“Woah, interesting,” Jay said. “So you can miss your target and still deal damage? Shame the effect is so rare.”

“It’s not even enchanted or imbued yet,” Ken said. “Give a guy a break.”

Jay laughed. “Fair point. Looks like Ken has another one for you, Jenny.”

“Great,” Jenny said brightly. She didn’t even mean it sarcastically, which was only believable, because it was her.

Ken continued working on some practice weapons while his sister began imbuing the new weapon.

Jay initiated a conversation with her since she was slightly more friendly than Ken. “So, tell me a little about the two of you in the real world. It doesn’t have to be too personal, but I’m curious how you can spend so much time in full dive. Obviously, Taylor Lynn and I have a special case. I’ve wondered how you’re able to keep up with it.”

Jenny looked up from etching the first rune into the new Volcanic Beetler Sword. “Oh, sure.” She thought carefully to herself for a moment. “I guess we’re sort of trying to avoid our parents. We may have mentioned that before. They’re not bad parents; they’re just a little more absent than most. It gives us a lot of freedom, but it makes things that much worse when they try to take it away. They don’t bother us in the pods because, well, we’re immersed. And we couldn’t tell if they bothered us, anyway.”

Ken was listening to the conversation, but he wasn’t stepping in. Jay suspected he had more trust in Jay after the past few days. And he no longer believed that Jay was trying to hit on his sister. Probably.

“Why are they so absent?” Jay asked.

“Our parents are both lawyers, and they opened a firm together. It keeps them busy, but they also have to travel to meet clients often. We’re plenty old enough to stay home without supervision, so we do. And it’s awesome,” Jenny said. “What about you?”

“I work as a bartender at a place called Roscoe’s Diner,” Jay said. “You’d have to see the place to understand. But basically, it’s a business operated by a guy who couldn’t decide if he wanted to open a diner or a bar. It turns into a bar around 7pm. We still serve diner food, but we also serve cocktails. Created by me.”

“Ken and I are too young to drink,” Jenny said, wrinkling her nose. “Two years to go. I’m not really in any rush, though. I’ve smelled vodka, and it smells terrible.”

“It’s not so bad if you like paint thinner,” Jay said. He was trying to make a joke, but it didn’t land. Sarah rolled her eyes at the joke. Ken shook his head in disappointment at his twin sister not getting it.

“What’s paint thinner?” Jenny asked, turning back to multitasking on her rune etching.

“Uhhh,” Jay said. He realized that the twins likely had little exposure to that kind of manual labor. They probably never needed to paint their rooms themselves. Their parents would just hire painters. “Don’t worry about it. Why do your parents travel so much? I would expect them to have more freedom since they own their own firm.”

“I guess they’re really good at it,” Jenny said, shrugging it off. “They fly around to help people with legal stuff. They have to check in on the most important clients and cases, even though they own the place. There’s this other guy, Jeff; I think he’s pretty good, too. He helps them out a lot. They don’t talk about it too much anymore since Ken makes silly faces whenever they bring up work stuff.”

Jay wasn’t surprised to learn that about Ken. The young man didn’t seem to take anything too seriously except his sister. That and acting like an edgy rogue-type character.

“That makes sense,” Jay confirmed. “It sucks they put all that work in to build the place but still have to work so hard.”

While still in the middle of forging some kind of armor, Ken made loud and obnoxious snoring noises.

“Stop,” Jenny said, smacking him on the arm. “Anyway, do you like being a bartender?”

“I like it better than serving food,” Jay said. “There are definitely worse things to be. The worst part is cutting people off. When someone drinks enough to hit our limit, they’re usually properly messed up. I have to repeat myself a few times to get them to understand.”

“Sounds pretty annoying. And it definitely isn’t making me rush to turn twenty-one,” Jenny said. “That sounds even worse than listening to Ken sing pop songs from the shower.”

“I do not sing pop music,” Ken said. After a beat, he corrected himself. “I don’t sing at all.”

“Do too,” Jenny reiterated, smiling deviously. She finished etching her first rune and started on the second one. “So, Jay, I heard you have a girlfriend.”

There was no transition; she just slapped Jay with it. He groaned but ended up telling Jenny all about Claire anyway. Sarah and Ken listened, and Sarah was pleased to get more details on his date. Jenny asked many questions, but she was so open and bubbly it was harder for him to be evasive.

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The hours ticked by until the evening grew late, and the party would need to go to sleep soon. Jay had a date with Claire in the morning. Taylor Lynn was required to write up a report for her job. Everyone had things to do the next day. With their preparations complete, they redistributed the equipment. He looked over his armor.

System Message: Red Player’s Society Regalia. This armor set has been crafted in guild colors and has a unique cowboy aesthetic. A true labor of love, this item is imbued with powerful effects. Effect: Increases Health and MP by 200. Effect: Increases movement speed by 10%. Effect: Adds 10 Speed.

