Variant Boss

With his balance being reduced to 65 copper, Axel decided to leave the shop and went to the beginner NPC potion shop. From the potion shop, he bought 2 white health potions which restored 2 hp each. This reduced his wealth further to 59 copper. Each white potion cost a shocking 3 copper, but it was something incredibly important for him, and anyone who wanted to grind mobs that were higher in level than themselves.

Naturally, since he had the knowledge about the future, and the various guides that were created by players, why would he mindlessly grind away at mobs that were the same level as himself?

After preparing everything, Axel went towards the city gates. When the guards at the gate saw him preparing to leave the city, they spoke up.

"Hey kid! I don't know where, but I've seen you somewhere before. Let me give you a piece of advice, don't leave the city like this. You should improve your equipment, especially your armour."

After his Fame within Vain had reached 15, many NPCs would have a faint recollection of the existence of someone like Axel, and the normal NPCs had a chance to take the initiative to talk with Axel. This chance would greatly increase if he was going something directly related to the NPC, like leaving the city, or asking the blacksmith to forge an item.

"Hehe, thank you uncle. But I should be able to manage. If anything happens, I'll make sure to run away, after all, my life is the most important."

The Guard looked at Axel up and down, before nodding and patting his back.

"Good, Good, young men like you should have some confidence in yourselves. Go out and explore. Make sure you put your safety above everything else. Also, while you are at it, please collect some Hum herb."

[System: You have gained 2 favourability with Vain city guard Vice-captain NPC Go]

[System: You have acquired the Quest: Go's request]

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Quest: Go's Request

Status: In Progress

Task: Find 5 Hum herbs (0/5)

Completion reward: 50 exp, 5 copper, Reward mission

Failure Punishment: None

Note: Vain city guard Vice-captain Go is happy to see courageous young men actively contributing to Vain and the Roland Capital. Fulfil his request.

============

"Of course," Axel bowed to the NPC before leaving Vain.

[System: You have entered Vain Grasslands Lv 0 map]

Since he was not the first to leave the city, he did not receive any type of reward, but he knew this would have been the case, since not only had 6 people bought the game before him, he had spent 15 minutes gaining Fame in Vain from all the shops, and then he had been lazing around thinking of his future plan for almost an hour.

He estimated that around 20 players would have already left Vain and entered this place. The rest must still be trying to explore the city, or must have logged off. After all, Evolution Online, was just a new VRMMORPG that was just released. It did not carry any significance besides having highly sophisticated NPCs, but that was not something the players would realise this early, especially since most of the players who began playing the game this early were just casual players. There was still some time left before Ray Holdings and the Ocean Group began investing their assets into the game, so Axel had to make the most of this time.

Although the system told him he had entered a new map, it was clearly just outside the Vain city walls, behind him, the game slowly closing. In front of him, was a vast grassland stretching for at least 30 km in any direction. A cool breeze carried the sweet smell of dew on grass.

Although it was already the 5th month, the temperature in Vain was mild, much cooler than what it was in reality.

After embracing the environment for a while, Axel looked to the left. Being an archer, range was an astounding 12! This mean that he could clearly see everything in his line of sight for 120 metres, and his attack range with a bow was 12 metres, within which he could accurately anything. Unfortunately, he was currently using a knife, and therefore, his range was limited to his arm's length.

In the distance, there was a group of 5 slimes. Being this far away, he could not check their level, but being a Level 0 map, the mobs could not be higher than Level 1. However, Axel simply ignored the slimes, who would only make him waste his stamina, health, and the durability of his dagger.

Instead, Axel looked away, and began running, avoiding the mobs he saw along the way. This was the map that was normally always crowded by new players back in his previous life, at least for the first few months after the Federation forced the game onto everyone.

But right now, 20 people in such a large area map basically meant that two players were almost completely unlikely to come across each other. Running through the empty map, Axel used his memories to make his way to the edge of the map, and finally, he found the boss. Since he was only 10 meters from the boss, he could check its stats using the [Inspect] command, which was a command given to every player in the game, that could be used on NPCs, mobs, and other players. It would give the name of the target, the type of existence it was, and its level. However, if the target was 10 levels above you, you would not be able to see any information.

[ Slime – Lv 1 Variant ]

A Variant was essentially just a type of monster that was above other monsters of the same kind and level.

Monsters in the game had their own classification outside the level system; Normal, Variant, Elite, and Lord. Of course, there was a higher classification of King, but these monsters were unique creatures that did not respawn after death, and were generally all above level 200. These things were basically natural disasters that cannot be stopped, at least for the current player-base.

Axel picked up a stone, took a little run-up, and threw it at the slime before rushing towards it. Thankfully, his aim was true, and the stone struck the slime straight in the centre of its body. It already had noticed Axel, who had entered its detection range of 2 meters, however, the stone had stunned it for 1 second, allowing Axel to close in on it.

Without hesitation, he made a slashing motion and made a relatively deep cut into the slime.

[-0]