Exploring The Forest

After Axel took care of the slimes he went towards the forest and searched for a suitable prey. Even though Axel had complete confidence in his abilities he was still careful. Beating a lvl 3 mob in 1v1 was not difficult but if they appeared as packs it would be troublesome. No matter how talented a player may be when there was absolute suppression from attributes or numbers it would be useless. Axel stepped forward as he examined the surroundings. Just as Axel was about to continue he heard a sound from his blind spot and slashed at his back immediately. Axel was sent to the ground because of strength difference but the parry was succesful and he didn't lose any health. Axel looked up from the ground and saw a big gray lizard examining him with it's dark green eyes.

'Giant Stone Lizard. Lvl 3 monster.'

Axel recognized this monster from the main server. İt seemed like most things were similar to the main server except for the beginner village concept. Axel just knew that main story would be different than the main server but it seemed like classes and the world itself was still very similar.

Axel was not afraid to face it in a 1v1 situation and walked towards it slowly. The Lizard's eyes glinted as he attacked with his tongue piercing towards Axel. Axel easily dodged the attack, since he knew the pattern it wasn't hard for him even with his low attributes. After the dodge before the monster even started to retract his tongue Axel just rushed at him and slashed at it's eye.

A Roar was heard as blood flowed out of Lizard's eye.

-8

Axel sighed as he saw it's health bar. İt still had 122 health. Axel immediately went behind the lizard and used swung. Unfortunately his strength was not enough and swung only managed to shake the lizard a bit. İt had been a long time since Axel played with low stats so he needed to make some probing attacks to guess the monster's resistence.

Lizard turned around to face Axel again while swinging it's tail at Axel's head. Axel immediately rolled backwards and dodged the tail by going under it but his spear was rising towards the lizard's head even when he was rolling away.

'Pierce' skill was accurately used and went inside the lizard's other eye accurately.

Vital strike was triggered again and Pierce skill also added %40 more damage.

-15

Lizard staggered backwards as Axel's eyes turned bright when he saw it was off-balance. Axel once again dodged the tongue that sped up towards him and ran towards the lizard with his maximum speed. He used swung once again at the lizard's throat and this time it worked and the lizard was slammed on a tree with dizzy inflicted.

-12

İf a beginner would see this situation he would immediately call Axel a cheat and complain since normally a lvl 1 player shouldn't be able to push a lvl 3 creature back with his stats. But experts would understand the situation clearly. İn Alvion there was something called 'momentum' just like in real world. For example if 2 people at same strength would clash swords, none would be pushed back and they would enter a stalemate. However if one of them slashed at the other while running, his momentum would push the other person who was just standing still. After Axel saw the lizard losing his balance he determined he would be able to push the lizard back with a swung after using all his agility and strength to create momentum.

Axel attacked madly since the target was dizzyed and he knew his vital spot, there was no place for mercy.

Slash

-8

Slash

-8

Pierce

-14

After lizard woke up, more than half of his health was gone. Axel kept fighting while dodging and attacking his vital spots. A few minutes later...

[ You have killed Giant Stone Lizard. You have killed a creature 2 lvl's above you. %80 bonus xp awarded.]

[ 108 xp awarded.]

[ Leveled Up ]

Lvl 2 (28/500)

After lvling up Axel gained 5 free stats points and he put 3 of them to his strength and 2 of them to his agility. He could also choose another skill to learn. İn Alvion Online as long as you reached certain levels, a player would eventually learn all common grade skills and spells. As for Uncommon, Rare or Unique grade skills, one would have to complete missions or just get lucky. Unique skills were self created skills and to call yourself a peak expert one would at least have to have 1 unique skill in his arsenal. Axel had such skills in his other account and could recreate them in this account as well but those skills required high attributes so Axel couldn't replicate those moves for now.

Axel chose to learn Flowing Wind.

[Flowing Wind]: Normal attacks are 2 times faster for 8 seconds. User has a small chance to generate ranged wind attacks if used perfectly.

[ Player has earned Lizard hide(x3). Crafting material.]

[ Player has earned 10 copper coins.]

Axel wasn't surprised that there were no item drops. Ordinary monsters generally wouldn't drop items. Axel didn't lose any hp so he kept roaming at the forest and killed 2 more lizards.

[ Killed a creature 1 lvl above the player. %40 bonus exp awarded]

[ 84 Exp obtained]

[ 84 Exp obtained]

Lvl 2(192/500)

[ Player has obtained 20 copper coins, Lizard Hides(X6)]

Axel was getting used to this spear as he hunted and was satisfied with his progress. Axel decided to check the forums for new information. There were more around 1.2 Billion active players in this game. Considering world's population was only around 8 billion in this year(2101) it might seem extreme but it was quiete normal actually. Most of these people were not playing the game like Axel who was playing it 15+ hours a day. Around half of the players just didn't want to sleep and spend their sleeping time in-games to have fun or discuss with other people to save time.There were also people whose job was to literally grind in-game money, manage their shops and doing work for guilds to pay for themselves.

