“Hmm, should I go through the Pyromancer tree or should I branch out?” Argus sits at a bench at the central plaza, right beneath the towering stone fountain where new players spawn. “Last time, I went with Runemancer, and while I liked the utility it offered, the damage is severely lacking.”

He was so enamored with his activity that he was unable to notice the party of three awkwardly approaching him.

“E-excuse me…” The boy clothed in leather spoke out to him. He has two short swords fastened unto his left and right waist. “Are you looking for a party?”

The boy appeared to be their leader, as the other two, a robed caster with what looks to be healing-focused staff and another leather wearer but with a bow, are just silently watching behind him. Argus glanced at the leader’s weapons, sighing internally at his grave mistake.

Dual wielding is perfectly possible in Aefell, however, it is heavily stat-dependent and could only really shine in higher levels, particularly with high dexterity builds. Dual wielding this early in the game is just a recipe for imminent death. Additionally, most successful dual wielders have some real-life experience with handling the sword, and it is their experience, coupled with the massive help by their stats, that they’re able to make dual wielding work. Unless you’re ambidextrous, there’s no way you’d be able to thrive with dual wielding right off the bat.

“No, I’m not.” Argus replied monotonously, hoping that they’d go away after that.

“I see.” The boy was visibly disappointed. “W-we’ll… I mean, I’ll pay you if you party with us!”

“What?” Argus was surprised at the boy’s proposition. “Why?”

“Because you’re a pro! Aren’t you?”

“Wha— No I’m not, why would you think that?”

“I saw you and your friend earlier selling your loot.” The boy went on an exposition. “Those leaves and wood, plus the dagger that you tried to sell but decided no to; I looked them in the wiki and they’re drops from a level 5 boss. Which means the two of you single handedly defeated a level 5 boss on your own!”

Argus was speechless in shock and confusion.

“I was going to ask both of you right then and there, but I was too shy. When I finally summoned the courage, your tank friend already logged out at the inn.”

"He was watching us?" Argus couldn't help but be suspicious of him. He was highly considering if these kids were spies from someone and was seriously debating if he'll lure them into a trap and wipe them all in one fell swoop.

"So? So?" The boy enthusiastically asked with a bright, jolly face. "I'll give you 75% of the drops if you agree!"

Looking at the boy cleared Argus' doubts about them being spies, but that suspicion was replaced by annoyance and contempt. Not only does Argus absolutely not like annoying little kids, but his ignorant yet blissful enthusiasm just rubs him off the wrong way that he cannot explain.

“Alright, listen here kid,” Argus stood up visibly imposing on them. “Your build is a detriment not only to you, but also your party. I have no qualms with partying, but I don’t grind low level monsters. If you’re fine with tackling bosses several levels higher than you, familiarize yourself with the game’s mechanics first. Grind, but not levels or items; grind for personal experience. Otherwise, you’re just going to get yourself killed. You are aware of the permadeath, aren’t you?”

Awkward silence ensued. The three of them looking at Argus with utter shock.

“L-let’s go Kail.” The bow wielder said after a couple of seconds. “We’ll just level on our own.”

The boy named Kail was utterly speechless. The blank stare in his eyes was reminiscent of someone whose had cruel reality thrown into their blissful utopia of carelessness and comfort.

“No.” He replied, facing towards the ground. “He’s right. I did notice the difficulty with this dual sword I’m trying to make work.”

He then looked up towards Argus after wiping his eyes. “Thank you for this lesson. I promise we’ll improve ourselves.”

Argus raised his eyebrows upon hearing this. “Right, good." He replied while nodding.

"By the way, where can we find quests?" The two behind him where about to leave when Kail asked one final question.

"Ah, quests." Argus flashed a tiny smirk. "There are only a handful of quests in the game. This is a sandbox. Play however you want."

They left after Kail thanked him, leaving Argus alone once again.

He sat down with a heavy back afterwards; his entire body laid out in full. “What the hell just happened?”

