After all that I had managed to hire one [Gold] tier and one [Copper] tier mercenary. I had a whole lot more crystal, so I locked in two more lots of ten.

I ended up with 17 more commoners, one Demi-badger Amber Mage called Torovir [Gold], a two-for-one Demi-foxes, classes unknown (but they looked like ninjas under their hoods), names Kris and Sai, and huge human Warrior aptly named Brutus [Iron].

It was crowded like a tin of sardines, so I took the party outside… or at least that’s what I tried to do. Only Kae Woo, Kris and Sai, Torovir, Brutus, and Matilda followed me outside.

So, I can only interact with 6 at a time…

“Ahh, thanks guys, can you wait here for a second?”

Kae /nodded, Kris and Sai just made the /pray motion, Torovir /waved, and Brutus held his arms out in the /huh emote.

When I went back inside all the NPC were jammed in the room, each of them spooling up to a robotic run just like it was in IFO, but would abruptly stop when their pathway was blocked, it was like a weird dance party where people were trying to do the running man but forgot the moves halfway through.

“Okay!” I yelled out rubbing at the dull pain developing in my head. “Can you all please wait here.”

They all looked towards me and stopped.

“Great, okay, you, you, and you three there, follow me please.”

Several Simon says later, and I had all 30 NPCs outside, unfortunately I couldn’t find that cat, but whatever, it was just a cat.

While I did that, Kae Woo was meditating, Kris and Sai had their arms locked in some sort of martial arts practice, Torovir was reading a book, and Brutus was doing Burpees. The other NPCs were just running through a couple of the general emotes like /sit, /kneel /doze and /dance.

Hmm, must be because they’re higher tiered, they must have more detail to their characters.

"Hi," I said to Kae Woo, "can I talk to you?"

He opened his giant rectangular frog eyes and looked at me.

"Study the past if you want to define the future."

"Ahh, yeah cool...”

He kept a great katana sheathed at his side, he began to close his eyes as if to begin praying again.

"Wait... umm... do you mind showing me what you can do?"

“To win one hundred victories in one hundred battles is not the best outcome. To subdue the enemy without fighting is the best outcome,” he said, then closed his eyes and resumed humming.

Okay, so maybe they couldn't just demonstrate their abilities and could only show them in live combat...

To join the Adventurer's Guild, I would need to go, find and fight those slimes, but there was a problem… the NPCs were all level 1, it really didn’t matter how many level 1 NPCs I had, even if I had 100 [Gold] tiered, they would all die horribly against a level 20+ Slime… that was a real problem… I could try and feed them to level up but… that would take ages, as well as a lot of moolah.

A wicked smile crossed my face… “I think it’s time for some fish and chips.”

  

I had a Samurai, a Warrior, and a Macer for damage dealing, two Ninjas for tanking, maybe not traditional tanking but evasion tanking, and an Enchanter Mage for support and crowd control. It's not like they could truly fulfil their roles at level 1, but it's what I had to work with, but that certainly wasn’t working for me now.

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There were no menu buttons for the NPCs, so all I could try and do was issue verbal commands. “Okay, Kae Woo attack that one, the closest one to us,” I said pointing at the fish thrashing about on the ground.

You have attempted [Leadership] on Kae Woo – [Samurai], you are unskilled

"When it is obvious that the goals cannot be reached, don't adjust the goals; adjust the action steps." Kae Woo said putting his three-fingered frog hands together in prayer.

“Umm, what? Can you just attack that creature please?”

"When anger rises, think of the consequences." He croaked.

I will shove your quotes up your arse in a second!!!

“Okay, fine…” I picked up a rock. “Let’s see you how you respond to this…” And I threw it at the hitting it in the side, which was good but as I watched the rock bounced off and ricocheted off hitting another one square in the eye ball, and for a split second I thought I saw a small black shadow flicker across the two creatures.

Their giant fish eyes rounded on to me, and if fish could scowl that was definitely what they were doing. My guts knotted up and I just bloody legged it.

I’ll just drop their aggro and try again, or dart into another shop.

A repeat of last time was what I was expecting, considering the NPCs weren’t taking orders, and low-and-behold when I looked back, they stood there doe eyed…

“Come on you ass-munchers!”

