Chapter 2

'This bastard!' Grid wanted to stab his sword in Ashur's mouth right now, but it was an impossible task.

The man's level was 300, and he was also a great magician who had completed his third class change. Additionally, his escort knights had an average of level 180.

On the other hand, Grid was only at level 73 and didn't even have a chance against the youngest knight who was serving as a bread shuttle. (Bread shuttle - Usually used at school, where one student is picked on and/or bullied to do the errands for people who are higher on the social ladder than the shuttles are.)

However, look at the quest clear conditions.

He had to kill them.

Still—!

Even if he cleared the quest, wasn't the quest compensation garbage?

'My intelligence will be -50? Fuck, right now I have 30 intelligence, so won't I be an idiot if I'm at -50? And all of the kingdom's nobles would hate me? Where's my exit route?? Why is there a quest like this? Ahhh!!'

There was only one choice. Grid should just die. He would drop two levels, but he couldn't succeed anyway. Besides, what was the point of succeeding with such a nasty quest?

"Hu..." Grid was resigned.

The pressure from the knights was no joke.

'This means I will lose eight levels just from this quest... Ashur... One day, I will reach a high level and get my revenge. Definitely.'

Grid stared at Ashur and vowed to seek revenge. He looked at the menacing swords in the knights' hands and then closed his eyes.

Then suddenly, Grid remembered Pagma's book in his hand.

'Wait, what about this?'

Would it remain in Grid's inventory after he died if he put it in there before his death? This wasn't a general quest item, so he couldn't be certain of the situation.

What was Ashur's purpose in the first place? Pagma's rare book… The reason he wanted to kill Grid was to take the book away. In order for the story to go smoothly, if Earl Ashur killed Grid, it was likely that Pagma's book would disappear from Grid's inventory and fall into the earl's hands.

"Shit!"

If he was going to lose Pagma's book anyway, he might as well use it instead of selling! A new option emerged. Grid could use Pagma's rare book.

However, he hesitated. He hated production-related classes. Wasn't the point of a game to enjoy the thrill of battle? Yet, if he became a blacksmith, he would have to sweat as he hammered at iron in front of a fire. It might even be necessary to carry pickaxes while searching for mines to collect the necessary materials.

It was indeed...

'La-bor.'

At that moment, a chill went down Grid's spine. He was doing brick and shovel work at construction sites in real life, and now he needed to do labor in a game as well! Just imagining it made him feel terribly dizzy.

"Kuock..."

Grid wanted to remain as a warrior. It was his dream to swing his sword at enemies and someday become an army general. Nonetheless, it was now time to give up on that dream. Otherwise, an item worth hundreds of millions of won would be taken away by an NPC—that bastard Ashur!

'It's better to use it than to lose it to him!' Grid tearfully opened Pagma's book.

The shocked Ashur hurriedly stretched out a hand and chanted a spell.

"It's too late, you jerk," Grid ridiculed the earl before falling silent while checking the notification windows appearing one by one.

[You have become Pagma's Successor.]

[Your level has dropped.]

[You are now level 1.]

[All skills and stats have been reset.]

"...?"

Grid couldn't believe his eyes. Weren't class changes supposed to help you get stronger by strengthening your existing level, stats, and skills? Therefore, he couldn't understand why his level, stats, and skills were reset instead of maintained.

"What is this?"

While he was confused by the unknown situation, new notification windows emerged.

[Dexterity stat has opened.]

[Blacksmith's Craftsmanship skill has been created.]

[Blacksmith's Craftsmanship skill has been mastered.]

[Blacksmith's Appraisal skill has been created.]

[Blacksmith's Appraisal skill has been mastered.]

[Blacksmith's Patience has been created.]

[Blacksmith's Patience has been mastered.]

[Blacksmith's Disassembly skill has been created.]

[Blacksmith's Disassembly skill has been mastered.]

[Blacksmith's Repair skill has been created.]

[Blacksmith's Repair skill has been mastered.]

[All blacksmith skills have been mastered to the level of the Pinnacle, and the skills of the legendary blacksmith have been opened.]

[The Legendary Blacksmith's Craftsmanship skill has been created.]

[The Legendary Blacksmith's Discernment skill has been created.]

[The Legendary Blacksmith's Appraisal skill has been created.]

[The Legendary Blacksmith's Patience skill has been created.]

[The Legendary Blacksmith's Repair skill has been created.]

[The Legendary Blacksmith's Disassembly skill has been created.]

