14

Mechanics

Rian got to the edge of the farm before he nearly collapsed, feeling his heart slamming in his chest. He leaned over with his hands on his knees and waited to stop trembling. His stamina hadn’t run out, but he felt as if he were falling out of sync with the game, if that was even possible now.

He was completely scared out of his mind, and the game’s realism only reinforced his fear. That last beam had come so close to him. All his years of finely honed composure while operating under pressure in video games meant nothing here.

It’s a bit different when your life is actually on the line, isn’t it?

He took some slow, deep breaths. He wasn’t unfamiliar with this feeling, having felt it all throughout his life. Anxiety. Pressure. The drive to succeed and the fear of failure. Sometimes it had overwhelmed him during his speedrunning sessions, but over time he’d gotten better at dealing with it.

Mirage was in some ways similar to Shadow Spirits. He couldn’t deny that, especially now. There was a strong reliance on stamina in combat, and a random encounter had almost annihilated him. But by the necessity of being a VR game, Mirage was in first-person perspective rather than third. The atmosphere wasn’t nearly as oppressive either, though his encounter with the Runeknight had him starting to wonder otherwise.

Rian looked down at the hilt in his hand if only to distract himself as he calmed down. He was holding onto the remains of his short sword so tightly that it took him a moment to consciously loosen his grip. The blade had been melted off, leaving some gnarled slag above the hilt.

Beginner’s Short Sword (Level 1)

Grade: F (Broken)

Weapon ATK +0 (4)

He attempted to stuff the hilt into his pocket, seeing how he couldn’t put it back in its sheath, and the hilt vanished from his hand as it entered his inventory.

Waiting for him, Corvis was merely floating by the rows of stalks. Where the hell were you, for all of that? There hadn’t been any sign of him once Rian had followed the last meina into the forest.

“Corvis,” Rian said, timing his breaths. “What the hell…just happened?”

“My my. You’ve quite the luck.” Corvis crossed his arms as he hovered up to Rian. “You disappeared into another instance.”

“I don’t think what I just went through was lucky.”

“Oh, no. Just the fact that it happened. Such nested instances are a rare occurrence but entirely possible even at your level. I am, unfortunately, forbidden from following you into such areas.”

“Yeah, big help you are.” Rian straightened up and started heading toward the farmhouse. As he walked, he brought up his guild chat and the virtual keyboard. There was an option to use a phone-style layout, but he opted for the keyboard instead. Typing on it as he walked was strange but easier than he expected, as the board remained steady with each step.

It took a moment for his hands to stop shaking.

: so I think I just ran into some kind of hidden boss lol

: what really?

: was it in Elmguard?

: the forests just outside the farm near Thile Harbor. I managed to inspect it before it almost killed me. Pyceian Runeknight iirc

: yooooo that’s a rare one

: did you pick up the item inside it?

Rian blinked. He’d almost forgotten, amid the terror of the encounter, that he’d taken whatever was inside the suit of armor. He checked his inventory just to make sure.

: yeah, an Ezre’s Thought

: :O!

: pretty valuable, I’m guessing?

: Yes!! don’t sell it though lol, you can use it for crafting later

He kinda wanted to rant about there being a level eighty-five boss right next to the starting area, but he held off. The game obviously hadn’t intended for him to fight it. It was just a chance encounter, as Corvis had said.

Rian found Farmer Jensen watering the crops next to his farmhouse, where the rain clouds weren’t reaching. Jensen methodically went down a row of sprouts and dumped his watering can over each of them, and the sprouts visibly grew a few inches. A bunch of green “+1”s appeared and faded in the air.

Jensen glanced over his shoulder as Rian approached. “All done?” He took out a pocket watch and flipped it open. “Huh, nine minutes and fifty seconds. You cut it pretty close. Well, good job, soldier. Hopefully that’ll teach those meina a lesson about invading my farm, or something.” He winked. “But the war is never won, they say.”

