The time was 7 a.m.
The scene? A way off from the glade and grassland dotted with huts and an imposing glass-walled mansion smack-dab in the middle. In a nearby forest of low-hanging trees.
The characters? A group of old men and huffing midwives chasing after… a shrieking gay boy with the character ID Nox.
Holy hell, it was exciting.
Right when Wyatt was cackling like an idiot witch that’d just stolen Macbeth’s breath, he found a horde of NPCs that were running over on early morning fumes, like those runners that he’d spend every morning ogling before he was carted off to a spaceship, just older.
Before they could say anything, he… ran.
And what was he doing while running?
The wise-bearded Wyatt (that he thought he was) had a satisfied smile on his face. He was… nodding to his own clever mind about how right it was to start dashing off after making such an embarrassing scene.
Yes, of course he was handsome. But no, it wasn’t likely that old men and midwives would be interested in his meat. Fuck, if they were, he’d quit! Even if the Main God gave him all nine of the fundamental elements! It was quite exciting to be rushing against the current, wind caressing his face, helmet dangling off his head, with no reason whatsoever except the possibility of a fan mob!
So his feet took him off on a wild goose chase, only, he was the goose—no! the swan that everyone wanted to roast—to fawn after!
The NPCs, on the other hand, were close to dying of short breaths. They’d chased after a young man, who they all thought was defenceless against the wiles of that scary old lady that was their Village Chief, just to make sure that he was alright, that no bad rumours would spread of their beloved Village!
Yet… this young man wasn’t ordinary at all! Even the fastest of them old men and midwives wasn’t a match!
“Old Krøn, let’s… let’s stop,” one of them, a busty midwife, said, her breath whizzing like a dog’s after a long fetching game. Not to mention the scratches that she was getting from the twigs and bristles that littered the forest ground.
“Right, old Krøn. Let’s stop! I—I can’t. We can’t—can’t run no-mo.” More and more of them joined in the chorus.
The fastest old man, aged more than a hundred, was an Apprentice Ranger famed for his famous speed. Alas, it seemed that old Krøn was getting on. Huffing, he muttered under his breath, his feet carrying him a few more meters by momentum before he could fall headfirst onto the grass. “Who is that young man?”
“Who is he? Such a fast runner,” one of the midwives, this time a rather well-aged 50-year-old woman, said. A blush coloured her already oxygen-deprived face.
The others lapsed into a daze. Some, rather blushingly, because of the midwife’s… sudden spring. Others… because of their sudden realisation that, cough, they didn’t know where they had run to! The Village wasn’t that big, but they had only fenced off the part that faced the mountain. They… had run off from the backside of the Village Chief’s house… and didn’t know how to get home. And they were in a forest! Shit!
A few dozen heads rapidly turned and craned, adjusted their angles and tried to find a straight line that they could peer directly through the trees. Dozens of eyes bulged out when they saw only a tiny dot—a dot of glass, it seemed—that was blinking under the morning sun, like a mirage that was dim and faraway while the trees nearby whispered creepily to them. They gulped with disbelief at their own… athleticism. Just how far had they run?!
On the other side, Wyatt, too, was lying on his back, admiring his own athleticism.
Finally lost them rabid fans, he thought. It was absolutely thrilling to be chased like some skirt, but… why did something seem a bit off?
Hmph, he would think about that later. Now, he needed to find a monster that could send him off to respawn first.
Wyatt searched around, eyes scanning the terrain like a hawk surveying its majestic nest. Mobs at his Level wouldn’t be hard to find, especially in a wood-type setting. The problem was, he didn’t know if they could kill him! Just look!
｢Nox (Apprentice Human Mage)
[Level]: 0, 0/200 EXP
[Knowledge]: 10 Runewords
[HP]: 300/300
[MP]: 600/600
[Physical Damage]: 16~21
[Magic Damage]: 110~120
[Attributes]: 15 STR, 15 AGI, 30 INT, 15 VIT
[Runeword Combination Skills]: N/A
[Beginning Bloodline]: 1% Awakened
[Cerebral Limiter]: Elite, 25%
[Current Stamina]: 4,000/5,000
[Natural Regeneration]: +100 Stamina/minute (dependent on Cerebral Limiter, Life Order/Tier, and Bloodline)｣
Yeah. Being prematurely Awakened… cough… was a problem! He was too tanky with that much VIT! And with that much STR, if some unwitting animal rammed against his body thinking that he was some softy that could be taken advantage of… well, they’d be running into brick walls!
