by Rick Scar
Rollin’ Dice chose third Floor as their grinding base. They were numerous and growing fast, recruiting new players. Loot drops in Ascension were not as valuable as they were, say, in Gates of Darkness. The first day in the game brought Kingmaker—Mollie that is—only twenty one silver, which was next to nothing compared to five and a half gold for the first day in Gates of Darkness.
The girl logged out, and closed her eyes. She felt weary—it seemed as though this ascension wasn’t going to be a fun ride.
Mollie’s family were businesspeople, owning and operating a game capsule making company. She herself was a proud owner of one of those new generation capsules that stood in her room.
She made herself a tea, and sat at the computer in a cross-legged position. She checked the ratings first: one Crimson Berserker was at the top. The name was familiar to Mollie—Crimson Berserker was main aggro monger and a former leader of the Fortuna clan, an old-time rival of Rollin’ Dice. He was level four at the moment—there were not a lot of players who could achieve that in such short period of time. The rest of the positions, second through tenth, were three of Mollie’s clan members and their opponents. First days in a game are usually meaningless warm up, but this gap between the first place and the rest was a valid concern. She made another sip, and switched to reading forums. When the cup was empty, she went to bed.
The next two days were all about monster annihilation and clan management, yet Crimson Berserker was still ahead of the pack. He just kept leveling up, and, as much as Mollie hated it, there was nothing she could do.
Riqual Caverns, home to Coal Mantises, level three to five anthracite monsters, was turned by Rollin’ Dice into a grinding spot. The place was perfect: Mollie and her crew were slashing monsters non-stop.
“Hey, Maker, check this out,” the healer named Beglamore called, “there’s something going down here.”
“What is it?” Kingmaker asked.
“It’s the rating...”
Mollie, swinging her weapon, frowned, because she didn’t want to be reminded about her archenemy’s success, and said, “Listen, Bucky—that was Beglamore’s real name—I don’t care if that bastard leveled up again.”
“N-no, it’s not it,” said the guy with a voice of a shocked person, “it’s something else. You have to see this.”
“OK, but if you’re wasting my time with some nonsense, you’ll know what respawning feels like!” reacted the girl opening up the rating tab, “What the…?! Level nine?!”
“I know, right?”
“How is this possible? Son of a…! His name is hidden. Who is this guy? It’s been only three days, and he’s four levels ahead of Crimson Berserker!”
“Don’t ask me, I know as much as you!” said Beglamore in a self-justifying tone.
Soon, everyone was talking about that anonymous someone, at the top of the rating chart. This caused some serious ruckus among the players, so serious, people were asking administrators to punish the cheater. Crimson Berserker who had never paid any attention to ratings was as baffled as everyone else, after he got the message,
“Yo! Check out the ratings =)”
“No need, you know I develop fast.” replied Berserker not knowing how inappropriate his arrogance was this time.
“You definitely wanna see it. You got got!”
“lmao.”
“See for yourself.”
Which he, the clan leader’s right hand, did following his friend’s advice. He paused for a moment trying to find the right words.
“What the heck is this?! Are you freakin’ kiddin’ me?? Who could have skyrocketed like this? What the hell!”
“Dunno, bro.”
Three days after he killed the first rat, Will was level fourteen. He didn’t know, that his progress was what everyone was talking about, because he had turned off the Show my name in the ratings option from the very beginning. He was going to maintain a low profile, just in case.
When RAVen logged back in, he saw that the rat had respawned. This was perceived as good news, and he immediately left a message for Pak, where he was asking for ten silver worth more bolts with extra fire, light, or holy magic damage.
“Ha-ha! Come to daddy!”
Yes, it was tedious and monotonous, but at the same time exciting; he couldn’t wait to finish off the rest of the rodents. The loot bag from the first rat was still there, so were the four weaker rats. RAVen was wandering if there were going to be more titles, and how many more level ups he was going to get, and if that was going to be enough to leave Skiavra. He was thinking that while shooting and reloading. Level neglect, improved stats, and more powerful bolts allowed for higher damage. His personal record was 21. Click! Another bolt inevitably hit the bleeding monster, piercing its skin. The rat shrieked, its demonic fellow rats backed it up, as if they knew they were next.
-12
Miss
Miss
-11
Four hours and thirty minutes of constant battering made the rat only seventeen percent alive:
“Cursed Rat: level 40.
Health: 781/4600.”
That was the fourth rat RAVen was butchering in the last couple of days. He was wasting fewer bolts than in the beginning, and fire was helping a lot, sometimes litting the target ablaze; DoTs lasted long enough too. Oldak was right about the magic, yet this increase in damage was of little consolation—the rats were still too hard to kill.
RAVen kept on attacking, and, ninety minutes later, another rat bit the dust.
“Level Up”
His last conflict lasted for ten hours, and its resolution made him level fifteen. He didn’t get any more titles, but that didn’t discourage him. Pak sent plenty of bolts, so he was determined to keep working. The goal was to kill all rats in one day, since there was no other way he could get to the loot. He looked at the time and left the game to make himself a sandwich and read the forums.
Who is this player?
