Chapter 2: Spawning in the Novice Village, The Start of the Game

[Watch out for this continent's races, most aren't friendly with humans!]

But before he could even observe any further, he heard the exclamations of all the others around him, after all he wasn't the only player!

"Wow! This is so realistic!"

"What in the hell, how can science even explain this? This game is definitely created by a higher being…"

"Let's team up!"

"Maybe I can kill myself without the fear of dying now…"

"HEY, DON'T TOUCH ME, I CAN STILL FEEL IT!"

All around Alex were other players, both men and women, each of them wearing a set of gray clothes, the oldest seemed to be in their 50s and 60s, while the youngest might be only 14 to 15 years old.

Alex looked down, and just as expected, he was also wearing the same gray clothes: this was the basic outfit for new players after all.

The clothing didn't give any attribute points though, which made them extremely weak, and everyone would soon enough change them once they got their hands on something better.

Other than the clothes though, each player was carrying the respective weapons from their classes/professions: assassins had daggers, archers had bows, priests had crosses, warriors had swords, summoners had nothing, but it was because they could already summon a level 1 beast of their choice.

And as for Alex, once he looked down, he noticed that in his right hand was a mage staff, meaning that he had truly become one.

[Welcome to 'Novice Village 666'!]

[Novice Village Assessment: Reach level 10 and defeat the boss to be able to access the first city, any novice village that doesn't complete this task within a week (in the game) will be wiped out.]

Green scenery and flower scent were all around the now panicked players in this novice village (yes, there were thousands of other villages as you might expect), small buildings and houses located in their surroundings to help them out.

"Hm…" Alex hadn't been in this place for so long that he didn't really remember, but surely his memories would come back once he explored a bit.

Alex noticed that there were many buildings made of wood and rocks in the village.

But, the most surprising feature of all in this vilage was… the presence of another race.

They looked like humans, but they were taller and had silver-colored skin, literally.

They couldn't really be human when you looked at them from this perspective, and their ears were a bit pointy, not as long as elves though.

'NPCs,' Alex mumbled.

In "Universal Descent", NPCs were one of the main features, and this game was in fact so realistic that if you didn't see their appearances, you truly wouldn't be able to differenciate a conversation between a human and an npc.

Once the 'first stage' ended, you wouldn't even be able to call them NPCs anyway.

But no matter what the other players tried to do to communicate with these beings, they wouldn't answer no matter what, as they didn't seem to care.

They just took a look at the players and then pretended that they didn't exist.

"ANSWER ME, YOU LITTLE SHIT," a grumpy strong man with a horrible personality tried to forcibly pull one of the silver-skinned humans, but he was immediately slapped by it, sent crashing against one of the houses.

Boom!

The man died from the impact, and his body disappeared in a speck of blue light.

"…" everyone knew they shouldn't mess with these things now if they wanted to reach level 10 and not get wiped out.

The only inhabitants of this village that spoke were the shop owners, but nobody had money yet, so once they noticed these players weren't possible clients, they kicked them out.

'Low reputation,' Alex mumbled.

[Reputation] is one of the systems in this game too, and you will only be able to trigger special events when increasing your reputation among some races, thus gaining favors from them.

So in the end, all people (and Alex) could do was to try and kill monsters to level up.

To do that, Alex along with his low-level mage staff received a single skill: Fireball!

It was the lowest-class skill that you could get from the mage class, meaning that it was level 1 and could only deal around 9-11 magic damage to the mobs outside the village.

'I can't get quests yet, need to aim for the secret one to increase my reputation.'

It was important to keep your reputation with the NPCs high in the beginning.

And they do not forgot about you, meaning that the man who tried to hurt one of the silver-skinned humans would have a hard time adapting.

It was only the [Novice Village] though, so not important, although if you really wanted to leave it you would definitely need to become stronger.

The village has four entrances and exits: north, east, south and west.

Alex chose the east, it didn't matter much but he liked that way.

