Leaning back in his restaurant chair, Ben was really getting into playing his Switch.
Especially controlling the prince of the underworld in the game, dashing around and then attacking, it looked really cool.
Even though he often couldn't see where his character was.
But with the sound effects of the hits, and how the monsters reacted to being hit, it made him feel really strong.
"That lightning symbol, that must be Zeus, right?"
After the monsters in the room had all been defeated, Ben thought about the symbol he had seen outside the room earlier.
After all, in Greek myths, Zeus is known for lightning, and he couldn't think of anyone else it could be.
Ben walked up and activated it, and the prince of the underworld in the game looked surprised.
'Is that really him? Okay, in Hades' name! Mount Olympus! I've received this message.'
With a flash of lightning, an old man holding lightning appeared.
'Hello, young man! Listen, your father has always been difficult, and he's cut ties with us for a while now. But if you come to Mount Olympus, you'll have a warmer home! Your family here will help you on your journey, accept my blessing.'
Listening to Zeus' words, Ben understood things a bit better, and he had some guesses about the story.
The prince of the underworld, in his teenage years, wants to leave home but his old father won't let him, so his relatives on Mount Olympus have come to help?
But based on his experience so far, Ben also had a feeling that this game wasn't really a story-focused game, or at least not one where the story was the most important thing.
All kinds of blessings given by the gods of Olympus, combined to create a series of bonus effects, just like adding gems or equipment in an online game, making your prince stronger – that must be how the game is played.
"So, I'm basically invincible now? Zeus! The head of all the gods of Olympus! I'm invincible, invincible!" Ben laughed happily.
Getting Zeus' favor right at the start, wouldn't that make him unstoppable?
Of course, it was also possible that this was part of the game's design, where all players get Zeus at the beginning, just to give them a good feeling in the game.
Then they bring you back to reality later; that kind of thing happens too.
"Let me see, Lightning Dash, Lightning Shot, and Lightning Attack, these match three different ways of attacking."
Ben quickly understood. Lightning Attack meant that his normal attacks would have lightning, while Lightning Shot was a throwing skill where the prince of the underworld threw a ruby.
As for Lightning Dash, that was surprising to Ben, because he had always thought dashing in the game was just for dodging, but now it seemed like it could be used as an attack as well?
Ben didn't think too much about it and chose Lightning Attack.
After all, he only had one ruby to throw, and he had already tried it out earlier. It would stick to the monster, and he would have to wait for it to fall off or for the monster to die, and then walk over to pick it up, which wasn't very useful.
Compared to the unreliable dash, he thought his normal attacks were more reliable.
After making his choice, Ben entered the next room, but it wasn't a blessing room; it was a room with a key symbol.
In the room were many monsters that looked like skulls. Ben controlled the prince of the underworld, swinging his greatsword to hit the skulls.
Golden lightning came from the greatsword and bounced between the monsters.
"Damn, this is crazy! I'm invincible, invincible in group battles! The more enemies there are, the more damage I do!" Ben said, looking surprised.
Because he saw that when the sword hit a monster, in addition to the regular damage, there was also 10 points of extra electric damage.
And that electric damage would splash onto other monsters, so in theory, if he hit two monsters, the extra damage would be 20, and if he hit 10, wouldn't it be 100?
How could that not be invincible?
Feeling excited, Ben experimented a bit, and he basically had a general understanding of how the game worked.
The rooms in the game were mainly of a few types: rooms where you get blessings, rooms where you collect items, rooms with something like a pomegranate that could enhance your blessings, rooms with a centaur heart that could increase your health, and shops where you could buy things with gold.
Also, there were only a few types of monsters on the first level.
Witches that shot from far away, skulls that could charge at you, skull piles that could create a never-ending stream of skulls, chubby guys that could charge, and strong guys with spiked clubs that would charge up to hit you.
The game also had a system where some monsters would have golden armor, and before the armor was broken, their actions couldn't be interrupted by normal attacks, basically being in a super-armor state.
Also, things like pillars in the game could be destroyed, and could damage enemies.
But more importantly, the ground was full of all kinds of traps: traps that would shoot spikes out of the ground, pots that would automatically explode, and mechanisms that would shoot bullets when you stepped on them.
Also, some rooms with skull symbols would have stronger monsters, like monsters with full golden armor or elite monsters.
Ben ate a centaur heart, and his health went from 75/75 to 115/75.
Of the 60 points of health he lost, half was from monsters and half was from stepping on traps.
Facing a group of monsters, Ben grabbed the controller and mashed the buttons, and since you could attack while dashing, it felt very smooth.
But as he was fighting, he accidentally walked onto a trap. After repeating that a few times, his health went down. He did go into an item room in the middle, but he didn't have enough gold to buy food to heal.
"I stepped on too many traps earlier, my health isn't good!" Before even seeing the boss, Ben was defeated by two monsters that jumped around and threw bombs.
Golden armor, combined with throwing bombs, getting hit by a bomb would take away ten points of health, and after you defeated the monster, it would explode? That's just unfair.
He lost his last bit of health to the damage from the monster exploding.
But even though he died, Ben didn't feel too frustrated, because fighting was really fun.
Returning to the hall of the underworld, Ben saw Hades in the game. He was very muscular and sitting at a table doing work. Next to him was a three-headed dog from hell. At the door to the room was Nyx, the goddess of the night, and according to the dialogue, she was the one who helped contact the gods of Olympus.
The dialogue between the prince of the underworld and Hades in the game was also very interesting. They argued and were sarcastic with each other.
But what surprised Ben was that he could make the levels in the game more favorable by decorating them, adding things like springs.
There was also a mirror in the room that could increase his stats.
"So, I can grind here! This is a little interesting."
He upgraded a skill called Death Outlast, which would let him revive once after dying in the game.
He also spent some dark crystals to allow himself to dash one more time in the game.
In addition, he used a key to unlock a new weapon, a bow and arrow.
There was also a weapon that looked like a spear and shield next to it, but he didn't have enough keys, so he could only unlock the bow and arrow.
"This time I'll definitely see the boss!" Ben said confidently as he came to the gates of hell again.
(End of chapter)
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