Note: “Speech”
‘Thoughts’
*Actions*
Calder’s P.O.V
I smiled as I swung my pike around fending off the various Ratman fighters, I was just picturing the EXP I’d earn for killing so many Mobs.
“Iaido Dash!” I heard Elias call out from nearby, he vanished from the spot he was standing and reappeared behind his opponent sheathing his rapier. There was a delayed reaction, but the moment he did, the several Ratmen standing between him and his destination fell their HP all simultaneously dropping to zero.
(PR.N- Iaido is a style where it focuses on the quick-draw and sheathing of a sword, mainly Katana, for attack. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iaido)
“Good God man, two things for ya! One: That move is way OP! Two: Are you trying to look like every mysterious swordsman in anime, I mean come on the whole quick slash thing is waaayyy over done.” He looked over to me with a smile.
“You’re just jealous you can’t do it!” I paused…that was partially true, those scenes were always really cool looking…I racked my brain ‘Come on comeback….’
“Why would I need to do that, when I can do this” I turned towards the berserker approaching me.
“Lightning Fang, Thunder Jolt, Haste”
Thunder Jolt:
A bolt of Thunder that strikes at the designated target, Low Damage, but almost a guaranteed stun
Haste:
Temporary speed buff, increases casters SPD, (Skill doesn’t cost MP)
I rushed forward the electricity of my Pike overflowing as it branched off and hit any form of electric conductor which were mainly the nearby enemies. I thrust my pike into the berserkers’ chest and it convulsed for a few second before going limp.
Elias was wide eyed as he had just witnessed me turning into the equivalent of a lightning bolt.
“Hey-Hey no fair, when did you get haste!” he complained as I smirked.
“I’m a [Rune Knight], Haste is a Combat class skill, since I’m a mix between caster and fighter, I get both skill sets.” Elias crossed his arms but then realised something.
(PR.N- To avoid confusion I only added the bold and italic to the class because he was referring to himself.)
“Wait…does this mean my class will get rouge abilities?” I scratched my chin while dispatching the approaching Ratmen.
“I’d think so, I mean Duellist its like Rune Knight, well with the Arch-type thing anyways, Duellist should be a mix of Rouge and Fighter….maybe you’ve yet to unlock them I guess?” Elias sighed killing a Ratman shaman.
“I guess so…shame I don’t have any of them yet…oh well, these things take time I guess” it was at this moment we both realised that it had gotten eerily quiet.
(PR.N-Dem’ poor Ratmen they don’t even get attention while getting slaughtered……. Whoops FLAG!)
“Um…Elias, you don’t suppose-” before I could finish a pop-up appeared.
Warning Quest Boss approaching!
(PR.N- MWAHAHAHAHAHA! FLAG POWERS!)
Elias and I exchanged an excited glance, finally the boss…however when we saw what the boss was we weren’t nearly as excited.
Rat-King: Zaka Shaka Moke
LVL: 13 Quest Boss
(PR.N- Never mind and Author-sama get a better naming sense.)
Now what we’d expected was a single boss, what we got however…was three Rat ogres joined at the tail, it seemed as it the tails had been stitched together, but upon closer inspection I could see that it was linked together by dried blood.
I grabbed at my stomach, ‘Ugh really system, you made something this gross…but Props for linking the thing to real life rat-kings…or old world…or’ I rubbed my head…best to not think about it too much.
Elias seemed a little unnerved by the three behemoths before him; I guess riding on one Ratman Ogre was enough for him.
“Yo Elias….you up for this?” he looked towards me and grinned.
“Fortune n’ glory kid!” Elias raised his weapons and entered his battle stance. I copied, time for a Boss battle….Shame we had no boss music to go along with it.
*DING*
New Update: Battle Music unlocked: You may now select music to play during battle.
‘Seriously?’
I looked over to Elias who didn’t seem to notice, guess only the party leader could pick, I tapped on the music Icon and went over the song list…’Hey-Hey, what’s with all the copy righted music, I can’t play any of this…oh wait…..….game world’
I face-palmed as I worried about copyright laws, I scrolled through when I stumbled across a decent song for this kind of battle.
Song selected: Two steps from Hell: El Dorado
A massive grin spread across my face as the song began to play, Elias looked at me.
