“But did you lose health?” he said, looking at me like Brad Pitt in Fight Club when he asked Edward Norton to hit him as hard as he could.
“Well, no,” I muttered, right before he heroically leapt at me and buried his club in my skull. I fell to the ground, smacking my forehead against the stone.
“Sweet! It gave me one percent skill experience,” Two’ Manchu said, standing over me and brandishing his club. “Are you ready to get hit several more times for the good of getting our bodies back?”
“Yeah,” I grumbled, not looking forward to the painfest that was to come as I got to my feet. “Let’s exploit the shit out of this bug. By the way, I have a lot of skills.”
“That’s okay. You helped me out so, I can help you too.” He flexed again and raised his club. “Let’s do this!” He leapt at me again.
16
After a ridiculously large amount of time spent whacking each other with our skills, we’d learned a few things. Firstly, on the surface, Two’ Manchu’s plan worked exactly as expected, until, you know, we ran out of mana. Even with the increased regeneration rate in town, it took a long time to raise a skill from level one to level two because we needed to use it a hundred times to do it.
Level two was worse requiring two hundred uses, but it was when I got to level three on Blade Rush that my heart filled with dismay. It looked like it was going to require four hundred uses, which meant it followed a doubling sequence instead of just multiplying the level by one hundred. It might not seem like a big deal, but I soon realized if I stood here and did Blade Rush one thousand times it would only get me to around skill level four.
Still, I’d considered it because each level I’d gained had increased the damage Blade Rush did by an additional ten percent. So my level three Blade Rush was a lot stronger than my level one had been. I knew this because while skills didn’t actually deal damage in town, it did tell you how much damage it would have done, which was sort of interesting once I’d learned to toggle the damage counter on and off.
Better still, my weapon skill with scythes had nearly reached level two. I wasn’t sure what would happen when my proficiency reached the next level, but I was excited to find out. Unfortunately, it’d probably take another hundred monsters worth of kills to accomplish that feat.
“I’m starting to think that every level of a skill requires double the previous level to increase,” I said, healing Two’ Manchu for the millionth time. He might not have needed healing in town, but aside from Blade Rush, Heal was the spell most likely to keep me from dying, so I’d been leveling it too. “I think we call it quits and go hunt until you can do Heroic Leap more than four times without having to regenerate your mana.”
“But I’m barely at level two with it,” he snapped, glaring at me. “You have Heal and Sidestep at level two and Blade Rush at level three.”
“That’s exactly my point. Look, we can stay here all day and do this, but you would gain more out of it by being a bit higher level because you’ll have more mana. Surely, you can see that.” I fixed him with a look as he shook his head at me. “Just in terms of efficiency, this would make more sense to do when we don’t have to regen so often. Once we’re in that situations, I’ll sit in town all week with you, but right now, it’s fast becoming a waste of time.”
“Dude, we could die out there. This is safe.” He swallowed hard and looked at his gnollish boots like they were incredibly interesting. “We can’t die in here.”
Ah, now I understood. He didn’t want to go out and hunt after his misstep with goblins. It was understandable, but I’d managed to level up okay, and with both of us, the gnolls wouldn’t stand a chance. I thought about trying to tell him that, but decided for the tough love approach.
“Look, if you’re that scared of dying, go hunt scarecrows until you’re level five and we can meet up then. Either way, I’m leaving. There’s gnolls to kill and I can one shot them with Blade Rush.” I turned to make my way to the gate. “It’s about as safe as it can get.”
“Wait!” Two’ Manchu cried, calling out to me like an enraged toddler. “Please don’t leave me!”
I glanced over my shoulder and sighed. He looked terrified, but we really weren’t going to get our bodies back by staying in town even if we leveled our skills to one hundred. No, the best thing we could do would be to level up enough to leave the newbie zone and find the soul stones. Once we had them all, we could defeat the maelstrom, save the world, and go back to real life.
“I won’t leave you if you come with me,” I said, holding my hand out to him. “Besides, as long as you use the scroll I gave you before you die, you’ll show up back in town good as new.” I smiled confidently. “What do you say, Two’ Manchu?”
