Jin-woo woke to sunlight filtering through his grimy window, harsh and unforgiving. His phone alarm was blaring—8:00 AM. He'd managed less than seven hours of sleep, and his body protested every movement. His neck was stiff, his eyes felt grainy, and there was a dull headache building behind his temples.
He silenced the alarm and sat up, immediately checking his banking app out of habit. The balance glared back at him: -$126.48. Yesterday's single dollar of earnings had barely made a dent. Twenty-nine days left until the loan was due.
Jin-woo forced himself through his morning routine—bathroom, instant coffee, the last package of instant noodles from his cupboard. The noodles were his breakfast, lunch, and probably dinner. He had maybe three more packages left after this, then he'd need to spend real money on food. Money he didn't have.
While the noodles cooked in his electric kettle, Jin-woo grabbed his phone and opened the ERO forums. He'd bookmarked dozens of threads last night, guides for efficient leveling and money-making for low-level players. One thread in particular had caught his attention: "Level 1-10 Quest Chains Ranked by Silver-Per-Hour."
The top-rated comment was detailed and analytical:
"If you're grinding for money, skip the wolf quests after your first one. Wolves are inefficient—too much health, too spread out. The goblin quest chains are where it's at for levels 2-5. Here's why:
Goblins spawn in camps, so you don't waste time running between targetsThey have less health than wolves (60 HP vs 80 HP)They drop equipment pieces you can vendor for extra silverThe quest chains have better rewards—5 silver for 30 kills vs 3 silver for 20 wolves
Goblin Raiders quest unlocks at level 2. Camp is north of Havencrest, about 15 minutes from the north gate. Get there early because it gets crowded mid-day with other farmers.
Average completion time: 3-4 hours Average earnings: 7-8 silver total (quest reward + drops) That's roughly 2 silver per hour—double what you make from wolves."
Jin-woo read and reread the post, committing the details to memory. Two silver per hour was still only two dollars, but it was twice his rate from yesterday. Progress was progress.
He ate his noodles mechanically, the cheap artificial flavoring barely registering, and checked the time. 8:47 AM. The headset was fully charged. He could play for six hours before needing another break, maybe push to seven if he was careful about the fatigue warnings.
Jin-woo positioned himself on the chair, water bottle within reach, and put on the VR headset. The familiar white loading screen appeared, then dissolved into the nighttime streets of Havencrest City where he'd logged out.
It was still dark in-game, the city illuminated by magical street lamps and the glow from various shop windows. A few players wandered the streets, but far fewer than during daytime hours. Jin-woo checked his character sheet:
Name: Jin Park Level: 2 Health: 120/120 Stamina: 110/110 Gold: 0 gold, 419 copper
The stat points he'd allocated yesterday had taken effect. He felt marginally stronger, though the difference between 10 Strength and 13 Strength wasn't dramatic. Every bit helped.
Jin-woo navigated through the quiet streets toward the quest board near the plaza. The same NPC quest officer stood nearby, and several fresh notices had been posted on the board since last night. Jin-woo scanned them quickly:
"Rat Infestation Redux" - Kill 50 rats - Reward: 2 silver "Herb Gathering: Ironroot" - Collect 100 Ironroot herbs - Reward: 3 silver
"Goblin Raiders" - Kill 30 goblins at the Northern Camp - Reward: 5 silver "Escort Mission: Merchant Caravan" - Protect merchant traveling to Silverleaf - Reward: 4 silver
There it was. Goblin Raiders. The quest the forum had recommended. Jin-woo reached out and touched the notice.
Quest Details appeared:
GOBLIN RAIDERS Difficulty: Easy-Normal Recommended Level: 2-4 Location: Northern Goblin Camp (20 minutes north of city)
Description: A band of goblins has established a camp north of Havencrest and has been raiding merchant caravans. The Merchant Guild requests their elimination.
Objective: Kill 30 goblins Reward: 5 silver, 200 Experience
Accept Quest?
