There was no crying out, no roaring, no pausing. No hesitation. Odin's leap was followed up with a "Side Strike". The unsheathed sword slashed at the three Players immediately sending them flying. The STR judgment was successful. Seizing the opportunity, Jake dashed after the Cleric whose Health Bar now showed a little over 50% remaining HP: he had not put any APs in VIT.
Odin "Chopped" down while the Cleric was still up in the air, in the state of Low Float, proccing a Critical Strike. The 20 Physical Damage devoured the remaining Health Points, and the body fell to the ground. First Player Kill.
Jake had used a feature of Arcadia to trigger the Critical Strike. If an Attack landed either on a vital body part or while an Enemy suffered from Crowd Control like Low Float, a Critical Strike would be triggered. A simple mechanic that rewarded the skill of those who landed Crowd Control.
Odin turned around. The Witch and the Spellblade had just recuperated from their hard landing after the Low Float. Still dazed, the Witch barely reacted as Odin slashed his arm, his throat and stabbed him in the belly. Three Basic Attacks. Two Critical Strikes, each dealing 125% damage, the normal multiplier for Basic Attacks. The Witch's [Leather Shirt] was useless, as the Witch's HP bottomed out.
Odin's [Coarse Sword] lost a point of Durability after forcefully piercing a piece of Equipment. He jumped back, barely landing on his backfoot, as a [Copper Blade] enveloped in electricity slashed his previous position. The Spellblade had finally reacted, Buffing himself and attacking his Party's attacker. However, Jake had noticed him and escaped the strike in the nick of time. Putting more APs in AGI might just have payed off. The Spellblade huffed as he followed up with a wild slash of his blade.
Spellblades were a fun Magical Class. By applying Buff-type Enchantments to their blades, they could apply both Physical and Magical Damage as well as Status Effects to their opponents. However, they needed a more even spread of APs across all Attributes as they made use of every Stat. A skilled Spellblade was annoying to deal with, as they maximized the impact of Status Effects on their opponents.
However, there were two caveats: they could not apply two Buffs to their Blade at the same time and it took about a second to change Buffs. A Level 0 Spellblade would have 3 Skills which were all Buff-type. "Burning Blade" applied Burn effects, while "Freezing Blade" Slowed Down opponents. The Spellblade had just used the last one, "Electric Blade". It gave the Spellblade a boost in Speed and Basic Attacks dealt more Magic Damage. Still, everything relied on the Spellblade landing his Basic Attacks.
Jake activated Odin's "Counter". He had spent his remaining Mana and entered the state of Mana Fatigue. He then stepped forward, holding his [Coarse Sword] with both hands and bringing it down accurately on the [Copper Blade]'s cross-guard. Jake's heart beat faster as he only received 5 Magical Damage from "Electric Blade".
"Counter" had worked! The Physical Damage was nullified and his next Attack was buffed by 15 Physical Damage. Odin stepped forward again, and shoulder checked the Spellblade. His STR was higher and the physics of the game respected that.
The Spellblade stumbled back. He was surprised at the move. And did not defend against the follow-up piercing of his throat. 30 Physical Damage was dealt, bringing his HP down to less than 25%. And Odin "Chopped" his head, as the Skill had come off its Cooldown. The Spellblade's body slumped down, bringing the short duel to its end.
Jake fell down, inhaling and exhaling quickly. His heart was bursting, blood was beating in his temples and he was short of breath. He had done it! His very first PK since the Beta! He thought 'Status Window' and it appeared:
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ID: Odin (Red Name)
Race: Human Title: None
Class: Swordsman
Level: 0 (300/1000 XP)
Statistics:
Attack Damage: 15 Energy: 19/30
Speed: 0.5% Mana: 0/10 (Mana Fatigue)
HP: 32/40
Physical Resistance: 2
Magical Resistance: 2
Attributes:
STR: 6 STA: 3 WIS: 1
AGI: 5 INT: 1 LCK: 1
VIT: 4 END: 1
Passive Skills:
"Sword Wielder" (Level 1):
Sword-related Skills are 1% more effective
Basic Sword Attacks deal 1% more damage
Active Skills:
"Side Strike" (Level1): (In Cooldown)
Deals 8.5 = (100% STR + 50% AGI) Physical damage
Runs STR Judgment: if your STR > enemy STR trigger Low Float for 1 second
Cooldown: 30 seconds
Cost: 5 Mana and 5 Energy
"Chop" (Level 1): (In Cooldown)
Deals 14 = (150% STR + 100% AGI) Physical damage
If "Chop" Critical Strikes: deals 19.5 = (200% STR + 150% AGI) Physical damage
Cooldown: 5 seconds
Cost: 1 Energy
"Counter" (Level 1): (In Cooldown)
If the Player blocks an attack, nullify Physical Damage
The next attack launched by the Player will deal + 15 = (100%) Physical damage
Cooldown: 30 seconds
Cost: 5 Mana and 5 Energy
There were three important changes to his Status Window. First of all, his Name was now a Red Name. It showed he had committed a crime, or multiple. A Yellow Name was usually the result of attacking or harassing someone. Meanwhile, a Red Name was the result of murder. Fortunately, those were only temporary states that any Player could get rid of with two simple methods: slaying Monsters or waiting.
He would do the first one as he was not that patient, since a Red Name would take about one hour to disappear. And he had to keep in mind, the more crimes he committed, the darker his Red Name would get, and the more he would have to kill monsters or the longer he would have to wait. And if he let his Red Name turn in a Dark Name, he would become an irredeemable Dark Player. And that would make entering Towns and Cities complicated.
Yellow Names were frowned upon by NPCs and had difficulty interacting with them. Having a Red Name was even more serious. A Red Player could be stopped and interrogated by NPC Guards, and would have a hard time obtaining Quests. But Dark Names would either be killed on sight or imprisoned. Not to mention there was a penalty if a Player died while having a Stained Name. And the darker it was, the heavier it would be.
Odin's Status Window showed a prompt over (Red Name) that read:
[Red Name: if the Player dies, their Death Penalty will be doubled (loss of 50% XP) and they will drop a piece of Equipment they have equipped.]
Jake was in no hurry to discover what the penalty for a Dark Name was. Two good things had come out of the PK: he had gained XP, 100 for each Player.
Prompts showed him the Levels of his victims. They were all Level 0. He would have to experiment with a Level 1 Player later on to find out if the XP they gave differed by Level, just like Monsters. However, he would do it once he was Level 1. There was no need to risk getting killed because of lower Attributes.
His second boon came in the form of Loot. Shiny Coins had dropped, as well as a small tattered Book along with a small fur pelt. His eyes widened. That. That was a Skill Book! With a Silver Mane Wolf's Pelt. What kind of luck did those Players have to get a Skill Book with their first Wolf Kill?
Well. Maybe not that much luck since they ran into him. He looked one last time at his Status Window before getting up. He was in the state of Mana Fatigue and would not get out of it for the next 5 minutes. He sighed. This game kind of hated Magical Classes, didn't it? His Energy was still 2/3 full.