FB: Chapter 25 – Build And Fighting

I was finally done grinding in Murk Swamp, getting up to level 30. As an airship carried me to Fang City, I first put on the outfit that had been designed for me by a professional designer and I had approved of.

My outfit consisted of a short dark green mini-skirt, a long sleeve crop top that exposed my midriff with the guild logo in the center above my breasts, a half cloak that went to the bottom of the mini-skirt, fingerless gloves, tall boots with gold fur trim at the top, and gloves. Very small heels on the boots of course for stability. The half cloak I wore was a bright yellow on the underside with yellow fur trim with the guild logo on the back.

The half cape, which could easily be shrugged off, stayed on due to game physics. That way people could look flamboyant while not sacrificing combat potential. It was a cosmetic thing. Each time I entered combat it would automatically drop, and then reappear on my shoulders after combat.

It was pricey at a gold piece per month, but a cape was a status symbol. If you didn’t have a cape, many top player organizations in the future wouldn’t even take you seriously. With my cascading red hair, I had a bit of a wild appearance.

The fox logo was fairly simple, with the golden fox looking directly ahead. Our guild colors would be green and bright yellow. Which was in line with poison and Luck. While it was too soon to get practical armor crafted, I needed to be able to move freely. Showing off my legs and belly would appeal to a lot of people. I was going to be both the guild leader and the primary Champion of the Fanged Fox Guild. That meant my appearance needed to be iconic.

All my skill shards were epic, which was rank 5. Since I was level 30, I had gotten three extra skill slots for every 10 levels on top of my initial 4. Silent Casting and Gestureless Casting were on my armor bracelet. Murk Barf, Sample Poison x2, and Poison Resistance x2 were on my dagger that was my main weapon. Murk Barf would deal 3 damage per second times rank over 5 seconds times rank to both target and the caster. That meant 15 damage over 25 seconds for a total of 375 damage.

With the personal skill shard bonus and the title bonus the total damage was increased to 413.4375 if one wanted to get super technical. Which wasn’t enough to guarantee a kill on players who focused vitality. But the skill had more to it.

The thing about that skill was that it also inflicted self-damage and would poison me as well. But the cost was only 1 MP and 10% of my food and water bar times the rank of the skill. That meant I could use it twice in combat without issue.

The hidden feature with the skill, was that it also sent out chunks. If a chunk was touching a person, the poison effect would be reapplied. Combined with the self-damage and horrible smell it was considered a joke skill. Since the gesture needed was literal barf.

But combined with Silent Casting and Gestureless Casting the Murk Barf would form in front of my face and not inside my throat. The chunks wouldn’t touch me. I would still get poisoned initially, but it wouldn’t be reapplied. The chunks took the length of the skill to disappear. So, if you got chunked, you would get 50 seconds of poison damage for a total of 826.875 damage.

The two Poison Resistance epic rank skill shards would max out my resistance at 70%. As long as I hit my target, I would win. It was very hard to avoid Murk Barf at close range. The Sample Poison skill shards were passive skills that boosted my poison crit rate by 1% per rank. That put my base poison crit rate at 10.4%. Combined with my base Luck stat of 176 after leveling and focusing solely on that stat, and then the stat bonus, put my Luck at 184.8.

That gave my poison a final 13.248% chance of landing a critical attack. Take 184.8 divide by 100, add 1, add that number to the base poison crit chance to get the actual chance of a poison crit. It was just easier to think that approximately every 100 Luck, I would get another 1% greater chance of landing a critical poison attack each time my poison activated. If I had 10,000 Luck then all poison damage would be a critical hit.

Currently this meant that about every eighth second of poison damage there would be a critical hit. A critical poison attack would either do double damage or 1% of a target’s health, whichever was more while halving any resistances applied and ignoring the absolute level difference. There were no super crits with poison and it was calculated differently than how physical attacks were calculated in regards to critical damage. It was similar to how other elemental effects did damage and calculated critical damage like burning and freezing.

