Caelus Online

22. Goblin Slaughter (Part 1)

Holding her chin in thought, Astaria mulled the matter over.

“Well, what are all your levels at this moment?”

Roxanne, speaking for the group answered.

“Tyrell and Russel have reached lv 6 while Ash and I are a little way off from levelling up, still at Lv 5.”

With a nod of understanding, Astaria quickly laid out her plan.

“Since Ben stayed to wait for me his level has fallen behind, so I will power level him to catch up to you guys, then I'll take Ash to get him ready to go solo. As for you guys, if you think you are ready to be able to start clearing group in pairs of 2, then split up, a tank and DPS in each group.”

The plan Astaria had for Ash was quite simple compared to everyone else. The role that she had given him was to gather basic medicinal plants that Marie could use for her alchemy. After gaining the benefits from killing the goblin boss Square Jaw, he was set to start travelling to various gathering spots that had become quite famous in the past after guilds started fighting over them during the potion shortage.

Ash would then hire a number NPC adventures to help him start collecting the basic medicinal plants en masse, stockpiling as much as he could before the demand for them rose. After the initial supplies were secured, Ash would then start collecting rarer and more advanced plants and learn how to cultivate them.

However, in order to be able to easily survive and not have to be concerned about hostile players or monsters, Ash needed to be at least level 18 by the time they killed Square Jaw.

Receiving a curt nod from the group, Ben and Astaria parted ways after a few short words and walked deeper into the forest.

“So, we will be killing the higher-level goblins that are deeper in the forest. I will do most of the killing, so just focus on making sure you are taking part in the combat.”

In Caelus online, to prevent Immortal Warriors from exploiting the party system’s shared XP function, the game's system prevented players from gaining XP while standing around doing nothing, requiring all party members to be actively engaging in fighting.

The system also proportionally reduced the XP gain of players when killing enemies of a higher level when in a party with a stronger player with a level difference of 5 or more. The exception to this is when fighting an enemy 5 or more levels higher than the strongest party member.

The system, to limit players from easily acquiring strength, pushes them towards gaining strength by putting in the effort. Given that Caelus has an impact on the real world, Astaria was certain that the game wanted players to grow from their own experience and not use coercion to have someone else do the work for them.

Taking this into account Astaria led Ben to the nearby Lv3 goblin camps.

With Astaria’s high stats and ever more accurate fighting in melee, it took them no more than 30 seconds to completely wipe out a camp.

In order to conserve her mana, Astaria only used [Earth Spike] occasionally since it was her only multi target attack, preferring to gracefully dance through the goblins using just her blade, dodging and weaving while she flashed her sword to decapitate goblins left and right. Meanwhile Ben conserved his stamina by shooting regular arrows as he slowly became accustomed to the goblin’s movements and his own bows performance, gradually increasing his hit ratio.

After spending around half an hour slaughtering the Lv 3 goblins, Ben managed to reach Lv 5 while they obtained 45 goblin ears. With Ben's XP rate dropping to 2% per kill they decided to move on to killing Lv 5 goblins, each providing Ben with 10% XP per kill and Astaria with a meagre 0.5%. After another half hour of slaughter, they looted 47 more goblin ears while Ben made it to Lv 7.

After the quick grinding session, Ben easily caught up in level to the others who were likely either all Lv 7 now or almost there.

Astaria inwardly cursed at herself that she had lost control yesterday, because if she had been killing enemies closer to her level, she could have quite easily made it to lv 12 or higher. Despite that, she still felt lucky that the XP she gained was not divided amongst a party, instead gaining a boost since she was fighting solo. She was glad that Skill Point XP was gained independently of her main level's XP when killing a monster, meaning she had a large surplus from her efforts.

She could only feel sorry for the majority of players whose levelling speed was slow due to not being familiar with fighting enemies like her, and consequently being forced to party up just to have a chance without being overrun. Caelus Online was unlike the previous VRMMO’s, its level of immersion was leagues higher than its predecessors, meaning that skill in those past games would not be easy to bring over since controlling your character felt completely different.

After looting the last goblin, Astaria called out to Ben.

“Right, let's meet up with the others, once everyone has hit lv 10 we can go and kill Square Jaw.”

Slinging his bow over his shoulder, Ben replied with a grin.

“Sounds good. With all that target practice I am thankfully starting to get used to the bow. Although my accuracy at long range still sucks.”

With a smile, Astaria walked over and handed Ben the still-usable arrows from the dead goblins.

“Well, we are only on day 2, and technically the game has not had its official release day yet. You still have lots of time.”

Saying this, Astaria quickly opened up her messages and asked Tyrell where everyone was.

After waiting a minute, she finally received a response.

> Tyrell: aay Boss, we are all still together but are grinding Lv 7 enemies in the rota southeast of where we were before. You switching Ben out for Ash?

> Astaria: Yep, how are the levels going?

> Tyrell: Everyone is Lv 7, so it won't be long now.

Seeing his last message, Astaria nodded, pleased that they were being efficient. Leading the way, she deftly navigated the forest and found the others.

Waving a greeting, everyone paused their grinding for a short time to rest and discuss any problems they had encountered while grinding.

Speaking up, Russel was the first to make a comment.

“Honestly, my movement as a warrior feels so limited, I can’t wait to reach Lv 11 and gain the [Charge] skill, then I can actually move to block unexpected attacks in time.”

Hearing this, Tyrell spoke in agreement, adjusting his pauldron to make it sit more comfortably.

“Man, for real, Paladin has that same issue, but we gotta wait for Lv 17 for a movement skill.”

Understanding their complaints, Astaria smiled while explaining.

“Well, early on most classes are quite limited in one area or another. Especially the melee classes, however, once you guys reach a higher level your classes will have no issue freely moving about.”

The conversation between them eventually quietened down as a unique roar came out from the distant forest, not something that anyone should be able to hear in Woodspike Forest. The roar did not end, continuously ringing out, only stopping to presumably take in some air. As the sound became louder, a bare-chested man stacked with muscles, whose long blonde hair and goatee were both braided, came into view carrying a one-handed war axe in one hand and a pinecone in the other.

He continued his roar, which was clearly some form of battle cry as he charged while wildly waving his arms about, apparently completely oblivious to the group of flabbergasted people who were all just standing still staring at him, their heads slowly turning as they followed his running figure. Suddenly, the war cry was cut short by the man’s sudden and loud declaration.

“I AM VIKING!”

Following this sudden declaration, the war cry resumed as he ran past the group around 20 metres away. Following another long war cry, the man suddenly stops his battle cry, making another declaration.

“I AM INVINCIBLE!”

With the loud racket ringing out again, he eventually vanished into the trees.

“I KILL YOU!”

The man’s last shout echoed out as his war cry faded out of earshot and into the distance. The group stood in silence, just staring at the spot where the man just vanished.

Ben looked at Astaria, who after noticing his movement returned his look with a shrug.

Tyrell was the one to break the flabbergasted silence that had fallen over them.

“Mans got problems.”

Following that comment, Roxanne chipped in.

“Definitely on drugs.”

Russel then chimed in with a contemplative look.

“Coke or LSD. I need me some of dat shit. Gon damn.”

His comment drew everyone’s attention to stare at him.

“What?”

Tyrell answered Russel, raising an eyebrow at his expression looking as if he was wronged.

“You want to run through the forest like some half-naked barbarian? Like ‘ook ook, look at me’. Hey man, you do you. I ain’t judging.”