7 Tanking 101

After we fully recovered, Aegis motioned me to follow him and the two of us walked out of the guild hall to begin my training. As we exited the kingdom and entered the forest, I decided to ask him a couple of questions. The first one was about the frontiers. How many frontiers were there and how do we make advancements through them for humanity? Aegis told me that there were ten frontiers in total. Each one had a different climate or different topography compared to other ones. There's a frontier with a never ending blizzard, one with ravines that go down to the center of the planet, and even one with mountains that reach the planet's outer spheres. The first frontier, The forest of beginnings, was the easiest one. Monsters from level one to ten could be found here. The next frontier however, is called the scorching desert. It has monsters from level ten to twenty. Each subsequent zone follows this pattern.

"And what about advancing humanity? How do we do that?" I asked.

"Each frontier has a Demon General in it. Normally, the game would want any six people to find the demon general in each frontier and kill them, but once you enter combat with one, you can't escape no matter what. And to add onto that, the demon generals never have the same attack pattern. So to make it easier on everyone, Lucia handpicks an expedition squad to go into an unconquered frontier and conquer it. Just this morning she set off for the scorching desert."

I'm a little bummed out that I couldn't join her for that, but maybe I'll be able to for the next expedition.

Once we got deep into the forest, we started to see level five enemies a bit ways from the main road. I'm surprised that Aegis brought me this far since I'm only level three. He must've heard about Potenshia.

"Okay so the goal of a tank is to be the shield. You have to be an impenetrable shield between the enemy and the rest of your team. By level three, you are given essential tools that help you in your mission to do so. You are given a stun skill, an aggro skill, and an aoe skill. Depending on your class, you'll get these things in a different order. Look at your hot bar and tell me what your skills are."

"Hot bar? Aggro? Aoe? What are you even talking about?"

"We really have to start that far back?" Aegis facepalmed.

The paladin then explained the terms he was using to me. A hotbar is the small line of boxes at the bottom of my vision that allows me to use skills. Aggro is short for "aggression." If someone is given a skill based on aggro, it'll mostly be used to get the attention of one or more enemies. Lastly, aoe. Aoe is short for "area of effect." It's an attack that hits multiple enemies at once. For tanks, it could be used to instantly aggro multiple enemies onto you.

"Now that you know the LITERAL bare bone basics, let's try this again: What skills do you have? If you want to know the details of a skill, focus your eyes on a specific skill and a window explaining it should pop up."

As I looked at my hotbar, I noticed that there wasn't just one skill, but two more. The first one was the one I have been using, diverging claw. It's an area of effect skill that does damage to the enemy and also knocks them back. I specifically remember using this one against the wolves.

The second had a picture of someone yelling. This skill was called "undead's beckon." It immediately makes whoever is in a cone in front of me aggro towards me. It doesn't do any damage, but it's good for shifting the enemy's attention to me.

Then there's the third skill "vital puncture." This skill stuns a single enemy for 3 seconds. It does damage, but barely any. Now that I look at it, it does even less damage than the other two abilities.

After I read them out to Aegis, he asked me to use the abilities on him. Normally, I would hold back a bit, but I noticed while we were fighting that he's way more leveled than me. He's level 12!

I used diverging claw and knocked him back a couple of steps. He then began to congratulate me.

"Good job. Also as a quick note, tanks don't get affected by knockback. Now try using undead's beckon on me. An easy way to use skills is to just shout the name of the skill out. However, if you've got a good handle on activating skills, you could pretty much saw anything. I'll turn around so get ready to use it."

As he turned around, I thought about how I was gonna use the skill. Obviously, I could just say the skill's name, but I wanted to go above and beyond that on my first try. When it came to using diverging claw, it was all about me simply having full confidence in the ability...I think.

I could see Aegis tapping his foot out of impatience. I get it already! I'm going now!

I cleared my throat and put one of my feet backwards. I did a heavy inhale and screamed at the top of my lungs "LOOK AT ME!"

...

The hell?! Why didn't he turn around?!

"You know you could've just used the skill the easy way and saved us both from wasting our time." He snapped at me.

"You know for a guy that has a whole shtick about being the 'gentlemen,' you sure as hell don't act like it."

"My bad."

I readied myself once again to shout and screamed as loud as I could "UNDEAD'S BECKON!"

A small strike of blue lighting went across Aegis's head. It must've not done anything to him though since all he did was casually turn around to face me.

"As you can see, It's not really strong when your enemy is expecting it at any moment. But in the heat of battle, you can save people's lives. Now try vital-"

"VITAL PUNCTURE!" I yelled as my nails grew to be as long and as sharp as a knife.

All I have to do is cut him with this glowing finger and he'll be stunned!

As I swung at him, he dodged it and began walking past me.

"You're having a little too much fun with this, so I assume you got everything down. Let's do a quick training exercise: I'll wander around the forest, you protect me from any monsters that aggro to me. If I get below 95% HP, you're not tanking as well. Got it?"

"Seems easy enough..." I responded.

I understand why he's doing this. He wants to make sure I can protect people. Even if they're doing crazy things. He did say that that was a purpose to tanking, after all.

The problem is...he wasn't just "wandering" around the forest. He was doing an entire hundred yard dash! First, it started off as a simple stroll, then he picked up the speed minute after minute. Slimes, wolves, goblins, the whole nine yards. It was as if the entire damn frontier was after him!

Once he was corned by a huge stone, he turned around and said with a monotone voice "Save meeeeee..."

Regardless, I did what I had to. I dashed in between him and the monsters that had him cornered. I sliced and diced through the advancing monsters with little to no effort. Blood and the crystals of the defeated spreading through the air. I'm certain that I even leveled to five during my onslaught.

"HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!" Aegis was right. I AM enjoying this!

As I took down the last monster, I look over to Aegis to find that his HP was at about 75%. He walked over to a nearby stone, sat down, and let out a heavy sigh.

"What do you think comes first: having fun, or winning a fight?"

"Having fun, of course. Why else would I be here?"

"That's the problem. You're hedonistic. You only find enjoyment in seeing whatever desires you have fulfilled. In those rushes of pure adrenaline, you only think of yourself. You're selfish, and that's why you'll never amount to being a high-tier tank."

What the hell?! What's wrong with being selfish? Isn't that how people are? What he's asking for is something completely inhuman. But then again, I began to remember my march into the forest. I had no regard for anyone else. Faye is proof of that. Regardless...

"If all tanks were completely selfless, the mortality rate would be extremely high-"

"The mortality rate IS extremely high. As a tank, you're the difference between an easy fight, and absolute hell for your party. There's no way you're protecting anybody with that mindset. You're a maelstrom of chaos."

I was speechless. Of COURSE I'm a maelstrom of chaos. That's my playstyle and my class was a perfect match for that. But there's obviously something I'm missing if I can't even protect Aegis for a couple of hours. It's like I understood the DPS part of my build, but not the tank build. Should I just completely follow his advice and become selfless?

As I was pondering how to master my class, Aegis began thinking out loud "Why would Lucia even give me a Bloodfallen to train? I can't even practice with you as efficiently. She knows that my shield got-"

Aegis stopped mid sentence. It was as if a lightbulb went off inside his head and he figured out the final piece to a puzzle. He rose from the stone he was sitting at, dusted off his suit, and looked at me.

"I see the gears turning in your head. You want a trial by fire?"