Chapter 21

Thanks to the chaos snakes' triple experience value and Fey's advice for fighting them effectively, Leandriel reached level 100 faster than he had expected. He had not quite adopted Fey's (random) tactics, but her words had pushed him to think creatively and come up with a viable strategy. Since the snakes seemed to have an equal chance of dying whether he used his strongest or weakest attacks (or buffs, or heals, or random stuff), he ended up relying on his low-cost, multiple target skills, attack and blessing alike. A certain fraction of the snakes would be damaged by each move, so by maximizing the number of opponents affected, he optimized his damage output. After several hours of continuous fighting, Leandriel ascended to the upper levels of the dungeon.

Leandriel found Fey on floor B3, battling level 22 floating rays (the fish, not the electromagnetic radiation). He noted her change in weaponry, the exotically curved blades having a shorter reach but better defensive capabilities, as well as being conducive to thrusting rather than slashing attacks.

Fey gave Leandriel a glance in greeting, then punched through the body of a ray diving at her head (*splatter*). Gradually disengaging from battle, Fey made her way over to Leandriel, where monsters would be repelled by the overwhelming advantage in strength that he had.

“What's up?” Fey asked casually, still a distance away.

“I reached level 100, so I came to see how you were doing.”

When Fey failed to continue the normal course of conversation, Leandriel looked at her more closely, and saw that the elf now had an unfocused expression on her face as she continued to approach.

“Fey?”

The appellation elicited no response. Fey continued forward, walking past the normal social distance people kept between them and stepping into the invisible bubble that implied intimacy between two people. Mystified, Leandriel allowed the elf to take his gauntleted hand in both of hers and raise it to chest height.

Following her fascinated gaze, Leandriel spotted the speck of multicoloured liquid flashing in hypnotic patterns on his forearm.

With chagrin, Leandriel realized that he had inadvertently mesmerized his companion with the chaos snake blood dotting his armour. He gently disengaged her grip, then quickly logged out and back in to get rid of the blood, the process taking about a minute.

***

Fey blinked, rather disoriented. She seemed to be missing a small gap of time in her memories. The last thing she remembered was walking towards Leandriel, but the angel was nowhere in sight.

“What the...” she muttered to herself.

No longer deterred by Leandriel's presence, the floating rays resumed their attack against Fey. Distracted and having forgotten the monsters, Fey allowed one of the fish to clip her head while diving past.

“Oww. You bleepers.” (Yes, she actually said “bleepers”. *self-censorship*). Fey swiped at the creature, wanting revenge, but it was already out of range. Hands on hips, Fey was glaring up at the monsters when Leandriel reappeared.

“Oh hi,” she greeted as the angel's form solidified, “Where did you go?” (Nope, still totally oblivious to the non-NPC thing. Sorry, people.) In glancing at Leandriel, Fey lost track of the particular ray who had hit her head.

“I'm afraid I must apologize again,” Leandriel said (apologetically). His armour was newly gleaming and clean after logging in again.

“For what?” Fey asked, tilting her head curiously.

“I am afraid that I failed to realize the effect that chaos snake blood would have on you, and you were mesmerized for a short while until I recognized the cause.”

“Oh.” After a pause, Fey asked, “I didn't do anything weird, did I?”

“No, no,” Leandriel hurried to reassure her. The speed of his denial made Fey suspect that she indeed had done something odd. I'm not sure I want to know...

Seeing Fey's (un-reassured) expression, Leandriel started to explain, “All you did was –”

“– Nooo, don't tell me,” Fey hurried to interrupt. I already have enough cringe-worthy memories, thankyouverymuch. Her imagination was already conjuring up embarrassing scenarios without being reinforced by reality.

“It really was nothing bad,” said Leandriel, raising his eyebrows at Fey's reaction.

“No good can come of me knowing,” she said darkly, her melodramatic side coming out.

Leandriels lips twitched in amusement. “Okay, then.”

Considering the subject settled, Fey resumed the previous conversation. “So, are you taking a break from training?” Having fallen under the mesmerizing effect of the chaos snake blood, she had failed to hear Leandriel's earlier explanation.

“I have reached level 100, and decided it was time to stop.” Despite having fought continuously for the entire day, Leandriel felt no fatigue. After practicing flying for several days, his stamina had risen to the impossible figure of 250 (see Chapter 12 if you don't remember how stamina works), and only the grueling activity of flying even deepened his breathing.

“Congratulations!” Fey said the un-abbreviated version of 'congrats', which was what she generally typed in games when someone announced a level-up (which still put her a level above the people who wrote just 'gratz').

