Just then, a man appeared right next to Lara.
"What are you doing, Lara? Let's head out to the First Area of the Newbie Plains."
Hearing this familiar voice, a highly pleasant, radiant smile instantly formed on Lara's face.
"I was waiting for you, Classmate Ren." Her sharp tone instantly turned flowery and sweet as she spoke to the new arrival.
The young man wore the exact same starting equipment as the rest of the students, yet the aura radiating around him was significantly different. It was inherently confident and highly imposing.
"And who exactly is this?" Ren glanced over at Caelus and spoke with mild, unfiltered disinterest.
"You do not need to concern yourself with him at all, Classmate Ren," Lara said hurriedly, waving her hand dismissively as if brushing away a fly. "He is just a defect with an E-Rank Mana Affinity."
"Someone with an E-Rank Affinity?" Ren looked Caelus up and down, his eyes narrowing slightly in mild surprise. "Classmate, did you happen to awaken any sort of Origin Talent?"
Ren asked with a polite, highly practiced smile plastered on his handsome face. He was a special class student hailing from a highly influential family, and he knew better than to judge someone solely on their outer appearance or base affinity.
Hearing this direct question, Caelus replied without a single ounce of hesitation. "No, I did not awaken any talents."
"That is a profound pity." Ren shook his head, his polite smile fading into indifference. "It seems like you and I were simply never destined to walk the same path."
"I genuinely feel bad, but I am only accepting people into my party that possess a D-Rank Affinity or above. Anything below that strict threshold is simply not worth the effort to carry. You should understand the harsh reality of our situation better than me, Classmate," Ren added coolly, his tone final.
Caelus simply nodded silently at this blunt dismissal. He didn't say a single word in his own defense.
Right now, Caelus held absolutely no tangible value as a person in their elite eyes. He understood that brutal fact very well.
Having an E-Rank Mana Affinity was a severe, crippling handicap. Not only would his base skills be fundamentally weaker than an ordinary player, but without a powerful talent to offset it, it was essentially impossible for him to perform well within the Origin Ascension Domain.
Most importantly, an E-Rank Affinity meant his physical body showed a highly natural resistance to all forms of magic and ambient mana. This fundamentally meant that crucial mana potions and vital healing elixirs would only be half as effective on Caelus compared to normal players.
For a standard D-Rank user, the potion effects were perfectly average. People blessed with an A-Rank or S-Rank Affinity were said to experience a massive, multiplied effect boost when consuming expensive potions inside the game.
It was incredibly unfair, but this was exactly what he was born with.
His body showed a natural, stubborn resistance to this magical world. It was actually the norm in the distant past when the Domain first merged with reality.
However, with each passing generation, more high-affinity individuals naturally appeared while the E-Rank Affinity became exceedingly rarer. According to top scientists, it had something to do with humanity biologically adapting to the Domain's environment over centuries. Each passing generation adapted bit by bit, eventually producing players with vastly higher compatibility.
After coldly saying his piece, Ren and his elite group departed smoothly with Lara, heading straight toward the First Area of the Newbie Plains.
The others lingering in the safe area also departed swiftly.
They were all frantically rushing to the First Area of the Newbie Plains to hunt down the ten monsters strictly required to earn their permanent, official place within the Origin Ascension Domain.
Caelus knew he absolutely shouldn't dilly-dally either.
But before he hastily left the safe zone, he decided to carefully choose a starting weapon.
As a fresh newbie, one could freely choose a single starting weapon from the wooden armory rack located near the center of town.
Immediately, a glowing holographic list appeared in his vision. It included a heavy halberd, a standard longsword, a curved katana, a battle axe, a wooden bat with iron spikes, rogue daggers, martial nunchucks, and many more basic options.
"What exactly are nunchucks going to do against a mutated monster?" Caelus's lips twitched in utter disbelief at the strange option.
As far as he was logically concerned, the fierce beasts roaming outside the town had incredibly thick, mutated skin. He desperately needed something highly sharp to cleanly slice through that tough outer layer, reach their vital core, and eliminate them quickly.
