Chapter 26: Dispute
Editor: Atlas Studios
The monsters in the dungeon gave quite a lot of EXP. The Three Gerov Camp's Human Thieves each gave 300 EXP.
After Level 10, the leveling EXP requirements were raised to a level of (N+1)*300. This also meant that if Fatty were to level up from Level 12 to Level 13, the EXP needed was 3,900…
The EXP given by the Human Thieves, after a 15% bonus from the full party, was a total of 345 EXP. After evenly dividing this, each player could obtain 69 EXP, which was much higher than the EXP obtained by killing monsters of the same level on the wilderness map.
After killing the three Human Thieves, everyone in the party obtained 200 EXP. Furthermore, they even dropped a Level 12 Light Armor Blueprint.
Every member of the party was very excited. The dungeon had just started and the blueprint had dropped, which was a good start.
Upon entering the dungeon party, Smoking With Fire had chosen the party contribution allocation mode. According to the so-called party contribution allocation mode, after each party member completed their own work, they could obtain the corresponding Party Contribution Points. When they collected the items dropped by the monsters in the dungeon, the system would automatically price the items. This pricing did not refer to money but to Party Contribution Points. Then, the party members could choose to consume Party Contribution Points equal to the item and 'purchase' the item.
For example, they had just managed to obtain this Armor Blueprint. After the system priced it at 5 Party Contribution Points, this would automatically be displayed to the players according to their level of contribution in the current party. The player with the most Party Contribution Points could get priority. If they didn't want it, then the system would rotate and allow the player with the second-highest Party Contribution Points to choose until the item was finally bought.
If nobody wanted it in the first round, the system would enter the second and third round. If nobody wanted it after three rounds, the party leader would freely allocate it.
It was very easy to obtain Party Contribution Points. They could be obtained by dealing damage to monsters, healing party members, drawing monsters, control, special buff status, and so on. Although the official specific calculation method had not been disclosed, as long as a player understood their own place in the party and did their duty well, they could obtain the Party Contribution Points, which was very convenient.
This allocation method was adopted by many parties who were formed last minute, as it was fair to every party member. Of course, besides the Party Contribution Points, there was also the free allocation mode. Such a method was usually used when guild members entered the dungeon in which the Guild Master or party leader would perform the allocation. Since they were from the same guild, they would have their own internal evaluation criteria.
Fatty's party had initially adopted the party contribution mode, but there was a problem there. The system gave the party leader an additional 20 Party Contribution Points!
Such an addition was nothing usually. After all, commanding was not easy. These additional 20 Party Contribution Points were reasonable and fair.
However, this was under the condition that the party leader had commanded the team effectively!
Therefore, when Smoking With Fire wanted to start the item allocation excitedly, Fatty made a suggestion.
"Wait a minute!" he shouted in the party channel. "This allocation is unreasonable!"
Everyone looked at Fatty in surprise. Smoking With Fire responded furiously, "Why is it unreasonable? This is the system's party contribution allocation. Do you think that the method of the system is unreasonable?"
"I didn't say that!" Fatty contended on strong grounds. "Let me talk about the problem with the contribution points obtained! As the party leader, what reasonable commands did you give? What right do you have to get these additional 20 Party Contribution Points?"
Fatty could see that Smoking With Fire really wanted this blueprint. As the party leader, his current contribution was the highest among the party. In other words, Smoking With Fire would be given priority. Fatty was sure that he would immediately put away the Light Armor Blueprint in his backpack!
They were a party that had formed last minute, so the party contribution allocation mode had been adopted. Thus, there was another rule that most of the players complied with, which was that they definitely wouldn't fight over purchasing the equipment of other classes that they didn't need! Unless nobody wanted the equipment, no one would say a word if they wanted to purchase it. However, if a player wanted to purchase the equipment of other classes before the first round of the allocation ended, that player would deserve to be cursed!
