Leo materialized in the beginner location Leomar Town. He could see hundreds of lights appearing around him and players quickly materializing by the second. Some began to look around in wonder while others quickly left the town and began killing monsters in the vast grassland right outside the town.

Leo noticed that he did not have any weapons in his inventory. He had 10 copper, the basic clothing and 10x [Scrap Metal], 5x [Copper Dust] and 1x [Copper Quill]. He was confused for a few seconds but realized that he’s probably meant to make his own weapon. Leo accessed his menu an entered creation mode.

A white light appeared and he suddenly appeared in a white room. The room only had a workbench and a single chair at the center. Leo walked up to the workbench and saw a parchment with some vague writing on it.

The parchment explained how to access the creation menu and very briefly what he can do with it. Leo followed the instructions and watched as a holographic projection appeared in front of him with a menu filled with different categories of weapon and equipment.

Leo took particular notice of the category called ‘Custom’ under the material section. Does that mean he can create his own types of material? Leo became more and more excited by the second.

He quickly began creating his first weapon. Leo chose to make it a short spear and would pair it with a shield later. This would allow him to have great offensive power while also having the defensive capabilities of the shield.

Leo used 10x [Metal Scrap] to make up the spear’s body. The spear was very simple in appearance with a jet-black color and fully metallic. Leo then used 5x [Copper Dust] to increase the spear’s quality. He ended the session by using the Copper Quill to draw a single enchantment before the quill dried out. Leo had very few enchantments to pick from and chose to add a small amount of extra attack power.

He then confirmed the creation and chose for it to be bound to his character. Leo had learned from the parchment that bound items will not have an upper-level limit and he can upgrade it after getting better materials.

System: Generating weapon … Binding to [Zero] … Weapon completed!

System: Base: 14P, Quality: 9P, Enchantment: 10P. Overall score: 33P

[Faithful Spear (Copper Quality)]

Level: 0 (0 / 100)

Restrictions: Bound to [Zero]

Item category: Main-weapon

Attribute requirements: None

Attack power: 4-6 + (2-3)

Durability: 25 / 25

Leo looked at the spear with mixed feelings. He swung it around a few times and instantly felt like he was swinging a Legendary spear. Leo’s face lit up in excitement. Having a weapon be this compatible with him would allow him to perform at a much higher level. This was the first time he had experienced such a strong connection to a weapon except for his previous Legendary spear.

With only 10 copper to his name, there’s no way he can buy equipment to deconstruct for materials. The only way is to fight monsters in the field. Leo contacted Alex and had him met up at the town’s exit.

It took 15 minutes for both of them to meet up. Although they ran directly to the town’s gate, the sheer size of the town made it take this long. Leo invited Alex to his party and they both began walking towards the open fields.

“Where do you want to go?”

“I’m thinking we can start in Rainfall Forest and go from there.”

“Start in a level 5 zone? Well, I guess with your skill that should work out.”

The two of them walked past the beginner zone and eventually entered Rainfall Forest. As a level 5 zone, the levels of monsters ranged from 3-7. In Ekalius Online, every 5 level indicates an upgrade. This holds true for monsters, players and gear.

Leo spotted the first monster since entering the zone and quickly prepared to attack it.

Wild Boar (Common)

Level 3

Health: 100

“Wait for me to control it’s threat level then attack from range.”

Leo dashed towards the boar and stab it with his spear right in its neck. The boar let out a painful cry at being attacked, it’s eyes filling with burning rage.

-13

The boar quickly retaliated and swung its tusks towards Leo in a maddening rage. Leo elegantly dodged its attacks and used his spear once more to strike at its neck.

-14

-6

Alex hit the boar with an arrow and quickly prepared to launch a follow-up attack. He didn’t have the skill to hit the boar in a specific region of its body and relied on the guided system for projectiles.

The boar ignored Alex and dashed towards Leo once more. Its feet left imprints on the soft ground as it launched its body towards Leo in a desperate attempt at destroying its enemy. Its efforts were useless as Leo constantly avoided its attempts at a counter-attack. The boar fell to the ground and became experience points for Leo and Alex.

System: Young Boar defeated! Awarding 4 EXP!

“That was anticlimactic don’t you think? What kind of godly weapon do you use?”

“It’s not that good. This is all skill.”

Leo walked up to the boar and checked for any drops. The boar dropped 3 copper and a level 2 Copper Quality sword. Leo looked at the sword and thought about how many materials he could get for deconstructing it.

“Do you mind if I take the sword? You can get the 3 copper.”

“You do you. I’m also curious to see how this creation class of yours turns out. Just promise me you’ll make me a weapon too! And one for my future wife.”

“Alright, I’ll make you a weapon. And for your future wives.”

“Harem?”

“Divorce.”

“Harsh. But anyway, we split the money 50/50. As long as I can’t use the equipment you’ll get it to test out your class. Call it an investment.”

Leo deconstructed the sword and was left with a few materials.

System: Deconstructing [Simple Sword (Copper Quality] has yielded 4x [Scrap Metal] and 1x [Copper Dust].

They continued hunting Young Boars for about 20 minutes before Alex leveled up. It didn’t take long to kill the boars, but they still haven’t found a place where they spawn in large groups. Leo had also gained a total of 22x [Scrap Metal] and 8x [Copper Dust]. They had not yet gained any equipment Alex could use.

“What’s the best way to allocate my points? Strength for more attack power, maybe?”

“You could, but I suggest spending most of it on dexterity instead. It will help you keep up with the monsters’ speed more easily. It’s also good for getting out more basic attacks per second.”

“Isn’t basic attacks just for now? Once we get skills, will we still use them?”

“Skills are good and all but basic attacks are still important later on.”

“Okay, I trust you. Dexterity and some strength it is then.”

Leo and Alex continued to hunt Young Boars until they found a new target. In front of them, about 100m away was a large Wild Boar Elite. Leo quickly ran towards it with Alex closely behind, both of them showing smiles on their faces in anticipation of their first Elite encounter.

Wild Boar (Elite)

Level: 3

Health: 900

Leo stabbed the boar with his spear, perfectly hitting its right eye. The boar let out a cry and charged towards him. An arrow flew through the air and hit it in its right eye. The boar stumbled slightly and cried out in pain.

-10

-12

Leo simply moved slightly to the side and hit in the back of its neck.

-17!

The boar tried its best to hit him but Leo would always move away just in time. This type of low-level monster was nothing to him. It had no way to learn from its mistakes and the boar quickly lost its life. Leo was slightly disappointed by how easy it was. He was still used to fighting high-level monsters with countless skills and varied attack patterns. The simple attack pattern and lack of any meaningful skills from these low-level monsters were nothing to him.

System: Wild Boar (Elite) defeated! Awarding 38 EXP!

Leo walked up to the Elite and collected the loot. This time, they actually got something useful.

[Spear Thrust Skill Book (common)]

Class restriction: Lancer

Cast time: 0.5 seconds

Cooldown: 4 seconds

Cost: 3 rage

Description: Thrust your spear dealing physical damage equal to 70% of attack power, 3x in quick succession.

Leo took the skill book and instantly learned the skill. The boar also dropped two pieces of equipment which Leo quickly turned into 5x [Scrap Metal] and 3x [Copper Dust].

Alex and Leo continued hunting in the zone for 8 hours before heading back to town. Alex managed to level up to 6 and Leo got to level 4. Leo allocated his attribute points into 8 STR, 8 DEX, 5 VIT, and 3 RES. He wanted to make a damage build while still having some survivability. Most of his tank related attributes would come from a shield and armor.

Leo wasted 100 EXP on upgrading his spear only to find that its attack power rose by a scant 1. He decided to wait until he could upgrade the spear with better materials. Right now, he got more attack power from his attributes and wasting experience on the spear would be unwise.

“I’m gonna add the materials to the spear and create some armor. Do you want to just wait here or walk around the town for a bit? I don’t think it will take long.”

“I’ll just walk around the area. There are so many beauties here. How can I deny them the chance of looking at this lovable face?”

“Hah, just don’t get arrested while I’m gone.”

“You think too lowly of me. I’m a man with a heart of gold. I would never hurt a woman … intentionally.”

Leo shook his head and left Alex to his own devices. He opened up the creation space once more and sat down in the chair. He had a total of 145 pieces of [Scrap Metal] and 74 pieces of [Copper Dust]. He had figured out that the amount he gets from deconstructing depended on the level of the equipment. It’s also not a standard amount but within a range.

