Chương 33: Reborn as the Dragon: — Chapter 33 - Stepping Out of the Comfort Zone

With the System's help, building the Starter Villages turned out to be surprisingly painless. Like snapping together blocks, the players of Sakura Island Starter Village No. 1 knocked out their personal residences in no time. The more ambitious ones had already moved on to constructing walls and arrow towers at key positions around the perimeter, guided by the terrain. The system prompt had been clear enough: the sturdier the Starter Village, the better. Something unexpected might happen after seven days.

Nobody wanted to find out the hard way what "unexpected" meant.

"Higashizaki-kun, thank you so much. I never could have built that arrow tower so quickly on my own."

"Please, Murata-kun, don't mention it. Though I have to say — this game is something else entirely."

"It really is. Now I believe it. There are gods above us. Long live the Emperor!" While the other players chatted and explored in pairs, Haruta Motono was off in a forgotten corner of the Starter Village, quietly handling his own business. [Congratulations on solo-constructing an arrow tower. You have gained 1000 Invasion Points.] [Congratulations on solo-constructing a section of city wall (10m). You have gained 500 Invasion Points.] [Wood and stone materials depleted.] Haruta Motono wiped the sweat from his forehead. Thank god his body had been digitized. His real body never would have hauled through that much labor.

"So with the house included, I'm sitting at 2500 Invasion Points. Let's see what I can actually spend these on..." He opened the Invasion Points shop. Items were divided into ten tiers, with only the sub-tier-ten goods currently unlocked. The shop split into three sections: Equipment, Enhancement, and Daily Supplies. He opened Equipment first.

Five items total: Militia Standard Armor Choice Box (Common)(500 Invasion Points) Militia Standard Weapon Choice Box (Common)(500 Invasion Points) Staff (Common)(500 Invasion Points)(Requires Mage class change) Robe (Common)(500 Invasion Points)(Requires Mage class change) Priest's Hammer (Common)(500 Invasion Points)(Requires Priest class change) The first two were clearly universal, no class restriction, equippable straight out of the box. The last three were another story.

Without the right class, a staff was just a stick, a robe was just linen, and a Priest's Hammer was just a hammer. Dead weight. But that wasn't what had Haruta Motono's heart hammering. This world had magic. Which meant he had a genuine shot at becoming one of those lofty Mage Lords from the novels, high and untouchable, Fireball in the left hand, Magnetic Storm Lightning in the right. How could he not be excited? He opened the Enhancement section with barely contained energy.

Sure enough, all three class options were there: Warrior, Mage, Priest. Each built around a different power source — Battle Aura, Magic, and Divine Power — with its own skill system to match. Did you know this text is from a different site? Read the official version to support the creator. Class change requirements: level 5 and 1000 Invasion Points. Level 5? He'd blown past level 5 the moment he finished his house and arrow tower.

Without hesitating for a second, Haruta Motono changed his class to Mage and immediately exchanged for a staff. His status panel refreshed: [Name: Haruta Motono] [Level: 5] [Class: Mage Apprentice (Tier 1)(0-10)] [Health: 500] [Mana: 200 (Spirit x20)] [Strength: 5] [Constitution: 5 | Armor: 50] [Spirit: 10 | Attack: 150 (Spirit x15)] [Skills: Fireball, Light, Appraisal] The pattern was obvious. Each level, Mages gained one point in Strength and Constitution, but Spirit went up by two.

He checked the class description and found that each tier advancement would further increase the attribute gain per level, a scaling design perfectly tuned to a fantasy world where the strong only get stronger. He spent another five hundred points on a Militia Standard Leather Armor and pulled it on. His Strength stat capped him out at leather anyway. A robe would've added Cleanse, but the actual defense was garbage, so that was an easy call. Last stop: Daily Supplies. One loaf of bread. One clay pot of water.

He ate and drank his fill, tucked the staff under his arm, and stepped toward the edge of the Starter Village.

"I'm going to be the strongest Mage in this world," he muttered happily to himself.

"And then I'll find a succubus wife. And an elf wife. A human kingdom princess could work too... hehehe." Grinning at his own thoughts, he crossed into the safe zone. The Starter Village's temporary safe zone was a broad plain, broken up here and there by shrubs and scattered woodlands. Vast enough that all five thousand-plus players on Sakura Island could wander freely without accidentally stumbling into each other. There were creatures out here, but they all looked like ordinary wildlife.

Haruta Motono wasn't interested. His mana pool was limited, and skills were for critical moments, not sightseeing. He wandered without much direction, and by the time the sky had started going orange and dim, he spotted a low rounded hillock nestled between the trees. A cave mouth opened in its side wall, barely waist height. He tossed an Appraisal at it on instinct. [Black Bear's resting cave. For some unknown reason, the black bear will not return for seven days.] Truly, the Appraisal skill that could appraise anything. Absolute legend. Haruta Motono silently congratulated himself on his impeccable luck. The seven-day absence was obviously a safe zone rule, if the bear were here right now, it would almost certainly be an elite mob for this area. And elite mob caves had a reputation for one thing above all else. Treasure chests. He pressed himself against the rock wall and crept inside, flicking off a Light spell as he went.

Not because he was being a coward, the bear was gone, sure, but what if a couple of poisonous snakes came darting out of the dark? A veteran player of his caliber was not about to get killed by a snake in a ditch. The Light spell's orb filled the cave with clean, steady brightness. Five meters across. The smell was damp and unpleasant. Moss blanketed the floor, and animal bones were scattered across it, whatever the black bear had left over from past meals.

He scanned further in, and there, sitting flat and perfectly placed on a waist-high rock shelf, was a black metal chest. [Black Iron Grade Treasure Chest]"Yes!" Haruta Motono pumped his fist and scrambled toward it. The moss almost took him down before he got there. He caught himself, heart still racing, and crouched in front of the chest. [You do not have a key for the Black Iron Grade Treasure Chest. Spend 200 Invasion Points to exchange for one?]"It needs a key?? Are you serious??"

He smacked himself on the forehead. Then he thought about it for a second and admitted, fine, it made sense. Normal procedure would've been to kill the bear and loot the key off the corpse. He'd just skipped that step.

"Exchange it." He looked pained, but what was he supposed to do, leave it? He'd already checked. The chest didn't fit in his inventory. Two hundred points lighter, Haruta Motono turned a simple, roughcut black iron key over in his fingers. He slid it into the lock, pushed it all the way in, and twisted. The chest gave a creak. White light burst from the seams and the reward shot straight out and smacked him in the face. [Tier 1 Ice Mage Skill Book: Ice Spike]"Are you kidding me?! A skill book, first chest?!"

His chubby hand was shaking around the scroll. For a moment, he genuinely considered screenshotting this and posting it to the channel. Maybe he could sell it for a few Invasion Points. But then a cold thought cut through the excitement, nothing in the system prompt said players couldn't kill each other. The warmth drained from his chest. He tore the scroll open and learned Ice Spike on the spot. He watched the skill lock into place on his bar.

"The world's about to be destroyed," he said quietly.

"Stop thinking about money. The only thing that keeps you alive is getting stronger. Getting better. Living like it actually means something." He stood up straight.

"No more being a useless coward, Haruta Motono." He walked out of the black bear's cave. Ahead of him, not far at all, was the boundary of the Starter Village safe zone. He stood at the edge for a moment. The open world waited on the other side, dark and unknown and entirely without guarantees. Then he stepped through, and didn't look back. ➤ Next: Big Slap