He looked like he was going to cry, which was a bit crazy considering he resembled Zangief and had a giant club.
“Fine, but if I die, I’m haunting you for all eternity!” he snapped, giving me the evil eye as he trudged closer.
“Stop being such a scrub,” I replied, sighing as I renewed the Holy and Shield buffs on both of us before approaching Gereng who unhappily hasted us a couple times each. “You’re a pro gamer, aren’t you?”
“Plan to leave town finally?” Gereng asked, glancing at my companion who reminded me of a reluctant donkey. “I’d had high hopes for you, Kahn, but this guy seems like dead weight. Maybe you should drop him.”
“He’ll be fine. He’s a really good user.” I smiled in a way that was completely unlike how I felt. If I’d gone to hunt gnolls during the last hour, I might have lower skills but I’d probably be high enough to take on the imps.
“I am a really good user,” Two’ Manchu affirmed, sidling up to me and lowering his voice so Gereng couldn’t hear. “Thanks for helping me with the newbie items. I know I’m sort of sucking right now…”
“Just start pulling your weight, and I’ll get over it,” I whispered back as we exited the gate. “Now let’s kill some gnolls before we head to face imps.”
“Wait,” Madagascar said as I mentioned the imps. “You’re not seriously going after imps, right?”
“Um… why?” Two’ Manchu asked, glancing at the guard who was leaning against the gate chewing on a piece of straw.
“Imps fly and throw fire. They might only be level eight, but I wouldn’t go near them unless you were a lot higher level than that or had a lot of Fire Resist which I’m guessing the two of you don’t have,” Madagascar replied, his eyes narrowing. “Wait, did Gereng put you up to this?”
Fear flashed across Two’ Manchu’s brawny face as stared at the guard in disbelief. Great. Now it was going to take a month to get him out of town.
“Yeah,” I said, mentally smacking myself for not inquiring about the monsters further. If I had, I’d have known better. Sigh, maybe I needed to be a lot more careful, otherwise I’d get both of us killed. “Gereng wants us to kill ghouls, imps, skeletons, and devils so he can get stuff to divine the future.” I shrugged as if to say “everyone’s got to pay the mortgage, right?”
“Well, if it was me, and it’s not since my job is to stand here and keep the peace, I’d go buy a bow and some silver arrows from Dora and head to the ghouls right now. They may be level twelve, but they’re so slow, they’d never catch you,” Marth said, gesturing at us with his bow like it made perfect sense. “Just stand far away and shoot them until they’re dead.”
“I um, don’t even know how to use a bow,” I said, wondering how much said gear would cost since I’d have to buy it. I was betting I had enough for a bow and arrows, but I’d have to equip Two’ Manchu as well since he was dead broke. Still, it was either that, or do it by myself.
“If you get a bow, I’ll happily teach you,” Marth said, and as he spoke, Madagascar nodded emphatically.
“Yeah, in this case, not only will you get the ghoul slime or whatever out of the way, but you’ll level a lot faster than you would hunting gnolls.” He stuck his tongue out. “The drops won’t be very good though. No
t many people get rich fighting the undead.”
I sighed and rubbed my temples. While I loved the idea of leveling quickly, I did not like the idea of parting with hard earned Rhuvians to kill monsters that dropped badly. That said, we’d have to do it eventually, so we might as well do it now. Besides, some easy leveling might help Two’ Manchu get over his fear. If it wound up being too expensive, well, we could try something else.
“I say we listen to the guards,” Two’ Manchu said, glancing at me. “They seem pretty smart.”
“Okay, let’s go find Dora,” I said, sighing at the barbarian while trying to ignore the two guards who looked pleased as punch. “I’ll spot you the cash for a bow.”
“Thanks,” Two’ Manchu said, clapping me on the shoulder before looking at the two guards. “Anything else we need to know about the area with the ghouls?”
“Not particularly. Zombies spawn there, but they’re lower level and are slower than ghouls so they won’t be a problem, and there’s no mini boss there, so you should be fine as long as you watch your footing and don’t fall down any sinkholes. Just be careful not to let the ghouls hit you because a single touch will paralyze you.” Marth made a disgusted face as he spoke. “Then they’ll eat you alive, which is probably a fate you want to avoid.”