Leo began by selecting his spear and adding 50 more [Scrap Metal] and 30 [Copper Dust]. He had to manually select the areas and decided to add more weight to the spear-head for greater power. The size of the spearhead did not change but the added materials served to make it sturdier and more compact. He used 20 [Copper Dust] on the spearhead and the rest on where he normally holds the spear. This should increase the quality of the spearhead while still having the spear balanced and easy to use. Leo feared that adding too much weight to the spearhead would make it difficult to use.

He inspected the spear closely and finally hit the confirm button, officially beginning the rebalancing.

System: Upgrading weapon… Weapon completed!

System: Base: 102P, Quality: 68P, Enchantment: 10P. Overall score: 180P

[Faithful Spear (Copper Quality)]

Level: 1 (0 / 200)

Restrictions: Bound to [Zero]

Item category: Main-weapon

Attribute requirements: 4 STR, 2 DEX

Attack power: 13-18 + (2-3)

Durability: 35 / 35

Attributes:

STR +3

DEX +1

Leo looked at the spear’s stats with a gleeful expression. It had become so much more powerful after adding more materials to it. He noticed that the Quality rating didn’t change. He speculated that this was due to [Copper Dust] being too low quality to upgrade a piece of equipment to Bronze Quality.

With the weapon completed, for now, Leo began to create his armor. He was pleasantly surprised by the fact that he could create a full armor set directly. This would save him a lot of trouble about when to upgrade certain parts and what to do if the upgrade fails.

A complete set contained armor for his head, torso, legs, waist, feet, hands, and shoulders. The work of creating the equipment was still the same, but the chance of getting a good result was significantly increased by combining them into a set before creation. It would also make it easier to allocate EXP, although this was more for the quality of life aspect.

Leo began by designing the armor for his torso as this would serve as the basis for the entire set’s color scheme and style. He settled on a grayish black as the main color scheme.

He designed the armor to be thin and sculptured it to fit his body. The chestplate looked like a tight-fitting long sleeve t-shirt and not like a protective gear at all. Leo began to add the plating to the t-shirt and it quickly transformed into a slick metal chestplate, fitting of being called an armor.

He then made parts of it red and added ornamental metal in the form of various shapes in order to make the chestplate look more appealing. He would use these as canvases for his enchanting when he gets another quill.

Leo proceeded to create the armor for the legs and head. The gear was sturdy while also being easy to move in. He looked at the gear with a smile. The different parts came together nicely, creating a natural look.

The black perfectly highlighted the red and the ornamentals on the armor which gave off a dignified aura. It was thin enough that you would be hard pressed to believe it’s made of metal, but not quite so thin as to be mistaken as cloth or leather armor.

Leo was satisfied with the outcome and began to create the rest of the set. The set came together perfectly and Leo felt satisfied with its look. He used 95 pieces of [Scrap Metal] and 44 pieces of [Copper Dust] for the entire set. He knew that this was too little to make it powerful, but it should be enough until he can get his hands on more equipment to deconstruct.

Leo entered the materials tab and began to design his own unique material to use on the armor. He made the head, torso, and legs out of a new armor type similar to plate armor, but lighter which made him able to avoid the movement penalty of plate armor. This reduced the defense moderately, but Leo considered the added mobility to more than compensate for it.

He adjusted the physical defense down slightly and increased the magical defense slightly. Most magic attacks land on several parts of the body so he did not need to offer too much physical defense to still feel relatively safe from magic.

Leo looked over the details and once more hit the confirm button.

System: Creating armor set… Binding to [Zero] … Armor set completed.

System: Base: 67P, Quality: 35P. Overall score: 102P

[Armor of Destiny (Copper Quality)]

Level 0 (0 / 100)

Restrictions: Bound to [Zero]

Item category: Armor set

Attribute requirements: 4 STR, 2 VIT

Defense: 16

Magical defense: 12

Durability: 75 / 75

Attributes:

VIT +2

RES +2

Health +5

Leo looked at the armor with an agreeing nod. It was good enough to use for now, but he couldn’t wait to upgrade it further. He still needed to make a shield to finish his gear. Leo suddenly had a thought. Would it be possible to make a magic shield? That would allow him to have his spear give him high physical dps while the shield could provide intelligence and piety to allow him to use powerful magic. Leo grinned at the possibility. This would truly make him a jack of all trades, but that fitted him perfectly. He could use all these elements to make up for his shortcomings.

