HMLU Ch 1
by soapaIf you set foot on Asyrus again, I’ll be Otan’s footstool!
The character name input window appeared. Without hesitation, I typed in “Otan’sFootstool.” I couldn’t bring myself to press the confirm button. Otan, the little shit, betrayed the Copyban tribe that had taken him in and raised him. He stole the village’s treasure and sold it to the demons. No matter how messed up I was being, remembering the image of the small, cute, and fluffy Copyban grandmother sobbing made it impossible for me to use such a name.
More importantly, I had… once again chosen Druid. Among all the classes in Asyrus, Druid is the undisputed king of crappy characters. It’s not just unpopular; it’s completely deserted. Seriously. So few people play it that even the quest details are largely unknown. So, if a new Druid character shows up with “Otan’s something” in their name, someone would definitely figure it out. —Isn’t that NicknameMuhum?
[NicknameMuhum]
…was the name I used when I first started this cursed game. When prompted to choose a character name, I typed in everything I could think of, but they were all taken. Frustrated, I typed in gibberish, and that’s how the disaster began. I figured I could change the nickname later. That’s when I started underestimating this godforsaken game….
This game doesn’t allow nickname changes. They don’t even sell a cash item for it. They claim it’s to prevent abuse, but I think they just messed up the server development so badly that it’s hard to implement the system. There’s no way these money-grubbing bastards wouldn’t sell nickname changes and server transfers unless that was the case….
That’s right, no nickname changes and no server transfers… which means if your game life is ruined, the only option is to delete your character.
And my game life was ruined three months ago.
If you ask me how it happened, I first have to explain why Druid is a trash-tier class.
This damned game, or rather, 『Asyrus of Fortune』—commonly known as “AOF”—has eight classes and eight attributes. After choosing a class, players gain points to level up their desired attributes. The combination of attributes determines the available skill trees and quests.
Druid is a class that can tame and summon animals, monsters, and named creatures found on the continent of Asyrus. Therefore, they mainly use ‘Magic’ and ‘Nature’ out of the eight attributes—Holy, Dark, Physical, Magic, Agility, Defense, Science, and Nature.
The essential attributes and common skill trees for each class can be easily found on the AOF community site. The intuitive attribute names make it easy to figure things out on your own. For example, Clerics, who can resurrect or heal dead party members, focus on ‘Holy’ and ‘Magic,’ while Warlocks, who wield spellbooks written in demon blood, choose ‘Dark’ and ‘Magic.’
The problem is that ‘Nature,’ the essential attribute for Druids, requires an insane amount of… unbelievable… utterly mind-boggling grinding.
Some might argue that grinding in a game isn’t really grinding. But this is the kind of grind that clearly wasn’t even beta-tested by the developers. For example, the Tier 1 promotion quest for ‘Nature’ is as follows:
[Craft 100 flower crowns for Copyban babies]
The process goes like this:
- Obtain ‘Spring Sprouts’ from the summit of Mount Kamt, adjacent to the Copyban village.
For the record, Mount Kamt is a solo dungeon, and reaching the summit requires defeating the final boss. The first time I went, it took five hours to clear.
- Plant the obtained ‘Spring Sprouts’ at the village entrance and water them once a day for three days, after which they bloom into ‘Spring Flowers.’
- Carefully weave the ‘Spring Flowers’ into a crown.
- Repeat this process one hundred times.
The Mount Kamt dungeon isn’t particularly difficult, but it’s incredibly long and filled with countless mobs. After clearing that grindfest of a dungeon for several hours, planting sprouts, going back in to get more sprouts, watering the planted sprouts, planting the new sprouts…
Again, this is a Tier 1 quest. Most players switch to a different class after clearing Mount Kamt once. Of course, in the early days, some players persevered through all these atrocious quests, steadily raising their tiers. Naturally, they had this mindset:
[What amazing skill are they going to give me for all this trouble?]
Hard work deserves a fitting reward. That’s the unspoken rule of all games that exploit the human reward system to encourage addictive gameplay. Then, the day finally came when someone reached Nature Tier 10. The AOF community was ablaze with anticipation, wondering what would happen. And so, the first Tier 10 Druid, brimming with confidence, opened the final skill tree…
And promptly abandoned the Copyban village that very day.
The post that appeared on the community forum that day was as follows:
Name: MyAOFisMyLife
Title: 15 Months to Reach Druid Nature 10, 15 Seconds to Delete Character
Content: LOLOLOLOL WTF I was all excited thinking what awesome skill Nature Tier 10 would be ドキドキ But
It’s Petting
True Story
—Comment List—
BuffGunslinger: ??