When he arrived at the east entrance of the village, Alex saw a large area of ​​farmland outside.

Various crops like wheat, corn and more were planted in the farmland.

But among these crops and the dirt, Alex noticed that there were many [Demonized Rats] moving, eating the crops as they found them.

These big black rats were about the same size as dogs, with scarlets eyes and sharp teeth.

He also saw that many players were currently fighting these level 1 monsters, the scene was truly out of this world.

"Team up to fight the demonized rats!"

"Come and fight the rats together, they're too strong!"

[Your 'complete' status window is available.]

'Oh, right,' Alex nodded.

[ID:] FateBreaker

[Level:] 1 (0/100)

[Occupation:] Mage

[Class:] Apprentice Mage

[Talent:] Extraction (SSS)

[Health Points:] 50 (Vitality x 10)

[Mana Points:] 70 (Spirit x 10)

[Speed:] 4 (Agility x 1)

[Magic Damage:] 7 (Spirit x 1)

[Physical Damage:] 3 (Strength x 1)

[Magic Resistance:] 7 (Spirit x 1)

[Physical Resistance:] 5 (Vitality x 1)

[Attributes:] Vitality 5; Strength 3; Agility 4; Spirit 7.

[Skills]: Fireball Level 1; Deal 10 points of damage to target + 100% of user spirit to target; consumes 10 mana; 3-second cooldown.

[Attributes Points:] 0

[Skill Points:] 0

[Equipment:] Low-Level Wooden Staff (Common)

[Strength Evaluation:] 0 Star

His attributes and status window was pretty much the same as in his previous life, except for the fact that he was now a mage, and also that his talent was now SSS.

But before Alex could begin fighting… he needed to do one last thing.

He headed toward the exit, but instead of passing through, he went to the side, an old and frail-looking silver-skinned human resting against the wall.

Most people passed by him since they feared being hit and killed by these things, plus they were extremely unfriendly, but Alex knew better.

"Hello?" he spoke to the old man.

"Oh?" and he opened his eyes, "It is rare for someone to speak to someone like me…"

"I do not judge, sir, you seem distressed, need help with anything?"

Alex perfectly knew that this very same old man was his key to success, as he was the one that gave the beginner quest of this entire game.

"Now that you say it," the old man rubbed his chin, "These demonized rats have been destroying our crops, would be very useful in one of you could get rid of… let's say, 10 of them?"

"Sure."

Ding!

[You have triggered the F-Level novice village quest: The Beginning Of it All. Kill 10 Demonized Rats and in exchange your reputation among the villagers will increase by 50!]

"Get rid of those and I'll pitch in a good word for you," the old man said before going back to his original position, resting against the giant fence.

A player's reputation among villages/race can go from 0 to 100.

0 means that they are neutral with you, and the more tasks you do, the more it increases, the max being 100 which meant they are favorable and agree to speak or help you out.

This beginner quest would already fill up this bar by half!

On the other hand, reputation could also go in the negatives, if it does, then it becomes increasingly harder to go back to 0.

Attacking one of them for no reason for example would result in -100 reputation, which means they would become hostile, some of them even trying to kill you on the spot.

Having nothing else to do, Alex immediately passed the threshold of the village's exit and entered the first area: [Demonized Farmlands].

"Kill it!"

"FUCK, IT BIT ME!"

Players were struggling, and that was normal: the monsters in this game were insanely difficult to defeat if you didn't have the proper technique, and as none of these people had ever fought monsters in their lives, even the strongest among them would die in one to two attacks max.

[Demonized Rat]

Level: 1

HP: 40

Context: Originally ordinary rats, they were corroded by black magic energy, thus becoming violent and bloodthirsty.

These things were the first monsters in the game, but they already had 8 agility points and their strength reached 7 points too, meaning that they were faster than most of the players, each of their [Strike] dealing 12 damage.

"Alright, here we go," Alex sighed as he raised his staff, aiming it at one of the lonely rats that was eating crops.