My first reaction upon seeing the undead mage was: Hm, I should charge and kill him immediately. Maybe I could get his nice-looking staff to drop!

I didn’t hesitate to translate my thoughts to action. After touching around a bit and finding nothing to use as a weapon, I swung my fists in an attempt to give the evil undead mage a beatdown. Then, I realized that my arms were bony white!

“Fuck!”

I screeched to a stop and looked at the lower half of my body. The sight of it immediately inspired a hive of goosebumps—the flesh was completely missing, and the only thing covering my modesty was a stitch of ragged cloth!

Oh no. Could it be!? I pulled open the simple pants, looked inside and felt a buzz in my head immediately. My… my little brother had rotten away as well! All I could see were the bones that made up my pelvis!

“Hi, little bug. You’ve finally awakened!”

The undead mage stared at me while chuckling. “Since you’re awake, you should grab your weapon and fight for the domination of the Night Creatures!”

Ding~!

System Notice: The village chief of Corpse Heap Graveyard has gifted you a set of starting equipment: a Rusted Iron Sword and a Tattered Shirt!

Ding Dong!

After the equipment entered my bag, I brought up the character screen and saw exactly what I got: a shabby sword and a piece of ragged cloth. The Rusted Iron Sword was of course the standard weapon most people started with, and it had an attack power of 0~1. The Tattered Shirt on the other hand gave 1 point of Defense.

I equipped both equipment and checked my status screen. I immediately felt like whining like a bitch. I had thought that the Undead Swordsman was an OP class, but in reality it was nothing but cannon fodder!

ID: Broken Halberd Sinks Into Sand

Class: Undead Swordsman (Beginner)

Level: 0

HP: 100

Attack: 1~2

Defense: 1

Magic Resist: 0

Reputation: 0

Luck: 0

 　　……

Wonderful, my base attack power was 1~1, and my base defense was a big fat zero. If it wasn’t for this Tattered Shirt, a goddamned chicken could probably blow me to kingdom come!

It had been less than five minutes since the servers were opened, and a huge amount of players was pouring into the game right now. This was the time where every second counted. I thought about what I wanted to do for a second and realized that running around like a headless fly and leveling was extremely unwise. Corpse Heap Graveyard was also a starting village, but unlike the starting villages most players would spawn in, Corpse Heap Graveyard belonged to a villainous faction!

As the name might suggest, Night Creatures were creatures who roamed the night. Skeleton warriors like me, evil spirits, monsters, liches and so on all fell under this category as well. Long story short, we were the monsters who harassed the villages of humans, barbarians and succubi day and night and promised to give them the time of their life.

I did what any pretty little skeleton would do and ran around the entire Corpse Heap Graveyard like I owned the place. In the end, I discovered that a half-rotten barbarian was sitting at the bottom of a dead pine tree. He was probably a Night Creature now, but it was clear that he was troubled by something. He was scratching his head so hard that hair was falling off his scalp.

The four words, “Corpse Heap Graveyard Guard”, were floating above his head.

I walked up to him and said in a deep voice, “Is there anything I can help you with, brother?”

The barbarian looked up at me and said, “Little skeleton, a human scout has discovered our location, and Corpse Heap Graveyard is no longer our paradise. We must attack the human villages with our abandoned dead. Before that though, you must head out of the village and clear out a group of annoying Big-eared Rabbits who are harassing our companions.”

Ding~!

System Notice: You’ve accepted the quest [Kill The Big-eared Rabbits]! (Quest Rank: F-)

Description: Kill 20 Big-eared Rabbits and collect 5 Thick Leg Hair. Bring them to the Corpse Heap Graveyard Guard for a reward!

　　……

Abandoned dead? I was a little confused. Does that mean I’m a neutral character who doesn’t belong to either the Silver Moon Alliance or the Night Creatures? Maybe. Well, it isn’t a bad thing. Less trouble, more leveling!

Time to head out!

The amount of quests in Heavenblessed was as few as the amount of hair on a bald man’s head. It looked like this was the only available quest in the entire starting village.

I gripped the Rusted Iron Sword with one hand and walked out of the graveyard. I was immediately greeted by the sight of a huge forest. Just like the guard had told me earlier, a bunch of black-furred Big-eared Rabbits were meandering about outside. The Big-eared Rabbits were generally between Level 1 and 3. It wouldn’t be easy for a Level 0 like me to kill them.

Not far away, I could see a couple of Gophers running happily across a green field. These harmless rodents were all Level 1, and even a complete newbie should be able to deal with them without problems. Logically speaking, they were the most ideal targets for leveling at my current status, not to mention that my mind was crippled by a three-second delay.

However, I raised my eyebrows and said to myself, “Fuck it, it’s just a Big-eared Rabbit! There’s no way I can’t beat something this weak!”

Dragging my shabby sword behind my back, I quietly sneaked up to a group of Big-eared Rabbits and observed them closely. I noticed that they were incredibly agile, and their attack speed was also nothing to scoff at; about 1.4 seconds per attack. I might be able to handle a Level 1 Big-eared Rabbit’s attacks, but Level 3... let’s just say the “ecstasy” it’d deliver was probably more than I would like.

That being said, the Big-eared Rabbit in front of me was only Level 1, so it was the perfect sacrifice to sate my baby’s bloodthirst! Actually, never mind that, this shitty sword is just...

I rushed toward the Big-eared Rabbit and allowed habit to take over my movements. Calculating the distance, I thought to attack when the distance between us was about nine meters!

This, is prediction!

That’s right, prediction was a technique any pro must possess, and it was even more crucial in my case, considering the three-second delay between my body's reaction and the commands sent out by my brain. That was how I was able to become one of the Top 100 players of Spirit of Grief even after I had been crippled!

