Chapter 173: The situation

{Damage is calculated by using the first value firstly, the second only really given as a guideline. Currently, it is not too difficult to figure out how much damage you can do. The weapon's true damage minus the target's armor will give you the effective damage carried through. If the damage value is less than the target's armor, then a different situation appears.}

{This situation is quite simple and will quickly be explained. A comparison is then done between the attacker's strength and the target's constitution. If the former is higher, then the damage delivered will be the difference divided by a hundred. If the latter is higher, then no damage is dealt.}

{For the case where the armor is less than the true damage. The remainder is multiplied by the determining attribute as a percentage. After which bonuses such as passive and active skills will be added. Still not the end, the next step is a simple reduction. Where the physical or magical resistance of the target decreases the damage taken. Along with other skills or effects.}

{This was how damage has been calculated thus far. The only other factor being if the attack was a fatal or nonfatal attack. A fatal attack receiving a final multiplication of 10.}

{This works quite well, as long as the fight is a normal one. Where only a few unimportant strikes are taken into account. But an error comes up when someone attacks, say a leg ten times. According to the current system, the damage would be far too high to reflect reality.}

{We had added a decrease in repeated hits of the same place, but this failed to properly fix this. Now, we are rather going to add a system of probability and the importance of location. We will not explain it here, only giving a short preview.}

After reading through the rest of the post, Eldrian found that it basically came down to one simple action. The final damage as calculated above, would be multiplied by another variable. The so-called: Vitality counter. Vital hits were unaffected as the damage calculated for them was really close to reality. All the other locations and their damage possibilities were instead affected.

The change was simple. One finger can not take more damage than 0.25% of your HP. If you lost a finger in a fight, then you would lose a max of 0.25% of your HP, plus the bleeding effect at the same multiplier.

Thus if someone was to cut off all your fingers, but not your hand, you would lose a max of 2.5% HP. A hand is a max of 2.5%, forearm 5%, and entire arm 12.5%.

Hence if someone had all their limbs cut off, they would only lose 50% of their HP. Naturally, they would also be bleeding an insane amount, but the attack would not directly kill them.

If the limbs were not cut off, then instead the damage would reflect up to the max of the part hit. So even if someone attacked an arm ten times, the max damage would be just 12.5%. After reaching this percentage; a shock value damage will be dealt, rather than normal damage. This would be affected by the constitution of the one being attacked, but the how's were not explained. The developers hoping to keep some mystery.

The explanation in the post was all easy to read and follow, exampled were also given to help players grasp the information with ease. None of the players had any complaints about this system, rather they were happy that this would hopefully remove the error in damage some had experienced.

Eldrian had never really experienced this error, seeing as he never used Observe while fighting. Keeping it active was too draining. It did not take much effort, but when he was fighting for his life, the little it took could lead to his death.

As Eldrian finished the post he received a call from Joren. Upon answering he discovered that Joren was only letting him know that the drone had arrived already.

Without delay, Eldrian headed out. Extremely happy that the post had helped him pass the time and take some of his mind of the situation the others were likely in. On heading out he felt that his body was tired, but it was only slightly and not enough to cause problems. Hence he quickly ignored it.

The drone landed as soon as Eldrian was spotted exiting his place. Taking the parcel, Eldrian headed back in. Plugged it in and placed the headset on his head, not willing to wait the hour it required to fill its battery.

"Log in." He said as he laid back onto his bed, finding the new headset to be more comfortable than the previous one. This one encircled his entire head, leaving only his face open. It even had a comfortable cushion at the back of the head where the neck began.

"New user detected, searching the database for user details... Haru found... Drawing initial data... User, please perform some tasks to calibrate the simulation."

Eldrian was not happy hearing this, the former time he was required to do that, it had taken him hours. Luckily this time that was not the case.

He arrived in the space-room and immediately found multiple wisps of various colors surrounding him. Those in front of him numbers around five and he was certain with the way they were spread he was certain there was more to his sides and back.

"Survive the assault. Ten direct hits equal death, a hundred grazes equal death."

As soon as this pleasant female voice finished speaking the wisps all flew at Eldrian. If he did not move, he would directly die. He had no idea what this death meant, but he felt confidant that surviving longer was better.

Jumping towards the side, Eldrian avoided most of them. Being surrounded he could not dodge them all and received one direct hit and four grazes. This was good enough for him as he started running, Quickly finding the wisps to be quick themselves.

Their quickness was not constant, rather it came in bursts. Making it far harder to predict their movements. Eldrian would have managed well against one or even three, yet there was more than twenty.

Eldrian tried his best to survive for as long as he could, in the end, he only managed to hold out for three minutes and thirty-four seconds before being killed.

That sucked.Eldrian thought, wondering just how one was supposed to survive against so many wisps.

"User has managed to survive longer than ten seconds. Test passed."

"Huh?" Eldrian let out as he was shocked by the short requirement. He was just glad that he had passed the test, hoping to be able to enter the game right now.

Gasping from the pain he struggled to open his eyes. His entire body felt like it was aflame, nothing did not hurt. As he slowly opened his eyes he found that his entire vision was colored red. Through the redness, he saw that only three people were still standing. Each of them on their last leg as they fought against a Vargr or orc.

"Haru!" Margit tried shouting, but her voice was barely more than a whisper. Eldrian turned his head slightly, the action causing him even more pain. Doing so allowed him to add Margit into his vision. Through the red of his vision he saw a deeper red pool under her, she was bleeding out.

Wha- what happened?Eldrian tried to speak, but the words did not come out. Trying had caused his lungs to burn even more than all the other pains. Informing him that his ribs had likely pierced them.

Terlas... Sabrea... And Vivian...Eldrian took a few seconds to recognize who was who through his blurry vision and their sorry states.

Everyone was riddled with wounds, bleeding profusely and only barely managing to keep standing. It took all their strength to not be killed by their respective opponents. Not even mentioning fighting back.

No one could offer help. Eldrian turned his head slightly through all the pain. This brought the others into his vision, no one else was standing. Margit was basically dead, most of the women they were escorting too.

Floyd now in Eldrian's sights did not look better than those fighting. His back was facing Eldrian, and it looked like the wounds on his back went so deep that his organs were visible. Eldrian could not see well enough with his reddened vision, he could not confirm if Floyd was still breathing. He doubted it.

Just... Just three... Eldrian mumbled as he turned his focus towards the only remaining fighters.No, Terlas!Eldrian shouted internally as he saw Terlas losing grip of his remaining dagger, having lost his right arm some time ago during their fight. Eldrian could only make out that he was about to die as his dagger dropped.

No! Just three!Eldrian shouted towards himself as he willed himself to cast Frost Needle with all his might. Watching in angst the blade of the orc heading for Terlas's chest.