23. Goblin Slaughter (Part 2)

23. Goblin Slaughter (Part 2)

Following Tyrell’s comment, the group burst out laughing, unable to hide their amusement.

Russel, now slightly embarrassed, scratched his head as he tried to defend himself.

“Hey, he just looked like he was having a good time. I don’t want to regress into an ape!”

Astaria having finally got her laughter under control explained what likely happened to Russel.

“He probably was not on drugs, you see, since the game immersion is effectively 100%, especially with the maximum pain settings, the thrill of gaining strength so quickly can give you a natural high. Judging by the looks of that guy, he highly values his personal strength and most likely invested all his new skill points into the STR stat, thus producing a ton of dopamine which led to a similar effect to cocaine. Although I can’t explain the pinecone, that one was a bit random.”

With a nod, everyone quickly understood this new revelation, prompting Roxanne to ask a question.

“So, what you are saying is that levelling up quickly can act like a form of drug?”

With a nod, Astaria expanded on her explanation.

“Some people experience this at the beginning, yes. However, as the body gradually gets used to the sensation of stats increasing, along with the fact that the higher a player's stat rises, the less impact the increment will have overall.”

Shaking his head, Tyrell spoke while his expression held a hint of bafflement.

“God damn, this game is seriously nuts. I wonder what other crazy shit will happen.”

With a sigh, Astaria waved her hand dismissing the matter.

“Nothing, for now, I will talk more about it later. Anyway, let’s get back to grinding. If you guys are confident you might be able to grind against higher level goblins, but don’t overestimate yourself as it will just slow down your XP gain per hour or result in time wasted walking back from a respawn point.”

Stretching her arms as Ash walked up to her, she directed her attention to the magic swordsman.

“Ready to go?”

With a thumbs up, Ash answered her, his attitude showing a rare hint of determination.

“I’m good to go. I have gotten used to the goblin's movements and have become a little more proficient with the sword so can cover you from the front if a goblin gets close.”

Hearing Ash’s comments Astaria let out a short laugh as she led him to the depths of Woodspike Forest.

“I appreciate the offer, but at the moment I don’t cast many spells. It would be too costly on my mana given the clearance speed. Just follow and cover me like we usually do.”

Patting her sword hilt to hint to Ash how she would be fighting, they made their way into the depths of the forest where lv 10 goblins could be found as she explained a few tips and offered some warnings to him.

Apart from the goblin boss, the highest-level goblins in the forest were at Lv 10, meaning that they were the most efficient targets to use to level up.

Unfortunately, due to the level difference Astaria had with Ben, it would have only been worth coming here after he had reached Lv 6, and given the travel time between where the different levels of goblins resided, it was more efficient to stay where they were grinding. Thankfully that was no longer an issue, meaning that Ash could receive the full benefit from killing the high-level goblins.

They made their way through the trees, the atmosphere of the forest growing darker as the canopy above them became thicker. The level 10 goblins came in groups of at least 10 making them hard for new players to handle. Their strength and speed were much higher than their lower levelled counterparts, meaning that if you went in unprepared, the goblins would easily kill you.

Thankfully, however, their increased strength was all they had, as their intelligence and the volume of their high-pitched screams remained the same.

Shaking her head, she walked over and sat on a large tree root nearby.

“What is your XP at now?

Not bothering to find somewhere to sit, Ash just flopped to the ground, lying on his back.

“Lv 16, 77.6%. You?”

With a nod of satisfaction, Astaria replied as she leaned against the tree.

“Lv 16, 79.2%. Congratulations on being the 2 highest ranked player in levels.”

With a light laugh, Ash gave a thumbs up.

“Thanks, although the 0.2% XP per goblin is killing me.”

With a sigh, Astaria inwardly agreed with Ash.

“Just wait till after lv 20 and class awakening at 75. The XP gain slows down quite harshly. At least you now have a lot of skill points, you should have gained over 200 right?”

Sounding quite happy, Ash exclaimed aloud, his voice regaining some energy.

“Yeah, it feels like so much!”

Feeling a bit bad, Astaria poured cold water over Ash’s expectations.

“Well, to max out a regular skill and all its addons takes 200 skill points, so if you want to max out all of your class's pre-awakened skills you will need over 2500 skill points. After class awakening, depending on what you choose, you may require more than an additional 5000. And of course, the XP requirement increases after every 50 you gain.”

Hearing Astaria’s words, Ash raised his head to look at her, his face showing utter dismay. She let out a laugh at his expression, deciding to give him some words of comfort.

“Don’t worry about the details too much. I know all the perfect places to grind, so you should be able to easily max out all of your skills in no time.”

Standing up now she was feeling a little less tired, Astaria walked over to Ash and stretched out her hand. Grasping Ash’s hand, she helps him up.

Dusting off his armour, he looks at Astaria.

“Thanks. Let’s go.”

With their short break over, they sluggishly moved to regroup with everyone else at the edge of the central area of the forest. By the time they all arrived, the sun was starting to set in the distance. Sitting down, everyone was now quite tired so took some time to recover and eat some food.

As everyone was quite tired the conversation was quite sparse, as they took the chance to update their status pages.

Astaria who has gained herself 6 more levels was quite pleased. Remembering back, the highest-level player by the official launch was Lv8. He was a sword instructor of HEMA, Historic European Martial Arts, and had been quite lucky entering the world near an area where Goblins spawn. He apparently managed to find some competent team members and had spent a long-time grinding.

Turning her thoughts back to her status page, she started to read through and update it.

Announcement

Poll time! So, the main characters all use their real names when talking to each other, but I don't want to confuse you guys with multiple names. So was thinking about using their real names when talking to other people instead of their game names. Let me know in the poll below: