Fresh New Start IV

[Ryuuketsu]

Even more flashback shenanigans ensue. Talk about putting all your eggs in one basket.

This Is A Wonderful World

Fresh New Start IV

“Yeah, I get it…No, don’t worry about it. The issue isn’t something that’s going to get fixed anytime soon, and I’m not making you guys hop over to new servers and grind your way up all over again. Evasive DPS is easy to come by; the build’s really popular. You’ll find a fill-in in no time…Yeah…Okay…Good luck.”

Ryan ended the call and closed the program he’d been using before popping open the Elder Tale client, inputting his user information and loading the game up. Londinium spread out before his eyes, character models began to load in, and finally Ryuuketsu’s familiar form appeared in the middle of the screen.

It had been a few days since Ryan had started passively giving Ryuuketsu levels. He had spent the better part of a weekend working on him, and the numbers were steadily going up in an encouraging fashion. If Ryan hadn’t seen Skinner box techniques a million times by now, he might have been sinking way more time into the game by now.

Ryan had more or less been completely ignoring his subclasses at the moment. The level one skill from Acrobat seemed to be the most useful in his build, and what was more important in cultivating Ryuuketsu’s power right now was getting levels in his main class.

Of course, a new worldwide patch was coming out soon. It had some name like Novasphere Pioneers if he recalled correctly. The advertising budget must not have been all that high for it seeing as no one really knew what kind of update was coming with it. That meant that the way classes and subclasses interacted could very well be subject to change. If things came to that, Ryan didn’t want Ryuuketsu to waste any time levelling a subclass that might very well have to be swapped out for another one at any second.

Still, focusing purely on your main class and worrying about your subclasses later was standard practice for solo players. It gave out the most effective power boosts and made that mid-game difficulty spike easier to handle when the player had more skills at their disposal as well as an overall higher amount of HP and MP as well as better options for equipment. While subclasses were useful, they weren’t necessarily the best for actually playing through the game itself.

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Word Count: 390

[Ryuuketsu]

This Is A Wonderful World

Fresh New Start IV

So, where would he be off to today? It wasn’t like there was any shortage of quests that he could complete, but the question was which one he wanted to do. What opponents would give him the most experience, and which quests were also worth the most experience? Those were the questions that mattered.

He could send Ryuuketsu out into the planes to fight more boars and slimes, sure. Another option was to just hike back over to the flower grove and fight against a few more snakes that were more of a challenge and offered a better reward individually.

Scrolling through a page off on the side, Ryan silently thanked the Elder Tale community for amassing statistics on this sort of thing. Still, as much of a blessing it was to have all this information available to him at the snap of a finger, it was also a considerable hit to his ability to decide what it was both he and Ryuuketsu wanted to do.

Well, if both Ryan and Ryuuketsu wanted to join a guild, the best thing they could do is look for a quest that would get them stronger as fast as possible, which likely meant continuing on in the hub town until all the quests there were dealt with. After all, the further he got along in story quests, the more experience he would be rewarded because of it.

So, if he were going to follow with the storyline his character was writing out, Ryan would prompt Ryuuketsu to go out and deal with the Pittered Boars that made their homes in the Windsor Greatwood. They were a bit higher up on the level charts than the things he’d had Ryuuketsu deal with before, and they also made up the enemies in a majority of the quests for the first ten levels of the game. Going on a slaughter would prove to be valuable for the both of them.

Who was it that he was supposed to talk to? Was there anyone with a big yellow exclamation mark up over their head? Scanning the area, Ryan took note of the stereotypical-looking village of wooden cottages and campfires. It reminded Ryan a bit of a summer camp he had gone to once a few years back. He hadn’t made any solid, lasting friendships there by any means, but the few guys he’d met there were nice enough.

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Word Count: 401

[Ryuuketsu]

This Is A Wonderful World

Fresh New Start IV

”Ah, there you are. Sneaky little thing, aren’t you?” Ryan said as he guided Ryuuketsu up to the civilian who would dole out the quest and provide him with the experience when he’d killed enough boars to merit returning to town.

”Oh, and who might you be? I’m Marcus. Don’t bother me too much; I’m still waiting for reinforcements to come from Gaius.”

Ryan’s eyebrow raised at the two dialogue buttons that had been provided to him. Was there really any reason to give the player an option to leave this guy alone or take the quest? Unless they were going to be teleported to some strange area or be swarmed by a horde of monsters depending on their decision, then of course the player would want to take the quest.

As it stood, Ryan simply hovered over the “Gaius sent me to do the thing” option and clicked, furthering the dialogue. Besides, why would Ryuuketsu forget that Gaius had sent him here in the first place?

”Huh? Gaius sent you? Well, don’t get me wrong, but you’re not exactly the most intimidating Adventurer I’ve ever seen. Still, I guess if you’ve got that letter from Gaius then you’re the real deal. Either way, I’d like you to go out and take care of a few Pittered Boars for me. If you can handle that much, I’d be glad to compensate you for your efforts.

