C002 — THE GRIND
— — — — —
Heading out of the castle, Zayne quickly travelled through the streets of Solmere, the capital city of the House of Morningstar.
But to be honest, it was more of a medieval town rather than a city. And Solmere was the only city under the House of Morningstar. The barony was quite small compared to others, but they had plenty of fertile land for agriculture, causing most of the citizens to become farmers.
As a moderate-sized town, Solmere had a population of 5,600 people, with the majority being humans and a small minority of beast-kins. Solmere had a standing military of 200 D-rank soldiers, with more than 300 E-rank reserves. And the finest of them, about 10 C-rank soldiers, served as the guards of the House of Morningstar.
And despite being an agricultural town, various other occupations were bustling in Solmere. The most famous being Adventurers. They took on quests from the Adventurer's Guild and completed them for monetary rewards. These quests were the ones placed by nearby residents, including the lords of the territories.
After the influx of players, this profession would become even more renowned.
Meanwhile, Zayne reached his destination after a short ten-minute walk. It was a moderate building with a logo of a hammer and an anvil, with fire burning in the background. At just a glance, it was clear that it was a blacksmith shop.
After walking in, the receptionist, who was also a blacksmith apprentice, immediately recognised Zayne and greeted him with respect, "Welcome, Young Master Zayne."
Before Zayne could reply, the receptionist continued, "Young Master Zayne, your order is already ready. Would you like me to bring it now?"
Zayne simply nodded his head and said with a smile, "Yes, I am here to collect it."
He then brought out his pouch from the inventory and took out seven silver coins, and placed them on the counter. "Here, seven Ashens as agreed." He spoke.
The receptionist carefully collected the money and said with a polite smile, "Thank you, Young Master. Please wait here as I bring your weapon."
"Hmm." Zayne simply nodded as he watched the receptionist walk through the back door to grab his weapon.
While waiting, Zayne remembered one of the reasons why Dominion Eternal became so popular. It was that its currency, Gloom, was registered as an official currency by the World Finance Council. In other words, one could buy real-world products and pay for them in equivalent Glooms. It was similar to cryptocurrency.
Dominion Eternal has four main currencies. Cinder, the bronze coin, with the lowest value. Normal citizens and even players dealt with their daily transactions in Cinders.
Above that was Ashen, the silver coin, and mostly used by people to buy expensive items such as weapons and potions.
After that was Gloom, the gold coin, and the most expensive coin. It was used during large transactions and mostly used by the rich and noble.
The last currency was Veilshard, but unlike the previous ones, this was completely useless for ordinary people because Veilshards are pieces of magical crystals extracted from dungeons and rare mines.
Veilshard was mostly used in magical processes such as creating some rare potions and magic weapons, making it even rarer.
Meanwhile, the receptionist brought a weapon wrapped in cloth. From the outside, it looked like a curved blade.
"Here, Young Master Zayne, the refined iron katana you ordered," The receptionist said with a polite tone and removed the cloth, revealing the weapon in its entirety.
It was a sleek black katana, made from natural iron and refined to perfection by an expert blacksmith. Its sharp edge gleamed under the ceiling light. Zayne nodded in satisfaction and used his skill {Inspect}.
{ — — — — —
NAME: Refined Iron Katana
TYPE: Melee Weapon
GRADE: Uncommon
|> EFFECT(S)
+2 STR
+3 AGI
1% chance to inflict 'Bleeding' status. Loss 10 HP every 5 seconds for 30 seconds.
— — — — — }
"It's a good sword, I am satisfied," Zayne said and picked the katana from the counter. Taking the sheath from the receptionist, he equipped the katana through the system interface, and it appeared on his waist.
"All right, I will be back when I need another weapon," Zayne told the receptionist and walked out of the store.
"Please visit you again, Young Master Zayne," The receptionist replied happily from behind.
After coming out of the shop, Zayne headed straight for the forest next to Solmere. It was a bit far, since nearby trees were cleared to ensure Solmere's safety.
About fifteen minutes later, Zayne reached the forest named Elven Woods, after the myth that in ancient times, elves used to live in this forest. The forest was quite large, one of the largest on the continent, covering about 7,400,000 square kilometres. But only a tiny fraction fell under the Morningstar Barony, about 700 square kilometres.
As soon as Zayne reached the forest, he drew his katana and moved with light steps. He remained vigilant despite it being a low-level area. Most monsters in this forest were below level 20, with the outer edge monsters being below level 5.
Just a few minutes later, Zayne encountered his first monster. A slime.
Zayne crouched low beneath a moss-covered tree, his katana already drawn. Soft rustling of leaves echoed through the forest.
Every muscle in his lean frame was tense, eyes locked on the pulsating, gelatinous mass oozing towards him through the undergrowth.
The slime was light blue and translucent, wobbling with each movement like a jelly. Somewhere within its undulating body, a bright, marble-sized core flickered — its heart, its source of power and its weakness.
Zayne quickly used {Inspect}.
{ — — — — —
NAME: Blue Slime
TYPE: Magical Field Monster
RANK: F
|> DESCRIPTION
A slime is a gluttonous monster made of jelly-like substance called slime essence. It could feed on anything. Its power comes from a single magic core hidden within its gelatinous body, and also its major weakness. It attacks by shaping its body into long whip-like tendrils. It could also create multiple copies of itself, but its core remains in the main body.
