Chapter 144
The victory structure of World of Arseria can be briefly described in three stages.
Capture checkpoints, defeat neutral bosses, and finally destroy Yggdrasil.
You have to capture specific checkpoints to keep pushing forward the respawn locations of your allies and allied NPCs.
You also have to defeat neutral NPCs that provide beneficial buffs to your allies or can join your side. The last hit always determined the result.
And even if you failed at every other step, you could still win simply by destroying the enemy's Yggdrasil, making for a structure that was both complicated and simple.
To put it in the broadest possible terms, it was League of Legends with nonstop dragon team fights from the beginning, or Overwatch where you also had to farm gold and experience to grow stronger.
[Nocturne Nailink vs Crown Prince Friedrich]
[Map: Arseria Forest]
[Nocturne Nailink has joined your team.]
[Capture the checkpoint to secure the high ground.]
“N... Nocturne Nailink!”
“Whoa, who's this? They're so cute!”
“Yeah, I don't think we ever met them in the story.”
“My name is Nocturne Nailink...! Ah, we have to hurry! Looking at our team, it seems advantageous to capture Area A first. Would you follow me?”
Nocturne Nailink waved her arms through the air. She looked like she was frantically urging them on.
“What should we do? Is it standard to split up in pairs at the start?”
“Let's do that. Hey, you and I will go to Checkpoint B.”
“Yes, big bro.”
“Then, Archer, you come with me and follow the NPC.”
I naturally ended up paired with the mage boy.
Then that left Checkpoint C, I suppose.
“Healers don't synergize well with mages...”
“Why?”
“Ah... n-never mind! It's nothing...”
-Why's a first-game newbie whining so much
-Wow, this is seriously lewdㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ
└ For real, this is porn
-There are still newbies in this game?
-What is this team comp?
-Six first-timers against Plat and Diamond, this is insaneㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ
-Even if you tried to balance combat power, does this make any sense?
└ NoName suffering already is delicious!
-ㅋㅋㅋDid anyone manage to stream-snipe?
-Is that opponent Kariri's alt account?
└ What, it's actually them?
└ You think this is a coincidence?
└ This is 100% stream sniping.
We started sprinting toward Checkpoint C on the right.
The forest path squelched beneath our feet, as though it had soaked up the previous day's rain.
The seemingly endless forest abruptly came to an end, and our view opened wide.
A blue cube with nothing but ‘C’ written on it was floating in the sky.
“We'll run into the enemy soon. When I give the signal, you charge in first.”
“But I'm a mage. Oh, right, you're the healer...”
Groups of NPCs were already clashing in the clearing.
We seemed to have arrived at the checkpoint a little late, but not late enough to affect the game.
-This team comp is seriously bleakㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ
-You should always have at least one knight
-Since they're beginners, it would've been better for all six to go to A and secure at least one checkpoint
└ No no, send everyone to A and let NoName go to B alone and wipe them all out
└ ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ
└ It's even funnier because it somehow seems possibleㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ
The boy steadily defeated the NPCs for the time being.
He wasn't familiar with the concept of last hits yet, so gold was trickling away, but you always had to look at the game from the big picture.
I could sense the enemy, but they weren't showing themselves.
I suppose I had no choice but to play along with their scheme.
The boy and I entered Checkpoint C and raised its capture progress.
“Woohoo, got it!”
“Holy shit, it's really NoName! Wait, when did you clear the story? And what's with your combat power?”
An NPC frontline stood ahead of us, with men carrying axes and crossbows behind it.
They hadn't farmed any gold and had simply waited for us to arrive.
“What do we do now! We're melee against ranged, so we'll definitely die if they surround us!”
“I'm a healer, aren't I? You go out and fight.”
“Damn it, I don't know!”
“How long has it been since we got a newbie like this! We'll have NoName as the main course later, so stay right there!”
* * *
The sky was filled with soap bubbles.
Hot embers turned into sharp thorns and tried their best to pop the bubbles, but their numbers still didn't decrease, like a swarm of tadpoles released into a pond.
-The mage is fighting surprisingly well?
-It's not that he's fighting well, this isㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ
-What the hell, that healing amount!
[Basic Heal]
I hadn't realized it because I didn't use healing often in the story, but more healing wasn't necessarily better.
Just as you would inject the proper amount of mana into a magic circle, it was important to use the skill in proportion to the square root of the amount of HP lost.
Don't use it too often, and when you do, use just enough to restore the target's HP completely.
That was why the boy could stand there perfectly fine despite already shedding a lethal amount of blood—or soap bubbles.
“Maybe I'm secretly good at fighting!”
The boy, surrounded by soap bubbles, shouted. It was anything but a beautiful sight.
-ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ
-It's all thanks to NoName!
-The healing is fucking insane
-This is an endgame character! (the hopeful version)
-The game only started three minutes ago. How can the difference in stats already be this huge?
-Fucking brokenㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ
-No, the bubbles are blocking our vision way too much. Can't you just make them blood instead?
“Damn, he just won't die.”
“This won't do. Go for the healer first.”
