Maria had to wait a while before the other people in her group finished testing out the obstacle course event. It was to the point that she had dozed off and was just floating around as a few other groups had already finished their test runs and returned back to the colosseum’s ring.
Luckily, she hadn’t fallen asleep completely from waiting too long so she was able to wake up before anyone noticed that she had nearly fallen asleep. The obstacle course event had actually taken the longest for the groups to finish, so Maria had to wait a while longer before she could finally enter the Boss Hunting Event stage. Unlike the obstacle course event, this one was an individual event so people needed to take turns fighting the randomly generated boss monsters. Before the hunt started, the participants were actually given the option to choose a difficulty level.
There were 3 options, [Normal], [Hard], and [Hell]. There was no easy option as the AI’s piloting these boss monsters were too powerful for an [Easy] option. Maria wanted to have a go at it but the staff member who was assigned to their group had her go last this time. She was the only experienced player in the group so the staff member wanted the others to have a chance to fight the boss monster first.
Maria could only reluctantly agree so she waited for her turn. The people in her group were actually a bit famous in their fields of expertise. One of them was a well-known survivalist and another was a professional fighter. The 2 remaining people weren’t famous but they excelled in what they did. One was an ex-soldier and the other was a hunter. Now she understood why her group of people was designated for the two events they had already or were currently test running.
It was great and all but when fighting the boss monster, Maria was a bit nonplussed by how they hunted it. It went without saying that the boss monster this time, even if they did choose the [Normal] difficulty, was actually much stronger than the typical boss monsters in the game. Maria was able to estimate their stats and skill ranks from just looking at how the monsters moved and attacked, but the way they executed the fight was what brought the difficulty up.
Unlike the boss monsters in the game that used their skills when certain requirements and conditions were met, these bosses used them with an objective behind each and every one of their actions. It was uncanny for her to see a boss monster fight so similar to a high-ranking player but Maria did have to commend the other people in her group when they fought with this player-AI-driven boss.
All of the people in her group had challenged the [Normal] and [Hard] modes individually and came out on top. The [Hell] mode was still being developed so they couldn’t test-run it right now but the devs did say it would be available during the IGC. When it was finally Maria’s turn to step onto the stage, she naturally started with the [Normal] difficulty to get a feel of the monster. The others paid particular attention to her because of her reputation in the game.
Not only that, but they had severely underestimated her experience with Unitale. Maria had cleared the obstacle course event so easily because she understood the concept of the game and used her knowledge and skills to her advantage. She knew exactly what she was doing while they had been groping around in the dark due to their inexperience. This wasn’t the real world, this was virtual reality and a delicate-looking girl like Maria could accomplish inhuman feats like they were nothing.
Their thinking was right on point because Maria made short and easy work of the [Normal] difficulty boss monster. There were two weapons on her back, an ax and a long sword but she didn’t even take them out. Maria dodged and weaved around the boss monster before fighting it with nothing but her punches and kicks. She basically toyed around with the monster and made it look like a child. Maria inwardly thought that Orh’bankhur had given her a much better fight than this pitiful thing.
She ended the battle by snapping the monster’s neck and tearing its body apart into two pieces in a gory fashion without even batting an eye. It was an appalling sight but with her strength, the ‘boss’ monster was nothing more than a mob to her. At most, it had the stats of a level 110 boss from the game with a slightly better AI. She dealt with monsters 50 levels higher than her, so for a monster that was only 10 levels higher, even with an enhanced AI, it wasn’t going to give her any sort of problems.
“Heh...I hope the [Hard] boss will give me a little bit of a challenge. This is rather disappointing.”
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Maria was so used to voicing her thoughts while she was in the game that she said this out loud involuntarily. The staff member naturally heard this and his face reddened with shame as he inwardly thought, ‘Dammit, what are the devs doing making such an easy stage? Even the non-players were able to clear both of the stage’s available difficulties!’
