Looking at the rewards for the final quest, Shesmu didn’t know what to say. He just kept silence and stared at the notification for a while. An Epic item, that was an epic item. One has to know that even a silver item is hard to get this early in the game. As for gold items, Shesmu didn’t know that level 10 gold items existed until he experienced it himself in this new life. Epic items shouldn’t appear until much later in the game. Even in the beta, Shesmu couldn’t get hold of epic items until level 35. Other beta players might not have even seen one. Now, he got hold of such a legendary item on the first natural day of the game. This was basically inconceivable.

However, Shesmu didn’t let his joy get hold of him and checked the epic items’ stats. If it had a high-level requirement, then even him will take a long time before being able to equip it.

Moon Sword Requirement Level 20, Swordsman Class, Agility 150, Strength 150 Rarity Epic Description

Attack Power +1500

Agility +120

Strength +150

Vitality +100

Moon Enlightenment (Passive): When under the moonlight, receive +30% Agility and +50% Strength. If it’s a full moon, receive +75% Agility, +100% Strength.

Moon Energy (Passive): When under the moonlight, the sword harness moon energy.

Moon Surge (Active): Depending on the amount of energy harnessed, a moon energy surge thrust as a beam with a range of 25 meters. Damage=5*Moon Energy Harnessed capped at 20000 Damage.

Cast time; 1.5 seconds.

Cooldown: 30 Seconds.

Looking at the Moon Sword stats, Shesmu had a thoughtful expression on his face. He already checked the stats requirements, so he had no need to worry about that. As for the level requirement, Shesmu wasn’t too worried about it as he can easily reach level 20 in less than 4 natural days. The sword’s stats weren’t too bad, they were definitely stats worthy of an epic sword. However, Shesmu didn’t care about the stats. First of all, the stats difference between a golden item and an epic one wasn’t that big, it’s the passive and active skills that made every player wish to get an epic item with fervor. The Moon Enlightenment passive was indeed quite good. The fact that scaled with percentages meant that it would be useful even when one reaches the latter stages of the game.

However, what made Shesmu frown was the Moon Surge damage cap. 20000 might seem like a high damaging skill to anyone below level 70, however, the fact that it was capped meant that he couldn’t use for long. At most, Shesmu will keep this sword until level 50, at that time, he would be able to do considerably more amount of damage with less restriction. 1.5 seconds might seem like a short amount of time to anyone who is new to gaming, however, to the decent gamer 1.5 seconds is longer than an eternity. This made the Moon Surge skill only useable in a surprise attack to start the fight with. In the best case scenario, Shesmu would fight in a forest or someplace with many hiding spots where he can use the small amount of time given to him by his superior agility to continue using Moon Surge. But all wasn’t bad, the skill had a pretty low cooldown of 30 seconds, so Shesmu could at least use it a couple time in one fight.

Since the moon sword couldn’t be used until level 20, Shesmu kept it on the back of his mind and decided to check his other loot. Other than the Moon Sword, Shesmu also received a golden rarity belt.

Silvermoon Wolf Belt Requirement Level 10 Rarity Golden Description

Defense+50

Agility +20

Strength +30

The belt’s stats weren’t too shabby. Even though they paled compared to the Moon Sword’s stats, but for a level 10 item, the belt’s stats were definitely top notch. Shesmu then equipped the Silvermoon Wolf Blade and Belt, he also switched some of the bronze equipment he had for silver equipment he received from the other hidden quests. In the end, his stats looked like this after he used the stat points from his level up as well.

Name Shesmu Race Human Class Swordsman Level 12 (59550/70000 exp) Health Points 2500/2500 Ki Points 50750/50750 Stats Strength 203 Agility 303 Intelligence 90 Wisdom 109 Vitality 160 Stat Points 0 Skills Sword Mastery Tier 0 level 5 (Proficiency: 54%). Thousand Slashes Tier 0 level 1(Proficiency:50%) Ki Manipulation Tier 1 level 2(Proficiency: 15%) Talents Quick Slash Increase attack speed by 20%. Afterimage When in combat, sudden turns leave afterimages, rendering the enemy not being able to know real from illusion. Movement speed outside of combat +50%, Movement speed in combat +20%, attack speed +30%. Silent Steps Improve Stealth, step sounds cannot be detected when running. Movement speed in combat +50%, attack speed +50%. Strong Grip Increase attack power by 20% Titan’s Might Increase attack power by 30%. Have a chance to knock back an opponent with less attack power. Controlled Strength Increase attack power by 50%. Increase sensibility of muscles for more controlled force and a slight increase to the sensibility towards wind movement and earth vibration. Tough Skin Increase hp by 20% Troll's Blood Increase HP by 30% and increase regeneration of HP by 50 Hp/s when outside of combat. Clear Mind Magical Damage +20%. Faster analysis. Clear Vision More accurate vision. Mana regeneration +20%. Enlightened Vision Ability to notice minute details in a high tension environment. Mana Regeneration +30%.

