Level Is Everything

Ryou continues his training but it is quite taxing on his mental state. He tried to limit his concentration and use it only when he is about to aim and attack but in reality it is more tiring than when he keeps his concentration up all the time. It seemed that the best way is still practicing the shooting while moving technique.

As for his accuracy, it will hit 10times out of 10 tries when he is standing still. When he starts to move he can only hit 4 out of 10. It is also motivating him to quickly learn this skill because it is one of the way for him to get stronger inside the game and ultimately it will lead him to his father.

Ryou is the only one who is using the beginner's village archery range to polish his skill. As most of the player is heading out to the fields to test them out on monster. The only times when players come to the archery range is when they want to change their class to an archer or when they want to take and hand in quest form the archery instructor.

Ryou almost had no interaction with the instructor aside from the time when he asked about his father to him. Most of the time when there is no player, the instructor is roaming around the archery range and sometimes without Ryou knowing it, the instructor is paying attention to him training.

Three hours already passed since Ryou started to train and there doesn't seem to be any message from Luna.

「I guess I will log out for a bit. 」

Just when Ryou is about to leave, the instructor comes approaching.

"Young lad, I can see that you have passion on archery. I can also see the training that you are doing is pursuing another path of archery. Actually I have a friend who have mastered the skill that you are practicing since earlier. Do you want to meet him?"

「Nice, a quest for aiming while moving skill I guess. Just what I need. 」

It didn't require Ryou to think much about it before he agree. He is also wondering whether the NPC in this game is really an NPC. It was because they seemed to be more active than the NPC from other game. You can get a quest not only by talking to the NPC, on the other hand the NPC can also seek players to help them just like the quest with the village's chief and right now when the archery instructor actively seeking for him.

"Yes, I am willing to meet him."

"Alright, you can take this introduction letter to Max. He lives near the sea, ah, let me draw you a map to show where he lives. If he is asking, just tell him that Richard is the one who sends you."

The archery range instructor then gives Ryou a letter and a map. When he mentioned about Richard, the name above his head instantly changed. At first he is named 'beginner's village archery instructor' and then it was changed to Richard. Ryou is now confused, can NPC changed his name? Or they have a name given to each and every one of them which is not disclosed to the players if they didn't ask? After all, none of the player so far is bothered to ask about an NPC name or just accept the fact that some of the NPC have their own name while most of them have generic name such as item NPC, miscellaneous NPC, weapon NPC and so on.

「Maybe I should try asking for an NPC name next time. 」

Although it wasn't that significant it is also intriguing for him. After all the one he is longing to meet, his father is a master archer inside the game with the same name with his father. Was it only a coincidence or was it something else? He wants to get a clarification by testing it on other NPC names.

However, for now, he wanted to find Max first and see whether he can get the skill that he wants to learn.

「You got 'introduction letter' x 1. You got 'simple map' x 1. 」

Ryou himself didn't get a quest for this. He is now wondering; what kind of task is this if it wasn't a quest. If it was a quest, there will be a detail of the rewards that he will earn but for now there isn't any confirmation or information about what he will learn. Does it mean that it was only a pre-requirement for a quest?

After saying thanks to Richard and bidding farewell, Ryou heads to where Max is living following the map given to him. He also decided to first see where it will lead him to. If it was a quest without time limit, he might as well take a rest and logged out first.

Following the map, Ryou headed to the sea area near the beginner's village. It was his first time exploring the area and it was the last area of the beginner's village that he never visited. He has hunted monster at the plains and the forest and this is the last hunting field that is available on the beginner's village.

What greeted him when he left the village is a small path that leads to the shore. It was wide and spacious. He can also see some sea monster at the beach roaming around. 'spiky shellfish', 'hunting crab', 'deep sea merman' and 'killer dolphin' are some of the monster he can find around. However, they all will gives little experience to Ryou unless he killed the mini boss monster 'spear shark'. It was seemed like a dream for him because up to this point he isn't able to kill the tempest wolf which is on the same level as the spear shark. Moreover, the spear shark will be harder to kill since its territory is in the water.

The game Aaru itself has water battle integrated with it. A player can dive inside the water and have battle with a monster. However, it is proven to be quite hard which makes there's only a little amount of player that hunts in this field. Inside the water, the player will have an oxygen gauge which is amounted to the player vitality attributes. The oxygen gauge will be drained pretty quickly too if a player is moving around inside the water. The water itself will makes a player movement restrained just like in real life. That is why battling in the water will have its own technique but the experience rewards from the monster is increased accordingly with the difficulty.

Ryou try not to fight with the monster to save time and he followed the map given by Richard. He should find Max here according to the map but he sees nobody. He is standing at the edge of a cliff since the map leads him here but no one is in sight.

「Is the map wrong? Or is Richard only playing with me? After all there's no quest prompt notification earlier. 」

Ryou afraid that he is being played by Richard. After all, the beginner's village have one unique NPC named 'the beggar'. The beggar keeps on asking money from players and some tried to give him money. But in the end the beggar walks away just like that after he received the money and the player didn't trigger any quest from him.

「Maybe this is also the same case. 」

Ryou have played the game for several days and by now he can evaluate the AI of the game. The AI makes the NPC seemed to possess a life on their own. The NPC on the beginner's village have amazed him and he can't wait to meet with the NPC on the world game of Aaru. As mentioned before by players that have leave the beginner's village, the NPC in the world of Aaru have a higher degree of intelligence, freedom, and movement. There is even a speculation that they are controlled directly by the staff of the game company. Maybe there is also a chance that his father is the one who control 'his father character' inside the game.

Just when Ryou wanted to give up, he looked again at the map and doesn't find any new leads. He shifted his gaze and decided just to think of it as a sightseeing view. After all, the view on the game is amazingly beautiful. The landscape of the shore and the sea that he is seeing from the top of the cliff is relaxing for him.

「Maybe this is a good chance for me to try out the image capture option. 」

The game Aaru itself offer every player the ability to capture images, videos, and record them at the Syder memory bank. There is even some photographer in real life that is addicted to the view that they can take inside the game because they can't find it in real life.

Ryou tries out a feature called 360, 4d image capture. This function enabled him to take a re-creation of his surrounding complete with the sound and even the wind.

「Eh, what is this? 」

He is checking out the result which is presented in a small hovering globe in front of him. He can turn the image and check around as much as he liked and he saw something. There is a cave situated down below the cliff.

「There is a chance that Max is inside the cave. 」

He is glad that he tried to take a picture if not Ryou might missed it. He carefully climbed down the cliff and entered the cave. As he expected, he finds an NPC inside the cave.