Vampire Princess Guide in Progress - Volume 1 Chapter 14

Chapter 14: General Skill, Escape

***

“What?” “Huh?” Almost simultaneously, Kilo and Raven made sounds.

Except that Kilo was looking toward Nolan hoping to seek a glimmer of hope, while Raven’s voice contained more skepticism, perhaps finding this youth who opposed his viewpoint ridiculous.

So, Nolan gradually walked into the spotlight of everyone’s vision, also beside Karl who had been crying earlier, and raised his voice to repeat to the crowd in the tavern: “Clearing the floor BOSS is not without hope.”

“Heh, what makes you say that? Defeating a BOSS isn’t just about talking big.” Raven sneered, seemingly thinking Nolan was just trying to get attention and prestige by making bold claims when everyone felt hopeless.

“Challenging the floor BOSS is equivalent to suicide. I believe this point has flaws.” Nolan ignored Raven’s mockery and continued loudly: “Perhaps many of you haven’t noticed yet, in your character interface’s skill list, if you scroll all the way down, there’s a general skill called 【Escape】. You can check now to verify what I’m saying.”

Upon hearing Nolan’s words, a series of light bell sounds of systems opening interfaces immediately rang throughout the tavern.

The tavern, which had been dimly lit, suddenly brightened with white game menu bars appearing everywhere at once.

“There really is one?”

“Hidden so far down, I never noticed it before.”

“But what is this, what’s it for?”

Nolan likewise opened his system panel, scrolling down to the bottom of the skill list where the skill 【Escape】 was displayed, and continued: “This is a skill that can only be used in ruins dungeons and BOSS rooms. Its function is — emergency escape from the current dungeon, returning to the main city.”

“What!? That means it’s… an emergency escape skill?”

“Exactly. But because there were no consequences for defeat in the game before, this skill seemed too insignificant, and being hidden at the bottom, not only was it rarely used, some people might have mistaken it for the game’s 【Unstuck】 function.”

Unstuck is generally a universal button used when a player gets trapped in a map model and cannot move, preventing the game from progressing.

And naturally, 《Floating Island: Fragments of the Stars》 would not have situations where players get stuck in models, so there would be no need for an Unstuck function, and this feature was never implemented. But Escape is not this concept, it’s a type of emergency withdrawal.

When Nolan first discovered this during the closed beta, he also thought this design was redundant, but now it might become a critical game mechanic.

“The so-called pioneer work is to attempt to defeat a BOSS without being familiar with its mechanics, to gain an initial understanding of the mechanics. It’s rare to successfully kill a BOSS on the first encounter. Therefore, pioneer teams might need to repeatedly try and fail to become familiar with a BOSS’s mechanics. Under conditions where defeat is not allowed, 【Escape】 will become an opportunity to try.”

That is, if the situation doesn’t look good and HP drops too much, becoming dangerous, one can use Escape to immediately withdraw from the dungeon.

This way, one can attempt to understand the BOSS’s situation without paying the price of defeat.

Although 【Escape】 seems to have a long cooldown of 24 hours, usable only once per day, different pioneer teams can take turns trying, then record the BOSS mechanics they’ve learned and share the information.

Then, based on the collected information, they can become familiar with the BOSS battle, handle the mechanics well, reduce the BOSS’s health, trigger more mechanics, until finally defeating it.

Bit by bit, consuming and conquering the BOSS.

“So such a skill exists. This way, theoretically, it does provide a possibility for defeating it,” Kilo stroked his chin, looking at the white screen in front of him. “Thank you, friend, we had no idea before.”

“I just… know a little about this game.”

It’s just unknown how many players would read all the announcements, introductions, and game manuals on the official website before starting the public beta, and the degree of this “little” knowledge would vary accordingly.

And Raven, as a closed beta player, also learned about this for the first time, showing a slightly surprised expression.

But just as everyone was beginning to see a glimmer of hope, Raven spoke again: “But this is at most an escape method, it doesn’t mean there’s no danger. If you make a mistake, you might die at the hands of the BOSS before you can even use it.”

It’s not a combat skill that can be used instantly, but a system utility skill, meaning each use requires opening the menu to access it, and during this time, you need to distance yourself from monsters to avoid interruption. Generally, you might need to secure at least 2-3 seconds to successfully escape.

This would test one’s judgment and reaction in dangerous situations tremendously.

“Besides, how many people are actually willing to be on the frontline fighting BOSSes? When almost all pioneer guilds have disbanded, leaving only the Iris Knights? Who would shoulder the so-called ‘greater good’ and be willing to risk their lives?”

At this point, not only inside the tavern but also outside, a crowd of players had gathered to listen to the discussion, as if a meeting had been convened.

After hearing Raven’s words, everyone’s confidence, which hadn’t been very high to begin with, once again fell to rock bottom. After all, they were all just thinking about how to survive today, how could they possibly think about defeating BOSSes?

Raven stood up with a cold smile. As he raised his right hand wrapped in black leather gloves to wipe his dagger, the metal chains at the hem of his cloak rustled. A few strands of iron-gray hair fell from the edge of his hood, the tips tinged with a blue-black hue reminiscent of a raven’s tail feathers.

Seemingly not wanting to continue this discussion, he patted his cloak with his hands, put his exposed thin hands in his pockets, and prepared to walk out of the tavern.

But suddenly, as he passed by Nolan, his steps stopped again.

Under his cloak, he revealed half of his face shadowed, slightly hunched over, turning his back slightly, and staring at Nolan with eyes truly like a night raven, saying in a low voice: “Kid, you’re also a closed beta player, right?”

Nolan still faced forward, only turning his eyes to look at him. “Yes.”

“Hehe, you and that big guy with the axe over there, if this game ever gets conquered, you’d definitely be among the first heroes… but. This game can’t be conquered by just a few people.”

“Don’t throw away your life because of a surge of passion.”

Then, a box popped up in front of Nolan.

【Player “Raven” has sent you a friend request, do you accept?】

“I hope I don’t see your name turn gray too soon.”