I sheathed my sword and walked closer to the mage girl - Artemis, according to the kill contribution notification - with my hands calmly raised to show I had no intention to attack. When I was close enough, I opened an inventory panel she could see, listing off the materials and items I was willing to trade to her, including the Star Silk Robe and even the epic Meteor Shower Spider Pelt, the latter I would obviously only trade for something of similar rarity.

“As you can see, I got plenty of items I have no use for. I’d imagine you’re in a similar situation, so if you have any archer gear or pieces of the swarm set I didn’t get, I would love to trade something for them”

“I’ve got some things... give me a moment”

She stepped back a bit, opened up a few inventory panels (they were hidden to me, but I could tell based off of how she was poking and swiping the air), and began moving things around. A few minutes later, she was done, and opened up one panel visible to me.

“Let’s see... I’ve got the brigandine and a bow, so I’m not interested in either of those. I’d love to get those Gauntlets... actually, let’s open up a trading window, shall we?”

“Sure. Uh, to do that, you... wanna be friends? I- In game, I mean. Like, the friends list!”

“Eh, why not. Unlike the other two, you didn’t want to use me as bait until I said I was fine with it. Once again, my name is Gaia... I, uh, don’t really know how the friend system works, if you need my name or not”

“It’s hovering above your head, silly. You never hid your name”

Tapping on the box next to “Yes” as Artemis continued giggling, a new window I’d never seen before (outside of guides) opened up. In it, there was a long series of empty rows, at the top was a name highlighted in green - obviously, it was Artemis - alongside level, distance from me, and a few other bits of information, plus options to send a message to her and unfriend her. Above that was a bar with a bunch of options, including a search box and a number, specifically, 1/50, which I assumed was the number of friends I had and the maximum number I could register at once. However, what I was interested in right now was the “friend trade” option, which I tapped on.

The benefits of a friend trade over a normal trade was that there was no restriction on how many items you could trade per day, and that you could give options for the other person to pick from, as opposed to offering without specifying what you wanted in return.

I placed all of the items I was willing to trade into the inventory panel that opened up, then sent that over to her. About a minute later, I got a panel in return, from which I picked out six items. Comparing what she asked for with what I wanted, it was basically even, though I was giving her an extra rare in exchange for two extra uncommons... so, she got a better deal if you look at it from a pure monetary value perspective. But, one should factor in utility in these kinds of situations, and I can make much better use of a quiver and a pair of gauntlets than I can a mage’s robe.

“By the way, why’d you pick the name Artemis? You aren’t an archer, and as an earth mage, wouldn’t Gaia work better?”

“I could ask you the same question, why’d you pick Gaia of all goddesses when you’re such a good archer?”

“I was born with this name. You too?”

“Yep. And then, thanks to a really rare genetic condition, I was born legally blind, only able to read something inches from my face. Those vision tests? That giant E looks like a blurry rectangle. So much for my parents’ hopes of raising a huntress, my name has always felt like a huge joke to me. Up until I started playing this game, I never knew what normal people saw. I always thought it was just being able to see more clearly at further distances, but the vibrant colors, the sharp lines, being able to see the textures I feel... I spent my first few months in here not even doing any quests, just marveling at what I could see, messing around with crafting classes”

“And I spent my first few days in here getting wrecked by spiders and spawncamped by a boss”

As soon as I said that, I knew I’d messed up. She looked like she was about to cry, and her face went a bit red.

“Can’t you at least be happy for me for a moment?!”

“Sorry, sorry. I’m not the best at perspective taking on a good day, and this is not even close to a good day - I’d really rather not talk about it right now. So, what’s your eye problem called?”

Oh, sure, that’s like the most bland, unoriginal and insensitive topic change imaginable... well, besides something like “so, let’s talk about the virtual weather, it seems quite... uh... pixelated?”

“Congenital achromatopsia. It’s really rare, but there’s at least one kinda famous person who’s got it, Rachael... somethingorother, who’s a pretty successful dog sled racer. I’ve got it worse than her... but that’s not the point. Where were we?”

