Kiro VS Mad Carp
Grandis' POV.
It's the last day of the beta test.
Looking at the defeated boss monster at my feet, I don't bother concealing my smile of satisfaction.
This boss monster is the boss of the highest level dungeon near the beginner city Astelam. I personally discovered this dungeon a few weeks ago. The monsters were around level 40 and the boss I, and the users under my command, just defeated was level 55.
I'm quite satisfied.
I know that right now, at the end of this beta test, I am the highest level player with level 51.
And there are no other players that have succeeded in doing what I have accomplished, to clear such a high level dungeon.
I took me, and the four parties of 6 players I was leading, two weeks of awe inspiring battle to clear it.
Even slaying this boss took the whole day, and half the people under my command died.
But it doesn't matter, since we succeeded.
Normally I wouldn't stand around like this, as a boss monster usually drops incredible loot.
But right now my aim is not items, as the beta test is nearing its end, any item I pick up would be useless. Right now, my aim is to gather fans.
It's obvious if you think about it a little. When we were approached about this beta test, no one at Future V told us if we could keep our levels, our items, or even our characters. They actually didn't give us any information at all, they just told us that they wanted us to do whatever we wanted in this world.
But they did tell us that our gameplay will be recorded.
Of course, they need it to see if there are any problems, but after that, what do you think will happen to them.
In a few months, they will be ready to put New World on the market.
And to make sure it sells, they will need to advertise. And what will they use? The videos from the beta test of course!
Which means, the more awesome acts you do in the game, the more chances there are that they will use you in their promotional videos.
Since the first moment I spent in this world, I understood how amazing it was.
I have played many games before, and have reached the top in them. That's why I was chosen as a
beta tester, after all.
But this game clearly blows all of them away.
I am determined to reach the top in this one as well.
And to do that, I need the support of the strongest guild.
With a guild filled with strong players, I can clear strong dungeons and complete difficult quests that will provide me with the best items and experience.
I don't know if I'll be able to keep my character after this beta test. And frankly, I don't care.
In ten weeks, there is no time to do any worthwhile quests, or gain any useful skills that I can't easily acquire after the real game start.
That's why, on the very first day, I ran around looking for someone to give me a warrior class. The first guard I talked too sent me to a small rickety building with a sword over the door.
But inside there was just a bunch of scarecrows, and an old man polishing a sword. When I asked what the building was for, he said it was for some kind of training.
I asked if there was a special class I could gain from doing this, but he said no. Apparently, it was a training to teach me how to swing a sword or something.
What a waste of time! This is a game. As long as you increase you dexterity stat, you will be able to hit your target.
So I asked him to direct me to an Npc that was actually useful to me.
I finally was able to meet with a soldier Npc that gave me the swordsman class after I passed his challenge of marking his practice scarecrow with the sword he gave me.
That's how I was the first person to obtain a class. I immediately went to the field outside to get some experience killing monsters.
This is a hard game, even the rabbits are fast and hard to hit, even if they deal low damage.
I was alone on the field, no one else got a class as fast as I. Most of them were still just running around in the beginner city.
Except for one idiot, who rushed out of the city running towards the forest.
A few minutes later, he did it again, and again several more times after that.
I was confused until I realised that he must be continually dying in the forest and respawning.
What a noob, I thought.
In the next two days, more and more players made their way to the field. But as I was first, I had the highest level, and many sought to form a party with me. I took the ones that seemed the most useful, and lead them into battle after battle in order to level up.
After a few days, we left the outskirts of the city seeking stronger monsters. We went farther and farther away, hunted stronger monsters and the gap between our party and the other players grew wider.
And of course, I, as the leader of the party, had the highest level of all.
When we sometimes came back to town to resupply, we were meet with the envious eyes of weaker players.
I think I even saw a particular player that was so bad he was still fighting rabbits and foxes five weeks after the start of the beta test. I couldn't hold back my laughter.
Eventually, three weeks before the end of the beta test, we discovered the high level dungeon. We spent a week there on the first floor, leveling up by profiting from the double xp gain, then my party accompanied by three other parties I gathered, ventured deeper into the dungeon in an epic raid to clear it.
I'm pretty confident that Future V. will air it. I'm sure there were many other players that had the same idea I had, but no other player has managed to accomplish anything as remotely awesome.
