Helios: Hey, you’re back!

John checked his pocket watch. It had been thirty minutes since the start of the pre-release.

John: Yeah, you too. Where’d you two go?

Helios: We filed a report and went to bed. But where did you go? What was that, John? It was scary, we thought you might have died.

John quickly thought up an excuse to push aside Gram's concerns.

John: Don’t worry about that, it's not the helmet, it’s a personal thing.

Helios: Oh, okay...

He was clearly still confused but didn't further the matter.

Helios: Also, you’re level four. When did you get back?

John was thankful that the friends list didn’t show the exact experience level of players. Otherwise, he would have to immediately make another excuse.

John: Around five or six hours after you left last night. I just farmed a few mobs. I still am.

Helios: Oh, can Jodie and I join you? We’re both a bit behind from missing half a night of progress.

John: Yeah, sure.

He sent his coordinates.

John: I’m in this general area, it’s a hill. Just come over and grind the bottom of the hill.

Helios: Acknowledged.

John closed the chat and continued the climb.

He decided to settle in on the fifteenth landing of the stepped hillside area. At around this height, the vertical distance between landings increased to nearly a dozen meters, creating a sharpening of the hill's contour.

The rabbits were mostly gone at this point, the remaining ones reaching level six. Instead, level six raccoons were common with the occasional level seven tainted lizards.

[Tainted Lizard]

Level: 7

HP: 263/263

These weren’t the simple little reptiles that were kind of annoying but cute at the same time. They rather resembled the mighty Komodo dragon, with huge serrated teeth and rugged scales. They had an improved venomous bite and possessed an overwhelmingly aggressive behavior, along with a four-meter length.

And there was one – right in front of John – on the steep ramp to the fifteenth landing, rested into the clastic hillside.

The Komodo wannabe gave John a nasty look like the player had killed its mother. A three-pronged tongue – probably anatomically incorrect – slithered out, causing a puff of condensation in the winter air.

It felt surreal, a cold-blooded predator in an arid winter wasteland.

John raised his pistol and shot it.

-15

‘This gun’s too weak…’

It hadn’t hit anywhere particularly vital, but the damage was very poor. The scales were indeed, tough.

The Komodo look-a-like snarled, dripping venom, and charged downhill, using its elevation and mass to build huge momentum.

John fired another shot.

-14

It nicked the lizard near the left shoulder. The huge bullet merely cracked the tainted lizard’s scales and it shrugged off the damage. John fired a second bullet.

-26

It perfectly hit the monster in the same spot, pushing aside broken scales and digging into the flesh.

That got the monster’s concern. The sudden stress on the joint while its shoulder muscles contracted caused damage to the musculature, nearly flipping the downhill runner over its front feet.

Its massive kinetic energy that had been a weapon now also became a liability as the body lunged uncontrollably.

John jumped to the side, but the lizard still nicked him in the shin as he jumped.

-13

He spun laterally and landed on his stomach. There was a gust of wind like a train had just passed by. John coughed up dust and recovered his bearings

The Komodo was in a heap five meters away. It had taken the worst of the exchange.

John pushed off the ground and immediately raised his pistol, shoot the last round of the magazine before the beast could recover.

-20

The shot landed near its mouth where the scales were weaker, and the lizard groaned.

John quickly reloaded his pistol, pulling out one of his reserve magazines. He had loaded the tips as such: black, normal, black, orange. He hadn’t wanted to break out the special ammunition, but solo killing a level seven mob like the tainted lizard would difficult otherwise.

As the reptilian tank recovered and went after John, he aimed again. The heavy recruit pistol shook with an immense recoil.

Penetration rounds used a denser material and had a sharper tip. To compensate for the weight, a different alchemical propellant was used. This summed up to a faster round that sliced through low-level mobs’ hides like butter.

-56

The super-effective penetration damage of the black tip tore off the left side of the lizard's face, ripping the left jaw muscles and rupturing a venom salivary gland.

‘That’s more like it.’

The lizard roared in pain but maintained its advance. It got to John before he could shoot another shot. John hastily leaped to the side – this time successfully – and stabbed the monster in the back, hard.

-18

The dagger barely entered the flesh, but the impact vibrated up John’s shoulder, almost causing a collision proc.

The Komodo brought its giant serrated mouth about face and lopsidedly snapped its venomous daggers at John.

