Chapter 10. The fields (2)
All new Ark players feel a bit of doubt as they go through the tutorial. Should I be playing this game? Is it too late to ask for a refund?
These players would be excited about adventures but they would be too scared of fighting monsters. That's why they would think like that.
Such thoughts quickly disappear as they train in the Training Dungeon.
Their thinking changes after fighting various types of monsters in the Training Dungeon and reaching level 10.
"I might be quite talented at this."
They become confident.
They have no choice but to become confident.
In reality, an average guy won't win fighting bare-handed against a big dog. Even if you give a knife to a grown man and ask him to kill an attack dog, he won't be able to.
But during the Training Dungeon, players face up against wolves and all sorts of monsters you can't even see in a zoo. Not only that, but players can also always leave video footage of their fights.
It was easy to record a fight in Ark. Many players will record their fights just to showoff or upload them on the video websites.
In those videos, they were the protagonist of a movie.
As such, it was only obvious they would become confident. It was also another objective of the Training Dungeon.
It was training!
It was a system built to boost players' confidence in battles.
Upon reaching level 10, these confident players normally go to the training centers and class towers to gain classes. 90% of the players will choose a combat-based class.
To hunt monsters, these new players will venture into the fields close to the cities. These fields are the hunting grounds.
When a player enters a field, then he will truly know the difference between the Training Dungeon and real monsters.
Different from the Training Dungeon, these monsters will use everything in order to win against you.
They are not training materials, they are the real monsters!!
Many players will take them lightly and soon will be killed. They will only adapt by fighting these monsters again and again.
It was also not that rare to see players in an unfavorable condition. The same happened with a party of two girls.
"Kyakkk!!"
When these two girls started in the fields, they befriended a 5 man male party and hunted together with them but the eyes of those males weren't good.
After some time, they started sticking to them and even touched their butts and tried to grope them.
It was not uncommon for harassing to occur in the game. Many single males will get desperate and harass girls. The creators can't do anything about it.
In the first place, the game boasted of extreme realism and they can't stop things like harassing easily. They can only announce harsh punishments on those who were caught harassing.
The two girls also reported the 5 man party and decided to hunt among themselves.
One of the girls was a cleric while the other was a swordsman. They thought that they would be able to hunt monsters easily with that combination.
But anyone can see that it was a highly imbalanced party. There was no way that they will be able to clash against the monsters for much longer.
And an accident soon happened when they were fighting a black wolf.
The black wolves were as dark as the night sky and there were more ferocious and dangerous than the red wolves and even the Blaze wolf.
The plan of the two girls was simple. First, the swordsman girl will attract the monster and then she will attack it head-on while the cleric girl will heal her from time to time.
There was no way this plan would have worked but the two girls were complete newbies who were playing a virtual reality game for the first time.
How will they know what's right and what's wrong?
They have never even played an RPG before. It was bound to happen.
According to the plan, the swordsman girl threw her body towards the black wolf as planned, and she blocked the wolf's attack with her wooden shield.
She then readied her stance and prepared for its next attack. Until then, everything went smoothly.
The problem occurred when the swordsman girl accidentally tripped on a rock. As soon as she fell, the Black Wolf jumped onto her chest.
It was in a mount position.
It wasn't easy to shake off a mounted opponent. Not only did one need power, but also technique. But how many people would have had such an experience before?
The swordsman girl didn't have any experience like this at all. She can only cry for help.
"Help!! Someone help me. Ria, help."
"Wha-what should I do?"
The swordsman girl shouted towards her partner whose name was Ria but she can't do anything about it. Her class was of the cleric.
She can't fight like a swordsman.
Thus, Ria also started to shout for help, hoping that someone will hear their cries and will come for their rescue but there was no party in the area they were at.
There was no party there, but there was someone there. It was Ian.
He had come to these fields, deciding to level up his character like Gran has told him to but he saw two girls shouting for help.
He quickly ran close to them and asked.
"What's going on?"
The scared cleric, Ria answered as she turned around.
"Save my friend. The wolf will bite her to death."
Ian looked towards the girl getting mounted by the black wolf. The wolf was already biting her and there were claw marks on the girl's hand.
She was close to dying.
Ian quickly pulled out a bow from his inventory when he saw that. The black wolf's anger can intensify if he fought head-on with it.
It was better to fight from a distance and luckily, Ian has already purchased a bow and quivers before coming here.
Swish!
With a swished sound, an arrow left his bow and struck close to the black wolf. Ian's accuracy was bad this time and the shot missed.
"What are you doing?"