Unbeknownst to him, a figure obscured by the shadow of a local establishment was watching him the entire time.

“Fuck!” Argus dove to his right, barely being able to dodge the giant boulder hurled at him by the Level 7 [Golem]. Since he leveled up twice, he was awarded with 10 stat points, as each level gives 5, and two skill points. He added another 5 to his ARC, 3 to his RES and 2 to his DEX, bringing his final stats to 5 DEX, 10 ARC, and 5 RES.

Also, he’d decided to continue on the Pyromancer tree for now and took , which heals the caster or the target in hand reach for 50% of their lost HP but decreases their max HP by 10% for 30 seconds, and , which shoots a thin filament of fire that deals damage and ignites the first target hit for 3 seconds. If the struck target is already ignited, the initial damage is multiplied by 50% and the ignite duration is increased by 1 second, adding to the already existing one.

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Just two more levels and he’d finally be able to reach the first milestone in the Pyromancer tree, although whether he’d actually continue on it or branch out is yet to be decided. Every skill tree in the game has a milestone point, typically every 5 skill points invested onto that tree, though the actual number may increase or decrease depending on the tree, and how far into the tree. For Pyromancer, the first milestone is split between three choices; Arsonist, Blazer, and Anarchist. The Arsonist tree focuses on fire skills that inflict and sustain several fire-based DoT (damage-over-time) spells, particularly centered around igniting the enemy. The Blazer tree is a mixture of DoT and instant damage spells, but focuses on buffing and restoration. Lastly, the Anarchist tree focuses on high damage, AoE (Area of Effect) burst spells.

That being said, one can take all branches if they wish, though that would be the at the expense of advancing in the previous branch as the cost of skills dramatically increases after a milestone. This is the other determining factor for player’s character builds in Aefell. One can invest both in swordplay and in magic, but he will not be as proficient in either of them as someone who focused on a single path.

Argus casted his third consecutive at the boss, applying ignite onto it. Its rocky body bursts into flames, imbuing it with some kind of flowing orange substance reminiscent of lava, bringing its HP down to about 67%. Immediately after, he shot onto it, dealing large amounts of damage and taking its HP down to 56% as well as extending the ignite duration to 9 seconds.

As the boss is currently losing HP by the second, he took this time to distance himself and recuperate. His HP currently sits at 45, and that was just from the single punch he took. If he takes two consecutive hits, he’ll surely die.

He used on himself, healing him for 23 HP, bringing it up to 67, but also temporarily lowering his max HP to 90 for 30 seconds.

He cast another on the boss as it’s slowly striding itself towards him. He decided that he’d fight another Earth Elemental as they’re the slowest among all the monster types, making it easy for him to hit his skill shots, but the tradeoff is that they’re also the most enduring. The [Treant]’s gimmick was its extreme regeneration once its HP falls to 10%. This [Golem], however, is in pure, raw defense. However, that is easily circumnavigated by the percent DoT of Argus’ ignites.

Many may think upon seeing this battle that Pyromancer is overpowered and unbalanced, specially the ignite that can easily take off 25% of the boss’ HP in the span of 5 seconds, but what they don’t realize is that this is only strong in the early game. Many monsters from mid to late game are resistant, if not outright immune to fire damage, while also boasting regenerative abilities whilst in combat. Early game bosses are designed to be introductory, as the more “serious” ones are intended to be treated as raid bosses. Another thing to note is that the boss’ difficulty; it’s HP, damage, and resistances, scales with the number of players present. Argus being alone greatly helps in this regard.

Also, Argus is only able to fully utilize ignite's power because he's fighting Earth Elementals, who are by nature incredibly slow, and frankly, stupid. If it were any other monster with a respectable speed and intelligence, he would have died from the first 5 seconds of the fight if he fought it alone.

