After putting all of his stat points into Speed, Rowan felt a strange lightness in his body, like someone had lifted a heavy burden from his limbs. The air seemed easier to move through, and his steps felt a little quicker, though it wasn't like he was suddenly breaking the sound barrier. Still, for someone who just minutes ago was struggling to swing a rusted sword, it was a welcome change.
He glanced back at the collapsed body of the Blinker, its pale, eyeless face lying lifeless on the soft forest grass. Despite being known as one of the easiest creatures to defeat in the game—something that even a Level 1 player could handle without breaking a sweat—Rowan had barely managed to scrape by. The reality was, no matter what difficulty rating a monster held in-game, it meant very little when you were an average human thrown into a world of magic, monsters, and endless skill trees.
Bending down, Rowan hesitated before looting the corpse, not out of fear but because the idea of touching the Blinker still made his stomach churn. The system automatically pinged a notification as the drop items appeared before him: two pieces of Blinker Meat, glistening with a gooey slime that made Rowan immediately grimace, and three jagged Blinker Fangs, which at least looked somewhat useful.
"Ugh... I don't even want to imagine how that meat tastes," Rowan muttered to himself with visible disgust, choosing to leave the meat untouched and instead swiping the fangs into his inventory with a cautious finger.
"Chat, I need seven Blinker Fangs for the Blinker Dagger, right?" he asked, squinting toward the air as if expecting an answer to be etched into the clouds.
[Doibe: You also need a wooden handle and a Gold Gem.]
"Oh yeah, that's right. Wait, how much gold do I have again?" Rowan questioned, before raising his voice clearly to say, "Inventory."
As the familiar digital grid of his inventory screen materialized in front of him—thankfully, this part still worked like the game—he scanned through the contents. The Rusted Sword was still there, alongside a Random Branch he had picked up earlier out of panic, and of course, the Blinker Fangs now resting in his possession. In the top-left corner of the interface, the amount of gold he held was displayed clearly: 25 Gold, made up of the 5 gold he had looted from the Blinker and the 20 he had been granted upon spawning into the world.
"I guess we should head to Zedi Village first and go to the Adventurers Guild," Rowan reasoned aloud, taking a deep breath as if preparing himself for a long journey ahead.
[SpeedSilver: Wait, I just realized... why didn't Lovion give the 'Go to the Village Adventurers Guild' quest?]
Rowan blinked in surprise, suddenly aware that he hadn't actually been handed any introductory quest—something that most players usually received right after their first combat.
"Oh yeah, that quest…" he murmured, frowning with uncertainty. "Why didn't I get it?"
[George: Didn't the main character of Eon get that quest because he was handsome and Lovion's gay ass wanted to see him again???]
[Fearless: Ohhhh! Rowan was too ugly to be given a quest? LOL]
"Hey! I'm good-looking, you know!" Rowan protested, holding up his hands as if that would somehow prove his claim to his chat.
[Goli: Yea... idk Dabo, I mean Rowan.]
[Folest: In an angle... I can kind of see how.]
'That's good enough for me, Folest,' Rowan thought silently, offering a sheepish grin as if someone could actually see it.
In comparison, Eon the 1st, the protagonist of the original game, was a paragon of beauty, a man so classically handsome he could receive free armor just by smiling at NPCs. As the community often joked, he was "seven slaps hotter than Yoo Jonghyuk." Most of his in-game achievements were made either through intense grinding or simply because people were so mesmerized by his face that they handed him items unprompted.
"I need that quest in order to progress, right?! What do I doooo!!!" Rowan whined, pacing back and forth with growing anxiety.
[SYSTEM]
"Huh…?" Rowan froze mid-step.
[YOU DO NOT NEED TO PROGRESS THE MAIN STORYLINE IN ORDER TO GAIN THE 62ND ENDING. YOU WILL ONLY NEED TO DEFEAT THE CORE GOLEM.]
"The Core Golem? Isn't that the one you need to kill to unlock the third ending?" Rowan asked, narrowing his eyes.
[Hokeli: Oh? It's that easy??]
[Warden: Well... he is just a normal human, I doubt he can kill the Core Golem easily.]
[Avoma: It'll be hard.....]
