Chapter 201:
The noisy little players entered the game. Since they were all “friends and family”, even the veteran players got busy, mostly putting aside their current tasks to guide the newcomers.
For example, Onboard Joy Stick as usual gathered a large group of new players with combat professions and once again took them to his beloved “Place of Destiny” – the sewers.
Joy Stick learned from Grayman that the sewers weren’t just two levels deep. There was a hidden third level below the “ancient area”, so he planned to explore its reality. It was a good opportunity to train the little players’ combat skills and make them realize the importance of teamwork in this game through real battles.
Because of previous experience in guiding newcomers, there were no unexpected casualties this time. However, screaming in fear at the sight of ghouls and losing control of emotions were still common occurrences.
After all, who wouldn’t be confused when a group of atheists saw such fantastical and realistic creatures?
The ghoul’s terrible appearance and nauseating stench alone were enough to scare these “pampered” sweethearts from the real world to “lose their composure”.
While the little players were battling in the sewers, the girls’ team was at the Adventurer’s Guild camp with their own “newbies”, helping Lady Aqua complete her Oak Apprentice class change.
This was currently the only known healing profession in the game.
Due to Murphy’s advance instructions, Guildmaster Natalie had prepared uniforms for the “warriors”, but there was a problem:
“It’s too tight! I can’t breathe.”At the camp, Lady Aqua’s face was flushed red from the constricting standard nun’s robe.
Sister Jules and Grandma Marianne exchanged glances. They had already found the largest size of nun’s robe, but the “proportions” of this newly initiated warrior were simply too magnificent, making even the large-sized uniform struggle to contain her.
The tightly stretched chest area looked a bit too undignified.
“The design of this nun’s robe is very classic, clearly referencing clerical vestments, but it must be altered. Not just the bust size, but also this conservative style. Wearing such ‘lifeless clothes’ is simply intolerable.
Do you have a needle and thread?
I’ll modify it myself. It won’t take too long.”
Lady Aqua, always picky about clothing, took off the constricting garment. She found needle, thread, and tailoring tools in Sister Jules’ tent, and then busily set to work in a skilled manner.
Captain Natalie, who had been observing this scene, said in an odd tone to her assistant Amber:
“We’re supposed to be a proper church.”
“Indeed, how can such a sacred nun’s robe look so… indecent on that woman? It could almost be called ‘depraved’.”
Miss Amber also looked perplexed.
Clearly, this unexpected situation left both Avalon Church Witch Hunters at a loss.
“This obviously isn’t a problem with the clothes,” whispered Bursting Belly, who had just completed his Oak Apprentice class change.
“Given Lady Aqua’s situation, even if you put her in the most solemn papal robes, it would be the same. She has that enviable natural gift. Sigh, Lady Aqua’s husband is truly the enemy of all men!”
“The Avalon Church doesn’t have a pope. We’re governed and led by the Elder Council of Nature,” Captain Natalie sternly corrected, then glanced at the “Beast Tongue” skill book Bursting Belly was holding. She advised:
“This tome is very abstruse. It records techniques for communicating with wild creatures. Many Witch Hunters can’t master it. Perhaps you should start with simpler skills?”
“Huh? Abstruse? Not at all, it’s explained very clearly. I’ve already learned it.”
Brother Belly, a fierce beast keeper, blinked his eyes. Fearing Captain Natalie wouldn’t believe him, he demonstrated his skills by turning to call out to several male falcons that were bobbing their heads, trying to court the proud falcon Swift Shadow perched on a tent nearby.
His call wasn’t quite Proficient yet, but it clearly carried peculiar spirit energy waves.
Those foolish birds engaged in their “naughty business” immediately turned their heads, their small eyes filled with shock.
As Brother Belly called out again in a vivid imitation, one of the falcons cautiously flew over, landing on his arm. Brother Belly then fed it a few sunflower seeds he had bought specifically for this purpose.
With the financial support of Rich Brother, Feel You Poor, he was considered wealthy compared to the generally cash-strapped little players. He could even afford things like the Spirit Microphone that even some veteran players couldn’t easily buy.
“You see, Miss Natalie, Beast Tongue isn’t difficult to learn.”
Brother Belly raised his arm to show the falcon to the two Witch Hunters. Natalie and Amber exchanged glances, and the gray-haired witch hunter said very seriously to the warrior before her:
“You might have the talent to become a ‘Druid’, warrior. Such Mastery of Beast Tongue is a rare gift. Unfortunately, the old Druid orders have perished in the wars. You can only explore this path on your own.”
“There, I’ve finished the alterations.”
