The shop was packed, not with people but stuff: a mountain of trash.

There were weapons, there were armors, there was ammunition. There were also parts and tools, gears, pulleys, wrenches, everything. Most were barely usable. It was not a place for the accident prone.

"Hello!" John called into the mess. "Anyone in there?"

The place was located in the depths of the lower floors, far from the market. John had spent a long time trying to find this shop that he had only heard of. No NPCs seemed to even know about it. It would be quite unfortunate if the shopkeeper wasn't present in the middle of the day.

"Hey, little dwarf, you home?"

The shopkeeper was a dwarf. They were rare in the west, but Gyead had a small contingent of dwarven engineers to maintain vital systems like the Cage and arena lift.

This dwarf wasn't one of those respected technicians but rather an outcast among his people. Drunnel was a chronic alcoholic – all dwarves were to some degree, but he was beyond help at times. Still, he had the same hands as his outstanding peers, lacking mostly technical prowess, drive, and a lot of organization.

This made his products cheap and good for beginners. He also resold a lot of products he didn't manufacture for a good price. This place had become enormous, but John had already passed the level of the items by the time it was discovered.

Nothing seemed to be happening. "C'mon," John muttered as carefully entered the shop.

The light from the street quickly vanished as John invaded the fort of junk.

"Drunnel," John called, somewhat expecting a metallic avalanche to set off.

John found the fat dwarf hidden at the innermost area of the shop. He was a sorry thing, with a belly larger than an exercise ball, and a mouth that could probably fit a watermelon, like a hippo. Drunnel was in a daze, drooling onto a long, unkempt beard.

"Wake up, you have a customer," John said, slapping Drunnel across the face. He immediately regretted it. There was a weird, oily liquid excreted by the skin.

Drunnel's eyes snapped open quickly and he sat up. "A customer?"

"Yes, I want to view your merchandise," John confirmed, wiping his hand on the dwarf's work clothes.

"By all means," Drunnel said courteously.

John frowned. Drunnel didn't act like he was drunk. He had looked like he was hungover, but his demeanour was calm, and his voice was clear.

"May I ask what you are looking for in particular?"

"Show me what A-Grade rounds you have. In this caliber," John requested, showing the heavy recruit pistol.

"Of course," Drunnel answered, quickly digging through a pile of shells. "A new recruit of the army? Looking for some fun?" he asked while digging. Drunnel recognized the mark and the good condition of the firearm.

"No. I have more experience than that."

"A veteran thief then, with a new weapon," Drunnel said. He presented some rounds with different coloured tips. John was surprised by the supposedly intoxicated dwarf's speed. "Normal, penetration, shrapnel, incendiary, shock, ice, anything you see here."

John picked up the ice round. "30 blue tips." He picked up the shrapnel and penetration round. "30 orange tips, and 75 black tips." He finally tossed the undecorated round, playing with it. "How many of these can you find?" John asked, looking at the cluttered shop.

"Ice x 30, 15 coppers. Shrapnel x 30, 7.5 coppers. Penetration x 75, 25 coppers." Drunnel had been jotting down the order, muttering numbers under his breath. He looked up. "Normal rounds? As many as you'd like."

"Give me three thousand."

"Sure…" The fat dwarf scrambled like a squirrel, pulling individual rounds and boxes of them out of every nook and cranny. He chatted with John, as he searched. "Might I interest you in a new firearm then?" he tried. "A recruit weapon is unfitting for such a luxurious armament."

"No," John rejected. Buying weapons from NPCs was generally a bad idea. The value just wasn't worth it. Drunnel's ammunition was at a great price, but his weapons followed the trend. It would be much better to find a weapon in the field like John's dagger.

It took a while, but Drunnel finally gave John several large boxes. Thankfully, the weight value of ammunition was very low.

"The total is 90 coppers for three thousand normal rounds, 137.5 overall."

"Also, 10 durability repair kits, A-Grade."

"Yes. That will be an additional ten coppers," the dwarf said.

"Give me some extra magazines too, I believe the bulk purchase is enough for a little favour." Thieves got some magazines when they received a new weapon, but the small number wasn't enough for John's purposes.

"For such a customer, of course." Drunnel bowed, causing the oily excretion to drip from the nose. He pulled out 30 4-round heavy caliber pistol magazines. They wouldn't have cost much, but free was always better.

John had received half of the money from the tainted shells. Combined with the miscellaneous money gained from the rabbit's den and selling monster drops and chests, he could afford that with almost a silver to spare. The new players of the pre-release would be stunned if they heard that someone was spending an entire silver on ammunition while they were struggling to earn pennies.

"Thank you, for your purchase."

"Thank you too." John said, and he fled the shop as fast as possible. Drunnel was really too physically repulsive.

He headed for the Cage. He now had the tools to kill a deer, but he still needed the levels. A six-level suppression at this point would be nearly impossible to overcome.

[Server Announcement: A lone adventurer, Rosemary, has defeated a Grey Wolf, killing the third Elite Monster.]

That stopped John in his tracks. It was another unknown name, but that was not the shocking part. John already knew that the first three elite monsters would be gone during the pre-release. It was the association between the second and third elite monster kills.

'Another herb?' John rifled through his memory, but nothing, nothing at all.

Rosemary and Thyme were part of the Hiar server, clearly, judging from the announcement. The first clear of the whole game was announced across all servers, but the second and third were only announced within the region. It was the second and third in the whole game too. If it was only second and third in the server, it would have specified in the announcement.

