Meanwhile in the Wyverhert Empire's Capital, Chasing Glory and Cutting Arrogance are kneeling before a well crafted white wooden desk. They are inside a lower Noble's mansion which had been a Unique Quest. With steepled hands, Queen's Charybdis commander smiles thinly at her two youngest squadron leaders. Her pressure is heavy with anger, annoyance, and disappointment.
"Would you like to run what happened to me, Little Glory?"
"Big Sis Balm, it's not--" Arrogance clamps his mouth shut after trying to defend his captain. He halts though as the air tightens like a knife against his neck.
"While I appreciate you looking out for her, Glory is a grown lady who can answer for herself." `If you want to keep your levels, do not interrupt me.`
"Beyond a two level advantage, the two from Ruby Blade we engaged with displayed Apprentice to Novice Physique and Mentality. The duo should be half Experts, if they've received prior training. Ruby Blade also had prearranged an exit strategy." Glory reports.
As a reminder Physique is how natural one moves their virtual body, how they retain their balance, and the amount of information they can process visually. Mentality in turn is how fast one can calculate scenarios, speed and accuracy of their timing, and how aware one is of their surroundings. These standards for technical ability have been developed in virtuality over the past several decades.
Apprentice rank is the lowest, which is most independent players. Second to first rate organizations are made of Novice rank while Super Guild members contain Master rank. Apprentices either have a good Physique or Mentality while Novices a good balance of both. Combining Skills like Dark Avenue is a sign of Novice bordering the elusive Master combat standards.
If the top of the power scale is 100 with 1 being your average person, then Apprentices are a 10, Novices are 25, and Masters are 75.
These combat standards can be trained over time through numerous encounters. This was why many Guilds in particular sought out martial artists and archery or sword based sports players. These were people who would automatically be Novices, with the wall to Master not being nearly as high for others.
Then there was the peak of the natural world's ability:
Blessed with extreme stamina, Speed Experts are able to move their bodies from relaxation to maximum velocity instantly using minute movements.
Strength Experts can redirect their physical force within their bodies to exhibit twice their strength while having a higher regeneration rate.
Sensory Experts, the rarest of the three, extend their senses beyond their body. With a stronger focus they've awakened their intuition, or danger sense, into something passively accessible.
Following the earlier example, an Apprentice Expert would be 25 out of a 100, with a Novice Expert being 50 out of 100, and a Master Expert being 95 out of 100. Such natural abilities could be called an elevation.
Master ability combined with Expert power separate a first rate organization from the upper ranks. A first rate Guild Leader or Workshop Commander would be Master rank at best with several powerful Novices as Elders. A Super Guild or Elite Workshop would have hundreds of Master ranks as their core force. Moreover, each company of a hundred would then be led by a Master Expert.
Upper organization with their means and power had found a way to rapidly train Masters. Simulation encounters coupled with their own natural training regimen for each of the classes, like Syringa shared with Livid, tempered many to start from the peak of Novice. This was why first-rate Guilds hesitated against Ruby Blade and Lapis Tome, for they continued to do feats that screamed Super Guild or Elite Workshop training! Furthermore, what stops first-rates from advancing into Super or Elite status is the number of Experts, who could not be easily cultivated.
Ultra Guilds needn't be mentioned as they were a whole different monster entirely. There is a reason only five Guilds have that prefix but no Workshops did. It wasn't because of their number of Masters, which dwarfed multiple Upper Organization numbers. Nor was it how many Experts they had at their disposal, who were rare to others but was merely a basic requirement for core membership for Ultra Guilds. But whatever the true secret is, only those five knew.
"A budding Strength and Speed. It makes sense as to why you got caught off guard." Poison Balm nods as scans over the video.
Killing anyone below Master is easy enough for members of Queen's Charybdis. Her own proteges Chasing and Arrogance are able to kill new Masters themselves with enough preparation and time. However, assassinating an Expert took another Expert, otherwise, you'd die without knowing what happened.
Even so, the Enforcer duo could currently take Dark Avenue and Straw Monkey down if they got serious. While the wall to Master can be climbed in time, luck is a larger part of becoming an Expert.
"Ho hum, what to do? We already got paid for the job, though what we did mostly likely made Ruby Blade more popular than defame them. However we used up a precious resource and how my darling students were humiliated." Poison Balm tapped her index finger on her desk thoughtfully.
They couldn't retaliate against Ruby Blade, as her network had confirmed that little Workshop's combatants had largely vanished. Going after their Artisans would largely be unproductive as their levels largely came from crafting. It would also take some time to find out where their target was hiding, and if their potential was anything to go by, it wouldn't be worth the trouble in the long run.
"Little Glory, take your platoon and go farm for some more Whisling Blood. We used a good amount for this job," Poison Balm comes to a decision.
