Ark: Volume 3 Chapter 3 - Summary by Bonky

3-3 Jackson Crusade -- Summary by Bonky.

A bunch of monsters flocked to the back gate once again. Under the command of Cross, the Soldiers quickly scuttled about and commenced countless smashing.

Defending the rear gate was certainly not easy. Units consisting of dozens of monsters came to attack the rear gate at regular intervals. Although not as strong as the Sylph Knights, the Guard’s skill was equal to level 80 users. Furthermore, with their accessories, they had pretty good damage. It was enough to take on 1-2 Shadows alone, but there was a problem. Combination attack power in terms of strategy, the difference in ability between the Sylph Knights and the Guard was great.

First, the Guard combination was not as good as user raids. Unlike the raids which evenly blended warriors, archers and wizards, the Guard consisted of only warriors and archers. Because they consisted of similar companions, they stampeded as a crowd swinging their swords. Naturally, regardless of the battle, each results in significant loss of health.

The second problem is they cannot properly recover their health lost. After the battle is over, thanks to first aid and eating food, they regain health. However, before the end of the recovery period, often monster units appeared and they were forced to battle. Long battles take even longer, and while fighting back they cannot recover to 100% health. They were stuck in a vicious cycle. The Guard NPCs only survived thanks to their powerful accessories.

Ark thinks how they survived thanks to their tremendous defense and vitality but realizes it won’t last. The tactics of fighting monsters in an intermingled crowd was akin to suicide that would soon end with them lying on the ground. Ark decides on bravely shielding the Guards and cleaning up the weakened monsters.

Ark took a step back and found 3-4 Shadows with lowered health. However, careful attention was required. NPCs also accumulate experience and level up and with higher achievement, they are upgraded to higher positions. Of course there was a desire for experience and achievement. Fortunately, thanks to high familiarity they did not openly reveal complaints, but seeing low health monsters KSed (kill steal, ???), their eyes looked uncomfortable.

Feeling a crisis of Guard familiarity disappearing, Ark had to abandon his greed. Going through several battles, he started looking for a compromise. When KSing monsters with over 50% health, there was not much reaction from the soldiers. Rather, they often gave him encouragement. With the upper limit becoming clear, Ark began to move more actively.

Ark’s sword like a flash slashed the darkness. The Shadow’s health was already below half, after 3-4 critical hits, they laid curling on the ground. In a frenzy, Ark was flying all over the place sending a flurry of kicks and finishing them off with Dark Blade. He did not have to worry much about health and mana. Fighting until a dying state, backing down only to eat food creates a trustworthy front that puts the Guard’s mind at rest.

Of course he would never act this way when battling with users. After the fight, Ark gains 100 experience in Indomitable Spirit raising it to intermediate level. When damage reaches crisis level, 40% critical rate and 10% resilience/regeneration.

Indomitable Spirit was the first skill Ark learned. Indomitable Spirit was a skill that only activated when he was practically dying. Having gotten stronger, it was rare for him to fall into the dying state so it had stopped growing. Hunting alone, you do not know what might happen so he did not bother raising the skill if it meant risk of dying. However, the situation was different now with the Guard as backup.

Ark is glad Indomitable Spirit is finally intermediate and that this is his chance to raise his skill level as well as raise familiarity on the side. He tells Dedric and Skull they don’t have to fight, just circle around and inform him when soldiers are in a dangerous situation. Whenever soldiers fell into a dying state, Ark ran in front of them and blocked. An evolved version of the Shadows, monsters known as Avengers (???) riding on giant lizards and about to finish off a soldier caught his eye.

Eh... it’s gonna be bare bones from here on out for a while, only reason this post goes up is cuz I don’t like leaving it done midway.

Ark gains achievement for rescuing the soldiers from Avengers. Because of his efforts, the soldiers started looking at Ark with different eyes, allowing him to KS monsters at 40% health without pissing them off. Ark eyes sparkled as he realized what actions a user should take. He feeds them good tasting survival cooking. This works well since the soldiers were only eating dried food for the last few days. It boosted their recovery as well as upped their stats making hunting monsters easier.

Ark then starts repairing all their equipment which is a great help since the repair boxes cost 10 gold each. Thanks to all his actions, Indomitable Spirit levels up quickly and unlocks Adrenaline which gives him +50% immunity to fear and +20% reaction rate. The effect of Adrenaline is really helpful since usually when you fell into a dying state, your senses feel slower. It makes it easier for him to dodge attacks as well as attack 5-6 times faster.

