Chapter Hundred and one

The third dungeon raid of Artha was satisfying to say the least. Sela had received a new shield yesterday, so she had more back ups and could move aggressively. Others too had upgraded parts of their armours and stuff, thanks to various loots the previous day.

So the plan was to follow the same procedure as previous day. Cover the known sections and trace back. The turning point was not just before facing an elite monster but just before facing two elites.

Artha got staff upgrade before facing the elite, so he consistently churned out more damage.

They even got two uncommon loots from it. So the team happily decided to follow the planned path. They shall kill lots of elites today. No one had any other plans, so this was good way to get coins, XP and good loots. Even Artha didn't speak up when asked about any prior meet ups or plans. Oh well, Sun Lord and Baccara might as well help him to extend one or two days of siphoning from their elite teams.

And the loot was indeed good. Even from the normal bunnies. Many had taken tasks related to dungeons, so they had to either bid for the items or just hope that they would be still items left after everyone had taken over.

To prevent artificial inflation and team member sabotaging others, which was told to be just a silly prank, Artha decided to hold on to these things till the end. Only consumables were shared after clearing each section. Others would be given or sold, as per leader Sela's instructions. Just after the mini auction for the elite loots. He was getting good hand of it. And he was enjoying every single moment.

In one of the breaks for recovering stamina, someone started b*tching. " Man! This game is so dope. Always keeping us on our feet."

" What do you mean?"

" Didn't you notice any changes in your level 5 items?"

"What?" Every one was curious now.

"Seriously! Am I the only one who noticed this?"

"Noticed what? Either you tell us or shut that pie hole."

"The repair counter." Questioning faces, curious looks. Apparently, not many had indeed noticed such a thing. Whoever was lucky enough to own level 5 items took out to verify this 'repair counter'.

Not all had it. Only the good ones, though.

So, a curious scene was enacted in the dungeon. Pass on the items to check and verify personally.

When it was Artha's turn, he understood what was going on. All uncommon items of level 5 or higher level (or probably the grade too) had this repair counter. Even among common grade items, the counter was found if the stats of the items was very good.

Sela thought for a while and explaining a bit plainly, in a language that even a noob could understand.

"It's to teach players to carry multiple sets of items. Also to teach them good way or good time to swap them.

Let's take my shield as an example. I carry two shields. What if the durability of one drops to red when you are in the field. You can't run back to get it repaired and hope that your team just rests till that time. You use the back up.

But here in dungeons, having one back up won't be enough. Better to have more spares."

" That doesn't explain the repair counter." Artha, despite playing this game for this long, was still a noob when it comes to finer details.

"I'll explain using the shields. I got new one yesterday, yeah?"

A lot of heads nodded, not just Artha's.

"It's good. Better than the one I use as main shield. So let's assume, I used that shield yesterday and durability of it is half gone. Do I use it as main shield till durability drops to red and shift to new one? Or...I use the normal one as usual but I use new one to fight the elite as it has more stats and can help the team better? But, but there is a chance that the durability would go to red when I am fighting with the elite and may have to shift to spare or the main shield when that happens. Which way would be better?"

Few thought first option wa good, few prefered second one. " There is no correct answer. It depends on individual preference. Now you might say, why use the shield with durability half down and pray it does not turn to red in the middle? Pull up the durability to full by getting it repaired. That would be safest option whichever way I play, right?"

A chorus of "yeah, yeah" answered her back.

"And that's where this repair counter raises it's ugly head. It just counts how many times it is repaired. After reaching the limit, it becomes unrepairable. So if durability drops to red or beyond, its just a junk. If it counted the durability points recovered after repair, it would not have been so bad. So currently I have to wait till durability drops to red before getting it repaired each time to get maximum usage of the weapon. It's literally walking on tight rope if I want to have the weapon for long time and to save few coins."

"Sela! Is this repair counter present in all level 5 items with good stats and above? Or is it fixed to only dungeon drops?

" I don't know," she shrugged. She truly didn't. There was not a single forum post regarding this till now. Let's not forget the fact that the normal monsters in fields rarely dropped weapons and equipments and not many had ventured to level 5 or level 6 maps. Other than guilds, that is. And guild people don't notice such a tiny thing like repair counter. They earned fast, used faster. To them, efficiency was more important than saving few coins.

Artha found each day there would be something different in the game. It truly was changing how players played before and in here.

What other secrets was this game hiding? What new surprises it would bring?