Killing zombies is easy, the sidearm strikes faster than they do, and they're slow and sluggish.
They're still at an advantage when six spawns, using the same principle that the gankers. Swarm, flank, overwhelm.
To some degree, the bandits do that too, though they were faster from the start.
The most important thing is to avoid getting surrounded, whether they are weak or strong.
Attacking mobs from behind, and taking half of them out before they land the first hit works great.
They lose their critical mass and no longer pose a threat when no skeleton archers support them.
And the armor and guard help a great deal. It bugs me how the character died to them on the first encounter.
True to its name, even if it was an accident.
The remaining three zombies go down before they can land a hit.
This might be the first time the HP bar is higher after a fight than at the start.
The tactical snack before it began was a great idea.
With their crystals secure in the inventory, let's head back to the previous spawn point.
Does it count as an exploit? It might be if the devs intended the players to wolf down their food and move on.
There is no progress bar, so you can take as small bites as you want, and drag out the dinner ad infinitum.
With that, gain a faster HP recovery rate forever.
Too bad, I figured this out late, when a few bites remained, although the food was about to get spoiled anyway.
It shouldn't matter while the monsters don't cause injuries.
And that double recovery rate isn't a lifesaver, the potions must have a ten or hundredfold effect.
The next spawn has two zombies and two archers.
The skeletons have decent perception, unlike their skinned and meaty counterparts. They shoot from a distance, alerting the others.
It's much more difficult to sneak up on them, so the shield's handy.
An arrow gets stuck in it, while most breaks or bounces off.
There's a glancing hit on the armor before reaching the first line, then they block the back row.
One stab in the chest and an undead go down as usual. The second won't do any better either.
His nails broke on the shield and I almost feel bad for it.
If you ever had a nail broken backward, you wouldn't wish that on your worst enemies.
Could zombies feel pain, or any NPC like players do? Can AI feel pain?
[You killed a Zombie +30 Exp.]
While it's better at stabbing, the dagger works for cutting skeletons' heads off too.
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Their spine is visible so it's not difficult to aim for it, and the steel blade won't sustain damage from their bones.
How much would this weapon be worth on the market?
Well, who knows how much the training sword costs since Tank gave them free.
He even broke one during the mock duel and motioned to pick another.
God, why is it so hard to concentrate on the present? Is it because grinding is boring?
[You killed a Skeleton +30 Exp.]
A few more arrows, bones, crystals, and still nothing on the minimap's counter.
Let's hope there won't be more of this mindless killing once the fed's quest succeeds.
Doing it for a day it's already as boring as spending the night in the guard room.
Right, a room to guard valuables. Near the spawn point would be ideal, but somewhere out of the way so other players won't find it.
The avatar should though. This poses an issue, as knowing myself, not even a flag post could help locate something.
Why is it so difficult to make something obvious, yet hidden?
From the center of the spawn point, let's face away from the village, and take fifty steps.
A burned tree stands in the forest to the left and a boulder to the right.
The trees already hide the monster spawn, and no traces or trails are visible in the moonlight.
A small hole at that boulder should be enough to hold a few items, and the system allows digging with bare hands.
Of course, the starting equipment had a shovel, lost to the zombies before ever trying it. Was it to dig such stashes for the newbies?
"Let's see. The locked items and the better bow, most of the arrows..."
The inventory was filling up more than expected.
The skeletons dropped so many arrows it might be worth selling them, and the training bow can retire.
Let's leave a hundred copper too, for emergencies.
It takes a few stones to hide the hole and leaves to make it less obvious.
It's fifty steps from the easternmost spawn of the village, even an idiot should be able to find it later.
And let's hope that others won't stumble on it by accident.
The sun rises once everything's done which is great news.
Falling into the trap of finding something at night and not during the day would be embarrassing.
Selena's greetings await in the Guild in five minutes.
This is how long it takes on the direct route to the village.
The gankers still follow with their eyes, but nothing's worth looting here.
I'll appraise them after reaching the tenth level to find out if there ever was.
There are three tasks to finish and to gain Selena's praise for collecting crystals.
"Here is your first silver coin, Noob."
She smiles and including the stash, the character has over three hundred coppers.
Apart from that she tells other great news.
"With this, we can recommend you for the F-class adventurer exam. Do you accept?"
"Wait, and exam? You need to take exams after going through all this trouble?"
These complaints make her laugh while dealing with the paperwork.
She has a sound explanation for it. As with everything, it has something to do with cheaters and scammers in this game.
"We had adventurers paying others to solve their contracts, then claim that they did them. It became obvious when they did so many jobs that would have taken a week for a group of adventurers." She notes, leaning closer.
"This caused quite a few deaths too."
"So they claimed to be higher level than what they were worth, and got killed during a tougher errands?"
It sounds logical, but she shakes her head. A chill runs down my spine realizing what she talked about.
"Y-you mean they killed the eyewitnesses?"
"That too, and they wouldn't stop these practices until we introduced these trials. You don't have to worry, they are similar in difficulty to the jobs you have done." Selena claims as she fills out a form.
"Take this to the Training Grounds, and Tank will know what to do."
"Oh, he's the one doing the exam?"
How are you supposed to take these once reaching the tenth level? The training grounds are off-limits to characters with their first class.
Yet, it's wrong again, reading from her expression.
Why can't she explain everything without guessing?
"The exam will be here in an hour. We made a bet between us, and he lost, so be an angel and rub it in his face."
She laughs, showing the form she filled. The paper might look official, but not her writing. Halfway in I start to chuckle too.
"Be sure to come back until that."