《Warlord’s Conquest》 Chapter 1 - Character Creation John Green had been an avid gamer for quite a few years at this point. He absolutely loved MMORPGs so when he heard they had developed full immersion pod and were in the beta stages of developing a MMORPG as the first game to be released on it. The game was called Warlords Conquest and was a mix between heavily PVP and PVE orientated depending on certain things happening at the time. For most the game year they would focus on grinding levels and loot but for one month a year there was a massive event the game was based around giving the different competing guilds a bonus for where they placed. This was a massive PVP event that was last man standing. This was 3 months away when John got the game and thought he would have no hope of competing. Booting up the game for the first time he was shocked by the detail of the title screen. It was a 360 degree view of a massive battle, Split into what looked like 5 different armies from the banners scattered around the edges while Warlords Conquest was superimposed over it at the top of his vision wherever he looked with a loading bar at the bottom. However this wasn¡¯t just a stagnant image like in most loading screens. The people were battling the whole time killing, healing and spell slinging while war machines rampaged across the battlefield in the different factions colours. John was awed by this and watched everything happening in amazement while it loaded which took him to the character creation screen. While it had been loading it also did a body scan and showed a true to life 3D image as his default for his character that he could adjust. He was an average height and was slightly overweight from gaming too much. He was blond with blue eyes and a generally friendly looking face. He decided to first look through the different race options before adjusting his character knowing it would significantly alter the look of it. There were the generic races available ¨C Human, Orc, Elf, Dwarf and Undead. There were also some more uncommon races and even rare ones for video games which were ¨C Troll, Gnome, various Beastkin, Drow, Halfling, Nymph, Elementals, incubus, succubus and many others including a few monster races like goblins and many, many mixtures of half races. The list took an hour of going through and looking at the positives and negatives of each race that looked reasonable and was available for his gender, he decided to stay as a male, before finally cutting it down to a few different races. These races were ¨C Human, Elf, one of the four primary Elementals or a Gnome. The half races tended to have more benefits although overall slightly weaker than pure races however he disregarded these as most people would start with a negative reputation due to the mix of races. The deciding factor in the end was the knowledge that the race you select will limit your classes significantly in some cases with human having almost twice as many as any other race. The class you could choose from would be either some select ones for the race or you could take a test for the chance to get rare classes but also could lose access to some classes at the same time. These tests were never the same meaning no matter how much it was tried people couldn¡¯t give the responses to each situation to unlock a specific class .Now he decided it was time to make his character how he wanted it, very few changes were made in the end after messing about with it for a while. He decided to take some fat off and add some muscle tone as well as making himself a few inches taller. Would you like to take the test? Yes/No John didn¡¯t even have to think about it, he selected yes. He knew it was a risk but he also knew with him starting so much later than everyone else he would need every advantage he could get as well as knowing there were a few classes, especially the ¡®blue¡¯ classes, were practically begged for by warlords no matter guild leaders. Warlords were the people that led ¡®empires¡¯ which were a starting city they built up with various guilds within them and in some cases they had started a second city, these were few and far between though. His vision went black briefly before appearing in a tavern with a guy up in his face, finger against his chest. He had heard if you said analyse, even very quietly, while looking at the person you wanted to you would see varying amounts of information depending on the level of your Analyse skill. John decided now would be a good time to test it and said as quiet as he could ¡®Analyse¡¯. Jimmy Stonefist CL: 4 Brawler Profession: None Alignment: Aggressive ¡°Combat Level 4! This is just the first test!¡± he thought. During the test you were a combat level 2 (Shortened to CL) and there was a significant difference in combat levels. ¡°Well are you gonna pay up?¡± Jimmy practically shouted in his face, the whole tavern virtually silent to watch the exchange. ¡°I don¡¯t know what you¡¯re on about¡± he replied. How could he owe me money already, he hadn¡¯t spawned in till just! ¡°Don¡¯t try and lie your way outta this, you owe me 13 coppers and you¡¯re gonna give me it now or I¡¯ll be takin them from you¡± ¡°I don¡¯t have a single copper never mind 13¡± he replied backing up quickly. Persuasion check ¡­¡­¡­ Failed! ¡°That doesn¡¯t sound good¡­¡± John mumbled to himself just before the brawler howled and charged at him swinging wildly. The brawlers wild punch came faster and harder than john had expected, launching him backwards into a pair of tables. He saw his HP bar flash and drop down. Jimmy Stonefist hit you for 6 points of damage, 14/20 HP remaining He hadn¡¯t noticed his hub much up until now due to the brawler being in his face since spawning. He also noticed a red bar above the Brawlers head. 30/30 HP John looked at the stance the Brawler had taken and tried to mimic it and then tries to throw a punch the same as the brawler threw at him. This was his first time fighting himself, normally games were point and click and he hadn¡¯t ever had a fight at school. His punch manged to graze the brawler as he tried to dodge it and knocked his