That made things even more confusing. Instead of an outstanding player that eventually disappeared from the rankings, it was two, and probably more. There were more than just two kinds of herbs, but not thousands: this was probably an elite organization. But just what kind of small group of experts had the clout to enter the pre-release? And why disappear from the public eye right after?

Moreover, the two members both killed wolves for their elite monsters. The swirled wolf was common in many of the lands of the western kingdoms.

But the grey wolf was only a popular beginner monster in the capital of the Greight Republic, Enpras. As part of the defensive geography of Enpras, there was a nearby ridge system, Wolf's Ridge, which encircled the northern side of the city and separate many wolf tribes, including the grey and swirled variants. It was also the region with the highest concentration of beginners. In fact, that's why it came to mind, that's where Chelsea had started, and she always told John of her days hunting on the ridge.

It's likely that Rosemary and Thyme are both from the region and are hunting wolves, but not directly together. The announcement stated a lone adventurer for both instances. Enpras had many of the best players, but nothing about two experts talented enough to set these early records.

'The pre-release is just shrouded in mystery.'

It was the only murky part of RISE's history: there were hidden experts popping out of nowhere, a great NPC dying, a Surge so close to the city.

While in his thoughts, John made it back to where he was a day ago. He entered the Cage. The metal room rumbled and disappeared into the butte.

A cold draft ran across John's face as he emerged into the tainted lands. He checked his character page.

[John]

Class: Starter Thief

Level: 4 (873/14500)

HP: 139/139

Strength: 9

Vitality: 9

Agility: 13

Dexterity: 14

He had distributed a point into agility and a point in dexterity when he reached level four, hunting in the sewers. It was a long way until level five; It was time to get back to leveling.

The best hunting grounds within a reasonable distance of Gyead were an hour southeast. There was particularly large hill here, nameless, but perfect for daytime hunting for level fives or sixes. It had been monopolized by one of Gyead's larger guilds in the past which had limited Kevin and John's access.

Killing rabbits as he went, John made it to the bottom of the hill at around 2 PM. It was odd, just a dramatic change in elevation out of nowhere and surrounded by nothing.

In front of him was a rocky sedimentary cliff, with layers of multi-colored sandstones, topped with the taint. The hill had a weird topography, sort of like a staircase. On the southwestern side, it rose gradually, in small landings a few meters between each other, the mob difficulty rising too. It went to a good height, the top barely visible in the tainted air.

John spent ten minutes circling to the other side.

There was an assortment of mobs here, but the cannon fodder consisted of the familiar tainted rabbits at level four. There were also a few tainted raccoons at level five, which were known by those who played at the hill for their nimble fingers.

The hill was wide enough to for the guild to monopolize for all of their higher-tier members. This also meant John had plenty of room to slowly deal with the mobs a few at a time.

He started with a group of three rabbits a couple of dozen of meters away.

[Tainted Rabbit]

Level: 4

HP: 132/132

He took aim at the first one which had a white tuff on its forehead. It made quite a nice target.

'Rapid-Fire'

-23

-17

The first two shots hit the rabbit, but at such a range, with the spread of the heavy recruit pistol, it was hard to apply any sequence. Moreover, the damage per shot was low, a result of the defense of the rabbit and Rapid-Fire's damage reduction.

-13

The third shot was unlucky, only nicking the rabbit. It managed to dodge the fourth and immediately counterattacked.

-23

-15

-18

Bullets streamed out of John's barrel, tearing the rabbit apart. Such was the power of Rapid-Fire.

-17

-24

[You have slain a Tainted Rabbit]

[You have gained 47 XP]

Then it died, achieving nothing other than being a lead sponge.

But as white tuff passed on, the other two monsters which aggroed alongside it advanced. With a smooth swing, the pistol was pointed at the next rabbit. John could manage four rounds a second during the three-second duration of Rapid-Fire. There were 3 rounds left.

-24

-26

-35

The next three shots hit the second rabbit in the foot, the side of the chest, and the cheek. The tainted mob staggered. John' accuracy was improving as the distance decreased.

With the bottomless ammo used up, John still had his four normal rounds, but he switched to the dagger. He needed every round possible for the deer.

The third rabbit went for the leap. But it flew over its target as John ducked under it.

-7

John focused the already weakened foe. He stomped on it, applying a large collision proc.

-45

While stunned, John gave it a stab to the neck, killing it.

[You have slain a Tainted Rabbit]

[You have slain gained 49 XP]

Unlike the rats, rabbits fought to the death, something thankful, considering how annoying the rats were to deal with. The last tainted rabbit gave attacked again. Like a rabid dog, it gave a hiss that was sort of like barking and went for the legs.

The teeth tried to sink into the pants but got a kick and a dagger strike instead.

-4

-23

[The target has started bleeding.]

-3

The dagger didn't damage anything vital but did must have hit a large artery or something because it caused a significant bleed effect.

John went for another stab.

-24

The rabbit hissed again and tried to bite the forearm, which caused John to pull back quickly, but the dagger went forward again just as quickly. He repeated this a few times.

-3

-35

-23

-37

-3

-26

[You have slain a Tainted Rabbit]

[You have slain gained 49 XP]

The individual experience points might have been lower than the rats, but there were many more rabbits to fight than there were rats. They were easier to kill too, fighting boorishly rather than applying any tactics or running. Moreover, John was level four now and in RISE, players gained bonus XP for hunting beyond their level, which contributed to the difference in per unit XP.

John took a breath, visible in the cold tainted lands. He gathered the loot and went to find the next group of mobs.