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A Skill Whore's Journey
6. People Problems Part 2

6. People Problems Part 2

(Baila’s POV)

Logging back in I see that the village is quite empty at the moment. Seems like people have got things to do RL too…

Opening my friend list I see Joat’s name listed at the top of my great list of 3

..

.

Level 1?

Oh, he died…I actually expected that. I mean he did great with the rats but after that he hasn’t been much physical use. He’s a fun but useless guy…

Guess I should help him re-level then.

Hey, Dumbass

Baila! Hey, don’t give me a nickname, I didn’t think we were that close yet

I thought we have already determined that you are the frail useless being and I’m your colleague

True true, but you’re not that high on the food chain either.

I’m certainly above you

I wouldn’t mind you eating me…

JOAT!

Hehe

Perv

I thought we were sticking with dumbass; I was growing used to it

Just shut up and tell me where you are

In your heart

…I will kill you in 3…2..

I’M in the northern part of the forest with my brothers.

Why is it that every time we meet, it seems like your setting me up for a gangbang

I thought I told you, I’d never share you…wink!

Oh not you too

Me too what?

Dumbass perv

Mixing the two together, I like it

Just add me to your party and be done with it.

…Right, just a tiny problem, me and my brothers make a party of 4

Useless. I’ll grab the Pinky’s and head over to where you are in a bit, K?

Works just fine; gives us some time to level ourselves up.

I shut the message window, ending the conversation.

What an idiot. Now I’m going to have to baby him back up to his level. But first things first, let’s 

find Big sis and crazy bitch.

(Joat’s POV)

“LEFT!”

We all move to the left, Zzard and I grab the upper arm while the other two the lower arm.

*SNAP*

“HOWOOOL”

The Black, red-eyed monstrous wolf, howls as its left at snaps at the elbow.

“LEG”

We all duck under the wolf’s nasty looking claws and

*SNAP*

Break its right leg with a satisfying snap.

*Thump*

The wolf loses it balance and falls, to which we respond by snapping its other arm in a joint effort.

With both arms useless and facedown, the wolf can do nothing but howl as we move to its final 

unbroken limb.

*SNAP*

“Ok, so which skill shall we grind first?” I ask my lizard brothers.

(Baila’s POV)

Pinky pinky pinky…where are youse?

Aaah, god it sucks to wait for people.

Tapping my foot on the cold street doesn’t do any good to my situation…

Aaagh. Why did I say I’ll pick them up?

I wish I had Choppy to cuddle while I wait

..

.

Ah! I can do that!

I make my way to the outside of the village.

..

.

Guess that’s plan A down the drain…

The cute fluffy bunnies that had been hopping around the fields in daytime have now turned into 

some horrifying monster rabbits.

I bet their fur doesn’t even feel nice…

Might as well kill a couple while I wait.

Heading over to one, I scan and see its horrifying stats…My god.

I immediately turn back around; I can’t even damage those rabbits…

*CRACK*

Hmm?

I turn back around to see a large black gorilla snapping the neck of a monster rabbit with his bare hands.

He then rushes to another, breaks its leg with a kick and then twist its neck efficiently.

Now that’s what the kind of party member I need.

“Hello there” I shout and wave in the direction of the gorilla.

He punches a rabbit in the face, sending it flying.

“Oh hello the-” His face literally drops as he looks at me. Though he quickly rearranges himself.

Ugh, seriously, do these breasts really make that much of an impact? Joat doesn’t seem to mind; though I have a feeling these have a link with his nosebleeds…

Anyways, back to the primate ape (strangely ironic) who is ogling me.

“I’m looking for someone to party with while I wait for my friends”

“Friends? How many?” He seems quite apprehensive at the idea that I’ve got friends coming…Jeez another territorial male that thinks I’m his property already. At least he’ll help me grind some and then I’ll just drop him like the rest.

“Only 2, so they could party up with us too”

“…Sounds great!”

He had to think for a couple of seconds before answering there. Was he thinking about the chances of my friends being girls, or is he just thick…

My bet’s on being thick.

“I’m Baila, and you are…”

“Apexus…I hope we have a good time together”

Doubt it, but I’ll take whatever xp I can off of you

...

...

(Joat’s POV)

*PANT PANT*

Oh my god…this is tiring.

“Guys! Let’s take a 2 minute break shall we?”

The others tiredly nod before they drop to the floor

“Are we there yet?” Zzard asks in his semi-high-pitched voice.

“Almost…another…2 skills to go” Zzand answers after quickly checking his character sheet.

