Chapter 5 - First Teammate (1)
Asrian Online's official page.
Hyun, who had logged out to eat ran, was looking at the ranking list.
As he clicked on either local, country-wide, or global rankings, he could see the ids of current top players.
The list was hard to read because there were languages from all over the world. But thanks to the auto-translate option, it beca easier to read.
1. Lattice - Lv.13
2. II - Lv.10
3. Strongest Berserker - Lv.10
4. Shao Shao - Lv.10
5. Cleo - Lv.10
6. Viper - Lv.9
7. Nihonjin desu - Lv.9
8. Mayday - Lv.9
9. Blank - Lv.9
...
Are numbers 3 and 7 Korean?
If that userna was written in real Japanese, it would probably say sothing like 'I'm Japanese.'
‘That guy is definitely Korean.’
SeoHyun took a glimpse at the top 50 players.
"There isn't anyone remarkable yet."
It was understandable that there wasn't soone he should be careful about yet. After all, Asrian Online had been open for one day.
Once a week passes, most of the nas there would probably change.
The only player he should probably follow closely was the one using the ID 'Lattice.'
There were many levels of difference between him and the other users.
But the interesting stuff ended there.
"Still, he's not that great."
After hunting ghosts, Hyun's level had reached 27. That ant he had more than 13 levels of advantage over the current number 1 player.
Despite that, he didn't appear on the rankings. The reason was that he hadn't registered his character in the Hall of Fa.
Users that registered on the Hall of Fa, depending on their rankings, gained fa.
But it wasn't that they beca celebrities. It was an important part of the ga. Your fa was reflected on the NPCs. That ant you received more quests, t important characters, and obtained useful qualifications, among other helpful things. Your fa influenced the in-ga experience.
"I'm probably better off not registering on the rankings yet."
The reason why he wasn't interested in the Hall of Fa was simple.
—Information leak.
The mont he registered in the Hall of Fa, everyone would get to know his ID and level.
It wasn't like private information like stats, skills, and jobs were leaked, but the ranker tag would probably place a lot of eyes on him, and that would end up limiting his actions.
‘Maybe I could even get so stalkers…’
He didn't want to attract unnecessary eyes to him.
'There are also so quests you can only do if you have low fa.'
So secretive quests required you to have low fa.
If he registered in the Hall of Fa, quests like that would beco forever out of his reach.
He had considered many factors before deciding not to register his ID.
'Even if I increase my fa, later on, it won't be late.'
* * *
Hyun (Lv.27)
Job: Support
[Strength: 2] [Agility: 2] [Vitality: 5] [Magical Power: 11] [Empathy: 27]
Skills - < Open List>
[※ You have 52 unused experience points!]
[※ You have 26 unused skill points!]
After logging in to the ga, he looked at his status window.
It was to understand the Support job better.
"Empathy is definitely the main stat."
The Warrior focused on Strength and Health, Magicians and Priests focused on Magical Power, and the Thief focused on Agility.
Focusing on those stats made it easier to develop each class's potential.
But for a Support, it was hard to tell which stats were important.
Next to most of the Support's skills, you could see an Empathy requirent.
Should he focus on increasing Empathy? The answer to this question was harder than it seed.
"It's hard to decide since this is a new class, and there's no information about it..."
The skills were even more complicated.
Skill Points had two use cases: one was to make current skills stronger, and the other one was to unlock new ones.
[ «One Second Immortality» (Lv.0 -> Lv.1) ]
- You can increase all defensive stats by 3 extra points.
(Skill Points required 1)
[ «Shield» (Lv.0 -> Lv.1) ]
- The opponents that lose consciousness receive 20% of your Empathy as extra damage.
(Skill Points required 1)
'Should I increase this or not...?'
He was confused.
The amount of defense given by «One Second Immortality» didn't increase much after leveling up. Not only that, but the duration ti remained the sa.
Would the duration ti increase if he leveled up the skill even further?
The only way to discover the answer to that question was by trial and error. But there was one problem with that… He couldn't re-assign skill points. So if he made a mistake, that character would beco useless.
'Should I just learn a new skill?'
After reaching level 20, he hadn't reviewed the new available skills.
The skills listed below were so of the ones he had seen before.
[ «Addictive Counter» ]
- Decrease the attack speed of an ally by 20%.
- If a counterattack activates while fighting an enemy, they receive 200% more damage.
(Points required: 5)
[ «Sophisticated Weapon Mastery» ]
- Increase the attack range of an ally by 10 cm.
- While attacking an opponent, if the target is within the increased attack range, the damage they receive increases by 1.5 tis.
(Points required: 3)
[ «Sophisticated Magic» ]
- Increase the magical attack range of an ally by 1 ter.
- While attacking an opponent, if the target is within the increased attack range, the damage they receive increases by 1.5 tis.
(Points required: 4)
[ «Weapon Enhance» ]
- Increase the damage dealt by an ally by 50 points.
(Points required: 10)
He looked at the skills with doubtful eyes.
