58 Truth And Sorrow (1/2)
Arthur stayed silent at Shesmu's revelation before sighing and looking at the ground. He then puffed his chest, looked at Shesmu in the eye and hand shook him.
”Okay, you got it, man. I'll keep an eye on the boys.”
”Thanks, and sorry, Arthur.”
”Don't sweat it, I know you mean well.”
Arthur then looked at his party still fighting behind him.
”Anyway, I can't let them hold the flank alone. I'll have to go.”
”Yeah, do that. And keep an eye on the mist, don't let your boys wander too far.”
”I'll keep that in mind, don't worry.”
Arthur then turned around and took quick steps towards his teammates. Shesmu, who was looking at that just sighed and turned around to look at Hector's party. Hector, who was at the front, had wounds all over his body. However, one quick inspect let Shesmu know that he was doing fine in the HP department.
Well, potions can recover HP, but their healing of actual wounds is limited and slow.
Even though Hector's wounds looked painful, all of them were just surface level. Hector stood strong, ax in hand, defending his teammates from the horde of hounds. The party kept repeating the same pattern, changing only when Hector's HP falls too low. When that happens, an offtank takes his place while he chugs down Health potions.
”Hey, Hector. Does it sting?”
Shesmu walked towards the standing down Hector, tending to his wounds.
”Haha, this is nothing, just a few scratches. But damn, this game is really hardcore. What is the pain sensitivity set at? 20%? 30%?”
”Yeah, it is. About that pain sensitivity. Actually, there is a way to decrease it if you want.”
”Really? That's a new one. I thought that it would be set by the system like always.”
”Oh, you can change pain setting?”
Julia announced her presence to Shesmu with a pat on the back. With quick, cheerful steps, she stepped in between Shesmu and Hector, making the latter flinch.
”Hey, Hector. My name is Julia, vice-captain of Everlast, Arthur's party.”
Julia invited Hector for a handshake, to which he swiftly complied.
”Pleased to meet you. Hector, captain of Apollyon.”
”I thought that you were holding off the hounds, was your shift over?” asked Shesmu.
”The hounds aren't that strong, and I trimmed them enough that even the newbies can deal with them. Plus, if anything happens, Arthur and that idiot Owl are still there. But don't mind that, what is this thing about pain setting? I didn't even know that such a feature existed. And here I thought that the sensitivity was much higher than standard.”
”Yeah, just go to your character screen, settings, look around you'll find the pain sensitivity slider under the audio one. It's way down there, after all the graphics stuff about blood and gore bullcrap.”
”Oh, I can't believe I missed it. Games don't usually give you this option, so I never thought about it,” said Julia.
”Interesting, I wonder what is the maximum that you can put. Surely, it must be some low number like 20 or 30%, else if some kid just pushes it to the limit and wake up the day after on the hospital, it will be all over the news, haha!”
”Yeah, the limit is around that. As for the hospital thing, I'm not sure, but a friend of mine got the full of hit of a boss charge in the face and was disconnected. He came back later and said that the game disconnected him because of a shock past the permitted values. Maybe that's the mechanism they have,” Shesmu explained.
”Oh, that's interesting. Is that why your friend there is knocked off?”
Hector pointed at DepressedRyan who was still on Shesmu's back.
”Ah, Ryan. It's a bit different. It did start with him taking a shock in a boss fight, but later on we got a notification that it's part of a quest. Though I'm not too sure about the details. It's one of those where you just go on and hope that the game handhold you at some point for you to finish them.”
”Haha, I see, I see. Well, that's lucky for you guys. Getting a unique quest so early, I'm jealous. Hope you optimize your run through it well for the live game. You don't want to spend too much time on one thing and let the pack run ahead.”
”I completely agree with Hector here. I'm sure you know this already since you seem to be a good player, but sometimes even the best quests are not worth it if they take too long. So keep that in mind.”
”Yeah, don't worry. I'm not a noob, now, am I?”
”Haha, if you are a noob when you passed through this thing like a breeze, what does it say about us? Haha!”
Hector's jovial laughter made Julia smirk for a second.
”Oh, really. I'm not sure about you, but our guild was in the top 5000 in Demon Heart. I think, my advice holds a little bit of weight.”
Julia's passive aggressiveness only made Hector smile even further.
”Haha, little miss is a pro,” He then passed his arm over Shesmu's shoulders before continuing. ”It's just that, this guy is Shesmu. You know God speed Shesmu, from Dawn's Resonance.”
Julia's eyes turned wide for a second.
”Wait, for real?! God Speed Shesmu? How?! He doesn't look anything like him?”
Hector laughed even harder than before at Julia's reaction.
”Haha, what are you talking about? This is a new MMO, of course, his looks are going to change. But skills don't change,” Hector then looked at Shesmu in the eyes. ”You still have that same bait and punish style. Start with a flurry then throw a feint into a punish, that's so annoying.”
Shesmu looked at Hector in the eye for a second and raised his eyebrow. His face didn't tell him much, but the way he presented himself made him think that they knew each other at some point.
Hector took the hint and introduced himself.
”I took a couple of coaching sessions from you at some point. Remember, the big guy that always wanted to copy your style. You always said to just forget about that.”
Shesmu scratched his head for a second before just laughing it off.
”Sorry dude, can't remember. But hey, you did heed my advice to not copy my style. Look at you now, you're a fine tank!”
While Hector was laughing even more jovially than before, Julia was still in a state of shock.
”Wait, are you guys for real? Are you really that Shesmu? The Ace of Dawn's Resonance?!”