The female voice of the system was robotic and monotonous. If not for the fact that I had not heard another's voice in a long time, I might not have reacted the way I did. With deep breaths and exhilaration that is. I swallowed my abundance of saliva.

「Initilazing character creation.」

Following the voice, a hologram of a slightly hunched, middle-aged man far past his prime appeared in the blackness. His brown eyes were dull, almost lifeless– yet seemed to hold some sort of hidden depth within. His brows slightly slanted downward, and his nose was sharp, and overall he was not too bad looking considering his age. The only fault was his melancholic demeanor which seemed almost tragic.

I sighed inwardly. "Proceed." My voice was shaky. When you live alone for a long time, you eventually stop speaking. It is a waste of energy. A waste of time. No one can hear you anyway. As I spoke, I surprised myself. So this is how I sound? I had forgotten.

「Please allocate your mastery, skill and attribute points.」

I began to scroll through the tens of masteries that I had to pick from. This game, Armistice, was a joint collaboration of the universe to stop the space war which broke out when humans began to populate space. Each race of the universe– no matter the size– had a server, and arising conflicts would be decided in the game to minimize casualties. After all, the universe had grown tired of bloodshed by now.

There were far too many mysteries for me to look at every one. But I already knew what I wanted. The mastery of fire. I added all my three points to it and disregarded the warning which popped up as a result of my choice. The mastery of fire gave me a total of 12% bonus fire damage. 10% was from the first point, and 2% was from the following two.

Next were the skills. These existed in thousands, and I had nine points.

Fireball. Yes, this was the one I was looking for. As it sounded, it was the most basic spell of fire that existed in games. However, never disrespect the basics. The basics are the foundation of a towering behemoth. Once again, a warning sign popped up when I added all my skill points into the fireball. The thing was, I already had an idea of what I wanted to do, and nine points into the beginner fireball was a must for this method.

I quickly made it go away and came to the attribute selection, pumping all of my 27 attribute points into wisdom.

「A player can only create one character per account. Do you wish to proceed?」

“Yes,” I stated firmly.

「Congratulations, you have successfully created your character. A class will be given to you by the system according to your playstyle, choices, and achievements after you reach level ten.」

「Do you wish to enter Armistice now?」

I recounted what the voice said and then replied.

The hologram of myself vanished in a flash. The blackness of my visions was swept up in a curtain of light, and the next thing I saw was a clear blue sky. In the middle hung a shining sun, and it was surrounded by a few, scattered clouds.

「Welcome to Armistice! You have spawned in Planet 1XR43 Beginner village #1.」

I, who faced upward, slowly bent my head down. The scenery was very peaceful, far more interesting than what I had been staring at for years. Men and women in everyday clothes paced back and forth all with a purpose of their own. They chatted and interacted, traded goods and laughed. I saw how children played on the sidewalk and were chased away by an angry stallkeeper. Everything was so... realistic.

I found a blue bar on the edge of my vision and opened it. As expected, there were several titles such as equipment, skills, and minimap. Two of fifteen equipment slots were filled; I wore a plain white shirt for the chest slot and a pair black breeches for the leg slot while my head, necklace, shoulder, wrist, hands, waist, feet, main hand, off-hand, two rings and two accessories were left empty.

I glanced through the rest of the titles and then closed the menu.

The time was around twelve from the sun's position, and it had begun to color my neck with a reddish tint. Things like these, which were unnatural in normal games, was commonplace in Armistice. It was a fantasy game trying to mirror reality. I enjoyed the fresh winds blowing in my black hair. They were lukewarm.

Everything was perfect right now. However, I had things to do. Things that must be done. I took a deep breath and looked around, trying to find the village chief.

The quest I had to complete was called [Protect the Farms], and I had to gain the extra reward solo before any other player on the server could get it. Of course, since I was the only living human on Pluto, and almost no human planet in the galaxy was as uninhibited as mine, the circumstances of my imprisonment all those years ago were in my favor.

After a while, I found who I was looking for. Archmage Nadu who had gone missing almost a hundred years ago. Of course, I was the only one who knew his real identity. Other players would merely see him as the Beginner Village's Chief and nothing more.

