Deep Inferno, September 28, 2012

“How... what have you done?” asked Pendragon. “You defeated this Nightmare without my instructions and well, what did you do, Azure-Headed Boy?”

Pendragon girded his loins and glared at Velocity. But Velocity had expected this. Interesting, looks like we're going to be mocked from the skin color in this game, he thought. He started to reply, “Just an experiment, Mr. Dark Green! It worked according to my calculations!”

“What if you fail and are knocked-out in the battle?” asked Pendragon pointing at him. “This field study has been organized to avoid hospitalizing Saviors!”

“I didn’t break any rules, right?” debated Velocity. “I'm confident at this. In the worst case, I'll be the only one to get knocked-out and your arrival won't prolong the fight so Vestalia won't get knocked-out. I just need to be healed and the battle got reset.”

“Grrr...,” grumbled Pendragon. There was a long silence with only an exchange of glances. “Alright, I'll just look at the Histories or Logs of your Mobius now.”

Magically, both of their Mobius flew towards Pendragon's hand. Velocity wondered if there was a special keyword for that action, perhaps similar to the Accio magic he had encountered from other games that had the same effect. That magic also existed in this game with a different effect. He looked at Pendragon with gestures that Velocity was unfamiliar with. Pendragon looked like he was fingering a monitor that was invisible to his eyes next to Dinorex's body. Perhaps it was Pendragon's Mobius effect.

He turned to think about his calculations earlier that were definitely accurate and would not be off. That's why he bought some items sold by other Saviors from the Market Place in the Mobius Terminal. This was one of his many lessons from Espion.

Some of the mechanics and calculations in Seption had some similarities to Espion. Instead of using mainstream build from most players, he allocated Agility and Tenacity to his stats at a ratio of three to one and learnt Buff-type skills such as Clementia that increased three stats at once for himself and party members: Power, Spirit, and Focus. Another buff named Sylphario serves to increase Agility. He also learnt a Tribe Skill called Dragonic Power, which increased Critical Rate, the bonus damage from physical attacks that can be triggered with percentage.

Velocity turned his head because of Vestalia who was approaching him now. “Err, what's Pendragon doing?”

“I don't know, I'm not familiar with the Mobius,” Velocity replied simply. This time there were indeed some new things in the game that he had to adapt to. “It's okay. The outcome of our battle won't change, there might be some sort of score that I don't know the criteria for.”

“Then, did you argue like that earlier because of Thoughts?” Vestalia asked again.

“I replied to his words offhandedly and there seemed to be an unprogrammed dialog so he immediately pulled our Mobius,” Velocity replied, he immediately asked back, “Did you notice that Pendragon is an NPC, not a player like us?”

“Err...I just assumed he wasn't a player,” Vestalia replied. “In this virtual world, he's called as a Survivor, right?”

“That's the term in this world.” Velocity began to explain. “In the real world, Pendragon is also called an NPC, which stands for Non-Player Character. It’s a character with an AI that interacts with players in a game. AI stands for Artificial Intelligence, in simple terms is a lifeform programmed by developers that makes Pendragon act like a human in the virtual world.”

Velocity paused for a moment and coughed a little before he continued, “As far as I know, NPCs have existed since the days of Espion's service, which are now augmented with voice features that make it easier for us to communicate where we used to just type on the keyboard.”

Vestalia replied with a nodding emoticon from her character as a sign of understanding. A few seconds later, they saw Pendragon approaching.

“I have checked and confirmed your Mobius. The quest objective is complete,” Pendragon said suddenly. “I will now escort you to Dragavar City and…”

Bummm, Pendragon's words were cut off. The sound came from far away, making the three of them look around. There was a large monster the size of Burn Dinorex in the distance to the east on the road where Velocity and Vestalia had previously escaped from Tyranno.

“What's that? Another Nightmare?” asked Vestalia anxiously.

“It's a Nightmare?” repeated Velocity. “But it feels different from the Burn Dinorex we defeated earlier.”

“We have a company!” exclaimed Pendragon. “Follow me and keep your distance so you don't enter the battle zone.”

