When I opened my eyes, I saw a broken hexagonal ring of white stone, dimly lit by what little light filtered through the densely packed leaves of the trees that rose from all sides. Casting my gaze around, each corner of the hexagon was supported by a pillar made of the same white stone, cracked with age and covered in moss and tendrils of various climbing plants.

Sitting up, I found I had been lying on an ornate rectangular block of white stone, which sat as the only feature inside what I figured out was the shrine. If I died before reaching town, I would end up back at this shrine without dropping any equipment. Speaking of, I wasn’t naked. I had on the basic class kit, which for me, and every other archer, was a Torn Tunic, Simple Leggings, Worn Boots, Fingerless Gloves, and a Simple Shortbow. All were Common rarity, with defensive strength ranging from Minimal to None. The gloves had a bit of offensive strength (minimal), and the bow had moderate offensive strength. 

There was nothing more to say about them, except that, as I had a male avatar, I didn’t have the minimum chest covering female players had, namely, an indestructible and unremovable bra (although it would be replaced if similar equipment was obtained). This mandatory minimum mammary masking modesty is courtesy of this being what the VR industry calls an "NPC Title" - in which NPC doesn't stand for Non-Player Character, it stands for No-Pants (removal) Club.

So, through the rips in my Torn Tunic, one could clearly see something... not PG. I guess that needs fixing before I get to town. I checked, and yes, I could remove my Torn Tunic completely to leave my tits fully exposed, which was an interesting (and, yeah, kinda pleasant) experience now that there was wind and humidity, but... I’m not exactly into exhibitionism. Better to leave them covered, or as covered as they can be with a lot of holes in unfortunate locations, and the whole thing was stretched tight enough to be more uncomfortable and somewhat transparent, as it was designed for someone... flat. But on the bright side, it’s tight enough to act kinda like a bra, right? Is that how that works? They won’t be bouncing around, at least, so no aches from that. Still, for the sake of modesty, I shoulda chosen the apron.

Other than that, I had a quiver that came with 20 rough arrows - I’m surprised they even had fletching, actually. I expected they wouldn’t when I heard the name in the guides - and a small leather satchel, presumably to hold any mid-battle consumables you might have gotten from your newbie rewards. With a few small sturdy loops on the outside, I could tell it’d work well for a crafter, as that was extra storage for a beginner’s self-made potions, which, in the absence of pre-prepared bottles, were stored in system-provided vials. Noob Tubes, as they were called by many players.

The reason you couldn’t just use them straight out of your inventory is that things took about a second to take out of the inventory, during which time you had to stand still, an action that spells death in a fight. Hotrings are a godsend later on, once you get them. They allow you to switch weapons mid-combat instantly, if you’ve preregistered the weapon to the ring. But, those rings are expensive, often being auctioned at similar prices to epic gear.

“Oh, wait, my mind’s wandering. I should work out how to get to town. Trees... a dense forest... fuck, this is the Noob Grinder!”

The Noob Grinder was another name for the Starfall Forest, situated northeast from this starter town. Of all the surrounding lands, it had the highest leveled mobs, ranging from level 3 mobs at the lowest, to the highest, which are level 17s, not including boss mobs. The field boss is level 25, but that’s super deep in the forest. Oh, and of all things, the mobs here are mostly spiders. So many spiders. Uuuggghhh... I don’t have arachnophobia, but everyone hates fighting spiders the size of large dogs, especially when they can attack from all directions including from above, and tend to appear in groups of up to 10.

“Okay, I have to figure out where in the forest I am... if I’m near the edge, I should head out, even if it means going away from town. The plains to the west and the marsh to the south both have mobs between level 1 and level 9, no higher. However, if I’m in the middle of the forest... I’d be absolutely fucked. Based on the sun... that’s east, so southwest is... that way.”

I stretched, pulled out the rest of my newbie rewards, putting on the Ancient Bloody Chainmail, which felt... uncomfortable. It chafed, it was cold, but it was better than nothing. I hung the Moon Sword from my satchel, held my bow in one hand, attached the quiver to the waistband of my leggings, and set out. Not even two minutes later, I came across a group of four spiders.