The old man was draped in a white hemp robe, and his grey, Gandalf-like beard was pricked with a similar color. His bald head was covered in liver spots and his face drenched in wrinkles. As if he would fall over any second.

I walked over to him.

”Old man, Is there anything I can help you with?”

The old man seemed to be taken aback by my question.

“Help me… ah! Young man, the wolves of the forest are acting up again, attacking nearby farms to get to our cattle. If we don’t solve the problem, we won’t last through winter! However, you don't seem like the seasoned warrior to me. How about you gain some experience first and then come back?"

I shook my head. "The village's problems are my problems. Each passing second is a threat to its existence. Trust me and I will exterminate the wolves for you!"

"Are you sure?"

"Yes."

"Fine, since you are so adamant about it." the old man finally gave in.

Protect the Farms!

Description: The village chief is concerned about the recent wolf attacks. He has requested for you to kill twenty wolves to protect the cattle and therefore the well-being of the entire village. However, he will be extra pleased if the whole den is cleared out.

Task: Kill 20 [wolves]

Reward: 10 Copper

The old man’s actions, speech, and appearance seemed so realistic I found it hard to believe this was inside a game, that the old man was merely an NPC.

“I will return with good news,” I told the man.

The old man revealed a satisfied smile. It seems my determination had touched him. “Very well, I await that good news then!” he said.

I quietly took my leave and followed the minimap outside the wooden gates of the village. A plain stretched far and wide in front of me and was shaped like rolling waves with different elevations. Countless of critters roamed freely, sometimes eating grass, sometimes wasting time while laying in the sun. The frames above their heads showed they were level zero with one hp, and luckily, they were just what I needed.

Practice targets.

”Oh mighty fire, converge!”

My hand began to glow with a reddish color before a measly-looking fireball was shot out. Unfortunately, my aim was a bit off. The fat bunny had been eying perked its ears as the fireball flew past it. The bunny glanced around, a tad confused, and then continued to chew the yummy grass from the plain. I wrinkled his forehead and tried again. I failed. This was a lot more difficult than first expected.

After a while, I figured it was similar to shooting a gun, just that the radius was larger. And if there was something I knew, it was marksmanship. So when I imagined myself holding a gun, although my skills had accumulated quite a bit of rust, I hit the bunny perfectly. The fireball dealt 21 damage in a striking red bar floating up on top of the rabbit before slowly fading away.

I figured my aim was good enough for the task. Also, there was no time to spare. I entered the forest and walked toward the depth where the wolf den was located.

The first prey I came to face was, however, not a wolf but, a lvl 1 Tyke. The Tyke was similar to a raccoon, yet had two tails, sleeker fur and a horn on top of its head. It donned a straight up brown appearance unlike a raccon and attacked me without notice from a bush. However, it had committed a grave mistake. It had underestimated me.

I reacted inhumanely fast and delivered a lightning fast kick, blowing it away like a kite.

The Tyke took over ten damage.

The whole fight passed in the blink of an eye. The Tyke’s claws never even reached my vitals. Instead, I pummeled it to the ground, only receiving a few scratches in return. The wounds would hurt for most people but I was hardened from my former profession. Using fireballs with my limited mana on these guys would just be a waste.

The Tyke filled up about a tenth of my XP bar, and I stumbled upon several more of them along the way to the wolf den. I needed to kill two more Tykes to level up to level two.

As I advanced toward the depths of the forest, where the trees were uniformly spaced a meter apart from each other, I spotted a dark silhouette lying beside a tree. The wold licked its dark sleek fur and seemed to be on the verge of dozing off. Mist coiled around the trees of the forest and made the sight quite magical.

The wolf was level 3 and had 127 HP.

“Oh mighty fire, converge!”

The fireball blasted into the wolf. The ferocious animal cried out in pain and searched for the cause. However, by the time it found me, I had already thrown another fireball. And to my surprise, the agile wolf quickly avoided it with a fleeting movement.

