Virtual Reality : Dystopian Tales Online

004.1 | The Crystal Forrest

There are five races in Dystopian Tales Online: The Elven, Beasts, Humanoid, Half-Lings, and the Undead. The names... err... well, it is a question if the Creative Department of the game had placed all their talent in making story clips and scenarios that the naming of each race was not pretty.

It wasn't a big deal but somehow makes anyone think twice about the credibility of the game. Classical RPGs and related games have interesting names that are either derived from the nordic naming system or some ancient eastern influences. It gives a somewhat genuine class that makes the players experience a more realistic role while playing the game.

However, the names in this game are derived from the most common words and can be easily determined by just reading them once. For example, the name Elven is enough for the people to know that this is the race for elf people and related kinsmen. Beast race? Yes, people with beast bloodlines. Humanoid? There is the word Human, so probably they are the Human race, right?

Some of the veteran pro-players once joked that only the name of the game sounds appealing. If they were to present the game using the terms of the places: The Rebirth Stone, The Town, The Underground Dungeon, nobody will glance to try the game. They even wondered if the developers forgot to change the names since everything is very generic. 

Of course, there are only a few people who know the reason for this naming scheme. As the game is approaching the new world system, the players are slowly integrating a new dimension. To erase the sense of realism of distinguishing between the real world and the game world, they have to generate surreality. And what is beyond the peculiarity?

A reality - the one beyond the expectations of imagination. 

At that time when nobody could no longer differentiate the physics of both worlds is also the time where humanity crossed the void of the current dimension. 

Anyways, despite the little joke, nobody would ever look down on how the game characters are made. The distinction between the races made the players aware of their features. The characters are not equal, but none of them are overpowered. After all, the skills in this game are highly dependent on the player, and the equipment and class come in second. 

To explain further, the Elven Race is known for its affinity for magic. Everything that can be done with magic, the Elven Race could do it. They are also closer to nature and have Elementals as their guiding pets or guardians. They can digest mana directly from crystals and could regenerate it twice the regular time. 

They might look powerful with all these magical aspects, but their disadvantage will be evident in close melee combat. Almost all of their skills are related to long-range attacks and a bit of stealth. In a battle, they could only serve on the back of the troupe. Their physical abilities are limited thus they can only become a support class. 

Elven players that are lone wolves are quite rare. 

Their magical advantage will be useless against races gifted with close combat skills and swift movements like the Humanoid and Beast race. These two races have a close skill set; however, the beast's race leans more on strengthening, durability, and endurance. They also crowd in groups but still have a good advantage playing alone. 

The only problem with the beast race is that they are often driven by instincts and don't follow too many laws. They are wild even on their normal temper and always flair up during a battle. This kind of trait is not from the player's temperament but from the race's natural disposition. This is why disputes happen when different-raced beasts join in groups. 

On the other hand, the Humanoid race is best suited to using feigning tactics and logic. They have the ability to learn almost everything. This is by the fact that humans are the weakest race with no special abilities for flight and magic consumption. Yet, their ability to learn could at least incorporate and imitate what other races could do. 

They have the most obvious weaknesses of all races. If faced with any race barehanded, the humanoid race will surely end up dead after the first strike. But nobody dared to look down on them. In a world where death is as common as eating, how could such a weak race survive?

Of the five races, only the Undead and Half-ling races belong to a different league. 

The undead race is the dead race. Yes, the players under this race are either a Lich or a zombie. They could take any forms they want - dead elves, dead humans, dead beasts - as long as they are dead and had been un-dead. These people are powerful in dark areas and often play in the shadow. 

They are considered as a strong race, but this character is quite challenging to use. The Undead is susceptible to sunlight, so players could only play in dark areas. It comes very trickily during events since it is quite a hassle to finish a task while protecting themselves from direct sunlight. However, the undead won't be affected by sunlight when they are inside a neutral ground. 

