The newest patch finally gave players to wiggle room they needed to keep pressing on. It won't be long now until they reach the next step towards what they believe to be their freedom.
New chapter guys. Hype! Then again, maybe hype is the wrong word. Sorry this took so long, guys.
Enjoy if you can - if not, I apologize.
REMNANT ONLINE
Myrtenaster glared at her map screen as she analyzed it for the sixth time in as many minutes. Behind her was her two body guards, Gambol Shroud and Wilting Blush, as well as Torchlight and Neoplitan.
"Earth to ice queen," Torchlight called. "You've been staring at that map for a while now. You've already bought the data. What do I say to make you leave?"
Myrtenaster twitched in annoyance but said nothing. She continued looking at the map screen.
The players gunning for the gate dungeon had taken full advantage of the latest update, mapping out as much of the region as they could. Within three days, four of the twelve temples were found so far. It wouldn't be long before they could finally enter the region's [Gate Dungeon]. In addition to that, several safe zones were also found scattered around the forest - large clearings ringed with stone pillars.
Technically, they weren't actual [Safe Zones] as PvP was enabled and mobs could still enter and roam as they please. Rather, they were [Neutral Zones]. Mobs within the area were marked as neutral and would not attack unless attacked first or were already in combat before entering. Further more, player healing outside of combat was increased - not as high as in actual [Safe Zones] but significantly higher than out in the field. Finally, debuffs and status effects like [Poisoned] or [Paralyzed] still required the appropriate healing item but their effects were reduced to as low as 30%.
Myrtenaster scanned the western half of her map, notably the temple nearest the town. It was ironically not near at all.
If the same thing from before happens again then we'll be running out the doors with Grimm on our tails because we took too long to kill the boss. If that happens, we'll have even more Grimm to deal with in the forest. It'd take at least an hour to get back to town. How are we supposed to survive this?
"Roman, you were part of the beta. How many people would it take to defeat this area's boss in the shortest amount of time?"
Torchlight grunted. Myrtenaster smiled as she imagined the scowl on his face. "You find out my real name and suddenly you're always using it. If you keep calling me that, I might have to start charging you for it."
"Try to remember, you've been regularly using my name," was Myrtenaster's rebuttal. "Ask for a fee for that and I will respond in turn. Now answer the question."
Torchlight chuckled. "A bite like cold steel," he quipped. "Fine. I'll answer... for three hundred lien."
Myrtenaster bit her lip but said nothing, instead opening the trade menu. She transferred the money to Torchlight, giving him a short glare as she did so.
"Thank you kindly," he said, grinning. "The boss is [Silver Snout the Forest Guardian]. Think of a giant white boar with serrated tusks. Lots of health, lots of damage, but ridiculously telegraphed attacks - you can see them a mile away. If you get hit, then you're probably stupid... and most likely dead."
"Get to the point," Myrtenaster snapped
"Ball park figure? Eighty players all at the soft level cap and we finish in an hour. Forty and we finish in an hour and a half." Myrtenaster stared at him, mouth agape. Torchlight couldn't help but laugh. "Keep in mind that this is taking into account all the changes to the boss fights between the beta and the release. Give or take 20 minutes or players depending on how different it is from the beta."
Gears began turning as she parsed the information she just received. A hundred players will double the boss's health and damage. Then again, if its strong enough to kill players in one hit anyway then the increase in damage is negligible. There are maybe a couple dozen players at the soft cap - a few already some levels above it thanks to the Grimm rebalancing. Getting fifty players shouldn't be that hard.
She addressed Gambol and Wilt. "We're leaving." She then turned to Torchlight. "Thank you for your time."
Torchlight tipped his hat and Neo smiled and waved goodbye. "Bye bye, princess. Do come again."
REMNANT ONLINE
Rose lied down on the roof of a building, watching the clouds pass overhead. She had spent the entire day - and a good chunk of yesterday - partying up with a group of scouts. They were decently leveled for the area but needed help staying alive in the deeper regions of the forest. Seeing as Rose was the currently the strongest player in the game by a large margin, it wasn't surprising that they came to her. Rose, having nothing really better to do, decided to take them up on their offer.
"I wonder what they're doing right now?" she said to no one in particular. "It's only a few hours until night fall. I could probably party up with another scouting team. I'm at my most useful at night anyway." She closed her eyes and pondered.
She lay there for a few minutes, enjoying the relative silence of the bustling city. It was a weird kind of silence, she realized. It was clearly noisy, and yet nowhere near as hectic as the heat of battle. No intense drum beats or frantic chorus playing in the game's music system. Just a soft and simple melody that you eventually tune out. And the load chatter of bartering shop keepers and players alike sounded like a distant whisper amidst the echo of clashing blades in the chambers of her mind.
And then she heard boots hitting the tiles behind her.
Rose opened her eyes, coming face to face with the very person who had asked her for help. He squatted behind her, looking at her curiously.
