Sky World Vol 2 Chapter 2.09

VOLUME 2

Chapter 2: The Curse of the Pyramid
Part 9

Caves and ruins were commonly known as Dungeons.

The word dungeon, which originally represented an underground prison, evolved to mean what it does now through a largely unknown transformation. In MMORPGs, dungeon areas differed from regular fields in many ways.

First of all, the difference showed in monsters, and traps were rather common… in other words, dungeons had to be dealt with differently.

“Kasumi-san, this is your first time taking part in a bonafide dungeon raid, right?” inquired Jun, looking up at the pyramid that looked like a slightly elevated hill.

“Back when I was with Sakuya, we went through a maze on the eighth island ring.”

“Dungeons on the eighth ring, with a few exceptions, don’t really have any elaborate traps. And, the monsters are weak there. There’s a steep curve between dungeons on the eighth ring, and those of higher rings. If it were just us three, like how we were in regular fields, dungeons would be quite scary.”

“Can Jun-san even be scared of anything?” Ryuka tilted her head.

“If it were just me, I definitely wouldn’t be. If I had to complete a dungeon for a quest, I would just join another party and do it that way. Honestly speaking, a party with six people would be great.”

“Now that I think of it, Sakuya-chan also made sure we had six people. What’s up with that number?”

“Ah, is that your question?”

“I wonder why that could be the case,” said Ryuka, who apparently also did not know.

“Alright, I’ll explain quickly. So basically, Sky World’s system has no restriction on the number of people in a group. According to the system though, groups are just an umbrella term for allies. Understand?”

“Yep. If I’m not mistaken, even if allies accidentally get hit by area of affect attacks, they would take damage. And afterwards, any enemies that the group of allies killed could easily take back control of the area.”

“Right. Though, when Sky World was still just an MMO, targeting was quite easy, and there were many other conveniences… basically, groups allowed for the differentiation between friend and foe.” Jun continued, “However, in practice, players usually split up into smaller groups of six.”

“The biggest reason for having six person groups was that spells and skills that affected multiple people were all limited to a maximum of six people.”

“Area buffs and movement spells, right?” responded Ryuka. She, being a black magician, had many of such spells.

“The most salient point for black magicians is definitely the use of the Teleport spell. If there was only one black magician in a team of seven or more people, somebody would be left behind after casting the spell.”

“That’s not useful at all for escaping.”

“Some time ago, Ryuka set her bind point to the one near the entrance to these ruins. If necessary, she could use Group Teleport to retreat back to that bind point.”

“Right. When going into an unexplored dungeon, I want us to be as prepared as possible. However, if we have to flee, we have to be quick. So, in order to fully take advantage of wizardry, six person teams widely became the norm for the smallest fighting unit.”

“Though if it’s us five, I think we can synergize rather well.”

“We have a tank, a front line attacker, a rear line attacker, a healer, and a controller, including somebody who can allow us to escape in case of emergency, and we at least have the most basic buffs. White magicians are also the most desirable healing cla.s.s for dungeon runs. Though I would prefer to have a sub-healer too for some peace of mind but… we’re not carefully selecting people from within a guild, so this is pretty much on-point.”

In Sky World, there were fifteen cla.s.ses, each with its own traits, specialties, and weaknesses. The idea of forming teams was that their different respective capabilities could fill in for another’s weaknesses.

“So, I think I can safely say that we should be able to successfully clear this dungeon. But then… the problem is how we go about doing it.” Jun took a few steps down and looked up at the peak of the hill. “… Hey, I just thought of this, but doesn’t this pyramid seem a little bit suspicious?”

“Suspicious?” Eri repeated his word.

“There’s probably another way in from behind.”

“Jun, you sure like saying that.”

“Well, this is a royal tomb. With such a welcoming entrance… I think this could only be a trap. If it were me, I would have definitely made this to be a dummy entrance.”

“Jun, your triumphant look makes me reluctant to take your side…” Eri dropped her shoulders and shook her head. “I understand… Perhaps even the pyramids in Egypt had dummy entrances. I’ve heard stories of them.”

“Luckily, it seems like there aren’t any monsters nearby. Let’s disperse and search for other entrances. If you see anything, shout to let us know.”

Then, Jun activated his Wing Boots and flew into the sky.

Searching from high up in the sky could help gather more information from a different point of view.