First Blood

Ren opened his eyes, and the first thing he saw was a flash of vertical lights before he found himself inside a newbie village.

There was only him in the current village he was brought in since only hundreds knew the exact time of COVENANT's opening, and the other players were mostly distributed across hundreds of newbie villages as well. And by this time, everyone was still entangled by those damn races and classes.

Even though there was an endless stream of promotions about the game, there was little to no information about races and classes as well as spells and skills.

Crucial information was shrouded in mysteries like the developer's dark, twisted hearts.

The game's name was COVENANT because the developers intended the game to be guild and multi-players driven. But the world in this game is called ARCADIA, a paradise for players.

Ren glided his fingers on thin air, and a hologram screen appeared. He was the only one who could see the details on his screen, and it was one of the game's many privacy perks. Aside from that, players could only see your ID Name, HP and MP bar on top of your head, and nothing else.

Ren equipped his Newbie Garbs.

‖ N E W B I E G A R B S ‖

❶ Robe

–– Common

HP +5

DEF +2

MDF +2

❷ Staff

–– Common

INT +2

‖ E N D ‖

Ren pressed the map button.

<Do you want to view the map while walking?>

<YES>

<NO>

Ren pressed <YES>, and the map popped and shrunk in size beside the upper right corner of his view while his HP and MP were displayed to his upper left. Both were lowered in opacity so as not to hinder his vision.

Depending on your taste, you can customize the display, but Ren preferred it like this. It was the same setting as his past life, and he was used to it.

Another advantage to him was that he was already familiar with his new environment and viewing screen while others still had to adjust. That would speed his goal of getting first blood.

Besides that, Ren knew the game inside and out. Though not everything but certainly a lot. He knew of NPC's, which had links to side quests, hidden quests, world quests, an Epic Quest, as well as the location of hidden treasure chests, event triggers, and bugs.

Ren rubbed off the sweat in his shaking hands against his robe. He felt like he would pee from the sheer excitement alone as he approached a traveling merchant.

Agor, a Halfling merchant. Another race in the game that would be accessible later on.

Agor's half body was human with two horns twirling beside his head, while his waist down was the body of a goat.

Agor greeted Ren with a silly smile that shook his red goatee. "Yo! Interested in anything? Take a look at my wares."

Ren wasn't interested in Agor's wares since they contained mostly basic items. He did, however, buy the common Fire Spellbook for 100 gil, spending all his money in one go.

Ren then checked his spells.

‖ S P E L L S ‖

❶ Heal LV.1

–– cost 5 MP

–– single target

–– 10% replenish HP

–– 1 Min. cool down

❷ Fire LV.1

–– cost 10 MP

–– single enemy target

–– 2 sec. cool down

‖ E N D ‖

Spells and skills were dependent on your ATP. The greater your ATP, the higher the damage. Since Ren's INT was high, it was the perfect setup for him.

He then went to the Village Mayor before the others could arrive. It was of the utmost importance that he gets the very first blood.

"Ah . . . my dear young Sprite. My name is Murkov, Euclid's Village Mayor. My family has been in charge of this village since *blah . . . * blah . . . *blah . . ."

Ren restrained a twitched of his eyebrow as he faked a smile. His fingers were itching to skip and fast forward the dialogue but decided against it. It would only cause a drop in his relationship level with Murkov.

In COVENANT, NPCs should be treated as real people like on earth. There were four relationship levels with NPCs, starting from being [Strangers] to [Friends] and finally [Intimate]. And if your relationship level fell from Strangers, then you'll became a [Ruffian].

If you skip the dialogues, your relationship level with that NPC will drop, affecting the number of quests and rewards you'd get. And sometimes, NPCs wouldn't even talk to you if your relationship level fell from [Strangers] and you became a [Ruffian].

It was the reason why most players in the past treated NPCs as real-life people and not just a character plastered on a game.

Ren didn't have a choice but to endure the long talk with faked enthusiasm. It seemed like minutes had passed before the old man finally decided to make a request.

