7 Chapter 6: Foolishness
'I should distribute my status.'
After killing the great Alpha wolf, he gained 6 more levels and 15% in experience. Now his level had reached level 18 and once a player reaches level 20, they'd be able to enter the city where the real journey of a player starts.
Ting~
[Alon
Race: Human
Status: Commoner
Title: Weak Hero
Class: Warrior (Tier 0)
Level: 11 (87%) + 6 (15%)
Rank: Awakened (Early)
Strength: 154 +10
Agility: 105 +6
Intelligence: 67 +7
HP: 11000/11000 +700
MP: 670/670 +70
Status points: 35]
'With this many attributes, it should be enough for me to reach level 20 with ease but I can't afford to get put in that same scenario again without preparing myself for the worst. For now, I should balance out my strength and agility so let's distribute all of it in agility.'
Ting~
[Alon
Race: Human
Status: Commoner
Title: Weak Hero
Class: Warrior (Tier 0)
Level: 18 (2%)
Rank: Awakened (Early)
Strength: 164
Agility: 111 +35
Intelligence: 84
HP: 11000/11000 +700
MP: 740/740
Status points: 35 -35]
With everything settled, Alon went back to the town. His speed had grown leaps and bounds after wearing the boots, although he could only exert 50% of its properties, he was already super fast that he'd disappear from a nearby monster's view in a single glance just before they could even react.
From his travel back to the town, he'd meet one or two monsters on his way but he simply killed them with a single punch. He made the 5-hour travel into a short 30-minute journey. This showed the difference between him running barefoot and running with the boots on.
Upon his arrival in the town, he could feel the stares of the players showing shock and awe at him. What stood out was not his level, but his appearance. His whole body was covered by dried-up blood, he was shirtless and his pants had been tattered and even had some of the fabric scorched while he wore brand new shoes that made him look weird and horrendous.
He didn't care about the eyes that stare at him, he quickly opened the door through the Awakened Hall. As the door opened, all eyes were on him again. His appearance stunned the players as if he was a Holocaust survivor but what truly shocked everyone was his level.
Before he had left, everyone already heard of the news about a level 0 player overwhelming three level 5 red players in an absolute bloody fashion and the video of it had been spread to the community in Greenville Town and one player even posted it on the official forum that quickly garnered attention but a short moment later, that clip was censored for being too vile and gory.
"H-how!?"
"What the fuck is with that leveling speed!?"
"Shit! He looks like a Holocaust survivor."
"Shut up dude if you don't want to die!"
Alon shifted his gaze at the players who quickly retracted their heads away from him not daring to look at his eyes. Everybody was afraid, not only because of his appearance but because everything about him scare them shitless. The subordinate was right, they should never mess with him, and now that his level was far higher than all of them, ganging up to kill him was their last option.
Gulp!
Silence filled the room, each step that Alon made frightened the players, and some players who were near the door immediately left afraid of what he might do. Even though players were safe inside the town since fighting was forbidden and if one was found trying to start a fight, he would immediately be caught by powerful NPC guards and put straight to jail where the system would give severe punishments that temporarily banned them from entering the game.
But still, despite this fact, horror-filled their minds. Being killed by him was the same as quitting the game. With trauma overwhelming their mental health from the torture that they will experience, they'd be forced to stay away from the game as far as possible.
Even arrogant players like the boss of the red players didn't dare to look at his face, he was staring at the walls while he drank his beer.
"I am here to complete my quest." Alon gave the receptionist the quest page.
"Do you have with you the 100 Great Wolf hides?" The receptionist asked.
"Yes." Alon opened his inventory and retrieved the hides which were piled on the desk and as soon as the receptionist counted the hides, she placed them in a storage box.
"It has been confirmed, here are your rewards."
Ting~
[Quest has been completed!]
[Rewards]
[+100,000 EXP]
[+10 Silver coins]
"Thank you." After obtaining the rewards, Alon's experience bar was filled by about 82%, it wasn't long before he could level up to level 19 but for now, he plans on buying some materials and potions.
The quest on the bulletin board had yet to interest Alon as now he had enough money to buy certain necessities so he immediately left the Awakened Hall. After leaving, everyone let out a heavy sigh as they felt his overwhelming pressure suffocating them inside the room with him.
"He's a monster in human skin."
"Agreed."
"Agreed."
Everyone had the same thoughts in their head, "No matter what, never mess with the guy.".
-------------
The marketplace was bustling with NPCs and players, one could see many products being sold from stalls that ranged from materials, potions, pieces of equipment, and consumables.
