Chapter 102: Battlemaster Meta
“So instead of helping me out by assigning a new NPC to be the Archmage, you guys are babysitting me?” Pyri said with her arms crossed as she stood in the middle of Jael’s office, watching as Yorgi entered the room and leaned against one of the bookshelves lining the walls.
“Well..” Yorgi replied awkwardly.
“You’re all mental.” Pyri huffed at him before turning her attention back to Jael. “Find the answer, he says. You want me to find an answer myself. An answer to what?” Pyri growled at Jael. “Let’s run it back." She clapped her hands together. "I came in here as per the instructions of the Kordas guards. They told me this was the place to go to get my intermediate wizard quest. I walked in, and you asked to take my hands. I put my hands in yours and you did your skill reading thingy stuff, right?” Pyri asked Jael, and he looked up from his documents on his desk to stare at her as she monologued. She began pacing in front of his desk once she’d seen she had his attention, and Yorgi listened intently as well.
“Then, you asked what class I would like to become. I told I wanted to be a Controlmancer. You said, first, pass this test, and you shot a bunch of ice magic at me, knocking me down to 1 hp.” Pyri said. “He didn’t even warn me, by the way, just started shooting magic willy nilly.” She explained to Yorgi. “Then," she turned back to Jael, "you tell me I failed the test, and you just start ignoring me, except to shove books into my hands anytime I get too noisy for your comfort. Am I getting it right so far?” Pyri asked Jael, and he didn’t answer, just looked back at her.
“Explain to me, how is that not a bugged NPC?” She sighed, turning back to Yorgi again. “What answer am I supposed to get from that bullshit?” She added.
“You are not the first other-worlder to insult my intelligence, but I suggest that as a first step, you stop thinking of me as ‘defective’.” Jael replied unenthusiastically.
“Oh, is that the problem? Did I insult you?” Pyri asked him in a babying voice.
“You did, but that’s not the problem. The problem is how you insult yourself by asking to become a Controlmancer.” Jael replied.
“Insult myself? What does that even mean? That doesn’t even make sense.” Pyri rolled her eyes at Jael, to which he simply lost interest and went back to reading the documents on his desk. This caused Pyri to let out a frustrated growl. “Do you have any idea what he means?” Pyri asked Yorgi desperately, but Yorgi just shrugged uncomfortably.
“Listen.” Pyri turned and slammed her fists down on Jael’s desk. “My son just got a world notification, he’s the first to get intermediate in every crafting skill. And now, he’s on his way to complete his intermediate class quest. On an airship. A fricken Airship. It’s so cool, and yet, instead of playing with him I’m stuck here in this room with you, a power tripping archmage NPC.” She explained to Jael angrily. “I read all of your stupid spell books, I leveled them all up to 30. I’ve wasted enough time. Just. Give. Me. The Damn. Quest.” Pyri banged the desk at Jael, to which he looked up at her again.
“We at least agree on one thing, Miss Pyri.” Jael smiled at her. “All of those spells are rather stupid.” He said while motioning to the tower of spell tomes that she’d set up in the middle of the office. This put Pyri over the edge, and she snapped her fingers creating a giant Cinderbolt above her head, threatening to send it forth at Jael, but Jael didn’t react.
“Ah, Pyri, be careful, if you attack an NPC it will be against the law.” Yorgi warned her anxiously. “Not to mention, that's the Archmage Jael, one of the strongest wizard NPCs in Kalmoore.” He added as he stepped forward and held his hand out towards her.
“You’re ready to take my test again?” Jael asked her with a smile. Pyri just glared back at him for a moment before finally letting up, snapping her fingers and canceling the spell.
“Your test where a level 30 wizard fights a high level Archmage? What kind of test is that?” Pyri sighed at him as she turned and stomped out of the office, kicking over the tower of books on her way out. Jael went back to reading his documents, and Yorgi did a double take at the books scattered about the room before running to chase after Pyri.
“Sorry, Pyri. I’ve never seen Jael act like this.”
