Chapter 28: The Paladin’s Path
The Judgment skill was indispensable to any Paladin, regardless of their specialization. Without it, a Paladin simply wasn’t a Paladin.
Closing his quest log, Ryan applied a Crude Sharpening Stone to his weapon and headed toward the nearest quest marker. The task was straightforward: eliminate a few rogue beasts. He completed the objective quickly and followed the next prompt to a nearby farm.
This was it—the starting point of Goldmine Town’s main storyline.
Having completed the main questline several times in his previous life, Ryan knew exactly which quests mattered. He ignored the flood of side missions that popped up and moved on with purpose, navigating the area like a veteran.
Main quests, aside from their final step, were practically indistinguishable from side quests. New players often couldn’t tell the difference and would waste hours clearing every task available before stumbling into the real story progression. Ryan had no such problem. Even if he didn’t remember every quest by heart, his instincts—sharpened by countless hours in this game—were enough to sniff out which paths led forward. And if he ever picked the wrong one, correcting course would take him mere minutes.
The dozen or so farms surrounding Goldmine Town, plus the quests within the town itself, offered over a hundred missions—enough to push a player all the way to level 11. But Ryan didn’t need to go that far. Reaching level 10 and completing his class specialization quest would be enough to move on to the human capital city.
Stormhold Fortress—that was his destination. Players unlocked the banking system there. More importantly, Ryan needed to find out if his old public account bank had carried over into this life. If it had... then his level 90 Paladin’s legacy might still be intact.
The farm quests were numerous, but only around twenty of them were worth Ryan’s time. Over the next two hours, he moved from location to location, grinding through objectives with mechanical efficiency. By the time he wrapped up, no other players had caught up—most were still struggling through the first wave of farm quests behind him.
As he turned in his final task, a new quest popped up. It pointed him toward the most important location on the regional map: the Abandoned Mines.
This was more than just a storyline location—it was also the entrance to the class specialization dungeon.
At the entrance of the Abandoned Mines, Ryan encountered something new for the first time: elite monsters.