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Forgotten Land - Chapter 47 (Book 1)
🕑 Added 2024-03-04 11:00:04 +0000 UTCZayn was not over the moon with their achievements, but he had to acknowledge that Melanie and the rest had improved a lot. It would have been a lot more troublesome to kill the Tainted Dryad without any help.
It would have been a lot more expensive as well.
Zayn had prepared a bunch of potions by spending 3000 Credits to clear the Tower of Nature alone. He wouldn’t hesitate to use them if necessary.
At the end of the day, Zayn used the Emerald Accelerant, but that potion had been cheaper than the rest. Of course, that didn’t mean Emerald Accelerant was cheap. It was still a Rare potion for young Immortals.
“Good job, everyone,” He said loud enough for everyone to hear.
Their little group improved a lot after their pride and naivety were no more. Zayn turned into their leader with a simple demonstration of his talent, combat prowess, and the number of Cards.
Mots of sparkling light formed in front of the Tainted Dryad’s burning corpse. The most of light gathered and transformed into a golden swirl. The swirl expanded and shaped slowly into a golden ring.
The entrance to the Tower of Nature could be seen inside the golden ring.
“A portal?” Melanie asked, only to quiet down as a miriad of messages popped up in front of her and the other players.
Zayn received a few messages as well.
The Tower of Nature has been conquered. Congratulations!
Your achievement has been recorded in the Ancient Records.
You have the highest contribution in the Dungeon raid!
+15 Soul Essences, +2 Common Cards, +3 Uncommon Shards
[6hours 51minutes 24 seconds – #735]
First Time Conquest! +5 Soul Essences.
‘Hmm? I got more than 50% of the Boss Monster’s loot. Weird.’
Zayn expected that Blake and Natalia to have a high contribution rate and that their actions in the final battle would be recognized as more impactful than his. Apparently, that was not the case.
The Common Cards conjured in front of him alongside the three Uncommon Shards and he inspected them out of curiosity.
Eagle Eye
Common – Level 1(0%)
Ember
Common - Level 1(0%)
Ember could have been useful before his encounter with the Tainted Dryad. He wouldn’t have to rely on Blake’s accuracy and meager focus to set the Tainted Dryad on fire. But Zayn didn’t think that it was necessary anymore. Blake was not as bad as she used to be. The tips and tricks he told her to train her focus and precision had already produced some results.
Zayn was confident that she would do better in the next few days.
‘Ember won’t be enough to harm the Tainted Dryad in the Nightmare run, either way.’
The Tower of Nature’s Nightmare Difficulty level was a bit harder to conquer. Even the weakest Sabertooth Hound would have a much higher Foundation than their average. If Zayn recalled correctly ordinary monsters would have a 20% to 30% stronger Foundation.
That was fine as long as they focused on the Sabertooth Hounds, but it was a bit troublesome to deal with the Earthen Hounds, Herculean Wolves, and the other monsters that resided in the Tower of Nature.
“We’re already in the top 1000!” David exclaimed quite satisfied about their ranking.
They didn’t even rush to conquer the Tower of Nature, yet their ranking was already quite good.
“I doubt that 1000 teams have conquered the Tower of Nature’s Normal Difficulty at this point,” Melanie pulled David back to earth with her short remark.
David groaned and glared at Melanie, only to recall that he was her bodyguard outside Forgotten Lands. He slapped his cheeks and clenched his fists.
“In that case, let’s conquer the Tower of Nature again. We can beat those professional gamers, these greedy bastards!” His head flicked to Zayn, “Your tactic was crazy. I’m sure that we can break a few records. Let’s do a speedrun!”
‘If they get more accustomed to their tactic and each other’s playstyle we should be able to deal with the Nightmare Difficulty level in a few days. I could do it alone but it will take me more time. My Cards are pretty good, but most of them are Common, nonetheless. Even the Card Set will reach its limit soon. A Common Card Set cannot compare to high-leveled Rare Cards…or a proper team.’
“That’s fine with me,” Zayn responded, but he lifted his hand before David could break out into a vibrant smile.
“First, I want to be in charge of the dungeon raids,” He lifted one finger.
The second finger followed soon after, “Second, I don’t want anyone to increase their Foundation. Rather than focusing on your Foundation Orbit, increase your Card Levels and gather more suitable Cards. The Tower of Nature is a great grinding spot for Common and Uncommon Cards.
“Third, I want to raid the Nightmare Difficulty Level with you guys in the next few days. To do so, we will have to spend A LOT of time in the Tower of Nature and Forgotten Lands. We have to upgrade our equipment, purchase a bunch of potions and miscellaneous items, and we’ll have to upgrade our Cards quite a bit.”
Zayn looked at the others who stayed silent. They were waiting for him to say something else.
“I don’t think that the Nightmare Difficulty will be much different than the other difficulties. It’s just much harder. Even ordinary monsters should be as strong as the Tainted Dryad in the Normal Difficulty level. However, I believe that we can do it as long as we work hard. But that means everyone will have to give their best to improve and sacrifice their free time to play more.”
To the others, Forgotten Lands was still just a game. It was nothing more than that. Maybe, they could consider it a source of income with great potential, but that was already it.
Forgotten Lands was not a reality for them. However, that wasn’t the case for Zayn.
Forgotten Lands was an opportunity to change the future. It was his means to grow strong enough to deal with the issues that awaited them in the following months. It was the only chance he got to make up for the mistakes of the past.
“Sounds good to me. I was hired as a bodyguard of the Zetner family, but all I had to do was stay by Melanie’s side. If she plays Forgotten Lands, I can play as well,” David responded his attention slowly drawing to Melanie.
“I like Forgotten Lands and I can see that the game is a great opportunity to make money. The dungeon dive in the Tower of Nature generated more money than I invested to purchase the Ranked Daggers and some of my Cards. As long as we continue to dive into the Tower of Nature, I’ll be able to earn a lot more. Once I’ve accumulated a decent amount of money, I can show my father the proposal I’ve prepared. I’m in!”
Zayn could only guess what Melanie’s proposal was. He thought that the proposal was about the creation of a workshop. Melanie wanted to hire Players and generate a fortune using Forgotten Lands to her advantage.
The fact that she loved playing Forgotten Lands was crucial for her proposal, but the possibility of earning big money couldn’t be neglected either.
If the Tower of Nature’s Normal Difficulty was already enough to earn close to 10,000 Credits, how much would they be able to earn by sweeping through the Tower of Nature as fast as possible, or by conquering the Hard and Nightmare Difficulty?’
The interesting part about speedruns was the special rewards.
Breaking the records listed in the Ancient Records would increase the drop rate upon killing the Boss Monster. The increased drop rate was nothing crazy, but the important aspect was that the drop rate would increase exponentially according to the time disparity between the old and the new records.
If Zayn and his team beat the old record by 30 seconds they would gain more loot, but it would be a few Card Shards at most. However, if they beat the old record by several minutes, maybe even half an hour, the dropped loot would increase drastically.
Another advantageous factor was that the team at the top of the Ancient Records had a minuscule probability of obtaining special drops such as Ranked Armaments, Rare Card Shards, Potion Recipes, Forging Blueprints, Class Path Tokens, and so on.
‘Beating the Ancient Records of the Normal and Hard Difficulty doesn’t sound like a bad idea before we conquer the Nightmare Level.’
