Chapter 3: Chapter 3: Early Levelling Up

Day ??? (Probably 4 or 5.)

The urge to not get stuck forever had overcome her desire to just do absolutely nothing for the rest of her... life? Existence?

So under the cover of darkness she made another push for the outside.

[ Skill List ]

[ Active: ]

[ Bite Lvl 1 | Rake Lvl 1 | Stealth (New) Lvl 1 -> 2 ]

[ Passive: ]

[ Night Vision Lvl 2 -> 4 | Keen Eyes (New) Lvl 1 -> 2 | Skill Gain Lvl Max (Hidden) ]

[ General: ]

[ Identify Lvl 1 (Hidden) ]

[ Skill points: 7 ]

The one positive of staying inside the cave was that it kept levelling her Night Vision. She didn't really notice the difference much inside, but when she got outside she realised she could see fairly well. Even far towards the other end of the field she could at least make out moving shapes. Though she wouldn't say it was close to 'bright as day' yet. As far as she could tell there was no difference in what mobs were out during the night versus the day. Maybe that was just because this was a tutorial area.

There were still players running around, but at least her theory held that there looked to be less of them. And it should be harder for them to spot her unless they also had Night Vision. So it was time to start her own hunt. Since there was no sense in rushing, she simply walked along the edge of the field with Stealth activated while looking for suitable targets. Which meant the hares. The sheep were too close to the house, the wolves she had deemed off-limits, and she figured she'd need to level up a bit before trying to take on a boar on her own.

Maybe it was possible to communicate with the other wolves, and try to team up on one? But if they were truly running the most basic script as Aina had said, they might not be capable of that much. She had certainly seen no evidence of them doing so on their own, and it might look suspicious if they suddenly started to under her leadership. Nothing here was really supposed to challenge the players after all, it was more like a field of walking target dummies.

If it really was too hard to make any progress here with the amount of players swarming the area, maybe she should try sneaking into the forest, and have a look there. It was possible things immediately got too high level in there, but at worst she'd just have to respawn.

Oh!

Something moved close by, and when she focused it showed her [ Field Hare (Lvl 2) ]. So they weren't all level 1 then. It hadn't noticed her, so her Stealth was holding. She had figured out that if she didn't think about it too hard, her body basically knew how to act for her, and she used that to convey her desire that she wanted to pounce on the little creature. Which she did. It got pinned underneath her paws, and she realised it wasn't quite as small as she had first thought. More like a medium sized dog. Anyway she was stunned for a moment that it had actually worked, but then came to her sense, and quickly activated Bite, letting the skill handle attacking rather than trying to do it manually. Eventually she would have to learn how to move properly on her own, but she wasn't above leaning on assist features for now.

The hare died immediately. Even though there was no combat log that she could see, a feeling told her that she had scored a critical with how she bit into the neck of the thing. She could taste the blood, but it wasn't as bad as she had feared. Not that she wanted to indulge in it, but she also didn't feel like throwing up over it.

There was a small popup that said [ Field Hare (Lvl 2) Defeated ], and a bigger popup that said [ Level Up: Level 2 Reached! ] with some accompanying sparkle effects. She hoped no one else could see those, because it would absolutely draw attention to her. There were two buttons on the window. [ Dismiss ] and [ View Character Status ]. Curiosity compelled her to press the latter.

[ Character Status ]

[ Name: Sara ]

[ Species: Grey Wolf | Gender: Female ]

[ Genus: Wolf ]

[ Class: Starter ]

[ Level: 1 -> 2 ]

[ HP: 16/16 -> 18/18 | SP: 19/20 -> 23/23 | MP: 8/8 ]

[ VIT: 6 | END: 7 -> 8 ]

[ STR: 6 | DEF: 3 ]

[ AGI: 7 -> 8 | DEX: 5 ]

[ INT: 3 | WIS: 3 ]

[ LUK: 10 -> 12 ]

[ Bonus Attribute Points: 0 -> 2 ]

I see...

