The Five Generals nodded in understanding.
Some had purchased a few skills when they had gone shopping, but hadn't really gone too deep into it. Also, skill books and Tradeskill books were expensive, even if it was a common skill. That had factored into their hesitation, discouraging them from investing more money into increasing their skill range.
Let's not even start with Tradeskills. They had looked at a few and shook their heads.
They had been combatants majority of their lives and stuff like blacksmithing or alchemy didn't speak to them at all. However, after hearing all the Lady Boss had said so far, as well as seeing the empty Tradeskill shops in the Vita settlement, they realized that they had been thinking too small.
"Skills will define your success in the early game. I say so because all players in the game right now, even those with history in FIVR games, would be clueless as to the full scope of Boundless mechanics. Their techniques that they used in the past or any new techniques developed would be flawed here because they would require time to adapt."
Riveting Night walked towards a small hamlet that was situated a good distance away from the footpath. The houses there were made of animal skins and took on the crude shape of tents. Smoke occasionally wafted from within a few of them, showing that it was being lived in at the moment.
The Five Generals had senses sharper than most, so they could hear some bizarre sounds coming from the hamlet. Those sounds didn't sound human, but like some… some retarded things that were smallish and brutish.
"Skills and techniques. Two sides to the same coin that assist each other in combat and out of it. Skills consume a good amount of Mana if used for magic but very little Stamina in the way of melee. However, they have durations and cooldowns. Techniques have no consumption if used for magic, but a heavy Stamina consumption in the area of melee. However, they do not have cooldowns and can be used infinitely, as long as you have the strength to use it."
Riveting Night stopped a little ways before the hamlet and turned to the Five Generals, who were looking behind her with trepidation. They could tell that whatever lived here wasn't friendly and to stand outside it without a care…
This Lady Boss had bigger balls than they did!
"But that's enough of skills and techniques. The final reason that you are all trash is your willpower."
Riveting Night spawned a whole barrage of goblinwerk and gnomish bombs, making the Five generals have a bad premonition.
"In order to succeed in Boundless… in order to be worthy members of the First Guild, you must have dauntless willpower!"
Riveting Night tossed out more than 50 bombs into the encampment behind her, even as she continued to speak and advise them. The Five Generals blanched when they saw her actions.
Lady Boss, did your family die here in your previous life? Why on earth would you bombard this poor, small settlement with so many explosives?
"To be undefeated, you just be indefatigable! You must be like an ant! Or even like a zombie! You must be able to pick yourself up after you have fallen countless times until your target has been reached! You cannot be afraid, only cautious! You cannot run away, only make tactical retreats!"
"In other words, you must look at the world through the eyes of someone destined to be at the top, not someone unsure of their future, who is trying to play it safe!"
"If you can't even do this, then you are unworthy of being the sole upper echelon of the First Guild!"
BOOM! BLAM!! KABOOM!! KABAAAAMMM!!!
Even as she shouted at them, the sounds of continuous explosions failed to deafen her speech, as if unable to suppress her will to get her words across. The Five General's expressions changed rapidly, adopting various forms before settling on helpless determination.
Screams were heard from the hamlet as the explosions went off, chilling the blood of the Five Generals. They, like everyone else, felt that stuff like bombing were cool as hell and showed superiority. However, being near a bombing site, even with such small bombs, and hearing the aftermath had them realize that things in media were far too glorified.
When the last bomb went off, the area became horrifying due to the destroyed habitations as well as the agonized groans of whatever lived in there.
Actually, now that the whole place was rent apart, the Five generals could see which species made this their home. They were surprised to see that it was… Goblins?
The little green gremlins were sprawled over the area, some in pieces while others with cringe-inducing burn marks on them. Some were relatively unscathed, only suffering from the shockwave of the explosions. The ratio of dead to living was about 3:1.
More than half of the living were injured too horribly to even stay alive, yet after groaning a bit, they got to their feet. When they managed to spot the six humans standing outside their settlement, their minds blanked.
Goblins weren't the cleverest folk, but it didn't require quantum physics level calculation to reach the conclusion that they were responsible for this tragedy.
When they came to that realization, they roared with anger, sadness and hate. Their beady little eyes became red and their sharp teeth in their lipless mouths were bared in a snarl.
They grabbed whatever weapons they had available and rushed at them without thinking twice.
The Five Generals also got into battle ready positions as they identified their foes.
｢Name: Goblin Grunt – Private Rank monster
Level: 5
HP: 50/150｣
｢Name: Goblin Fighter – Specialist Rank monster
Level: 7
HP: 350/600｣
Uno took the lead and charged into the enemy with a Shoulder Bash, sending a good amount of the waist height monsters flying. Boyd followed closely on his left, spinning his axe around and cleaving the heads off of the grunts, but only doing superficial damage to the fighters.
Kiran followed on his left, looking like a wuxia martial artist as he threw out a flurry of punches and kicks that would even have that protagonist from that old popular fighting anime that could make his hair golden and spiky feel fear.