“1 for me” Zzoid adds in.

Hmm, I better check my character sheet too

NAME:JoatTITLE:The Social ButterflyClass:NoneRace:HobgoblinGender:MaleLevel:3Experience:67%

[tds]165/180(Almost Full)[/td2][tr]

STATUS:Remaining Points (10)Health Points10/10HP Regen (Out of Combat)1/secAttack:1-1Defense:0Perception:50Empty:-Empty:-Empty:-Empty:-Empty:-Empty:-Empty:-Empty:-Empty:-Satiety:Unused Stats:Strength, Dexterity, Vitality, Agility, Wisdom, Leadership

[tr]

SKILLS/PROFICIENCIES:Active:

Stomp, Beginner [lvl2]

Monster Identification, Beginner [Lvl4]

Sneak, Intermediate [lvl1]

Sprint, Beginner [lvl2]

Commanding Shout, Beginner [Llv1]

Headbutt, Beginner [lvl1]

Spitful taunt, Beginner [lvl1]Passive:

Jump, Beginner [lvl1]

Roll, Beginner [lvl1]

Hearing, Beginner [lvl4]

Smell, Beginner [lvl2]

Night Vision, Master [lvlMax]Proficiencies:

Kick Mastery, Beginner [lvl4]

Unarmed Mastery, Beginner [lvl1]

Hmm, overall it isn’t that bad. Though I’m still short 2 stats: Communication and Luck (although I never had it before). Also I don’t have throw, diplomacy, climb, Suicide nor herbalism yet so that’s a bit of a pain.

ALSO, I’ve lost ALL the xp from the quests I completed…which sucks.

However it was only about 15% in total so it wasn’t that big of a loss...but still. Also weirdly enough, I kept the 25% xp increase from the Title. Thank god I did!

“I’m missing 5 skills but not ones I can get from combat”

“Ok, that isn’t too bad. The useful ones we have so we really should get back to town once we get our last skills” Zzoid comments

“Yes. Hopefully we won’t run into Apeshit again” Zzard bluntly points out

“Who knows, maybe he’s distracted with a girl or two” Zzoid points out.

“I hope to god not, that Apeshit really doesn’t deserve that kind of love. WE deserve that kind of love”

“I just hope HE is dead” Poor Zzand always gets killed off first so he’s got the right to fear.

“But before we worry about Mr. Apeshit, you guys need to get your last skills” I point out.

Apexus, or better known as Apeshit between us, killed us off a couple of times as we quickly remade our characters and rushed to relevel them.

After about 4 deaths we finally got through him to the forest, and ended up dying to a giant squirrel.

After another 2 deaths, we made it past the squirrels and entered wolf territory.

We had to make the death run another 3 times against the wolves till we figured out how to deal 

with them.

Luckily we had a good hour and 40 minutes before Baila and Co. logged on after the first death, so we had plenty of time to repeatedly die and run into the forest.

However thanks to us rushing our character creations, I’ve not been able to modify much, except for the face.

Oddly enough, the trio still looks like freaking triplets so I’ve got a hunch they’re pretty similar looking IRL.

Anyways, back to leveling with my brothers.

We stand up and look down at the large black pulp that is namely a night variant of the wolf.

Apparently the night variant doesn’t work in packs so we thankfully don’t have to fight 4 nasty looking wolves. Like the rabbits; they’ve gone black-blade-like hair, long claws and grew to about 2 metres. Also they stand up on two legs too.

However by themselves they are still nasty as hell: With 43-48 attack and a defense of 5, they are true level 4 monsters. Basically we can’t do any damage to it, only Zzard, with 1 damage…

Luckily, the system isn’t just reliant on numbers. And because of realizing this fact and using it to my own gains, I gained the wisdom stat!

Apparently the wisdom stat is gained through a wise decision made from experience…

Anyways, the thing I figured out, was that if we deal 1 damage to the wolf’s joints as everyone is pulling them to a bad angle, they’ll snap

If none of us dealt damage, I believe we wouldn’t be able to snap the limbs. But since Zzard does 1 damage, with the help of us other 3, that 1 damage is enough to cause a snapping limb.

We all loved finding this out.

Actually this wolf was our first test subject…very good results indeed.

However my wisdom didn’t just stop there, no. Since we only deal 1 damage as a party and the wolf has over 300 hitpoints, everyone but Zzard can attack the wolf...without end.

And for the past 20 minutes, we’ve literally done nothing but do repeated stomping, kicking, headbutting, etc etc to the wolf to regain those skills.

