Chapter 3: First Steps

Insight: Active skill. Reveals basic information within a range, detects traps and invisible entities, observes monster stats, views player attributes.

Marcus confirmed he wasn’t dreaming. This happiness was beyond compare. With 15 free attribute points remaining, he’d max out his stats and enter the game.

His class was Fighter, planning to advance to Knight, so naturally he’d focus on Strength and Constitution.

“Congratulations! Player ’Stonehaven’s’ Strength attribute has reached maximum value of 20 points. Cannot increase further. Skill ’Soul of Attack’ awarded. Not yet activated.”

“Congratulations! Player ’Stonehaven’s’ Constitution attribute has reached maximum value of 20 points. Cannot increase further. Skill ’Boiling Blood’ awarded. Not yet activated.”

“Congratulations! Player ’Stonehaven’s’ Agility attribute has reached maximum value of 20 points. Cannot increase further. Skill ’Heart of Agility’ awarded. Not yet activated.”

He hadn’t expected maxing attributes would give rewards too. The waves of blissful shock kept coming. His luck was absolutely exploding today. Marcus quickly opened his status screen to check his attributes:

Character Stats: Stonehaven

– Class: Fighter

– Secondary Class: None

– Level: 0

– Basic Attributes:

– Strength: 20 (affects physical attack, stun chance)

– Constitution: 20 (affects HP and defense)

– Agility: 20 (affects dodge, accuracy, speed, critical chance)

– Focus: 15 (affects magic attack and MP)

– Fixed Attribute: Luck: 20 (affects drop rates, dodge success, accuracy, stun, critical chance, mining, alchemy, crafting, forging, skill comprehension, skill fusion, etc.)

– Reputation: 0 (used for guild creation and quest access)

– Skills:

– Slash: Level 1 (0/500), Active skill, costs 3 MP, adds 10 attack damage

– Insight: Level 1 (0/5000), Active skill, costs 30 MP, detects basic information within 5 meters, reveals basic traps and stealth, observes monsters up to 10 levels higher, views attributes of players at or below user’s level

– Soul of Attack: Not activated, effects unknown

– Boiling Blood: Not activated, effects unknown

– Heart of Agility: Not activated, effects unknown

– Secondary Skills: None

– Pet: None

– Guild: None

– HP: Constitution 20 × 10 = 200

– MP: Focus 15 × 10 = 150

– Attack: Strength 20 × 2 = 40

– Defense: Constitution 20 × 2 = 40

– Accuracy: Agility 20 × 1 = 20

– Dodge: Agility 20 × 1 = 20

– Attack Speed: 1 + 20/100 = 1.2

– Movement Speed: 2 + 20/50 = 2.4 (rounded to 2)

Looking at his stats, Marcus was incredibly overpowered. But the bonus skills except for Insight weren’t activated and had no effects, frustrating. And Focus hadn’t reached maximum, so he’d missed out on one skill. What a shame.

The human heart was never satisfied. Even with such broken stats, he still had complaints.

’Time to get into the game.’

After spending so long on character creation with such broken stats, the system didn’t even reward him with a hidden class. Hidden classes really were hard to come by, or maybe they required triggering specific quests. Marcus would have to work for it.

“Enter the game!” he shouted. ’Dominion, here I come!’

“Welcome, player Stonehaven, to Newbie Village #3256. You must reach level 10 before leaving the village to choose a city for your first class advancement. Have a pleasant journey.” With a flash of light and system notifications, Marcus arrived at the newbie village.

“Damn, so many people.” The newbie village was packed with players, a sea of humanity bustling about in complete chaos. Dominion was absolutely on fire.

Looking around, all the new players wore the same style of basic clothing. Good thing the system provided a starter outfit, or everyone would be running around naked. Marcus checked his equipment, he also had a knife. Time to gear up.

Newbie Wooden Blade: White equipment, Requirements: None, Attack +5

Newbie Shirt: White equipment, Requirements: None, Defense +5

Newbie Pants: White equipment, Requirements: None, Defense +5

His attack and defense immediately changed: Attack: 45, Defense: 50.

No rush to hunt monsters. First, find quests. Doing quests was always the most beneficial approach, that was Marcus’s gaming wisdom.

“Village Chief, sir! I’m here. Is there anything I can help you with?” Since Dominion was controlled by the intelligent supercomputer, Skynet, all NPCs had thinking capabilities, so Marcus was very polite.

“The peaceful Dreamland Continent has seen its holy light fade after three thousand years. Dark creatures are awakening, demons are stirring, and a storm of blood and carnage approaches. The Dreamland Continent faces tremendous crisis. If we cannot stop the demons, cannot reseal or destroy them, humanity will perish. Stonehaven! Are you willing to walk the path of a hero for humanity’s fate and your own glory? Will you seek the legendary power, inherit the mission bestowed by the Goddess of Dreams, fight the demons to the death, and become humanity’s champion?” The village chief spoke with gravitas, his wise eyes adding weight to his words.

