Chapter 0050

The personal dungeon was situated five miles from Pixie Hill, at the base of a mountain, where if you believe the NPC, a terrible battle between the brightly Ordain Ones and the shadowy Fallen Ones occurred. Those who died in battle on any side became the Victus or the Defeated. Due to their failure, by dying in battle, they were cursed to become shades, suffering unquenchable thirst, unending hunger, untold agony and unanswerable loneliness. They wander an area close to their graveyard, seeking a way out of their eternal misery.

Leviene listen to the tale with half an ear, impatiently waiting for the story to end, so she can sell the grey loot she got from farming the pixies. She also wanted to buy something to eat. Killing mobs is very hard work.

Once the introduction was finished, Leviene zoomed to the nearest NPC to sell her loot.

4 silver, 20 coppers. Not too bad.

Leviene sat down on the nearest bench to assess her current situation.

The walked from Pixie Hill to the personal dungeon leveled Leviene to 11. Damn experience penalty for alt. Kaleseze was correct. There was a 50% penalty for alt. Alts in this game is defined as the lower or lowest levels of all the names a player has. Thinking it over, Leviene decided to keep her priest as her main. Altreyes and Rayael kills fast enough that Leviene doesn’t have to worry about the experience penalty.

Leveling a healer takes patience and determination. Strangely enough, Leviene does have the patience and the determination to play a slow leveling character. Where would many have given up and re-rolled another character, Leviene continue to plod along with hers.

The contrast puzzle Sylphie before but after a grindfest with an enthusiastic Leviene, she shut up and never mentions it again.

Speaking of Sylphie, did she make the journey with all her molars intact? She was grinding and clenching her teeth throughout the journey here.

Leviene couldn’t be bothered about her cousin during the journey as Erica was raring to go and did not stop once during her tirade. What got stuck up her butt?

Shesh.

Leviene pm Sylphie trying to gauge her mood, so she can know how much gloating she can reveal on her face. Just because she can’t tease Sylphie now, don’t mean she can’t torment, uhh ease her suffering, later.

[Leviene whispered to Sylphie]: How much endurance stats did you get?

[Sylphie whispered to Leviene]: 14 endurance 2 wisdom.

[Leviene whispered to Sylphie]: Is that all you got for today?

[Sylphie whispered to Leviene]: Why are you asking? Need to gloat?

Sylphie snarled even though she was whispering to her favorite lovable cousin. Erica was too busy to notice the secretive behavior of her two relatives.

Nope. No gloating for this experience gamer. Yet.

[Leviene whispered to Sylphie]: Nah. I got 5 endurance, 20 dex and 14 precision farming off the pixies then I got another 4 endurance points off Erica and 1 endurance point from going hungry. I was wondering if you got more than me and what is the rate that we’re getting stats points.

[Sylphie whispered to Leviene]: I’ve got more precision than you, 22 points there. 23 dex, 14 endurance and 1 wisdom.

[Leviene whispered to Sylphie]: Were you playing caster on your healer or attacking?

[Sylphie whispered to Leviene]: Little of both.

“Hmmm….”

“What are you two talking about now?” Erica jumped in the conversation. Is there a way they can converse without her jumping in all the time? Leviene doesn’t want to reveal the particulars of their conversation to her. Not everyone wants to hear their presence is painful enough a strange new world is offering extra stat points for enduring her.

“Trying to decide on stat distribution and talent point allocation. I was mainly going to put most of my stats into agility, constitution and intelligences with faith as an afterthought. However seeing the mana regen mechanics, I want more faith, but I don’t know where to take it from.”

“I was going to do the same except I wasn’t going to focus on constitution on mine. With enough agility, I evade most of the mobs attack. I don’t think I need to pad the hp for healers.” Sylphie tried to look casual around Erica, but Leviene could tell the aggravation from their trip here flayed her nerves.

Erica was different than her usual self during to trip to the personal dungeon as well. For one thing, she keeps a certain distance from Leviene. Leviene was glad for the distance but she was puzzled as to why Erica did it.

