Vampire Princess Guide in Progress - Volume 1 Chapter 3

Chapter 3: Wild Boars? They’re Actually Experience Points!

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“This game is mainly divided into three types of gameplay.”

“PVP, which means player versus player combat.”

“Besides the arena and friendly duels, players can also actively enable PVP mode in the wilderness, also known as turning on red name mode. The player’s game name will turn red, allowing them to attack any player outside the safe town areas. When defeating other players, there’s a chance to obtain one item from their inventory.”

“PVE, which means player versus monster combat.”

“《Floating Island: Fragments of the Stars》 mimics the concept of 《SAO》, setting the game world on an unimaginably massive floating island, divided into 100 layers. The higher the layer, the greater the level increase even for common monsters. Besides the ruins dungeons scattered across the map, the pioneer teams will face the most powerful Floor Guardian BOSS of each layer. Only by defeating the BOSS will the entrance to the next layer be opened for all players.”

“Finally, there’s PVX, which means casual entertainment players.”

“There are quite a few players in 《Floating Island》 who fear combat because the battle experience in virtual reality games is too realistic and can cause some psychological impact. These players choose to learn life skills instead, including gathering, pharmaceutics, forging, and so on. They can also freely trade their crafted items to earn game currency from PVE and PVP players.”

“I see, that sounds really rich in content. Everyone can find their own preferred goal to play the game,” Croft nodded thoughtfully as he listened to Nolan’s explanation. “So what type of player are you, Nolan?”

“Me…?” Nolan glanced at him sideways, then said quietly and calmly: “I play a bit of both PVP and PVE.”

During the closed beta test, he had easily claimed the first Arena Champion crown as the female character Tilia, and single-handedly slain the Floor Guardian BOSSES of the 2nd and 3rd layers. Other players once believed he was a GM or an official staff member.

During the beta test, the legend of the “Undefeated Crimson Moon Princess” spread among players.

In reality, Nolan had simply invested more time than others in studying the game, mastering the attack patterns of BOSSES, damage calculations, and even the precise timing of mechanics. With accumulated combat experience and the special abilities of the vampire race, he achieved an extremely high skill ceiling.

In this world, skill understanding and combat techniques yielded benefits comparable to Souls-like games. Stats weren’t the only factor determining victory.

But since it was a game, leveling up was still a necessary foundation.

“I’m planning to level up at the Wild Boar Plains now. Would you like to come along?”

“Sure! You know so much, I’ll follow your lead!” Having experienced the impressive immersion of this virtual reality game, the next step was to engage in combat with monsters, which Croft found quite novel.

Nolan led him away from the Central Plaza, officially entering the main street of the Pure White Holy City. Along the way, Croft kept his eyes wide open, watching players constantly walking past, listening to their lively and curious discussions.

“Hey, how do you use skills? Surely we don’t have to shout the skill names embarrassingly?”

“Skills? Wasn’t it said that players can freely combine countless skills based on their actions? I haven’t tried it yet.”

“Oh man, don’t go to the church in the northeast. The busty nun there will hit you if you tease her a bit! Everything went black, and I got kicked back to the respawn point.”

The players’ heated discussions faded in and out as they passed by. Every second since arriving in this game, even until now, Croft still doubted whether he had truly crossed over to another world.

Nolan eventually stopped in front of a general store.

Inside the wooden general store, the walnut shelves stood as tall as two people, with pale golden price tags floating in each compartment. Seven different iron swords hung on the east wall.

“You can purchase equipment here.”

“Oh! A proper shop! It immediately creates that Western fantasy world immersion.”

As a newcomer experiencing VR immersive gaming for the first time, Croft found everything fresh and couldn’t help but marvel at it.

In the game 《Floating Island: Fragments of the Stars》, due to minimal guidance, many things required personal exploration.

One thing most new players easily overlooked was that they could buy a set of beginner equipment at the general store in Pure White Holy City, which was considerably better than the gray quality equipment initially provided by the system.

Having a better equipment set would greatly improve efficiency when quickly leveling up by grinding monsters in the wild.

The general store also had NPC merchants played by AI, whose appearances were almost indistinguishable from real people. Each had their own name and character backstory, with completely barrier-free conversation.