The last race, Half-lings, is the rarest race that only a few players would dare to play it. Everything about this race is a question mark. This is because the character is more of a customized role than a default avatar. Like the Weapon Creation Function, this customized role is built up by a series of data that one mistake could lead to development failure. 

It is called a Half-ling with half of the character, the avatar is from the game. And the other half is from the player's discretion. 

The Half-ling is said to be a bloodline following the descendants of the Dragons. As the race of pure-blooded dragons declined, there comes the existence of the Half-lings. Half-lings have no defined characters like how dragons are unique to each other. 

So yeah, this role is like Russian roulette - you get the best, you get the worst. Nobody really knows.

And under these races are the so-called Archetypes. Archetypes are like sub-classes or sometimes referred to as "work classes" commonly present under a particular race. The races are used to determine the innate function of a bloodline, while archetypes are the kind of work the said player wanted to have. 

For example, Leon-36 is from the Elven Race with the prominent archetype Necromancer, an archetype from the Undead Race. His innate ability of regeneration mana is used as negative energy to charge. His magic swings more on the dark arts like black magic and summoning magic. 

Other players often mistake him due to the dark complimentary clothes he is wearing. This setting is way more different from what Leon wanted, but he has no choice but to follow the script. Actually, Leon is not the one who chose his race. 

It is not only him but all the Virtual Reality players who did not choose their race. 

The exams the players took before constituted the character they are using now. Of course, they still went to take three more assessments to make sure that they're the ones who answered the test. The supercomputer used the scores of the assessments and the result of their neurological tests to calculate which amongst the race and their respective archetypes could bring their full potential.

Leon couldn't tell about his probability since they weren't shown the criteria, but he thought he would fall on the Humanoid race or the Elven Race. Both his close combat and long-range skills are on par, but his crowd control skills are quite impressive. He also has good chances of winning if he could see a broader scope to see the numbers. 

"We're here," Aud-01 announced.

Leon heard the other player and raised his head to see the crossed bars open, showing fantastic scenery coming from the dungeon. The two of them took a step inside, breathing in the fresh air emitted by a neutral floor. 

Neutral Floor - there is a rule inside the dungeon that on every 25th floor appears a haven. On these floors, the monsters are weaker by thirty percent and are lesser in number. There is only one boss resident and two expected deviant spawns. Players considered these floors as camping grounds and refuge areas whenever they went to explore lower floors. 

This is the reason why Aud and Leon tried to bet on floors with a 25-denomination. Other players also do the same. If they wanted to move to the next floor, they would choose the floor 25th of the recent floor. They would only dare to go the direct next floor if they wanted to grind or train. 

Floor 100 is neutral ground. Despite the harsh environment of dunes filled with poisonous desert monsters, it is relatively peaceful and easy to defeat. Aud was calling Leon a coward is due to this. The two of them are already high-level players; why would they play on a lower-level dungeon floor and even a neutral floor to the boot?

On the other hand, despite having a neutral status, Neutral floors also have the strangest arrangements. Well, not only the neutral floors but the whole set-up of the dungeon. 

In classic RPG games, the dungeon is defined as underground passages infested with monsters and the like. The lower the dungeon, the stronger the monsters reside. Each floor contains a boss that will guard the route to the next floor. Players have to defeat these monsters to receive prices or obtain an artifact. 

The dungeons in Dystopian Tales Online follow the same general scheme. In total, there are one thousand floors deep, and the players only managed to reach up to halfway. Each floor has bosses that get stronger as they go deeper with the addition of the deviant spawns. 

However, the second patch for the opening of the second server added new features that made the gameplay more engaging. 

The unique thing added to the dungeons is that there is no required level to enter a dungeon. Actually, there is no need to cross the bosses as long as you could pry open the doors without their notice. The pro-gamers once asked if this is a bug, but the game developers said it is part of the gameplay. 

The system is only commanded that once the floor bosses had been defeated, the floor map will be uploaded. In this case, since the bosses are not defeated, the floor will remain unclear. As of now, only the top one player is said to have explored up to the five hundredth floor. 