Ryan accepted the quest after giving the summary a once-over. He was actually trying to read these quest descriptions on this run, and while it didn’t make the grinding go any faster, it certainly helped to be able to somehow relate his character’s interactions in this world to the events that caused them. Ryuuketsu’s ulterior motive to all the action would still be to get stronger and find a group of people that he could depend on and be depended on by, but the villagers didn’t need to know that. They probably weren’t even capable of knowing that.

Regardless, it was time to kill some boars.

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Word Count: 344

[Ryuuketsu]

This Is A Wonderful World

Fresh New Start IV

Ryuuketsu’s hunt for the targeted enemy of the session was over quickly as Ryan navigated him through the green terrain of the flower grove. There was a nice cluster of the Pittered Boars just beyond the grouping of Garden Snakes that he’d fought earlier the other day, and that made it a prime farming location for experience and other goodies like gold or items.

Pittered Boars were of the Wary nature, meaning that the second Ryuuketsu waltzed into the area they inhabited with the stride that matched every other adventurer of his race and body type, the creatures began to back away. They were feeling threatened by the presence he was putting out, but they were also preparing to surround him should the need to attack rise.

Ryan recognized the strategy instantly, and knew that the best way to engage the creatures would be to simply close the distance. While that might aggro a few of them onto him, it was well worth the risk in the long run. After all, the worst that could happen was that Ryuuketsu would lose a chunk of experience – a valuable asset, but not irreplaceable in the long run – and be sent back to town only to come back out here for revenge.

The Pittered Boars didn’t expect the Fold Step that brought Ryuuketsu into attacking range of a cluster of three of them. Nor did they have time to react before hastened auto-attacks began digging into their bodies and producing big white numbers marking the damage they were receiving alongside the animation that covered up any gore that would have appeared in a more realistic game.

Speaking of gore, it was about time for one of those, wasn’t it?

A well-timed execution of Viper Raise that chained perfectly into Mirage Dealer placed Ryuuketsu behind the last Pittered Boar that had aggressed onto him in the group he’d engaged, the damage over time effect of the skill ticking steadily away at the miniscule amount of health that remained in its life bar until it finally burst into the ether, leaving only a small stack of rewards behind.

Finishing off enemies without actually being within melee range of them was always fun for brawlers and duelists. It was an action that positively oozed the same feeling you got after watching the main character of a show or movie walk away from an explosion without looking at it.

Still, now Ryuuketsu’s only skill off cooldown was Fold Step. While it was a good way to relocate and avoid an attack, it also meant that any sort of damage that Ryan wanted to be dealt to creatures was going to have to wait for a few seconds until the skills that actually did that besides auto-attacks came back up.

Though what was a couple of seconds when the other Pittered Boars seemed so fond of running away and grouping up before their executioner came calling?

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Word Count: 488

[Ryuuketsu]

This Is A Wonderful World

Fresh New Start IV

Ryuuketsu was starting to get quick on his feet. Sure, Ryan would have liked to see him grab for a bit more swiftness in his attacks – the passive 5% buff to it was the only sort of attack speed bonus he’d seen so far, but that didn’t mean that the skills that Ryuuketsu was picking up weren’t providing him a means with which to attack faster.

Pittered Boars were tougher than their younger counterparts; they had more health and more damage output, but they also had swifter attack animations when you finally managed to corner one and force it to fight. They liked to serpentine while charging, making it a bit more difficult to actually hit them. They also liked to dig into your character with their tusks rather than land a flat headbutt.

The motions were harder to follow, and for someone unversed in fighting them it would prove to be the source of a lot of the damage they’d be taking from the creatures. Young Pittered Boars charged in a straight line and didn’t track the character, but the only window you’d have to really dodge the attack of a fully grown Pittered Boar would be when they wound up to dig into you with their tusks. Ducking or rolling out of the way before that would only allow them to follow you as you ran, and almost guarantee that they’d land an attack before you’d found your footing.

Ryan’s knowledge of how the enemies worked would only benefit Ryuuketsu in the end. Because he’d seen this all before – because this wasn’t his first time exploring the world – he had information that Ryuuketsu wouldn’t normally have if he was made by a player who was just starting out in this world alongside him. The difference gave Ryuuketsu the reflexes and skill placements of a veteran player.

Enemy AIs could get annoying after a while, though. There was no variance in a computer program – it didn’t move like you were in real life. Fighting in Elder Tale was nothing compared to fighting in real life. A real opponent – even an animal of an opponent – wouldn’t use the same kind of attack over and over again until it worked and did a bit of damage. There was a higher level of tactical thinking assigned to real world combat.