I feel like she’s never had the opportunity to tell people this stuff in game, so she’s just releasing all of this pent up information... it’s not a conversation, it’s just exposition.

“I don’t remember, honestly. But you said you were a crafter? You’re a mage now, what changed?”

“I switched to a mage class when I decided to go out and explore, and realized I needed all the range and firepower I could get because I’m not really suited to combat that needs good visual reflexes, hand-eye coordination, and dynamic vision - I’ve only had a year or so to develop those things, after all”

“I guess that makes sense. So, you want to head back to town?”

“Oh, right, yes, we ought to do that before it gets dark. But, speaking of class changes, if you’re an archer, why are you using a sword?”

I unsheathed my sword, holding it horizontally in front of me, as I began to chuckle.

“I got a really good sword as my newbie rewards. Funny thing is, I really ought to have been named Artemis, because this is the Moon Sword”

“Damn, that’s not an epic, that’s gotta be at least a legendary, right? You’re so lucky, my best newbie reward was a level 30 epic breastplate that can only really be used effectively by paladins and such, as it boosts the effectiveness of holy theurgy while reducing the MP cost. Still got that lying around in my storehouse somewhere, just collecting dust”

“Oh, speaking of equipment, I ought to change into my new armor... wait, no, I’m too low leveled... got any level 15 gear lying around in your inventory? I would like to have better equipment than the basic clothes and this stupid chainmail that chafes with every step”

Artemis hunted around in her inventory for a bit, then tossed me a blouse and a knee-length skirt with... somewhat better stats than what I was currently wearing, at least. Not that big a fan of wearing women’s clothing, but I’d have to make do. I took off my Torn Tunic, which revealed that I wasn’t equipped with a system provided bra - something that made Artemis blush a bit.

“Uh, Gaia? Why don’t you have... you know... any sense of modesty? Or actually, why don't you have the natural law level bra? How did you remove it?”

“I never had one. Call it some fuckery by the system, but it chose to give me a pair of tits and no bra when I was making my avatar”

“But every girl is given one, so why are you an exception?”

“Because I’m not a girl. It’s confusing, I know, I’m named after a goddess, I have some rather feminine curves, long hair, and an impressively androgynous voice, but I’m male IRL, and I guess it goes based on that” 

“Actually, it goes based on gender identity, but close enough. Do you really... in reality, do you have... are you this busty?”

“No. I just let the system redistribute some excess fat the same way the majority of users did, which happened to be the standard ‘remove belly fat, enhance bust’ beautification tactic for female users. I figured I’d try it out, and if I end up not liking it, I’ll just change it with a cosmetic kit”

She glanced away for a bit, before looking at me with a bit of pity in her eyes... and a further deepening of her blush, because I was still topless and, perhaps, she was now also conscious of me as a member of the opposite sex.

“Uhh... Gaia, I hate to tell you this, but... cosmetic kits can’t alter body shape, only things like skin tone, hair color, scars, and so on”

“Oh... oh fuck”

“Oh fuck indeed. Have fun being a girl, I guess!”

“Th-thanks... will do... I hope...”

My spirits down in the dumps once more, I wordlessly went behind a tree to put on the blouse and skirt, which was basically trading a breezy feeling up top for one down below. But hey, at least the chainmail would no longer chafe. And, before you ask, I did not equip the ass plate.

“As soon as we get to Ichishiro, I’m buying an actual pair of goddamned pants”

“What’ll you do about the cost?”

“I got some mats I can sell, and my brother left me some stuff in a vault, which I’d assume includes money”

“If he was kind enough to do that, why didn’t he come pick you up when you were pinned down by a boss?”

As soon as she spoke, I felt an icy calm wash over me, cutting deep to pierce into my bones. Mixed into that was a fair bit of sorrow and grief, trapped under the sheet of ice that was that calm. My voice was flat and emotionless when I forced out two words as I turned away from her to start walking southwest.

“He died”

“Oh... I’m sorry, I- I didn’t know...”

