“I wonder if Haven is going to get a dragon one day.” White Light helped of course, squatting together with the rest of them.
“They’d be kind of overpowered. According to the lore of this game, dragons are huge. Wouldn’t they one-shot everyone?” Bloody clicked his tongue. “Though I’d love seeing one. Maybe we will get an event. Or there might be a skeleton in the mountain area?”
White Light flashed a handsome smile at the Ice Emperor. “About that. Would you like to accompany me in exploring the new area once it’s open for us?”
“I won’t be very useful there.” Ice shook his head. As an ice mage, he wouldn’t work too well against the monsters on the mountain. He might even become a hindrance, so he had planned on moving alone. He’d be getting a good debuff in the cold area.
“Even your experience alone is helpful”, Bloody threw in before White Light could speak up. “Let’s go together. We have been in a party often before. I work best with you. I’m also in no hurry to explore since I’m not a competitive ranker. I’ve got time if you want to find a wild mount.”
White Light’s eyes narrowed. As someone who often fought PvP and worked hard to keep his placement in the top 5, he wasn’t as open as Bloody, who didn’t care much about losing a place. Taming a mount was hard work and was time-consuming, precious time.
Haven considered a tamed monster a pet. Large pets that could be ridden were logically called mounts. Pets followed you around in real-time, though event pets were summonable.
There were three types of pets in general – common pets, event pets and wild pets.
A common pet could be bought in the game. They were horses or dogs, basically animals. They were only useful in the beginning of the game, or for fun.
Event pets stayed in your inventory. They were purely usable as mounts or to brag and in the eyes of NPCs, they were no different from golems that were summoned. You could only get one of these during a running event, as they weren’t regularly in the shop. If still around during a fight, they’d unsummon, and there were many areas they refused to enter.
Wild pets were the most interesting. Their intelligence could be quite high depending on their race, and they would accompany a player in combat as well. They could learn commands and had their own, strong personalities. They often couldn’t enter cities, but pets couldn’t be attacked by players unless they attacked first or their owner was attacked.
Wild pets were a sign of prestige. Most people who owned one were rankers, or they were monsters below the size of a common dog.
Having a wild pet meant you had to always find a place for it to stay when you entered a city, you had to make sure it wouldn’t get engaged in random combat with monsters while you were away, and you had to keep its habits in mind. What they ate, which temperatures they could endure – you had to be very careful.
It also took forever to tame a monster intelligent enough to be worthy to take as a pet. Many intelligent monsters were either hostile or good at running away.
The ice dragon – actually a wyvern – that Ice had kept before was a monster that could only live near the mountain. Ice had spent one whole month trying to tame it next to leveling, and had made sure to find an area where it could hunt for food safely whenever he wasn’t around.
In general, players were more interested in summonable event pets, which might not help in combat but were also not as troublesome.
But the Ice Emperor – the player who played the game like a second home and not like a common game – really wanted an actual pet. A companion.
After hesitating for quite some time, Ice gave a wordless nod. One reason was that he felt more comfortable going around with Bloody, the other was that he didn’t want to reject his friend.
“Well, maybe we can explore a bit together later”, White Light mused. “We should use the beta time.”
“I won’t be able to go there earlier”, Dead Rabbit whined. “Such a shame. If only I could play more often, I’d also be a ranker.”
Bloody hit the younger guy’s head again, leaving some blood drops on the black hair. The assassin squeaked in disgust. “You go and study! Don’t waste the time!”
“You aren’t studying either!”
“I have enough self-control to save almost all of the money I’m getting from advertisements. Even if I can’t play anymore one day, I can still be an anchor thanks to being kind of famous, and the company already offered to employ me as a game tester if I decide to quit Haven.” Bloody narrowed his eyes, glaring at his little brother who still lived at home. “I also finished my bachelor studies.”
“I have finished my studies” too, White Light commented with a smile – he was a couple of years older than Bloody. “I can find a job. Had one before Haven.”
We’re sorry for MTLers or people who like using reading mode, but our translations keep getting stolen by aggregators so we’re going to bring back the copy protection. If you need to MTL please retype the gibberish parts.
Fcvfg Gfjv Ejyyla’r ujhf, Pmf cfgnberis bqfcfv jcv mibrfv tlr wbeat. “… Zs qjgfcar jgf glmt.”
Nfgs glmt. Cii atgff ojwlis wfwyfgr jirb tjv atf tjyla bo cba ilnlcu atf tlut-ilof, ktlmt kjr kts wbra wbcfs rajsfv ktfgf la kjr – lc atflg yjcx jmmbeca. Ktf akb wbvfir tjv ybeuta j mbeqif bo tberfr atfs kfgf gfcalcu bea, yea atfwrfinfr bcis erfv bcf tberf lc j ubbv jgfj. Ktfs vlvc’a tjnf vbhfcr bo mjgr, bg jikjsr erfv atf cfkfra ujvufar.
