Ning appeared outside the city through the gates that saw an influx of demons both with and without wings.
Ning looked around, trying to see if he could see names or anything, but to his disappointment, he could see nothing.
He did have a general idea of what was going on though. From what he could understand, the demons that had wings were most likely players just like him.
The ones that weren't players were most likely characters from the game that were there for the world to feel lived in.
Ning continued walking through the rough terrain where the only signs of plant life he could see were rotting wood and dried-up trees.
"Does anyone want to party with me?"
"I'm looking for a party."
"We have 3 in the party. Come join."
The players with simple bat wings hung around right outside the city wall, trying to look for party members.
"Party? Are the beasts really that hard to kill?" he wondered. "I'm sure I can handle on on my own."
Ning followed a few players to the outskirts of the city where he could see many others fighting with monsters in the dark.
Ning tried to squint his eyes to see, but thankfully, the monster he had to kill glowed with a white outline, making it easy to know where it was and where to hit it exactly.
He walked to a relatively empty location and searched for one of the monsters. Not even a minute later, he found one.
A small grasshopper, with bright red eyes and a body that seemed to drip black ink, stood in front of Ning. It was about the size of an average bird, so not very big.
"It's not so bad," Ning thought. "I don't see why anyone would need a party to fight with these things." Then he pointed his wand forward and thought of activating the fireball.
A small, egg-sized fire burst in front of the wand and immediately flew toward the unsuspecting black grasshopper.
<You have dealt 18 damage to Corrupted Grasshopper.>
"Woah, not bad," Ning thought. "I can finish this easily." He tried activating the skill again, but nothing happened.
"Ah right, cooldo—"
Suddenly, the grasshopper came flying in his direction and nearly smashed into him. Ning barely managed to dodge it in time by jumping sideways, but now he was on the ground and the grasshopper had already turned around.
The agility that the grasshopper had shown was not something Ning could dodge easily. Just doing it once had forced him on the ground, the next time would hurt.
As he thought that, the grasshopper jumped back towards him and struck him in the chest as he was getting up.
<You have taken 17 Damage.>
"Crap!" Ning thought and stood up. He tried activating the skill again, but it was still on cooldown.
"I see. So that's why you need a party. Screw this!" he thought and jumped at the grasshopper to punch it. The grasshopper also jumped at the same time and hit Ning as well.
<You have taken 16 Damage>
<You have dealt 14 damage to the Corrupted Grasshopper.>
"That's… a little low. Is the grasshopper's defense high?" Ning thought. He tried punching the grasshopper again, but he found himself physically incapable of sending out another punch.
"What's going on?" he wondered. He got up quickly and moved back away from the grasshopper.
His panel opened quickly at the side and he saw that he now had 267 HP remaining of what was originally 300 thanks to his 15 VIT stat.
'How much does the beast have?' Ning thought.
The grasshopper jumped again, but Ning was ready this time. He once again tried to punch and it worked.
His fist and the grasshopper slammed with each other and they both took damage once again.
Ning caught himself from falling and pointed his full hand towards the grasshopper that had landed not far away.
Another fireball fired out, striking the grasshopper and dealing another 18 damage.
Ning got used to it, so he got into the fight once more.
Some while later, after taking half a dozen more hits and sending back nearly 10 different punches and fireballs, Ning finally won with 94 HP, and 122 MP remaining.
<Congratulations. You have defeated the Corrupted Grasshopper.>
<You gained 22 Exp>
<Corrupted Grasshopper Legs x 3>
<Corrupted Grasshopper Eyes x 2>
"Hmm… is that it?" Ning thought. He opened his Player Profile and checked again.
[ IMMORTAL_ENERGY:
Level: 1 (22/100)
Class: (Reach Level 10)
Race: Demon
Title: (None Equipped)
STR : 15
INT : 15 + 2
VIT : 15
DEF : 15
AGI : 15
HP : 94 / 300
MP : 126 / 170
]
"Dammit, I still need to kill 4 more but just killing one has put me in such a state. I should definitely go back and party up," Ning thought and left.
He returned back to the gate and met up with the many people that wanted to party up, but every time he told them that he didn't have much HP, for now, they refused to take him in.
Thankfully, the third party he tried to join taught him what to do.
"If you have money, you can buy food to quickly regenerate your Health and Mana," A man with golden hair and a handsome look said. Next to him was 1 more man and 2 other girls.
"I… don't have coins. How do I get that?" he asked.
"Well, you have to sell whatever you have, but if you don't have anything to sell, you can just die and get respawned 10 minutes later with full health and Mana. You should take advantage of it when you are out in the field. It's faster than returning back," the man said.
"How long does it take to regenerate with food?" Ning asked.
"Uh… about a minute at most," the man said.
"Thank you," he said and turned to leave but stopped. "I will return in 2 minutes. Can I please join your party?"
The man smiled. "Of course. Let me send you a party request."
