[NR] Just How It Works - Chapter 523

Rosha rolls her eyes, “Personal skill at growing herbs aside, I feel we should keep the mode in place at least until after our time in the Deep Wilds.”

Jason nods, “At the very least, it sounds like it should keep us and our base safe from any griefers, whether player or local.”

Courtney, “That is actually the one of the other main benefits. Rosha’s family has a number of people on retainer who live like hermits to keep certain family secrets safe.”

Jason, “With that in mind, I’m all for keeping it going at least that long. Though it would be nice to actually see some people outside of towns.”

Rosha gets a strange look, “Courtney, are you actually affected by it? If leaving the party doesn’t change the setting, why would joining it?”

Courtney shrugs, “Just how it worked. They assumed that if you join a party with it on, you want it as well. Of course, originally you could choose to turn it off later after you left. Also, I agree with keeping it on until after we’re done with the Deep Wilds.”

Rosha, “Speaking of which, when will we be done with the Deep Wilds? We didn’t really talk about that.”

Jason, “I figured we would stick with it as long as we can. The next bottleneck just requires you to complete a generic System quest and you can pick from a list. So for that, we can just stick to the Deep Wilds.

“After that though? To hit 75 you need to beat a raid dungeon. Now, I’m sure we can manage any regular dungeon despite not having a full party. However, a raid dungeon is a different kettle of fish all together.”

Courtney nods, “Raid dungeons require an actual raid, which means five other parties and we would need to at least for the raid, pick up another three people to fill out our own party. We’ll want to turn off the lonely traveller before that as it is considered rude to foist such a thing upon others.”

Jason claps his hands, “So it sounds like we’ll be there till level 74. Now, I’ll probably be done with that right quick. How long do you think it will take the two of you to reach that level?”

Courtney, “We’re getting close to the true grind. I’m guessing that even with the excellent experience the Deep Wilds provides, we’ll be there for at least a couple years, if not more.”

Jason shakes his head, “I knew what to expect and yet I’m still shocked. That’s almost two and a half months irl.”

Courtney laughs, “You think that’s a lot? I know the schools teach the optimal time, but I figure you would have been introduced to the actual growth curve most people experience. Besides, the journey from 75 to 99 will take at least twice that long. If anything, we should probably get the lonely traveller reapplied after the raid and head back to the bar we’re going to set up.

“In fact, we’ll be lucky if beating the raid dungeon is even possible and we’ll have to travel a good distance. Not only are raid dungeons rare. We’ll need to find five other parties and three other people who are ready to do a raid dungeon.

“The System will try and get us together as best it can, but there are only so many players and locals at that 74 and willing to try for higher at any one point in time. Remember, each bottleneck only lets a fraction of the people who reach it, through. Players have a greater chance, but only because they inherently have more chances, what with the whole not dying thing.”

Jason, “I would prefer to attempt it with a team of locals. More than a few players doing it would have likely been trapped at the bottleneck for a while and not think much of wiping on the raid.”

Rosha shrugs, “True, now you just have to find a group of locals looking for a sixth team and willing to take us without requiring us to be disposable pawns. Now I’m sure not all of them are that bad, but no matter how nice a team is, we’ll be first on the chopping block because we come back from it.”

Courtney, “A local’s raid group would be our best best to breakthrough quickly. Though expect at least a month of grueling training with the entire raid. They aren’t like player groups who can just face check dungeons willy nilly.

“The raid dungeon they’ll be running will be mapped out to the smallest detail and there will be specific strategies for every encounter. At this point in the entirety of NeoRealm, there are probably less than 100 bottlenecked raid groups active. Yes, there are more raid groups who are higher level, but to breakthrough we have to do it with others who haven’t hit 75 either.”

Jason, “Heh, maybe we should try to solo the raid dungeon at least once. Maybe we won’t manage to beat the raid boss, but it would be interesting to see how far we can get. Plus, for a raid dungeon, even if we die once the following raid will earn us enough experience to recap.”

Courtney rolls her eyes, “That does seem to be a bit of a tradition for player parties to try. No one has beat a raid dungeon with only a single party before, of course. The various bosses you end up fighting in one like to have requirements that a certain number people still be alive to defeat them. Stuff like needing to be attacked from multiple sides at once and needing people doing certain tasks simultaneously.”

Rosha nods, “And don’t forget that the final boss will likely be our first experience with a multistage enemy. It isn’t exactly natural for a creature to have the equivalent of multi health bars. You blow any normal animal’s head off and unless they’re packing another head or a powerful regeneration effect, they’re dead. Do that to the final raid boss and all that will do is activate the next stage.”