“Don’t apologize.” Pyri said as she continued walking away, and Yorgi could hear sadness in Pyri’s voice now, rather than anger, which only made him feel worse. “Just, tell your Trexon friend to come back here and fix this NPC. If he doesn’t, I’m going to get stuck here. I won’t be able to play with my son. It’s going to happen all over again.” She said as her voice got quieter and quieter.
“It’s going to happen again? This has happened to you before?” Yorgi asked, confused.
“No, just… nevermind. If you’re not going to help, just leave me alone.” She stormed off out of the mage tower.
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“So, you think you’ve got what it takes to be a Ranger? I’ll be the judge of that.” A brown haired human NPC named [Rogaral - ??] with overgrown facial hair paced in front of Darkshot as he stood in the Ranger Hall in Kordas. He wore simple leather armor with a longbow on his desk, and had a hawk perched on a wooden stand at the back of his office that was following Darkshot with its eyes.
“Another Battlemaster, eh? Everyone wants to be a battlemaster.” A large muscular greenscaled Lizardfolk NPC named [Hisseth - ??] paced in front of Rakkan as they stood in the midst of an armory filled with weapon racks carrying an assortment of melee weapons.
“There’s more to being a Ranger than just shooting a Longbow, though.” Rogaral said to Darkshot.
“Unfortunately, not everyone CAN be a battlemaster.” Hisseth said to Rakkan.
“You’ve got to be clever, nimble, cunning and wise.” Rogaral continued his speech to Darkshot.
“Only the bravest, strongest, and most ruthless fighters are capable of making it as a Battlemaster.” Hisseth continued his speech to Rakkan.
“So go ahead. Take the quest, and let’s see if you’ve got what it takes.” Rogaral and Hisseth both said to Darkshot and Rakkan respectively, as they offered them their intermediate class quests. However, after having accepted their quests, before Rakkan had even left the room, another player had approached Hisseth. "Another Battlemaster, eh? Everyone wants to be a battlemaster.” Hisseth began his speech again, verbatim.
Rakkan and Darkshot began to work through their multi-stage quests independently over the next weeks. Rakkan’s first few quests centered around him hunting down enemies that were susceptible to a particular type of weapon. Rakkan had to figure out which of his weapons worked best on the enemy, and defeat it by himself. Finding the enemies was easier than it should’ve been, due to the number of other players attempting to complete the Battlemaster quest, and as he progressed further along, seeing the sheer number of players going through the quest, he started having second thoughts about his class choice.
Each part of the quest that he’d watched other players try and do, either before or after he’d done it himself, made it clear that the other players were all following some sort of guide or tutorial. He saw numerous members of the Blades of Kalmoore execute identical strategies to take down certain monsters, with specific weapons while standing in the exact same spots as one another. Seeing how easily and effectively they beat the quest monsters, Rakkan had a hard time not just copying them. Most of the quest enemies were unique, and he’d had no choice but to watch them do the quest beforehand and wait on the respawn for his turn.
In the end, he started outright avoiding watching them, just to not have to give any thought into accidentally copying the obviously researched and pre-prepared tactics that most of these would-be battlemaster players were utilizing. It also saddened Rakkan somewhat, as he remembered how different it was to complete intermediate class quests when the game launched. With no guides available, it actually felt like a real accomplishment, unlike what he was witnessing here. Of course, he knew not all intermediate quests were so easy that a simple strategy guide could walk someone through it, but, nonetheless, for the quests that were, it felt an awful lot like cheating.
He’d heard the term ‘meta-chasing battlemasters’ a lot already before, but never did he see the stereotype so well represented then as when he watched these up and coming Blades of Kalmoore battlemasters doing the quests.
Finally, after a long few weeks of questing, he’d gotten to the final step of his intermediate Battlemaster quest.
Quest[12/12]: Reach the top of Mount Sigmak’lor, and find Master Orek within the Ruins of Sigmak’lor, to receive the final training required to become a Battlemaster.
Objective: 0/1 Master Orek Found
Quest Giver: Hisseth, Kordas
Reward: Intermediate Class: Battlemaster
Difficulty: Extreme
Restrictions: Limited to classes: Fighter, This quest must be completed alone.
