novelODS Chapter 34 The Silent Forest
Chapter 34 The Silent Forest
In the forest, Yu Che was on his way to his next destination.
Using map clues obtained from looting the bandit camp, he discovered a maze location that was worth visiting, valuable enough to make him temporarily change his plans.
While on his journey, he was also thinking about the three people, Xiao Yang and his companions, whom he had encountered earlier.
Having witnessed the entire battle, Yu Che was able to deduce their skill point allocation.
The way these three students from the Royal Academy allocated their stat points was clearly the result of their education at the academy, and should basically represent the top level in the kingdom.
And then, well... it's just like that.
Of course, their approach to allocating attribute points was far more professional than that of the three country adventurers they had encountered earlier. At least they knew the two basic principles: "allocate points to the attributes most needed by your class" and "don't allocate points to attributes that don't help you."
But that's about it; their skill point allocation method is still not very efficient.
If you were to evaluate him, he would say he has progressed from a complete novice who knew nothing and just randomly clicked around to an average player who roughly understands the leveling strategy.
Take Xiao Yang as an example. The upgrade path for a spellcaster should be absolute burst damage. As long as the character is built correctly, a high-level spellcaster has the highest magic damage output efficiency in the entire game.
Of course, the corresponding cost is that they are very fragile and desperately need the support of their teammates.
However, from what You Che saw, Xiao Yang's skill point allocation was somewhat off.
First of all, the intelligence stat is actually not bad. Xiao Yang's intelligence is probably around 14 points, which is quite a lot (although it's still not as good as the previous magic archer).
Secondly, he should have also invested in the Spirit attribute, which is directly related to mana, so it's a must.
However, after that, he added several points to Constitution and Agility, which were essentially useless stat allocations.
Or rather, it's a skill point allocation that significantly reduces efficiency.
Just as Youche told the three at the beginning, the spellcasting system only starts to shine after LV10, because mages of this system need to be paired with specific lower-level classes that provide bonuses and passive skills.
To take up a powerful job, there are requirements for your own attributes; if your attributes do not meet the requirements, you cannot take up the job.
Just like in the game world, many ordinary NPCs are "unemployed" because their attributes do not meet the job requirements for any profession.
However, if a person has no job, the highest level they can reach is LV10 and they cannot level up any further. Therefore, if the decision to allocate attribute points in the early stages is wrong, LV10 alone will be an insurmountable obstacle.
In that case, you'd either have to give up on leveling up or choose a different class that's not a good fit. With the strict progression system in Dark Fantasy, this would only lead to a series of mistakes, making the game increasingly difficult.
Let's take Xiao Yang as an example again. If his intelligence and spirit attributes don't meet the requirements when he reaches LV10, he won't be able to take one of the most suitable "attribute magician" jobs in the spellcasting system. He will have to switch to other magic jobs, such as the alchemist, which has the lowest requirements and belongs to the creation system.
Of course, You Che could understand why Xiao Yang would choose to increase his agility and physique.
These two attributes, one affects movement speed and casting speed, and the other can comprehensively enhance physical constitution and improve survivability.
Both of these attributes are directly related to survival. After all, this world is not a game where you can make mistakes. When a person dies, everything is gone. So it's easy to understand why people would choose to add these survival-related attributes.
Moreover, Xiao Yang is a commoner, unlike aristocratic students who can be provided with bodyguards by their families. It is perfectly normal for him to choose to improve his attributes in all aspects.
Therefore, You Che had previously told Xiao Yang that he could decide for himself whether or not to adopt his suggestion.
What Xiao Yang and the other two exemplified was just the tip of the iceberg of common stat allocation strategies in this world, but it was enough for You Che to see the whole picture from a glimpse.
It's quite obvious that the skill point allocation strategies for the various professional systems in this world probably differ from the player-centric efficiency policy in the game.
Baron Grammer and the militia leader in the prologue town made no mistakes in their skill point allocation, which now seems to be an exception due to a variety of factors... It was only because they were the ones he encountered at the beginning that Yu Che overlooked this problem.
This made him somewhat worried about the combat strength of the top experts from the four major nations in this worldview.
Putting everything else aside, in the upcoming battle for Juventus City, hopefully the Duke of the Azure Wolf from the Western Kingdom won't be defeated by Bronya's clone...
But given his current situation, worrying about those things would only cause him unnecessary trouble. To prepare for the future, he briefly mentioned the matter in a letter to Roland, which was the best he could do at the moment.
His immediate priority is to improve his own combat strength. That way, even if the kingdom's powerful warriors prove ineffective and are only fit for defense, he can handle the crucial offensive aspects.
As for Xiao Yang, he has good qualities. If he can grow up efficiently, he might be able to help in the future.
However, this was just a casual move, entirely up to the kid's own decision, and You Che didn't take it too seriously.
So he's more concerned about the maze leading to his destination than that area.
"It's a special dungeon. When you enter to explore, all your magic power is suppressed, so we retreated immediately," this was the information mentioned by the bandit leader in a letter to the town mayor.
This characteristic is also the key to attracting You Che.
There are several dungeons that can suppress the magic of those who enter, but considering that it spawns in the northern part of this kingdom, the most likely candidate is the rare dungeon, the Silent Forest!
This maze has a very low refresh rate and a short lifespan, making it rare even in the gaming era.
Of course, rarity alone isn't very useful, but the special resources produced in the Silent Forest Labyrinth are worthy of their rarity.
Putting aside the monster materials and equipment drops, this dungeon produces a high-rarity material called Dragon Blood Flower, which is highly sought after even among top-tier players. Potions refined from this material are essential for certain playstyles.
Similarly, it is of great help to You Che now, which is why he came here.
The location given in the bandit file was fairly accurate, and You Che quickly arrived near the target location.
"Hopefully I arrived in time, before that maze has been refreshed..." Yu Che muttered to himself as he hurried along.
After all, the Silent Forest usually only lasts for about three days, and he didn't know when the bandit leader wrote that letter.
Fortunately, perhaps his high luck kicked in again, because when he arrived, the maze stone door was still standing there quietly, with the last of the three crystals on the door shining.
"Great, we can go in one more time... Hmm? Wait!"
He suddenly noticed something: the second crystal on the door had clearly been extinguished not long ago, and still carried a faint glow.
The meaning of this feature is obvious: someone else entered the door not long ago and hasn't left yet!
Are there other people inside?
Yu Che hesitated for a moment. In the public gatherings of the game era, similar situations could occasionally be seen in front of some special dungeon doors that only appeared in online mode.
Generally speaking, players who are not familiar with each other will not randomly enter the maze when there are other people inside.
But if he stayed here and waited, Yu Che wouldn't know who the people inside were or what they planned to do.
If this labyrinth is indeed the Silent Forest, and the person who went in first squandered all the rare materials, then he would suffer a heavy loss.
So You Che hesitated for only a moment before making his decision and placing his hand on the door.
In this world, these rare materials are better given to me than to anyone else! You Che was absolutely confident in saying this!
So even if it's considered suspicious competitive behavior during the game, you should still do it!
As he touched it, the last crystal on the stone door dimmed, and the door slowly opened.
The fog gate enveloped You Che, sending him to an unknown secret realm.