In fact, this Light Armor Blueprint was most suitable for the Thief Class. Theoretically, the other players should modestly decline it so that Thief Crayon Knife could purchase the blueprint. However, Smoking With Fire's intention was very obvious. He wanted to fish up as many items of the party as possible as the one with the highest Party Contribution Points in the party. Fatty even suspected that, as a Dark Mage, he hadn't focused on healing his party members. Instead, he had been fighting over the damage output with them. Hadn't he done this for the sake of fighting over the Party Contribution Points?
Once this question had been brought up by Fatty, the other party members immediately looked at Smoking Without Fire skeptically. They recalled that, without Fatty's reminder, Death Knight Bookworm would not have been healed!
This dungeon had just started, so there was not much danger in encountering three Human Thieves. However, what would they do when they tried to kill the boss monster later on?
Upon seeing everyone's skeptical gazes, Smoking With Fire secretly hated this. When Fatty had shouted on the party channel earlier, it had infuriated him. Now, he had actually thwarted him and made a suggestion regarding the item allocation. How could he not be furious?
Thus, he replied coldly, "I'm the one who formed the party, so I'll naturally be the party leader. The system was the one that gave me an additional 20 Party Contribution Points, not me!"
"Alright then!" Fatty immediately added, "I won't look into this. However, based on the rules, you can't join the rotational auction this time. The others can't either. This is a Light Armor Blueprint so it should be purchased by Crayon Knife!"
Besides Smoking Without Fire, the others couldn't help but nod their heads, feeling that what Fatty had said made sense. Meanwhile, Crayon Knife looked at Fatty gratefully.
Despite being furious, Smoking With Fire couldn't do anything about this. He had originally wanted this Light Armor Blueprint. After all, among the equipment of other classes that was on the market, Clothing Blueprints were the costliest. This was mainly because clothes added more armor points and evidently increased defense. At first, he had been thinking of obtaining this blueprint as the one with the highest Party Contribution Points and selling it for a good price. However, Fatty had said this in front of the other party members, so he couldn't refuse.
In the end, Crayon Knife spent 5 Contribution Points to purchase the blueprint and put it into his backpack.
"Will this do?" Smoking With Fire looked at Fatty with a cold smile and said, "If you have nothing else to say, we'll continue clearing the dungeon!"
"Wait a moment!" As if he hadn't caused Smoking With Fire enough trouble, Fatty slowly said, "I won't talk about the item allocation. We should talk about the problem with the commanding authority, though! I want to ask whether you are confident to get us through the dungeon. In other words… Do you know how to command?"
Upon seeing that the two of them were involved in a dispute, the other three players all looked at each other, not knowing what to do.
"What do you mean by that?" Smoking With Fire finally blew up. He stood up and said, "If I don't know how to command, don't tell me you do?"
"I don't!" Fatty said. He didn't know how indeed because when he'd entered the dungeon in the past, he had never commanded a team as the party leader. However, he had observed, right? His previous Level 87 Berserker had cleared dungeons with many other parties and encountered a lot of famous players in the game who had commanded parties. Even by looking, he still knew what was needed to command.
However, in front of Smoking With Fire, Fatty didn't want to take over the commanding authority. He had seen clearly that there was a problem with this party as a whole. The Chaotic Era was different from other games that were pretending to be free. In those games, as long as the players spent money and obtained a full body of high-quality equipment, they could clear the dungeons alone. The players in front of him had probably trained by playing those free games. When they faced the Chaotic Era, which required high abilities, their usual tactics couldn't be put to use.
He now had no hope that this party could clear the dungeon. He only wanted a relatively fair contribution point allocation and hoped to familiarize himself with the ways of the dungeon before he thought of other ways, went out, found a better party, and cleared the dungeon again.
"Since you don't know, why are you saying all this?" Smoking with Fire couldn't help but smile coldly upon hearing Fatty's answer.
"It's very simple!" In front of the controller, Fatty blinked and said without restraint, "Since nobody knows, you shouldn't get these additional 20 points as the leader. When you allocate items in the future, you have to subtract these points accordingly. Then, everyone will report their own contribution points. If anyone has more contribution points, you have to give up your priority for them to choose first!"
-- Gift
received