If—let’s just say, if—these animals were intelligent enough to use the forest to their advantage, he’d be riddled with bite marks, wood splinters, scratches, and more. In short, he’d be tortured—and he wouldn’t fucking die!
Wyatt sung his own praises all the while shuddering at the thought. But his opinion wasn’t really wrong. If he could see himself right now, he’d probably jump out of his own skin in admiration!
His post-Awakening complexion was even smoother than that little shit August’s. His eyes sparked with some primordial light, his face of an androgynous sort of beauty, with both the allure and the promise of something deadly and yet naturally attractive. His musculature was compact. Beneath his bones, faintly shining Runes intertwined like DNA helices protecting his organs and core. The nine elemental Runes even circulated in his blood.
Of course, this was only his in-game character. Nobody would even recognise him in real life if he claimed that he was Nox! Perhaps he himself would even have cognitive dissonance if he spent a long time in the game before coming back to a rather… dull reality…. It was a sad possibility that no gays wanted to admit, let alone confront.
To ask a Tier 0 beast to kill all that? Honestly quite hard. His Natural HP Regeneration alone…. Hell, if beasts saw that and could speak, they might even want to charge more for such a tiring job! And some of the more intelligent beasts might just fall in lo—cough, let’s not pursue that thought.
The other option, of course, was to head back and work on killing mobs on the way. That would be convenient and give him some much needed EXP at the same time. He’d already wasted a few hours, although, in a game as brutal as War of Gods, he’d honestly be surprised if anyone could even get to Level 1 right now, hehe.
Walk first, figure it out later, Wyatt thought. He picked himself up, dusted off the soil that’d stuck itself to his robe, hummed a song, and strode back. The Villagers were already long gone by this time, afraid of wild beast ambushes as they were.
While he was walking, the boy admired his own stats.
The increased Attribute gain per Level wouldn’t seem like a big deal now, because while those plebs would gain 3 points for every non-main Attribute and 5 for the main, he himself would be getting 5 STR/AGI/VIT and 7 INT per Level. Add these up, and he was confident he could whack a Paladin to death, provided that they were not allowed to use skills. Although, come to think of it, if they had those big swords… cough, let’s not fight. Peace would be better for all parties involved.
The biggest difference between Bloodline Awakeners and lower Tier Lifeforms, though, was the multipliers applied to their stat. Wyatt found it quite strange that his HP and MP were now 20 times whatever his VIT and INT, while his Magic DMG was now 3 times his INT with a 2x multiplier for his Wand’s stats.
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｢Beginner’s Wand (Ungraded, Level 0 Wand)
[Requirements]: 10 Intelligence
[Physical DMG]: 1~5
[Magical DMG]: 10~15
[Durability]: 20/20｣
The sad part was that his Physical DMG remained largely unchanged, only scaling up because of the 5 extra STR that he got. Still, because only Level 0 Mages would need Physical DMG, he was fine with it.
Wyatt sniggered when he thought to here. Since Level 0 Mages only got elemental affinity Runewords… oh, just how refreshing the sight would be when cute, white-robbed little Mages found themselves with no other option than to play whack-a-mole with these little cute beasts! His laughter got louder and louder as he savoured their thought of despair….
. . . . . . . . .
Meanwhile, in town, the NPCs he’d left in the dust had just come back, and the players got… lively.
“Sir, I’ve been holding onto these chicken thighs that you asked me to get you for over an hour. I’m afraid 10 Bronze coins wouldn’t be enough, since waiting has cost me… so much, hic.”
“Miss Jenny, the baby you got me to watch just now soiled my armour! I can’t walk out in the fields like this, can I?”
“Mr. Holland, we had a deal that you’d help me refine these potions before the sun came up with the fox’s bums that I got you. Now… how do you want to compensate me for my lost time?”
