The village of Colmar was a village on the outskirts of Avignguard. It was much like any other novice town. It had a few small shops, a blacksmith, a tanner, a mayor and a small inn. The game was meant to be pleasant so the village smelled surprisingly clean with the air of the fresh countryside, rather than the expected horse manure making up farmer’s fields and travel everywhere. The benefits of it being a game I suppose. A huge line of people queued at the village mayor trying for a quest, but John, playing as Corwin Swordborn had other ideas.

He headed to the town drunk to start a conversation. “Hi, I’m Corwin, it’s nice to meet you.”. “I’m Dante, can you buy me some wine. *hic*”. Corwin was convinced into buying the drunk some wine with all the money he had to his name, his whole starting 10 coppers. “I’ll be right back” he said. He headed over to the inn and purchased a bottle of cheap wine for 10 coppers, returning to Dante quickly. “Here you are good Sir, enjoy.”. Corwin received a notice that Dante’s favourability increased by 100 points. “Is there anything else I can help you with?” Corwin asked. “Well, there is one thing but it’s dangerous.” Dante replied. “Ever since my father died I’ve been overcome with grief. If someone could slay the monster that killed him I could find some peace and move on with my life. It’s dangerous however, and I don’t think you’re up for it.” he continued. “I live for danger, and I’m up for much more than you think, I’m an adventurer after all.” Corwin answered back. “Very well, the werewolf you want lives near the wolves’ den north of the village.” Dante acquiesced. At that Corwin received an alert:

UNIQUE QUEST: Werewolf Defence.

A werewolf lives on the northern outskirts of town, near the wolves’ den. Kill him and bring back his head for a reward.

Of course, even knowing where to go wasn’t enough. The werewolf was a powerful monster. So instead Corwin headed to a less crowded monster area with level 3 monsters and started to grind. The wolves were pack monsters with high attack, low defense and moderate agility. The combination was near ideal for grinding as Corwin was experienced enough to not get hit, despite not being used to playing with such a low agility stat.

While most players with the current level of experience would die here, even with a party, Corwin happily hunted, getting plentiful benefits. Firstly, higher level enemies gave out more XP. Secondly using skills on higher level enemies gave higher chances of skill points. Lastly, higher level enemies had better drops.

The fights were straightforward and Corwin used his slash skill repeatedly whenever he could to gain Skill XP with it. Without an enemy able to hit him, he settled into a peaceful rhythm as he rained slow death upon his foes. After an hour of grinding Corwin had collected 50 wolf hides. He still continued to grind for three more hours, collecting a total of 200 wolf hides. One of the wolves dropped a level 3 trash plate boots with 3 defense points and no stats, and another dropped a level 3 trash plate helm, also with 3 defense points.

Finally, at the end of four hours he levelled up. If anyone knew someone was level one at this point in the game they’d be shocked. After all, starting from level 0 it was supposed to take a full day to reach level 1. Each level in Eternity’s Wake gives 5 attribute points and Corwin put his 5 attribute points for levelling up into agility. Most swordsmen would go strength figuring that more damage led to faster leveling, however for Corwin, movement and survivability was key.

Happy with his new-found agility, Corwin headed back to town with a spring in his step. Along the way he crossed a spacious road full of players and NPC’s with players still trying unsuccessfully to get quests. NPC’s would not give quests to people they didn’t have a favorable impression of (unless they were desperate) and none of the players had done anything to gain favourability.

Corwin sold his furs to the tanner for 5 coppers each yielding a rather nice 10 silver coins. He spent all 10 coins immediately: 4 for a silver-iron mixture trash sword and offhand sword, 3 on potions of speed and 3 on potions of slow. The drawback of having a silver-iron sword was low durability, but that cost was necessary as werewolves were weak to silver. The potions of speed and slow would enhance his agility and decrease the agility of his opponent enabling his dodge to reach the maximal benefit. With three of each potion, he’d be able to last for 3 hours in a fight while having the bonuses.

Having spent his money, Corwin headed north passing through the town towards the wolves’ den. Many players had given up on finding quests and instead tried to grind mobs. The level 1 zones were a mass of people levelling. Corwin was glad to avoid the hotly contested monsters and continue on his way to bigger things.

Fairly soon he had found the werewolf. He drank a speed potion and tossed a slow potion at his enemy. This gave him 15 agility while lowering the werewolf’s to 25. The 10 difference was manageable, without the potions the werewolf would be 3 times his speed and that would be a bridge too far.

Corwin brandished his silver sword and dodged repeatedly taking the chance to hit the werewolf as openings presented themselves. The silver was effective, giving a stacking damage over time effect that quickly dwarfed the damage of the weapon itself. Even with the DoT the werewolf was quite powerful, a chieftain monster of level 5. When fighting enemies of higher level in Eternity’s wake, damage is reduced by level suppression. The level suppression reduced Corwin’s weapon damage to a minimum of 1, but fortunately the stacking damage was unaffected. Of course, killing a chieftain while doing minimum damage is a slow task so Corwin was in it for the long haul. The first hour went flawlessly, reducing the enemy to 60% health. Corwin renewed his speed potion and hit the werewolf with a slow again before grinding it to 20% health. At this point the hardest part of the fight started, the werewolf went berserk.

