Fortunately, due to the fantasy setting of the game, it didn't take me too long to create the design for the jungle. It's unlikely that a bunch of botany professors will suddenly appear in my game and start seriously studying the flora of the jungle and start demanding that it match real-world examples. After all, it's still all fantasy.
So, for the jungle, I used my rough idea of tall trees, vines, a bunch of small bushes, and lots of roots to create the flora of it. There's another benefit to those who decided to pump up their Agility to get the highest possible Movement Speed, being able to traverse the forest in style.
Although, doesn't Agility also affect maneuverability? Then let's say that I'm encouraging the development of Agility in every way. It's good to be the main and sole Admin of the game; I can twist any features to any way I like.
Of course, along with the vegetation, I generously splashed the Blight on the floating islands, causing the forest to wither greatly, with the trees beginning to dry out and crack in places. Turning my initial idea of a jungle into something closer to a very dense 'grove of the dead', or something with a similar name.
However, despite the slap dash nature of it. I was quite satisfied with the result. Scatter some mobs around, and I could see that it's pretty much already serviceable, a new third biome for players is ready!
Of course, a question remained whether using the floating islands again would bore players, it has been my go-to solution to adding new biomes… The Players do need somewhere to go after exploring the floating islands. They needed to feel like they were in an open world, even if it was only very conditionally 'open'.
But how exactly to arrange this for them was a mystery for sages much smarter than me.
Alright, just remember to deal with problems as they arise, planning for the future is to be reserved when there's actually a future to think about. Planning for content months in advance would be pretty moot if the Player count drops, and they can the game after all.
For now, I've already managed to throw some quests at players to distract them for enough time. Since I've already leaked that there would be 'Seven' angel statues to Jabberwocky – a beautiful number, and therefore no Player should react badly or be surprised that there would be Seven starting zones. Plus, in the meantime, let them deal with magic, pirates and the first settlement; the alchemists should be happy, and busy, with new mobs.
In general, I've ensured myself a bit more time. And since I have the time, let's spend it on something less boring than watching shrubberies!
A quick jump to the game forums informed me that one of the Players had taken on the function of the game's 'chronicler' despite the forums not being integrated with the game. Despite everything that had happened, observing the players spamming each other with memes and cat photos even in an entirely different virtual reality wasn't what I was striving for while role-playing NPCs and coming up with the game's setting.
It was good that someone had taken on the tough task of periodically disconnecting from the game to convey information to the forums about what he managed to learn during that time before reconnecting back. Otherwise, I would probably need to create an AI just to interact with the forum, just to keep the hype alive.
A brief glance allowed me to assess the identity of this 'chronicler' to see that he was not only one of the oldest Players but also a loyal subordinate of Jabberwocky… Though, why not, mister canonist of the paladin communicating with angels?
In any case, my hope that information about Yersinia could be kept secret was a fool's hope in the end.
By the time I had finished creating the jungles, the forums already knew that someone had managed to unlock magic, and quite many people already started trying to find the girl to shake out her 'secret'. Of course, there's no way that the Players would ever figure out that Yersinia had 'unlocked' the Magic system, simply because I had chosen her as the Beta Tester for it.
Well, secret or no secret, it's not like the other Players know about it. That is why, currently, Yersinia was doing her best to avoid other players. Doing a PK certainly didn't give anyone any rewards other than the couple of Players designated testers for the PK system, yet Yersinia certainly didn't want to risk it either.
Respawning still took two full hours, and one might grow old with boredom with that.
Truth be told, Yersinia would not be left without support for long. The information about someone unlocking magic has quickly made its way to three key personalities, people who had become very interested in the girl.
Jabberwocky, having been tasked with building an entire city, needed all the outstanding individuals in the game in his corner to rally support to undertake the titanic task. A group of people that definitely included the first mage in the game.
Jim, who decided not to stop at monopolizing alchemy, but also to establish the first magical institute with whatever resources available to him, monopolizing magic as well.
Lastly was Sturm, who got so enraptured by the pirate life upon being the first player accepted into another faction, that he aimed to raise his status in the organization by recruiting the newcomer, Yersinia, into his pirate crew.
However, the hunt for the first mage was not the only source of entertainment for the Players at the moment. The various pirate ships kept issuing tasks for gathering information on other pirates, making more experienced Players speculate about the upcoming conflict between pirates.
And new mobs provided fun for Players who had not fought or killed a single 'Junior demon-servant' yet. The wandering mob strolling around the suddenly emptied islands being quite the exciting challenge to fight. But I suspect that that won't last long. With no long-range attacks given to them and explosive potions already spreading across the world thanks to the relentless efforts of the alchemists' guild. The Junior Demon Servant would soon become nothing more than a source of Exp for the Players.
