Starting from Zero

Chapter 4 — Profession Authentication

It suddenly brightened, and in the midst of my manic cackling, I was sent to a quaint, interesting small village. d.a.m.n! The surroundings were actually filled with people. Everyone was staring at me as if they were looking at a fool. Scuttling hurriedly to the next street, I brought up the clock and saw that it was already ten. (’s system will automatically respond to these operations, so players only need to think of them.) I had actually spent almost two entire hours setting up my character! But as the proverb goes, good preparation hastens the work. These two hours are worth it!

Maybe setting up my character had taken up too much time, but by now, the beginner village was already filled with people. The system stipulates that all who are below level twenty are cla.s.sified as beginners, and are unable to leave the beginner’s village. They will also have to stay within a five kilometre radius of the training area. Currently, more than five thousand players were squeezed into this not very large area.

Unused to places with a lot of people, I decided to look for a more peaceful place to train in. I should first get a rough feel for this unfamiliar environment in my head. Bringing up the status bar, I found that I only had a shirt and a pair of pants on me, which were both made of sackcloth. These totalled to an extra two points towards defense. A one-handed sword named Novice Sword was in my hands, and this long sword’s attack was actually 1-1! Looking at it, it seems this is the so-called beginner equipment!

Although what I had equipped on me made me feel very depressed, I found some reprieve in the fact that the streets were filled with people who were dressed the same way as I was. Now, the first thing I had to do was kill monsters and level up.

After running for about ten minutes, I finally reached the training area outside the beginner’s village, and there was nothing I could do about it, since a beginner’s moving speed was naturally very slow! It was only after I had left the village that I realised the situation had taken a turn for the worse. Everywhere outside the village, players had grouped together to gang up and attack pitiful, small spotted deer, or that groups of a dozen or so players were pursuing and attacking a wild boar! Even though the monsters were resp.a.w.ning very quickly, the number of players were still much higher than the number of monsters, and by a few times over, even! Right now, if I were to join them, I would definitely not be able to gain an advantage. Besides, what’s more is that I naturally hate places with many people!

Because in , beginners’ levels will not appear in the rankings, so I’m unable to know which levels the fastest people are at already. Even though I couldn’t see their levels, I made a rough estimate, and the fastest people should already be at levels sixteen or seventeen. That won’t do! How will this young master be willing to lag behind others; within the game and outside it as well, I have to be in the lead amongst the rest! I have to make the most of my time to train.

I ran very far out from the village and even though the number of players here is still very high, but at least, in essence, one player against one monster could be accomplished here. Haha! A small spotted deer ran over. Instantly attacking, my sword fell in one clean swoop. The system prompted, “Killed one spotted deer. Received 200 experience points.”

d.a.m.n! Instakill! It can’t be so ridiculous! Even though my character is really ridiculous, what was absurd about it was the number of pets and monster servants I had. My attacks shouldn’t be so extreme! But seeing as to how a 60 had floated up from the spotted deer’s head, that should probably be the display of how much HP the other party had lost after being attacked. Could it be that my hit had been a fatal attack? I suppose it should be!

Finding another spotted deer, I swung my sword down to chop at it. A red 30 floated up, and the spotted deer was still running. It seems like it had merely been a lucky hit just now. Attacking again at the wounded spotted deer, a 35 floated up and the spotted deer fell on the ground before disappearing. In accordance to this, the deer’s HP looked to be around fifty points or so, or maybe even less.

