"What a remarkable game." Henry Jasek - Nightwalker - muttered as he gazed at his replicated digital body.
"It's more interesting how I can still feel my bloodline and Leviathan despite being in a game." Connor Lord - Krona - added as he closed his eyes.
"So? What class are you going for?" Nightwalker asked as he faced Krona.
"I want something that allows me to manipulate water and according to the to the guide Sublime Notion sent us there is a magic class called Hydromancer that lets me do that." Krona answered without thinking.
"What about you?"
"Probably a gunslinger rogue. I'm a trained sniper with over 20 confirmed kills above the B-grade. Using daggers or swords is not really my thing." Nightwalker shrugged casually.
Both of them looked around the area they were in now that they had affirmed their plans. They were in the market square of Stagnant Moss town, the Umbra starter location. They also had the same benefits that Misery did, so they made their choices after they spoke.
Nightwalker chose a set of light armor that was mostly leather with some straps and holsters, while Krona chose a set of medium armor that was part cloth and part steel. As for weapons, Krona chose a staff whereas Nightwalker chose two pistols.
｢Ebony - Gun
Rank: Rare
Atk spd: 200
Dmg: 33-40
Effect: Recoil Reduction +10, Gun Mastery level +2｣
｢Ivory - Gun
Rank: Rare
Atk spd: 200
Dmg: 33-40
Effect: Recoil Reduction +10, Gun Mastery level +2｣
｢Staff of the Deep Sea - Stave
Rank: Rare
Atk spd: 13
Dmg: 45-74
Effect: Mana Consumption Reduction +2%, Water Element Mastery +2｣
They were decent starter weapons. The two also selected their skills and Tradeskills.
Nightwalker chose to work in Gun Smithing, Tracking and Negotiation, two of them being ones Riveting Night used to major in. Krona chose Taming, Sailoring and Shipwrighting. Unfortunately, Privateering, which would be perfect for him, was a Legendary Tradeskill, so he did not have access to it quite yet.
However, once he reached Vita Kingdom and entered the core area, he could easily trade for it from the various libraries in the village manors or even use the Tradeskill Altars.
As for their skills, it was far more straightforward.
｢Multi-shot - Active skill
Effect: Shoot rapidly in a 360° angle, hitting all enemies within a 100 meter range with your bullets. This deals 30% projectile damage to each foe within range.
Cooldown: 1 minute.｣
｢Aim Assist - Passive skill
Effect: You are able to aim 35% better on all your shots with ranged weapons that are loadable with ammunition, i.e guns, crossbows.｣
｢Predator Shot - Active skill
Effect: Fire a single bullet that can reach anywhere within 50 meters of the firing location, and can be controlled slightly by the user to augment its direction. This deals 125% projectile damage, but has a powerful recoil.
Cooldown: 5 minutes.｣
Nightwalker chose gun skills that would enhance his damage as well as a small aim assist to help him out. He trusted his natural aim well enough, but since the game provided a free boost, he saw no reason not to take it.
One might think that a real life sniper would disdain using an aim assist, but one couldn't be more wrong. Only an idiot would pass up a chance to better their aim even slightly when in combat, because it meant the difference between hitting your target or missing your shot.
Once you miss, you'd be compromised with nothing to show for it.
On the other hand, if you hit, you'd still end up compromised, but at least you'd have succeeded.
｢Summon Water Elemental - Active skill
Effect: Summon a fully grown Water Elemental (Private Rank) that fights alongside you. It has the skills Water Shield, Water Gun, Aqua Blast and Engulf.
Duration: 10 minutes
Cooldown: 15 minutes.｣
｢Cleanse - Active skill
Effect: Use the purity of the Water element to cleanse the body of impurities and detoxify the blood. This dispels all negative statues and restores 7% of a targets HP per cast.
Cooldown: 30 seconds.｣
｢Resonance - Passive skill
Effect: You can sense nearby water bodies and flows of water with ease, also able to tell how resource rich those water bodies are or how dangerous they are; I.e the kind of monsters within.｣
Krona choose tactical abilities that would assist his abilities. After all, his bloodline already gave him Hydrokinesis and a slew of other cool abilities, so there was no need to go for something basic.
Nightwalker and Krona weren't like the others who had gone out solo. Since both of them were newcomers to Umbra, they decided to spend some more time together, and Krona even assented when Nightwalker suggested that they team up with a group of normal players.
Given their pleasant outer appearance, as well as their class as two damage dealers, they quickly found a group containing one level 2 Cleric, one level 1 Rogue and a level 2 Shield Guardian. The group entered the fabled Nightingale's Cry dungeon where Draco had first seduced the AI with his skills.
His record still stood tall on the leaderbaord, as if teasing all those who came later that they would never surmount this level of skill. Krona and Nightwalker had solemn expressions as they looked at that name and his affiliation.
They already knew that was the prodigy, and he certainly lived up to his title. To be able to dominate the game from day 1, he was truly a monster. Even Nightwalker who had a bit of beef with him, had to admit his awe and respect for the lad.
With this in mind, they entered the traditional mode of the dungeon at the normal difficulty. In the first room, they were met with 4 zombies that crawled towards them menacingly.
｢Name: Zombie Crawler - Private rank monster
Level: 1
HP: 50/50｣
Its HP was exceedingly low. The tank used a common aggro skill to get them on him while the other rogue circled behind then and stabbed out without any system skill.
-2!
