After several weeks, I bring you a new chapter!
I'm very sorry it took so long. Some stuff came up and also I had a burst of inspiration for some of my other stories. Anyway, here's the next chapter.
Enjoy if you can - if you can't I apologize.
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Myrtenaster let out a frustrated hiss as she and her team retreated out of the boss room for the second night in a row.
"What was that!?" she asked angrily. "Things were going so well. How is it that we still did not beat that thing in time?"
Crocea shrunk at her outburst. He had decided that switching up the teams and roles a little might make things easier and more efficient. Maggy and Wilt would now be attacking the boss, with he and Milou defending them. Rose would remain as back up and give a helping hand every now and again. Gambol, Myrtenaster, and Stormflower would now be in charge of keeping the other mobs out of the way. They weren't killing them this time.
They spent most of the afternoon before the raid practicing with their new teams. They adapted pretty well. In fact, the new teams were arguably more effective than their previous arrangements. Crocea had done a good job.
But Myrtenaster was upset that, despite how much more efficient their team had gotten, they still failed.. It just so happened that the blond was the one who she took it out on...
"I'm sorry," she said quietly. "That was out of line. This is just... very frustrating."
The boy lowered his head. "Don't worry about it. I'll try to think up a better combination for us..."
Rose shook her head. "C'mon, Crocea. You did pretty well. We just don't have enough people for this." She turned to Myrtenaster. "But we should. More people means more damage on the boss. Its attack and defense will get higher but unless we have over a hundred people there, the stat increases won't really matter."
"I know," Myrtenaster said, scowling at Rose's tone of voice.
"Then why did you ask that we not tell Torchlight about the boss room? He already knows that we have its location. He's been bugging me since we arrived last night."
Myrtenaster grit her teeth but said nothing. They had been the ones who found the boss. Her pride would not allow anyone else to defeat it before they did. But it was stupid, she realized. Stupid and petty. She had trouble accepting that, but she knew. Even still, she was reluctant to let it go.
"Fine," she said, finally. "Tell him to give everyone a message. We have to location of the boss door. Everyone who wants to help us fight it must meet us at the [Cypress Town] amphitheater tomorrow at 10AM."
She still wouldn't let go. They will defeat the boss, but it will be on her terms.
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It was a nearly pitch black night when Rose heard a knock on her door. She knew who it was. Sure enough, when she opened the door, she was faced with exactly who she was expecting.
"Hey, Crocea," she muttered in greeting.
Crocea Mors entered the room and trudged to the corner he usually sat in. Rose lowered her head and sighed. She closed her head and returned to her spot at the window.
She knew it was unnecessary, but even still, she asked, "how you doing? I'm guessing not that great..."
"I'm scared out of my life here, Rose. I'm scared for me, you, everyone... This is too much..."
"You scared we might die...?"
He nodded. "There have been eight scouting teams who stayed in the dungeon after midnight. Only two teams made it out alive and that's ours and some other team from earlier. How many people have died, Rose?"
Rose didn't answer and merely looked back out the window. She still wasn't completely convinced about the whole death thing. She didn't want to be convinced. Even if people did actually die when they're killed in-game, she still wanted to keep believing that they didn't. Trapped or not, death game or not, she wanted to think of Remnant as the perfect world for her. She wanted to keep the illusion going.
After a moment of silence, Crocea spoke up once more. "I can do it?"
The words were heavy in Rose's mind. He was scared, she realized. He was terrified. She frowned and turned to the boy in question. As if to uplift the mood, the clouds keeping sky dark finally passed. Rose looked at Crocea with a determined face now bathed in silver by the moonlight entering from the window.
"You can," she said firmly.
Crocea looked at her with unsure eyes before turning his head down once more.
Rose frowned again before turning back towards the window. The moonlight was already fading back into darkness...
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Gambol stood atop the clock tower roof that morning, surveying the city.