Intermediates Nursing also gives bonuses to the group. To maximize efficiency, Ark occasionally got sub-quests from Raymond. One of them was killing Hiptons which he accomplished easily. 5 hours after meeting up with Raymond, Ark leveled up twice.

Ark gets cold water splashed on him when the soldiers tell him they have to return for the day since the monsters have gone silent for a while and the soldiers need to rest from exhaustion. The problem of fatigue is explained. NPCs concept of time is different since 6 hours for users is 18 for them, in addition, they feel fatigue as reality. Even if their health was recovered by potions, fatigue couldn’t be washed away so easily.

Ark was depressed but couldn’t push them forward. Basically, he was stuck fighting alone for 2 hours after every 6. Monsters attacked in large groups so it would be difficult for Ark to deal with it alone. Ark is trying to figure out what to do since if he stops the gap between him and others will rise. In addition, Snake can’t eat items.

Since Jackson Castle is under martial law, essentials are obtained from the quartermaster but japtem sale is impossible. Ark’s bag was already filled to 80%. Japtems were a dozen copper at best, but as a lump sum they amounted to a few silvers. That wasn’t really the problem though. As Snake gradually weakened, it spat out items. Essentially, Ark is regretting feeding Snake the fruit.

He asked Raymond if there was any way to finish it up but only got a head shake. Raymond’s son Tom then goes and greets Ark. He remembers how pale the boy used to look compared to now. He thanks Ark and explains his father told him that without Ark, he wouldn’t have survived.

Ark’s heart is touched by how healthy Tom looks even though it is just an NPCs formal response. A newspaper article Ark read reveals he couldn’t understand someone who made donations to help other people hid his name for his entire life.

Ark realized that it was because of this feeling, even though it was in game rather than reality. Ark says how Raymond is a better person than he is. Tom says he knows that but Ark is just a great a person. Dedric pities the boy since he doesn’t know Ark’s true nature. Tom then asks Ark to help other injured people. Raymond chastised him since Ark just came back from defending the castle. Ark asks him to continue his story though.

Tom explains that the Dark Fog caused some sort of illness to the residents. Ark decides to go and help since it would be difficult to hunt alone for the remaining 3 hours so he would rather raise his familiarity with people. Raymond apologizes to him. The soldiers guide Ark to the temporary refugees. He sees families with parents suffering and the sad eyes of children. The quality of the scene was too familiar to him.

Even though he knows it is virtual reality, it felt more like reality than some film. A crying child shaking his unconscious parents and parents hold the pale hands of a child while praying. It was like watching his own story from some time ago. When his sick mother didn’t wake up, he prayed. Afraid of losing his mother, he read or recited the bible in the hospital room with closed eyes and sweat. Recalling how on the edge he was, tears started dripping. He decides they aren’t just NPCs, they are living people.

At first he didn’t want to admit he felt sympathy for them. Crying because of a game made him feel like a child. However, the NPCs Ark met removed that idea from him. Definition of life is the ability to think for themselves. Artificial intelligence, man-made or not, they were alive. A child is crying for his grandfather. Ark sits next to the child and takes the grandfather’s hand telling him to gather energy to get over this fear. It is hard but you are not alone in your suffering and pain.

Fully rely on friends and family to get the strength to fight the pain. You are destined to overcome it. These were the words he wanted to say to his mother in the hospital a long time ago. A bright light poured out as a Nursing Miracle succeeded. As long as Dark Fog doesn’t disappear, the refugees will not fully recover, but Ark’s voice is sincere and gives them courage to fight the illness.

The refugees were suffering, but they will become strong enough to temporarily forget it until the Dark Fog disappears. Ark gets a bunch of stat gains as well as 2,000 public achievement. Tom shed tears of pride as he bragged how he knew Ark would help him. Then a voice came out asking about Ark. The person was a woman dressed in a white robe looking at a confused Ark. Tom explains that she is also there to help and her name is Rocco.

Jung Hye Sun, known as Rocco in game was a level 25 Bard. Ark did a face palm. Bards basically suck. Their recovery skills are not as efficient as Fuse (??) some holy job. Fuse also have the ability to fight on their own while Bards have low combat abilities like Merchants. Bards are better than Fuse because their music oriented skills have wide range but it is difficult to solo.

