"System: Your party is the first to clear an Elite Instance dungeon. Experience awarded 300 exp each. First clear rewards would be directly placed in your inventory."
Blackrock Village Region System Announcement: Congratulations to Quiet Fire, Tang and Spicy, Little White Feet, Blinding White and Shadow Tyrant for being the first team in clearing the Elite Mode of the Corrupted Forest. All players of the team will be rewarded with 30 Blackrock village reputation points.
White heart City Region System Announcement: Congratulations to Quiet Fire, Tang and Spicy, Little White Feet, Blinding White and Shadow Tyrant for being the first team in clearing the Elite Mode of the Corrupted Forest. All players of the team will be rewarded with 10 White Heart City reputation points.
The announcements surprised all the players attempting in the dungeons or quests. It had been a bit over 7 hours since the game started. Most of the professional players and experts were stuck at the boss Vultarc of the normal mode of the Corrupted Forest.
The announcement had all of them perplexed. They began to suspect the whether they were playing the same game. It cause an uproar among the players in the White Heart capital city region.
"Ridiculous, I was so distracted at the announcement and got myself killed by a monster."
"WTF? I've been stuck at normal instance boss and someone actually finished an elite dungeon?"
"It must be a leak of information. How could someone actually finish the elite mode when no one finished even the normal instance of Corrupted Forest."
"Someone is hacking the damn game. GM, please look into it."
"Dog shit GM, ban his account. We can't have such shameless hackers in a game."
"Of course, it is a hack. It is the same dog shit player Shadow Tyrant in the team as the one in the special quest announcement. Ban him."
Apart from the regional chat and forums, a number of applications were immediately submitted to Metic Technologies. But the received only one answer from them. "No hack or external interference was used by the concerned party. Based on the data of the fight, no bugs were used either."
While the forums were abuzz with discussion again the man responsible for it was peacefully looting the corpse of Vultarc. He found a bow, a skill book and a potion bottle.
[Vultarc's Bow] (Black Iron Bow)
Level 3
Requirements: Strength: 10
Agility +3; Perception +7;
This bow could be used up till level 5 by any ranger. Perception is a very rare trait in any equipment. Any weapon that increases it would have double the usual value. Balthazar first thought about providing this to Slaine who was a ranger but realized that he could only meet him after level 5 and the bow would not be of much use at that time. As no one in his team were a ranger, it is best he sells it.
[Knife throw] (Common skill)
Level 0
Causes 100% damage on using a throwing knife.
No Cooldown.
Though this skill becomes a pretty common one in the later stages of the game. At this point, it would still be considered one of the rare skills at this point of time. It would be an easily farmable skill by weapon master in one of their common quest at level 15. But for Balthazar it is still a useless one and not the one he was hoping for.
[Vultarc's Berserk potion] (Potion)
Level 2
Increases strength attribute by 20%.
Reduces defence by 20%.
Attributes would be reduced by half for 30 minutes after use.
He put all three of them in inventory and then checked around him. Tang was looking at him with a perplexed look. "You are really in disguise all this time. How did you put it on? How much time can it be used? How could even your identity be changed?" she asked.
"Got it as an extra skill from an equipment," replied Balthazar. "Can use it as long as I like. It breaks when I am injured. It is meant for stealthy and spy jobs I guess."
"You have no issues with me actually hiding my identity?" asked Balthazar as they began to walk back towards dungeon exit and entrance.
"What identity? Shadow Tyrant is also not your real name. It is just an in-game name. And you had a good reason. Anyways, those idiots from Sirius Imperials have always been overly oppressive. I actually admire you just because you managed to irritate them."
"What reward did you get for first clear?" she asked Balthazar.
"I forgot to check. What did you get?"
"I got a level 3 black iron sword. I think it is the first level 3 equipment. It looks so beautiful," she said displaying a red one-handed curved sword.
Balthazar quickly checked his own inventory and found that he had received a belt. It had places to hold throwing knives too.
[Vultarc's belt] (Black Iron Leather Belt)
Level 3;
Endurance +3; Vitality +4;
Increases bag space by 5 slots.
The usual belts allow for up to 20 slots of bag space with each slot used to carry a stack of items. The stack size of each item may differ based on the item. The belt allows for a 25% increase, which can be considered to be quite generous for a level 2 dungeon reward. He quickly equipped the belt
As they exited the dungeon, they found Blinding White, Quiet Fire and Little White Feet waiting for them. They had also received their first clear rewards. Quiet Fire received a black Iron necklace which improves her intelligence, Little white a cloak which also had the same effect and Blinding got a tiara which increased her vitality and also provided a shielding skill.
They were more than satisfied with their rewards, but they looked like they were in distress at the same time.
"I thought getting a first clear would be something to be cheerful about. Why the gloomy faces?" asked Balthazar.
