Skills
Presence Detection: A skill that senses hidden entities. It can also reduce encounter rates by detecting monster positions in advance.
Blacksmithing: A skill for crafting and repairing weapons and armor.
Cooking: A skill for creating dishes from ingredient-type items.
Items
Coffee Grinder: A tool for grinding beans, as the name suggests. It holds no other value, but to those who crave it, it might be as precious as treasure.
Dull Dagger: A poorly made dagger with a blunt edge. Still, it's more than capable of taking a life.
Mist-Shrouded Map: A map largely consumed by fog. It once depicted a vast continent, but someone—or something—obscured it with mist. The act of a madman, or perhaps a warning from one who fears the future?
Level 9. That number stirs a tangle of emotions in Shinon's chest.
The deliberate PK kill by Kuuri—PKK, though not a praiseworthy act, carried undeniable weight, manifesting as a tangible burden in their status points.
One kill, one imprisonment. The experience points gained pushed Shinon's party up three whole levels, and the colossal amount of Col they earned ensured they wouldn't face financial hardship for a while.
The items gained were only from the player Kuuri killed, but even so, the sheer volume of loot amassed through that player's PK spree was staggering. Among them, the Crude White Powder stood out.
This item falls into the narcotic category. It grants fleeting euphoria but clouds the mind during use and robs the user of sound judgment afterward. It didn't exist during the beta test; it was added for the official release.
Shinon spits at the sheer bad taste of it. Kayaba's successor must have poured every ounce of malice into creating this item, a tool for players driven to despair in this death game to escape reality. And, as intended, the Crude White Powder has already begun to spread through the crumbling town.
DBO is riddled with traps designed to corrupt, despair, and destroy players. Shinon feels this truth anew, a shiver running down her spine.
Back at their base in the abandoned village, Shinon brushes off Kuuri and the others' opinions, focusing solely on raising the proficiency of her Spirit Bow Akatsuki. After seven days of testing every possibility, she finally realized that escorting the stubborn old man directly to his daughter yielded the highest evaluation, earning her this exceptional weapon.
Its firepower, even unenhanced, is triple that of a longbow. Like Diavel's Red Rose, it can't be upgraded at this stage, but its high TEC requirement ensures accuracy far surpassing any longbow.
For Shinon, a seasoned GGO player and one of the best, ranged weapons feel second nature. Though it's a string, not a trigger, the mechanics remain the same in this game.
In her vision, two circles appear: an outer green one and an inner red one, pulsing in sync with her breath and heartbeat. The higher the accuracy, the more her arrows cluster within the red circle; otherwise, they fall within the green. It's a system not unlike GGO's.
But DBO differs critically from GGO: there's no predictive aim line for players. Without the Shot Prediction skill, it's impossible to anticipate an arrow's trajectory. This gives bows a significant advantage, one that hardly needs stating.
Is the bow, then, the ultimate weapon? Shinon would say no. While it allows one-sided attacks from a distance, the game's balance ensures countermeasures abound. Ranged attacks, in general, are kept low in power. A single Shot Mitigation skill could nullify that advantage entirely.
Thus, Shinon acquired new skills. At level 9, with two extra skill slots than expected, she chose Sniper and Presence Concealment.
Sniper is a powerful skill that, when undetected, boosts critical hit rates and ignores enemy defenses. Even against Shot Mitigation or heavy armor, arrows can deal direct damage. However, it consumes an exorbitant amount of stamina. Combining it with a sword skill for amplified power would drain Shinon's full stamina in one shot. Naturally, the farther the target, the lower the damage and accuracy—a high-risk, high-reward skill.
To maximize Sniper, she took Presence Concealment, a skill Kuuri also possesses. In exchange for reduced stamina recovery, it lowers monster encounter rates and makes the user harder to detect by other players. When stationary, a fully developed skill could render her invisible even to someone standing right in front of her. Of course, Presence Detection, its counter-skill, means she can't rely on it blindly.
"What are you doing?"
After felling her 80th malformed lump of flesh today, Shinon exhales, trying to quell the frustration swirling in her chest.
She knows the reason. The source of her relentless irritation is Kuuri.
The incident the other day was enough to reshape her view of him.
Mouthy, socially awkward, insecure about his appearance, yet surprisingly caring—that was Shinon's earlier impression of Kuuri.
Now, fear overshadows all else. Despite knowing this is a death game where game over means actual death, the way Kuuri looked at that player's HP, like it was nothing more than an object, terrified her.
Kuuri can kill. If Shinon attacked him in his sleep, he'd strangle her without hesitation, just as he did then. Whispering, "You brought this on yourself," he'd stare into her eyes until her final moment, never looking away.
She hates herself for thinking this way. That's the root of her frustration.
Sure, Kuuri's actions weren't commendable. But they weren't wrong, either. He was the one targeted by a PK. And he acted, in part, to protect Shinon and Diavel.
If asked whether she'd have helped if consulted, Shinon would've said no. Even if she agreed, she'd have suggested a less violent approach. But that wouldn't have been what Kuuri wanted.
There was no best or better outcome. That day, no better resolution existed. One habitual PKer died, another was imprisoned. It's a compromise she has to accept.
"Ugh, this is so infuriating!"
Kicking a skull-shaped object at her feet, Shinon roars like a beast. Destruction is one of the most effective stress relievers, and slaughtering those malformed lumps was the result. Yet, her heart remains clouded.
Exhausted and mentally drained, she decides it's time to call it quits. Activating Presence Concealment to lower encounter rates, she moves on.
(Tomorrow we head to the northern dungeon. Is this really okay? Can I survive like this?)
Doubt rears its head, poisoning her resolve. She tries desperately to shake it off, but it mocks her.
Coward. Shinon wants to look away from her own weakness. In the end, she's nothing but a boar charging forward to maintain her momentum, forgetting everything else.
If she stops, she might never move again. So she keeps running.
On the day this death game began, it was Kuuri who kept her sane, who pushed her to take that first step. Whatever his intentions, he was her salvation.
But now, that same Kuuri is becoming a source of fear. And she can't confide this in anyone.
No, there's one person. Deciding to approach someone she'd normally avoid, Shinon heads toward him.
"Diavel, got a minute?"
At the side of the NPC Gravekeeper Zura, Shinon speaks to Diavel, who's processing bean-type ingredients bought in the crumbling town.
He must have been struck by the coffee he drank there. When he gained two new skill slots, he immediately filled one with Cooking. He bought every bean item available in the town and spent 3,000 Col on a coffee grinder from an antique shop, starting his quest to create an original blend.
Still, producing coffee from scratch takes time. Diavel's eyes, as he jots down blend results in a notebook, show faint traces of fatigue.
"What's up?"
"I need to talk. Can you spare some time?"
"Of course. Hey, want to try this? Freshly ground, hot off the press."
Diavel offers a metal mug filled with a dark liquid. It doesn't smell great, but with no reason to refuse, Shinon reluctantly accepts.