2.4 

“To defeat the Revenant King we have to work together!” - Imamu the Lone Swordsmen, known for disbanding and joining a new party every other day.

 

“That was weird,” Boba finally commented as we returned to the mall.

 

“Yeah…” I muttered, “I have the distinct feeling that we were scammed, however, I can’t tell how,” and honestly that’s bugging me more than the possibility I was scammed or tricked.

 

“Brother Sardines’s behaviour was indeed suspicious,” Valhorn agreed.

 

Brother? Oh yeah, Valhorn did name the rats his brothers and sisters or something oathy like that.

 

“I mean just cause he was acting suspiciously didn’t mean it was anything bad,” Peps added.

 

“Eh,” I returned doubtfully, “I guess that might be true-” a dozen notifications suddenly entered my field of view as I regain access to the menus.

 

Noam (Mattmanfoo): Yo where tf are you?

 

Noam (Mattmanfoo): Hello hello???

 

Noam (Mattmanfoo): Earth to dex!!!!!!!!!

 

Noam (Mattmanfoo): Hurry up! Hurry up!

 

Noam (Mattmanfoo)...

 

…

 

“A problem?” Valhorn asked.

 

I sighed, scrolling through dozens of messages in the chat history, “Nah, my friends just calling me.”

 

“I see,” Valhorn said, probably realising from my scrolling gesture that I was on the user interface.

 

“Next time then,” I said. “Friends list? I still need to pay you guys back for the spell.”

 

Valhorn smiled, “There is no need to feel indebted to me, for the experience was enough.”

 

“I got the map so I’m fine,” Peps added.

 

“But still let's add each other!” Boba butted in, a notification appearing at the edge of my vision as she said that.

 

Boba has sent you a friend request.

 

“I look forward to future adventures then,”

 

Valhorn Hillblight has sent you a friend request.

 

“Where is this thing…” Peps muttered.

 

“Top right, the icon with the silhouettes on it,” I answered.

 

You have sent Peps a friend request.

 

You have accepted Boba’s friend request.

 

You have accepted Valhorn Hillblight’s friend request.

 

“Well I should be on my way before my friend stabs someone,” I said only half-jokingly. “Was fun you guys.”

 

Valhorn nodded amicably, “If thou require aid you may call upon me anytime.”

 

“Let’s party up again some other time! I can help you guys shoot things!” Boba yelled, before adding in a much quieter voice, “Unless it’s people because… eww.”

 

Peps laughed, “I hope that I won’t get us scammed again.”

 

I chuckled, “Who knows, maybe I was thinking too much about it.” The issue of whether or not we were scammed was still up in the air. Since I had no definitive way to value the stuff we got. For all I know we could’ve just been manipulated by some Terry Pratchet rats that knew Shakespeare and got paid fairly for our troubles.

 

… That sounded really weird out of context.

 

Oh well.

 

“I’ll see you guys later then,” I said.

 

“See ya!”

 

“Bye,”

 

“Fare thee well,”

 

They said as they waved me off.

 

I waved back, then went deeper into the mall. Typing as I walked.

 

Dustin (HitZaDecs): Yo I’m back.

 

Noam (Mattmanfoo): Fucking finally! What took you so long!

 

Dustin (HitZaDecs): You can’t use the menus out of the safe zones apparently, so I didn’t see any of your messages.

 

Noam (Mattmanfoo): That’s a dumb ass rule.

 

Dustin (HitZaDecs): Just got back, where do I meet you?

 

Noam (Mattmanfoo): Idk. This place is pretty much the same irl so the usual place?

 

Dustin (HitZaDecs): Sure

 

It was odd seeing the arcade so run down. Blaring neon lights and the constant sound effects of various video games were replaced by calm glowing moss and the quiet chittering of innumerable insects.

 

All that was left of the arcade machines were the skeletons and hulls, no sign of machinery ever being inside them.

 

“Yo!” I heard a voice yell.

 

Leaning on one of the synthetic chairs of the racing games, was a tall, blue-skinned demon-like humanoid. Horns of a slightly darker blue hue grew on his head, curving backward and holding dark black hair almost like a crown. Pure purple eyes with no irises stared back at me with a devilish, Cheshire cat-like grin.

 

“What the fuck did you get?” we both exclaimed at the exact same time.

 

“Myconid Fungalmancer.”

 

“Tiefling Skald.”

 

I raised an eyebrow, “Primarily constitution and wisdom based race, Fungalmancer is a mage subtype that has a mushroom theme and seems to focus on utility rather than damage.”

 

“INT and Charisma for me, though I plan on speccing more into physical stats since I plan on being a frontline fighter,” he said, gesturing to a long halberd, “Skald is a bard subtype with charisma as the damage modifier, apparently more focused on combat than a normal bard.”

 

“Abilities?”

 

“Breathless, Vicious Mockery, Biting Words, Swift Strike. I also get darkvision and fire resistance from my race.”

 

Of course he took two abilities just for insulting people.

 

“Grow Sporage, Balm Spores, Light Spores, Sneezing Spores, Acid Spit, Mushroom Meal, Poison Spores, Darkvision, Poison Resist and Pacifying Spores,” I said in a single breath.

 

“Shit, that is a lot,” he commented.

 

“Yeah, though I have two racial debuffs to go along with it, I can’t stay under the sun without getting tired and mana is a problem.”

 

Matt nodded, “Mmm. Gotta stay indoors then, find any dungeons yet?”

 

I shook my head, “None so far, I’ve had a trip outside and it seemed pretty similar to real life.”

 

“What does Sporage do?”

 

“Grows a mushroom that stores a spore-based spell that I can activate, however, right now it needs line of sight and I can only activate one at a time.”

 

“Limit on numbers and duration?”

 

I mentally sighed. He’s gonna be impressed or something, “No limit on the number, at least none that I’ve found and they seem to last a few hours.”

 

“Holy shit.”

 

I sighed, “Less useful than you think it is,”

 

“You’re a trapper dude, just cover a place in mushrooms and you’re all set.”

 

“Not against high numbers, did you get the goblins in your tutorial?”

 

He nodded, “A hundred of them, I didn’t do that well, twenty-two, with the elite.”

 

“Wow,” I replied genuinely impressed, “I had a chance to kill the elite however I was too busy with keeping myself alive. Only got like fifty-something.”

 

“You didn’t just turn the entire mall into a killing field?”

 

I sighed, “No, the goblins split up into groups of three to four and patrolled the mall. If I was aware of all their patrolling patterns I might’ve been able to set something up, and they knew how my mushrooms worked and avoided them. It would also be difficult for me to hide them while also fulfilling the line of sight requirement.”

 

“They swarmed me early on, I knew I lost the battle of attrition so I rushed the most important looking dude.”

 

“I did ambushes hoping that it would cause the remaining goblins to bunch up, then I would transition to setting up trapped areas when their movements became more predictable, however, I was thrown off when they remained in split off parties and started sending ranged goblins after me.”

 

“Hmm. Never got to that stage.” he muttered, “And dude, Sporage sounds fucking amazing,”

 

“Not against-” Matt raised his hand, stopping me, “High numbers, I got that, you know what else is bad against high numbers? Literally everything, and how often do you expect to fight so many enemies?”

 

“Eh, fair point I guess.”

 

“Did you get any rewards from it?” He asked, pulling out a white, pipe-like thing from within his armour.

 

“I guess?” I replied, pushing up the hem of my cap, revealing the two wisps,

 

“What are those?”

 

“Wisps, no idea what they do yet other than drain my mana, probably a pet companion type thing which I have to incubate first. Yours?”

 

“A whistle which can increase my agility and dex once per day.”

 

“Any idea by how much?”

 

“No clue, haven’t tested it yet. What’ja do so far?”

 

I smirked, “I got paid by Pratchet mobs into pking players.”

 

“What?”

 

That look on his face was worth getting maybe scammed for.

---

“Wait wait wait,” Matt said, gesturing me to pause, “so were you or were you not scammed?”

 

“I have no clue,” I honestly replied. “Their behaviour was really suspicious, however, I can’t prove a reason for it.”

 

“It might be that they’re actually suffering due to player grinding, so they decided turning us on each other was the best bet,” I continued, “if that’s the case then the spell stones they’re giving out as quest rewards must not be very valuable, at least in their eyes.”

 

Matt raised an eyebrow.

 

 “If they were that hard-pressed for survival then they would’ve used the spell stones for themselves,” I elaborated, “either these things are as common as rocks or they can’t use them. I feel like it’s the latter, which reminds me,” I tossed the crystal to Matt, which he smoothly caught. “what do you feel from it?”

