Critical Inaccuracy, Chapter 2 of 7 - A Pack of Lone Wolves

It was just another stressful, taxing, completely ordinary, spring afternoon. Birds were singing, flowers were blooming, yada yada.

Only, today was not just a typical afternoon. For Barex...

"Almost done...", said Barex, finishing up this week's homework.

And after a few moments, and one final pen stroke,

"Phew, and that's that.", said Barex, taking in a deep breath of relief after a long night's work.

After basking in the newfound respite, they slowly averted their gaze to the clock on their wall.

1:57pm

Barex thought back to the night before...

("Grante: ...Remember our time; Be on 2 to 8, 'kay guys?").

Hurriedly, Barex made a mad dash off of their bed and into their chair, leaving a trail of dust in their wake.

Barex turned on their computer as fast as they could, and opened CMO, knowing it would take a bare minimum of 2 minutes to finish loading up.

As it began, they caught another glance at the clock.

1.58pm

Determined to be 100% prepared, they didn't waste a single second, as they 'neatly' shoved their completed homework and textbooks into a bag, and put up their long, black hair in a ponytail.

As if on cue, CMO had finished loading, and asked for their login information.

With a speed not unlike Torrain's, Barex flung their fingers across their keyboard, before selecting their only character; Llucien.

2:01pm. They were late.

Sprinting across the all-to-familiar cobblestone path, Llucien arrived at the Great Tree, where his friends lay beneath it's branches.

Grante, upon spotting Llucien, jokingly said;

"Grante: Tsk, 2 minutes late. I'd expected faster from *the* Cobalt Shadow".

Without missing a beat, Llucien replied;

"Llucien: Won't happen again!", with an easily detectable anxiety.

"Torrain: Okay, okay. Everyone's here, so what's the first order of business?".

"Lorelei: Probably leveling, right? Now that I can see everyone's level, I'm confident we can't take this raid as we are now".

"Walrot: Yes, I agree. Even my strongest of spells aren't likely to leave more than a scratch".

"Grante: Yeah, not a bad call. We've still got 6 days before weekly reset, might as well make the most of 'em!".

"Llucien: Okay, so where're we training?".

"Torrain: Some of our levels are a bit lower than others. We could go to a lower area to even the field, or try a stronger area to get everyone's levels up, at the cost of them possibly dying".

"(They're talking about me... aren't they? Because of school, I don't have nearly as much time to play as the rest of them... I knew I'd only drag them down...)", thought Barex.

"Allium: It's fine. Since I'm a tamer, I can keep my distance and let my familiars do the work!".

"(...what?")", thought Barex, as he checked his friends list.

"(72... so it wasn't me after all. Huh...)", thought Barex.

"Grante: Then it's decided. Well, as long as you two are also up for it. Llucien, Lorelei?".

"Lorelei: Sure, I can take 'em >:o".

"Llucien: I can handle myself. Try and keep up".

"Grante: Okay, then where to...".

Grante looked through the map for a short while, before finding an area that suited their needs.

"Grante: Got it, the Plaguewater Swamp!".

"Lorelei: Uhl, that old place?".

"Llucien: What, too 'swampy' for you?".

"Lorelei: Don't be ridiculous. This armor just offers me very little poison resistance".

"Torrain: Don't thieves have a natural resistance to poison?".

"Lorelei: ...".

"Grante: Yeah. And from what I remember, it's pretty high, too".

"Lorelei: ...is it so wrong to not like swamps?".

"Walrot: I like the swamps, myself".

"Lorelei: Of course *you* would".

"Walrot: The environment is preferably for fire magic. Adds quite a bit more *flare*, you see".

"Allium: If I'd have known it'd be a swamp, I wouldn't have agreed to this...".

"Grante: Welp, no take-backs now. Besides, as long as we're in a party, we should all get experience. No need for you two to get up-close and personal".

"Allium: Still...".

With that, they teleported into the marshes, which were but a stone-throw away from their destination.

"Lorelei: Uhl, I can smell it from here".

"Torrain: Again, still in a game...".

"Lorelei: I've been in swamps before, I can fill in the blanks".

"Allium: Plus, it *looks* disgusting".

"Torrain: Agreed, but at least we shouldn't have to stick around long. What level is the next area, Grante?".