The other three were similar, but were levels 3, 4, and 6, with more HP to match. The remark seemed accurate, I could probably take down one or two before the others reached me, but then I’d be royally screwed if I hadn’t taken out the level 6. So, that’d be my first target.

I pulled an arrow out of my quiver, nocked it, pulled back, and paused. I felt the breeze, shifted my aim a bit to compensate, exhaled, and released. 

[-24]

“Fuck”

That was barely over half of the thing’s 45 HP, and my arrow did not fly normally. It was like it was being tugged by a string, and I knew exactly what happened. I’d aimed at the thing’s head, but the aim assist pulled it towards the bigger target: the cephalothorax, or more simply, the spider’s torso. A headshot would likely be a crit, dealing triple damage, and so I probably would’ve oneshot it. Unfortunately, nope. I got screwed by the system, so I had to take another quick shot.

[-20]

“1 HP? REALLY?!”

I didn’t have the time to take a third shot to finish it off, as the other three had reached me. I stored my bow in my inventory (which is an instant action, thankfully) and started to draw my sword, but was hit. Again, and again, and finally the level 6 hit me.

[-3]

[-5]

[-4]

[-12]

Uggghhhh... I lost two arrows for nothing, not even any EXP. That’s more than enough of a death penalty. At this rate, I’ll run out of arrows way before reaching town. Wait... no. I have that manual from my newbie rewards. I can carve myself some arrows. I just have to find some straight sticks, and ideally, some feathers - no, I don’t have any way to attach them to the sticks, so unfletched arrows it is. And until then, let’s turn off aim assist.

{-72}

{-60}

{-60}

[-3]

That last arrow shot through the head of one spider and continued to hit another spider’s leg at the first joint for minimal damage. Unfortunately, I was already about to enter melee combat, so I stored my bow and drew my sword, blocking one attack from above with an upwards slash, which I then transitioned into a horizontal sweep that decapitated another spider.

{-102}

[-6]

[-27]

The first of those two was a spider biting me, the second was me stabbing it to get it off. One left.

[-1]

I didn’t really care about the debuff, I just had to blast the last spider with an arrow or slash it with my sword before it could hit me again. Unfortunately, what I did care about was having a web hit the back of my knee at a rather high speed, which caused my somewhat unstable stance to buckle completely. I stood upright with more effort than I liked, thanks to the pesky slow debuff, only to be knocked over again when the last spider tackled me.

[-6]

Ending up under a tree, I grabbed onto a low hanging branch and used that to pull myself up with one hand, mostly bypassing the slow debuff, which allowed me to get my sword up in time to mostly parry the spider’s next attack, a slash with one leg bearing a sharp-looking last segment. It looked like I came out on top, until one realized it did a third of my 9 remaining HP while I took out slightly less than a third of its 30 max HP.

[-3]

[-9]

However, I was in a more advantageous position, as I had a pretty firm stance while it was off balance from getting one leg pushed in a direction it normally wouldn’t go. So, I swung, hard and fast, a straight downwards chop with both hands.

[-26]

After chopping off three of its legs and a good chunk of its head, it died, and I sat with my back against a tree for a few minutes, waiting for my HP to regenerate. In that time, I inspected my status screen, to see what new changes appeared with my level ups, besides the full HP and MP recovery.

Compared to most other games, the status screen was very minimalistic. As a basic class, I gained three points per level, and as a physical class, the distribution was two to HP and one to MP. For now, at least. Trueblades, for example, are a physical class (branching off of Swordsman) but have equal HP and MP growth rates.