HP down slightly. You Hit Jimmy Stonefist for 2 points of damage, 28/30 HP remaining Then the Brawler swung again and this time it was a straight forward punch which he tried to dodge as the brawler tried but he also took a glancing hit. Jimmy Stonefist hit you for 4 points of damage, 10/20 HP remaining Again he tried to mimic the brawlers punch and got in 3 solid hits before the brawler dodged the fourth. You Hit Jimmy Stonefist for 4 points of damage, 24/30 HP remaining You Hit Jimmy Stonefist for 4 points of damage, 20/30 HP remaining You Hit Jimmy Stonefist for 4 points of damage, 16/30 HP remaining Jimmy then did a powerful uppercut to the jaw as a retaliatory strike, just after his HP regen knocks him up 1 point saving him! You healed 1 point of damage passively, 11/20 HP remaining You Hit Jimmy Stonefist for 10 points of damage, 1/20 HP remaining After he recovers from the daze debuff it put on him for a second he retaliates with a quick yet clumsy uppercut of his own followed by 3 more straight forward punches. The Brawlers own regen not being enough to save him. Jimmy Stonefist healed 1 point of damage passively, 17/30 HP remaining You Hit Jimmy Stonefist for 6 points of damage, 11/30 HP remaining You Hit Jimmy Stonefist for 4 points of damage, 7/30 HP remaining You Hit Jimmy Stonefist for 4 points of damage, 3/30 HP remaining You Hit Jimmy Stonefist for 4 points of damage, 0/30 HP remaining Enemy is knocked unconscious. Bar fights means the loser is knocked unconscious for a period of time and can''t retaliate against the winner until the next day unless provoked. Now that the fight was over a combat log appeared detailing the attacks performed and the damage they had done then the next notification that popped up automatically when he dismissed that one was his gains from that fight. Enemy Defeated! Loot: None (Testing mode) Stat Bonus: +1 Constitution (After testing mode) +1 Strength (After testing mode) New Skills: Straight Forward Punch Skills Levelled Up: None (Testing mode) John looked through and was disappointed yet unsurprised that he got no XP or loot from that fight due to it being a test but was surprised he got two stat bonuses as well as learning three new skills so easy especially since one of them had levelled up. As soon as he dismissed it his view went black Loading next test¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­ All of a sudden he is blinded by light and voices. When he could see clearly he was in the middle of a gladiatorial arena with what looked like a mage opposite him due to him being in a robe and holding a spell book and wand, which looking at himself he was also wearing and holding. He decided to look in his inventory at the items quickly to see what he was wearing. Head: Mage¡¯s cowl Torso: Mage¡¯s Robe Upper Arms: Mage¡¯s Robe Lower Arms: Mage¡¯s Robe Hands: None Upper Legs: Mage¡¯s Robe Lower Legs: Mage¡¯s robe Feet: Sandals Main hand: Novice mage wand Off hand: Novice mage spell book Accessories: Novice minor ring of intelligence He realised he could look more in depth at what he was wearing by clicking them although only those in bold, the ones that aren¡¯t did nothing when he tried to look at them like the sandals he was wearing. He also noticed some items could take up more than one slot like how his Mage¡¯s robe took up chest, legs and arms slots. Mage¡¯s Cowl Wisdom +2 Quality: Standard Mage¡¯s Robe Intelligence +1 Wisdom +1 Quality: Standard Novice minor ring of intelligence Intelligence +2 Quality: StandardStolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon. Novice mage wand Cast: Fireball Cast: Lightning Quality: Standard Novice mage spell book Fireball cast time -25% Fireball damage +25% Quality: Standard ¡°Not a bad setup for aCL five mage¡± John thought to himself ¡°especially with several boosts to intelligence and wisdom to increase my mana pool and my magical damage, now let¡¯s see who we are facing he seems to be in the same gear as me¡±. Name: Cain England (Traveller) CL: 2 Class: Mage Profession: None ¡®Traveller! That means he¡¯s another player! He must have just started too and decided to take the test¡± John thought to himself shocked. Players were referred to as travellers in game by the system and NPC¡¯s to explain the reason they could come and leave as they pleased and respawn upon death. They were explained to have come from another world where their real bodies stayed so that they didn¡¯t die. He also was classed as a beginner which starting players got until they passed combat level 5 which caused them to lose it. This meant that players couldn¡¯t attack them unless they were attacked first, there was no death penalty and pain levels were reduced from 80% real pain to 40% real pain however it would still last until they healed or slowly reduced as their health went up. They also couldn¡¯t be killed without a killing wound or something else that could kill them for example bleeding out. ¡°Contestants prepare to duel for the novice round first prize!¡± an announcer called from the stadium. As he called this Cain looked at him in surprise, ¡°he must have realised I¡¯m a player too¡± John thought ¡°good that may give me a slight advantage if he hasn¡¯t recovered fully from the surprise¡±. ¡°3 ¡­ 2 ¡­ 1 ¡­ DUEL!!!