[Spiral Sceptre] (Black Iron Sceptre)
Level 5;
Requirement: Intelligence: 12; Strength +5;
Intelligence +8;
Special Effect: Light shield: Creates a small shield of light around the player for 2 seconds which can absorb up to 150 damage; Cooldown: 300 seconds;
Durability: 20/20;
"This is the worgen's sceptre?" asked Merlin as he examined the sceptre he received from Shadow. "I got no use for this. It is not that great, and the special skill is a defensive one."
"Cool. I thought so. But I am sure Quiet Fire or Little White Feet could use it or you could at least sell it. I expect you can get more money than me with all your contacts," said Shadow.
"You got a point there. There is the first kill reward too. We can get a decent buck with these already. Moreover, a few guys have already asked to purchase the guide for the dungeon. But, the problem is silencing skills are hard to find and even though some players used stealth and managed to get by the wolves, they are being detected by the wargs. Do you know what could be done for that?" asked Merlin.
As expected of a professional even as they were completing the dungeon, Merlin already was in contact with few of his peers and was trying to complete a proper dungeon guide. He also realized that Shadow wouldn't have any objections as Shadow earned 1% of the transfer fee and would like more players to go to the dungeon.
"I have enhanced stealth. I doubt others would be able to do the same. Moreover, it should be easy to manage the warg with a pair of tanks as long as it is held in the smaller caverns."
"Haha, easy for you to say. You can easily get by undetected and stun it, allowing us to join you inside. Most of the guys are being pounced on at the exit of the cavern and then, if they fail to stun and pull it inside it jumps out into the tunnel and gathers the wolves. After that it's a team wipe."
"Ask them to learn the cheap shot skill from the Assassin trainer near the village head. It is easy to control the warg using the skill. And everyone can retreat into the cavern once the warg is stunned."
"Learn from Assassin Trainer? Dude, he is asking precious resources like 10 refined iron ores for the skill. It is not easy and a viable solution," replied Merlin.
"I thought that the trainer would just take a silver in return for cheap shot skill. There are a lot of differences between the game now and after two years. I probably began the game when they reduced the difficulty at the initial stages. Maybe, I won't be as successful as I expected in further quest or dungeons," thought Balthazar.
The gamed differed from the one he remembered by a prominent amount that he needed to be worried. Even a reincarnation wouldn't allow him to grasp everything that easily. It looked like he need to work and spend a decent amount of time on it.
"Yes, though the dungeon is a bit monotonous and time consuming, we did have a decent harvest and fair amount of experience from it. We can repeat it," continued Merlin hoping to level up to the sixth level in the next run. It was true that dungeons always provided a chance for higher experience points and resources than farming in the wild.
"We need another member to speed it up. It is too tire some in the way, we had gone through the dungeon. Also, we never found out the use for the torches provided by the NPC," replied Balthazar.
"Torches? Yes, why didn't I think of it before!?" exclaimed Merlin. He immediately began to chat with someone while the rest of them calmly made their way to the exit. They came out and even contacted Holt for their first kill rewards. As Holt gestured for a helper to bring the rewards out, Merlin began to yell.
"Yes! I got it. It was foolish of us to miss it," shouted Merlin when got a reply from one of his peers he was chatting with. "The torches are the key. The wolves are afraid of the fire. Waving them keeps the wolves at bay. We now have a way to speed through the tunnel."
"Really! That's good news," said Little White Feet clapping her hands in glee. Being a priest, she had to stay behind everyone, couldn't attack much and always had to run away even from the wolves. Wargs were even more of a nightmare for her. "Are the Wargs afraid too?" she asked hopefully.
"Wait, a second," said Merlin as he continued to chat. "Nope! The warg just chewed the torch and spat it out."
"How about we check our rewards before, first," interrupted Shadow shoving the boxes that were provided to him by Holt into their hands. As they opened the box, the box disappeared and the item in it remained hovering above their hands for them to receive.
Most of them received equipment except for Quiet Fire and Tang. They both got a design and recipe. Tang got a recipe for wolf meat patty and Quiet Fire got a design for a staff. They both had no use of them as they didn't have the respective trade professions. Even the others didn't get anything corresponding to their occupations or trades.
They immediately set to exchanging the rewards to the ones that could use them. Blinding got to upgrade her sword to a level 5 one and Little white feet and Quiet Fire also had small upgrade in their equipment. They decided to sell the old ones and gave them to Merlin directly.
