CHAPTER 11
Tundra
Renova's part (lvl31 archer s)
Mmm… that zombie scroom can talk, that's odd. So I said "Stop Melarie! I think that scroom is alive"
Melarie replied "Ha? That's not possible, it's Zombie Scroom! Get it? Zombie? Ha I think I'm so funny!" Ok, that's not fun. "Melarie, stop" Jaystyke chimed in. "But why does talking make it any different from other zombie scrooms, it still gives exp when I hit. I replied with "Mmm… pretty sure you still get exp by hitting other people or even yourself." "Ok, fine I will stop!" Melarie finally said, "doesn't mean I won't hit the other scrooms though." Oh well, I covered the scroom's eyes and said "Sorry I can't stop her from killing the rest." Then, awkward silence, for a bit until Jaystyke broke it. "Well, scroomie, you want to come with us? If you stay here, probably someone else will try to kill you.” “Mmm… ok sure, I definitely don’t want to die.”
So just like that, we started to head further into the woods. I read in a book that if we go a bit further in than the zombie scroom place, we will see the Entalists, they are a bit scary looking, 4 legged 6 armed creatures with small bodies. It’s considered a mid-high tier, a little bit harder to fight than the zombie scrooms, it's less dangerous because it can't combo you to death, just that it has 4 times the hp, and have 3 times the damage, at least it has half of the attack speed and only 2 spawns at a time, it gives decent amount of gold. Usually it's only dangerous when the other people ambush you when you are low fighting the Entalists.
Oh, There are some! "Hey, those are called Entalists, unlike zombie scrooms, they drop silver, about 20 to 50 per kill, it gives less exp per attack though. They are a bit stronger, and have way more hp than Zombie Scrooms'' I said. "Oh… so they are stronger than me?" Asked the Zombie Scroom. I don't know why or how but this zombie scroom is really cute. Maybe all zombie scrooms are if they can talk with this very cute voice.
"Well, it depends, usually they don't have any situation to fight 1v1, but technically zombie scroom would win in 1v1 because it has 2 times faster attack speed and has enough knockback to infinitely combo the Entalists. However, for progressors like us, usually Entalists are more dangerous and harder to farm," Jaystyke explained. I started shooting my arrows at the Entalists, while using some minor skills from time to time, stuffs like 'faster reload','hop strike','critical shot', and soon Jaystyke started to aim at them with his own bow. Melarie was resting at the back, probably tired. Luckily Entalists were slower than us, so we could easily shoot them down before they got to us.
Well, like that we were farming our way to glory.
Nora's part (lvl58 assassin s)
Life is hard, I know, and that's why I never expected to get to ultra class in this world. Leveling seemed much easier than actually becoming ultra class, because ultra quest looked so hard at the times while leveling up was comparatively easy.
Well, I admit now, I was wrong. Leveling gets gruesome as the level increases while ultra quests get easier day by day. I ezed faceless quest without much effort. Well it's true that faceless quests are easy compared to other ultra quests, because all I need to do is basically get high chaotic karma.
By the way, we are currently at oresfall, one of the countries that is now in FGU. I heard from Ace that in this world-like game he used to play, oresfall was a tiny town, however here, it's an enormous city with a lot of things to see, and much bigger than what Ace had described. "In this world, things must be a lot different than the game I used to play." Ace said.
Ace keeps speaking about 'game' but the only game I knew was tags and stuff like those. So I asked "what is a game you're talking about? Only game I know is ones like tag.", he looks a bit surprised. Then he opens his mouth to say something, but then closes again.
Ace's part (lvl50 illusionist, philosopher, monk, spy)
Ok Nora's words surprised me a bit. It suggests Nora and I came from a different time period on the Earth, which suggests that the time period here might be different from Earth, the Year 0 might be different here than the world I was born in.
Or it might not matter entirely, maybe the time here has nothing to do with time there. Maybe the two worlds always exist in different times, and time flows separately in a way that I can go back to the world I came from or even the past of Earth through here. It's a bit hard to imagine this because it can't happen in normal circumstances. Closest to this incident probably is time in things like black holes flowing differently from the rest of the universe. However it's not quite the same. In our case, time might not flow in a certain ratio, but in total randomness. All of these are just my hypothesis, so we'll see.