Zzard did also end up grinding skills on the wolf with us when I suggested he gain the ‘hold back’ skill and gave a brief explanation of what I think it was.

He gained the skill within minutes and thus all 4 of us could leisurely beat the wolf to a pulp, as it is right now.

As my brothers keep grinding skills with the wolf, I do some climbing…

I’m quite surprised at how quickly we gain the skills, but I’ve got a little theory to it:

The idea is that when we fight monsters, our skills will level up depending on the monster level. So therefore when regaining skills, fighting a higher level monsters (so we fought a level 4 at level 1) we gain our skills back quicker.

Furthermore, it seems like because the wolf’s stats were so high, the leveling was even quicker.

It took about an hour to learn the normal beginner skills, but it took us about 5 minutes to relearn them with this wolf. With normal standards it should take at least 30 minutes for each skill (if not doing multi training like we do).

We’ve literally tried to do as many skills in one go with the wolf, so it’s been beaten in many diverse ways; such as stomp jumping or roll kicking or spit and headbutt. Or even better; all 6 skills at the same time. Somehow that works. I’m not quite sure how we pulled that off myself, but the system recognized it so we’re taking that as a ‘we did good’.

Ok, time for climbing suicide while throwing a branch to myself.

Reaching the top of the tree, I break off a branch and dive off the tree, throwing the branch into the air above

“OOMPH”

-8

Ouch.

Catch

-1

Ow!

Damn, catching a stick isn’t easy.

Anyways, this seems like this will work well. Just got to hopefully catch this stick sometimes and gain the catch skill, god knows I need it.

(Baila’s POV)

“Raargh”

“Come for me little bunny”

*RRIP*

And that’s another dead rabbit.

“Haha!” Apexus flexes his large biceps at me…should I act impressed or not fuel the flames of this territorial idiot…

“Wow, so macho Apexus. I can’t wait to introduce you to my friends”

“Yes, let them all see this beautiful body and godly strength in awe”

I actually want to vomit right now…but I’m getting quite the good supply of rabbit fur, black fur too!

Surprisingly enough, the fur is still beautifully soft and the added fact that it’s black really makes me happy; because that means I don’t have to do all this blackening and ruining of soft fur.

It’s such a pain to blacken fur and I almost always mess it up. However having already black fur is a real blessing to me.

Also, I got the skinning skill after my 10th rabbit. Seems like I needed to skin 50 times to get the skill.

So, after a good 30 minutes of skinning (only taking close to 3 minutes to skin now, because I got quite a bit of practice earlier today), the Pinky’s finally log in.

Thank god.

Hey Big Sis!

Baila! And, don’t call me that…it’s embarrassing

Hehe, but I think you’re a great big sister to me

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.

Oh stop it

Hehe…Is she there too?

Yeah, she’s here…play nice

…Ok, I’ll try my best.

There you go!

Meet me at the northern fields Big Sis!

Ok, will be there in a minute

Oh, by the way, Joat is busy re-leveling since he died, so I’m partying up with a strong guy for the 

time being

That idiot…but I expected as much. Also may I say, oho!

No…I’m actually on the verge of vomiting when around this guy, but I’m get a lot of skinning done.

He sounds…nasty. Big Sis will come and save you now!

Thank you!!

I close the chat and head over to Apexus, as he puts a rabbit in a chokehold.

“Hey Apexus”

“What is it lovely”

He turns around and flashes his best grin while punching the rabbits face.

Trying my best to ignore the scene…

“My friends are coming in a second and once they’re here, we’ll hang out some till my last party member is ready. Ok?”

“That’s sounds perfect, but who are these frien-”

“YOHOO!”

Apexus turns round and his mouth drops along with the dead rabbit.

“Apexus, meet Pinky Seniour and Pinky Juniour”

The two in question hop towards us

I go for a hug with Big Sis, which she returns gracefully. Ahhh, she’s patting my head…that feels good.

“Ahem”

Oh, crazy bitch.

“Hi to you too”

I reluctantly detach from Big Sis’ warm hug and pat, to acknowledge the crazy loli rabbit behind her.

She looks at me with a grouchy look

“Hey there!” She’s as bubbly as always.

“Faker”

“Screamer”

“Now now you two, stop fighting”

We both give exchange evil eyes for a few seconds before Big Sis threatens to give us a head-chop.

I peek back to see Apexus pushing his mouth up, only to have it drop once again.

Seriously, do breasts really matter that much?

I squeeze together my two mountains…I don’t see why they’re so attractive.