Even if someone focused only on Vitality, the max health they could have at level 40 was around 1,800 with skill shards. If they maxed out their poison resistance at 70%, then I would be in trouble. But Epic skills weren’t cheap, and poison related skills were rare. Also, Murk Barf was overpowered for its cost. I also had strategies to handle counter builds people would use to beat me.

Since it was my only MP skill and it was cheap, it synergized well with Silent Casting and Gestureless Casting, which each took about 50% of my MP regeneration regardless of the amount. But since they were personally leveled up skill shards and Epic rank, it was only 47.5% each. Leaving me with 5% of my MP regen. This effect from these passive skills also impacted any consumables I might use for MP.

That was why personally leveled up skills were powerful. That percentage boost came in clutch so I could have some MP regen when using those two skill shards. While the stat screens and the heads-up display did not show decimals or fractions, they did exist. No one used this build until far into the future, since it required so many things to function well and a deep understanding of the game’s mechanics.

Without Silent Casting and Gestureless Casting a person would gag on Murk Barf and poison themselves to death. I might be able to overcome the gag reflex one day, but that would take more time and mental willpower. Without Poison Resistance a person would take too much damage. Without Sample Poison and a high Luck stat the critical hit chance would be too low, making it hard to kill tanky builds with a high poison resistance.

There were some mage builds who tried to fight in the coliseum, but they struggled since it was considered combat and MP regeneration didn’t happen in combat and pulling out consumables from one’s inventory were limited to only three items during a match. One or two mages found success with single use attacks, but the vast majority of Champions were melee focused and used SP consuming skills to move quickly while hitting each other with pointy sticks.

Low cost mage builds just didn’t have the damage output or durability to fight a dedicated melee build most of the time. I had offense down, and my defense would be a strong offense. Sure, some people tried to wear a lot of consumables, but that was a good way to have an accident if you didn’t know what you were doing. I might do that in the future, but I wasn’t going to pull out all my tricks right away.

Murk Barf was too cheap in comparison to the massive damage it dealt. But it was also a horrible disgusting skill that only crazy people would use or as a gag skill. I had a range of consumables for any situation that might come up. Antidotes and ass fruits would be my main go to items.

Since the ass fruits filled up my hunger and thirst meter instantly, it would allow me to use Murk Barf multiple times instead of just two times. The antidotes were if the first attack missed or failed. I would use it, remove the poison, then unleash another Murk Barf during the no poison period.

The people facing me would eventually start bringing antidotes, but they would be chunked and the poison would be reapplied after the immunity time period wore off. An antidote that cost a silver would give 25% resistance boost over 180 seconds and 15 seconds of no poison. That was less than the 25 seconds that the chunks would be effective, but more than enough to give a person a really bad time. Even a gold coin antidote only gave 20 seconds of no poison.

But with only three consumables to my six attacks, I would come out ahead. Since melee people needed to get in close and that was the vast majority of the fighters that showed up in the coliseum, I wasn’t worried about winning.

Similar to the skill shard for Invisibility, good skill shards were either really expensive or hard to get. Breath attacks were considered good skills for the most part. Murk Barf was at the very bottom and was considered one of the single worst skills in Exponential.

Another fun thing about the skill was the horrendous smell it let off. While it didn’t do direct damage, it dealt massive psychological damage. I was used to the smell after spending almost a year in the Murk. Other players would gag and get dizzy. If it got into their eyes and mouth, well it would not be pleasant.

I arrived in Fang City and made my way directly to the city coliseum. Each city had a coliseum with the capital having the main coliseum that the Tournament of Champions would be held in. One had to be at least level 30 to compete in the coliseum. I registered for 10 straight matches and was instantly directed to a cylindrical chamber. It closed around me in total darkness and then quickly opened back up with me in the arena.

Basic matches were instanced since there were so many. The current one shown would be the fighter with the highest win rate, or someone could pay to have their match shown instead. Champions would always get priority, but most of them only fought in the main coliseum once they got their title, since a loss meant they would lose their title to the person who beat them if they didn’t have the Champion title. No one wanted to take that kind of risk.

