After defeating the boss, Astaria sat on the floor checking her system notifications while her friends walked up to her, excited by their victory.

Ben was the first to comment, giving a massive grin to Astaria who was now looking up at him.

“Damn man, that was like being a background character while watching a 5D movie. Like for real!”

Tyrell also voiced out his thoughts, revelling in the feeling of satisfaction from defeating such a monster and levelling up so much.

“Honestly, raids on a screen were fun, this? This is something else. Although I would prefer not to experience getting shanked by flaming wood, that must have sucked.”

With a roll of her eyes and a deadpan expression, Astaria retorted.

“It was actually quite enjoyable; the groan and contorted face were just me expressing my joy.”

Holding his hands up Tyrell took an exaggerated step back.

“Man, guess you are still salty about that. Guess I don’t blame you.”

Astaria casually waved her hand, letting out a deep sigh.

“I was careless, so I’m just annoyed at myself.”

Roxanne walked over and rubbed Astaria’s back, trying to cool her annoyance.

“Aurora, you do realise that it was only one small mistake after tanking the boss the entire fight, right? And besides, you have been fighting for hours now on top of all the fatigue built up from last night, I honestly think it’s a miracle you managed to last so long!”

With another deep sigh, Astaria started speaking a little about her past.

“Well, it’s something you eventually get used to. After spending many days straight in game and clearing multiple dungeons, each one often taking days without a chance to rest, you will end up strengthening your mental fortitude and stamina.”

Astaria Gestured to herself as she spoke.

“Before all this happened, I could have easily gone for over 3 days without rest, although I would be struggling by the end.”

Looking at her with expressions showing surprise, the group fell silent thinking about her words and what they implied about the 3 years she had experienced.

In an attempt to pick up the slightly soured mood, Astaria put on a smile while cheerfully calling out.

“Anyway, enough of the depressing stuff, we have a boss to loot!”

Standing up with rather faked vigour, Astaria walked over to Square Jaw as Tyrell complained with a snarky comment.

“Damn, you are honestly lucky man, just because of your buff to luck you get to hog all the fun of looting!”

Looking over, Astaria shot him a sly grin.

“Don’t worry, if we get lucky and the boss drops a legendary goblin loincloth, I will make sure to pass it to you.”

At the mere thought of Astaria’s suggestion, Tyrell bent over and gagged, causing the group to laugh.

“Damn, so savage man, you wound me so.”

Ben walked up to Tyrell, patting him on the shoulder.

“Don’t complain man, we can all see who is wearing the trousers in this relationship.”

Tyrell faked getting shot in the heart by Ben’s comment as Roxanne and Russel laughed.

Ash who had been part of the background till now spoke up with a serious expression.

“Well, if you don’t want a legendary loincloth, I’m sure there will be some rich collector who will pay a fortune for it, right?”

Astaria started laughing as she looked over to Ash.

“Ash, I was joking, no need to be so serious about the matter. If such an item does exist, I think 99% of this world would rather incinerate such a filthy thing, legendary or not.”

Now looking embarrassed after realising everyone was joking, he awkwardly laughed while Russel walked over to reassure him in a lowered voice.

“Ignore them lot, they are just idiots. If you do find a loincloth in our travels, I will join you on your quest to sell it.”

Seeing the two being so serious Tyrell broke down laughing while Roxanne and Ben just let out exasperated sighs.

Ignoring the commotion she had caused going on behind her, Astaria walked over to Square Jaw’s body and began to loot it to the background noise of Tyrell laughing.

“Man, you gunna offer it to some goblin queen all like ‘please, be my wife, I offer loincloth’!”

