"I’m thinking of enabling adult content,".
"Letting Ryder get his Ride-on then?" Imple teased with a bad pun, making Glade laugh. She knew the tiny purple goblin would always find a way to poke fun at her.
"That's one reason,” Glade replied, shifting around and tapping her boots on the ground. "But I've been online a lot more lately. I want to explore the locked-out zones, go to Carnial, see what drinking is like, and then check out how the uncensored outfits look."
Imple gestured to her own spider tattoo, that ran down her neck and under her flared opalescent shirt. "You can't even see the webbed-up dice with the censored version right?"
As Imple placed her hand on Glade's forearm, a golden light seeped out of her fingertips and cast over Glades body. Now buffed Glade swung her mace into a tree, causing a loud crack that shook the branches above. The tree begin to rain a mix of red and yellow fruit.
The two continued to laugh and joke about the differences between the adult and SWF versions of Isekia. Including how the AI censor overrides Imple’s voice so often, they had started using words like shirt or couch instead of her true vile language in their normal speech.
“While enabling adult mode unlocks a lot more content. The classes to earn stat points with; and skills that can even help out in vanilla,” Imple remarked as she opened the trading screen and clicked on Glade's screen name. “I wouldn't want my first encounter to be with some dino-bag online.”
Glade disagreed about Imple’s impression of Ryder, but chose not to get into that right now.
Finalising the trade, the quest log popped into Glade's peripheral vision, alerting her that she had enough golden stems she needed to craft. Having Imple’s [Mid-Table Loot] skill really made this quicker, though she was missing out on the rare drops that the skill locked out.
Curious, Glade asked, “So why did you upgrade?”
Imple grinned, brandishing one of her daggers, adorned with a silver four-leaf clover keychain. 'The Gambler class can only be gained at the tables and it synergizes well with the Looter class,' she explained excitedly. 'This clover boosts drop rates by 1.04x It also stacks with the ruby one that I'll get once earn enough gamble chips, then I'll link them using the dual wield system. This will…”
Glade’s eyes glazed over as Imple delved into the intricacies of her gaming strategy. She appreciated Imple’s passion for builds, in fact, if it wasn’t for Imple and Crocnor going over her skill sheet and equipment she would still be whiting out on the Ice Naga temple. “..If I cast [Top-Tail Loot] while keeping my health under 30%, I should guarantee two top event drops within the time limit. More, if Richmon ever learns how to pull aggro for longer than five seconds,' Imple added with a disdainful snarl, mentioning the tank's name with obvious distaste.
Her rant was cut short, the loud bang from the mace striking the tree had called over a swarm of tick-wasp. Blood-sucking flying bugs with pincers-like jaws, and a red and yellow stinger that mirrored the fruit, bore paralytic venom. The insects approached from the west and hung hungrily in the sky, Glade knew her taller height and larger health pool would make them target her. Glade quickly swapped her equipped weapon to the sword and slang the mace. The two parties clashed. Three wasps dived at her, she ducked and rolled, sliding under the pincher attack. She quickly sprang to her feet, slicing another’s thorax from his body.
“Hey! No killing blows till the buff wears out” Imple shouted as she continues to backflip away being chased by five insects, she didn't do well with more than one target at a time. The wasp Glade just dodged, rounded on her. The poison stinger skirted across her metal backplate. She whipped around, her black fishtail-braid mimicked the arc of the cut. Another tick-wasp fell. She needed space. She darted under a low-hanging branch, pulling it with her as she retreated. The tick-wasps followed, and one got the released branch in the mandibles for its trouble. They raised up and shot out a barrage of stingers that peppered Glade. She let out a small yelp as one of the stingers pierced her gauntlet. Pulling out the long needle, she can feel a numbness start spreading up her arm.
Come on, come on she thought as she vaulted over a smaller boulder and between two larger ones. The buzzing got louder as they got closer and closer, lining up for their meal of human blood. Just then, the golden light faded.
“[BLADE RUSH]!!!” she yelled, within a blink of her blue eyes and a flash of her blade she was moved in a straight line cutting each of them in one motion. The bugs all fell.
Glade slid the blade back into its sheath. It wasn’t a flawless victory, but her [minor HP regen] will tick up the few points she was missing. Imple however didn't have that skill. Imple walked back up the hill towards Glade, who looked at the small purple goblin in horror. Her white loopy hairstyle was undone and one of her golden eyes was swollen shut from the stings.
“Not a fudging word” She pouted fingering her painful inflamed lip that looked like a bunch of purple grapes.
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Glade opted to return to base on foot. While fast travel would have been more convenient, she relished the sensation of the cool air of the early evening against her skin. It was remarkable how she could anticipate the impending rain and detect the fragrance of seasonal flowers carried by the breeze. Just a few years ago, ray tracing was considered groundbreaking, but now, advancements allow all five senses to be fully engaged with customizable settings. Imple had configured hers to "realistic," intensifying sensations to the point where the swelling had felt significantly more painful than the simple numbness Glade had felt.
Stolen novel; please report.
