At Nuoda’s insistence of privacy, I led her back to the inn where I had been staying. This was the last day that I planned to stay in the city before leaving, so I might as well use the room while I have it, right? Besides, she looked like there was something serious that she wanted to talk about.
“What is it?” I asked once we were inside, Nuoda sitting down on the rather basic bed that the inn room provided. She seemed like she was trying to piece together her thoughts, and figure out how to tell me something. No doubt it involved information from the world of the players, so I didn’t want to rush her.
Eventually, she looked up at me with a serious expression on her face. “You understand the fact that Chosen Fantasy Online is just a game to us players, right?” She asked, to which I nodded my head. “And you remember the character creation process?”
“For the most part. My memory before that is a bit fuzzy.” I confirmed. “Like, I should probably have some basic life skills that I forgot in order to level the playing field for players when they choose an NPC.” For instance, I was traveling alone before being chosen, so logically I should have some understanding of cooking to fend for myself. However, I couldn’t think of any recipe that I actually knew.
“Right… well, there’s a bit of news that has been circulating recently, I thought you should know.” Nuoda let out a long sigh. “During the character creation process, it appears that there is an incredibly small chance that the player creating their character will have the name of their game changed to Monster Fantasy Online. At that point, they will be picking a monster to play as.”
My eyes widened when I heard that, remembering the bosses in the wild that had a brand similar to those of a Fallen. I had always assumed that was just to facilitate their need to respawn and provide more lucrative loot. However, after a few moments, my brow furrowed. “Wait, that doesn’t entirely add up. That would make monster bosses the equivalent of a Fallen. So, if a boss drops a trait, they should no longer have it to drop again.”
Nuoda nodded her head slightly. “Not much has been researched on that subject. From what I’ve seen on the forums, dying and dropping your trait to an active player of the opposing faction doesn’t cause you to lose your trait. Of course, an active player won’t drop their trait to begin with, but this isn’t the big thing.”
“Players secretly being the origin behind boss monsters isn’t the big reveal that you wanted to talk to me about?” I asked, raising a brow.
“You’re being hunted.” She said, and my eyes opened wide again. Before I could ask why, she began explaining. “There is a player that lucked into joining the monster faction, and is playing a dragon character, named Drake. He hasn’t released the details of your traits, but he made a public announcement that he was going to be hunting down his past characters, making a list of them, all of which were abandoned at level one and with the same name.”
“Among that list was a half-orc, half-elf.” I could feel the sweat dripping down my back when Nuoda told me this. I was being hunted by a player? Not just a player, a dragon that knew about my traits.
“Why would he be targeting all of his old characters? They would be spread all over the world, right?” I asked, but Nuoda shook her head.
“He put out a bounty. All of the targets must be captured alive and unharmed, to be delivered to the Deadlands. If capture is impossible, information can be provided. Ennolf and I believe that he’s just using the others as a smokescreen to make people not look at any one individual on that list. After all, if he put out a large bounty just for you, people would want to take whatever you had for themselves. If he makes it for all of his past characters, then they will just look at him like someone eccentric with too much money to spend.”
“Right… my positive trait is worth the investment.” I nodded my head, gulping. Even a level one could rise to become a top fighter with this trait, so what would happen if a dragon got their hands on it?
“That’s exactly right. We haven’t told anyone about you, but there are already rumors spreading that you’re in Decashear. Some people even attached pictures to confirm you were the right guy. Ennolf and I think you should lay low for a bit, or at least not leave the city by road. You’ll probably be ambushed once you leave the protected zone.”
I pursed my lips, but ultimately agreed with her. Even if I thought that I could take on the current top players, there was no need to test my luck. “Just checking, but the monster players also start at level one, right?”
Nuoda smiled, nodding her head. “That’s right. There have been a few pieces of information posted about the process, so I’ll tell you what I know. It might help you understand and plan against them.”
“When a player is selected for the monster side, they are given a list of available monster types to choose from. Some of these monsters can blend in with society, like vampires or shapeshifters, while others are clearly monstrous, like slimes and ogres. Once they make their choice, they get the same type of positive and negative traits as other players, but they also get a special, innate racial trait. For instance, slimes have increased learning speed and resistance to physical damage.”
“The downside to playing as a monster is rather obvious. As a monster, you will not have access to the towns that the main races use. Instead, the only place that you can buy gear you can use for your race is special monster towns that exist in various danger zones. However… when playing as a monster, other monsters won’t take the initiative to attack you. Depending on the relevant races, they may even treat you as a friend.”
I gave another nod at that. For now, I was wondering how strong exactly a level one dragon would be. According to Nuoda, it should be the equivalent of a level one boss monster. “Do you know what this Drake’s level is?”
Nuoda denied this with a sigh. “He didn’t give that information. The only thing we know is that he is a black dragon with red eyes. He posted a picture of himself to brag that he had hit the ‘ultimate jackpot’, as he called it. Aside from that, there was just the list of characters that he was making a bounty for. That bounty was posted three days ago.”