Whislings were big cat-like creatures who were hard to find because of their intangibility. The only sign of one nearby was a whistling growl. They had a unique ability to ignore all defenses 1 out of every 10 attacks. Such an ability could be given to Enforcer with a high kill count thanks to the monster's blood, creating a loophole to Artisan's invincibility in player confrontation.
Such an effect was only discovered through the same Unique Quest that gave Poison Balm nobility within the Empire they operated out of. Half of their current stock was currently being used for Poison Balm's own alchemy experiments.
"As for you, dear Arrogance, we crossed the bridge so now let's burn it. Take those who were with you earlier and wipe out Scissor Heart completely. I don't even want to remember its existence." The leader of Queen's Charybdis eyes glow with a violent light.
Cutting Arrogance gives an insane laugh before leaving. Everyone on both Continents is once again reminded why even the Ultra Guilds give them a wide berth. An almost first rate Guild is wiped from Renovel with merely twenty players over the next week.
While Queen's Charybdis begins to raise hell and reassert their place in virtuality, Syringa and her team are steadily clearing the Regional Dungeon. After facing the Stone type Ghoul, they fought the Wind ascribed Ghosts and Lightning honed Jiangshi.
Ghosts usually took a reduction from melee's Arts unless they were elementally powered, with Fire and Light doing almost double damage. However, besides Livid, the members of Ruby Blade have Twin Sphere energy coating their weapons which has powerful purifying ability. Dark Avenue especially does quadruple damage when using her sole Light based Art, Laser Slash!
Of the three undead, the Jiangshi are the hardest for the party to deal with. This is because they use potent Lightning beams that ignore players' defenses. Furthermore, the monsters' attacks do a Debuff over time. For 10 seconds after being struck, the [Stun] status attempts to take over the parties' bodies. Only Alexandrite and Opal with Lightning affinity as well as Hammerhead with Stone defenses, could easily shrug off the effect, while everyone else was slowly building up Lightning Resistance.
The fourth encounter is a mix of Ghouls and Ghosts, the fifth is Ghosts and Jianshi, and the sixth was Ghouls and Jianshi. After that, encounters have the three undead form a party-like structure with Ghouls as the Forefends, Ghosts as the Infantry, and Jianshi as the Casters.
Fighting waves of such groups is harsh even for the tier jumping Ruby Blade, but it is also excellent training. As they rested following the monster parties section, each member of Ruby Blade had to use their Upgrade Crystals on their Minor Artifacts.
Straw Monkey gained an ability called [Clay Mold], which further reduced damage from physical impact of Arts and Crafts.
Straw Kitty's [Wand of Fathoms] gave her summons and Frost Lynx interweaving water ribbons to protect and assail those that got close.
As for Opal Bat, her summons got increased Vitality and Dexterity plus a chance for attacks to pass through them with [Thundercloud Body].
Dark Avenue's is an active Skill called [Twire Flit], which allows her burst speed in attacks and movements for 30 seconds.
Mauve Hammerhead is similar in that [Stone Hide] raises his physical defense and magical resistance for 50 seconds. This meant physical damage would do 1/2 of the damage while magic would do 1/3 damage.
After clearing the past nine rounds, they have gained three more Common Chests following Alexandrite's lucky hands as well as another Elite Chest! While seemingly a small number, one should remember Chests were so rare that getting a piece of Bronze Equipment to fall from the sky was more likely. By this point they realized that only Materials and Gold dropped from the Mobs, of which there were many for their Artisans.
The first encounter had 10 Mobs and had evened out to 12 later with their levels being early to mid 20s. What lies ahead of them currently, guarding a gigantic metallic door, was three times that number. Outside of what they have fought before, six new 12 feet tall monsters are guarding the door. Each one has a blazing pink name hovered above them.
[Mecha Saber | Elite | Level 25| Higher]
[Mecha Guard | Elite | Level 25| Higher]
The Mecha Sabers are more humanoid in appearance with the exception of their long sabers for hands and silver bodies. The Mecha Guards are more bulbous and bulky with large tower shields for hands made from brass.
"I'll go test the waters." Syringa Fang announces, stretching before twirling her glaive. A faint turquoise light dispels from the outline, meaning no Lunar Energy is active. Nobody makes a move to stop her, as she's been slowly honing herself once she felt Livid's training was sufficient.
Dashing forward she weaves her way through the crowd of Undead towards the Mini Bosses in the back. While not as fast nor disorienting as Straw Monkey, Syringa smoothly maneuvers around all manners of attack. At first, everyone assumes Syringa is able to do so because of her new passive Skill Wisdom's Vision. Instead of her new 360 degree dynamic vision, it's as if she can sense danger ahead of time!