“………….Was that you?” my grin only grew.
“Yup….now LETS DO IT!!!” I put on a Scottish accent mimicking the D**o-m*n from T*2, before we both charged into battle.
Maris’s P.O.V
“Oh My God, Cecil!!!” Cecil seemed in disbelief as he looked at me.
“M-Maris?....” We both seemed dumbfound.
“PFFFFTTTT!” (Cecil)
At seeing one another, I was then slightly unnerved at the creepy grin that began to extend across Cecil’s face, as he began to cackle like a maniac.
“KAHKAHKAHKAHKAHKAHKAHKAHKAH!!!” *Cough* Cecil finished up.
“Um…Cecil, you okay?” He tried to steady himself he was laughing that hard.
“Y-Yea it’s just th-that I….ha…hoooo boy!” I took a step back as Cecil regained his composure.
“Uuhhhh, haha ummmm friend of yours Maris?” Thomas asked from the cupboard he was hiding in.
I understood why he was in there, seeing someone with that sort of facial features just walk in and start cackling like a maniac would have sent a lot of people running for cover.
(PR.N- Saddest part is this character is based off of me IRL. *SOBS*)
“Oh right Sorry, Thomas this is Cecil, one of my friends, Cecil this is Thomas a merchant who helped me get here.” Cecil bowed his head slightly with a slightly mad glint in his eyes. “Now stop scaring him Cecil and be nice.” I added.
“……..Charmed.” Thomas responded in relatively the same manner. It was at this time Cecil snapped his finger as if he’d remembered something.
“Ah, that’s why I came in here!”
“Sorry” I gave him a quizzical look, Cecil made a few hand motions and a cracked Mace appeared at his hip, he slammed it on the counter and yelled a little too enthusiastically.
“I need a new weapon!!! I broke this one on some vict- *cough* monsters. Sorry tickle in my throat.” At the prospect of earning more money Thomas perked right up albeit a little cautiously after that slip-up.
“Well then have you come to the right place, come!” He stepped to the side motioning Cecil to follow “Let me show you my wares!” Cecil jumped and was quick to follow, leaving me a little dumbfound at what had just transpired.
“Um….okay then…..I guess I’ll just……” my attention then turned towards the tent’s door opening as several more people walked in, I sighed, no rest for me today. “Welcome!”
Meanwhile, Calder’s P.O.V
I braced for impact as I made contact with the stack of crates, normally I’d have been knocked the fuck out, but thanks to my new armour and the whole video game world thing, my HP bar had only taken a small beating from my being thrown like a child’s toy.
I sat up and saw Elias also get rag dolled. However he had collided with several Ratmen Scavengers who’d been running around like headless chicken ever since we began to clear out the encampment.
I took out a flurry of health potions and tossed a couple over to Elias who gave a thumbs up, I also noticed a small emote appear above his head [=P] I sighed, ‘The system is really crazy.’
Elias and I regrouped, taking on this boss was harder then we’d thought, we’d nearly expended our entire supply of HP potions and we hadn’t even dealt nearly enough damage to this guy.
“So any ideas…I mean just rushing the thing seems to be ineffective?” Elias sighed.
“I thought you were the one coming up with the plans Party Leader!” I rubbed the back of my head at Elias’s remark.
“Geez when you put it like that it makes me seem like an ineffective leader, it was at this time the loud *Ping* that played whenever the system wanted your attention sounded through my ears.
Updated Player Info some titles and skills may have been altered anything changed will be highlighted
I sighed, ‘why you do this system? Why? Why you do dis’ to me?’ I quickly whizzed through my stats screen and saw that the Ambitious title had been altered to:
Ambitious (Updated):
Provides specific quests and rewards, bonus to conversation with nobility, bonus to charisma.
“What was all that about?” I sighed again as realised that the system just nerfed my OP title.
“I just got nerfed! *SOB*” Elias’s eye’s widened as he realised what I was on about; we’d both looked at each other’s stat screens when we were resting.
“You mean the system nerfed your OP ambitious title?” I nodded and Elias smiled. “Good that shit was way to OP!”
Being caught up in our own personal musing we failed to notice the raging Rat King charging us, however it seems as if Elias noticed when he shoved me out of the way then dashed away as well. The Rat king then charged straight into a large tree and all three of the Rat ogres that made up the Rat king got a status aliment Stunned.