As the leader, and the highest level, they will be focusing on me the most.
And people that that are looking forward to playing the game. And that see the commercials in which I will be aired, will recognize me as a great player.
So when I will start my guild in New World, many will want to join and I'll be able to pick and choose the most talented and the most useful out of the bunch to create the strongest guild.
I can't wait for the real game to start!
*****************************************
Alin's POV
It's the last day of the beta test.
If you were to ask me if I enjoyed it I would have to reply that I am disappointed. Not with the game, as it is easily the coolest game I ever played, but with myself.
When I first came here, on the first day, I was overwhelmed by the realism. Without bothering to think, I ran around the city for the entire day, talked to many Npcs and even did some basic quests for them.
The people at Future V. had told us beta testers that we should just do whatever we wanted to do in the game, but as I didn't know what I wanted to do yet, I was content with just roaming around for now.
I could see plenty of other players do the same.
But then, a player rushed towards us from the front gates, telling us that someone had already gotten a class, and was fighting rabbits in the field outside the city.
As if we were caught in a frenzy, we all dropped whatever we were doing and started running around, looking for a class.
We forgot about everything else, so afraid we were of being left behind.
Even I got a wizard class, and started hurling spells at rabbits alongside my fellow players.
We fought for days, and leveled up a lot.
But no matter how many we killed, we could not catch up to that first player.
It was normal, of course. We were just following behind, doing the same things he did.
As days turned into weeks, my discontent grew.
We were supposed to be adventurers in a new land, with thousands of things to do and millions of places to explore. Yet, instead of doing any of that, we were just tailing after those few players that detached themselves from the rest.
Not adventures, but more like sheep following behind them.
I, of course, was no different from the rest. I joined a party and focused on fighting monsters, just like the rest.
Sometimes, as we returned to town to get more food, repair our weapons and buy potions, we came across a lone player fighting rabbits and foxes. A lot of the others just laughed and looked away, but I stared at him, mesmerized.
Unlike us who were just copying what the others were doing, he at least was doing something different, moving at his own pace.
I envied him.
At first, me and the other players thought he was struggling to fight the rabbits and foxes because he didn't seem to be able to kill even one, therefore the other players stopped paying attention to him, but I kept looking and the more I looked the more I saw things differently.
Some attacks he dodged, some he blocked and some he just let them hit. He would only do counter attacks sometimes.
Others may have thought he was fighting, but to me it was more like he was playing around, or rather dancing. It looked like fun.
Two or three weeks before the end of the beta test, he stopped coming to the field and I thought that he had accomplished what he wanted to do here, or maybe he had just gotten bored. What did it matter? Contrary to us he seems to do as he pleased, with no fear of criticism or judgment.
Unlike me.
It's now the last day of the beta test, and I feel like I just wasted what could have been the 10 best weeks of my life.
What have I accomplished during my time here? What did I gain? Nothing.
I've made a decision these last few days. After the beta test is over, when New World officially starts. If I can I will delete this character.
I'll create a new one, with the weirdest race available, and customize his appearance to make him completely different from me.
With this character, I'll do everything I should have been doing here. I'll go on adventures, go travelling or maybe just get some kind of really fun job you can't get in real life.
An Npc I talked to on the first day told me a tale about these people who go around the world in gigantic magical soap bubbles carrying missives and merchandises, or other stuff from town to town.
I think I'd like to try that.
Honestly, I can't wait for this beta test to finish, so I can restart once more in New World.
*****************************************
Kiro's POV
It's the last day of the beta test.
It's sad, I didn't want it to end so soon.
In the real world there is only a black, empty void waiting for me, so when this ends I'll be stuck in the Antechamber for months before I can finally come back to this place.
New World is a really fitting name for this place. To me at least, who has no place left in the real world, it has become my home. Being separated from it is going to suck.
It's a wonderful world where everything and anything is possible, where I can do whatever I want, what's not to miss?
That doesn't mean there is nothing I miss from the real world of course. My family for one, is something I miss dearly. My mother and my brother and my sister are still there. And I miss my dad to, even though he died when I was little.
But it's not like I can just bring them to this world, they have a live there, and healthy bodies that aren't lying paralyzed on hospital beds, waiting for a death that they won't feel.
