Chapter 53 - Village wipe out?

Saachi met his party members on his second outing. Thanks to his message, they too had received the quest.

Royo - " Isn't this game dishonest? Talking to NPC netted me a quest. So when I clear dungeon, I get EXP for dungeon clearing and fulfilling the quest."

Bree - " Quest items will still drop in dungeons. Just that, the players have to run around to find owner of the quest to get reward. If this was a repeatable quest, I would have just sat at market place and bought the quest items and handed it over to NPCs together to get better rewards."

Before leaving, Bree made several preparations which were not shared to Saachi. Was it because she thought Saachi will be okay with decision thus did not inform him or because she was naturally so bossy that sharing decisions never occurred to her, who knows? Would she even tell what was going on in her head?

Anyway, the team rejoined near mad rat dungeons, the lowest level dungeon open to public in their village. In the meantime, Saachi acted like a noob he actually was. The experience he had...were not at all related to village level or even small town level. Not to mention that by the time he joined, everything was just like assembly line process, completely streamlined without a minute wasted.

Niyam - " Say, will there be whole village wipeout if those dungeons are not cleared completely? And I don't think many players know about this mana crystal thing, so they might just clear only easy dungeons and worry about higher level ones."

Royo -" Boy, is this the first time you are playing this sort of game? This sort of theme is very common in games. I think as soon as players reach level 9 they will get this quest. If players want to go out of village, they need to satisfy few conditions, right? One of those conditions would be clearing all dungeons and getting the crystals. And don't get fooled by the timer you got. Not all villages will have same time. I believe it is the time estimated by game AI for majority of elite players to reach level 10.

And inspite of all, if players fail and dungeon outbreak happens, there will be emergency protect the village sort of quest to kill as many monsters as possible and prevent their entry into village. Probability is high if an NPC or player group will be sent as reinforcement , which may or may not save the village.

Even that fails, then player will be withheld from entering game , just like punishment and some big NPC would come and clean up the mess in meantime. After player logs in, viola, the option to go to town is back but player has to regain the level. It will be difficult though. NPCs would have less affinity, and quests would be very less. Only by grinding and killing monsters, EXP is gained and loots will be pitiful. Finally, as soon as the level barrier is lifted, one can go to town.

Poor lass, he would be very late compared to others who would have finished the quest earlier. On top of it, his equipments and others would be poor and he won't have enough to get by initially unless he becomes a lackey.

And you should learn to read fine prints, boyo. The game says, average level players would earn enough to pay for subscribtion fees of gear and game, and not that all will have enough money. If you can't hold on to your shelter at low level threat, what can be expected from you?"

The question actually touched reverse dragon scale of Saachi's psyche. It resonated with his internal belief. True, if one can't handle even a simple fight, what can be expected of them? This was just a game. On top of it, so many hints were given before. There were various places to train and fight against them. Heck, they even gave a way to stop the fight before it occurs . Collect proof that you can fight against fiercest among them and win. If you do that, the outbreak and outpour would not occur. Even if it occurs due to no fault of your own, you just have to hold on and wait for reinforcement to arrive. If one does not enough strength even for that...they do deserve to suffer.

So, he would become strong. Strong enough to push away the war. If not, win the war.

Unknowingly, his mind opened up even more and a portion of his brain activity increased and Saachi stopped being a naive boy. He now had qualification to try to be an elite player.

The one who won the war would be a hero. A great hero. If one could deter that war from happening...what should he be called as? A deity? A god? A devil? A demon? Whatever... such person would never care about labels given by others. Now, Saachi aspired to reach that level.