After hearing the story about my ancestors and accepting the quest from GranGran. I quickly rushed out before some other event triggers a side quest. I’ll go after side quests when I hit a wall doing the main story. That’s my standard procedure when I used to play role-playing games.

At least now, I knew why this place was hard. Apparently, there’s a high-level monster roaming around here, probably somewhere a bit further away from the village from where I first started in the game, so that beginners would not run into it before they could get to the village.

Healer Gula was level forty-three, her husband would most likely be the same range or higher since he was a warrior. And based on her story, meeting the Lord Mirdabon sounded like sure death. So, about level seventy? Yeah, that's instant death for me if I met a level seventy monster. 

The developers probably thought it was funny to place tons of level one monsters outside the village and make beginners think that leveling would be easy as fuck then fuck them up when they search for higher level monsters and wander some distance from the village.

Little Pony was still outside, waiting for me. “Still violet name, huh,” I said. It seemed that there was more to this introductory line of quests. This was probably going to be a chain quest. 

“I’m going to show you around the village.” Little Pony said. “Next, we’re going to the place of the village master hunter, Shara. He’s pretty excited that there is a new person that he could teach hunting.”

“Looks like this introductory questline is going to take a while,” I said. Which wasn’t really surprising, since this game has a quite steep learning curve. I’ll probably need to meet a few more NPCs before moving on to stupid quests for experience points like gathering ten pieces of monster fur or something. 

There’s no reason to skip the main questline. Usually, you’ll receive items to help you along, so I planned in sticking with the storyline unless I saw something that would be helpful to my plan of becoming a tank. 

However, I needed to visit my law office since I’ve been away for three days already. How much time have I spent inside this game? I shrugged my shoulders. I’ll just return later when I finished my work and I have read up on the Mardukryon race and maybe some basic guides.

“Shall we go now?” Little Pony said.

“Ah, wait a bit. A want to try something out,” I said. Maybe I should try killing a couple of monsters before I logged out? I could alternate between killing monsters and questing to level up. Plus, those Mirdabons were right outside the village. The battle system in this game was bound to be interesting.

And who wouldn’t want to spear something? Not me. I want to spear something.

As I walked in around the village I noticed some Mardukryons with above their heads. I bet they were players. I could see the names and levels of NPCs but not this particular Mardukryons. Maybe the name of these players would show after I add them as friends or party with them.

I saw three of them huddled outside a workshop. The workshop had an anvil inside, some hammers, a weapon rack. Most probably the weapons shop or at the least the merchant store where players can sell loot and buy items. Every main village in games was bound to have one. Another thing that indicated that they were players was the mismatched armor they wore. The normal Mardukryon guards or warriors around have leather armor with a recognizable pattern, basically sets of armor

The players, on the other hand, had different parts of their armor looking as if it probably came from different sets. Does armor come exclusively from the shop? Or do monsters drop them as well? This shitty looking village doesn’t look like it would be able to provide high-level armor.

No matter. Gathering armor parts to make a set during low levels was not that easy, and usually, low-level sets don’t have bonuses. You just have to wear the strongest parts you have. What I really wanted was a shield. A spear and a shield-I'll look like heavy cavalry.

I saw a couple more player Mardukryons. One had a colossal battleax strapped to his back and he had a large bulky armor with spikes all over. A high-level player, no doubt. I smirked. The fact that this player was still hanging around the village meant that he still couldn't leave the mountain and get past the guardian, for if he could actually leave then he would be exploring the wide wide world outside rather than stay here. Which would also mean that it was pretty hard to get past whatever fucker was guarding this mountain.

I stepped out of the village. The two Mardukryon guards standing at the gate of the village were both level twenty. I noticed that some of the wood beams making up the walls have inscriptions on them. I asked one of the guards what it was and he answered that it was for warding off monsters.

Little Pony added, “Those runes were carved by the grandfather of the Elder so they’re really, really, really old.”

What Little Pony said seemed to be true. The wood with the carvings on were way older than other beams. “Why don’t they just carve out new ones?”

“Only someone who knows about the runes can carve them. I think the Elder has a book about them but no one knows how to use them. I think they apply some mixture to the wood to make it last long.”