Many people regretted picking the job and ended up paying 200 gold to change jobs. Rocco says she enjoys the job because she was originally interested in music but never had the opportunity to use a wide variety of instruments in the real world.

In reality, she started the game and chose Bard because she wanted to help Ark, but she wasn’t able to say it to him. They talk about her interest in music with Dedric eyeing her suspiciously.

Rocco ends up playing with Dedric and Skull like cute toys. Dedric asks for help from Ark but he ignores him cause of Dedric’s recent cocky attitude. Ark wonders how she managed to get so far though as a Bard. She explains she wants to introduce him to someone she met in Harun Village and will be glad to see him.

Rocco drags him somewhere to the place where a user’s body is sleeping. Cause of the event, when users log out, their bodies go into a state of suspended animation. Ark tries to figure out who he is saying he doesn’t remember seeing him in New World.

The guy is dressed as an American professional wrestler. Ark finally realizes it is detective Gwon Hwa Rang. Surprisingly, JusticeMan reached level 40 within a month. Doing his justice shtick around Harun Village, he leveled to 20 where the surrounding monsters no longer gave exp.

 After he left the village, he realized it was truly a beginner village. Monsters began giving status effects like weaken and bleed. Resistance to those is dependent on agility, intelligence and luck. However, he blindly poured all his stats into strength and stamina. He finally realized he can’t survive alone in New World and calls it complicated even though it’s a game.

 Gwon Hwa Rang starts looking at the game manual. He can’t remember the last time he read a book. He gets annoyed that he is wasting time like this. He then gets inspiration and gathers 10 people at his house. They were pickpockets, smugglers, fixers, etc. They were all former criminals now under the protection of the detective. He forces them to be his game coaches.

 Learning all about the game, he gets constantly criticized by them and they wonder how he even managed to reach level 20 given all the stupid stuff he has been doing. Gwon gets frustrated and just orders units for them. He names them 1401-1410, their probation numbers. They then get dragged into his justice shtick. Even though he was a stranger to games, with 10 people backing him up, he was forced to level faster.

Rocco met JusticeMan at Harun Village. He had saved her countless times. Even though she couldn’t fight, thanks to him, she reached level 25. They found out that they both wanted to meet up with Ark and headed to Jackson Castle.

When the event occurred, they involuntarily participated as militia. JusticeMan, even at level 40 still hadn’t acquired a job. Ark is concerned about this but JusticeMan prioritizes the situation with the castle.

Ark genuinely wanted to help them since Gwon was his benefactor and Jung was like a little sister to him. There were also the ex-criminals all around level 20. After the event began, 8 of them died so far leaving only 1401 and 1405 left.

Ark invites them to participate in the event quest along with him. JusticeMan would like to do that but he has to deal with his family members. Rocco explains that 200 people received the quest and that thanks to JusticeMan’s actions at Harun, he received command of 50 people, which had now dwindled to 20.

Ark doesn’t like the idea of 20 outsiders, but his attachment to Rocco and JusticeMan outweighed that. He asks the king to combine the militia with the Guards. Cross also supports his request which allows it to happen.

Ark was initially worried about it but thanks to the teamwork of the group, even with its average level of 35 managed to take out level 85 monsters. They were all working together efficiently making Ark recall that 80% of men in the Republic of Korea had joined the military. This meant that civilians were almost akin to an army with unimaginable potential in the game. Such an occurrence also happened in Japan where students trounced a yakuza group for their indiscriminate violence. Although they had to exert more effort because of the average level being 35, it still worked great.

Captain Cross praised the militia and the commander for their tactics. He then gives control of the Guards over to JusticeMan. Spartan training occurs. 1401 and 1405 end up as assistants.

The Guards were strengthened thanks to them. Rocco shines in the group battles with a bunch of unique songs. Ark gets excited about the combination of users and NPCs. Ark’s rank in public achievement is 68 with 9,400 points.

Thanks to his meeting with the Sylph Knights from before, he was ranked 127 at the start. Including the 20 militia, the total number of participants in the event quest was around 160. He was pretty high in the rankings. The top 10 is periodically updated every 8 hours.

The users in the current top 10 were all led by Alan, with himself in 1st place at 36,000 points. Using his position, he took lots of public achievement from groups 2 and 3. Ark starts wondering if he can really surpass Alan. He then chastises himself to not be satisfied with this level.