I sort of expected it, but you know what? These goobers aren’t half bad. To be exact, it’s a group of five. There’s no support class to be found, they’re all just attacking, but that’s kind of expected at this stage in the game, no? Who’s gonna have already figured out how to build in that way? It’s not like you spawned with the ability to use magic. You probably have to find some sort of mage npc, or maybe a cleric, like I found the tamers guild and an apothecary.
Well, either way, they’re clearly doing fine.
One of them is sniping the boss from a little further away, but beams are never fired at them. So, I assume they’re dealing little damage compared to everybody else. Especially the guy weaving in and out, given he’s the one being targeted by the beam pretty much every time. He’s… playing way more aggressively than I’d dare to. Good on him, but even from my distance I could tell him a few things to try and correct. If this boss was a little more attentive, he’d probably have gotten got a dozen times by now. But, it’s not, so such wanton aggression works out for him.
Then after having dealt enough damage, he dips back and draws the shotgun blast of a half dozen or so beams away from his teammates. None of his teammates have been bold enough to go after the boss while it’s locked onto their main dps, but to me it looks like it always targets the enemy who’s done the most damage to it.
Like, it never shot at me when Jasper was attacking it, not once. Every time it shot at her, because obviously, she dealt more damage than I did. Ergo, I have a sneaking suspicion here… it’d probably be possible to rotate agro pretty freely by just tearing into the boss for five or so seconds, then backing off with the last few to draw the shotgun while your teammate goes in while you’re away, then your teammate pulls the agro and you go in. Rinse repeat till it’s dead.
This ragtag group isn’t doing that, which is fine to be fair. They group up and hit it after the beam fires, then they back off. The archer keeps poking it from a distance, and… they’re dealing damage. Five people is five people, and they hit it again and again. Scratches pile up, slowly, but surely. About one for every point of mana that recovers I think? Before long I should have recovered enough resources to head back in.
A few times while watching I absentmindedly thought about petting my… pet? Monster? Summon? Whatever Jasper is? But then the thought occurred, that they’re on an entirely different branch watching the fight, so that wouldn’t really be possible, but… to be honest this whole fight is just… boring. If I’m assuming they’re getting in about three hundred damage per cycle with each of them landing a few hits and that one dude landing half a dozen, then at this point they’ve probably dealt somewhere close to… I wanna say… twenty seven thousand damage…? Somewhere around there? And that just… cannot be right, right?
The boss didn’t seem to have too much defense compared to the weaker enemies that ran around the place, so it’s either just… super god damn beefy, ooooooor… it’s regenerating. That seems more plausible, right? It is a raid boss. And, if it’s regenerating…
What does that mean for my contribution?
“Jasper?”
“Mmm…?”
Stamina 89/106
MP 27/51
“How much stamina and MP do you have?”
I mean, npcs can mention existing numbers, so these are like, stats that everybody can see right? I don’t like, sound like a lunatic?
“Mmm.”
“Oh 100 and 21? Alright, that works!”
So I don’t sound like I’m off my rocker. Rrradical.
“Just asking to make sure, but you’re ready to get back to it, right?”
“...Mmmmm.”
“...No?”
“Mmm.”
“You’re worried about me getting hurt? Awww, don’t worry about it, I’ll be fine!”
“Mmm!”
“...Whaaat? No, I would’ve been fine if you hadn’t showed up at just the right time to help me, don’t worry about it.”
“Mmhmmm.”
“Alright, well… you came to help because you didn’t want me to die, right?”
“Mmm.”
“Well, here’s the deal. I’m not going to stop until that boss is dead. So, if you don’t want me to die, you’re better off working with me, and then neither of us will die! Sounds good?”
“Mmgh-mmmm.”
Heh… I don’t exactly feel great about leveraging… whatever their emotional baggage is with this particular subject? But gotta do what I gotta do to move forward. Right now Jasper is my greatest tool, so… is what it is. If they won’t work with me, then my damage goes down the drain. Therefore, I must take any action to make them work with me.
“Well, let’s get to it! The sooner we’re done the better, right?”
“...Mm.”
Now, I say that, but… things seem to be getting slightly more complicated. I mean, about time really… no, it’s not the boss finally developing a pattern, it’s people starting to show up. Really, took them long enough! But, still. As I stand up and stretch, balancing precariously on my branch, I spy with my little eye a group of gremlins approaching en masse. And by en masse I mean like, four, but more are surely to follow.
