It was the first time he was using magic since he had been used to swinging a blade, but it still felt strangely familiar to Alex.
Was it because of the years of experience? Or because his SSS talent helped him out?
And talking about his talent, would it activate after he killed the monster or during battle?
So many questions, so little answers, and so all he could do was fight to see.
Fwish!
Fireball!
He waved his staff in the rat's direction, and a fireball shot out, perfectly hitting the demonized rat.
-17 (10 damage for fireball + 100% spirit damage which is 7 right now)
The rat let out a high-pitched scream as it was engulfed in flames, its body twitching before finally getting up and charging at the human.
"Strike!" the demonized rat was way faster than Alex, but thankfully enough, the 3-second cooldown passed quickly and he sent yet another fireball at it.
Boom!
-17!
He repeated that once more and so the 'Demonized Rat' fell to his spell, burning to ashes as its 40 health points dropped to 0.
"..."
[Killed level 1 Demonized Rat, gained 10 experience points.]
The leveling in this game was horrible as well, or more like, extremely difficult, taking 10 of those things most people struggled against to level up once.
Alex was pretty much the only one that managed to kill a demonized rat alone, all the others struggling to swing their weapons or even cast their spells, missing them even at point blank.
[Please choose something to extract from this monster.]
But this time, something unusual happened: a new panel appeared before him.
[Rusty Sword (Common)
Black Rat Helmet (Common)
Beginner Backpack (Common)]
All these things are items, and ones that you would usually have a hard time dropping from such beginner mobs!
And yet, now that he had the SSS-Level [Extraction] talent, Alex could choose.
He couldn't see the description of the items, but the 'common' beside their names should be an indicative, right? Meaning they weren't that rare.
[Please choose to extract, or close the panel to choose nothing.]
Alex clicked on the backpack option since it was the most obvious to pick.
Ding!
[Beginner Backpack (Common) has been selected!]
And suddenly, a light appeared above the demonized rat's body.
"Holy!"
Plus, as the rules stated, this is a game that affects reality, so if there is an opportunity to improve, people won't miss it.
Facing the crazy players, Alex felt a little numb.
Especially the women who were running around.
He took a look and found that some of them were really good-looking.
But these girls were only trying to make a mess of his pure mind (not so pure)!
He had completed his quest, so all he wanted to do was leave now, he struggled to squeeze out of the encirclement then shouted: "Don't worry, if there is a lot of equipment, I'll try to take it to the village and set up a stall!"
After saying that, Alex ran toward the east entrance of the village.
He wasn't planning to form a team for the time being, as it was useless in the beginning stages.
Many people though did form guilds: there were organizations in the game that people could join and compete against others.
The [Guild Ranking] was one of the main perks, as the top guilds were featured and thus gained more popularity both inside and outside the game.
Right now though, there weren't this many guilds, only three people figuring out how to create one.
[Guilds Ranking:]
[Top 1: Overlord Guild
Top 2: Striker Guild
Top 3: Shadow Blade Guild]
But this wasn't the only ranking the world of Universal Descent had in store.
They weren't revealed yet to the public as it only happened one week after the game was launched, meaning when the [Novice Assessment] was finished, but for now he simply needed to keep going.
...
"Thank you so much for your help, you aren't as bad as I thought you were," the elder beside the entrance sighed.
Ding!
[You have completed the quest: The Beginning of it All, and your reputation among the villagers has increased by 50.]
This meant that he was now able to discuss with some of the villagers and even access the [Alchemy] and [Items] shop.
Usually, you would need to upgrade your reputation to the max to be able to talk to the [Village Chief] and receive the quest that would allow you to leave, as well as some information about secret quests, but Alex already knew everything so he just did that to leave quickly.
And he also knew of the S-Level secret quest that was hidden in the forest around the novice village.
But first of all, Alex headed toward the [Alchemy Shop].
[Novice Village Reputation: 50/100]
"Oh, hello, player," the silver-skinned alchemist greeted Alex as if they had known each other for months.
"Hey, do you need help with anything?" Alex wanted potions as he could now store them in his [Beginner Backpack], and so this was the best solution to both level up and increase his equipment.
"Now that you say it..." the alchemist mumbled, "I need a few [Blood Rabbit's] fur to make a potion... if you bring some to me I'll exchange it to you for other goods."
[You have triggered the E-Level novice village quest: Alchemist Ingredients. Bring 5 "Blood Rabbit Fur" in exchange for some potions and +25 reputation.]
He was now ready to move to the next area: the forest.