As soon as I walked through the new door, I was in a completely different place.
Instead of the Runestone Tavern, which, despite being very cozy, was just a tavern, this new place really took the concept of cozy to another level!
A beautiful wooden cabin with large glass windows that showed that I was on a snowy mountain.
In the center of the cabin was a floating holographic screen.
Curious, I approached this holographic screen and saw that it was like a tablet, but with only two options for me to select.
[Megaloviania] - F Rank
[Difficulty Easy: ⭐⭐⭐☆☆☆☆☆☆☆ (3/10)] - Grade ??
[Medium difficulty: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐☆☆☆☆ (6/10)] - Score ??
Looking at this difficulty rating, I was even more confused.
When my mind floated above the word [Megalovania], a rock song with some electronic overtones started playing.
Surprisingly, even though I liked the rock genre and felt I had a good knowledge of songs like this, I didn't recognize this song.
'That's the second time today that I've seen such a good song that I've never heard before...' I realized.
Ignoring this, I decided to put it to the test.
Thinking that one of the criteria for getting the Card Skin in Runestone was to get an A on Easy difficulty, I decided to start with that difficulty.
Selecting that I would use the Mage game mode, I felt a staff appear in my hand as my surroundings changed from the cozy cabin to a dark alley in a city at night.
Although the alley was dark, the environment was full of futuristic-looking neon lights that, although they polluted the view, allowed me to see the place I was in better.
'I'm glad that even though we're in a dark alley, at least this place is clean...' I sighed with relief.
Suddenly, at the exit of the alley, a small Goblin appeared, holding a sword and a shield.
The funniest thing was that this little green Goblin was wearing modern clothes that really suited this city.
When he approached me, he raised his small sword towards me and held a protective totem in his other hand, as if challenging me to a duel.
Seeing this Goblin's attitude and the realism of the surrounding environment shocked me.
Although this game seemed to be just another generic combat training game like all the others, at least FrostHaven was showing his talent by making interesting and engaging scenarios.
If it had been just a normal game, I would have given up on this battle and gone back to Runestone to play and have fun, but remembering that this game was made by FrostHaven, I decided to keep giving it a chance and raised my staff to accept the goblin's duel.
With my attitude, music began to play around us.
The music began with a simple electronic beat, which gradually began to accelerate.
As the music sped up, the goblin approached me and when he made his first attack, drums and a guitar joined the melody of the music synchronized with his attack!
Fortunately his attack was slow, so out of instinct I used a defense spell, blocking his attack perfectly.
He wasn't fazed by this and attacked me again, coincidentally with his attack matching the rhythm of the music!
With every attack he made and I defended myself, the more I realized that it wasn't a coincidence that he was attacking me at the right moments in the song!
'He's attacking me following the rhythm of the music! ' I realized excitedly.
In the next save I completed, I realized that he had acted in a similar way before.
A slightly slow movement that gave me an opening to attack.
Curious, I used an offensive spell and sent a fireball at him.
As soon as my fireball hit the little monster, the beat of the music coincided perfectly with the timing of my attack and a pink glow floated up from the spot hit!
[Perfect!]
With that message appearing, a green bar appeared over his head and a part of that green bar diminished.
The sensation of my attack connecting with the rhythm of the music was incredible. Excited to try again, I cast another spell, ignoring the fact that he was going to attack me too, and my spell hit!
Unfortunately, even though my spell hit and the bar above his head decreased, when his attack hit me the bar recovered again...
'So I can't let him attack me or his green bar will recover?' I thought in frustration, and looking up I saw that I too had a green bar with a chunk missing.
Little by little, as I played, I came to understand this game better.
Although he would let me attack him at any time, if I ignored his attacks and let myself be hurt in order to hurt him, his green bar would recover more than the damage I caused, while the damage I caused would make my green bar recover less than the damage I caused him.
In other words, I had to protect myself perfectly and only attack at times when my health wouldn't be compromised!
The more the song progressed, the more frantic this little Goblin's attacks became, to the point where I had to work hard to speed up the speed at which I cast the fireball spell in order to take advantage of the gaps he showed, otherwise he'd even manage to dodge my attacks and I'd lose my chance to reduce his green bar!
With my focus pushed to the limit, I began to feel that my mastery of the defense spell and the fireball was getting better by the moment, even surpassing the level it had when I used it in the dungeons.
When the song finally ended, I looked at his green bar and estimated that he had about 15% of it left, which satisfied me.
Even though he was a slower and weaker enemy than the Goblins I faced in the dungeons, I believe that if this were in a dungeon I wouldn't get as good a result as this.
[The enemy had 14% life left, his grade was... C Rank!]
But when I saw my score I was a little disappointed...
'If I'd known how this worked from the start, I'd have gotten a better grade...' I thought as I huffed.
To my surprise, below my grade was a list.
[Friend Rank: Top 3]
[ChrisThompson - A Rank
iCharlie - B Rank
Natt Proudstone - C Rank
ImFreddie - C Rank
Eliii - D Rank]
Seeing that among my friends I was only in the Top 3, with Chris even managing to reach the A Rank made me furious.
Especially seeing that Charlie was better than me!
'I can't leave it at that, I have to at least make it to A Rank! ' I thought in frustration as I quickly clicked the play button again.
This time, using my knowledge of the game and my experience as a Player F Rank who has raided a few dungeons, I managed to raise my score to B Rank, but I still didn't feel that it was enough...
So forgetting about my desire to play Runestone, I just focused on my competitiveness with my friends and dedicated myself to passing them.
At the end of each song I could see that they were also dedicating themselves to improving, with Eliii climbing from D Rank to B Rank, passing Freddie and catching up with me!
'Jeez... how can I get better at this faster?!' I thought for a moment before realizing that apart from training harder and focusing more on the battle, what I could do to improve my Rank was not let him hit me! 'Damn you, you stylish little Goblin, this time I'm not going to let you hit me with any attacks, even if I stop attacking you a few times, you won't heal at all this time!'
And this tactic worked!
By focusing on defense and not letting him heal as much as last time, the remaining life he had this time was only 4%, raising me from B Rank to A Rank!
As soon as I completed this, a delicate golden box appeared in front of me, with a beautiful wooden staff with blue lines of Mana in the Runestone style!
As soon as I saw this I realized that this was my reward!
Although it didn't change the gameplay at all, the staff was so beautiful that I was even more excited to continue playing.
"Hahaha, next time I'll kill you!" I said excitedly to the Goblin as I clicked play again.
Without me realizing it, the number that counted how many attempts I'd had at this song was rising...
6...
10...
15...
20...
25...
30...
35...
36...
When the number reached 36 I finally realized that I had already been playing this game for more than 3 hours!
But looking at the gold S Rank in the game menu I had a big proud smile on my face.
[Megaloviania] - F Rank
[Difficulty Easy: ⭐⭐⭐☆☆☆☆☆☆☆ (3/10)] - S Rank
[Medium difficulty: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐☆☆☆☆ (6/10)] - Grade ??
When I completed the song and got the S Rank, a new option appeared on Easy difficulty, an option that unlocked challenges to make the battle even harder!
Although curious, I ignored this and decided to try Medium difficulty, confident that I could get through it quickly.
-
While Natt was getting excited about SyncStrike and didn't notice the hours passing, tens of thousands of players in the state of California were also feeling the same sensation, causing the queues at Ranked Games to be emptier than usual, surprising players who hadn't yet tried out the new game!