"Grante: 86".

"Torrain: 86!? That's like 7 levels, even for the best of us!".

"Grante: I don't make the rules, 'kay? If the game says 'farm in a swamp for 3 hours', that's what we've gotta do!".

At last, they arrived at their destination, near-instantly finding...

"Grante: Hey wait is that-".

"Lorelei: It's a Golden Toad, get it, get it!".

The toad began hopping away, as Lorelei rushed from tree to tree to follow it.

Grante hurried into the swamp's 'water' to give chase, and his leg became trapped, as the swamp slowly began pulling him in.

"Grante: Gah, what is this stuff!?".

"Torrain: Don't worry, I've got you!", said Torrain as he stayed behind to free Grante.

"Llucien: Amateurs... Watch and learn!".

Llucien gracefully hopped from one mound of dirt to the other, quickly closing in on the toad.

"(Now I've got you...!)", said Llucien, as he grabbed his dagger, readying a killing blow.

Just as he tried to ready his footing, he slipped on some mud, face-planting into the 'water', in a spectacularly embarrassing fashion.

Upon lifting his face from the mud, Llucien saw something he'd never expected.

"Allium: You've mine, Froggie!", as she flew atop a flying white puffball.

"Llucien: What the- Since when did she have that!".

"Grante: I dunno. We all just met her yesterday, remember?".

Walrot, who started moving at the same time as Grante, was ever-slowly trudging through the 'water', seemingly using some kind of magic to stay afloat.

Suddenly, seen only from a distance, there was a large explosion of smoke, string, and poison gas, as the toad suddenly began to change direction.

"Lorelei: ...he's turning around!".

Within moments, the toad was within Allium's sights, as she closed her eyes and began chanting something under her breath.

The frog stopped and looked at her, as a magic circle began forming around it, and its sigils began to glow.

Suddenly, however, some black smoke appeared within the circle, and before anyone knew what was about to happen...

BOOM!

The swarm was overtaken by a massive, violent explosion of fire, setting the whole place ablaze, with the toad nowhere to be seen.

Everyone was shocked, but Allium in particular appeared absolutely mortified-

...And dead. Allium, Lorelei, Llucien- Yep, all totally dead, caught in the crossfire of Walrot's spell.

Thankfully, Walrot -who was only able to survive due to his flame barrier spell- was able to revive them, so they didn't lose any of the potential experience.

The group had their complaints, yes, but you can't argue with the massive pool of experience they gained in such a short time. It was enough to send every last one of them over level 80.

"Allium: But... Froggie...".

"Torrain: I'm... sure we'll find another one... eventually".

To everyone's surprise however, even Alliums, she had spoken its name, and thus, it had appeared before her- as her familiar.

"Grante: Wait, she managed to tame it? Then that means...".

"Llucien: All that experience was... just from the normal enemies?".

Lorelei set her hand on Walrot's shoulder, saying;

"Lorelei: Y'know, maybe I judged you too harshly, Wally".

"Walrot: ...'Wally'?".

"Torrain: That bad nickname aside- And I do mean awful-, he *did* try to roast and toast Allium's pet...".

"Llucien: Familiar*".

"Allium : ...Pet*", as she was huddled up, snuggling with her new familiar, never happier.

"Walrot: It was all part of my plan. I *knew* the taming spell would activate *just* before the explosion".

"Grante: See, I don't really know you well enough to tell if that's true".

"Torrain: Yeah, same here. I guess until we do, we're all entitled to our thoughts".

"Walrot: What, you think I'd incinerate that helpless resplendent amphibian? I mean, I would have if she'd had not wanted it, but-".

"Llucien: It's fine, we all see your true colors now, 'Wally'".

"Torrain: Please stop calling him that...".

"Walrot: Admittedly, not my favorite nickname.".

"Grante: Okay, back on topic- I'm not the only one that realizes, right?".

"Lorelei: ?".

"Allium: ...Realizes what?".

"Grante: If Walrot's able to just nuke a field like this, we can just get infinite exp, right? I'm not like missing anything here, am I?".

"Torrain: Well, he only has so much mana".

"Allium: Mana refreshes when you enter a town. We could also use mana potions if we don't feel like walking back every time".

"Walrot: Mana potions are quite expensive. Even with use of my clearing spells, it's a hefty price to pay".

