Chapter 81: Chapter 78 Kael who longs to be filled with knowledge
Kael was scrolling through the comments section and, to his surprise, stumbled upon gossip about himself.
Where did all these foreign visitors with non-local IP addresses come from? From America, Neon, and even a few smaller countries.
Obviously, this game wasn't just breaking boundaries; it had gone viral in other regions of the Human Federation.
However, the topics of chat from these foreign visitors were somewhat strange.
"I heard you can take off your pants in this game."
"Holy Light and Dark Priests must die!"
"I heard the game's modeling finally resembles actual humans!"
"P company player reporting in. Quick question, can I hang the nobles from street lamps in the game?"
"Failed to get into art school this year, preparing for another try, heard this game has the best mind acceleration tech in the Human Federation. When is the public beta?"
Clearly, the influx of foreign visitors had turned beta testers into a minority on the forum.
Not many people were discussing actual game content; instead, the overall vibe of the forum had gone askew.
One could only say that chaos seemed to be the driving force behind the forum's development.
Kael, seeing these players chatting so happily about gameplay, was a bit puzzled. Were there really that many beta testers? Why hadn't he noticed before?
He took a glance at the player tags...
Well, visitor temporary accounts.
These people were just role-playing game developers.
However, what Kael was more concerned about was the new expansion, "Shadow Wolf Totem."
Even the expansion's timeline had changed?
Kael felt a sense of urgency.
In his past life, the "Shadow Wolf Totem" expansion had come out much later than now.
If he remembered correctly, it was the first and last expansion before the game went into open beta after the beta test server was activated.
After that, "Gates of the Netherworld" officially launched with a massive wave of players.
But now, history seemed to have taken a twist, with the expansion appearing earlier, causing some unease in his heart.
In his past life, as a professional player, he had thoroughly studied many expansion versions and had a pretty good impression of this particular one.
The expansion's background was rooted in the Twisted Jungle, where large-scale relocation of flora and fauna by players caused significant ecological changes.
The survival needs of the Shadow Wolf pack were affected, prompting the pack leader, who had gained intelligence, to guide the wolves in organizing an assault on Lancaster Territory.
It was better to be prepared early.
Kael planned to have Old White arrange some defensive measures for the territory as soon as he left.
At the very least, the Rangers needed to be more vigilant. Dealing with Shadow Wolves shouldn't be too hard for them with a mature system in place.
But a large gathering of Shadow Wolves would still pose a great threat to the territory.
They needed to find a way to drive them back.
After all... although the wolf packs made it difficult for Lancaster's Rangers to explore dungeons, they were also a barrier preventing monsters from the deeper parts of the Twisted Jungle from stepping out.
This dungeon in the Twisted Jungle was actually much larger than players imagined.
This instance would remain open until nearing the end of the first version of the open beta, where players and NPCs would eventually clear it and integrate it into the territory through collaborative efforts.
It was also the first dungeon led by players to be fully integrated.
At this point, neither Kael nor the undead-bodied players had truly explored it.
Fortunately, Kael had prepared everything in advance. From the beginning, he never planned to rely on players as the main defense of the territory.
He firmly believed in self-reliance.
Now that the dungeon monster outbreak had come early, even if he had to grit his teeth, with adequate preparation, he could carve out a path.
He just didn't know when the players would come online.
Would it be at the height of the expansion's activity, or before the wolf packs officially started their attack? They certainly wouldn't wait until the expansion was almost over to hop in and scavenge, would they?
Just as he was about to exit the forum, Kael's pupils suddenly constricted.
As he unwittingly glanced at his personal tab on the system panel, he noticed a special data change—
Open Beta Countdown!
The text which previously showed over two hundred days was gradually becoming blurry, and a new time read: only 100 days left until the open beta.
Kael's mouth twitched, feeling a bit embarrassed.
The pace of this historical progression was more than just a little bit faster!
He was still in the Prayer Room of the Church of the God of Knowledge. He looked up at the statue of Dinel in the center of the church, thinking to himself, "This time I was careless, but it won't happen again."
The reason he was still at the church was that he had previously asked the bishop in Royal Capital for help from the Church of the God of Knowledge in providing skill-learning manuals for Druid class change, to help Nan Ke complete the transition smoothly.
After all, this bishop used to be a well-traveled Universal Scholar who collected knowledge of flora and fauna from all over the world and was also a part-time Druid.
He was the first person Kael thought of in Royal Capital who could most likely help a player with class change. Using an early strongman's legacy to enlighten Nan Ke was both a testament to his high hopes and a way to break through the system's restrictions more easily.
Of course, Kael now urgently hoped to collaborate with this bishop further.
"Such a rich aura of knowledge, I didn't expect that in this era, a noble like you would still be willing to worship the God of Literature. I can feel the charm of words and images in you."
An elderly voice resonated, and Kael turned around, bowed to the slowly approaching Old Bishop, and said, "Being young is my most valuable asset for learning. Accompanying knowledge at the time of greatest need is a responsibility to myself."
Kael, known for tailoring his words to please the listener, spoke earnestly this time.
After all, he was genuinely studying.
A few days ago, he attempted to allocate attribute points on the system panel in the academy library. Naturally, to maximize the effect of exclusive skills, he opted to increase his Intelligence.
According to the official "Gates of the Netherworld" website, different attributes yielded different results when leveling skills.
Strength determined physical power;
Agility determined reaction speed;
Endurance determined the duration and amount of energy for combat;
Perception determined environmental awareness;
Intelligence determined spell strength and, to some extent, influenced skill learning speed, with no direct correlation to wisdom or problem-solving capabilities;
Willpower related to one's firmness of belief and, for some classes, could convert into strength.
Among these, Kael's exclusive skill clearly heavily favored the Intelligence attribute.
For players, even if they maxed out their Intelligence, they wouldn't experience it the way Intelligence itself felt.
Firstly, Intelligence in this context didn't equate broadly to IQ but leaned more towards the concept of "Spell Strength."
Secondly, players couldn't directly increase their Intelligence to feel enhanced memory or logical capabilities.
If they could, the first thing "Gates of the Netherworld" players would do is max out Intelligence to build supercomputers by hand and craft mushroom bombs.
Real-world scholars wouldn't need to rack their brains; they'd enter the game, crank up their Intelligence, and fast-forward the Human Federation to conquering the stars in a hundred years.
But that's clearly impossible. Players, after all, are just players. No matter how much they increase their stats, at most, their skill upgrade speed would be faster.
But what if I were an Incubus with a system panel, blurring the lines between virtual and reality, and having the constant effect of Queen Moli?
What if I were a Scroll Scholar mastering "Dark Knowledge" that maximized its potential based on Intelligence attributes?
...
I want
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