Leo slowly materialist in Leomar Town a short while after tearing the teleportation scroll. He checked his inventory to see what the golem dropped. His face twisted into that of a child on Christmas eve. Leo first noticed that his 1 gold had increased by 30 silver, a very generous amount indeed.

He pulled up the first item and inspected it with hopeful eyes.

[Ancient Necklace (Silver Quality)]

Level requirement: 10

Class restriction: None

Item category: Necklace

Durability: 50 / 50

Attack power: 10

Spell power: 15

Attributes:

INT +10

PIT +10

STR +5

Leo looked at the necklace with a content expression. It’s not super amazing but it’s better than not having one at all. He quickly moved on to the next item.

[Ancient Blacksmithing Recipes Book (Gold Quality)]

Class restriction: Blacksmith profession

item category: Recipe

Description: Use to learn how to make several types of forgotten weapons and armors.

Leo’s eyes lit up in excitement. A recipe book, as the name suggests, contains multiple recipes. He would only know how many and their power once he actually uses it. This brought up a question Leo had avoided thinking about. Can he learn blacksmithing recipes? His class was technically combat related but he could also make equipment like a normal lifestyle profession player. Leo quickly used the book and found that he could indeed learn the recipes. He let out a relieved sigh at this amazing discovery.

Loot in the game is not completely random. If a solo player continues to kill enough monsters, they’ll eventually get a skill book, a missing armor piece, accessory, etc. This personal modifier constantly ensures that even the most unlucky player still manages to get what they need. Because Leo began the fight on the Ancient Golem and also got the last hit as a solo player, the loot naturally favored his needs. That is not to say that he’ll always get what he wants. A forging recipe dropped by a rock monster is not exactly out of place.

[Ancient Mail Tunic (Iron Quality)]

Level requirement: 13

Class restriction: Raptor, Gladiator, Ranger, Lancer, Thief, Knight

Item category: Torso

Armor type: Mail

Durability: 125 / 125

Defense: 148

Magic defense: 76

Attributes:

STR +12

RES +8

VIT +8

The equipment was certainly not bad but Leo still decided to deconstruct it and use the materials for his spear. His spear was practically capped as close to the upper limit of a Bronze Quality weapon as possible. Even adding 1000x [Bronze Core] would hardly improve it at all. He needed to move on to Iron Quality gear and this piece was a good start to a long journey.

The last item was a pair level 13 Iron Quality boots for cloth users. Leo had no problem throwing them together with the Mail armor and use the materials for his spear. He deconstructed the two equipment into 57x [Iron Core] and 21x [Iron Dust]. Although far more than when he used low-level Copper and Bronze equipment, it would still only scratch the surface of what he needed to reach the upper limit of Iron Quality.

Leo entered his creation space and happily added the materials to his spear. He then gleefully watched the progress bar rise and the result announced.

System: Upgrading Spear … Upgrade failed! 57x [Iron Core] and 21x [Iron Dust] destroyed!

Leo’s face darkened at the system notification. Failed? It could actually fail? Now that he thought about it, obviously it could fail. He should be over the moon that his entire spear didn’t end up destroyed. Can it be destroyed with a failed upgrade? Leo suddenly faced a dilemma. He couldn’t avoid upgrading his gear, but would he have to face the possibility of the entire gear collapsing in his hands?

He thought about how the game system operates but couldn’t come to a definite conclusion. It’s in the gray zone of the system's logic. On one hand, a piece of bound equipment requires a massive amount of equipment from all Quality levels and EXP. On the other hand, the creation is several times better than any other equipment of equal level and quality.

Leo’s creations aren’t the only types of growth items. Epic, Sub-legendary and Legendary equipment all come in two main varieties. One is bound to a specific level and will become useless as the player levels up, while the other level up with the player. The type that levels up can have a specific max level or be completely unrestricted. They also do not rely on experience points to level up, a massive bonus that his creations simply can’t measure up to.