“Oh, right... I ought to look at my loot. Hopefully they dropped something good, since they used up three of my arrows. 15 left... five more fights like this. Better make some more arrows whenever I can, but I can’t spend too long sitting around, night is deadly here”

I gained four spider eyes, one speckled spider pelt, and one glittering silk skein. Of those, the silk had a green name, signifying an uncommon, while the other items were commons. The other four were about the same, though the number of eyes varied from two to seven, and not all of them dropped pelts and/or silk. The level 5 dropped neither, but it did drop something else:

I mean, whoever wrote that isn’t wrong, it’s like a stiletto, but with a pretty serious curve. The tip is almost 90 degrees off of the direction of the handle. Not something I’d ever use, honestly. The Moon Sword is just better - which shouldn’t be surprising, it’s a mythic. Not much can compete with a mythic, although this mythic seems to be kinda below average in terms of additional effects. As a general rule, swordsmen don’t use MP much, besides some branch classes, most notably, the Paladin. Neither Swordmasters nor Trueblades use much MP (despite having higher MP growths than the Paladin), and they make up the majority of the swordsman population. 

Momo was the pioneering Swordmaster - well, he got the hidden class that’s a direct upgrade on it, the Bladelord. Using that class, he turned the public perception of dual-wielding swordsmen from a joke to a terrifying opponent. He loved one handed swords in real life, but with the Bladelord class, he could dual-wield even greatswords, which he did to great effect. He never revealed how to get the Bladelord class, however, so that class might have been lost with him - unless that’s the legacy he left for me, actually. That would be interesting.

“Oh, my HP’s back to full... mmkay, onwards. Oh, wait, nope, I gotta make some arrows first”

I found a kind of tree with impressively straight, thin branches, and so, after cutting down a dozen or so of those branches, I set to carving them into shape... with a curved, mythic rarity sword. Not exactly a standard set of woodworking tools, that’s for sure. Fortunately, all-wood arrows are about as far from intricate as you can get. Smooth the shaft, carve a point, chip out a bit so you can nock the arrow, and you’re good.

Six tries later, I was surprised by my creation of an uncommon arrow, but it was the only one in the next 20. Still, counting the 15 I had left, my quiver was full with another refill sitting in my inventory and one arrow left over, which I just held in my left hand as my bow occupied my right. Making my way further southwest, I ran into a small group of Speckled Spiders that were all level 3, and then... my luck ran out.

That, leading a mid-sized group of level 5~8 Speckled Spiders, surrounded me almost imperceptibly, except that I happened to be used to hunting in the forest behind our house. So, without letting them catch on to my awareness of them, I nocked my arrow and quickly shot the Star Spider. It was injured already, so I hoped to be able to kill it in one crit... which I did. Barely.

{-39}

[-7]

[-4]

[-6]

[-9]

[-8]

Unfortunately, I instantly got bombarded with webs from all sides, and died. Didn’t even get to loot the Star Spider’s corpse, but hey, two levels for one crude arrow is pretty good.

I tried again, and managed to get through five groups of spiders, hit level 8, and gather a good number of branches to make arrows from before I was sent back to the shrine. It was getting dark, so I decided to just log out and try again later.

After logging out, I stepped out of the pod and immediately fell backwards because my center of mass was different than what I’d just gotten used to, due to the lack of two weights hanging from my chest. In other words, by compensating for the forwards pull that wasn’t there, I leaned back too much and toppled.

“Ohh, this is going to take some getting used to...”

Well, not really. Less than a minute later, my habits were back to normal. Mostly. I went to the archery range the next morning, and noticed that I was pulling the string out a bit further from my body than I needed to. Other than that, however, there weren’t any real changes. I was worried about maybe misjudging how much strength I was exerting or how much was needed to do a given task, but there were no problems there.

After a quick meal (instant ramen with a hardboiled egg, hot sauce, and some worchestire sauce, blasphemy, I know) I jumped back into the pod. Looking around at my empty house hurt way too much, and I just ran away from it instead of trying to work through it.

Upon logging in, the first thing I was greeted with was a set of large eyes. More than just two. I could see four dead on and two more partially hidden by the curve of the head they were on. Then I saw the fangs, each as long as my arm, and wickedly curved.

