Initial Growth
Alisia was stunned as her Frostbolt spell was cut down by a sudden swing of Ryan's sword.
She rushed to cast mores spells but Ryan, despite losing around a fifth of his full speed, was just fast enough to close in on her, interrupting her spell casting and forcing her to take yet another step back. She had just succeeded in casting another Incinerate spell when Ryan's sword crashed down on top of her. Just before it landed however she found herself teleported out of the field.
"Ryan's the winner." Isabella calmly announced. Ryan seemed to pause for a bit before bending down on himself.
"Ah, that hurts. Shit, I hate it when that wears off." Rayn groaned and started coughing up blood.
"Aghh. That was so stressful, not to mention infuriating. Wait, why are you only feeling pain now? Wait no, are you alright?" Alisia questioned Ryan, feeling wronged.
"Yeah I'm fine, just need a trip to the infirmary. Actually, this is all because of one of my skills. I'm a fighter you see, and one of our skills is Berzerk, which increases our raw speed and damage for a short period of time. Thing is, it also stops us from feeling pain, but it doesn't prevent us from taking damage, so while I didn't feel it at the time, now that the skill wore off, your spell's really giving me some hell. Oww." Ryan winced before continuing. "Yeah I really need to go to the infirmary, but first my review. Let's see, if I were you I would have skipped the Lightning spell and went straight for Slowness and then whatever large-scale spell you were planning. Also, keep a better eye on your spell casting times. Stuff with larger, more complicated, or continuous effects tends to take longer which can be really helpful to your enemies, as it was in my case. It's best to cast those spells when your opponent won't be able to reach you for a while or when you have teammates to hold them for you while you cast, not in a one-on-one duel. Other than that you did fairly well for a beginner. Anyway, I've said enough and really need that nurse's help, so I'll finish there." Ryan said as he slowly made his way to the door. Alisia received a series of notifications and tutorials afterward.
[Character]
[Engraving: FlowerPotGirl12
[Identity: Alisia - Demon Female - Fox Clan
[Division: Scholar Lv 1 - 0/10 EXP -> Scholar Lv 2 - 0/20 EXP
[Position: Mysterious Unknown - Initiate Rk 1 0/50 CBP
[Vitality: 25/25 - Stability: 50/50 - Stamina: 15/15 - Epilloga: 30/30
[Condition: No Status Effects
[Attributes]
Strength: 5
Fortitude: 5
Dexterity: 9 -> 10
Perception: 12 -> 13
Spirituality: 10
Resonance: 1
Copper: 50
AP: 1
SP: 5
[Capabilities]
[Proficiencies: Grimoires Lv 1, Catalysts Lv 1, Scepters Lv 1, Cannons Lv 1, Firearms Lv 1, Arcane Magic Lv 1, Nature Magic lv 1, Occult Magic Lv 1
[Natural Skills: Concentration Lv 1
[Learned Skills: Incinerate Lv 1, Frostbolt Lv 1, Lightning Lv 1, Poison Field Lv 1, Slowness Lv 1, Spectral Wolf Lv 1, Magic Missile Lv 1
[Aquired Skills: (None)
[Equipment]
[Armour: Cloth Shirt, Linen Pants, Leather Boots
[Weapon: Novice Grimoire
...
Jacob blocked an ax with his shield, before stepping to the side as he raised his mace and brought it down on the bandit he was facing. After he felt the mace connect and pummel his opponent's skull, he stepped back as an arrow narrowly missed his head.
As he turned to look at the attacker he saw one of his recently acquired teammates, a Fighter named GodSLAYer1, strike down the archer with a shortsword. Almost immediately after a man wielding a dagger came up from behind him, only to get shot by Jacob's third teammate, a Hunter named ShadowLord7. Refocusing on the battle, Jacob raised his shield as a bandit rushed toward him and once again readied his mace. When the bandit was about to attack, Jacob unleashed his impact skill and struck at his left side, turning his torso into a battered pulp.
He then carefully stepped over the roots of a tree as he struggled to make out the remaining enemies amidst the faint sunlight peeking through the forest canopy. He saw a group of enemies begin to gather together and, so Jacob rushed over before unleashing another skill.
