You seem familiar...

The path was eerily quiet, with no players tromping towards the woods on their way to kill monsters. Instead, Eisen was alone on the well-trodden dirt and estimating his profits.

However, the change was abrupt when he returned to Mudbrick Town. The small town was far more busy than the last time he had been there at night. Now, players and NPCs flooded the streets, perhaps three or four times more than before.

The rattle of local noble's carriages and the hawking of merchants was doubly loud, combined with the bustle and conversation of pedestrians. Coins changed hands, and the glitter of copper filled the scene.

Eisen approached the auction house, a building that towered over the rest, only overshadowed by the town hall. He placed most of his excess Common-ranked equipment for auction, setting the base price for most of the equipment at around 50 coppers.

Common-ranked equipment was in large demand; many posts of the Gigantomachia forums were offering urks for spare Common-ranked equipment.

After auctioning some of the equipment, he made a post advertising the exchange of urks for Common-ranked equipment.

"Common-ranked equipment for trade in Mudbrick Town, accepting urks."

Sharp Spear-12:43 AM

After I lost some of my equipment, I'll happily trade some cash for replacement items.

Storm Cloud-12:44 AM

The maximum price I'm offering is 150 urks.

Silent Snow-12:44 AM

There's only one weapon available? I'll buy that for 200 urks

Storm Cloud-12:44 AM

@Silent Snow, I have already made an offer for the item you are requesting.

Silent Snow-12:46 AM

So what? I'm paying a higher price

After around twelve minutes of back-and-forth between the two users, Eisen smilingly intervened and accepted Silent Snow's offer of 354 urks.

'Over 300 urks just for a Common-ranked item? How wealthy,' Eisen internally groused. However, he refrained from insulting his buyer and made arrangements to meet up with Silent Snow later.

Suddenly, several notifications interrupted his thoughts.

[Your Common-ranked Adventurer's Sword has been sold for 62 coppers.]

[Your Common-ranked Feathered Bow has been sold for for 71 coppers.]

Eisen smiled, and watched the money flow into his account. The glitter of coins filled his vision and he was positively salivating at the absurd amount of coins he now possessed.

He sold his Trash-ranked equipment to an NPC merchant who offered a good price, before using his accumulated wealth to purchase 10 minor healing potions.

[Minor Healing Potions - Common]

[Heals 30 HP instantaneously]

[An alchemical concoction that restores your health and heals your wounds.]

Altogether, the 10 potions costed him 150 copper, or 1 silver coin and 50 coppers.

However, this would allow him to spend less time resting and waiting for his HP to recover before continuing his fighting and grinding. In dangerous situations, the potions could save his life.

After another hour, the rest of the items on the auction were sold. Altogether, he had made a profit of 10 silvers and 54 copper from the auctioned items. Combined with the money he made from the Trash-ranked equipment, he had just about made 11 silvers.

Eisen checked his digital display, and panicked. While he had been grinding for levels against wolves and waiting for the auctioned items to sell, he had missed the appointment with Silent Snow in the town square of Mudbrick Town.

He quickly killed the wolf he was fighting with a hasty Power Strike, before dashing as fast as he could towards Mudbrick Town.

When he arrived, he leaned against a lamp as he caught his breath. He quickly observed his surroundings, searching the bustling market around him.

Suddenly, a booming, arrogant voice spoke. "Hahaha! No way! It turns out that I was going to buy equipment from the noob!?"

Eisen twisted around to face a black-haired man. He was around 6 feet tall, and had an arrogant smirk. The man wore padded leather armor, and daggers were strapped to his belt. His nametag floating over his head read "Silent Snow."

Indignantly, he shouted back. "What do you mean, dumbfuck?! You wanna' get your ass handed to you?!"

"Ahahaha! Just as spunky and stupid as you were in the video!" the tall man laughed.

"Video?" Eisen asked confused. "What video? Wait..."

Suddenly, his face flushed dark red as he remembered the video on the Gigantomachia forums, of him getting destroyed by a town guard.