"Selling lesser potions and scrolls for 10 bronze coins!"
"I have here a rare ranked dagger for one silver, I can allow bargaining."
"Bartering rare-ranked equipment for materials of the same value! Scammers get the fuck out!"
"Willing to buy any rare materials! We can haggle for the price."
"Anybody willing to sell their equipment for me, preferably mage types. I am willing to pay with cash and a monthly membership for my onlyfans."
The marketplace was very lively considering that the other parts of the town felt desolated. Alon wanted to buy spare clothing since his shirt and pants had been tattered and he also wanted to buy a cleansing potion to clean his entire body from the gunk and blood residue.
Although he could choose to take a normal wash by renting a room in an inn, he didn't have the time to do so since he wanted to level up as fast as possible. Not wasting a minute of his time, he wanted to use any means possible to help his father's dying company got back up from it's prime.
'Once I arrive at the city, I'll register at the Adventurer's Association so I can become an official adventurer and with that, I should be able to travel around the continent freely and rake some reputation and be famous all around the world.' With his plans settled, Alon hurried to buy the items he needed.
Alon walked towards a player who was selling potions and equipments which he spread on a carpet on the ground. A shadow loomed at the player's head and he immediately interacted with the customer.
"Esteemed, player what can I get you?..!?"
When the player saw his customer, he was given a massive fright and it looked like his soul had just left his body after seeing the player's identity.
"Give me 15 cleansing potions, 10 lesser healing potions, 5 lesser antidotes, and a skinning knife."
"R-right away s-sir!"
The player quickly gave Alon the items he asked for and after receiving the items, the player suddenly packed his products and ran away.
"Here's a silver coin..?"
Alon was bewildered when the player suddenly disappeared without asking for payment. He thought of how generous the player was to give him the items for free so he didn't fret much about it.
After he tried to buy other items from players, everybody started avoiding him. The stalls had been closed and the owners were running away. Seeing that he couldn't buy from players, he had no choice but to buy the items he needed from NPCs.
Unlike players, the NPC sold their products 50% more expensive and you couldn't even bargain with them. This was why players rarely buy from NPCs since they could buy the said item at a cheaper price in the official market.
Alon was able to buy a beginner's clothing from an NPC for 2 bronze coins which was double the price tag that players would sell it for. The beginner's clothing only added a very minuscule amount of attributes. 2 bronze coins were equal to completing an F-rank quest and while it's a low leveled quest, players of that level found it very hard to complete so for the majority, 2 bronze coins was very expensive.
Alon opened his inventory to retrieve one bottle of cleansing potion.
Ting~
[Cleansing Potion
Type: Consumables
Removed all dirt residue from the player and clean their entire body back to its normal state.]
The cleansing potion had a whitish transparent color and a thick gooey viscosity. One would say that it looked like cum. Alon swallowed the entire contents of the potion and the empty glass vial disappeared since vials were one-time uses. The liquid had a mildly bitter, slightly sweet and salty, and metallic aftertaste. He could visibly see the effects of the potion appear in his body as the dried-up gunk and blood that had been stuck on his skin vanished in an instant. His odor had also improved and he smelled like a pampered infant who just learned how to walk.
'Weird, it tastes like semen.'
After he was cleaned up, he replaced his tattered clothing with beginner's clothes and checked his map to find a dungeon.
Dungeons could be found all over the continent. They are stationary spatial gates that allow players to raid monsters and obtain loots and treasure. They are classified by their level and rank. There are level 1 dungeons that allow players of a maximum of ten levels to enter the dungeons and are ranked by tiers, the higher the tier the harder the dungeon. A party can set the difficulty of the dungeon from the Medium, Hard, and Hell-mode. The higher the difficulty, the stronger the monsters and the more bountiful rewards.
There are open dungeons that allow any number of players in entering while the more common are manned dungeons that need a certain number of players to be able to enter the dungeons. There are 5-man dungeons, 10-man, 100-man, etc. Of course, the more party needed to raid the dungeon, the harder the dungeon would be. That's only common sense. Dungeons also have time limits, once the time limit is reached, players will be forcefully thrown out of the dungeon.
What Alon wanted to raid were open dungeons since he wanted to do the raiding alone. There were two open dungeons in Greenville Town; Rusty Coal Dungeon which is home to kobolds and has an abundance of ores and Mana crystals since it's a giant mine shaft and The Goblin Farm Dungeon which is a giant tunneling cave that has a stronghold of thousands of goblins. As an open dungeon, a player could leave whenever they want to even if they haven't died or defeated the boss.
