Virtual Reality : Dystopian Tales Online

004.2 | The Crystal Forrest

Aud-01 noticed Leon-36 suddenly became quiet. There are no living creatures on this floor aside from the bosses, so such silence made the atmosphere feel a bit eerie. He wasn't fearful and not scared of ghosts if there are any, but he hated the feeling of playing alone. 

"What? Are you still there?" Aud-01 asked, adding a couple of question mark emoticons.

The elf shook his head out of stupor. He skipped his steps and went beside Aud-01. "I'm here! I'm here."

"Get ready. We are entering the aggro field."

"O-okay!"

Aud-01 equipped his only weapon out, a battle lance, swirling and twirling it around expertly in his hands. His lance is two and a half meters long, the end with one large red arrow with four smaller arrows attached to the base. The tips are made up of red crystals, the weakest among the mana output but with the highest durability. Because of the red color, the weapon only needs a small MP, which is pretty much efficient for a non-magic user like him.

He didn't waste his time, and Aud-01 headed towards the aggro. The Aggro field is the range where monsters will appear whenever a player reaches a certain distance. It would be wrong if the monsters suddenly start attacking when a door is opened, so safe distances are created. However, once a player enters the aggro field, the safe distance will no longer work.

The monsters residing inside the Crystal Forrest are called Frost giants. They are not actually made up of ice, but their image is close to that. They are made up of white and black crystal stones, which absorb mana and drain it down. Three Frost Giants dwelled around this floor with names of Small Frost, Deviant Spawn Frost, and the floor's Boss.

The Crystal Forest is only looking peaceful and calm with the occasional sparkling of floating dust. However, the moment Aud-01 stepped on the aggro-range, the atmosphere quickly changed, creating a rather exciting momentum. The ground shook a little while a circular trail on the ground glowed brightly. The trail continued to emit bright light until it created a vast circumference. 

Upon activation, the system announced the start of the battle. Aud-01 didn't stop in his tracks as he continued lunging forward, his feet almost not touching the ground, his arms resting sideways towards the back, holding his lance appropriately. His dash towards the middle of the battleground left a tiny tail of dust with a whistling sound of breaking air. 

A couple of flashes appeared in midair, forming a certain mold to which crystal golems appeared. These golems have the usual rocky appearance of a rugged head with two darkened holes and a cracked smiled for the face and body with hardened solid connected in a puppet-like manner. However, instead of rocks, the crystal golems were made up of white mana-absorbing crystals. 

Fast-moving crystal golems leaped out in the sky at once, creating dark spots in the sky.  Their eyes made a quick scan of the surrounding. Five of them had their eyes flash in red as they focus their attack on a particular player running towards the field. Raising the uneven edges of their arms, five to six sharp crystals suddenly protruded and then were thrown swiftly towards the player's direction. 

Aud-01 already anticipated the attack. He glanced up with a glint in his eyes, but he has no intention to stop. With a light hop, he leaped a few feet from the ground, his hand spinning the lance before him round and round, completely blocking the sharp crystals. Sounds of breaking glass meeting iron resounded for a while, seeming to give an impression of fragility from the enemy's attack. 

However, everyone knows that not only these crystals sharper than a medical scalpel, but it is also much harder than a rock and almost comparable to diamonds. Aud-01 being able to stop the attacks head-on means that his ability is noteworthy. Not all players, even those of the top tier, have the confidence to fight the crystal golems face to face. 

The golems landed on the ground surrounding the player. Aud-01 also halted. 

Maneuvering the optics around is hard for a DTO player. The senses that are all controlled through the mouse will give a bit of discrepancy. The disadvantage of the first-person perspective gameplay is that the player won't see the things behind them, so they have to turn a whole 360 to get the entire view.   

But the skilled Aud-01 did not seem to get affected as he controlled the view as if he is really looking sideways. Flinging the lance on his side with a swish, his eyes observed the enemies surrounding him. He estimated the distance of each golem and its visible attributes. In a closer view, the golems are three heads larger than him. Though they weren't the boss, they are still called Frost giants for a reason. 

