Chapter 21：Little Schemes

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If it were not for Marius' Timer hitting zero, he would have been happy to continue his testing. But wiser heads prevailed and he issued it was time to rest.

After resting, Marius and Super Nova returned

The first thing they set themselves to do was clearing the area.

With the Lord Ranked Howling Wolf, it took no time at all and the duo enjoyed a huge increase in experience. The Pet even rose to Level 9.

After the area was cleared, Marius and Super Nova continued their experimentation.

Marius Refined his Leve 9 Pet with his 3 Lord Ranked Howling Wolves and his Lod Rank Stone Goat. He felt a little emotional as he saw it fade away and become part of his new High Lord Ranked Pet.

"You know if this fails we will need to get out of here quickly, right?" Marius told Super Nova.

The young man laughed. "Together, we should be able to get the Holing Wolves Tamed before the can summon their pack. Then we can get you a new Lord Ranked Pet and try again," he replied.

Marius smiled. He kept throwing these little tests at the young man and was glad that he wasn't blindly following his lead.

It was always good to have friends that knew how to think for themselves.

Without any more ado, he summoned the High Lord Ranked Pet. In terms of Rank superiority, there were only two Rank's above it making it, without question more powerful than anything the would face for several maps to come.

But would he be able to control it?

As it would be, he could.

Howling Wolf Level 9 - Hgh Lord Rank

Health: 2616

Mana: 436

Attack: 218

Defense: 218

Intelligence: 196

Spirit: 1218

Dexterity: 218

Skills: (Beastial Glare - decreases targets defense by 40%)

(Howl of the Lord - Summons 15 Obsidian ranked Howling Wolves to attack target. Deals 20% base damage per Wolf. Cooldown 2 Minutes)

(Savage Assault - Deals 120% of base damage to a single target. Cooldown 0 seconds.)

Marius put it through all of his test's and was satisfied with the results. Though controlling the 15 summoned Wolfpack was a bit difficult, he managed well enough.

Marius showed Super Nova the Pets stats.

"What the hell? How can this be right? You are so broken Soli."

Marius grinned. The future of the game would be highly reliant on powerful support Pets if these the results of simply Refining and Ranking them up.

"It looks like Beast Taming will be a huge asset in the future. I hope people have the aptitude to take advantage of it."

Super Nova just nodded. He already regretted not choosing to be a Beast Tamer for his occupation. Come level 30, Marius could farm a few high leveled monsters and sell them for a premium. He was literally a walking money maker.

Marius saw it slightly differently though. If this is the result of Refining Pets, then just how overpowered would the Level 100 Demon King Rank City Lords be?

Marius had already figured out that the game would inevitably become a massive Player vs Player battleground.

Even the map designs could be seen as tactical areas, specially designed for combat. High ground, dead ends, plenty of places for ambushes. It basically screamed battlefield.

The question that Marius wanted an answer for was whether the Players would play support roles for the current City Lords, or was it the Destiny of the Player to overthrow them?

Such intent could easily lead to the City Lords becoming Feild Bosses with intent to reconquer their Cities, restoring the original status quo of the game. Of course, such a thing was theoretical. Marius had no idea what direction the game was going.

But he was starting to think of ways that he could cause a huge upset.

He was just too weak to make it happen. But his Pets might not be.

At level 50 Players would be able to access Mount. Mounts were still a Tameable Monster so Marius would be able to Refine them as well. Plus, they would be able to drastically increase a players speed.

Plus, at the rate he was going, he would reach Level 10 as a Beast Tamer well before he reached Level 50. As such, taming Demon Ranked Monsters wouldn't be outside the realm of possibility.

Marius couldn't help but shake his head.

"Whats wrong Soli?" Super Nova asked.

"Huh, at this point, it just feels like I am cheating," Marius said. He was slightly sad about it.

"Nah. It's just that you figured out the way the game is meant to be played. Everyone else is just playing like they would any other online game. It's going to bite them, but it's not your fault you were lucky."

Marius smiled. This lad was something else.

"Well, now that we are basically overpowered, shall we start conquering these maps properly?"

Super Nova looked at Marius questioningly.

"We won't be seeing any High Lord Ranked Monsters until the Level 35-40 map. If we ignore Feild Bosses. And with "Howl of the High Lord' we can sweep a whole map clean without too many problems."

Super Nova's face lit up when he realized what Marius was saying. They had the power to conquer at least 4 maps. The level 15-20 Map was a given as no player's had advanced that far yet and level 20-35 was a given. If they played their cards right the level 35-40 Map could be theirs as well. Just how much experience could they earn this way?

"I need to get to Level 30." Super Nova mumbled. Once he had a Pet Like Marius their speed at conquering these Maps would skyrocket even more.

