MMORPG: The Elementalist

In the remote, vacant confines of the Goblin Mines, Poochie was using a series of gestures to pantomime for Qin Ruo what it felt like to rocket up through its levels.

Level 9 in half an hour!

The most incredible thing was that, starting from Level 6, the Level 23 Goblin Warriors were no longer able to endure the alternating combination of basic attacks and Shadow Strikes—it only took four hits to put them down for good. There was no doubting the overwhelming close-combat prowess of the Shadowfox!

Besides that, throughout this whole process of leveling up, the most time was actually spent waiting for the Goblin Warriors to respawn. This happened once every two minutes, but wiping out all four of them only took Poochie twenty seconds! Even if you included the time spent recovering its MP to full, that still left a minute and a half.

This was driving Qin Ruo out of his mind—if there had been more monsters around the place, Poochie would already have moved way past Level 10… as things stood now, he was just numbly watching Poochie’s swishing tail and dancing legs in idle boredom.

When he received the system notification about Poochie attaining Level 9, and he saw that the XP required for the next level was 12,000 points, Qin Ruo could not stand it any longer. If they stayed here and kept doing the same thing, it would take them at least another half an hour just to reach the next level!

Taking another look at Poochie’s attributes panel, Qin Ruo gathered his courage, dismissed his Frost Barrier and Darkfrost Shield, switched over to Aquamorph, and from the deepest reaches of the mine, he brought Poochie to the outside!

Poochie was even stronger now, with an Attack of 75-80, comparable to a Berserker in the early levels of Tier 2. Its Resistances were not lagging behind either, and it had no longer needed healing from Qin Ruo when going up against the Goblin Warriors.

What Qin Ruo found the most reassuring of all was Poochie’s HP, which could now go up to a maximum total of 1,400. This was as much as you’d expect to see on most Tier 3 monsters, so even if something went wrong, it would probably be able to survive.

***

When they left the mine, it was already half-past-seven in the real world, and a gloom had fallen across the game world to reflect the evening time.

It was even darker in the woods of the Goblin Mountains, and he could only vaguely make his way along by listening for the chirruping of bugs, and seeing by what faint trails of dappled starlight managed to fall through the leafy canopy overhead. In this way, he could sort of make out what lay ahead of him, within a distance of roughly ten meters.

The eager little Shadowfox, happy to be away from the dark and dank mines at last, scampered around outside excitedly, its light footfalls making no sound upon the ground. Once it was out of the cave, it took in the outside world with a pair of keen, dark eyes.

However, this world was full of monsters, and other hazards besides. Although, from a player’s point of view, the Goblin Mines were one of the relatively safer areas in the game, the Shadowfox was on high alert, every shadow lurking with dangerous mystery.

No sooner had they left the cave when a Goblin Warrior, which had been hiding behind a tree, came charging out at them, brandishing a nasty-looking mace. It yelled an unintelligible command, and then from the darkness beneath the trees burst forth another three Goblin Warriors and a Level 25 Goblin Shaman.

What the Goblin Shaman did put Qin Ruo on his guard. As a humanoid-type monster, as well as a Goblin spellcaster, it was far more sensitive to elemental magic than most monsters. Though Qin Ruo had yet to actually come out from the mining tunnel, the moment the Shaman left the cover of the trees, it nervously turned fervid eyes straight at him.

The Goblin Shaman uttered a series of strange words, and in response all the Goblin Warriors turned away from the fuzzy little Shadowfox, moving to attack Qin Ruo instead.

As they charged in, the bright green flame of witch-fire sprang to life suddenly between the Shaman’s hands, and then streaked towards Qin Ruo where he stood within the mine’s entrance.

Fortunately, this sort of magical attack apparently didn’t use a target-lock. Qin Ruo took one step to the side and easily evaded the Goblin Shaman’s spell, while issuing a quick mental command. Poochie, now a small brown blur flashing towards one of the Goblin Warriors, came to a stop in mid-air and redirected itself towards the Goblin Shaman instead.

Bang!

The Goblin Shaman’s Physical Resistance was obviously not as good as a Goblin Warrior. Accompanied by a harsh yelp of pain, it immediately lost 130 HP and was Stunned.

As for the Goblin Warriors charging towards the mine: in the sudden absence of the Goblin Shaman’s directions, every one of them immediately turned around and rushed back to engage Poochie instead.

Just as they were turning away from Qin Ruo, however, something arrested their steps: at some point, a thick sheet of ice had somehow formed around the feet of all four Goblin Warriors, instantly freezing them in place. Now all they could do was watch helplessly as their Shaman was torn to pieces before their eyes.

And now that they were immobilized, they were equally helpless when the Shadowfox had finished with the Shaman and came for them next.

A moment later, a ribbon of magical blue light streamed out from the body of one of the Goblin Warriors.

