"Speaking/speaking"
'thinking/thinking'
"flashback"/'flashback'
"Skills/skills"
items/items•
Becoming an adventurer in this City is more difficult than I first thought. 3 days after joining a Familia and only now would I get the chance to enter the dungeon.
Now, why was I not allowed to enter the dungeon? Well, apparently a lot of knowledge that's supposed to be common sense around here flew over my head. When my assigned guild Advisor, Miss Flott, asked me some questions, it led her to the conclusion that I would need to be taught the most basic of knowledge about the dungeon so I might get a higher chance of survival.
It's good that she doesn't know of my dungeon crawling habits back on Ragnarok online lest she faint and confine me to reading and learning from more books and tutoring.
Now. I'm walking to the guild, tall stacks of books and pamphlets on my arms. All of them related to dungeon exploration.
Thankfully the Guild only has a few adventurers during this time of the day so I was able to get to her table immediately as there's no line.
"Good morning, Miss Flott!" I greet her with a wave.
The salmon haired young woman raised her eyes from the tall stack of papers that she's going over and smiled at me.
" Good Morning to you too. Didn't I tell you to call me Misha?." her eyes narrowed at me playfully. "I'm guessing that you're here because you've finished all the books I lent you?"
"Right on! I'm here to drop them off and hopefully enter the dungeon at last." I dropped the stack of books on the side of her desk so her work wouldn't get disturbed.
"So, am I free to go?" I made a motion to leave but she shot up from her seat so fast and grabbed me by the arm at such great speed that a few papers flew from her table.
" Absolutely not! Wait for me for a moment to finish up AND THEN i'll Quiz you," She huffed and picked the papers from the ground. "Can't have you dying because you refuse to read some books." She muttered under her breath loud enough for me to hear.
*chuckles*
My chuckle earned me a glare which made me even more amused.
I've seemed to have developed the urge to tease her whenever I can since the first time I saw her reaction to my ridiculous questions and behaviour.
I sat on the seat in front of her desk to wait since there's no other adventurers lining up to consult.
D-O-T-E
The gigantic spiraling steps leading down to the dungeons entrance was as fascinating as Eremes read about. The dim light coming from the painting of the Sky above gave the area a more mystical look.
Well, as mystical as a place filled with murderous creatures could get.
Soon enough, Eremes reached the first floor of the dungeon.
The walls of the dungeon had a light blue tint, near the entrance was a wide opening, it was the one he read about called Beginning Road, adventures of varying race and backgrounds could be seen either going deeper or aiming for the exit.
Hunting monsters is said to be a little slow in this part of the dungeon due to the amount of people that frequent it, he could see the truth in that because there's heaps of adventurers around him, new or otherwise, killing monsters as soon as they pop out of the walls and ceiling. So Eremes went deeper.
Staying within a more crowded part of the first floor was one of the strategies that Misha taught him. But it is not only slow, it would give him a lot less excelia than he would've gotten were he to fight the monsters on his own.
Misha advised him not to go to the second floor of the dungeon as a newbie and that he should try to get a good grip on the first floor since the rate at which the monsters spawn and their numbers increase drastically each floor.
Eremes knew he would disregard that advice but for now, he'd get used to the first floor first before going deeper.
As he was looking for a spot to hunt, he would occasionally spot a stray Goblin that would sometimes spot him first and lunge at him, or he would simply kill them before they are able to notice his presence in a true assassin fashion even though he's still a High-Novice.
It took him quite a while to find an area with little to no adventurer activity.
After walking for a bit, he spotted something sticking out around a corner. It is a bit short but he could see that it was furred, a Kobold.
Before he engaged the monster, he double checked his equipment. All of which are good, but he would've changed his full penetration shadow gear which gave him armor penetration ,which is kind of useless in the lower level, for his maximum Mammoth Shadow Gear which gave a percentage damage boost per piece, but he could do it later.
The slow approach would be useless as based on what he read, the kobolds has an incredible sense of smell capable of smelling adventurers close by.