“Congratulations yourself. Enjoying your new warrior skill?” Leandriel asked, reasonably assuming that Fey had returned to the dungeon after accomplishing the goal she set out to complete.

Sheepishly, Fey admitted, “I didn't have enough warrior feat points to qualify for the skill. After that, I got a bit distracted.” She nudged the new punching blades hanging from her belt. In purchasing and ordering the new equipment more suited to her fighting style, Fey had made great progress in improving the strength and fighting abilities of her character... just not in the way she had intended (pretty typical of our heroine).

“How many points do you still need?” Leandriel asked. As was fairly typical for gamers, any mention of character improvement usually led to the kind of in-depth discussion also familiar to rabid sports fans (not that the author has any experience whatsoever in being a rabid sports fan).

“Six. I'm trying to get a weapons mastery skill to form.”

Leandriel frowned slightly in thought. “That is one of the harder feats to accomplish. Which ones have you already completed?”

“Just one boss kill.”

“The monster-killing feats would probably be the fastest to complete, then. Look up 'kill tree[i]'.”

Fey followed Leandriel's advice and found the feat he referred to.

(Look, a variable!)

Didn't I already kill a monster in one hit? (See Chapter 7 if you don't remember.) I guess it doesn't count if it happened before I joined the warrior class (this is the author's oh-so-subtle way of explaining the discrepancy to discerning readers). With Vicious Strike at her disposal, Fey had no trouble killing a monster in a single hit if she hit the right spot, but until she gained more warrior skills, defeating more than one at once would be difficult.

“I don't think I can kill more than one monster at a time,” Fey said slowly, musing out loud.

“Well, if you can kill them quickly, you might try the 'mad minute' feat,” advised Leandriel.

Hmm. If Fey could kill a monster in one hit, there was no reason she could not do it sixty times in a row. However, most of the time in this sort of situation would be wasted in moving between monsters. Unless I can bunch them up somehow...

Fey eyed Leandriel and the repelling effect he exerted on the floating rays in the cavern. “May I borrow your presence for a few minutes?” she asked the angel.

Leandriel was unclear on what Fey meant by 'borrowing his presence', but acceded readily to the request. “You may,” he replied in the same style as the question.

“Great!” With a final glare up at the floating rays and a mental note to return for revenge later (*vindictive*), Fey led Leandriel to a different cavern.

Fey ended up choosing the level 12 lesser earth golems for her attempt at the Mad Minute. She chose the monsters because they were tall for such low-level creatures (meaning she wouldn't waste time bending over to kill things lower to the ground) and because they had a very obvious vital point, the animating crystal in the centre of their foreheads (making them easy to kill in one hit).

Fey positioned Leandriel about a third of the way into the cavern. “Stay here, please.” She continued forward alone.

Leandriel was amused when he realized that Fey was literally borrowing his presence in order to scare the golems into a smaller area. The animated earth creatures lumbered away from the repelling influence he exerted over two-thirds of the area, congregating into the farthest third of the cavern. Smiling, Leandriel activated his Battle Aura ability, increasing both the strength and range of his intimidation and pressing the golems into an even smaller area.

Fey turned, startled to see Leandriel glowing an icy, fearsome blue, the colour calling to mind the ferocity of blizzards and implacable immensity of glaciers.

“Is this better?” he called from his position across the cavern. In contrast to the intimidating sight he made, his voice was warmly amused.

Looking back at the golems, Fey saw that they were now concentrated into a fifth of the cavern. “Yes, thank you!” she called back, waving.

Continuing her preparations, Fey stood at the front entrance of the cavern, bordering the giant rats' territory, and called, “Magic,” pitching her voice to carry. A few seconds later, all nine of Fey's pets (Feypets!) appeared, none of them wanting to be left behind in the opportunity to be reunited with their owner (aww they're so loyal; this clearly has nothing to do with them being as lazy as their owner and wanting to stop training).

“Magic, cast stun and sleep Spore. Nobody attack any of the golems,” she ordered her pets.

Unfortunately, as golems were not truly alive, they were extremely resistant to all status effects, and Magic's role was relegated to (cute) cheerleader, along with all the other Feypets[iii] (hahaha, finally got that stodgy non-parenthetical narrator to adopt the term).

Taking a deep breath, Fey stared at the golems, mapping an efficient path between them in her mind (Loading... please wait). Finding a comfortable grip on both her punching blades, she burst into motion.

