Baron, Raiden, and Thyn continued to camp outside the bandits hideout. Whenever a party of less than 15 would leave they would set an ambush. The bandits gave huge amounts of exp compared to wolves. They also dropped weapons or money instead of pelts and meat. By the end of the night they had killed over 70 bandits. All three of them hit their weight limit in their inventory from all the weapons. The bandits had also stopped sending out as many parties. Those that were being sent out were groups of 30+. It was kind of odd. Baron had made sure to ambush the bandits where they wouldn’t be noticed, and it hadn’t been long enough for them to worry about their comrades not returning. He also noticed that there were never any groups returning. Even if they did kill all the small groups that left, there should still be some bandits that were already out returning.
Even if it was odd it wasn’t suspicious enough to worry. The habits of bandits wasn’t something most people had knowledge of so the facts could easily have been misinterpreted. The three of them decided to head back to the city. It would take several hours to reach the city. If they were lucky they could get there by noon as the sun could already been seen beginning to rise.
During the trip back they let Thyn handle all the wolves. He had managed to raise 3 levels from killing the bandits. On top of that his skill proficiency had increased drastically making him several times stronger. Baron was the only one who hadn’t gone up a level. Raiden had managed to reach level 26 in their last fight with the bandits. Baron and Thyn also managed to get better weapons. Baron managed to replace both his weapons with decent steel swords looted from bandits. He was lucky and got a long sword with a level 25 restriction. It had 4 times the damage of the copper long sword he was previously using, and was slightly heavier. His short sword that he had gotten from his first encounter with bandits was replaced with one with slightly more damage. Despite wanting to be a knight, Thyn had put most of his stat points into agility and thus used a steel short sword they had looted. His character’s fighting style was based around dodging and a large sword would end up slowing him down. Raiden couldn’t find a good weapon in their pile of loot. His ax was already above average and there wasn’t anything that could compete among the ax’s looted.
They once to eat. Thyn had worked in a kitchen during part of his 1 month. He had learned the cooking skill, but it was still beginner level 1. The wolf meat he cooked tasted worse than if it was raw, and it even gave baron food poisoning. The poisoning wasn’t very severe and ended after 5 min. Raiden tried to talk him into letting them just eat the meat raw, but Thyn insisted he wanted to raise his skill progression.
6 hours later they were arriving at the fields outside Sai. It was close to noon in game, and so it was peak time for player activity. Since monsters got a power boost at night users would ofter log out at night and come back around noon to hunt. The average level in RR was still under 10 and so there wasn’t more than 200 players in Sai who could come into the forest and hunt. With the vastness of the forest it was almost impossible to run into other players
The 3 of them were walking in the outskirts of the forest almost to the plains when something made them all find cover. A couple hundred feet to their right was a group of 25 bandits. Once they had gotten this close to the city they had given up on looking out for bandits. It defied common sense that the bandits would be this close to the city. If a player saw and notified the guards they could have calvary there within 20 min.
They decided to get closer. If the bandits were lower level they could possible take the group. However, once they got closer another group of bandits, this time 30 of them, arrived. Now with a total of 55 bandits there was no chance of victory. They were now close enough to see their levels. Some of the bandits were even past level 30. The bandits were still moving through the forest as they were watching them. After 10 min of following them the bandits spread out and started converging on a place in the forest. The 3 of them couldn’t see what, but the bandits had something completely surrounded.
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Nile, King Drake, and Prince Drake II and headed out of the north gate of Sai around 9 am. The King and prince both appeared to be anxious about getting out of the city.
“Father, how long has it been since we left the city?”
“Far too long if you ask me. Too much damn politics in the city. People need to learn how to relax and enjoy a good hunt. What about you Nile. How long has it been since you left the city to hunt?”
“It’s been about 3 days. Far too long if you ask me aswell.” Both the King and Prince laughed. They had gone months without hunting, but for Nile it had only been 3 days and he was complaining as much as them.
“A man who belongs on the hunt I see. HAHAHAHA Tell me Nile, hunt anything good last time you were out?” It was almost weird the king was talking to him so normally. Fairy tales and fantasy adventures had never portrayed Kings as such normal people.
“It was nothing too exciting. I was hunting wolves a little ways into the forest.”
“A cleric hunting wolves? You must be much better with that bow than you said earlier.” It was the Prince that responded that time.
“No, unfortunately I wasn’t lying about my poor marksmanship. I was hunting with a friend of mine. He did all the killing while I healed him. I doubt he really needed me to heal him though.”
