Back in the city, we unloaded our inventories to various NPCs, who were happy to relieve us of our superfluous items at 20% of their value. I bought a level 7 wand so I wouldn’t fall too far behind in attack damage. Randy upgraded his armor, Tori got level 6 boots to increase her movement speed and we all stocked up on potions. Though Randy took most of the hits, his stats and equipment gave him a much higher defense and his higher HP made using potions more efficient. Tori and I avoided monster attacks as much as possible, but you never fully stay out of the fight, so in the end we needed almost as many potions as Randy did. The Forgotten Swamps would bring us significantly deadlier monsters, so we made sure to come prepared.
Our purses almost empty again, we gathered near the city gates and started out for our new training grounds. On the way, I tried my new wand on a Rabbit. I still needed three hits to finish it, but that was a marked improvement over the six it took before. Satisfied, I ran after my allies to catch up.
They were chatting about the abilities they would unlock at level 10. Randy would learn Vicious Strike, allowing him to deplete almost his entire mana pool to attack once with 10% extra damage. Tori’s first ability would be Concentrated Shot, an attack with a 7% higher critical chance at the cost of, you guessed it, almost all of her mana. Non-spellcaster classes start out with a low INT value and perform better when spending their stat points elsewhere, so they aren’t able to use their abilities very frequently. In return, their regular attacks are much stronger, and there are various ways to temporarily or permanently improve one’s mana situation.
As Tori and Randy both already knew, my first spell would be Minor Heal, the signature move of low-level priestesses. By the time I would reach level 10, I would have spent about 40 stat points on INT. Combined with the higher base value my class had, this would give me about eight to ten times more INT than my allies, resulting in a much greater mana pool and more mana regeneration. I would not be able to cast Minor Heal continuously yet, but I should be able to reduce Randy’s potion usage to a bare minimum.
For now, however, we were all still stuck with only our regular attacks, and we were approaching the border between the Rolling Plains and the Forgotten Swamps. It was a good thing the game didn’t support a sense of smell. Ahead of us, green-grayish clouds of gas drifted over the landscape. “KGO’s tourist hotspot, right there!” Tori joked. I chatted a smiley face, and added: “Amazing investment opportunity! Forgotten Swamp Group is selling prime real estate in the most coveted area in the country!” That got some more smileys. “Your purchase includes various monsters spawning around your property, keeping miscreants and vermin away!” Randy took over. “Unless you classify adventurers as miscreants!” Tori added.
Joking some more, we entered the area, and were quickly surrounded by the vile mists that rose from its soil. Visibility was impaired slightly, but not reduced more than 30 feet from the default 200 feet drawing distance. We kept running toward the closest small spawn, and as we drew near, something caught my eye. Through the clouds of gas blurring our vision, I found myself looking at an impossibly well-defined shape, glowing with a dark and sinister aura. I stopped running. Every move it made seemed... magnified. I could not take my eyes off it. A strong feeling rose inside of me. Was it rage? No, it made my senses clearer instead of befuddling them. Something like... wrath. Ire. In a flash, I recognized the shape as that of a Swamp Skeleton, the first undead monster that players encounter in the game. Was this some kind of holy indignation? Priestesses, along with templars, the other holy class, have many special bonuses and effects that target undead monsters only. Was this what an undead monster looked like from a priestess’ perspective?
“You alright, Laila?” Tori called to me. I was only vaguely aware of it. She ran in my direction, a slightly blurry shape growing in my view. “Helloooooo, anybody home?” She ran up to me until her face was about the only thing I could see. I shook my head. “Sorry,” I chatted. I could see the Swamp Skeleton through her face. This was weird. “I... Sorry. I’m seeing this Swamp Skeleton like... impossibly clearly. It’s... unnerving.” Tori turned to Randy, and both of them looked around. “I don’t see a Swamp Skeleton. Or any monster.” said Randy. “Me neither. You sure you aren’t dreaming?” asked Tori. “I don’t... Can we just go over and kill it?” I asked in reply. Randy had run over to us, and he and Tori looked at each other. “Are you roleplaying or something?” Randy asked. “No. No! I just...” I took a breath. “I just see it. Clearly. Like, more clearly than should be possible. It glows. It makes me angry. It shouldn’t be there. It’s a blemish on this world! We need to eradicate it!”
