HC:Pacifist | Ch. 13 - Friend of the Ratans (Patreon)

It had been three days, and no one in the squad had found clues about Roth. Gary kept his eyes on the forums for signs of anyone violent or crazy going on rampages in the Green Country area. He couldn't find anything. No news. He then saw a post that he found slightly amusing.

Crazy Activist in the Green Country Beginner Zone

#news #alert #greencountry #beginnerzone

Poster: WeAreWes12

Post: Be careful, everyone. There's been a crazy guy running around the vicinity of the woods in the beginner zone in the Green Country region. Run on sight! He will make your hunts miserable. He is an animal rights activist who will try to stop you from hunting mobs. He is extremely annoying. He dresses up like a hobo and runs fast.

Gary chuckled. Although this guy sounds like a piece of work, there was no way that he could be the Slayer. Back in the day, he had seen Roth do things to animals that still made him feel like hurling. He had no time to waste on random posts like this. He resisted the urge to waste time reading up on the comments and kept searching the forums for any suspicious rumors. He had to hurry and find the Slayer.

*

Crazy Activist in the Green Country Beginner Zone

#news #alert #greencountry #beginnerzone

Poster: WeAreWes12

Post: Be careful, everyone. There's been a crazy guy running around the vicinity of the woods in the beginner zone in the Green Country region. Run on sight! He will make your hunts miserable. He is an animal rights activist who will try to stop you from hunting mobs. He is extremely annoying. He dresses up like a hobo and runs fast.

Comments

BunnyNutty51: He also interrupted our hunt! Right in the middle of an elite too. What an annoying, crazy bastard!

GreenFelp19: How come that idiot doesn't drop any items or equipment? We killed him five or six times, and not even a measly copper dropped.

AppleADay994: Could it be some sort of NPC?

BunnyNutty51: Highly unlikely.

WeAreWes: Thank you for all your comments and likes, people. One more thing, if you kill him, you gain a new title. It's called [Martyr Killer]. My buddies and I have no clue what it does. The description is just like this.

[Martyr Killer] (Curse)

Title description: You've killed a martyr.

AppleADay994: I just saw that I have that thing too! What the heck?

GreenFelp19: Same. Any clue as to its effect? Why does it say curse?

BunnyNutty51: Probably nothing.

*

Roth finally came to his senses. He tried to understand where he was, but everything was a blur. He remembered snippets of memories and the pain of being attacked by other players, but it was all fuzzy. He had a massive headache. He sat down to recover and went back through the log to make sense of what had happened to him over the past few days. He found many notifications of deaths:

You have died.

You lost a level. Penalty canceled because of your title [Martyr];

You lose one endurance. Penalty canceled because of your title [Martyr];

You saved a white mouse. He spreads the news of your triumphant rescue. +10 Reputation with Ratans.

You will be returned to the nearest saving point.

Things went on and on like this. Sometimes he gained a +3 reputation with Ratans. Sometimes, he gained +5, and other times as high as +10. After his 14th or 15th rescue of a mouse, he received an exciting system notification.

You have achieved 100 reputation with Ratans.

You are now friends with all Ratans

New title unlocked, [Friend of the Ratans].

His third title. He had hit the jackpot! After [Martyr] and [Marathonist], he now had [Friend of the Ratans]. He hurried to check what the title did.

Title: Friend of the Ratans (Uncommon)

Title description: Mice and rats have come to know you and feel comfortable around you. They see you as their friend.

Title effects:

• +2 Dexterity;
• It's easier to learn Ratan.

Conditions to unlock [Friend of the Ratan]:

• Achieve 100 reputation with Ratans without ever hurting them {complete};
• Achieve 1000 reputation with ratans.

Interesting. It is easier to learn Ratan? Is that the language that mice and rats speak? But how much easier, exactly? He noticed that rewards from skills or titles often weren't clear in this game. For instance, his [Marathonist] title said he could run longer without tiring, never specifying how long precisely. His [Martyr] title said that it was easier to strike a relationship with righteous NPCs, but it didn't say by how much. Roth wouldn't even know that the title had already helped him were it not for the posts he had read in the forums. After reading through many complaints about how unhelpful NPCs were in this game, he now knew that the reason why he had been so well treated by Bartholomew and his family was probably due to this title effect. His [Martyr] title also said he would feel closer to the light. He had no idea what that meant. Intrigued by another ambiguous statement in his new title, he checked the forums to see if anyone else had noticed this about the game.

He did a quick search on titles. He found an interesting post by a guy called Weasel34. It seemed this guy had posted several articles on the importance of titles. He clicked on one of the posts with the most views. The headline read: “Which is more important? Titles? Or Equipment?” It went on to say that there was no doubt whatsoever that titles were much more valuable in the game. There was a limit to the equipment you could wear but no limitation on the number of titles you could have. He gave an example of how a level 30 warrior player that focused on earning titles had steamrolled over a level 45 player fully clad in epic gear.

The article mentioned some of the most common titles in the game. Many had to do with dungeon runs, killing mobs, or bosses. There were a few examples, such as the [Monster Hunter] and [Boss Hunter] titles:

Title: Monster Hunter (Common)

Title description: Your blade has become accustomed to the taste of battle. Monsters dread your presence.

Title effects:

• Deal +1% damage to all monsters;

Conditions to unlock [Monster Hunter]:

• Hunt 1.000 monsters.

Title: Boss Hunter (Common)

Title description: Difficult battles have honed your skills. When facing a powerful monster, your instincts become more reliable.

Title effects:

• Receive -1% damage from all monsters;

Conditions to unlock [Boss Hunter]:

• Hunt 100 boss or elite monsters.

