-Chapter 5

I was seated on a small stool in front of a water well, using a bucket of water to wash off the blood on my body. I was bare-chested as I had removed my shirt to wash it a moment ago.

It was draped over a bench a few meters away from me. With one last rinse of my hands, I got up from my seat and placed the bucket of water back in the well.

I then went over to my shirt and put it on.

Despite the shirt still being somewhat damp, I felt refreshed rather than uncomfortable.

Thankfully the weather was nice, if it was windy or cold I would probably be shivering.

Right, my injuries had somewhat recovered and my blood-health was now at 72%.

Despite feeling a little sore, I felt that I could easily go back to the grassy outskirts and fight for an hour.

Deciding against that for now, I began roaming around the city, looking for a general goods store.

ummmmm, where’s the general goods store?

I remember someone telling me that I could get the information bracelet from a general goods store but I have no idea where it was.

Wandering somewhat aimlessly for a few minutes, I began to get more and more exasperated by the enormity of the city.

It was impossible to find anything! Shouldn’t there be a map somewhere?

Wait….there is a map! I didn’t think much of it at the time but I remember when I was exploring the city, in Central Square there was a large map.

-20 minutes later

Alright, even though it seems simple enough to just walk over to the center of the city, it still took me 20 minutes to finally get here….Maybe my sense of direction was just bad?

Standing in front of a large wooden board, I saw the map of the city.

General goods store….general goods store…..Ah! Found it!

It was in the eastern corner of the city, close to guild center.

Taking a closer look at the city map I also found other interesting places.

A library, a weapons shop, trade supplies store, a cathedral and a large palace marked on the map called the royal castle.

I should really check out the library later, I wasn’t too keen on just sitting around and reading all day but I’m sure skimming through a few books would help me learn more about this world.

I proceeded to walk away from the map and in the direction of the general goods store.

The vibrant and lively atmosphere of the city still amazed me. Little things like birds chirping up in the trees and the flower pots placed in the window sills of houses, giving a pleasant and fresh aroma, brought the world to life.

The game developers really did do an amazing job from what I had experienced so far.

Strolling along and enjoying myself, I shortly arrived at the store. A large sign was placed above a small wooden building. The sign said G-G store.

I entered the store and found myself in a room with many different items placed on shelves. Vials and boxes containing items that I could not understand, metal gears lying around and….Wait, is that a first aid kit?

I walked up to a counter and began talking to the middle-aged man behind it.

“Hi, I was wondering if I could buy an information bracelet, also would it be possible to get a list or something of what you sell here.”

“Yeah sure, here’s a catalog. All the items in the store are listed here with a small description of what they are used for. Here’s an information bracelet as well. That would be 1 silver please.”

“I opened my Inventory and…..wait how do I take out money?

I pressed the glowing text on my hand that said 1 silver, and then a small silver coin appeared in my hand.

That’s cool!

I still needed to figure out how to place items inside my inventory, my daggers were both uncomfortably placed in the sides of my shoes.

I handed the money over to the merchant and he gave me a metallic bracelet.

The bracelet had a small (I) icon on it, similar to the (I) icon on my equipment and weapons.

Before leaving the store I skimmed through the general goods catalog, they sold salve potions, gears, bandages, leather strips and many more things. Most of which were too expensive for me to buy any time soon.

As soon as I left the store I eagerly pressed down on the (I) icon on my bracelet.

The female voice began talking inside my head

*Hello! Since this is your first time using the information bracelet I will quickly inform you of its functions and options.

The information bracelet can change your user-interface options and notifications, simply hold down the icon on the bracelet and speak a command and the system will automatically accommodate you!

Additionally the main feature of this Bracelet is that game-related questions can be asked. Again simply hold down your icon and ask a question and it will be answered!

There are four levels of questions, level one questions are considered Basic or beginner questions and require no fee.

You will be informed if the question you are asking has a fee.*

Right let’s get started then!

“How do item conditions work?”

*There are three item conditions.

New, Well-used and Battle-scarred.

The worse the item’s condition the lower its effectiveness is. For example, a New Iron dagger will have an attack rating of 3.

A well-used dagger will have an attack rating of 2 and a battle-scarred dagger will have an attack rating of 1.

Certain magical weapons are immune to item degradation.*

“Umm, attack rating? How does rating work? Also what do you mean by magical weapons? How do I find those?”

*All weapons and armor only give you attack or defense rating.

Defense rating, or D-R for short, will reduce the amount of damage you take from an attack.

To give an example, common-quality cloth armor with a defense rating of 2 will do little too nothing in providing protection from attacks. Whereas chain-mail armor will provide a defense rating of 30 and will stop attacks or reduce damage if the armor is struck.

Please be warned that the defense rating on equipment will only provide protection if the covered areas are struck.

Similarly A-R (attack rating) increases the amount of damage you deal with your weapon.*

* There are four types of armors and weapons.

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Common, crafted, rare and legendary.

