EFate: An MMO Story Chapter 25: Have It All

Leaving the chat, Eric opened a window to the official Hurricane forums. Just like Mark had said, the forums were extremely active with dozens of threads trading places near the top of the page. Two threads however, dominated the rest in terms of both views and comments. These two threads concerned the players starting areas and skill acquisition.

Touching the first thread, Eric opened the post t.i.tled, "Starting Areas random? Why Can't I play with my friends Hurricane??" As he did so the page unfurled. The thread turning into a scroll and hovering in midair where the webpage had just been.

'Okay, that was pretty cool,' Eric thought with a grin, looking at the posts.

[Smithsalt22] Why can't I start with my friends? My friends and I all decided to play together. Some of us took time off work for this. A few of us have kids and got our wives to look after them. But after that stupidly long tutorial (It was pretty cool. I admit) we didn't even get a chance to play together. I got lucky and was teleported to a town with two of my buddies. But the other three are in different villages and one is in a different kingdom entirely. How is this fair Hurricane?!

[waterCat1] I agree with OP. I just wanted to play with friends. We're not aiming for the championship. But if we were how is it fair that some groups get lucky and can start their party right away while others have to figure out how to regroup?

[DreamingTowershot] +1

[Archaeolomiss] My family all started in the same town. Same tutorial even. My friend who lives a few blocks away started in a village less than an hour away and my son at university out of the country is in a different kingdom entirely. It seems to be based on geographical location.

[Smithsalt22] Wait really? My two buddies and I do live in the same neighbourhood. The other three are all spread out across the state. That could make sense. Still stupid though.

[AKWolfguy45] +1 for Archaeolomiss. My friends and I all started in the same town and we all live in the same area.

[Kingkraykray] b.u.mping this thread so Hurricane sees it. @Hurricane_Phantom why can't we play with our friends?

Scrolling down, Eric saw that many were corroborating Archaeolomiss' post. It seemed that each village, town, and city corresponded roughly to areas in the real world.

If people lived within a few kilometers of each other and chose village, they would be paired up if they were both within the same villages sphere of influence. Towns' spheres of influence had a much larger radius than villages did, with people almost a hundred kilometers away posting that they'd been successfully reunited in the same town after the tutorial. Cities seemed to have huge spheres of influence with people from hundreds of kilometers away being teleported to the same city. Perusing the posts, Eric noticed a Hurricane employee had actually responded to the thread.

[Hurricane_Cosmo] Hey guys! Splitting players up based on geographical location was a choice we made for game balance reasons. Don't worry though! We predict that players will be able to reunite with other players in the same kingdom by the end of the day, and with players in the same region by the end of the weekend. As for players from other regions, unfortunately it might take until the end of next week before players are able to play with each other. We hope you'll understand and enjoy playing Fate with your friends and fellow gamers once you've reunited!

[Smithsalt22] Holy c.r.a.p a Hurricane employee responded to my topic? Thanks for making such an awesome game dude. I know I'm complaining but me and my friends are all having a blast so far. I'm glad to hear we should be able to all play together soon!

[462813813] Still stupid we can't play together right away. This better not affect our chances in the Championship.

[JehonahWitness] Agreed with poster above. I'm not losing millions because of this stupid choice.

The thread continued from there, with players both praising Fate and lambasting Hurricane for separating players. Closing the scroll, Eric opened the other top thread. A new scroll unfurling itself to reveal the thread on skill acquisition. Perusing the replies, it was evident that those who had earned new active skills were in the minority. Most had no new skills since the tutorial, with the majority of those who had created new skills having gotten pa.s.sive skills like Eric's Basic Evasion. Active skills were much more rare, with roughly one in a hundred posters having earned one within the first few hours of Fate's launch.

The thread seemed to corroborate his and his friends' experience. Those who had taken the initiative to seek out stronger monsters or more dangerous situations reported higher skill acquisition rates as well as better experience gain for their existing skills. It seemed that experience wasn't gained simply by killing monsters, but through some formula based on the number of monsters, the threat posed by the monsters, and the number of times a player repeated the same action. A player that continuously used a stabbing motion to defeat wolves reported that he'd gained the Straight Thrust skill. While a player who had focused purely on bashing monsters who got close with his shield, had learned the Shield Bash skill.

