We spent the next few hours figuring out how to optimize our tactics. We had spent literal years, playing different online games. We found a surprising element. None of us had appropriate gear, or weapons. I spent a few minutes thinking hard. Than inspiration struck. I dashed into my apartment, coming back a few minutes later. Solemnly, but most definitely as overly dramatic as possible. I handed over to Keith. A certainly trademarked. Red, white, and blue colored shield. I knew it didnt have special powers. But it was definitely a shield.
Keith looked at with a glowing smile. He than started doing his version of showing off. Turning this way, and that. Making plah, plah, plow, sounds. As he blocked invisible attackers. I turned to Erica saying. “I have some kitchen knives if you want them. But we really need to get you some kickass looking blades from the comic book store.” A look of utter despair came to her face. I was worried so I asked. “Are you ok?” She lost the look quickly, getting closer she whispered. “You just gave Keith a make believe shield, he’s going to expect it to stop real monsters. It won’t. I don’t want to lose him.”
I immediately replied. “Neither do I, but it’s all we have right now. Once we start killing the low level monsters, we should get loot. The stuff that can actually work. Or we will get materials to craft gear.” Erica looked surprised. She responded. “I didn’t think it would work like that.” I shrugged replying. “I’m not sure how everything works either. But allot of the game elements are popping up. So let’s hope that part also does. I mean it kind of has too right? How else would we be able to survive?”
Katie used another light spell on a garbage can, causing a copious amount of smoke, to rise up. As the wind caught the smoke it blew towards us. Let me tell you. Burned garbage, never smells good. Whatever my neighbor had put into his can definitely reeked. We all slowly walked away from the smell. We waving our arms to ward off, the stench as best we could. When something started crawling out of the trash bin.
It looked a little like a racoon, unfortunately it was looking very rough. It’s haggard appearance made all of us hit a new level of the eww factor. It’s tail was gone, just a tiny smoking nub. I felt sorry for the little guy. Until it’s eyes started glowing red. I think we all had a collective butt clench moment. Fighting monsters in online games, tends to trivialize the danger. Seeing wierd stuff on TV makes it feel like it’s possible. But it never drives home the reality of facing the real thing.
Luckily three of us have had military training. Unfortunately we did not have assault rifles handy. Keith on the other hand was always the kind of guy to run towards the trouble. He ran forward towards the half racoon. Preparing to slam his shield down. Just before he attacked he screamed out. “Mine!!!”
The racoon had eyes only for Keith after that. It attempted to snarl. But was cut off mid sneer, as a huge shield slammed down. The shield hit with enough force to force it inbetween, the rim of the metal trash can…and the shield. It’s upper half fell outside with a squish. Keith held still breathing hard, as motes of yellow light rose into him. I ran over thinking he was being attacked by magic. He just turned to me saying. “I got experience points!” A second later a faint light shown out from his body. He gasped. “I leveled up!”
I was astonished. I immediately started asking questions. “Did it say how many experience points you got? Did you gain Stat points you can spend? Or was it automatically added? Did you get anything else?” He raised his hand towards me saying. “Woah, woah, woah, slow down. Let me check before you blow a gasket.” His eyes darted around for a moment. He grinned saying. “It doesn’t show how much I got for the kill, just shows i’m level 2. I didn’t gain any automatic points, but I do see a plus 2, under my stats screen.” A second later he continued saying. “I added 1 point to my strength. I also added 1 point to my stamina. Those are the life bread of tanks. I do have a weird flashing icon near my shield.” I perked up saying. “Oh good, that means your skill evolved. Or changed.” Keith's eye darted around obviously reading something we couldn’t see.
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Keith than replied. “My shield mastery is the same, I just got a secondary bonus added. Says I get increased threat generated when I slam my shield against an enemy. It also has a chance to remove any active buffs they have.”
I cheered saying. “Awesome bro, that will be clutch. Now we just need to find more guys this size, for the rest of us. We could all use the stats. We could also use the better abilities.” I looked down at the carcass of the racoon. Realizing it was gone. In its place was a small brown bag with a small blue ribbon tied into a bow, around the top. For some reason as I thought that, my mind flashed on a great Scottish song I had heard. I could never remember the name of it, always bugged me.
I tried reaching down for it, but my hand passed right through it. I stood up getting Keith’s attention. I pointed down, could you try grabbing that. Without even looking he deadpanned. “Nnnoooo.” I rolled my eyes. Just before I turned away he smiled. “Man it’s way you easy to mess with you.” I turned around walking away, throwing my arms in the air. Really overplaying the frustration. Saying loudly. “The people I have to deal with on a daily basis, this is why im going crazy. Yes, your honor he did force me to murder him. Yes, your honor he deserved it. No, your honor im not sorry at all.”
I could hear the chuckles from the peanut gallery. I whipped back around saying. “Well…were waiting?” Keith reached down grabbing the bag. He didn’t have any issue picking it up. I guessed it had some special looting rules. He killed it, so he got to loot it. He opened the bag looking in. “Hmm looks like a couple of brown rocks, a scrap of leather, and finally a copper coin.” The bag disappeared after, he grabbed the final item. “Rocks?” I questioned. He held them up to me as I got closer. They looked like a river rock with square shiney protrusions. My eyes furrowed slightly. “Do you think it’s possible those are ingots?”
Keith looked back down. He brought one close to his eyes, the better to see it im sure. What he was seeing, differently I had no idea. His eye widened. “I just got a prompt, asking if I wanted to become a blacksmith.” I smiled “Nice man that’s perfect for a tank. Especially since there are no vendors to buy armor from.”
I gathered everyone up. I started with.”We should discuss professions real quick. We all know the slant the game liked to force on us to be certain jobs. But this is real life. Being a cloth wearer, may make tailoring the perfect choice. But I don’t think I have the mental fortitude to literally sew, and loom cloth. I know rogues, as well as druids wear leather.”
Pointing to both Katie, and Erica I continued. “You too will have to discuss between yourselves which way you want to go.” Erica immediately said. “I’m going alchemist, I need better poisons.” The raised eyebrows of everyone probably clued her in that she had said that a bit too maniacally. She straightened her shoulders glaring back at all of us. “What? I’m a rogue, I need a bunch of different kinds of poisons at all times. They don’t just magically appear. Let alone last forever after they have been placed on a blade. The fresher it is, the better it does.” I looked at her saying. “Don't you have envenom?” She nodded saying. “Yes, but its not a poison. It’s actually an acid. It will cause deeper wounds, it will hurt allot. But it doesn’t last very long. It won’t flood into the bloodstream causing massive damage. That’s why im going alchemist.”
She turned to Katie. "I'm sorry if this gets you stuck with leather working. I’ll give you all my leather loot. Katie shrugged saying. “Works for me, I like leather.” Both Keith, and I had a very hard time not saying anything after that comment. We looked at each other in unison, our eyes did all the talking. We just smiled nodding. No words needed to be said. After an awkward moment I addressed the group. “OK, folks let’s team up. We have monsters to hunt, loot to…loot. And umm ya let’s just go.”