¡± The Announcer yelled across the stadium, using a voice amplification spell from a mage nearby to be heard over the crowd. Instantly both players chucked a fireball at each other, with the bonus from the book they had a 0.75 second cast time for the spell making it very hard to prepare to dodge at the range they were at causing both to get hit full on by the spell Cain England hit you with Fireball for 5 points of damage, 15/20 HP remaining You Hit Cain England with Fireball for 5 points of damage, 15/20 HP remaining Both had scored a direct hit although barely, seeing how close it was John decided to switch to lightning knowing it normally was faster cast time and harder to dodge even if it did slightly less damage in most cases. As Cain chucked a fireball at him he cast lightning twice at him due to the cast time being 0.375 second cast time and dived out the way and only taking a little splash damage from the spell however Cain got hit full on with the first bolt of lightning and glanced with the second causing him to get a 2 second stun! You took Splash damage from Cain England¡¯s Fireball for 2 points of damage, 13/20 HP remaining You hit Cain England with Lightning for 3 points of damage, 12/20 HP remaining You glanced Cain England with Lightning for 1 point of damage, 11/20 HP remaining Your Lightning stunned Cain England for 2 seconds John decided to quickly throw 2 fireballs at his opponent which both hit directly then get ready for his opponent s retaliation when his stun finished. You hit Cain England with Fireball for 5 points of damage, 6/20 HP remaining You healed 1 point of damage passively, 14/20 HP remaining Cain England healed 1 point of damage passively, 7/20 HP remaining You hit Cain England with Fireball for 5 points of damage, 2/20 HP remaining His opponent straight away cast a different spell then he used. It was an ice spell! In his shock John forgot to dodge it and got hit full on freezing him for 1 second! In which time he got hit by a fireball as well. Cain England hit you with Ice Spike for 3 points of damage, 11/20 HP remaining Cain England¡¯s Ice Spike froze you for 1 second Cain England hit you with Fireball for 5 points of damage, 6/20 HP remaining You healed 1 point of damage passively, 7/20 HP remaining Cain England healed 1 point of damage passively, 3/20 HP remaining As he unfroze he dived to the side avoiding another fireball coming his way but got hit by splash damage again. You took splash damage from Cain England¡¯s Fireball for 2 points of damage, 5/10 HP remaining John remembered earlier that trying to imitate the brawler had earned him new skills and decided to try it again here without his wand though as it didn¡¯t have his opponents ice spike spell. He watched the movement his opponents wand did when it cast it and dodged the spell before dropping his book and imitating the movement using his hand and successfully casting a lesser ice spike! This shocked his opponent and hit him squarely. Which he followed up by a fireball he was already preparing with his wand. You hit Cain England with Lesser Ice Spike for 2 points of damage, 1/20 HP remaining Your Lesser Ice Spike froze Cain England for 0.5 seconds Cain England healed 1 point of damage passively, 2/20 HP remaining You healed 1 point of damage passively, 6/10 HP remaining You hit Cain England with Fireball for 5 points of damage, 0/20 HP remaining Your Fireball unfroze Cain England Cain England Is defeated. Tournament arena means he is knocked down and beaten but will not die. After that John was glad the test was over as the pain limiter being at 40% real pain was horrible for being hit by fire and ice and he dreaded what hitting level 5 and it going up to 80% real pain would be like for the same. Enemy Defeated! Loot: None (Testing mode) Stat Bonus: +1 Intelligence (After testing mode) +1 Wisdom (After testing mode) New Skills: Lesser Ice Spike Skills Levelled Up: None (Testing mode) Loading next test¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­ Again his vision went black however this time it didn¡¯t blind him like before because of the bright sun as he was in an enclosed room lit by torch light. It looked like the interior of a temple and presumably was a sort of puzzle to solve. Looking around he saw what looked to be 3 large pressure plates which he presumed linked to 3 stone beams going horizontally across a giant door in front of him that he would have to find a way to activate before he could go through the door. Turning around slowly he saw three paths out of the room in a semi-circle behind him and figured they must get something for the pressure plates to be activated with. Heading first to the left hand tunnel from the door he walked through a short tunnel and saw what looked like a puzzle in front of him. There was a small table with cubes which was encased in glass with metal rods sticking out that seemed to be used to push them and a larger version of the same thing in a pit in front of him. There was a sign in front of it saying: ¡®Get to the other side and pull the lever, once pulled the first challenge is complete¡¯ ¡°That seems easy enough¡± John thought to himself. Walking up to the table he saw it was a lot more complicated than he originally thought. There were different coloured ends to the metal rods which matched the colours of different cubes. Slowly he started moving different cubes in the glass which as expected moved the large ones in the pit for him, he had already tried to just jump from cube to cube and realised there was a barrier around the edges that weren¡¯t connected so he couldn¡¯t cheat the puzzle. They seemingly had no pattern and when pushed they moved until they hit another cube or the edge, it was a slow process of trial and error with moving the cubes around before he finally managed to slowly make a path to the other side using the knowledge he gained from his failed attempts. When he crossed the path he made and pulled the lever he heard a loud rumble then a crash before the slow grinding sound of stone moving against stone. Heading back to the main room he saw the top bar had retracted from in front of the door and was now to the side of it. Next he headed into the middle room which held a balance course mixed with an agility course of sorts that seemed rather basic. It held simple narrow beams that changed direction and jumps that would be a bit of a push for a normal person but not too difficult. This course he completed rather easily as he was young and so still fairly fit from doing sport at school. He then pulled the lever and heard the same rumble, crash and then grinding as before and walking back into the room saw that the middle bar had also retracted. Finally he headed into the right hand room there he saw what seemed to be a simple strength test, a bolder at the base of a slope with a pressure plate at the top on almost flat ground. The bolder wasn¡¯t too heavy so he slowly pushed it up the hill heading for the pressure