Chapter 22：Raising the Bar

2:00:00

Marius and Super Nova went their separate ways when they logged back on. Super Nova went to find his Assassin Tutor while Marius went to find Katarin.

It was time to obtain their Level 20 Skills.

Every 10 levels the Players could obtain new and more powerful skills. Though it seemed redundant when you considered how future gameplay would revolve around Pet combat, Marius still felt that continuing to build up their Skills made sense.

There was a huge pool of Monsters in the game.

Iron Mountain mostly focused on physical types that were generally well balanced with Attack, Defense, and Dexterity. Of course, there were outliers like the Stone Goat and Stone Gollums, but generally, most monsters were like the Howling Wolf.

And there were a lot of monsters that Marius had thought to Tame that had exceeded his Pets capabilities.

In the other City Maps, however, you had different monsters with different power ratios.

Frost Gate, the home of the Ice Giants, had many ice based monsters. They generally had both high Intelligence and Defense making them very powerful and tanky magical Pets.

Fire Mountain was home of the Dragon's with Monsters that featured extremely high Intelligence and Dexterity. Though the rest of their stats were generally balanced, there were cases of extremely frail Monsters that had an added Attack which didn't lose out to their Intelligence stat.

The Darkwoods and Great Falls also had their own special Monsters, but the rule of thumb was the same.

Different monsters would have different specialized stats.

This would open the door to many different types of battle styles. Sure, a Player could hide behind an overpowered Pet and run rampant as Super Nova and Marius had done for the past few weeks. But Marius did not think this method would survive long.

The use of Mounts would also radically change how Players would view the Map, making the great distance between the Cities nothing but a quick trip.

In the future, when Marius felts that the Cities would start warring with each other, the various kinds of Monsters, both as Pets and Mounts would also play their part. As such, tactics would change, creating more scenarios, combat styles and opportunities than Marius could possibly guess at.

It was for this reason that Marius did not dismiss the other factors of the game, including combat skills. They were there for a reason and Marius had a hunch that the game developers didn't want Players to simply play King with a powerful host of Pets under their command.

Otherwise, the Beast Master occupation would simply be too powerful and the other occupations, redundant.

After a few minutes, Marius found his Night Stalker Tutor.

"I see you haven't bought shame upon our Class." Her cold blue eyes gazed through him.

Marius smiled. He had spent most of his playing time grinding up his Skill Proficiency for this. With his Silent Night granting him an additional 4 Proficiency Points, he had easily leveled all of Skills to Level 5 and promoted them to Tier 1 Skills.

Tier 1 was essentially a reset of the Skills level, returning it to Level 1. However, the Skills would evolve, making it stronger in some ways.

Moonlight Slash Tier 1 Level 2 (26% Proficiency) (Deals 150% of base damage, dealing an extra 5% of damage when used in a combo. Cooldown none)

Restraining Shadow Tier 1 Level 2 (2% Proficiency) (Binds multiple targets for 10 seconds Range 10x10 units. Cost 20 Mana. Cooldown 15 seconds.)

Moon Dance Tier 1 Level 1 (92% Proficiency) (Increases Dexterity for 40 seconds leaving behind shadow stream. Increase Attack by 10%. Costs 20 Mana. Cooldown 90 seconds)

Burning Haze Tier 1 Level 1 (4% Proficiency) (Binds a target in a haze that deals Fire Damage. Reduces targets Defense by 25% for 10 seconds. Reduced Targets Spirit by 10% for 10 seconds Costs 20 Mana. Cooldown 10 seconds)

Aura Blade Tier 1 Level 1 (4% Proficiency) (Creates an aura around your weapon, increasing the range of attack by 50%. Deals additional 10% of base damage. Cost 90 Mana. Cooldown 20 seconds)

Basic Slash had evolved into Moonlight Slash and Binding Shadow had evolved to Restraining Shadow. His other skills, however, did not change their name's after evolving.

Marius assumed it was because they were the basic skills and evolving them had simply unleashed their true potential. He didn't ponder it too deeply.

"Master Katarin, do you have any new skills to teach me?" Marius asked.

"I do she said simply."

A menu appeared, showing Marius' three new skills.

Full Moon Blessing Level 1 (0/5000 proficiency) (Allows the user to Heal Party members using the power of the moon. Cost 200 mana. Cooldown 60 seconds.)

Cresent Moon Sword Level 1 (0/8000 proficiency) (User swings their sword, creating a silver aura that deals range damage. Deals 100% base damage. May incur fatal hit 5%. Costs 120 mana. Cooldown 90 seconds.)

Eclipse Level 1 (0/10,000 proficiency) (Allows the user to become invisible. Broken by contact or entering Combat. Allows the first attack to become an ambush, dealing 300% additional damage. Cooldown 120 seconds"

Looking at his new skills, Marius was shocked. These were incredibly powerful moves. Though they did not increase his strength as radically as his Pet did, they would help make any Player competitive.

"You have done well my young apprentice. In honor of your efforts, I grant you this small favor," Katarin said. Her voice even had a bit of warmth in it.

(Player Midnight Solitude has earned the Title 'Night Stalker')

(Title 'Night Stalker' Increases Dexterity by 20%. Increases damage against Demons by 30%)

Damage against Demons? Marius hadn' seen anything about this or Demons in the game's lore.

Curious, Marius asked. "Master Katarin, what is this? I have heard of Demon Classed Monsters, but not Demons."

