Chapter 20 – Player Killer.

"(Huff) N-Not so tough now huh?" – said the guy with the axe.

The battle between the group of players and group of Frog-Mans were close to the end. The only one standing right now are 5 players and Frog-Mans leader, both of them covered in injuries.

"Told you that bastard will be easy to kill once all of his minions are gone. Now let's finish that bastard."

The party leader begined closing in towards the half dead Frog-Man paladin in attempt to finish off the monster.

"BOSS WATCH OUT!" – said the archer.

Before party leader could react to his party member warning, an tree suddenly fallen on top of him, crushing him in the process.

"W-what happened?!" – said stunned shield user.

As soon as he said that, archer noticed multiple shadows suddenly covering all of them and as he tried looking upwards, he and all of the remaining party members were crushed one by one by the falling trees.

The entire party of players were buried under a trees and moments later, the players body would slowly turn into date before disappearing moment later.

The Frog-Man Paladin watched in confusion what just happened before him, but before he could figure anything out, an crossbow bolt flew at him and pierced though his feet, locking it in place and making it scream in pain.

"So that how it looks like when player dies huh? No corpse, no evidence, good to know." – said Mix while landing on the ground.

[Post made by: Lizard Face]

[So how does the death works in this game?]

So, I haven't died a single time and honestly, I don't want to find out, I'm bit scared not going to lie. How does it exactly works.

-When you die everything goes black for moment and then this pop up [[You have died.]], afterwards you are respawned at the town and nothing else happens.

-Wait, really? Nothing else?

-Nope, it doesn't says what killed you or anything, just [[You have died.]]. What did you expected would have happened?

-Well, some kind of punishment? Like losing EXP, money or equipment durability dropping, stuff like that from MMORPGS.

-That's because of [Newbie Protection].

-What's that?

-Apparently each player receive it when they start playing. When I died for first time this popped up. [[You currently possess [Newbie Protection]. You will not drop anything when dying or lose a level. You will also respawn immediately after death as well, while you possess [Newbie Protection].]]

-I didn't know there was something like that.

-Me too.

-Same.

-Wait, so what happens if you don't have the protection?

-On the game official website it said you will be forcefully logged off and be unable to log in for next 3 real time hours and if you die right away after respawning then 12 real time hours ban.

-Oh, isn't that too harsh?

-Well, it does makes thing more interesting? Players will be forced on staying alive if they don't want to lose anything right? "They will fear dying", I think that was the developers approach? Either way, it seems very interesting.

-Maybe. We will have to see how it goes.

-By the way, what happens to our bodies when we die?

-Good question, why nobody asked that before? Does our bodies disappear or something?

-They do, I tested it out with my friend. As soon as player dies his body will release data particles and moment later, the entire body would disappear. It very similar when monster dies but there are 2 main differences. When monster dies, he releases red data like particles from his body, while player releases blue ones instead and player bodies disappear instantly after their death.

-Thx for info mate.

(Good thing I read that post beforehand. It would be very annoying if those guys would receive some kind of messenge like [Player Mix killed you].)

(Honestly, I was planning only on observing them and then later leaving them alone at first, but then I saw that monster using healing and buff type skills. After witnessing that, I decided to take that monster for myself.)

"But that meant I had to kill all players here so they can't kill you."

(Well easier said than done. Unlike with monster I can't check how much player have HP left or what is their current level and on top of that I don't want too much attention right now. I'm bit known right now because of monster stamped quest, if the people would find out that I killed other players, I would probably find myself in some annoying situation, so I needed to kill them before they have chance to look who killed them.)

(So together with Ollie, we were cutting the trees on top of the hill until they were at brink of falling, thanks to how much noise they were making while fighting the Frog-Mans, nobody was able to notice us.)

(Then we just waited for right moment when the player seemed to most worned out and made the trees fall on top of them.)

"Anyway, it was worth it. You have only 13% HP remaining, so let's just get it over with."

"[Tame]."

[[The target cannot be tamed.]]

"…Wut?"

[Tame]

[Restrictions: Can't use it on tamed creature owned by somebody else. Can't use on target with higher level that you. Can't be used on boss type monsters. Can't be used on intelligent tribe type monsters, but there are some exceptions to this rule.]

[CAN'T BE USED ON INTELLIGENT TRIBE TYPE MONSTERS, BUT THERE ARE SOME EXCEPTIONS TO THIS RULE.]

[The current target is no expectation to the rule above, meaning it can't be tamed.]

"….Are you f*king me right now?!" – said Mix with very annoyed and angry face.

"The thing I was hoping for, the support type monster, is currently right now in front of me but I can't tame it?! You got to be kidding me right now?!"