Unfortunately, or fortunately, the Players have not yet figured out how to create bows. First, there was the shortage of appropriate woods for the bow itself and its arrows. Second, was the lack of a proper bowstring, the one used by imps, useless to be used for bows.
Well, the first issue would soon be solved when the Jungle biome came into play. There wouldn't be a lack of wood then. Well, by then I would need to create an Archery system, but until then, all is fine.
Feeling accomplished, I paused my forum browsing briefly, instead surveying the game world itself, appearing so small from my vantage point in the skies, but quite vast from the players' perspective.
Of course, I didn't spend long on watching my work, a pop-up in the forum attracting my attention. Everything would be fine if I go forum trawling, right?
I could leave Players doing their own thing for a while… Right?
Maybe they wouldn't break it this time?
***
Double Down, after becoming a traitor, the paladin slayer, and most likely a demon-worshiper, took several steps across the floating mines, maneuvering around air-suspended stone boulders.
The newly opened location for the new Players had become his refuge after Jabberwocky, enraged by the many attacks on him, declared a hunt for Double. A quite successful one, the Preacher not lacking in many incentives to other Players so that they would hunt him down.
Double of course wanted revenge, but with his old boss quick regathering of his old forces, and his old levels, Double would need to catch up and even surpass his old boss. So even with help, he could kill Jabberwocky again and again.
That was why he was spending his time in the new newbie zone, levelling up and pondering on his next move.
Stabbing a spear through another imp's head, a spear being the latest player-crafted trend – the attack had been an instant kill, turning the Imp into five experience points added to Double's experience bar, making him exhale wearily. It was such a low amount… Incomparable to what he would get from killing other Players.
Well, he also has Jabberwocky to thank for that.
After his first death at the hands of his old boss, and a lot of other helpers, the two hours he had spent timed out of the game had been used by Jabberwocky to spread his identity and name to all the forums. Now, all the Players, even the newbies, and perhaps especially them, know not to trust him, making his PK efforts that much harder.
Luckily, and thankfully, the game did not display Player names above their heads like so many other MMORPGs, offering some protection for Double as he no doubt would be hunted down without that anonymity. But, he still needed to lie low.
Even knowing that he wouldn't gain much experience from the early-level mobs, leaving a bloody trail of PK'ed Players would only reveal his location faster. They would have ample time to complain in the forums about him, and reveal his location after all.
There's even a whole page dedicated to tracking Double, with any and all the Players he killed plastering the location where they had last seen him.
So, no, dispute the glacial pace of his levelling without doing a PK, just imagining Jabberwocky arranging another Kill Squad after him was enough for Double to swallow the boredom. The two hours spent timed out of the game might sound short, but having to experience it, it might as well be an eternity as the other Players leapfrog over your dead character in progress.
It was a credit to the Game's greatness… Though, is the realistic depiction of a crushed head really necessary? Seeing his face being turned to smashed watermelon was enough trauma to make him be always careful.
And so, wary of being caught, Double was forced to hunt imps like most other Players. It was a far cry from the constant level ups he had gotten each time he had killed Jabberwocky. But then again, what else does he expect when killing the starter mobs?
Well, there are the new mobs… But Double doesn't want to risk it.
The rather funnily named 'Junior Demon-Servant', was a far departure from the measly Imps. Standing at an impressive height with a body bulging with muscles, its high level, that being Level 8, made even Double feel intimidated by the monster.
As expected of an elite mob… For a Beginner. But even knowing that he was higher leveled than the creature, Double still didn't want to risk it.
Besides those two extremes of the weak Imp, and the strong Elite Mob, there was a smattering of other mobs that Double could hunt. There's the Flying Imp, those mobs being Level 2, and then there's the Slime-Demon, being a Level 4 Mob. Apparently the Guild of Alchemists offer quite good money for catching these mobs and bringing them for the Alchemists to use their body parts.
Apparently they're using the mobs for experiments.
But, even knowing that such mobs would give him more experience, and even rewards if he managed to catch them alive and bring them to the Alchemists, Double would still stick with the Imps.
He had no plan to move around the world to hunt the much rarer mobs, it would be rather counter-productive to his plan of staying low, after all.
Without regard for his thought about it, his spear impaled another mob, this time a slime-demon, a mob that resembled a pulsating thin sheet of slime. The dead mob generously poured experience into Double's experience bar. Pulling the spear back, Double could only click his tongue and sigh as only half of the spear had come out of the Slime's body, his spear had broken.