Axel read the forums and even saw that people already opened groups for each beginner village. Abel saw many posts about common quests or the places that has been explored from each village. This was the power of 1.2 billion players. İt has only been 45 minutes since the new server opened but there were already many collected information. Of course people wouldn't share if they found a rare quest or anything related. But common quests, what is being sold on shops and mob types were easily accesible. Axel joined his own beginner village forum and looked at the top posts.

Top post was a video of village leader murmuring to himself about his regrets and advising the players to stay away from the mountain. Afterwards the old man got asleep again and didn't elaborate more. Players were excited that this was a quest clue and wanted to go to the mountain immadiately. Unfortunately they weren't even able to hunt inside the forest now, much less the mountain behind it.

Second ranked post was an Assasin player killing people and stealing their money and grind. Effectively leveling up that way.

Axel quickly looked at other posts as well and was stunned when he saw him killing two slimes without looking was ranked 8. Axel's face turned black as he read the comments.

[Lol, another imposter. These people are clowns.]

[He has got skill, it is a pity that he doesn't enter with his own body. imitating others will affect his future...]

[All Axel imposters should be deleted to clear the confusion. There are 2 in another beginner village as well.]

Axel closed the comments in a bad mood. ' Why do I have to be accused of imitating myself'

He decided to go deeper to hunt a lvl 4 monsters to clear his mood. Axel went deeper inside the forest and saw a huge bear was sleeping in front of a statue. The statue seemed a bit familiar and on his neck was a Bronze necklace.

' Bronze item?'

Bronze items were the third worst items in the game. The ranks consisted of White, İron, Bronze, Silver, Gold, Dark Gold, Epic and lastly Legendary grade. Everyone started the game with beginner items and clothes that didn't give any attribute points.

Axel frowned as he looked at the bear. ' A Lvl 4 Elite.'

Elites had much more health and damage than normal monsters. Axel hesitated a bit and then decided to kill it when he bought some items at least.

' No one should be able to kill it at this stage anyway.'

After arriving at the grasslands near the village, Axel saw that only a handful people were lvl 2 while %90 of people were still lvl 1 and chasing after slimes or fighting against each other. İt wasn't hard to kill 10 slimes and reach lvl 2 for veteran players that played in the main server but the problem was that there were very limited slimes while a lot of people. So everyone could at most kill 1 or 2 slimes and then had to wait for them to respawn.

'' YES! I finally killed a slime! My first hunt!'' Axel looked at the source of the voice speechlessly. He saw a blonde haired elementalist girl that was literally jumping in excitement beside a burning slime. ' İs killing a slime worth getting so excited?''

'' You bastard! I was chasing after it for a long time!'' A Lvl 2 knight shouted at the blonde girl.

Axel's face turned weird as he watched them. ' İs this the classic clyche where I step up and save the beauty? Well... I am not very interested though.'

'' Well, the slime chose me, I can't do anything about it. Go and cry somewhere else.'' The girl looked at the knight and mocked him haughtily. Axel watched the interaction speechlessly. The knight managed to reach lvl 2 in 1 hour, meaning he was either an elite or a part of an elite guild that spawned at the same village by luck. Yet this girl who just killed her first slime was so confident.

'İncredible. Little girl, I will be cheering you on sidelines!' Axel was interested and thus sat down and watched them.

'' Give me the loot and compensate me with another 10 coppers. Otherwise my guild will know about it. Have you heard of Dusty knights? There are 5 members of my guild who are transported to this village!'' The knight spoke proudly as he threatened the girl.

' Ah... İsn't that the guild I destroyed in the main server? So they reformed to continue in the new server.' Axel was very amused. İn the past 4 months where all top players were max lvl Axel was very bored. Most top experts were familiar with each other and didn't kill each other for no reason. Of course by top experts Axel only considered the top 500 in global rankings among 1Billion+ players. Ordinary players revered anyone who was in top %1 which was top 1 million. But those people were just ordinary experts at Axel's eyes. This Dusty Knights guild once tried to hunt Axel down, underestimating him because he was just a single player. İn the end Axel who had nothing else to do killed their higher ups so much that they had to quit the game. There was one problem that couldn't be solved in this game. You couldn't buy another account. İt was possible for a player to create as much accounts as he wanted but those accounts couldn't be transmitted. You could buy items, rare skills etc. in game but buying another character was not possible.

İn all honesty Axel killing the end boss was just an excuse for developers to launch the new server. There were much more important reasons underneath it. First reason was that top players in the globe already reached the lvl cap and the developers didn't wish to increase lvl cap cause it was very intimidating and long process for beginners and especially companies. Alvion Online and virtual games was not as popular as it is now 3 years ago when the game first launched. There were many virtual reality games with lesser technology than Alvion Online and many companies lost a lot of money because of their unsuccess. Thus, many people were still doubtful when the game first launched and missed the chance to invest, those invested from the start rised so much that their competitors had no chance to catch up and wiped out their new starting competitors. Many companies still tried their best but after investing months later than the starters they lost money instead of gaining anything and got out of virtual game business dejectedly. Even big companies suffered a lot and has been demanding a new server for a more equal playground.