Elias and I looked at one another again before we took advantage of the situation and began dealing damage, the aliment lasted only a few seconds before wearing off, but in those few seconds we’d dealt more damage than we had in the previous hour.
This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it
“So it’s one of those bosses……*SIGH*”
“Un” I nodded in agreement knowing what he was talking about, the kind of boss you needed to kite before attacking, leading them to an environmental hazard or something first before attacking. I recalled my days of monster hunter: dodge rolling out of the way as the monsters became stunned or something then going in for the kill. Though this system lacked the ass-less chaps and small talking animals that Monster hunter had, or at least I’d not seen any of the latter around.
“Right then Monster hunter mode then.” Elias nodded in agreement.
“Monster hunter mode it is!” We both split up and began to dance around the Boss, this time we managed to distract two of the attached rat ogres to run to opposite direction to one another causing them to fall and stun each other, we pressed the advantage dropping the boss to half HP, it was then something horrid happened, the centre Ogre grabbed their tails and…began to gnaw at the part that linked them setting each of them free as each now had their own names.
Rat Prince: Zaka
LVL: 4 Quest Boss
Rat prince: Shaka
LVL: 5 Quest Boss
Rat Prince: Moke
LVL: 4 Quest boss
I sighed of course they have a second stage, and of course their HP fills up again when they split, although the fact that they were all lower level made me smile and confirmed a suspicion I had, that if the boss is a multiple entity mob, like the Rat king, it combines their levels.
“Ohh For fuck sakes! Really?!?!?!” Elias called out from his fall back point among large tree branches. I was quick to climb the tree and joined him.
“Seems as if there’s no end to the amount of fuckery this game has.” We sighed in unison. All our bars were full, and because of our levels we should have been able to deal with them quickly enough, but goddamn it! Three rat ogres, they still shared the same stats as the previous one, they just had less HP then the one Elias had that rodeo on.
“Well then….” Elias sighed once more before a large smile creaked over his face. “Once more, unto the breach my friend!” I smiled and nodded.
(PR.N-Once more unto the breach, dear friends, once more; Or close the wall up with our English dead. In peace there's nothing so becomes a man; As modest stillness and humility……… just cause’)
“I wouldn’t have it any other way, after all Who the hell do they think we are!” I shamelessly quoted Te**en T**pa G***en La***n , taking a Ka**na pose. Elias simply face-palmed, I disregarded it and I quickly changed the battle music to something a bit more upbeat, I was amazed to find out they even had music from other games in the music files, but there it was. Elias looked to me before we began the attack.
“D***sty wa**iors….4…..Battle for Chi-Bi….I approve of this!” we smiled at one another and leapt from the trees to begin out second attack.
Meanwhile Maris’s P.O.V
I let out a breath of relief as the final customer walked out, what a time to have an unexpected rush hour, I scanned around the room for Cecil and Thomas to see nothing, just where did they go? I then jumped up into the air at the sound of Cecil’s over the top voice.
“I LOVE IT!!! KAHKAHKAHKAHKAH!!! Oooohhh no cough this time, progress!” I turned to see Cecil gripping a massive sickle, the weapon reminded me of the weapon used by His***de Mat***aga in Sa***rai Wa***ors 4.
“Um….Cecil don’t you think that’s a little…um impractical?” I called out. Cecil looked around.
“Um….Maris, where are you?” he asked as I sighed.
“Down here!” I called out from my hiding place under the table.
“Oh…why on earth are you under there?” I growled.
“Because you scared the shit out of me, that’s why!” His creepy grin spread across his face again, which was only made creepier by the massive sickle now sitting at his back.
“Hehehe, Then….” he took a slight bow “I have done my job well…come on get out from there unless it is better than up here?” I accepted his hand as he helped me up.
“So have you found any of the others?” Cecil sighed.
“Apart from you, sadly no” I lowered my head, but quickly perked up and smiled again.
“Well I found you and vice versa so that’s not too bad is it!” Cecil smiled again, this time it was his creepy smile, but a genuine one more of a smirk.
“Yeah I guess so, I’m sure we’ll find the others eventually!” Thomas cleared his throat from nearby.