"Looks like you remember now! Hahaha!" Silent Snow doubled over laughing at Eisen's flushed face. "You're blushing like a fucking tomato!"

Eisen growled, grabbing for his sword.

"Oh no," the raven-haired man said with a cackle as he watched Eisen unsheath his sword. "Whatever shall I do? Call for the guards?"

Immediately, Eisen sheathed his blade. However, he glared daggers at the other player.

Completely unfazed, Silent Snow stared back at him. "I got carried away, haha. Let's do what I came here for, okay?"

"Give me the cash first, dumbfuck. I'm not stupid enough to give you the goods before you pay me," snorted Eisen.

"Fine, fine!" Silent Snow held up his hands. "What a loser, you're still angry?"

Eisen grunted, a frown on his face. 'If I didn't really need this money, I would find some other buyer,' he grumbled internally.

Once he saw the money in his account, Eisen grudgingly handed over the dagger.

"You weren't lying about the item? Haha, great!" Silent Snow laughed, before grabbing the weapon and swapping out one of his other daggers with his new one.

Eisen grumbled. "Now get out of my face, asshole."

"I'll be happy to comply! See you later!" laughed the other player with a grin.

Eisen promptly turned around and walked away, fists tightly balled up. His teeth were clenched, and murderous rage seethed from his body.

He returned to the auction house, attempting to distract himself from the earlier humiliation.

'At least there weren't many people who cared,' he comforted himself.

After buying a new sword that caught his eye on the auction, he returned to grinding in the forest again.

Whenever he looked at the packs of wolves, his rage over getting killed by an NPC was completely overshadowed by his hatred for wolves. His blade trembled in his hands like a blade of grass in the breeze. His eyes became bloodshot with unbridled anger.

His pride had been trampled over six times by the wolf packs, and he swore vengeance in his heart. He would return one day and slaughter every last one of them.

However, he would have to resort to stealth and underhanded tricks for now.

Eisen continued luring wolves towards their deaths, despite getting less EXP than before from them. He could've fought stronger monsters that would've given him more experience, but he continued slaughtering wolves throughout the entire night.

'Power Strike!'

'Power Strike!'

'Power Strike!'

At some point, the attack patterns of the wolves had been ingrained into his brain. Eisen had completely mastered the wolves' attack pattern, and eventually he gained enough confidence to take on two wolves at once.

However, Eisen quickly became foolhardy.

"I'm ready to take on these bastards like a man," he growled as hatred tinted his vision.

Once his HP was fully recovered, he took a few deep breaths to concentrate and prepare himself.

He charged straight towards a pack of wolves, swinging his sword wildly.

The wolves growled, and began to flank his sides. However, he quickly activated Power Strike and tossed one of the wolves backwards with a swipe of his blade.

[-42]

Thanks to his equipment, Eisen's Strength stat had more than doubled since the beginning when he first fought the wolves, he was having a much easier time dealing damage. Combined with the 50% damage increase from Power Strike, he had dealt far more damage than before.

[Wolf lv. 1]

[hp: 208/250]

Another few swipes of his sword, and one of the wolves lay at his feet, dead.

Quickly, he dashed backwards and avoided a claw attack from another wolf attempting to get the jump on him. With rudimentary skill, he swung his sword into the neck of another wolf, gouging a deep wound.

(Critical hit!) [-51]

Eisen smiled. This was going to be easier than he expected.

He dodged another couple of strikes, constantly backing up to avoid being surrounded. Every time his Skill's cooldown ended, he batted another wolf back with Power Strike.

Now, with his firm grasp on the attack patterns of the monsters, as long as he didn't get surrounded, Eisen could fight an entire wolf pack.

With a flurry of quick slashes, he killed another wolf.

"Four more to go," he chuckled menacingly.

His blade made short work of the rest of the wolves, and their bodies decorated the forest floor.

"Ahahaha! Finally, these damned creatures are nothing but pests!" he laughed.

Standing over the quadrupedal corpses, Eisen looked up towards the leafy canopy and cackled at the top of his lungs. His demonic laughter echoed throughout the forest.