Nevermind, I won’t ever understand boys…

“So who’s the ape?” Big Sis asks

“Oh, he’s Apexus”

Upon hearing his name, he finally comes back into consciousness and straightens himself up.

“Yes that is me, the mighty Apexus” He flexes and kisses his big biceps…Urlrp, god he really doesn’t know that it isn’t as sexy as he thinks…

Big Sis gives a big smile towards him, seemingly ignorant of his flaunting. Crazy on the other hand looks as sick as I feel.

At least we see eye to eye on something.

“Nice to meet you Apexus! Hope we have fun together” Big Sis…

“I do hope to have fun with you, hahaha!” I think, he thinks that was smooth. Oh the vomit…

Luckily there is a saving grace to stop my puking

Hey, Baila. I saw Pinky’s came online.

Joat! Great timing.

Why of course, I’m not a time traveler for nothing you know

Just go to the future and dig your own grave

I see your logic there, heh.

Ok, serious now. What do you want?

Me and my brothers have finished our re-leveling but we still have a tiny little problem

Ah, so that’s why you call them brothers…

I wield my sword quite well thank you

You mean dagger…

Are you vying for a peek?

I will rip it off if I see it

Ok ok! I’ll keep my weapon sheathed. Anyways, I’ll go sort out this problem. Should only take 

another 10 minutes max.

Ok. Just be quick about it. Me and Pinky’s are on the verge of vomiting

What?

Long story, I’ll fill you in once we party. Go sort out your little problem.

OK!

“Apexus”

He stops showing off to the Pinky duo as he kills another rabbit brutally (it’s not awe inspiring, its 

disturbing) and turns towards me.

“Your last friend coming?” Ok so he’s not the thickest…but I reckon he’s still on the double digits

“Yes he’ll be here in about 10 minutes”

Apexus looks extremely unhappy at the mention of my friend being a he…deal with it. At least Joat doesn’t make me want to barf when I speak to him, even though he gets a little dodgy with his joking and innuendos.

“Ok, then let us make the best of our time together!” He rushes out to another rabbit ripping it in half poruing blood onto his hairy chest

..

.

Is he trying to do that model water thing? Urlrp.

God the only one clapping is Big Sis. Big Sis, you really need to stop liking what he does…

Seriously, he’s disturbing.

I think she may just be one of those people who like everyone…

Anyways, with nothing better to do, I follow behind Apexus grumbling slightly at his messy kills. Only poor to medium quality fur here…ugh.

I skin another 2 rabbits before I hear the rustling of bushes come from my right

“HEY THERE B-WHAAAAAT?”

(Joat’s POV)

“HEY THERE B-WHAAAAAT?”

...

..

.

APEXUS IS HERE!!

HE’S STILL HERE!

AND WORSE: HE’S WITH THE LADIES!

OH GOD…wait, that may actually a good thing…

My brothers in death look as surprised by the whole situation of Apexus somehow befriending my women (although I hear Zzoid mutter “My Loli, you bastard” under his breath…).

We’re not going to take this one lying down, and now that the women are here, we will shame you so badly in front of them. Obviously showing our awesomeness and strength to them too…

My brothers look especially riled up at the thoughts of showing off to the ladies.

I don’t think they are as hopeless as I first thought them to be; I just think they need a little training in the arts.

“APEXUUUUUS” We all roar towards him

He turns around with a look of anger in his eyes. He’s only about 20 metres away from us so his evil grin is clearly visible to us.

“YOU! Hahaha, come back for more?”

..

.

The girls look at us and then Apexus and then back at us

“Oh, well this isn’t exactly a little problem is it Joat”

“Huh?”

Apexus looks at Baila

“Joat? You know the gu-Oh, I’m sorry but this guy cannot be your friend”

..

.

“Brothers, can we kill this Apeshit, before he makes the ladies vomit?” I speak loud enough for Apeshit to hear

“Gladly” They all lick their lips with their forked tongues.

“Ah, you dare to call me Apeshit? I’ll kill you!”

He runs towards us and we charge towards him

He swipes his left hand across the sky

“LEFT!”

We duck under his hand and sprint to his right hand as he takes his left hand out the way.

Idiot.

Zzoid, Zzand and I, grab the arm holding it down for Zzard to punch it on the joint

*SNAP*

“Aaaaaah!”

Apeshit wails slightly, I mean we did just break his arm.

“LEG”

Before he recovers from the pain, we grab his leg and forcefully snap it too.

*Thump*

Jumping over his body we land either side of his other arm and collectively snap it.

“Aaaaah!!”

We walk over to his last unbroken leg and snap it for good measures.

