Author's Corner: Rushing through the city arc so we can get to the real meat of the story. No one cares about fighting pixels. We want to kill players!

Legend

" " = people talking

italics = people thinking

* * = sounds

' ' = people talking within telepathy

CAPS = Power usage

Chapter 5: Tails From the Crypt

Damn, not only am I stuck in a ghost town without knowledge of my next quest, but I also don’t know where the City Lord’s Palace is! Guess I have to use the stupid blue screens to see what to do. At least it’s obvious that I have to go back to the crypt as it has a beacon on my minimap.

“Show quests.” –Me

*DING*

Quest Log1. Tails From the Crypt

Huh? What is with this quest name? I guess the system knows more than it should and is giving me a clue.

“Show details tails from the crypt.” –Me

QUEST:

Tails From the CryptYou have been tasked to destroy the leader of whatever is inhabiting the Undead mine.Rewards:

Portable Anvil and FurnaceFailure:

None

Oh, well that’s not so bad. I’m sure I’ll even have time to mine some copper and tin since this is a level 2 mine.

‘Any suggestions on what to do next? This portable furnace thingy does look nice but I still need my badge and need to get my skills to level 2.’ –Me

‘Just train on the weak level 10 mobs, they won’t give much experience being so weak but they will help you train the hard to train skills like parry. The rest are easy, just stealth the whole way and it will level up and use your new attack to level it.’ –Faefae

‘Good idea, I’ll do that now.’ –Me

Flying back to the crypt I noticed the same group of fatties killing boars and shook my head. One of them even looks like a Dwarf! How is that possible? They are not even a playable race! I guess he is just a short and fat human, he does look about 8 so no biggy there I guess.

Once back at the crypt I started to stealth, the Wild Dwarves cannot even break my defense so getting hit by 1 over and over gave me plenty of time to level up Parry to 2. I also killed them all with Piercing Strike and after a few levels of the dungeon leveled it to 2 as well. Stealth didn’t take long to level up being I used it until I needed to mine some copper then I rounded up everything nearby and started mining.

Oh mah gawd! Mining is the worst profession ever! How much ore do I have? About 2000, is my mining level 2 yet? NO! I also got some shitty gem called malachite, as if I need that, it will go into my infinite inventory and I just pray it will drop when I die to being anti-pk’d. Of course I never want to die to that, but who knows what will happen, max levels got over 10 on me so death might come. After I get my badge I should go towards Old York and start killing travelers between the two cities. That should be fun!

Fortunately this crypt or dungeon only had 5 levels and the last 2 levels had tin instead of copper. Eventually I hit level 2 in mining and started getting copper, I also leveled to 11 because I killed so many damn creatures. And it wasn’t just wild Dwarves, oh no. I also killed Brownies, Goblins, Gnomes and even Lizardlings! But on the 4th floor I finally started to see Hobgoblins, Lizardman, High Gnomes, Gremlins, and more Dwarves!

And tin barely gives any experience! A full floor of tin which was around 800 ore only gave me 20% experience. It appears crafting skills don’t have a level cap as my other skills won’t start gaining experience again until I reach level 20, this is good to know, it means I can use stealth to level up my Blacksmithing higher… Assuming I can finish this quest. So far the mobs are very easy, even the ones on the fourth floor are only level 14.

Finally on the final floor as my minimap tells me the final boss is on this floor. But no more easy mobs! All Ogres and Draconians! I actually had to use every trick in the book to kill them. I found this to be a good spot to grind and spent the rest of the night just fighting on this floor. Once the clock near my minimap told me it was morning I checked the date in game and saw it was April 15th. Good thing I already did my taxes. I guess after 3 days in this game it is good to know that I can leave this capsule on April 12th the next year, I’ll be sure to remember that… maybe.

Ogres and Draconians are all level 15 and elite, that makes life fun… not! They did have different stats though which was interesting, and even their weapon drops were slightly higher quality.

Ogre Level 15 (Elite)

H: 9000, A: 35-45, D: 30

Draconian Level 15 (Elite)

H: 9000, A: 30-40, D: 35

The Draconians were faster and took longer to kill but still not a real threat. The Ogres were just trash that were a waste of time. And their trash drops were just trash. Also they were dirt poor and didn’t drop any money, how are people supposed to make money if nothing drops anything? I guess I need to find a bandit camp or something since players don’t drop money. I guess I can use the Auction House which fortunately can be accessed anywhere as this is a game and the idea of having to go to town to use a mailbox or auction house is stupid. Both are part of the regular interface! Not that I will be using mail for anything besides auctions.

I will make sure to auction everything for in game gold as I have no use for real life cash. I did put my bank account on my capsule though as well as my cell phone in case any emergency happens. Who knows, some item I must have may come up for sale or something, only time will tell.

Finally, I killed everything on the 5th floor and mined all the tin! And as soon as I did, like in the bandit camp, the boss spawns in front of the hut in the center of the final camp. It seems you cannot assassinate bosses as they seem to be triggered spawns. But gaining those 2 levels was worth grinding the mobs even though it took over 8 hours. Not so far from level 15 either so I’m happy!

Let’s see what this…. What the hell? This isn’t like anything else I’ve seen before. It’s a dragon! Well it’s similar to a dragon? Maybe it’s a Dragon like those from my homeland. It’s more tail than anything else. Only part that is dragonlike is its face and front claws. It doesn’t even have wings, only tiny buds where wings will most likely grow.