Eventually, Caelus securely went with a simple dagger.
[System: You have successfully obtained Common 1-Star 'Newbie Dagger']
[System: Combat Score: 1.0 -> 1.25]
The exact moment the basic weapon materialized in his hands, a glaring golden notification suddenly popped up directly in his vision.
[System: Target Detected. Would you like to Extract?]
"What? Extract the starter dagger?" Caelus was completely dumbfounded.
Did his mysterious SSS-Rank talent actually want to eat the physical dagger?
But then a sudden, brilliant thought crossed his mind.
He immediately issued the mental command for the extraction of the dagger. A brand new, blinding notification flashed.
[System: You have successfully extracted the physical impurities from the Common 1-Star Dagger.]
[System: It has successfully evolved into a Rare 1-Star 'Newbie Dagger'.]
[System: Combat Score: 1.25 -> 2.0]
The exact instant the newly extracted, glowing dagger fell back into Caelus's firm grip, he felt his physical body instantly become much lighter. His overall raw power surged noticeably.
The Rare dagger significantly boosted his base combat score. As long as the weapon did not physically break and was simply kept equipped or in his active inventory, it would strictly keep his combat score at a highly solid 2.0.
"It really is a video game, after all." Caelus's lips twitched upward into a highly satisfied smirk.
He certainly didn't complain about this absurd outcome. He actually liked this very much. If he could simply extract better loot to upgrade it, he could safely and rapidly increase his overall combat score without much effort.
The harsh reality was that the vast majority of his elite classmates likely already had a starting combat score of 2.0 or 3.0. The privileged people from the special class had significantly higher starting levels simply because they had already learned how to actively cultivate mana in the real world. They regularly used expensive circulation techniques to artificially increase their mana capacity and physically strengthen their bodies before even formally entering the game.
This massive, unfair privilege was something Caelus simply didn't have as someone cursed with an E-Rank Mana Affinity.
"Oh well, there is absolutely no point in complaining about it now. With this ridiculous, logic-defying talent, I can definitely secure a place at the very peak of the Origin Ascension Domain." Caelus's dark eyes flickered with a burning, intense determination as he finally left the bustling town square behind.
By the time he casually crossed the wooden village gates, only one or two highly cowardly players remained behind, completely paralyzed by sheer fear and entirely unable to step out into the dangerous unknown.
As soon as he stepped safely beyond the invisible, shimmering barrier of the safe zone, the immediate surrounding area was eerily deserted.
Dead ahead lay a winding dirt path leading directly deep into the towering, mutated grass of the Newbie Plains. Without a single ounce of hesitation holding him back, Caelus walked confidently forward.
He was going in completely blind to the exact enemy types. However, cowardly staying inside the town was a guaranteed, absolute death sentence anyway once the harsh time limit officially expired.
He critically needed to secure exactly ten kills within the strict six-hour time limit.
With that grim, unwavering determination, Caelus pushed deeper into the dense plains. Eventually, his sharp ears caught the distinct sound of violent, chaotic movement up ahead. He immediately lowered his physical stance and quickly slipped into the dense, overgrown bushes to safely observe the situation.
Swish!
"You damn pig! Just die already!" an enraged, highly desperate shout echoed loudly from the clearing directly ahead.
Immediately, a human figure violently flickered forward, moving with a sudden burst of speed that absolutely no ordinary person back on Earth could ever realistically hope to achieve.
The target in question was a massive, highly mutated boar. It possessed a terrifyingly menacing look, armed with razor-sharp, bloody tusks and glowing red eyes that perfectly matched its violent, unhinged aggression. It charged forward like a literal runaway freight train with a deafening, ear-piercing squeal.
The highly ambitious player and the enraged, massive boar clashed violently in the dead center of the clearing. It was a brutal scene of mutual destruction. They both took a catastrophic, lethal amount of damage from the sheer kinetic impact of the collision. A huge, bloody hole was blown straight through the boar's thick skull, while the arrogant player was violently sent flying backward, the sickening crunch of his ribs echoing loudly as he hit the hard ground.
