Sky World Vol 1 Chapter 3.01

VOLUME 1

Chapter 3: Team Battle
Part 1

Jun and the others left a cave and found themselves in a valley completely covered in fog.

There was a huge valley surrounded by many steep mountains in the middle of Altaria Island.

“The townspeople call this place&h.e.l.lip; the ‘Valley of Death’. However, since there aren’t any quests out here, it never became very well known among the player-base.”

Jun said, “Makes sense.” and nodded. That was why he hadn’t yet heard about this place.

It had been a whole week since the three of them came together to form a group. Kasumi’s training was going at a pretty good rate. Jun suggested that she should familiarize herself with the monsters around here, and so they journeyed to this mountain chain.

Even with Eri’s group speed buff, Running, it took them more than a day to make it this far. Since it was right in the middle of Altaria Island, even a remote place like this could be seen from the three towns on the island.

“Once we get out of this valley, there should be a path that will take us straight up the back Dalvori Mountain. But there is a steep and dangerous cliff on the way. There’s a temple on top of one of them. The airship is right under that temple.”

“So, there’s a golem protecting the temple?”

“It’s called the Veil Guardian. When our guild’s heavy warrior was. .h.i.t by it, it did double the Dread Sphinx’s attacks.”

“How fast does it attack?”

“About the same as the Dread Sphinx.”

“How’s its movement speed?”

“I think it’s a little bit faster than a normal character.”

“Uh&h.e.l.lip; if we used Running, like earlier, or Jun-san’s Long Walk, could we run from it?”

“Running and Long Walk are both common movement spells with fixed durations. While targeted by an aggressive enemy, players cannot use those spells. Items and spells that allow for flight are also rendered ineffective. That covers all modes of increased movement.”

Kasumi listened attentively to Eri’s explanation.

“That sounds a bit mean to me.”

Jun wryly smiled and shook his head.

“However, kiting is effective against boss monsters.”

“Kiting? What’s that?”

Kasumi tilted her head in confusion.

Jun and Eri made eye contact.

“Great Teacher Jun, why don’t you explain? Since I’m a healer, I don’t really have a firm grasp on that kind of thing.”

“Kiting is a basic technique used by back-line fighters.”

It seemed like Eri would not want to help out. Jun sighed.

“It is a tactic most commonly done by increasing one’s movement speed or slowing down that of the monster, and then constantly avoiding the monster’s attacks while dealing damage from far away. Using damage over time spells, like poisons, can further increase the efficiency of this technique.”

“That sounds cowardly to me.”

“Call it cowardly all you like, but it is a valid technique to win battles, earning experience points and items in the process. Because of the potential rewards for relatively less effort, many players try to do it.”

But then, in Sky World, fighting monsters was not just for gaining experience points. The skill system was quite multifaceted. By striking monsters with weapons, successfully dodging monsters’ attacks, and receiving blows from monsters players could increase their weapon, evasion, and defense skills respectively. Using magic at the right time would also result in skill increases. Everything had a purpose.

“Kiting takes up a lot of time, but the risk is low. However, nearby players can find it bothersome, so people usually do it where there are very few people. It’s a question of the individual players’ ethics.”

“But, players exaggerating about things like ‘self-responsibility’ do it in newbie zones too.”

“Because of people like that who treat newbies badly and are able to kill monsters that they are not meant to be able to, many developers have officially disallowed kiting. In Sky World, by restricting the power of movement speed increase spells used by allies, the developers were able to prevent overuse of kiting. Enemies which spells like Slow that reduce enemy movement speed are not effective on can therefore only be dealt with great preparation.”

Right after he said that, Jun looked towards Eri.

“During Sky World’s early days, was it customary to PK people kiting near towns?”

“I don’t know. I only installed Sky World a little bit before the Birthday. However, I think that could be possible, given that it was such a looked down upon and hated tactic.”

“Huh&h.e.l.lip; But, in any case, we don’t do that kind of stuff.”

“Both Kasumi-san and I are front line fighters, and Eri is a white magician with very few attack spells. We need to take that into account in finding viable battle strategies. In order for kiting to be practical, players have to immediately leave when other players came around.”

“I see. I understand! We need to make sure we don’t attract people doing weird things.”

Kasumi nodded meekly.

“&h.e.l.lip; Are you getting it mixed up with molesters? &h.e.l.lip; This girl&h.e.l.lip;”

“It is a real danger. That’s not an unreasonable way to interpret that.”

Jun and Eri exchanged glances and smiled wryly at each other.