It’s been a basically a month this I have started playing Divine Mortality. But only in this past week, I’ve experienced the most growth for my character called Amulet Pond. Named after an amulet that I found laying at the bottom of a pond in the character creation sky island. And I’ve had this amulet equipped the whole time despite not knowing what the +1 luck gives me. Sometimes when I complete minor quests, I come across new amulets which I could be equipping instead, but I have a feeling that I should stay faithful to this original amulet simply because it might be doing something amazing for me. Maybe the reason why I happened to meet Eseli is because I luckily came across her while at Goldflake village when dealing with the Marauders. Yet, I don’t know for certain.

Superstition…yup that is what it is. Even with all this technology around me which I am using, both in game and outside of it, I’m a person who is still bound my superstition! “They” say something like how humanity as a whole is generally still bound to stone age mentality. I think they’re right. Hell, picking the class Mystimender because it’s basically a shaman class is so very on topic for me…in-game superstition is ruling me, and I’ve fallen into addiction to this game…! Ughh…

I won’t lie, I really did not expect me to craft various vegetation into shrubs so that I could light them on fire and encircle my character in a video game. Does that make sense to you? Can you even picture that?

I’m a level 30 Mystimender who right now is basically using enhancement magic, but it’s not enhancement magic. It’s long-term enhancement magic! Mysticism is a “Light” magic style, which is a key part of the “magic class” called Mystimender. And now, I am calling upon the spirits of the valley and the powers of divinity to give me a 10% health increase buff. Which will last me 24 hours! And I won’t be able to change it to something else. This is what Mystimender is. Half the gameplay is preparation, and the other half is a mixture of swinging axes and casting elemental magic to deal damage.

It’s actually really satisfying when it works out well, but it requires the player to be smart. I can’t say I’m a very smart player. But over a month of playing Divine Mortality, I’ve surely gained a lot of knowledge, but so has Krafty and May and of course WiseMaster667.

So, what am I doing surrounding by a circle of burning bushes in an uninhabited valley with a bunch of wild animal mobs? Whydo I need the 10% health buff for my character? It’s because I’m preparing for the big event today! Which, from the looks of it, a LOT of players will be attending. This will surely be massively multiplayer experience, that’s for sure…

The game is basically a MMORPG, I really hesitate to call it that but when chatting to other people online who don’t know what a “MOAG” is and then having to explain it to them exactly the differences between Divine Mortality and other MMORPGs can get really tiring, but more importantly it makes me feel like a disgusting fanboy. Divine Mortality is basically an MMORPG because it’s massively multiplayer, that is it. And then there is of course a lot of RPG elements, and the game even encourages and focuses on the roleplay and immersive aspects but instead rather uses the word “adventure” to encompass the role-play-gaming part.

Me, Krafty, May, and WiseMaster667 are officially a friend-group who’ve been playing together for a while now. We each do our own adventures, but we also often join up to take on difficult challenges. Since this game has a lot of variation, it’s difficult to tell when a quest or enemy will be difficult or not.

For instance, May has trouble fighting skeletons because she usually just uses a spear and spears aren’t so effective against sturdy bone creatures with a lot of holes “inside” them. She now brings a small club with her as well, but it’s much more convenient for her to rely on someone like me to bash skeletons with my axes (yes on the other side) or use heavier magic. May is a spear wielding Battlemage that is able to use minor elemental spells to make herself more applicable to certain situations. But she is not able to make herself as applicable to any situation as much as Krafty can. Krafty uses a short bow as his primary weapon and the magic he uses is Enhancement magic. Enhancement magic and using a shortbow are both “light” styles, but for different reasons. Krafty uses Enhancement magic to enhance his body, when he needs to shoot powerful shots against large enemies he increases his character’s strength, or other times when he needs to skirmish around the enemies then he enhances his character’s speed. This fits very well with a bow user because a short bow is considered a “Light” equipment, heavy ranged equipment would be something like a long bow. And then, range users primarily need to consider whether they want to specialize their play style as a “powerful” shooter or a “agile” shooter, each has their benefits. But Krafty can basically manage that balance a lot more as an Enhancement mage. His playstyle is actually a pretty solid and ideal ‘magic archer’ combination. Finally, there is WiseMaster667, he’s basically useful as a group-party member because he summons a wide variety of minions which are applicable at most situations. When fighting a heavy boss character, a large swarm of monsters, solving puzzles, fighting again would-be bandit players, etc. But his most favorite summon is basically his own companion, but definitely not as good as Eseli! It’s a magical human monk that isn’t actually a ‘human’ from the Overworld, but a character summoned from fictional story that can be found in an in-game book item, so this monk is basically also from another world. But even though this monk is a pugilist that can fight pretty damn well, WiseMaster667 is more like an imperial officer who has his very own personal butler! This butler is able to pick up items when harvesting things from the world or defeated monsters, defend WiseMaster667 from petty mobs, and most absurdly run errands for Wise as a courier. It’s ridiculous! But so is this whole game so I can’t be surprised anymore.

