Haru: Novice, Level 8/20
Optifex: Initiate, Level 1/20
Haru stared at the quest complete window, still trying to process what happened to her. She had never heard of this Oracle. The city of gold wasn’t anywhere in the game. She couldn’t help but to wonder where she just went, and why she was shown that place. In the menu was a list of jobs that she could pick from: Legionnaire, Initiate, Footpad, Apprentice, or Acolyte. Each of these was a first tier that could eventually evolve into a much more powerful second, and even third, tier jobs after leveling and questing.
“What did you pick?” Opti called out excitedly.
Haru jolted from her companion’s question, his voice the way out from being lost in her own head.
“I, um…” Haru blinked, looking over the list. She remembered what Oracle spoke about—Haru’s design.
Haru couldn’t resist wanting to help others. While she didn’t know the intent behind her own design, if there was a reason to her existence in the game, it was to be a guide. Her old encounter was a stepping stone, a means to open the world to the player. Then there was the rest of the group she stumbled upon.
Emu seemed to want to be a part of her party, why else would he trek all the way back to the start? Alara was no doubt following Emu’s every step. Opti seemed serious about helping Haru out in her real mission to take down the demon. So, her decision was going to be weighed against them as a party composition.
Haru’s choices came down to Footpad and Acolyte. Leveling Footpad would make the ranged physical and utility melee trees available. Its tier 2 choices were Archer or Thief. Though Thief required levels in Initiate to unlock. While being able to control the flow of combat, it wasn’t something Haru thought she would be good at.
Acolyte was the healer, but it also opened another main tank job at tier 2, Crusader. But the crusader required levels in Legionnaire. The other tier 2 acolyte evolution was Priest, a much more efficient healer with lots of utility. This seemed to be more of her style, to make sure everyone survives the fight.
Haru reviewed the quest reward menu, and it seemed there was really only one choice. She selected ‘acolyte’ and then completed the quest. Momentary weakness washed over her as her maximum HP reduced and her level decreased to 1. A spark of inspiration struck, and she realized that she now knew the level 1 acolyte spell ‘Mend’.
Haru turned to Opti and smiled. “I went with acolyte. It should be fun.”
Opti started shadowboxing. “Maybe we won’t have to have so many near-death experiences now.”
The two returned to the starting area to find Emu and Alara both still leading players through the first quest.
“No, don’t run!” Alara shouted at a player who turned to flee, seeing his health was at 25%.
The routing player had full enmity, which meant the boar was focused on him. The enemy took to chasing the fleeing player as soon as he bolted. It looked like he was about to die.
Haru raised a hand into the air. “Mend!”
Green numbers appeared over the player’s head, and he was healed to 100% HP. The boar smacked him almost immediately after, bringing him down to 75%. He slowed and looked at Haru.
“Go ahead, get it.” Haru motioned with both hands toward the boar.
The player turned and started auto-attacking again. The rest of his party caught up with the boar and reengaged. Alara evoked an icicle which she then launched. The boar fell shortly after.
Alara sighed in exhaustion as she left the party. “Nice save.” The mage approached Haru and Opti.
The mage, monk, and priest looked around at the apparent emptiness around the fountain of the starter area.
“You were busy.” Haru smiled.
Alara nodded. “Too busy. And I thought raiding was hard. Grinding boars with new players is just as difficult for different reasons.”
Emu left his party and joined the other three, who lingered near the fountain. “Phew, I didn’t expect to get everyone sorted out but look at that.” He nodded, satisfied.
This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.
Haru was worried. “I didn’t expect you to be so efficient. Opti and I are back to level 1 again. Should we just go back to questing?”
“Uhm.” A meek stranger’s voice called out.
The four looked around, confused by the apparent lack of anyone around them. But Haru looked down to find a player squatting against the base of the fountain. He was the one who just spoke.
“Oh, did you need help?” Haru chirped.
“Um, um,” the stranger shifted, still squatting. “I, um.”
Haru immediately knew why the player seemed stifled by their presence. “Too shy to ask for help?” She scrunched her face playfully.
The player grumbled and looked away.
Haru sent party invites to Emu, Alara, Opti, and the player. “We can do one more quest run for good measure, right?”
“Yeah!” Emu did the fist pump emote.
Alara looked to him and exhaled in exasperation.
“I want to try this new Initiate ability.” Opti flexed.
Without a word, the player—Tacito, accepted and stood. The five then walked over to the pumpkin patch once again filled with boars and engaged the nearest. In one round of auto-attacks the beast died. Then another was felled. Tacito leveled up.
“Ding!” Emu smiled.
