The Luckless: A MMORPG and LitRPG Online Adventure (Second Age of Retha Book 1)

by A. M. Sohma

  Though Kit could only hear Vic over the party chat—not see her—she could imagine the wizard’s look of disdain.

  “Pah! As if you could ever kill me,” Axel snorted. “You’re just a toothpick wizard. You can’t do anything.”

  “My spells are far more powerful than your melee attacks,” Vic said.

  “So? I’ll kill you before you get a skill loaded.”

  “Not if I’m holding you down,” Cookie said in a voice that was much darker than her usual sunshine tones.

  “What happened to player killers being a bad thing?” Riko asked.

  “He insulted Vic.”

  “So he must die?” Riko asked.

  “Naturally.”

  “Miss Kit, I believe your calming presence here would be greatly appreciated,” Gil said.

  Kit laughed and summoned Chester with a whistle. “I’m on my way.” She swung up onto the little pony and brought up her mini-map, looking at the dots that marked where her companions were before she nudged Chester forward.

  “We need to plan our next move,” Riko said. “We have to get inside Lèas to move the quest forward.”

  “Could we sneak in?” Cookie asked.

  “It’s been done before, but only by extremely high-level rogue characters,” Prowl said.

  “But it won’t help us anyway. We need the elves to like us so they will give us the seal. If we go in without a max reputation level with them, they’ll just shoot us on sight,” Riko said.

  “How will that be any different than it is now?” Axel asked. “Oh, wait, they only shot at us ‘cause we were with Kit. Got it.”

  “Axel!” Cookie scolded. “She can’t help it!”

  Kit had to tug on her reins to keep Chester from veering off toward a patch of clover. “No, he’s got a point. I should definitely not attempt to enter Lèas with whoever we send in. It will just get us shot again.”

  “But how can we send anyone in if no one has the required reputation level?” Vic asked.

  “We’ll have to earn the reputation,” Riko said. “It’s easy enough to gather. You can either complete quests and raise your reputation in the area, or farm—kill monsters for drops that grant you reputation items.”

  “But getting the max reputation level for all of us is going to take forever,” Prowl said.

  “Prowl, Riko, do either of you have any base reputation with the elves already?” Kit asked.

  “Yes,” Riko said. “I’m ‘respected.’”

  “I’m ‘tolerated,’” Prowl said. “Why, do you have a plan?”

  “Possibly. Hold up, I’m almost to you guys.” Kit squeezed Chester into a canter. He loped past shrubberies that were bigger than him without batting an eye and quickly joined up with the rest of the party—who were still mounted and spread in a ring.

  “Alright, sorry about that.” Kit maneuvered Chester to join the circle, slipping in the space between Vic and Riko.

  “No problem at all,” Riko smiled.

  Vic leaned precariously out of her saddle—upsetting her cat—to pat Chester’s thick neck.

  “So, what’s your idea?” Prowl asked. “Hit us with it.”

  Kit uneasily shifted in her saddle as the rest of the party looked at her expectantly. It still feels weird to be the party leader. I always feel like I’m one step away from massively screwing up. She cleared her throat and put on a brisk smile. “I believe the best plan of attack would be for all of us to farm reputation items so Riko and Prowl can enter the elf city together.”

  Vic boosted her cat onto her shoulder. “And reputation items are?”

  “Specific items you can give NPCs to increase your reputation with their race or faction,” Riko explained. “You receive them as drops from monsters or as rewards for quests.”

  “It makes sense, to me anyway, that Riko and Prowl should be the ones to go,” Cookie said. “They have higher reputation than us, so it would be faster than starting from zero.”

  “But do they both have to go?” Vic asked. “Wouldn’t it be faster to send just one of them in?”

  “It would be faster.” Kit thoughtfully rubbed her face tattoo. “But as this is the party quest, I suspect more than one of the party members must be present in order for it to count. That’s what the rules used to be, anyway.”

  “It still is for most quests,” Riko said.

  “I’m not opposed to it.” Prowl rubbed a tripwire between his fingers. “But how do we manage it?”

