Resurgence Of The Rogue Blacksmith

With a dumbfounded look, Raphael gazed at the notification, as it faded away from his sight. He called up his Combat Log, still bewildered at the situation at hand.

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▶ Player has been attacked by an Unknown Monster.

▶ Identification successful, enemy is classified as a Level 1 Uncommon Beast, Aged Wild Boar.

▶ Player has sustained a light injury due to overexertion. 15 Stamina Points deducted.

▶ Aged Wild Boar has entered a Stunned state for 7 seconds.

▶ Player has dealt 29 damage (Vital Hit).

▶ Aged Wild Boar has suffered a critical injury and entered an Injured state. Maximum HP reduced by 50. Stunned state has worn off.

▶ Player has suffered an injury, losing 13HP. A Bleeding effect has been activated. 5 Stamina Points deducted.

▶ Player has successfully handled injury. Bleeding effect has been deactivated.

▶ Player has dealt 45 damage (Vital Hit).

▶ Aged Wild Boar has lost all HP. Removing Combat State from Player.

▶ Player's first kill detected. Rolling for EXP modifiers.

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▶ Player has earned 9 EXP modifiers.

▶ Player is awarded 150 Experience Points.

▶ Player's level is changed from Level 0 to Level 1.

▶ Player's HP and SP is restored to full. All debuffs and negative status modifiers are removed.

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Raphael slowly read through the Combat Log, the corners of his lips lifting up higher and higher.

EXP modifiers!

His memory was definitely failing him, as he had forgotten about the presence of EXP modifiers this early in the game. When a player achieved his or her first kill, they would be awarded an EXP modifier, which would recalculate the experience they would receive from said kill.

The maximum amount of EXP modifiers one could earn was 18. Raphael's 9 EXP modifiers were neither good nor bad, as they would still offer a decent amount of bonus experience, but coupled with the fact that he had killed an Uncommon-level monster, he was truly fortunate.

Every EXP modifier was equivalent to around a third of the experience awarded for a kill. In effect, the 150 Experience Points that Raphael had been awarded were equal to three times the experience one would receive for killing the Aged Wild Boar - 50 Experience Points. Although this was only a double-digit number, it was not to be frowned upon, as a player only needed 125 EXP to reach Level 1. Even without the EXP modifiers, Raphael would have gained 40% of the required experience to level up. Instead, after winning 150 Experience Points, his EXP bar was now filled up to 10% of its capacity.

Raphael opened his Character Information window, carefully considering what to do with his 3 new free Attribute points.

Main Attributes: Strength 5, Agility 8, Endurance 5, Intelligence 5, Vitality 5.

Adding one point to some of the various attributes would have differing results, based on the character's class. For Thieves, adding one point to Intelligence would enlarge one's stamina pool by 5 point, while the same would give 10 mana to classes that had a mana pool. Adding a single point to Endurance would award 1 Defense, as Thieves were a cloth-wearing class, until they upgraded. Paladins, which wore plate armor and chainmail, would receive 3 Defense for each point in Endurance, while leather-wearing classes would receive 2 Defense. Strength and Vitality were universal, and adding a point to the former increased one's minimum-to-maximum damage by 1 to 1.5, rounded down, while Vitality would increase one's health pool by 15 points.

His eyebrows twitched as he reached a conclusion - he would not stockpile points like he had originally decided! Most people would think that what a Thief needed most was Agility, but as he had already added three points, it was at a good level. Adding to it would only make him a faster glass nuke. Origo did not offer Even a small cut from the boar had proven life threatening with his meager health pool, as he did not currently have a fast way to heal himself. He could only wait for his Passive Regeneration or eat rations. While he could add two points to Agility and receive the bonus for 10 points in a single Attribute, it not worth it, as he would prefer to have more options in the future as to what to increase.

This was what one would call a balanced build, and while it would not be amazing, it would offer the best survivability for a solo player. Monsters below level 15 could be considered dumb, as they had repetitive patterns and few skills, so he could handle them easily. On the other hand, if a player decided to PK him, he could make up for a deficiency in pure speed with his honed instincts and reaction speed. What he could not make up for was having a low health pool.

Raphael clicked thrice, his Strength rising from 5 to 7, and his Vitality going from 5 to 6. With his new heightened attributes in place, he glanced at his HP bar, which now showed a maximum of 90, while the base damage in his Character Information window had changed from 5-7 to 7-10.

'It might not be much, but it could make the difference. If only there were overpowered items or skills I could farm…,' he pouted at the unfairness of it all. 'Here I am, with over a decade of experience in the game, and all I have to show for it is improved mechanics and build knowledge. I wish Legendary and Epic items were as common as they are in other virtual reality games.'

Sighing, Raphael squatted down next to the Aged Wild Boar and touched it with his right hand, holding it in place for a blink of the eye. Suddenly, the massive corpse started fading out of existence, until only a few pieces of meat were left where it had been.

His hand reached out and grabbed three crimson-colored steaks, oddly devoid of any blood.

‖ Aged Boar Meat x3 (Consumable) ‖

▸ Heals for 15HP over 10 seconds. Has a high chance of inflicting Poisoned state when consumed. ◂

'Where am I supposed to carry this? In my mouth, as I'm running towards school because I'm late‽' Raphael lamented, as he lifted up the three pieces of boar meat. As he dejectedly looked at his feet, he noticed a small piece of the mighty tusks lying there. Raising an eyebrow, he crouched back down and immediately tried to inspect it.

‖ Killer Boar's Tusk ‖

▸ Quest Item. ◂

Vertical lines appeared on his forehead as he frowned. Quest items would often fall from a player's kills, but there were two distinct possibilities as to how you could use them. The first option was for them to be one of many quest items that had to be gathered, either of the same kind or from numerous different monsters - these were for gathering quests, such as 'Bring 20 rat pelts'. The second option was for an item to actually unlock a quest, but if that was the case, it could either be one item you could hand off and receive a reward for, or it could be a few items that had to be gathered, before you could unlock the quest, if and only if you were lucky enough to track the quest down.

'Please let this be a quest item for the noob village. I don't want to have to carry around even more stuff when I don't even have a rucksack...' Raphael lamented, as he placed the tusk in his pocket and rose to his feet, retrieving his cloak from the ground and dusting himself off with both hands.

Tired from the battle, he slowly walked down the path, hoping that it would lead him to the nearest village and not into another run of bad luck.