There was a man in basic leather armor with a sword. Nothing special. I had two short spears as my backup weapons, but wasn’t planning to use them hopefully. The man rushed at me. Murk Barf! I mentally triggered the skill.

The effect was incredible and horrible at the same time. A stream of brown and green colored puke formed in front of my face and splashed directly into the man’s face. There were chunks and one went in his mouth. I heard a scream which was quickly cut off. The stream of puke lasted for five seconds, since the skill was epic ranked. I made sure to pose to look good for the recordings I was paying for.

“Ahhhh!” the man was on the ground screaming and gagging.

Winner! 1-0
Please return to the platform for your next match.

The words appeared in front of me at a distance, but clearly visible with their bright blue color. I made my way across the sand of the arena, while the man was still screaming behind me. Once you hit 1 HP, you wouldn’t die in the arena, but you lost. The winner was instantly healed. The loser had to crawl away in defeat with 1 HP. Eventually the puke from my skill would disappear and he would leave, but the psychological damage would remain.

Consumables wouldn’t come back, but one could have stacks in their inventory. They were just limited to using three out of their inventory. The smart people brought lots of different items in their inventory for any situation. That was fine as long as you knew what you were doing. If you weren’t skilled in combat, it was better to think of your three items ahead of time so you wouldn’t get confused mid-fight. Too many options often led to choice paralysis.

The next nine fights went a lot like the first one. People approached, then I used Murk Barf on them. They collapsed and died due to poison. I didn’t even bother poking them. No need to risk getting close and risking a desperation attack.

Winner! 10-0
Please return to the platform to leave the arena.

Contender
Awarded for winning 10 matches in a row in a coliseum.
+5% Physical Damage

I got the first title in the series. It was decent, but not great. All told, the ten matches had taken about 20 minutes. That was much faster than I had planned. But if you weren’t ready, Murk Barf was just too overpowering. Even if you were, it was still overpowering.

I made my way to one of the clerks in the lobby of the coliseum. “Hello, I would like to schedule my next 90 matches for a Champion’s run,” I said.

“Very well, any specific time slots?” the clerk asked me. I gave the time slots that I wanted. By scheduling ahead of time like this people could challenge me directly by buying out the slot to fight me. This would increase the hype surrounding my ascent.

In the future people would try to cheese the matches, but only 2 people per guild were allowed to challenge a specific person and QAI kept an eye on this sort of thing. Some guilds and groups united, but there were always people who would spoil things. Since a person could pay extra and buy out a slot, which many did to crush people going for the Champion title. Normally a person going on a Champion’s run would have their friends buy the last couple of slots available to ensure that they got through their run.

Fighting in matches was good money since the winner of a match would get 90% of all attendance profit from the arena while they fought if the match was publicly shown and 10% of all betting profit.

“I would also like to promote all my matches in the arena and in the city,” I requested. This was something that a lot of people probably didn’t realize they could do or understand the impact of such advertising.

“Basic arena promotion costs 10 silver and a city wide promotion would cost 1 gold. The promotion would last as long as you have not lost, until you become a Champion, or 40 days.”

“That is fine. I will pay now,” I said. The clerk brought out a rune plate and I paid.

“Also, I want to have my winnings placed on me winning my watches and then bet on me becoming a Champion rolled into continuous events to be collected if I get the title,” I said. One could bet on a match, or they could bet on a person to become a Champion. After 60 wins, the Champion betting would be locked. Rather than collect my money for the entrance fees and the betting profits each time, I would just have it rolled into a continuous bet on my eventual victory.

Once I became a Champion, the payout would be massive. If I lost, I would get nothing. It was a little known feature that the coliseum had. Most people would grab up the money as it came to improve their build and skills. I wanted money just for the money right now. Also, I needed to have a huge amount of betting or gambling to get a shot at the item I needed for a legendary skill, since an invitation to a high end betting establishment was required. This would also satisfy that requirement.