Another Chapter for you guys since I posted 5 Dragon Emperor but not this one. I thought that wasn't fair so I wrote this one before I started studying. This is the second chapter for the other member, hope you learn more about the game world and the systems. I didn't want the way skills looked to be like everyone else's, so I made it a little different. Hopefully you enjoy this chapter as well, next one is going back to Zu.
----------------------------------------
Chapter 6: The Gamer 2
Four looked at his status screen while nodding his head. The stats were all even across the board, and his race had a godly trait. Four had to admit that the Vampire race was truly the right way to go no matter what class you were. A race that had a lifesteal effect straight away was insane. If you had more lifesteal gear later on then you could build a tank out of any class.
Four closed the status window while he walked around the village. The houses in this village were something he had never seen before - in a starting village. Each house was as big as a manison, if this is what the starting village looked like he couldn’t wait to see the main towns.
However he was also disappointed with this village. There were no NPC’s around, it was truly a deserted place. Four checked every single house, but found no one. Whoever lived in this village didn’t leave in a hurry because all the furniture and gold were gone.
‘So being a Vampire you start out with a great trait… but you don’t have any quest.’ Four thought to himself as he headed out of the village.
Outside the village it was like night and day. The village seemed like a nice place to live only it had a depressing atmosphere. However outside the village were broken tree’s, rotten fruit on the ground, and even the grass seemed dead. The animals looked all mutated - each one having red eyes with green slime coming out of their bodies. The only good thing about it was that even now, there was no sun. The sky was shrouded in darkness.
Four watched some of the other players fight the mobs. Whatever village he was in seemed dead. That or no one picked the Vampire race. The number of players outside the village only numbered to around 1,000.
‘One day late and everyone is already leveled?’ Four thought.
‘Leaderboard’ Four said to himself.
Instantly another blue screen appeared in front of him. This one had the rankings of all the players who had the highest level and most kills.
Leaderboards Position:Name:Level:Kills:Death:Kingdom: 1:SwishRoll700Mezilitin 2:StrawberryKiller600Zen 3:NobodyLives600Blackmoon 4:Escape600Zeal 5:CheckMate600Mezilitin
Looking at the leaderboards Four only saw two players from his kingdom in the top ten. It seemed to him that the Eleven kingdom had some sort of exp bonus because there were four players in the top ten from there. Four closed the window as he slightly sighed.
There were no quest so he had to grind mobs until he reached the first town. To reach the first town he needed to become level ten. Four was a professional gamer - it was basically his life as well as income. He needed to learn all his skills their cooldown time and how much damage they do.
‘Skill list’
Another blue screen appeared in front of him, but this one was smaller than the rest. It was to be expected because this is only the beginning class, so the number of skills are limited.
Skill List Skill:Rank:Class:MP/SP Consumption:Description:Effect:CoolDown: Ether Bolt(A):EMage10Shoots a bolt of concentrated energyNone2s Flame Shot(A):EMage20Summon flames that burn your foe5% Chance to burn4s Ice Ball:EMage20Create a ball of ice to throw at your foe5% Chance to freeze4s Smash(A):EMage25Smash your staff at the foe50% to stun25s Vampire Urges (P)DVampire Trait0You have an unstoppable urge to suck your targets blood.8% Chance to absorb 10% of foe's HP0
Four nodded his head slightly. These skills were ok for starting out, but they are not the best. The percent of a you inflicting an effect on your opponent was pretty low, however he wondered why [Smash] only had a fifty percent chance to stun. For a mage it should be one hundred percent, even if it meant having a higher cooldown.
Azure online is different that other vrmmorpgs. The company wants you to feel like you're in another world living a whole nother life, but still realize this is a game. Everything has a cooldown time and you just can’t spam skills. That was a huge problem with other vrmmorpgs, your skills didn’t have a cooldown so players could just spam their skills all day long. That is what most people did in DVMO, once you leveled your skill up to master then the effects would be great. No cooldown on it either, you could easily slay mobs and bosses.
Azure online did things differently. They didn’t want to repeat the same mistake as those other vrmmorpgs. Instead of you gaining a skill and having to level it up for progression you get a maxed out skill already. The skills have different ranks, each one being better than the last. As you level up your character and learn new skills from your class master then the skills you obtain will also increase. Azure online also had a different system, as long as you had to money you could increase your skills ranking. So ‘E’ ranked skills could become ‘D’ which means there effects would also increase. However you could only rank up your skills once, and ‘A’ ranked skills could never become ‘S’ rank.
