"Oh wow!" Led exclaimed. He hadn't intentionally said it out loud, but his bewilderment had screwed up his sense of internalising. This was different from what he was used to in a game.
Leds eyes flickered over the skills he had gotten, four of them! He was still not convinced that getting skills in bulks at every five levels was better or worse than getting them one at the time, but right now he couldn't complain.
But, then again. These spells were, different. Not the type of spells he was used to, not only in healers but in any class in any game he had ever played. Led decided to go through them one at the time and read them each carefully.
[Sha’Cotars laugh] - Your target's health is swapped with a chosen stat your target has for a short time {9 seconds}. If a stat is not stated in your spell-chant, health will be swapped with the mana of your target. If your target does not have the mana stat, it will instead be swapped with it's highest stat. If your target has two or more stats that are all its highest stat, a stat will be chosen at random among them. Warning! The Intelligence stat and Wisdom stat can only be chosen as a swapped stat if you have knowledge of the exact stat of your target when chanting the spell.
[Sha’Cotars sacrifice] - Swap your health with a target's health for a short amount of time {7 seconds}, when this timer is over your target will get its original health back and that health will be doubled for 10 minutes. Your health will then also be halved, and all damage taken by your target while under the influence of [Sha’Cotars sacrifice] will carry over to you when swapped.
[Corrupted numbers] - Swap portion of your health with a stat at a 2:1 ratio for a 5:1 ratio of time. Lasts {10 seconds}.
[The Trick] - It was all a trick, reverse your last three spells immediately. Warning! [The Trick] might please or anger Sha’Cotar.
"Led?"
Led had been reading his new skills over and over again, trying to fathom the magnitude of what he could do with these spells. Had it not been for his habit of always maintaining a stone face, a huge grin would have slipped over his face. Now this looked like a challenge he was willing to take on.
"Led!" Daniel finally interrupted Led's train of thought. Led realised he had been as patient as he could, probably because he knew the complicated spells of the trickster priest all too well.
"Ah, sorry Daniel. I was a bit caught off guard by the sheer complicity of these spells. I've never seen such mechanic anywhere in a game like this, it's..." Led trailed off.
"Intimidating?" Daniel tried.
"Fascinating!" Led had to correct Daniel. Intimidating? This looked like so much fun! Even if he crashed and burned while trying to use them, he was still in sheer awe of what these spells could do.
Daniel let out a sigh, Led caught it and noted it mentally. It seemed Daniel had thought it would scare Led off to continue with such a class. It was, after all, a locked class. Another person might be offended by the fact that he had been forced into such a class. But for Led, this was a challenge worth taking on. Even if he was just the sacrificial lamb for Daniels plans, he might've never tried this class at all and instead went for a class that was heavily documented. Then Led suddenly realised what Daniel had asked him.
"Why do you need [The Trick] anyway Daniel? It seems like the other spells are more useful for your team." Led was still not in the clear why Daniel wanted him to take this class.
The group had finished up their leveling and preparing a long time ago, Led wasn't even sure how long he had been in a mesmerised state. They were all now surrounding Daniel and Led as if they were in a fight or something, they all looked at Daniel as they all now expected him to start explaining something they all knew.
Daniel instantly took the part of an assertive and lying man, trying to mask his plan with a shaky smile.
"Ehm, actually, we need the sacrifice skill to kill a boss."
It wasn't a lie, Led knew when people caught off guard were lying, and Daniel hadn't thought his answer up on the spot. He even knew about [Sha’Cotars sacrifice], Led hadn't mentioned his other skills yet.
Led stared at him with a dead-panned look. He was fine with Daniel holding back information and lying, but Led had a better plan. He was ready for a sacrifice, both the spell and the act.
"Daniel, I'll be honest with you. I know we are not friends, neither in this game or outside it. I also know that the whole needing a healer thing is somewhat a lie, and that's ok. I don't mind being a sacrificial lamb if it helps you out. I really don't mind playing this class for a month, and I don't mind if you want to keep me in the dark until you either push me into death or leave me stranded somewhere and swap me out with a more reliable healing class. However, I do suggest that you just give me the plan and we agree upon what I will do for you and your team. I think that if you just give me the choice, I will gladly give my life to your plan. If you don't have any plans of taking the VR Helmet back from me, then I still feel that I win in this trade. So what do you say? Will you include me in your plans, or do you just want me to follow orders? I don't mind either, but I do prefer being a part of a plan rather than possibly being a risk in it."
Daniel stared at Led with his mouth open, he looked both baffled and slightly offended at the same time. Led wondered if he actually had misunderstood Daniels plans for a second and that he actually had offended Daniel. But then the baffled look slid over to a smile. Not the smile of a man who was just outed as the main villain hidden in plain sight, Led noted. It was actually more the smile of a man gaining admiration for someone, Led thought he had accurately placed Daniels intentions spot on, and yet he must have misunderstood Daniels disregard for him. He wasn't as self-absorbed as Led had first analysed him to be. Suddenly Daniel burst out a hearty laugh.
"Damn Led! I knew you were an intuitive one, but you are apparently more ahead of the game than I first thought. I might've gotten the perfect sacrificial lamb that I needed!"
Daniel looked at him as if trying to figure out something. Perhaps he was deciding to trust Led to sacrifice himself or not. He seemed to come to the conclusion that even if Led was included or not, since he knew he was being sacrificed, he might as well know why.
