1 Welcome to New Life Online

-Beginner's Area-

Suddenly, a bright light caught my eye. While it fades, I started to see what's happening. I was teleported to a place. A place where players like me begin their adventure. The place has small houses and shops, also has walls that surround it. Houses and other buildings, even the walls, are made of rocks. A stone masonry expert should have done this.

Man... It's like I'm really inside the world. I feel everything. The feeling of softness of clothes that I wear, my dagger's handle is hard as it supposed to be, and even the smell of the place. Every sense I have is working here like it's real.

Players are everywhere asking questions. Most of us wear the same clothes so I'm pretty sure most of them are beginners as well.

The game didn't ask me about my appearance or class like any other games so, just as I expected, my appearance is the same in real life. I wear a simple shirt, pants, and boots. The equipment is probably for beginners. I have a dagger which I presume a starter weapon. I also have a small sack made of leather which has bread and herbs. not bad for freebies.

It was mentioned in the game manual that you cannot check your stats at all like in real life. How about that?

I tried everything but nothing as I expected. They say that the game doesn't really give any information about the character but instead, players are ranked from E to SSS based on the players overall ability, not only for battle but also for being the best on what you do or what class you focus on.

Wait, there's someone approaching accompanied by two girls.

"Hello fellow adventurer, we just started the game and we want to hunt some monsters. Would you like to join us?" So formal, this guy looks like he's clueless, same as me.

His aura is somewhat like a playboy, with a blond long-layered haircut. He's good looking and probably the same age as me. I won't say I like any company but it would be a great start.

"Sure, why not. I'll accept your invitation." The guy smiled at me and told her friends that I agreed to join them.

They all came to me and started introducing themselves.

"Elou's my name and this is Akko and Lili." He waved his hand introducing the others. Are they shy or something?

Akko is the taller girl with long straight black hair, pretty much same age as me. Lili, on the other hand, reminds me of my sis when she was younger, from the look on her face, she's a teenager. She's cute and somehow, I want to hug her for some reason. They didn't tell me much but Elou wants to be an archer while Akko and Lili are thinking of becoming a magician or a healer. That would be a good party set.

"I'm Scythus. I just started playing the game as well so I can't really help much. So, what's the plan?"

"No worries. We're beginners as well. I asked the guys around here about the monsters and they said that the places around the beginner's area are safe. No aggressive monsters, just some low-level animals like Rabbits, Wild Cats, and the Wolves. Wolves are a bit aggressive though so we should be careful. What do you think?" Elou's pretty handy when it comes to asking people questions. He exude confidence yet it's pleasantly acceptable.

"Wild Cats would be a good practice for our teamwork," They look at each other after I said that and I think we made the decision.

Hunting Wild Cats would be a stepping stone because we are four in the party and we can easily defeat one. Wildcats are located at the east side of the Beginner's area.

-East of Beginner's Area-

We arrived at the Wild Cat's area which is just outside. The place is filled with small grass and you can easily see some cats roaming around. After checking the place, we decided to target one Wild Cat to separate it from its friends. We basically hit one of them using a rock to catch its attention.

"KssssssSSSS!" The cat is pissed and rushed towards me.

(WILDCAT: RANK E)

I've felt a little pressure after getting its attention which only means that the monster is either slightly weaker than me or almost the same as my strength.

*SLASH*

The Wildcat suddenly attacked me using its fierce claw. I was caught unprepared and got hit. The attack was just a scratch so it didn't hurt that much as stated on the game's manual that pain can still be felt but it's only 1/10 of real the real pain so I guess, it's weaker than I expected.

"CLASS UNLOCKED: THIEF / BATTLE RANK: E" Uhh... Thief... I guess it doesn't mean I'm really a thief or anything.

I aggressively attacked the Wild Cat as a response using my dagger I found from my bag. I have some cats to take care of!

The others also attacked the cat simultaneously. The Wildcat sometimes can avoid our attacks. It is really agile but because we outnumbered it, we managed to defeat some of the cats. It wasn't that hard. We decided to hunt more. Whenever we kill something we carve the leather and meat out of it. It's disgusting but it's supposed to be that way according to the game manual. We also saved the bones in case we need it. We also decided to share the loot evenly. The girls did well too. It wasn't a bad start and we did really well.

-Green Leaf Village-

After several hours of hunting, we decided to leave the Beginner's Area and go north to a village nearby. Yep, it took us quite some time. I feel sorry for those cats but we needed their materials. According to the guide, materials we gathered can be crafted to create weapons and armors. Cool!

The village is just a ten-minute walking distance.

We asked one of the guards in the village some questions. It's called Green Leaf village, unique name huh, and the place has lots of vegetation inside, where trees are all around, flowers and other plants are also beside the walls. The leader of the village ordered people to only use rocks when building houses because, with the trees and plants all over the city, fire outbreaks would be too hard to handle. Guards also mentioned a story when the village was still made out of woods and the village was devastated because of a small fire outbreak.

There are a lot more buildings here compared to beginner's area. There are Inns where players stay when they don't own a house to rest, armor and weaponry shops, miscellaneous shops, Trading area, Blacksmiths shops and even Schools which will be really helpful for new players. We decided to visit the blacksmith to make them craft for us.

