Chapter Hundred and twelve

This day, everyone in the team was happy, brimming with joy. Why? Sela had given them credits to purchase the gift crates. It would be even more happier event if they could have used items within those crates. But it's enough, for now, that they could sell those crates again to few guilds and make a pretty penny. So they would be extra attentive to Sela today.

Sela had made numerous plans too. She would test her theories when these brats were oh so attentive.

"So here is the plan. As soon as we enter dungeon, we are going to split into different groups. We have enough experience to handle these basic monsters in earlier sections by ourselves. So, now we have to find out what is the range."

"Range for what?" One smart *ss just had to ask. Wouldn't she explain even without the interruption?

"You might have seen all the monster loots enter the official gatherer of the team, Artha even when you killed monsters. You might have also noticed your XP raises in chunks while you are running dungeons with this team. Yes, I made changes to XP allocation. And only with captain 's permission can you get all the XP that belongs to you.

So, don't mess up and team up with just anyone. They will rob monster loots and XP and in the end, allow you to die."

Other than Artha every one was indeed surprised. Then came the realisation. D*mn! They had been scammed few times already. Not many were. Captions of dungeon teams never wasted time poking here and there and left most of it in default settings which meant that the players recieved their XP normally.

The members didn't know that and felt they were cheated on every dungeon run. But they refrained blasting Sela for not letting them know sooner as common sense prevailed.

After watching the faces turn black and blue and finally into neutral expression, Sela continued, "Why I am telling you all this is we are going to change few things to know the limit. I want to know the maximum range a player can be, away from the team and yet contribute to the team. So we are going in different groups till we reach the point where the monster loots or XP from monster kill or both enters your inventory directly. Then, we will regroup and raid the dungeon as we did yesterday afternoon." (The players with plenty of experience will always describe time in relation to game setup. It's apparently a good habit.)

So, swordsman and shield made one group, thief and healer one group, damage dealer one group and another ranged player final group. Needless to say many had complaints. But Sela can't be faulted in making such tiny groups. The group composition was indeed near ideal to fight the baby bunnies, aka level four rabbits in the beginning sections. Artha had to take longest covered route, Sela's group second longest one.

Artha was cried rivers inside. All those XP and monster loots lost. Why? Just why did Sela think of such a plan? Wasn't it better that they could meander their ways, follow the path made by others and thank those selfless heroes who had died but given useful information?

The first one to give up was unsurprisingly the Archer. His range was the longest, yes. But damage done by each common arrow was not that much. It could be pretty much rated last in terms of damage. Unless you consider healers whacking monsters with their staff, in that case they would definitely be....last too. The Archer class was weak initially but they would become backbone of the teams later on. They had to buy arrows in bulk, thousands of them each time. The common grade quiver didn't have auto regeneration or self retrieval. The Archer had to pull back the arrows used back to quiver to use them again. The problem - basic or common arrows had low durability. After using few times they broke down completely.

Uncommon or higher grade quivers had varying degrees of auto arrow regeneration and self retrieval within certain range. More importantly, they had certain probability of getting better arrows, arrows with effects while auto generating.

Within two minutes, Arjun, the Archer called Sela. No idea what was discussed, but he trotted back happily to join the group with thief, Jack and the healer.

So only three groups, one with Sela, one with Jack and one lonely team of Artha. He was angry enough to try many things. He searched evey nook and crany of the section. He tried to dissect the monsters before they vanished. Both the endeavours were useless.

After sometime he realised that even in the game, not everything would happen as he wished. So what if it is a game, not real life?

After having a prep talk, Artha just went on farming monsters.

Jack's group merged with Sela's soon after. Jack killed a bunny which was being harassed by Archer Arjun and found he got the loot. Other team members exclaimed. They got the XP too. So they didn't finish that section but ran back. As to why they joined Sela's group, rather than Artha which was a more logical choice, well, you have to butter up the captain few times to have a better life. Artha, he was just...a newbie, simplest and non offensive term they could think of.

Sela accepted this bunch of unruly players because she was trying to find out something else now. Till now, the XP and loot were going to Artha directly. What would happen if they were far away? Would XP and loot stay with this team or only XP will stay or just loot? Which one had highest range?

Things a captain has to think about! Innumerable. Especially if the said captain has seen how guilds worked, like regular clockwork and was now playing as independent player.

Sela's work was never done. But in return she got more XP and more loot. She was very close to reaching level six today. Unlike these unruly teammates. After reaching level six, she had to play differently. Dying was no longer and option when you level up. Why?

Just think. You have now 200 XP after reaching level six. If you die within the dungeons, the XP loss is 20%. So will only 40XP taken out from you? Unfortunately, no. The XP loss would be more than what a player brink on reaching level six might lose. And that's brutality of the game, where it will not allow the players to even take a small break. The death penalty took most of the XP possible to be taken within its definition. Wait! Why does this seem familiar? Aha! So death penalty and taxes are twins.

Sela was planning to run dungeons only if there was no chance of death. Scratch that. If there was minimal chance of death. As a shield, the chances of her dying first was very high. So she would raid dungeon with well playing team or just farm in the maps. Well, what do you know? Even inside the game, you can get afraid of dying.