— — — — — }
Zayne narrowed his eyes, quickly targeting the slime's core, "It has been a long time since I last fought a slime."
Suddenly, the slime gurgled, sensing him. It surged forward, leaving a slick trail on the forest floor. A tendril shot out, whip-like.
CRACK!
Zayne rolled to the side, the tendril slapping the ground where he had been a second ago. He came up on one knee and leapt towards the blue blob, slashing with his katana — but the blade met nothing but sludge, slicing through without resistance. The severed part simply reformed with a squelch.
"I almost forgot how annoying these were in the early phase," Zayne muttered with frustration evident in his tone. He took a stance, hoping to use his skill, but before he could, the slime lunged again.
This time, the slime split itself into multiple flailing pseudopods. Each shooting at him with whip-like tendrils. Zayne dodged to the best of his abilities, but still, one tendril managed to land a hit on him across the shoulder, sending him sprawling back against a tree trunk.
He grunted, shaking the dizziness from his head. Meanwhile, the multiple slime copies started merging back into one. Taking this opportunity, Zayne quickly used his skill.
{Thunder Arts — Lightning Step}
Lightning arced around Zayne's boots with a sharp crack, and in an instant, he vanished, reappearing behind the slime in a blur of blue sparks. The katana slashed through its body again — and this time, he aimed for the glimmering core.
But the core shifted, dodging towards the right.
"Damn! I also forgot about this," Zayne muttered in frustration, retreating several paces, breathing heavily. "But I won't allow you to beat me again."
The slime's body churned, healing its wound close. Within moments, it was as good as new.
In the next moment, the slime hissed, splitting open as if to roar. It launched a dozen tiny bobs, each sizzling on contact with the ground. Acid. Trees around them smoked where the gunk splattered.
"No again," Zayne said in determination, as before the slime could fire the acid balls towards him, he used a new skill.
{Fire Magic — Fireball}
A small ball of fire condensed before Zayne's palm, which he launched towards the slime. Sizzles rose to the air as the fireball met the gelatine body of the slime, burning it, but not enough to damage the core.
Despite that, the fireball managed to interrupt the volley of acid balls as the slime got busy healing itself. But clearly, the speed of recovery was slower as compared to before.
"Now's my chance," Zayne didn't hesitate and quickly used his skill.
{Thunder Arts — Lightning Step}
Immediately, lightning arched at his feet as Zayne disappeared from his place and appeared before the slime. His katana was already slashing through the slime's body without resistance. This time, however, the slime was unable to move its core out of the way as the katana slashed through the core, cutting it in half.
The slime convulsed, its form bursting like a water balloon. Fortunately, Zayne managed to distance himself and not get showered by the slime's goo.
< You have slain a Blue Slime (F). >
< You have received +4 EXP. >
Zayne dismissed the message after taking a glance. Normally, a slime would give him 2 EXP, but his trait EXP Boost granted him doubled the EXP.
Walking towards the slime's remains, Zayne crouched down and collected his loot.
< You have obtained Broken Slime Core ×1, Slime Essence ×1. >
After that, Zayne waited for a few minutes to regenerate his mana. Since he did not receive any damage, his health was still full.
Another important aspect of Dominion Eternal was that, despite being a VRMMORPG, its combat mechanics were more realistic and not purely number-based. For instance, in Zayne's earlier battle with the slime, there was not a single damage indicator. Thus, players needed to be extremely careful while fighting, as the only indicator was the final kill message.
Meanwhile, Zayne started roaming in the outer regions of the forest, encountering various types of slime, from blue to green to even black slimes. But they were still simple slimes and not the stronger elemental slimes.
These simple slimes, except for their colour difference, were the same.
Zayne only followed a single strategy. First, attack the slime with a fireball and then use lightning step to destroy the slime core. This strategy proved quite effective, as just under an hour, Zayne managed to kill another 14 slimes, making him level up.
< You have slain a Red Slime (F). >
< You have received +4 EXP. >
< Congratulations, you have levelled up to 2. You have obtained +2 All Attributes, +10 Attribute Points. >
Once again, his traits helped him immensely. Levelling up in F-rank would grant +1 to all attributes and +5 attribute points that could be allocated freely. But his trait BOSS MONSTER PHYSIQUE increased by two times.
Additionally, level-ups also filled the player's HP and MP bars, but not stamina.
Zayne quickly opened his status panel to check.
— — — | STATUS | — — —
- NAME: Zayne Morningstar
- RACE: Human (BOSS MONSTER)
- TITLE(S): Reincarnated Villain, Dungeon Master, Limit Breaker
- RANK: F
- LEVEL: 2
——— EXP Required: 0/150
- CLASS: -
——— -
|> STATS
- HP: 70/70
- MP: 70/70
|> ATTRIBUTES
- STR: 7 (+2)
- VIT: 7
- END: 7
- AGI: 7 (+3)
- INT: 7
- WIS: 7
- PER: 7
- LUCK: 7
- ATTRIBUTE POINTS: 10
— — — — — — — — — — —
After thinking momentarily, Zayne distributed 3 attribute points to STR, AGI and INT each and the last remaining one to LUCK.
"Alright, time to continue the grind," Zayne muttered as he continued his massacre of poor slimes.
— — — — —