Jin-woo accepted without hesitation. The quest log updated, adding "Goblin Raiders (0/30)" to his active quests.
He pulled up the mental map he'd been building of Havencrest City and oriented himself toward the north gate. The walk took about eight minutes through mostly empty streets. Dawn was just beginning to break in-game, the sky lightening from black to deep blue to purple.
The north gate was similar to the west gate—massive stone archway, NPC guards in armor, a sign reading "NORTH ROAD - GOBLIN TERRITORIES." One of the guards, a woman with a scarred face and grey hair, turned as Jin-woo approached.
"Heading into goblin country?" she asked, her voice gruff but not unfriendly. "Dangerous business for a young adventurer. Those green-skinned bastards are mean. Watch yourself out there."
"I will," Jin-woo replied, though he knew the NPC probably wasn't programmed to respond.
He passed through the gate and emerged onto a dirt road that cut through forested terrain. The landscape was different here than the plains west of the city—more trees, rocky outcroppings, the ground gradually rising toward distant hills. The road was well-maintained, clearly a major trade route.
Jin-woo followed the road north, passing a few other players heading in various directions. One player—a level 6 mage based on their robes and staff—was returning from the direction of the goblin camp, their inventory probably full of loot. They didn't acknowledge Jin-woo as they passed.
The forum post had said fifteen to twenty minutes, and Jin-woo found the goblin camp after about eighteen minutes of walking. The camp wasn't visible from the road—it was set back in the forest, maybe a hundred yards off the main path. A smaller dirt trail led through the trees toward it, and Jin-woo could see other players using the trail.
He followed it and emerged into a clearing that had been transformed into a crude settlement.
The goblin camp was exactly what Jin-woo expected from a low-level grinding zone: a cluster of ramshackle tents and crude wooden structures arranged in a rough circle around a central fire pit. Goblins wandered around the camp in groups of two or three, their green skin visible even in the early morning light. They were small—maybe four feet tall—with pointed ears, sharp teeth, and yellow eyes. Most wore mismatched scraps of leather armor and carried crude weapons: rusty daggers, wooden clubs, bent swords that looked like they'd been looted from previous victims.
Above each goblin's head, nameplates displayed: Goblin Raider - Level 2 or Goblin Raider - Level 3.
The camp was already occupied by other players. Jin-woo counted at least eight adventurers spread throughout the area, each one engaged with goblins. A level 3 warrior was fighting two goblins simultaneously near the eastern tents. A level 4 ranger was picking off goblins from the edge of the clearing with arrows. A level 2 mage was launching fire bolts from behind a rock.
But there were plenty of goblins. The camp seemed to continuously respawn them—every minute or two, new goblins would materialize near the tents or fire pit, replacing the ones that had been killed. It was a grinding spot designed to accommodate multiple players simultaneously.
Jin-woo drew his iron sword and approached the nearest goblin, a level 2 that was wandering near the southern edge of camp. The creature was alone, separated from any pack.
The goblin noticed him at about twenty feet, its yellow eyes focusing on him with obvious hostility. It raised its crude weapon—a wooden club with nails driven through it—and shrieked something in a language Jin-woo didn't understand. The goblin charged.
Jin-woo met the charge with his sword raised. The goblin swung its club in a wild overhead arc, and Jin-woo sidestepped, letting the weapon pass harmlessly by. He countered with a horizontal slash that caught the goblin across its midsection.
SLASH.
-15 damage appeared above the goblin.
A health bar materialized: 45/60 HP.
Sixty health. That was less than the wolves' eighty. The forum post had been accurate.
The goblin recovered from the hit and attacked again, this time with a stabbing motion aimed at Jin-woo's stomach. He blocked with his sword, the club clanging against the iron blade. The impact sent vibrations through his arms, but his improved Strength stat helped him hold his ground. No damage taken.
Jin-woo pushed the goblin's weapon aside and thrust forward with his sword. The point pierced the goblin's shoulder, and it shrieked in pain. -14 damage. The goblin's health: 31/60.
