Chapter 2

Chapter 2

Originally, he was just a regular young worker with no extraordinary skills or achievements. His only hobby was gaming, particularly single-player RPGs. He stayed away from online games to avoid feeling the gap between him and those with more money and talent. This led him to often visit gaming community websites.

While he liked watching videos and reading strategy articles by experienced gamers, what often attracted him were illegal download links for pirated games. He knew it was wrong, but his low income made it easy for him to justify it.

So, clicking on a post titled “Rare Game DLC, Full Mod Package, First Come First Serve” was nothing out of the ordinary for him at the time.

[Aquilonia. A semi-open-world dark fantasy, rife with betrayal, corruption, rebellion, and conspiracy.]

The description piqued his interest, and the screenshots looked promising. However, it was a game no longer sold due to the developer's issues. The post was deleted just after he downloaded the link. Proud to be among the first, he immediately launched the game and planned to spend the entire weekend on it.

In Aquilonia, players could choose from five classes: Knight, Barbarian, Mage, Scout, and Acolyte. The installation tip mentioned that in special situations, such as boss fights, players could receive assistance from other user characters registered on the server. However, the server connection failed to work, likely because the game was a pirated copy or the server had been shut down.

Either way, he knew he had to tackle everything alone. So, he chose the Mage, a ranged dealer and the most straightforward choice for beginners. The character's unique traits were Intuition and Concentration. He set the difficulty at medium and went with the default appearance and a random name. His character, Ian Hope, was thus created.

...I should have looked up the strategy first. Ian sighed. It was too late for regrets now. Back then, he was too focused on the game to even think of that.

Aquilonia was a pretty impressive game overall. The graphics were a bit outdated but had a unique atmosphere. The combat was engaging, based on a diverse skill tree. Being a semi-open world, players had to complete certain quests to move to the next area, but the game wasn't overly tedious thanks to the high level of freedom, subquests, and skippable cutscenes. He particularly liked the many choices that led to dark, gloomy endings, fitting for a dark fantasy.

However, the game was not easy. Items had no class restrictions but required certain stats to wear, often with random options. Compared to the extensive skill tree, skill points were scarce. Boss fights and named mobs were especially challenging. He selected skills and attributes as needed, progressing through the game.

The difficulty really ramped up in chapter four. Even regular monsters had become tough to handle, and a bit of level grinding did not make much of a difference. He ended up searching for strategy guides and found a detailed one by an experienced player. It was long, so he read only what he needed. Slowly, he realized how difficult his situation was.

The first issue was his unique traits. Intuition and Concentration weren't very helpful for a character that fought from a distance. Instead, Elemental Affinity, Magical Bloodline, Insight, Parallel Thinking, or even Luck and Reflexes would have been more beneficial. His character lagged behind other mages of the same level in terms of abilities, especially in Intelligence and Mental Fortitude.

This was a trade-off for investing more in Strength, Agility, and Stamina, necessary for solo encounters. To overcome these deficiencies, he had to rely on control and overwhelming firepower.

Skill allocation followed the same principle. Focusing on a single attribute rather than spreading thin across many was key, so he had to learn only the essential arcane and common skills. Skill points were precious, especially given his lack of magical power and financial resources. This often meant confronting bosses with extreme resistances, which ideally would have been countered by item farming and reducing the enemy's resistance.

However, the most critical issue was his choices in quests and decisions. He had missed or skipped too many essential side quests that provided extra stat and skill points. Worse, by deliberately choosing the worst options, he had caused too many key characters who should have been his allies to die or turn corrupt. In short, Ian Hope was a failed character, with no apparent way to reverse it.

Fortunately, there was still time left before the weekend ended. He decided to start over, this time using a guide and choosing an easier profession. However, he faced a dilemma as there was only one character slot available, and opening another required a payment he couldn't afford. Reluctantly, he chose to delete his character.

That was when the error message appeared.

[Deletion has been denied.]

Denied, not just impossible? While he was stunned by this message, more pop-up windows followed.

[The ◆◇??s are watching you.]

[The ◆◇??s wishes for the end of the world.]

[The ◆◇??s....]

The last thing he remembered was the monitor flashing blindingly.

*

When he regained consciousness, he found himself lying in the middle of a strange swamp, with the tutorial quest screen from the game's beginning in front of him.

"...!" Startled by a noise, Ian's eyes snapped open and he instinctively grabbed the sword leaning against the bathtub, pointing it at the intruder.

"Ah...!" A muffled scream escaped her. The maid, carrying a bucket of water, had lost her grip on it from surprise. The water splashed onto her legs, and hot steam rose.

"I, I was just going to change the water...." Her voice trembled as the blade hovered near her throat.

‘Ah, it's because I’m naked.’

He had adapted a bit too well to this dark age.

"Don't get any weird ideas," said Ian.

"Me? What do you mean?" The maid shivered, taken aback.

"Exactly what I said. Don't let your imagination run wild,” Ian added calmly.

In this world, she might be considered an adult, but to him, the freckle-faced maid seemed too young. Maybe fifteen, sixteen at most? Feeling anything more than paternal affection toward such a young girl was a crime in itself.

"I... I didn't think about anything,” said the maid.

She was a terrible liar. It made sense, though. Having seen only toothless drunks reeking of alcohol, a well-built body like his must be a novelty to her. He looked down at his own body. Even though he was a mage, thanks to his Strength and Stamina stats, he had well-defined muscles. A six-pack, clear as chocolate bars, something he never had in reality.

His Intelligence and Mental Fortitude had also improved. He was faster and thought more multi-dimensionally than before. Even with his character's poor stat distribution, he was quite strong. If he had allocated his stats properly, he might have been like an enlightened sage.

"Hey, the water's going to overflow.” Ian finally raised his hand.

The maid, who seemed ready to add another bucket of water, reluctantly stood up.

"Should I boil more water?" she hesitantly asked.

"The water's enough. Prepare some food. I'll leave in an hour,” said Ian.

"And after that...?" the maid asked.

After that, what? Ian thought.

"Nothing. Leave,” Ian firmly spoke.

His firm dismissal made the maid pout as she turned around, but she didn't forget to leave a defiant look in her eyes.

"Ha....” As Ian chuckled, the rowdy voices of the drunks filled his ears again.

Perhaps it would've been better to ask the maid to keep talking instead of this noise. Ian closed his eyes, and submerged up to his chin in the bathtub, activating his level three Meditation skill. Originally, this arcane skill was supposed to be capped at level one.

***

The next day, Ian led the innkeeper and a few village youths back to the kobold stronghold, accompanied by a wagon.

"What a mess... Did you pour oil and set it on fire or something?" the innkeeper asked.

The stronghold still bore the scars of last night's devastation. Charred bodies and ashes, remnants of half-burnt fences and huts.

"How many are there? Were they planning to start a nation?"

"Anyway, the lord probably doesn't care. Too busy with war preparations.”

"The lord and vigilante. Tch, spit. Thinking about it again, it feels refreshing. They got what they deserved, those bandits.”

"Should've trampled on their corpses instead of just spitting on them."

The chatter of the village youths quieted down as Ian turned to look at them. Having witnessed the scene Ian had created, they looked at him with a mix of awe and fear.

"As I said, your job is simple,” Ian continued in a calm tone. "Search every corner and gather anything useful."