“Alright, gonna be honest, I’m already bored of walking.” I confide in my closest confidant, otherwise known as Jasper, as I lean back and yawn a mighty yawn.
“Mmm.”
And she responds with a basic huff, a tragedy.
It’s been about an hour by now since we left Resin Peak, or in other words, twenty minutes of just walking on… this path. This… bland, boring path. With absolutely nothing to do on it. The plains sprawl out way, way off into the distance. And while I can see SOME stuff on distant horizons, hills, towns, and whatnot.., there’s… nothing near us.
No monsters… no people… no… nothing.
Was travel supposed to be this boring, or am I just going about it the wrong way…?
You have exited your starting town!
Uh huh? What about it?
Noob protection has been disabled!
Wait wuh? What about it?
You will now lose 10% of your total currency and one level upon dying!
Oh nuh? What about it?
When killing players, based on their karma, gain a percentage of the experience and currency they lose from dying, as well as a chance to steal a certain amount of items that they do not have equipped!-
Real shit.
The same rules apply to yourself.
Of course.
The Karma system has been unlocked!
Right, and can I read up on that?
Pressing the little info button next to “Karma”, I blinked in mild surprise as the… not quite modest menu popped up in front of me. There’s… a lot to this. But, I think I already get the general idea…? Give me a moment here.
…
Alright, Koth speed-read complete, peep the deets. In my words, this is my summary. Change your alignment by completing certain quests, or killing individuals of a certain alignment. Though, it gets much harder to change your alignment the further down a path you go. There’s a whole bunch of math for the equations on it included in the information, but my brain already hurts having read over that, so I am absolutely not going to summarize it.
Different alignment levels unlock different types of content, and you get more from killing players on opposing alignments. With killing your own “teammates” netting you way less. Certain alignment types also… lock off existing content though, like, being chaotic evil doesn’t let you uh… go into most normal towns…? Kinda shitty…
Anyways… after that whole info dump, kind of surprised Jasper hasn’t tried to like, stoke any kind of conversation. Also, doubly pissed because WHY COULDN’T THAT PREVIOUS GAGGLE OF GOOBERS HAVE WAITED LIKE TEN MINUTES FOR THE FIGHT, COME ON! Or maybe they wanted to fight somebody without karma activated, so that even if they died, they wouldn’t lose items…? I dunflubbinknow… whatever. What’s done is done.
So! Now that I’m “out of the starting town”, even though the town itself was like… a long way away by now, will any monsters show up??? It’s so boring man… I wanna talk to Jasper, but at the same time, about what?
Wait… wait wait wait, what is that I spy with my little eye? Kinda… kinda looks like a… wagon… way off there in the distance… like, like it’s kinda… going in the direction I wanna go…
Are hitch-hikers a thing in Omniscient? And can I get a sub-class in being one? Are SUB-CLASSES a thing that’s a question for the ages, but, perhaps not one for right now. Well, I suppose I’ll go figure out that first one.
“We’re gonna pick up the pace a little bit.” I notify Jasper, whom merely tilts her head at me. She has a little more agility than me, so I’m sure she could catch up either way, but hey no need to be rude. We can run together and I’ll be the one who has to catch up. At least until we reach that wagon anyways…
And so, we go to war.
—
The wagon itself wasn’t moving TOO fast, but with the distance it already had on us by a long, long margin, it stayed pretty far out of reach for the time being. We’ll catch up in due time, but the main issue here…
Stamina 99/122
Sprinting full speed without taking a break really starts to wear on you. Another thing… I’ve noticed here, is that once your stamina starts to fall, it starts falling faster…
Stamina 98/122
And faster…
Stamina 97/122
And you know, to the point where if you don’t stop for at least a little bit…
Stamina 94/122
It starts to drop.
That’s the first time I’ve seen that number move in any more than an increment of one, and that’s not exactly promising. I was never the greatest at math or anything, but at this pace, I’m not sure we’ll actually be able to catch up with that wagon… Jasper’s faster than me and she has more stamina, but she’s not uh… big enough to ride, so that’s kind of pointless. She might be able to catch up by herself, but a rogue monster running up to a wagon of strangers certainly has no possible way to go wrong. Definitely.