Quest complete: “Just Kill Some Things and I’ll Pay You Some Gold For It.”

You have obtained 30 gold!

You have gained experience! (+100)

LEVEL UP x2! (Lv. 4→6)

You have gained 20 Max HP! (146→166)

You have gained 20 Max MP! (134→154)

Available attribute points +4

Available skill points +1

Rian thanked him and headed toward the gate. As he went, he opened his character page and dumped all four points into Strength—mainly for the health boost, bringing him to 186 HP. He noticed that leveling up had fully restored his health, as he hadn’t regained any HP since that bite he’d taken from one of the meina.

He opened his menu to finally see what the skills did. First, he took an actual look at Dash.

Dash (Level 1 [MAX])

0 MP

Cooldown: 4 seconds

Can only be used while grounded. Propels the user at a fixed speed in the direction they’re facing for 0.75 seconds.

About what he’d thought, but there wasn’t any mention of being able to cancel the Dash during its activation. He felt a little proud of himself for discovering that on his own.

He looked over the others. The skills didn’t seem to scale with stats or anything, so they would likely be obsoleted by whatever he picked up after his job advancement. The skills were previews of the classes he could branch into, he supposed. He couldn’t put his new point into Dash since he already had the skill, which left his choice between a single level of Heal, Energy Strike, or Critical Back-Attack.

Naturally, he focused on Heal.

Heal (Not learned)

20 MP

Cooldown: 1 minute

After channeling for 4 seconds, restores 30% of max HP over 10 seconds.

He chewed his lip. Looking at the skill, it was unlikely there was any inherent or passive healing available. He took the moment to sit down and try recovering HP that way, but it wasn’t working. Resting for a few seconds on the ground wasn’t going to really heal a wound, he supposed.

The offensive skills seemed useful, but he could rely on his tactics for now. Staying alive was taking priority. Hell, he didn’t even have a weapon anymore to try out the other skills with. The only place he knew of to buy a weapon was in Thile Harbor, and there was no way he was heading any further into those forests without one.

Or maybe…

He stood up. As he stepped outside of the farm, again he could hear other adventurers and creatures battling faintly across the plains.

“I don’t think I need to remind you,” Corvis said, “but you’re currently weaponless.”

“Yeah, I know, but…”

It would be risky, but there was something he wanted to test before he headed back. He started to roll back his sleeves, then nearly flinched when he realized he was about to expose the Mark on his left shoulder. He quickly rolled his sleeves down and stepped down the path into the forest.

***

It was a matter of seconds before he found another creature: a hollow tree stump, only half his height, walking around on short and stubby roots. It moved between the trees like an octopus, its roots rolling and feeling for the path ahead like tentacles.

There were four of the creatures aside of the walking path—the path which, thankfully, didn’t head towards the side where Rian had encountered the Runeknight. As he focused upon one of the stump creatures, light glowed around its edges.

Felling (Level 3)

HP: 24/24

Difficulty: D (Common)

“A reanimated tree stump, possessed by spirits of the forest. It is said to seek those who once felled it. Aggression levels vary depending on concentration of spirits.”

It didn’t seem like much of a threat, considering Rian was twice its level, nor did it seem particularly fast compared to the meina. If anything went awry, he supposed he could simply dash away.

He walked up to it, made a fist, and threw a jab.

You have dealt 8 damage. (Felling’s HP: 16/24)

The felling recoiled as if it had bumped into something. It turned and began to crawl away in another direction. Rian stepped up to the felling, pulled back, and threw a punch as hard as possible, pivoting his entire body into it.

You have dealt 19 damage! (Felling’s HP: 0/24)

You have gained experience! (+15)

The stump went tumbling before partially evaporating into light which then coalesced into a few gold coins that automatically entered Rian’s inventory. Only the leathery tendrils of the creature were left behind.