Leo has the advantage of being able to forcefully upgrade his creations while gaining a growth type Epic or higher weapon with unrestricted max level is heavily influenced by luck. He trades luck for slow and steady progress. His creations have the potential to become even more powerful than unrestricted max level Legendary gear, but it will require the sacrifice of several Legendary equipments of high level. He might even have to sacrifice one or two unrestricted Legendary equipment. Not to mention what would happen if he failed.

Leo created two shields with equal amounts of Bronze materials. The first was made with 80x [Bronze Core] and 80x [Bronze Dust] all at once, while the other was upgraded four times with 20 of each resource each time.

The result was absolutely devastating to his already dejected mood. The one with all materials used in one go was nearly 40% better. Leo would have to risk losing a massive amount of materials while upgrading.

He tested upgrading the shields once more but this time used 80x of each resource in one go on both shields. The 40% gap closed to 30%, indicating that it would take far more resources to cap a piece of equipment made in one go compared to one made in sessions.

His skill was becoming more and more complicated. There are so many factors to consider and Leo could only take the slow road and uncover the pattern with time. If there even is a pattern. It wouldn’t be surprising if the game system deliberately added randomness to his creation as a way to limit his success rate.

Leo decided to move on with his plan of entering Ferima City. His creation skill would reveal itself more and more as time passes. Leo looked at his level and decided to transfer some of it to his gear.

Leo quickly went from level 13 all the way back to level 10. His spear, shield, and armor all reached level 10. Leo was left with 35.5% towards level 11. He did a full inspection of all his gear and character information before departing to Ferima City.

[Tricky Magic Shield (Bronze Quality)]

Level 4 (0 / 1,500) → 10 (0 / 12,500)

Restrictions: Bound to [Zero]

Item category: Secondary weapon

Attribute requirements: 7 STR, 5 DEX → 18 STR, 15 DEX

Durability: 50 / 50 → 125 / 125

Shield mode:

Defense 39 → 135

Magic defense 37 → 127

Attributes:

VIT +6 → 15

RES +5 → 11

Health +15 → 45

Attachment mode:

Attack power: 15 - 19 → 67 - 76

Spell power: 31 - 39 → 83 - 95

Attributes:

INT +7 → 15

PIT +5 → 9

Mana +18 → 52

[Faithful Spear (Bronze Quality)]

Level: 6 (0 / 2,900) → 10 (0 / 12,500)

Restrictions: Bound to [Zero]

Item category: Main-weapon

Attribute requirements: 10 STR, 5 DEX → 21 STR, 14 DEX

Attack power: 59 - 72 + (2-3) → 103 - 115 + (2-3)

Durability: 60 / 60 → 85 / 85

Attributes:

STR +9 → 14

DEX +6 → 10

[Armor of Destiny (Bronze Quality)]

Level 4 (0 / 1,500) → 10 (0 / 12,500)

Restrictions: Bound to [Zero]

Item category: Armor set

Attribute requirements: 8 STR, 6 VIT → 19 STR, 12 VIT

Defense: 87 → 239

Magical defense: 62 → 162

Durability: 90 / 90 → 175 / 175

Attributes:

VIT +7 → 16

RES +5 → 11

Health +30 → 75

Special trait:

15% chance to block one attack ever 30 seconds.

His gear had come such a long way in a relatively short amount of time. From here on out, it would only become more difficult. The experience per level drastically increases the further he gets. Leo finished by looking at his character.

Character information

Name: Zero

Race: Human

Class: Creator

Guild: None

Title(s): Knight (Ferima Province)

Note: {number} = When shield is in attachment mode

General stats:

Level 0 (0 / 200) → 10 (8,865 / 25,000)

Health: 10 → 250 {159}

Mana: 12 → 52 {131}

Spirit: 9 → 138

Rage: 9 → 175

Attack power: 9 → 287 - 300 {354 - 376}

Spell power: 9 → 32 {147 - 159}

Main attributes:

Strength (STR): 4 → 78

Intelligence (INT): 4 → 14 {29}

Dexterity (DEX): 4 → 56

Piety (PIT): 4 → 14 {23}

Vitality (VIT): 4 → 50 {35}

Resilience (RES): 4 → 39 {28}

Leo exited his creation space and contacted Alex. He had already transported to Ferima City and began preparations together with his Guild. Leo wanted to upgrade Alex’s bow while he was available. He knew that Alex had been using a level 10 Iron Quality bow while waiting for Leo to finish his leveling.

