Author’s note: Alright guys, I’m a slow turtle as always. Expect next chapter (24) at Wednesday and this Sunday I hopefully will be able to deliver 2 more.
Cling! Clang!
Scores of rusty swords let out the reverberating sound of clashing steel. Vultures circled the skies above Red Blooming Valley, looking for an opportune moment to fill rumbling stomachs with bloody flesh.
Two greyish caves stood on the opposite sides of the valley. Hordes of blue and green lizardmen fought fiercely against the human invaders. It was the first time since 200 years ago that the two tribes united against a common enemy.
The name of the Red Blooming Valley didn’t come from the beautifully growing flowers nor trees. The valley was a place where endless amount of blood was spilled. Both lizardmen tribes had tried to get rid of the other for two centuries. The tribes’ warriors were experienced, many battle-scarred. Their stalemate made the entrance of hundreds of humans into their territory quite opportune.
The hunters became the hunted. Both lizardmen tribes faced annihilation. Even though they used to be enemies, when they allied, their cooperation became surprisingly good. Players faced with those lizardmen were heavily pressured. One wrong move would be their last one. This was the greatest test their healers had encountered up to date.
In the middle of hundreds of players clashing against the reptiles, there was one madman who fought against 10 lizardmen on his own. As the sabers and swords in the blue reptiles’ hands whistled through the air, the madman swayed, dodging every blow with precision. This impasse lasted merely 10 seconds before 10 lizardmen encircled the player and attacked him from all sides.
Whoosh! Clang!
Four sabers were deflected, while the other 6 weapons lodged themselves into the player’s body. Soon after, the other lizardmen stabbed again and the player met his maker.
“To think I was so engrossed in the feeling of [Elusive body] that I let myself die… Sigh, from such unrefined creatures too…” Icicle facepalmed. He slapped his face so hard both his face and hand burned.
“Take heart young one, you’re still alive after all!” chubby priest beside Icicle chimed in. The priest saw dejected adventurers before, but no one has slapped his face so hard yet. Other adventurers were mostly sighing or shaking their heads in disappointment.
“Thank you priest, I’m fine.” Icicle smiled faintly. To be pitied by an NPC was a low blow to his self-esteem.
Blackie returned to the mark on Icicle’s left forearm after his Master died. He asked anxiously “God, are you okay?”
“I stopped thinking for some time and almost instantly died. It’s no big deal Blackie, we’ll get back at them.” Icicle’s firm words rang out in Blackie’s mind.
Following his statement, Icicle rushed out of the church and beelined into the Red Blooming Valley.
Icicle’s thoughts revolved around [Wind Stinger] technique, but now he was much calmer. He wished to learn how to use the technique to some extent as it filled him with amazement and excitement. Nothing felt so appealing to him for a long time. What’s more, [Elusive body] that came with it would improve his fighting capabilities significantly.
Blackie trotted alongside Icicle. They ignored any monsters on the way, sprinting right past them. There were a few dozen creatures stacked up behind them, futily trailing. As they gained distance, the monsters behind the duo lost aggro.
Arriving in the valley again, Icicle’s mind was calm. He analyzed the layout and noticed a long narrow passage north, between two brown rockfaces. “That has to be the next leveling area.” he thought.
Icicle scoured the area below with his gaze. “There are so many lotuses here.” he spotted dozens of colorful flowers. Some were floating on the surface of the water, others were wholly submerged in it. They were not rotting for some strange reason.
Icicle realized that the slope leading down was where the player and monster density was the highest. Last time he came here, he ran in without looking back, not taking any sights into consideration. He wanted to fight, to understand the mystifying, arcane feeling he experienced. Seeing the lizardmen now, Icicle’s desire to battle rekindled, but he knew his alchemy needed improvement to get Marisse’s daughter a cure. He felt that those lotuses can be a necessary and absolutely rare ingredient! If they could help him advance to first grade Alchemist, he had to get them!
