Chapter 9

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AUTHORS NOTE

It would be really helpful if i got some feedback.

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Just a few words of what you liked or which part you disliked would be greatly appreciated.

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" Thalia , do you want to fight or stay hidden? " Grim asked as he ran through the forest following the obvious traces the group of players had left behind.

A moment of silence followed while the little Fae was moving excitedly at Grims neck.

" I would rather fight , Goblin hunters are level 45-70. " She replied cautiosly.

Her voice was filled with fear. Their soul bond allowed Grim to receive pictures of her emotions , but since the human and a animal ais brain were to different he only caught on to one thing. She didn't want to be a burden to her master.

" Alright let us fight together , but stay hidden behind some trees when we first approach the other chosen ones. Don't know how they will react towards me , so you be a good little fae and cover me with your beam from the woods. Use one big one at the start and only smaller ones after. You can use all my mana if you want. " He told her the plan and not soon enough.

He breached into a clearing and saw 3 elfs being surrounded by 6 Goblin hunters. The 3 dead goblins at their feet that lay far apart from eachother told Grim that they were about lvl 25-30. They were dead meat if he didn't help. Thalia flew out from her hideout and fired a holy beam directly into the mouth of the closest Goblin that was just about to hack the robbed figure to pieces.

With quick and precise movements Grim operated the consol for his equipment and strapped his shieldguard to his arm. After he had done so he retrieved the Mace and charged full speed ahead without uttering a single word.

Thalia eliminated the Golbin with a single strike but it only had 40% life left to begin with and she spent about 1/7 of Grims mana for this single attack. As it hit the goblin though the other ones turned their attention towards the charging Grim.

* tring*

Knock back effect

He succeded to knock the first completly full Goblin back into a second one that was standing right besides him. Both uttered a few words which grim identified as cursings at their behaviour , but in a different language. He took the momentary situation in to account and attacked another goblin that only had 20% life left.

Grim struck him right across the skull and he heard a loud crack , but the beast still had 10% life left. ' This is gonna be very hard ' Grim thought while using a combo from his mace and shieldguard to massacre the lone goblin.

" Don't just stand there , help me! " Grim shouted towards the 3 stunned players.

*tring*

You have formed a party

Your leadership stat improves the damage of the group by 1.30 %

Your leadership stat decreases your group takes by 1.30 %

Your leadership stat improves the odds the group will follow your commands.

" Mage and rogue , or what ever you are distract a goblin each. Just run around if you have to , but don't get caught. Archer fire arrows at the one im tanking. I will tank 3 of them. " Grim comanded them.

They didn't complain and just did what they were told. The rogue , judging by his leather armor and the 2 daggers he was holding stabbed one of the 2 goblins that were still tripped from Grims attack and began to run. The mage with his staff and cloth robe threw a fireball followed by a Icebolt at the other one and literally took the hem of his robe into his hand and ran.

Grim was barely deflecting all of the attacks with his shield and only managed to hit a goblin every 5 seconds due to the teamwork the goblins used. But soon the archer shot a goblin in the eye and that one backed off. To trumph this Thalia shot a smaller beam of holy light towards the same goblin and toppled him over. Now Grim saw his chance and went on the offensive.

" Good Thalia , nice thinking. " Grim congraulated the little Fae.

She knew exactly what she was doing using the low power damaging spell to further increase the crowd control effect the archer had used. Grim smashed and battered at the remaining 2 goblin while using his shield to either block or rip open the belly of a enemy.

In a matter of 2 minutes the 3 Goblins were dead and he whistled to call back the rogue and mage. They rogue was first and as soon as he ran by Grim he swung the mace and knocked back the Goblin a few yards. 2 arrows instantly struck home and the rogue which had turned around shanked the goblin into where Grim thought the Goblins liver should be.

The mage returned exhausted from running away and tripped at the last 20 yards to the group. Grim cursed since the mage only had 10% life left but a overpowered beam of Thalia that sucked up the remaining 500 Mana of Grim evaporated the Goblin in an instant.

Grim headed towards the Mage and helped her up , as he saw her face and realized he was actually a girl. He nodded in the direction of the other 2 and instantly spoke up.

" Hey , im a player , i was sent to help you guys out from the mayor. " Grim said.

They eyed him with suspicion and the archer was scouting the forest around where the last beam came from.

" Tell your friend to come out. We are 3 you guys are 2 , even if our mage is low on health we can kill you guys. " The archer said.

Grim sighed as he knew players were always suspicious of one another , since pking was greatly beneficial experience , gold and item wise. But Grim stated his intentions clearly.

" Listen it's a E rank quest. That means a server first. I checked it up on the net a few hours ago. You guys have seen what i can do and you definetly need a tank for this lets just keep going. " Grim tried to plead his case.

But as people are they don't trust strangers and vehemently wanted to see the hidden player. Grim sighed before he opened his mouth again.

" Listen Thalia is not a player or a Elf either.... " Grim said and called her over.