The creature backed away, yellow eyes wide with something that might have been fear or pain. It circled Jin-woo warily, club held defensively. Jin-woo pressed his advantage, stepping forward with a downward chop. The goblin tried to block, but Jin-woo's blade smashed through its weak defense and caught it on the head.
CRITICAL! -22 damage.
The goblin's health dropped to 9/60, and the creature staggered, barely staying upright.
Jin-woo finished it with a quick horizontal slash. -11 damage. The goblin's health hit zero, and it collapsed, dissolving into light particles.
Quest Progress: Goblin Raiders (1/30)
The loot appeared on the ground: 3 copper coins, a rusty dagger, and a piece of torn leather.
Jin-woo collected the items and checked their descriptions:
Rusty Dagger Type: One-Handed Dagger Damage: 2-4 Durability: 8/20 Quality: Poor Vendor Value: 8 copper
Torn Leather Scrap Type: Crafting Material Quality: Poor Vendor Value: 2 copper
The dagger alone was worth 8 copper. The leather scrap was 2 copper. Combined with the 3 copper from the kill itself, that was 13 copper total—more than twice what the wolves had dropped.
And the fight had taken less than a minute. Maybe forty-five seconds from start to finish.
Jin-woo allowed himself a moment of satisfaction. This was better. Significantly better. The goblins were weaker than wolves, dropped better loot, and he was handling them more efficiently thanks to yesterday's brutal education.
He looked around the camp for his next target. Another level 2 goblin was near the fire pit, about thirty yards away. Jin-woo started walking toward it.
The second kill went even faster. Jin-woo was learning the goblins' attack patterns—they telegraphed their strikes more obviously than wolves, with exaggerated wind-ups that gave him time to react. The goblin managed one hit, a glancing blow with its club that dealt -7 damage, but Jin-woo cut it down in under forty seconds.
Quest Progress: Goblin Raiders (2/30)
Loot: 4 copper, a bent short sword (vendor value: 12 copper), and another leather scrap.
The third goblin was level 3, with 70 HP instead of 60. It took slightly longer to kill—about sixty seconds—and hit harder when its attacks landed. But Jin-woo was getting into a rhythm now, his movements more confident, his timing more precise.
Quest Progress: Goblin Raiders (3/30)
An hour passed. Jin-woo worked his way methodically through the goblin camp, targeting isolated enemies, avoiding the groups of two or three that other players were handling. His kill count climbed steadily: five goblins, ten, fifteen.
His inventory was filling with loot. Damaged weapons and armor pieces, leather scraps, copper coins. Every goblin dropped at least 3-4 copper in direct currency, plus items worth anywhere from 5 to 15 copper when vendored. The math was working in his favor.
Quest Progress: Goblin Raiders (15/30)
Jin-woo's health rarely dropped below 90/120. He was taking less damage per fight as his skill improved. When he did take hits, he'd step back and let his health regenerate before engaging the next goblin. The camp was crowded enough with respawning enemies that he never had to wait long for a target, but not so crowded that he felt rushed.
Two hours total. Twenty goblins down. Jin-woo's stamina management had improved dramatically—he knew exactly how many swings he could make before needing to pause for recovery. His attacks were more deliberate, less wasteful.
Quest Progress: Goblin Raiders (20/30)
Around the three-hour mark, something changed. Jin-woo killed his twenty-third goblin—a level 3 with a bent sword—and a notification appeared that he'd been hoping for:
LEVEL UP! You have reached Level 3! +5 Stat Points available to allocate Health increased to 130/130 Stamina increased to 120/120
Level 3. Jin-woo immediately opened his character sheet to allocate the points. He remembered the forum advice: warriors need Strength for damage and Vitality for survivability. He put 3 points into Strength and 2 into Vitality.
His stats updated: Strength: 16 (was 13) Vitality: 14 (was 12) Health: 140/140 (increased from the VIT boost)
The difference was immediately noticeable. When Jin-woo attacked the next goblin, his damage numbers were higher: -17 instead of -15 for a basic attack. His health pool was larger, giving him more margin for error.