Mana Drain!

Seeing that Poochie had not only regained the attention of all four Goblin Warriors, but was also firmly maintaining the upper hand in the fight, Qin Ruo casually came out from Aquamorph form and used his Mana Drain to snatch some MP for himself, and then immediately began to bring his Frost Barrier back up.

After all, he could use his Elemental Perception from right where he was, and he was unlikely to run into other players at night-time up in the Goblin Mountains, so his red tag should not cause him any trouble here. Even on the off-chance that someone did come along, there would be enough advance warning for him to react to it.

Therefore, while Poochie was training up its levels at the moment, why not work on his own Frost Barrier and Darkfrost Shield as well, and push them towards the maximum Mastery Level?

Outside the mine, there were no small number of Goblin Warriors and Shamans wandering the area. Moving quickly, the Shadowfox dutifully lured ever more of them back to their cave, where it finished them off.

Not ten minutes later, Poochie attained Level 10 at last, and was now officially in Tier 1!

Poochie has learned new skills: Shadow Razors, Shadow Execution.

***

Level 10 Shadowfox: Poochie

Physical Attack 80-85, Growth Rate 5; (with each level-up, along with other ability improvements, the Pet also increases Attack and Resistances directly)

Physical Resistance 60-60, Growth Rate 4;

Magical Attack (N/A);

Magical Resistance 30-30, Growth Rate 2;

HP: 1,500/1,500; Growth Rate 100;

MP: 100/100; Growth Rate 5;

Shadow Dash (Innate Talent): Move as fast as lightning. 50% improved chance to dodge incoming attacks, duration 10 seconds, cost 1 MP; no cooldown time.

Shadow Strike (Innate Talent): Can only be performed while Shadow Dash is active. 50% chance to Stun target, cost 1 MP.

Tier 1 Skills:

Shadow Razors: Novice Mastery Level 0/1,000. Extend claws, raising Physical Attack by 10%. Attacks apply Laceration effect, dealing 10 damage per second, duration of 10 seconds. Costs 2 MP, cooldown time 3 seconds.

Shadow Execution: Novice Mastery Level 0/1,000. Increases attack speed, 30% chance of partially ignoring target’s Resistance, performing a Fatal Blow. Costs 3 MP, cooldown time 6 seconds.

The two new Tier 1 skills were nice enough. In fact, comparing them to the combat skills of a Tier 1 player character, they were pretty awesome! At higher Mastery Levels, they could be a match for max-level Tier 2 player skills.

Yet, Qin Ruo was not satisfied. He remembered the fight between the golden Shadowfox and the Ron Couple, back in the Wargod’s Trial Canyon, and how the Shadowfox had been able to instantly split itself into four identical images to attack its target from multiple directions, and each attack really had seemed to hit.

Where skills were concerned, that was the one that had really impressed Qin Ruo! He just did not know whether it would be until Tier 3 or 4 before Poochie could pick up that skill.

***

With the addition of these two new skills, Poochie became even more savage in battle. After luring in Goblin Warriors and Shamans and then knocking them senseless, it seemed to enjoy using Shadow Razors to paint its victims with bright red gashes, the damage going over 180. When Shadow Execution was used as well, the damage could sometimes rise past 200.

Watching Poochie beating the living daylights out of Tier 2 monsters for nearly an entire hour, Qin Ruo felt a sense of accomplishment, and was also about to burst from anticipation.

Not long, now!

Just one more day until the “Entrance to the Graveyard of the Gods”… At the pace that Poochie was gaining levels, going over Level 30 in a single day shouldn’t be a problem.

Qin Ruo thought further: At the moment, Poochie had barely achieved Tier 1, and its basic abilities were already that of a Berserker midway through Tier 2. When you threw in Shadow Dash and Shadow Strike as well, no Tier 2 warrior was a match for it.

If things continued on like this, by the time the little scamp was in Tier 3, perhaps only Tier 4 warriors would be able to stand against it—Combat Aura, Berserk Rage, Defensive Spells, and Resistances all progressed at different rates. Imagine having a mid-level Tier 4 warrior as his personal bodyguard, and a startlingly fast little bodyguard at that!

If he brought Poochie into the Graveyard of the Gods with him, not only would it greatly increase his chances of survival, it could also prove a substantial boon to his ability to take down enemy players from the Demon Faction!

At least in one-on-one duels, Qin Ruo was fully confident of his ability to hold his own against any opponent short of a Supreme Champion, thanks to his elemental magic, and now Poochie, too.

At this thought, Qin Ruo couldn’t help letting out a great whoop of elation! His voice echoed loudly down the mining tunnels.

“Hey, you little scamp! Get busy, and no breaks for you!”

“Cheep, cheep!” Poochie, spurred on by this decree, picked up its pace through the forests of the Goblin Mountains.