The two ran after Pendragon. They were getting closer to where the Nightmare was. There were two figures near the Nightmare. One was trying to attack with magic while avoiding it. While the other one was lying unconscious behind the fighting figure, apparently in a state of knocked-out.

“Oii!!!” exclaimed Pendragon as he ran over and called out to the figure still standing far ahead. “You two are Saviors, right? Are you still standing? Vestalia, help the knocked-out Savior with Mobius' first aid feature.”

“I-I'm fine,” replied the Savior who was fighting. “But I was trying to protect this kid and he was already knocked out after other Saviors escaped.”

Pendragon and Velocity stepped forward, leaving Vestalia behind. Velocity began to pay attention. This Savior was a Wizard class judging by his white clothes and red robes, which were already one Rank above him and Vestalia. His head was a black goat with large horns. Velocity wondered if he was Tribe Morphius or Diabolus, as it was quite difficult to distinguish between the two Tribes. He read the Savior's name as Salvadore, somehow he felt he had heard that name before.

“You don't have the Smoke Bomb item?” asked the arriving Pendragon. He began to emit some sort of protective air from Mobius with the Stealth Generator Skill keyword. He received several fireball attacks from Ifrit, but received little damage as a result.

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“I tried and it didn't work!” exclaimed Salvadore. “I've never fought a Nightmare like this either.”

“Then this monster named Ifrit is a higher-level monster type, called Fear,” Pendragon said as he pulled out a weapon from his Mobius in the form of an Axe.

“Fear?” repeated Velocity as he pulled out a Hammer weapon from his Mobius. He watched Ifrit, unable to recognize what kind of animal the monster was. However, he vaguely remembered Ifrit being the name of a type of demon that might belong to the Diabolus Tribe.

“It's harder than Nightmare and you can't use the Smoke Bomb item to escape from it. The monsters will pursue all Saviors until everything in their range is knocked-out. You're not lucky to attract a monster like this. You guys better back off and get out of here, I'll distract it,” Pendragon said as he advanced away from the two Saviors. The protective air effect that Pendragon had released was gone.

Velocity looked back, seeing Vestalia treating the knocked-out Savior with a powder that had emerged from Mobius. The black uniform meant he was a Fighter class and was a Dragonic Tribe like himself, differing only in the red color of his skin. That Savior was named Accelacus. He could not hear the other dragon because he was too far away, but Vestalia and Accelacus seemed to be talking to each other as he caught up with Pendragon and Salvadore.

Salvadore seemed to be walking away toward Vestalia and Accelacus' position, but Velocity ran to stop him. “Wait a minute, Salvadore.”

“Huh?” Salvadore was confused by Velocity's figure blocking his path even though he was bigger.

“I need your help,” Velocity said. “You will be the DPS-Damage per Second role that will deal damage. I'll be the Tank-the defensive role. Let's try to fight that monster.”

“Errr....” Salvadore sounded indecisive. His reaction was surprising to Velocity. If he was playing Espion, the other players would have probably refused and told him that he was a freak and naive to fight a much stronger monster like Ifrit right now.

“Accept my party invitation.” Salvadore's voice sounded like Velocity's real-life older brother who was around 30 years old, which probably explained his size and not acting recklessly like a teenage player of Velocity's age. His agreement surprised Velocity but he didn't have to think long to accept it.

“You know the drill, right?” asked Velocity, wanting to confirm his guess.

“Just do it. We're fellow Espion players, right?”

There it was, his guess was right. Veteran players would be able to instantly integrate themselves into the group and understand each other's roles, even if it was their first encounter. Being able to survive such a powerful monster indicated that Salvadore was not just an ordinary player. It was possible that they had met each other on one occasion in the previous game.

The two of them walked up to Pendragon who looked like he was about to fight. “Pendragon, we want to fight this monster,” Velocity said confidently.

“Are you guys crazy?” snapped Pendragon. “Fear like this is not a monster for yours can fight as Savior!”

“Pendragon, we understand your anxiety,” Salvadore said. “But you should understand that this monster did not spawn abnormally, right?”

“What the…” Pendragon's words were cut off.