"I put most of my gained points into [Taming Master], because I planned to tame new monster and add it to our party." – said furious Mix while trying to calm herself down.

"Ha…. Kill it."

As soon as Mix gave the command, Ollie and Min launched themselves at the Frog-Man and finished him off.

[[You have slain: Akru'n Frog-Man Paladin – Level 34.]

[You have earned achievement!] x 4

"Well, at least I got achievement, but why did messenge window popped up 4 times?"

[You have earn Achievement(s)]

[Player Killer Tier 1]

[Rarity Rank: Common]

[You have murdered innocent player without any justification!]

[Effect]

-You have received +3 free stat points.

[Player Killer Tier 2 (1 Place)

[Rarity Rank: Rare]

[[You have murdered 5 innocent player without any justification!]

[You are the first ever person to earn this achievement! The rank of the achievement have been increased twice! (Common -> Epic)]

[Effect]

-You have received +4 free stat points.

[Additional Reward]

-You have received additional bonus +9 free stat points.

[Player Murderer Tier 1 (1 Place)]

[You have killed 5 different innocent players without dying once!]

[You are the first ever person to earn this achievement! The rank of the achievement have been increased twice! (Common -> Epic)]

[Are you an rising evil by any chance?]

[Effect]

-You have received +4 free stat points.

[Additional Reward]

-You have received additional bonus +9 free stat points.

[Rare Species Slayer Tier 1]

[Rarity Rank: Common]

[You have slew the monster that belonged to rare species!]

[Rare species are more powerful monster that normal ones and they often possess more power than normal species. And yet you manage to slay it!]

[Effect]

-You have received +3 free stat points.

"…." – Mix stared with eyes wide open at her new achievements.

"I-I was not expecting that at all, but holy sh*t. I just got 32 free stat points."

"I though killing players will give me some sort of punishment instead."

[[WARNING!!! You have killed innocent player without justification! Your [Notoriety] had increased!]]

(Something popped up.)

[[Whenever you kill another player, kill NPC or commit any sort of crime your [Notoriety] will increases.]]

[[If your [Notoriety] reaches certain point, some NPCs may not see you in good light or if you commit enough crimes, the NPCs themselves may see you as the threat and may even attack you or worse, they may dyne your access to the settlements.]]

[[To decrees some of your [Notoriety] you need to commit good deeds such as: do specific quest, kill monsters, kill the players that possess [Infamous] points and commit good deeds.]]

[[The [Notoriety] points increases the amount of lost EXP upon and increases the chance of dropping current equipped item. The [Notoriety] also increases your chance of dropping your currently wearing item or if you drop the material type item upon death, you may lose bigger amount that materials. You will always drop single item, but the materials type items will always drop more than one item.]

[[HOWEVER! Possessing [Notoriety] increases the chance of the killed player that got killed by your doing to drop the equipped item or bigger amount of !]

"There was punishment in the end and it seems pretty serious."

Mix begined reading though the system messenge windows one by one.

(Honestly, it seems pretty scary. Losing access to the city could prove fatal to me right now, since I need to buy potions from time to time. On top of that if you die while having points you are pretty much screwed like hell.)

"Anyway, it says that you can reduce some points by hunting monsters, so I guess I have to farm until all the points are gone. Well I was planning on farming anyway and I only just started, so it shouldn't be a problem, I think?"

"Oh right, I almost forgot to take the loot from this guy. The forums said that the rewards from rare species are quiet nice."

[[You obtained: [Akru'n Tribe Secret Potion]x3, [Pendant Of Akru'n Paladin].]]

[Pendant Of Akru'n Paladin]

[Item type: Equipment.]

[Equipment type: Necklace.]

[Rarity: Rare]

[Effect when worn:

-Grants +4 to all stats

-Grants +10 to [Health].

-Increase your healing effect on yourself and allies by 10%

[Item Restriction(s):

-User need to be at least level 30.

[Durability: 275/275]

[Weight: 15]

[Akru'n Tribe Secret Potion]

[Item Type: Potion]

[Rarity: Rare]

[An secret potion only carried and used by the elites of the Akru'n tribe. Using this potion will heal you for 125 HP. If any of your body parts are broken the healing effect on the broken part will be increased by 200%.]

"3 potions and pendant huh? All of them are pretty good on top of that. It's way better that my current necklace and it increases the healing effect as well, I will swap it with my current one. Now I know why people are so eager to find and kill one, shame that I couldn't tame it though."

[You have equipped: [Pendant Of Akru'n Paladin] .]

(Well I guess that is everything, I guess I should return – Hm?)

As Mix tried walking away from the scene of crime, she noticed something underneath the fallen trees. Mix approached the fallen trees and put her hand underneath it, she then grabbed something there and pulled her hand back.

