149 A new skill.

"It can take years to upgrade a skill by 1 rank, let alone whether they can train one to the limit of the game."

"In fact, over time, I have realised that such a thing is almost impossible."

"At first, you must meticulously develop these skills and lose most of them when you play as your character's descendants."

"But as long as you have reached a certain skill level once in your entire career as a player, it becomes easy to get there again."

"This is why, in the later game, characters can ascend to the master rank at 20 years old or even sometimes younger as players quickly raise their new characters to their old characters' skill level."

"It is hard enough to become a master, let alone a grandmaster or even the rank rumoured to be above it, something that has been lost in the ravages of time and only lives on in ancient levels and myths."

"The divine rank."

"A skill level so great it can even make gods wary."

Reginald Coulan, creator and head of House Aurellion in Dynasties Online.

….

'It failed as expected.'

'It was a stupid endeavour in the first place to try to exploit the starting kits and use players with next to no experience in either medieval warfare or use of medieval weaponry to challenge an entire kingdom without first building up your power.'

Railius thought to himself as he sat at a restaurant, absentmindedly poking at a large slice of gammon with his fork, something he usually does when in deep thought while eating as, unfortunately, his brain did not have anything resembling a turn switch, enjoying the closest thing he could get to a roast dinner in Dynasties Online which cost a pretty penny though someone with Railius' wealth did not have to worry about the cost of meals like this.

The young 18-year-old lord was reflecting on the Stator Rebellion and the many implications it would have for the players, not that it would affect him that much as he blended in well with the NPCs thanks to his background as a noble, for even fallen ones can have access to a good education and with the fame and resources of his house it would not be abnormal for him to be able to read, write and do numbers compared to a commoner such as a farmer or a miner who would have no easy way of getting such education.

Actually, he did it so well that even players would have trouble identifying him as a player. He seemed to take to his position as a noble in the game quite naturally for someone from a more upper-working-class to lower-middle-class background in real life and not used to being waited on hand and foot. Only those who knew Reginald in real life could see the apparent traces and eccentric personality traits that screamed out his real-life identity.

The game system could not just suddenly make players stupider or lower their intelligence and ability to read. It is also meant to be a VRMMMORPG, focussing on the latter part of the word. At the end of the day, Dynasties Online was a role-playing game, so if NPCs figure out your identity as a God's Favoured, you can only blame yourself for your own carelessness.

For example, a player with a commoner background and no formal education who suddenly can read and write is just asking to be found out because there is no logical explanation for his sudden literary ability. Even the greatest geniuses need to be taught or practice something extensively for their talent to blossom properly, and situations like these will quickly be picked up by the NPCs who have been notified about the players who, to them, are 'Gods Favoured.'

It is just unfortunate that some players decided to rebel for seemingly no reason except their ambition to become wealthy and powerful, which had now put all the NPC nations on guard against them after seeing how they can seamlessly work together even when it makes little sense for them to do so and when they should be enemies really shook the entire world of Dynasties Online as Oovere made the information they found out known to the other countries within DO who have all began to monitor the players a lot more closely than before.

There were two reasons why no country, even Oovere, which had suffered a recent rebellion because of them, did not hunt down or seek to exterminate the Gods Favoured.

The first was that just because some of the gods favoured rebelled for no reason and wanted to take over a kingdom for their own greed did not mean that all of them wanted to or would rebel without any justification.

After all, not everyone wants to manage a large estate or kingdom and deal with all the competing interests and wars that are the bread and butter of medieval politics. It also did not help that the consequences for failing were so dire as one wrong step in the political arena could lead to you and your noble house being exterminated like House Aurellion almost was whether the charges levied against you were true or not. 

In addition, just like how one cannot judge an entire group of people or a region based on the actions of a few violent extremists, you cannot judge that all Gods Favoured would be like the rebellious goblins, especially after they heard about what happened when they heard what happened to those who did so in Oovere.

The second was because there was no guarantee that the leader of every nation would join in the gods' favoured extermination and instead decide to use these gods' favoured talents, intelligence, and education to increase their workforce of literate, skilled people.

This would allow these countries that accepted the players and suddenly had an intake of educated people to rise to power quickly, as many countries had in the past. All it took was one or two nations to accept gods favoured for them in their millions to flock to those countries for refuge, happily turning and fighting against those who viciously persecuted them out of fear for what they could do in the future. 

As with all things in politics, you need a justification to do something like a rebellion or an invasion unless you want to be condemned by the international community, and even then, if you lose, you need to be ready to pay the price for your actions. Unfortunately for the players, not only was their ambition revealed to the NPCs of DO, but worse, their rebellion had failed with little justification and would affect the perception of all players in the eyes of the NPCs, who in the early game have a massive advantage over the players.

If the players had grievances, the NPCs of other kingdoms and even some within Oovere may have sympathised with them. However, just like people do not sympathise with tyrants, they would not sympathise with the rebellious players who did not have a great cause, like overthrowing or resisting a tyrant for the good of the people, to legitimise their rebellion.

An example would be if a player lord got their noble title and lands revoked without being imprisoned, then it is likely that, unless there was no chance of victory, they would fight for their rights to rule over that land as any noble would do.

