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The Weirdest Noob

Page 28

by Arthur Stone


  Ros didn’t wonder long about his sudden popularity. A few minutes of reading the forum briefly sufficed for him to understand that some of the system messages (the ones related to heroic and legendary achievements) had been transmitted worldwide in the same red text he once saw when that Chinese player had leveled up to 300.

  The Chinese player’s achievement now looked like a dry streak of snot on the wall of a white marble skyscraper in comparison to Ros’ feats.

  The forum-dwellers split in two camps de facto. One kept inquiring about Ros’ identity, while the other was engaged in a heated discussion concerning one of his achievements—according to its description, he had attracted the interest of the gods. Since no gods were involved when Second World was developed (their functions were performed by nameless “higher powers”), the players were somewhat perplexed. No one had deigned to give an answer yet—the developers had mentioned something once about the world being complex and driven by the actions of players, so the players should make sense of things themselves, since no one was going to take them by the hand and show them the way.

  The players counted the achievements meticulously, and the general conclusion was as follows: Ros had received bonuses that no one else had in the history of Second World. It was known for certain that heroes received them in every case, and that some of these bonuses could affect the player’s clan, which was why guilds did everything they could to get their hands on famous players.

  Up until now there had been no players who became heroes twice, while Ros had managed to become a hero several times over, as well as earn a set of legendary achievements—another first in the game.

  Just what did he do? Could it be repeated? Which clan possessed such a priceless treasure as a legendary player?

  The gaming community was in a craze.

  The strongest clans of Second World fervently wished for one thing: to make Ros a fellow member, or, at the very least, find out what exactly he had done, and whether or not it could be repeated by their own members. Everybody was busy gathering information on the distinguished player.

  And gathering information was something they were good at.

  Less than two hours after the viceroy’s demise, the Sword Power mine was attacked by a team of players from the Last Corsicans guild, with no formal declaration of war. After studying the clan section, Ros learned that the Corsicans had around fifteen thousand active players, and that the clan was among the top 100 of the North American sector. Having easily destroyed all defenses, the aggressors started questioning their captives. The guards all logged off, calling their higher-ups in a state of total panic, but simple miners were eager to speak at length, hoping they would be left alone sooner that way.

  The Corsicans didn’t get to enjoy their victory long, in turn falling under the onslaught of the J_P guild, which was in the top 10 of the same sector. The forces were too uneven, and soon the Corsicans had to log out. Their bind points lay outside the mine, so the bodies, looted by the winners, disappeared from the mine after a while.

  According to the heated discussion, the Jeeps spared no effort to get any measly snippet of information about Ros they could find. They had to hurry, too, since members of other top clans had already been spotted in the vicinity of the mine. Another significant fact was that the flags over many of the mercenary guilds’ strongholds flew at half mast, which traditionally meant there were no mercenaries for hire. It was easy enough to deduce why someone might presently be gathering an NPC army.

  Everyone believed that the mine would become a furiously contested hot spot for a whole week—perhaps even longer than that. The fighting would continue for as long as a single noob remained who might know something about Rostendrix Poterentax.

  Ros realized why his Cache Master stat was growing at such a rate. There must be thousands of players at the mine, some of them of very high level. And they were surely searching every nook and cranny of the mine.

  Someone let slip indirectly that a few people were already aware of his real-world identity. It was a pity he had no access to secret guild forums—there should be a lot more accurate information there.

  As Ros perused the heap of junk posted on the subject of his good self (“Kid, trust no one but me. Ten grand gold if we meet personally. Message me privately, we’ll come to some arrangement”), his initial flabbergasted state wore off, eventually giving way to contemplations of what all this racket meant for him personally.

  Even without studying the issue in any great depth, he was absolutely certain about one thing: letting the clan tops get their hands on him would be the worst thing he could do. They wanted him to forward their own goals, and not to help him solve his problems. He briefly considered, then scrapped the idea of offering his services in return for reciprocal favors. He might resort to it at some point, but not before taking his time analyzing all sorts of pertinent information.

  Ros was still a noob, while those guys were veritable whales who must have eaten tons of players much more advanced than him as plankton. Should he ever collaborate with them, he should assess all the pros and cons of such a collaboration and choose the best option for him. Messaging the leaders of one of the top guilds hunting him through the forum and telling them directly, “Here I am. I’ll play with you, but I’ll need thirty million dollars in return, pronto!” did not seem a particularly bright idea. He decided to disregard the weirdos promising him “ten thousand grand” altogether.

  Ros had another eight months. After that, he would need money to pay for his account and his medical services. The former may not have been that critical, but the latter was: if they froze him instead of keeping him in a coma, the chances of saving his biological self would plummet. No one knew how the clone thing would play out in the future, so he should not disregard his proper body.

  What Ros needed was money, and a lot of it. Presently he was something unique, and belonged to no one but himself. He was very valuable. And he wasn’t going to share himself with anyone—not just yet.

  He cherished freedom and hated cages of any kind. What he had experienced in real life was enough: closed projects, secrecy bordering on idiocy—and then an explosion caused by some security moron’s decision to dispense with the ventilation system as it allegedly compromised the impregnability of the facilities.

