Dragon X Three Kinds

Did you know? There are three kinds of gamers.

There are those who seek power and efficiency above all else, challenging everything that gets thrown in their way just to push those numbers a little higher, or shave a few precious seconds off the clock.

Then, at the opposite extreme, there are those who live for fun and flair, setting goals for themselves rather than following the progression set by the game. Maybe they just want to collect the coolest outfits, or combo into some flashy move, or recreate a character from a show they've watched.

Finally, there are those who can read between the lines, puzzling out secrets, exploring new frontiers, and seeking to unearth every bit of data they can, whether it's hidden bits of lore or the exact frame data of every single attack in their enemies' movesets.

And Hiroshi? He was a true gamer, in every sense of the word. Every time we had played together, he had never been satisfied until he had reached the top. The best weapons, the flashiest armor, the secrets of the game inside and out – he sought them all, always insatiable for more. The guy was like a living spreadsheet of game data.

And, as I had quickly realized while sitting across from him at a simulated park bench, watching his brows curl into the very picture of disgust as he appraised my stats, SKO hadn't changed his ways in the least.

“As a fellow min-maxer, I understand the temptation to disregard your weaknesses and just go all in on your strengths,” Dairoku sighed wearily, rubbing his temple as if it felt fit to burst. “But you could have at least consulted with me before you went and did... this.”

“That bad, huh?” PureGray – or rather, Gray, as he had requested to be called – asked, munching absentmindedly on the third bag of popcorn he had produced from thin air. He must have expected things would turn out this way, or else he wouldn't have come here prepared for a show.

“It's bad enough that you went and picked Stellar-Caste Elf when their damage output is bottom-tier,” Dairoku grumbled.

“Yeah, but their DEX and MND are both high, so my reaction-assist is near perfect!” Gray shot back defensively. “It makes it super easy to aim, which is all that matters! Elf equals archer, and archer equals Elf!”

This little exchange explained Gray's uncanny foresight, at least; he must have already had to sit through the same lecture himself.

“Ugh. Whatever. At least you can inflict status effects to make up for it,” Dairoku continued, turning his gaze back to me. “But Dragonkin have no such merits. You'd have been better off picking a Human or a Therian.”

“...Why, exactly?”

“You fool! If you let him explain, we'll be here all day!” Gray groaned, feigning despair even as he miraculously produced another bag of popcorn. Was he crafting the damn things?

“Look here. This is the problem.” Dairoku's sudden gesture snapped me back to attention, and my eyes followed his pointing finger down to the bottom of my character sheet. Of the six stats displayed there, two of them were still at their starting values: Mind, governing magic efficiency and range, and Intelligence, governing magic power.

“...Was I supposed to level those up? I mean, I haven't even been able to learn any Skills that use them yet.”

“Precisely. And you won't be able to in the future, either.”

“Wait, what do you mean?”

“Didn't read the small print on the race selection menu, did you? Mm, no, very unwise,” Dairoku clicked his tongue.

“Some Skills can't be learned by certain races,” Gray elaborated between handfuls of popcorn. “Dragonkin --” Munch munch. “– get pretty much the worst of it, since they're totally locked out of learning magic. There's like a whole lore thing about Dragons being incompatible with it.”

“Wait, then why is Willpower so easy to level?”

I'd only spent the very last dregs of my attribute points on the stat in question – governing not just magic resistance, but magic capacity – once I couldn't allocate anything more to Strength, Dexterity, or Vitality, but it had still easily matched the former two and even exceeded the third. Looking at my status window, my max MP already numbered in the hundreds, even at Level 1.

“Because ostensibly, Dragonkin eventually start evolving. That lets them learn moves from Dragon-type enemies by defeating them, which then cost MP to use,” Dairoku rejoined.

“Hm? That sounds pretty strong, though.”

“Well, I say ostensibly, because in practice, most people who pick them switch to a different race long before that ever happens.”

“...But I can still just wait until I evolve, without ever leveling up the stats I don't need,” I pointed out. “That way, I can put all my points into my physical stats instead. That's got to count for something, right?”

“Not enough to compare to a more specialized race, I'm afraid,” Dairoku replied, shaking his head. “Take Gray here. Leaving aside the fact that his race doesn't get enough Strength to be competitive, even if you made it to the same level, his Dexterity would still be almost twice yours. And while your min-maxed physical stats may be able to outstrip what I get as a plain old Human, not specialized in anything, I can just compensate for that gap by using magic. There's just nothing particularly good about Dragonkin that makes up for not being able to use almost half the skills in the game.”

“...Nothing but my MP, that is,” I tried.

“MP which you can't even use until you find and kill a Dragon, which are usually endgame level.” Dairoku shot down my optimism immediately. “Don't get your hopes up. From what I've seen on the forums, even if you do evolve, it's still a crapshoot. The moves you get might be flashy, but they leave you wide open. Even the people who've actually pulled it off already have started posting rant threads about how it wasn't even worth it.”

