Zenith Online: Rebirth of the Strongest Player
Zenith Online: Rebirth of the Strongest Player - Chapter 5: Fanged Forest

Before setting out to the Fanged Forest, Kieran first checked on his status screen to find the best attribute allocation. Since the closest outskirt area, which doubled as the weakest leveling field, would soon experience a flood of players, Kieran didn't wish to visit that place.

Instead, his attention was on the next available leveling field, known as the Fanged Forest. As the name suggested, the Fanged Forest was a lush forest area brimming with beast-type monsters. Typically, a player wouldn't venture there early since the beasts spawning in that field usually boast relatively high attack and movement speed.

Unless a player partied with other players to maximize their level efforts by equally distributing the difficulties of battle, only a player with high movement speed would be confident enough to move to the Fanged Forest this early on rather than become accustomed to their attributes. However, with the abundance of stats and the attributes granted by his package Kieran wasn't too worried about the difficulty of the monsters there.

Besides, his arsenal was quite effective at the moment. Furthermore, the uncommon grade armor set increased his defenses and specific attributes by a noticeable amount.

「Name: Aatrox

Lv.2 (Experience: 0/250)

Class: Warrior

Title(s): None

[«Stats»]-

Health: 190/190 (0.2 HP regen/sec)

Mana: 75/75 (0.07 MP regen/sec)

Stamina: 108 (0.1 Stamina regen/sec)

Attack Power: 65

Defense: 55

[«Attributes»]-

»Strength: 26 (14 + 12 + 0)

»Intelligence: 9 (9 + 0 + 0)

»Agility: 13 (10 + 3 + 0)

»Endurance: 18 (8 + 10 + 0)

»Control: 25 (25 + 0 + 0)

»Vitality: 18 (8 + 10 + 0)

»Perception: 30 (30 + 0 + 0)

[Unassigned Stat Point: 27]

[Skill Points: 16] 」

'Mmm, my Mana value is quite low compared to my other stats. Although I understand why that is so, it'll be a limitation in the future since I still need enough Mana to employ my skills effectively. Secondly, Defense isn't an issue because this armor set provides more than enough. So, I'll just have to focus on those two stats,' Kieran thought to himself.

A moment later, a stream of notifications appeared before his eyes.

〈System: You have used 12 Unassigned Attribute Points. [Agility: 13 → 25]〉

〈System: You have used 11 Unassigned Attribute Points. [Intelligence: 9 → 20]〉

〈Mana Capacity: 75 → 130〉

"Better," Kieran muttered to himself.

Now that everything was situated, Kieran ventured towards the town exit. While doing so, he came across a stream of players rushing inside each of the Class Halls to receive quests and classes. Some even looked at him in astonishment when they saw him donned in a complete set of basic armor.

Although the armor was far from being extremely eye-catching, armor and weaponry were highly coveted at the beginning stage of any RPG game as they allowed for smoother combat. That was especially true when factoring in the amount of time required to become accustomed to Zenith Online's combat.

"Well damn, did he receive that equipment from the class mentor? Oh, now I have to meet this guy and receive my own," someone shouted in the crowd. As a result, a lot of attention was on Kieran's location, but he had long since vanished from where he was earlier.

His 25 points in Agility also contributed to his movement speed in town. He was slightly faster than characters who had yet to level and assign any points to Agility. Not to mention his Control played a prominent role in his movement abilities since it determined how seamless the application of his physical attributes was.

Nevertheless, the in-town remark made the situation outside the Class Hall chaotic as many players pushed and shoved to claim their classes as soon as possible. Of course, this crowd was mostly made up of casuals or randoms because any experienced player would've visited the Class Hall after noticing a tiny number of people moving towards that area as soon as they spawned in.

As for the emptiness of the Warrior Hall during Kieran's quest, there were two reasons. One, most people eyed the Mage and Thief class because of the popularity in other similar games. So, the Warrior class was overlooked as it was used far too much in the past. Secondly, Scar's aura earlier suspended the ability to enter his Class Hall until Kieran finished.

It was a privilege given to the one who gained a small portion of his favor. However, this only amounted to a fraction of the acceptance Kieran required if he wished to move forward with plans. After all, Scar was a pivotal character on the path of a true warrior.

The world of Zenith Online was expansive, so even the distance separating the beginner leveling fields was quite massive. Even with Kieran's current Agility, it took him more than 3 hours to reach the Fanged Forest's periphery.