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I kept my mouth shut rather than ask some more questions because I have a feeling that this was going to be another side quest. It was obvious that there was a probably a hidden class or job like rune…carver…something, or a hidden skill involving these runes. If I find more clues about it then I’ll pursue that quest line. For now, I’ll just kill a couple of Mirdabons then go to work. A lot of matters need to be attended to, especially my caseload since I’m going to devote most of my time with JYE corporation.

I took out my spear from my inventory and strode out to the field of fluffy puffballs. They had cute little snouts with long black whiskers wiggling in the snow. Their beady eyes stared stupidly outwards as they rolled and jumped around. These cute little fuckers will have a taste of my rusty blade dealing a mighty five damage! 

“I should activate my passive skill before attacking them,” I mumbled. It would be more efficient if my passive was already up and running when I do get in a fight with a Mirdabon. I’ll prick myself and maximize the stack of my skill, wait for my life to regen while pricking myself to keep up the stack then attack a Mirdabon. When the fight begins, I would already have full stacks of my regeneration passive. I probably didn’t need to do that to fight a fellow level one creature but I wanted to be thorough.

Out of the corner of my eye, some Mardukryons also exited the village. I observed them in my peripheral vision while scratching my head, pretending like I’m confused noobshit. They stopped. The one who was most likely the leader pointed at me and sniggered. He put his arms over the shoulder of his buddy and whispered something, then both of them laughed. 

Making fun of noobs. Understandable. I also think lowly of people who have lesser skill than me. In time, I would be more powerful than them and our positions would be reversed. That was a certainty. There was no need to get agitated when lesser beings celebrate their momentary advantage. Now, how could I benefit from this situation? 

Should I prick my finger here? They would know I'm stacking regeneration. They would know that even though I’m level one I’m not a total noob and that would take away their fun. I would certainly meet them again a few times while playing. Their levels were lower than that battleaxe guy so they would be in the village for a while. 

The leader of the Mardukryon party then turned to another player that was probably female—she had a slender figure compared to the other two and her chest looks like it had boobs rather than moobs. She probably set her character to somewhat look like her in real life. The leader guy was trying to get her in the joke but she had that expression on her face that women have when a man was acting immaturely in front of them.

I weighed my options and decided that my image, for now, should be the hapless noob. They, especially the leader, would be more open to me later on if I play along with this situation and indirectly make him look good. It was obvious that he would be happier if I failed here.

I sighed. Oh well, I guess I should just let a Mirdabon kill me here. I hope that my acting as an absolute turd player would be convincing and they would help me later. The female would probably pity me and the guy wouldn’t miss that opportunity to show off while trying to help me. I'll just need to meet them later.

I stared down at the Mirdabon. It came up to my knees, wiggling about in the snow. "I hope you have some damage, little guy. I need you to kill me. I might need to hit some more Mirdabons so that I would die faster."

Pointing the spear at the Mirdabon, I thrust it forward weakly, hoping that I won't kill it before it killed me. It let out a pathetic squeak that almost made me feel guilty. 

There was an outburst of laughter. I glanced to my side. The leader of the party watching me was laughing his head off. His friend joined him while the female looked concerned. 

There, I thought. Happy now that I couldn't even kill a level one monster?

Instead of moving on and ignoring me, the party kept on staring, as if expecting something. I turned back to the Mirdabons. With one swoop, the field of white furballs bristled and turned red, as if someone set the landscape ablaze. , , . All of them turned red! Their cute pitiful faces turned to the expression Satan would have if you offered him a drink that turned out to be holy water. All the Mirdabons outside the village were looking at me as if I was on the menu, although, I don't think Mirdabons have a menu or that they could read a menu.

"So, it's not the Lord Mirdabon that made playing the Mardukryon race hard," I said with a flat tone. The Mirdabon that I poked stared at me with blood red eyes full of hatred. displayed over its head.

My life flashed before my eyes. Starting from the time the angels sang of my birth. Up to my arrival on earth on a chariot of gold and light. My childhood spent training with mountain lions… Wearing the skin of the hydra that I’ve slain during my teens…

Wait, it’s probably a different life that’s flashing before my eyes.

But it’s close enough to my life.

The raging furballs hurled themselves at me, their mouths frothing, fangs bared, furious eyes piercing through me. I knew my end was coming. I knew that all good things come to an end. I’m a good thing. An awesome, tremendous, splendid thing. And this is my end. A satisfied smile flitted on my face. “I’ve lived a good life...”

The Mirdabons ripped me apart.

Little fuckers.