None of these interested Roth. However, he could see how these were among the easiest titles to gain in the game. Eventually, everyone would unlock these after playing the game and leveling normally. Conversely, you weren't getting ahead of the pack if everyone had the same bonus. He wasn't planning ever to reach these achievements, however. A few others that Weasel34 mentioned only by name picked up Roth's interest, for example, the [Alpinist]. Just from the title's name, Roth guessed it was achieved through climbing. That made sense. If he had acquired a title from running, other physical activities would likely be rewarded too. He kept digging around the posts of this Weasal34 guy and found another informative post. It was titled: “What titles are more precious?”

“Listen up, fellow gamers,” the posting read. “As you know, titles are like items. You have common, uncommon, and rare. There will be epic, legendary, and maybe even unique titles. But this is not what I mean when I ask which ones are most valuable. A common title can be better than a rare one. Here are some indications of whether a title is worth investing time in. If it gives you more than just one effect, it’s a very good sign. Anything that gives you stats is OK. Any titles that give you more reputation or benefits with a particular faction are fantastic. Anything that allows you to gain a skill or a skill-level effect is broken. Here are a few examples of each:

Let’s call the first tier the "bronze tier."

Lord of Flames (rare): +10% to all fire skills

Let’s call the second tier the "silver tier."

Fire Fiend (uncommon): +5% to all fire skills; added friendliness with NPCs in the Fire Academy.

Let’s call the third tier the "gold tier."

Fired up (uncommon): +3% to all fire skills; added friendliness to all NPCs in the Fire Pits region; you can hear fire.

I have made these up just for the sake of making my point. Notice how the first one seems to be better in these three examples, but it only has one effect that can be easily replaced with equipment or a passive skill. The [Fire Fiend] title gives you added friendliness with an organization in the game. This opens up many quest lines that will, in turn, give you unique skills or even better titles. [Fired up], despite being uncommon, is a god-like title. Everything in the whole region becomes easier. And if you have an ethereal, strange phrase like ‘you can feel this' or ‘you can see that,’ it is an excellent sign in AstroTerra.”

Roth gulped. This meant that [Martyr] was overpowered. He had already known that the title was excellent. First, it had a unique grade. It was the only thing with Unique on it that Roth had seen so far. Secondly, it had a bunch of effects. According to what this guy was saying, the fact that he could more easily gain reputation with all righteous NPCs made it completely broken. The righteous faction included most of the NPCs on the continent. And it even had an ethereal, vague sentence: ‘You can feel closer to the light.' Awesome.

If this guy knew what he was talking about, all his titles weren't bad. The stats weren’t so impressive, but their effects were useful. The fact that [Friend of the Ratans] allowed one to learn a language more easily was quite interesting. He had never been good at learning languages, but he supposed it would be easier to do so inside the game.

It was time to try something out. He stood up from where he was sitting and started looking around for mice. He found one after a few seconds.

White Mouse (friendly)

100hp

Lvl. 1

He decided to approach it. The mob's name was highlighted in green, and the word (friendly) appeared next to it.

“Hello there!”

“Squeak?”

“My name is Roth. What is yours?”

“Squeal. Squeak. Squeak.”

The sounds you hear sound alien, but you start making sense of them. Knowledge of Ratan: 1%

Roth became very excited. He started to go around, saying hello to every mouse in the field.

*

A group that had been hunting ravens deeper into the woods came back to empty their inventories, sell their spoils, and replenish their supplies. They were all level 6 and above.

“That was a good move you pulled out there, little sis.”

“You weren’t so bad, either, handsome.”

“Do you think we’re ready to take the Boar King?”

“According to the guide I read online, there should be at least six of us, and all of us should be level 8 or above. Someone has to have the [Stun Beam] skill as well.” Hunting the biggest bad boy in the woods wasn't exactly easy.

“It shouldn’t be long until then…" One of the members of the group stopped. He pointed to a man crouching in the grass in the distance. "What is that guy doing?”

The rest of the group stopped and saw Roth lying in the grass in the distance, talking to the mice there. They approached out of curiosity. They started to understand what the man was saying as they drew near.

“Really? Squeak Squeak? I have two brothers. My mother always squeak squeak a daughter, though. Now that I think about it, squeak squeak to have a sister, squeak.”

“Squeak. Squeak. Squeak. Squeal. Squeak. Squeak.”

“Really? Ahahahaha. Squeak squeak? No, he didn’t!”

The group stood incredulously, watching the giant figure chatting with the mice.

“Why aren’t the mice attacking him? He’s in their aggro zone.”

“Hmm. Perhaps he has bought a [Soothing Scroll]. It makes animals not want to attack players for 30 minutes.”

“Is he doing a quest?”

“Nah. What quest could he be doing?"

"No one can talk to mobs, man. What is he trying to do?”

"Could he have a hidden class, like a tamer or something?"

"Can I help you, gentlemen?" interrupted Roth.

"Oh, no. We were just curious about what you were doing."

"I'm just playing with my little friends," the big man innocently replied.

"Do you have a tamer class?"

"A what? No. Nothing of the sort. I have no class. I am not level 10 yet. Don't you have to be level 10 to have a class?"

Good point, thought the group questioning him. A few moments of awkward silence followed.

“Well... have a good day, sir," said one of the group members, trying to end the weird encounter.

"You too, guys. Have fun!"

After a few steps, as soon as they were sure that the crazy guy was outside earshot, they all laughed.

"Oh, man. What in the world?"

"When you think you have seen everything…” After a few steps, one of them decided to change the subject.

"Hey guys, have you heard about the activist running around this part of the map?"

"Tell me about it."

The group laughed as they resumed their march to the city.

Ch. 12 - Reverse Rampage

INDEX

Ch. 14 - Oscar