The thing with having a strong weapon on you (and Durandal can certainly be classified as one such weapon or even going beyond, seeing how absurdly OP it is) is that if you can defeat everyone who dares to challenge you with one of two strikes, you will have absolutely no use of Critical Strikes, as they only serve to increase the damage done by weaker (normal) weapons beyond their usual capacity. In most games, the damage done from critical attacks varies between 100 250% of the damage dealt by the weapon you currently have equipped, so Im sure that Durandal would have achieved truly absurd numbers, but that would only be a cosmetic touch. Against the current, low level enemies, the base damage done by it is perfectly enough for me to breeze through any challenge I might come across.
With my latest Character Reset, Ive made sure to distribute my Bonus Points in such a way that I have none of them left. After getting rid of the Critical Strike Chance Increase Ive put 2 Bonus Points in Skill Cast Time Reduction and 1 Bonus Point in Skill Cast Speed Increase. I wonder if just with those 3 Bonus Points alone Ill be able to achieve the highest possible reduction time and casting speed increase? It certainly would be nice, but lets not get our hopes up just yet.
For starters, I have to see with my own eyes how the current Cast Time Reduction and Cast Speed Increase will influence the usage of my Skills.
As a trial I decided to use the Item Box Skill, and when I called its name out loud, it appeared in my hands almost immediately. Great. Now we see that those Skills do actually contribute to my performance in a practical manner. Im glad I decided to perform that Reset just now.
When I ventured forward, I battled even more Needlewoods. I know that one Explorer at the entrance mentioned that they are on the Labyrinths first floor, but did he mean that the first floor consists only of Needle Woods? Because so far, I havent seen any other monster besides them. Well, its not like I have any problems with that fact, especially since my Durandal ensures that I one-shot them every time, granting me an easy win and a relatively safe passage through the corridors of this floor, but Im just saying that some variety would be nice every once in a while, otherwise the process of farming monsters and their drop items will get extremely repetitive and dull.
After plowing through hordes of enemies for a while, I decided to try wearing the Bandits Bandana to see exactly how its effect is going to work. But in order to do that, I have to set the Thief as my first Job. But I cannot do that. No matter how many times I tapped the Thief Job in an attempt to set it as the primary Job, the game just wouldnt let me do that.
Why? What is going on here?! Why cant I do this now, when earlier both Villager Lv3 and Thief Lv3 could be set as the first Job without any issues?!
No, wait a damn minute, a thought just occurred to me.
Now that I was finally able to do that, I can test the Bandit Bandana at last. If I remember correctly, it is supposed to increase its wearers physical capabilities. When I placed it on my head I did had a feeling as if my body became somewhat lighter, but tat might as well be my imagination. I dont understand it very well so thats the best way I can describe the feeling that has enveloped me.
It looks like this world is unlike the video games I have played thus far. Normally youd be able to see the effects of the positive changed to your status immediately, but that does not seem to be the case here, even after increasing your level. All I have in regards to whether or not the Bandits Bandanas effect has worked or not is my gut feeling alone. I would have gladly tested it out on one of the Needle Woods roaming the Labyrinths halls, but since Im killing them to death like One Punch Man (but like, with a sword, so One Slash Man?) it wouldnt prove anything, and I dont want to fight with anything else than Durandal right now. Even though I wouldnt have to use the Copper Sword since I have a Scimitar with me, I feel like it would be only slightly better than its copper counterpart, directly impacting the time it would take me to defeat monsters in here, and since I am strapped for time, I cannot allow myself to experiment.
Finishing my little Job switching test, I took off the Bandana and reverted my character settings to the previous ones. It would be very bad if someone happened to see me wearing it, even by accident. The last thing I need right now is the spreading of the news that I have a Job that allows me to wear clothing that is exclusive to criminals.
I dont know exactly how much time I have spent hunting in here so far, but I feel like it must have been around an hour or so. Technically that much should have been enough for my first bout into such an unknown ground, but a part of me was telling me that I can still keep going. But this is my first time in the Labyrinth, so maybe calling it quits for today is actually a smart thing to do? On the other hand though, I dont feel tired at all yet, and my mental fatigue was also holding up nicely because of that self-restraint on Skill usage I placed upon myself.
Yeah, lets keep going just a little bit more.
No matter how far or deep I will delve into the depths of this dungeon, I can always use Dungeon Walker to get myself right back to the entrance point by going through the shortest route possible. As long as Ill have MP to cast that, theres no way for me to get truly lost in here.
Throughout the next hour, I fought around twenty more Needlewoods, which always came at me one at a time. Of course, I have spent most of that hour by going around the narrow corridors and the small caves they were leading into. Unlike in the video games, the real life didnt possess a random enemy encounters system that would allow me to fight a battle after battle in a span of seconds, which was quite regretful, because Ill admit that it would be nice if I could maximize the amount of battles and drop from enemies as much as possible without having to waist too much time on actually finding them.
Although all I needed to slay Needlewoods was one blow from Durandal, the procedure of defeating them, gathering the drop items and placing them back in my backpack still too a considerable amount of time. That is a chore to be sure, but at least my life is not threatened. The Villagers level did not increase further, but both Explorer and Hero both got up to Lv2.
And thats what I call fucking progress!