The reason for this is so that you don’t have everyone running around once they have their final class change with ‘S’ ranked skills. The company wanted people to work hard and find out how to get ‘S’ ranked skills instead of them being handed to them. Four had to say that the company who made Azure online really knew what they were doing. It gave each player a fair chance at being great, so all those rich players wouldn’t dominate the game. People wouldn’t spend hours farming skill progression because that was boring. Instead everyone started off at the same place, so to be the best you actually needed skill.
The company who made Azure online also said the game was fully complete. The npc’s in the world had a mind of their own. If you became friendly with an npc and increased intimacy with them, then you can get better rewards. Some npc’s will reward you with certain quest, while others you have the option of being lovers with. If the intimacy went down then they wouldn’t talk to you, or hand you quest. Relationships with certain npc’s can also affect a group of npc’s.
Like in real life. If you have a noble hate you they will spread the word of what you did and even exaggerate. The word will spread causing other npc’s to hear about it making your relations with them also decrease. If you are charged with a crime they will look at you differently. Their actions, emotions, nothing is programmed. The only thing that actually is programmed are quest.
One of the big announcements the company that made Azure online said was there were tons of events happening. The world was truly the players. If they murdered a town filled with npc’s then the kingdom would look into it. If they found out who did it, it would lead to a kingdom wide quest to find the culprit. Once new dungeons were unlocked or other nations invaded the king would send a quest to them which would start a major event.
Each and everything about Azure online could be considered the same on earth. You have politics, power struggles, poverty, school etc. The developers really wanted you to experience what it’s like in another world. The company cared about their players, but wanted them to also have a second life. Therefore in Azure online you can start your own family. Although the speed in game is faster than real life, it’s only by two hours. You can watch your child grow up, which was an amazing. Just by adding this gave the game a whole new feel.
After glancing over his skills and memorizing their effects and cooldown times, Four decided it was time to kill. In his view there were players hunting down mobs that looked like mutated frogs. He glanced them over but they were only level two. That was not good enough for him, he needed to level up to catch up with the rest of the players.
Four walked down a dirt path while he passed the other players who were farming the mutated frogs. Ahead of him was a field with dark green grass filled with mutated deer. They had light green bumps on their side, their eyes were red and they had some green foam coming out their mouth. Just looking at this mob made Four will creeped out - which was good.
Mutated Grazing DeerLevel:3HP:150/150MP:50/50
This story is posted elsewhere by the author. Help them out by reading the authentic version.
Four grinned as he readied his staff. This mob was two levels higher than him, but it couldn’t be two hard…. right? The distance between him and the mob was only six meters, if he used his skills right he would be able to get off three or four shots before it came close. If it wasn’t dead by the time it arrived in front of him, he could use [Smash] to try and stun it.
Four’s staff glowed blue as he swung it down in the direction of the mutated deer. The blue bolt went in the direction of the mutated deer slamming straight into it. Four used [Ether bolt] because it had the lowest CD (Cool down time) of them all.
You’ve dealt 25 damage to Mutated Grazing Deer
A blue box appeared telling him the amount of damage he has done. Naturally as long as he used his skills the damage done would only increase. If he used a normal attack with his staff the damage output would be lower, and his killing speed would also be lowered as well.
The Mutated Grazing Deer turned towards Four as he dashed at him with it’s head down. The antlers on it’s head were not normal, they were sharp and pointed at the end. It was like the antler was a blade.
Four didn’t account the mutated deers speed, it actually moved faster than he originally thought it would. Normally a person would be stunned at this and find themselves forgetting to use a skill, but that wasn’t the case. Four swung his staff again, this time a little red flame slammed against the mutated deer.
You’ve dealt 35 damage to Mutated Grazing Deer
This was ten damage more than [Ether Bolt]. Four also paid attention to the damage, if he had a good idea of how much each skill did then he could calculate which skills to use. This was a good idea for lower levels since they only have four or five skills. However once you get your first class and start leveling up, you won’t have time to remember which skill does what amount of damage. What you need to know is what skill you should use at what moment.
[Flame Shot] hit the mutated deer in the face which caused the mutated deer to stop and shake it off. Four cast another spell [Ether Bolt] since the CD was up. The mutated deer must have known he would try to do that again because it dodged.
Miss!
This is what’s great about Azure online. The mobs also have a mind of their own. The higher level mobs have smarter intelligence. They would study how the players attack and find ways to counter. This really gave the game a better feel than other vrmmorpgs, were the mobs in those games didn’t really have a mind of their own - they just attacked blindly.
