Chapter 8
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The quest reeked. It turned out that there were some elemental demons in the sewers. Guess what they were building their bodies out of? And when they destroyed them, they exploded with a loud clang, spraying a foul-smelling slurry. Fortunately, the armor in the game only changes its appearance when it's destroyed, and they can't get dirty, but the virtual was disgustingly graphic, and I couldn't take it off because of the experience bonuses.
But the quest was repetitive, and I did it three times, safely getting my first level upgrade. When I emerged from the depths and passed the quest, I even took off my helmet and sniffed the room. No, it didn't smell like anything.
The rats in the basement matched the canon, and the innkeeper, probably due to her high reputation, gave two muffins in addition to the reward. That's nice. The food, as it should be, raised the HP.
Here's another thing: I need to use the camping skill more often. I'm not going to spend any more rings on this third-grade skill, so I'll have to train myself, in the process, so to speak. However, I will spend a lot more time in combat zones than the other players, so I will raise my skill to a higher level.
After chewing one bite of the cupcake, I returned to the Sewer Quest. I'm only level two, and I need to be at least level five for the second step of my grand plan to take over the world.
Find a mud bubble of an unpleasant color, strike it with my sword two or three times, dodging parts of the mud that fly in my direction, which magically become solid and remove two or three life points each, and wait for the spectacular explosion of the finally destabilized elemental, check the pile of unpleasant substance for loot, while trying not to think how the loot appears in the sewer, see "Mission met - kill mud elemental (1/20)". Apply the Healing Touch to me. Find a new elemental.
Repeat this twenty times. Go back to the crossroads, where the assistant warden of the city sewer sits. Pathetic lazybones: instead of going himself, he sits in a cozy place under the protection of two guards and sends newcomers instead of himself! Exploiter!
Get a handful of coppers as a reward. For the first time, they gave a whole silver coin, and then, since the quest is repetitive they began to give less and less each time.
Take the quest again. Find, hit, dodge, pick up, heal. And so over and over again.
Three times I'd come across " Big Worms," creatures two or three meters long and of a shitty yellow and white color, biting ten hits at a time. They would have been serious adversaries for the average newcomer, but for me, with the initial gift of increased characteristics, good armor for a novice, and the sword of a mentor, these worms seemed like just a welcome change in the endless succession of living mud flying around under their blows. Besides, each worm got the same experience as ten "bubbles.
When I got the fourth level, I couldn't stand it. The quest, designed for players with normal rates, I did for the seventeenth time! It's time to rest.
I took off the virtual helmet, called up the menu, and marked the disconnection of external devices, then rolled out a chair from the corner and tiredly stacked it in front of the monitor.
This is so much better! And I do not care that the experience per level now requires one and a half times more but I am sitting as a VIP looking at the monitor from the third person, rather than admiring the detailed drawing of the stream of filth.
After rinsing my face, I shook my finger at the reflection that looked at me sadly from the mirror. No! I'm going to finish that fifth level today, and don't ask for a rest! Here's a cup of coffee I can offer.
After choosing a variety and fiddling with the jest, I put coffee and a couple of sandwiches on the tray, "a la single man". That is, to make it more nutritious and less complicated, and returned to the monitor, where Vlad was staring thoughtfully at the quest giver.
Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
Click the cursor on the Assistant Warden, take the quest, and click on the map. The paladin rushes towards the feat, and I quietly chew toasted bread and drink a fragrant drink. That's right - the character fights and the player enjoys life!
Suddenly I froze with a sandwich in my mouth. Vlad's life points were suddenly creeping down, and too rapidly! I drummed on the attack button, then thought of using the Healing Touch, and finished the worm off on the last drop of my remaining strength. Now I could try to figure out what had actually happened.
What the heck, I ask you? Why did my level 4 paladin, who was just fine counting these same worms for a nice variety and useful piece of exp, suddenly almost die, despite all his bonuses?
Well, let's see... all my gear's in place, all my stats are normal, and no one's put any performance-depressing curse-debuffs on me. So what's the deal, then? I've been hitting him for almost a minute!
The tooltip screen gave me a list of possible problems, among which I could not find the incomprehensible reduction of the character's combat parameters. But following the link, I opened the "Character Characteristics Screen".
It turned out that Vlad had new characteristics from somewhere. Pairing, dodging, armor weight, and impact strength changed. How? Just now there were only four main characteristics and two class characteristics, plus three parameters that depended on these characteristics, and suddenly there were secondary characteristics, for some reason not shown in the virt, secondary skills, different parameters like " dodging", "parry" and "chance to strike ".
I decisively kicked the chair back into the corner and put on my virt helmet.
There are only six characteristics again. And an inconspicuous icon at the bottom. Glove, where are you... there! Clicking the virtual icon with a virtual finger brought up a menu with the intriguing title "Parameters not used when connecting devices".
Very, very interesting. Looks like I'm missing something in this game!
I had to upgrade to level five again in a full set of modifiers. It cost me seven dozen bubbles of filth, three completed quests, and another hour of intangible, but obvious stench hovering somewhere in there. On the way, there was a worm and with some apprehension, I tried to kill it. As expected, in the virtual mode it required six sword strokes and one "Healing Touch" after the fight, no complications, just a lot of fun. Finally, it sounded, "You have reached level 5!" - I climbed out of the hatch into the street, took a seat on the porch, and finally got out of the game.
It was one o'clock in the morning.
Two sips of half-drunk iced coffee and a stale leftover sandwich did nothing to lift my mood. I had to figure out what the hell was wrong with my character.
"Comp, search. The words " creators of destiny", " characteristics guide", and "beginner's guide". Output to the wall panel."
I leaned back in the sagging back of my chair and started looking: what did I miss?
As it turned out, almost nothing. Only about eighty percent of the game mechanics!
Not only did the modules give me experience bonuses and help me pump up my secondary stats, but they also opened up a different kind of game! I should have guessed that if I hit with a sword and shield myself, the parameters of defense and dodging can no longer be considered basic. After all, both defense and dodging are now dependent not on the game, but on the player. The attack parameters, when playing from the computer, determined the damage inflicted by complex formulas, but for the player with the virtual manipulator, only the level of damage inflicted was counted.
The accuracy of my hits, my strength, my chance of dodging a critical hit - all these dozens of parameters, the refreshment of nerds, the insanely dear to the heart of a real player, the percentage of increase - all this did not matter when playing in the virtual and, accordingly, did not count! I hit by myself, I determined the distance I would hit by myself, and I was my own main parameter. Strength and agility had more to do with the size of my inventory than with my fighting skills, and only the amount of damage I could do with a sword strike counted. But as soon as I stepped out and sent Vlad into battle with the click of my mouse, a different set of rules came into play. The inexorable mechanics kicked in, determining that a paladin of the fourth level had fought a worm of the seventh level, which meant that he would be penalized for the following parameters - and a long list...
Wow.
"Comp, search. The words "creators of destiny", "gameplay consoles". Give out video clips."
As I expected, there was a third game on the console in the same entourage, something between the virtual and the PC. Characteristics are even more rehashed, and skills are strangely displayed.
Interesting. How much does it have to cost to develop and support "Creators"? Three games, on different platforms, with different ways of calculating the actions of the game character, and all this combined in one world? Come on, you could release a dozen regular games!
Okay, it's not evening or even night anymore - it's getting light. The last time I was so busy playing a game was in seventh grade, and that was on vacation. But here, look how it caught me on!
Enough.
"Comp, sleep mode."
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