Common and crafted quality items both suffer from item degradation from over-use.

Rare and legendary items are considered magical items and are immune to it.

Additionally rare and legendary equipment have far superior attack rating and defense rating compared to crafted and common quality equipment.

Both rare and legendary armor and weapons can be found in the world.

From special monsters or hidden in certain locations.*

Crafted equipment can be gemmed with magical gems to increase their effectiveness.*

Woah, information overload there, the item system is pretty cool though. Unlike other games which had stats like additional agility or strength on armor/weapons, Darkstory made it simple with only one stat on weapons and armor.

Also from my understanding, even if equipment had higher attack or defense rating it didn’t mean it was better.

Wouldn’t I become really slow wearing chain-mail?

There was no way I was strong enough to fight freely wearing something heavy, or using a large weapon.

Clearing my throat, I then asked,

“How does blood-health and combat work? What are status effects?”

*Blood-health is the amount of blood you can afford to lose before death.

If you get cut and start bleeding, blood-health will decrease.

If it reaches 0% you die. Additionally there are many other types of damage you can receive that can cause death.

If attacked with a blunt weapon with enough force, you will can be inflicted with trauma damage.

Trauma damage often stuns you, leaving you unable to move for a few seconds. Also blunt damage with enough power can break your bones.

Broken bones cause difficultly in movement. Break enough bones and you will become unconscious, leaving you unable to move and vulnerable. *

*Status effects are shown on the back of your right hand, they include exhaustion, fatigue, frostbite, poisoned, fear and heat-exhaustion.

Exhaustion is blue, Fatigue is yellow, Frostbite is white, Poisoned is green, Fear is purple and Heat-Exhaustion is orange.

All of them are shown as percentages on your hand.

You can be inflicted with more than one status effect at any given time and they all work differently.

Exhaustion increases the more you fight, run, and use energy.

Once it reaches 100% you are effected with fatigue.

Exhaustion can be managed with taking breaks between fights.

Also increasing your stamina slows the speed at which your exhaustion builds up.

Once your exhaustion reaches 100% you are affected with 10% fatigue instantly.

Fatigue takes an hour of rest to reduce by 10%, while fatigued all your agility, strength, stamina and intellect and reduced by 25%. Additionally at 100% fatigue you die.

Frostbite is caused by cold, it reduces your movement speed and causes trembling, once at 100% you die.

When poisoned, you constantly lose blood-health, the higher the percentage of poison, the faster you lose blood-health.

Fear causes a reduction of 25% in all your stats, the more you are effected by fear the more your stats are reduced up to a total of 100% stat reduction leaving you with 0 agi, str, int and stam.

Heat-exhaustion immediately causes 10% fatigue and slowly rises up until you cool yourself, additionally at 100% heat-exhaustion you die.

Also there are 3 different states your body can be in, the rest state, the idle state and the combat state.

Combat state is activated once an enemy notices you or if you do any kind of strenuous activity.

Idle state is activated after combat state ends. After entering the idle state if you’re calm and not using energy for 30 seconds, you will enter the rest state.

In the rest state your exhaustion and fatigue fall, additionally your blood-health begins rising and your wounds regenerate.

Please note that very serious wounds will not recover and it is entirely possible for you to bleed out and die if medical attention is not given.*

Wow! The combat mechanics of this game…were so detailed! It both felt like a game and not a game at the same time.

Darkstory was actually fairly realistic in its delivery of how combat worked.

No wonder the game was considered so difficult, not being careful and getting affected by status effects, or stunned or even taking a big hit could all kill you.

All of a sudden I felt like going back and leveling! Finding out about the intricacies of combat made me appreciate it so much more.

Also trauma damage was really interesting, I don’t have to cut enemies into pieces. A good kick or head-butt might be able to stun my opponent, leaving me with an opportunity to finish off the weakened foe.

I was only level 2, my first priority was to level up!

Oh, speaking of leveling up….

“How does leveling work?”

*There is only one way to gain experience in Darkstory, from killing level appropriate enemies.

Each similar or higher level adversary gives you 1% experience with the exception of special Named Monsters that can give up to 50% experience.

Monsters one level lower than you only give you 0.5% experience and monsters two levels lower than you give you nothing.

Also, unlike other games, quests in Darkstory only reward the player with money, items or equipment.

There is a group system in place where people on your friends list can be invited and a party can be made. The experience is split evenly among all members, meaning a party of two people would only get 0.5% experience per kill.

If you are not in a party and multiple people fight the same monster, the player who lands the killing blow gets all the experience.*

So that meant…..every single level from now on I would have to basically kill a hundred monsters my level? That’s crazy…..

And exciting.

I was liking Darkstory more and more, it was difficult. Just the way I like it

I left the city once more.

Returning to the grasslands.

Ready to begin slaughtering these animals.

Ready to move on-wards.

To continue treading this path.

The path that I decided for myself.

The path that would lead me to the top.