Ivory Online - The Dragon Knight: A LitRPG saga Read online

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  Would you like to bind your spawn point to this location? Y/N

  __________________

  Well, yeah. I didn’t want to end up spawning in the middle of a forest. I select yes and felt a certain… energy… wash through me, filling me with strength and vitality. Another pop-up explained the event.

  __________________

  RTS Alert!

  You have made an unbreakable vow to your sovereign. Any attempt to deviate will result in horrible consequences. Tread carefully.

  __________________

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  RPG Alert!

  You have bound yourself to the altar of beginnings!

  +10 to all attributes

  Note: this blessing does not stack with others. Praying at a different shrines will result in your blessings being replaced.

  __________________

  Different alerts for the RTS and RPG parts of the game. Huh, that’s never happened before. I assumed I was in the RTS section of the game, but it seems the two have… merged? I shook my head in confusion. Maybe some help will come if I checked my character page. I focused on it appearing, which was how you activated it in VR mode. My character sheet popped up immediately.

  Name: Jax

  Age: 21

  Title: Lord

  Liege: Queen Erea

  Class: undecided

  Alignment: Neutral

  HP: 200 MP: 200 SP: 200

  Strength: 20

  Speed: 20

  Intelligence: 20

  Endurance: 20

  Charisma: 20

  Defense: 20

  Luck: 20

  Primary Characteristics:

  Blessing of Vena

  Burst

  Seamless

  Secondary Characteristics:

  None

  Skills:

  None

  Well this was interesting. I didn’t remember anything about primary or secondary characteristics in Ivory Online. Once again, I noticed that sections of the RTS part overlapped with the RPG part, as my title was ‘Lord’ in my RPG tab. This was extremely confusing. It seemed obvious enough that the three primary characteristics were the three boons Vena was talking about. I focused on them to pull up an explanation.

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  Blessing of Vena (Rare):

  Double attribute and skill points gained per level.

  “Such a benevolent Goddess I am!”

  __________________

  __________________

  Burst (Legendary):

  100% boost to experience and skill gain.

  “I expect you to kiss my feet when next we meet, Jax!”

  __________________

  __________________

  Seamless (God-Tier):

  Barrier between RPG and RTS sections removed.

  Note: This ability is God-tier and must be kept close to your heart!

  Note: There is no limitation to this ability!

  Note: This ability has great benefits, but may also have dire consequences. Exercise extreme caution!

  “Uh, I didn’t know this would happen. Be careful Jax, this ability is a double edged sword.”

  __________________

  By the time I reached the end, my knees were wobbling. These boons were… were amazing! The first one, Blessings of Vena, doubled my skill and attribute point gain per level. This meant that I’d have double the power I would have had otherwise at any level. Since I gained 5 AP points per level and 1 SP point in Ivory Online, I’d be getting 10 AP points and 2 SP points here!

  The second boon was Burst, which also doubled my experience point gain as well as my skill progression. At this point, my knees gave out as the weight of it struggled to settle in my mind. Not only would I be twice as powerful per level thanks to the first boon, but I would grow twice as fast as a character too.

  The third boon however, made me pause. I had of course noticed the flavor texts from Vena – who I’ve realized is partially insane – in the earlier pop-ups, but she seemed rather… disquieted. Not just that, but the game itself warned me that it was something I should keep on the down low. And it has unlimited benefits and consequences? I didn’t really understand what they meant by removing the barrier between RPG and RTS, but we’d find out in due course.

  I was excited to up and hit the RPG tutorial so I could start questing and enjoying these boons, but the pragmatic side of me counseled that I do what I have to do in the RTS side first. With a great internal sigh and a lobbed curse at the God of Logic, I turned to my curiously silent advisor.

  “I see I have your attention again. Would you like to begin the tutorial on how to set up your new town?” She asked calmly, not commenting on my earlier… weirdness.

  “Aww, I wanted to go and explore with Master outside,” my pixie familiar complained dejectedly.

  __________________

  General Alert

  Which tutorial would you like to initiate first?

  RPG/RTS

  Note: the order of your choice may affect events

  __________________

  Hmmm… well, I’d already decided to go with the RTS tutorial, so there was no use in second guessing myself. The faster I got it done, the faster I could move onto the RPG section and play with my new toys. I nodded towards Mira, trying my hardest not to look at the gloomy expression of the Fae creature in my palm.

  “Well, Bunny ears, go ahead and lead the way.”

  Chapter 3

  The Dragon Knight

  Mira led us out of the Townhall and I got to see my fledgling town for the first time since waking up. It was unsurprisingly… empty. While I would admit that it was an ideal location tactically and generally, as we had forests to our left – which would provide ample amounts of lumber and game, the plains right ahead of us – giving us an easy route to create roads that could take us to the inland for trade as well as diplomatic relations – and to our right as well as all the way to our south is the wide open sea.

