Caelus Online

97. Preparations Before The Storm

By midday, Aurora had managed to travel a significant distance across the highlands. The mountain range that had previously taken up most of her vision whenever she looked to the north had now shrunk in size and became slightly hazy from clouds which were much lower due to the altitude. 

Her time travelling had been relatively uneventful, only encountering the occasional weak enemies such as slimes or wolves. Sadly they were too low level for her now to give any noticeable increase in level progression. But that in itself was a good thing. 

She had just come across a particularly noticeable area where the grass had been flattened between a slight dip in the terrain. She took a few minutes to investigate the area, finding a few small piles of ashes and many areas where the grass looked like it had been laid on.

After a minute of checking the area Aurora easily concluded that this was where the gnolls had camped for the night, giving her a sense of relief that she had managed to make such progress to catch up. 

She decided that the location was perfect for her own break, so she took some time to sit and have some lunch while giving Sapphire a well-deserved rest. 

During this time Aurora opened up her status page to properly organise everything. She had left it in a bit of a state the previous night, adding stats and new skills mid combat leaving her with gaps in skills that needed filling. 

After her first attack, she had managed to kill a significant number of gnolls with her subsequent attempts. She did not know how many she had killed in total, nor could she be bothered to count them, but she estimated that she had managed to wipe out at least 100 more before she had to log off. 

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[Astaria]

Class: Mage - Lv: 47 – 13% [+12]  

Race: ???

Gender: Female

Age: 20

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HP: 1730/1730 

MP: 2260/2260  

Fatigue: 34%

Hunger: 13%

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Skill Points: 6/531 - 38%     [+54/-65]    

Attribute Points: 0  [+60/-60]      

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[Attributes]   

VIT: 173     [+43]

STA: 101     [+43]

DEF: 98 (+9)     [+43]

STR: 108      [+43]   

AGI: 153 (+40)       [+78]    

DEX: 98     [+43]

INT: 160 (+66)      [+43]

WIS: 241 (+54)    [+68] 

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[Equipment]

Enchanted Mastercraft Steel Staff [Rare+]

(34 ATK) (WIS+10, INT+10)

Receptivity - Vigilance of the Witch Queen [Legendary+]

(182 ATK) (INT+37, WIS +34, AGI+32) (Sharpness+) (Magical Infusion)

Frilled Blouse [Rare]

(WIS+4, INT+3)

Sogorim Mithril Bracers [Epic]

(DEF+8, WIS+6, INT+6, -2% Cast Time)

Skinny Leather Trousers [Rare]

(AGI+4, INT+3)

Steel Plated Leather Boots [Rare]

(INT+5, AGI+4)

Black Hooded Ornate Robe [Rare]

(INT +2) (DEF +1)

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[Resistances]

(+ To Expand)

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Charisma: 10

Luck: 550

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Karma: 66,391   [+19,542] 

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[Skills]      

Staff Lv 2

Short-sword Lv 2

Mana Arrow Lv 2

Fireball Lv 3    

--- Blast Lv1    

Lightning Lv 4

--- Residual Burst Lv 2

Earth spike Lv 4    

Freeze Lv 3    

--- Lingering Frost Lv1   

Fire Pillar Lv 1 

Frozen Burst Lv 1

Chain Lightning Lv 1

Earth Surge Lv 1      [+1]  

Mana Barrier Lv 2      [+1] 

Teleport Lv 2      [+1]   

Evasion lv 5      [+1]    

Mana Heart Lv 2    

Casting Lv 3

Vitality Boost Lv 3

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[Fame and Contribution]    

Personal Fame: 60                  

The Temple: 1220                     

Adventurers Guild: 1370           

Alennos Kingdom: 45               

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[Titles]

-First Epic Acquirer-

-First Legendary Acquirer-

-Raids Harbinger-

-Raid Pioneer-

-Slayer of Square Jaw-

-Stalwart Warrior-

-The First Immortal Warrior-

[Common Titles]

(+ To Expand)      

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Overall the previous night had been incredibly rewarding to Aurora. Not only had she gained a total of 12 additional levels over her numerous attacks, but she had gained a decent amount of skill points. 

While it was true that had Aurora could have spent her time killing the brainless enemies in one of the monster domains to earn herself substantially more skill points from the volume of enemies she could slaughter en mass, her levelling speed would have been nowhere near as substantial. Even if she had the chance to choose, she would not have changed her actions, levels were far harder to get requiring players to kill higher level enemies to be efficient, while skill points could be gained far more easily through a sheer quantity of kills, something that was easier to do when at a higher level.

Aurora first started by going over her attributes where her agility had received the most notable increase. Between her attacks she had been adding points only to that one stat due to the gnolls constitution which made them very fast opponents. 

When Aurora had first been fighting she was reacting to their attacks mainly on instinct. She could not keep up with their attacks so was unable to dodge fast enough, ending up with her taking all the damage she had during the fight. 

In comparison, by the time she had finished fighting the last group before she logged off, she had been able to add a total of 35 additional points to her agility along with everything she gained from levelling up. That had allowed her to be able to better follow the gnolld  movements and dodge a higher majority of attacks from those of level 50 and under. 

