February 11th, over 4 months past the start of the game, I have reached Level 16. Graham, a sheriff in the old world and a samurai in the new one, has just reached 17. I was right on his tail, but hadn't overtaken him yet. Nick, a young mage from Eastland, is Level 14. Theresa, a priest from Abilene, is Level 15. Rosco, a shifter-class from Abilene, is Level 15. Cain, a knight from Abilene, is Level 16 like me. The six of us make up the Harehill Commonwealth, the name we have chosen for our guild. We finally feel ready to assault the Blackmoss Gnolls.

After waking up in Harehill, we got dressed and were ready to head out. Rosco, upon reaching Level 15, was able to get his third shifter form. He chose a hawk, which allows him to fly for a short time. We sent him ahead to scout out the camp and he brought us back a great amount of details. On the south side of Shackleford County, around 3 dozen Gnolls were encamped. It was obvious they had migrated north from Eastland, but their levels were much higher in comparison to the rest of the mobs in Eastland. Cain hypothesized that, after crossing the zone border, their levels adapted to be around the same difficulty here. Two camps had been erected, with one serving as the main camp and the other as a satellite camp a mile north. The satellite camp had six gnolls along along with a special mob. In [Shift Hawk] form, Rosco couldn’t see profiles, but he could tell this one had all the markings of an Elite. I doubt it’s Rackles, the mob we are looking for, but it’s definitely something to watch for.

Graham had the only horse in Harehill, but decided to leave it behind for this quest. All we needed was a male horse and we could start breeding them. The six of us began to walk across the fields south of the village towards the encampment. A small pack of Level 11 Wolves approached us, but myself and Nick were able to handle them within seconds. Anything more than 4 levels under us was easy to eliminate. Anything 4 levels over us seemed to be impossible, at least from our experience so far. It only took us a little over an hour to arrive at the site of the Gnoll’s satellite camp. Just like Rosco said, six Gnolls walked aimlessly around the camp and a large tan-skinned Gnoll sat in the middle. I opened the profile. “Crogg, Level 17 Elite”. Rosco was right.

We were all decently leveled, but we wanted to play it safe. We waited until two of the Gnolls strolled outside of the camp to collect firewood. As soon as they did, Nick casted [Ring of Fire] around the camp. The five other enemies were contained. Rosco transformed into his Thorncat shape and dove into the two who weren't in the circle. Cain used Courageous Rush and darted into the pair as well. From afar, I fired a few shots at the Level 15 Gnolls, trading quantity for quality hits. One went down quickly and the other one followed it. 2 were down, 5 to go.

As I turned to face the rest of the camp, I was shocked to see the face of a large and angry Gnoll charging at me. Flames licked at its fur as it swung a huge spiked club at me. I dodged out of the way, my agility significantly higher than Crogg’s, but I knew one or two strikes from that club would be enough to kill anyone with a low strength stat like mine. It reached Nick quickly and swung again. Nick, with his points in Wisdom, didn’t have anything near my speed. The kid went flying across the field.

“CAIN!” I shouted for the tank to do his job and catch the monsters attention. A crossbow bolt flew by me, nicking my cheek and drawing blood. With Nick knocked so far away, the ring of fire collapsed. Two Gnolls with spears and two with crossbows began to attack. Rosco charged into the archers along with Graham. Quills flew everywhere as Rosco desperately tried to keep any of the beasts from chasing after our unconscious mage. Cain rushed into battle, bringing his shield up to block against Crogg’s mace. I cast my [Ranger’s Mark], allowing me to deal an extra 50% of damage to the mini-boss. I fired a [Multi-Shot], sending six dangerous bullets into the Elite. He shuddered and his profile turned yellow. After another [Multi-Shot], the beast charged at me. Theresa, who had been occupied with sending healing light spells into Nick, turned and casted a Holy Shield around me just in time. The monster had gone to tackle me and, with such a large body, I had no chance of escape. Cain slashed at Crogg’s back, causing him to turn and allowing me to fire a third [Multi-Shot] at point blank range. The beast stumbled as his profile turned red.

I was exhausted. I had done the equivalent of a mile-long sprint in using the abilities so quickly back to back. My Energy was drained. I could see that Theresa and Cain were feeling much the same way. Rosco, in the nature of his class, traded weaker attacks and a lack of skill variety for near-infinite energy. Graham seemed to be better than all of us at managing his energy. I figured that came with his longer and much more isolated time as a solo player. Nick was, of course, still unconcious.

With a [Taunt], Cain forced the creature to continue to swing his club at him in anger. This let me fire off several more bullets into its back. Cain thrust his blade through the monsters chest. Crogg groaned and grabbed Cain’s forearm with a large paw, leaving claw marks and streams of red blood along it. I sprinted forward, firing a solitary shot through the Elite’s skull, watching him fall dead.

With the Elite defeated, I turned to see Graham and Rosco looting the bodies of the other dead Gnolls. “You guys okay?”

Graham gave a thumbs-up back. “Is Nick alright?”

I jogged over to Nick, who was laying on the ground in pain. His profile was red. Theresa patted his hair as she cast more healing light spells into him. “He took a critical hit from an Elite that was 3 levels higher than him. It’s a miracle he wasn’t killed instantly. He should be fine, but I’d send him back to Harehill.”

I frowned. “We can’t lose anyone right now. Even if we sent him back, we’d have to send someone to go with him.”

Rosco transformed back into his human form and frowned. “Why can’t we just come back tomorrow and take care of the main camp?”