If someone looked at Shesmu’s stats, he wouldn’t help but a bad aftertaste due to the wasted intelligence and Wisdom talent. Having 3 mage talents unlocked was hard even for the most top-notch mages at this point in the game. In fact, none of them were able to reach the 100 stat mark to unlock the second talent. They all strived towards reaching the 50 intelligence milestone since +20% Magical Damage was more valuable for them at this point in the game than a +20% Mana regen. As for reaching the 50 Wisdom milestone, none of them was able to even come close. Mage equipment in the early stages of the game was scarce beyond belief. The only monsters that had a chance of dropping them were skeletons that resided in the cemetery. To top it off, these monsters had a pretty low drop rate, making mages sink deeper into a torrent of despair.

All in all, if anyone just looked at Shesmu’s wisdom and intelligence stats, they would have no doubt that he was hacking. If instead they looked at his main 3 stats, they would start doubting the brain of Dream Inc. developers for leaving such an obvious hacker alone. Even if someone believed that Shesmu wasn’t hacking, they will have all right to ask why in the world did Shesmu waste stat points on useless stats like Wisdom and Intelligence. To that he will only be able to respond that he didn’t have a choice. However, that didn’t mean that he was sad about this outcome. Not only were the side effects of the mage related talents good even for a swordsman, Shesmu knew things that the current player base didn’t. After reaching the Tier 2 advancement, players would be able to branch off to other bodily system different from the one given to them by their class. At that time many hybrid classes would appear and would add a variety to the game not found in other one. It would be a breath of fresh air to the gaming populace who had enough of playing the same thing over and over. At that time, Shesmu would be able to use these “wasted” stats to the fullest extent.

Stopping his thought train, Shesmu tried to remember the unique and legendary quests still available in the beginner town. For the legendary quest, he already knew that there was one related to an underworld cult that had branches in every beginner town associated with the capital city. However, he can always do that quest later on, as the cult members were all level 20 or above. At this point in the game, no guild can possibly raid them, so there was no need to worry about them. However, there was a unique quest that could be done by anyone with some skill and above level 5. Due to these reasons, Shesmu decided to start with the unique quest.

However, before any of that, Shesmu had to go to the swordsman training center. He pushed getting his basic skills for way too long and it made fights that should have been very easy way harder than they should be. The identify skill was one of the most useful basic and important skills to any player. In fact, its usefulness reached the level of breathing and drinking. Shesmu already had big trouble playing without the skill and couldn’t endure playing for another second without it.

In less than 10 minutes, Shesmu reached the Swordsman Training Center. There was giant plaza filled to the brim with 15 to 18 years old boys and girls, training their sword techniques on battle dummies. Sweat was dripping from their foreheads but their legs were unwavering, their foundation is clearly strong. Shesmu then went into the dojo where he found an instructor teaching a couple of senior disciples.

Shesmu didn’t interrupt the instructor and waited patiently for 30 minutes before the instructor finished his teachings and focused his attention towards Shesmu.

“Hello young swordsman, what can I do for you?”

This introductory statement was something every instructor would say to any new player with the swordsman class. Obviously, Shesmu already knew what to say to a T.

“Esteemed Master, I’m a new swordsman looking for new knowledge to broaden my horizon. I wonder if I can receive few of your teachings.”

This was the standard way players came up with to get the instructor to give you your basic skills. If someone just barged in and asked to be given the basic skills, he would be politely asked to get out.

“I see that you’re a young man with very good talent.” Before the instructor finished his standard response, his face twitched and he had a surprised expression on his face. “Weird, your power is at such a high level but you don’t possess the basic skills. It seems that you’re one who likes a challenge. I don’t despise that.” After expressing his remark, the instructor said. “Anyways, here are the basic swordsman skills, and since you don’t have the basic Identify skill, I’ll convey it to you too.”

After receiving the two basic swordsman skills, slash and thurst, and finally receiving the identify skill he wanted so much, Shesmu headed towards the location of the unique quest. His destination was the military headquarters.