We are met with characters preparing ranks of members in an empty field. It's gusty, with a blue-pitched sky, and fair terrain. A perfect setting for a battle. “Time?” One person yelled out.
“Hillsbane will arrive in 10 minutes!”
There were around 100 players gathered for this world boss this time, and many classes from the starters classes with various levels. “This should be quick” Madder whispers to Jun. Jun looked around at all the players and began to inspect. “There's a cluster of Knights all speaking to each other. In their midst was Julia waving her sword around. The other knights gathered in. Then there's a bunch of archers and over there many robed characters with staves. Those must be mages.” He kept looking around and finally, he saw it. In the back of all the characters was one on a horse and behind it a carriage. As Jun begins to approach the character, Madder anchors his shadow. “Hey where are you going, the boss is about to spawn?”
“Can’t you see there's a Trader over there!” The two began to struggle a tug of war when finally Madder gave up. “Fine! But hurry I don’t think you want to miss out of on the Hillsbane event.”
Jun was already halfway from Madder's shadow which spanned 20 meters. Madder quickly came to and Jun raised his hand waving at the Tradesman. “Hey there…” He said as he inspected the person. “Silver Coin-Pencelot.”
Silver Coin looked out towards his name. “Hello?”
The two greeted each other and Jun quickly got to asking about the Tradesman class. “So I see you have a caravan…What is it like?”
“We’ll” he began. “It's not a bad gig. I usually carry people from here to there for a small fee. Right now my cart carries 4 people but as you class up you can get pretty astonishing travel mounts.” This excited Jun. In eagerness, he inquired. “Like?”
“The Tradesman explained that the Tradesman class tree is the only one with specialized mounts. The Caravan is one of them. Other mounts improve speed but have less carry capacity. Then some are slower but carry more inventory and people.” He then pointed to his caravan and his mount. “Wendalyn here is the best mount for the caravan. She is a Green-Ox.” Jun was amazed. He realized there was more to understanding the Tradesman than just money. “And like you and I, you have to maintain your mounts. It's just like in real life. Wenda here gets hungry, and my cart needs maintenance. But all these things are craftable.”
Jun pulls his head up from taking notes. “Craftable…check.” He rubbed his head and was still curious. “What brings you here then? Did you bring a party”
He looked left and then right. “Between me and you, you see those hills, that's where monsters begin to spawn. In the centre of the circle, players will need to protect a portal. If too many units get through then the Hillsbane event ends, but if not, Their General Hillsbane himself will appear. It's a grand event. For use by Tradesmen, everyone will be too busy killing mobs to pick up loot. Which is why I am not in the direct area of aggro for monsters. “
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“Smart,” Madder whispers to Jun. “So this isn’t his first rodeo.”
Jun was still curious. “Well, how profitable is this then?”
Pencelot looked at his inventory and invited Jun to trade. A window popped up and in it a material card Plainsfur showed. This here is a material used to make a special leather for Rogue armour. It sells for 400g each.”
Jun couldn't tell if that was a lot or a little but Pencelot continued. “And the event drops around 500 monsters, which means.”
Jun did the quick calculation. “500 X 400…that's like.”
“Yup.” Pencelot said, nodding up and down smugly.” He wiped his nose. “I’d say I am a very lucrative Tradesman if I do so.”
“He’s right under the right conditions this material sells well because there are always new players coming into the game, so players seeking rogue profession will usually farm this area or seek trading with players like Pencelot. The amount of gold he is getting from this though, is somewhat odd. I don’t remember this material being so expensive. It usually sells for 20 gold. Because new players do not have such capital…so…”
He paused and looked around. Madder than inspected Pencelot. “Just as I thought. He's already in a Party, and not just any party. A Raid Party. And the amount of people in this Raid party surmounted that of the people there. Not only that, the levels of players were far greater than the players waiting for the boss. “This is bad.”
“Huh?” Jun turned to face Jun. “What’s bad?”
Pencelot looked at Jun oddly. “I didn’t say anything…”
“You idiot look here,” Madder exclaimed. “Pencelot is up to more than you can think. He is leaving out some of the truth. He is not waiting to just loot while people fight, he is part of a bigger raid party with much higher level people who will wait until the boss spawns and wipe out all other players leaving the boss to themselves.”
“Why would they do that?”
“Well, one loot is shared with everyone that hits a mob in general, but only to those who are in the party. Which is why when you killed the last boss you got most of the XP. I recognize none of these names but one sticks out. Chancellor Vegan level 123 Crimson Magus.” Madder began to inspect most of the players. “And they all seem to be part of Risen. They are a guild to do things like this. Worst of all is that because of how the raiding party works with the boss event, it wouldn't be considered Player Killing if they do kill other players.” There was silence.
“If you're going to Player Kill, be a man about it and get Infamy like the rest of us!”
A bell rang. And the mobs began to spawn from the hills. Adventurers began to position themselves. A lone person stood up on the hill. It seemed to be the leader of the party. Jeens, a level 56 Wind Archer. Suddenly a screen popped up in front of all the players. It was an Invitation from Jeens.
“I know you got that invitation. I heard the sound. If you accept it we will be enemies from here on.”
“Jun hesitated and when he was about to accept, players began to crawl up the hill. Like Madder said there were 100s of players. They waited and waited and so did Jun.
“Well what's the deal Yggsalad, are you a coward like this guy here or are you a real man?”
Jun looked back to see all of the enemies defeated and suddenly spawning from a portal a gigantic ogre dressed in leather mail with a greataxe came through. “That’s our signal!” Pencelot said.
When a loud horn was sounded the players on the hills jumped towards the players who were already damaged and still healing. As they passed Jun, Pencelot remained. “Let me through.”
Jun declined the party offer.
“I knew you had it in you,” Madder said.
Suddenly Pencelot received a notification. “Duel request.”
He looked at Jun. “Yggsalad, seriously?” And declined his offer. His name then went red.
“You're the real monsters if you ask me.” Meanwhile, Jun’s shadow stretched towards the battlefield.
“I may not get rich your way, but I will die trying.”