Within a blink Weed found himself back in the Lord’s Mansion; in the open grounds. Weed looked around, ‘It felt like teleportation….’
Weed wondered how long was he with the Panda… ‘how did he appear like that?’
Weed’s gut feeling was something was out of place but he could not pinpoint what it was.
*CLANG*
The clashing of swords brought Weed to reality…the duo were engaged in battle with each other.
‘They are still at it?’ Weed wondered. He was certain they had stopped when the Guardian had appeared…
Weed slowly made it to the center of the grounds on to the raised platform where he had just performed the ceremony. Both Arthur and Richard were alive…it was evident from the shouting, cursing, clanging of swords and strong gusts of wind blowing out from there. Each step Weed took came with a long pause. He was in deep contemplation; ‘Right now the fate of Lavias…no probably the fate of all RREV players lies on my shoulders…that stupid Panda…he really gave a painful burden…’
He felt a cold chill as he stepped on to the platform; Just like when he entered the bath tub…a cold distinct chill caused by a sudden loss of warmth in the body. It was almost as if the heat generated by his body had been sucked right out.
‘The first clue…’ Weed thought as walked. ‘Faint….but I will never forget this chilly feeling.’
Weed would have explained all this to the Guardian but they ran out of time…
Weed’s body hair stood up on its ends like a cat as he got goose bumps all over. Weed was afraid and curious. He wanted to know whether he was right and was afraid at the same time of learning that he had been right…Weed drew out his axe and walked cautiously. He could see blurs of two figures colliding and being thrown back; it was Arthur and Richard.
Their swords banged against each other and the clashing sound of metal rung through out the air. The impact was just on par with Theodore and Shadow’s battle. The shockwave sent Weed toppling back.
It was just one of the many worries Weed had. His larger problems was the plan going ahead. Weed was thinking back at everything he had witnessed and wondering what bits of information were relevant and which were not. By witnessing NPCs and players fight, Weed learnt a great deal about both. The Guardian also provided invaluable insight.
‘Dealing with these NPC’s will be difficult…’
Weed had two classifications of NPCs based on his experience and research. There were normal NPCs and heroic NPCs (Weed’s own classification, but then all games divided NPCs into sidelines characters and main characters). The heroic ones like Shadow, Theodore and Rodriguez were special in their own rights and above normal NPCs in their own ways; be it stats or intellect or just being the protagonist in the story.
‘Richard and Arthur are probably heroic ones as well…meaning they are more powerful than most players…and they have barely spent their stamina..though it disturbs me that they can keep fighting like this. I mean I must have easily spent 30 mins inside the divine realm with the Panda...’
The general RREV player population was stronger than the normal NPCs. However, that is as far as they went. As the game progressed players found it difficult to become stronger. In effect, RREV was a game which became more difficult as one levelled up (where as other games the level of difficulty was constant). Such games were known as progressive difficulty games were never really popular with pro-gamers. To summarize, players could easily crush class C NPCs but above that the tables turned on the players. Class B and above NPCs were much stronger than Class C NPCs and they were much harder to deal with. Heroic NPC's were above Class B so it explained why players stood no chance against them. The fall of Skyholm was testament to that. Although this information may seem trivial at first glance and nothing out of the ordinary, Weed did not dismiss it as trivial.
‘The important thing is to understand why are they stronger…and to find the counter there…’
Compared to normal NPCs, players had an advantage of greater elemental class and level. Heroic ones were better than players cause of their higher elemental class…or so Weed guessed.
That however wasn’t the only benefit they had been Graced with…Players could change physical weapons much faster than NPCs. Weed learnt of this when watching Emily’s fight. The normal NPCs had no concept of inventory storage like players or ‘hot words’ / ‘summoning spells’ to swap between physical weapons and elemental attacks. This meant players could hide vast number of items (weapons) without revealing them all. Normal NPCs however were limited to the reality they lived in, much like how inventory slots don’t exist in real life. This was a huge difference, imagine going up against a highly mobile and destructive armory.
Another difference which Lee Jun had come across during his research was that NPCs were affected differently by elemental powers. Healers would often complain how each NPC normally reacted differently to the same healing spell (Healers had a ton of healing related quests).
