[Loading Complete. Touch!]
[Welcome to Pick Me Up!]
I logged in to the game again after breakfast the next morning.
A new view in the lobby immediately welcomed me.
There were a lot more people practicing in the Training Ground this time.
My promising 1-stars, Jonah and Shanny, as well as Trudy and some of the new 1-star heroes I pulled last night.
I checked their status window out of curiosity and I was surprised by what I found.
Trudy and a couple of the other new 1-stars had developed level 1 in Basic Swordsmanship.
It was a breakthrough for Trudy that had not been progressing as fast as Jonah and Shanny. But I was also impressed by the development of the new heroes.
The guides mentioned that heroes' progression was also affected by their training partners and instructors.
Appointing instructors with high skill proficiency would expedite heroes' skills development in the Training Ground, naturally.
But if you just had heroes with a combat skill of certain proficiency practicing in a Training Ground, then it would be easier for other heroes training in that same facility to develop the same skill, albeit only to the point of a level lower.
We had Shanny with level 2 in Basic Swordsmanship. Her presence must be affecting this rapid progress in swordsmanship learning.
Considering Jonah's skill proficiency, we would probably obtain other heroes developing spearmanship skills as well.
This mechanism made it as if the skilled heroes were imparting their knowledge to the less-skilled heroes. As if they were actually interacting and learning from each other.
The progression system in Pick Me Up was well-thought and well-made.
Its programming on the heroes' AIs was so detailed and intricate.
I almost felt that these were real people being displayed in my phone screen.
What a game.
No wonder Pick Me Up was so popular.
Even just observing the heroes doing activities in the lobby was so entertaining.
I spent a good forty minutes just watching my heroes training and working in the lobby's facilities.
There were posts in the official forum saying some players had abandoned their tower climb and focused on managing heroes and decorating their lobby.
It was just that much fun watching these heroes.
I bet it would be more fun to watch if there were more heroes in the lobby.
It was time for me to increase my force anyway.
I would be able to scout for talents properly if I had a large pool of heroes to observe on.
[Master, starting 10-consecutive Regular Summoning!]
[I'm excited to see what heroes will appear!]
[DRRRRRR…]
[Boom!]
[Common!]
[Master 'S1GYN' has obtained hero 'Winna (★)'!]
[Common!]
[Master 'S1GYN' has obtained hero 'Tarran (★)'!]
[Common!]
[Master 'S1GYN' has obtained hero 'Larson (★)'!]
[Common!]
[Master 'S1GYN' has obtained hero 'Finnick (★)'!]
[Common!]
[Master 'S1GYN' has….!]
Another total 1-star pull.
It was alright.
There should be someone talented in this batch of heroes.
I also better started doing my summoning at the beginning of my session. That way I would give my new heroes more time to settle in the lobby before I needed to use them.
And speaking of using my heroes, I better test out the ones I summoned yesterday.
Serafina and the crafters had made more weapons for the other heroes.
They were only D-rank equipment, but they should be strong enough to challenge the first floor.
[Would you like to remove 'Trudy (★)' from 'Party 1'?]
[Yes (selected)/ No]
I wanted Shanny to get closer to level 3.
So we should start the grind with her first.
This would also be a good chance to pair her with the new heroes and see which one stood out.
Let's start with the ones that were training with her in the Training Ground.
[Adding 'Don (★)', 'Gerson (★)', 'Fritz (★)', and 'Cale (★)' to 'Party 1'?]
[Yes (selected)/ No]
Two of these new heroes had developed a swordsmanship skill.
So it would be best that I pay attention to them in the upcoming battle.
[Do you wish to challenge the 1st Floor of the Main Dungeon?]
[Yes (selected)/ No]
[Which party will you deploy?]
['Party 1' -(selected)-]
[Opening the rift of space and time!]
The loading screen of the lobby came up.
It showed my summoned heroes preparing for battle.
['Gerson (★)' has equipped the 'Hardened Iron Sword (D+)'.]
['Gerson (★)' has equipped the 'Hardened Wooden Shield (D+)'.]
['Cale (★)' has equipped the 'Reinforced Long Spear (D)'.]
['Fritz (★)' has equipped the 'Hardened Iron Sword (D+)'.]
['Fritz (★)' has equipped the 'Hardened Wooden Shield (D+)'.]
['Don (★)' has equipped the 'Hardened Iron Sword (D+)'.]
['Don (★)' has equipped the 'Hardened Wooden Shield (D+)'.]
Shanny already had her weapons equipped since yesterday.
So the other heroes had to grab themselves the new lower-grade equipment made by the crafters.
[Main Dungeon, the current challenge floor is the 1st Floor.]
[The doors will open after ten seconds. Get ready!]
We still got rewarded with few crafting materials by retrying the tower stages. But they were far from enough.
Our resources were about to be depleted soon and we would not be able to make more weapons.
Perhaps it was about time we climb to the next floor and obtain more rewards.
I would do that later after lunch.
Right now I wanted to check out my new heroes.
[Floor 1]
[Mission Type – Subjugation]
[Objective – Annihilate the enemies!]
Alright, my party emerged on the battlefield facing the same four scrawny goblins.
['Cale (★)' has fallen into the state of fear. All stats decreased by 30%!]
['Don (★)' has fallen into the state of fear. All stats decreased by 30%!]
Only two out of five heroes got debuffed. None abandoned their weapons and run away.
A good improvement from my 1-stars.
I also noticed that the ones that were not scared were those that had developed combat skills.