"Torrain: Well, how long does it take for enemies to respawn? We should have a bit of downtime to stop by the village, right?".

"Grante: 15 minutes... Yeah, that should be enough. Still, how many of those spells can you use on a full tank, Walrot?".

"Walrot: I can use about 3, if I push it, accounting for natural mana regen over 15 minutes. Still, I should save some for revival, which given the possibility of all 5 of you dying...".

"Torrain: One spell, right?".

"Walrot: Correct. It would appear we'd have to fall back to the village after every spell, to be safe".

"Grante: That shouldn't be too bad. With the amount of experience we get from this, we should be good to go after just today!".

"Torrain: Only kind of. I'm not sure on the specifics, but it gets a lot harder to level up with each level you have. Meaning if I gained four levels even now, I can almost guarantee I won't gain even 3 next time".

"Llucien: Even so, couldn't we move on to a higher level area? What about that lvl 85 place?".

"Walrot: As I said before, the swamp greatly empowers my fire spells. If we went to a dry field, for example, it wouldn't have nearly the same effect".

"Llucien: Then we've just gotta find another place with some weird air chemicals, right? Shouldn't be too hard".

"Torrain: Oh yeah, good point. Walrot, do you know any?".

"Walrot: I didn't even know the air is what affected them. You'd be better off asking someone else".

"Grante: Yeah, I didn't know either".

"Torrain: Same. I just thought it was something in the game, didn't know it was a real thing".

"(O-oh, I just figured that was somewhat of common knowledge. I guess my studying is paying off...)", thought Barex.

"Lorelei: Llucien?".

"Llucien: Huh?".

"Lorelei: Since you seem to know how this stuff works, know anywhere else that might give Walrot's spells the extra oomph they need?".

"Llucien: No, not really. I think that's more or less specific to swamps".

"Grante: Then it seems that's out of the question. The only other swamps are lower leveled than this, so they don't help us".

"(C'mon, that was your moment! You've gotta think of something...)", said Barex.

"Llucien: Actually, what other spells do you have?".

"Walrot: What, why?".

"Llucien: Well, even if swamps, or even fire spells are out of the question, another factor might make your other spells stronger".

"Torrain: Ah, smart thinking, Llucien".

"Walrot: Let's see... I have Fire, Earth, Ice, Thunder...".

"Llucien: Hmm, thunder...".

"Grante: Got any ideas?".

"Llucien: Maybe... It depends on many factors that we don't know. One being that the developers would have to even code it in, but I guess if they did it for swamps, why wouldn't they".

"Grante: We don't have much other choice, do we? Where to, Cobalt Shadow?".

Llucien smiled. It felt good to be the center of attention, when it was in a good way. Llucien basked in that feeling for a bit longer, before responding.

"Llucien: Are there any mountaintops, or something similar?".

"Grante: We've got the Frostbitten Icecaps... The Sandstorm Plateau... and The Raging Peak...".

"Llucien: The Raging Peak- Is that like a volcano, or?".

"Grante: ...yep, looks like".

"Llucien: Yeah, I don't think any of those places are gonna work. Sorry".

"Torrain: This isn't on you. If there's no good area, there's no good area".

"Grante: Wait, I missed one! Level 99... The Torrential Summit. That do you any good?".

"('Torrential', as in, 'Heavy Rain'...! That's it!)", thought Barax.

"Llucien: Yep, that'll do it. Chart course, everyone, we've got a mountain to climb!".

"Lorelei: Phew, for a second I thought we'd have to stay in this swamp forever...".

"Allium: Wait, we're leaving the swamp? Yay!".

"Torrain: Wait, where have you been the last like 20 minutes?".

"Grante: She's been infatuated by that frog, what else".

"Torrain: I can see why she was so upset when she thought it'd been exploded".

"Allium: But now it's my familiar, and no one can destroy it! Not permanently, at least".

"Lorelei: I've gotta say, It's hands down the best thing to come out of that swamp".

"Allium: Right? He's the greatest Froggy in the world!".

"Torrain: That's it? Just, 'Froggy'?".

"Lorelei: And what's wrong with that?".

"Torrain: Well, she named her fox Kibé. I figured she'd be a tad more creative".

"Allium: I just haven't thought of one yet. I think of my best names in my dreams".

