A/N: Someone: -This is guild chat-
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I woke up at 5 a.m. by a ringing alarm.
Anyway, as per promise to mom that I have to stay fit and keep my grades I am going to morning jog.
I wore my training outfit and went down to the first floor. I knocked a door that leads to my little sister’s room.
No answer. As expected, she’s still sleeping.
I barged in, saw her on top of her bed under a blanket and woke her up with some nudges.
Jimmy: “hey, Anne it’s morning”
She woke up and sat up on her bed, rubbing her eyes while whimpering. I wordlessly exit the room to let her change.
That’s Anne, my little sister. Shoulder length black hair and black eyes just like her brother. She’s the player behind “Saturn” the archer. She also made the promise to mom. She complained that it’s not fair that only I get to have a capsule. Well, we’re so rich that our parents don’t worry about buying two capsules anyway. But they do worry about our well-being of course.
When Anne finished changing, we went outside of the house and start our daily jog.
We returned 1 hour later at 6 a.m. and ate breakfast. Now, back to the game!
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We shimmered into existence right at the center of the town. Because we logged out in the coach heading to the second town, we didn't have to wait for the 3 hours long travel.
There’s Rick, Rando, Lena and 2 other players from our guild, one mercenary and one monk. Pudding’s not here yet. Rick invited me into the party, which I accept. For now we'll wait for Pudding.
Stone: “Guild menu!”
Guild Nameercse0Guild LeaderRandoLevel2Exp132/300Guild NoticeContact me if you want to recommend a member :)Members31/35Warrior9Rogue9Mage8Crafter5
>>>>>>>>>>>>Details
Fame0
We have some members that play in other countries in a different time zone. They helped to increase the guild experience when we didn’t play.
Stone: “Status!”
[tds]Name
StoneClassGuardLevel20RaceStone GolemGenderMaleStatusHP2340/2340MP605/605VIT252INT5STR10WIS5DEX5Racial trait+50% Slashing Resistance
+50% Piercing Resistance
After slowly reading the two menus Pudding logged in and we went on our merry way to the hunting ground. We took the board quest first of course.
The village is surrounded by a dense forest. This dense forest is filled with monsters that start at lv 20 within the perimeter and increase in level as we go deep into the forest.
We're walking toward the forest while killing lv 20-25 monsters on the way. We're planning to hunt deeper inside the forest.
Once we find the spot, we began casting the shareable buffs.
Pudding: [Meditation], [Blessing], [Might]
Stone: [Guard's Aura]
Rick: [Battle Howl]
Rando: [Spirit Boost]
Saturn: [Fatal Eyes]
Lena: [En flame]
It's so great that the game doesn't have a party limit. By the way, the monk doesn’t have a shareable buff but he has a de-buffing skill instead.
Stone: [Provoke]
I cast the skill in a wide area, all the monsters around us started to gather toward us. They are mostly lv24 Stag beetles, lv26 Mandrakes, lv 30 eagles and our primary target lv28 treants.
We don't have much plan this time around. I tank, DPS attack and Pudding heal. Except the 2 rogues who's tasked to focus on the mandrakes because mandrakes have magic attack that I'm vulnerable against. Also the sorcerer Lena and archer Saturn focus on the flying eagle if they appear. I also [stomp] the Beetles because they're short. We're doing this while walking around the forest to thoroughly clean all of them monsters. When the mob that i pull decreased enough, i did another wide area [provoke].
Rinse and repeat, rinse and repeat, the hunt is endless~
After about 1 hour, someone else from the guild that just reached lv 20 joined the party. After about another hour, the monk logged off because it's already night in his time zone. The number of party member fluctuates the whole time but the hunt continues. Those that decided to stop hunting would go to the crafters to give wood log that dropped from treants.
Out of the corner of my eye, someone appeared walking toward us with a shield and sword. He's a tanker and one of our guild member. We know he would arrive here as he had contacted us before. It seems he had just finished the Guard Test.
(Guild Member): "Heya, thanks for what you guys did last night. I had easier time to get into party."
Rick invited him into the party.
Tankers and healers are in desperate need to get into parties as they are the hardest class to solo. That's why we did our PVP in the middle of the village to attract attention, to make our guild a bit more famous. Although the major reason is just because it’s more fun that way.
Anyway, the tanker joined the party and pulled the monsters from a different area than me. When we pulled enough, we meet to join the mobs together. Lena has 3 AoE skills, Mercenaries and monks have 1 AoE skill. The gathered mobs die quickly by spammed AoE and the remnants are killed by those that don’t have any AoE skll.
A lot of the mobs above lv 20 has AoE attacks so someone else gets damage even though the monsters are only attacking me, but it’s no problem with my [Guard's Aura] skill and Puddings constant healing.
The AoE skills are casted without minding if it would hit other player. There is no damage when a player hit another player but the attack itself might be affected when it hits a player. For example: if Lena shot a fireball toward a monster through me, the fireball will be blocked by me but it won’t damage me. If someone wants to kill a player, he would need to activate “chaos mode”.
