Chapter 3: Levels lost

He returned to Hall and ask again.

"Aren't there any more decent jobs?"

Since you are so persistent I will give you the hardest job we got.

[Grave keeper, who tacks care of the dead in the gloomy backwater village of Haruka, has gotten headaches over the growing crow problem in recent years. Meet Grave keeper, listen to his problem, and then deal with it. It's a job that should not easy even for a veteran. Difficulty: E+]

Reaper accepted the quest and headed towards the graveyard.

Finding the graveyard was quite easy. It was the only place with a big menacing gate with the smell of death flowing from it, in the town square.

As he entered the gates of the graveyard messy-haired old man wearing a trench coat could be heard yelling at the crows.

"You came with a recommendation from the Old Man Hall?"

With a relieved look on his face, Reaper began to speak to the grave keeper.

"Nice to meet you. Can you do me a little favor and kill the crows inside the graveyard. Lately, they have been digging up graves and eating the soul of the people buried here."

Reaper had a firm resolve.

Suddenly, a soul-eating crow lured by the gate had arrived.

Reaper drew his dagger, charged and swung his dagger, and attacked one of the crows.

However, he got a result he did not expect. Embarrassingly, the crow lightly flew to the side of the moving dagger. Also, as if mocking his sloppy display of skill, they flew up high and got ready for a counter-attack.

swung at a soul eater crow with his dagger. As he fought it as if his life depended on it, the crow flattered and shrank back.

For the first time, Reaper was able to hit the soul eater crow with his dagger.

At the same time, the soul eater crow attack struck reaper.

You have received a fatal blow from a soul eater crow. You have taken 70 damage.

Two of the crows who gathered around Reaper chased him. Simultaneously, he saw flashing red lights coming from all directions. When he heard three or four system messages saying he has received some damages, the vision from both his eyes started to turn dark. Not long after, Reaper collapsed and the crows retreated to their original position.

His very first death.

* * *

As he opened his eyes he saw some supplies near the graveyard gate.

[ You have suffered critical injuries. Fortunately, you were saved quickly and received treatment at the Quartermaster's Station. Life will recover. However, due to the risky operation, a penalty will be imposed.

Please confirm the details in the character information window.]

"Are you alright?"

The system messages overlapped with Grave keeper voice.

Reaper was embarrassed and started scratching his head.

"Oh, I'm sorry. Did not know this mission was too hard for you, almost die because of me?"

"No, it was thanks to you I'm alive. But Mike...."

"It's no problem. After all, I didn't even have 1% experience."

Reaper had never thought of his death was of any importance.

It was common sense in the case of death in a game, experience would be reduced. In some cases, lose their items. This was the reason why people struggled to not be killed.

However, Reaper was different. He did not care to lose experience since he had just started.

Neither did he drop any of his items. The only players who did not fear death we're level 1 players.

Okay, so let's try again.

"These bastards. All of you come at me!"

Naturally, they would frantically pick and scratch as they attack from above.

But reaper refused to bat an eye.

'Huhuhu. Slaughtering as I please. After all, I am a pitiful creature with nothing to lose.'

Reaper arose up like a zombie once more from the Quartermaster's Station and set out to hunt crows once more.

After he died about ten times, an information window popped up along with sound effects and shining lights.

[You have learned a new skill. Indomitable Will (Beginner, Passive):You have undergone countless lives and deaths; your mind is uncrushable and abundant with courage.

While under critical conditions, piercing the enemy's weak point will break their concentration and allow you to heal faster than others.

During times of crisis:

+30% Critical Rate.

+5% Recovery Rate.]

'Aha, is this a gift from the heavens?

Grave keeper approached him, took out a shovel, and held it out to him.

"Take this. It's not a bad weapon to use, especially at the start of the game."

"Ah. Thank you."

Reaper received the weapon and checked the information window.

Rusty Iron Shovel

Weapon Type

Two-Handed shovel

Attack Damage

5~8

Durability

30/30

Weight

15

Restriction

None

This weapon has low durability and the rust made its damage weak.

Relying on this shovel to fight on a battlefield will lead to death.

