《Sanity Online》 Prologue Here I was, rushing home, the game of my dreams, or at least i hoped so, in a small bag swaying by my side as I walked. It wasn¡¯t the first VRMMO, but from what little had been released about it, it was the first to offer any degree of real freedom. I was holding myself back from either sprinting home or skipping along like a little child, trying to maintain an image of your average calm college student, though by the other people rushing around me, I didn¡¯t really have to hold myself to any sort of image. The line had been ridiculous, as the download speed required for the few hundred terabytes on the small chip containing it completely prevented any chance of downloading it in time for the launch time tonight. In this day and age, storage and processing power had vastly oustripped download speeds, what with the oligopoly of telecoms having only ended within the last decade, finally pushed into the realm of utilities by the government. Even with that, speeds over a Gigabit per second were practically nonexistent. I ended my musings on the odd state of technology as I turned off into my small apartment complex, a short walk from the megastore I¡¯d just left, and prayed to the gods that I wouldn¡¯t have to deal with such a rabid crowd within the visible future. I skipped up the stairs to my place, no longer restraining myself now that I¡¯d largely escaped the public eye, and my neighbors already used to my antics. I quickly went into my room, plugging in the life changing, or more likely just game changing chip into my small DreamTek headset. The latest models of VR used hypnotic induction to induce a REM state, which somehow or another manages to match your dream to the game, making everything feel just a bit ethereal, but very realistic aside from that odd feeling. After making sure the headset was syncing up to the marvelous chip, I went out to take a shower, grab a bite to eat, then brush my teeth after, as I wasn¡¯t likely to remember later. One egg and tomato sandwich and freshened breath later, I popped on my headset to go trawl the forums for any interesting news. Sanity Online, a game by the mysterious company Lost Dreams. Lost Dreams had come out of nowhere, releasing a simple demo, and nothing before that, but it had thrown the internet into madness. It wasn¡¯t the detail, or the sensations, games had nailed those to perfection years ago, it was the people. For once, they actually seemed¡­. Alive. Games before had come up with pretty decent AI, but it wasn¡¯t anything more than an advanced form of cleverbot with a quests built into them. The people in this village demo however had acted true to life. Nobody knew how they¡¯d done it, the most popular opinion being that they had been the first to create true AI, self aware, conscious and sapient. Unfortunately, the forums had no additional info for me, just large amounts of baseless speculation, until I stumbled upon a video that was rapidly gaining traction. It was an announcement from the head of Lost Dreams, giving a simple rundown, and had released just a few minutes earlier, yet already in the millions of views.This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there. ¡°Hello dreamers, soon we will welcome you to the world of Sanity Online. We know you¡¯re all excited for the midnight launch, as are we. First, I will announce some things, there will be no classes, no skills, nothing but your own power and ingenuity. There will be stats, you will get faster and stronger, but any skills you gain will be your own, true skills, not ones built into a system you follow. We know that many of you may react negatively, but we do believe you will come to love our world, as it is not just a game you will be entering. Welcome to our world, may your stay be exciting.¡± I was lost for a moment. No skills? No classes? What the hell am I supposed to do then? My combat ability in most games had been built around using the skills, timing them, and outsmarting my opponents about when to use what. My close combat wasn¡¯t great, and while I know the best players had always relied on actual combat skills rather than just using the ones built into the system, I was a long way away from that level of ability. I shrugged. I was still excited for this game, and news like that wasn¡¯t going to stop me from playing it, it would just slow my growth. I was still confident I¡¯d be a lot better off than most of the people I knew. Quite a few of my old guildmates had relied purely on abilities or pure stats, not bothering to even dodge when it was possible. Welp, looks like I¡¯m going to have to get up to par quickly. I dug around the forums until it hit 7:50. I was quite a way behind the timezone of Lost Dreams, so I was hopping on for character creation in the 10 minutes before launch time. I loaded it up, and everything went black. Slowly, light started to appear from no visible source, and I could see myself in the mirror. Well, it would be myself, if it looked anything like me. I chuckled, amused as always at how they¡¯d set a default avatar for everyone. It was androgynous, utterly plain, and a few inches taller than my 5¡¯11¡± frame. I quickly messed with all the options appearing on the edge of the mirror, transforming the selfless avatar into something that sort of, but not quite, resembled me. Black hair, Light brown eyes, pale skin, and probably a bit skinnier than healthy. I¡¯d tried to put on weight before, but it never seemed to happen, no matter how much I put in, I got nothing out of it except an unhappy stomach. Height as always I kept the same, it¡¯s horribly awkward trying to move in a body too tall or too short, you tend to misjudge everything by a few inches, which causes a lot of trouble when fighting, or even just walking around. After a moment''s thought, I turned my hair white, and my eyes purple, in honor of a favorite fictional character of mine from some old novels I¡¯d binge read some time ago. Finally, I glared at the rectangle where I was to input my name. I¡¯d always had trouble picking one, and i wasn¡¯t sure what to choose this time around either. After a few minutes deliberation, I finally decided on rayth, clicked accept, and then waited for it all to start. Chapter 1: slow beginnings The game didn¡¯t begin with any sort of special fanfare, it just didn¡¯t exist one second and the next it did. Without warning I was there, and not expecting it I just fell, knocking the breath out of me. I groaned then got up. I found it odd we didn¡¯t get to choose our starting city at first, but figured it was probably to prevent any overcrowding in an particular place. ¡°Goddamnit, stupid start for this goddamn game. They could at least start us in a sitting or lying position but nooooo¡± Looking around while grumbling, I got some vindictive pleasure out of the fact that a good majority of people were in the same situation as me, figuring plenty of people in the other spawn points were probably just as annoyed as I. Feeling slightly better, but still glaring at the few guys and girls who standing, I got my first good look around. We were in some sort of massive temple, with three exits. As we were slowly looking around, a wizened old man in a dark brown robe and holding what had to be a magic staff stepped forward on what seemed to be a stage and began an announcement. ¡°Welcome travelers, to our world. It has been foretold that you would come to us. The human race is in a perilous position, and you are foretold to save us from the other. We will help guide any willing, but we shall not support those who will not work in the great endeavor to save our race, nor will we hold your hands. Now everyone willing to learn to fight should head to the left exit, where you may gain instruction from our honored armsmaster, or you may head to the right if you would like to learn the time honored ability of magic. For those who believe themselves to be above learning, you may head out the middle for your adventure to begin, though you will not gain the aid the others shall. Lastly for those who wish to serve the great goddess Aleria, and channel her goodness to help the sick or injured, you may remain here¡±. The surrounding players seemed a bit confused. You could learn magic? Healing? But there¡¯s no skills? People milled about in confusion, but I and what looked like a good amount of others were starting to realize that the game devs weren¡¯t truly going to leave us out to dry when it came to ¡°skills¡±, but we were going to have to learn the hard way. People slowly started trickling out, and I decided to join them, heading to the right, as I wasn¡¯t planning whatsoever to get into any sort of close combat without skills backing me up. As I stepped outside to what looked to be a large sandy circle, with target dummies opposite us, a large man, suspiciously so for someone who was supposed to teach us magic, patiently waited for everyone who was going to join us, then began an talking in a booming voice. ¡°Hello travelers, and welcome to Ederheim, my name is Olaf, and I will be your magic instructor for the day. First thing, I would like everyone to say or think the words status¡±. With his announcement I shook my head. It should have been the first thing I did, but I quickly though ¡®status¡¯ and the most simplistic status screen I¡¯ve ever seen popped up before me.
Name Rayth
Level 1
str 1 Grimoire
agi 1 Recipes
wis 1 ???
end 1 ???
vit 1 ???
Deciding to focus on the things I don¡¯t recognize, my finger strays up and clicks on grimoire.
Grimoire
Stores all spell patterns you have learned
Quickly switching from that not so helpful blurb, I switch over to the recipes Unauthorized content usage: if you discover this narrative on Amazon, report the violation.
Recipes
Alchemy
Metalcrafting
Tailoring
Woodworking
My attention was quickly brought back by the large man clapping his hands. ¡°Now that you¡¯ve seen your basic stats, we¡¯ll start with the lesson. To start with, I would like everyone to focus a little below their navel, you should feel a form of energy stored there, that is your mana¡± Focusing where the man told me to, I am immediately wondering why I didn¡¯t notice this earlier. It¡¯s a very prominent and completely different feeling, in a way I could only describe as feeling full of lightning. The big man waited patiently for a few minutes to let us process the feeling and get used to it before continuing. ¡°Spells in our land work through patterns. To make any spell at all, you¡¯ll need to draw the mana through your body, and use it to make a spell pattern in front of you. Once you release the pattern the spell will fire. For example.¡± Olaf quickly starts writing a glowing pattern in front of him with his finger, a simple cross pattern with a line diagonally through the top left lines. He then steps back, and we watch as the pattern seems to fold inwardly on itself and becomes a mostly translucent bolt of energy that screams down the field and demolishes one of the targets. I¡¯m left breathless, totally excited to be able to do that. Soon. ¡°Now that I¡¯ve shown you the basics, I¡¯ll have everyone line up and start trying to do it on their own. If anyone is having trouble, you can come to me. Make sure to keep some space between each other for when the patterns are made incorrectly, they can have somewhat explosive results.¡± I didn¡¯t miss the ¡°when¡± in that statement, and made sure to pick an area with very few people. I then focused on the energy, and tried to draw it to my hand, and failed horribly. Not one to give up, I continued over and over, and on my 32nd attempt I was able to do it! Feeling the energy in my hand, I opened my Grimoire
Grimoire
Stores all spell patterns you have learned
Spell Name Mana cost
Force Bolt 2
Luckily for me, selecting it made a handy little guide float in the air in front of me, so I simply followed that, and promptly exploded. I slowly got back up, dusting myself off from the couple of meters I had rolled, and decided that the best option would be to try again. This time at least, it was barely any trouble for me to drag the energy out of my hand, and opened the spell guide again. This time I was very, very careful drawing out the pattern. (It may have taken me well over a minute for three lines) Then I simply stopped holding the mana in place, and down the field my¡­ puny little force bolt¡­. went, not even close to the screaming terror that the instructor had made. It even had the audacity to whiff right between two targets, making me realize I hadn¡¯t bothered aiming it in the first place. I promptly tried again, this time completing the rune in less than a minute... probably. This time, before letting go of the spell pattern, I tried to figure out how to aim it. After a few minutes of trying to puzzle it out to no avail, I walked up to the instructor, doing my best to dodge the errant explosion from those trying to make the spell pattern too quickly. ¡°Um Olaf sir? I was wondering how to aim the spell?¡± My innocent question was responded to with an ear shattering response ¡°Oh, seems I was remiss in my education. Everyone! To aim the spell bolt, or any spell in general, just put a small dot of mana in the direction you¡¯d like the pattern to go, the spell will collapse toward the excess mana.¡± Quickly thanking him, I retreated back to my corner of the field and realized that the spell bolt I had put there was gone, even though I¡¯d not released it. Shrugging at my lack of knowledge, I drew up another pattern and put a small dot of mana in the direction of my target. I released the spell, and the bolt collapsed inward towards the dot, and still missed, flying around 5 feet to the right. Not dissuaded, I decided to do what every gamer knows to do, grind. 5 spells in, I realized a problem, I was out of mana, and had only hit the target once. I decided to sit down and rest for a bit. I quickly looked at my stats page and thought wisdom at it, it popped up my mana regen, at .1 mana/second.
Wisdom: +10% spell damage, 0.1 mana/second regen (Out of combat), 0.05 mana/second Regen (In combat)
Quickly deciding to look at all the other stats, they were all very similar, strength adding 10% melee damage, endurance adding .1 stamina regen/s and 10 stamina/level, getting boosted to .5 stamina/sec when out of combat, and agility adding 2% speed, whatever that meant. One thing was clear though, gear was going to be VERY important. One point of damage increase with a stat at 100 would be an 11 point difference, and I doubted the gear would increase by such small increments. After going through the stats I noticed my mana was back at full, and cast another 5 bolts slightly quicker than last time. For a few hours I simply repeated the actions. After 50 or so I managed to hit the target reliably, and around 100 I started to not use the guide from my grimoire, and only blew myself up a handful of times! Once I finally felt comfortable with my only spell, I looked around at the empty training ground, and decided to start the game. With the time dilation factor of 4 hours inside the game to an hour outside, I still had plenty of time to game before heading off to sleep. On my way out of the field, the instructor was standing there, his booming voice not quite so loud for once as he called out to me. ¡°Wait there for a moment young one, don¡¯t forget your staff and pack. They¡¯re nothing fancy, but we give them out to every person who would fight against the enemy. And some advice, learn to properly loot your kills, none of that goddess stuff if you want to make good money out there.¡± Quickly thanking him, but wondering what he was talking about with the goddess stuff, I left the training field and started to wander the town, quickly noting the massive walls that seemed to be visible from everywhere in the town. Deciding that I needed to gather some information before my grind session, I pulled up the forums in game and started looking through them. It seems that the best bet is to go to the adventurers guild and sign up. After a short search, I also managed to find out what the instructor had been talking about. It seems that while players can simply open a loot box from an enemy and grab some random loot, you can also cancel the loot box and manually harvest anything of use from the corpse, from skin to bones. Feeling a bit hungry and thirsty, something I hadn¡¯t really noticed while I was practicing my new spell, I opened up my brand new pack, and was promptly surprised by what looked like marble sized pieces of bread. Taking one out, as soon as it left the confinement of the bag, it quickly grew to the size of a normal loaf of bread, and putting it back in would shrink it down to marble sized again. After playing around with the bag for a bit, I noticed that everything, no matter the size, would shrink to a similar size in the bag, not that I could test larger items, but a pebble wouldn¡¯t shrink to any smaller while a fist sized rock would go down to marble sized. Quickly deciding that my best course of action would to be just finish the bread, I did, thinking that at the earliest time possible I would need to find someplace good to eat. I then pulled out a marble sized water skin, which quickly became full sized, I took a deep drink and put it back, noting that I only had 9 of my teeny tiny breads left. After another five minutes or so of wandering, I managed to find the adventurers guild, just as described in the wiki. It was a medium sized building, with a large open area where people seemed to be selling off the materials they¡¯d gotten. Walking through the group of people, all of whom had a weapon of some sort, and only a couple having the same newbie gear that I was sporting, I looked around at the tables, many of them covered in blood from the monster parts being traded, some old and faded, others the bright red of fresh kills. I figured it made sense to do all the material trading out here so as to not have the mess on the inside of the guild. After walking into the guild the atmosphere changed immediately. I was expecting some rowdy, tavern like atmosphere, and I couldn¡¯t have been further from the truth. There are boards hanging along, each with a label over them, rating them one to 7 stars, and people waiting in chairs for their number to be called. It honestly felt like an old fashioned DMV. I go up, grab a number, then go off to look at the boards. There were request on them ranging from finding herbs, hunting monsters, all the usual fantasy stuff, with a smattering of simple fetch quests and escort missions as well. After gawking at the request to hunt one legendary monster or another on the seven star board, I go sit down to wait. After waiting for what seems to be forever I notice something that I had no reason to expect. I had to go to the bathroom... Luckily, after looking around I found some signs and quickly took care of business, grumbling the entire time about unnecessary realism. Not long after I got back, my number was called and I go up. The woman at the counter was petite, with short brown hair and amber eyes, cute, but wearing that bored businesswoman smile you get from having to deal with people all day. A nametag on her shirt read Sable, so I quickly addressed her. ¡°Hello, Sable, I just wanted to sign up for the guild real quick and maybe get some tips on how to start out.¡± She looked back at me for a second, her eyes filled with disinterest before replying. ¡°Here¡¯s a form, fill it out. As for tips, you should probably hire a mentor, you can probably get someone with experience for as little as one gold, they¡¯ll show you the ropes far better than I can¡± The tip would¡¯ve been far more helpful if I¡¯d started with a gold, or even any money at all, but I thanked her regardless then got to filling out the form. It was surprisingly simple, requiring only name, aliases and role. Seeing as how I was hoping and praying to sit in the backline throwing spells, I filled it out as rayth and mage before handing it back to her. I was still wondering what the point of filling out such a lackluster form was when she wrapped it around a small silver tag with a chain attached, looking very reminiscent of a dog tag from my world. A light shined for a second, then dimmed. ¡°I¡¯m afraid I¡¯ll need some of your blood next. It binds the tag to you and will allow the guild to upgrade your rank as needed. For every rank you need to complete at least 10 missions and take a combat test, excluding the first rank.¡± She then took out a small needle, and I winced as she pricked my finger, even though it didn¡¯t hurt much, as it¡¯s always worse when you know it¡¯s coming. She smeared the drop of blood on the tag, and it shined again before fading. She passed it to before giving some more information. ¡°You can look at the one star board, and feel free to take any of the hunting missions, just bring back the materials to one of the counters outside and they¡¯ll sort you out¡± After thanking her again, I decided to look at the first star board. There were a few targets for the hunting, orbs, wargs, and treants. I shrugged, I didn¡¯t know what anything was, so I¡¯ll just go out to hunt then bring back what I get. Heading out the door, I asked directions from an unmemorable stranger and headed off. It was time to hunt. chapter 2: hunting time! I soon reached the gates, monstrosities at least 12 feet tall, set in the massive walls I had seen from inside the city, and headed out, excited to see my first glimpse of this world outside the city. Stepping out, it wasn¡¯t nearly what I had expected. I had expected some bright field area, with bunnies or slimes running around, the standard MMO fare, but instead everywhere seemed to be a constant mist, barely obstructing the vision at my height, but closer to the ground it much thicker, solid looking tendrils of it wafting around the grass. Up ahead stretched a road, people with small wagons riding along it in both directions. Deciding that I wasn¡¯t going to find any mobs along the road, I did what any sensible gamer would, ignore the road and head off into the mist. After a few minutes of exploration, I found my first mob, which had to be an orb. Rather than the standard slime, it seemed to be a small ball of fur, with two deep set eyes. I quickly drew up my spell, aimed, and released it. It impacted with a thud, and then it looked at me. I looked back for a second, already starting to draw up my force bolt rune again, when it leaped at me, it¡¯s body splitting open into a mouth filled with jagged teeth. The five meters or so distance between us was closing at far too fast a pace for my liking causing my hands to twitch for in surprise, and I had just the time to think oh no before it exploded, sending both me and the monster back a meter so. I got back up, just in time to see it leaping at me, so I grabbed my staff like a baseball bat and swung as hard as I could. It impacted with a meaty thud, sending the orb flying. I quickly drew up another rune, holding tightly to my staff with my other hand in case I needed to try and hit a homerun. I finished the pattern, and paused, looking at the orb, it didn¡¯t seem to be moving, but I sent it flying regardless, not willing to go up and check in person. When it didn¡¯t respond, I trepidly approached, expecting all the time it was simply going to jump at me again. When I finally got in touching range, I poked it with my staff. Up close, it looked much the same, except I could now see two gangly limbs where the bottom of the orb had been, likely what it had used to fling itself at me so fast. I put my hand on it, and a quick loot box popped up, with a take all button and a dismiss button at the bottom. Seeing as how I had not a clue how to skin something, and I wasn¡¯t going to go on youtube to find out, not for now at least, I looked over the loot table, seeing an orb fur: damaged and an orb stone: badly damaged. I pressed the take all button, and the orb seemed to melt into the mist, leaving a fur and a small red stone, both of which I promptly put in my backpack. I then continued my walk, starting my slaughter on the local population of not so innocent wildlife. After a couple of orbs getting treated like a baseball,I finally got used enough to their rapid jumping to the point where I could finish two of the runes before they got to me, and found that two of them would generally kill them, though some of the smaller orbs took only one shot. Here and there I would see other players, many of those with a staff grouped up with warriors and their copper swords and wooden shields. After a while hunting my backpack started to fill up of my damaged orb stones and furs, with a handful of poor quality ones as well, so I decided that the best option would be to head back to the adventurer¡¯s guild to see what I could get for my small collection of loot. After a around half an hour of walking, following the direction I saw players heading from, I hunted a couple more orbs, and finally got the notification that every gamer lives for - I had leveled up. At this point I¡¯d need to start deciding my build. I was planning to be a mage, but I¡¯d always preferred to be a solo player, so I was probably going to have to go for a more rounded build. I decided that the first thing to do would be to increase my wisdom though, so I quickly clicked the small plus sign next to it. The first level up in a game is always so gratifying that I couldn¡¯t help but smile. I soon arrived back at the looming walls of the city, and followed them until I was the gate and headed back into the city. Once I got to the adventurers guild, it was just as I had left it, with people bustling around in the yard outside, so I quickly got into a line and pulled out my bread and water skin, which seemed to have filled itself back up to full somehow. After finishing my snack, I finally arrived at the counter and pulled out all the loot I had acquired. The person at the counter soon politely informed me. ¡°That¡¯ll be half a copper for each of the damaged furs, and a copper for each of the damaged orb stones and a copper for each of the poor quality furs. You really should learn how to properly take care of your kills though, undamaged furs and stones are worth significantly more.¡± ¡°Ah, thanks, how much for it all?¡± ¡°Well let¡¯s see¡­ All in all, it will come to 63 coppers, or 6 silver three coppers.¡± He passed me the money, and after thanking him I decided it was time to see what I could get now that I had some money. I put them into a side bag of my backpack, panicking when they disappeared, but then noticed some silver and copper symbols lit up. Pressing one of them, a coin popped out. Interesting. I was wondering how the makers of the game were going to handle players getting large amounts of money without filling out their backpack. I took the silver out and put it into the main portion of the backpack, seeing another of the silver symbols appear. After taking it back out and putting it back into the side pocket, I headed off. I wandered around town for a while, and on the way I grabbed a couple of cooked mystery meat skewers that had smelled heavenly and tasted almost as good, especially after that hard bread I¡¯d started with. It may not have been the wisest way to spend my 3 copper coins, but it was definitely worth it. While wandering, I found a couple weapon shops, but everything was well out of my price range, the only things I could afford would be more beginner weapons, the copper sword and wooden shield selling for 5 silver each, with the staff I¡¯d begun with costing a whopping 1 gold (or 10 silvers). After asking, it turns out that the staff I¡¯d been given would increase my spells output by 10%, only the equivalent of 1 wisdom point, but it didn¡¯t hurt to have a little bonus damage. I also learned that they would appraise any weapon for me for a small fee of 1 gold. I found an alchemist shop after a while, or at least what I assumed to be one with the potion on the sign hanging over the door and went in. ¡°Welcome to Alva¡¯s potion shop, what can I get for you?¡± ¡°Oh, I was hoping you¡¯d have some healing potions or something, but cheap please, I¡¯m not exactly the richest person in town.¡±Find this and other great novels on the author''s preferred platform. Support original creators! ¡°The old woman at the counter chuckled. ¡°We have some healing potions suited for beginners for 5 copper. They won¡¯t heal much except scratches, but they¡¯re better than nothing in a pinch.¡± ¡°Ah thanks, I¡¯ll take three I suppose. I was also wondering if you would have a book on herbs or alchemy, I¡¯ve always been interested in making my own¡± Alchemy had always been my go-to side profession, and while not all games limited you to one side profession, I¡¯d never had much interest in making my own armor or weapons, though I had dabbled in woodworking a few times. ¡°A book on herbs will be 5 silver, as for books on alchemy, that¡¯ll be 10 gold.¡± ¡°Oh, well the book on alchemy is a bit out of my price range, but could I get the book on herbs and just two potions I guess? I don¡¯t have enough for that and the three potions.¡± She laughed again before replying. ¡°You really should learn how to haggle properly, but I¡¯ll throw in the third potion as a bonus. I hope to see you again soon, try not to get eaten before I get more money out of you.¡± After leaving the store, all of my money poorer, I decided to peruse the book on herbs, sitting down as I started reading through it. For each herb, it had a description, a nice little picture, the uses of the herb, and locations of where they tend to grow. For example, the most basic healing herb, simply called healing herb, a terribly unimaginative name, tended to grow in shaded areas such as forests, and looked almost like a three leaf clover, but bigger. After having memorized the look of the healing herb, mana herb and stamina herb. I decided to figure out stamina does. Pulling up the wiki, it seemed to be of use for things such as blocking or running, so of no use to me, but I was sure I could at least get some money out of it. I then started walking to the gates, determined to make enough money so as to buy that alchemy book. This time, before exiting the gates again, I had to wait on a massive chain of wagons, likely a trading caravan to head out first, but not long after I got back to my hunting spot, and began slaughtering more orbs. I¡¯d been hunting for a while until I came across an oddity. While most of the orbs had been about a meter tall, this one was almost as tall as my 5¡¯11 frame. I deliberated for a moment on attacking, but soon decided that there would be no harm in trying to hunt it. I then started making my spell pattern and let it go, sending a bolt that was now slightly more powerful with my two wisdom towards it. It impacted with a solid sounding thwack, and the beast turned around and did the same thing every other or had done, jumped at me. I reasonably calmly finished my second spell pattern just a bit before it impacted me, but after launching it, the orb did something none of the other orbs had done. It didn¡¯t die. It soon reached me, and its gaping maw closed around my arm, causing me to yell. The pain sensitivity may have been set as 30%, but it still hurt like a bitch. Taking my staff in my other arm, I bashed it a couple times, but it still clung on, slowly tearing up my arm, my health bar at the corner of my . Taking the staff by the end, I stabbed it into one of its sunken eyes, hurting it enough to make it let go at least. It fell down, but quickly turned to me, seeming enraged that I had the audacity to hurt it. Seeing as how I wouldn¡¯t have time to complete another force bolt before it reached me, I got the staff in a solid grip with one good hand, slamming it into it as hard as I could. Unfortunately, it barely seemed to faze it, and it quickly jumped at me again. I cursed, at this point wishing I¡¯d bought one of those beginner swords so I could at least try to stab it. It jumped at me again, but this time, I wasn¡¯t trying to create a spell pattern so dodged to the side, the orb barely missing me as it went flying by. As it passed me, I started creating another force bolt and sent it flying after it. The force bolt went flying towards it, and missed. I cursed. I should¡¯ve waited until it had landed. Prepping another force bolt, it turned to me and jumped again. This time, I managed to hit it, and dodged again as it swept by. This time, it landed far less gracefully, rolling to a stop. It wasn¡¯t until I had launched another force bolt at it that I realized it was dead. Still cursing from the tears in my arm, I took out one of my potions and drank it, instantly feeling a good deal better, watching the small health bar in the corner climb back up as the holes in my arm started to close. Just when I was about to head over and see what loot I got, an alert popped up, telling me force bolt had leveled up to force bolt+. I pulled up my spell list, and soon saw that it had increased in mana cost, now taking .5 times my wisdom stat in addition to the 2 base cost. I shrugged, I assumed it would increase the damage, but as there had been no information on how much damage it did in the first place, it wasn¡¯t particularly useful to me, I could fire six bolts in a row with the changed cost, probably seven as the last mana point needed would regenerate while firing them. Heading over to the giant orb, I touched it, and the friendly loot table popped up, informing me that I could get a large orb fur: damaged and a large orb stone: damaged. Deciding to take a break to let my mana regenerate, I took out my water skin and took a drink. Again, it was full, so I decided it must have some function to fill itself up somehow. Once my mana had regenerated, I got back to walking and hunting. After a while of that, I started to see some trees ahead of me, and started to walk towards them. Noticing that the trees were getting thicker around me as I walked, I started looking around, and not long after, I noticed a couple of healing herbs growing on the ground. I started gathering them, slowly digging around the roots until I could pull them up with little resistance, my experience with alchemy in other games coming in handy. I¡¯d just finished, when I heard a low growl behind me. I slowly turned around, and saw what seemed to be a wolf crossed with a snake, a canine body, with a long tail resting on the ground, and a serpentine head and neck, covered in scales except a small mane of hair at the base of its neck, probably the warg from the bounty board. Slowly grabbing my staff where I had laid it on the ground, I turned around, gripping it in my familiar baseball fashion. We both stared at each other for a second, waiting in tense silence, and then it jumped at me. I swung as hard as I could, sending it flying to the side, instantly preparing a spell rune and sending it flying at the beast. It impacted, and knocked the beast back a small amount, likely from it having upgraded to force bolt+. I then grabbed my staff, this time in a more defensive fashion, holding it in front of me with my two hands spread apart. This time, rather than leap at me, it charged. I turned to face it, when it raked out with it¡¯s claws at my legs, too fast for me to block or dodge. I hissed in pain as they raked me, falling to one knee as I bashed out with my staff. It caught the monster on the side of it¡¯s head, but it barely reacted, throwing itself at the same arm the giant orb had. It latched on, so I tried the same tactic that had worked against the orb, poking it in the eye with my staff. It let go, this time my arm not quite as badly damaged, at least not enough to lose my ability to grip my staff. It backed off, and we both stared at each other again, neither of us willing to make the first move. I glanced at my health bar, I had maybe five remaining of my ten total hp. I slowly started making a spell pattern, hoping it would let me complete it, when it charged in. I had barely enough time to finish it before it reached me, the slight knockback not doing much to dissuade it as it soon got in close again and started to rake my chest. I quickly brought my staff between us and shoved, prepping a spell as it landed. I got it off before it had time to get back in, and collapsed. I smiled as I got a level up notification, putting the stat point into vitality, as I seemed to be getting hit a lot for a mage. I figure it would be fine even if I joined a group to raid, as a dead mage can¡¯t get heals. I leaned back against a tree, drinking second health potion as I did, then decided to see what loot I would get. As the wonderful loot window said, I would get a warg skin: damaged and a warg tooth: damaged. Selecting the take all button, I felt my backpack get slightly heavier, and I decided to take a small rest, when I heard two growls behind me. I cursed. I was now staring at a screen saying the worst thing possible - I had 8 hours until I could play again due to death. I sighed, then said ¡°log out¡±. I wandered around my house for a bit pacing in annoyance until I decided to do the sane thing, I would go to sleep. It was summer break for college, I¡¯d have plenty of time to play in the future. Chapter 3: Spellsword I woke up in the morning bleary eyed, and slowly wandered around my room to the door, opening it with a yawn. My room wasn¡¯t anything special, just a bed, desk with a computer on it, and a bunch of gaming posters adorning the walls. While I may use my headset for most of my internet needs, I still had a monitor hooked into my computer, unlike most people who¡¯d completely gotten rid of them with the advent of true VR headsets. I stumbled my way out the the kitchen, and put my electric kettle on to boil while I fished out some tea and my bowl sized mug, adding a bit of sugar before grabbing a bowl and pouring out some cereal and milk for breakfast. When I¡¯d finished my meal, I headed to the bathroom to freshen up. Showered, and my breath now smelling slightly minty, I idly poured out the close to boiling water into my mug, and carried it along with me to my room to go read up on any news related Sanity Online before hopping back into the game. I sat down and started pulling up a few different gaming forums to see if anything interesting had come up. A lot of the popular posts were quite amusing to me, people complaining about the lack of skills, or people saying that magic was too hard, with people not able to just shout the skill name to activate it. There had been other games with similar systems, but those tended to be more fringe games, none of them from one of the massive tech conglomerates the more popular titles were from. Sanity online was actually an exception. Lost Dreams wasn¡¯t one of those massive companies, having seemed to appear overnight, but their demo had gotten such traction from the internet that their popularity had exploded, leading to Sanity Online being one of the fastest selling titles of all time, and only seemed to pick up more traction as it went on. The top post however, was a video. A man with a spear and shield stood surrounded by what seemed to be thirty or so wargs. The standoff seemed to last for a few seconds, until one of the wargs standing behind him started to rush in. Seeming like had eyes on the back of his head, he hopped slightly to the right, stabbing down through its sinuous neck and pulling it out in one smooth motion. The attack seemed to start the entire horde charging at him, but no matter what happened, the man would simply take a few steps in one direction or simply lean back or forwards, and he always seemed to have his shield between the wargs in front of him and his own body. His spear danced, seeming to move like just another limb of his, piercing here, slicing there, and after almost every hit, a warg seemed to collapse, their neck head or vital organs having been pierced. I watched, breathless, as he slowly continued his spree of murder, not seeming in the least fazed about the numbers he was facing. While I was certain he would be a higher level than me, he probably got more level ups in that fight alone than I did with all my orb hunting so far. I shook my head, thinking about that fight. While he did seem to be faster and stronger than me, likely four or five levels above me, the thing that really stood out was his outstanding skill. Seeing it had made me start to think that maybe I should see if I could get a spearhead attached to my staff for some extra damage. I wouldn¡¯t be able to use a shield as it had been awkward to write the runes with the arm holding my staff, even with me being ambidextrous. I¡¯d clearly been having issues when the enemies got close to me, and hopefully a spear would be able to fix that a little while possibly retaining the benefits of the staff. I sighed, I could always get a couple teammates to cover for me, but for now at least, I intended to go at it solo until I was a bit more comfortable with the game systems, not that there seemed to be any systems at all in place. I got up and put on my headset, excited to get back into the game. I continued to browse the forums after, until I finished my tea, but didn¡¯t see anything else particularly of note, though people had started to post the runes online, but I figured at least half of them were trolls just hoping someone would try them and explode, so I wasn¡¯t going to trust them blindly. I¡¯d try to get a proper spellbook filled with runes when I got in game. Logging in was as abrupt as always, simply being plunged into my game avatar without any fanfare. This time, I was aware enough that I didn¡¯t fall, but I did stumble a bit. After getting my bearings, I exited the temple through the main exit rather than the two which had lead to the training grounds, checking my backpack to see what I had lost. Luckily, I hadn¡¯t lost anything I could notice, so I pulled up the wiki to check the death penalties. Turns out that there is no item drop, but you lose 50% of any gold you have on you, leading it being far smarter to spend all the money I could before heading out, my spending spree having had a positive outcome at least. As I walked along, I noticed a couple of buildings along with the other shops in this part of town having a force bolt symbol inscribed in their signs. I figured those would be spell shops, and I would probably visit one after I sold my stuff. After getting to the adventurers guild, I decided to head inside to see if I could figure out what was going on with the quests, as I had completely forgotten to bother with them last time. After waiting a bit, I got up to the counter, with Sable, the same person as last time there. ¡°Hi, I was wondering how the quest system works here, do I just sign up for it or what?¡± ¡°Well for hunting and herb gathering quests just take a tag off of the bottom of the sheet and turn it in when you bring back the materials of what you¡¯ve hunted. For escort missions, you¡¯ll have to sign up here then meet up with the client at a specified location.¡± She politely explained to me wearing her tired businesswoman smile. I thanked her, and went over to the quest board. There was a request to hunt 30 orbs, with a reward of one silver and figuring that I had enough for that, I grabbed one of the tags beneath it. I then noticed there were quests to collect 10 of any of the beginner herbs, so I grabbed that as well for when I managed to get together enough to be useful. I noticed a similar quest for hunting 30 wargs, and grabbed that as well, determined to get my revenge. Putting the warg and herbs on in the side bag of my backpack, I headed out to sell my loot. All in all, it came to nine silver five copper, one gold five copper with the reward from the quest. The large orb fur, even damaged, got me five copper, and the large orb stone sold for ten silver. After handing me the money, he took my guild tag, and waved it over a small plate engraved with massive amounts of runes I couldn¡¯t recognize, probably something related to how I¡¯d completed one quest. Deciding to hold onto the warg skin until I could hunt more, I went inside to grab another of the orb quests then headed out to do more shopping before I attempted to go get revenge on the wargs. If you encounter this tale on Amazon, note that it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it. My first stop was heading over to alva¡¯s potion shop, picking up another potion while learning that the old woman behind the counter was indeed Alva, then I headed off to the weapons shop I visited last time to see if they even sold a spear that would keep the spell damage increase I had on my staff, not that I would be able to afford it. Once I arrived, I looked around for a while before heading up to what had to be a dwarf and asked my question. ¡°I was wondering if you had any weapons for mages that actually have something with a pointy end on them rather than just a staff.¡± The man looked up at me, giving me an inquiring look before smiling and replying. ¡°You¡¯re looking to be a spellsword then, not a bad choice. Most mages tend to deem melee combat to be beneath them. Feeling all high and mighty before something gets through the soldiers and treats them as a chew toy. Yeah, we carry spears, swords, whatever your preferred weapon choice, though they tend to have lower bonuses than pure staves. The only weapons not like that are ones made of mithril, but those are outrageously expensive, even if they can carry enchantments that will outclass even staves. We have a couple spellsword items here though, what were you looking for?¡± ¡°I was preferably looking to get a spear, I probably can¡¯t afford one now, but I was hoping that I could see one and maybe get an idea of the price range¡± ¡°Well, we have a few.¡± He brought out a few spears of varying lengths, ranging from four feet to what seemed to be nearly 8 feet, with different spear tips, some having a long blade, others having the more familiar spear shape, but all of them having copper tips. I took a particular liking to one that was about six feet long and had a blade of about a foot long. ¡°How much for this one? And do you not have any spellsword blades made of anything but copper?¡± I asked, pointing at the spear that had been my favorite. ¡°Well that¡¯ll run you about 20 gold, but it increases your spell output by fifty percent, and as for the blade, they¡¯re bronze, not copper, and steel tends to inhibit spell output rather than enhancing it. It¡¯s why you won¡¯t see mages running around in anything except for leathers, though some opt for robes with enchantments woven into them, those can get a lot stronger enchantments than placing them on top of leather equipment.¡± ¡°Well why can¡¯t you just wear both?¡± ¡°Hah, I forgot how clueless you travelers are, wearing enchantments on top of each other cause them to interact, and that tends to have rather explosive results. It¡¯s why you¡¯ll only see people wearing enchanted rings on three of their fingers.¡± ¡°How much would it be for a spear without the enchantment then?¡± It would suck to lose the extra 10% spell damage enchantment on my spear, but it wasn¡¯t going to be particularly much of issue I didn¡¯t think, and it would allow me to properly fight at close range rather than treat my staff like a baseball bat. The poor staff was already looking worn out from the abuse I had put it through. ¡°That¡¯ll be one gold, you looking for one similar to what you were looking at with the enchantments?¡± ¡°Yes please¡± I handed over the one gold, and he brought out a spear for me, almost identical to the one with the enchantments. I took the spear in hand before getting ready to leave. ¡°Thanks for the tips, I¡¯m Rayth, you?¡± ¡°I¡¯m Golrag, pleasure to meet you. Hope to see you back when you can afford that spear¡± ¡°I¡¯ll be back when I can, I¡¯ll see you around.¡± I left the weapons shop and headed out to the gates of the city, this time I was going to slaughter orbs until my backpack was properly full. With the first orb I ran into, I decided to try out my new spear rather than simply kill it with my runes. I slowly approached it from behind, and stabbed in as hard as I could. It turned around, nearly pulling the spear out of my grip as it did and started to lunge at me. I gripped the spear in my two hands, bashing towards it with the back of it, then stabbed out again, this time just barely scraping its side. It jumped again and I hopped to the right, trying to emulate the man I¡¯d seen on the video. Unfortunately, I misjudged the distance, getting the corner of my shoulder scraped by the teeth as it went by. As it went by, I decided I¡¯d need to just learn how to use a spear properly before I attempted to fight even orbs with my spear alone. I instantly started preparing a spell bolt, and sent it flying at the orb. It impacted, and the orb seemed to collapse. I walked up and put my hand on it, collecting my loot. The rest of the fights proceeded pretty much the same way, but with me practicing with my spear every so often. I slowly slaughtered my way back to the forest and started searching for either lone wargs or herbs. I managed to find a couple herbs, and finally spied a lone warg. This time, I was going to get the drop on it. I prepped a bolt and released the spell pattern, the bolt hitting the wargs head, and it turned and charged at me. This time, I kept my spear pointed at it, and it dodged to the left rather than attempt to try and take me head on. While it did so, I attempted a light stab, scraping its neck, before it went for one of my legs. Expecting this from how the other wargs had acted, I pulled my leg back, but not without getting light scratches on it regardless. I then stabbed at it with my spear, making it back off, and managed to prep a spell pattern and launch it at the warg. The warg got knocked back a bit, and I rushed forward, stabbing in with my spear at the largest target, the body. This time it impacted, and as I pulled it out with a ¡®schwick¡¯ noise, watching as the warg collapsed. I decided not to take a potion this time, my health was mostly full, and the cuts on my legs were only mildly painful with the 70% pain reduction. I continued my foray through the forest, paying attention to every noise, and gathering enough herbs to fulfill the herb collection mission. After my fifth warg kill, I heard a noise behind me, and turned to see two wargs. I ran, running as far as I could out of the forest, the few players around me either laughing or shaking their heads as they saw me, likely thinking of how silly it was for anyone to be hunting alone when the wargs would often come in groups. By the time I had escaped the forest, I had lost the wargs, and my stamina was completely empty. Pausing for a second, and starting to consider putting a point into endurance for running away if nothing else. I shrugged, I decided now was as good a time as any to head back into town, and went on my way, slaughtering orbs on the way. About halfway there, I leveled up, not surprising after the warg kills, and put the point into wisdom. While I was now starting to build a more hybrid character, I still wanted to primarily spellcast, I just needed some sort of CC skill to make hunting individual monsters much easier. After another 15 minutes of orb slaughter, I reached the road, and followed it to the towering gates of town. I went to the adventurers guild, turning in the orb skins for another seven silver and change, the quest to hunt 30 orbs giving me another silver, and the herb gathering quest for five silver, leaving me with a gold and three silver or so. I then headed out to get a proper meal. I quickly found the same stall I had gotten the mystery meat skewers from, and this time decided to try out their meat buns. I got rid of all my copper for a full belly, and quite delicious way to get it. I then decided that I should probably head over to the warrior training hall by the temple to see if there was anyone there I could get some teaching from. Chapter 4: Training I soon arrived at the temple I spawned in, this time actually looking at it rather than just passing through. It was tall, probably three stories, with grand stained glass windows, grand arches pointed at the top, and an altar in front of a statue of a woman. Regardless of it being a temple, there seemed to be nobody inside, which I thought a bit odd, but just continued through over to the melee training room. When I got in, I saw quite a few players standing around, practicing with their swords, spears, and the occasional other weapon. I looked around, looking for the instructor, not seeing anyone like the giant Olaf had been as the mage instructor. I was still looking around when a wiry man came up to me. ¡°I see you¡¯re new here, looking to get some training? I¡¯m one of the warrior instructors, Syl is the name.¡± ¡°Wait, so the magic training only had one instructor, but there¡¯s multiple for the melee trainees?¡± ¡°Well magic can be taught to a group pretty easily, you just need to explain the rune and let them view it in their grimoire, then they can self study relatively easily¡± ¡°Wait, so the people here have grimoires as well?¡± ¡°Of course, the stat screen has been here since time immemorial, as a boon granted to us to help survive against the monsters. It¡¯s only lately that our lands have started to fall, and so we commenced the summoning ritual to bring the travelers here¡± Wondering about the lore of this world, if they believed they had summoned us rather than us simply starting the game, it started to seem even more likely that these AIs were truly aware, and there was clearly a lot of lore that the devs had put into the game. ¡°If that¡¯s so, then why did you have to summon us, can¡¯t your own people grow just as strong as we can?¡± ¡°While we may be able to grow strong, we can¡¯t put ourselves at risk the way you can. With you being able to resurrect through the power of the goddess, you can take far more risks, growing far stronger in a fraction of the time. When we hunt we need to be careful, hunting in large groups, minimizing the risk wherever possible. Challenging a large beast will often cost us a great deal of experienced soldiers, while you can simply come back, ready to war again.¡± ¡°Well thanks. I was indeed looking for some training on how to use this spear of mine, preferably with one hand.¡± ¡°Not two? Most people would use it with two hands or use a shield in addition to the spear¡± ¡°Yes, I¡¯m looking to be a spellsword. I need to keep my other hand free for casting my spells, but monsters seem to be chewing on me a lot more than I¡¯d like, so I figured the best thing to do would be to learn a few fighting techniques.¡± ¡°Well if you¡¯re going to be hunting alone, that¡¯s going to happen a lot. Good to see more mages trying to learn a little of how to fight, it¡¯s always a sad things to lose a mage when a monster gets behind the battle lines, and the mage is clueless on how to defend themselves.¡± He then guided me over to one of the training dummies, and showed me the proper grip for the spear, holding it much closer to the back of the spear than I had been expecting, and started training me on how to properly stabbed, making sure I was in a balanced state, lightly crouching, so that I could move around quickly and to keep a lower center of balance, standing on the balls of my feet rather than flat footed. He then showed me how to stab, making sure I never fully extended my arm, adding a slight twist of my body to put a bit more weight behind it. He explained to me that the spear head would do most the work so long as I kept it sharpened, I didn¡¯t need the full weight of my body behind every stab, just enough to dig in. He then set me at a practice dummy and made me practice my stabs, correcting my form every so often. Telling me to come get him when I could reliably hit the point I was aiming at, piercing my spear in far enough to get a good 5 or so inches in, but not far enough for the blade to become stuck. I repeated this stabbing practice for a few hours, taking regular breaks to replenish my stamina, which regularly drained to empty, but replenished very quickly as I was out of combat. Other times I would snack on my crappy bread, drink some water, or take care of the call of nature. A short way through, I started noticing that I was actually sweating quite a bit, another bit of ridiculous realism the devs seemed to obsess over. I kept stabbing the vaguely human shaped doll, made of some mysterious material that would repair itself after every stab. Once I had finally gotten to the point where I thought I could hit the target reliably, I headed over to the instructor, only to be laughed off, him telling me he means much more accurate than that. Fuming in a bit of rage, I returned to my target and started to take my anger out on it, this time stabbing much harder than needed, losing the little accuracy I had gained in the process. After my stamina ran out this time, I took a break, starting to have calmed down. I figured that the instructor was pretty right, while it seemed to me that I was mostly hitting the same spot, the same spot was about the size of my open hand, and that actually wasn¡¯t particularly good. It¡¯s not like I was going to be some prodigy of spearmanship, so I was going to have to do something that I loathed, hard work. For the rest of the day, I practiced, my body, particularly my arm holding the spear, and my thighs from the constant crouching posture bothe were burning from the workout, so I decided it was time for a break. I went on a walk to get some food as I¡¯d almost run out, getting some more of the bread that I hated due to the low price of a copper for three, and also picked up some jerky and hard cheese, food that will be good for traveling or long hunting expeditions. On the way back, I picked up some of those skewers I¡¯d enjoyed before to eat. This time, I asked what the meat was, and turns out that orbs, while looking vaguely creepy, are quite delicious. Enjoying the story? Show your support by reading it on the official site. On the way back I decided to go into one of the stores whose signboards were marked with a rune. Entering the store, I saw books everywhere, with random objects ranging from orb stones to feathers from some mysterious bird standing on shelves behind glass. I went around the shelves, looking for a rune book on the basic spells. I found plenty of books with titles like basics of inscription, inscription theory, and even an inscription for dummies, however, not a single book about runes themselves or even anything about spells at all. Not finding what I was looking for, I went up to the counter up front and asked. ¡°Hey, I was wondering if you had any books on runes.¡± With a bored look, the man replied in a monotone voice. ¡°Sorry, this is an inscription store, if you¡¯re looking to learn any sort of new runes you should go to the mages college.¡± ¡°And where would that be?¡± I inquired ¡°Just head east from here, it¡¯s at the edge of the business district.¡± Thanking him, I left and headed off opposite the direction of the slowly setting sun, hoping that the sun here would match up with the one on earth. Right before a row of houses, stood a two story stone building, inscribed over the entire thing with runes, and a symbol of a staff over a book hanging above the front entrance. Deciding that this had to be the place, I headed inside and saw a man standing at the counter, with what had to be other gamers in their beginner gear and clothing, a simple off white tunic and pants, all of them wielding a staff. I looked over myself, noticing the bloodstains and tears from where I¡¯d been scratched and bitten, I would soon have to go shopping for clothing, and preferably some leather armor as well. Regardless, nobody had commented, so I figured it was fine, and got in line behind the other mages, most of whom seemed to have still pristine clothing, likely from hunting in a party. After waiting a while until I reached the front of the line, I got up and greeted the man at the counter. ¡°Hello, I was looking to learn some new spell patterns and I heard that this was the right place to go.¡± ¡°Well you¡¯re definitely at the right place, we sell spell patterns for as little as five silver, what were you looking for?¡± ¡°Five silver? You can¡¯t just have a teacher sit down with groups of us for a while and teach us all in a group or something? That¡¯s what we did for learning force bolt.¡± The man gave a strained smile before replying, likely to have heard this same question from many of the travelers before me. ¡°Well we¡¯re not sure why, but the force bolt can be learned from simply looking at it, for all other spell patterns, you need to be able to create it perfectly once before it is inscribed in your grimoire, and having to go over every individual student and correct their mistakes would be far more expensive than simply selling the spell patterns. They¡¯re inscribed with a special ink, because otherwise the rune slowly absorbs the ambient mana and sets off, destroying the paper and often part of the room they¡¯re in. So were you still looking to buy?¡± I sighed. ¡°Yes please, I was hoping to get something that would stop an enemy from moving for a while.¡± ¡°Well, the best bet for that is frostbite, when it impacts an enemy it freezes around them. It doesn¡¯t have any impact force, but it will keep the monsters off of you.¡± ¡°I¡¯ll take that then, please¡± I handed over 5 silver from my backpack, and the man went back into a door I hadn¡¯t noticed when I came in, pulling out a scroll and then coming back to hand it to me. I thanked him, then headed back to the practice field, deciding to work on mastering my new spell before night came. I shouldn¡¯t have to sleep in game due to the 4 times time dilation, but I was feeling tired regardless, maybe from my brain running at 4 times the speed, though dreams always seemed to have an even greater time dilation, and they seemed to keep me well rested. Either way, I decided to head over to the magic training field to try and learn my new spell before going to bed. I was definitely going to sleep in game if I was going to sleep, eight hours in here would only be two outside, so it was clearly the better option. Arriving at the field for spellcasters, and seeing olaf standing at the back, watching the travelers now trying out their new spells, from lances of fire, to lightning bolts, to what seemed like a blob of acid which would cause the target to melt, only to regenerate back up. Now that I was more aware that the targets would regenerate, I was even more impressed with the force bolt that the trainer had showed off, which had just completely erased the target. I wondered why I hadn¡¯t noticed the regenerating targets before, but after looking back, I¡¯d been attacking the same target the entire time and it hadn¡¯t been broken. I guess I just assumed they were largely immune to the small damage my force bolt did. I had been focused on not blowing myself up, so that probably didn¡¯t help matters. I sighed at how far away the instructors seemed to be, then decided to try out my new spell. The spell pattern this time looked like a slightly ovoid circle with a an upside down v in the middle, so I looked at it, then prepared to get myself blown up a lot. I first tried to draw the pattern right over the spell pattern, but the visible mana seemed to just bleed into the ink, likely from its special properties, so I had to do this the hard way. I had just prepared myself to start my drawing attempts when an explosion startled me, almost making me rip my spell paper. I glared at the offending person, a small guy coughing after having messed up his spell pattern, then sighed. That would be me for a while, and indeed it was. It wasn¡¯t until my 20th attempt that I managed to get it right, and I carefully sent it flying down to one of the targets, encasing the front half of it in ice with a crackling sound. This was going to be exactly what I needed. I then checked my grimoire to see the mana cost and get a guide on drawing it until I was more comfortable with it.
Grimoire
Stores all spell patterns you have learned
Spell Name Mana cost
Force Bolt+ 2+0.5*wis
Frostbite 5
At 5 mana, I would be able to get off 6 shots with my current mana pool, and that was only until it upgraded to frostbite+, which I expected to happen when I¡¯d used it enough. I then set about practicing the same way I had with force bolt. Once I had gotten comfortable with my new spell, and with the sky turning slowly dark, I decided to go see if I could find some place to stay, I walked over to Olaf, looking around the now empty training grounds as I went. ¡°Um, Olaf sir? I was wondering if there was any place I could stay pretty cheaply. Around here¡± ¡°We¡¯ve set up a barracks hall for all of you to stay, just head left out of the temple, it¡¯ll be three buildings down on the right. If you want a better place to stay, you could head to the north end of the business district and you¡¯ll find some inns, but even the cheapest will run you around 5 silver to stay at.¡± As I went off, I looked up at the sky and sighed with exhaustion. Up above me, there were two moons, one much smaller than the one we had on earth, and the other a little bit bigger. While meandering my way over to the barracks, I wondered if the devs had even implemented tidal patterns from the two moons. When I arrived, the soldiers at the front greeted me, then one guided me to an empty bed, most of them having been filled with the other players. I lay down, and instantly fell asleep. Chapter 5: Rewards I woke up in the morning with the sun shining on my face, one of the few windows seeming to have aimed directly for me. I glared at the window, sitting up, and noticed a notification I had absolutely not expected when I got up.
Due to training, your endurance has increased by one
Due to training, your strength has increased by one
I wondered for a moment on why it had popped up now instead of while I was training, but was still grinning as wide as my mouth could grow. Most games allowed for training for stat points, but I had thought it impossible in this game. Turns out you just need to sleep for the stats to be applied, either that or it was some form of time based system. I hopped out of bed and then realized something even more amazing. I wasn¡¯t sore! Pumping my fist in elation, I was ecstatic that the makers of the game had finally missed something. Grinning as I headed out of the door, I pulled up my stats page as I went.
Name Rayth
Level 4
str 2 Grimoire
agi 1 Recipes
wis 3 ???
end 2 ???
vit 2 ???