“I’m not saying you should have. It’s just the reason why I said today isn’t even close to a good day for me. Now, let’s go. Silently”

Keeping my tone and words matter of fact, I never turned to look at her face, or even to check to see if she was following me. I just kept putting one foot in front of the other, remembering the times he helped me when I was in trouble, when he stood up for me when our parents were being abusive, when he backed me up when I was in trouble for getting into a fight at school, and tried to ignore the sensation of tears rolling down my face.

“Gaia, spiders!”

Without saying a word, I fired off two crude arrows, then held my bow in my left hand as I drew my sword with my right, immediately slashing two more spiders in half. Artemis picked off the last three with magic, and I didn’t bother to look at any of the notifications that popped up.

“Uh oh, BIG SPIDER!”

“Huh?”

Her banshee-like scream jolted me out of my brooding, and I looked ahead to see, yeah, a rather big spider with almost a dozen smaller, but still big, spiders around it. The smaller ones weren’t the same Speckled Spiders I’d encountered all this time, nor the Star Spider I’d found leading a group once in the past. The former had a lot of white flecks in their black coats, and the latter had one large four pointed star on its back, while these had dozens of smaller stars all over their bodies. The big one wasn’t anywhere near as big as the barn-sized Arachnia Astralia, but it still was the size of a truck.

Eh... wot? What does that {Evolvable} tag mean? Also, I thought the remarks section was supposed to say “Our webs will blot out the sun”, that was a pretty well-known joke about the sky spider queens on the forums. But, that doesn’t matter, what matters is either killing these things or avoiding them, and from how all of them are looking towards us, I don’t think the latter is an option. As such, I grabbed one of my original, fletched arrows, and nocked it to my bowstring.

“Gaia, can you draw them closer? If you can, I can prepare an AoE to take chunk of HP out of a lot of them”

“Yeah, sure. Just tell me when you want me to aggro them”

“Assuming you can hit them from out here, fire when I hold my staff up”

“I don’t know about hitting them, but I can at least get it into their area, which should aggro them all the same”

“Aight, sounds good”

She grasped her staff in both hands - a new one, I noticed, longer and bearing an Astral Eye at the tip instead of an amber sphere - and it began to glow with an orange light, which quickly grew to cover her whole body. After a few seconds, she raised her staff into the air, and I released the arrow from the bow I’d drawn back as far as it could go.

“Nice, you hit!”

“I was aiming for the queen...”

“You were expecting to miss all of them though”

“Just blast them already”

“It’s not a bla- oh, whatever. Stalagmite Forest!”

One doesn’t have to say the name of one’s skill, but many, especially the younger players, do so because it’s cool in their eyes. This particular spell lived up to its name, as several dozen thick skewers of stone rose at least ten feet from the earth and pierced through all but three of the Sky Spiders, and four of them hit the Queen Sky Spider, but all four broke on contact without even drawing blood... still dealt 281 damage, at least. 

The pierced spiders, meanwhile, dropped to barely 1/4 HP at most, with the one I’d hit and one other dying instantly, the latter due to a headshot, AKA a crit, while the former was just killed because of the prior chip damage. Artemis evidently wasn’t expecting to do that much damage, if her stunned expression was any indication.

“I, uh, guess this new staff is better than I thought... I mean, it is a rare+ with a bonus to AoE spells, but still”

“And suddenly I feel less good about giving you the better deal”

Despite the banter, I did still shoot three of the impaled spiders, finishing off all three, and got a nice headshot on one of the spiders that dodged the stalagmites, knocking it down more than half of its max HP, which Artemis quickly capitalized on with a stone bullet to finish it off alongside two of the impaled spiders with two more fast spells. Two left, not including the big one, who was moving slowly over the field of spikes. As neither of the surviving small ones had been hit by the AoE, both were at full HP and managed to reach us pretty quickly, so I had to abandon my bow in favor of my sword once more.