Some NPCs were setting up shop but majority wouldn't be open until much later. Some of the shops that were open 24/7 were changing shifts, but that was the most interesting thing currently happening with regards to NPCs.
Players on the other hand were doing all sorts of things. There was a group on the southern side of town who looked to be practicing their use of sword techniques. Somewhere to the north west of them was Torchlight. It seemed like the man had set up his base of operations in an abandoned storehouse. To the east was...
Rose? Gambol put greater focus on the cursor. Yes, that's her... She continued staring. It's before dawn. What is she up to?
Deciding that it was the most interesting action to take, the raven haired girl decided to follow Crescent Rose out of town.
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Rose was being followed. She could tell that Gambol had been tailing her since she left town. The raven haired girl seemed like she was more curious than suspicious but it still bothered Rose that she didn't just go up to her and ask. Then again, by the time Rose cleared the immediate vicinity of mobs and sat down on the hill, it was pretty obvious what she was doing.
"Oi, Gambol," Rose called. "Wanna sit with me?"
From behind a large rock, Gambol Shroud emerged, looking as stoic as ever. "How long did you know I was following you?"
Rose smiled. "A while now, actually." She patted the ground next to her in invitation. "The seat's free."
Gambol stared at the patted grass before returning her gaze to Rose. "I think I'll stand."
Rose shrugged. "Eh, suit yourself." She turned back towards the east. "You'll enjoy the show either way."
Gambol saw it first because she was standing. From over the horizon, the artificial sun rose, bathing the hills in glorious rays of yellow and orange. On the girl's face was a look of wonder Rose knew all too well. Eventually, Rose too felt the light and warmth touch her face.
"Sit down," Rose said softly. "You can look at it for a while longer."
Gambol sat, still somewhat in awe of what she was seeing.
"The sunrises in this game... it's almost like the developers were actively trying to make players feel something when they made it look this beautiful," Rose said. "When I first saw it, I felt like I was going to cry. I'm not even sure if I can even do that in this game." She closed her eyes and lowered her head.
When she opened them, Gambol was once again standing, holding her hand towards Rose. Rose took said hand and was helped back on her feet. "Thanks Gam-"
She was cut off when the grip on her hand tightened ever so slightly. "Thank you." Gambol said quietly, not meeting Rose's eyes.
With that, she let go and turned back towards town, leaving Rose with a puzzled look on her face.
Rose smiled and shook her head. "No problem..."
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Myrtenaster opened her window and sure enough, Gambol entered from above.
"You really should stop doing that," she said dryly. "I gave you entrance permissions to my room. Why not go through the door like a normal person?"
The raven haired girl said nothing as she took her place by the door.
"Fine," she said, deciding to self the matter. She then sat down on her bed and greeted Gambol. "So, good morning. You seem to be early today. Did something happen?"
"Are you aware that Rose doesn't sleep?"
Myrtenaster was taken aback by what she heard. She was quite sure that Crescent Rose slept. On various occasions, she had seen the girl lying on the grass, simply sleeping the day away.
"Perhaps that's too extreme. Rather, she lacks sleep," Gambol clarified.
Myrtenaster frowned. "How do you know?"
"I maxed out my [Detection] skill recently. When it's active, I see much more information on the status screen of any target I focus on. Apparently this game tracks how long players have gone without sleeping or logging out."
Myrtenaster nodded. That's actually a smart move by the developers. A user awake for several days straight is either using some sort of program to play the game for them or is severely stressing their body with lack of sleep. If the time goes over a certain threshold, I assume the player is automatically logged out. She scowled. But as the game is right now, this sleep tracking is functionally useless.
"So what about it?" Myrtenaster asked. "Her sleeping cycle is not something I can control."
"I just wanted you to know. It seemed like an important detail."
Myrtenaster closed her eyes. "Perhaps it will be," she said. "But as it stands, I have no use for it." She stood up and closed the window with a deliberateness suggesting that the topic was closed as well.