Demon’sMinion: ???
SpicyBeanSoup: ??? What’s Petting?
└MyAOFisMyLife: It’s an animation where you pet your summon’s head lol
└SpicyBeanSoup: ?? Is it a buff? What kind of buff?
└MyAOFisMyLife: Nope, no buff or anything, it’s just an animation, that’s it.
Name: SpicyBeanSoup
Title: Wait, what do you mean the Tier 10 unlock skill is an animation?
Content: What do you mean~~~
How can such a trash class exist? How is that even possible?
—Comment List—
SoupSlurpingCleric: He said the Tier 10 quest alone took him 3 months, I would’ve cried.
└SpicyBeanSoup: I offer my condolences to the future of Druids…
Name: ISawItWithMyOwnTwoEyes
Title: Druid Tier 10 skill isn’t Petting
Content: To be precise, it’s a kiss.
If you pet them, the summon gives you a kiss.
—Comment List—
BuffGunslinger: So what buff does it give?
BuffGunslinger: What’s the buff?
BuffGunslinger: Buff what?
└ISawItWithMyOwnTwoEyes: LOLOLOLOLOL Did you pick Nature?
└BuffGunslinger: Yeah, shit, my alt is a Druid, just about to finish the Tier 3 final quest…
└Demon’sMinion: Must’ve seen the Baby Copyban Flower Crown event then, isn’t that enough Druid payoff?
Name: SoupSlurpingCleric
Title: Anyone who picks Druid in the first place is a scrub lol
Content: Godly Cleric doesn’t party with scrubsㅇㅅㅇ
If the Druid had been even remotely usable before reaching Tier 10, it wouldn’t have caused such an uproar. But the Druid’s role was an awkward “support DPS” (their main job was to grab aggro from mobs with their summons), their damage was underwhelming, and their synergy wasn’t particularly great. On top of that, they had a lot of skills to manage and had to control their summons, making it a busy class.
So, the few early adopters who had been diligently grinding, lured by the developers’ bullshit claim that <‘Nature’ is an attribute that requires constant meditation and training to commune with the world and attain enlightenment, so the quest difficulty cannot be lowered>, started to believe that ‘it must become a god-tier class at Tier 10!’
As a result, when the first player to reach Tier 10 unlocked the skill “Pet your summon to receive a kiss,” everyone understandably flipped out.
From that day on, the few Druids dedicated to grinding vanished from Asyrus like fumigated rats. Occasionally, clueless new players would appear, but they usually made the same choice as their predecessors once they realized no party would accept a Druid.
That’s right… In an MMORPG like AOF, being excluded from parties is a death sentence. You can’t even level up….
So why did a latecomer like me choose a class that had already been nailed into its coffin and buried? Because I heard that the Druid quest scenario writer was Im Jungah.
Im Jungah is a first-generation fantasy novelist I loved as a child. After a prolific career writing outstanding novels, she disappeared 15 years ago, her last blog post stating that “my child is ill and I need to focus on their treatment.” For a while, I visited her blog, leaving comments urging her to write a new book and writing guest book entries wishing her unknown child good health. Then I forgot about her… until I saw an ad for 『Asyrus of Fortune』 on the portal site’s main page while preparing to return to university after my military service.
—The fantastic adventure and love story of 『The Iseah Chronicles』, brought to you by Im Jungah!—
At the time, “AOF” was in its second year, and Im Jungah had written the stories for two of the eight classes: the tank ‘Shadow Warrior’ and the support DPS ‘Druid.’ The ‘Shadow Warrior’ Darkbear race was, as the name suggests, a giant black bear, wielding dark attributes due to living in the demonic forest. I found the image of a huge, menacing-looking bear lumbering around with a greatsword somewhat off-putting, so I chose ‘Druid’ instead, and that was the beginning.
“I really messed up from the start…”
Reflecting on past mistakes, I refocused on the monitor. The character creation window blinked mockingly. All Druids were human, and the gender was fixed as male. The race already had the most limited customization options, and on top of that, there was a gender restriction… The more I thought about it, the more I suspected the developer who embezzled the money was a Druid main. Of course, he probably switched classes a long time ago.
I tried my best to create a look that differed from “NicknameMuhum” within the limited options. I even minimized the height to avoid standing out. After roughly setting the appearance, the time for agonizing over the name returned. Nickname, nickname… Lost in thought, I opened an internet window and typed in the AOF community address my fingers remembered. The familiar end-of-life MMO logo appeared.
I needed a nickname that was utterly unremarkable and wouldn’t get flagged as a duplicate. That’s why I typed “nickname” into the forum’s search bar. I was curious to see what other people were using.
