n

n

n

"Well, that was far harder than the last one,

" Therdul said as he looked at Elizabeth's avatar. An arrow struck clearly through her neck, her eyes staring emptily into the sky. If not for the last few months Therdul felt this simple image might have haunted him at night.

n

"No kidding, these guys were strong and coordinated,

" Nikki said as she turned to Ilmadia, the ax still stuck in her chest. A pinpoint hit right in the center.

n

"What the hell happened?

" Eldrian asked after returning from hunting down the last member of their opponents' team.

n

"Simple, they weren't just mages and shield bearers. They all had a throwing weapon or two which totally caught us off our guard. Most of us managed to dodge, but Ilmadia was in the middle of casting so she stood still.

" Nikki replied.

n

"Yeah, didn't see them opening fire like that.

" Therdul added,

"And they were accurate, like really accurate. I'd say they all are used to using throwing weapons, probably having it as a hobby in real life. They likely have the same Tier in range as in their main class. Their team probably having only not all gone rangers since they need some diversity.

"

n

"Is that why we got so many points?

" Eldrian asked, causing everyone to look at the 7 they had just gotten.

n

"Let's go back the others should be in Elizabeth's virtual home now,

" Nikki said after looking at it, not wishing to discuss it without the others.

n

"Shouldn't we try to scout the area?

" Therdul asked.

n

"Is there a point, its a forest. What can we discover?

" Nikki countered, the others agreeing with her point. Last time in the grassland that five minutes hadn't really given them much, other than finding that they had access to all that they would have in the game.

n

"Fine...

" With that, they all left the arena.

n...

n

"There you guys are,

" Judith said as soon as the three of them appeared in Elizabeth's virtual home.

n

"Why was that so hard?

" Elizabeth asked as soon as the three got used to the change in environment. It was quite disorientating to be in a forest one moment and in a fancy garden the next.

n

"Probably because our two strongest people were taken out right at the start,

" Ilmadia said, not happy that she was taken out before she could even finish casting her first spell.

n

"What do you mean strongest? Sure you and Judith are the highest Tier, but I can guarantee that Eldrian is stronger.

" Therdul interrupted.

"I mean he took out five of the opponents, with two archersbeing the first ones he targetted. Judith instead got shot down like a defenseless boar.

"

n

"Hmmp, it isn't fair that just a couple of arrows can take me down.

" Judith countered, not at all bothered by being called a boar.

"Faust, you should have healed me more!

"

n

"Wha- I was trying to save Ilmadia.

" Erik countered, not happy at being called out. He also knew there was no way he could have saved Judith, she was simply being hit too much for Tier 2 healing magic to keep up. Even if they didn't hit a vital organ, which they had.

n

"But you failed, so you should have healed me.

" Judith pressed and quickly everyone started arguing at each other. All but Therdul and Eldrian, Elizabeth while not having joined the arguing was trying to put an end to it.

n

"Hey Eldrian, tell me why you chose such a simple and plain name for your in-game handle. I mean your real name sounds so much more fitting.

" Therdul said after slipping out of the middle of everyone.

nRubbing his head Eldrian replied honestly,

"I wanted it to represent my new start. Haru means spring in Japanese, also meaning new beginnings. I had thought it was a good choice.

"

n

"Nah, your game handle should be something fancy. Something you can be proud of.

" Therdul countered.

n

"Really, I am proud of it though. And isn't your real name really cool too. What was it again?

" Eldrian countered.

n

"Laserian,

" Therdul replied and stayed silent for a few seconds,

"I didn't think it fit a dwarf.

"

n

"Why not?

" Eldrian asked.

n

"I don't know... Probably since I am so used to it, it didn't feel exotic or strange to me.

"

n

"Right...

" Eldrian said as he felt the same with his name. To him, Eldrian was simply his name, something he was used to. It held no special meaning and he wanted his avatar's name to have a meaning and reason behind it for him.

nAfter a few minutes of small talk between Eldrian and Therdul, the arguing finally ended with Elizabeth past tired.

"Can't you guys not throw accusations at each other.

" She said while taking a deep breath to calm herself.

n

"I am supposed to be the leader, yet no one really listened to me. You all ignored me just now and I had to shout my throat out to get you to quiet down.

