Chapter XIV Fields, dungeons, and labyrinths
When a monster was killed in Primal Vale, a screen appeared in front of the player that killed it. I took a peak over Kanade's shoulder:
REWARDS
EXP: 10
ITEMS: 0
LYRE: 0
I patted her on the should. "Boars have a chance of dropping a tusk, so bad luck that you didn't get anything, but good job. You should check your skills."
"How come?"
"You know our skills all start at zero and we max them out at one hundred, right? The first time we use a skill, it jumps from zero to one. The higher the skill level is, the harder it will be to level it, but the first level is always given."
Kanade opened her menu and scrolled over to the skills section. "My Archery skill is 1/100 and so is Flash Shot."
"That's good."
I looked back at Amos and Euphie. We never agreed to anything officially, but they were looking to me as the leader. I guess that was to be expected, they were novices and I was the experienced player... If only by two months.
In the upper right corner of my vision was my health bar in green. Under it was my magic bar, in blue. Since we were a party, under my health bar were each of my party members. Kanade's bars were both full.
I needed to see how well they would respond to battle. How talented they might be. I knew all the best spots around that city for grinding, the best quests, and the areas to avoid. I needed a team and if they had the potential for me to exploit, I was going to.
The Infernal Forest was new to me. Still, this was the very first day the servers were online. It couldn't be too dangerous.
"Amos, you're up next. Let's see some of that magic."
"You got it, boss!"
After Amos, we'd try Euphie out.
Two hours into our first grinding run, I was already level 3, while my friends had only leveled up one time. Each time a player leveled, they were given stat points. Once those points were spent, the only way to recover them was from certain unique quests that were incredibly rare. So players had to plan ahead and I explained that to all my friends.
I went over that with each one of them. It was important to consider how you wanted to develop your character later and start working in that direction early. That had been a mistake I had made my first time around, and it cost me. At least it had been during the beta, where mistakes were easy to correct.
Skills were a different beast entirely. The only way to level them was by constant use. There was no leveling up and spending points on your skills. And I would reinforce that as they level.
The day-night cycle in the game was six hours IRL. So twelve hours in the real world was a full day in Primal Vale. Our characters were summoned to this world at dawn, and it had been two hours since we started playing. Under normal circumstances, we would only have four hours until the city gates closed, but the day cycle would be artificially kept running until six in the morning since we were on the European server.
As we leveled, we kept close to the city. I wanted to venture further into the forest, but staying close to the city made regeneration easier. If we stepped under the overpass close to the gate, we were technically within the city borders, and our health regenerated to full. We didn't have to use any potions or spells.
But there were only Boars close to the town and they were weak. I was level three and the rest were two. It wouldn't be impossible for them to level, but it was going to be harder with just hunting Boars.
I looked at the time. It was just past eleven. We might have been able to level more if we didn't stay close to the city, but it was a trade-off. Those who went further into the forest would have to use their potions. If an avatar died in the field, all of its items would be lost. If the avatar was in a party, team members could collect those items, but if they died as well...
Or if someone got to them first, those items would be gone forever. That wasn't the only penalty for dying out in the field. An avatar would lose ten percent of their current EXP, to be given to a pker or lost in the void if they died by monsters. That was one reason why duels had become so popular in the open world. Duels mitigated those losses.
It was a trade-off. Sticking close to the city meant weaker monsters. Less EXP. It was a trade-off, but one they'd have to make. Now that each of them was more familiar with the game and moving their bodies in combat, I felt more confident taking them deeper into the forest. It wouldn't be long before the mobs this close to the city were hunted dry.
Between all of that and the number of Boars we killed, we had more lyre than when we started the game. That meant we could afford more potions and food to bring during our hunt. We went to the bazaar once more to load up.
The only one who had to buy more weapons was Kanade. "They shatter too easily," she said, buying fifty more arrows.
"They have low durability," I told her. "The weapons are too weak to be repaired by a blacksmith either. Better arrows would come to the city, once the Infernal Forest had been cleared."
"Cleared?" Euphie asked, hauling the scythe over her shoulder. "is the forest a dungeon?"
"No, it's not. The Infernal Forest itself is a Field. Fields are everywhere that isn't a settlement, dungeon, or labyrinth."
"I thought there were safe zones in the forest?"
Kanade at least played video games, even if she wasn't as much of a gamer as Amos or myself. Euphie, it turned out, was talented in killing monsters. Even so, she was still a newbie and she didn't have any of that experience.