… I should stop this, there is no benefit in thinking about that stuff.
It's not like there isn't anything I could bring to New World from my old world, after all.
In the real world, I frequented a dojo that taught a multitude of martial arts.
Aside from my family, it was the thing I treasured the most.
There I wasn't taught a sport, or sports, but a way of life.
Even though there aren't that many opportunities to use what I have learned there in the real world, I thought that the teachings I received there were the most valuable thing I possessed.
And now, in New World, I can put these teachings in practice every day.
As soon as I made the decision to fight the Mad Carp, I knew that I would use the martial arts I was taught at that dojo to do so.
To me, there is no other way to show how grateful I am to those who have taught me for all these years then to use the martial arts they taught me to survive in this one.
In the dojo I have learned hand to hand combat, throws, kicks, daggers and the swords.
These will be my weapons in this world.
And today, finally, I'll put myself to the test.
I'm burning with impatience. I have been training myself for weeks for this fight. I spent all my time in the woods training, and even slept there at night, as I had no money to rent a room at an inn.
Master Roderick would probably have given me a place to stay, but I didn't want to depend on his generosity, especially since he has already helped me so much.
But I cannot complain, since I acquired some cool proficiencies because I was living outdoors. I got one called Survivor, which gives me a good bonus to heat, cold and poison resistance, and a
smaller bonus to fire, water, air, lightning and earth resistance.
I also learned three sub-proficiencies which are: Survival Cooking, which allows me to cook ingredients taken from the wild, Survival Gathering, which helps me locate edible ingredients as well as poisonous ones and Survival Leatherworking that lets we create things with the hide of animals.
They are all very handy, but their description say that the amount of things I can do with them is limited compared to the real skills.
In any case, I'm quite happy I got them as without them I'd probably be naked and starving about now.
I also got another amazing proficiency, about three weeks ago, after having killed about 10 000 fish in the pool. It's called Berserker's Soul: it's a proficiency that grants me a certain amount of health, stamina and mana after I kill an enemy. It's going to be very useful once I start fighting big groups of monsters.
I am now level 8, as at some point I ran out of bread and had to start killing animals to get meat.
I call the status window:
"Status."
Status Window
Name: Kiro Level: 8 – 23.42% Unused stat points: 35
Class: None Alignment: Neutral
Title(s): Suicidal Joe Health: 1255
Stamina: 610 (+240) Mana: 560 (+100)
Strength 112 Vitality 108
Agility 109 Dexterity 114
Intelligence 51 (+ 10) Wisdom 49 (+ 10)
Charisma 0 Luck 5
Leadership 0 Fame 450
Balance 73 Flexibility 50
Endurance 68 Concentration 21
Skills
Identification: Beginner lvl 3 – 21.02%
Intense Pace: Beginner lvl 9 - 89.55%
Consecutive Single Point Strike: Beginner lvl 9 – 95.42%
Critical Strike: Beginner lvl 7 - 77.41%
Proficiencies
Berserker's Soul: Beginner lvl 4 – 5.70%
Blade Mastery: Beginner lvl 9 – 31.23%
Blocking: Beginner lvl 7 – 3.02%
Climbing: Beginner lvl 7 – 11.01%
Dagger Mastery: Beginner lvl 9 – 98.22%
Dodging: Beginner lvl 7 – 88.23%
Dual Wield Mastery: Beginner lvl 8 – 90.99%
Falling: Beginner lvl 6 – 98.90%
Footwork: Beginner lvl 6 – 80.00%
Holding your Breath: Intermediate lvl 1 – 1.01%
Master of Death: Intermediate lvl 3 – 11.56%
Moving in a Difficult Environment: Beginner lvl 7 – 40.44%
Obstacle Clearing: Beginner lvl 9 – 10.70%
Parkour: Beginner lvl 7 – 33.71%
Parrying: Beginner lvl 6 – 76.11% (*Note: Changed it from Deflect)
Reading: Beginner lvl 4 – 76.61%
Running: Beginner lvl 9 – 55.54%
Survival Cooking: Beginner lvl 3 – 6.10%
Survival Harvesting: Beginner lvl 3 – 42.09%
Survival Leatherworking: Beginner lvl 4 – 11.99%
Survivor: Beginner lvl 4 – 8.10%
Sword Mastery: Beginner lvl 9 – 99.92%
The Art of Taking a Blow: Beginner lvl 7 – 30.06%
Tough Body: Beginner lvl 7 – 1.01%
Unarmed Combat: Beginner lvl 8 – 97.96%
(*Note: each level gives him 25hp, 10 stamina and 10 mana)
Looking at my stats, I feel very satisfied. It's amazing how much I've grown in just ten weeks of training.
