Chapter 368

Driven by a natural desire for attaining higher levels and far more greater power, most fourth-beta players worked even harder after witnessing the prowess of their veteran seniors on the battlefield.

This made them frantically completed tasks one after another or constantly hunted wild mobs in the Elven Forest to level up quickly.

As a result, the fifty thousand fourth-beta players gradually reached the minimum requirement to advanced into the rudimentary Iron-rank.

In just a single day, as close as five thousand players got promoted to Iron-ranked Experts!

At that time, almost every ten seconds, a new fourth-beta player would either enter the Temple of Life or arrive at the central square of Chosen City to pray to the World Tree.

This action allowed them to access the jobclass interface and choose their desired starting class.

And as expected, among the various job classes available, the melee-based job classes still remained the most popular.

After being promoted to Iron-rank and undergoing their first job promotion, the majority of melee-based players chose to become warriors, followed by hunters.

On the other hand, archers were the least common, even fewer than half the number of mages.

This result stems from the fact that melee-based classes are now widely regarded as the easiest class among all the job classes.

Compared to spellcasters, melee-based classes are more user-friendly, having higher combat effectiveness at lower levels and easier access to a wider array of equipment.

Moreover, unlike the equipment of spellcasters which can mostly only be bought from the in-game exchange store and is also far more expensive, melee-based equipment of the same level is more abundant and affordable.

Scarcity makes things valuable...

And Evé understood this concept well.

Which is why the available stock inventory of spellcaster and archer equipment are much smaller compared to that of melee-based equipment.

One reason for the scarcity of archer equipment is that, despite having even the assistance of skills, being an archer still requires a certain level of combat proficiency.

After all, there were simply too many players who couldn't aim accurately.

More often than not, players who couldn't shoot straight but still acquired archer damage skills often caused considerable havoc in battles.

As such, many exploration parties or dungeon raid teams openly refused to include archer players within their groups.

However, some experienced archers found ways to address this problem.

Some opted for relentless practice to improve their archery skills, while others sought to learn a zero-ring magic skill called [Heart Arrow] from Elven NPCs.

[Heart Arrow] is an auxiliary archer skill that enables the user to enter a special state of mental calm and focus, greatly enhancing their aim.

It's a must-have skill for seasoned archers.

Additionally, some players who were not fond of using bows opted to experiment with steam guns they had purchased from the dwarves instead.

They intended to use their knowledge from earth to modify these steam guns, transforming them and figuring out how to integrate skills into them, all while enabling them to gain combat EXP at the same time.

Alas, this experiment has yet to succeed, but it was to be expected as these things tend to take time to yield substantial results.

So for now, most players are still focus on leveling up.

Until they reach the current maximum level cap, players may divert some attention to other less important things, but those won't be their main focus.

This is why, despite being in the realm of Seigües for quite some time, the players still haven't recreated things from earth aside from few simple gadgets.

The more intricate and technically demanding inventions required full time and focus, but simply, most players are still preoccupied with advancing levels and honing their skills.

Nonetheless, Evé anticipated that they would have more free time to explore different "gameplays" once the majority of players reached the maximum level cap.

At that point, perhaps technology from earth might actually start to proliferate in Seigües.

But for now, players are clearly more interested in leveling up and exploring ways to use magic, which doesn't exist on earth, rather than recreating earthly inventions in Seigües.

After all, how many dedicated individuals are there willing to fully invest their time in high-tech endeavors?

Most players are here to have fun and relax.

In fact, players' enthusiasm for magic far exceeded Eve's expectations.

If not for the fact that elves are inherently magical beings, capable of learning and casting simple spells even when choosing melee-based classes, the number of players opting for magic-based job classes would likely be much higher, despite the scarcity of spellcaster equipment.

Even now, nearly 40% of these fourth-beta players have chosen to become spellcasters.

One funny thing however is that many of them have become "close combat mages" due to a lack of equipment or the low damage output of their rudimentary spells.

Among spellcasting classes, the most common jobclass after being promoted to mage is the druid class.

This is because druids have very few offensive skills in the initial stages, focusing more on crowd control and healing magic, which are not conducive to gaining experience through enemy kills.

Furthermore, Druids only acquire their truly powerful offensive skills at the intermediate Iron-rank, such as the [Transformation] skill.

A druid with the [Transformation] skill can transform into a powerful beast and gain about 70% of its abilities, making them formidable in combat.

Considering that druids are the only stable healers and the only jobclass that excel in support and crowd control, their job prospects are quite favorable, making them highly sought after by various combat-oriented teams.

As for mages, well, they often rely on purchasing expensive equipment.

Little Salty Cat has already proven that a mage fully decked out in golden gear can conjure a buffed-up Fireball that could solve almost any problem, and if not, two will do the trick.

However to wield such a powerful AoE spell, a full set of high-quality magical equipment is essential, at least at the Iron-rank.

Returning to the Present

As more fourth-wave players advance to Iron-rank, their interest in the free equipment being offered by the underground war quest has grown.

As a result, more and more players have joined the defense of Shanathar.

However, it has become somewhat awkward situation as the Dark Alliance, unlike their previous attack on Blade City, has opted for a low-intensity and sustained long-range attack strategy against the city-state of Shanathar.

While the massive presence of Shanathar army creates a visually overwhelming and intimidating scene, the actual pressure of war is not as significant.

Due to this, even Li Mu eventually abandoned his role as commander and allowed everyone to act freely at their own discretion.

Despite this, the number of players participating in the battle continued to increase.

And although some first and second-beta players who had reached the maximum level cap left the battlefield, more and more fourth-beta players joined in their stead.

With minimal pressure in the defensive war and limited enemies to kill, the fourth-beta players, who generally lack the strength to defeat enemies, found their few undead foes swiftly dealt with by the remaining veteran players.

This resulted in these fourth-beta players primarily aiming to scavenge equipment.

Never overestimate the integrity and ethics of these players...

—Or the lack thereof.

Regardless of the restrictions imposed or reminders given to them, when faced with substantial benefits, integrity becomes an afterthought.

What is integrity?

Can it be eaten?

Thus, all kinds of schemes and trickery started happening all over the battlefield.

Some people even took the equipment and ran away when someone else died while others simply committed suicide by jumping off the walls to escape.

As a result, the unfortunate city-state of Shanathar found itself in a rather embarrassing situation...

— 368 —

[ THE JOB PROMOTION OF 4TH-BETA PLAYERS ]

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