Haru looked at her experience bar, finding it half-full. “It takes a lot longer to level now.”
Emu nodded. “They make Novice a little easier as a bit of a friendly introduction to the game. Once you get your first job, you’re a real player. Then you have to actually work to make progress.”
Haru liked that idea, proud of her accomplishment. She was finally playing the game for real. It was the first time that she felt like this whole mission was actually doable. She got ready for another fight as Emu used the legionnaire’s ability to charge into battle.
The rest of the party engaged the last boar and downed it in no time. After all the tanking Emu did, Haru finally got to use her spell on him and get his HP back to full.
“There we go.” Emu put his sword away. “Let’s get this turned in, then you can come with us to do dragonlings for a bit.”
Tacito finished the boar quest and started the next.
“Ding!” Emu called out as the novice leveled up from turning in.
The five arrived back at the dragonling-infested town to find it anything but that. The horde of new players they had helped through the boars now swarmed the town. While there were a lot of downed players, the number were far fewer now that they’d learned that grouping up was safer and easier than going it alone.
Leading the way, Emu strolled through the town with an impressed look. “I guess we don’t have to avoid this place anymore.”
Around them, players swarmed the tiny dragons, taking them down with a flurry of attacks. The sound of swords striking enemies echoed throughout the otherwise desolate town.
“This is going to take forever…” Alara whined, clutching her staff.
They encountered a green dragonling patrolling around a house deeper in town.
“There, pull that one.” Emu leaned toward the mage and pointed toward the enemy.
With a quick snap of her staff, an ice bolt rocketed toward the foe down range. Opti raised his fists and began to charge.
“Wait, wait, wait.” Emu called out, putting a hand on the initiate’s shoulder. Opti halted.
“Look there.” The legionnaire pointed at a swarm of dragonlings just beyond the incoming foe. “It would be bad for those to agro you. Let it come to us. Pulling is one of the reasons this game has ranged DPS. It’s so we don’t have to get swamped by a crowd of enemies.”
The three melee party members gathered around the encroaching dragonling as it came safely in range to attack. Alara put space between her and Haru, the mage positioning herself at max casting range, near a house in case she needed to break line-of-sight.
After healing Emu again, Haru realized she was out of mana.
“Alara, what do I do? I can’t heal anymore.” Haru never had this problem before. She was used to casting spells and using abilities without having to manage resources like this.
The mage continued to cast but looked over towards the acolyte. “You need to go into recovery stance. That’s part of the caster meta. Food is expensive and can only be used outside combat. Potions are even more costly. You need to balance how much time you spend recovering and how much time you’re casting.”
Haru blinked, nervous about taking a knee during combat. But watching Emu’s health decrease, the acolyte dropped into recovery mode. A tick gave her about 10% of her mana back. Compared to the flow of combat, recovery moved at a glacial pace. It was going to take Haru a long time to master recovery tactics.
Seeing Emu’s health drop below 50%, the acolyte panicked and jumped up. She started to cast mend. As the progress meter rose, he was struck by the dragon’s stun ability, knocking him back. Emu was down to 10%.
Mend finished. Emu’s health returned to 100%.
“Pay more attention.” Alara whispered harshly.
“Sorry.” Haru hushed back.
A ring of fire appeared around Opti. “Pummel!” He began striking the dragon in rapid-fire succession. He landed six hits and the beast went down. That must have been the Initiate’s level 1 ability.
“Nice proc.” Emu called out. “That usually only adds a single extra hit on average. Sometimes it does one less than a normal auto-attack. That’s how RNG goes I guess.”
Opti and Haru leveled up.
“Ding!” Emu smiled.
Haru felt like she should know a new spell, but it was missing from her ability list. She checked her spell book. She was of level to know ‘Bless’ but couldn’t use it.
“Alara, why can’t I use this spell? I’m at the level for it.” Haru turned to the mage.
“You have to go to the job master to learn new skills. They’re all in Fairbank, which we haven’t gotten to yet.” Alara shrugged. “You get your first skill for free when first changing to the job, then you need to buy the rest.”
In the distance, a hulking lizard emerged from around one of the buildings. It was about as wide as the road, and three times as long.
“A mini-boss.” Emu pointed.
“Let’s get it, I got more pummeling to do.” Opti brandished his fists.
Taci looked around without much to say but kept his blade at the ready.
“Alara,” the legionnaire turned to the mage, still pointing at the drake, “pull.”
The mage sighed. “I think all those boar kills went to his head. This is going to be a rough fight. We don’t have good gear or all our skills.”
Alara ran toward the mini-boss and started to cast ice bolt.