“Your friend must be quite the warrior. The wolves around here aren’t weak.”
“He is. I’m surprised the wolves don’t just run away when they see him. I would if I saw a barbarion running at me swinging a long sword with one hand.”
“He sounds like a monster to me. Is he on the path to Knighthood? Gradian can always use good men.”
“I don’t think he has chosen a profession yet. To be honest I have no clue what he plans to do.”
“Well if you can convince him, I’m sure Sir Hollis can find a place in his ranks for a strong warrior.”
It didn’t take long for them to find deer. Within an hour the King and Prince had managed to kill 3. Their archery skills were amazing. Each deer fell after only one arrow, and they never missed. When they found the 4th deer the King told Nile to try. By some stroke of luck the arrow he shot hit the deer. Unlike the Kings arrows which hit the head and chest. Nile’s arrow lodged itself in the deers hip. The shot was far from fatal and the deer ran away. Before it got too far the Prince but an arrow into the back of its head.
“Might have been able to kill it if you had a better bow. Let me see that thing.” The King grabbed the bow out of Nile’s hand. After looking at it up and down he used his foot to step on the bow and crack it in half. The bow that Nile had worked so hard to get was destroyed. He had put countless hours into the beginning archery course to get that bow and it was all for nothing. The bow may not have been amazing but it was the best he could get at this point.
The King went over to the supply horse and took a bow out of the inventory. He walked back over and handed it to Nile.
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Royal Training Bow
Damage: Variable
Range: Variable
Durability: 250/250
A bow made for the royal family of Gradian. The bow was crafted in such a way that the draw weight is variable. The higher the draw weight the better the damage and range of the bow. This bow is the secret behind the royal family’s skill in archery. Those who can use the full draw strength of this bow will have completed the Royal Archery Course.
Minimum Draw Weight: 75 lbs.
Maximum Draw Weight: 350 lbs.
Effects:
+25 Strength
+25 Leadership
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New Skill:
Royal Archery Mastery: Beginner Level 1(0%)
Royal Archery Mastery effects do stack with Archery Mastery.
Those trained in Royal Archery are considered better archers and are recognized across the continent for their skills and leadership qualities.
5% damage increase
5% accuracy increase
Bows are 5% easier to draw
10% more damage with critical hits.
1% increase in the Charisma stat
1% increase in the Leadership stat
2% increase in the Fame stat
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New Profession Available:
Royal Archer
The royal family of Gradian are renown for their incredible skill in Archery. Although it is rare, the royal family has been known to pass their skills onto those that aren’t family. Archers trained in their style have become legends in the history of Versailles. The most famous outsider trained in their style was a descendant of the current king of the Nest Kingdom. Legend has it that 500 years ago, what is now Nest was once a lawless land home to warring tribes. These tribes threatened the borders of Gradian. So a childhood friend of the King of Gradian decided to help and subjugate the land. Using his leadership skills as a Royal Archer he was able to unite the tribes and create the Nest Kingdom. To this day the two kingdoms continue to enjoy a strong alliance.
Class Traits:
Your social status changes to that of a knight or minor nobility.
You adopt all allies and enemies of the Gradian Kingdom.
+100 Accuracy
+100 Leadership
+100 Charisma
+100 Fame
+100 Honor
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The new profession took Nile by surprise. Even in his shock he still accepted. After he got the cleric profession along with the heal spell, he had tried to get the profession of archer. So far in the game no one was able to change their profession. Unicorn gave out a list of rules for RR. In it it said that after you switch professions, all the skills and stat points you received stay the same. If you could just change your profession whenever, you could just farm the stat points given and become insanely strong.
The stat points given where much larger than what most professions are given. Nile had found online that the regular archer profession only gave +50 to Accuracy and +50 Intelligence. Compared to that, the Royal Archer was a jack pot. Aside from the increase in Accuracy, the other stats would be useless in battle unless he was commanding troops. The increase in stats will mostly contribute to receiving quests.
The bow and skill were interesting. The draw weight of his previous bow had only been 24 lbs. He had no clue if he would be able to even draw a bow at 3 times that weight. The skill was very useful. It was similar to having a second Archery Mastery stat to increase his stat buffs. It also helped to increase stats associated with leadership. That seemed to be a theme of the Royal Archer.
They found another deer and the King told Nile to try again. Nile was forced to use all his strength to draw the bow. His hands were far from steady as he tried to aim while barely keeping the bow drawn. When he shot, the arrow buried itself into a tree 10 feet from the deer. The King and Prince were both laughing to hard to care as the deer ran away.