Fey's Mad Minute, as typical of most of her physical activities, was not particularly graceful, but got the job done. She repeatedly quick-stepped to each successive golem and delivered a precise (and accurate) strike to the stone animating the earthen bodies. To make up for having such an obvious vital spot, the gem was quite hard; it would be resistant to a slashing attack from a sword, but the concentrated force from Fey's punching blades, combined with Vicious Strike and Mana Edge, was sufficient to shatter the stone.

To prevent the golems from becoming alarmed by her presence and moving away from the positions she had mapped in her mind, Fey used Isolate, her presence sensed by each monster only a second before her bladed fist slammed through its forehead. Fey kept count of each monster as she progressed in her feat, but decided to stop at 62, just in case she had miscounted.

Breathless, Fey checked the warrior menu, hoping she had been fast enough to complete the feat.

“I did it!” Fey exclaimed. Her pets cheered without understanding what their owner had accomplished (still not very smart, but they're cute so it doesn't matter). The pets automatically began to dig through the collapsed piles of dirt to look for coins and loot.

Leaving her pets to their work, Fey bounded excitedly towards Leandriel (in her case, 'bounding' refers to a childish gait that intersperses running and skipping). “I did it!” she repeated.

Almost immediately upon closing the distance to the angel, Fey began to feel the effects of Leandriel's Battle Aura, starting with a dread that seemed to originate from the pit of her stomach. Used to (inhumanly) ignoring her feelings if they had no logical basis (for the record, being creeped out by spiders is logical), Fey gritted her teeth and continued forward, until she was finally stopped by the paralyzing effect of the close-up Battle Aura from a warrior 80 levels higher.

Leandriel blinked and deactivated his ability. Instantly, the unnaturally imposed fear dissipated, and Fey continued bounding forward as if nothing had happened. The whole scene felt rather surreal to Leandriel, as if someone had simply paused time for the elf for a single second.

“Thanks for all your help,” said Fey, smiling up at the angel (because he's so tall).

“Glad to be of service,” he replied. “Are you off to the warrior trainers now?”

Fey would normally head immediately to obtain her new skill, but she was hungry. “Actually, do you want to stop to eat?”

“Certainly.” The pair found a dirt-free spot of ground to have an impromptu picnic.

Fey settled easily into a cross-legged position, then watched surreptitiously as Leandriel went through the rather elaborate series of steps required for an angel in full plate armour to sit on the floor.

First, Leandriel used his Ex-quip[iv] skill to magically replace his plate with flexible cloth garments; this was an auxiliary skill available to all warriors at level 30 in addition to the main skill, and was particularly useful in avoiding the hassles of designing and donning armour made especially for winged players. Next he unfurled his wings, allowing them to extend their 3.5m (11.5 feet for you weirdo Americans) length on either side. In a feat of grace and balance, Leandriel carefully sat down, letting his wings rest against the ground.

As far as Fey could tell, having wings was rather inconvenient (but still really cool). She was certain that she would not be half as graceful as Leandriel in dealing with the extra limbs (try a tenth, maybe).

“I don't think I could manage a pair a wings without a lot of clumsiness,” she commented while opening her food packet. Fey selected a pear to munch on (*omnom*).

Leandriel half smiled, half grimaced. “You should have seen me on the first day. It took me some time to discover how to move them.” Realizing the worries behind the comment (because he's so perceptive), he continued while pulling foodstuffs out of his pouch, “Avariels do not have to deal with all this; their wings work differently.”

Fey raised her eyebrows and made a questioning noise, not wanting to talk with food in her mouth. “Mrh?”

Leandriel explained, “Avariel wings are like summoned entities that are attached to the body. They can be dismissed when not needed, and consume mana when in use.”

Fey swallowed and said, “That's great! The mana cost is worth the convenience to someone like me.”

It was Leandriel's turn to raise an eyebrow (sorry to the people who can't raise a single eyebrow; it seems like all the characters can do it). “Like you?” From his observations, Fey appeared to be a reasonably coordinated person, above average in fighting abilities due to training.

Leandriel bit into a cookie while Fey explained, “I have poor spatial awareness unless I'm really concentrating on it. When I was little, I was always bumping my head into the corners of furniture.” (Now that she's tall, our heroine usually hits her elbows on things.) She grinned. “My parents thought I was their super-cute, but rather dumb baby.” (Now our heroine is less cute, but also less dumb, so it all worked out nicely.)

Fey noticed what Leandriel was eating. “Is that a cookie?”

“Would you like one?” Leandriel pushed the container forward.