I tell myself to put aside that problem for now, for we arrived at the Tundra gate. I paid the guard at the tundra gate to open the gate. The enormous gate that looks like a wall ascends to the ceiling, replaced by a view of the frozen land covered by snow. We each light a torch in order to keep ourselves warm, even if the torch will be put out in a matter of minutes. We need to get to the nearest heat source as fast as we can or we would have to backfire ignis ourselves (ignis is a spell that make your hand spray flames for up to 20 seconds, backfiring it will put yourself and people near you on fire) and that would lower our health, making us more vulnerable to ambushes.
Nora stepped first into the snow and I followed, Nora probably knows tundra regions better than I do, I had little need to go to tundra before today, and I only went as far as the snap magic tower, which isn't far from the gate, and the Santania planes, which is way less dangerous than the rest of the tundra. Most of the tundra has unrealistic cliffs and mountains that need to be mana climbed, along with howlers and many other even more dangerous mobs that could send you home with 1 less life. For these reasons I only came to tundra twice, once for snap magic, once just for adventure, and never veered far from the relatively safe zones. However today, we would have to travel far from the civilizations and venture to the inner lands of ice cold frozen tundra.
Nora's part (lvl58 assassin s)
As I stepped into the ice, Ace followed from the back, we started to run, Ace had way more mana than me, so he decided to use mana run and agility to catch up with my buffed agility. Charging mana drains the overall mana you get here, it's one of the things Ace said that was different from the thing, whatever the thing is. Oh, he also said there was no such thing as overall mana, and not even a mention of qi. Well I doubt that gine is similar to this world. Wait, was it gyme? Jame? Well, it doesn't matter.
When I cleared my thoughts, I found my torch extinguished, RIP flame, along with it, RIP my warmth. Ace's torch seems to have gone out too. Ace just said he has only 70% of mana left and that he can't risk using more in non combat. So we slowed down a little as Ace started to run without using mana.
"Hey, why are you so slow?"
Ace's reply came back immediately
"Ugh, I used to be fast in my, well I guess our world, probably was faster than you I bet."
"Nah, you're kidding"
"No, for real it only took me 6.3 seconds to run 50 meter. (55yard)
"Whatever you say Ace, whatever." I teased him, he got mad a bit I think, but he didn't become faster, that's a strange thing about this world. Your speed limit is usually absolute, and can be increased with abilities or items by a certain amount or percentage. What kind of world works like that? None that I ever knew of before coming here, even the books didn't have settings like these. Ace had super class spy but he didn't learn buffed agility yet and my items had more speed buff than his, so that is why I am faster.
Ok, I am clearing my thoughts again now, overthinking clouds the mind in adventure and is very dangerous, especially in a place like tundra. Where you never know what's going to happen. As I focused on the trail we were heading, I heard the unmistakable horor.
Ace's part (lvl50 Illusionist, Philosopher, Monk, Spy s/h)
That sound, I know that sound, unmistakable howl of horror, it's definitely howler! "Howler!! RUN! To the nearest tree trunk campfire. We started mana running at full speed, however howler was faster, it was closing the distance in a matter of minutes. "Oh well, looks like we gotta fight this time", I said as I launched myself to the howler. "Interrogation" I grabbed the howler's neck from behind paralyzing the howler, dropped it down and used ignis and tenebris.
However there were 4 more on the chase. Nora used a triple dagger throw at the howler, one of the dagger hitted it in the face. "Bane" she said, as she teleported to that howler, full comboing in the lighting speed, however the howler had tons of health. "Ignis", I joined in to help Nora kill this howler.
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Well now, there are 3 howlers left. I have some mana left, but not enough to just spam spells. Nora is in a worse condition, she has a broken leg and can't run because of it. I charged my mana and started to cast tenebris when I saw a person from the ice.