As we hunt in the forest, a boss monster sometimes shows up. We killed all of them no problem though.
We also met someone that had hunted there before we did. He accepted our party invitation so there’s no problem. He also accepted the guild invitation which is a good thing.
There was another person who didn’t accept the party invitation. When that happens, I controlled [provoke] in such a way that the monsters around him isn’t affected. He got mad though, saying something like “it’s my hunting ground” or something. It’s not like he could kill all of the monsters we left before they re-spawned.
We ignored him and continued hunting. The guy starts kill stealing from us after that, but we dealt with him. One of us turn into chaos mode and killed him.
If he meets an NPC while still having chaos points, we would get some infamy. But chaos points will decrease as time goes and as he kills monsters.
Anyway, after 5 hours, 4 levels, 507 stag beetles, 373 Mandrakes, 923 Treants, 597 eagles and 3 bosses, we went back to the town. It helps that the monsters are densely packed all over the forest.
Outside of the village, we could see an unfinished structure made of wood. 3 people are working on building it. They are Fifi, Stan and another crafter from our guild.
Instead of the leather blanket spread on top of the grassy field, we opted to make a small stall for our shop purposes and we need wood logs that dropped from treants. We're making a stall on the second town because treants spawn here and we would be here for a long time.
Because RPGs are pretty stingy when it comes to houses, mounts, capes etc., wood logs drop rarely from treants even though their body is practically made out of it. Also, we can't cut a normal tree for that purpose. Nails are made from the left over iron we got from the beginner village.
Fortunately, the state of the monster that died won’t affect the dropped item condition so even if they are burned with fire or crushed with axe, the wooden log that drops doesn’t change.
We dumped all of the wood logs near the unfinished stall.
Stan: "That should be enough! Thanks for the hard work :D”
The story has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.
With that taken care of, we’re off to more hunting, this time purely for raising level. The hunting ground is the same forest and we’re hunting with the same sort of method but we’re going to go deeper and deeper.
Right now, we are within the lv 32-36 monsters area. We’re picking the range of level where we’re constantly in intense battle. With our equipment and party composition, we could fight the mobs that are within 8-12 levels above us.
After about 1 hour of hunting, a guild member said something on the guild chat. We always have a guild chat window summoned, the members are constantly chatting about unimportant things so I’ve never mentioned about it.
Kur0oO: -Boss, a friend said he wanted to join the guild. You should take a look at her-
We already mentioned that we have a small space left to fill for the guild members, so if someone said he wants to recommend another member he should be sure of her ability. But just in case…
Rando: -I’ll upload a map, go to the appointed place-
That appointed place is right here, so we’re just going to continue the hunt while waiting for the guy.
Kur0oO: -We’re here, where are you guys?-
Kur0oO: -nvm, found you-
Kur0oO: “Hey~!”
As I look toward the source of voice, the two people appeared. The male demon mage which is our guild member; the other is a human sword-woman.
Kur0oO: “Boss, this is Tifa. Tifa, that’s boss.”
Tifa: “W…Wait a minute! You didn’t say there was going to be a test!”
Kur0oO: “Don’t worry. It wouldn’t be hard for you”
Stone: “I’ll just say this ahead of time. We’re looking for strong players for our purposes. If you don’t like a serious guild like we are, then don’t join.”
She looks startled by my word, but it can’t be helped. We need to make that clear because a crybaby member is troublesome.
But then, the look in her face changed. It’s a determined look. Heh, she already passed half the test. It became silent just for a bit before Rando said something.
Rando: “Are you going the gladiator route or magic-sword master route?”
Tifa: “M…Magic-sword master!”
Rando: “Okay, for a magic-sword master we need someone who could defeat an Archer 1 on 1 under 5 minutes, and survives a thief for 3 minutes”
Tifa: “Archer? Isn’t 5 minutes too long for a magic-sword master?”
Rando: “Now, don’t be conceited! We’re doing it in a forest and the archer is an elf so we extend the time. I’ll warn you now, but don’t underestimate her!”
Saturn stands up and approached Tifa. Rando climbed on a tree to observe the battle better. The rest of us just sit there.
We’re doing the test right here. We’ve just cleaned this part of the forest so it should be fine for 5 minutes.
Tifa seemed nervous. We aren’t intending to pressure her at all, but all of us are intent in watching the fight so it’s creepily silent. Plus the fact that she is doing the test while we’re in the middle of hunting made 11 spectators for the duel.
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*Tifa’s POV*
The archer I am supposed to fight stood up and approached me.
Wow, she’s hot. She has bright green shoulder length hair and Bright green eyes, expressionless face and small stature (but not really). She’s like that character that’s involved in a tenta…. *cough*.
I wonder if she’s a real girl. I bet she’s not.
Because sadly, real girls don’t play RPG !!! (convinced)
*Sniff*
A duel request notification was sent to me, which i readily accept.
A circle of light spreads away from us. It’s a sword-man vs archer battle so 20 meters diameter is too small for the archer. And this initial distance, I feel like I could cut any archer within 10 seconds even if she ran.
