Vol 2. – Chapter 74 – Escaping Shame Mountain
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Time passed shortly after, with Titan being washed by a new trend, the atmosphere of Christmas was brought by the players.
Like a butterfly effect, it affected the inhabitants who began decorating their houses and the trees in their courtyards, similar to the ones from the real world.
It was a nice scene to see the people with smiles on their faces decorate their houses and brew this spirit in those winter moments.
The players also didn't know to explain who first started this trend, but it made sense for many Christians playing the game from around the world to try getting together using this channel.
It was customary to see the forums of Satisfy being assaulted by different threads talking about this trend of bringing some Christmas events if the Developers didn't want to implement such an event or the NPC's who had no clue what they were talking about.
Regardless of religion, the people could agree on this event happening worldwide without bickering about petty arguments.
Yet there were still those mocking others who bought into the trend of suiting their houses or the taverns they were staying with decorations or those who taught kids or drunkards corals for some cheap coins.
The Forums housed such "interesting" people who talked about their experiences with this Christmas Event and how he paid some drunkards silver coins to have them sing for his party corals, they told him.
The owner of the thread, while making the readers of his thread chuckle a bit, there was a split minority looking down on the guy who used such cheap tactics.
In the end, those new changes were brought to the mainstream audience's attention, with the channels that focused mainly on bringing content from inside Satisfy to the attention of their audience receiving quite positive feedback.
This feedback also got in the developer's eyes, who initially didn't put too much attention on this natural course of actions.
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Inside his office, the leader of the developers Lim Cheolho along with other developers of South Korea, were watching the news from the biggest correspondent of Satisfy in their country, that showed images of the main cities of their world, from Titan, Reinhart, Gauss, Ultima, Glasian, Rotemon and other capitals of the world.
"Even though it is winter the people didn't forget to celebrate Christmas even inside the world. It is quite ingenious to warm up the atmosphere while the winter is still going on."
"Nahee, can you give me the information's about who started all of this?"
The woman at his side, holding a tablet as if it was a book, nodded and began typing something on the tablet while the guys watched the scenes from inside Satisfy, with some players fooling around with the snow.
"According to Morpheus, the ones who started all of this were the users, Red, Evan and Lane. Here are the images of them cutting a Fir Tree, and bringing it to Titan."
She showed the sequence of how Red, Evan and Lane were working to cut the tree, and also bringing inside, which made the developers laugh finding it quite amusing, seeing the dynamics of the trio.
"It is always nice seeing these three guys work together and messing around." commented Sangmin, the director of the S.A Group, a close friend of Lim Cheolho and also part of the developer's team.
"Agreed. They brought a lot of attention to the game, by antagonizing the entire gaming industry." calmly mentioned another developer, while Chelho thought about the leader of this group that was like a lit match for his soul project.
Yet Nahee, moved on with the video and pointed out who was responsible for this.
"They acted on Mathias's orders. That person sure is weird even when you compare him to Kraugel, Agnus, Red, Cain, Thanatos, Hurent, and Haster."
Then she showed them the video of Mathias decorating the tall tree along with the entire group of his house, from the small orphans to the kobold that tagged along with him since completing the quests in Gravelmark Heights. Cheolho had a smile on his face seeing the players and inhabitants of the world blend so nicely together, without differences, and everything was circling around a crimson-haired young man who had a pure smile on his face all along, guiding everyone from old to young.
'He is the first person to play the game how my friends and I envision.'
'Satisfy was intended to be our retreat when being stressed by the outside, but now we gave the world this chance of enjoying our dream.' thought the mastermind behind this masterpiece, feeling that Mathias was an essential player to his game, considering him one of the key players of Satisfy, who along with his developing team, called them Miracles.
This was the name the developers decided to name the ones who Morpheus couldn't estimate their decisions and moves.
"So it is that Mathias behind this again. I mean, his girlfriend sure is from England, so I am sure this is his main enticement of bringing Christmas in the game, so he and Fayrene could get together." tried to guess the reasons Mathias did what he did, with the information he gained from Morpheus about the couple that formed inside Satisfy.
"You are probably right about that Changwook. Morpheus can't help out with this guy, so we can only gamble with him." chuckled a developer from the group of 5 developers.
"Well, it is nice seeing him integrate the children so nicely in this. Ohh, he even brought Johan Strauss with him. Get ready, boys. We have another concert ahead of us." mentioned another developer, who saw the scene in front of him being fast-forwarded, with Mathias bringing Johan in the house.
Cheolho had a wide smile on his face, as he prepared for the concert, and for the group of 5 along with Nahee, Johan didn't disappoint, bringing out some interesting pieces, and even Mathias's singing voice wasn't that bad.
"Good performance, it is unfortunate not to see him perform again on the grand stages, but knowing Mathias from what we saw him do, he will probably have something unexpected in store for us."
"Like what?" asked Chelho, curious what Sangmin had to say.
