"Status"
[Name: Lewis "Deadeye" Steel | HP - 18 / 18
Template: Level 3 Gunslinger (1 245 / 1 800 EXP) | NPC Pirate Officer
Category: Medium humanoid (Human Imperial), Lawful Evil
Attributes: STR 14 | DEX 18 (+1) | CON 12 | INT 10 | WIS 10 | CHA 11 (+3)
Active Skills: Lightning Reload [35/100] ★★☆☆☆ | Piercing Shot [80/100] ★☆☆☆☆ | Bullying Shot [52/100] ★☆☆☆☆
Passive Skills: Pistol Gunnery [68/100] ★★☆☆☆ | Sea Legs & Balance [58/100] ★★☆☆☆ | Gambling [46/100] ★★☆☆☆ | Weather Sense [25/100] ★★☆☆☆ | Criminal Presence [12/100] ★★☆☆☆ | Rum Tolerance [10/100] ★★☆☆☆ | Intuition [8/100] ★★☆☆☆ | Boarding Operations [3/100] ★★☆☆☆ | Danger Sense [78/100] ★☆☆☆☆ | Seamanship [38/100] ★☆☆☆☆ | Loot Valuation [36/100] ★☆☆☆☆ | Eloquence [35/100] ★☆☆☆☆ | Sleight of Hand [35/100] ★☆☆☆☆ | Naval Insight [32/100] ★☆☆☆☆ | Shipwreck Survival Instinct [30/100] ★☆☆☆☆ | Watchkeeping [28/100] ★☆☆☆☆ | Swordsmanship (Rapier) [30/100] ★☆☆☆☆
Languages: Common, Thieves' Cant
Feats: Sharpshooter IV (+1 DEX), Criminal III (+1 CHA), Murderer III (+1 WIS), Pirate Officer (+2 CHA)
Challenge Rating: 3/2 (300 XP)
Equipment: Flintlock Pistols, Pirate Officer Uniform, Iron Rapier
Assessment: "A level 3 thug with a pistol, a title on a ship and delusions of grandeur. The sea remembers...mostly his failures"]
Three months.
This was the time he had spent in Swadia, the northern human kingdom famous for its strong legacy of knights, disastrous famines due to the cold and belligerent nature.
Swadia was one of the five starting human kingdoms where a player could start a campaign. It was usually not a first choice because it was fairly poor, and unless you started in a knight household, survival was very difficult.
Bandits, barbarian tribes in the mountains, pirates on the sea...The risks were plenty for adventurers. Although it was arguably an opportunity for players who could level up by killing foes, the odds of finding enemies of the right level made it too difficult.
Only hardcore players would choose Swadia, and even then, they would choose the "knight heir scenario".
"Log out", Lewis muttered
Nothing happened.
As always, logging out was not possible. On the world minimap, a value indicated 6253 / 10000. It indicated active players. But it also served as deadly reminder of how dangerous this world was.
Like ten thousand people, he found himself testing this game as a beta tester. Little did he know, for he would find himself unable to log out. Three months later, those ten thousand people shrinked to a little more than six thousand, and every day many would die.
There were many possibilities in this game according to the guide he had read. Freedom was the main selling argument, and the main reason why Lewis had volunteered to beta test the game. A player could basically do whatever he wanted, be it marrying into a noble household or becoming a random farmer.
NPCs, enhanced with AI capabilities, mimicked human consciousness perfectly. You could raise your own family, just like you could go around and explore the world...provided that you had the means to protect yourself or pay someone to ensure your protection.
It even brought these one step further. Monsters did not spawn in a single location. Failing to control goblin populations could spawn disaster for a region with the rise of a goblin kingdom. Conquering a neighbouring kingdom meant forever deleting it from the map. Burning a forest would change the landscape of this world. Summoning demons meant bringing evil creatures into this world.
In other words, actions had consequences that lasted.
But more importantly, this game was hardcore. Dying meant forever losing your character, and you would have to restart your progression from the very bottom. You would be remembered by the people you encountered but that would be the extent of it.
And since Lewis could not log out, this meant that...this was his new life. He did not know if it was some kind of evil joke by the person who made him sign the contract, but he was stuck in an otherworldly world, stuck in medieval times.
But for some reason, Lewis accepted his new identity. He embraced it, and decided to make the best out of it.
"Please...please, have mercy!"
In front of him stood an acquaintance. Eric Oyster, a random pirate crew member. He caught him keeping loot for himself. Not much. A few silver coins, a book. Considering that he did not even know how to read, this was pretty stupid of him.
And here he was, begging for mercy.
[Eric Oyster - Lv. 1 Pirate Fighter (CR 1/4)]
Challenge ratings referred to the difficulty of defeating a foe. The exact definition was the estimated level of a party of four adventurers to defeat it without sustaining a severe loss. For example, a challenge rating 3 meant that a party of four level 3 players would be needed to defeat that individual.
As a Challenge rating of 1/4, Eric was roughly equivalent to a level 1 player.
*BANG*
[You have killed a Challenge Rating 1/4 foe. You have earned 25 EXP]
*SPLASH*
The body fell into water.
"Haha, Deadeye put a bullet right in his skull!"
"That's what happens to thieves!"
"Bwahaha, did you see him beg for mercy? He was not like that when he was bullying the merchant prisoners in the last raid"
"He made my life difficult when he ordered me around with chores, serves him right!"
The rest of the pirates were happy about the death of a fellow crewman. It must be said that Eric had a terrible reputation in the crew. He was using his large frame to bully those weaker than him. Half the reason why Lewis killed him was to strengthen his own reputation in the crew.
The other half was for EXP. And unlike NPCs, players could see their progress, their status page, and more importantly, accumulate it very fast by killing foes and completing missions. For NPCs, though killing and accomplishing feats did increase their growth, it was a more organic process.
Lewis could have become an adventurer, using the advantage of the system that granted him these advantages for the greater good, to kill monsters and become a hero.
Alternatively, he could have joined a mercenary troupe, and serve a local lord for EXP gains.
However, he did not.
Lewis spent his first few days travelling to Port Royal, a famous trading city, and entered a back-alley tavern before applying to a crew as a cabin boy, someone who would do chores. As a Level 1 fighter, he would have struggled to find any mercenary request anyway.
After a few raids, his talent was recognised, and he was promoted from cabin boy to seaman, then gunslinger, and finally officer. Responsible for order on the deck, eliminating Eric was part of his job.
He had become level 3 by completing raids, stealing from villagers and merchants, and killing those who resisted. In other words, a criminal and murderer. He knew these were just NPCs, but what was the difference between humans and AI when they had emotion, memory and a lifespan?
However, Lewis did not care. He was not just being egoistical. He was being pragmatic.
In this world, you needed to become strong to uphold your morals.
The nearly 4000 players who had died already were people who failed to adapt.
'I will become stronger...'