Novels2Search

Learning the Ropes 2/3

Well, that was a pleasant surprise. Now KillPrinsX also learned that Nap Time is more than an suicide button.

And now, instead of defaulting, she can carry through with making some more plans… whatever that may be.

There’s always that hidden desire to just go out and have fun playing around, but in the end you still have to make it back home. That little golden star on the map isn’t just looming, it’s the only way to get out. But who wants to get out? There’s everything in here; as long as you know how to fight, and how not to die, you win; and when you lose you just start all over again with nothing really to lose, except those skills and hard won XP.

She got up out of the cot she had slept in, but nearly fell down. Her Stamina was at the bottom, Mana very low and HP was climbing up to half. That’s the other gift of Nap Time, HP, SP, and MP usage. Maybe she should go and take a real nap, without all the specials.

But, as she took a minute to sit there, she started to recover a bit more Stamina, the Debuff finally wore off and her stats continued to climb even while walking around.

She found Jason again, looking like he had just finished chopping wood, shoulders slumped, face sweaty and really big biceps. He greeted her a little too friendly. What can you say when you live in the woods all by yourself. “Have a nice nap KillPrinsX?”

She questioned that herself and gave a simple reply, “Yeah. You ready to go and kill some monsters?”

“Of course! I’d love to.” Jason said, taking a handkerchief out to wipe his brow I even saw a low level group trekking around up the mountain. I’m sure you and I could take them, what do you say?”

KillPrinsX was almost hesitant, there’s usually five to a group, low levelers could be easy, and she was still a bit low on Health, she’s barely been around… could she and take on a group of players? She took a look at her profile before making a final decision.

Name: KillPrinsX

Player number: 00098655

Level: 1

Race: Human

Innate ability: Psychic

Stats

Health: 138

Stamina: 167

Mana: 368

Attributes

Strength: 5

Agility: 17

Dexterity: 21

Endurance: 15

Solidity: 3

Wisdom: 26

Intelligence: 25

Charisma: 9

Luck: 19

Well she not so low leveled now… “Let’s find them and see what loot we can get!”

They ventured off into the unknown forest… well Jason knew where he was going. His Tracking skill was far higher level than KillPrinsX’s, so they had found the group after a mere five minutes.

KillPrinsX had gotten sight of them and stayed hidden. She tried to watch from a distance as long as she could, trying to see who she was up against.

After a few minutes she gave up trying, there was hardly anyway to see what kind of player they were unless… She facepalmed herself. She used Analyze and got all of their details.

FhighR77 - Level 5 - Commoner

23Jeezits - Level 8 - Tank

*555Devil - Level 7 - Sharpshooter

Enemy001 - Level 4 - Engineer

Derek509 - Level 15 - Keen Eye

One of them is Level 15! But a few looked lost and scared. The Tank, Sharpshooter and Keen Eye weren’t so obviously scared, but still alert. The predicted fight might go in either direction. She would have to keep an eye on the Sharpshooter, watch out for the Tank and just hope the Level 15 Keen Eye doesn’t have too many projectiles.

Squatting behind the same bush, Jason whispered, “What do you see? Any good plan of action?”

KillPrinsX was still thinking it over. But with Jason being Level 27 they might just have a good chance, even with his main skill of Wood Chopping.

“Can you throw an axe?” KillPrinsX asked.

“Of course. I’d just have to go in and grab it after that.” Somehow, he didn’t have any other weapon.

She continued through her plan… “Alright, throw an axe at the Sharpshooter and dive in to grab it. Then go for the Tank. I’ll follow through to make sure each one is incapacitated.”

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“Sounds good.” Jason replied. “Just give me a sign.” He reached over and got his axe ready to throw.

She first took a second to look at what skills to upgrade. She had just gained six new skills after that Nap Time, and even had 6 skill points to use!

Looking through she found that the new skills were a bit costly and would plummet her Mana in a matter of seconds, but then again her total Mana had jumped a lot after gaining those skills as well… it really didn’t make much of a difference.

Still, she could only use Force Push about 12 times with out using any other skill, none of this including the high cost buffs. So she’d have to invest in something else.

The big one, Curse from the Heavens was still off limits at tier 5, she had to be at least level 15.

The other sensible options were Shield, Attack or Disable skills from her own Psychic skills sets.

It was a good debate, and looking at the scene in front of her, she might need a little more attack than shielding. For one, she was fast, and her low Solidity attribute gave her a good chance of not being hit, plus there were the newly learned Buffs she was about to cast.

She had 6 skill points to allocate. With those, she put 1 skill points into HP Leech, and 2 into MP Leech (twin skills under Psychic Attack, tier 2). And with that, she had unlocked the next skill: Knock Back (tier 3) similar to the Force Push skill but with the added bonus of a massive HP drain. What a surprise! Another 3 skill points went into Knock Back.

You have use a skill point to learn the skill Knock Back (tier 3)!

This skill is a must have for those who love to go in and fight but hate to fight. Giving the enemy quite a shock, he looses a chuck of HP and will most likely find himself on his back afterwards.

While touching the enemy, steals 2 HP for every MP used . When released, sends the enemy flying backwards. Must be in physical contact (armor excluded).

Cost:

10 MP / 20HP leeched

Gives:

+1 HP per rank

+3 MP per rank

+2 Wisdom: Attack: Psychic per rank

+1 Wisdom: Attack: Force per rank

You have used 3 skill points and now are at rank 3 in Knock Back.

That should give her some good damage on contact for a reasonable amount of Mana. It was a good deal, and nothing her MP wouldn’t be able to handle. She had plenty of it now!

Now ready to fight!