I couldn’t help it, I screamed like a little girl as I jumped backwards, my head slamming into one of the pillars.

[-4]

“Well, guess that proves that I can hurt myself through sheer stupidity... but also, what the fuck is that thing?!”

Well...

Uhh...

Umm...

FUCK.

“I know that monsters cannot enter the shrine, so I guess I’ll be safe in here for a bit, but... actually, is this an opportunity? Can I just safely kill it from here?”

I drew my bow, nocked an arrow, and shot at one giant eye. Unfortunately...

My arrow shattered on an invisible wall in line with the pillars. 

“Guess I can’t just snipe it from inside. That sucks. It makes sense, but c’mon, really? What am I supposed to do when a field boss is camping my shrine, huh? Run? Can I outrun it? Fight? Can I hit it before it kills me?”

I tried the former, and managed to get all of twenty feet before I was back in the shrine. Then, I stepped out and shot the moment I was outside of the shrine, and... well, I hit it before it killed me, but...

{-33}

[-318]

My arrow hit its eye, achieving a crit, and still only managed to do 34 damage. Another 110 of those and I might be able to kill it, but... I ain’t got a hundred plus arrows. Even with all of my sticks, I’ve only got at most 50 shots. Sword time.

[-41]

[-279]

Better, but not good enough. Can I get a crit with this sword?

[-44]

[-427]

{-105}

[-400]

{-111}

[-351]

Better. If I can jam my sword in its mouth, I can do a decent chunk of damage. But these death messages are getting repetitive and annoying.

{-99}

{-1296}

OW.

“Okay, two things. First, that crit was super unnecessary, it’s overkill on top of overkill, with a side of overkill-glazed overkill. Second, PLEASE SHUT UP WITH THESE GODDAMN DEATH MESSAGES!!!”

“Oh, you can do that? Okay. Sure. Thanks. Can you, like, not pop up the damage values as well?”

“Actually, have there be, like, a log of them I can look at if I want to, but one that’s not obstructive?”

“Still got that sass from the character creation space, I see. Please do it if you can”

Seven deaths later, I had taken out about 10% of the boss’s max HP, and yet, I was getting really tired of dying. But...

Oh shit, das gud. Oh, right, titles. I forgot to mention those. They’re pretty hard to get, but often are quite powerful. You have two title slots, one prefix, one suffix, and depending on which slot a title is in, it will have a different effect. Some can only be in one slot and have no effect in the other, and some really, REALLY rare ones have a grand title effect, which is activated by having it in both slots at once. Some titles can't be set in either slot, with only a passive effect. Good passive effects are rare, though not as rare as grand title effects, but they apply even if you don’t have the title in either slot. They're also often kinda weak.

And to think, before reaching my first town, I have a mythic weapon and an epic title with a grand title effect. I think either one of those conditions puts me in a category that could be counted on one hand, but both? I think I might be the only player like that to have ever existed. And obviously, I equipped my new title in both slots, and hid it. I kinda cheesed the expected method of obtaining it, but I don’t care. I’m not gonna have to be as worried about fighting hordes of spiders on my way out, once this damned boss stops spawncamping me.

A dozen or so deaths after that, it was down to about 80% of its max HP when a silvery-white glow surrounded it, and its HP bar shot up to 95%. So, I spent half an hour on bringing it down just 5%. 

At this rate, it’ll take 10 hours of constant kamikaze attacks to kill. I ain’t got time for that shit, I’m better off just trying to escape, maybe I could lure it away from the shrine and then rush out the other direction? Or should I just log out and try again another day? Or perhaps I could-

“What the fuck? The hell is that huge thing?”

“I didn’t know spiders got that big...”

“Oh gods, it’s the field boss!”

“Shit! GTFO!”

“We can’t, the webs closed up behind us!”

“Mommmmyyyy!”

Webs? Wait, now’s not the time to think about that, there’re other people here. It sounded like at least three, one guy with a deep voice, one young girl, and one young boy, who was crying for his mother. 