At that moment, the curtain of Sister Jules’ tent was lifted, and Lady Aqua walked out wearing her self-modified nun’s robe.
The neckline had been cut to create some openness, preventing the clothes from constraining her. The loose robe had been tailored into a fitted style, cinched with a belt, transforming the originally baggy nun’s robe into what looked like a special dress. Paired with the vampire riding boots that Fatal Orchid Huahua had kindly contributed… tsk tsk, all that was missing was a pair of classic white stockings for nuns.
Sister Jules, following behind Lady Aqua, was a traditional and conservative believer. She kept praying, seemingly asking Avalon to forgive this new devotee for certain aspects of her “offense” against faith.
The old sister, who had lived most of her life, had never imagined that the faith of the Avalon God could have such a “vivid and charming” special version.
“Hey! You’re here to help with healing, not to make clothes! Come on, let’s take you monster hunting,” called out little Sword Saint Ashina, chewing on candy.
Lady Aqua, with a beaming smile, bid farewell to the church members very amiably and properly using the old church rituals she had just learned. Holding her Thorn staff, she left the camp with her friends.
However, monster hunting was out of the question. As someone who entered the game as a “Master of Manufacturing”, she still had to attend Professor Malcolm’s “professional skills assessment” later. The administrator was counting on Lady Aqua to train some advanced tailors in his domain. This was the best use of “otherworld knowledge”. As for Lady Aqua herself, she was probably the busiest among this batch of newcomers.
Nevertheless, she didn’t dislike this unique and vibrant “otherworld gaming” career, recording everything she saw with wise and gentle eyes.
The busy day passed like this, everything under Murphy’s observation. After confirming that his little players had started adapting to the new environment, he also breathed a sigh of relief.
At dusk, he left Crimson Citadel with Tris and Adele to welcome Miss Femis back from her journey in the southern hills. Gliding through the air with wings spread was always relaxing and enjoyable. Murphy had also grown to love the feeling of flying and soaring through the sky. He casually opened the forum.
He wanted to see the new players’ first-day gaming experiences and feedback. The hottest post on the forum wasn’t from new players, but the third version of the newbie guide compiled by that rascal Ah Yuen.
This little fool had died trying to fly last night and was now waiting for resurrection, giving him enough time to complete the guide compilation.
《Under the Moon – Volume Three – Newbie Novice Basics》
Ah Yuen: 【Hey hey hey, dear companions, your most trustworthy Ah Yuen is back again. This time I’ve brought a carefully compiled guide for the 70 new game entrants to help you integrate into the game faster. Hurry up and say thank you to Brother Yuen!
Alright, no more joking around.
The first piece of advice for new players is: unless you have obtained a flying license, never attempt to fly recklessly within the Crimson Citadel airspace! The call of Mother Earth is not a simple test, and the 250 gold fine from the administrative office made Ah Yuen feel the malice from the development team.
But this isn’t a big problem! The resilient Ah Yuen won’t give up on exploring the skies so easily!
So, let’s get to the main topic.
First, this post is aimed at combat professions. Newbies in administrative professions, please refer to Bulldozer Man’s special guide 《3-Minute Tutorial on How to Prosper Officialdom in Transia》, which can be found in the section of posts marked as ‘Very Important’.
For combat professions, after Joy Stick’s ‘friendly guidance’, you should already understand the basic combat operations of this game. Therefore, Ah Yuen’s advice for you is:
Don’t linger in the sewers!
The average level of ghouls and water spirits there is above 7, and occasionally elite bosses will appear. Those are definitely not monsters that newbies can handle, and the complex terrain can make you get lost even with the mini-map.
Once you get lost in such a place
Tsk, you’ll have to be more careful in your next life.
The most suitable area for newbies to practice and explore is right above the starting point!
That’s right, it’s in the inner city ruins around the Adventurer’s Guild camp.
The shadows from the Astral Realm’s creation constantly produce despair derivatives, and those formless monsters at levels 1-3 are most suitable for cute and brave newcomers to have their first taste of battle.
Old Eugene from the Adventurer’s Guild also posts daily quests on his beloved mission board to clear shadow monsters. Once you complete them all, you can get a full set of squire armor and novice weapons ‘sponsored’ by the Adventurer’s Guild.
However, be aware that the inner city ruins are not a safe place!
You may occasionally encounter wandering Astral Realm beasts there, with base levels fluctuating between 4-8, equivalent to ‘patrol monsters’. They come with mental shock and invisibility, making them difficult to deal with.
If you encounter one, remember to call for friends to fight together. With good luck, they might drop alchemy materials. Remember to take them to Lady Tris’s alchemy cottage to find NPCs who can exchange them for some basic spirit energy skill books.
