Great start so far and it was only mid afternoon. Enoch expected interesting comments for the patch. Crazy power creep. At his level, Choo Choo made him 1.5 time stronger. Fair, in a way, because the game was players vs players, but all the build orders and standard strategies were in for a big redo. Especially scary as a solo player. A full group of four could throw four artifacts at him. With good planning, a given at his level of play, his opponents could cover all angles or hyperspecialize in one area. Four dedicated nukers, backed by four mini nukers. Instant death.

He’d have to play to his strengths as a solo player. Quicker leveling and ease of escape. No one left behind if he ran away.

Wary of a returning hunting party, or other players, Enoch left the hill, went deep into the forest, sat in a hidden recess, jumped to his Skill Sphere. His vision shifted, his ears rang, the soundtrack transitioned to a transcendental music. Light on his feet in the weak gravity of his obsidian moon.

No hesitation. +1 Strength to +1 Agility to +1 Strength. His muscles grew. Popped one after the other in a disturbing swole wave. He cracked his articulations. Groaned in pleasure. Stretched. Flexibility had improved, reflexes and awareness too.

Good. The last fight had been way too close for what it was. He’d have died without the traps and, he hated to admit it, Choo Choo. To his credit, he would have simply run past the lair without his new helper. He had only pulled the whole tribe because of his own personalized, trap infested, battlefield. Not a bad call all in all.

Strength 2 | Attribute | Rarity 1

Multiplier x3 | Health +10 | Speed 1

Agility 1 | Attribute | Rarity 1

Multiplier x2 | Dodge 1 | Speed 0

Next level, he could continue on the same path to + 1 Agility and then branch to the Martial attribute, useful for combat. The other path led to Cavalier, a class with bonus for mounted combat. Not a great pick for his class. His investment in Mobility redundant with a mount. Event for a normal build, you kind of needed an overpowered mount to use the class to its full potential.

There were a few dangerous biomes where you could find young griffins or wyverns. Even dragons if you were suicidal. Enoch had seen popular replays where low-level groups, and a solo player once, had managed to secure a strong mount early on. Huge risk. Huge payoff.

Gambles had their uses, but this one was way too radical. Worst, mounts were annoying. Required attention. This train of thoughts lead him back to his companion. Time for Choo Choo’s Skill Sphere.

He picked Telekinesis. The little core bumbled around with full mana most of the time, might as well use it.

Telekinesis 1 | Spell | Rarity 2

Targeted object will move as an extension of the caster’s will.

Duration 5 seconds | Refresh 2 seconds

Cost 15 Mana | Range 1 | Capacity 10 pounds x1

Two purple lines extended from the activated node. Two choices for next level, +1 Willpower or +1 Intellect. Interesting, the attributes would have a minimal impact. He would have to gamble on what came next.

Enoch went back to the forest trail. Decided to follow it. His instinct, honed through thousand of games, told him he’d find a human settlement at the end of it. There, on the small quest board, he’d find a pinned note offering a reward to whoever cleared the gremlin lair. That’d be him. He smiled to himself like a lunatic.

The trees passed by fast, as did the traps, easily detected. The slope started to decrease when he spotted his first player. Too close. A rogue. Hidden through Stealth. Enoch’s favorite prey. A petite silhouette with long flowing hair, an upturned nose and two tiny horns.

Overused races had fallen out of grace decades ago. “About damn time,” had said his grandfather, again and again like old peoples did, “back in my days, every other game had grumpy dwarves, uptight elves and dumb orcs. Then they went all original. Turned the orcs into noble savages. Threw in cat peoples for that demographic.” Enoch wished it had stopped there, but the next part always followed like clockwork, “and that’s saying nothing about the paid dlc, preorder bullshit and loot boxes. Kids these days have no idea how good they have it.”

Anyway, races had switched to mutations. Enoch himself wasn’t too big on them but they were popular. Some could be selected at character creation, fur, scales, colors, horns, weird facial features, pointed ears, waterfall beards. Bigger alterations had an impact on gameplay. They had to be gained in-game. Inverted legs. Tail. Extra arms, eyes or senses.

The rogue had made a troll face at character creation. Popular with player killers. Something about it being extra funny if the victim died to an offensive avatar.

Troll face died easy. He had stayed on the side of the road, thinking he was safe with his Stealth. One good spear stab empowered by a Dash for a greeting, followed by a few dagger hits. Choo dove at the dead rogue’s corpse, pulled out with a spin.

“Stabbing comes in second, you’re a shield first,” said Enoch.

“But-”

“See that archer, stay between us. Catch the arrows.”

The rogue’s group was coming in fast. Three other players, a male archer with brown fur, a war painted female with a long axe and a pointy hat girl with pink skin. Player killers for sure. Vanilla archetypes were optimal for the strategy. It optimized the collected loot. Assured a counter against most strategies. Well, they hadn’t planned for a solo player with Perception 3 at level three.

His golem core gave a deflated, “Choo Choo,” and followed the order, positioned himself in the path of an eventual arrow.

Enoch lowered his gaze to the corpse, probed with his hands. Quickly. A highly detailed bracer caught his attention, but it seemed fused the forearm. His bonded item? Well, it hadn’t helped him much. Enoch shrugged, picked a high-quality bronze sword. This group had a dedicated crafter, or, most likely, had found a group of crafters and had ended them.

Player hunters were frowned upon by the player base, but they didn’t bother Enoch. It was only a game after all, the point was to optimize it. He just thought it was a bad tactic, players were more resourceful than NPC. Riskier preys.

He heard a thump. Choo recoiled, spun, an arrow embedded in his shield.

“Good job,” said Enoch.

He cut out one of the rogue’s satchel with his dagger. Out of time, he took off in the wood. Used Dash every time it refreshed. No need to take chance.

They ought to be mad. Losing one this early. The game had a built-in mechanism to balance out group size. The XP penalty stayed the same even if one player, or more, died. Survivor often ended up alone, totally screwed, earning 8 times less experience than a real solo player.

He could have harassed them, but it wasn’t worth the risk. It would boost his ranking, turn him into a prime target. Plus, the archer might already have some Mobility. Worst, the caster could Root him, hold him in place while the axe girl turned him into minced meat. No thanks.