Stuck As A Level One Swordsman

[You gained 2 experience points]

I waved my hand over the lying window in front of my face. I clicked my tongue and gripped my sword as tight as I could. I stomped my feet as I walked towards the next slime.

There were piles of coins lying on the dirt. They were spoils from the slain slimes. Other players gave me a look of confusion since I haven't been picking up my loot.

I screamed in frustration as I struck the fiftieth slime down to zero hit points.

[Quest Complete]

Why does the first quest have to have a high amount of slime targets?

I sighed as I struck my sword to the ground. I leaned on the hilt of the sword as I watched nearby players slew the wandering slimes.

Slimes themselves were harmless. The quest goes into the story of how a horde of slimes caused many problems such as ruining crops, attacking villagers at random, and just taking up too much space. The NPC that gave the quest gave this huge speech that I could care less about.

I picked up the loot from the slimes as I walked back to the village. These slimes were only level two, so they took three hits instead since they had three hit points. And they also give two experience points, not that it matters now.

Level two slimes did nothing different than level one slimes. I would assume the AI would be more difficult on higher level slimes. I hope this game moves on from slimes sometime soon.

I wander through the village. It was a really plain medieval looking village. The dirt path was hard to walk on. I walked alongside a stone fence that wrapped around the houses here. The houses here were made out of stone and wood. Smoke puffed out of the chimney of each house. There was one building that had a noticeable smoke fuming out of the chimney. I could only assume it was the blacksmith. Near the end of the village was a schoolhouse. Past the schoolhouse was a church. The church was built with brick stone and had stained glass on the windows. Taking a left at the dirt path from the church lead to the town hall of the village. The building was built like the other houses but was much taller and wider. Inside there were players lined up to receive their quests or to claim rewards.

I walk to the door nearest to the entrance and met with a captain. The NPC had a knight's armor with a sword sheathed at his hip. He talked in a very serious and loud voice.

"Take care soldier!" The NPC greeted a player after giving him a quest.

I walk up to the NPC and turn in my completed quest.

"You have serviced this village well. Here is your reward."

[You gained 50 Experience Points]

"That's not all. Here you go."

The NPC reached behind him and out of nowhere came out a sword. He then handed it to me. The sword was different than the starter sword given at the beginning of the game. I held it with both hands and looked at it. For some reason, it was really heavy. Like I was carrying two people at once. I know real swords are supposed to be heavy but this was way beyond expectations. As I held the sword, a window popped up showing off the name and stats.

[Astor Shortsword]

[Requirement: Str 15]

[A shortsword forged at Astor Village.]

What a waste! Such a decent looking sword that I can't even use. I guess I'll just sell this after all.

I put the sword away into my inventory. It was hard to carry after all. The way to put the sword into the inventory was to slide it in through the inventory window. It was hard since it was heavy, so I just dragged the inventory window really low so I could just slide at ground level.

After putting away the shortsword, there was a huge exclamation mark over the NPC's head. I then talk to him for another quest.

"There is a village wizard down south from here. He has requested for a knight's assistance. You might learn a thing or two from him, soldier."

A window pops up with details of the quest. It basically repeated what the NPC had said along with quest rewards. What caught my interest was that it read, 'There is a chance to learn magic.' Eager to do this quest, I hit the accept quest button.

With a deep sigh of relief, I walk out of the town hall. If I could learn magic, maybe I can overcome this level one restriction. I glanced around at how other players looked at their rewards with a glow in their eyes. They waved the swords around and ran around the town hall like little children. On the other hand, I was stuck with this starter sword. For some reason, this gave me a twisting feeling in my stomach.

I opened my world map. North of here was the Castle of Astoria, the place where we spawned. Currently, I stood at Astor Village. While down south was the location of the village wizard. There was only an exclamation point on the map without any text showing what place it was. I put the map window away and went on with the quest.

In the distance, I could see a tall building. I could only guess that it was around ten stories tall. It took a ten minute walk to the wizard's tower. There were plenty of players around. Some were already casting magic.

I was a bit excited for once. This game was nothing but hardsh.i.p.s so far.

I lurked around watching players cast a fireball on nearby slimes. They tested the strength of it, the duration and length it can reach. As soon as I got to the front door, I saw the wizard inside on the first floor.

I talked to the wizard and he began this long ramble. I couldn't make sense of what he was saying as it was mostly gibberish. Maybe the voice actor for the wizard put way too much effort into whatever accent he attempted to do. But by the time he was done, he made sense.

"My experiments have gone astray. Go slay fifty elemental slimes up in the tower."

The quest information updated.

[Quest: Slay 50/50 Elemental Slimes]

I immediately ran up the stairs. With my light starter sword in my right hand, and stood in my slash stance. But what I saw discouraged me. A huge group of players was all fighting slime. Not an available slime in sight. Some players had an Astor Shortsword equipped. Others were even using fireballs. Come on, at least leave one to me!

I stood by the stairs and looked up. I could hear fighting coming from upstairs. Maybe there was more. But again, there was no slime untouched. Floor four was the same.

When I reached the fifth floor, there were fewer people around. I walked around for a bit before an elemental slime spawned.

[Lv 3 Elemental Slime]

[HP: 30/30]

Okay, this should take six hits to kill. I should also avoid any damage the slime might deal. This was a different kind of slime so I don't know what kind of attacks the elemental slime might bring out.