“Strike the iron while it’s hot!” Icicle thought, looking around for another way down.
He noticed that west of the slope there was a rocky surface. However, if one was careful with their steps, he could enter the valley without being noticed.
Ten minutes later, Icicle sneaked behind the waterfall next to the Blue Lizardmen Cave on the west side of the valley. The air next to the sparkling water was refreshing, unlike the rest of the area where the scent of blood, stinking wet lizards and decaying animal remains permeated the air.
Unfortunately, there was nothing of worth behind the waterfall. Icicle hoped for some hidden treasure like in most fairytales, but the reality was cruel. There was absolutely nothing but wet rocks. However, although Icicle felt disappointed, he didn’t let himself be too affected. There were way too many lotuses next to the waterfall to be depressed.
“Let’s see those goodies.” Icicle’s eyes flashed with expectation and a tinge of greed.
“Jackpot!” Icicle thought, barely suppressing the idea of screaming out loud. “I did read about it when I looked for antidotes. There’s so many of them in this area, I have to get all of them before other players realize it!” Icicle steeled himself.
“I don’t know how to get that [Extract essence] skill yet, but it will come in time. For now, I need all the lotuses I can gather!” Icicle sent Blackie to look for more of the treasure flowers.
Blackie felt strange. He listened to God, but weren’t they supposed to fight? How could God suddenly have such a thorough turnaround?
“We need those flowers Blackie, get moving!” Icicle’s firm voice resounded in Blackie’s head. Blackie’s doubts immediately disappeared. “This is definitely God.” Blackie nodded, merging with the shadows to look for more colorful lotuses.
***
Icicle greedily collected all of the lotuses he could without provoking the lizardmen. However, more and more players continued to pour into the area, drawing more and more monsters outside of their caves. As such, the areas where he could gather the flowers were reduced with every second.
“God, there’s a lot of flowers over there!” Blackie gestured with his head. Icicle looked over to the place Blackie mentioned and his mouth curled into a wicked smile. “Of course there are, it’s next to the Green Lizardmen Cave.”
Icicle watched the players battle the green lizardmen for a while. He realized that green lizardmen are using more crowd control than the blue ones. Blue lizardmen relied on their speed and weapons, while green lizardmen used all sorts of fish nets and tridents to deal with the pesky enemies.
“I’ve already died once so I need to take it slow.” Icicle decided, going around the huge groups of monsters. He stayed on the periphery, gathering lotuses while engaging lone lizardmen.
1300 health may be a lot to other players, but for Icicle it wasn’t much. His normal slashes dealt over 70 damage, plus he could deal additional 40 or so damage every 5 seconds. There was also the [Nasty Burn] skill of his sword, dealing 100 fixed damage for 80 mana. Its cooldown was 60 seconds.
With all of that powering him, Icicle didn’t feel much pressure from a lone lizardman.
Blue Lizardman’s scales glistened in the morning sun. Its well-developed muscles stuck to the yellowish-white leather armor for so long they were see-through. Blue reptile’s eyes were yellow, shining with a dangerous light. Behind it swung a formidable looking tail bristled with spikes, resembling a genuine chainsaw.
Icicle noticed the webbed blue feet ended with sharp claws through the water surface. The feet of the lizardmen were adapted to this watery environment. Icicle’s feet on the other hand felt heavy, as if he was moving through the mud.
The size-up was over, both the lizardman and Icicle moved!
Clang!
The swords clashed. Blue Lizardman’s weapon was rusty, severely chipped. It was a miracle that its sword could even be used for fighting. On the contrary, Icicle’s sword was brand new, covered in runes, its blade smooth and sharpened. It was like a battle between old and new.
Clang! Clang! Clang!
After a few more clashes, Icicle gauged the lizardman’s strength. Compared to Vilenne this bout was like a child’s play. Unrefined swordsmanship with one superfluous move following the other made the lizardman an easy opponent to deal with.
Whistle!