"Shall we begin?"

With the High Lord Ranked Howling Wolf, there was nothing that could stop them as they tore through the rest of the Map. After casting 'Howl of the High Lord' the summoned Wolfpack wouldn't disappear until either the High Lord was withdrawn, kill or they themselves were killed.

The beauty of the party system really shone this was.

Marius and the High Lord Pet were considered one entity. meaning that the experience that Marius and the Pet got was even, and the experience that Super Nova got was equal to the total experience that both Marius and his Pet got.

This meant that Marius would take a smaller share of experience until the Pet leveled up to match Midnight Solitude's Level.

But that wouldn't take too long with how efficiently they slaughtered their way through the map.

"Did Rajan intentionally make me this overpowered?" The thought wasn't totally absurd, and it would definitely explain why he had asked Marius to take on the Beast Tamer Occupation.

In a way, it was all quite linear.

To become powerful in the game, there was a larger emphasis on using Pets that grew exponentially faster than the players.

To obtain such pets, you needed to become a Beast Tamer. At level 10 it was an almost impossible quest unless you had a Customized Weapon that had Pure Elemental Stones. It was that or grind your way up to level 15 first which would take months.

But to obtain the weapon and the stones required a bit of luck or foreknowing in the very early stages of the game.

Thinking about it, Marius was almost certain that Rajan had set him up.

Getting him to play the game as an in-game Monitor? It would have been a piece of cake for him to give Marius directions that led him straight to his Silent Night. From there, it really was just a walk in the park, with Marius dominating everything in his path, albeit with some effort.

Marius chose not to discuss this with Super Nova.

Marius had known Rajan since he was a boy and had a very good idea of how his mind worked.

In every way, Marius playing the game would benefit Rajan.

It was exactly as Super Nova had said. He had unexpectantly discover how the game was meant to be played. And in time, he would become so dominant that the other players would focus on him.

Those same players would likely think he was hacking and report him. But since Marius was breaking no rules, there was not a thing that could be done. Marius was like a walking guidebook and those same players would soon try to learn his secrets.

They would mimic his rise to the top and within a very short time, the game would evolve into a 'quick to grow, fast to the battle' game of domination.

And Rajan's company would come out clean, smelling of roses despite working the players like fools. It was a scheme Marius would be proud to come up with.

"Clever boy." Marius smiled while they progressed.

"Whats that?" Super Nova asked. He was Gathering materials while the Wolfpack charged ahead of them.

"Nothing," Marius replied, "Just paying homage to a job well done.".

In the two hour period, Marius and super Nova saw a rapid increase in their Levels, resulting in both of them rising up to Level 13.

When the 2-hour timer chimed, they both logged off. They were both more than satisfied with their progress for the day.

Over the next few weeks, the game was thrown into turmoil with the sudden rise of the two solo players. Not only did they break through to Level 20, but they were also responsible for the monopoly of at least five grinding maps. There were rumors that they were currently taking in the level 40-45 maps.

No one could understand how they had managed it but even the previously top-ranked player Cold Mist could not match their speed.

And to add insult to injury, they had taken the Feild Bosses for themselves. It would be months before any of them would be able to face those powerful Monsters, and yet those two had managed it within the first month of the game being released? How could people not report them for cheating?

And yet, the game company simply said that no signs of hacking nor cheating could be detected.

It was obvious that they had discovered some kind of secret to the game. However, no one knew how to contact them to force the secret out of them.

The two did not accept any friend requests, and the people that had them as friends suddenly found themselves blacklisted.

Of course, with their levels growing by the day, it seemed less and less likely that any of the Guilds nor the player base would be able to 'force' anything out of them.

Of course, Marius and Super Nova were aware of this. The forums were in a constant state of activity, with discussions about how they had made such monstrous strides in the game.

In reality, Marius and Super Nova were laughing their way to the bank. Literally.

Each time they logged out they would return to the City to sell their unwanted equipment and restock their supplies. They had even purchased enough Storage Stones to max out their capacity at 10,000 slots.

Super Nova would also sell his Materials to the Guilds. However, the Guilds simply could not afford to pay using their in-game liquid funds. Due to the overpopulation for the level 10-15 map, their ability to earn coins was minuscule. A such, the Guilds settled using Real World money, earning Super Nova a tidy income each day.

Of course, this would not be possible if the Shattered Lands wasn't as popular as it had become.

The graphic designs had earned itself commendations from some of the biggest critics the world over. Major corporations had started investing and as Rajan guessed, even some Governments were getting involved.

Not to mention the gameplay which the public was quickly learning was very different from what they had expected in previous games.

It's popularity and player base was growing so quickly that the game had to add several patches, all to make maps larger and increase the number of monsters each map held.