It was getting late, both in and out of the game, but she wasn’t ready to sign out yet. She yawned and rubbed her face with her hands, she had around ten hours left to craft the final part of the summer-breeze druid set using the golden stems she just picked up. The buyer was offering extra for fast delivery, and the lack of drops has really cut into the buffer time. The summer-breeze set was the current meta in PVP and the druid was the core to the build as it had a chance of the rare boon Zephyr ++. Even the standard Zephyr and the single plus version were highly prized and fetched a good price on the third-party stores. If she was able to hit the double, she would be able to keep the power on in her apartment this month.
Finally, she arrived back at her guild's base. They were "Blink," a mid-tier group primarily focused on PVE. The small wooden base was made up of five smaller huts that each exuded a rustic charm. Right in the centre of the hunts, their purple flag marker lit up their territory with a dotted ring slowly rotating under the canopy. The exterior is built from sturdy, weathered wood, each member had spent time engraving the walls weaving intricate patterns over every square inch.
Crocnor sat alone at one of the large dining tables in the common room, the large green lizard-man was staring off into space, something he often did when he was either AFK or dealing with direct messages. His yellow eyes looked off into two different directions giving him an expression that was at comical odds with his defined muscled, battle-scared, spike-wearing, oversized body. Crocnor had taken over leadership of the guild shortly after her entry and was essentially running it even before officially taking the reins two years ago. The original founder remained a member, but his account had been offline for 133+ days. Although the guild had an official rule of auto-kicking members offline for a month, a special exception was made due to his poor health. Periodically, he would log back in, prompting the guild to throw massive parties in celebration. As an OG player, he had maximised every skill tree available in the base game. While lacking newer classes like her own [Crafter] class or Crocnor's [Aqua Fighter], he remained a significant asset in standard raids, capable of carrying two lower-level members by himself. Glade had the urge to go on a raid again, she was basically working full-time on crafts now, it being one of her key roles in the guild but also her main source of real-world income.
Crocnor's left arm suddenly shot up and wiggled itself all over the place, knocking over his drinking glass and the chair that was next to him. Glade nodded to herself, she was right the first time, he was AFK and had just moved his controller to stop himself from logging out. His mouth opened to speak, but the expression didn't change.
“Glade, good to see you,” he said, staring everywhere else but where Glade was standing. “The stamina potions are running low; river reeds, ginseng and sparkling water have already been dropped in the chests. Could you get to them before the morning?” he asked. His voice was echo and distant, so wherever he was in his home, he wasn’t sitting at his rig.
“Sure, I'm about to burn a candle anyway so they might even come out upgraded,” she replied
Crocnor's left arm sprang to life again and wiggled in the air before a quest popped up on Glade’s screen.
[Quest: asfafafafefavavaf has been added.]
[Deliver: 297x stamina potions]
[Reward: 10 guild points]
Glade accepted the quest from the guild master before closing the pop-up.
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Glade stepped into the crafting room, a sanctuary for artisans and crafters alike. The wooden shelves that lined the walls displayed an impressive array of tools, each with its own unique purpose. The guild had spared no expense, investing in a draconic workbench that dominated the room's centre, surrounded by a semicircle of smaller, more mundane benches. Among these, one held a bubbling witches cauldron and almost sci-fi styled still of glass and copperware.
From her inventory, Glade removed an arcane candle, slender and unnaturally thin. Placing it on a plinth near the entrance, she ignited it. The air was soon filled with the rich scent of beeswax and the subtle hum of creativity. She scooted over to the bubbler and ignited the burner under that too, she proceeded to grind ginseng into the cauldron and skilfully slivered in the reeds. Her high levels in potion making allowed her to speed through the preparation work, efficiently transforming raw ingredients into the forms needed for crafting stamina potions at a rate a newbie would take hours to do.
While the potions were refining, she span to face the draconic table. The sinister skull carvedfrom the dragon bone looked up at her, its empty sockets bore into her insecurities. A small bead of sweat appeared on her forehead, even with the candle burning her chance of failure was 5%meaning she would lose all the items spent to craft the robes. Even then by her calculations she only had a 25% chance to even get Zephyr++ and thats if she used all her rerolls. A 25% chance not to be able to pay her bills and have to beg her family for money. 25% chance for her power to be cut off. A 25% chance to not be able to work anymore. 25% to keep the life she loved so much. 25% not to die.
Glade took a deep breath and let the creativity aura fill her psyche. She remembered the words of her old friend, “Worrying about luck removes skill”.
With a twist of her wrist, out came the mythril hammer. It span in the air once before slamming down onto the table.
Ping!
The sound rang thought out the workshop. There was magic in that sound, it made the fire from the burners and the popping of the bubbles fade away.
Ping!
The wind outside and the hooting of the crowls paused to listen to her work, acknowledging the significance of Glade's craft.
Ping!
Even the sound of the car alarms, Glade could hear outside her window in the real world all just stopped.
[Summer-breeze Druid Cloak Crafted, imbued skill. Animal Friendship++]
“Useless” Glade said to herself, worry escaping her lips.
She activated her skill [Imbued Reroll] and the message sounded again
[Summer-breeze Druid Cloak Crafted, imbued skill. Zephyr+]
“No, not enough, but maybe I should keep it”
She bit her lip, she only had one more use of Imbued Reroll, and this would at least mean she could eat this week. She could feel a lump in her throat.
[Imbued Reroll]
[Summer-breeze Druid Cloak Crafted, imbued skill. Zephyr Rainbow]