As the 3…2….1 counter counts down, I prepared my stance. When it says “GO” I activate [Haste] and dashed to her. I can’t give her a chance, I’ll close in on her and when she jumps back I’ll follow up with [slashing wave]
Contrary to my expectation, she is not running back toward the trees. She stood there readying her bow.
I shouldn’t really care if she attacks now, the defense of sword man is just enough to ignore a few arrows. He said that I should be careful, but my experience tells me that this is where I need to push.
As the arrow released, I realized that it’s heading toward my eye. Being startled, I stopped my sprint suddenly, producing skidding sound. It fortunately hit my chest armor.
What was that! I was running with [haste] and lowered body but she could aim right onto my eye? If I’m in her perspective, I would only be able to see the top of my helmet!
Right after she released the arrow and I stopped my sprinting, she ran away backward toward the trees with short jumps. She hid behind one of the tree.
It’s not like I’m an idiot who would walk into an obvious trap, but I had to chase if I want to hit so I chase.
I arrived behind the tree that she hid at while taking a parrying stance. I found that as I expected, she is not there. I quickly look around trying to find the nimble elf and found her on top of a tree branch, she shot her readied bow and I blocked it with my sword.
[Slashing wave]! I fire my spell in a way that it would cut both her and the branch she’s standing on. And as I expect, she jumps away from the branch and land on another branch. It was the perfect time to fire another [Slashing wave] while she’s midair but it’s on cool down.
What to do… She’d probably dodge another [slashing wave] in a similar manner. With how many branches there are in this forest, I’d probably waste all of my mana before destroying all of her footing.
She shot another arrow as I was mulling. I easily dodge it. While she won’t be able to hit me in this distance, I can’t hit her too. I need to win in under 5 minutes, so that means I’m losing.
Okay! I decided! She could avoid me because of her skillful maneuver on branches and mid-air. If, I can’t fight her with the same conditions that would mean I’m weaker than she is. So I climbed on a tree and stood on top of a branch. Sword-man has the lightest type of armor compared to other warriors so the branch could hold.
I jump from branch toward branch chasing the archer. The archer…. Smiled in satisfaction? She kept at shooting me, but now that I’m being extra careful, the arrows met the metal parts of my armor. I mentally prepare myself if she has more tricks up her sleeve. As I got close enough to her, I swung my blade toward her that she avoided with a backflip to other branch while shooting an arrow. Because I’m focusing on defending against the arrow, I didn’t have the time to fire a [slashing wave] before she land on another branch.
The fight on top of the braches keeps on for a while. I slash, she dodges, she shot, and I dodge. Some of her arrow hit the leather part of my armor and I lose HP bit by bit. One time, I slipped on a branch as I land on it; I stabbed my sword to the tree and pull myself up to another branch so that I don’t fall to the ground. The fight keeps on for so long; I felt that 5 minutes might’ve passed long ago. I didn’t mind even if it did though, I’d love to keep on the fight for as long as possible.
Nah, I need to finish this fast if I want to join the guild! I finally take risk in chasing her. When she did the backflip shot, I jump toward her. The arrow she shot approach my head, I turned my head to the right and meet her arrow on my helmet. In this position I can’t see her, but I know she’s in front of me.
I didn’t hesitate. I hit her side midair and sent her toward the ground.
Afraid that she would have time to recover before I land, I sent a [slashing wave] downward while falling toward her. After the [slashing wave] I positioned my sword to point downward in a way that it will stab her head as I land.
*stab*
She’s still alive after only 3 hits of course. The game made PVPing players have more HP so that PVP would last long. because with the usual stats, some could die in one hit.
*slash* *slash* *stab* *stab*
You Win
M…My HP! It was 40% left!? It refilled back fully immediately after that though.
She disappeared and then reappeared beside the former corpse. I wanted to say “are you alright?” but that would probably come out into more of an insult instead of helping.
Saturn: “Ehehehe… You’re strong! Beat Rando for me if you can okay?”
After that, the “boss” guy jump down out of nowhere and congratulate me.
Rando: “That’s 4:23 you passed the first test!”
Oh right! I also need to survive a thief for 3 minutes….
Rando: “I’ll be your next opponent ^_^”
.
...
......
…………….A few minutes later.
Rando: “That’s 3 minutes. You passed~ welcome to ercse0!”
Your are invited into ercse0! do you accept?
D…Damn there’s 5% left for my HP. He held back didn’t he? Did he really hold back? I don’t know.
Tifa: “Accept"
Rando: -Say hello to Tifa! She’s a new member!-
(Guild member): -Hello!-
(Guild member): -Yay! New member!-
(Guild member): -That’s fast. It’s only been the 2nd day-
(Guild member): -Hello Tifa!-
(Guild member): -R U real girl?-
(Guild member): -Hello!-
(Guild member): -Congrat’s for surviving Rando-
(Guild member): -Hi Tifa!-
..
.
.
As I look at the chat box overwhelmed, I know I’ve just joined a great guild. I should thank Kur0oO later.
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