“No matter how powerful this monster is, Deep Inferno is not a place with high difficulty,” Salvadore said confidently. “If this monster's habitat is here, we have a chance to defeat it. Even if we lose, there is no high risk to our characters, er, bodies.”

“Are-Are you..” Pendragon stammered again, seemingly giving up. “Hmph, alright. But don't push yourself. Retreat immediately if conditions are unfavorable. I'm responsible for the safety of all of you.”

“Thank you, Pendragon,” Velocity said. “Activate Mobius, Sylphario!”

Velocity had spoken the keyword that gave him Buff. The magic increased his Agility. He immediately moved towards the Ifrit and changed the Command line display screen from Buff Mode to Item Mode with the number 7 key. He began to draw its attention by using the Analyze item to read the monster's bio. He began to attack the monster with his physical blows.

Velocity ran to the west so that Ifrit's body turned around and turned his back on Salvadore who was standing to the east and pressed button 5 to be in Defense Mode. Unlike Burn Dinorex, Ifrit would have a Skill that could knock out both of their HP in an instant. His HP totaled 80,000 which was not to be underestimated. His job was not only to attract his attention with high Threat points but also to lure Ifrit so that the target of his attack would move away from the DPS role and the DPS would be able to attack the monster from behind. This was a basic formation when fighting Nightmare-class monsters or above that was not taught through tutorials, called the Back Stab formation.

“WHAT’S going on?” shouted Pendragon from a distance. He took out a Shield from his Mobius and deflected Ifrit's blow with Mace and Shield in both hands. The blow should have done massive damage but there was no damage to Velocity. He had already Blocked thanks to his Agility.

RPG games have factors that affect the calculation of offensive and defensive aspects to inflict damage on their opponents. For example, Attack and Defense for physical attacks, then Magic and Mental for magic attacks. Of all the factors, the most influential at the start of the game are Hit and Block, which determine whether or not the attack will hit the target.

Velocity has predicted that these factors will scale up. With the monster’s low Hit values at the start of the game, he will be able to perform Block which will deflect most of the monster’s physical attacks if he raises Agility, no matter what Class he plays. Agility also has the function of increasing Attack Speed, which determines how many hits there are in a second.

However, with the advantage of Agility, the most efficient Classes are Magician and Cleric which focus on healing HP. Some attacks such as magic type could not be parried so healing HP without items would reduce Sepilith's expenditure.

Of course, the Build he used had its drawbacks, but those drawbacks didn't matter much at the moment and one of the interesting things about the game was the reset build he could do from the Memory Book. So he could just use Sepilith to switch builds or for free with a two-day cool down before he could reset again.

Velocity began to notice the Threat bar on his screen. In a few seconds, he gave the hand-raising emoticon repeatedly.

“Ice Statue!!! Water Ball!!!” Salvadore responded with magic skills that he began using in Magic Mode. Ifrit's elemental armor was fire, so he needed to use ice or water elemental magic. As a Wizard class, he obviously had stronger magic skills or more elements. Ice Statue is a skill that hits the enemy with a large ice stone, with great damage but has a few seconds of pause called Cool Down, abbreviated as CD. During this cooldown, he can use Water Ball to continue attacking. Velocity continued to perform his punches interspersed with Heal and Block.

The two continued to attack, and it was an important moment to concentrate. The Break Bar would soon be full, and Velocity would need to change his battle style.

He switched to Item Mode and focused his buttons on the Aqua Force and Ginger Bread items on the Command Icons. Aqua Force, a drink similar to a soft drink, served to change the element of his weapon into water that matched the first element table. While Ginger Bread is a food in the form of bread that functions to increase Attack Speed abbreviated as ASPD. The greater the ASPD, the faster the attack will attract Threat monsters.

When the Break bar is full and the words Topple!! appear, Velocity speaks several keywords at once to use items and buffs in their respective Modes. This process was the same as when he fought Burn Dinorex earlier. But he had to concentrate, there was no way Ifrit would be in the Fear category just because of its larger form and stats. Moreover, the Stagger or Topple condition was a condition where the monster could do something to harm its enemy in exchange for the large damage received. His guess was correct as Ifrit's HP depleted after a few minutes passed.