So he rushed, rushed as fast as he could, and before the monster could react, plunged his dagger in its canine head, killing it immediately.
Eremes was met with a rush of furred forms as he killed the first one, making him slide back to evade the onslaught. The first kobold was apparently a lure.
"1, 2, 3,... 7." he counted the Kobolds.
As he took in the appearance of the kobolds, he couldn't help but wryly smile. 'They're more grotesque than their counterparts back on midgards, that's for sure.' They look as if someone stitched the head of a dog in the body of a man. Their proportions just aren't as natural as their counterparts back in the game.
Four lunged at him, their claws in full display as were their fangs that were covered in drool that he's sure would give him some type of fantasy rabies should he get bit.
He managed to dodge their initial lunge by ducking and dashing forward, straight into the 3 that did not move to attack. Left and right, and then left again. He weaved at the three kobold's swipes as the four that first struck scampered towards him, before he delivered a deep slash on one of them through the chest slicing the flesh easily, cutting through the bones and then the magic stone, slicing through it and causing the monster to turn to ash.
"So that's how a critical works here, huh?" he mused.
And apparently, he was not the only one that was surprised. The kobolds momentarily stopped in their tracks, but as he was about to slash at their un guarded necks, a claw appeared on his peripheral, attempting to strike him. One of the 4 managed to get back to him first.
Abandoning his attack, he switched his handle on his dagger and held it in reverse before putting it in the way of the attack headed towards him.
It slid him back a little. "They really do have more than double the strength of an adult huh?"
But he managed to push the offending claw back with his own strength, staggering the creature before kicking it in the chest. He would've stabbed it instead but it would leave him open as the rest have managed to regroup themselves.
They began encircling him, moving around him in a strange bit of intelligence.
"From what I heard, only monsters from deeper floors show this level of intelligence."
Behind him, he felt a kobold lunge in full force, he managed to move out of the way at the last second but it seemed to be the signal for the rest to act as they began relentless swiping and biting at him meanwhile he did his best to dodge and analyze the situation to try and find a clean opening, one where he wouldn't sustain avoidable injuries.
Weaving and sliding, to an outsider it may look like he was struggling but, no. he was simply following the advice for him to familiarize himself with the dungeon. And what better way to do that than observing how the monsters of the upper floors fight, to learn if they have any pattern that he could capitalize in the long run.
He watched carefully, paying attention to every small detail, memorizing what he found by repeating it in his head until it became engraved.
After a while of dancing to the kobolds' untiring attempts at ending him. There are a few things that became apparent that he also saw from the goblins that he killed. Both in the dungeon and the surface dwellers.
First, when Kobolds and Goblins attack, they would put their whole body into that attack, fully committing to whichever action they chose, whether to lunge, swipe, or attempt to biting, hence why the first four that lunged at him took a few seconds to get back into the fight, they overcommitted into their lunge and went flying because of it.
Second, if they are in a group, their instinct seems to adapt, knowing when one of them is about to attack so they could follow up and assist.
As if on queue, one kobold dashed forward to once again strike him, another from behind him followed suit, so, when Eremes dodged, they collided and fell hilariously to the ground on top of one another.
Third, he found out that their cooperation as a group could be used against them just like now.
Feeling that he's gathered enough personal understanding on how the creatures of the upper-floors behave, he decided to end the dance.
With a swift plunge downwards, he buried his dagger into the two kobold on the ground. He turned to see another thrust its claws at his face to which he raised his dagger ,which was now dripping with blood, to block the attack. Which led him to finding another strange phenomenon.
As the sharp claws of the kobold collided with the edge of his dagger. The blade cuts right through the claws of the monster and into its hand until it stops right in the middle of its wrist.
"What the?" even he was surprised. This has never happened.
A block from his dagger triggered a critical hit for some reason. Snapping out of his trance, he delivered a swift decapitation to the monster after freeing his dagger from its bones.
The last three could be seen running at him with full speed, with great precision, he threw his dagger towards the one in the middle, the one that was lagging behind. The two followed the soaring dagger as if on instinct. The dagger struck true, it embedded itself into the monster's skull, killing it the moment it pierced, with a dash as the monsters were not paying attention to him, he grabbed the thrown weapon from the skull of the kobold, and pulled it off as he kicked the monster's body. In one swift motion, he spun as he sliced, ending the lives of the two remaining monsters
Eremes stood still as the kobolds fell to the ground, lifeless.
This small fight has been more than eye opening as it granted him a bit of understanding as to how these monsters fight. No doubt this learning experience would help him efficiently hunt in the dungeon.
"Haah" sighing as if releasing a breath he was holding, he went ahead and extracted the magic stones from their fallen forms.
When they said that monsters in the dungeon are stronger than a grown man, they might not be exaggerating.
After collecting the magic stones from the dungeon, he opened his inventory as a thought flashed into him.
In ragnarok online there are items that boosted the experience gain of players by as much as three hundred percent. He doesn't know if it affects the acquisition of Excelia but there's no harm in trying.
Besides, it would also hasten his climb to job level 10 which would allow him to change his class.
The items are called manuals, manuals fall into 2 categories, Battle Manual - which increases the EXP gain for base level, and Job Manual - that does the same thing but on a much smaller scale with job level.
He took out a Battle manual x3 which, as the name suggests, increases the exp gain by 3 times or 300 percent.
Battle Manual x3•
This well written, detailed manual explains Extremely Efficient battle methods.
Class: Stat Boost
Weight: 1
Increases the rate of experience gained by 300% for 30 minutes.
Next was the Job Manual, the job manual only boosted the gain of job EXP by 25 percent but it's fair since job levels only reach a maximum of level 70 on 4th class.
Job Manual•
A manual that get Extra 25% Job Exp during 30 minutes
Can be duplicated with Battle Manual.
"Huh, i didn't know i could make more of these with normal battle manual… neat"
Both manuals take the form of a book that has orange covers with an illustration of 2 crossed spears behind a Knight Shield.
He opened the Battle Manual first, expecting to read it but the moment the cover parted from the page, the book disintegrated in motes of light that quickly got absorbed by his body. Since this is real life and not a game anymore, he expected to have to read it first to use. But this is not only more efficient, it's also less annoying than the alternative
"Well that beats out actually having to read it every time I have to use one." was his snarky comment.
He opened the Job Manual and the same thing happened.
"Nice."
With that, he went back to exploring to find more monsters to slay.
…
30 minutes and almost 40 goblins and kobolds combined later, he finally reached the 10th job level for the high novice. That means he's now able to change his class to anything he wants.
"Skills." he whispered.
He allocated all the unspent skill points in •basic skills•
When he allocated the last point, an option appeared in front of him.
Well, calling it an option would be overly generous since the window only showed a question and a YES or NO selection.
"Advance to transcended 1st Class?"
YES/NO
It confused him. There should've been an option to choose which job he wants or at least a confirmation on which job is chosen before he transcended, but nothing,
Having no other choice, he mentally selected YES.
There was no fanfare, no brilliant light covering him from head to toe and no special effects.
His clothes didn't even change from the basic eden gear he wore after reaching base level 12 earlier.
"Skills." he called out.
The window appeared and another oddity showed itself.
On the side of the mostly empty window were boxes labeled by the names of the classes.
Absent-mindedly, he chose the class he's more familiar with, High-Thief. The precursor to Assassin or in his case since he's a transcended being, Assassin Cross.
The Thief box opened and it showed him what one would normally see when they open the skills window as a thief. The skills available for the thief class were on full display, waiting for points to be allocated.
"D-do i have access to all the classes?" he whispered in disbelief. Frankly, he doesn't know what this means for him.
To answer his own question, he went back a page and selected another class, mage. And once again, it opened.
He has all the main classes.
He's split between feeling ecstatic and dreadful.
Leveling up a single class was already a pain even back in Ragnarok Online where he could use OP items to farm monsters that are much higher leveled than he is, but now, in this new fantasy life. One where he doesn't have the same convenience that the game offered.
To advance to transcended second class, he would need to level up 50 times as a thief, with each level progressively getting much harder to gain EXP.
After that another 70 before he could advance to transcended third class and then another 70 to advance to, as far as the know, the last and fourth class. And he has to do that with all 14 of the main Job Classes if he wants to be the Strongest version of himself. His journey to being strong might not only be difficult now, but downright impossible.
Of course, even if he really does have all the classes, he could just neglect most of them and focus on one or two classes. It would certainly be easier if he could do that. But even then, would he really be able to say that he did his best when he eventually failed when he finally found his friends because of one simple decision to focus on a single class?
No, focusing on a single class would not do me well.
Steeling himself. He does what he's always done back in his past lives. Roll with the punches and adapt
In the back of his mind, he could hear Keyron's words when they were alone and fending off other guilds from taking over their castle in War Of Emperium.
"Imposible? Psh! When did you back down from a challenge?" her voice, just as squeaky as ever. Somehow, that voice. Although somewhat funny due to how it sounded in his mind, it gave him the final push that he needed to make up his mind.
'I need to become a whitesmith to upgrade and forge weapons that could take me to great heights,
I need to be an alchemist to make potions that could rival the ones produced by the gods of this world.
I need to be swift as an assassin cross and tough as a lord knight.
My fist as a Champion would break the limits set by the norms.
I would ash the monsters or turn them into icicles with my spells as a high wizard.
My enemies would fall before they could spot me as a Sniper.
Death? What's that? With a high priest death from injuries becomes nothing but suggestion rather than the law.'
A smile formed in his lips. 'Right, when did I ever back down from a challenge? Never. Roll with the punches as the saying goes"
I need to cover for their classes when we finally meet.
Feeling more confident, Eremes disregarded Misha's advice and decided to descend down to the Second floor.
"Being a supernovice would have been better than this, though." was his last annoyed remark before he left the first floor.
…
*Swipe, dodge, slash!*
*Swipe, dodge, slash!*
*Swipe, dodge, slash!*
After they're wiped out, find another group.
Rinse and repeat.
Over and over.
No matter how boring he finds it. But it feels like it's not enough.
*Slash!*
With a final slash the head of a goblin fell to the ground. There's no other sound beside the occasional distant footfall of other monsters to mask the thud as the cranium of the creature met the solid ground.
A muted fanfare rang in his mind as his job level reached level 10. He has spent 20 sets of manuals to get to this level.
And the worst part? His base level has stopped increasing at 25 just a few minutes ago, he guessed that to make it progress, he needs to level up his Falna. A process which he heard takes a year and a half at minimum. He couldn't wait that long, obviously, so he hopes that his battle manual is helping his growth.
Now he has two options. Either A- he continues to level up his thief's Job Level, ignoring the stagnating base level, or B- he switches to another class, which means he has to do it all over again from the first level.
Swallowing thickly, Eremes selected the 2nd easiest class to level up. Swordsman.
He sighed, his eyes flicked to the floating status window in his peripheral vision.
It did go down as he expected… his base level returned to level 1 after he changed his class… but his job level has not gone down.
He would've shouted and jumped in happiness if not for the fact that there's a couple of adventurers passing his rest spot. He schooled his emotions and let out a small chuckle instead.
This still isn't the best case scenario since his job level is proving to be a real pain to level up. But this is better than his previous assumptions.
True, it would still take him a long time to level up all of his classes to 25 but it is much better since his job level is fixed.
He stood up, dusted himself up before re-equipping the most basic gear and discarding his 2nd tier Eden gear which he was able to equip at level 24. He would lose the health and mana boost but his swordsman class more than made up for it by being a literal tank and having a decent Health Regen.
Sweeping over his inventory one more time, he remembered that he could now use shields as the High-Swordsman focuses more on devastating attacks rather than speed and to a lower extent, precision.
