6 Chapter 6: The Public
The public had now had access to the game for four months.
Consequently, the game store had been opened up allowing Hanzo to take full advantage of his wealth. He had already dedicated many nights to sitting in the gacha and testing his luck.
As scummy as he felt, he could not deny the joy and addiction of testing his luck night after night with basically no backlash.
As most of the items had no risk of being dropped upon his death, Hanzo continued to use it.
Following this, another big change had happened since a huge influx of players had started playing. That was Guilds. Although there was a few guilds during the early access, there had been a huge growth in guilds and many guilds gaining hundreds of members.
Since he had hit a plateau in his solo farming, Hanzo decided now was a time to join up with a guild. He had been observing the behaviours of the guild for a while and noticed that all of the top 5 guilds had a taxation system on their members at the moment. While this was not an issue for an experienced player like Hanzo, it made him slightly anxious about the future.
Nevertheless, he invested and joined a guild. The guild he joined had many members and was actually counted as one of the top 4 Guilds in Yggdrasil called Ultimate Aegis. It had a taxation system on its new members however, with this, Hanzo would be able to meet players who were similar level to himself and complete harder dungeons.
At the moment, there is very little discrimination against races. Therefore, Hanzo was not adverse to grouping up with different races at the moment. Of course, he tries to associate more with Heteromorphic players than he does the other two races.
In fact, Hanzo and a few parties of his guild had actually started to conquer the high level dungeons located around each of the worlds. Of course with his resources and skills, Hanzo had quickly become a permanent part of the main raiding team.
This gave him conflicting feelings as he was able to farm for better gear and level up his classes faster, on the other hand, he was putting in the majority of the work despite still paying a large tax to the guild.
Currently, Hanzo was sat in a guild room alongside a couple of other people. These were fellow members of his party who had just come back from a raid alongside him.
Despite being in a party with them, Hanzo had taken it upon himself to not get too close with them. After all, he knew that if he did, he may grow too attached. This was his way of trying to remain focused on his goal.
"Hey Zelphyr, are you gonna be joining it?"
Hanzo turned his head to the Vampire sat across from him.
"You mean the World event?"
The vampire nodded at Hanzo, exasperated that his teammate was not paying attention.
"Obviously dude, the guild master invited our party, so I was seeing if you're all up for it"
As the players progressed through the main campaign, World events would become available. These were World Bosses that were said to be capable of causing the destruction of the 9 Worlds. The World Boss mentioned by the Vampire was the 'Devourer of the Nine Worlds', the last boss of the campaign.
Due to them approaching this boss fight, the guild leader had started to form the raid parties.
"There's no way I am missing it, I pay for this type of stuff after all"
So far, Hanzo had been in a leading role of each World Boss subjugation, thus he fully intended to take advantage of this.
"Good, good we're all up to it. Oh right! Did you guys see the latest news?"
A female voice spoke, it's owner being a Dullahan clad in Black armor.
Hanzo nodded his head at the Dullahans words, he knew the exact news she was about to bring up.
"I can't believe that the World Champion Tournament is being held at the end of this year too! So many events already!"
This piece of news was something that attracted Hanzo attention much more than the World Boss battle. After all, it will be one of the only chances to obtain the World Champion class without purposefully hunting them off of other players.
"Are you all signing up?"
The vampire questioned everyone, receiving 3 nods in reply.
"Yeah I am going to try Midgard, what are you thinking Hanzo?"
A black Ooze questioned Hanzo this time. Slightly annoyed at the constant question, a sigh escaped from his lips.
"Helheim obviously, it's the only World I really frequent outside of farming specific materials and weapons"
Hanzo had acquired a few more job and racial classes within the past few months of non-stop grinding. He was very satisfied with the current growth of his Zelphyr.
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Zelphyr
Racial Class:
-Dragonoid Lv.15
-Dragonkin Lv.10
-Draconic Caster Lv.8
-Dragon Imperator Lv.1
Job Class:
-Knight Lv.13
-Magic Knight Lv.8
-Dragon Sorcerer Lv.12
-True Elemental Sorcerer Lv.5
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His Classes were looking a lot more powerful than when he was an ordinary Dragonoid Knight. As a result of his base Racial Class, Hanzo was able to improve both Magic and Attack. Of course there were drawbacks in the fact that he could not learn any healing spells much like an Undead, and he could not use any spells that inflicted a negative status effect only on an enemy. Thus, he had to rely on directly attacking with magic to inflict a negative effect such as burn.
Overall, he was pleased with his build, but the most fascinating Class was the Dragon Imperator Class. The conditions for this Class was to be the first Heteromorphic Race to beat a World Boss and land the final hit. If they achieved this, they would get a unique Racial Class dependent on their base class.
While it had useful effects and was very powerful, it had a single setback. That setback mean't that if he lost to a fellow Dragonoid player, he would lose his Class and some levels from all of his Dragon related classes much like the World Champion class but worse.
Thus, Hanzo has kept his status and build a secret, like many others mainly due to this and the World Tournament coming up. he knew some people like Momonga researched their opponents in the league before they battled so that they can make counters, even Hanzo had started to collect some research on certified participants of Helheim.
As he sat in silence, ignoring the party members around him laughing and joking, Hanzo resolved himself to prepare for next months World Boss battle.
A month later, Hanzo was currently in battle with the World Boss. He seemed to be the only Dragonoid within the raid group meaning he was once again used as a frontliner. His Magic Knight class was rated highly as he attacked the World Boss.