Title: Did NicknameMuhum really delete his character? ㄷㄷ
That’s all it took. I swear I never expected to see this post on the first page.
Content: Selling an alt account, NicknameMuhum is available;
Nickname changes still not a thing, right? So did he really delete it?
—Comment List—
GodAOF: Really??? So how did you do it? Did you create it?
└PolyMoly: Y… yeah, I did it without even thinking.
└GodAOF: Don’t you have to wait three months after deleting a character to create one with the same name? So he deleted it right then?
└PolyMoly: Crazy… I thought he’d just switch guilds and reappear, but I guess he really deleted it, what a ruthless bastard, how could he abandon a triple Tier 10 character, especially with Nature 10?
└Rogue’sEnemy: Triple Tier 10?? Nature 10, Magic 10, sure, but what’s the third one?
└PolyMoly: Holyㅇㅇ
└Rogue’sEnemy: Why would a Druid get Holy??
└PolyMoly: Check the Druid board’s posts from last year, there’s a skill tree guide NicknameMuhum made for a triple Holy-Magic-Nature build. Basically, if you get Holy-Nature-Magic Tier 10 and complete a specific quest that opens up, you can get a Druid-exclusive resurrection.
└Rogue’sEnemy: Why would a Druid get resurrection??
└PolyMoly: Are you new? Don’t you know NicknameMuhum?
└Rogue’sEnemy: I know NicknameMuhum, but yeah, I’m new.
└PolyMoly: >Link
Name: Rogue’sEnemy
Title: What’s this Druid Resurrection?????
Content: Saw the link another user posted earlier, it’s the Gaius world first clear video
At 51:45, is that the Druid resurrection where he raises 14 people at once? Really? Isn’t that OP?
If Druids can do that, why are they a trash class??
—Comment List—
PolyMoly: Because NicknameMuhum is the only one who can do it…
PolyMoly: Also, don’t think of it as a normal resurrection… The Druid temporarily puts people in a tamed state.
PolyMoly: So it’s not resurrecting them, it’s raising their corpses and making their limbs move.
PolyMoly: Which means NicknameMuhum had to control all those people.
└Rogue’sEnemy: What the hell are you talking about, dude?
└PolyMoly: >Link
<Druid Board>
Name: NicknameMuhum
Title: Sharing Druid Holy Tier 10 Skill Tree
Content: Hello. Many of you have been curious about how I was able to resurrect the entire party during the Gaius clear, so I’ll briefly explain.
First, the most common question was, can Druids even get resurrection?
To be precise, it’s not resurrection, but a kind of taming skill obtained through the <Vishnu’s Call> quest, which becomes available upon simultaneously reaching Holy Tier 10 + Nature Tier 10 + Magic Tier 10.
Many of you are probably familiar with the Nature Tier 10 skill <Communion>.
It’s the skill where you summon a creature, pet its head, and receive a kiss.
This skill can only be used once per real-time day. At first, I wondered what the point of this skill was, since nothing seemed to change immediately and the cooldown was ridiculously long… but while leveling Holy for buff synergy, I thought, what the heck, and leveled it to 10, and this is what I got.
To briefly explain:
- A summon that has undergone <Communion> becomes ‘one with’ the Druid.
- A summon in this ‘one with’ state can be spiritualized at the Druid’s command.
- By possessing a party member’s corpse with this spiritualized summon, the party member can be raised.
- Since it’s the summon’s soul inhabiting the corpse, all control falls to the Druid. However, the summon’s soul automatically avoids AOE attacks like ground effects, so the control itself isn’t difficult.
I’m attaching a screenshot taken at the time. As you can see, the available skill windows for each party member appear around the edges of the screen. You just have to press them like a rhythm game.
Lastly, there seems to be a surge of interest in Druids these days… Although the Nature tier quests, essential for Druids, are notoriously difficult, I believe the beautiful and compelling story alone is worth the effort. Furthermore, by combining various skill trees, Druids can demonstrate sufficient capability as both damage dealers and supporters.
If you have any further questions, please send me a message or leave a comment.
Thank you.
So this post was still here… I rested my chin on my left hand and stared at the screen for a long time. Back then, the community was buzzing with discussions on “Are Druids actually a god-tier class?” I was so excited about finally shedding the “trash class” label. Now, it only brought a sigh.
I should have deleted all my posts and comments, but I deleted my account in a fit of rage, so now I couldn’t even do that. Clicking my mouse, I scrolled down. The first few dozen comments were nothing but question marks.
