00014 [Part 1] [The Wretched Mage] ------------------------------------------------------------------------=
"Well. Of all the people I know, there's no one who uses potions, let alone makes them. I don't use them in combat either because they're inconvenient."
"Yeah, that's true."
Last looked around at the other places. However, he couldn't find any potion exceeding 15%. In the end, he had to spend all the money he had on 15% recovery potions.
"Then now that we've bought all the potions, let's go hunting!"
"Yeah, let's."
Last took out a beginner's dagger from his inventory. It was a sword shaped like a fruit knife. Having grown accustomed to using a longsword all this time, he wasn't used to its weight. It felt as if he were holding a feather.
So this is what I used to wield as a beginner.
Now that he looked at it, swinging it seemed dangerous too. There was no hilt, and the blade and handle were not easily distinguishable. Its length made it seem less like a dagger and more like a fruit knife, so it was questionable whether he could properly kill even a single rabbit.
Maybe I should have just bought a sword.
Honestly, Last had plenty of gaming experience, so he didn't need to use potions against low-level monsters. It was purely a preventive measure to ensure no unexpected accidents befell a beginner with weak defense.
Well, whatever. He was going to do this once and quit anyway.
"But is it okay if you don't change your class?"
"I spent all my money buying potions, so I'll think about it slowly later."
"I'll give you some!"
"It's fine. I want to take my time thinking about it."
"Okay…."
If there was one charm of C.M, it was that the number of jobs had still not been accurately tallied. It was said that within the continent, as conflicts and peaces occurred between nations, new jobs were born every day, and just as many unpopular jobs disappeared. Thus, the jobs of players were truly diverse. Among them, jobs that only an extreme minority could obtain through special conditions were sometimes called hidden classes. It was said that above them existed a job called god class, but during the time he had played, he had never once seen it, so it remained only a rumor.
Of course, as jobs increased, players divided them broadly into two types: production jobs and combat jobs. The former included blacksmith, painter, bard, chef, alchemist, and merchant as representative jobs. In combat jobs, they branched into several types depending on the party, but were basically divided into four: damage dealer, tanker, supporter, and all-rounder.
When choosing a job, players considered their disposition, position in the party, purpose for playing the game, and visited the guild for that job. It varied by guild, but one could change classes by paying an admission fee of 3 silver coins.
He was going to quit after today, so what need was there for a class change….
Whether unaware of his thoughts or not, Aran was smiling somewhat happily until they exited the village gate. When they had met before, she had seemed like the type to match the atmosphere rather than lead it, but this time she was the one leading it.
"Then, oppa, I'll send you a party request."
[Would you like to join 'Aran's party?]
"Yes."
Last accepted the party request Aran sent.
"You mustn't get close to the monsters, oppa. Since your level is low, you might get taken out in one hit."
"Yeah, yeah."
Monsters though they were, they were merely rabbits grazing on grass, oblivious to the death that would soon befall them. Last sat on the fence with a listless expression and watched her hunt.
She didn't even need to use skills. When Aran loosed an arrow, the rabbit died instantly from merely being grazed. Generally, rabbits were level 2. She, who had surpassed level 40, was a so-called level bully at this hunting ground.
"How is it? Is the experience coming in?"
"No, it's not."
At Aran's question, Last opened his status window to check. Not a single point of experience had come in. His level was still 1.
"Huh?"
"Hmm…. I think it's because the level difference is too severe."
Last had never experienced it before, but he had never heard of a so-called bus rider being unable to level up because no experience came in. In this game's system, if two people in a party had a severe level difference, and the experience gained from a defeated monster was extremely low, all of that experience went to the person who defeated the monster. In other words, it was a measure to prevent taking shortcuts to level up.
"Ugh…. Then what should we do?"
"There's probably no way other than defeating monsters with high experience and high levels."
"The relatively strong monsters around here are wolves and bears; shall we hunt them?"
"They're only level 8 and level 10 at best; wouldn't it be inefficient?"
"Then let's go deeper and defeat goblins!"
"Goblins are over level 20…. The question is, can you fight while protecting a level 1?"
"Ugh…."
Fighting goblins while protecting a level 1 was obvious suicide. Last might be able to endure by dodging attacks, but even so, it would be exceedingly dangerous.
This will be over quickly.
Actually, it wasn't that there was no method. Rather than hunting, they just needed to focus on quests. Even if there was no experience from the monsters themselves, the kill count still applied. If they accepted quests to collect monster materials or exterminate monsters, they could obtain experience as a reward.
However, Aran seemed too flustered by the unexpected situation to think of switching to quests. Last didn't tell her on purpose because she hadn't asked, and because he wanted to end things quickly.
"What should we do…."
Taking advantage of the gap while she ultimately failed to reach a conclusion, he said,
"It can't be helped. Let's party hunt next time. Do it with me later after I've raised my level."
"Ugh…."
He subtly conveyed a suggestion to part ways here while promising the vague future of "next time." She tried to think of a solution somehow, but when no good idea came to mind, she ended up accepting his words.
"…Then let's meet next time, oppa. Make sure to contact me."
"Yeah, yeah."
I'm sorry to you, but I'm planning to quit the game just like this.
"Logout."
Aran shouted the game command in a dejected voice. Soon, she became particles of light and disappeared before his eyes.
"Then I should now too…."
Having seen her off, he too intended to logout and leave the game world.
Suddenly, looking at the sword in his hand, he felt somewhat reluctant to leave. The thought that he might as well do a bit more since he'd already started made his body move forward.
He leaped lightly over the fence and approached a rabbit grazing on grass. When a large shadow appeared behind it, the rabbit startled and revealed an attack stance. An ordinary rabbit would have run away, but the rabbit before him was a monster, a Rabbit, so it charged straight at him.
Last took the Rabbit's attack and checked his depleted health gauge. It was an attack that was neither painful nor itchy, but one-third of his health had vanished. He created distance, drank a potion, and slowly dug into the Rabbit's openings.
A bit difficult.
It was hard to get the feel of it. Having used a longsword and now using a dagger, his body's balance was off. The Rabbit used its wits and seized that moment to attack.
"Hah, hah…. To think I'd be like this because of a single rabbit…."
Three minutes into his desperate battle with the Rabbit. Both of their health had fallen by half, making it an evenly matched fight, but he had been unable to land a critical hit.
*Grin.*
The Rabbit smiled. It smiled. Unbelievably, it smiled. Then it flew up until it was above his head and launched a kick.
"What the—!"
Last was flustered, but by now he was somewhat used to the Rabbit's movements and to handling the sword. He slightly shifted direction to evade the attack, then aimed for the moment the Rabbit landed on the ground and stabbed his sword into its back from behind. Having been hit in a vital point, the Rabbit died.
"Whew…."
It had been a difficult opponent. The sight of him, who had effortlessly felled boss monsters exceeding level 90, struggling against a level 2 Rabbit was laughable from a certain perspective. He laughed loudly to his heart's content and felt the sense of achievement from felling a monster after struggling against it for the first time in a long while.
"It's fun."
The sensation of felling a monster. The time spent thinking about how to attack the monster. The time spent feeling the weapon as if it were his own arm. All of it felt fun. Looking back, he had played games to feel this.
"Shall I do a bit more before I go?" Last got up from his spot, gathered the loot obtained from the rabbit, and set out to hunt again. Though he had said "just a bit," before he knew it, his level had already reached 5 while he was enthusiastically hunting.
In his possession, he had gathered 3 silver coins, enough to change his class.
---------------------------= Afterword ---------------------------=
Don't try to predict it, I told you not to predict it...