" With that everyone apologized in unison as they never really meant to cause trouble. They were all mostly frustrated with how useless they had been.

n

"Elizabeth, the thing is...

" Nikki paused as he wondered how to phrase it,

"You can't and never did, try to really command us before. In the game, you would decide the direction for us, such as which quests we would take and when to abandon one. You never told us how we should fight.'

n

"We followed and listened to you because you normally managed to see if something was too good to be true or not. We always came up with our own tactics and ways of fighting.'

n

"It worked because with time we got used to how the other went about things. We knew Judith would charge in, so we didn't ask her to not do so. Instead, we moved with her, Therdul always covering for us and offering her support when she got surrounded. Ilmadia trying to zone any enemies we had to fight, along with Zyviss who would also try and injure key targets.'

n

"Me and you, we were just there as side characters. We offered help if we could, else we stayed out of their way. Healing magic is simply too weak and unlike Ilmadia we aren't talented in memorizing spell modules.

"

nHearing this Elizabeth stared blankly at Nikki, realizing that she had wanted things to go too perfect. That her orders would be followed to the tee. She had forgotten that she didn't really know a thing about fighting, in other games, she could always see the big picture.

nThat was why she knew which quests to take and which to avoid. Fights were too chaotic and quick for her to figure out what was happening, she often became frozen trying to figure it out. While in other games this wasn't too bad, in ANW it meant she literally did nothing.

n

"Instead of aiming to win each fight, we should use these ones to get used to each other. From the past two, I have learned that Eldrian is certainly the most flexible. With his control over magic, he is nearly invincible. Though his lack of diversity in magic makes him limited, his range with just a few spells is far more than Ilmadia's.

"

n

"While Ilmadia can use far stronger spells, she can't control them like Eldrian. She also takes time to cast them, which is exactly why she died. Players know this, and they use this. I suspect this is also why Eldrian managed so well. No one expects him to be able to cast a spell mid-dodge, mid-dash, mid-strike. It is insanely overpowered, yet countering that he is still limited to Tier 1 spells.

"

n

"But as is clear to see,

" Ilmadia interrupted as she had to accept what Nikki said was correct,

"With his control, his spells are even stronger than mine. I generally don't use Frost Needle or any such spells as getting it to hit is hard. It takes time to form and cast it, allowing people to expect and dodge it.'

n

"Generally that means the hit won't be a vital one. With it only doing between ten to twenty damage then, Eldrian's instead outright killed the opponents. Always landing somewhere important. This is why I try to use stronger spells, to overcome this limit. But higher Tier spells take longer to cast, and why I died last time.

"

n

"So your saying we should fight more?

" Judith asked with a grin, her unnecessary voicing of this caused the tension which had been growing to ease.

"Elizabeth relax, these matches basically mean nothing. We should consider this training.

"

nElizabeth smiled as Judith said this,

"Thanks, I will try to real in my expectations.

"

n

"Good, now does anyone know how the point system works? The first fight we got a measly 1 point, yet now we got 7,

" Therdul said, moving the topic away from the last fight.

n

"Let's check if the company had made any updates,

" Elizabeth said, everyone doing just that. They were all curious how that was being calculated and what they would mean.

nThey were shocked to find that the developers had actually made a post about this. Generally, they would just keep things hidden and have the players explore them. Naturally, everyone was happy that they didn't need to wait for players to figure it out with time.

nThe point system was quite vicious. It counted the total number of Tiers in a team, using only their highest. So for example Eldrian with his hidden class as Tier 2, and his two others as Tier 1, would only add 2 to this number. Judith and Ilmadia 3, the rest all 2 but Elizabeth who was still Tier 1.

nThe difference in this number is then used to determine the strength difference. With it being extremely harsh for losing, and hard to gain points when winning.

nFor winning if the team's total Tiers came to the same number, then they would only get two points. If the winning team had more total Teirs then they would only be awarded 1. If they had less, then for each Tier less they would gain one more point, added to the 2. So in the last fight, it meant that their opponents had had 5 more Tiers in total.

nLossing instead had a penalty of 5 points if the teams are even, with a minimum of 1 loss if your's is far weaker. There was no limit if your team was stronger, hence if you had just 4 more Tiers in total, then the loss would be 9 points already.

n***

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