14. A Rough First Day

Tomorrow is a new day; begin it well and serenely and with too high a spirit to be encumbered with your old nonsense." — Ralph Waldo Emerson

After a few hours of questing, Claire finally reached level 5, mainly relying on kill quests from townspeople, finding they were the most rewarding; unfortunately, many people were doing them.

Finally, after deciding to leave Tu'Dor, she chose a direction to travel based on the most surefire logic.

Holding her staff upright on the ground, she let go and went in the direction it fell, heading away from the sun hanging in the vibrant twilight of sunset.

As she continued her journey, Claire took a moment to strategize. She carefully reviewed the abilities she could choose at level 5, considering which would be the most beneficial in various situations. This decision could significantly impact her gameplay.

After a quick look, she found one that seemed a perfect fit.

Lightning Cowl: A potent defensive spell that cloaks the caster in a shroud of crackling electrical energy. When activated, this ability forms a protective barrier of lightning around the user, increasing physical and magical resistance and retaliating against any who dare come too close.

Duration: 12 Seconds

Cost: 411 mana

Although it was another costly spell, it served two essential purposes: enhancing defense and deterring close-range attackers.

Even though the damage it did to enemies in close range was low, she could instantly see the potential of the ability. 

With a second ability in hand, fighting by herself became much more manageable, with a higher margin for error in gameplay.

While walking in search of a new destination, Claire decided to pull up some live streams to see what other people were doing and see if she could learn any better ways to level up.

Looking through the more popular streams, she found one by a person named JimmyGamezVR, who had over a thousand live viewers. 

As soon as she clicked on the stream, she heard relevant information.

"The first people on my friend's list are hitting level 10, and apparently, that is when we unlock the first dungeons, so I think the goal for today's stream will be hitting level 10 and then running the first dungeon tomorrow with my party."

Hearing the man mention level 10 in dungeons, she felt momentarily dizzy. Had people already reached level 10?

The best progression path was to get to level 10 and start running dungeons?

That was not very good for her; not only was she playing solo without friends to team up with, but she was also playing a generic ranged DPS and was probably at a lower level than many other people.

From her experience playing games, she was perfectly aware that finding a group for dungeons or raids and filling the DPS slots was much easier than finding tanks and healers.

So, although it sounded nice, she did not put much stock in grinding dungeons to level up; it would be very troublesome and most likely not worth the time spent finding a party to clear the dungeon. 

After walking for a while longer while looking at a variety of streams, she finally found a crudely paved road and, before long, found a carriage by the side of the road and a young man feeding a horse.

'Finally, I have an encounter with another NPC; maybe it has a quest for me.'

Upon approaching the young man, he noticed her and instantly turned to greet her with a relieved smile.

"Hello, miss. Are you, by chance, a mage?"

"Technically, I'm a sorceress, but that's close enough."

"Great. I just came from a village to the south with a cave nearby. A large number of giant spiders were released into the cave, terrorizing the village. Please go and help them."

She instantly felt that this could be the start of a quest line, and she felt validated for following the staff's lead.

"Point the direction, and I will try my best."

"Of course, you want to continue down the road the way you came for around 3 minutes of walking before you see a road merging into this one. Follow that, and you will find the village after a while."

Taking note of the instructions, she turned around and approached the village under attack.

Since getting used to the game's descriptions of direction, it took a little while for her to find the village that was now overrun with spiders the size of teenagers.

At first glance, Claire became wary; the level 10 tag over the first spider frightened her.

Finding a single isolated spider, she tried the basic flame attack, which didn't require an ability.

The spider made a strange clicking sound when the small flame made contact, and its HP dropped a mere 4%.

After being hit, the spider turned to look at her before clicking up dust with its many legs.

Seeing how little damage the fire attack did and knowing she had already aggroed the spider, she continued launching more attacks, believing that one of them was going to die for the fight to be over.

'This is going to be rough.'