It had finally broken after the last strike against the mob's bubbling acidic flesh, forcing Double to reach for his trusty club, the most reliable weapon in the whole game's expanses.
Overall, killing monsters was fun, but Double felt something was missing beyond just his growing skill and filled experience bar. There was nothing wrong with it per se, but something extra like a quest or storyline would be highly appreciated…
In other games, Double usually skipped quests to dive into the gameplay, instead the thrill of rising numbers being the main draw of games to him. But this is the first time he had played DMMO-RPGs and thus was greatly surprised by the fact that everything almost seemed real to him.
For the first time in his experience playing games, he had become interested in the world of the game he was playing. Rather than mindlessly clicking on mobs to make his character level up, his thoughts began to swirl about what he could do here and even interact with NPCs.
After all, that Jabberwocky had summoned two angels, which was more interesting than any battle Double had participated in other MMOs…
Double even missed speaking with the demon that had visited him in the past and remembered that he hadn't said something like 'skip the lore, let's do the quest' like he usually did when an NPC gave him a quest.
Double, however, no longer has time to ponder the intricacies of plot-driven games as he suddenly found himself under a large shadow. One that is falling on him and spreading in all directions.
Double's first thought was that he had become the target of a Flying Imp's attack, so he jerked back, expecting to see the falling figure of an Imp where he was standing before. But the shadow didn't move from its spot, only continued expanding in all directions, making Double freeze and look up…
To see an approaching cigar-shaped form of gray-steel, and attached to it was a gondola.
"The Pirates?" Double instantly recognized the familiar shape of a Pirate's airship and frowned.
"But aren't all the Pirates ships supposed to be docked?"
These words were responded to by a young guy appearing from the descending airship. The person was smiling ear to ear, so wide that it was visible even from the ground. What attracted Double's attention the most, however, was the sword being waved on one of his hands.
"Hi from the mainland, Double!"
'Ah, shit.'
***
On the forums, the situation was quite stable. People complained, rejoiced, trolled each other, gave good advice, gave wrong advice. Some even started trying to organize their own guilds before even logging into the game.
In general, reactions to the ongoing experiment of rapidly developing a working detail on an almost lifeless carcass were deemed quite successful. Hence, I didn't waste long on indulging my sense of self-importance with prolonged reading of positive comments; anyway, nothing particularly interesting was in them.
Instead, I focused again on the major topic that collated all the various game mechanics and lore theories. A page that had already surpassed over three hundred pages, and it didn't seem to be slowing anytime soon.
One detail however made me metaphorically bite my tongue from annoyance.
Apparently, one of Jabberwocky's priests noticed that an angel told him about 'The Seven' – presumably talking about the angels. However, another player, who was near Yersinia during the revelation about her magical abilities, heard from a pirate about 'The Eight Holy Names'.
Eight and Seven, despite their similar sounding names, were, in fact, different numbers.
Surprise…?
The Players immediately latched onto this detail. They began building wild theories about different religions, saying that the Eighth wasn't actually an angel but a depiction of God, about the Pirate worshiping demons, human ascension theories, and a hundred thousand other speculations…
While indeed was quite the lore bit if any of the speculation was true, the truth was as unpretentious as most lore in this game. The number Seven was chosen by El himself; while I chose number eight when I momentarily jumped into one of the pirates' bodies because it sounded nice.
But I couldn't inform the Players about this of course, and thus like the Players, had to create a reason why the pirates mentioned eight, but the angel seven.
In an act of great serendipity, I had told Roger to keep a distance from the Players that regularly interacts with the pirates, so no one has yet started theological conversations with the Pirates. But time was running out, and the setting for the whole game continued to stand on implicit and flimsy grounds of 'the first thing that came to mind'.
A well-thought-out religious lore was definitely the least important thing in my mind when creating the emergency edits so that the game would work. But it has suddenly become very important now, as a broken lore is the last thing I need in this broken game.
So once again, the need to invent a justification for a completely random trifle made me distracted from other, actually, more important problems. Like making the game actually work for one.
Anyway, I liked the idea of a religious schism. Some NPC honored the Eight 'holy names', others seven… Which of course made it quite hard for me to create any such thing when the other party is a literal Angel.
It's rather difficult to create heretical schisms if the gods worshiped by these religions are quite real and people can even inquire an Angel about their opinion on this matter…
Of course, as the one creating the lore, it's very easy to play the 'Absent Gods' card, it's not like anyone has talked with the gods yet. And with the whole 'after-Ragnarok' feel of the game's setting, that could work quite well.