“Because we don’t know what the main camp will look like tomorrow. Maybe they send someone out here and see the damage and leave and the quest is ruined. Or, possibly, every mob respawns and we have to do this whole thing over again.”

Theresa shook her head. “If I heal him back to green, I’ll use all of my energy for the day. Hell, I'm not even sure I can do even that right now. There’s no way I’ll be of any use in the main camp fight.”

Graham scratched his chin. “Why don’t we buy some potions off the market?”

We had had this conversation before. The alchemy shops in town were not far from useless. A few minor energy and health potions were there for Level 5. There were some theories that the more money a shop made, the better the stuff would become. Still, the alchemy shop didn’t seem worth the gold investment. On the international trade market menu, though, things were even worse. Level 5 Health Potions did almost nothing for the health of a Level 15. It would take almost 10 of them to bring you to full health. Level 10 Health Potions were more expensive and also not very useful. The Level 15 Health Potions, which would restore a red-profiled player to yellow or yellow to green, cost 560 Gold on the market. With the shipping fees, you’d pay 728 Gold for around half of your health back. “I don’t know. It’d take like 1,500 gold to get Nick back to full health.”

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Graham gave a shrug, “We’ll come back tomorrow then. There's no way anything we get from this quest is worth 1,500 gold. Plus, Nick's not the only one gassed."

Nick shook his head. “Take me with you and just keep me in the back line.”

I considered what had happened to Danny. Part of me knew that he had been in the same mental state I was now when he charged into Moran. I already knew the result of being an idiot. We were going to play it safe. “Alright, let’s head back home. We’ll come back tomorrow.”

Rosco was the only one besides myself who wasn’t exactly thrilled with this outcome. Still, we were able to burn the supply stack at this camp which left us with only 13 Gnolls and a few Supply Stacks to destroy at the main camp and we’d be mostly done with the quest. The only issue left was Rackles. If we were going to be facing an unknown danger, I’d want everyone at full strength.

Upon arriving back at camp, we divided up the loot. 266 Gold as well as a few items had been retrieved. We split the gold up six ways, 44 a piece, and looked at the items. Theresa, Nick, and Rosco used Wisdom Gear. Myself, Graham, and Cain used Agility gear. Theresa, Nick, and myself used Dexterity gear. Cain, Graham, and Rosco used Strength gear. With this in mind, we took a look.

* Nomadic Hood [11C, +5 WIS, +2 DEX]

* Crogg’s Mace [15R, +11 STR]

* Gnoll Hunter’s Leggings [12C, +4 DEX, +3 AGI]

* Hyena Hide Helm [13U, +5 STR, +5 AGI]

* Gnoll Dagger [9C, +5 DEX]

The hood, a WIS/AGI piece, was good for only Theresa or Nick. Nick, with so far no decent headpiece, took the item. The mace was by far the best thing we found. Graham’s class required a sword or spear for most abilities. Rosco used fist weapons. Cain took the mace and made sure to tell us just how much stronger he felt wearing it. I was happy for him, but a little jealous of the power boost he had received. The leggings were a solid gear piece for me. With me being the only DEX/AGI combo, I gladly received them. The leggings, plus the recently acquired (Steel Toe Boots), made me a lot stronger. I just needed to get my Wisdom up in an effort to stop getting my Energy drained so quickly.

The Helm went to Graham, who was a STR/AGI build. Theresa, unfortunately, needed either a staff or wand. The dagger was useless. We ended up selling it to the smith-rabbit for 45 gold and splitting that 6 ways as well. Rosco and Theresa were the only ones without any gear upgrades from the fight, but they both seemed okay with the result. “Win some and lose some,” Rosco said.

NAME

Jeremiah, L.

CLASS

Ranger

LEVEL

16 (22%)

GOLD

1,945

STRENGTH

11

DEXTERITY

31 (18+13)

WISDOM

3

AGILITY

27 (17+10)

CRAFTING SKILLS

Cooking (1)

SPECIAL SKILLS

N/A

ACTIVE SKILLS

Multi-Shot (8), Quickdraw (6), Ranger's Mark (2)

PASSIVE SKILLS

Tracker (6), Resolve (5), Bone Piercing (3)

MAIN-HAND

Viper Pistols (7U)

[+5 DEX]

OFF-HAND

N/A

HEAD

Roughrider Hat (5C)

[+1 DEX, +1 AGI]

CHEST

Ranger Tunic (6C)

[+3 AGI]

LEGS

Gnoll Hunter's Leggings (12C)

[+4 DEX, +3 AGI]

BOOTS

Steel Toe Boots (10C)

[+3 DEX, +3 AGI]

As happy as I was with my loadout, I was still mildly bitter about having chosen Resolve as my first passive. The ability to not be feared by enemies seemed great at the time. Unfortunately, it had so far proven useless. Still, I was getting stronger and I knew. Tomorrow we’d take the main Gnoll camp and complete the quest. Hopefully it would put us a few more steps towards wherever we were going.

We knew that energy replenished faster with food and so we spent the rest of the night in The Texas Pony eating and drinking until it was time for sleep. A young Rabbitfolk named Tip, a name that I’m sure an intended pun by whoever was in control of this, was playing a song on a lute in front of the tavern’s fireplace. We enjoyed the ambiance and were just about to head back to our beds when the door opened. A large wolf stepped inside. The rabbits around us stirred and began to stand. After the wolf, a familiar bald headed man with tattoos stepped inside as well.

My eyes widened as I looked at him. “Lincoln?”