"Torrain: So you'll have one by tomorrow then?".

"Allium: Dreams aren't that simple, Torrain. It could be weeks before I find a name for my cute little Froggy".

"Llucien: That thing is *not* little. Besides, I'm more interested in its stats".

"Grante: There's a familiar tab in your profile. You can view it through your friend page".

"(Low attack, low defense, low speed... This thing seems kinda... bad... Wait, what's this skill...? 'Gilded Armor'? It says it's locked until its bond increases... interesting.)", thought Barex.

"Lorelei: So, find anything interesting?".

"Llucien: Maybe. Its starts are horrendous, but it has a locked skill called 'Gilded Armor'".

"Lorelei: Sounds useful. If its stats are that bad, it must have some kind of redeeming quality".

"Torrain: Idk, some pets are just for vanity. A super rare golden frog sounds like it fits the bill".

"Grante: Okay, course charted!".

"Lorelei: What, you can't just teleport us there?".

"Grante: It's level 99, no way I'd have went there before now!".

"Torrain: Give it to me straight, Doc... How long of a trek is this?".

"Grante: Well, getting to the base alone is gonna take a while. And climbing the thing... don't get me started".

"Llucien: Well you've got freetime until 10, right? We could always do something else for now, and you could hoof it alone after, right?".

"Grante: Climbing the peak by myself was my intention, but I think you underestimate how long it'll take to do just *that*. I'll be pushing 10pm with the climbing alone".

"Torrain: So we'll have to walk to the mountain together, and then you'll take the peak? Sounds like a plan, if you really don't mind".

"Grante: Please, climbing a mountain seems almost fun. Still, we've got some time left before even 8 hits. If we make it to the mountain quickly, we might even be able to check out some of the nearby dungeons".

The group started running full speed toward their destination, which was admittedly quite slow.

"Lorelei: So uh, how long is this walk gonna be?".

"Grante: I dunno, like an hour or two? It'd be easy if we could just auto-run in a straight line, but there's far too many obstacles for that".

"Lorelei: Then I think it's time for me to introduce my special move!".

With that, Lorelei held up a boot, with a feather attached to the back, before crushing it in her hand.

"Torrain: Woah, what was that?".

"Lorelei: That, my friend, was a Cutpurse Wingboot!".

"Torrain: Woah, what is that?".

"Lorelei: It's a very special item, that doubles the party's move speed, and also nets them a bonus 50% gold from enemies, for 2 hours!".

"Grante: What, that sounds insane! Where'd you get your hands on that?".

"Lorelei: I'm a thief, and it's a rare item. You can do the math".

"Llucien: Well if it also gives bonus gold, it'd be a waste to just use the speed...".

"Lorelei: Two peas in a pod, you and I! If the trip itself is shortened to a mere third of this boot's duration, why not take a brief detour?".

"(Us? No, we're nothing alike. We're... different... just too different...)", said Barex.

"Grante: Fine, I suppose it wouldn't hurt. We'll need funds for a large amount of our upgrades, so it's probably best to strike while the iron's hot".

"Lorelei: Now we're talkin'!".

"Torrain: Of course two thieves would think alike...".

"Llucien: Not a thief".

"Torrain: Wait, you're not? Have I been... mis-classing you this whole time...?".

"Llucien: It's no big deal, but for the record, I'm an assassin. Much different".

"Walrot: I suppose I could use a bit more myself. Thank you".

"Lorelei: No problem. I've been waiting for a good chance to use this thing!".

"Allium: I wonder...".

"Grante: Hmm?".

"Torrain: Knowing her, it's probably about a familiar.".

"Allium: You're right. There was this fluffy adorable rabbit that was too quick for me before... but now".

"Lorelei: Hey, do what you will. Who am I to judge?".

Allium quickly teleported away, to who-knows-where, and only returned once everyone had all but finished their gold rush.

"Llucien: Okay, that's probably enough. We should get back on course while we still have this speed boost".

"Walrot: I agree. Furthermore, it's about 8pm. Seems we'll arrive right on time".

"Lorelei: Not such a bad use of time. That should handle our money situation for a while".

"Grante: Yep".

With that, they hurried to the base of Mount Torrent, and said their goodbyes, logging off for the day.

To be continued...