“Shut up, both of you! It’s not paying attention to us. Let’s move around the edge, try to find an opening we could escape from. And don’t touch any of the webs if you can avoid it”

The girl, at least, was able to keep a cool head from the sound of things. And sure enough, about a minute later, I saw two players emerge from behind the boss - although, they were quite a ways away from both it and me. One looked like an older man, maybe in his late 30s or early 40s, and the other was a girl about my age, maybe 18 or 19. The man held a sword and a shield while wearing full plate armor, the girl wore yellow-brown robes and a short staff tipped with an amber sphere - it looked to be the same Amber Rod I was offered for my newbie rewards. A short distance behind them, a scared-looking boy, maybe 14 years old, followed with stiff, awkward steps, a dagger clutched far too tightly in each hand.

Looking at them, I could see that each of them was level 19, so there was a decent chance they were intending to fight a mob boss, but stumbled on the field boss instead. However, at the same time I saw them, they spotted me.

“Oh, that’s just cruel”

“That newbie just spawned in the field boss’s nest”

“If we use him as an infinite distraction and a meat shield, we might be able to take the boss down”

I don’t like that old dude. Not one bit. He’s obviously the tank, but he wants a new player to be his meatshield, and to run around trying to take the boss’s aggro, die trying, and jump right back into it? Excuse you, what- thefuck. I mean, I’ll do it, but fuck you.

“I heard that! I’ll do it, but I better get something good for my troubles!”

“Okay then. Art, Light, let’s do this”

The girl ran off to one side and broke a small boulder into sharp, jagged fragments with a smack of her staff, and then some of the fragments gathered into a floating spear, which shot at the back of the boss’s head. I lost track of the boy, while the old dude smashed the flat of his blade against his shield. The spider looked at him, and the rock spear completely destroyed one of its eyes when it turned.

At that point in time, I leapt out the backside of the shrine, shot an arrow into another eye for a pitiful amount of damage, and then shot another at the same eye. But, that did achieve the desired effect, as it turned to look at me. After all, I did hold a pretty high amount of aggro, having knocked out 20% of its HP earlier, and though it’d healed that up for the most part, the aggro remained.

The spider smashed me to a pulp, and I respawned a few seconds later. I rushed out to grab its aggro again, using another arrow to poke another eye. It was about to pounce on me, when one of its legs buckled, and the boy faded into view as his dagger stabbed deep into the joint between the leg and the spider’s body. With a grunt, twist, and a pull, he ripped open a large hole and separated himself from the spider’s reach. He ran around the back of a tree and vanished, or maybe he just stood there behind the tree, I don’t know. Either way, I was once more the boss’s target, and died instantly.

Two deaths later, another eye was down, and the spider was half-blind on one side, while the other side was missing one leg and had another crippled. However, the boss’s HP bar was only down about 40%, and it was almost time for another heal. As I was respawning, it turned to face the magician girl. I couldn’t stop it, so the man banged his shield once more, drawing the boss’s attention. It reared back as I charged out of the shrine, stuck its spinneret out as I approached, and fired a web right before I got there. The web, about 8 feet across, slammed into the man and dropped his HP to 0 instantly. However, I was there, and I stabbed the Moon Sword into its spinneret.

It screamed as a silver aura appeared and instantly shattered, and the HP bar, which was still dropping, barely paused its fall during that heal. I guess if you damage the boss right as it heals, the heal is negated or something? Regardless, the boss dropped from 60% to about a fifth of its max HP, and it began thrashing about. I, of course, was the first victim, dying before I knew what hit me. However, as I was respawning, I saw the boy get yeeted into the air and crash down head first, before breaking into glowing cubes of light that faded quickly, just like the old dude did. 

The girl, to her credit, didn’t even pause as she kept spamming spells, not even while downing a glowing blue MP potion - MPots, as many call them. I kept throwing myself at the boss, and soon I ran out of arrows, so I had to get in close and hack it with my sword. Every time I died, its aggro would switch back to the mage, but as soon as I set foot outside of the shrine, it’d turn to face me again. I guess taking out a total of 60% of the thing’s max HP kinda does that.