One jumped off the side of a stalagmite at me, so I parried its lunge and got a glancing blow onto its abdomen, but couldn’t press further because I had to dodge a gigantic web fired from the biological cannon that was the Queen’s rear end. When I jumped back, I noticed the other smaller spider attacking a hemispherical lump of earth, which I realized had to be hollow with Artemis hiding within. My suspicions were confirmed when a small portion, maybe an inch thick and six inches long, shot out like a blade and severed one of its legs. 

That was an ingenious application of the grade I spell, Stone Shard Shot, serving multiple purposes with high MP efficiency. Using dirt hardened by the grade II spell Clay Shield - which is what I assumed that dome of earth was, an extended and curved Clay Shield - instead of stone, she was able to create a slit in her makeshift bunker to see out of. I could already see two more such slits, but couldn’t watch further because I had a boss and a mook attacking me. 

“Think, Gaia, think. How did Momo say should you fight against multiple foes who outrange you, when you’re only armed with a single sword? Well Gai, it’s simple. Get one of them between you and his buddy. Turn it into a 1v1, and take advantage of the gaps their attempts to get out of that position will open. Yeah, sure thing Momo, that’s sound advice, but these spiders are too fast” 

No, wait. I can do something else with a similar kind of positioning. If I charge right at the queen, the mook will follow me, and when I’m right in between the two of them... Perfect. She’s rearing back... Dodge!

I jumped to the side, right as a web came shooting towards me. The spider, on the other hand, did not react in time, and got hit, the sticky web wrapping around it and quite effectively taking it out of commission. I ran back towards it and moved behind its back, before thrusting my sword into the area between its abdomen and cephalothorax and twisting, quite effectively splitting the two apart.

“That’s new. Better make a note of that for later investigation, right now I’ve got a boss to kill and a teammate to sa-”

“Finally got you, you stupid slippery bastard!”

“Never mind, no saving needed... woah!”

Evidently, I’d forgotten about that boss I was just saying I had to kill, and nearly got hit by another web shot. Oops.

“Gaia, can you dodge its attacks at close range, keeping it from moving around too much, for a little while?”

“Probably? It’s not like there’s anything else we can do”

“K, then try, and I’ll prepare a big finisher”

I didn’t even respond, I just jumped into melee range, because the queen had decided to do the same now that its vanguards were all dead, and I didn’t want her getting any closer to our rearguard - despite the fact that, as an archer, I ought to be called a rearguard as well. Hell, I haven’t even done a class advancement yet, I’m still just a basic archer with no class skills to speak of. As such, it was painfully obvious I couldn’t play the role of a tank for long, as I was only barely dodging the boss’s attacks, generally by the skin of my teeth. Parrying was even harder, each casual swing of its legs had as much force as a leaping slash with a greatsword. Even a glancing blow would definitely kill me.

My agility in-game can’t keep up with the movements I normally would do when sparring with Momo, but I think a class upgrade or two would fix that... I just haven’t killed three different kinds of monster with my bow yet, so no Hunter class, and I obviously haven’t gone through the standardized training in-game that would unlock the Bowman class. Magic Bowman is even further away, I’d need to learn some magic first.

My aim is to become a Hunter so I can continue to the Sniper class, and ideally reach Marksman or its upgraded version later on, because those classes get a bonus to crit damage and effective range. Since I seem to get crits more often than not, raising the crit multiplier to 5x would be a big help, and letting me shoot things from further away is self explanatory, right? That’s only for Snipers, however. Err, wait, these mooks should count, right? Speckled Spiders, one Star Spider, and now I’ve finished off a few Sky Spiders with my bow. Arachnia Astralia was mostly damaged by my sword and someone else’s magic, so it didn’t count as a kill with a bow.

“Gaia, jump!”

I jumped into the air, used one of the stalagmites as a foothold, and rose higher into the air, and not a moment too soon, as I watched a three pronged assault centered around exactly where I and the Queen Sky Spider had been fighting. The first ‘prong’ was a wave of the stalagmites she’d placed earlier rising up and flying at the queen at high speeds. The second ‘prong’ was the earth underneath us going soft, turning from soil and mast into quicksand in an instant, the queen’s legs sinking in very quickly. The third was another load of earth rising up and forming a dome over the whole area, trapping the three of us in a region of pitch black, except for Artemis’s shining robe. No, even the rest of her body was glowing a deep amber color, but the bluish light from her robe shone through.