After killing three more deer, I rose to level two. Currently, my stats have become

(These are after adding the values from equipment):

Fundamentally, even normal attacks can instakill spotted deer. In one shot, after killing spotted deer continuously for half an hour, I had actually reached the twelfth level, and my stats had also become-

Looking around me, there were still many who were killing spotted deer, and their numbers were increasing. According to past experience, it should be time to change locations. After a long while, I finally reached the border of the village’s training area. Here, even though the outside could be seen, there was still no way of going out. It was as if a wall was blocking. I could only continue to search for monsters, and not far away, I caught sight of my new target — a wild boar. I rushed up to slash at it and it was killed instantly. As I had more basic points, my increase in stats for Strength were very high; the more I leveled, the greater the the difference in ratio becomes, so right now, my attacks were very monstrous. Only later did I realise, characters at level twelve attacking for 44-70 was already considered very high, and Warriors who were level twenty usually only hit for about 60-90..

I was very lucky, and actually managed to find a wild boar’s cave. Wild boars here resp.a.w.ned really quickly, but even the resp.a.w.n rate could not catch up with my instakill speed. However, I was really fortunate that wild boars belong to the category of monsters that do not attack of their own accord. One slash each, I killed for an entire hour, and currently, I’m already at level 18. Conjuring the ranking chart, there were actually already over thirty people who had appeared on the rankings. To be able to list within the rankings would go to mean that they had already broken through 20 levels. This was really not a joke, and if I do not quickly break past the twentieth level as well, there would be no hope left for me.

Twenty levels is definitely not the simple difference between a beginner and a true player. For all main professions as well as jobs, the first skill would only appear at the twentieth level. With that skill, their level grinding speed will no longer be something we can catch up to! Currently, the person who was ranked first was already level 25. Even though the experience required for higher levels was greater, they had the geographical advantage as well as that of the added skill. Since they were out of the beginner’s village, they will be in locations of few players and many monsters, and as such, there will be no need for them to fight over mobs!

Hurrying, I continued to train hard for twenty more minutes, before the wonderful system prompt sounded. “Congratulations, player Zi Ri, you’re already level 20. Congratulations to you for becoming our seventy ninth player to get past the beginner barrier. You have become a true fighter. Please report immediately to the Occupations’ Guild to receive your profession’s skills.”

I felt the scenery around me suddenly change, and I was already in the process of being transported to a gigantic public square. Opening the map’s information, I took a look and realised that this city was named Cold Jade. This enormous public square is exactly Cold Jade’s teleportation and resurrection point. Currently, my surroundings were absolutely empty. I suppose those who had arrived earlier had all gone to train. Actually, even if they were all here, there would still not be many people. Think about it! I am the seventy ninth person to be able to leave the beginner’s village, which goes to say that in the entirety of ’s realm, there are only a total of 79 people scattered around the world, apart from those in the beginner’s village. ’s map is based off of our world map, and the beginner’s village would be like an illusionary realm; only those who fulfilled the criteria (as in those who are below level 20) will appear there. Once the level requirement is met, they will be sent away automatically. On the map, all the other towns are just towns who have had their names changed and had their buildings constructed with a more ancient style. Therefore, on this gigantic map, how widely separated we must be, now that there are only 79 people on it. For all I knew, I could even be the first person in this city!

For now, these things didn’t matter. Following the map, I rushed to the Occupation Guild quickly. The immense hall was laid out with marble tiles and it felt like a bank’s lounge. By the walls, there were more than thirty marble counters, and on every counter, there was a bronze medal. The few counters in the middle had “Main Profession support” written on them, while the counters to the side all had “Job management” on them.

Regardless, I’ll just go carry out the main profession authentication first to get my skills. With this decision in mind, I immediately came to a middle counter. “h.e.l.lo! I’d like to receive my profession certification.”

Behind the counter, a beautiful elf gave me an enthusiastic reception. “h.e.l.lo, sir (Touching, someone finally recognised that I’m a guy)! We welcome you to conduct your profession authentication. May I know which profession you’d like to authenticate?”

“I have two main professions. One is Dark Warrior, and the other would be Beast Tamer.”

“Oh! You are a player who has received a prize! Certification for Dark Warrior would require one gold coin, and Beast Tamer would require two gold coins. That would be a total of three gold coins, please pay the amount.”

