Preparing for the Mid-game

Adrianna began playing with other sons and daughters from big-name companies, getting along alright, but there was always tension between them. Rumors of her were spread far and wide, and everyone knew of the "Axel slut."

Many boys wanted to use her, and many girls wanted to harass her.

To make things worse, their party broke up not too long after hitting level 10 because one of the boys also had a command from the kidnappers, not because she had a crush on him. She wasn't aware how they were able to get such a horrible thing, but it caused her horny title to activate and she killed all of them.

It made her terrified that the techniques the kidnappers used were now out in the world. Whoever was trying to torture her was definitely an awful person, and the first person she thought of was her shitty father.

She didn't tell Jax the truth once again, because she was afraid of the look he would give her when he found out. He truly was the first person in her life to not look at her as a monster... well he did give her disgusted looks, but she could tell they were more from annoyance than hate.

She really fell for him. She was overjoyed but also terrified about how anything could even work between them. Even with her advances, he just brushed her off. Although she could dream about a future with him, she knew this was no princess story. Jax was not a prince in white and shining armor coming to save her.

They were just two regular people with no power in this world.

Adrianna wiped her tears away and her eyes devoid of life reflected back at her in the window. She looked terrible, but she could care less. Everyone already saw her as a failure, so she would look the part too.

Although she was done with the real world, she wasn't with the virtual. Her eyes became lively again when she thought about Jax. Even though they could never be in a relationship, she would do everything she could to stay by his side for as long as possible.

She wasn't going to let go of this happiness so quickly.

She turned back around and flopped on her bed again. She didn't bother to get dressed and went straight into Sentinel's Rising. She would do anything she could to help Jax, even if it killed her. That's how much light he provided for her life in the dark.

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Jax rammed his sword deep into the body of a giant ant. It screeched as its head was beginning to separated from its thorax. He was out of breath and sweating from the heat trapped within the underground tunnels he was in.

He removed his sword from the rest of the body and looked around him. The bodies of countless giant ants littered the floor of this cavern. Some had their heads removed or leathal stab wounds, and some had gunshot wounds to the head before they began to disappear.

Jax was in the middle of a quest he picked up ages ago, but was unable to do it since the dungeon was in the opposite direction. It was a quest where he was supposed to give a certain item to a merchant for money, but he decided to use it for something else, only saving the bare minimum for that quest. It was located in the forest between the north and east roads away from the village and it took him quite a while to find this place.

This quest required him to gather exoskeleton bits from these giant ants in order to create the items he needed. He looked at his stats and was now level 13. The assassins had jumped him up to level 12 and he had been grinding these ants for a while now.

He learned that after level 10, the required exp for a level up increased by another 500, so it was now 1000 extra exp per level. He had grinded a lot ants to be able to get to level 13.

He had decided to forgo searching for a field boss, as it was too time consuming and he needed to reach the same level as the top players. He was already making great progress, as he was level 12 and the top rankers were around level 15 and 16. They would've all received another skill to choose from and would be gathering full sets of uncommon items.

If they hadn't found it yet, they should already be searching for level 15 and level 20 hunting grounds and dungeons. As most of the early game overview was spoiled by beta players, and Jax knew more information thanks to his father, he figured there would be 2 dungeons around both cities in the area he was in. One level 20 and the other level 25.

He couldn't be 100% sure about the levels but it was he best guess. There would also be hunting grounds that went all the way up to level 30 so players could gain enough exp to be allowed to travel to the capital.

Jax put his new stat points into attack like he had been doing for the last several levels. He now had a total of 50 attack damage just by himself and 100 total when equipping his guns. He dealt a lot of damage and could probably one-shot many of the top rankers under certain conditions.

But that wasn't good enough. He knew those people wouldn't give him a chance to hit a good shot. He needed to have tricks up his sleeve, which led him to forcing himself to use his sword the majority of the time he hunted ants.

It was a two handed sword unfortunately, so he needed a one handed sword to be able to shoot a gun at the same time. He thought this would be a Pirate King's normal play style. He would have to learn how to use both a sword and a gun in close combat which was a lot to learn.

He had used a sword before in other games, but it wasn't his favorite, so he only played one or two games with it, but never finished them.

Jax began making his way to the exit as he looked over his system. He saw the time was after 5 am in the real world, meaning it had been around 25 hours in game already, and about 20 with himself in it. A little over a quarter done with the first wave of serious gameplay since he had about 80 hours in total.

He was unsure how he would feel once he left the game, whether he would be exhausted or refreshed since he didn't know if his brain was a sleep or awake while playing this.

By this time, his name had lost its red tag. It took over 6 hours for it to clear but it allowed him to get a big stockpile of ant exoskeletons for the quest. He made his way into town and went straight to Timold's smith.

The old man was in his usual place on a high stool with a table while players bothered him. When he saw Jax come in, he pushed over players to say hello. His sincerity was super fake, as he was only using Jax to be free of annoyances but Jax didn't mind.

The same thing happened again where players were jealous and he was dragged to the back room. Since Timold was similar to him in a way, Jax went straight to business.

Jax pulled out a piece of exoskeleton and asked, "Do you think you could make me some heavy bullets?"

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Current Character info

[ID: KENNYYYYYYY]

[Level 13: Exp - 5400/7000]

[titles: Dungeon Buster]

[class: Gunslinger]

[Subclass: Successor of the Pirate King Dreadbeard - Unique]

[Class skills: Pistol Twirling, You're a Pirate Harry! , Quick Swap]

[Money - 59 copper, 36 silver, 1 gold]

[stats:

Health - 55/55

Mana - 10/10

Attack - 50(+50) per gun*

Defense - 5(+20)

Speed - 20(+10)

Magic Power - 5]

[items equipped:

Pirate's Bandana - Uncommon

2x Uncommon flintlock pistol

Uncommon Hunter's Vest

Common leather pants

Common padded boots

Bound items: Hobgoblin's Golden Tooth]

[Skills - Precision lvl1, Ricochet lvl1]

[Inventory - Uncommon Flintlock Pistol, lots of goblin ears, lots of giant ant exoskeletons]

[Unique - N/A]