Men came charging recklessly toward us. Since the combat power gap wasn't that large at the start of the game, they were trying to take us out.
Even if their movements looked obvious at a glance, they were already considering changing direction.
Oh? So you're going to give it your all, are you?
Since they knew my skill, their expressions were deadly serious the moment the fight began.
I drew my schiavona and split the charging group in two.
This was real player-versus-player combat—the psychological warfare between people that I could never fully experience in the story.
Who would attack first? Before I had time to think, an axe left an afterimage as it swept past my head.
“You dodged that...?”
In a fight against multiple opponents, you had to use the minimum amount of footwork. I drew my left foot back, ducked my body in one motion, and prepared to move.
Muscle memory from swinging the sword thousands of times a day took control of my arm.
A skyward slash that began at my waist and ended in the heavens.
A flash of blue lightning appeared, and a diagonal line was carved across the man's Adam's apple.
[Critical!]
The man, who had lost half his HP in a single blow, belatedly tried to pull away, but a hunter never let its prey escape.
The thrust that followed was stopped by the man's armor with a dull sound, but that was intentional. There was one more enemy.
I caught sight of the other opponent from the corner of my eye and tightened my grip as hard as I could.
I sent the man caught on the tip of my sword flying into the person beside him.
Then the schiavona spun once, and I delivered the final blow along the horizontal line it traced.
“You brought a crossbow into close combat?”
“But there's no other chance to see NoName up close...!”
-Is he crazyㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ
-This guy is seriously shameless
-I can't resist someone saying ‘I'm a fan’ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ
Slaaash-!
I sheathed the schiavona and helped heal the mage, who still hadn't stopped bleeding.
“Was that an alt account?”
“No, this is my main.”
“How can you be that good? And you're... a healer. How?”
One class couldn't use another class's skills. But at least there was no penalty, right?
If skills didn't work, then you used a basic attack that worked like a skill. Since it was difficult to explain in words, I placed my sword in his hands.
I stood close behind the boy and laid my hand over the one gripping the hilt.
“W-wait a second!”
“Close your eyes and take a deep breath. Then feel it—feel how your body moves.”
I corrected the position of his feet and bent his knees for him.
A sword wasn't something you swung, but something you harmonized with. Like holding a dog's leash, you had to let it run wild within the limits of your control.
Though I suppose everyone feels it differently.
[Kaizen-Style Wrist Slash]
[system: Mittlehauw check]
He wasn't a high enough level to create visible pressure in the air, but the soldiers along the path suffered critical wounds and collapsed. Gold jingled into my account.
I supplied all the force, but it was the boy's arm that trembled.
“Got it?”
The boy nodded. I popped the bubble stuck to his cheek.
This must be blood too, right? He'll mistake it for me wiping the blood off his face.
“We've taken C, so let's buy some items and meet up in the center. The objective is coming up soon.”
The boy became more obedient than before.
The shopkeeper sprang out of the ground as soon as the checkpoint was selected.
Since I had obtained a large amount of gold from the start, I bought a bunch of items focused entirely on attack power.
-Wait, you're not increasing spell power?
-You should go AP, not AD!
-You bought the wrong items!
“I think we need to go physical if we want to win this.”
The only two characters I had encountered at C were melee characters. And the difference in skill between our teammates and the enemy was bleakly enormous.
It was a reasonable choice, since it seemed likely that I would often have to fight personally.
[First Epic Boss: Rena Kailos]
A neutral NPC who provided shadow portals at locations advantageous to the allies.
Everyone had gathered to hunt her, but they all looked thoroughly cowed.
“Not just one death—two deaths each? Good grief!”
“They chased us all the way to our respawn point and camped us...! We couldn't help it!”
“At least we got C. But Nocturne has no HP left, so it looks like they can't fight this time.”
“Are they at full health?”
“Probably over 90%... They should be almost at full health by now.”
“So it's basically six versus seven.”
“But the enemies have been saying weird things this whole time, like, ‘Give us NoName!’, ‘Give our NoName back!’, and ‘We'll get revenge for NoName!’ It's terrifying.”
The boy's gaze turned toward me.
The others followed suit and checked the nickname floating above my head.
[NoName (Priest)]
“Let's go for now. We have to win the game.”
The moment they realized that the newbies had been getting savagely beaten because of me, each of them made a sour face.
“Are you some kind of celebrity?”
As we headed toward the objective, the dual-wielding rogue guy muttered. I didn't bother answering.
Since I hadn't used healing magic to conserve mana before the battle, soap bubbles clung all over their bodies.
[‘Save the Grad Student’ donated 1,000 won!]
-NoName, you can turn off censorship mode in the options! You should do that when you have time!
The viewers seemed bothered by it too. With battle approaching, I quickly manipulated the interface and opened the options menu.
[Options – Censorship – Bloodstains]
[Warning: Would you like to replace the soap bubbles with red blood?]
[This setting cannot be used by anyone under the age of 15.]
-?????
-???
-What the hell?
-?
-What the fuck?
“Oh, right...”
What should I do?
“I'm not old enough yet.”
The managers would later say that the stream had ground to a halt for a moment.