Origin ARS 4 Read Online Free Page A

slave in the quarter. Had they a small army and a way to move rapidly, they might have at least tried. At present there were only three of them who would fight a battle here. The ninja who led them was just a guide after all.
    After spending a few minutes witnessing the horrors of slavery in a fantasy world, Shade had led them to a large tent in the center of the area. Dozens of heavily armed and armored guards were seen throughout the area, only a few of which were human.
    “I should caution you, as a favor to the guild master. The guards here number a minimum of thirty-seven at any given time. Each of them is at least level one hundred twenty and is assumed to have reincarnated at least four times according to their stat distribution. Further, their equipment matches their level on average.” said Shade in a casual, yet still professional, manner.
    Scott had to fight down a hiss of annoyance. Even Rhea would not be able to simply cut them down if that was true. She had managed to reach level twenty-five, like she had thought that she would, but that would only help her go so far. Even her overpowered equipment would not allow for that.
    Unlike monsters, players and playable race locals had powerful mitigating factors that dropped the damage dealt to them by a large margin in order to make player-versus-player events more interesting. Those factors were also in place to keep too many local people from dying from collateral damage when players fought in the streets. Between the levels, stats, and gear of those guards, Rhea would have a severe issue attempting to even survive a fight with one of them in a one-on-one battle. An attempt to fight thirty plus guards of that caliber with their current resources and capacity would be nothing short of suicide.
    Scott had a higher level, thirty-six, but compared to those guards he was a gnat. Rescuing the mermaids through the use of force was not an option. Combat had been considered the final option before, but the truth was that it was no longer even an option. If the power of the guards was taken into consideration, it would be impossible to get the mermaids out while fighting. They did not have legs other than during the nights of the full moon, so they would have to be carried out one-by-one and transported.
    Of course, he might just be thinking that. Rhea might be able to take out the guards. He asked her that very question through party chat. “Rhea, would you be able to take out one of these guards?”
    She replied quickly. “No, not with what I have at the moment. If I had all of my best equipment, put all of my banked ability points into my combat oriented stats, and had the element of surprise...”
    She thought for a moment then continued, “...there might be a small chance that I could at least survive the opening rounds of a fight with one of these guards. I don’t know if I could do enough damage to kill one at this level. Maybe, if I was fifty or sixty... Maybe.”
    “Is the damage mitigation due to level differences the problem?” Every moment could be a teachable moment. Stats were not everything, and equipment could only take someone so far. A monster one hundred levels higher than someone’s current level would be a problem, no matter how many times that person had reincarnated.
    “That’s a large portion of it. If I did damage at all it would be in the single or double digits, even with a sword that negates defense.” she said.
    Scott thought for a moment then said, “It would be like swinging a butter knife at a stone wall, then? It might chip away at the wall, but it is going to take time to see the other side.”
    “Exactly. Though, in this case the stone wall has a blazing bastard sword of exploding death that can deliver five digit damage numbers per swing.” replied Rhea.
    Scott groaned inwardly upon hearing her clarification. He had forgotten that damage mitigation was less effective if you went backwards. The guards were at least three