The main reason, apart from House Aurellion's honourable nature and loyalty to the Chavarian Empire that they did not contest Lucius Aurellion's false treason charge or try to resist the emperor apart from escaping Chavaria after their lord's untimely death was because they did not have the military power to contest the emperor and his imperial army especially with the minister of war support who would stop most of Railius old subordinates from supporting House Aurellion not that many would support a 10-year-old lord in the first place. 

Because of this, the martial noble house had no choice but to escape the country and go into exile, forever being hunted by the assassins of the Chavarian imperial family who had falsely accused them.

Either way, the lack of a justification for rebellion and the relative newness of the gods favoured made it so that now, without realising Stator trying to exploit the game had made it harder for players to gain positions of influence and power than before and making the NPCs watch them far more than they did before.

"My Lord, what has gotten you so deep in thought? You're not just trying to delay your training, are you? It's not like this would be your first time trying to pull something like this off."

"You do know that I grew up with you and have seen every trick you have, right?"

"You should know by now that training and increasing your quite frankly pitiful personal combat ability is a priority, or the moment someone breaks through our guard, you will die in a matter of seconds."

Jordis said in a reprimanding voice, interrupting Railius' train of thought, who jumped, sighing slightly when he saw his lazy lord, who had been training so diligently, return to his slothful ways.

How the gods could create such a talented, lazy man was beyond Jordis' comprehension! All this talent would be wasted because the person who has it can't be bothered to train himself properly!

For the last few weeks, the two had been training constantly under the watchful gaze of Aldorus, who helped both to make progress, with Railius no longer being the complete beginner he was before after a few weeks of daily training. While he was still not at the intermediate level, he was far better than he was when fighting in Leon's tournament and, with his active skills, would be able to defend himself against most bandits, as many did not have formal training.

This was because Railius had little to do now that Kaila was around to manage his business for him. His other subordinates were dealing with the expansion of his noble house's military power, which left Railius with little to do now that the overall situation was under control. 

Because of this and knowing Railius too well, as he had grown up serving by his side, the loyal bodyguard assumed that Railius was using his lunch as an excuse not to train. He had often used this excuse, especially when Leon tried to train him against his will, doing all he could to delay training with the Grandmaster of Loyalty, who was only looking out for him in the long run.

Now that it was his and Aldorus's job to train, he could understand his father's frustration. The only thing that Jordis didn't have to deal with was the constant childish antics and escape attempts Railius made as, until this meal, their legendarily lazy lord had actually gotten off his ass to train properly for once.

It seemed that the helplessness and life-and-death situation with the bandits that could have so easily taken his life had motivated him to be more diligent in his training, as he was making good progress. Jordis did wonder why he suddenly seemed to be worse than before, not knowing that most of the time he had been with Railius was with the AI controlling him, not the person himself, who is far worse at fighting.

The only thing the AI tried to do was emulate Railius's personality as much as possible, using the data from the Dynasty History System to make a somewhat accurate representation of him.

There was also one more thing that Railius gained over the past month or so of training.

A new skill.

[The Archery (Beginner) skill has been acquired]

Before leaving the Duchy of Detaror, Railius had picked up a short bow to practice with as it did not have the stringent requirements of his customised one, which he could hardly draw, so alongside a few hours of training with Jordis and Aldorus, the shooting carriage was back and now that his hands did not shake whenever he drew his new bow his accuracy increased slowly until finally one week after starting his practice he finally opened the archery skill though if he was expecting a significant change from getting it he would be disappointed.

However, as he increased his physical strength and skill with the bow, he would slowly master his mighty customised weapon as he brought up the skill after opening up his character sheet.

….

Archery (Beginner) (Passive):

Description: The art of archery can be found in even the oldest documents in the DO world. It is the most common ranged skill across the globe, as bows are much easier to make and cheaper to make than crossbows and firearms, despite the latter two being easier to use. A bow's rate of fire and long range make it much more powerful if in the hands of a capable user, and its ease of use on horseback has kept the weapon relevant and widely used by all.

A master archer could fire an arrow every 5 seconds or so, quickly firing and killing their enemy much quicker than an experienced crossbowman or musketeer, even able to pierce the strongest armour at a similar distance if the archer's strength was high enough.

The only drawback is that the training needed to produce excellent archers is far higher than that of crossbowmen and musketeers.

Effect: You can use bows with some familiarity and fire accurately at a short distance, though you still need luck to hit a moving target.

….

Railius sighed again, recalling his conversation with the Friend System when he first received this new skill.

'Wait, what the hell is this?! Why is there no damage increase like there is for swordsmanship?!'

'Also, why did it take so long to open the skill only for it to be next to useless!'

Railius shouted in his mind angrily when he first received the skill, calling on the friend system for an explanation, who was quick to respond as the sadistic system always was when it had anything to do with Railius, who had long caught his interest with his unique way of thinking.

"Skills in Dynasties Online indicate a certain level of mastery in one subject or another, so it will take a lot of time to accumulate initially as you slowly master them. You may also find that thanks to how realistic DO is, your abilities in the real world will also increase to a certain extent, though any special effects from skills will not be replicated in the real world."