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"The thing is Led, I know we might seem a bit shifty, but we didn't really try to bully you or anything. The reason I picked you was as I said, it was because you are experienced in gaming. I needed someone who could follow commands and at the same time think on his feet. I might not be able to give you the command at the correct time, but an experienced gamer would handle himself in a fight. And yes, there will come a time when you might need to be killed off, and we were thinking of using you just this one time as the class you are playing is the weirdest thing I have ever seen. Just wait till you get to level 20, the one guy I knew who played it that far said he was so frustrated by the class that he had just been powdergrinded by other classes so he could see how it was at level 20. Then, when he reached it, he just gave up on it all cursing the complexity of the class. I really wanted to ask him more about it, but he logged off before I could ask him about it.
Anyway, while playing the beta someone did mention the spell to me. And with that info, I figured out something no one else has. We can actually clear the level 15 dungeon with this spell, and we can do it now."
Led blinked in surprise. But before he could utter it, Daniel had already started answering Leds questions.
"Yeah I know, we are just level 5 and six right now, and we'll probably be around level 9 and 10 when we take on the boss. But I haven't even given you the kicker yet. The boss we are killing is a legendary class."
Led double blinked in surprise. The Legendary class was really just for advanced players and it came in two phases. First, you defeated the regular boss, then if you activated the legendary you could defeat it again. This time, however, you needed to be at least double the level of the boss you were up against. It was added into the game so gamers could double clear dungeons. Once when you were the appropriate level, then again to defeat the legendary boss. It also dropped some really good items, and since drops always reflected the defeaters level, it would give Daniels group a huge advantage in this game over the others. He could easily start a guild and attract hundreds of other gamers just by flashing the drop in front of others. To be the leader of a huge guild this early in a game where people weren't even at level 20 yet could mean that Daniel had the kick starter he needed to dominate this part of the world.
Again Daniel answered Led even though he hadn't uttered a word yet.
"And yeah, I know what you are thinking. And I'm guessing you haven't even thought of the first clear reward."
Led thought he wasn't capable of being more surprised than he already was, but then Daniel had given him the final push over the edge.
The first dungeon clear was a reward that was given to all the groups players if they were the first to clear a dungeon. It was a huge boost in terms of XP as all the XP you had gained during your dungeon run would be multiplied by 1.5 when you got the achievement. A normal dungeon run could give you a massive instant XP boost when clearing it, as you only got the extra XP when done with the dungeon. It also meant something else, and it was something even more insane to Led. The boss would drop a boss-level item for all the players in the group! Usually, the boss only dropped one random item and it wasn't even always something anyone in the group could use. The first dungeon clear achievement, however, made sure that everyone in their group got a boss-level item and an item that fitted their class. And the thing was also that to get this bonus, the dungeon had to be truly cleared for the first time. If you came back one day for the legendary boss, you wouldn't get the first time bonus because you had already cleared it. Defeating the regular boss counted as clearing the dungeon, and the one-time achievement would be spent for that dungeon forever. It was unheard of finding a new dungeon that no one had cleared yet when you were at a level where you could also defeat the legendary boss right after the regular boss.
This meant that not only would they with this plan get the massive XP boost, they would also each get a boss item drop that they could use immediately. And not only that! THEY WOULD ALL GET A LEGENDARY BOSS ITEM THEY COULD USE RIGHT AWAY!
Led was in awe of Daniels plan. Not only did this truly ensure that they would be Gods among men in the early game. If Daniel really did have plans to start a guild people would flock to him in hordes. Hell, they all could start their own guild and still get enough people to join to each be their own king. Led had never heard of such an exploit in a game before, it was beyond broken. Led knew that the programmers and designers of the game had let this loophole there for people to attempt it, but to defeat a level 15 boss and then the same boss as legendary at level 10 was something they could never have imagined. Not in a million years would you even consider that as a game developer.
Daniel knew what Led was thinking, and he was smiling a wicked grin considering this would be the coup of the century. They would be talked about in this game for as long as the game would exist.
"So yeah! We have an intense journey in front of us, and we need to be fast about it since we will lose that bonus achievement if someone else cleared the dungeon before us. I doubt someone else will clear the legendary boss before us, of course, but if they do get the regular boss it's over for my plan. And this is the only opportunity we have at this exploit!"
Led sobered up and realised that this probably wouldn't be as easy as he first had thought. Daniel probably had a plan, but he hadn't said that it was a sure thing. There would be risks, and there would be a sacrifice. But since he still got the legendary item even as he was dead, this was the beast deal he could ever be offered. Sacrifice or not.
"I'm in Daniel. What's your plan?"
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Writers Note: Hey guys, for those of you who read my story I need to apologise to you that I disappointingly disappeared for 6 months. It wasn't my intention, but because I changed jobs and had to move I fell off the earth for a couple of months considering writing and stuff. I really only did it because I wanted to try this for myself. Now that I am back into a steady pace at work and home I wasn't really planning on continuing this, but a reader sent me a message and suggested I do it. So I thought, why not? I got a calm and job that allows me to write a bit here and there, especially during the summer, so I'll try and get back into this. I hope you like it, and again, sorry if you read this 6 months ago and hoped for a new chapter withing a week or two.
I also started to write the chapter number in the title, I like that better so I'll go back and fix the others.