“Okay, let’s do this!”

“No, let’s get out of here, unless you’re confident in killing it with neither of us dying”

“We can win. We will win. Watch this. Atlas’s Burden!”

The dome seemed to suddenly invert itself, then fell right onto the queen’s back. It didn’t do any damage, but I saw almost a dozen debuffs pop up on the spider’s HP bar.

“What the hell is that?”

“It’s the most powerful single-target control spell in the direct anima group, and also widely considered to be one of the most useless spells due to how hard it is to get it to hit without the target dodging or interrupting me during the over a minute long cast time. But, hey, for the next hour, that thing is gonna be immobilized... well, it could remove the weight of its burden, but... doing so would inflict a delayed death curse onto it. After 10 minutes, it’d die instantly, unless it managed to kill the caster of the spell and lift its burden once more in that time frame. Now we have an hour to whale on it all we want while it’s immobilized, and let’s not forget that it’s got decreased defenses, reduced attack speed, and several other debuffs to top it all off”

“Sweet. In that case... I’m gonna class up real quick, okay?”

“A direct upgrade? Sure, you’ll only be weakened for 10 minutes, not a problem”

Okay then... what am I at now?

“Ookay, change class to Hunter”

“Confirm...”

I waited... and waited... and felt absolutely nothing.

“Uhh... did something go wrong?”

Well, a 50% boost to HP and a 100% increase in MP is nice, the former far more than the latter given that I still have no way to use my MP... and I’m not gonna have many ways to do so until I class up at least one more time, or I want to spend it on trap creation. Yeah, not doing that. I have no plans to become a trapper, because that path more or less gives up on the bow. Why it’s not part of the rogue class tree I’ll never know, it’s not something for a bowhead like me.

“Bowhead?”

“Eh? Fuck, was I saying that out loud? Since when?”

“Since Yeah, not doing that’... so, what’s a bowhead?”

“It’s a dumb name from school. A play on bonehead, because basically all I cared about outside of getting decent grades in my classes was archery. It stuck, mostly because it fit, and eventually I decided to own it”

She grinned, flexed her nonexistent bicep for some reason, and spoke with a bit more... well, bounce to her voice.

“More power to you. Did you own your tits too, or hide them?”

“I don’t have any to hide. I don’t know where the sadistem pulled that practical joke out of, if it had an ass I’d call it a major asspull, but...”

“One t or two?”

Oh, she’s quick to find puns and quips, at least. Err... she’s also quick when it comes to thinking of unusual applications for her spells to suit a given situation... Okay, overall, she’s got a good head. Looks pretty pattable too.

“Uhh... why are you staring at my hair like that? It’s kinda creepy... well, not quite, but it’s weird”

“Oh... I was just thinking that your hair looks pretty soft, and wondering what it feels like”

“That’s like - no, it’s not even first base... but it’s more in line with second and third... nonono, let’s just save that for later”

It was my turn to blush a bit, something not helped by the fact that she was even redder than she’d been when I was topless. I couldn’t help wondering what on earth this girl was imagining, given there’s nothing sexual about a headpat, unless you let memes weigh in with their somewhat twisted opinions. But memes can and will make anything into anything.

“So... you’re interested in going through the bases with me in the future? Is that what I just heard?”

While I couldn’t resist teasing her, I wasn’t expecting to see her brain short-circuit, crash, and reboot in real time.

“Eh? I-I-I-I... I don’t... I... AAAAAAHHHHHHH. NO! I didn’t- I’m not thinking- not like that!”

“Try again later when you’ve calmed down, will you?”

While waiting for her to do so and my class advancement debuff to wear off, I opened up the forums, made an account - because I could do that now that I had a player ID - and, while waiting for it to get verified, browsed the section devoted to archers, specifically looking for skills and equipment I wanted to obtain. One debate grabbed my attention, so my search didn’t bear much other fruit.

