The app just finished installing on my phone. I opened it up to a minimalist home screen with a black background.

A video started playing without prompt. It was similar to another popular app at the moment that featured short videos.

The video that just began playing on my phone was recorded using Eclipse’s first person perspective in-game recording software.

*Swoosh*

A fireball streaked past the recorder’s face. He was in combat with a young mage with a panicked look on his face.

“I was just trying to farm boars here… why attack me?”

The mage looked desperate to survive.

The recording man sneered and spoke.

“Just consider yourself unlucky to run into the Steel Guild.”

I hit my forehead with the palm of my hand and groaned. No wonder his voice sounded so familiar—this was Steel Slice’s point of view. Not surprising at all that he was an early adopter of Death Tube. After all, why just bully new players when you could bully them, then post the video on the internet so other people could laugh at their misfortune?

Steel Slice cackled and swung down with his axe, splitting the mage’s head in half in a gory mess. Before long, the outline of the mage began to fade.

“Not enough idiots around these parts anymore, huh?”

The video looped back to the beginning.

I grit my teeth. That mother fucker was still at it. At this point with the amount of PKing he'd done, he probably couldn't enter any towns or cities anywhere near him, but the son of a bitch was rich enough in real life to just throw cash at his henchmen and make them ferry whatever supplies he needed from nearby cities.

Judging by how quickly he killed the innocent player, his level was at least as high as mine. I needed to get stronger, and at the very least match his rate of growth.

I scrolled through some more Dead Tube videos to scout for player killing intel. From what I could tell, the majority of players were fighting haphazardly. That wasn’t something that would change—players would get somewhat better over time, but then again most players just weren't cut out for the brutally realistic PvP in this game.

Warriors held a distinctive advantage at the moment. With straightforward abilities, good bulk, and hard hitting melee weapons, warriors won most duels. They were also the most common class so far.

From what I could see so far, mages were by far the weakest class in a small scale PvP setting. They were squishy, required a long time to cast spells, were mana gated, and performed better as an immobile AOE dps role. I could tell already that the value of mages would increase as large raids and wars broke out, but for now they were noticeably weaker.

Thieves could actually hold their own very well in PvP, and were similar to warriors. Their higher mobility made up for their lower bulk, and [Backstab] was a devastating high damage skill.

I noticed that not a single player was using abilities outside their original class. A warrior that could use thief abilities would be nigh unstoppable, for example, but the extreme penalties incurred when using abilities from other classes made it infeasible for a normal player to capitalize on the option.

Let's use myself as an example. If my magic resistance stat was not ludicrously high, I wouldn’t be able to use Thunderbolt without killing myself with recoil. As far as I could tell, I was the only person who was using non-base class abilities.

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Then again, my base class was strange to begin with. I had virtually nonexistent physical stats besides dexterity, so it wasn’t like I could use thief abilities like [Backstab] even if I had access to that ability.

That’s why I needed to develop my own fighting style. Copying other players' fighting styles wasn't a viable option for me, since my stats were unique, leaning exclusively towards magic and dexterity.

Plus, I had an ability that was comparable to thieves’ [Backstab].

[Heart Ripper]. My trump card.

———

After taking a nice hot bath, I logged onto Eclipse for the day and headed into the outer city of the capital, where merchants and guilds had their stalls and headquarters. I earned a fair sum of gold from killing goblins and orcs during the battle of Mountain, and wanted to upgrade my gear before my next destination.

“Be careful not to use [Love Whip] in the city~”

Meat Shield was on my shoulder as usual.

“That’s right,” I said while perusing an accessory shop. “How did the demons know in the first place that I used demon magic?”

“They have eyes and ears in the capital city. Demons are sensitive to the smell of demonic magic, so the second you use it, you’re advertising your location to all the demon spies in the city. It’s better if you use it outside the city.”

“I see.”

After browsing multiple stores, I ended up purchasing some basic items and an entire stash of health and mana potions.

[Iron Sword]

A normal iron sword.

Common

Item rank: E

[Iron Platebody Set]

A full set of unadorned iron armor, containing [Iron Chest Plate], [Iron Plate Legs], and an [Iron Full Helmet]. Medium heavy armor fit for a swordsman.

Uncommon

+70 Physical Defense

+70 Vitality

Set bonus: +5 nobility, +10 Physical Defense, +10 Vitality

Item rank: D

[Black gloves]

A pair of long black gloves. For cosmetic purposes only.

Common

Item rank: F

[Oaktree Longbow]

A longbow fashioned out of an oak tree, created in the style of the elves.

Uncommon

Item rank: D

I leaned back and admired my new purchases.

A full set of iron armor would give me a considerable amount of physical resistances, so I wouldn’t be within two shot kill range of warriors under my level anymore. I took the gamble that my incredibly high dexterity would counteract the weakness of full plate armor, which was low mobility.

For the black gloves… actually I only needed the right handed one. It was just to match my [Dimension Gauntlet] on my left hand.

Having to unequip [Sorcerer’s Forgotten Dark Robes] stung a bit, since I missed out on the +20 magic resistance, but I really needed to stop relying so heavily on [Thunderbolt] now that I had [Heart Ripper].

And that’s why I bought the [Oaktree Longbow] and arrows. I needed a long range weapon to use when I didn’t want to endanger my health with [Thunderbolt] recoil.

As for the sword… let’s just say we’re keeping up appearances. Not like I could ever use a sword well with my abysmal strength stat.

“How do I look?”

I asked Meat Shield to evaluate my new getup.

“A knight in cheap armor~”

“…”

“This armor wasn’t that cheap…”

“Nya~”

After hearing less than affirming words from my dear useless cat, it was time to check out what quests and raids were currently being offered at the tavern.

—————

The tavern was right next to a bustling grand slave market, where both non-humans and humans were shackled for display. Surprisingly, all the human slaves were male. I asked Meat Shield if she had any insight on that.

“It’s human law. You can’t own human children, females, or nobles as slaves, with a few exceptions. And human sexual slavery is prohibited.”

“Those restrictions don’t apply to non-humans, so you can imagine how things go. Actually, elf slaves are so valuable that a male elf costs the same as an earldom. Only a dozen or so transactions for male elves have ever been made, and they were bid for in a highly secured auction house with hundreds of guards. There has never been a successful capture and sale of a female elf.”

“That's wild.”

I decided to take a spin through the slave market. It was as majestic as it was decrepit, with an unoccupied wooden auction stage in the middle, and rows upon rows of cages, shackles, and posts. Slave merchants peddled their wares, hired mercenary guards stood by their side, and royal guards and soldiers patrolled the rows keeping the customers in order.

The vast majority of the displays were goblins, kobolds, and human men. Then there were orcs, beast girls, a lamia species, several dwarves, and a siren, to name just a few of the exotic species on display.

The prices on the more exotic species were exorbitantly high, in stark contrast to the average goblin, which could be bought for just a few silvers. There was a long line of customers for the lamia beastgirl. People passing by threw the lined up customers dirty looks. Just by looking at her, it was clear that a customer had to have particularly strong taste to like a beastgirl that was far more beast than human.

A certain display caught my eye. It was a human male, with one distinction that made him different from every other slave at the market. The color of his name indicated that he was a player. I squeezed past several cages, coming face to face with a familiar disheveled man with red hair.

…

“Books?”