1 - A Beginner's Fire

"Damn it." I whispered to myself as I died for the fifth time today.

It's weird to feel the slight pain of being stabbed in the chest, but this is the wonder of UVRC. Guessing how I died in just one strike, the person must be 20 or even 30 levels above me.

These freaking high-level players are way too arrogant and greedy to the point where they won't even give Level 10 monsters to us newbies.

Even if we're the first ones in the dungeon, they'll always butt in whenever the bosses are near-death. They'll kill the boss, steal the loot that we've been working hard together to earn, and would suddenly exit out of the dungeon like assholes.

Hell, some of them would even kill low-level players like the guy that I just encountered earlier. They won't give us a chance to advance in the rankings or even gain a decent amount of EXP to catch up with their levels.

It's been almost a week since I've joined and yet I'm still a level 12 Arcana Mage and have died way too much, even for a newbie.

"Oliver, you still there?" I hear a glitchy voice from somewhere in the darkness.

It was from Ryan, one of my real-life buddies who also joined the game with me just a few days ago. He's already a level 15 Holy Paladin.

"Yep. Just waiting to respawn. Hopefully, it's somewhere near so I could get back to the dungeon." I sighed as the 10-second timer appears in the middle of the darkness.

"Sure. You better hurry, though. We're near the third boss. So far, we aren't detecting any other players besides us." He replied.

"Am I the only one who died?" I asked.

"Nope, four of you. We almost killed the player, but he quickly logged out before we do. What an ass." He scoffed and I just shook my head.

There's a dozen of us and we couldn't even kill one high-level player. It shows how new we are to this game.

Usually, new players would band together to level up quickly. Lucky for us, there's a group that's willing to take us with them.

My screen shone brightly as the countdown finished and I find myself on the entrance of the cave. Luckily, the lair of the third boss isn't that deep inside.

"I'm here on the entrance. I'll get back to you." I assured him and I immediately checked my supplies.

It's a good thing that I spent most of my money to buy some potions before we entered the dungeon. I even got myself a new mage staff, but I guess I should've bought some new damage resistant robes too.

I frowned and closed my bag when I heard some heavy footsteps behind me. I kept quiet and waited if there's other players walking towards the cave.

I turned and tried to see past the thick bushes and dense trees that surrounded the cave to no avail.

Unfortunately for me, I didn't need to wait any longer.

I froze as soon as I saw huge shadows walking towards me with footsteps that slightly shook the ground where I'm standing on.

"Holy shit." I whispered in a shaky breath when I confirmed what kind of creature it was.

Orcs? What the hell are Orcs doing here?

According to the World Map, this region shouldn't have any high-level monsters. Hell, all of the five bosses inside of the cave are only level 20. Meanwhile, Orcs are between level 45 to 50.

"Ryan? Ryan, can you hear me?" I reached out in a panic, hoping that he didn't disconnect.

"Yeah, I hear you. Where are you? We're fighting the third boss right now." He said in a hurried tone.

"I'm still at the entrance. There's more than five Orcs here." I almost yelled out.

"What? Are you sure they're Orcs? Maybe they're just Hobgoblins. They look so much alike." He said as the Orcs finally took notice of me, as if they weren't paying attention to me earlier.

"Nope. Definitely Orcs. They're all above level 45, too." I replied and he cursed.

"What are you gonna do?" He asked.

That's a question that I'm also currently asking myself.

What do I do?

If I run towards the cave, the Orcs would definitely chase me down and it'll doom all of us. We'll restart this cave if we all die and there's a high chance that we'll respawn at the town which is miles away from here.

"I'll lead them somewhere. You can finish the cave without me." I sighed as I started to run away from the cave.

The Orcs roared and I almost stumbled when it caused an unnatural vibration on my surroundings.

"Damn, that's loud!" Ryan cursed on the other line.

"Crap, there's so many of them!" I continued to run, not even caring which direction I turn to.

"Be careful, man! I'll see you at the town." I dropped the connection so I could focus as soon as Ryan stopped talking.

Thankfully, Orcs are naturally slow runners due to their size so I have a little bit of advantage. I just need to make a spell that would distract them from me.

I hid behind a large boulder and opened up my spell book. Thank goodness I'm a mage. I have zero chance of winning if I picked a short-ranged class.

But unfortunately, I only know some basic elemental spells since my level isn't high enough to unlock the stronger ones.

I immediately chose the strongest spell that I currently have: Fireballs.

I hid my spell book, stood up and pointed my staff towards the incoming group of Orcs.

{ Cast: Fireball }

A giant ball of flame shot from my staff and flew towards the Orc leading the group.

He roared loudly when it hit him. It did some damage but it also made him angrier than ever.

"Crap, crap, crap." I whispered to myself as I continued to run away.

I looked above me and an idea popped inside my head as I observed the greenery around us.

Well... Here goes nothing.

I turned around and aimed my staff at the thick branches and bushes in front of me.

I casted Fireball multiple times until my mana went down to almost 10%.

The trees started to burn and I noticed that the thundering footsteps stopped. The Orcs must've been scared by the large fire and turned back.

But I didn't expect the fire to spread out so quickly. Damn, I didn't plan this thing thoroughly at all.

I can't cast Waterfall since my mana isn't enough. Even though the forest would regenerate quickly after the fire is put out, I don't want to be burned alive. I already know how it feels to be stabbed and that's more than enough experience for me.

Damn it, I shouldn't really have casted that many Fireballs.

I turned to run when the fire started to spread towards the spot where I'm standing. It continued for a few minutes until I arrived at a clearing.

Finally, I saw a lake and I didn't think twice before diving right in just in time before the fire consumed the trees beside me.

If this grows bigger than I imagined, the admins would definitely notice and would immediately put this out.

I'm sure they would understand my reason for starting a forest fire.

I just really hope that they don't ban me for this.