"We have been experiencing goblin attacks recently. Our animals were stolen and eaten, and our livelihood suffered tremendously. I can only ask you, young adventurers, to help put a stop to these accursed goblins and bring back peace in our village."

<Mission: Goblin Extermination

Description:

Help Euclid village exterminate goblins x5

Rewards:

❶ Potion x5

❷ Cooking Recipe x1

❸ 1000 Gil>

<ACCEPT>

<DECLINE>

Ren accepted the mission and went straight into the back of the barn. There were ten Goblins in that area, enough to fill the requirements. It was also within the village, so he cut almost five minutes of traveling into Euclid Forest.

Not many knew of this information since the Goblins' location was hidden behind a secluded area in the barn, and their respawn time was random to none existent once you defeated them the first time.

The goblins were LV.1 like Ren, and their damage was about -5 to -10 HP.

Ren wasn't an expert in fighting. He was an information gatherer in his past life, and his reflexes weren't good, to begin with. However, the game didn't mind your physical combat abilities in real life since you mostly attack with skills and spells anyway.

Ren's greatest strength lies in his knowledge. LV.1 Goblins only have [PUMMEL] as their skill, and they weren't fast and could easily be avoided if your AGI was faster than theirs. They don't attack in groups either, unlike the savage Goblins in Euclid forest.

The Goblins in Euclid Forest were stronger than the Goblins in the barn. The Goblins in the forest were wild and attacked in groups. It was also the reason why most newbie players had a hard time defeating them. Some even died and lost ATP, while others had to form groups to defeat those LV.1 Goblins.

But there was a shortcut that only Ren knew. And that was the Goblin in the back of the barn. They were weaker and easy to defeat. And once defeated, they provided a greater amount of EXP and rewards than those Goblins in the forest.

The developer purposely placed them there to reward those players who searched every nook and cranny of a place in the game.

However, once defeated the first time, it would take great LCK and re-entering to trigger them again inside the village.

Ren cast [FIRE], and the Goblin evaporated into light particles before they had any chance to [PUMMEL] him with their makeshift hammer. And within one minute, Ren had already defeated the goblins x10.

<CONGRATULATIONS on defeating Goblins x10

REWARDS:

❶ Goblin Tooth x7

❷ Wooden Stick x5

❸ 1000 EXP

❹ 1000 gil>

Ren almost lamented at how basic the rewards were in the early game. The only consolation he had was the 1000 EXP and Gil.

The rest were garbage at this point. There was no use in holding them in his inventory as they would only take up space. He would sell them later to Agor.

Everyone's inventory had limits up to x999 items only regardless if it was a repetitive item. It was not stackable. Like for example, Ren's loot just now took a total of x12 space in his inventory.

Though if the towns were already accessible, you could have access to banks where you could store anything without limit –– for a monthly fee, of course. The bank's icon would also appear on your screen, and you could access it anytime.

Another advantage of storing in the bank was the safety perks which required a passcode when you wanted to retrieve your items. This also prevented the skill [STEAL] from pilfering your items, unlike if you put them in your inventory.

However, these perks required a hefty 10,000 gil monthly, depending on the storage capacity. And oftentimes, only the rich and top guilds could afford it.

Ren sighed and reported back to Murkov.

His loot wasn't important. What's important was the next step.

Ren listened to Murkov with unabated attention. His heart was pounding crazy as he waited for that notification.

"Thank you for a job well done, adventurer. You have saved our village from these vile creatures. Accept this small reward as a token of our appreciation."

[RECEIVED:

❶ Potion x5

❷ Cooking Recipe x1

❸ 1000 Gil]

[MURKOV's affection went up. Your level of relationship is now FRIENDS]

<CONGRATULATIONS on getting first blood on the quest, GOBLIN EXTERMINATION.

REWARDS:

❶ Crystal Chest x1

❷ 10,000 EXP

❸ 1,000 Gil>

<Do you want to announce your achievement to the world?>

<YES>

<NO>

Ren jumped with joy.

He really attained first blood!