Chapter 19: Mad Grinding

He spent the following days roaming around the neighborhood, clearing it from monsters and scavenging resources. His strength was now sufficient even if he met a large number of monsters in a group, as they were mostly low-level. But after a while, the cleared areas' monsters were replaced by their stronger level versions.

On the eighth day, he had regularly encountered level 4 zombies and level 6 Skeleton Thugs. In the case of zombies, they now tended to move in a group of five or six. It made them more difficult to deal with, but at the same time, it also provided better experience points.

On the tenth day, level 6 zombies had been commonly accompanied by level 7 Skeleton Thugs. The higher-level monsters also had a better drop rate in terms of coins, while for equipment drop it was still the same shitty rate.

He had been doing constant grinding all this time without much thought. It got boring at times even though the fight was real and the danger of death was there. But since he had been fighting the same type of monsters, he practically memorized all their moves.

He wondered why there were only these two undead-type monsters roaming around. Not that he wished to encounter another Elite Skeleton Captain again. Even though with his stats now, he should be able to make short work on the Captain, considering if it was still the same level 6 Skeleton Captain.

On the fifteenth day, he had reached level 9 for his Fighter class and level 8 for Magician. He had also collected 53 copper coins which increased his collection to 70 coins. His scavenging had netted him several cooking ingredients and also 3 iron ores. He used one of the ores to increase his Blade of Haste to level 7 and restored its durability at the same time.

For his armor, he didn't plan to upgrade it anymore. Its durability was still high since he didn't get hit as much as he used to. The Zombies and Skeleton Thugs rarely managed to graze him now despite their increased level. He had also gotten two equipment drop from his grinding. A Leather Vest, a light armor for chest piece, and Leather Pants. He equipped the Leather Pants and stored the Vest.

He had gotten a new skill when his Magician reached level 5.

Energy Bolts, level 1/20 (Active skill, range, require magic weapon)

Create 3 homing magic bolts that deals 80% magic damage for each bolt

Range: 15 meters

Mana consumed: 20

Cooldown: 60 seconds

This skill allowed him to hit three different enemies at the same time, or blast one enemy three times. Overall, it was stronger than Mana Bullet, but also consumed more MP and had longer cooldown. With its multi-strike ability, it sped up his grinding speed greatly, so he decided to level up this skill by two levels.

Energy Bolts, level 3/20 (Active skill, range, require magic weapon)

Create 3 homing magic bolts that deal 88% magic damage for each bolt

Range: 15 meters

Mana consumed: 20

Cooldown: 60 seconds

After another day filled with continuous battles, he went back to Rick's Workshop and started to seriously think about what he should do. He couldn't go on spending his entire life killing monsters like this. It was time again to start to find out what was really going on with this world.

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He laid on his bed and thought about all that had happened. He shifted through his memories and thought about possible clues. This had all started on the day he was going to the Beta test opening for Second World game. Everything then went downhill from there.

At first, he thought the Trigitech branch Corporation building was the place where it all started, but not all people at the venue were affected, only him and the person who got killed by Zombies. Other people like Bill were in the other parts of the city when it happened, so the source was not certain to be from the Second World beta test venue.

But then again, the game rule that governed this world now was very much the same as the ones he read from the Second World beta guide. It had some similarities of course with other VR RPG games, but the classes and skill specs were spots on as were written inside the Second World beta guide. If someone said that there was no connection between what had happened to the city with Second World game, no one would have believed it.

There was also another thing that came to his attention after he thought back, something that Bill had said. He said he had heard a loud ringing when it all started, which Jack had heard as well, but he didn't know anything about bright flash.

One of the reasons he could think of was because Bill was far away from what had caused this phenomenon. So only the aftereffect in the form of sound had reached him. Since he saw the bright flash, then it was possible that he was near the epicenter of the cause.

After thinking for some time, he made a decision. Once he reached level 10, he would go back to Trigitech Branch Corporation building in the central district. There was a high chance that whatever was inside that building could be the cause of the changes that had been happening. If there was any clue to what had happened, it should be there.

With that resolution, he was determined to increase his monster grinding pace.

It took him another two days and he finally reached level 10 for his Fighter class. He received another new skill from this level up.

Natural Body Recovery, level 1 (Passive skill)

Recover 5 HP every 10 seconds when out of combat

A recovery passive skill, he was elated. This skill would help him save on his consumables. As long as he rested between fights, he would not need to eat healing consumable to recover.

He went back to Rick's workshop early that day to prepare. He had found another two iron ores that day. He decided to use three out of the four he had to upgrade his sword again. When the sword reached level 8, the success rate to level it up again was reduced to 95%, and when it was level 9 it was 90%. Luckily no failure happened on those two tries, bringing it to level 10. Its damage point was now 50.

He also spent the time distributing his free attribute points and free skill points. He used 10 out of his 14 available free attribute points and added them all to Dexterity. This particular stat had been lacking behind as both Fighter and Magician classes did not focus on Dexterity. Since he had two classes, his Strength and Intelligence had trumped standard Players, there was no need to increase his strength, it was better if he reduced his weakness which was his speed.

For his free skill points, he decided to add two levels to Power Strike, two to Parry, and one to Swing, which brought them up to level 3, 5, and 2 respectively. Then for his Magical spells, he added one to Magic Shield and two to Energy Bolts, bringing them up to level 3 and 5.

When the Energy Bolts crossed level 4, it added another magic bolt for every cast, allowing him to shoot four magic bolts at four different targets. He reserved 3 free skill points of each class for future use.

Afterward, he had an early rest. When he woke up, he cooked two dishes of Egg Fried Rice. He ate one, and then put the other one in a small container for food. He didn't know if this game-effect food would rot if without refrigeration or would stay fresh. He would find that out when he reached the Trigitech Branch Corporation building.

He checked the workshop to make sure nothing was left behind, he might not be coming back to this place again. Too bad he couldn't bring the workbench. He had tried before, he couldn't put it into his storage bag. At least he had the mobile anvil and the apprentice hammer. Despite their reduced success rate, he could simply use it to perform repair.

With everything set, he set out to the place where it all started. He had planned out a route, which was a different one from the ones that had taken him here. Just in case if he could find some other Players along the way, someone a bit less like Ogre and Mouse, and a bit more like Bill. And hope that this time that someone would stay alive longer.

It couldn't be that he was cursed to be alone in this forsaken world, right? He could only hope.

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