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Chapter 9 - Info Dumping

CJS69 here! Actually, it's CJS69Real, I swear to god if that username squatter came online I'll do things to him so vile that they'd write me into history books.

I wiped the dragon blood from my knees and picked up Hailie's ranger cloak and boots after her body disappeared, "Thank you for the stat increase, honey."

The basic Merchant class didn't provide me with any tools, it just gave me starting gold, unlike other fighting classes which does.

Cloak of Rangers: +1% Damage Reduction

Boots of Swiftness: +2 Speed

Username: CJS69Real

Level: 25

Class: Merchant

HP: 10/90

Attack: 18

Magic: 3

Defense: 12

Resistance: 14

Damage Reduction: 1%

To mention it… [Speed] is a stat that they kept since the PC days, but they didn't allow the players to see that particular stat on the VR version. Which bugged me, a few people who playtest early access had written a complaint, including me, but the developers said it was intentional.

If I remember correctly, if this was the PC version, I would have 10 Speed without any modifications right now at level 25.

I've been meaning to search for an exploit that would let me display the Speed stat, but it was terribly hard.

Ignore that, now that the Poison Dragon was gone, and the poor soul who witnessed it was no longer breathing, I strolled out of the Dark Caverns like an unapologetically white woman walking out of Black Friday sale, all giddy and horny.

Now level 25, I could practically smell my scheme being cooked up. My next goal was obvious, the Holy God Knight. With that, I can have access to the Kingdom's Plan, learning about the whereabouts of the Demon Lord, then I'll form a guild to be the first to beat him.

I already knew the class tree like the back of my hand: Squire > Apprentice Knight > Knight > Holy Knight > Holy God Knight.

But you couldn't just skip through classes, oh no. You had to walk the planks of shame through Squire first. A class so painstakingly trashy and useless it might as well be called "politician." 

But the path to heaven seems hell, and path of hell seems heaven, that was the simplest yet late revelation of mankind.

If I have a better plan somewhere in the middle, from Knight I can change to a lot of other classes if I roleplay correctly and talk to the right NPCs and help the right people. Darkmoon Adventure by definition, was half a roleplaying game. 

I used to stab a lot of people in-game after they told me on the forum that roleplaying was more important in Darkmoon Adventure than gameplaying though, why the hell would they boot up a video game if they don't want to grind and combat?

I returned to Beginning City and made my way toward the Town Hall, where most of the NPCs were giving out quests for simple classes.

Few dozens of new players crammed the stone paths like it was a Black Friday sale. The air buzzed with overlapping voice chats, spell effects from showoffs, and the constant, clinking thud of sword sheathing and unsheathing. Above it all was the chaotic symphony of newbie figuring out the controls.

"Why am I so ugly?"

"What to do after the tutorial?"

"Are there laws against animals?"

"Trevor I'm over here!"

"Is that the bite of '87?"

Around 8 different NPCs were standing around the hall at specific places. The Paladin trainer stood glowing in gold beside the Beast Tamer NPC, who was arguing with a squirrel. The Ranger mentor leaned against a pillar with a dagger in her shoes.

You might be asking yourself, wouldn't having so much players in the same place at the same time overload the NPCs, since they have to talk to each and everyone of the players? And if someone was slow in responding, wouldn't there be a line filled up?

Thankfully, the NPCs in the first few towns are client-sided and not server-sided.

Oh, in simple terms… On your device/system, you will see that the NPC always have time to talk to you, and never acknowledge other players., though, apparently they've been incorporated with AI and remember your conversations in the VR version… I wonder how much memory that requires if this game going to reach a peak of a million players, I'd imagine 20 servers running just to hold the NPCs together.

I squeezed past a group of catgirl all saying "nya~" in unison. A healer tripped and dropped a stack of bread, then someone stepped on it, and it disappeared, so he started crying.

It was like a stampede waiting to happen. Or a Michael Jackson concert held on the edge of a cliff.

The player would be given a class after finishing the tutorial here, that was probably why that Hailie play, though stupid, still have a Ranger class. My Merchant class was more a secret one that needs you to do a complex quest, the details of these quests were changed after the VR version released so there was no risk of people flooding that class also.

Thank god for the early release access, giving me a chance to practice clearing the Poison Dragon. I love you, late stage capitalism.

Now… Where was the Squire NPC again?

The Squire NPC stood proudly beside a broken wooden fence, brandishing and cleaning his outlandishly giant lance.

"Welcome, adventurer! Are you ready to serve your kingdom and begin your sacred journey as a Squire?"

"What's your name?" I asked, for future references, "And yes, give me the quest."

Ongoing Quest: Squireship

Defeat 1,000 Bandits.

Bandits can be found in the Beginning Hills.

"I am Henry Galahad III, what about you, stranger?" The NPC squire said, smiling at me warmly.

"I'll be meeting you a lot." I said, leaving his chatting vicinity right afterwards and headed towards the hill.

Somewhere along my walk, I heard in the distant, the name Lion's Parade being said.

One of the biggest guild in Darkmoon Adventure, ran by an "acquaintance" of mine.

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