But then, a question would arise then, why could the low levelled Players awaken the Angels, when the arch mages of this world, that certainly exists honest, they're just in another castle! Why, these Arch Mage NPCs, couldn't awaken the Angels?
Well that's because… Perhaps if the local analogue of heaven was closed to them all this time? No, then the Pirates' schismatic belief doesn't fit into this strict sequence immediately, their eight vessels coming to the floating islands in search of…
Something?
Doesn't matter, let's think about pirate treasures later. Anyway, for some time, the Pirates won't chat with players about this fact. Learning this fact will require a reputation significantly higher than necessary for theological discussions. So let's say that we have 'seven' angels, not just angels, but the most angelic angels in the world, and the eighth is… Some ascended champion from the past who stood alongside them?
Enough that they are worshiped in the same way as the Angels did anyway.
But since he's not an angel, there's no statue for him, and he can't be awakened in this way. And that the Angels didn't mention him because… Well, nobody asked them, right? Like with magic when they asked the angels about, which I found the ingenious excuse for, 'you're already summoning Angels, what part of this is not magic?'
Okay, with that settled, what's next…
A lighter mental nudge, that involuntarily made me imagine a nervous child slightly tugging at my shirt sleeve, forced me to automatically turn. Before realizing that no one was actually tugging at my sleeve and focusing on what this sensation really was.
A moment of concentration informed me that…
That I definitely once again underestimated my Players.
While Jabberwocky, interested in creating the first Player settlement, began looking for ways to approach the Alchemists' Guild and the first official mage of the game, well there are other mages now. When Yersinia proved that the new mages wouldn't destroy the game when acquiring the mystical might, I have allowed others to 'unlock' the Magic system.
Anyway, other than Jabberwocky, the other notable Player, Sturm, starting to embody the role of an air pirate, used his status as 'part of the crew' and convinced the captain to try recruiting the second-strongest player, Double Down. In other words, while Jabberwocky tried within his means to create some semblance of a functioning city, Sturm decided instead to gather the first semblance of an actual boarding party.
And considering that all pirates gathered information on other Players, he probably even sensed the impending clash of first proto-guilds and was preparing to create his combat squad already. He would go far if he didn't break his neck on the first turn.
And Roger, the AI responsible for the behavior of Pirates, was sending clarification requests. After all, I hadn't yet given him permission to accept new Players into the ranks of the Pirates. But, since this situation was set up by a Player who had already been accepted into the faction, albeit as a test subject… Well, that changes things a lot.
Swearing under my breath, and praising Sturm for his creativity once more, I jumped into the scene of the torment, quickly weighing all the 'pros' and 'cons'.
Sturm had shown himself pretty capable as a probable first Player in the Pirate faction, and a good representative of the faction's system itself. Despite its simplicity and the fact that it was hastily put together, it was still holding up decently. All this even without the next level of 'ranks' in the faction, for this time reserved only for Sturm.
However, Double seemed to have made a pact with a demon and even managed to participate in a PK that actually gave him actual rewards. Would it be a good idea to let him into the Pirate team, which supposedly invoked some 'holy names'?
Thinking about it for a moment, I quickly decided not to overthink the situation too much, dived into Signia's body, the Pirate captain, already preparing to use my greatest skill — chattering.
***
"Hmm," Signia, the captain of the Pirate crew that Sturm is in, took a few steps around the Player, examining Double from all sides, who stood frozen outside the ship's hanging gondola, before glancing at Sturm himself. Expressing an expression that Sturm certainly didn't expect to see — wariness and distrust.
"And since when do you associate with those marked by the Enemy?"
Hearing these words, Sturm froze, then glanced at Double, who was evidently less surprised about the news than Sturm himself, causing Sturm to curse internally.
The story of how Double had killed Jabberwocky out of nowhere, many times in fact, had already spread across the forums, but Double remained silent about the reasons that prompted him to do so. It had left the Players groping in the dark with guesses. And when the bounty came out and people started hunting him, Double only clammed down even harder.
However, to think that the demons were involved… Perhaps Sturm should've suspected something like this earlier.
Instead, he chose to ignore the very probable theory, tempted by the opportunity to add a powerful Player to his team. Someone who had been expelled from the general game community like a cork from champagne, and thus couldn't betray Sturm if anything went wrong.
Not if Double didn't want to add more people that wanted his head on a platter at least.
"I didn't know…" Sturm's excuse sounded pathetic even to himself, but it was at least honest. Not that Sturm could quickly concoct a plausible lie even if he wanted to.
And who knows how good the NPCs were at reading the Players' emotions and lies.
"I suspect that was the case," Signia just sighed, grimacing joylessly before looking at Double. "And you! Do you have anything to say in your defense?"