Leo walked to the teleportation hall and use his one-time free teleport to Ferima City. He would have to pay 10 silver if he wanted to teleport back to Leomar Town. The only thing of worth in the town was the Tilted Anvil and its equipment. This was not enough to make Leo go back. He could get a higher level of Bronze equipment in the city. Even if the price is slightly higher, the number of materials will increase drastically. It's also more convenient.

The teleportation hall lit up with a blue light and Leo’s body transported to Ferima City. He walked directly to the resurrection point and set Ferima City as his respawn location. Leo took a horse carriage towards the city’s center and quickly met up with Alex. He upgraded his bow and Alex quickly went back to his guild. Apparently, they’re busy with discussions about an alliance between Moonlight and Snow’s newly created Guild, [Legacy].

Leo asked Alex about the reason for Rising Embers disbanding but he had no more information than Leo did. So much happened while Leo fought in the mountain range. It’s truly difficult to keep up with everything happening in an MMO.

Leo walked to the Auction House and proceeded to head south. He looked through the various signs hanging outside numerous shops. It took him 20 minutes of aimless walking before he found Flux Crux and could finally complete the first quest in his very long questline.

The smithy consisted of a two-story building with an outdoor courtyard filled with different forging equipment. The first floor was made out of a solid rock foundation while the second floor was made with a wooden framework. Leo prepared to enter the smithy but was stopped when he heard a voice coming from behind him.

“Oh? So this is where you went?”

Leo turned around a saw a lightly tanned woman around 18 or 19 years old with fiery red hair. He could not see anyone else around him and could only assume she was talking to him.

“Do I know you?”

“Nope. I saw you fight the Ancient Golem.”

“Is Bloodhound not giving up?”

“What? No, I’m not part of any Guild. I was in stealth behind a rock when you fought.”

Leo looked at her gear. She had a mix of every type of armor and a staff as her main weapon. What type of Thief would use such a random combination of gear? No, besides Leo, who could use such an outrageous combination of gear? He concluded that she must have a Hidden Class. There’s simply no way any of the default classes can use this type of gear combination.

“A stealth using … Priest? Mage?”

“Both! It’s called the Paragon class and its essentially a Holy Mage, but better in every way.”

This confirmed Leo’s suspicion about her having a Hidden Class. It’s not exactly like she could hide it anyway with such an obvious gear setup. There’s not really a reason to hide it either. It’s not like anyone’s going to steal your class. It’s the same for Leo. Once he uses both Lancer skills and magic skills it’ll be obvious that he has a Hidden Class, the important part is to not reveal everything.

“What do you want with me?”

“I want you to train me to become a Zero Fighter!”

“Zero Fighter?”

“Huh? I was sure that you were a Zero Fighter. How else could you basically solo a Lord rank field boss while fighting 80 players?”

Leo thought about her words. He could see how his name may be misunderstood as having a relation to Zero Fighter, but he could not remember ever hearing such a term. Was it something people in this world called players with a high skill level?

“I can’t train you to become something I don’t even know.”

“How could you not know? They’re on TV like all the time.”

Leo only gazed at her with a blank expression. He had not thought about anything but the game since he came back to life. Things seemed similar enough that he didn’t feel the need to explore just yet. Leo made a mental note to research the difference between his old world and this one.

“Ok, let me explain then. A Zero Fighter is someone who has won all 107 matches, including the final championship match in the Unified Martial Arts Championship. The tournament is hosted in six continents and only one male and one female fighter can win. The most amount of Zero Fighters per year is, therefore, 12, but it’s a miracle if even one manages to earn the title.”

