Just as I left Ryan, I contacted Lucas, and we met outside of the village. When I saw him barreling his way through bushes, I couldn’t purge a thought of him hunting the stupid wolves. So inefficient, so boring.
“Charlie, so what now? Wanna do something fun, because we have only a week, before I die…”
“Fruit, everything will be fine,” I tried to greet him with a funny name, but Lucas was staring at me blankly. Darn it, nope, that wasn’t it, no fruit. What was it? How did that girl called Ian… Ah! “Pumpkin, I know of a decent leveling spot. Leave wolves to the amateurs.” I clutched his hand and pulled him with light steps. Lisa wanted to enchant the equipment in the evening, so we had some time to kill. He-he.
We passed our former Frexie spot and entered plains. The sun was burning as we walked past the vast fields full of stupid venom monsters, but that wasn’t our goal. I had something even better in mind, but that demanded at least two hours’ walk.
Later, we sneaked past crow monsters and entered a cute meadow over a mile long. From the right side, big impassable mountains stretched to the horizon and on the left a river cut out our path near the horizon.
We had to make our way through a thigh high lush green grass. A little stream flowed on the left side until it met the big river. After seeing Lucas heavily panting, I ordered a brief break, and he hungrily gulped down the cold fresh water.
Before he could cozy in here, I led him around dangerous areas, and we couldn’t see anything, because we lowered ourself to a crawl. But I could smell the sweetness and the soft scent of flowers in the air - that was a win. I think.
While sneaking, only a small bush protected us; we heard a high-pitched humming from the other side. At the end of the meadow stood tall a small cliff, erected ten feet above ground; our target.
“This is what you wanted to show me? Romantic place, I guess.” He pulled out pieces of grass of his hair and tried to wash his dirty sleeve in a stream. While he was doing useless stuff, I was searching over the edge for a specific stone and found one with rough edges and a rune I didn’t know.
“Romantic? Yes, but look at the enemies. Not only that, this is a fortified position.” Because he still hadn’t washed his clothes, I sat down near it at the edge and looked down at the creatures lurking there.
[Waspie Lv.10]
Type: 2-uncommon | HP: 165/165
As the name suggested, they were wasps, but around two feet tall. The monsters had a narrow waist and a long sting, furiously searching for flowers to plunder. While watching them, I pressed down the rune on the stone.
[Congratulations! You found East Fortification. Do you want to occupy it?]
Not yet, System. “Lucas, can I have your staff?”
My dear mage finally finished with his cleaning and stared at an invisible menu in front of him. “Yes, but you can’t use it.”
“That’s fine. I used to be a warrior, I need something to flail around with.” He shrugged and transferred it to me. Woah, I knew a Boss drop would be decent, but this good?
[Staff of Flame] Quality: 4-exceptional ATK: 3-4 Durability: 85/85 Restriction: Level 7 Effects: +5 INT, +2 damage to flame spells
“Okay, Lucas, when you hit level seven, it’s yours! For the main menu…”
‘Now, system. Please send them to attack me.’
[Occupying in progress… First round.]
“Charlie, are you sure we can handle them?” He tightly gripped his staff and studied the charging wasps with a grim expression.
“You are my friend, you are my mage; you will not let them to kill me. Isn’t that right?” I said to him with an evil grin, stood up and formed the runes for Ice Dance… Which obviously failed.
The sounds of horde wasps echoed as they flew in the air. They had to work even harder to climb the cliff, so a few of them got discouraged. Thanks, unknown, lazy programmer. Five flew to us, and two reached Lucas when I eventually finished the runes. Yes, only on the fifth try!
The last step in creating is to shout- My train of thoughts got interrupted because he hadn’t retreated. “Don’t stay like an idiot and cast the damn spells!” I screamed at him, and jumped aside, because one cute waspie swung its sting at me.
“Roger that, madam!” He created a spark rune in the air and burned the closest one. Well, annoyed should be the right word, because it did little to barbeque them.
When I jumped straight up, I finally murmured the activation word, “Ice Dance!” A field of frost spread and moved around with me. This wasn’t something wasps liked, and their attacks slowed a bit - which was good news. Otherwise we would make a trip to the graveyard a bit earlier. I bashed their small frames while they focused on Lucas.
This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.
[Target lost 4HP (1 normal + 3 ICE damage)]
[Target lost 4HP (1 normal + 3 ICE damage)]
[Target lost 5HP (1 normal + 4 ICE damage)]
For some reason, they didn’t like that and changed their attention to me, and I avoided a few stings I saw coming thanks to the slow effect, but my turn had come, and the sting hit at me with a speed to my exposed thigh.
[You lost 9 HP.][You are poisoned! You will lose 10HP over 10 seconds!]
Oh, that stung! Yeah, these things packed a good punch. A new strategy - I held my staff like I used to hold a two-handed sword and smashed at their stings with all my might.
The newfound confidence in my beautiful shoes boosted my evading rate. Now, the uncomfortable humming sound was the most dangerous thing, because it took only 2 hits to break their sting and I cheered as it fell to the ground. “Take that, you stupid little bzzt bzzt!” One down, six more to go!
As I robbed them of their stings, they stared furiously at us. But that was it. No attack. This wasn’t even an exploit. Everyone knew that if you break the thing they are attacking with, the monsters stop. Or use another means of attack, like another hand. Well, it was very easy to break their sting; I did not understand why. Who would complain though?
