It was an easy pick for Axton as he went straight ahead with the "Yes" reply.
It was not as easy to get an item or weapon in New Eden and so most players instinctively chose the first quest that came their way once it was remotely doable.
Nevertheless, to get a 100 horns from the mountain goats sounded like a herculean task for Axton but he would try.
Thanks to the critical hit bonus, Axton was a bit more relaxed about the range of his attack power and sought to increase his chances of survival instead.
He accepted the quest and Iron Buck showed him a sample of the ore he wanted.
Axton memorized the physical look of the ore and headed towards the west side of the village, making his way straight to the mountains.
About 30 to 45 minutes walk from the village, Axton had reached the mountains and much to his surprise, several players were here already and many of their asses were being handed to them by the Horned Mountain Goats.
Axton swallowed, surprised at the scene that played in front of him.
At first, he wrongfully assumed that this was a hidden quest since Iron Buck was the one who called his attention and not vice versa, but that was simply how Iron Buck's story progression worked in the game.
Axton took the back seat for a moment, watching as the goats ganged up on these players in herds.
"Hey, protect the healer!"
"We need a ranger! Who wants to team up?"
"I thought these goats were supposed to be easy to beat?"
"Are you sure they are really level 1 creatures?"
"Any team searching for a mage?"
"We need a warrior. We already have a mage."
It was chaotic and given that the goats surprisingly overpowered most of them, it increased the frenzy as players saw the need to regroup and restructure their teams.
The player thought they could easily kill the goats since they were supposed to be the lowest level creatures, and they were not wrong.
However, it was far from their expectations since they did not account for one thing.
The Horned Mountain Goats attacked in herds and not singly, making them difficult to fight off.
Even if they were weak and had ordinary stats that would make anybody afraid, this singular attribute of herding made them hard to kill.
…
[Horned Mountain Goats]
Level : 1
Attack : 7
HP : 10
Defense : 4
Trait : Attack in herds
…
Many players had already been killed, both before Axton got here and now that he was there.
After their respawns, they decided to take a more cautious approach and team up with other players.
The players had only just entered the game and were yet to adapt to how it worked or the monsters themselves.
The randomisation of their novice village sharing made it such that forming teams was hard at first, since no one practically knew anyone and because of this, many started off solo until they failed at a quest or died and respawned.
"Status."
Axton's data profile appeared before his eyes.
…
[Status]
Name : Khan
Race : Human
Class : Warrior
Level : 1
Attack : 8
Defense : 5
Agility : 9
HP : 50/50
Mana : 25/25
Talent : Battle God (SSS rank)
Skill : Appraise (basic)
Inventory : Axe (common)
…
Though higher than those of the Horned Mountain Goats, Axton's stats were still within the range of stats for other players.
This was expected since everyone was still in day 1 of the game's launch and had basically not achieved anything.
Axton knew he had to solo the goats and was confident that he could do this because of how the [Battle God] talent worked.
It was a skill built to match the concept of a larger number of enemies.
Axton entered the scene, seeing how everyone was making an effort to find a team member.
"Hey, bro," a random player and a small group behind him approached Axton.
"What class are you?"
"Warrior," Axton answered.
The random player turned to the rest with a bright face and a big smile.
"Thank goodness!"
Hearing the excitement in his voice, Axton leaned back and raised an eyebrow.
"Join our team!" the random person made a request of him. "We are in need of a warrior and you are one. I promise, you won't regret it."
Axton shook his head, refusing the offer. "I can't…"
While teamwork made things easy, and quests were accomplished faster than usual, it also made it so that drops are shared among the team members.
"...I will go solo."
The random player frowned, disappointed with Axton's answer.
"Solo?!" the random player blurted out after him, unaware that his voice was loud. "That's impossible, bro. Can't you see this?"
He pointed to the mountain goats that were approaching. "You can't beat that by being solo! Stop dreaming, bro."
"It's hard to kill these monsters," another member of the group added, trying to convince Axton.
At this point, those who overheard their chat considered if Axton was either a mad player, or had some cheat skill or was just stupidly ignorant.
There was no way he was not seeing what was happening and yet he wanted to do things on his own.
"Is that so?" Axton asked in a calm voice. "I would think you all were veterans with the way you speak."
He then smiled at them as he started to walk away.
"Don't worry about me. I will take my chances," Axton said and at the same time, he summoned his axe from the inventory.
"What a pompous brat," the random player cursed as they watched Axton walk away. "He thinks he's better than everyone else here that is teaming up."
"Don't worry about some random dude whose head is clearly in his ass. Let him experience his own death and then you can say "I told you so" to him."
"Let me see him make it past a few of these goats."
Axton took a deep breath as his senses sharpened and then he exhaled loudly.
"Let's see what the Battle God talent can do for real," he muttered to himself.