As soon as the fish came within about 30 metres, the mercenaries readied their weapons and moved to engage the demonic sea-beasts, and the tension fell out of me in a sigh.

Kae Woo got to them first and brought his great katana down from above his head into one of the creature’s scales, it collided with a great clang and bounced back with the force of a jet-fuelled-pogo-stick.

“Ahhh!” screamed Torovir as the blade ricochet and craved into the hairy badger. He grabbed at his face and tumbled backward into poor Matilda, sending both of them spiralling into a heap.

What the hell is going on? It’s like the NPCs have lost their spatial rulings…

The creature, of course, didn’t even register the attack and continued to flop menacingly towards me.

“Shit!”

If I had to guess… you can only draw aggro if you were either the first to hit it or you need to deliver damage… which means…

I ran, I felt like a feather on the wind, it must have been the new shoes… until there was that all too familiar tightness in my chest but after a second and several less hit points and it was gone.

Torovir was up again, his face back to its original hairy schnozzular state, but I’m sure his hit points weren’t. He wound up his staff and Kris and Sai managed to duck under it before he swung wide and whacked the 2nd fish with his staff, then Kris and Sai stabbed at one fish each with their daggers. Matilda had gathered herself up and walloped one with her mace, but again the fish ignored them all and barrelled towards me, daggers in their eyes, fish-bone-daggers...

…none of them are doing any damage… their natural armour must be too high. Shit.

I bolted down the dock area and started circling a building until there was a loud *ching* behind me. That *ching* was the stuff dreams were made, the *ching* that let you know you were a little extra special in that moment, and but most importantly that your damage had just been doubled and that you would bypass any natural armour.

This time, it was as I hoped or feared! The insanely strong fish had turned its demonic sights onto the unlucky sod that landed the critical and then launched itself at… her. Matilda was winding up another swing of her mace, but the fish managed to latch its maw onto her leg before she could and fling her around like a Pitbull’s chew toy.

Matilda screams deafened me and my heart ached. Blood sprayed out of her leg whilst it was still clamped within the fish’s maw.

Kris managed to crit the other fish.

There was literally nothing I could do, except, watch her bleed out… if I tried to intervene, it would just be me instead.

The fish were stationary, since they weren’t flopping after me any longer, which allowed everyone to hit them more and Kae Woo’s next strike flashed white and gave off the familiar *ching*, and he managed to do just enough damage to draw the demonic arseholes attention.

It dropped Matilda and threw itself at Kae Woo, he managed to dodge the fish’s maw with a sidestep and land another [Critical Hit].

What am I doing? This is crazy… this isn’t a game… one wrong move and I could be dead…

There was no time to think though, I shook the thoughts away and ran over to Matilda, the next thing I knew I was on the ground, my ears were ringing, the world was spinning, and it felt like my guts had been pulled out my belly button. All it took was a rogue tail whip and my day was turned upside down…

The little amount of health points I had left kicked in and the gonging fog in my head cleared, just in time for me to catch Kris and Sai scoring a double critical on one of the fish helping it into suffocation mode.

Yes, okay, stupid brain, I know! I’m going…

I cautiously approached, this time making sure I timed it, the remaining fish soon launched its attacks at the others and I took that opportunity to pull Matilda out of the fray. She wasn’t moving, but when I leaned in I could feel her warm breath tickle my ear.

Do I really care about NPCs…? Well… I’m invested here… I can’t lose my investment, right?

“Hold on Matilda!” I grabbed some bandages from my first-aid kit then hesitated. There was so much blood. Urgh, no time for hesitation! I wrapped it around the wound on her leg, straight over the clothes and applied pressure.

You have attempted to use [Bandage] on Matilda - Trainee Macer, you are unskilled

It wasn’t enough though… she was dying… and she either didn’t have any [Hit Points] to begin with, or if she did -they were long gone.

Her breathing was slowing…

I’d never seen anyone die before, let alone die in my arms… I just closed my arms around her and held… pretty sure I was losing it, as a familiar sound bite played, ‘Da-da-da, duh-duh, dat-da-duh’ when I opened my eyes both fish were disintegrating like if the sun suddenly exploded into a dust cloud of pixels.

  

“Mr Mark? What are you doing?” Matilda’s sweat voice whispered in my ear, before she planted a wet one on my cheek.