The old villager's gratefulness is creepy.
"You did it, adventurer, you saved my home!"
Come on, this sounds like you read that from a script at five in the morning.
And the devs want me to believe that Selena and Tank aren't real people in disguise?
This NPC is atrocious in comparison, though it's much more like AI.
The quest's ready once he signs the contract, and it's a letdown.
Sixty Exp from a dozen rats is the same as two zombies while they also give a small bounty.
Well, the job will pay an extra hundred points at the end, and crying about it won't help, so let's move on.
The minimap shows that the other task is down the same street. It's the same straw hat, face, and mustache fifty meters away.
What the hell? Apart from a slight color variation in the clothing, it's like they're clones.
Did the game flat-out reuse the same model?
"Ah, traveler, did the Guild send you?" This triggers a Deja Vu, so let's rush through this and keep going.
The home's layout differs more from the previous one than the quest giver, which is ridiculous.
"These rats infested my basement and even bit my dog..."
"Yeah, whatever."
It's not worth listening to his lies. Neither of them even has a dog.
They'd be out here sniffing around and barking; at least make up a dialog that makes sense.
This basement has a proper staircase, huh? It shouldn't matter.
There we go, the rats are in the middle of the empty room, waiting for someone to slaughter them.
I won't disappoint. Those teeth can't penetrate the armor, and the wound from the zombie attack almost healed.
How many more of this boring shit to get promoted?
[You killed a Common Rat +5 Exp.]
Sure, keep spamming these messages. There's some real experience to gain when the armor lost an STP even though no damage got through.
It has plenty more so it's too early to panic, but the sword also lost one and it's a bit more fragile.
That must be from missing. These critters are so small and hard to hit, imagine if they were even dodging.
The wooden blade chipped on the ground, so swinging without aiming might destroy it fast. How much Res does that stone floor have?
It's no surprise if it's harder than wood, but it's odd how detailed the simulation is when the jobs and the mobs suck.
Oh, everything turned into pixels, except a rat tail. This is the first loot drop, so I'll take it even if it's useless.
Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on Royal Road.
"You did it, adventurer, you saved my home!"
"Yeah, yeah, sign here so I can go and save more homes."
Would it kill them to introduce a little variety?
Okay, it can be a bad roll, it's only the second encounter so there might be some later.
Until then, let's head to the next spawn point before turning in the poison flower. It's eerie how empty the village is.
Could they only spawn the mobs when you take their task? They should chill in their garden at least.
The players use that one road that cuts through the center and avoid the rest unless they have an errand to run.
So the zombie spawn is beyond that hole in the fence. A tree line separates it from the village, and the minimap's counter sits at zero.
Only the players and NPCs turn up on it, which means the place should be safe to explore.
It's great that my ears don't ring when the controller's on so I can enjoy the ambient noises.
There are birds, and the wind rustling the leaves as it plays with the tree's canopy.
They even bend from the current; it's hard to believe how other aspects of the world are so low effort.
If this were a nature exploration simulator, they'd have everything ready.
The sounds of the forest are so detailed for example.
As an RPG, the characters vary way too much in quality, and the missions suck. What were the devs thinking?
I can hear the individual leaves, insects, bird calls, and the rattling of bones.
Wait, that last one seems out of place.
The spawn point is near, but zombies shouldn't rattle like this.
Six skeletons show up on the other side of the treeline, idling with their bows.
There was no mention of them on the forum, they talked about zombies and my first killer was also an archer.
Do they diversify the creatures during their patches? There should be a way to check the older changelogs somewhere.
Now that the tutorial's over, the system won't give me hints.
The mobs didn't notice me yet, should I take them on?
They killed me once, though the character had one HP back then.
Their first arrow glanced off, and with this new armor, that couldn't hurt me anymore.
Fuck around and find out, there's no other way to tackle this problem.
Let's take a few deep breaths and prepare an ambush with the training sword in hand.
Once the fight turns into a melee they'll be at a disadvantage even if the mail can't block all their damage.
"Leeroy Jenkins!"
The appropriate battle cry makes their bones rattle even more.
It's because they all draw their strings, though my head-cannon is that they're shaking in fear.
Their aim is a joke. They all get out a shot before reaching them and still none of them connects. What are their weaknesses?
They are literal skeletons, no heart or crystal is visible, and there is nothing to stab at.
The sensible option is to sever their spine, so the first strike lobs off the head of the closest one.
The sound of the breaking bones is music to the ears.
[You killed a Skeleton +30 Exp.]
Now we're talking, and in a single hit too.
The durability of the training sword drops though, with two whole points.
How the fuck are their bones stronger than the wood?
Did they get high on milk before spawning here? There's no time to ask, keep chopping their heads off.
[You killed a Skeleton +30 Exp.]
No good, the sword is down to fifteen Structure Points.
Even if all the mobs die in one strike, half of the blade's durability will be gone by the end.
It's chipping like crazy too, the system provides obvious visual cues that it's not made for this. Is there something harder with me?
They shoot at point-blank range and an arrow gets stuck in the armor.
It loses another STP while causing no damage. Whatever, it has plenty more, I'm much more concerned about ruining my only weapon.
Cutting trees by hand was painful even if the HP didn't drop.
Breaking their necks bare-handed might be an option, - at least it sounds badass, - but would it work?
My hesitation costs me an arrow in the thigh, which isn't covered in armor, and it fucking hurts too. Three damage?!
The tutorial skipped this part.
What if the first victory against zombies gave me too much confidence?
The rats were boring, but now the adrenaline is back.
This is another life-or-death situation. The question is, who's life and who's death?
That shot still stings.