16 Finding an excuse to play (1/2)
After handling something with a guard, Huntsman Ken paid the teleportation fees for him, Dancing Princess, and Jericho the Bard to warp to his former starting town. He didn't mind going back to the low level areas if it meant he could game with his friend.
They appeared at the entrance to a town built both on the ground and in the trees.
”This is Pren!” Ken exclaimed.
”Wow, it is so pretty!” Moria replied.
Jericho admired the resident's bravery/stupidity for not installing guardrails on the tree platforms. ”Hey Ken? What happens when someone dies in the game?”
The pre-teen stopped. ”Has nobody told you?”
The adult nodded. ”Correct and it looks like it would be quite easy to fall to your death in this town.” He pointed to the upper landings.
Kenneth chuckled, realizing the potential danger. ”I guess nobody thought it was important. When someone is below level 5, death is negligible. I looked up the death rules on the official site when I first started. These types of games are usually cruel with a lot of fierce competition. However, in order to help maintain people's desire to play, Free Corp made it so any player below level 5 would be exempt from character death penalties except for the 'resurrection exhaustion' state that lasts between 10 minutes and an hour, depending on how you died.”
”The resurrection exhaustion state?” Jericho inquired further.
”From the experiences from previous VRMMO's, they wanted to avoid having a character die in a fight and then be able to rush back in before the fight was done to help finish things off. They created a status effect that reduces you to about 1/2 your combat power. If you die again while in this state, you don't undergo the the other penalties a second time but the exhaustion state extends.”
The bard nodded. ”Continue.”
”When someone dies, they can re-spawn at any resurrection point they have ever been to. If they have a special item or special conditions are in place, they can rez right where they died. These resurrection points include that teleportation gate we traveled through to get here. They created this to avoid the excessive PKers making people's lives miserable. While the company doesn't want to restrict people's choices, they also wanted to give people the freedom to escape.”
”PKers?” Princess asked, unfamiliar with the turn.
”I forgot, games have a lot of their own terminology. PK means Player Killer or Player Kill depending on how it is used. That rouge that the armored friend of yours and I killed? We 'PKed' her. But now we are off track a bit. Just know that there are benefits and detriments to killing other players if you were into that sort of game play.”
”Right, sorry.” Princess replied.
”When a player that is level 5 or higher dies, their level drops by one.”
”That sounds harsh.” Jericho replied thinking about how many days it took them just to reach level 5.
”It sounds harsh but it isn't. Many games are much crueler. That is not the only death effect. In addition to the loss of a single level, every skill you know will drop 1/10 from wherever they are. Princess told me you have skills that are already at tier 5. If you experienced character death any skill that was 0/10 Grandmaster would drop to 9/10 Master reducing your skill tier back down to 4.”
Jericho frowned. ”So death means all skills will drop by 1 value, a level will be lost, and you will enter a state of exhaustion for anywhere from 10 minutes to 1 hour?”
Ken nodded. ”That is how it works with most deaths. The company said there are other special types of death that will end up with different penalties, for example if you were on a special map then you would be ejected from that map.”
{If you died in your water elemental form you would have experienced a conditional death.}
”And this is not as harsh as other games?” Jericho inquired.
The hunter nodded. ”There was one game where you lost levels depending on how much over your health you were killed by and lost over half you skill proficiency. There was another game where when you died you had to start a new character. There was another game where leveling from level 9 to 10 took the average person two weeks to achieve and the death penalty was the same. What was worse, in almost all of these games, you could lose valuable items from your inventory. While these games were popular with the hard-core gamers, they were too brutal for normal people.”
”That does sound a bit extreme. I would hate to lose any of my instruments.” Jericho agreed.
”Yeah, that would be hard considering how difficult it is to get them. This game company learned from the other's mistakes. For example, when you PK someone, the 'drops' don't come from their inventory or equipment. However the drops do make sense for the type of character they play. Also, they read the intentions of the players performing and receiving the PK so people can't cheat their way into obtaining items. While they still dish out spoils for the killer, they got rid of the 'punish the victim further' features that other games had. Of all the games you two could have started playing, you two chose the best one. There isn't an insurmountable chasm between a great player and a decent player.”
Jericho nodded. ”Thank you for answering my questions. Where are we off to then?”
The blond hunter smiled. ”Follow me, I know the NPCs to talk to in order to obtain good quests.” He escorted them to the town mayor.
”Greetings travelers!” The short bearded mayor, who for some reason was not busy with office work and could chill outside to talk with the players, smiled when they approached.
Ken smiled back. ”Hello mayor. We were wondering if you had any knowledge of strange things happening in the area.”
The mayor stroked his brown beard. ”Well, ever since the fox population has dwindled there has been an increase of rabbits eating our crops. Do you think you could go kill 30 of them and bring me proof of their demise?”
Jericho, Princess, and Ken received the quest notification. [Mayor Elmer would like to you to slay some pests known as rabbits. Accept?]
Ken grimaced as he turned awkwardly towards Jericho. ”Well…”
Jericho patted the blond pre-teen's head. ”Mr. Mayer, we are peaceful adventurers, do you have any requests that do not involve killing things?”
Mayor Elmer frowned. ”So you won't go help the poor farmers out by killing the pests?”
Jericho shook his head. ”If all the help you want is to have things killed, then no. We would love to help out in other ways.”
”What type of adventure isn't ecstatic about bringing death to things? If you aren't here to kill nuisances, you are useless to me. Leave!” He shouted, drawing the attention of other nearby players.
A new notification appeared. [You have lost favorability with Mayor Elmer.]
”Farewell then.” Jericho replied and started walking away.
Princess followed. ”Ken, come on.” She called to her friend who had clenched fists. Despite the fact that they didn't want to kill things, rejecting the mayor caused him to lose favorability with one of his former go-to NPCs.
The three headed towards the large tree in the center of town. They climbed to the upper platform.
”Here will be good.” Jericho smiled as he stared out over the town.
”Here will be good for what?” Ken replied.
”A short performance;” Jericho smiled. ”Music touches the soul. Moira warned you, didn't she?”
He sighed. ”She did, how will that help? You just rejected a perfectly good quest.” He mildly complained.
”Listen, and hear. Watch and see.” Jericho replied in a mysteriously playful tone as he split himself. He looked over to his sister and pulled out his ocarina, guitar, and violin. ”A Celtic Dawn?”
”Sure, I'm up for a little workout with a mix of ballet and clogging.” She replied.
The first Jericho picked up his ocarina and started playing a smooth song that gradually increased in tempo.