The most interesting information, however, was that there seemed to be skillbooks that allowed a player to directly learn a skill. These were fairly rare so far and only common skills such as Pommel Strike and Shield Bash had been discovered by players. 'I wonder if there's a downside to using a skillbook?' Eric mused as he looked at the picture a user had posted of a small grey booklet, the cover embroidered with the image of a shield and bearing the t.i.tle: Shield Bash.

From what he could gather, many of the users on the forums were low level, with skill proficiencies hovering between Beginner 3 and Beginner 8. His Beginner 9 Basic Archery and his creation of an active skill had definitely set him apart for now. But that lead would disappear quickly if he didn't continue to play. There was also no information on combination skills, either no one had successfully created a combination skill yet. Or those who had were keeping the information to themselves. For now it seemed that creating a guild would remain on hold for his group as they continued to look for ways to create a rare combination skill.

Closing the forums, Eric stretched languidly, arching his back like a cat and stretching his arms above his head. It seemed he would definitely need to venture further into the forest this time. Demonic rabbits alone were not going to allow him to learn new skills or surpa.s.s Jun. Looking at the gently pulsing Fate logo on the wall Eric raised his arm, "Fate start!" he yelled.

Just like before, the rings quickly began to spin before blurring together, the glowing runes melding into a single multicoloured light. As the brilliance began to overwhelm him, the rings expanded and enveloped his body. This time there was no dark room with various versions of himself, only the soft light of day shining down upon the dirt road next to the militia barracks.

Looking around cautiously, Eric confirmed that the three dead musketeers were gone. Seeing no angry redhead howling for his head to be mounted on the village walls, he let out a sigh of relief before continuing to the militia barracks.

Knocking on the door to the militia barracks, he quickly stood back. This time managing to avoid having Alistair's face only inches from his own as the door whipped open.

"Whaddya want." Alistair asked grumpily.

"I wanted to turn in some demonic rabbit pelts, as well as a few wolf pelts. And I wanted some information on the monsters in the forest." Eric replied.

Glaring at him for a moment, Alistair turned and entered back inside the barracks.

"You coming or not? I ain't got all day." He growled over his shoulder. Hurrying inside, Eric was greeted with the sight of a s.p.a.cious room. The floor was covered with tables, long wooden benches providing places for the militia members to convene meetings, listen to briefings, or just hang out. A large speaker's stand stood tall at the end of the hall, clearly the place where Alistair would issue orders to the militia. Along the walls were those same gemstone torches that had been present in Chierf Ironspear's hall - the gemstones' light causing shadows to flicker across the hall.

Walking past the speakers stand, Alistair led Eric through a small doorway at the end of the hall. Ducking slightly, Eric found himself in a small room. A large table occupied most of the s.p.a.ce, with a map and several scrolls ordered neatly on its rough surface. A bookshelf stood behind the table, with more scrolls and a few small chests taking up the majority of its shelfs.p.a.ce.

Pulling out a chair, Alistair sat at the table. Extending his hand, he looked at Eric pointedly.

"Errrr." Eric stuttered. Confused by the man's sudden actions.

"The pelts boy, isn't that what ye came to hand in?" Alistair asked, rolling his eyes at Eric's inept.i.tude.

"Ah right." Eric replied, quickly summoning the pelts from his inventory. With a thump, nearly four-hundred demonic rabbit pelts landed on the table. As well as three red-maned wolf pelts and one pelt that was slightly too burnt to make out.

Picking up one of the rabbit pelts, Alistair observed it for a moment. Nodding his head, he looked up at Eric. "Not bad, boy. The militia can purchase each rabbit pelt for two coppers each. The wolf pelts can go for 5 coppers. As for the burnt one it will only fetch you a single copper."

Eric nodded, "That's fine."

