Owwwwwwww… not like, really “ow”, I barely felt that to be frank, but owwwwwww MY HEALTH!
It’s a good thing it was just a rock slide, if there were monsters along with this whole shabang I’d be getting mauled with… how much health do I have right now?
46/140
Ouch. Well, that wasn’t what we planned for, but oh well, I’m alive, things are fine.
…Except they totally aren’t because that was absolutely unacceptable behavior from Screech. On the same lines of logic that almost led me to leave Jasper back in Resiala Peak, if they aren’t listening to me, they’re a liability.
“I’m going to keep this short, because there’s very little to say here.”
“...?”
“Not you Jasper.”
“...”
“Not you Jerry.”
“Me?”
“No, Jasp-what do you think? Of course I’m talking about you! Do you think what you just did was okay in any possible way? Actually, no, don’t answer that. You don’t need to say anything, all you need to do right now is listen.”
I’m not sure how receptive they’ll be to a straight up rant, but whatever, still needs to be said anyways.
“I don’t care how upset you are that you don’t get everything you want at your whim, you are choosing to stay with me as of this moment. There is nothing that is forcing you to stay in my company, literally nothing. You want what I have, and because you cannot take it by force, you are choosing to work with me for the moment. However, if you’re going to work with me, then you NEED to listen to me. It’s absolutely non-negotiable. This is the only time I am ever going to let you off the hook for what you just did. You can talk to me about whatever you want outside of do or die situations, but if it comes down to it and you say ‘erm, one dabloon for my services thank you!!!’ then I’m kicking you out. That will not happen again, am I clear?”
Frankly I should be rid of her this instant, but her abilities are like, fairly tempting to hold onto so I’d rather not do that. If she can be snapped into obedience, then it’s preferable to do that. But I really do mean what I just said, if she ever does something like that again then it’s simply not worth it to hold onto her. Having an unreliable ally that could end up getting you killed isn’t worth it. If she ended up getting Jasper killed, then… well obviously, she’d be a net negative.
“...Well-”
“As long as you are staying with us, you WILL listen to what I tell you. If you don’t, rocks fall, everyone dies. Rocks fell this time, but nobody died because nothing else happened. That can’t be assured each time, and while it’s annoying at worst if I die, if anybody else or you were to die because something went wrong, that would be irreversible.”
“Okay but-”
“Let me put this in simpler terms for you: If you do not listen to what I say, you will never get what you want, because I will get rid of you.”
“You’ll… get rid of me.”
“And by that I mean I’ll relieve you from my service, not murder you.”
“Okay then, very well. I’ll try listening!”
Well, they sound a little chipper for somebody who just had the yapathon occur at their front door, but oh well! If they’re actually serious… then it should be fine.
I don’t think they are, honestly, but if they are then there’s no issue! For now however, I have a few pressing issues… mainly that I really need to get to town now because
Longsword has broken!
Which, isn’t great to be frank, really not great at all! That just leaves me with my hands to stab people, which, I’m not actually sure if I could do that or not… erm, well, I’d rather not! I’d much rather have a sword or some bladed object to put into peoples chest cavities.
For now I suppose I won’t have to fight anything, because despite the chewing out I just gave Screech…
[Summon]
“Well, we’ll be continuing on our way now, Screech? I expect you to use your abilities to kill other monsters that come by, and hopefully not cause another rockslide. Jasper? Continue as normal, you know what to do.”
“Mmm.”
“Now, shall we get goi-”
“Krrrr…”
“Oh, would one of you mind dealing with that? I’m currently… unarmed.”
“Sure!”
Just another fireball and…
+5 exp!
Lovely, that’s a feline thing reduced to ash, moving on…
A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.
“Krrrrrrrrrrrr…”
Ah, that’s like, multiple dozens of them. That’s not exactly great but…
“Hey Jasper, there’s nobody around right? So, that means you can use your abilities freely, yes?”
“Mhm?”