"-on’t care, don’t have time. Later”

I looked at it once again, and saw some interesting information I couldn't see before.

It didn’t take long, I hurled myself into its grasp, stabbed its mouth one more time, and another rock spear hit a bullseye - err, spiderseye - and then, something went wrong. I saw a silver glow appear while she was drinking a potion, and I was respawning. I grabbed the Spider Fang Dagger I’d discarded earlier, and threw it. When it hit, the silver glow shattered again, and the boss had only recovered about 5% HP. Instead of the silver glow, however, a new red one replaced it.

It stopped caring about anything else, it just started shooting web after web after web at me, even after I’d died, as a slivery-white glow condensed in its mouth. As its back was to her, the mage girl couldn’t get any crits, and so her attacks didn’t do much damage at all. On the other hand, she wasn’t in any danger besides maybe running out of MP. 

But, I was worried, because the webs it was shooting made it harder and harder for me to get out of the shrine, and if I took too long, I knew that it’d focus on her, and she’d die instantly. I kept slashing through them with my sword, but as they layered, it got harder and harder to do so. Eventually, I’d fail. So, I took out the branches I’d found, and thrust a few of them into the dirt between the boss and the shrine. One couldn’t stop a web on its own, but when there were three next to one another, with a gap of about two feet in between each one, they held. 

With the layers of webs, they actually became stronger, and turned into a wall I could almost hide behind for a moment. Almost. I made the mistake of trying, and got bitch-slapped into next tuesday. It might only have six functional legs left, but it only needed one to turn me into a ground meat kebab with a stab from above. But, right after, the mage girl managed to have her rock spear hit the back of the spider’s neck-equivalent for a fatal crit, so that was my last death to it - err, second to last. My last one was its corpse collapsing on me when I walked up to it to collect my loot.

I leveled up six times, not too surprising given my being under a third of its level, and it being a field boss that I got a good chunk of the contribution on. Loot distribution is interesting in this case, as we were not in a party together. Basically, the normal way is the party leader (or whichever survivor is highest on the totem pole) gets the rewards and distributes them, with the drops being influenced by the classes participating and the contribution ratios between the various classes, so if most of the contribution came from swordsmen, swordsman related drops would be more likely. But, as it’s basically two separate parties working together, the drops are influenced by contribution, however, which party gets what drop is randomized. So, my drops were a mix of archer gear and mage materials.

Wow. Just... WOW. First off, four titles including a rare and a unique? Holy shit. Second, four rare equipment drops? Not bad at all. Especially with an epic material drop and ten rare materials as well, and that’s not to mention the unique. Third, three pieces of an equipment set, one of them even being the rare form? Hell yeah. Fourth, what the fuck is an ass plate, and why did a spider drop it? Fifth, what did I do to deserve the Leech title? It doesn’t sound good.

Actually, let’s see. The Leech title... provides no bonuses whatsoever, is granted to people who are carried through a raid they are vastly underleveled for, thus “leeching” EXP and/or other rewards. I don’t feel like I got carried, but I guess one is technically carrying everyone else if they get over 50% of the contribution. Did she get a title as well? [Bus Driver], perhaps? Meanwhile, the stats for the ass plate are mostly useless, but the description was hilarious.

The swarm set equipment is nice, providing a solid increase to stealth and movement speed, scaling with how many pieces of the set you have equipped, and the defensive strength isn’t bad either. The boots provide a movement speed buff separate from the set bonus, the mask (which looks like a spider’s face) provides a stealth buff on top of the set bonus, while the brigandine is just a good piece of armor, even without the set bonus. 

The Stargazer Bow is actually kinda like the Moon Sword, getting stronger at night. Guess I’m a night hunter now. The Star Silk Robe, on the other hand, is useless to me, as it only provides bonuses to mages and healers. Good magical defense, at least. I’ll see if I can trade it for something the mage girl got. The Meteorite Belt, however, is great. It allows you to quickswap up to three belt pouches - quivers included. Meaning, I can have 60 arrows on hand instead of 20.