Then we all slowly walk till we enter his view

“How’s the view down there Apeshit?” Zzard asks with a grin

“Fuck you!”

“Now don’t cuss in front of the ladies. Zzoid, you got any soap?” I retort

“Nah, but I reckon we can use his blood”

“Good thinking”

We all kick his face once,

*Spit spit*

He spits out a glob of blood.

“You fucking weaklings, using such petty tricks and fighting 4v1. How can you stand there so 

proud”

“Simple; we’re the winners, and the strong are those that win” I put my foot on his head rubbing in that point

“Fuck y-”

*Kick*

“Thank you Zzand” Zzoid gives him a pat on the back.

“So what shall we do with this piece of crap?” Zzoid asks

“hmm, it’d be a shame just to kill Apeshit just like this” Zzard muses

“…Ah!”

“What is it Joat?” They all look at me as I get a glint in my eyes

I turn back towards some quite shocked rabbit-beastladies…

“Baila”

She gets out of her daze as I call her name

“Yes? Wow, that was hell of a fight”

“Thanks, but do you still have the knife?”

“I do but wha…oh…”

She takes out the knife and with very little reluctance she tosses it over to me

-1

God dammit.

I guessed right that Apeshit was the one who made her want to vomit. Though, PinkyS looks 

extremely shocked. PJ a little less; she looks decently happy like Baila...

Turning back I twiddle the knife in front of Apeshit

“You know the saying; there’s more than one way to skin a cat? Well I only know one way to skin an ape; the painful way”

“MMMMPGH”

Zzand’s foot is gratefully stuck within his mouth stopping the words.

“Ladies, I recommend you go back to town and get something to snack on. We’ll be a good 5 minutes, so take your time” Zzoid gracefully saves the ladies some possible nightmares.

Well guess I don’t need to train them as much as I thought…

The ladies nod their heads in understanding and all head into town. I hear Baila mention “Apexus is the bad guy here” to PinkyS, who looks extremely confused about the situation, as walk away.

“Ok, now that it’s just us…how about we get to know each-other a little better”

(Baila’s POV)

“Ahh, so that’s why they were pking eachother. But I thought he wasn't that bad a guy honestly” 

Big Sis...you still do't understand. oh,

“Yes, so now they’re getting a little payback”

“I do like the way they’re doing it; a very good way to stop him coming back for more” Crazy Faker (yep I’m sticking with that name from now on) wears a happy expression

I at least support Joat and those other guys’ decision but still…

“I wonder who came up with that idea?” I muse to them

“Definitely not Joat” Big Sis answers thoughtfully

“No I’m thinking it was him” CF counter argues

“Hmm, I’m sort of inclined to agree”

“Actually, for the record it was Zzoid. I’m too kind for those sorts of ideas"

..

.

We all turn our heads to see a 4 men with ear to ear grins sauntering down the street.

“Joat! And others!” Big Sis calls out to them

The others look a little less happy but they force their smiles to remain just as wide. Wow, these guys are actually trying decently hard…

“Hello there Miss Gorgeous, sorry for keeping you waiting” One of the lizard trio had headed to the front and just bowed towards Big Sis. His voice is decently high pitched for a guy.

“eheh Miss Gorgeous…that you for the compliments”

“U-u-u-uuuh Thanks!”  The lizard looks quite embarrassed and loses all his former composure

“Indulge yourself in our compliments as much as you can, your body won’t get any less marvelous doing so” another identical lizard (wow identical) saved the other by focusing her attention on him

“Oh you!” Big Sis blushes lightly and gives him a smile

“And if you do, you can always call on me for a workout” He adds a sly wink at the end there

..

.

Joat…Just what have you done

Nothing…

Hmm

That line was certainly a Joat orginial. I could feel his influence there. Also the fact that I saw these guys get rejected way back in the day…suggests they didn’t have that sort of pick-up skill before.

“Everybody, may I introduce my brothers in harm” Joat that sneaky bastard sends me a smile. Nothing you say, liar.

The two in front of Big sis go down on one knee hands to the chest

“I am Zzard”

“And I am Zzand”

Ok so Zzand is the higher pitched one, got it.

The last one walks past the others and stops beside CF.

He does a curt bow with an arm on his chest

“I am Zzoid, at your disposal Miss Loli-baba”

(Author note: Baba is a word for aunt or older women, generally speaking)

..

.

“WHAAAAT?” The rest of the guys are completely and utterly shocked…Ah, right this may take some time to explain...

(ED note: baba means Aunt, or older woman more generally)