But in order to balance things out for the upcoming confrontation between her guild and the gnoll tribe she added her remaining 25 Attribute Points to her WIS, bringing it to a grand total of 295 with her currently equipped gear.

With her attributes in order she moved onto the skill points. While she did not anywhere near enough to acquire everything she wanted, she focused on upgrading skills that helped to keep her alive in a fight. First, she upgraded her [Mana Barrier] skill making it slightly more efficient on mana, her [Evasion] skill to reduce the cooldown and its mana efficiency, and her [Teleport] which reduced the cooldown, cost and cast time. 

These three skills, like with the Attribute Points she added to her agility, helped her to evade attacks and move more freely in combat than before. However, in terms of defensive skills she was simply limited to her [Mana Barrier] and to some extent her [Earth Spike].

This unfortunately left her particularly vulnerable while both skills were on cooldown. So in order to close up the gap in her abilities, Aurora purchased [Earth Surge] which was an ability that blasted a section of the earth below in a specified direction. 

Due to its nature, it not only had the ability to stun enemies, but push them back from the force while creating a distance. It also had the added benefit of reducing visibility from the launched debris. 

It was an incredibly useful skill that added both crowd control and a distancing skill all in one. But despite its addition, she still lacked additional skills that would increase her diversity of defensive options. While her playstyle leaned towards evasion rather than taking attacks head on, having the option was always better than not. Especially when her main defence, [Mana Barrier], was tied to her mana and the addition of something like [Earth Wall] would give her a temporary active defence that would not completely drain her mana when trying to block a strong attack. 

[Earth Surge]

[Creates a directed blast of Earth that will incapacitate enemies caught within its radius, while the skill’s concussive force will push targets away.]

MP cost: 32

Cast time: 1s

Cooldown: 20s

Damage: (WIS x 200%) + ((Main hand weapon attack + Sub weapon attack) x 110%)

Radius: 1.5m

Additional effects: Movement speed -10% for 2s 

Chance to inflict: {Knockback} {Stun}]

The last important thing that Aurora noted was that her Karma value had risen substantially for the first time since the Haligrad Gate Massacre. Killing hostile monsters that were considered as a threat helped to restore karma, almost like you are doing a good deed. While the amount gained per kill was quite small, it all added up to a sum of nineteen thousand which was nearly a fifth of her max karma value.

****

After taking enough time for Sapphire to regain a decent amount of her stamina, Aurora once again set out following the progress of the gnolls as they travelled south. As she swiftly progressed, the altitude where she found herself slowly decreased as she followed along the trail over the highlands left by the gnolls.

Halfway through the afternoon, Aurora received a message that she was eagerly anticipating in the Lex Divina guild leaders chat from ALD Munro.

[ALD Munro: @Astaria The army, currently numbering 306, has made it to the first village in the direct path of the gnoll tribe's advance. The evacuation of the local villagers has begun, although we have received resistance from some for understandable reasons. We have begun setting up the previously planned defences, although additional materials will be required. I estimate it will take us 3 hours at the earliest to be properly prepared for first contact with the enemy.

Scout reports estimate the gnoll tribe will take around two hours and twenty minutes while maintaining their current speed to reach the village, so we will do what we can in the time we have.] 

[Astaria: Good work on reaching the village in time, I am honestly impressed you managed to get so many players there on such short notice. Complete as many preparations as you can, and do whatever you need to convince those stubborn people to leave. Once they are gone from Caelus, they are gone. And civilian casualties in our first engagement would not be ideal. If they are stubborn to the last minute have those with horses ride them to safety.]

[ALD Munro: Acknowledged. Any other additional information or orders?]

[Astaria: Hmm. Nothing regarding the gnolls, however, I recommend getting Tyrell a few minutes to give a motivational speech. He will know how to get the players easily motivated, something quite important if you want a group of gamers to follow orders more enthusiastically.]

[ALD Munro: Will do. Get here soon, we will likely need the extra firepower.]

[Astaria: Don’t worry, I'm following right behind the gnolls. I passed where they camped for the night a couple of hours ago, so I shouldn’t be too far behind.]

[Stormbane: First story time, and now speeches? Boss, you only employed me for guild administration and fighting, not as a hype man! Ima need me a pay raise.]

[Nirvana: Tyrell, you have only been employed for a week and you are already demanding a pay rise? If I didn’t know any better I would have thought you disliked the chance to look badass while acting like a bigshot!]

[Stormbane: Roxanne, how could you! Airing my secrets to everyone like that!]

[Nirvana: My apologies Grand Retribution Paladin Stormbane, the Dragon Slayer. This lowly division leader has said too much!]

[Stormbane: Bah. I'm going back to hammering stakes in, mans got no time to deal with a troll.]

[Residios: loool, I feel like I missed something amusing when you guys met up the other night. Roxanne, I want to hear the deets, man roasted me hard because of passing out again the other night, I need me some ammunition to get back at him.] 

[Nirvana: You got it ;)]