Rakkan stood at the base of Mount Sigmak’lor, looking up a jagged, narrow rocky trail that climbed up the mountainside. At the top of the mountain, towering above him, jutting out of the side of it, he saw what looked to be portions of a broken, ruined city. It was obviously where the quest wanted him to go, but yet, looking at the trail before him, he was disappointed. He saw that the mountain trail was designed to be filled with treacherous enemies meant to make the climb challenging, but the amount of other players around doing their own battlemaster quests made the trek ahead of him look trivial. Most of, if not all of the enemies were already dead and slowly respawning.
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For all the effort Rakkan went through to make sure that he was strong enough to do this intermediate class quest, it felt awfully anti-climactic. It was nothing compared to how hard he had to train to complete the intermediate weapon quests. He had half a mind to try and wait at the bottom of the mountain for a time where it wasn’t so populated, but after watching and seeing a steady stream of players coming and going, he opted to not bother and just began his journey up.
Even going out of his way to fight every enemy he saw, it still didn’t present any real challenge, and he made it to the top of the Mountain of Sigmak’lor without any difficulty whatsoever. He navigated through the ruined city of Sigmak’lor, fighting a few more enemies, until he found [Master Orek(Elite) - ??] sitting with his legs crossed at the center of the ruined city's town square, meditating. Just as Rakkan was approaching Master Orek, another player was walking away excitedly.
“Hell yeah man, battlemaster bros!” The player, wearing a Blades of Kalmoore tabard, tried to high five Rakkan as he walked past, but Rakkan ignored him. “Eh whatever.” He shrugged it off as he continued walking away. As Rakkan entered the town square, he spotted that Master Orek wasn't just simply sitting on the dirt, but the floor of the town square of this ruined city had a large circle of stone embedded into the earth with a ring of ancient runes, symbols and markings carved into it, combined with some unfamiliar imagery.
Seeing that Orek's eyes were closed and he was meditating, Rakkan thought nothing of putting off disturbing him and instead started running his fingers along the engraved runes on the ground. He'd imagined it told a story about the ruins of Sigmak'lor, perhaps how people used to live here, or how it came to ruin, but without his sage skills, the symbols meant nothing to him. He could recall from memory a few of them, but he hadn't taken the time to learn how to read it without the aid of his sage skills - he had been too busy doing other things with his past character.
"You can read it?" Master Orek said, startling Rakkan as Rakkan looked and saw his eyes were now open, staring at him.
"No, I'm not a sage." Rakkan replied reluctantly.
"You believe that only a wise Sage is capable of deciphering ancient runes?" Orek asked him with a raised eyebrow. "I assume you are here to become a Battlemaster." Orek sighed as he closed his eyes again.
"Yeah..." Rakkan replied. After he had, without any further indication from Orek, Rakkan got a message that popped up in front of his face.
Quest Complete!
Would you like to become the intermediate class: Battlemaster? Once you become this intermediate class, this decision cannot be undone.
“That’s it? The quest is done? I’m a Battlemaster now?” Rakkan asked Orek.
“Do you have a problem with that?” Orek asked with a deep voice, opening one of his eyes again to look at Rakkan’s orcish form now towering over him.
“No… it’s just.” Rakkan hesitated, “Intermediate quests are supposed to challenge you. This all felt so easy.”
“Yes. And yet, Hisseth refuses to change it.” Orek groaned as he closed his eye again. Rakkan continued to stare at the confirmation message blankly as the next player approached Orek, got his class, and left excitedly. "You're still hesitating?" Orek asked him. Rakkan turned back to looking at the runes on the ground around them.
"Is there a way that a fighter can read these, and still be strong?" Rakkan asked, and this prompted Orek to open his eyes again and look at him.
"The runes themselves can become your strength. But to go down such a path requires much more than the brutish knowledge of various weapons." Orek replied. Seeing that he'd piqued Rakkan's interest, he stood up. "Most pay no mind to the runes. It is rare to have someone approach me with this much regret, and this much interest in ancient knowledge. Put your hands in mine." Orek said as he held out his palms for Rakkan. Rakkan did exactly that, and Orek closed his eyes.
