MMORPG: Shattered Land

1:43:08

Marius had left Katarin to find Toudin. He had gained Level 10 in Beast Taming but his occupation hadn't been changed to Beast Master yet. He assumed there was a quest or something to do with the storyline so he went to find the old Beast Master.

The sooner he was promoted to Beast Master, the sooner he could Tame High Lord and Demon Ranked Monsters.

While Marius did that Super Nova tried to contact Cold Mist. Unfortunately, Cold Mist was not accepting friend requests.

Like Marius, Super Nova had been flooded by friend invites. With some hope, we went through them, hoping to find one from Cold Mist.

Once again he came up with nothing. Even posting on the World Chat did not stir Cold Mist out of hiding.

"Marius, this could be harder than we thought."

"Still no luck?" Marius had just reached Toudin and gained the quest to become a Beast Master. He had to refine a Demon Ranked Iron Hound. It wasn't a hard quest but it did not fill Marius with much joy.

"Afraid not. Can you check your friend requests and see if he has tried adding you?"

Marius checked but found nothing. "I haven't got one either," Marius reported. "Try the Forums?"

Super Nova considered it but decided that it wouldn't be a very effective method. At worse it would provoke curiosity that he would like to avoid. At least until he had more control over the situation.

He relayed this Marius.

Marius nodded to himself. "Well, I have a quest and I require an Iron Hound. Want to go there and make a few inquiries?"

At this point of the game, the Iron Hounds were the main targets for the middle tier guilds while the stronger guilds had started hunting Mountain Bears and Stone Goats in the Level 15-20 Map.

"Shouldn't he be grinding Stone Goats or Stone Gullums by now?" Super Nova asked.

"We can go there next. It won't take long to Tame one Monster."

With a plan in mind, the two met back up and departed for the Level 10-20 Map.

Marius wouldn't be using his Pet here. He wanted to avoid drawing attention that would expose the advantage that his Occupation gave.

Instead, the two unsheathed their Customized weapons. This wasn't to slaughter any Monsters but to fend off Player's that tried to get in their way.

One of the reasons for the Player bases low Levels was due to the competition over grinding maps. In a bid to maintain control over them, many Guilds came together to limit the number of people that could grind there.

This generally caused conflict between the Guilds and solo players, causing both parties to have casualties. Thus it was difficult for anyone to maintain their level 10 accounts, let alone climb to level 11.

However, Marius and Super Nova were more than capable of deterring such attempts on themselves. Their stats we almost comparable to that of a Feild Boss, allowing them to one-hit anyone that caused them trouble. Though that would only be a last resort

"Get out of the way," Super Nova shouted. "We're not here to grind so don't make us kill you lot."

The declaration made the surrounding players pay even more attention to the duo as they went.

But it was effective.

When they finally made it to the Iron Hounds, Marius quickly Tamed one, leaving the observing Players amazed.

"He's a Beast Tamer?"

"How did he Tame one so easily?"

"Is he cheating?"

"Who is that guy?"

Player names could only be seen by friendly parties. Marius and Super Nova could see each other's names because they were in a Party together, but the other players had no way of confirming their identities.

"We're looking for Cold Mist. Can anyone tell us where we can find him?" Marius asked his question the moment he had Tamed the Iron Hound.

This shocked the Players even more.

"What business do they have with Cold Mist?"

"Are they trying to rope him into their Guild?"

"Idiots, don't they know that he's the third best Player in the game?"

The duo heard the comments and suppressed their annoyance.

"If no one knows then we might as well got look for him," Super Nova said, looking at his partner.

Marius sighed. He had hoped that someone would be able to tell them which map Cold Mist trained at. It would make finding him must quicker.

Without finding out what they wanted, they left.

In Marius' Occupation tab, he began Refining his Iron Hound.

Over the last week, he had Tamed a large number of Monsters, Refining them and cataloging their statistics and skills.

