The whole caravan was tired and sore. Not even the mule was left without scratches. Simone was off leading yet another monster herd out on a wild goose chase. Mathew was preparing for when there was another. The entire crew was taking turns on the [Lead And Lose], even Micky. The only ones that weren’t on the actual lead and loose were the two children not in the party. Even they however, were not having a good time. They were in the cart packed tight. The crew couldn’t afford to lose time and several monsters had already taken swipes at the cart and mule.

But things weren’t all bad for Micky. He had invented a new technique with Squishy. She would jump onto his staff and then he would launch her. Then, she would bounce onto the monster and back to him where he would launch her again. Of course he retained a lot of the agro with this since she seemed more like his tool then his pet. But it was still a useful technique.

However, Micky was very sore and tender. He had been wielding his staff night and day. He wasn’t used to using his staff so much. But Squishy loved his staff. If it wasn’t such an emergency she would ask to play with his staff just to do it. It was the first time Micky had been with a girl that loved his staff so much. Micky wasn’t sure he could take it. Every time she would ask to play with his staff he would tell her that his arms were sore and that he couldn’t wield his staff properly. Then she would tell him she didn’t care and she just loved playing with his staff. It was getting to the point that he dreaded when she would play with his staff.

Besides that Micky also found a stone to channel his mana. It was just a [Coudy] [Rose Quartz]. However the description read [Increase mana channeling of [Pink Magic] by 20%]. When Micky had found the common two knuckle long stone when he had tripped during a monster run Micky was ecstatic. Even though it was just a stone that could be found anywhere it was the fourth most powerful natural channel item for him. After [Rose Diamond], [Diamond], and [Ruby]. Mana channeling was useful for both increasing potency and reducing mana costs, so this little stone pulled more then its weight would suggest. Of course at the time it was staring him in the face with a monster raid at his back so he just grabbed it and went.

Later he stuffed that stone on top of his staff until it fell into the mana channel. Now it is floating on top of his clawed up beaten and broken winged staff. This thing was so pathetic. But it was his first system [Item]. Some rich kids could get a lot of those from their parents. Micky’s parents hadn’t collected any mana or channel related items. They were not expecting a magic kid. Of course they had worked on collecting a few things afterwards but it hadn’t paned out in the four years since Micky was a [Pink Mage]. In addition they had other children to invest in so they couldn’t spend it all on Micky, so he understood their situation.

But he was still excited. There was so much he could do with this. And he leveled. There it was, [Specialization Ready]. He could specialize once he officially leveled to 10. Then he would get his final [Basic] skill and his first [Tailored] skill. Micky couldn’t wait… Or well he had to, because [Specialization] wasn’t a simple process. He had to spend some time to meditate on his class. It really meant spend a few hours sitting still, but he hadn’t been able to afford that yet. Micky doubted that he was alone in that. Simone was probably close to leveling herself since she had a combat/control type class. And Michael was still just a [Warrior] so he should be getting up there in levels as well.

“I’m your backup!” Simone said. She was almost more excited now that the bandits had been killed. *Ergh* the bandits Micky remembered, they were what leveled Micky to 10. Simone gave Mathew a wave and then came back to the line with Micky and the rest. She had been a valuable party member to the right wing and everybody had been getting close over these times with tight formations. The left had stopped being such assholes because of the incoming bandit threat. Things were in a tense peace for now.

Mathew, of course, went after a new group of [Monster]s immediately. This road was infested. They had been traveling on anything but the main road to make sure they stayed out of the bandit’s sight. But these tiny traveler’s roads were a meandering mess that they had to send a scout ahead to make sure that the cart could pass through. If there was a part that would be impassable they would have to ditch the cart and kill the mule for food. Not that Mathew would have too much of a problem with slaying the stubborn mule, as intelligent as he is.