“Well, we’ll have to be sure not to get hit, I guess,” I said, looking at Two’ Manchu who nodded emphatically.
“Yeah, I definitely do not want to get eaten by undead. That’s like seriously one of my worst fears.” He shook his head. “I even hate zombie movies because they’re so hopeless. Everyone always gets eaten.”
“Totally.” I agreed as we made our way back through the gates and stepped back into town, but before we could head to Dora, Gereng stopped us with a glare.
“Back so soon?” he asked, looking at the two of us. “Do you actually plan on doing my quest or are you just going to fuck around punching each other for another hour?”
“Listen you old—”
I cut Two’ Manchu off with a wave of my hand as I stepped between the barbarian and the old man who gave us haste buffs. “No, we decided to get some bows and arrows to start with the ghouls. Marth seems to think that’d be the easiest.”
Gereng studied me for a moment like he thought I was lying. “It’s too bad you’re not level eight. If you were, I could teach you the Cure spell which would negate their poison. Well, I guess you’ll just have to not get hit.” He shrugged. “Oh well.”
“Is there anything else you could do?” Two’ Manchu asked, all of the old man’s previous sins forgotten as Two’ Manchu focused on trying to get around the level requirement for the Cure spell. To be fair, it was reasonable. If we could stop from getting poisoned, we’d have a lot less to worry about in the event we were hit by ghouls.
“I suppose you could buy some cure potions from the shop. They’re sort of spendy, though. Alternatively, if you had some blank scroll paper, another player who knew Cure might be able to imbue the scrolls with the spell.” He shrugged and pointedly turned away from us to examine a particularly colorful pigeon that had been sneaking up behind him.
“Dude!” Two’ Manchu said, turning and seizing my arm. “We have to get cure potions.”
“We’ll see,” I said, mentally watching my hard earned Rhuvians vanish before my eyes. “I’d like to not get eaten if I could afford it, but I have no idea how much all this is going to cost.”
“I think not getting eaten is worth any possible price,” Two’ Manchu said as we made our way toward Dora’s shop.
Just like last time, she was standing there amidst a horde of goods, and as we approached, I realized I still had quite a bit of gear to sell her.
“Hey, Dora, interested in doing some trading?” I asked, but I wasn’t sure she heard me because she was too busy staring at Two’ Manchu. Her mouth hung open, and there was a mischievous look in her eye as she looked him up and down.
“My eyes are up here,” he said, a blush spreading across his face. Evidently, he was unused to such attentions from buxom female. I mean, I was too for the most part, but she was just a computer program, and I was a brain in a box.
“I’m not interested in your eyes,” she replied, but she managed to tear her gaze away from his muscles and look at me. “Yeah, we can do some trading.”
“Great, I have a few gnoll and kobold items, I’d love to part with for the right price.” I smiled at her as I pulled out one of the sets of chain mail I still had.
“Oh,” she said, peering closely at the armor. “Gnoll armor is worth about three hundred and fifty Rhuvians apiece, but their axes are only fifty-five Rhuvians. Kobold stuff isn’t worth much though. It’s only one Rhuvian for kobold robes and five for their clubs.” She made creepy unblinking eye contact as she spoke and crossed her arms over her chest like she was daring me to argue with her.
“Sounds like a deal,” I replied happy she was going to buy the junk. It was a good thing the gnoll stuff was worth so much since the four sets I had to sell basically made up for what I’d spent on the scrolls.
“Pleasure doing business with you,” she said after she’d bought the last of the gear we’d scrounged. “Do you need anything else?”
“Actually, we were hoping to buy some bows and silver arrows,” I said, glancing toward the back of the wagon where weapons hung glinting. I didn’t see any bows on display but that didn’t mean there weren’t any. At least, I hoped it didn’t.
“Also some cure potions,” Two’ Manchu added in a rush. “Those are very important!”
Dora giggled, literally giggled, as she turned her gaze toward the barbarian. “What, you don’t like getting eaten?” she asked, raising a speculative eyebrow at him.