Her explanation made it much easier for Leo to understand the situation. He felt honored that someone would think he had achieved such a feat. From her explanation, age, weight, fighting style, etc. did not matter in the tournament. Leo didn’t have a grasp of this world’s combat standard. His only real example was Lily who seemed to be fairly proficient in martial arts. He also knew that Snow practices martial arts professionally, but he had yet to see her fight. She played the Warpriest class in the game and used magic, making it difficult for him to determine her skill level.

“I don’t know the standard level of a Zero Fighter, but why would you come to me? There should be countless professionals taking in apprentices. You managed to get a Hidden Class so your skill level is at the very least above average. If it’s money problems, I’m sure you’ll manage to earn enough playing the game to pay the tuition fee.”

“I have tried to learn from more experts than I can remember. It’s not enough. The only ones capable of helping me are those that don’t take apprentices. The only Zero Fighter I know is my mom but I can’t ask her.”

“Why? Are you on bad terms?”

“It’s … complicated. She’s not capable of fighting right now.”

Leo could see her previous smile turn dark. From her words, he could tell that her mother probably wasn’t dead. That leaves either an illness or injury. By how determined she was to become a Zero Fighter, he could only lean towards injury for now. If her mother was hurt by a Zero Fighter, it would probably have happened during a duel.

“Alright. I’ll teach you what I can, but I don’t know if it’s enough for you to succeed.”

Leo watches as her face lit up in excitement.

“Oh, by the way. I’m Happy!”

“I can see that.”

“No! I mean my username is Happy.”

“Oh. I’m Zero.”

“That reminds me, why are you at this smithy? Actually, now that I look at it, this is Flux Crux, right? That’s great! I got a teacher and I can turn in my quest!.”

“Quest? Is it by chance a sub-quest of the Legendary questline ‘Finding the Saint’s Scroll’?”

“It is. Are you the owner of the Ring of Saint Ferima?”

“Yeah.”

“Is this fate? Now you can teach me while we complete the quest together!”

Happy moved her feet from side to side with a smile on her face. Leo didn’t want to destroy her happy moment, but it was better to tell her the truth. She would find out after they turn in the quest anyway.

“We won’t always have the same objective. Sub-quests with a bonus appear from time to time, but the ring owners might not be the same each time. The only important quests are the individual ones. They are the ones with a heavy penalty for failure.”

“But if more than one player can have the same quest, what happens when the first player completed it?”

“If they weren’t together, the quest simply disappears for everyone else and a new individual quest is generated.”

Leo could see that Happy was thinking about his words carefully. She seemed to understand that this questline won’t be a simple pleasant adventure. Cooperation between the 100 ring owners would give everyone the greatest reward, but that’s simply not possible. The rings choose their owners. He had no idea how, but everyone who has ever owned a Saint’s ring has been a powerful player. Most with an equally powerful ego.

Leo and Happy entered the smithy and proceeded to find Elion Themaer. Leo could see a blacksmith working near an anvil, hammering on what seemed to be a sword. He was about to call out and ask for Elion when Happy suddenly said the last thing a player should say in an elf operated smithy.

“Woah! They’re all elves! Where are the dwarfs? Aren’t they supposed to be the blacksmithing race?”

“You just had to go and say it, didn’t you?”

“What?”

“Hey! You! Annoying little girl. Are you making fun of our profession? We elves have made better equipment than dwarves for millennia.”

Happy looked at Leo with a confused expression. He could only shake his head at her questioning gaze. It’s not like every elf live in the forest and worship nature while every dwarf mine in the mountains and make equipment. Elves were experts in blacksmithing simply due to their long lifespan. They had much more time to practice and hone their craft. Dwarves actually preferred to delve into culture and spent a lot of time with philosophy and poetry.

“You should probably apologize before we’re kicked out.”

“Ah yes. I’m deeply sorry Mr. Blacksmith. I didn’t mean to offend you.”

“Hmpf, just remember to not judge someone by their race next time. So, what do you want?”

“We were tasked with meeting Elion Themaer. I believe he works here?”

“He’s in the back room. Through that door, take a left turn then a right. You can’t miss it.”