However, for their purpose, Howling Wolf was still their more viable option due to its summoning skill. With it they, they could grind through a map at a horrifying pace.

Unfortunately, Marius could not Refine it beyond the High Lord Rank. The first time he tried he had lost the 4 High Lord Ranked Monsters and his Howling Wolf Pet. To add insult to injury he also earned a very annoying notification.

(Player Midnight Solitude failed to Refine His Howling Wolf. Rank up to Beast Master to Refine Demon Rank Monsters)

After that experience, he had stopped trying to refine Demon Ranked Monsters and just left them at High Lord Rank. The problem Marius had faced was that Lord Rank Monsters were the highest he could Tame but his efficiency at doing so was quite low.

He assumed that this was specifically put into the game to prevent the excessive progress of a lucky Beast Tamer like himself.

The first of the Lord Ranked Monsters became accessible in the Level 30-35 map as Grade 3, Level 35 Monsters, Elder Hawk.

Marius had been excited when he first saw this monster, however, its skills were of a support nature.

If they had been a large group, the Elder Hawk could have provided them with such boosts that the Guilds would kill to possess. But for them, it was less useful than his Howling Wolf.

The problem was that his luck at Taming Lord Ranked monsters was amazingly low. he could only Tame 1 Monster for 20 Taming attempts if he was lucky, usually, it was closer to 50.

But after some effort, Marius had Tamed those Lord Ranked Monsters

As it was he currently had six High Lord Ranked Elder Hawks.

A useful gimmick Marius had found was that if he Refined a Low-Rank Monster, such as a Black Rank Iron Hound with five monsters of a higher Rank, such as the High Lord Ranked, then he would be able to Refine the lower Rank Monster to the Next level in the sequence.

It appeared, that for Refinement and therefore, the Rank-up to occur, five monsters of the same Rank were needed. If he had been Refining an Elder Hawk, then the Elder Hawk being Refined would count as the fifth.

So, by the time the two left the Iron Hounds Territory he had Refined his newly Tamed Monster to Demon Rank with the sacrifice of five of his six Elder Hawks. The results were incredible

Iron Hound - Demon Rank Level 1

Health: 5250

Mana: 4350

Attack: 150

Defense: 540

Intelligence: 108

Spirit: 540

Dexterity: 240

Skills: (Steel Edge - Has a 40% chance of dealing additional piercing damage to all target's it makes contact with)

(Razor Rush - Has a 50% chance of activating Fatal Blow on all target's it makes contact with)

(Demon Charge - Deals 200% of base damage to a single target)

When Marius showed Super Nova the young man laughed.

"Imagine how much the Guilds would pay for a Pet like that right now."

Marius grinned. "Just remember that Level 30 is a long way away for most people. I wouldn't put too much emphasis on using Pets as a source of income. It will only be a short-term gain"

Super Nova nodded. It had only taken them a month of relatively sparse gameplay to get to where they were.

So long as the other Players didn't learn the secret about using Pets until at least Level 30 then his earnings potential would be quite high. But if one of the Guild's figured out the trick, those profits would be circling the drain.

But then, there were other ways of making money in the game.

Like being a Mercenary.

Super Nova giggled, catching Marius' attention.

"What did you think of?" He asked curiously.

"Just imagine if there were five of us. We could lock down all five Cities and force players to pay us real money to go out and train. If we had a High Lord Howling Wolf Each, we'd literally never have to work again."

Marius shook his head. "That is one way to ruin the game. But would you really benefit from it?"

"But aren't you trying to Break the Game?" Super Nova asked.

Marius smiled. "That bet is just to make things interesting. A small goal to make the game a little more enjoyable for me. How would I get any entertainment out of ruining the game?

"I see, but its still an interesting idea" Super Nova protested.

"Well, how long do you think people will play a game if they are forced by another player to pay just for the privilege of playing?"

Super Nova frowned. "It was just an idea," he said sheepishly.