As the airflow descended upon him, Icicle noticed the overhead swing of the lizardman. He deflected the sword to the side, following with an overhead swing of his own.
150!
The swing tore through the lizardman’s worn out armor, resulting in critical damage. Icicle felt like it was not enough and followed up with the sword’s skill!
[Fiery Blazing Sword] was fueled by 80 mana, greedily absorbing it. The runes on the smooth sword blade shined with flickering yellow-orange light, intertwining. The blade surface quickly turned into roaring flames burning fiercely, giving off a feeling of extreme heat. Icicle stepped forward and stabbed straight at the lizardman’s vulnerable abdomen!
Shoooo!
The sword tip landed on the lizardman’s well developed muscles. The roaring flames quickly converged into a fireball, setting the lizardman aflame!
“Rkhaaaaaaaaaa!” the lizardman cried out, trying to put up the flames.
“It’s a hidden crowd control!” Icicle rejoiced as he looked at the screaming lizardman. The pain the reptile felt made it unable to fight for a while. Seeing this, Icicle appreciated his new sword even more.
Blue Lizardmen nearby were alarmed. They saw their comrade on fire, suffering. Their tailes hit the water surface, splashing water on the burning lizardman.
Pshhhhhhhhh!
The flames evaporated quickly. Some flames died out on their own as the effect of the skill subsided, leaving nasty burn marks on the reptile’s body. The hurt lizardman was smart enough to jump into the shallow water to extinguish the remnants of the flames.
Shrieeek!
Red-glowing blade whistled towards Icicle. The lizardman’s eyes turned red, as he became completely incensed.
“A skill, huh? Let’s see what you’re capable of!” Icicle imbued his sword with 50 points of mana, countering the sword blow with one of his own.
Clang!
The swords clashed, sending ripples and small waves through the water surface. Icicle felt as if a mountain suddenly hit his blade, making him stagger. He was able to fend off the brunt of the blow, but the lizardman flexed his muscles right after, doubling the strength of the blow and consecutively making Icicle fly. However, before Icicle’s feet rose from the muddy ground, blue lizardman’s tail swiped, hitting Icicle’s right side!
Icicle flew, bouncing off the shallow water like a rock skipping off the surface of the lake.
Splash!
“Ugh!” Icicle groaned, seeing the numbers on the screen. “That tail swipe did over 50 damage! My ribs hurt.” Icicle massaged his right side a little.
“No wonder I felt like each of those lizardmen held two weapons when I died. They were using tail swipes to hit me before!” Icicle remembered what happened when he died. He had a feeling as if he fought against 20, not 10 lizardmen.
“The skill that lizardman used outweighed my blade imbued with 50 points of mana. I must be lacking necessary strength, eh? Well, this virtual body won’t be developed in a jiffy, so I might as well wear the helmet.” he decided.
Icicle wore the helmet and quickly adjusted the game options. The helmet was limiting his eyesight and he didn’t want that. “Let’s not get too real. No wonder Adian didn’t want to wear a helmet, this thing is so restraining.” Icicle muttered.
The blue lizardman watched as the human was donning his helmet, as if readying himself for battle. The reptile felt insulted. That human was actually treating it like cannon fodder! What’s more, the human in front of it started gathering flowers! If this wasn’t contempt then what was?
Fuming with unbridled anger, blue lizardman’s webbed feet tapped off the water, quickly approaching shameless human. The reptile swung its sword straight at the human’s head.
Icicle’s eyes blazed with mischief. “Gotcha!”
Whistle!
Icicle sidestepped the sword blow, slashing lizardman’s sturdy legs. As the lizardman shrieked, Icicle quickly followed up with an upward slash.
Red blood splattered all over, dripping from the open wound in the lizardman’s abdomen. It looked as if it was cut in half.
Seeing the ghastly wound in its chest, the blue lizardman became even more incensed. It shrieked, swinging wildly at Icicle. Its rusty sword was once again covered in red glow.