PolyMoly: So you’re saying you soloed the last 5 minutes of Gaius?
PolyMoly: You single-handedly controlled 15 people’s skills with perfect timing and killed it?
└NicknameMuhum: Strictly speaking, it wasn’t a solo effort. My summons helped a lot.
PofuriPuri: Don’t you have any video recordings? Honestly, I can’t believe it.
└NicknameMuhum: I don’t have any recordings from the Gaius raid, but I’ll try to record it if I get a chance in a dungeon later.
StrawberryWatermelonAndDurian: Do you have three hands by any chance?
└NicknameMuhum: You’ll see if you try it, two hands are enough.
JjamongMan: NicknameMuhum, could you please organize a guide for the Holy tier quests?
└NicknameMuhum: There are many good guides on the Cleric board. >Link
└JjamongMan: I know, but I’m curious how you managed to reach Holy Tier 10 in a monthㅠㅠ It usually takes at least three months.
└NicknameMuhum: I leveled Holy bit by bit while leveling my essential attributes, so it’s hard to say exactly how long it took. I think it probably took around that long to focus on raising it from Tier 5 to 10.
Seeing how I diligently responded to every single comment, even the pointless ones, I must have been really happy back then. It was understandable. I had been treated like a weirdo and a burden ever since I started the game, so I was filled with the hope that people would finally recognize the true value of Druids. I thought I could finally say goodbye to the guild leader who constantly lorded it over me, making a big show of letting me join raids.
Humans are so foolish…
“Sigh…”
I closed the internet window, and the character creation screen reappeared. The small, plain-faced human character stared blankly at me, one hand holding a wooden staff while standing with legs crossed.
I did consider playing a Darkbear, a ‘Shadow Warrior.’ I wanted to experience the story written by Im Jungah, so I even leveled one as an alt to a certain extent. The problem was that tanking really wasn’t my thing… I think the type of people who choose tanks in these kinds of games are a specific breed. And I’m not one of them.
More importantly—although not as bad as Druids—Darkbears are also pretty crappy. They’re easy to control, but their offense and defense stats are extremely unbalanced due to their racial settings, so they’re less popular than Paladins, the standard tanks. Especially at higher raid levels, they’re often outright rejected. I didn’t want to play a class that I wasn’t good at and that no one wanted in their party.
So, after going around in circles, I was back to Druid.
“……”
Lost in thought, I placed my hands on the keyboard. In MMORPGs, there’s a tendency for a character’s coolness to be inversely proportional to the player’s skill. It would be perfect if I looked like a newbie who prioritized style over substance. While pondering what name to use, my eyes fell on the cover of the thesis I had printed out for proofreading.
『The Operating Principles of Meritocracy in a Credentialist Society Focusing on Michael Sandel’s Critique』
My fingers, resting listlessly on the keyboard, began to move slowly. Meritocracy. I clicked the confirm button, and a pop-up appeared immediately.
《Are you sure you want to choose “Meritocracy”?》
I pressed the confirm button, and the loading screen appeared. The video of the Copyban grandmother lovingly caring for the human child abandoned on Mount Kamt always brought tears to my eyes. Copybans are an animal race with adults reaching a little over 1 meter in height, and as their name suggests, they resemble capybaras. With their fluffy, wheat-colored fur, round black eyes, and pink noses, they were utterly adorable.
After practically getting sucked into the video and sniffling, my phone buzzed briefly. I picked it up absentmindedly and immediately frowned. It was the former guild leader.
[JangDdo: Haemin]
[JangDdo: Can we talk… ㅜㅜ]
What a shameless bastard. He has the nerve to contact me… I blocked him and returned my attention to the screen. The Druid story begins with Otan’s betrayal. ‘Otan’ is a human child abandoned on Mount Kamt, just like the protagonist. Blinded by greed, he steals the Copyban village’s treasure, a ginkgo branch, and sells it to the demons. As a result, the demonic energy suppressed by the ginkgo branch’s holy power runs rampant across Mount Kamt, shattering the peace of the Copyban village.
The protagonist declares that he will leave the village to retrieve the ginkgo branch, and the Copybans, worried, try to dissuade him. To the Copybans, who live more than twice as long as humans, the protagonist is just a young, vulnerable child. Defying the Copybans’ protection and objections, the Druid’s main questline revolves around proving himself as an adventurer and finding the traitor, Otan.
In short, Otan is a piece of trash, and the Copybans are angels. Despite being constantly injured and sick due to the monsters now infesting Mount Kamt, the Copybans never blame Otan. They comfort the enraged protagonist, saying:
—Child, both you and Otan are just newborn beasts. Newborn beasts only know how to open their mouths when they smell milk. It is our fault for placing something they should not have touched before them.