The final tick of the ignite brought the [Golem] down to 19% HP, prompting it to switch phases. The slightly molten rock covering its body caused by the ignite shifted and moved like tectonic plates. The affected ones sank onto its body while new, almost polished-looking ones replaced their place. Additionally, it planted itself onto the ground, much like how the [Treant] assumed the appearance of a normal tree, but this one looks like a gigantic spear of stalagmite 15 meters tall.

The earth started rumbling as the boss assumed a defensive position. Knowing that it’s pretty much invulnerable at this state, Argus forgone the idea of attacking it and wasting mana. Instead, he focused all his attention to his footing and the vibrations of the earth.

A crack rapidly formed beneath his feet. Prepared, Argus immediately jumped away of his current position, as he knew exactly what this crack entailed. Not even a second has passed after he jumped away, a thin spike of rock and earthly materials pierced out of the crack, around Argus’ height, before promptly retreating back to the ground like an appendage upon missing him.

Another crack formed, and Argus dodged out of the spike’s way again, just like earlier. This was the boss’ second phase. He patiently did these movements a dozen more times in a cycle, waiting for this phase’s expiration. Surely enough, after dodging the last spike, the boss finally rose out of its defensive position and stood up. Fortunately, it did not regenerate any health and still remains at 19%. Unfortunately, however, the hard part now begins for Argus.

As the [Golem] stood up, all the plates of rocks covering its body began to shed one by one. Argus wasted no time and immediately blasted it with . This did not faze it however, and just continued to shed its armor. After around 3 seconds, what lay before Argus was not the same [Golem] covered in rocky plates. Instead, it appears to be a sculpture made out of shiny marble, though the joints have indentations on them to allow movement. Its black, hollow eyes pierced Argus as it stared at him.

Argus tried to distance himself from the boss, but this seemingly prompted it to move. With a quick burst of movement, it sped towards Argus unlike its sluggish movement before. At the rate that it was going, it was going to collide with him in just a second or two, despite the sufficient distance between them.

When it was just inches away from Argus, it pulled its right leg back, preparing to kick him with immeasurable force. Argus knew that if this kick connected, even if he was at full health, this would definitely one-shot him. Still, he decided to take the risk.

He turned towards it and released the spell . It flinched for a split second, not even the duration of the blink of an eye, but that was all Argus needed. When the boss threw its kick, Argus dodged sideways, trying to time it as perfectly as possible.

At that moment, everything felt to slow to a crawl. His body is in a diving position in mid-air, almost seemingly suspended, while the boss’ marble foot inches to him closer and closer. When “time finally resumed”, Argus couldn’t be more relieved. It was definitely a close one, as the kick actually brushed the back of his head, with the boss’ sole just millimeters away from his sprawled back. Nevertheless, he managed to survive the one-hit-kill attack.

Upon landing, he hurriedly started casting while lying face-down on the ground. This was nerve-wracking for him, even though he knew exactly how many seconds it takes for the boss to recover from that attack, the fact that he cannot see it for a couple of brief seconds still incites an instinctual fear on him.

The boss became off-balance after missing its kick, though it didn’t even take a split second for it to recover. It immediately faced towards Argus and raised a foot to stomp down on him. When the foot is descending down, Argus rolled over to face it, and then released .

An orange ball of pure exothermal energy started to spontaneously form and expand in front of him. Though it was far away enough not to affect him, the force of its explosion still carried a minor gust of wind that brushed his hair messy.

“Boom!” An explosive noise resounded throughout the cavern-like boss chamber. Like before, the [Golem] flinched for a split second, but promptly resumed its stomp on Argus, who by now has rolled out of the way and is in the process of standing up.

Plumes of orange-red flames erupted all over the boss’ body, which it tried to ignore as it recovers itself from the missed stomp, which had embedded its foot onto the cavern floor. However, it was futile. The moment it started to charge towards Argus, its HP fell to 0.

It collapsed on the rocky floor mid-dash, causing it to drift forward like a landslide before coming to a halt just inches away from a desperately running Argus.

After sitting still while heavily panting as he recovers his stamina, he looked at his MP and turned pale at what he saw.

It was completely drained.