“HAHAHA Don’t worry kid. The bow takes some getting used to. HAHAHAHAHAHA!” The King was barely able to get the words out as he was recovering from a fit of laughter.
They hunted deer for another 2 hours. The king let Nile attempt to shoot everyone of the deer. He missed every time, but the Prince or King would kill it as it ran away. Their accuracy was truly frightening. Even shooting at a deer running at full speed, they were able to draw and release without even aiming. Every shot was a kill shot as the deer dropped like flies. Eventually they had hunted 10 deer.
The plan for the hunting trip was to return the next day early in the morning. Since it was noon they decided to stop and have lunch. They found the spot where they had tethered the horses and took out the pre-made lunches. Even during a hunt they still planned to eat like kings. While eating they were suddenly ambushed.
It started with a couple arrows followed by over 50 bandits surrounding them. Before Nile realised what was happening the King and Prince already had their swords drawn. The first couple bandits to initiate the fight were the unlucky ones. They had blindly rushed in without any knowledge of their opponents skill. Heads began to fly as the two archers swung their swords. The initial wave of bandits were only around level 20 and didn’t pose much of a threat. The King and Prince weren’t fighters or swordsman. They were politicians and archers. They were both well over level 100 but their character types weren’t meant for close combat. Even for masters of archery, bows were made useless in close quarters. The bandits alone wouldn’t have been much of a threat, but their numbers were the problem. No matter what level an archer is at, they can’t kill a horde of 50 bandits in close combat.
Once Nile got to his feet he started pouring arrows into the bandits. The 2 royals gave him enough room to shoot. At less than 10 feet, he didn’t even have to aim. Even the unsteadiness of his arms from the high draw weight was negligible. Nearly all of his arrows managed to hit its mark. Nile tried healing the King when he dropped past 50% health. Even after Nile poured half of his mana into the heal spell he was only able to raise the Kings health by 5%. The Spell that would heal Baron completely barely did anything. It was hard for Nile to imagine how much health the King had. What was even harder to imagine was how his health had gotten to 50% to begin with. Once Nile began watching he realized the King made no attempt to dodge or block. He had almost no skill with the sword and just swung trying to get a hit. Nile tried watching the Prince and it was the same. They hadn’t even killed 20 bandits and both of them were at half health.
The Prince was fighting one of the higher level bandits. The bandit was level 34 and dropped the Prince’s health by 10% before falling. As the bandit faded into smoke the new enemy behind him sent a chill down the Prince’s spine. Unlike the other bandits that were human, this was a huge barbarian. Standing at over 7 foot the Prince didn’t even come to the chin of the new enemy. The barbarian had a more threatening image than anyone he had ever seen before. The foe was so large it almost looked natural as he one handed a long sword. In his fear the Prince attempted to strike the monster. The strike was easily parried and a counter stab started coming. It was too fast for the Prince to react. Right before the stab hit all he could think was ‘What is this monster?’ He shut his eyes and waited for death.
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After a second without dying the Prince opened eyes to find the stab had missed. As he looked behind him he saw that the monsters long sword had skewered a bandit trying to stab him in the back. As the bandit turned to smoke the long sword swung and killed another low leveled bandit.
“Nice of you to join us!” Nile shouted from 10 feet away. Baron didn’t respond but it was clearly directed towards him. The Prince had a moment of recollection as he remembered Nile’s description of his friend. A barbarian who one hands a long sword. A monster indeed.
When Baron saw Nile amidst the bandits ambush he had rushed in. Shortly behind him was Raiden and Thyn. They all began slaughtering bandits together. The 3 newcomers had no idea they were fighting alongside King Drake and Prince Drake II. As far as they could tell they were just horrible swordsman. The royals had taken their illustrious armor off before the hunt. Instead they were just wearing good quality leather armor that allows for mobility when hunting. Baron got an idea of their level of swordsmanship when he parried the Princes strike. He wasn’t impressed. He had no idea about their archery skill or high level.
As the fight progressed Nile was forced to use all of him mana healing the prince. Even though he used the spell every time his mana regenerated he still couldn’t keep the King or Prince’s health from dropping. Baron and Nile were able to thin the numbers a little but their was too many enemies. When the Kings health reached 5% Nile tried getting him to retreat. The horses were within sprinting distance and would make an easy escape. The King however, was in a fit of rage. He had entered into the ecstasy of battle and similar to a berserker he seemed to get more focused with every kill. Nile’s voice was drowned out by the Kings concentration. Baron was in a similar state. Ever since his first fight with the bandits he had craved more. Even though he arrived at the fight late he had the most kills.