Icicle no longer challenged the sword head on, he sidestepped the attack, stabbing wantonly. Every stab applied true damage. Since the creature’s armor was broken, the additional 10 fire damage from the sword applied as well. Slowly but surely, the lizardman was whittled down to death.
Icicle collected the dropped leather armor.
Seeing this miscellaneous item, Icicle’s mouth twitched. “I guess destroying the creature’s armor isn’t the way to go if I want good loot.” he inferred. He wasn’t sure about it, but his conclusion felt right.
“Did you watch all of that?” Icicle turned to Blackie who was patiently waiting on the side.
“Yes God!” Blackie replied. He has long forgotten about calling Icicle Master. While God was fighting, Blackie observed carefully, trying to learn the secret of God’s hidden strength. If he could learn God’s secrets, maybe he could become just as strong?
During the course of the fight, when God was hit, Blackie didn’t start screaming like he used to. He saw God falling, but that was because God was reckless. Now God was calm, back to his previous, scary self. Just like Blackie thought, God’s enemy was quickly taken care of.
“You’re not ready to tangle with those creatures yet, but you can learn what they do to avoid dying.” Icicle said, killing another blue lizardman. The areas he went through were quickly swept, not leaving even one stalk of a lotus behind.
When he was serious, the lizardman fell in about a minute. If he was lucky, then the time decreased to around 30 seconds. It all depended on the moves the lizardman used.
Icicle made his way around the blue lizardmen, making a semi-circle. The only unswept areas were the middle of the battlefield and the front of the two tribes’ caves.
As Icicle approached the middle of the valley, he noticed there’s a lot more monsters there. Players were approaching this area reluctantly, afraid of dying too quickly. Icicle made his way there cautiously, sweeping the ground with his eyes. In the corner of his eyes flashed a tinge of red.
“Huh?” Icicle looked at the position of the previously seen color and realized it was a red lotus, much bigger than the ones he gathered so far. “Could that one be a grade higher, an Elite grade ingredient?” he thought, rubbing his hands in expectation.
***
“Those hides are tough!” Headshot said disgruntledly. The arrows he shot let out soft sounds, as if flying straight into a cotton wall.
“Gnolls have high physical resistance, there’s nothing you can do about it. Just keep peppering them with arrows, slowing them down from approaching us is good enough.” Inferno said, casting another fireball.
“Switch!” SilentStep blocked a blow for FieryRed with his twin daggers. Whenever his stealth was on cooldown, he helped with the tanking.
“[Ember Shield] now!” FieryRed cried out excitedly as she helped her bear finish off a [Gnoll Captain].
“Ayo, coming up.” Inferno cast the spell.
Faura’s face brimmed with confidence. She was gently smiling, happy about her party’s recent improvement of teamwork.
“Do you think we should get two more people?” Enna asked from the side, sitting on a rock, eating. Her party was doing so well that she had time to eat whenever she wanted. Eating delicacies was the most desirable thing for her, as she didn’t gain any weight! In real life she had to watch what she ate to keep a slim figure, but in Loiterous that was completely unnecessary! Enna was so happy she almost cried from happiness.
“We could use another two people to speed up the leveling process but then there’s the issue of loot. We can’t share some items with outsiders. What if some great Elite grade item drops and that person wants it? I don’t want to count on our luck to win it.” Faura explained. She knew that seventh and eighth person could lessen their burden, but it came with some unpleasantries.
“How about Icicle, he wouldn’t really want our stuff right?” Enna asked innocently as she chewed on another bun.
“He’s most likely still busy with his own quests.” Faura sighed. That would be the best, the charismatic youth who didn’t require much as their frontliner. Their leveling speed would probably increase by 50%.
Faura’s eyes widened suddenly as an idea budded in her mind. Her mouth curled into a smile. “Since you’re not doing anything, how about you add Icicle and ask him?”
“It’s just that you guys don’t need healing at the moment, so I’m relaxing.” Enna shrugged, completely unperturbed. She added Icicle to her friend list.