These two prevented anything from attacking Uno's sides as he charged, making his only target being what was in front of him. Uno then cast a skill he had gotten from the master package, an uncommon combat skill called Anguished Roar.
Anguished Roar made all the enemies within a 150 meter range shift their aggro onto Uno for 3 minutes. Its cooldown was 5 minutes, meaning that for two minutes between each cast, he had to have another aggro attracting skill active.
Thankfully, he did. His other aggro attracting skill was called Infuriating Taunt, which was also uncommon. It had a smaller range compared to Anguished Roar, just about 50 meters, but it had a longer duration of 5 minutes and a shorter cooldown of 6 minutes compared to the other skills.
Shoulder Bash was something Uno bought, which was a common skill. His third freebie uncommon skill was a passive called Paladin's Honor, which granted him increased defense and a 10% increase in healing received.
Boyd hadn't purchased any new skills, but he had only chosen two skills out of his tree freebies. They were Colossus and Harrowing Chop. Colossus was a combat skill that made Boyd spin his axe in a clockwise motion with almost impossible speed and precision, making him almost like a spinning top. The duration was a full minute and each swing in that super fast spin took away chunks of health.
Its cooldown was humbling though, a whole 3 hours. For an uncommon skill, it was almost at the level of a rare skill in terms of strength after all.
Harrowing Chop was the advanced from of Chop, which was an axe skill. The user could either make an overhead, horizontal or uppercut swing with their axe and deal 150% more damage than the base effect. Its speed and hit rate were impressive and the cooldown was a short 10 seconds.
It was a utility combat skill that was fundamental. Not having it made you lower than trash if you were an axe user.
Boyd used Harrowing Chop frequently alongside his normal attacks, usually using it as a finishing blow.
Kiran had already redeemed his three uncommon skills, which were two passives and one active skill, just like Draco. Truly, in some ways Kiran was just like Draco, almost suspiciously so…
Hmm…
Anyway, his first passive was Monk's Will, which gave him 5% more Focus. Focus was another hidden stat that was of a more abstract type. Focus affected the consumption of Mana or Stamina when using skills or techniques. Higher Focus, less consumption.
However, Focus was like skills in the sense that it was technical only. Draco had the same amount of Focus as other players, yet his consumption was still thousands of times lower than others. This had to do with his own personal fighting technique, which had nothing to with the system.
However, Focus was a system aligned benefit that was automatic. To put into perspective, a person could be so refined in a technique that their consumption was only 5 Stamina. However, another person could be so brutish and wasteful in their usage, but with 100% Focus, they'd also consume only 5 Stamina.
Unfair, you say?
Naive! Ignorant!
Focus only affects consumption, not effectiveness. Just because the second person had the same level of lowered consumption didn't meant his trash-tier application of the technique would be the same as the one who had mastered it.
Kiran's second passive was Monk's Journey, which increased his movement speed and attack speed by 10%.
His active skill was a pleasant and extremely cool looking skill called Attack Rush. It allowed him to throw out hundreds of punches in seconds, which were 10% less accurate, but 50% faster and more damaging. His Stamina consumption was also increased by 30%. It had a duration of 30 seconds and a cooldown of 10 minutes.
(Author's note: Yep, I know you thought about it. Kiran becomes Star Platinum for 30 seconds every time he uses the skill.)
Kiran mostly focused on using his fighting techniques from the real world. He still preferred techniques over skills because unlike the other four, his techniques weren't self-taught. He, like Riveting Night, had received training from his lineage.
If one noticed it well, both Draco and Riveting Night also seemed to favor techniques over skills in combat.
Cobra had decided to take a ranged approach to this fight and stayed with Rina as he threw of a flurry of throwing knives. Cobra had only redeemed two of his uncommon skills, which were Advanced Stealth and Shadow Blade.
Advanced Stealth was as it stated, a skill that allowed him be invisible to sight, hearing and smell for as long as he had stamina to burn. It was stronger than the common stealth skill because it allowed him to avoid detection through certain special skills and tools.
Shadow Blade was an active skill that allowed him to spawn a dagger that was one tier stronger than his current weapon from the shadows. Of course it had a tier cap of Rare level. Otherwise, wouldn't he just get an Epic dagger and use the skill to get a temporary Legendary dagger in every fight?
It had a duration of 10 minutes and a cooldown of 30 minutes.
Rina stood beside Cobra, casting her auto-attack fireball into the crowd of monsters. She had only redeemed one skill, which was the Flash Flame attack she had utilized back in the Ursa's Cave dungeon. That ability consumed a lot of Mana, so she held off on using it just yet.
The Five Generals fought for almost half an hour non-stop, killing over 30 Private Rank Goblins and 10 Specialist Rank Goblins. In fact, what took the most time were the Specialists. The Private Rank Goblins were nothing more than playthings at best.
