After a week spent traveling with Meridith, Jasmine decided the squirrel girl was more fun than she seemed.At first Jasmine had thought the girl a bit of a snob, but after a few days she’d learned that Meridith was just very proper. She actually had a rather dry humor that went well with Jasmine’s snark. She’d also finally learned what race the girl actually was. A Risui, which was a humanoid squirrel race with a bonus to herbalism and healing.

When Jasmine had started playing Otherworld it had been a mere impulse. That had eventually turned into a ticket to get her out of her dead-end job. That had turned into a borderline addiction. However, she’d not really understood the true depth of what she was experiencing, as she spent all of her time in game alone.

Now that she had a companion with as much knowledge about games and gaming as Meridith it had transformed her worldview. Although Jasmine had spent far longer in game and was the more powerful character. She had been completely oblivious to her lack of knowledge. Jasmine had seen the world as a solo adventure. One to take her away from her boring job and spend some time smashing pretend fantasy monsters. However, Meredith had opened her eyes to what gaming truly was or could be. It was life in a microcosm. It was about people, and power, and determination.

Meridith had started with the basics. The ‘Holy Trinity’, tanking, DPS, and role specialization. It had all sounded like Greek initially, but Jasmine wasn’t nearly as stupid as most people assumed she was. Her punk rocker looks and status as a high-school dropout had always made people see her in a certain way.She hadn’t done much to try and change their opinions, but here she was at 23 working a steady job in a big firm. With her raise she was damn near middle class now ,and she wouldn’t be paying off student loans until she was forty like most college grads were. Meridith made her feel a little slow, but that girl made MIT grads look like kids playing with blocks and eating paste.

The combat lessons had turned their free-for-all melee’s into organized battles. Then Meredith moved on to character builds. Jasmine had understood the skill system for the most part, but had horded all her points due to indecision. Meridith had helped Jasmine plan out a skill build that would complement and multiply their combined power. Then she’ started to tell Jasmine about her goals in game, exploration, conquest, guild politics and espionage. Jasmine had never expected her new-found hobby to have so many layers and hidden complexities.

But then Jasmine had started to see the way things were changing. It was only seven days since the game had launched but Otherworld had already changed drastically. Every village had at least one guild recruiter, and the top guilds we already starting to fight over dungeons and good farming grounds. She’d heard the stories at work about people spending and making thousands of dollars on the gold market. It was mind-boggling. Humanity had come to Jasmine's retreat and she would have to adapt or die. A dangerous smile split her orcish face. She hadn’t been this excited for something in years.

The girls had been heading south for quite a while and were nearing the edges of the starter zone. Meredith had insisted on getting a map and a compass, which while expensive had kept them from getting lost. So the two had taken their time and fought monsters while exploring the game world. All the while heading south toward Hernberg where they would re-supply before crossing the border into the unknown lands beyond.

Jasmine had over been keeping an ear out at work and learned the basic layout of the world. The known world was divided into ten different kingdoms, which were fairly close together. The entire combined area was one massive starter zone for players. The land was in a vaguely circular shape with a radius at nearly 300 miles. Which Meridith had informed Jasmine made it a hair larger than the state of Texas in terms of square miles, or twice the size of the UK. The starter zone was for players to level, choose classes, and learn the game's mechanics in. Monster’s were capped at about level twenty and their was only a single active dungeon in each Kingdom. The rest of the world had been hidden from player knowledge, but Jasmine knew from experience that NPC’s had heard of other places, although few of the villagers every traveled. However, It supposedly extended infinitely in every direction. The engineers at work had called it a ‘Procedural Content and Terrain Generation System’. As more and more players moved away from the center of the Ten Kingdoms the world expand, opening up new zones, new dungeons, new quests, and new monsters.

Their little two woman party had leveled pretty well while they’d traveled. Meredith was up to five already from the goblins and wolves they’d fought and had unlocked the druid class like she wanted. The girl had researched online and found you just had to pray over an animal you’d killed to unlock it. Druid was a faith based class in the game and made Meridith into a solid healer with some odd Nature magic the girl hadn’t figured out how to use very well yet. Jasmine herself was nearly to fifteen, and although her stats weren’t as high as she’d like she was an excellent fighter.

“I have to say, that having a well balanced group seems to make most level appropriate challenges rather trivial.” Meredith said in her normal precise tones, as they climbed the mountain before them. Jasmine had to agree. With her fighting skills and the druids healing they could fight fairly large groups of level 10 monsters without much risk. If she really exerted herself and used her music buffs it wasn’t even a challenge.

