There was a flash of light and Gii appeared outside of the Gate about 1 day's travel south of the city. This time there was no yell of frustration but instead a smile of satisfaction that was on his face. He had finally accomplished his goal in the Divine City of Kanba and if he had any say about it he would not be back there for a very long time.

Things should move a little quicker now.

Truthfully Gii had already spent almost 3 real world days traveling around gathering the different Gates and defiling the altars. Even though he had said that he wasn't worried about falling behind other players, he was still only level 7 and he knew that the highest level players would most likely be around level 20 at this time. Although their leveling speed would slow down significantly as they advanced to different tiers, it would be best if he could finish the tedious task he had set for himself sooner.

As Gii took some time to look over the different notifications he received, there was one he did not expect to see and it wiped the smile off of his face.

Atretus's Wrath

You have Incurred the wrath of the head priest of the Crassisus Church. He will use all means available to him to enact his revenge.

+100% Increase in Church Pursuers

As he read through the effect he knew this was the consequence of doing things rashly. Truthfully he had wanted to find a time to get a church member or one of the pallbearers alone. But because he had to rush back and had just barely made it in time for the end of the ceremony, he had gone after the first NPC that he came across. It just so happened to be the small boy he had robbed earlier, but he didn't have much of a choice. It was likely that his break-in to the shop would be noticed and he wouldn't have the time to hang around and wait for someone to be alone, so he took what was available.

Fortunately he was able to defile the altar before the paladins had returned from the burial ceremony, but it seemed like that boy was probably a hidden quest NPC for him to incur such a harsh penalty for killing him.

~sigh~

I guess i'll have to take the long way and avoid the major roads. While it doesn't completely remove the chance of being found, I can probably avoid ambushes like the one I received before.

Gii had expected to run into this issue at some point, however it would now be even more severe. It was likely that if he were to enter any major city or town, he would immediately be attacked by paladins. Fortunately his main goal currently was to go around and register the rest of the Gate locations he remembered. The thing he was worried about the most right now was that they would start placing high level paladins at all of their altars. This would force him to look for the most obscure locations with an Altar that he could defile to get his Karma to -3000.

Alternatively I could try to kill about 7-8 more NPC's...

He could gain the same amount of negative Karma by killing a few more innocent people, but Gii felt like he shouldn't. The main reason being that he was trying to replicate the steps that another player took in his previous life. He had never completely determined the exact requirements to race change and get the class he was after, but he knew it was a reward from the caretaker in the afterlife when you are sent to hell. He had a feeling that the defiling of the altars was an important factor and he would rather not waste all his effort to try and speed things up due to his impatience.

I've already had enough of a setback from my own impatience

Gii placed his hand on the Gate and disappeared in a flash of light as he teleported to another location he had already registered.

***

Over the next few in-game days, Gii traveled along the western portion of the Kania Massif that he had skipped over on his way to the divine city. He spent that time registering the Gates as he traveled south. There were a couple of close calls with patrolling paladins but as he was able to hide and avoid a direct meeting with them, he was able to barely escape.

Gii continued to head south until eventually the landscape around him began to change from a rocky mountainous area to a dull black and gray wasteland. Dead trees and roots dotted the area and the dirt itself turned into an oily black color as compared to the normal brown. This was the sign that he had entered into the southwest portion of the continent known as the Blacklands. According to the Game's lore there was some ancient catastophy that befell this part of the continent and there was even speculation that it was cursed by an evil god.

As someone who had played the game through to its endgame in his previous life, Gii knew that this second guess was pretty close to the truth as the southwest was home to the remains of the great Listonian empire that had united the continent. However they became greedy and drunk with power and had enraged the gods who had retaliated against the empire and caused its downfall. Although this knowledge was not that useful now, it did allow him to know about a few hidden spots that other players did not know of.

Once I get my desired race and class I'll definitely go explore those places.

Gii knew of many hidden places to explore that had treasure. He was even aware of other continents and locations that would be introduced in expansions later in the game's lifespan. However the important thing for him to do now was to focus on his current goal. If he didn't set a strong foundation now, there is no way he would be able to become strong enough to interact with those places let alone create a tier 5 class.