"Now, is there anything else you'd like to tell me?" she asked, flicking down for her menu. "I still have preparations to make before the meeting later today."
"There are six hundred players that are over level 15 in this town. We can only take so many. As Rose said, too many players in range will make the boss nigh unbeatable."
"The safety gained by numbers follows the law of diminishing returns. I am well aware of this." After scrolling through her inventory, Mytenaster equipped her rapier. "This is a simple matter of human resource management. All I need to do is select the highest level players and work my way down until we have 20 people to work with."
"It won't be as easy as you make it out to be," Gambol said as she opened the door.
"No, it won't," Mytenaster agreed, stepping out of the room. "I harbor no illusions that it will."
Gambol followed her into the hallway and closed the door.
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Rose entered the Blacksmith's Guild hall with a spring in her step. "Hey Junior!"
[J.R. Junior] was a level 16 mace-wielder and was one of the twelve players in town that actually raised their [Blacksmithing] skill to a point where they could reliably forge and upgrade weapons and armor for players. Junior, as he likes to be called, is a tall man with black clean-cut hair and a notable beard and mustache who seemed quite at home selling weapons to people.
When Rose had called him, Junior was sitting by his forge, scrolling through his inventory. Having heard his name, he looked at Rose and gave her a half smile. "Well if it isn't Little Red Riding Hood. Got something to repair?"
"Not this time," Rose said, smiling back. "I've got a little something that needs appraisal."
The man raised an eyebrow. "Really now? Well then, why don't we step into my office?" he asked, walking over to a nearby door.
Rose smirked. "That sounded really suggestive," she said. "You're not planning to have your way with me are you?"
"Uh, how old are you? A little girl like you shouldn't be thinking that sorta stuff." With a shake of his head, he entered his office.
Rose giggled, amused at how awkwardly Junior reacted to what she said. "If you say so," she said, following him into the room.
"Alright," Junior said, putting both hands flat on the table. "Show me what you've got."
Rose scrolled through her inventory and dropped the item onto the table.
It was a scythe. The shaft was a little under two meters long. It was made of stone but had the shape and texture a length of wood - like a fossilized tree branch. It's blade was white with red decals and made of bone - the same bone as that of a grimm. The weapon was called [Ancient Harvester].
Junior stared at the weapon. "Where... where did you get this?"
"One of the grimm in the [Gate Dungeon] dropped it. I'm debating whether to sell it or use it."
"Hmm," Junior's eyes started glowing blue as he activated his detection skill. Rose watched the man curiously.
Huh. Gambol's eyes glow yellow when she uses it - and I'm told that mine glow red. I wonder what that's about...
"Okay, base stats on this thing already rank this weapon as a class B or higher. The damage scaling this weapon has makes it viable up to the level forties even without upgrades. Durability is so-so. Weight is relatively light for a pole-arm of this power. Yeah, this is a B-plus, arguably an A-minus."
"Whoa," Rose breathed. She grinned "Yeah, I'm definitely using this weapon."
"I wouldn't jump at this just yet, little miss," Junior said. He then continued has appraisal.
"You can use most of the basic pole-arm techeniques with it, like the [Sweeper] and [Whirlwind] techs, but a lot of it's sword techs are unique to this type of weapon."
"Well, that sorta goes without saying," Rose said. "Every weapon has it's own tech-tree, right?"
"Yes but this weapon has twelve basic techniques that are unique to it."
Rose was surprised by this.
Most weapons types had 6-8 basic techniques - normally 3-4 techniques for players that hold it with one hand and 3-4 more techniques for those hold it with two hands. Using the weapon more would unlock higher level techs.
Of those, majority would be techniques shared with other weapons, like [Linear] for thrusting weapons or [Slant] for slashing weapons. Weapons had very few techniques that were completely unique to them.
The fact that the scythe that had twelve unique sword techniques would mean it would have even more techs with continuous use.
"Twelve," Rose repeated, still not quite believing what she heard. "Is that a good thing?"