“Well I guess with that rush hour gone and the profits Maris no doubt made, I say we go treat ourselves!” I looked at the Clock on my HUD 3:15PM.
“Well I guess a late lunch would be alright” Cecil stomped his foot, took an over the top pose and pointed towards the tent opening.
“I’ve had nothing to eat for the whole day, it’s time!” Thomas joined in and took the same pose as Cecil outstretching his hand and pointing towards the tent’s opening, they then spoke in unison.
“FOOOOOD……. TO EAT!!” They both rushed out of the tent leaving a trail of dust behind them, I quickly closed the tent and hung up the closed sign.
“Hey, wait for me!” I called out as I quickly tried to catch up to the two hungry men rushing off into the distance as they named off different types of food they could eat.
(PR.N-YES, “TRY” to catch up like hell she would actually be able to catch up to two starving men who just did an anime pose for said food.)
Meanwhile, Elias’s P.O.V
I steadied myself, as I panted, Calder and I had taken down all but one of the remaining bosses, the last one was Shaka, he was stronger than the other two and he now had buffs Enraged and Animalistic Fury
Enraged: (Someone is piissssed):
Large bonus to attack and Speed, but lowers defence.
Animalistic Fury: (RRROOOOOAAAARRRR):
Bonus to All Stats expects Defence and Accuracy.
At the very least it would have been easy to kill him, if he would JUST HOLD STILL! The boss was stomping around with a lot roaring, it never stood still enough for Calder to land one of his lighting spells and whenever I tried to strike him I’d get knocked back, we were both stumped about how to proceed.
“Well, any ideas Elias?” I rubbed the back of my neck…how were we to proceed from here, our enemy was able to knock back any attempt at Melee combat and was too quick to be attacked from range, environmental hazards didn’t work either as they’d tried to get it to ram into a tree again, but it stopped before it hit the tree, it was then I had an Idea….’Yes….get him there….then get Calder to stand there….knock that over and…..it just might work’ I turned to Calder.
“Okay I have a Plan” There was a loud *Ping* as I gained a new title Tactician.
Tactician:
Provides bonus to Intelligence, new ability gained Tactician’s guile.
Tactician’s Guile:
He who will win knows when to fight and when not to fight. Slows down time temporally and highlights locations of interest on the battlefield.
I smiled seems as if I’d gotten myself a shiny new advantage, I explained what it was I was going to do to Calder.
“You want me to do what!?”
“Hey if it works then we win, if it doesn’t then we fall back and try something new?” Calder grumbled a little more before moving into place, I quickly set about setting up our make shift trap.
Calder’s P.O.V
‘uuuuhhhh why did I let Elias talk me into this. Good lord if this doesn’t work I’m gonna kill Elias…not that it will do much good he’ll just respawn.’ I landed with a pat as I stood exactly where Elias told me to. ‘Ugh, I can’t believe I’m gonna do this’.
“Hey Dumbass! Yeah! I’m talking to you! Over here!” The Rat Prince turned towards me and began to charge furiously, my first instinct was to run, but I held my ground.
I felt the earth beneath me shifting and rumbling as the hulking behemoth charged at me. I braced…nothing, I opened my eyes slightly and saw the Rat prince falling back.
I sighed a breath of relief it worked and because it was a bunch of coals he was now burning, Elias had done it, he had managed to knock one of the Braziers over and have it land on Shaka, Elias ran up to me and we high fived.
“WWOOO, nice work Elias, nice work indeed” Elias nodded and we turned back to the now burning Rat prince Shaka, we both breathed a sigh of relief as its HP hit Zero and he began to vanish, we Both rose our fist in the air and once again shameless quoted Gu**en La***n in unison.
“Who the hell do you think we are!?!” The victory screen then popped up.
GLOURIOUS VICTORY!
Quest complete
Rewards: 250 Gold, 500 EXP, Rune Knight Spear (Calder), Duellist Elvish Rapier (Elias), Quest completion marker(Calder), Relation Improved with the Ryzita Kingdom (Status is now: Known Face)
Bonus Gold and EXP from battles: 2,500 Gold, 10,000 EXP (Boss Drop: Calder) Ring of Extra Mana (Boss Drop: Elias) Bracers of Sure Hands.
Elias and I smiled. We had won!
Author-sama: Danube
Proof Reader-san: FJirum