The last wave of 20 bandits was filled with all of the higher levels. The bandits new they were fighting the King and Prince, so they started concentrating their attacks. They started ignoring Nile and Thyn who were faring the worst in the melee. Within seconds of rushing in their were 3 bandits over level 30 surrounding the King. The bandits were able to effectively isolate the King from the rest of them. They tried doing the same thing to the Prince but both Baron and Thane were conveniently close by.
Everyone was struggling with the higher leveled bandits. They were so focused on the enemies in front of them that no one noticed when the King faded into grey smoke.
The King was able to kill 2 of the 3 bandits that were surrounding him. The King’s health had been in critical condition for a while. It was surprising he managed to last as long as hit did with only 5% health.
Nile was the first to realize the King had died. He had been regenerating his mana to use the heal spell again, but was too late. He looked over at the Prince and realised he was also in critical condition. He used the heal spell hoping to prolong the Prince’s life if at all possible.
When the Prince received the heal spell he was surprised. Nile had been alternating between him and his father when he could use the heal spell. The Prince had just been healed and it was too soon. He scanned the battle ground for the King but couldn’t find him. When he looked back at Nile his worst thoughts were confirmed. The Prince dropped to his knees and began to mourn his father. The battle continued as he just knelt there.
The last bandit to fall was the one who killed King Drake. The bandit had lost half of its health and was no match for the end of Baron’s battle frenzy. When the fight ended Nile just stood there trying to comprehend the situation. Baron, Raiden, and Thyn didn’t know if it was a player or NPC who had just died. Either way they had no clue about the implications of his death until the message window popped up.
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New Event Quest:
REVENGE FOR THE LATE KING
All players in Sai and surrounding cities are eligible for this quest. The quest will be automatically accepted once in range. Event Quests cannot be declined. Not participating will not result in any consequences.
King Drake of Gradian has died in combat. Him and his party were outnumbered 10 to 1. Only after killing 20 enemies did his majesty fall in battle. The rest of his party survived and has taken revenge on the enemy who killed him, but that isn’t enough. The entire population of Sai and the surrounding cities is asked to participate in getting revenge for the late King.
The bandits of the Saigorn mountain range have been gathering an army and waiting for an opportunity to take the city of Sai. Now that they have killed King Drake that opportunity has come. In 2 days they will attack. Help fortify the cities defenses and prepare for battle.
As subjects of the late King it is your obligation to contribute in avenging him. All players will be rewarded based on their contribution in defending the city and exterminating the bandits. For every 1 contribution point the royal family will compensate you with 1 copper. The 10 users with the highest contribution will receive greater rewards.
Current Contribution Rankings:
1st: Baron, Level 28 - 5,600
2nd: Raiden, Level 26 - 3,950
3rd: Thyn, Level 20- 2,300
4th: Nile, Level 21 - 2,175
5th: Julia, Level 15 - 136
6th: Nick, Level 16 - 15
7th: N/A
8th: N/A
9th: N/A
10th: N/A
Time Remaining Till Battle: 47 hours 57 min 24 sec
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Everyone present accept the Prince got the quest notification. It was a shock to them that they had been fighting with the King. Usually nobility don’t associate with commoners so something like this was unheard of.
The quest seemed to include the bandits killed before the quests start as contribution. Baron had already killed 56 bandits giving him the most contribution. Nile hadn’t been with them when they were ambushing bandits so he was lacking behind the rest of them. It seemed that the quest also counted things like healing allies as contribution. Nile had only killed 3 bandits during the fight and his contribution points didn’t match that. Raiden pointed out that Julia and Nick were 2 of the players who got ambushed the day before.
The Prince stood up and addressed the group.
“I swear by my father’s name and my honor as prince I will avenge his death. I thank you all for how you fought today despite it not being enough. Now if you will excuse me I must go inform my mother of what happened and ready our army.” There was a slight pause before he turned and spoke to Nile. “If you would, could you please make sure the horses get back to the stable. I’ll be taking mine but there’s still my fathers and the supply horse. Arrow seems to like you, so please keep him as a reward for your effort.” The prince got onto his horse and rode away at full gallop.
The four players were still a bit shocked by the whole situation. An event quest was huge. It was the first war type scenario to play out in all of versailles since the launch of RR. The battle was sure to be covered by many show and will likely be the favored topic of every RR talk show host. Thankfully for Nile he was at the heart of it. His next episode of the Holy Archer would likely be a huge hit. Nile was teeming with excitement.