Jay’s armor had the same enchantments as before. Both effects were slotted, although Jenny could imbue a Defensive Rune onto it, which slightly boosted his armor. He convinced her to put only a minor Speed Rune onto his crossbow, so he only sat at 100 Speed, which meant he still maintained his required ratio with Balance.

Jenny was also able to imbue a Health Rune onto his sword. It didn’t make sense to Jay for a blade to add health, but the game allowed adding any rune to any gear type. It was completely open. The Health Rune was a novice rune, adding 100 to his maximum health.

After everyone completed their inventory, the party donned their newly acquired gear. In preparation for fighting the Scyllo creature, they formed ranks on the edge of the forested area. The rocky region before the water would eventually activate the sea snake. Still, they could move roughly halfway across the gap before it would resurface. With Sarah and Lester in the front, the party made their way onto the rocks.

Jay pulled his sword out since he would have trouble aiming bolts at the monster with how much it wriggled. That part hadn’t changed, but the party had a plan. Since spells weren’t effective against the creature, Jay would strike out at it with the Purple Haze effect and see if it could be blinded. The melee attacks should deal additional damage since spells were weak against the monster.

Sarah would try and take the main focus of the elite snake. She was the preferred tank for several reasons. First, she possessed self-healing powers allowing her to last longer than Lester. Second, the equipment she received from her unique quest was much better than Lester’s, even with his status and resources as the leader of a prominent guild. Her armor was truly remarkable.

Sarah stepped out into the lead, causing the sea snake to breach the water’s surface. She held her shield in front, and the creature lashed out with its first attack. Adjusting her position, she blocked most of the damage with her shield. The sea snake reared back in surprise.

Jay tried one thing he hadn’t tried yet: firing a trap into the ocean. The action felt weird. The sea was huge, so he didn’t expect the bolt to have much effect. Magic could only be so powerful in the face of all that water. But he fired a muck trap bolt, anyway.

The ploy worked. The muck magically exploded from the bolt, turning the ocean into a swampy mess. It slowed the elite snake down but was still accustomed to swimming in challenging waters. The monster fought through and swung for Sarah as a cascade of spells slammed into it.

The ploy didn’t work well. Once the muck exploded out, the ocean tides quickly diluted and washed it away, freeing the monster.

Jay ran forward to join Lester and Sarah in melee combat. Sarah was holding the attention of the monster admirably. The enemy’s movements were highly erratic, but Jay slowly teased out a pattern.

The monster alternated between slam attacks and sweeping attacks and would vary the strategy depending on its position in the air. It didn’t regularly use a double slam as Jay had experienced. That seemed only to have happened because he was running away.

In the pattern of its attacks, the creature still incorporated many unnecessary small movements. This created difficulty in landing strikes, although the process was much easier than firing bolts. Jay found his groove, waiting for the beast to make a slam attack and landing blows wherever possible.

The creature slammed Sarah again, which caught her on the armor. She soaked much of the attack’s damage with her potions and buffs. Her health only dipped fifteen percent. Carlos was already repairing the damage, working in tandem with Jenny’s healing tag.

Jay stepped into the attack, managing to impart two strikes to the monster’s body before it retreated. As the snake swept again, trying to knock Sarah over, she activated an ability to hold her ground. Given the opportunity, Jay took two more swipes at the snake. The Scyllo pulled back before it even struck.

The creature retreated, flailing wildly in the air. It was blinded. Finally, Jay’s investment in Purple Haze paid dividends. The debuff was ticking down but would persist for another ten seconds.

On cue, a cascade of spells bombarded the nearly helpless target. It likely had better senses in the water but couldn’t attack the players on the rocks without its eyes. This time, Taylor Lynn struck with a lightning bolt spell, following her tendency to rotate through spells to find effective attacks.

The damage was drastic. Of course, a sea snake would be weak to lightning attacks. Taylor Lynn focused on only sending lightning bolt attacks, her fastest-moving spell. The attacks were much more challenging for the snake to dodge.

Jay caught sight of Zenya whining on the rocky beach. The dire wolf was disappointed because she couldn’t join the action. Watching her reminded Jay of his pet-turned-familiar. He quickly issued a mental command to Cuddles, expecting it to fail. Contrary to that expectation, Cuddles hopped from his shoulder.

The Strogian Death squirrel took a position nearby to fire eye ray beams. The sea snake was too focused on Sarah to pay the little squirrel any mind, but the eye beams added substantial bonus damage.

The party fell into a rhythm of swiping at the creature, blinding it with Jay’s sword, and then using the window to blast it with projectile spells.

Carlos even managed to fire sporadic holy light spells since Sarah’s buffs and enchantments heavily reduced her incoming damage. She was a true tank. Carlos was also still utilizing a Prayer skill buff that significantly boosted his healing.

The party fought through the cycle, diligently bringing the elite sea snake’s health to zero.

When Jay dealt a death blow, the creature collapsed beneath the waves. The tides lapped over the body as the party admired their triumph. They didn’t receive any experience, which Jay found to be weird.

Two bodies split from the sea snake, about half the size of the original body. Both of the new snakes emerged from the salty waters.