Staring at the key prices in the NPC's shop, Kairon winced. He thought back to all the chest spawn points he'd memorized in his past life and sighed. Looks like I won't be getting any free chests with lockpicking this time around.

  Bronze Key: 1 Silver Coin

  Silver Key: 1 Gold Coin

  Gold Key: 100 Gold Coins

  Dark Gold Key: 10,000 Gold Coins

  This pricing was nothing short of daylight robbery. In the early days of launch, no player in their right mind would drop this kind of cash on a key to open a chest.

  Once the price of gold stabilized and Rogues had leveled up their lockpicking skills, even fewer people would shell out for these overpriced keys.

  This was probably the game's exclusive perk for the Rogue class, after all. Rogues had a relatively slow solo leveling speed, and stumbling across a chest out in the wild meant a hefty payout the second they popped it open, on top of a massive chunk of experience.

  Kairon had once opened a Dark Gold Chest at level 109, and the experience alone had shot him up a full level and then some. That was for a wild spawn chest, though. Chests dropped by monsters like this one gave no experience reward at all.

  Wild chest spawn points in World of Eldrath were all fixed. Once opened, they were gone forever, with no chance of a second spawn.

  He gritted his teeth and bought a Silver Key for 1 Gold Coin, the equivalent of dropping 6,000 Credits straight out of his pocket.

  He prayed silently under his breath: "Come on, give me something good." Give me something good. Don't mess with me again, you old man in the black suit!

  He watched the lockpicking progress bar tick up slowly: 1%... 20%... 50%...

  Ding! Lockpicking successful!

  He threw the chest open immediately, reached inside and rummaged around for a long moment, and pulled out only a single bracelet.

  Kairon's eyes lit up instantly. Jewelry! This was a guaranteed win! Even if the stats were absolute garbage, a single piece of jewelry was worth at least 1 Gold Coin in the early days of launch.

  ...

  [Scorching Bangle]

  Rarity: Rare (Upgradable)

  Required Level: 5

  Defense: 18-32

  Attribute: Increases the wearer's physical and magical defense by 10%

  Set Bonus 1/3 (Inactive): When the player equips the Scorching Bangle, Scorching Ring, and Scorching Amulet together, the active skill [Scorching Aegis] is unlocked.

  [Death Immunity]: When activated, reduces all incoming damage by 20% for 8 seconds, grants immunity to one instance of fatal damage, and restores 100% of maximum health when the immunity is triggered. Cooldown: 72 hours.

  ...

  Staring at the bracelet in his hand, Kairon felt a surge of wild elation. It was a piece of a set. Even though its required level was low and its base defense was nothing to write home about, the attached attributes were absolutely game-breaking.

  The effect might not be noticeable in the early game, but in the late game, once you stack up defense from your other gear, that 10% all-defense boost becomes absolutely monstrous.

  That 1 Gold Coin was the best investment he'd ever made. This was gear he could use all the way to endgame, and if he could get his hands on the full set, he'd have an insanely powerful get-out-of-jail-free card in his back pocket.

  He pulled out his prized [Wishing Box]. In addition to the 19 Enhancement Stones he'd bought earlier, he'd picked up more while grinding the arakkoa nest with Dreamshore, bringing his total to a full 33 stones.

  He had to hand it to the arakkoa nest; its drop rate was insanely high. That single run had netted him 14 Enhancement Stones alone.

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  It was probably because every monster they'd killed had been a server first kill, counted as a progression clear, which came with an extra drop rate boost.

  When they'd split the loot earlier, Kairon had taken only the Enhancement Stones, leaving every other item for Dreamshore, including a skill book for the Ancient Tree Sentinel.

  First, he enhanced his Lightsteel Staff to +10, successfully unlocking a rare attribute: +2 All-Round Stats.

  Each point of All-Round Stats increases all damage dealt and healing done by 1%, and reduces all incoming damage by 0.5%.

  He didn't even blink before dumping all 30 remaining Enhancement Stones into the Scorching Bangle, forcing it all the way to +30.

  Normally, you'd prioritize stacking attack power in the early days of launch. After all, the faster you killed mobs, the faster you leveled up.

  But Kairon's next move was to take on high-level mobs. With level suppression, no matter how high your attack power was, you'd only deal a forced 1 damage per hit. Stacking defense and survivability was the only thing that mattered.

  Once the Scorching Bangle was enhanced to +30, its base defense skyrocketed to a monstrous 54-96 points.

