[Mosage] (Invincible Heroes): I'm sorry, but the Hero Council has decided to revoke your Hero status. Unfortunately, that means, I have to unguild you.
[Gloriamur]: But you have veto power over the council! You are the Arch-hero Immortal, Mosage the Mighty Mountain! You can save me right?
[Mosage] (Invincible Heroes): You used to follow the Hero ways. You were on my path. Now...
YOU HAVE BEEN REMOVE FROM THE GUILD: Invincible Heroes
JOINING NPC GUILD (Human Townspeople 17)
<NPC GUILD CHAT SCROLL OMITTED PER YOUR FILTER RULES>
[Gloriamur]: <whispering Mosage>: Why do this? What guild will ever accept me after the Heroes banish me?
DETAILED CHARACTER REPORT
Name: Gloriamur
Level: 31 [Recon Soldier]
Role History: Rookie -> Trainee -> Recon Soldier Trainee -> Recon Soldier
Neighboring Roles: Military Ranger, Front-Line Soldier, Marine, Paratrooper
Attributes:
Resil: 16
Resolve: 15
Steadfastness: 20
Courage: 13
Charisma: 12
Camaraderie: 12
Charm: 7
Pluck: 17
Battle: 16 2/3
Strength: 19
Grace: 13
Maneuver: 18
Mind: 15
Wits: 21
Sense: 9
Wisdom: 15
Magic: 3 2/3
Aura: 4
Magical Control: 1
Magical Awareness: 6
Equipment:
Modern Weapon:
Rookie Submachine Gun
Heroic Weapon:
Mark 2 Broadsword
Accessories:
Rookie Rusty Chainmail
Currency:
1,512 Kronars
Vault Access:
1 tab
END DETAILED REPORT
<> * <> * <> * +~
Mur (or Gloriamur for long) trudged through the swampy zone that was home to level 10-15 teams of adventurers. The best weapon he had was a mark 2 broadsword, because he had been part of Invincible Heroes from the beginning, and never bothered to use non-Guild funded weapons. Those were all gone, so he used the last weapon he got before switching his compensation plan to Guild tokens.
The Guild took in all of the loot he collected, sold it on the public markets and provided him with Guild Reward Tokens, which were worthless in the event of not being part of the guild. It was a risky plan, but Guilds like Mur's old Invincible Heroes provided incredible benefits in the form of better equipment, and better storyline missions.
The whole guild combined in different roles and pieces to participate in War Story Missions. And specific units, like the 3rd Recon Platoon he had been a part of, participated in Unit Story Missions often 2 or 3 times a week.
And whenever he had time to spare, he would join in Targets of Opportunity, Story Mssions that would pop up and were size-flexible to include whomever was available.
For Invincible Heroes, the Front-Line fighters were the most desirable posting, and most prestigious, earned for service in other roles.
Mur had thought he was within a few months of earning a Mainline posting. He served in a still decent role, as Recon Soldier. There were Logistics roles, and Militant Ranger roles, as well as the traditional trainee, acolyte, etc roles for the lower levels.
The game didn’t provide any magical classes or abilities instead emphasizing Modern guns and Medieval swords/hammers/axes in their army setups. They used medics, not healer mages. There were a variety of specialty tracks, for those who didn't or couldn't pursue a mainline fighter role, like Mur had been chasing.
The Lemon Law proved that because Mur had been kicked out a guild, any other guild would assume something was wrong with him.
The best thing Mur knew to do with the rest of his time in the game, was rebuild his equipment, by hunting much lower enemies by himself, and gradually refine a solo style. He knew he would never be able to fight at level enemies, or get involved in story missions again.
NPC guilds were filled with people who didn't know how to work together, or didn't have the capacity to be a strong combatant or helpful auxilliary. What Guild would want to kick out a useful member?
He didn't intend to work with any of the members of this putative Human Townspoeple 17 guild.
There were other games, where Soloing was possible and prosperous, but Mur loved this one, and the cooperation and camaraderie of his ex-Guild.
He killed another frognurt with his tier 2 broadsword. 22 frognurt corpses gives you one Swamp merit. 150 swamp merits gives you a roll on an equipment chart, which includes, possibly a decent Tier 3 weapon. His level helped him do better, but his SMG was worthless even against level 12 frognurts. The broadsword was good enough to handle them, but not much better.
Good Equipment was made by crafting specialists, acceptable equipment could be found by a lot of grinding. There was a public market in loot and therefore a public market in acceptable equipment, but good crafters needed extensive time and resources, they therefore belonged to the guilds, rather than being market freelancers.
He had to chase the frognurts all over the Swamp zone, because he could easily deplete populations with his frognurt killing rate.
30 swamp merits and 11 more frognurt corpses in, and a Guild team confronted him.
"Clear the Area! The Awesome Mountees are conducting trainee operations in the area. Our Guild charter authorizes wiping any unguilded mooches from the area."