However, a few Black Iron level Astral Realm fierce beasts or even elite level beast bosses occasionally spawn in those ruins!
If you encounter them, hide immediately!
At the same time, report the location to veteran players or seek help from Witch Hunter guards near the camp.
Absolutely not!
Don’t go up there and get yourself killed!
Those high-level beasts are very troublesome. For newcomers, they basically fall into the category of “encounter equals death”. If you don’t understand what I’m saying, just imagine them as unreasonable super patrol monsters like the Son of Alrugo and Lord Moradim, and you’ll be OK.
After you’ve cleared through the inner city ruins and become a “Shadow Monster Killer”, newbies can happily return to the sewers and join Joy Stick’s “Sewer Legion” to become a glorious ghoul hunter.
However, before going to the sewers, remember to find Lord Maxim first and join the Kadman People’s Army to unlock reputation and military ranks.
This is very useful!
Basically, by the time you trigger the Black Iron Trial, if you don’t slack off, your reputation in the People’s Army should be close to respected. My suggestion is to grind it to respected! You can spend a modest amount of money at the quartermaster to purchase a set of veteran armor and veteran weapons.
After that, if you’re confident in your skills, you can directly challenge the Black Iron Trial, find Lady Adele to accept the elite quest “Hunt the Traitor” to kill vampires, or directly find elite bosses in the wild to test your luck.
According to rumors, there’s a set of gladiator quest chains in the recently opened fighting club, with the final step spawning an elite enemy to help complete the Black Iron Trial.
But the elite-level Black Iron Trial is really quite difficult. If you’re not confident in your skills, go grind dungeons!
There are currently four dungeons in the Blood Vulture Halls, three 5-player instances: the Morland Village Raid, the Smuggler’s Woods Ambush, and the Jed Gang Subjugation.
These are all intense battles that veteran players have experienced. You can run them once a day, with each BOSS dropping a Recruit Badge. Three badges can be exchanged for a piece of masterwork veteran armor at Old Buma the quartermaster.
If you grind every day, including weapons, accessories, and rings, you can graduate in about 5 days!
At this point, you can beg Meow King, Joy Stick, or Sister Pomegranate to take you to run “Advance into Blood Vulture Halls”. This raid can only be done once a week, and each Veteran Badge dropped can be exchanged for one piece of the standard “Clan Guard” commander set.
It looks cool, has powerful attributes, and once you wear it, you can basically withstand normal attacks from elite monsters head-on. Including two hidden BOSS, you can get 5 badges in one run, so you can graduate after two runs.
But the raid is very difficult!
Each BOSS has a different strategy. You can try forming your own team, but make sure to ask veteran players for guides.
I’ve heard that there are quest items with “special drops” in these dungeons. If you get them, you can trigger quests with rewards of Replica limited-edition outfits and increase your favorability with corresponding NPCs.
But Ah Yuen has bad luck and hasn’t gotten any, sob~
Oh, speaking of this, I should add something! If you really don’t like the dark environment of the sewers, or if you get dizzy from the stench of ghouls, there’s a second leveling route to choose from.
Now Baroness Miriam has started issuing daily quests to clear gnolls.
I estimate that our next attack focus might be on the gnoll bandits who are said to be rampant in Transia.
So, making an irresponsible guess, if little players form teams to hunt gnolls and bring back enough claws and tails to turn in to Maxim, it should trigger a Hidden Quest.
But the problem with humanoid monsters like gnolls is that there are many enemies in their lairs, and these guys are smarter! According to information kindly provided by Rich Brother, Feel You Poor, gnolls will actively flee when defeated and call for their kin to seek revenge, just as annoying as murlocs in a certain game!
Moreover, gnolls often cohabitate with kobolds!
Although kobolds are easier to deal with, occasionally there will be spirit individuals among them. Those earth spirit spells hurt a lot and come with control effects, so be extra careful when going out to subjugate them.
Ah!
These are Ah Yuen’s leveling suggestions for new players.
Finally, to summarize, this game isn’t about killing more monsters to level up faster. The focus is on honing your skills. Brother Mao is the best example, his feat of defeating an elite without taking damage has become a beautiful tale even among NPCs.
The part about ‘titles’ and ‘honorifics’ belongs to advanced content. New players should consider this aspect after passing the Black Iron Trial~】
Fatal Orchid Huahua: 【Great summary, but there’s one point you didn’t mention, little Ah Yuen. At the adventurer’s camp, you can find Guildmaster Natalie to purchase spirit bead plugins. Administrative players will be given Spirit Microphones, but other players have to buy them themselves.