plate and pushed it onto it. However it didn¡¯t work and when he took pressure off thinking it would stay it rolled towards him and he dived aside so it didn¡¯t crush him. He tried again with the same result after spending several minutes trying to balance it before it slipped and fell again. This time he decided to look carefully at the bolder that ended up in the same spot each time and looked for something that might give him a hint about it, doing this he uncovered a thin seam in the rock which after several minutes of work he managed to open and a section popped open to uncover a flat section of the rock! Before going again he checked the rest of the rock and uncovered nothing else so tried rolling it before realising it will end on the flat side if he goes straight forward up and ended up having to push it off the flat surface which was very difficult. After this he slowly worked it up the slope in a zig zag which meant he had to balance it from two directions to keep it going up and made it a lot harder however it worked and put the flat part on the pressure plate after a few times of having to lower it to move the flat surface and push it up the slope a bit again. This retracted a section of the wall at the back which revealed an alcove with a lever inside. Pulling the lever gave the same result of the others. Heading back to the main room he saw the door was uncovered and had opened so he walked through which turned his vision black and brought a notification up. Puzzle Room Complete! Loot: None Stat Bonus: +1 Dexterity (After testing mode) +1 Intelligence (After testing mode) New Skills: None Skills Levelled Up: None Closing this brought up another one¡­ His Class selector! He straight away opened special classes knowing if there was any unlocked it was pointless going for any normal ones unless he hated how they were played. Classes Unlocked ? Standard Human Classes> ? Rare Human Classes> ? Special Human Classes: o Blue Mageblade o Blue Mage o Beginner Magus o Dodger 4 Special Classes! It was uncommon to get more than two special classes if you got any at all which only about three quarters of challenge takers did. Getting 4 however was considered rare and the only people who got more than that were people who unlocked warlord and they normally got 5. The highest anyone had got before was 6 special classes to choose from and he was considered the best player at the game, managing to get a different type of warlord class called a battlelord. This gave him good combat capabilities whereas a standard warlord only tended to get average battle capabilities. The first was probably the most powerful in his opinion. It was a hybrid character that used both magic and weapons effectively however the best part was that he could learn skills through watching and copying people perform them. Spells were also classed as skills through being a subcategory, the subcategories were spells, melee, profession, general and abilities, so this was a very powerful ability and meant he could gain anything he watched. He however couldn¡¯t unlock skills through meeting their normal requirements unless they came with/from the profession he chose or his race. The blue mage was the same as the blue Mageblade however it only worked for spells or magical abilities that could be converted to spells. The beginner magus was a lesser form of the magus they could level into which was just a powerful mage capable of learning multiple full schools of magic rather than one and some basic spells from others. And finally the dodger was a unique form of tank in the game. Instead of focusing on their defence and health they focused on dexterity and avoided attacks while keeping agro and had abilities to help with AOE attacks. This tended to make them the best kind of tanks however it was very difficult to play and needed amazing reaction time and good reflexes to begin with. John decided out of all the options he would like the blue mageblade the best as it was the most flexible and in turn one of the most powerful classes. The others were all good however either didn¡¯t equal it or were too difficult for him. After selecting blue mageblade he then got to distribute his 5 bonus stat points he started with. He had a 2 in each of strength, constitution, dexterity and willpower, a 3 in intelligence and a 1 in charisma. He decided he would need a fairly balanced build between the melee and magic stats which would make it hard to distribute these initially. He decided to raise strength and willpower to 3, charisma to 2 and constitution to 3. Once selected he submitted his selection. Chapter 2 - A New Life... (Sorry for chapter 1 issues) Creating Character¡­ ¡­ ¡­ Class and Statistics linked¡­ ¡­ ¡­ Error: no longer linked to pod 25678495 ¨C character cannot be created Attempting to resolve error Solution found: creature created ¡®blue slime¡¯ Solution resolved: consciousness linked to ¡®blue slime #1¡¯ WARNING! YOU WILL NOT RESPAWN ON DEATH WITHOUT AN ABILITY OR GAINING A HIGH ENOUGH RANK IN CERTAIN AREAS!!! John read through this as it appeared before him. ¡°What¡¯s happening?! Why isn''t it connected to my pod anymore and why am I being linked to a slime?! And what is a blue slime, nobody has mentioned it before and all the mobs have to slowly level stats the same way we do. Wait I can''t respawn if I die!!! ¡± With that thought his vision slowly formed into a plains area, well what he called his vision wasn¡¯t actually, he could see 360 degrees around him which was disorientating and he could see glowing light coming from various items around him. He did however see his HUD seemingly as normal and opened up his character sheet, which contained his stats, first. Name: Blue Slime Species: Slime CL: 2.6 Class: Blue Slime Profession: Locked Character Information: HP: 30 MP: 25 Stamina: 85 0.3 HP/Minute in combat 0.3 MP/10 seconds in combat 3HP/Minute out of combat 3MP/10 Seconds out of combat Stats: Strength: 3 Constitution: 4 Dexterity: 2 Intelligence: 3 Wisdom: 3 Luck: 1 Skills: Blue Knowledge (Active) - Novice 1 Mana Sight (Active) ¨C Novice 1 Lunge (Active) ¨C Novice 1 Corrosive Body (Active) ¨C Novice 1 Straight forward punch ¨C Novice 1 (Locked) Lesser Ice Spike ¨C Novice 1 ¡°I AM A MONSTER!!!