Having felt the impact of the punch, Rian stared at his fist. He almost expected to see it bleeding, but nothing was wrong. The recoil had certainly been there, though, and that confirmed his suspicion.

Mirage had a physics engine. That meant damage wasn’t static, and hitting things harder translated to bigger numbers. And if speed was a factor, then dealing physical damage wasn’t just a matter of strength—it was reliant on the dexterity stat, too, similar to the way that stamina required a mix of both.

“If you’re wondering,” Corvis said, holding a magnifying glass up to his eye as he surveyed the forest, “these creatures have an armor stat, whereas the ones before did not.”

Rian peered up at him. He was apparently using some kind of higher-level inspection skill with that magnifying glass. “Where the hell are you getting all these items from?”

“I enjoy collecting them from off-worlders when they aren’t looking. You could say it’s a hobby of mine.”

“That figures,” Rian said. “You know your name means ‘crows,’ right? You were probably meant to be a hoarder.” And why’s it plural? Rian wondered. That didn’t make any sense.

“And what is this ‘crows’ you speak of?” Corvis said.

“Never mind.” Rian walked between the trees, occasionally watching for any sign of higher-level monsters roaming about. “So I can deal damage without a weapon, as I thought. That means damage is a combination of stat comparisons and velocity. If I had to guess, the game compares the Strength stat between attacker and foe, and then the speed of the hit determines the rest. And then armor factors in somewhere.” He scratched his chin. “If it’s really the speed of the hit that determines it, that means there’s no random damage. Performing the exact same attack would deal the same amount of damage.”

Corvis seemed almost surprised. “Impressive. It would seem you have a knack for this.”

“The more I figure out, the better. Gotta increase my odds of living somehow.”

There was one last thing he wanted to test. The Dash skill had a hidden mechanic: being able to cancel out of it at will. But he had a feeling there was more. If a skill had one hidden utility, then he couldn’t discount the possibility that there were others, too.

He found another felling on its own. Lining up with it, he took aim, wound up for a punch, and leaned forward into a dash.

He shot through the air. Wind coursed past him as his feet left the ground. Unlike before, the dash automatically ended right as he came up to the felling, and—to his surprise—this time he could move fluidly coming out of it. He swung, feeling all the momentum endowed by the dash channeling itself through his arm.

His fist impacted the stump so hard that the creature shattered instantly.

You have dealt 28 damage! (Felling’s HP: 0/24)

You have gained experience! (+15)

He slid to a halt, breathing harder with excitement.

Dash behaved differently if he wasn’t holding a weapon. The awkwardness of attacking out of the skill wasn’t there, as it was with a sword. Without a weapon, there was no delay.

There seemed to be a trade-off: he could use the skill with a weapon and deal damage during the movement, but he couldn’t attack immediately out of it. With only his fists, he couldn’t automatically attack in the middle of moving—the game stopped him short instead of continuing through—but he could use the boost in momentum to amplify his punch coming out of the dash.

As he’d thought, there was yet another hidden mechanic, something coded into the System to allow for balance and variation in play styles. And it was obvious to him which one he preferred: there was more potential in using Dash to deal extra damage with his fists.

It was less safe overall, but if he could one-shot things this way, then it would prevent him from leaving his back exposed unlike after a sword-wielding dash.

“Have you found something to your liking?” Corvis said.

Rian held up a hand. “Shh, I’m thinking.”

Granted, without a weapon, he had no way of blocking. And it reduced his attack range. But the difference was meager, and he saw little need for blocking at this level when his Dash provided an out.

It was a riskier strategy, but there was little harm in trying it out this early into the game. If he ran into another secret boss in the forest by accident, holding a weapon or not wasn’t going to make a difference.

Still. It wouldn’t hurt to buy another weapon, just in case.

He turned around and headed down the footpath back to the plains, dashing when he could to make the trip shorter. As he alternated between sprinting and dashing, which allowed a moment for his stamina to replenish, he arrived at Thile Harbor in no time at all.