Although it’s a bit expensive, I suggest new players equip themselves as soon as possible, otherwise communicating with NPCs will be very troublesome.
The translation module that comes with the Computation Bead isn’t particularly accurate and can occasionally lead to errors in quest content. Just now, Lady Aqua has tried the spirit shield and spirit ray components, and little Sword Saint has tried the spirit scope. They all work well, especially the scope – putting it on feels like suddenly turning into an FPS game.
The shield component can create a volatile spirit shield.
It lasts for 30 seconds and can withstand two attacks from Black Iron monsters. When the shield breaks, it casts a mind-piercing spell on the monster.
The ray component is even more straightforward. When activated, it fires a searing ray.
Its power is equivalent to a small-caliber bullet and can penetrate a gnoll’s head at close range. The charging time is a bit long, once every 5 minutes, but it’s very useful as a support skill.
Equipping all these plugins can effectively increase the survival rate of new players. Conveniently, our Computation Bead has three slots, probably a patch added by the development team later, perhaps a small benefit for new players?】
Scholar Xiao Zhou: 【How can there be such expensive benefits? Sister Orchid, that Black-Hearted Witch Hunter Natalie set the price too high. Buying all three costs 60 gold coins. Where would new players get so much money?】
Sword Saint Ashina: 【The “Pride of Silver Moon” team is now recruiting melee fighters above level 5 to participate in the subjugation of gnoll lairs. The requirement is to kill at least 50 gnolls. After the action, we will gift each participating player one of the three bead plugins!
Only 20 spots! First come, first served!】
Does the Cyborg Snail Dream of Electronic Trees: 【Me, me, me! Rich lady, choose me! Strong Black Iron rank vampire Tomb Guard, can fight, can tank, and can even act cute! The money in the kid’s hands has all been taken by the stupid Leading Pigeon to buy alchemy materials. Urgently need plugin support.】
Kono Maomao Shark: 【Strong Black Iron rank vampire Midnight Hunter looking for a team! First-class reconnaissance, invincible assassination. Rich lady, give me a chance.】
North Forest Dog’s Paddle: 【Damn! You two are in such a miserable state? As mighty Black Iron rank players, you’re competing with new players for jobs, shameless! Rich lady, why not choose us? Although we’re not vampires, strong swordsmen have higher attack power. We also have experts like Brother Mao. Beating a few gnolls is absolutely a piece of cake.】
West Valley Wolf’s Prowl: 【What are you butting in for? Hurry back to fight monsters! That mysterious NPC is just ahead. Brother Mao says we must complete his Hidden Quest.
You bastard, hurry up!
Whether we can learn powerful skills all depends on this wave.】
North Forest Dog’s Paddle: 【Oh, coming.】
Onboard Joy Stick: 【??? You guys encountered a mysterious NPC in the sewers? And triggered a quest? Damn, eating alone, huh? Brothers, report the location. I’ll bring people over to help immediately.】
Like A Tiger Can Edge Wood: 【The 7th collapsed tunnel on the northwest edge of the ancient area in the sewers, come quickly! The monsters here are endless, they keep coming out! Ghouls and wraiths mixed together, bring some Spirit Mages!
Civilian Protection Officer Kudel requires us to hold this place for at least an hour before he will acknowledge our will and combat power. We just triggered this quest, and it can be shared!
This NPC is powerful and will definitely lead to some impressive plot.】
Meow King: 【Damn! You guys are really eating alone! Wait, this powerful mage will bring people to support you right away.】
What started as a nice newbie post suddenly turned into a Hidden Quest recruitment, leaving Murphy with a helpless expression. His little players were indeed “quest experts”.
However, Ah Yuen’s summary was indeed good and very helpful for newcomers. It could also deepen their stereotypical impression of this “game”.
It’s worth pinning!
And it deserves a hefty reward, to encourage Ah Yuen to produce more game guides, telling everyone that this is just a game! Moreover, it’s a game still under development, so various game features are not complete and need to be launched successively. Don’t overthink it, okay?
“Master, your smile looks strange,” Lady Adele said softly, making Murphy immediately straighten his expression.
He folded his wings and descended from the high altitude, landing on the hills near the Baroness of Shadows’ territory. In front of him, a caravan was slowly approaching, and on the lead carriage, a small figure waved in the night, showing no trace of midnight nobility as she spread her wings and flew towards them.
Like a wanderer returning home, or a friend coming back from a long journey.
The young lady was back.
From the shelter where she once wanted to spend the rest of her life, back to her true home.