Data.44 – Old Bowman, Spending Spree

I was back in the starting town after a long absence…and just learned that it was called ‘Falsto.’
And I could be wrong, but it seemed like there were more people now.
But I welcomed the idea of new players coming in.
Games were similar to real life, in that they would slowly die away if new life was not born.
The problem was whether or not the new life will be able to grow…

No, I shouldn’t think about such things. I had my own goals to achieve.
There had been a lot of people at the Medal Shop, but once you were inside of the building, you could check the catalog from any part of the store.
And so I found an empty corner to hide in, and tried to choose things to trade in without causing a scene.

I had 668 NSO medals in all.

108 of them were leftovers from the battle royale.
500 were from getting MVP during the turf war.
And 10 were from winning the battle colosseum where I had tested my windcloud equipment.
I had forgotten about the colosseum medals.
It was probably because I was so satisfied with how strong my equipment had been.

Furthermore, I had been sent 50 medals as compensation for my skills being nerfed.
I hadn’t actually been too bothered by it, and continued to enjoy the game. But I suppose it was different with other players, and it made sense that management had planned something.
In any case, I was glad to receive more medals with this timing.

So, 668 medals sounded like a lot.
And one wouldn’t be wrong for thinking this.
I doubted there were many players who had this many medals.

However, if you were going to trade them in for a skill, you would need at least 50 medals.
Strong skills required even more medals.
And I also wanted to trade them in for some equipment.

I haven’t even used one of the Ravengar’s equipment slots yet.
The Unisons had 5 in all.
And so I wanted to use most of them at the very least.

I took my time. 2 hours.
I studied the catalog and took a walk through the town as I thought about it.
In the end, I used 500 NSO medals and acquired 4 equipment items and 3 skills.
First, let’s look at the equipment.

◆ Equipment
I: Remora Shooter
II: E Generator
III: Additional Energy Tank
IV: Missile Pod
V: __

◆ Remora Shooter (50 NSO medals)
Type: Fish Unison(Crossbow)
Attack: 40

As the Ravengar was a fish, it could not hold any weapons.
And so I added a Remora-shaped crossbow option that followed it, like those things from shooters.
This remora didn’t have its own AI, and so the Ravengar would control it.
Crossbows were treated the same as bows, and so it could use bow skills.
But it was equipment specifically for fish type Unisons, and so the player couldn’t use them.

The reason that I chose it…was because it looked interesting.
It wasn’t that powerful, and bows and crossbows were practically the same.
At least if I had gotten a magic attack, the roles of the two would not overlap.

However, when I had tested it out, it was amusing to have the remora follow from the back. And I was impressed.
Like this, you could have a fish carry a weapon…
And so I had no regrets…!

◆ E Generator (100 NSO medals)
Type: Machine Unison
MP: 50
Weapon skill: Energy Recovery

Energy Recovery was essentially the MP regen that you saw in a lot of games.
Your MP recovered gradually as time passed.
As it would be a great hassle to keep track of both of our MP, I wanted the Gar to be able to move independently as much as possible.

◆Additional Energy Tank(50 NSO medals)
Type: Machine Unison
MP: 100

Energy Recovery depended on your max MP.
The more your max MP, the more you would recover over time.
And so I equipped something that would increase the max MP.

◆Missile Pod(100 NSO medals)
Type: Machine Unison
Attack: 65
Charge Attack: 8-mount Missile

◆8-mount Missile
Fires 8 missiles in a row.
Cool down: 3 minutes

By equipping it, it will be able to use ‘8-mount Missile,’ which was a long-range charge attack.
And so I would have it focus on this attack whenever I didn’t want it to get close to the enemy.
The missiles weren’t launched randomly, and so all 8 of them flew towards the enemy that you targeted.
This meant it wasn’t really a wide area attack, but would do a lot of damage to a single enemy.

Next was the skill.
As I had considered attack ability while choosing the equipment, I mainly turned to support effects with the skills.

◆Caltrop(50 NSO medals)
Scatters sharp metal scraps around the area.

They were tools that ninjas were supposed to have used to stop their pursuers.
And this skill scattered them around you.
And so I would have it use this skill whenever the enemy tried to get close to it.

