But by the time I put that four down, two more pirates had appeared on the horizon. These I already habitually finished off in four seconds. The only problem I had with the four was that I had to dodge all of their attacks. If I hadn't the Discharge, I wouldn't have made it out alive. After finishing with the second group, two more deuces appeared in front of me. For someone else, such a battle of 'attrition' might seem difficult, but I only used simple spear attacks and the Discharge, so I could continue fighting in this mode for at least twenty-four hours.

After five minutes, flow of pirates stopped, and I was able to catch my breath. But as soon as I took a couple of dozen steps forward, I heard faint shouts ahead. After waiting for a minute, I waited for the appearance of two groups of pirates of two and three fighters. Fortunately, there was some distance between them, so by the time the second group got to me, I managed to kill two of the pirates from the first group.

Apparently, the pirates noticed me at a great distance, and then ran to meet me. Their movement through the forest took some time, so I noticed them late. If I walk too fast, I could attract too many enemies. And if walk slowly, I could wait for the resurrection of the opponents behind me.

I picked up the right pace of movement, at which I did not waste much time waiting for the arrival of the enemy. However, I suspected there might be a trap. Accustomed to moving at a constant speed, I could enter into the zone of aggression of a large number of enemies at once. Therefore, I not only went forward and fought the pirates, but also listened to the surrounding sounds. Every time the pirates sensed my approach, they screamed, and those screams could be heard.

A couple of times I had to run to escape from a dozen enemies, but in general, the path was quite simple. For a couple of hours, I 'cut' a passage among the pirates, getting out to the coveted pier. It was only when the wooden deck was within sight that I noticed that the 'boatman' was not there. When I went to the pier itself, I saw a system message that said that he would return only in an hour and a half.

Considering this situation as a possible trap, I headed away from the pier, intending to climb a prominent rock from which to view the surrounding area. My movement was again accompanied by a fight with the natives, but there were no surprises. Fifteen minutes later I was sitting on the top of the cliff, looking around. The view from here was wonderful. Ten minutes later, I made sure there was a trap on the pier. On the main road, suddenly, whole crowd of pirates approached to pier, who stupidly trampled around the pier and went back.

For the next three hours, I sat on a rock, occasionally fighting off the resurrected pirates. As it turned out, there were several patrols on the main road, and they appeared at irregular intervals. But since the composition of these groups was different, I was able to identify them and make a 'schedule' of their movement.

By the time I decided to act, the boatman had long been bored on the pier. It took me ten minutes to reach my destination. I had timed it so that I could get there at the moment when patrols go away. Last time, I was lucky enough to get to this place just when there was a big break in the patrol schedule.

When I reached the boatman, I immediately asked him a question:

“How much does it cost the trip to Crab Island?”

"Ten silver coins." - A bored voice answered me.

“Let's go.” - I showed the money.

"Where are you in a hurry? Please, sit down and take rest.”

“We'll rest in the morgue.” - I replied, climbing into the boat under the surprised gaze of the boatman. Now, to take the money, he also had to go down from the pier to the boat. And since the silver beckoned him with its brilliance, my trip began in ten seconds. Just as we were turning on our course for Crab Island, a crowd of pirates ran up to the pier, shouting loudly and even jumping up and down in rage. But I wasn't interested in this whole circus anymore.

The way to the island was not fast. We sailed for more than an hour, until we landed near a small village. There wasn't even a pier, so I had to take a walk in the water, which didn't bother me at all. It was already past noon, so I had to hurry to get to the capital, pass the exam there, and then buy the necessary equipment.

Judging by the map of the island, I had to run to the village where my crab hunt began, and then use the portal. Just think, at the beginning, fifty coppers were a lot of money for me. But now I have fifty gold coins in my pocket. However, with such money, I should be ten times more careful. Or even a thousand times.

But all my fears were in vain. I didn't see anyone all the way. But in the village, as soon as I approached the portal, a neutral NPC came out to meet me. His whole appearance showed his own importance. Blocking the way, he pointed his hand at me, pointing with his index finger, and said:

"Cheater, you are accused of poaching the Great King Crabs, as well as conspiring with the Crooked Sword pirates. For this I sentence you to a fee in amount of...”

The bureaucrat didn’t have time to say amount of fee, because I banally behead him with one attack. NPC was level one and had 50 health. His whole appearance and cheeky demeanor said: “Kill me”. And I did not deny myself this pleasure.

In the guides, it was said that there are several forces in the world that are an alternative to legitimate power. The player could enter into a confrontation with these forces, but still retain access to the main cities and NPCs. Even if you were a bloody thug, no one could stop you from passing the level-up exam or using a safe deposit box in a bank.

The NPC I killed was a representative of the Royal Court. The King of Crab Island was a nominal ruler with very little power. But that didn't stop him from acting like he was commanding a galactic-scale army.

After a few more steps, I reached the portal, paid to the mage who served it, and teleported to the city. Then I was immediately surrounded by the hubbub and the crowds of players rushing in different directions.

Firstly, I went to the bank, where I rented a 'personal warehouse', which I immediately loaded with gold, a hat, and a purple magician's wand. I only kept a couple of dozen coins of silver for myself, which should have been enough to buy up the entire local market.

The next destination was the branch of the Council of Magicians, where I could pass the level-raising exam. To pass the exam, I chose a fight with a clumsy, but "fat" opponent. With my foresight of future, I should have easily dodged his attacks. In fact, it was necessary to fight him with the help of basic spells of the magician, so he could not be a strong opponent in principle. At the very least, it is unlikely that a battle with one monster can be compared to a battle with four pirates at once.