Ria asked with a trembling voice.
"Saving your friend. Can't you see?"
"The arrow can hit her too."
"She's already on the verge of dying. Let's take this chance."
Ian pulled another arrow and shot it towards the black wolf and this time, the arrow managed to graze his back.
Growl!!
The black wolf growled and looked back when he felt a stinging sensation on his back. At that moment, Ian fired another set of arrows.
Swish! Swish!
The reason Ian has chosen to buy a bow in the first place was that it was easier to shoot at monsters from some distance and as he would be hunting in a field, there was a high chance that the monsters will try to run away.
Thus, the bow was a useful weapon here.
Ian was also confident in his accuracy, he wasn't an archer per se but he was fairly confident in his accuracy.
He also knows how to use a bow due to the training with his master. His training also helped him here, the arrows he fired pierced the black wolf in several spots.
Thus, ending his life.
"Luckily, your friend survived."
Ian looked at the cleric called Ria and said. She nodded her head and quickly squatted down to help her friend.
She cast healing magic on her.
It was healing magic that will restore health every second. It was one of the basic level spells for the cleric class.
"Uhh…I was so scared."
The swordsman girl said as she took deep breathes. She was really terrified with the earlier incident, the black wolf was really too realistic and she felt that she could die at any moment.
She sighed and took out a healing potion from her inventory. She quickly drank the healing potion and the wounds on her body ceased to exist.
'That was a mid-grade healing potion.'
The blue-colored healing potion was a mid-grade potion and its price was 1 gold. It was a large amount of money for a newbie.
They also seem to be wearing uncommon grade armor and both of their sword and staff were definitely not normal.
Ian gauged that both of these girls were from a rich family. Many rich players will use real money to buy in-game currency.
It makes the game experience somewhat easy but for poor players like Ian, they can only work hard and do quests to earn money.
"Thank you for saving me."
"Yes, if it wasn't for your help, that black wolf would have killed us."
After calming down, both the girls stood up from the ground and thanked Ian. If it wasn't for him, then they will surely be dead.
"It's not a problem. I was just passing by and decided to help you two. You should be more careful of the monsters around here."
Ian was going to leave after that. There was no reason to stay here and waste his time. He wanted to quickly start the hunt.
"Wait!!"
As Ian was leaving, the two girls stopped him. They looked at each other before speaking.
"If you are okay with it, can we form a party?"
"Yes, I think hunting monsters would be faster this way."
'Should I accept or not?'
Ian contemplated it for a second before agreeing with the request. It was his first time hunting in the field anyway, it would be faster with more people.
"My name is Ria. I am a cleric and my level is 12."
Ria was a girl with short silver hair. She was wearing a white robe with the crest of the church of light.
"My name is Clara. My class is of a swordsman and my level is 13. Thank you for saving me again."
Clara was a girl with red hair tied in a ponytail. She looked to be tough but from her earlier actions, Ian knows that she was a fragile girl in heart.
"My name is Ian. My level is 10 and I don't have any class."
"You are classless?"
"Yes, is there any problem?"
Ria shook her head indicating that there was no problem. Ian may be classless but by his earlier performance, she knows that he was a skilled player.
Clara thought the same and they quickly started hunting the monsters. The field has many monsters like foxes, wolves, and rabbits.
There were lucky to find a group of rabbits not far from where they were.
Slash!
"Take this!"
Clara shouted as she cut open a rabbit who jumped on her in a reflex action.
She was facing the group of rabbits head-on while Ria was continuously casting buff and healing spells on her.
In the midst of this, Ian was firing the arrows with great accuracy. The more he got used to handling the bow, the faster his hand movements became.
Swish! Swish!
"Gwack!!"
Ian shot two arrows at the rabbits attacking Clara from behind and they struck precisely on the head.
It was like he has some sort of accuracy increasing skill!!
Because of his backing, Clara was able to hunt the rabbits without worrying about her back. Ian was blocking the rabbits from attacking her.
Their hunting speed increased spontaneously because of Ian.
Ian quickly checked the skill information when he got that message.
* * *
-Passive skill
-Proficiency: Beginner Lv. 1
-The weak spot of the target is highlighted. Your accuracy rate is increased by 10% and the chances of making a fatal blow increased by 15%.
-You make a 50% additional damage when attacking a weak spot.
* * *
Ian looked at the skill with a smile on his face and he wanted to shout happily but he was still in front of two girls, he has to act civilly.
But he was really happy with his new skill.
'Hunting is the best thing.'
Ian can only shout in his heart for the time being.