"There are safe zones in the forest. A Settlement Safe Zone is different from a Wild Safe Zone. Settlement Safe Zones are only in cities, towns, and villages. When you step foot in one of those safe zones, your health is restored to max. Any status effect is suspended until you cure it or leave the safe zone. Monsters can't enter. You can freely log out. And PKing becomes impossible since you can't lose any health. The only way to die in a Settlement Safe Zone is to agree to a Death Duel.
"Wild Safe Zones are different. They freeze status effects, but they don't restore health. PKing is impossible, but your avatar takes ten minutes to disappear when you log off. If a player comes across your avatar, they can push it out of the safe zone and kill you."
Euphie nodded. "What's the difference between a field, a dungeon, and a labyrinth?"
"Fields are everywhere that isn't a settlement, dungeon, or labyrinth. Different fields will have different monsters, some stronger, some weaker, and some with different effects. Each field has a Field Boss that respawns over time. When you enter a new field, dungeon, labyrinth, or settlement, the game of it will appear in the center of your vision.
"Dungeons are always underground. They're a complex with higher-level monsters than any of the surrounding fields. They have treasures and unique items, but they're more dangerous. Dungeons always have two Mini-Bosses that you can run into randomly. At the center of the Dungeon is the Central Chamber, where the Dungeon boss resides. The Dungeon Boss Drops are the best and they offer the most experience.
"Labyrinths... Are challenging to explain. Labyrinths are large tower complexes that protrude from the ground. Think Dungeon, but above ground. At the beginning of the game, labyrinths are always at the center of a region. A region might have multiple fields, dungeons, and settlements within its borders. Regions are also locked. You cannot leave a region until you clear the Regional Labyrinth.
"Once a Labyrinth is cleared, you'll be able to go to the top. There will be a Teleport Gate to send you back to the largest settlement in the region. An hour after the Labyrinth has been cleared, it will crumble, killing everyone that's still inside. The system will announce it is cleared and give you an hour to get out.
"The only way to clear a labyrinth is to kill the Labyrinth Boss. The Labyrinth will have monsters stronger than anywhere else in the region. The Labyrinth Boss will be the stronger boss in the region, though the four Mini-Bosses that roam the labyrinth will be as strong as Dungeon and Wild Bosses."
I hoped that would explain everything to her, but Euphie raised her hand again. "What's a Wild Boss?"
"A boss that can randomly spawn anywhere. It will always be higher level than any of the other bosses, which is why Wild Bosses don't spawn in locked regions."
"Where is the first locked region?" Amos asked. He twirled his wand like he couldn't wait to challenge the labyrinth. I had to give him credit.
"We're in the first locked region. Once all the locked regions are cleared, we'll have access to the whole European Server. After that, when labyrinths appear, they will no longer be the center of a region. They'll become like Wild Bosses and spawn randomly, only to be destroyed when they're cleared."
"France is a locked region?" Euphie exclaimed.
"Yes and no. If we clear this labyrinth, there is one more we need to clear if we want access to the rest of the European Server. If I had to judge by the beta test, I'd say we're a couple of months off. We just cleared the France Labyrinth when the test ended."
"Is there a dungeon around here? I think I'd like to try my hand at it," Kanade said.
"There is, but we're too low-level. It's a level ten dungeon, so you at least need to be at that level to challenge it. Even if we wanted to give it a shot, it's below the Marquis palace. There's a certain quest line you have to clear first."
"Can you tell us about it?" Kanade asked,
"I didn't clear it. When the system announced the dungeon was open, I was in the Faery Lake."
"Then we should go further," Amos said, pointing his wand over the city walls. "But first, I want to try some of that bread."
"... Are you serious? You know it's burnt, right?"
"So what? I want to know what food tastes like here. The three of us don't have our own Neural Spheres, and we can't go eat on that other VR game."
"You're not missing much," I said. I wanted to hurry, but Euphie and Kanade seemed to be agreeing with Amos. "The food in this game tastes a lot better. The other game is an imitation."
The imitation was good, but it was a bit bland.
Still, if they wanted to eat burnt bread, who was I to stop them?
I bought a small glass of wine to enjoy the show. While we couldn't get drunk in the game, our avatars would suffer a drunk effect. The drunker the avatar, the more debuffs it would endure.
One cup of wine wasn't going to trigger the status effect though, so I got to enjoy watching my friends try and eat the burnt bread.
"This is awful!"
What did you expect for the cheapest food in the game? The only people desperate enough to eat it were the ones suffering from the hunger effect.
Oh well. It was amusing to watch.
***
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