I was starting to look like a pretty balanced character, and if I could reliably keep up my training, I¡¯d be able to do pretty well on my spellsword build, though I wasn¡¯t sure what the soft cap for training stats was going to be. Some games may have let you train infinitely, but with the realism included in this one, there was sure to be a point where it would be more efficient to simply fight monsters for stat points. Soon after, I arrived at the training hall, going straight to the left to enter the warrior training area. When I got in, this time I saw far more people than last time, likely having learned about training stats the same way I had. I shrugged and quickly went over to one of the training dummies to continue where I had left off last time. After stabbing so much that my arms started to shiver from the strain, rather than take a break this time like I had last, I decided to push myself. I was no stranger to the feeling of exhaustion, having played sports in high school and I pushed on, knowing that could keep going at least until my arms started to feel dead. Unfortunately, even though my will to continue was strong, it wasn¡¯t long before I had started to feel like my arms were completely unable to do any more. I decided that the best thing to do would be head over the the mage training area and see if I could learn how to increase my wisdom stat. Arriving at the mage training hall, I quickly went up to Olaf and asked him if there was any way to increase the wisdom stat. ¡°You can increase it through meditation, you simply have to guide you mana through you mana channels and complete revolutions. It slowly tempers them and allows you to hold and channel more mana.¡± ¡°Well, how would I do that? I have no clue where these mana channels are.¡± He shrugged. ¡°Everyone¡¯s mana channels are slightly different, simply pull your energy from your core and it should naturally start to flow on the path of the channels. It¡¯s nothing terribly complex, but it can require much time and dedication, the more you can channel, the longer it will take to improve.¡± I thanked him, and decided to start practicing. It reminded me of the ki that many eastern cultures talked of, so I decided to do the stereotypical thing and sat down at the edge of the arena. I wasn¡¯t nearly flexible enough to sit in the standard lotus position, so I did the next best things and simply sat with my legs crossed. Focusing on the feeling behind my navel, I felt the mana in me, the trapped lightning like sensation, and slowly started pulling it out, this time not to my hand, but trying to guide it as little as possible and see where it went. The author''s narrative has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon. It slowly started to flow down one of my legs, then spread out into my foot before collecting back together and moving back upwards. It then did the same for each of my limbs, before collecting around my heart and moving back down towards my navel. I then continued doing the same thing, slowly fading into a trance, focused on nothing but the sensation of my mana flowing, the pain from my muscles slowly fading into the background. I wasn¡¯t sure how long I had been doing so, until I stopped and looked up, the sun having reached it¡¯s zenith. I had been doing so for maybe a couple hours, and hadn¡¯t noticed the passage of time whatsoever. I shivered, that could be very good or very bad, losing time while leveling could set me behind, but the possible free stat gains could come in handy. I got up, and instantly noticed that my muscles didn¡¯t seem to be nearly as tired. Maybe meditation had more benefits rather than simply being used to increase wisdom. I shrugged, and headed over to the warrior training area to practice my spear some more. Things continued in the same vein for the next few days, taking regular breaks in real to rest up and keep myself fed. gaining me a total of two wisdom, three endurance, one strength, and one agility. For some reason, the wisdom increase would actually pop up after meditation rather than in the morning. It was on the fourth day that something interesting happened. I¡¯d finally gotten to the point where I could reliably hit the same area, or at least close enough, and went up to one of the instructors to see what to do next. He had me show him that I could reliably do so, then got a predatory grin on his face before informing me that it was time for me to start sparring. I asked him about learning to slice first, but he informed me that that could come after I¡¯d practiced my stabs against something moving. He went over to a chest, and pulled out some sticks, covered in cloth where the blades should be, a spear for me and a sword and shield for him. He then put them into a bucket nearby, making me wonder what it was when they came out covered in what looked like red dust, probably to mark where the hits were. He handed me the spear, then we faced off, me standing a around the reach of my spear away from him. The fight started with me stabbing forwards, aiming towards his head, but he simply batted it away with his shield, sending it flying over his shoulder, and stepped in, stabbing into my chest. I stepped back with a cough, rubbing what was sure to be a bruise, and backed off a bit, the instructor just standing there and letting me, the grin still on his face. The next thirty minutes or so went much the same way. I¡¯d attempt to stab, he¡¯s just step to the side, block or deflect with his shield, or simply lean to one side, and it would always end with me getting the red chalky substance on my chest, legs, arms, neck, everywhere on my body. My proudest moment was managing to step to the side and barely get scraped by his sword as it went by my chest. Throughout the entire thing, he¡¯d berate me. ¡°Stab harder! Be more accurate! Change the direction the spear is coming from! You don¡¯t have to aim at just the chest and head, put some variation into it, my feet and arms are both here, aim for them! Stop standing still and letting me hit you, MOVE!¡± By the end of it I was exhausted, covered in bruises, and laying on the floor breathing heavily. I was completely covered in the red dust that we had been using to mark hits, and the only thing of his covered was his shield, and not even all of it was red. It had been far more effort trying to fight another person rather than simply stabbing at my target dummy, and far more painful as well. I slowly sat up, my body aching and protesting at the motion as I went over to one of the sides for the arena and sat down and started to meditate again. The pain seemed to slowly fade away as I focused on my mana, taking away all the worldly problems as it slowly circulated. I continued to do so for what had to be an hour or two, then got up, the pain from the workout and getting horribly beaten having faded by a good amount. The sun was high in the sky, so I decided that I would get some hunting done, and maybe try to take on two wargs at once with my new cc spell. As I headed out of the training area, I passed by the instructor who had oh so kindly guided me, giving him a glare, and getting a cheery wave back. After reaching the gates, this time I headed directly to the forest, determined to hunt enough wargs to turn in the quest. I hunted handful of the orbs on the way, trying out my new frostbite skill. When cast at them, a bit over half their body would freeze, and they would try for a while to escape it, leaving me plenty of time to cast a force bolt at them, this time killing them in one shot, likely due to my additional wisdom. Once I arrived at the forest, I wandered around, picking off solitary wargs, against whom the frostbite spell seemed to work wonders, allowing me time enough to cast two force bolts and then stab them when they came in to attack to finish them off, or simply launch a third force bolt at them. Once I¡¯d hunted around 10 wargs and collected a handful of herbs, I spotted a pair of wargs, and slowly approached, determined to hunt them. I made as little noise as possible moving in, and then slowly started preparing my frostbite spell, releasing it at the leftmost warg. With the ice crackling around it, the other warg instantly turned, and seeing me, started to run towards me. I had been prepping a force bolt immediately after releasing the frostbite pattern though, and released it before it could get closer than a meter to me. Impacting with a thud, I stepped in a stabbed out with my spear, grazing it¡¯s neck when it lashed out with it¡¯s front paw, prompting me to pull my leg back, as fast as I could, dodging the swipe, but putting me off balance enough for it to jump at me and bowl me over. I took my spear in both hands and rammed it up as the warg attempted to bite down on my throat, slamming it upwards and off of me before it could reach, its back claws lightly scraping my legs as it went. I quickly scrambled up, and began preparing a spell pattern as it got up from where it had fallen, and released it as it finished, lightly knocking it back. I was about to go for the finish with my spear when the other one, who had managed to escape the ice, dashed in, clawing my left leg as it went. Cursing, I turned to face the new threat, both of us circling, as the first warg slowly started to move towards my back. Before it could reach me properly from behind, I dashed forward, stabbing out at the undamaged warg, and caught it square in the neck. It pulled back again as I felt an impact on my back, knocking me forwards. I twisted around, knocking it off me but getting some nasty scratches on my back in return, and slashed out with my spear from my back, but only the shaft of my spear hit it with a meaty thwack. I pulled my spear back in and rolled to the side just as the warg I¡¯d stabbed in the neck landed where I had been. It was wheezing now, a constant stream of blood leaking down to the forest floor. I prepped a spell pattern while the two wargs were both in my vision, and both wargs jumped towards me, so I simply made an intentional mistake, smiling as all three of us were hit by the explosion. I got up coughing, to see both the wargs down for the count. I stepped forwards and poked both with my spear to be safe, then put my hand on them, turning them into pairs of warg skin: damaged and warg tooth: damaged. I smiled, drank a health potion, and sighed. I only had one left, so I probably shouldn¡¯t try to hunt two of them for the time being. I wandered around the forest for a while, hunting until I had around twenty warg skin and teeth, and finishing the amount of herbs I would need to complete the request again. By the time I was done, I was once again exhausted, and empty on health potions. One of the wargs had managed to catch my hand in its teeth as I was trying to prepare a spell pattern, which had then exploded leaving both of us damaged. The spell pattern mistakes seemed to be doing more damage now, seeing as it still took out approximately the same amount of hp that it had when I¡¯d only had one vitality. Maybe the fact that my wisdom was higher now had something to do with it. I headed back to town. I was going to hunt a few more orbs on the way so I could afford to buy some more potions, and I wasn¡¯t going to turn in my warg skins until I had thirty enough for the quest. On the way back, I spotted something very odd. It was a bundle of branches, like a bush without leaves, with a pulsing green mass inside of it. As I approached, thick vine like tendrils snaked out of it, holding it up off the ground. Holding my spear at the ready position, and dropping down to a crouch, I saw more of the vine tendrils snaking out, waving about as it slowly walked towards me. I instantly prepped my frostbite spell and launched it. I wasn¡¯t sure what this thing was, but I was going to find out when it died. The spell pattern flew down, impacting on it¡¯s main body, freezing it and two of the vines holding it up. The two frozen vines shattered, too brittle from the ice to hold the thing up, but two more promptly replaced them, and it soon shook off the ice and started approaching, shrugging off what ice was left on it. When it got closer, it lashed out with one of the vines, but I stepped to the side, dodging it, stabbing into the pulsing green mass in the center. It screeched in response, making me wonder how it was even making the noise. I resisted the impulse to cover my ears, and twisted my spear before pulling it out and stabbing back in again. This time, it batted the spear away with one of its vine tentacle things, sweeping my spear to the side of it. I quickly pulled my spear back in, but not quickly enough to avoid getting slammed in the chest with one of its limbs, feeling far heavier than it looked. I got knocked back a few feet, but managed to keep my legs under me, and started prepping another frostbite, seeing as how it had seemed to be quite effective the first time. It swung another of its limbs at my head, but I ducked down, paying careful care to the spell pattern to avoid the explosion. Releasing it, this time aimed towards the bottom, I released it, and with a crackling noise it froze all 5 of the limbs it was using to hold itself up. The frozen limbs soon collapsed, having the whatever it was fall to the floor before it could get more of its vines under it. I ran forward, stabbing in as deep as I could to try and kill it, and then watched as its flailing limbs collapsed, limp in death. I sighed. I hadn¡¯t quite taken enough damage to warrant a health potion, that one hit had only taken about a quarter of my health. Luckily, frostbite seemed to be very efficient in lowering its limb count, if it had kept the extra two I had frozen in the beginning it may have been a much harder fight. I then walked up to it and put my hand on it, finding out it was a treant, getting rewarded with four Treant Vines. As the body disappeared, I realized that I could have chopped off the nine vines I had counted, making me start to think that maybe I should find someone to teach me how to harvest those things properly, rather than this goddess stuff. I headed back to town, musing on why we got so much less with the automatic harvest system. Slaughtering the couple of orbs that tried to attack me, I soon arrived at the gates, but held off on selling the loot I had acquired as I didn¡¯t have enough for any of the quests. Seeing as how the sun was almost down, I bought some meat buns at the store I had gotten the skewers from, and headed off to the barracks to rest. Chapter 6: Cat and Mouse I woke up in the morning quite unhappy. I¡¯d chosen a different bed this time, yet still a window managed to have its light shine directly at my face. Glaring at it, certain that it was somehow the same window as last time, I got up and stretched. Today was going to be a hunting day. I grabbed my backpack from the side of the bed, and headed off to the alchemist¡¯s shop. I was planning on hunting as long as I could, so I could hopefully afford that book on alchemy today, so I needed a lot more potions. As I walked, I pulled up the forums, seeing if there was anything interesting. I was engrossed in watching a video of a party play, two warriors standing in front with large shields, a few treants beating on them, a mage in the background, throwing out flame spells which would light up the treants like a bonfire when they hit, along with an archer whose arrows seemed to be attracted to the center of the treants, hitting with uncanny accuracy. The party seemed to work as one person, the warriors always between the enemies and the backline, the backline always focusing on a target if it was starting to threaten one of the warriors. The only truly exceptional one was the archer, but all of them seemed to have perfect teamwork, and as the treant body count continued to climb, I started to wonder how people were managing to find so many enemies in one place. The most wargs I had seen in one place had been four, yet the spearman from the other video had been surrounded by far more than that, and this group managed to find over a dozen treants. My musings were interrupted when I felt an impact on my chest, and looked down to see a girl on the ground, rubbing her head. I tilted my head to the side. I wasn¡¯t wearing any armor, it couldn¡¯t have been that bad to hit me. Wondering why she seemed to be so hurt, she turned her face upwards. She was cute, with soft brown eyes, short brown hair, and a small nose. Her cute looks were marred however, by the massive scowl she was wearing as she looked at me. ¡°Watch where you¡¯re going next time asshole!¡± She growled at me. I stepped back, taken aback at how mismatched her looks were with her reaction. ¡°Sorry about that, are you ok?¡± I questioned her, not willing to get in an argument with a girl a full foot shorter than me. ¡°No thanks to you dick.¡± I shrugged. I was starting to get annoyed with how rude she was being, but I¡¯d dealt with worse, and figured she was just having a bad day. I started ignoring her and walked off, I had plans, and I wasn¡¯t going to let something like that get under my skin. ¡°Try not to run anyone else over fuckface!¡± She shouted at me as I left. I shook my head, she would have been quite cute if only she¡¯d kept her mouth shut. It wasn¡¯t long until I arrived at Alva¡¯s alchemy shop. I greeted her, and talked a bit, learning that the reason Orbs, Wargs, and many other monsters don¡¯t need to eat the nonexistent animals is that they were part of the Invaders, being which had come to this dimension from another, and fed off the mana which existed here. The local wildlife had been mostly exterminated by them, except for larger predators, who had actually exploded in population due to the abundant food source the invaders provided. I purchased as many potions as I could, thirteen of them, and headed over to the gates to hunt. First things first, I slaughtered enough orbs to fulfill the quota for them, practicing my spear on them rather than simply blasting them with spells, which at this point, was all too easy. I found out that if I managed to pierce my spear through one of their eyes, not an easy task on a moving target, I could one shot them, even though my strength wasn¡¯t high at all. I figured it must be some sort of critical system, or considering the realism of the game, a hit to the brain or heart would kill regardless of health. I then headed into the forest, planning to hunt some treants and wargs. Along with the twenty three skins I already had, it was laughably easy, I¡¯d just freeze them and throw force bolts at them until they died. I even hunted pairs of them a couple times, needing to use one of my health potions after one particularly nasty battle though, which had left me with some long scratches all down my back. I was gathering an herb when I heard the sound of a branch cracking behind me. I threw myself to the side, expecting to see either a warg or treant vine go flying by, but what I saw instead was a sword, cleaving down where I had been. I opened my eyes wide. I¡¯d known there would be pkers, but why on earth would they target some noob like me? Regardless, I stood up and got into my combat stance, asking a question as I prepared for my first fight against another player. ¡°What are you attacking me for?¡± ¡°Miss Lily said that you have to die, so die you will¡± The man replied in an outrageously noble tone of voice. My confusion was complete at this point, but regardless, I stepped back, trying to get out of range to where I could get off a spell. He simply watched me step back, a righteous look on his face as he continued to lecture me. ¡°You shouldn¡¯t have offended miss lily, any who offend her will be met only with our steel¡± Great, I was dealing with a role-playing knight character. I quickly drew up a spell pattern, and smiled as the guy started in surprise, starting his dash to me a bit too late. The frostbite spell hit him in his legs, making him fall down from the sudden immobility. I smiled, and commented as I stepped in and stabbed down towards his neck. ¡°Less talking more fighting next time Mr. White Knight¡± The spear impacted much the same way it had on the orbs and wargs, and pulling it out with a schwick noise, I started to think about what the hell was going on. The only person I could¡¯ve offended at all was that small girl from earlier, but it didn¡¯t seem like nearly enough to bother trying to hunt me down. I shrugged as the white knight finished bleeding out, and smiled as a pop up showing I had leveled up appeared. You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story. Turns out pvp was quite rewarding indeed. I put the point into vitality. I was gaining plenty of wisdom at this point from meditating, and I wasn¡¯t planning on getting hit enough to raise my own vitality. I then looked down, and started. His shield had been left behind along with a small pile of copper coins, but I had thought that you only lost money on death. A quick search on the forums found people whining about it, but it turns out that initiating pvp outside of sanctioned duel arenas flags you to drop one of your equipment on death for an hour after. If you kill a player who hadn¡¯t initiated combat with you first, you get flagged for two hours, and two more for every additional player you kill. I grinned, and put the shield in my bag, adding the pitiful six copper he had dropped to my backpack as well. I got up, and spotted another two players in the distance heading over, likely having been messaged about my location from the first guy. I smiled, I was going to be the hunter this time. I slowly backed off before they could spot me, and climbed one of the trees nearby, waiting for them to get closer so I could confirm that they were indeed hunting for me. I sat there holding my breath as they arrived at where the white knight had died. As they got closer I saw one was a warrior wielding a sword and shield, the others staff showing him to be a mage. ¡°Well, this is where he died, nothing¡¯s left, guess he¡¯ll just have to grind up some orbs to buy a new one.¡± The guy laughed, seemingly happy at his misfortune. ¡°Well we need to find the guy that did it. Lily is pissed already, we don¡¯t want here to get even more mad.¡± The man shuddered, making me wonder how one girl managed to coerce so many people to hunt for me. I shrugged my shoulders and dropped to the ground shouting at the two players as I did. They both started in surprise, and the mage quickly started drawing up a spell pattern while the warrior lagged in surprise. Right as the mage was about to release the spell pattern, I dodged to the side, sending it flying wide of me as I dashed towards him. The warrior got over his surprise quickly though, and stepped between the two of us. I stepped back, the warriors lazy swing making me wonder how he even managed to hunt any orbs as it slowly went in front of me. I stabbed back at his face, and the man¡¯s eyes widened in surprise. Pushing his shield up to deflect it, leaving him with a nasty scratch on his cheek. I was pulling my spear back when I a force bolt hit me, but seeing as it hadn¡¯t knocked me back, just left what was sure to be a nasty bruise, I figured he hadn¡¯t upgraded it to force bolt+ yet. I stepped back and so did the warrior, giving me enough space to cast a frostbite, drawing my spell pattern far faster than the mage who seemed to be using the grimoire guide. Wondering at how incompetent the duo seemed, I finished my spell, encasing a good portion of the warrior in ice, and charged at the mage, who was still writing. He started as he saw me coming, looking up from his spell pattern, which was not a good idea as it promptly exploded, knocking him onto his back. I stepped up and stabbed downward, piercing him in the general area of the heart, then left him to hopefully bleed out as I went for the warrior. He¡¯d just finished releasing himself of the ice when my force bolt exploded against the side of his head, knocking his shield wide, and I sent another four following the first, each one keeping him enough off balance to allow the next one to hit. With the fifth bolt, he collapsed, and I turned back to the mage only to see him running away, an empty potion bottle in his hands. I sent a few force bolts flying, but it was too far away, and with the trees between us I couldn¡¯t hit him. I shrugged, and went over to the warrior who had dropped his sword this time, picking it up, thinking with that and the shield form before I could probably get a couple silver. It wasn¡¯t until looking at the pile of coins that I grinned though, A pile of 4 silver and change was sitting there, a decent amount, the warrior was going to be hurting in his pockets for not having spent his money before he came, especially seeing as he¡¯d probably had lots of trouble hunting even orbs alone. I was quite happy the the incompetence the hunters had shown, and if it kept going this way I may make a good amount of money from this alone. Even with that though, I ran off to the side, I wasn¡¯t going to stay still where the people hunting me could find me. The next few hours were a game of cat and mouse, me avoiding any group larger than two and them trying to surround me. I managed to fight a couple more loners and groups of two, all of them terribly incompetent, likely some pubbie guild from another game that hadn¡¯t used anything but the system assist for skills in it. I was getting confident as the hunt grew longer, having collected three swords, two shields, two staves from mages, and a gold and three silvers. I was looking for my next target when I saw a group of two warriors and decided that they would be it. I ran at them, and they quickly took up stances. I was a bit nervous as they seemed to have an idea what they were doing, unlike the previous people, but I wasn¡¯t going to back down with my success so far. I slowly approached in my almost crouch, holding my spear ready to thrust, and got in range, where we stared at each other, and nothing happened. All the other groups had attacked me on sight, and even with my new items giving me enough leeway on the finance side to buy a new spear, I¡¯d grown attached to my current one and would prefer to not drop it. It wasn¡¯t til I had backed away, stood up, and started to run that they began sprinting at me. I instantly turned, determined to earn some more money, and held my spear at a ready position. Again we stared off at each other, but then one attacked, going in low with his sword to cut at my leg. I stepped back to avoid it, but wasn¡¯t quite fast enough, and it caught the edge of my thigh, leaving a shallow cut. The other warrior started to circle behind me, and I stabbed out at him, prompting him to deflect it to the right with his spear and stabbing in towards my chest. I leaned to the side as fast as I could, another cut opening along my ribs, and then the other warrior stabbed in, I was enough off balance that he got a solid hit, dropping my spear as he pierced through my bicep. Leaving me to stumble from the pain. This hurt like crazy even with the reduction, but I grit my teeth and started preparing a spell pattern. Another slice into my one free arm stopped me, and the explosion knocked me back. I grabbed my spear when I fell down, and held it up, my arms screaming at me in protest from the cuts in them as I pulled out a health potion to drink. Curiously, they let me, and I soon found out why. In the short time I had been fighting, far more people had arrived, and among them I spotted that terribly rude girl from this morning. She walked up to behind the two warriors who had trounced me before clearing her throat. ¡°You see, this is why you should watch where you¡¯re going. You bumped into me, and then you had the audacity to kill those I sent after you. You simply don¡¯t know what¡¯s good for you do you?¡± I was boggled. I bump into her once in the street, apologize, she send people to attack me, and I had the audacity to have fought back? What in the ever living fuck? I stood back up as she simply stated ¡°Remove him from my sight.¡± The warriors then started closing in, and I saw multiple mages preparing spells, some of whom were creating runes I didn¡¯t recognize. I stabbed out with my spear towards one of the warriors in a last ditch effort to at least take one of them with me, but it was easily sidestepped, my speed lowering from the pain my arm was still in, even after the potion I had drunk. It wasn¡¯t too long after that I died. Staring at the screen stating I had seven hours, fifty-seven minutes and forty-four seconds real time before I could log back in, I fumed in silent rage. I was going to get my revenge one way or another, but I¡¯d definitely need new training and spells. Not having a heavy damage spell was coming back to bite me. Force bolt+ was nice to get a target off balance, but it didn¡¯t have much finishing power, only able to do the equivalent of chain stunning more clueless targets. I logged off, and went out to calm myself down. Taking off my helmet, I went to my computer and put on some music, it coming from speakers throughout the house for that very reason. I paced around as the music slowly soothed me, losing myself to the rhythm of the drums and bass. It wasn¡¯t long until I was singing along, calmed down, but now trying to plot out my revenge. Chapter 7: New Spells I woke up the next morning with a few plans floating around in my head, but I currently didn¡¯t have the ability to pull any of them off. I got up, made my morning cup of tea, and trawled the forums for a while, searching for anything interesting. The only thing that caught my eye was someone had found a mob that wasn¡¯t one of those weird creatures, probably one of the species that had survived the invaders that Alva had told me about. It was a giant bear instead, not with any of the features that made most the mobs seem bizarre in a way, but it was blindingly fast for its size, and horrifyingly strong. I watched as one of its paws smashed into a warrior with his shield up, only to be sent flying back and slam into a tree. The fight didn¡¯t last long, maybe five minutes, and ended with the entire party wiped. I finished off my morning cup of tea, slapped on my VR helmet, and hopped into game. As the temple that I was becoming quite familiar with appeared around me in an instant, I kept my balance for once, and instantly started walking over to the weapons shop I¡¯d seen before. When I arrived, this time I could hear hammering from the back, and seeing as nobody was around, I figured that the dwarf owner had to be in the back. I went around, looking at the items while I waited. There was everything from greatsword looking items to katanas to the spears I was slowly getting familiar with. There were even a couple of sets of plate armor on stands in prominent positions. They were made with a variety of materials, some seeming to have been made with bones, and one of the armor pieces looking to be made from giant scales rather than steel or bronze. It didn¡¯t take long until the hammering stopped, and the owner came out from the back. ¡°Back for that spear already boy? I figured you¡¯d take quite a while longer.¡± ¡°Not today¡± I sighed, I did want that spear. ¡°I actually wanted to see how much I could get for these.¡± I started pulling out the items I¡¯d gotten out of the more clueless players I had fought, and a grin started growing on the dwarfs face as I did. ¡°Had a busy day I see. It¡¯s sad to see you travelers fighting among yourselves, but seeing as how they dropped their items, they must have incurred the wrath of the goddess for being the first to go after you. Glad to see you gave more than you got. I can get you a silver for each of them, two for the staves.¡± I thanked him, handing over the items and getting 9 silver in return. ¡°I was also wondering where I could go to get some decent armor and was wondering how much it would run me.¡± ¡°Well I¡¯d suggest heading left down the street, and taking your first right. That¡¯ll be Merin¡¯s shop, she¡¯s probably your best bet for leathers and cloth. You can probably get a decent set or warg leathers for 3 gold.¡± ¡°That cheap? That¡¯s practically nothing!¡± ¡°Well warg skin isn¡¯t exactly expensive, especially with you travelers running around hunting everything that moves. The traders are appreciating the clear roads, and the crafters have so much warg skin and orb fur they don¡¯t know what to do with it. The guild used to sell the stuff for double the price before you guys showed up, now they¡¯re just trying to get rid of it. Besides, she has her apprentices to all the orb and warg crafting. It¡¯s practically slave labor anyway.¡± He chuckled, metal may not have gone down in price, but I¡¯m sure he was doing a bustling business himself with all the players running around. ¡°Oh, I was wondering why I haven¡¯t seen any dwarves other than yourself around.¡± Golrag laughed ¡°What is it with you silly travelers and thinking I¡¯m a dwarf, I¡¯m a bonafide human, you won¡¯t see any dwarves down here aside from the occasional trading caravan. And before you ask, the elves went missing when the invaders appeared, we don¡¯t even know if there are any left.¡± I flushed in embarrassment, he was around 4¡¯5, had a massive build, and a bright red beard down to his chest, I couldn¡¯t think of him as anything aside from a dwarf, even though he¡¯d told me otherwise. Just as I was thinking of leaving, a pair of players walked in. I looked back, and started. One of them was Mr. White Knight from yesterday. I¡¯d just sold his sword to the very person he was planning to buy from, making me grin at the coincidence. Figuring that at the very least I could try and get some information from him, I went up to ask. ¡°Hello again Mr. White Knight. I was wondering who Lily was, why does she seem to have an army at her beck and call?¡± He started in surprise, glaring at me before sighing and getting a sort of defeated look in his face. ¡°She¡¯s the daughter of a CEO and a minor ViewTube celebrity, Most the people are simply trying to get on her good side before she inherits the family business, and the other half just want to look good in front of their idol.¡± I stood up a bit straighter in surprise, wondering why he was being properly cooperative. ¡°And you?¡± I asked ¡°I¡¯ve known her since she was small. All I heard was some guy had been terribly rude to her, and didn¡¯t learn what had actually happened until a while after. Sorry about that by the way, I should¡¯ve expected it to be something like that. She¡¯s sort of let her popularity get to her head about some things, and I should be trying to rein her in a bit.¡± I shrugged, I was still going to knock her down a peg with what she¡¯d done to me, but at least now I had a little information on her. I thanked him for his information, and mentioned he could maybe buy his own sword back from Golrag here, then headed off to sell off the rest of the loot I had acquired. I arrived at the guild, first heading inside to grab the orb quest off the board. I still had the one I¡¯d taken for wargs, so I went outside to stand in one of the lines. The large open space was as busy as usual, with much fewer people wearing beginner gear. I hadn¡¯t been grinding out money like these people seemed to be, wearing leather armor over their noob clothes, a few even having steel weapons, and most the warriors having upgraded their wooden shields to bronze. Here and there were people who were probably the original adventurers of the land, outfitted in full plate, or having extremely fancy staves with brightly colored robes. Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings. I handed over the damaged warg skins, which got me one and a half copper each, and the warg teeth, which got me a copper each. Along with the herbs and the quest rewards, It came to 2 gold one silver and two copper, my best take so far. I left, squeezing out of the square, and headed over to the mages college, I needed to get some aoe capabilities, and something a bit scarier than my force bolt for single target. I was sure that force bolt would probably do plenty of damage with enough wisdom, but it just wasn¡¯t cutting it at the moment. Arriving there, the rune covered structure looking as imposing as always, I walked in and got in the line behind some mages, only one of whom had upgraded from his beginner staff, me not fitting in with my spear. Once I¡¯d arrived at the counter, I looked over to see a different man than the one I¡¯d seen last time at the counter. ¡°Hello, I was looking to buy something a bit more powerful than force bolt, and maybe something with aoe capabilities.¡± The man looked me over, a slight sneer coming to his face as he noticed my spear. ¡°You can get the spell pattern for any of the tier one spells from the basic circles for five silver, but if you want something from tier two, you¡¯ll need to pay one gold, same for anything outside the basic circles.¡± ¡°Circles?¡± I asked, unsure what he was talking about. ¡°The five basic circles are earth, water, fire, air, and force. The outer circles include anything outside of those, such as darkness or lightning. There¡¯s also tiers of spells, higher tier spell patterns require more of the basic symbol for an element, in the case of ice, an oval, and a cross symbol for force. Tier two spells for example use two ovals to make their spell pattern, tier three require three and so forth.¡± Figuring that my frostbite spell had served me well, I decided to ask about more ice spells. ¡°Well would you have anything water based that you would suggest?¡± ¡°Well I¡¯d assume you¡¯re looking for ice rather than pure water, pure water is for healing, but It¡¯s the subset within it that is used for battle.¡± ¡°Oh, well then yes please.¡± This was the first confirmation that I¡¯d had about healing spells being in the game, but I figured it made sense, some of the raids would likely be impossible without any sort of healer existing within the game. ¡°I¡¯d suggest ice spear and Ice shatter then. The first will be five silver and the second one gold.¡± I handed over the money, and he went to the back room, returning with two scrolls. He handed them to me, and I started walking over to the training area to practice. I started off with trying Ice spear. The rune for it was an ovoid, with a diamond inside it, a line stretching to touch the bottom of the oval, and two small lines coming out of the top surfaces of it. It took me only a couple times of exploding myself before I managed to create the spell pattern correctly, seems my constant drawing in the air was giving me enough practice to not blow myself up as much. When I released it, it seemed to melt into the air, forming a jagged spear of ice, which flew towards the target, stabbing through the entire target. This was definitely more impressive than force bolt. I then tried out Ice shatter, this one was two ovoid symbols attached by a line, with what looked to be random squiggles on the inside. After quite some more unsuccessful attempts, this time quite a few more than ice spear, with those squiggles causing me no end of trouble, I managed to properly make the pattern without getting knocked back by an explosion. It formed a small ball of light blue glowing energy, then floated down the field, far slower than my other spells had done, but when it impacted, there was a large crackling noise, and Ice spikes stabbed outwards in every direction, each one around a meter in length, looking like all the world like a sea urchin made of ice. The target was impaled through multiple parts of its body, and I could definitely see how useful this would be for closely grouped crowds of enemies. As the ice melted unnaturally quickly, seeming to fade into mist rather than pool on the ground as water, I wondered how effective it would be. Facing one enemy, it probably wouldn¡¯t be all too useful, only traveling about as fast as an underhanded thrown ball, giving the enemy plenty of time to dodge, and that¡¯s not even accounting for the extra time it took to draw, being twice as much writing as my tier one spells. I then opened up my grimoire to see the mana costs of my new spells.
Grimoire
Stores all spell patterns you have learned
Spell Name Mana cost
Force Bolt+ 2+0.5*wis
Frostbite 5
Ice spear 10
Ice Shatter 20
They were both far more expensive than my basic force bolt, even with its mana multiplier. With my five wisdom, I¡¯d only manage to get off five ice spears or two shatters. I shrugged. The first thing I would have to do was practice the spell until I¡¯d memorized the spell patterns and could reliably draw them without the guide. For the rest of the day, I¡¯d practice my new spells, every time I ran out of mana I¡¯d meditate for a while. It didn¡¯t seem to increase my mana regeneration, but it definitely helped me pass the time, and I even got another point of wisdom out of it, giving me enough to cast ice shatter three times. I¡¯d noticed this before, but unlike the physical stats which required me to sleep to get, wisdom was applied instantly, possibly because it was ¡°realistic¡± to not gain the muscle until you¡¯d waited a while. Once the sun was setting, I decided that it would be a good time to hop off, and logged out to take care of my bodily needs rather than sleep in game. While I logged off, I wondered what happened to our in game bodies when we logged out. I hadn¡¯t seen any bodies laying around where people may have logged off, so they had to disappear or something. I shrugged, sure there was some in game explanation on it, and went to go get some food. Taking off my VR helmet and hopping off of my bed, I went to the restroom and made myself some food, a grilled cheese in this case. I turned on the television in my small living room and flipped over to a game news streaming site to feed my quickly becoming unhealthy addiction to Sanity Online. ¡°With sanity online quickly becoming the most played game of the time, we¡¯re looking to professor of VR technologies Tom Cumin.¡± ¡°Thank you, I¡¯m here to talk about what makes Sanity Online the go-to game for anyone into VR right now. First of all, it¡¯s the first large release we¡¯ve had in nearly a decade, most companies trying to continue to milk their existing subscriber base. The next big reason is the lack of any subscription model. While most companies have exorbitant monthly fees to pay for their server upkeep, Sanity Online for some mystery reason only requires an - admittedly costly - entrance fee. This is heavily appealing, especially among the college age students who often aren¡¯t sure of their income month to month.Then there is the fact that there are no microtransactions of any type, completely precluding any possibility of pay to win. However many experts are saying that either microtransactions or some form of subscription cost will have to come into play eventually, as server costs start to mount. While there is an age limit, that¡¯s seen as a good thing by a large portion of the playerbase, though it does prevent them from getting the money of younger gamers. The final reason of course, is the realism. While a good deal of players are calling it excessive, the fact that the non player characters seem to be alive is drawing in many people on its merit alone. From what I¡¯ve seen it¡¯s virtually impossible to discern a NPC from a player, the only real difference at this point is players are often still stuck in their starting gear.¡± I turned off the tv, most of the information had been nothing new, but I did find it interesting how important the NPCs seeming real was. I¡¯d been talking to them like a human, but I¡¯d done that in every game, it tended to get better results from the more simplistic AI, so I wasn¡¯t sure exactly how much better they were. Thinking I should probably do some testing, I decided to log back in. Chapter 8: Party Hunting Hopping back in game was as sudden as always, something I still hadn¡¯t quite gotten used to. Rather than training, I decided to do some hunting today so I could hopefully afford some of that armor Golrag had told me about. At three gold I could possibly get that within a day, and I could really use some protection from getting clawed up and bitten with how much that had been happening to me. Stopping by Alva¡¯s potion shop, I picked up some more of the beginner health potions, though she warned me I should probably upgrade to normal potions relatively soon, as the beginner ones were intended for beginners - people who had only one vitality. After saying bye to Alva, I headed off to the gates. Outside the towering entrance was the ever present mist, tendrils of it writhing their way along the ground. I wasn¡¯t sure exactly what it was, but it never seemed to fade even in the bright daylight, probably something to ask Alva about. Heading off to the forest, I slowed down on my way to slaughter enough orbs to turn in for the quest, giggling like mad at how easy it had become with my ice spear one shotting them. As I collected their materials, I decided my next course of action after getting some armor would be to learn to properly harvest their furs and orbs, I was sick of getting half the money due to getting only damaged and poor quality furs. Once I arrived at the forest, this time I stopped just to admire the way the mist slowly weaved its way around the trunks. The forest was one of old growth, large pathways weaving around the trunks, and only scattered bushes and plants, with the sun dappling the ground in spots where the leaves didn¡¯t quite block out the light. I admired the view for a moment, then shook my head and got to work. My work this time was exceedingly easy, while I couldn¡¯t kill the wargs in one hit with my ice spear the way I could the orbs most the time, they would often be pinned to the ground for the second or three it took the magical Ice to melt, leaving me free to finish them off with a force bolt. Roaming around, I spotted a group of three wargs clustered together, and decided it would be a good opportunity to play with ice shatter. Prepping the spell pattern, I hid behind a trunk and lobbed the slower moving projectile towards them. It flew true, but just as it was about to land, one of the the wargs noticed, hissed, and jumped to the side just as it exploded. Two of them were caught by the ice, and I quickly sent another ice spear at the warg charging me, impaling it entirely through. Of the other wargs, one had collapsed, while the other, even with holes poking through it in many parts hissed and charged at me. Putting it down with a force bolt, I smiled. I¡¯d had so much trouble with even two before, yet here I was taking on three without breaking a sweat. The money I had spent on the new spells had been totally worth it. I hunted throughout the day, collecting enough to turn in three warg quests and a treant quest when I spotted a massive group of treants surrounding what had to be a boss mob. It was easily twice the size of the others, it¡¯s vine like appendages were far thicker, and it had to have at least fifteen of them compared to the nine I counted on the normal ones. I was just about to back out and try to find some smaller amounts of mobs to hunt when I heard some talking from off to the side. ¡°Ok, this will be the third, and hopefully final time we attempt to do this. Dark, you and I will be trying to attract the attention, Mars, use that oversized sword of yours and chop up anything you can get to. Aylea, you get to be our ranged support, and Light, you¡¯re on healing. We want to attract as many of the small monsters as we can before we get to the boss mob, so we¡¯ll try to have Aylea aggro them from range. Alright, let¡¯s go!¡± I watched as they slowly approached the large group of mobs, hiding myself, unsure if I should offer to help, or try and get some benefits if they wiped. I shrugged, either way I was going to stay and see what happened. They were an interesting group, there was one tall masculine guy wielding a nasty looking axe and a shield, a guy who seemed even more skinny than I was with a sword and shield, two girls in robes with staffs, one short and mousey, the other tall and gorgeous. Completing the assembly, there was a girl who couldn¡¯t be more than five feet tall with a sword almost the same size as her somehow attached to her backpack. I had no idea how it managed to not tear off the pack, or even how she was even managing to stand with that ridiculous amount of weight throwing off her balance, but just ascribed it to the backpacks that seemed to be able to do anything at this point. The party started moving out, the two warriors with shields up front, the mage and healer in back, and the girl and her silly sword in the middle. I shadowed them as they approached the horde, but before they got too close to the mobs, the guy with a battleaxe said something to the tall woman. She then created a rune and released it, a ball of fire flying towards one of the treants. As it went up in flames, the surrounding treants began to charge at the group, but the larger one just ignored them, seemingly content to let its minions take care of the disturbance. As the treants approached, the two men with shields took up wide stances, bracing themselves as they put their shields forward. Another ball of fire hit a treant just as the group of treants reached the small party. Slamming into each other, I could see the two warriors get knocked back a decent amount, but they held firm once they¡¯d stopped. The one with a battleaxe sat there and blocked everything, not moving except for the occasional small sidestep. He seemed to be a lumberjack at heart as he brought his axe around in sharp vicious swings, chopping into the branches that surrounded their pulsing green cores. The skinny warrior on the other hand danced around most of the vines, only blocking those that he couldn¡¯t get around, slashing into the vines, slowly disarming the treants. As the mousey girl sat back, likely waiting for when her healing would be needed, the small girl with a giant sword joined the fray. It was an interesting thing to watch, it wasn¡¯t so much that she swung around her sword as she seemed to get swung around by it instead, but it would unerringly slam into the treants cores or limbs, viciously slashing through with practically no resistance. I sat back and watched as they slowly mowed through the group of treants, their flailing limbs landing occasionally, and every so often the mousey looking one would go forward and draw a rune directly over one of the warriors bodies, and a soft blue glow would surround them for a second before fading. This went on for a time, until around twenty of the treants had been slain. It started with a rumbling noise. It couldn¡¯t quite be called a growl or a roar, just a vibrating sensation that seemed to flow entirely through you, and then the boss treant started to move with his remaining group. It rushed in, faster than the other trants despite its bulk, and slammed into the axe wielding warrior, sending him flying back a couple meters. He managed to land on his feet however, and rushed back in, trying to keep the boss mob contained. The other warrior rushed in to join him, narrowly dodging a vertical slam by one of the vines to step in closer to it. The girl with the big sword stayed around the outside, trying to cull the remaining treants as the tall girl helped her, sending flames rushing as fast as she could, though she had slowed down significantly, likely out of mana, having to cast when it filled up enough to do so. The dance between party and boss continued for a time until something went wrong. The sword and shield warrior had gotten a bit too brave, and when going for a stab into the core of the boss treant, got slammed back, taking a hit directly in the chest. Wincing in empathy, I watched as things started to spiral out of control. The axe wielding warrior, now having to deal with twice as many vine tentacles, started to get beaten around. I watched for a moment, deliberating on what to do. Should I go out and help? Or just try to sit back and collect the gold they dropped when they died. I sighed. I wasn¡¯t often one to play the white knight, but they seemed to be an interesting group, and I could probably use a group later on in the game if soloing became a bit much for me. Most importantly, I¡¯d like to have people to call on if Lily¡¯s minions decided to have another go at me. I quickly complete a frostbite spell and sent it off, along with another two as soon as I could. This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere. The axe wielding warrior started in surprise as he saw the spells impact, but quickly turned my way and gave a grin before turning his attention back to the monster. Unfortunately, the frostbite spell wasn¡¯t able to cause the larger treant¡¯s vines to shatter the way the smaller ones had, but it did impede enough of the vines that the warrior was having a better time of it. Sending in a couple ice spears to the boss as I approached, I saw the other warrior get healed up and rejoin the fight. I stayed back this time, I was going to sit back and cast my spells as fast as I could, just the way a mage is supposed to. While standing in the back, I watched for any time the treant was looking like it could get in another good hit, and would release a frostbite spell I kept ready at all times. Each time it hit, it would shatter with a crackling noise, encasing a tentacle or two in ice, enough to slow down the monster if not stop it. After a bit of doing that, I noticed something not so good. I was out of mana. Cursing, I took my spear, and waded in, I was going to have to be on the warrior side of the fighting for a short while. Ducking under a vine being swung at me, I closed in, slashing at another vine as it went flying by me. The two warriors, now under less pressure with me there as well, started getting more aggressive, going for stabs and chops against the vines or core. I¡¯d stand there dodging more than anything else, ducking left and right, weaving between the vines that kept flying my way. Every so often I¡¯d get the chance to stab at the vines or the core, making sure not to extend enough that it could catch me before I could pull my spear back in. Things went well for a while until I ducked under a vine, only to see another heading straight at my face. Bracing for the impact, I still felt completely rattled as I got knocked back. Slowly getting up, everything seeming to spin around me. The small mousey girl was next to me in just a couple seconds, forming a spell rune I hadn¡¯t seen before. As it was released, I felt the dizziness and aching in my head completely fade. I looked ahead to see how the warriors were faring without me, only to see the girl with the oversized sword had finished all the secondary mobs and had come to help. Seeing as they had it well in hand, I sat back and lobbed ice spikes towards it, trying to practice landing them in exactly the same spot every time. I wasn¡¯t particularly successful, but I didn¡¯t need to be, as not long after, the treant collapsed, a large thump sounding out as it hit the forest floor. I sat back and let out a breath I hadn¡¯t realized I¡¯d been holding in. That had been an intense fight for the portion I was in melee range, and the entire time I had been worried that another one of us would get knocked out of position only for it to overwhelm the next target. The warrior with the battleaxe came over to me and offered a hand. ¡°I¡¯m Loss, glad to have you join us for that, I was worried we¡¯d wipe yet again.¡± ¡°No problem, I¡¯m Rayth. Besides, it looked like a fun fight to join.¡± ¡°And fun is what games are about right?¡± Loss replied with a grin on his face. ¡°Anyway, I should probably introduce my party. The skinny guy over there is Dark, And the healer, Light, is his twin sister. The tall girl over there is Aylea, and the girl with the sword is Mars.¡± ¡°Pleasure to meet you all, You guys have been trying to kill this thing for a while then?¡± ¡°Yeah, we first ran into it when we were really low level, and wiped instantly. We came back a few levels later and didn¡¯t fare much better. Luckily, we managed it this time. Thanks for the help.¡± After chatting for a bit, we traded friend invites, then started to divide out the loot. I refused any of the small treant vines as I¡¯d not helped for that, but I did accept two of the seven Giant treant vines that had dropped. We then started on our way back to the city, chatting as we went. ¡°So I have to ask, why the giant sword?¡± ¡°Well, I¡¯ve always played berserker as my class, so I¡¯m just more comfortable with a big weapon. It¡¯s just a holdover from other games I suppose, most of them don¡¯t actually make you wield the thing properly, they usually make it not any heavier than the normal sword. It took a while to get used to, but it¡¯s honestly become quite fun.¡± Mars replied, he red hair framing a small smile on her face. ¡°Makes sense then. Though it is quite amusing to see you getting swung around by a sword the same size as you. So when did you guys start playing together? Were you in a guild together or just meet up here?¡± ¡°Well, we all know each other in real, and we¡¯ve been a part of the same gaming group for a few years now. We normally just join a guild for the benefits it tends to provide, but we were hoping to make our own here. If we ever get it sorted we¡¯ll leave a place open for you.¡± I smiled, and gave a noncommittal reply right around when we reached the gates. Seeing as how we were all going to the adventurers guild, we stuck together, chatting as we went. I told them how Alva had told me that the mobs we were fighting were invaders, and that most of the regular wildlife of this world had been exterminated by them. ¡°Wait, so you mean to say that the reason the mobs never seem to run out in this game is that they¡¯re coming from another dimension?¡± ¡°That¡¯s what I was told at least, I would assume the mist everywhere has something to do with it as well, though I¡¯ll need to ask Alva about that.¡± ¡°Huh, this game keeps getting more interesting as we go.¡± At this point, we had reached the adventurers guild, and we grabbed the quests off the board and hopped in line to see how much we would get from our hunting trip. After turning in the loot for a nice four gold three silver and change, we said our farewells, and split up, me going to the armor shop, and them having to log off for now. I soon arrived at the store Golrag had told me about, and went inside, looking to buy a set of warg leather armor to help protect me from the beatings I was getting on a regular basis. Going inside the shop, I was met with a riot of color. There were shades from bright orange to an almost neon green, making me almost leave the shop immediately due to the affront against my eyes. I was seriously considering it when a woman came hopping out from the back room. ¡°Hiiiii, I¡¯m Merin, and welcome to my shop.¡± She seemed to be lightly bouncing up and down as she greeted me with a big grin on her face, seeming to be almost scarily bubbly. ¡°Hi¡­ I¡¯m Rayth. Golrag suggested your shop when I said I was looking for armor, he said I could get some warg leathers for pretty cheap here.¡± ¡°Oh he did? How sweet of him. Of course we can get you some leathers. Hmmm, with your hair and eyes, you¡¯d look absolutely lovely in something matching with them.¡± She seemed to draw out the vowels of practically every other word as she spoke in her almost scarily cheerful tone. ¡°I¡¯d prefer something a bit more bland please, I¡¯d rather not be more of a target than I already seem to be.¡± ¡°Oh boo. Fine, I¡¯ll have one of the apprentices see you get fitted, it¡¯ll be three gold for the armor, and you can come pick it up tomorrow, but please stop by regularly, it¡¯s always nice having a fresh face to talk to.¡± I stepped back, deciding that unless these leathers were extraordinary, I was going to find another shop to get my armor from next time. She then went back through the door behind the counter, and out came a small man, who with no nonsense, and thankfully none of the bubblyness Merin seemed to have, took my measurements and then nodded, saying I could come pick it up tomorrow for the three gold. I thanked her, and then escaped into the street, walking a bit faster than necessary. My pace slowed as I approached the temple, I still had a decent amount of time left in the day, so I should probably spend it training. I sighed. I was going to bite the bullet and go get some more spear practice from that sadistic teacher. I quickly walked over to the warrior training area before I could lose my nerve, and quickly spotted him giving some pointers to a guy using a sword against a practice dummy. I sighed, then walked over. I needed the practice, even if it wouldn¡¯t be fun. A couple hours later, and sporting more bruises than I could count, I was really wishing I could have Light here to heal me up. I facepalmed, I wasn¡¯t broke now, and they weren¡¯t going to be of use for too much longer, so I took out two of my health pots and downed them, almost instantly feeling much better. I switched to a proper walking gait instead of the limp I had been sporting, went to the barracks, found an empty bed, and passed out. Chapter 9: Harvesting I awoke in the morning to a very nice announcement, I had gained a point in vitality, likely from the beatings that the instructor had put me through. I smiled, then frowned. With all the hunting I¡¯d done recently, why hadn¡¯t I gotten a level up? Especially with that boss mob I¡¯d hunted, I¡¯d have expected to have a much easier time of it. I trawled the forums for a while, then found out something that all the power levelers had noticed. Once you reach a few levels over a mob, they start granting next to no experience, so the boss was probably the only thing that gave me more than a pittance of it. I shrugged, then decided to go out and do some more hunting. I only had two more quests to complete before I could take the test to raise my rank in the guild and go hunt some bigger monsters. I grabbed my spear from the side of the bead, and headed out of the barracks I was continuing to stay at. Maybe I should consider moving up to a proper inn, those beds were way uncomfortable. I shrugged, I didn¡¯t really have the money, at 5 silver a night it was enough for ten beginner pots, and with how little they had started to recover, I¡¯d likely have to upgrade them soon, and that would probably be a nasty expense. Hopefully when I started hunting something bigger I could make some more money. I soon arrived at the gates and went off to hunt some orbs. After slaughtering enough of them to complete another quest, I went into the forest to do some more warg hunting for my second quest. After killing my first one, a friendly pop up informed me that I had gained a level. Took it long enough, I thought. Smiling and putting the point into wisdom, I continued to hunt wargs, but ended up finding so many herbs that I had enough to turn in for that quest before I was even halfway through with the warg quota. Deciding that I didn¡¯t have to even bother with the rest of it, I turned around and headed back into town. Once I reached town, I grabbed the quests off the board and got into one of the ever present lines and waited to turn my things in. After reaching the front, I decided to ask something that had been bothering me. ¡°Hey, who would I go to to learn how to properly harvest these things? I¡¯ve had a few people mention it to me, but I don¡¯t know where to go to learn.¡± ¡°Well your best bet is just head on into the main guild building, ask at the counter and they can probably get a guy to show you for an hour or two how to figure it out¡± I thanked him, then headed in. First would be the combat examination, then would come learning how to properly harvest these things. Once I got in, I got my number and sat down, but had barely reached my seat when I got called for. Going up to the counter, I spotted the same woman I¡¯d dealt with on my first day here, Sable, sporting her ever present business smile. ¡°Hello again, what can I do for you today?¡± ¡°Well I completed my ten quests, and was also wondering if I could get someone to show me how to properly harvest items from the monsters.¡± ¡°First let me see your guild tag for a second¡± I passed it over, and she put it up against a heavily rune inscribed surface, likely something which could tell how many quests I had completed. ¡°I see you¡¯ve completed the necessary tasks, I¡¯ll get the combat instructor to come do your test for you.¡± I thanked her, then waited as she came out with a large man, whose name turned out to be Oskar. He then guided me through an exit and we found ourselves at a small little open air arena, a smaller version of the training grounds that were at the temple. ¡°So from your guild tag, you¡¯re a mage, so first, show me what you can do¡± he said, pointing to one of the targets, likely the same regenerating ones that I was used to. I nodded my head, then went through my small spell repertoire, smashing, impaling and freezing the target. ¡°Ok, seems competent enough, you didn¡¯t use a guide from the grimoire, and didn¡¯t make any errors with your spell patterns.¡± I tilted my head, befuddled, there would be players who would be using the guides or making mistakes even after they¡¯d hunted enough to take the test? Maybe they were from a party where they could leisurely sit back and slowly sling spells, but it wouldn¡¯t be a very good long term strategy for them. ¡°Now then, I see you have a spear, let¡¯s see how you use it.¡± I took a step back, my experience with the skinny instructor warning me that this was going to be a bad idea, but I nodded my head regardless. I wanted to be able to take the two star quest, and I wasn¡¯t going to back down at just a little pain. He went over to a box, grabbing a training spear for both of us, and dipped it into the red powder. It seemed I would soon be covered in again. He handed my spear to me, then stepped back, taking a stance as I took my own. I waited for a moment, but he just sat there, so I figured I was going to be the attacker. I stepped in and stabbed out lightly, trying to keep my spear controlled so I wouldn¡¯t be knocked off balance if he knocked it to the side. Of course that¡¯s exactly what happened, his spear in two hands going up and to the right, sending my spear tip flying wide. I pulled back quickly though, expecting an attack to come after that, but he continued to do nothing. This time I stabbed out as his foot, trying to at least get some of the red powder on him, but it was easily deflected. This went on for a few minutes, me trying to stab him, even trying to feint one direction then sweep the spear in a different direction, but he just repeatedly sent my spear off nowhere near him. After a while, he stood back up straight, and started talking again.Stolen novel; please report. ¡°Alright, that¡¯s enough, you seem to have a competent grasp of how to use your spear, you¡¯re no master, and it will be years before you are, but at least I know you won¡¯t stab yourself by accident. I was wondering why you¡¯re only using one hand though, that seriously limits your spear work.¡± ¡°Well I try to keep one hand open for spellcasting, I¡¯m not quite comfortable with it in melee combat yet, but I hope to be able to use both in the near future.¡± Oskar put on a small smile before replying. ¡°Yeah, it takes a lot of practice to be able to do that reliably, you¡¯ll be exploding yourself for a while. You¡¯ve passed the examination by the way, I could¡¯ve passed you on your magic alone, but I wanted to see what you could do with that pig sticker.¡± I got a big grin on my face, I could do the two star quests now! We headed in, me being oh so thankful that I hadn¡¯t ended up covered in powder for once, he hadn¡¯t attacked me once. We went back to the counter, he said some words to Sable, and I handed over my guild tag which she placed on a different part of the runes I couldn¡¯t see as it was covered by the counter. Handing it back, she gave her congratulations. I then remembered to ask about the harvesting thing, and Oskar piped up and said he¡¯d be glad to show me. I asked about compensation and he shrugged, saying not to bother. The two of us then left the guild and headed out to the gates. After a short walk, we arrived at where the orbs liked to gather and he had me kill one of them. I acquiesced, impaling it with an ice spear, killing it instantly. He then brought me over and took out a knife he¡¯d had sheathed on his hip. He then proceeded to make a cut around the mouth of it, and I started turning green at what I now knew was going to happen. He then made a cut up and down the middle, then proceeded to peel the skin from the poor orb. I watched in horrified fascination as the flesh underneath came into view until he finished, cutting around the gangly legs and pulling the skin free. He then handed it to me before giving me some advice. ¡°It may not look as pretty as the ones you can get from the goddess, but it¡¯s far more durable, and you¡¯ll get a good deal more money out of them. Now as for the orb stone, just find this small protrusion on their back, make a small incision, and reach in and grab it out.¡± He pulled out a stone dripping in blood, I¡¯d wondered how the counters at the guild ended up covered at that stuff, and it seems I was learning. ¡°But won¡¯t the blood end up staining the backpacks? And what do we do with the body?¡± I asked. ¡°Nope, they keep themselves clean somehow. And as for the body, they fade away after a bit, similar to how they appear. Now it¡¯s time for you to try one.¡± I took a deep breath before impaling another orb, and went over to it with trepidation. I borrowed his knife, I¡¯d need to get one of my own later. I then started making the incisions he made, and he guided me as I went telling me where best to cut, then how to use the knife to slowly peel away the skin. About halfway through, I had to step back for a while to get my nausea under control, but eventually, I finished. ¡°Now for orbs and wargs, it¡¯s usually not worth the time to harvest them properly, but the crafters appreciate it, and you¡¯ll need the practice for when you harvest something a bit bigger. Now let¡¯s go off and I¡¯ll show you how to skin a warg. You also want to collect their incisors, those are useful for alchemy as they collect mana for some reason.¡± I followed him as we went into the forest, and not long after, we spotted a warg, killed in, then got back to the skinning. This one was much more complex, making cuts around the scaly paws and along the legs and tail before slowly peeling away the skin in the same way that we had with the orbs. After showing me how to get out the teeth, we went off and found a treant to chop up. The treants were much easier, and thankfully far less messy, only having to make a small cut along the vines and take out a smaller vine with a brighter green color. Having showed me the basics we headed back into town, him advising me to eat something as it would settle my stomach. I agreed, and got out some of my dried meat and crappy bread to snack on. Once we arrived at the guild he gave me some last advice before heading off. ¡°You can get a book that details how to harvest all the monsters we know about at the counter. It will be completely worth it if you manage to hunt something big.¡± I thanked him and did just as he had suggested, getting the book for a gold. I then headed off to the boards to see what requests were there for two stars. This time, there were only two hunting requests, one for a moki, and one for a moglin. If naming convention in this game followed most other games then it would probably be some sort of goblin variant. I smiled, finally something normal out of this worlds bizarre mobs. I then headed off to Merin¡¯s shop to pick up my armor. Once I arrived, Merin greeted me with a massive smile, trying to sidetrack me into a conversation while I did my best to keep her on track about getting my armor. After a while of our little verbal disagreement, I got my armor, and quickly escaped, I would put it on outside if only to avoid being in that shop any longer. I found an alleyway, but quickly realized I didn¡¯t actually know how to put it on with all the straps and stuff holding it together. Sighing, I headed back into the shop, and Merin was all too glad to help me out, chattering the entire time about one person getting married, another having an affair, your average gossip. Once I got it on, making sure to remember how all the straps attached, I escaped. When I had gotten out, I took a good look at my new armor. The chest piece was actually two pieces of hardened warg leather, attached by straps of softer leather, possibly also of warg origin. There were two shoulder guards attached the same way, and both shin guards and bracers made of the same hardened leather. It honestly looked quite cool to me, the scales still on the leather making it look almost like scale mail. I smiled, finally some protection. I then went off to the training area, it wouldn¡¯t hurt to get some practice in before the day was over. Snaking my way through the crowded merchant quarter, I soon arrived at the temple and went in, I was planning on meditating until I got another point of wisdom, and then I would probably go back and practice my spear some more. I was getting a bit used to sweeping attacks with my spear, but I wasn¡¯t quite comfortable with them, so I would have to pick on some of the training dummies for a while. One wisdom point and One dummy who refused to remain mutilated later, the sun was starting to go down, but for once, I wasn¡¯t actually too tired. Deciding to log out rather than stay in game, I hopped off and went to find some food in real. Deciding to do some research after I¡¯d made my pancakes for a very late breakfast, I pulled out my phone and decided to search up on what the moglins and moki were. Luckily enough, the moglins were indeed similar to goblins, but just slightly twisted. They had a tiny body, smaller than their oversized head, and their four limbs were much too long for the rest of them. Their arms and legs also had an additional joint, making them look like their limbs were broken. The moki on the other hand, were like giant komodo dragons, except their skin was so pale you could see their muscles and veins underneath, the veins looking like black tendrils crawling throughout their body. I shook my head, what was with these game devs and bizarre mobs. I got up from my chair, stretching from the tightness my body felt from not doing any activity but sitting in place doing nothing while I was in game. It was time for me to exercise, so I pulled on some sweats and a loose shirt and headed out the door to go for a short run. Along the way, most the chatter I heard from other people seemed to be about Sanity Online, making me smile at how ubiquitous it had become. After working up a sweat and feeling mostly exhausted, I headed back to my apartment, it was time to go play some more. Chapter 10: New mobs When I logged back in, it was still dark outside in game, so for a while I wandered the empty streets, seeing what had to be players running round here and there, but with practically no NPCs. I marveled at the empty streets, and made my way to the temple, finding that it was indeed open, I went in, and headed over to the mages training area. I didn¡¯t have much else to pass the time, so I figured I¡¯d meditate until the sun came up. Time seemed to be far more fluid as I sat there, guiding the mana through my mana channels. It felt like no time had passed by the time I awoke from my reverie, the light of the sun shining on my face. Slowly getting up, I stretched, getting the kinks out of my lower back and legs from how I had been sitting, shaking my legs to remove the tingling feeling you get in them from sitting for too long. I looked around, the training ground now had a few players in it, trying out their different spells, Ice, lightning, fire, and other more unique spells such as vines that would come out of the ground to bind the targets. Deciding that today I would try to get my frostbite spell to frostbite+, I moved over to a target and started spamming. Whenever I ran out of mana, I would go sit down and meditate for a while while it regenerated. A few hours and a point of wisdom later, I finally got frostbite upgraded. The new version had a mana multiplier of 1*wisdom in addition to its base cost of five mana, so with my now eight wisdom I could cast it six times without running out of mana. Deciding to try it out, I turned towards the target and drew the spell pattern, releasing it with my expectations attached. When it impacted, instead of just covering the front half or so, it entirely encased the thing in ice which also seemed to be a good deal thicker than what it had been before. Smiling in excitement over my new upgraded spell, I decided that I would have to try it out on some mobs, hopefully those new ones I was now ready to hunt. I started to head over to the gates, when I realized that I had no clue where to even find them. I then changed directions, heading back to the training hall to ask one of the instructors. Getting back in, I spotted Olaf, and went up to him. ¡°Um, Olaf sir, I was wondering where I could find moglins and moki, I haven¡¯t seen any when I¡¯ve been out hunting.¡± ¡°You¡¯re moving up in the world if you¡¯re ready to hunt moglins and moki. If you¡¯re looking for them, just head straight down the road, they¡¯ll find you. It¡¯s why every caravan has a large escort, nothing makes it through the roads without at least one attack, and the bigger the caravan, the bigger the attack.¡± I thanked him, then started heading back to the gates, taking my new book out on how to harvest monster along the way. Moglins were very simple, their body didn¡¯t have anything of value on them, but they would wield very crappy metal weaponry which could be melted down and made into something useful by a smith. To complete the hunting request though, you had to collect their left ear as evidence. For Moki, the only thing of value was their longest claw on their front feet, easily spotted as they tended to be around twice the length of the others, and was one of the ingredients used to make the special ink the mage¡¯s guild used to write spell patterns with. Realizing that I hadn¡¯t bought a knife yet, I diverted my path, something I seemed to be doing quite a lot today, and headed to the blacksmith¡¯s shop I frequent. It didn¡¯t take me long to arrive, and I greeted the not a dwarf Golrag, picking up a small skinning knife for 5 silver. I then, hopefully for the final time today, headed off to the gates. The gates were as busy as usual, this time a caravan was arriving which had quite a few people who looked an awful lot like Golrag, so they had to be actual dwarves. Looking at them as I headed out, how was I supposed to believe Golrag was a human with how similar they looked. I shook my head and continued on my way, heading down the road to try and find some of the new mobs. After an hour or so of walking, far more than I was expecting, I got my first look at a live moglin while it charged me with a shrieking yell, a very crude piece of metal in the general shape of a sword in its hand. I quickly made the spell pattern for an ice spear, and released it as it got into melee range. I stepped back and stabbed out with my spear as I released the spell, impaling it from two directions. It seemed to ignore the pain though, trying to get closer, shoving itself onto my spearhead as it did so. In panic, I quickly wrote up another spell pattern for ice spear, and released it again, and as it impaled the moglin, it mostly stopped moving, just a light twitching until it stopped entirely, dead. I let out a sigh, that hadn¡¯t been too hard. I cursed myself the instant after, as I heard three more of the shrieking wails of moglins closing in on me from the right. I quickly prepared a cast of frostbite, and released it at the furthest target, freezing it for hopefully long enough for me to deal with the other two. While the other two closed, and the third sat encased in ice, I prepped a force bolt, planning to knock back one of them and deal with the other with my spear. I released it, and the moglin got knocked head over heels, falling back and rolling for a short distance as I closed with the last one. Stabbing inwards, I learned from what the last moglin had done, and pulled back immediately after it had stabbed into its body, stepping back as it continued its charge. It swung its almost a sword at me, but it was a clumsy strike, and I easily managed to sidestep it, stabbing outwards again as I prepared a force bolt in my off hand. The second moglin had gotten back up and reached me by this point, so I quickly jumped back and released the force bolt at the one I had wounded. This one seemed prepared, unlike the other one, and only got pushed back a small amount before it was charging back in, just at the same time I heard the cracking of ice and the third escaped from his prison of ice. Seeing as how I only had enough mana for three ice spears, I decided to stick with force bolt, I¡¯d get five to six out of that if my mana regenerated fast enough. Drawing another spell pattern in one hand, I stabbed out with my other towards the unwounded moglin, seeing as how the other one was slightly out of my range. Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings. This time I only managed to hit its arm rather than its small body, but that seemed to be far more effective as it dropped its weapon. My smile was interrupted by the other two moglins joining the fray at the same time, and the first moglin continued to charge at me even without its weapon, it¡¯s short claws on its fingers reaching for me. I released my force bolt at it, only to belatedly realize I should probably have aimed at one of the moglins with a weapon, especially seeing as how one was already wounded and slowly bleeding out. I swept my spear to the right, catching a moglin in the arm, but it got caught on the bone in it, giving the last one enough time to slam at me with it¡¯s sword like object. I reacted by throwing my arm in front of my body, smiling as it impacted my bracer, not cutting through and only leaving what was sure to be a very nasty bruise. I jerked my spear, finally pulling it free of the bone with a schick sound, and stabbed out at the head of the moglin who was already wounded, hitting it in its eye, and watched as it dropped like a sack of bricks. My happiness was short lived however, as I felt a slam into my ribs from the moglin I had cast force bolt at. Wincing at the pain, it had somehow gotten its sword back, and it may not have been sharp enough to cut through my warg skin armor, but it still hurt like a bitch. I pulled my spear back and prepared another force bolt, releasing it point blank into the moglin that hat hit me. It fell back and I instantly stabbed back out at the other one before it could catch me with a surprise attack like the other had. It caught it in its free arm, and it swung at me with its weapon, but I stepped back, barely dodging the sword that managed to go a disproportionate amount of distance with the moglins long many jointed arms. I stepped back in preparing another force bolt for the one I had knocked back already, and stabbed out, catching it in its chest. I pulled my spear free just as I released my force bolt into the moglin I had hit earlier, knocking it back just as it started getting back into the fight. I then continued to focus on the other moglin, and after a couple more stabs it collapsed. I then cast force bolt three more times at the one I had been hitting with it, running out of mana, but killing it in the process. I sat down for a second, but only after carefully looking around to make sure there weren¡¯t any more moglins, then set to work, dropping all the clubs masquerading as swords into my pack, and cutting off their left ears as evidence for the quest. Grimacing at the nasty task, I put them into my backpack to join the ¡°swords¡±. I then sat down and meditated for a while. While it wouldn¡¯t increase my mana recovery time, it made the time pass much faster, and it had become a habit from training at the training area. Once my mana had refilled, I got up and continued along the road. As I was walking I saw a few other solitary players, and a good deal of parties, likely looking for the same mobs I was hunting. I found a couple more groups of moglins, or rather they found me, but as they only had two moglins per group, they were easily dispatched, frostbiting one of them and then ice spearing and stabbing the other to death before focusing on the next one. It wasn¡¯t long after the second group of moglins when I heard a roar, and looked over to see one of the moki. It was about two meters in length, three including its tail, and around four feet tall, but as it ran at me, I gaped. Even running, the thing wasn¡¯t much faster than a light jog, so I threw an ice spear at it, ran back, and repeated the action. It wasn¡¯t long until it collapsed, impaled a few too many times for it to handle. This was a two star monster? Maybe if you were melee it may be a bit of a challenge, or a caravan where you have to stay and defend it rather than just run and poke at them, but with a bit of range you could kite them as easy as breathing. I shrugged, and went up to collect my spoils. I chopped off the two claws on its front legs which were longer than the other three by around 6 inches, they looked nasty, and I was glad I wouldn¡¯t have to get in close and try to deal with them. I continued the rest of the day in the same manner, hunting down small groups of moglins and picking on the slow moving moki. Nothing notable happened except for another group of three moglins, where one had managed to catch me on my thigh, and leave a nasty cut, apparently those swords of those were sharp enough to get through my flesh, but not able to handle the hardened warg leather. Eventually I got enough to complete the quest, thirty moglin ears and thirty moki claws, which was only fifteen of the slow moving brutes. Along the way I¡¯d leveled up, the speed having increased a ridiculous amount now that I was hunting monsters in my current level range. I put the point into vitality, as I still needed to be able to tank some hits, and even late game, having enough health that a cleric can heal you up instead of being one shot would be very useful. Throughout my hunts, I had tried the goddess thing on the moki, but decided that the practice cutting up monsters was more important than the small amount of time it took to properly harvest them, and I was getting a higher quality out of it as well. Interestingly enough, if you tried to do it on the moglins, it would grant you a moglin ear, so I quickly decided to do that instead of chopping off the ear myself, saving myself a bit of a bloody mess. Seeing as how I had enough for the quests, I decided to head back in a bit early. Along the way I was accosted by a few more groups of moglins and a lone moki, but all were relatively easy to dispatch. I also watched a few parties fighting against moglins, and in far greater numbers that had accosted me, usually double to triple the size of the parties being hunted. I also noticed something Oskar had mentioned, a lot of the mages were still using the spell guides from the grimoires. I shook my head, if I tried to do that I¡¯d just get beaten up while standing still trying to draw the lines carefully. I was smiling in a sense of superiority when I noticed one group that had very, very competent mages. While it only took me a second or two to draw up the spell pattern, these guys were using both their hands to cast, cutting down the time required to draw the spell patterns to half of mine or so. While they couldn¡¯t be using staves due to it getting in the way of them drawing their spell patterns, I did notice some very conspicuous rings on their fingers, likely another form of spellcasting aide. When I arrived back at the gates, I quickly went over to the adventurers guild to turn in my quests. While waiting in line, I decided to message Loss to see if they¡¯d moved on to hunting moglins and moki. Hey, you moved on to bigger fish yet? Moglins are definitely more interesting to hunt than wargs Yeah, we moved onto them today, we¡¯ve been hunting all day and have enough ears to turn in for three quests for each of us or so. Care to join us later? I considered it for a moment, but I was enjoying hunting on my own for now, I¡¯d probably need to have a party as backup for hunting bosses and such, but as is I could use the spear practice, and being a proper hybrid would probably be really nice late game. Not for now, be sure to tell me if you find another boss though, the treant one was fun as hell. Will do, we could definitely use some help if we run into another monster like that I smiled, I now had a group I could do the semi-raids that the bosses were, and with how intense the fight against the treant had been, I was excited for what we would be up against next. It wasn¡¯t long until I arrived at the front counter, and turned in all my loot, accounting to a total of three gold and five silver for just the few mobs I had hunted, a massive upgrade from what I had been earning. I had a big smile on my face as I headed off to the training grounds, I was going to get some spear practice in then go to bed, but in the days coming my income would be drastically improving. Chapter 11: Alchemy After finishing my spear training and sleep, and gaining a point in strength in the morning, I decided to go do some more hunting so I could afford that alchemy book I had been looking at. I headed off to the gates and prepared to get myself some money. I was soon walking down the road, waiting for some moglins or moki to show up, and it wasn¡¯t long before some found me. With how I hadn¡¯t tried out ice shatter on them last time, I decided to see how they would react. It took me a bit longer to complete the spell pattern, as it was twice the size of the others, and I wasn¡¯t quite as familiar with it due to not being able to practice it as much due to mana limitations. Even with my mana at full, I was only getting four casts out of it. I lobbed it at the moglins, and watched as it flew towards them, luckily, even though it wasn¡¯t very fast, neither of them dodged, and it landed square on the left one, exploding and impaling them both. With both of them impaled for a second or two before the ice melted in that unnaturally quick way, I launched an ice spear at each and watched as they stopped moving. I smiled, I¡¯¡¯d now found a far more efficient way to hunt. I continued the day in the same manner, practicing ice shatter on any groups I could find, but when I ran into a group of three, I would frostbite one then ice shatter the other two, leaving the last to practice my spear on. Today there were quite a few more groups with weapons other than those crude swords all of them had seemed to carry around yesterday. There were a few with spears, crude things without a blade, just a pointed tip, and a couple wielding actual clubs which looked like they would hurt more than the swords. I shrugged, with my current hunting method it¡¯s not like any of them would be able to hurt me anyway, even in groups of three. I spent a very leisurely day or so hunting, collecting enough for three moglin quests and two moki, then headed back into town, I should be able to buy my alchemy book with just that, and while party hunting may have been more lucrative, solo hunting only seemed to collect groups of two or three, which made for a very lazy day of hunting. The only thing of interest while I was hunting was a moki with a moglin rider on it, wielding one of those crude spears, its three jointed legs wrapped around the moki¡¯s center. It made me giggle as I slowly kited, the moglin not getting off until the moki was dead, then shrieking at me and charging, only to become spear practice. I arrived back at the town after an hour or so, and quickly went to turn in my quests, getting a very nice 8 gold seven silver out of it. With the money I had on hand, I would be able to afford my alchemy book and then I wouldn¡¯t have to bother buying potions. Hopefully at least, some games had ridiculously complex methods for potion making. I quickly arrived at the potion shop, and purchased my book from Alva, and while I was there I asked about the mist. Turns out that it appeared with the invaders, and it was what formed the gate between this dimension and the next. If it grew thick enough, it would form a gate that would allow monsters to come through. It also avoided the natural life forms to a bit, making it so it wouldn¡¯t form directly around a person, which is why the city, with so many people living in it, seemed empty of the fog that seemed to be so ever present. I thanked her, and opened my book on alchemy. Looking through it, I found that while there were some hideously complex recipes towards the back, the earlier recipes were luckily quite simple, but I would need a mortar and pestle, a bottle of glass rather than the earthenware bottles the potions came in to see the color the potion was turning, and some bottles to hold them in. I picked them all up from Alva for the cheap price of a gold and two silver, putting me down to two gold two silver along with the book purchase, most of my money gone in a fast shopping session. I thanked alva and headed out to collect some herbs. Arriving at the gates, instead of heading off to where the moglins and moki were, I went back to the forest filled with wargs, and started searching for some herbs. After collecting a handful of herbs and slaughtering some of the local wildlife, I looked over the most simple recipe, a basic healing potion. After looking over it, it turns out that the reason the beginner potions had been so cheap is that they were heavily diluted forms of the most basic potion, with one basic potion of maximum possible strength making twenty of the beginner potions I had been using. Figuring that was why the beginner potions had quickly stopped being very effective, I went back into town to practice my new recipes. While walking around town, I looked over the recipe. For the most basic three potions, health, stamina, and mana, you had to dry out the herbs, either over a fire or air drying them over time, with air drying making slightly better potions. Then you had to grind up the herbs as fine as possible, and add them to clean water while supplying it with mana. Too much mana, and the potions would turn black and be useless, while if you added too little, it wouldn¡¯t turn the vibrant color that you were looking for. The health potion would be varying shades of pink, the stamina varying colors of orange, and the mana potion would be green. In all cases, you wanted as vibrant a color as you could get without turning it a nasty black. Deciding that I was going to go for fire drying as that would only take an hour or two, I headed off to the general store I had gotten my traveling rations from. Quickly buying a flint and steel for 5 copper, I perused the rest of the store, and found something interesting. They had something called a ward net, a bunch of wooden tiles attached by a rope, inscribed with runes that would keep anything within the circle you would make it into practically invisible to the monsters so long as you weren¡¯t doing something stupid like shouting at them or sending ice spears their way. At five gold, it was out of my price range for now, but if I decided to head to the next city, I would need one. Leaving the store, I went back out to the forest to collect some dried wood along with dried leaves as tinder, storing the wood in the main portion of my backpack, and the leaves in the side pocket so that they wouldn¡¯t get lost in the mess my backpack was slowly becoming. I then headed back towards the town, wanting to set up where monsters wouldn¡¯t attack while I was trying to dry my herbs. Once I had arrived next to the city, I set up a small fireplace, clearing out all the grass on the ground, and finding some stones nearby to help contain the fire. I then took some of the branches I had grabbed, and made a simple campfire, along with a small rack well over the top, where I could place the herbs to dry out. I then started the fire, the sparks from the flint and steel easily catching on the tinder, which lit up and caught the first of my twigs on fire. As the fire grew, I started adding larger pieces of wood until I had a decent sized log burning on the fire. I then took out all the herbs I had gathered, and put them on top of the little rack I had made above the fire to dry. Reading on Amazon or a pirate site? This novel is from Royal Road. Support the author by reading it there. While I waited, I meditated by the side, slipping into a fugue where time seemed to not matter whatsoever. After a time that had to be a few hours, but didn¡¯t seem close to that I reached over to check on the herbs. At this point, they crackled to the touch, well and truly dried, so I grabbed them off the fire, and put it out, covering it with dirt so as to stamp out the flames. I then took out my water skin that seemed to be eternally full, along with my mortar and pestle and my glass bottle I was going to be making the potions in before pouring them into their final earthenware containers. I quickly took one of the endurance herbs, my least important ones to start off with, and started grinding it up. After maybe three minutes of grinding, I had it reasonably fine, so I filled up the bottle with water from my water skin, added the herbs in, and started pouring mana into the bottle. It didn¡¯t take long until it turned black, and a smell of burning something came out of the top of the bottle. I poured it out, shaking my head in disappointment, and rinsed out the bottle. I then started on my second herb, this time grinding it up even more finely in case that had an effect on the potion. After getting it as fine as I reasonably could, I added the herb into the water, and this time added as little mana as I could as I swirled the bottle around to mix in the herbs. A while after, it turned a very, very light orange, and I shrugged, adding it to one of my potion bottles anyway, I didn¡¯t have too many herbs, and it wouldn¡¯t hurt to have a stamina potion on hand. I then took my last stamina herb, and repeated the process. This time, I added a tiny bit more mana, and turned a slightly darker shade of orange, but it was still nothing like the mostly opaque color the book had described. I then started in on the health herbs. My experiments continued,each time getting a bit darker of a shade. I was on to the mana herbs when I found the approximate limit of where it would turn black, one of my potions turning the nasty shade as I did. Unfortunately, even though I¡¯d found the approximate limit, it didn¡¯t mean that the amount I¡¯d added just before it turning black had turned it into the vibrant shade I was looking for. I tried two more times on my last two mana herbs, but one turned black anyway, and the other was only a tiny bit darker than the other I¡¯d attempted. I sighed, I¡¯d need to practice my mana control it seems. Looking up, the sun had started to set, so I headed off to the barracks to sleep, I¡¯d continue my experiments tomorrow. While lying in my not so comfortable bed, I realized I wasn¡¯t getting sleepy, so I decided to meditate until I fell asleep. As the mana floated through my channels, I slowly drifted off until I was half asleep half awake, and I simply stayed there, my thoughts completely stopped, just feeling the mana flowing through me. I didn¡¯t awake from this state until the sun hit me on my face, yet again that damned window waking me. I started, I had been meditating for the entire night, and I had absolutely no sleepiness. Noticing a notice that I had been completely dismissing before, I noted that I had gained a wisdom point. I wasn¡¯t sure if the lack of sleepiness was just because my real life body wasn¡¯t tired, or if meditating could actually refresh me while sleepy, I headed off to the training room to ask. Finding Olaf, I asked him about it, and turns out that once get to the point where you can meditate but your consciousness starts to fade you can meditate instead of sleeping. He did mention that I had picked this up quite fast for a newcomer, but I was too busy smiling to really care about that. I was excited as hell, I could get in even more training time with this! Still smiling on my way out of town, I headed back to the forest, I was going to get some more practice on my potion making. I grabbed every herb in sight, and it didn¡¯t take me too long until I had around twenty, enough to practice on. Grabbing enough wood for another fire, I headed back to my spot to continue. Once I reached my spot, I noticed someone else had borrowed the little campfire area I had made the day before, and was cooking something over it. Curious, I went over to ask what they were doing. ¡°Hey, what are you cooking there, it smells delicious.¡± The man turned to me, and I could see his relatively feminine face, with blond hair and blue eyes. ¡°I¡¯m just cooking up some orb meat, it¡¯s quite delicious. I actually noticed you yesterday with the fire, and decided I could save some money on food with this.¡± I hadn¡¯t really thought about cooking my own food, so I was quite excited. I wasn¡¯t a good cook by any means in reality, but I wasn¡¯t incompetent, and I could handle doing some campfire cooking. ¡°Well mind if I borrow your fire once you¡¯re done? I was hoping I could dry out some more herbs.¡± ¡°No problem, it probably wouldn¡¯t hurt to dry them alongside the meat, might add some flavor to it.¡± I quickly took out the herbs, and put them on and around the meat to dry out. A few minutes later, the man had decided that the meat was cooked enough, and extracted it from on top of the rack I had made yesterday. ¡°Want to try one? I¡¯m Chris by the way.¡± ¡°Well I couldn¡¯t refuse an offer like that. I¡¯m Rayth. Did you really use your real name in game?¡± The man shrugged. ¡°Well as far as I can tell, the game has nothing against duplicate names, and I¡¯m used to being called by my name rather than my gamer tag, so I figured I¡¯d just stick to what I was used to.¡± He then passed me a piece of meat he had impaled with a sharpened stick before turning to his and starting to eat it. I took a bit and was very impressed. It had a faint herby smell, which had sunk into the meat giving it a unique taste. The meat itself seemed to be well done, but with the realism, I figured it was a good idea considering the devs had probably included food poisoning. ¡°How hard is it to make your own potions by the way? I noticed that¡¯s what you were doing and was considering doing the same, every penny saved and all that.¡± ¡°Well it¡¯s not hard, but it¡¯s not easy. I can make a potion on it¡¯s own without trouble, but I can¡¯t seem to get the amount of mana right to get the color the book describes.¡± ¡°How much is it for the book on it anyway?¡± ¡°It cost me ten gold, it¡¯s not too much.¡± He didn¡¯t seem fazed about the cost, in fact he seemed quite happy. ¡°Well considering that the non beginner healing potions are five silver, I¡¯ll probably go get one myself.¡± I shrugged, and we chatted a bit about different ways to hunt monsters. The man was actually an archer, something I should have noticed from the bow sitting next to him, but he also had a pair of wicked looking knives, one long enough to almost be considered a shortsword. Turns out he was also a solo player, but he¡¯d practiced archery hunting in real, and could usually pincushion most mobs before the got to him. He mentioned how hard it had been to get used to his pair of knives, but said he could use them passably now. He then mentioned something very interesting. ¡°Have you seen the red moki yet? It¡¯s been hunting groups of people for a while now, it¡¯s all over the forums. Even higher level people heading to other hunting grounds or the next city are getting wiped by that thing.¡± ¡°No, I haven¡¯t heard of it. How on earth are people getting wiped by a moki though? Those things are slow as hell, just kite them and they die without any trouble.¡± ¡°Well apparently this one if fast as hell. People are saying it can move about twice the speed of them running. It¡¯s probably the boss moki, but it always travels alone unlike the other bosses people have found.¡± ¡°Huh, sounds interesting. I¡¯ll be sure to look around for it.¡± After our short talk, Chris mentioned he was going to head out, and left me alone to finish my wait for the herbs to dry. Meditating to pass a little time, I soon was ready to make some more potions. This time, I made sure to keep getting the exact amount of mana it took before it would turn black, but no matter what I did, I couldn¡¯t get the almost opaque color I was looking for. Regardless, the potions that would come out were higher quality than the ones I¡¯d made before, so I poured out the old ones and filled them up with my new ones. I kept practicing until I ran out of herbs, and by the end of it I could reliably get a decently dark color, but it still seemed off by a few shades. I then started to consider getting a belt made to hold the potions in, taking them only after battle because they were in my backpack seemed a little silly, and if I could just grab a potion and down it with my free hand during a fight I could handle a lot more. Deciding that I could consider it after getting some more money, I headed off to do some more hunting, I wanted to get my new spear. I hunted for the rest of the day and once the sun started to go down I turned it all in for another five gold two silver. Heading back to the barracks, I lay down and started to meditate, but couldn¡¯t get to the state I¡¯d reached the night before, and eventually fell asleep. Chapter 12: Red moki I woke up in the morning feeling refreshed, but I was quite sad I wasn¡¯t able to meditate over the night instead of sleep. I¡¯d continue trying in the future, but it was a bit disappointing I couldn¡¯t reliably do it so far. I then headed out to do some more hunting. I was making gold at a very respectable rate, and I was going to continue to do so until I could afford that spear I wanted. Hunting the moglins and moki was now pretty easy with my current strategies. I then headed out of the city, I was going to make some gold. I hunted throughout the day, using ice shatter on the moglins and ice spear spamming the poor moki. Things were going very well until I spotted something red in the distance Remembering the warning Chris had given me about it being much faster, I decided to just observe for the time being. I slowly followed it around, at the point where I could only see a dot of red, and luckily, it didn¡¯t seem to notice me. It didn¡¯t take too long until it ran into a group of players, and I got a bit closer to watch the fight. The moki instantly started charging at the players, and I started, it was seriously fast. It reached the group in only a couple seconds, only taking a single fireball from the mage. For a moment I wondered why there seemed to be more fire mages than any other type, but I quickly shook my head, dismissing my musings to watch the fight. It started with the moki impacting the sword and shield wielding warrior, completely bowling him over. The other warrior, wielding a single long spear stabbed into the moki, but it only seemed to enrage the beast, turing in and slashing out with its claws. The quick turn of the moki nearly tore the pear out of the hands of the warrior, but a quick fireball into the face of it startled it enough that the spear wielder managed to take his spear back and step out of range while the moki was blinded by the fire in its face. The moki quickly shrugged it off however, and started charging at the mage who had enraged it. The shield wielding warrior was back up on his feet and in front of the mage by the time it got there, and braced himself as much as he could against the mass of flesh incoming. This time, he managed to keep his feet, but his shield was quickly torn out of in front of him by a swipe of the moki¡¯s claws. A quick second swipe by the moki disemboweled him, and he collapsed, apparently dead from one attack. I was seriously impressed by the attack power of the red moki. Warriors tended to put a decent amount of their points into vitality, and killing one of them in a single hit was just scary. I shuddered, this thing was completely outclassing a group of people similar level to me, I wasn¡¯t going to think of facing it until I was quite a few levels higher. Without the protection of the shield wielding warrior, the moki was quickly at the mage, but was distracted by a stab into its arm by the spear wielder. This time the spear wielder retracted it fast enough to not have his spear nearly torn out of his hands, and managed to dodge a quick swipe of the red moki¡¯s claws. He stayed at a decent range, poking it as fast as he could while the mage rained fireballs on it. It wasn¡¯t very long however, until the moki jumped at the warrior, and the warrior wasn¡¯t fast enough to get out of the way. It landed on him, and pinned him under its claws, and a quick bite over his head finished him off. I winced, that was not a fun way to die. The mage kept raining fireballs, likely hoping to finish it off before it could get to him. Unfortunately for him, the moki simply shrugged them off and ran over, killing him with one hit of its claws. I winced, that very well could be me in the future. I slowly walked back, not wanting to run and get spotted. I shadowed the moki for a while longer, watching as he slaughtered a few more parties, though one group of five had given it a decent amount of trouble, the two warriors managing to hold it off for quite a time along with some cc spell from the mage that had turned the area around the moki into a viscous seeming darkness. While it was slowed the mage rained balls of acid upon it, dissolving the skin of the moki where it hit, but not seeming to do anything more than piss it off. The warriors hit as hard as they could, but they couldn¡¯t seem to cut in more than a couple inches, only enough to annoy it. It still wasn¡¯t enough to kill it, as it survived long enough for the warriors to run out of stamina. I wasn¡¯t sure if they hadn¡¯t put enough points or trained enough for stamina, but they definitely ran out faster than I would, possibly because I mainly used spells, but I¡¯d fought a decent amount of time without running out so far. I had trained a decent amount of stamina though, so I may have just had more, with them putting most their points into strength and vitality. As I followed it around, I would pick up the gold dropped from the parties that wiped. It may not be the most noble of actions, but gold is gold. After a while, I got bored of watching the red moki picking on people used to hunting the slower normal moki, and decided to go back to hunting. When I did so, I realized that I hadn¡¯t run into a single mob while I had been shadowing the red moki. I wasn¡¯t sure if the other mobs were scared of it or simply didn¡¯t feel the need to follow around something that would take all of the kills, but I was thankful, if I¡¯d gotten into a fight when I was next to it, I¡¯d likely have gotten noticed and killed. While I walked back to the road, I messaged loss about what I had seen Dude, I found the red moki, that thing is fucking scary You think we could take it? No way in hell, that thing wiped a pretty good party of five without breaking a sweat, I don¡¯t even think it took half it¡¯s health in damage from them. At least it didn¡¯t seem to be much damaged, even though there was a lot of small wound on it. Well I think we¡¯re going to try anyway, care to join us? You guys go wipe on your own for now, I¡¯m saving up money for a new spear, and am not in the mood to lose half of my gold to that thing, and I doubt there¡¯s even a small chance we could kill it.Enjoying the story? Show your support by reading it on the official site. Well we wiped three times to the treant, and none of us needs anything particularly badly, we¡¯ll be spending a lot of time at the temple I guess :p. I smiled, and closed the chat, walking down the road and waiting for some moglins or moki to slaughter, I was going to make me some money. It wasn¡¯t long until I ran into another of the moki riding moglins, and this time I cast ice shatter at it, noticing that the spikes through the front legs of the moki knocked it off balance to fall down, though it did quickly get back up. I took note though, it could come in handy if I was ready to hunt the red moki. I quickly finished off the pair of mobs with ice spears, and collected my loot. I then continued down the road, hunting, and meditating whenever I got low on mana, I was not ready to fight a group of three with just my spear, and after the display of the red moki, I was leery of getting within melee range of them. Towards the end of the day, I started trying to face the groups of two moglins with nothing but my spear to practice. More often than not, I ended up getting some very nasty bruises, and one time I had taken a long cut on my arm, making me drop my spear and having to go back to spellcasting to finish them off, dodging as well as I could while trying to finish my spell patterns. That fight in particular had been rough, but one of my health potions later, and I continued my spear practice. I would likely get some stat points out of it as well. I continued to do the same throughout the day, collecting enough goblin ears for two of the quests, and enough moki claws for one of them. I may not be making money quite as fast, but the spear practice would likely pay off, and learning to dodge an opponent with a weapon would be nice for if I had to pvp. When, I corrected myself, when I had to pvp, I was going to get revenge on lily, and if getting some bruises and cuts was the price I had to pay for it, I would gladly continue. After turning in my quests, getting five gold and two silver, I decided to go get a belt for my potions rather than save immediately for my spear. Heading over to Merin¡¯s armor and and clothing shop, I shuddered at what I was going to deal with. Unfortunately, I didn¡¯t know any other tailoring shops, though I¡¯m sure I¡¯d seen them around. Sighing as I headed over, I decided it would be best to just have a belt with slots in it for my potions around my waist, nothing fancy. I soon arrived, and Merin, as bubbly and cheerful as ever greeted me. After getting though her attempts to gossip, I finally managed to explain to her what I wanted, and she said she could get it for me for a gold. It was a bit more expensive than I was expecting, but having potions available in battle would be lovely. After agreeing to come the next day to pick it up, I headed off, It was starting to get late, and I was going to attempt to meditate into that state of half sleeping half meditation that I was looking for. I soon arrived at the barracks, and found my bed, laid down, and started to meditate. It took me a couple of hours, but eventually, my sleepiness started to fade into the meditation, and I entered the fugue that I had been searching for for hours. In this state, there were no dreams, but time seemed to pass incredibly quickly, and it seemed like no time at all had passed by the time the sun shined on my face - again - waking me up. I was happy, as when I got up fully I noticed a notification telling me I had gained one agility, likely from all the dodging I had been doing dealing with the moglins I got up, yawned, and headed off to do some more hunting. This day was relatively uneventful, though I seemed to be slowly getting better at dealing with with moglins with my spear, taking fewer hits. Along the way, I leveled up, and put the point into wisdom. I¡¯d finally reached the milestone of ten wisdom, so I opened my character stats to admire it.
Name Rayth
Level 8
str 3 Grimoire
agi 3 Recipes
wis 10 ???
end 5 ???
vit 5 ???
For the first time, I started to wonder about those ??? marks, were they stats that I hadn¡¯t unlocked or something else? I shrugged, I would figure out eventually, or at least someone else would figure it out and I would find it on the forums. Thinking about that, I decided to pull up said forums and look around to see if anyone had figured out what they were. The general consensus was that they had to be hidden stats, and there were tons of claims of what they were, people claiming that they had acquired them, but pulling up the wiki to confirm, none of the stats were confirmed, only rumors. There had been a couple of screenshots, but they had quickly been found to be doctored. I¡¯m felt it was relatively likely that some people had already unlocked them, but they were likely keeping it to themselves, wanting every advantage they could get. After my short visit to the forums and wiki, I quickly got back to hunting. After collecting enough for three moglin quests and two moki quests, I decided I was done for the day, and headed back to the city to pick up my belt and get me some money. It wasn¡¯t too long before I arrived back at the town, turning in my quests for a nice eight gold seven silver. I then headed off to Merin¡¯s shop, picking up my belt for the one gold it would cost. Putting it around my waist, I filled it up with the potions I had left, and smiled about getting the new gear. I then headed off to head to bed. Tonight, I was unable to get into my meditative and sleeping state, but I figured it would just take more practice until I could reliably do so. The next day went relatively the same, but I went herb hunting to fill up the rest of the potions on my belt, a total of ten of them. By the end of the day, I had enough gold to buy my spear! I practically ran over to Golrag¡¯s shop, excited at the prospect of a new weapon. Once I arrived, I slowed down, trying to seem more calm than I was. Heading on in, I waited for a bit, listening to the sound of hammering coming from the back of the store, until Golrag came out and greeted me. ¡°Golrag! Just the man I wanted to see. I¡¯m looking to buy that spear I was looking at.¡± ¡°Ah, so you finally pulled together the money. Let me go grab it for you.¡± He soon came out with the spear, and this time I noticed the rune patterns running up and down the spear. We exchanged the gold and the spear, and I had a big goofy grin on my face as I ran my hands over it. Excited to try it out, I ran out to go pick on some orbs. I quickly noticed the increase in spell output, it was fifty percent, and I could see the difference in how large and powerful my force bolts were, killing the orbs in one shot now. I ran around with my new spear, enjoying the wisdom bonus, and stabbing a few just to get used to the slightly different balance of the spear. By the time the sun was going down, I still had a big grin on my face, and only stopped my slaughter of the local orb population when I could barely see them, the three moons in the sky not being quite bright enough in their varying stages of waxing, or waning, I can never remember the difference. I then headed back, and went to the barracks, attempting and failing to reach that state I was searching for until I fell asleep. Chapter 13: Hunting the red moki I woke up the next day, and decided the first thing to do was take care of my body in real, so I logged off, got some food and drink, and hopped back in game before too much time had passed. When I got back in however, I wasn¡¯t sure what to do now. I¡¯d done enough two star quests that I could start working on the three star monsters, but I was enjoying the leisurely hunting at the two star level. I also wanted a few more levels before I headed off to hunt something harder, and if the red moki was any hint of what was to come, I would need them. Deciding to hunt first, think later, I headed out off to my hunting spot to make myself some money. The hunting was reasonably relaxing, the only thing giving me any trouble was when I was practicing with my spear on the moglins, and that was by choice rather than necessity. While I was waiting for more mobs to come to me, I was looking through my book on monster harvesting, and found that it had a section for each monster on what was edible, and how it tasted. Supposedly, moglin meat is very delicious, but they were a bit too humanoid for me to be ok with eating them, so I gave it a pass. Moki meat on the other hand, I was completely willing to try, so I set myself up a small campfire, and chopped up the next moki I found, going back to my campfire to grill it up. It wasn¡¯t bad, but it was a lot stringier than I expected, making it not to my taste, though I¡¯m sure some people would enjoy the texture. At the end of the day, I¡¯d gotten myself around nine gold, and headed into the adventurers guild to see about upgrading myself to the next rank. The test this time started the same way the last one had, my examiner once again being Oskar. ¡°Ok, so show me your spells again, I know you¡¯re already capable of passing this portion, but rules do have to be followed¡± Oskar said, gesturing towards a target. I acquiesced, and threw my spells at the target, Oskar letting out a small grunt of surprise when he noticed my upgraded frostbite spell. ¡°Not bad, you still need practice though. With enough you can cut your casting time in half or so.¡± I thanked him, and then we went on to the combat portion of the test, Oskar again grabbing two practice spears out of the box and coating them in the red powder. This time however, when I went in for a stab on his neck, he knocked it away, but rather than just sitting there like last time, he stabbed out in a well practiced motion. Luckily, he obviously wasn¡¯t going close to his full speed, and I had plenty of time to step to the side while retracting my spear from where it had been knocked to. Thanking my lucky stars I hadn¡¯t overextended with my stab, I started circling around him, trying to look for any sort of opening. He just kept the same stance however, keeping himself facing me while I tried to figure out what to do. After a bit, I gave up on looking for an opening and just stabbed out lightly, trying to provoke a response and see if I could get anywhere from there He just batted it to the side with a quick motion of his spear, and sent his spear towards my head again in that relatively slow motion. A quick step to the left, and I was out of the direction he stabbed at, and I started my own stab while he was extended. My stab was interrupted however, by his spear coming from the right and impacting on my neck. I hadn¡¯t been paying close enough attention to it. I cursed, not even a minute in and I¡¯d already messed up. Stepping back, he gestured for me to continue, and so I did so, this time making to pay closer attention to where his spear was. Stabbing in again in a very light motion, he batted it and stabbed out again in the exact same motion as last time. Retracting my spear while he was doing so, I stabbed out again, this time ducking the swing that came towards my face. He got a grin on his face as he stepped back out of my range, and then started out as the attacker. He¡¯d stab out, I¡¯d have to sidestep or dodge. I tried a few time to bat his spear out of the way like he had mine, but his two hands on the spear outclassed my one hand in leverage, and I wasn¡¯t going to practice two handed fighting with my spear when I needed my spare hand free to cast my spells. I cursed, wishing I had some sort of non-lethal spell I could throw at him while I was fighting, and wondered if I could maybe get something annoying but not harmful from the mages college. Dismissing the random thought from my head, I continued our duel, and as it went he slowly started speeding up, and after a bit I could barely keep dodging his stabs. Not long after, it got to the point where the only way I was avoiding his stabs or swipes of his spear was through sheer luck at guessing what was going to happen. It was at this point that oskar signalled for us to stop, and we both stood up straight, me breathing heavily, and noticing my stamina bar was practically empty, while Oskar didn¡¯t seem to have even broken a sweat. Sighing at how low I was in the totem pole here, I nearly missed Oskar telling me that I had passed the examination for becoming a three star adventurer, and he warned me that starting from four stars, the monsters start to get exponentially harder to fight, seven star monsters including dragons, behemoths, and king class mobs of certain species. Wondering if king class was like the boss mobs I had been fighting I asked him. ¡°There¡¯s this red moki that¡¯s been going around who has been completely devastating parties nearby, would that be a king class mob? Or is that something different?¡± ¡°Most probably. King class mobs are just variations on the standard monsters, and usually larger, faster, or much smarter than normal monsters of their type. Most of them have a retinue of smaller monsters around them, but the ones who don¡¯t are usually much stronger.¡± ¡°Well this one traveled alone, and it was one-shotting players without any problems. It didn¡¯t seem to take much damage from them either.¡± ¡°We¡¯ll probably put out a three star request for it then, we can¡¯t have it discouraging our new adventurers.¡± ¡°I¡¯ll have to take part in it then, from the backline though, I have no intentions of getting in melee range of that thing. Where would I find other three star mobs though? Would I have to go further from the city than the moglins and moki?¡± He laughed. ¡°You¡¯re not going to find any three star mobs or above out here, aside from your occasional king class like that moki. You¡¯ll have to head further into the frontier, where the monster attacks are actually happening. We just have to deal with the occasional small mobs which spawn, the true gates to the next dimension are further to the east.¡± ¡°Oh, ok then, I guess I¡¯ll probably be leaving pretty soon then. Where should I be going to if I¡¯m looking at three star mobs?¡± ¡°Just head down the road and take the first right, there¡¯ll be a big sign, you want to head to Kurheim. They¡¯re not too close to the frontier, but they¡¯re close enough to get some three and four star mobs around.¡± I thanked him, then headed out, I was probably going to participate in that hunt for the red moki, then I was going to head out of town. Since I had decided on leaving, I headed over to the general store and bought that ward net I had been looking at the other day, along with a very simple tent. Having finished my shopping, and grabbing something that vaguely resembled a spring roll to eat, I headed back to the barracks to attempt my meditation for the night. I soon arrived, and started, feeling the mana flow through the channels, the lightning like sensation slowly moving from my legs to my arms to my heart, then down back to the pit of my stomach where it originated. This continued for a while, and my consciousness slowly started to fade out, leaving only the sensation of the mana.Support creative writers by reading their stories on Royal Road, not stolen versions. I woke up in the morning, excited, and with another point of wisdom under my belt. For some reason, the meditation at night seemed to gain me wisdom a lot faster than the normal meditation I would do, though I wasn¡¯t sure why. I then went to the adventurers guild to check and found out the red moki hunting quest was indeed up, so I messaged loss to see if he was interested in trying it out along with a couple of other parties. Hey loss, the guild has an official three star quest up for hunting the red moki. You interested in grouping up with a couple of others and trying it out? Well considering we wiped to the thing yesterday, I¡¯d be damn interested in trying to get some revenge on that thing. Sounds good, get over to the guild, we can try and find a couple of other parties and then go searching for it. It didn¡¯t take too long until Loss arrived, bringing in tow the rest of the group. Everyone kitted out in new gear. Aylea had new robes, and a staff that was clearly better than the one she¡¯d had before, and Light was wearing the same getup, but with white robes instead of red. Dark had a steel sword instead of the bronze he had used before, and had a proper steel buckler instead of his wooden one. He was also wearing the same warg skin armor that I was, probably so he could move around faster than with metal armor. Loss had a shiny steel battleaxe along with a steel kite shield and a bronze chestplate, greaves, and bracers. Finally, Mars had upgraded to a giant steel monstrosity of a sword from her bronze one. I sighed, she had to be putting most of her points into strength just to be able to use that thing, though I¡¯m sure she probably trained up her strength and endurance very quickly just using it. After we¡¯d all said our greetings, we ended up asking one of the receptionists about teaming up with some other groups for the quest, and she said we could post a request on the board for other parties to join us, and so we did so before sitting down to wait. While we waited, we chatted about our experiences so far, and I mentioned how easy moki hunting was for me. ¡°Wait, so you mean to say that all we have to do is just kit them? Those things are freaking strong as hell, we¡¯ve been having so much trouble with them when we could just run a bit and have Aylea chuck fireballs at it?¡± I shrugged, I had thought that it was a pretty simple idea, but then again, I was hunting on my own, I could run off and do my own thing while in a party you usually try to stick together. ¡°Well sorry to belatedly inform you I suppose. Anyway, Aylea, you learn any new spells?¡± I asked, wanting to know how my fellow mage was faring. ¡°I have and area one where it creates a large pillar of flames where it impacts now, and another that creates a big wall of flames to block off a direction. Aside from that I¡¯ve been sticking with my fireball, I got it to fireball plus the other day so it¡¯s been doing more than enough damage for me¡± I mused for a moment, I had been using my ice spear, but I should probably start spamming it now to get it to ice spear+. Judging by how much my frostbite had improved I could definitely look forwards to the increase in damage on it. It wasn¡¯t long until we had another two groups together to go hunting with, one group of three with two warriors and an archer, and the other had two warriors and two mages. Along with our group, we probably had enough firepower to finish off the red moki, or so I hoped. The hunt started with the thirteen of us meandering around by the road, occasionally running into large groups of moglins and moki. It really surprised me how many more of them would attack when we were in a group, but by the time the mobs had gotten to us, the numbers had already gotten largely cut down by the mages and the archer, leaving the rest as easy pickings for the melee fighters. We slowly searched, and after an hour or two, we finally spotted a spot of red in the distance. Before heading off to hunt it, we mentioned the speed and strength of the red moki to the other two groups, a couple of them looking nervous, but the others getting determined looks on their faces. This was going to be a legitimate boss fight, and every gamer is excited for a challenging boss fight. We slowly approached, the six melee fighters in front, with the mages towards the back, and Light in the middle, ready to heal anyone who took damage and survived. I patted my potion belt, I wasn¡¯t sure how long the fight was going to be, but I would definitely need the four mana potions I had, though I wasn¡¯t sure the health potions or stamina potions would help much if it managed to get into melee range of me. When we¡¯d gotten closer, the red moki noticed us, and I warned everyone to brace themselves, as I¡¯d seen what it would do to anyone who wasn¡¯t prepared to handle the impact of the relatively large beast. It was slightly larger than the average moki, around five feet tall instead of the four I was used to, and it charged us faster than any of us could likely run. The mages, me included, and the lone archer started raining all the spells and arrows we could at it. I started with an ice shatter, remembering how it had tripped up the moki the other day, but it simply kept coming, breaking off the spikes as it went rather than having them stay stuck in its legs. The spells seemed to do little more than annoy it, and it completely ignored the wall of fire Aylea put in front of it, so she quickly switched back to fireballs, likely because it had been upgraded. While I was throwing my spells, I noticed that none of the mages here were using the guide from the grimoires, though they seemed to be a bit slower than me at casting their spells, likely having not practiced them enough in the training grounds. It wasn¡¯t long until it impacted two of the shield bearers, Loss and one of the people from the other groups, and they were pushed back, but held firm against it as the rest of the melee fighters closed in and started hacking away at it. MArs was the only one who seemed to be doing significant damage to the thing, the ridiculous size of her sword seeming to come in handy for chopping something that nothing else seemed to go more than an inch into. Loss and the nameless shield bearer held for a bit, but I soon noticed that it had started tensing up. ¡°Watch out!¡± I shouted, but it was too late of a warning as it jumped, landing on Aylea. I was close by however, and stabbed in as hard as I could towards one of its eyes. It flinched back, and I stepped in, determined to at least try and protect my group. It then turned its attention to me, swiping out with its claws, and I barely escaped, only getting a shallow cut on my chest. I cursed. My armor was brand new and now it was already cut through like a piece of paper. The Moki soon turned its attention to one of the other mages, who had continued to zap it with lightning bolts, and I started preparing a frostbit spell as I wasn¡¯t able to get close enough to go for its eyes again. The moki, was too fast though, and practically beheaded him, my spear only able to stab into its leg in an attempt to distract it. I quickly release the frostbite I had been preparing, and downed one of my mana potions, sad that I hadn¡¯t been able to get off my frostbite before it had reached the mage. The frostbite did little to slow it down, cracking almost immediately from the sheer force the red moki moved with, but the warriors managed to get there in time and started hammering away at it again, giving us enough space to back off. The moki, enraged by the warriors again, pulled up onto two legs, something I hadn¡¯t seen it do before, stomping down on Dark and one of the warriors whose name I hadn¡¯t learned. It then raked down, leaving a long cut along each of them, but they still seemed to be alive, Light running in to try and heal them in time. It was too late though, as the moki pressed down, crushing both of them beneath its feet. It then reared back again, but this time not to stomp, but in pain, as Mars¡¯ sword impacted onto its neck with a solid sounding noise. Mars was pulled up along with it though, as it had gone too deep, but quickly let go of her sword, barely dodging the front feet of it as it slammed back down, and rolling to the side to dodge the swipe of its claws that followed after. A solid stream of blood was now pouring out from around the sword, and I continued to throw ice spears, downing a mana potion when I ran out of mana again. The moki, seemingly enraged now, seemed to grow stronger from the pain, the swipes of its claws sending a warrior or two flying with every hit. When it had knocked most of them away, it turned its attention Loss, the only one remaining, and actually got one of its clawed paws over his shield, pulling down and making pulling Loss along with it. A quick bite on him, and he was now down as well. We were now down to four warriors, but Mars was without her sword, and they were only now getting back up, so it turned its attention to the archer this time, charging at him. The archer back up as fast as he could while releasing arrows, but was soon reached, and his feeble attempt to block with his bow was only met with it getting sliced in two along with him. My continued attempts to hurt it with ice spikes were only annoying it, until a lucky shot managed to hit Mars¡¯ sword, still stuck in its neck, knocking it loose and releasing a lot more blood than had been coming out previously. I pumped my fist, we now likely had it on a timer. Mars quickly ran over to grab her sword as it charged at me, and I prepared to jump to the side. It soon reached me, and I jumped, rolling as far as I could go, the moki still charging at the empty space where I used to be. I turned and quickly drew up and released another ice spike, hitting it in the mostly unwounded side of its neck. It turned back to me though, and went to swipe. I jumped back and stabbed out at its face as I did so, luckily catching it in the eye, and watched as it howled in rage, blinded on one side. I circled to the blinded side, hoping that it would let me avoid getting hit back, but it turned quickly slashing out at me. I jumped back, but not fast enough, as it cut through what had to be half my arm. I gasped in pain, I wasn¡¯t going to be casting any spell patterns for a while. It¡¯s focus on me was distracted by the warriors reaching it again, and I quickly ran over to light, who healed me up with two spell patterns. By the time I got back to the fight however, another warrior had died. His death wasn¡¯t in vain however, as one more large swing from Mars impacted in the same spot the previous large cut had been made, and it took another two steps, groaned, and collapsed. We all stood around for a while, then we started cheering. Around half of us had died, but we had done it. I quickly went up, and harvested the two claws that would serve as proof of killing it. We then headed off to the guild, and turned it in, and we were given a gold each. It may not have been much for the trouble it was, but a gold for one monster was still good money. The golds for the members who had died were given to the remaining people of the party, and we all sat together and chatted. While chatting, after complaining about how my brand new armor was shredded, I learned that if I died, my armor and weapons would be good as new when I respawned, so I figured it would be better to just wait until I died rather than buying a new set. It probably wouldn¡¯t be too long. We then all decided that we were exhausted, both mentally and physically, so we all headed off, we were going to get an early rest today. Chapter 14: Off to new lands I woke up in the morning feeling very refreshed. I had been too tired from the fight with the red moki to practice my meditation while sleeping, and so I had been sleeping like the dead. I got out of bed, stretching from the stiffness that always comes with a long night¡¯s rest, and grabbed my spear from the side of the bed. While doing so, I wondered why nobody ever seemed to steal people¡¯s gear while they were sleeping, but figured that it had something to do with the system in place, or the goddess as the in game lore referred to it as. Heading out, I went over to the gates, today I was going to get out of the starter city and head on towards Kurheim and find some three and four star mobs to hunt. Walking out of the gates for what would likely be the last time, I looked back at the city, noticing for the first time the runes that had been inscribed at the top of the wall. I wasn¡¯t sure what they would do, but likely were to prevent any monster attacks from happening, or to protect the city if they did happen. I turned around, and headed down the road, checking that my warding circle and tent were all packed and ready to go. As I walked, I attempted to meditate while doing so, as I wasn¡¯t sure if I could, but the flow of mana would keep getting disrupted as I walked, my mind trying to focus on two things. I wasn¡¯t sure if it was because you couldn¡¯t meditate while walking, or that I simply wasn¡¯t experienced enough. Figuring I could find one of the trainers at the next city to ask about it, I continued trying, needing something to entertain me on my walk anyway, at least until the moglins and moki started to attack me. It wasn¡¯t long until the first moglins attacked, but they were easily taken care of with a few ice spears, which reminded me I still needed to upgrade it. Deciding that would be a more efficient use of my time than my attempted meditation, I started spamming ice spears whenever my mana was full, making sure to leave enough so I could handle any moglins who attacked. For the first few hours, I had a relatively leisurely walk, occasionally killing moglins, and picking on the moki who didn¡¯t move even as half as fast as the red moki had. After the sixth or so group of moglin attacks, I got a nice little notification that I had leveled up again, likely from all the experience the red moki had given me. I put the point into strength, as I wanted to be able to do a bit more damage in melee range. I soon reached a signpost, and followed the direction the the little monolith with directions on it pointed me, off to the right. Not long after, the road started to be surrounded by trees, and I stepped off into the forest, staying in eyesight of the road while I searched for herbs. My mana potions were out at this point, I¡¯d used them all in the fight with the red moki, and they had definitely come in handy, so I wanted to make some more when I set up camp. The forest was relatively quiet compared to all the moglin and moki attacks that had happened earlier on on the road, so I leisurely went along, picking a good amount of herbs to practice my alchemy on, snacking on the travel foods I had prepared quite a time ago. After I¡¯d collected enough that I could get in a good amount of practice, I headed back to the road and continued my walk, spamming ice spear and attempting to meditate along the way. The rest of the day was relatively quiet, with only a single group of moglins attacking me, likely they gravitated more towards the city, as that was where all the humans were. Once it started to get dark, I started to set up camp, putting up my warding circle around a large area, gathering some twigs and branches which seemed dry enough to burn, and setting up my primitive tent. I then started myself a small fire, the sparks from my flint and steel easily catching on some dried leaves and then slowly flowing towards the twigs, slowly catching onto larger and large pieces of wood, the mist slowly becoming more transparent as the light lit up the area. I then set up my herbs to dry on a little rack I made above the flames, and I took out some moki meat I had harvested while hunting earlier, putting it on the rack to cook along with the herbs. It wasn¡¯t long until a delicious smell started to rise up, and I bit into the moki meat, getting a slight frown on my face as I was reminded of how stringy it was. Regardless, I finished my small meal, and left the herbs above the fire to finish drying out and hopefully not catching on fire themselves before turning in to sleep for the night. Once I got into my tent, I grimaced. I had completely forgotten to get something like a sleeping bag, so I was stuck just hanging out inside the tent without any sort of bedding. I shrugged, it didn¡¯t get too cold here, at least not for now as it seemed to be summer or spring here, so I laid down, and started my nightly practice of starting to meditate. The next day, waking up after having been unsuccessful in my attempts, I got up, yawning while I collected my ward net, and packed up my tent. I then noticed that the herbs had indeed not caught on fire, so before heading out I decided to do a little more alchemy practice. Taking out my mortar and pestle and my glass bottle to make the potions in, I ground up the herbs as finely as I could and tried to remember exactly how much mana to put into the potion to make it as deep a color as possible without turning it black. Wondering why all the potions turned black when they failed, rather than different herbs turning different colors, I added the herbs I had ground up to a bottle while finely controlling the amount of mana I was adding into the potions. My first two attempts were unfortunately failures, but on my third I had gotten the right amount of mana, and gotten it about as dark of a color as I had before, though still not the opaque look I was shooting for. I kept trying however with my remaining herbs, getting some potions that were slightly better, and some that were slightly worse. The better ones I added to the flasks on my belt, wanting to be ready in case I ran into something that would require a lot of mana or healing to fight against.The tale has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident. After I was done, my walk continued. I wasn¡¯t sure exactly how long it would take to get there, but figured it couldn¡¯t be more than a couple of days. The second day went much the same as the first, except there were slightly more moglin and moki attacks, which I was grateful for as the fresh meat from the moki, even if it was a bit too stringy, was still much better than the travel rations I had packed. While I was walking I wondered if having a balanced diet was at all important in this game. I wasn¡¯t really keen on getting scurvy in a video game, and I felt the developers very well may have added it in, so I decided that I was going to eat slightly more healthy when I got the chance. The day was relatively uneventful, though I did think I was getting closer to being able to meditate while walking, I had been able to get the mana to flow down to my leg and back up, though it would always get interrupted about there, possibly from my excitement at being able to do so. The evening went much the same as the day before, setting up my minimal campsite and setting a fire to roast some moki one, though I did spot a couple of moglins wandering around outside my campsite, and I held my breath, wondering if the ward net would be as effective as the shopkeeper had said. I flinched as one of the moglins eyes glanced over me, and started to write up a spell pattern just in case, and when it started walking away, I started wondering what to do with the spell pattern I had made but not released. After musing on it for a couple of minutes, I noticed it started to fade, eventually disappearing all on its own. Smiling at having found out that you could dispel a spell pattern, I headed off to bed, determining to test tomorrow if I could put up multiple spell patterns and release them all at once, something I hadn¡¯t yet tried. The third day was more interesting, with tons of moglin attacks, and I found out that you can indeed draw up multiple spell patterns to release at once, though I wasn¡¯t quite sure why you would do so, as it would probably be more efficient to just release it as fast as you could draw it up, though I wondered at the effects of multiple frostbites. Testing my theory on the next pair of moglins, I drew up two of my upgraded frostbites and released them at the leftmost moglin, and noted that the ice seemed to be thicker than before. Eliminating the other moglin with my spear, I watched to see what would happen. It took a good deal longer than usual to go away, and when it did, instead of the moglin breaking free of it like normal, it was released when the ice started to melt, more slowly than the ice from my ice spear and ice shatter, but still much faster than normal ice would melt. When the moglin got out of the ice, rather than charging at me, it simply collapsed, and I took a step back in surprise. Figuring that it had suffocated in the ice, I smiled at a new thing to add to my repertoire. It would be a bit overkill for normal mobs, but when it came to king class or simply tougher mobs, being able to hold them in place for an extended period of time would be very useful. The rest of the day was spent fighting off mobs, and by the end of it, I was pretty exhausted, ready to get some sleep before doing some more walking on the morrow. I was able to get into my meditative fugue for the night, so when I awoke I was quite happy, stretching out the knots that had formed while sleeping on the hard ground, deciding my first move when I reached Kurheim would be to buy myself some travel bedding. I was cheered up early in the morning when my ice spear upgraded to ice spear plus, adding a one times my wisdom mana multiplier in addition to the base cost, but when I tried it out, it was quite impressive, having jagged edges that looked very sharp, and it simply tore through moglins. While it wouldn¡¯t directly kill them in one hit unless I hit their disproportionately large head, they would usually bleed out in a few seconds after, the jagged new ice spear leaving massive tears in their flesh. I determined then that I would definitely need to start stacking wisdom, because while the damage was impressive, I could only get five casts out of it. While late game the 10 base cost would be negligible, it was eating up a good portion of my mana at the present. It was about midday when I finally arrived at Kurheim, or at least the outskirts, a ten foot or so wall completely surrounding a massive amount of farmland, the wall stretching as far as I could see in both directions. When I finally arrived at the city proper, I gawked at the ridiculously large walls. While the ones around Ederheim had been maybe twenty feet tall, these were closer to forty, and they were entirely covered in runes rather than the ones only at the top that had been on Ederheim¡¯s. When I finally arrived at the gates, I had to wait in line for quite a while, until I got to the front, where a guard began to question me in a bored manner. ¡°Purpose of visiting Kurheim and identification please.¡± I wasn¡¯t sure of how to give any identification and so I asked. ¡°I¡¯m an adventurer here to hunt bigger mobs, but I¡¯m not sure how to give any form of Identification, I¡¯m one of the travelers who was summoned.¡± ¡°Just hand over your adventurers guild tag and you¡¯ll be fine, we¡¯ve had quite a few of you come in, I¡¯ll hand you a map that¡¯ll have the training areas and barracks listed.¡± I handed over my guild tag, and he put it over a rune covered table before handing it back to me along with a map. ¡°Have a good stay in Kurheim, we could use the help clearing out the local monster population.¡± I thanked him for the map, and opened it up. The city was truly massive, with a large market district, a military district, and a very large residential district. I figured with that large of a residential district, the farmers for the fields I had seen outside likely lived inside the city, probably to avoid any nighttime monster attacks. The first thing I did was head over to the market district, I was going to get myself some sleeping gear, then I was going to head over to the adventurers guild to find out what the new mobs would be at three and four stars. It took me a bit to get there, but after I¡¯d arrived, it wasn¡¯t hard for me to find a general store, and I headed in to buy myself some sleeping gear. They actually had what seemed to be a sleeping bag, which had to be made with orb fur, as it looked very similar, and I walked out two silver poorer, but very satisfied with my purchase. As my next order of business, I headed over to the adventurers guild to do some recon on the opposition I would be facing. When I arrived, it was similar to the one I had seen in Ederheim, with a large outside area where all the selling of monster parts happened, and a larger building than the one I had seen in Ederheim. Heading on in, it was a similar DMV like atmosphere,very business like, and nothing like the rowdy tavern style that I had expected before I started playing. I headed over to the three star board, and noted that this time there were five separate mobs to hunt, craws, ents, molts, phols, and brags. Deciding that I was going to rest first, and go hunting later, I headed off, checking my map to find some food before heading off to the barracks I had noted on my map. I eventually found a little restaurant, and two silver less than before, I got a delicious stew along with some bread. The stew was filled with chunks of meat, which tasted like orb meat, and chunks of some unrecognizable vegetables, and I ate it as fast as I could, blowing on my spoon to cool it down before savoring the taste. After having eaten, I headed off, it was time to head to the barracks to get some rest. Along the way, I continued to try my meditation while walking, getting slightly further than I had before, and hoping that the practice would be useful for doing my sleep meditation thing. I soon arrived, and headed in, though this time, there were what had to be soldiers sharing the rooms with us, with the travelers having their own little section. Making sure to pick a bed right next to the only side of the room with windows so as to not be hit in the face with the accursed light again, I slowly drifted off while meditating, slowly reaching that state I kept searching for. Chapter 15: Giant Bugs For once, rather than waking up to the sun shining on my face, I slowly woke up from my trance as the light inside grew a bit brighter. Yawning, I stretched, and smiled at another point of wisdom. The points were raining in now that I could spend a solid eight to ten in game hours on the seeming hybrid between meditation and sleeping. I hopped out of bed, grabbing my spear. Today I was going to go and try to hunt some of those new mobs I had seen listed on the quest board. Before heading out, I headed over to the adventurers guild and started asking around as to where I could find the mobs I was going to be hunting for. Unsure as to which of them I wanted to hunt, I soon found out that all of them could be found further to the east, with each of them having their own preferred environments. Figuring I would find out where each individual one lives as I hunted, I headed off to get some more levels. While walking through the farmland, I decided I was going to spend a few days out hunting, it was an hours or so walk to simply get out of the farmland area, and I figured with my new sleeping bag I wouldn¡¯t mind hunting for a few days, and maybe I could catch up a bit on the hunting time I had lost while training. As I walked, I continued my attempts to meditate while doing so, but it felt like I had made no progress whatsoever by the time the farmland ended. Seeing no mobs around, I continued my walk for a bit, until the first new mob found me. It looked like a giant millepede would, if said millipede had no joints in its legs, looking like worms sticking out of its shell holding it up, and patterns on its shell that looked like that old painting the scream. Shivering, as I wasn¡¯t exactly a big fan of bugs, I sent one of my upgraded ice spears flying its way. It dodged to the right, but lost a couple of its legs as it did so, which continued to squirm on the ground even after having been detached. I switched to force bolt, if I wasn¡¯t getting any direct hits, I¡¯d prefer to conserve my mana, and I got off another two glancing blows on it before it reached me. Once it got in melee range, I stabbed out with my spear, but it barely penetrated the shell of the beast, and it continued charging at me, lashing out with its jointless legs while it tried to get its jaws around me. I dodged to the left, avoiding the very sharp looking jaws, but winced as it¡¯s legs, which seemed to have extended from when it was just running at me, continued to hit me with a force that didn¡¯t feel too much lighter than a punch. I stabbed out again at it¡¯s side as it went by me, this time finding a bit more purchase as my spear landed in between two of the sections of its shell, and it screamed, almost making me cover my ears before stopping so as to not lose my grip on my spear. I prepped another spell pattern as it turned its front half and started to try and wrap around me, but my frostbite caught it before it could finish surrounding me, and I stepped to the side, avoiding getting encircled and stabbed into one of its eyes with a sickening crunch. It screamed again, but this time I didn¡¯t flinch, and just stabbed out at another of its four eyes, this time sending the sper most the length of the blade inside its shell. It had just started to break free of the ice I had encased it in, but I twisted the spear, eliciting another scream, and pulled out a bit before stabbing in as hard as I could, embedding the spear up to the shaft in its head. I pulled it out and stepped back, I wasn¡¯t sure if it was dead, as it continued to squirm, but slowly the motion of its body stopped, and the only things left moving were the jointless legs. I then went up, touching the body to see what the loot would be, and found out it was called a Molt. I then pulled out my book on harvesting, looking for what could be harvested. The entire shell of the thing was actually used for light armor, and also as a material in making this world¡¯s equivalent of concrete. I sighed, I didn¡¯t want to spend my next hour or so harvesting the damn thing, but I really could use a new set of armor, and given the way my spear had barely penetrated the actual shell of it, it would be a nice upgrade over my warg armor, even though I¡¯d only had it for a short time. Getting to work, I slowly worked my knife in between the different sections of shell, and once I had cut all around it, it came free with little resistance, revealing pink flesh underneath. I found out that the reason the legs had seemed to extend was because they had, curling up inside the shell, and they were extended in the front legs the thing had used to attack me. Frowning at the grisly work, I soon had the entire shell harvested, but decided to simply use the goddess to harvest the things from now on, it simply took too much time away from leveling to properly harvest it. I then continued my trek, and soon headed off the road, intent on finding some more of the bizarre mobs that the developers loved to throw at us players. I hunted a few more molts as I went, making sure to rest up and restore my mana after each fight, as I could probably only handle two consecutive fights before I ran out of mana. I sighed, while my spells may do some serious damage, they were also very expensive, especially in their upgraded forms. I eventually settled on just spamming my force bolt when they were further away and more likely to dodge, and then switching to ice spear once they were too close to dodge. I continued this pattern until one fight where a second one was creeping up on my, and noticed too late to throw an ice spear at it, so I simply released my force bolt at it at a point blank range. I gaped as I saw it impact straight on, and simply shatter the things shell, which apparently was weak to blunt force trauma, and then got off another two before the other one managed to reach me.This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere. I jumped to the side just as it managed to reach me, and deciding to stick with force bolt, as it seemed to be the best bet for mana usage versus damage dealt, I prepared a spell pattern while stabbing out with my other hand. It found purchase, but the other molt managed to reach me, and got its pincers around my leg, and I cursed as it bit down. I took a higher grip on my spear and stabbed down into its eyes as hard as I could, sinking the spear down to the wood into its skull, but it refused to let go. The other molt reaching me, I yanked my spear out with a sickening crunch from what was remaining of its eyes, and tried to step to the side, only to fail as the molt hanging on my legs was still there. It reached me, and got a grip around my body. Seeing as how it was too close to use my spear efficiently, I prepped an ice spear as fast as I could, sending it into its eyes from point blank range, and smiled as it practically split its head in two. I then set back on the other molt, only to notice it was dead, it was simply hanging on in death. I tried to pry its jaws free, but they seemed to be locked in place, so I switched tactics, and took my spear close to the spearhead, and slowly cut one if its jaws out from its head. That finally worked, and I got my leg free, only to see it start bleeding quite profusely now that the jaws were free of it. Seeing as how I wasn¡¯t intending to bleed to death, I downed one of my health potions, and decided that looking for herbs would also be on the list of things to do in the coming days. I then placed my hands on the two molts, and they faded out to be replaced with piles of their shells, which seemed to be thinner than the ones I had harvested myself, and there was significantly less, not even half, of what I had gotten when I had harvested them myself. Putting the piles of chitin into my backpack, I stretched, only to wince from the cuts I had gotten on my chest and leg, which hadn¡¯t fully healed yet even with the health potion. I watched them, and saw as they closed up slowly, but fast enough to be seen with my naked eye. I had known that health potions weren¡¯t instant, but this was the first time I had watched to see what they would do. The cuts slowly seemed to pull together, then new skin would grow, looking like scar tissue, before the scar tissue slowly faded, leaving nothing but the cuts in my clothing to know I had been wounded. I stretched again, properly now that the cuts weren¡¯t bothering me, and headed off to get some more levels. After six more of the insect like beasts, I was rewarded with one, much more quickly than I had expected. Pulling up the forums of the game, it turns out that leveling actually starts to speed up once you hit the mobs around three and four stars, and doesn¡¯t seem to slow down as easily as it did with the earlier mobs. Some people had even hit high forties, and the highest confirmed level was a level fifty-six. Shrugging at how far I was behind, though I had enough skill points that I was equivalent to someone sixteen levels higher than me, I went off, I was going to try and catch up as fast as I could. It took another three of the molts before I found my first new mob. This time it came in a group of three. It looked like a mass of rotting wood in human shape, with small insects constantly crawling inside of it. I sent a couple force bolts flying at them before they reached me, and noted that it seemed to explode a good chunk of the rotting wood off of them, but they simply ignored the wounds and continued running at me. When they got close, I impaled the rightmost one with my spear, and prepped a frostbite as I did so, releasing it at the one in the middle just as it swung its trunk like arms at me. Ducking under the swing which wasn¡¯t quite as fast as I was fearing, the frostbite impacted with a crackling noise, and froze a majority of the thing solid. I went to pull my spear out, but it didn¡¯t come out when I pulled, and I turned to face it, noting that it was slowly pulling itself along the haft of my spear, ignoring that it was impaled. My look cost me, as I felt a very solid impact on the side of the head, sending me reeling and making me let go of my spear. I fell down, rolling to the right to avoid the slam that came down after me, and once I got up prepared and released an ice spear at the one who had hit me. The ice spear tore completely through the thing, leaving a gaping hole where its stomach used to be, but it only seemed to have slowed down a bit as it charged me. With the with my spear still stuck through it having fallen over somehow, I ran back, the monster that had taken the ice spear being slowed from the hole in it, and I fired a force bolt at one of its legs. The leg exploded in a shower of splinters, and it fell to the side, but continued to crawl at me. Deciding to find out if a headshot would solve my problem as they seemed an awful lot like zombies, I released a force bolt at its head, and watched as it collapsed flat from its crawling posture to the ground. I turned to the frozen one and the one with my spear still running through it, who couldn¡¯t get up because my spear was in the way, I finished each of them off with a force bolt to the head. I then went up. I was hesitant to touch their insect infested bodies, but held my breath and did so anyway. The things turned out to ents, and I looked at them askew, they were technically tree people, though they seemed to be completely rotten. Wondering if there was a non rotting version, I stepped back from their bodies while I looked through my book on harvesting. The only thing of value on them was a core, which was located around where a heart would be on a human, and used as a mana conductor for staves and magic tools. I kicked apart the bodies, which seemed to be falling apart now that they had died, and grabbed the cores once I could see them, putting them into my backpack. I then continued my journey, and soon arrived at a forest. This forest, unlike the one that had been near Ederheim, was filled with small growth, bushes everywhere, and trees interspersed along with them. I walked through the shaded areas, the trees providing enough cover from the sun to prevent the bushes from growing and interfering with my walking along. I gathered a few more herbs as I went, hunting the groups of ents which I couldn¡¯t quite snipe their heads from range, and a spear hit to the head wouldn¡¯t take them down either, so I got hit a couple more times, though nothing like the solid blow they had landed on my head earlier. I went along, hunting for ents and molts, and gathering herbs while I went. After looking through my book after finding some herb I didn¡¯t recognize, I found out that it was poisonous, and could be used to make a weak poison that was useful when coating a weapon. Deciding to do that when I had the chance, I continued my murder spree, until I arrived at a lake. Deciding to eat and rest, I took out my ward net, and set up a small camp. I still had a little moki meat left, so I took that out and started to cook. While I was cooking, I noted some more mobs that were wandering around the lake, and would go back into it occasionally. They looked like giant crabs, with four legs and two arms which had scythe like protrusions and small gripper claws on the other side. I watched them as I went, and pulled out my harvesting book to find out what they were. They were called craw, and apparently were quite delicious, even if they did look like a cross between giant crabs and a tarantula. Having eaten, I soon decided that it was time to get back to hunting, so I packed up my ward net, put out the fire I had started, and decided to go try and hunt some of the craw. Heading over to the lake, I got distracted as I went by something I noticed, a small cave with lightly glowing barnacle like things. Heading into the cave, I looked up and around, the interior past the entrance lightly lit by the glowing things, and was looking up when I missed my step, and fell down for what had to be a couple of meters, hitting my head and blacking out. Chapter 16: poison I woke up what was hopefully only a few seconds later, and held my head as I stood up. Just to be safe, I took a health potion, I had plenty of herbs on me to make some more, and I wasn¡¯t going to risk any sort of brain damage, which could very well exist in this game. Once I stood up, I took a look around. The walls were lit with the same glowing barnacle type objects that had lit up the cave earlier, and a tunnel stretched in both directions. Up above I could see the hole I had fallen through, and it didn¡¯t look very feasible to climb up I shrugged, I could always try and climb up later if the tunnel didn¡¯t lead anywhere interesting. Deciding to walk along and see what I could find, I turned away from the hole I had fallen down and headed down one of the paths I could see. The tunnel was tall enough for me to walk standing up, and I did so, continuing to look at the interesting glowing lifeforms as I did so, I clearly hadn¡¯t learned my lesson. It took a while, but eventually the passage started to open up, and then it arrived at a massive cavern. I looked out over the cavern in awe, it was a massive thing, well above my head, with gigantic stalactites hanging from the ceiling. Everywhere could bee seen the small glowing things, keeping the entire cavern lit , with only a few shadowed spots. The cavern was also completely filled with those crab tarantula things that I had seen by the shore, and above them flew another kind of mob that I hadn¡¯t seen yet. They were like bats, except their wings were far larger, and stretched down to the bottom of their legs, with sharp claws at the edges of their wings. In addition to that, they had what looked like a very nasty stinger on the ends of their tails, which stretched about the length of their body behind them. They looked like thinner, bonier stingrays to be honest, and as soon as I had finished looking around the cavern, a couple of them noticed me. I instantly went to back up, not wanting to get mobbed by them all in the large cavern filled with plenty of things that would tear me apart if they got to me. I ran back down the tunnel I had come from for a while, and turned around to see three of the flying things coming at me. I instantly prepped and fired a force bolt, which knocked one of them down, slamming into the ground with a crack. I winced, that had to have broken some of its bones, but I wasn¡¯t going to complain if these things were pretty easy to take down. I took the next one on my spear, and dodged to the side as the third one went flying by, the sharp looking claws on the edge of its wings leaving small scratches on my cheeks. I kicked the one off of my spear, and went to attack the last one, when it screamed. It was insanely high pitched, just at the edge of my hearing, but it was loud as hell, making me wince in pain as I stabbed out to silence it. With my spear sticking through it the scream slowly faded, and I sighed. That had been a relatively easy encounter, they had died as easily as I could¡¯ve killed the orbs at this point. Just as I was relaxing, I started to hear massive amounts of wing beats coming from the direction of the cavern. I cursed. Of course that scream had been to call allies. Seeing as how I could hear massive numbers, I prepared an ice shatter, drawing up the spell pattern, and releasing it as soon as I saw the first of the bat like things coming around the light curve of the tunnel. The slow sphere of energy impacted on the third or fourth of the monsters to come around the curve, and it exploded into a massive amount of spikes, impaling what had to be seven or eight of them. The rest simply ignored the plight of their brethren however, and continued to fly towards me as fast as they could. I impaled the first one on my spear, and started prepping another ice shatter, releasing it before the rest of them were on me. I released it, and it impacted a bit too close to me, the spikes maybe an inch or so away from me. The mobs continued their charge however, and the first reached me, making me lean to the side to avoid the claws, which scraped by on my armor. I pulled my spear back and stabbed out again, only catching the next one in the wing, and it stabbed its barbed tail at me, luckily hitting only armor. As that happened though, another went by me, cutting open my arm a small amount, and I winced in pain. Pulling my spear back to try and stab again, I stabbed out, but missed this time, the pain in my arm making me a bit slower than normal. My head was jerked forwards by another blow, and I felt some liquid trickling down my neck, so I rolled to the side, deciding that keeping my back to the wall would be the best course of action. With my back against the wall, I could see them all, at least fifteen or so of the things, and that was after my ice shatters had whittled down their numbers. Luckily, they went down pretty easy individually, and I wasn¡¯t going to give up when I¡¯d finally found something interesting like this cave system. I stabbed out again, catching one directly in the body, and leaned back as one flew past me from my right, leaving a small scratch on my nose. Preparing a force bolt, I released it as another went flying past me, trying to copy the one which had just scratched me, and caught it in the wing, sending it spiralling downwards. I smiled and started to prepare another force bolt, but was distracted when one of the things stabbed me in the thigh with its stinger, causing the spell pattern to explode, and sending me back into the wall, slamming the back of my head against the rock. Luckily, the explosion did grant me some space, and I could see some holes in some of the membranous wings of the creatures, so it had at least hurt them too. I started up my spell patterns again, and this time stabbed at one that tried to go at me and catch me with its stinger, cutting into the wing, and leaving it flopping around on the ground. Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings. Me slowly whittling the numbers down was interrupted however, when I started to feel woozy and lightheaded. I cursed, of course the damn stingers would be poisonous. I continued stabbing out however, missing as often as I was hitting now, and got some nasty cuts on my legs and arms, but I was finally starting to see an end to their numbers. I was down to three of them when I started to feel utterly exhausted, and taking a glance at my stamina bar, it was almost completely empty, so I grabbed one of my two stamina potions from my belt and downed it. Taking my attention away from the battle however, turned out to be a pretty poor move, as I took another stinger in the arm. Feeling even more woozy, I stabbed out at the creature whose stinger was still stuck in my arm, catching it in the wing, but nearly dropping my spear when it hit it from the weakness I was starting to feel from the poison. I pulled it out in a heaving motion, requiring far more effort than it should have from the weakness, and started preparing another force bolt. The last two creatures weren¡¯t going to let me finish with ease however, and both flew at me as if to stop me from finishing it. I stabbed out at one, and the other impacted my chest with its claws, luckily stopped by the warg armor. Dropping my spear, I grabbed the back of it and threw it against the opposing wall, releasing my force bolt at it when it hit the ground. I leaned back against the wall, breathing heavily. That had probably the most intense fight I had had so far. Once I had caught my breath I grabbed my spear from the ground, and went to finish off the ones that were still moving but unable to fly due to their wing damage. Once I had finished that, a notification popped up, telling me that I had gained a level, and I smiled, at least I had gotten more out of that fight than a bunch of cuts and a woozy head. Once I had finished, I went back against the wall and set up camp, I was in no condition to do anything until this poison had worn off. I eventually decided to put the point into wisdom, my mana seemed to be the limiting factor at the moment, so I should probably work on increasing that. I relaxed within my ward net, laying down on my new bedding, until the most severe of the light headedness and weak feeling had worn off, then got up, it was time to harvest my loot. Putting my hand on one of them to see what the loot popup window would say, I found out that it was called a brag. The loot item itself was a small sack of poison that was located by their stingers. Deciding that I really didn¡¯t want to harvest that myself, I¡¯d had enough of their poison getting into me for the day, I pulled out my book on harvesting to see what it was used for at least. It turns out, that the poison, when mixed with some herbs, is used to make an antidote for poison. Pulling out my book on alchemy that I hadn¡¯t really touched except to learn the most basic potion recipes, I looked through it, and soon found the recipe. All it called for was the poison in the sack, in addition to a portion it referred to as a pinch of ground healing herb, and two pinches of the stamina herb. It also required mana to be added three times, once when you added each of the ingredients, and each time requiring a different amount of mana to be added. Deciding that I¡¯d try it out as soon as I could get a fire going to dry out my herbs, I packed up my two books and started touching each of the bodies, collecting a total of twenty six poison sacks. Putting all of my loot into my magical backpack, I got up, I was going to go back to that cavern, though I was going to be a bit sneakier this time. It didn¡¯t take me too long to arrive back at the cavern, and the first thing I noted was that my slaughter of the brags didn¡¯t seem to have knocked down their numbers too much. I had killed twenty six of the things and there had to be at least five times that flying around or nesting at the top of the cave. The craw weren¡¯t in quite such large numbers, but with their armored shells, they would probably be quite hard to take down even one on one. I was interrupted in my assessment of the situation by my stomach rumbling, telling me that I really should eat something, so after backing back down the cave a bit, I pulled out some travel rations and started to chow down, deciding what I should do at this point. I could try to head the other way down the tunnel, I could try and whittle down the numbers here, or I could try and climb up back the way I fell down. I could also just suicide and respawn, but I wasn¡¯t sure if I would respawn at Ederheim or Kurheim. I would have to ask once I got back to town. Deciding that the first thing I should do would be to head down and see where the other side of the tunnel went, I packed up my snacks and started walking. Along the way, I noted the hole I had fell down from, but maybe thirty minutes later I was staring at a cave that would make me get down and crouch walk, and probably get on my stomach to shimmy through further in. I sighed, I wasn¡¯t particularly claustrophobic, but that would be a bit much, and I really didn¡¯t want to risk getting stuck along the way. My spear and backpack being there would also probably get in the way, and I had no intention of leaving those behind. I figured maybe someone who liked to cave would be willing to explore it, so I should probably ask around when I got back to the city. Heading back down to the direction of the large cavern, I noticed some driftwood on the floor and started. That was not a good sign. If driftwood managed to get here, that meant that the ocean would come up and fill this area up with water when high tide came. I had no idea how long that would take to happen, especially considering the two moons in the sky. For all I knew, it could take months before the high tide was high enough to be able to fill up this area, and it likely would take quite some time seeing as how dry it was, but I¡¯d rather get out of here sooner rather than later to be safe. I arrived to where I had fallen down, and continued on towards the giant cavern. It wasn¡¯t too long before I arrived again, but this time, I kept myself standing up, and tried to get the attention of one of the brags again. It wasn¡¯t too long until one had noticed me, and I ran back up the cavern. This time there was only the one following me, and I sighed in disappointment, stabbing it before it could scream and gather another group of allies. While I wanted to hunt them a few at a time rather than by the single, I had no intentions of gathering another group that large, I only had one stamina potion left, and I didn¡¯t want to risk getting poisoned earlier in the fight and dying. After killing it, I collected the poison sack and went back to the cave to get another couple. I soon got into a rhythm of collecting a couple, and killing them before they could scream, though there were a few close calls, and it didn¡¯t take too long until I had cleared out maybe a fifth of the brags flying around. I was going to go back and hunt some more, when I was interrupted by a large yawn. I then decided that the best thing to do would be to get some rest for the night instead of try and stay up hunting. I soon set myself up a small temporary campsite, not bothering with the tent this time, and snuggled up in my new sleeping bag like bedding. I then meditated, focusing on that sensation I was always searching for while sleeping, and was able to find it without much of an issue, slowly fading into that mix of meditation and sleep. I awoke the next morning, and continued my extermination of the brags, grabbing a couple each time and killing them off. It was relatively painless until one of them screamed again, and I panicked, stabbing at it as fast as I could in the hopes that it would stop the next wave from appearing. My hopes were in vain as I heard the sound of flapping wings coming down the tunnel, but I smiled in happiness as I noted that only ten or so had come this time. I finished them off without much of an issue, whittling down their numbers beforehand with an ice shatter, and this time catching one of them before it went to scream and gather even more allies. I waited around for a while, waiting for the few cuts I had gotten to heal up naturally, or at least as naturally as a game world healing can be, and then got back to my busy work. I was through almost all of them when I got another level up. I smiled, and put the point into wisdom again. I was going to catch up to those level grinders without much of an issue if things continued this way. It took maybe an hour after that to finish off all of the brags, and I let out a breath I had been holding in. It seemed it would indeed be possible for me to clear out the mobs for me to continue my exploration, the only ones I had left were the craw. I smiled, and decided to go get me some of that craw meat the harvesting book had described as delicious. Chapter 17: Tasty food I approached the large cavern unsure of what the best way to hunt the craw was. When I arrived, I noticed that they tended to stay in small groups of two to three, with the occasional lone straggler. I pondered for a moment, I wasn¡¯t sure if attacking one of the lone ones would provoke a response from the rest of them, but I wasn¡¯t going to risk it if I couldn¡¯t help it. Approaching one of the lone craw, I tried to get its attention, waving my arms after looking around to make sure none of the other craw four eyes on stalks were looking in my direction. The lone craw soon noticed me, and I instantly started to back off, trying to drag it towards the tunnel where I would be out of range of it. Unfortunately, my attempt failed pretty horribly, as soon as I had arrived at the tunnel, it stopped following me, turning around to head back into the cavern. Frustrated, I did what anyone would do, and cast a force bolt right at its back. The force bolt impacted with a light crunch, and I could see that its furry back had become slightly misshapen. I smiled as it turned back around, and started running down the tunnel, hoping it wouldn¡¯t be like the brags and call for help. Luckily, it seemed it wasn¡¯t interested in getting help, and it ran after me as well, its four legs moving it about the same pace as my sprinting. I sighed, I had hoped with their size they would be about the same speed as the moki, but it seems I was wrong. After going down the tunnel enough that I thought the sounds of battle wouldn¡¯t attract the rest of the craw, I turned around and launched a frostbite at the craw, hoping to slow it down enough that I could get in some damage. The frostbite hit it with a crackling sound, freezing its legs on the right side, and it slid to a stop. I smiled, and launched an ice spear at the legs on the other side of its body. The ice spear landed, but rather than severing the legs like I had hoped, it only left deep a wound along them. Hopefully it would slow it down enough that I could simply kite it, but I wasn¡¯t going to place my bets on that. It soon broke free of the ice containing it, with me only managing to get one more force bolt off at it, which seemed to have crippled one of the legs I¡¯d wounded earlier. The wound didn¡¯t seem to slow it down at all however, it almost seemed as if it had gotten faster. Once it reached me, I readied my spear, and ducked under the swing of its scythe like claws, stabbing upwards into its shell. The spear penetrated surprisingly easily, digging in about half the length of the blade before I retraced it, and hastily jumped back as its other claw came swiping at me from the other side. I stabbed out again, it seemed to take a second between each attack, and I was going to abuse that, launching my spear into the join on its arm like appendage. I quickly pulled it out, and this time jumped over the claw that it had sent flying towards me at shin height. I was about to stab out again, when the other claw came rushing in from the other side while I was still in the air. I instantly brought up my bracer in an attempt to guard against it, but it barely slowed down the attack, and the claw slid through my arm with painful ease, stopping only when it hit the two bones in my arm. Looking at the health bar in the corner of my vision, that single blow had cost me around a third of my health. Shouting out in pain, I decided I seriously needed to get a new set of armor, likely from the shells of the molts I¡¯d hunted earlier. I dropped my spear, my arm seemingly unable to hold on to it, and I stepped back while preparing another force bolt with my unwounded arm. Releasing it at the same arm that I¡¯d stabbed, it impacted with a solid sounding crunch, and the arm was now slightly twisted, it likely wouldn¡¯t be able to get much more use out of it. Smiling with a rush that felt like adrenaline, possibly my real body producing the drug while I was in game, I ducked under the swing it sent out with its still useable arm, and prepared another frostbite, I was going to freeze it in place and step back for some more ice spears. I released the spell pattern, and did exactly that, sending the ice spears to the center of its mass, hoping that it would die from that as I only had enough mana left to cast another force bolt. Luckily, it collapsed, and I slowly walked up, and put my hand on its slightly furred shell, seeing what loot I would get. Surprisingly, the supposedly tasty meat of it was one of the loot items, along with its claws, which I knew to be exceedingly sharp from what it had done to my arm. Deciding that I would just wait to heal up rather than drink one of my limited health potions, I started my harvesting after dismissing the loot window. Looking over the book, it seems the only edible parts were in the legs and arms, as the body had a minor paralytic within it, so it wasn¡¯t safe to eat. I slowly harvested the meat and chopped off the claws, going surprisingly slowly due to having only one arm. I put all the loot in my backpack, and then started to go around collecting some of the driftwood I had seen, deciding to make a fire to try out this supposedly delicious craw meat. I slowly shaved off thin strips of wood for tinder, and then took some of the smallest pieces of driftwood, and used my flint and steel to start a small fire, and soon it was nicely burning. This time, I wasn¡¯t able to make a rack, but I took out my herbs, and left them to dry out by the side of the fire, and made a skewer out of one of the vaguely stick shaped pieces of driftwood. After the craw meat seemed to be well cooked, becoming more firm than it was at first, I took it off of the fire to have a bite. While I didn¡¯t find it to be quite as delicious as the book had described, likely attributed to my lack of cooking skill rather than any fault of the meat itself, it was still quite tasty. It tasted like a slightly buttery crab, with a hint of fishiness in it, all of it meshing together and making me wish I had some lemon to put on top of it. After finish my meal, I packed up my stuff and went to go lure some more of the craw to hunt. The next craw went much the same way, with me this time getting a nasty gash in my chest rather than on my arm, and I collected the loot and waited for my mana to regenerate before going off to drag yet another of the craw to its doom. The hunting went well, and by the time I¡¯d hunted all of the lone craw, I was much more comfortable fighting them, having not gotten any wounds from the last few of them. Now though, I had a conundrum. I¡¯d finished off the lone craw, but there were still plenty of them left, only in groups of two to three, and I wasn¡¯t going to be comfortable taking them down on my lonesome. A single craw would burn through my mana on its own, and I wasn¡¯t confident I would be able to dodge their claws well enough that I could take on two at once. After deliberating for a while on whether I should try to climb back up and get Loss and his gang to come help me out, I decided I was going to tough it out and try and fight my way through regardless. I took a deep breath as I slowly approached a group of two of them, and got their attention, dragging them back towards the tunnel, casting a force bolt when they seemed like they were going to head back into the cavern. I held my ground as they approached, launching two force bolts at the one on the right¡¯s arm, hoping to get it out of commission so I would have a bit of an easier time of it. They both impacted properly, but the arm didn¡¯t end up the twisted mess I was hoping for, only sporting a web of cracks that were barely visible under the short fur it had. They soon reached me, and both slashed out with their claws at the same time, making it easy for me to step back and stab out at the already wounded arm. The wound did little to deter it however, as they slashed out again, one low and one high. Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon. I blanked for a moment before doing the only thing I thought would let me avoid the slashes, diving in between the two scythe like claws and rolling as I landed, putting me to the side of the unwounded craw. I stabbed out at its body, and my spear sunk in a ways, but was nearly pulled out of my arms as it turned to face me, the spear ending up dragging a cut along the craw¡¯s body as it did so. I stepped back to the edge of it¡¯s range, and nearly missed the other craw swinging at me with its wounded arm. I noticed it too late however, and the only thing I could do was get my arm up a bit to try and block it. I was expecting another cut like the one I had gotten before, but this time on my spell casting arm, but it barely cut through my armor before the arm collapsed, my force bolts and stabs having drastically reduced its integrity. I got a predatory smile on my face, with only three limbs between the two of them, I was reasonably confident that I could take them, even if I may still end up a bit wounded. Deciding to focus on the one with the wounded arm, I circled towards the ruined arm, trying to make it harder for it to hit me and trying to keep it between me and the other craw. The other craw started moving around as fast as it could, walking sideways as fast as it could forwards, but after dodging the swing of the unwounded arm, I had time to sink in my weapon twice before it was able to bring it to bear again. The other craw reached me at this point however, and I had to jump to the side, mostly avoiding the claws, and getting a slice in the side of my chest. Feeling a slight trickle of blood slowly fall down my chest, I stabbed out again at the wounded craw, causing it to flinch back in pain this time. I ducked down again as the other one launched a claw through the space where my head had been, and prepared an ice spike. I released it as soon as I was back up, sending it flying down the gullet of the wounded craw. The wounded one collapsed from the ice spear, and I turned my attention the the other one, stabbing outwards at its arm once it had gone flying past me. Deciding to use this one as spear practice, and to see how long it would take me to kill it without using magic, I slowly whittled it down, only taking one more scratch on my chest before finishing it off. As the fight ended, I got a very welcome message, I had leveled up once again. I debated for a moment, but this time put the point into vitality, as I needed to have at least a little more survivability. I slowly lured the other groups of two, and would take care of them mostly the same way, but I discovered that an ice spike along with a force bolt would actually blow off their arms completely, so I soon switched to doing that rather than simply launching force bolts. Each time, I would use the second one as spear practice, and I slowly got better, towards the end of the day, I was so used to their patterns I felt I could fight one in my sleep. After I¡¯d yawned a few too many times, I went back to my small campsite, cooked up some craw meat, and slowly faded into my meditative trance that I was slowly becoming more comfortable with reaching. I awoke in the morning to yet more good news. I¡¯d gained a point in vitality from all the beatings I had taken, a point in strength, and two points in agility, likely from all the spear practice I had been doing. I put a big grin on my face and decided to open up my stat page to see how I was doing.
Name Rayth
Level 13
str 5 Grimoire
agi 5 Recipes
wis 16 ???
end 5 ???
vit 7 ???
I was starting to look like a proper mage, rather than the magic warrior I was now focused on, but I had enough vitality to take a hit or two, and the points elsewhere would give me enough stats to at least be comfortable with melee combat. Training had its upsides, putting me well above the standard stats from my level, though I¡¯m sure most people got some stats from their live fighting as well. Deciding to do some more training when I got back to the city, I went off to the cavern, ready to collect some more craw for levels and stats. When I arrived at the cavern, I noticed something worrying, there was only one group of two craw left, the rest of them were all in groups of three, something I was unsure of how to take on. Deciding to deal with it later, I grabbed the last group of two, and hunted them down the same way I had hunted the rest of them. After I¡¯d finished them off and collected my loot, I sat down, wondering how I was going to handle three of them. After around half an hour of deliberation, I realized I was an idiot. There was only room enough in the tunnel for two of them side by side, so if I stayed in the middle blocking off the passage, only two of them could attack me at once. Deciding to try it out to make sure, as the worst thing that could happen would be me respawning, I Went off to the cavern, took a deep breath, and aggroed a group of three. I dragged them back to the passage, and stood in the middle, leaving not quite enough room to my left and right for them to get by. I blew off the arm of one of the ones in front, and kept dodging to the left right and backwards, with an occasion step in and under their sharp scythe like appendages. After eliminating the unwounded one with the rest of my mana, as I wanted to keep the number of arms I would be facing down to three, the other stepped forwards, and I took a deep breath, this would be the first time I faced two of them with no mana, and only my spear to keep me safe. After fighting for a while, I seemed to be doing comfortably well, and decided against taking one of my mana pots, instead slowly whittling them down with my spear. Occasionally, when my mana had regenerated enough, I would cast a force bolt into their faces, one time missing and hitting the eye stalks, causing two of the four to explode in a spattering of gore, covering me with very nasty looking parts of eye. Eventually, I finished the both of them off, and took a few deep breaths as I leaned against the wall. Towards the end I had been forced to take one of my stamina potions, or I would have run out of stamina and been easy prey. Checking my stock, I only had one stamina potion left, but after meandering back to my campsite to check on my now dried out herbs, I had enough to make 7 stamina potions, or fourteen diluted ones which should be good enough. Deciding that I would do that after I had used up my second stamina potion, I went off to collect another group of three. This time, I decided to use up one of my mana potions, as I had plenty of herbs to make new ones, and finished the fight without running out of stamina, simply spamming ice spears until two of them had died, and picking on the last one with my spear. The rest of the day proceeded in much the same fashion, aggroing groups of craw and killing them while using up either mana or stamina potions to keep myself in the fight long enough to finish them all off. Eventually I got to one last group of craw. I was yawning, but decided to finish off at least this group before going to bed. This group was easy to kill off, using one of my mana potions and repeatedly sending ice spears at the center of mass of the craw until they died, while the last one I took on with my spear, but ended up getting a nasty gash in my chest in the process as I noticed one of its swings too late. Deciding to head to bed before exploring what lay beyond the cavern, I remade the mana potion I had used up, leaving me with only a couple of herbs, and went to sleep, this time being unsuccessful in reaching the state I had almost become used to. I woke up in the morning refreshed, but disappointed I had been unable to reach that state of meditation and sleep I wanted. My disappointment was short lived however, as I got a pop up informing me I had gained a point in endurance. While wondering if my usage of stamina potions had any effect on the gain of endurance, I packed up all my stuff and wandered back to the cavern I had become familiar with. Looking around satisfied at how I had emptied out the place once filled with monsters, I wondered why they wouldn¡¯t respawn. Supposing it had to do with me being camped out so close by, I looked around, searching for another exit. I soon found it, another tunnel similar to the one I had come from, but heading upwards at a slope. Excited, I ran towards it, and started walking up it at a fast pace. The tunnel went on for quite some time, but eventually I saw something that cheered me up immensely. Light was shining down through the tunnel, and not the faint glowing light that I had become used to from the small barnacle like creatures that inhabited the cave. I sped up, and soon reached the entrance, only to notice something that seemed like trouble. There was an absolutely massive craw right at the entrance. I slowly stepped back, hoping it didn¡¯t notice me, then deliberated on what to do. I considered for a moment if I should try to fight it or sneak by it, but the decision was pretty easy. I felt I¡¯d become used to the attack patterns of the craw, and the worst that could happen would be respawning with a loss of gold, and all the loot in my backpack would easily make up for that. I took a deep breath, checked all my potions, then headed out, it was time to fight. chapter 18: King Class Craw I slowly approached the king class craw with butterflies in my stomach, excited but slightly scared for what was sure to be a hard fight. Once I¡¯d gotten reasonably close, I took a deep breath and started a spell pattern for my ice spear. It was completed without it noticing me, and I released it without much fanfare, targeting its legs in the hope of affecting its maneuverability. It impacted right on target, but I noticed with dismay that it only sunk in a few inches rather than cutting through it like it had with the smaller beasts and it turned around with a roar, a noise none of the other craw had made. I started for a second, then realized that it was probably calling for all of the craw I had slaughtered. I smiled at my realization that the adds to the fight were already gone, as I¡¯d surely have been doomed if I had to deal with all the craw in addition to this giant. I quickly drew up a force bolt, releasing it at the same leg the ice spear had hit in hopes that I could eventually whittle it down enough to cripple the beast. It impacted with a slight cracking sound, and the giant craw, realizing that none of its minions were going to come stop me, charged at me. The beast that looked like the offspring of a crab and a tarantula was fast, or at least faster than the smaller craw had been, and I quickly drew up another spell pattern, this time for frostbite, and released it as it closed the distance between us quite quickly. It impacted with its crackling sound, and froze over one of the unwounded legs of the beast. It slowed down, but not nearly as much as I was hoping, and it broke free by the time I¡¯d prepared another force bolt. Deciding to go all in on my plan of attempting to cripple it, I released it at the leg I¡¯d been attacking, hoping that I could at least wound it enough to slow it down. It hit with that crunching sound I¡¯d gotten used to, but didn¡¯t seem to have done much, and by this time the giant craw was on me. It sent one of its giant scythe like claws flying towards me at neck height, and I ducked as fast as I could, but still felt like I had lost some strands of hair, the thing was fast, and only my experience with the attack patterns of the smaller ones had saved me. Acting out of habit from the smaller craw, I stabbed out with my spear, stabbing in only an inch into the joint of the arm it had swung at me. The thing clearly had a much thicker shell than the smaller craw, and it was going to take a monumental amount of effort to slowly wear it down. Jumping back to avoid the swipe from its other claw, I stabbed out again, this time being even more unsuccessful than the last with the unstable footing from having had to jump out of the way. Preparing an ice spear in my off hand, I ducked under another swipe of its claws and released it at the things eyes. The eyes of the other craw had simply exploded, and I was hoping to get a similar result, but this craw simple shrunk down the stalks the eyes were on to dodge the ice spear, likely a response similar to how humans will blink if you send something at their face. This time, rather than swipe at me with one of its claws, it simply charged at me, attempting to bowl me over. Diving to the side of the wounded leg, I instantly prepared another force bolt and released it at the same spots I¡¯d left the wounds from before. It impacted a bit high, but I simply grumbled at my poor aim while running to the side as it tried to charge me sideways, diving down when I saw its claw raised to the side. I barely made it under the claw, but had to roll to the side as it attempted to stomp on me while I was on the floor. It¡¯s legs missed me by maybe an inch as I rolled away, and I got up as fast as I could as it turned back to face me, its eyes swiveling on the stalks to keep them facing me. I stood at the ready and started preparing another force bolt, deciding that it would probably be the best use of mana since my ice spear had barely penetrated the furred shell of the thing. I released it as it swung one of its clawed arms at me yet again, and I jumped over its blow towards my feet, cursing as I realized what was about to happen. This time, when the other claw came flying at me while I was in the air, I got my spear in between it and my body, and somehow the wood, or what I was beginning to doubt was a normal kind of wood, held, only getting a slice about halfway through it, but the blow sent me flying away. I slammed into the wall of the cave, and fell down to the ground, gasping for breath. I slowly struggled to my feet as it approached me again, and managed to get off another force bolt off at its leg, this time getting a more prominent cracking sound. Looking over at my health, I¡¯d lost almost half of it in one blow, so I chugged a potion in the hopes that I could at least keep my health high enough to not get instantly killed, though a direct blow to my body would likely one shot me. I ran forwards a bit to meet the beast, not wanting the cave wall behind me to limit my mobility. It seemed to be surprised I was charging it, stopping its momentum and almost seeming to back up a bit, and I took advantage of the reaction, stabbing in towards its body, but retracting the spear quickly so I was ready to dodge the swipe that came my way. After dodging, I stabbed out with my spear again, hitting it in the joint where I¡¯d stabbed before, and it sunk in a bit easier this time, reaching a couple inches in before I yanked it out. Smiling, and thinking this was doable, I stood at the ready, preparing another force bolt while I waited for it to swipe at me. This time, when it swiped, it turned its body entirely, and I ducked under it, my hands touching the floor to push me back up quickly as it went over me. I released my force bolt at its body, unsure of being able to hit its leg when it as turning, and stepped in to stab at its back. Right after however, I noticed it wasn¡¯t stopping the spinning motion, and I cursed and dived back down as it spun around with the same claw and nearly hit me. I pushed myself back up and stabbed out, this time catching it center mass, and was actually pulled along as it continued to spin before falling down as my spear dislodged from its body. The author''s tale has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon. I pushed myself back up as quickly as I could as it came back around with its claw and slashed low, but I was too late and got what felt like my leg getting chopped off. In trepidation, I looked down, thankfully noting my leg was still attached, but in a massive amount of pain. I downed another of my healing potions, and limped backwards, looking to get some breathing room for if it continued to spin. I kept spinning for another couple of seconds, likely unable to see clearly with how fast it was moving, and I was able to get another two force bolts off at it before it noticed I¡¯d left its range and stopped its motion, turning towards me and charging forwards. By this time, the wound in my leg was tender, but it felt useable, and I readied to meet it. I stepped forwards, only to realize I was starting to become utterly exhausted, so after dodging to the side to avoid one of its swipes, rather than capitalize on it and stab outwards, I took the free time to grab one of my stamina potions, pop the cork, and downed it. Not having the time to recork it, I simply let it fall to the floor, something I would either grab later or replace when I got back to town. It then swiped with both its claws at once, and I was forced to attempt my dive in over one and below the other. I was mostly successful, but my spear got caught by the upper one and sent me rolling further than I expected, getting some bruises from the hard ground. Getting back up, I notice the king class craw was already on top of me, and hastily jump back, but still get a cut in my chest from the claws. Feeling the trickle of blood and stinging sensation, I put it out of my mind for the time being and released another force bolt, impacting the already wounded leg. This time, it finally had a proper effect, caving in the leg where it hit. Smiling as I¡¯d finally gotten a real wound on the beast, it roared like it had at the beginning, and charged at me, trying to body slam me. I dive to the side, and release another force bolt, this time causing the leg to bend a way it wasn¡¯t supposed to. It turned towards me, slightly slower as I downed a mana potion and released it at its arm. I¡¯d taken out some of its mobility, now to go for its offensive ability. It hit the arm, and sliced a relatively shallow cut along it, and I ducked down as fast as I could to avoid the claw flying at me, stabbing outwards as it passed me, this time not catching it in the joint, but in the arm nonetheless. When it swung its other arm at me and started to twist its body, I knew what to expect and jumped back to avoid its spinning, only to be pleasantly surprised. In its attempt to spin, the three legs it still had were insufficient to keep supporting it, and it fell to the ground, impacting with a massive thud and a cloud of dust. Taking advantage of the time it was down, I released a couple of ice spears at its body while it got back up and started to turn towards me. They didn¡¯t stick far in, but I knew from the beginning that I would have to whittle this guy down rather than kill it easily. Releasing one more ice spear as it was turning, this time managing to hit the wounded arm. Before it was fully facing me, it scuttled sideways towards me faster than it could move forwards, catching me by surprise, and one of its legs lashed out at me, catching me in the chest, knocking me backwards. I rolled when I landed, and was soon standing upwards again and downing my second to last health potion. I had time to release one last ice spear when it reached me again, scuttling sideways towards me yet again, but this time with its sickle like arm back to the side getting ready to swipe. Ducking down to avoid the slash, I stabbed upwards into its body as the arm facing me was the mostly unwounded one. My spear sunk in maybe an inch before I pulled it out, and I prepared another ice spear as it turned to fully face me, releasing it right into the center of mass where its mouth was as it finished its turn. This ice spear sunk in about half its length, much further than any other attack, and I smiled, I had finally found a weak point. Stepping backwards to avoid another swipe, I stab out at the wounded arm as hard as I can, the spear sinking into one of the wound already there for about half the length of the blade. It roared in pain again as I continued to step back to avoid the next swipe, downing another mana potion so I could continue to send ice spears its way. As I continued to weave to the back and sides, I released a couple more ice spears and sent them down the gullet of the beast, stabbing out with my spear at its arms as I wasn¡¯t able to sink my blade in far enough to wound the beast the way my ice spears were. By this time, the beast had a good amount of blood leaking out its mouth and the other wounds on its body, when it seemed to speed up. I cursed, of course it would have an enraged mode. At this point, I wasn¡¯t fast enough to both dodge and attack, so I solely focused on defense, hoping I wouldn¡¯t slip up and die from one hit. I took a couple more light hits, but nothing serious until it charged at me again, pushing out with the unbladed sides of its claws, knocking me back and into the wall. I coughed as the breath was knocked out of me, and barely managed to duck under the claw that went past my head, slicing through the rock for a foot or two, making me wonder what the hell kind of wood my spear was made of. After the blade had gone through a bit of the rock, I took the time while it was pulling it out to stab out at its arm a couple of times before the other claw ended getting sent at me, rolling to the side as its other arm became stuck in the wall as well. I had time for another two ice spears before it got free and turned to me, and released a third for good measure once it was facing me, landing on the wounded arm with a cracking noise as it seemed about ready to break it completely. I downed my last stamina potion, and stood at the ready, the thing was going to go down soon, and I wasn¡¯t going to let down my guard at the last minute. The next few minutes were focused solely on dodging as it slowly bled out, though I did manage to fully sever the wounded arm with an ice spear, and from then on it was easy to dispose of the thing, only having one claw to attack from leaving me plenty of openings to exploit. I took a deep breath as the thing finally collapsed. My potion stock was mostly gone, down to just one mana and one health potion, but I had won. I let out a shout of victory before practically falling to the floor in exhaustion, ignoring the popup telling me I had leveled up for the time being. At this point, I could feel massive amounts of soreness throughout my body, and I could feel all the bruises and scrapes I had gotten rolling to the sides on the hard floor. After resting for awhile, and eventually deciding to put the point into vitality, I got myself up, and headed over, it was time to harvest my loot. I put my hand against the craw, and noticed that the loot was the same, the claws and the meat, so I quickly got to work, cutting open the legs at the joints and taking out a truly massive amount of meat, making me wonder if even my magical backpack could hold it. After collecting a good deal of time¡¯s worth of meat, I got to work on the claws, slowly extracting them from the pincer half of the claw, taking only the sharp scythe like object. At this point, I thought for a second, maybe I could get a spear made out of the things, they were clearly a good deal sharper than my current spear head, and they weren¡¯t steel so they wouldn¡¯t interfere with the mana flow, and besides, my spear was starting to show some serious cracks in the area it had been halfway cut through. Standing up straight with a groan from the soreness and various small wounds, I mostly limped my way towards the exit the king class craw had been guarding, smiling as I once again felt the sun on my skin. Looking around, I seemed to be at the same lake I had been at before, but a good deal of distance from where I had fallen in. Deciding to head back to town for some well deserved R&R, I started walking, very slowly, as my body was protesting about the effort. The way back was relatively uneventful, the molts and ents being easy prey after my experience with the multiple craw and brags. I soon made it back to town, and headed in, it was time to turn in all of my loot and see how much I would get for it. Chapter 19: Imbuing Turning in my loot to the adventurers guild was relatively uneventful, netting me a total of 27 gold and change, while holding on to the king class craw¡¯s blades in the hopes I could get a spear made out of them. They were around two meters long, and insanely sharp, so if I could get a spear made out of it, then have it inscribed to add power to my spells, I¡¯d have a very durable, very sharp spear which would still boost my spell damage. Considering my options, I was disrupted from my musings by the guy at the table talking to me. ¡°You¡¯re a traveler, right? You should hurry over to the training grounds if you don¡¯t want to miss today¡¯s presentation.¡± ¡°Presentation? On what?¡± I asked. ¡°Why imbuing of course. Just get there and you¡¯ll find out what I mean.¡± Thanking him, but feeling relatively confused, I pulled out the map I had gotten when I first arrived, and headed off to the training grounds. It didn¡¯t take me long to arrive, musing over what to do, when I saw something, or rather someone, that seriously ticked me off. Lily and quite a few of her groupies was sitting down, waiting for the presentation on whatever we were going to learn was going to start. Grinding my teeth in frustration, but deciding to deal with her later, I took a seat by the rear of the presentation, I wasn¡¯t going to give her more reason to pick a fight with me until I was confident taking on her groupies. The presentation began with a man with a medium build, looking every bit the average person, brown hair, brown eyes, no noticeable distinguishable features, just very bland, came on to a small stage that was set up. ¡°Welcome summoned, today we are going to go over something that will become a core part of any warrior¡¯s arsenal, imbuing. Imbuing is the art of adding mana to your weapon in order to make it harder, sharper, and to extend the cutting ability past the length of the blade.¡± At this point, the man, who hadn¡¯t given his name, had my full attention. This guy was telling me I could have just been adding mana into my weapon and using ti to cut or stab through things way more easily? I grumbled as I thought of all the wasted opportunity, especially with the molts, whose shell had been quite awkward to pierce with my spear. ¡°Now imbuing is not so simple as we make it sound, you need to form sigils throughout the weapon with your mana, and this will become extremely hard to do with weapons made of steel, and quite hard with weapons made of iron. If you haven¡¯t focused at all on wisdom, your mana will be lacking, and you¡¯ll be better off simply using a good steel sword, however, ,when it comes to the more rare metals which can conduct mana better, mithril for example, having learned imbuing early will greatly help you.¡± At this point I was over my self imposed depression from learning I could have been beating up monsters more efficiently, and had a smile on my face, as a magic warrior, and one who would be avoiding steel weaponry in order to be able to cast spells without interference, this was sounding to good to be true. ¡°Now I will show you the basic sigil pattern, which is slightly different than rune inscription, you can think of the two as separate branches of the same skill, sigils are actively drawn, while inscriptions are simply powered on and left to do their work.¡± The man then proceeded to draw a very large pattern out of mana in the air, which glowed softly in the air, being clearly visible even in the afternoon sun. ¡°Your goal is to be able to draw this pattern inside your weapon. Unlike spell patterns, this is a more passive kind of enchantment, so it will simply fizzle out if you get it incorrect rather than have explosive results. This pattern specifically is a toughness enchantment, it will make bronze almost as hard as steel depending on how many times you can repeat the pattern within your weapon. Steel will be harder to enchant, but even a single repetition can make it much harder.¡± I sighed in happiness, I wasn¡¯t getting an announcement from my grimoire that I had learned a spell pattern, so I was going to have to attempt to draw it until it went into my spell patterns, and not exploding while I did so sounded too good to be true. I first drew up the pattern, or at least attempted to do so for a while, until I successfully got it down and the pattern went into my grimoire. At this point though, I had a problem. I had always been drawing my spell patterns with the tip of my finger, like writing in the air, but this time I had to draw it inside my spear, which wasn¡¯t going to be possible the way I had been drawing it. Focusing, I decided to try and control my mana outside my body rather than simply place it in the air to sit there. After maybe thirty minutes, I had finally started to get the hang of moving my mana externally, it wasn¡¯t much different than meditation, and I¡¯d had a massive amount of practice with meditation. My first attempt to draw up the sigil inside of my poor nearly broken spear was a failure, as expected, but I practiced for a while, and eventually managed to get it right. At this point, I realized that If I could learn to externally control my mana well enough, I could start drawing up spell patterns with just a thought rather than my hand. If I could manage to do that, I would be able to use both hands on my spear, and that would give me much better control in melee fights. Determining to test my theory, I went over to the targets away from the many people practicing drawing up their sigils within their weapons, and pulled some mana out of my core. Rather than guide it to my fingers and control it like I normally would, I simply pulled it out of me, and started to form the pattern for force bolt. Unauthorized content usage: if you discover this narrative on Amazon, report the violation. It seemed to be going well, the pattern was maybe half drawn, when it exploded. Convinced I was on the right track regardless, I attempted to draw it up unsuccessfully for maybe half an hour, and ended up exceedingly frustrated. It seemed to be working until about halfway through, and then it would always explode at that point. At this point, the bland man from the presentation came over and watched my attempts for a bit, before giving me some advice in a voice which matched his appearance. ¡°Don¡¯t try to form the sigil all at once, draw it out the way you normally would.¡± Deciding that listening to the man was a much better idea than banging my head against the wall like I had been, I slowly drew up the pattern, guiding the mana into the lines that I needed to form the pattern, slowly going line by line rather than attempting to form it all at once. I was surprised when I had the completed spell pattern in front of me, and instantly released it at one of the targets, overjoyed it had worked. Soon after however, I noticed a problem. While this could come in handy when my arm was incapacitated, it required way too much focus for now to use in an actual battle, and even then it took probably three times as long to draw up the pattern than it took for me to draw up a pattern with my hand. Shrugging, and determining to practice more in the hopes that I could get it useable in combat, I decided to go back to practicing the sigils in my weapon. It took a while, but eventually I was able to repeat the sigils three times through the length of my weapon. For some reason, the sigils seemed to repulse each other, and forming more in between the three was out of my range for now. Deciding to test on a target, I took my weapon and stabbed out. I didn¡¯t realize anything different, until I remembered that this was simply a hardening sigil, it didn¡¯t have any effect on sharpness, though it would prevent the weapon getting dulled and chipped as easily, and it would be able to block attacks like the swings of the king class craw which had cut through my armor like it was nothing. At this point I was wondering if I could enhance my armor the same way, only to realize another person had thought to ask before me. The bland man by this point was back up on stage, and responded to the question quickly. ¡°Yes, you can form this sigil within your armor, though maintaining a sigil within your weapon and armor simultaneously requires an extreme amount of focus, or practice to the point where it becomes automatic.¡± The man paused a bit before continuing. ¡°Now it seems everyone here has recorded the sigil in their grimoires, so we shall go on to the next one, and the one most of you will likely focus on. Rather than the defensive oriented sigil of toughness, this sigil enhances the sharpness, and can even be used to extend the range of your blade, cutting further than your reach.¡± The man waited for a around half an hour while we all scrambled to practice the new sigil, but it seemed to be taking quite a while for people to get the hang of it I gave a glare at Lily while I waited for the rest of the people to finish. She looked as adorable as usual, a not so perfect cover for her personality. I then turned my attention back to the man who seemed as if he would blend in anywhere as he began to speak again. ¡°The basic rules for sigils, is they will take up a set amount of mana per second, one mana per two seconds per sigil, and the more sigils you manage to fit within a weapon or piece of armor, the more powerful the enhancement becomes. Once you manage to get five sigils of sharpness in a weapon for example, the reach will extend about a foot from the end of your blade. Be warned however, as this will only act as an extension of your sharpened blade, if you meet someone else who is imbuing their weapon, they will be able to block your weapon without a problem.¡± Frowning at the thought of everyone fighting using imbued weaponry, I kept practicing, unable to fit more than three sigils within my weapon, as the man went over how important it was for warriors to begin to meditate and build up a at least a rudimentary mana pool, to at least be able to fight on par with creatures which can naturally imbue their claws or other natural weaponry. I sat around and practiced as I saw the area slowly start to empty. I snorted, they were going to regret it if they didn¡¯t practice now. If they couldn¡¯t pull it off in a live battle, they were just going to be bait for the monsters who could naturally imbue their own weapons. I spent the rest of the day practicing imbuing, and by the end of the day I could imbue four sigils in my weapon, though I had to take regular breaks whenever I ran out of mana. With four sigils, and my mana pool of 160, I could maintain my four sigils for only eighty seconds excluding my mana regen. Part way through, I decided that it would be best for me to train to apply the sigils as fast as possible, so I could flip it on and off in an instant to keep my mana high. I wasn¡¯t very successful on that however, it took me a good four seconds to apply my sigils no matter how much I practiced. Deciding to come back to it tomorrow, I headed off to the barracks for some well needed sleep. In the morning I woke to continued good news, I had gained a point in agility from fighting the king class craw, and a point of wisdom from being successful in reaching my sleep meditation hybrid state. Smiling, I went back off to the training grounds, and continued where I had left off yesterday. I was just as unsuccessful as I was the previous day in turning my sigils off and on in an instant, but I did become very used to having the sigils on, being able to do it almost unconsciously. Smiling at my success lead to frowning at my failure, but the bouts of meditation while waiting for my mana to regenerate was wonderful in calming me down, and eventually I got to the point I could even hold on to the sigils while meditating, just a constant draw I needed to supply with mana once they were drawn up. Using my sharpness sigil on the dummies became one of the most amusing things I had seen. My bronze blade on my spear started to chop through the dummies like a hot knife through butter, and I wondered if getting a new spear was even necessary, but thinking of the cracks in the shaft of my spear reminded me I definitely needed to replace it. Deciding to go deal with that now I¡¯d become more comfortable with sigils, I headed out of the training grounds and over to the market district. I soon arrived at the market district, and soon found a sign showing an anvil and hammer, an obvious sign for a blacksmith and I headed in. When I had gotten in, I saw a man who was the spitting image of Golrag, but with very light brown hair instead of the red that Golrag had sported, with a medium length braided beard, wearing a soot stained leather apron over his clothing, which did little to hide his blocky build. Deciding to ask if he was a dwarf just to see if he was, I questioned him. ¡°Hey, this may be a stupid question, but are you a dwarf?¡± The man stared at me for a bit before replying ¡°Of course I¡¯m a damned dwarf, do you see any humans looking like this!?¡± I debated for a moment on whether or not I should mention Golrag, but eventually decided against it. It wasn¡¯t going to be worth a possible argument with someone whose help I wanted. ¡°Never mind, I was actually hoping if you could make a spear of some kind out of these.¡± I then pulled out the massive, two meter long claws from my magical backpack. ¡°Not bad kid, those are claws from a king class craw. Yeah, I could make something out of em, but it¡¯ll run you fifteen gold.¡± I smiled, that was far less than I had been expecting, and well within my budget. Once I got them it probably wouldn¡¯t be too expensive to have it inscribed, or at least I hoped. I then handed the large claws off to the dwarf before introducing myself. ¡°Thanks for the help, I¡¯m Rayth, pleasure to do business with you¡± The dwarf examined me with a critical eye, before gruffly replying ¡°Kor.¡± ¡°How long until the weapon is done by the way?¡± ¡°Well I¡¯ll have to cut off a lot of excess, then grind it down to a handle, then fuse the claws with some bronze to hold them together. All in all, give me a week.¡± I had no clue what exactly he was planning on doing, but I agreed to come back in a week. In the meantime, I¡¯d just have to hunt and hope my current spear didn¡¯t totally break until I got my new one. Deciding that the best thing to do with my time was spend some time out in real, I logged off. Taking off my helmet was as disorienting as usual, being in game standing up one second, and the next laying down on my bed just felt odd to me. I know some people handle the transition without any kind of discomfort, but I wasn¡¯t one of those people. Deciding to have a meal, I turned on some music, and sang along off key while I decided to make some waffles. Two waffles topped with strawberries and bananas later, I was feeling quite satisfied, so I headed off to the bathroom to take care of my needs before crashing on my bed and getting some rest. Chapter 20: Research I woke up in the morning with a massive yawn escaping my lips. Shrugging my shoulders to remove some of the stiffness in them, and stretching out my body, I got up and went off to have a bowl of cereal for breakfast. While I snacked on my small meal, I browsed the forums, but couldn¡¯t find anything of interest. It wasn¡¯t long after that I was heading back to my room to plug myself back into sanity online. It was immediately after I logged in that I got to see something I hadn¡¯t seen, or at least not noticed before. It was the spawning of another player. Light slowly pulled up from the bottom, where her feet were, and as the light went up, the player appeared. It honestly looked like the light was 3d printing the player. I watched for a while before shrugging my shoulders and heading off to the practice grounds for some more sigil practice. Once I arrived, I got back to practicing imbuing my weapon with the sigils. They took a good deal of focus to create initially, but once they were created they were just a minor thing I had to pay attention to, feeding them mana while I sliced at the targets. Compared to writing my spell runes in live combat, the focus required for them was practically nothing. After a few hours of practice, my body sweaty and sore, I headed off, I had what was going to be a few days before I could pick up my new spear, and I wasn¡¯t feeling like hunting with my spear, which seemed to have more cracks in it every time I looked at it, the cut being the center of a spiderweb of small fractures in it. Deciding that I may as well gather some information, I checked my map, and headed off to the library. Once I arrived, I was greeted by a cold stone building, with high arches ending in a point at the top, with statues of birds lining the arched top of the building. It looked to be around two stories high, so hopefully I could find something worth reading, though I wasn¡¯t sure what I was going to be reading about. Once I arrived inside, I was greeted by a warm interior that seemed the opposite of the exterior. Everywhere I could see, there was a bronze colored wood, and the library was lit with candles set into the walls every couple of feet. The shelves were monstrosities, at least twelve feet tall, ranging from the floor all the way to the high ceiling and ladders ranged here and there among them, unfortunately not the rolling kind you sometimes saw in real life. Throughout the forest of shelves ranged small tables with comfortable looking seats before them. After looking around a bit, I noticed an old man at a desk, with a small ornament on the desk reading ¡°Librarian¡±. Deciding that he would be my best bet to find something interesting, I wandered on over, looking around as I did so, enjoying the impressive sight. I soon arrived and asked about the things I was currently interested in learning about. ¡°Hello, I was wondering if I could get some books on summoning and about the monsters.¡± My book on harvesting had some perfunctory information on the mobs, but it was woefully lacking in their habits, places they were found, and their weak spots. As for summoning, I was wondering how the summons were supposed to work, since we were supposedly summoned. ¡°Books on monsters you¡¯ll find in section A4, books on the summoned are on the second floor section T7¡± Thanking him, I went over to the section on monsters and started looking around. I soon found what I was looking for, a book titled ¡°Basic Ecology of Monsters Illustrated.¡± I grabbed it from it¡¯s place on the shelf among books titled more specific books on individual mobs, and headed up the stairs I found after a short search. It wasn¡¯t long before I found section T7, and I looked around, avoiding titles such as ¡°Summoning For Beginners¡± and ¡°Simple Inscriptions for Simple Summoning¡±. I soon found a book titled ¡°A Study on Summoned¡± and grabbed it before heading to one of the tables that were placed here and there among the shelves. Sitting down in one of the padded chairs, I took out my books and began my foray into information. I quickly opened my book on monster ecology, and flipped through the sections on different types of monsters, pausing over orbs to learn that they were cannibalistic, and through enough eating of each other or small animals, they could rank up to become king class. Finding that interesting, I looked over a couple of mobs I had hunted already. In most cases, becoming king class was predicated on how much they were able to eat, especially in terms of humans. The book speculated that this was due to the higher than average mana density of humans, but stated that there were no confirmations, likely because nobody wanted to feed a king class mob random things to see the exact requirements for the evolution. Treants were actually the exception here, as they became king class simply due to living for long enough, so if their numbers weren¡¯t regularly culled, you would end up with massive amounts of king class treants. Thinking back to my fight with the lone king class treant, I shuddered, a bunch of those could likely wipe out a large number of people. I was flipping through searching for the phol, the only three star mob I hadn¡¯t encountered, when I ran across something that seemed interesting, call simply monster tides. It seems that on a regular basis, mobs will gather together and charge towards a town, thousands of them together attempting to crush any resistance. The book went into different towns that had been lost to the monster tides, mentioning the fact that most of the losses were from not enough culling of the monster population to keep down the occurrences of king class mobs. I shrugged, I¡¯d done my part in culling king class mobs, and was actually quite excited to see if I would be able to fight against a monster tide. Deciding that I could do nothing to influence if a monster tide appeared or not, I went back to reading and soon found the section on phol. Phol were basically elephants, if elephants had three trunks, a prehensile tail the length of their body, and had some sort of gland on the top of them that looked like an open cut, leaking red fluid, which was odd, because their blood was purple. They tended to be found in large plains, of which I hadn¡¯t seen any nearby. The book mentioned the gland likely functioned as a replacement for sweat glands, keeping the monster from overheating. Shaking my head at the continued odd designs of the game designers, I checked the weak spots, finding a small illustration showing where their hearts were located, and the book mentioned that there was not much point attacking their skull due to how thick it was, and their skull and tusks were naturally imbued with toughness sigils, making it best to just attack their body. Enjoying the story? Show your support by reading it on the official site. I quickly flipped through the book some more, noting down the weak points of the different mobs I had faced, and learned that the standard way to deal with craw was similar to what I had been doing, attacking the joints in their arms to disable them before attacking their body, particularly a weak spot of their shell slightly ahead of the center of their belly. I went over the weak spots of molts, their hearts located under the third joint of their body, and brags, which were basically just one large weak spot, but found out that ents had no particular weakness aside from blunt force trauma. I took one last glance through the book, before closing it and opening the book I was truly curious about, the book on summoned beings. Flipping it open, the first page itself was interesting enough for me to start reading from there. I quickly learned that the reason we didn¡¯t die is because our true bodies weren¡¯t actually here. The summoning ritual asked the goddess to create bodies for us out of pure mana, and borrowed our minds, dragging them into the bodies to control them. Tilting my head at how similar that was to the reality, our brains basically hijacked by the VR gear, placed into virtual bodies that would never die, I shook my head before going over some more of the novel. The book went on to explain that due to our bodies being made of mana, we had a more natural affinity for it, being much more able to wield spells than most of the population, most of whom could barely cast the basic force bolt. I¡¯d wondered why the population didn¡¯t simply all go up and spam thousands of force bolts whenever a monster tide appeared, and it seemed I had my answer. The force bolts of a vast majority of the population would barely annoy even an orb. The book then went over how before the invasion of the monsters, practically no one had the affinity for magic, only an elite few being able to harness the powerful force of mana. The book speculated that this was due to the mist that had appeared with the monsters, describing the mist as likely made from pure mana, and exposure to it enhanced the population. Due to this, more exposure to the mist was likely linked to your ability to cast magic, leading to almost all adventurers being able to cast magic or imbue their weapons, while the general population who stayed in their cities which the mist avoided weren¡¯t enhanced in the same way. After that there was a section on the monsters themselves. The book speculated that monster were invading in much the same way as the summoned were brought over, a form of a reverse summoning magic. It did mention that unlike us, the monsters were summoned in their true bodies, though where their numbers came from the book had no clue. The book then speculated that it could be possible to trace back the magic to its point of origin, and send over adventurers to attempt to stop the invasion. I smiled, it seemed the developers had included hints of the end game in the lore of this world. Deciding that I¡¯d had enough of research for the day, I put the two books back, said goodbye to the old librarian, and headed off into the city, unsure of what to do now. I sighed, I wasn¡¯t going to go hunting, all of my potion bottles were filled, so I guess I may as well go practice my spells. Along the way back to the training ground, I attempted once more to meditate while I was walking. This time I thought I was seeing a bit more success, but I wasn¡¯t totally sure, and it wasn¡¯t long before I reached the training grounds. Deciding to practice drawing up the spell patterns without my hand, I slowly focused the mana outside my body and started drawing the lines needed for the basic force bolt rune. It took a good deal longer than with my fingers, but eventually I was able to get it done, and I released it at a target, a small chunk being blasted off of it, a massive improvement over what my force bolt had initially been. I spent the rest of the day doing the same thing, practicing drawing different spell patterns without my hands, and failing every now and then, it was far harder to draw the things without the use of my hand. .Whenever I ran out of mana, I¡¯d go sit down and meditate to pass the time. By the end of the day I was slightly faster than I had been at drawing up the spell patterns than before, but I still wasn¡¯t feeling totally comfortable with it. Towards the end of the day, decided that I had better get myself some better armor, so I headed back to the merchant¡¯s part of town. It didn¡¯t take too long for me to arrive, and I soon found a store with a needle and thread signboard in front of it. Taking a deep breath, and hoping that I didn¡¯t run into another Merin, I stepped through the door, and was greeted by a much more professional store than the one Merin had run. Rather than a riot of color, most of the goods inside here were of subdued tones of blues, greens, and browns. There were small sections for other colors, but they were still largely subdued rather than bright colors. While the store may not have been as cheerful as the colorful store that was Merin¡¯s, it seemed far more practical, at least from an adventuring standpoint. It probably wasn¡¯t the best idea to be attracting the attention of the monsters to you by wearing a bright pink shirt. While I was looking around, I was soon greeted by a tall girl behind the counter, wearing a bored look on her face. ¡°Hello, and welcome to Aselya¡¯s clothing store, I¡¯m the namesake for the store Aselya, is there anything I can do for you today?¡± ¡°Hi, I have some molt plates, I was wondering if you could fashion them into some armor for me.¡± I then took out a couple of the plates of the chitinous material that I had harvested myself that I had left in my backpack for just this purpose. ¡°Yeah, though it¡¯ll likely be three or four days before we can get to your order, is that ok?¡± she replied, the bored expression never leaving her face. ¡°Of course that will be fine¡± At least, it will be because I¡¯m stuck in town until my spear is made anyway. ¡°That¡¯ll be ten gold on pickup, could you come to the back and drop off all the molt plates at the back of the store for me?¡± I agreed,l and she guided me through a door behind the counter, and I was greeted by a very busy scene. There were three tables, and at each one of them, there was a person busy sewing something together, likely her apprentices. She guided me over to a back corner, where I started to take out the plates one by one, watching them grow when I would take them out of my backpack and placing them on the floor. Aselya and I then headed back out to the main area of the store, Aselya letting out a large yawn as we did to go along with her bored expression. I then thanked her, and headed out of the shop, glad I didn¡¯t have to deal with excessive chattering for once. The next few days passed and I spent them mostly on training, eventually getting to the point where I could draw a rune without using my fingers in only double the time it took me to draw it with them. MOst of the time was spent on the spells I¡¯d already upgraded, as I didn¡¯t want to see how much mana ice shatter would cost after upgrading. Whenever I would get bored of drawing the rune patterns up without using my hands, I would head on over to the warri training area and practice with my spear, or at least I did until my spear finally broke. I looked down on it in sadness. It had served me well, but had lasted practically no time before it had been destroyed. Sighing at my poor luck, I put the two parts of the spear in my backpack, deciding that I would hold onto it for a little bit before turning it into the blacksmith for what was likely to only be a couple of coppers. I shook my head, then decided to log off. The first thing I noticed when I logged off was flickering lights. It seems there had been some sort of mild brownout while I had been logged in to the game. I smiled, at least it hadn¡¯t kicked me out of game while I was in it. I was about to completely ignore it, when I heard my computer¡¯s start up beeping noise. That was odd, my computer is what actually runs the game, it¡¯s not the helmet that does the work. I shrugged, it had likely shut down right after I logged off, it was probably just lucky timing more than anything else. Entertaining the thought that maybe this summoning stuff had some truth to it, I amused myself with the thought as I stretched out some more to relieve the soreness. I soon put the thought out of my head however, and walked over to the kitchen, cooking up some lettuce wraps before heading off to bed. Chapter 21: Flash Freeze The rest of the week in game was spent waiting for my spear and armor to be finished. I¡¯d spent the days practicing sigils, mainly the toughness ones as I was hoping they would be able to help my spear hold together until I got my new one. Eventually though, it did break, and after staring mournfully at it for a bit, I put it into my backpack and went over to practice drawing up spells without my fingers. The week did have some benefits luckily, I gained yet another point of wisdom from my meditative sleeping, along with another point in strength from training. Soon my new gear was ready for pickup so I went over to Kor¡¯s blacksmith shop. I greeted him before he came out with my new spear. ¡°So this was definitely interesting to make, I removed the blades from most of the claws, and fused the spines of them with some bronze. The blades tips I removed and used as the tip of the spear. It¡¯ll definitely serve you well, I accidentally cut into my anvil a bit while working with it.¡± Kor explained the basic process behind it as he handed it over. Looking over it, it seemed to have three layers, the two spines of the claws along fused by bronze looking like a layered cake, or like the striations you sometimes see in canyons. Grasping it, it was significantly heavier than my previous spears. I¡¯d definitely need to invest a point or two into strength to be able to wield it as easily as I had my previous one. Imbuing it with some sigils to test it out, it seemed to be much easier than my previous spear, reaching five sigils without too much effort, and feeling like I could almost reach six. Curious about it, I asked Kor. ¡°Hey, why does it seem so much easier to imbue than my old weapon?¡± ¡°We¡¯re not really sure. We know many monsters will naturally imbue their weaponry, so we assume it has to do with that, but we¡¯ve never really figure it out, though the mages college has been doing research into it. You could go ask over there if you want to find out more.¡± Nodding my head, I handed over the fifteen gold before asking what he was going to do with the rest of the blades. ¡°Well that¡¯s why this spear ran you so cheap, I¡¯m going to use the rest of the blades for some weapons for some other lucky fellows.¡± ¡°Oh, alright then. How much would it run me to have this inscribed to increase my magic output?¡± ¡°It¡¯ll run you around five gold to inscribe it with a fifty percent increase, anything above that is going to increase ridiculously fast. A hundred percent boost will run you around a hundred gold.¡± I winced at how expensive it could be, then went over to Alesya¡¯s shop to pick up my armor. Passing over the ten gold required to the ever bored looking woman, I got back a set of armor of overlapping molt plates, which attached much the same way my warg leather set had. Thanking her, I decided to go find an inscription shop and get my spear inscribed before heading out to try my new gear and to see how imbuing would deal with monsters. I soon arrived at the inscription shop, where an old man greeted me. ¡°Hello? I was hoping I could get this spear inscribed.¡± ¡°How much are you looking to spend on it?¡± ¡°Well Kor said I could get a fifty percent increase for five gold, so I was hoping to get that.¡± The man sighed before replying. ¡°Kor really should stop telling people that, we normally charge about seven gold, but I¡¯ll handle it, hand over the spear please.¡± ¡°Oh, how long will it take?¡± ¡°Maybe fifteen minutes, I¡¯ll handle it now.¡± I handed over the spear and he took out a brush and a bottle of glowing purple ink from underneath the counter. I watched as the man slowly drew out runes I couldn¡¯t recognize along the entirety of the spear, his practiced motions being done with unnaturally steady hands. As the brush would pass over, the ink would flare up in brightness a bit, then slowly fade down. Once he¡¯d finished the entire spear, the light seemed to flow down the spear again before fading completely. Looking it over, I could see the runes, but they were extremely faint, and I wouldn¡¯t have noticed them without careful examination. I passed over the five gold, and thanked him before heading out, I was going to go pick on some mobs. It took a while to get out of the town¡¯s area, but once I was, I soon found a molt skittering along. I imbued my spear with three sigils and then stabbed out, intentionally avoiding the joints to see how much sharper my spear would really be. I was surprised when I felt practically no resistance, the spear sinking deep into the molt like a hot knife through butter. I then pulled out my spear and jumped back as it lashed out at me with its back few joints. I then stepped in again, stabbing down at its third joint, where the book had said its heart would be, and it instantly collapsed, only twitching a couple of times before lying still. Blinking my eyes in surprise at how easy that had become, I smiled, then got to grinding. Around fifty or so molts later, I leveled up, and I instantly put the point into strength so as to be more comfortable with the weight of my new spear. I was surprised how fast I¡¯d leveled, but figured it had to be excess xp from soloing the king class craw. I spent the rest of the day hunting, slicing through molts and ents like butter, and the entire time practicing to cast my sigils faster, which seemed to have a bit of effect, unlike the first time I¡¯d tried it. Once the sun started to approach the horizon, I stretched out, and set up a small campsite. I took out some of the molt meat I had collected, and threw them in a pot along with some vegetables, both of which I had bought while waiting for my gear to be ready. Love what you''re reading? Discover and support the author on the platform they originally published on. After enjoying my simplistic stew, I left my herbs by the fire to dry as I crawled into my tent and sleeping bag. I slowly fell asleep to the sounds of the wilderness, insects chirping, one of the few animal types which hadn¡¯t been eliminated by the invaders. I woke up in the morning a bit sore from sleeping on the hard ground, and spent a few minutes stretching to alleviate it. After I¡¯d packed up my ward net and the rest of my campsite, I got back to hunting. By the end of the day, I¡¯d collected a good amount of ent cores and molt carapaces, and decided that I¡¯d spend the rest of the week out hunting, trying to make up for the time I¡¯d spent in the city. By the end of my hunting week, I¡¯d gained another three levels, putting two points into vitality and one point into strength, and after that I finally felt comfortable with my spear again. I¡¯d also trained another point in both agility and endurance from the constant hunting. While chowing down on what was basically other world stir fry during one of my breaks, I mused on how my leveling hadn¡¯t seemed to slow down, completely contrary to how drastically it had slowed down when I had overleveled the orbs and wargs. Deciding to ask about it next time I was back in town, I finished my meal, and was soon back to hunting. Heading back to town in a slow manner, my backpack almost completely full weighing me down a bit after a day of hunting, I practiced trying to meditate while walking to pass the time. Not long after, I started in surprise. I¡¯d finally had some more success with it! The mana had actually flowed out of my legs, and may have been able to complete a circuit if I hadn¡¯t been so startled so as to stop my practice. Cursing at my bad luck, I didn¡¯t have any more success by the time I had arrived at town. I soon turned in all my loot, gaining almost a hundred gold. Smiling and feeling oh so rich, I decided that it was time for me to get a true aoe spell, my ice shatter was good for small groups, but I needed something that would be able to completely wipe a large area. Arriving at the mage college, the building covered in runes like always, I soon walked in and was greeted by an annoyed looking youth. ¡°I was wondering if you had any large scale ice magics for me to learn? I could use something for large groups..¡± He looked me over and replied in a testy manner ¡°You¡¯ll probably want either ice storm or flash freeze.¡± ¡°Well what do the two of them do?¡± ¡°Well ice storm creates a blizzard like area, except instead of snow it¡¯s shards of sharp ice flying around. Flash freeze is just as it name implies. It instantly freezes everything, lowering the temperature. Weak enemies will just die outright from it, but unless you have high wisdom it will only slow down tougher enemies. Enemies who can imbue their armor may not even be affected unless your wisdom is very high.¡± I thought for a moment before deciding on getting flash freeze. It may not be as useful immediately, but it may be able to instakill brags at least, and when I have high enough wisdom it would be very satisfying to watch enemies just drop after having their blood frozen inside of them. ¡°How much will flash freeze be?¡± ¡°As it¡¯s a third circle spell, it will cost you 50 gold¡± I winced, even with my recent windfall of gold, it would cost me over a third of my money. I sighed, then handed over the money. He then went back into the door behind him, returning with a scroll which he handed over, then started ignoring me as I left the store. I soon arrived at the practice grounds, and found an area where there were a couple of practice dummies next to each other. I then took out my new scroll and opened it up. I looked over the pattern for a few minutes, committing it to memory, but kept it open in front of me while drawing the pattern out. I failed a couple of times, and had to wait for my mana to regenerate after each attempt, this thing cost a lot of mana. The explosions from failing to draw it would probably have caused me pretty decent injuries if not for my new armor. Eventually I got it right, and watched as a small ball of light floated downrange at about the same speed as my ice shatter, and then impacted the target on the right. When it hit, a blue light quickly expanded from the center, forming a circle with a radius of around five meters. After the light faded, I looked forwards, to see snowflakes gently drifting down to the frosted ground, likely water condensed from the air. Stepping forwards, I patted one of the targets, finding it as hard as a rock in comparison to its usual flexible nature. Smiling at how the spell worked, I waited for a moment before opening up my grimoire and taking a look at it.
