The next morning I woke up early, used the bathroom, had a quick breakfast, changed into some comfy clothes, and got settled in for a long day of playing and exploring.
I put on the Biconnect, which is what the deep-dive console is called, select NWO, and log in.
I once again open my eyes to see the starting town on the first floor, and start setting up a game plan for the day.
‘I think I’ll go out into the forest and try to grab some easy skills, and see if I can get a couple levels, after that I’ll check for any quests or dungeons I want to complete.’
“Alright sounds like a plan”
I quickly make my way to the outskirts of the town, enter the forest , and start looking for anything interesting I can find, out in the wilds.
After a couple of minutes, I come across my first enemy in this world
From the trees around me, emerges a small, plant based bunny.
‘Huh, this was also Maple’s first enemy in the show. I wonder If the first enemy encounter is scripted.”
Anyway, I immediately ready my weapon and prepare to slay this adorable animal.
I take a stab with my spear at the bunny, and immediately enter catatonic shock.
“Are you fucking kidding me! 5 damage! I knew having 0 STR stats would hurt, but I didn’t think it would be this bad.”
I dodge the pitiful attacks it tries to hit me with while complaining about the lack of damage in my head.
‘I guess from now on, enemy encounters are going to take a while, and I’m going to have to hit them with a million and a half attacks to fell them.’
I resign myself to stabbing this small bunny with my spear like 6 times to kill it.
After a bit, the bunny finally rolls over on its back, and evaporates into small particles.
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You have reached level 2
+5 stat points
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“Finally, it took way too long to kill just the first enemy.”
Now that I think about it, there was probably a better way to go about that. Maple was able to one-hit that enemy because it rammed itself into her shield. That means I probably should have backed up, gained some speed, and absolutely skewered that thing.
‘It should have been so easy, ugh, I’m so disappointed in myself.’
If I remember right, you get five stat points every even level, so I’ll have to keep that in mind.
I put my five shiny new stat points in AGI, and go looking for more trouble.
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While traveling through the forest, I came across a field with a couple monsters in it. From weird heart shaped centipedes, to huge bees, there were lots of different types of creatures in this place.
‘If i’m remembering correctly, there were a couple of skills Maple got in the first episode that I should also be able to get with a bit of effort. I believe they were giant slaying, which I should get with a couple kills, and total defense, which I should be able to get a speed version of with an hour of effort.’
I start by going for giant slaying, which just requires me to kill an enemy with four stats higher than mine, which isn’t hard considering everything but AGI is 0.
I prep my spear in a forward thrust position, aim myself at the nearest centipede thing, and rush forward at high speed, skewering the centipede through its head.
The damage done is frankly quite crazy, it comes very close to one-hitting the creature, so I very quickly remove my spear from its body, bring the spear tip up to behind my right shoulder while taking a step back, and make a very fast diagonal swipe across the centipedes body, putting an end to its life.
“Phew, that wasn;t so bad, since I know what to do now.”
*Skill acquired - Giant Slayer: If four of your stats (not HP/MP) are lower than the opponent's, double stats (not HP/MP).*
*Skill acquired - Spear Mastery I: Increases damage by 1% when using spears and spear subtypes.
‘Huh, didn’t expect spear mastery, not a big increase, but every little bit helps.’
‘Giant Slayer will be super useful, since my AGI stat will be multiplied by two every time I get into a battle.’
Next up on the list to acquire is what I presume will be the skill called total speed.
I walk into the center of the monster-filled clearing and slam the butt of my spear on the ground to draw the attention of the nearby monster.
The narrative has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.
I manage to draw the attention of another two centipedes and one of those large bee looking things.
The bee immediately swoops in to try and damage me, but thanks to giant slayer I am twice as fast as I was before.
Now with 210 AGI, I am way faster than they could ever hope to hit.
‘Haa, this is going to take me a while isn’t it’
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Somewhere around what felt like an hour later, I finally got the notification I was waiting for.
*Skill acquired - Total speed: Boosts AGI by 2x. Increasing INT, STR, and VIT cost 3x as many points*
“Ah yes, very nice, very useful, not like I was planning on increasing those stats with points anyway, so for me this skill has no downsides.”
Using my now 4x speed, I stab the large bee out of the air beside me, swing it off onto the ground, and pierce it again, killing it.
I then do a revolving slash around me, hitting both of the centipedes, killing one and leaving the other one on low health, which I then quickly finish off with a thrust from my spear.
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You have reached level 6
+10 stat points
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‘I guess the centipedes were enough to bring me well into level 3, with the bee, which seemed much higher level than the centipedes, was enough to get me to 6.’
