Rebirth: Rise of the Slave Master

Chapter Twenty-Nine: Changing Priorities

Theo pointedly ignored the prompting look from the the bank teller as he inspected the sum of money earned from the auctions. This was even after the fees had been taken out by the Auction House for the items that failed to sell! Everything except an incomplete stack of [Lesser Air Essence] and a few of his more long-shot crafting items were bought up by the end of the auction for an absurd amount. He would need to stop by an Auction House office the next time they were in a city with a Merchant Guild branch and pick up the official receipt showing the final bid for each of the items.

“Wait,” Theo considered, when had he started thinking in terms of they?

In a moment, all of Theo’s plans were thrown out the window. He felt as if he was standing in a whole new world. This amount of money wasn’t just enough to set him up for the next couple of months, but it would also afford the purchase of any creature comforts required for his character or slaves in the meantime. By the time this windfall escaped him, he should have acquired enough gear to start another Bloody Auction. He had known that staying ahead of the crowd would be profitable, but he never expected this.

It was understandable, when Theo entered the game previously, many of the major powers had already been established, and these positions failed to change much over the course of the game. Items like the ones he posted were already flooding the market, and the base price on them had dropped considerably. Perhaps Theo could have predicted this kind of response if he had an in depth knowledge of the economic habits of Dream World Online, but statistics had never been his strong suit.

“If I was always the first to put out the new high-end gear… would this trend continue?” Theo couldn’t help but think.

A monopoly like this… it couldn’t be sustainable right? It would be dangerous to think that way. Eventually, even the big Guilds wouldn’t be willing to spend that much money just to stay one step ahead of their competitors, would they? When Alabaster Alliance had been founded, Adrian had always taken care of selling the loot Theo collected and raising funds from Guild activities. What were the real profits from all of those transactions? Had he been scammed by his Vice-Guild Leader for much longer than he thought?

Ignorance and hindsight was a nasty tasting cocktail.

Theo had to stop and calm his mind for a bit before adjusting his plans accordingly. A world of freedom opened up in front of him, and frankly, it scared him a bit. To say that these revelations changed everything would be an understatement.

“Like this… 50 gold should be enough for any expenses I have in the near future… the rest of it I can go ahead and sell.”

Cash would only become more valuable the longer the game existed! Theo didn’t have to think twice about what was the proper decision. He removed 550 gold from the bank and immediately put it through the currency exchange. This was essentially the same as selling the gold back to the developers, and the feature could be accessed through a convenient service right there at the bank.

He immediately received a receipt of the transaction, and the money would be deposited into his real world bank account after pending for a day or so in limbo.

$1331.33

That was more than he made in a month of working at the minimart.

Theo’s next task was to visit the Post Office. Compared to his new fortune, the cost required to send a completion notice to the Adventuring Guild was completely negligible. Although he had already received the monetary reward from completing the escort, Theo needed to official contact the Guild branch in Oasis if he wanted to properly receive the Achievement Points earned. He didn’t want a repeat of the Goblin’s Subjugation incident.

“I should be able to hire a ferry to the next location with this much,” Theo said, feeling like a newly minted man.

He tried not to let the sudden success rush to his head. This was all earned from his hard effort and lucky timing. Theo wouldn’t necessarily be able to replicate this event in the future, no matter how hard he tried. The conclusion he eventually arrived at was that he needed to stay calm and keep to his original plan. A few things could change, but that didn’t mean everything had to be thrown out.

His slaves would still need to level up if they were going to escape the reach of Old Man Snake Eyes. Although he no longer needed to raise funds around Aleside to afford their passage, Meatshield and Gobthnora wouldn’t be able to fight stronger monsters without the proper skills. The key to everything was to continue grinding like a madman!

Theo collected ‘the girls’ and brought them to the Town Hall. He needed to first speak with the local Monster Subjugation Officer. The elderly man with neat hair and a fine suit gave the ragtag group a few skeptical looks, but didn’t dare to refuse the aid of a D-rank adventurer. These officers were dispatched by the major governments of the world to issue rewards for killing monsters in the interest of public safety. Since no other players had yet to venture this far, Aleside was considered to be at serious risk in this regard. As opposed to other quests, which gave out decent runes and weapons, these infinitely repeatable subjugation missions only rewarded the player with a bit of petty cash and some reputation in the city.

The reputation was the most important thing right now, as it would make chartering a vessel that much easier.

When the trio arrived outside the walls, Theo briefed the slaves on the changes they needed to make to their monster hunting tactics. At first he hadn’t allowed them to engage in this kind of behaviour because he felt it would ultimately prove detrimental to their skill growth. With the shadow of the Shapeshifter ever lingering, however, speed was of the utmost essence, and he couldn’t deny the efficiency of such a time-tested strategy.

