eFate: An MMO Story Chapter 23: Active Learning

Hauling himself to his feet, Eric checked his event log window which was glowing vibrantly, much more noticeable than it usually was. Opening his event journal a slew of notifications flooded his vision.

[Adventurer Alexnir has been slain by Red-maned Wolf!]

[Adventurer Katzy has been slain by Red-maned Wolf!]

[Basic Archery has advanced to Beginner 6]

[Adventurer Tamira has been slain by an adventurer!]

[You have entered into combat with a player killer!]

[Basic Fire Magic has advanced to Beginner 2]

[Flame Strike has leveled up to Beginner 2]

[Basic Archery has advanced to Beginner 9]

[You have learned a new active skill! Evasive Shot]

[Basic Evasion has advanced to Beginner 4]

[Sword Technique - Guard has levelled up to Beginner 3]

[Your left arm has been crippled for one minute!]

[Militia Swordsmanship has advanced to Beginner 4]

[Basic Martial Arts has advanced to Beginner 5]

[You have forced Seryllia to retreat!]

The notifications flew across his vision, skill level ups, combat notifications, and player deaths all in chronological order. Despite the two fights having lasted no longer than five minutes, he had gained numerous skill levels and even learned a brand new skill. Considering that leveling should get harder the higher his skill proficiencies climbed, he'd gained more in these five minutes than he had in nearly three hours of hunting demonic rabbits.

Next to his healthbar, which was still blinking red as his HP slowly crept up from 30%, an icon bearing the image of torso showed the left arm glowing red. A timer at the bottom of the icon was counting down with just under ten seconds remaining. Watching the time tick down, Eric could feel his shoulder slowly healing, the numbness fading as the timer slowly ticked down to zero.

Seems that the game's not entirely realistic, which is probably good for balance, Eric thought to himself as he rotated his left arm, testing to make sure he had regained his full range of mobility. Satisfied, he gave a quick nod before checking on his biggest reward from the fight.

Bringing up the skill window, Eric took a careful look at his first active skill.

[Evasive Shot] - Beginner 1

Active Skill

Entering a state of increased focus, you gain the ability to shoot as you evade opponents attacks. Stamina usage is increased and accuracy decreases while using this skill.

Eric whistled, this was definitely a good skill. As long as he leveled it properly this skill would allow him to get first blood in almost any fight. Provided he saw his opponent before they saw him. The state of increased focus was also pretty interesting, this was definitely going to become one of his main skills.

Closing the window, Eric moved over towards the pile of corpses at the edge of the glade. Since the party had died, it was up to him to take the loot dropped by the wolves. After all, if he left the bodies here then they could attract even larger monsters, endangering all the players nearby. It was his duty as a fellow player to take this loot and keep the forest safe!

Looting the wolves and the rabbit, Eric looked towards the bodies of the three party members. They wouldn't mind if he took their stuff right? After all he had saved their party member from a wolf, and if he hadn't fought off Seryllia then their possessions would have landed in the hands of a player killer. No, him looting their bodies was definitely what they'd have wanted, Eric told himself, crouching down over the corpse of the warrior. As he extended his hand a system message appeared.

[As Alexnir's karma is good, his three most valuable items cannot be looted.]

Eric frowned as he looked at the list of items he'd obtained from Alexnir. While there was a large number of rabbit pelts and horns, the man's sword and shield were excluded from the loot. Pacing over towards the spearwoman, he received the same system message and found that her spear was not included in the drops, nor was the dagger hanging at her waist. The same held true for the mage, whose dagger and wand were both conspicuously absent from the drops.

It made sense, Eric supposed with a small sigh. If players could lose all their possessions from a single death then they would most likely be crippled financially fairly early on. As players acquired more gear however, the number of items carried would increase and the odds of getting good items from other players would rise.

Finished with the loot, Eric stood up and prepared to leave, watching as the now looted corpses began to dissolve into motes of light. Interestingly enough their weapons didn't dissolve directly into the air as their bodies did, but rather were sucked into the pouches at their waists. Turning around, Eric made to leave the glade, now noticeably worse for wear than it had been only minutes before his arrival.

Leaving the glade, Eric began to trek back towards Tonbura village, intending to safely logout and meet with the guys on Strife. He encountered little resistance on the journey, with Demonic Rabbits unable to dodge his arrows and encountering no wolves or other creatures which could have given him trouble.