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Silence fell for a moment, and I calmed down a little. Saying it out loud helped vent some of the feeling. “Sorry guys. I guess this is what undead monsters look like to a priestess. I’ll... I’ll deal with it. Let’s go on.” That was probably too quick. If the game had facial expressions, I imagined my allies would show “concern” now. “You sure you’re not going to Leeroy Jenkins all over every little skeleton? You are our most vulnerable party member, you know.” Tori said. She just had to rub that in! “We can go back to Twilight Forest if that’s better,” Randy offered. I tried to sigh, but the game supported neither the sound nor the animation. “No, that won’t be necessary. I just didn’t expect this to happen, and it was a bit overwhelming, but I’m fine now.” The lack of nonverbal language made it impossible to check if I was convincing them in any way. I soldiered on. “Can we just slay a few monsters to show that I’m fine?”
After a few breaths, Tori said “Sure”. We started toward the spawn again. The undead monster’s shape grew larger and larger in my vision, and the ire pulsed a bit stronger. I had to consciously hold myself back, I was just itching to charge at it and rend it apart with my bare hands. “Well, at least there is an actual Swamp Skeleton,” Randy said when we were close. Tory looked back at me. “Still alright back there?” “Never better!” I lied. Were priestesses supposed to lie? I needed to keep my attention focused on behaving normally.
Suddenly, a new line of text appeared in the chat window. “LEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEROOOOOOOOOOY...” I checked myself. I wasn’t screaming. Or chat-screaming anyway. I was in control. Or was I? I looked at the chat window again. Something wasn’t right. The name! The name in front of the shout was “Mark”. Who’s Mark? “JEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEENKIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIINS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!” appeared, and with it, a templar class character burst into the scene and attacked the Swamp Skeleton with reckless abandon. The large two-handed sword he was wielding glowed, and multiple waves of bright blue energy rushed from it and enveloped the monster. It flinched repeatedly, barely able to get an attack in. Charging after the templar was a veritable horde of monsters. Dozens of Swamp Toads, Mire Snakes and Lesser Vultures sped toward him. “That guy is so dead unless we help him!” Tori said, and sprinted toward the fight-to-be. Randy and I were right behind her. My beef with undead monsters could wait, there was a living human being in trouble here!
Tori started sending arrows into the mob while Randy continued running, reaching the templar and covering his back. I started picking off Lesser Vultures, who were relatively weak to my fire-type attack. As the monsters reached the two melee fighters, Randy started in and hacked away with his axe. The horde was so large that he had to use a potion after every three or four swings. This was going to empty his supply in a hurry.
Meanwhile, the templar had finished the Swamp Skeleton in absolute record time. “Hey guys! Nice to meet you!” he chatted, turning around and slashing away at the mob. “Hello yourself! What are you, a fan of monster parties?” Tori asked derisively. “Just ridding the world of some Supreme Evil. You’re welcome!” he quipped. “Yeah, our priestess just told us about her Undead Sight or whatever it’s called. I suppose undead monsters look like the personification of doom to you, too?” Randy chatted. “Let’s just say it feels good to slay them all day long. I suppose you’re a party, by the way? Can I join?” the templar asked and sent a request to be added to our party. I quickly accepted. Best to secure his help and share in his EXP, as he seemed to be stronger than we were. The game interface showed that he was level 12. Yup, a lot stronger.
“Do you always waste three casts of Sword Rush on a single monster?” Tori asked. “I’ll admit that I got a bit carried away there. Still, it did go down faster this way,” the templar replied with a smiley face. “I don’t suppose you have mana left for a few more rushes to bring this monster madness to a quick end?” Randy asked, still hacking away. “Why, certainly!” the templar said. He performed another Sword Rush, then drank a mana potion and sent three more waves of energy to follow the first. The mob flinched as one, and monsters started falling down one after another as they were picked off in their weakened state by four simultaneous attackers. It wasn’t long before the last one dropped and silence returned to the scene. We stood there, looking at the carnage. “Well, that was fun!” the templar said.