3 bar menu

ShangriLa Frontier Chapter 331 Part 1

ShangriLa Frontier Chapter 331: Downward Movements With Lots of Souvenirs Part 1

When you try to think about it for a moment, ShangriLa Frontier is not just your plain and ordinary Hack and Slash game. It is a game where both physical and magical skills are used to make your dreams come true, no matter if they are physical dreams or purely fantastical, magic-oriented ones.

Now, I cannot talk about magic like I know every little aspect of it. I have used far too few magic spells to even be called something else than a mere amateur when it comes to spellcasting. However, if there is one thing I am certain of, it’s the rules regarding physical skills. And that thing is that physical skills can be all but tricky to use at times.

That tricky part is concerned with the way in which the physical skills can be strengthened, as well as when you can acquire new skills to upgrade your already existing arsenal. Mainly, you do all of the above the moment your avatar levels up. And as your level increases, so does the amount of experience needed for another level up, and the value of the skills you possess increase as well. Then, eventually you are going to reach the level cap, that is: the upper limit of the experience you could gain. So in other words, the stronger the skill, the more fixed its value becomes.

At the current moment, my level sits at the Ninety Nine Extended. Needless to say, I am yet to remove the limit cap on my avatar that would allow me to gain further experience. This means more or less that right about now, no matter how much experience points I accumulate, I cannot level myself up, I cannot gain new skills and I cannot strengthen the already existing skills in my arsenal.

Before the release of the new continent, the common understanding amongst the players was that the only way for the players to gain new skills and strengthen the already existing ones, one would have to intentionally lower one’s level and sort of start from the bottom all over again. However, with the information that there are also skills out there that demand the player to have a level one hundred of above, that previous theory was nothing more but invalid on the spot. Therefore, if you know that there are skills that require you to have a level that is of three digit value, there is no way that people would not want to lift the level cup and increase their own levels in order to get consistently stronger. That’s something so obvious that it should not need an explanation. However, my case seems to be somewhat different. You see, because of the hidden stat of Vorpal Soul, as well as the carved wounds on my body, it is actually more beneficial of me to keep my level artificially lower. Otherwise I might set myself up in a corner that the ShangriLa Frontier prepared for me: with too high of a level I would no longer be able to fight any monsters, because they would run away from me in fear. And if I cannot fight any strong monsters, or any monsters at all, the hidden Vorpal Soul meter would surely start to drop down, locking me out of some of my best weapons I could use. And that is something that I must not allow to happen, no matter the cost.

「So, about that Altar of Awakening…… Do you happen to know its exact location? Or do you just have the vague idea where it should be located?」

「I will explain about that while we are on our way.」

Hmm, and you are…… what was it again? I think that Tottori mentioned her name, but I did not quite bother to remember it. Just like any other NPC in that group she was an Elf, but Tottori explained to me that since she was well-versed in magic, she was a pretty important person amongst the Forest People. She should have been slightly more capable than the rest of her people, but yet again, according to Tottori’s words, if you were to leave her alone to her own devices for too long she would die for sure. Are you really sure that someone like that is worthy of being called the High Elf? Umm…… Miss……?

「Umm…… Beinge—san? Was it?」

「It’s Hesh! Mispronouncing someone’s name is rather rude, don’t you think!?」

Oh, now that I actually get to have a look at them, the Elves of ShangriLa Frontier sure look nice. Aside from the Vorpal Bunnies and Caith Seith, this is my first time meeting an NPC of other heteromorphic race, so I must say that the experience is rather refreshing. Not to mention, an Elf! A race that is quite rare to witness if you are not actively looking for them yourself!

「There is no doubt in my mind about it! This thing that you talk about, this whole “Altar of Awakening” thing, this must be the altar at which the “Tears of Belhe Mortia, the God of Inquiry” are being enshrined! It is a priceless artefact placed there as an object of cult by the ancestors of the Forest People!

「Umm…… Are you absolutely sure that we talk about the same thing here? Actually, the thing you talk about must be an entirely different thing, right?」

「What! How dare you! What insolence! You doubt my words!? You do, don’t you!?」

No, I mean, isn’t this whole Altar of Awakening supposedly located at some remote, hard to reach place? What’s more, how can you be so sure that this is the place where your ancestors placed that something…… whatever it was that you called it? Do you have any proof of that? Or is it just your intuition telling you this? Plus, getting so emotional over something that might not even be there, could it actually be a bug in the system? She was so adamant about it that is has to be a bug, there is no other possible explanation. It’s a good thing that a virtual NPC has so much personality and conviction about something, but don’t you think that it would be nice if it was toned down a bit? Just a little tweak should be more than enough here, and it surely won’t ruin any quests or event flags associated with that character or whatever it may be.

「Hesh, please, try to calm down…… And as for the altar, I think that this information is more than probable. The leader of our guild got that information from a reliable source, someone who was there at the place and managed to successfully lift the level cap. So I think it’s worth a try to go and map the place for others.」

When we talk about a “player who opened up the level cap”, I know that this may be applied to many players in this game, but honestly, I cannot think about anyone else than Kyogoku. However, no matter what kind of scummy player you are here in this game, Kyo-Timate, deep down inside of my heart you are still one of the best Bakumatsu Online players ever!