Calibur wrote: The True Serenity guild is looking for number-one-rated player!
Eternal wrote: True Serenity sucks! True Chaos is where it’s at! Come join us, or contact us at any time.
Regular Joe wrote: Stop flooding! I’m just curious who this guy is. Has anyone seen him at all?
Bright Flare wrote: You fool! How are you going to recognize him, if you don’t know his name?
WHeeL wrote: Right. Inspect every player for LVL much? Ha-ha. LOL.
There were tens of topics discussing the mysterious player. Will, not knowing what the fuss was about, opened up the ratings page. What he saw made him stop chewing on the sandwich he was eating. Atop of the list was an unknown level 15 player with 75 Influence Points. Four levels behind, having as much as 42 Influence Points, was Crimson Berserker. Do-or-Kill, another guy with a whimsical name and 33 Influence Points, was level 11, and breathing down the leader’s neck.
“Wow.” said Will, when he realized he was the man of the hour. Then, he shrugged, scrolled down in a hope to find something new, and continued eating.
Chapter 9. Fearsome enemy
In the following week, Will was exterminating respawning rats. He was level thirty, which meant rats were dying faster. Three and a half hour faster. When the third rat was done with,
“Awarded the title: Fearsome Enemy.
Stronger monsters beware of you. When you are near, high level monsters automatically reduce their aggro radius by 5%.
+2% Main attack damage when attacking monsters 10 levels above you.”
He was, finally, close to finishing off the last of the rodents which had only 7% left. The floor of the warehouse was sticky, and slippery, and red in color. It was covered with pieces of mangy fur, and patches of flesh, and thirteen loot bags. At last, the wretched beast gave in, went down, and rolled on its side.
RAVen sighed with relief and was going to jump down from his hidey-hole to collect what was rightfully his, when he felt someone’s presence. He lay low and started sweeping up the warehouse with his eyes
. Nothing was happening for a minute or so, but then the young man heard a nasty scratching sound. The source of the sound revealed itself shortly—a giant ten foot high rat crawled out of the cellar to the center floor. Purple haze was surrounding its entire body filling the space around it. Its enormous claws were inciting fear instinctively.
For a moment, Will forgot he was in the game. The rat was scraping the floor boards, producing that horrible sound and sniffing the air around it. Then, it slowly turned its head toward where Will was hiding.
“Oh, shoot!”
He pulled the trigger before he realized it. The loaded crossbow sent Will’s regards to the boss, and Will immediately moved away from the line of sight deeper into the room.
“Pack Leader (Viscount): level 51.
Health: ???”
“That’s bad. If I leave now, will the rats respawn? Will the boss still be here?”
One thing was clear—that was no usual mob, so RAVen didn’t feel like finding out what it was capable of. He was thinking over the course of action, when, suddenly, a massive hit into the wall of the hideout made him jump.
“Whoa! Now what?”
He looked down and, almost immediately, regretted it. Another hit came, and the walls trembled—the rat was lashing the hideout using its tail as a whip. RAVen wasn’t sure how long the flimsy construction, he was protected by, was going to hold. He started shooting at the monster. The rat returned the favor—it was trying to get puny human, but was only hitting the walls.
Miss
Miss
Miss
-14
The last shot set the effect—the rat was stunned and started waving its head around—which made it somewhat easier for RAVen to hit the target. Then, the bombardment continued with double force; planks in the walls cracked but didn’t break, which inspired hope, but only for a while. This duel lasted for five hours, during which, Will was sticking out the doorway only to take a shot and get back in immediately. He was missing and had to adjust the scope a lot, while evading the rat’s attacks. Finally, the floor damaged by the monster started falling apart with a frightening sound. Will knew, nothing good could come out of it, so he rushed to the window. When the room fell down, he was standing on the ladder by the outside wall, watching the rat hover over the fragments of what was left from the hideout. It took the monster two seconds to realize his assailant wasn’t there, so it started sniffing the air again. In a moment, their eyes met. They were eyeballing each other, until the rat made a sudden move—it dashed toward the door, obviously wanting to get to RAVen from outside. He underestimated the monster and had to act quickly. He started climbing up as fast as he could. He was almost there, when the ladder bounced off the wall and started sliding down. Apparently, the monster just bumped into the ladder at full speed. RAVen jumped off the rung he was standing on and snapped at the edge of the roof. He pulled himself up and looked down.
“Phew! That was close!”
The ladder lied shattered to bits, and the rat boss was looking right in RAVen’s eye.
Chapter 10. The Cursed Shard
Will stepped away from the edge of the roof trying not to lose visual of the rat, which, for some reason, wasn’t going anywhere. Having considered all pros and cons, he decided he’d stay where he was and continue ruining the rat boss’s day. He switched to holy magic bolts, and pointed the weapon at the beast.
-15
Miss
-13
Miss
The rat twitched and moved a couple yards away, which was fairly pointless. Bolts were raining down on its head and body, delivering pain and causing indignation. Will didn’t know how much health it had left, but he knew, that the concept of “sitting duck” was hard of an idea for the rat to grasp. He kept shooting restlessly for ten hours straight. It was wearing him out and, eventually, started affecting the fire rate and accuracy.