They were still at the dungeon and many players from other town were teleporting there to play the dungeon. The area was also protected by the temple and the players couldn't kill and steal here. So, it was a good chance to sell any equipment that they had. Merlin already called for a few players he knew and began transactions.
But there were still a couple of equipment that he couldn't sell. One was the gauntlets that Balthazar looted from the worgen summoner and the other was Merlin's first kill reward. It was a pair of tonfas, a marital artists weapon. Both the gauntlets and tonfas didn't appeal much to other players as the occupations were the least chosen ones in the entire game.
Summoner was a class that confused many. It was highly dependent on summoned creatures and had little offensive or defensive ability. Between the druid and warlock classes which could also summon similar creatures to it and had other abilities, summoner was considered a useless class. Only once the higher-level skills and spell were released, the player realized its importance and that a summoner can be an extremely strong asset if used wisely.
Martial Artist was even rare than the summoner. It had very little range and was very vulnerable. Most of its skills were hand-to-hand combat oriented. Though they used a few weapons like tonfas and poles, the skill set at the initial stages was concentrated around hand-to-hand combat.
Thus, they were considered a weak class. The few players who had an interest in fighting in real world and chose that class were considered reckless and foolish by most. But as the game progressed, the players realized that the choke and other skills are very useful for controlling monsters and a lot more useful in PVP competitions. They could stun and even ambush and kill player quicker than an assassin in some situations.
But none of the players would realize this at this stage of the game. The only useful skill of the martial artist was choke that could control monsters. The summoners didn't even have this skill at present.
After a small while, Merlin returned with a wide smile plastered on his face. "Haha, I got a very good deal on some of the weapons, but most are trading with credits. Only the tonfas and the summoner gloves didn't sell," said Merlin showing transaction which totalled over 20000 credits.
That was a decent haul for a game on its first day. "I can also sell the knife throw skill, if you are in for trading with credits. Skills would sell for a lot more than the equipment. Of course, I am going to take a 5 percent commission," he continued looking at Shadow hopefully.
"No," replied Shadow flatly. He had no use for credits. What he needed were game coins to further progress in the game. He had no interest in short term gains and was willing to wait for the auction house to open when a majority of player reached level 5.
"What do you want so many coins for?" asked Merlin. "You already have a decent source from dungeon entrance rights. We need some real-life money, credits if you have an interest in setting up a workshop and I can get you more double the value of coins if you are willing to sell it for credits."
Hearing Merlin talk about the coins he would receive from the 'Cave of Wargs' made him realize something which he had overlooked. He quickly checked his administrative privileges panel and realized that he already earned about 500 bronze coins in the past two hours.
Thousands of players already reached level 5 and the first thing most of them would do was to attempt this special dungeon. With the dungeon providing him a steady supply of coins, it might be a better investment to invest a few credits into a workshop/adventurer group led by him. It is best if he doesn't put all his eggs in the same basket.
"Well, you do have a point there. Show me how well you could do," said Balthazar giving Merlin the Knife throw skill book.
"You won't be disappointed," said Merlin. His eyes were almost sparkling. He could get a good value for the skill book which might exceed more than a lakh credits at this time. He quickly contacted every one he knew and told that he had a rare skill book for sale and was waiting at the dungeon.
"Also check if you could get another member. I would prefer a martial artist, if you manage to find any?" asked Shadow.
"A martial artist. That is like the worst occupation available."
"Believe me. I know for sure that a few of their skills would be very helpful in both the dungeons and quests. Don't consider them so useless. Though the somnium technology allows direct interaction between player in hand-to-hand combat, all player can't use it effectively. This is where the martial artist's skills come into play."
"Hmm, I will take your word for it. But I doubt that I would be able to find anyone."
He already heard about that the most recent quest from the village head was to clear the route to the city and the skill book would be of great use. Moreover, the skill would provide an element of surprise for any player in PVP.
The group left Merlin at the dungeon and went back to the Blackrock village through the portal. They immediately set on to the path to the city. The path was windy and between the Blackrock hills and Arwild forest. Along way, the came into a few blackrock wolves and wild cats which are common in the areas on both sides of the path.
Soon, Shadow leveled up, he already had acquired more than 1500 exp before the dungeon. The dungeon and the few monsters along the path allowed him to finally reach level 6.
Character: Shadow Tyrant (Human)
Affiliated Village: Black Rock Village
Title: None
Job: Assassin
Level:
Exp: 0/2500
HP: 2200/2200; MP: 750/750;
Physical Attack: 82
Defense: 60; Attack Speed: 48; Movement Speed: 51; Willpower: 17; Balance: 27; Focus/Search: 34; Reflect: 1; Magic Resist: 11; Luck: *; Charm: *;
Attributes: Strength 41, Agility 37, Endurance 21, Intelligence 16, Vitality 31, Perception 17.
