kscans

Chapter 22 - Objecting to the Fountain of Knowledge

"No way..."

Smartphone in hand, diving through the sea of the internet, I muttered for what must have been the hundredth time.

Seriously, I've lost count of how many times I've said it. It's a festival of "you've got to be kidding me," a carnival of shock... Was the [Arcadia] I'd been playing a different game from what everyone else was playing?

"That's the real 'no way'..."

I was put off by the sheer number of pages on what seemed to be the biggest strategy site, so for now, I limited my search to the bare minimum I needed... but no, I can't stop saying it. No way.

First, regarding my most immediate and biggest question, [Tsarkalv of the White Throne]—turns out, while it has been encountered before, its strategy is still unknown, and its information section on the wiki is filled with question marks. It's a raid boss.

It's been three years, and there's a boss that's been discovered but not defeated? Seriously?

Apparently, a raid party of over a hundred players, including that Sword Queen girl, challenged it and got instantly annihilated... I don't even feel like speculating. There's too little information, so I'll pass for now.

Next, the most important thing to look up in any MMO—character build and progression paths... Yeah, about that, I'm having a hard time wrapping my head around it...

Should I summarize the key points in three simple lines?

One, don't spec into AGI! You'll regret it later and die!
Two, light-armored warriors are for pros! Normal people, wear armor! Or you'll die!
Three, all-weapon proficiency is the trash of all trash! Just die!

"Are they targeting me specifically?"

My alter ego has stepped on every landmine with artistic precision. Have you no shame?

And yet, I find myself not convinced by the articles I read to reach that conclusion. It's just that so many things clash with my own understanding...

"Most of all, there's no way the all-weapon proficiency tree is trash."

After logging out, I've been staring at my phone intently for nearly two hours. In that time, I've managed to shed my ignorance and incompetence and have come to understand the various mechanics of [Arcadia] to some extent.

I can now make a rough self-assessment of my current in-game status by comparing it to the vast amount of information recorded by my predecessors—but the problem is that my evaluation is far too low.

First, the core of character building in [Arcadia] is the proficiency skill. For me, that would be 《All-Weapon Proficiency》, but it seems that if you acquire multiple proficiencies, you have to activate one at a time.

In other words, even if you learn both 《One-Handed Sword Proficiency》 and 《Two-Handed Sword Proficiency》, you can't use them simultaneously. You have to choose which one to apply and toggle it on or off.

Furthermore, after acquiring a proficiency, you learn skills that match its nature, which are structured in a tree format with the proficiency skill as its core. The conclusion is that you can only use the skills of the currently active tree.

So, based on that premise, the bewilderingly diverse proficiency trees are each given a rating... and 《All-Weapon Proficiency》 is not the absolute worst, but it's pretty close to the bottom.

There are several reasons given, but first, as I expected, its various damage multipliers are inferior compared to specialized proficiency trees. I get that. Next.

Second, apparently, you basically can't learn any attack skills. In other words, it's an underprivileged build with almost no special moves, which made even me gag and say, "Are you serious?"

Yeah, that's rough. I get it, I get it. Next.

Third, the skill considered the core of the tree, 《Quick Change》, is so uselessly trash that it's not even funny and—okay, stop right there.

"No way."

Just, no. Before anything else, that's a perfect, god-tier skill. You should be calling it Master Quick Change.

They say: The activation lag is so bad it's unusable.

They say: The demand on mental imagery is too high, making activation unstable.

They say: It's faster to switch manually than to struggle to activate the skill.

"What parallel universe are they talking about?"

What are these veterans on about...? I was only confused the very first time I got it. Since then, it's been working for me like an extension of my own limbs.

I don't think the mental control is as difficult as they say, either. You just quickly picture the appearance or name of the equipment you want to summon and activate it. Once you get used to it, it doesn't even take a second.

Is it an individual difference...? No, even so... hmm.

In my opinion, the all-weapon proficiency tree—or rather, the skill 《Quick Change》—is an insanely good skill that's one step away from being completely broken.

It allows for flexible tactics by enabling instant weapon changes during combat, and if you can solve problems like inventory capacity, it has the potential to handle both offense and defense at will.

In addition, there's the weight negation at the moment of switching and the brief period where the weapon is fixed in mid-air until you grip it... The last-ditch mid-air jump I used to dodge the white thing's attack was made possible by exploiting the latter property.

It's packed with so many exploitable characteristics, yet it's showered with low ratings and branded as a trash skill... I don't get it.

I'll admit it's a bit niche. I mean, I've been forced into this one-hit-and-I'm-dead, ninety-percent-reflexes, high-mobility-warrior playstyle, which is not something a beginner should be doing... and no, that's not what I really want. I'm starting to enjoy the pinball tactics I'm developing, but honestly, I'd like to at least wear some armor.

I'm still running around in my plain default underwear. When I walk through town, I'm pretty much guaranteed to get 'what's with that guy' looks stabbed in my direction, you know?

"But still... yeah..."

From what I've seen on the site, acquiring a specific proficiency skill isn't that difficult. So the idea of switching to a specialized skill tree now, based on the veterans' ratings, has crossed my mind...

"But after just two days, this build is already starting to feel just right."

All three boss kills I've experienced so far, the time I cheated death after falling off a cliff, and the moment I dodged that white bastard's attack and landed a counter—all of these were things I could only have achieved with my current build.

No matter what the popular opinion is, the power my avatar has developed has already won my trust.

"...It's worth a shot."

Gathering strategy information isn't just about looking, understanding, and being done with it. In this modern age where it's easy to exchange opinions with countless people, you lose out if you don't speak up yourself.

"I think there was an exclusive user page for [Arcadia]..."

This must be it. I'll enter my Arcadia unit ID and password on the login page—and,

"Oh, my name and avatar ID are displayed."

So it's not anonymous. That's unusual for this kind of service... but well, being the only VR content out there, I guess they have their reasons.

After a quick look at the recent boards, it seems everyone is friendly but also quite polite in their interactions.

Even though it's a virtual space and you're wearing an avatar, communication in Arcadia happens face-to-face. So it seems that etiquette and manners towards others are taken pretty seriously... Ah, found the question board. This should do.

I was careful not to write something hard to read, didn't forget to mention I was a beginner, and listed out my various questions. Finished writing, gave it a quick once-over... looks about right.

"Replies welcome, and now..."

That's enough of a break. I've already had dinner by myself and informed my mother of my plans. As I've been diving nonstop all day, she gave me a very cold look, but I'd like her to bear with me like this for at least a week.

"For now, I'll just quickly finish the muscle-bound old man's quest... Dive on."

Muttering a soliloquy that's become more frequent these past two days, I lay down in the unit and called out the activation word for the third time today.