Kael was the first player to get a red name. The red name meant he was a PK.It was only a light red color because the number of players he had killed was low.
"Let me check what they had," Kael murmured.
The players that died dropped some of their items. Each player dropped one item, and it was random.
One of them lost his boots, the other his weapon, and the last one didn't drop anything.
Kael smiled. The items were good—he couldn't even equip them yet, but he could sell them to another player or even an NPC.
Also, just the thought of making those players' lives harder made Kael even happier. He didn't like the way they had talked to him.
Anyway, Kael was once again alone in the forest. He sat down again to restore his MP.
When it was full, he moved further into the depths of the forest, killing more wolves that showed up!
The wolves couldn't withstand his power. A single Beast Claw was enough to kill them.
His EXP bar was growing steadily, and it didn't take that long for him to kill the 30 wolves necessary for the quest!
The items that dropped were usually Wolf Fang or Wolf Hide.
The quality of both items was low because he didn't have the necessary tools to harvest them properly.If the enemy was too damaged, then the beast's fur would be of low quality.
At one point, his friend Lucas sent him a message through the game again. He wanted to know if everything had gone well against the players.
Lucas was really shocked to know that Kael one-shotted all the players without a problem. He really wished he could get to the same city as his friend to do some content together. It would make things a lot easier for Lucas, who wasn't having as good of a time as Kael was.
Of course, he was still doing better than most players, considering he had gotten some free stats in Strength!
That was like being one level higher than everyone else at that moment because of the bonus attributes. It did make a difference.
But killing monsters with a single hit? That was impossible for him.
When Kael finally finished the first quest, killing the required wolves, he decided to stay and kill more.
The reason for it was his red name. He still had PK status, so returning to the village was not a good idea.According to what he knew about the game, the guards might attack him!
And the guards—even in that starting village—were strong. They were level 15, way higher than him.It was not a good idea to return there with PK status.
But Kael was okay with it. It wasn't like he wanted to go back to the city anytime soon.
He was in the mood to keep fighting and killing wolves, getting more and more EXP.
"The further I go, the fewer players I find, which means more monsters for me to kill!" he thought as he moved deeper into the forest.
The areas close to the village had too many players trying to kill the wolves, and that made things much harder.
It was release day, so the number of players in that starting area was as high as it could get.
At one point, Kael ended up facing three wolves at the same time! It was the first time that many monsters had come at him all at once.
Before that, the most he had fought together were two wolves—but three? That was a new record.
And surprisingly, even though he took a few hits and lost around 40 to 50% of his HP, he still won! Kael didn't think it was that hard, honestly.
Still, after the fight, he decided to stop and wait for his HP to recover. That's when he noticed just how slow natural HP regeneration was. It would take forever to fill it back up.
That's when he truly understood the importance of having a healer in a party—or at least bringing some potions along during hunts.
"I don't even have money for potions yet," he thought. "Maybe selling all these items I got could give me some gold to buy a few."
He had no idea if NPCs would pay a decent price for the wolf pelts and fangs he had collected. He hoped they would—at least enough to buy some basic healing potions.
Even with that bit of frustration, Kael decided to keep pushing forward until he couldn't anymore.
More wolves kept showing up, but most came alone or in pairs, so he was able to deal with them without taking too much damage.
Then, at some point, the number of wolves dropped sharply. In fact, Kael couldn't see a single one nearby. That was odd.
That's when he spotted something moving in the distance, deeper into the forest. Thankfully, he noticed the creature before it noticed him.
[Two-Headed Grey Wolf (Field Boss, Bronze Rank)]
[Level: 5]
It was a field boss! The first one he'd seen so far—and it definitely looked like it would drop some good loot if defeated. But it was level 5, and taking it down without a party wouldn't be easy.
Kael really wanted to fight it, but at the moment, that was just asking to die.
"I want to take it on solo, but I'll need to be higher than level 5 for that... Well, considering how fast I'm leveling, I think I can reach that today," he thought.
He was already basically level 2—he just needed to turn in the quest to hit it—and he was almost halfway toward level 3!
Kael decided it was time to return to the starting village.