Mur had to leave for a few hours. He researched his map of zones by level while he waited for the Guild op to disperse.
The next day he ran into a level 10 unguilded. He was a magical ranger trainee. Mur knew because the unguilded told him.
With Rookie equipment, Ialophos was sure to die if he faced any of the swamp's mobs.
"I thought I'd check out what mobs there are to fight here. Elvenhome is full of boring fights. I can kill them all in two shots, or one mystic shot."
"You need guild equipment to make it here. Or you need to get all the upgrade grinds in Elvenhome before coming here, and then be very careful."
"Why do you think that, I mean, maybe it will be hard, but I'm level 10, ready for the zone, sergeant!"
"I'm not a sergeant. I'll tell you what, what level do you see me as?" Mur asked the Elf.
"??? way above me."
Mur fought another frognurt, using all of his hard-won grace, manuevering, strength and courage. He killed the frognurt quickly but didn't insta-kill.
"I guess you're level 21?" Ialophos said.
"You're off by 10. I'm level 31, but my gear is only Tier 2, instead of tier 5-6-7, like it was. I was kicked out of my guild, and now I'm hunting 18 levels down and not being as fast as a should. You'd be hunting 3 levels up, and with Rookie equipment."
"Oh. So I guess I need to sign up with a guild?"
Mur laughed. "Kid, how much do you know about this place?"
"Swamplands? I know it's the 1st zone after home for Elves, and Humans too I guess?"
"First zone for Elves and Lizardkin. I just came here because my calculations showed it was the least used by Guild training teams. But by here, I mean here."
"Oh, well I heard there was some big wars, and that sounded cool."
"Did you get Foreign Legion papers?" Mur said.
"Uh, what's that?"
"Someone from our land likes you enough to give you a commission to join their guild here, become part of their army. Often with a specialty role, sometimes, as with me, with a long-term goal authorization of front-line soldier."
"Oh..."
Mur felt sorry for the kid, completely unaware of the Guild-centric style of his homeland.
"Comeon, I'll show you how to milk the Elven king for all his rewards."
"Really?"
Characterization!
Camaraderie + 1 (13)
Pluck + 1 (18)
Mur left his swamp merits in limbo, and his frognurt corpses in item exile, the place where you put things you might never want to see again. Weird quest chains with their weird items, off to item exile.
The Elven homeland was quite picturesque, if you hadn't already grown jaded by years of over-exposure, like Mur had in his old games. Mur knew about the Elven homeland noob-quests and rewards from his time before he came to this game. He studied the Prima guide and all the supplemantal books and webpages before he got his Foreign Legion letter.
It was 6 months of dying from Elf overexposure before he moved over. Being a human soldier was a refreshing contrast, once he had gotten here.
Sure, nominally, it was the sort of thing he wouldn’t be caught dead doing before, but Mur kinda enjoyed teaching Ialophos the basics of squeezing out maximum rewards, while also teaching him grace and manuever. It wasn't neccesary against these rookie foes, but it did lead to interesting and epic death blow combos with the Bow + Spell style Ialo had.
The bow had to be a special rarer type of bow: a spell bow or magic bow, so that his magic locus could be the bow while also using it as a weapon to fire arrows.
The final Elven home challenge noob-quest was for a spell bow or compound bow depending on role choice. The noob-quest had phasing which meant Mur couldn't accompany Ialo for this one.
Ialo had to fight a boss which was quite tough by Rookie standards. He had to work his way through waves of mobs in the forest until he reached a temple at the peak of a forested hill area. Fighting through several different kinds of lieutenants, he reached the Dark Druid herself, and battled his way to victory.
Wtih all the minor awards, resources, and especially training in grace and manuever, Ialo defeated the whole challenge in 25 minutes, surprising even Mur.
Ialo got his spell bow, and a Tier 1 woodsman armor. He still would need a Tier one melee weapon soon enough, but the two of them together could begin to take on the Swamplands.
Realization!
Sense +1 (10)
Mur wrested with the chasm of boredom through all of this, but didn't show it. By comparison, the Swamplands actually required him to use his battle skills. With Ialo's bow and his melee prowess, they became 3 to 4 times more effective at clearing out frognurts.
Ialo had his first wipe when an especially large cluster of frognurts swarmed them, and Mur couldn't do anything to direct their attention. He wasn't especially good at front line combat, because he hadn't earned that role in Invincible Heroes yet.
A role change would require Mur to level up:
LEVEL 31 PROGRESS
[******* ] : 23.3%
A frognurt was about 0.01% of a level.
The wipe was just a temporary setback, but their clear rate was a bigger one. They had to move on to other stuff in the swamp, which meant Mur's first wipe in the zone, as he took on too many Big Buggers with his chintzy chainmail armor.
A wipe here, a wipe there, but their broader hunting pattern meant level 17 for Ialo, and a merit turn in.
Zone Merit rewards could be sold at the public market or traded to other players directly.