The Druid story delicately portrays the conflict between the Copybans’ transcendental gentleness and the protagonist’s human flaws. Moreover, the Tier 10 quest, where the Druid fully embraces the Copyban philosophy and comes to understand the world, is nothing short of a perfect epic. And people call Druids a trash class after seeing that touching story? Well, what hope is there for those ungrateful wretches who can’t understand the Copyban ideals of peace? If they had any human decency, Asyrus would already be ruled by Druids.
I quickly finished the tutorial and clicked on the starting quest. A cute Copyban grandmother wearing an apron looked at me with a worried expression.
—Meritocracy, if you truly wish to leave the village, please ease my worries first. The capital is very, very far away. Go to the nearby port city and buy some medicine for seasickness.
It was the quest to unlock the first city. ‘Meritocracy,’ clad in basic robes and wielding a simple wooden staff, trudged towards the village docks. With a low character level and no attribute tiers, the only offensive skill available was throwing stones.
As I boarded the ship, a cutscene played, showing the character’s awestruck expression at the bustling port city. Of course, ‘Liolea,’ the herb city that appeared after the cutscene ended, was desolate. Naturally. Only newbies came here, and this dead game had no newbies.
I quickly finished the quest and looked around the town. Past the basic item shop, I saw a field with low-level monsters. I think I could kill level 1 mobs with stone throwing. As I was considering killing a few, a large, dark shadow caught my eye in the distance.
“……?”
I turned the screen and saw a Darkbear in basic armor diligently swinging its sword. Could that be a newbie? Well, it had to be a newbie to pick a black bear… Intrigued, I stealthily approached. The black bear was desperately using basic attacks against a rat that was dodging between its feet. Most of the attacks missed.
…He was definitely a newbie. A very fresh one at that. I moved a little closer and placed my hands on the keyboard.
Meritocracy: Hey
Meritocracy: Use DoT
The Black Bear didn’t react. He just kept swinging his sword diligently. Was he botting? The thought crossed my mind, but I quickly dismissed it. Who would bot in this dead game? I moved even closer and jumped up and down in front of the Black Bear.
Meritocracy: Use your DoT damage
Meritocracy: It melts rats in one hit
The Black Bear finally stopped. It seemed he finally registered the chat. A rat ambitiously headbutted the momentarily paused Black Bear. They were both low-level, but Dark Bears are tanks, so this kind of attack shouldn’t… shouldn’t deal damage?!
I hurriedly clicked on the Black Bear, whose health had been halved in one hit, and cast a healing spell. It was one of the basic skills given to Druids initially, and the reason I bothered to spec into the Holy tier was because of this basic skill.
After putting out the fire, I looked again and saw that what the Black Bear was fighting wasn’t just a rat, but a “Strange Rat.” If I remember correctly, there was an early Dark Bear quest to find and kill a rat corrupted by magic. For a regular mob, its attack power was quite strong, so you had to use your shield properly to kill it.
It didn’t look like this Black Bear would be able to handle it alone. As I fumbled, trying to at least throw a rock, a chat message popped up.
Kkamamgom: What’s a D0T?!
Kkamamgom: ㅠㅠ
Hmm… The fresh scent of a newbie, like a fish just pulled from a deep-sea trawler… How fragrant.
Meritocracy: If you haven’t touched anything else
Meritocracy: It should be F2
Meritocracy: Click on the rat’s feet and use it
Kkamamgom: F2
Meritocracy: No;;
Meritocracy: Not in the chat window
Meritocracy: Press the F2 key on your keyboard
Only then did the Black Bear raise his sword high and stomp his foot! At the same time, the rat squeaked and began to writhe. It was “Endless Agony,” one of the basic Shadow Warrior skills. Upon casting, all mobs within range are afflicted with a status ailment that continuously drains their HP. It’s useless in raids, but it’s ridiculously overpowered at low levels. You can coast to level 10 with just this skill.
Meritocracy: You have the ‘Finishing Blow’ skill on F3, right? If you use it when a mob’s HP is below 25%, it’s a guaranteed critical hit. Press it now.
The Black Bear roared, “Wooaaah!” and swung his sword wide. Boom! With a flashy explosion effect, the rat let out a death shriek.
Kkamamgom: Whoa!!!
Kkamamgom: I got him!!!
The excited Black Bear spun around and danced in place. He doesn’t know how to use any skills, but he’s learned the emotes perfectly… Amused and slightly charmed, I typed a few “kekekes” in response.