¡± he tried to shout which he then realised he couldn¡¯t do! He couldn¡¯t speak at all, his body just wiggled as he tried to shout from the movements normally made when shouting. ¡°Ok maybe I should just log out and try to start over then¡± He thought. ¡°WHAT!!!!!¡± after scouring his HUD and every menu he couldn¡¯t find a log out button as well as it being only partially like a normal players HUD. He couldn¡¯t even contact the company! Where these two options normally were was different options than players got. ¡°THAT MEANS IF I DIE I WILL DISAPPEAR FOREVER!!!¡± One was something to do with breeding although it was greyed out currently and the other was to do with monster hierarchy within his current region. It was based in a pyramid structure separated into various tiers with him on the lowest one. It currently had 4 tiers with 1 on the top tier, 3 on the second, 5 on the third and 7 on the fourth. These could then be opened up into more mini-hierarchies. The main one was related to monster types then the one that split down were monsters in the area which was split into different types. The only species he could see on it currently were slimes and the tiers available were: Slime King, Slime Lord, Slime Warrior and Evolved Slime. There was also something below these called a standard slime although this didn¡¯t fit into the pyramid and sat underneath it. The Slime hierarchy were much larger than the species hierarchies and expanded exponentially. There was 5 Slime Kings within Udral as the region he was in was called; there were then 25 slime lords then 1250 Slime Warriors, 6250 Evolved Slimes and finally 31250 Slimes. This was then split down into 5 lines within the hierarchy each one linked to one of the slime kings These 5 areas were each called a slime kingdom and took up a portion of either the beginner plains or the Klaso forest that was on the opposite side of the plains to the city from him. The city was also called Klaso which was what gave name to the forest. There were three slime kingdoms in the plains and 2 in the forest, the further from the city they were the stronger. His kingdom, Ocleau kingdom, was closest to the city and was only 1 territory away from the city and run by a King Slime called Golime. The closest territory was a goblin territory which was to the south of them and bordered the city. The amount of land they owned was 50 square kilometres in a rough square shape. He was only 100 meters or so from the edge of their territory towards the city. This positioned him as one of the weakest Advanced Slimes in the kingdom which was to be expected. He also realised he didn¡¯t have an inventory! ¡®How am I supposed to play properly and store my loot if I don¡¯t have an inventory to carry any of it in?! Wait how am I even meant to get loot if I¡¯m a slime! I¡¯ll just melt it all¡¯ he cried out in his head trying to work out what to do in his situation. He couldn¡¯t log out, he couldn¡¯t contact anyone from the company, he couldn¡¯t speak and he couldn¡¯t even gather loot currently without melting it, this distraught him almost as much as being unable to log out due to him being such a big gamer. ''I guess id best learn how to use this form properly now seems as there''s nothing else to do¡¯ he thought and started learning how to move. Without legs it was unusual to move, he had to roll his slime around which at first caused him to spin wildly and feel nauseated. After this he tried to just move the slime and keep his core steady instead of just rolling. After he learned this it wasn¡¯t too hard to control as it meant he could change direction quickly although had to overcome his current momentum to do it, he also discovered he had to pick up speed to be able to move quickly. He could also lunge which was a normal attack a slime used. It sent his body flying forward at a speed derived from his dexterity. It scaled up by going up a tier in speed for every 5 points of dexterity and moved 2% quicker for each tier of it at his current skill level also due to it being a slimes basic attack it wouldn¡¯t use stamina, each creature had at least one attack like this so it could always fight. It would also do blunt damage from the impact initially followed by corrosive damage every second he was touching the victim in the location he was touching when he had corrosive body active. Corrosive damage would cause different effects depending where it was, on arms or legs enough of it would disable them until it was healed however on the head or important areas it could kill them. This was after it got through any armour or clothing the person was wearing and currently his body had a low level of corrosion from being so weak. Currently he could melt through fabric but nothing denser than that and even fabric would take some time to work his way through. He also decided to try out his Lesser Ice Spike spell to see how it worked in this new form. ¡°Lesser Ice Spike¡± he shouted in his head causing the ice spike to appear and fly forwards where he was aiming. ¡°Glad that till works like before¡± he mused to himself. ¡°I really need to learn how to fight if I¡¯m going to survive so I should probably to find something to fight, I need to test out how combat works in this body too¡± He thought looking around him, seeing nothing he decided to head towards the goblin area to see if there was any weak slimes to fight if he could or, failing that, a goblin to try and kill. He started heading towards the city making sure he stayed moving at a steady rate so that he could watch all his surroundings for enemies and spotted several slimes nearby, most were just blue coloured slimes which he presumed were normal and a few were more advanced slimes like himself. These blue slimes though, unlike him, were more of a blue tinged so they were still semi-transparent whereas he was a solid blue colour. There were also a few players he could see fighting some goblins at the border and a couple fighting slimes just past it, however these seemed to have just switched to slimes and were struggling even if they weren¡¯t taking much damage. Seeing a lone slime that wasn¡¯t under attack he decided to try and unlock the analyse skill by analysing it if possible. ¡°Analyse¡± he thought to himself focusing completely on that slime. Attempting to learn the skill ¡®Analyse¡¯ ¡­¡­... Success! New skill learned: Analyse - Novice 1 Slime CL: 1.3 Class: None Profession: Locked Alignment: Neutral ¡°Nice!