He was definitely going to lodge a complaint to the event’s devs for making this too ‘easy’. Maria continued her test run and tried the [Hard] difficulty. After a short ‘warm up’, Maria figured out the monster’s stats and skill ranks again.
“Around Level 170 or more…but definitely less than 190.”
It was close to the same level as the mutated red orc she fought and turned into her puppet so she had to take it a little more seriously. This time, she used her Calamity and began a short exchange with the monster before transforming her weapon into its sword form and ending the battle with a [Calamity Cleave]. She encased a large amount of aura around her weapon that caused the sword's blade to physically elongate. The large blade became encased in hellfire before Maria spun and made a large sweeping attack, sending out a flaming sword wave at the boss monster.
When the flaming sword wave struck the monster, it cleanly bisected it before exploding, reducing the monster’s corpse into ashes.
“...”
“...”
Unlike everyone else’s character in her group who had rather lackluster skills, Maria’s skill looked incredibly powerful and breathtaking. She placed her weapon on her back again before floating down from the stage and telling the staff member who was still a little speechless from her display of strength, “I think you should make the monsters a little stronger. Even with a player-driven AI, their stats are a little too low.”
After saying her piece she returned to stand with the rest of the people in her group who finally couldn’t stand staying silent and started conversing with her. It was some friendly banter as they asked her how she was so good in the game and stuff like that. Maria simply answered that she had the advantage of experience so she made things look so easy. Although they had to struggle a bit to win against the [Normal] and [Hard] bosses, the other people in her group had managed to win even though they were non-players and this was their first time diving into VR.
If there was a hidden ranker in her group or if the side event was adopted into a main stage event, the rankers above her would probably make short work of these monsters as well, especially since their levels were much higher than hers.
Of course, Maria didn’t actually know that herself since she only assumed that those higher leveled than her were obviously much better as they had more stats and better skill ranks than her. She also wasn't going to be conceited and think of herself as the best or anything because of all the powerful advantages she obtained. The players above her could also have encountered similar windfalls like hers which granted them powerful abilities and the like so she wasn't going to underestimate them. Still, it was a misconception on her part to believe that those kinds of windfalls that she experienced were easy to encounter.
It was a misconception from her lack of player interaction from the early parts of her gaming career as she was busy being isolated due to quests before eventually being forced apart from the regular player base as she was teleported to a different world so she didn't have any actual understanding of the current player base's situation.
The test runs for today ended here as the developers who were watching and receiving the inputs from the participants and staff members took note on what to improve on before the day these event stages would take place. The Gauntlet Stage still wasn’t up for testing as the devs were still tweaking some stuff on the event stage while also keeping this stage a secret from the participants. After everyone exited from the capsules, they began rehearsing on the big stage how they would enter, in what order, where they would stand, and so on.
Maria returned to the hotel later in the afternoon. Even though she hadn’t done anything too extensive and only walked around here and there while standing up most of the time, she was rather exhausted as she also had to deal with other people with who she wasn’t even acquainted. This was what drained her the most because she found it hard to interact with people she didn’t know, so it was quite taxing on her mind as she had to talk with the other participants when they started chatting her up.
Now, she just wanted to rest as tomorrow was going to be the big day since that’s when the IGC officially started. Although she wouldn’t be participating in the main event and would only be up on the stage during the 3rd and 6th days for the side events, she was still rather hyped about it. Lizzy was participating as a contestant so she had to go and cheer her on. A few countries were being represented by the players so she had to show her support for her homeland though it didn’t matter much to her and her friends since they just came here to have fun.
Of course, winning was a priority since this was a competition after all. Lizzy wasn't going to half-ass things and just 'play for fun'. She was going to try her hardest and play to win. Due to this, Maria and her two friends needed to be there to cheer Lizzy on.
“David…”
“Yes, my Lady?”
“Wake me up when dinner is here…”
“May I ask what you would like to eat tonight?”
“...I’m craving for some meat right now…so just bring me anything as long as there’s meat in it...”
“Yes, my Lady.”
“Thanks~”