Spell Name Mana Cost
Flash Freeze 100
The thing was damn expensive, but even if it wouldn¡¯t outright kill some enemies, it would definitely slow them down, and it looked cool as hell to boot. Smiling, I went down to meditate while I waited for my mana to regenerate While meditating, I mused on how well my character seemed to be coming along. My level may not be high, but my wisdom was definitely outside my level range at this point. I¡¯d put half of my points into other stats, and I still could match the wisdom of someone who had put every point into their wisdom stat, which I¡¯m sure many mages had done. I may be lagging behind the monstrous players and competent hunting parties in level at this point, but for a solo player, I¡¯m sure I was one of the better ones. Getting up, I practiced drawing my spell again, with the pattern guide in front of me this time, and smiled again at how pretty the scene was of everything just turning to ice, the snow forming from the moisture in the air instantly freezing slowly drifting to the floor. By the end of the day, I was reasonably comfortable drawing out the spell pattern, though it took a bit of time with the extra oval in the spell pattern. Heading off to the barracks to rest, I smiled, I now had a large scale aoe spell, though it probably wouldn¡¯t see much use playing solo. I woke up in the morning with the sun shining in my face. My nemesis was back it seems. Grumbling at the annoying way to wake up, I got up, stretched, and headed out, I was going to try out my new spell on some molts to see how effective it would be. Once I¡¯d arrived at the hunting grounds, I found a molt, and slowly sneaked up on it, before preparing my new spell pattern. Releasing it, it impacted directly on it, and the surroundings instantly became white. Each of my steps on the grass released a crunch, similar in feel to walking on snow. Once I¡¯d arrived at the molt, I poked it a couple times with my spear, and noticed it hadn¡¯t moved. I put my hand on it, then frowned. The loot window hadn¡¯t appeared, meaning it was still alive. I then stabbed down into the third joint, puncturing it¡¯s heart, and then the trusty loot window appeared. Wondering if it would have died if I had just left it frozen, I decided to test it on the next molt. I flash froze it, then walked up and waited. When it hadn¡¯t moved after a few minutes, and the temperature had returned to normal after only a few seconds, the cold disappearing as fast as the ice from my other spells melted, I went up and touched it. It still wasn¡¯t dead, but apparently it was wounded enough that it couldn¡¯t move. Finishing it off with a force bolt, I moved on to do some more hunting. About midway through my hunting, I realized I could permanently leave up a sigil in my weapon, my mana regenerating faster than it would get used up, even in combat. Deciding to do that, I continued my hunt, mostly using spells, but also my spear when needed or when I felt like it. While hunting, I noticed that there seemed to be far more mobs than normal, I was running into them unnaturally fast, sometimes enough that I would be out of mana for the fights. The day ended seemingly quickly, the hunting having been constant throughout the day, and I was soon back in town to rest, I¡¯d had enough of camping out for now. I grabbed some dinner, then headed into the barracks to go to bed. Along the way, I considered staying in an inn now that I had a decent amount of money, but decided against it. It may not be too expensive, and I had a decent amount of money, but every penny saved would get me that much closer to my next set of gear, and with how expensive a third circle spell had been, I was going to need as much money as I could get. Chapter 22: Upheaval The next day was definitely interesting. I went out to hunt, only to have nonstop battles. It seemed every time I would kill one molt or ent, another would already be on me, and many a time I was facing multiple of them at once. Eventually, after being forced to use up a couple of my potions, I gave up and fought as I retreated back to the walls, only to look around and be able to spot multiple molts and ents wandering around outside, and many parties fighting close in to the walls, when I had seen very few of them this close in before. Heading back into town, I found it filled with chatter of what turns out to be an incoming monster wave. I¡¯d only recently learned of them, and it seems I¡¯d be able to get some firsthand experience very soon. Deciding that it would be best for me to prep beforehand, I went over to the market district, I was going to pick up some more potion bottles to fill up in preparation for it. I was soon off to the side of the road in large farming area, protected by the small walls as I dried out my herbs. While waiting, I meditated, and soon realized I¡¯d become used to it enough that I could continue to think on what I was going to do, rather than be completely lost within the flow of mana. Time still seemed to be flowing ridiculously fast, but I could at least plan for what was going to happen. Eventually, I decided to meet up with Loss and the others, so I stopped my meditation momentarily and shot them a message Hey Loss, you guys ready for the monster wave that¡¯s coming? I was thinking we should meet up and take it as a party. Monster wave? Does it have something to do with how many mobs I¡¯ve been seeing around? Yeah, there¡¯s going to be a massive wave of mobs that are going to assault the town, you should probably head back in before you guys end up trying to face it all on your own. We¡¯ll head back into town then, thanks for the heads up. I closed the messaging window, and grabbed my collection of dried out herbs, it was back to making potions for me. While grinding up the herbs, I decided to look up what I would need in order to make the next level of potions. I wasn¡¯t going to need them anytime soon, except for the mana ones, as my mana potions were only restoring around half of my mana at this point, while my health and stamina pots would fill me up completely after waiting a little bit for them to take effect. As it turns out, the next level of potion still used the basic herb, it just needed an additional catalyst, in the mana potions case an herb called myrua, and the next level of potions were referred to as elixers rather than potions, being effective up to 50 of a stat. It also stated that you would need to be able to make a potion that filled up three fourths of a level twenty stat to have the required mana control to be able to make them. I sighed, I was still a good ways from being able to do that, so I¡¯d likely have to grind a lot of potion making in order to be able to do so. Each time I would add the ground up herbs, I would be as careful as I could in adding my mana, and by the end of it, I thought I¡¯d noticed an ever so slight improvement, or at least I thought so, it seems my increase in skill seemed to be noticeable. Once I was done, having filled up forty potion bottles, and having made a couple of antidote potions from the brag poison and healing herbs along with some herb I kept forgetting the name of, I filled up my potion holding belt, and stuffed a few excess into my pockets. Hopefully I would have the time to refill my potion belt in the battle, but I was going to stuff as many in my pockets as possible just in case. After labeling each of the bottles which I¡¯d sorted by type, I stood up, put out the fire I¡¯d been drying my herbs by, and headed off to town, to find out some more information on what I was to do during the monster wave. After arriving at town, I went over to the training field. I figured that the best person to ask for information would be to ask one of the trainers., and I arrived to find them mostly surrounded by groups of players. I wandered up to one of the groups to catch him mid explanation. ¡°Adventurers are going to mostly hold the East and North walls, and small groups will support each of the other walls to fill in for any areas that the soldiers cannot handle on their own. So when the alarm bell rings, head over to the east or north walls, and try to stay in your party groups. We¡¯re not expecting you to fight in a well organized battalion like the soldiers, so make sure to have plenty of parties near the back to take out any monsters that make it through the parties in front. There will be enough monsters for everyone, so don¡¯t worry about not getting enough experience and just stay in your groups. Trainers will be there to organize the fighters.¡± I got the information I came for, and started to head out when I got a message from Loss. We just got back to town, wondering where we should meet up to talk about the monster wave? I¡¯m at the warrior training grounds, mind meeting me here? Sounds like a plan, be there in a bit I waited around for a bit, when Loss arrived with the rest of the party in tow. ¡°Hey Rayth, mind giving us some information on the monster wave, I get the gist of it from the name, but we could use a better run-down of what to expect.¡± ¡°I¡¯m not all to sure what to expect myself. I just know it¡¯ll be massive amounts of monsters attacking the town. We¡¯ll be defending the inner walls, so when the bells ring just group up and go to either the East or North walls.¡± ¡°Sounds good. I¡¯m pretty excited for this, it sounds like a big event.¡± ¡°It¡¯s sure to be, time to rack up lots of experience it seems. So how have all of you been doing.¡± We chatted for the next hour or two, going over our experiences we¡¯d experienced. They¡¯d hunted a few king class molts and ents, but hadn¡¯t really dealt with brags or craw. All of them had upgraded to new gear, Mars sticking with her oversized weapon, Light and Aylea wearing fancy looking robes, and staves with actually visible runing on them, likely more effective than my pitiful fifty percent boost on my spear. Dark had a fancy looking sword and shield, and Loss had an axe which seemed to be made of the same material as my spear, possibly from the leftover blades Kor had kept. We discussed how imbuing had made it so melee warriors could easily cope with monsters with thicker shells, and speculated on mobs to come, and soon enough, we heard what had to be the alarm bells, a very deep sounding tolling that seemed to make your bones shiver. We all looked up, towards the bell towers, and grabbed our gear we had left beside us, heading over to the east wall as we¡¯d decided. We soon arrived, and were ushered into position beside another group of six, fidgeting from excitement and nervous energy. For a while, all we did was wait. It was when we¡¯d finally started to relax that we started to hear it. It was like a constant droning sound, and we started to see a cloud of dust off in the horizon, slightly obscuring what seemed to be a dark cloud. It wasn¡¯t until the monsters got closer that we could make out what the cloud was, It was an uncountable number of brags. I instantly started prepping my new spell, with how dense that cloud of brags seemed to be, a wide area of effect spell seemed to be the right thing to choose. Remembering that I could have multiple spells prepared at once, I drew out a pair of ice spear patterns as well, aiming them to the sides so as not to hit any of the brags that my flash freeze spell was going to hit. I also applied a single sharpening sigil which I could keep up with my mana regeneration. I waited til they got closer, and watched as the cloud of brags flew overhead, outpacing what seemed to be a tidal wave of monsters underneath them. There were the mobs I had grown used to seeing, along with plenty of king class mobs, and some mobs that I was completely unfamiliar with, likely four star or higher mobs.The tale has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident. Once they started to get closer, people started to spam what spells they had at the monsters. I saw everything from clouds of poison, to chain lightnings, to walls of fire impeding the monsters, which seemed to flow around the obstructions like water. I waited until they¡¯d gotten a little closer, then released my spells. I noted as my flash freeze spell impacted, and brags caught within it seemed to fall like frozen bricks, dropping out the the skies while the snowflakes slowly drifted downwards. The two ice spears ripped through a few mobs as well, and I was honestly surprised that I hadn¡¯t gotten a level up notification from just that, seeing as how many of them I had killed. I downed a mana potion I took from my backpack, and managed to release another freeze spell before they were upon us. The brags seemed to fill the air above us, and every stab it seemed would kill one, slowly filling up the ground around us. Loss lashed out with his axe, Dark danced around them with his sword and shield, and every swing of Mars¡¯ oversized sword seemed to cleave two or more in twain. Aylea seemed to be the one having the most trouble, as she couldn¡¯t take advantage of the wide aoe fire spells with them so close by, having to try and sneak her fireballs between the mobs so the explosion wouldn¡¯t hit any of us. Light sat back, and was insanely useful, being able to cure the poison off of us whenever we were hit by the stingers. I kept stabbing and slashing out with my spear as the brags seemed to rain from the skies around us, slowly making our footing more and more unstable, having to slide my feet along so as not to step on the corpses and lose my balance. Maybe five minutes in I had gained a level, and took the time to put it into wisdom before going back to the slaughter. The mobs mostly ignored light, healing luckily didn¡¯t seem to draw any aggro, or the mobs simply weren¡¯t intelligent to know to go for her first. It wasn¡¯t long until I felt rather than heard the mobs impact the wall. It made a constant thudding sound as they rammed up against it, and it quickly started to make a pileup, with the mobs climbing on top of each other, slowly starting to make a pile made of bodies up to the high height of the wall. While watching it, I noticed something out of the corner of my eye that set my rage to a simmer, it was Lily, with her large group of fans at the forefront of the wall, fighting off the innumerable brags. While I simmered in rage, taking it out on the brags, a plan started to form in my mind, and I got a vengeful smile on my face on something I was now planning to do. I kept fighting the mobs, and eventually the wave of mobs on the land reached the edge of the walls. I kept fighting as they reached us, focusing on the brags while our melee group took on the land mobs, trying to prevent the brags from getting behind them and poisoning them. I didn¡¯t start to move away until I noticed Lily¡¯s party engaged something that looked like an ent with a pulsing mass attached to its left half, being disproportionately large, and dragging its lesser half along with its much longer and thicker limbs. I slowly made my way over, feeling slightly guilty at having deserted my party, but it was soon overruled with my excitement, and I was soon mixed in with the group of Lily¡¯s fanboys and fangirls. I slowly attracted the attention of a bunch of brags, downing an antidote in preparation for what I was going to do. I waited until the odd monster swung out with its massive arm, and Lily went back to dodge, and I ¡°accidentally¡± stepped back at just that moment, arresting her momentum, and causing her to not only take the attack, but get knocked off of the wall entirely, falling into the innumerable amount of mobs below. I joined the group in staring down, but slowly fought my way away from the group immediately after, not wanting to be pointed out as the one who had led her to her doom. The group had been focused on the monster so I doubt anyone had noticed, but better not to risk it, or risk that any of them recognized me. I soon was joining with random parties to hide as Lily¡¯s group tried and failed to fight their way to her. Hiding my grin as I made my way back to Loss¡¯ party, I soon joined back up with them, not letting my grin escape until I was back with them. I got a quick ¡°Where did you go¡± from them, but gave a reply that ¡°there was something I had to deal with real quick¡±, before they shrugged it off and got back to fighting off the mobs. We were all constantly downing potions, keeping out stamina and mana high, and it took what had to be hours, my mind totally exhausted by the time the monster wave started to thin out. There was a ragged, exhausted sounding cheer as we finally started to see the last of them, and we fought with renewed vigour until the last mob had died. I¡¯d leveled once more during the fight, putting me to an even twenty, and putting the point into wisdom again. Once the mob wave had finally died, everyone seemed to fall down, even ignoring the massive amount of mobs that needed to be looted. Everyone at this point was exhausted, physically, even with the stamina potions, and mentally from the constant fight that had happened. Eventually, people started to move again, and all of us began to collect loot. I was surprised that there was no fighting over any of the loot, but there was a veritable mountain around us, so everyone was able to get plenty. I waded through the bodies as I put my hand on each one, throwing the items into my backpack as I went, and it didn¡¯t take long until even my magical backpack was filled. After turning in all of my loot at the adventurers guild, I headed back to the mountain of corpses and repeated it again. It wasn¡¯t until the third time that I ran out of corpses to loot, and I¡¯d gotten a massive windfall of money, over 160 gold. I wasn¡¯t sure what to do with all of my money, there was no point getting a fourth circle spell when I probably couldn¡¯t cast it with my current mana anyway, and my gear would suffice for the time being. Deciding I¡¯d figure it out later, I logged off and went to bed in the real world, my mind still exhausted even there. I woke up in the morning feeling very refreshed, and decided that it would be a good time to go for a jog. As I slowly jogged along, heading off to some forested trails I knew of, I thought back to the fight. I¡¯d burned through a massive amount of potions, and had leveled very quickly. If normal parties could take on large amounts of mobs like that, it¡¯s no wonder some people were so far ahead of me on experience, though admittedly, if I started to burn through my potions like I had there, I could be leveling at a much faster pace. Deciding to be more liberal in my potion usage rather than saving if for king class mobs And such, I was well into my jog when I noticed something hopping along nearby. Figuring it was just a bunny, I ignored it and went by it, when it jumped at me extremely quickly. Dodging to the side, I got a look at it, and my mind went into turmoil. I¡¯d been playing a lot of Sanity Online, but it wasn¡¯t enough to make me start seeing orbs. My mind in chaos, I did the thing I¡¯d gotten ever so used to and prepared a spell pattern unconsciously, only to have my mind sent more into confusion as it actually seemed to work. I was feeling like I was having a panic attack, I was going crazy, I was clearly hallucinating, were the thoughts running through my mind as I released it for it to impact the orb. It shrugged it off, and I started to prepare another one, only to have it fizzle midway. It lunged at me again, and I did the only thing I could think of, I kicked it as hard as I could. It bounced maybe a meter higher in the air from my kick, and bounced on the ground, where I went over and started to stomp, my mind still running in circles at my apparent lost sanity. It wasn¡¯t long until it stopped moving, and I did the only reasonable thing, I sprinted home. The entire time, my thoughts were in chaos, whirling with possibilities. I was hoping I was only going crazy, I¡¯d read books where these things had happened, but they were fictions, were fake, had no basis in reality. I got back, and slumped down. I was horrified, it had been terrifying to me, even if it hadn¡¯t been real. While trembling, I went to my computer, I had to see if I wasn¡¯t crazy. I logged on, and went on a content aggregation site, and soon found what I was looking for. It was titled ¡°Monsters are real!¡± with a video of an orb. I shook my head, I still was seeing things, but I still clicked through to the comments, and found multiple people mentioning they¡¯d seen them. There were even supposedly a video of someone having been killed and eaten, though I didn¡¯t have the stomach to click that one, and people talking of how the military had been mobilized. I kept looking through it in disbelief, and soon found another post in similar style to the above titled ¡°Magic is real too!¡± with a video of someone casting force bolt at a tree. All of the top posts on the front page were related to something about the monsters that had appeared, but after a refresh, the top post was different. ¡°Game become reality?¡± was the title, someone finally mentioning the link between Sanity Online and the monsters that it seemed had appeared. They even mentioned that the stats page had become real, so with my voice cracking, I whispered that word. ¡°Status¡± I instantly noted that the stats table had changed a good deal. For one, there were three new stats, so I tapped each of them to see what they did. [table]
Name Roland
Level 1
str 0.7324 Grimoire
agi 1.2647 Recipes
wis 0.2861 sns 1.2654
end 1.4736 res 0.1906
vit 1.1739 lsp 1.0000
Lifespan: Increases lifespan.
Resistance: Increases magic resistance.
Senses: Improves your five senses.
Noting that the stats seemed to have changed a bit, I decided to look at the other stats to see if they had changed in description.
Wisdom: Increases mana you can hold and spell output
The others had changed as well, only providing a ¡°Increases strength¡± for strength, ¡°Increases toughness of the body and regeneration¡± for vitality, ¡°Increases speed¡± for agility, and ¡°Increases stamina¡± for endurance. They were also all fractions rather than the clean numbers I had been used to. At this point, I was completely panicking. I mean, in game the monsters had been invaders from another dimension, but was it the game that had brought them here? Or had the game simply been a warning of sorts? I took a deep breath. I wasn¡¯t sure what to do at this point. I wasn¡¯t Rayth, I wasn¡¯t afraid of death and pain, I was just me. Just Roland. Chapter 23: Chaos The next few days were a whirlwind of things happening. The military was mobilized, cities and towns were attacked, and the internet was in chaos. Through all of it, some brave souls continued to work on the game wiki, quickly adapting it to what had become our new reality. It quickly gathered up steam as more and more people started updating it, having sections for different areas, my small college town getting off relatively lightly. It seems that the tougher and larger monsters had gravitated towards higher population areas, spawning in the suburbs and making paths of devastation along the way. Many larger cities had been completely devastated, as anything over three stars which could imbue their shells would simply shrug off bullets, needing much larger weapons, things like bazookas or a round from a tank to kill them. The army was focused on the larger metropolitan areas, but luckily, the highest ranking monsters that had attacked our town were moglins and moki, both of which could be taken out by conventional firearms. The police had taken to patrolling the town, and a ragtag militia had formed out of the few people who owned firearms, along with a few of the gamers who were willing to try their skills in real life. People soon found out that you would level up from shooting the monsters, though the max level in this area was only around 10 due to the leveling restriction that was imposed by only having lower level mobs. Now, when you level up, rather than having a point you could spend on any one stat, you could add fractions of a point to any stat, you got 1.000 stat point you could split up any way you wanted to among your stats. LSP was a locked stat however, and you gained .05 in it whenever you leveled up, leading to a craze where people were becoming obsessed with raising their lifespan. The internet, surprisingly, stayed up, with only some cities losing access, due to monsters destroying cables on accident as they roamed around. The two metropolitan areas that had it the worst were Tokyo, Shanghai, and Delhi, all the largest cities in the world. In each of the three places, some massive monstrosity appeared, being the length of a small skyscraper, and had utterly devastated the area. After attempting most conventional weapons, The United states stepped in and managed to eliminate the ones in Japan and India, getting live targets for their prototype railguns, showing the world that they had more of the weapons than anyone had expected. China handled theirs by unveiling a an orbital bombardment satellite, dropping a piece of steel the size of a telephone pole from space, utterly devastating the area, but eliminating the threat. People were up in arms about these decisions, stating that they should have attempted to eliminate the monsters with weapons which would cause less damage to the cities. The areas affected had mostly evacuated before the firing, but people still pointed at the casualties and damage to the cities, completely ignoring that it would have been far worse had the monsters not been eliminated. As for me? I stayed home and spent the entire time grinding stats. Exercise just felt so much more satisfying when I could see the number slowly climbing, and meditating had become my go to way to calm myself down, something I was needing to do quite a bit. I contacted my family, and it seemed most of them were fine. The only one confirmed to be dead was one of my uncles, and I had to sit down after finding out. I hadn¡¯t known him particularly well, he lived a few hundred miles away and I hadn¡¯t seen him in over a year, but I remembered all the times he had been kind to me, especially as a kid. I remembered how he¡¯d always ruffle my hair when he saw me, always call me squirt, just being kind. For a few hours after that, I just sat there, but then went back to meditating, trying to keep my mind off of it. The rest of the week went by quickly, my wisdom growing at a fast pace, sleeping while meditating shot it up very quickly considering how low it had been before I started. As for my spear, I got a shovel, and borrowed some of my friends power tools to cut it to shape and then ground the edges to sharpness. As I went along, I pulled up my stats to see how I¡¯d improved.
Name Roland
Level 1
str 1.4738 Grimoire
agi 2.7450 Recipes
wis 7.3209 sns 1.3610
end 2.9384 res 0.1906
vit 1.1739 lsp 1.0500
Endurance and agility had gone up a bit, from running around my gated apartment complex, and strength had gone up a little from my improvised exercise routine, though I really needed to get a target to practice my spear on and some weights to help speed that along. Wisdom had had a massive increase, due to focusing mostly on it, and it seemed to be going up a bit faster than in game, though that was likely from being able to enter my meditative fugue while sleeping and how low it had been initially. Senses had gone up a small amount, though I wasn¡¯t sure why, and vitality and resistance had stayed the same, no surprises there. It wasn¡¯t until I reached this point that I managed to work up the courage to join the militia. I figured with my wisdom so high, I could practice my spear, and if I got into any trouble I could spam force bolts,, and could even fire off a few ice spears to take down anything tough. I soon looked up the meeting spot for those who wanted to join the militia and headed out. It didn¡¯t take long until I arrived at what had become the meeting spot for the militia, and stood around feeling awkward. There were a few others who, like me, had melee weapons, likely also gamers who were going to see if their skills would transfer to the real world. I was sitting in silence when a girl with short brown hair and amber eyes spoke up to me. This narrative has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. If you see it on Amazon, please report it. ¡°Hey, you¡¯re new, you looking to get some experience too?¡± ¡°Well that, and I do want to help protect the rest of the town. I¡¯m honestly quite nervous though. How long have you been doing this?¡± ¡°Well my party and I have been doing this for about a week, the guys with guns gave us odd looks at first, but they got used to it after a couple of days of showing them we could handle it.¡± ¡°Well it seems it¡¯ll be my turn to get the odd looks.¡± I got a bit of a frown on my face after that, I was uncomfortable with people at the best of times, let alone when they were looking at me oddly. The rest of the people slowly arrived, a ragtag group with an odd assortment of weaponry. I saw everything from a guy with just a kitchen knife and a shield made out of what looked like a table, to people in full on combat gear, with body armor and assault rifles. A man soon headed up to the front and began an announcement. ¡°Alright everybody, you know your groups, red, green, and blue gets the eastern part of town. Purple, orange, and yellow gets the west. Gold, silver, diamond, you get the north city. Aqua, maroon, and amber, you get the south. Everybody clear?¡± There was a mumbling of agreement, with people nodding their heads, and they began to head out before I nervously spoke out. ¡°Um, I¡¯m new, I was wondering what team i should join?¡± ¡°You¡¯re one of the gamers it seems? You¡¯ll go with team aqua, they¡¯ve been complaining about not having enough people.¡± I asked around, and was soon headed to group up with the girl who had talked to me earlier and four other guys. I introduced myself, and soon got a greeting back. The tallest scrawny guy, who had abnormally pale skin was Justin, who introduced himself as the mage of the group. The next tallest was Robert, who was a bit pudgy and had a slight tinge to his skin, likely from asian heritage judging by his pitch black hair and eyes. He used a sword and shield, acting as one of the two tanks. Jolie, the girl who had talked to me earlier, was the next tallest, looking around five foot ten, and had two kitchen knives which had the spines of the blades sharpened. Her short cut hair gave her a tomboyish look, exacerbated by the mischievous look in her eyes. Then came Josh, who was just a tad shorter than her, with blond hair and blue eyes, introducing himself as the second mage of the group. The last one was the most musclebound asian I had ever seen, maybe five foot seven, and his arms were about as thick as my legs. He introduced himself as Hanuel park, and I couldn¡¯t help but ask. ¡°What did your strength stat start as Hanuel? ¡°It started as twenty eight.¡± My eyebrows shot up in surprise. If we went by the game rules, that was almost three times as strong as your average human. He held a large shield which seemed to be made of sheet metal and a sledgehammer in one hand, looking completely at ease with all the weight. Deciding I needed to work on my strength stat, I asked what we were going to do. ¡°We¡¯re going to hop in Hanuel¡¯s minivan and drive around looking for mobs. Whenever we find them we take them out. What¡¯s your specialty by the way?¡± ¡°I¡¯m a spellsword, but I need to work on my physical stats, I¡¯ll probably be fighting at the front lines for now.¡± ¡°You sure you¡¯re up to it? You seem a bit scrawny.¡± Commented Hanuel. ¡°I need to get my physical stats up if I want to keep my fighting style.¡± I replied. I got a nod in response, and then we hopped in the van, Jolie making a comment on how a Hanuel made a perfect soccer mom. We were soon cruising around the south part of town. It wasn¡¯t long until we encountered our first group of orbs, wandering around the streets aimlessly, occasionally charging at the doors or planked up windows. I made a mental note to do that to my apartment, I was on the second story, but I was sure that orbs could jump that high. We then got out of the van and began our hunt. The group was relatively easy to take down, with how used I was to orbs extremely simple attack pattern of jump at you then repeat. I just stepped to the side, then dashed in and stabbed out at them. I only managed to get the kill on one of the ten or so, but I did manage to get some cuts on a couple others, which would get me some experience at least. The rest of the day passed in much the same fashion, taking out some wargs and a lot of orbs. The only time we had any trouble was when we ran into a decent sized group of moglins, and I had to revert to spellcasting after getting a pretty nasty cut on my chest. Figuring at least I would get some points in vitality, I shrugged it off, somewhat used to the pain due to the in game pain, only to have Robert take some bandages and rubbing alcohol out of his backpack. He poured some on the wound to clean it, then bandaged it up for me before giving me a warning. ¡°We heal much faster now we have the vitality stat, but we still need to clean out the wounds, they can still get infected.¡± I thanked him, and then we continued our hunt. Overall I got a few more cuts from wargs, the difference in stats between my in game body and my real life one was becoming apparent, I really needed to grind out my stats more. Along the way, I picked up one level,which I sunk all of into vitality, I could really use a tougher body, especially considering this was real life, there were no respawns. Eventually, we stopped seeing any mobs, and met up with the other two groups in the area, confirming there seemed to be nothing left. Afterwards, we hopped back in the minivan, and headed back to the meeting point, where we got a ¡°Good job¡± from the leader, and then I headed back to my car to head back home, utterly exhausted. When I arrived at home, I was asleep when I hit the bed, too tired to even try to meditate. The next few days went much the same way, with my physical stats rising at a very noticeable pace. It seems that humans could get much stronger much faster than in the old version of the world. Recently, the change in the world had become colloquially known as ¡°The Update¡±, It was originally only used by gamers, but the name had slowly spread though, and nowadays it was the common term used for it. The days among the militia soon became commonplace, and it didn¡¯t take too long until I hit the soft level cap, more quickly than when I had been solo hunting in game. While grumbling about that, I started to think, I wanted to get more levels, I didn¡¯t know if eternal youth was possible under this system, but if it was I wanted to try and get it. Eternal youth had always been an idle dream of mine, or at least extending my lifespan long enough to enjoy the future, especially all the novels that would come out. Something I had taken to doing, was having Hanuel, the one with the lowest wisdom, a measly point one seven as he hadn¡¯t added any point to it and didn¡¯t meditate, pelt me with force bolts. It raised my resistance stat quite quickly, and barely stung with my current vitality. Figuring that vitality and resistance would stack upon each other, I eventually got it over four points. I noticed as I gained more points in vitality that it became harder and harder for enemies to wound me, with orbs teeth barely piercing my skin. Figuring it had to do with the new way vitality worked, I started intentionally taking hits. They stung like hell, but every time I looked at my stats I felt it was worth it. It wasn¡¯t until that point that I realized that I was a bit too obsessed with gaining stat points. I mean, it had always been something I had thought about, but I didn¡¯t think I was willing to take hits just to raise my vitality. Wondering if wisdom increased mental fortitude or something, I decided to look on the wiki and see where I could hunt some slightly stronger mobs nearby. I soon found that the nearby forest had quite the collection of mobs, but hesitated, supposedly there were four star monsters there, and I wasn¡¯t sure how strong they were, then realized I was an idiot. I had been neglecting my best source of information, the game. I quickly logged on and headed over to the training grounds to ask one of the instructors about it. What I learned left me flabbergasted, they recommended level forty, preferably fifty before you go on to hunt four star mobs. Asking why that is, I soon found out that they could naturally imbue their armor, skin, and weapons, and only with massive amounts of strength or being able to hold multiple sigils could you break through it. I shook my head, I was definitely going to pass on the four star mobs. ¡°So why have I seen so few of you summoned lately, it seems almost all of you have disappeared.¡± the trainer eventually asked me. ¡°Our world was invaded by the monsters. Everything is in chaos, maybe after we get more used to the chaos we¡¯ll come back¡± On the way back, I decided that I was going to stop by the inscription store. I wanted a way to imbue my weapons, and I wasn¡¯t going to find someone in real life that knew how to do so anytime soon. I soon arrived, and was greeted by the old man manning the counter, and quickly got to business. ¡°I was hoping I could get a book on inscriptions please.¡± ¡°Well I can sell it to you, but it¡¯s not going to be cheap. One hundred gold for it.¡± My mouth fell open, flabbergasted, that was going to drain my reserves very quickly. I still had enough however, and unhappily passed over the money. ¡°You¡¯ll also need the inscription ink, one gold per bottle¡± I glared at the old man, who only showed me a smile in response, then handed over twenty gold, I was going to need to practice, and I¡¯d need plenty of bottles to do so. I then headed off to hunt some moglins, their crappy weapons would be perfect to practice on. While I walked towards the area the moglins inhabited, I looked over my alchemy book and cursed. I could get the ingredients on my own. All it required was thinly sliced moki claws, along with a certain amount of mana herbs and a herb called aruuki. The mixture would slowly dissolve the moki claw, making the inscription ink. Along the way, I collected some more mana herbs and easily found aruuki growing in well lit areas. I soon found moglins however, and the slaughter began. Twenty or so moglins later, I had enough metal ¡°swords¡± and ¡°spears¡± that I was willing to try my hand at inscription. My first attempt was a failure, completely missing one of the runes I needed to inscribe, the inscription flashed, and then disappeared, leaving a burnt plastic smell floating around. I was only doing the most simple of inscriptions, only a twenty percent increase in the output of spells, and I was still failing. Grumbling, I attempted again, this time getting most of the way down the sword, the art class I¡¯d taken in high school coming in handy, then accidentally curved a line which wasn¡¯t supposed to be curved. The inscription failed yet again, but I stubbornly continued, I was going to keep trying. It wasn¡¯t until the fifteenth try that I succeeded, but three more of the five left had also succeeded. It was only the simplest inscription, but it could help. Deciding to look through the book more, I soon found sharpness and toughness runes, which made me start a bit. I was wondering how some weapons seemed to cut through mobs like butter without the sigils, and it seems I had my answer. Deciding that I was going to need to try and find those herbs in real life. If monsters had invaded why not herbs? I logged off, It seems I was going to need to log in more often for information. Chapter 24: Herbology The next week passed in much the same way, hunting the weak mobs around town to keep it safe, and working on enchanting. Eventually, I got to the point where I was comfortable enough with enchanting that I decided iI would feel comfortable enchanting a spear in real, but I decided to wait until I got a proper weapon to do so. The first thing to do however, was try and find out if herbs had appeared in much the same way that the monsters had. I then hopped onto the ever expanding wiki for information. What I found left me happy, but a bit annoyed. It seems with the infusion of mana into the world, the herbs themselves had not appeared, but many plants had changed, and people were currently researching the effects of some of them. The equivalents of health and mana herbs had been found, and were oddly enough, changed variants of dandelions and rose leaves. They¡¯d both changed the look of the leaves to be more similar to the herbs found in game, but otherwise were just the regular plants I was used to. Unfortunately, nobody had found the equivalent of the aruuki plant, so I was going to be doing some searching. If basic plants had changed, I was likely going to be able to find something similar eventually. Deciding that there had to be a better way to find the herbs than just testing each and every one of them, I logged back in to find some information. Once I¡¯d logged on, I did something I should¡¯ve done a good deal earlier, I messaged Loss to see if he and his party were doing ok. Hey Loss, I don¡¯t know when or if you¡¯ll get this message, but I was just wondering how you guys were faring in real. It¡¯s chaos out there, but hopefully you¡¯re all safe I was very surprised when just a few minutes later I got a response. Hey Rayth, we¡¯re all doing ok, though a few of us have been just hiding in real. Mars, Light, and I are all out hunting down monsters, trying to keep it safe, you know? Good to hear. Where are you guys in real by the way, I heard some places got hit really hard. After a few minutes, I found out that they were only around a twenty minute drive away. Deciding that I wanted to group up with them to hunt some three star mobs, as most of group aqua had expressed no interest in doing anything other than staying around town clearing out nearby mobs, a surefire way to have a monster wave come crushing down on their underleveled selves, I decided to see if they would be interested. Seeing as how close you are, I was wondering if you guys would be up to hunting some three star mobs together, I could use the levels, and we all could use the culling to help prevent a monster wave We¡¯d be down for that, where would we meet up? Saturday sound fine to you? Saturday would be fine, do you know of any good hunting grounds though? The only one I know of nearby has a lot of four star monsters as well, and I¡¯m not willing to take that risk. There¡¯s actually a decent amount of them in part of my town. The police are keeping them down as much as they can, but there always seems to be more. Mind meeting us there? He gave me the address, and I soon agreed, then got back to my original business, finding a better way to find herbs. I soon was headed in the direction of the alchemy shop, if anyone knew how to tell herbs apart, they would be the best bet. I soon arrived, and was greeted by a cheerful old lady who introduced herself as Sylvie. ¡°I was wondering if there was any way to tell herbs apart other than their look. If you haven¡¯t heard, our world was invaded, but our herbs are slightly different so I was hoping that you could help me out.¡± ¡°Well you could always try mana sensing. Just slowly put your mana into the herb, similar to imbuing, but don¡¯t make any sort of sigil, just feel the mana in the herbs themselves, they all feel slightly different.¡± I tilted my head to the side, I¡¯d never tried just sensing the mana in things, I¡¯d always put my mana in my weapons, armor and potions with a purpose. Deciding to try it out, I grabbed a health herb out of my backpack and slowly and carefully put my mana in, trying to feel the mana of the plant itself react. It took a minute of focusing, but once I could feel it I realized it was a very similar sensation to meditating. For lack of a better word, the mana in the health herb felt hot. Not hot as if it would burn me, but like the warm sun shining on you on a brisk day. Intrigued, I pulled out the basic mana and stamina herbs to see how they felt. The mana herb felt like cold water, which I don¡¯t even know how that works, and the stamina herb felt like taking a deep breath, making me forget to breathe for a bit until I started turning blue. Sylvie let out a chuckle at my confusion before making a comment. ¡°It¡¯s an odd feeling isn¡¯t it? Just get used to it, you¡¯ll find it¡¯s very useful when making potions.¡± I¡¯d always wondered why I couldn¡¯t seem to break past a certain point in my potions, but maybe it had been because I wasn¡¯t trying to feel the mana interacting, but rather just approximating. Next, was the moment of truth, I was going to see how the aruuki herb felt, and then I was going to go searching for it. I slowly put in my mana sense and started. It felt spicy. It wasn¡¯t like a nice calm spice, it was like habanero injected directly into my veins. I hissed and instantly took my mana out, sighing in relief as the sensation faded. The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation. Deciding that it had a unique enough sensation that I would be able to find it without too much trouble, I thanked Sylvie, then logged off, I was going to head to the nearest plant nursery and do some searching. It took maybe twenty minutes to get there, and I was greeted by a few people standing out the front. ¡°What¡¯s going on? I was hoping I could look at some plants.¡± ¡°Well, unless you¡¯re one of the militia, I¡¯d stay out of there, there¡¯s quite a long limbed things in there. I want to open up, but the police told me that I would have to wait for the milita.¡± ¡°Well I don¡¯t mind clearing them out for you, I¡¯ve been working for the militia for almost two weeks now. Let me just grab my spear real quick¡± ¡°It¡¯s your life, but if you do take care of them I can get you a few plants or seeds or whatever you want, they¡¯ve been taking my business for the past few days now, and the militia still hasn¡¯t come around¡± I grabbed my spear from my car, I assumed he was talking about moglins from the long limbed comment, and I would be comfortable taking a few on, if I needed to I could just cast freeze, though the owner wouldn¡¯t be happy about the plants getting frozen. When I got back from my car, the owner unlocked the gate for me, a sturdy thing made entirely from iron, and gestured me in before locking it behind me. I suppressed a shiver at that, I suddenly wasn¡¯t feeling so confident, maybe I should go get my group, I don¡¯t know what I had been thinking when I volunteered, this wasn¡¯t the game. Deciding to go take a look before running away, I slowly slinked through the plants, searching to see how many enemies there would be. I soon found out three of the moglins all in a group, but even if there were only a few, I waited until one was all by its lonesome, and pelted it with a few force bolts until it went down. Quickly backing away in case the others noticed the commotion, I let out a breath as soon as I realized they either hadn¡¯t noticed or hadn¡¯t cared. I would¡¯ve done the same again, but the other two refused to split up, so eventually, I got into a good position and launched an ice spear at the rightmost one. It impaled it spectacularly, pinning it to the ground, and the other was instantly charging at me. I took my spear in my hands, and took in a deep breath, this was the first time I was hunting without a group to back me up in real, and it was terrifying, even for some mobs that I could crush in my sleep. Holding my spear tightly to prevent it slipping from my now sweaty hands, I stepped to the side as the moglin swung out, and stabbed out as hard as I could, likely much harder than necessary, as my spear went clear through the moglin, instantly killing it. I then headed over to the other moglin, and confirmed its death before letting out the breath I had been holding in. Once I¡¯d calmed down enough, I went around, scouting for more moglins, finding only a couple of solitary ones, and dispatching each of them with an ice spear. Once the place had been cleared out, I tried to calm myself down, while it had been scary hunting by my lonesome, it had also been exhilarating. I then headed back to the gate and saw the man who had sent me in wringing his hands, likely only now realizing he may have sent me to my death. ¡°I took care of your moglin problem, mind letting me look around a bit now?¡± The man sighed in relief before replying. ¡°Of course, feel free to look as much as you want, I can even give you a few plants if you¡¯d like, I¡¯ve been losing so much business with them there.¡± I thanked him, and started searching around the various plants I didn¡¯t know the name of trying to find one which matched the mana signature of the aruuki herb. It took a while, but eventually I found one. Turns out, tulips, or what looked sort of like a tulip and used to be a tulip, was the plant which had that habanero in your blood sensation. I then went up to the guy, and left with a couple tulips, some tulip bulbs, and a small rose bush, all with pots to grow in. Unfortunately he didn¡¯t have any dandelion seeds, so I¡¯d have to order those online. It wasn¡¯t long until I arrived back at home, and put my new potted plants beside my glass door to my balcony and went online to learn how to properly care for them. After that, I simply lay on my bed, wondering what I was going to do until saturday, I would of course be with the militia and training, but I¡¯d already done my exercise for the day, and it was already past the time the militia met up. Deciding that I may as well go for another run, I put on some comfortable clothes and left. Once I got back, I hopped onto the wiki, it was time for me to contribute a little. I soon found out that nobody had posted the way to identify herbs for mana, so I put that up, along with my information on the aruuki herb equivalent. Deciding that I¡¯d contributed enough for the night, I checked the time, and went to bed. The next day was peaceful, just running through my exercise routine until I went to meet up with the militia, when we had a disagreement. ¡°I¡¯m telling you, we need to go level up, or at least cull the higher level monsters before we have a monster wave on our hands! We can¡¯t fight off something like that if we stick to just these trash mobs!¡± ¡°Look, I get what you¡¯re saying, but we need to be here to help protect these people, we can¡¯t just leave them out to dry.¡± Justin replies. ¡°And what happens when a monster wave comes and we¡¯re not even close to strong enough to do anything? It¡¯s not like we have guns, we¡¯ll just be sitting ducks if they decide to attack us, even if we¡¯ve been grinding our stats as much as we can.¡± ¡°We can get enough stats to make up for that, you know it.¡± Hanuel mentions. ¡°You may have a point, but just stats aren¡¯t going to cut it without the combat experience. How many of you have fought four star mobs in game? I know I haven¡¯t, and I¡¯m at a decent level. And if we don¡¯t cull the monsters, we¡¯re going to be fighting four star mobs very, very, early. Monster waves tend to happen when enough of them aren¡¯t killed off so they build up a large population. We can¡¯t take that risk¡± I continue to try to convince them. Jolie chimed in with a quiet ¡°He may have a point¡±, but is drowned out by the rest of the groups louder disagreement, leaving me uncertain if I¡¯d actually heard what she¡¯d said. ¡°Look, we¡¯re going to stay here and fight, if you want to go off on your own, leaving the civilians alone, it¡¯s your choice. We have enough of a handle on it alone at this point, so go do your grinding on your own you obsessed gamer.