I have 35 unused stat points from leveling up, but I don't want to distribute them just yet.
I'll save them until I really need them, to satisfy the requirements for an item or something like that.
Ok, enough stalling, time to fight the Mad Carp!
I run at full speed towards the lake where I first encountered it.
It's not far, so it doesn't take me long.
Once on the shore, I took out a piece of rabbit meat I pre-cooked, and it eat to restore my satiety and stamina to the max.
The water of the lake looks calm, but I am really tense.
From the many times I jumped into it, I have an idea of its layout. The center is really deep, I couldn't see the bottom when I jumped into the lake. There is no way I can fight there, as I'll sink and the water pressure will kill me.
But around this center part there is a ring of shallower water about 2 or three meters deep, and about ten meters wide.
This is where I'll fight.
My Holding my Breath proficiency is now intermediate. That means I can spend up to seven minutes underwater if I don't make too many movements.
But I'll be fighting, so I'll probably only have enough air for two or three minutes at best. It will have to do.
I put on my belt of rock pouches and equip my iron sword.
Then, I jump into the lake.
I hit the water with a splash, and immediately sink to the bottom. I'm already in a fighting stance.
I know this enemy. Every time I jumped into the lake trying to identify him, I was killed in a single
blow before I had any time to react.
This time again, he appears from the gloomy depths of the lake, charging towards me like a bullet.
But for many weeks, I have trained myself to react to the enemy's attacks. The speed of this Mad Carp is no longer one I cannot cope with.
A second before it would collide with me, I sidestep to the right and swing the sword in my left hand.
Unfortunately, the carp has astonishing agility, because it manages to change its course at the last second, thus I only managed to deliver a glancing blow.
The dent in its health is all but invisible.
The carp swims away, out of my sight.
Slowly, I restore my stance. Every movement is precious, I cannot waste even a single one.
Especially in such an environment, as the bottom of the lake offers even less purchase then the bottom of the pool. It makes it harder to move.
The water is also much clouded. More than I expected. I cannot see the Mad Carp at all.
I try to keep my field of vision as wide as possible. I know it's there, ready to charge towards me at great speed from a blind spot.
Just as I expected, it emerges from somewhere on my right, even faster than before.
I use my left foot as a pivot to shift myself, and once more attempt to dodge and counter attack.
But this time the carp was expecting it, and as soon as I moved, it altered its course to continue aiming straight at me.
At the last instant I was able to duck away with a roll made clumsy by my unwieldy belt, but even brushing past me the carp made me lose 100 health. What a monster.
Not only that, but as I wasn't expecting that, I exhaled by reflex, so my supply of air dwindled even more.
I get back on my feet. The carp has already returned to where I couldn't see it, the clear winner of our exchange.
I don't have a lot of options left.
I cannot go up for air, as the Mad Carp will make good use of that opening to kill me in one blow.
But I only have about a minute of air left, so if I am to do something, it is in the next exchange or not at all.
I raise my sword above my head, waiting for the carp to attack once again.
It doesn't disappoint. Emerging straight in front of me, it closes the distance between us in the blink of an eye, displaying its intention to finish me once and for all.
I force myself to wait, wait, wait for just the right moment… NOW!
I swing my sword down diagonally, from above my right shoulder towards my left. Just as I expected, the carp that was just about to collide with me swerves to the right.
But this time I am expecting it. Before I've finished my swing my right fist has already shot out, and my punch connects squarely against the fish's head.
I immediately lose 350 hp, and it feels like my right arm has exploded, but I accomplished my goal.
The carp was immobile, my punch having robbed it of all its momentum.
I shout "Intense Pace" as loud as I can in the privacy of my mind to activate my skill. Using the increase in speed I swing my right knee up and it connects solidly against the carp's stomach. At the same time, my sword, having finished its first strike, comes back and scores a deep hit on the side of the monster. I don't stop there, and unleash a flurry of blows at my opponent in an attempt to overwhelm him.