It was logical that heroes would not feel afraid if they knew they could protect themselves.
The battle then went as straightforward as I thought it would be.
Shanny and the new 1-star Gerson and Fritz each took on a goblin.
They killed their enemies without taking a single wound. And Shanny, as expected, did it in a brief time as well.
Meanwhile the two heroes that got scared took on the fourth goblin together.
They were not wounded in the battle. But it still took quite a while for them to kill the enemy.
[Stage Clear!]
['Gerson (★)', 'Fritz (★)' levelled up!]
[MVP – 'Shanny (★)']
[Reward – 1000G]
No luck with the bonus crafting material reward.
But it was still a productive outing.
I also noticed something from the battle earlier.
Heroes used different strategies depending on the party composition.
The AIs seemed to know how to divide amongst themselves, distributing manpower equally to handle the enemies.
It was an interesting find.
The guides and the official forum touched on this topic in the early game sections.
Heroes managed the combat strategies by themselves.
They decided what was the best course of action to tackle the situation at hand.
The smarter the heroes, the more advanced and effective the strategies that they carried out.
Naturally, the higher-ranked heroes possessed the more developed intelligence to conduct the advanced strategies.
Loki stated that you would need advanced heroes in boss stages not just for their power, but for their improved strategic intelligence as well.
Missions in the boss stages often had complex objectives that basic 1-star heroes, apparently, would not even know what they meant, let alone how to achieve them.
The higher-ranked heroes, on the other hand, had advanced AIs that could comprehend the mission's objectives and plan out an effective strategy to accomplish them.
That was why it was recommended to appoint advanced heroes as party leaders, since they were the ones that would give out commands the most in battle.
Heroes' AI would improve as they gained experience, level up, and got promoted to higher star-ranking. So having experienced heroes would also serve as suitable alternative.
Knowing this, I wondered just how smart these AIs really were.
The battles in Pick Me Up were fully automated.
There was no involvement from the player whatsoever so far.
I had been mulling to construct that special facility that would allow me to command heroes in battle.
My heroes might need my help on the fifth floor.
But I also wanted to test the heroes' AI in this game.
Loki and many players in the official forum often pointed out the depths of the heroes' AI.
It was also one of the things that drew me to play Pick Me Up.
The fifth floor shall answer my curiosity.
But first, we needed to climb further. And before we could climb further, I needed to prepare my climbing force.
[Would you like to remove 'Shanny (★)', 'Don (★)', 'Gerson (★)', 'Fritz (★)', and 'Cale (★)' from 'Party 1'?]
[Yes (selected)/ No]
[Adding 'Trudy (★)', 'Ulrich (★)', 'Opal (★)', 'Reiss (★)', and 'Pablo (★)' to 'Party 1'?]
[Yes (selected)/ No]
The others in Trudy's party had not developed any combat skill.
But Trudy already had one.
This party composition might provide enough challenge for her to improve like Jonah and Shanny.
[Do you wish to challenge the 1st Floor of the Main Dungeon?]
[Yes (selected)/ No]
[Which party will you deploy?]
['Party 1' -(selected)-]
[Opening the rift of space and time!]
I had been obtaining many information so far.
My hero force was expanding and some units had been showing some potential.
It would be hard to keep track of all of these information in my head.
I must start building a journal of my account, just like what I did with Warmonger.
A document where I kept track of my progress, strategies, and development plans.
For Warmonger, I used such journal to record unit statistics and war strats, including changes that came with update patches.
I recorded so many things from the game that it turned to be a large book thicker than a dictionary.
And from my experience with Pick Me Up so far, I knew I would be building the same kind of journal again.
Then after this battle, I better log off and get myself a notebook to start and—
[Ding!]
Hm?
The stage loading process got cancelled.
Ugh, not again!
['Ulrich (★)' refused to participate!]
['Opal (★)' refused to participate!]
['Reiss (★)' refused to participate!]
['Pablo (★)' refused to participate!]
Haa…
Another batch of useless trash.
The developers should just get rid of this feature.
What else was I supposed to do with heroes that did not want to go to battle?
Sacrifice was the only thing to do with them.
[Would you like to start synthesis?]
[Yes (selected)/ No]
[Choose the target for synthesis.]
[Synthesis Target - 'Trudy (★)']
Yeah. I would let Trudy receive the experience this time.
It was a reward for her developing the combat skill.
And she was really slow to level up too, so might as well speed that process up.
[Drag and drop the heroes you want to sacrifice to be synthesized.]
[Heroes who are sacrificed will die.]
[Synthesis Material - 'Ulrich (★)', 'Opal (★)', 'Reiss (★)', 'Pablo (★)']
[Will you proceed with the synthesis?]
[Yes (selected)/ No]
[Master, the synthesis is starting.]
Four heroes at once.
Trudy just levelled up last time. It would take a lot of experience points to level her up again.
[Synthesis Complete!]
['Ulrich (★)' has become light and disappeared!]
['Opal (★)' has become light and disappeared!]
['Reiss (★)' has become light and disappeared!]
['Pablo (★)' has become light and disappeared!]
['Trudy (★)' levelled up!]
Trudy did not obtain an additional skill like Jonah with his Composure.
And she only levelled up once too.
Those 1-star heroes were so useless that they barely worth enough experience points.
Okay then.
Let's wrap things up here for now.
I wanted to record everything that I learned so far before we climbed further.
[Master, do you want to log out?]
[Yes (selected)/ No]
[Then goodbye!]