I checked my status window.

I let out a dry laugh, seeing how lopsided the stats on this gimmicky class were. Since I didn't want to be blown away by the wind, I put my two unallocated stat points into Physical Defense.

What an improvement. Maybe in thirty levels I will be able to survive more than one hit from a level 2 boar.

I took [Dimension Ripper] out from my inventory and slid the black glove over my left hand. It was time to test out my mythical unique item, one of very few perks that my shitty gimmicky class offered.

But before I could, the elderly cook looked at us and spoke.

“My boys, can you do me a favor and collect some mushrooms from the forest to the east of here?””

It was a bit dangerous, but we agreed to do it. PK was a threat outside towns. In towns, instigating PK meant aggroing the town guards and also giving all the players free license to attack you without penalty.

But outside of town, PK was fair game.

“I think we can do this.”

Books was optimistic.

“Let’s sneak in and get the mushrooms, then get out. Beats washing more dishes.”

He paused for a second, then continuing.

“I just got a new skill from leveling up, called [Potioneer]. It gives me a potion at random intervals during combat. Isn’t my class awesome?”

“That's not bad.. Just don’t go around blabbing about all your secrets though."

“Got it boss.”

It was actually a pretty useful skill. Since merchant classes had a hard time getting experience through conventional combat, [Potioneer] gave combat parties a reason to include Books in their party, as a support class of sorts.

“Hang on, let’s gear up a bit first before heading out. You never know what trouble we might run into,” I said.

We earned 10 silver each from dish washing. It gave me chills remembering that Steel Slice earned 15 silver for killing me. He made a day and a half’s worth of hard labor washing dishes, in 5 minutes just by bashing my head in the moment I got out of character select.

Apparently, there was a tutorial map right after character select that everyone went through before being dropped onto the grassy plains outside the village, which would prepare you for the real game by giving you wooden weapons. I didn't even get the chance to obtain a wooden weapon through the tutorial map before getting thrown straight into a PvP situation. 

With that injustice in mind, I entered the town’s armory with Books.

“Look at these two noobs, kekeke”

Two higher level players looked at us with contempt. There were judgmental assholes everywhere.

“What’ll ye have?” said the armorer.

“I’d like a basic sword and leather armor,” Books said.

The armorer sold Books the cheapest sword and armor he had. The sword cost 6 silver and the armor cost 5 silver, but Books haggled him down to 4 so it would fit his budget.

I decided to buy a dagger and two kunai, because my strength stat did not allow me to even wield the cheapest sword. That left me with no money for armor, but I didn’t think leather armor would make much of a difference when my physical defense was already so low. I just had to avoid getting hit until my defense was passable or I could afford better armor.

We headed out of town and down the path towards the forest.

I activated [Dimension Ripper] to test it out.

“Whoa…”

Books looked on in amazement as a thin tear in space trailed behind my glove. It almost looked like I was painting, since the end of the rift closed up as I moved, like a calligraphy brush stroke.

“Hey cat, so is this the same as dimension room?”

Meat Shield shook her head.

“No. The rift made by your Dimension Ripper is linked to the void.”

“So what happens if I do this—“

I grabbed a thin tree branch.

Mana: 224/230

Mana: 213/230

The branch fell in two parts, and the middle where my hand grabbed it was gone.

Books eyes were wide open.

“Boss, that’s so OP.”

Feeling confident, I slapped the tree’s trunk.

Mana: 126/230

Mana: 0/230

My hand hit a hard surface. Dimension Ripper’s active ability fizzled out as my mana ran out. It left a hand sized indent on the tree’s surface.

“Dimension Ripper can’t go through everything, nya~ You need more mana to go through better material or more stuff~”

It made sense. The mana cost for puncturing an heirloom breastplate would be astronomically higher than the mana cost for a thin tree branch.

“That’s a great ability, Spoon. Save up your mana in case we need it, since we’re almost at the forest.”

Mana: 12/230

Mana: 14/230

I didn’t notice before, but the base mana regeneration on the Dimension Thief class was insanely high, and it was only going to get higher as I leveled up.

“Look, there are some mushrooms.”