Kkamamgom: Thank you for helping(^^)(__)
…What are these ancient emoticons…? I unconsciously scanned the diligently dancing Black Bear up and down. His game comprehension is severely lacking, is he maybe a little older? Well, whatever, it doesn’t matter.
Meritocracy: Is this your first time playing this game?
Kkamamgom: Yes!!
Kkamamgom: I made the ID a long time ago, but this is my first time playing ㅇ(^^)ㅇ
Kkamamgom: But I kept dying to rats and couldn’t progress T_T
At that, I clicked on his character and opened the information window. I sighed as soon as I saw it. He must have died in the field and resurrected in town multiple times, as his experience points were a bright red negative.
Meritocracy: You lose a lot of EXP when you resurrect in town
Meritocracy: Next time, ask someone passing by for a res
Kkamamgom: Okay!!
Kkamamgom: But what’s a res??
Meritocracy: Resurrection. It revives you
Meritocracy: Clerics will usually do it, and healers usually charge, but if you say you’re a newbie, they’ll probably help
Kkamamgom: Oh, I see!! Thank you
Meritocracy: You’re welcome. Have fun
I waved slightly and turned away. The fresh newbie was tempting, but I didn’t intend to entertain him for long. I wasn’t sure how long I’d keep playing myself. I didn’t want to pick up a newbie and then disappear on him.
But the Black Bear started trailing behind me. It wasn’t even the direction back to town. I stopped and looked back, and he stopped too.
Meritocracy: Why?
Kkamamgom: Huh?
Meritocracy: The dock to Dark Bear Forest is the other way
Kkamamgom: Really?? ㅠㅠ
The Black Bear immediately turned and lumbered off in the opposite direction. I stood still, watching him go. Sure enough, he passed the point where he should have turned towards the sea and continued straight into the field.
Meritocracy: Hey
Meritocracy: Where the ground color changes
Meritocracy: If you go past that, the mob levels get higher
Meritocracy: You’ll die in one hit
I ended up trotting after him and explaining, to which he tilted his head. By now, I was getting a sense of what type he was. There’s the type who presses every character motion as soon as they start the game. They’re usually casual players.
Meritocracy: See the map in the upper right corner of the screen?
Meritocracy: You have to go towards the ferry icon there
Kkamamgom: The map??
The Black Bear suddenly made a motion like he was unfolding a map. …Maybe he’s just a normal immersive type. Anyway, he seemed to have succeeded in finding the map, as he soon displayed an exclamation point above his head.
Kkamamgom: Whoa!! There’s something like this
Kkamamgom: Thank you!! Meritocracy, you know everything
He then bounced in place and gave me a thumbs-up. He was so innocently cheerful that I wondered if he was a child.
Meritocracy: Is this your first RPG?
Kkamamgom: ??
Meritocracy: Is this the first time you’ve ever played a game like this?
Kkamamgom: Oh!! Yes
Kkamamgom: This is my first time playing a game!!
Ah, as I thought. He must be an elementary school kid. I took my hand off the mouse for a moment and scratched my head. By this point, my interest had waned.
Helping newbies is fun for veteran players, but the newbies we usually want aren’t complete beginners. Simply put, we want newbies who “have a certain level of game understanding, but are new to this game”… or, as they say, experienced beginners… So, we’re looking for party member candidates who will grow quickly with a little help and run raids and daily quests with us, not someone who’s never even played an MMORPG before. That’s too much work.
As I didn’t reply, the Black Bear started circling my character. He seems like a nice kid… I sighed after some deliberation.
Oh well. I’m free this month anyway…
Meritocracy: Hmm… well
Meritocracy: Follow me
Meritocracy: Let’s go to the training grounds
The Black Bear then threw his hands up in the air.
Kkamamgom: Okay!!!
Seeing the Black Bear making a heart with his fingertips above his head, I was filled with regret, but the milk was already spilled.
🕹️
There’s a skill training ground for newbies in the heart of Riolea. It’s a place that teaches you the very basics, so I wondered if anyone really needed it, and here he was. Kkamamgom had been struggling for over 20 minutes with a simple mission: guard when the “Red-Tailed Mouse” jumps.
Meritocracy: Press Q when it squeaks and jumps
Meritocracy: You’re failing because you’re pressing it too late
Kkamamgom: ㅠ
Kkamamgom: ᅟᅲᆸㅂㅂㅂㅂㅂ
Meritocracy: Turn off the chat;
My kind explanations were of little use. Well, that can happen if you’re not used to polygonal actions. I sat my character down and carefully observed the struggling Black Bear.