She had no idea if that was a good level-up or not. More HP and SP was of course always good, and it seemed like levelling refilled everything. Her two top stats rising was probably as expected, though she hoped this wasn't random, like in certain other RPGs. And Luck gained two points. She hoped that stat actually did something good, since the tool tip she got when she inspected it was vague beyond it improving critical chance. What does 'affects various things' even mean?

And there was something new at the bottom. Seemed like she could put those bonus points into any stat she wanted. She'd have to think about that later.

No one had shown up to kill her yet, so she quickly reactivated Stealth. The hare's corpse still lay there, and on impulse she pawed at it. Immediately she got the sense that something had entered her inventory. Upon checking she found that one slot next to the letter was now filled, with the item labelled as 'Hare Pelt (Material)'. The corpse itself didn't look like it was skinned or anything, but it did vanish shortly after being looted. She wondered if there was like a skinning, gathering, or disassembly skill that allowed you to get more drops out of fallen enemies. The corpses stayed around for a while unless they were looted, after all. It seemed likely that it would exist, but it also seemed unlikely that she could get it as a mob. And even if she could, she'd probably need a tool to use it. Which was hard without thumbs.

She started creeping along again, looking for more hares. She passed another wolf on the way, and while she wasn't going to attack it, she could at least use Identify on it, which told her quite simply:

[ Grey Wolf (Lvl 2) ]

Oh, we're the same!

For some reason that cheered her up a little.

It didn't take her long after that to find another hare.

[ Field Hare (Lvl 1) ]

It was facing away from her, so she decided to try a different thing this time. She stalked as close as she could, and then activated Rake. She leapt forwards, and struck the hare full force with her claws. Another instant kill. Probably a critical hit again. Maybe the Luck was helpful after all. Or maybe with the size difference it would be harder not to strike anything vital. She got the notification for having defeated it, but no level up this time. That would probably be too easy. Though she got another interesting popup.

[ Skill Gained: Jump. ]

She quickly turned Stealth back on, looted the hare, and checked the skill.

[ Jump (Active): Lets you leap further than you're normally able to. Scales with Strength and Agility. The height, distance, and accuracy of the jump improves with skill level. Does minor damage if user lands on a target. Cost: 2 SP. Refresh: 5 seconds. ]

That would probably prove useful. Not in this area, but once she moved on. It might not be a bad idea to practice it beforehand.

On the move again she saw a [ Grey Wolf (Lvl 1) ], and her first boar which came up as [ Field Boar (Lvl 3) ]. Yeah, those things were definitely tougher, but luckily that one couldn't see her either. She wouldn't want it suddenly ramming into her back. Stealth levelled up right after, making her feel a little safer.

She had tried Identifying other things while out scouting. Rocks, trees, branches, grass, and other things she came across. The only hit so far had been an apple, which showed up as [ Ripe Apple (Consumable/Ingredient) ]. She immediately put that in her inventory.

Then the third hare was found.

[ Field Hare (Lvl 2) ]

[ Identify Skill Level Up! ]

With that announcement, the hare's information changed to:

[ Field Hare (Starter Lvl 2) ]

The idea to use Jump came to mind, but she didn't want to accidentally miss, and let the hare escape. So she did the same as her first kill. Just a quick, regular pounce to pin it down, and then Bite to finish it off.

[ Field Hare (Starter Lvl 2) Defeated. ]

[ Bite Skill Level Up! ]

They really do level quickly early on, huh? That meant that maybe she only needed one more use of Rake as well.

[ Level Up: Level 3 Reached! ]

[ Skill Acquired: Agility Up (Small). ]

With the on-rush of notifications she had gotten too distracted to remember to reactive Stealth. And suddenly there was a sharp pain in her back right leg as something impacted it with a thunk. She yelped, and turned around, only to see someone close in on her with a sword, while someone else was standing behind with a bow. Was it the same two that had killed her earlier? That would be quite the coincidence. She again froze as her fight-or-flight couldn't make up its mind, but at least she remembered to use Identify first.

