Cautiously, Zich moved towards the unaware blue slime.
Mountain of Ascension did not come with any magical beginner starter pack like other virtual games.
Here, you use whatever you have to your advantage.
Even though slimes were one of the weakest types of monsters, he did not dare to be reckless.
One wrong move here and he would be dead both in the Ascension Mountain and in real life.
His slightly golden eyes scanned the surroundings, searching for anything useful. It did not take long before he came across something.
He carefully made his way to the crude weapon he had spotted.
Unaware, the dumb slime continued to play with the butterfly.
He gave the weapon a quick glance before picking it up. Up close, it was a crude metal sword.
As he bent to lift it, a branch snapped underneath his foot.
Crack!
"Shit!" he cursed under his breath.
At that exact moment, the slime turned around, an angry expression forming on its face.
However, even before it could do anything, in one smooth motion, he grabbed the hilt of the rusty sword and rushed forward.
It opened its mouth to spit something out, but he was much stronger and faster, driving the sword straight through its body.
[Ding You have killed Level 2 Slime]
[1/5 Spirit Orb Collected]
[Please kill more monsters]
The system did not say it directly, but it looked like he could create a monster after four more kills.
Motivated, he held the rusty sword tightly and headed deeper into the forest.
It seemed this particular area was filled with slime type monsters because after walking for a few minutes, he came across another one.
This time there were two. They were in an awkward position, lying on top of each other.
It took him a moment before he understood what was happening.
'Are they mating?'
That was the thought that came to mind when he noticed the strange movements.
With how awkward the whole scene was, he did not linger and stepped forward.
He silently snuck behind them and stabbed multiple times, killing them in the act.
[Ding You have killed 2 Level 2 Slimes]
[Ding You have collected 2 Spirit Orbs]
'Two more.'
He quickly left the scene as if he had not just killed a pair.
Along the way, he encountered other players, but he did not greet any of them, nor did he respond when they spoke to him, which left them confused.
"Who does he think he is?"
"Let him be. People like that die quickly. Even if he survives, when he sees how tough it is out here, he will come crawling back."
Of course, he heard what they said, but he did not care and kept walking.
The others thought he ignored them because he was arrogant, but the truth was that he did not know how to communicate properly with people.
He had been in this world for sixteen years, and during that time, he had either spent it in the graveyard or with his unusual parents.
He could count all the interactions he had with other people on one hand.
It was that bad.
Because of that, he preferred to stay alone and interact with corpses, which he was more comfortable with.
While the new batch of players were hunting outside the first settlement of the beginner area, on top of a large tree branch in the forest, two figures smoking pipes watched the fights below.
Specifically, their eyes were fixed on a certain white haired boy who was moving through the forest without any teammates.
"For looking over a bunch of weaklings who get into trouble every two minutes, the association sure pays little."
One of the men sneered. He was wearing a long coat with the symbol of the Player Association on it.
His partner, dressed similarly, dusted off leaves from his shoulder and replied in a calm tone.
"I would not complain. I would rather do this than risk my life exploring some unknown secret realm in the second or third layer."
Although most of the new players did not know it, the Player Association had sent supervisors to watch over them and make sure they did not die recklessly.
Naturally, none of the players knew this, and even their interventions were subtle, just enough so the players would not become careless.
The last thing the association wanted was to lose their already declining standing to the other races in the second layer.
The two did not say any more words and simply kept their gaze on the same lone kid.
After a few more minutes of slime hunting, he eventually killed his fourth slime.
Now, he was facing the fifth and final one.
Puah!
The blue slime, which was larger than the rest he had faced, shot out a sphere of green liquid.
Even though he did not know what it was, he did not stay still, especially because this particular slime had the name [Poisonous Slime] hovering above it.
He quickly dashed to the side with agility far above what a beginner player should have.
When the sphere struck the trunk of a tree, it immediately began to decay, eating through the wood at a frightening speed.
"Thought as much." He shuddered slightly as he imagined what would have happened if it had hit him.
The poisonous slime continued to fire more spheres.
Puah! Puah! Puah!
Fwoosh! Fwoosh! Fwoosh!
Moving in a zigzag pattern, he weaved through the attacks. Once the distance closed, he simply thrust the sword forward.
Because the slime had no real combat ability aside from spitting poison, it was easily killed.
A glowing orb flew out and entered his body.
The moment it did, a screen appeared before him.
[Ding You have slain Level 4 Poisonous Slime]
[Ding 5/5 Spirit Orbs Collected]
[Would you like to enter your graveyard]
"Y… yes," he answered with slight hesitation.
Immediately, the space around him began to warp and twist.
The next moment, he found himself standing on top of a hill under a dark sky covered with thick clouds that blocked out any light.
A cold breeze swept across the land without stopping, pushing against everything in its path and making a low sound as it passed.
He touched his head and felt a slight wet patch. When he looked up, he saw light rain falling slowly and steadily.
The entire place felt empty and still. No animals, no voices, nothing.
However, this strange space was not completely empty.
Because on this vast wasteland, there were thousands of tombstones.