I ventured out of the town and immediately saw dozens of boars littering the field. There were still a good amount of players that were killing boars because the boars ranged from lvl 1-3.

By watching a player by the name of Computer Frenzy battle a lvl 2 boar, I immediately began to understand the problem that many low-level sorcerers were facing.

Lvl 2 Sorcerer

vs

Lvl 2

Attack:25-35

Defense:2

Health:200

Rage:100

Skills: [Gore]

The game didn’t allow you to analyze other players’ stats. The only thing you could see about a player was their level, and the health bar above their head. The health bar just showed a gauge of their health, and not a number though.

For example, a player with full health would have a bar that was completely full, while a player with half health would show a bar that was only halfway full and so on and so on.

Computer Frenzy started by unleashing [Arcane Barrage]. The lvl 1 [Arcane Barrage] only fired three small purple bullets that quickly discharged strait into the boar.

15!

10!

12!

The missiles had done a combined 37 damage. [Arcane Barrage] was a channeled skill that required 1.5 seconds to unleash its full power.

A channeled skill does a portion of the total skill at different intervals. In this case, one missile is fired off every 0.5 seconds until all three missiles are fired. The player can choose to cancel the skill early, but canceling the skill does not prevent the skill’s cooldown from coming into effect.

The boar turned and immediately began charging towards Computer Frenzy. Right before the boar hit, Computer Frenzy activated his [Mana Shield].

~30~

The 30 damage had been absorbed by his [Mana Shield], but the boar was relentless and pressed his attack.

~21~

~23~

The young human sorcerer began whacking the boar with his staff in desperation.

2!

3!

This was one of the problems that sorcerers faced. Until level 10 when every class got a new set of moves, sorcerers only had 1 offensive move at their disposal but that move had a 10 second cooldown.

In a familiar eerie glow, the boar’s tusk let off a faint red aura, it was [Gore]. I immediately began patting my rump while remembering the traumatic experience I had earlier. Not to mention that having your butt stabbed by a tusk is quite embarrassing, I’ll make sure to never mention this to anyone…ever.

27! (~11~)

The devastating attack shook me out of that traumatic memory and turned my attention back to the fight. The boars skill had been enough to break through the [Mana Shield]. The total damage from the skill had been 38, while 11 had been absorbed by the [Mana Shield], resulting in the 27 damage to Computer Frenzy.

Computer Frenzy turned tail and began running away. The boar gave chase and quickly caught up to him. Cloth weaving classes such as the [Sorcerer] did not have much agility, and therefore were not very fast.

It also didn’t help Computer Frenzy that in Dreamscape, attacking from behind deals an additional 15% damage, which is one of the reasons that the [Rogue] class is so deadly.

24!

26!

23!

The boar was relentless and unforgiving. In a short span of time, the boar had already dished out 100 damage. Computer Frenzy quickly turned around and held out his staff right in front of the boar’s face, unleashing the [Arcane Barrage] that had just come off cooldown.

13!

15!

27!

One of the missiles was a critical hit, which most likely meant that it had hit the boar in a weak point, such as an eye. Computer Frenzy had done a total of 97 damage, which wasn’t too bad considering his position. The problem was that now he had 8.5 more seconds until both of his skills came off of cooldown.

The boar seemed to realize this and attacked with a renewed vigor.

20!

19!

MISS

During the second part of the boar’s attack, Computer Frenzy had tripped on a rock and began to fall. That fall resulted in him accidently avoiding a possibly lethal attack. He now had between 10% and 15% health left.

So, when players level up they are given 5 stat points that they can freely distribute however they want. Considering the amount of damage that Computer Frenzy’s [Mana Shield] absorbed, that meant that he probably put all of his stat points into intellect and not endurance.

[Quick refresher]

[Mana Shield] lvl 1: Draws upon the user’s mana to protect them from harm. Consumes 20 MP to activate and consumes 1 MP for each point of damage absorbed, up to a maximum of 25% of the user’s mana. Cooldown: 20 seconds.

While on the ground, Computer Frenzy reached into his bag and pulled out a red vial, it was a health potion. He quickly drank it.

+100

Potions have a cooldown of 60 minutes before they can be used again. He realized that he was in a bind, and scrambled away while screaming, “Help!”. The boar mercilessly chased after him.

My stomach twisted, I was about to do something stupid. I was conflicted because I didn’t want to die again but I couldn’t just stand there and watch someone in jeopardy.

So I did the only thing that I knew how to do so far in this unfair game. I threw caution to the wind, and literally flung my tome as hard as I could at the boar.

Since the boar was running and my aim wasn’t that great, I only managed to hit it on its side.

1!

The book bounced off the boar and landed a couple of feet from its target. The book stunned the boar for a fraction of a second, which was barely enough to give Computer Frenzy the edge he needed to escape.

The boar chased Computer Frenzy for a couple of seconds and then stopped, Computer Frenzy had left the boar’s aggro range.

Aggro is the act of gaining the attention of an NPC. Aggro can be generated by damaging an NPC, healing a teammate, or by special moves that generate aggro. NPCs have a range at which they will begin attack a player, and a larger range at which they will stop following a player. Tanks will typically have moves to generate Aggro so that they can gain the attention of the monster.

Since I was the only person within its range that had generated any aggro, the boar turned and began running at me. The boar had 103 health left, and I was at full health with 163 hp.