Some NPCs would be healed by 100 HP and some by 1 HP. Even if there was some proc rate to keep the numbers were so different…Normally the proc rates are distributed like a normal bell curve…but there was no explanation as to why was the variation so great. It didn’t look like a bell curve…
Repeated experiment data from pro gamers posted online showed that even for some injuries like broken bones which weren’t healed using elemental powers took different duration to heal in the game (for healers this kind of information was very useful and made the more game more interesting since healing more than casting a spell but a medical science which required understanding). This became the foundation for the opposing theory to proc rates that all NPCs in RREV had different base stats and it was only coincidence if you came across those which had the same stats.
Lee Jun took those string of thoughts to another level…he applied whatever he learnt to all situations…it was quite by chance but he came across postings where some players complained of the same during fights with NPCs or monsters attacks dealt varied damage. However there existed fewer such recorded examples and in those instances which did exist the difference in damage beyond the proc rate was hard to calculate owing to battle gear, area attacked etc.
The simplified logical explanation Lee Jun came up with was that each NPC is born with different stats like how humans differ at a cellular level. ‘Just like real humans have different bodily constitution.’
In all fairness, it wasn’t an original theory. Many games have had NPCs with different base stats etc.
However much of this was limited to heroic NPCs, common NPCs had same base stats. Weed wasn’t the only one to figure this out, but he was the first to notice (in fact he had intentionally leaked this information to get game play data from pro gamers). Lee Jun’s observations went one to become the hotly debated topics on forums was it the proc rate or the base stats that were the cause of the abnormal difference in numbers.
Weed was tempted to write the difference of as proc rate and different base stats like everyone before him did. However, Lee Jun believed that there was something more… ‘Lee Hyun would have definitely known players would figure this much out…’ At the time Lee Jun was not playing VR and had no way of personally conducting his experiments.
Lee Jun was vindicated for his decision when players were finally able to observe all stats of NPCs (they had to befriends and persuaded into sharing their stats so it took a bit of time).
How was he vindicated? Healers were quick to establish all NPCs in RREV didn’t necessarily have same stats. However, they still needed to measure their healing pro rates, so when healers began experimenting on NPCs with similar stats to keep noise in their data to minimum they were able to accurately measure proc rates...however when administering drugs which give an absolute effect...the results left the entire player's medical community dumbfounded.Two soldiers nearly identical in every way; they had the same level, same stats…yet one lived and the other died. What could explain that?
The result was more expressive when it was tried on soldiers who were on the verge of dying than experimenting on someone who caught a cold. A medical drug usually gave off absolute effects like +10HP etc. Unlike healing through mana it was not random, i.e. it wouldn't so happen that one moment a player heals +15 Hp and then next +3HP. Drugs had an absolute effect.
This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.
So when two soldiers both on the verge of death were being administered drugs, it stood to reason both would live, yet there were many instances in repeated experiments where one lived and the other died.
The conclusions reached over time was that there were other stats which existed in players / NPC's which could not be observed.
Lee Jun however had a another approach to the same. Although he had earlier dismissed it as crazy thought, but now was convinced, the answer was ‘will of the NPC’. It was a completely inconceivable idea to begin with however the possibility excited Lee Jun.
‘What if NPCs had a will which affect their stats at critical moments? Something like Moral of a Warrior….When moral is high, stats are high and when moral is low stats are low.’
Hence, those soldiers with higher moral were more likely to live in a near death accident when receiving healing than a soldier who didn’t have high moral. The reason Lee Jun didn’t call it moral but will was because he believed that it was something that could be applied to all stats not just HP recovery or offense stats; like resistance to darkness…’
Weed looked at Arthur and Richard, both with their swords drawn out. Arthur was bleeding and Richard stood on complete guard. They both looked worn out but neither seemed to be able to be getting the better of the other. The debris from the tornado had destroyed most of the surrounding…even the injuries both suffered was caused by the tornado…
“Weed he is a traitor!” Arthur shouted out as he saw the elf approach them.
“…” Weed did not respond.
“Weed don’t believe him. Get out of here.” Richard instructed. “200 hundred years! I let him serve me…I KEPT YOU ALIVE ALL THOSE TIMES!”
