Guild Wars-Novel



289 stat points, and the basic class started with 7 points, one in each field. This accounted for more than 99% of the player base. Only 1% would managed to luck into a Hidden Class, which was why it had been so revered. 

Don't forget, before this whole Class Up bullshit, Hidden Classes were what set the elites apart from the norm. Draco's Semi-Epic Avenger Class had played a huge part in him becoming a powerhouse at Rank 6, and so had Eva's Semi-Epic Shadow Assassin Class. 

Despite being so powerful, Hidden Classes also started with the same amount of points. It was just that - if you remember - one needed to allocate their points in a certain way to receive a Hidden Class. 

And even then, there was the whole <Optimal> thing where if you allocated it further in a specific way, you could get a Class with no limits on skills and spells. However, you needed one extra stat point from any source, in this timeline Draco's had been Richmond's potion. 

Now you could see why the Classed Up Epic and above classes were so broken, apart from their skills. 

Epic Classes started with 105 stat points at Level 10, nearly doubling the stat points those normal class chumps had. 

Legendary Classes had starting stats that totaled between 160 minimum to 210 maximum, depending on the quality of the class itself. 

Divine Classes had starting stats that totaled 490 points! 

GOD IN HEAVEN! 

Actually wait, that was wrong. 

EVA IN HEAVEN! 

How were normal fellows supposed to compete?! A Divine Class's starting point was far higher than what a normal fellow could ever go in his entire life. 

However, the only consolation was the fact that unless external factors were added, both type of players would gain the same amount of stats throughout the various Ranks regardless of their Class' Rank. 

So, at the end of your career, at Rank 7 level 400, a normal bloke would have 296 stats total split between 7 fields in order of their class's advantages. 

An Epic class would have 394 stats total. A Legendary class would have 449 points minimum and 499 maximum. A Divine Class would have 779 points in total! 

An Epic class and Legendary class might look close, but there were other factors that separated them. However, they were not relevant to the subject matter which was the value of stats. 

Further along that line, let's compare player stats with NPC stats. 

NPCs did not have a Rank 0, so they start from Rank 1, level 1 straight up. Where players only earned 5 points during their first 10 levels before they got a class, NPCs earned 5 points per level for the entire Rank 1! 

That's right, 50 levels of 5 points in stats! 

Even crazier was that NPCs did not start from 1 in all stats like players, NPCs starting stats varied based on their quality and power. The base was 10 points in all stats and the highest Draco had seen was Hikari with 100 points in all stats. 

So NPCs started with a minimum of 70 points unlike players who started with 7. A direct gap of times 10! 

And even with this, if a player managed to kill an NPC of the same level, there would be no loot drops as well as 50% less experience. 

What the fuck! 

And 50 levels times 5 was 250 points! 

In crossing Rank 1, an NPC would earn almost as much as a player would their entire lifetime! 

In crossing Rank 1, an NPC earned more stats than a Legendary Class would start with, despite having random classes! 

Now do you understand why the Rank 7s and various NPCs looked down on player despite them being undying? Now you understand why the Rank 7s confidently rushed to attack Draco and Umbra despite knowing his excellence? 

They were Rank 7, so they definitely had more stats than that, while they also had powerful skills. It might not be to the tier of Epic and above classes, but higher stats even with weaker skills would yield better results. 

Rank 2 saw them earn 3 points per level, which amounted to another 150 stat points. 

Christ, so by the time they reached the end of Rank 2, they would have surpassed Epic Classes' total earnings with just two Ranks! 

Rank 3 saw them gain 1 point per level, which was much better since things were finally slowing down. That was naturally 50 points at the end of it all which was quite potent since it made 450 points earned so far. 

Almost as much as a Divine Class starting point and around the cap of a Legendary class that was of lower quality. 

Rank 4 saw them earn 1 point every other level, so 25 points. Rank 5 saw them earn 1 point every 3 levels, so 16 points here. 

Rank 6 was 1 point every 5 levels which was 10 points plus 1 from the previous Rank, so 11. 

The final Rank 7 was 1 point every 7 levels so a total of 14 points. 

So in total, an NPC gained 516 points from Rank 1 to Rank 7. If they started at 10 in all stats, that was a total of 586! 

So it meant that even the most common Rank 7 NPC would have higher stats than a player with a Legendary Class of the same level! 

HOLY SHIT! 

This was a bombshell! 

Of course, once again, it was not so simple, but this was not the time for that. Also, NPCs had one fatal weakness with their stats that severely limited their power and was why even normal players could beat them. 

They could not allocate their stats! Their stats were auto-distributed by the system passively, and while it did give priority to their favored stats, that was it, just priority. 

They did not have status screens though they did have inventories, but theirs were much smaller than players and limited by Rank. 

So they could not even check their stats! They could only vaguely tell by feeling out their power. 

Well, not counting Umbra and their bullshit, the AI was always balanced in what it did. Players were discouraged from attacking NPCs through penalties to experience and loot, and NPCs were given protection from the immortal fellows by having higher stats. 

However to prevent NPCs from descending on players and stifling their growth, their stats were allocated randomly and they also gained nothing from killing players. 