"An Opera House maybe? Haven't you seen his progress with the Clothing Factory? He managed to bring to life the Sewing Machine. Once he finds time to diversify, I am willing to bet with you, he will make this scene for Johan."
"Ohh, it makes some sense since he worked out to promote him to the owners of Inner City using that cheesy trick of fooling the inhabitants."
"Yea, using that cheat." nodded Sangmin with a casual smile.
"Haha, you call it a cheat but it is mostly about your charisma and behaviour. Mathias has a good understanding of this and thus has blended successfully in Satisfy society. According to Morpheus, there is an 80% integration rate from how he speaks and behaves with the inhabitants inside."
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"Whoa, that's sure high. Most users are only at 25% while the other five are at 50-60% integration rate."
Nahee mentioned professionally, something that made the developers tease her for being too stoic.
"The psychologists have prognoses about how our users will with time adapt and integrate to the new virtual reality they have been accustomed to. They talked about 40-50% integration of the players to the new society by the project's third year. I could go more into detail if you guys want."
"Thank you, Nahee, but leave us to stay dumb. We just want to watch the players journey from this lounge and laugh at their decisions." commented Sangmin, with a chuckle, while Cheolho too declined the offer of his stoic assistant.
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Besides the newer changes around Satisfy, the one in question was enjoying his time with the ones closest to him, not stressing himself to train his body in the ruthless fashion he was doing.
Choosing to do something together with Fayrene and Jeanne and work on some embroidery, a fun passing the time together.
Yet, things weren't shining and blissful as for his own, such was the case for a mid-twenty man who had messy black hair and the features of an eastern asian, with thicker eyebrows and a wide forehead.
His monolids were the standard feature one would think of an asian guy, but those were trivial things as for his appearance in those moments as he cursed like some ruffian was quite shaming.
However, the moments he was experiencing weren't something one would call quite nice, as he was suffering at the hands of some blasted creatures that ganged on him.
Facing a group of 6 goblins that stood at 1 meters height with a weight one could simply grab in hand easily, they roared something at the asian guy in an undecipherable language for the latter.
"What, you motherfucker? Are you angry that I killed your rat friend? I will also kill you soon and pass by this stupid forest infested with your kind." shouted back the asian guy, feeling flustered by his inability to get past this Forest and reach a big city of the Kingdom he spawned, Eternal Kingdom, with his target being Patrian.
Coming from a village close to the Shame Mountains, he experienced a lot of hardship since entering Satisfy, so much that it filled him with anger that he didn't know how to release.
His co-workers looked down on him for being an ignorant and useless fool for wasting his life by playing this game, the NPC's of this game also treated him rather frigid, as he did some huge mistakes by lashing at the Elder of the village he spawned.
Without being able to gain assistance from the NPC's since the Elder banned his access, the man in question decided to do what most players did, and adventure in the wild, starting off by fighting the easy prey, small vermins, to rabbits, to wild dogs, and later ongoing for the big guns, meaning the Wolves and Bears.
But his story was truly tragic as I tell you, since he stepped foot on Satisfy, and trying to go out of the Shame Mountain, his death count reached an insane number, even being killed by the inoffensive rabbits, if you could call them that by the adventurer's standards.
A warrior's path, taking the hard path, literally by killing himself in a bravado only warriors had, by charging to fight a lone wolf, who later on summoned his entire pack, ending tragically for the asian man.
A normal person would try to search for tutorials to make his life easier in this beginner's journey, but this person had one video in mind that marked him since checking the forums, the Black Spearman, whose movement was so sick that he tried to emulate him with his bastard sword.
However, he didn't make the connection that the Black Spearman was fighting using a spear that conferred him a different playstyle.
He was simply a warrior using a sword.
Needing to find the truth the hard way, he was sidelined a lot by the game system that took his game access whenever he would die more than 2 times, sidelining him for 12 hours.
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Bringing the action back to the asian man, a Warrior who had the usual level of a beginner player, was trying to calm himself while facing the goblins, nasty-looking creatures, with flat faces, sloped back forehead, broad noses, pointed ears, and small, sharp fangs.
Their eyes varied in color from red to yellow. Their skin color came in shades of green.
They were wearing a primal armor, containing dark leathers soiled by poor hygiene and colored in a similar range of tones to their skin.
*GHROWL*
Clearly, the goblins also had a short temper, immediately choosing the lone adventurer's attack, who had the presence of mind to bring his bastard sword forward to meet the attackers.
He saw that the monster's level was similar to his own, with two being at level 15, and out of common practice, he placed all his saved status points into his primary stat, solely focusing on his power, strength.
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[Status Window]
Name: Grid / Class: Warrior
Level: 14 (9425/12100) / Titles: None
Health: 1,161 Mana: 45
Strength: 157 Stamina: 40
Agility: 22 Intelligence: 15
Skills Possessed:
Beginner Sword Mastery Lv. 2, Beginner Armor Mastery Lv.2, Charge Lv. 1, Full Swing Lv. 1., Brutal Strike Lv.1
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'Here comes nothing. I hope I don't get killed so I can reach the next respawn point. I'll do my full combo and later on start eating those herbs so I can recover my mana to finish them off.'