Enna watched her friend list intently as Icicle’s status popped out. There was green dot next to it, showing that he’s online.
“I know Faura asked you yesterday, but would you like to come with us to the [Desolated Catacombs] dungeon today?” Enna typed out the message.
“What are the levels of the monsters there?” Icicle asked.
“They range from 15 to 17.”
“I’m killing Blue and Green Lizardmen right now. I can’t tell what their higher levels are, but the ones I see are at least level 17.” Icicle sent a screenshot of the blue lizardman’s stats.
“I see.” Enna turned pensive for a while. She didn’t want to drag someone out from a better leveling area. However, she decided to ask anyways. “We have 6 people here so you will get more experience that way. Why don’t you join us?”
“How long does it take you to kill a monster?”
“We kill them in a bunch, so we get like 5 to 6 per minute.” Enna typed out.
“I get up to 2 lizardmen per minute.” Icicle’s reply shocked Enna. Their experience was shared, so they basically killed one monster per minute if they were lucky. However, Icicle killed one a minute all the time, sometimes even two! What’s more, they were higher leveled!
Enna’s lips puckered. She could no longer tempt Icicle to join them. He was doing better than them on his own.
“Oh right, if you have spare time, you can gather herbs for me, I’ll pay you handsomely!” Icicle’s message showed up. Enna smiled faintly, fairly disappointed.
“How is it?” Faura asked from the side. She saw Enna frowning, as if pouting. That usually meant she was sad or had done something wrong.
“Icicle is doing better than us on his own.” Enna sighed dejectedly. “He says we can collect herbs for him if we have time.”
“I see” Faura focused on the gnolls.
“Look, I’m collecting these flowers right now.” Icicle sent a screenshot of all kinds of lotuses in his inventory.
Enna looked at the flowers with excitement. She loved cute things. “Here’s something I got you as well.” Icicle sent another screenshot. There was a clerical collar on it with a golden cross sewn on it.
“So cute!” Enna involuntarily cried out.
Everyone except FieryRed looked at Enna with surprise. The Paladin girl was too busy fighting monsters.
“So, how is he doing?” SilentStep asked.
Enna gaped at her friend, before closing her little mouth. It was rare for SilentStep to show concern about people he didn’t know. “He’s level 12, killing level 17 and higher monsters, up to 2 per minute.” Enna said weakly.
SilentStep smirked. His expression clearly said “I expected nothing less of him.”
“It’s all because of that bracelet!” FieryRed cried out from the front lines. She apparently listened to the conversation, although she pretended not to.
“What class did he choose?” Headshot asked as he focused on hitting weak points of the gnolls. If he missed and hit the tough armor, his damage was significantly reduced.
“Icicle’s a… Water Mage.” Enna blurted out. She couldn’t believe someone standing in the frontline like FieryRed could suddenly pick a ranged class.
“Hahaha!” Inferno laughed out loud. “He picked a ranged class and he kills two higher level monsters a minute? He must be playing like FieryRed!”
The red-haired maiden in the front frowned. That was clearly an insult. A Mage topping a Paladin in a melee fight? Ridiculous! FieryRed knew it’s most likely because of the items, but she couldn’t help feeling ridiculed. With nowhere else to vent, she decided to release her frustration on the poor gnolls.
“I need to take care of something, so talk to you later!” Enna’s chat displayed another message. Enna sighed, closed the window and stuffed her face with another sweet bun. She spent quite a lot of money at Wurtox’s shop to buy them. Fortunately, the chef gave her a discount for mass buying.
“Oh right, I almost forgot. You guys should turn off the system assist and use the spells and mana on your own. It’s much more fun that way.” Icicle sent his last message before closing his chat.
Enna read with rapt attention, almost choking on the sweet bun she was munching on.
“Are you okay?” Faura patted Enna’s back, helping her cough out the remains of the bun.
“I’m fine now, thanks.” Enna took a deep breath. She fiddled with the system settings and tried using healing spell on her own.
