《Hidden World Online: A LitRPG Story》Chapter 18- Let's Be Thorough
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As it turned out, Lonnie wasn't at the camp when Mickey arrived; he was off at work, making sure the roads stayed safe. Mickey had two choices. He could wait, or he could do something in the area and kill some time. Given the two options and knowing that he had limited time to enjoy the game, Mickey went to visit a certain someone.
"Come on—bring it, Peter!"
"Raaaaaw! Mraaah!" the zombie, dragging its claws, roared.
Mickey returned to fight with Peter. There were things that he still wanted to confirm, and Peter, a monster whose patterns Mickey knew, was the perfect guinea pig.
Mickey baited Peter's dog like he had the day before and pulled back toward the wall. "It's so great to see you again, Peter. Looks like you all really do come back after a night."
Mickey was referencing a detail from one of the guides. Boss monsters were consistently re-spawning. This wasn't a feature unique to Asniels, but rather all of the Realms. Re-spawned monsters wouldn't give as bountiful rewards—a detail that Mickey thought was good for the purpose of maintaining balance within the game.
Peter's dog went through the motions—it turned into a repeat of the day before. Peter, the poor soul, hadn't learned anything, it seemed.
Mickey brutalized Peter's dog right in front of his rotting eyes. Peter rushed in, swinging his arm. This time, Mickey dodged fully and jumped over one of the walls. He had to make sure to create a similar situation to the day before. He wasn't testing variability in behavior today—what he wanted to know was beyond the battle.
Peter was consoling his dog once more, and once more, Mickey came from behind, choking Peter with the spiked ball's chain and bashing his skull in with the spiked ball. The battle progressed through the same steps like they were acting out a play. The only change occurred when it was time to stab Peter. Instead of using the skull of Peter's dog, Mickey held the dagger in his third hand. With that dagger, he stabbed away.
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Peter died much faster.
Mickey reflected on the battle and agreed with himself that the increase in his statistics from leveling-up, while small, and the dagger contributed to making a noticeable difference.
Peter and his dog fell, but Mickey kept his focus on the corpses—there would be no disappearing just yet.
"Okay, so let's figure this system out."
Mickey fell to his knees and began cutting away at Peter's rotting flesh, keen on extracting more drops. Mickey was curious. In most games, you would get drops after defeating a monster—that was how this game seemed to work too. But after coming to a situation where he found that the skeletons sometimes dropped Funny Bones, and after seeing how flexible HWO was with quests in general, he wondered if HWO would be flexible with drops.
The idea of boss monsters giving rare drops—it wasn't strange. In fact, in many games, players would repeatedly fight a particular enemy in hopes of receiving a drop that could very well have less than a one-percent chance of appearing. It wouldn't be strange to expect something similar to be implemented here.
Mickey cut through Peter's hands and pulled out the iconic bone claws. He placed them to the side, nodded, and began working on ripping through Peter's chest.
The bones were separated only because Mickey wanted to see if actually separating components he was interested in would affect the final results. He already tried bagging the claws, but nothing happened. In other words, it seemed he wouldn't be able to store them in his inventory.
Now, the chest had one more thing that Mickey was curious about; he was hunting for the strange light. Mickey, with hands plunged into the puddle of black that was the chest's contents, fumbled around for something. He eventually felt a prick and a shock—a sure sign of something unusual. He fished it out and held it to his face.
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"Hmm. Yeah. Can't say I expected this."
Between Mickey's thumb and index finger was a lustrous, purple crystal. It looked like a jagged ball of flame frozen into its form. Energies swirled within it, and Mickey was sure he could see faint wisps of black flowing from it, like some sort of aura.
Mickey placed the crystal next to the bones and wondered about his next move. "Should I break them? Or should I let it dissipate?"
The problem in this particular situation was that there was no way he could draw good conclusions without hunting Peter many times. This led to the conundrum that if he did have a good result, he would need to remind himself that he may have just gotten lucky and that the extra effort amounted to nothing.
Acknowledging that further tests were without a doubt going to be required, he decided that he would let Peter fade and see what happened.
"I'll do this ten more times, and then I'll switch to destroying these objects ten times. It won't be great, but maybe it'll give me some broad ideas…"
Peter's corpse began to fade in black particles, as did the other components. The forms faded away, but they left something behind, and these could be picked up. There was a Skill Bit left in the place of the claws, a smaller version of the purple crystal where the crystal was, and an EX-EXP crystal where Peter's body was.
***
Received:
Mauling Peter's Crystal
[Bone Claws] Skill Bit
2EXP
10EX-EXP
***
"[Bone Claws]… Isn't this?" Mickey scanned his memory, looking for the right bit of info from the guides. "Right! These are the Adversarial Skill Bits! The guide said some monsters drop a Skill Bit that reflects an aspect about them—but the way the guide talked about them, it seemed like it was talking about special event bosses… Did the guide know regular bosses dropped them?"
