MMORPG: Surviving a Death Game with a Glitched System

After casting [Focus], Ash flicked the bones of a fish into the Totem, watching as the red scale greedily consumed the offering.

[Quest complete!]

[Totem of the Dragonkin] - [3.1% ➜ 4.6%]

[New Quest!] - [Feed the Totem Common-Ranked Logs] (0/100)

[Quest!] - [Feed the Totem Common-Ranked Marauder Tendons] (2/25)

[Quest!] - [Explore Foreign Territory] (44%)

Nearly two weeks had passed since Ash returned, and his progression had all but stalled.

He was no longer earning massive amounts of EXP from each kill. Everything nearby was lower-level, granting no more than 1 or 2 EXP, and the problem was only compounded by the relative peace of the area they’d claimed. By the day, fewer monsters were spawning in the vicinity of the Totem.

He and the others had managed to level up once, to Level 6, but that was all that had changed quantitatively.

However, they had made some notable leaps in qualitative progress, particularly in their acquisition of regional and universal knowledge. This was mostly thanks to the Trades the others had taken. Well, mainly Claude’s Cartography Trade.

As Claude explored, his Trade charted the surrounding terrain and allowed him to assign names, which he’d done for the three overall zones they’d discovered. Once he named a zone, its overall level range appeared.

All three zones they had discovered so far spanned Levels 1-15.

But that wasn’t all they’d learned from his map.

Each zone was further divided into smaller precincts, each covering a narrower portion of its overall level range. The area around the Totem, for instance, was a Level 1-4 precinct. More recently, they had discovered a Level 3-7 precinct, though reaching it required traveling quite a bit down the mountain.

Unlike a zone as a whole, a precinct had to be fully explored before its level range appeared and Claude could name it.

The two precincts Claude had fully explored were the Dragonkin Homeland, the Level 1-4 precinct containing their Totem; and Fisherman’s Catch, the small Level 3-7 precinct along the main river flowing from the basin, named after the insane diversity of fish species it contained.

As for other functions of the Trade, he could place pins and mark landmarks. So far, they’d named only Spring’s Basin and the Dragonkin Totem. They would have named the mountain they’d spawned at, but Claude had to be present at a location to mark it on the map.

Next, based not on Cartography but on conjecture, they had determined that each precinct seemed to contain a monster that acted as its ’boss.’

These monsters were unique to their respective precincts, typically one or two levels above the surrounding creatures, exceeding the precinct’s set level range and commanding small groups composed of the area’s highest-level mobs.

Going off that logic...

’The hunter was one of the "boss" monsters.’

Or maybe it was better to call it a ’mini-boss’.

It was mere gamer logic, but Éloi had made a valid argument that each zone likely contained a true boss presiding over it.

’I wonder if Vera would be the "boss" of the Mountains of Spring.’

If she were...

’I don’t think anybody is beating her.’

Also, Ash had witnessed the results of completing a quest firsthand.

After feeding it the 300 ’ingredients,’ the ring around the Totem’s territory had awkwardly expanded, and a series of rivets had appeared along it, with shaved-down tooth and bone caps covering certain areas. A weird little stand had also formed at the base of the Totem out of sticks, rocks, and now fish bones.

Beyond that, they’d also learned more about the quest function and had even unlocked several quests simultaneously. Most notably, one of them had nothing to do with throwing items into the Totem.

They’d divided the quests among themselves, mostly according to whether they possessed a suitable Trade.

Sandra, who’d oddly selected [Lumberjack] as her secondary Trade, had been tasked with collecting the logs, as she was the only one capable of even felling a tree. Well, Ash could too with [Jack of All Trades], but his starting efficiency was lower, and he could only chop for 15 seconds at a time. Nor did he have an axe item like Sandra did.

As for Éloi and Nora...

They were on protection duty for Sandra while also hunting Marauders. All they had to do was follow her and patrol the area for any lurking panthers.

Finally, there were Claude and Ash.

Claude took on the [Explore Foreign Territory] task. From what they had learned, its percentage only increased whenever either Ash or Claude entered new areas and expanded their map. Hence why they’d set off together.

Speaking of that map, it wasn’t physical. Instead, anyone in Claude’s party could summon it. It was holographic, with each precinct color-coded and the larger zones separated by rough, unfinished lines. There was also a measure of topography to it, and Ash’s Trade allowed him to manipulate the map slightly and view it from different angles. Claude could apparently do the same to a much greater degree, with his control improving alongside his proficiency.

The last notable discovery concerned Ash’s own Trade/Trades in general.