  Fortunately, these locations were at least ten to fifteen miles away on each side, giving us ample space to expand before encroaching into them. I knew that… how? It just came into mind when I thought about it. Huh. Maybe it was a feature of the RTS side of the game? In the traditional play style you’d get that info by hovering your mouse over the new location. I tried to do same with my mind over the forest area and it did bring an infobox.

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  (232, 896) Forest level 5

  Offers 15% increase to lumber harvesting

  Distance: 12 miles

  __________________

  Hmm, a level 5 valley would be hard to conquer any time soon. It might require a lot more time for me to muster enough of a force to take it in one go. It might have monsters and bandits of up to a thousand strong. Depending on the training times and the strength of my hero, it was going to be one heck of a ride. Nevertheless, I brought my mind back into the game and followed Mira’s prompts.

  “If you look towards the plains, you’d notice that we have erected a crude wall made of bound wood, but such a thing will not hold against an enemy. I would advise we work on the wall first before focusing on the matters within our border,” she advised solemnly. I nodded in agreement and focused on calling up the city management screen. In a second, it appeared, displaying my portrait and title as well as various sections of the – still empty – city. It also displayed my resource count and the current production rates, as well as the total capacity for storage.

  City Management

  City Name

  Unnamed

  Loyalty/Upset

  90/0

  Gold

  5000

  Tax rate

  10%

  Population

  20

  Heroes

  None

  Food

  5000

  Lumber

  5000

  Stone

  5000

  Metal
<
br />   5000

  Unsurprisingly, the numbers were very low – about 5000 of each - but enough for the early stage building. Lumber, food, stone and metal. What did surprise – and pleased – me was that the acquisition rates were the same as in the original game. It was common knowledge that most RTS games had a ‘time skip’ mechanic where building and training troops took mere minutes to hours when they should take weeks or months in real life. Then again, I had no idea how Vena would expect me to win this super exclusive competition if everything was mirrored to real life.

  I was given a bird’s eye view of the city in a way that my eyes missed when I first cast my gaze around. There were clearly outlined plots with borders that I knew were available for construction upon. I chose to skip over checking what I could construct at this stage and stuck to the tutorial. I mentally ‘clicked’ on the walls and saw a nice prompt come into my focus.

  __________________

  Walls level 1

  10% protection against attacks

  0/50 traps

  __________________

  Psh, only ten percent? Let’s fix that.

  __________________

  Walls level 1 -> 2

  Protection: 10%-> 12%

  Cost: 1000 lumber, 1000 food

  Build time: 2:00

  Proceed? Y/N

  __________________

  Naturally, I chose yes and watched magic happen right before my eyes. The walls started… expanding and growing rapidly. Sounds of hammering, sawing – and swearing? – came out of a sudden cloud of dirt surrounding the expanse of the walls. I quickly focused on the occasional hand and leg I saw through the mist, trying to bring up info about the mysterious workers.

  __________________

  You cannot examine this target!

  __________________

  __________________

  Well done! You have successfully learned the skill ‘Examine’.

  You can now bring up information about creatures you use this skill on.

  Increase skill level to award more detailed results.

  “If only this bloody thing could’ve told me she was actually a man before I got her into my bed!”

  __________________

  Huh, I couldn’t seem to examine them. Not a problem then. I was however, mildly surprised that everything I did was working so easily. While VR mode had been available in Ivory Online for a long time, I only used it three times, all during RPG modes. Naturally, without an avatar, there was no way to use VR in the RTS section. But here I was, enjoying sights that no one else had seen. I really had to find out who Vena’s team of Devs were and see if I could use my heavy pockets to get them on my side.

  And I guessed I was seeing the first benefit of having the barrier removed between the two sides. I was able to gain a skill during the tutorial of the RTS mode. That ability may come in handy in the days to come. The wall construction took two minutes – which I could’ve instantly sped up but chose not to – giving Mira ample time to explain where I should focus on next, though I could very well do it without her.

  “My Lord, now that we have upgraded our defenses, we should start to provide housing for the people who would eventually come to settle here. I would suggest we build 3 cottages,” She suggested, her ears twitching once.

  __________________

  Build cottage level 1?

  Population: +20

  Cost: 100 lumber, 100 food

  Build time: 0:30

  Y/N

  __________________

  Naturally, I selected yes – again – and watched as the magic unfurled before me - again. I think I might actually prefer idly watching these buildings being constructed as opposed to instantly finishing them. I repeated the same process in three other plots from my building tab. God, who ever said watching paint dry was boring clearly hadn’t played Ivory Online in this mode. When the building was done, I noticed a set of alerts that made my jaw drop.

  __________________

  Well done! You have learned the skill ‘Construction’.

  “With the right hammer and the right nail, I can put almost anything together. Except my life.”

  __________________

  __________________

  You have gained a skill level!