Junior frowned. "If you wanna ask me, having twelve is a terrible thing. Looking at these techniques, I'd be surprised if you could manage to activate any of them."
"What do you mean?"
"The motion for activating [System Assist] looks really hard to do. It involves twirling the weapon," Junior said. "You basically have be able to actually use the weapon if you want to use the techniques. I think it's unfair to require that of a player who probably hasn't held a real weapon in their life. The only consolation for this is that it seems that the sword techs have short cool-downs."
Rose stared at the scythe, unsure as to what she should think of it.
"Are you even sure you can equip this thing? It has pretty high stat requirements for strength and agility. Its damage scales with both stats so it makes sense. Still, though..."
Rose looked at the weapon's stat requirements and compared it to her own. "I need only one level up and I'll have enough strength to use it," she said.
Junior chuckled "Good luck with that. You've reached this region's level cap. You're so high level that none of the mobs even give you experience points anymore."
Rose winced. He was right.
Players gain less experience based on the difference between their level is compared to a mob's. The bigger the difference, the lesser the experience. It was supposedly how the game prevents high level players from just grinding the same low level enemies over and over. Unfortunately, it worked both ways - under-leveled players who manage to defeat cripplingly powerful enemies will receive no experience points whatsoever.
Rose was level 25 - fifteen levels higher than the highest leveled mobs in the fields of Region 1. None of those field mobs would give her experience. Her only chance to gain anything would be during the raid. She'd be in the [Gate Dungeon] where the enemies are all level 15 or higher.
She sighed. "Whatever."
She returned the scythe to her inventory and turned to Junior. "So how much do I owe you?"
"2000 Lien."
Rose winced again. "Seriously? That's a bit much isn't it?"
"Eh, fine. I'll give you a discount for showing me a weapon type I've never seen before. 1500."
Rose grumbled but still payed. A 25% discount is still a pretty good deal after all. With a couple flicks and taps on her menus the prompt appeared. Transfer 1500 Lien to [J.R. Junior]? Y / N. She tapped yes and gave him the money.
"Pleasure doing business with you. Anything else you might want?"
Rose thought for a bit, checking the rest of her inventory as well as Junior's wares. "Hmm. Doesn't look like it. I'll be off. It's almost time for the Raid Meeting."
"Oh right, you're part of the team that found the boss room, right? Great work out there, Red. Not everyone's got the guts to risk their lives in those dungeons so you're doing your people proud by fighting."
"My people," Rose repeated. "You make it sound like I'm some sort of soldier."
Junior laughed. "You're armored, armed, and are fight battles others don't want to. As far as I can tell, you are a soldier."
Rose smiled and shook her head. "See you around, Junior."
"You too, Red. Don't die out there. I'd rather not lose my best customer."
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Crocea watched the crowd gather, waiting for Myrtenaster to start. There was a large number of people but it was far less than what he expected. Perhaps fifty people? Maybe more?
"Fifty two," Gambol said next to him, eyes glowing yellow. "All of them over level 15, two of them over level 20."
Crocea nodded. "Thanks."
To max out our quota, we need twenty people, he thought. Six people with shields and high defense, six people with a high damage-per-second, four people with high knock back and stun attacks, and four people with high agility.
He scanned the crowd. I already see a large number of users that have shields. And several that use axes and hammers. This is definitely good.
Myrtenaster walked up on stage at exactly 10:30 am, on the dot. Upon arrival, she wasted no time and quickly briefed the audience as to what they were getting into. Suffice it to say, she had thoroughly scared most of the crowd into giving up.
"Cowards," Gambol growled quietly. Next to her, Wilting Blush grunted in agreement.
Crocea gulped. In truth, he was very much one of those cowards since he was absolutely terrified of the boss. The only reason he was even still there was because he promised to try beating the boss. Sure, he's tried already, but he wasn't really trying. Or perhaps he was actually trying and was simply making an excuse for his stranger desire to both fight the boss and not fight it at the same time.