The mutated deer started charging at Four again, it was only two meters away. Four’s staff glowed white, as if it was a sheet of ice. It turned into a ball of ice, but the speed it launched at was not slow. It shot out as if it was a bullet slamming into the Mutated Grazing Deer. The mutated deer didn’t have time to react.
You’ve dealt 40 damage to Mutated Grazing Deer.
The Mutated Grazing Deer’s fur started to harden - as if it was freezing. Four didn’t waste any time and used [Ether Bolt] once more. The mutated deer was shaking it’s body to heat itself up, so it didn’t have time to pay attention to Four. The [Ether Bolt] slammed against its body forcing the mutated deer to lose it’s balance.
Critical hit! You’ve Dealt 50 damage to Mutated Grazing Deer.
You’ve obtained 35 exp.
Four soloed a level three mob. It would be hard to kill them if you were by yourself, however that was only if you were a melee class. Being a ranged class allows you to shoot off skills at a distance. Since he is a mage his damage output is high, as long as he has distance he’ll be able to kill any mob.
Four looked at his exp bar, he still had a way to go until level two.
There's a difference between casting skills and moving around. As a mage you would think that you would not use any stamina and only mana. This is not the case in Azure online. All classes use stamina and mana together. When you are in battle your movements help drain your stamina. When you run out of stamina you can’t dodge, and your attack speed, movement speed as well as casting speed are slowed. For mana you only use it when casting spells. If all you do is attack with your weapon and don’t use any skills then your mana won’t be drained. Not unless a mob or boss has a mana drain skill.
Casting magic cost more mana than it does stamina - because magic casters hardly move. Four only moved his arms to swing the staff so his stamina didn’t really drop. Stamina only drops during combat movement, dodging, running, hands on activities or sexual activities. It would be weird for your stamina to drop when you talk or walk.
Four used sixty points for mana, but he still had enough to hunt another mutated deer. The number of people farming these mutated deer were numerous, but it was still enough for Four to find one. Most players farmed the level two mobs in a group so they could level up quickly, then moved on to the next mob. Four thought about joining a party, but most of them seemed full.
A party in Azure online can only hold five players. In other games it’s usually six players in one party, but here it’s different. You also have the option to form a raid group which is used for raid dungeons in the game or for huge battles. In a raid group the party leader of each party becomes Corporal. The person who invited/started the raid becomes the Sergeant. A raid group can only have four parties, making the total number of players inside it twenty.
During war or when you invade another kingdom your raid group then turns into a squad. The leader of the raid then becomes squad leader. When a squad is invited to form a Platoon the number of players in it increases. A squad can hold a maximum of twenty players (20), while a Platoon can hold a maximum of eight squads. The Platoon leader (Person who invited all the other squads) gets the rank of Lieutenant. A platoon can hold up to one thousand two hundred eighty (1280). As the number of platoons increases so does the number and it makes up something else. This keeps happening over and over again until everyone is united under one or two leaders.
Four started his attack on the next Mutated Grazing Deer. He started out with [Ether Bolt] once again. It dealt twenty damage to the mutated deer, but he shortly followed up with an [Ice Bolt]. The Ice Bolt had it’s effect activate making the mutated deer freeze for four seconds. During that time Four used one [Flame Shot] and another [Ether Bolt]. Luckily for him his [Flame Shot] had a critical so the mutated deer died.
Four continued grinding these Mutated Grazing Deer until he finally got what he wanted. When farming the mutated deer a few pieces of copper fell from it’s body. After his third kill, he finally leveled up.
Ding! You’ve leveled up!
Vampires are born with natural strength therefore the amount of stat points obtained decrease. You’ve gained 5 stat points
+50 HP, +100 MP, +20 SP
“All five into Intelligence.” Four said.
Four placed them all in Intelligence since he was building a mage. If he was a healing class then he would place it in wisdom, but he’s not. The difference between Intelligence and Wisdom are only what they increase. Intelligence increases magic damage, while Wisdom increases healing amount.
With a level up all his MP/SP/Hp recovered. This was also an effect of leveling up, everything you’ve lost returns. It can come in handy when you are running a dungeon but running low on potions.
Four started his hunting again, there was no need for him to change locations. Players in a party do not get as much exp as he does solo, but they do kill faster. Four started thinking that if he had one more person his speed of leveling up will increase.
After killing the mutated deer it dropped some more copper coins. Coins were used as currency in Azure online. They were divided into three types, copper, silver, and gold. One hundred copper coins equaled one silver coin, and one hundred silver equaled one gold coin. If you have one hundred gold coins you can transform them into a golden bar, which is the same amount.