They did need bodyguards, but that was a drop of water compared to their earnings.
As for Ice? He lived in a little apartment with two rooms, a kitchen and a bathroom. It was small and comfy, a size that most people with a good job could rent.
He could easily live his whole life without earning a cent, simply by using his parents’ money.
“You… don’t feel like a second generation kid”, Dead Rabbit said in surprise. The Ice Emperor felt more like a hard worker than the arrogant brats he had met before.
“Isn’t that good?” The beastman huffed. “Enough, concentrate on dismantling. Your skills are terrible. Why am I even taking you along? How did you manage to get your level up this high at all? Did you get my guild to help you?”
The way the assassin winced made the answer clear.
White Light was in a bit of a complicated mood seeing how bad the other was at taking the Lizard bodies apart. Even he, who basically left the looting to other people in his party, was much more skilled. The child was clearly not cut out to be a professional gamer.
“Later when we take the Olms apart, we should let Ice do it. With his skill and luck stat, he’s most likely to get one that’s intact.” Bloody lifted up another broken Lizard tooth. No matter how skilled you were, there were always some parts of the bodies that were affected by luck. The stat that was horrendous for him.
The comment made both White Light and Dead Rabbit curious, but they didn’t ask as it was private.
Time seemed to drag on while they were looting, so the moment they were done, the two more aggressive players hurried towards the next tunnel.
Ice accompanied the carnage as if he was taking a walk, helping out when needed until they reached the Cave Olms.
The Cave Olms were water monsters. Their long, eyeless bodies slithered through a pool of dark blue water, creepy shadows with thin legs the size of an adult wolf.
White Light had come prepared, already having looked up the enemies of the dungeon in the forum before logging in.
【Cave Olm – Elite】
【Level 68-72】
【Amphibian monsters that can be found only in cave dungeons. Strong against poison and fire, weak against ice and lightning. Don’t use stab attacks against them, as their slimy exterior makes it hard to get a good hit. Slash attacks are useful. They’re blind but are sensitive to sound, so you can mess up their senses by causing loud noises elsewhere!
They attack by using the poison through the slime on their bodies, their venomous teeth and by spitting acid for a ranged attack. Avoid entering the water and instead lure them out.】
【Dungeons with Cave Olms:
Red Woods – Old Mine Dungeon
…】
“How very convenient to have an ice mage around.”
“I’ll take care of them”, Ice agreed, looking at the four Olms lying in the shallower corners of the pool. Three more were swimming in the darkness, from what they could tell.
“Then we will go around hunting whatever else is running around here.” Bloody cracked his fingers and flashed a grin showing his carnivore teeth. “Dead Rabbit, you stick to Ice.”
“Yeeeees.” The assassin rolled his eyes.
Soon enough, he swallowed his grievance and looked awestruck instead. Since he didn’t have to fight unless a monster sneaked over, he had time to watch Ice work his magic. It was his first time seeing it live.
The Ice Emperor took note of the exact situation before choosing his spell – one with a complicated chant but simple effect – that would freeze the water around the Olms, capturing them.
Usually, that kind of spell was rarely used, as it took a lot of mana. The situation was suitable though; the Olms appeared to be dozing off, they were in shallow water, and close to each other. Moreover, there was nothing suggesting that Ice had any other use for his mana right now.
Ice took a deep breath and began the chant that caused his body to shake as if there was a wild horse wanting to break out of his lungs. Like a song, he whispered the three long sentences, moving the area of his magic to the correct place.
His eyes were fixated on the shallow water, where tiny crystals crackled softly as his spell was invoked. The moment he was finished, the ice moved like a wave from its center, causing the Olms to jolt in surprise.
One was unlucky and got frozen completely, the other three were stuck in place. They screeched, but their companions merely fled into hiding – they weren’t going to attack mindlessly simply because a fellow monster was hurt. Now warned, the other three Olms would wait for a better chance. Considering the tunnel to the next area was in the water, they didn’t have to worry about being bypassed.
The Ice Emperor checked his mana.
80/100.
A solid 20 mana gone for a single spell – unsurprisingly. What he had done was freeze a whole area of otherwise moving water in a very short time. Most of the time, ice mages attacked by conjuring icicles and used crowd control by creating thin frozen layers or spikes. Both weren’t as hard as what Ice had done, which was why this was a tactic that could only be described as brute force.
