The Earth After Rebirth

[You\'ve killed an S Ranked quest boss for the first time 200 000 EXP]

[Items: 20 health potions, 10 mana potions. 2 True blood awakening potions. 10 000 000 coins. 5 skill books. 1 Staff. 1 Axe.]

With all that EXP. They levelled up once.

After catching their breaths, they laughed joyfully! They couldn\'t quite believe they did it, they cleared an S ranked quest. Beginner\'s village felt like a million years ago. They were still noobs when they left it.

[World Announcement: Congratulations to players Hiro and Kiro for being the first players to clear an S ranked quest]

They just scornfully ignored the system. And decided to divide the loot. 3 of the skill books were for alchemy, smithing and mining respectfully. Hiro had a haul this time. The 2 others were for priests. Life seemed unfair to Kiro. But since they finally gave him a staff, he was satiated.

Ding!

[You\'ve unlocked a new skill, Regeneration. S ranked and cannot evolve. The skill regenerates 100 HP And MP per second.]

This brought a smile and happiness to Kiro.

"What do you reckon the true blood awakening potion does?" Hiro asked.

"I guess it awakens our true blood, I have no idea what it could mean otherwise." Kiro answered.

They looked at each other, and smirked.

Both at the same time, "In 3. 1,2,3." They downed the potion. At first nothing happened, then they could feel painful pricks all over their bodies. Not so much that you\'d wanna end yourself, but enough to feel discomfort.

[You\'ve drunk a true blood awakening potion.

Awakening in progress: 72 hours (not in-game hours)]

"72 hours?"

Hiro nodded.

Kiro looked at the staff he got. He wasn\'t sure of the material it was made of, it looked like iron but also stone.

Staff

The staff of a certain king.

Rank:???

That\'s all the system gave him. He took a much closer look, it looked like it was made from obsidian steel from one angle, and just ordinary stone from another.

It was very thin, and only a few inches taller than Kiro. It stood at 2 meters. Kiro quickly equipped the staff, it felt natural in his hand.

They then turned to the woman they came to rescue, she was in a coma or something. She looked liked something out of a painting. Wilace was sure lucky. They shook her. She jolted awake.

"Let\'s go, Wilace is waiting."

She was wary, so before she asked they told her all about her husband, what he looked like, where he stayed, his work, everything. She seemed to believe them.

"Did you get bitten?" Hiro asked.

"Yes. I\'m vampire now," she said nonchalantly.

They both jumped out of instinct, and stood in defensive stances. Though they didn\'t attack immediately, if they killed the person they came to rescue, wouldn\'t they fail the quest?

Even though the announcement was made, the system had an attitude, so they were it could revoke their \'mission accompished\' status.

"Relax, I\'m still sane. I haven\'t had human blood, never will. I\'ll settle for animals. That\'s all. This was done against my will, surely you cannot judge me for it."

Reluctantly, they put the weapons down. She immediately bared her fangs at them, she turned pale and her eyes turned red.

Kiro was about to activate palm crashing when she laughed heartily. She was apparently teasing them.

"You should\'ve seen your faces," she said in-between laughs.

"Honestly, I could\'ve killed you!" Kiro remarked, his heart still going haywire.

"Yeah, sorry, sorry, thank you for rescuing me," she said with the most sincere smile.

They went outside the Manor, Hiro took out a return crystal Wilace had given them. And they used it to return to the village instantaneously.

The joy in Wilace\'s face was a sight to see. He was so happy, he was stupid crying. He didn\'t care that his wife was a vampire now, what mattered to him was that she was alive. Well, more or less.

"Thank you, thank you Odin!"

"Ahem!" Kiro cleared his throat.

Wilace slowly looked at him.

"Brat, I know you helped too but Odin comes first," he said as he stood up, wiping his tears. He gave each of them a bow.

\'Unbelievable, this guy. It wasn\'t Odin but us fighting out there.\'

[Congratulations. You\'ve rescued Wilace\'s wife and brought her back alive, or undead. 5 000 000 EXP rewarded. 1 000 000 coins rewarded.]

"As I promised, here\'s the reward, I\'m sorry its not much. Its a sword skill, I never was able to learn it maybe you could," Wilace said.

As soon as Kiro looked at the skill, he wanted to strangle Wilace. But he held back his fury. This skill was once again useless to them. It was sword aura!

They had levelled up to 30. They\'ve made history in this game, nobody else would leave the beginner\'s village after gaining 30 levels. Usually the requirement to leave was level 20. After level 20, you\'ll be automatically kicked out.

[World Announcement: Congrations to players Hiro and Kiro for being the first to reach level 30 at beginner\'s village. All achievements will be recorded in the hall of fame]

"We should log out before people start resenting us," Kiro said.

"Good idea. Good bye Wilace."

They both logged off, unbeknownst to them, they\'d caused an uproar within Asgard\'s online forums. It was chaos, people were furious, some admired. How can these two people be so good at a new game!

"Did they perhaps discover a bug? First the S rank clear. Now level 30? It\'s so hard levelling up!"

"Yeah, levelling up is a pain in this game. All they give you are these useless gold coins."

"They must\'ve cheated. This game has no bugs."

"Seconded! Developers do something about this!"

And so the complaints never ceased. But the developers properly ignored all of them.

------

They had been playing this game for days without proper rest. Their bodies felt a bit stiff. So they went for a jog before dinner. Kiro went and knocked on Hiro\'s door, after showering and getting ready.

He came out ready to go to dinner.

"You showered right?"

"Of course. What do you take me for."

"Just making sure!"

They walked together, chatting about their game play, unaware that the academy was full of players who now knew their names. But nobody knew what they looked like, as nobody had ever met them in-game.

They were shocked when they heard a couple of people talking and their names popping up but decided to just ignored it because maybe there\'s another pair who are Kiro and Hiro. Who knows.

They ordered fried chicken and burgers, they felt they deserved to be spoilt today. They sat at their usual table. They were still talking about the game.

"Hey, we should go mining next, after buying a lot outside beginner\'s village."

"Mine? Thought we\'d do that far into the game?"

"Do you trust me?"

"Of course!"

"Then, our next mission should be mining. You\'re a craftsman for hells sake, you should be happy a Sage like me wants to dabble in the dirt with you." Kiro said with arrogance.

Even flipping his hair, at least attempted to, the hair was too curly and too short to be flipped at the moment. While He had asked his mum to trim it only on the sides, she felt rebellious and did the top as well.

Hiro rolled his eyes. "Please stop, you\'re scaring the rich folks."

They enjoyed the good laugh!

They were so busy chatting, that they didn\'t hear or see somebody sitting across from them. So the voice startled them.

"You\'re them aren\'t you? You\'re Hiro and Kiro."