  “The bobokins that camp in the outskirts of Fìone Forest drop reputation items. We can kill them and get experience, and you guys can take whatever reputation drops they leave,” Kit said.

  “The bobokins are level 30 at least,” Prowl said.

  “So, we’ll have to hunt them in a party,” Cookie said.

  “I assume the bobokins will be easier to kill than the dragons?” Gil asked.

  “They are,” Riko assured him. “They’ll come down fast. It should be great experience for you guys, so you’ll get a couple levels pretty quickly.”

  “But in the meantime, won’t we inflict next-to-no damage?” Vic asked.

  Riko shrugged. “It’s hard to say, but with Prowl’s and my level, it shouldn’t be a problem.”

  Kit sighed. “If I had a defense de-buff that would make things easier—and as a support character I should have one by this time, stupid algorithms. But it doesn’t matter. You should at least be able to do some damage, Vic.”

  Vic frowned. “Why me?”

  “Bobokins are notoriously susceptible to fire, so Fireball will naturally deal more damage on them. Plus, you have your cat now,” Kit said.

  Vic blinked and looked down at her cat. “What does my pet have to do with it?”

  “In Retha, pets aren’t just for decoration,” Prowl said. “Each pet has something they specialize in. Cats enhance magical power; dogs can search for hidden treasure and will often join their masters in fighting; hawks can scout out maps and find enemies, and there’s a few warhorses that can be used to fight.”

  Axel whistled. “I didn’t know that! I need to get me a dog and a horse!”

  “You can’t,” Kit said. “In Retha, you can only have one pet per character. It’s how they keep the system from being gamed.”

  “That’s also why a lot of people don’t have pets,” Riko added. “There’s a huge variety of pets, but there’s also a bunch of rare ones. Some people hold out buying pets in hopes that they will get something better. For instance, phoenixes are a relatively rare type of pet, and they’re highly sought after for healer character classes as they automatically resurrect their owner.”

  Vic petted her cat’s silky head. “I have to say, Chronicles of Retha really is like living out an epic fantasy story. They have thought of everything.”

  Cookie beamed. “I’m so glad to hear that, bestie! I’m sure we’ll have lots of fun memories in Retha—once we’re not stuck in here, that is.”

  Vic sniffed. “I never said I enjoyed living out an epic fantasy, only that for a game it is well made.”

  “Great, let’s all join hands and sing camp songs,” Prowl drawled. “Party leader, could you please move on with your little plan?”

  Kit shrugged. “There isn’t much more to it than the idea that we should get you and Riko up to maximum reputation level.”

  “And earn levels!” Axel gave the group a thumbs up. “I don’t care if the monsters are way over-leveled for me. I’m fighting them!”

  Gil raised his hand to cover his eyes as he squinted across the circle, looking beyond Kit and Riko.

  Vic scoffed. “You are such a barbarian.”

  “No, I’m warrior,” Axel corrected.

  In one smooth motion, Gil unhooked his shield from his horse’s rump and brandished it in front of him. “Look out!”

  Kit turned to look over her shoulder. “Hmmm?” She moved just in time to see the three elvish scouts before they shot her in the shoulder, once again draining her health bar. Kit slumped off
Chester and fell, again. She didn’t even have time to speak before everything turned black.

  When Kit woke up in the respawn zone, she scowled. “I forgot about the scouts.”

  “Kit, are you okay? Did you respawn?” Riko asked over party chat.

  Kit stood and brushed off her puffy dwarven pants. “Yeah. That’s what I get for idle conversation, I guess. What happened to you guys?”

  “We managed to run off before they did too much damage,” Riko said.

  “Great. Why don’t we start with the northern-most bobokin and goblin camps so I don’t have to backtrack to meet up with you guys?”

  “I don’t know if that’s a great idea,” Riko said.

  Kit scratched one of her tapered ears. “What do you mean? It’s one of the smaller camps. I thought it would be easier to attack with all of us working together.”

  “Yeah, about that...”

  The druid hesitated too long, so Prowl jumped in. “Whenever we get shot at by the elves, it dings our reputation with them. In other words, hanging around you is only harming our mission.”