  That was it. He’d had enough. He would run around on his own—for a while, at least.

  Such considerations might seem ridiculous to everyone in the game world—after all, how would you hide from so many people looking for you with such zeal when your much-hyped name was hovering right over your head?

  But Ros had a way to disappear.

  * * *

  “Ultra-rare ability: Clean Slate. There cannot be more than three wielders of this skill. The higher powers grant you a chance for a rebirth. When used on self, your character will enter selection mode. You will be able to change your race, appearance, voice, name, and redistribute the accumulated primary and secondary base stat points. You will also be able to edit the visualization of publicly available information such as karma points, titles, achievements, etc. The ability can only be used on private premises, in sealed dungeons, and in locations with no other players. Use on another character is only possible in a conditionally safe location; it will make all their accumulated primary stat points redistributable, also removing any stat progress locks. Second use on the same character in the span of fifty days removes any level progress locks. Third use on the same character in the span of fifty days makes it possible to edit some of the character’s features such as race, name, and appearance. Magic energy required: 1250. Cooldown: 7 days.”

  Ros had noticed his new ability almost immediately upon waking up as he examined his character’s new stats and skills. It hadn’t struck him as anything extraordinary back then. He would have been very eager to redistribute his stats at the beginning of his life here, but now he had no problems on that account—even the most generous employers would fight for the right to we
lcome him into the fold.

  As he browsed the forum, he realized that Clean Slate was something he desperately needed right now.

  Ros remembered his strange dream: “The second thing I will give you are the following words: do not mistake my first gift for a worthless bauble.”

  The dream wasn’t just strange—it redefined strange.

  And indeed, no longer did this gift seem to him next to useless.

  So, what else had the stranger told him? To take it slowly, stay here, mine for ore, and look for answers.

  Ros was in no hurry, anyway. As a matter of fact, he was a bit intimidated by the prospect of leaving a dungeon that was completely sealed off for the time being. After a short forum search he found out that the entrance wasn’t just sealed—it disappeared completely. Even a player with high Cartography and everything that boosted the stat pass were to pass a foot away from the dungeon, they would notice nothing until one of the vanquishers of Chaos came outside, or until the dungeon reset, which would not happen anytime soon.

  No one would find Ros here in the meantime.

  He went through the contents of his bag and realized that there should be enough meat for about seven days, eight if he used it sparingly. That seemed fated, as it was the very time required for Clean Slate to come off cooldown.

  He sat down and activated the skill.

  This time there was no pleasant female voice to guide him through character creation. But he had a good idea of what he needed just the same. If he was really hunted by the game’s power players, they would take the time to comb through every tunnel and every cave. The miner noobs would invariably tell them that the strange hunter spent most of his time down there, in the faraway galleries. If Ros ran into a search party, he must raise no suspicions. This meant he’d have to choose a race that no one associated with mining.

  The human race was a tempting choice, but humans had necromancy skills, and the fact that Ros had used undead rats would most likely surface soon. So, his new race would have to have no such ability.

  Ros settled on a light elf—mainly because he instinctively disliked these pointy-eared creatures. He wouldn’t have to run around like that for too long—he’d just have to get out of the dangerous area. Ros wanted the anticipation and eventual satisfaction of replacing an avatar he disliked with something more acceptable.

  He’d also found out from the forum that light elves were among the most popular races. No one would be surprised to meet another pointy-eared fellow, no matter where they spotted him, even in such a strange place for an elf as a mine given that they had no work-related bonuses or abilities that helped underground. They were likewise initially weak in terms of transporting heavy loads.

  There was another thing: most players who chose light elves used the bow as their primary weapon of choice.

  Ros had been seen with a pickaxe and a pike, but never a bow. No one would associate him with archery.

  He might be paranoid, but he decided he’d play it as safe as he could.

  Ros didn’t actually change his race for another, abandoning all the useful features of a rrokh. He simply changed his appearance—fortunately, his expanded abilities allowed for as much.

  Having transformed into a sugary pointy-eared creature with the nondescript nickname John Archer44, Ros didn’t stop at that. The editor’s expanded options gave ample opportunity to do more, and he decided he’d use everything he could. He deleted the “squiggle” that marked him as a worker, replacing it with another symbol. Now everyone who saw him would identify him as the owner of a standard gaming account purchased at a discount as a special offer.

  He obviously concealed all the flags, stars, and other things testifying to his achievements—fortunately, he could do that, too. He didn’t redistribute his stats, simply dumping everything he’d earned from his level advancement into Strength and Agility. That would come in handy for harvesting the dungeon’s mineral resources. He needed no forum to notice they were a lot more abundant and valuable here; and what he read had confirmed his hunch. Two or three taps per geode would save him a lot of time.

  Having taken care of the character, Ros moved on to the trophies—he wanted to see what he’d scored and how much he would make selling it.

  There were four “presents” from the boss: a belt, an amulet, a ring, and a scroll with the Sun’s Tears skill.