The binding stone is a consumable that lets me bind a piece of gear to me, making it a prf equipment that can’t be dropped or stolen, and has no level restrictions. I’ll keep that until I get something worth using it on, like a mythic or unique - well, a unique would come bound to me, but a mythic normally wouldn’t.

Boss Baby is kinda underwhelming for a unique title, until you realize that its only effect is PASSIVE. A 5/10/15/25/50% boost to damage dealt against bosses, for Mob/Field/Area/Zone/World bosses, respectively? And a 5% flat addition to contribution as well? That’s OP. A world boss raid often has over a thousand people, so to get a minimum of 5% as my contribution means I’d almost certainly be one of the top 5 highest contributors, even if I just shot one arrow and then hid for the rest of the raid. Field Boss Hunter, obtained through achieving at least 15% contribution for a field boss at or above my level, provides the same effects, but limited to field bosses and bob bosses. It can be upgraded to include higher grade bosses by fulfilling the same condition for those higher grade bosses.

Finally, [Death Seeker] is obtained through dying at least 30 times in one week to the same type of monster. Yeah, I got that one in the middle of the fight, but asked the system to mention it later because I didn’t want to be distracted. It gives me a 5% bonus when fighting the last type of mob that killed me when equipped as either the prefix (damage dealt) or suffix (damage reduc) title. No passive or grand title effects, however. Overall, meh.

I decided to keep [One-Man Human Wave Tactic] as my grand title, and I was about to equip the new gear, but not only could I not equip most of it (level 14 is too low to equip level 20 gear, let alone level 25), but I also ought to keep them as items I could potentially use to trade for something better with the mage girl. So, I walked over to lean against a tree next to hers, and waited.

CaTastrophy427

I'm trying out adding some nice features, specifically, colored text for different rarities of items/titles, and that debuff icon. I'll try to keep the colored text, but the icons will be added when/if I feel like making the icon, and even then, basically just the first time the buff/debuff appears after I make the icon. Forgive me for the status pron, future chapters will have much less. I hate it, Gaia hates it, you probably hate it, Gaia's gonna mute most of it. That being said, chapter 2.5 is going to be status pron and nothing else. Same with most other .5 chapters, it's where I'll put in a lot of the stats on items I didn't put in the main chapter.

As usual, shameless plug for my Discord Server and main project (which I swear I'll work on after I get out chapter 2.5 in the next couple of days). Don't get used to this update speed or chapter length, most will be shorter and less frequent - well, STI will definitely have longer chapters than this, but for this novel, this is about as long as I plan to have it get.

Fun little thing, I included a reference to one of my favorite novels in this (no points for guessing what specific part of the chapter it is, but yes points for figuring out what it's a reference to), so head over to my discord server to claim first place in finding it. It's not gonna get you any real reward besides a spot in the hall of fame, but that's a good reward in and of itself, right? Right?

Finally, I'm attempting to deal with my mental issues with standard formatting for dialogue, if you recall what I was doing in chapter 0, that's what's going on in STI, for now, at least. This is kinda a guinea pig novel, to see how comfortable I am with this style lol.

Oh, and actual final thing, the poll from the last chapter will close when I release chapter 2.5, so if you haven't voted and/or said your thoughts more in-depth than just a yes or no in the comments section, now's the time to do so.

Edit log:

1.1

Spoiler

changed Boss Baby to a unique title, fixed spelling errors (including one accidental expletive, how does one defecate an arrow?), changed a bit of formatting

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1.2

Spoiler

Fixed an error where I called the Star Spider a Sky Spider

[collapse]

1.3

Spoiler

Found and fixed a brainfart regarding class growth rates that contradicted planned lore

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1.4

Spoiler

Went back and changed the formatting, a lot, to reflect changes made in later chapters

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