Unfortunately. The stun effect I was hoping for didn't materialise, but that is only to be expected. Stunning a target only happens if you deal enough damage to it in a single hit, or deal a critical strike.
With the bad footing which doesn't even allow me to press my foot down, the water that still slows me down despite training in it for weeks, and the difference in our strengths, it is no wonder I can't damage the Mad Carp enough to stun it.
And forget getting a critical strike: the only vulnerable part of its body is its eyes and mouth, and there is no way for me to reach them with my sword or fist as my first sword strike had tilted its body away.
Because of that, it isable to recover from my punch almost immediately.
Using its incredible strength, it twists itself around and swings its tail at my head.
By leaning back as much as I can I manage to dodge it, but the shockwave of the attack is enough to blow me back a bit.
The Mad Carp retreated to the darkness in the center of the lake.
I have failed.
I'm out of breath. And because of that my stamina is dropping fast.
I managed to take a decent chunk of its health with that last onslaught, but it wasn't enough.
It's the end, game over, checkmate.
I have no more oxygen but if I was to try to swim upwards to get more, I'd die.
And even if I stay down here and wait, if the carp doesn't attack me, I'll still pass out and die from oxygen deprivation.
Right now my lungs are screaming for air.
Should I just give up?
Had I used another method, like learning a lightning spell in the library, or learning to fish, or draining the lake, I could have won this battle easily.
But no, even now, I still don't regret the path I chose.
Is it really the end?
My enemy is stronger than me, faster than me, has more health than me, a higher level than me and has the advantage of the environment.
I have to force back my urge to breathe, as it would just fill my lungs with water.
My stamina is almost all gone.
Despite all these disadvantages, do I truly have no chances of winning? I refuse to believe that.
Why? Because this world is a game world. Unlike some shitty reality I could mention, there is no way that it would force someone into an impossible situation, a dead end, without giving him a way out if he's clever enough to find it.
My body is screaming for air, but I ignore it. Think, think, there should be one.
I smile.
There is a way. A way to completely reverse this situation.
It's a long shot, of course.
A complicated plan where lots of things can go wrong.
But at this point, I'm already out of options. I have only two choices: Success, or Death.
I put myself back in a fighting stance and pull out a wooden dagger.
For my plan to work, I need the Mad Carp.
I ignore the black spots forming in my vision, and force myself to concentrate on my surroundings.
Come on, come on… I think as hard as I can.
It's almost as if I can see a timer, counting down the time before I die asphyxiated.
It's a race. What will come first, my death or the charge of the Mad Carp?
It's the Mad Carp.
Rushing towards me at full speed, it clearly wishes to finish me off, just like last time.
I wait for it, not moving, my sword in front of me. I don't intend to dodge this time.
At the last instant, once I'm sure even it would be able to evade my strike, I let my sword drop and trust with it.
It pierces through the underside of its jaw, into its mouth.
But the impaled Carp is only slowed down a little, and is still about to collide with me.
On the moment of impact, I exhaled and pushed myself back with the balls of my feet in a desperate effort to minimize the damage as much as I could. The head of the carp collides with my stomach.
Ouch! The pain! It hurts so much!
But not as much as the inferno in my lungs deprived of oxygen.
The carp took 800 of my heath with that attack. I'm down to 105 hp. No matter, I survived!
Using the last of my dwindling stamina, I once again activate Intense Pace.
I start striking the head of the fish with my wooden dagger. It doesn't do any damage, but it serves as a useful distraction.
At the same time, I start shaking my sword back and forth.
It's trapped in the body of the Mad Carp. It can barely move. In this situation, every movement I make triggers my Consecutive Single Point Strike Skill.
Because it has almost reached intermediate level, the bonus damage is considerable, and it stakes up with every strike I make.
The Mad Carp, realizing that its health is starting to drop, tries to wiggle away, but cannot move back. It's trapped.
Finally, after a dozen hits, I manage to stun it.
It's my chance.