  Construction has reached level 3

  Building speed +3%

  Resource consumption -3%

  __________________

  That explains it. At least one facet of it. The seamless ability wasn’t just a removal of the barrier… it was a merger of the two sections. Though it stood to reason that if you placed a stopper between two liquids, removing it would make them flow into each other. I guessed something similar happened here. But still, if I could gain skill levels in the RPG side from actions in the RTS… did that mean the skills I gained in RPG mode affected RTS too? If I gained the mining skill outside the RTS section, will the speed boost affect the gather rate of metal for the town? If I gained high levels in stealth, did that mean each of my people could use it as well? Did that mean my town would also enjoy the concealment boosts?

  I saw why the game warned me about this ability. It truly was unlimited, and I had a sinking feeling I had only the barest inkling of what it could do.

  “My lord, now would be a good time to build your first military barracks so we can train troops,” My stoic advisor suggested while shifting her legs ever so slightly.

  “Will do.”

  I angled to one of the furthest plots in the building tab – near the gates of the town – and highlighted it. The idea was to build the barracks closer to the walls so troops could deploy easily. Of course, it wouldn’t matter traditionally, but this was a special situation. Everything felt so real that I might as well treat is as such.

  __________________

  Build barracks level 1?

  Troop training queue +1

  Maximum amount of troops +500

  Training time reduction +3%

  Build time: 1:30

  Cost: 500 food, 500 lumber, 1000 stone, 100 metal

  Y/N

  __________________

  I watched with satisfaction as the barracks built itself – literally – nodding my head to my advisor to get on with it. For that matter, Bunny Ears took the slight in stride and moved onto the next item on the list in a professional manner.

  “Now, we should train a few troops to act as our primary defense in case of an attack. About 50 warriors should do.”

  __________________

  Warrior level 1

  Attack: 20

  Defense: 10

  Speed: 5

  Train time: 0:10

  Cost: 10 metal, 10 food

  __________________

  I followed Mira’s prompt and moved the slider for the Warriors to fifty, selecting ‘train’ when I reached the threshold. Almost immediately, sounds of grunting, swearing and metal on metal erupted from the barracks. The outlying grounds were suddenly filled with trainees and barking instructors. The suddenness of it made me jump a little, which startled my adorable familiar and made my stoic advisor smile ever so slightly. I, in response, gave her a withering look which she ignored wholeheartedly. Hmph.

  “Anything else, Bunny Ears?” I asked disdainfully. My use of her new nickname wiped the smile right off her face. Anyone could see that she did not as a matter of fact, like the nickname I’d given her. In fact, some experts might say that if it weren’t for the rules of the game and her pledge, I’d be dead by now. Good thing I was not an expert.

  “Well, My Lord, there is the simple matter of building a tavern to recruit our first Wandering Hero,” She replied tightly, visibly restraining the urge to waylay me. I gave her one of my most annoying smiles – which I stole from Keith’s arsenal – which made her expression harden further.

  Her words made the anger melt out of my system though, being replaced by excitement. Finally, the best part about any RTS game! Or maybe the second or third best part. Recruiting a hero to lead your to
wn.

  Some RTS games automatically gave you a hero who you could customize, but the devs of Ivory Online felt that things should be a little more unique. They created a great many hero avatars with their own classes. Yes, their own classes. So instead of recruiting a bland hero who has only three stats, you could end up recruiting a Demon Lord, a Knight, a Revenant or even a Mountain King!

  __________________

  Build Tavern level 1?

  Available heroes +4

  Available housing for heroes +1

  Build Time: 2:30

  Cost: 1000 stone

  Y/N

  __________________

  I wasted no time in selecting yes and for the first time today, used the ‘instant completion’ feature for low build time projects. I needed to see what hand the game would play me. I was also curious to see how my Seamless ability would play in the hero selection. Would the heroes also be able to utilize my skills in combat? Or even better…could I inherit their skills?

  As I walked – actually half-sprinted – towards the newly made Tavern, I let the possibilities roil through my mind like a sea of chaos. My pixie familiar and my advisor trailed behind me, expressions of curiosity on their faces as to the sudden haste of their so far indifferent Lord.

  From the Townhall, there’s a straight lane that extends all the way to the city gates, meaning anyone who enters the town could make a beeline for the building. This was convenient for diplomacy and trade, but very problematic with regards to defense. Oh well, you couldn’t win them all. Like a compass, the town had a break in the middle, which opened up to two more lanes, one heading to the eastern wall – where I’d placed the cottages – and the other heading to the western wall – where I planned to build the embassy and marketplace. This way, the south eastern section of my inner city would be the residential area, the south western the business district. Since I built the first barracks in the North eastern section, that would be the military district, where I’d build the barracks and staging points, stables and arena. That left the North western section open to be the industrial district, where I would build the granaries, warehouses, mills, forges and workshops.