Katarin nodded. "Demons and the Demon Class monsters are two very different enemies. Demons are creatures of the Land Beyond and are outside our understanding. Centuries ago, the Five Clans came together and forged an alliance. They banished the Demons from these lands and they settled them for their own. thus the Shattered lands were born. Now the five Cities act as a deterrent, keeping the Demons beyond our borders at bay. "

Marius mostly understood now. The Demons were something like Storyline Rivals. Either there would be a war system between the Cities or against the Demons.

This made it all the more interesting. Especially if Players could overthrow the five Demon King Raked City Lords.

Rajan really had designed the game well.

As for the title? Marius was pretty sure that it was because he had leveled up his Skills too much. He had accidentally unlocked an endgame boost.

'Marius, do you think I should restart my account?" Super Nova's message came through while Marius was thinking.

"You got the title?" Marius asked. They had both taken pains to get their skills to Tier 1. It made sense that if Marius unlocked something, so would Super Nova.

"Yeah. Those Demons will be endgame right?"

"Maybe, or they could be added to the Storyline later. But that will be a long way in the future. The current player base is nowhere near ready for something like that."

"I'd have plenty of time to prepare then." Super Nova said.

"Thinking of resetting your account?" Marius asked.

"It's a tempting idea," Super Nova admitted.

Marius agreed. You could only take on a new occupation by resetting your account. However, all the progress made would also be lost and he would have to start from Level 0 again.

"Do you think you will be playing for a long time?" Marius asked.

"I don't know," Super Nova admitted, "I think that the game is shaping up to be very interesting so I might want to play it in my spare time. And it's unfair if I only use you to get my Pets and Mounts."

Marius felt a pain in his chest. He hadn't said it, but Marius knew what Super Nova was dancing around.

He had told the young man when they started. He was old and on his last leg. The young man was probably worried that any day now Midnight Solitude simply wouldn't log in.

In fact, Super Nova was thinking this. It was even the core argument he had about whether he would play at all.

Marius had become a good friend and trusted mentor to the young man already. It had only been around a month since they had met but he had felt a kinship with the old man.

Marius had saved him. Guided him. Nurtured him and even supported him as he grew to become a top player in the game.

Playing without the man would radically change the game for Super Nova. And not for the better.

"In that case, you should probably reset," Marius replied.

His reply made Super Nova feel quite sad. "Will you be ok playing solo for a while?" he asked.

Marius laughed. "I'll be fine. But it is you I'm worried about. It took you a while to earn your weapon and those stones. You might pull your hair out in with boredom."

"Haha. I'll be fine," Super Nova replied. "Besides, its the Beast Tamer quest I'd be worried about."

Marius smiled. "Let me know when you do it. I can cast my skills to give you an easier time of it. You can finally Kill Steal from me."

A thought occurred to Marius. Since he'd be playing alone while Super Nova rebuilt his account, wouldn't it make sense to build a team?

"Super Nova," Marius bought the idea to him. "What if you took a few people with you when you reset your account? You can guide them and then when you guys graduate to the City I can speed train you all up to a high level."

Super Nova was quiet for a while. In reality, he had enough money from his two weeks of selling Materials to pay his way through a year of University so restarting his account wouldn't affect him too much.

Plus, being able to get his hands on the Beast Tamer occupation would speed up both of their progress through the game.

Marius wouldn't need to waste his time Refining Pets and Mounts for the both of them and they wouldn't have to waste time gathering materials as they went.

But Super Nova was not happy about getting more people involved. He could see the benefits, but he just didn't want their secret to become public knowledge yet. If he could guarantee that whoever they bought in wouldn't betray their secrets, then maybe he could accept it.

But he also knew that the Guilds would target and persuade such people in a heartbeat.

"I like the idea, but it's really risky," Super Nova spoke carefully. "If the Guilds get their hands on your game secret now then we'll lose all of our advantages. You can't play long enough each day to remain competitive if it gets out now."

Marius understood and agreed with his assessment. Marius was the weak link in their Party.

Then he had another idea.

In the game, there was a large number of solo players, many of whom the guilds didn't care about. Either their skills were too subpar or they had come in too late. However, there was one player who's abilities where far from mediocre who had not joined a guild.

Marius grinned. "Cold Mist," he said

'Number 3?" Super Nova was surprised by the suggestion.

"Correct," Marius replied. "Cold Mist is the top Player of the game if you discount us. He hasn't joined a guild and we know he wants to be the best."

Currently, Marius and Super Nova were easily the top two players, with a 7 level lead over the next player at Level 13.

Meanwhile, the fourth and fifth-placed players had only recently reached level 12.

By the standard of other Players, Cold Mist was a top expert, with all the guilds trying to rope him in. After all, the difference between Level 12 and Level 13 was essential the entire process to reach Level 12. The amount of experience required was disgusting.

The only reason Marius and Super Nova had jumped through these levels because they had a High Lord Ranked Pet. Something that other players wouldn't be able to access until Level 30.

For a speed comparison, if a guild were to take on the Level 10-15 map and spend their effort to clear every monster, it would take them close to four to five hours. That is assuming a team of 100 and ignoring the Feild Boss. To take on the Feild Boss, it would easily add another hour.

If either Marius or Super Nova were to try, they could clear it within an hour individually and that including the Feild Boss. It would be even faster if they used Marius' Pet.

Each Map after that would be a bit more difficult, but it would be the same outcome. So in reality, in the time it would take for a hundred man team to clear one map, Marius and Super Nova could clear five at a higher level.

Considering experience distribution, it was no wonder that the duo had left the other players far behind. And even more exceptional that Cold Mist had risen so high.

After thinking it over, Super Nova had to admit that it was a good idea.

"Ok, let's contact Cold Mist and see if he wants to take part."