¡± Hanuel comments. I sigh, and give up, feeling a bit defeated, as we continue to head off to clear the town of mobs. We¡¯d been seeing much fewer of them lately, and the town didn¡¯t need nearly so many people defending it as it had at first, especially with the defenders constantly growing stronger, but they seemed to believe that they were the only ones who could protect the town, completely ignoring the fact that the police had taken almost all of the hunting duties up. The rest of the hunt proceeded with a silent tension between all of us, with Jolie trying to get everyone to just get along, but she seemed muted somehow, clearly affected by the atmosphere that now pervaded the hunting. We finished our hunt together, and after it was over, Jolie approached me after the rest of the group had left. ¡°Hey, if you wouldn¡¯t mind, I¡¯d like to come along on the hunt. We¡¯ve been seeing almost no monsters lately, and I really do want to help prevent the monster waves. The rest of the group wasn¡¯t logged in for the monster wave in game, so they have no idea how bad it can be.¡± ¡°Glad to have at least someone to join me, thanks for the support.¡± I handed her the address and time of the meeting point, and then we headed our separate ways for the time being. When I got back, I let out a sigh and slumped down against the door, their arguments had made a good deal of sense, but we needed to prevent the monster wave, at least long enough for the police to get enough levels that they¡¯d stand a fighting chance. I shook my head and got up, I was going to do something I should¡¯ve done earlier, and hopped online to order my dandelion seeds and a proper spear. I didn¡¯t have much money at the moment, but I could probably make some good money off on enchanting weapons, seeing as how I was likely the only person who could do it in the general vicinity. Eventually, I¡¯d finished looking over the wiki for relevant information and after I started yawning a bit too much, I headed off to bed. Chapter 25: Familiar Faces I woke up in the morning and did what had become a ritual for me, I hopped on the internet to see how the world was faring. The chaos had largely subsided in the more developed countries as the military took control, but in less developed countries, it was still madness. I noticed that there hadn¡¯t been any reports of monster waves yet, which led to quite a bit of apprehension. It would be wonderful if they never came, but it¡¯s always best to plan for the worst, and I was going to continue to do so. Plenty of people online were trying to warn people about it, but only the people in the few towns in game which had experienced a monster wave had any idea how horrifying they could be, and they were largely drowned out by the people who insisted that the army would handle it without any problems, even though small arms could barely harm four star and above monsters. I shook my head, there was only one day to go until the meetup with Loss and his group, so today I was going to just get through my training routine and go do some hunting with the militia, even if the mood would likely continue to be terrible. Soon I was exercising, taking advantage of some weights I had bought after one of the outings with the militia. They weren¡¯t a full set of weights, but I had some dumbbells going up to forty five pounds that could give me a pretty good workout, though they were quickly becoming insufficient with how fast my strength was increasing. AFter that, I went for my run. It was no longer a relaxing jog that I had used to do, it was full on sprinting for as long as I could, taking breaks by jogging in between the sets. I needed to get as strong as I could, levels would help a lot, but as for now I wanted to push to the limit of how many stats I could get just out of training. I mused on adding some weights in a backpack for next time I went sprinting as I slowly jogged back to the house, utterly exhausted. It used to be I would be almost out of commission from soreness the next day, but vitality seemed to heal sore muscles as quickly as it would heal wounds. On the way back, I grabbed some dandelions I had spotted on my run to make into health potions. There was no reason to risk going hunting without some health potions, even if we had a healer in our group this time. I decided to see if the people on the wiki had found out what the new equivalent of stamina herbs were on the way back. Once I got back, I ran to the store real quick, picking up a beaker and some corked bottles for my potion making and easy consumption, along with a mortar and pestle for making the potions themselves. I was soon back home, and grabbed some of the used to be dandelions and then started wondering the best way to dry them out. Eventually, I decided to put the leaves in a toaster oven on the lowest temperature setting, planting the remaining roots in the hope that they would somehow survive. It took a while, but eventually they started to brown around the edges, and I took them out to see that they were properly crinkly and dried out. I was soon grinding one of them up in my mortar and pestle, and I filled up my beaker with a little water. Once the dandelion like plant had been ground into a fine powder, I added it to the water and started injecting mana into it. This time though, I did something I should have though to do long before. I oh so carefully felt the feedback of the mana, trying to sense when it would be done. After a bit of slowly and carefully adding mana, it got to a point where it gave off a feeling of fullness. Deciding that I could fit a tiny bit more mana in there before it felt like it would explode, I added an oh so small amount, right to the edge of where it felt like it would explode. Teetering on the edge of giving off an utterly filled sensation, I stopped adding the mana, and then took a good look at the potion. It was the right shade of pinkish red, and this time was far more opaque than any of my attempts in game had been. This potion was likely the best one I had made so far, and it was only my first attempt with my new way of making it. I soon repeated my attempt with a few more herbs, along with some rose leaves for mana potions, and then sat back, mentally exhausted. It took a massive amount of effort trying to get just barely under the point where the potion would turn black, and I¡¯d failed a good few times in my attempts, but it was clearly producing much better results than I had gotten when I was just trying to guess the point of saturation. Finally, after resting a bit, I decided to attempt my new inscription ink making. I took part of a leaf off one of the tulips, put it in the toaster oven, and took out a moki claw I had harvested while hunting with the militia, something that had gotten me odd looks. I sliced off a sliver, imbuing my knife with a sigil of sharpness as I did so, and realized as I was cutting that the claw was actually being cut maybe an eighth of an inch away from the blade of the knife itself. It seemed that rather than physically making the knife sharper, it added a sort of sharp aura that would help cut through things. Musing on how nice that would be for my makeshift spear, at least until my boar spear I¡¯d ordered online arrived, I finished slicing up the moki claw and waited for the tulip leaf to dry out. It wasn¡¯t too long until the tulip leaf had dried out, and I took it out, cutting it into half as just one of the leaves would be a bit too much. I then ground it up, and added it to the water in the beaker, throwing in the moki claw along with it. As I added mana, I saw the moki claw start to fizz and dissolve. I slowly felt the sensation of the mana, and winced as I noticed it still gave out a spicy sensation, though not quite as bad as the still living plant. Once it gave off the feeling of fullness, and feeling very irritable from the constant spicy sensation, I stopped adding mana, and looked at the now dark purple mixture. I smiled, and poured it into a cup, grabbing a brush I had lying around to begin my attempt in real at inscribing. Before starting, I cleaned out my beaker again, then started the inscription process. I slowly painted on the runes in their interlocking patterns down the length of my spear, going as carefully as I could in the hopes I wouldn¡¯t fail.Reading on this site? This novel is published elsewhere. Support the author by seeking out the original. Luckily, I actually succeeded on my first attempt, and I got a big grin on my face. I got myself a spear of sharpness +1, I thought to myself. Once I was done, I took the spear, and cut oh so carefully into another of the moki claws, noting the same thing happened as when I had imbued the knife, it cutting slightly ahead of the blade. I grinned, now I could keep up a sigil of toughness on my spear rather than keeping up the sigil of sharpness, making it much less likely for it to break on me. I put my spear away, then wondered how on earth I could keep it from cutting stuff. It still required a decent amount of force to go through the moki claw, but I didn¡¯t want it cutting through my floor or walls. I hopped in game for a bit, deciding to ask the man at the inscription store. I walked over, and soon found out that it was normal to make a sheath enchanted with inscriptions of toughness of the same level of the sharpness enchantment. I was soon back at another store, purchasing some leather to craft my sheath out of, and got back home before carefully sewing it together with thick leather string. I then hopped back in game and practiced the inscription patterns of toughness for a while before hopping back out and inscribing it, though this time took three attempts, and the rest of the inscription ink I had made. Carefully putting it around my now far too sharp spear head, I smiled as I saw it didn¡¯t break apart. I wasn¡¯t going to try and break it, but I was sure with enough force it could cut through the sheath. Once I¡¯d finished, I checked the time, then before going to bed checked to see if anyone had found the equivalent of stamina herbs, and soon found out that they were pine needles, which had changed into flat, more leaf like shapes. That wouldn¡¯t be a problem, I could get them pretty easily if that was the case. As I went to bed, I mused on how the monsters seemed to avoid the highways between cities, there were occasional reports of people crashing into them, but it didn¡¯t seem to be any higher than the rate of people hitting deer. The only exceptions were some of the more major highways, which four star mobs had invaded, and had to be cleared out by the army with large caliber weaponry. Luckily, five star and above mobs had started to congregate outside the cities rather than inside them, as had most other mobs, likely finding the resistance within cities to be too tough. The world was slowly starting to change into something resembling the game world, with mobs building up outside the cities. I wondered if we were going to have to build walls around most cities, then slowly meditated myself to sleep. I woke up in the morning to the blaring of an alarm on my phone going off. Sleepy, I instantly put it on snooze before realizing it was the day of my big hunt with loss and the others. Yawning, I slowly dragged myself off the bed and stumbled my way to the kitchen. With heavy lidded eyes I started my electric kettle to make some tea, and poured out my cereal crunching my way through my breakfast. Once I was done, and with a steaming mug of tea, I was feeling slightly less dead, and went out to my car, it was time to see how our group would fare in real. I soon arrived at our meeting place, a bit early it seems, and grumbled about how I could¡¯ve let the alarm snooze. When I arrived, I noticed Sophie sitting around and went over to join her. We sat in silence while I sipped my tea from my travel mug. While waiting around, a group appeared that seemed to match the heights of Loss and the others, carrying a variety of weapons. Assuming it to be them, I waved them over, and was soon asking. ¡°Loss? Mars? Light?¡± ¡°That¡¯s us¡± Loss replied with a grin. ¡°Well pleasure to meet you in real, out here I¡¯m Roland, you?¡± ¡°Lars¡± Loss replied, holding his hand out for a shake. I firmly gripped it and shook hands, his being quite rough, clearly used to using them. I smiled, His in game name was obviously a slight change on his real name. ¡°Elizabeth, but I go by Liz¡± Mars said, giving her much smoother hands to me to shake with a smile. ¡°I¡¯m Rachel¡± Light quietly mentioned. She didn¡¯t give out her hand to shake. I wasn¡¯t sure if she was shy, germaphobic, or just not the type to shake hands. I introduced Jolie to them, and then we were soon headed to the downtown area that they had mentioned had plenty of three star mobs. We were within walking distance, and cars weren¡¯t allowed within the quarantined zone, so it took a while until we arrived. While walking I took a look at my group¡¯s weaponry. Lars had a hatchet and makeshift shield looking to be fashioned from a plate of metal, with handles welded on to it. Rachel simply had a very solid looking walking stick, likely only to be used in emergencies, as she couldn¡¯t have gotten it enchanted to boost her spells, and she didn¡¯t need much weaponry due to being the healer of the group. Elizabeth, somehow, had managed to get an honest to god bastard sword. I wasn¡¯t sure if it was an imitation or a fake, so I had to ask. ¡°So where did the bastard sword come from? I wouldn¡¯t expect anyone to have proper weaponry this early on.¡± ¡°Well it¡¯s not really a proper bastard sword, but it¡¯s made of solid steel, and I keep it enchanted with toughness runes so it won¡¯t break on me. I had to meditate like crazy and pump a lot of my points into wisdom to be able to keep up the enchantment. It definitely works well enough though¡± She finished the last sentence wearing a feral grin. ¡°Anyway, to answer your question, I collect swords and replica swords, this was just part of my collection.¡± ¡°Well I¡¯m glad someone has proper weaponry. I wonder how long until weapons become more common with all the monsters around.¡± ¡°Well guns are usually the weapons of choice, melee weapons probably won¡¯t become popular until four star mobs start being hunted, they mostly can¡¯t be killed with small arms.¡± Rachel commented, clearly having given the matter some thought. ¡°Well, I do wonder when someone will capitalize on the want for better weapons. I¡¯m sure someone could make a lot of money selling them to people like us,¡± I commented. Once we arrived at the quarantined zone, we were greeted by a good number of police and military standing guard around a heavily fortified roadblock. I was wondering if they would let us by, but we simply walked past and didn¡¯t get stopped. ¡°They¡¯re not supposed to officially let us in, but enough people snuck in to fight that they stopped bothering. They tend to just look the other way for people like us. Probably think we¡¯re signing our death warrant though,¡± Loss mentioned. I let out a sound of affirmation before we continued our walk. It took us about twenty minutes before we ran into our first group of mobs. It was a couple of molts, along with a few brags flying above them. I instantly started to apply a sigil of toughness to my weapon because it was enhanced with sharpness already, and stepped forward before realizing I was the only long range person among us. Feeling a bit sheepish, I stepped back again, and prepared a force bolt as the rest of the group approached the mobs. I released the force bolt as the brags noticed us, hitting the rightmost one in the wing, causing it to spiral down towards the ground at a quick pace. Liz was the first one to reach the mobs, and bisected the first molt with a massive swing, but Lars wasn¡¯t far behind, chopping downwards, leading to a solid crunching sound as he crushed the carapace of the molt. Jolie took care of the brags flying over head, impaling one then then slashing through the wing of the other before finishing it off, along with the one my force bolt had crippled. We all had a grin on our faces after that, it was our first group of three star mobs we¡¯d hunted, and it had been extremely easy, this was looking to be a good day to hunt. ¡°Guys, we probably shouldn¡¯t be celebrating too much in an area rife with monsters,¡± Rachel quickly reminded us as we¡¯d all relaxed and let down our guards entirely. The entire group seemed to feel a bit bashful at her reminder, and we quickly got back to paying attention to the things around us. The next few encounters went much the same way, hunting with ruthless efficiency. We¡¯d been hunting for a while when we ran into another group, which had someone I recognized instantly. It was someone who had clearly paid for one of the full body scans to have the exact same body in game. It was Lily. Chapter 26: Mob Train My first instinct when I saw Lily was to hide my face, but I figured due to my in game character only vaguely resembling me, it would be much safer to act normal rather than attempt to hide. I thus stood around, trying my best to look like your average monster hunter. The group she was with soon approached us, and Lily took the lead in starting a conversation. ¡°I see we¡¯re not the only ones out hunting today, have you been having fun in the outskirts of the quarantined zone? We¡¯ll be heading further in, the ones out here just aren¡¯t challenge enough.¡± I frowned, she was clearly implying that we weren¡¯t up to her standards, but considering her group had around ten people, it was clearly big enough to handle the larger groups inside the quarantined zone, so I couldn¡¯t actually say anything against it. ¡°Well enjoy your hunting, stay safe.¡± Loss handled her arrogant comment with a calm reply. Lily then turned with her group before leaving without bothering to reply. I shook my head, I was glad that she hadn¡¯t noticed that I was the one to push her off the wall, but at the same time, I sort of wished she knew, just so I could see her haughty smile wiped off her face. I shook my head, this was no place to be standing around. ¡°Well she was a jerk, didn¡¯t even bother giving us a you too,¡± Liz commented. ¡°Nothing to do about it, some people just think they¡¯re above everyone else,¡± Loss said. We were soon back to hunting, but this time, with me feeling relaxed about just sitting back spamming spells, I began to look and see how the others fought. We were currently engaged with a group of six molts, and Loss had a business like expression as he carefully blocked then slammed his hatchet down. Liz on the other hand, was dancing around with her giant sword, wearing a feral grin on her face, that seemed to get larger each time she cut into one of the monsters. I watched for a while in bemusement, realizing she was as much of a battle junkie in real as she was in game. Jolie wore a cold expression on her face as she hunted, in complete contrast to her normal mischievous smile, as she carefully dodged before landing precise strikes with her kitchen knives turned daggers. Rachel was the only one of the group who seemed to be worried, biting her lip as she glanced around constantly, watching carefully in case she needed to heal anyone. I was relatively relaxed in my mage role, just sitting back and spamming ice spears, switching to force bolts whenever I started to get relatively low on mana. We slowly moved from group to group of mobs, taking each of them out in a short time, and it didn¡¯t take even two hours before I got my first level up notification. I stared at it for a while, before finally deciding to do something I had been carefully considering, I held on to the point rather than spending it. I was going to train as many stats as I could as high as I could, and wasn¡¯t going to spend my points from leveling until either I started slowing down in my natural stat point gain, or until I needed the boost. It didn¡¯t take too much longer until the rest of the group got their level ups, even Rachel, though I wasn¡¯t sure why she leveled so fast considering she¡¯d only had to heal a few superficial wounds. Figuring it simply had something to do with us being grouped up, I shrugged and gave it no further thought. It wasn¡¯t long until we started to get more relaxed as we hunted. ¡°And that makes twenty seven for me. Watch out or I¡¯ll catch up to you in no time.¡± Lars commented. Sometime along in the hunt he had started a competition of who could kill the most mobs, which Jolie and Liz had quickly joined. Liz was in the lead by a good margin, but Jolie and Lars were currently neck and neck, with Jolie leading by two. ¡°Yeah yeah, I heard you the last fifteen times,¡± Jolie replied with a joking tone. Liz just continued her hunting with a feral grin, but it seemed to widen a bit as she listened to the two. ¡°How about one of you give me a challenge,¡± Liz added in after the fight was over, being in the lead by a good ten. I hadn¡¯t joined the competition, seeing as how I was the official scorekeeper, but I had been amused by the constant teasing of the three. Rachel on the other hand seemed to have tensed up even more than before, getting slowly quieter and more worried looking as the hunt had progressed. ¡°Hey Light, I mean, Rachel,¡± I corrected myself. ¡°Why don¡¯t you try and relax a bit, I¡¯m starting to worry with how much you seem to be.¡± Rachel just shook her head before going back to her constant vigil of looking around for any possible monsters. I sighed, Maybe she would relax a bit once we got more used to hunting as a team, but I wouldn¡¯t put any bets on it. ¡°Hey, why did Dark decide not to join in, he¡¯s your brother, right?¡± I asked Rachel, trying to at least get her to talk a bit. ¡°Yeah, he¡¯s just not willing to hunt in reality, he says it¡¯s just too worrying to go and do it when there¡¯s no respawns. He tried to stop me going, but I¡¯m just too worried to let the group go without me,¡± Rachel explained her reasoning, clearly she wasn¡¯t happy about being out hunting, but she was there for the sake of her friends. The hunt continued in much the same way for a while, with Liz¡¯s lead only growing larger the longer the hunt went, and all of us gaining another two levels. We decided to finish our hunt when we noticed the sun starting to fall down in the sky, and started to head back to the blockade. We were just starting on our way back, when Rachel¡¯s head shot up.Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings. ¡°I hear something,¡± she mentioned. I tilted my head to the side to listen, and soon I could hear it, it sounded like people running, and I could also hear what sounded like a good group of mobs. I paled, that couldn¡¯t be good. ¡°We need to get out of here now,¡± I said. The others listened for a bit before all getting a serious look on our face and we began to run. We didn¡¯t get far however, before the other group intersected us at the next split in the road. I cursed, of course they would be cutting off the path to the blockade. I soon saw Lily¡¯s group being chased by what had to be close to forty mobs, some of the people carrying part of their group. They were being harassed by a group of brags, vainly trying to fight them off as they ran. I instantly began preparing my freeze spell, determined to at least slow down some of the mobs, and released it just as the group led by Lily reached us. The spell impacted with a lack of noise, but a good part of the mobs fell over as their legs couldn¡¯t continue to move forward to keep their balance, their forward momentum leading to them rolling for a few feet before stopping. I didn¡¯t take the time to admire the view as the snow slowly drifted to the ground, and was soon running along with Lily¡¯s group, both of us heading in the direction of the barricade. We were maybe halfway there, when the brags harassing us managed to poison one of the people carrying one of the wounded. The group fell over, and I cursed before turning around. They may be part of Lily¡¯s group, but I wasn¡¯t going to leave them to die. A couple of Lily¡¯s group that was still standing decided to turn and stand with me, and all of my group did after noticing I had stopped. We ran forward, trying to get in between the wounded and the mobs that had been thinned out from my freeze spell. They were soon upon us, around seven Craw, and maybe a dozen molts, joined by a small cloud of brags, which swelled a bit as some of the ones harassing Lily¡¯s group split off to join them. I was instantly pelting force bolts at the brags, trying to thin out their numbers as the molts and craw impacted our oh too thin defensive line. Jolie was moving around as fast as she could, cutting down brags with every flash on her knives, her cold expression from earlier having deepened, making it seem that anything she looked at would be turned to ice. Lars caught the first swing of a craw on his shield, sliding back a bit from the force before stopping and slamming the hatchet into the joint in its arm, not quite separating it. He instantly had to step back though, as a molt lashed out with its body, its claw like limbs swinging through the space he had occupied a moment earlier. Liz was holding her own against two craw, and I was sure she could handle them on her own, but the third one approaching could spell trouble, so I cast a frostbite at it, trying to buy her enough time to finish one of them off. I soon was starting to be harassed by brags, so grabbed my spear, slashing out at any of them who approached me, though I got a few cuts in return. Luckily, none of them managed to catch me with their stingers, as I wasn¡¯t wearing any armor to block them. I soon fought my way over to Rachel, who was vainly trying to fight off the brags around the wounded people from Lily¡¯s group. I stood in front of her holding them off as she healed them up. Once they were on their feet, two of them joined the fight, with one of them simply running away, likely assuming we would hold them off long enough for him to get away. I gave him a dark look before turning back to the battle, casting frostbite more than anything else, buying time for our group of melee fighters to cut down the monsters they were immediately dealing with. Once my mana ran out, I waded into the battle, joining the rest of the melee fighters. My first opponent was a craw, who I promptly handled with my sharpness enhanced spear along with my vast experience of hunting them in the caverns. While fighting, I idly thought at how easy this was compared to the king class craw. My attention wandering instantly brought about trouble however, as I was stung in the shoulder by a brag. My eyes widened, and worry began to fill my mind as I finished the craw off as fast as I could, wanting to kill it before the poison began to affect me too badly. I was starting to feel a bit sluggish before I manage to kill it, and I instantly turned to deal with the brags, casting force bolts with the little mana I had regenerated. I took two out of the fight, but likely didn¡¯t kill them, and stabbed out at another one, my spear going entirely through its body. I turned around when I heard a loud sound of pain, to see one of Lily¡¯s group bent over, blood leaking out from under his hands at his stomach. Light was there almost instantly though, healing him up, and I turned to make sure the rest of the group was faring ok. Everyone was doing fine except Jolie, who had managed to attract the attention of a group of three molts, so I instantly ran over and stabbed one of them from behind, right in the weak point behind their third joint. That took one out of the fight, and then it was relatively easy to take care of the other two, jolie and I each taking one. Once we had finished, I looked around, to see the area littered with dead and dying monsters. I let out a breath, then noticed a notification that I had leveled up, becoming far more prominent now that the fight was over. I dismissed it, holding on to the point as before, and sat down on the ground, feeling the tension leave me as the fight was over. One person let out a cheer, and then the rest of us joined in, though it sounded a bit ragged with how exhausted we all were. ¡°That, is something I do not want to have to do again,¡± Lars commented. ¡°I dunno, it was quite the rush,¡± Liz let out her adrenaline junkie attitude. ¡°I¡¯m just glad no one died,¡± Rachel mentioned quietly, seemingly more exhausted by the fight than the rest of us. Jolie just gave sound of affirmation to Rachel¡¯s comment, her normal smile nowhere to be seen. A moment later, the one who had been wounded and one of the guys who had been carrying him came over. ¡°Thanks for coming back for us, I thought we were goners when the brag got us, I don¡¯t know what we would have done without you.¡± ¡°It¡¯s something any decent human being would have done,¡± I commented, taking a jab at Lily, who had continued to run. ¡°Well regardless, most people would just run, so again, thank you,¡± the man who had been wounded said. I squirmed a bit, awkward with this serious atmosphere, before simply acknowledging him with a nod. After the serious mood, we all started heading back to the blockade, chatting about the large battle we¡¯d had. Once we arrived, we were greeted with a not so welcome sight, it was lily and what remained of her group. ¡°I¡¯m so glad you guys are ok!¡± she exclaimed, running over to the people we had rescued and the two people who had decided to fight with us. ¡°No thanks to you,¡± I darkly mentioned. ¡°Well how was I supposed to know that we could win the fight?¡± Lily mentioned. ¡°You could have at least tried! You left your people to die out there!¡± Rachel chimed in, surprisingly loud for her. Lily got a dark look on her face, not replying. ¡°What were you thinking in the first place, you not only risked your group, you tried to MPK us too!¡± I commented, not happy with what had happened at all. ¡°I¡­ I¡­¡± Lily hung her head, clearly her haughty attitude was cracking over what had happened. ¡°I¡¯m sorry,¡± She eventually mentioned under the glares our group was giving her, in a quiet voice. ¡°Well at least try to be a bit more careful next time, you nearly got us killed, and left your own group to die. If you¡¯re going to do stuff like that, don¡¯t hunt in the first place,¡± I said, almost feeling mean with how dejected she now looked. I shook off the slight feeling of guilt that plagued me, knowing her attitude wouldn¡¯t be fixed with just this mild scolding. I then let out a quick ¡°Let¡¯s go¡± to my group, and we filed past her group, some of them actually having the gall to look annoyed at us for injuring their idol¡¯s pride. We soon arrived at the cars and said our farewells, the atmosphere muted from meeting Lily. We then hopped in our cars and went back to our own homes, all of us wanting a good deal of rest after the trial that today had been. Chapter 27: Unexpected Meetings I was soon home, and was awake only long enough to brush my teeth before going to bed, meditating myself to sleep. Waking up in the morning, bleary eyed, was a trial. Dragging myself from my oh so comfortable bed, I was soon in the restroom taking care of all my morning business. Clean, and with minty breath, I walked out to check on my brand new plants. When I saw them, I had to do a double take, the leaves I had plucked from them had already regrown, even though the dandelions had been practically massacred. I¡¯d wondered why the herbs in game never seemed to get over harvested, and apparently it was because the plants would regenerate in a short period of time. Smiling at the stroke of good luck, I went through my exercise routine, pushups, pullups, situps, curls, squats, you get the idea. I was soon outside, going on my morning run. Unfortunately, I ran into a few orbs, but they were easily dispatched with a few force bolts. Once I got home, I did something that I had been considering, I went onto Gregslist and posted an ad about inscribing weaponry, mentioning that a sheath was required to prevent any accidents. Once that was done, I started to make some more inscription ink, slicing up another moki claw and drying out some of the tulips to make it. It wasn¡¯t even twenty minutes when I got my first call about inscribing a weapon, which was surprising, I¡¯d set the price relatively high, enough to eat for a few weeks, but it seemed the high price hadn¡¯t deterred customers. I soon set up a meeting at my place, and finished making the inscription ink I would need. When the customer arrived, he was extremely skinny, almost frail looking, and brought what was likely an imitation katana. I greeted him, and took the katana, looking it over. It was made from real steel, but likely wasn¡¯t actually designed for combat, something I suspected the customer wanted to rectify with the inscription. I soon had my cup of ink, and took a brush, carefully inscribing the runes along the katana, their interlinking nature looking quite beautiful. Luckily, I didn¡¯t fail, and I tested it on one of the moki claws I still had, watching it slice just a bit ahead of where the blade was. Satisfied that the inscription had worked properly, I handed it over to him before taking the sheath, carefully inscribing it. Unfortunately, I failed once, but the second time I got it correct, watching the glowing ink slowly fade to be practically invisible once the inscription took. Smiling at my success, I handed it over, and soon my finances were looking oh so slightly better as he handed over the money. The rest of the day passed with quite a few people purchasing inscriptions, which caused my funds to swell, easily making up for what I¡¯d spent on my own gear. At this point, I decided I had enough that I should get some sort of armor, but I wasn¡¯t sure how exactly to get it. After some short research online, I discovered full plate armor for sale. It was made of steel, so hopefully with runes of toughness it could work well enough, and instantly pressed the purchase button, sending my bank balance to almost zero. Considering how much money I had in cash at this point though, I wasn¡¯t going to have any troubles monetarily. I kept looking around online after ordering my armor, and soon found something relatively disturbing. Apparently in some parts of africa and the middle east, local warlords had taken over, taking advantage of the leveling system to train superhuman soldiers. When soldiers can react and move twice as fast as the average human, how are people supposed to stop them? I shook my head to clear the thoughts from my mind, It wouldn¡¯t help thinking about some chaos somewhere I¡¯m not, and there wouldn¡¯t be anything like that here, with the army and police keeping order. Once I¡¯d finished, yet another customer arrived, and I enchanted their hatchet for them. Oddly enough, most of the customers I¡¯d had were like the first guy, having a katana. I wasn¡¯t sure if they were just the type to think that katanas were the best weapon in existence, or if they were just one of the easier to acquire swords, but I¡¯d enchanted quite a few. Once I¡¯d satisfied my final customer for the day, I went back to bed, the enchanting had taken quite a toll with how much concentration had been required, and I was tired mentally, if not physically. I set my phone on silent first though, I wasn¡¯t going to count on people not calling about my inscribing services just because it was past a reasonable hour. I woke up from my meditative sleep early in the morning, far earlier than normal, but I didn¡¯t seem to be particularly tired. Shrugging my shoulders at the oddity, I got up and went to the door to find a pleasant surprise, the spear I¡¯d ordered had arrived! I quickly unpacked it, and admired it for a second before getting back to inscribing. A while later, I had a proper spear, enchanted with runes of sharpness. I was still admiring my brand new spear when I got a call. ¡°Hello, this is Roland,¡± I said by rote. ¡°Hello, this is Cathy, I¡¯m calling on behalf of the army, we¡¯re interested in your enchanting services, and would like to meet you.¡± My head snapped back in surprise, but I wasn¡¯t sure if this was a prank call or not, so I replied with more calmness than I would if I was sure it wasn¡¯t just a joke from someone who had seen my ad. ¡°Well I can give you my address, when do you think you could get here?¡±Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings. ¡°Someone should be arriving in about thirty minutes, they¡¯ll pick you up and take you to the base.¡± I was slightly disturbed by that, I hadn¡¯t given them my address, and I hadn¡¯t posted it in my ad. I just replied with an ¡°Okay,¡± and then she hung up on me. I spent the next thirty minutes pacing back and forth in my living room. I hadn¡¯t expected anyone from the military to contact me, all I had wanted to do was make some money to make up for all the purchases I had made, and maybe a bit to spare for anything I felt like buying. Almost exactly thirty minutes later, I heard a firm three knocks at my door, and with some trepidation I went to answer it. I answered it to see a man in uniform, who had a lot of stuff on it. I wasn¡¯t sure what any of it meant, but I was certain it meant he was important. ¡°Hello Roland, I¡¯d like to speak with you about your enchanting. I¡¯ll bring you to the base, and we can talk there.¡± I only replied with a nod, grabbing my enchanting stuff. We soon arrived at a car with another person in the driver¡¯s seat, who didn¡¯t have much of anything on his uniform. The important military man opened the door for me, and gestured for me to get in, so I did after a slight moment of hesitation. I wasn¡¯t sure what I was getting into, and it seemed I wasn¡¯t going to be getting any answers anytime soon. The entire car ride, neither of the other people in the car said a word. I considered making small talk, but quickly decided against it, I was a bit too scared to try and chat up military people. Once we¡¯d arrived, I was guided to a stocky building, which we entered and were soon in a meeting room, with many people who looked important sitting around a table. I shifted from foot to foot, even more nervous than before. Soon, the woman at the head of the table greeted me. ¡°Hello Roland, we¡¯re quite interested in this enchanting of yours. We¡¯d like to see some examples of it, and would be willing to reward you quite handsomely if it turns out to have military use.¡± I kept shifting foot to foot as I replied. ¡°Well I¡¯m not really sure if it would have much use, I¡¯ve only enchanted some bladed weapons, and you guys are mainly using guns.¡± ¡°That we will have to see. We¡¯re quite interested in the possibility of enchanting bullets as well, and we¡¯re also interested in enchanting body and tank armor with toughness runes.¡± Wondering why she had so much information about the game stuff, I replied. ¡°Well I don¡¯t really know if you can enchant bullets, I¡¯ve never tried. As for body armor and tank armor, I don¡¯t think I could do too much, that¡¯s a lot to be inscribing.¡± ¡°Of course we don¡¯t expect you to do all of it. We simply need you to show some of our people how to do it. You will be compensated well.¡± Her short clipped sentences were not helping my nervousness, so I simply nodded in acquiescence. ¡°Is there anything you¡¯ll need to perform your inscriptions?¡± ¡°No, I brought everything I will need.¡± She then took some different bullets and placed them on the table. ¡°I don¡¯t think I can make the runes small enough for the smaller bullets, but I¡¯ll try for the higher caliber ones,¡± I said. The woman nodded, and I grabbed the cup I¡¯d covered in saran wrap before leaving, and was soon attempting to enchant bullets. It was a challenge for me, as I hadn¡¯t enchanted anything that small before, but the stares of everyone in the room gave me an unprecedented focus. I was soon finished with the first bullet, a round front, and the runes faded in. Curious, I asked for something to test it on. One of the people without fancy stuff on their uniform at the door left, and was soon back with a block of wood. Wondering if the rune of sharpness would do anything for a round bullet, I pressed it up against the wood, and nothing. Not even a slight scratch on it. I sighed, before moving on to the next, the constant stares getting to me. The next bullet had a pointed tip and was much larger, so I was hoping it would be more successful. I was soon painting it with the inscription ink, and due to its still small size, I was soon done. I then took it and pressed it against the wood block, and then smiled. It seemed I had some results after all. The bullet had relatively easily poked through the wood, though it wouldn¡¯t cut either way. ¡°Well it seems you can enchant bullets, but I think they need a pointy tip to work.¡± ¡°Excellent. Now if you could head off and show our people how to do the enchanting?¡± ¡°Of course,¡± I said with attempted confidence, but I didn¡¯t think I had been too successful. I was soon heading off to another part of the military base, where I met with a bunch of people in uniform. ¡°You¡¯re going to be in charge of training these people in inscription. Tell us if there¡¯s anything you¡¯ll need.¡± ¡°I could use a set of beakers and something to hold the ink in, along with dried tulip leaves and some moki claws.¡± The man nodded before heading off, likely to have someone fetch what I was going to need. I went back to shifting from foot to foot as the people in the room stared at me. Attempting to break the tense silence I decided to ask a few questions. ¡°So how many of you have played Sanity Online?¡± ¡°All of us, that¡¯s why we¡¯re here,¡± One of the people replied, his tone clearly condescending. ¡°Well how many of you have done any alchemy?¡± They looked around for a bit, before two people raised their hands. ¡°Well you¡¯re going to need to learn, or at least some of you do, you need inscription ink to be able to make inscriptions, how much experience do you have with alchemy?¡± ¡°I¡¯ve only made the basic health potions,¡± a man who looked to be twice my size, in width as well as height, replied. ¡°Rob and I have gotten pretty good at health and mana potions,¡± a man who was shorter than me but still much more muscular than me replied. ¡°Well so long as you¡¯re decent at making health potions you¡¯ll probably be okay. Just remember to sense the mana in the potion, you want it to be as full as you can feel it when you make it.¡± ¡°Sense the mana?¡± The man replied. ¡°Just put your mana in and try to sense it. It gives off a feeling depending on what you¡¯re putting the mana into.¡± The people who had done alchemy nodded, while the others seemed to be a bit confused, likely not used to using mana so much. It took a while, but soon a woman arrived. ¡°Here¡¯s your dried tulip leaves and moki claws, along with a basic chemistry set.¡± I thanked her, and she left, seemingly annoyed she had to fetch the items. I was soon showing everyone how to sense the mana, the moki claw gave off a feeling of static electricity when sensed with mana, so it was perfect as an example. After everyone had gotten used to sensing with mana, I made sure to have the guy who had condescendingly replied to me at the beginning be the first one to sense the tulip leaves, and smiled as he started from the habanero in your blood like sensation. We were soon making potions, I first showed everyone how to do it, then watched them as they attempted to make them. The people who had done alchemy before picked it up the quickest, though a few of the others got the hang of it relatively quickly as well. Some of the people though, just couldn¡¯t seem to make the ink without it turning black and rancid on them. I eventually gave up, and went on to inscribing things. There was a table filled with knives for me to inscribe, so I went up and grabbed one, but not before drawing out the basic rune patterns with pen and paper for everyone to study. I was soon giving an example, and luckily succeeded, it would have been mighty embarrassing if I had failed when I was trying to teach them. I then went over the toughness runes, and warned them to always enchant the sheath with toughness so as to not have the knife cut through it. Once I was done, I had everyone attempt to inscribe more of the knives. To my annoyance, the condescending guy seemed to pick it up the fastest, only failing twice before successfully enchanting a knife. Once everyone had attempted a few times, we were totally out of ink, so I stood around for a bit, feeling awkward, until the man who had picked me up came to the room and had me follow him to yet another building. Once we arrived, I was handed an amount of money I had never expected to see. Mouth hanging open, I thanked him, stammering my words out of sheer shock. On the drive back, I spent the entire time staring at the briefcase full of money I now had, and once I got back, I immediately went to the bank, depositing it as fast as I could. After depositing my money, I headed back home, my brain still fried over what had happened. Even though I wasn¡¯t tired, I lay down, simply to process the shock. Maybe an hour later, I was mostly back to normal, and got up, I still planned on inscribing stuff for people, but now it wasn¡¯t just for money, as I wasn¡¯t going to be wanting for a while. Chapter 28: Unwilling Partnership The rest of the day went as expected, answering calls, and then inscribing weapons. I went to bed not too excited about tomorrow, I was starting to get a bit sick of inscribing weapons, but I wanted humanity to get as strong as it could as fast as it could, and I was one of the few, if not the only person who had discovered how to make the inscription ink and inscribe the weapons themselves. Deciding to rectify that, I went on the wiki and posted about how to make the inscriptions, with an image of a completed inscription, along with tulips being the aruuki equivalent, and a guide on using mana to sense the potions while making them. I knew the military may get a bit angry about this, but it would get out eventually, if other countries hadn¡¯t already picked up on how to do it. I was soon in bed, and was almost asleep when I got another call. I cursed, I had forgotten to put my phone on silent. When I answered, it was a voice I wish I didn¡¯t recognize, it was Lily yet again. She wanted to get her and a bunch of her followers enchanted weapons. I sighed, I really didn¡¯t want to do it, but they were one of the few groups that were actually trying to get stronger, and she knew what a monster wave was like, having died in one. I chuckled a bit to myself, keeping it out of my voice as I remembered pushing her off the edge of the wall. I eventually agreed to do it tomorrow, and hung up on her a bit abruptly. I knew I only vaguely resembled my in game character, but I still spent the time going to sleep worrying about being recognized, until I started to meditate to drown it out. In the morning, I put quite a few tulip leaves in the toaster oven to dry out, and noticed that the bulbs I¡¯d planted had already grown up a good deal. I smiled, I was soon going to be limited my moki claws rather than the aruuki equivalent. I then showered, shaved, and brushed my teeth while waiting for them to dry out. I spent the entire time continuing to worry about being recognized, but was interrupted just as I¡¯d finished my morning ritual by a knock on the door. I opened the door to see Lily, along with her entourage, who basically ignored me before coming into my apartment like she owned the place. My eye twitched in annoyance as she did so and she was soon announcing the reason she deigned to visit my lowly place. ¡°I¡¯m here to get our gear enchanted¡­¡± She paused for a second before actually noticing and recognizing me. Her voice was a bit less loud, and a good deal less arrogant after doing so, which made me grin. Our scolding her the day before had clearly had an effect on her. ¡°Um, I would like to get our gear enchanted please.¡± She mentioned in her quieter voice. ¡°I can do that for you, what do you want enchanted?¡± ¡°Everything.¡± She said, having regained a bit of her earlier vigour. I nodded, and was soon staring at a pile of gear in the middle of my living room. I sighed, then got to work. While I worked, I noticed lily and a few of her entourage watching me, while the rest chatted among themselves. Ignoring the stares, I slowly inscribed the runes along each and every one of the weapons. I¡¯d gotten a lot better with the practice I had been getting, so I was a decent bit faster than I had been at the beginning, but I was still no match for the speed of the inscription master at the inscription shop I had been to. The pile of gear slowly started to shrink as the people got their gear back, and I had to warn a few after they started swinging their new gear around indoors, getting a few ¡°Hmph¡±s, and only one had the decency to look embarrassed. At least I got a few thanks as I handed them back, most of them still seemed to place me beneath their notice as they got their gear back, not acknowledging me. I eventually finished, and noticed Lily still watching me as I did so, before I asked for payment. Lily then handed over a large amount of money. While it didn¡¯t compare to the pile of money the military had given me, it was still a good deal. Figuring that this had to be part of the reason her group followed her, they were clearly getting benefits, I thanked her as she handed it over. The group was soon leaving, but I only got a pair of thanks as they left, a few decent people in her group of arrogant jerks. When they were gone, I sat down and leaned back. I hadn¡¯t been recognized, or I hoped I hadn¡¯t. Lily had clearly seemed to think I was someone she knew, and had looked like she was about to say something a couple of times, but apparently I was just different enough from in game for her not to. Once I had gotten over my relief, I stood up and started to exercise. While I did so, I went back to attempting to meditate while doing something, but every time I seemed to get close I would accidentally hit myself or drop my weights or something. Once my exercise routine was done, it was back to enchanting for me, at least until it was time for the militia meetup, I needed to collect some more moki claws, and it would be a perfect time to do so, along with helping make the area safer. I was soon with my group, still feeling awkward after our disagreement, but we had an easy time hunting, and I was soon in possession of a good deal more moki claws. We said our farewells before I was back at home, unsure of what to do. The next few weeks passed in a similar manner, hunting with Lars and the group, enchanting weapons, training, and hunting down the few remaining monsters in town with the militia. I¡¯d made sure to enchant the weapons of both Lars and his group and the weaponry of the militia. I¡¯d also had my armor arrive, only to be disappointed with how much it had lowered the output of my spells, so I had sold it already enchanted to someone for triple the price I had bought it. My Steel spear also lowered my spell output, but not by enough to matter. Deciding it was time to check on my stats and spells again, I pulled them up. Love this novel? Read it on Royal Road to ensure the author gets credit.