Leo and Happy followed the directions and quickly found Elion sitting at a writing desk with what seemed like the blueprint for a shield. They quickly formed a temporary party to qualify for the quest’s bonus. Elion was an elf about 40 years old in appearance. Leo did not even try to estimate how old he really was. The man sat in a wooden chair, his eyes scanning the blueprint like he was looking for something. He looked up from his blueprint when he noticed Leo and Happy entering the room.

“Ah, good, you’re here. Oh? You’re both here. Very good. Very good indeed.”

“Greetings Master Blacksmith. We were told to come and visit you for guidance.”

“Nice to meet you.”

“Ah yes. You did well in finding me this soon. As a reward, please accept this potion. I also want to give you a bonus for visiting me together.”

[Underwater Potion (Iron Quality)]

Item category: consumable

Description: Use to breath underwater for 30 minutes.

Leo stared at the potion. It’s about what he expected from a Copper quality quest. It saved him about a silver, but it’s nothing special.

[Royal Library Token (Steel Quality)]]

Item category: Token

Description: Allows the owner to access the second floor of the Royal Library in Ferima City.

The bonus item was far more valuable. The library allows players to read up on the game’s lore as well as finding clues about quests, hidden items, Legendary gear, the magic language, etc. Leo’s Knight title already allowed him to enter the second floor, so the token had no value to him personally. He could still earn some coin by selling it or lend it out to friends when needed.

“Now that you have received your rewards, I want to ask you to get me some materials for my shield. Happy, I want you to take this note and deliver it to the Guard’s Barracks. Zero, I want you to enter the Undead Forest and defeat Ubras and bring back his magic orb.”

[Sub-quest-2 Defeat Ubras the Mad Wizard (Bronze Quality)]

Make your way to the Undead Forest and search for Ubras’ forgotten cave. The cave is located near the entrance of the forest. Follow the markings and enter the cave. Defeat Ubras and bring back his magic orb.

Restrictions: This is a personal quest. You cannot enter the cave while in a party.

Leo read through the description and began organizing his thoughts. The Undead Forest is a level 20 zone which contains monsters ranging from 17-23.

“What’s your quest about? It’s not just a simple delivery, right?”

“Hm, it says I can use this note to recruit a Guard to follow me on my quest.”

“You said your class is mostly like a Holy Mage, right? The Guard is probably to help you get through the combat quests.”

“Isn’t that a bit too easy?”

“Don’t underestimate the questline’s difficulty. There’s far more to becoming an expert healer than to press a few buttons every now and then. For example, do you even know that you can cast your spells with words alone?”

“I didn’t. I know that my character says a few words when I press the skill button, but I haven’t paid attention to it.”

Leo was not surprised in the slightest. Who would go out of their way to say the complicated magic words when a button press is enough? This is one of the game’s hidden systems. Players can activate their skills by replicating the required movement or speech. If done correctly, this will reduce the cast time, increase the damage and allow the player to more accurately hit their target. It’s one step more advanced than aiming projectiles without the system’s guidance.

The problem is the lack of a tutorial. Players have to figure it out themselves and even when they do, many players will simply not be able to make full use of the game’s high skill cap combat system. This advanced combat system is the only reason Leo managed to rank 43rd in the world without a powerful hidden class.

“Visit the library later and ask the receptionist for a book about common magic spells. You should find most of your skills in there with the magic words explained in an easy to understand way. It will be hard in the beginning but if you stick to it, you’ll become far more powerful later.”

“Okay. I will remember that for later. How do you know all this?”

Leo was unsure of how to respond. It’s not like he could say that he came from a parallel world where the game had already been out for 15 years.

“I have my sources.”

“Alright, then. Keep your secrets.”

The two of them exited the smithy and walked towards the city center. Leo looked towards the large arena east of the city’s center. He suddenly had an idea to test Happy’s skill level in the arena.

“Let’s visit the arena. I want to see how good you are at fighting.”

“Huh? I’m a healer you know? What good will a fight in the arena do?

“Just follow. You’ll see what I mean when we get there.”