Chapter 63 - Obligatory quest

It should be remembered that most of newcomer players had entered the VR game 'Escape' only to earn money. (The Marvel and power of promotions can never be underestimated.) So the new update from game that players could pay subscription fees in parts and could choose between coins or credits, these people turned happy. To earn money, they would willing come down to level 1, so when the guilds offered them money to learn about new maps or dungeons, they happily did that and died.

So within few hours, there was a severe disparity in levels between guild players and independent ones.

By the time, Saachi finished his classes and rushed home for afternoon session, his phone was filled with latest updates and articles and conjecture. The forums were now like a market with guild leaders as buyers and independent players as stock who were willing to sell themselves. More than 100 dungeons were cleared and people now no longer had the reverence for dungeon clearance. These announcements were made over their gaming avatar's deaths. Poor Royo, his advertising mercenary team work was no longer lucrative enough.

As Saachi was alone, he decided to search for dungeons in other areas marked in the map given as quest aid. He would not enter the dungeon alone, that would be foolishness in its extreme.

He could clear the monsters around the dungeon and see the route to be taken. The degree of danger was no longer simple. By level 4 , level 5, the monster maps were mixed and left , so it was not impossible to have level 6 or level 8 monsters on the way to kill level 5 monsters. And thanks to demonified energy leaking from dungeons, the monsters slowly started mutating and the attack range, pattern, skills , all changed.

He was feeling good, thanks to his recent level up and better weapons. He had added few points to agility this time. As a mage, he need not go near monster and now thanks to high agility, he could run away from monsters even when he could not kill them.

And the single afternoon session showed him that the thought process was right one. The mutated monsters had different aggro range, thus he got caught multiple times. It was only thanks to high agility that he could run far and fast enough to reach beyond their range.

When he came back, he could see the effects of the contracts directly near the village. The novice monster maps had more players. The ingredients from those maps was way cheaper than before.

The guilds were now marking their areas in higher level maps. Useless work, though. Not many independent players were in higher levels to grind in those maps. But... prestige! It can't be explained, easily attained yet far too easily tarnished and lost.

These maps..were for postering with other groups and guilds. The groups or guilds with more members showed their collective strength and started hogging level charts, dungeon charts. Their true experts were grinding out in maps, fighting and killing monsters higher than their levels, gaining more EXP, thus leaving behind their own elite members.

The skirmishes between makeshift groups and bullying groups, though, kept on escalating everywhere. If there was no true leader, then that village would be facing fights between groups. The passion had escalated after updating dungeon clear lists and ranking lists.

Though not an elite or an expert, Saachi was following their steps unknowingly. Though he did not have support of a club or a guild, he was walking the path of select few. As he was resting to replenish HP and MP ( he was still stingy fellow counting cost of each potion by its market rate and using them as last resort), he found the special NPC, the spirit bearer. He and his fellow people in various settlements were having big problem due to demonification by dungeons. These NPCs were too strong, stronger than village NPCs but their strength was tied to their environment, their lands and now it was getting polluted.

Another quest, yay!

Actually it was 2 part quest. 1st one - somehow temporarily halt or delay the effects. 2nd one- same as the one given by village chief, eliminate the problem from the source, the same as village chief quest but quest item was different.

But before all that, obligatory quest to prove the strength.

This time it was tricky. The NPC wanted Saachi to kill only mutated monsters, not others. The curved horned goats were considered special, a vehicle of their God, thus any death of those monster Goats, NPCs would suffer more.

Saachi was transported to hazy and crazy goat yard. These goats were literally hazy and crazy. Must be the grass. Better collect them now. This greed for new type of ingredient pulled aggro of all the nearby goat.

Though these goats were super large, not to the extent of cock of the dungeon, their heads reached chest level of players, just the right hight to do head butt. Their hooves were stronger than normal weapons, their stomp could cause tremors and their cry.... enough said. Only thing to be happy was that these monsters were purely physical type, if these had skills like ray of destruction, earth shake, swamp land..., Saachi would have been sent back within moments.