"We received a call from Raging Blade of Sirius Imperials," said Quiet Fire. "They are asking for the strategy for the corrupted forest."
"Okay, we can sell the strategy. I am not against it."
"No. They are not looking to buy. They are demanding that we join their guild except for Blinding White and give them the strategy. Else they have about a couple of hundred people waiting to kill us right outside the dungeon."
"Wow. They're quite a bit arrogant. Aren't they?"
"What should we do?" asked Little white feet.
"How did they contact us? And why don't they want Blinding?"
"Raging Blade is my ex-boyfriend. He contacted us through Little White," replied Blinding.
"So, this is just an attempt of his to save face and not the plan of the guild, right?"
"So, he is not the main guy in charge of handling their guild affairs at the town, right?"
"No, that would be Blue Dart, a ranger. He mostly keeps himself to exploring new areas, rather than aiming for dungeon clears."
"Well, he is one of the top 20 of the guild and also a member of the tournament team. His words hold a lot of weight to the guild members."
"I am not interested in joining any guild. Are you guys interested in joining them?" asked Balthazar.
"I am not interested in joining them either. They disgust me," replied Quiet Fire.
"Ditto" said Tang.
"But they are a large number waiting outside the safe zone. Can we continue in the village and then the city with them hunting for us?"asked Little White Feet. She was genuinely concerned about it. Though she had a boyfriend at Sirius Imperials, she was already disappointed in him by the way, he sold her out to Raging Blade.
"They don't have significant number of members to threaten us at the village. I will handle the Raging Blade, while the rest of you get ready to rush to teleport station. We are already all at level 3 due to the reward of the dungeon. You shouldn't have much problem," suggested Balthazar.
"Don't look down on us. We can also fight them," said Tang.
"I thought that our aim is to avoid trouble and play the game. The idea is for me to hold them off for enough time for you to get away. If the guild seriously begins to use it's manpower to hamper us, then we can fight them properly," said Balthazar to change their view.
Although Tang was angry at the Sirius Imperials, Quiet Fire and Little white feet were not. They had intended to play the game without any issues if possible. "Why don't we try to do it as he says. It is worth it if we could peacefully coexist," said Quiet Fire.
"OK. Once, we get out of the dungeon portal, I will try to reason it out with Raging Blade and consider selling our strategy and also the bow can be sold to Blue Dart. But just to be on safe side only I will be discussing with him. That would be the time for you to get to the teleportation point and head to the village. That would be a safe zone and if someone attacks you. The guards will take care of them especially since you have enough reputation, they will be considered intruders of the village if they attack you," said Balthazar.
Though Balthazar had prioritized to talk it out with the Sirius Imperials, he wasn't a fool who would put all his eggs in a single basket. As he leveled up his strength his strength and agility attributes increased. He also had the level 3 gloves and level 3 boots which could now be used. Even all the 6 free attribute points he received were all directly put into strength.
This caused both his strength and agility attributes to exceed 20 points and the special traits "Nimble movements", "minor passive regeneration" and "free form combat". Free form combat allows a person to directly attack with their body even if they didn't have any weapons. This was the feature that would separate vita-nova into a unique game from all the previous games and became a place of combat training as much as it was a game.
Passive regeneration allowed a person to slowly increase his health points back when in rest at a slow rate of 1 HP per 20 seconds. With his ridiculously high attributes any normal warrior class player couldn't compete with him in strength and vitality.
The quickly got out of the portal and were at the dungeon entrance. As soon as they got out they heard someone calling out that they have exited the dungeon. A group of 50 people directly confronted them. A tall figure approached them from behind. He bore a large shield and a red colored Black Iron blade.
"So, what have you decided to do," said the man standing before Balthazar in an imposing manner.
"You must be Raging Blade," said Balthazar. "I am not interested in joining your guild, but regarding the dungeon strategy and equipment from the dungeons, we can sell them for a reasonable price."
"Haha, you are kidding right?"
"Nope, not at all."
"You have only two options. Either join our guild or die," shouted Rogue Blade
"Why don't I offer an alternative. I will even give you one more option than you gave me. You can either make a good transaction for the guide and we all leave happily, or you allow us to pass through simply or continue this nonsense and I will kill all of you," replied Balthazar in a calm tone.
"How dare you? You can't even handle Boss Raging."
"Yeah, just because you got lucky, you think you are better than us."
Few more comments ran out from the mob behind Raging Blade, before he raised his hand to subside them. "He seems to have quite a reputation in his guild," thought Balthazar.
"How about this? We will have a duel, you and me, right here. If you win, we will join your guild else you don't disturb me or the team again," suggested Balthazar.
Raging Blade was slightly surprised that Balthazar had suggested such an open confrontation between them to decide the dispute. He was a berserker. At this stage of the game where the players didn't have many skills, he would have an advantage over any assassin.