Then there is her verbal diarrhea. It got worse. It was bad enough as it is considering the System categorized it as mental torture and gave out endurance point for staying near her, however with current behavior, Leviene was sure a normal person would have attacked her, just to get her to shut up.

Leviene understand that Erica isn’t always this abrasive. She couldn’t have grown her company to the point it is today if she turns off potential customer with personality and Sylphie did say Erica was better with people than her and Leviene.

Yet…

What in the world is going on in that girl’s crazy mind?!

Still, as a relative, Leviene has to give her some leeway. She did get transported to a new world after all. So, Leviene ignored Erica and continue her talk with Sylphie.

“Can your chainmail geared Stancer tank with low hp? Without armour mitigation, you might not be able to take the hits.”

“I can go into a defensive stance.” Sylphie shrugged, “It will boost my hit point, armour, dodge, parry and block by 5%. That should be enough to withstand a boss hit.”

“You haven’t even tanked yet. How would you know?” Leviene pointed out the flaw to her logic. As someone likes to say, should have, would have, could have doesn’t cut it.

“You haven’t either. How would you know I need more hp?” Sylphie countered.

“All healers love to have their tank have extra hp.” Leviene defended her position. She plays both a healer and a tank. As a healer, she loves it when the tanks have high mitigation and hp. This is actually Leviene preference which she would force on to the tank if she could.

Different types of healers prefer different types of tanks. Healers with a lot of HOT and long casting big heals prefer high hp with mitigation while healers who are mana conservative but has fast casting but low healing prefer dodge/parry/block tanks. The universal preference of all healers are high everything. They can stack HOTs on them and actually see their surrounding instead of health bars.

Leviene wanted to force the tanks in Slaughter to spec for her conveniences. Sadly, Sylphie is their guild leader and Kaleseze is their main tank so she doesn’t get her way.

“I’ll focus on constitution when I think I need more health. Beside, I'm not leveling Ayerez to be the main tank.”

“Still don’t help me with my problems. What stats to shunt for faith?”

“Intelligences and constitution. Intelligences give you a bigger mana pool starting out, but if the fight lasts a long time, faith gives you more mana. You don’t need much constitution right now. Later on maybe, but you can fill up you deficiency when you level up or through your talent points.”

“I’ll think about it. By the way, what skills are you taking?” Leviene just caught on to Sylphie’s tactic, diversion.

Sylphie avoid Leviene’s questions yesterday about her skill choices. She told Leviene to go for healing skills, but she didn’t disclose her talent distribution.

“Healing and caster for my druid and melee dps with high survivability with my Stancer.”

“Yeah, but where are you putting your points in? I’ve been looking at the trees and I can’t decide if I should max out the low levels skills or put the minimum and go for the advance skill. Most of the basic skills are in the bottom tier.”

“I’m getting the minimum to tier six then focusing on my lower tier skills. If I find a good tier 7 to 10 skills, it doesn’t take me a long time to get the spell.”

“Thought there was only six tiers.”

“There are 10 tiers with one ultimate skill.”

“There’s nothing in the skill tree.”

“There isn’t, but there’s slots for spells to be added. It gives player more customization to their character.”

“Well, I’m not exactly sure where to put my points. For my assassin, I’m going into the ghost tree, but for my priest and guardian, I don’t know yet.”

“You can look it over our late lunch.”

“Speaking of lunch, is there a food and drink vendor here?”

“Over there.” Sylphie pointed to a tall NPC in one of the stalls. Leviene went over, bought some food, found a place to sit down and eat while looking over her skill trees.

Unfortunately before Leviene can do anything, Erica comes along and started talking, and talking, and talking.

She knew she shouldn’t have wished Sylphie ill will. Now it comes to bite her in the butt. Leviene was tempted to put Erica on ignore, but she wants the extra endurance the mental torture brings. At higher levels there is a high probability of getting less extra stat points for effort.

Listening to Erica rant will give her one endurance points every 2 to 3 hours. At higher levels it might be 2 to 3 days before an endurance point can be earned.