The increased power made the remaining kills go faster. Jin-woo was cutting through level 2 goblins in under thirty seconds now, level 3 goblins in about forty-five seconds.
Quest Progress: Goblin Raiders (27/30)
Three more. Jin-woo found a cluster of three goblins near the northern tents—two level 2s and one level 3. Other players had been avoiding the group, preferring to pick off lone targets. But Jin-woo felt confident enough to try it.
He approached the group and attacked the level 3 first, reasoning that it was the biggest threat. His opening strike landed clean: -18 damage. The goblin's health: 52/70.
All three goblins immediately turned on him, their shrieks alerting each other. The level 3 swung its club at his head. Jin-woo ducked and countered with an upward slash. -17 damage. Goblin's health: 35/70.
One of the level 2 goblins attacked from his left, its dagger aimed at his ribs. Jin-woo twisted, taking the hit on his leather armor instead of his flesh. The armor absorbed most of the impact: -4 damage. His health: 136/140.
The other level 2 attacked from his right. Jin-woo blocked with his sword: -3 damage through the block. His health: 133/140.
Three enemies at once was chaotic, but manageable. Jin-woo focused on the level 3, trading blows with it while using positioning to keep the level 2s from flanking him effectively. His sword work was economical—no wasted movements, every strike aimed to either deal damage or create space.
The level 3 goblin fell first, its health depleted by a critical strike to the neck: CRITICAL! -25 damage.
Quest Progress: Goblin Raiders (28/30)
Now it was two level 2s. Jin-woo turned his full attention to them, and they fell quickly. The first died to a combination of slashes that left his sword dripping with simulated blood. The second tried to run when its companion fell, but Jin-woo chased it down and finished it with a thrust to the back.
Quest Progress: Goblin Raiders (30/30)
Quest Complete: Goblin Raiders Return to Havencrest City to claim your reward.
Jin-woo stood among the dissolving light particles of three dead goblins, breathing hard but unhurt. His health was at 121/140, and his stamina was at 67/120. Four hours. The entire quest had taken him four hours from login to completion.
He opened his inventory to assess his earnings. The loot from thirty goblins filled multiple inventory slots:
Currency: 107 copper (from direct drops) Damaged Weapons: 8 pieces (vendor value: 72 copper total) Damaged Armor: 5 pieces (vendor value: 43 copper total)
Leather Scraps: 12 pieces (vendor value: 24 copper total) Miscellaneous junk: various gray items worth 15 copper total
Total from drops: 261 copper, plus the 5 silver quest reward he'd get when he turned in the quest.
261 copper was 2 silver and 61 copper. Combined with the 5 silver quest reward, that was 7 silver and 61 copper total. Plus he still had his original 419 copper from yesterday.
Jin-woo did the math: 419 + 761 = 1,180 copper. That was 11 silver and 80 copper. Almost twelve dollars.
For four hours of work, he'd earned roughly eight silver after accounting for his starting balance. Eight dollars for four hours. Two dollars per hour. The forum post had been accurate.
It still wasn't great—still below minimum wage—but it was double yesterday's rate. Progress.
Jin-woo checked his experience bar and felt a surge of satisfaction. During the goblin grinding, he'd gained enough experience to level up again:
LEVEL UP! You have reached Level 4! +5 Stat Points available to allocate Health increased to 150/150 Stamina increased to 130/130
Level 4. He'd gained two full levels from the goblin quest. Jin-woo opened his stat allocation screen, but this time he paused. He had 5 unallocated points from this level, plus he realized he'd been too focused during the level 3 allocation to check his overall stat distribution.
He pulled up his character sheet:
Name: Jin Park Level: 4 Experience: 95/800
Attributes: Strength: 16 Agility: 10 Vitality: 14 Intelligence: 10 Wisdom: 10 Luck: 10
Unallocated Points: 5
He needed to be strategic about this. Jin-woo pulled out his real-world phone and opened the forum thread he'd bookmarked: "Warrior Stat Priority Guide - Levels 1-50."