"Do you need equipment? You have no money but have materials? Handy will help you with those!" Shouting lively, I hope he doesn't disturb other shops around him.

"How about we get new gears? Our weapons look like they're worn out from our last hunt." I looked at them and suggested a good idea.

"Not a bad idea. I guess it's time to change outfits. Our gears are covered in blood too and I even unlocked Theif class which suits for me but not for those two." Elou's scraping off the blood on his shirt and he's right. It's not the class the other two girls wanted.

"I need to wash my hands as well." Akko's hands are covered in blood as well and need to clean up. I don't want them to do the messy stuff with me and Elou but with their help, we were able to gather more.

"..." Lili's just looking at me. Should I say something to her?

"Let's go then," So we went to the loud blacksmith.

-Handy's Crafting Station-

The blacksmith is wearing an apron, maybe a protection for crafting. He's tall, with really masculine feature and bald. Looking at him right now I can guess that he's in his thirties, a normal looking blacksmith. Why do they all look the same...

(HANDY / BLACKSMITH: B)

"Hello, Mr. Handy, we have some leather and bones gathered from wildcats and I heard they can be used to craft some gears. Is this enough for you to craft some weapons and armor for us? We just came here," Elou started talking to the blacksmith.

"Yes of course. I am happy helping noo- I mean beginners with their equipment. The fee is ten percent of the materials needed for my working time and I am the best blacksmith here so far, so I guarantee you guys that you'll have the best gears! HAHAHA!" He sounds arrogant but doesn't matter as long as he helps us. He laughs so hard too.

He asked leather and bones so we gave almost all of our loot. I hope it's worth it. Anyway, he said we should come back around an hour because it takes some time to craft those.

"By the way, don't try to travel North of here. The monsters are stronger than those you've faced so far. Not only that, if you die, all your equipment will drop including your bag. You will also be out of the game for 4 hours. Your rank's progress will also be reduced by ten percent. So, make sure to travel safely," The penalty sounds awful. This is a huge loss for those who have higher ranks. Man, I know myself and one of my best traits is being reckless!

"Thanks for the advice, Mr. Handy. We will keep that in mind. Do you know what we should do next?" That's a good question, Elou. I don't want to just wander around and let myself get killed.

"Learning how to improve your rank is what you should do next. Beating up monsters is not the only way to increase the Ranks. Like myself, most of the time, I'm here crafting stuff, it increases my Rank Progress of being a Blacksmith. So, you should hunt more for a while. Also, some guilds are also looking for new members. They will assign you some quests which are collecting or killing stuff, depends on what kind of request. Many of the high-ranked players are trying their best to explore the world which is really big! But for now, increasing your rank is your top priority," That's a lot of explanation but it was really informative.

"Thanks, Mr. Handy, we'll be back later," We said our goodbyes. We'll return later for the equipment.

"WAAAAAAAH! Goblins are attacking at the East Gate!" Loud noises echoed throughout the whole village.

What fresh hell is this? Players are running away from the goblins. Goblins are slightly stronger than wolves but in a group, they can cause a large damage to the village, according to NLO Wikia.

(GOBLINS: RANK E)

Handy become so enraged that he grabbed his giant hammer and went outside of his shop and I'm not exaggerating! He's really mad!

"Hey you guys, go through the South gate and go back to Beginner's Area, you'll be safe there!" Handy's not going to let beginners like us stay.

"Hey Scy, we should leave or we'll get killed here," Elou's face is filled with doubt and fear. But I may be new but I won't just stay away from an opportunity to try a battle like this. I might also learrn new classes or increase my Rank Progress if I manage to survive here.

"I'm going to help them here. A little help won't be that bad right?" I said with confidence. And of course, dying here won't matter that much because I'm just a newbie and I won't lose that much.

Elou seems to be troubled by what I said. Then the three of them decided to stay.

"I didn't expect you to be this risky Scy! But of course, you make sense and I like it! Akko and Lili decided to stay too!" While trying to hide his shaking knees.

"IDIOTS! You better not die!" Handy worriedly shouted at us.

"DEFEND THE VILLAGE FROM THESE FILTHY GOBLINS!" Handy shouted furiously.

***

CLASS RANKS

- Class ranks starts from E(weakest) and end with SSS (strongest). Rank progress increase when using certain activities that corresponds with the class. Example is Defender using Shield and Heavy armor increases the Rank progress and when using Fire mastery, it doesn't affect the Defender class but affects the Mage Class instead. Ranks: E, D, C, B, A, S, SS, SSS

CLASS PROMOTION

-Class promotions happens when one or more classes reaches a specified rank to unlock a new class. The affected classes will turn into one superior class while the affected classes will disappear and using the activities of the affected class will increase its rank progress. Class promotions can be cancelled and the affected classes will be back with ranks affected by what the player mostly uses. Superior classes has slower rank progress than basic classes. Example: Defender Rank B and Light Mage Rank B can be promoted to Paladin Rank B.

MONSTER RANKS

-Like players, monsters have their own ranks as well but there are two types of monster ranks, Regular Ranks and Boss Ranks. Regular Ranks are the ranks of regular monsters while Boss Ranks are mostly the superior type and are commonly for leader of packs or basically the stronger version of monsters. Example: Goblin: Rank E and Goblin Chief: Rank C