"You lack a few skills that would be required of you to become a Rune Knight. Unfortunate." Orek said as he opened his eyes again. "You would need to study a great deal and teach yourself to decipher these markings before I could grant you an alternate path." Orek explained as he let go of his hands.
"A Rune Knight... Is that strong? I've never heard of that class." Rakkan asked hopefully.
"Is strength all that matters to you?" Orek asked him with an inquisitive stare.
"Yeah... well... there's someone I must defeat. A battlemaster." Rakkan went deep in thought as he looked down at his feet. Orek watched him silently for a moment, until he snapped his fingers. Suddenly, three copies of Orek appeared on all sides of Rakkan.
"A Rune Knight -" one copy spoke, "Is as strong as," A second copy spoke, causing Rakkan to turn and face him. "the runes that," the third spoke, "he studies." The original finished speaking. Rakkan looked amazed, all four seemed to be controlled individually and acted independently of one another. The possibilities of such a skill began to run rampant in his mind as the three copies dissapeared, leaving only the original. "It takes a great amount of knowledge, wisdom, and control to become such a Knight, however." Orek said as he began pacing in front of Rakkan.
"I do not extend this courtesy often. But it is within my power to set you onto this path, and teach you the skills required to obtain this knowledge. It would be up to you to obtain it, though, and it is not easy. And I cannot set you on this path while you walk the path of the Battlemaster. So, what say you?" Orek stopped pacing and stared into Rakkan's eyes. "Do you wish to abandon the path of a Battlemaster to become a Rune Knight? Or will you complete the quest, and become like them." Orek motioned to a pair of two players approaching Orek from across the ruins, excited to complete their Battlemaster quest. Rakkan went from looking at the Battlemaster confirmation message floating in front of him in his interface, then looked back into Orek's eyes, deep in thought.
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“Congratulations on becoming a fully fledged Ranger.” Rogaral said to Darkshot as he stood in his office once more, not long after Rakkan had obtained his Battlemaster class. “I must admit, when you first stepped in here, I didn’t think you’d make it.” Rogaral patted Darkshot on the shoulder condescendingly. “But, alas, here you are. You hunted down the poachers at Balvin’s Rock. You rescued the endangered Yoklin eggs. You helped guide the lost fairies of the Wexlir Wood back to their homes. You did all of that with cunning, and finesse.” Rogaral said as he took a seat at his desk, and his pet hawk let out a light squawk to the sound of him pulling his chair in.
“But before I set you out into the world with your newfound skills and capabilities, I’ve one last gift for you. Every Ranger needs a trustworthy animal companion to aid in their travels.” Rogaral said as, out of thin air, a set of three eggs suddenly appeared on his desk in front of Darkshot. A blue egg, a red egg, and a white egg. “I leave it to you to choose. But it is your responsibility to raise the creature and care for it. And should you lose your companion, you will find many of your Ranger skills will not function properly.” Rogaral explained as Darkshot eyed the three eggs excitedly.
“What egg is what type of pet?” Darkshot asked him curiously.
“That's not important. Choose the egg that speaks to who you are as a Ranger.” Rogaral replied cryptically. With that response, it was taking every fiber of Darkshot’s being to not open up his livestream viewer and start searching for videos online about what egg would give him what pet, but he held it in and eyed the three eggs carefully. The blue and red eggs looked most interesting, with strange wavy patterns on the blue egg and dotted black specks on the red egg, but the white egg was the largest of the three. After pondering on it for a few moments, Darkshot decided to go with the white one, and pointed his finger out towards it.
“Huh? Really?” Rogaral looked at him surprised.
“Yup. That one.” Darkshot nodded.
“Not many people go with that one.” Rogaral shrugged as he pulled the other two back into his inventory. He then lifted the white egg up and held it out for Darkshot who gladly took it. “Take good care of it, raise it well, and I wish you the best of luck on your future adventures.” Rogaral smiled, and Darkshot gave a polite bow before heading out of the Ranger’s Hall and making his way back out onto the streets of Kordas, where it was noticeably much more crowded due to all of the Arallian refugees moving about.
