Liam stepped through the shimmering portal and found himself in Duskwind Village, one of the many beginner villages scattered across the first human continent of Eldoria.
Every new player was randomly assigned to one of these villages, each surrounded by forests, plains, or marshlands filled with weak but dangerous creatures.
The village was bustling with new players who had just entered the game, their eyes wide with curiosity.
Some ran towards the blacksmith, others aimlessly wandered, testing out the controls.
A few formed parties and swung their wooden swords at stationary training dummies. Liam, however, did not waste time.
Ignoring the distractions, he made his way directly to the village chief, an elderly NPC with a long white beard, standing beside the central fountain.
"You must be another adventurer, seeking your fortune in Eldoria," the chief said, his voice warm.
"If you wish to contribute to the village, I have a task for you. The local dire wolves have become aggressive. Slay five of them and bring me their fangs."
Ding
Quest – Kill 5 Dire Wolves. Accept Y/N
Success - +20 reputation Eldoria, 50 copper coins, 200 exp
Failure Penalty – None
Time Limit - None
Accept!
A simple quest. Most players would accept it and rush to kill the wolves immediately.
All of the classes had access to basic weapons and spells, so killing a few wolves would be very easy. But this quest was even repeatable, meaning that new players could not farm a couple of levels out of this quest.
But Liam was different. He looked around and noticed an old woman struggling to carry a basket. He spoke to her.
"Hello Ma'am, is there anything you need help with?"
"Oh, dear adventurer, thank you for asking", the old woman smiled at Liam
"I need some wolf fur to line my grandson's winter coat. Could you bring me some?" she asked.
Ding
Quest – Collect 3 Wolf fur. Accept Y/N
Success - +15 reputation Eldoria, 100 exp
Failure Penalty – None
Time Limit – None
Accept!
Another quest! Liam nodded and accepted it before heading to the local herbalist, a hunched-over man surrounded by drying herbs.
"The dire wolves in the forest have been coated in a strange poisonous residue lately," the herbalist said. "I need some of their tainted claws to study the toxin. Could you help?"
Ding
Quest – Gather 3 tainted claws from Dire wolves in outskirts of Duskwind Village. Accept Y/N
Success - +30 reputation Eldoria, 100 exp, 1 Anti-Bleeding Potion
Failure Penalty – None
Time Limit – None
Three quests, all connected to the same monster. If Liam hadn't spoken to these NPCs beforehand, he would have had to grind wolves three separate times to complete their quests. With a smirk, he accepted the final quest and moved on.
Also, the 2nd and 3rd quests were available only 5 times per novice village, meaning that only 5 players could complete it!
While the money and experience was not as hard to get, reputation was a huge deal!
Faction gear, hidden quests, merchant discounts, all were tied to the reputation system
With everything ready, he equipped his basic two-handed mace, checked his skill list, and stepped into the Duskwind Forest.
The Duskwind Forest was a shadowy expanse, its towering trees casting long, eerie shadows across the ground. The air was thick with the scent of damp earth and the distant howls of dire wolves. Liam's boots crunched against the fallen leaves as he moved deeper into the woods, his mace gripped tightly in his hands
Suddenly, Liam spotted a lone wolf and made his move.
[Dire Wolf - Level 1]
HP – 500/180 MP – 50/50
The beast snarled and lunged at him. Liam swung his mace in a basic attack.
[-40 HP]
[Waveforce]
His mace crashed into the ground, sending a shockwave forward.
[-250 HP]
The wolf retaliated, biting his arm.
[-300 HP] Bleed effect applied: -100 HP per second for 10 seconds.
Liam glanced at his dwindling health and mana. Potions were scarce, and resting to recover would waste precious time. He had to be careful—every hit mattered, every skill had to count. This was the harsh reality of solo play in Eternal Nexus.
"Annoying," Liam muttered and activated his skill again—
[Waveforce]
[-250 HP]
The Dire Wolf has been slain!
A small notification popped up—
[Drop: Wolf Fang x1, Wolf Fur x1, Minor Health Potion x1, 5 copper coins, Minor Mana Potion x1]
Player Liam Lvl 1 [20/500 exp]
HP 800/2000 (7.5 HP per sec] MP 10/250[ 1.25 MP per sec]
Liam smirked. Two out of three quest items in one drop. He decided to continue the hunt, but he had to change his tactics
The damage he took was also substantial.
Quickly taking a health and mana potion, his HP and mana bars gradually became full.
There was no way he could keep spamming waveforce given his pitiful mana pool, so he ran around the map to group his enemies to take them all out in 1 swoop
He only needed to kill 5, but he decided to kite 10 wolves.
After all, he was a veteran at the game!
Each time a wolf would get too close, he would use his dodge skill, carefully timing the invulnerability duration to match the hit timing to avoid the hit and make some distance.
Dodge was one of the common skills which every class had, however the range was short and it was in no way spammable with a 10 s cool down, making it a pretty balanced skill
Eventually after kiting around for 10 minutes, he used his waveforce twice, killing all the wolves in one go
[Drop: Wolf Fang x4, Wolf Fur x5, Tainted Wolf Claw x3, Minor Health Potion x2, Minor Mana Potion x2, 50 copper coins]
Even with his high skills, he got hit two times, but the healing potion came in clutch. On killing all of the wolves, he immediately used 2 mana potions and 2 health potions to fill his HP and MP bar
Ding!
Level up
Gained 2 attribute points.
Add all to Willpower
[Player: Liam Carter]
Level: 2 (Soldier)
HP: 2000 (7.5 HP regen/s)
MP: 350 (1.75 MP regen/s)
Attributes
Physique - 20 (1 point = 100 HP, +0.75 HP regen/s)
Dexterity - 8 (1 point = 5% Attack Speed increase, 0.5% Movement Speed)
Willpower - 7 (1 point = 50 MP, 0.25 MP regen/s)
Endurance - 9 (1 point = 0.1% resistance to elements, 10 Armor))
Charm - 6 (No direct benefits, certain amount of charm might be required to proceed certain quests/negotiations)
Luck - 15 (Impacts item drops of all rarities)
Reputation -None
"Even with my high luck, I got 2 healing and 2 mana potions. This game is going to be so difficult to play solo!" Liam mused, looking at his now 0 healing stock.
This was one of the harsh difficulties in Eternal Nexus.
Early game HP and MP management was extremely important. Potions were scarce, so recovery was very slow. A class like soldier with only attribute based regen at level 2 would have to rest for a significant amount of time or spend real life money to buy potions to be able to get in fighting shape again.
For Liam, the only option was to slowly grind the way forward
After finally beating the 10 wolves, Liam turned his way back to the village. The three quests would be enough to allow him to level up, and open access to a few important NPCs with whom he wanted to interact as soon as possible.