Grabbing a key from his waist, Alistair fiddled with something just below the tabletop for a moment. With a loud click, a drawer sprang open, revealing a number of storage pouches. Grabbing one, Alistair swept all of the pelts towards the pouch, the pelts magically disappearing into the tiny storage pouch.

Depositing the pouch back inside the drawer, he locked it, turning around to press a different key against one of the chests on the bookshelf behind him. Looking closer at the chest, Eric could make out a trio of black gemstones near the clasp, identical to the gem on his storage pouch. Ignoring Eric's curious gaze, Alistair opened the chest, grabbing a handful of coins before locking the chest and replacing the key at his waist.

"Here, the total is 792 copper Cirts for the rabbit pelts and another 16 Cirts for the wolf pelts. 808 in total. I'll give ye six silver Sricks instead of 600 Cirts." He said, tossing a pair of silver coins as well as several smaller copper coins on the table. Picking them up, Eric noticed that embossed on the front of the coins was a picture of a regal looking woman, holding a scepter and a sword. On the opposite side of the Cirts, there was what appeared to be a runic formation, while on the Srick there was what appeared to be a unicorn.

Putting the coins in his inventory, Eric looked back towards Alistair who was watching him with an impa.s.sive gaze.

"I was wondering if I could get some information on the nearby monsters. And if it would be possible to see a map of the surrounding area." He asked.

"Monster habits have been shifting recently. I can only tell ye what you can expect, but not where to expect em. Their habitats are moving closer and closer to our village." Alistair growled unhappily. He only seemed to have two modes of speech Eric observed, an unhappy growling or an impa.s.sive monotone.

"What types of monsters should I expect to see nearby?" Eric asked.

"Until recently, it shoulda just been Demonic Rabbits and the occasional stray Red-maned Wolf. If you were really unlucky, ye'd find a small pack of wolves or perhaps a lone goblin. But nowadays, packs of red-maned wolves are the norm and even some variants have been seen. Goblin sightings have increased too, with multiple tribes moving closer to the village. Fleeing the chaos up north no doubt." Alistair spat as he said this last part. Eric was curious but didn't press the man for information. After a brief moment, he resumed his speech.

"Orcs have been sighted too. And not ones a.s.sociated with the kingdom such as the Whiteclaws or the Bloodspears. But tribes such as the Darkfire and the Swiftrazors. No encampments yet, but if they're sending scouts it means they're preparing. Apart from that, there are also more monstrous beasts appearing. We lost Darren McDonaugh just last week to what appears to be a Swordclaw Lynx. Those don't normally roam this far south either. They prefer the mountains. If ye run into that then ye best fight. Cause you aint running." Alistair warned him seriously.

Eric nodded seriously. It seemed that the woods were more dangerous than he'd thought. Villages clearly were the most dangerous of the three starting zones with all these monsters running around. Orcs sounded especially dangerous, and as a level 1, he did not like the sound of this Swordclaw Lynx.

"Is that all?"

"Ah one more thing, could I quickly see a map? My companions and I were separated on the way here." Eric replied.

With an uncharacteristically understanding nod, Alistair pulled out a scroll from the pile on his desk, unfurling it to reveal a large map. The center of the map was dominated by a large forest, with a city made of golden spires sitting near the eastern part of the forest. A long coastline stretched from north to south, with small roads and paths extending from the city.

Pointing to an area north of the city, Alistair began to explain to Eric the local geography, pointing out the location of Tonbura village, the size of Stillwood Forest, and the locations of the three other villages his friends had landed at. From what he could see, it seemed that he'd landed at the centralmost village. Roughly an hour southeast of Rob, several hours north of Jun, Gio, and Ryan. And a few hours east of Mark and Griffin.

Looking at the map with a grin, Eric realized that his friends would have to meet up with him if they all wanted to meet up. Since they'd agreed to meet at the centermost village between them that meant that Tonbura village would be their new base. And that meant that he didn't need to waste time travelling but could instead focus on leveling.

Thanking Alistair, who brushed off his thanks as if annoyed by his grat.i.tude, Eric took his leave of the barracks, cautiously searching the square for signs of that murderous party before slipping out of the barracks. Before he left the town he had one more task, to find better weapons!