The white Fae Mothra flew out from the forest and at first they looked at her but just ignored it as a butterfly that flew their way out of pure coincidence. But as she landed on Grims shoulders their jaws dropped.

" Wha , what is that? " The mage made a cute noise before replying.

" SHE , is my pet of sorts class related thing. " Grim said the half truth.

The mage came closer with curiosity burning in her eyes and by the second she crept closer to Grims left shoulder where Thalia was sitting. Grim sighed and offered Thalia his hand where she quickly crawled on to and extended it towards the closer coming mage.

" Don't worry she won't bite and she is low level , she just hatched yesterday. " Grim explained.

The mage crept closer with caution but as soon as she touched the Fae slightly she gave in to her desires and took her from Grims hand. At first Grim readied his weapon suspecting her to attack the Fae but as she rubbed her cheeck against his soul bound partner Grim relaxed again.

" Oh she is soooo cute , where did you get her ? You think i can have one to? I mean she is so cute ..... " The mages antic went on for over 5 minutes without pause and Grim as well as the archer and rogue sighed exhessivly.

" Master , ask that girl to release me she is wrinkling my wings. " Thalia said.

Now all the actions halted , the 2 males were staring at eachother while sighing loudly and Grim was at a loss judging by their reaction.

" AHHHH she talks that so cute oh my gosh , i really want one now its so fluffy and cute and ..... " Another 5 minutes later Thalia got really distrubed and wiggled herself out of the mages grip somehow.

She flew to Grim and hid herself underneath the hood and behind his hair. Grim felt that she was cowering at his back and he smiled.

" Well since we got over this , my name is Grim im a warrior of sorts. " Grim said and pulled down his hood.

Another change occured and the female proceeded towards him now , she reached out her hands intent on touching the rubys on his forehead but grim stowed his weapon away and held her forhead at arms length. She was wiggling and writhing but couldn't escape the strength he put into it.

" Oh come on i just wanna touch that crown its so pretty and sparkly. " She pleaded.

Grim sighed once again and spoke up.

" Those are in my forehead , class related and all. But why does every female want to touch those .... "

Now the archer took the initiative.

" Im Crow ranger , this is Clash our assasin and the mage is Viena. " He kept it nice and short.

Grim eyed them suspiciously before he operated his console and activated a special feat he previously had deactivated.

" Just to make sure i activated the show level to Party button. As you can see im level 50 and Thalia is level 15 now. Please do the same and we can move on. " Grim said.

" Holy s**t you are the ranked 100 Elf! " Clash spoke out loud.

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" I was a few days ago but i had some stuff going on and decided to pick up some skills instead , just blacksmithing and repair. So if you need some stuff checked up give it to me. Don't worry i heard only with the thief skill players can take equipment from others. " Grim stated matter of factly.

The assasin handed over his 2 daggers and Crow his shortsword. Even Viena tried to give him her robe , which she was just about to take off in public but Grim stopped her.

" Sorry i don't have tailoring can't do anything for your cloth equipment only metal. Why are all elfs exhibitionists! " Grim said angrily.

Now Crow and Clash were all ears and started to barrage him with questions. He told them the public bath scene in the castle but left out where it was , since he could live without to much attention that he was the heir to the elfen throne.

Incidentally they activated the same feature after Grim told them how and he saw that the Ranger was lvl 35 the assasin lvl 37 and the mage lvl 34. A clear misjudgment on his part , but he had not meet a lot of players to begin with so it was hard to judge.

Crow went to retrieve his arrows out of the goblin corpses to refill his quiver as Grim took out his portable anvil a oily tinkture and a small hammer to repair the weapons. The mage was pestering him as she tried to touch his forehead constantly but Grim skill fully evaded.

" Now that this is all done , what about loot? " Crow said with a glint of greed in his eyes.

Grim thought about this for a few seconds before he spoke up.

" Since you guys are a group , and judgding by the corpses of single Goblins out here you don't pick up the rusty armors and weapons right? " Grim said to confirm his suspicion.

Crow and Clash were eying him with a confused expression.

" Nah we have limited bag space after all , so we only pick up the valuable stuff. " He said casually.

Now Grim smiled only on the inside , after he saw the ' valuable ' equipment the Goblins had.

" Perfect you guys can take all that i'll settle for the rusty things. Even when you guys are full on bag space i got a second bag with another 30 spaces so fell free to ask me. Trust me i won't cheat you. "

They agreed to the loot distribution but remarked casually they won't be needing the extra space in his inventory. Now they started to discuss what they had found out about the quest so far.

" We just found some footprints all leading further south with my tracking skill and followed singled out Goblins to kill them for xp and money. Well they are smarter then we thought since a ambush was waiting for us and you came to rescue us. " This time Clash spoke for the group.

Grim heard some more but the rest was rather random things they found in the woods and so on so he decieded to follow the south leading footprints and developed a plan.

" You got a stealth skill right , Clash? Can you go ahead and scout? If you find groups of 10 goblins and less pull them and run towards us. But only run to us when a group is in pursuit of you found a good place to rest walk casually , that will tell me on the minimap what is going on. " Grim told them their strategy.