Theo would put his dodging skills to use and round up a group of monsters, bringing them back to Meatshield who would absorb the damage. Gobthnora would bombard the bunched up targets from afar with her [Fireball] spell. This allowed the group to dispatch multiple enemies at once, as opposed to taking them out individually, effectively tripling or even quadrupling their gains. To no surprise, the plan was met with resounding approval from the two women. Well, Meatshield didn’t seem to have any opinion on the matter, but Gobthnora was all for watching the other slave take a beating while she burned everything to cinders.

Just like that, Theo and his slaves began to clear out every nest of monsters they came across. Although poor Meatshield was ruthlessly attacked, under the effects of [Lesser Regeneration] she would be back to full HP by the time she finished harvesting all of the bodies. In the interim, Theo would be out gathering up more unsuspecting victims. It took some time for Gobthnora and the princess to get used to the new rhythm, but they had always shown a genuine talent for this kind of work. After only a single afternoon, Aleside’s western field had been transformed into a barren, scorch-marked wasteland.

The only thing that slowed down the slaughter was the need to check back with the Monster Subjugation officer every time the group filled their quota. At first the man seemed to think they were returning with their tails between their legs, but he quickly changed his tune when he saw their results. By the fourth time Theo finished the mission, the dapper old man was already referring to him as “Master Adventurer” and welcomed the trio with a hearty smile. No doubt, the officer was profiting more from Theo’s work than anyone else.

Of course, the monsters would soon respawn and the process would begin anew.

As opposed to Bosses, which respawned on a timer, Dream World Online’s basic monsters had a dynamic spawning system. Each territory in the game had an invisible meter that tracked player activity. The more players in a territory and the more they hunted, the fewer monsters would spawn in that area. This applied to all territories except the fields surrounding the designated starting cities, which were locked into a ‘very high’ respawn rate. This system was designed to cut down on ‘boom’ areas, where a certain monster was found to be more profitable to hunt for whatever reason, causing players to flock to that location.

If something like that happened, the territory would be marked as too active and the monsters would grow more and more scarce. Eventually, the players would be forced to move on to new hunting grounds and the spawn rate would gradually return to normal.

Eventually, an area that was left overpopulated for too long would spawn a terribly destructive Field Boss, but that wasn’t something which would happen until much later in the game’s lifespan.

Since Aleside only had Theo, it had a brutally fast respawn time, so much so that Theo’s group almost ended up wiping on a few occasions. New monsters would suddenly appear in the midst of a battle, and if it hadn’t been for Theo’s ability to handle these surprise groups, his slaves would have certainly died. Theo would have probably gotten away unscathed, though. Even if he had the money for it now, paying a Priest to resurrect them would incur a hefty fee.

NPC services were always absurdly expensive.

Contrary to his belief that this light-speed grinding method would negatively affect the growth of his slaves, the goblin and the princess seemed to thrive in such a precarious environment. Maybe it was an innate feature of NPCs that life-threatening situations accelerated their learning potential. With the very real possibility of death a near-constant, Meatshield noticeably improved her dodging and blocking capabilities. Level was one thing, but Theo could see an actual change in her combat mentality as the fights dragged on.

More importantly, she made it through alive without abusing her [Blessing of the Stonekin].

Gobthnora was much the same. At first she would be lucky if even three monsters were caught in the blast range of her [Fireball], and she would often damage Meatshield in the process. By the end of the day, Meatshield was only a little singed, and four or even five monsters would be roasted by each attack.

To whatever end, out of all the common MMO features the Dream World Online devs left in the game, Aggro Management wasn’t one of them. Monsters of lower intelligence would always attack the nearest target, even if there was a more threatening player in the backline. At higher levels, as the AI grew more sophisticated, the players would be forced to learn the habits of each hostile species and understand how to read their movements and intentions. An ogre that was fighting head to head with your Knight could suddenly break away and target the Priest, or even turn tail and run. It might even be leading you into a trap.

To make up for this, “tanking” in Dream World Online relied heavily on slowing and stunning skills, as well as clever battlefield control and target herding. Fighting multiple more-intelligent enemies could quickly lead to a mess that would wipe out even over-leveled parties, but Theo had years of experience in managing and diverting monster aggression. He tried his best to teach Meatshield how to position herself in order to lead the monsters around, but there was only so much information he could cram into the girl’s skull at one time.

“To the left! Never leave a line of attack between the target and the spellcaster! Don’t stop moving! Dodge heavy! Block light!” one order after the other was shouted out in the chaotic battles, until Theo was hoarse.

This continued until the slaves were simply too exhausted to fight. No matter how much their HP and MP was regenerated, the two would reach a point where they had to stop or risk making fatal mistakes. Since Gobthnora’s physical expenditure was smaller than Meatshield’s, but the latter’s endurance was much better, they had the strange habit of running out of steam at around the same time. In this case, they had battled for nearly seven hours straight, minus the trips back and forth to town.