MISS!

But what happened after I attacked exceeded my expectations completely. It was because my shabby sword hit nothing but air!

It wasn’t that I had terrible aim, no. It was because my body swung the sword while the Big-eared Rabbit was still seven meters away... Of course I missed!

Unfortunately, my movement caught the Big-eared Rabbit’s attention, and after letting out a squeal it pounced straight at me. Its powerful hind legs slapped into my face as if it was stepping into a piece of cow dung!

12!

The damage dealt to me by the Big-eared Rabbit appeared in the air. As I thought, it isn't impossible to fight a Level 1 Big-eared Rabbit with just 100 HP.

Rustle Rustle!

I took a step back and swung my sword at the same time!

Chop!

9!

With my pitiful 1~2 Attack, that was about as much damage I could deal with a basic attack, but then again, the Big-eared Rabbit only had 30 HP. It shouldn’t be a problem to kill it with another 3 hits or so.

Swoosh swoosh swoosh!

I delivered three lightning-fast attacks in a row to the Big-eared Rabbit, but my feet never stopped backing away from it. Thanks to my ingenious movements, the Big-eared Rabbit didn't manage to land another hit on me before it died.

“Squeal…”

The Big-eared Rabbit let out a bloodcurdling scream after its legs were cut off. As it collapsed to the ground, it cried out its last words, “Damn you, Night Creatures! Ah! My leg… my 27 meters per second thick-haired leg!”

The monster didn’t drop another equipment or item, but I laughed on top of my lungs. “Oh my god, did you catch that? Your daddy Falling Dust is back!”

The surrounding Big-eared Rabbits looked at me like I was an idiot, but I was too happy to care because the attack I had launched just now made me feel like I had traveled back into the past. Why? It was because the three-second delay had somehow been shortened to just one second! One second was absolutely within my ability to control. I still might not be able to become the best of the best, but I was sure that becoming first-rate was absolutely within my reach!

But there is a reason why people say “don’t count your chickens before they hatch”, and my manic laughter caused three Big-eared Rabbits to lunge at me simultaneously. One of them was even Level 3, and a single bite from it took 41 points of my HP!

27!

41!

14!

39!

I was killed in less than a second, and that was how I lost my virginity in Heavenblessed.

My entire body hurt for a second before I revived back in the graveyard. It was then that I discovered that I was fully naked. Apparently, the death had cost me my Defense+1 Tattered Shirt. Feeling like someone had stripped a chunk of flesh off my body, I ran back to where I was killed like the wind. Thankfully, the equipment hadn’t disappeared yet, so I quickly picked it up and put it back on. Then, I lurked around the edges of the forest in search for my next isolated target to kill.

My level was too low, so there were no skills I could learn at this time. All I could rely on were basic attacks.

Thankfully, my many years of experience taught me how to move and position against a monster. It wouldn’t make a monster miss its attack, but it could minimize the amount of damage dealt.

Rustle rustle...

I moved backwards quickly while swinging my sword twice. Just like that, I had killed another Big-eared Rabbit.

Pop!

Oh, I got an item, a Thick Leg Hair to be precise. It was none other than the quest item I was hunting for.

I put it in my bag and went searching for my next target. At the same time, I prayed that my next drop would be a high-grade weapon. This shabby sword was so bad that even a Level 1 monster was difficult to kill, and there was no way I was going to challenge a Level 3 Big-eared Rabbit. Well, I could do that, but I would fall behind massively due to inefficiency.

A while later, 20 Big-eared Rabbits had been killed by my hands. I was still missing one Thick Leg Hair though.

Nighttime arrived, and my clothes were damp because of the environment. The feeling of wet clothes clinging to my bones was uncomfortable to say the least. Before I knew it, I had ventured deep into the forest.

Swoosh!

I finally reached Level 1 and gained 5 free points after killing my twenty-fourth Big-eared Rabbit. I put them all into Strength. Now that my attack power had reached a respectable range of 4~7, I was finally strong enough to challenge a Level 3 Big-eared Rabbit!

Excited, I approached a Level 3 Big-eared Rabbit and ambushed it from behind!

Bang bang!

My shabby sword passed through the Big-eared Rabbit’s neck—its weak point—twice. Hitting a weak point added 50% bonus damage!

31!

37!

As expected, my damage dealt was now quite considerable after the stat increase!

A Level 3 Big-eared Rabbit had 120 HP, and I had shaved off half of that number with my successful ambush. I retreated three meters and swung my sword into the air!

40!

Very good, I struck the Big-eared Rabbit’s weak spot again.

My breath was caught in my chest for a moment because the Big-eared Rabbit slammed into me and took away 41 HP, but that was the only attack it was going to land before it died. My shabby sword pierced straight into its neck and killed it immediately!

Pop!

It dropped another Thick Leg Hair, perfect! My quest was complete! That wasn’t all, it also dropped a Basic Health Potion, the high-quality kind that restored 80 HP in one go!

I picked up the leg hair excitedly and was about to turn back toward the starting village. However, a chill suddenly creeped up my back. I turned around and saw something, my heart beating wildly. I felt both nervous and excited.

A super-huge rabbit with green fur was glaring at me from a thicket. It was clear that this Big-eared Rabbit was different from the others!

Level 5 Big-eared Rabbit Leader (F- Rank Boss)

I shivered. I couldn’t believe I ran into a boss!

In Heavenblessed, a boss’s rank ranged from F to SSS, and each rank was separated into three levels: minus, standard and plus. This Big-eared Rabbit Leader was an F- Rank boss, which meant that it was the weakest boss there was in the game. Still, looking at my equipment, retreating here was clearly the wiser option. After all, a boss-tier monster wasn’t something a newbie could kill at all.