Guidehands
"Finding a Second Step slime is a matter of luck. Even in places with large and mana rich crystals you aren't guaranteed to find one."
This was easily understood by Akiol. His evolution as a Prince Slime had deepened his understanding of slimes in general. Second Stage slimes didn't require nearly as many mana crystals to maintain their day to day lives. Just filling their mana reserves will keep them going for quite some time.
No wonder the individuals of the west deemed it to be a matter of luck! It really was circumstance to come across a Second Stage slime!
"I think once she accepted a request regarding this, and it took her what? About three months in-game?", another player spoke aloud for another to confirm this.
"It was four, after that she entirely banned any further requests regarding Second Step slimes.", the leader player laughed.
"You said her Epithet is Unyielding Undying Avarice, but who is she?", Akiol was intrigued by someone of such fame.
"Her username is Sunny Jade. She's the number one Mercenary!"
"Number one?", Akiol wasn't sure how much weight this carried.
"Indeed, this is why her premium is so high. With a nearly perfect record anyone who can pay for her services can rest easy.", the leader's expression turned sour suddenly, "Ok enough about this topic. I don't want to remember that money grubber any longer."
The group turned away and explored another tunnel. This search was fruitless, Akiol could sense the slimes hiding deep within the ground. Even if somebody managed to find the slimes' tunnels they wouldn't be able to properly find their hiding place.
Noticing that the slimes usually hid nearby mana crystal locations, Akiol decided to keep a search out in the future. It made sense, mana crystals gave the most mana out of all absorbing items. For the weak slimes who couldn't move too far it would be wise to stay near a location with an abundance of crystals.
If they were found Akiol wondered if a Guild would blast a large hole to reach this hideout. There wasn't much he could do regarding that however.
Akiol silently apologized in his heart, he wasn't very befitting of a Prince!
As the group reached another dead end a sigh resonated through the group. The leader sighed and said, "Alright we should probably return here tomorrow night, we might have better luck then. It's likely some large group came by before us and scared all the other slimes into hiding. Although it's rare to not see a single one remaining, it's not unheard of."
"Should I just log out in front of the mine?", the usually silent player asked.
"Definitely not, you might spawn into some trouble. Just log out at Green Bay. Never log out near hotspots."
"I was really hoping I could save time traveling."
"Teleport tokens are too expensive for us right now!"
The leader turned his head towards Akiol, "You seem quite unfamiliar, are you new?"
"Sorta, I've gathered some knowledge.", Akiol decided to keep his temporary persona.
"The Guidehands provide some good tips, I definitely recommend their page."
"Another player recommended me their site."
"There's some links to their various guides at that site. Spend some time looking through the beginner ones if you haven't already."
"I will, thank you for the tips!"
"Haha, if you want you can join our group. Our progress will be a little fast though."
"I want to take my time, I appreciate the offer though.", Akiol instantly refused.
Although his cloak could mask him being Third Stage, in actual battle it would quickly become apparent he was not new! That would be a can of worms he didn't wish to open. Best to avoid it now!
"No pressure.", the leader didn't take the refusal to heart.
As the group exited the cave they began to make their way back to Green Bay Village. Akiol joined them on the travels, until he reached the halfway point. Glancing into the forest he made an excuse, "Actually I've been wanting to explore for a bit, so I'll leave you guys here."
"Be careful at night!", the leader waved him off.
Akiol nodded and walked into the forest. Once he was out of their sight he rapidly increased his pace. Zipping through the forest he rapidly found his point of interest. The silently sniffling gradually became louder as he closed in.
A young boy clutched his head as he shivered underneath a tree. His face slightly puffy from excessive crying, and still tears stained his face. Akiol crouched down and extended a hand, "Are you okay?"
The boy looked up and shrunk back, "D-Dad said I can't talk to Resurrectors."
"I'm not going to ask you for anything, I just want to help."
The boy audibly sniffled, "Y-You're not going to ask me for money? Or items?"
Seriously! How greedy were the players! They even have children afraid! Akiol shook his head, "Not a thing. I just want to help, it's free of charge."
"Promise?"
Akiol struggled to smile a bit, "Promise!"
"O-Okay.", the boy took Akiol's hand and was pulled to his feet.
The boy looked about in the dark forest and sniffled, "I-I got lost. D-Dad told me not to g-go out."
"I'll bring you back, follow me okay?"
The boy nodded.
Steadily making their progress through the forest the lights of Green Bay village came to sight. The boy became visibly relieved to see the familiar village. As they reached the entrance Akiol asked, "You can find your way home from here right?"
"Y-Yes!", the boy nodded with newfound enthusiasm.
"Alright, don't go wandering out at night okay?"
More nodding from the boy in response.
