Enjoy!
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Within 5 minutes, Dale left the Catacombs with David strapped to his waist.
"... Cough!... Damn..."
"Cough... /Clears Throat/... That place is filled with so much dust..." Dale said as he stepped out of the stairway leading to the Catacombs
/Grab.../
Once he was back at the Church, he immediately grabbed his sword, thinking:
'I'm not really fearfully for the sword, but it's better to prevent the problem rather than fixing it later when it arrives, so keeping an eye on it wouldn't really hurt me much, though I need to practice caution as I carry it around.'
'What if one of the curious kids rushes into me and I turned around too fast?... The sword may just slap in his face and that wouldn't be pretty to see, even if the kid got out of it unharmed.'
'Not only that, due to its characteristics, if someone with enough determination appears, wouldn't they be capable of actually doing it?'
'Although there is the case of the sword choosing its wielder, that isn't really something I can bet on as someone more qualified than me could always appear.'
'And even if I can take the sword back by force, the spiritual impact on the Villagers, especially Testros would be quite big if they were to learn about it.'
'Albeit, I only heard this once from old man Testros, so I can't say if it was symbolism or the truth, but I'm inclined in believing the sword holds such capabilities deeming how I was able to wield it from the start.'
'As for the reason why I'm bringing David with... It's due to the fear of the players trying to steal him again.'
'Because not only is he a friend, but he is an irreplaceable asset to the Village while also being the core item/subject of several Quests, one of them being related to Resko's survival as we need him to deal with the creature sealed below the Village...'
'If I can't do it on my own by the time it is unsealed.'
'I can't allow him to be kidnapped…'
Dale then turned his sight to a pile of loot on the ground…
"I should also grab this while I can."
'Although I'm trying to hide my identity as a player, these items will need to be cleaned eventually.'
'And I doubt these old farts would put in the effort to clean them, because of this, they may very well ask me to store everything in my inventory.'
'If there is a player near me when that happens, my facade may fall… After all, the Villagers don't know what a player is, and for them, everyone's the same.'
'There could also be the dangers of someone getting themselves hurt from messing around with those items, it's not like they're safe objects, to begin with...'
Dale started to store everything in his inventory, and within a minute, everything had been stored.
"Tsk." He said in annoyance as he opened his inventory tab
'It's almost full…'
"Sigh."
'It's not like the space was infinite…'
'The inventory function is obviously, like many things, different for Hardcore players…'
'Normal players have a limited number of slots, where each slot can house up to a full stack of a particular Item…'
'An item stack value is different for each item, so some may stack only 3 times while some other 99 or even 999 times.'
'Standard players come with around 100 slots, which is a lot, but it can and will get full very fast, this size can be expanded by leveling up and obviously, through special unique items such as Inventory bags and Quests...'
'Together with whatever other methods people will find about in the future.'
'On the other hand, there are about an infinite number of slots for Hardcore players, making this feature one of the few where we're better than Standard players!...'
'In theory... As the inventory is limited by the user's strength, or in other words, the classic Carry weight value.'
'Its value is calculated based on my Stats, such as Strength and Constitution, plus a few more things.'
It's also one of the few things that actually uses a formula in the Hardcore player' playstyle...'
'I collected about 500 items from the players I killed, this already including the items dropped from the dead players outside the Church, and from the ones that hit the bag before I arrived.'
'Their items were dragged to the Church and thrown into the pile as per the player's Quest requirements.'
'Another thing that is worth mentioning is that, for normal players, when they are in combat or in a Dungeon, the majority of their inventory soft-blocks so they don't have access to a massive movable supply storage'
'Although they can still store things within it, they are limited to normally just a small portion of it, also called Critical inventory.'
'This doesn't affect HardCore players obviously, which is a bonus.'
'Lastly, tourism players have the biggest inventory of them all and are normally not restricted... They are perfect Mules...'
'In fact, some Player Clans and Groups are starting to abuse their mechanics... But that doesn't matter right now.'
"... I'll need to dump these somewhere later…" Dale said as he rubbed his forehead
'For now, time to go to Misgurd and see what he means by 'Discussing the future of the Guild' with me.'
…
/Later.../
Dale left the Church, gazing at the sun on the horizon.
"It's soon going to be Dusk…"
'And the Villagers will come back… No, they should be back already.'
"The previous commotion surely attracted their attention, they won't be able to remain in the fields after that..."
'Who would? What I did must've been seen across several Km... Well, probably not since the sun is still up.'
"Though I imagine someone stood behind to at least check on the Crops and Cattle just in case... It would be catastrophic if something happened to the food supply due to this mess..."
'Still, I wonder what their reactions will be…'
'On that note, I'll need to pay attention to the problems that will arise upon their meeting with the players...'
Dale turned his head to the side and looked at the Village below the Hill.
Kicking the ground, Dale began to run.
…
/A minute later…/
"It's so stuffy..." Dale said as he looked at the Guild
There was a large crowd surrounding the Guild, every single outsider, be they from a Guild or not were here, waiting.
After all, Guild/Clans wouldn't be the only ones coming here, many lone-wolf players came along as well to try their luck... Or to just enjoy the game in a different area from others.
Some may even be here without understanding the problems behind it all, either old or young people that can't really understand things.
