“By the way, have you pawsed to look at your starting stats yet?” my brother asked me as we headed toward Old Reve Orchard.
Come to think of it, not yet, I realized.
“Status information... Here it is.” I clicked on the option and a new window appeared displaying my stats.
My level was of course 0, and I currently had no job equipped. It seemed multiple jobs could be equipped at once, and so in addition to the level for each job, there was also a total level. My level for both was still 0.
The other stats displayed were HP, MP, SP, STR, END, DEX, AGI, and LUC. Each of them was fairly low; other than having 98 HP and 23 SP, the rest were all below 20. I didn’t have anything to compare them with, but those stats were probably weak.
...But then again, I guess there’s no way a newbie at level 0 would be strong, I reminded myself.
“So I’ll be going into this dungeon called the ‘newbie killer’ at level 0, won’t I?” I asked.
“You’ll bearly make it past zero if you don’t equip a job,” said my brother. “Do you want to get one before we go?”
“...No, it doesn’t look like we have the time. I’ll go like this,” I said.
It’d be unbearable if the girl in the picture were to die while we were doing that, I thought. The most important thing right now is speed.
My brother and I talked as we ran.
“Can I ask you a few things?” I asked.
“I guess I can bear that.”
“I didn’t see a stat for INT, so what factors into magic strength?” I asked. “There is magic in this game, right?” Liliana did use healing magic, after all.
“It’s based on your max MP and the level of the magic skill,” said my brother. “Also, the total amount of MP you pour into it. And there is no INT stat in this game, by the way. Your intelligence is the bear basics, yourself, after all.”
That makes sense, I thought. I wouldn’t really get what it meant if you told me my intelligence went up.
“Oh, and as for skills that use SP, their strength isn’t based on your SP, but on various other related stats,” my brother went on. “Well, those various stats will receive adjustments from your Embryo, so their variation will be infinite.”
“That sounds complicated,” I said.
“If you bear with it, I’m sure it’ll go fine! How things turn out will be a pawsitive reflection of your individuality.”
...He’s really getting into those bear puns, isn’t he?
“Oh, yeah. Let me give you some accessories I have.” Bro Bear handed me some items from his bag.
When I looked at them, these included: ten Healing Potions that could easily heal me to max health, one Lifesaving Brooch, and four Dragonscale Ward accessories.
“The Lifesaving Brooch bears the brunt of your fatal damage, but it has a 10% chance of breaking,” my brother explained. “How many times this is checked is determined by the amount of damage divided by your HP. The Dragonscale Ward will reduce incoming damage by 90%, but it’ll break after one use.”
I see, they appear to be throwaway accessories, but they’ll definitely help.
“This game has level and stat restrictions for equipment,” said my brother. “So I’ll beef you up with these accessories instead since they don’t have any level restrictions.”
There are five slots for equipping accessories, so they’ll all fit perfectly.
“Thanks, Bro... Hey that reminds me, what’s the death penalty in this game?”
A death penalty: it was a feature found in many online games. To put it simply, it was some sort of demerit for a character that died. They could lose levels, for example, or have their stats lowered for a period of time.
Since he’s trying to help me avoid dying, this game must have some kind of a death penalty, I thought. This was why I wanted to ask him what that penalty was, but...
“A 24 hour login ban.”
The answer I received was unexpected.
“...A what?” I asked.
“If you die in this game, you won’t be able to log in for 24 hours in real time, or 72 hours in the game world,” he said.
...Are they out of their minds? I thought incredulously. I can’t believe there’s a game that won’t let you play it as a death penalty.
“The frightening thing about this penalty isn’t that you can’t play the game; it’s that three days will pass by in Infinite Dendrogram without you,” he said. “So for example, if you’re in the middle of a quest like we are, you’ll have to abandon the quest for three days. When you’re in a world as realistic as this one... that’s what’s so scary.”
What would happen if Bro Bear and I were to leave this quest alone for three days?
...The answer to that was obvious.
“I’ll tag along and try not to die,” I said. “I’m not sure how useful I’ll be at level 0, though.”
Or more like, I won’t be of any use at all.
“By the way, like I mentioned earlier, Old Reve Orchard is a trap dungeon known as the ‘newbie killer,’” said my brother. “Innocent newbs starting Dendro without any prior knowledge enter the dungeon saying, ‘Yaay, I’m gonna go on an adventure nearby,’ and then it’s game over, they get their bear butts exposed and smacked to the extreme. They get insta-killed and can’t log in for a whole day.”
It’s like a trauma-generating machine.
“However, it’s strange. Why is the difficulty level 5? Based on the levels of the monsters in the dungeon... it’s too high.”
As I listened to my brother mutter this, we passed through the South Gate of the Royal Capital Altea.