The confrontation between [Overlord], [Daydreamer], and Ethan in the safe zone was quickly spread online by other players.
Players from other safe zones didn't pay much attention to the whole thing. Only the players from Safe Zone 9527 were locked in heated debate over it.
The vast majority of players didn't have much faith in Ethan, thinking that with Coffin Guild targeting him, he'd be stuck in the safe zone forever unless another guild stepped in to help.
The rest of the players were busy discussing Ethan's luck and the purple-grade Intel reward he scored, trying to figure out what caused it and how much it could actually be worth.
No one thought [Windchaser] could hold out for long. After all,"Dawnfall Online" doesn't allow you to delete your character and start over. As long as Coffin Guild kept targeting [Windchaser], there was no way he could leave the safe zone.
Ethan's wandering around the safe zone was taken by these players as a sign that he'd given up fighting back.
It took less than an hour for the Coffin Guild's players assigned to tail Ethan to go from watching him like a hawk to barely glancing his way every now and then.
There were a lot of Coffin Guild players, but their skill levels varied wildly. The ones sent to keep tabs on Ethan definitely weren't the top gamers.
Most of Coffin Guild's real pros had gotten wiped out in Frostspire Tower by the"Ice Virus Zero Prototype," and right now, they were busy grinding monsters and leveling up.
Ethan waited for the perfect moment and, after dodging his watchers'line of sight a few times, managed to shake off the Coffin Guild players altogether.
When he replied to [Lucas] earlier, saying he didn't need to leave the safe zone for now, it was because he could still hunt new monsters and get stronger inside Safe Zone 9527.
He still remembered seeing a guide titled: [Must-Read for Players Below Level 8! Newbies Can't Miss This Quest: Clearing Out Mutant Rats in the Sewers...] All you had to do was find the NPC who posted the quest and accept it. After that, you could access the sewer map of Safe Zone 9527.
Coffin Guild probably wouldn't even remember this quest until long after Ethan had disappeared.
And this quest could only be accepted by players under level eight. If Ethan was fast enough and efficient enough, he might just be able to turn things around!
Once Ethan leveled up in the sewer map, with his current weapons, gear, and items, your average level seven player wouldn't stand a chance against him.
Even in the worst-case scenario—getting swarmed by a bunch of level seven Coffin Guild players—he could still use [Frostheart] to dish out some serious damage.
Soon, Ethan hurried over to a large landfill area inside Safe Zone 9527.
The place was littered with reeking garbage and rotting monster corpses, the whole area stinking to high heaven.
Ethan didn't rush in right away; instead, he found a secluded corner and scoped things out for a while. After he saw a few players bail because they couldn't handle the stench, Ethan finally stepped into the dump.
There wasn't a single other player around.
As soon as Ethan entered the dump, a voice rang out from nearby, saying:
"Hey kid, strangers aren't welcome here."
Ethan shook his head and replied,"I'm just here for a quest."
A huge, overweight guy—easily two meters tall and wearing thick, black gloves—slowly emerged from behind a pile of trash, giving Ethan a once-over and muttering:
"You're not strong enough. All you're good for is clearing out those damn sewer rats. Here, put this on and the poison gas won't bother you."
This hulking NPC rummaged a gas mask out of a nearby pile of garbage and tossed it to Ethan.
Ethan frowned a little, checked out the gas mask on the ground, and picked it up. It wasn't too filthy, so he figured it would do.
Honestly,"Dawnfall Online" really nailed that gross-out factor in some areas.
The quest-giver NPC went on,"Kill a mutant rat, bring me its front tooth, and you'll get some points. You can spend those points to trade for stuff here."
Ethan followed the direction the NPC was pointing, spotting heaps and heaps of trash stacked up all around.
Obviously, the points you get from killing mutant rats can only be used to trade for junk from the trash piles.
No wonder that guide barely mentioned the points system or what you could actually get with them.
Ethan slowly put on the gas mask, then looked at the quest-giving NPC and asked,"I'm ready now. Can I start the quest?"
The massive, overweight NPC nodded, took a few steps to the side, and revealed a manhole cover at his feet.
Ethan opened the manhole cover, about to climb down, when something occurred to him.
Neither the guide nor the earlier conversation had mentioned the NPC's name. It seemed like, in"Dawnfall Online," players couldn't see the names of monsters or NPCs right off the bat—you had to figure that out yourself.
Ethan decided to ask,"By the way, what's your name?"
The NPC didn't answer at all. Instead, he tossed Ethan a filthy blueprint and walked off into the garbage heap without another word.
Ethan didn't dwell on it, picked up the blueprint, and gave it a careful look.
He was really here to hunt new monsters, score some fresh Intel drops, and level up. The rest didn't matter much.
In the dark, damp, and foul-smelling sewers, Ethan, wearing his gas mask, held his breath.
Even with the mask on, the stench down here was brutal. He felt nauseous, like he might throw up.
If he had to describe it, it was like someone had stuffed an entire landfill's worth of trash into a sealed container and left it to rot in the heat.
After standing still for a bit, Ethan finally managed to get used to the smell—barely.
He opened up his wrist device, pulled some gear out of his storage, and suited up.
[Filthy Hard Hat]
[Quality]: Green
[Equip Requirement]: None
[Equip Effect]: Increases the wearer's defense by 1 point
[Description]: You never know if what falls from the sky will be a pie or a brick.
...
[Ripped Work Pants]
[Quality]: White
[Equip Requirement]: None
[Description]: At the very least, these pants will cover up your important bits.
...
[Worn Protective Gloves]
[Quality]: Green
[Equip Requirement]: None
[Equip Effect]: Increases the wearer's Strength by 1 point
[Description]: Put on these gloves and you can snap your fingers—of course, nothing special will actually happen.
All three pieces of gear were dropped by Coffin Guild players. Ethan figured he might get some use out of them, so he didn't sell them to [Lucas] and kept them instead.
Ethan glanced at his character stats on his wrist device. The display read:
[Name]: Windchaser
[Talent]: Pain Resistance (Blue), Ten-Thousandfold Intelligence Reward (Unknown)
[Level]: lv5
[Class]: None
[Status]: Normal
[Equipment]: Cotton Underwear (Gray Quality), Frostblade (Blue Quality), Filthy Hard Hat (Green Quality), Worn Protective Gloves (Green Quality), Shabby Down Jacket (Gray Quality), Busted Sneakers (White Quality), Ripped Work Pants (White Quality)
[HP]: 100%
[Strength]: 12 (3 points from gear)
[Speed]: 10 (1 point from gear)
[Defense]: 5 (1 point from gear)
[Energy]: 9
[Charisma]: 10
[Luck]: 1
[Attribute Points]: 2
[Inventory]: Hellblade Class Intel (Orange Quality), Frostspire Tower Blueprints, Frostheart (Blue Quality), Bloodthirsty Longblade (Blue Quality)...
Right now, he still had 2 attribute points left, which could be invested in [Strength], [Speed], [Defense], or [Energy]. As for [Energy], only [Frostblade] and [Frostheart] required it.
Ethan thought it over for a moment. His [Strength] was already getting a 3-point boost from his gear, so there was no urgent need to increase it further.
[Defense] was currently his lowest stat, so it made sense to bump it up a bit.
Ethan went ahead and put both attribute points into [Defense], bringing his total to 7.
Once everything was ready, Ethan started moving deeper into the sewers, following the map.
He had barely walked ten meters when, aside from the sound of running sewage, he heard something gnawing on something hard.