"Hey! What the hell is going on?! What is this place?!"
"I don't know! I just went to sleep, and the next thing I knew, I was here. Is this… a dream?"
"This feels too real to be a dream."
"What? You're telling me this is not a dream?!"
"Oh no… someone help me! I thought it was a dream, so I put my alias as… Poop Eating Prince."
"Oi! You disgusting bastard! Why the hell would you choose that as your alias, even in a dream?!"
Panic filled the air.
People ran in all directions, some sitting in corners, clutching their heads and muttering nonsense. The smarter ones were busy studying the system prompts, trying to assess the situation.
Amidst the chaos, a figure clad in black and gold emerged from the spawning fountain, drawing every eye.
"Who is that?"
"Why does he look different from us? Could he… be the organizer of all this?"
"He… he does give off a powerful, commanding, and almost godly aura."
"What? He's the organizer? Great! I'm going to ask him if there's any way to change my alias. I cannot be known as Poop Eating Prince!"
But before anyone could approach, the figure vanished right before their eyes, as if he had never existed.
"Nooooo! Someone help me change my alias!"
…
[Welcome to Newbie Town: Ashen Hollow]
Seojin sat atop a ruined building, watching translucent blue prompts flicker before his eyes — each line peeling back another layer of this strange new world. Although he knew everything, he could not skip these.
[You have entered: Newbie Town – Ashen Hollow]
[Zone Type: Peaceful Area — Combat Disabled, No Monsters Present, No NPCs Present]
[Current NTLE Decay Rate: 1x]
[Life Essence is the foundation of existence in Gods' Fallen Sanctum.]
[Tradeable Life Essence (TLE): Used to purchase items, equipment, or trade with other players and NPCs.]
[Non-Tradeable Life Essence (NTLE): Represents your remaining lifespan. It cannot be traded, sold, or transferred.]
[Warning: When NTLE reaches zero, your soul will permanently dissipate — both in GFS and in the real world.]
Seojin exhaled softly. I still remember the panic I felt when I first read this… I didn't even consider it might be an opportunity. He smiled faintly at the memory of his naive self.
[Method for Acquisition of Life Essence]
[Defeat monsters or trade with NPCs to gain TLE and NTLE. Converting TLE to NTLE is possible only through specific relics or with the help of some NPCs.]
[Warning!!!: Death results in a 50% loss of total Life Essence (TLE + NTLE).]
[Objective: Leave town, hunt monsters, and reach Level 3 to freely exit and enter GFS.]
"Ok, now let's quickly check my character panel, skills, and equipment so I can get to work," said Seojin, opening his Character Panel.
[Alias: Loki]
[Class: Godslayer]
[Level: 1]
[NTLE: 70 years]
[TLE: 0]
— Core Attributes —
[Strength: 10]
[Constitution: 10]
[Agility: 10]
[Mana: 10]
— Special Stats —
[Critical Rate: 25%]
[Critical Damage: 300%]
[Stealth: +1]
[Aether: 0]
[Free Attribute Points: 4]
[Evolution Points: 1]
The status screen felt familiar yet strangely unfamiliar to Seojin.
"Ten bonus points in agility!? And even four special stats?! Are these the Omni-class initial bonuses?!" Seojin said in disbelief.
Everyone had four core stats. Whenever someone leveled up, each core stat increased by one point, and the player received four free attribute points to distribute as they wished.
But special stats were different. They were unique to each class and sometimes granted by equipment or relics. The only ways to increase them were through class advancement or special items—they did not increase upon leveling up.
Seojin quickly tapped on his class name to finally unveil what kind of class he had received.
[GODSLAYER]
Passive 1: Acquire Critical Rate stat. Critical Rate: +25%
Passive 2: Acquire Critical Damage stat. Critical Damage: +300%
Passive 3: Acquire Stealth stat. Stealth: +1
Passive 4: Deal 10% increased damage to anything with "God" in its name.
Passive 5: The first attack after breaking stealth will deal double damage.
Seojin could not believe his eyes. His whole body trembled with excitement.
"Fi-five passives!? This is unheard of—and the stat bonuses are ridiculously high!"
'This class isn't joking with the name Godslayer. Even if I level up normally, I might actually be able to kill gods… or even better, one-shot them. And this is without class advancement,' he thought, his lips curling into a grin.
He then switched to the Skills tab.
[Skills]
Vanish (Active) (Crude): Enter stealth for 10 seconds. Attacking or being attacked breaks stealth. (CD: 30 sec)
Backstab (Passive) (Crude): Attacking a target from behind increases damage by 10%.
Assassination (Passive) (Crude): Increases damage by 100% against enemies below 5% health.
"Hmm, nothing special on the skill tab, huh?" Seojin muttered, a hint of disappointment in his voice.
After seeing the passives from his class, he had expected some ridiculously overpowered abilities. But these were standard starting assassin skills.
"Wait a minute—what about my fourth stat?" he said, noticing the unexplained Aether value. He tapped it several times, but no description appeared. There was no mention of it anywhere in the Class or Skill panels.
"And the Evolution Point thing too… what's that?" Seojin wondered, touching the Evolution Point section. Unlike Aether, this one did respond.
[Evolution Points can be used to evolve skills. Can be acquired by killing boss monsters.]
"What?! Skill evolution?!"
Seojin's eyes widened. He quickly opened the skill tab again and pressed on Vanish. Sure enough, a golden panel appeared before him.
[Would you like to use 1 EP to evolve "Vanish"?]
He pressed yes without hesitation.
[Vanish (Crude) → Vanish (Common)]
[Stealth Duration: 10 → 12 seconds]
[Cooldown: 30 → 28 seconds]
"Hahaha! Just when I thought things couldn't get crazier—I'm hit with this!" he laughed, half in disbelief and half in exhilaration.
Normally, the only way to advance a skill's tier was by advancing your class or by finding an incredibly rare skill-upgrade drop from monsters with higher-tier abilities.
"You're telling me I can just evolve my skills if I have enough Evolution Points? Hahaha!" Seojin was losing it—this was beyond broken.
He completely forgot about the Aether stat and didn't even stop to consider why the system called them Evolution Points instead of Advancement Points, which later on will give him quite a surprise.
Without another thought, Seojin sprinted out of town toward the forest beyond Ashen Hollow, eager to test his newfound power and begin his leveling.