Now that Nem checked everything all the background information, he decided he was finally ready to start the first quest. (about time ) Nem was excited. Due to his research, he knew that once he accepts this quest he should receive his first skill. Although he’s learned to be cautious of his expectations from his stats, Nem’s mouth couldn’t help but water a little as he thought about all the types of skills that he could receive as his first.

Generally speaking, classes are true to their names. Forgemen forge and bladewielders wield blades. Following this logic, his first skill should be something spear related, with speed and long distance as the primary focus.

Imagining the possibilities was making Nem anxious so he decided to stop torturing himself with anticipation and pressed the “accept” button for the first quest.

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Beginner’s Quest

Green Plains Subquest 1

Hunt Slimes: 0/15

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Nem wasn’t too surprised by the quest that arose. Most RPGs (Role-Playing Games) had slimes as their first mob/monster. Generally, most games categorized these as simple and weak monsters that players face to help get used to new games and hunt for easy exp (experience points which dictates how close you are to leveling up).

Nem gave a firm nod after seeing that slimes had started to spawn around him. It appeared that in the “Green Plains” monsters appeared along with the quest. Although this theory can’t be proven yet, it’s a good assumption of how this part of MobRingler works. After seeing some of these slimes, however, Nem didn’t move.

He stayed motionless, waiting for his first skill. He was afraid that moving might affect the game and make him lose out on his skill, so he continued to wait. Nem continued to wait patiently… First it was 5 seconds, then 30, then a minute, 3 minutes, and finally, after 5 minutes Nem thought he heard a sound.

Unfortunately, this sound turned out to be the sound of the slimes bouncing around. As the almost hypnotically rhythmic sounds of sloshing came from the slimes that were around Nem, he continued to stand in place. Confused and uncertain, Nem looked around him, as if some genie would magically appear and help him out.

After Nem was certain a skill wasn’t coming for him, he let out a long sigh. He wasn’t expecting too much, but to receive nothing at all? Won’t he just be walking up to the slimes and simple whacking them with his spear? Bo Fai indeed. It truly looked like this start is going to be hard.

If one wanted skills, you need to level up or do special quests/events. Since only leveling was open to Nem, at the moment, he decided to hurry and kill some slimes. Maybe if he killed a few he would level up.

As he approached his first slime, Nem noticed a few distinguishing traits. First, he saw the slime’s description that appear above the head of all characters, monsters, or other NPCs in RPG games. It read:

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Green Slimes

Lvl: 1

Hp: 50

Description: These green blobs of jello attack without discretion. Although this slime is a relatively weak monster, to beginners it still packs quite a punch! (For future reference, pun intended)

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It seemed that these slimes had 50 health. With the 10 STR that Nem currently had, it would mean that it takes 5 strikes for him to kill one of these slimes. The second thing he noticed was that these slimes were massive. Compared to Nem, these slimes are 2 to 3 times bigger. The last thing Nem observed was that these massive green goo creatures have a pink sphere inside of them. Looking at these slimes, it seemed to Nem that these parts were the slime’s weak point. After all, why else would the game developers leave such a feature to the slimes if this pink sphere didn’t serve some purpose?

Holding Bo Fai closely, Nem slowly walked up to the first slime that came close to him. Monsters have a system called aggro which is short for aggravation. Any unfortunate fellow who receives the monster’s aggro will find themselves targeted by the monster. When Nem reached 20 meters away from the slime, it’s wobbly body started wiggling towards him. When a player approaches a certain distance from the monsters, their aggro will automatically be placed onto you.

As Nem saw the slime wiggling it’s gigantic body towards him, he calmly prepared to strike it down. If Nem was scared of a lvl 1 slime, how can he call himself one of the greatest gamers alive? “These beginning monsters shouldn’t be too strong,” or so Nem thought.

When the slime reached 5 meters away from Nem, he suddenly charged at the slime. Right when the slime was in front of him, Nem leapt into the air to get himself closer to the pink sphere at the top of the slime’s body. With an exaggerated movement, Nem lifted his spear. With all his current strength, Nem slashed down viciously, hoping to break this pink sphere in one strike. As Bo Fai broke through layers of the slime’s jello body, it stopped just 5 inches short of the pink sphere. It seemed like direct confrontation wasn’t the best method.

When Nem’s strike failed, he gracefully turned his body to prepare to land back on the ground. The slime, however, had different plans. After all, the game wouldn’t be fun if the monsters didn’t fight back. All the jello that surrounded the pink sphere suddenly shaped itself into a huge hand that struck down onto Nem. (see what I meant by pun intended)

Nem, who was still in the air, had no way of dodging and could only take this strike head on. Luckily, there was a blocking mechanism in the game to help soften the dmg he would take. When the hand hit Nem, it pushed Nem down so hard that he bounced off the floor like a rubber ball. The force was so strong, that crack lines had spread everywhere from where Nem had bounced off of.

A red text appeared off the top of Nem’s head that read, “-50” This red text happened to be the dmg indicator, telling Nem that he took 50 dmg! With strength this frightening, it would mean Nem can only handle 5 strikes before he died! Even before Nem had the chance to register just how frightening this dmg was, a black shadow suddenly encompassed Nem. Looking up, this ominous shade came from the slime, that had once again prepared itself to strike Nem.

Nem wasn’t prepared for the suddenly follow up attack and could only once again try to block the gigantic jello hand. This time, he managed to get his guard up and only took 25 dmg. After smacking down on Nem, the gelatin hand once again surrounded the pink sphere and once again took it’s huge wobbly slime form.

Seeing an opportunity, Nem managed to flee a good 10 meters before he let out a sigh of relief. What just happened to him didn’t completely register until just now. Even though everything appeared hopeless, one could not forget Nem was playing a game. Although he was useless in the real world, when he was playing games, Nem would turn into a superhuman. Why? Because Nem was a big video game addict that has no talent except for gaming of course! (Sad but true)

It was thanks to this skill, however, that he happened to notice a key detail during the brief exchange with the slime earlier. When the slime is in it’s big wobbly form, it’s outer body is impossible to penetrate, however, this layer of jello that surrounds the pink sphere lessens when the slime is attacking. This is because most of the jello goes into the hand that the slime forms when it attacks, leaving only a thin line of jello connecting the hand to the equally thin line of protection that remains to protect the pink sphere. It seemed that if Nem wanted to dmg the slimes, he would have to muster up his courage and strike during the slime’s attacks. Luckily for Nem, these slimes were slow and would take a while before it returns to its natural form.It was during this small window that Nem would have an opportunity to retaliate!

Naturally, the slime wouldn’t stay docile and let Nem process these thoughts without interruption. While Nem was thinking, the slime had approached and attacked Nem several times. This time, however, Nem was prepared for its attack and managed to dodge most of the strikes. One of them, however, caught Nem while he was in the air from dodging another attack, dealing 50 more dmg. By this point, Nem only had half his health remaining and a plan that might possibly work.