  Kit rubbed her eyes. “I should’ve expected that. Fine, I’m assuming you guys want me to stay far away then?”

  “Sorry, Kit,” Riko said.

  “If we were higher leveled, I would join Kit so I could test my sword against an elf scout!” Axel said.

  “NPCs are nearly impossible to kill, particularly elves,” Riko said.

  “So?” Axel asked.

  “Will you be all right alone, Miss Kit?” Gil asked.

  “Yeah. I used to play this zone a lot as Azarel. There’re a couple of quests I can do that will have me running around the woods. I can still stay away from the bobokins and goblins while getting reputation items as rewards. I’ll work on those while you guys clear out the baddies,” Kit said.

  “They added some more quests with the Gray Wraith expansion pack,” Riko said. “A few of them are even appropriate for your level—they tacked them on so lower-level elves who visited Lèas for quest purposes had a way to get experience. Some of them give you pretty high-leveled rewards too.”

  “Thanks for the intel,” Kit said. “At least I’ll be able to do something useful instead of sitting around waiting for you all to finish.”

  “Are you sure about this, Kit?” Cookie asked. “I could always come with you; I can cloak myself so the elves won’t see me.”

  “Or I could come. As a tank, I can take a little more damage,” Gil offered.

  “The only reason why the elves haven’t one-shotted any of you is because they haven’t been serious about killing anyone besides me,” Kit said. “But if it’s just two of us, they might not be quite so lenient. Don’t worry about it; I’ll be fine. Getting Prowl and Riko reputation is our main goal right now. It doesn’t matter if I die a couple times in this area while soloing.”

  “It will probably be more than a couple,” Prowl muttered.

  “I’m going to change the status of our party,” Kit said.

  “You’re not going to leave it, are you?” Vic asked with a hint of worry in her voice.

  “No. But I’m going to make it into a raid—even though we don’t have nearly enough players—and then divide it into two parties. That way, if we need to communicate, we can use the raid chat, but you guys can use the party chat to talk tactics.” Kit opened up her character panel and accessed the party information. She transformed it into a raid, calling it Desperation, then broke it into two sub-parties. She made Riko the leader of the reputation party, which she gave the name of Bobokin Hunters. She titled her own party, Please Don’t Kill Me.

  “Is everyone set?” she asked in the raid chat.

  “We’re all good here,” Riko said.

  “Excellent. Good luck, you guys; call me if you need me.”

  “Same here,” Riko said.

  “Thanks,” Kit said before she switched off raid chat. She studied the mini-map, wracking her memory for the location of the quests she knew about. She mentally marked off the ones that took her too close to Lèas, which still left her with a handful. Her course marked out, she summoned Chester with a whistle and mounted up. “Here goes nothing.”

  14

  The Hermit of Love

  Kit cautiously poked her head out from behind a tree and studied the crest of the hill with narrowed eyes.

  It had been three days (in game time) since she last saw everyone, and in that short time span, she had been killed no less than twelve times—with the majority of those times being at the bow of an elf. As such, she now did not meander through the woods, but tip-toed.

  It’s surprising I have not learned some kind of creeper skill after all this practice. She slowly edged around the tree trunk, then once again consulted her mini-map. She was searching out ingredients as part of a quest from a wizard. He kept sending her out on a wild goose chase to look for supplies for both his dinner and a potion. (It was one of the new quests meant for lower-leveled players that Riko had recommended, so Kit had never done it before.) He richly rewarded her for all the ingredients she brought back—already he had given her a new armor set and earrings, in addition to reputation items. However, the quests were very convoluted and sent her running back and forth across Fìone Forest a lot.

  For instance, her latest job was to find a merchant who sold salt and fools’ gold. She had found the merchant; however, he refused to sell her anything until she passed a message along to an old hermit who lived in the area. So now she was on the hunt for a hermit, who apparently had the same cloaking skill as Cookie, for Kit had been wandering around the hill for the better part of an hour and still hadn’t been able to locate him in spite of his location marker on her mini-map.

