I woke up to the beeping of my watch.   It was 9:23. I went to the bathroom and brushed my teeth. I put on my armor and holder and dagger, but didn't equip my mace. I checked my equipment once before heading downstairs.

Satisfied, I went down for breakfast with my only two friends in this crazy game like world. I greeted Jared, "Good morning, sleep well? What's for breakfast?" Jared replied with a smile, " Yup, you? There is soup and bread for breakfast." I replied, "I had good sleep, did you wait long?"

Jared shook his head, "I got here half a minute before you. The waitress hasn't even come by. Oh looks like Ken is here as well. Good timing!" I tuned to see Ken grinning, "I always have good timing." He winked. I rolled my eyes.

The waitress showed up and took three of our room keys and returned it. Then within a minute brought three bowls of steaming soup, a bowl of hardened bread and three glasses of milk. Ken jokingly said, "Megzie, the milk's for you. You should drink more, you might grow taller." I was 5'8" but both Ken and Jared were closer to 6'. So that was a valid point, but for a girl I was tall enough, so I rolled my eyes. 

Jared laughed, "She's fine. So have your own milk. Now let's eat up so that we can head to the AG and accept quests. Speaking of quests I'd like you to kill a few wolves on your own, Ken. It'll help you gain experience. You can accept the quest in the evening when we get back. Megzie and I'll check out your abilities this way, before we set off on the party quest."

Ken grunted in approval. After we ate our breakfast, we headed to the AG. We combined our cards together, with mine at the bottom and Jared's at the top, because he would be the party leader. Ken's card was black while mine was green and Jared's was deep blue.

We headed towards the rank D quests. We had decided to take the easiest quest. Subjugation of the horned wolves so that we could become well accustomed to each other. Jared retrieved five of the quests and was ready to line up.

Just then a girl, the archer I saw on the first day approached us, "Hi, I'm Jacqueline. Rank D. I arrived a week and a half ago and am looking for a party. Could I join you guys? I'm having a lot of trouble with the horned wolf, because I am an archer. But I am an experienced player. What do you say?"

Jared replied to her, "Hello, Jacqueline. I'm Jared rank D and they are Megzie and Kennedy rank E. What is your level and equipment like?" Jacqueline's face lit up, "You can call me Jackie. I've just reached level 15. So I'm no longer a newbie. My equipment is rank D and has an attack of 10. My class is an Archer and my job is scouting."

Jared looked at me and Ken seeing both of us nod he smiled at Jackie and spoke, "Welcome to the party Jackie." This time when we joined our cards Jackie's was at the bottom while Jared's remained at the top. While I explained to Jackie what our plan was, Jared got our quests accepted.

All four of us headed towards the south gate. I suddenly asked Jackie, "So, Jackie. Do you know a place that sells clothes?" Jackie turned to me in surprise, " You still don't know? It's sold at a small shop in the Eastern part of the village. How have you survived so long without a change of clothes?"

Ken retorted, "We  barely arrived the day before, so it's not our fault."

Jackie exclaimed in awe, '"To get to D rank in two days. Good job both of you. It took me three." Ken mumbled unhappily, "Megzie took only a day." Jackie was even more surprised, "Wait. What are your levels?" To which Ken and I replied, "6". " 10".

"Wait what?!" Exclaimed both Jared and Jackie. "6  is too low. What are your stats like?" Jared asked. Ken replied, "My str is 21, sta and agi are 18 finally my luck and int are 14."

Jackie spoke, "6 may be low but 10 is also high. What are your stats?" I replied, "23 throughout." All three of them turned to stare at me. "What?" "That's the stats of level 11. Tell me how many free stats do you have?" Asked Jackie.

I replied, "4". Jared inhaled a sharp breath, " So that means you have 2 levels worth of extra stats. Just how well did you clear the tutorial?"

I gave a nervous chuckle. We had reached the gate and headed right. Ken was in the lead, after all he would be the only one fighting against wolves. He slashed and stabbed at the wolves. Killing them in three strikes. After killing his fourth wolf, Jared warned us, "We are entering the horned wolves territory. Everyone be on guard." Ken was happy because he ranked up. I readied my mace and Jackie knocked her bow. Ken was also ready with a shield on his left arm and his sword in his right.

Ken didn't need his shield for the wolf but a horned wolf was different. Jared led the way, with me on his right, Ken to his left and Jackie directly behind him. As soon as we spotted a lone horned wolf, Ken knocked into its right hand side with his shield and I managed to stun it with my CC. Before Jared could kill it, two arrows pierced its head and it fell down, dead. I checked my exp and confirmed that it gave 10 exp. I asked everyone and they all got 10 exp. Even Jared, who hadn't done anything. 

We proceeded with caution and this time spotted a pair of horned wolves. Ken blocked the one on the left while Jackie assaulted it with arrows. The one on the right pounced on me but he dodged to it's right, using my evasion skill. I couldn't use the AoE for fear of throwing the wolf on Jared. So I used the CC on its back, instead. 

While I attacked its back Jared pierced it's head with both his swords. One sword went through it's eye and one through its ears. I felt just a wee bit queasy. I turned to the other horned wolf but it resembled a porcupine more than a wolf. Jackie went to it and started extracting her arrows, "What? Arrows are expensive okay?!" Ken and Jared successfully extracted the mana cores and we continued onward.

Most of the time there was only a lone horned wolf. Very rarely we met a pair. When Ken reached level 8 we took a short break. We gave all the mana stones to Jared. And that makes ten. Let's head back. This is already 10 rank D quests so it should be enough for you guys to level up. But Ken has to do 5 rank E quests as well. So let's head towards the wolves and you can complete it on the way."