Enna’s target was FieryRed, she lost quite a bit of HP during the fight. A warm flow coursed through Enna’s body. She imitated the process of the system assist. Feeling as if she gathered enough mana, Enna pushed her hands outwards, targeting FieryRed.
“I did it!” Enna exclaimed happily. Her first attempt resulted in a success. She looked at her tiny hands with glee.
As she laughed, FieryRed’s voice boomed out “What the hell are you doing Enna?! Why the hell did you heal a monster?! You’re trying to provide me with a challenge or what?!”
“Ah!” Enna cried out. She saw FieryRed’s health didn’t move an inch. “My bad.” she said weakly.
FieryRed shook her head, not knowing what Enna was doing. She cast [Radiant light] to heal herself.
Enna didn’t mind her failure. She was happy her first spellcasting worked. She tried again and this time FieryRed was healed, but only by the 1/3 of the original amount.
“What are you doing Enna?” Faura asked with concern. She saw Enna wriggling like a snake.
“Icicle said we should use spells without system assist, I was checking out if it works!” Enna emanated excitement and glee. Her face was all smiles.
“Use the mana on our own?” FieryRed’s interest was piqued. She quickly turned off the system assist and tried it herself. At first, she couldn’t get a feel for it, but soon she was able to imbue her sword with a yellowish glow. “It’s working!” she exclaimed.
Faura, Inferno and SilentStep tried it out too. Their results greatly differed.
For Faura, it was quite easy to get a feel for it. She used her [Lightning bolts] with precision, as if she was born for the class. “Hmm, it’s not that hard to cast them, but my damage went down. However, they don’t drain as much mana either. The stun effect seemed to stay the same at 30% chance, but its duration is lower. The only thing that didn’t change is the cooldown.” she quickly surmised.
This revelation would change the party’s battle tactics. They could use less mana to get almost the same results. This meant that the entire party could spend less on mana pots, or heal to full without wasting too much mana on the spell.
“I wonder if I can cast a stronger version of [Lightning bolt]?” Faura tried imbuing twice the amount of mana the spell required, but to her dismay, it didn’t work. The spell exploded, dealing damage to her and almost killing Inferno who was next to her in the process.
“You really do like to play with fire, huh?” Inferno teased.
“I was just checking if we can upgrade our spells that way, but it seems system assist sets the limit, we can only cast weaker versions for less.” Faura said in the party voice chat.
“Really? Let me try.” Inferno believed Faura, but he wanted to check for himself. As soon as he imbued more mana than the spell could take, it exploded, charring his brows and hair. His face looked like an ancient remnant of a charcoal.
FieryRed imbued her sword with all the mana she had and sliced a wounded gnoll in half. “This is awesome!” she screamed, attacking another one. However, her slash did the normal damage. “Huh? Why is it not working?” FieryRed checked the party status and realized her mana is completely gone. “I need more wisdom items!” she stamped her feet.
SilentStep had the most problems, it wasn’t easy to suddenly blend with the environment. He wasn’t a natural like Blackie who simply imbued his fur with mana and disappeared from sight. It took some serious effort before SilentStep managed to use stealth, and even that quickly broke. He only lasted 3 out of 30 available seconds of the spell. Standing still in stealth prolonged the duration to 2 minutes, but SilentStep ignored that. He needed combat efficiency.
Headshot scratched his head, not knowing what to do. He didn’t have mana like others, but Focus stat. Archers had 200 Focus to spend, which automatically recovered 5 points a second. However, Archers also had skills known as builders, allowing them to gain more Focus by using them.
“You don’t know what to do?” Faura noticed Headshot’s predicament and asked.
“I don’t have mana like you guys.” Headshot shook his head helplessly.
“Well, since it’s called Focus, try doing what it says. Draw the bowstring, nock your arrow and aim carefully. Make sure the system assist is off too.” Faura advised. That’s the only thing she could infer.