"Yo," she greeted.
"Yo," he returned.
[Ruyi Jingu Bang], nicknamed "Gun" for quirky linguistic reasons. He was a tall, blond, and muscular staff user who never seemed to wear a shirt. If Rose pitched her head back a little, she'd be staring at some well toned abs.
"Enjoying the view?" he asked, grinning.
Rose smiled and brought her hand up to touch his torso. "Dork," she said, giving him a slight push. Even that small action flung him backwards halfway across the roof due to Rose's high strength stat. Once he was out of the way, Rose kicked up her legs and jumped to her feet. She huffed and stretched her arms before addressing him. "Alright, Gun. What do you want?"
"Me and the others found a cool new quest from the message board earlier. I thought you might wanna come join us."
Rose turned her head in thought. The message board? Must be one of the weekly quests for this area. I wonder what's so cool about it. "What's it about?"
"It's... well... it's..." He frowned and scratched his head, trying to piece together his explanation in his mind. "I don't know," he concluded with a baffling amount of certainty. Rose stifled a laugh. "It's hard to explain, okay? It has something to do with the safe zones people have been finding in the forest. We're supposed to meet some sort of NPC by the western gates at sunset."
An NPC, Rose thought, raising an eyebrow. Okay, sounds interesting... She eyed the blinking question mark icon in the corner of her vision. It marked that a new quest had been discovered and had been marked on her quest log. Eh, might as well, she concluded.
Gun tapped his foot impatiently. "So, you coming or what?" he asked, smiling ever so mischievously.
Rose smirked. "I'm going. Doesn't seem like a thing I'd miss, now does it?"
Gun paused. "Does it?"
She waved her finger disapprovingly. "No, it does not," she said, as a matter of fact. "I'm gonna go restock on some consumables. I'll meet you at the gate later." With that, she jumped off the roof and landed in a graceful roll down in the streets below.
REMNANT ONLINE
The town's central plaza had become a sort of hub where players exchanged information about new skills and techniques. Later at night, it also became the sparring grounds for people who wanted to duel. Milou Akuou was a regular of sorts.
She sat at the tables near the edge of plaza, enjoying the sound of clashing metal and the chatter of various players. She had just finished a sparring match with the four who defeated her not three nights prior. It was kind of disappointing. Even though they won their previous duel, it was by technicality - they couldn't match Milou's skill. They didn't get better in the time since they last crossed blades and she easily evened their score.
"Hi there!" Milou suddenly heard, nearly causing her to jump in her seat.
Peeking up from the other side of the table was a familiar head of orange hair. A short distance behind said head was a tall dark-haired person walking in their direction. Milou smiled and greeted them. "Hello again, Maggy, Stormflower."
Maggy shot up from below the table and gave a firm salute. She then giggled. "I saw your match earlier with those four tough looking guys. You were amazing."
So I was... Milou thought to herself. She made no comment and politely took the compliment.
"How have you been?" She then asked. Maggy took no notice of the change in subjected. Stormflower raised an eyebrow but said nothing.
"Oh, the same thing as everyone else. Scouting. Grinding. Not much else to do, if you know what I mean." Milou didn't quite know how to respond as Maggy wiggled her eyebrows at her. She, in fact, did not know what what Maggy meant. "So what about you? Anything interesting going on or is it the same deal?"
Milou tilted her head to the side. "Same deal. There isn't really that much for us to do at this point. Most of the early game content is just standard fetch and kill quests, plus the occasional escort mission. The real good content doesn't arrive until we reach the [Ruins of Vale] in the region after this one."
Maggy pouted. "I don't know. I kinda like what we have right now." She grinned and started running around the plaza "This full-dive VR tech makes it all great to me!" She screamed from a distance.
"She's got some interesting quirks," Milou commented.
"That she does," Stormflower agreed. "It's what makes her endearing." He watched as Maggy suddenly challenged a random player to a duel. He shook his head and chuckled. He then turned to Milou and gave an apologetic smile. "I need to go."
"Go," Milou said. "I'll see you around."
Stormflower nodded and jogged towards the now in-progress duel. Maggy looked to be winning.
"There you are!"
Another familiar voice came from the far side of the plaza. She wore all white and strode towards Milou with all the grace and confidence in the world. It wasn't hard to figure out who she was even if she had not called out.
Myrtenaster wasted no time and skipped the pleasantries. "I am aware that this is a little early for me to do," she began, "but we need to gather players for our raid team. I need your help"
Milou smiled. "What can I do?"
REMNANT ONLINE
"Everyone, I'd like you all to know that I am very grateful that you came today. When this is over, I will make sure you are all well compensated."
Rose had arrived at the town's western gate, met with a small group of players congregating around what looked to be the designated NPC for the quest.