Though Raging Blade began to think that Shadow Tyrant might have an advantage he didn't know, Balthazar wasn't one to give him time. "Do you dare? I don't want to join a guild filled with cowards," said Balthazar to incite him.
"You are a level 3 player, while we are all level 2, it isn't a fair fight. Aren't you being a bit shameless?" asked a Swordsman standing beside Raging Blade. His name was Dane and he usually was the one who commanded the dungeon team after Raging Blade.
"If you think so, you can have 2 or 3 fight me alone. Or even the entire main dungeon raid team," replied Balthazar pointing his dagger at them.
Raging wasn't one of the characters who thought a lot and he was filled with rage over being challenged publicly. It would be very disgraceful to both him and his guild if he still didn't accept. So, he immediately pulled out his sword and accepted Balthazar's challenge.
"The two of us are enough to deal with any player even level 4," said Raging in his anger. This way Balthazar completely managed to divert all the anger that Raging Blade had towards Blinding and others towards him.
Balthazar also revealed the Vultusk's bow to everybody surrounding them. "This is Vultusk's bow, a level 3 black iron bow which improves perception. It would be very useful in exploration of new territories. This is the main reward from the dungeon. I bet both the bow and the strategy for the dungeon. Let my teammates pass to the teleportation point. Then, we can begin the fight. I will stay here," said Balthazar holding out the bow. He also sent Raging Blade a friend request and sent him a picture of the bow's description and attributes
Usually a guild wouldn't have allowed something like that. But the bow in Shadow Tyrant's hand was too tempting. Raging Blade immediately sent the information to Blue Dart who already had asked the main guild leader to look into details of Shadow Tyrant. Blue Dart was highly tempted by the bow and asked him to secure it. It was a bow that would allow him to explore the Blackiron hills without much danger and would be useful even after he was a level 5 ranger.
With that Quiet Fire and the rest went to the teleportation point and to the village in peace. "Now that they are out, shall we start?" asked Balthazar.
Both Raging Blade and Dane were experienced at PVP*. They were quite strong and we're good at tactics even at a true virtual reality game like vita-nova. They quickly moved to positions making a 60-degree angle with Balthazar. Balthazar was very calmly standing in the same place and didn't even pull out his weapons.
"Get ready," said Dane seeing that Shadow didn't even take out his weapons.
"I already am. Feel free to attack," replied Balthazar beckoning to them with his hand.
Enraged by his actions both Raging Blade and Dane immediately attacked him. "Don't regret for being a fool," said Raging Blade as he swung his blade with skill hamstring. Dane also used his skill chop at the same time approaching from the opposite end. There was hardly any time difference between the two attacks. If a player jumped back to avoid one, he would end up being hit by the other.
But Shadow Tyrant took a completely different approach. With his speed he directly went beside Dane in the instant they used their skills. Swordsman was a balanced class which neither had high agility or strength. There was a large difference in both agility and strength between Dane and Shadow Tyrant. Before Dane could realize what happened, he found himself being pushed into Raging Blade's attack.
Struck by the attack Dane speed reduced by 20%. Both Raging Blade and Dane were surprised by this. Before they could grasp their head around what happened, Shadow Tyrant jumped on to Raging Blade with his dagger. Balthazar had a lot of experience as a PVP player. He was always better at killing players than monsters as he could directly use his assassination experience.
As soon as he attacked Raging Blade, he chose to hit all the weak point of a human like eye, neck and joints. As he was a player of manual mode, even the effects like stun and bleed were afflicted on Raging Blade without Shadow having the actual skills. Within 5 seconds Raging Blade was turned into a flash of light while Dane was held at a distance with nothing but punches and kicks. In the next five seconds, even Dane dissipated in front of the crowd.
Both the challengers died within 10 seconds which was a large stain for the guild. Though Raging Blade agreed to let him go, the remaining members weren't the ones who said so. They immediately attacked Shadow Tyrant claiming that he was cheating.
Balthazar also had to respond in like. He had never expected a completely peaceful negotiation to occur.
He retaliated as soon as the remaining members attacked him. With his high speed he could easily evade all their attacks and even countered with his own attacks. For one minute, he went crazy and continued to kill the members of Sirius Imperials. He had already used his shadow clone skill during the fight and had it escape using stealth.
His main aim in playing the game in this life was training and there is no better option for it than PVP. During this minute he managed to dwindle their number from 50 to 16. But he had also reached critical health.
He quickly cast the skill shadow swap. To everyone else, it only appeared as if his health increased due to some skill. No one guessed it was a clone. With his clone keeping them busy, he calmly teleported to the village without any fear.
Note:
*PVP refers to player vs. player. All fights among players are in general referred to as PVP.