Even Theo grew weary of having to constantly save the two from one sudden death after the other.

Watching his slaves out of breath and panting as they rested next to the [Goblin Campfire], he couldn’t help but smirk and think to himself, “Maybe it’s true what they say about women who spend a lot of time together syncing up.”

He kind of doubted this was what they meant, though.

Despite what should have been a festive atmosphere after a long and profitable hunt, Gobthnora and Meatshield were both staring at the fire silently with pensive expressions. Due to Theo’s perfectionism, it had become habit for the pair to reflect on their experiences after a battle. From the looks of it, they were clearly bothered by the number of times Theo needed to rescue them.

Though that could have just been his ego talking.

For the first time since he had back-to-back enslaved the pair, Theo felt a little touched. How could he not recognized that look? After his stay in the hospital, he had come back to Dream World Online feeling as if the whole world has passed him by. He felt weak and inadequate, and his competitive blood boiled. The feeling plagued him, refusing to leave him alone until he proved that he could be the best.

Of all people, it was his slaves who reminded him of the desire to improve at all costs.

“Maybe they’re not the only ones who need to reflect…” Theo thought.

The battles lately, aside from the first fight with the [Desert Serpent Queen] and the lucky retreat of the Shapeshifter, had been far too easy for him. How much had he actually improved his playing ability in the last few weeks? This kind of leisurely attitude just wasn’t like him, and even if there was nothing he could gain in combat with low-level mobs and bosses, there was still a lot he had to learn about being a Slave Master. He carefully inspected the glowing rune on the back of his hand, and walked towards the campfire with a sigh.

“Huddle up,” Theo called out, “Even if you’re not fighting, there’s plenty you have left to learn.”

Theo would normally consider this a good day and logout to get some rest for a little while, but he decided to remain in the game and spend the next few hours trying to impart some theoretical knowledge to his slaves. If they were going to grow into NPCs that could rival the best, he would have to make sure they thought like the best. He started with basic concepts, like how to read the movements of beast-type monsters, and even went on to assign them homework for when he was gone. Although it was hard to breach concepts like HP and MP management in the AI’s that were unable to acknowledge such terms, he did his best to work around the limitations of the system.

“Master is wise beyond even the greatest Gobbo Oracles!” Gobthnora didn’t hesitate to praise Theo’s investment in her.

Her personality was set to ‘ambitious’ by default, so she delighted in any opportunity to increase her own power and authority. As soon as she was returned her ability to speak openly, she made a point to do so as often as Theo would let her.

After the slaves had been educated, the Slave Master made a point to educate himself. Theo didn’t fully understand the ins and outs of his class, and had been overly reliant on his past experience as a Warrior. The first thing he wanted to learn was how to make the best use of the [Slave Master’s Brand], and the conclusion he reached after some testing was shocking.

The magical compulsion of this ability directly affected the NPC’s ability to act, but did not change their thought processes or perceptions. In fact, it actually hampered their ability to come to conclusions on their own and properly execute skills.

For instance, Theo could order the slaves to act a certain, very specific way, but their movements would be slow and forced as the magic conflicted with their original habits and intentions. If Theo ordered Gobthnora to “Never hit Meatshield with a [Fireball] spell,” she would be forced to wait until her attacks met the criteria of the order. Were the opportunity never to arise, she would spend the entire battle sitting in the back doing nothing. Even ordering the Goblin to “Try not to hit Meatshield with a [Fireball],” would conflict with her innate desire to do so.

The slave’s mentality and understanding was also integral to using the [Slave Master’s Brand] properly. An order to “Love me” could be so vague that each slave would react to it differently. Whereas Gobthnora might start praising him and trying to seduce him constantly, Meatshield would probably fail to react at all. It was questionable if she even knew how to ‘love’ somebody. If he ordered the princess to “Follow one meter behind me at all times,” she could probably manage, but an order to “Follow two-hundred and forty-three centimeters behind me at all times,” would be so specific and confusing that she would fail it ninety-nine times out of a hundred.

Theoretically, if orders were used carefully and subtly, serious problems in the slave’s actions could be slowly corrected over time. As long as they didn’t conflict with their ability to act, it was possible to forcefully instill good habits when they fought. It was something that would require a lot of trial and error to perfect, but Theo was actually beginning to grow excited now that he saw the potential of his class. He was used to micro-managing his own actions down to the smallest detail, and enjoyed scheduling and problem solving probably to an unhealthy degree.

If Theo hadn’t been so self-centered in the past, he might have actually made a competent Guild Leader.

“Could it be that I’m well suited to this sort of thing?” Theo mused as he watched the pair sit and think on the information he had given them, “Heeheehee, I’m looking forward to seeing what kind of monsters I can make…”