Sure, Ryuuketsu was swinging his swords and making contact with enemies, slowly whittling away at them until they died, but it was more an exercise of repetition than one of real skill. Sure, timing of your skills eventually became important in the later sections of the game against raid bosses, but tactical thinking against weak enemies like this would be like following a seventeen page set of instructions to make a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. There was no need to overcomplicate “hit the things with your swords until they die and use your skills when you want to. If you’re taking too much damage, move out of the way of it.”

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Word Count: 500

[Ryuuketsu]

This Is A Wonderful World

Fresh New Start IV

Ryan must have spent the better part of an hour throwing Ryuuketsu into large clusters of well-herded Pittered Boars. Due to their wary nature, they were easy to cluster into a big group before having Ryuuketsu start swinging, dashing around, and just slaughtering the creatures in general.

Grinding wasn’t necessarily his favorite thing in the world, but Ryan understood the necessity of the activity when it came to growing in strength. Grind was where many people said that the MMORPG genre fell flat; it was too much of a hassle to spend an hour or two killing boars in a field before their character became strong enough to accomplish their next quest in their opinion. However, the only reward people like Ryan needed for participating in this sort of activity was the steady progression of that green experience bar that showed him how close he was to the next level.

It wasn’t necessarily that he’d fallen prey to the psychological trap that was a Skinner box so much as he actively enjoyed the kind of feeling he got when the system was taking effect. Though, if he was being honest with himself he’d be a bit quicker to admit that there was a bit of a problem with how much he played this game. Back in the United States, this game had been how he spent all his free time. The people he spent his time with may have come and gone as quickly as the wind, but he had been the one to decide when it was time to move on and find another group.

If an MMO was more fun when you were playing with friends, then Ryan would be the first to admit he’d never had as much fun as he could have with one; he’d simply never had the strong bonds that some people boasted when they went into a game and joined a guild.

He didn’t quite mind that. There was a certain thrill that came with meeting new people – being like a sellsword ready to lend his blades to any cause or reason that promised a high enough reward. The challenges he faced in all those situations had been where he’d drawn his fun. He’d learned how to best mold his character around the structure of a preexisting party and find his niche. Some parties were more accommodating to his build than others – they’d been looking for someone that fit his character build perfectly. Others were just out looking for anyone they could find.

Strategy was an important part of Elder Tale. No one went into a raid without a healer or a team of only assassins unless they were just trying to see if it was possible – the price of defeat was low enough that people would try to do even the craziest things every now and again.

The cry of another boar as it burst into a pile of gold ripped Ryan from his mental jaywalking session. The quest he’d sent Ryuuketsu on had long since completed, but the Swashbuckler didn’t seem to mind staying out for an extended training session. Still, the allure of that completion experience was tantalizing. It was time to head back to town.

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Word Count: 536

[Ryuuketsu]

This Is A Wonderful World

Fresh New Start IV

It wasn’t that hard to find the man who had given him his quest in the first place. He was a farmer of sorts, and he had his own little area set aside for him to do whatever it was he was going to accomplish by standing there and making the same motion of tilling fields while standing in the same spot over and over.

Ryan prompted Ryuuketsu to run up to him, and engaged the main in conversation with a quick stroke of the keyboard. It was time to get his just desserts for finishing up that quest.

”Done already, are ya? Well that was certainly fast. I see why Gaius sent you over here now. That’s probably not what you came here to hear, was it? Yup, new adventurers like you are all the same. Fork over the cash and let me be on my way. I swear, you lot are intolerable sometimes. Fine, fine. You did good work; take the money and be off with ya.”

Interesting. It wasn’t like the trope of villagers hating the main characters of games was a rarity on the internet, but seeing it inside of the games themselves was certainly that. Not many designers thought it was optimal for storytelling if anyone but the villains and characters the player was supposed to think of as jerks to hate them.

Then again, this guy was just a random townsperson. What was his opinion supposed to mean once the quests were done and the area was left behind. There was nothing he could or would do to get in Ryuuketsu’s way, and that was just the way things were going to be. Besides, a villager wasn’t a match for an adventurer. Their stats were crippled, their levels were far below what was possible for anyone to achieve within a few days, and it was just an all-around bad idea to get into a scuffle when you didn’t even have that complicated of a combat AI for the adventurer to read through.

Anyways, it was about time to start that next quest line. Ryan really had no idea where it would take him or what he was supposed to do when he got there, but it was probably something along the lines of another fetch quest followed by another round of killing things before having another round of delivery quests to railroad him to the next area.

Sometimes he really wished that these sorts of things were more free-form. If leveling was easier and all these quests just didn’t exist – if he could just roam the world and punch whatever he wanted to fight in the face to grow stronger without having to backtrack and get the reward that was so much more valuable than the actual game – it would be so much easier and so much more fun for everyone.

Of course, how were the developers of an MMO supposed to tell a story in a world where there was never an aim – never a primary goal for the character to complete? Was all this dialogue just the best solution to the problem? Ryan doubted that.

Whatever. Things were like this and they weren’t going to change anytime soon. There was no use crying over spilt milk.

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Word Count: 545