Chapter 2

　　[Welcome to Arcadia, a world full of adventure.]

　　Seeing all the characters in the starter village running around in nothing but white underwear with wooden swords gave me a weird feeling. Familiar, but also kind of nostalgic.

　　And the moment I put my hands on the keyboard, my character moved so naturally it felt like I’d been playing just yesterday. I casually killed four slimes and hit Level 10.

　　“XP boost really does make leveling fast.”

　　Just like Hyejin had said, XP came pouring in during the event, letting me breeze through the tedious early levels.

　　The game was also showering me with elemental stones, ward gear, and other freebies every twenty levels. I hit Level 60 in just three hours and was able to join a party in a dungeon called [Swamp of Delusion].

　　[Lemonjuice]

　　[Hoowoo]

　　[Sesam]

　　[Respectfuldude]

　　There were four of us in the grind party.

　　For an hour, we’d run the same dungeon on repeat under a buff called [EXP Blessing], grinding mobs nonstop. All I had to do was run around throwing heals and, if too many mobs piled up, bind them for a bit.

　　Back when I played Battle Mage, I’d practically hammered my keyboard to pieces with all the frantic combos and sidesteps. Compared to that, playing a heal-spec Elementalist was pretty boring when all I had to do was press two or three keys as they came off cooldown.

　　[Hoowoo]: Sesam ur buffs are so good

　　[Lemonjuice]: agreed

　　[Respectfuldude]: Nice

　　But my party members wouldn’t stop buttering me up. I hadn’t even done much, yet they praised me every time I threw out a heal or buff. I started getting suspicious for no real reason.

　　[Sesam]: Haha thank you

　　Still, they didn’t seem to be making fun of me, so I played along.

　　And honestly, I didn’t hate the compliments, so from then on I started moving a little snappier. I tossed traps on anything that got close, kept everyone’s HP above half, and even took over pulling some mobs.

　　For someone who’d already built a top-ranked character, none of that was hard, but I guess it looked pretty impressive to my party members.

　　[Hoowoo]: Sesam ur actually cracked..

　　[Hoowoo]: I jumped 20 levels in one hour..

　　[Lemonjuice]: fr this is insane

　　[Respectfuldude]: I respect you

　　[Sesam]: Lololol

　　I mean, who doesn’t like getting their ass kissed for being good?

　　Every time they praised me, I tried even harder, and what was supposed to be a one-hour party turned into three hours of grinding together because the vibe was so good.

　　We ended up adding each other, and then they asked if I had a main account. I flinched, but denied it for now.

　　[Sesam]: Nope lol this is my main

　　[Hoowoo]: First time playing? damn are u some kinda genius?

　　[Sesam]: Lmaooooo

　　[Sesam]: No its just lol I’ve played a lot of other games so…

　　[Lemonjuice]: woa this really is ur first character… I checked the player database and this is the only one that comes up

　　Apparently Lemonjuice was the thorough type. They’d already used my character to look up my account. I was a little creeped out, but also glad I’d started over with a fresh account.

　　[Respectfuldude]: We actually have mains but it’s the XP boost event

　　[Respectfuldude]: So we’re leveling our alts

　　[Respectfuldude]: We’re all in the same clan

　　[Sesam]: I see

　　The three of them talked so naturally that I’d kind of figured as much, so I answered without giving it much thought. Come to think of it, all three had even picked the same black eyes for their characters.

　　Then Hoowoo suddenly made me an offer.

　　[Hoowoo]: If u dont have a clan wanna join ours?

　　I felt a little put on the spot.

　　“…A clan, huh.”

　　My bad history with clans wasn’t really the issue. Now that I’d started playing again, I was bound to get involved with one sooner or later, whether I liked it or not.

　　The real reason the offer made me hesitate was…

　　“If I’m doing this again, I want to join a major clan this time…”

　　Since I’d decided to go F2P this time, I wanted to choose my clan carefully.

　　That mattered even more considering how hard character progression and leveling got later on. Territories, in particular. Being in a clan that had a castle versus one that didn’t made a huge difference.

　　[Sesam]: Oh um… I heard its better to join a clan with a territory…

　　[Sesam]: So I’ve kinda been looking around

　　I tried to turn them down gently, but Hoowoo suddenly started jumping in place, using the [Clap] emote.

　　[Hoowoo]: OUR CLAN HAS 3 TERRITORIES!!!

　　“What? Three?” I was so surprised I answered out loud.

　　[Sesam]: Wait then do u guys do 3 siege wars every month…?