One player after another started to negotiate with the NPCs that gave them the beginner Quests. At first, of course, only a brave soul experimented, but then when he got 1 Silver coin for doing literally nothing but sitting around, greed reared its ugly head.
This was an experience as well as a mechanic that, without Wyatt, players wouldn’t find out at all until a few months into the game. If they didn’t start now, the habit of listening to NPCs’ every word alone would mean that few would ever try to negotiate these prices.
Alas, unfortunately for unwitting NPCs waiting to be fleeced in more and more creative ways… Daddy Butterfly was starting to spread his rainbow wings. Of course, the story of a random hero that’d just multiplied their earnings so warmed the cockles of their hearts that Wyatt even heard their prayers from afar.
. . . . . . . . .
“Into the thick of it! Into the thick of it!”
｢Player Reputation Point +1.｣
｢Player Reputation Point +1.｣
｢Player Reputation Point +1.｣
｢Player Reputation Point +1.｣
These notifications, ahhhh, what sweet things!
Wyatt knew something like this would happen, of course. He wasn’t so narcissistic—big cough—that he’d lure these poor NPCs off the beaten path for no reason. He was banking on smart negotiators in the crowd, and he got paid!
Player Reputation Points (PRPs) were the sweetest drugs that few would know about until much later in the game. Wyatt licked his tongue and smiled evilly.
His brain was working through many plans and remembering many items when he suddenly heard a “Grrrr” from some way off.
Wyatt was excited by the slim possibility of a sweet release and a free respawn, as well as by his new and improved perception.
You thought Bloodline Awakening was only so much? Hehe, what was happening would be only one of the things that made them truly overpowered!
Perception was something that all elites had with their Domains. The problem was the range. Normal experts with no Bloodline Awakening and no improved physique could normally extend their Domains over rough 25 or so meters. The higher the Cerebral Limiter, the more their Domains would encompass. But with Bloodline Awakening, even the tiniest percentage that Wyatt had would vastly improve this coverage.
Where others could see, smell, hear, and detect movements in a 25-meter radius—and even less if they didn’t actively spread their Domains—he was able to do the same within 100 meters! And this was his Passive Domain! If he activated it, 200 meters wouldn’t be a stretch!
Fuck! He was too handsome!
He could see in only black and white, but heh, there was a cutie pie of a cat just a few dozen meters to his left, hiding behind that bush and waiting to strike. Wyatt turned his head and “saw” through the bush. The monster’s details popped up above its head.
｢Blue-Streaked Cat (Level 2, Intelligent Beast)
[HP]: 250/250｣
Without advanced inspection-type skills, he wouldn’t be able to tell more, but this was enough.
Unlike those on the lowest rung of the food chain, Ungraded Beasts, the Intelligent Beasts had, well, intelligence. Not much, but they were as smart as a five-year-old. Sort of like house cats or pet dogs on steroids, they had basic battle sense as well as some skills. Higher-Tier Intelligent Beasts would be better, of course, but this one, tsk, only a Level 2 mob… wouldn’t be able to kill him.
Wyatt sighed. He’d honestly given up on suicide by now, sweet though that may be. So he might as well kill these things while finding his way back.
First, though, he had to have a plan. Since… he was still a suckling Level 0 Mage. He had none of the metaphorical guns yet, just more firepower.
Level 0 Mages had to rely on the natural environment to deal damage. Of course, whacking was another option, but Wyatt was too civilised for such nonsense!
The easiest would be to use Lightning to zap that thing, then pile those dead tree branches that littered the forest floor on the beast, and light it up on fire. But he couldn’t produce Lightning now. That was a combination of Air and Light. Even with how overpowered he felt, it would still be impossible for use the Light element without other Runewords. Not to mention that his MP wouldn’t be able to hold out, at all.
MP, otherwise known as Innate Mana to NPCs, was merely a tool that Mages used to mediate and draw on Ambient Mana. Only at higher Tiers and Life Orders did Mages have the ability to convert Inner Mana directly into an elemental Mana.