He could not afford to get hit by that. Venom and broken bones were why most Gyead players would eventually hunt in teams, with at least a priest. But John didn’t carry any antidotes, relying on prevention rather than treatment.

The thief narrowly avoided the first two passes of chomping jaws and the fountain of venom. As the third time came around, he fell onto his back, ducking under the violent dentition.

‘Rapid-Fire’

John dropped his dagger and stuffed the pistol with both hands into the dragon’s wound. There was a muffled discharge of flash and smoke.

-32

The monster reeled backward from the shot, just as another liberation of gunpowder filled its oral cavity.

-34

John worked the bloodied bolt again as the lizard’s front foot went down, trying to stomp and claw the thief’s chest flat.

-36

Another damage number appeared on the lizard as the third Rapid-Fire round exploded out of the smoking barrel.

With the disorientation of the mob, John managed to pull the gun out and roll away, barely escaping the crushing force.

He worked the bolt again, trying not to slip with his wet hands. He pulled the trigger.

-15

It hit the Komodo in the neck, barely breaking through the scales. It had been a normal round because of Rapid-Fire, and it hadn’t been particularly well aimed, but it was enough.

[You have slain a Tainted Lizard]

[You have gained 238 XP.]

[You have leveled up.]

[The fourth level barrier has been removed.]

With the life expelled from its body, the tainted lizard corpse fell downwards.

-7

“Oooooof,” John exhaled as the weight pushed the breath out of his lungs.

He lay there for a moment and sighed. ‘I was a bit greedy. Should have just used more special ammo.’

Indeed, that fight had been sloppy. John hadn’t taken much damage – but that didn’t mean he did a good job – one solid hit and he would have taken semi-permanent damage. Well, by normal standards his fight had been good, exceptional even.

He had killed a very hard, higher-level common mob, bordering on elite status, alone. Even amongst experts in the past, they would have struggled to do the same. It showed the brutalness of early game skirmishes: even a ten-year veteran couldn’t overcome a two-level difference so easily. It required skill and lots of it.

John pushed the corpse off himself and wiped the lizard’s various fluid off his face. He collected the drops, 6 [Tainted Lizard Scale(s)], five chunks of [Tainted Lizard Meat], and one [Tainted Lizard Eye] – the other had been blown off under the consecutive blasts.

Replacing the black tip in the magazine and inserting another one with fresh rounds into his gun, John started lumbering up the ramp.

And there was that level-up too. He distributed the points into his core stats, 2 in dexterity, 1 in agility.

[John]

Class: Starter Thief

Level: 5 (35/21860)

HP: 153/158

Strength: 9

Vitality: 9

Agility: 14

Dexterity: 16

John looked at the notification feed.

[Choose a basic skill.]

This barrier of Assimilation modified XP values for party hunting, further encouraging players to group up.

But at level five, rather than just a gameplay change, the fourth assimilation barrier also gave players a basic skill for their class and chosen playstyle. This was really a bone for normal players in a dog-eat-dog world where drop rates were painful at best.

For John, it represented a big choice. He glanced at his options.

[Pounce]

A - Grade Skill

Rank: Not yet Learned

Damage: 2-3 + (65% Base Damage) SDU (Slash; Penetration) / 4-7 + (135% Base Damage) SDU (Dark; Slash)

Cooldown: 23s

Pounce Distance: Up to 1m + 0.2 Agility / Up to 1.5m +0.3 Agility

Notes: Pounces forwards, stabbing a target; deals increased damage and has bigger range when cast from stealth.

Pounce was an essential skill for dagger-based thieves, allowing them to close distance. Dark damage had a chance of applying an umbra proc which generally slowed the speed of the affected part and applied a modified version of fear aura on the target. This would be great for John if he wanted to start assassinating the competition.

[Double Shot]

A – Grade Skill

Rank: Not yet Learned

Second shot base damage: 80% of first shot/ 50% of first shot’s damage and 35% of effect for special rounds

Recoil Reduction: 25%

Cooldown: 19s

Delay: 0.15s

Notes: Fires a mirror of the last round from the firearm with a slight delay and less recoil; less effective with special munitions; second shot deals more % damage with high fire rate weapons; does not use ammo for the second shot.

Double Shot was the standard firearm damage skill for thieves and gunners, the former having a watered-down version. It would be great for John when he went to kill the elite deer, mostly for the effect duplication on blue tips, ice rounds.