I healed myself and braced for another wave. “Hurry, another wasps are coming! We need to take out as much stings as we can, Ice Dance lasts only for ten minutes!”
When the Ice Dance effect disappeared, the swarm of wasps was flying around us, aimlessly. A sweat was running down even at places I didn’t want to speak of, and my muscles were aching like hell; that hard was to hold their attention. My stamina already fallen to zero, as expected; weak Priests shouldn't do this.
“Now for the sweet desert, let’s break them!” Onslaught on defenseless wasps began. Together we killed one after another and they could only buzz around us, waiting their turn to be our XP.
[Waspie has been defeated x20. +160XP (320/2).]
[Congratulations! You are now level 4! XP to next level: 122/800]
“Charlie! One Waspie gave us 16XP! Insane!” Lucas was beaming and searching the dead bodies. “But they didn’t give us anything. No loot.”
Without a mana, stamina or even mental energy, I collapsed to the ground and the cute ramblings about loot wasn’t reaching my mind properly. How many wines I would need to drink to feel no pain? Would I still be in fighting condition? The damn Waspies! It stung so much, but I had to continue and ignore the pain.
I suppose I could lower the Reality Limit, but the damn God gave me a skill based on Reality Limit.
“Charlie, does it hurt? You look… different.”
“It hurts like hell! But I can take the pain, I need to. I had it set to fifty percent as a warrior, so half the current one. It will be fine.”
[Occupying in progress… Second round.]
With a ringing sound, the system reminded me it wasn’t over yet. I drank one bottle and went in!
[Waspie has been defeated x95. +760XP (1520/2).]
[Congratulations! You are now level 5! XP to next level: 82/1250]
[You need to visit the city to further your Priest studies.]
[Congratulations! You own East Fortification. You can develop it up to fortified position, for further development you need to get nobility rank.]
The mind-boggling grind was a thing no sane person would do. I mean, nobody except for stupid gamers. We fought for hours and hours, and now the sun had set already. Besides, who would like to be hit with dirty stings? That annoying Waspies were clever and stung me at least once during luring them. We had a few close calls, because I failed to cast the healing rune when I neared five hit points. Whatever.
[Lisa] My Hero? Are you free?
[Princess] Call me Princess, or Charlie. Please. Yes.
[Lisa] Alrighty, cute Princess, came to the tavern. Second floor, one of my guildmates will escort you inside.
“Lucas, that was fun, wasn’t it? I need to run though, someone needs to make you the money you are owning.” A parchment, well, scroll with recalling spell, already entered my hands. Thank you, Irwen, for not ruining it yet.
“Do whatever you think you need to do, Charlie. I… like you, even if you can’t get me the money.”
[You named player Lucas as a keeper of East Fortification]
“Please, take care of our fortress. And for your info, you are silly, you have it already in your account. Now I need to do what I promised. I will go with an ugly guy to a tavern bed.” I winked and chanted the scroll.
“Fortress? On my account?! Ten thousand, really? Wait, what guy? No! Don’t tell me-” he yelled at me, but the beautiful meadow disappeared, and wooden Elven buildings welcomed me. A dim lights coming from the surrounding houses created a magic atmosphere.
[Lucas] We will talk about this!
[Princess] We will. Later tonight at the bar?
[Lucas] Roger. Logging off.
The Inn was right near the village center where I recalled on and it wasn’t a long walk. The village calmed the rush a bit in the night, but only on the outside. After I entered the building, a warm atmosphere of drinking and loud noises overwhelmed me. Patrick once asked if I hate crowds, when I was always quiet around the new people. Not at all, I love people, I just can’t talk to them easily, that’s all.
Silly Patrick, he was always like a grandpa to me and the guy over the bar was handing drinks like he used to. I stared at him like enchanted, and couldn’t take my eyes from the liquor. No, John. You have work to do! I overcame the temptation of sweet drinks and climbed stairs. On the second floor, near very plain wood door, was waiting an Elven warrior.
“Hey girly. I’m Rob, your business with us?” John, that’s easy. Tell him about your enchanting skills. Rob was staring at my cleavage, and my body was yet again betraying me, and I was silent as an empty bottle of whiskey. Damn, I should have drank at least something downstairs.
With a deep sigh, I nodded at him with a smile, and he only shrugged and let me in. Thanks stranger; no words necessary, right?
“Charlie, there you are!” As soon as stuck my nose in, Lisa welcomed me with open arms and a kiss directed to my cheek. I used an intricate footwork from the martial arts of Imperial family and nearly escaped her hug. Between the seventh step and a goose jump, I remembered her big… brain and let her touch me. Yeah, John, the only way to get a girl is like this. Good job. She rubbed her cheeks on mine for a while and then led me through a few rooms into something that looked like a poor excuse for a warehouse.
“We prepared everything you will need. So, enchant all sets of armor, please!” One almost broken wooden chair and small table with a lot of holes made up this room. Workspace worthy of queen indeed. Sadly, I couldn’t say anything to her, so at least I tried to stare at her with an insulted look, but she caught me with her warm embrace, squeezed and patted on my cheeks.
“That’s awesome, I am glad you like it; I’ll see you after that! Just text me, sweetheart.”
My silence probably confirmed her theory about how wonderful this room was, and she ran away after yet another kiss. What the hell I signed up for?