Since the Specialist Goblins were two levels below them, as each of the Five Generals were now level 9, they faced no suppression. In fact, it was they who suppressed the monsters this time.
When the last Goblin fell, the party took a deep breath. They felt a whole lot different this time. Unlike before, when they had been mentally and spiritually exhausted after fighting the Pangolins, now they felt… energized.
It was like the difference between doing manual labor and going to the gym. The former just made you tired while the latter filled you with energy, even though you were still exhausted.
Was it because of the Lady Boss' words? That they needed to be dauntless and indefatigable? Did it really have such a quick and hidden effect on them after just one skirmish?
"Not bad, but could've been better. At least, you seemed to have grasped the rudimentary meaning to my words, but let me correct your misunderstandings again."
Riveting Night signaled for them to come closer. When they did, she pointed to the dead goblins behind them.
"I didn't bomb those monsters to weaken them for you or to infuriate them. If I wanted you to gain dauntlessness the hard way, I'd have let you fight them while the camp was at full power."
"I could have also just used a less destructive means to attract aggro. Yet I did this for one reason and one reason alone."
She gazed at them one by one.
"To show you what true dauntlessness looks like in combat."
"Look at those dead monsters. Their IQ might be low, but they still can think and reason. They can feel fear and terror. Yet, when their encampment had been ravaged by enemies in ways they didn't even understand, their first reaction wasn't to run away."
"They probably reasoned that we had more of those bombs that could wipe them out. Yet, they still picked up their weapons and rushed at you without hesitation."
"Even though more than half of them were so injured that even advanced medicine couldn't save them, they still followed their less damaged mates into battle."
"I know you think it was foolish and a better response would have been to retreat as well as regroup. I agree, and that is why you are humans and they are monsters. You have a higher capacity to reason than they do, so you can consider facts in a more diverse and expansive way."
"But every time you meet adversity that seems insurmountable, will you retreat in every single instance? Then how do you expect to grow? To become better?"
"If you want to become a top entity in this world, in any world, you must be able to look adversity in the eye and growl menacingly, even if you absolutely need to retreat."
"Do you understand?"
The Five Generals looked humbled. They had thought that their efforts had unlocked a stronger mentality for themselves, but it turned out that it was the actions of the Goblins they fought that influenced them after hearing the Lady Boss' words.
"We do."
Riveting Night observed them silently before nodding with satisfaction. Of course, they weren't perfect yet, but they had grasped the fundamentals, which current players hadn't even understood yet.
"Good. Now, let's return to the settlement."
The six trudged along the countryside, killing any monsters that came their way. Naturally, after all of this, the Five Generals had hit level 10 and acquired the classes they were going for.
Rina was a Pyromancer.
Cobra was an Assassin.
Uno was a Paladin.
Boyd was a Berserker.
Kiran was a Monk.
When the returned to the Vita settlement, they noticed that it was a bit more lively because some NPCs had passed through. Of course, these were people who were sent over by the various Tradeskill organizations in order to curry favor with Draco.
Riveting Night ignored them and led the Five Generals to the manor. When inside, they saw that a few maids were cleaning up here and there, even though the building was spotless due to its freshness.
Once they entered the office of the mayor however, they were surprised to see that another person was already there. It was a big b.r.e.a.s.ted, cutesy girl who was barely 5 feet tall.
She wore creamy white robes that did little to his her bombastic chest which stood firm under all adversity thrust its way. Her hair was blonde and curly, adding to her extreme cuteness that would make one just want to kiss her cheeks over and over.
However, that sly and crafty glint in her eye made one's blood go cold because they could tell that this loli was devious and playful.
Uno and Body couldn't take their eyes of her massive chest for one second. Rina looked at Sublime Notion with interest, but a bit of rivalry too.
Kiran didn't care.
Cobra looked at her tits with no discernible expression. This fellow… did he even like women?
Riveting Night sat in the mayors seat, with Sublime Notion sitting opposite her. The Five Generals sat on a waiting bench and went quiet.
"This is Sublime Notion. She is my blood sister and will be the second Vice-Guildmaster of Umbra. She's a cleric, so she would balance out our current lack of healing in combat."
Riveting Night introduced Sublime Notion with a nod.
"Hi-hi, my name is Sublime Notion. You can call me Big Sis though. Any good boy who dies so might just get some love from me, teehee~"
Sublime's sweet and sugary voice made one feel pleasant emotions, but her malicious tone made one feel wariness and fear too. It was a strange paradox.
"Since you're all here, we first need to discuss a few important topics in terms of the management of Umbra. Since we're the first guild, we have the initiative in terms of foundation building."
"As you can see from the guild menu, Draco purchased various properties and buildings for our usage. You haven't seen them yet, but when you do, you'll understand just how omnipotent this guild will become in future."
"But before that…"
Riveting Night leaned onto the table and her heavy tone made all those in the room become serious.
"We need to formulate a plan for recruitment."