Like a tiger pouncing on its prey, or a dog pouncing on its bone, I s.n.a.t.c.hed the green sword on the ground and hugged it to my embrace. I cried with tears on my face, “My little precious, I finally found you!” (TLN: I equipped the sword in my hands. A green vine twined around the sword hilt as the blade was enveloped in a green light, sharp and shiny. I smiled as I felt the familiar feeling of cold metal on my palms. Looking at the attributes, it was indeed a treasure –
[Green Forest Blade] (Black-tier equipment)
Attack: 10-18
Strength: +4
Required Level: 8
……
Well done! 18 Attack Points, now I can throw my newbie sword away to the street market. This Green Forest Blade was indeed too powerful. Just by carrying this sword, with the current level in the newbie village, I could already be known as the strongest hero across the mountains and the seas.
However, right a this moment, a bell sounded in the air –
“Ding~!”
System Announcement (Player Descent of the Dragon’s Shoutout): Dear friends, I am [Mad Dragon] Guild guildmaster. We found an Undead Legion’s monster in the Breaking Dawn Forest just now, a frightening skeleton warrior. It is said to be the newest BOSS monster that had just sp.a.w.ned from one of the newbie villages. The BOSS monster is located at the southern part of the Breaking Dawn Forest. Friends, if you have the strength, come and join us to exterminate him!
He was actually cunning enough to say I was a BOSS monster. He just wanted to borrow others’ help to kill me, didn’t he?
But I was a player from the Darkness Alliance, even my name would appear as red in front of other players. Forget it, I shouldn’t stay here and invite more trouble. My connection with the [Mad Dragon] should end here, there’s no need to stir a bigger trouble.
Looking at my experience bar, it’s at level 9, 57%. Yeah, let’s train to level 10, change my profession and learn some skills first. Since Descent of the Dragon placed me on his Wanted List, then he could go ahead and try to create a ruckus in the newbie villages. I’m not interested in joining the chase.
Wielding the Green Forest Blade, my abilities had increased by a lot. I decided to kill my way through the Breaking Dawn Forest. Collecting the experiences and getting the experience reward from the quest, I should be able to reach level 10.
Then, suddenly, in front of me, a level 10 Green Praying Mantis suddenly charged forward.
I didn’t stop to think and swung my sword immediately. With a “Ka Cha” sound, a damage number appeared on top of the green praying mantis head-
“124！”
So powerful, my 38-64 attack really did not disappoint me!
A level 10 monster should have around 500 health, I could probably finish it in 4 attacks. The feeling of changing your weapon to a much better one was really refreshing, just like switching from a revolver to a machine gun!
Killing my way through the Breaking Dawn Forest, I ran straight towards my newbie village.
Right around this time, a system annoucement suddenly rung-
“Ding~!”
System Announcement: Player Wind Dream from newbie village no. 7 has reached level 10 and became the first player to change his profession. He received the rewards: Level +1, Fame +50, and gold!
……
I was slightly amazed. Well done, how the heck did you hunt that you were able to reach level 10 even faster than me? Indeed, the world of heroes sure was wide and vast, this was the generation where strong powers come forth in large numbers!
Entering the newbie village and finding the Scattered Corpse Village Guard, I reported back the success of my quest. Indeed, I rose to level 10. It was a pity that the System did not give me any recognition and announce it to the whole world. But it was also fine that way. I was not strong enough to be known by the public. Otherwise, some youths from the Radiance Alliance who were blinded by hatred might just attack me in the village. Then they might even nail me on the cross, or put me inside a pig’s cage… I really don’t want to think about such miserable ends… (TLN: pig’s cage)
Arriving at the item store, I took out the Large Magic Stone. The skeleton beauty was immediately stupefied as she shouted, “Little Skeleton, you are so strong! What a powerful Magic Stone. Come, I’m willing to pay 1980 coppers to buy this stone!”
I nodded, and then I proceeded to sell the other 4 small stones I found. With that, 24 silver appeared in my inventory. That amount should be enough to learn a new skill.
Once again, I approached the necromancer that raised me up from the dead. Since he’s the Village Head, I should at least pay him my last respects before setting out from the newbie village.
“Little Skeleton, your growth is simply astounding. You made me really happy!”
The Village Head knocked my forehead with his staff and laughed, “Go, there is a much wider and bigger world out there waiting for you. Your next destination is the Floating Ice City. There is a place called the Frozen Mound around 10 li (500 metres) away from the city. Yeah, that will be your new place. You can find an Undead Swordsman Master in the Frozen Mound. Take this recommendation letter from me. The Master will then take you as his disciple with this!”
With a “Pa Da” sound, the recommendation letter I had received straight away entered into my inventory. Indeed, it was the certificate for a job change. From today onwards, I am going to be an honourable, courageous warrior! My dream of living with ‘gold and mistresses’ as an Undead Swordsman is coming near!
I walked the path towards the Floating Ice City, full of hopes and excitement. That place was a place where dreams come true.