“You can go kill them now”, Ice said to Dead Rabbit, whose jaw had fallen at the sight. Well, there were only three Olms left alive – the first one would suffocate quickly in his frozen cage.
“That was anticlimactic.”
“No, that was efficient”, White Light praised from the side. “We don’t have to waste time if there aren’t any dangerous monsters around. It’s worth the mana in a situation like this.”
Dead Rabbit slashed his knife over the Olms’ necks from where they couldn’t reach him and gave the mage a thumbs-up. The ice melted back into water, leaving four corpses.
Without anyone calling him, Ice pulled out his own dagger again and got to work.
The acid sacs were the size of a fist, feeling like water balloons made out of leather. Ice placed them in a separate bag.
“I’m not interested in completing this dungeon. Anyone else?”
“No.”
“No.”
“I’m tagging along, so I can’t say anything…” Dead Rabbit would have loved getting the loot of the boss, but he was also aware that he was the weakest out of the group by far.
“Then back we go.”
Obviously they knew that they were overleveled for this quest, which was why it was so easy – they were mainly doing it for the acquaintance of the elves.
Misa was delighted at how efficient they had worked and with everyone being polite, her behaviour softened up considerably.
Dead Rabbit was sorting out the monster parts he had gathered, watched over by his older brother.
White Light stopped next to the Ice Emperor and held out a hand to him. “I hope we will see each other soon. I’m open for a cooperation anytime.”
The mage took the hand after hesitating shortly and shook it.
Soon the mountain would open.
***
Ice tilted his head into the back of his neck, staring up at the mountain.
All rankers were gathered nearby, waiting for the moment that the NPCs would let them past the barriers so they could begin to explore the new area. They had been waiting eagerly for it, and their excitement was infecting the guards stationed everywhere.
The Ice Emperor stood a bit apart from everyone, near the captain of the guards. It was a privilege simply because he got along with the prince, who had been here not too long ago.
At his side, Damien straightened his cuffs.
The beastman was tall – a good head taller than the tallest guard, and covered in muscles. Even just his body would have made people nervous, but the man had an air of grace around him that could not be ignored. There was elegance in every little movement.
With his grayed straw-blonde hair neatly combed back and beard cut to an appropriate length, the butler did not look too much like a lion. The roundish ears and the tail gave him away, but otherwise it was easy to interpret him as another animal. He did not have the messy mane of a lion, for sure.
Damien coughed softly into his closed fist, his clawed fingernails hiding inside his palm. He bowed gracefully, his dark coat covering his figure. “Well then, Ice Emperor, I shall return back to my liege’s side. Should the need arise, please do not hesitate to send a messenger and we shall send help.”
“It’s fine”, Ice whispered. He felt comfortable around the butler. The man was skilled and experienced, a very calming person. He did not expect Ice to say too much either.
They exchanged a couple more words before Damien left. Ice absentmindedly tugged at his own coat, waiting for Bloodless Sunset to finally log in.
“I aaaaaam here!”
It was not to be ignored when he did, for sure.
“Phew! Cold. Good thing I bought myself another coat. How are you doing? I imagine you’re fine?” Bloody’s tail wagged around happily as he walked towards the mage. It was rare to see him dressed so thickly, but most players had a very limited resistance to the cold. Even if you lowered your synchronization settings, your character was still going to get a temperature debuff if you ignored it.
Not to mention you could get frostbite.
Author’s Note
I’ve done some planning. After a certain point in the story, some events will be randomized according to the character’s stats. Just like in pen and paper (for example, Dungeons and Dragons), characters might fail or unexpectedly suceed. I won’t do much of it, it’s first to test it out, but I want to see how you readers will react to it – it makes things a good bit less predictable, I imagine. (Well – we’re still far from the chapters that use this, though)
Do you guys want me to put little notes on when I’ve rolled the dice for some events? Would you like to know?
Little Theater
White Light: “Ice Emperor, why don’t you cooperate with me?”
Bloody: “Ha! I got to him first!”
White Light: “We will see. He has not joined your guild yet.”
Bloody: “It’s only a matter of time.”
Dead Rabbit: chewing on melon seeds
ohhh the pet system is interesting! and I would love to know where you’ve rolled the dice XD
I hope Ice can soon find a new companion/pet D:
I’m in for the dice notes xD I hope your luck is better than mine or the whole plot would go down the drain orz
Thx for the ch (ㅅ˘ㅂ˘)
thanks for the chapter <3
Thank you for the chapter 💜
💰 💰 💰 🏧 💰 💰 💰
囧 。👈 THANKS 👉 。囧
💰 💰 💍 👑 💍 💰 💰
───── Foя тнє cнαpтєя
────────── from Jack
I always wanted to read a story that used dices, go for it!