He shook his head, unsure as to what he should think.
"Crocea Mors, I need your help," Mytenaster called.
The boy blinked. "What?"
"Get over here and help me choose," she explained, tapping her foot impatiently. "You're our strategist, aren't you? Your input would be quite helpful in this."
Was that sarcasm, he wondered. He shelved that thought and walked over to Myrtenaster who was currently checking over what was left of the audience.
From what he could tell, around half of them had left, leaving him and Myrtenaster the metaphorical cream of the crop. All of those still in the amphitheater were all in the high teens in terms of level - even the one of the level 20s were there. Speaking of which, that person was instantly allowed in.
[Ruyi Jingu Bang], level 20. He was a blond muscular guy who wielded a glaive. The most notable thing about him was the fact that he wore extremely revealing upper body armor. Granted, he did have a surprisingly fit figure - very enviable, Crocea realized as he noticed his lack of abs.
"So, what do you think?" Mytenaster asked. "Which team should we put him on?"
Crocea blinked. "W-what? Oh, yes. Let's see." He began muttering to himself. "Glaives combine the strength and agility stats in its damage scaling. He doesn't use a shield so he probably two-hands the weapon, increasing its attack power..." =
Crocea turned to Ruyi Jingu Bang. "First, what should I call you?"
He grinned. "Just call me Gun, if you want."
"Gun," Crocea repeated in confusion. "What?"
"My name's based on a staff in a Chinese myth. Gun means staff in Chinese."
"Oh. Well, you go in the Strength team. Head over to those people standing over there. The tall angry man will tell you what you'll be doing."
Gun smiled. "Gotcha," he said, walking away with a wink and a point of his finger.
"Okay," Myrtenaster said. "Next up, you two. Yes, you. Both of you with the shields."
Crocea sighed. "This is gonna be a long morning..."
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The raid team of 20 was split into 6 teams. DPS teams A and B, Tank teams A and B, Strength team, and Crowd Control team.
The DPS and Tank teams would remain mostly the same - the Tanks would defend while the DPS fighters would attack. Strength team was comprised mostly of heavy hitters. They would stun the boss with a combination attack whenever there's an opening. The Crowd Control team was the same as well - they'd tag the non-boss mobs in the room and lead them in circles.
Once Myrtenaster had grouped them, Rose was up once again to brief them about the boss. The info on it remained mostly the same except for a few additions. After the first health bar is depleted, the boss would begin using sword techniques with its ax and shield - the mook mobs would start using them as well with their respective weapons.
Once the briefing was over, they were all dismissed and were told to meet at the [Gate Dungeon] entrance at 5:30 pm
It was now 5:14. Rose saw that half their team were at the designated rendezvous. It wouldn't be long now...
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So, a few things.
Firstly, Sun is now in the story but is merely a cameo for now. His gun-chuck/bo-staff are based on the myth he himself is based on.
Next, Winter Schnee. She's apparently the big sister. Well, that throws a wrench into my plans since in my story, Winter is to YOUNGER sister. Uhh, whatever. I'll just ignore canon when necessary.
Also, Dark Souls. If anyone's played the Souls games, you'll notice that I've slowly been changing the SAO's combat system to match that gameplay style. Why, you ask? A number of reasons.
One: Like Dark Souls, SAO doesn't have a class system. You can argue the Dark Souls technically has classes but in a game where you can equip anything and everything when you have enough stats, classes mean nothing. That's the kind of game SAO is.
Two: [Dual Wielding]. I think it's bullshit that only one player out of ten thousand got the ability to use two swords. So I made it so that anyone can use two swords if they have the skill and stats. The [Dual Wielding] skill will still be in the game and will only be given to one person, however. All other players will need to make do with one-handed sword skills with each hand and use [Skill Connect] to chain them together - more on that later. (plus, it makes giving people equipment less of a hassle since SO MANY RWBY characters dual wield)
Anyway, I'm working on the next chapter. Until then, see you.