It was an area predominately housed by different breeds of wolves, each with distinct characteristics to help improve their ferocity. The weakest of the monsters spawned here was Lv.5.

However, because Kieran was only Lv.2, their experience would be exceptional.

It didn't take long for Kieran to cross a lone wolf as he withdrew his blade from his inventory. A gust of wind swooshed by as he slashed his sword sideways. At the same time, information on the monster appeared before his iris.

「Lv.5 Dire Wolf (Normal)

Beast Type

Health: 300/300 (100%) 」

"Mm, just a normal monster…" Kieran grumbled. His years of experience with Zenith Online bled through for a moment as he reminisced his battles against numerous legendary monsters. Compared to those monsters, the one before him simply wasn't worth mentioning.

The wolf growled aggressively, but Kieran ignored this action altogether. After getting over his disappointment, he dashed forward, erupting with an unusual momentum while his Mana Pool drained marginally. This rush of acceleration was one of a Warrior's natural E-Rank Skill, Charge.

At the cost of 2 points of Mana, he could rush forward 3 meters almost instantly, and if the skill made contact, this blow would leave the opponent in a paralyzed state for one second. One second might seem inconsequential, but when it came to someone as experienced as Kieran, it was more than enough to determine the battle's outcome.

-65

A pained yelp sounded as Kieran's shoulder bashed into the wolf's body, leaving it momentarily stunned. Although the Charge should've dealt more damage with it dealing damage equal to 120% of the user's Attack Power, the Dire Wolf's natural defenses mitigated some damage.

Nevertheless, this didn't bother Kieran because he soon unleashed a string of attacks linked together beautifully. They were basic movements that didn't involve the activation of any skills but inflicted damage not far off the earlier Charge.

-51 -50 -49 -55

Finally, just as the wolf recovered, Kieran tensed his arm and roared while activating Warrior's Aura for an instant. The burst of Warrior's Aura was enough to unleash one of his newly acquired skills, Force Slash.

A surge of heavy winds assailed the wolf's body as the Force Slash connected from over two meters away. After experiencing the skill firsthand, Kieran made some conclusions about the connection between Force Slash and Savage Break.

-94

'If I'm not mistaken, the first pressure that Scar unleashed should've been the unmitigated form of the Savage Break skill; however, since he decided only to hit me with the aftershock of that attack, it devolved into the weaker Force Slash. Heh, he might seem irritable on the surface, but he's an otherwise amicable fellow,' Kieran thought with a light chuckle.

If anyone were to witness the scene of him chuckling to himself, they would undoubtedly believe him to have some mental issues. As for his guess, that was only partially correct. The true answer would be unearthed later on.

A few Copper Coins, a type of wolf pelt and sharp fangs appeared after Kieran slew the wolf. He lazily retrieved the Copper Coins, totaling 6. He then inspected the coin, although he was already familiar with its usage and origins.

「Copper Coin (Normal)

Description: This item is a primary currency of Zenith Online that can be used throughout the world, except for some particular regions. One hundred of these can be converted into a Silver Coin. 」

Similarly, a hundred Silvers would by default turn into a Gold Coin in one's inventory. Wantonly spending anything above Copper Coins during the early stages was ill-advised because most, if not all, of the content available later on required a considerable amount of funds to sustain and, even worse, get started.

Of course, Kieran was aware of this matter, so he was elated by the fact that the package rewarded beginner consumables. Although their effects weren't the greatest, they were indispensable at this level, so the current market price was very steep.

Besides the coins, the wolf also rewarded a generous amount of experience, most of which originated from the marginal level difference between Kieran and the wolf.

〈System: You have gained 75 Experience.〉

"At least the experience isn't all that bad," Kieran said to himself. Although he had once become accustomed to grueling grinding hours, being forced to do so in the game's early stage would be dreadful. Luckily, the easiest way to circumvent the monotony of grinding was fighting above your level.

Granted, this was only possible for two types of players: those with overwhelming attributes or those with above-average mechanical skills, namely reaction speed, mental acuity, etc.

Following his kill, six more wolves immediately appeared. Apparently, the pained yelp of the dying wolf alerted wolves in the area.

"Six of them? Now, this is what I call a tango. Finally, a bit of excitement,' Kieran inwardly expressed while grinning excitedly.