The players were all around the high 20s to mid 30s in terms of level, with builds ranging from the defensive knights equipped with heavy armor, long swords, and shields, to the quick and deadly rogues equipped light flowing robes and dual wielded scimitars. There was even one player who wore literally nothing but the permanently-equipped default underwear and carried a giant ivory great ax. Rose very much enjoyed the diversity - it was amusing to see the builds people got away with.
The NPC was tall and stern looking, and yet in contrast, his electric green hair stood up wildly in a spiky mess. Large, thick glasses covered his eyes yet the brief glimpses of them revealed an intense analytic gaze. He wore a brown trench coat over the usual collared shirt and pants that most NPCs wore, along with what looked to be a modern-day paleontologist's hat. He had no shield nor any traditional weapon. Instead, he wielded a four foot pole with a kerosene lamp attached to the top - it didn't look like it was made for hitting things with.
Enchanted by the weapon, Rose barely heard anything the NPC was saying. Then again, he was speaking so fast that it wouldn't really matter that she wasn't listening - she still wouldn't understand. Fortunately, a few flicks through her menu brought her to her now updated quest log where the information about the NPC and the quest was detailed.
[Sir Bartholomew Oobleck] was the NPC's name. One of the last remaining mages in Remnant - a relic of an age now past. For the past 200 years, he had wandered the shattered remnants of his old world, searching for a way to pull the planet's pieces back together and dispel the evil darkness that had emerged through the cracks.
As she read, an icon started flashing in the corner of Rose's vision. It was an update for her quest log and map. Excited, she scrolled down for the new content.
[Quest Log Updated
Objectives:
-Explore the underground root complex
-Sir Oobleck must survive]
On her map was a waypoint far west of the town, just short of the nearest [Gate Dungeon] entrance. Whatever the "underground root complex" was, it must be very dangerous, considering how far away it was from the town.
"You will all form teams of 4 and move towards the way point in a V-formation, clearing all the enemies in our way. I understand that formation will be hard to maintain in the heat of battle but I urge you all the try."
Rose tilted her head curiously. The entire scenario was similar to how the players in the beta went about clearing the [Gate Dungeon] on their first attempt. They had grouped up at sunset and pushed through the forest. Rose wasn't a part of the first group that cleared. She did end up fighting the [Gate Boss] but she had done so completely solo when the rest of the players were clearing region 8.
Rose looked around for Gun but saw that he had already grouped up with his three other friends. Similarly, most of the other players had grouped up already. There were a few groups of three that seemed to really want Rose to join, but she didn't like the look of them - they seemed less interested in teamwork and more interested in Rose's level. She sighed with tired resignation since she apparently wasn't going to group with anyone. She headed towards the NPC.
Oobleck raised an eyebrow at Rose. "Yes, child. How can I help you?"
"Can I just group with you?"
"There are only two of us."
"I'm level 54, you're level 75. With our levels, we're basically more than 4 players combined. Besides, you don't have a group either."
Oobleck stared at her, puzzled. "You're not wrong," he muttered. "Very well. You shall party with me."
A request notification appeared on Rose's vision.
[The NPC [Sir Bartholomew Oobleck] wants to add you to their party. Accept? Y / N]
She tapped yes and his health bar appeared under her own. Strangely enough, there was a second blue bar above his health bar which Rose assumed was Mana. Now that was strange. As far as she was aware, there wasn't any magic systems in the game. What was the point of mana?
"I see you all have grouped up and took formation. Let us now be off! Please try to keep up!"
REMNANT ONLINE
So most of this chapter got done in basically a week.
After my last chapter, the first scene with Myrtenaster sat there, unfinished for a month in while I worked on other stories. Upon finishing the latest chapters of said stories, I went back to this one and procrastinated for around 2 more weeks. Then, after a strike of inspiration (and the first semester of my school year starting), I started writing again. This is the result. I'm not entirely happy about it but it's not terrible.
For anyone wondering, [Ruyi Jingu Bang] is Sun. I introduced him as a cameo earlier in the story. In this arc, he'll be a Relevant Character™. No, that does not mean I'm killing him at the end of the arc. He hasn't even triggered any death flags yet. But yeah, he used to use a glaive. Now he uses a staff. I tried to get the surface level details of his character right, and so far I did. I'm just hoping that the other details I've put into his back story will make sense.
The relationship of Myrtenaster and company with Torchlight and Neo is something I'm deliberately trying to build. I don't necessarily have the details set in stone, but many things about it will upset a lot of people if I just did it without establishing the context for it. While I do that, enjoy some banter.
Having Oobleck be a mage in this story something I wanted to write about from the very beginning. I've managed to incorporate some of the defining moments of Oobleck and Ruby's relationship from the show into this fic. As it stands, I'm happy with my portrayal of him. Of course, I still need to build him up to be a little bit deeper than what he currently is.
Overall, I think I did fairly well. There are things I'd probably want to improve upon but nothing bad enough that I think this isn't fit to be published.
Anyway, I'll get to work on the next chapter as soon as I can. Until then, I hope you'll be patient with me. See you.