What Alon wanted to raid was The Goblin Farm Dungeon since not only was it a level 15 dungeon, it had no time limit
due to its complex structure and many sub-bosses. From what Keith had told him, Goblins were humanoid monsters that had green skin and relatively small stature but what made these monsters very difficult to kill was not only did they form in groups, they were highly intelligent monsters that could set up traps and fight like a party of players. They were very cunning monsters that grow and spread very fast due to their high birth rate and some were even so cruel that they will poison their weapons so they could capture NPCs and players preferably females to breed with them. Because of that, female players would do anything to avoid confronting a goblin since it wouldn't simply end up with one broken hole, but dozens.
They were absolute sick fuckers that needed to be exterminated.
---------------
Upon arriving at the dungeon site, Alon could see numerous players standing idly at the entrance of the spatial gate. Some of them were recruiting players for a party and others were simply staring at the players releasing evil intent hoping to take advantage of their actions since the majority of the players present are PKers.
"Looking for level 15 MTs to hunt for sub-boss. Loot will be shared equally."
"Currently recruiting level 15 and above mages. Any mage-related drops will be given priority."
"Recruiting an expert to help me reach level 20, I will pay you with cash."
Alon didn't bother with the players as he walked towards the entrance. Immediately, all eyes were on him. Their stares gave the reaction of fear and ridicule.
Fear since they knew who he was due to his infamy as a psychopath;
And Ridicule as not only was he wearing beginner's clothing, he didn't carry any weapons with him. Going into the dungeon was the same as committing suicide (RIP Etika, I missed you :'(. )
"Wtf, isn't he that psychopath? What is he trying to do?"
"Don't tell me he's gonna enter the dungeon with that attire. Is he asking to die?"
"Shit, I knew he was broken in the head but I didn't know he was this mentally unstable. Let's not mess with him."
"Fuck! Such a handsome dude, unfortunately, he's a psycho, if he wasn't, I'd let him ram my femboy asshole all day while we play Cbat by Hudson Mohawke in the background on loop."
"Man's an absolute Chad. Real based (Insert Moai Emoji)."
Everyone had mixed emotions about what Alon would do. Some ridiculed him, some admired his bravery and some gave him sympathetic stares. One thing that everybody did was to try avoid him at all costs.
When Alon got near the spatial gate, a window panel appeared in his view.
Ting~
[Goblin Farm Dungeon (0)
Dungeon Level: 15
Player requirements: Level 15-25
Time limit: None
Dungeon Type: Open Complex Dungeon]
[Please set the Difficulty]
"Hell mode."
After speaking the command, the once blue portal changed to the color of crimson red. Everyone who watching had their mouths agape at Alon's decision. Everybody knew how hard the hell mode difficulty was. Not only did the monsters contain very high levels, but their rank would also increase by 1-2 rank/s. All of those adjustments made conquering the dungeon near impossible. From the whole history of The God Of Haven, players who had successfully raided a hell mode difficulty dungeon in Goblin's Farm could be counted by one hand and they had compromised of at least 100 players. From the basic goal of raiding the dungeon, in the hell dungeon, you had to both defeat all the sub-bosses and boss monsters of the dungeon before you could leave. One couldn't get out of the dungeon and their only option was to die but when a player dies in a hell-difficulty dungeon, the penalty upon death was the same as getting killed as a red player who has killed 10 players. Not only did one lose 2-3 levels that was equal to a few days of grinding, half of the items on their inventory would also drop upon death. It was too much of a risk.
"He is broken in the head."
"Fuck, he is asking himself to get killed!"
"Everybody record this fool! If he either fails or completes the dungeon which is very unlikely that he could, he'll definitely leave a mark in the history of the game!"
"Damn I can't wait to see the results!"
"Everybody! I bet 50 bronze coins that he will survive 1 minute in the dungeon."
"I bet 1 silver coin he will survive in 30 seconds."
"I bet 5 silver coins that he will survive in 15 seconds!"
"I bet..."
"I bet..."
.
.
.
Everybody started a betting system for Alon on how long he could survive the dungeon. The majority betted that he could survive 30 seconds in the dungeon, some bet that he could survive a minute or two and one even betted a rare weapon that he would die as soon as he entered the spatial gate.
One thing that differed it all was that nobody bet on him to successfully raid the dungeon. It was simply impossible.
The place had become quite a ruckus so Alon immediately entered the spatial gate before things could get out of hand. His body was distorted from the dimensional rift and after a few seconds, he found himself transported to a dark gloomy cave that had little to no light.
Ting~
[You have entered The Goblin Farm Dungeon]
