51***Tunnel O' Lore (Part 2)

Secrete Room

30 mins in

Lore Hunter rule #1 – Explore all possible spaces.

Lore Hunter rule #2 – No piece of data found is invaluable.

Lore Hunter rule #3 – If a Boss Fight seems inevitable, put exploration on the top of your priorities, for Boss fights are progression codes that can't be ignored.

These are the top 3 tips for anyone interested in lore hunting for any game.

Clearly, I'm leaving off quite a few, and the list differs depending on the type of game and just what type of lore your trying to unearth, but these 3 are in the top 5 at least for every adventure type RPG.

BMO, for example, is a very lore-likely game. While most other games already have an ending and fir explanations to everything, BMO has none of that! A VMMORPG where the players' only goal is to -get stronger, with only the built-in missions, dungeons and the occasional Mass Subjugation Quest that an area participates in. At first glance, it may look like a pretty slip-shod game. And with PvPs and tournaments being all the motivation a war-starved generation would need to start playing and get addicted to it, no one would wrong, or even question that notion.

Yet still, even with that being all that there is, there seems to be a hidden story in it all. In every dungeon, every secret room, every normal, hidden, secret, or side quest, every Named monster and even the intricate setup of each individual biome in all 113 Areas have a story! And the Lore Hunters of BMO are convinced that this lore will do something that no other lore has ever done, point the way to the ending - the true ending - of Battle Master Online!

And here I stand, 7 years late in the lore hunt, and I have first dibs on hidden info on one of the core pillars of this lore, the Goblin King!!!

'Alright, that's enough fanboying.' I thought to myself as I did a final sweep of the passages that lead anywhere other than the obvious route. Through my search, I found more scratches - much older and faded than the first - eluding to some witch.

Nothing too major, just him griping about the "Witch" and how much pain he was in, pretty repetitive stuff.

This made it even more interesting however, as there are very few witches eluded to in the lore! Whether it's because they were more secluded our there were simply few witches that became Battle Masters, I don't know.

What I do know though, is that if this "witch" was one of the ones they found and was also connected to the Goblin King in some way, then that would be epic!!! Or, if this witch was a secluded one they haven't found yet, that would be even cooler!!!!

It could also be another female Battle Master that managed to throw a wrench into his operations, like the Shadow Rouge (traces of an abandoned settlement in the Obsidian Oaks of Area101, that used to hold a group that followed a powerful rogue of the shadow arts, shows signs of her presence.) or the Imperial Magus ("The most intellectual Mage of the King Dendrum Era." – extract from a statue of her in the Imperial Library of Holy Light City in Area51), but I'll keep my hopes up.

"Alright…" I started to myself out loud because the silence had started getting to me, "I've searched every nook, cranny, wall and floor of this mini maze of tunnels. It's about time I made way to the Boss Room." With that small excuse of a pep talk, I puffed myself up and readied to brave the Boss.

I stiffen up even further as I realise that this is my first time fighting ANYTHING in this game, and it will be some Hidden Boss Monster I've never seen in both this game and Goblin Castle…

AND I HAVE TO FIGHT WITH SHIELDS!!!!

"Wait, calm down. So what if you're alone and have the worst fighter setup to start off with? Just breath. You have a plan for this." I reassured myself. Man, I need to get back to my group!

I took one more breath for good measure, and then started off into the final tunnel!

What I saw took my breath away….

Scratched on just about every inch of surface on the way, were notes!!! All the data and calculations he obtained and did for all of those experiments are all jotted down on the walls, roof and floor!!! All of them were varyingly different, but one thing was consistent among them…

They were based on transforming humans into Named Monsters!

Reading through, I find that most of them failed, except for 5, three of which were described in likeness to the Mounts found on the way, confirming what I found in the Goblin King's notes scattered across his lair. One became a watchdog to keep the prisoners in check, and the final one was incomplete.

A name which I never saw in the tunnels save for at the beginning chose now to show back up as well.

"θΨάάἑ"

"Sher…" The notes rolled off my tongue. Such a simple name, yet I could feel some weight behind it. Whoever this man is, he was gravely important to the Goblin King.

My musings drew me in, taking me further and further down the tunnel bit after bit after bit confirming pieces the Lore Hunters put together, while debunking others in a large way!!!

One specific piece of information caught me by surprise, however.

Νξ↝↸ ⨊⨈⨢ΨÆ↠ ↴⁛ή⇱Ϟ ↇↆ∔∔ ʚ∢↞ ςº¬ ‡⁛°• θΨάάἑ

"Women aren't enough anymore. He wants more. He gets stronger. Must get Sher!"

'Women aren't enough anymore?' I thought in surprise. 'The lore pointed to him being a greedy tyrant on the hunt for all the pleasures of the world, but could it be…'

My question had to wait, however, as that message signified the end of the tunnel. What awaited me was a curtain of vines, barely hiding a well-lit room.

I peeped my head into the room to find a small circular room, its roof stretching high above. Not counting in the height, it was about as big as my own house. The floor was coated with some small yellow budded plants, and the walls were overrun with enough glowing plants, it was as bright as day in there.

'Paladin Poppies and 7 different varieties of Climbing Glowstalk.' I noted. 'This area is laden with essence!'

I was in awe at the sceptical. In fact, I was so much in awe that I didn't even notice the big and unusual lump of plants and roots that stood behind the centre of it all, nor the aged sheets of paper surrounding it. Nor did I realize that I walked into the room until I felt a rush off energy from practically no where!

Only when I looked around me and at my feet did I notice that I wandered into the room without knowledge! But I was too late to do anything!

By the time I came to my senses, roots had already found their way in front of the passage entrance!

"Ah crap!"

*RUMBLE**RUMBLE* *CRACK* *SNAP!!!*

Named Monster Has Appeared!

HIDDEN BOSS - SHER THE LOYAL!!! LVL 72

"Who dares to enter the Private Chambers of the Goblin King?!"