“Mushrooms~”

Meat Shield darted forward and started munching on the mushrooms.

“Don’t eat all the mushrooms, you imbecile! We need those!” I yelled at her.

“Can cats even eat mushrooms?”

“She’s not a regular cat.”

“Nya~ I’m gonna save some for later~”

Meat Shield swept a few mushrooms into the dimension room.

“Let’s get to picking. There’s still enough to complete the quest.

I picked mushrooms with Books for an hour. Despite only knowing him for a few days, we bonded heavily over all the grueling labor work we did during that short span. He was really becoming like a brother to me.

“Hey! What are you doing here?”

A gruff man in chainmail wielding a greatsword appeared.

“We’re just picking mushrooms.”

“Stop. You’re not allowed to pick mushrooms in the Steel Guild’s territory.”

“??”

“Steel Guild’s territory?”

“You haven’t heard? This forest belongs to the Steel Guild, led by [Barbarian King] Steel Slice. Now hand over the mushrooms and get out before I bash your skulls in.”

I clenched my teeth. Steel Slice must have gotten people to follow him in exchange for sparing their lives. And now he even set up a guild, trying to monopolize all the resources in the vicinity of town.

I received a private message from Books.

[Books: I got a Potion of Giant. Let’s attack now.]

I looked over to Books. He nodded at me, and took out a potion from his inventory. As soon as he ingested the potion, his body began shaking violently. I was worried for a second, but he gave me a thumbs up. That was the go signal.

I charged at the greatsword wielding man.

“You noobs think you have a chance against me?”

As I got closer, I saw that the man’s name was [Stomper]. He was level 8, compared to us at level 3.

“Dimension ripper.”

My left hand left a black streak as I ran. I threw a kunai at him. It was my first time ever handling a throwing weapon, but my solid dexterity stat helped me throw it successfully.

Plonk.

The kunai uselessly bounced off of Stomper’s chainmail. Maybe one point in strength wasn't enough to deal damage with throwing weapons. Shit. I wanted a refund.

Stomper raised his greatsword and swung it at me. I dodged to the side and launched Dimension Ripper towards his torso.

Mana: 115/230

Mana: 0/230

My mana instantly ran out as I burned a palm shaped hole through his chain mail and into his chest.

“Ahhh!!!”

I only reached his skin before I ran out of mana, but Dimension Ripper left a botchy red area with no skin on his chest. This was not an ability for the faint of heart.

Thud. Thud. Thud.

Those were the sound of giant Books’ footsteps. To my amazement, Books had grown three times as big and was now lumbering towards Stomper. The potion he rolled from his [Potioneer] skill was a formidable one, the Potion of Giant. Maybe I underestimated the combat power of a unique merchant class.

Giant Books slapped Stomper with his massive hand, sending Stomper flying. The slap took out most of his hp. I didn’t miss a beat, running to where Stomper lay stunned on the ground. I plunged my dagger into the open wound in his chest, killing him.

You have killed [Stomper].

You have leveled up.

You have leveled up.

You have earned 45 silver.

Stomper has dropped [Basic Iron Helmet].

Your PK status has risen. You are more likely to drop items upon death.

“Hell yeah!”

Books already returned to his original size, and gave me a painful pat on the back.

“That’s the power of a legendary potion!”

“No wonder we won so easily. Your roll rate for legendary potions is probably less than 1%. We got super lucky.”

“Who cares? I’ll take those wins.”

I smiled. Books was right—a win is a win. We decided to split the loot 50-50.

As we walked back to town, I allocated my new stat points to physical defense.

Since Dimension Ripper didn’t scale with strength, I wasn’t in a rush to put any points in it yet. Physical defense was an attractive option. I wanted to be able to take physical hits in case I couldn’t dodge in time.

We returned to town and turned in the mushroom quest.

You have leveled up.

You have earned 15 silver.

I bought a thief’s leather tunic and logged out for the day.

—————

Books was waiting for me at the fountain like usual the next day.

“Bad news, Spoon.”

“What’s up?”

“Steel Guild put a 5 gold bounty on our heads.”

“Five gold? Are you serious?”

At this point in time, five gold was an absurd amount of money for a player to have.