◆Energy Shield(50 NSO medals)
Creates an energy shield that follows the skill user.

After activating, a shield would follow Gar, and so even if it moved very fast, the shield would not be left behind.
While it was very convenient, it’s durability was just moderate. And it was also rather small.
A shield that was less for blocking, and more for parrying before running away.

By the way, the buckler skill was ‘Energy Barrier III.’
And though you had to stand still while using ‘barrier,’ it was stronger and had a wider range.
Among the skills that I could trade medals for, there was ‘Energy Barrier,’ which was the skill before evolving to III, but I just chose ‘Shield,’ as I didn’t think it made sense for Gar, who was all about moving around quickly.

◆Magic Jamming(100 NSO medals)
Reduces magic damage by 30%.
Effective for 30 seconds.

I used 100 medals.
This skill was to cover its weakness, which was magic defense.
Since it wasn’t a charge attack, it could be used repeatedly, but it also consumed a lot of MP.
In fact, one of the reasons I had raised the MP with the equipment was so I could use this skill without having to worry.

Gar moved around in a wide area by itself, and so there would be times when it would get hit by magic without me noticing.
And if this skill was activated during such times, it could avoid taking a lethal blow.
That being said, I didn’t know what would happen if it was hit by thunder magic, which was it’s ultimate weakness…
Well, it was because I didn’t know, that I had to play safe.

There had been some other options, like ‘Additional Armor,’ which raised defense, or ‘Great Booster,’ which raised speed.
And I had also considered increasing its long-range attack variations with skills, but in the end, I decided on this configuration.

I wanted to try and make Gar an all-rounder.
Of course, in games, that usually meant being a jack of all trades and master of none. That wasn’t really a good thing.
However, specializing in something meant having obvious weaknesses.
I wanted Gar to grow into a Unison who could move anywhere freely and fight in any situation.

Besides, I was a specialized type, and there were a lot of enemies and situations I wasn’t suited for.
So if Gar was able to distract the enemy, it would give me a chance to turn things around. That was my hope.

And so the final stats were…

◆ Unison Status
Name: Garbow(Ravengar)
Race: Fish/Machine
Lv: 35/100
HP: 120/120
MP: 230/230(+150)
Attack: 280(+105)
Defense: 100
Magic Attack: 60
Magic Defense: 70
Speed: 145

◆Skills
Poison Resistance V, Machine Body
Straight Darts, Red Flash
Caltrop, Energy Shield
Magic Jamming

◆Charge Attack
Red Meteor, Ocean Sphere

It would unbalance the enemy with its speed and skills that are unleashed through ample MP, and in the end, take down the enemy with sharp attack ability.
It turned into a character with so many options that I wasn’t sure I could use it right. And so I hoped that the AI would do all the work for me.

And there was one other big change.
Up until now, I had called it Ravengar, but I decided to call it Garbow.
The reason was that ‘Ravengar’ wasn’t really a ‘buddy’ name.

Well, there’s that one popular anime about monsters, and they just call their buddies by their monster name. But that is clearly done for advertising purposes.
Children would be confused if the names were different in the anime and game…

The name Garbow might sound random, but I had actually put a lot of thought into naming it.
First, I kept ‘Gar’ because it sounded very unique, and I didn’t want to lose it.
And then I added ‘bow,’ because that was the weapon I used.

“Not bad, right? Garbow.”

“Gar! Gar!”

Now, I finished my spending spree and used up 500 medals… He was stronger now, and so it was time to decide on my next goal.
As I had filled in the south part of my map, it would make sense to fill in the north, west, and east sides. But I wanted to go and explore the southern region first.

While I had filled in the south part of the map, I had really only seen the port town, a small village along the road, and the sea.
And when I looked at the detailed map, there were lots of interesting markers, landscapes and buildings.
I had gone through all the trouble of having it drawn, and so it would be good to rely on it and go adventuring.

“First…I’ll go to this Mirror Rock Cave.”

There was a cave with shiny, sharp rocks jutting out depicted on the map.
Did such a place really exist?
And so I allowed my curiosity to lead me as I left the first town.

Ah, I think it was called Falsto?
Well…I’m just going to call it ‘first town.’ That’s easier to remember.

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