Another prominent feature of the dungeon is that each floor has its unique form and ecosystem. No floors have the same design as the same as the monsters and NPCs. In some parts, there are even towns and markets like in Floor 100, where a small gathering of NPCs was generated. 

Floors 50 and down have the forestry theme. The floors will either be filled with giant ferns, long trees, mossy grounds, or swamps. There are also barren areas and caves served with spider spawns. These floors are considered normal as compared to the floors beyond floor 50.

The development team's creativity had probably spiked on the lower dungeons since it gets weirder and weirder, and it becomes difficult to finish the floors.

One of these weird scenarios is floor 60, where large multi-colored mushrooms of different kinds filled the whole floor while puffing out strange fumes. Each fume differs in each mushroom that will either have a sweet, pungent candy smell or a rotten spoiled one. The fumes could not be eliminated quickly, even if someone wanted to ventilate the area. 

Large insects also infested the place. Their hard coating and naturally resilient characteristics made them difficult to defeat. There are also the fumes that create negative buffs to players rendering their skills useless. It had taken a long time before someone cracked the solution of defeating the floor. 

This setting made the Neutral Floors heaven. Maybe, as they go down, the only floor that will remain pleasant are these floors. The public's favorite would be the floor 125 and 150 that has the crystal forest setting. 

Leon moved the mouse around and clicked, moving Leon-36 forwards to see the view clearly. 

Crystal Forrest is known for having an all-crystal terrain except for the ground they are growing. Red to greenish blue-hued crystal erected in many sizes with an abundant amount of mana. Spirit magic accumulated throughout the air giving visible floating specks of light. 

This is a heavenly view for an elf. The endless release of digestible mana made the place a delicacy and the area where elves could use magic excessively without losing a life. This dungeon floor is often used for friendly events like picnics and casual gatherings with the beautiful scenery and goodness-to-heaven air. 

As it is still early, there are still no people roaming the typically filled area with relaxing players. 

Leon-36 inhaled a good amount of air that made him feel good and refreshed. His body released a wonderful glow as if being gifted with an elixir of long life. He stretched his body for a bit to digest the good amount of mana. He felt like with this energy, he could finish a floor all by himself. 

On the other hand, Aud-01 seems to be unaffected. The wisps of spirit energy seem to crowd around him, but the guy is just walking past them as if it were invisible. The person is then again shrouded with mysteries that made Leon think about his actual race. 

Nobody knows about Aud-01's race - well, sort of. At least for them, they don't recognize it at all.  One of DTO and VR features is the player's [FREE WILL], allowing them to hide their personal information and choose whatever they want to show from it.

Leon-36 has his standard-setting in public, letting people see his name and race. He kept his archetype and spells information in private, so the only thing the people can see on him is his name and level. Even though he won't show this common information, his appearance is already enough to tell that he is of the Elven race. 

With Aud-01, it is only his name and status bar. There's no way that a Status Bar can be hidden. It's the other way people know if you are already out of health and need a heal or a potion.

Now that he is thinking about it, there are only a few things that he knows about this person. Maybe they are friends for about a decade, but it doesn't mean they know each other well. He only knows Aud-01 as Aud-01 and not his real name. He didn't even know his exact age or if whether he had passed the second age of consent. Leon can't just casually ask about it.

Yes, nobody can just actually ask anyone about their private lives.

In role-playing games, talking about private lives is somewhat rude to an extent. Some people play RPGs to forget their problems by acting as [someone] or by [ROLEPLAYING] a character that is not them. Only in areas like this could people relax and enjoy their persona. 

It is the time for fun and games - not a place to discuss real-world problems. 

Though, it wasn't really that strict. If both parties wanted to talk about real life or complain about their boss's inefficiency, then they could freely do that. Often, some people use the game to release the feeling of injustice they received. 

Gamers are not cold-blooded. They are just placing walls by separating their real-life problems from gaming.