No Special Racial Attributes or weakness.
Free Attributes Points: 6
He quickly put a three attribute points in agility and three in Strength. This quest was going to be the most harrowing of all the quests he took till now. It was considered a quest that a player can continue till he reached level 10. He needed to be prepared for it.
A few minutes later they reached a fork in the path. This is where the quest actually begins. The fork marks the end of the Blackrock Village region. The two paths lead to other villages or the city. No player would know that beforehand.
If they reached the city while clearing the path, they chose they would be luck, else they just would form a path between two villages and the quest would be incomplete. They would can either continue the quest from the new village or go back to the fork and attempt again.
Some villages don't have any path directly to a city and need to go through other villages. For these village, all the paths at the fork would lead to another village. This kind of situation made the players extremely angry with this quest.
Though it was a bit closer to the situation that happens in exploring an unknown land in real life, the game made the actual process of clearing the path quite easier. All the players had to do was kill the monster around the area. Once, the boss monsters are all killed, a few village officials would arrive and quickly make the path to the other villages/cities.
That would only be the first time someone clear the monsters in the path. The village official would set up a teleportation method between the two points when the path is cleared, and village official would install a few magical posts along the path.
After the first time, whenever another group finishes the quest, the village official would just come and use a magic crystal to power up these posts and keep the paths clear. That is just the story that the game came up with. Only, once the quest is cleared and the players register at the other teleportation point would they be given access to teleporting to other cities/villages.
As Shadow and his team reached the fork, they suffered the same dilemma like everyone else. They had to choose a direction to pursue. If they chose the wrong one, it would be a waste of time if they fail to reach the city. Apart from reaching level 10, reaching the city outskirts through this quest was necessary for gaining entrance into the city.
Moreover, it is the first time and if they fail to choose correctly, they would lose a chance to gain city reputation points which everyone coveted. Also, some groups already started working along both the paths. It is better not to delay any longer.
Luckily, Balthazar already knew the path due to his past life and quickly chose to pursue the quest along the left path. To the left of the path was a hilly area filled with rocks and to the right were woods slightly sparser than the Arwild forest. As they continued in that direction, they say a group from the guild Sirius Imperials led by Blue Dart.
The numbered about 10 people and were very busy fighting a barrel of monkeys that they failed to notice Shadow and his team approach. Finally, it was Blue Dart who noticed the newcomers first and greeted them.
"Ah! You guys have also taken the same road. Mind lending a hand with these monkeys," asked Blue Dart politely. Though the monkey were the first new creatures they came across in the quest, they were all at level 7 and extremely hard to deal with.
They were fast nimble and almost perfectly evaded physical attacks. They also pelted the players with stones they found on the road which was an almost unending source of ammunition. They had better long range attacks than the players. The only advantage which allowed the players to survive is that unlike the players, the monkey didn't have any healers topping up their health from behind.
[Forest Monkeys] (Common monster)
Level 7;
HP: 2500;
Though the monkeys had slightly lower health for their level. But their quick movements and their attacks more than made up for it. Shadow quickly went to battle the monkeys followed by his team. But he couldn't be of much help.
There were many using long-range attacks and him being a melee player would be losing health if he received the attacks from Sirius Imperials members. He needed to be in the same team as them to avoid friendly fire.
"Blue Dart, if we continue like this, none of the close combat occupations can safely fight the monkeys. Why don't we join the same team?" asked Shadow.
"Who would be the leader?" asked someone from Sirius Imperials.
"Let it be Blue Dart but do change the distribution rights of the loot to be based on most damage caused," replied Shadow quickly. He didn't want any sort of quarrel between the two groups and he always had a decent relationship with Blue Dart who was a strong minded individual. If he had any suggestions which are useful, Blue would consider them.
"I am fine with it. Let us all form a team and loot would go to the character that caused most damage to the specific monster," agreed Blue Dart.
He had never seen Shadow fight personally nor did he have any idea of his skill set. He would definitely like to see him pit himself against these monkeys which are a higher level than him. He quickly sent members of Shadow's team requests to join his team.
"Finally, I can attack higher leveled monsters than me," thought Shadow. Higher leveled monsters always gave more experience that was a common feature of most games. The only thing that differed was the percentage increase. But there was a large difference from time he killed higher level wolves which was that he was in a team and the experience gained would be distributed through the team.