Avilien: Tutorial islands

Training wheels

Rain poured from the heavens across Mixten allowing Luke to see another side to Avilien. The grasslands surrounding Mixten turned into a boggy swamp and the night made it hard to see. Without Nebs, Luke, Split, Nagori, and Cissy had no idea what dangers lurked ahead as they grouped at the wall outside the gates of Mixten. Alianna with her game guide Xeno told the group to head down as she grabbed some items.

Arriving on her flying gryphon, Xeno began to shrink to the size of a parrot as Alianna climbed off. It was much like Nebs who grew when terrified. Weather conditions were not great for doing Terror mode and now that the group was stripped of all their items and gear they didn't know what they were doing outside. Split still had a blanket wrapped around his body to cover up his modesty. A blanket he kept taking off and putting back on when Cissy smacked him around the head.

Luke had been on high alert as the only member of the group with a weapon. His socks were soaked and he felt cold. He didn't mind farming exp, he needed it. Without footwear, he wasn't as comfortable and he wasn't looking forward to his feet sinking in the muddy ground.

"Sorry I'm a little late," exclaimed Alianna as she withdrew a scroll from her inventory and used it to shoot a flare high into the sky.

For miles, everything lurking in the dark dank bog and woods was brought into the light. The flare acted like a miniature sun. Salatooths roamed and attacked all in sight with nasty infected teeth bigger than a man's arm, but new creatures emerged with the bad weather and change of surroundings.

Giant purple frogs covered in yellow, puss-filled boils attacked Bruntusks with their long tongues, wrapping them up and then dragging them into open mouths. Devouring the squealing Bruntusks whole caused the frogs to grow bigger, fatter and they moved slower as they digested the boars. Known as Orbuls they looked creepy and terrifying. Nagori thought they were cute, whereas Cissy couldn't stand their enormous eyes, or Split removing his blanket.

Lankers were the next new face in the wilds. Another deadly foe that emerged with a long scaly tail and back fins. They swam through the ground as if it were water. Luke watched as one targeted a Salatooth. Moving towards the giant rex as if it were a shark it leapt out of the ground with open jaws. Jaws bigger than the rex clasped around it and in one crunch the giant croc turned the Salatooth into green balls of exp.

"As you can see, weather conditions in Avilien have a direct impact on wildlife. Lankers and Orbuls are nasty looking but their slow movements make for easy flanks. We have to be careful of their abilities, Snap and Digest," explained Alianna as she started to remove brown sacks of loot from her holo watch and pass them to group members.

Luke, last to receive his bag of goodies looked at the items as he placed them into his inventory. The very boots that were stolen from him were inside along with green rarity leather pants, a leather chest piece, gauntlets, helmet, and a new sword called 'Frozen Waste'. Each piece of gear for a level three had ten armour and also ten fire armour. That meant a total of fifty armour and fire protection. An attack done to Luke would have fifty attack damage reduced and if it was a fire ability or attack it would have one-hundred reduced.

Frozen waste, a blue rarity sword that looked cool as Luke was able to inspect it was devoured by Crackling Thunder, transforming the sword once more. New stats along with the blue rarity crossed over onto Crackling Thunder and it also gained a new effect. Besides dealing two-hundred damage a hit, paralyzing for four seconds with a two per cent chance it could freeze for one second with a one per cent chance. It also dealt fifty added ice damage ramping up the collecting damage per hit to two-fifty.

Ice damage multiplied against fire armour too as Luke read the further descriptions. Per piece of fire armour the enemy wore the ice damage would be increased by double. That meant Luke could hit someone for four-hundred and fifty damage a hit if they had five pieces of fire gear equipped.

Keen to get the boots on his feet, Luke equipped them first. He regretted not removing his socks first. Next, he equipped all the other pieces of gear. The dark leather chest piece hugged his body and made him look ripped when he wasn't. It had various straps and buckles added for decoration and had two sword holders on the back. The gauntlets added to the chest piece and now made it looks as though it was long-sleeved. As for the leather pants, they were a snug fit. The helmet was like a bowl, hideous and horrible to wear. Luke liking most of it decided to Mirror his torn jeans and shirt. He turned the appearance of the gauntlets and helmet off so they were invisible, yet he could feel them there.

Nagori, Split and Cissy received the same treatment as each had gear to equip and weapons. Split and Cissy opted to stay in their casual wear with the Mirror ability. Nagori, however, loved her new clothes. She loved the shin-high leather boots and an elder fay red dress that came with glowing red neon wings. Luke thought it looked overdramatic and bright.

"Now I don't need to tell you all that by making these you are all essentially cheating. Level eights and some level tens across the water don't have gear with these stats or weapons to match," said Alianna. "Don't know why I'm doing this, but let us get on with farming Terror mode. Luke, show me what you are capable of. I want to see you face that Lunker, solo." Alianna pointed across the wilds to the lone Lunker that devoured the level fifteen Salatooth.

Level four with six-thousand health, Luke leapt over the wall, feet slightly sinking into the ground, and headed towards it. The rest of the group remained quiet. After recent events, no one was sure whether they should help. Once far enough and with other threats not in the vicinity Luke braced for the croc that was longer than a bus and bigger than a great white. Covered in blue scales it stomped across the boggy ground before then launching though the air at Luke with jaws wide open.

Luke dodged the wide attack and struck the Lunker several times before it crashed and slid across the wilds sending mud and grass flying. Each one of Luke's attacks failed to get through the thick scales of the Lunker and he failed to do any damage. Deciding magic damage would be best, Luke charged up his Thunder Bounce as the croc regained itself.

Shooting the attack from the tip of his electric/ice sword the bolt of lightning bounced off the Lunker and the words parried appeared in the air. Luke wasn't expecting that and now dived onto his belly through the mud to avoid another desperate lunge attack followed by a tail swipe.

Covered in mud, Luke could think of no attack that would work against the Lunker. Not one he could he use anyway. Spitting out mud and grass he thought that its defence was way too high for him to deal with. Standing back up, he decided he would take a radical approach. Lunker lunging at him again with open jaws Luke dived in. he allowed himself to be swallowed and for the jaws to snap shut around him.

Before touching the tongue Luke activated Knights Blessing nullifying the Snap ability. Now in the jaws of the beast, Luke attacked in a frenzy of critical strikes. Tough on the outside, but weak as pudding inside. Luke hit the croc for six-hundred damage per strike. The fight lasted less than several minutes and proved to be the easiest Terror to vanquish. Even when the Lunker got a second chance with its health refilling, Luke awaited the cooldown of his ability and dodged all attacks. After ten minutes, it was down for good and Luke claimed the exp, materials, and items for himself.

"Well played," Alianna clapped as she smiled. Joining Luke with the rest of the group. "With you wanting to square off against Damocles you need all the exp you can get. Since you can solo Lunkers it would be best to farm them for the next six hours. After that, we will head back. The rest of you are with me." Alianna nodded to Luke and then started to move deeper into the wilds as Xeno squawked.

Lunkers would prove easy, but Luke would have to battle them for twenty minutes at a time. Without Knights Blessing, he couldn't beat them.