Squinting my eyes, I was able to release a third fireball before avoiding with a sidestep. The wolf flew past me in its pouncing movement and I directed a kick toward its bum, sending it even further away.

As the dust calmed down, the wolf rose from the ground. Its legs were slightly shaking but it glared at me in anger. Three-fourths of its hp remained. Then it stared at the sky and released a fierce, icy howl.

There they came. Reinforcements.

I threw another two fireballs in haste and finished off the wolf with kicks and punches, reached level 2, whereafter dark familiar silhouettes emerged between trees, crouching and baring their teeth as they advanced. They formed a complete circle around me.

I dashed toward the closest tree without waiting. The bark had furrows of which I was able to grip properly. The wolves seemed to take my movement for a sign of fear as they immediately chased after. Just as one of the wolves closed in on me, I pulled myself up to the first thick branch able to support me and avoided its fearsome teeth.

Perfect. The information I was given was correct. The favor I had spent from that man had not been in vain.

Now it was time for step two of my plan.

I added the skill point gained from reaching level 2 into the fireball. Now, with ten points into beginner fireball, it evolved into the immerdate fireball. I also invested the ten attribute points you gain each level into wisdom.

Fireball. Just a basic skill of the most basic skills. It is similar to the ice mastery's frost bolt, or arcane mastery's arcane missile, and yet, when it was upgraded from beginner to intermediate, it possessed a six seconds long burn.

And this burn, or DOT as it was called, could be kept on a target in the beginner village and therefore allow it to be drawn out of its aggro range and forced to keep attacking although it couldn't reach the user. Even a boss in the beginner village was subject to this cheat-like method, and it was this method that man had found for me when he hacked into the surface layer of Armistice game system, along with valuable information about some important quests here.

All this was to give me a headstart and a good class once I reached level ten.

Intermediate Fireball

Description: A ball of flames conjured by a decent magician.

Cost: 20 mana

Damage: 20 - 30 + (1-3 burn /s for 6s)

Cast time: 2.6 s.

Feeling mood-wise elevated, I started chanting and throwing fireballs at one of the wolves. The wolves who weren't affected by the burn damage ran away quickly after seeing how it was impossible to reach me, but, as expected, the one which was constantly tugged by the DOT kept trying to reach me.

Its health points fell but my mana pool stayed full. Why? My wisdom was 47. Everyone had ten of each attribute in the beginning. I invested 27 and then 10. This gave me a total of 470 mana regen per minute, which was enough for me to throw about slightly over 20 fireballs per minute without losing any mana. Although I would be easily killed if they reached me, as my health was a mere hundred, that would cause no harm as I sat in the tree and allowed the DOT to dwindle down my enemies.

I descended the tree and picked up the glimmering copper which had dropped.

By the time dusk arrived, I had killed over fifty wolves and long ago completing the original quest. The extra reward, however, meant I had to kill all the wolves in the wolf den, which numbered twelve alpha wolves and the field boss The One-Eyed. Normally, this would take at least a hundred players in my level or a party of five lvl 10 players. But with my unique method, I would be able to complete this without a hitch.

I had gained two levels while killing wolves and was now level four. These points were put into agility since I would need a good amount of movement speed to run from the cave to a tree before they chased me down. In total, I now had 47 wisdom, 30 agility, 10 intellect, 10 stamina, 10 strength and 10 endurance and 2 points into an intermediate fireball. I would need at least 40 agility to succeed with my technique but should be able to reach that sum after clearing the alphas and leveling up to level five.

I found a cave in the depths of the forest. It rose like an open mouth trying to swallow the world. Several wolves lay outside. I decided to start the extermination and therefore aggroed a few with my fireballs before taking shelter in a tree. After I had cleared out everything outside, the sky was pitch-black. The servers would close in a moment so I called it a day and logged out. I wouldn't be able to finish the quest today either so.

As I logged out, I removed the silver helmet from my head and put it back on top of the drawer. It was twelve in the evening, and without much else to do than watching the fire in the fireplace, which was far more unrealistic than the fireballs in the game, I decided to sleep.

For the first time in years, I actually had a dream. It was a shame though, that I was unable to recall the contents the very next day.