The gray-robed shopkeeper wearing a monocle was dipping a quill pen in ink, recording new inventory on a parchment.

“We’d like two sets of beginner equipment,” Nolan spoke to the shopkeeper at the counter.

“Welcome, dear Starforgers. If you need any merchandise, you can make your selections from the shop list,” said the shopkeeper with a genial smile, as a screen with the shop interface popped up between them.

Standing behind, Croft quietly watched Nolan skillfully navigate the floating window, quickly completing a shop transaction.

Nolan opened his friend list, scrolled down to the [Gift] button, and directly sent this set of equipment to Croft’s inventory.

【Obtained: Beginner’s Universal Weapon Box x1, Journey Iron Armor x1, Journey Leggings x1, Journey Bracers x1, Journey Helmet x1, Journey Boots x1, Journey Necklace x1, Basic Healing Potion x5】

“Then just click on the equipment to equip it. You don’t need to put it on manually.” After they both equipped a set of armor in their character panels, their appearances changed accordingly, with the equipment appearing on their bodies in sizes that fit their respective builds.

“Wow! Amazing, my defense has increased so much!”

“This is just white quality equipment, almost the lowest tier. Higher-tier equipment will have special attributes and effect skills. Green and blue equipment have a small chance of dropping from common monsters. If you’re lucky enough to encounter a rare BOSS in the wild, it generally drops multiple pieces of blue equipment. As for Floor BOSSES, they always drop at least one piece of purple equipment.”

It was said that above purple quality equipment, there were also gold quality and red quality equipment, but he hadn’t seen any during the beta test.

Wild Boar Plains, a newbie area with monsters maxing out at Lv.5.

Similar to various fantasy games, the lowest-level monsters were either wild boars, slimes, or goblins. They had very low stats and simple battle modules with almost no skills, making them very suitable for newcomers to try their first battles.

But Nolan discovered that his companion seemed to have chosen an unusual weapon.

“Oh! It’s charging at me!” Croft’s expression tensed as he watched the wild boar, whose aggro had shifted to him. But the weapon in his hand for defense and counterattack wasn’t a greatsword or an axe.

It was a… magic staff, completely mismatched with his build and physique.

And he didn’t seem to have mastered the use of magic yet, just randomly waving the magic staff in the air. While dealing 2 points of physical damage to the wild boar, he was also sent flying.

Taking 35 points of damage, the HP value next to his character name above his head immediately dropped by half, 【HP: 65/100】

“What! Aaaaargh! Nolan, save me!”

Croft let out a wail in midair before landing on his backside.

“Hahaha, I never would have imagined you’d choose a magic staff. That’s not an easy weapon for beginners,” Nolan said, covering his forehead in disbelief after just killing a wild boar nearby.

Watching Croft’s pathetic state as he was charged by the wild boar, running around frantically and squealing, was actually quite amusing.

“Why can’t I use any skills? Aaaah! Don’t come closer—! Huh? It really stopped?”

“No, that’s a sign it’s about to use its charge skill.”

Just as the wild boar suddenly stopped in its tracks, its eyes turned crimson, dust flew, and it began stamping its hind hooves fiercely. Below its HP and MP bars, a purple 【Boar Rush】 skill casting bar appeared.

Obviously, another hit like that would send his newbie teammate back to the respawn point with a blackout.

Just as the skill cast was about to complete, Nolan’s gaze sank, his foot pressed against the ground, and his figure flashed forward.

A sword light horizontally slashed through the wild boar’s body from the air, interrupting its impending skill with the hit. After the wild boar let out a howl of pain, Nolan jumped up, stepping on the boar’s head, then leaped into the air and delivered a spinning kick that knocked it back into a stagger.

“And now… Multi-Strike Combo!”

During the brief staggered interval, he followed up with several quick sword slashes.

After a smooth combo, the wild boar’s HP rapidly plummeted. It was sent flying with all four legs in the air, and finally its HP was completely depleted.

【Gained Experience: 100 Exp】

【Obtained Dropped Items: Wild Boar Tusk x1, Poor Quality Wild Boar Fur x2】