Reaper was currently using a dagger with damage of 1~3. Although it was an unnamed, lousy-beyond-compare, level 1 dagger, mike was thankful for it. In addition, his bag was full of crow feathers and meat. On top of that, he had become more proficient with his skills. While his level stayed the same, his progress for the first day was pretty good. However, the grave keeper had a rather sorry expression on his face.

"I'm sorry. Even though you suffered so much, I don't have anything I can give you, except this."

"No, I'm truly grateful."

There was nothing wrong with looking good in front of AI.

If anything, it was good to slightly flatter Ai who were at a higher level than you. There was no other way to get an item at such a bargain otherwise. With those joyful feelings in his heart, reaper finished the first day of gaming.

"Whew, it's a lot easier now that I've tried it."

Mike let out a sigh of relief as he took off the headset.

Once again, technological advances were to be admired. The scenery, the people, and the monsters in the game looked very realistic. The battles were overflowing with a sense of realism.

Although he had started playing the game for the sake of getting money, he thought he might be able to get deeply immersed in the game. However, Mike could not afford to get blindly obsessed with the game.

The game was great, but for him, it was more important to get by. He was in a different situation compared to the others how playing the game. It was a given he wouldn't be able to feed himself or pay debt collectors and pay for his hospital fees if this didn't work.

The clock indicated it was already 2 in the morning.

Mike Asked the nurse to bring him a carton of milk and sat in front of the computer.

He had underestimated Desmond Online.

After he had tried the game, he realized it was quite different from any other games. As a result, he felt the need to lookup more information during his spare time.

Sure enough, within a span of a month, the game was the top topic that came up and dozens of related sites had formed.

Some sites shared information with users; while the information was insufficient, it was good to thoroughly look over them just in case.

Mike went onto the sites and looked through the information.

However, information could only be understood if one had some background knowledge. Since he didn't know much, they were all Greek to him. At that moment, after clicking through the forums without much thought, the milk carton fell from Mike's hand.

"W-What's this?"

Mike moved his face right up to the monitor and read through the forum.

'Whoa, n-no way… Is this for real?'

Mike forgot about his fatigue and immediately entered the game.

Reaper entered Haruka together with hazy light.

"Stat Window."

When Reaper hastily looked at the opened Stat Window, all color drained from his face.

Character Name

Reaper

Race

Human

Fame

0

Level

1

Profession

None

Title

None

Health

100

Mana

100

Strength

1 (-14)

Agility

1 (-14)

Stamina

1 (-14)

Wisdom

1 (-14)

Intelligence

1 (-14)

Luck

1 (-14)

All the stats turned red and had dropped down to 1.

The information Reaper saw online turned out to be true.

On the forum, there was a tale of a newbie user who died without knowing much. According to it, his stats was deducted by 1 each time he died. And like Reaper, he didn't check the deducted stat and leveled up; permanently losing the stats in the process. The figures inside the bracket indicated the deducted stat, and if one leveled up without recovering them, those stats could never be returned.

Reaper having experience playing many games, knew firsthand the importance of stats.

Every time you level up in New World you are given 10 points.

This means at level 10 you should have 100 points. However, Reaper had already lost 84. In other words, this means at level 10 he would essentially be lower than a level 2. This was a huge difference.

No, the bad side aside, he wouldn't be able to do anything at this rate.

Before logging off, Reaper was panting while holding a dagger, but he wasn't tired. He had 1 strength so the dagger was heavy, and also one agility, so his movement was sluggish.

Everything in front of his eyes became dark.

'Damn it, to think that such a system would exist.'

The stat couldn't fall below 1, so he had a body that had nothing to lose now.

His anger subsided a little and his guilt rose. No matter how hurried he'd felt, he should have looked through the information first. Even 1 hour, no, 30 minutes of skimming through a forum would have prevented such a mistake. It was his fault for thinking that this game would be no different from other games.

Reaper realized how much of a difference one small piece of information could make. No, but before that, he was disappointed in himself.

'What a stupid bastard I was! Why didn't I notice my movement was sluggish?'

If this was reality, he definitely would never have made that mistake.

Life is unfair beyond imagination. Survival would be impossible if one underestimated it.

Reaper had suffered similar situations for the past few years. He couldn't fall apart here.

He had to get stronger somehow.

One hour later, Reaper went and found Hall again.