Daniel searched through his cabinet looking for a meal. He found instant noodles and decided it would be his meal. Besides eating and sleeping, Daniel spent all of his time in Emperor Saga. He barely got out of his home, had no job, no life and doing nothing beside playing games, practically he is a NEET.

Its been a month and a half since he decide to become a pro gamer. But his current savings would only hold for another month. To make things worst, some random player forced him to take an impossible quest and that quest made him used all of his character’s fortune. Practically, he’s broke both in real life and in game.

***********************

Its been two months since Chrono arrived at Mountain of the Fallen God. In those month, he didn't gained neither level nor money. He barely passed the foot of the mountain by hiding and using the "fake death" skill. Assuming he’s lucky and doesn't die, he will reach the secret warehouse in another four months which is a huge waste of time. Not to mention if he died, he would need to start over by forming another expedition group.

In those two months, Chrono faced hell. Even with a slight touch from the monster in this area, Chrono will die. Mistake is not an option. His task got harder due to one particular skill which merchants naturally had

Merchant Secret : Enable you to carry 3 times more item

Its not a bad bonus since merchants need to carry a lot more things then a regular class. But this skill came with one horrible penalty.

I Merchant Secret : Enable you to carry 3 times more item

Penalty : - 50% speed

The penalty alone denied merchants all over the world the right to fight. And these penalties made escaping a lot harder for merchants then for any other class. That's why merchants had many skills such as 'fake death' to compensate for their slow speed.

In those two months, Chrono managed to master his 'fake death' skill and gained three more skills related to 'fake death'.

By mastering 'fake death' skill, you gain 'cheat death' skill.

By constant hiding , walking in stealth and using 'fake death' skill for a month, you gain 'walking death' skill.

If you stumble upon this tale on Amazon, it's taken without the author's consent. Report it.

Avoiding death in unfavorable situation for two month considered as luck, now you gain 'merchant luck' skill.

Cheat Death : Instead of dying, fatal attack will reduce your HP to 1.

Walking Death (Level 1 0%) : Your presence is like a corpse, no one will notice you (20 mana per second)

Merchant Luck : Never underestimated a merchant luck. Have 1 out of 1000 chance to trigger

The skill 'walking dead' helped a lot in Chrono’s advancement. He managed to find hiding places faster and monsters didn't notice him instantly like before. Cheat death seemed useful but Chrono didn't try it yet since his current situation wasn't appropriate. Merchant’s luck relied solely on luck, Chrono paid no mind to the skill.

********************

"Fake Death!"

When he used the 'fake death' skill, sometimes the monster didn't go away. Instead, they loitered around Chrono’s "corpse" indefinitely. In this situation, Chrono needed to patiently wait for the monster to go away. Cancelling the 'fake death' skill or even logging out meant certain death.

"(This time its longer then usual)"

Chrono’s two month repetitive routine slowly tired him out. He may actually abandon the quest altogether if he died and needed to start again. He gambled a lot on this one quest since his entire fortune was invested in this quest’s success. When Chrono was in deep thought, suddenly.

Fwish!! zap! zap! BANG!

All the monsters around Chrono got slaughtered by a single user. The user killed those monsters without break a sweat. Amazed, Chrono cancelled his 'fake death' and got up from lying down. The user actually thought Chrono was a corpse and he tried to get Chrono’s loot.

-"Huh? You're not dead?"

"Yeah, I used the skill "fake death."

- "Damn, I can't believe I actually saved a person. Ok then, take care."

"Wait! Please help me reach the mountain’s summit."

- "What? You want to reach the summit? There's a dragon there you know.

"But I need to reach it, my quest needs me to."

Chrono explained everything to Seth and he tried to persuade Seth to help him. Seth’s jaw dropped when he listened to Chrono because he thought it was absurd for a level 50 merchant to try to accomplish a level B difficulty quest and climbing the Mountain of the Fallen God at that.

-"Hmm...Warehouse that equals the Emperor’s... It's kind of interesting."

"Would you help me then?"

- "Our destination is the same anyway. You can follow me if you want to, just don't be a burden."

Chrono held his tear of joy back and followed Seth.

************************

While following Seth, Chrono realized Seth’s skill and level were a lot higher then any normal player. After following Seth for a few week, Chrono deduced Seth’s class was the hidden class called 'Soul Necromancer'. Basically, his class enabled him to absorb souls to replenish his vitality, REPLACE souls into a golem to fight for him and use souls to attack and defend against enemies. Soul attacks ignored armor’s defence thus make it very powerful. And soul defend can slow and nullify holy attacks.

But soul necromancer has one weakness, that is they need souls around them to unleash their skills. Seth’s artifact can trap souls, but Chrono can only guess how hard it is to raise the Soul Necromancer class. Chrono’s blacksmithing and clothing skills helped him to take care of Seth’s weapon and armor. Since Seth’s equipment was full of artifacts, Chrono took extra caution.

They both advanced with an amazing speed thanks to Seth’s extraordinary fighting skill. Before reaching the summit of the mountain, Seth had a conversation with Chrono.

- "Last time I hunted the Ancient Dragon, I died and dropped an artifact called "soul orb". If I kill it, I may get the artifact back. When I start fighting it and distract its attention, you should run to the warehouse’s door and complete your quest."

"How can you kill it since you died last time and your level dropped?"

- "Last time, I almost killed that beast. With its regeneration, I'm sure his hp only a bit more then halved."

In Chrono’s mind, he plan on something. And that something is a lot more insane then anything he'd ever done.

************