So there I was. Kenistoocoolforu69, level one warrior, standing in front of a tree like it personally owed me money.
I swung my starter ax, the one I didn't even have yet, genius me forgetting you need a weapon to cut a tree.
Rookie mistake number one."System," I muttered. "Why do I already feel like it's mocking me."
No reply. Okay. It's a system. Not my mom.
I went back to the little weapon stall by the wood cutter NPC. The shopkeeper was an old man with a beard that seemed physically impossible, like it had its own zip code."Greetings, adventurer," he said, in that flat NPC voice that somehow still had more personality than half my high school teachers. "Anything?"
I looked in my pouch of coins. 5000 C to my name, a fortune I was gonna blow in ten seconds.
**[ Rusty Hatchet - F Rank]**
Price: 800 C
**DMG: 3-5 | Durability: 20**
The cheapest thing on the rack. I wasn't going to spend 2500 C on the 'basic weapon' in the main quest line when this tiny little hatchet would do the same job on a tree that never fights back. I could tell already that money management was going to be a whole thing in this game.
I bought it. . . . 4200 C remains. Felt wealthy. Was not wealthy.
Back to the tree. Swing one.
**[-2 Durability]**
Number two.
**[+1 Woodcutting EXP]**
Oh, there's a skill for that? Nobody said that in the YouTube videos I definitely watched all the way through and didn't skip to the "best starting build" part of.
My arms felt like wet noodles by the third tree. Weird, considering this was a full-dive headset, and in real life I was lying on my couch doing absolutely nothing. Apparently the pain response was "immersive" which, cool, thanks, real cool devs.System why does this hurt. . . .
"Pain slider default at 40% "Adjust settings."
Didn't know that was an option. I could immediately turn it down to 10%. No more physical labor at 40% ever. Virtual or otherwise.
---
At tree number seven I knew I was not alone.
There was another player -- avatar looked maybe sixteen -- hacking away at the tree next to mine with what looked like a much better ax than my sad little hatchet. There was a kid. Handle, silver-ish Definitely not F rank."First day?" he asked, without looking up.That clear?" "You are on the trash quest on day one. "You only got two types of folks that do that. Broke folks, and folks that don't know it's trash yet."...I know it's crap "I'm doing this on purpose.
He actually stopped chopping for that one. Intentionally. Right. "I need to hear this"
So I told him so. The whole plan, friends coming back from break in a month, wanting to start around the same level, using the wood quest to bank stat points instead of racing ahead on XP that I'd have to babysit alone anyway.
For a moment he was quiet. And then he laughed, not meanly, but sort of like you laugh when somebody says they are going to do something you know is going to bite them."Actually, not too bad," he said. "People jump into the main quest line day one 'cause the guides tell them to. Nobody thinks about * pace *. Respect.Thank you. I think." "BTW, Dario is the name. Murderer. Well - gonna be, once I upgrade twice and pray to RNG for something spicy.Ken the warrior. Apparently, no praying needed. I've got the luck of a dial-up connection."
He smiled, and returned to his tree. We chopped in silence for a while, which was honestly good. First friend I made in the game and I hadn't even finished the tutorial quest yet.
---
**[Quest Progress: Chop 4/10 trees]**
Sort of half. My hatchet was down to 6 durability, which meant it was going to explode into wood hatchet heaven pretty soon and I was gonna be out another 800 C I didn't strictly have room for.
That's when the notification came up.
Nearby, a rare monster has spawned: Ashback Boar (D Rank).
Dario's head shot up so fast I heard his neck crack, which again, 10% pain slider, so that must've been rough for him.D Rank. On the *first map*. "Ken, do you know how rare that is?""No?"I don't honestly either but everyone in party chat is losing it so it's gotta be good"
I looked toward the trees. Something big shuffled between the trunks, dark red fur catching the weird golden light this game thought was apparently 'afternoon'. My brain, still very much a first-day noob brain, did the math. I had a wood-cutting hatchet with 6 durability, zero potions, and a stat build that put one whole point into strength above the baseline.
Dario, meanwhile, was already backing toward it with something that looked suspiciously like excitement and not at all like the self-preservation instinct I was currently begging him to develop. "You can't be serious . . .Ken." My man. My guy. It might be a month's gold in a single drop."
And at that moment, it dawned on me something very important about this game, something the YouTube videos should have started with:
The plan is always the plan until the game has other ideas.
...To be continued