Chapter 0059

Altreyes stood at the base of the cliff looking at the Grieza Canyon in awe at the majestic scenery before her eyes.

The deep canyon walls were striated with shades of red, orange and yellow and when the light of the supposed sun hits it a the right angle, the impression of a massive wildfire burning relentlessly is brought to mind.

The image of the intense fire is further accentuated by the barren landscape marked by rolling tumbleweeds and sparse vegetation.

As if to belie the dominion of fire in the region, a roaring river snake through the canyon, growing a strange yet lush vegetations along the river banks.

Here life thrives as fish swims against the current while gigantic bears open their maw, enjoying the free delivery nature or Arashia has created for them, unbeknownst to them they are merely prey for the large wyvern swooping here catching fat lazy prey.

Altreyes’ expression changed from awe to disgruntle as she took in the layers of the food chain.

“Sylphie what are you thinking? Those fat fishes are level 35. Those fatter bears are level 40 and the wyverns eating said bears are level 50.” For once, Altreyes is happy Erica, ah Soliel, has a big mouth. She can question their dictator while Altreyes survive the return volley said dictator delivers.

“The mobs here range from level 35 to 50. So what?” the dictator nonchalantly shrugs off the problem in question.

“The highest player in our group is me and I am at level 32. Why are we challenging mobs 8 to 18 levels higher than us? Because I know we’re not here for the fish.”

Everyone turned to Sylphie for an answer. Altreyes is keen on Sylphie’s response as well. Sylphie is a top-notch leader though she doesn’t follow a linear way of thinking.

One of Altreyes’ friend once told her the leaders of an enterprise or conglomerate shouldn’t think like an ordinary people. If a leader thinks like the masses then they aren’t a leader but the follower. They do not have the mentality nor the quality to lead. They can only follow the trend, not take advantage of it. Leaders have to create the vision for their followers.

Altreyes didn’t understand. She chalked it up to her being too much of a follower to understand the mindset of the leader.

Right now, Altreyes want to pry Sylphie’s mind open and read it like a book. Really, what is she thinking?

Altreyes doesn’t have to wait long because Sylphie did an unusual thing, she explained herself.

“Currently, we are playing like an individual. Each person does their own grinding with the healers tossing out a heal here and there. This is fine if we can continue to level as a solo player, but I don’t think that is possible.”

“It is possible to grind solo, however it is not recommended or wise to do so. The best gear in the game is on powerful bosses that requires 5, 10, 15 or even 40 people to work together to down them. A party consists of 7 people, a group consist of 15 people and a raid consist of 105 people. If you want the best gear, then you have to coordinate with 104 other players.

“It might be far off, we will eventually get to that point. Our current problem right now is our teamwork or lack thereof. Even if we work together right now, I don’t think we can take on the bears let alone the wyverns. Erica, you’d go off on your own doing your own thing. Altreyes will try to stab Aetharious and Egarious in the back. Egarious will retaliate when the times come and Aetharious will hang off to the side helplessly watching the commotion while I will ignore all of you because I don’t want to get in the middle of another match up between two stupid idiots.”

“Hey! We’re not idiots.”

Sylphie ignored the protest from the idiot who just fought with another idiot and proved her point entirely, “So before we attempt a dungeon, I’d like to assess our coordination by grinding the mobs in the area. They are high levels but we can take them down if we work together.”

Everyone nodded their heads in agreement. Before a team can become a team, practise is required. Toss a bunch of strangers in a cage and telling them to work together to fight off the lion is stupid and inefficient.

Altreyes understood the logic. If she was in a cage with the lion with this group, she’d send Egarious to tank the lion while the rest damages it and she’d stand back and... not heal the tank.

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Altreyes is that petty and Sylphie knows it. She brought them here to work out their differences, practise their coordination and earn more points in the secondary stats.

“Damn know it all cousin and their scheming brains! Why couldn’t she leave me to my tricks?” Altreyes tried to grumble her complaints under her breath but she forgets Arashia is like a virtual reality game. There is no grumbling under her breath. Hence, everyone hear what she said.

Altreyes realize that important fact when everyone gave her strange looks.

Aetharious and Egarious caught on to Sylphie’s intent pretty fast and Erica looked at Altreyes as if she grew two heads.

One couldn’t blame Erica for her reaction. The Ruse Marren had grown up with the image of Altreyes as a pure, innocent little lamb, protected by the adoring family. Any hint of the grittier side of humanity was fanatically stamped out. Too see a not so gentle side of Altreyes gave Erica a shock.

She finally realizes Altreyes is very different from the image of ‘Saint Laurie’ she had in her head.

Erica would have known the angelic side of Altreyes was a facade if she had hung out around Altreyes long enough. The fighting among the Denieve, the Deveraux and the Duan is fierce. Altreyes had to become devious or else she’d be the proverbial bird in the golden cage.

Altreyes didn’t care about the reaction of the group. She acted as if they never heard her complaint. As for her little tricks, well, they can only put up their guard against the little twat.

“I’ll be cycling among my three characters, a priest, an assassin, and a guardian. Erica, ah Soliel, there only has one class, the sword dancer, while Sylphie is a druid and a stancer. What class are you two?” Altreyes asked.

“Paladin.” Egarious answered promptly.

“Auralist.” little Aetharious squeaked out.

“Damn.” Altreyes said. This time she said it openly and justly. How Altreyes thought about insulting anyone openly and justly came about no one knows.

Erica definitely wants to know how did the ‘Saint Laurie’ in her mind fell. Sylphie gave a look that said, “Leave the matter alone.” Since Sylphie has been right all along, Erica shut up.

“Altreyes, turn to Rayael and tank.” Sylphie suggest-slash-ordered.

“Why? I haven’t allotted any tanking skills to Rayael yet.”

“All the better for you to tank now. You’d know what you are lacking and have the points to make up the deficiency.”

“But…”

“But you still want to pull your tricks even though everyone here knows it and is on guard. It is easier to to pull off your scheme from the back rather than from the front. If you were on your Priest, you wouldn't heal the poor bastard. No one can fault you or if they did, everyone blames the healers when someone dies anyways so it doesn’t become a big issue. On your Assassin, you’d pull the aggro then run towards the player you want to kills and let the mob kill you. You’d only be scolded for pulling aggro and some of the issues lies with the tank not holding the boss’ attention well enough. As for a tank, you let the boss kill the player then pull the aggro back with one your skills.” Sylphie recited the common tricks player pulled on each other when they raided a dungeon in Dark Drake Kingdom. Tricks Altreyes no doubt picked up on.

“I wasn’t going to do any of that. It’s too obvious.” Altreyes protested but only to fall in Sylphie’s trap.

“But you thought about it.”

“Ummm…”

“Yeah, I figured. That’s why you are tanking.”

Altreyes tossed daggers with her glare at Aetharious and Egarious before changing into Rayael. She swore she’d get her licks in somewhere. The day is young and she got all the time in the world if they insist on stick with their group.

“Hehehehehehe…”

Everyone looked at the manically laughing idiot and had the same thought, “She’s up to something.”