'Pound' was a powerful skill only available when using a mace or hammer, and he used 2 SP to acquire it. It had two effects depending on its use. If used on an enemy it was a stupidly high damage attack even more dangerous than impact, but also slower. Considering that the mace was a naturally slow and high damage weapon the first effect wasn't very useful. However, if the skill wasn't aimed at an enemy then the attack would hit the ground and shatter it, destabilizing the footing of nearby enemies and shortly stunning them, thus initiating the second effect.
Jacob was making use of the latter effect.
As the ground trembled and cracked between the force of the attack, the enemy group suddenly found their footing disturbed and needing to regain their balance. Using these few seconds, Jacob continued his assault and struck a few of them. As he did so, two of them were struck by ShadowLord7's arrows.
One was struck in the head and died, the other in the stomach and managed to live, but started bleeding severely from the wound, and was quickly finished off by GodSLAYer1, who then proceeded to strike at the other bandits.
One of the bandits meanwhile was able to position himself to Jacob's side and slashed at his left flank with a dagger, dealing 10 damage to Jacob. Jacob reacted immediately by ramming them with his mace, but his opponent toughed it out and struck at him again in the leg, this time dealing 12 damage. ShadowLord7 shot the bandit in the neck a few seconds after.
Jacob looked around a realized the last three enemies had started to flee, and quickly made chase. GodSLAYer1 reached them first and killed one of them by stabbing him in the back. ShadowLord7 managed another lethal shot on the second but missed the last one.
Jacob chased them while ShadowLord7 fired arrows at the bandit, but the distance was growing and Jacob couldn't keep up with his enemy's speed, while ShadowLord7 accuracy started falling more and more as the distance increased. Eventually, the bandit had run too far away and Jacob was forced to return to his teammates.
GodSLAYer1 was already looting the bandits for anything useful, while, ShadowLord was checking his status screen.
"How many did we kill," Jacob asked.
"15. 3 archers, 5 scouts, and 7 bruisers." GodSLAYer1 responded as he kept looting the corpses.
Jacob nodded and then opened his status screen like ShadowLord7.
It had now been several hours since Jacob finished the tutorial fight. After that event, Jacob wandered around and gathered two players, before heading to the gate and quickly exploring the Irntul Outpost. The Outpost didn't have much other than a few shops and a place to sleep, so they left and started exploring the much more exciting Eldrean Forest.
The forest was beautiful and extremely realistic. They ran into a few animals on the way and some small groups of bandits here and there, and just recently a large group. As a result of their excursion, they were all now level 5.
...
[Character]
[Engraving: EnderKnight0
[Identity: Jacob - Elven Male
[Division: Soldier Lv 2 - 0/20 EXP -> Lv 5 - 13/50 EXP
[Position: Mysterious Unknown - Initiate Rk 1 0/50 CBP
[Vitality: 31/65 - Stability: 35/35 - Stamina: 9/39 - Epilloga: 21/21
[Condition: No Status Effects
[Attributes]
Strength: 10 -> 12
Fortitude: 11 -> 13
Dexterity: 9 -> 11
Perception: 7
Spirituality: 7
Resonance: 1
Copper: 50 -> 235
AP: 0
SP: 3
[Capabilities]
[Proficiencies: Straight Blades Lv 1, Curved Blades Lv 1, Simple Polearms Lv 1, Brutal Polearms Lv 5, Quarterstaves Lv 1, Shields Lv 4, Dismantling Lv 1 (New)
[Natural Skills: Second Wind Lv 1 -> Lv 2, Impact Lv 1 -> Lv 4, Guard Lv 1 -> Lv 3, Taunt Lv 1 (New)
[Learned Skills: Pound Lv 3 (New), Rallying Cry Lv 1 (New)
[Aquired Skills: (None)
[Equipment]
