The ground shook as a giant griffin landed in the center of town, a tall and handsome man hopped off wearing dazzling equipment, adventurers and merchants surrounded him as they walked off in a mob.
I stayed seated on my stool in my vegetable stand... and swatted at a fly landing on my tomatoes.
Damn, this sucks! I work hard every day in my garden collecting big and juicy veggies only for them to rot away in my stall!
As I was crying in indignation, an adventurer approached and I sat straight, a confident smile on my face.
"Oh, it's a veggie shop. Do you know where the fruit shop is?" They asked as if it didn't crush the miniscule hope I had left.
I weakly held up a finger to my right.
The adventurer skipped away without even thanking me! I should have pointed him to the hidden boss monster... Hehe, these low leveled guys wouldn't stand a chance against something like that!
Neither would I, now that I think about it...?
I opened my character screen.
[NPC tg .000: Veggie Guy]
Damn I hate that name...
[Level: 1]
{Stats}
[Strength: 5] [Agility: 5] [Constitution: 5]
[Intelligence: 5] [Wisdom: 5]
{Skills}
[Blank] [Blank] [Blank]
I'll never forgive the developers for not giving me skills! ...I'm getting sad just thinking about it...
As I was imagining myself fighting giant monster boss' with my great stats and skills, a giant adventurer fell onto my stall... and crushed all of my vegetables.
My vegetables!!! My sweet, succulent vegetables!!!
They rolled on the ground with cuts or lay flattened, their guts squashed out.
"Alright, mister... I can handle no one buying my veggies, I can handle the guy next to me selling fruits to get all my potential customers, but I will not tolerate some human-"
And then my vision went black.
[You died.]
&^&^%&# &#^&*#^ *#^&^ $*#^ &#^^%!!!!
I slapped the invisible floor underneath me as I wailed about my vegetables. I planned to do this until I respawned, but I got exhausted in less than a minute.
...
This sucks.
Grrr... I'm tired of being just some Veggie Guy!
I want to change my name!
[Once created, a character may not alter their name.]
&^%$!!!
Pheww... It's okay... Veggie Guy is actually a pretty good name.
I blatantly lied to myself.
If I can't change my name, I'll just need to get stronger! And the best way to get stronger is to level up!
Hmmm... I guess I should farm the bunnies outside of the starter village once I respawn. After I get a weapon, of course. (<.>)
And so, I waited seven in-game days until I respawned back at my destroyed stall.
[-7 gold]
Damn, that was half my gold...
My veggies had despawned, and after 7 days of not taking care of my garden, I didn't even want to look at it.
I picked up a stick with nails in it.
{Stick With Nails In It}
[Damage: 3]
...Welp...
And with that stick, I walked off to the very first field of mobs!
"Listen, we can talk about this!" I took a step back as a party of adventurers took one forward.
"There's nothing to talk about. These mobs are ours."
"This is our field, noob. Piss off."
"Is he using a stick?"
They're level 10, why are they farming in a level 5 field?! I guess they're just so bad at the game they can't even fight with same level monsters.
"Are you gonna leave or we gonna have to kill you?" The warrior of the party stepped forward again.
"I'm leaving, I'm leaving!" I turned around and hurried away.
Jeez, now what am I gonna do!?
I sulked back to the path towards the village while thinking. If I can't go to the outskirts of the village to farm bunnies, I'll have to go into the forest.
My brows furrowed.
There's many types of higher leveled monsters in the forest, and there's also lots of wandering and hidden boss'... But I can't think of a better idea.
If I really am going to go, I'll need actual equipment.
To the vendors!
I paced back to the center of the village where all of the stalls were set up and looked for the weapon's vendor.
"Hey, Veggies Guy! What were you up to outside the village? I've never seen you leave before!"
"Hey, Haul. I was going to hunt some bunnies but I got ran off by some overleveled humans. I'm going to go into the forests instead, now."
Haul visibly flinched from the last sentence.
"Veggie, that's a pretty bold move on your part. What level are you now?"
"...1..."
His face blanked.
"I-In that case, you should definitely buy some gear. I heard one of the monsters has evolved." He scratched his beard and smiled. "I have all the weapons you'll need though!"
I could image the golden sparkle in his eyes as he gave me a thumbs up.
"I'm dirt poor, what would you give for this stick with wooden nails?"
His face blackened.
"For you, 1 gold."
"See, that's what I thought, but the nails give it an extra 2 damage! And it also has a very rustic vibe, I'm sure many people would want it for a more apocalyptic aura! It's a very good upgrade from the basic stick!" The sparkle appeared in my mind again.
"Hmmm.... Alright, I'll give you 3 for it, but only for the extra damage. It still looks like you just took a piece off of your stall."
I would never...
"Deal!" I handed him the stick and took 3 gold coins while smiling stiffly.
"Now, what's your cheapest sword?"
__________
I'm back at the entrance of the village, with a beginner's sword and set of armor.
The set comprised of some brown boots, dark grey pants, white shirt, some iron shin guards, bracers, pauldrons, a chest plate, and a green cloak over it all. The sword itself was just a generic iron straight sword, the damage was 10, and the armor's defence was 15 in total.
I haggled the hell out of the prices and also sold my clothes, but managed to buy them all with only 14 gold (The official price all-together was around 30 gold).
Anyway, although my equipment is now perfect for venturing, I am still level one. There's a very high chance I will die, and since I have no gold, one of my items will be taken instead. If that happens, I'm really screwed.
And so, I walked into the beginner's forest, where the suggested level is 10-15.