Finding some of the lowest quality wolf pelts, in case she might fail in her tailoring, Kylie set to work jabbing holes in the sides of one of them with an Exceptional Claw. The claw was higher quality than anything which she had previously found, and easily pierced the tattered pelt, making her task go quicker than she’d expected. Glancing around after, Heather was still lying and resting on the pile of furs she’d laid out on the ground, and Seran wasn’t back yet.
Figuring there was a little time still left before Heather would be ready to go out again, Kylie dug through the assortment of recent drops and began pulling out rat tails. The rat tails seemed to be a standard item, much like the green leaves or red leaves were which was dropped by the vines, and didn’t have any quality rankings describing them like the teeth or claws had, so she figured any of them would work for her purposes.
Using the tail, she folded the pelt almost in half and then began stitching the rail through the holes she’d made previously. A tail up either side helped tie the pelt up to make a rough sack like her and Heather carried, and then a few more tails stitched around the inside in a circular pattern helped reinforce and give the sack a frame, making it look more like an oddly shaped, lumpy egg of sorts.
A quick glance showing that Seran was still out patrolling gave her a few more moments to finish her work, which she did by quickly jabbing a few holes in either side and threading a long tail through to use for straps. When she was finished, she held her breath for a moment expecting the item to disappear in a blue cloud with a notification that her skill wasn’t high enough, but instead she was pleasantly rewarded with a pop-up.
Congratulations! You have created a Rough Reinforced Backpack!
You gain 25 experience.
You gain 0 fame in Tailoring.
Item
Position
Durability
Notes
Rough Reinforced BackpackBack10 / 10Smelly, but usable, this is an oddly crafted backpack made from a wolf’s pelt and rat tails.
Slowly, Kylie picked it up and examined it. “It’s ugly as sin, but I guess it’ll work.” Looking around, Seran wasn’t back yet, but Heather was now standing near the entrance and keeping a watch out down the hall. “No sign of brute boy?” Kylie asked.
“Nope.” Heather shook her head slightly. “But, he should be back soon. I’ve been chatting privately with him so he’d know when to come back and we wouldn’t interrupt your work. What’d you make this time?”
“It’s a backpack, and I need an idiot to wear it and test a few things out for me,” Kylie said with a half laugh. “I figure it’s better to learn some things now than it is to find out about them the hard way at higher levels when we have better stuff we might lose.” Going over, she began to stuff a few different pieces of leather, fangs, and claws into the pack.
“An idiot for testing?” Heather asked, curiously. “Seran’s almost here. He just came around the corner.”
“Well good!” Grabbing the pack with its now assorted contents, Kylie walked over to the entrance with Heather and then out in the hallway.
“Me back.” Seran declared, thumping his chest with his free hand. “Me check many tunnels. Find many rats. Also find spiders. But me not squish without women.”
“Well good,” Kylie said, grinning evilly. “Here, wear this.” Holding out the backpack, Seran took it and then slide it over his massive back and worked an arm through each rat-tail strap, without even bothering to see what was inside.
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“Good job!” Kylie laughed. “Now, go out there, find the largest group of monsters and die.”
“Me die?” Seran asked, looking puzzled. “Why me need die?”
“First, because you don’t lose much experience when you do die,” Kylie explained, coolly logical. “Second, so we can test the effects of what happens when we die with something like a pack on. There’s only a few items in that backpack. You always lose something when you die, but what happens if it’s the pack you lose? Can a death steal all the items in a pack? If so, we’d want to have several small packs instead of one large pack like that one to carry our stuff in.”
Seran nodding, thinking it over, before sitting down and snorting. “That good test, but me got better test. Me not need rat eat Seran. Women kill Seran.”
Kylie blinked a few times as Seran crossed his arms and closed his eyes. Glancing over at Heather, she looked back at Kylie and then the corners of her mouth started to twitch up into a smile. “Ooooohhh… I’ve been wanting to kill you for a while now. Don’t tempt me!”
“Me not tempt.” Seran said, snorting. “Me tell woman, ‘Woman, kill me’. Woman should listen.”
“And why the hell should we kill you?” Kylie asked, wondering why Seran wanted to make them murderers.
“Because it’s a good test of the game,” Seran answered, not sounding as rough and stupid as usual. Apparently she was willing to forsake playing her role from time to time, if she felt it was necessary to get a point across. “Can another player tell if you’re a PKer? Do you get fame, or infamy? A bounty put on your head? How long does it take to go away? We really don’t know much about the PvP aspects of the game, so why don’t we learn about those while out here in nowhere land, down deep in a dungeon, where we don’t have to worry about town guards or anything arresting us.”
Looking back over at Kylie, Heather simply shrugged and walked back into the alcove, apparently leaving it up to her to test. “Fine,” Kylie finally said with a sigh. “Just don’t think it’s going to be quick. You’re a warrior with a good bit of health and I’m an idiot who’s going to beat you to death with a stick.”
“No you’re not!” Heather called out, walking back out into the hall. “I’ve got this.” She was grinning evilly, and slowly stalking towards Seran with a long claw in her hands; her fingers clutched so tightly around it, they were white from the pressure. Seran still sat calmly, eyes closed, as if he didn’t have a care in the world.
“He hehe heh!” Heather was beginning to laugh eerily under her breath, and with a sudden leap she pounced down towards and Seran’s legs and jabbed relentlessly into his crotch. Even though she was a girl in game, Kylie groaned and quickly turned her head away as Seran let out a blood curdling yell that echoed down the tunnels.
“A crit!” Heather yelled gleefully. “Hehe and another!” She was half laughing, half trying to talk to give an update on her status, and Kylie finally muttered frantically, “Log out. Log out. Log out!”
The moment he was back at his OS screen, safely away from the sounds of blood squishing and squirting, intermingled with painful screaming and wild laughter, Kyle pulled his helmet off and retreated back to the real world. Looking around his room with wide eyes, the first thing he noticed was that Sera had climbed up onto his bed and was resting beside him with her helmet still on. She twitched and jerked slightly from time, and the reminder of what was going on in game made Kyle crawl across her and rush out of his room and downstairs.
Going to the kitchen to get a cold soda from the fridge, he couldn’t help but shiver a bit thinking about how crazy women were. He wasn’t certain which was worse – Heather for neutering Seran, or Seran for letting it happen! Either way, he knew he simply couldn’t sit in there and watch it any longer.