The game’s devs had their eyes opened during the IGC so they started reforming the ranking system and instead of ranking the players based on their levels, they ranked the players based on a new system which had been quickly implemented overnight. This new system used a term called Combat Power, or CP for short, and the way CP calculation worked was through the system tracking down a player’s levels, stats, equipment quality, acquired titles, along with their skill level and skill rank.
The data from the compilation of all these factors would then determine a player’s CP value. It was much more complex than the previous ranking method that determined a player’s rank purely based on their character level, skill level, and base stats. With this new ranking system out, the player rankings had naturally been shuffled and surprisingly, Lizzy was ranked at the very top. She was closely followed by the likes of Eos, Caedes, and a few other guild masters from well-known guilds that were ranked within the top 10 of their respective factions.
The previous ranked players had been knocked down from their thrones but this was only natural as the rankings no longer judged a player solely through their character level. With the Guild leaders having the backing of their entire guild to help them get stronger through other means than just their levels, it was no wonder why the previous top 50 rankers had been knocked out.
However, being ranked in the CP rankings was an optional thing because the players and even the guild masters themselves knew that there were much more powerful players out there besides them who were on the rankings. One such person was Maria who was currently spectating the event matches. She was just on a whole other level and her incredible display just yesterday made people believe that she was likely the strongest player in the game and maybe they were right about that.
The person in question, however, thought otherwise because although the new CP system gave a more accurate portrayal of a player’s strength, those numbers weren’t the only thing that determined a player’s strength. Their battle sense, techniques, decision-making, awareness, and a few other aspects that couldn’t be measured by the system also influenced a player’s overall combat prowess.
Maria felt that her battle sense and techniques weren’t the best so that was why she was still training. If she was content with her current strength, then she wouldn’t be so ambitious as to try and take over an entire world with her faction. She also had a feeling that Vampire Lord Siegfried would be much stronger than the weakened Thor that she had fought yesterday.
Why did she think this way? It was because of how Ash and Carmilla had handled the weakened Primal upon their appearance when they saved her. Carmilla had lightly brushed away Thor’s attacks while Ash had nearly killed him with a [Blood Laser].
Since Siegfried was supposedly stronger than Carmilla and was on par with a weakened Ash who was in his prime, the inevitable confrontation ahead once she returns to Vanhal and begins her move would be difficult if her power level remained where it was at the present.
Ash still hadn’t recovered all of his powers and yet he was able to nearly kill Thor with just a simple technique like his [Blood Laser] which he could fire off numerous times. Maria had to acknowledge that although she was the Queen of her faction, she wasn’t the strongest person around as her two vampire dukes were much more powerful than her. In the past, Ash had been weaker than Maria but all of that changed ever since Carmilla had entered their ranks. She was helping Ash restore his previous strength and he had since become stronger than Maria.
If Maria wanted to conquer the Blood Continent, she needed to first get on a similar power level as Ash and Carmilla. Only then would she have a fighting chance against the Vampire Lord once the time came. For now, she still had time to improve herself and Maria was impatient to get back into the game to do precisely that. However, she stayed around to watch Lizzy’s matches and by the end of the Boss Raid event, her team had placed first, unsurprisingly.
Her team consisted of her who was first in the ranks, Eos who was second, and a black horse who was on par with them. If they didn’t come in first, then some other team must’ve won through a fluke or by luck.
Maria was happy for her friend because now, she had secured a gold medal for herself and by the looks of things, the Battle Royale was also in the bag for her and her team. Their randomly arranged lineup was just too overpowered. There were perhaps only one or two other teams that could rival Lizzy’s team so even if for some reason they couldn’t win first place, a spot in the top 3 was already guaranteed for them.
Even though there was still one more event, Maria had somehow managed to weasel her way out of watching the battle without making Lizzy angry so she was able to return to the hotel early. Once she arrived in her hotel room and after having a meal, she immediately dove back into the game.
The moment she arrived in the game, she immediately heard the sounds of battle. Alexa raised an angry shout as the screeches of monsters ensued in the next instant. After that, everything turned silent for a moment so Maria called out, “Alexa?”
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“Hm? Big sis, are you done resting?”
“Yeah, more or less. You can return now.”
“A-Alright…”
Hearing the dejection in her voice, Maria made her way over to her before patting her on the head and said, “I’ll take you on a hunt once I’ve returned to Vanhal, alright? I can’t have you around right now because I’m training.”
“Really? Alright then, big sis. I’ll wait for your return! Just call me again if you need me to guard you while you rest.”
“I will. Off you go now,” Maria said as she opened a return portal for Alexa.
“I’ll see you later, big sis!”
“Mhm.”
Once Alexa left, Maria returned to her training. She didn’t know how large the dungeon was and whether or not she was actually making any progress at all. She was blind at the moment and only following the sounds of the monsters’ skittering. Maria only jumped at the monsters without actually moving in any specific direction so she didn’t know if she was moving deeper into the dungeon or she was just moving around in circles.