“Pretty much, we’ll have to get you up to level ten. Once you get some skills past Novice we can leave the starting zones and find some dungeons or something.” Jasmine said as she leapt a small border that had fallen across the narrow path.

She’d been playing for most of three weeks now, but the games detail was still awe inspiring. . The view of the lands spread out below them was a sight to behold and the feel of the cool wind blowing down from the mountains was so true to life. She wasn’t really a fan of Nexus but even she had to admit her employer did good work.

“So what is it we’re looking for up here? I’m still not certain why we needed to climb a mountain? Do you have a quest or something?” Meredith asked as she labored over the boulder. Her breathing was heavy, and sweat was matting her russet fur. The girl looked like she would keel over any second. Meridith didn’t have nearly the stamina or agility of Jasmine, and climbing a mountain was apparently quite the struggle.

“Not really,” Jasmine replied as she walked along. The crisp air felt good and she was barely winded after their hike. “Just thought I’d see what there was to see up here. And honestly look at the view. Jasmine said pointing up to the mist cloaked peaks above then to the miles of forest spread out below. I know you’re a some sort of…. What’s the word you used…. Otaku?, but you're still a woman you should be able to appreciate a good view. Besides there’s supposed to be a ton of hidden caverns and things. The guy from design said they don’t actually put anything in the game themselves. The game generates the points of interest on the fly based on character populations.” She explained.

“He was explaining it to one of the other girls in analytics. When the game creates a new zone it makes the dungeons first. Then adds number of smaller locations, Hide-outs, Lairs, and mini-boss spawns. However if the player population is high in the area it’ll also create more of the smaller scale stuff in the least populated area’s of that zone. He went into a bunch of detail about population algorithms and loot and monster density values. I didn’t get much out of. it You’d have probably understood, but the just of it is that if your looking to find the best loot you need to go to new zones and hit the dungeons before anyone else gets there, as they have the best loot the first time.However…..” Jasmine made a circular encompassing gesture around them, taking in the long rocky path they’d used to climb up here as well as the breath-taking views, and the utter lack of other life.

“It means that this location has likely never been explored by anyone, but is still within the confines of one of the more populous starter zones. Making it a likely location for something of interest.” Meredith said flatly while laboring over another boulder. “If that’s the case why didn’t we just go to that swamp.” The girl said pointing down the mountain to an area miles in the distance where she could clearly see the tree’s thin and the sun reflecting off of water.”

“Who the hell would want to farm in a swamp?” Jasmine said disgusted rubbing a hand against her forehead. There really was no hope for this girl. Thank god Meridith had looks and brains because otherwise she would be single forever. The girl had the femininity of a sea cucumber.

They continued climbing for a while as Meridith grew more and more winded. Soon they were forced to climb long vertical wall. Which consisted of Jasmine climbing the wall, then Hauling Meridith to the top with a rope. As Meridith made it over the edge they were greeted with a pop-up.

You Have Unlocked A New Skill!RuggedThis skill is unlocked when a character overcomes a natural obstacle such as climbing a mountain, traversing a desert or tundra, or by living in such harsh climates for an extended length of time. This skill helps a character survive by reducing food and water consumption as well as providing additional protection against extreme heat and cold. Also provides passive increases to poison resistance, wound resistance, and movement speed on rough terrain.

Discovering this Skill Unlocks the Hidden Class Barbarian

You Have Unlocked An Achievement!ExplorerThis achievement is granted to the first 20 users to unlock the rugged Secret Skill.

Rewards: 50 Fame, Title: Explorer

Explorer: Grants users a 15% chance for Bonus loot when defeating the boss of a Dungeon, Lair, or Hide-out that has been active but Unconquered for at least 14 days.

You Have Discovered A Hide-out!Shattered-Axe Hide-out

Rescue the Survivors of HillsbrookThe Shattered-Axe Orcs have Raided the Village of Hillsbrook. The Original Rescue Party was defeated and the town was raided and looted. Only a few survivors remain, and the orcs are holding them captive high in the mountains.

Level: 15

Difficulty: Hide-out

Rewards: 200 Fame, 10 Gold

“Looks like my hunch paid off.” Jasmine said giddily as she celebrated by crushing the exhausted squirrel-girl in a hug. When she released the hug Meridith collapsed to the ground, panting for breath in the thin mountain air. While Jasmine turned and Inspected the cave behind them.