Floating Ice City was one of the nine level 2 cities in the Chinese Servers. Above that would be the three level 3 main cities, but the names of these cities were currently not revealed yet. In the map, the place where the three main cities should have been was also still an empty s.p.a.ce.
Basically, all the players from Jiang Su (a province in China) had been all allocated to Floating Ice City. This was the predetermined system by the company.
……
Opening up the World Map, the Floating Ice City sign had already appeared. It was approximately 30 minutes away from the Scattered Corpse Village. There were a lot of other newbie villages around the Floating Ice City, at least 10 of them. And all of the elite players from this newbie villages will gather in the Floating Ice City. When the time comes, this city would definitely be filled with outstanding heroes and warriors.
I smiled slowly as I carried the Green Forest Blade in my hands. Floating Ice City, you shall be the stage for the revival of “Fallen Dust”!
Following the dusty road, I didn’t encounter any danger throughout the journey. However, I saw a troop of NPC soldiers walking past, which I quickly avoided. These soldiers wouldn’t even be merciful towards bandits, so they would definitely never let me, a skeleton soldier from the Undead Legion, walk away without a scratch.
“Di!”
The System Announcement appeared in front of me. Good day, Player [Broken Spear]. Since you have not belonged to any faction yet, you can enter both main cities that belonged to Radiance Alliance and the Undead Legion and would not be attacked. However, in a battle area, your attribute will still belong to the demonic attribute!
…
Oh, so that was the case. I could still enter the main city!
However, after a second thought, I decided not to. The NPCs in the main cities would never give a quest to an Undead Swordsman. I should just go to the Frozen Mound and meet the old Master. I might still be able to get some quests there. I would also probably be a able to learn a powerful skill!
When i thought about skills, my eyes gleamed with tears. I had killed monsters for one full night without a single skill, and now, at last, I would be able to learn a skill!
I quickly ran forward, leaving the Floating Ice City area and flew into the thick forest nearby. Not far, I suddenly felt a thick air of Undead Energy. The cold wind blowed ruthlessly as my destination, the Frozen Mound, appeared in front of me. This was one of the Undead Legion’s army camp, there were some Undead Legion troops guarding inside.
“Blub blub…”
There were bubbles coming out from blood-coloured ponds that were placed on both sides of the Frozen Mound. They were filled with remains of bones and flesh. This, could this be the dining hall for the Undead Legion?
Thinking about that, I almost puked out. I would never eat a corpse even if I was beaten to death!
Entering the Frozen Mound, there were a lot of NPCs merchants selling goods along the aisle. The Undead Blacksmith raised his long white bone arms and started beating a piece of iron with an iron hammer, until it was red. The Undead Potion Merchant held bottles in his hands and revealed a sinister smile. The gleam in his eyes as he looked at me made me run away from that place in fear.
Carefully walking out to the camp borders, the person I wanted to find finally appeared!
An Undead Swordsman clad with a full body of armor finally appeared. He held a sharp sword that gleamed in red light as he looked at the surroundings with his sinister eyes. A line of words appeared on top of his head.
Undead Swordsman Master LV-???
……
Yes! I finally found my master!
I walked forward and gave him the recommendation letter that the Village Head had given me.
The Master took the letter and read it, then said, “Brat, you are my disciple from today onwards. You must become a courageous and powerful Undead Swordsman. You must remember, we must kill to survive in this world. In order to survive, we can give up on everything. However, the only thing that we cannot give up is our Undead Legion’s Honour!”
System Announcement: You have succeeded in learning a skill – Undead Powers!
……
Quickly opening my skill window, indeed, there was a new pa.s.sive skill that appeared –
[Undead Powers] (Innate Skill – Level 1): Calls forth the sleeping powers of the dead. Any attack on living things will have an added damage of 5%. The skill’s effect will increase with the level of the skill.
I was immediately overjoyed. This skill may not seem that great, however, it was actually very powerful. A level 1 [Undead Powers] could add an additional 5% damage, if I rose to level 100 and trained the skill level to level 10, wouldn’t I be able to inflict an additional of 50% damage? Or maybe more?
Overjoyed!
At this moment, the Undead Swordsman master looked at me and laughed, “Brat, you have lots of potential. Now, I will grant you the qualifications of an Undead Swordman!”
“Ding”, my job change was finally completed. I had finally became a real Undead Swordsman!
However, the Master suddenly stopped moving. It seemed like he was waiting for me to pay him the price for learning the skills.
I walked forth and opened the Master’s chat options. In the middle, an option “Learn Skills” appeared. After choosing this, three skills that could be learnt at this time appeared.
[Basic Sword Mastery]: Increase the critical chance inflicted by swords. One of the basic skills of the Undead Swordsman Profession.
[Corpse Pillage]: Ability to search through a corpse. Maybe you can find extra loots.
[Death Blade]: Attack a target with 110% damage, but critical chance is decreased by 35%.
……
Not bad, I finally had an active skill. This [Death Blade] seemed to be very strong, it could inflict 10% more damage at level 1. Just that the critical chance will decrease. But that’s okay, as long as the attack is powerful and accurate, the critical chance decrease can be made up with additional equipments.