Though to most of those people, Azimuth possesses a parenting/family system to help those that cannot make choices for themselves go somewhere they would better enjoy based on their profile settings and gameplay information if there was any.
That is why there were no Kids or old people in Resko, there may be in the future, especially for the old, but right now, the System of Azimuth was making sure newbies didn't kill themselves due to poor choices, ending up with a terrible user experience, complaints and eventually... Quitting the game.
Even if they are at fault.
It's hard to defend a supermassive company, but players can act stupid, the early 2000 "game reporters" were one such example of retarded behavior...
Even in the most simple of stages, people can struggle, their brains simply cannot connect as if they were being presented with alien tech.
Some people were simply not meant to play video games...
Anyway, everyone apart from Rodi of course, who was now actively working on Dale's small quest.
There were also Guild representatives who came here to observe the situation, after all, the first Guild to acquire a Legendary Item would surely rise quickly...
Or even if no one acquired it, Resko was, right now, a hotspot on the forums, the Clans worldwide needed to at least have an information source in the city, and it had to be faster than news channels on the web, even if they were super fast already.
"..."
'Now that I think about it, I gave Rodi 2 quests, and I have yet to set a proper reward for him…'
'It's not like he came to be to redeem the first one yet, but'll happen eventually.'
'In a sense, this mess worked in my favor as had him approached me to clear it, then I would've been in a bind.'
'So the options are...'
'Experience is off the table, I'll never part with my precious experience points, next.'
'Should I give him Gold? But that is rather useful to me, and it'll surely not be appealing to him…'
'How about the gear that dropped? I don't need it…'
'But would he need it? He's a sponsored player from a Guild, so unless I give him some of the pricier objects, he won't really put in the effort next time I give him a similar Quest…'
'In any case, that would be a waste.'
'Of course, I'm not going to use these items, I have no need for them as I have my own things.'
'I did a small check on the way here, yet found nothing of substantial value.'
'Selling them on the market would be even worse as the village may need them eventually.'
'Their current equipment isn't bad as it's made using local materials and ingredients, but even though this gear is low Level, Barme might be able to work his magic and do something better.'
'After all, a Level 1 iron sword and a Level 25 iron sword are made from the same material…'
'Smelting these useless items to make something more worthwhile may work… If not, I'll just go with giving them out as Quest rewards.'
'Gold is simply currency, and albeit wrong, items can be taken as Hard currency right now...'
'Regardless... I'll think about this later.'
...
"Hm? Is that?..."
As Dale approached the players, he saw Tina standing on the balcony of a tall house, overlooking the crowd.
She was making sure none of these outsiders would step out of their boundaries and sneak away.
Dale raised his hands and greeted her, and after noticing his presence she did the same before going back to her job.
These actions didn't go unnoticed as his presence started to spread around the players…
It wasn't unexpected, Dale was over 195 Cm tall and he was carrying a massive greatsword on his back, his muscles were also no joke and his build was simply oppressing.
He wasn't a bodybuilder hunk, but his shirt was simply too thin and it was also sleeveless.
The players made way for him, probably not wishing to get on his bad side after what happened.
No one wanted to go die and lose their Levels like the other players, although their case was much worse...
Dale also ignored them, although he did turn his gaze to a certain girl, it was the girl that had fallen unconscious when Rodi started to spell bullshit…
He had already noticed by the emblem on her shirt that she was different from the others of her Guild/Clan.
She was probably the one in charge of their small group as he did not believe Rodi would be calling the shots...
"Hm?...!"
'It's him!'
She noticed his gaze, and their eyes crossed.
/Silence/
For a moment, she felt very tense.
She remembered that the reason she was still here and not logged off was due to Rodi's previous warnings.
If he hadn't said that and insisted on not participating, then she would've definitely participated in the fight for the items and Gold, at least, not before a minor investigation of the Village.
She would never let greed take over her mind, her position didn't allow for that.
But it was also true that Resko had absolutely nothing to show...
A preliminary analysis would've told her that this was merely a countryside village…
Meaning…
They had no way to intervene or stop the players from stealing the items in the Church.
And albeit she felt weird about such treasures being in plain sight, she would've gone for it like the others...
In fact, their plan was almost successful.
As most of the Villagers were working in the fields, leaving only a few old men behind who were too occupied to notice that their Church was being raided…
Although this raises some questions, such as… What were the gate guards doing?!
Dale didn't know, but the gate guards were just as perplexed about this as he was.
When the players started to rush into the village after spawning, they tried their best to shoot as many of them as they could, but they were eventually overwhelmed.
They weren't killed since the difference in Level between them and the Level 5 players were too high, but they were still immobilized…
They were extremely shocked, as for them, they had suddenly been mobbed by unknown creatures, their death was right in front of their eyes...
Poor guards.
"..."
After studying his surroundings for a little longer, Dale finally arrived in front of the Guild.
He raised his hand to knock on the door under everyone's gaze when it suddenly burst open and a big hand pulled him inside as it grabbed his shirt:
"Come here brat! Took you long enough!" Misgurd said angrily from within
/CLACK!/
The doors to the Guild closed up with a bang as Dale vanished behind them!
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Notes
That's about it, normal releases from here on... Peace!