“What’s the big rush? Did you get a bad starting class?” Lancelot laughed.

“I’m a Knight. What class, did you get, Master?” I already knew the answer even before she replied, but I wanted to confirm that nothing else had changed this reset. The appearance of a new Hidden Class had thrown me off a little.

“I’m a Paladin! Protector of the Light, Champion of the weak, the oppressed…”

“… have you added your skills and stats yet?” I cut her off not interested in hearing the same old fluff text again. What is it with games and fluff text?

“Call me Lancelot here! And no, not just yet. I was thinking of adding…”

“Pump 9 into INT and 15 into STR. For your skills, select [GLORY] and [AGAINST ALL ODDS],” I instructed.

[GLORY]

LEVEL 1/5 [0% EXP]

Your hunger for fame and recognition whips you and your party in a frenzy to conquer everything in your path.

+10% Chance for critical strikes

+15% Attack Speed

Casting Cost: 3 Mana

Duration: 3 Seconds

Cooldown: 5 Seconds

[AGAINST ALL ODDS]

LEVEL 1/5 [0% EXP]

Champions of Light shine the brightest when shrouded in darkness.

Emit a burst of bright light that stun all unfriendly characters within a 2-meter radius for 2 seconds

Deals 80% STR damage to all targets

Casting Cost: 15 Mana

Cast time: 1 Second: 2 Seconds

Cooldown: 20 Seconds

“Why INT? I should get some VIT, otherwise if a mob so much as glares at me too hard, I’ll end up dying! Plus, these two skills don’t deal any damage at all. How am I supposed to power level?” Lancelot disagreed.

“Eggs and bacon,” I answered without answering.

“Bacon and eggs, you mean? Wait, what? What the hell do you mean, eggs and bacon?”

“Lancelot, why make me come here?”

“To own the server, not serve bloody breakfast!” she grumbled.

“Then trust me, I know what I’m doing. We won’t be hunting with everyone else here, look at how many players there are. They’re all rushing to the same damn zone to power level and will literally be fighting over monsters to kill. I have a plan, now allocate your stats and let’s head to the Weapons shop,” I insisted.

“If this plan of yours screws up, I’m going to beat you into tiny pieces,” she pointedly promised as she allocated her stats and skills.

As we walked to the Weapons shop, the entire Newbie Town is abuzz with players exploring the area excitedly. Lancelot looked around her, longing to join the horde and discover the town too.

“No time to waste. Weapon shop. We can return and explore later, when we’re the first in the server to change jobs,” I tell her.

The mention of being the first, made her eyes light up. She nodded and walked on with new-found determination. A few minutes later, we found the weapon shop; which was rather ingeniously named, “The Weapon Shop”.

“Unequip and sell all your starting armour and weapon,” I instructed, to which her eyes opened wide in shock. “Trust me,” I reassured.

I sold my [SHOES]. [JERKIN], [GLOVES] and [SQUIRE’S SWORD], receiving 400 Copper. I bought a [RUSTY DAGGER] for 150 Copper. Along with my starting 500 Copper, I now had 750 Copper left.

I passed 500 Copper to Lancelot. “Now buy a [TWO-HANDED SWORD] for 1 Silver and 250 copper.”

“That’s almost all the money we have! A two handed-sword might add more strength, but its attack speed is horrible. Not a practical weapon at all!”

“Just. Do. It.” I was starting to feel a little exasperated.

“Fine,” she pouted, “Done.”

Next, we dropped by the General Store… to buy general stuff. Two [PICKAXES], two [RETURN SCROLLS] and two [ASP POTS] to be exact.

“That was the last of our money. We can’t even buy any HP Potions! We’re going to be grinding like snails at this rate.”

“It’s time for eggs,” I smiled and motioned for her to follow me. As we left town, as I forecasted, the zone was packed with Players hunting monsters. After all, it made sense to hunt close to town, where you spam skills to kill monsters then return to quickly regenerate HP and Mana in the safe zones.

Only problem was the monster respawn rates weren’t designed for a cluster-fuck of players massacring the poor [SLIMY] and [FLUFF] monsters in the zone. They were killing the monsters too quickly. Already, several heated arguments over kill stealing had begun.

I looked at Lancelot and smirked.

“Don’t be so smug. I bet the place you’re bringing us to will be the same,” she poked my forehead.

“We’ll see, Master.”

“L-A-N-C-E-L-O-T.”

We walked for a good 30 minutes without stopping, soon we reached the middle of a dessert. I could tell that Lancelot was starting to feel restless.

“Don’t even think about hitting any of these monsters. They’re not AGGRO, so they won’t attack us but if you provoke them… if they stare at you hard enough, you’ll be respawning at town.”

“Can’t we just hit one? Just a tiny, itsy, bitsy, little monster? I didn’t pay good money for a state of the art VR set to just walk! I bought it to kill stuff!” she eyed the [BOAR] nearby.

“Sure…” I replied, making Lancelot’s eyes immediately light up. “If you want to walk all the way back here by yourself from town.”

Just as Lancelot contemplated making me her first kill in the server, I announced “We’ve arrived. Let’s party up and go in.”

One party and a few dozen steps later this pop up appeared, just like I expected.

[YOUR PARTY FOUND “THE NEST DUNGEON”]

DISCOVERY BONUS:

+200 EXP

+25% EXP AND +50% Drop Rate for 24 Hours

There was a massive gaping hole in the ground with giant sand stalagmites lining its entrance. The area directly next to the opening was extra barren with no remote signs of life. Even the sand surrounding it seemed to have been sucked dry and was a little darker than usual.

As we entered the cavern, a strong wind howled from the underground. It was pitch black and we could barely see anything. It felt like we were walking blindly into some giant monster’s mouth. The entire place stank, and seemed to vibrate with the chattering and humming of insects.

“…. Mordred?” she whispered.

“Yes?”

“… you…. y-yy-ou didn’t mention bugs,” Lancelot stammered.

“If I did, you wouldn’t have come,” I chuckled.

“Y-y-yyou asshole! YOU KNEW! Wait, how did you know how to find this dungeon in the first place?” her curiosity overcame fear for a moment.

“Didn’t you read the newbie guide that came with your game set?”

Of course it wasn’t written in the damn Noob Guide. And of course Lancelot didn’t read the guide either. In my past resets, this dungeon wasn’t usually discovered until the third or fourth day after the server was opened. As the server matured, it would become a favorite grinding and farming spot for resources and new players alike.

And I was about to show Lancelot exactly why.

Suddenly, I felt a gauntlet reach out and tentatively grab my hand.

“H-h-old my hand. It’s so dark and I have no clue where we are headed. B-bbetter to be safe and make sure we don’t get separated.”

Her 8-foot custom-made avatar’s hands were obviously huge, too huge for me to wrap my fingers around. So, she held mine instead. Must have been a rather odd sight, a manly giant metallic suit of armor holding hands with another knight as they walked in the dark.

Smiling sheepishly, I brought Lancelot to collect the first ingredient for “breakfast”. Eggs.