Chapter 3
Translator: syzc
Chapter 3: Beginner Quests
The slime village chief wasn’t an elite nor a boss. It wasn’t even an uncommon nor heroic. It was just a bigger slime with more health. It seemed like this NPC was generated by the system so that Archie could play the game normally.
“Our slime gathering spot is being threatened by crows. Brave warrior, please help hunt down those fierce birds and bring back 10 crow tail feathers.”
The slime village chief said with gurgles.
Speaking of which, it seemed that slimes speak by creating bubbles in their stomach which float up to the surface. Without the system god’s interpretation, only god would know what they were saying. No matter how he looked at it, they were just farting.
Archie accepted the quest. To level from 1 to 2 only required 200 experience. This beginner quest actually rewarded 500 experience.
“Maybe I have the aura of a protagonist. Soon, my level will soar.”
Archie opened his map and checked the quest. It indicated that the crow threat was south of slime village. When he got his bearings, he used his 11 speed to creep over.
As the forest became more sparse, the number of slimes also decreased. Finally, after crawling through a final shrub, Archie found a crow. It was on a human farm happily eating crops.
Observing it, he learned that crows were only level 1 and they didn’t seem to have much health, making them very easy to hunt. Of course, a beginner quest wouldn’t be hard, assuming you were a human fighter who could wreak havoc in this field.
“Alright, the good new is that I finally found the human beginner village. It must be that area with the roofs behind the farm. So poor looking. The bad news is…”
“Murderer! PKer! I’m going to be killed! Nooooooo! Hero, I’m a special player! I’m a player! Don’t hit me! Aah, aaaah! Aaaaah~~~”
Archie’s first blood was taken away by an unknowing stranger just like that.
His first death had been so worthless!
Moreover, Archie was now aware of an even more serious problem; to normal players, he was just a monster, the kind that would drop equipment, money, and experience when you hit them.
His luck was bad. He actually dropped his sackcloth pants.
A simple quest, with these players around to interfere, was now twice as hard!
“Hah, I’m plagued with misfortune. Let’s first run back to my corpse.”
He released his soul, then equipped what remained of his equipment, the wooden sword and sackcloth shirt. At least they would provide 1 attack and 1 defence. It was better than nothing.
In soul mode, he followed the path back to the field. After reviving, Archie patiently observed. The beginner village was full of hot-blooded players. Everytime a crow appeared, a minimum of 4 wooden swords would swing at it, sending it back to the great system god. At a glance, there wasn’t a single monster around.
“Why are they all warriors? Are the beginner villages divided by class?”
“Running out and fighting over monsters with the human players is not realistic. Let’s circle the farm and check it out. Maybe some fish escaped the net.” Facing the scene in front of him, Archie had no idea how to deal with it.
The saying really proved true; success comes to those who try. After wandering around the edge of the field for a long time, he really found a crow. It was fighting against a similarly weak-ass slime. The black slime even had its own name, Yellowy.
The bush blocked this area from the warrior army’s view, allowing the two of them to happily continue their terrific battle.
Archie immediately rushed up, after all, this was his very first virtual fight!
“Yellowy Bro, I’m coming to help! Damn bird, taste my slime sword!”
“Your attack dealt 2 damage to the fierce crow. The fierce crow has died. You receive 2 experience. You receive 1x crow tail feather.”
It was actually a one hit kill!
However, it was because his slime companion has already fought with the crow for a long time. The crow was only left with that little bit of health, letting Archie successfully pick it off.
“Ah, so satisfying. This is what a virtual fight is like? Next is the loot, then wait for the monster to respawn.”
Though waiting was boring, it allowed him to reflect on his life.
1 minute later, Yellowy Bro recovered to full health. “Bro, let us continue to work together and kill the enemy!”
2 minutes later, Yellowy Bro seemed to have become a bit impatient. It began to enter monster mode and wander.
3 minutes later. “Slime bro, don’t leave the bush! There are beasts out there!!” But Yellowy didn’t listen to his advice. Sure enough, the moment it left the bush, it got insta-killed by the player army.
As the only remaining slime, things became a tad lonelier.
10 minutes later, Archie was bored and began to smack ants with his wooden sword. He missed his dead slime companion.
At that time, out of the corner of his eyes, Archie noticed a flash!
“Finally, it’s going to respawn!”
