Chapter 8 : Dancing with the Skeletons (1) (2/2)

At that moment, the Beginner’s Inn’s NPC owner spoke to Hyrkan.

“Good work. It’s nothing big, but here’s some beer for your troubles. Drink it.”

[You completed the tutorial magnificently. You received a 1000cc Melon Beer as your reward.]

As a woman’s pleasing voice flowed into his ear, the NPC gave Hyrkan a glass of beer. It was better described as a jug, which Hyrkan chose to chug down his throat.

“Kya!”

‘Haven’t had this in a while!’

As the beer flowed down his throat, its melon scent and special sweetness cleared Hyrkan’s throat while making his mouth fresh.

‘Come to think of it, the last time I drank a melon beer was… it was before I fought with those Stormhunter fuckers, so it’s been years, huh?’

The melon beer was a delicacy one could only taste in the VR world. It was made in partnership with the number one VR gourmet content creator, Beautiful Taste. Warlord’s gourmet content was as popular as its battle content, since never before seen flavor could be created in VR worlds.

“Kaa!”

After chugging down the 1000cc beer, Hyrkan stepped out of the Beginner’s Inn without a hint of hesitation, and bright sunlight greeted him.

‘I’m back!’

The Hero Slaughterer Hyrkan, has come back to Warlord.

★★★

[Hyrkan] -Level 1

-Class: Beginner

-Title Count: 1

-Stats: Strength (3) / Stamina (3) / Intelligence (3) / Magic (3)

Hyrkan stared at the note-sized hologram above his watch.

Staring at his status window, he felt conflicted.

These four weren’t the only stats. If one researched deeper, one would find many more detailed stats. There were over ten different kinds of attribute resistances, physical and magical defenses, bonus movement speeds, and much more… It goes without saying that Warlord players, especially rankers, enjoyed having lots of numbers. If they got their numbers high enough, they felt happy just looking at them.

Of course, Hyrkan was no different.

But looking at the abysmal numbers in front of his eyes, his stomach felt empty.

‘I have a lot of grinding to do…’

His first task was to fill up his status window with numbers.

However, he had something to do before then.

‘Alright, time to go get my class.’

It was obtaining his class.

It wasn’t hard.

Warlord was a hard game with a complicated battle system. If the battle preparation was hard as well, then no one would play the game.

Because of this, battle preparation was exceedingly easy compared to the actual battle.

Class selection was a prime example.

Most games had a complicated class selection process. They required players to reach a certain level, run long pre-requisite quests, or make you travel far away.

But in Warlord, there was a Class Tower about 10 minutes away from the Beginner’s Inn. Swordsman, priest, and magician were the three classes over 90% of Warlord players chose. They didn’t care too much as their play style varied significantly depending on how they developed their skill tree.

The necromancer Hyrkan wanted was a magician.

‘Become a magician and choose dark magic as my first magic.’

When players chose the magician class, they were given a choice.

Black magic or white magic.

If one chose black magic, he became a black magician. If a black magician went down the necromancer skill tree, he would be called a necromancer.

At the same time, level 1 players could learn a magic or a skill after selecting their class. In other words, one could use magic starting from level 1.

The game didn’t irritate players by making them do annoying quests before going into battle. The game creators knew players would go crazy by themselves once they got into fights.

‘What should I choose?’

There were many options to choose from after choosing black magic.

Most chose an attack type magic. Players chose the magician class for that purpose and level 1 attack type magic was still useful later in the game.

The problem was that players had to raise low-level skill’s rank to prepare for high-level skills later on in the game. It was annoying to grind low-level skill ranks when one became higher level, as it was annoying and time-consuming. The best way to raise a skill’s rank was repeatedly using the skill against monsters near the player’s level.

Advancing in both skill rank and player level.

It was the best method of raising skill ranks.

‘Summon Skeleton.’

The most basic of the necromancer skill tree was the Summon Skeleton skill.

If one’s Summon Skeleton skill rank was low, he wouldn’t be able to learn higher-tier skills.

The answer was obvious.

‘I wonder how well these skeletons can satisfy me.’