¡± he thought to himself seeing its success. ¡°He¡¯s also slightly weaker than me so if I can fight him then it shouldn¡¯t be too hard of a fight.¡± He headed towards the slime preparing himself to attack it. The only ways he could attack in this fight would be to cast lesser ice spike or to lunge so he went straight for it, first casting a single Lesser Ice Spike then lunging at the slime activating his corrosive body for 2 mana bouncing back off the slime and hitting it again with another lunge, his corrosive body staying active for 5 minutes after using the skill. You hit Slime with Lesser Ice Spike for 5(4) points of frost damage (25% weakness to magic damage), 15/20 HP remaining Your Lesser Ice Spike froze Slime for 0.5 seconds You used 10 mana, 15/25 MP remaining You activate ability Corrosive Body You used 2 mana, 13/25 MP remaining You hit Slime with Lunge for 5(6) points of damage (25% resistance to physical damage), 10/20 HP remaining You damaged Slime with Corrosive Body for 0 points of corrosive damage (Immune to corrosive body), 13/20 HP remaining You hit Slime with Lunge for 5(6) points of damage (25% resistance to physical damage), 5/20 HP remaining You damaged Slime with Corrosive Body for 0 points of corrosive damage (Immune to corrosive body), 5/20 HP remaining ¡°Damn it¡¯s immune to my Corrosive body skill! Not that I didn¡¯t expect it to at least resist it a bit¡± John said slightly annoyed to himself, wishing he had done another ice spike for the extra damage. Slime critically hit you with Lunge for 3(4) points of damage (25% resistance to physical damage), 27/30 HP remaining Slime¡¯s critical hit stunned you for 2 seconds Slime hit you with lunge for 2 points of damage, 25/30 HP remaining Slime hit you with lunge for 2 points of damage, 23/30 HP remaining You hit slime with lunge for 5(6) points of damage, 0/20 HP remaining You killed Slime! Enemy Defeated! Loot: Normal Slime Core ¨C Uncommon Drop (Unable to carry) Stat Advancement: Strength: 0%--> 50% Constitution: 0%--> 60% Dexterity: 0%--> 10% Intelligence: 0%--> 10% Wisdom: 0%--> 5% Luck: 0%--> 0% New Skills: None Skill Advancements: Lunge: 0%--> 110% Lesser Ice Spike: 0%--> 5% Corrosive Body: 0%--> 0% Skills Levelled Up: Lunge ¨C Novice 1--> Lunge ¨C Novice 2 ¡°Yes my first kill! I wish I could take that slime core though apparently they are very useful¡± John thought to himself. ¡°I also didn¡¯t come close to death so I should be ok surviving if I keep fighting these for now but maybe I could fight something stronger seems as it did less than a third of y health or I could try using my blue magic to try and learn some spells and skills¡± realising this could be massively beneficial to making him survive he decided to try and work on the latter two, especially since it will most likely level his stats quicker. Deciding to look around to see what he could fight he analysed everything in view. Young goblin spearman CL: 4 Class: spearman Profession: None Alignment: Enemy Young Goblin Mage CL: 6 Class: mage Profession: Alchemist Alignment: Enemy Jade Thomas (Traveller) CL: 1.7 Class: Thief Profession: None There was only 3 enemies nearby that were even remotely close to him aside from some normal slimes, out of them one caught his eye though, ¡°what¡¯s such a weak thief doing all the way out here on their own?¡± He laughed ¡°they are one of the squishiest classes and have little hope without a tank especially with how lost she looks¡±. He was right the thief was looking around herself in panic seeming to be looking for her party or the city which was right behind her, where she wasn¡¯t looking for some reason. Deciding to head for the traveller, after all he had no qualms killing another player even a weak one unlike normally as he would just be saw as another monster to kill now, he picked up speed quickly to try and engage before another mob can take advantage and quickly casts Lesser Ice Spike on them then, because of the temporary freeze, lunging at them. You hit Jade Thomas with Lesser Ice Spike for 4 points of frost damage, 11/15 HP remaining Your Lesser Ice Spike froze Jade Thomas for 0.5 seconds You used 10 mana, 15/25 MP remaining You hit Jade Thomas with Lunge for 6 points of damage, 5/15 HP remaining Jade Thomas stabbed you with Rusty Iron Dagger for 3 points of damage, 27/30 HP remaining You cast Blue Knowledge ¨C next ability used will be learned by you You used 10 mana, 5/25 mana remaining You hit Jade Thomas with Lunge for 6 points of damage, 0/15 HP remaining Jade Thomas has been killed You learned new ability ¨C ¡®Traveller¡¯s Magic¡¯ Enemy Defeated! Loot: None (player below 5 CL) Stat Advancement: Strength: 50%--> 55% Constitution: 60%--> 65% Dexterity: 10% --> 15% Intelligence: 10%--> 15% Wisdom: 5%--> 10% Luck: 0%--> 0% New Skills: Traveller¡¯s Magic Skill Advancements: Lunge: 10%-->20% Lesser Ice Spike: 5%--> 15% Blue Knowledge 0%--> 5% Skills Levelled Up: None ¡°Traveller¡¯s Magic? What could that be, is it their power to respawn?¡± John questioned himself when he saw that he gained this skill confused, especially when he noticed it didn¡¯t have a level like his other abilities. He decided to look at the skill in more detail and pulled it up.Love what you''re reading? Discover and support the author on the platform they originally published on. Traveller¡¯s Magic Traveller¡¯s magic will cause you to be able to respawn if you want to upon death, you will respawn in your ¡®home¡¯ location after you lose the required level progression Cost: 25% of all stat and skill required for the next tier/level Requirements: Died ¡°Yessss! That means I can die now and respawn for sure!