Name Roland
Level 25
str 15.2034 Grimoire
agi 16.3248 Recipes
wis 25.2687 sns 4.0215
end 17.4862 res 6.2596
vit 14.2359 lsp 2.2000
Grimoire
Stores all spell patterns you have learned
Spell Name Mana cost
Force Bolt+ 2+0.5*wis
Frostbite+ 5+1*wis
Ice spear+ 10+1*wis
Ice Shatter 20
Sigil of toughness .5/second
Sigil of sharpness .5/second
Flash Freeze 100
My stats had experienced a meteoric rise with all the training and hunting I had been doing, and I still had 15 free stat points I had been saving. At this point, my stats were well beyond what they had been in game, and I was starting to feel like maybe I could handle a monster wave, or at the very least survive it. I¡¯d also gotten quite a few of my spells upgraded, and I felt that ice shatter was getting close to upgrading as well. I was excited to see what would happen when it did, because I hadn¡¯t gotten it upgraded in game. I hopped online though, to find out some very disturbing news. Practically at the same time, multiple towns had been hit by monster waves. Some of them had been completely wiped out, while some ¡®only¡¯ had a massive death toll. They had all been smaller towns, likely ones that hadn¡¯t culled the monster population at all, but still, for monster waves to happen this early was not promising. In response, the country issued a statement that the military would be used to clear out any large amounts of monsters, attempting to help lower the panicking, and warned people to stay indoors for now, as if that would help. There were multiple riots regarding the monster waves, some of which caused almost as much damage as the monster waves had, though at least there were only a couple deaths, both of which had been accidentally trampled in the masses of people. I soon found out even worse news, apparently with the military stretched so thin, my town wouldn¡¯t be one of the ones to receive a monster culling. My face blanched, they were basically leaving us out to dry, and I wasn¡¯t sure if my town would be able to handle it. I spent the next few days meditating every spare moment when I wasn¡¯t exercising, inscribing weapons, or hunting, attempting to get my wisdom above thirty, in which case I could get off three flash freezes before running out of mana. I really missed the mana bar from in game, but the numbers seemed to be about the same, so I was getting used to estimating how much I had left. In less good news, mana potions had started to be not nearly as effective, taking two to fill up my mana pool above halfway. I was going to have to learn how to make better ones soon. Health potions, I wasn¡¯t sure how much they would heal me, as I hadn¡¯t taken grave enough injuries to find out. It was the next day, I was out hunting with Lars and the group when we ran into a problem. The three star mobs in downtown had been almost entirely wiped out, to the point the police were sending in groups to hunt down the few remaining mobs, and were even going to open the quarantined zone soon. We were talking about what to do, Liz was adamant about wanting to head to the forest that had a few four star mobs, but Rachel and I were both hesitant, not knowing what to expect from four star mobs, and we didn¡¯t have the time to grind up in Sanity online to face them, not with possibly imminent monster waves. Lars was acting as mediator, but was leaning towards going hunting. We were arguing about the benefits versus the risk when Lily¡¯s group ran into us again. ¡°So you guys are thinking about going to the forest too?¡± Lily said, not quite as arrogantly as normal. ¡°We were just planning to go, care to join us? Though we would appreciate it if you didn¡¯t get in our way¡± ¡°No,¡± I instantly answered at the same time that Lars said ¡°Sure.¡± I glared at him a bit, but he calmly explained his reasoning. ¡°It¡¯ll be a lot safer in a large group. We may not get as much xp, but it¡¯s better than risking our lives, with enough mages I¡¯d feel safe just bombarding any possible four star mobs to death while the melee fighters just try to stay alive.¡± I wilted a bit under his calm expression and reasoning, before uttering a ¡°Fine.¡± We were soon all in our cars, heading to the forest that supposedly contained three and four star mobs. The entire drive, I spent grumbling, annoyed that I was going to be stuck with Lily and her group, giving her even more chances to possibly recognize me. I was relatively certain that I hadn¡¯t been seen pushing her off the wall, but even just recognizing me from being the guy she had hunted would be annoying. We soon found our first mob, and it wasn¡¯t one I had seen in game. It was a phol. It was basically an elephant, if an elephant was constantly leaking a red fluid from what looked like a gaping wound on the top of it¡¯s body, had three trunks, and had very, very, sharp looking tusks. We soon all got together, and the mages, along with me, began bombarding it with spells. For being an elephant looking creature, the thing was pretty fast. The melee fighters who tried to block it straight on got flung back, but the ones on its sides seemed to distract it enough to slow down and turn on them. I soon found out that it also had a prehensile tail, as one unlucky fellow who got behind it and was swinging without a care in the world took it to his chest. I winced, that had to have broken a few bones. Luckily, light was right nearby to start healing them up, while the healer in Lily¡¯s group, one of the few people who had been polite to me, healed up the two who had been flung by the initial charge, though they looked more annoyed than damaged. The fight didn¡¯t last long, and soon it was dead, ice spears jutting out of it, and scorch marks on it from where two other mages¡¯ fireballs had landed. Lily¡¯s lightning magic hadn¡¯t left any discernable wounds, but it had caused the beast to spasm each time it hit. I looked over, she had a sword and shield, and would cast spells using her shield hand, letting go of the handle enough to draw out runes. I thought for a second, I could really use some gauntlets or bracers of some kind to block with. Eventually ignoring Lily, whose spell patterns had dealt far less damage due to having a steel shield along with sword, I continued to follow the group as we hunted. We killed a good deal of phol, and groups of molts and ents every now and then. A few hours later, we decided to head back, and soon arrived at our cars, agreeing to meet up again to do some more hunting. Chapter 29: Connections The drive home I thought about hunting with Lily¡¯s group. I wasn¡¯t a fan of her or her followers, but I had to admit that hunting in a large group did seem to be much safer. We could handle large amounts of three star mobs, and while we hadn¡¯t run into any four star or king class three star mobs, I was quite certain we could handle them without much of an issue. On the downside, I missed the solid teamwork from hunting with just Lars and the others, None of us knew how Lily¡¯s group fought, so we couldn¡¯t rely on them too much until we knew how much backup they¡¯d be able to provide. Unfortunately, so far it had seemed like we couldn¡¯t rely much on them at all. Only a couple of them seemed to be competent, with most just sort of waving their weapons around hoping they¡¯d hit. With their massive stats from the constant hunting, said waving of weapons could do a lot of damage, but if we ran into something dangerous, I wasn¡¯t going to bet on them being much use. What really grated my nerves though, was that Lily actually seemed to be the most competent of the bunch, though I¡¯d only seen her fighting in melee a couple of times. She was only a tad slower than I was at completing her spell patterns, and seemed to do more damage than my spells, though I had plenty of stat points to spare to make up for that. I shrugged, we were going to be hunting together for a while, if only for safety, so I may as well try and get used to it. Once I¡¯d arrived home, I decided that it was about time I got a proper defensive spell, so I hopped on in game. I arrived at the mage¡¯s college without much fanfare, and was soon asking about different defensive spells. ¡°Well your best bet is to just get a first circle defensive spell. They won¡¯t give a massive amount of protection, but you can actually draw them in time to react to threats. Higher circle spells are nice if you want a fortified position, but they¡¯re not too useful in the heat of battle unless you need to be blocking dragon breath or something that the lower tier spells can¡¯t handle.¡± The man at the counter kindly explained to me. My first thoughts on that were very simple. So dragons do exist. While wondering if dragons were part of the invaders, or simply one of the species that survived the invasion, I decided I was going to have to see one eventually. After getting over my giddiness at finding out about the fantasy classic, I agreed to get a first circle defensive spell, ice wall. I handed over the pittance of money required, and then walked over to the training grounds to practice. When I arrived, I decided to see exactly how this spell worked. Drawing up the pattern, I luckily didn¡¯t explode myself, and soon released the pattern. I watched as a speedy blue ball of light flew downrange, hit a target, and made a large ice wall right in front of it. Realizing it would probably be better to aim at the ground in most cases, I drew up another, and sent it flying a couple feet in front of me, causing an ice wall to simply materialize, growing outwards from where the glowing ball had impacted in a fraction of a second. The spell seemed useful, but at the same time it was also quite disappointing. I wasn¡¯t expecting to be making castle walls or anything, but a wall around my height was all I was getting, and it couldn¡¯t have been more than a foot thick. Figuring that it may be slightly less dinky with my increased wisdom in real life, I practiced it a bit more before hopping out of game to practice in real. While out in a park, the spell worked much the same, and this time, I noticed that it seemed to melt a good deal slower than my ice spears did. It wasn¡¯t that it would last as long as real ice, but the walls would last a couple of minutes, though they were constantly shrinking during the duration. After practicing a bit, I decided to do some experimentation. I found a reasonably large rock and brought it over, before casting ice wall below it. Interestingly, it pushed the rock over rather than simply freeze around it like I had expected. Thinking that it could be useful, I then cast ice wall at the top of the rock, only for the wall to form a bit ahead of the rock, it seemed that the wall had to grow out of the ground. Wondering how on earth that worked, why hadn¡¯t it just formed directly under the rock, and why hadn¡¯t it formed on top of the rock, and how had it decided the ground was acceptable to grow on? I eventually decided to leave the experiments for later, and decided to try something new out. Casting an ice wall directly below me, the wall formed up, and started to form under my feet, instantly causing me to slip on the slick surface and fall down. Grumbling, I tried again, and again, and kept failing, completely unable to keep my balance on the very slippery surface as it rose up. I eventually gave up, disappointed I wouldn¡¯t be able to use it to launch myself with. Maybe I should go learn the earth equivalent in order to do so. Or maybe I should see if there are any ice mobility spells available. Deciding that that could wait until another time, I walked back home, trying to meditate while I went, and seemingly getting oh so close to succeeding. Once I¡¯d gotten back, I checked the internet again, hoping that I wouldn¡¯t see more posts about towns being destroyed by monster waves. The more recent waves hadn¡¯t been quite as deadly as the first ones, as people had expected them and built up barricades, and been on watch with their weapons rather than just relaxing at their homes, but they still lead to the deaths of a lot of people. Sighing at how much of the population was going to be forced to learn to fight, or at least use a gun, I hopped off and went to bed, thoughts of my town being attacked running through my head even as I tried to meditate myself to sleep. The next couple of days passed in a peaceful manner, and hunting with the militia had become pointless, the streets had been entirely cleaned of monsters, they only were in the forests nearby. Wondering how that worked for more urban areas that didn¡¯t have much ground for monsters to live apart from humans, I finished what I decided was to be my last patrol with the militia, and headed home. This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it Deciding to figure out exactly how the monsters were dealing with cities, I did some research. It seemed that the monsters would congregate towards portions of the city, and completely take it over, though the military would completely clear them out from time to time, they would always come back, and always in the same spots, so people had taken to building walls to separate off the monster filled areas, and the city and military had looked the other way. The next day it was time to go hunting with the group, so I hopped in my car and drove down to a sandwich shop, where I got lunch and waited for the rest of the group to arrive. They showed up right when I was finishing off my meal, so I waved them over. Seeing as how none of Lily¡¯s group had arrived yet, I decided to voice some of my complaints. ¡°Do we really need to be hunting with Lily¡¯s group? Their sheer arrogance has been driving me up a wall. We haven¡¯t seen any four star mobs, and we could maybe handle them on our own anyway.¡± ¡°Look, it¡¯s better to not risk it right now, once we get more used to the forest we can maybe try hunting on our own, but as is I don¡¯t want to risk any of our lives, and if putting up with a little arrogance is what we need to do in order to keep us safer that¡¯s what we¡¯ll be doing,¡± Lars explained. ¡°A little arrogance, hah,¡± Liz said, her voice dripping in sarcasm. Rachel just fidgeted, likely not comfortable complaining about someone behind their back. ¡°Fine, but once we have a better idea on what¡¯s in the forest I want us to split up, I¡¯d really rather avoid them.¡± ¡°Why do you seem so put out with them anyway? They¡¯re a bit arrogant, but they¡¯re not outright rude or anything,¡± Lars asked. ¡°I never did tell you I ran into them in game did I?¡± I proceeded to explain how they had hunted me down simply over bumping into Lily. ¡°I can¡¯t believe she did that to you!¡± Rachel said, clearly believing far too much in the good of humanity, her surprised expression contrasting with Liz¡¯s dark one. ¡°Well that does sound pretty bad.¡± Lars agreed. ¡°She doesn¡¯t seem to be as bad in real as you described her in game though.¡± ¡°People tend to let more of themselves show in game, and I¡¯d really rather avoid her if possible.¡± I shrugged my shoulders. ¡°Ok, but only after we¡¯ve gotten more used to the forest,¡± Lars confirmed. I let out a small smile, at least I wasn¡¯t going to be stuck with Lily and her group for an extended period of time. It wasn¡¯t too long before Lily¡¯s group started to trickle in, a good five minutes after we¡¯d agreed to meet. Lily herself was the last one there, being around fifteen minutes late. Holding in my annoyance, I greeted the couple of people who had been polite to me, while ignoring the rest of them as they arrived. Lily of course got no greeting. Once everyone had arrived, we were soon headed into the forest to continue our hunting. We breezed through plenty of three star mobs, not having any trouble, as they would only group up to groups of about twenty or so, not even double our group size. WE¡¯d gotten quite far into the forest, when someone noticed something odd. ¡°Hey, what¡¯s that thing?¡± He said, pointing at something in the distance. Having nothing better to do, and hoping it wasn¡¯t a four star mob, we approached whatever it was he had seen, only to be very surprised. It looked like a crack in the air, with light distortion around the edges, and on the other side could be seen a forest like the one we were in, but with completely different trees than the ones around us. Thinking for a bit, I started to believe that the trees looked familiar, but I couldn¡¯t place them. I walked around the crack, to see what was behind it, only to see nothing. From the other side the crack simply didn¡¯t exist. The group chatted for a moment, discussing what the crack was, before we took some photos, marked the gps location, and threw some rocks through it before we went back to hunting. The only thing we discovered is that rocks went through it just fine, making us all agree it had to be some sort of portal to another location somehow, maybe where the monsters were invading from. Aside from the crack in the air that we had all agreed was too risky to try walking through, the day was quite peaceful, just hunting down mobs quite easily. By the time I got back home, I was really starting to wonder what on earth that crack in the air had been. I quickly posted a couple of pictures, along with a quick description and where I¡¯d found it. It didn¡¯t take long until I was getting nearly drowned in replies from other people who had found similar things online. Unfortunately, even with all of us talking about what we¡¯d found, we were drowned out by people calling it a lazy photoshop, fake, attention hungry, etc. Deciding to try and get some answers without all of the people who were just claiming we were trolling, I set up a chat room, and invited everyone to join who had posted an image of whatever we were looking at. Rayth: So does anyone know more about these things than I do? I just found one today. They look like some sort of gate to another area, but I¡¯m not really sure. Jolee: Well from what I¡¯ve seen there¡¯s two types of gates, there¡¯s the kind where it just seems to lead to another area, and then there¡¯s the kind of gates where it¡¯s completely filled with mist behind it, and monsters just seem to pour out of those, though the only photos I¡¯ve seen of them are from some friends of mine in the military. Soul: Yeah, I¡¯ve seen the mist ones as well, the monsters seem to never stop coming out of them. Ryah: You in the military then? Soul: Nah, just a large hunting group from in game. The gates seem to be safe to go through by the way, some idiot went in for a twenty dollar bet. Rayth: Gates? Soul: Yeah, it¡¯s what we¡¯ve taken to calling them. They seem like gates to another dimension you know? It would explain where some of the monsters are coming from, though they can¡¯t all be coming out of those gates, there¡¯s too many of them for that. Rayth: Well if the mist ones lead to where the monsters come from, where do the other ones lead? Jolee: I¡¯d place money on it being the world from Sanity Online. I swear I recognized some healing herbs from last time I was looking through one of them. I looked over the photos, and while I couldn¡¯t find any pictures that had healing herbs in them, I could easily see the stamina herbs in one of the photos I had taken. Rayth: I think you¡¯re right, I recognize some stamina herbs in the photos I took. Anyone willing to go exploring through one for a few days to find out? Jolee: Not a chance, the gates disappear every now and then, you¡¯d have to find your way back through another gate if you went through Rayth: Well it was worth a shot. I¡¯ll be sure to keep that in mind, no going through any of the gates. Stay safe in your hunting, I¡¯m off to bed. Jolee: Night. Ryah: Gnight. Soul: night I then stretched out, brushed my teeth, and went to bed, it was interesting that the helmets no longer seemed to be the only link between worlds, but I had no intention of having anything but my game avatar be there. Chapter 30: New Horizons The next couple of days were filled with inscribing weapons and the occasional piece of armor for people, and soon it was time to get back to hunting with the temporarily larger group. I spent the drive to meet up grumbling about being stuck with Lily¡¯s squad for at least a little while longer, and once I arrived, seeing as I was a bit early, I sat down to meditate. The few minutes passed in what could have been an instant or years, but I was soon roused from my meditation by the rest of the group arriving. I greeted them, and yet again we waited for the entirety of Lily¡¯s group to show up, though this time Lily herself wasn¡¯t the last to arrive, having actually showed up on time. Figuring it had to be a coincidence that she actually showed up when she was supposed to, I went back to chatting with the group. ¡°So it turns out there are actually two types of those gate things we saw, there¡¯s the ones like the one we saw, which may lead to the game world, and there¡¯s types filled with mist that just constantly spew out monsters,¡± I was explaining what I¡¯d found out last night to my group. ¡°Wouldn¡¯t that mean we could just barricade off or watch the mist filled ones and no monsters would be able to get through?¡± Rachel asked. ¡°I honestly have no idea, but I would assume the military has already tried that and not been too successful considering they haven¡¯t put out any sort of notice to take over the mist gates.¡± ¡°Well the mist filled ones sound like a great spot to hunt, let¡¯s go find one!¡± Liz added with her bloodthirsty smile. ¡°We¡¯re not going to risk anything by going hunting through the forest for a mist gate. If we run into one then we¡¯ll see if they¡¯re a good grinding spot or not,¡± Lars mentioned, being a much needed anchor for Liz¡¯s personality. It wasn¡¯t long until the rest of the group arrived, and we were soon in the forest, hunting plenty of the basic three star mobs. After our fourth encounter, one with a lot of craw and brags, I started to get a little worried, all of the groups today had been slightly larger than they had been yesterday. It was only by two or three individuals per pack, but if this kept up the monster wave would be coming sometime quite soon. At least it wasn¡¯t in the state of constant battle like it had been in game though. Or at least it wasn¡¯t yet. It was when we¡¯d started fighting a group of phol that we ran into trouble. I was leisurely slinging ice spears at them along with the rest of the mages when I heard a loud crack behind me, and turned to see the claw of a craw already flying at me. I dodged to the side, shouting ¡°behind us!¡± as I gripped my spear and stared off at the craw that had attacked me. Another two were also creeping up on its sides, and would soon have me mostly surrounded, so I went in for a pre-emptive attack on the one in the center. Stabbing inwards towards the joint in its arm, it tried to retaliate with a slice I almost lazily ducked under. I then released an ice spear, completely exploding one of its eyes. The other two were almost on me, so I decided to try something out. While dodging the craw in the center, I drew up my newest spell pattern a couple of times, and walled off the two craw that were coming to help, which let me easily deal with it after a few stabs of my inscribed spear. With one of them down, I was going to slowly take out the other two, when I noticed the plight of the rest of the mages. The group of craw which had attacked us had been pretty large, and most the mages were scattered, running away from different craw. I then noticed that only Lily, seemed to be holding her own, her sword and shield that would reduce her spell pattern damage working well as she steadily blocked or dodged the swipes of the craw, only to land vicious stabs or slices on the joints of it in return. She didn¡¯t use any spells in melee like I did, but she seemed to be a better fighter than I was, which made me frown a bit. Ignoring the one who was doing fine on her own, I started running around, ice walling off people long enough for them to get some distance, then trying to slice through the legs of the craw to slow them down enough for the mages to switch to bombarding them with spells again. I had been pretty successful,only one of the mages ended up wounded, and that was from tripping, not me missing a monster, but I had pulled the aggro of every single one of the craw, so currently I was just running around while the other mages picked off what was left of the group of craw. Things had almost gotten cleared back up, when I noticed something else coming through the forest. I started chanting ¡®no, no, no,¡¯ in my mind, but it didn¡¯t stop the cloud of brags from arriving. I had time for one cast of flash freeze before they were too close for the big aoe spells, but I only managed to get maybe a quarter of the group frozen. We were soon surrounded by the flying creatures, their oversized wings covering most of my view. I got my back to a tree, and started to carefully stab out at anything that seemed like it was getting close to me, while spamming force bolt as much as I could out of my other hand. Luckily, I only managed to get a few cuts from the sharp protrusions poking out of the edges of their wings, and avoided any poison while the cloud slowly thinned out. Once they had died off enough that I could get a better view of our team, I was starting to get worried. There was one area where what seemed to be an unmoving body on the ground utterly covered in brags, and there were many other people still surrounded by them. Luckily, all of my group seemed to be safe, having grouped up, Rachel still healing up Lars at the moment.A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation. I was quickly running to the motionless person, who hopefully wasn¡¯t dead yet, just poisoned, and Rachel and the rest of my group was joining me. We started to cut off all of the brags that had covered the person up, and noticed that they were still breathing, if barely, while covered in a large number of cuts, tears, and stab wounds from the stingers. Rachel was instantly healing, and when it seemed she was running out of mana I passed her a mana potion so she could continue. Once it seemed they were stabilized, though the poison seemed to be still keeping them paralyzed, we decided it was time to leave the forest. It was getting a bit too dangerous for real life. After we¡¯d cleaned up the few remaining brags, and gathered the group, we started heading out of the forest, when I noticed something very bad, another cloud of brags was approaching. I instantly warned everyone, and this time, the dangerous cloud was greeted with multiple AOE spells, cutting through their numbers quite severely. Unfortunately, this group was also much larger than the previous, and we were soon back to our limited visibility fighting. Things seemed to be almost over when I heard a rumbling sound, and I groaned. The fighting had been constant enough, what was it now? I couldn¡¯t even see what was causing the noise due to all of the brags. Soon enough though, it made a noise that sounded like an elephant trumpeting, if you thought you could hear the scream of a dying person in the trumpet of an elephant. I cursed. That had to be phol. I soon fought my way through the cloud of brags alongside Lily, and we saw a group of phol charging from one side, and a wave of molts coming from another side. We both yelled ¡°RUN!¡± at practically the same time, and then grabbed whoever was nearest us, urging them to run before we set off ourselves. With the cloud of brags constantly around me and harassing me, I soon lost sight of all the people I had been with, but I continued to run, as I could hear the phol still following somewhere behind me, the rumbling making it clear, along with the few death wail like trumpets that would occasionally come from them. Eventually, I managed to kill off the rest of the brags harassing me, and I then had clear vision to see what was going on. I was actually out of eyesight of the phol, and the molts were nowhere to be seen. I relaxed a tiny bit, but then tensed up when I realized I was alone. I wasn¡¯t sure how well I could continue to run without any backup, so I looked around, pulling out my phone to check my location. I was actually pretty close to the gate we had found earlier, so I decided to go there and shoot a text to my group saying that I¡¯d be there, as it would make a good meetup point for anyone who had ran the same way I had. Maybe ten minutes later, I was beginning to worry, no one had replied to my text, though I didn¡¯t have the numbers of any of Lily¡¯s group, so I decided I needed to try and start figuring my way out on my own. I then began my exploration to find a way out of the forest without running into to many monsters. I slowly walked around, being careful to be as quiet as possible, and headed towards the sandwich shop we had met up at. Maybe three quarters of the way there though, I ran into a very large problem. There seemed to be a flood of molts between me and the edge of the forest. They covered every bit of the ground, looking to be stacked two high for what had to be miles along. Shuddering at the numbers, I decided that I was going to try a different direction. While searching along, I finally got a text back. Lars: We got out of the forest, but we can¡¯t find any way to get to you from out here, just try to stay safe, we¡¯ll get a bigger group and come rescue you. Roland: I think you¡¯ll need a much bigger group than you¡¯re thinking of. I¡¯ll keep trying to find a way out of here for now. Don¡¯t risk yourselves. Glad that they had at least escaped, I put my phone on silent before going back to trying to find a way out of the forest. No matter which way I went however, I kept running into more and more monsters, and every time I would be pushed back a bit more, the encirclement seeming to close around me. I eventually came to stand in front of the gate. The monsters had seemed to ignore it, and it was the only direction I had left to run, but was I really willing to go through when I knew that they would disappear randomly? I was debating on if I should continue to try and find a way out of the massive numbers of monsters, when I started to hear an all too familiar rumbling. Groaning, I turned around for a second to see another group of phol, and they were chasing someone. I waved them over, trying to get their attention, and stood right in front of the gate. They turned to me and began sprinting a tad bit faster than they had been before in my direction. I continued to wave them over, than almost started to regret it when they got close enough to recognize Lily. She wasn¡¯t the overly dressed up arrogant looking Lily at the moment though, for now she just looked terrified, and I wasn¡¯t going to leave someone out to die no matter how much of a dick she had been. I took to casting frostbites at the phol who were charging, trying to hit their legs so I could watch them trip up and fall over each other. Once Lily got close however, I grabbed her, pulled her through the gate, idly noting that the other side of the gate seemed no different from what I was used to. I was soon spamming ice wall as much as I could to block off the entrance before running some more My ice walls weren¡¯t going to last forever, and I wanted to get as far away from the gate as possible before they melted. ¡°Wait, where are we?¡± Lily asked as we ran, clearly confused about the change in scenery. ¡°We went through the gate. We need to go now, my walls aren¡¯t going to last too long and we need to get out of range of the phol before they figure out how to get to us.¡± ¡°Wait! I¡¯m not going through the gate, what do you think you¡¯re doing!?¡± ¡°Well it¡¯s a bit too late for that, and what I think I¡¯m doing is saving your life,¡± I said with a deadpan expression. ¡°But we don¡¯t even know where we are!?¡± ¡°We¡¯re away from the monsters, that¡¯s what counts. I¡¯d rather be lost and alive than dead in a place I know.¡± Lily didn¡¯t say anything back to that, just took to fuming in silence as we ran. I wasn¡¯t going to stop her fuming, but I was probably going to need her cooperation until we figured out where we were. We continued through the woods, me, searching for any sign of human passage, Lily simply looking annoyed that I¡¯d dared save her in less than a perfect rescue. While we didn¡¯t see any humans or signs of passage, not that I would be able to recognize them even if we did, but we did run into the occasional monster. We killed them without much fanfare, neither of us willing to talk to the other, and soon the sun started to go down. Deciding it would be safer to sleep in a tree, I climbed up one, only to have Lily question me. ¡°Why are you climbing a tree? It¡¯s too dark to see anything from up there?¡± ¡°Because it¡¯s about time we get to sleep, and I¡¯m not going to risk sleeping on the ground without a ward net.¡± ¡°You mean you¡¯re just stopping like this? You should obviously just keep going, I think I¡¯m going to go insane if I have to sleep out here.¡± ¡°Well I¡¯m going to be sleeping here, so you can go explore on your own in the dark if you¡¯d like,¡± I mention, thinking in my mind that I¡¯m the one who¡¯s going to go insane from having to deal with her. She soon quit complaining, only grumbling a bit under her breath before eventually copying me and climbing up a tree, trying to get comfortable, though that¡¯s a hard task when we were both used to our oh so soft beds. Eventually though, we both nod off, though the night of sleep is not very restful, waking up at every sound in the night. Chapter 31: Back to the Beginning I woke up extremely uncomfortable, and sore all over from my awkward sleeping position in the tree, but after climbing down and stretching out, the feelings started to fade a bit, and I noticed another couple of sensations I needed to take care of. After walking off a bit to do my business, I started to contemplate the other sensation I needed to take care of. I was hungry. I thought for a bit, then decided that since I wasn¡¯t sure if any plants would be edible, it would be safer to hunt some monsters for their meat. I went back to the area I woke up and noticed Lily still blissfully asleep, tempting me to shake her out of the tree she was sleeping in. Holding back from the temptation, I shouted at her until she woke up, rubbing her bleary eyes, and nearly falling out of the the tree all on her own before catching herself. A bit disappointed that she didn¡¯t, I give a short ¡°come on, let¡¯s get going,¡± and wait for her to slowly climb her way down the tree and start following after me, yawning repeatedly. We walked for a while without running into monsters, which was bad, because I was hungry, when Lily mentioned what I¡¯d been thinking since I woke up. ¡°I¡¯m hungry.¡± ¡°And next craw or molt we find we¡¯ll have something to eat,¡± I reply. ¡°Ewwwwww, I¡¯m not eating a monster,¡± Lily says, her face filled with disgust. ¡°You probably already have if you ever ate in game, most of the meat is monster meat.¡± Lily¡¯s face turns a bit pale, and she gets quite quiet for a bit. The silence doesn¡¯t last nearly as long as I would hope however, she¡¯s soon back to her usual self. ¡°Well I¡¯m still not going to eat a monster, just find some fruit or a town.¡± ¡°I¡¯m pretty sure I¡¯d have noticed if we¡¯d seen any fruit trees, and we don¡¯t even know if we¡¯re in the same world as before, anything we don¡¯t know about could be poisonous. At least we know that molts and craw are edible. And we have no clue where any town could be.¡± Lily let out a small humph and turned away, clearly not willing to take my words into consideration. On the bright side, it meant lovely silence for the next hour or so of walking, until we finally spotted something that could lead us to civilization, a road. We both perked up at the sight of it, but at the same time I became very worried. Rather than the asphalt roads I was used to, it was paved with large stones. Remembering my walk between cities in game, the road seemed to be built the same way. I sighed, it had been likely that the game world wasn¡¯t simply a game, and it seemed I may have my official confirmation. Lily seemed to not even think about the road not being asphalt, and simply started walking along it, ignoring the oddity. I shook my head then followed along behind her, carefully looking around in case of monster attacks. Maybe thirty minutes later, and Lily has gotten over her excitement over seeing the road and has begun to ceaselessly complain. Complaining her feet hurt, she¡¯s bored, why don¡¯t I know how to find edible plants, she¡¯s sooo hungry, on and on. I agree with her on the hungry part, but have to mention that the reason we¡¯re bored is because there haven¡¯t been any monster attacks, and because I have no intention of holding a conversation with miss arrogant. It may be a bit hypocritical of me, but I¡¯m not in the mood to put up with a headache on top of my hunger. It has to be the fortieth time she¡¯s complained about being bored when we finally get attacked by monsters, a group of four craw. I smile, soon I¡¯m going to have a delicious lunch. Lily and I each launch ourselves at two of them, splitting up to fight. I easily dispatch my first one with a few ice spears, then use my normal spear to finish off the second one, turning around just in time to see Lily finishing off her second one. She has a small smile on her face from the fight, that soon disappears when she turns to look at me, but I ignore it. I then get to harvesting some of the craw meat. Once I¡¯d gotten a decent amount, I realize a problem, I don¡¯t know how to cook it when I don¡¯t have steel and flint. Eventually I decide to ask Lily to cast some lightning spells at a small little campfire I set up, and it ignites the tinder without any issue, though it does send some of the wood flying. I¡¯m soon cooking, and while at first Lily is just saying we should just keep going, once the craw meat is cooking, and the lovely buttery crab like smell starts wafting around, she starts sending glances towards it, not being nearly so subtle as she seems to think she is. Eventually, after I¡¯d started eating, she gives in and asks in a way. ¡°Well I guess I could eat a monster¡­¡± ¡°Hmmm? What was that?¡± I question, trying my best to keep a blank expression. ¡°Could I have some of the food?¡± She oh so quietly asked. I considered teasing her a bit more for a moment, but decided I didn¡¯t want her to snap, and she¡¯d already asked properly, though without a please, so I simply handed over some of the craw meat which was roasting on a skewer. We finished our meal in silence, our hunger leading us to simply focus on the food, and we were soon stuffed full of food. I leaned back for a short moment, before groaning and getting up. ¡°We should probably get going, we need to see where this road ends up¡± I mentioned as I started walking. Lily put on a disgruntled expression, but didn¡¯t disagree, and we were soon back to walking, though this time with full bellies. The walk was relatively peaceful, with only occasional attacks by monsters, which were welcome as they gave us something to do other than walk in silence. Eventually, I decide to break the overbearing silence, figuring with my stomach filled I could at least try and have a conversation, if a headache came out of it then so be it. ¡°So Lily, why did you decide to go hunting anyway? I¡¯m pretty sure you don¡¯t need to risk it. You could just have your followers powerlevel you if you wanted to level.¡± She thought for a moment before answering. ¡°I just want to get stronger on my own merits. It¡¯s why I play games.¡±This novel is published on a different platform. Support the original author by finding the official source. I was surprised, she¡¯d actually given me a proper answer instead of giving me some arrogant comment. Even so, I had to hide my retort about having an army of followers, before letting out a slightly more diplomatic version. ¡°Why use your own face in game then? If you want to get stronger by your own merits, wouldn¡¯t it be better to be unknown?¡± She shrugged. ¡°It¡¯s for my viewtube channel. Playing with my subscribers in game is a good way to help have their continued support on my channel. Besides, they tend to be useful.¡± Thinking about how useful was for stuff like hunting down innocent people like me, I simply let out a sound of affirmation before letting the conversation fade. ¡°So why are you out hunting? I¡¯m sure you could become plenty rich just inscribing weapons.¡± She eventually asked me, having been shooting glances my way for a while. ¡°I guess I¡¯ve always just dreamed of something like this. Game turned reality, where you can get stronger just by hunting. When it finally happened, I just didn¡¯t want to let the opportunity slip away.¡± Lily tilted her head to the side in thought, the walk fading back into a slightly more comfortable silence than before. Our walk continued in peace, when we finally started to see other people walking along. I smiled, we had to be close to civilization. We were continuing our walk, when I decided to listen in to a conversation two other people were having about where some monsters were, which made me smile in relief, I could understand them. This clearly wasn¡¯t Earth, the people walking along were obviously adventurers, but at least I wasn¡¯t going to have trouble understanding the language. I instantly started to wonder, why was that? If they were speaking English here, were they speaking other languages in other parts of this world? I was musing on why they were using the same language, though it did have a few words I didn¡¯t understand, when we came upon a wall around some farmland, something I was sure I recognized. I held in my belief, and looked over to Lily, who seemed to be feeling as uncomfortable as I felt, and we continued our walk among the farmland, until we finally arrived at the city, and I let out what I had been thinking up until then. ¡°It¡¯s Kurheim, we really are in the game world. Though I suppose I shouldn¡¯t be calling it a game still.¡± ¡°Fuck!¡± Lily cursed. My eyes widened in surprise, I knew she was the type to curse around people she didn¡¯t need to maintain an image around, but I¡¯d have expected her to be a bit more restrained considering she now knew me. Lily soon noticed my reaction, and quickly looked away, hiding her face. Apparently she hadn¡¯t thought about me being there. Ignoring the embarrassed Lily, I continued my walk into the town. We were soon at the adventurers hall, and we entered, wanting to get some information, and hopefully find out how to get a backpack, I had no clue how I was going to collect loot without one. We grabbed a number and sat down to wait our turn, and soon we were called up to the counter. A pretty young lady was at the counter, and gave us what seemed to be a perfectly genuine smile as she began the conversation. ¡°What can I help you with today?¡± ¡°I would like to sign up as an adventurer, and was hoping I could learn where to get one of those magical backpacks. Oh, and is there any way to get tested into a higher rank?¡± ¡°The guild will loan you a backpack if you don¡¯t have the money, you¡¯ll have to pay it back with interest though. As for signing up as a higher rank, if you feel like you can handle it I can get a guild trainer to test you.¡± I¡¯d thought that the requirements for completing ten quests of a rank were iron clad, but apparently they were willing to bend the rules a bit, perhaps because there weren¡¯t any orbs or wargs for beginners to hunt nearby. I thanked the young lady, Raisa by her nametag, and she went into the back to fetch the trainer. She was soon coming out with a small man, and brought him over. ¡°This is Tarben, he¡¯ll be testing you. You should feel proud to have the guild leader himself decide to do your test,¡± she said with a painfully bright smile. Tarben didn¡¯t say anything, just gestured for us to follow him, and soon we were in a small arena, and he grabbed out training gear for both of us, handing it over, still not saying a word. I grabbed the spear, and then decided I had to mention something. ¡°Um, Tarben sir? We¡¯re both mages as well, so you should probably test us on that first.¡± Tarben let out a grunt that sounded vaguely like he was agreeing, and pointed out a target, which I assumed meant he wanted us to cast spells at it. Lily went first, casting a variety of lightning spells that I couldn¡¯t really tell the difference between, only noting one of them hopped to different targets, and one of them seemed to stay on the target, flickering on and off for a while before fading. I then went through my repertoire of spells, and when I was done, I looked to Tarben, to see him take up his weapons and get in a fighting stance. Assuming he meant for me to fight him, I matched him while Lily decided to sit out at first and watch. I led in with a stab towards his chest, which was easily swept aside by his spear, and he stabbed outwards at me, but quite slowly, clearly holding back, making it easy for me to dodge. Deciding I wanted him to take me at least a little more seriously, I stabbed out again as fast as I could, then swept my training spear towards his neck as he dodged to the side. His expression didn¡¯t change though, he simply ducked under, pushing my spear further in the direction it was going, throwing me off balance, and then stabbed out at me, much faster than before, letting me barely dodge it. If I had been in my game body, I¡¯m not sure I would have been able to dodge that, only the extra agility from my training in real life had let me get out of the way in time. Ignoring the sweat on my forehead, I continued to stab out at him, and he continued to foil my plans to hit him, and he kept getting faster and faster, and soon I was becoming covered in the dust that marked where I had been hit. Eventually, after I¡¯m pretty sure I would never get the dust out of my clothing or hair, he stood up straight, then gestured for Lily to come over, who had spent the entire time laughing at me getting my butt handed to me. Her joyful expression faded as she went up to face Tarben, switching to a wary one, and she took up her sword and shield, taking a stance in front of him. Her fight went much the same way mine had, easily dodging the early combat, but quickly becoming overwhelmed by the speed that he could put out. Wondering if we had even come close to seeing the instructors limit, I watched the fight, trying to figure out what I could do if I was facing someone that strong again. I hadn¡¯t been able to come up with anything by the time Lily had finished her fight, and she came over looking very annoyed. I just grinned at her red dust covered face, and then we went up to Tarben, handing over the training weapons which he put away in trunk. Tarben then gestured for us to follow him, and we went along as he went back into the guild. We met up with Raisa who excitedly asked ¡°So? What rank are they?¡± ¡°High three star.¡± Tarben answered, the first words I¡¯d heard from him. I had to admit, I was a little disappointed, I was hoping I¡¯d be judged strong enough to fight some four star mobs, but I guess I could accept the result. Wondering if I could make it to four star if I allocated my points, I was interrupted in my musings by Raisa handing over the same form I¡¯d filled out my first time at the guild. I filled it out much the same, only changing my name to my real life one, and handed it over, then accepted the prick on my finger with only a little bit of a wince. I know I¡¯d taken some pretty painful hits and still kept fighting, but even a tiny needle still hurts when you know it¡¯s coming. She then put the blood on the dog tag like guild tag, and it let out a short glow before she handed it over. Lily soon got hers done as well, and then it was back to talking for the cheerful looking receptionist. ¡°Remember not to lose your guild tags. And here¡¯s two backpacks for you, you¡¯ll need to pay back 50 gold, your earnings will be garnished until you¡¯ve paid it back in full.¡± I was honestly surprised at how cheap the backpack was, and thanked her for the information before Lily and I went back outside, we needed to figure out what to do. We now had a lifeline over in this world, but we needed to get back to our world somehow. ¡°Any ideas on where we¡¯ll be able to find another gate?¡± I eventually asked Lily as we walked along, hoping she¡¯d have more of a clue than I did. ¡°It¡¯s probably best to just explore pretty far away from town, if they were in more populated areas, then they would¡¯ve been much more common knowledge, so they¡¯re probably in more isolated areas.¡± I tilted my head to the side, it made sense, but what about the ones that spawned monsters, those seemed to have no compunctions about appearing in places such as cities. Figuring it didn¡¯t matter, we were just going to have to figure it out as we went, I hefted my empty backpack on my back, then decided it was time to go make some money. We were going to need quite a few things to start searching for a way back home, and money would make everything so much smoother, from a ward net so we could stay outside longer periods of time while searching, to simply hiring other adventurers to search for a gate for us. I mentioned as much to Lily, and she simply nodded before we headed off to hunt. Chapter 32: The Calm It¡¯s been three days since we arrived, and our situation hasn¡¯t changed. We¡¯ve put up notices in the adventurers guild offering to pay for any information about gates and their locations, but we¡¯ve yet to have any responses. I sigh, I suppose I shouldn¡¯t expect information quite so quickly. I slowly drag myself out of my oh so comfortable bed. Lily and I have started staying in a relatively nice inn after I lost an argument about where we should sleep, and while I may have been against it at first, the food and bed managed to win me over, the softness was a far cry from the tough beds they have in the barracks. I slowly walk downstairs, stifling my yawns, and soon arrive at the crowded tavern portion of the inn. It¡¯s a nicer inn, so every surface is dirt free, the polished wood tables and floor lending a warm feeling to the place. The walls are painted a very pale green, and light comes from a few chandeliers hanging from the ceiling. I soon spot Lily and have to stop myself from groaning. ¡°I can¡¯t believe you would serve food like that! It was cold when it arrived at my table, what kind of fucking service do you think this is? I want to see your boss, let¡¯s see what they think about you giving such shit service.¡± I quickly walk over to stop her tirade against the poor overworked serving girl, who looks like she wants to be anywhere but there. ¡°C¡¯mon Lily, we need to get to searching for a gate back home.¡± ¡°But my food was served cold!¡± I simply look down at her short stature, doing my best to show how much I cared with my dead expression. ¡°Come on, let¡¯s just get going.¡± Lily seems to growl a bit, but starts to follow when I start walking away. She does make sure to cast one last glare at the poor, probably innocent serving girl as she follows me. I¡¯m already nursing a headache from dealing with Lily and I haven¡¯t been awake for more than thirty minutes. It seems I was slowly turning into her handler, having to constantly try and clean up after her incessant need to yell about something. I¡¯d had to deal with her at the armor shop for not getting good enough service, at the weapons shop for not having any weapons she wanted, and I¡¯m sure I would be hearing her complaining about the inn we just stayed at for the rest of the day. I look over at her and sigh. My gaze lingers a bit, and something I¡¯d been thinking for a while just slips out of my mouth, be it from my sleepiness or just wanting to complain. ¡°You know, you¡¯d actually be quite cute if you weren¡¯t such a jerk.¡± Lily pauses for a moment, before looking at me in a surprised way. ¡°And what part of me isn¡¯t cute!?¡± I ignore the fact that she completely ignored me calling her a jerk, I felt like I¡¯d lose if I minded it, and out of sheer annoyance from having to deal with her I decide to vent. ¡°Basically everything that comes out of your mouth is the opposite of cute. You curse like a sailor, you complain about everything, and you constantly pick on people. That poor serving girl you were yelling at, who was probably innocent by the way, looked like she was about to cry, and all you seemed to care about was shoving your complaint onto her. If you want to be classified as cute you need to act cute, looks can only get you so far.¡± ¡°So you¡¯ve got a fucking problem with me fucking cussing?¡± she says, clearly emphasizing the fucks so as to make it clear she¡¯s doing it to get a rise out of me. ¡°And if they don¡¯t want to get complaints, they shouldn¡¯t serve cold food.¡± ¡°And acting like you did is going to stop them serving you cold food? If anything they¡¯ll be more likely to serve you last, simply out of spite. What were you expecting to get out of complaining anyway? Aside from getting kicked out that is. If you were complaining to just complain you should probably review your outlook on life.¡± Lily turns away with a hmph and simply starts walking, apparently deciding that the silent treatment would be the best way to deal with me. I smiled, if I was getting the silent treatment I may actually have some peace for the day. Our first stop was at the armor and clothing store, we¡¯d both needed to get fitted for a few sets of clothing, so as to not end up smelling horribly after being stuck in the same set of clothing for a while. We¡¯d also commissioned a set of good armor out of molt plates, as it wouldn¡¯t mess with my magic casting, and the extra protection would be very nice with how I wouldn¡¯t respawn while in this body. Lily remained silent, still annoyed at me while I greeted Aselya, who was wearing a bored expression as always. I was soon handing over the gold for our clothing and armor, and went into an area closed off by cloth hanging from the ceiling to change. I was son wearing a dark green shirt made of some mysterious, but surprisingly soft fiber seeming material, and a pair of leather pants, with my new molt plate armor covering my chest and forearms. I could¡¯ve gone for a more full body covering, but I wanted the freedom of movement that came with the lesser set. Lily and I came out at around the same time, and I couldn¡¯t help saying something that I thought might rile her up a bit more. ¡°So? How do I look?¡± Surprisingly, she didn¡¯t seem to get annoyed at me, just giving me a quick once over and turning away, clearly still giving me a silent treatment, but seemingly not as annoyed as she had been. I shrugged, and grabbed my backpack up off the ground where I¡¯d left it, putting the excess clothing in one of the side pockets, and giving all the stuff I¡¯d had to buy again a once over. Stolen content alert: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences. I¡¯d had to repurchase my alchemy set, my ward net and tent, and I¡¯d even repurchased my book on alchemy and the monster compendium, though I couldn¡¯t spare the funds for the book on inscriptions quite yet. Before leaving the clothing store, Lily and I took off our armor and I inscribed it with runes of toughness. It wouldn¡¯t hold up for too long against anything imbued with sharpness, but it could at least take a couple of blows now. I was soon heading out of the city with Lily following me. We were going to be out of the city for at least a few days this time, searching around where we¡¯d first arrived for a gate. I wasn¡¯t particularly optimistic about our chances, but I didn¡¯t have any better ideas on where to search. We were soon leaving the city, the bustle and noise slowly fading away as we started to walk through the farmlands, the farmers out doing whatever farmers do for their crops. We walked in silence for a while, until we arrived at the edge of the farmlands, the smaller wall separating the farms from the monsters. We kept walking along, easily handling the groups of monster that attacked us, simply casting a few spells and then gathering the loot. Along the way, I snacked on some of the hard cheese I had brought along, finishing it off with some fruit that had a hard peel that wasn¡¯t edible, but had a texture inside similar to an apple. Oddly enough, it tasted more like a dragonfruit than anything else. I¡¯d slowly started to enjoy them though, so I finished one off, and then handed one over to Lily as she kept shooting sidelong glances over at me snacking on it, only for her to make a confused face and stare at it for a moment after her first bite, slowly finishing about half of it before throwing it away. We had gotten around three quarters of the way to where our gate had been, when the sun started to set and we set up camp. While we sit around a fire, both of us express our hope to find a gate soon, but neither of us seems to be convinced that is going to happen, Lily finally seemed to be over giving me the silent treatment, though she seems a bit confused on how to treat me after learning I think she¡¯s a total jerk. We slowly grow tired, and head off to our own tents before I slowly fade into a meditative sleep. The next day is spent arriving at the spot where our gate was, and I sigh. I hadn¡¯t expected it to still be there, but I had hoped. I slowly turn away from where the gate had been before commenting. ¡°Well, it seems we¡¯ll be searching for a new gate after all.¡± ¡°Of course we can¡¯t get a fucking break,¡± lily said with an aggressive tone. I sigh a bit, she really seems to not care about my opinion like she does about her followers, as I hadn¡¯t seen her curse once when her posse is around. Ignoring the fact that my opinion about her cursing means nothing to her, I heft my backpack before giving some optimism I didn¡¯t agree with. ¡°I¡¯m sure we¡¯ll find a new gate soon enough.¡± ¡°We better¡± Lily mentions darkly. I sigh, I just hope we find a gate before Lily snaps and really blows up at one of the people she¡¯s always being so rude towards. The next few days were spent searching fruitlessly, both of us slowly growing more quiet and reserved as the search went on. Eventually, we both decided it would be best to head back to Kurheim and see if anyone had answered our request for information on gates. The city was the same as always, and we were soon at the adventurers guild to find out if anyone had any information on gates. After asking the lady at the counter if anyone had answered our request, we found out that someone had found one to the southwest of the city, but that it was gone now. I paid out a little gold for the information, as I was hoping that if we found enough information on where gates appeared we could eventually track down the patterns for their appearance. The next few weeks were spent much the same, though I got back into my habits of training my stats, and Lily started to join me on my runs and simple exercises. Both of our stats had started to slow down in their growth, but even with that, I expected that we would have enough stats that we could risk fighting a four star mob within a few more weeks. I was meditating at the training grounds, when a group of what seemed to be a group of very experienced adventurers, with armor that was made out of some material I didn¡¯t recognize, and weapons which seemed to be made from giant pieces of bone, or possible some form of ivory. ¡°Hello, I believe you were the one looking for information on those cracks in the air?¡± ¡°Yes!¡± I said, possibly in a bit too excited of a tone. ¡°Do you have any information on where one is?¡± ¡°Yeah, it just appeared nearby our camp while we were eating, we weren¡¯t sure what it was, but we remembered there was someone looking for information, so we talked to the guild and came to find you.¡± ¡°Can you show me where it is?¡± ¡°We can show you, but it¡¯s in an area with a lot of four star mobs, and the occasional five star, you¡¯d need an escort if you want to make it there safely.¡± ¡°And I assume you¡¯re offering?¡± I said, expecting to have to pay. ¡°One hundred gold.¡± That was a lot cheaper than I had been expecting, but I figured that if they were hunting in the area anyway, they probably just saw us as a way to make a little money on the side. ¡°Deal,¡± I said, then raised my hand to shake. After agreeing, they said they would be heading out on the weekend, so we agreed to meet near the north gate around sunrise on this world¡¯s equivalent to saturday, the day after tomorrow. Why the days of the week were different when they spoke the same language eluded me, but I simply ignored it most of the time. Immediately after, I found Lily and informed her of the deal I had agreed to, and watched as her face lit up immediately, for once acting like the cute girl she looked like. After she finished hopping up and down, I informed her of when we would be leaving to go to the gate, the day after tomorrow, and where we would be meeting. We were soon getting ready for the trip. I knew we may end up having to fight, even if we were going to have an escort, so I loaded up the potion belt I¡¯d had remade with my standard loadout of potions, four health, four mana, and two stamina. I then checked over all my gear, making sure it was all in perfect condition. Once I¡¯d gotten ready, I spent the rest of the day pacing in nervous excitement. It wasn¡¯t certain that the gate would still be there, but the one we had found back on earth had lasted for a few days, and this one had only very recently appeared, so I expected it would still be there when we arrived. I eventually found sleep through meditation, though I had stayed up far later than I normally would due to the mix of worry and excitement. The next day I spent trying and failing to focus on my training, eventually just taking to doing laps around the training field to do something productive. At this point, I could run for hours, though with the sprints I was constantly doing in between jogging, I was worn out far sooner than that. I eventually just sat down, hoping that the gate would bring me back. I¡¯d been trapped here for three weeks, and I was missing the internet, I was missing my web novels, and most importantly, I was worried about my town having to face the monster wave. I wasn¡¯t sure what was going to happen with that, there were a good amount of police and people with guns, so they should be able to fight off the monsters, but I worried it would only be with a lot of casualties. My mind then turned to what would be happening in countries with more strict gun laws. Would they be faring better or worse with having to fight using melee weaponry? My musing was interrupted by Lily, likely looking for something to distract her from the constant worried excitement she was sure to be feeling along with me. ¡°Do you really think that the gate will still be there?¡± ¡°It¡¯s pretty likely. The gate we found on earth lasted at least a few days, and we don¡¯t know how long it was there before we found it.¡± ¡°It better be. I¡¯m sick of the food here, I¡¯m sick of the uncomfortable beds, I¡¯m sick of not having internet, and I¡¯m sick of not being able to update my viewtube channel. What if I lose some of my subscribers?¡± Towards the end of it she almost had a whining tone, and I was confused, the food had been good, and the beds had been more comfortable than mine on earth, what was she complaining about? After my short bout of confusion, I let out a short ¡°I¡¯m sure you can have your luxuries back soon enough princess,¡± my voice dripping in sarcasm. Through the weeks we had spent together, we¡¯d developed a relationship that was an odd mixture of friendly and antagonistic. I would be horribly sarcastic whenever she went all bitch mode, and she would be a jerk to me, but we stuck together, if only to be near someone else from earth. Eventually the bickering had lost the sheer rage of it and become more comfortable. She glared at me for a bit, before returning to a worried expression, but she soon gave up on conversation with me, both of us simply contemplating our hope of returning. After what seemed like years, the sun began to set, and we headed back to the inn, we were going to get some rest, and tomorrow we would be on our way home. Chapter 33: Four Stars I woke up the next morning pretty exhausted. I hadn¡¯t gotten to sleep until late at night, and the innkeeper knocking at my door to wake me up like I had asked had been almost as bad as an alarm clock. I slowly managed to drag myself out of bed. There was no way I was going to miss getting back to my own world. I was soon packed up and ready to go, and then I was just waiting on Lily, who seemed to be taking forever. Eventually, I just decided to go up and get her, so I asked the innkeeper for her room, and went up the stairs and started knocking at her door. I started with a soft knocking, but I slowly increased my force until I got a ¡°WHAT!?¡± from inside the room. ¡°We need to get going Lily, we¡¯re going to be heading to the gate today.¡± All I hear back was a muffled groan, so I continue to cajole her until I get a proper response, then head back downstairs. Maybe ten minutes later Lily comes down, fully armed and armored in the same way I was. I gave her a nod, and then we went to meet up at the north gate with the adventurers who would be leading us to where they had found the gate. We soon arrived, and I greeted the leader of the group, a large man with a soft face, looking more like you would expect an innkeeper to, if not for the harsh glint in his eyes, and the wariness he had, constantly looking around for threats. ¡°So we never introduced ourselves, I¡¯m Roland, and this is Lily. We¡¯ll be in your care for however long it takes to get to the gate.¡± The large man let out a grunt of affirmation before giving a short ¡°Johann¡±, which I assumed to be his name. Another member of his group then decided to give out a little information before we head out. ¡°It¡¯s going to be dangerous, and we won¡¯t be able to babysit you, especially if we run into any five star mobs. Try not to die on us.¡± He said with a sardonic smile. Feeling a bit more nervous about our trip after that, I tightened my grip on my spear, and we were soon walking down the road. The rest of the day was uneventful, the few mobs that we ran into were easily taken care of, Lily and I just feeling like outsiders to the more experienced group of adventurers as they chatted among themselves. The next day, we left the road, and started heading into the forest. I quickly had no clue where we were going, but they seemed to know where they were, so I simply ignored it, and walked along after the group that seemed to think of us as just random followers who would get them some money. Lily and I chatted occasionally, but our conversations would always end up just coming back to the fact that we may be able to get home soon, so we soon quieted down, just walking along in nervous excitement, which slowly faded into boredom the longer we walked. ¡°Do you think that they¡¯ll still be searching for us?¡± I eventually asked Lily, after mulling over the thought in my head a bit. ¡°They better be,¡± Lily said tersely before continuing. ¡°If nothing else, my dad will still be searching for me.¡± ¡°I heard your dad is a bigshot CEO of some company, what does he do?¡± ¡°He¡¯s actually CEO of Santech,¡± She says, mentioning one of the biggest electronic device producing companies. My eyes widen in surprise. I¡¯d known her dad was a big CEO, but I¡¯d expected it to be of some company that I¡¯d never heard about, not the one who manufactured my keyboard. ¡°Well hopefully we show up pretty close to our town, if we end up in the middle of nowhere that would suck. If we¡¯re close by they should find us pretty quickly.¡± Lily nodded, and then we were back to walking in silence. Eventually, I started to wonder, and went up to ask the group of adventurers who had kept to their own group. ¡°How long is it going to be before we arrive at the crack in the air?¡± ¡°Day after tomorrow we¡¯ll arrive,¡± one of them responded curtly. I thanked him, then went back to Lily, and sighed, it was going to be a long couple of days. The next day, things started to get more interesting. The monster attacks started to happen more frequently, and every now and then a monster I didn¡¯t recognize would show up, likely four star mobs. The first one I didn¡¯t recognize was a large, long furred monster, with two extremely large arms, and Legs so small I didn¡¯t think it had them until I got a closer look after it was killed. It dragged itself along by its arms, and would swing them with massive amounts of force at anyone in front of it, somehow not sending the tank flying when it hit him. Eventually, I decided to ask about it, and learned that they had no clue about it either, he wasn¡¯t any heavier than your average man in plate armor, though he did have massive amounts of strength and vitality. After a bit of mulling it over, I decided it had to be something like the sharpness runes. Instead of making the object sharper, it added a layer of force on top that would cut through first, so the strength stat was probably similar, adding force to something without actually making you physically stronger. That way, there was some sort of force pushing against the shield that would stop the tank being flung away. That got me started on thinking about how the other stats worked. I knew agility made you faster, but did it increase the twitch time of your muscles, or did it simply add a force to make you move faster. And more importantly, did it increase your reaction speed in the same way that it increased your physical movement speed? I was relatively certain that wisdom only increased your mana pool, as all of humanity starting with a mana pool of sub one would be unexplainable otherwise. Endurance I couldn¡¯t figure out how it may work, but vitality, I started to wonder if we had something like a forcefield just over our skin, or if it actually toughened our skin. Eventually, I stopped my musing on how exactly the stats worked, and started to watch the adventurers fight off the mobs that I hadn¡¯t seen. They were impressively good, all of them clearly having higher stats than I did. The giant furred things would slam their arms towards the adventurers, and the tank would always be there in position to block it, while one guy, with a dagger that seemed to be dripping some sort of liquid, practically seemed to vanish as he snuck around to the monster¡¯s back before plunging his dagger into the monster. The mages all this time were spamming spells, one of them being a fire mage, the other some sort of plant based mage. You would think the fire mage wouldn¡¯t work well with the plant mage, but the plants seemed to ignore the flames. The plant mage was constantly making plants grow onto the monster, then having sharp thorns grow on them before starting to constrict. This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it. The plants were often torn off, but there would always be more. While the monster was restricted by the plants, the two warriors, one of them the leader of their group who was wielding an oversized battleaxe, sliced at the monster, and it wasn¡¯t even a couple of minutes before it went down. I would have whistled if I knew how. That thing was damn fast, but the tank was always there to block it, and the damage output of the rest of the team had been insane along with the constant cc of the plant mage. Once they were done, they harvested the materials, and then left the body for the goddess to collect, as they would say it. I wasn¡¯t sure if it would be the goddess or more monsters that got to the body first, but it was true that I had never seen a monster carcass that hadn¡¯t been freshly killed, and the bodies would disappear if you decided to use the loot window. Ignoring the convenient loot system, we continued our trek through the wilderness, me only becoming more and more lost, while the adventurers seemed to know exactly where to go. I was trying to start a conversation with Lily, who was being unusually taciturn, when I saw all the adventurers tense up after hearing some loud screeching like noise. I was starting to worry a bit, when the leader shouted over at us. ¡°Watch out! You¡¯ll have to fend for yourselves for a while!¡± I wondered what he meant for a few seconds when it showed up. It looked like a pale white frog, except it was split down the middle, making it look like a siamese twin joined at the hips. The heads were round, and didn¡¯t seem to have any eyes, and had a long sinuous neck, ending in a maw filled with teeth. Its four front legs, two on the outside, and two on the inside of the split in its body, all ended in extremely sharp looking talons. I wasn¡¯t too impressed, until it moved. That thing was fast. I blinked in horror as it flew towards the team of adventurers escorting us, only for the tank in his full armor somehow getting between the monster and the leader, who the monster seemed to be aiming at. The monster and the tank impacted with a massive crash, and this time, the tank, while not sent flying, slid back maybe a meter, his feet digging furrows in the ground. I was busy watching the fight, with the tank constantly occupying one of the heads while the two warrior types occupied the other, when I heard a loud ¡°shit!¡± come from behind me. I turn around to see Lily facing off with one of those monsters with long fur which I still wasn¡¯t sure the name of was. I instantly write up a frostbite rune, and release it at the thing, only to see it shrug it off after maybe a second. I wince and switch to ice spears, but the second my first one hits, going in maybe a couple of inches into its body, it roars, and flings itself at us using its massive arms. I dodge to the left as Lily dodges to the right, and the thing turns on Lily, giving me free reign to release another pair of ice spears, which annoy it enough to switch targets back to me. Lily then casts a few of her lightning spells, and it turns back towards her until I hit it right in the neck with one of my ice spears. It turns back, looking furious, and I barely have enough time to down one of my mana potions before it¡¯s on me. Its first swing is scarily fast, and I barely manage to duck under the thing, glad it had aimed at my head instead of my body. As its arm flies past, I stab into it with my spear, but it only sinks in maybe an inch, even with the sharpness inscription. I wince, this isn¡¯t going to be a quick fight. The second swing I manage to dance back out of range of, but I¡¯m out of spear range and have to launch an ice spear instead, the spear sinking in a couple of inches into the arm that just barely missed me. The thing roars in rage again, and I notice that Lily is still bombarding it with spells, but even with the potions I¡¯d lent her, she couldn¡¯t last too much longer at the rate she was sending spells out. I pull my attention back to the monster as it swings again, and this time I have to leap as high as I can to avoid it, barely managing to land on my feet, and still stumbling, too off balance to get a good stab in. I do have enough time to imbue a sigil of toughness into my spear though, if I¡¯m not going to be able to dodge all of the hits, I want to at least not have my spear simply broken through. I do manage to dodge the next few hits though, ducking under some, backing out of range of one, and thankfully not having to jump over any more of them. The monster then raises an arm up and slams it down. I sidestep, and idly note that Lily seems to have run out of mana finally, as she¡¯s running up to start fighting in melee. I then stab out as hard as I can into the body of the mob, and finally get a satisfying depth to my stab, actually going in maybe five inches down the blade. I rip it out, and am rewarded with a good deal of blood splattering out along with it. I get a feral grin on my face as the monster roars yet again, but as it starts to attack even faster than before I stop being able to attack, when Lily finally gets into a good position and starts hacking away at the monster a couple times, before noticing that it barely cuts the thing, and she stops for a few seconds before trying again, this time cutting much more deeply, likely having imbued for sharpness sigils into her weapon. The monster turns on her, and I take the opening to stab in again, catching it in the side of its torso, and tearing a pretty deep slice as it turns, but nearly tearing my spear out of my hands as well.The monster roars, but keeps its focus on Lily, giving me free reign to imbue my spear with a sigil of sharpness in addition to the one of toughness, and start stabbing away, this time sinking my spear nearly the full length of the blade into the mob. The monster¡¯s fur is slowly being stained red by all the wounds, but rather than slow down, it almost seems to be getting faster, Lily is starting to be very strained dodging it at this point, so I try to take its attention, but it just seems to be ignoring me. Eventually, Lily missed one of her dodges, and takes a hit on her shield, which sends her flying. I curse, and begin to worry. Hopefully she¡¯s conscious and can take one of the health pots I¡¯d given to her, but the monster seems to still be focused on her. Luckily, I can run faster than it can drag itself, at least with how wounded its arms are, and I manage to get between it and Lily, sprinting in and hoping I can stop it, or at least slow it down enough that Lily can get up. The monster stares at me for a second before slamming its arm through the space where I was, having stepped back out of range. I instantly step back in and stab into its face, only to have it turn away and only catch its shoulder with my blade. I seem to have grabbed its attention though, as it slams one of its oversized arms down at me, then swings its other arm across, forcing me to step to the side then back to avoid them, and not leaving me any space to get a stab in. I continue to keep up this dance with the monster, always stepping back into its range after a dodge to keep it from moving forward and getting to Lily, and start getting worried, Lily should be up by now right? I glance back only to have my worry turn to annoyance. Lily seems to be just watching me fight the monster, but when she notices me seeing her, she instantly turns a bit red, gets up and joins the fight. I hold back my irritation as we slowly whittle down the monster that is finally starting to slow down, and once it¡¯s finally dead I let out my frustration. ¡°What the hell were you doing? I was up here fighting for you to have enough time to get up and you were just watching?¡± ¡°I was just¡­ I¡¯m sorry.¡± She eventually says, having turned a light shade of red. ¡°If you¡¯re so embarrassed about it, why didn¡¯t you just join the fight earlier?¡± She turns a darker shade of red and doesn¡¯t answer, so I shake my head and turn away, unwilling to talk to her for now. We then notice the rest of the adventurers standing around, their hunt clearly finished, and they all seem to be smiling at our little interaction. ¡°So turns out you two have some moxie after all,¡± The leader lets out, a smile on his face. ¡°Thought you two were a pair of cowards with how quickly you agreed to have an escort¡± I tilted my head to the side, of course we would want an escort when the forest had five star mobs like the one the group of adventurers had just faced. ¡°I mean, we sort of need an escort, you guys killed the thing we just spent a good half an hour fighting in a couple of minutes. And that¡¯s completely excluding the five star mobs.¡± ¡°Well I know you need one, but you sort of lose face as an adventurer to admit it,¡± The man said. ¡°I¡¯ve never been much worried about my image though, I just wanted to get to the gate,¡± i say. ¡°Gate? You mean the crack in the air?¡± I wince, I¡¯d tried to avoid calling it a gate in front of them, but I figure they would probably have found out about it eventually. ¡°It¡¯s how we hope to get home. We came through one of them, now we want to go back through another one.