Nile decided the first thing they should do is bring the horses back to the stables. It didn’t seem like a good idea to disappoint the Prince in this situation. Since there was only 3 horses and 4 people Thyn and Raiden decided to just walk back. Nile sat on arrow and held the supply horses reins while Baron rode the King’s battle horse. They had tried to have Baron ride the supply horse but it wasn’t able to hold his weight. Since it was the King’s horse it wasn’t something just anyone should ride. The giant stallion seemed to have slight difficulty carrying the giant barbarian, but it was a champion breed and somehow managed to hold him. As they rode back at full gallop Nile was able to realize why they called his horse Arrow. The King’s horse still kept an above average speed even while carrying Baron, but Arrow left him in the dust. Even though he had to slow down for the supply horse, the two barrel horses were running circles around the stallion. They were able to reach the city in only 15 min. Most horses would have taken 20 for the same trip.
When they got to the gate the guards were alarmed to see the King’s horse being ridden by someone other than the King. They had just seen the Prince go through the gate at full gallop and were wondering what had happened. When Nile told them what happened to the King half of them started crying while the others started spewing cuss words. The guards showed more loyalty than expected. The sight of a grown man weeping for his king was an unforgettable sight. The tears stopped though once Baron mentioned the bandit invasion. After one sentence the guards got renewed vigor. They immediately set out to inform the rest of the guard and start preparations. Baron and Nile had a similar experience when trying to enter the castle. The castle guards were horrified by the news. They decided to send half of their men at that moment to the city guard to help prepare.
Once the horses were back in their pens Baron and Nile decided to split up again. Baron needed to get back to the smith and get his armor, while Nile had business with the church and in real life.
Nile quickly logged off once they split.
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The event quest was a huge ordeal and was already making an appearance in many online forums. When the quest was sent there was a wave of excitement and anger. It seemed rigged that someone already had over 5,000 contribution points before it started. One top of that the player was level 28, only 1 level behind the best player in the world. The players that started in Gradian were fans of the Holy Archer because of its proximity to them. The fact that the names Baron and Nile both appeared on the rankings couldn’t have been a coincidence. Many fans were eager to see if the next episode would explain the quest and the reason for people with early contribution.
People also wanted to know how Baron and Nile both got 250 contribution after the quest began. People didn’t know it but they had readied the guards and helped prepare the city. Eventually people realised they could get points by helping prepare. There was a frenzy with all the people trying to help. Things like getting food stores from farms and bringing them into the city were odd tasks that gave little contribution but where abundant. People started forming parties to efficiently finish these tasks and within a couple of hours both Julia and Nick were passed on the contribution rankings. Since they had been killed the day before they wouldn’t be able to log in for another days. It was fitting that someone like Nick who bragged about being amazing would have to miss out on his chance to prove it.
As soon as Nile logged out he contacted his superior at FOX. He immediately agreed with Nile’s plan and said he would have everything ready. Once he hung up Nile called his editor. He was asking for a lot but the editor promised to have everything ready. Nile planned to release an early episode of his show. With all that had happened he had more than enough footage. If he could get the footage out early he could possible be the first to cover the topic in detail. He was sure that he was the only person with any of the major details, but it was always good to be sure. He asked his boss if he could clear space on the website for the show at its normal time. Rather than that he promised to have a spot available in primetime. This quest would be one of the biggest RR shows the company had broadcasted and they planned to capitalize on it as much as possible. The task of editing an entire hour long episode in 1 day was a huge task. Thankfully Nile’s editor knew the importance of it and promised to deliver.
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When Nile logged back in he immediately headed for the church. He wanted to see if he lost his position as a cleric when switching his class to Royal Archer. If he did it would be a major setback. He couldn’t hold both professions at the same time, but he may be able to remain active with the church. The Royal Archer was likely a 2nd tier profession of Archer.
The way professions work in RR is that when the opportunity comes you can upgrade your class to something more specific. Similar to a warrior becoming a Knight or a Magician becoming a Necromancer. Some people theorized that there would be 3rd and above professions but that wasn’t confirmed. They would be something like a Knight becoming a paladin. Certain professions could simply upgrade themselves. If you didn’t want to become a different type of magician you could just become a 2nd tier magician. All you would gain is extra stat points. This was built into the game to make people who didn’t want to get a 2nd tier profession able to compete with others. Since the Royal Archer was likely tier 2 Nile was hoping he could get a 3rd tier class of Holy Archer or something similar, although he would likely have to be a much higher level to get it.