Dragonling Level 15 (Boss)

H: 45,000, A: 45-55, D: 65

Scales are real. And damn I knew the quest name was weird. His tail is huge!!! Small ceiling too, how am I supposed to kill this? Just glad he isn’t Black Iron tier or I’d be screwed!

Finally, not wanting to waste time. The dragon roared then attacked. The roar caught me off balance since I was used to bosses yelling some useless nonsense, but this seems to be some type of beast and isn’t able to talk at all. He isn’t even using gear at all either. I guess he probably don’t drop anything useful either. Well he may have eaten something nice I guess.

First thing he did was lunge at me, but I wasn’t going to be fooled so instead of dodging left or right, I flapped my wings and did a backflip to get far away. Good thing I did too as his tail slammed in the spot I would have ended up if I dodged normally. I also slashed his face once with armor piercer to see how much armor it was going to pierce through.

ARMOR PIERCER! –Me

-51

-47

Not bad I say as I hover slightly above him and toss a qi blade.

QI BLADE! –Me

-20

-21

Clearly the inability to pierce armor makes that ability useless. And it looks like he has a ranged poison attack which fortunately does not reach past 20 meters. Though the ceiling is small it is still a good 30 meters high.

Being the major pussy that I am I simply toss qi blades at him for the next 6 and a half hours. Yes it was past mid day by the time I finally killed him with my last qi blade. I’m starting to think my class is pretty weak, surely other classes would have a better way to deal with this guy. Spending a full day on a quest is ridiculous!

*DING*

Level Up!

Yay level 15! Now to see what he dropped. Hum.. he appeared to drop a ring, let’s see what it does.

Poisoners Ring of Crit (Green)

Description: Reduces effect of poisons by 2 levels and increases crit rate by 5%

Requirement: Level 15

Huh, the crit is amazing though the poison part doesn’t make sense. So I’ll equip it, we get to equip 2 rings so this is good to have one so soon!

‘Hey, what does this ring do for poisons? I don’t understand.’ –Me

‘If you had this ring before attacking this thing, you would not take any damage as he was using level 2 poison and level 0 poison means immunity.’ –Faefae

‘Also how do I check my crit rate?’ –Me

‘Check your gear, base crit is 0% so your crit rate is 5%.’ –Faefae

‘Uhh, thanks. I guess it is time to turn this quest in. I wonder if there is a fast way to leave this crypt.’ –Me

‘Go in the hut, always a teleporter somewhere near where the boss dies.’ –Faefae

Damn, this little girl is a lifesaver! Sure enough, there is an orb in the hut that teleported me back to the entrance. Then a short flight over the boars and I was back at the Smithery!

“Quest is done, gimme mah reward!” –Me

“Good job, is there anything else I can do for you?” –Undead Knight Blacksmith

*DING*

Quest Complete!

Sure enough, my inventory has an anvil looking thing in it.

Portable Blacksmith and Mining Station

Description: Spawns a Portable Anvil and Furnace to use in Blacksmithing and Mining.

Sweet! Soon I’ll never have to see a city again!

“Two questions, any tips for a new blacksmith and where is the City Lord’s Palace?” –Me

“Yes, salvage gear to get the equivalent tier of bar, you don’t even have to smelt it to reforge it. And I’ll place his location on your map.” –Undead Knight Blacksmith

“Sweet thanks.” –Me

At least now I know what I’m going to do with all these weapons I’ve looted. Though I feel like I wasted two days as I didn’t gain any money and only 5 levels, even though it was only really a single day.

Soon I was standing in front of the City Lord’s Palace. It looked like the final boss castle in any game where the final boss is the Demon Lord. The cliché level was transcendent. Oh well, I’m a Demon now so this is fine!

Once inside I talk to the lady in the front and tell her I’m here to pledge my service to the city.

“Welcome to Atlantic City! Good another mighty warrior to join our ranks. And as a Demon you get a special badge. We use the regular 3% badges on the Undead but as a Demon you are automatically nobility and get a special nobility badge which gives you 5% attack!” –Receptionist

*DING*

Congratulations for Joining Atlantic City and Obtaining the Nobility Badge

Description: Attack increased by 5%.

Sweet, this will be very useful! Now I can leave this city for good and start killing!

“Oh before you leave, you should join the player run Demon only guild. They rule the entire area and all noble Demons join them.” –Receptionist

“What is their name?” –Me

“Heroes’ Bane.” –Receptionist

Catchy, I guess whoever the leader is, is really roleplaying. I guess he or she wants to become the next Demon Lord.

“Uhh, I’ll think about it. Sounds like fun!” –Me

Not!

As I leave the city I check my stats to see how much stronger I have gotten.

“Show status and skills.” –Me

*DING*

STATUS WINDOW!Name:Psychotic DeathRace:DemonClass:BlademasterLevel:15Health:2100Qi:2100Power:420Speed:420 (+30)Intellect:210Stamina:210Attack:M. 102-118, O. 102-118Defense:56[tr]Currency:2g, 96s, 50c

SKILL LIST!

Active Skills:Manual Flight (level 2)

Qi Blade (level 2)

Piercing Strike (level 2)

Piercing Aura (level 2)

Stealth (level 2)

Mining (level 2)

Blacksmithing (level 1)

Passive Skills:Quick Steps (level 2)

Body Strengthening (level 2)

Parry (level 2)

Dual Dagger Mastery (level x)

___

That's it for now, Happy Thanksgiving. Killing starts now and story will slow down to accommodate the other aspects of the story. Also new characters with their own story will start to show up.