Again, my stamina wasn’t enough to pull such dangerous monsters. Combine that with their one-hit-kill punch and the disaster was born. As I was winding down, Lucas was lurking around the hole, measuring their strength and poking them with his staff.
That was so cute I had to smile. Wait, what am I thinking? When he noticed my grin, he sat near and gave me a nervous stare, with questions written all over his face.
“Charlie, I wonder… How to kill them? Should I use spark? It will take forever though, and I am not confident enough to cast it that many times.” He furrowed his brows and threw a nervous stare at the hole. “I mean, it’s good that they can’t move, but the other thing is, we can’t kill them easily. Why won’t they climb? Is their AI broken?”
Before I could stop myself, I burst out laughing. “Nothing like that.” To calm my laugh, I rose to my feet and dusted my potato-bag-dress. “They… Haha… They… They… Hahaha!” Lucas grimaced uncomfortably, and I had to hold my mouth. What the hell? Stop John, it’s not even funny!
“They disabled climbing after the Goolems ambushed the poor test guys a few times,” I said after I calmed down. “Goolems used to climb on top of the cliff and jumped on them in droves.” I peaked into the hole, just next to Lucas, where they tried to climb. “The programmers were lazy and disabled the climbing; I kept quiet and wanted to cash out on the bug-find. It’s up to us to exploit this mistake.”
“Wait, I thought the AI developed the game? The marketing said the game’s revolutionary first solely AI-developed game,” he whispered into my ear, his breath tingling. It felt strange, as there wasn’t a reason to whisper and him being so close. Lucas, I’m still the same, I have a dress, but I am still me. Not interested… I think.
To be on a safe side, I pushed him away and said, “First, Goolems can’t climb, so we were safe. Second, no, not at first. The AI will continue with the development. Don’t think we are the only ones who can exploit things, though. I bet thousands of people are exploiting as we speak.”
“The hole exploit about Goolems?”
“No, they are level 9, who would have thought you can do it? The world is enormous, almost the same as Earth! Millions of monsters mean millions of exploits.”
[Attention! The group of user Lisa had slain the world Boss Frexie for the first time. Praise their name!]
She was fast. Whatever. To ventilate my anger, I took my almost-broken staff and smashed Goolem’s head. “It took them longer than I thought,” I said without holding my jealousy inside and smashed his head again.
[Critical hit! Target lost 1HP.]
[Critical hit! Target lost 1HP.]
Lucas closed his eyes and said, “That could have been us. Imagine if it said praise the group of Lucas!”
While he was grinning, I retorted, “For your info, it would be a Princess’s group.”
“Maybe we should have asked to join them? I mean, you are a Priest, they always come in handy!”
“I don’t think so. She had a guild with her; they are strict about it. Get the thoughts of your head! Let’s grind, it will take only over 200 hits combined!”
On second thought, I measured Lucas with a stare. He was a mage, and they need to cast spells. “I suppose you should use a spark and then rest. You need to get the hang of it and increase proficiency.” Lucas wanted to protest, until I glared at him, so he reluctantly created the runes in the air and set the Goolems on fire.
It just fizzled around them, not doing any actual damage. “They are immune to my fire! It does only 1 damage!” he wept, but dejectedly continued. “If we farmed the gray wolves, we would be level two already,” he complained under his breath, but diligently continued with another spark.
“This is faster, just you wait until we will slay only one. If you complain after that, I will take you to the elf village,” I smirked and focused on bashing their stone skulls.
My staff durability was going down faster than I predicted, but it should last through the onslaught for another two hours. Although, even if it breaks, I could use a stick as there would be no difference — even the description said so.
[Goolem has been defeated. +150XP]
Did you know this text is from a different site? Read the official version to support the creator.
[Congratulations! You are now level 2! XP to next level: 100/200]
[You found a strange book x2. Goolem pool: 98/100]
[You found shoes.]
“That’s what I am talking about!” I shouted with joy and tried to fist bump with Lucas, but he hugged me instead. I shrugged and embraced the hug, but then I pulled out and examined the sweet loot.
“Charlie, it’s not that I was doubtful-”
“What? You weren’t?” I tried to kill him with my threatening stare and shoved him with all the loot. “Identify.”
“Sorry! I mean… I was, congrats. You delivered what you said. How it is possible to get 150 XP in one go? Isn’t that insane? The gray wolves are giving 1, or sometime 2 XP.”