=========

Well, Farshot sounds perfect for me. The range boost increases with proficiency while the damage penalty decreases, and I’m planning on using distance to my advantage as much as possible, so... I’ll buy it when we get to town. Other than that, the Quivering Ring I’d seen mentioned looks nice, but the Meteorite Belt covers most of the same functions anyways. Sure, it doesn’t come with an automatic arrow draw, but its capacity increase is doubled and it can grow. Speaking of its growth capability, why isn’t it a unique? I guess it doesn’t actually grow over time so much as by combination with other items, but still...

“Oh, my debuff is gone, wonderful. Hey Artemis, you ready to kill this thing while it’s still pinned?”

“Hmm? Oh, yeah, right. Uhh, my MP’s back up to half, good enough. Let’s take this thing down quickly, shall we?”

“Wait for it to autoheal first, okay?”

“Sure. Shouldn’t be- there it goes”

Upon seeing that silvery-white glow, without another word, we let loose everything we had, and it was like shooting fish in a barrel... or, I guess, spiders in a trap. Because it figuratively had the weight of the universe on its back, its defense was cut in half, it was immobilized, and took a huge amount of bonus damage if the injuries inflicted hampered its ability to carry a heavy load, so 17 arrows later, the thing died pitifully, the giant rock on its back smashed into the ground, and gory bits splattered everywhere, including all over us.

“Yuck. Never use that spell again, okay? This is awful”

“But it worked so well... but yeah, I see your point”

“I can’t see it through all of this liquid spider covering everything - oh wait, that’s exactly my point right there”

Sardonic complaints aside, the loot was barely passable. Mostly materials, a few pieces of equipment that weren’t very useful, and two levels for each of us, despite the discrepancy between our levels. I went from barely 16 to just shy of 19, she went from just shy of 22 to barely 23. Not bad, could be better.

“Hey, Gaia, I got a class mat that, by all rights, I should give to you, but I could use it right now to class up. Is that okay?”

“Yeah, sure, you did give it that huge debuff after all”

“No, but the thing is... K then. Protect me while I’m weak, will ya?”

“I’ll do my best”

With that, I got to see... absolutely nothing. No special effects, no sounds, no physical changes, nada. 

“So... what changed?”

“Well... I unlocked the ability to learn dimensional magic, gained some cosmetic effects I could turn on, and received a nice boost to my HP and MP - well, a HUGE boost to the latter, almost doubled it. My HP only went up by 15... so, nice, but tiny. New title too”

“Can I see?”

“Sure”

A few seconds of fingering the air later, I saw some tiny stars flickering in and out of existence around her, a few of them turning into shooting stars every now and then, and her name and titles appeared over her head.

[Disciple Driver]

Artemis

[Level 23]

I guess I was right about her getting the [Bus Driver] title, despite never hearing of its existence before... well, not so far as I can remember, I might well have seen it and subconsciously thought of it.

“What do those titles do, anyways?”

“Well, my new title, [Disciple of the Stars], passively increases the drop rate of astral items, and as a prefix effect, it boosts the power of astral skills, spells, and weapons, as a suffix effect, reduces MP costs and cooldowns of astral skills and spells. It’s easy enough to get, just gain an astral class. The other one... if it’s in either slot throughout the whole raid, and if I get at least 50% contribution - or at least 150% of 2nd place’s contribution - I gain 10% more EXP from the raid, having it in both slots bumps that up to 25%. That’s it, the title has no other effects, and you get the title by fulfilling those requirements in the first place, which I did from the Arachnia Astralia raid”

I grimaced, remembering the other side of the coin for the latter title.

“Same raid gave me the opposite title-”

“[Leech]?”

“Yeah”

“That explains why you’re advertising that epic title. How’d you get it, anyways, and what does it do? I feel like I’ve got a right to know, given that I’ve shared two of my titles with you”

“I mean, it’s an epic in exchange for an uncommon and a rare. Not exactly the most fair trade, but sure, I’ll bite. You’re not gonna get this, I’m pretty sure of that”

I explained the effects and acquisition method, which caused her to double over laughing.

