Second Life: Welcome to Gaia

Chapter 44: Power of Faith

The 10 foot tall (3.048 meters) Giant Red Crab emerged from the sand, moving his pincers from one side to the other, with bubbles coming out of its mouth. Probably, if he wasn't underwater, he would have roared.

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[Giant Red Crab] (Chieftan)

Description: A Red Crab that suffered mutation and grows much more than the normal Red Crabs.

Level: 5

HP: 1,000

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The five players entered position to attack. Ye Yan and Ashardalon were in front of the boss, while My Girl was not far behind them because most of the healing skills he knows, need direct contact to be used.

Hello Kitty keeps a good distance from the Giant Red Crab to cast her spells from a safe place. And Harpy stayed in half the distance of Hell Kitty because the passive skills that every archer in the coastal region needs to learn, [Wet Shot], enable her to shot her arrows underwater but the ranged distanced is halved.

It is impossible to archers to use their shooting skills underwater without the Wet Shot skill because of the water's tensile strength. This is also the reason that the attack speed of all the weapons is halved, as well as the movement speed of players, except for those with race traits that enable them to use their full speed underwater.

The Giant Red Crab is a boss of a low-level mini-dungeon created mainly for novice players, and because of this, he is very weak, even in the hard mode version of the dungeon.

When they just entered the water, the system asked them to chose the difficulty of the dungeon and as the hard mode was the only one that they wouldn't waste too much experience compared with the other options, they chose it.

The monster outside of this dungeon gives the same experience as the one in normal mode, but the monsters in this dungeon are weak, so they don't give much experience, and the hardy mode is the only difficulty mode in which the monsters can be compared to level 6 monsters.

For them, that are elite players, a normal monster at level 5 or 6 is a waste of time now that they know many skills. For them, killing these monsters is like killing cockroaches with a slipper. They are agile but one hit usually is enough to kill them.

The boss has more defense than its normal version, making them a little more hard to kill, but it is like a cockroach too. It just has a little more health points and defense.

Ashardalon started the battle like a shield hero, hitting the monster with his shield as if he was using a hammer. He uses a two-hand large Bronze Shield to battle and normally doesn't use a sword and shield as normal tank players.

When the Giant Red Crab attacks him, Ashardalon uses his shield to defend himself and counterattack soon after with it.

As it is a low-level monster, they didn't wait for the tank to stabilize the agro and everyone started to attack at the same time.

Ye Yan is using his fan to hit the target but the boss's shell is very hard and Ye Yan's weapon is a slashing weapon that can be used as a thin shield. Weapons like hammers and axes are better for this kind of monster with a hard shell. Ye Yan can only do a good amount of damage when he hit the Giant Red Crab eyes, but this crab is the type that has its eyes close to the body and keeps his pincers next to it, making it impossible to hit the region.

The boss only attacks with his two pincers or using bubbles. [Bubbles] is a water property spell that mages and some races can use. In the water, water property spells and skills gain bonus damage and some characteristics that only appear in the water. The bubbles can stagger players, pushing them away and this ability becomes more powerful inside water.

Ye Yan and the other started attacking the boss and it took only one minute to defeat him. It was a very easy battle for them.

After only 12 minutes after they entered the dungeon, they have already cleared off the first area and killed the first boss, completing half of the dungeon.

As the Waterbreathing Pill enables players to breathe underwater for 3 hours, one single pill can help them do many dungeon runs. They not only are getting more experience with their fast runs but are saving money too.

People can't breathe underwater, that's a fact, and this didn't change in Second life or the simulations created by CyberTech previously. The fact they can't breathe underwater in the game is not only because of the limitation of the game but, mainly, because of the limitations of the human mind. The belief the humans have in this does not allow people to do that in the game.

In a lucid dream, if a person wants to fly, they would have difficulty doing so, because people are half-conscious and their beliefs and notions would interfere. In the game, it is the same. But when they eat the waterbreath Pill, it is different. The players are in the game and they know the pill is an item that can enable them to breathe underwater. The faith the players have that the pill will work as it says, makes it possible for them to breathe underwater.

The power of faith is an incredible thing that can do what would be impossible otherwise. It can even make people heal or make people ill.

If someone is not feeling well psychologically, the body of this person will show signs that something is wrong. They will believe that is sick. Stress is an example of how the mind can influence the body, it can cause stomachache, heart problems, ulcers, and many other problems that humans don't even know yet. That's why the Tradicional Chinese Medicine (TCM), when treating people, think in the whole scenery, not only in the specific things. The body, mind, and environment are important in the treatment.

If a person believes that he or she is not well, he will not be well. This is the power of faith. This can bring problems to the body but also can help people.

The power of faith can heal. You can see cure by faith in many cultures. it is seeing easily in aboriginal cultures. The shamans or healer works to cure people in rituals that unite medicine and religion, scientific knowledge and faith. But it is not the only one, but normally people have more difficulty in the Christian religion to think of it can be not only because of superior power but because of the power of the faith they have.

People have faith that some medicine will work, and many times it really works, even if the medicine is fake. The belief that they will be cured, makes many people really be cured. It is seen more easily in cases related to pain, depression, sleep problems, and some other cases. This is called the placebo effect in medicine.

Traditional Chinese Medicine, as well as many medications used in others cultures, is effective. Not all, but many are. But sadly, many times people ignore it, thinking that western medicine is better. The prejudice about any other type of medicine caused the world as a whole to lose so much that we will never know the exact extent of it.

Some scientists research these lost medicines. Some research about Mexican aborigines shows that before the Europeans arrived in America, the natives knew more than two thousand medicinal plants, could do surgeries, treat bone fractures, and had obstetrics techniques more advanced than the European in 1400. The natives could even cure serious illnesses, such as syphilis[1].

So much knowledge was lost in History.

When players eat the waterbreath pill, they believe that it will be effective but the effect can change from person to person. Some people will feel discomfort, others will feel the same as in dry land, and there are people that can't breathe underwater even after eating the pill because their minds tell them they simply can't breathe underwater. Everything in the game depends on the ability of the person's mind to adapt.

After using the teleportation arrays so many times, Ye Yan's mind got used to it and he doesn't feel dizzy anymore. But there are players that, even after using it more times than Ye Yan, have yet to adapt.

Many things in the game will be a challenge for the players' minds, mainly after level 20, when they will encounter more situations that will test the limits of their minds.

Some abilities and skills can be influenced by the players' minds. The spells or skills that enable players to fly will be one of the more challenges for the players to learn. Even knowing that they can fly in the game, the players will have a hard time trying to leave the ground and fly in the sky. Their normal thinking will prove to be an obstacle they have to surpass to do many things in the game, or they will be unable to use many powerful skills or spells that can help them defeat their enemies.

The power of faith will be tested time and time again while the players are living in the game.

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[1] Research carried out in Mexico, led by Professor Dr. Rafael Valdez Aguiar, doctor of medicine and history at the School of Medicine of the Universidad Autnoma de Sinaloa (UAS).