“I’m still not entirely…. certain why …...it was necessary …..for us to climb….. All the way up here.” Meridith asked accusingly as he held the stitch in her side.

“The exercise is good for you.” Jasmine said grinning. “Besides we weren't gaining much from our level up’s so I thought we’d try something different.”

Jasmine let the girl rest for a while before then they headed into the mini-dungeon. The orcs inside were confused at first. Being attacked by a she-orc and a Risuri was apparently too much for them to process, but after the blood got flying their trip into the hide-out turned into a slow slog. Each pull had to be done with care and If they attracted more than a single group of orcs they were forced to flee. Even their healer/fighter combo was hard pressed against groups of level 15 enemies, but the drops and XP were more than worth-while. Meredith also had to stop and meditate after every fight to keep her mana up, so advancing was a very slow process.

It took most of the day for them to make it to the boss. The orc chief's throne room was in the center of the cave network. A massive fire roared in the middle of the room, and an entire cow was being turned slowly on a roasting spit by a pair of human girl’s in a torn dresses. A huge orc sat on a stone chair, while a squad of elite guards stood nearby brandishing massive battle-axes. In true video-game fashion the guards paced around the room as if nothing of interest was happening. Even though Jasmine and Meredith had just slaughtered about three dozen of their companions well within earshot. Jasmine stood just outside the door with Meredith, shaking her head.

“They could at least act like they saw us.” Jasmine said exasperated.

“Although that would certainly be more realistic it would also make it rather more difficult to properly balance an encounter. If the entire complex swarmed us,or decided to chase us down the mountain we’d have never been able to clear this-place.” The druid said in her typical serious tones.

“But still, He can obviously see us, but they’ll stand there all day until one of us takes a single step into the room. It’s ridiculous.” Jasmine complained as she stepped over the invisible aggro-line. As soon as her foot touched the ground the guards roared and charged while the lead-orc pulled a great-sword hanging beside his throne.

Jasmine stepped forward into the melee striking out with wounding blows. She’d learned it was best to try and go for wounds rather than kills with Meredith healing. The girl was gaining levels quickly, but she still had trouble with her mana pool. Healing took a lot of mana points, and even a short fight drained the girl. So instead of her normal head-long charge Jasmine fought defensively, using her strikes to wound and disable to keep the amount of incoming damage down. It made the fights last longer, but she look less overall damage, and saved the Risari girl some strain.

Jasmine downed one of the guards but took a nasty cut across her shoulder. A reverse slice caught another guard in his arm, and his axe dropped from his hands clanging to the stone floor. She spun away from an overhead swing from a third guard, and used the opening to kick the orcs knee in the wrong way. She hacked at him mercilessly striking three times at his back and side as he crumpled to the floor. That left only the boss. The huge orc thrust with his massive blade driving the tip into her thigh and Jasmine stumbled as her leg gave beneath her. She rolled to avoid the next blow, and flash of leaf-green light enveloped her. She felt the wound on her thigh close as she rolled back to her feet.

Energized, she kicked the boss in the chest and he reeled backwards off-balance. Jasmine barreled after him, and he swung in a wide horizontal arc trying to keep her out of range of her shorter hand-axes. She rolled under the blow, crossed her axes, and came to her feet inside his guard. With a flash of twin steel she struck at his throat sending blood fountaining into the air. Had it been a normal mob, it would have taken his head, but the boss had too much HP for that. Instead the boss doubled over and Jasmine used the time it bought her to pour on the blows. She threw aside her caution and hacked at his back and head, as fast as she could swing. Finally the Chief collapsed at her feet, and she stood panting and drooling. That was the one down-side she’d found with her race choice. Her tusks pushed up from her lower teeth, and made it very difficult to close her mouth properly. It was embarrassing but also hilarious in it’s own way.

You Have Created A New Combo. Would You Like to Name It?

“Halt”.She turned, still dripping blood, to see five men standing in the entrance to the throne room.. Well, people standing in the room, men might be a stretch. The looked more like a bunch of puffed up high-schoolers. One had grabbed Meridith around the waist while jasmine was recovering and was holding a short-sword to her throat. The others were looking at her rather worriedly. The leader of the bunch was a pimply kid with a mange of brown-black hair wearing flowing wizard robes. He in contrast showed no such hesitation.

“All dungeons, Lairs, and Hide-outs within forty miles of Hernberg City have been claimed by the Knights of the Round Table. Please relinquish all boss drops and exit this place immediately, failure to do so will result in the loss of your life, as well as that of your companion.” The wizard announced in a stentorian voice. Like he was some-sort of herald or something.