Still…

Leviene wanted to cry. The tears slowly pooled at the edge of eyes, but short Perrian Let refused to let them fall. She will not let Erica win.

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Sylphie saw Leviene’s current situation, and being the better relative, stepped into the fray.

“Enough Erica.”

“Enough what Sylphie? I’m just commenting on our horrible situation. We worked for over six hours and our gains are nothing but levels and a couple of silvers. The gains we received aren’t worth the time we spent earning it. Midget over there earned less than a silver per hour. You might think at our current situation, it is a tidy sum, but I am doubt your expertise here. I’m sure there is a better area we grind and earn some funds.

“And don’t talk about stat points. I barely got any. I don’t think it is worth it to put the extra time and effort now as opposed to later, as in when we meet up with the others. You can expend effort improving yourself in this worthless world.

“I’d rather spend the time exploring this world and looking for a way to get back to Earth. Have you forgotten, Earth is our home, not this wanna be virtual reality world.”

“That is enough Erica. I understand some of your concerns, however it is better to tackle what we can. I don’t think the people who transport us here are willing to let us go so easily.” Sylphie tried to reason with an irate Erica.

Leviene could have told her isn’t possible. God know how often Kaleseze and Wraith complains of her muleheadedness when she onto something. Reasoning someone when they are in a hyperactive state is like backing them into a corner instead of calming them down. When someone is backed into a corner, then they fight back. Like what Erica is doing right now.

“How can you understand what I feel? I’m stuck in a situation beyond my control with a ditz for help and a backstabbing scheming bitch!”

“Who are you calling a backstabbing scheming bitch?” Leviene growled.

“Certainly not you.” Erica sneered then continued her ranting. Leviene didn’t know what to feel about Erica’s comment. She can either be the ditz or the backstabbing scheming bitch, neither adjective suits her. Actually, Sylphie thought the ditz suits Leviene just fine, however no one asked for her opinion and she wasn’t going to get between the cousins. She already ground down her molar by a few millimeters during the journey from Pixie Hill to the personal dungeons.

“.... and I can’t depend on crippled druggie over there now can I?”

“What did you say?” Leviene asked in a dangerous voice. Erica did not go there.

Erica grabbed Leviene’s face and said in a clear and loud voice, “I said I can’t depend on crippled druggie over there now can I?”

“I think you had a very hard day and are very confused. Go over to the inn and rest.” Leviene said in a calm manner.

Sylphie immediately stiffen her back and began to pay attention to the squabbling cousins.

She took her eyes off them for a minute, and Leviene was going to go postal. What happened?

“I’m not confused, unlike you. I know exactly what I am doing. You, however, don’t seem to remember what happened in the last couple hours. I suggest you take legless over there to the inn for a rest.”

“Getting transported to a new world has been hard on you. I’ll take everything you said previously as mindless venting.” Leviene said calmly.

Those who know Leviene knows she can and will get angry. It is hard to piss off the laid-back woman. The character trait seems to be in their blood. Wraith and Kaleseze are also unambitious, laid back guys with amicable personalities. They were so chill that if Sylphie didn’t grow up with them and periodically test them for drugs, she could have sworn they were stone off marijuana.

The results always came back negative for any illegal substances.

Since Sylphie knows Leviene, she knows when to get away from the simmering volcano!

Erica doesn’t know Leviene at all. “Hmph, this isn’t venting but stating an obvious fact. You are a ditz and Sylphie over there is stuck in a wheelchair for the rest of her life.”

Boom!

Leviene attacked Erica with pure physical strength, sending the Ruse Marren flying. She didn’t stop there. Erica went too far for Leviene to show mercy. Leviene took advantage of Erica’s supine position to straddle her and rain blows after blows on her cousin.

“You egoistical b*tch knows nothing about it. Do you know how hard it is to lose my dad? Do you know what it feels like to watch your family tear apart at the seams? We couldn’t see beyond our grief. We couldn’t see the pain the other felt. We blame each other for the accident and tore at each other until we bled and bled. In the end, our family was never the same again. Then we had to pick up the pieces and take care of Jessica when she’s at her worst. Her suffering. Our suffering, you know nothing of it. If you did, you wouldn’t make fun of it like you did.”