They had three levels: Apprentice, Journeyman, and Master.

As for [Jack of All Trades], Ash could only use Trades he observed in action; he first had to watch someone perform their specialty before he could replicate it. Once he received that initial push, though, he could improve its proficiency on his own, albeit much more slowly.

As for the ones he currently had...

From Sandra:

[Apprentice Skinner] - [0.3%]

[Apprentice Lumberjack] - [0.1%]

From Claude:

[Apprentice Cartographer] - [2.5%]

[Apprentice Trapper] - [0.1%]

From Éloi:

[Apprentice Herbalist] - [0.1%]

As for Éloi’s other Trade, Alchemy, he hadn’t quite been able to demonstrate it yet, so Ash couldn’t pick it up.

Nora had also selected Trades she couldn’t currently demonstrate: Enchanting and Inscription. Sadly, even if she could, they were Trades that required a higher INT stat. Something he now only got one point in every level.

Claude scratched his cheek while swiping his other hand at the empty air in front of him.

"Hmm... We’ve entered a new zone."

The two had been making their way down the mountain, following the river that started from Spring’s Basin. They’d just exited Fisherman’s Catch on the far side and were finally picking up where their last expedition had ended.

The slope hadn’t been particularly steep to begin with, but now it was gradually leveling out.

Claude sighed as he pushed a tree branch out of his path.

"It’s dense as all hell."

Ash ducked as Claude released the branch and it snapped back toward him, nearly smacking [Crown of the Defeated].

’I’m not sensing anything dangerous...’

Over the past two weeks, he’d honed his base mana sense to the point that he could completely separate possessed mana from atmospheric mana. There was still one complication: he had learned that insensate lifeforms possessed mana; if a blade of grass or weed waved in the wind, it would throw off his sense and he’d often mistake it for a creature.

Still, for the most part, he could sense the creatures around so long as they did nothing to hide themselves.

Clutching the [Evercrestian Recurve Bow] in his left hand, Ash looked into the stream beside him.

His eyes narrowed as he studied the current.

"Do you hear that?"

"Hear what?"

Ash looked down the river.

"A dropoff."

Claude stopped for a moment.

"Hmmm. Oh, I do."

After that slight pause, they continued along the river; as they did, the crashing sound of water grew louder and louder, confirming what Ash had heard.

Although...

’Is my natural hearing better because I’m an Archer?’

It was something he’d vaguely noticed. An instance like this only furthered that theory.

In any case, they were approaching a waterfall.

Which also meant they were approaching an overlook that might finally give them a clear view of the rest of the mountain.

Marching closer, the trees began thinning.

There was no clean line where the forest suddenly ended like there had been around Spring’s Basin. Instead, the gaps between the trunks widened little by little, and more sunlight spilled through the canopy until the river ahead shone almost white beneath it.

Then, finally, they reached the edge where water spat off the edge of a tall cliff into another basin below.

Ash and Claude approached and stood on rocks at the edge of the overlook.

From there, Ash realized just how high up they were, something the initial climb up to the ridge hadn’t suggested.

But with what he knew now, it made sense. After all, an entire landmass had fallen onto the world where they’d been summoned. Of course they were high up to begin with. The entire zone of Ruins of Evercrest must have been far...

’Above sea level?’

Ash hadn’t considered it before, but...

’What vertical datum should we use in this world?’

Was it an arbitrary decision up to them?

’I guess...?’

In any case...

Looking down the mountainside, Ash saw that it didn’t descend in one continuous slope. The terrain fell away in massive, uneven shelves, each one separated by cliffs and stretches of dense forest. The river threaded through them like a silver line, vanishing beneath trees before reappearing farther down.

There were more waterfalls.

Three that Ash could immediately make out.

The first spilled over the edge of the shelf directly below them, disappearing behind a dense patch of trees before emerging again. Farther down, the river plunged over another cliff, then a third, each waterfall carrying it closer to the mountain’s base.

Beyond the final drop, the land began to flatten. The forests thinned into broad stretches of open terrain, and the river continued away from the mountain until it faded in the distance distance.

Claude stood with a dumbfounded look on his face as he said:

"Are you seeing what I’m seeing...?"

Ash nodded a little.

"If you’re talking about that... thing. Then, yes, I am."

At the very bottom, there was a singular person with bird-like features fluttering about around the top of the last waterfall with all the grace of a wounded insect.

While Ash would have otherwise assumed she was a monster, he’d recognized her.

He’d seen the exact being suspended in the Fold of Existence, floating around with the rest of the ’to-be summoned.’

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