“I HATED YOUR PITY! You should have let me die back then!” There were tears brimming in Arthur’s eyes, but his anger revealed more anger and hatred than suffering.
They sounded like two children quarreling by themselves except for their fights. The two moved fast, faster than Theodore did in his battle against Shadow but maybe not as fast as Shadow himself. They were humans, it was given that they would move faster than a dwarf, Weed reasoned. Their legs were longer, their body’s were slimmer and they wielded swords.
Weed watched from the distance making sure he didn’t get in their way. Originally, Weed let them fight for so long so that he could decide which one was going to win and side with the winner...
However, the two seemed to have boundless stamina to fight.
‘Considering the time I spent wasting collecting the jewels and armour…and then talking to the Pandas…I guess it would easily be one to two hours…these guys are seriously at it forever…and neither one is relenting. Or maybe they are just getting warmed up…’ Weed wondered.
He didn’t trust either of them; both the Lord and the servant were equally responsible for what happened tonight; the killing of the nobles and the death of the players. It was all planned by both of them… ‘Well almost planned by both of them…they had no clue they were being used…’ Weed stopped short of blaming them completely but did accuse them of mass murder.
“HOW COULD YOU KILL THEM?” Richard shouted as his sword pointed in the direction of the piles of corpses of nobles and soldiers. The mist made it barely visible.
‘I could use the mist to my advantage.’ Weed thought as he watched from the sidelines the drama that was unraveling.
“Me! It was you!” Arthur defended.
‘Like seriously guys…get over it…I know you both did it…’ Weed yawned calmly as he remained bemused by the situation.
“I SHOULD HAVE LET YOU DIE 200 YEARS AGO!!!”
“YEAH MAYBE YOU SHOULD HAVE!!” Arthur shot back. “YOU SCHEMING BASTARD”
“YEAH WHAT DOES THAT MAKE YOU!!” came back a childish reply.
‘God….this can go on forever…’ Weed thought. ‘It looks like I need to intervene here…’
“RICHARD DID IT??” Weed interrupted them, acting all surprised. His voice was drowning in sarcasm. It was an act but Weed was tired of the drama. It was like reading the end of the murder mystery novel and then going back to the start. Weed already knew what was going to unfold, he just wanted it to get over quickly so that he could view the talk with Guardian again. The appearance of the Guardian was beyond the scope of his calculations and it overshadowed all his schemes for now.
“STEP BACK ELF THIS DOES NOT INVOLVE YOU!” Arthur snapped. Richard could sense Weed had already guessed it. ‘If he spills the beans now…’
“Richard why don’t I explain to you what really happened here….Arthur here arranged for the whole thing….” Weed continued ignoring Arthur’s threat.
“NOT A WORD MORE ELF!” Arthur cried out as his face turned red in anger.
Weed wondered if he should push it, ‘Why not..’ Weed thought as he went forth with his plan. “And he…”
Before Weed could say any further, Arthur shot of in Weed’s direction with his sword aiming for Weed’s neck. Weed barely had anytime to react had it not been for Richard, Weed’s head would have been dangling by its neck.
“GO ON!” Richard shouted as he stood in front Weed defending him from Arthur’s blow.
‘It was very quiet simple…these two were very intelligent so much so they both planned the massacre. The only problem was they probably didn’t coordinate it together…’
“ARGHH!!” Richard screamed out in pain. He tilted his head sideways and noticed Weed had just stabbed him in his back with a small object. The searing pain tore through Richard’s body like an electric shock.
“Why?” was the word that slipped from Richard’s mouth as he fell to his knees.
Weed simply wore the most evil, cruel and devious smile ever.
TRRRRING!!!
Betrayal Skill is now level 9!
Achievement unlocked!
“Back Stabber!”
+100 EXP!!
Achievement unlocked!
“Betraying the knight in shining armour!”
+200 EXP!
Achievement unlocked!
“Seeing through the veil of lies”
+50 EXP!
You have leveled up!
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Authors Note:
1. CHAPTER 100!! LETS GO BONKERS!!
2. I also hope my writing is able to keep up with my thinking and my readers are to keep up with my writing.
3. Minor Edits.
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