[ Human (Starter Lvl 5) ]

[ Respawn Timer: 01:59 ]

Damn. Were they drawn by my level-up notification, or was I just unlucky?

"I have taken the precaution to disable all graphical UI effects from being visible to others, so you were probably just unlucky. Just in case I reviewed playback footage from an outside POV to see whether I missed something."

That quick? Oh right, AI processing... I guess misfortune follows fortune. Oh no, I wasn't able to get my loot first! Rassumfrassum players!

It was probably just another hare pelt that she had no use for, but it was the principle of the thing.

She was distracted from her grumbling by noticing that the popup boxes were still visible in the dark void.

Oh, so I can still use the menu while waiting to respawn?

"Yes."

At least that was something to do while waiting. She checked the skill acquisition first, and as she had expected it was self-explanatory.

[ Agility Up (Small) (Passive): Increases Agility score by 2 points per skill level. ]

A shame it wasn't a percentage, but a fixed increase was more valuable at early levels. Maybe there were percentage skills later on. This was also one of the skills she had seen in the skill store, so at least she didn't have to buy it herself. She quickly checked to see if that had unlocked anything, but it had not. Howl, and Endurance Up were the only two things in there.

[ Respawn Timer: 00:00 ]

She was back in her cave again, so she decided to close the skill windows, and look at her level up screen instead.

[ Character Status ]

[ Name: Sara ]

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[ Species: Grey Wolf | Gender: Female ]

[ Genus: Wolf ]

[ Class: Starter ]

[ Level: 2 -> 3 ]

[ HP: 18/18 -> 21/21 | SP: 23/23 -> 26/26 | MP: 8/8 -> 9/9 ]

[ VIT: 6 -> 7 | END: 8 -> 9 ]

[ STR: 6 -> 7 | DEF: 3 ]

[ AGI: 8 -> 11 | DEX: 5 ]

[ INT: 3 | WIS: 3 ]

[ LUK: 12 -> 14 ]

[ Bonus Attribute Points: 2 -> 4 ]

That was a bigger one. Of course the new skill made it even bigger, but an entire 4 attributes besides Luck had gone up.

Aina, is stat growth random?

"It is not. But you will see different increases at different levels because of attribute growth ratios. Players do not have access to this information, but I have seen posts on the community forums that have managed to figure out the values. It is possible I might tweak them later, depending on how the game develops."

That almost came across as a little huffy.

I'm wondering what to use my bonus points for. Boost up my weak stats, or buff up my strong ones...

She had looked at the tool tips for the various stats to see what they affected, even if she probably could have made a good guess without it.

Vitality mainly gave extra HP, and improved HP regen, but it also had an effect on HP draining effects like Bleed, and Poison. Even without any resistance skills, a high vitality score would weaken the effect, and make the duration shorter.

Endurance was for extra SP, SP regen, and helped with resisting non-damaging physical debuffs like Fear, and Stun.

Wisdom was the equivalent for MP, and MP regen. It helped with resisting mind- and magic-based debuffs (so it overlapped with Endurance regarding Fear and a few other things), and also improved magic defence and resistance.

Unless you had the Regen skills, then HP, SP, and MP only regenerated outside of combat, and at a medium pace, which got less efficient the higher level you were. The state of your thirst and hunger gauges also affected regen, but that didn't matter for Sara for now.

Strength naturally governed physical attack power, but since it was a VR game it was also your actual strength, which affected how much you were able to move, and lift. Aina had chimed in saying that during beta they had tested it also governing carrying capacity, meaning inventory slots, but the players had firmly rejected that, so it was hand-waved with magical bags instead.

Defence reduced the damage you took from physical attacks, and tougher skin also made you more resistant to critical hits. It affected your poise as well, meaning how easy it was to knock you over, or off balance. You needed to be able to stand firm if you were blocking an attack, after all. It was harder to interrupt your attacks as well.