Fey promptly abandoned her healthy food in favour of processed sugar and chocolate chips (come on, what's the point of eating healthy in a game?). She slid her own food forward. “Take whatever you want.”

“Thank you.” Out of politeness, Leandriel selected a piece of jerky and consumed it (clearly, his food is better).

Realizing that they were sitting on the ground, sharing snacks, Fey grinned. “I'm afraid I've dragged you down to my level.”

“Which level is that?”

“The nine-year-old level.”

Leandriel smiled in good humour. “I don't mind. It is interesting down here.”

“Good.” Fey stole another cookie. “I'm afraid my average mental age is around 15.” (Oddly enough, her mental age was rarely at 15. Puberty *shudder*.)

After they had finished the cookies, Leandriel pulled out a round cake that had a hole in the middle.

“...Is that an angel cake?”

“Yes. The bakery (a.k.a. author) apparently could not resist the pun.” Having no icing, the cake could be eaten with the bare hands without making a mess.

Fey's pets finished their looting and gathered around the players with their haul.

“Thanks, guys,” Fey said to the pets, putting away coins and a few stones they had found. “Do you guys eat food?” she wondered aloud.

Magic clearly had no interest in cake (possibly because he was full from draining the life out of hundreds of rats and spiders). He hopped over to Leandriel (*abandon owner*) and appeared to take a nap.

Boris rooted around the cake for a while, then noticed Fey's food packet and began to eat the bag of nuts inside.

Amethyst hopped into Fey's right knee and surveyed the food with curiosity. Fey figured that if the slime could consume poison with no ill effects, cake would be easy to handle (cake would be a piece of cake, hahaha. So much punning). Fey pinched a small piece of baked confection and dropped it in the slime's mouth. The cake could be seen inside Amethyst's translucent membrane for a while, until it seemed to dissolve with Amethyst unchanged.

The glooms hopped around (cutely), apparently curious about the food, but not interested in eating it. Ebony, who had earlier taken on the shape of a spider and been chided for it (see Chapter 19 if you don't remember), mimicked the shapes of several foods.

“People will eat you if you look like that,” Fey warned an apple-shaped Ebony. The gloom squeaked in alarm, and reverted to rabbit form.

Seeing the shape-shifting reminded Fey of the pets' earlier antics. Wanting to show Leandriel the angel-shaped gloom, she told them, “Go back to the shapes you had during your contest.”

Six rabbit-shaped shadows morphed into a slime, a boar, a mushroom, a Fey, a Leandriel, and a cave spider.

“You, stop that,” Fey said to the cave spider Ebony. The gloom again reverted to its normal form, but flattened itself against the ground, looking dejected.

“Aww, it's okay. I'm sure you'll find a nice shape soon,” Fey said to the sad gloom. She picked it up and placed it in her lap for comfort.

Fey then picked up Shadow, who had Leandriel's form in full plate armour. “Isn't this cool?” she showed the angel. Shadow flapped his wings realistically.

“That's... amazing,” Leandriel breathed. Without thinking, he reached a hand towards the gloom, only to drop it when Shadow flinched at his holy aura.

“We've been over this,” Fey chided the gloom. “Go on, you have to develop holy resistance. It's not going to kill you.” Relucantly, Shadow hopped onto Leandriel's newly extended hand, shivering in discomfort, its angel shape wavering.

“...Are you sure about this?” Leandriel asked Fey. The gloom looked rather miserable touching his skin.

“Well, guessing based on my own personality, he's fine.”

Leandriel looked away from the shivering Shadow and stared at Fey. “Your own personality?”

“Er. Well. He probably is feeling discomfort, but not quite to the level that's he's displaying.”

Leandriel chuckled. “You are quite honest with yourself.”

Fey and Leandriel played with the pets as they continued their meal. Fey eventually made all the glooms go sit with Leandriel, and they developed 1% holy resistance.

When Fey's alarm chimed and she logged off, Leandriel decided to follow suit.

◊◊◊

Footnotes:

[i]Credit for this feat idea goes out to my dedicated and punny reader Shyntar.

[ii]This is referring to simple math worksheets commonly assigned in elementary school that tested students' abilities to do simple addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division quickly. Each sheet is meant to be completed in one minute. The curious can find an online version here: http://www.webmathminute.com/default.asp?

[iii]This term bears a passing resemblance to Neopets, the online pet-raising game.

[iv]This name is taken from a Fairy Tail (a manga/anime) magic, the most famous user of which is Erza Scarlet