  The belt turned out to be…

  “Legendary Belt of the First Citadel’s Supreme Mage. Properties: merging; impossible to lose; cannot be stolen; does not disappear after death; restores durability automatically. Parameters: 12 easy access slots for potions and elixirs, 4 item slots, 3 amulet slots. Any item placed in the slot loses 90% of its weight. Stats: 71 Armor, +44 to Intellect, +40 to Mental Power, +25 to Stamina, +17 to Defense, +5 to mana regeneration per second, +15% to total mana, 11% stackable chance of reflecting a debuff upon the attacker. Wearer has a 3% chance of removing all the opponent’s buffs in an attack. The item can be subjected to up to four stackable enchantments. Weight: 0.74. Requirements: Level 10, Intellect 100+. Durability: 741/900. Attention: with two or more First Citadel’s Supreme Mage items in the inventory, the wearer receives a bonus: +10 kg to carrying capacity, +3 to mana regeneration per second. Every additional First Citadel’s Supreme Mage item raises the total bonus by the same amount.”

  The information was displayed in bright red lettering! A legendary item! Legendary items were supposed to be the best you could find in Second World, and this one ended up being in possession of a very lucky noob. The first time a dungeon was cleared, the chances of finding the rarest items were much higher, and this time fortune was on his side.

  Ros immersed himself in reading forum posts, trying to assess the value of this thing. He “resurfaced” almost instantly, producing his second bag, which he still hadn’t dumped, likewise his first. It was stuffed with all sorts of things. He rose, donned the belt, and tried to place the novice’s bag in one of its item slots with shaking hands.

  He did it! It worked!

  He had a total of three bags, and he could reduce their weight by ninety percent. Given his current stats, he’d be able to carry enormous loads.

  Now he could loot this dungeon properly!

  He no longer wished to part with the belt, but still browsed the forum’s commerce sections trying to assess how much his new possession might be worth. Alas, no legendary item of this sort had ever been offered or sought by anyone, but he did find two similar items with more modest characteristics. One was sold for eighty-nine thousand dollars officially; there was no clear information on the other.

  It may not have been millions, but a nice and round number all the same. He decided he’d wear the belt himself for the time being, and time would tell. He might end up keeping it for good.

  Ros realized long ago that his character in the game was a means of production. If he wanted it to produce more, he’d have to invest money and effort, which would hopefully pay off in the end.

  The amulet and the ring were just ultra-rare—Ros found several identical items without any trouble. The price range could be assessed precisely enough: he could get around four or five thousand dollars for the pair. It wasn’t a fortune, but it was a lot more than he had managed to earn here so far. The Sun’s Tears scroll allowed a character level 120 or higher to learn this eponymous skill. According to the forum, it was rare, and sought after by elemental mages specializing in fire magic. And, apparently, many were prepared to pay up to twelve thousand dollars for this piece of parchment.

  Bosses may be hard to kill, but killing them sure came lots of benefits.

  It was a pity the scroll could only be used once.

  After a brief perusal of the forum threads where the particulars of clearing such dungeons were discussed more or less accessibly, Ros realized something: apart from high-level resources he noticed as he made his way toward the lowest level of the dungeon, he could also come across secret caches which often contained expensive items. In some
cases, the trophies found there were more valuable than those dropped by bosses.

  Perception was essential for finding caches. The forum was aswarm with threads where players with this stat were wanted for dungeon raids. Even those with only ten points were welcome; with his whopping sixteen, Ros must be a veritable treasure detector.

  He had other bonuses, too: high Reason and Arcane Knowledge, and decent Profound Wisdom stats, all of which enhanced Perception considerably. Intellect and Mental power also influenced it, albeit not as strongly, but given their current values, it wasn’t anything to be scoffed at, either.

  The forum was interesting enough, but it was high time to get down to business.

  Chapter 30

  Ros discovered his first secret cache right under the “drum” used by the Viceroy of Chaos as a throne. That was where he found the most valuable trophies, too, with the exception of the legendary belt dropped by the boss.

  “Glass Thread Boots from the Viceroy of Chaos set. Properties: set item, restores durability automatically. If a player has three or more items from the Viceroy of Chaos set, either equipped or carried in non-active inventory, they are impossible to lose and cannot be stolen. Characteristics: 107 Armor, +5 to all primary stats, +4 to Speed, +100 to total Vigor. The item can be subjected up to two stackable enchantments. Weight: 1.98 kg. Requirements: Level 49. Durability: 900/900. The full Viceroy of Chaos set includes: Mountain Silk Cuirass, Chameleon Cape, Glass Thread Boots, Snake Bracelet, Ring of Solitude, and Chaos Hound Collar. Full set bonus: full merging, +50% resistance to the element of Light; 9% chance to stun the target for 3-8 seconds with a ranged attack; 12% reduction to incoming magic and physical damage; 6% probability of blinding the enemy for 6-11 seconds after it executes a ranged attack; upon receiving damage, a shield is cast automatically that lasts 3 minutes, capable of absorbing up to 1750 damage with a cooldown of 150 seconds; while the shield is active, the wearer cannot be stunned, blinded, or put to sleep; the weight of equipped items is reduced by 35%; +7 to primary and +2 to secondary base characteristics.”

 

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