Sylphie’s heart ached as she heard Leviene cry of outrage. Leviene bottle too much inside of her. Letting it out once in a while is a good thing, Sylphie told herself as she watches Erica’s HP drop down.

75%

54%

33%

21%

7%

1%

Despite her anger, Leviene is still Leviene. She didn’t strike the final blow.

“I don’t want to see the sl*t anytime soon. Drag her away, Sylphie, that is if you want to dirty your hands touching this piece of sh*t.”

“Where are you going?” Sylphie asked Leviene, showing no regards for the mashed up player on the floor game developers have to put mosaic on her due to the damage Leviene had done to her.

Arashia is another world, not a virtual reality game. There is no mosaic pattern. Sylphie saw the results of the brutal one-sided beating.

Swollen skin marked by black and blues bruises grace the once delicate skin. Blood oozes from all orifices on Erica’s faces. Is that an eye that popped out of its sockets? A broken nose and misshapen lips complete the grostique transformation.

Sylphie wouldn’t have recognized her if she didn’t witness the brutal assault first hand. The Tajin Nost gave Erica a cursory glance. She was more concerned about Leviene’s state of mind.

It isn’t often Leviene gets physical. In fact, this may be the first time Sylphie saw Leviene express her rage physically. When Leviene gets angry, she tries to express her rage through lame sarcastic comments.

“I’m going grind in the personal dungeons.” Leviene said without a backward glance, as if she afraid she’d finish off Erica.

“Have fun.” Sylphie said to Leviene before healing Erica.

Arashia is an amazing world. After the brutal attack Erica suffered at the hands of Leviene it took mere moments for the bodily trauma to heal.

“Where is she?”

Sylphie ignored Erica’s questions. “Are you done testing Leviene’s limit?”

“I’m not testing anyone’s limit.”

“Bullsh*t. Ever since I reveal your family background, you have been testing our limits. I don’t know why you feel the need to, but I’ll tell you now, stop it. We are family. For what it is worth, we’ll stand by each other regardless of the dangers, but it doesn’t mean we’ll allow one member to abuse the other.” Sylphie soften her voice, “I know you were scared and venting is your reaction to the fear you experienced. However, it doesn’t justify hurting those around you.”

“What do you expect me to do? You dropped a bomb and expect to handle it in a reasonable manner. Well, I can’t! I can’t go about pretending I don’t have crazy psychotic relatives with enemies all over the US and homicidal maniac in another part of the world.”

“Leviene’s been handling it.”

“I’m not an ignoramus.”

“Then tell me, what are you going to do when the enemies of those crazy relatives come after you?”

“I…”

“You can’t do anything. Have you thought about how Leviene feels when the enemies of Ys comes after her?”

“They…”

“They came after her. It’s how she found out about the Ys. I wasn’t present when they rescued her from her kidnappers, but Leviene went into shock for three days. Afterwards she’d wake up from nightmares. Then one day, she went back to being Leviene. Only, she contacts the Denieve and start making connections there as well as cozying up to the Deveraux. She didn’t distance herself from the Ys but gave them a stern warning to leave their sh*t in Asia. Yeah, Leviene may be an ignoramus as you called her, but then what about you?”

Erica remains silent under Sylphie’s judgemental glare. She’d taken too many things for granted, made too many baseless assumptions. Now she alienated Leviene, one of the easier relatives to get along with.

“Look, I’m not blaming you. I’m telling you some of the facts. Leviene is like she is because she was under a lot of pressure. The Denieve, the Deveraux, the Ys, they aren’t here. Leviene can be herself now.”

“You’re right. They aren’t here now.” Erica said more to herself than Sylphie.

“Since they aren’t here, Leviene doesn’t have to put up with some of the bullsh*t less her family reacts and goes postal on them.”

“Leviene is…”

“Finding herself.”

Both of them were quiet for a moment.

“I wish Leviene becomes the person she wants to be, not the person everyone expects her to be.”