His items consisted solely of the basic armor given after completing the tutorial and a “Rusty Greatsword.” Because he had all his character information public, I could see everything from his items and level to his tiers. For Black Bears, it’s “Darkness” and “Defense,” right? If he could at least raise Defense to Tier 1, he’d be better off…
“Huh?”
Lost in thought, I let out a dumbfounded sound without realizing it. But even after rubbing my eyes and looking again, the absurd text remained.
“Nature Tier 2?”
In the empty tier window, only “Nature” was at Tier 2. I stared blankly before reaching a rational conclusion. It must be a bug.
“….”
But I was too curious. I couldn’t stand it. In the end, I killed the rat that had been diligently attacking the Black Bear by throwing rocks and trotted over to him.
Meritocracy: Hey
Meritocracy: Did you spec into Nature?
Kkamamgom: Whoa!! Thank you for killing it for me
Kkamamgom: But what’s Nature tier?
There it is. It doesn’t make sense unless it’s a bug. The Tier 1 Circlet quest is fine, but the Tier 2 quest’s clear condition is <Collect 1,000 Teeth of the Old Hyena>. Hyenas are common monsters in the field, but only hyenas that have survived for a long time without being attacked by users become Old Hyenas.
In other words, it’s impossible to complete unless other users happen to be wiping out hyenas in the field. Therefore, it was practically a PK quest, requiring you to kill users aiming for the hyenas. The developers’ deep intention to make players ponder their identity as mediators in the face of the paradox of protecting hyenas to kill hyenas… was bullshit. Thinking about it again makes me want to burn down their headquarters…
Anyway, it’s not a quest a beginner can do. Maybe I’m just seeing things. To confirm, I typed again.
Meritocracy: Hey, wait a minute
Meritocracy: Open your tier window
Meritocracy: F12 key
The Black Bear paused for a moment. Then, he displayed a speech bubble above his head.
Kkamamgom: It’s open!
Meritocracy: What does your screen look like?
Kkamamgom: Uh
Kkamamgom: It says things like Holy, Darkness
Kkamamgom: And there’s a green bar next to Nature
“….”
A bug that shows up even on his own screen? I tilted my head unconsciously.
Meritocracy: Is there a sparkling icon next to that bar?
Kkamamgom: Yes!
Meritocracy: Click on it and tell me what happens
Kkamamgom: Uh… It says ‘Acquire Concealment?’
‘Concealment’? I became even more confused. The Nature Tier 1 reward is the DoT skill “Persistent Bleeding,” and the Tier 2 reward is “Bait,” which increases taming probability. I’ve never heard of a skill called ‘Concealment.’
Meritocracy: Is there no description?
Kkamamgom: There is!
Kkamamgom: It says, ‘Can conceal an ally within your wide embrace.’
Unsure how to interpret this, I scratched the back of my head. It’s not uncommon for tier rewards to differ by race. However, it’s usually just a different name or effect for a similar skill; I’ve never seen a completely different skill appear.
‘Ally’ must mean a party member, right? After some thought, I sent a party invitation to the Black Bear.
Meritocracy: Acquire the skill and
Meritocracy: Try using it on me
A lush green effect, indicative of acquiring a Nature tier reward, appeared around the Black Bear. …Well, it wouldn’t be strange not to know about this kind of thing. Normally, any sane user wouldn’t spec into Nature as a tank…
He strode over and suddenly lifted my character up. A long, faint cloak flowed from the shoulders of the Black Bear, who had tucked the human, only as tall as his waist, under his arm. My character was also semi-transparently obscured, but not invisible. I rested my chin in my hand and pondered the strange sight. What kind of skill is this…?
“….”
The skill name is Concealment. Can conceal a party member in their embrace. Conceal. Conceal a party member… Then, something flashed through my mind.
Meritocracy: Hey
Meritocracy: Can you go to Copyban Village with me for a second?
My heart pounded, and my palms started to sweat. Kkamamgom replied, “Okay!!” without a hint of suspicion and followed me closely.
As soon as we arrived at the entrance to Kamt Mountain, I told the Black Bear to use ‘Concealment’ again. He dutifully tucked my character under his arm and strode towards the dungeon entrance. A short warning popup appeared at the same time.
《This is a solo dungeon. You cannot enter as a party.》
“Damn it… Figures.”
I rubbed my forehead and let out a disappointed sigh. I’d hoped it might be a skill that allows you to enter dungeons with party size limits. Of course, that would be too overpowered. I decided to just go back to the tutorial and turned my head, when the party window caught my eye. The crown icon, indicating the party leader, was next to my nickname. It was natural, since I’d created the party.
“….”