As he travelled, Eric ruminated over the rewards and results of the events that had just transpired. The official site for Hurricane had stated that traditional grinding methods would not be optimal for leveling in Fate and it seemed that this was true. After the first demonic rabbit, it had required increasingly dangerous situations for his skill proficiencies to rise. And he hadn't gained an active skill until he shot Seryllia, despite taking careful aim at several points in his quest for total rabbit genocide.

From the events that had transpired, it seemed that situations with increased levels of danger, as well as fights where the player pushed their limits to the max, such as in his fight with Seryllia, were when a player had the highest chance of increasing their skill's proficiency levels or even learning new skills. This meant that grinding on lots of weaker monsters, while safe, would most likely slow down a player's skill development, he theorized.

"Definitely something I'll have to test after I get back on," Eric murmured to himself, already considering venturing deeper into the woods to find more difficult monsters like the red-maned wolves.

As the edge of the woods came into view, Eric emerged from Stillwood Forest back onto the grasslands, with Tonbura village visible only a few hundred meters from the forest edge. Checking the time, Eric picked up the pace, trotting towards the village gates, still manned by the same sleepy guardsman who'd watched him leave hours before.

Nodding to the guard, Eric entered the village. Passing the row of thatched roof houses that lined the main road, he quickly made his way towards the militia barracks. As he was about to knock on the door to alert Alistair to his presence, a loud shout made him pause.

"I knew you'd be here, give us back our stuff, murderer!" Whirling around, Eric was confronted by the three adventurers whose bodies he'd looted only a little while ago. The spearwoman was in the lead, striding over with a burning look in her eyes. If Eric had thought she looked mildly annoyed when she'd been glaring at him after he killed the red-maned wolf, then she now looked positively furious. Behind her, the warrior and the mage could be seen, slightly more hesitant but still following their fearless leader.

Not wanting to become entangled with a party in the middle of the village, Eric raised his hand and without hesitation cried out, "Elegant Procrastination!"

After a momentary pause, the spearwoman realized what he was doing and began to sprint towards him but she was too late. After a brief couple of seconds, Eric's body began to dematerialize, disappearing before the party members stunned eyes.

"Argh!" The redheaded spearwoman, Tamira cried out. Stomping the ground furiously as she watched her quarry disappear.

"He got away," the warrior observed.

"I can see that, Alex. The question is, why didn't you do anything to stop it?" Tamira asked furiously, staring unwillingly at the spot where Eric had disappeared as if he would magically reappear from the sheer force of her will.

Alex raised his hands helplessly, "What did you want me to do? He was already logging out, and I don't exactly want to start a fight in the middle of the village."

"I agree. Are you really sure he tried to kill you, Tammy?" The mage asked timidly. "He seemed to have just arrived right before I died. He did try to save me, even if he did miss…"

"Even if he didn't, how do you know he wasn't working with whoever did kill me? The event log doesn't tell me who it was. But it does say that it was a player killer. And he didn't respawn like we did which means he wasn't killed"

"Maybe he ran away?"

"Or maybe it was his party member."

"Yeah but didn't you say he saved you from the wolf? Why would he save you only to let his friend kill you?" Alexnir interjected.

"Maybe he missed. He missed the first shot, even if Katzy thinks he tried to save her with his first shot, it was far closer to hitting me than it was to that wolf. Couldn't he have just missed again?" Tamira argued.

"It's definitely a possibility, most players seemed pretty bad at archery in the tutorial…" Alexnir conceded, rubbing his face as he pondered.

"Exactly! Don't forget that he logged off as soon as he saw us. That's not the action of an innocent man." Tamira replied confidently.

"Maybe he was just scared of the way you looked when you threatened to kill him." Katzy muttered.

"What was that Kat?"

"Nothing."

"Well, we didn't lose anything important. Just the drops from hunting. I say we go out and continue grinding. Who knows how long he'll be gone for, and with the time acceleration we could end up waiting hours or even days before he comes back," said Alexnir. Clearly anxious to make up for lost time.

"Sounds good." Katzy said in agreement, quickly cutting off Tamira's retort.

"Fine, but if we see him again, this time I'm charging his ass. He doesn't get to run away next time," Tamira said with a fierce glint in her eye. Not daring to reply Katzy and Alexnir just shook their heads wearily, accompanying Tamira out of the village.

Chapter end