Haru: Apprentice 10/Acolyte 5
Optifex: Legionnaire 10/Initiate 5
Haru walked into Fairbank alongside Opti. It was just as bustling with players running to and from the auction house from every direction. Criers hawked their wares of all types. Haru looked around, wondering if her other companions returned yet.
“We should go change back to our original jobs.” Opti stopped and turned towards her.
Haru nodded. “I like that idea. But we need to turn in our job orbs first though, right?”
“Oh yeah, that would be a better first step.” Opti beckoned toward the elevator.
The two walked together, over to the elevator and traveled to the underside of Fairbank. There, they talked to their respective job masters and turned in the orbs. A cacophony of sound filled the dojo as both of them leveled up multiple times and the victory fanfare played over itself repeatedly.
Haru reached level 13!
Optifex reached level 13!
They then bought all the new skills they could for their jobs.
Haru learned: Water Blast, Elemental Damage Up, Wind Strike
She hummed, mildly disappointed that she wouldn’t be able to try her new spells out at full power. Subjobs also cut the strength of abilities granted because of it being half the main job’s level.
“Let’s go change over to our old jobs.” Opti said. “We’ll need to bring a full team in order to take on the demon’s lair, right?”
Haru nodded.
“Then after we change, we can go look for the others, maybe they’ve logged back in by now.” Opti motioned toward the elevator.
The two returned to the surface and started walking to the bridge which connected to the street that led to the player rooms. Just as they started to cross, a voice calling from behind stopped them and drew their attention.
“Oi!” Emu called to them and waved.
With him were Alara and Taci. The three were walking into town from the main gate.
“Hey, we were looking for you.” Opti responded and waved over his head.
The five met halfway between where they initially stood.
“We figured you were out leveling your subjobs, so we put together a group and went to the highlands.” Emu said. “So we did the same.”
Opti nodded. “Good call, that’s what we did. But we went back to the starter area.”
Emu nodded. “We did that too then rushed through the dungeon to get an orb.” Emu pointed at Opti and smirked. “It looks like you’re trying to steal my job though.”
Emu was an Initiate/Legionnaire. Alara was an acolyte/apprentice. Taci was an Initiate/Footpad.
“Maybe I am.” Opti stood with hands on hips, legs splayed, chest out, and chin up.
Emu and Opti both laughed.
“But really,” Emu started, “I wouldn’t mind if you took over tanking. I only started Legionnaire as a subjob for Initiate.”
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Opti eased his posing and scratched his head. “Oh, I thought I was going back to Initiate.” He hummed.
Alara looked at Haru. “You want to trade places, right?”
Without hesitation, Haru nodded. “Yes, I like healing.”
Taci looked at everyone. “Footpad is going to be insane with sub-Initiate.”
Opti shrugged. “I guess I can tank instead. It’s fun.”
Emu smiled. “Good, because we took down a world boss and I got these.” He pointed at his hips. On each were sets of metallic claws.
Opti laughed. “Are those the Hill Fighter’s Claws?” He sighed. “Yeah, I don’t blame you. Those are best in slot until you get to Monk.”
Emu raised his eyebrows. “That’s right, that’s what they are.”
“But it looks like you’re doing what you were accusing me of doing.” Opti put on a sly grin.
Emu raised his hands and displayed his palms. “Guilty.” He laughed.
“We should go and change over.” Alara pointed toward the player rooms. “We can go do crabs at Salty Beach.”
“We’ll meet back here.” Opti said, “There’s some shopping I’ll need to do.”
“With what money?” Haru replied.
“…window shopping.” Opti sighed.
The three departed for the player rooms. Inside, Haru sat on the bed and stared out at the sea. There was a lot more exp needed to get to level 20 before they could go after the boss. And on top of that, she was going to have to explain to the group why the boss wasn’t the normal encounter to Alara and Emu. Haru worried things would grow more complicated as she got closer to her goal.
Haru switched back to level 13 Acolyte/6 Apprentice. She took a deep breath and looked at her staff. It looked like her purchase had dual use, as it was good for Acolyte as well. It also boosted both Wisdom for divine-based spells, and Intelligence for arcane-based spells.
She left the player room and departed for the bridge. Perhaps it was best to do some shopping. Back at the auction house, Haru walked up to the stall and started bidding on a few items that were Acolyte-oriented. A robe that had more Wisdom, gloves that gave more MP, and pants that boosted healing effectiveness.
After equipping her new gear, she wore a long black and brown robe with white gloves. She wanted to buy a hood that could have boosted her Wisdom even more, but there weren’t any in stock and even if there were, the purchase history showed it was very expensive.
Haru then walked back to the bridge and after not being able to find anyone, determined she must have been the first one to be ready and that she would wait for everyone to come back.
After a while, Taci emerged and leaned against the railing, just behind Haru. Then Alara reappeared in new attire, a wide-brimmed straw hat, a blue tunic, and green pants with black high boots. The apprentice’s hat reminded Haru of her own which fell off during the insertion into the game.
The three waited a while before Haru started to wonder where Emu and Opti had run off to. Finally after what seemed like hours, the two appeared from within the crowd near the auction house. Opti was wearing a full suit of bronze armor with a square shield and iron sword. Emu was in a white gi.
“Where’d you get all that from?” Haru motioned toward Opti.
“Emu bought it for me.” He nudged the Initiate with his shoulder.
“That was nice of you.” Haru smiled.
“I don’t want you to think too highly of me.” Emu winked. “I just don’t want the party to wipe on crabs because the tank couldn’t survive long enough to be healed.”
Haru looked around and took stock of everyone. Seeing the group geared up made her feel better about what awaited them. “Is it time to start leveling?”
“It’s time.” Emu and Opti spoke in tandem.
The five left the main gate and walked back up the winding road, to reach the top of the cliffside. Then beyond the cliffs, they traveled until reaching a four-way intersection about a quarter of the way back to the first dungeon’s exit. As they had come from the west, they turned right and traveled south.
The forest grew thicker, with a mix of evergreens and giant oaks filling out the canopy. It grew darker, the wind calmer. The road curved gently back west again as they descended a slight slope downwards as well. The calls of owls and chirps of small birds echoed throughout the woods as they continued to their destination.
Finally, a break in the shadows of the forest’s canopy revealed an intense sun, amplified by white sands only a few steps from the bits of grassland away from the forest perimeter. Beyond, a dune was parted by the stone paved road. Beyond the dunes, a light blue ocean with gentle waves that crashed upon the shore. The music changed from solemn strings to lighthearted steel drums.
“Here we are.” Emu called out. “Salty Beach.”
The five passed the dunes and entered onto the shoreline. A few other parties were already here. Near a lone palm tree, a group huddled while one of them ran out and used a ranged attack on a red crab.
Much farther down the shoreline, another group took up shelter around a sandy rock while their mage fired wind blasts at blue shelled crabs.
“Looks like we have a little competition.” Opti smiled. “Good, I was beginning to think everyone got stuck in the starter area.”
“I know a good spot.” Emu pointed along the dunes. “It’s a long pull but we might be able to pull a world boss if we’re lucky.”
They departed and walked along the hill of sand until they were almost to a small cave in the rock structure at the far end of the beach.
Just then, Haru heard a harsh sound and she turned to find the party that had huddled beneath the tree wiped out, two crabs had linked and took them all down. She swallowed hard realizing that this place was going to ramp up the difficulty even greater than before.