[The Legendary Blacksmith's Breath skill has been created.]

[The Legendary Blacksmith's Blessing skill has been created.]

[The Legendary Blacksmith's Creation skill has been created.]

[Title, 'One who Became a Legend', has been acquired.]

[Composure stat has opened.]

[Indomitable stat has opened.]

[Dignity stat has opened.]

[Insight stat has opened.]

In the case of dexterity, it was a basic stat possessed by all users with a production-related class.

However, the Composure, Indomitable, Dignity, and Insight stats were all unfamiliar.

Was this a good thing?

"Not good!"

Grid was desperate. There were 15 passive skills and 22 active skills that he had learned as a warrior. However, he completely lost all his abilities as a warrior. Due to the effect of the class change, he had completely become a laborer.

Furthermore, he was level one. The levels that he barely built up over the past year had been completely reset, and he now needed to start over...? He had to restart the damn level-up grind from the beginning?!

Grid combined several Korean curses together as a knight's sword rapidly headed toward him.

[You have been hit by a blow!]

[You have died.]

The level 1's low health dropped to 0 with a single hit from a level 180 knight.

[Quest failed!]

[You will no longer be able to enter Patrian.]

[Any Patrian soldiers will kill you on sight.]

[Your level has dropped by 2.]

[You are now level -1.]

[There is no registered residence. Do you want to resurrect at the nearest temple?]

"...?" Grid saw his level and lost it. "Negative? My level is negative??"

He was certain that he had been cursed by the gods for some fault in a previous life. Grid barely got here after three months of hardship only to get this result...? He didn't want to play the game anymore. So, he chose to log out instead of resurrecting.

Once Grid quit the game, he immediately connected to the Internet and searched through all of the Satisfy related forums in Korea to look for information about a negative level. Despite that, he couldn't get any information, so he wrote his question directly on the forum.

[Title: I am currently level -1.

Contents: I have been doing a quest for three months and received a legendary old book. However, I failed, and my level strangely dropped to -1. Why??? Has this ever happened before???????]

He pressed the OK button to post and completely emerged from the capsule. A quick glance in the mirror revealed someone who looked like an emaciated patient with an incurable disease. It was the aftermath of not sleeping for three months while doing the quest. Yet the only thing Shin Youngwoo received in return was a loss of hundreds of millions of won and a level in the negative.

"My three months of work have gone flying away... Three months of hard work. Hahaha..."

He could've gone and taken up some hard labor jobs, but he ended up shoveling air. No, it was a loss of time and level. Shin Youngwoo lost his energy and flopped to the ground. He was sad, empty, grumpy, and resentful. All types of negative emotions were pouring in, giving him a tremendous sense of helplessness. If he were a weaker person, he was sure that he would've committed suicide.

"...I need to take a shit."

Shin Youngwoo had been connected to the game for a long time, so he headed to the bathroom after receiving a physiological signal. It was three in the morning. All his family members were sleeping. If he woke up his parents, they might curse at him.

He stealthily crossed the living room, quietly did his business in the bathroom, and washed up. Then he moved back to the kitchen and took out a side dish from the fridge. After barely managing to find a spoon in the darkness, he returned to his room with a bowl of rice.

"Oh, it's sausage fried rice."

It was the taste of a meat processed product! As he ate the delicious food and filled up his stomach, he relaxed and began to think soberly.

"How did my level become negative?"

Shin Youngwoo thought about it before sitting in the capsule to check the question he posted on the Internet.

"What?"

In the meantime, the number of views on his posts had gone over 10,000. The number of comments was more than 2,000!

"D-Don't tell me?"

He couldn't find the information, but was the negative level actually famous among users? So the users were excited because it gave tremendous benefits?

Shin Youngwoo's dream was destroyed when he checked the comments.

"..."

There were 2,000 comments like these. He felt like an idiot.

'It seems that information about negative levels hasn't been revealed at all... Am I the first person?'

Satisfy's system was configured to allow users to discover and develop themselves. There was no such thing as a customer service center like in other more traditional online games. As a result, Satisfy's two billion users had been developing the world during the past year by pioneering and exchanging information on their own.

However, in such a vast world, there was still a lot of information that hadn't been revealed, such as the negative level that Shin Youngwoo was experiencing now.

Swaaah.

It was raining outside the window. According to the weather forecast, it was going to rain all day. It wouldn't be easy to get a labor job if he went out looking today. Instead, he ate the last of the rice and logged into the game again.