 

“Like a voice in my head is saying ‘Bark Skin’,” he muttered as he examined the crystal.

 

So Bards were considered mages of some sort as well. “The PUG group I was in had a warrior and ranger, who both said they felt nothing from it, there’s probably a class requirement to using it.”

 

“Makes sense. Any idea how to use it?”

 

“I was hoping to figure that out when I got here,” I answered, ‘Character Sheet’ I thought and the thing appeared, “pass?” I asked, and Matt handed the crystal back.

 

Under ‘Equipment’ it appeared, a picture of the crystal labelled: ‘Spell Stone (Bark Skin)’. I tapped the picture, “Description.”

 

Spell Stone (Bark Skin)

A crystal containing a spell formula. A Traveler may automatically learn the spell inscribed within if they hold the Spell Stone and say ‘Learn’.

 

Spell: Bark Skin

 

Tier 2 Transmutation Spell

Casting Time: 10 seconds

Components: Verbal, Somatic and Focus (A handful of wood bark. Any variety.)

Duration: Until cancelled or destroyed

Mana Cost: Minor Initial Mana Cost. Major Mana Reserved

Description: You cast upon yourself. Until the spell ends, an extra layer of durable bark is formed over your skin. Increasing your defence and giving you a bark-like appearance.

 

At your current level, you require passive concentration to maintain Bark Skin.

 

That was easy.

 

“What does it say?” Matt asked.

 

I read out the description to him. “Sounds useful, learn it,” he casually replied as he strolled around the arcade.

 

Indeed, a defensive spell would round out my spell list pretty well. The mana reserved was a bit pricey but acceptable. I need to figure out what passive concentration is later in terms of which stats it may concern, and how spell slots are distributed. I had an open Tier 2 and 0 spell slot, probably from my level up in the tutorial however I have no idea what the pattern for gaining new spell slots are -at least until my next level up.

 

“Learn,” I said and the crystal crumbled to dust. I flicked my hand, getting rid of the fine dust.

 

Hmm… now where to get bark… Would my staff work actually? It looks like it’s made of wood, though it looks pretty smoothed and polished- oh well, only one way to test it.

 

“Bark Skin,” I said and I felt mana flow. Like a warm stream coursing under my skin, spreading fine tendrils throughout my body, like it was looking for something. It reached my hand, touched the wooden staff I was holding. The mana grasped it as if confused, before leaving to continue searching. It did this for a few more seconds, before fading.

 

“Need bark,” I frankly said.

 

Matt’s head popped up from behind the top of an arcade machine, “Finally done?”

 

“We need to go hunt trees,” I replied. Hmm actually would Peps work? What would happen if he cast Bark Skin on himself? Does he become barkier?

 

“Sweet,” Matt simply replied, jumping down from the top of the arcade machine, “You said there were trees outside?”

 

I nodded.

 

“Leggo then,” he replied, already leaving the arcade.

 

“Coming,” I replied, following behind him.

 

When we got out of the mall. I made it about halfway through the car park before I collapsed.

---

“It’s fucking morning…” I muttered as Matt dragged me by the foot.

 

“Why the fuck did you pick such a bad drawback?” he asked, only sounding slightly irritated.

 

“The fuck was I supposed to take? Human warrior?” I sarcastically retorted.

 

“At least they’re not useless for half the day,” he retorted.

 

I tried bonking the back of his head with my staff, however, he smoothly tilted his head out of the way, easily avoiding the staff.

 

“You’re a lot lighter than I thought you would be,” he commented.

 

Yeah... It was odd that the lizard dude could throw me around so easily. Unless he heavily min/maxed strength this early on. Which was a really poor strategy, normally you wanted to round out all your stats first. Unless in special cases like me where I need to max CON until I can stay in sunlight for a reasonable amount of time.

 

“... How much do you think I weigh?” I tiredly rasped out. Damnit, even if I’m not doing anything I’m still feeling increasingly tired. Though at a slower rate than when I was actively moving.

 

“About twenty to thirty kilograms, though you’re also wearing your bag,” he answered, “we’re here,” he added as he grabbed my foot with both hands and swung me into the trees.

 

I felt the moment when the shade enveloped me and I was no longer under dawn’s glare. My body stopped becoming more tired and was just tired.