  She circled the hill, keeping track of the invisible hermit’s marker on her mini-map as she looked for anything suspicious. There must be something I’m missing…. Do I have to do a quest to find the hermit first? That would stink.

  “Oh, look, Halbryt! It’s the dancer who pretends to be an NPC.”

  Kit whirled around and choked on a groan as she saw the smiling pirate who had hit on her in the Griffin Hill Armory and his beast-tamer friend.

  The pirate trotted toward her on foot, but the beast tamer rode a furry black cat with white spots that was as big as a small car.

  “Greetings, fair maiden!” the pirate beamed. “Are you lost?”

  Kit made her posture stiff. “May the light shine upon you, son of man.”

  The pirate laughed. “I’m sorry, but your NPC act isn’t at all convincing out here. So now you have no choice but to talk to me! Are you on a quest? I could help you out, ‘cause baby, you’re the Renaissance to my Dark Ages! What do you say, beautiful?”

  Kit was wondering if she should either scream and hope an elf NPC was around to kill her or try to kindly turn the pirate down, when his friend intervened.

  The beast tamer frowned as he stared at the ground—probably tracking something with his cat’s help. “Egelthas,” he said, “don’t be that guy.”

  “What?” the pirate complained. “I’m hitting on her, but I’m not being lewd or a creep.”

  “Then pay attention to her nonverbal cues: she looks like she wants to disappear or punch you in the face.”

  The pirate rolled his eyes. “I’m pretty sure you’re projecting your feelings onto her.”

  Kit cracked a smile at the interaction.

  “Ah-hah! You smiled! You find me funny—which is a very attractive trait, isn’t it? Come with us, and I’ll have you laughing all night!” The pirate smiled slyly and wriggled his eyebrows.

  “No, thank you,” Kit said, opting to ditch her NPC act. “I’m already in a party.”

  “But you’re alone,” the pirate pointed out.

  “Um,” Kit said.

  Just behind the pirate, the beast tamer stroked his cat, making the giant creature purr. “You’re making her uncomfortable,” he said.

  “You shush!” the pirate hissed.

  The beast tame
r shrugged. “Okay, but did it ever occur to you that she might be so un-talkative because she’s a girl?”

  “Because she’s female?”

  “No. A girl. G. I. R. L.: guy in real life.”

  The pirate scowled. “You suggested that about the last two female players I approached.”

  “I’m just trying to give you a reasonable out.”

  “What do you mean by that?”

  “You suck at trying to communicate with females and come off as a weird guy in an alley.”

  The pirate rolled his eyes. “Because you are so much smoother?”

  “At least I haven’t set off a girl’s creepy meter so badly she pretended to be an NPC.” The beast tamer turned his cat, who started to stalk off. “Come on. Little Neck picked up on the scent—we have to go this way.”

  “Fine—wait for me!” The pirate started to chase after his friend, but paused long enough to wave at Kit. “Farewell, beautiful angel! I’ll see you again—I’m sure!”

  A ghost of a smile settled on Kit’s lips for a moment as she watched the odd pair disappear into the trees. Retha is filled with good people.

  She sighed and eyed the hilltop one more time where the hermit was supposed to be. Okay. One last look, and then I’ll give up. She chewed on her lip, then slowly trekked her way to the top. The hilltop was one of the few sunny spots in the woods as it poked above the treeline and only sported a few birch trees. The rest of it was covered with silvery ferns and white flowers that sparkled like stars.

  She systematically searched the hilltop in a grid pattern, and was just about to give up when a branch broke on one of the birch trees, and a man fell from the sky with a splat.

  The man sat up and rubbed his head. “Well, that will teach me to try and rob acorns from a squirrel’s nest.” He laughed sheepishly, then smiled at Kit. “Greetings, fair one!”

  Kit studied him, taking in his nameplate that marked him as an NPC. “Are you Habakkuk the Hermit?” She asked skeptically.

  He stood, only to bow deeply. “I am he!”

  Kit’s forehead puckered. “Really? You look awfully young for a hermit.”