'Are these good or bad skills?'
Hyun tried to use his eight years of Asra Online experience to try and see how these skills synergized with others.
The «Weapon Enhance» skill seed to be the most useful since it was intuitive and easy to understand.
The other skills seed to be useful under certain circumstances.
"Depending on how I use them, they could beco cheat skills."
Hyun was finally starting to understand the 'Support' job.
It didn't have a direct attack skill.
More than attacking himself, the role of the Support was more like a playmaker.
Under certain circumstances, the synergy that the skills could have was amazing.
Skills like «One Second Immortality» and «Shield», which seed useless at first glance, had proven useful if played correctly.
The rest of the skills were the sa.
The pre-requisites of activating the Support's skills were quite difficult. But if you managed to satisfy them, you would be able to see their true potential.
—High risk and high return.
It was a class that required a lot of skill and dexterity.
The most important thing was creating the correct situations to make the class shine.
"The problem is that the Support has very clear limits."
The Support wasn't a job that allowed solo playing as Hyun had wanted.
Since its conception, a Support couldn't achieve greatness alone.
"I can't keep using strategies that rely on NPCs."
Hyun felt the need to change his playing style.
Translator - Daniel Shin
Proofreader - ilafy
* * *
He had many fond mories related to Asra Online.
There was a user with the ID 'Smiling Angel.'
According to her profile, she was a 20-year-old girl. Her job was an evolved one from the Priest that was very similar to a Support.
People from the guild often referred to her as 'Angel.'
「Smiling Angel, is there any new item you need?」
「Hey Angel, do you want to go together to the Dragon's Dungeon? I originally planned to do solo play, but I can carry you if you wish, lol.」
「Smiling Angel, do you want to do a raid? We're in need of a priest. We don't care about things like specs, don't worry.」
The mont she logged in, she was flooded with ssages.
She usually answered right away.
「First of all, I'll gladly receive the free item. Then, I will let you carry through the dungeon and join the raid. So everyone, please wait for a little bit. ^^」
Smiling Angel.
In Asra Online, she was sothing like a princess.
She had at least five loyal underlings who would cry tears of joy just from her calling them by their nas.
Her royal highness sotis rewarded her loyal underlings with a generous gift.
「Does anyone need a buff? Oh, I'm low on mana. I'm only going to be able to buff three people. I'm sowy ㅠㅠ」
The mont she spoke, tons of people who wanted to beco her underlings suddenly appeared.
Those incredibly moving scenes were recorded deep in Hyun's mind.
What was even more surprising was that, later on, it was discovered that Smiling Angel was actually a 31-year-old man. But Hyun really didn't care about what had happened.
Now, unintentionally, he had beco a support.
Smiling Angel. Maybe there was sothing he could learn from her(?).
"I need to get a damage dealer underling."
Getting hard-working underlings seed the best answer.
If he added his supporting skills on top of that, maybe he'd be able to build a decent team.
There was one problem with that: he wasn't sure if he had sothing like Smiling Angel, who could easily obtain the loyalty of several people.
His ideal underling should have decent control and ga sense.
At the sa ti, it should be soone that listened and followed his orders.
"Is there anyone like that...?"
Hyun started to recall everything he could from Asra Online. Then, he rembered a certain face.
"There is soone!"
That guy would be perfect to have as an underling.
SeoHyun imdiately took action.
He logged into Asra Online for the first ti in a while.
Most people had quit after the sequel ca out. But that guy, who was also a top player, maybe was still around this place.
"There he is!"
Hyun shouted in happiness after checking out his friend list. He was also online.
That person was one of the few users Hyun had on his friend list.
Hyun was about to send him a whisper when he was surprised by a sudden ssage.
['Ain' has challenged you to a 1 vs. 1 duel. Will you accept?]
He wasn't expecting Ain to contact him first.
It hadn't been 10 seconds since he logged in. Also, a duel request?
Maybe… was he waiting for him to log in again?
"I guess I'll know the answer once I et him."
After accepting the request, he moved towards the duel room.
In that place, a big wolf was waiting for him.
It was a 'Werewolf', a part of the humanoid race.
The ID 'Ain' was well suited for soone as wild as him.
Thanks to Ain's cool personality, they got along well. That's why they frequently played together.
Ain's playstyle was just like his personality, cool and cruel.
Watching him scratch and rip apart an opponent was quite refreshing.
He always looked like a wolf in the middle of a flock.
Ain had very good control and a deep understanding of the ga.
In a 1 vs. 1 duel, using normal items, he wasn't sure he could beat him.
The first ti they t each other in the duel fiend, he had wondered if Ain wasn't a real pro gar.
「Long ti no see, Hyun!」
「Not really, it's been only one week since the last ti I logged in.」
「If you're not here, I don't have anyone else with whom I can have a duel. The only ones that are still around this place are the weaklings.」
Just like he always did, Ain approached him first.
In Asra Online, there wasn't a voice recognition module, so to talk, Hyun had to type on the keyboard in the capsule.