Agility was all about speed, and reflexes. The more agility you had, the faster you could move both in and out of combat, your reaction speed improved, and your body became more flexible. People used to moving their body in real life often complained about VR movement feeling a little stiff if their agility score was low.

Dexterity focused on weapon, and tool handling. Anything that involved using one's hands. It improved attack accuracy for both melee, and ranged attacks, affected critical hit chance, and improved crafting ability. Stuff like picking locks, and disarming traps also relied on dexterity. Useful for all classes, but especially for ranged attackers, crafters, Scouts, and Rogues.

Intelligence affected magic, and little else, at least for players. Aina revealed that it had an effect on intellect for mobs and residents. Meanwhile players remained as smart as they were in real life. That made Sara wonder if it had any extra effect on her, but Aina said she couldn't answer that at this point. She was a unique case, after all. For players it mainly improved their magic power, and spell efficiency. Most skill scrolls for spells also had a minimum intelligence score required to be learned.

Meanwhile the only concrete thing shown about Luck was that it improved critical hit chance. Otherwise the tool tip just said it 'affects various things', whatever that meant. Aina declined to elaborate. Sara wondered if maybe it affected drop rates, but that would make more sense in a single-player game than a multiplayer one.

"I recommend waiting until after your first evolution to spend your bonus points. Attribute growth is slower in Starter classes. For players it is equal across all attributes to let them test out all manners of fighting equally, though the same is not true for mobs as you have experienced. Regular mobs do not get bonus points either, so using them will immediately make you stronger than average."

She was not a fan of min-maxing to begin with, so her temptation leaned towards putting the points into Defence to avoid dying so much, but waiting until after evolving did make sense.

Now what? she asked herself. She still felt grumpy about dying again, so it wasn't tempting to go outside, but if she stayed inside her mind might drift towards things she didn't really want to think about at the moment. Jump training was an option. The cave was large enough that she probably wouldn't bump into the ceiling. Much. On the other hand it was likely for the best to exploit the darkness while she could. Skill training was something she could do during the day as well.

Maybe she would go in the opposite direction this time.

* * *

It was going slower each level, which admittedly was normal for RPGs. It didn't help that all the hares were either level 1 or 2. She hadn't found any above that. Otherwise she had seen wolves up to level 3, and boars up to level 5. No idea about the sheep, since she refused to go too close to the house, and they refused to stray far from it, nor any idea about the birds, since they flew outside of Identify range.

The occasional skill level up notification did help ease the boredom, and after a while (an hour? two? more? Her sense of time passing was already destroyed) she reached level 5.

[ Character Status ]

[ Name: Sara ]

[ Species: Grey Wolf | Gender: Female ]

[ Genus: Wolf ]

[ Class: Starter ]

[ Level: 3 -> 5 ]

[ HP: 21/21 -> 26/26 | SP: 26/26 -> 32/32 | MP: 9/9 -> 10/10 ]

[ VIT: 7 -> 8 | END: 9 -> 11 ]

[ STR: 7 -> 8 | DEF: 3 -> 4 ]

[ AGI: 11 -> 13 | DEX: 5 -> 6 ]

[ INT: 3 | WIS: 3 ]

[ LUK: 14 -> 18 ]

[ Bonus Attribute Points: 4 -> 8 ]

Int and Wis aren't growing at all, huh? Even Def got one point in there.

And she managed to get a third skill from all the hares: Sprint.

[ Sprint (Active): Gain a large boost of movement speed for 15 seconds. Effect and duration increase with skill level. Speed increase: +50+(2*skill level)%. Cost: 3 SP. Refresh: 30 seconds. ]

That was going to be handy. Both for travel, and to hopefully escape some of those damn players. She hadn't gotten anything else though, so either her luck had run out, or they only had three skills. Considering she had also started with three, the latter was plausible. Not too long afterwards she noticed the sky was slowly starting to lighten up.

