Chapter 4: So where to now

After finding out about the game system and it being very similar to the same genre of novels that he is used to reading, he decided to find out about the other features that the game holds in the game. Seeing that it was 6 pm and the library shuts at 8 pm Joe was beside himself as he was in a world that was not his own and had till tomorrow midday to wait for to not be immediately shunted to the main world tomorrow, although he was slightly curious as to why the bureau of otherworldly affairs would send 150 agents in every year that haven't been in before to get into the tutorial area. Though on second thought, what's it like 125 000 15-yr-olds or there about left unsupervised is probably not the best idea, so it kind of made sense that they would try to cover most novice villages with at least one adult.

"What to do now," Joe whispered to himself knowing that no one was around, as he hasn't eaten since breakfast and it now being 6 pm, he found himself to be rather hungry. He had been plotting since the morning and figured that he could use the code screen to do something about his current situation but knew that he would need to have programs set up with a high level of complexity to achieve that of which he didn't currently have set up.

Now, however, that he was no longer paying attention to his research that much, he noticed a group of people at one of the tables occasionally looking over at him, it was one of the groups discussing strategy with each other earlier. It seems that they as well were paying attention to their surroundings and to the only other person that was sitting in the corner of the room especially after it got past 5 pm where most of the people roaming left to go home for dinner, they were going over strategy to not go down almost every time they got into combat with monsters as they couldn't figure out why, and they kept looking over at the guy that kept looking like he was having multiple revelations about something but looked like he should know his stuff.

After Joe made eye contact with one of the members of the group, that member called him over with a wave while saying,

"Hey, mate, you got a moment, you look like you know your stuff, would you mind helping us a sec."

"Sure," Joe said without any hesitation, got up and started walking over to the group of 6, "so what's your problem?"

"Any time we get entangled with higher level mobs we tend to go down pretty easily," the boy that called him over said honestly. Receiving a smack on the back of the head from the guy next to him.

"Don't put it that bluntly, that just makes us sound like noobs," said the guy before turning to Joe and saying, "Yeah, that"

"Okay, classes and weapons you use, as well as how you are usually lined up in fights" Joe stated authoritatively but with respect. Not expecting him to get straight into it or without any conditions to boot, they were taken aback for a second before responding, they had a cleric that only had their staff; a magician with their staff; two rouges, one with a lot of daggers, the other one only had a bow, a ranger that had a short sword and a bow and a knight (a fighter that has gone through their first-class change that had a long sword. Their formation was melee classes at the front with the casters and range at the back, strangely though they didn't have a shield warrior in their team to be the tank, probably being the reason they are behind.

"So is this how you've always been," Joe asked questioningly.

"Yeah, we've always been like this," the others replied confused feeling like they have done something absolutely stupid, " Is there a problem with this, as you know it's how all the other groups function."

"Well, I'm guessing that those groups either have less than 4 or more than 8 people in, right?" joe seemingly stated the obvious to them.

"Yeah, they are" the group responded not knowing where he was going with this.

"And they all have at least one shield warrior in them, right"

"Yeah, but what has that got to do with this" one of the group replied frustratedly as this guy that they just called over seems to just be providing fun at them.

"Well, as you know a shield warrior basically focuses as the tank and drawing monster agro, and as you don't have one you are going to have to play differently from a group that does," Joe stated before reaching toward the board that they had on the table and rearranging their figures.

"Knight as you have the most defence so you will be the vanguard, you will draw the monster agro as well as leading the party so any group attacking from head-on will get to you first and have to pass you to get to the rest of the group."

"My hp is only 3200, won't it be better to all go after the thing attacking" the knight player replied hurriedly.

"Let me finish explaining first then," Joe responded authoritatively, "mage you will be behind him on his right, ranger you will be behind him on his left, you will function as the main attackers, you will have pretty much free rain of attack to the front being protected by the knight only needing to watch your flanks that you will be made aware of, so you just need to find the opportunity to do damage and ranger if the knight gets too low switch out for a moment while the knight gets healed and switches back. Cleric stay behind the knight and priorities healing the front liners as they are going to be receiving the most damage especially the knight, stay 3 or so meters back from the front liners while in this defensive formation and you are now designated the radar monitor as well as coordinator as you will have a better view of the battlefield, now rouges the one with the sword will be to the left of the cleric and the one with the bow will be to the right you will be protecting the cleric from the other directions as well as long-range attacking from the back, this formation is one of the most defensive for a team of your size by protecting the cleric so you can stay healed as well as have the ability to be surrounded and be able to fight from all sides while still being able to be healed, though I would suggest you all get an axillary weapon like a short sword or a dagger for if you get disarmed or get into cramped spaces," Joe went through logically with the group, and the group sitting their with the expression of how on Cardashia have we never thought of this before, as joe continued, " this also allows for a cresent moon formation where you are in a defensive position or going after a small number of mobs where the cleric moves closer in to the front line and the rouges move over to the flanks and sets up a cross fire where attacks are coming from multiple directions making it hard for the mobs to dodge, and if they start going after one side they will just have to put up with the assault from the middle and other flanks, as well as distractions where when a monster goes in for a large attack the fighter steps back and one of the ranged attackers takes the opportunity to attack and mabey setting the enemy of balance, as well as effective use of AoE spells and battle feild control spells to make the feild more to your liking "

"Thank you so much mate, I called you overseeing if you could help us a bit and you've just fixed most if not all our problems" the ranger player half-shouted in excitement.

The cleric player seeing this unorthodox arrangement started mulling over the plan this stranger proposed as it was rare to see someone give out good advice for free, but after going over most situations in his head he found this arrangement wildly beneficial and what this man suggested would increase their fighting efficiency up by more than 6 times if done right and following what he said and so started probing the fellow to see if he would now demand payment or something for this info as most people would in these circumstances, "hey thanks a lot for the advice is there anything we should do to repay you"

He was half taken aback when Joe responded, "Nah, you wanted some advice and I saw I could help, so why not right?

The ranger player looked at the cleric player for a second and saw some suspicion towards him for not wanting anything, so piped up jovially, "Hey, after this we were going to go to a nearby fast food place, do you want to come, our treat for you solving our problems."

"sure, I haven't got anything planned so why not," Joe said calmly with a hint of excitement in his voice as his food problem has been temporarily solved.

They rapped up quickly as they went to leave the building with Joe in tow, soon after they found their way to in front of a fast-food place. They all went in ordered some food and had some small talk while they ate.

"so where you from" said the ranger player curiously as he hasn't seen him around before.

"I've done some travelling reasently and have ended up here," Joe said in the way that he has been to create a misunderstanding of the truth that he does not intend to correct, "this is the best place I've been so far though."

"Hey I've been wondering, what level are you at?" stated the magician player with some intrigue attracting the agreement of the rest of the group.

"Oh wouldn't you like to know," Joe said with a hint of teasing and confidence in his voice" But no seriously , I can't tell you that one."

Sensing that he wouldn't tell them if they continued on the topic, they finished their food and after another round of thank you's from the group they parted ways.

Now being past half nine at night it was to get a colder as for them it was the 4th of January, luckily Joe had his coat on him or else he might not know what to do. However being content for now joe made the unorthodox decision to go to one of the parks that takes up a large area that was close-ish by to find a remote area where he can do stuff without being interupted.

After he found such an area he sat under a tree that's branches droups down and across to form a natural shelter to start his work with the plans that had been bruing in his mind.