「Since you're here, let's have a duel.」
「I don't want to.」
「Why, are you afraid? You're finally admitting that you can't beat , right?」
And just like always, he started talking about PVP.
Ain was one of those players who enjoyed PVP more than hunting.
「I guess it's understandable. If our specs were similar, my win ratio would be higher!」
「We'll never know that without trying it first.」
Hyun answered like that. But what Ain said wasn't sothing unrealistic.
In Asra Online, Ain was the only user that could fight him on equal terms.
Both were good at controlling their respective characters, but he had the advantage in terms of specs.
Despite that, their win ratio against each other was similar. The reason behind this was that Ain was very good at mind gas.
Even Hyun couldn't match Ain's ability for getting to know the opponent's intentions.
It'd been a week since they last talked to each other, so they took this opportunity to get an update on the other person.
There wasn't any deep or special content in what they talked about. It was the usual chit-chat.
It was Ain who suddenly changed the topic of the conversation.
「So are you planning to quit Asra?」
「I'm not sure... But I won't be login in regularly as I did before.」
「Really? Well, I guess everyone eventually gets tired of a ga. Even Asra.」
「Are you going to keep playing Asra?」
「I'm not sure. But if you quit, I'm also going to leave eventually.」
Ain's words were printed out as a text, but Hyun knew he was sad about it.
Hyun had known this guy inside the ga for many years, so he could sowhat understand Ain's feelings.
Ain wanted to retain Hyun, but his pride made it hard for him to say sothing like that.
That ant this was the perfect opportunity to talk about the main topic.
「Don't you want to play Asrian with ?」
「Hmm...?」
Ain remained silent for a while.
It seed like he knew that a sequel of Asra Online had co out.
「That ga has very high requirents, right? The capsule I have at ho is quite old, so I'm not sure it will be able to run it.」
「Is that so...?」
「Oh, wait. I'll just buy a new one.」
「Then let's play together! After all, we're the strongest duo of Asra. Let's show everyone what we can do in Asrian Online.」
Ain's doubt seed to be deepening. Hyun was afraid of losing this opportunity, so he tried his best to lure him to Asrian.
「If you create an ID, Hyung will help you level up. After all, my character is a support, so I have a lot of ways in which I can help you.」
「You? Hyung? Are you kidding ? But hey, you're a support? What happened that you'd chosen a job like that?」
「Stuff happened...」
Hyun was smirking while typing using his two fingers.
Ain had fallen into his trap. Convincing him would just be a matter of ti.
Hyun, as the master, and Ain, as his underling. He smiled just by thinking about the picture-perfect formation.
To make Ain the perfect underling, he started to sweet talk.
「If you're going to start Asrian Online, choose the Magician job.」
「Magician? Why? I don't really like it.」
He could easily tell that Ain didn't like the Magician job. After all, he was a werewolf that enjoyed close combat.
Ain's current character was the definition of manliness.
For soone like him, who enjoyed using macho-like characters and jobs, a Magician was probably just a weakling who launched attacks from a distance.
'But still, it would be great if he could choose Magician as a job.'
The job that had the best synergy with the Support was a Magician.
Among the skills, there was one called «Weapon Enhance».
This skill gave the target 50 extra damage.
Since the Wizard's attack had a wide range, the effective damage dealt was lower than other jobs, but once you added «Weapon Enhance» on top of it, the Magician's wide-range attack could beco as dangerous as a nuclear bomb.
In no way was he going to pass on such an explosive combination.
That's why he talked as highly about the Magician job as possible.
「You like jobs that require skills, right? In Asrian Online, the Magician is that type of character.」
「Really...?」
「Yes! Casting a spell isn't automatic. You have to use your head. Hand signs need to be morized, too, since you have to do it manually. What's clear is that it isn't an easy class to use.」
Hyun told him things he had seen on the community boards.
「Even though it has a learning curve, a Magician can beco one of the strongest if you learn to use it properly. It's OP at practically everything, including hunting, raids, PVP... Of course, it's hard to use it correctly. I'm not sure if you'll be able to do it.」
「Hmm... Now that you say it, Magician sounds interesting.」
「See?」
Hyun beca even more excited.
If Ain selected Magician as a job, the picture beca even more perfect.
His skills were on par with professional gars. But more than that, he was soone trustworthy.
「There's sothing I've forgotten to tell you.」
Hyun even explained to him how to get a hidden job while praying that Ain wouldn't make the sa mistakes as him.
「When you're about to select a job, you'll et an angel. If you call her by the na of 'Keidrial,' she'll beco a demon. After that, you'll be able to see a previously hidden place. If that happens, you'll be able to choose top-tier or even hidden jobs. But there's sothing you need to rember. You shouldn't select the item she's trying to hide, no matter what happens. That isn't sothing she's trying to hide; it's an item that she's trying to lure you into selecting.」
「???」
Ain had trouble understanding what he had just said, so Hyun spent another thirty minutes trying to get him to understand everything regarding job selection.
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