So, I continue onwards. Moving perhaps twice as fast as the wagon itself, but…
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Stamina 90/122
Losing steam, and fast. From where I am right now, I think three minutes of a full sprint could get me to the wagon, but that’s if it doesn’t move. So it’d be more apt to say five. I’ve already been running for five minutes, but if the stamina drain becomes multiplicative… then I’ll run out waaaaaaaaaay before I reach the thing.
Good god, why am I being forced to think so hard about this? I just wanna catch up to a wagon man! What kind of work horse is dragging this thing anyways? It’s basically moving at the speed of a jog! DRAGGING ALONG A FEW HUNDRED POUNDS WITH IT???
Now… pain settings don’t exactly refer to exclusively actual pain, more so whatever is perceived by the designer as a negative reaction your body has, something that doesn’t feel good to have happen. And, you know what? Being short of breath is one of those things. So, when I can finally start to properly feel my chest heaving, my breath seizing…
Stamina 79/122
I know I’m… not gonna make this sprint. So, begrudgingly, I slow my gait, to the point of a mild jog. Jasper matches her pace accordingly, bless her heart, but I’m sure she was also starting to get winded. She might have me beat in strength and vitality, but our stats in agility and stamina are fairly close. She was probably a little better off than me, but certainly not by much.
“M…Mmmm.”
“Because… I wanna catch up… to the wagon!” I heave through the mental connection. And while I may not be actively gaining by a solid amount any more, at the very least we’re now matching the wagons's pace, if not slightly outpacing it. At this rate it should certainly be possible to…
Stamina 78/122
Wait wuh?
That’s… weird. My stamina has only ever dropped before when sprinting like I just did, or pulling off wacky maneuvers. Not from… mildly exercising. Unless, the cumulative effect of losing stamina starts to stack up and apply to other forms of effort until you take a rest…? That’s… kind of…
I mean it makes SENSE, but that doesn’t mean I need to like it.
Stamina 77/122
…Well, shit.
Ever so gradually, my steps begin to slow in frequency as my body heaves with a sensation usually alien to these kinds of games. Exhaustion was a… interesting system, to say the least. Interesting enough to keep it out of most games that involved combat, anyways. But then again, it wasn’t like you’d be sprinting five minutes straight in the middle of a fight. Battles would in all honesty, probably last about a minute tops between two equal competitors.
So… it was a limiting factor for… what? Even longer fights probably wouldn’t drain your entire reserve. Running away, then? Maybe add more use to vitality…? Some kind of, burst speed versus endurance runner archetype between tanking and dps…? Either way, I can’t imagine it was designed with THIS kind of situation in mind!
“I… don’t think…” I pause for a moment, sucking in another breath… “We can catch up to them.”
“Mm-mm-m!”
“I do… in fact… say.”
“Mmmmgh.”
Fuh-INALLY, my stamina stops dropping as I rub at my temples, continuing to hobble forward I take another glance up at the rapidly… advancing… wait, wait wait wait, did they…?
“Hold on, Jasper, do mine eyes deceiveth me? Hath that wagon ceased its momentum!?”
They stopped! But why? Did they see me taking such great pains to reach them, and they decided that my determination was worth rewarding?! Yeah, probably not. What’s going on here?
“Mmm…?”
“Don’t mind the accent.” I scoffed as I playfully waved in her direction. “Anyways, do mine eyes deceiveth me or…”
“mmm.”
“Fine, fine, do MY eyes DECIEVE me… or is there a little, uh, commotion going on over there?”
I don’t start sprinting again or anything, I can still feel my lungs trying to strangle me on 3%, so… not doing that, but I keep walking forward toward the stilled object, and as I get closer and closer… I think I do indeed spy with my little eye, a fight occurring. That’s odd, not sure where the monsters are for me, but it looks like… a bunch of… animals that I can’t quite make out from here.
What are they fighting? Well, obviously the group with the wagon. Bunch of dudes fighting them off. Can’t tell if they’re doing all that well at it from here, but it certainly doesn’t look like any of them are getting figuratively and or literally ripped apart… So, yeah, probably doing fine!
But, more importantly…
“We need to catch up before they finish up over there.”
“Mmmh…”
“Oh come on, do you really wanna walk the entire way?”
“Mmm?”
“Who says I’ll let you stay in the pocket realm the entire time? I ain’t going miles without any company.”
“...”
“So on that note, let’s get going!”