Therefore(x2)! I’ve got work to put in. A lot of work, unless I’m cool with not getting rewarded for my effort-(spoiler alert, I’m not) in which case I’d do nothing.
So, I get moving!!!
—---
“Got room for a few more!?” I call out as I hardcore parkour my way down from the treetops, arriving on the field of battle a good few seconds before other players could reasonably be affirmed as “on the scene”.
This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.
“Don’t see why not!” That same, very social man who initially greeted me I now notice, called right back as I broke my final fall with a roll, springing over the next omnipresent wave of energy with the momentum. “More damage to crack the bastard open couldn’t hurt!”
You know what? I like this guy. I’m not gonna like, seek him out after the fight or anything, but this guy? He gets the Koth seal of approval. He’s A-okay.
“Same plan as last time Jasper, you ready to go?”
“Mmm.”
Well, they’re not exactly enthusiastic about it, but that’s certainly a yah.
[Recall].
In my heart, I hold out some hope that this boss will turn out to be… not so plain and boring?
[Summon]!
Jasper latches on and tears into them. Same dance as the last time we got to boxing with the damn thing. She still obviously by far out dpses the motley crew of five, and now the additional few players grouping up on top of us, so just like I assumed, the beam is always fired towards her… but, it doesn’t matter.
[Recall].
I… want to give this some grand description? I really do, don’t get me wrong. My hyperactive brain doesn’t particularly enjoy beating a veritable punching bag? But, after the initial shock factor. This really is just kind of… a newbie boss. It’s really, really simple.
More wounds pile up, it starts actively bleeding, more players arrive, I eventually lose sight of the original gang. But, that’s fine. Not like we were really cooperating in any way besides group up and HIT IT TILL IT DIES, the tried and true strategy.
I keep it in my line of sight, summon Jasper again and again, 11 MP, 10 MP…
Oh wait-pfft. There’s something to detail! Lol! Jasper made a silly mistake! Instead of leaping into the air like she usually does, she instead leapt to the side, straight into the path of a dozen or so players… she might have just gotten them all obliterated by a shotgun blast of… I don’t know, six dozen different beams? That is… oops, my bad everybody!
From here, out on the edge of the battle where I sit… it looks like not all of them died? The power of the beams decreased enough with how many they were split into, but damn, my bad. I’ll have to make sure to tell Jasper to not jump in the direction of anybody in the future…
But, I don’t think there’s much future to talk about. The boss is pretty damn damaged from what it looks like to me. If there was ever a time for me to try and do the do…
“Scuse me.” I mumble as I slip by and around the hordes of scrambling players, using one last [Recall]. But, I have no plans of bringing Jasper back out. At least not for a few minutes. That’s because I need this ten percent of my maximum MP thank you very much!
[Tame]!
Monster cannot be tamed!
Oh. Well that’s not very cool game. :(
“SCCCCCCRIiiiiiiiaaaaaaa…..”
And it… falls over. Face first, splat. That was anticlimactic. Though, what did I expect I guess? Yeah I can just tame the monster with the specs to do what that thing was doing, yeah, okay, sure. It’s on me for having hope.
Enraged Nature Bushling has been killed!
Contribution:
#1 Koth (19.7%)
#2 YSoSerioushuhuhuh (10.3%)
#3 Anameformyself (8.2%)
…
…Twenty percent? Holy crapoly majoly! Thanks for the hard carry Jaspeeeeer!
Distributing rewards…
+1042 exp!
+7 silver
+39 copper
+59 Alvei Herbs
+18 Susu Leaves
+4 Grove Mantis
…DAYUM!
Level up!
Level up!
Level up!
+1 skill level!
Level up!
And that’s only half, right??? Jasper needed… nine hundred something experience to level up, didn’t she? Did she level up too?
Jasper-Resiala Forest Lynx
Level 8
…Yup! Absolutely wicked.
You are the first player to kill an enemy with the “Nature Essence” modifier!
You are the player with the highest contribution to the “Bushling” field boss!
You significantly contributed against an enraged “Bushling”!
+500 exp!
Level up!
D-dayu-
+3 Nature Essence!
Ooooooookaaaaaaaaaay. Laying it on a little thick here game? What even is that?
“Koth!? Where’s Koth?!”
Oh god that sounds like a random. A complete stranger to be exact. Yeah… I did kind of score at the top, didn’t I…? Alright, channel my friends antisocial powers and DIP!
“Jasper? Stay in the pocket dimension for a little bit, I’ll take you out in a moment.”
And it’s OFF to the races!