The village of Lenn. A small rural village near the very border of the human kingdom of Onnion.

It’s a rare choice for newbies, like Wail for instance. Higher level monsters, only a few shops and hard to get quests. A truly terrible place to start for those who strive to progress quickly. But bad choices and Wail always came hand-in-hand.

Example? He looked in-game almost the same as he did out of it. Why? He didn’t bathe for 4 days, was too lazy to comb his hair and thought that choosing “whatever works” while creating a character was a smart thing to do. But who would have expected the game mechanics to play this kind of trick on him? Definitely not Wail. The game had a twisted sense of humor.

Wail looked around the barely populated ruin of a village. Broken down huts, mean spirited locals, bored local militia.

Once he noticed that he wasn’t attacked on sight by anyone, Wail decided to check the losses.

By the looks of it, all the items he lost were a few copper coins, some scorched rabbit hides and his shoes.

Wail wiggled his bare feet while looking at them.

“Well, I needed new shoes either way…” – He mumbled to himself. A side-effect of not having too many friends.

After that, Wail decided to check his status - since dying does bring other unfortunate set-backs.

Character name: Wail

Level: 21

Class: Apprentice Mage

Reputation: -45

Title: Slightly Sadistic

Experience: 97.8%

Health: 1040

Mana: 1065

Stamina: 400

Strength: 15

Intellect: 46

Agility: 10

Fortitude: 27

Wisdom: 39

Precision: 10

Attack: 5-8

Defense: 45

Charisma: 8

Leadership: 12

Luck: 10

Fame: 85

Health Regen: 5 Health/sec.

Mana Regen: 6 Mana/sec.

Magic Resistance

Fire: 20%

Water: 20%

Nature: 15%

Black: 15%

Holy: 15%

Nether: 15%

*Unspent stat points: 35.

*-1 Charisma due to appearance.

*-1 to Charisma due to below 0 Reputation.

*+2 Leadership due to Fame.

*+15% all Magic Resistances due to Apprentice Mage.

*+5% Fire and Water resistance due to Magician’s Necklace.

Title bonus

+10% damage to lower level creatures and humanoids.

-5% damage to higher level creatures and humanoids.

+10% experience for defeating higher level creatures and humanoids.

-5 Charisma

He lost two whole levels, as well as some skill proficiencies. Not too bad. Wail was feeling optimistic. So much that without thinking, he went straight into the nearest shop.

A narrow room, junk on all sides and a mean stare from the shop-keeper. Wail regretted coming here already.

“What do ya want?” – The shopkeeper asked in a croaking voice, with absolutely no effort spent hiding hostility.

Loss of charisma, negative reputation and an evil title. Neither one of those helped Wail in bartering. For the first few weeks it slowed his progress tremendously. To such an extent that he was forced to experiment.

But through trial and error - Wail found a solution.

With a stuck out chest and an overly-pompous attitude, Wail said some mind-bogglingly insolent words at the host in a ridiculous fashion.

“Don’t you bark at me pleb. I need shoes and some bread, be quick about it - before I burn this dump of a shop to the ground”

The shop-keeper gaped at Wail for a few seconds.

“W-What? You can’t talk to me like that! Get out, you’re not welcome here!” – He shouted, while pointing a finger towards the exit. Eyes glaring, jaw tightly clenched.

Who could blame him? Not many would be intimidated by an overly gaunt, torn-robe wearing individual -feigning superiority.

But Wail was expecting this. He simply flung his palm upwards and conjured a fire-ball.

“You think I’m messing around? I might be doing a favor to society as well. Who knows, I might even get positive reputation for burning this dump. Don’t tempt me pleb” – He replied. A sly smile, spooky looking stare. Combined with his simply ghastly appearance and the feigned need to increase reputation.

The shop-keeper stood frozen with an open mouth for a few seconds, unable and unsure on how to reply. But soon after he gave in, quickly scurrying off behind the counter - returning soon after with the requested goods.

Success! Wail even got a discount - once a few more degrading phrases were thrown around.

-10 Reputation

-100 Relations with Lenn village

*The shop-keeper now hates you and will spread bad rumors regarding you, whenever able,

+5 Fame

He even got some fame and negative reputation, didn’t care what the village thought of him though. If not for the shops and the guards, he would have already burned it to the ground. Regrettably, it’s quite likely that he’d end up with a bounty on his head after something like that. Might receive some wicked title as well. Not the good kind of wicked either.

He could still remember all the mean words directed at him the second he spawned here. Wail was a bitter individual, who held on to grudges and never forgot.

Thus he struggled. Stubbornly refusing to quit, constantly playing with fire, learning new things and never giving up. The result? A new-found way to interact with his surroundings. Usually quite merciless and detestable. But Wail needed to move forward, in any way possible.

What he found out was that the effect negative reputation had, was quite similar to the positive one. The only difference was that you needed to communicate with the locals differently. Though the method displayed previously only worked when Wail was of a higher level, than his target of abuse.

Luckily, now the whole village, excluding the rarely patrolling Onnion soldier, was of a lower level than him. Thus, with lips frozen in a smirk, Wail left the village - casually strolling like he owned the place, towards the dark forest looming due west.

Ironically the forest was called exactly that - “Dark Forest”. One might think the company responsible for this game had to cut down on expenses and close down the innovation department.