Darkshot had been keeping up with Aegis’ adventure in Arallia and had already seen the viral clips of him escaping the falling city, defending the Airship, and doing his Hrath’mir quest, so he wasn’t confused by all the refugees that had suddenly shown up in Kordas in between his Ranger quests. He double checked his friends list to see that both he and Lina had their intermediate class quests completed.
“Guess I’ve got some time left to kill.” Darkshot shrugged as he carefully took the white egg out of his inventory, named simply as [Unknown Egg]. “I wonder what kind of animal you are. Huh lil’ guy? You wanna hatch quickly and say hello to your new papa? Hm?” Darkshot said to the egg in a babying voice.
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“You’re still here?” Trexon said as he entered Jael’s office, looking sympathetically towards Pyri as she now sat within a circle of books stacked up high all around her, so that her head was barely visible overtop of them. She was cross legged on the floor reading a book calmly, just as she had been the last time he entered. Jael too was calmly reading at his desk, and Yorgi was asleep leaning up against one of the bookshelves lining the walls of the circular room. Having had no one reply to his words, Trexon walked over to Yorgi and nudged him on the shoulder to wake him up.
“Huh? Hm? What’d I miss?” Yorgi asked as he tried to quickly re-orient himself, glancing around hastily until he locked eyes with Trexon.
“How is Pyri doing with her quest?” Trexon asked.
“No progress. She’s learned nearly every beginner spell and has been leveling them up by shooting them at the roof.” Yorgi pointed upwards to the tall ceiling of the room, and when Trexon looked up, he was shocked at the damage that had been done. Chunks of ice, scorch marks, and other strange plasmas dripping down from the tops of the bookshelves.
“And Jael, you’re okay with that?” Trexon asked in disbelief, but Jael didn’t reply.
“It's as if they’re both being incredibly stubborn about something. Either refuses to give an inch to the other, but, if you ask me, I don’t have a clue what it is they are being stubborn about.” Yorgi answered on behalf of Jael.
“I’m not being stubborn about anything. I just want my class quest.” Pyri replied, sounding exhausted. Looking more closely, Trexon could tell that the player behind the character likely hadn’t slept in a long while. “You said you’d do something about this guy when you got back, right?” Pyri motioned to Jael.
“I said I’d help you with the quest…” Trexon replied apprehensively.
“I thought about rerolling, and picking a different beginner class, so as to not deal with him, But, it’d take too much time to do that now.” Pyri sighed as she stood up. “I don’t want to deal with any of this yoda-NPC stuff. Please, just, make him give me the quest for the Controlmancer. If I’m quick enough, maybe I won’t fall behind.” Pyri said with low energy.
“I can’t make him give it to you, but, I can help you find the answer…” As Trexon said this, two world notifications popped up in front of their faces.
[WORLD NOTIFICATION]
The player [Aegis - Level 30] has become the first player in the world to unlock the Intermediate Class [Shattered Healer]
[WORLD NOTIFICATION]
The player [Aegis - Level 30] has revealed the long standing bond between the people of the Shattered World and the Silver Dragons. The [Silverscale]’s have now become a playable race for all players through the Character Creation and Character Re-customization menus.
Trexon smiled as he saw them, but quickly waved them away, whilst Yorgi let out giddy squeals of excitement and started fiddling around in his interface to look up the database entries. Pyri, on the other hand, just stared ahead at them blankly.
“It’s not fair. I didn’t do anything wrong this time.” Pyri said in monotone towards the notifications. “I didn’t play ahead. I didn’t steal the spotlight. I didn’t spoil anything. I just…” As she spoke, Jael looked up from his desk and Trexon shushed Yorgi, causing him to stop what he was doing and look at Pyri. It suddenly went so quiet in the office, you could hear a pin drop. Trexon wasn’t exactly sure why, but Pyri’s quiet whispering was making Jael look extremely tense, and he felt an unnaturally heavy aura of hostility emanating from her.
“I just want to play with my son.” She turned and glared angrily at Trexon, and he felt her rage seething out of her eyes, despite her otherwise calm expression, and with a wiggle of her index finger, her Cinderbolt orb appeared above her head.