“Really?” Jasmine asked ,pissed. Who even does stuff like that? “Screw you guys. A week into the game and you're already pulling this kinda crap? Can’t you just play the damn game.” Jasmine said furious. This was the problem with people. They took everything fun and corrupted it with their own stupid ambition. The game had been so peaceful just a couple weeks before when it was just her and the testers and most of the world was empty.

“You're a good fighter orc, but you can’t take all of us. Leave this place at once, or we will kill you, take your gold, and you’ll leave anyway.” The wizard said, his voice becoming hard. The little bastard couldn’t be more than eighteen. Where did he get off telling her what to do.

“Listen here you little virgin shit-stains. I’ll rip you limb from limb, now leave before you really make me mad.” She sheathed the axes at her hips and pulled the lute from her back. The wizard sneered as he saw the instrument.

“Oh a big-bad bard I’m so scared. What are you gonna do, sing me to death?” He pulled a small wooden wand from his belt and the tip started to shine as he started to cast his spell. Jasmine didn’t hesitate. She set her fingers to the strings of her lute and activated her class ability.

Chord of RageInstantly causes the user to slip into Orcish Rage at maximum level.

Rank: Novice III

Duration: 60 Seconds

Cost: 15 Mana

Effect: Increases users Rage to Max Level

Cooldown: Usable once per day

The sound of a dissonant chord echoed around the cavern and Jasmine’s vision turned blood-red in an instant. Usually as she fought the world bled slowly from pink into darker red-shades as her Orcish Rage grew, but her Bardbarian skill let her skip all that and call it out instantly at full power. It doubled most of her combat attributes but unfortunately it also reduced her Intellect and wisdom by 95%. She couldn’t even speak until it wore off, only snarl, grunt, and drool. Fortunately, she didn’t need to speak for this.

Jasmine let out a roar of primal fury, and threw her lute into the wizard's face while he was still chanting his spell. The instrument flew like a comet and shattered as it hit his skull sending fragments of wood and teeth into the air. He spun to the ground soundlessly.

Jasmine didn’t have enough mind left to even draw her weapons. Instead she took two running steps and leapt the fifteen feet between her and the closest wide-eyed boy. She landed on his shoulders and pummeled him with her bare hands as she rode him to the floor. A sharp pain pierced her back and she spun to see another fighter behind her. His sword now stained with her dark green blood. She lunged forward and grabbed him with both hands. With a grunt she lifted him into the air, swept his legs, then slammed his head down against the cold stone floor. It made an ugly crunch as it hit bringing a feral smile to her face.

Before she could recover a weight hit her from behind and she was knocked to the floor over-top of the dead body at her feet. She grappled frantically with her new attacker and rolled on top of him as he stabbed her with a dagger over and over. She grabbed him by the hair and slammed his head back against the floor. The knife fell from his hands after the third blow and his skull caved in after the seventh. She turned to the last invader. The one still holding Meredith at sword point. The boy's eyes were frantic as he took her in.

She was spattered from head to toe in blood and brains of various colors. Her eyes glowed a demonic red in the dim cave. She walked towards him slowly, curls of black mist rising from her as the blood and other bits on her started to dissolve away. The boy looked at her terrified, then suddenly clutched at his chest and fell over. Soon his body vanished along with the others leaving the girls in the room alone, with five piles of coins and a couple of potions. That was good at least. Jasmine was going to need another new lute.

“Well, It appears you actually gave him a heart attack with that energetic display. It was quite the spectacle, although that’s the first time I’ve ever seen anyone perish from panic rating. I get the feeling you’ve just made us some rather unfortunate enemies.” Meredith said with false lightness. The girls eyes were open too wide and her hands shook badly. Jasmine just slumped to the floor and waited as the red slowly bled back out of the world.

___________________________________________________________________________

Note: Slow day at work, so this is a bit of a bonus chapter. Originally, it was just going to be part of another chapter but I liked it so much while I was editing I expanded it enough to stand on it's own. It goes a bit into the world rules and develops the girl's characters a little more. Hopefully they'll evolve into something a little deeper than "big-boobed, smart girl," and "crazy orc chick".

Hope you enjoy!

Edits: Minor grammar Stuffs/ Spelling.

Edit 2: More Spelling and Grammar

Edit 3: Even more Spelling..... Need to proofread more.... :(

Edit 4: Hyphenated all Hide-outs for Consistency. Advertisement Support "Kill 10 Rats" PayPal Patreon Previous

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