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But soon is was Micky’s turn. He was paired with Andrew, the other kid from the right wing. Andrew was a [Dirty Brat]. It was a [Thief] tree class with some [Brawler] aspects and a few others mixed in. Overall it was a good class at level, but it wasn’t one that would get you any popularity contests. For starters like all [Thief] classes you got [XP] for stealing. In addition to that its first skill was [Grab And Go] a skill to steal petty items and be gone before the owner realizes it was you that took them. Of course, they would still realize it was you that took them. So it was a very unpopular class. His parents would leave out petty things for him to steal so that he could level, and he would steal toys and things from one of his siblings and give them to another. So he was out and about to give his family a break from his unfortunate class.

But right now they had to run because they were distracting the [Monster]s. Micky tossed Squishy at the monster back and she bounced from one to another grabbing agro like the ball in a football tourney with a pack half starved rabid chihuahuas. Andrew started [Toss Stone]ing as an area taunt. This was distracting enough for the monsters to pull off the main group and chase after the two annoyances. With Micky as the lead distraction and Andrew as a fast cleanup. [AGL] was the best type of tank for this situation, but Micky didn’t really have any.

Micky caught Squishy on a return bounce, cradling her with his staff. He could feel her excitement at getting to play with some big long [Monster]s. Micky did not share in this. He ran while Squishy was attached to his staff.

Micky saw the root this time so he jumped over it and did not trip face first. He ran weaving through the trees. [Monster]s started to catch up so Micky tossed out Squishy a few times to keep them back and distracted. She would then return and Micky wasn’t even sure they recognized she was a slime. Micky looked up at the sun to keep track of his position. He didn’t want to get too far away from the direction the caravan was heading. He jumped and grabed a branch with the blade of his staff to swing up and over a rootbound ledge. A move he had a lot of practice with recently. He noticed a bunch of small animal skulls hanging from the trees. Perfect, goblins were just the rapist fuckers to lose these monsters on.

Micky headed towards a direction he thought the goblin camp was, looking for more small animal skulls. Hopefully, he would be able to lose this monster pack on the goblins and thin them down at the same time. Goblins were also territorial so he didn’t need to be to judicious in his sweep. Just let the packs hunt each other. [Monster] [Goblin]s were a menace to society, but also basically impossible to move. This was in spite of the fact that goblins were a rare monster to actually spawn. They relied on reproduction in order to sustain their population. But they repopulated faster than any other known creature.

Hmm, more stacked skulls he was getting close. He needed to focus not to be hit by arrows or darts now. These little bastards would always tip them with paralytics in hopes of bringing female things back home. Let’s see, three stacked skulls with two skulls to the side, the warren should be this way. Two skulls two skulls, going the wrong way. Four skulls one skull, just up ahead. Five skulls two skulls. Micky prepared his new technique. Having spent so long using them he had gotten much faster and could use them on the move if he concentrated.

He came up on a small little hamlet of the stone wielders. He jumped straight through the middle of their encampment. They jumped up and prepared to receive his attack jumping at him to slow him down. But Micky was not here to play nice, he was just passing through. So he released a targeted [Mass Enrage] with a [Mass] targeting from behind him where he figured a wolf monster would be. Low and behold there was. He then mass charmed around him and kept going. Squishy was unsatisfiedly sticking to his staff. Micky had an idea since he was here he might as well. He sent Squishy to smash the breeding hut. It was always easy to find since it was also the chieftain’s hut. It could also be called the cockled hut because the moment the chieftain was out it became the breeding hut again. And they would always find a reason for the chieftain to be out.

So Micky sent Squishy at the hut. He smashed into the hut himself. It was only a thatch building. He ripped it apart shortly. There was a roar and Micky hid around a corner. More goblins were coming out like ants from a burning log. Well, apparently today the chieftain is in. The chieftain smashed through the monster wave that was coming towards his small encampment. Micky finished smashing his way through the hut but there was nothing but dissipating disparate shadow. Oh well, the monster’s nest was destroyed that was all he could do.

Micky ran around making sure he had lost all the monsters before heading back to the caravan. Maybe he would get a chance to finally figure out his specialization tonight? Micky thought as he panted almost blacking out.