"What happened?" Peter had just logged out and was met with the other three girls.

"System update." Mary was yawning between the words.

"It's already late. I think we should go and sleep."

Peter was tired of all the crafting. He went to take a shower and put the suit in the washer.

The girls were also tired and went to sleep.

*****

It was already dawn when the four got to bed. The update was considerably large and a few balancing issues were later addressed in the press conference.

"So what changes will the players see when the game patch is over?"

"Nothing major. We noticed that the vitality cannot keep up with the damage dealt by stronger creatures so we tweaked it a bit. Instead of the older full damage past the defence break now the armour will still lower the damage received depending on your class."

"When you say class, is it related to the armour or the player?"

"The players can only wear armours assigned to their specific classes. So if on has light armour and heavy armour class, then the armour stats will be calculated based on the active worn armour class."

"So if an assassin put on a heavy armour then he can get the armour stats corresponding to that heavy armour class?"

"Yes and no. The assassin will need to know a heavy armour class first and let's not forget the assassin also need the lighter armour for stealth to work. Putting on a heavy armour will give heavy armour stats but the damage dealt will be considerably lower making it redundant."

"How much damage will be reduced? How is that calculated?"

"Damage is reduced based on the armour type. For example, if the armour gives 2000 defence, then the person doesn't have to worry about any blows below 2000 damage points. It will work the same. If the damage dealt is more than that, like 2500, then for a heavy armour you will receive the reduced damage past 2000 after armour reduction. So it will be 500 damage points incoming but with the heavy armour, expecting around 80% reduction will result in 100 damage received."

"100 damage is still a lot considering the current vitality of players."

"Yes. We have looked into that but it shouldn't be a big issue since the higher tier armour will give vitality bonus as well."

"I believe armours are not the only thing in the patch notes. Right?"

"Yes there are a few other changes that will soon come to the game as well, but the player population is still a bit too low for it to take place. We have changed how the different jobs were giving experience to the player to each job having separate experience. Also, the leaderboard will only count the highest level job the player has.

Then, we lowered the difficulty for crafters to craft gears. The common gears can now be mass-produced by any tier 2 and above craftsmen. This should bring enough equipment for the players. "

"What a relief. So any news on when the currency exchange will be active?"

"Yes, we will activate currency exchange in one or two months. We wanted to give the local players a fighting chance at first but as a company, we do need to make money as well."

"Is there anything else that we should be aware of before we jump into the game?"

"Yes, we have added a lot more hidden and open job classes, equipment and craftable recipes into the game. Some of these recipes will always need the craftsmen to be present. So the crafters out there, make sure you come out and play the game as well. Maybe one day you will also meet some fortunate encounters."

"Haha, thank you, Edward, it was a pleasant surprise to have you talk with us. Keep making the game better for us."

"Thank you and the channel for hosting me. It was a pleasure."

*****

By the time Peter woke up, it was already 10.

Mary was cooking something and the other two were sitting on the couch skimming through some magazines.

"You got up? Did you check the patch notes?"

"No." 'Didn't I just get up?'

"I don't think you will have such a rush to make armours anymore. They made it easy for higher tier crafters to make armour. Also, you want to sell those golds soon. The price is to go on a drop in two weeks."

"Ok."

Mary came in with two hit pans and a bottle of fruit juice. She was quite skilled in the kitchen.

The game was no longer a source of entertainment but a full-time job for Peter. Following Sicily's advice, he placed all the coins in the exchange and left to make more armours. Since the big guilds couldn't wait for two months for the coin price to come down, it was almost certain that the coins will fetch a decent price.

There were a few obligations for Peter to fill which included the sale of soldier armours. The guilds had already placed an offer for it and Sicily had received the advance. All that was left to do was Peter producing the armour. The only difference from the normal soldier armour and peters armour was the slight increase in stats due to his title.

Peter sat by the anvil and started mass producing the soldier armour. This time he chose to make a total of 5000 armour and handover to Sicily to distribute to the guilds.

The update had changed the crafting time drastically. Earlier, the game used 1 minute to make a soldier armour while now, it only took 10 seconds per set. To Peter, this was perfect since he was planning on picking a few other professions.

Enough armours were already in the backpack when he met back with Sicily and the girls.

"Hey, you are still here. I thought you wanted to go get some combat exp." Sicily was already in Peter's face.

"I was just about to go get the dungeon pass."

"You planning to go solo? Well, the underground lake is suitable for it if you want to try. The corridors are much smaller so you won't have to fight many in one go."

"Yeah, I looked into it. I already made 3000 armour sets for you to sell and put the rest of my coins to exchange. I am planning to stay in the dungeon till I reach the next tier. I need to be at least tier 3 to try and complete my blacksmith quest."