The boar was approximately 20 meters away from me and closing fast. I felt a pang of fear grip my heart. No, not this time. Although it was only a glorified book, I needed the help of my only weapon if I was going to win. The problem was that the boar stood between my precious weapon and me.

Against my better judgement, I sprinted towards the boar and within two seconds we were almost on top of each other. Putting all of my effort into my left leg, I began to jump. I was attempting to hurdle the boar.

Two things prevented this from being successful. The first was that my agility was too low, which meant that I didn’t jump very high to begin with. The second was that the boar reared up on his back legs and sliced his tusks deep into my unprotected shin.

20!

I spun wildly in the air and then slammed into the ground.

5!

Smack! The ground was hard and unforgiving. I scrambled to my feet, but I had lost track of the tome while whirling through the air. I saw the boar only 2 meters away, and decided to just run in the opposite direction.

The boar quickly turned back towards me and gave chase with unending stamina. I looked over and saw that my book was lying 10 meters away from a tree, and I had an idea. I was going to climb a tree!

I scooped up the tome as I ran by. This slight fluctuation in my speed caused the boar to catch up. I had a moment of panic as I once again recalled the last time that a boar attacked me from behind. I twisted and flung the book as hard as I could at the boar’s face.

3!

The boar did not expect this and was temporarily stunned before immediately resuming his pursuit. I was approaching the base of the tree, but dread filled my stomach as I realized that the lowest branches were at least 5 meters high.

Not having any other choice, I ran at the tree as fast as I could and attempted to run up it. At the exact moment that I had jumped up, the boars tusk smashed into the tree.

6!

The boar had clipped my ankle causing a brief pain. This caused to me to fail at running up the tree, and I immediately started falling back down. Thanks for nothing gravity!

I pushed off the tree with my leg that hadn’t been injured in an attempt to create some distance between the boar and myself… Once again I slammed into the ground.

4!

Wham! I used my momentum and quickly rolled back to my feet, while scanning for my enemy. I was shocked, baffled even. The boar had gotten his tusk stuck in the tree!

After a few seconds of writhing madly, the boar freed itself. Dang-it, if only the boar was actually stuck in place, then I would be fighting a punching bag.

I think my mind was touched by an angel, because I had a moment of brilliance that descended from the heavens. [Gore] would cause his tusks to get wedged deep in the tree!

I checked my health: 125/163. I can do this, I know I can do this. The boar turned towards me, and he looked pissed! He charged at me faster than I had ever seen a boar move before.

I tried jumping out of the way, but I wasn’t quick enough. The boars tusk sliced into my left leg.

27!

I tried rolling back to my feet, but I wasn’t very coordinated. The boar was upon me once more and used his traditional three hit combo.

I had witnessed from Computer Frenzy earlier, that the last part of the combo could be avoided back moving backwards. Realizing that my agility was low and wouldn’t allow me to quickly react, I already started jumping backwards.

25!

22!

MISS

I had successfully avoided he final attack, but I was still in trouble. I only had 51 health remaining, and I didn’t have any health potions in my inventory.

I scrambled towards the tree, but decided to pick up my tome first. After picking up my weapon I looked back towards the boar, only to realize that he was inches away from me.

I twisted my body and placed my tome between me and the boar.

17!

The tome had blocked part of the damage, but I was still knocked back due to the force of the charge. My back smashed in a hard surface, knocking the air out of my lungs.

4!

I glanced up and realized, it was the tree! I looked at the boar and his tusks began to emanate the blood red aura of his ultimate move, [Gore]. This was it, my one and only chance to test my theory.

I didn’t have any confidence in my jumping or my rolling skills, but considering that I was backed against a tree I didn’t think it was possible to jump high enough anyway. I lowered my stance, I was going to have to roll to the side to dodge this fatal blow. My 30 health wouldn’t be able to withstand the boar’s [Gore] if I got hit.

He approached like lightning, and I dove as fast as I could to the side. I had originally planned to roll, but things don’t always work out how you want them in life and death situations.

A loud thud resounded against the trunk of the tree, and leaves began cascading from the branches. From my prone position, I turned and saw that both of the boar’s tusks were wedged deep into the base of the tree.

YES! I did it! I almost wept with joy, but quickly composed myself. My work was not done yet. I began thinking of the best way to dispatch my arch nemesis, and then decided that it would be safest to just throw my tome at him. This would keep me from potentially get hurt if the boar decided to flail around.

With a rage that had been building from 8 hours of not being successful at anything, I threw my book readily at the boar. After the 52nd throw, the boar let out a cry, and died.

Because I had done the most damage to the boar, I got all of the experience and loot.

I looked at my experience bar and saw that I had gained 5% of what I needed to reach level two. The boar had only dropped 1 copper coin and what seemed to be a liver, gross. I decided to only take the copper coin. And began to walk off, when I noticed something strange on a nearby hill.

I looked at it intently for a moment, and then the name appeared above some rocks.

What good fortune! Lady luck seemed to be on my side for once. I happily skipped over to the ore and pulled out my pickaxe from my bag.

I slammed the pickaxe into the rocks as hard as I could. A faint clanking sound could be heard as I repeated this action three times. Finally 3x [Copper Ore] appeared in my inventory, and the pile of rocks disappeared.

I glanced around the plains and saw a formation of rocks that represented copper ore, perfect.