Mur waited as Ialo rolled on a Merit item reward. Tier 3 Massive Plate Armor. Usable only by Front-Line Soldier or Guardian roles. It was primarily a Guardian role as they had reductions to Massive Armor penalty.
So it was fortuitous to see a Lizardkin in Rookie tier Massive Plate Armor, being confused.
Mur had a conversation first.
"Are you part of a guild?"
"No. I wanted a Foreign Legion invite, but I never got one. I was going to look for a guild, but I figured I'd better get to level 10 and get out of the Newb-zone. Are you guys part of a guild?"
"We're guildless. Ialo didn't really know he needed a guild, and I got kicked out of mine."
"Oh, well I have to go find some guild recruiters. Is there some kind of channel for Guild recruiters?"
"Invite-only, supposedly. I've heard if you are a huge deal in your guild, and they can you, you can connect with some Guild Headhunters. I'm hearing its level 80 demis and up. And commanders."
"Oh, well I can't just go around and find a bunch of recruiters here?" the Lizardkin aka Odeimos, asked.
"Nope. Unless you have a foreign legion letter, you won't get in a guild as a low-level."
"Are you guys just teaming up, can I join your group, at least?"
"You've got to go through the gauntlet, just like Ialo did. In order to have the equipment you need, you'll have to complete all the extra challenge quests, you probably don't even have many of them discovered. Ialo was a ranger in a ranger friendly zone, you're a guardian-trainee in a zone more specced for berserker type equipment."
"How do we get him the right equipment?" Ialo asked.
"It's going to suck, but Odeimos, you need to run the whole Dwarf holdings intro zone with us, including the challenge quests," Mur said.
"Yuck, what if I just go fight some guys here?" Odeimos said.
Ialo responded first, "You'll die. I've wipes four times, with Mur's help. We have some Tier 3 Massive Plate, but you need to get to level 15 first. Mur's a level 31 recon. I'm a level 17 magic ranger".
"Hmm. I guess I can do that. How are you going to run it with me, if you're so high level?"
"The Dwarflands doesn't have any phasing, so we can run it together, and help out. Plus there is the epic Dark Dwarf incursion challenge, which can result in a Tier 2 Massive Armor right out of the rookie zone."
From the Swamplands, they had to pass through the Iron Mountain Pass, a level 15-20 zone, staying on the mountain road, and tag teaming the few mobs they did encounter. Mur had to use up the last of his coin on buying a few grenades to add to their punch against level 15 mobs.
From there it was on to the Highlands, the level 10-15 junction zone connecting to the Dwarflands, and Frostlands, which were the Giants starting zone.
As Highlands were a favored guild training zone, they stayed away from groups of guilders, skirting around the edges of the zone until they reached the threshold of the rookie zone, where guild powers could not be used, nor abused on the newbies therein.
The trek into the Dwarflands Rookie zone starting spot was quick, as the rookie zones were smaller than all the others.
The beginning of the noob-quest chain was a solid stone dinning room table in the Dwarfking's Palace. The Dwarfking's adjutant was sitting at the far end.
Odeimos sat down in the opposite chair.
"Well, I was to tell you you about the current sit'ation with them Dark Dwarves and the Trolls coming out of the Deep roads? But first, be seated. This'on will take a while."
Odeimos looked around for another chair.
"All of you, please sit, if'n you would."
Mur shrugged, he'd never played Dwarflands, but the Prima guide never mentioned this. He sat down next to Odeimos, and Iola followed, sitting next to them.
"We welcome you, travelers, to the Dwarven Highlands, home to the Highland Kingdom, ruled by our illustrious and wise Dwarfking. His axe blade is sharp, and his shield protects the Dwarven and free folk of these lands from all threats foreign and domestic."
This didn't match what Mur remembered of the guide. Maybe it had changed since release.
The adjutant twisted a mechanical lever, which spun a gear which released a projection of the Dwarflands zone.
"My stonesense finds something different in you three. An Ambassador from lands far perhaps?"
Mur blinked, and pondered whether something had broken in the dialogue.
"We are just guildless, milord Dwarf. Never been an ambassador, I don't think any of us has, though I just met Gloriamur and Odeimos today," Ialo said.
"Hmm," the adjutant npc pondered. Light flared over the three of them, smoke filled the room.
REALM PORTAL CHARGING. PREPARE YOURSELF.
He was being evicted! Mur realized with a groan. Since when did the Invincible Heroes have that much power. What had he done! He didn't even get an appeal.
All around him was only the white fog of a realm transfer.
50% CHARGED.
Where would he going back to?
75% CHARGED.
Forest Grove, of course.
90% CHARGED.
He had completed every solo accomplishment of Forest Grove, and even lead teams, and full on combat in the best of the Elven graceful fighting style. He had spent time on the command aspects of the realm while he was waiting to get a Foreign Legion invite into Guildlands.
100% CHARGED
[LEAVING GUILDLANDS - HIGHLANDS]
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