"Now, the next step is to get the Blacksmith subclass to earn money" Sera muttered as she made her way to the Auction house. She sat in a corner and scrolled the miscellaneous section. 

"Are you kidding me?! Someone actually had the gall to put this in the auction house just for 40 copper coins?!"

She quickly brought it. It was a skill book. "Defensive Blade" which was a rare drop skill book and a life saving skill. In the past people had gone as far paying 20 gold just for this book. 

She then learned the skill.

[Skill: Defensive Blade] (Active)

Cooldown: 2 Minutes 30 Seconds

Tier 0, Level 1

Proficiency: 0/1000

Skill Description: Blocks 4 close ranged hits or 6 ranged hits. Can only nullify tier 2 attacks and below. User cannot attack while the skill is active.

Class Restriction: Swordsman

She continued scrolling and spotted some other skills which she bought for 60 copper coins.

one was earth splitter and the other was Fake-out Blade.

[Skill: Earth Splitter] (Active)

Cooldown: 30 Seconds

Tier 0, Level 1

Proficiency: 0/500

Skill Description: Deals 100% of Attack damage to the target. If the terrain is ground, deals additional 20% damage.

[Skill: Fake-Out Blade] (Active)

Cooldown: 3 Minutes

Tier 0, Level 1

Skill Description: 80% chance of creating one sword illusion while attacking. 10% chance of creating two sword illusions while attacking. 5% chance of creating three sword illusions while attacking. 4.5% chance of creating five sword illusions while attacking. 0.5% chance of creating six sword illusions while attacking.

"All right, with this I am all set."

Sera then moved away from the Blue Moon town, entering Rasu Plains, the adjacent map of Blue Moon town. There were lots of monsters there but Sera ignored those and ventured ahead. Soon she came across a rocky terrain. The nisaiya mountains. A level 5 grinding map. Currently, no player dared to fight against a level 5 monster. If the level was one level higher than you, then you received 100% Experience, if it was two levels higher then 200%, if three levels higher then 300% if 4 levels higher then 400%. This followed up until there was a 10 level gap. If the gap was beyond level 10, no boost in exp will be given, instead the drop rates will increase.

After walking for something, she encountered a monster. It was very short, and alone. 

"A special elite, here?"

Special Elites were pretty rare. No that rare but still rare. 

[Monster: Kobold Warrior] (Special Elite)

Level 5

HP: 30,000/30,000

Sera was pretty cautious as she inspected the area. She then approached the Kobold Warrior, slowly but steadily. As she closed in, the Kobold Warrior grew wary of its surroundings. Although it couldn't see Sera, he knew someone was around.

Sera ambushed it.

Earth Splitter!

A damage of -392 appeared above the Kobold Warrior's head. The kobold warrior charged at Sera, It was angry due to the ambush. Sera moved from it's way of charge

Chop!

Chop is a basic skill that every swordsman gets at the very start of the game.

A damage of -137 appeared above its head. The Kobold Warrior only got angrier, it then used its skill, Charge on Sera. It was too fast for Sera to avoid so she received the attack by blocking it from the sword. She got thrown away. Without wasting time she executed ghost steps and appeared behind the Kobold Warrior.

Fake-Out Blade!

Suddenly, Sera's sword doubled in number. The Kobold Warrior tried to react to protect itself but due to the illusion got hit. 

-89

This continued for a while as the HP of the monster kept falling

100%... 93%....84%.....76%....62%...52%

After roughly 6 minutes,

[Monster: Kobold Warrior] (Special Elite)

Level 5

HP: 15,600/30000

"Wish, I had some decent attack skills" Sera sighed as she looked at the Kobold Warrior's HP

Since Stamina wasn't a problem to current players, it would only be a problem after the game evolved. 

Sera continued her assaults, she also got hit by the kobold many times, which made her consume 3 bread pieces. It went smooth until the boos reached 10% of its HP.

It grew bigger, more agile and more powerful. But Sera got overjoyed after she saw this. It's true when a monster goes berserk, it gets more agile and powerful but for that it abandons its Sanity. Players can use this to their advantage. 

The Kobold Warrior charged at Sera with speed. She barely dodged it, the kobold got smashed into the mountain.

A damage of -889 appeared over its head.