[Armour: Cloth Shirt, Linen Pants, Leather Boots
[Weapon: Basic Mace, Basic Shield
[Character]
[Engraving: ShadowLord7
[Identity: Kevin - Elven Male
[Division: Hunter Lv 5 - 19/50 EXP
[Position: Mysterious Unknown - Initiate Rk 1 0/50 CBP
[Vitality: 43/50 - Stability: 30/30 - Stamina: 13/30 - Epilloga: 18/18
[Condition: No Status Effects
[Attributes]
[Strength: 11
[Fortitude: 10
[Dexterity: 14
[Perception: 8
[Spirituality: 6
[Resonance: 1
Copper: 173
AP: 0
SP: 2
[Capabilities]
[Proficiencies: Short Blades Lv 1, Crossbows Lv 1, Shortbows Lv 5, Longbows Lv 1, Throwables Lv 1, Dismantling Lv 2
[Natural Skills: Second Wind Lv 2, Sneak Lv 2, Focus Lv 6, Farsight Lv 1
[Learned Skills: Double Shot Lv 3, Piercing Shot Lv 1
[Aquired Skills: (None)
[Equipment]
[Armour: Cloth Shirt, Linen Pants, Leather Boots
[Weapon: Basic Shortbow, Basic Arrows x9, Basic Dagger
[Character]
[Engraving: GodSLAYer1
[Identity: Alfred - Human Male
[Division: Fighter Lv 5 - 9/50 EXP
[Position: Mysterious Unknown - Initiate Rk 1 0/50 CBP
[Vitality: 23/55 - Stability: 30/30 - Stamina: 11/33 - Epilloga: 18/18
[Condition: No Status Effects
[Attributes]
[Strength: 15
[Fortitude: 11
[Dexterity: 12
[Perception: 6
[Spirituality: 6
[Resonance: 1
Copper: 353
AP: 0
SP: 4
[Capabilities]
[Proficiencies: Straight Blades Lv 5, Curved Blades Lv 1, Elegant Polearms Lv 1, Quarterstaves Lv 1, Dismantling Lv 3
[Natural Skills: Second Wind Lv 2, Bezerk Lv 5, Rush Lv 3, Bloodlust Lv 1
[Learned Skills: Heavy Chop Lv 4
[Aquired Skills: (None)
[Equipment]
[Armour: Cloth Shirt, Linen Pants, Leather Boots
[Weapon: Basic Shortsword
...
Once GodSLAYer1 finished dismantling the bandits, he walked over to ShadowLord7 and handed him some spare arrows from the bandit archers. After that, he looked around and said, "What do you guys think we should do next?"
"I see we head back to that outpost and recover. Our Vitality and Energy is starting to get low and considering how the game makes us loot stuff ourselves, I wouldn't be surprised if we lost all, or at least part of our inventory when we die. I'd hate to lose all this stuff we got. Besides, we need a healer and scholar anyway." ShadowLord7 responded.
"Alright, everyone in agreement," Jacob called.
"Yup," GodSLAYer1 responded.
"Then let's go."
...
While Jacob's group was trekking through the forest and Alisia wandered around town, the siblings were discussing their plans in the studio in Aarons office.
"So far 37 of the 100 people we sent emails to have logged on. A few have started to party up and several groups have already begun exploring the Eldrean Forest. The Bandits are getting cleared out fast, especially the Qin Bandits. The animals have been a bit more elusive, and the warp foxes especially are practically untouched, though that is to be expected." Sylvia announced.
"Alright, so things are going better than we thought," Aaron concluded, then continued speaking. "Have any problems shown up?"
"Some players are disgusted by the fact they have to dismantle stuff themselves," Maria answered plainly.
"Huh, well it's not like we can do it for them, we don't have the resources to handle everything for them like that," Aaron muttered to himself before asking, "Will it have an effect on the size of our player base?"
"Probably, but I may have a solution. I'll need to do a bit of testing before we can try implementing though." Maria answered.
"Okay, anything else?" Aaron continued asking.
"Well, it seems you were right. We may need to change the way the gate works or find an alternative. It's still perfectly fine for now, but it's getting more stress than we expected at moment, so unless we make some kind of change it wouldn't be able to handle all the stress that's sure to come later."
"Alright, let's see what we can do."