Dark Forest. A level 24-50 zone, with various dungeons scattered everywhere. Some discovered, some not. A peculiar choice for a single level 21 apprentice mage. Some might even say – a stupid choice. But let them talk is what Wail would say. He felt confident. That wolf he managed to kill before the unfortunate encounter with a patrolling Onnion soldier was level 28. Thus Wail felt like he could just barely manage that zone. That is - if he avoids larger groups of enemies. Those and unfortunate forest fires. One can never be too careful with fire.

On his way there, Wail didn’t miss a single opportunity to thoroughly incinerate every moving thing he came in contact with. Mostly just living creatures. Since setting flowers or grass ablaze served no purpose. Due to his genuine effort…

You have leveled up!

+6 to unspent stat points.

+1 Mana regen and +20 Mana due to constant use of mana consuming skills.

Skill proficiencies increased.

Wail checked his skill levels as well.

Fire Mastery – Novice level 7 (11.3%)

Increases base and critical damage of fire based spells.

Reduces the mana cost of fire based spells.

*Damage increased by 13%

*Mana cost reduced by 5%

Fireball – Novice level 8 (0.8%)

The most basic fire-based spell. Conjures a fireball – can be managed in any way decided upon by the wielder. Can set on fire and cause damage over time. The over-time effect causes damage according to set circumstances.

Base fire damage – 46-67 damage.

Base over-time fire damage – 5 damage/sec.

Mana cost – 14.55 mana per use.

Casting time – 1.92 seconds.

*Damage increased by 3% due to wisdom.

*Mana consumption reduced by 3% duo to wisdom.

*Casting time reduced by 4% due to intellect.

His main proficiencies were leveling up quite nicely and just in time. Though that’s only because Wail chose to level up only one magic aspect - fire. In addition - just one skill to boot, out of a myriad of choices. That way he was able to level up the proficiencies quite fast, which in turn made leveling much easier.

The truth of the matter? Not much choice was given, since the only skill he managed to acquire was fireball. Tomes were quite a pricy commodity and Wail simply couldn’t afford them.

For example, the polar opposite of fire - water. The very basic spell book cost 80 silver coins. Wail managed to collect 5 gold coins after spending hours upon hours torturing those weaker than him. But he was not about to spend almost one fifth of his measly fortune for a basic spell. Let alone a weaker one.

The issue with mages and different magic attributes was that – you couldn’t learn intermediate spells without having intermediate mastery of the attribute. Since he didn’t level up water mastery, he could only learn ice-bolt. The simplest water based spell. Without dual-casting - learning and using an even weaker spell than fireball made no sense to Wail.

Of course, there were more spells for novice mastery, but most of them were hard to come-by. The rest were over-priced, the same way the most basic spells were. Thus he didn’t even bother.

Wail trusted his fate. Even though life was always hard on him, eventually he’d persevere. That was his strong belief. Baseless? Sure. But headstrong as well. Maybe even slightly delusional.

You have gained 15% experience.

With a smirk Wail watched another wolf burn to ash before his eyes. His title gave a very pleasing increase in experience gain when killing higher level monsters. Even though the damage was decreased slightly, the skill proficiencies rose quicker against such foes as well. Thus in the end, everything worked out for the better. And boy was Wail enjoying himself. Jumping from one mob to the other, purging the dark forest of life. Creating light where there was once only darkness. Tripping over roots. Barely managing to put out the burning grass…

The spot had its up and downs.

-1 Reputation.

Every now and then, Wail’s sadistic tendencies gave such results. It seemed like the game had a base set of morals. Morals that were brought down like an iron hammer upon the inhabitants of this world. Though it mainly happened to Wail. He never heard of anyone complaining in or out of the game. Though considering his non-existent social-circle in both realities – it didn’t serve as much of a surprise.

Once his 8 hour long fun-time spree was over, Wail made a bonfire and sat down in front of it. Might not be the smartest thing to do while being alone in a dark forest. Dark as in – the brightest thing in close proximity within the forest was that exact bonfire. Might draw in unwelcome visitors. Wail had a way with not learning from past experiences though. That or he simply did not care. After hunting for so long he gained a chunk of reputation and 10 whole levels. That’s right, Wail was now level 31, and he only spent 2 real-time hours on it.

Virtual reality had a way with time. Inside, it sped up 4 times. Might have something to do with how the brain managed to work at an amazing pace, where as our body just limits it in a way. Some say this kind of brain abuse might bring upon some side-effects, but after a year of use none were recorded. Though the illuminati fanatics say it’s all a big scheme.

Wail decided that it was about time to move deeper into the forest in search for dungeons and the like. If he’s lucky – maybe he’ll find an undiscovered one.

Undiscovered dungeons gave their own set of bonuses to their first visitors:

*Double experience for a week.

*Greatly increased chance in quality loot

These two bonuses made undiscovered dungeons the best damn thing to every level crazy individual on the whole continent. Thus most of the dungeons were already discovered in densely populated regions. Yet, Wail started in a not-so-popular zone. On the very outskirts of Onnion Kingdom. Thus the possibility of actually finding an undiscovered dungeon remained.

In addition - that’s also the reason, why he so rarely met up with other players. One could argue that his horrid appearance played a part in it as well.

You’d think that someone would’ve taken him for a killable monster by now, but it seems like Wail was quite lucky at least in that respect.

Once the bonfire was nice and proper Wail took out another loaf of stale bread and started chowing down.

Obviously, the taste was horrid. It was basically the taste of cardboard. Wail would know – he tried it when he was little, just to feed his curiosity.

It was cheap though. 2 coppers per loaf. That much Wail could afford without a single tingle in his scrooge-like inner-self. Thus, without the sound of money falling away after each bite, Wail could chow-down at full throttle.

Only half through the stale loaf of bread - Wail noticed the rustling of bushes all around, revealing 5 humanoid forms soon after. Ragged outfits, rusted weapons, unwelcoming facial expressions and mean stares – your standard low-level bandits. Some would jump and do something. Run away, fight, cry - even beg. Heck, anything! While the remainder would have thought twice before lighting a fire in a dark forest. Alone. Being of a lower level.

“Oh, Wail! Pleasure seeing you here in the woods, moving up in the world, eh?” – One of the bandits said after noticing who was sitting by the bonfire. His grouchy expression quickly changing into one of intimacy and respect.

Wail felt relieved. Another of his beliefs just proved itself – lightning never strikes twice in the same place!

His negative reputation was finally paying off as well, since the bandits showed a completely different attitude towards him than the last time they met. Last encounter almost turned into a death-match over a few copper coins found lying on the ground. Poor people have it rough. Did not end too well either.

“What a pleasant surprise, come friends – sit, sit! Have some bread” – Wail replied with a humble smile, worried that even that much might just scare them off. He welcomed the unexpected guests with open arms and even offered food. The cheapest food there is, but even this much was quite unlike him.

The bandits sat down around the bonfire and happily accepted the hospitality. Once the mood was set, they started sharing adventure stories – mainly consisting of robbing and harming those less fortunate. Just like Wail.

*Your intimacy with the bandit group increased

+50 relations with local bandits.

All that free bread finally paid off. If Wail couldn’t increase his standing with the villagers, he would at least do so with the opposite side.

These circumstances brought additional results though…

“Oh right, Wail. It’s quite lucky that we just happened to meet you here. Mind helping us out with something?” – Bob, the same bandit who previously spoke asked the host.