Akiol nodded and watched as the boy scampered off. Slowly Akiol's face turned into one of concern. The player's attitude towards NPCs, and the NPCs attitude towards players. It was strange, very unlike the other two continents.
In a sense the East had tensions due to Perina. However during that siege the NPCs rose up with the players. Additionally after the calamity of Goju struck and even deeper bond of camaraderie formed. For the central continent although the players weren't as connected, there was still quite the importance placed on the NPCs. Especially since the NPCs were ones to learn from.
Why did the west not care about their NPCs at all? They were an integral part of the world!
Faintly recalling Wharm's mentioned of him never hearing about a Third Step "mortal" Akiol's concerns only deepened. With this thoughts Akiol logged out. When he took off his headset he opened his phone and typed in the Guidehand site.
It was about time he got some answers!
The site itself was simple in design. A graphic of their insignia was plastered along with a description of who they were. It read:
"Hello, we're the Guidehands!
"A community of players dedicated to helping out newcomers with guides, advice, and even personal assistance! A World's Legacy has an unfathomable amount of complexity and depth, and our goal is to make your journey just a bit simpler so you can enjoy the game without too much stress. Sometimes you might see a member walking about, if they have our badge feel free to ask for help! We're happy to provide real time advice or even assistance if the circumstances allow!
"On the left you'll see a few additional pages you can visit. The first is our collection of guides you can follow all the way to Second Step! There's additionally a forum page where you can post various questions to be answered by our unofficial or even official Guidehand members. We're kind of strict regarding information in our community, and hope our reputation is enough to gain your trust in the information's validity!
"If you're a solo player struggling with progression you can join an official Guidehand member's dungeon delving expedition. You'll have the protection and guidance of a high leveled and experienced Guidehand to lead you through the dungeon, and you keep the rewards!
"If you need assistance with hunting, you can send in a request. Please note that we have hundreds of requests daily and often prioritize certain requests over others. This is inevitable, but you can always make a forum post requesting assistance from unofficial members!
"If there's information you'd like to submit we also have an inbox for anonymous tips. If you add your username to the note and your tip proves to be valuable we'll send you a package with some of the goodies free of charge.
"Otherwise, check out our posts regarding our publicly available hunting methods of various wandering bosses! These are recorded and posted for your benefit, with explanation of what's used and the reason behind it! Feel free to watch to learn something!
"Sincerely, your Guidehands."
"Have to admit, I can praise the intentions.", Akiol mumbled.
Although there might be a reason for the Guidehands doing this, their intentions are admirable! Akiol checked the side page and scrolled through the options. There was a large option named "hunts" that caught Akiol's eye. Tapping on this brought him to a list of videos, the most recent video titled "The 800th hunt - Third Step - Peering Eye of Fate!!".
Noticeably this video was aged by 3 months, meaning about 9 months in-game. Was this result of the agreement between the Guidehands and the Sects? Akiol tapped on this video and began to watch.
Immediately he noticed a player with a the Guidehand Insignia, a thumb and pinky bent inwards. This individual held a position above captain! Akiol turned the volume up and listened to the introduction.
"Good evening! I am Hammed Sandwich. Today's Director of this guide video. As the title states, a Third Step boss with the Epithet Peering Eye of Fate!
"This one has been troubling, our preliminary attempts have proven this one is capable of foreseeing danger. Their survivability is off the charts, and thus our strategy had to evolve. We're utilizing the extremely rare drop of the Crying Mountains dungeon: Absolute Zone! Since this is a Third Step we naturally have quite a few members joining in this hunt. Here is the list as usual."
A list appeared but none of the names were familiar to Akiol. Eventually Hammed Sandwich began to explain their strategy and Akiol had to admit that such a strategy was not replicable in the other continents!
There was simply too many rare items being used! The cost to hunt this one target was absurdly high, even the top 10 guilds of the central continent would vomit at such a price. Yet these guys failed to blink!
What's there to learn in these videos!?
As the footage of the actual hunt began, Akiol frowned. It was a simple NPC of Third Stage. Granted one of great strength considering how they went about surviving. However this lacked the idea of a "wandering boss".
Akiol exited the video and began to go through the list. Very rarely was a Third Stage the target of the video. He quickly noticed that the expensive strategies were saved only for particularly troubling bosses.
However a lot of these "bosses" were just powerful NPCs!
Considering the dates on the videos it became clear the west obtained Second Stage way quicker than the central and east continents. It took quite some time for the central and east continents to have a large portion of their player bases become Second Stage. The west was far quicker in this regard!
Akiol's expression turned to one of uncertainty. It really looked like these players were just hunting and killing NPCs of decent strength for their drops. To think they'd call them "wandering bosses"!
This sort of thing felt more like "wandering lootboxes"!
It's no wonder the NPCs are fearful! They're being swindled and killed for every last drop of value!
This. . . how was he supposed to feel about this?