Naturally Sorin knew that the world powers were nothing to Gaia's AI security. In fact the world would be given quite a scare as all of the major powers military command systems would be counter hacked in return with their nukes aimed at themselves. After that, Astria will be the focus of the world.
After logging out and back in again, Sorin was now searching for his target. Beginner Island always holds 100 players so when a player logs out of one server waits for the spot in that server to be filled then log back in. The odds of being logged back into the same server, even when the game has yet to be popularized, is still quite small.
After stalking out of the village, Sorin looks around to see a bunch of level 1 Rabbits and some level 2 Giant Rats further toward the center of a farm like area. All around were budding fields of corn as well as some kind of squash with scarecrows scattered around that seemed to be utterly useless as the crows were seen perching on it and defecating
He remembered that the suggested route is to talk to the lead farmer to help him exterminate the pests before harvest season.
'Ok so I am level 1, I have no issues taking out anyone right now except maybe the specter boss. Let's get to at least level 5. What skills do I start out with?'
(Character Information)
[Username: Wanderer]
[Level 1] [EXP 0/100] [SP 0]
[Main Class: Undecided]
[Hp 10/10] [Mp 10/10]
Physical Attack (P Att): 1-2
Magical Attack (M Att): 2-5
Physical Armor (P Arm): 1
Magical Armor (M Arm): 2
[Stats]
[Strength (STR): 5]
[Dexterity (DEX): 5]
[Intelligence (INT): 5]
[Spirit (SPR): 5]
[Charisma: 5]
[Skills]
[Summon Spirit Wolf Familiar (Juvenile): Summons a spirit wolf to fight alongside you. The level of the summon is dependent on the level of the caster]
[Requires: 1 Mp/5s]
[Cooldown 30s]
[Summon Ravens: Summons a flock of ravens to drain life from enemy and heals yourself]
[Requires: 2 mp]
[Duration 10s]
[Cooldown 2m]
[Transfer: Switches places with a summon ]
[Requires: 1 mp]
[Cooldown 15s]
'Ok then' Sorin raised his [Starter Wand] and pointed to a spot in front of him and activated [Summon Spirit Wolf Familiar].
Suddenly words of a unfamiliar language subtitled in the Latin alphabet were laid out in front of him. This was known as the chant to cast a spell. When casting spells in Astria, you must use the words of the gods, to ask for guidance, or in Sorin's case, ask for the spirit king's permission to call out a Spirit Wolf.
Gaia analyzed all of the real world languages and created a new one completely different from anything irl.
Sorin being Astria's greatest warmonger and strongest player, knew most of the common spoken chants. Previously, Sorin was a berserker so he had little need for the god's language except that when fighting against foes that used it so that he could predict the spell being cast. If the spell was new to him, he could infer what it does from the chant.
For example, the chant of [Summon Spirit Wolf Familiar] so as long as you knew the words of summon, spirit, and wolf, you could react to the spell before the spell finishes giving huge advantages in combat.
Of course, in the later stages of the game, most high level players figured out that as long as the chant is spoken aloud and pronounced correctly, the spell would fire. So people began to mumble the spell under their breath, very quickly after countless hours of repetition.
Also, though rare, if the skill is leveled to a high enough level, the chant is removed.
Sorin fumbled a little with the pronunciation because he never need to verbalize the god's language but got through it. During this time, a pale blue circle formed where Sorin pointed his [Starter Wand] and after a 3 second chant a small ethereal wolf appeared.
The Spirit Wolf that appeared was an eerie blue and slightly translucent. It was two feet tall and three long and had white spirit fire in its eye sockets. It yelped at Sorin with a tilted head seeking instructions.
Long lasting summons like the Spirit Wolf can be used marginally for non-combat related reasons. Some of the summoners in Sorin's past had subclasses that let them ride larger summons, some summons could trip traps for you, and some summons have specific non-combat related uses like if you could summon a wind spirit to power the sail of a ship.
Now that Sorin has a familiar, he could configure its AI to an extent and give it commands from the familiar screen.
A familiar and a summon are slightly different. They both need to be summoned by chant, but where they differ is how you can use them. Familiars will never mind being used as a meat shield or sacrificed as it can be summoned again. Sorin can also mold the AI of the familiar to his liking.
In contrast, summons do mind being used in such a way. They have a secret loyalty mechanic in that they will fight better if they want to fight and worse if they do not. If the loyalty stat hits 100 then they will die for you. Summons vary in power but are generally much more powerful than familiars of the same level.
(Familiar Status Page)
(Spirit Wolf)
[Spirit Wolf (Juvenille)]
[Lvl 1]
[15 hp]
[P Att: 2-5] [M Att: 3-5]
[P Arm: 2] [M Arm: 0]
[Skills (2)]
[Spirit Claws: Infuse basic attack with energy from the spirit world. Attacks deal 20% more damage and changes basic attack from physical to magical.
[Require: 5mp]
[Duration: 10s]
[Cooldown: 1m]
[Spirit Body (Passive): Being from the spirit world reduces physical damage received by 20% while increasing magical damage received by 20%]
Sorin set the AI of the spirit wolf to dodge-based passive. This way Sorin could launch a basic attack at range while the spirit wolf tanks the monster.
"Hmm, do I give you a nickname or nor. Fenrir? Too overpowering. Blue? Too unoriginal. By the way what are you...oh yeh I can set that attribute. Girl then, so how about...Josey. Yeh, Josey." Sorin thought aloud to himself after several head nods.
Sorin then ordered Josey the spirit wolf to attack a rabbit. After the rabbit was aggroed by Josey, Sorin then attacked with his magical basic attack that people termed [Mana Bolt}. The crystal on his [Starter Wand] lit up and shot a white wisp of mana at the rabbit.
The rabbit stood no chance as Sorin quickly shot it to death.
Next, Sorin unsummoned Josey to test his reflexes.
He shot several rabbits at once and ran in the middle of the group. Now surrounded on all sides, Sorin would always fire when an enemy was about to hit him. During the earlier portions of the game, enemy's attack would get interrupted if you dealt more than 5% during a certain part of their attack. This applies to all enemies to some extent, but as enemies get higher in level their health and defense increase which makes it harder to deal 5% of an enemy's health.
There are interrupt skills that will serve that purpose in the later stages of the game, but right now on Beginner Island, Sorin is having a blast interrupting enemies with basic attacks.
Sorin might have the reflexes to react to all of the current enemies, but his stats are just so low that he can see the attack coming but is restricted by his body. Also is the fact that Sorin is using a baseline DreamSet and not his immersive capsule chamber he had in his past life.
As he was butchering rabbits and rats, Sorin had some inspiration.
Some other players that were trying to get a handle on the controls were gawking as Sorin defeated group after group of rabbits and giant rats which got Sorin thinking.
'Isn't this a good place to stream? Explaining the mechanics at the start of the game that others will have to slowly pick up on. Well, maybe not stream as no one would watch it now, but a guide video for noobs who just started would do. Since I am the first and undoubtedly the best, when Astria does become popular, the views it will generate will be massive and put my infant channel on the map'