Creature Case Study, Part 1(Solo)

[Darko Lipowitz]

It was a fine morning in Windsor Greatwood. The temperature was fine, the breeze was moderate, and the sunlight was mild that it would not leave a hot feeling on the skin. The verdure was a striking green, and the colors of the plants were very vibrant. The valley was bathed in a green and brown color with some specks of other color thrown in; even the sharp cliffs had some plants with beautiful flowers attached on them. Coupled with the blue sky, this was a very charming sight. The current atmosphere was a very good timing for sight-seers to venture on this land when they have nothing to do, and it seems that a young boy had found the perfect timing as he stared at the plants while walking around the valley. But the good sights was not the reason the boy was here in this valley.

He had recently received a commission by a man to compile a reference book on all the creatures that can be found in the explored area. As a man who shunned conversing with another person except when clearly needed for his advancement and his survival in this planet, he wanted to be done with it as fast as possible. Although he had many creatures to document in this area, it was fine for him, as he also wanted to research on the habits of the creatures so that he would have no worries on dealing with them later on. This world could be unforgiving at times, and even though he could respawn at the cathedral after he gets killed, it would be a waste of time for him to walk again to this place, and so he should study any creature that comes his way.

The creature that was the first on the list the man gave him was the Dull Green Slime. As far as he have learned from the history of MMOs and gaming, the slimes were the weakest of all creatures that would fight the adventurers along the way; they had a very small HP and attack power, and they go down after only one hit, though there are few exceptions. He then looked into the list again, and saw that he was also assigned to study the Green Slime. He wondered if there's a connection between the Dull Green Slime and the Green Slime, but afterwards he thought that he would find the connection much later when he would study the Dull Green Slime and the Green Slime, and the study of one is meaningless without the other. And so he set out to this place, aiming to search for the slime that was needed to be studied.

He traveled across the valley of the Windsor Greatwood, crossing forests of trees, searching the grass and bushes, even peeking through vines to search for the dull green slime. As he could not fight higher-leveled creatures he opted to search for a group of Level 1 slimes, which might be rare given the number of adventurers. Hopefully it was too early of a morning, and in his area there were no adventurers as of yet, and so for this moment he had no worries of meeting another adventurer on the way, as well as the number of Level 1 slimes was still not depleted. But he should find what he needed fast, or he might postpone the search to another time due to the rarity of the low-leveled slimes. And so he tried harder on searching. But most of the time he found one Level 1 slime, or numerous higher-leveled slimes. For his study on the habits and attack modes of the slimes to be successful, the situation he needed was a number of Level 1 Dull Green Slimes huddling together, more than two of them. He diligently searched for that scenario, until when he peeked through a bush he saw three Level 1 slimes together, and it seems as if they were talking with each other with bounces.

Not wishing to interrupt this brilliant scenario to study the slimes the boy sat down behind the bush, watching the slimes as they bounce. He then accessed the interface of the monsters by pointing at one of the slimes, and sure enough, an interface was displayed revealing the HP, MP, and Level of the slime. Not content with this, he shouted a word, as the spell was ingrained on his mind at the same time as when he had learned it. He have learned the hotkey system as fast as when he wondered what are those boxes in his sight and how do they work. He dragged every skill he's got on those boxes so that he would not have a problem accessing them later on.

The shout that he uttered was the word "Evaluate", and it was the name of the starting skill that all who had the sub-class Scholar had. He then made a pose for that skill, which took 1 second to channel. After the pose was completed, another interface sheet popped up in the boy's vision. It revealed that the slimes had neither weakness nor resistance to anything, which made the boy heave a sigh of relief. But when he continued reading, he was shocked at what he saw: that the slimes would go near to anyone who uses magic. He then looked again towards the direction of the slimes, and it seemed that he had attracted them. The approach of the slimes meant danger, but the boy maintained his composure. If he thought of it, he had something that could defeat the slimes as they drew near him.

[Darko Lipowitz]

Why do the people from the former planet always select slimes as the weakest mob of all? They don't seem to be affected much by attacks, and any kind of weapon doesn't matter with them, and they also looked like they could regenerate themselves.

