"T-Thanks, Fang Raon."
Tessa said with a coy smile.
Dewrey turned to her, saw the look that she was giving Fang Raon, and felt a pang of jealousy in his heart.
He gritted his teeth and suddenly jumped towards the two remaining Angry Rats, moving at impressive speed.
Assassins also received two starting skills—Stealth and Acrobatics—they were both passive skills.
Thus, he didn't need to activate them manually.
With the steel daggers, he sliced through one of the Angry Rats and made him into a bloody mess.
The Angry Rat let out a bloodcurdling scream before collapsing to the ground.
"HISS!"
The last Angry Rat hissed loudly, but in that moment, it felt scorching heat coming from behind it, and then, a fireball was launched directly at it, engulfing the Angry Rat in flames.
"Fireball!"
Rosabella shouted while waving her wooden wand.
Mage's starting skills were Fireball and Earth Wall. The Angry Rat was quickly reduced to ashes.
In that moment, the three rat corpses disappeared into pixels and left behind a couple of items—they were small bones, rat meat, and rat tails.
"Are they going for much over in the merchant?"
Fang Raon asked.
"No, these items are trash, but if we have enough of them, we are still getting a decent return."
Dewrey said.
Tessa stored the items in her inventory.
None of them were injured, so they didn't have to waste any time healing, and kept ongoing deeper into the sewer.
Fang Raon was making quick progress, and Dewrey thought that he was way too relaxed—foolish even.
However, after seeing the strength he displayed just for a moment, he thought that maybe he wasn't a new player after all.
He could be old player using another account for some reason—maybe his main account got zeroed.
In that moment, at the dark corner of a sewer, Wild Dog peeked its head and attacked without warning.
Nobody saw it coming.
Fang Raon reacted quickly, raised his wooden broadsword, and brought it down.
"Basic Slash!"
The sword went straight through the Wild Dog, splattering its blood all over the sewer walls, and cutting the creature in half with surgical precision.
[You killed Wild Dog!]
[Next Level: 1% → 2%]
"Where the hell did that come from?!"
Dewrey flinched, went into a fighting stance, but then noticed that the Wild Dog was already dead.
Fang Raon looked calm and just watched as the Wild Dog turned into pixels and left behind bones, dog ears, and a dog tail.
"Here."
He handed them to Tessa, who whispered "thank you" in a quiet voice and stored them in her inventory.
The party was thoroughly surprised by Fang Raon's strength, and all came to the conclusion that he couldn't possibly be a new player.
Those moves showed skill!
"That could've ended badly. I assume Wild Dogs aren't that intelligent, or it would've gone for Tessa, isn't that right?"
Fang Raon said.
"…Correct. Wild Dogs, Hopping Rabbits, High Boars, and Angry Rats are the least intelligent tower monsters.
"The stronger and more intelligent tower monsters tend to first go after the most valuable members of the party, such as Helpers."
Dewrey said.
"…Yes, Tessa is far too exposed to ambushes, and if we lose her, it would be bad. I think you, Dewrey, should be at the back to cover our rear."
Fang Raon said.
Dewrey usually wouldn't listen to some orders by a noob player, but he wasn't treating Fang Raon as another noob anymore.
He really believed that he was an old player and someone that went higher than the 12th Floor.
"Rosabella, I will cover for you, and Tessa is Dewrey's responsibility."
Fang Raon said.
"Okay."
Rosabella and Tessa both agreed.
In just a moment, the party leader changed from Dewrey to Fang Raon.
They kept venturing deeper into the sewer and encountered more Angry Rats, and Wild Dogs, but none of them really posed any danger.
Fang Raon controlled the fights in a way that he stopped any of the monsters from going near Rosabella while she kept hurling fireballs.
Tessa didn't have to really do anything, as nobody got injured, and Dewrey just made sure that nobody attacked them from behind.
They spent a few hours in the sewer, and after seeing that it was already nine p.m., they decided it was time to leave.
Tessa and Rosabella had to log off for the night, as Tessa had school tomorrow, and Rosabella had some work.
"Ah, finally out!"
Tessa cheered as they left the sewer passageway and entered the outside world once again.
The fresh air hit them immediately, a welcome change from the musty smell of the tunnels.
"Let's visit the merchant before the two of you leave."
Dewrey said.
They agreed and went to the usual merchant where they always went and sold everything. they acquired.
In total, they had 32 rat tails, 18 small rat bones, 21 rat tails, 8 dog ears, 3 dog bones, 8 dog tails, and a rusty dagger that they happened to find.
In total, they got 88 square coins—square coins were the currency of the tower—and it was pretty decent haul.
After splitting it amongst themselves, each of them got 22 square coins, and it made Tessa and Rosabella quite satisfied.
However, Dewrey still thought of it as nothing more than chump change, as he had been used to earning way more in the higher floors.
'If I remember correctly, 100 square coins is worth 1 real-life dollar. It means that I only made 22 cents.'
Fang Raon wryly smiled.
With this money, he wasn't moving out of the eighteenth floor anytime soon, but in the end, it was only the first floor.
To earn proper money that could change lives, he had to climb the tower into much higher floors.
"We're going now, but it was really fun, and maybe tomorrow we can attempt the 1st Floor boss!"
Tessa said with a smile.
"…I think we need to team up with another party. There is a ten-player limit in the boss raid, and we only have four in the party. It will be very difficult with just four of us."
Dewrey said.
"Let's do that then!"
Tessa said with a smile. She then turned to Fang Raon and gave him yet another sweet smile as farewell.
She then logged out with Rosabella and disappeared into pixels.
"Are you leaving too?"
Dewrey asked.
"…Yes, I think I am done for today."
Fang Raon said with a deep sigh.
"…See you tomorrow, then."
Dewrey said and walked away, as it didn't look like he was done playing just yet.
"…It was fun."
Fang Raon took a last look at the world around him, smiled, and then logged out.
…
The Virtual Reality Pod's glass door opened with a hiss, and Fang Raon's eyes fluttered
open.
However.
It was darkness.
"…Hoh."
He sat up, stumbled out of the pod as he couldn't see anything, and fell on his bed with an exhausted look.
Rumble~
His stomach rumbled, and if he could, he honestly would've preferred to stay in Black Online for much longer, but he had to eat.
"It sure was fun. Really fun…"
Fang Raon thought out loud, then he stood up and went to prepare some food while blindly stumbling about in his apartment.
The first tasting of the wonderful world of Black Online came to an end, and he desired to go back for much more.