By the time Kyle had gotten back home from turning on Sera’s VRIG server, she was already in the game when he got upstairs. Not wasting any time, he rolled back across her and slid his own helmet back on and logged into the game himself. Once again, Kylie was back in the forest, not far from the river and ruins.
“I’m here,” Seran told her over the friend chat channel. “It’s all working like it should now. I just can’t log in by trying to connect to your system. It’s too old for my newer equipment!”
“Well that’s weird,” Kylie sent back to him. “Usually things are built to be backwards compatible. I’d expect your helmet to connect to my system, even if my might not connect to yours. It looks like someone did something backwards in this case.”
“Well, it might explain why you got some of the options at start up that I didn’t see.” Seran suggested. “There wasn’t any options for me to make an ‘Alter Elf’ when I went to log in for the first time. I always thought that was something odd.”
“I know you’d mentioned that, but I just didn’t think on it much.” Kylie admitted. “I thought it might have simply been an option for players who logged in on the first day or something. Who knows, it might have something to do with the system gramps sent me. He said it was one of the ones that they’d had at the company for a while for testing. I don’t know the most about computers, but usually version numbers start at one, don’t they? 0.98 seems like it should be a beta version of the game, or some such thing.
“Do you think I’ve got a beta version of the game up and going?” Kylie asked.
“No idea. Shouldn’t it update to the same version as everyone else, automatically?” Seran asked.
“No idea.” Kylie answered. “I guess it is what it is. Nothing I can do about it now, is there?”
“Not that I know of,” Seran answered. “So what are you doing now?”
“Playing with my own boobs,” Kylie lied as she charged one of the nearest vines. Since Heather wasn’t around and burning everything to pieces, it was an excellent time for her to practice some of her own fighting skills. If she didn’t take time to bash, dodge, and fight, her talents would never improve, and Kylie didn’t want to be just a worthless healer forever! “How about you?”
“Uhhh… uhhh.. uhh.. Me find knothole in tree! It sappy! ME like!”
Kylie was so shocked that she stopped moving and was instantly grabbed by the ankles and dragged down by the vine as it began to burn her soft elven flesh. “Sera! What the hell are you doing to some random tree!” Frantically, she bashed out at the vine repeatedly. “I’m going to HEAL tell your father on HEAL you, you HEAL pervert!!”
Rough manly laughter came back through the friend chat channel. “Tree dead! Me smash. Make splinters!”
“Wait. What?” The vine disappeared with a shimmer and Kylie slowly struggled back on her feet and then picked up the green leaf that it left behind. “What the hell was you doing to that tree?”
“Me smash tree.” Seran answered innocently. “What pervert naked girl elf think me do with tree? Me man! Me bash!”
Grumbling to herself about how stupid a woman-man was, Kylie looked around for another vine to fight. Off to the right, sitting behind what looked like a small ring of vines, was a larger purple plant that she’d never seen before. “Identify”, she called out while looking at the purple plant, and a set of information screens popped up.
Creature Identification: The Tangler
Level: 7
HP: 200 / 200
Weak to fire, cold, disease.
Immune to poison, electricity.
Leech from water, poison, life.
** Other information unavailable due to insufficient skill in Identify.
Congratulations!
You have uncovered a new elite creature for your bestiary! (The Tangler)
You have been awarded 100 experience!
You need 400 more to the next level.
Congratulations!
You are the first player to discover, and identify, The Tangler.
You have been awarded the title, “Monster Sage (Novice)”
You have been awarded 1,000 experience!
You have advanced a level!
You gain 2 HP!
You gain 20 MP!
You gain 5 CP!
You now need 3400 experience to level3!
“A named creature!” Kylie almost squealed in excitement. After hunting in this area for the last five days, a named creature finally appeared! But it had a ton more health and was much higher level that she was. “Status,” she called out to confirm her own abilities better now that she had leveled up.
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Name: Kylie el X’entiaClass: NoneLevel: 2Race: X’entian Elf (Altered)Experience: 600 / 4000Title: Exiled Princess of X’entia,
Monster Sage (Novice)Status: Exile, Wanted CriminalCP: 5
HP: 36 / 36MP: 240 / 240SP: 20 / 20PD: 0 (10)DR: 0MD: 0
STR: 11KNO: 100WIL: 10AGI: 100MYS: 100PRE: 200END: 16SPI: 10LUC: 10
TALENTS
Mystical Regen: 7.5 – Recovers mystical energy at 7.5 times the normal character rateBeginner Plant Slayer – 5% bonus to hit and damage plant-type monsters.Monster Sage (Novice) –5% bonus to identify elite monsters. 10% bonus to loot roots for elite monsters.
SPELLS
HEAL: 40 -- heals 40 HP for 1 MP
SKILLS
Identify – Allows identification of basic items or creatures. (11)Fighting – Quarterstaff (6)Dodge (3)Tailoring – Tailoring allows players to cut and weave various materials into armor, bags, shirts, and other items. (3)
“A lot more health than what we’ve got at our level, and about ten times as much as a normal vine. If it lashes and does damage at a comparable increase, it’ll either kill me in one shot or almost kill me. I don’t think I can take this thing alone, the way I am now,” Kylie muttered to herself. “And it’s not even targetable right now. From the way this looks, it seems to me like I might need to clear all those vines from around it first, before it becomes active.”
“Hey Sera,” Kylie said across the party chat, “I’m going to be occupied with trying to activate an elite named creature. If I’m slow to respond to you, it’s not because I’m ignoring you; you knothole obsessed pervert. It just means I’m distracted and a little busy at the moment. ‘K?”
“Sure.” Seran sent back. “As long as you remember me SERAN. Me no know smelly SERA. Me man!”
“Yeah. Yeah. I know.” Kylie replied. “But it’s only us in here right now since everyone else is still in school, so it’s no big deal. Do you think I’d make a mistake like that with a naked Heather running around in front of me?”
“Me not know. Me man. Me think idiot woman like you make mistake; even try pee standing up when wake up. Woman only good for make baby. Not brains.”
Snorting, Kylie charged the nearest vine in the circle and began to bang on it. Instantly, it and the two on either side of it started lashing out and trying to grab her with their vines. “Shit!” She screamed as loudly as possible in her light, feminine elvish voice and hopped back away from the vines. One wasn’t that big a deal now, and two was doable, but three? If the vine from the left got one ankle, and the vine from the right got another, they’d turn her into a wishbone!
Waiting several moments for the vines to calm down, Kylie kept repeating identify and watching the one she’d already hit. The vine was recovering health, but it was a slow recovery rate. Taking a moment to calm her heartbeat and breathing, Kylie watched and once the others were still and completely inactive once again, she dashed forward and smashed it as hard as possible, before retreating and running backwards out of range.
Kylie’s evening became a repetitive blur of monotonous attacks for a while. Hit and run. Wait and watch. And then hit and run again. Once the first vine was destroyed, things became a bit easier afterwards though, as she could do back to having to watch out for the one vine to the side, since the other side had an empty spot beside it now. After that, it became an exercise in dodge, bash, dodge, bash, dodge, bash – until she failed to dodge and the vine caught her. Then it was bash, heal, bash, heal, bash, heal, once again.
And, while bashing and dodging the vines which circled the named plant, Kylie never noticed when Seran logged out of the game, or even when Sera got up and went home. She wasn’t a fighter-build character, and it took a lot of concentration and practice to stay alive and not end up dead. It wasn’t until Heather popped up in the game that she’d even noticed that she’d spent most of the afternoon lost in the repetitive battles.