The most demanding company was Dragonsoar Company. With 500 Billion credit as their assets they were the second greatest firm in the entire world only behind Startech Firm who created Alvion Online and wasn't allowed to join the competition in-game. Dragonsoar Company dominated the real world market in nearly everything. Clothing, Food, Entertainment, Healthcare... They were dominant in many fields. Unfortunately the higher ups of this giant family business made a bad move by not investing much in Alvion Online. They guessed this game would end up like others before it without gathering much profit. But, after 6 months where Alvion Online entered it's peak state and gathered a massive popularity boost, Dragonsoar noticed their mistake and invested massive amounts to the game.

Unfortunately for them, at that time their competitors were already grown out of their reach and with higher levels and influence banded togather to surpress Dragonsoar. All those companies that were each other's throats was so scared of Dragonsoar dominating the in-game market just like the real market that they banded togather without any shame and did everything they could to prevent this giant from rising. İn the end Dragonsoar still bought a guild with great potential called Deities Templar and managed to rise to the top. But they weren't able to dominate the market or the game like they wished. Deities Templar was only as strong as one of the 9 great guilds.

'' Didn't you hear that this was my first kill!? How can I have 10 coppers? You really are dumb. Tell your pigmates that I welcome them to come!''

'' You are courting death!''

'' What if I die!? I only have 10 xp and no money. I have nothing to lose!''

Axel was awoken by their argument and couldn't keep a straith face after hearing their exchange and burst into laughter and even clapped his hands as his eyes teared from laugher.

'' AHAHAHAHAHAHA. Too incredible, little girl, you are fierce! Go get him!'' Axel even cheered from where he was sitting down.

Knight player's face was completely red from fury while the girl was seemingly satisfied with herself as she beckoned to the knight and waved at Axel as if greeting a fan. Knight snorted as he looked at Axel.

'' What are you laughing at, you imposter clown!'' Knight player snorted as Axel's face turned black. 'His guild leader was also an annoying prick! Do they want me to wipe them out in this server too!? Who are you calling an imposter?'

As Axel's blood pressure rose the elementalist girl interjected.

'' Don't bother my fan! You really are a barking dog, arguing with everyone. Today I shall teach you a lesson. Take this!''

Axel couldn't help but laugh at the girl's antics as his anger disappeared. He also noticed the air getting slightly colder.

' İce Spike!'

As expected an ice spike appeared a second later. The knight tensed and threw himself to the floor to dodge it.

'' Ah... I missed.'' The girl remarked as Axel burst into laughter. The knight also looked up from the floor with a red face when he saw the ice spike was thrown at somewhere very off. The knight felt he was mocked. This girl was clearly a beginner yet he was so cautious. He stood up but froze when he heard a curse far away.

'' FUCK!'' A thief who was hidden in stealth was hit by the ice spear and he appeared as he froze. His name was blood red Shadow Dancer. Axel was surprised that this guy was able avoid even his senses in stealth.

' This guy is an expert!' Axel declared as he stood up and went next to him.

'' Are you the thief from the video? What were you doing here?'' Axel asked in realisation but his spear was already going towards his head. This player killed many players in the video, he must have amassed some money. He was also a red name, so he would drop everything when he died.

Shadow Dancer looked up and cursed.

'' Fuck! Aren't you an expert!? At least wait until I am out of Freeze!''

'' What good intentions did you have when sneaking around in stealth? This is retribution!''

Axel happily used swing at the helpless thief and slamed him to the floor inflicting dizzy before the freeze status is over. Afterwards he used pierce at his head and started to casually slash at him.

'' This is not over! Wait for me imposter, I will be after you! Shameles-''

Axel slashed one more time and happily looted him.

[Obtained 32 copper coins]

The knight looked at Axel and the dead expert in shock. He remembered that the guy on the ground was infamous in the beginning village and was killed just like that.

'' Take this!''

The knight shivered and threw himself to the ground. He was so focused at Axel that he forgot that he was in a duel. The knight watched from where he laid down in shock as a flameball headed towards Axel's blindspot who was busy looting. Axel also didn't expect an attack and could only roll away on the ground to dodge it. Axel was shocked. The attacks timing was just too good and at his blind spot.

'' Ah... I missed.'' The girl explained herself. Axel stood up and looked at her speechlessly. ' This girl nearly hitted me!'

The knight also got up feeling awkward. He turned towards the girl and spoke seriously.

'' Sister, there is no need for a compensation. I am leaving.'' The knight hurriedly left after that. He felt that there was something wrong with that girl.

Axel also shook his head and was about to shop at the village when he felt his clothes were tugged behind. Axel looked at the girl questioningly.

'' Since you are my fan I will add you as a friend! İf you need any help, just call me. I will save you just like today!''

Axel looked at the blond haired teenager and didn't know what to feel. 'Needing help? From you?'

Axel could only sigh and accept the friend request to not entagled with her.

' Thera.' Axel read the nick in his friend list and went towards the village.

'' Goodbye, my fan!'' Thera happily waved after Axel.

'...'