[Pressure Strike]

A - Grade Skill

Rank: Not yet Learned

Damage: (35% Base Damage) SDU (Collision) / 2-4 (115% Base Damage) SDU (Collision)

Non-stun knockback: (250% Base Knockback)

Cooldown: 10s

Stun Duration: 1.25s Standard

Notes: Hit the target with a blunt impact, applying a guaranteed collision proc; stuns if applied in a certain region of the target; enhanced damage and knockback if hit outside of the region.

Pressure Strike would be the first crowd control skill that most thief players could get. Starter thieves would normally use the skill after pouncing on a target during assassinations, getting a fairly easy stun. Veterans also liked to use the skill to disengage an exchange or weaken a target’s footing.

Upon first glance, the best choice for John would certainly be Double shot, a pure damage skill. John didn’t have any plans to assassinate players, except maybe an old rival, and death was the best crowd control.

He hovered over the choice, about to select it.

Then he considered again.

Did he really want to keep spec’ing into pistols? If he wanted to keep raiding, questing, and hunting, the answer would most definitely be yes. Range classes had an inherent advantage in kiting, and John knew plenty of positions where the tactic was unintendedly strong.

But could he rely only on PvE? There was still the problem of Lupe: what would he do about Lupe? After the murderous anger of last night, and the prompt trauma attack, the will for revenge had dimmed. No, it hadn’t dimmed – changed, evolved, maybe – but certainly not dissipated.

Still, John knew that he wouldn’t be able to pull that trigger.

He flexed his right arm and tensed the tendons in his forearm, gripping the heavy recruit pistol. He held the weapon motionless.

Would he be able to even pull the trigger on a player – any player?

The still of his hand wavered as he selected his choice.

[Are you sure you want to select Pounce?]

[You have learned Pounce, Rank 1.]

He chuckled as he continued up the hill.

He would be more than happy to jump Lupe in the night, afflict him with umbra, cut him into tiny little slivers until he was more than dead – but no, John couldn’t shoot him.

…

“Bit higher, to the left.

“Yeah, around there.

“Hit him in the eyes.”

“I’m trying,” the optical mage said, attempting to stabilize her spell, Beam. Optical elementalists had the longest range out of any class in RISE. The A-Grade spell, Beam, could reach John, but it was well beyond the focal point of the laser-like spell.

…

As he climbed up the ramp, John felt an uncomfortable brightness from in his eye, like a pesky child with a laser pointer.

John turned around and spotted two small players near the third floor of the hill. It was far, but still with shouting range. From in-game experience, the normal range of a player shout was over two hundred meters.

“Oi, you dimwits, I can hear you from here!” he shouted. “Put down the laser pointer, you’ll give someone retinal cancer!”

The voice was faint but clear enough for the two get the message: one, the speaker was rude, and two, they really were within range and just didn’t know it.

“Hello,” the priest shouted back. “We are from the Skarl guild. You may have heard of us before.”

John had. Skarl was a medium-large sized guild in the past that had grown into a huge presence. John was surprised they had managed to enter the pre-release given their current size. He suspected that all, or most of their allotted devices and players were in Gyead. “Yes, I know you.”

The shouting gave the priest’s voice a slow and grand quality. “Then, you’ll have heard of our honesty – ”

John hadn’t.

“ – and goodwill – ”

John hadn’t.

“My name is Dedication, and this is my colleague, EM Radiation: the Skarl Gyead representatives for the pre-release. Could I ask who you are, and what organization you represent?”

“John,” John shouted curtly.

“Yes?” Dedication replied, slightly puzzled. That sounded like an everyday real name rather than a big identity in the gaming world.

“I do not represent an organization.”

“Oh,” the priest mumbled to EM. It was weird finding individuals rather than representatives in the pre-release. “Let’s ask him to party. Maybe we can befriend and eventually recruit him.”

Radiation shouted this time. “Perhaps we could cooperate.”

John had expected such an answer. He knew he had been spied on the moment EM Radiation revealed herself as an optical elementalist. And he knew how attractive a lone expert of his caliber was.

But it wasn’t a bad suggestion. John could gain more ties with the big names and challenge the elite monsters higher up the hill. He hadn’t planned on doing so, even with Jodie and Gram, but gaining more good allies, especially with some healing, could make it a possibility.