Double seems to be thinking about it, before just shrugging, without saying anything, after all, what could Double even say? That he was tempted by the unique story and questline and therefore decided to serve the local equivalent of the Devil?
Truthful but unlikely to deter Signia from lopping his head off.
"I'm used to giving second chances to everyone who seeks them on my ship, but a follower of the Enemy marked personally by him? This will be a first even for me," Sturm's keen hearing caught not only the fact that demon-worshipers were evidently rare, given that even Signia hadn't encountered such a problem before. But also that she was used to picking up all sorts of people and giving them a second chance.
People that might still be in her crew now.
This, in turn, made Sturm look around at the pirates surrounding him. So they weren't just simple Pirates but people with their own history? Interesting… Just how many hidden quests could be obtained by talking to them?
"This means…" After a dozen seconds of Signia's silent pondering, walking from one end of the hanging gondola to the other, she finally lifted, or rather lowered, her gaze to Double.
"To be honest, I have little desire to allow you on board and just immediately accept you into my crew, considering how you came to serve the Enemy. But I have little desire to simply send you away either. So I'll offer you a chance. Show that you could be of use to me, and I'll let you join… If not? Well, let's keep that as a surprise, savvy?"
Sturm instantly smiled upon hearing this, after all, he also wasn't immediately able to join Signia's team in the past, but after first completing a small test, which, in his case, involved just flying on the ship. The possibility that he could still add Double to his roster made him giddy.
But still, considering that Double turned out to be a demon-worshiper, his task must be quite special, and much more difficult, for him to be able to join in.
'Hmm, does this mean that the prerequisites for joining a faction could differ from player to Player…? Interesting how many hidden flags existed in this regard for sky pirates… or other factions in general?'
Before Sturm could think about it further, he perked his ears when he heard Signia speaking further.
"A little bird told me that several of our comrades are scattered across other islands… And since you are marked by the Enemy, why not turn this to our advantage?" Signia slightly smirked, pleased with her idea.
"Our sky ship is less battered than others, so we can fly from place to place easily, unlike the others… Do you see where I'm heading with this?"
Seeing Double nodding, Signia herself nodded, before continuing on.
"To deal even with one ship will be difficult, not to mention all of them… But I think you would be up to the task, right?" Double grimaces at the enormity of the task before him, but he nodded nonetheless to Sturm's shock.
But before Sturm can react to the shock from the complexity of the task ahead of Double, Signia laughs.
"And you will go that far for little old me, ha? No, I don't want to send you to certain death. I only need information."
Remembering that this was how he first encountered the pirates, Sturm sighs in relief. It seems that Double wouldn't be going on suicide missions after all. It was quite the similar quest that the Pirates would give out according to the Forums, however, Double needs to gather information not about one pirate ship, but about all of them. A mission significantly more complicated than for the other players, but apparently, this was the price for Double's unique abilities.
However, the thought that Signia now decided to acquire information about other ships, and the fact that her ship was seemingly the only one operational…
Sturm looks at Signia gloomily, as an idea formed in his head. "Captain, are we… Are we preparing for war?"
"War?" Signia instantly turns to Sturm and loudly hums. "Not much of a war, just a small skirmish."
Sturm in turn prefers not to draw Signia's attention to the thousands of players swarming around. It wasn't worth expecting absolute accuracy from games, after all, no matter how realistic they were.
"But ruffling the feathers of other birds and grabbing some resources… Why not?" Signia smiles, making Sturm think for a second before timidly asking, "And… Why?"
Signia freezes at the question, as does Double. Sturm feels stupid but decides to check how much he should differentiate between the game and the real world and how good the NPCs' thinking ability really was,
"That is, fighting under these conditions... Is it really a reasonable idea? All the pirates are battered from the journey here, isn't it worth thinking about how to return to… Where did you all come from? That is... What is the benefit of stealing from the other Pirate crew?"
Signia falls silent at these words, looking at Sturm before exhaling almost defeatedly, "There is a reason for this, but it's too early for you to know, newbie."
A moment later, a notification about a new quest appears before Sturm's eyes.
[Find out what the pirates are hiding, recommended level: 50.]
Blinking, Sturm is forced to admit that apparently, NPCs in this game do not just behave like NPCs but follow some internal logic, which requires even a fiftieth level for him to understand…
And the Admin who emerged from Signia a moment later curses the Player who is unable to simply accept certain game conventions on faith before once again pushing away thoughts about doing something important and improving game quality.
Instead of that, he had to waste time pondering the reasons why pirates might be fighting at this moment.
He really hates his Players sometimes.