Headshot did as Faura told him. His first few tries resulted in him missing the target. After hundreds of failed attempts, he finally got a feeling of improving a little. Headshot saw his Focus quickly draining. As soon as it drained 50 points of Focus, he let the arrow loose.
Puchi!
The arrow pierced the gnoll’s tough hide and armor, directly stabbing into its flesh.
“Wow!” Headshot blinked a few times to make sure that what was happening was real. Archer class wasn’t as useless against armored units as he thought it was!
Ding!
Seeing the window Headshot almost wanted to cry.
“Congratulations.” his party members one by one said, patting his back.
The party continued playing without the system assist, improving as time went on. At first, their efficiency dropped to 2-3 gnolls a minute, after an hour it was already 3-4 gnolls a minute. Two hours later, they were able to return to their previous peak, 5-6 gnolls a minute. As they practiced together, their record increased to 8 gnolls per minute.
“Alright guys, let’s wrap it up, we almost have all the symbols we need, I want to wear my baby staff!” Faura said with excitement. She was about to hit level 18 after handing over the quest.
Just looking at it filled Faura’s face with glee. “Alright, we’re handing over the quest. We’ll grab a bite in real life and then we’ll enter the dungeon! Let’s move!” Faura said with a smile. Night snacks tasted the best!
Loiterous 
Thanks for the chapter. It was interesting. ^^
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Welcome back and thanks for the chapter
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thankssssssss
It’s a bit perturbing how icicle starts the chapter by being in a big battle against sentient monsters without us knowing the background/reason for that.
however the part with the “friends”, learning to play without assist is fun.
I’m not really sure of the control they gain… less mana + can chose reduced str/mana so does adequate damage : 75 when need 75 instead of using 100 when needs 75 ?
however what is the real use of that ? I thought the damages were in their 10-50 range, while HP was about 500-2000.. meaning “not-consuming a full 50 at the end of the fight” is not really meaningful.
Maybe I missed something.
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Every point counts when you only have 300 of them. Besides, this can be used as a scare tactic, your enemies might count your mana resorvoir by focusing on proper spell’s mana cost. Having control over the spell proves useful in such situations.
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what I meant is : gaining 10% every time is great (or even 5% or even 1%, maybe)…. but gaining 5% or even 50% on “last-hitting-spell”.. doesn’t have much value… especially in PvP.
it only has value if you kill dozens/hundreds of mobs… in that case the small gains can add up. And give an edge inhunting
but even here it’s not necessarily a real gain, unless your spells can kill the mob in less than 4 spells. (if you need dozens of hit per kill, you’ll get 20-50% gain on 1 hit every 20-40-100 hits… not really much even for hunting)
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I agree, but you can still use your mana conservedly in a party, while pretending to cast real spells. There are a few twists to that. What I meant by this control of spells hasn’t yet been revealed. You’ll see what Icicle does with it later.
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I’ll be waiting…. with shiny eyes (It’ll be interesting ..)
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This thing about turning off the system and be able to use the spells yourseft even to a lower cost of mana is very important. Sometimes after some fight the enemy will be to weak that a attack that use 50 mana will be too much, why to bother to use 50 mana when the damage of 40 will be enought? if you do this way you can save mana in order to fight longer, the same with the CC effects, you can even use their shortest effect in order to do cordinate attacks better with you team party that way you can make powerful combos that stop the enemy of trying to retalie.
By turning off the sisten you can also control better the Area of Effect of the spells. Also there you have headshot who found a new skill.
The fact that the damage is slower was just because they didn’t fully understand how to use mana at the bening but once they practique and by using the max amount of mana necesary they can fight like they didn’t turned off the sistem and just using less mana when they find it convenient.
The bad point is that it need more of their concentration, they can suffer mental fatique faster and that if the concentration got broken for something they can either waste mana or have their spells explote as it has happened in this chapter, but the system support off was a feature of the hard mode Icicle experimented, it has to be hard for some reason. still they’ll get used to it eventually.
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