“Yep, definitely an acquisition method unique to you, that’s for sure. That requires being spawncamped by a boss like you were, or having the ability to be a self-healing tank and the will to go kamikaze repeatedly. Oh man, that’s hilarious. You really shouldn’t have such a title at this stage in the game”

“And to think I’ve got two such titles and an OP weapon - well, the latter definitely helped with the former”

“Two?”

“Yeah, I’ve got another title, one that you literally can’t get anymore, but I can’t set it to display because... well, it only has a passive effect. An OP passive, but still, no prefix, suffix, or grand title effects. It’s basically a better version of [Field Boss Hunter]”

“And I can’t get it because...”

“Because you’ve set your spawn”

My explanation was met with a puzzled look, then an “OH” face when she realized just how strict that requirement is.

“Fair enough. I’m getting tired of just sitting around, let’s get moving. I know I’m weakened, but I can still fight somewhat, and we’re heading into lower-leveled areas in any case. Should be fine, right?”

“Yep. Onwards!”

Resuming our trek towards town, I picked off any spiders I saw before they noticed us, eventually getting another level and an instinctive peek at my own status, where I saw a very welcome line:

Guess I’ll class up once we’re safely in town, I don’t wanna be weakened and die to a mook when I’m this close to getting a better spawn location. Especially not now, when Artemis is still weakened from her class change - and because it was a side path, it’s not the mere ten minutes for a direct vertical advancement, but a full hour and a half longer.

“Oh, by the way, you seemed to stop yourself from refusing further when it came to using that material. Why did you say it belonged to me?”

“That’s... I mean... I did get a legendary mat drop from the field boss, so... the next one should’ve been yours, as we’re about equal contribution-wise between the two bosses”

I’d call her lucky for getting two legendary drops, but I have no right to say that given the fact that I started with a mythic weapon and somehow landed myself two OP titles.

“Yeah, but the thing is, I wouldn’t have been able to make use of the second one, you could, and the first mat... you could’ve just kept quiet about it and I wouldn’t have cared. Now, well, let’s just say I’ll get more of its sale price if you sell it, and if you make some gear from it, you’ll get me some gear of similar quality. Sound good?”

She chuckled bitterly, but still nodded in acceptance of my terms - probably thinking she didn’t have much of a choice in the matter.

“Damn, talk about some pressure. A robe made from legendary-rarity Starlight String will be at least an epic+ if the craftsman isn’t a total buffoon, most likely epic++ or legendary. A good one might even be able to make a mythic, and if I somehow seduce RNGesus, I could end up with a unique”

“I... I’m not gonna bankrupt you over this, okay? If it wasn’t for your help, I wouldn’t have gotten a unique title”

That seemed to lift a weight from her shoulders, and her smile reached her eyes for the first time - well, obviously, only counting the time she was around me. I could tell that mine hadn’t done so, my smiles were all hollow, backed not so much by mirth as by rue.

Actually, is it just me or did her smile light up her surroundings too?

“Oh, Gaia, look, we’re almost there!”

“Yeah, well, we’re not out of the woods yet, or rather, let’s stay in the woods a bit longer”

“Why?”

“Well, if you look over there, some asshat is kiting a huge train and MPKing everybody”

“Player killers are bad enough, but why do people kill others with monsters?”

Just then, the player leading the horde of Flockatrice drew close enough for us to see his basic info.

"Well, as you can see, this guy is so low level he can’t kill others on his own, but he’s able to avoid the monster attacks just fine. I guess he’s aiming to pick up the dropped loot on a second pass around the area?”

“Can you hit him from here?”

“I mean, I might be able to... but I might hit one of the birds, which would be... bad”

“That’s an understatement and a half. Anything I could do to boost your accuracy?”

I thought for a moment, then had an idea.

“How much longer on your weakness debuff?”