Fortunately, werewolves only gain 5 agility when berserk, they mostly gain additional strength. Dodging was still manageable but the pressure was intense, at this point one hit would certainly kill Corwin forcing him to respawn down an item, likely the expensive silver sword, as well as wasting the 6 potions he’d used. Fortunately, his skills were sharp and he didn’t get hit. As Corwin approached exhaustion he landed one last hit and the stack ticked lethal on the werewolf.

At this point Corwin received a slew of server announcements and rewards:

Congratulations to “Corwin Swordborn” for the first kill of a Chieftain monster in Eternity’s Wake, rewarding 3 Tier 1 Gemstones, 20 gold and 2,000,000XP.

Congratulations to “Corwin Swordborn” for the first kill of a Chieftain monster in Altaea, rewarding 2 Tier 1 Gemstones, 10 gold and 1,000,000 XP.

Congratulations to “Corwin Swordborn” for the first kill of a Chieftain monster in Avignguard. Rewarding 1 Tier 1 Gemstone, 5 gold and 500,000 XP.

Players were shocked that anyone could kill a chieftain this fast, after all the lowest level chieftain was a level 5 monster and they still believed everyone was level 0. Level 5 to Level 6 took 30,000,000 XP in this game so normally this reward would be a small boost. However, Level 4 took only 1,600,000 to reach so this XP filled up his bar all the way to 55% of level 5 (4,000,000 XP with the XP from killing the chieftain).

He looked at his gemstones, getting three agility gemstones, two strength gemstones and one constitution gemstone. Since he wanted agility he was quite happy with this selection. Gemstones could be slotted in armor but once slotted would be destroyed if removed. Each tier 1 gemstone gave +5 to the respective stat, so they were equivalent of 1 level worth of stats by themselves. Normally gemstones would only be useful if you had top tier equipment that would last a long time for them. Unfortunately, most equipment got replaced every level. Fortunately, for Corwin he was planning on getting some growth type equipment that would stay with him for a long long time, making these gemstones something that could eventually become quite useful.

But first things first, it was time to loot the werewolf. He got the quest item werewolf’s head, a level 5 common off-hand sword and a single mana crystal.

At this point it’s best to explain the levels of equipment, in order from worst to best they are: trash, common, bronze, iron, silver, gold, epic, legendary, celestial, and divine. Almost all items sold in the village are trash, so getting common equipment this early is quite exciting. Furthermore, it’s a sword, which is an essential equipment for a swordsman. Of course, it would take three more levels before he could use it, but it was still something to look forward to.

Corwin returned to the village and approached the town drunk. “I believe this is what you wanted” Corwin spoke while giving Dante the werewolf’s head. “That was quite quick. Thank you for slaying the werewolf that killed my father. I can finally live a life of peace.” After a brief pause Dante continued “In return I’ll give you this ring from my adventuring days, it grew with me. Unfortunately, the growth resets when it changes hands, but if you nurture it you’ll find it quite a powerful item.”

Quest complete: Rating: S

Experience reward: 2,000,000XP

Quest Reward: Ring of Hidden Attributes.

Ring of Hidden Attributes (Divine Growth Type – Currently Level 0 Trash)

Can be upgraded by sacrificing 5 trash rings. Can be evolved by sacrificing a mana crystal.

Current effects none.

Known benefits: None

The base attributes in the game were Strength(Str) which affected damage, Agility(Agi) which affected movement and coordination, Constitution(Con) which affected health, Intelligence(Int) which affected spellcasting damage and mana, and Charisma(Cha) which influenced likability with NPCs. There were also hidden attributes like Stamina(sta) which affected how far a player could exert their character before a collapse, Luck(Lck) which affected ability drops and Concentration(Cnc) which influenced the ability to learn techniques. Corwin knew this ring was special as raising hidden attributes is extremely rare in Eternity’s Wake, and he knew at higher levels that was precisely what this ring did.

Corwin Swordborn

Spoiler : Level: 4 (75% of level 5)

Str: 5 (Base: 5)

Agi: 25 (Base: 25)

Con: 5 (Base: 5)

Int: 5 (Base: 5)

Cha: 5 (Base:5)

HP: 210/210 (100+CON per level)

MP: 210/210 (100+INT per level)

Def: 5 (CON + Item Def)

MDef: 5 (INT + Item Def)

MW: Trash Tier Iron-Silver Longsword. Damage 5-10 Durability 4/5 Requirements: None

OW: Trash Tier Iron-Silver Shortsword Damage 2-5 Durability 4/5 Requirements: None

MA: None

LA: None

B: None

G: None

RR: Trash Level 0, Hidden Ring of Attributes (Divine Growth Ring)

LR: None

AM: None

MW=Main Weapon OW=Offhand Weapon MA= Main Armor LA = Leg Armor B= Boots G= Gloves RR = Right Ring, LR = Left Ring, AM = Amulet