The top comment was comprehensive:
"Warrior stat priority for leveling and grinding:
PRIMARY STATS:
Strength: Your damage stat. Every point increases physical damage. Priority #1.Vitality: Your HP pool. More HP = more mistakes you can survive = less deaths. Priority #2.
SECONDARY STATS:
Agility: Affects dodge chance and attack speed. Useful but not critical for early game warriors. Start investing at level 10+.
IGNORE (for now):
Intelligence/Wisdom: Worthless for pure physical warriorsLuck: Affects drop rates and crit chance but scales poorly at low levels
Recommended allocation for levels 1-10: 60% STR, 35% VIT, 5% AGI
Example: If you have 5 points to allocate, do 3 STR, 2 VIT. If you have 10 points, do 6 STR, 3 VIT, 1 AGI."
Jin-woo read the guide carefully. His current allocation had been close to the recommendation—he'd been putting about 60% into Strength and 40% into Vitality. But he'd been ignoring Agility completely.
He decided to adjust slightly. For his current 5 points, he'd do: 3 to Strength, 1 to Vitality, 1 to Agility.
His stats updated: Strength: 19 (was 16) Vitality: 15 (was 14) Agility: 11 (was 10) Health: 155/155 (increased from VIT)
Unallocated Points: 0
Better. Jin-woo could feel the difference immediately—his sword felt lighter, his movements slightly more fluid. The single point in Agility wasn't dramatic, but every advantage mattered.
Now he needed to return to the city, turn in the quest, and vendor all this junk he'd collected. The walk back took about twenty minutes, his inventory weighted down with damaged goblin equipment.
Havencrest City was much busier now—it was mid-morning in-game, and the plaza was crowded with players. Jin-woo navigated through the crowd to the quest board and approached the NPC quest officer.
"Ah, you've returned," the NPC said, his programmed dialogue triggering. "The Merchant Guild will be pleased to hear the goblin threat has been reduced. Here is your payment, as promised."
Quest Complete: Goblin Raiders Reward: 5 silver (500 copper), 200 Experience
The silver materialized in Jin-woo's inventory. His currency counter updated: 0 gold, 1,680 copper.
Sixteen silver and eighty copper. Sixteen dollars and eighty cents.
Jin-woo's next stop was a vendor. He found one near the plaza—an NPC merchant with a shop full of basic equipment. The shop sign read "Ironwood Trading Company" and the merchant was a portly man in expensive-looking clothes.
"Welcome, adventurer!" the merchant said cheerfully as Jin-woo entered. "Looking to buy or sell?"
"Sell," Jin-woo said.
He opened his inventory and selected all the damaged equipment, leather scraps, and junk items from the goblin grinding. The vendor's interface appeared, showing the total value:
Total Vendor Value: 154 copper
"I'll take the lot," the merchant said, and the items vanished from Jin-woo's inventory, replaced by copper coins.
His currency updated: 0 gold, 1,834 copper.
Eighteen silver and thirty-four copper. Over eighteen dollars.
Jin-woo stood in the merchant's shop, looking at that number. Yesterday at this time, he'd had ninety-four copper. Now he had eighteen silver. In less than twenty-four hours of actual playtime, he'd gone from less than a dollar to over eighteen dollars.
It still wasn't enough. At this rate—eight silver per four hours of grinding—he'd need to play for 154 hours to earn the 1,232 silver he needed for the loan. That was nearly 26 hours per day for thirty days, which was obviously impossible.
But he was level 4 now. Higher-level zones offered better rewards. The progression would accelerate. It had to.
Jin-woo checked his real-world phone through the VR interface. He'd been logged in for about 4.5 hours total, including the travel time. His headset battery showed 52% remaining—maybe three more hours of playtime before he'd need to break for recharging and rest.
He could do more goblin quests, but the same quest wouldn't be available again for 24 hours—that was how daily quests worked. He needed to find other jobs, other grinding spots, other ways to earn.