[Monster: Kobold Warrior] (Special Elite)

Level 5

HP: 2111/30000

She did this three more times. Her HP was now 53 and she only had a total of 360 HP. Finally the kobold Warrior died, its particles disintegrated, leaving 5 pieces of items. She also received EXP 2000, her Exp bar rose to 50% of level 1.

Sera then picked up the loot and inspected it.

"What?! This skill book actually dropped? Are you kidding me?"

This was a skill called "Thunder Chop" which was a very rare skill in the past. One of the skills shoku used very often back then. Sera immediately chose to learn the skill.

[Skill: Thunder Chop] (Active)

Cooldown: 45 Seconds

Tier 0, Level 1

Skill Description: Increases the movement speed of the user by 60% and deals 120% thunder damage to the enemy. 

Sera then checked the other drops.

[Cape of Will] (Bronze, Level 5)

Category: Armor (additional)

Strength + 3

Movement +100

Endurance +3

Additional skill 1: Untouchable.

Makes the user invincible for 1 second.

"An equipment with additional skill" Sera's eyes glowed. She then equipped the black Cape with silver lining. Another item was a one handed sword. 

[Blade of Ice] (Mysterious-Silver, One-Handed Sword)

Level 3

Equipment Requirement: Strength 7

Attack Speed +21

Strength +5, Agility +6, Endurance +4

Durability 30/30

"pretty useless to me. I will sell this for 2 silvers later" Sera said while storing the sword in her bag.

"A tier 1 scroll? This one is a summoning scroll." Sera's eyes sparkled. She stored it in her inventory.

"Boots, that's good." The fifth item was a boot.

[Wings of Flight] (Bronze)

Level 4

Strength +2

Agility + 9 

Defense +92

Durability 25/25

Sera quickly equipped the boots. The moment she equipped it, a notification popped.

[Congratulations! Player's Agility has Exceeded 20 points. Rewarding with a Hidden Skill]

[Skill: Windblade] (Active)

Cooldown: 1 Minute 30 Seconds

Tier 0, Level 1

Skill Description: Increases movement speed of the user by 100%

She knew a hidden skill will be rewarded for reaching the 20 stat milestone. 

Her Strength was at 16, everyone started with all stats at 5.

Sera Called her status management option.

[Name: Thoughtful Snow 

Race: Human

Level: 1

Main Class: Swordsman

HP: 400/400

ASPD: 195

CSPD: 200

Attack: 160

Movement: 230

Mana: 50/50

Stats:-

Strength: 16 (+)

Intelligence: 5 (+)

Agility: 23 (+)

Dexterity: 5 (+)

Endurance: 12 (+)

Title: None

Guild: None]

The stats filled Sera with Nostalgia. "Time for some hardcore leveling." She clenched her fist and travelled up the rocky mountain with narrow roads. After climbing for some time, she finally entered a cave.

"The goldmine for leveling" Sera grinned. There were quite a few big monsters there.

[Monster: Rock Golem] (Elite)

HP: 10,000/10,000

The attack of a Rock Golem was very high but the Movement speed of it was very slow. One could easily toy with these monsters and kill them but they had to be careful, if a Level 1 received a direct attack from the golem, they would most probably die unless they wore dark gold equipment.

Sera then lured a monster at the entrance of the cave.

Thunder Chop!

Chop!

Earth Splitter!

-292

-102

-328

One series of combo skill attacks had taken about 7% of the golem's health. She continued fighting it. Normal hits did 82 damage, Earth Splitter was the most effective attack against these Golems. After minutes of fighting, The Golem was finally down. It left some bronze equipment and some common equipment.

Her Exp bar rose from 50% to 62%

She kept grinding there for an hour.

….

Her level was now 3 and had extra 12%, she can be considered the highest level player currently in the Entire Dryaid Reign. Even leveling madmen had reached Level 2 so far. It would take a day or two before people could reach level 3. Until then, Sera gathered all the equipment and arranged it in her inventory according to rank and level.

6 Level 5 Bronze Equipement, 3 Level 6 Bronze Weapons, 3 pieces of Common Equipment and weapons. This can easily sell for 7 silvers. She didn't equip the Equipment herself because it wasn't what she needed. In order to become powerful, her least goal was to get Mysterious-Silver Ranked Weapons and this least goal will only increase with time.