Here in the forest, where the canopies were quite dense and thereby lacking in Light Ambient Mana, even Wyatt would be hard-pressed to do more than just… shine a light on the little sneaky bastard over there. In fact, in a marine environment with little to no Fire Ambient Mana, even with Fire being a lesser element, he might not have enough MP to convert more than a single spark. He’d be a dead dog, too, just from that.
Still, that brought him to a conclusion: twigs!
Wyatt quickly surveyed the forest floor before he crouched down and got his hands dirty. Thankfully, the place was blanketed by dead tree branches. So he took his sweet time, humming the Backyardigans, while his grubby hands and legs made a small pile of firewood, all while the stupid beast was staring at him.
It thought it was smart. It thought it was a hunter and Wyatt the prey. Well, its life was fucked now, ho, ho, ho.
Wyatt smiled at his work and slowly walked until he was within a 10-meter radius of the little cat. This was its aggro range, quite short, but then again, what’d you expect of a second-grade beast?
Quite on cue, the thing pounced. A streak of light dashed towards the Mage with almost no sound. Wyatt, though, looked rather bored, continuing to hum another song.
“Beans? Well this must be the witch’s beans! We’ll take the with us!”
The cat zapped ahead in a zig-zag pattern, not noticing that Wyatt was quickly retreating even as he walked forward. By the time the beast had question marks on its head, it was already on top of the firewood.
Wyatt drew a small circle in the air, blue light leaking from his fingertip. A Runeword condensed, dark red with a tinge of gold in it. But with no time to admire his new Rune, Wyatt threw it onto the bunch of twigs.
Pop!
A loud crepitation startled the cat.
“Into the woods, it’s time to go. It may be all in vain I know….”
“Meow!”
The beast had no time to admire Wyatt’s… croaking song. Its beautiful white fur, with those understated blue streaks that it spent so much money on to dye… its fur was on fire! And it was fucking a big fire, too!
Its eyes turned red at the sight of the humming human phonograph. How dare this impudent—this piece of meat—how dare it do this! It would eat, it would scratch, it would—
–50
“MEOW!”
It would eat, it would scratch, it—
–70
“MEOWWWWW!”
It would eat, it would scratch—
–80
It would eat—it would—it—
The cat collapsed deeper into the firewood before it burned into ashes. Wyatt was still humming, but his voice got lower and lower before it, too, burned out. He gulped. The Mage was freaked out by his own fire, his eyes darting back and forth between his fingertip and that raging fire that was quickly spreading.
｢Killed a Level 2 Blue-Streaked Cat. Normal EXP +25. Bonus EXP (+100% EXP for a 2-Level difference) +25. Current EXP: Level 0, 50/200.｣
Remembering how dark the fire was, with that tinge of gold… Wyatt blinked, and blinked, and blinked again.
Then, as would any child that suddenly had a hand over an adult, he laughed a witch’s-brewing-virgin-tears kind of laugh.
He drew the Runeword again, this time paying close attention to its shape and its final form. Then an even louder laughter rang out. The fire that was spreading seemed to have been cowed by Wyatt’s madness, extinguishing itself.
This definitely wasn’t a normal Runeword that he had.
The reason? He was just drawing any other Fire Rune, but as he drew on, Ambient Mana gathered faster and faster and drew—by itself!—more and more lines upon the normal Runeword that all other Fire Starters would draw.
In other words, he was doing normal work, but he was assisted by the environment while doing it! In fact, using his Domain, Wyatt could see that what the overlaying Ambient Mana was drawing… was another Runeword!
Instinctively, he uttered, “Primal….”
No wonder.
If it was a normal fire, it wouldn’t still be spreading now. In fact, once the Ambient Mana that Mages used MP to draw upon a Runeword ran out, the spell (or the raw element) would fizzle out. Otherwise, most of the game environment would have been wrecked by unwitting Level 0 Mages.
But Wyatt’s Primal Fire seemed to last much longer, especially when he scrolled up through the notifications again and saw this—
｢Ambient Fire Mana Rating +1. MP –5.｣
There was no way in hell or on the way back that 5 MP could call out a fire that lasted 5 minutes as his did just now. He could feel the scorching heat that his own fire gave off too. Something that shouldn’t even be possible before the First Update!
He could only sigh and pick up the loot, preparing to continue on.