  Kairon's base maximum defense already sat at 138 points. With the 10% all-defense boost from the Scorching Bangle factored in, his final defense value hit a full 152 points.

  He could basically walk anywhere he wanted in the entire novice zone now. Aside from dungeon mobs and BOSS-tier creatures, no wild mob could pierce his armor.

  Everything was in place, and he was ready to go. He turned and headed for the town's Blacksmith Shop, spending another 1 Gold Coin to buy 10 Repair Hammers. Each hammer had 30 uses, more than enough to last him a long time.

  After leaving the Blacksmith Shop, Kairon immediately summoned the Shadowwood Panther and activated [Shadow Stealth] to cloak his form. Even though his movement speed was reduced while in stealth, he didn't want any other players to see where he was going.

  The wild mobs around Silvermoon Town ranged from level 1 to level 10, growing stronger the further you traveled from the town. Once players hit level 10, they could challenge World of Eldrath's first dungeon.

  Mobs inside dungeons gave far more experience than those out in the wild, and dungeon clears came with a rating system.

  The higher the rating, the more experience was rewarded, which was then split evenly between every player who participated in the clear.

  Kairon traveled through each grinding zone one by one and found nearly every single one was packed to the brim with players.

  This was one of the main reasons player leveling speed was so universally slow in the early days of World of Eldrath's launch. There were more players than mobs, which gutted their leveling efficiency completely.

  He gradually made his way to the level 4 mob zone, where the number of players had dropped off significantly.

  After all, only a tiny handful of players had managed to hit level 4 this early into launch. Most of the players here were in parties of four or five.

  In World of Eldrath, the maximum party size was 6 players. With raid mode enabled, 5 parties could form a raid group, and 10 raid groups could make up a full war band, for a total of 300 players.

  But the larger the group, the less experience each player got from a mob kill. The only upside was the ability to take over large swathes of grinding grounds, or even clear the entire area completely.

  At this stage of launch, just being able to group up with a few friends to level up was impressive enough. Trying to clear an entire zone and hog the grinding grounds for yourself was completely unrealistic.

  After all, the players barely knew each other. People slacking off and leeching experience, fights breaking out over unfair loot splits for valuable drops, and even players getting stabbed in the back by their own party members to get their gear to drop on death. These things happened all the time in the novice zones.

  Each of these parties held its own small patch of the zone. Melee classes like Paladins, Warriors, and Rogues weaved through the mob packs to pull aggro, while ranged classes like Mages and Gunslingers poured out damage from the backline.

  More than a few Priests, meanwhile, stood on the sidelines slacking off and watching the show. They'd toss out the occasional Smite, but the damage was negligible at best.

  Even though Priests had barely any damage output or healing power in the early game, plenty of parties were still happy to bring along these dead weight players.

  Because everyone knew that in the late game, a raid group couldn't get anywhere without a Priest, the walking health bank of the team. Anyone who's ever played an MMO knows this.

  Healer classes always have the lowest player count. If you don't build a good relationship with them now, they won't give you the time of day when you're trying to get into high-difficulty dungeons later.

  Kairon picked his way carefully through the players' grinding zones. He could have easily taken the main road with no mob spawns, but that would have added a massive detour. So he'd chosen the straight-line path, which meant cutting through these leveling zones.

  When he finally made his way to the level 5 Corrupted Giant Bear grinding zone, he was surprised to find other players there already.

  He opened the level leaderboard and glanced at it, confirming he still held the number one spot solidly at level 5, 98% of the way to level 6.

  The second-place player was still at level 4, 7% experience, with the ID [LiveFastDieYng]. Kairon had never heard that name in his past life, and with a handle that memorable, there was no way he'd have forgotten it.

  That meant the two groups of players before him were likely around level 4. The fact that they dared to grind in a level 5 zone meant their gear was halfway decent. But right now, the two groups were at each other's throats, clearly in the middle of a full-blown conflict.

  Kairon scoffed silently to himself. What a bunch of idiots. The entire level 5 zone is massive. With these few people, you could just split up and find your own spots to grind. Why the hell are you fighting over territory?

  Curiosity got the better of him, and he crept forward slowly, stopping about ten meters away from the two groups. It was a perfectly safe distance, well out of aggro range.

  With his higher level, he could have easily gotten much closer, but countless brushes with death in his past life had ingrained in him the habit of keeping himself in the safest position possible at all times.

  Once he was close enough, he finally saw exactly what had the two groups at each other's throats.