Gii continued on his travel and registered the different Gates in the blacklands. Fortunately for him there was not as many Gates as there were in the plains to the north. In fact there was really only a handful of them that Gii knew he would need so that he could come back and enter hidden dungeons and such. There was another major city in the Blacklands by the name of Bakaria and although it was known as a haven for criminal activity, on the surface it functioned as a normal city and Gii knew there was also a church of Crassius there. As a result that ended up being the first Gate that Gii decided to skip and not register for the time being.

Gii spent another real world day trtaveling around and registering the Gates in the blacklands until he had finally registered all of the Gates that he could. He had spent over a month in game going around and registering the different Gates and although he knew that many people would have done some of them, there would be very few who would register them all like he had, at least at the current stage of the game. As additional waves of players joined when the game explodes in popularity, he knew they would probably learn from those who regretted not doing it when they started.

Thankfully the most tedious part is out of the way and I can now focus on the last Altar.

Truthfully he had already checked out a few of the possible Altar locations along the way while he was registering the Gates and it definitely put a dampener on his mood. His biggest fear looked to be coming true as not only had the patrols of the paladins from Crassius increased, but all of the locations with Altars that he had scouted and remembered had added at least 1 tier 2 paladin to guard it.

I guess I will really have to go there...?

There were many places he had ruled out because of how dangerous they were and especially because he absolutely could not die before making sure his Karma was at the required negative amount. However he felt the situation was becoming increasingly more difficult to manage unless he started taking some risks.

Until now Gii had made sure to remain in places without aggressive monsters because his low level meant he would never be able to fight them. Most of the creatures he could see in the blacklands were actually tier 2, but unless you provoked them they would usually just leave you alone. The same was true for Kania massif and the plains of the north, which is the main reason he was able to travel off of the main roads yet avoid getting into trouble with the wildlife. His wealth of experience allowed him to know the exact aggro range and locations for all the potentially hostile monsters.

This had limited the areas he could travel, but it ensured the safest and smoothest travel options. However Gii knew that there were locations of Crassius churches that were in dangerous areas with highly aggresive monsters. The first Altar he attacked in the Evil forest was one such location and he had risked it at the time because he really didnt have anything to lose. Although his situation was much different now, he felt like there really was not another way for him to progress unless he took some chances.

He placed his hand on the Gate he had just registered and teleported to another location in the northwest of the blacklands. This Gate had been one of the first he had registered when netering this region for this exact reason. The location he was heading into now was called the Agheny Vale and was an area of mountains that you would have to pass through en route to a hidden village. The area was actually a winding and intentionally confusing path meant to hide the location of the village.

The problem here was that the paths in the mountain were narrow and trecherous, but the main issue was the fact that there was an incredibly aggresive group of creatures that you would encounter on these paths. They were called Kolaks and were actually a low tier 3 creature! Similar to the Kanegars of the North, they were a type of intelligent creature that would sometimes form small tribes but usually like to operate Solo. Normally this path was meant to be traversed by a full team of tier 3 players as they searched for the hidden village, but now Gii planned to try and make it through this place on his own at level 7!

Gii knew that the main way to avoid conflict with Kolaks would be to avoid eye contact, as the vast majority of them were battle freaks that looked for every opportunity to fight and could consider any little mannerism a challege. The one reason why he believed he could make it through on his own was that none of the Kolaks had any true ranged attacks or spellcasters, at least there were none in the area he would be traveling through. In addition, their movement speed was slower than the average humanoid because they have a smaller stature, being only about 4 feet tall.

All of this gave Gii the confidence that he would be able to make it but the last piece of information that gave him the gumption to try was that he really only had to get about halfway through the mountains in order to get to the Temple for Crassius as it was supposed to serve as a safe house for the traveling party and allowed them to rest when they came through. Gii took a deep breath but was interrupted by a notification.

You have been playing for an extended period of time, Please make sure you are taking care of your body.

There was a chuckle as Gii remembered he had not eaten in a long time, it was best to make sure he was in good condition before he continued. He closed out of the notification and temporarily logged out