“Caw— Caw—” Along with two unpleasant calls, the crow respawned. Archie’s wandering mind immediately returned. He instantly struck out with a 361 degrees sweep of his sword. The newly born crow retaliated furiously, a single peck struck his heavenly defence.
According to the gaming conventions, beginner monsters were only there to let players experience battle. Every game’s beginner monsters were all trash!
Archie flippantly exchanged blows with the crow…
However, Archie neglected one problem, he himself was the lowest creature in every game’s food-chain, a slime. On top of that, all his attributes were a marvelous 1. He was the trashiest trash of all the beginner village trash mobs…
After his second time being sent back to town, Archie felt like something was wrong. His one attacks dealt 2 damage. The crow’s peck also dealt 2 damage. Both he and the crow had 20 health. Their attack speed was the same. Then the only thing deciding victory or defeat was who struck first.
No, no, no. He would be the one to die first, because of the system’s auto-attacks compared to his own auto-attacks. Perhaps, everyone one of his attacks would be 0.1 seconds late, which meant he would die first.
“God, why is this beginner quest so hard!”
As a professional player, the more crucial the time, the more one must keep calm.
“There is always a solution!” Archie believed.
Of course, even if there was not, he still had to run back to his corpse.
Archie died again.
Archie believed that today was his unlucky day. If he wasn’t spending time as a corpse, then he was running to his corpse. He carefully pondered. This beginner quest was extremely simple. Any normal person who didn’t have all 1’s in their stats like him could easily oppress these birds. Perhaps even just 1 more point would allow him to fight them to the death.
“My pants!”
Archie really missed those +1 defence pants that he had dropped. With a face full of tears, he decided to forget about it. The system god had given Archie a chance, but he hadn’t grasped it.
People should face forwards. The game must go on. Archie continued running back to his corpse.
“Oh right, what class is a slime? What about skills?”
When Archie was about to reach his corpse, he finally recalled the most important part of online games - skills. It was said that the first thing one should do upon entering a game is to put on equipment, then learn skills. Wasn’t that common sense? He could only blame it on the strange circumstances today that had messed up his professional gamer rhythm.
He opened his class screen.
Class: Slime
Class description: Omitted.
It was simple enough. It seems like it was a class spontaneously created by the system AI. It was somewhat messy and rough around the edges.
“Alright, I still have the 1 starting skillpoint, but there’s a little problem with the skill tree.”
On the official class description, every class had many skill trees. Different distribution could allow a class to develop into a completely different style, thus creating countless possibilities.
As for Archie’s skill tree, it was very simply. It was only a skill line. It currently only had 3 skills. Every 10 levels would unlock 1 more skill.
“Spit Arrow: Spit to deal damage. Result will improve according to skill rank.”
“Devour: Can eat edible objects to recover and receive buffs.”
“Hardy: Devouring can permanently increase stats or attributes.”
“What skill should I choose? Really a tough… tough choice my ass!” Even the starting skillpoint got randomly assigned! The system had automatically put the point into
Luckily, the crow didn’t run off.
After reviving, he turned his feelings into strength.
“Die you measly bird!”
“Eat my spit arrow!”
Archie’s spit sprayed onto the crow’s face, dealing 1 damage. Then he swung his treasured sword.
“My god! System god, can you not choose such a weak skill for me?”
Don’t look down on 1 damage! However, Archie still calculated that, in the end, he would be 1 health behind of the crow!
-1
The crow lost 1 more health.
“Eh, what’s this continuous damage?”
He saw a debuff over the crow’s head that dealt 1 damage every second.
“Your Strengthened Digestion deals 1 damage to fierce crow.”
So it’s Strengthened Digestion!
This skill that Archie had been avoiding the whole time! It actually had this sort of miraculous affect! Could it be because his spit contained digestive enzymes?
“Haha, I can win! Who cares about the details.”
The rest of the fight just followed the standard exchanging hit for peck. To love and to hate. To kill with a sword.
“Right, there’s that. Doesn’t this mean that besides these 3 skills, I can still learn skills through skill books!?”
“Hahahaha, I knew it. How can the great system god not give me a way to grow.”
As Archie was revelling in his beautiful future, the crow lost its final point of health, turning into 3 tail feathers and 10 experience. Fighting a monster by oneself was much more rewarding.
“Haha, keep the crows coming! I can’t wait to reach 10!” Archie roared.