Bramble Thorn Sword were godly compared
to the 1-3 points of attack that my Lv 1 Steel Sword gave me. As I held the Bramble
Thorn Sword, I could clearly feel the power welling up in my arm, coming from the
sword. At the same time, my stats increased by a huge chunk -
[Requiem (Trainee Healer)
Level: 9
Attack: 69-83
Defense: 23
Health: 180
Mana: 150
Charm:0
69 - 83 attack. Incredibly, swordsmen of the same level who put all of their stat
points in strength probably would be jealous of this attack. Mm, with the Bramble
Thorn Sword, the possibilities were limitless.
With Bramble Thorn Sword in hand, I plowed forward. Currently, I was only at Lv 9
with 57% experience. I would be able to get to Lv 10 after killing a couple of
monsters. Afterwards, I would go back to Newbie Village, restock on some potions,
repair my equipment and then head out to Ronoa City.
On a hill back to Newbie Village, a Ly9 Thorn Bear was peacefully basking under the
sun. I smiled at the bear; let's see what my 83 points of attack could do.
"Shuaa"
I sprinted towards the bear and did a simple slash when I got close enough. The hit
flew true and landed on the bear's forehead. A damage number flew up from my
strike, my attack didn't disappoint -
"117!"
Incredible.
While the Thorn Bear hadn't reacted to my first strike, I landed my second strike!
"114!"
The Thorn Bear was immediately enraged. It raised its sharp claws and slapped at
me. I took the hit head on and took 37 damage but at the same time, I landed my
third strike ontothe Thorn Bear. With that it was defeated. Hmph, this damage
wasn't anything to be laughed at.
I picked up the 4 copper coins that dropped from the corpse of the Thorn Bear and
continued on my way. After killing about a dozen Thorn Bears, a light appeared
above me, signaling my level had increased to Lv10. With the new level, I gained 10
stat points and put them all in strength which boosted my damage by 5-5. Alright I
was ready to go back to the village, recuperate and head out to Ronoa City
….
After getting back to the Newbie Village, I sold a couple of black Tier leather
armors. With this, I had 2 silver coins! After I repaired my equipment, I went to the
pharmacy. Since l was a Healer, I didn't need any potions that would recover health,
instead I needed potions that would restore mana.
But when I asked for the prices of the mana potions, I was heartbroken -
[Mana Potion Lv 1]: Recovers 50 mana, 5 copper coin/potion
[Mana Potion Lv 2]: Recovers 100 mana, 50 copper coin/potion
[Mana Potion Lv 3]: Recovers 150 mana, 5 silver coin/potion
….
What the heck, I couldn't even afford a Lv 3 potion! Sigh whatever, I just bought lots
of Lv 1 potions, they should be enough while I headed to Ronoa City.
When I got to the village's gates, the village elder who was stationed beside these
gates sent me off. The elder shakily used his bark-like hand to mess up my hair and
in his eyes, tears were welling up: "Child, you've grown and now you're about to
leave this village. I truly feel happy for you, remember, you are our pride. In the
future, you wil definitely be a great adventurer (the name NPC's call players) and
help Notos Empire defeat its enemies."
I nodded: "l understand, elder."
"Child, I have 3 letters of recommendation, you may choose one of them."
In front of me a table lit up,
[Ashura City] [Ronoa City] (Alderna City)
With your letter of recommendation, you could go to the city that you chose and
after showing the letter of recommendation to a teacher of your profession, you
would be able to learn the skills unique to your class!
It was a no-brainer, I chose Ronoa City. As soon as I finished, the elder started
talking again: "Go, my child. No matter where you go, even if you become an
ordinary soldier or a commanding general, don't forget today. You will always be our
source of pride..."
….
Ronoa City was located at the northern point of Notos Empire. In fact, it was
located at the northernmost tip of the human continent. It was also the city that
was closest to the unknown lands to the north. It was more like the first line of
defense against monsters in the north rather than simply being a city. This was one
the reasons that I chose Ronoa City as my home city. Another more important
reason was that the monsters around Ronoa City were probably more savage
than the monsters around the other 2 cities. Under these conditions, players at Ronoa City would have more chances to improve.
After confirming Ronoa City's location on my minimap, I began heading towards
it. On the way, I saw quite a few players also heading to Ronoa City with most
being also Lv 10. Everyone seemed to be in a rush to get to Ronoa and challenge
some strong monsters even if their levels couldn't support them, as if there wouldn't
be enough monsters for them if they were late. In reality, was designed to be able to
support 100, 000, 000 players online at the same time and there were at most 1,
000, 000 players that were playing right now. Therefore, there was no need to hurry
and challenge strong monsters.
Along the way, saw a warrior with black Tiered armor that was followed by a
female Healer. The Healer wore cloth armor and held a healing staff which had the
outlines of a Medicine Pot on top of it. This was a real Healer unlike me.
In addition, I met many players that chose to be Wind Elves; they were mainly
Archers, Mages or Healers. Because Wind Elves could fly, many players chose to be
Wind Elves. In fact by one estimate, about35% of all players chose to be Wind
Elves. But I didn't choose to become a Wind Elf because Wind Elves were basically
sitting ducks while in the sky. In addition, the growth of Health and Defense for
Wind Elves was extremely bad, while spell damage had decent growth, but fighting
in the rear didn't fit well with my play style.
….
Traveling with other newbies that were heading towards Ronoa City ensured my
safe passage. In fact, majority of monsters blocking the paths had already been
killed. After traveling for about 70 minutes, a towering castle appeared. In front of
the castle was a huge rock knife. That was Ronoa City's main landmark, the
legendary Ronoa Knife, maybe it was a god-tier weapon.
After entering the castle, with some directions, I found the teaching association.
Beside a dark green pool were a dozen of female Wind Elves who congregated
together while holding healing staffs. They al were Healers and at the center was a
level 50 NPC Wind Elf who was the professions instructor.
I walked up to her, took out my letter of recommendation and said: "Teacher! This is
my letter of recommendation. I'm an adventurer from Brute Dog Village, please let
me study under you."
The instructor stared at the Bramble Thorn Sword in my hand, her shocked face
betraying her calm voice: "Okay, from now on you are a Trainee Healer of Ronoa
City and a part of our empire's pride."
….
*Ding*
[Encourage] Encourages target. The target gains 1% extra attack damage per level in
Encourage.
Requirements: Level 10- Healer Professions Only
Cost to learn: 1 Silver Coin
There was only 1 skill that I could learn!
But the skill itself was pretty good. At Ly 1 it would raise 1% damage but at Lv 10 it
would raise 10% damage. At the same time, it was incomparable to [Turmoil Sword]
which raised 10% damage instantly without any proficiency.
It pained me to part ways with 1 Silver Coin but I did in the end, dammit.
….
After talking with the instructor, I decided to go raise my level and proficiency of
Encourage]. But I remembered something. There was something that I had to do
before heading out.
I needed to get a production profession. I needed to become an Alchemist.