 

I propped myself up with my staff. The shade was helping A LOT. I was no longer losing stamina just by existing, a win in my book.

 

“What sorta bark do you need?” Matt asked, already surveying the surrounding area.

 

“Any should be fine,” I returned, leaning on a nearby tree. I had a dagger, didn’t I? Yep, I almost forgot I had that. I pulled it out and began carving out a piece.

 

“Hey remember that time we-”

 

There was the sound of a bow string’s twang. Matt jumped to the side, something barely missing him and hitting a tree.

 

“Attack!” Matt yelled as he jumped behind a tree.

 

“Yeah, I got that,” I retorted as I took cover as well, I glanced at the tree that was struck, an arrow, came from the direction of the car park, “ranged attacker, archer. Line of sight?”

 

“A glimpse,” he replied, “green hood, pretty tall as well.”

 

“Ditch your bag,” I told him, already slinging off my backpack. They’ll only hinder us, and from what happened with my previous encounter, they will go with us if we die.

 

“Magic Missiles,” I heard from in front of me.

 

Two balls of blue mana hit me, throwing me into the tree.

 

“Another one!” I yelled, Matt grabbed the tip of my cap, dragging me to the ground as a third missile narrowly missed me.

 

“Location?” Matt asked, halberd already out.

 

“Didn’t see, but from that way,” I gestured deeper into the forest, “probably a mage. They’re trying to pincer us.”

 

“Plan?”

 

“Probably repositioning around our cover,” I replied.

 

“Ours?” he asked, eyes flickering back and forth from the car park and the small forest.

 

I pursed my lips, “repositioning is our best bet as well,” getting to a position where we force an opening or only have one of them able to attack, “however there’s a chance we’re being surrounded, not pincered,” it made more sense. An encirclement would be much more effective. We needed more information to figure out if we were only getting attacked by two people or more.

 

An arrow struck the tree in front of us.

 

No. The opponent already stole the initiative from us, attacking from cover while we haven’t caught sight of them. Unlikely to have melees as well, otherwise they would’ve already sent them in. A character with limited range was better at denying a small amount of area. If it’s an encirclement then staying still will only give them more time to close in.

 

“Rush?” Matt asked,

 

“Rush,” I agreed.

 

He looked back and forth between the two spots where we caught sight of them, “Which one?”

 

Going by the conventional mage and archer builds, the mage would be squishier, easier to kill, unlikely to have high physical stats. Easier to overwhelm at close range, but has high utility and more variety than archers. I have no idea what sorta spells they might have. Archers probably have some amount of dexterity and agility, harder to catch but less damage and utility than the mage. Though we won’t be able to finish him off as quickly as the mage, he might be easier to escape than the mage, since there’s a chance the mage might have some array of CC spells- No.

 

“We can’t escape,” I muttered aloud.

 

Matt looked at me oddly for a moment, then realisation dawned on him, “Fuck. The sun.”

 

Once we break out of the tree’s shade I’ll be disabled, Matt might be able to escape if he abandoned me but I was screwed.

 

“Is this a Knife then?” he asked me.

 

“Does this look like a Knife situation to you?” I retorted. Knife might work but if the mage had a defensive spell then we were both screwed. 

 

Matt sighed, “I guess not."

 

I quickly created two sporages, “Go for the mage. This will probably be like Paintball, so take these,” I told him as handed him the sporages.

 

Then, I slowly stood up, touching the tree next to us, I began casting, “Grow Sporage-”

 

A figure stepped out from behind a car, smoothly drawing a bow. “-Sneezing Spores,” I finished. The arrow flew, striking me in the shoulder, “GO!” I yelled, Matt dashed off in the opposite direction of the arrow, halberd in hand.

 

The archer was about ten meters from me. Damnit.

 

“Poison Spores!” I cast, a cloud of green blowing out of my hand towards him.

 

He took a step to the right, easily avoiding the cloud. I pointed to a spot a bit further to the right, “Sneezing Spores!”

 

He abruptly stopped. Realising that to his left was a cloud of yellow, and to his right was a cloud of green.

 

I pulled off the Sporage I just created, wincing at the dull pain in my shoulder and throwing the shroom towards the middle of the two clouds. He jumped back, drawing another arrow. “Sneezing Spores!” I yelled as I dodged down.

 

The arrow flew overhead, and the shroom exploded in mid-air.