He stood there dumbfounded for a moment, and as she walked toward him and ran one slender finger over his chest, I knew I had to intervene if I wanted to get my stuff. After that, if he wanted to stay here and play Romancing the NPCs, that was fine.
“So, do you have what we need?” I asked, walking toward the weapons. “Because I don’t see any bows or arrows of grievous misfortune.”
“Yeah, and a couple other things,” she said wistfully before moving toward me, her hips swaying provocatively with each and every step. “I only have basic bows here. If you were to go to one of the bigger towns, you could find some better stuff as far as bows go. The elves and dark elves both make some pretty fantastic ones too.” She shrugged. “A basic bow is only about fifty-five Rhuvians, and silver arrows are five arrows per Rhuvian. The cure potions are seventy five Rhuvians each.”
“Awesome,” I said, grinning at how inexpensive the bows and arrows were going to be. I wasn’t planning on being a bow user, so a basic bow would be more than fine. Even the cure potions weren’t that bad, all things considered. “I’ll take two bows, a thousand silver arrows, and ten cure potions.”
“Done and done,” Pandora said, and as she spoke, the items appeared in my inventory, and my weight gauge lurched up a full ten percent, while my wallet noticeably lightened. “Now, that we’ve concluded our business, how about some pleasure?” Dora added, batting her long lashes at Two’ Manchu.
“Sorry,” I said, moving to walk away, but Two’ Manchu was caught in her come hither stare. “Let’s go.” I grabbed him by the shoulder and forcefully pulled him away.
“Pity.” Dora pouted as we headed back toward the gate. Maybe we’d actually get to hunt this time. I was anxious to get my level on and find more gear.
“Dude, I think she wanted me to hit that,” Two’ Manchu said, glancing over his shoulder at the busty minx.
“I think so too, but do you really want to get caught fucking an NPC with Ivan watching?” I asked, shuddering at the idea.
“Maybe…” he said, which was not the reaction I was expecting, but to each their own, I guess. “But I suppose I can do that anytime. I don’t want you out leveling me and leaving me behind.” He sighed. “And thanks for the bow.”
“Not a problem,” I rep
lied, handing him the weapon, half the arrows, and five cure potions. “Now it’s time to kill us some ghouls.”
17
“Okay, Marth, we’ve both got bows now,” I said, showing the guard our shiny new weapons.
“Went the cheap route, eh?” he said, looking at our weapons. “I mean, I guess those will work, but you’re not going to be able to do much with bows like that.”
“It was all Dora had. She said we’d have to go to another town to find better bows,” I replied, looking at the bow in my hands. It felt pretty sturdy, but I’d never even used a bow in Titan Gate, let alone in real life, so what the hell did I know?
“Fair enough,” Marth said, pulling his own bow off the shoulder. “First, I need you to go stand over there and put this apple on your head.” He pointed to a line marked against the wall a few meters away. “I’m going to teach you about precision and accuracy.”
“Wait, are you serious?” I asked as he handed me the apple. Did he seriously want to go all William Tell on me?
“Of course. You want to learn bow mastery, right?” he asked, putting one hand on his hip. A quick glance at Two’ Manchu revealed him edging back toward the gate and safety. Sigh. “Unless you’re too scared…”
“I’m no chicken,” I said, moving to the spot he’d indicated. Hopefully, he was as good a shot as he seemed to be. If not, well, I didn’t want to think about it. Then I made sure my shield buff was up, counted to ten, and put the apple on my head. “Okay, Marth. Do your thing.”
“Wait, you’re seriously going to do it?” Marth asked, dumbfounded as he stared at me like I was absolutely insane. “Dude, I was just fucking with you.”
“Yeah, no one ever takes him up on it. We’re supposed to have a good laugh about it, call you a sissy, and move on with our day.” Madagascar shook his head. “I mean, seriously. You could die if he missed.”
“I wouldn’t miss,” Marth admonished, glaring at his counterpart with the spear. “Fifty Rhuvians says I could hit that apple.”
Soulstone: Awakening: A LitRPG novel (World of Ruul Book 1) Page 11
