And so, Flynn settled into a steady, almost monastic routine within the Starter Zone. During the day, he headed into the surrounding mountains where ore veins periodically emerged, his pickaxe rising and falling in a dull, relentless rhythm. At night, he returned to the village and worked on his Engineering in a quiet corner outside the blacksmith's forge.
The blacksmith himself, a stubborn traditionalist to the core, had flatly refused to let Flynn work inside. In his eyes, anyone who had chosen the noble path of Blacksmithing had no business "defiling" the forge with Engineering, which he regarded as little more than crude trickery and a disgrace to a promising career.
As expected for a starter area, the mountains were dominated by common iron veins. On rare occasions, a copper vein would spawn, and the moment it did, miners would swarm it like ants, packing in so tightly it became difficult to even see the rock beneath them. To make gathering more accessible, each ore vein had several optimal nodes where ore was guaranteed to drop. You could mine elsewhere along the vein, but the yield dropped sharply. Even on a rich vein, the success rate was under fifty percent. On a poor one, you were lucky to get a single piece of ore after ten swings.
Mining itself was far from a single, satisfying strike. Each attempt triggered a progress bar that lasted roughly five seconds. Certain rare pickaxes could reduce this time, but in the Starter Zone, everyone used the same basic tools. During those five seconds, you could swing the pickaxe three times at most, and all of that counted as one attempt. Compared to combat, leveling professions was slower, duller, and far more draining on patience.
Amy's days weren't much easier. She had chosen Leatherworking and Alchemy, which meant spending most of her time roaming the areas around the mines. There, she hunted wolves for their pelts while keeping an eye out for herbs. Herbs, unlike ore, had no fixed spawn points. They grew sporadically and never clustered together, forcing her to scour wide areas. After just two days, she was already venting her frustration, blaming Let-There-Be-Light for saddling her with such a thankless combination.
Trying to level two professions at once was brutal. Flynn would eventually hit a point where the ore he mined simply couldn't keep up with the demands of both Blacksmithing and Engineering. Amy faced the opposite problem. Skinning and herb gathering consumed enormous amounts of time. For someone determined to become a top-tier Ranger, it was a terrible compromise. Every hour spent on life skills was an hour not spent leveling, and the gap would only widen over time.
After several pointless complaints to Let-There-Be-Light, Amy had no choice but to accept reality. She stayed in the Starter Zone and resigned herself to grinding her professions.
Three days passed almost unnoticed.
That afternoon, after finishing a round of herb gathering, Amy returned to the mining area and spotted Flynn, his shirt damp with sweat, methodically swinging his pickaxe. "Hey, Night-Stalker," she called out. "Let's go level."
Every day, from afternoon until evening, Flynn spent roughly three hours grinding experience. At first, Amy hadn't paid it much attention. But the moment she joined him for a session, she was stunned by their efficiency. In just three hours, both of them gained a level and a half. When Let-There-Be-Light heard about it later, he fell into a deep, wordless depression. Their leveling speed was more than twice that of his own team.
As teleportation arrays opened across the various starter zones, most players left the moment they reached level ten. The major cities promised better gear, stronger monsters, and greater opportunities. But once players arrived, reality hit hard.
Players from all over the world were being funneled into just thirty-three major cities. Even with some spillover into smaller towns, the density was overwhelming. Factions and cliques formed almost immediately. Back when servers were divided by country, guild rivalries had already been fierce. Now, with everyone thrown together, the chaos intensified. Players from hostile real-world nations often came to blows after exchanging only a few words. PvP, kill-stealing, and massive brawls became everyday occurrences. Even in relatively stable cities, leveling areas were so crowded that steady progression was nearly impossible.
The Starter Zones, by contrast, felt like another world entirely. With most players gone, only a handful of higher-level characters remained. While there were still people grinding in the level ten-plus areas, competition for monsters was almost nonexistent. Everyone could claim their own spot and farm in peace. The suffocating pressure of the cities was gone. People moved casually, even greeting each other as they passed.
Just a few hours earlier, in Flynn's Starter Zone, players in the Murloc Cave had even organized a group and taken down the cave's true boss. This wasn't the familiar mini-boss Gulu, but the level fifteen Murloc deep within the cave, a monster far stronger than Borg the Silver-Fang on Wolf Mount.
Amy, utterly bored with skinning wolves and picking herbs, wanted to level with Flynn. But he shook his head and refused. "Not today. I learned a new Engineering recipe yesterday. It's pretty interesting. I want to try it after I gather enough materials."
"A new recipe?" she asked immediately. "What is it?"
"A mechanical doll. It can't move, but it can attract a monster's aggro."
"A mechanical doll?" Amy's interest spiked. "What quality is the recipe?" She wasn't a novice like Flynn. The moment she heard the description, she recognized its potential. Anything that manipulated aggro was invaluable for preventing Over-Threat. "Link it to me."
"It's green," Flynn said quietly, then shared the schematic. Crafted items followed the same quality tiers as equipment: Common, Bronze, Silver, Gold, and above even that, the nearly mythical Divine Grade.
Amy read through the details, a flicker of disappointment passing through her eyes.
Mechanical Doll (Bronze Quality):
Deploys a mechanical doll that taunts nearby creatures (excluding players). Lasts five seconds or until destroyed. Can only be used out of combat.
The final restriction killed most of its appeal. Being limited to out-of-combat use meant it couldn't function like a Warrior's Taunt in the middle of a fight. It was useless for saving squishy classes when they pulled aggro. At best, it could be used to pull monsters or reduce the initial pressure when soloing groups.
"It's… alright," Amy said after a moment. "Make a few first. I'll buy ten to start. If my brother wants more later, I'll get them from you."
After several days together, the two had grown familiar. Amy was quiet with strangers, but open with friends, and she had already told Flynn that Let-There-Be-Light was her older brother.
Flynn nodded. "Sure. But it needs a bunch of small parts. I'll have to craft those first, so it won't be ready until tomorrow."
"You haven't made the parts yet?" Amy asked, surprised. Even without studying Engineering, she knew that early engineers crafted parts to raise skill levels, which were then reused in finished items.
Flynn grinned. "I did. But Edward said he needed them, and I didn't see any use for them, so I gave them all to him." Edward was the Engineering trainer, an elderly man whose glasses were thick enough to distort his eyes.
Amy stared at him, then rolled her eyes. "You're hopeless. Those parts are essential for—wait. Where did you get this recipe?"
"He said the parts I gave him helped him finish developing the mechanical doll," Flynn replied, smiling faintly. "So he taught me the recipe. And he said I'm the only one who has it for now. Anyone else will have to wait at least ten days."
That made sense. In Age of Conquest, crafters were protected. When a player unlocked a recipe through a quest, the NPC wouldn't immediately teach it to others, giving the original player time to profit. Only independent research by another NPC could bypass that delay.
"Yeah, yeah, great," Amy muttered, already distracted. While the doll itself wasn't impressive, the way Flynn obtained the recipe sparked an idea. If she gave semi-finished powders to the Alchemy trainer, could he develop a new potion?
The thought energized her. "I need to head back to the village," she said quickly. "Take your time with the dolls."
"You're not leveling?" Flynn asked, surprised as she turned to leave. She was normally obsessed with grinding.
"It's nothing," Amy replied. "I'll tell you later if it works."
Flynn didn't press her. He stayed behind, mining until night fell. Once he judged he had enough ore for roughly ten mechanical dolls, he packed up his tools and headed back to the village.