“The Goolems are special mini-bosses that go in groups in three, at a minimum, so they are giving x20 XP more than the normal monsters. Now shut up and identify the loot,” I urged him and impatiently observed his identifications.
The mages are ideal companions because the things better monsters drops are usually [unknown] and mages have a spell of identification. My lovely walking identification friend groaned, because he had to cast yet another spell.
He stared at the invisible screen for a while, concentrating on it. Too bad I couldn’t see the runes; I could have teased him if he did it poorly. But then he would do the same to me, right? Thank gods it’s hidden.
“Hey, it wasn’t my idea. You wanted to be mage yourself! Try properly to remember the rune, it will materialize!” I couldn’t wait and pressed him again. What the hell was wrong with me? Why were the shoes looking especially… tasty?
“Charlie! Ugh, quiet, I am focusing!” He had to re-do his spell, because he failed again. Only after at least tenth attempt, he handed me a book. “I guess this is for you.”
[You found a book of Smite]
[Smite]
Type: 2-uncommon | Lv. Novice 1 | Mana: 20% INT
Effect: Damages target for 15% INT.
* as you increase the proficiency, the mana used will decrease. Limit: minimum 10%
I could learn it right away, but I hesitated, bit my lip nervously. Until the level ten, I had space only for five spells, so it was a tough choice. No, it was better to wait for skills with rare ratings or higher.
The other book was a spell for mages, so the system rewarded us accordingly. I guess it was because we got the first kill of Goolem? Then, he identified the shoes and threw them at me with a smug on his face.
“Thanks!” I beamed at him and equipped them in an instant. For a celebration of finally getting to the end of my barefoot journey, I walked forward and fell. Because of the unexpected calamity, I buried nose into the ground, and tasted the rough soil between my teeth. What the hell? Lucas laughed at me and even rolled on the ground; the personification of rofl. Sometimes he could be so childish.
Infuriated, I examined my new equipment and then shouted at the entire mountain, “Why do these stupid shoes have heels? How am I supposed to walk in them?” Because he was still laughing, I threw a rock at Lucas for 0 damage. “Damn, at least I could walk when I was barefoot. Aren’t they sexist? Look at your robe, it reveals nothing. Compare that to my robe that covers nothing; I could live with that, but the heels?”
After I ventilated my anger, I tried to walk, but it was far from comfortable and how was I supposed to fight in them? I sure hoped it’ll come with practice, because the item was universal. That meant it changed the appearance based on my gender and role - Priest. How thoughtful of the programmers, I didn’t know they had that great sense of humor. Naturally I knew how sexy it looked, but they forced it upon me, so it wasn't my decision!
The unstable laugh of Lucas was annoying, and he even fueled it himself, “You are girl for like five, six hours and you are already feminist!”
Glaring at him, I sighed and practiced walking around the hole and ventilated my anger at the trapped monsters. The poor creatures stared at me and tried to hit me with their minuscule hands, but that was only a hopeless effort. No monster had ever escaped from my exploits.
[Goolem has been defeated x2. +150XP]
[Congratulations! You are now level 3! XP to next level: 200/450]
[Spell Group Heal unlocked.]
[You found a strange book. Goolem pool: 97/100]
[You found a crate of bottles.]
After they relentlessly bashed at the poor creatures, the Goolems succumbed to their injuries. The book turned out to be an electric spell for mages, so Lucas was more than thrilled. Another thing that elated him was the leveling speed! That was something miraculous. However, after the scene with shoes that almost killed him, he feared what the crate might be.
[You identified an item: Crate of Wines]
He hoped for mana elixirs, but given his bad luck it turned out it was a booze. As far as his memory went back, he remembered that Charlie, no, John, was a vivid drinker. He used to laugh about it at first, but he didn’t stop after they graduated; it only got worse. Not that Lucas hadn’t enjoyed the taste of a good vodka. Some may say he was a drinker, but compared to John, he was an amateur.
The hours John spent in that old Irish bar were uncountable. If it wasn’t with Lucas, it was with their other old highschool friends, Ian or such. John always excused his drinking habits with that he was socially inept and had to drink. What a nonsense. He was only a coward! He should have to be brave and face the people! It wasn’t even that hard, you just had to talk, nothing more. It wasn’t like he was asking him to shoot someone.
He didn’t want to ruin the image of Charlie with the drunk John, but he sighed and sent the crate to John-Charlie.
“Charlie… This is something you’ll love for sure.”