“Ah! So expensive!” I opened my inventory helplessly, and realised that I happened to have three hundred and seven copper coins! (The conversion unit here is: 1 crystal coin = 10 RMB = 10 gold coins = 100 silver coins = 1000 copper coins) After handing over the money, I only had seven copper coins left! How poor!

The elf beauty kept the money and said nimbly, “Congratulations on becoming a Dark Warrior as well as a Beast Tamer. The skills for your main professions are sold at book stores, but they are extremely low in quant.i.ty. The truly useful skills have to be slowly learnt by the player themselves, so please find out for yourself well in future.”

“What? Learn on my own? No way!” I turned around gloomily and prepared to leave. Two main professions had already consumed all my money, I could just forget about buying skills! I think I can forget about jobs as well. I’ll go earn some money before coming back!

After I had barely taken two steps, the elf beauty stopped me in my tracks. “Please wait a little!”

“Is there still anything the matter?” My heart rate began to speed up, it can’t be that she still needs more money!

“You are the game’s first player to receive the Beast Tamer profession, so you will be rewarded in accordance to regulations.”

“Reward?” Haha, I’ve won a prize! Pity it’s only for being the first to become a Beast Tamer, it seems like the Dark Warrior has already been authenticated before by another person! It feels like I’m being so greedy! Hehe! But thinking about it, it should be right too; this Beast Tamer is a hidden profession, so there won’t be many people choosing it as their profession, it was very normal for me to be the first. No matter what, getting a prize is already good, so I asked hurriedly, “May I know what the prize is?”

“The prize is random, come over and I will help you draw your prize.”

Walking to the front of the counter, the elf beauty immediately started drawing a prize for me. Reaching her hand into a black hole that seemed to come from nowhere, she picked out a piece of red paper. The elf beauty then looked at it. “Congratulations, the prize you’ve drawn is that you will receive a special equipment — Protection Collar. As you can control seven magical pets, you will receive seven collars.

“Collars? What would I want collars for? I only have one neck, I’m not an ultimate level nine-headed dragon! How will I wear seven?” This system is practically playing an evil joke on me!

“Heehee!” The elf beauty covered her mouth and laughed. “Those aren’t for you. Those are for your magic pets to wear.”

“Magic pets? Can magic pets in equip items?” What a great situation!

The elf beauty explained quickly. “That’s not the case. Under normal circ.u.mstances, magic pets cannot equip items, but there are some special items that can be equipped on the magic pet’s body. Your Protection Collar would belong in that category of special items.”

“Exactly what use does this Protection Collar have?”

“The Protection Collar can link your HP to your pets’ HP. For example, if you have 3 HP left after suffering an attack, and right after, you get attacked again for 7 HP, your HP will then be reduced by 2, and the remaining 5 points will, according to the situation, be deducted from a pet who has more than 5 HP left. However, you have to note that the protection only goes one way, so when your magic pets have no HP, your HP won’t be deducted instead.

“So good! Does that mean my life won’t be in danger if my magic pets have not had all their HP spent?”

“Fundamentally, that would be so. Unless all your magic pets do not have enough HP to be deducted from. If that’s the case, you will die immediately.”

“Whoa! Sure enough, it turned out to be a good property. It looks like I’ll have to find magic pets with high HP in future. Haha! Haha!”

The elf beauty rushed to cut me off. “Magic pets should not be caught at whim. Once you make your choice, your magic pet will no longer be replaceable.”

“Oh! So it’s like this! Thanks, then!” I reached my hand out for the collars.

The elf beauty looked at me strangely. Seeing her blank stare, I couldn’t help saying, “Collars, hurry and give them to me!”

“Oh!” Only at this did she understand. “The collar isn’t granted by me. After you capture and subdue your magic pets, the collar will automatically appear around its neck.”

“So it’s like this! I’m done then? Thank you. I’ll be leaving. Goodbye.”

The elf beauty also waved goodbye to me.