His eyes lingered on one item though, one that he forgot to use while leveling as a thief. It was more than halfway to his leveling that he completely forgot he even had this.
+20 ring pommel saber•.
A one-handed sword with an elaborately-designed hilt.
Class: One-Handed Sword
Attack: 100 [240]
Property: Neutral
Weight: 90
Weapon Level: 2
Requires Level: 14
Usable By: Swordman Jobs, Merchant Jobs, Thief Jobs
He just sighed. "Roll with my stupidity, more like." And then chuckled
It was one he upgraded alongside his other one handed sword, The •Tsurugi•, and his two handed sword, •Death Guidance•
Looking back, he's thankful for his past self who refined these weapons just for the hell of it.
The •Ring Pommel Saber• a level 2 weapon, meaning one of the most basic kinds, now has more than double its damage output due to it being refined to +20.
For comparison, his •Stiletto•, the dagger that he has been using until now, only has a total of 87 damage.
Pair that with the One-handed Sword Mastery, a skill which he would certainly take, which increases his base damage output with Daggers and Swords by 40 flat damage at level 10 and he's sure he could cut through steel pretty easily even without distributing his unspent Status Point, which he now has a total of 170.
His smile couldn't get any wider if he wanted.
With his Plan not as thwarted as he thought, he once again disregarded Misha's most important advice and went deeper towards the 4th floor where the Dungeon Lizard spawn more frequently since for the almost 10 hours that he's been killing monsters non-stop, he never once saw a Dungeon Lizard. Not even a glimpse.
End
-D-O-T-E-
*A/N*
Ooooookay, everything's good. Good as can be. This took me longer than I would've liked becauseeeee~a lot has gone down since i last posted. We had a 2 day event which I couldn't miss. I was also grinding in Ragnarok online which is proving to be more difficult as you raise your level. Honestly, you can't even level up properly without using some cash items. Thankfully those could be bought from other players using the in game currency but the grind to get said currency is more tedious than pulling the grass off the lawn as a kid for a few coins. But I will manage, I always do. lol.
MOVING ON~~~
Let's stop the yapping for now, let's talk about Ragnarok online Stats.
The ragnarok online stats is divided into six different categories with different but interlocked purposes. The six mentioned stats were as follows
Str
Agi
Vit
Int
Dex
Luk
We're only gonna focus on distribution of stats for now,
All your stats start at 1 at level 1.
You also get a total of 48 stat points that you can use.
To increase a stat by +1 until it reaches 10, you will need to use 2 stat points after. Every 10 status added the required status points increases,the max stats one can assign is 130, at which point the cost has reached 28. I will put a table in this spoiler in QQ and just paste it plainly on other sites.
1~10 2
11~20 3
21~30 4
31~40 5
41~50 6
51~60 7
61~70 8
71~80 9
81~90 10
91~99 11
100~104 16
105~109 20
110~114 24
115~120 28
121~125 32
126~130 36
Now, if you haven't played ragnarok online, you might wonder "how can a person reach 130 if the cost is increasing for every 10 points" well, the gained experience also increases based on the character's level, here's a chart.
1~4 3
5~9 4
10~14 5
15~19 6
20~24 7
25~29 8 3
0~34 9
35~39 10
40~44 11
45~49 12
50~54 13
55~59 14
60~64 15
65~69 16
70~74 17
75~79 18
80~84 19
85~89 20
90~94 21
95~99 22
100~109 23
110~119 24
120~129 25
130~139 26
140~150 27
151~157 28
158~164 29
165~171 30
172~178 31
179~185 32
186~192 33
193~199 34
200 35
I will put a wiki link alongside a brief explanation on Extra to those interested in learning how the status works on ragnarok online. And then next time, we'll hopefully delve into the skills mechanics in the next few chapters.
That's about it for this chapter! I hope you enjoyed, and like always, if i ever get delayed on release,
Please be patient with me!
BuhBye!