Now why was all this mentioned? Let's get back to the Evil Trio. 

Now let's take away the class passives and focus on the raw stats of their Semi-Eternal classes. The starting stats were 200 points in each field, making a total of 1400 points total. 

… 

Christ on a bike, they had just started over at Level 1 and yet they were already far ahead of anybody in existence in terms of total stats, even Rank 7 blokes! 

Given that they earned the same stats as any player, that was a total of 1689. 

Meh, not that exciting. 289 points earned over 7 Ranks was kinda banal at this level. 

But at least, this finally gave a clear idea on the value of stats across different levels, Ranks and parties. Theoretically at Rank 1, Draco, Eva and Shuangtian could already beat all Rank 7's to death. 

But as Boundless stated, it was not a game about accumulating stats to beat opponents, but by clever usage of skills, equipment, items and techniques to win. 

Of course, this mechanic was meant for Same Rank/level players and NPCs, not for weaklings to beat up their superiors. After all, the gap in terms of stats between Rank 4 and 5 for example, was just 16 points. 

So a Rank 4 with better talent could beat a Rank 5 average bloke? Rubbish! 

What kind of balancing was that? What was the point of becoming stronger if my junior could beat my ass? 

Hence, the suppression mechanic. This made it such that stats difference between Ranks was irrelevant. Just one tier of Rank Suppression was enough to completely cripple a Rank 4 entity in the face of a Rank 5 entity, no matter how strong. 

And then there was Level Suppression which worked along those lines, but was even worse. Every 5 levels of difference was a 5% reduction in stats. 

A peak Rank 5 at level 250 versus an entry level Rank for at level 150 would mean a full 99% reduction to all stats. Yet, the fellow was only suffering one tier of Rank Suppression. 

This was what set the gap between the Ranks and decided the power hierarchy of Boundless World. Using the stats catalog we just saw, one could understand how the Combat Ranks system worked perfectly. 

It also highlighted a serious problem that Draco and Eva had noticed for a while now. 

When they were fighting the Kraken, they went directly to using their bloodline rather than use their classes. An in fact, even the core members did so, using their classes to attack, then resorting to their bloodlines which were 100x more effective. 

This should not be the case. Even if the Kraken suppressed them by 3 Ranks of Suppression and 99% stat reduction, it should make no difference. 

Take AP_Berzerker for example. His Divine class, God of War, granted him 400% increase to Strength, Endurance and Dexterity as well as Intelligence and Spirit when he was at Rank 4. 

AP started with 120 Str, 90 Dex, 120 End and 70 Int and Spr. 

So, assuming we did not factor in his stat point allocations, AP would have 1.2 Str, 0.9 Dex, 1.2 End and 0.7 Int and Spr after suffering 99% stat reduction in that fight. 

Brutal, right? The cruel thing about this was that the higher your stats, the more insane the reduction. 

However, AP had a skill that increased his stats by 4 times. Now the question was, did the skill increase happen before the Level Suppression or after? 

If it was before, then he would have 480 Str, 360 Dex, 480 End and 280 Int and Spr before being suppresed. If it was after his suppresed stats would turn into 4.8 Str, 3.6 Dex, 4.8 End and 2.8 Int and Spr, though he would ultimately end up with the same stats either way. 

So how the fuck was it that Draco, Eva and Shuangtian had a skill that boosted their stats by 1,200 times at Rank 3 and stats at 250 in each field, but couldn't oneshot a Rank 7? 

Mind you, doing the maths, either way it was handled - regardless of before or after - they should have 3,000 points in all stats. 

3,000 points was definitely enough to punch a Rank 7 fellow to death, even if we added Rank Suppression which reduced damage by 90% and increased defense by 90%. 

At this juncture, Eva and Shaungtian's eyes narrowed as the calculations passed through their minds in a flash after seeing their status screens after leveling up. 

Theoretically, they shouldn't have needed to have Rank Suppression removed for this event. They didn't even need the Umbra title to loosen the Level Suppression on them. 

So then the final question was, what did the AI package the entire thing like it was doing them a favor? And also, why was it that they had been suppressed earlier? 

Previously, they needed to use skills to bring out their power like when they flattened the Mages Association and Merchant Guild. They used their special Inner Star/Moon/Planet skill which dealt like 10,000% damage at least while also have Divine traits due to the merger. 

So even if they had 1.2 points in Intelligence, it would have still flattened those Rank 7's, much less with 3000 points. 

Something wasn't right! 

There was foul play! 

Just as Eva was about to cause trouble, Shuangtian's face changed. She held Eva's shoulder then focused for a while, and her expression became weird after processing whatever it was. 

"Errm… The AI cannot directly speak to players due to the rules, but it spoke 'out loud' on a special digital frequency I can read thanks to my Digital Branch. It basically said that stats above 1000 points were useless and hard to represent due to limited power provided by Earth's energy generation methods." 

Shuangtian paused and said this next part with an expression of interest as she glanced at Draco. "It said that if we can find some proper energy for it, like the Origin Energy that the Primordials possess, it can increase its scope of power." 

Draco, who was still face first in the dirt, suddenly popped his head out with an expression of excitement. 

"Did some one say rob?!"