"You need to pay 10 gold to enter that dungeon each time. It should be dirt cheap for you. Make sure you get out if you need to. Also, there are a few magic circles where you can log out. Make sure to get out before you get worn out."

"I'm no kid. You don't have to treat me like one."

"Who cares about you?" Saying so, Sicily walked away. The two girls giggled following her.

Peter walked towards the adventure guild office. The dungeon 'underground lake' was beneath the town. The entry had two restrictions one being a tier 2 combat class and the other an entry fee of 10 gold.

Although players have completed the promotion to tier 2, apart from the crafters, most do not have that many gold to spare. Since the dungeon is an instance, once a player entered they wouldn't be disturbed by others.

This particular dungeon was created to last till the player population reached tier 3. A player can choose to stay in a dungeon as long as they want as long they can sustain themselves.

The major concern was the food and drinks required to sustain oneself. The towns and cities acted as a safe ground and the moment a player enters one, the system automatically replenishes these ailments. But outside the safe zones, it was impossible to do this.

The multi-floor dungeons had log out circles to help players to log out safely, but these spots do not help players to recover.

After going through the market buying different potions, foods and drinks Peter set on to the dungeon entrance. The entrance was crowded with the members from the larger guilds.

A nameless NPC stood at the entrance to collect the badge and grant entrance to the challengers. A pretty large leaderboard was erected right next to the entrance which showed different records held by the challengers.

Every fifth floor of the dungeon was considered a safe place and it was possible to teleport out with the array in place. The death penalty was extremely severe since one would lose all items worn or in inventory. This rule was to prevent guilds from using wave rush strategy.

"Alone?" As soon as Peter handed the badge, the guard triggered an array without waiting for a response and port him into the ground floor of the dungeon.

Blinding light which welcomed Peter, slowly faded away. What welcomed Peter was the echo of dripping water.

The ground floor of the dungeon was a safe zone with a simple exit array and a pair of stairs to the back. The groundwater soaked through the walls, resulting in vines cracking the floor wall.

Peter approached the first floor with haste. There was a thin barrier between the stairs and the floor through which peter was able to get out effortlessly.

The dungeon was created such that it could be traversed by a single challenger. Each floor had a guardian and a bunch of small rooms filled with fodder mobs. It was created such that each mob left behind would increase the attack strength of the floor guardian. A few guild players experienced this first hand when they tried to rush to the higher floors.

For a common tier 2 class, Peter had extremely high damage and defence to his high-quality gear. This made it extremely easy in wiping out the trash mobs. All of them were killed with single strikes.

Unlike typical games, Almost Heaven had no skills related to the classes. Almost all the skills in the game were innovated by the players or passive ability boosts except for the magical classes such as mages and healers. This made the game both easy and difficult at the same time.

When Peter first lounged on to kill the wolves, his first kill was accidental. The sword was driven into the wolf from the sheer momentum of the wolf. This meant that as long as the sword hit something it would deal the damage. This also caused extremely high friendly fire rate when multiple players fought one enemy.

The experience gained from killing the mobs were decent compared to the outside. The first floor was filled with spiders. The hardest part was the crippling poison, as it slowed one down considerably.

Peter moved forward trying to clear through the five spider filled halls avoiding the spider's bites.

The experience gained was still not enough to raise his level. Soon the first few mob halls were empty leaving behind just a master hall with a weaker floor guardian. Standing in front of the massive entrance, Peter felt excitement coursing through his veins.

The floor guardian was a massive spider with a few extra hairy limbs. The status above the boss screamed danger with the bold red title.

Floor Guardian Fracture(Weakened)

HP: 5,000,000

AP: 2,000

Skills: bleed, crippling poison

Even after wiping out all the mobs on the floor, the AP was still too high for a level 20 player. Although Peter had enough defence to tank the attacks, the average player would not be able to have such a high defence armour.

'No wonder guilds purchased the soldier armour with such price.'

This was almost impossible to kill for average players even with a party. Considering the entry cost of 10 gold, this was not a solid investment. Peter's hands trembled with excitement and he entered the guardian's room.

*****

Profile

Name: Vision

Title: Creative Artisan(R)

Race: NA

LVL: 21

Gold: 190

Available points: 0

STR: 25

VIT: 20

AGI: 10

AP: 1050

DF: 2600

HP: 200

Swordsman (C): T2 L11 (855/5500)

Miner: T1 L10

Blacksmith: T2 L11 (3439/5500)

World fame: 10

Blacksmith fame: 40

Swordsman fame: 10