“Ah, good, good, alright, Screech, don’t use any physical… erm, elemental attacks, you should be using purely supportive abilities, for now, I want to see what Jasper can do. Jasper, you can deal with this on your own, right?”
“Mmm… mhm.”
“Great! Just get to-”
Taking a step back, I weave to the side of a lunging strike from one of the felines, which are called…
Karst Stalker Lynx-LVL 7
Called Lynxes, huh? Wait a minute…
“Hey Jasper you don’t have any issue with stabbing other lynxes do you?”
“Mmm? Mhmhmhm…”
Ah, so that’s a no, I don’t think they’d laugh at the prospect if they were opposed to slaughtering their own kin! So that’s good, great, wonderful even!
Dipping and ducking around yet another slash of claws, I launch my fist into the throat of the lynx and immediately back off, shaking out my fist as I frown at the impact. The rocks don’t make for the best footing, but with my enhanced speed I’m at least able to hop from boulder to boulder, at least until I reach solid ground again.
The impact and what not probably attracted everything here, but I suppose that doesn’t matter now. Time to wipe them all out!
“Well then, have at it! And Screech? Alternate between [Enchanting Call] and [Grasp of Morrigala]. No directly attacking, I want Jasper to be dealing damage.”
And I’ll just leave out that I don’t want them doing any attacking after what they just pulled earlier. They can sit and contemplate what they just did, like the bad child they are!
…Though they don’t really seem all that broken up about it to begin with. There might not be a point in making them sit on it like a disappointed parent, but it’s what I’m going to do anyways, because I want to see Jasper go to work!
I… have a bit of a plan to farm some experience, but I need to make sure Jasper can actually take hordes like this without issue so that it works properly. If all goes well then it shouldn’t be that difficult to power level really, really fast! Like, to the point where it might be kind of unfair, like, maybe something that needs to be patched out…?
Probably not THAT crazy, but it’ll be good, real good.
—
Hordes of shadows tear through the living like a knife through butter. Individually each creature is far weaker than their counterparts, but bolstered by two main figures, Both Jasper and her shadow, any time a problem starts to brew it’s immediately curbed by the claws of one of the two. Resistance is swiftly destroyed without issue, and routinely, the entirety of the enemy force is completely bamboozled via a particularly wack-
-Enchanting Call LVL 1-Let loose a cacophony of birdsong, affecting those nearby in a variety of ways. Allies are healed for 10+3% of their HP to a max of 20 and gain a 10% boost to their agility, strength and vitality for one minute. Enemies are damaged by 1% of their max hp to a maximum of 100 and are “disoriented”, randomizing their agro to any nearby foe. Costs 15 MP, 30 second cooldown
Which is, frankly, cracked! Every single time the lynxes start to organize, an enchanting call just ruins them! Sometimes they even start attacking themselves, which is cuhrayzee. This is basically the bane of all hordes, it’s ridiculous. Paired with Jasper’s ability to create a horde in an instant, as well as recover her MP at WARP SPEED, it’s the ultimate combo.
It doesn’t take long at all for the entirety of the opposing forces to just collapse, replaced with an equal amount of shadows standing in their place, and also a very nice two hundred something total experience for all three of us! Didn’t even need any uses of [Grasp of Morrigala] so that’s mildly disappointing, but oh well!
I can’t imagine Screech will level up for a while, but the experience gain is a good start.
“So… can you like, get rid of your summons early?”
“Mmm…”
No, she can’t. Wonderful.
“Alright… I guess we’ll just… leave them here then. Town hopefully shouldn’t be too far away, then we can go and get everything done! Screech, you get back to fireballing and what not, otherwise, Jasper? Just stay at my side. I can’t really fight all that well if something slips Screech’s notice at the moment.”
“Mmm. Mm.”
Right… shouldn’t be too long now, this half week trip is almost over! And then I can finally log out! I’ve barely spent any time off this game in the past three or so days, I think I need a moment to be honest.
“Okay, let’s keep moving!”