She started with casting Buffs on herself and Jason. 180 MP put to good use… and her MP was cut in half already.

She motioned Jason onwards and they shuffled, as quietly as they could, through the bushes to get a good start.

But then the group saw them. The Keen Eye turned around and pointed, giving orders. “Enemy behind us. Jeezits, Tank! Devil, shoot! FhighR, Enemy, behind me, take cover and get into position.”

Jason jumped up and ran for the Tank, axe in hand.

The plan went to shit in just that second. He was supposed to throw his axe…!

KillPrinsX swore under her breath. She turned on Focus and unsheathed her knife. Then, she too charged at the Tank, gave a couple of perfect stabs and used Confuse, making him stand there like an idiot for a couple of seconds.

The Tank was just taking hits. He stood there for a good five seconds while Jason whaled him, giving some serious damage.

KillPrinsX darted off to find the Sharpshooter. She got a good five steps in some direction until a bullet flew right in front of her face. She changed direction while zigzagging over to the shooter.

She spotted him and cast Confuse. That was all she needed to be able to get in and give a couple of critical hits with the knife. She took the time to use Mana Drain as well, giving her a little boost in HP, while stabbing him repetitively. It worked for just a few seconds.

The Sharpshooter quickly came around and fought back, and… he also had a knife.

KillPrinsX was moving fast and skillfully with her Focus being on, but it still wasn’t a cure-all. She got slashed in the arm, and took another slash in the torso, taking a good 50 HP. Ouch! Time to end this.

She hit him with Confuse one more time and came in with Knock Back, putting a full 50 MP into use, she filled her HP to the top, but the damage kept going. Apparently the level 7 Sharpshooter wasn’t all that healthy and died immediately, flying back as she let go. She just used 100 MP, and still had 100 more.

You have reached Level 11!

You have 1 skill point for your use.

Oh well, all stats reverted to max, she got ready for the next one.

She turned around to get a rock in the face, it didn’t do much damage but it wasn’t comfortable.

The other three were hiding and throwing things! Another bullet had wizzed passed her face and she took cover once again before darting off to another hiding spot.

In the corner of her eye she could see the fight with Jason and the Tank still going, Jason taking a good hit, but the Tank was swaying like a drunk.

With that in hand, she took off and found another one of them, the Engineer, and had stabbed him, dodging a punch.

She quickly stabbed him a few more times. He punched, and missed again. She let him try a few more times, but with Evade and at Level 11, he couldn’t hit her. She punched him in the face and he recoiled. KillPrinsX didn’t mind a little one on one, but there were still two others.

She did a quick calculation of his Health and figured it shouldn’t be much higher than 100 HP, and even lower now after those well placed stabs. She came in to use Knock Back. Her hand touched his chest, she placed the Mana… Zap!

What was that! She shook for a second, watching her HP drop 50 points.

He punched her in the face while she was trying to figure out what happened, looking at her hand, and took an item out of his pocket, laughing an waving it her face. “Electric shield, bitch!”

She had ways around that. She cast Confuse and HP Leech one right after the other. He wavered and the little red dots started funneling to her hand.

She leeched him for a good two seconds until the chick ran out of the bushes and tackled her to the ground! KillPrinsX now getting her face beat in.

The hits weren’t doing big damage, but there wasn’t much a way out of this one.

She needed a plan now, like right now, something that might get out from under this girl. First, she put both hands on the girl’s waist and then put her Mana into Knock Back, just 20 MP, that would take 40 of her HP and throw her off.

The girl felt it, screaming in a pain-rage fury. And as soon as KillPrinsX let go, she flew off, laying in a heap on the floor. She wasn’t defaulted, but incapacitated for a while.

KillPrinsX barely had time to grab her knife and get up before the boy jumped on top of her and started punching. This time with electric shock damage that shocked her and kept her from doing anything.

Now she’s really dead. Her HP was up dropping about 10/sec, she tried Knock Back, but couldn’t hold her concentration.

The girl came back and ripped the knife out of her hand, and stated to go to town on her ribs.

Then the Keen Eye stepped out of the bushes and started kicking her head.

It was just a matter of seconds before KillPrinsX would default!

Seconds before default, KillPrinsX had a full blown vision while lying there getting the shit beaten out of her. What would happen if she’d default. Then a thought about actually playing in a group… or going out on her own again. Maybe, it might be fine trying to level up with some good team fights.

But Jason had pulled her out her dream with a good axe throw, taking out the girl stabbing her ribs. He followed through with a perfect wide armed tackle, stunning the Keen Eye and the Engineer. They all tumbled to the ground and KillPrinsX, with her HP in the single digits, only tried rolling to get up. It wasn’t all that easy with no HP.

Jason had picked up his axe and finished off the Engineer, in one good chop, and started on the Keen Eye.

Now something you might not know about Keen Eyes. They’re called that because they see everything, and I mean everything. The muscles in Jason’s arm, winding back… the Keen Eye was already a step out of reach. Jason couldn’t land a hit!

KillPrinsX had finally gotten up and weakly cast HP Leech. She made it work, and kept going for as long as she could, getting her Health back up to at least over 50. That was the time the Keen Eye had pulled a gun and start shooting. But KillPrinsX had good reflexes, using Focus and Psychic Evade, she had barely made it to miss getting shot.She had hardly transported two feet off to the side and cast Confuse. That was all it took, the Keen Eye wobbled for a second and Jason came around with his axe, taking an arm off. KillPrinsX came in and used Knock Back, full throttle, 50 MP gone and 100 HP taken. The Keen Eye flew backwards as KillPrinsX let go, he hit a tree and slumped. Jason put his axe through his face, just to be sure.