First Blood and Level Up

Reed, standing next to Bron, thought of the dagger he was about to buy. To him, its appearance wasn't that bad, and the runes written on the blade suggested there was more to it as a weapon than met the eye.

"Yes, I'm sure of it," Reed said, adding a confident nod to his judgment.

"But why this one?" Bron asked, pointing at the blade.

Bron couldn't quite understand why Reed would choose to buy such a terrible weapon from his store. The blade had been so himself. Reed stared at it, shocked; there wasn't even a single scratch on the piece of metal.

"Now do you understand? Every single piece of equipment in this shop can at least chop this thing in half except for this one. Knowing this, are you still willing to buy this crap?" Bron asked Reed, staring at him intensely.

"Yes, I have no doubts," Reed said with a confident smile on his face. Bron was shocked; he couldn't understand Reed at all. He didn't know whether Reed was a genius or incredibly stupid, like his last customer.

But one thing was sure: he wouldn't pester Reed on the matter any more. "Ugh, very well, that will be five coppers."

"Here you go," Reed said, giving Bron the money and making his way out of the store. "Hey, and make sure to put some clothes on next time you enter my store," Bron yelled.

"Sure thing." Reed walked out of the store and noticed the players staring at his somewhat perverted appearance. Whispers began to spread as people passed by him.

Reed, realizing something was odd, knew he was only down to his pants and had no protective covering.

Indeed, it was a difficult choice he had to make if he was going to prioritize leveling up. But still, why did Quinn not comment on his twisted appearance when he arrived at his store?

Oh well, it didn't matter anymore. Reed had finally secured a weapon, and his decision to pick a dagger instead of a sword was to complement his weak strength stat.

Everything was going smoothly. Now all that remained was going to the right environment to hunt monsters.

Reed had a place in mind. During his research on his laptop, he came across a valley not too far from the tutorial village, a place said to be the garden of low-level monsters in 'Arcane,' called 'Olga.'

Without hesitation, Reed continued on his way, walking through the village and attracting unwanted attention.

Some players mocked his appearance, calling him names, while others commented that going to battle like that was basically suicide.

But Reed simply ignored them and went on with his journey. Exiting the village, he went straight to Olga.

Upon getting there, he encountered a slime monster at level 3. It was green with a similarly colored core. It was finally time for Reed to try out his new play style. "Ah, a slime! This is perfect," Reed muttered to himself.

The slime approached Reed, hopping from one spot to another. In Reed's research on 'how to fight without taking any damage,' the person displayed his quick reaction speed to incoming attacks, telling his viewers that speed and launching a counterattack are crucial to this style of play.

But that felt impossible to Reed. His skill allowed him to gain HP from dealing damage to monsters, but he didn't have the speed required to pull that off, and even if he did, it meant he wasn't going to use the skill to its fullest potential.

So instead, he decided to do the exact opposite, taking the monsters head-on. He called this method D.E. (damage exchange).

The slime hopped, reaching the point of contact. Reed charged, rushing towards the slime. As the slime pounced on him, Reed took damage but used the opportunity to strike, dealing the slime minor damage.

Surprisingly, he didn't receive any HP. Reed was shocked. "Wait, why didn't I receive any HP? What's going on?" his thoughts ran wild.

The slime fell to the ground and came after him again. It leaped, slamming Reed aggressively in his stomach. Reed tumbled across the ground from the intense impact.

The slime slowly approached with measured hops. Reed, sprawled on the ground, weakened, bruises appeared across his frame. The slime surprisingly packed a punch that Reed didn't expect.

[Warning: player HP has sustained critical damage. Unique skill is now active]

Reed smirked, standing back on his knees. Red miasma began to spew out of his body as if something powerful in him had finally been unlocked.

Reed wiped his lips. "I guess fighting monsters with no decent armor was a bad idea. Ah, why don't we try this again?"

"For Killing a slime only has two methods: attacking them until their HP runs out and they die, or taking out their cores.

Taking out their cores was most effective since it didn't matter how strong the slime was; as long as their core was broken, they were as good as dead."

The slime seemed to notice it too, feeling that the threat level had increased drastically. It squeezed itself on the ground before launching itself towards Reed with all its might.

Reed knew it was too fast for him to dodge and so decides to deploy a different tactic: damage exchange.

He threw his dagger at the slime. The dagger pierced the slime, stabbing its core, giving Reed a decent amount of HP before he was hit by the slime.

The damage he took from the attack was decreased due to the monster's damaged core. The slime goo slapped onto his face and slowly melted away, leaving only the core.

The system prompted, congratulating him on slaying his very first monster and reaching level 2.

Reed picked up the damaged slime core and place it in his digital inventory. "Nice, things are going just as I had planned," he muttered.

Reed then turned to look at the dagger he bought, wondering how it was able to pull off such a feat despite being rusty and blunt.

For Indeed the runes inscribed on it still remained a mystery and the blades origins unknown.

But Reed wasn't ready to be bothered by that at the moment and continued his grind, searching for the next low-level monster in the Valley of Olga.