A tank with healing abilities, physical and magical damage. He would practically be able to fight any opponent. If they have physical resistance, he’ll just use magic. If they have high burst damage, he’ll reduce it with a tank skill and heal himself before counter-attacking.

Leo entered the blueprint mode and searched around for a while. After 5 minutes of going through a complicated interface with more options than one would ever need, he finally found it. It was a simple function called ‘transform object x to object y’.

Leo quickly opened the function and created two blueprints. One was a shield imbued with magical properties while the other was an attachment to his spear, also imbued with magic. After designing the two objects, Leo used the function and combined them together. He then pressed the ‘simulate’ button and saw the shield transform into a semi-long stick. Leo grinned from ear to ear at the result. He would still need to physically make it to be sure, but this should allow him to take on the role of a tank when needed and quickly switch to pure dps when it’s not.

The only problem still standing is skill books. Due to the limit of 50 skill books per character, he can’t just add every skill he comes across. He even had 75 skill slots, 15 more than anyone else and it still wouldn’t be enough. Most players prioritize passive skills to increase their overall power and active skills to complement the passives. This quickly fills up the skill slots.

Leo would eventually have to go out of his way to collect rare and higher quality skill books to compensate for his playstyle. His lips curled into a smile and his eyes narrowed slightly at the thought. How long had he not searched for a suitable class in Garius Online? What’s spending a few years finding top tier skill books to complement his class?

Leo exited his creation space after spending around 30 minutes on everything. He contacted Alex and they quickly met up again.

“Trade me.”

“Okay?”

Alex traded over a total of 148 pieces of equipment of Copper Quality and a level ranging from 0 to 2. Leo understood what this meant and wanted to say something but Alex interrupted him.

“This is from me, okay? It’s to make my bow. You do not owe anything to our Guild. Besides, the more you learn about your class and the creation process, the easier it is to commission equipment from you, haha.”

“Still, this is far more than I need to create your bow. I have already confirmed that I need higher quality gear to upgrade the quality rank.”

“That’s fine. I will need to have you constantly upgrade it after all. Consider the rest payment for the work. And don’t worry. Our Guild won’t miss such bad gear anyway.”

Leo let out a sigh and nodded at Alex’s remark. It’s not like a gigantic corporation like Reed’s Clothing struggle to get equipment for their Guild. Leo once more entered his creation space and began by deconstructing all the equipment. He got a total of 258x [Scrap Metal] and 152x [Copper Dust].

Although there didn’t seem to be a max limit to the number of materials he could add, he doubted it would do any good. Leo decided to make Alex’s bow with 100x [Scrap Metal] and 70x [Copper Dust]. He could use this to test how much of a difference adding more materials would make.

Leo designed the bow to be made of wood and colored it to be slightly golden. He figured it would fit Alex’s taste quite well. Leo distributed the materials and choose to bind the bow to Alex. After looking it over, he once more pressed the confirm button and watched the bow turn into reality.

System: Creating weapon … Binding weapon to [Ace] … Weapon completed!

System: Base: 129P, Quality: 82P. Overall score: 211P

[Fool’s Longbow (Copper Quality)]

Level 0 (0 / 100)

Restrictions: Bound to [Ace]

Item category: Main-weapon

Attribute requirements: 4 STR, 3 DEX

Attack power: 16-20

Durability: 40 / 40

Attributes:

STR +2

DEX +3

Leo looked at the bow and let out a sigh. This was enough to confirm that adding more materials will make the base stats higher, but the amount reduces drastically the closer it gets to the hidden material cap. There’s no denying that the bow is powerful for its Quality rating, but needing EXP also balances that power somewhat.

Leo used the rest of the materials to make his shield/attachment combo. He designed the shield to be square in shape but lighter than ordinary shields. The size was also reduced quite a bit as he wanted to use it in PVP situations. The ordinary shield [Knights] use is just too large and heavy for his playstyle.

He added the switch function and confirmed the creation. His eyes shone brightly with hope that it would turn out like he wanted.

System: Creating shield … Processing functions … Binding to [Zero] ... Shield completed!

System: Base: 134P, Quality: 88P, Functionality: 102P. Overall score: 324P.

