Profitable Business
Bjorn stood before the group that'd now been reduced to just five living members.
All of the living players had HP bars in the red, while Bjorn's was still at a perfect 100%.
"Y- you must be hacking or something, right??? None of our attacks hit!"
Thanks to his increase in agility, Bjorn just barely had enough speed to avoid every attack. Even if he could trade a bit of health for an even more advantageous position in the fight, he refused to.
He no longer planned to be a berserker style of assassin.
Only perfection could be allowed if he wanted to rise to the top of the world.
Bjorn motioned toward the dagger he had pointed at earlier.
"I'll let you fellows go if you pass that dagger to me. What do you say?"
Since all of the foes were level three, they wouldn't really lose much from this death. Below level 5, they wouldn't lose any XP for a death. The greatest risk was dropping an item- with them having practically no items in their inventories, it was decently likely that the one item that dropped would be their spendy weapons.
Trading a single weapon to guarantee holding on to all of their other ones was probably worth it, but Donny's crew still declined Bjorn's proposition.
There was nothing that could ensure that he would keep his promise to let them go, anyway.
The enemy party looked ready to put up one last final stand against Bjorn, but just as before, it was completely useless.
-
You have defeated an enemy!
You have defeated an enemy!
You have…
…
…
Ding!~
You consecutively defeated seven opponents of a higher level than you! Title acquired.
Overmatched. You will do an extra 1% damage for every two levels an opponent is above you.
-
Receiving a title was a welcome surprise, though Bjorn wasn't sure just how good it was. Instead, he focused on the loot drops from the players.
Coin… coin… coin… Dagger!
Not only did the dagger Bjorn wanted the most drop from the unlucky player, but the shieldsman also dropped his buckler.
'Wow, hunting players is really profitable!'
Five bronze coins and two items likely worth even more than the total coin count. Not only was it a huge loss for the party of new players, but it was a huge win for Bjorn's finances.
After tucking his rusty old dagger away, he swished his new weapon around in the air a few times to get a feel for it.
'It should be a lot easier to advance through the game if I always have the best equipment, right?'
Bjorn nodded as he started walking further into the woods, searching for a wild mob to kill.
'If I stick around here and hunt players, I might do a lot of damage to Iceland's players. I want to try making a team out of only locals to take the world championship, and that'll be tough if I'm just stealing our own items.'
Luckily, the game provided a way to fix this.
At level 3, every player received a continental travel scroll.
It was a one-time, single-use item that could transport a character anywhere within the game.
A lot of people wanted to play with friends overseas or use the game to visit distant family, so forcing them to stay in the land allotted to their home countries didn't make much sense from a game design point of view.
Giving the scrolls to players let them move over to hang out with friends they couldn't meet in real life.
Later on at certain level increments players would receive more scrolls, allowing them to travel more.
The only catch was that someone could only bring whatever they could fit into their small inventories- otherwise, trade-focused players would abuse the scrolls to make enormous profits.
'I'll just head to another region to farm players. It's a bit annoying that I don't get any XP from it, but I guess it's not too much of a bother to go and hunt for a few mobs to level up.
It didn't take Bjorn too long before he ran into another mob.
This time it wasn't just one, but a group of chickens. All of them simultaneously turned their heads to face Bjorn as he stepped into the clearing, and the leading one's eyes started glowing with a faint red light.
'Nice, this should be enough to get me to level three! I can travel somewhere else and start hunting more actual players!'
Unperturbed by the aggressive-looking chickens, Bjorn charged forward, wielding his new dagger.
Where he had previously struggled to do much damage with his rusty dagger, he now lopped off almost a fifth of each chicken's hp with every strike. In just a matter of seconds, the first chicken collapsed, followed by a second.
-
Feathertail Chicken slain. +31 XP.
Feathertail Chicken slain. +32 XP.
-
Bjorn continued slashing at the two remaining chickens, and when they collapsed into motes of light a few seconds later, he received a nice notification.
-
Ding!~
Level up!
You have gained +1 to each stat.
You have gained three free stats.
You can now leave safe zones!
One continental transfer scroll has arrived in your inventory!
-
In the early levels, it didn't take a lot to level up. The moment one hit level fifteen and acquired their first class, though, the requirement increased more than tenfold.
If previously a few hours of grinding could bring a level, it would now take days of work to climb, and it only continued to increase as the level climbed further.
'Well, I guess that's all I need he-'
"SQUAWK!"
An ear-piercing cry tore through the forest, disturbing Bjorn's train of thought.
A few moments later, a massive bird charged into the clearing, its brilliant golden feathers glowing with a peaceful light.
-
Field Boss: Golden Feathertail Chicken, level 10.
-
Bjorn frowned as he braced himself for a fight. Not only would the enemy have higher stats and access to skills because of its level, but field bosses were originally designed to be raided with a team.
He'd heard plenty of times before from his teammates that running into a field boss while hunting could easily result in the loss of a ton of XP.
There were even times when a player dying to one shortly before a tournament was enough to tip a close matchup and cause a team to lose.
Random field bosses were credited with more wins than some lower-ranked professional teams.
Still, as Bjorn faced the enemy, he couldn't help but grin.
'It's just a chicken. How could it possibly compare to a legendary professional player? If I can beat legends, I can easily crush this fat poultry!'