’Whoa… what’s with the heavy atmosphere? I’m playing this game to relax and make some money through the currency exchange to support my sister and me. Don’t put pressure on me please, haha.’ Marcus thought, but said aloud, “Village Chief, I’m willing.”

“May the Goddess of Dreams be with you. The village is surrounded by corrupted creatures. I hope you can eliminate them, train your abilities, and walk the path of a hero.”

“Stonehaven, the Village Chief requests you kill 20 Corrupted Tigers and collect 20 tiger tails. Do you accept?” the system prompted.

“Accept.”

“Stonehaven, I’m glad you have such passion, but that alone isn’t enough. Your abilities aren’t strong enough yet. First, train yourself against the weaker creatures at the village entrance to grow stronger, then eliminate the Corrupted Tigers.”

“Got it.” Marcus ran toward the blacksmith’s weapon shop.

“Blacksmith, sir! I’m here. Is there anything I can help you with?”

“Ah, Stonehaven! Those damned Corrupted Rats stole my Golden Hammer. Can you help me get it back?” The blacksmith wiped sweat from his brow.

“Of course, no problem. Blacksmith, you can count on me.”

“With so many heroes coming to the village lately, I’m running low on ore. Could you help me gather some while you’re out there?”

“No problem.”

“Stonehaven accepts the Blacksmith’s commission. Learned ’Mining.’ Received Blacksmith’s gift: ’Iron Pickaxe.’ Must gather 10 Iron Ore.”

Iron Pickaxe: Requirements: None. Used for mining.

“Herbalist, sir! I’m here. Is there anything I can help you with?” After finishing the blacksmith’s quest, Marcus headed to the herbalist’s shop.

“Ah, Stonehaven! Yesterday while gathering herbs, a Corrupted Mountain Wolf stole my Golden Pot. Can you help me get it back?” The herbalist smiled.

“Of course, no problem. Herbalist, you can count on me.”

“With so many heroes coming to the village lately, I’m running low on medicinal herbs. Could you help me gather some while you’re out there?”

“No problem.” Since the herbalist used the same dialogue as the blacksmith, Marcus didn’t bother changing his tone either.

“Stonehaven accepts the Herbalist’s commission. Learned ’Herb Gathering.’ Received Herbalist’s gift: ’Herb Spade.’ Must gather 10 Healing Herbs.”

Herb Spade: Requirements: None. Used for herb gathering.

After walking through the entire newbie village, there were only these three NPCs. Marcus wondered hypothetically how these old bachelors managed to survive. He checked his accepted quests:

“Village Chief’s Commission: Normal Quest, Intermediate Level. Kill 20 Corrupted Tigers, collect tiger tails as proof.”

“Blacksmith’s Golden Hammer: Normal Quest, Basic Level. Retrieve Golden Hammer, mine 10 Iron Ore.”

“Herbalist’s Golden Pot: Normal Quest, Basic Level. Retrieve Golden Pot, gather 10 Healing Herbs.”

Quests were divided into Normal Quests, Hidden Quests, Unique Quests, Unique Hidden Quests, and more. According to the official site, there were all kinds of bizarre quests waiting to be discovered, and quest rewards were definitely generous.

“Pretty stingy. Not even giving me some legendary or divine equipment, or at least a hidden quest. My 20 Luck didn’t get me any extra benefits. So frustrating,” Marcus complained as he walked toward the village exit.

It was time to hunt monsters and level up. This was a game, after all. No choice in the matter.

The village entrance was a place filled with slaughter. Groups of players kept their eyes peeled for opportunities. The moment they spotted a rabbit, they’d swarm it. The poor rabbits didn’t even get to see the beautiful world before being torn apart.

Marcus cast Insight on one: Corrupted Rabbit, Level 1, 100 HP, Loves big carrots.

Players could only see monster names, HP was invisible and had to be estimated through combat experience. But with Insight, Marcus could see exact HP values and even a red health bar. He understood monsters completely.

“Insight is amazing!” Marcus marveled. Know yourself and your enemy, and monster hunting becomes a breeze. Leveling up would be lightning fast.

’Damn, how brutal!’ Even though these were corrupted rabbits that had abandoned righteousness for the dark path, their fluffy appearance and clever big eyes were adorable. How could people bring themselves to kill them?’ Marcus complained.

Of course, sour grapes. With so many people around, he had no chance to get involved. He had to abandon the Corrupted Rabbits and slowly walk toward the village outskirts.

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep