Been a while since I hit this huh? I haven't really had much motivation to write at the time.
Well anyway I've got nothing to say really so enjoy the chapter.
By the way, going back I've discovered a mathematical error in David's Stat Value's. He should have been at 210 ATK and 110 Def at this point because I forgot to add in a +10 for a Level Up... Oops
[[]]
[David P.O.V.]
We toured Grave Town for a bit before we went to sleep in our homes... And holy crap everything is made out of bones.
The houses, the street lamp's, even the weapons and armor in the shops were made of bones... Heck I'm willing to bet I'd find bone furniture in the furniture shop.
Upon seeing the bone Weapons and Armor I couldn't help but ask the guy in the Equipment shop (Who looked exactly like the guy at Starter Village) what the deal was about the bone weapons, because I doubt they were initially formed in the code of the world.
Turns out anyone can potentially form a new weapon that isn't in the worlds initial coding, like the longsword with a skull guard that was in the shop, send it to the Admin from your home and then a representative will personally visit and question you about the weapon, why you made it, what materials it came from and why use said material. After a day they will upload the the new equipment into the proper shop in the town with weapons and armor made of this new material, with stat's now added to it.
Seriously, due to the fact Grave Town was founded next to an area called the Catacombs, which is made entirely of bones of several shapes. Apparently there are the bones of dinosaurs, humanoids, beast's, dragons, all sorts of creatures... Though the skeletons are just procedurally generated, not actual skeletons of things that were once living.
Axel didn't upgrade his Silver Fang Claws, but he did get a Hollow Bone Mail to boost his defense.
Sadie picked up a Skull Sceptre, which took all her funds.
Mia couldn't afford anything sadly, but was determined to save up for the Snake Spine Whip.
I spent some time looking around before I picked up a Dragon Skull Longsword.
[Axel Lvl 3: LP- 700, ATK- 140 ,DEF- 100- 140]
[Sadie Lvl 3: LP- 700, ATK- 90- 110 (120 W/ Freeze Spell), DEF- 80]
[David Lvl 3:LP- 700, ATK- 210- 230, DEF- 110]
[Mia Lvl 3: LP- 700, ATK- 170, DEF- 100]
So Bone weapons and armor have a +20 Atk boost over Iron and other basic equipment, meaning their value is a +40 ATK Power and +60 Defense power. Which reminds me I need to switch out this leather armor, it's cheap compared to other light armors but it's the weakest of all armors on par with Robes.
"We're gonna need more money." I said as the four of us sat in my Home, after I had invited everyone in of course, "Right now I'm the power house of the team, mainly because Claws are apparently a plus One Hundred Attack boost while a Winged Beast's Talons are only a plus Eighty Boost. Furthermore Axel right now is effectively our highest defensive unit and sadly Sadie is one of our weakest at the moment."
"I know..." Sadie groaned, "I know Spellcasters are fragile and everything but it's looking like Anything that has claws is super OP."
"Yeah." Mia said, "I heard this server is relatively new and they are still working on Balancing things out... David might get a Power Drop soon if they do Balance things out."
"No joke." Axel said, "A Spellcaster's attack Power is dependent on the spell they use, if they are a Fire Spell Caster and they are in the water their offensive power is violently dropped because they loose their main weapon of magical offensive."
"I invite you all to talk about funding and we end up talking about game balancing." I muttered.
"Sorry." Sadie said.
"It's fine, it's too late in the night to talk about stuff like this." I admitted.
Moment's later my guests were gone and I was sound asleep.
[The next morning]
I was thrown out of bed as another Update passed through the world.
"What happened now?" I wondered rolling out of bed and grabbing the Newspaper.
[Balancing Patch released]
'Well ain't that a coincidence.' I thought in deadpan.
[Due to several complaints from Players in recent duels at the City of Condour, a few Balancing patches have been implemented.]
[Claw's, Horns, Talon's, and Stingers now offer only a boost of 20 Attack to match Transformations of other Types in the world]
'Shit, I just lost 80 Attack, that leaves me at...
[David Lvl 3:LP- 700, ATK- 150, DEF- 110]
"Shit!" I cried out looking at my new Attack stat, "Poor Mia must be at... only 110 ATK right now then, she' the weakest of us offensively." I then returned to the paper.
[Furthermore due to Complaint's about Spellcasters being hindered in certain environments, Spells are simply learned, increasing ATK with Spells can be found in the new Ability, Spellpower, which will increase Base Attack by 10 for each Point put into it, those who have already put several points into a Spell with find their point's moved into Spellpower.]
"Well at least Sadie will have an easier time." I muttered putting the paper away and leaving.
We met up at a place called the Cracked Skull Cafe... Nice name... Where I found Mia crying about her lowered attack Value.
"I'm in so much trouble unless we can get some money..." Mia groaned as her Harpie Lady rubbed her shoulders.
"The Catacombs are a good place." Rott's voice said from behind us, causing us to jump.
"Gaaah!" Sadie cried out as she jumped out of her chair.
One thing I noticed was Rott's voice had no change in tone from last night, low and slightly drawn out, like she was a mix of tired and bored. At first I thought it was the fact it was late and she just wanted sleep... Turns out it's just her natural voice.
"Sorry, dad wanted me to give you guys these." Rott said putting a wooden box in front of us and opening it, and pulling out four lanterns... made of skulls, with metal hooks on short chains at the top of the skull.
"Skull shaped lanterns?" Mia asked incredulously.
"Skull Lanterns." Rott said, "Dad wants to give these to every newcomer, seeing as most people who wander down here mostly just use the old fashioned flame on a stick to find their way. Dad made these to produce light for anyone venturing into the Catacombs, and the chains on top hook to most belts so you can keep your hands free. Plus they go out until you stuff them in your inventory, we've set up a brazier at the entrance of the Catacombs to light them for you."
I took the lantern and smiled a bit, "But I'm Dark Attributed... I don't need this really." I said.
Rott just shrugged, "Then keep it in case you need to let a friend know where you are." She said, "Anyway the Catacombs are hardly mapped out at all, even the shop map isn't mapped out so few people have found it."
"Seriosuly?" I asked.
"Yep..." Rott said, "Admin's say it's a special place they've only recently created as a sort of test sample that they may consider replicating in the future for certain areas. Anyway the Catacombs are considered Labyrinths, which are... Imagine Area's like that forest all players started at, but with Treasure Chest's that are randomly reset each day instead of Loot Boxes."
I took a minute to digest this information and nodded, "Thank's Rott." I said.
"Don't mention it." Rott said as her eyes seemed to droop, "Oh, one more thing. King of Skull Servant's spawn in the Catacombs, and they are kind of special."
"How so?" Axel asked.
"In the card Game the King gains attack for every Skull Servant in the Grave right?" Rott said, "Well every time you Kill a Skull Servant, or a creature that in the Card Game could pose as one in the graveyard like Lady in Wight or Wightmare, a blue flame will start circling you and your group. Run into a King with those flames around you and he'll suck them in and you'll be fighting him with 100 Life Points for each Soul and 100 Attack and Defense for each too."
"Oh jeez." I muttered.
"Don't worry, those flames dissipate after you leave the Catacombs so they don't build up infinitely." Rott waved off, "Anyway if you're going in there good luck."
"Well then..." Sadie said as Rott walked off, "Who's ready to go into a maze of bones?"
[]
[You've have entered a Labyrinth.]
[Monster's in a Labyrinth drop more coins, and Loot Boxes are replaced by Treasure Chests. Be warned however that MULTIPLE Bosses can spawn in a Labyrinth.]
"Well there's something Rott forgot to tell us." Mia said as she had her whip arm ready, prepared to launch a volley of feather at whatever crosses our path or turns a corner.
Almost instantly a Skull Servant shambled around the corner, with an Armored Zombie right next to it.
[Skull Servant: LP- 100, ATK- 30, DEF-20]
[Armored Zombie: LP- 300, ATK- 150, DEF- 10]
At this point I realized an issue with The Labyrinth... The corridors were surprisingly narrow- As in the four of us could barely fit, heck Mia and I were pretty close together, and behind us the only reason Sadie wasn't crushed against Axel was her small size.
A Labyrinth like this wasn't made for large groups, if we summon any of the Monsters we have we'll be packed in further.
"Shit." Axel muttered realizing this.
[Axel Lvl 3: LP- 700, ATK- 140 ,DEF- 140]
[Sadie Lvl 3: LP- 700, ATK- 110 (120 W/ Freeze Spell), DEF- 80]
[David Lvl 3:LP- 700, ATK- 150, DEF- 110]
[Mia Lvl 3: LP- 700, ATK- 110, DEF- 100]
'Thankfully I still have the highest attack of us due despite the balancing.' I thought drawing my new sword, it was basically a small horned dragons skull with a short straight bone as the handle and a longer, sharpened bone as the blade, slightly curved actually.
When Sadie pulled out her new staff, a scepter shorter than most staves admittedly, but there were four bones making the handle, with four skulls broken in half then pressed together to make it seem like a skull with four faces placed on top of that staff, each with black onyx's in the eye sockets, and on time was a crown of fingerbones.
I couldn't see Axel's new mail under his tunic, but what I could see had several bones I didn't recognize all held together by bone-like links, and his new Silver Fang Gauntlets made him look like he had wolf paws.
Mia reacted the fastest of us and launched feathers at the two undead, the Skull Servant losing 90 LP and the Armored Zombie losing 100.
I took in a deep breath before breathing out strongly, releasing a stream of black flames that coated the two monsters, the Skull Servant turning to ash in the flames while the Armored Zombie lost another 140 LP, leaving it barely alive... And right after this I felt Axel jump off my head and land a flying haymaker on the Zombie's head, killing it off.
They left us a total of 8 Coins, two for each of us... Though the Skull Servant also left behind a small flame shaped like skull that floated around us, not doing anything more than annoying us.
"Okay." Sadie deadpanned, "This is not going to work."
"What do you mean?" Axel asked.
"Well for starters, you jumped off my head because you don't have any ranged abilities." I deadpanned.
"Exactly." Sadie continued, "This Labyrinth is a tight fit, we need to figure out our positions if we're going to keep going because we are NOT splitting up in this place."
"Alright, that sounds fair." I said, "Mia and Sadie, you two take the back like, as your abilities work the best in the back, Axel doesn't have any ranged abilities just yet so he and I will be in the front."
"And why are you in the front and not me mister Shadow Fire Breath?" Mia asked.
"My flames travel in a cone." I said, "And personally I'd rather not risk torching you because I misjudged how low my flames go when I'm breathing."
"He's got a point." Axel said.
"Fine." Mia said shrugging.
So for the next few hours we wandered the Labyrinth, because we didn't buy a map because we were broke at the time, finding well over six dead ends, though only finding two Treasure Chest's in them (Which gave us a good 100 Coin's after we split each chest up)
We also got a few cards.
From the two Treasure Chests we found a Sparks Spell card, which dealt 20 Damage to all enemy monsters in an area (As well as any player in the area that is attacking you) We gave that card to Sadie as she is our Spell Caster. We also found A Dark Energy equip spell, A Divine Sword- Phoenix Blade Equip Spell...
And a Card for Toon World, which Sadie used, causing us to learn something new.
Toon World is in an alternate dimension (Though still in the Simulator world), making Toon World a literal new world with a new map to explore... Thankfully Sadie say's that on her map there is a Gateway Portal into Toon World that she can lead us to so we can use it... But we aren't gonna do that just yet.
I got me a Zombie Dragon Card (Though I quickly learned he wasn't much for conversation), Sadie claimed herself a Malice Doll of Demise we found in there- Seriously that thing creeped me out as it shuffled toward us dragging it's axe behind it.
We also found collected Several Skull Servant and 13th Grave Cards which we planned to sell because we don't want to use those.
We also leveled up each.
[Axel Lvl 4: LP- 340/800, ATK- 150 ,DEF- 150]
[Sadie Lvl 4: LP- 590/800, ATK- 120 (130 W/ Freeze Spell), DEF- 90]
[David Lvl 4:LP- 4100/800, ATK- 160, DEF- 120]
[Mia Lvl 4: LP- 600/800, ATK- 120, DEF- 110]
Axel deciding to use his new Ability point to get an ability called Bolt, which shot out an electric bolt.
Mia chose to save her point.
I chose to grow some horns, which increased my Attack by another 20 Points (Even with this Balancing Dragon's are pretty OP... Didn't realize that until now.) and gave me a nice pair of horns on my head, a bit on the short side though, only about six inches long and just going straight... Wonder if that'll ever change.
And Sadie chose to give herself a Spellpower increase, resulting in new stats for me and her.
[Sadie Lvl 4: LP- 590/800, ATK- 140 (150 W/ Freeze Spell), DEF- 90]
[David Lvl 4:LP- 4100/800, ATK- 180, DEF- 120]
I would have preferred to be unharmed admittedly, but this is a maze and we've been jumped turning corners. Ever play a Horror Game? Corners are not very nice... One minute you've calmed down enough that you're just breezing past corners the next you turn the camera and get a face full of ugly.
"Okay..." I said stopping everyone as we reached a Door in the Catacombs, "This is a door."
"Nice deduction Captain Obvious." Sadie deadpanned.
"Which means there is likely a Boss behind this door... And we've got over twenty of these Skull Servant Spirits floating around us." I finished, yeah those things may not be hostile, but that many of the effing things really made it hard to see when they jump out in front of you.
"Good point..." Mia said, "So... let's turn back then."
[]
Returning to town we split the money we had collected evenly between us, after selling off our unwanted cards and the result.