Waking up, I walked to my farmland and inspected the crops. They were doing alright and so were the chickens and cows of my ranch. Before entering the game, I made myself a chicken stew with sweet potatoes and a pinch of coriander. It was bland – probably the third time I ate it this week.

Today, I would clean up the wolf den, and hand in that quest.

Logging in, I was still in the same tree. The wolves outside had respawned so there was nothing else to do than kill them again. I aggroed one wolf at the time and was short of twenty percent by the time I reached the cave.

It was dark and damp. I flung a few fireballs inside and ran out as quick as I could to the nearest tree. Out from the cave came twelve alpha wolves – far bigger than their beta peers – as well as a gigantic snowy monster. It was a wolf the size of three with white fur and a single crimson eye. The socket where his other eye should have been was covered with a thick, brown scar. It made me wonder, what beast inflicted such a wound upon it?

Alpha Wolf (Elite): Level 5

Health: 243/250

The One-Eyed (Field Boss): Level 8

Health: 1670/1668

The level difference between the field boss and I was about three so my DOT did almost zero damage. On the other hand, I was very close in terms of level to the alpha wolves. I picked out one and started roasting it. The other wolves retreated to their caves. After a while, the one I picked out fell dead, adding to my XP bar. I repeated the process, though slow until only the boss remained and I had reached level 5. I invested the mastery point gained each fifth level into mastery of fire, the skill point into intermediate fireball and the attribute points into agility.

The One-Eyed howled and leaped toward me. It seemed weightless as it landed on a branch not too far below me. This was the danger with one of the lowest level field boss in the game – its immense agility and ability to minimize its weight. If not for the fact that I knew of this beforehand, I would have died here. I continued to fire my balls of flame every six seconds to refresh the DOT and when it came close to me I jumped down from the tree, taking a damage figure barely reaching the two digits. The wolf followed me and I lead it to the forest where the trees were very close to each other.

Each time the wolf neared me, I hid behind a tree and felt the shock on the ground as its humongous body slammed against the tree. Sometimes it was really close to catching up with me but I had served the army for a long time so these situation, although a bit tensing, were doable.

Suddenly, the wolf stopped in its tracks and a red shade filled its eyes. Then it howled. A far more brutal and fearsome sound emerged from its throat like a dragon’s roar.

The field boss grew larger and larger and its snow-white fur began to expand. Then, in a flash, the white mane of fur converged into two points, each to one side of the tail. One tail became three, growing longer than before, and I could feel the raw cutting power radiating from within those tails. They seemed hard as iron.

“Awoooo!” the white wolf howled. The sunny day seemed to transform into a cold night. Birds left the canopies of trees and critters escaped in fear.

The white wolf had less than a tenth of its health remaining. Keeping the dot on for about a minute would suffice even if the level reduction and endurance severely limited my output.

”Oh mighty fire, converge!”

”Oh mighty fire, converge!”

I threw to fireballs in rapid succession. The wolf charged to the tree I was hiding behind and smashed it to smithereens with its tail. I paled. That man did not tell me that the field boss would be this strong when it was in berserk condition.

-24

The wooden splinters took out over a fifth of my HP. Even if I didn't come in direct contact with it, it was able to shave off this much health. I wonder, if those tails hit me directly, would it be an insta-kill? No wonder I was told 100 users in my level or a group of 5 lvl 10's was required to defeat this monster.

-21

-19

I was left with 15 HP after a few collisions. The wolf only had a sliver left of its own red bar, and several seconds was enough to finish it off.

Shit, I had to take a gamble. I stopped my movement and turned around. The wolf was about ten meters in front of me and located me with its red eye. I chanted as quickly as I could, mass-producing fireballs without regards to my mana.

-6

-4

-4

*Boom!"

-157

I felt a mountain crash into me, and I was thrown away like a kite. My health plummeted to zero.

-1

A couple of notification popped up but I was ejected from the game before I could read all of them. The only one I saw was the one about being killed by the field boss before everything turned dark.

「You have lost a level and cannot enter the game in 24 hours.」