“Nice, time to do some more grinding and exploring”
While I’ve been traveling through the forest, I’ve been searching for any clues to dungeons like the poison dragon’s lair and the Sea Leviathan’s cavern. I really need to find a unique series item set because they seem absolutely busted. But unluckily, I haven’t quite found anything yet.
So, while I search this forest for any clues, I’ll do some grinding. I hope to be able to reach at least level 10 before I log off today.
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After basically killing my way through this forest , I managed to collect a lot of enemy drops along with managing to reach level 8, and surprisingly getting Spear Mastery II.
I’d always heard that the spear was the easiest weapon to learn, and the hardest one to master, so I assume the early grades of spear mastery will be easy to get, and the later grades much harder.
That's fine though, I was never one to back down from a challenge.
Buuuuut, I think I found just the thing I was looking for.
I was walking through the forest, looking for things to kill. When I started noticing the grass and other flora around me turning darker.
Not like light level wise, but the area around me was genuinely getting more black.
It was honestly pretty cool looking as I got further in.
When I got to the very darkest part, what I assume to be the center, there was a clearing, about 20 meters across, and in it I saw something very strange.
“What the fuck is that”
In the center of the clearing was a Gelatinous Mass, Darker than the starless night sky.
The name tag above its head dubbed it.
-Concentrated Deep Slime-
“A slime, are you kidding me?!”
As I stare in shock at this slime, it ripples and propels itself high into the air, presumably trying to squish me from above.
But since I’m now battling, My AGI has doubled, and with my base stats and skills all added up, I’m sitting at a shocking 480 AGI.
I'm so fast now I could probably run across and back the entirety of the clearing twice before it touches down on the ground, so I easily avoid its attempt to crush me.
After it lands on the ground, I use my spear to take a couple probing jabs at it, but they don't seem to do anything to harm it.
‘Okay, maybe it's got some kind of core, like a golem’
I dodge around some sort of pseudopod it sends out to try and smack me, and take another stab at it, this time trusting deeper and swirling it around to try to find anything of a different consistency, but fail to find anything.
After that I disengage to get some distance and see if I can think things through.
‘Hmm, maybe I need to hack enough away that it just eventually dies?’
So I rush to it from across the clearing to get up close and personal with the slime. Circling around it, I continuously slash at the slime, trying to gradually shave off bits of its goo.
I try for several minutes, hoping for something to happen, but nothing does.
So I disengage once more, for another think sesh.
‘I don’t think I’m supposed to be here yet, this is probably one of the later parts of a quest, and has some sort of item that allows me to actually hurt that thing.’
‘But it is not yet time to give up, as I have one more idea, one more plan, one that always seemed to work for a certain someone.’
‘Maple’s secret technique: consume thine enemy’
Now, I didn’t want to resort to this, but it seems now I have no other option.
So once more, I get close to the slime, strafing past all of the attack its sends sends out, and then I start,
Taking bites out of it.
Surprisingly, it tastes like red bean paste.
‘I guess Maple had a point in eating the monsters, they do actually taste good.’
After a couple bites, I notice the slime’s health dropping, which I guess means that this is working.
“Om, nom”
I feel so stupid
But after around 30 minutes, the slime finally perished.
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You have reached level 13
+10 stat points
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‘Phew, that took quite a while’
I’m glad that worked though.
I would have had to give up and try again later if that didn’t work.
*Skill acquired - Deep Slime Eater: Grants access to sub skill
Sub skill- Deep Slime threads: Creates controllable threads made of deep slime*
“Huh. Neat. I can think of some uses for that already.”
Not sure why, but it seems that eating some enemies to get skills is just something that works for everyone.
‘I don’t want a large mess of miscellaneous skills that I won't use cluttering up my status page, so I won't do that too often. I’ll leave the consumption of enemies to Maple.’
The Deep slime also dropped 5 vials of “Concentrated Deep”, and a small piece of bone.
*Carved Bone - Looks vaguely like a key*
“Okay, I guess this is the quest item then. I probably need to find someone who can tell me where it goes, if it is a key. I remember the town having a graveyard, so I think I’ll start with the grave keeper, he might know something.”
I take a look at the progress I've made thus far.
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Status
Flak
LV. 13
Stats
HP 12/12
MP 12/12
[ STR- 0 < +20 > ]
[ VIT- 0 ]
[ AGI- 130 (260) ]
[ DEX- 0 ]
[ INT- 0 ]
Equipment
Head [--]
Body [ Townsfolk shirt ]
Right Hand [ Beginner’s spear ]
Left Hand [ Beginner’s spear ]
Legs [ Townsfolk pants ]
Shoes [--]
Accessories [--]
Skills
Active- Deep Slime Eater - Deep slime threads
Passive- Giant slaying, Spear Mastery II, Total Speed
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"Lookin good"
Guess I’ve got a grave keeper to visit then.