¡± John cried out in his head, before he wasn¡¯t confident he would or if he would just disappear altogether upon death. ¡°What was she doing out here though, she was so weak she died even quicker than that slime I fought earlier and she was supposed to be more powerful according to the system¡± John questioned to himself at first then realising why she seemed such a weak person in comparison ¡°actually thieves would normally level their dexterity and luck which would leave her health and damage low unlike slimes who commonly level strength and constitution as well as having a physical resistance¡± ¡°I think now I should try and find somewhere to call home now so that I can respawn there when I die¡± John thought, he was under no illusion that he wouldn¡¯t die anytime soon. Looking around he saw a tunnel in one of the small hills nearby that there didn¡¯t seem to be any slimes around so he headed towards it and went inside, planning to make it his home. ¡®You have entered and contested Monster Lair: Skinshifter¡¯ ¡°I didn¡¯t plan for that to happen but I do need somewhere to stay, let¡¯s see what this skin shifters about then¡± john mused to himself heading deeper inside, analysing the Skinshifter as soon as it came into view. Skinshifter CL: 5 Class: Shapeshifter Profession: Hunter Alignment: Enemy ¡°That¡¯s why there¡¯s nothing around, that Skinshifter is powerful for the area! I can¡¯t retreat though as I¡¯ve challenged it¡± Quickly casting a Lesser Ice Spike at it before casting Blue Knowledge and Corrosive body hoping it would help and he could learn something useful then lunged at it. You hit Fleshshifter with Lesser Ice Spike for 4 points of frost damage, 21/25 HP remaining Your Lesser Ice Spike froze Skinshifter for 0.5 seconds You used 10 mana, 15/25 MP remaining You cast Blue Knowledge ¨C next ability used will be learned by you You used 10 mana, 5/25 MP remaining You activate ability Corrosive Body You used 2 mana, 3/25 MP remaining You hit Skinshifter with lunge for 4 points of damage (Armour 2 point reduction), 17/25 HP remaining You corroded Skinshifter¡¯s armour for 1 point of durability, 9/10 durability remaining Skinshifter cast bodyshift, healing its wounds externally Skinshifter healed for 3 points of damage, 20/25 HP remaining You learned new ability ¨C ¡®Bodyshift¡¯ Skinshifter slashed you with claws for 12(16) points of damage (25% resistance to physical), 18/30 HP remaining Skinshifter slashed you with claws for 12(16) points of damage (25% resistance to physical, 6/30 HP remaining You critically hit Skinshifter with lunge for 10 points of damage (Armour 2 point reduction), 10/25 HP remaining You corroded Skinshifter¡¯s armour for 1 point of durability, 8/10 durability remaining You failed to stun Skinshifter! Skinshifter stabbed you with claws for 12(16) points of damage (25% resistance to physical), 0/30 HP remaining You died! This was the expected outcome of the fight but John was still sad to see it happen, he didn¡¯t even debate about choosing yes to respawn and knew he never would. Traveller¡¯s Magic Level Loss! Stat Decrease: Strength: 55% -->30% Constitution: 65%--> 40% Dexterity: 15%--> 0% Intelligence: 15%--> 0% Wisdom: 10%--> 0% Luck: 0%--> 0% Skill Decrease: Lunge ¨C Novice 2: 20%--> 0% Lesser Ice Spike ¨C Novice 1: 15%--> 0% Blue Knowledge ¨C Novice 1: 5%--> 0% Mana Sight Novice 1: 86%--> 61% Corrosive Body ¨C Novice 1: 0% --> 0% Straight forward punch ¨C Novice 1: 0%--> 0% Mana Sight ¨C Novice 1: 88%--> 63% Analyse ¨C Novice 1: 40% --> 15% ¡°That really is a brutal death penalty, everything is back to zero at the lowest level apart from my strength, constitution and lunge as well as getting no xp towards anything from that fight. I wonder did I keep that skill I got from the Skinshifter?¡± john ranted to himself while he waited for the process of respawning to finish. When it had he brought up his stat sheet. ¡°I guess I kept the skill, I should see what it does then.¡± Name: Blue Slime Species: Slime CL: 2.6 Class: Blue Slime Profession: Locked Character information (> Stats (> Skills (v) Blue Knowledge (Active) - Novice 1 Mana Sight (Active) ¨C Novice 1 Lunge (Active) ¨C Novice 2 Corrosive Body (Active) ¨C Novice 1 Straight forward punch ¨C Novice 1 (Locked) Lesser Ice Spike ¨C Novice 1 Traveller¡¯s Magic Bodyshift ¨C Novice1 Bodyshift Move your body mass around your body however you want, weather to fix wounds or to grow another set of arms is up to you as long as you have the mass to spare! Cost: 15 mana per cubic foot moved Requirements: Body mass to move (can be replenished by eating extra food) ¡°Nice! That means I can actually have a body rather than this ball of slime! Slimes are notorious for growing larger when they eat as well!¡± John thought excitedly to himself, ¡°Let¡¯s see if I can make myself something resembling one then¡± Slowly over time he created first arms then legs from his central body before finally he created a head, making himself resemble a vague human shape. Because of all the trial and error it took to get them working reasonably well he ended up moving around 10 cubic foot of his body using 150 mana, this took him only 7 minutes¡¯ worth of time for the mana however moving the mass around his body at this level was slow even when he got two level ups in the process. In the end it took him around an hour before he had created the body he wanted to and even then it was squishy because of the nature of a slime. Level improvements: Bodyshift: 0%--> 214% Mana Sight: 61%--> 63% Intelligence: 0%--> 103% Wisdom: 0%--> 55% Level Ups: Bodyshift: Novice 1 --> Novice 3 Mana Sight: Novice 1--> Novice 2 Intelligence: 3--> 4 Skills Unlocked: Straight forward punch ¨C Novice 1 He also noticed his mana sight had finally gone up, his vision relied on this as it was how he viewed the world so it was constantly, yet slowly, gaining xp. This levelling up meant the colours of the mana around him was slightly more obvious than before however he wanted to be able to disable this, without going blind when he tried it initially. That meant he would have to study eyes and work out how to make some, the same as he would a voice box and