"I guess I'll just grind," Rowan said in a determined tone. "Should my build be speed-magic?" he then followed up, before freezing. "Oh, shit—I already spent my stat points on speed. Should've used some on intelligence instead."
[Frostie: Oh, by the way, don't forget to use your skill point.]
"Oh right! I leveled up, so I should have one SP," Rowan realized, slapping his forehead. Trying to remember how to access it, he then said, "Skill Tree."
Immediately, a massive constellation of interconnected nodes unfolded before him, each glowing with potential. It was overwhelming—almost maddening. The sheer size of it reminded him of just how deep this world could go. The skill tree in Eon was infamous for being the largest in gaming history, with over 1.2 million unique buttons and combinations. It wasn't just a tree—it was an entire ecosystem of possibility.
Classes weren't something you picked at the beginning. Instead, they were something that emerged naturally as you evolved down specific skill branches. The tree didn't just determine your skills—it shaped your identity. Each path was unique, and countless combinations could lead to over 1.728 quintillion potential "classes."
"Since I'm terrified of being hit, I should go for a magic build, right? So I can keep my distance," Rowan suggested, even though it was already clear he had made up his mind. He hesitated, waiting for his chat's affirmation.
[Hoki: I want you to live, so yeah.]
[Wembuu: Fly.]
Most of the chat supported his decision, though a few stragglers argued for other paths, either out of mischief or genuine belief in their alternative strategies. The beauty of Eon was that it had no universal meta—only endless choices.
"All right..." Rowan said, taking a breath.
He scrolled through the tree, eyes darting across countless icons until he found it: [Celestial Body].
The moment he hovered over it, he could tell it was different. It wasn't a damage-focused class, but one known for its extraordinary reach—a perfect match for someone like him who didn't want to get close to danger. Community-tier rankings often placed [Celestial Body] high in terms of utility and range, with wide area-of-effect attacks that could be devastating in the right hands.
He clicked on it. The once gray button flashed with color, and five new branches unfolded before him like petals blooming in the night.
There were five distinct paths stemming from [Celestial Body], each unique and disconnected from the others:
Moonlit
Sunlit
Comet
Gaia
Coreless
Four of the branches specialized in large-range magic and sweeping damage, but the fifth, Coreless, was a rare magic-infused melee type for riskier playstyles.
After a moment of thought, Rowan selected Comet, and immediately gained a passive ability called Superior, which increased the effectiveness of passive effects on any staff he wielded by 15%. More importantly, he received his first active skill: Long Coming, a spell that summoned a single, blazing comet from the sky that crashed into a targeted enemy.
Due to Rowan's complete neglect of intelligence in favor of speed, the damage from the spell ranged from only 12 to 23, enough to annihilate weak enemies like Blinkers, but barely a dent against tougher foes. Worse, it had a 20-second cooldown, meaning it wasn't something he could spam in battle.
[Minutetech: Finally someone who used [Celestial Body].]
[Manepare: It does have long range, so it's good for him I guess.]
"Once I level up again, I might put my points into Intelligence… maybe even Durability," Rowan said aloud, already regretting his earlier decision.
[Frien: I hate magic.]
[Hollow: Skill issue, lmao.]
[Jokal: You should go to Zedi Village now, right?]
"Oh yeah, yeah, for sure!" Rowan said, snapping back to focus. He opened the map—but what stared back at him wasn't a helpful marker or directional arrow. Instead, it was a static piece of parchment, far more complicated than any digital UI he was used to. He quickly realized something dreadful.
Unlike the game, there were no helpful arrows or blinking indicators. He had no idea where south was.
Hiding his confusion behind a mask of confidence, Rowan picked a random direction and began walking, his strides filled with artificial assurance.
[Holando: Yo, wrong direction my guy.]
[Jokal: It's in the south, dude.]
[Vola: It's in the top left of the map—it says south.]
Realizing he couldn't fake it anymore, Rowan awkwardly opened the map again, pretending to examine it carefully, squinting at the compass rose like it would start talking to him. After several long, awkward seconds, he sighed in defeat.
"Chat... I–I don't know where south is..." he admitted, shoulders slumping.
[Kailon: There's a compass when you open your inventory though.]
"..."
[The whole chat: Oh.]