　　[Hoowoo]: YES!!!! so…

　　[Hoowoo]: It gets kinda hectic ngl

　　[Hoowoo]: But other than that the vibes are good and everythings great

　　[Lemonjuice]: fr

　　[Lemonjuice]: and we gear u up with pretty much everything!

　　[Respectfuldude]: Yes please come

　　Stunned by this sudden stroke of luck, I was speechless for a moment.

　　I knew from experience that managing even one territory was a pain in the ass. But a clan with three? I couldn’t even imagine how stacked their roster had to be.

　　[Sesam]: Um… What’s the clan called…?

　　[Hoowoo]: Tumble Rumble!

　　I immediately looked it up. And there it was, sitting proudly at number one in the clan rankings.

　　[Sesam]: Can a low level like me even join..?

　　I couldn’t believe I’d been scouted by a clan that huge on day one. But my party members didn’t seem to care. They all rushed to reassure me.

　　[Hoowoo]: We seriously

　　[Hoowoo]: Need a fresh newbie T_T

　　[Lemonjuice]: ur gamer sense is so good…

　　[Respectfuldude]: I’ll send you an invite

　　Respectfuldude logged out before I could even answer, and a clan invitation popped up on my screen.

　　[Respect has invited you to join Tumble Rumble Clan — Accept / Decline]

　　Part of me wondered if things were really supposed to go this smoothly, but there was nothing wrong with good luck. A little excited, I hit accept.

　　The second I did, the [Clan] menu activated, and both the clan status panel and clan-only chat window appeared on my screen.

　　[Currently online: 388]

　　“Whoa… that’s insane…”

　　Even when my old clan had been at its peak, we’d only had around seventy people online at once.

　　Seeing a clan with more than four times that many people online left my jaw hanging. Then again, if they had to fight three siege wars, I guess they needed this kind of headcount.

　　[Tumble Rumble Clan Master: Heecat]

　　“Never heard that username before.”

　　The clan master’s username was Heecat, and they happened to be online. Maybe they’d seen the notification that I’d joined, because they spoke to me first.

　　[Heecat]: hey

　　[Sesam]: Hello!

　　[Heecat]: who invited u?

　　A little curt, I thought.

　　Before I could even take offense, Respect, who had invited me, answered for me.

　　[Respect]: I did

　　[Heecat]: k

　　And that was it.

　　Maybe Heecat was just chill. After asking who had invited me, they didn’t ask me anything else.

　　Once that conversation ended, the clan members who’d been dead silent until then started welcoming me.

　　[Flowerstory]: Hello hehe

　　[Softjelly]: hihi

　　[Ggona]: Hiii

　　[Stanby]: hey

　　There were so many people in the clan that the greetings alone sent the chat scrolling nonstop. There was no way I could answer everyone, so I replied here and there and started getting familiar with everyone’s usernames.

　　If you clicked a username in the clan window, you could see their level and what weapon they had equipped. Most of them were max level, and the clan was crawling with players already carrying BiS weapons^[1].

　　Seeing all that gear suddenly reminded me of my old Battle Mage main.

　　“I used to have gear like this too…” I sighed.

　　I smacked my lips, and suddenly the urge to swipe my card came roaring back. If I dropped like three or four grand, I could probably gear up in no time…

　　“No. What the hell am I thinking…?”

　　Remembering my bank balance snapped me back to reality. I slapped both cheeks, trying to beat the insane thought out of my head.

　　Meanwhile, the people I’d partied with earlier logged in on their mains. Their usernames were similar to their alts, so they were easy to recognize. And the second they logged in, they started fussing over me all over again.

　　[Hoohaa]: GUYS!! WE GOT A TOTAL NEWBIE!!! I RECRUITED ONE!!!!

　　[Lemonade]: everyone be nice

　　[Respect]: Let’s be respectful

　　Most of the clan seemed pretty friendly, because my inbox quickly filled up with high-grade weapons and materials sent by clan members.

　　[Flowerstory]: When ur master skill quest comes up later, lets go together hehe

　　[Ggona]: Oh ur a heal Ele? I’ll send u one of my old elemental stones brb

　　I sent each and every one of them a thank-you reply. The clan members got a kick out of how much of a newbie I sounded like in my replies.

　　To be fair, I’d made myself sound a little clueless on purpose. In an old game like Arcadia, newbies tended to get babied, and I needed to survive without spending any money.

　　So I was putting a little social savvy to work and laying the groundwork for smooth sailing when…

　　[Heecat has logged out.]

　　[Heejae has logged in.]

　　An unforgettable username appeared in the clan notification window.

Translator’s Note

[1] BiS weapons: Best-in-Slot. The best available piece of gear for a particular slot or build.