Miss
Miss
Miss
-10
RAVen felt his arms were growing numb from all this shooting and reloading. Aim and fire! Reload, aim and fire! He was looking at the rat through the scope knowing, that everything ends. And right he was. The rat boss trembled, burst into purple flame and slowed down. The monster was bleeding pretty bad, and, two seconds later, it dropped dead.
“Level Up
Level Up
Level Up
Congratulations! You’ve made the impossible!
You are the first player in the history of Ascension to beat a Viscount singlehandedly.
Awarded the title: Titan Fall.
+4 Luck
+7% Damage dealt to Viscounts
+10% Physical resistance to Viscount rank monsters
+3% Chance of unique drops when killing Viscounts
Skill level upgrade: At gunpoint is upgraded to Journeyman.
+4% Chance to deal critical damage with ranged weapons.”
“Wow! Three levels and four Luck! I’ll need that. If that ladder was two inches shorter, I’d be dead for real.”
Then he turned to the most rewarding part—picking up loot. The jump off the roof only took 7% and got Will a four hour sprained ankle debuff. That was a valuable lesson, in case he was going to scurry away from someone, in the future.
He searched the boss’s corpse first and then returned to the warehouse. When he was done emptying the bags, he walked out of the warehouse, and logged out. All Will wanted was to go to bed and fall asleep, as soon as possible. It seemed like he was killing those rats for too long.
He slept through the whole day and the following night. First thing in the morning, after breakfast, of course, he started examining his trophies. Smaller rats dropped teeth, bones, skulls, two pieces of solidified ruby-like drops of cursed blood, several dozen silver coins, one Gold item and one Silver, and a rare recipe.
“Cursed Blood (Rare). Alchemic ingredient.
Cursed Aura (Rare). Alchemic recipe for the potion that casts Cursed Aura on you to protect against attacking enemies.
-20% Slowdown
-13% Physical and Magic damage.
Duration: 3 minutes.”
One of the two items from the rat boss (both level forty) was completely useless to RAVen, and he was going to sell it; the other one was exactly what he needed.
“Flying Dagger (Gold).
This dagger was forged by Salar the gnome for a reputable rogue from the South, who never came back for his order.
Damage: 106-158
+18% Dodge
+24% Chance to stun the target for 5 seconds
+3% Chance to instant kill the target when attacking from the back
Skill: Deadeye’s Toss (Active) lets you throw the dagger at enemies not being afraid to lose it. The dagger comes back to the owner.
Damage: 103-135
Weapon range: 33 feet
Cooldown: 5 minutes
Level requirement: level 40
Class Requirement: Rogue.”
And, finally, the last item—a cloudy purple stone that was emitting some bad energy. Inspect.
“Cursed Shard (Unique).
This shard is mere a piece of something big. Find someone who would tell you more.
Secret chain quest Secret of the Shards.
Find someone who would tell you the secret.
Reward: 1000 XP, a unique skill book.
Accept? Yes/No.”
Secret quests were almost as important as epic ones—you could get a lot of XP, rare and unique skills and items. RAVen wasn’t going to pass on something like this. He accepted the quest. Not knowing who or where he was supposed to look didn’t stop him, there was no hurry.
Chapter 11. Find him!
The room in a small building, Mollie Houns and her closest clan mates were renting, filled with silence.
None of them could afford buying their own space, and the RMT wasn’t there yet (the developers were not clear on whether it was going to be introduced in Ascension), so they had to pay pretty penny for renting one.
This dead silence was affecting everyone in the room, they were all tensed. There was a good reason for that—a unique quest, one of their clan members accidentally stumbled on. The task was incredibly hard though. They were supposed to find an old mage, named Ricky Armastrus, since he was the only person, who knew the way to a secret cave. The endgame was an aiguiere, that once belonged to one of the nine Light Knights. The problem was, no one knew where to look for this Ricky Armastrus guy. They didn’t even know the Floor he could be on.
“Alright, that’s it! The quest is ours either way. It’s unique, for crying out loud. We just have to be patient; he’ll turn up sooner or later. Let’s not get carried away here. Chameleon,” Kingmaker addressed the guy, who found the quest, “you hear me? Work on your lev-vel.” She couldn’t pronounce that last word right.
“Unknown player for your thought?” asked someone.
Yes, she remembered that mysterious player. When she had seen him leveling up like crazy, she almost dropped the coffee mug she was holding.
“Who do you have to sleep with, to get all this XP? It’s not even funny anymore. Goddamn! Can anyone explain this? Because all I can think of is that this dude, somehow, managed to kill a monster well above his level.” said Mollie, demanding an answer.
She got a reply from everyone present, if a puzzled look counts as one. The mysterious player was going up fast. Level thirty… Crimson Berserker was level nineteen, and Mollie with her crew just made it past level fifteen. It was an outrage.
“Right. Listen up! The first one to find this guy gets an item of their choosing. Skill book or a weapon, I don’t care, just find him! I need a video as proof. Tainirk, spread the word.” she paused for a moment, and then continued “OK, let’s adjourn then. Anyone has anything about the key?”