Tim was gone, and Fred walked towards the town he saw. There was much on his mind; many new questions popped up in his head, but it was too late to ask them. Moments later, his steps became faster, and he was simply running towards it. That's how excited he was.

He soon found himself at the town's gate. He slowed down and passed through the gate. Suddenly, a message popped up:

> "Location discovered: Town of Beginnings"

>

> "Quick Travel unlocked: Town of Beginnings"

Fred smiled and looked around. The town looked clean. Medieval style houses, but the streets of cobblestone were so clean. He saw a small food market, a weapon's shop, and an adventurer's guild. He had no money for the former, so he went to the guild.

"Hi, Fred!" The lady behind the counter asked.

Fred was surprised to hear his name from someone he had never seen before. Without much thought, he pulled up the menu and checked the lady's stats. "Anna" was her name. She had a "delta" variable, so Fred assumed she was another player.

"Hey, it's rude to look at other people's stats." She added.

"But you checked mine; that's how you know my name." Fred quickly replied.

"Heh. Caught me. And I was just kidding; there's nothing rude about knowing who you're talking to." Anna briefly replied with a blush on her face. "Anyways, what brings you to this place?"

"Well, it's an adventurer's guild, and I am a new player with an empty pocket."

"Ah, and you want to kill some rats, I guess. I have just the right quest for you. It is enough to cover one night's stay. Anyway, I can't give quests to a non-adventurer, so sign here."

Fred inspected the paper form that she gave him. Unfortunately, as he touched it, the form glowed with warm light and then disappeared. Nevertheless, he felt something had changed. He immediately spotted a difference: his title in the menu was clickable. He clicked and saw a list with a new title, which he then selected: Adventurer (Rank F).

"Just like that? No rules, no nerdy speeches."

"Oh, you want those? Well, there are seven ranks. The top one is S rank, also known as legendary." Anna explained.

"Wait, I get it. I get it. So all I have to do is slay some rats, right?"

"Yep. It is not a ranked quest, so it will not improve your rank. Nevertheless, it's a good first quest. I have marked the location on your map." Anna smirked.

Fred quickly checked the map, and there was a new dot on an otherwise very empty map. He then went toward the door.

"Are you going to fight them using sticks and stones?" The clerk giggled.

"Yep. I assume everything else costs gold I don't really have."

"Well, do you at least know what happens if you die?"

"No. Wait, what does happen if I die?!" Fred twitched. There was a hole in his knowledge, and she poked it well.

"Heh, well, you simply log out of the game. You can then log back in with full health and all equipment. If you die inside a dungeon, you will spawn at the entrance. If you die outside the dungeon, you will simply spawn where you were when you died. Pretty simple, really."

This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it.

"Oh, so I can log out this way." Fred laughed.

"You can, but I think you misunderstand something. The pain is real. The rats won't kill you in an instant, but they will swarm and eat you alive while you feel their every tiny bite. Honestly, it's a really nasty way to die. I actually can't imagine a worse way to die. In higher-ranking dungeons, you simply fall to death or get your head sliced off. It is still painful, but it only lasts an instant. Rats, on the other hand…"

"Ok, ok, I get it. So I need a weapon, right?"

"Correct. And weapons don't come for free. You can pick some mushrooms in the forest and try your luck in the market, but it's going to be dark soon. So here's my offer: You give me your sweater, and I give you the knife. You can have the sweater back once you return the knife. Simple?"

"Oh, that sounds reasonable."

He quickly pulled off his sweater and gave it to Anna. Anna, in turn, made a kitchen knife appear in her hand and gave it to Fred. Finally, he had the proper means to finish the quest.

Fred went to the location on the map. It was in the same town, at the inn. He went inside the inn and talked to the receptionist. The receptionist opened a door into the basement, and there Fred felt how painful a rat bite can be.

Rats were weak against the knife. You could stab them, slice them, or simply smash them with the blunt edge of the knife. The only problem was their number and the lack of area attacks. Nevertheless, the rat bites, as painful as they were, did little damage, and it was only a matter of time until the floor was littered with rat corpses.

With a quarter of his health gone and drenched in sweat and stinking of blood, Fred finally finished the quest. He reported this to the receptionist, and the receptionist gave him the reward: a small sachel of gold coins and a skill scroll. He even added a bonus: a free night's stay at the inn. Fred was most interested in the scroll; he touched it, and it disappeared. He had a skill now.

Fred checked the skill menu; it had an active skill simply called 'Light Arc.' He clicked on the skill; the menu disappeared, but otherwise nothing happened. Fred sighed. He had a choice to make: ask for help or try to figure it out himself. He went with the latter.

A moment later, Fred was back on the skill menu. He hovered his finger over the skill but did not touch it. Description appeared. "draws a damaging arc at the tip of the sword."

Fred scratched his head. He did not really have a sword. But nevertheless, he activated the skill, then quickly sliced the air with his sword. An arc made out of very bright light appeared between the starting position and the ending position of the tip of his knife. An arc then moved forward by about a blade's length, presumably cutting everything in its short path.

"Wow!" Fred gasped and fell backward, surprised and blinded by the light. It was already dusk outside, and the darkness amplified the arc's light.

It was so intensely bright and so immensely beautiful. Fred repeated the skill a few more times, just to see the immense beauty of this white light. It was blinding, but it was worth it. The light had such a warm white incandescent light, like the light of the sun or a very hot flame. Or maybe something divine, like the glow of an angel's halo.

Fred noticed there was no cooldown, although going through the menu did mean he had at least two seconds between two skill uses. The skill did not use mana, but he did feel somewhat exhausted after swinging his knife so many times.

He quickly returned to the inn and asked the receptionist if he could do the quest again. The receptionist agreed but refused to give rewards the second time. Fred went down and tested his new skill on the rats. It worked far better than he expected. The arc applied the knife's damage to everyone caught, and since the knife's damage was enough to kill a rat, a single arc would kill tens of rats all at once. Not only that, but the arc of light illuminated the surroundings and made it easy to target. Soon, the rats were all gone.

The adventurer crawled outside and breathed in a chunk of fresh air. It was night, the sky was starry, and the cold air in his lungs made him twitch once as an immense sense of relief, achievement, and satisfaction washed over him. He gasped loudly.

Nevertheless, Fred was completely tired. He peeked at the clock; only fifteen minutes had passed in the real world. Yet he was so spent, his thinking was clouded, and the muscles hurt with every movement. It felt real, as if he had spent hours in a gym. He sniffed his clothes. They were drenched in sweat, bloody, and torn in a few places. But he was too tired to care. If anything, it was tomorrow's problem.

He took a single step closer to the inn, thinking about using the innkeeper's bonus offer. But then his tired body realized there was an even easier way out. The one that did not involve walking or talking to the reception. He opened the menu and clicked the logout button.

It was quick; his vision darkened, and when he opened his eyes, he saw the headset in front of him. He was lying on his bed. His muscles did not ache anymore, but he was still mentally exhausted. Just way too much happened, as if the hours he spent in the game were added on top of his working day.

He gathered his last remaining energy to wash his teeth, but after that, he dropped into the pillow and began snooring.