“Uhh... 4 minutes”

“Okay, I’mma class up then. Sniper will boost my effective range a good amount, which translates to better accuracy at greater distances. I don’t need full damage to interrupt his kiting, after all”

Not even a minute later, I had sent one of my last few fletched arrows whistling through the air, and seconds after that, I got a series of juicy notifications.

The items were all junk, but the title - [Spawn Grinder] - was not, it’s an uncommon with both a prefix and a suffix effect, obtainable by grinding out the spawn region until you hit level 20 before reaching town - not unlike the boss baby title. Both effects are kinda useful, but not all that good overall when compared to my alternatives. The [Spawn] prefix reduces the respawn penalty by 90%, while the [Grinder] suffix increases exp gained by 1% for every consecutive enemy of the same kind killed, up to 20%. 

I played around with my titles for a few minutes, seriously considering [One-Man Grinder] for a bit, but that didn’t look quite as cool as [Death Grinder], so I chose to go with that despite less usability in the moment. Setting them to display (because either I display my title, or I display the fucking leech title), it took no time flat for Artemis to notice the change.

“I get what the prefix is from, that’s your death seeker title, but the suffix sounds new”

“It is, I just got a new title”

“What’s the other half, and its effects?”

I poked the air a bit, then the title above my head changed to [Spawn Seeker] and I got another notification.

...

WHAT?!

That’s fucking OP! And what’s with this title recombination thing? Like, I’ve never heard of that, I wonder if I’m the first to discover it... no, probably not.

“Damn, it’s a shame that one doesn’t have a suffix effect”

“Which one?”

“Oh, uh... I just got two more titles”

“How - how many titles do you have now? Like, 20?”

I actually had to check my status window because I wasn’t sure, but I was sure it wasn’t anywhere near 20.

“Nah, just eight”

“I only have nine, and I’ve been playing for over a year! What the hell, why are you so goddamn lucky?”

“I got someone to carry me through a boss fight before I’d reached town, that’s three right there. Another two as compensation for being pinned down by said boss, one for getting all of the levels obtained by killing a field boss, and two through a lucky accident. It’s that simple”

“I already regret helping you there”

I would’ve somewhat believed her, had she not been overacting her pout to the point it’s best described as comical - and also, that expression’s kinda cute on her, not gonna lie.

“If you hadn’t helped me, you wouldn’t have gotten the drops from it, you would’ve died, and you definitely wouldn’t have gotten that astral class”

“I... oh, fine. Give me a minute, I’ll try every combination of my titles I can”

Three minutes of random titles later, nothing had worked and she was visibly dejected. I, meanwhile, was laughing my ass off over her second-to-last attempt, [Bus Failure Pile], the suffix taken from [Mile-High Failure Pile], a title obtained through failing to make some item 100 times in a row despite meeting all of the prerequisites and having made it before. The effect of that suffix wasn’t bad, a 10% increase in crit chance and crit damage every time an offensive skill misses, tallied separately for each skill, resetting after said skill hasn’t been used for an hour. Intentionally aiming at nothing also resets it, so no potential parmesan there.

With that discussion and experimentation over, she switched back to her best title - [Disciple of the Stars] - and we finished our trek to the town gates.

CaTastrophy427

Well, two things. First off, sorry this took so long, as those following my Discord would've known, I'd finished this about two weeks ago, and was just waiting for the NU thing to be fixed so I could publish (and actually have a chance to get this novel promoted there, it's my main source of new readers right now, sadly), because it'd been showing the same three chapter updates for the better part of a week. Then, while waiting, I decided to rewrite the ending for the chapter, and then did it again, and then, right before the NU integration got fixed, I took out a chunk from the middle of this chapter and spent the time between then and now (about a week) rewriting that. It's not even that much better... orz.

Anywhoozle, the second thing, remember how like two chapters ago I said something along the lines of "this is about as long as I intend to make this novel's chapters"? Yeah, forget I ever said that. This chapter is about a thousand words longer. Uhh... this is approaching STI chapter lengths.