A person from the ice's part
I am walking down the tundra when I see two cuties who are in need of my help. Whaaaaat? They aren't cute? Nonsense, everybody under ultraclass is a cutie to me. Anyways now I am going to epically save them. Who am I? I am Quasar Liziro.
I leaped on the howler and used my signature skill 'Chill of Quasar'. It's my signature skill. Signature skills are unique skills that only that person can use, it is created with a hard process, which I won't be explaining today. Which I will be explaining though, is Chill of Quasar. It freezes enemies for 0.5 seconds, slows them 40% for 2 seconds, while dealing 140 + 65% ability attack + 30% magical attack in magic damage. Any enemy in 10 meter will get 10% to 40% of the slowness depending on their distance (slower the closer). After freezing the enemy I used a triple dagger throw, right in front of it, all 3 hitting the howler. Then "Tundra's dagger" this dagger will now slow the enemy 50% for 1 second, this effect lasting in the dagger for 10 seconds.
After that I used a lethal blow, which dealt massive damage to the mob, and howler was killed. However there were 2 more left.
"Well, 2 more left now" I said. Those two cuties were staring at me from amazement. Hey cuties, what are your names? A person who looked a bit like castellan said "I'm Nora, Nora Antonio", the other one who well… didn't look like any race I knew said "I am Ace". "Well, I am Quasar Liziro, nice to meet you", after saying that I jumped on the next howler.
Nora's part (lvl58 assassin s)
Quasar joined the fight, good thing for us, because we weren't having a good time fighting these howlers. I fully combed on the howler that quasar jumped on with a bane. I must say, she is very strong. I can see that she has decent durability even with the speed. She geared up with a lot of dealtank and utility items. Things like 'Tundra's spirit' (+65 ability attack, + 500 hp, +10 cold resistance, + 5 dodge, cold type slow is 25% more effective with 3 sec cooltime) or 'True Assassin's armor' (+ 10 physical defence, + 10 magic defence, + 3.5 speed, x1.05 hp, + 5 ability cooldown, + 20 physical attack, + 10 dodge, +30 crowd control resistance, harmful effect on you will disappear if you basic attack the enemy 30 sec cooltime) and several other items.
Regardless, it seems that Quasar is actually having a hard time against the howlers. Howlers can be tricky even for ultraclasses. So many choose the option to flee, but we lost that chance. I heard Ace murmuring "Our world needs more people like Quasar, I guess. Only if we had more than 1 life." By the way, I agree. I think me and Ace are actually from different times or places or both. However I still agree with him about that sentence. Only if our world had more than 1 life, would people risk more things? Help others more? Or would they be greedier than even now, having a chance to nullify death? I know this is a useless topic only Ace is interested in. However, at this very moment, it makes me wonder, a lot. Guessing from his expression, Ace is probably still thinking the same thing.
I break his thought with "Hey Ace, we gotta help Quasar", to which he answered with "Oh, I was almost lost in thought again, sorry." Then he started to mana run at the other howler.
He mana ran casted ignis, which I heard was hard to do. Then he used custos to stop the howler from leaping at him. I joined him from the back with astonishing speed, buffed agility active, I ran straight toward the howler he was facing, went past him and fully comboed the howler to death. At this point Quasar was done with the last howler. "Whew, that was easy," said Quasar. "Yes, they were weak, but we aren't," said a voice over the peak of the mountain that was 20 meters away from us. Behind the person who spoke, there were at least 6 people standing, all superclass, hybrid or ultraclass.
3 seconds passed, as we were deciding either to fight or flee. We were late though, because one of them used wing soar. "Scatter!" Ace shouted as the dragon slayer used a thunder spear crush. Me and Quasar were knocked back and were stunned for a moment but Ace managed to dodge the attack. "Armis" with this he disarmed the dragon slayer!
Ace's part (lvl 51 Illusionist +3 s/h)
"Game On! Armis" Dragon slayer is disarmed, it's now or never! "Go! Tenebris!" My arm turned purple, if I miss this one we would lose for sure. Please… it hit. However the others were running to help him. I can't let them do that. "Illuse" this will create an illusion for the dragon sage which was closest to me. It probably was a mistake though because dragon sages usually have high mental resistance and it would only take 10 sec to 20 sec to overcome illuse, but I didn't have enough time to aim.