Mickey was tickled that he may have found another detail that the guide didn't mention outright, but he reminded himself to not get cocky—he may simply have misinterpreted what the guide said.
He dusted himself off and got up with a sigh, the purple crystal in hand. "Is there any data on you?" Mickey thumbed through his Slate, but there was nothing on the crystal. For the moment, he could only surmise that it needed to be appraised. If realism was being pursued, he would have to go to an expert, though when it came to an expert on the boss monsters, only one person really came to mind. Still, that person was back in Torea. Mickey shrugged, stored the crystal, and went on his way back to the midway-camp, happily humming.
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My Body Could Turn Into Data!
People get to travel through worlds when they were stuck by lightning; Ralph gets to digitalize his body when he was struck with lightning. He could enter into any database physically through his phone. He could digitalize his body and enter the farming game, planting whatever he wanted. He could stay in a villa and drive a luxury car, and even bring out everything in the game to reality. Ralph had accidentally entered PUBG game. PUBG players: What the hell, someone threw a long sword at me and nuked me instantly! I am reporting this cheater!” PUBG officials: “We are sorry but this player you are reporting does not exist in our database!” Raplh: “Actually I was just thirsty and wanted to get some water, but you were in my way.” Movies, dramas, games… Ralph had realized that he could travel through any virtual world! He knew that with this, he would become a very powerful person!
8 1092Chaotic Craftsman Worships The Cube
Summoned after an unfortunate accident in hopes they could protect the world from a coming threat, Ben and his classmates are gifted another chance at life. With fame and fortune promised to whoever is willing to fight for the sake of the world it doesn't seem like a bad deal, there's just one small problem. Ben wasn't blessed with any magic or combat skills, just crafting and enchanting. While the skills themselves aren't useless they also aren't seen as being necessary to the coming war. Now not needed and alone Ben tries to find a place in the world while meeting some of its colourful characters along the way. [participant in the Royal Road Writathon challenge]
8 420The Solar Towers: Telilro
In my youth, I found what I thought was a new source of power. A strain of energy, part of simple sunlight, that had been blocked by our ozone. I called it Sunsoul. The moment I discovered it, I knew I would change the world. Once I finally realized what it actually was... ...I already had. — V. B. Fontaine, PhD
8 86One Piece's Messenger of the Sea
When Adam Bailley gets recommended to read One Piece by one of his customers, he enjoyed it's absurdity more than he thought he would. Unfortunately God seems to have played a prank on him as before he could finish it he woke up in the body of a young fishman in East Blue. What's a guy to do in this situation? OC + Strawhat fic. No devil fruit or plans for shipping with Nami or Robin, sorry. I want to keep the spirit of the original.
8 125Saga of the Great Wolf
In the Dragon Seal Universe, humans worship the Celestial Court of the Dragon Gods. As per the edicts of the Celestial Court, humans Cultivate the Dao to seek strength and rise above their common roots. If they rise to one day serve the Dragon Gods directly, they have the chance to be initiated into the Greater Secrets of the Daos, which can allow them to live for millions of years. Coalescence, the Path to Transcendence, is considered a Heretical Art of the Demonic War Masters, whose evil empire was said to have been overthrown hundreds of millennia in the past by the Celestial Court. Wolves, a species that are said to have once served the War Masters, are listed by the Temple of the Celestial Court as one of the most corrupt of Demonic Beasts. They are killed on sight. Surrounded by the Demonic Wildlands and protected by the ancient Watch Towers, a number of human nations and empires thrive atop the Great Plateau. Cultivators rule over the general populace and the Temple of the Celestial Court rules over the Cultivators. Anyone caught practicing Coalescence is sentenced to death by torture. I am half human and half Wolf. Since I am already under a death sentence for my Bloodline, there is nothing to stop me from setting out on the Path of Coalescence. As I promised my mother, I will grow strong. When I am strong enough, I will destroy the Dragons and Dragon Gods. I will set this world, once known as Sirius, free from their chains. Releases will be on Tuesdays & Fridays.
8 218Fantasy Unlimited (Dropped)
If you were terminally ill, family and friends abandoned you, and had countless hours to spend, what would you do? Cyrus chose to spend his remaining years playing Fantasy Unlimited, where he eventually became the best player in the game. But all of that is meaningless when the game is set to end. As the only player left online, Cyrus watched it all come to an end. But what happens when you wake up only to find yourself still in the game? Or is it really still the same game?Do you rejoice?Do you lament?Or do you say: Fuck it! When given another chance to live his life, Cyrus moves forward without hesitation. But life was never meant to be easy and neither is your second. A/N: Mature tag added for possiblity of violence, sex scenes (not entirely sure if I can write one though), etc.; harem tag removed but not exactly sure yet Hi guys, I thought I'd try to write a book (obviously easier said than done). Don't actually know where I'm headed with this but thought it would be fun to try to get as far as I can. There is no set schedule whatsoever. Constructive criticism greatly appreciated.
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