"I can't believe you were lying to me!" Alex exclaimed.
"Weren't you cheating too!?" Jordan demanded.
"Guys, guys... thinking positively, both of you got two gold for taking a warm bath."
After a while of the cheated game from before, JohnWillStab pointed out that both were cheating, but for the effort, JohnWillStab offered them half of the promised five-gold prize each, and since you can't give someone half a coin, two gold it was.
"It's not about the gold! It's about the sportsmanship!" Alex complained.
"Where'd your sportsmanship go when you heated your water up with magic?" Jordan demanded.
"Clever usage of your talents is not cheating!" Alex explained.
"WHAT ABOUT MY MAGIC IS CHEATING THAN!?" Jordan demanded.
"That's different!"
JohnWillStab was starting to regret pitting them against each other.
JohnWillStab looked down to his hand, he was level four after all the slime killing, since killing the slimes counted as an alternative method of completing the quest it gave them a good bit of XP, not to mention killing all the little slimes.
Dexterity: 6 + 2(Gloves)
Perception: 6
Stamina: 2 + 4(Boots)
Athletics: 4
Strength: 2 + 1(Gloves)
Weapon skill: 4
Magic: 2
Intelligence: 2
Luck: 2 + 1(Ring)
Charisma: 0 + 3(Tits)
"Not bad," he thought looking at his stats.
"Next quest, rescue five people from the Shadeview Town."
JohnWillStab tore the quest paper in three.
"Quest difficulty: D"
"Quest level range: 6 - 10"
"Task: Rescue five injured citizens of Shadeview Town."
"Reward: 500XP, 10 gold,[dominant-stat cloak]"
"What's a dominant-stat?" Asked Jordan.
"You know the way you have stats on each one of your fingers? The dominant stat is a stat that your class needs the most." JohnWillStab explained.
"For me, it's athletics and damage," JohnWillStab explained.
"Usually, a dagger-class has to make a choice early on, if they want athletics and strength for quick bursts of damage or athletics and stamina for long-term playing. But as an undead I don't have to worry about stamina, that's something I never saw mentioned online about the undead."
The story has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.
"What's a dominant stat for me?" Jordan asked.
"Let's see... what's your class? I read up on some of the classes before," JohnWillStab explained.
"I don't know..." he replied.
"Tap your right hand and look at the back of the palm," JohnWillStab guided.
Jordan did as JohnWillStab instructed.
"It says I'm a... staff-class with fire in brackets as well as an enchanter class," he said confused.
"What are you twelve?" JohnWillStab laughed.
Jordan was confused by John's remark and as such didn't reply.
JohnWillStab saw that the joke didn't land and began to explain "Basically, I found this website where you see other player's class-race combos, and the human+staff(fire)+enchanter was the most popular one, everyone laughed at how generic it is."
"Well... it's not my account," Jordan reminded him.
"Oh, right, sorry!" John apologised.
"Anyway, your main stats are 'magic' which increases the control you have over your magic and intelligence which increases your mana, perception is also handy, but not necessary, and dexterity is... eh~" he shrugged.
"What do you mean 'Eh' ?" he asked.
"I mean... it's not necessary, you use a staff."
"If you cast magic with your hands, then you'd need dexterity. Despite this, a lot of people recommend dex for your character-builds."
"What about you, Alex?" asked Jordan.
"I couldn't decide, so I put my stats in luck." he shrugged.
"YOU WHAT!?" JohnWillStab spun around.
"What? My stats increase every level anyway, I just mean I wear clothes that give you luck." he shrugged.
"You dumbass! Luck only makes monster-drops a little better!" he exclaimed.
The look on Alex's face turned grim, "If you spend a week in the desert eating cactus and drinking monster-blood, you would appreciate the luck stat." he said quietly.
They walked down the cobblestone road, the trees around them lost all their leaves slowly and the sky was blocked off by a thick mist.
"I've never been here in the game," JohnWillStab explained.
"Really? I guess even gamers don't go into certain areas of games." Jordan shrugged.
"Yeah, the global chat," Alex said causing both JohnWillStab and him to laugh.
Jordan didn't know what they were laughing about.
"Anyway, don't worry about it, I've been to more dangerous places," JohnWillStab assured.
The grass went from dark green to an almost purple-grey.
The tree barks turned grey and the wildlife itself seemingly disappeared.
"We've been heading up for a while, is this place on a mountain or something?!" Alex asked.
"I don't think Grimwood has any mountain," JohnWillStab replied.
"So we're in Grimwood, right now?" Jordan asked.
"Yeah, the old Undead starting-zone," Alex explained.
"Is that why this place is so creepy?" asked Jordan.
"Yeah, it's cursed by something in the crypts located east of here," JohnWillStab said pointing over to the baren crater in the distance.
"Oh shit, we really are pretty high if we can see it from here!" he thought.
They walked for a while longer as into view came a large, walled-off town, about a dozen homes were placed atop a (relatively small) peak.
"I think that's it!" Alex pointed at the large, open gate.
"It looks charred," JohnWillStab noted.
They step inside and see an old, algae-filled fountain as well as a lot of burned buildings, some of which could hardly be called buildings anymore.
"Alright, let's find these alleged survivors," JohnWillStab said looking around.
"Yeah, let's split up," Jordan suggested.
Alex wandered off, the town was split up into three parts, one consisted of six buildings at the same height-level as the walls, another part was just five buildings located even higher up and one house was at the very top, it looked like more of a mansion really.
"Hello?! Survivors?" Alex could hear JohnWillStab call out.
Suddenly Alex heard the sound of sobbing, he looked around and saw what looked like a young girl, somewhere in her early twenties sitting inside one of the buildings.
"Crying, woman! I'm here to help!" Alex exclaimed rushing into the house from which he heard the crying.
He looked around and saw a woman dressed in a brown dress sitting at the partially charred table.
"Oh no! A young maiden in need of my help!"
"Sitting alone in a burned building in a long dress, but seemingly unharmed herself."
"This is absolutely a ghost." he thought.
"Who are you?" she asked.
"My name is Alex, I'm here to help you pass on into the next world," he said sorrowfully.
"What? No, I'm not one of the ghosts," she explained.
A tear formed in Alex's eye.
"Poor girl, doesn't even realise she's already dead." he said.
"Look here! I'm still ali-" he stabbed his blade into her, blood flew everywhere as the azure flames appeared on the blade.
"AH!!! IT HURTS! FIRE! HELP!" she cried.
"It's alright, the flames will purify your soul," he assured her.
"YOU SON OF A BITCH I'M TRYING TO TELL YOU I'M ALI-" he put a hand over her mouth.
"I know it's hard to accept, you can rest now."
As her body was reduced to a pile of ashes and a charred skeleton.
"I'll avenge you!" he said as he turned around and saw JohnWillStab in the door.
He saw the sorrow on Alex's face, "It's for the better." John assured him.
"I know... I just can't help but feel this world is just too cruel... I'm sure this was all just a misunderstanding, y'know?" Alex said.
"I know... but now her soul is in a better place." John assured him, he patted him on the back before turning towards the skeleton.
"Weird ass ghosts girl." he thought looking down to his quest log seeing that his quest marker didn't update.
"o/9 survivors helped." read the quest.
"Oh God, this place is laggy too... wait, wasn't it out of ten before?"
"I got one!" Jordan called out from somewhere in the distance.
"1/9 survivors helped." read the quest.
"Whatever, the game was always filled with bugs." JohnWillStab shrugged.