The differences of the golems explained their capabilities. They are indeed tricky to defeat, considering that regular attacks won't affect their crystal body. This is true for the first time they fought these species. But what now? Floor 125 is already considered a low-level neutral ground, so it is not a problem for a veteran player. 

The game master made the game challenging, but too much difficulty will bore unsatisfied players. So in such a setting where monsters belong to a monolith, the game master made the division of class apparent to know their role in the group. With this, Aud-01 could clearly see the distance archers amongst the golems and their respective battle warriors. 

Their advantage is their ability to throw crystals in this group, so distance archers are the priority to be eliminated first. The archer noticed the stern look of the player that aroused its aggro. The golem aimed the crystal arrows towards him. Since the attack started, the other archers followed, raising their arms to release their attacks. 

Aud-01 took a step back, twirling his lance again for the defense. The archers are scattered, so the attacks are coming from a different direction at the same time. Regular players would have wounded their backs while trying to protect themselves from other crystals. After all, who would be able to stop the attacks given consecutively?

Well... err, Aud-01 is really an exception. It is as if he calculated the moment appropriately that none of the crystals hurt him. His footwork didn't miss a step and stumble, making a complicated pattern while his hands acted in flawless coordination. His eyes that showed with utmost concentration somehow created an image of a war god in training. 

He made his way around as if dancing while the noise of crashing glasses is the accompanying music. No matter how many crystal arrows are thrown or how much the formation changes, nobody could ever cross his impregnable defense. If ever these crystals golems have consciousness, they will understand the danger they are in. 

The smart system noticed that none of the archers manage to harm the player, so it changed tactics. The logic system of the game is really adequate to be able to create exciting gameplays. Seeing that the tactics are no longer working, it made adjustments and calculations to re-enact a new formation pattern. 

Most of the time, the game will follow the default pattern of attack. But once players breach it, the system will undergo adjustments from the information taken from the attack pattern and attributes thrown by the players. In this way, none of the battle formations are repeated, making it more engaging. The system's ability to self-learn is really beyond comprehension. 

This time, the battle warrior golems took the vanguard. While the archers went on the back but still releasing arrows, the battle warriors came forward to do melee. Battle Lances are suitable for blocking purposes, but they hold lesser value in closer combat. In actual battle, lances are just a single-used item that is then replaced by more convenient weapons like swords and knives. 

Aud-01 noticed the change of formation the moment two battle warriors rushed towards him. It is difficult to change his position instantly without getting hit by the incoming arrows, so he stooped down, bending his knees until it touched the ground, then used a magic skill that enhances jumps. This enables him to leap higher than an average jump, quickly playing the lance around him to stab and jab each golem.

On one end, he lightly stabbed it, causing the golem's chest to c***k and fall, while on the other is a deeper stab that the tip of the lance passed through its body. More golems arrived to attack him again. Using the stabbed golem as a fulcrum, Aud-01 activated another skill on his legs this time, running around to step on the golems pushing their way down. After turning around four times, the first round of golem who attacked him is now on the ground, with their health status reduced to half.

Another group appeared.

The other player, who is only a distance away from him, can't help but sing praises towards the player. Leon-10 is never a combat class, so just seeing this scene makes his heart clench with excitement. As an Elven-Necromancer, all he can do is range attacks and summon that are both time-consuming. Close combat will be dangerous to him, not that he can't tackle and kick, but in that way, his real purpose as a magician will be thrown away.

I actually wanted a Tank Class, he once thought. Tanks can move around more freely than him.

"Can you bless me a favor and start attacking already?"

Leon almost laughed when he saw the message from Aud. Doing that combination performance constituted a lot of different commands that should be typed in. To be able to send him a message in a complete sentence only means that Aud's APM control must be more than 300. His keyboard must be in flames now due to fast typing!