So, May is our melee fighter. Krafty is our range fighter. WiseMaster667 is kinda like our support character. And I am a mix of all three. Why? Because I can fight fairly well with my axe, which I thought I would’ve stopped using by now. I also have a small shield that my character can carry around fairly easily. So, in that way, I am like May but just less pointy. Then, I am like Krafty because while I do not shoot arrows, I can shoot long ranged magical projectiles made out of fire or ice or lightning. And then, I am also like WiseMaster667 because I am actually the healer in the group. Technically speaking because we do not have any proper healers. In this game, everyone can heal themselves to a degree, but it depends on a bunch of factors. Yet, for now I am able to fill the role as a healer because the “mender” part of my ‘class’ “Mystimender” refers to Regeneration magic, which is a Heavy Magic style. Regeneration is technically not literally just “healing”, but it calls back to the original state of something, so it’s a tricky magic to cast and understand. So, I like to see myself as a wizard who is a combination of mystical powers, mending wounds, and shamanic…uh…shamanic things. You know, what shamans do! Fight with their axes and hurl balls of fire at their enemies, right? At the very least, I wear pretty fantastic tribal looking armor. It’s all light armor but it’s fairly sturdy so the only downside is that my character’s speed is slightly lower, which makes it difficult to run away from faster enemies but that’s pretty much it.

Alright, that’s enough about that. My Mystic ritual ability is complete and now I’ll head back down to the Yellow Academy of Magic…

Here and around all of Malus-Seversi there are many groups of Players and even groups of NPC mercenaries. Not every capable player on the server has come here, but it sure does feel like it. Especially since where we’re at right now is nearby the Holy Lands, which is where most of the Players are on the server are still residing at, many of them have poured into this area. And of course, including my group is participating.

So, what’s this big event anyways Amulet Pond? Well, I’m glad you asked.

It’s an invasion quest! These quests are fairly rare, but they are also the largest and probably the most difficult ones to do. They are rare because in order for them to appear as an option, certain conditions must be met in the world, or an event caused by the Lesser Gods (the developers) will allow them to appear. A dozen or so have appeared on my server so far in the past month, and in half of them the Players failed. One I know happened in The Chiefdom of Visiwend. Players there, though there weren’t many, were given the opportunity to help defend a certain outpost settlement, but it was overrun by a tribe of ‘evil’ Snowmel. So, Visiwend lost territory and the Players who participated in the Invasion Quest didn’t gain much out of it.

This Invasion Quest was posted by the Queen of Orchard Hills, I have no idea about how she’s like. And so far, there aren’t any screenshots of her. There was a post online that claimed that they took a picture of the Queen, but it was in Malus-Seversi and it was confirmed to have been a random noble-lady NPC. The Invasion Quest is also being co-led by the Duke of Malus-Seversi, who I actually met. I think his name is Alan but I’m not sure. I should’ve taken a screenshot of him when I had the chance! It’s not like there aren’t already images of him on the internet but mine would’ve been one of the few early ones. Oh yeah, and when I mean there isn’t an image of the Queen of Orchard Hills, I mean entirely on the internet. Including the other servers/realms of this game. Which is weird, because you’d think that the game would market important characters like her on the advertisements.

Anyways, the big reason why there are so many Players who are going to also be trying to beat and win the Invasion Quest first is because the Duke will reward 1,000 gold coins for whichever Players defeat the Ogre Captain first, and also 1,000 gold coins for any high-quality rare pieces of loot. Maybe 1,000 gold coins won’t be worth much in the future…but it’s an incredibly large amount of money that I doubt more than 1-2% of the player base has.

Thinking about having so much money like that is making me feel silly. My group is certainly not going to beat the Ogre Captain before anyone else, but there are two reasons why I am doing this. The first reason is that there is a good enough chance that a high-quality item can be found by us. Why? Well, Coldpass is basically a semi-legit country that has its own treasury of awesome items to loot from. And now we’ll soon get the chance to “legally” raid their treasures. I bet at least all the skilled groups are going to find something nice. I hope that me and my group will be skilled enough. But…if we do get our hands on a rare high-quality item, then we certainly could sell it for 1,000 gold coins to the Duke. It still isn’t likely that we’ll get our hands on a rare item, but it a lot more likely than us defeating the Ogre Captain.

However, the second reason why I am attending this Invasion Quest along with my friends is because Fate-fan recommended me to do it. Obviously, blindly following suggestions is a bad idea. But, when Fate-fan informed me about this event, she seemed to be planning something very excitedly. I’ve kept asking her about it since then. She even told me I had a “time limit” but hasn’t specified on it. If there was a time limit, wouldn’t it have been over by now? She always seems randomly mysterious at times and very open other times. In a good way. If she wasn’t mysterious, I guess I wouldn’t believe in her “goddess” acting abilities. Ironically, she’s open about talking about her experience in game development, which I think would normally be more of a private topic, while more secretive about what she’s planning in the background as the goddess Fate.

Anyways, I’ve still been rambling in my mind…I should find my team quickly because technically the Invasion Quest has already started. We are supposed to meet at “that big tree outside the academy” …but nobody specified which one of those big trees…because there are a lot of them!

Ugh, so many Player Guilds are in the way, it’s hard to see where I want to go to…-

FeeNix: “Yo! Once again, who do I see? Shock struck with pure luck to find you here, is that you pink hair Pond? Come and look and tell me, are you also here for repair?”

Suddenly I hear a familiar voice out of all this noise…