Already? Does that confirm time passing quicker in-game then? I did wait a while after dark before I first headed out, and with how slow I'm moving with Stealth, it's possible I've actually spent a full night's time... I should ask Aina when I get back. Don't want to get distracted with that out here.

It was probably for the best to head back then. Trying to run for it, or purposefully dying to respawn were options, but she'd probably get more out of it if she continued using Stealth, and pounced on any hares she saw on the way back. She had a number of hare pelts now, along with a few pieces of meat, and a rabbit's foot. Even though it had dropped from a hare. Inspecting it in her inventory revealed it was a necklace that increased Luck by 5, but she didn't have access to the Equipment menu anyway. Might as well keep it, as a memento of her early struggles. Hopefully she could look back on these days fondly at some point in the future.

A couple of hares later she noticed a wolf that was running in her general direction. At first she wondered if she had been discovered, and the wolf had for some reason gotten angry at her, but it quickly became clear that it would miss her position by a few metres. And running after it was a boar. She had seen that happen from a distance before, but never this close. Sometimes the wolf got away, sometimes the boar was a little faster, and smashed the wolf away. This looked like it was going to be the latter case, as the boar was gradually catching up. Sara realised this was an opportunity. The wolf passed her, with the boar closing in, so at the right moment she broke out of stealth, and slammed into the boar's side, making it lose balance, and crash into the ground.

[ Field Boar (Starter Lvl 4) ]

Ah.

Even if she was a level higher, she had seen that these things could be pretty tough. It was the only mob that actually managed to kill players somewhat regularly if they were solo at level 1 or 2. And careless. Her tackle move had only made a small dent in the red bar above its head. Well, the worst thing that would happen was that she needed to respawn. Her attack skills had levelled up a bit, so she figured she stood some chance, at least.

Before the boar could recover, she lunged at it, and hit it with a Rake along the flank. It managed to crit, since she saw the Bleed icon appear below the health bar, but that was still not even a fourth of the health bar gone.

What? How tough is this thing?

She followed up with a Bite, but considering the smaller chunk it took out of the health bar it had probably not been a crit.

Damn. Do I just spam my attack skills, or do I actually try to auto-attack for the first time as well? The skill animations are hard to cancel out of, which would make it hard to dodge, but then again this thing isn't very fast except in a straight line.

As the boar shook her off, and turned to face her, it turned out she was not the only opportunist, as the other wolf had turned around, and come back to lunge at the boar's back. It sunk its teeth right into the rump.

Yes!

She had hoped for this result, even if she hadn't been sure of it. But she had figured that even if it was a basic AI script by Aina's standard, it was probably still clever enough to recognise an opportunity like this. Thankfully she was correct.

The boar refused to get distracted though, and just shook off the other wolf as well before it charged at her. However with her buffed speed, she was able to leap out of the way. The boar didn't have the turn radius to follow her, so she used another Rake across the flank. The beast didn't fall this time, but simply skidded to a halt. Both wolves took advantage of the pause, and leapt to bite the boar some more.

The following scuffle was brief, but intense. The other wolf did a little less damage than her, but they coordinated well enough to take down the boar with minimal danger. As if they knew exactly how to cooperate, and cover for each other.

That's what you call a basic script, Aina?

[ Field Boar (Lvl 4) Defeated! ]

[ Level Up: Level 6 Reached! ]

[ Skill Gained: Vitality Up (Small). ]

[ Agility Up (Small) Skill Level Up! ] [ Rake Skill Level Up! ]

While Sara was being assaulted by a small army of popups, the other wolf gave her a nod of approval before it walked off.

Yeah, nice working with you too.

Daylight was starting to spread, signalling that sunrise was imminent. That, combined with how she thought she could see a player pointing in her direction made her very quickly loot the boar, before she tested out her new Sprint ability. Back to the cave!

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