My skin turns grey and their cuts don't hurt at all, as if he put a crazy set of armor on me. I'm invincible. DragonSlayer's spell has an extra five Res stacking on top of the two from Tank's mail. That's seven damage from every attack when the bandits only do six on average.
Correction: they would if they were still alive.
[Your Party Leader killed a Bandit +50 Exp.]
The message repeats until the number on my minimap drops to one. This guy wastes no time, although he decided to show up at the last second. It takes me longer to spot him than it took him to slaughter my attackers, and he's off again, dashing toward the camp.
No words. There is no exchange of plans. He doesn't ask if I'm all right either, of course, he can see it on the status window now that we are in the same party. He's level 158, is that normal for a player? The NPCs are one thing, but after grinding for two days, I'm still only at the 8th.
If the required Exp keeps doubling for every level, it would need millions, no, much more to reach that far. Let's read up on that later on Wroddit or ask the tutorial. It needs to be reset first, which I always miss, no matter how often my way takes me by the Training Grounds.
In truth, it's no longer necessary since the system comes with a built-in browser. If there is a question, nothing stops me from searching for it on Boogle in real time. Okay. Other than forgetting about it, because I keep forgetting everything.
Like the fact that the battle still hasn't ended, and my thoughts are all over the place again. Should I follow him, or give cover with the bow? The quiver still has half the arrows left, with many more in my inventory. Can you reload the thing, or will it disappear once it's empty?
Does he even need me at this point, or my only job is to loot the field? The bandits around me dropped a bunch of stuff and it's only the tip of the iceberg. After killing three and disarming one with the NPCs my inventory was full. This place already has more.
How will my character bring this all back to the stash nearby? Do they have a cart or a chest to protect my hoard? It's too early for these questions, the fight is still raging. He did a huge favor by taking me along so it would be rude to slack off.
Can these arms even pull the bowstring back at this point? Right. Let's chug down a stamina potion, and see if the yellow substance helps. There are still a few bandits by the camp, waiting for my party leader to cut them down. He's fast, but my arrow gets there first.
[You killed a Bandit +50 Exp.]
Shit. We share the experience points, regardless of who gets the kill. Whatever. Let him see that I can pull my weight in case he'd help me level up some more. The potion revitalizes my arms and the bow is easier to shoot again, so let's take advantage of that five minutes.
You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author.
Will the exhaustion return once the timer runs out, or does it reset the status? As pathetic as it sounds, my character tires out faster during the battles than in five minutes. This yellow fluid already makes me more effective than normal.
And if the healing potion tasted like a sweet syrup, this is like carbonated black coffee. In other words: disgusting. Yet, it's very efficient and feels like I can shoot the bow faster than before tiring myself out. Two more bandits drop before DragonSlayer reaches the camp.
[Your Party Leader killed a Bandit +50 Exp.]
He hacks his axe into them and they turn into pixels on contact. This tells me it's a different tool from what my character had, with a longer shaft and a smaller head. He uses it with both hands and without a shield, yet the bandits can't land a hit on him.
Reinforcements arrive to give me something to shoot. Let's not fire into their melee to risk hitting my only ally with the bow he gifted me. The timer on the status effect has no chance to run out before he clears up the remaining baddies though.
Even if he disbands our party before the mission reward, this was over two thousand Exp in ten minutes. The only errand comparable was the one with the plague rats until now. And there is a sea of loot lying around, that he said he doesn't want.
So this is what an A-rank quest is like. Fast-paced with strong enemies, and he blazed through them like it's nothing. I took out a good chunk of them thanks to his bow, but if he didn't intervene they would have torn me apart in melee.
"Let's hope this will kick off the rest of that event." He shakes his head, strolling back towards me as if disappointed. He won't even look at the loot scattered around. "What did the devs think when they spawned bandits near the starter village? You good, Noob?"
"Great, thanks. My legs got shaky when they surrounded me but that spell was super OP." Stay calm, Arnim, if you start fangirling for something basic, he won't take you next time. You can search for multiclassing and the Stone Skin effect later.
"Haha, sorry about that, my other quest took longer than expected. And this was underwhelming for an A-class mission, but you took down quite a few, which is pretty good at your level." He pats my back and walks past me. Let's hope he won't stab me in the back now.
There is nothing I could do about it if he wanted to, he's a killing machine. Otherwise seems like a decent guy though. He keeps walking, and the moment he reaches the tree line, he turns invisible to me. Only the green dot on the minimap remains.
"Feel free to loot the place, I'll turn in the quest before disbanding the party, and call it a day. You better keep an eye on your minimap, in case some players followed us." He talks in a normal, quiet voice and he's far away, yet it sounds as if he spoke next to me.
It must be a party mechanic. And how come he leaves already? He cleared his quests in twenty minutes, and that's it? Well, not everyone has to play this crap twelve hours for the feds. And his suggestion is sound too, considering how the gankers looked at him.
It's a shame, the remaining experience would be in the bag in an hour or two if he helped me. So this is what force leveling up feels like? He disappears from the map, and I'm alone with a decimated bandit camp and all the loot in the world.
Do they have a cart or chest to use in my stash or help me get there? It might be worth organizing the loot here first and abandoning the cheap stuff. Of course, the game will only show the prices in a dialog with a merchant, or after picking up the appraisal skill.
For now, let's see what my character needs.
"There will be an order for food, torches and wouldn't mind some potions either." I sort through the items dropped by the bandits nearby. One had a purse, another thing on my list to buy, and it's not empty either. "Oh, this is a good start."