Marius sighed. "The sad reality is that someone will definitely think of trying to do that. I'm sure that the designers have some sort of backup plan to counter something like that from happening. It could involve making them an enemy of the City, banning the player or any number of things."

"I didn't think about that," Super Nova admitted.

"Nova," Marius said seriously. "Be wary of being too greedy for short-term gains. Killing the goose that lays the golden egg is a very silly thing to do. Doing things in moderation is the safer course of actions than abusing something out of excess."

Super Nova grinned. "But isn't that what we are doing now?" he asks cheekily.

Marius chuckled. "True, we are being a bit excessive, but are our actions right now directly harming our profits? We may be making our future profitability a bit riskier, but that is the risk of doing business. What we have is essentially a Blue Ocean scenario. We have diversified our way of doing things from the common methods that everyone else is using. Theirs is a Red Ocean Scenario and it is stagnant, you can see it by the huge variance in our Levels to theirs. That is just the evidence that proves our way is better. Over time, we will be copied. It is simply a matter of how long it takes for the other Players to adapt and learn. When that happens then our competitive advantage will be reduced."

Marius wore a sly grin when he continued. "But such an advantage will only ever be temporary. After that, it comes down to small modifications, using the resources you have gained to create another advantage. For example, being a Mercenary or controlling the city with a Guild?"

Super Nova smiled. The old man had been thinking along the same lines as him.

"You really do love your long explanations," Super Nova joked. "You should have been a Lecturer at the University."

Marius chuckled. "They wouldn't be able to pay me enough. Besides, those that can do, do, those who can't teach at Primary School. Failing that, they teach at University."

Super Nova roared with laughter, catching the attention of a few Players ahead of them.

"Don't sell yourself short Soli, your explanations are at least Pre-school Level."

Marius put on a hurt expression but inside he was laughing too.

"Hey, you two! We don't want any of you thieving Assassins or Night Stalkers here!" A group of Players came running up to them, weapons out and ready to fight.

Marius and Super Nova stopped joking around and drew their own weapons. While they had been talking they had arrived in the Mountain Bear territory and the area was almost as full of players as the Iron Hound area.

"We're not here to grind," Marius said with as much diplomacy as he could, "We are looking for Cold Mist. Have you seen him?"

The players had surrounded them. There were quite a few of them, mostly Swordsmen, Hunters, Elemental Masters, and Summoners.

"We don't care," the lead Swordsman spat. "Fuck off. We don't want you're kind here."

Marius took a breath, surveying their area. He knew that they could fight their way through but fighting would not be to their benefit.

One attack from either of them would be more than any of them could take, but that would also reveal who they were. There were only 2 people in the game that could one-hit people.

"If we can't go in, then could you pass on a message to Cold Mist if he is around?" Marius asked.

"Use your vanishing Skills and go look for him," Marius sent a private message to Super Nova. Assassins had a skill that let them go unnoticed for long periods of time. Night Stalkers did not have this skill, but Marius did have a move that let him escape.

"What about you?" Super Nova asked.

"I learned a new Skill that let me disappear and do an ambush," Marius replied. "I'll stay here, you go ahead and find him. Wait for my signal then get going."

"We aren't your damn messengers. Now get the fuck out of here." The Swordsman yelled this time, severely irritating the old man.

"Come on guys, we really aren't here to cause trouble,"

Marius sheathed his weapons, raised his hands and stopped talking, holding himself absolutely still.

"Well we aren't being polite," The Swordsman spat.

Marius did not reply, neither did Super Nova.

The young man had guessed what Marius was planning and stayed still as well. Then they waited

"I said scram." The Swordsman started waving his sword around and the other Players starting making threatening motions as well.

But still, the two remained perfectly stationary

"Now.' Marius sent the message to Super Nova.

At that moment he activated Eclipse and Super Nova vanished. It looked like they logged off.

"Fuck, did they log off?" One of the Players shouted.