 

[Looted: Square Jaws Severed Head x1]

[Looted: Large Hobgoblin Mana Core x1]

[Looted: Epic 2h Sword – Thunders Edge]

[Looted: Rare Equipment x13]

[Looted: Enhancement stone x27]

[Looted: Uncommon Equipment x29]

[Looted: Common Equipment x41]

[Looted: Health Potion x11]

[Looted: Mana Potion x7]

[Looted: Fatigue Restoration Potion x3]

[Looted: Misc. Items x73]

[Looted: Mysterious Crystal x1]

 

[[System Announcement: Player Astaria is the first Immortal Warrior to acquire a piece of Epic Equipment. Astaria has been awarded the unique title: First Epic Acquirer]]

 

[{New: Congratulations for First Epic Equipment Achievement}

{Sender: System}

{Congratulations on becoming the first player to acquire Epic Equipment in Caelus online. You have received the unique title ‘First Epic Acquirer’ and have been rewarded with 1 free attribute point.}]

 

Ignoring the server announcements which had now apparently become as common as stale bread, Astaria turned her attention to the new loot and could see that a purple item had dropped from the boss and could feel her heart fluttering. She could fully understand Tyrell's comment, the rush she received when obtaining an item like this was addicting and is no doubt the reason loot boxes and other such things became so popular 10 years ago.

Properly looking through the loot, Astaria could see a number of items, most of them being useless to her group. It would be more beneficial if they gave these items to their merchant to sell to the new players joining in tomorrow’s official release.

Soon the city's weapon shops will empty their stocks, meaning most players would head to the market to find equipment that players either found or didn’t need any more that would sell at a higher price due to the massive demand.

Thankfully, from all of Astaria’s grinding and her amazing luck a decent number of common and uncommon weapons dropped meaning that there will be a lot of profit available from sales.

As she returned her attention back to the epic item from Square Jaw, Astaria could see that it was a silver, western styled 2 handed sword. The design was relatively plain with the exception of a sapphire embedded into the pummel and a cross guard that resembled a tightly woven group of lightning bolts.

Looking at the swords stats Astaria could see that it provides a boost of STR+5 and WIS+3 which would be quite suitable for Ash.

The goblin also dropped 27 enhancement stones which would be perfect to start enhancing everyone’s new purple gear they received from the achievements.

Quite pleased with the haul, Astaria turned around to everyone who was looking at her excitedly.

“So, the epic that just dropped was this two-handed sword.”

Summoning the sword from her inventory, the sheathed mithril blade fell into the open palms of her hands.

“Thankfully luck was not completely in my favour this time and the item dropped is suitable for a magic swordsman.”

Walking over to Ash, she offered him the sword.

“Congratulations, you win a shiny new sword, make sure to take it to Vordrun to get it upgraded when you get the chance.”

With a look of surprise, Ash took the sword reverently, stammering a word of thanks.

Taking out the few rare pieces of equipment that the boss dropped, Astaria laid them on the floor.

“The rest of the loot is relatively unremarkable, but if there is anything that you can use feel free to take it, the leftovers will be offered to the others or sold.

After sorting through the equipment, most of which was left untouched, the group took some time clearing out the room of anything they could fit into their inventories and made their way out of the cave towards the main road.

As the group walked, Russel brought the conversation back to Astaria.

“So, Astaria, when are you logging out? You have been in the game for a while now, right?”

Astaria’s mind started to spin as she registered the question, causing Ben who noticed she had become a little unfocused to step in and answer for her.

“Apparently Chester is going to be stuck in the capsule for another day and a half or so.”

With great surprise, Russel exclaimed aloud.

“Wait, seriously? You can’t even log out through the menu?”

With a sour expression now that her mind was catching up to the conversation, Astaria answered his question.

“No, I’m completely locked into the game. That reminds me, Ben, when you get a chance can you go and inform Harold about my current situation? Tell him to inform only the trusted staff about what is going on.”

Thumping his shoulder with his fist, Ben gave a reassuring smile.

“Yeah, don’t stress it man, I got you covered.”

With a relieved smile, Astaria looked at Ben with a thankful gaze.

“Good, that’s at least something I don’t need to worry about. Anyway, we should get back so the others are not waiting too long.”

Swiftly walking back to the grove near the road using the Light stone to illuminate the way, the group mounted their horses and started to make their way back to Haligrad.