Nora's part (lvl 58 assassin s)
Ace tenebrised the dragon slayer and illused the dragon sage, it's my time now, "Bane!" I started to combo the dragon slayer as he got up, he blocked the 3rd attack but that gave just enough time for "Icing dagger throw" of Quasar, which slowed the dragon slayer. Quasar then went to fight the other people on that side. "Assassinate" I set my target, I will deal 20% more damage to the dragon slayer for 30 second now. "Assassin's leap" I leaped at him, before he could react I used "Assassin's edge" knocking him backward and poisoning him. I need to take this chance "Triple dagger throw, dagger slam" I hit all 3 daggers at the dragon slayer because he was very close to him, then I slammed my dagger into his head with dagger slam skill. "Dragon roar", this scared me for 0.5 second but I regained control. However he already used dragon blood and was ready to fight me. "Serpent strike", "Assassin's block" I blocked it without any delay. "Spear leap", this knocked me back as he leaped to my backside. Then he used "Triplex". I never saw this skill, but I don't want to, so I perfect blocked it. I realized now his health was dwindling just above the lethality execute amount, and my bane cooltime was only 3 seconds left. 3,2,1 bane! I teleported right to him as I slashed my dagger but he blocked it, "Dagger spin" this broke his block and knocked him back. I dashed to him, then used "Dagger slam" which had only 8 sec cooltime. Just a little more to go now. One hit, two hit, three hit, NOW! "Lethality" and he was dead. He had 3960 silver worth of items and money. I got 1980 of them from the kill. Then I ran to help the others.
Quasar's part (lvl91 tundra assassin u)
Ace probably decided that Nora was enough to handle the dragon slayer, because he decided to take on the other 6, as he shouted for my help. "Agility" he used his thief skill, I am a bit amazed by the fact that he went spy with the Illusionist, let's see how he uses his skillset. As soon as I thought this to my head, Ace used silverguard, which would reduce the damage he takes but will drain his silver to do so. He then used 'spy's excellency' to go invisible for 2 seconds, at that time he sneaked right next to the enemy assassin and used custosed on him. Creating an invisible barrier which then flung the enemy off the cliff. Then Ace faced 2 ultras and 1 super, which were dragon sage, another dragon slayer and a monk. "Well, this will be a hard matchup" said Ace as he dodged the 'Lighting Qi Blast' of the dragon sage. "Armis" Ace shouted as he shot a laser ball that would disarm, stun and knockback the enemy when hit. However the dragon slayer used 'Wing Soar'. I knew that the dragon slayer would connect the 'Wing Soar' with 'Thunder Spear Crush'. I definitely didn't want to get hit by that one again. So I waited out as Ace got hit by the skill, then I joined in.
'Buffed Assassinate' as the name says, this is a better version of 'Assassinate', given as one of the first skills for every assassin related ultraclass. Dealing 40% extra damage to a target for 45 seconds.
(P.S: for the people who are curious, I am level 91 at this point, 5 thief, 50 assassin, 21 tundra assassin, 3 pit fighter, 9 tundra traveler, 3 converted to skill points)
For the incurious people who don't want to read P.S, let's just say I'm better than both Ace and Nora.
"Buffed Assassinate" I targeted the dragon sage and used 'bane' with 'chilling tip' full comboing the dragon sage into freeze. "Snow throw" I threw a snow at the monk slowing her everything for 20% for 2 seconds. I shouted "Ace, use gelidus!", which he replied with "I don't have gelidus, Ice essence is so hard to find." Ok, it's not that hard, it's the most common of the valuable artifacts. Though well, it's not really easy so it makes a bit of sense that he doesn’t have it. "Then do something, but don't use ignis." I shouted. "Ignis" Ace shouted. Ugh didn't he hear me? "I heard you, but I got a plan." Ace said as if he could hear my thoughts. Good luck using ignis in tundra. It works, but it's not very effective. Well, maybe Ace does have a plan, we will find out soon.