But the first fight immediately showed that it is too early for me to rejoice. I shamefully lost it. The opponent was a large and fat troll who had 500 health. I rushed to his body, dodged a ridiculous wave of his hand, and then hit him three times with my spear. In the end, I deal to him a little more than 150 damege. And then the troll stamped his foot. I thought it was just another skill for 'crowd control', but it turned out to be a circular AOE attack, which took away all my 100 health at one time.

After being resurrected at the rebirth point, I went to the library. There I read in detail about all the opponents on tests for different levels, their characteristics, skills and strategies of killing. Passing the exam turned out to be a non-trivial task, and without the appropriate knowledge, you could try to pass it for a very long time. At the same time, it should be taken into account that passing the exam cost money, so each failed attempt was an expensive pleasure. At least for those who weren't Earth mages.

Coming back to the Council of Magicians, I paid for another exam with the same type of opponent. Only this time it was Ent who came out against me. This revived tree had only 200 health points, which was compensated by good armor and magical protection. The Ent attacked with its branches, which it had about a dozen. Also, he also used slow and stopping spells. This time I did not relax, but immediately turned on my intuition and killed the enemy without taking a single unit of damage.

When I left the arena, I read the notification about getting the second level, and then immediately applied to pass a test for next level. I chose the same type of opponent. For me, this was the easiest type of enemy.

In the arena, I met a troll I already knew. Only in this exam, the troll could use the 'Fire Aura' spell, which dealt damage to all targets within a five-meter radius. At the same time, during the preparation for the use of the aura, the troll will start to blaze with fire, so you either had to choose a very precise moment to apply the Discharge, or use Paralysis to 'stun' the troll, not allowing him to chase you with the turned on aura.

However, all this knowledge was not useful to me. This opponent had 600 health, but it didn't help him much. I dealt him 52 damage in one spear strike. Running up to the troll, I used the strategy that the Scout applied on me. I went behind my opponent and started stabbing him right in the ass. When he tried to apply Earth Concussion spell, I used Discharge. After that, he spun and ran erratically for three seconds, trying to escape from me, and by the time the opponent decided to use the Fire Aura, he had only 60 health points left.

After getting the third level, I immediately applied for the next exam. It was already worth one silver coin, but for me it was a penny. As I entered the arena, I saw a Large Venomous Toad. She had 600 health, could attack with her tongue and with a poisonous aura, plus she could jump a decent distance, while trying to fall directly on the player's head. Such a 'cover' was equivalent to bombing the area and guaranteed to kill the player, inflicting almost a thousand damage.

Here I had to run around, banally hitting the enemy with a Magic Arrow. When trying to get close, the toad immediately 'farted' the poison, so I could not hit it more than one blow in a row. A third-level mage had a Bombardment spell that dealt 30 damage per second to all targets in a given area. This spell was of the 'continuous use' type. That is, the magician could stand still and constantly cast it. And you can't even just stand on the spot, and use a variety of movement skills from the group of steps. But since I didn't have this spell, I just had to stupidly cast mana into Magic Arrows. That's where I could use my purple wand. But now it was lying forlornly in the bank. The weapon could not be changed during the fight, but before attacking the toad, I could easily replace the spear with a wand.

In general, I won only because I could predict the 'shots' with her tongue, plus I had a 'buff' from porridge to regenerate energy. After the victory, I went to the bank after the wand, and then applied for the fifth level. As it turned out, my decision to take the wand was correct, because I met the toad again. But this time, her aura was much stronger, plus she could jump while the aura was in effect, so dodging the 'toxic bomb' was very difficult. But since this time I could do not 10, but all 20 damage per second, so, 800 life points of toad demolished in just a minute. I had to spend some time dodging, and given the activation time of the Magic Arrow, I could shoot it once every 1.25 seconds, not once per second.

As soon as the toad died, I immediately received a level 5 notification. A second later, another record of mine popped up in the world chat.

***'Player Cheater has set a level-upping record on the server by rising 4 levels in 18 minutes.'

WTF, why as soon as I do something, I immediately set some kind of record? Actually, I don't want to draw attention to myself at all.

But before I could complain, another system message appeared before me.

***'Players White Lily, Fat Plump, Dramg the Magnificent, Lot Thoughts, Sharp Long Sword were the first on the server to pass the Bottomless Pit dungeon.'

Well, someone else has managed to set a record. And I see a familiar name here. Dramg, it turns out, he is enough cool. While I was getting out of the pirate island, he managed to pass the dungeon. However, he could not set a record. Apparently, he was dragging his teammates on his back.

But before I could be happy for my friend, a paid message from the player Fat Plump appeared in the global chat. This pleasure cost one silver, and it was impossible to send more than one message per day.

***“Don't play with Dramg. He nearly killed the whole team eight times.”

Lol. But this is not surprising. If a person has not been able to achieve anything on the first server in ten years, what are the chances that he will become a genius just by switching to a new server?

"Where are you?" - I received a personal message from Dramg.

“I passing the exam for level 6.” - I replied, applying for the next battle.

To be honest, I wasn't sure I could win. I was lucky enough to have this toad. She was considered the most 'primitive' opponent. But while there is an opportunity, I need to try to go further. Up to the seventh, all levels were 'passable'. That is, you could take them with a minimum of abilities. But from the eighth to the tenth, levels were will be obtained with sweat and blood. There were a total of fifteen levels in the game, and only the 'elite' rose above the tenth. There, the difficulty increased exponentially, and the guides said that in the ten years of the game's existence on the first server, only a couple of dozen players received the fifteenth level.