"A beginner is only slightly better than someone who has just picked up a bow for the first time. Did you really think that you could master the bow after a few weeks of training? Even in the modern world, it takes months to train a soldier properly, and that is considering that a gun is easier to use than a bow in combat!"

"Being a beginner just means that hitting something is not completely luck. It takes many years of practice to master something, which is why you humans learn to read and write from a young age."

"Just be thankful that you are still relatively young in real life, which means you can still learn and pick up things quickly."

"And before you ask, the damage increase will begin to appear once you upgrade the skill."

The Friend System lectured in Railius' head after he felt that he had been scammed despite spending weeks diligently training. 

That was the explanation given to Railius, who then realised that if he didn't want to fall and lose his power and influence in the game, then he would have to forever grind his skills to the highest rank he could get them, but it also had consequences for his three loyal friends.

Railius can sometimes be exceedingly petty and grudge-bearing, based on the logic that if I'm going down, you're going down with me! Many times when playing games, if he sees that he is losing, he will go scorched earth, making those who offended him in the game pay a terrible price. He also does this if he is bored in a game, as unlike DO, it does not affect real life in the slightest, so he does not have to worry about real-world consequences for his actions except perhaps a few broken friendships if a particular game of monopoly got too heated.

This also applied to training, as he felt that if he had to suffer and train, then so too must his loyal friends. Even in negotiations, he was willing to destroy both himself and his opponent if not given an out making him a very dangerous opponent.

Nothing is more dangerous than a cornered lion, which is why generals usually leave a route for enemy soldiers to run away to so that they can flee and be cut down by their cavalry. Otherwise, if soldiers see no hope of survival, they will fight to the death, lowering the winning general's military power further than would otherwise be necessary.

Being the perfect embodiment of 'A Lannister always pays his debts.'

Whether it's good or bad, whether it takes one year or ten, the debt will always be paid.

In gold or blood. 

This led to Railius getting his friends' bows, forcing them to train with him so that he was not the only one embarrassing himself. Apart from getting revenge on them for their comments, he also did it because learning how to use a ranged weapon could serve them well in the future.

As deadly as the Pelican Guard was, it had no long-ranged capability, and it only had access to throwing weapons, making it one of the best close combat units in the game but leaving it with a weakness that Railius would need to account for in the future considering it was his only military asset currently.

But the officers were different, and just like Norfaelor and Jordis chose to use weapons they preferred over those traditionally amongst the Pelican Guard, Railius hoped they could all learn to use the bow. It would make them much more versatile, allowing them to use their ranged skills to support each other over long distances, which may one day save not only Railius' but their own lives as well. 

"My lord!"

Jordis shouted worriedly as he saw his lord's eyes glaze over slightly once again, something that usually only happened when he had something on his mind.

"Don't worry yourself so much. I'm just thinking a few things over. We will go back to training in half an hour or so. If I eat too quickly, I'll just throw it all up, so I'll have to eat again and waste even more time."

"Patience, nothing good ever comes from rushing something."

Railius said casually, taking a deep breath as he relaxed in the sun. Brushing off his friend's worry, he grabbed his knife and began to dig into what remained of his roast dinner, making sure to eat the vegetables first, as they were the healthy part of it.

Nutrition and body health were just as important in Dynasties Online as they were in real life. The healthier your diet, the stronger your physical attributes. It will also prevent you from developing character traits such as fat, which can severely dampen someone's combat abilities. 

As the decedent of a general and martial noble house and because of his own slowly blossoming ambitions, Railius knew that he would have to trudge through the bloody battlefield again and again, which would be much safer if he could move without needing a carriage to carry him. He already planned to join one of the DO's nations' armies once he had ensured the business he was up was running smoothly and he had improved his combat skills slightly.

Having a balanced diet was just one of his preparations, as it would help his physical attributes grow, which is the foundation of someone's combat power. Though through his constant training, he was doing one thing that he had avoided for a long time in the real world but could not in the virtual one due to his exceedingly lazy nature.

Exercise.

He rarely did it in the real world, preferring to stay inside. Even though he enjoyed certain sports, the most predominant one being football or soccer, as the Americans call it, he never really made the friends needed to really get into it or cared enough about watching the sport, preferring to spend his time doing other things.

Jordis continued to look at Railius, still concerned at what was so important that it put the eccentric lord of Aurellion into deep thought when Kalia came over looking rather exhausted from her many duties as, unlike Railius, she could not spend her days lazing around.

"Ah, Kalia, how did the negotiations go?"

Railius asked, knowing that his company's new manager had spent the whole morning negotiating and preparing goods for their next trip. They would spend a few months trading around Nathia before travelling around internationally.

"Well, we have managed to sell most of the stuff we have brought from the capital for a hefty profit of around 1,500 gold."

Kalia sighed deeply as she sat down at the table and ordered a roast dinner like Railius.

"Good. It's nice to see you taking to your role so well. Now I have something I want to discuss with you."

Railius said, his gaze and voice turning serious, showing the matter was important as he was not as carefree or casual as he usually was when interacting with people.

"Do you want to learn how to defend yourself properly?"