'Indeed, this plan is the best. I will soon become a high-ranker with this smooth planning, just need to be careful with my equipment so it doesn't get broken.'
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[Blunt Greatsword]
Attack Power: 45~85
Attack Speed: -3%
[Old Skull Helmet]
Defense: 2
[Old Orc Armor]
Defense: 13
[Old Goblin Shoes]
Defense: 2
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From how his stats looked, Grid had his attack speed and evasion the lowest, but he didn't think it was a disadvantage, being able to overpower his enemy using his attack power.
He used his Charge skill, an instant skill to get to the front goblin to attack him, in doing so, getting closer to the group of goblins, and with a large creepy smile, the asian man once again relied on his instant skill cast, to swing his bastard sword at the monsters.
[You have dealt 80 damage to the target]
[Critical!]
[You have dealt an AoE hit of 260 damage to the targets]
"NICE! JACKPOT!" celebrated Grid, a moment of luck in this fight against the goblins, by taking a decent hit from their small HP gauge of only 2150 HP.
The goblins fought back, hitting Grid who slashed his sword like he was cutting wood, landing one hit on a goblin before he started running off toward the forest exit, using this as his game plan, and with a hand holding his sword, the empty hand began getting busy with bringing some herbs with a fresh smell to them into his mouth.
[You have ingested the Fresh Star Moss gaining for the duration of 30 seconds 2 mana per second.]
[Once the effect is over your defence will be weakened by 20%]
'Yes, yes, understood, just give me that mana already.'
Starting his mana recovery, Grid then slowed down from his run, and started once again facing the goblins, this time with only basic attacks, getting the monsters lower on their health with anticipation to his outbreak, but it wasn't without risks since he was playing the russian roulette right now, and constantly suffering the hits of the goblins from their rusty weapons or primitive weapons, making him clench his teeth from the pain, he unleashed his combo again, but this time instead of Charge & Full Swing, he combined Full Swing & Brutal Strike, dealing an hit of 152 damage in an AoE effect, and another hit of 160 damage from the Brutal Strike.
The damage wasn't sufficient to end the 6 goblins, but the one he focused the most from the start dropped down, dead, turning into grey light which give him confidence to end the fight, and like a possessed ghost, Grid began fighting desperately to kill off the remaining goblins, eating along most of the plants he picked from his descent of Shame Mountain.
[You have defeated a 'Forest Goblin' gaining the following rewards: 800 EXP, 7 silver coins, Burnt Leather Belt, Murloc Fin 1x, Linen Cloth 5x]
[You have defeated a 'Forest Goblin' gaining the following rewards: 700 EXP, 10 silver coins, Murloc Fin 1x]
[You have defeated a 'Forest Goblin' gaining the following rewards: 850 EXP, 3 silver coins, Fatcandle Bag, Murloc Fin 1x]
[You have defeated a 'Forest Goblin' gaining the following rewards: 700 EXP, 4 silver coins, Murloc Fin 1x]
[You have defeated a 'Forest Goblin' gaining the following rewards: 700 EXP, 8 silver coins]
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[You have leveled up!]
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Collapsing on the frost-covered ground, he started chuckling like a madman as he raised his hands in the air, and screaming from the top of his lungs.
"I'VE DONE IT ON THE FIRST TRY! FUCK YEA I AM GOOD!"
"I EVEN LEVELED UP!"
After celebrating, he went to check his loot with an wide smile but was left with a bruised upper lip from how empty it was, without anything, in particular, being great. The idea that his money in the game was climbing up was enticing for Grid, and it returned his spirits back, focusing on only the gains.
"I'll sell those to some NPC for scraps since they aren't useful."
Besides this, he also remained on the same stop to recover his spent stamina from all the intense fighting he did, but someone had other plans for him and immediately as Grid heard that sound, his monolid eyes opened up, brimming forth dark memories.
*ROARR*
"It is that cursed monster again. I have no time to spend on recovering my stamina, let's get to the respawning location out of the forest, and later on I might chill a bit."
Getting up, he didn't even look at his back as he started dashing off the forest, finally getting out of the this blasted lands, the Shame Mountain, a perfect name for this secluded place of Eternal Kingdom.
Grid followed the dirt road which from his information taken from the forums would intersect with the main road taking to the city of Patrian, the place most players that choose to go to Eternal Kingdom landed.
Still, there was also exceptions with others that landed directly in Reinhart the capital of Titan, while those thrown in the lottery of randomness spawned in whatever locations, in this example could be said Grid to take part.
All of those unfortunate events that hit him no longer mattered since he was on the good path, Patrian City, a location filled with diverse quests and a place where he could advance his skills and become stronger.
"Patrian, here I come! I hope I still have some quests left from the NPC's."