¡± The man seemed a bit confused, but nodded, before gesturing for us to come over with the group as we continue our walk, but I ask him to wait a second and harvest my monster first, even though there may be no one on our world who could turn it into something useful. Once I finish, I actually join the other group, and they seem to be actually willing to chat with us. Apparently they had just seen us as two cowards who wanted to pay to get to our goal, so they had been completely ignoring us. The rest of the day was spent chatting with the group of adventurers, who apparently didn¡¯t have a name for their group. When asked why, they said they simply weren¡¯t strong enough to have a name. They said once they started to hunt six star mobs they could be considered to be one of the most powerful groups, and that¡¯s when they would get named by the guild. Wondering why the guild doesn¡¯t just let you use your own names, we set up camp and go to bed, Lily and I in our small ward net, and the unnamed group of adventurers in a much larger one. The next morning comes seemingly the second my head hits my pillow, and soon I¡¯m packing up my tent and bedding into my wonderful magical backpack, and we¡¯re off to see the spot where they found the gate. It¡¯s about midday when we arrive, and I let out a breath I¡¯d been holding in when I see it¡¯s still there. Lily and I look at each other, then tried to hand over the money we owed, only to be refused, even after we insisted. Thanking them for the help, we both step through the gate, and hopefully back to our own world. Chapter 34: Aftermath We emerge from the gate in a forest not too unlike the one we had just left, but the trees did seem somewhat different, so I was hoping that we were back to our world. I would¡¯ve taken out my phone to check the reception, but with how long we had been in the other world they were completely dead. We slowly walked along in the forest, with the occasional monster attack to break up the monotony, but there was nothing that was remotely challenging, mainly three star mobs we¡¯d become used to hunting. Eventually, the sun started to set, and we started to set up our campsite for the night. With the ward net set up, a small fire in the middle, and some craw meat roasting over the fire to give us something warm to eat, we sat around in silence, both of us worried about if we were in our world, or if we were, where in the world were we. I¡¯d noticed that the game seemed to have spawned most the people nearby into Ederheim, and the portal had taken us to Kurheim, so I was hoping that in some way the locations were connected, but I couldn¡¯t be sure until we found some sign of humanity, and that was still assuming that we were in our world. The night¡¯s sleep was not a restful one, waking up regularly, even with the comfortable bedding I¡¯d purchased. Eventually, I got out of bed as the sun started to rise, and noticed Lily already awake and starting a new fire, dark circles visible under her eyes. We cooked some more craw meat mostly in silence before getting up, packing up the site, and getting back to our walk. My worry continued to grow as we walked, but just as a very tense feeling started to rise in my chest, I spotted it. It was a road, and not of the cobblestone or pseudo concrete varieties you would see in game, it was clearly made of asphalt, glorious asphalt. I never thought I¡¯d be so glad to see something as mundane as a road, but I was exulting inside, my shoulders sagging downward in relief. I barely kept my dignity as I slowly walked to the road, and noticed lily with a bright smile, completely different from her normal cold attitude she tended to show. We both arrived at the road, then played a game of rock paper scissors to decide which way to go, with me losing of course, complete with a smirk from Lily. For once however, it seemed more playful than arrogant, probably due to the excitement from discovering we were back. We continued our walk, this time following the road, and it wasn¡¯t too long until we hit the first street sign, and I did a mental fist pump, I recognized the street name! It was a main thoroughfare that went through my town, though with our current location, I had no idea which way we should go to get back. I mentioned that I recognized the street name to Lily, and got what was almost a smile from her. We then continued our walk, when the road turned into another road, whose name I didn¡¯t recognize, and we realized we had been heading the wrong way after all. Feeling a bit vindicated about my choice in rock paper scissors, I gave my own smirk to Lily with a snide ¡°Seems we went the wrong way,¡± only to get a light hmph, and have her turn away a bit. We then turned around, and went back to walking, punctuated by the occasional monster attack, luckily with no four star mobs, as I wasn¡¯t totally comfortable fighting them yet, even if we¡¯d fought one already. Eventually, the forest around us started to fade into a commercial district, littered with different shops and gas stations. Disturbingly, nobody seemed to be out, only monsters, in a much higher concentration than they had been in the forest, and most the stores which should be well lit were dim. The occasional store had lights on, but I could clearly see the solar panels up top, it seemed the electricity grid was down, at least for our area. Even with the advent of most homes having solar panels, many big businesses hadn¡¯t taken to having them installed, for some reason not willing to put in the initial investment even if it would save them money long term. We fought our way through the deserted streets, and soon turned down the street that had my apartment complex on it, and what should have been a ten minute walk turned into an hour long slog, with constant fighting with monsters as the density of them increased. I continued to worry about the lack of people, but there was nothing I could do about it for now. Eventually, we reached my apartment, and we locked the door, which had somehow been left hanging open. I was sure I had locked it before heading out to hunt around a month ago, but clearly someone had gotten in, somehow without breaking it down, possibly the landlord. I flipped the light switch to have a pleasant surprise, it turned on! I knew that there were solar panels above each of the housing units, but I still hadn¡¯t been sure it would be enough to power anything. I looked around my now lit home, and luckily, all of my furniture was where it should be. When I went to raid the kitchen for some proper earth food, I was disappointed, the kitchen had clearly been raided for anything that wasn¡¯t perishable, and when I opened the fridge, a horrible smell assailed me, apparently the power that was enough for the lights couldn¡¯t handle the compressor powering the fridge. I closed the fridge door, and searched around some more, eventually finding some ramen in a hard to reach cupboard that I had forgotten I even had, and we were soon outside with a pot and some of the water we had in our backpacks, starting a fire to boil some water for our pitiful home meal. The meal was a bit pitiful, but it tasted of home, and was as delicious as instant ramen could ever be. Once we had finished our meal, we packed up our gear before heading back into my apartment. We were soon discussing what was going to happen. ¡°I don¡¯t know what happened to the people, but I didn¡¯t see any bodies, they probably evacuated somewhere before the monster wave hit. Anyway, I don¡¯t really have anywhere to go, my family is all out of state, and I have no way of finding out if they¡¯re even ok. They were fine before the monster waves, but now I don¡¯t know.¡± After mentioning that, I slowly faded into silence. Now that we were safe and back home, I was starting to come to terms with the fact that my family may not be safe. ¡°Anyway, is there anywhere you want to go? I figured I¡¯ll stick with you until we find some more people.¡±Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon. ¡°I need to get to the city, that¡¯s where my father will be, and I¡¯m sure he¡¯s just been worried sick about me.¡± She hesitated a bit before continuing. ¡°I just hope he¡¯s safe.¡± ¡°I¡¯m sure he¡¯ll be fine, the military was watching over the city, so it¡¯s probably well protected.¡± I raised my hand to pat her on the back before hesitating, unsure if she¡¯d take offence. Eventually, I decided that even people like Lily needed comfort sometimes, and I gave her a few pats on the back, not even getting a glare in return, Lily just staring downward with a gloomy expression. Soon we were going to bed, Lily refusing my offer to have my bed, making me thankful I wouldn¡¯t be the one sleeping on the floor, and we set up the ward net before heading to sleep, both of us sleeping in the same room in case of any sort of emergency. I slowly drifted off to sleep, so comfortable to be back in my own bed, even if we were going to have to find out what we were going to do in the coming days. I woke up before Lily, and snacked on some of the travel rations we had packed before waking her up. She got up looking disheveled, and seemed to flush a bit as she noticed the state she was in, glaring at me until I left the room for her to get ready. I¡¯d only ever seen her after she¡¯d gotten ready in her tent, so I was quite surprised at how she had clearly been getting herself ready before leaving her tent. We were soon packed up and started our walk, but not before picking a ton of leaves off of my plants, which had somehow survived without me watering them, to make more potions. We were going to head to the city, hoping that was where everybody had evacuated to. Our walk was punctuated with monster attacks, but we had enough time to rest between fights, our endurance making sure we wouldn¡¯t get too exhausted. We¡¯d made it a decent distance, when I spotted something in the distance, and pointed it out to Lily, the both of us hoping it was what it seemed to be. As we approached, we soon realized that our hopes had been answered, it was a group of people out hunting monsters, though they seemed to be having trouble with even the three star monsters, struggling as a group to fight them off. Lily and I soon got closer, casting frostbite on the molts they were in a fight with, not wanting to be accused of kill stealing even if this was out of game. I shook my head, that was a weird thought to have, expecting people to get annoyed at help, but I wouldn¡¯t put it past some people, thinking pointedly of Lily. When they had finished off their mobs, they hailed us, and we closed in to talk. ¡°Thanks for the help, those things are always trouble. I haven¡¯t seen you guys with the militia, where did you come from?¡± We just arrived in this town recently, we came from¡­¡± I hesitated, I wasn¡¯t totally willing to tell someone that we¡¯d been living in the game world, even if they could probably infer it from our backpacks and armor. ¡°Out of town,¡± I lamely finished, feeling as awkward as I probably sounded. ¡°It¡¯s rare to see anyone that survived from out of town, we¡¯ve got a gathering of people at the town hall, would you mind coming with us? We would appreciate the help.¡± ¡°We¡¯re heading to the city, we have no time for visiting the rest of you,¡± Lily commandeered the conversation. I glared at her for a bit, I wasn¡¯t particularly interested in joining the group either, at least for now, but I would have appreciated her saying so with at least a bit more tact. ¡°We would like some information though, what happened to all of the people?¡± I asked. The guy seemed to get a massive glare on his face after our refusal, but it was gone as soon as I saw it, and he was soon replying to my question. ¡°Most of the town evacuated to the city, but a decent chunk of us are staying near and in the town hall. You should come join us.¡± I thanked him, but refused his offer to come with him and started walking away, when he grabbed my shoulder, saying ¡°you really should come with us though, it can be quite dangerous out there alone,¡± clearly leering at Lily while he did so.¡± I wasn¡¯t sure how to respond, so I simply took a large step forward, dragging him almost completely off his feet with the large amount of strength I had over him, something he clearly didn¡¯t expect from his expression. I hid my grin a that, he¡¯d probably expected me to be the average mage from my spell casting earlier, and then I continued to walk away, the man glaring at us as we left. ¡°Well that was¡­ Bizarre.¡± I mentioned to Lily. ¡°Hmph, He clearly didn¡¯t recognize his place.¡± She responded in a haughty tone. I shook my head, and we continued our walk, easily dispatching the monsters that we ran into, though I kept spotting the group that we had run into, seemingly following us for some reason. I shook off the feeling that something was off, and simply continued hunting, and when the sun was getting close to setting, I stopped seeing them. Deciding to listen a bit to the off feeling I got, we continued on for a while after the sun set, and I noticed something I hadn¡¯t paid attention to before. I could see much more clearly in the dark than I had been able to before. I¡¯d wondered what the senses stat did, and it seemed I had a partial answer. I wondered then if my vision had gotten better as a whole. I hadn¡¯t noticed anything particularly different, but then again the increase in it had been very gradual. Deciding to think about it tomorrow after I got some rest, we set up the campsite and went to bed, slowly meditating myself into my not quite sleep. The next morning we got up and continued our trek, easily handling any monsters that we ran into , but about halfway through the day, I started to spot another group of people, who just happened to stay within a reasonable distance of us. I wasn¡¯t sure if they were trying to follow us and just doing a very poor job of it, or if they just felt safer being near other people, but regardless, I pointed them out to Lily, mentioning that we should probably try and ditch them, and we sped up to get away from them. We quickly lost them, as they had to spend much more time on the monsters, and when we wanted to pull some distance we could just run around the monsters, our agility high enough that we could just outrun them. After we stopped seeing them for a while, we slowed back down, only to run into another group. This time, they were even more blatant in their shadowing of us, but again, they were relatively slow, and we easily left them behind. The rest of the day passed with me starting to be quite nervous. I didn¡¯t know how much order there still was after the monster waves, and I¡¯d read enough apocalypse fiction that I wasn¡¯t going to trust that group whatsoever. We eventually stopped seeing anyone, and went to bed, but not before setting up our ward net, glad that it would hide us from anything not looking specifically for the campsite, humans included. I wasn¡¯t sure precisely how it worked, but monsters and humans would seem to just naturally walk around it, though I¡¯d seen a few adventurers notice my campsite even with the ward net up. The night was not a restful one, even with my meditation calming me down to my pseudo sleep, and in the morning I was greeted by Lily, who clearly had slept around as well as I had. We packed up quickly, Lily complaining about having to pack her own stuff up, and were soon on our way, looking around more carefully than before. Chapter 35: Civilization After a while, it seemed our watchers had finally disappeared. I kept looking around, but they never seemed to show up, so I shrugged it off and went back to paying attention to the pitiful monsters we were facing. There never seemed to be any large groups of them, so all the fights were completed without an issue. We even switched to using our melee weapons more than our spells as we no longer needed to move quickly. When the sun was about halfway down the sky, the monsters started to thin out further, and we started seeing only orbs and the occasional warg, neither of which would go out of their way to attack us for some reason. I knew that orbs were relatively docile outside of a monster wave, but wargs had always been very aggressive, leading me to think that they had some way to sense how strong we were. Eventually, the monsters disappeared entirely, and we could see the city in the distance, but as the sun was almost down we decided to set up camp instead of continuing on. After setting up the ward net, we cooked up the last of the ramen that I had found, and went to bed. The next day was filled with a bit of giddiness about our return to a true gathering point for humanity, or at least the first large group of it. Our pace had picked up, and it wasn¡¯t long until we ran into someone, a group of patrolling soldiers. ¡°Halt and state your business!¡± they shouted from a good distance away. We continued towards them, until they raised their guns, so I put my hands up and decided to just shout back, when Lily decided to do the shouting instead. ¡°I¡¯m going to the city to meet my father, what reason do you have for stopping us?¡± She was back to using her regal tone of voice she liked so much, I idly noted. The guy seemed to look a little bashful, and had his men put down their guns before approaching. ¡°Sorry about that, we just haven¡¯t had anyone approach from this direction so we got a bit nervous. We even had a few soldiers who were sent out to scout disappear. We¡¯ll escort you to the city. Lily and I nodded, and we were soon on our way. ¡°Where did you get those weapons and armor by the way?¡± The man asked after a bit, clearly curious about the upgrades we had gotten while we were on the other side. ¡°I¡¯d tell you, but you wouldn¡¯t believe me.¡± I mentioned in a joking tone of voice. ¡°Try me,¡± the guy replied. I took a deep breath and decided to explain something that he likely wouldn¡¯t believe. ¡°Well, you know how the update is basically the game world invading our own?¡± The man thought a bit before giving a reply. ¡°I¡¯ve heard that it was very similar to the game, and a lot of the people who played it believe it¡¯s the game world invading, but I have yet to see any sort of proof, it¡¯s all just speculation.¡± I turned the corner of my mouth down, this guy probably wouldn¡¯t believe what I was going to say, but a few of the other soldiers seemed more interested, so I continued. ¡°Well it¡¯s technically not an invasion from the game world. There¡¯s three worlds at work here, there¡¯s the world the monsters are coming from, the game world, and ours.¡± I took a short breath before continuing. ¡°The monsters are invading through what I¡¯ve started calling ¡®gates¡¯ into our world, though they also seem to be spawning too, likely a side effect of the constant mist. Anyway, there are other gates which lead to the game world, though I guess I shouldn¡¯t be calling it a game world at this point. We got trapped over there, and only recently got back. We got our gear there.¡± I finished. The man looked at me skeptically, but simply shrugged and decided to ignore my implausible tale. ¡°Well your gear is definitely interesting, especially that spear of yours.¡± He mentioned. We¡¯d managed to hunt another king class craw while we were on the other side, which had been much easier this time due to there being two of us, and with our higher stats than in game, and it¡¯s claws had been made into another spear for me, and a sword for Lily. Both of which we had eventually decided to enchant with toughness runes, as keeping it from breaking seemed to be a better decision than just making it cut things more easily. Our armor wasn¡¯t anything special, just molt plate armor but it was enchanted with toughness, and I thought it may even be able to stop low caliber guns, though I wasn¡¯t ready to test such a theory when I only had the one set. The rest of the walk was spent chit chatting about random things, and I got to find out that the part of the city that held the residents had power, as a nearby solar plant was up and running, and regularly patrolled. We arrived at the city after not too long, and the soldiers gave us a farewell before heading back out. I wondered for a bit where we were going before Lily gave a short ¡°Follow me,¡± and I was soon following her through the empty streets, amused by the skip she had in her step. The empty streets soon gave way to groups of people, and I felt my shoulders sink in relaxation to finally be back someplace that had a large amount of people. I walked along after Lily, soon starting to weave through the crowds. Eventually, the crowds started to thin out, and we soon arrived at a tall building that wasn¡¯t big enough to be a skyscraper. It had a unique shape, looking like a less curved half moon attached to a rectangle. We soon walked up to the doors, where two guards greeted Lily. ¡°Miss,¡± they said in unison, standing up a bit straighter in their security guard uniforms. ¡°Carry on,¡± Lily replied in her haughty tone. I shrugged, and was going to follow her in, when the guards moved to stop me, until Lily gave a short ¡°He¡¯s with me,¡± while giving a withering glare to the guards. I held in a chuckle at how they seemed to wilt a bit at her glare, and was soon inside the building with Lily. ¡°So where to now?¡± I asked. ¡°To the top floor of course,¡± Lily replied. We then headed over to the elevator, as if the city had power as the soldier had said, it should be working with no problems. After pressing the button, it lit up, and I relaxed, I wasn¡¯t going to be stuck taking the stairs. The elevator arrived, and we both stepped in.Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere. Lily soon took a card out of her backpack, and inserted it into a small slot under the buttons. I was curious, but assumed it allowed her to reach the top floor of the building, so gave it no further thought. We soon arrived, and the doors opened to a small room. Lily took out her little card again and inserted it into the door, and soon after I heard the click of the lock disengaging. She turned the handle, and opened the door into a large living room, complete with widescreen TV, which was turned on. When we entered, a tall, skinny man turned around, and I saw a very severe face, which instantly broke out into a massive smile as he saw Lily. he ran over and hugged her immediately. ¡°Dad, stop,¡± Lily said in the most childish voice I had ever heard from her. I blinked, she actually seemed cute for once in her life. ¡°Not yet,¡± he said, with a sad tone in his voice. ¡°I¡¯m glad you¡¯re ok¡± After maybe a minute of the touching reunion, with me feeling terribly awkward being there, he finally turned to me, getting a mischievous grin on his face as he announced ¡°So Lily, I see you finally brought a man over to our house, how long have you been dating?¡± I mentally facepalmed, and the both of us turned red as Lily shouted ¡°We¡¯re not like that dad!¡± The grin faded a bit and he commented. ¡°So another of your lackeys then?¡± Lily seemed visibly annoyed at the fact that the group she had been with before had been referred to as lackeys, but shook her head before replying. ¡°He¡¯s just¡­¡± I wondered while she searched for an appropriate word, what were we really? Acquaintances? Friends? Hunting partners? Lily eventually settled on ¡°a friend.¡± My eyes widened a bit, I hadn¡¯t expected her to go with that, but then again I was honestly surprised she hadn¡¯t classified me as lackey. Her father seemed to have a grin back on his face, and came over and slapped my back. ¡°Congratulations, I think that you¡¯re the second person to be classified as a friend!¡± her dad mentioned, and I instantly felt bad, I guess Lily really was sort of trapped by being a rich girl and minor Viewtube celebrity, where everyone seemed to be after her simply for her position rather than trying to be friends with her. At the same time, I wondered who the first person was. Lily seemed to have turned bright red, I guess for everyone parents are embarrassing, though her dad seemed to be a bit worse than most. ¡°I¡¯m John, pleasure to meet you.¡± he held his hand out for a shake which I took, and he soon continued. ¡°Anyway, make yourself at home. There¡¯s food in the fridge, and a couple spare rooms if you¡¯re going to spend the night.¡± I was flabbergasted, this man seemed to have absolutely zero troubles letting a complete unknown into his house. Eventually, I shrugged, and followed Lily as she made a beeline to the surprisingly large kitchen. She was instantly cooking up something with well practiced motions. I was honestly surprised, I hadn¡¯t expected the rich girl to have any clue how to do mundane things such as cooking. She seemed to notice my expression, and got a bit of an annoyed look on her face, as she deadpanned to me ¡°Yes, I can cook. I¡¯ll make enough for both of us, just go sit down.¡± It felt weird, just waiting for her to cook us something, but I eventually thought of something, and decided to ask. ¡°Do you know if there would be any chargers for our phones here? I really want to see if we have any service.¡± She pointed at one of the rooms, mentioning it would be in a box on the left, and I entered a small storage closet. I dug through the bins, and soon found what I was looking for, then went over and plugged my phone into the wall. While I waited for it to charge, I sat down, and Lily soon arrived with two spinach, ham and cheese omelettes. My mouth was watering, and we both soon dug into our food. It was quite delicious, and I finished off mine in non time at all, before leaning back in satisfaction. ¡°That was delicious, thanks for the meal,¡± I off-handedly thanked her, still distracted by the feeling of having earth cooked food. The other world had eggs, but they just didn¡¯t taste right, so I was glad to have some chicken eggs again. Lily seemed similarly satisfied, and we just sat there for a while. Lily eventually shook off the lethargy, and mentioned. ¡°Follow me, I¡¯ll show you to your room.¡± She wrinkled her nose, then changed her mind. ¡°Actually, you should probably go take a shower first.¡± I slowly got up and lurched after her, wanting to just go into a food coma, but knowing I really did need to be cleaned, I hadn¡¯t since my last stay in an Inn in the other world. We soon arrived, and Lily left me to my own devices. I instantly hopped in a shower, and set the water to just painful enough for me to bear it, and groaned from pleasure. Showers were another thing that had yet to be invented in the other world, at least in the portions I had been to, and taking one was heavenly. I was out of the shower all too soon, and I dressed in one of the spare clothing sets I had lying in my backpack. I then went out to see Lily and her dad talking, and when she notice me, she mentioned something unusual. ¡°My dad says we¡¯ve only been gone for around a week and a half.¡± ¡°That¡¯s¡­ Impossible. We were gone for over a month.¡± Her dad looked between the two of us before mentioning ¡°well it¡¯s only been around a week and a half, I don¡¯t know what happened with you two, but that¡¯s how long it¡¯s been for us.¡± I wondered for a bit, then remembered an important piece of information, when playing sanity online, time ran faster by four times. I decided that had to be what was causing it. But why did the gates work without any trouble then? They had to be an area where time was distorted or something. I mentioned my theory to Lily, and she hesitantly agreed. I then decided to drop the subject, and Lily was soon showing me to what would be my room before heading off to shower herself. I went into the room and flopped down on the bed, I needed a nap on a real bed. My eyes were closed within seconds, and I didn¡¯t even bother working on the flow of my mana to meditate myself to sleep. I was woken up by knocking on the door, and I opened it with disheveled hair to see Lily in a proper dress rather than the trousers she normally wore for combat. I looked her over once, thinking she looked quite adorable when she wasn''t cursing out anyone. She frowned a bit for some reason, and mentioned ¡°It¡¯s dinner time.¡± and I was soon following her, as good food would get me to follow anyone. I arrived, and was greeted with steak and potatoes, making my mouth water, I¡¯d eaten a lot of craw meat, and mystery meat from the vendors in town, but a proper steak was something I could really get behind. We were soon digging in, each of us focusing on the food rather than conversation, and when we all started to wind down eating, John decided to start the conversation. ¡°So what were a young guy and girl doing together while missing?¡± He said in a clearly teasing manner. I noticed Lily turning bright red again, and I may have darkened a shade as well, but I decided to just give him an overview of what had happened. After my lengthy explanation, he leaned back. ¡°This is a lot to take in. Is there any way you could prove it¡¯s real?¡± I looked to Lily, then went and grabbed my backpack, it would be the best example. I then continued to show him how it worked, and took out a few gold coins for him to examine, leaving him very surprised at me having real gold. I figured that was a good enough proof, and left him with a thoughtful look on his face. I then realized I could probably have shown the backpack to the soldier, but then again, I didn¡¯t want it ¡®confiscated¡¯ in the name of the war effort. I then decided to ask something that had been nagging me. ¡°So how did the city survive the monster wave anyway?¡± ¡°The army just took down basically all of the monsters, with a few people like you helping out in the fight. Don¡¯t tell anyone, but they¡¯re basically out of ammunition, and when they finally run out, there¡¯s going to be a lot of trouble. Most people are relying on the meat of those small round monsters to stay fed, and the army is the one hunting them.¡± I frowned, I didn¡¯t know these people, but I didn¡¯t want them to starve. I could probably contribute a bit to the food effort, but what I could add would just be a drop in the bucket. And that wasn¡¯t saying anything about when the army ran out of ammunition and the next monster wave hit. We needed to get everyone willing out hunting immediately, even just teaching everyone the force bolt spell and having them gang up to instantly kill an orb would help. I mentioned as much to John, but he shrugged his shoulders, mentioning ¡°people just want to be protected, they don¡¯t want to change their way of life.¡± I got an annoyed look on my face, if people planned on just sitting around, they were going to die the next monster wave if the army ran out of ammo. Eventually, I decided on a course of action, I was going to teach the army some spell patterns. I decided to do that tomorrow though, as even with my nap I was starting to nod off, so I headed off to my room and crashed on the bed, this time staying aware enough to slowly focus the mana in my body along its path before slowly letting my mind drift away, into a state that wasn¡¯t quite sleep. Chapter 36: Reunion I rose the next morning feeling quite refreshed from my rest, and got out of bed, quickly dressing up before leaving the room to take care of my morning needs. By the time I got out of the restroom, I noticed Lily exiting her room with a large yawn, so I just gave her a wave before heading to where I had left my phone charging. I grabbed it off of the counter, and turned it on, waiting a bit for the small startup animation to finish, and then ended with a sigh. While there was a wifi connection, there was no cell service whatsoever. I had been expecting as much, but I had still been hopeful that I could make some calls to my family and friends. At this point John had come out, and was having a bowl of cereal, an awfully plain breakfast for someone who could¡¯ve easily have afforded a personal cook. ¡°So it seems there¡¯s no cell service. I¡¯m assuming the internet is also down?¡± I asked. ¡°Yeah, the city wifi is up, but it doesn¡¯t have any connection to the rest of the world. Someone managed to set it up so there¡¯s access to our own copy of the wiki though, so at least we have a good deal of information.¡± He handed over the ip address of the wiki, and I hopped on, but didn¡¯t find anything new, so quickly hopped off before having my own bowl of cereal. At this point, Lily had finished her own morning ritual, and joined us at the table. We chatted for a while, and when we were done I mentioned something that I had been planning on doing before going to see the military to try and convince them to learn some spells for when they run out of ammo. ¡°I was planning on looking for my group today. Lily, you want to join me or try and find your own lackeys?¡± I say in a tone that wasn¡¯t quite joking. Lily sighed a bit before answering. ¡°I guess I¡¯ll look for my group¡± she said, putting emphasis on the term group. I nodded, then decided it was about time to get going. I was soon packed up and ready to go when John decided to speak up. ¡°Feel free to stay here for now if you¡¯d like, The housing situation is really packed if you stay with the communal groups. I thanked him, deciding to take him up on his offer, as it was extremely comfortable here, the bed had been amazingly soft. Why on earth he had multiple beds up here was certainly worth finding out later, but for now I was going to head out and try to find my group. I was soon in the more crowded part of town, and I hesitated a moment before stopping a random person and asking them. ¡°Where would I find the militia?¡± assuming that my group would have joined up with the defenses. The man guided me off in a direction I think was eastwards, and after memorizing a few street names I was off. I soon arrived at an office building looking like any other office building, but with a large stream of people heading in and out of it, all of whom had weapons of some kind, and a few sporting different types of armor. Walking in with all my gear stored in my backpack, I looked quite out of place, but I was soon asking around to find Rachel, Elizabeth, and Lars. It takes quite some time, but eventually I get a tip from one of the people I¡¯ve asked, and I headed upstairs to the room they mentioned. I finally arrive at the room I was directed to, and headed on in, spotting the group, along with two others I didn¡¯t recognize all chatting. I waved to get their attention before heading over, and grin at seeing their surprise to be seeing me. It may be a bit dark getting amusement at them having likely thought I was dead, but I did regardless. I¡¯m soon before them, and I give an awkward ¡°I¡¯m back¡±, when Rachel impacts my chest in a hug. My eyes widen in surprise, I hadn¡¯t thought that me going missing would have affected any of them quite so much, but then again, they¡¯d probably seen a good deal of people with them die in the monster wave, and seeing one of them alive was sure to be a relief. I pat Rachel¡¯s back and then she separates from me, rachel having turned a bit red from embarrassment at her actions. Lars is the first to speak up. ¡°I can¡¯t believe you survived that, what happened?¡± ¡°Well you know the tear in the air that we found when we were out there? We went through that. Turns out the game world isn¡¯t just a game world after all. It¡¯s where the gate went.¡± They all look at me a bit disbelievingly, so I turn around my backpack, and pull out my new spear from the backpack which it shouldn¡¯t fit in. ¡°Wait, you have a game backpack!?¡± I shush them and look around, the room is actually empty except for us, but I don¡¯t want to spread the news too much. I¡¯m willing to share the news about the game world, but I don¡¯t want the military confiscating my backpack in the name of research, even if I¡¯ve been doing research on how to make my own. I look askance at the two people I don¡¯t recognize, and decide to ask about them. ¡°So who are the two I don¡¯t recognize?¡± Lars grins before answering. ¡°Well the tall girl is Sydney, and the guy is Jake. You¡¯d know them better as Aylea and Dark though.¡± ¡°Wait, I thought they were sitting out the fighting?¡± ¡°Well we were, but then the monster wave happened. Sitting at home isn¡¯t safe anymore with more of them possibly happening, so we decided to join up with the militia. We¡¯re a bit behind in levels, but we plan on making them up as soon as possible,¡± Sydney answers. I nod, a bit distracted, I¡¯d thought her avatar was beautiful, but her real self is even more so. Shaking my head and very pointedly avoiding staring at her, I decide to ask about what exactly the militia is doing. ¡°So what¡¯re your duties as militia anyway, just fighting off the monster waves?¡± This time Liz is the one to answer. ¡°We¡¯re mainly hunting actually. Once the populace found out that orb meat is both edible and surprisingly healthy, it¡¯s how we¡¯ve been feeding the population. We¡¯ll need to make an outpost of some farms eventually, but as is, the hunting is keeping us well enough fed.¡±Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere. I think back to the tasty meal I¡¯d had with John and Lily. John clearly had some pull with the populace, even after the update, to have normal food rather than the orb steaks I imagine everyone else eating. ¡°So were you going to go hunting anytime soon?¡± I ask after a bit of silence. ¡°We actually were planning on taking today off. And I¡¯ve been meaning to ask, you said we went through the hole in the air, who joined you?¡± Lars asked ¡°Lily actually. She¡¯s off finding her own group of lackeys at the moment.¡± ¡°Oh? So you mean you were together with a cute girl for a week? Did you have fun?¡± Elizabeth asks, being terribly obvious with her implications. I give her a flat look, clearly stating that nothing happened, before mentioning something. ¡°It wasn¡¯t a week or so actually, it was around a month our time, the time difference from in game carries over into real life, the two worlds are going on different speeds. ¡°Oh? A whole month? And absolutely nothing happened?¡± Liz continued, clearly not having gotten the message I¡¯d tried to send her with my earlier look. I sigh before replying, ignoring that rachel had turned a bit red again from the comments, seemingly innocent to be embarrassed from the mild teasing. ¡°She may be cute, but her personality is the exact opposite, you try spending a month with her.¡± Liz laughs and pats me on the shoulder before continuing her teasing. ¡°Don¡¯t worry, I¡¯m sure you¡¯ll get some eventually.¡± I sigh yet again, and look to the others for rescue, but only notice Lars and Jake having a similar reaction to me, with rachel simply being red, and Sydney seemingly holding in a laugh. With Lars¡¯ and Jake¡¯s expressions, I have to assume I¡¯m not the only one who¡¯s been put through this, so I simply sigh again before asking something I was wondering about. ¡°So has anyone tried to teach the military any spells? They¡¯re going to run out of ammo eventually, and I doubt every single one of them is going to focus on being a close quarters fighter.¡± ¡°Well basically everyone can cast force bolt now, and a lot of the military people have learned some basic spells, but it¡¯s on their own time, there¡¯s been no big movement from their leaders to try and push them into learning spells.¡± ¡°Well I¡¯ll see what I can do, Maybe I can get in contact with the people who were interested in inscriptions and try and convince them to have a decent portion of the military learn spells. Hopefully the soldiers haven¡¯t all put all their spell points into strength and agility already. Any ideas on where I should go to do that?¡± ¡°Well the military is housed on the edge of the city, so I¡¯d go there if you want to try and convince them. We¡¯ve got nothing planned, everyone okay heading along with Roland?¡± Lars asks the group. Everyone nods, and we all set out, hopefully to talk some sense into the military. First however, I make everyone come along with me as I drop off my backpack at the front desk of John¡¯s building, not wanting it to get confiscated. I take out some ink I¡¯d made, the same stuff the mage¡¯s guild uses to make their written down patterns. We arrive at the military¡¯s base of operations without much trouble, and are stopped by some guards at the front. I step forward after being asked what our business is. ¡°I¡¯d like to see someone about teaching spells, I can give you written copies of the spell patterns for teaching people how to write them. Tell them I¡¯m the guy who helped them with enchantments.¡± The man simply looked at me with a bland expression, but thankfully radioed in to someone higher up in the command chain. While waiting, I shifted from foot, still nervous about this even though it was my second time working with the military. It didn¡¯t take too long until the same woman who had led me around last time walked through the doors, seemingly to the guard¡¯s surprise from his expression as he saluted her. I hadn¡¯t caught her name last time, so before she greeted us, I got her last name off of her nametag. ¡°Hello again Roland, So what¡¯s this about spell patterns being written down. As far as we¡¯re aware they simply destroy any paper they¡¯re written on.¡± ¡°Nice to see you again Mrs. Simms, and for written spell patterns, so long as you use the right ink you can write them down fine. I can do some ice spell patterns for you, but you¡¯ll need to find someone else for other patterns.¡± She nodded, curtly correcting me with a ¡°Ms.¡±, and gestured for me to follow, only pausing to agree when I asked if the group could come with me. They all had to leave their weapons at the front, but they were allowed. I was soon in a room with all the serious faces I¡¯d seen last time, before they began their questions. ¡°So you say you can write down spell patterns for us.¡± I nodded, and the stern faced man continued. ¡°And why would we even need that?¡± ¡°Well you¡¯re sure to run out of ammo eventually, and having your troops trained with magic, or at least some of them trained in magic could help in any battle.¡± The man thought for a moment before asking another question. ¡°What spell patterns can you write down for us?¡± ¡°Well I can only give you the spell patterns for first and second circle spells. That would be ice spear, ice shatter, frostbite, and ice wall.¡± The man then nodded, before agreeing to my proposition. ¡°Well get us as many copies of each as you can, we¡¯re aware of how to train our troops from there.¡± I relaxed a bit, apparently I was the only one who could provide spell patterns as of now, and I doubted that was going to change anytime soon, but at least the military would fare better now after they ran out of ammo. The rest of the day was spent writing spell patterns down, while my group was escorted around what had become the military base, a few buildings which had been surrounded by fences with barbed wire running over the top of them. Eventually I finished, right around the time the group was done sightseeing, and we notified Ms. Simms of our departure. She guided us to the gates, and we were soon headed back to the building we had met up in. Once we arrived, I mentioned it was about time for us to part ways, when Rachel piped up. ¡°Well if you don¡¯t have a place to stay, you could stay here for now, I¡¯m sure the militia wouldn¡¯t mind having another person.¡± ¡°I actually have a place to stay for now. Thanks for the offer though.¡± ¡°Where are you staying?¡± she asked. I hesitated for a while, if I mentioned where I was staying Liz was sure to pipe up with more of her teasing, but eventually I decided I should just be truthful and put up with it. ¡°I¡¯m staying with Lily¡¯s dad, he has extra space, so I¡¯m gonna stay there for now.¡± Liz looked at me, a grin slowly crawling its way across her face. ¡°And nothing happened. Suuuuuure,¡± she drawled. I winced. ¡°Seriously, there¡¯s nothing between us. Though I guess you could count us as friends at this point, even with her princess attitude.¡± Liz just looked at me, a grin resting on her face as she looked at me. I shook my head. ¡°Well I¡¯ll be off for now, I¡¯ll see you guys tomorrow probably.¡± I waved goodbye and headed off, soon arriving at John¡¯s tower. I went in the doors, not being stopped by the doormen this time, and picked up my backpack I¡¯d left with the lady at the front desk, before I paused, how was I going to get up to the top floor without Lily¡¯s card. I asked the lady, and she pressed a button on her phone, calling up to John and telling him I had arrived. Once she was done, she said to just hop in the elevator and it¡¯ll take me on up. I thanked her, and did as she said, soon arriving at the top of the building. I opened the door to see something I wasn¡¯t too happy seeing, Lily¡¯s posse. I hid my grimace though, even when they decided to act in a condescending manner straight from the start. ¡°So what¡¯s the enchanter doing here?¡± One of them said, speaking down their nose. ¡°I was invited here,¡± I reply, mentally shaking my head. ¡°It seems standards have lowered these days,¡± The same person mentioned. I didn¡¯t bother replying, and noticed some of the others in the group being clearly uncomfortable with how he was treating me, making me feel a bit less annoyed. I stepped by him, and was soon greeted by both John and Lily, before being invited to have a late dinner. I agreed, as I¡¯d had some MREs at the military base while I was working, but they hadn¡¯t really been the best meals ever. I was soon eating orb steak along with an actual salad. Unfortunately I was eating with Lily¡¯s posse. Lily had again been the one to cook, and it was painfully obvious that all of them were trying to brown nose with their ridiculous compliments. It was a tasty meal, and I made sure to thank Lily for cooking, but the way her posse acted, it was a meal made of the nectar of the gods. To Lily¡¯s credit, she took the compliments gracefully, and soon her posse was trickling out. I got some odd looks as I didn¡¯t seem to be leaving, but they probably assumed I was just staying a bit longer than them. Lily, John and I chatted for a while after they had left, discussing what the world was going to become. Farmers suddenly seemed like they would be very important, and transportation had already been changed. Even with the monsters mostly avoiding the highways, smaller roads were often infested. We wondered if we were going to start building walls around towns, or if the world was going to revert to tech from hundreds of years ago. Eventually, our conversation died off, and we each went to bed, With me fading oh so easily into my meditative sleep. Chapter 37: Apocalyptic Peace I awoke to my nemesis, my phone, blaring its alarm next to my head, and instantly pressed the snooze button. The second time I woke up though, I managed to convince myself that it would be better for me to turn off the alarm and get up, so I slowly dragged myself out of bed. I was getting up a bit earlier than before, as I wanted to explore the town some before heading out to go hunting. I hadn¡¯t seen what things were like for the general population, only the militia. I was soon dressed up with my armor over top of everything. While I didn¡¯t expect to need the armor until later when I went hunting with Lars and the group, I¡¯d become comfortable wearing it, and going without it made me constantly feel like something was missing. I ate a quick meal of monster meat, and headed out, waving goodbye to John, and leaving Lily to sleep. I went outside, and started walking to the more populated districts. I looked around while I walked, looking at the many broken out windows of the nearby buildings. I wasn¡¯t sure if they had been broken by monsters, or humans, but it gave the place a post apocalyptic feel this early in the morning with nobody awake. My head tilted to the side, I supposed it really was an apocalypse, it just hadn¡¯t been a particularly harsh one, at least so far. As the sun started to climb higher in the sky, the streets started to populate some, and soon there was a constant chatter from people talking. Curious, I decided to walk into one of the buildings that people had come out of. What was once an office building had been converted into housing and sleeping areas, all of the desks and such pushed to the sides, with different types of beds, varying from simple piles of blankets or clothing, to actual mattresses, ranged around the room I entered. Continuing my exploration, every floor seemed to have the same pattern, there would be all of the previous furniture shoved to one side, or packed into a single room, and people with their belongings would each have a small area to sleep in. It had to be horribly awkward for them, at least the militia was in a building with a lot of small rooms, so they only had to share with a few people. Wondering about the other buildings, I wandered around, and found some that weren¡¯t so bad, and others that were basically one big open space, so everyone had to share. Feeling extremely grateful that I had a place to stay, one with an actual bed, I decided it was late enough for me to go meet up with the others, and was heading to the militia building, when I noticed someone. It was a nondescript man, neither tall nor short, but the interesting thing was that he was up on a box, preaching about the apocalypse. I snorted, it¡¯s the end of the normal world, and people are still doing apocalypse predictions. ¡°And the arrival of the monsters is just the first horseman! We have yet to see War! We have yet to see Famine! And of course, we have yet to see Death! We must repent for our sins, we must cease in our sinning, and we must come to see God, for otherwise the end is truly coming for us!¡± I started to zone out after listening to him for a bit, and asked a nearby person how long he¡¯d been doing that for. ¡°Well he showed up one day, not sure from where, he¡¯s only been preaching for a few days now though. I¡¯ve seen more and more people start to join him and go to his preaching sessions though. I guess people will always find solace in a belief system, though this guy in particular seems to go a bit far at times.¡± ¡°What do you mean by a bit far?¡± ¡°He¡¯s openly advocated for attacks against anyone using magic, or against those who are using the status screens.¡± ¡°But¡­ That¡¯s one of our best ways to fight against the monsters, we¡¯re going to run out of ammunition eventually, and then it¡¯ll all be down to magic and people fighting using the stats they get.¡± I sighed, some people just didn¡¯t understand how dangerous the world was now. I thanked the guy I¡¯d asked for the information, then began walking over to the militia building. I soon arrived and found the room that my group was staying in, and walked into a small argument. ¡°I¡¯m telling you we can take the four star mobs already. We¡¯ve been hunting the three star ones constantly, and we need to be able to fight the four star ones in time for the next monster wave! The military managed without us last time, but they¡¯re running out of ammunition for their machine guns and high caliber weaponry, and normal guns can barely get through their skin.¡± Liz was saying. ¡°And I don¡¯t want to get anyone here killed. We don¡¯t know how strong four star mobs are, and we can fight them when they attack if we have to¡± Lars replied. I stepped inside, and decided to give my input. ¡°Lily and I have fought one before, that thing was damn tough. They can kill you pretty easily if you don¡¯t have some significant stats.¡± ¡°Well what level are you then?¡± Liz asks. Deciding it would be a good time to pull up my stats, I thought status in my head, and watched as it appeared from nowhere to be in front of me. Name Roland The author''s tale has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon. Level 36 str 22.0258 Grimoire agi 24.3692 Recipes wis 35.1685 sns 7.5362 end 25.1876 res 8.2693 vit 20.7418 lsp 2.7500 ¡°I¡¯m currently level 36¡± I said, completely ignoring the fact that I was saving up my level up points. I¡¯d spent every spare moment I could meditating, so it¡¯s not like I didn¡¯t have respectable stats for my level. Loss¡¯s eyebrows went up a bit. ¡°And I thought we were hunting a lot, Liz and I are 29, Rachel is 27, jake and rachel are both 25¡± I chewed on my lib a bit before replying. ¡°Well if you¡¯ve been training your stats, we may be able to hunt a four star mob together. If we¡¯re going to do that though I want Lily with us as well, I¡¯ve gotten pretty comfortable hunting with her, and we could use the backup, maybe even include her group of lackeys as well.¡± Loss nodded, and Rachel got an annoyed look on her face. I knew she wasn¡¯t a fan of Lily because of what had happened, but I wasn¡¯t comfortable going hunting without someone I knew could help me handle a four star mob. Not that I was looking down on Loss and the group, but they¡¯d mainly been just hunting for food, while Lily and I had been grinding our stats as hard as we could in the other world, and we¡¯d had an extra three weeks of grinding with the time difference. I still wasn¡¯t sure about going hunting for four star mobs, but I also figured that it would be best to fight to the edge of our abilities, as I wanted to be as strong as possible for when the next monster wave came about. Deciding to do some research before we left, I took out the book about monsters that I¡¯d had to repurchase when I went to the other world with my real body. As I opened it, Lars asked about it, and when I explained what it was, and that it would have some information on four star mobs, they crowded around to try and read. Finding the four star mobs in the book was easy, they were conveniently placed between the three and five star mobs, and I was soon reading aloud so that everyone could get an idea about the monsters. ¡°So the four star mob that I fought was called a borow. It¡¯s similar to a gorilla, but has stunted legs and larger and longer arms. It seems to walk with its arms more than its legs, but it can rest on its legs while swinging at you. From experience, the thing is damn strong, and everyone aside from Lars probably doesn¡¯t want to be blocking it. As for the ones I haven¡¯t fought, there¡¯s the glaneous, which has a snakelike body with four legs, a mouth bony like a turtle, but with protrusions all around it, four eyes which can each look a different direction, and its entire body is covered in a paralytic mucous. Then there¡¯s the Reik, it¡¯s another quadruped with wide forward limbs, with its back limbs placed closer together, no eyes on it¡¯s face, a large shell like a turtle covering its back, and eyestalks that stick out from holes in the shell.. There¡¯s Moscs, but they live in water so they¡¯re not really what we¡¯re looking for. They¡¯re mollusc like, with four tentacles and a cubic shell. They jet around with water and have a very powerful beak they can bite right through bone with. They¡¯re basically harmless outside of water though. We should probably announce them to the military though, we don¡¯t want anyone dying while fetching some water. Finally, there¡¯s the feth. They look like human sized stick insects, but with a pair of wings made of chitin and feathers made of a clear material, they stand on four of their legs, and their front two have very sharp opposable claws.¡± I took a deep breath after having read most of the basic information. After I had gotten the basics covered, I went over the different weak points of the monsters, the borow had similar important bits like a human, but with two hearts, the glaneous you wanted to try and sever the spine, with the reik you could only really target the part that stuck out of the shell, moscs you just stab the fleshy part, and the feth didn¡¯t really have a weak spot, and you wanted to dismember them as they would still move after having their head cut off. Once we had finally gotten through that, I decided to ask about where the monsters could even be found. ¡°Well the only place that has four star monsters that we know of is actually in the city. They¡¯re in the northern area, and we don¡¯t know how far they extend out, there¡¯s only one other group that has hunted them, and they haven¡¯t explored much of the territory that the four star monsters seem to control.¡± Sydney explained, and as per usual, I had to stop myself from staring at her model like appearance. After clearing my mind a bit, we discussed the plan to go hunting, and the group started to geared up while I went to fetch Lily. When I arrived back at the building I was staying at, I decided to ask the lady at the front desk if Lily had left, and was pleased to find out that she was still here. Heading over to the elevator, I pressed the button, only to have it open with Lily inside of it. ¡°Hey Lily, my group was planning on heading over to try and hunt some four star mobs, and I could really use you as backup. We could bring your group too if you think they could handle it,¡± I explained to her. She seemed to consider it for a bit before replying. ¡°Let me check in with my group, we may join you.¡± ¡°Alright, where should we meet up?¡± ¡°Why don¡¯t you just come with me? It won¡¯t take long.¡± I shrugged before replying with a ¡°sure¡±. It wouldn¡¯t be going out of my way, and if I was going to be stuck with her lackeys for the day anyway, meeting them a bit early wouldn¡¯t hurt. We were soon headed off to a building pretty close to the militia building, but which seemed a bit more deserted compared to it. ¡°So why doesn¡¯t your group stay with the militia?¡± I questioned. ¡°Well they have their own building set up, they all wanted more room to themselves, so they took a building that wasn¡¯t being used,¡± she replied. I nodded, and we had soon arrived, and the inside was a surprise to me. Once we had gotten a bit inside, Lily started going room to room collecting her lackeys, and by glancing in, I noticed that all of them seemed to have a proper bed, and only one occupant per room. How they had managed to get a building all to themselves, I wasn¡¯t sure, maybe their families were similar to Lily¡¯s father, and somehow had enough power after the update to get their own place. We slowly collected members, and plenty of them seemed to take offense that I was with Lily, giving me glares, but not deigning to talk to me. I shrugged, them not talking to me wasn¡¯t exactly something I was going to complain about, and soon we had the entire group together. Lily was soon explaining to them the plan, and mentioned that anyone who wasn¡¯t willing to risk it should stay here, or go hunt three star mobs for a while longer, but nobody seemed to be scared of hunting monsters that were significantly more dangerous, some of them arrogantly claiming how easy it would be for them, possibly trying to show off in front of Lily. Soon we were heading over to the militia building to collect my group. We arrived, and I instantly went over to them, more comfortable being with them than with the lackeys who seemed to think themselves above me. Regardless of how our two groups seemed to act like oil and water, we were soon headed off to hunt some four star monsters. chapter 38: Mortality The walk to where the four star monsters resided was completely uneventful. There were a couple of three star mobs, but they were mobbed down in a matter of seconds, enough magic flying out to put a massive number of holes in them. I was soon thinking that it wouldn¡¯t be too much trouble to hunt four star monsters. Yes, my magic had barely harmed the one I¡¯d fought, and yes, I probably had a higher wisdom stat than anyone here, but the sheer amount of spells we could output would likely cripple even a four star monster. We eventually got to the territory of the four star mobs, and then we started walking much more cautiously. It wasn¡¯t long until we spotted our first prey, a Glaneous, and with its four eyes looking different directions, it seemed to spot us as soon as we spotted it. It instantly started charging at us, only to be met with a hail of magic, from fireballs to those globs of acid I wasn¡¯t sure what type of magic they were. The monster barely slowed down though, and soon impacted the first tank, one of Lily¡¯s groupies, who slid back a good six feet before stabilizing as he got backed up by another member. As they stopped its forwards momentum, our damage dealers started to slice at its sides, Liz with her trademark monster hunting grin, but most of the others wearing more steady expressions. It didn¡¯t take long for the beast to collapse from the blood loss of so many people chopping at it, though the mages weren¡¯t able to cast spells for fear of hitting one of the melee fighters. We all let out grins at how easy it seemed to be when it fell. The next few monsters went the same way, they would be first hit by a barrage of magic, and then we would clean them up. Lars and one of the two tankers from Lily¡¯s group would be in front of it, stopping the forward momentum while the damage dealers would get to the sides and back of the monster before attacking it. I was playing the role of a mage for the moment, glad I wasn¡¯t stuck fighting on the front lines for once. While walking between fighting some of the monsters, I decided to ask Sydney and Jake why they had decided to fight the monsters even though they were sitting it out before. ¡°So what made you decide to come hunt monsters? I know that the world got a bit scarier with the monster waves, but you could still have stayed hidden and let the military protect you.¡± ¡°Well, I just wanted to be able to do something if monsters managed to get through the military. I didn¡¯t want a craw or something to get past the military and not be strong enough to fight it off. My family may not be here, but I have plenty of friends I may have to protect,¡± Sydney explained I nodded, and then turned to Jake. ¡°Honestly, I just got too worried about my sister. I wasn¡¯t going to leave her alone now that monster waves are happening. I may have let her hunt a bit on her own, but letting her face a monster wave on her own is just not something I¡¯m willing to do.¡± I nodded again, I guess they were a bit more reasonable than what my desire had slowly morphed into, now practically addicted to gaining strength and watching my stats creep up. We all had our reasons, even if Liz¡¯s reason was probably just because she was a battle junkie. The rest of the day passed in relative peace, hunting the monsters down, but I was the only one to take any loot, the sacs that excrete the paralytic mucous from the glaneous, figuring I could dip my spearhead in it to add a paralyzing effect to my weapon. After a bit, I started to wonder how that would work with the sharpness rune cutting a distance away from the spear blade, but after testing it seems I needn¡¯t have worried. The paralytic mucous ended up condensing into the edges of the part that would actually be doing the cutting. I wasn¡¯t sure why it worked like that, but I wasn¡¯t going to look a gift horse in the mouth. Once the sun started to get pretty low in the sky, we all started to head back, and we soon were back at the militia barracks, and Lily and I got some odd looks as we left together to head back to where we were staying, with Elizabeth giving me a knowing look, making me sigh. I shook my head, she was seemingly obsessed with her idea about Lily and me. We soon arrived at the building we were staying at, and I collapsed onto the bed, tired even though it had been an easy day of hunting. The only ones who had gotten a good workout were the tanks. The melee fighters had also done some work I suppose, but this time I hadn¡¯t joined them, so I wasn¡¯t physically tired, simply mentally. I kept myself awake only long enough to focus on my meditation, and slowly fell into my meditative sleep for the night. I woke up in the morning, and went to meet with my group again while Lily went off to collect her groupies. Meeting up with them, Liz was instantly asking about why I had left with Lily. ¡°I¡¯m staying with her and her father,¡± I eventually admitted. Liz¡¯s grin grew even wider as I admitted that, obviously feeling extremely smug. ¡°Seriously, nothing happened, I just appreciate having a real bed to stay in. Her father is really nice,¡± I tried to explain Liz simply kept her smug grin on, obviously feeling like she had won. I just sighed and decided the best thing to do would be ignoring it. ¡°You know, it¡¯s sort of hard to believe that nothing happened when you¡¯re literally staying with her,¡± Lars said.This narrative has been purloined without the author''s approval. Report any appearances on Amazon. I winced, I knew it would be bad, but I hadn¡¯t thought that even Lars would turn against me. Looking around, Jake simply had his eyebrows raised in an I know what¡¯s going on expression, Sydney seemed to not care, and Rachel just seemed annoyed for some reason. Shaking my head, we eventually went to go meet up with Lily¡¯s group, who seemed to be quite annoyed for some reason, and we were soon heading off to hunt some more four star mobs. The walk there was unsurprisingly uneventful, and we were soon overkilling the four star mobs again. Things were going very easily, until we attacked a borow, only to be spotted by a glaneous right as we aggroed it. We instantly split into our two groups, Lily¡¯s group working to fight the borow, while our group peeled off to fight the glaneous. Lars was barely able to stop the charge of the glaneous, but stop it he did, and Liz and Jake were instantly beside it chopping and stabbing as hard as they could to get through the thick skin. I¡¯d enchanted their weapons, and I¡¯m sure they were also imbuing their weapons with sharpness, but I knew from experience that is was still a pain to get through the hide. Meanwhile, Sydney and I moved to the back of the glaneous so we could have a clean shot without much risk of hitting one of our friends. Deciding that it would be better to be safe than sorry, I began to repeatedly cast frostbite, as if I hit one of my friends, I would only stop them for a second or two rather than seriously injure them. Sydney meanwhile, was simply casting fireballs at the feet of the glaneous, angling them so there was no way that they would hit one of our group. It took a decent bit longer, but it was definitely dying. It was a bit of time before we had worn down the monster to collapsing, Lars carefully controlling it, keeping its attention on him while the rest of us finished it off. We finished, and turned to see Lily¡¯s group finishing off their own monster, and the two groups shared grins. We may not be the biggest fans of each other personally, but when you fight with someone, you at least share in the revelry of victory. Things went ok for a while, until we got spotted by another two monsters again, and we split off into our groups to do battle, still feeling relatively relaxed with our experience from before. It seemed there wouldn¡¯t be an issue, until yet another reik came out of nowhere, charging in and flattening one of the mages in Lily¡¯s group. I instantly yelled at Lily, and we split off from our groups, looking to handle this third monster. Noticing Rachel running over to the downed mage, I didn¡¯t bother bringing him a potion, and flung an ice spear at the reik, trying to distract it from the downed mage it was looking to take a bite out of. My ice spear landed on its eyeless face, and I was soon following it up with my actual spear, stabbing in as hard as I could, hoping to hit something important like an artery. Unfortunately, I only left a shallow cut on it, with Lily having more luck, her lightning spells seeming to conduct straight through the shell of it, cooking its insides. It turned to me, and I winced as I saw it step on the leg of the downed mage, and I backed up, luring it away so that rachel could get in and work on healing him. The monster seemed to wait a moment for me to back up a distance, its eyestalks following me, and once I had gotten a decent bit away from it it charged. I released the ice spear I had prepared, and imbued my spear with a toughness rune, intent on taking it from the front, giving Lily some time to hack away at its back legs and tail. I got a lucky break, as one of Lily¡¯s cuts on its legs caused it to stumble in its charge, slowing down its forward momentum enough that I was only pushed a bit over a foot backwards as I took my spear in both my hands, blocking its attempted bite with the toughened haft of it. Shoving my spear to the side, I got its eyeless face out of mine, and started to stab it with my spear, leaving shallow cuts and holes in it. I started to dance around its head on a very flexible neck, constantly retreating to dodge its bites, but staying close enough that it couldn¡¯t charge me again, occasionally having the leeway to give it an ice spear, this time aimed at its eyestalks sticking out of its shell. They seemed to duck down with the same speed I could blink though, so with my following spears I targeted its front legs, trying to slow it down to give me a bit more breathing room. After what felt like a few hours, but probably wasn¡¯t more than fifteen minutes, it started to slow down, one of the rear legs Lily had been cutting at collapsing under the monster¡¯s weight. We both let out grins, but stayed focused on the monster until it eventually stopped moving, the eyestalks collapsing down in death. Standing up from my fighting stance, I felt quite sore, handling a four star monster was pretty hard with just the two of us. Looking around, I notice That everyone else has finished with their monsters, and everyone is standing around in a circle where the mage had been trampled. I started to get a sinking feeling in my gut, and ran rather than walked over to the group, pushing through the people, hoping that my prediction wasn¡¯t accurate. When I got through, I saw Rachel, with a shell shocked look on her face, standing over the mage, who had their entire ribcage crushed in. I could almost feel my face turning pale as I looked down upon the mage who had been fighting with us just a few moments ago. I took a deep breath, then another, but the sickening feeling in my stomach wasn¡¯t going away. I looked to Rachel, and she seemed to be doing even worse than I was, practically in shock. We hadn¡¯t known the guy, but we¡¯d been fighting with him, and Rachel was the type to care immensely about life, probably why she focused on being a healer. We all stood around for a bit in silence, Lily soon joining us in our vigil, until the other mage started to cry, which seemed to start a chain reaction. I wasn¡¯t sure how long Lily¡¯s group had been together, but they were probably close. I hadn¡¯t known the guy, and I was actually close to crying myself. I took a few steps out of the circle to clear my head. Sitting down, I began to reflect on how dangerous hunting really was. Somewhere along the line, I¡¯d gotten used to hunting, and I didn¡¯t really see it as dangerous so much as just a way for me to get stronger. Now though, the fear that I used to have when monsters first came to earth was starting to come back to me. I looked down, noticing that my hands were shaking, my own mortality being something I was all too aware of at the moment. I sniffed a bit, for some reason my eyes watering. I hadn¡¯t known the guy. I actually thought he was a bit of a prick from the interactions I¡¯d had with him, but he didn¡¯t deserve to die for that. Just one moment of inattentiveness and death came for him. We all silently agreed to go back, two of the people in Lily¡¯s group, with tears still leaking from their eyes, being the ones to carry his body as we headed back. We walked in silence, killing the monsters that got in our way without speaking a word to each other. When we arrived back in the area patrolled by the military, we ran into a few patrols, each of them getting a serious, somewhat sad look on their face as they saw what had happened. Once we got closer to the town, I wasn¡¯t sure where we were going, but Lily¡¯s group seemed to know, and so I simply followed them until we arrived at a building I hadn¡¯t been to before. We went in and were greeted by a scene reminiscent of a funeral home, and I realized that¡¯s exactly what this was. It wasn¡¯t attached to a graveyard, so I wasn¡¯t sure if body would be buried, or it it would be incinerated, something which had become much more common in modern times. We waited as Lily knocked on a door, and soon a couple of people exited. The two people carrying the dead mage, whose name I didn¡¯t even know, handed the body over. The two people who had come out from the door Lily knocked on seemed to handle the body almost reverently, with eyes that seemed to have been locked into sadness from how much death they¡¯ve seen. We slowly went our separate ways after having scheduled an appointment for the funeral. I assume at least one of Lily¡¯s group went off to inform his family, if they were living nearby, but I simply went back to the building I was staying at, ignored John as he greeted me, and laid down in the room I had been sleeping in. Nothing happened for the rest of the day, I just laid there in confusion, trying to accept the fact that someone right next to me had died. It wasn¡¯t until long after the sun had gone down that I managed to get some not very restful sleep. Chapter 39: Rage The following days passed in a fog, nothing seeming clear. I know I ate occasionally, I know I chatted a couple times with my group, but most of the time was spent in the room I was staying at, reflecting. I knew I could have done something, my group could¡¯ve handled the borow on their own, I could¡¯ve just been watching for any monsters just in case, or maybe if I¡¯d handed out health potions out beforehand he could¡¯ve drunk it before he died, at least keeping him alive long enough for rachel to get to him. I kept beating myself up over it, blaming myself for his death. I knew logically that it wasn¡¯t my fault, but there were still things I could have done, and it was hard to get that thought out of my head after the first time it creeped in. I spent far too much of the time just laying in my bed, replaying the scene of the reik simply slamming into him. I¡¯d known it was likely that they hadn¡¯t put any points in vitality, and without any melee fighting they wouldn¡¯t have naturally gained any, but still, it just seemed so easy to die. One hit, and a life was snuffed out. After what felt like a month, but couldn¡¯t have been more than a week or two, it was time for the funeral. It was a silent procession as both of our groups walked together, not a word being spoken, each of us left to our own introspection. It was some time until we arrived at a massive field, and I sucked in a breath. Everywhere were makeshift tombstones, as far as the eye could see. I¡¯d wondered what had happened to the bodies, and it seems I had my answer. How much loss had come when the monster waves arrived was slowly starting to sink in. We soon arrived at an open grave, with the body lying in what seemed to be a makeshift casket. I was sure all of the proper caskets had been used up with all the death that had happened, and I was sure that many had been buried without that decency. Looking around, i saw a man and a woman already there, the woman clearly inconsolable, the man attempting to comfort her anyway. I wince, judging by their age, they were likely to be his parents. The thought drove a fresh spike of guilt through my mind. My inattentiveness had killed off their child. The rest of the funeral passed in a fog, I finally learned his name, Joseph, he was only nineteen Before the update, he had been planning on going to college for mechanical engineering, and he¡¯d loved to paint. The more I learned, the worse my guilt got, and the more my mind seemed to go foggy. The only thing I remembered after that point was when Lily had gone up to apologize and gotten practically screamed at, being told it was her fault he was out there in the first place. I could see her visibly wilt from Joseph¡¯s mother blaming her, and she had likely been blaming herself as much as I had been blaming myself. We got back, splitting up, and Liz not even bothering to tease me as I went back with Lily. The next few days passed, and slowly my depression was turning into rage. It was the monsters¡¯ fault that this had happened. If they hadn¡¯t invaded we wouldn¡¯t have that massive field full of people¡¯s children, parents, siblings, friends. I wasn¡¯t sure exactly where my mind was going at first, but eventually I decided. I may not be able to now, but I was going to find some way to get rid of the invaders. I may not be strong enough yet, but at this moment, I can at least get some revenge for Joseph. Grabbing my spear and gear, I start marching out of the room, spotting Lily as I¡¯m leaving. ¡°Where are you going?¡± ¡°Hunting,¡± I reply. ¡°I¡¯m coming with you.¡± Her tone made it clear that she would ignore any argument to the contrary, and I wasn¡¯t going to complain about having someone along to make the hunting easier. We waited in the elevator in silence, and were soon outside, heading for the four star monsters. The first monster we spotter was a borow, and while Lily threw lightning at it as it turned to charge us, I charged right at it myself, imbuing my spear with toughness and sharpness, taking my spear in both hands and driving it as hard as I could at its chest. My spear goes straight through, and I get backhanded by the borow, getting sent flying a good distance. I roll on the ground for a bit, getting scrapes along my arms and back. I¡¯m up in a second though, growling in annoyance as I down a health potion, ignoring the sharp yet dull pain from what has to be cracked ribs. I may have a lot more vitality than Joseph, but I wasn¡¯t nearly to the point of being invulnerable. I slowly walk towards the monster that is unsuccessfully trying to pry my spear from within its chest, getting bombarded with lightning as it happens, tensing up every time it¡¯s hit. I join Lily in bombarding it, and it soon collapses, though I¡¯m not sure if it¡¯s from my spear or the magic we¡¯ve been throwing at it. Lily and I both down a mana potion wordlessly, and we continue our hunt. The rest of the day could be measured by the potions that Lily and I go through. I get hit much more than usual, forgoing my usual caution, taking hits to get in stronger hits, letting my health potions do work. At a couple points, Lily and I have to handle a monster on our own, but we somehow manage, though the one time a third shows up we have to run away, using stamina potions to outlast the monsters chasing us.Support the author by searching for the original publication of this novel. Our hunt continues regardless of the close call, until we run out of potions. We unwillingly head back to the less dangerous part of the city. Once we get back, I take out my potion making kit from my oh so useful magical backpack along with the massive amount of herbs I¡¯d stockpiled from not needing to use many potions in the other world. I¡¯m soon lost in the potion making, but my anger doesn¡¯t fade, and once I¡¯ve replenished our potion stock, the only reason I don¡¯t head out to hunt more is the sun slowly sinking over the horizon. I go back to the building where both Lily and I are staying, and fade into a meditation until my anger is muted enough that I can go into my sleep like state. I wake in the morning to my anger slightly muted, but I have no intentions of stopping hunting. With the rage now simmering rather than exploding, I grab Lily and we head off to hunt again. The next few weeks pass in this fashion, and Lily and I eventually go from barely able to handle two of them, to killing them without too much trouble. Along the way, we invite our groups to go hunting, but neither of them are willing to hunt four star mobs again at first. I don¡¯t blame them, and simply focus on hunting with Lily. Eventually, I run out of herbs, and I¡¯m forced to go around finding plants to replace them. It¡¯s during one of these trips that I decide on something. ¡°I need to go back to the other world.¡± ¡°What?¡± Lily says with a confused expression. ¡°I need to learn more about the monsters, and the only place I¡¯m going to be able to do that is over there. I need to find out where they¡¯re coming from, we need to stop them eventually. We may not be powerful enough yet, but I¡¯m going to change that.¡± ¡°I¡¯ll be coming with you.¡± I simply nodded in agreement, and we agreed to go after the next monster wave. The rest of the time up to the next wave was spent grinding the four star mobs, and the nights in my meditative sleep, eventually getting me to the point where my ice spears would do more than just annoy the four star mobs. Along the way, I mention my meditative sleep to Lily, who after a few days manages to pick it up. I also find out that she¡¯s been doing the same thing I¡¯ve been doing: saving her free points from leveling. It isn¡¯t long after we¡¯d decided to go to the other world when Liz and Rachel both decide to join us in our crusade against the four star mobs, me very pointedly handing out health potions, and practically forcing Rachel to start putting points into vitality. I didn¡¯t want our healer dying the same way Joseph did, from one unlucky hit. Eventually, we slow down on hunting as the monsters start being too close together to fight without attracting too much attention, and we all agree to training sessions, working on raising our stats. The rest of my group and LIly''s group decide to join us for these, and while we don''t raise our stats by quite as much as we were with our aggressive hunting, they still go up in a steady way. The day of the wave is pretty obvious, the mobs being so thick on the ground they seem to form a veritable sea, with clouds of brags, and the occasional feth interspersed among the practical clouds. The army formed up against them is impressive as well though, with machine gun emplacements here and there, and even a few tanks. The militia is also there, in their ragtag outfits, none of them having proper armor, though some have pseudo protection made of molt shells, one guy even having makeshift plate armor made from what has to be a reik shell. The monsters start to move, and the military opens fire. In seconds, the front wave of monsters collapses, but there''s always more where they came from, and the militia joins in along with our group, anyone who has any kind of spell casting it. There¡¯s a good deal of simple force bolts, but also a lot of walls of fire, chain lightning, and I even see someone using the same spell I am, flash freeze. The barrage of spells cuts a massive swathe of monsters down, but again, they keep coming, and soon they arrive at the militia, though the military is holding their portion of the line a good distance away with their massive number of guns. I stay back in the militia at first, acting as a spellcaster, but when the first four star mob impacts the line, sending a few unsuspecting melee fighters flying, I run forwards, the familiar rage bubbling in my chest as I sharpen and toughen my spear, stabbing through the glaneous¡¯ eye and into its brain. Liz is already beside me, having been fighting in the front lines from the beginning, and chops deeply into another glaneous with a feral grin. The next hour is spent slaughtering anything that got close to me, and casting flash freeze whenever I had the opening to. While the other front liners would trade off every so often, I stayed, simply downing stamina potions while others rested. After a bit, Lily joins Liz and I fighting in the melee, though we split up to deal with four star mobs whenever they show up, as they would plow through most of the lower leveled militia members. Here and there I would hear screams of pain, and I can only hope that they aren¡¯t a prelude to death. Rachel is running around in the back, healing up anyone who got hurt that people manage to drag back there. It takes a couple hours, but eventually the monsters seem to thin out, and eventually fade away, leaving countless bodies on the ground, interspersed with the occasional human one. I feel the rage in my chest bubbling up again as I see them, and when I look to the area the military is defending, at least the portion I can see, I see a few bodies there as well, and many of the soldiers have blood splashed on them. I can only assume that they ran out of ammo or overheated their guns at some point. I wince, if they¡¯re out of ammo, the next monster wave is going to be horrifying. I shake my head, I just hope that they¡¯ve been teaching them the spell patterns I gave them. I then get to work helping people carry the bodies, feeling a mix of somberness and rage. We slowly put them next to each other, and there are far more than I ever wanted to see. The rage seems to get a bit hotter inside of me, but at the same time, tears start coming to my eyes, the grief drowning out the rage for now. All of the people there stand in vigil for a time, before the bodies begin to be driven off in trucks to be prepared for burial. With this much death it¡¯s no wonder the people at the mortuary had seemed so worn. We all slowly head back to our respective sleeping places, and I collapse on the bed, not even bothering to try for my meditative sleep. The next morning, I grab Lily, and decide to see if anyone else in either of our groups would be willing to come with us. As we go around, two of Lily¡¯s group, one of the tankers and the remaining spellcaster agree to come with us, and Liz and Rachel both agree to come as well. That''s when we run into some trouble, we need to find out where to go to find another gate. Deciding that the best thing to do would be to ask around, we go first to the military area as they patrol around, and start asking. It takes a while, but eventually we get some information from a soldier who¡¯s seen one, and we head off. It takes a few hours to walk there, but we arrive to see the same type of tear in the air Lily and I went through previously. Our group looks at each other for a moment, then we step through.