The player lay completely paralyzed in the dirt. His face was deathly pale, making him look like he was practically already a fading ghost.
Seeing this highly tragic, bloody outcome, a sudden, brilliantly dark idea sparked in Caelus's calculating mind. He stared blankly at the Talent tab on his glowing system screen, then his gaze drifted to the fallen, massive boar carcass, and finally, his cold eyes locked directly onto the paralyzed player who was actively teetering on the very brink of death.
There was a highly specific, notoriously annoying rule implemented in this game-like world. If a player's HP dropped below a critical ten percent threshold, they completely lost the ability to manually teleport back to the safe zone. It was a cruel, unforgiving punishment system designed strictly for recklessness.
However, there was a widely known loophole.
If another friendly player stumbled upon you, they could graciously activate a rare party teleport scroll to forcefully send you to safety.
Caelus made absolutely no sound. He crept silently out of the bushes and began to slowly walk toward the seriously injured, loudly groaning player.
He was an incredibly righteous, upstanding man, after all.
There was absolutely no logical reason for him to be truly evil here. Life was absolutely not that deep, and neither was this tutorial game. He was just going to casually walk over and help a fellow gamer out of a really tough spot.
But alas.
Swish!
Suddenly, Caelus accelerated with terrifying, lethal intent. The crippled player weakly sensed the sudden, violent shift in air pressure and desperately tried to turn his head. But before his pain-addled brain could even fully process the incoming threat, his mind went completely blank. In the very next microsecond, his entire vision was violently flooded with warm red liquid.
Thud.
The player's head hit the blood-soaked grass exactly like a discarded sack of potatoes as Caelus coldly and smoothly slid his newly evolved, razor-sharp 1-Star dagger right out of the guy's skull.
[System: Player 141 has died.]
[System: Player 141 is officially the first person to die in this server.]
"This is a game-like world. Even if I kill you right here and now, absolutely nothing permanent happens to you in reality just yet. You will just wake up safely in your bed and enter a forced cooldown period. So, you really cannot blame me for securing an early advantage," Caelus calmly lectured the rapidly cooling corpse with a matter-of-fact look, casually crouching down beside it. "As the legendary pioneer players of the Domain once said: The strong survive, and the weak... well, they just become premium loot for the strong."
Absolute, dead silence answered his dark monologue.
"Wait, who am I even talking to right now?" Caelus's lips twitched in mild self-deprecation.
The guy was dead. Stone cold dead. His physical avatar was going to completely disintegrate into glowing blue pixels in roughly a few short minutes.
Caelus shook his head, quickly clearing his stray thoughts. He had a very important, highly experimental job to do before the body vanished and took its valuable secrets with it.
"That mutated boar... it was definitely an Elite." He cast a brief, analytical glance at the massive beast carcass. It was only a Level 2 or Level 3 monster, but it radiated far more wild, untamed energy than a normal mob. However, his greedy, highly calculating eyes immediately drifted back to the fresh human body resting directly at his feet.
"You must have had at least a solid D-Rank Enhancement Talent to fight that massive thing head-on, right?" Caelus smiled brightly, completely ignoring the gory, horrific mess he had just created with his own two hands.
He was far more focused on the glaring golden prompt hovering in the air directly above the corpse than he was on the trivial morality of virtual murder.
[System: Target Detected. Would you like to Extract?]
Without a single shred of hesitation, Caelus mentally clicked yes.
[System: Extraction successful...]
[System: You have successfully extracted the Talent: Body Enhancement (D-Rank).]
[System: Combat Score: 2.0 -> 5.0]
Crack! Pop!
The exact instant his combat score skyrocketed, his physical avatar reacted violently to the sudden influx of power. His muscles expanded rapidly, the sudden, explosive growth tearing straight through the cheap fabric of his starting linen shirt, before physically decompressing just as quickly into a highly dense, incredibly compact state.
His formerly average, completely weak physique was instantly replaced by chiseled, highly visible muscle fibers that radiated raw strength.
Caelus gasped sharply, his eyes widening in pure surprise as he physically felt the explosive, raw power coursing directly through his veins.