Swiftly I push on the carp's head with my wooden dagger, while pulling my sword back, freeing it. In the same movement I reverse my grip on the blade and trust it through my rope belt, severing it. With my foot I nudge the falling bags so that they fall underneath the carp. I drop the dagger, and place both of my feet on the bags of rock, crouching underneath the still-stunned monster. I'm now holding the sword in both hands, its tip pointing directly upwards towards the belly of the Mad Carp.
Before I have time to start floating upwards, and before the carp is freed from the stun effect, I take advantage of my now solid footing to push myself upwards as hard as I can.
The force of my push makes the bags sink into the ground.
I have my Obstacle Clearing proficiency at a fairly high level and my strength is no joke, even underwater.
So it's no surprise that my jump was enough for my sword to pierce through the Mad Carp's belly, and for us to both be propelled upwards towards the surface.
We emerged from the lake with a loud splash.
Still going up, I took a greedy breath.
But I had no time to do more, as I still had a carp stuck to my sword.
Luckily, we were fairly close to the shore.
I twisted my body in midair to face it, and swung my sword in a large overhead swing.
The centrifugal force made the Mad Carp slide off my sword and it sailed in an arc towards the sandy shore.
I fell back into the water, and quickly swam back to shore as well, still breathing in some much needed air.
I need to hurry. Our situations are now reversed. Now, it is in my best interest to prevent the carp from reaching the lake. As long as I can do that, I win.
Once I reach the edge of the lake I quickly stand up and walk cautiously towards the Mad Carp.
It couldn't breathe, so it was panicking.
Unfortunately for it, its aimless trashing only reduced its reserve of oxygen even faster.
Very quickly its movement subsided. It was dying.
Dying asphyxiated is a terrible way to go.
I walk up to it and with a quick series of strikes to its head, I end its suffering.
As soon as it dies I receive some health, stamina and mana as well as several new messages:
Ding!
You have leveled up!
You have leveled up!
You have leveled up!
You have leveled up!
You have leveled up!
Sword Mastery has reached intermediate level!
Dagger Mastery has reached intermediate level!
Duel Wield Mastery has reached intermediate level!
Blade Mastery has reached intermediate level!
Obstacle Clearing has reached intermediate level!
Intense Pace has reached intermediate level!
Consecutive Single Point Strike has reached intermediate level!
You have obtained a new special stat: Fighting Spirit.
Fighting Spirit
By confronting and winning against foes that are more powerful than yourself, you have become fearless in battle. Fighting spirit reduces the chance of being affected by the fear or confusing status when confronting stronger monsters. Higher fighting spirit makes you more likely to intimidate weaker opponents.
Current Fighting Spirit: 12
Seeing all these messages, I feel elated. They confirm my victory. I won!
I sit down and start laughing. I'm amazed that I managed to survive and triumph over the Mad Carp. It really was much stronger than I.
At the end, it wasn't my skills that made me win, but the way I used them. I will take this lesson to heart: the key to victory is an open and agile mind.
Opening my inventory, I take out another piece of cooked meat. I'm hungry again. After eating it, I get up and walk towards the lake. On the shore I see my dagger. Since it's made out of wood, it probably floated up and then the current pushed it to the edge of the lake.
I pick it up, and put it in my inventory.
Then, noticing something shiny at the place where the mad carp died, I walk over. It's some kind of knife.
I pick it up, and just as I was about to use my Identification skill, another message pops up:
System Message.
The Beta Test will end in 15 real-time minutes. All remaining players are asked to log out immediately.
I sight. The time where I have to say bye to this world has come. Even though I know I will be back, four to six months of nothing to do but read and watch videos is going to drive me crazy.
I put the weird knife in my inventory, and log out.
Again, I'm meet with the black void of nothingness. I hate it but I endure because I know it doesn't last for long.
Indeed, a few minutes later, I'm connected to the antechamber.
The door to New World is still there.
I stare at it. I'm determined not to miss the moment when it stops working.
The minutes pass by slowly.
I start fidgeting. I really want to go back. What harm could there be in it anyway? At worst, I will forcedly logged out like last time. I can survive that, especially knowing I won't be able to access New World for months.
My resolve made, I once more walk through the door.
I'm back by the lake. Taking in the sensations I will be deprived of for several months, I smile. I really love this place.
Just then, yet another message starts up.
System Message
End of Beta Test. Script will be halted.
Huhhhh?
Immediately, the world freezes.
I think I'm in trouble.