Chapter Eight - Whack-a-mole?

Artha's first bonus multipler was a doozy. He got 500x bonus. His inventory was full , so he had to remove staffs which didn't stack and keep it in the room to make space for more things to load from the chest. His 2500 potions of each type didn't take much space in the room. His coins automatically converted to 1 rose gold coin and 50 silver alloy coins. His bed was covered with apples and the surroundings were occupied by jars of water. As for other items, they were just dumped wherever there was space.

After dumping the things in the room, his inventory now only have 5 apples and a jar of water and 1 silver alloy coin. He checked the stats of the staff. It was truly pitiful.

Common training staff

Level 0

Magical attack - 5-10

Physical attack -0.5-1

Durability -10/10

Comment - Even trainees would disdain using such a trash of staff. Barely a step above walking stick.

The comment portion written in tiny letters was benefit of his special title, Nitpicker. The game AI gave the verdict in the beginning itself.

The game was supposed to be at high level and innovative. So, the makers had removed all the preconceived notions and started a brand new way of playing game. Mages or healers could attack physically too. They could run away too. If they got shield, they could tank too. The weapons generally had no class restrictions, in the beginning at least. So why wouldn't there be a tanky mage or a agile mage? The problem was the attributes.

Attributes decided the attack or the damage. Higher the attribute, higher is that type of damage or higher the movement speed or attack speed. Mages invariably prioritised wisdom and spirit. If they put less attributes there and put remaining attribute to dexterity or constitution, they could play mage differently. The statistics later showed that less than 2%of mages in 1st week of game launch had walked the less trodden path.

It was mainly due to preconceived notions of mages having maximum DPS, damage per second. If you are playing with small parties, high levels of DPS meant you would be always welcomed, just like a healer with high healing capacity or a tank who could really tank. Unless you had a group of friends or party members allowing you to play differently... Or you want to try something different than the usual.

Few years down the line, the so called mainstream way of allocating attributes would be entirely forgone to allow flexibility and innovative ways to play this game. But.... that's in future.

Another important part in regards to how players chose and played was due to effects of the weapons themselves. A good spellblade or a magical sword would dish out more damage as it could inflict both physical and magical damage with each strike. A tall staff or a pole could turn into spear if the top end is sharp and strong. A shield could have magical claws around its edges to give double whammy. But such versatile weapons would cost more and would be of higher levels.

The description of training staff showed that it was purely magical staff and if it was used as stick to beat monsters, it would break even before the monster felt the pain.

Artha grimaced and took few more staffs. As a complete noob, he had a hunch that his weapons would suffer more in the fight than the monsters.

After paying for the room, he left for the basic noob map containing level 0 brown moles. After watching batches of players, individuals and parties on how to whack-a-mole, oops, kill the itsy bitsy moles, he walked back to the village. He had to purchase a new bag to increase the inventory space. Thankfully, the outspoken alchemist Zoya was also there. Thanks to the deals he made with her, he unlocked a subclass or a lifestyle class- a trader.

Ding .

You have unlocked the profession - trader.

Level 0 (0/100 points)

Artha was bemused. His profession list was longer than his attribute list or equipment list.

The professions read like trader, diplomat, pacifier, bargainer.... Who even thought of these professions? At least the trader profession granted him the chance to purchase trader bag. It had enough space, probably. But that's okay, he could upgrade the bag with his XP. Now all he had to do was to get some XP first.

Mentally creating various lists where he could use his XP and convert it all into hard cash, he walked back to the map. And found that players were more than the moles. The reasonably large field had become congested. Few people were poking in the holes trying to kill those moey moles before they ventured out into this harsh world.

Hmm. That idea is feasible, Artha thought to himself. Before he could implement it, the whole scene was destroyed by well minded players.

"Supernova guild players are claiming this field. Unrelated players, get lost"

"Hahaha! We, from Bandit's bash, have been farming here quietly with these regulars. Yet a has been guild wants to rule over the map? Bring it on! Let me see how you can make us move."

Who are these people? Guilds could only be established in towns, never in villages.

Only through grumbling of other parties did Artha understand the situation. Well known guilds would begin preparing in the villages. They would form big parties and hunt together for better efficiency. Naturally, restricting players in the maps or completely blocking certain high XP or better loot dropping spots was a routine to all the guilds. But in village level where the members are less, spells or skills are limited, even a barely strong player team could play a tyrant.