When the boy first logged in on this game, he was presented with a choice of skills for his class build, and after looking at what could the skills do, he selected the spell Serpent Bolt. That spell seemed appropriate if he was to take on numerous mobs, and so he selected the skill to be used whenever he had to meet a lot of monsters on the way. However, he should not be overconfident that he had such a skill that he would charge through a large number of mobs, as the interval of bursts might not be enough for him to finish all of the monsters off, and that would mean death for him, and he would respawn again in the cathedral, and then he would walk again a number of kilometers to reach this place. Knowing the hassle of going again to that area to hunt for monsters, he dared not die, except when he needed instant teleportation to Londenium, in which case he would kill himself while racking up levels.

The Serpent Bolt spell was cast on a target, making a blue-purple lightning hurtle to it, but instead of dealing damage to the target, it arcs outward, dealing damage on surrounding mobs or enemies. However, he had not tried casting it to himself, and since the mobs were manageable even when he received damage, he pointed his wand at himself, wanting to know if he would not really receive damage from the spell. As the spell was already in the hotkey area, all he needed to do is to shout out the name of the spell.

"Serpent Bolt!"

A discharge of blue-purple lightning was fired from the wand, towards the direction of the boy's heart. If this connects onto the place, he might sustain a large loss of HP, or might also deplete it altogether. He was ready for any circumstances when the lightning connects, but instead of hitting his heart, the lightning bounced all around his body as if it became a barrier of some sorts. By that time, the slimes that sensed his presence were surrounding him, but for some reason they did not attack yet. But their behavior was consistent with what he have read in the second interface that he received when he cast his Evaluate skill, and so it didn't come as a surprise for him. The boy ran towards the space between two of the slimes, getting the grimoire from his bandolier, and as the slimes chased him down, the lightning that surrounded the boy made a discharge towards all three slimes, stunning two of them, and one which was not stunned was blocked by the two others who were. This was enough time for the boy to open the grimoire, and making a motion of reading it as he strode backwards, he turned around and aimed his wand at the lone slime which was not stunned by the lightning, and then as the wand glowed, it released a magical discharge that made its way to the slime, which burnt the upper-left portion of its being. As the magical attack also had a cooldown, he was defenseless, and so he tried to keep distance from the slimes. Fortunately the slimes were not that quick, except when they shoot forward to attack him. But keeping a manageable distance, the attacks of the slimes only hit air as the boy strode backward away from the slimes, and when he felt that the lightning would discharge again, he just tumbled sidewards. As he was still on the air while tumbling sidewards, he fired another bolt of intense magic towards the slime that he already hit with a magic bolt, which just scraped past the slime which attempted to issue a tackle on him, hitting another slime on its lower-left portion; the slime that he targeted only sustained a small scratch. The lightning around the boy's body made a discharge again, but this time, only one of the slimes were stunned, as the boy made contact with the ground following the tumble with his hands, vaulting himself up standing again. But as he turned around towards the slimes that he was engaging, he saw a slime which was about to tackle him. Fortunately he had the magic bolt ready by the time, and blasted away the slime before it made contact with his body. He then continued to stride away from the slimes while dodging their attacks, and managed to get a clean shot on the slime that he was targeting with his magic bolts, placing a burn mark on the center portion of its body, while striding and dodging. A third discharge of lightning went out of what seemed to be the boy's lightning barrier, stunning two of the slimes, and it became the chance for him to dispatch the slime that he aimed to kill. A blue bolt was fired from his wand, and it connected towards the stunned slime, disintegrating it into blobs which disappeared after some time. He then took attention on the slime that was not paralyzed by the lightning. Looking at the burn on its lower-left portion, it would tell him that it was the slime that he had hit accidentally before. He then made the slime the target of his attacks as he again discharged another bolt from his wand towards the slime, which hit the lower-right portion of its body. Bolts of lightning flashed away from his body for a fourth time, hitting both slimes but stunning only one of them. The slime which was not affected by the lightning shot forward towards him, but as he felt that a tree was just behind him, he could only fire a magic bolt in response to the tackle. As the slime shot forward towards him, he fired the bolt towards the attacking slime, and fortunately it disintegrated before it made contact with his body. He then moved towards the remaining slime, which attempted to tackle him. But the boy was nimble, and he dodged it while still standing, and then fired a magic bolt towards the slime which zoomed towards nowhere, blasting it far away from him. He then moved forward to make the slime taste another lightning discharge, which stunned it. He then followed it up with another bolt from himself, and the slime exploded, finishing up his work.

However the slimes were very easy to defeat in close to real life.

He then sat down and wrote the things he had witnessed on his observation on a piece of old paper, while drinking something from a metal container that he always carried on his bandolier. After he had written all of his observations, he made a journey back to London, for a good rest and a better array of food.