He started typing commands he memorized by heart to the board. Leon-36 began to run towards Aud-01's direction but abruptly stops in the distance. A wooden staff appeared on his hand; above is a round top crystal of higher mana colors piled in a crown-like arrangement, emitting a glow of colorful lights around. Stomping the lower end of the staff down to the ground activated a magic circle, spreading a complicated transmugation circle with symbols and circles around him.

See? he thought. I remembered drawing this self-made transmugation. Now, it looks better and much stronger!

Aud-01 caught the light from the end of his sight and saw Leon-36 chanting an attack spell. The air around the Elf swirled, sending gusts of air around. Aud-01 knows this move and decided to finish stabbing the last round of monsters before jumping out from the scene and anchored himself to the closer crystal trees. Leon-36 saw the order and fired his spell towards the confused crystal golems.

This is an easy job. Too easy for them, who are high-level players playing on a neutral ground.

Leon-36 erased the golems in one fire, leaving only pieces of crystals from the golems. Looking at his MP output, that is such a huge loss. But the negative charge from the golems filled it up quickly. He looked around and found Aud-01 holding in a tree branch like a monkey. He only gave him a nod, and as if reading each other's minds, proceeded on entering the dungeon.

The requirement for the first boss to appear is to kill twenty distance-archer crystal golems. So far, they have only met ten; they have to look for more. Continuing the process, Aud-01 managed to hook in some more crystal golems, carrying his lance with no problem. Leon-36 also did it with no mistake, firing powerful spells to repel the monsters.

It took them some round before they completed the requirement of killing twenty distance-crystal archers. When the twentieth archer was dead, the ground suddenly shook, creating vibrations through the whole floor.

White visible smoke gushes out from the sides, forming a fog around the trees. Like in any boss battle, effects as fog smoking, the earth quaking, and some fire burning will appear to warn players of the incoming danger. It is as if the ‘suspense’ trait that they want the players to feel. However, for these two players, these effects are just nothing but a decoration.

Before the first boss could appear, Aud-01 advanced while twirling his lance. He activated a spell midway making it glow with magic. Though he is not a magic-user, using magic spells using the system is still possible. It was just based on the theory that he once calculated. Besides, what is the use of having an MP bar if magic is only valid to the Elven race?

Leon-36 prepared for another spell. Earlier, doing the high-level spells is just for fun. Aud-01 could have possibly intercepted and warned him from using it again if those actions were not needed. But the player let him act recklessly, meaning he can be as unrestrained by pulling any tricks he got under his sleeve. But now, he mellowed down.

As mentioned, the crystal forest’s bosses are Frost giants in the colors of white and black crystals that absorb spirit magic. By just attacking it, the player is actually feeding it with mana giving the boss more HP than before. That’s how bosses work above the 100th floor. If you make a simple calculation mistake, it can give the boss more life or otherwise.

The advantage of overflowing mana on floor 125 gave the Elven the pedestal and gave them the highest inferiority.

However, Leon-36 is not the least scared. Knowing this beforehand gave him the upper hand and be cautious around the bosses. Aud-01 is also beside him, so there’s no way that he will die while dungeoning. In situations like this, he can just use his skills other than spending his MP more.

Before the boss appeared, Aud-01 used his hop skill again and leaped up in the sky. Leon-36 can’t see numbers inside the game since everything is animated, but he can tell that the place where Aud-01 is aiming will be the first boss’  entrance. In a quick rotation of the lance, it slashed through the air, earning a painful howl from a distance.

A cascading sound followed the howl added the shaking of the ground. By just it, Leon-36 can tell that the boss fell. Aud-01 glanced at him, giving him the signal to follow. They both erupted from their places with a high-paced speed going toward the first boss.

First bosses are actually weaker than the two, so defeating it will only need a few slashes and tackles. It has no special attacks nor any brain to create one. By just having Aud-01 attack it in a string of stab and jab, the Frost Giant crumbled to pieces, returning the state of the floor back to the beginning. The player didn’t waste any time to continue while Leon-36 summoned a familiar to pick the droppings of the boss.