Ace's part (lvl 51 Illusionist +3 s/h)
Yes, I heard Quasar shouted not to use ignis. Yes, I know ignis isn't good in tundra. However, I know what I am doing. I used philosopher's insight earlier, this helps me think more deeply and creatively. It's proportionally effective to my thinking skills before the usage. Advice to everybody, if you want to be creative with your thoughts, you should practice creative thoughts everyday, like I do. Best way is to create creative builds or plans in games you play, or you can think critically about current situations or policies. Anyways, because I do these everyday, my thoughts are deep and creative even before the skill, however skill will enhance it even farther.
So back to what I was saying, I got a plan, and you will see it. As the other 2 joined to fight alongside the 3 enemies. The dragon sage rolled backward when he realized he was on fire. Unfortunate for him, he had his backs on me, so when he rolled backward he was rolling to my side unguarded. He was so close I could choose which way to send him with my 'Illusive push' skill which requires both spy class and illusionist class, only after unlocking both classes, it might randomly pop up as one of the 3 skill choices. "Illusive push", I said as I aimed him toward 3 enemies who weren't aligned perfectly but close enough to take damage and knockback. As I said this, I quickly dashed back about 2 meters, this is part of the skill, then nothing happened. However, that was only from my point of view. The dragon sage will think he has been pushed backward by invisible force. He would probably think he knocked back 3 of his allies and dealt them moderate damage. The 2nd part is actually true, the dragon sage and the 3 others took magical damage just now. It's just that they are still standing in the same place. They will be confused when reality comes back to them and their positions suddenly change in their mind, which will happen in a second. However, just before they were about to realize their positions are an illusion, Nora started to combo them.
Nora's part (lvl 58 assassin s)
I don't know what Ace did to those scoundrels, but their movements clearly portray their confusion. I swiped my dagger at the closest enemy. Kept swiping until he got knocked back from my full combo. I tried to land as many hits before they realized what was happening. However, dagger generally does least damage in basic attacks. Even compared to fists. However it has the fastest attack speed. So I guess it makes up for it. I slash, hit, swing my daggers as they prepare to fight back. At this point one of the enemies already died to my lethality, giving me 360 silver. Probably a superclass I thought, as the dragon sage used lighting elbow strikes in my direction. Dragon Sage dashed about 15 meters and everybody in the way got hit and got knocked back.
Ouch! Getting hit by a fast moving elbow is painful especially when there is some lighting effect to it. It dealt me decent damage, and I would definitely not enjoy another hit. 13% of my max hp just disappeared by that single strike. With only 60% hp left, I swiftly moved to the wall. I started mana climbing it before anybody could stop me. I was planning to drop down on the weakest enemy with a couple skill combos. They expected this, so they huddled together, prepared to knock me back as soon as I jump on them. So I didn't jump.
Ace's part (lvl51 illusionist +3 s/h)
I knew Nora wasn't stupid enough to jump on them after they decided to group. So we prepared to flee to the side she climbed. Quasar said she could slow them with ice attacks if few of them managed to catch up. Anyways, we got a decent amount of silver from this battle, so it would be right to flee and restock. Nora saw us and realized what we were doing. She tried to jump down and run off in another direction to confuse the enemy. It would have worked, would have, if not for a random armis that somebody fired. One of the enemies was probably mage. First shot missed but the second one didn't. Nora fell off the wall and we ran in the direction to help her. However, to our horror, they calculated our moves and overpowered us with insane combos. Sworduser superclass used a stunning blade to stun Quasar while the dragon sage started punching me with a lightning effect, each hit stunning me for a very short time. However it was enough for the mage to use trahere to pull us together. Setting us up for a spear crusher and a thunder spear crush by the dragon slayer. While the dragon sage used a monastic stance and mana punch to set us on fire. We couldn't fight back because of all the crowd control skills. Just when our odds of winning were falling below slim, Nora's dagger…