“Not to mention the magic resistance that your WILL gives you isn't actually that great either.” Now even Gray was joining in on the criticism, despite being the epitome of a casual gamer himself.

“Why not? Defense is defense. How can more of it be bad?”

“I mean, you take less damage when you're hit, sure – but since you can't actually block spells without using magic yourself, you get hit by magic way more often in return. Individually, those hits don't do much, but...”

“...But all that damage adds up over time. Right. Guess I'll just have to get really good at dodging, then.”

“You can still make it work, though!” Gray tried reassuring me. “You've just got to find a support mage who can block those pesky magic attacks for you. Dragonkin might be average at best when it comes to everything else, but at least your high VIT and WILL make you great as a tank!”

“Oh... uh... A tank?” I asked, giving a nervous laugh. Dairoku facepalmed.

“...You built for nothing but DPS again, didn't you?”

“...Yeah.”

“Okay, fine. It's still fine. Surely we can still fix this somehow. Let me just see your Skills.”

I nodded, and brought up the menu.

[Swordsman 1] [Detection 1] [Skirmisher 1]

[3/5 Skill Slots Used]

Dairoku gave a groan like he'd just been shot, his hand dragging slowly down his face. Gray spawned yet another bag of popcorn and started drinking it.

“Forget I said anything, nothing about this is fine! Thrown weapons? Really? You might as well just run up and punch your enemies!”

“Wait, that works?”

“Of course not! I mean, I guess it does do a paltry amount of fixed damage relative to your Strength score but – Argh, that's not the issue here!”

“...Then what is? You kinda lost me.”

“Your abysmal Skill choices, obviously! Swords are fine, but [Skirmisher] is the most inaccurate and lowest damage ranged option in the entire game. And [Detection] is only useful if you also have [Disarm] to deal with traps, or a gathering Skill to collect the resources it locates – not to mention Gray already has it at a higher level anyway!”

“Plus Kei couldn't use most types of resources even if he got them, since most of the crafting skills scale with INT or MIND,” Gray added.

“Well that's fine, isn't it?” I protested. “I mean, I wasn't really interested in crafting to begin with.”

“You'll change your tune when you get charged an arm and a leg for your gear at every turn because you can't create or upgrade anything yourself,” Dairoku chided. “Crafting's an essential part of the game. But it's only been out for a week, and tons of new players are joining every day, which means almost nobody has leveled their skills enough to meet demand yet. Armor, weapons... Hell, even health potions are in short supply.”

“...Huh. Maybe I should have taken those Phantom guys up on their offer, then,” I muttered. Not that I was actually considering it, but still, free items were free items.

“Oh, don't tell me...” Dairoku seemed to recognize the name, as his palm quickly reunited with his forehead.

“They found you before we did, huh?” I nodded, and Gray gave a knowing smile. “They were already at it by the time I started, too. Those guys are notorious for camping right outside the tutorial zone and snatching up people as soon as they get into the game. They must have figured you'd be clueless enough to listen to them since you picked such an unpopular race.”

“So it was a scam, then?” I asked. Not that I really needed the confirmation, but...

“More or less,” Dairoku confirmed. “They are the biggest Guild in Althea right now, but they're not exactly well-liked. From what I've heard on the forums, the whole organization is just a giant pyramid scheme.”

“They offer all sorts of gear and items to new players, but then make them hand over most of their loot and quest rewards in exchange.” Gray shrugged, shaking the last dregs of his popcorn out of yet another crumpled bag, before stacking it atop the rapidly forming pyramid of similar garbage in front of him. “Rather than 'Silver Knights,' they're more like a black company.”

“Or the Yakuza,” Dairoku scoffed.

“Great. Guess I should stay away from dark alleyways now that I've gone and refused their generous offer, then,” I muttered.

“I wouldn't worry about it.” Gray waved my worries off. “I mean, if they actually saw your Skills, they'd probably thank you for refusing. No offense, but you're not really worth scamming.”

“Well then, at least there's some upside to all this.” I returned his cheeky grin in kind, but Dairoku only sighed at both of us. Undeterred by his lack of enthusiasm, I continued.

“Besides, not like I have to worry about not being able to afford gear when I've got you two looking out for me, right?”

Another, heavier sigh – then a bag of gold appeared on the table.

“Don't spend it all in one place,” Dairoku chided. “You're not getting more.”

“What are you, my mom?”

“You could at least say thank you, you know.”

“Thanks, mom.”

“Oh, shut up! Take it before I change my mind.”

Gray also seemed to be searching his inventory for something, but as he gave a disappointed sigh and began cleaning up his virtual trash, I quickly realized it wasn't a gift he'd been looking for.

He had finally run out of popcorn.