It didn’t matter though because she was still able to accomplish her objective which was to hone her senses. After a few in-game days training like this, Maria had sharpened her senses to the point where she actually received something that showed her that all of her efforts weren’t in vain.
*DING*
You have received the Innate Talent:Intuition!
Skill Name: Intuition Rank: A Description: Sharpens all the senses and gives the ability to detect danger and hidden objects within a certain radius around the player. Increases the AGI and INT stat by 10%.
Maria had heard about talents before in the forums. Many high-ranked players had a few extra talents but they were extremely hard to acquire and the only way to acquire them was through hard work.
There were talent grades and talents like her [Intuition] were actually ranked pretty high due to the amount of bonus stats they gave. Most talents wouldn’t give a stat increase in percentage but a fixed numerical increase. Common talents like [Enhanced Agility], [Enhanced Strength], [Enhanced Intelligence], and many others gave fixed stat increases so they were ranked quite low. The talents that gave percent increases were ranked highly but ones like Maria that gave 10 percent increase to 2 stats were very rare. Not only that, but it allowed Maria to ‘detect’ danger within her surroundings.
This had two implications, the first one being that the detection radius of enemies on her minimap would grow and the second being that her character would be able to mentally detect danger now. Naturally, the latter effect would work better for Maria since she hardly stared at her minimap when moving around the field. However, this wasn’t enough for her so Maria continued to prolong her training inside of the bugged dungeon. Player outside who saw Maria go in began wondering why she hadn’t come out yet.
This bugged dungeon was an instance-type dungeon so if Maria died inside, she wouldn’t receive the normal death penalty which barred players from playing the game for 24 hours but instead, she’d just lose a percentage of her gold, EXP, and maybe a few items before getting kicked out of the dungeon. The players were puzzled because Maria hadn’t been kicked out even after spending a few days inside of the dungeon so they began speculating that she had somehow found a way to survive and perhaps was working to clear the dungeon.
“Well, she’s currently being hailed as the strongest in the game, maybe she really found a way?”
“Nah, man, it’s probably luck! Also, why aren’t the devs fixing the problem yet?”
“Not sure, but...maybe it isn’t a bug? It could just be the dungeon’s feature or something that’s meant to increase the difficulty.”
“The devs are still looking into it. Anyway, I’d be really impressed if that girl clears the dungeon by herself in that blind environment.”
Maria was in fact actually doing what the players were all speculating about. With her newly acquired [Intuition] talent, Maria was able to make a mental map of the area she had covered which was then updated to her minimap. In her current environment, everything around her was a ‘hidden object’ so her [Intuition] was able to pick up on it. The increase in her senses had also given Maria a better spatial awareness of the things around her.
This increase in spatial awareness was actually a godsend for Maria because just by relying on her reflex and instincts, she could now practically attack anyone and anything that was caught within her range of attack using her Greed’s Chains and Envy’s Shadows even before her enemies and targets got too close to her. It was quite the reward in her opinion because she could now make better use of her chains and shadows. Not only that but the increase in spatial awareness gave her an increase in movement and evasion capabilities.
This was exactly what she had wanted to gain from honing her senses inside of the bugged dungeon, so after accomplishing all of that, Maria was now working towards clearing the dungeon. She had already begun recording her run through of the dungeon ever since she had acquired her new talent. If people were to watch the run through, they’d notice the cause of the blindness that was experienced by the players running the dungeon.
There was some kind of black cloud that enshrouded Maria’s head so it completely blocked her face and her vision. It was like what the players outside the dungeon had said, the blindness was only a unique feature of the dungeon which was used to make clearing this dungeon harder than it actually was. Also, the monsters that inhabited this dungeon which moved around with a skittering sound weren’t bugs but rats...which in some ways was actually worse.
Maria already found out about this early on when she had killed a monster and felt around it’s corpse to see what kind of monster it was. Thankfully, she wasn’t scared of either rodents or insects so either way, she wouldn’t have freaked out. However, Maria was a little afraid at the start because of the complete lack of vision which only enhanced the terror of the unknown that she was facing. Slightly scared was one part of what she felt at the time but the other parts were anticipation, excitement, and...murder.
Whether it was a monster she could or could not see, Maria’s answer to them was always pretty simple. Kill.
If it was a problem that could be resolved with money or violence, then it wasn’t a problem at all since Maria had both wealth and strength. However, despite spending the next few in-game days trying to clear the dungeon on the IGC’s 5th and 6th day, Maria was still fumbling around and couldn’t find the boss room after numerously backtracking herself throughout the dungeon.
“What the heck...just where’s the boss room or the exit? Don’t tell me this dungeon is actually bugged and I’m stuck here?!”