lungs so he could speak when he realised just a mouth wouldn¡¯t work. This caused his wisdom to go up when he realised he couldn¡¯t make certain things till he learnt more about them, his intelligence also went up as he was working on something new he didn¡¯t know how to do that was fairly delicate work to make the body successfully. Once the body was complete he also unlocked ¡®Straight forward punch¡¯ which he figured he would as he now had arms to use it with. ¡°Now it¡¯s time to get to work on these stats, I need to get them levelled up as well as my skills¡± John thought with mixed opinions. His Mana had now gone up to 30 and his CL had gone up to 2.8 after his raise in intelligence level, as well as knowing his magical damage would be slightly higher now. After deciding this he decided to slowly grind slimes around one of the other holes a fair distance from where he tried and died before, outside were several normal slimes varying in their main attributes but all the same CL as the first he faced. After slowly clearing these out he let himself heal up and regen his mana before preparing to see what was inside by looking at his skill gains from the 8 slimes he killed, gathering the loot into a pile nearby, hidden in a bush. Level improvements: Bodyshift: 14%--> 22% Mana Sight: 63%--> 67% Intelligence: 3%--> 46% Strength: 0%--> 35% Constitution: 40%--> 111% Dexterity: 0%--> 20% Luck: 0%--> 8% Wisdom: 55%--> 100% Lunge: 0%--> 120% Straight forward punch: 0% -->35% Lesser Ice Spike: 0%--> 95% Analyse: 15%--> 130% Level Ups: Constitution: 4--> 5 Lunge: Novice 2--> Novice 3 Analyse: Novice 1--> Novice 2 After looking through his improvements he was rather happy considering he had only had to fight 8 normal slimes for it that were rather weak, he thought he could probably have taken 2-3 of them on at a time without too many issues unless they all had raised luck that could stun him. ¡°Now let¡¯s head inside and see what¡¯s in store for me¡± John thought, unconsciously moving the mouth he had made himself even though no sound came out. Heading inside he saw the same prompt as before, which he expected now and peeled into the room, inside he saw 2 normal slimes and a slime that looked different to the ones he¡¯d saw so far. He decided to analyse them, with it levelling up he could now see their highest stat up to level 10, above that it would show up as ¡®???¡¯. ¡°Analyse¡± he called out in his mind on each of the three of them. Slime CL: 1.5 Strength: 3 Class: None Profession: locked Alignment: Enemy Slime CL: 1.5 Constitution: 3 Class: None Profession: locked Alignment: Enemy Earth Slime CL: 2 Intelligence: 5 Class: None Profession: locked Alignment: Enemy ¡°That looks like an interesting fight¡± John thought to himself, smiling at one of two typical formations used. These are tank, dps and crowd control or tank, dps and healer. Everyone knew earth slimes were best at crowd control with their aoe spells. He knew this would be a tough fight so prepared himself, even with his stat increases so he now had 35 health and 30 mana. For this fight he decided to cast Blue knowledge first as it only worked on new skills, then two ice spikes at the ¡®tank¡¯ before lunging at it followed by a straight forward punch. After that it devolved into a melee with the Earth slime supporting them You cast Blue Knowledge ¨C next ability used will be learned by you You used 10 mana, 10/30 MP remaining You hit Slime with Lesser Ice Spike for 10(8) points of damage (25% weakness to magic), 15/25 HP remaining Your Lesser Ice Spike froze Slime for 0.5 seconds You used 10 mana, 0/30 MP remaining You hit Slime with Lesser Ice Spike for 10(8) points of damage (25% weakness to magic), 5/25 HP remaining Your Lesser Ice Spike froze Slime for 0.5 seconds You used 10 mana, 20/30 MP remaining You hit Slime with lunge for 4(6) points of damage (25% resistance to physical), 1/25 HP remaining You hit Slime with Straight Forward Punch for 4(6) points of damage (25% resistance to physical), 0/25 HP remaining You killed Slime Earth Slime hit you with Tremor for 5(4) points of damage (25% weakness to magic), 30/35 HP remaining You learned new ability ¨C ¡®Tremor¡¯ Slime hit you with Lunge for 4(6) points of damage, 26/35 HP remaining You critically hit Slime with Lunge for 9(12) points of damage (25% resistance to physical), 6/15 HP remaining You stunned Slime for 1 second Earth Slime hit you with Tremor for 5(4) points of damage (25% weakness to magic), 21/35 HP remaining You hit Slime with Straight Forward Punch for 7(6 ? 9) points of damage (50% bonus straight forward punch for stun + 25% resistance to physical) 0/15 HP remaining You kill Slime Earth Slime hit you with Tremor for 5(4) points of damage (25% weakness to magic), 16/35 HP remaining You hit Earth Slime with Lunge for 6 points of damage, 9/15 HP remaining You hit Earth Slime with Straight Forward Punch for 6 points of damage, 3/15 HP remaining Earth Slime hit you with Tremor for 5(4) points of damage (25% weakness to magic), 11/35 HP remaining You miss Earth Slime with Lunge Earth Slime hit you with Tremor for 5(4) points of damage (25% weakness to magic), 6/35 HP remaining You hit Earth Slime with Straight Forward Punch for 6 points of damage, 0/15 HP remaining You killed Earth Slime Enemies Defeated! Loot: Earth Slime core ¨C Rare Drop (unable to carry) 2x Slime mass ¨C Common Drop (unable to carry) Stat Advancement: Strength: 35%--> 75% Constitution: 11%--> 25% Dexterity: 20%--> 25% Intelligence: 46%--> 86% Wisdom: 0%--> 20% Luck: 8%--> 12% New Skills: Tremor (Spell) Skill Advancements: Lunge: 20%--> 50% Lesser Ice Spike: 95%--> 105% Blue Knowledge: 0%--> 5% Straight Forward Punch: 35%--> 55% Skills Levelled Up: Lesser Ice Spike: Novice 1--> Novice 2 ¡®Congratulations you have claimed this burrow as your new home¡¯ After reading his loot and gains, he received this text over his vision and yelled out in his head ¡°Yessssssss! Now I can keep my loot here¡± After all there was nothing a gamer loved more than loot. He quickly went outside and pushed the loot he had gained into his new home before temporarily sealing it off.