Grim noticed the minimap feature as soon as he became the group leader. It didn't show enemys but terrain 100 yard radius in a circular ' map ' with 3 blue dots for his group one each and a white one right above the middle indicating that Thalia was close by.

" Now does someone have healing or a cooking skill? " Grim asked while they were heading out for more xp.

Viena raised her hand high into the air and bounced around.

" Me me , i do. Its still low but i can cook a few dishes and some tea. Even got travel cooking stuff with me. " She said proudly.

Grim inquired of her the ingredients she would need and decided to hunt for some wild life before they would encounter Goblins to keep the moral and regeneration of mana and hp up at max all the time.

Some deers , wolves , rabbits and foxes later they headed back south after filling up their water containers at a nearby river. Soon Grim noticed a blue dot coming in hot towards their location. He drew his mace and shieldguard and told the other 2 to do the same.

Clash broke through the trees with 15 Goblins in tow. ' Oh crap , miss pull i guess' Grim thought while he gripped his weapon tightly.

" Thalia use all the mana to kill 2 or 3 instantly , then you can wait for it to regenerate and shoot at will. Crow do as much damage as u can , Viena use icebolt to freeze them or something. " Grim comanded and they replied with a short ' yes '.

Grim increased his normal walking speed slightly soon broke out into a full spurt while passing Clash. He rammed his shoulder into the first Goblin which flew backwards at the sudden motion change he received and brought 3 other Goblins to fall.

Grim already swung his mace at another one and successfully knocked it back into another group of 3. Now Arrows and magic was flying left and right while Clash shanked a few out from stealth.

The group was dealth with efficiently without the ranged group getting hurt at all but Grim had 30% life left and Clash 40%.

" Time to rest , Viena please go ahead and cook the best stuff you can. From then on we can eat and replenish mana , hp and stamina as we go. Don't forget to distribute your new stats and look up if you got any new skills. If your weapons durability goes below 60% tell me we'll make a short break so i can repair everyones gear. " Grim commanded them.

" Groups of 15 or less are okay now Clash i really like how you shank the goblins its so funny to see their surprise i almost forgot to fight cause i was laughing. " He encouraged the assasin.

He replied with a beaming smile and he complimented the other 2 at the same time naturally Thalia got a even greater attention then the other 3 but after all he was a doting ' parent ' for the fae.

With no stops they massacred 10 more groups of Goblins before they rested again. Grim gained 1 level while Thalia gained 10. The males got 3 levels , due to their lower level and Viena got 4 more since she was the lowest of all of them. Normally they wouldn't level this fast but the Goblins they encountered now were at least 15 levels above Grims level and hunted in packs of 6-10.

Grim noticed his XP would go up alot more when they hunted packs of 12 or 15 instead of the 6 or 8 , not only the difference in number of the enemys but it seemed hunting a pack of 12 would gain 150% xp more then a group of 6. Meaning that 50% xp was just additionally given due to the hard encounter they faced.

They finished another group effectivly and Grim hit another level and instantly distributed his stats and the others also gained 1 each. The sun was gowing down rather fast so Grim called it a night.

" Lets Camp here for tonight. " Grim told them.

Naturally they agreed and Viena brought out her cooking utensils as they also had gathered some more meat from close by monsters. Grim went into the forest and picked some dry stick to get a fire going. Crow was doing the same but he was crafting some new arrows while Clash filled up all of the canteens.

Effectivly they started a fire and got all the chores done that made it appear that they had ventured together for a long time. After they ate they discussed the plans for tommorrow.

" Personally i think , we will encounter a dungeon tomorrow. When we clean it out we can get the quest done. I would gather some more meat and water and alot of wood to make a fire even in the dungeon. Then we can clear it out in one go. Or do you guys have any plans in real life? " Grim asked.

All three of them told him they agreed with their plan and thought it was good as well and soon he heard the familiar * tring*

-

Due to wise decision making and involving your subjects your Leadership has increased by 20.

" Now if you guys want to eat something in real life you can log out i'll watch over your bodys and keep the flames going. In half an hour in real life please log in again so i can take my turn i wanna take a shower bad. " Grim stated.

Grim read on the Internet that when a player logs out their bodys remain where they logged out so the characters were prone to robbery , pking or even a nightly raid by monsters if you slept outside like they were doing now.

Clash volunteerd and the 3 logged out. But Grim had something to do in the mean time. He took his weapons off and repaired them. Since the shieldguard was custome made he alone spent an hour on it for repairs even though it hardly had less then 70% max durability. He put some more wood on the fire and started to sort through the rusty equipment he had gotten as loot and noticed that money drops were shared in a group. He already got 40 silver from the Goblins and with the rusty gear he could forge things for another gold or so if all went well.

Clash soon logged back in and Grim handed him the daggers he just repaired. The talked for 5 minutes and Grim looged out and took a shower almost brooding in excitment at the quest they got and how far they would need to go to complete it.