Each of us had over 500 Coins... Yeah we killed a lot of things in there, not enough for a second level up, but a lot of those monsters dropped a lot of coins.
So Sadie, Mia and I ran back to the equipment shop and re-outfitted ourselves.
I picked up a Bone Plate, which raised my defense by 40.
[David Lvl 4:LP- 410/800, ATK- 180, DEF- 120 -160]
Mia picked up both her new whip and another skintight suit called a Cartilage Suit (No idea how the Creators came up with that... But I'm just gonna assume the Admins made it to fit with the bone theme of everything else here because I highly doubt there is cartilage in the Catacombs.) In total her ATK went up by Twenty, and her Defense by 40
[Mia Lvl 4: LP- 600/800, ATK- 120 - 140, DEF- 110- 150]
And Sadie picked up a Bone Marrow Robe, raising her Defense by a needed 40
[Sadie Lvl 4: LP- 590/800, ATK- 140 (150 W/ Freeze Spell), DEF- 90 - 130]
"Well then." I said as the four of us sat around an outdoor dining table (Can it really be considered outdoors with it being underground?), with it being officially night out on account of the Streetlamps being dimmed I had placed my Skull Lantern in the middle of the table as we dined on some Hamburgers, "I think today was successful."
"Not counting me getting pummeled." Axel muttered, "My fault though, but why did we turn left so often?"
"Maze rules." Sadie said, "Keep your hand on the left wall."
"We had a map." Mia pointed out.
"Doesn't matter in the end." I said, "We've located a Boss, possibly, and we are all tired."
"And I'd really recommend heading home." Rott said, once more scaring the crap out of us.
"Holy!" I cried out, "Lady we need to tie a bell on you or something! I'm not undead I can't shrug off a heart attack!"
"Sorry. I'm barefooted here and I don't make much noise that way." Rott said shrugging, looking down she was barefoot... And missing her big toe.
"You're missing a toe." Mia pointed out.
"It'll be back." Rott said, "Maggot's Mending plus Sewn on Parts tends to make it so I lose chances to take damage by causing my body to fall apart, and then my body parts will reattach themselves in time."
True to her word, slowly but surely her big toe was sliding over back to her foot, several maggots could even be seen dragging it to her.
"That's disgusting." Sadie deadpanned.
Rott just shrugged, "Anyway a lot of people here are night timers, and a lot of Zombie Class people live here too, and sadly they have a bad habit of dragging Diurnal players into the Catacombs when they're tired... Thankfully my sister doesn't do that... Though considering she's pregnant at the moment that's pretty understandable."
"Oh congratulations on becoming an Aunt then." I said with a smile, and on Rott's face there was the ever so slight hint of a smile on her permanently bored expression.
"Thanks." Rott said, "I should probably see how she's doing, her boyfriend may be a Player, but I'd like to check in on her and him to make sure that he's only one kind of player... Though I got to admit, it is amusing to see a baby bump on her metallic belly."
"So your sister is a Machine Player?" Axel asked.
"Yep." Rott said, "She also prefers to carry around Cannon instead of a simple pistol, go big or go home I guess."
"Right." I said noticing several players appearing in town, "Let's talk in the morning, the mob is coming."
With that everyone else turned around to face the arriving Players, and all of us but Rott chose not to stick around.
[]
That night I was a little sorry I didn't bring out Headhuntress in the Catacombs, so I summoned her in my bedroom to apologize.
The fact she appeared with her arms crossed did not make me feel any better.
"Sorry I didn't call you out Headhuntress." I apologized, "But sadly the Catacombs had thin halls, and there just wasn't room to summon you without getting us all cramped in."
"I'll forgive you on one condition." Headhuntress said, "You and I spend the night together."
"Sure, just watch the tail and wings please." I said.
"Don't worry." Headhuntress said as she climbed onto my bed, "It's just cuddling, I'll be gentle."
'Somehow I feel this will repeat until it escalates.' I thought climbing into my bed with the Monster.
[[]]
Well folks that's the chapter.
Yeah I looked back on my Notes and noticed I was really over powering the Dragon with the number of Attack Boosters they can get and their sheer increase, so I had that nerfed a bit.
Anyway I hope you all enjoyed this chapter as I continue to build up this world... Though I truly wonder if Spiceracksargent will make use of the Starter Village Tournament I chose not to have my group participate in with his story, Yu-Gi-Oh Virtual: The Elemental Reavers.
*Pulls out pocket watch and starts attempting to hypnotize you*
Go read it...
Anyway I'll see you guys hopefully tomorrow or the day after with DAaaG (In which I'm am going to rant unhappily about something that is really starting to piss me off with that story.)