What, you expected higher numbers? Stop dreaming, this rogue fellow was an unnamed bloke in Boundless. You think he could perform feats like named characters?
No one was surprised though, as this was simply the difficulty of Boundless. The rogue kept stabbing into the slow moving zombie, getting numbers ranging from 2 to 4.
Nightwalker and Krona shared a look before striking forth. Nightwalker simply raised his guns and began shooting crazily. Guns didn't use physical metal bullets, but drained the mana of the user to create mana bullets.
As such, he could fire endlessly as long as he had enough mana. This meant that even for auto-attacks, guns couldn't be used for too long unless one had a busted mana stat.
This was the AI's balance as guns had an insane attack speed compared to normal weapons, so if gunslingers were allowed to fire without scruples, they would automatically become the new Gods of the game.
This class was limited to players only, NPC didn't have gun related skills or the know how. Even Draco only recently made a flintlock using his Magic Engineering which was an Epic Tradeskill mind you.
But that one was general use, like a proper gun as it drained nothing from the user. These guns drained 1 point of mana for every 5 shots, so Nightwalker at level 1 who only had about 10 mana could only fire about 50 shots before he would be tapped out.
-4! -3! -3!
Guns like these were not known for their damage, but their fire rate. As such, Nightwalker felled two zombies alone, leaving one for Krona.
Krona was far more straightforward than his compatriots, as he held his staff gently. He cats the staff auto-attack which was a small arrow of water that struck a zombie.
-7!
Naturally, magic had a stronger effect on zombies who had high physical resistance. Krona was dissatisfied by this as he raised a finger and directly fired a needle thin drop of water with high pressure.
-43! (obviously, it did not deal this little, but the zombie only had 43 HP left)
This high pressure line managed to pierce through his targeted zombie and kill it in one hit. Seeing this, the eyes of the other three members bulged. They gazed at Krona with shock and horror for a few seconds, their minds not able to process what's going on.
Then the Shield Guardian laughed shakily. "Oh my, Brother Krona you must have been lucky enough to be able to buy one of those legendary Master Packages! I thought they no longer sold them. Still, you shouldn't be in a rush to use your Uncommon skills, as we'll be needing them deeper into the dungeon."
Hearing this, the expressions of the other stabilized slightly as they also laughed awkwardly, forcing themselves to believe that this was the case. After all, it was the only explanation they could come up with for it was clear given their level that Krona and Nightwalker had just started the game.
Unless they had a powerful backer, they should not have access to Rare or Epic skills. And in that case, why would they bother to play the game with some no names like themselves? Of course, these bottom feeders had no idea about Lineages, Inheritances and whatnot, so they could only reason it like it.
Krona nodded, not wanting to give up the goose for no reason, yet Nightwalker's eyes shone with playful intent as he entertained a very scare thought.
'I wonder what would happen if I release a little bit of Armageddon here?'
The group went deeper into the dungeon and fought a bit more, this time both Nightwalker and Krona fighting normally. This reassured the skeptical trio and made them drop their guards.
In the boss room, Nightwalker no longer held back. He waved his hand and opened a Calamity Oortal, from which a torrent of lava poured out and filled the entire cavern.
Krona was easily able to summon a pillar of water to elevate himself and attach himself to a nearby wall, but the other three were not so lucky. Since this lava was not brought forth by a system skill or a system recognized technique, it did not possess the friendly fire limiter.
As such, the three randoms burned to death while screaming agony, melting into goop as they died. Krona showed no reaction while Leviathan and Jormungandr were like connoisseurs, enjoying the screams of agony.
Nightwalker recalled his lava and gazed at Krona who landed beside him causally. "I underestimated you. I thought you'd be angry that I killed our teammates so cruelly."
Krona gazed at his fallen compatriots neutrally. "What's the point? It's just a game and while I might not have known you for long, there is at least a family tie between the two of us. Besides, they already suffered their fates. Unless there are direct consequences for your actions that will affect me, it's not my concern."
Err… Nightwalker was speechless, yet from the limited time he had spent with him, it did sound sound like a very Krona thing to say.
"Well, we now know that teaming up with losers is a waste of time. Let's run this thing on the hardest difficulty next time." Nightwalker suggested with a shrug.
"Sure, I felt the same way after seeing their reactions to my earlier attack. That only took less than 0.0001% of my bloodline power, yet they treated it like I had used a godly skill." Krona unhesitatingly agreed.
"Not to mention, after seeing me oneshot the enemy, I understood that my offensive power is far above what players at our current level should possess." He added while folding his arms.
Nightwalker nodded and gazed at the ruined cavern which was scorched black from the lava. Even the drops form the boss monster had been burned into nothingness.
"Yep, let's do that. Also when we meet those three, leave it to me. I was the one who offed them, so I should be the one to explain myself." Nightwalker offered as he exited the dungeon with Krona.
When outside, the other three respawned immediately, their faces changing from pain to horror as they gazed at the smiling Nightwalker. Nightwalker himself took a step forward and wore a big smile.
"Hey there, buddies! Sorry about what happened back there, you know. I'm a total noob and couldn't control my abilities, haha!"
His eyes gleamed and the three men couldn't help but feel fear in their hearts, as if they were looking at a killer who would end their lives in a heartbeat.
"You guys won't take it to heart right? You'll forget about it… right?"
They nodded their heads like chicken pecking rice, to which Nightwalker smiled. "See you lads later then~"
