[A/N: This episode might be too information-packed for many however the information shared will have a huge impact on the story's development later on. Normally I would upload one Chapter a day but since this chapter is information-packed without much action I will upload a second chapter.]
[Contents of this chapter:
How skills work and are earned by the players.
How Dungeons work and their difficulty.
The main reason behind Cyrus's beginner village selection.]
Cyrus logged back on, as it was previously stated time ratio is 3:1 so during the Eight hours Cyrus was offline one full day had passed inside the game.
Cyrus had one last thing to do and that was to get a letter of recommendation from the village chief.
This letter was really important and considered priceless as you could use this letter to participate in NPC auctions which are private auctions that players can't participate in unless they are recommended by an NPC with some sort of background, the recommendation from a village chief would be accepted as they are veterans or retired high-ranking officials that were bestowed the title and rights to govern the village by the king.
Cyrus approached the village chief's residence and knocked on the door.
The village chief opened the door and was surprised to see Cyrus as many NPCs had said that he was planning to leave the village.
William: Hello young lad I thought you had already left the village what were you doing for the past day?
Cyrus: Hello chief, I had some matters to attend to back in my world so I had to leave your world for a short period of time.
William: Is there anything you need from me that you came to visit me?
Cyrus: Chief it might seem like a shameless request but I was wondering if I could receive a letter of recommendation from you?
William: Shameless? what are you talking about everyone in the village loves you, you have helped a lot of villagers during the past 7 days there is no way that would be shameless I thought you wanted something valuable. wait I will write the letter right now.
Cyrus was relieved that there were no problems with getting the recommendation letter as this letter was the main factor in his upcoming plans.
William: Young Cyrus here take this letter and this old book it might help you in your future endeavors.
Cyrus: Chief this... this is priceless chief I can't have this.
William: HAHAHA it's okay youngster this old man doesn't need this book anymore take it, it will help you a lot.
Cyrus: Ty chief I will treasure this.
*ding*
[ You have been approved by the village chief.
You have received a title: Favorite of Krenapal Village.
Your 20% discount is now activated.
You can now receive hidden quests and personal quests from NPCs of Krenapal.]
Now it hit Cyrus why his 20% discount didn't activate during the shopping spree he wasn't approved by the village chief and he didn't immediately receive the title.
Cyrus bid farewell to Village Chief and left the village as he was looking at the old book this book was a book containing many informations on different types of monsters.
Cyrus made his way towards the real main reason as to why he had chosen Krenapal village.
In the year 2209 Krenapal Village was hailed as the best starting village in Roya Online for Assassin class players.
Sure the horned Rabbits were more expensive than other starting monsters making it more rewarding.
But the real reason was something that the Velasquez family's sub guild discovered after 7 years of research or 21 in-game years of research.
And that was the fact that you could learn one of the most OP skills in the game inside a hidden dungeon near Krenapal village.
Now as to why it took them 21 years to realize this, we have to do a little bit of explaining.
In many games, the only way to learn skills is to receive a hidden quest by some NPC or be bestowed the skill by either a powerful NPC or by reaching a certain threshold in your chosen class the easiest way would be learning through skill Scrolls.
Roya Online contained all of the methods mentioned above but there was one more way to learn these skills and that was to learn them through training.
Of course, you had to fulfill certain hidden conditions but it was still the most preferred method. if one player was aware of these conditions then that player could tell other players about it and they could learn it as well there were no rules forcing you to receive the quest from the NPC. if you could fulfill the conditions then you would receive the skill.
Now as to why Krenapal was so important it would be a hidden dungeon located inside the mountains north of the village.
This particular Dungeon had some notable traits that one could use to learn this skill in gaming terms you could say that one could speed run the process needed to learn this skill inside this dungeon this particular skill was the foundation of Cyrus in his past life it was a bit tricky to learn.
It took Cyrus 5 in-game months to learn it and that was record time, before the Velasquez family found a way to learn this skill in just 1 or 2 in-game days the difference was day and night.
The skill in question didn't sound impressive on paper or didn't have any cool names like crescent moon slash or mountain splitting strike or things of the sort.
It was Called {Heightened Senses} and the description of this skill was as followed.
[{Heightened Senses}
A skill that is refined through an assassin's hard work and dedication to the art of assassination.
Increases one's senses by 30%.
Increases one's sensitivity to the surrounding aura by 40%.
Increases the chance of discovering enemies with stealth-type abilities by 50%.
Increases one's reflexes by 30%.
State: Passive.]
Many deemed this skill a bug in the system it wasn't because of the reflexes or ability to discover hidden enemies.
The mentioned Aura in the skill was something that one would be easily overlooked but it was later on discovered that it was a cheat of sorts and that it should be removed from the game after an Assassin achieved a class called Mana Assassin.
Mana Assassin was a class that one could say was a mix of AP and AD assassins of various games now what this means is that these assassins dealt mixed damage.
They dealt magical damage by using their skills while dealing physical damage through normal attacks, it was really OP and tanks had a headache dealing with Mana assassins while in reality, they shouldn't have any problem dealing with assassins.
Aura mentioned in the skill meant sensitivity towards blood-lust, Poison mist, Harmful gases, and MANA this skill increased one's affinity towards mana making it easier for them to control mana.
Mana in Roya Online was a source that one needed to learn and utilize on their own unlike other games there was no help from the system unless you were a class that heavily relied on mana the system then would help you till you reached LVL 15 after that you would be on your own.
Why Cyrus could use this skill despite it being an assassin skill or why he needed this skill was because:
Gunners could use this skill and learn it because the Gunner class was more associated with assassins rather than rangers. and why a Gunner needed this skill was because higher affinity with mana meant higher mana regeneration rate.
And since Gunners used a lot of mana to reload their guns the regeneration rate that came with this kill made it a lot easier for them.
Cyrus was determined that no matter what he would get this skill one way or another.
After traversing through the jungle as if it was his back yard he reached the designated location, deep inside the mountains.
[Congratulations you are the first-ever player to discover a hidden Dungeon. +100 fame, for the upcoming 5 days XP and loot are increased by 50%.]
[Hidden Dungeon: Mountain Goblins]
[World-wide announcement.
Player Cyrus Shahmanesh has discovered the first Hidden Dungeon inside the game.]
Cyrus frowned upon seeing the worldwide announcement as he would rather not be discovered this early into the game but he didn't voice his displeasure and selected the highest difficulty as he entered the Dungeon.
There are 3 types of Dungeon found all across Roya Online.
1) Open World Dungeons:
These Dungeons are small worlds of their own that have their own government and settlements and how one clears this dungeon depends on themselves.
2) Endurance Dungeons:
These Dungeons are the most ideal for leveling, The players are spawned either inside a flat land or spawned inside a building with strategic advantages depending on the difficulty they choose to tackle the dungeons, waves of monsters spawn endlessly with interval break times depending on the difficulty the raids are finished either when a party is wiped out or they gave up.
3) Levelled Dungeons:
These Dungeons are the most preferred for looting as each floor has its boss and loot chest. One's Progress will only reset only after the player dies. Upon restarting the dungeon players can't loot the loot chests that they have already looted.
There 5 levels of difficulty for each dungeon.
1) Easy
2) Normal
3) Medium
4) Hard
5) Specialized
The amount of loot and XP scales with the difficulty chosen.
The main difference between hard and Specialized is that up to hard mode only the level of monsters and their mastery over combat increases while they simultaneously get stronger, In Specialized mode, however, they take full advantage of their Racial Traits and advantages.