“Hey, you want to party up with me?” A sweet voice called out to Four.
Four turned around only to find a petite looking girl. She had silver hair that stopped at her waist, small breast - that were barely visible, and small round face. Her eyes were light purple - same as Four’s, and on her waist was a short sword.
She seemed to be young, but Four didn’t mind. As long as she knew how to play he would invite anyone. “Yeah, send me an invite.” Four said.
Player Sarah has invited you to her party Would you like to join Y/N?
Four clicked yes. ‘So her name is Sarah, huh.’
She was wearing black leather clothing, the same as Four - it was the starting gear. Sarah smiled at Four as she walked ahead of him and drew her short sword. The short sword was black, and had cracks in it.
Four didn’t see anyone else around, nor did he see anyone coming, so it was only him and Sarah in the party. Since she was in a party with him, he could see her level. Like him, she was also level two. Sarah darted at a mutated deer and swung her short sword down at it.
After it hit Four cast [Ether Bolt]. The blue ball slammed against the mutated deer dealing high damage.
You’ve dealt 40 damage to Mutated Grazing Deer
The Mutated Grazing Deer was still in Sarah's range. It lowered its head while it charged at her with it’s pointy antlers. Sarah rolled to the side, while Four used [Ice Ball]. The [Ice Ball] hit the mutated deer on it’s side.
You’ve dealt 65 damage to Mutated Grazing Deer
You’ve gained 20 exp
With that the mutated deer was dead. His exp was lower, but Four didn’t mind it was a faster kill anyways. With Sarah it only took him four seconds to kill instead of eight, the time was cut in half.
“What made you be a warrior?” Four asked Sarah.
Sarah was about to rush another Mutated Grazing Deer but turned around when she heard Four talk to her. “Huh? Oh, cause I like hitting stuff. This way when I come home from school I can get all my anger out!” Sarah said in a sweet voice.
Four couldn’t picture her in real life being pent up with anger hitting people. When he thought about it he started laughing.
“What's so funny!?” Sarah said as she pointed to Four.
Four covered his mouth, he didn’t think he was laughing loud. “N-nothing. I just thought of a joke my friend told me.” Four explained.
Sarah walked over to him, only standing a few feet away. She only reached his chest so she had to look up at him and four had to look down at her. She looked him in his eye. “Liar!” She said while poking him in the chest.
‘Esper?’ Four thought for a moment. Sarah was standing close to him so it was slightly uncomfortable for him so he backed up. He raised his arms, “No i’m not. I can tell you the joke as well if you would like…”
Sarah crossed her arms over her chest while pouting her small lips. “Tell me then!”
“Nope.”
“Then you were lying! If you weren’t then tell me.”
“I can’t. It’s an adult only joke.” Four said while he shook his head.
“Fuuu! I’m 21!” Sarah yelled.
Four lightly laughed. “Right, and i’m the smartest man alive.”
Sarah stomped her foot while glaring at Four. “Hpmp! Take a look then.’
Player Sarah has share her information with you.
Four’s jaw dropped. She was telling the truth, she really was twenty-one years old. Four shook his head, this was a real life loli. This is a once and a lifetime chance, he couldn’t miss it.
[table]
Status Window Name:SarahAge21 Race:VampireGender:Female Class:WarriorLevel:2 Honor/Infamy:-Nobility:None Send Friend request to Player Sarah?
Four nodded his head. Why not add her to his friends list. She was a warrior, so she could tank the damage while he deals it. Not to mention she was a loli, a real life loli. He didn’t know when he would meet her again, but if he added her to his friends list he could meet her again.
Player Sarah has denied your friend request
Four looked at her. “Why?” he asked.
Sarah turned her head, “Because you lied and didn’t tell me the joke.”
Four walked over to her side as he sighed. He couldn’t tell her what he was laughing about, so he hurriedly made a joke up. “Fine, i’ll tell you. Why is air a lot like sex?”
Sarah turned around to face him and showed a confused expression. Her placed her hand on her chin as she started thinking. “I don’t know.”
“Because it’s not big deal unless you get any!” Four said while slightly smiling.
Sarah had a little giggle but immediately stopped as she turned her expression back serious. “That wasn’t even funny.”
‘Right, then why were you giggling a moment ago…’ Four thought but didn’t say.
Player Sarah has requested to be your friend Do you accept Y/N
Four grinned as he pressed yes.
“Alright, let’s continue grinding.” Four said with a pleased expression.