[Tricky Magic Shield (Copper Quality)]

Level 0 (0 / 100)

Restrictions: Bound to [Zero]

Item category: Secondary weapon

Attribute requirements: 3 STR, 2 DEX

Durability: 40 / 40

Shield mode:

Defense 22

Magic defense 24

Attributes

+2 VIT

+3 RES

+5 Health

Attachment mode:

Attack power: 2-5

Spell power: 18-24

Attributes

INT +5

PIT +5

Mana +5

Leo jumped slightly in joy from seeing the finished product. It had worked out exactly how he wanted and he could not have wished for anything more. He especially noted that the shield had a functionality score. Leo had no way to know if that had a specific impact on the shields’ stats, but he expected to find out more as the game progressed.

Leo exited his creation space and handed the bow over to Alex. He could clearly see that Alex was happy about the quality given the poor raw materials and enjoyed the color scheme.

“Fool’s Longbow? Seriously?”

“I’m not the one making the names.”

Alex looked at Leo with dubious eyes but resigned himself to fate. He upgraded the bow by adding experience and quickly fell from level 6 back to 5. He managed to get his bow to level 4 but still needed 900 EXP to level it up again.

Leo also upgraded his weapon to level 4. He transformed his shield to the attachment mode and connected it to his spear. The two of them then headed to Tuliun Forest in order to try out the first dungeon Wasted Mines. The dungeon had a recommended level of 3-7 and was considered to be a tutorial dungeon.

As more and more players joined the game, the hunting spots quickly became occupied. Dungeons offered a way to gain experience while not having to fight with others for it. The dungeons generally have good drops from the bosses, but a player would overall gain more equipment from hunting in the fields. This is the game’s way of balancing fast experience vs good gear.

Leo and Alex quickly made their way to the dungeon entrance. The area was filled with players looking to form parties. This lively atmosphere stood in deep contrast to the dead trees and withered grass making up the surrounding area. He could hear players constantly shouting.

[Unimportant Player #1] “Recruiting 1 healer and 1 main-tank for our party!”

[Unimportant Player #2] “Need 1 healer for our party, we have a great main-tank and DPS, dungeon clear guaranteed!”

[Dave] “DPS with 25 attack power looking for party! Please don’t ignore me. I’m so lonely. So very lonely.”

Although Alex was in the Guild Moonlight, he still chose to not ask any of the members to join them. This was his way of showing Leo that them playing together had nothing to do with the Guild unless Leo wanted it to. Leo felt happy to have a friend like Alex. He knew Alex better than anyone and although he’s a blatant womanizer on the outside, he’s actually very calculating and thoughtful on the inside.

“Look Leo! There are so many beautiful women here! Let’s show them our strength and make a party.”

And he’s back to normal. Leo could only let out a sigh and shake his head. He wanted to respond but was interrupted by another player. In front of him was a short girl in full plate armor. She had a gigantic shield in her left hand and a short sword in her right hand. Leo let out a low laugh at the humorous gap between her height and the size of her armor. Even Alex who stood right next to him didn’t hear his laugh, but the girl somehow did.

“Y-y-you laughed at me! How can you be so rude to a beauty like me?”

Leo wanted to respond but was quickly interrupted by a tall man in leather armor.

“That’s a weird way to pronounce brute.”

“Who are you calling a brute?!”

The man turned his gaze towards Alex and Leo then said “Don’t mind our short tempered party leader. Haha.”

“Who are you calling short?!”

The girl flew into a rage and began hitting the leather-armored man with her tiny fists. Leo had no idea what was going on and turned towards Alex for help only to see him practically kneeling on the ground from laughter.

Leo had no idea what to do but luckily didn’t need to do anything at all. A third player walked up to the two of them and hit their heads. He then bowed slightly and apologized to Leo and Alex.

“I’m terribly sorry about their behavior. I can assure you that they’re normally more well behaved.”

“Ah, no it’s fine. If anything, I should apologize for my friend’s inappropriate behavior.”

“Wow there! That was funny, you can’t blame me for laughing.”

Leo and Alex introduced themselves and the five of them decided to make a party for the dungeon. The little girl named [Lily] was the main-tank with her role of Knight. Although her appearance and behavior said otherwise, she’s supposedly 24-years-old. The leather armored man was [Hawk] and played a Ranger. The last one was [Lightbringer] and he played the Priest role.

They overall had a decently balanced party. The dungeon was fairly straight forward but it still held enough of a challenge that most players hadn’t even gotten through [Normal Mode] yet. Leo expected this to change quickly when players became more accustomed to the game’s combat system.

Lily initiated the dungeon and the five of them were transported into the dungeon on Normal Mode.