The battle so far had been ruthless, many had died or gotten downed, with only Hanzo remaining standing due to his high defensive capabilities and defense skills. Out of the 60 members who had started at the expedition, there was currently 39 left fighting against the World Boss.
He lept backwards as a torrent of black flames blasted onto the area he once stood. The flames grew wildly and infected roughly a meter around the spot.
As per his role, Hanzo had maintained the aggro for most of the fight, causing the AI of the World Boss to mark him as an immediate threat.
Not giving him any time to recover, the dragon used it's front claws to slam onto the ground causing Hanzos footing to become unstable. He slightly staggered as he triggered a skill he had kept on reserve.
Hanzos form started to change, his hair grew longer and darker, whilst his nails and teeth sharpened. The cheeks and forehead of his face scaled over with a darker grey scale than usual. Finally, his pupils enlarged causing his glare to become more menacing.
This was Hanzos 'Draconic Form' ability. It was gained after levelling the Dragonkin class, causing his appearance to change and his stats to become temporarily boosted. The biggest weakness of this form however, was that it became severely weak to dragon-slaying elements and would have it's stats halved if it gets hit by a weapon with it.
As the claw came crashing down, Hanzo activated 'Scale Mail' and used his weapon as a shield bracing himself for the impact.
The claw collided with him, the ground indented like a comet had struck the land. Yet, Hanzo stood tall. His health had taken a good amount of damage but he shrugged it off and mounted a counter attack.
"Commanding Call!"
He activated another ability during his charge, raising the attack of the user significantly preparing for a final charge.
His sped past all of his allies as they pelted spells and ranged weapons from the safety of the tanks in the middle, his sword dragging behind him slicing the air.
Leaping up high, Hanzo raised his sword up high and activated his final skill.
"Serpent Slice!"
The sword glowed a crimson red, as he came crashing down colliding against the dragons shoulder. Shock waves propelled from the impact of the two objects, Hanzo felt his character being pushed back, yet he gripped harder.
The Devourer of the Nine Worlds violently thrashed as it cried in pain, eventually it's strength depleted and it dropped to the ground, causing another set of shock waves to knock over some of the more fragile magic casters at the back.
Hanzo fell down at the same time, making no effort to soften his fall. Despite his body not feeling fatigue, his mind was screaming for rest. Suddenly, he felt his avatar weaken as the effect of his Draconic form fade. It was a skill that could not be used outside of battle after all, however the debuff effects were still felt as he watched his defense stat drop by 35%.
In the distance, he heard the loud celebrations of his guild mates as the congratulated each other. Strangely though, not one spoke to Hanzo. He frowned slightly when he heard the Guild master thank everyone personally, yet he seemed to completely bypass him.
Rolling his eyes, Hanzo stood up and approached the group as he started inspecting his Status.
From what he could tell, some of his Classes had levelled up as well as gaining a new one.
He inspected it closer a immediately noticed he had gained a Racial Class. Without hesitation, he looked deeper into it and ignored the long speech his Guild Master seemed to be spouting.
Draconian Devourer
-A split path evolution available, would you like to choose Magical or Physical?
He was prompted by his game to choose between the two and it seemed he could not postpone it as it refused to close the notice.
After a minute of deep thought, he decided to go with Magical since his Physical abilities were already strong and had a lot more potential.
Suddenly, the screen closed and the Status showed a new Class, named Devoured Sorcerer.
Putting off the inspecting it first, Hanzo once again tried to find out more details about the Draconian Devourer.
Luckily, this time it worked
Racial Class
Draconian Devourer
Conditions:
-Held by the Dragonoid user who got the final hit on the Devourer of Nine Worlds World Boss.
-User did not die throughout the Devourer of Nine Worlds World Event
-Must possess a High Class Dragonoid Racial Skill maxed out
Perks:
-Unlocks Job Class of choice
Hanzo was overwhelmed by these conditions. Despite sounding pretty basic, when put in practice it was horrendous considering this was a previously unknown Racial Class meaning it's conditions were unknown. As a result, it was mind-blowing that Hanzo had somehow managed to coincidentally line up all of the conditions in time for the encounter.
Shaking his head slightly, Hanzo zoned back into his surroundings, alas his Guild Master was still talking thus he returned to his next curiosity point.
Just like before, he inspected his new Job Class.
Job Class
Devoured Sorcerer (5 Slots Available)
Conditions:
-Must select Magical
Perks:
-Feeding Frenzy Spell: Usage of this spell during a fight with a dragon will seal a segment of an enemy dragons essence in a Supreme Data Crystal, if in inventory. Once filled, this will allow the user to gain usage of that Dragons element. Enemy Dragon must be killed.
Cons:
-Should the user die whilst collecting the essence, it will seal a slot, forever locking the user out of getting an element in that slot.
Sweat dripped down Hanzos forehead as he thought about the consequences of this class. Not only would it allow him to gain magical prowess over useful elements outside the ones his Classes allowed, it also mean't that he would have to not die during any encounter he had used the spell else he had wasted levels into a useless class.
He took a deep breath and calmed himself. As he did, he noticed that his guild master had just stopped speaking.
"Hey Zelphyr, you got the last hit right?"
His party member the vampire asked, looking at the corpse of the Dragon.
"Yeah, that's why it hasn't despawned yet."
Yggdrasil had a system where the person with the final hit would get the majority of the experience, thus in order to ensure that, the developers made it so that the player who got the hit had to be within a meter distance of the corpse in order to redeem the loot.
Therefore, with the urging of his guild mates and the unpleasant frown of the guild master, Hanzo redeemed the experience and waited for the loot to be distributed.