The slime itself changed through different elements as time passed by. There were fire and water attacks. Sometimes it emitted electricity. I kept my distance to avoid any attacks before slashing at it myself.

"Slash!" I yelled out my attack. My body moved on its own. With a proper stance, I gripped my sword in hand and swayed the sword in a horizontal motion.

Wait what? I blinked for a while and then looked closer at the slime's health bar. Are the hit points reading correctly to me?

[Lv 3 Elemental Slime]

[HP: 27/30]

Three damage?! Only three?! What kind of sick joke is this?

I repeated the slash attack once again, this time manually. The hit points went down went down to twenty four. So there was no difference in using the sword technique and doing it manually.

I took a step back and waited. My patience was rewarded once the slime threw out a fireball. It was painstakingly slow, so it was really easy to dodge. I then took a quick step forward and yelled out, "Slash!"

I repeated this over ten times. I did a slash attack, backed off and looped back. Level three elemental slimes were definitely more challenging than normal slimes since I had to take in account of their magic attacks. But it was simple to deal with since it was slow.

There were no drops after slaying the slime. I took a deep sigh of relief after killing the slime. I noticed my stamina bar was already low. Since sword techniques used up stamina, the slash attack uses up ten at a time.

Wait a minute, I have to kill forty nine more elemental slimes? Hm… Let me think here. That was ten attacks per slime. So that means that would be five hundred attacks in total!

After regaining my composure, I looked for the nearest slime. I took the stance by myself since I was out of stamina. I then charged at an elemental slime with a charging slash attack. If this was a sword technique then it would be hard to target a monster with it. Since I was doing it manually, I could track the monster as it moved.

After striking the slime, I was in close range. I took the chance to take another close range slash as my sword finished its first swing. After the combination of attacks, I took a step back. This method lets me deal six damage in one combination. This was a lot more helpful than just doing a single attack at a time.

I did a simple repeat of combination slashes after each time dodging the slime's attacks. After five times, the monster was slain.

Forty eight to go. Come on…

Nearby players come and go. They easily killed slimes in a few hits. Every slime I slew meant a new batch of players showing up. All of them yelled out 'slash!' There were some exceptions where they attacked on their own. Some were sloppy and some seemed to know what they were doing.

Another player was struggling with an elemental slime. She yelled out 'Slash!' and then fell on her b.u.t.t once she was hit by a fireball. The player got back up and did it again. Then she was hit by another fireball. I noticed what her healthbar read.

[Lv 2 Scorch]

[HP: 84/150]

Scorch was her character name. She was taking a huge amount of damage so far. I walked by her and offered advice.

"You should wait till after they throw an elemental attack," I said as I offered a hand to help her back up.

She didn't respond. The other player just took my hand and pouted.

"Are you okay?" I asked.

"I'm fine."

The other player turned to the elemental slime she was fighting and waited. It threw a water attack at her and it was dodged. Once more she shouted, "Slash!"

After two last hits, the slime was slain. The other player looked at me and extended her arm.

"Thanks for the advice," She whispered. Her eyes were looking at her hand. The other player stood tall but she was still shorter than me.

"It's no problem. Just gotta be more patient, that's all. My name's John by the way."

Oops. I said my real name by accident. And I didn't have to say my own username in the first place as our names were already floating above our heads. Ah I'm so stupid!

The other player squinted her eyes for a bit. She then relaxed a bit and shook my hand.

"I'm Sarah," She said in a low voice. Sarah then walked away with a straight face and went towards the next elemental slime. She seemed to be a fast learner. I don't think I would have to worry about her if I meet her in the future.

Sarah was only there for another five minutes before she finished her quest. I, of course, was still slaying these stupid slimes.

After an hour of slaying elemental slimes, I walked down the stairs to the first floor. The wizard stood there as he was busy dealing with players. I claimed my quest reward and the wizard started rambling again. Then he started making sense.

"I bestow you the power of fire! Now yell out fire to cast this spell."

The wizard made wild gestures as he spoke. He then yelled out, "Fire!" and made a throwing motion with his hands. A fireball came out and dispersed after a certain distance.

[You attained the magic spell 'Fire']

I tried it myself. I yelled out, "Fire!" and a fireball came out. At the same time, a window appeared in front of me.

[Fire]

It was the same way a window pops up when I used the sword technique, Slash. I guess it was to confirm which skill I was using in the first place.

I skipped around the tower floor. I tried casting fire again just for fun. And again just to see my mana bar go down. As I was busy trying out the magic spell, The wizard continued speaking.

"Magic spells can be improved once you gained more experience."

There was that word. Experience. How I want to punch a wall right now. I did my best containing myself from screaming at the top of my lungs. How I want to just leave this game. But I resisted since I paid good money on it.

Still, this spell was already strong. A ranged attack can do me wonders. I can keep my distance to avoid taking any unnecessary damage, even if it won't scale up to the higher level opponents. There was the limit of my mana bar though but I shouldn't worry about that now.

"You can learn more spells as you visit dungeons," The wizard continued. "The whole world is filled with dungeons yet to be explored. With various weapons, magical tools, and magic spells to be discovered."

Okay, I can do dungeons. How hard could they be?