History

"That should do it."

I finished distributing my stats, and was quite pleased with the results. 

Ronan Wilde

Race: Human

Class: None

Level: 8 [180/380]

Stats

Strength: 100 (High-Tier)

Agility: 172 (Master-Tier)

Vitality: 80 (High-Tier)

Mind: 100 (High-Tier) >>> 115 (High-Tier)

Spirit: 120 (Advanced-Tier)

Distributable Stat Points: 0

Skills & Abilities:

Slaughterer's Thirst [Legendary]

Divine Sense [Legendary]

Summon Contract: Mimic [Legendary]

Advanced Sword Energy [Epic]

Harvest Time [Rare]

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Equipment:

Versaga [Epic] 

Interdimensional Storage [Epic] [Open]

I flexed my legs a few times to get adjusted to the increase in my agility. I was back to master-tier, which was where I was when I had been on the final season. My other stats needed a bit of adjustment, but at least my body was in a state where I could keep up with where I had been in the past. The feeling was very satisfying.

After closing my status window, I turned to Punisher. "Hey Punisher, what level are you right now?"

He shrugged. "Just level 2. I killed a fuck ton of moss-gnaw rats, but they were only between levels 1 and 5 at the highest, so they gave very little experience. Hey, I've been meaning to ask, why didn't I get experience killing the Alorae back there? Shouldn't the system reward players for killing other players with more experience?"

"I asked myself that many times. Killing players doesn't even grant points unless you're completing a sponsored objective, like the God of Slaughter's one. I think the system wants players to naturally end up fighting each other."

"But why? That doesn't make any sense. Why not encourage player killing? It'll be more entertaining for the fucked-up gods watching, wouldn't it?"

I shook my head. "Think about it. If you gain experience and points by killing players, a species that is already very strong, like the Alorae, can snowball in strength just by focusing on killing humans. By not allowing experience and points, weaker races have a break from the stronger ones and have a chance to gain even a little bit of leverage in the fight. Imagine how much time it would take to kill 5,000 players to be awarded the sponsorship from the God of Slaughter. That could be time spent leveling up and becoming stronger. If you gained experience and points by killing other players, then everyone would just aim for the 5,000 player kills to secure the win."

Punisher nodded. "Shit, that makes a lot of sense. It feels even more fucked up to get kills when there's no experience of point incentive outside of that sponsored objective."

"That's probably more entertaining for the gods, if you think about it."

Punisher and I finally reached the edge of the massive Veldan campsite. The forest looked the same in every direction beyond the camp, but fortunately, I was already familiar with this area. I pulled out my compass and looked over to Punisher.

"Just follow me; we'll start our journey back to the mountain. It's been a few days, but that shouldn't have changed anything. At least, I hope it doesn't." I was a bit worried because I knew where the blacksmith I was looking for had spawned in the first season. I did not know if or when they would have left the mountain, though.

"You said we're going to find an ancient mine before. I take it that mine is somewhere inside that mountain. What kind of resources were mined there? And what do you mean by ancient?"

It was history time for Punisher. I wasn't the scholarly type, but a lot of discoveries were made on each of the worlds that the five seasons took place on. Or at least, a lot of discoveries were made in the first four worlds. Humanity lost too soon on the fifth world, where the final season took place.

"The Verdant Abyss used to be home to an intelligent alien race that could use magic and aura like the Veldan and Alorae. Their people died out from an ancient disease thousands of years ago." I paused for a moment, recalling how Doctor Victor Trauss discovered and used the disease to kill off hundreds of thousands of human players. This was another event on my bucket list of things to stop.

I put away those thoughts for now and continued my explanation for Punisher. "Some evidence of their civilization can be found all over the Verdant Abyss, as long as you know where to look. I know the locations of several off the top of my head. One is where we're going right now. In my last life, they were just called the mountain mines, nothing fancy."

"Do you have a name for that ancient civilization?"

I shook my head. "No. Their technology was so ancient and foreign that it couldn't be accessed, and their language was impossible to piece together. The system didn't allow us to read it either, which was weird because of how the system works."

"Do you think it's because their people were dead? Or maybe the system only knows the languages of participants, and they have never participated?"

I thought for a moment. What Punisher said made a lot of sense. Perhaps the system wasn't as all-powerful as I had always viewed it. We continued talking about the ancient civilization for the duration of our travel, and I regaled Punisher with short tales of expeditions that humanity went on into different ancient sites.

The mountain mines were about a two-hour journey from the edge of the Veldan camp, so that would leave me with just an hour before unwelcome guests would arrive. That should be more than enough time to locate the blacksmith if they're still inside the mountain.

"…and you lost your arm when you volunteered to help Preston's crew, but fortunately, we were far enough into the first season that there were some players that unlocked some advanced healing classes."

"Since you brought up classes, what level do they unlock again? I vaguely remember that you said it was level ten."

I nodded. "Yes. Let me know what class options you get when that comes up. I'll help explain them to you, but I won't tell you what you picked in my last life. I'd rather you make your own decisions when it comes to that."