I felt a rush of relief at that. “Most likely, he thinks I’m still a normal level one, as he didn’t care too much about me with my negative trait. He probably can’t imagine that I would become stronger. He would just be expecting a helpless half-orc to be delivered to him. Which he could kill and kill again until my positive trait dropped.”
Nuoda’s eyes twitched slightly. “You’re not going to go looking for him, are you?”
I chuckled, shaking my head. “I’m not suicidal. Even if I fought and killed him, so what? He’s a player, he’ll just respawn. At that point, he’ll start taking me seriously, which is something I don’t want. If he thinks I’m helpless, let him keep thinking that. I’ll just focus on avoiding him for now.”
After saying that, I lifted my hair off of my forehead, showing that the burnt-out brand of the Fallen had faded, now looking like that of a normal Chosen. Additionally, my hair began to change from black to dark brown, and my eyes to red. Nuoda let out a gasp when she heard that, glancing off to the side as if looking at something.
“If I didn’t have my friends list, I’d think that you might have been chosen again… Is that a skill?”
With a smile, I nodded to the foxfolk. “Disguise. It only lets me change small details right now, but I’m working on leveling it up. As long as I use this, I should be able to avoid detection for a while.” After I said that, my appearance went back to normal.
Nuoda let out a sigh of relief when she heard that. “If it’s a skill, you’ll never have to take it down. Alright… where do you plan to go next? I would still not suggest leaving town by road, at least not during the day.”
“That’s fine. I’ll be heading to Farro to the west. I want to eventually make it to the elven lands, but there’s a lot of distance between here and there. I’ll probably take a teleport to the nearest city to the border, and then walk.”
Unfortunately, the kingdom did not allow people to teleport directly to other nations, so there was no way for me to simply go straight to Farro. Nuoda looked confused for a moment, before her eyes widened. “Ah! Sorry, we don’t have experience with other countries yet. Most players haven’t had the chance to leave their starter country. If you’re heading to the country to the west… isn’t Decashear the closest?”
“Apparently not.” I said with a chuckle, having originally believed that as well. “My teacher told me that there is actually another city closer to the border, but there is no road to get to it. The only way to do so is either by boat or direct teleport. The name of the city is Aureakeep, and it is meant to be a fortress city to watch against attacks from Farro.”
“Aureakeep…” Nuoda nodded her head, committing the name to memory. “I assume you’ll be taking the boat, then?”
At that, I could only shake my head. “I’d like to, but with what you just told me, I think it would be better if I take a teleport. As long as I do that, I’ll be guaranteed to have a little bit of time to change my appearance while people lose sight of me, whereas they could simply follow me onto the boat if they wanted.”
“Good call.” Nuoda smiled. “Like I said, if you need anything from us, feel free. Oh, and sorry again about not being able to get a healing skill for you. I didn’t think that even the dungeon would be so tightly controlled…”
“It’s fine.” I chuckled, feeling a grin rising on my face. “I managed to get something that is arguably even better, a self-healing martial skill.” Nuoda’s jaw went slack when I said that. “I won’t be able to heal other people, but I run solo, so that doesn’t matter.”
“Right.” Nuoda agreed. “For you, something like that is definitely better, because you won’t need to worry about enchanting it every time you get a new set of gear.” She gave a knowing grin, looking up at me. “Now we don’t need to worry that you’ll die to some random thug anymore.”
After saying that, she stood up, brushing her skirt with her hands to smooth it out. “Either way, that’s all that I wanted to let you know. I thought that a topic like this should really be discussed in person, rather than through the private message system.”
I couldn’t agree more. In fact, knowing that there was a target on my back only motivated me further. I had been worried that I would grow complacent when I became stronger, but now… there was a dragon out there that knew my traits, and he wanted to take them for himself. “Good luck with your city, by the way.” I told her, and her smile became far brighter.
“Thanks! You’ll have to stop by some time to check it out. For now, we’ve managed to find one of the other Drakes from his bounty list, and are keeping him safe with us.”
I hesitated when I heard that. “Try not to get too many of them. The dragon might not care as long as I’m not around, but other players will probably attack your city to get the bounty for them.”
“Maybe, but we don’t care.” Nuoda said flatly, turning to fully face me. “The entire point of our guild is to protect those deemed as failures by this world. We’re not going to let another player destroy that. They want a fight, we’ll give them a fight. It’s not just Ennolf and I, there are others that have joined us with this goal. We’re not going to give up on any of them, Drake. That goes for you, too. If you ever need shelter for any reason, come find us. Whatever enemy you’ve made, we’ll deal with it together.”
I almost didn’t know what to say when Nuoda faced me with such a serious tone. Eventually, I gave in and simply smiled. “I’ll hold you to that.”