Everyone agreed and we started heading north, towards the wolves. Ken was already level 8 now hit level 9. "Speaking of levels, Megzie, what's your job and class?" Asked Jackie. Jared facepalmed, "I forgot to tell her where to get a job and class. My bad. You can go to the western part of the town, in the church. There you can choose your job and class."

"It's okay Jared. We'll go there first thing tomorrow." I replied. Jackie chimed in, "We could also go shopping in the morning. And go hunting after lunch. I'm also staying in the inn opposite the AG." 

We reached the gate, after the regular procedure, we headed back towards the AG. When we reached Jared told me to get five more horned wolves quest requests. As I got them, Jared queued up in the left counter for completion along with all four of our cards. Ken got five wolf subjugation quest requests and waited for Jared to give back his card. I handed Jared the five quests and he went to the counter that was for accepting quests. He again went back to the completion counter and finally came back to us. He handed Ken his Orange card and Ken ran off to the accepting counter. I looked at my white card and went over to the miscellaneous counter to rank up to D. Martha was the receptionist and boy, was she shocked. After getting back my black card, I checked it out.

I walked to Jackie and Jared while waiting for Ken. "Jackie and I were talking. And we were thinking that our coordination is quite good. So, let's choose a different creature for tomorrow. Also I got 50 silvers from today's quest so each of us get 13 silvers each and I'll keep 1 silver for future distribution."

I agreed with both of his suggestions. Ken came and joined us showing off his black rank D card. Both of them congratulated both of us. We all headed to the inn and sat down to discuss around a table. Jared spoke first, "I looked at the D rank quests. There are hardly any subjugation quests other than the horned wolf. The others are escorting and collecting quests. I think it is impossible to rank up to C in this town." 

Jackie nodded, "I agree. After a few more horned wolves subjugation, Jared will also hit level 15 and Ken would reach level 10. Although Megzie wouldn't officially reach 13 but I'm sure she'll reach level 11 and have stats of a level 13 player. My suggestion is for Jared and Ken to level up so that we can all accept an escort quest."

Jared nodded, "I second this. What do you guys think?" Ken lifted up his hand, " Won't my level be a little too low?" Jackie replied to him, "It will just barely be passable. Normally you should be around 12-13. Megzie will barely qualify and since the two of us will be level 15-16,  I think it is doable."

Ken thought for a second and agreed. I also agreed. Jared clapped his hands once, "Okay. Then it's settled. We'll be leaving the day after. So tomorrow morning let's go shopping and visit the church. We'll grind levels after lunch. We also have to decide the destination. I suggest we take the quest that leads to the closest town or has the shortest distance. Now let's eat our fill." 

The waitress had already checked our cards a few minutes ago and had now brought a creamy  chicken rice bowl. All of us stopped talking and started eating.

After we finished our meal I spoke up, "Now that I think about it, we are officially all D rank, so we can have a party of up to 8 players." Jackie replied enthusiastically, "Oh yeah. If we find good players in the next village or town, let's team up with them. Of course we need to keep our party formation in mind, as well as their personalities."

All of us agreed. After chatting for a while we all decided to sleep early so that we could have breakfast the next day at 8:30. Jackie, coincidentally, lived in the room directly below mine.

After a night of good rest, a new day beaconed. I woke up at 8:20, brushed up, checked my equipment and headed down. Jared was alone yet again, "Good morning, Megzie. You look lively." I gave a chuckle, "Yeah. I had a good dream, though I can't recall it anymore. But it set me in a good mood. Also I'm excited about my job and class. Speaking of which, what's yours?"

Jared replied, "Oh yeah, I forgot to tell you. My job is a dual swordsman and my class is an assassin." Our food arrived as I asked, "What are the benefits of an assassin?" To which he replied, "+5 agility, +3 str and +2 free stat. Everyone who receives a class and a job receives 10 stat points. There are also some class and job exclusive skills that I will learn as my level increases each time by 5."

I nodded and noticed the arrival of Jackie, followed by Ken. Both Jared and I were done eating so we just looked at them eating their breakfast. After they were done Jackie grabbed my arm and we made our way to the western part of the village, to the church. When we arrived we were greeted by a one story tall building that looked like a church. When we went inside there was a cylindrical room with an altar in the center. There was a statue of a weeping angel made of stone towards the back of the room and two chairs and a table each to the left and right side of the statue. A man stood up from the chair on the right hand side. He wore a long white robe and greeted us with a smile, "Reached level 10? Come place your hand on this altar while viewing your menu."

I did as instructed. My menu magically changed to display my job and class. I got +5 agility, +3 strength and +2 free stat. But what surprised me was the title 'Strong Newbie' which gave +1 to all my stats. After giving +1 to stamina, intelligence and luck, my stats were:

"So, what's your job and class?" Asked the ever impatient Ken. It's mace-master and my job is a damage dealer. It gave me +5 agility, +3 strength and +2 free stats. I think it is similar to a sword-master. Jackie what was your extra stat distribution like?"

Jackie replied, "+5 agi and +3 luck." We thanked the clergyman and departed towards the shops. Jackie spoke in an excited manner, "We'll have to get clothes, camping equipment and upgrade our weapons and armor to D rank. I think that is enough for now. Because we already have one week's worth of stocks of food from the tutorial. Right, we should fill up all the 18 liters of water bottles given to us as well, before leaving."

Jared replied, "Everyone's weapons and armor are already rank D, so we can skip that. Clothes and camping gear should be enough since we will probably go via a carriage. I guess we should also buy raincoats." Everyone agreed with Jared.