James was pretty excited to see his stats, so as soon as he got back and got the chance, he opened his character UI.
Saint of War - "Blind Dreamcatcher" - level 7 Male Warrior
Experience: <1230/36000>
Attributes: You have 40 unspent Attribute points.
Hp: <150/150>
Mana: <65/65>
Vitality: 2
Intelligence: 1
Dexterity: 15 (+5) (+2)*1.2
Constituiton:1
Strenght: 16 (+10) (+3)*1.2
Wisdom: 1
Reputation: 0 (free citizen)
Titles: "King Slayer" --> Grants the using player and it's allies a 10% boost to every Attribute. Effective range : 50 Meters. Currently Grants the user 2 Dexterity and 3 Strenght.
Sub-Class: Saint of War - Allows the player to use any Sub-Class of his class. Grants an additional 4 Attribute points per level. Increases Experience needed for each level by 100%.
Huh, it looks like the game gave me all the Attribute points I'd get if I was a Saint of War since level one. It still sucks that it gave me an experience penalty though.
James decided to add 15 points to both Dexterity and Strenght, and finally decided to put some points into his Vitality, seeing as he would just be wasting his titles and weapon buffs if he didn't.
It wouldn't be wrong to call James one of the strongest players at this point in time, especially seeing as only a few hours had gone by. Most players weren't even level 5, so forget about even having half-decent gear.
That wasn't due to experience being too hard to get, but more of how every single grinding spot and/or mission that helped leveling was either taken or full of people. As such, most people's leveling speed had slowed down to a crawl. The only players that were even close to James were high-rated guild members, and core ones at that.
James had been quite afraid of coming out of the special dimension he had been put in, but he soon lost that fear. Even if he was found out, there was no single player that had the capability of making him stay behind.
Although Chaos-Bringer looked like it wasn't that good at first glance - and truth be told, for the first few levels, that was the case - any person who has ever played an MMORPG knows that percentage scaling overshadows flat base addition very quickly.
So James had two very decent weapons to carry over to level 10, when the first 5 and 10-man dungeons would appear.
Right then, James received a call on his UI. It came from Marcus.
"Hey man, where have you been? I've been trying to contact you for the last few hours and you weren't even online. These Psychotic fucks have been on my arse all day and I'm back to level 0. AHHH fuck, I still feel those blades man. Anyway, what have you been up to?"
"Do not tell him the entirety of it, just tell him about my inheritance. Right now is not the right time." - James heard in his mind. He could understand why Troyande wouldn't trust Marcus at first sight. She had been betrayed by the ones close to her, and held grudges pretty deeply by what it looked like.
"I came across an inheritance, but my level wasn't high enough yet, so I was teleported out after a few trials."
"Ah, that makes a bit of sense. You probably were prevented from contacting the outside so as to not have a way of having more than one head thinking about the trials. Still sucks man, those guys are crazy, they kept on asking were you were and when I told them I didn't know, they kept on killing me. This bloody game won't let you turn you pain sensors completely down, so I kept on enduring cuts and being mangled. Fuck me, it still stings."
"So they are trying to set a man-hunt up? That's pretty nice. Get ready, we're leaving to level you up as quicly as possible."
"Every decent grinding spot is either taken or completely over our head and to make matters even worse, we're both low level players. And that's ignoring the fact that you have a target on your back."
"Just trust me man, have I ever done something completely dumb? Just follow me please"
- James pleaded.
Both James and Marcus were spotted leaving Fallen Oak Town by Psychotic Faith's members.
James kept going through the forest that surronded Fallen Oak Town, not stopping for any reason. He kept slaying both monsters and players alike, and by now Marcus was used to seeing James ridiculous damage output. He was able to deal with players in two or three hits, and most monsters wouldn't last more than a few minutes, at most.
As such, almost all higher-ups of Psychotic Faith knew that both players were located somewhere in the forest by Fallen Oak Town.
By now, James was close to half-way through level 7 and Marcus was approaching level 5 by now. The moon was already risen in the sky, and player's vision was reduced, so ambushes from Rogues and Rogue-type monsters became stronger.
James and Marcus were fighting a group of Bandits who had set up camp in a clearing in the forest. They were almost done with it, the last one alive was the Bandit leader, a level 5 elite who was proving to be a bit troublesome to James.
Although James overpowered most monsters purely stat-wise, Terranova's system wasn't so simple. James had already noticed that evasion didn't rely simply on stats, but more so on player or monster movement. If one wanted to avoid getting hit, they had to physically move and dodge.
Therefore, James was starting to waver in his movements, seeing as he was already tired due to having fought through the Trial.
One could say that the Trial had taught James some mechanics the hard way: He either learned them or he would have failed it. As such, what most players struggled with and most times just overcame through numbers, James had gotten used to dealing with monsters having more complex attack patterns.
He was trying to make Marcus get used to them, but it was proving pretty difficult, because Marcus had quite a few habits from a few old games, making his decisions lag a bit behind.
Meanwhile, two players were waiting in the shadows, watching both James and Marcus fighting the Bandit leader. They watched with their mouths agape, seeing how easily they dealt with them. They were Brazen and Brutal Faith, who were watching James instruct Marcus on how to deal with the enemy.
Brazen was itching to fight while Brutal was astounded at how easily James was able to decompose and analise the Bandit's movements. It showed James had great analytical capabilities, and more so than that, he was able to impart them to others.
It was then that he was reminded that James was an enemy to be put down. It was a pity though, if he was able to recruit someone such as James to belong under his wing, he could very easily create a group of experts.
By now, the Bandit leader was hitting low health. Problem was, once monsters hit low-life ( around 10%) they had a certain chance of enraging, dealing increased damage and taking less damage. Normal monsters had a really low chance of that happening and elites had a slightly bigger one of that happening.
Unfortunately, the Bandit leader was enraged. When it happened he threw his knives at James and Marcus, and two more went to some tall bushes nearby. James saw two characters rolling out of them before the knives hit them.
Both Brutal and Brazen were pretty spooked when it happened, their cover had been exposed. They had no confidence in beating James in a fair fight, so Brutal Faith started to retreat whilst his brother charged at James, careless as always.
James didn't take to heart, people stealing monsters was seen everyday and, whilst a bit shameless, it was common practice. That was, until he saw that they belonged to Psychotic Faith.
He Pounced at Brazen, and Stabbed him.
-7500.
James instantly killed him. It had to be know that it wasn't normal for players to have James's stats, one could even call it overpowered at this state of the game. James damage came from his pure stats and his weapons high base damage.
He had been using a low level weapon to level up, but once he saw Brazen Faith coming out of the brush, he almost instantly switched over to Chaos-Bringer and killed him.
Brazen was shocked and amazed at the same time. He was one of the strongest ones in the Guild, that was the only reason he was able to climb to his position to this day. Once he was dealt with in one hit, he was ecstatic. He had always liked a challenge.
His brother, contrary to him, was abhorred at how strong James was. He would have even called James out for cheating were it not for the VRHelmet having no way to cheat in. He immediately logged off, before he was killed by James.
Marcus looked at James in a different way. He had noticed that James looked a bit different, somehow he had a bit of an aura to him that made people respectful and to think twice before crossing him. He was pretty happy for his friend, he had always been shy but games were the perfect way to deal with that.
Marcus now understood why James had so much confidence in being able to carry both of them. He also doubted James was that low level by now.
They finished up the Bandit leader and it dropped something. It was a miscellaneous item, it was called "Key of the Oak". It read:
"Key of the Oak" - Quest item
Description:"Deliver to the mayor of Fallen Oak Town. Maybe you'd get a reward?"