[Two Handed Great Iron Axe]

(Isn't that the same axe that guy used? Why is it here?) – though Mix while inspecting the item.

"Oh right, there was something about player having chance of dropping an item when they die, the window popped up as soon as I got to the city."

Mix looked at the fallen tree next to her and used the axe she was holding to hit the tree.

(I can use it without any problem or anything.)

Mix opened her inventory and put the axe into it and then took it out from it, she then tried looking into item information.

[Two Handed Iron Axe]

(I can put check the item information and its stats, I can also put it in and out from inventory. By any chance, when person drop their item, they lose the item ownership? So does that mean I can take it for myself.)

"Wait, that means that other guys dropped free stuff as well!"

Mix and her monster begined moving away some trees that crushed.

"…Potions and Frog-Man tongue, not very good. I guess only their leader was unlucky one, since only he lost is weapon."

"By the way, what happens to the other monsters corpse hunted by those guys? They were probably too busy to loot any corpses. By any chance…."

Mix quickly looked towards the corpse of Frog-Mans that got killed by the group players and begined approaching it.

[You have received: 28 silver coins.]

"I can loot the corpse?!"

(When monster stamped ended, me and other players were looting the corpses of the monster we killed.)

[[You cannot loot the corpse of the monster killed by another player, right now.]]

(This messenge popped up whenever I tried to loot by accident other people hunted monster. I kind of wandered what was the deal with "Right Now" part, but I think I get it. It's the similar situation like with axe and other items dropped by players, the owner ship was lost and anybody could loot the corpse.)

"Game develops you bastards. Skill books, bosses, achievements and now PK, they really want us to kill each other."

(No wait. Maybe it's opposite? If people work together like those guys, then boss monsters will be way easier to kill, the PK players wouldn't be much of threat since you wouldn't fight them alone and you could have easier time of obtain skills books and achievement as well. Some people would be forced to play this type of game style if they are having trouble in anyway as well, making some people join forces in order to archive their own goals.)

"There is other ways of playing as well, you can just focus on occupation classes and sell items you produce if you don't want to fight or just play solo and hoarder all the rewards to yourself, like me. F*ck me, those smart bastards, did they predicted that?(Game develops)"

(Anyway, it would be waste not gather the stuff from monsters, since it's free anyway.)

Mix begined collecting rewards from monsters killed by the group of players, one by one, until she collected all the rewards.

"Well then, I already wasted enough time, I should probably return back to farming if I don't want to fall behind."

As Mix begined walking away from the scene of crime she suddenly stopped in her tracks.

"Should I….Should I became a player killer?" – Mix asked herself.

(Killing players gives can give you nice rewards and you can earn achievements as well, it's very tempting indeed.)

(The reason why I came to this world for excitement and inspiration for my work. Fighting monsters does give me an inspiration to my work, but why should I limit myself only to monsters? Probably fighting other players will be more challenging and it may even gave more inspiration to my work.)

Suddenly Mix slapped herself in the face.

"F*ck me. What am I thinking?"

"If I kill any players, I may end up having to deal with group of vengeful players chasing me around."

"I not only want to fight others but I also want to explore and see other things that this world can offer. If people would end up chasing me nonstop I would probably not able to have a moment of peace and observe my surroundings."

(And there is one more problem that I realized after watching those guys.)

(I don't know if I would against those.)

Attack skills, defense skills, support skills and debuff skills. They possess those type of skills unlike me. My only offensive skill is only able to be used if I have tamed creature out and my healing skill can only be used on Min or Ollie.

It's true that I have probably higher average stat that normal player, thanks to getting achievements early on but I don't know if this is enough.

I lack the offensive, defensive or support skills. My only advantage are numbers, but as of right now I can only summon not very strong monsters and not that many really. Pawns, Rock and Water Frog begined to have bit of the problem in battle, this is because of how much enemy power level changed. The only way to make up for that difference is to increase my number of summoned monsters, but I don't bloody knowns when I will get new summoning skill or anything. Meaning unless I get new summons.

To make bloody things worst, the monster stamped allowed players to level up faster, meaning some players ended up catching up to me in terms of leveling.

As of right now it's better to depend on the [Tamer] class and to do so I have to maximize the effectiveness of that class, I need to tame new monster, specifically 2. I put ever point I got so far into [Taming Mastery] so I can increase the number of the party members.

It's true that increasing the numbers will decrees the EXP received, but as long as we will have easier time hunting, we will be able to increase our average EXP gain by a lot and we won't be lagging behind anybody thanks to that.

"Let's look for new teammates, shall we?"

(By the way, I didn't got the place in [Player Killer Tier 1], are people already killing other players right after they got from beginner town?)