After a moment’s thought, I transferred party leadership to the Black Bear. Let’s try this one last time. No harm in trying.
Meritocracy: Try again
The Black Bear nodded and walked into the entrance with my character dangling from his side. Naturally, I didn’t have high expectations. That remained true even as the screen I was staring blankly at turned white.
However, when the dungeon’s BGM started playing, I could no longer feign indifference.
“Whoa…”
A short cutscene of Kamt Mountain’s monsters pouring out played, and the dungeon opened. Frozen in place with my mouth agape, I only typed frantically when I saw the Black Bear suddenly rush towards the monsters.
Meritocracy: Stop
Meritocracy: Don’t go
Meritocracy: Let’s go back out for now
I tried to sound calm, but my heart was racing. This works? Really?
Druid quests are generally characterized by tremendous grinding and insane difficulty, mostly because many are solo-only. Kamt Mountain is a prime example. The monsters here mostly die in one or two hits. The damage they deal is also minimal. The problem is their sheer number. That’s why it’s time-consuming and incredibly boring.
But to be able to enter here with a party member, and a tank no less?
And what if that tank is a Dark Bear with an overpowered low-level AoE DoT skill?
Meritocracy: Hey
The Black Bear, who had exited the dungeon, was circling my character. He seemed puzzled by my silence. I started typing and then paused, lost in thought. The fact that this guy has the ‘Nature’ tier is probably a bug. But a bug is only called a bug after it’s patched… which means I can exploit it until then.
More importantly, who would know about this bug if I kept my mouth shut?
Meritocracy: Uh…
I have to snag this guy. I need to teach him diligently and become friends. I repeatedly stopped myself from rushing to the keyboard. He might get suspicious if I’m too eager. Slowly, as if I have nothing to gain, I have to pretend I’m just helping out of goodwill…
Meritocracy: Will you marry me?
The lumbering Black Bear stopped short. I facepalmed. I couldn’t help it. I was too impatient. It’s like a winning lottery ticket… maybe not the jackpot, but at least second prize.
Meritocracy: If you get married in the game, you get an EXP buff when you’re partied
Meritocracy: We’re both low-level right now
Meritocracy: Neither of us will lose anything
Meritocracy: I’ll help you a lot with leveling
I added various excuses belatedly, but the Black Bear didn’t react. Did I screw up? As I anxiously watched him, he suddenly displayed a lightbulb above his head.
Kkamamgom: Ohhh
Kkamamgom: Oh, in the game? Like, our characters?
Would I be asking you to marry me outside the game? I swallowed the sarcastic retort and forced a smile.
Meritocracy: Yes, yes, our characters, haha
Meritocracy: RPGs often use the marriage system for buffs and EXP
Meritocracy: It’s not weird at all
Kkamamgom: How do you do it?
Meritocracy: Shall we do it now?
Meritocracy: brb
As soon as I hit enter, I quickly opened the cash shop screen. That’s right, this game requires real-world money to get married. Therefore, it’s a system rarely used unless you’re a hardcore player in an online relationship. (Also, it’s a monthly occurrence to see forum posts about someone getting dumped by their online partner who then ghosted with the ring money.)
Fortunately, I had exactly enough cash left over from a forgotten top-up. I bought two “Vows Rings” for 4,900 won each, and as soon as I received them, I gave one to the Black Bear. I was impatient.
Meritocracy: Right-click after you receive it and
Meritocracy: There’s a place to enter your spouse’s name
Meritocracy: Just type my name there
Kkamamgom: Okay
《’Kkamamgom’ pledges eternal love to you. Do you accept?》
I skimmed over the cringe-inducing sentence with blurry eyes and pressed the confirm button. A pink heart effect spread like a haze, and Kkamamgom’s nickname turned light pink.
Kkamamgom: Whoa
Kkamamgom: Cool!!
The Black Bear roared and jumped up and down. Trying to suppress the corners of my mouth from twitching upwards, I checked the additional effects one by one. To be honest, it was my first time getting married in-game too, so I didn’t know much about it.
“I can see his real-time location.”
Apparently, clicking the “Spouse” tab added to the character information window shows the other person’s current location and past login history. A sense of accomplishment filled me as I gained this legitimate stalking system. Alright. Now this shuttle… no, this bear is mine.
“….”
But of course, there’s something I need to do first.
Meritocracy: Alright, then
Meritocracy: Let’s go back to training
I had to make him function as a tank before I could use him as a leveling shuttle. The Black Bear casually followed me as I turned around. Visually, it looked like a small human being chased by a predator sizing up its prey, but even the sway of his spine looked adorable to me.