Chapter 19 – Grind

[You have slain Sewer Rat(4). Gain 25 experience.]

[You have slain Sewer Rat(5). Gain 45 experience.]

[You have slain Sewer Rat(5). Gain 45 experience.]

I shake my head as I get back on my feet. Blood is dripping from my gauntlets, and I have blood splatter all over my linen pants. That fight was brutal. I can’t believe I had to storm the frontlines swinging a crossbow around like a sledge.

I look down towards the bloodied crossbow in my hands. “Fuck. This thing is a pretty half-decent bat…” I mumble as I raise the weapon in front of my eyes, inspecting it carefully. The string has become soggy from absorbing the blood, and the old crack in the stock seems to have become slightly wider. I’m unsure how long it will last until it’s rendered unusable. One thing's for certain though; it’s not supposed to be used this way.

I shrug as I turn my head around and take a look at my surroundings. My level three Hoodlum is resting on the ground beside me, tending to his many wounds. The sounds of combat from the tunnel behind me has ceased, and since I didn’t receive a notification that one of my underlings died, then there is no need for me to rush back.

One thing is perfectly clear though. I need to find a better way of fighting. My tactic has more holes in it than swiss cheese. I can’t just run up and hammer away at my enemy as if I am a regular adventurer. I need to fight smarter, not harder. But what changes can I make?

I sigh as I pinch the bridge of my nose. If I’m careful, I should be able to fight these monsters up close like this, but I can’t keep an efficient pace since I don’t have access to any healing magic or a versatile group composition. I mainly just have a bunch of bloodthirsty NPCs, but that won’t help me if I have to face a group of skilled players. I think I need to change my character development path, and I need to do it sooner rather than later.

I frown as a ton of ideas and potential solutions filter through my mind. It’s not a decision I should take lightly, and I can’t rush into anything. At least I don’t have to make a decision until I actually gain more skill points, so my main concern should be to try and level up as soon as possible.

I hear the sounds of the rest of my underlings approach behind me. I turn around just in time to see my units stroll around the corner, their bodies littered with wounds. I wince as I see it, and a short stab of guilt presses against my chest. I’m starting to understand why the game developers decided to make these bandits into puppets rather than seed them with a proper artificial intelligence unit. I’m not sure I could handle being responsible for sending my loyal henchmen into the grinder every fifteen minutes if they showed more signs of sentience.

I inspect my underlings, trying to get an overview of how badly the fight went.

[Human Hoodlum(3) - Underling. Fighter. HP: 36/140. Infamy Tier 1.

Status Conditions: Bleeding x3, Weak Crippling Disease.]

[Human Cutpurse(3) - Underling. Rogue. HP: 42/90. Infamy Tier 1.

Status Conditions: Bleeding x2, Weak Crippling Disease.]

[Wood Elf Spotter(3) - Underling. Ranged. HP: 70/70. Infamy Tier 1.]

[Dwarf Hoodlum(3) - Underling. Fighter. HP: 24/120. Infamy Tier 1.

Status conditions: Bleeding x4.]

Woah, my underlings took a much more severe beating than I thought. I know I had to fight rats once again, but the low-level ones I fought back in the noob district wasn’t quite this lethal. First of all, the noob district rats couldn’t inflict bleeding or diseases, and they weren’t nearly this tough. The difficulty level skyrocketed, but I must admit that I am severely underleveled for this. The good thing that came from this though, is that I got a hefty bonus to my experience gains since I defeated much stronger foes. A few more fights like this, and it won’t be long until I reach level four.

It’s amazing that my newest Hoodlum managed to level up in this fight as well, no doubt because of the timely experience boom we received. It’s a good thing too since it looks like she was about to keel over before she leveled up as her health points are nearly depleted. She is just lucky that leveling up increased her health points by twenty. She might have been dead by now without it.

As my underlings slump to the ground and start tending to their wounds, my eyes catch the attention of the Poisoner. Being a non-combatant underling, the Poisoner stood idle through that entire encounter. Perhaps it was a mistake to invest in a specialist this early? I don’t really have a job for her. I could have made her carry some loot, but sadly, the rats don’t drop anything.

“What am I supposed to do with you?” I ask her, not expecting a reply. “Is there even anything you can do? Now would be a pretty good time for you to show off you know.” I chuckle as I shake my head. I’m glad no one is around to see this. I’m actually going so stir-crazy, I’m attempting to talk to a-

My thoughts are interrupted as the Poisoner starts moving towards the fallen level five rat beside me. She kneels down beside it and starts pushing it around. I move in closer, trying to see what she is up to. The Poisoner reaches for the cut-off rat tail, lifting it up in front of her eyes. Squinting at the limb, she conjures a tiny metal knife and cuts off the tip of the tail, handing it over to me.

Dumbfounded by her sudden actions, I inspect the piece of rat tail in her hands.

[Tip of a Sewer Rat’s Tail. Common Alchemical Ingredient.]

“What the hell!?” I blurt out. “You can harvest crafting ingredients?” I exclaim in a shocked manner. The research I did on the Poisoner said nothing of this. How is that possible?

I frown as I try to comprehend what I just witnessed. This seems like such a simple thing as well. Could it be that no one has discovered this yet? Or perhaps someone has, but they have neglected to tell anyone? That could make sense. It doesn’t look like it’s an automated feature since the Poisoner didn’t do anything until I asked. Could it be some sort of hidden feature? Any alchemist should be able to harvest ingredients, so why not? It should be one of the basic skills in any profession. It should be obvious. Perhaps it is too obvious? Who brings their Poisoner along on a grinding session anyway?

I wonder how far this feature extends. Can she harvest any ingredient? Or just alchemical ingredients? Can she then harvest any alchemical ingredient or only those useable in poisons? That might be a feature as well since I doubt every monster I kill will have the potential for producing ingredients I need. Perhaps I stumbled upon it by just pure luck.

Regardless, I can use this. This might be the tiny tip on the scales I need that will decide my future development path. Probably not, but one can always dream. First of all, though, I need to obtain those skill points.

We sit around for a good fifteen minutes and wait for the status effects to run out and for my underlings to naturally regenerate their hitpoints. It’s a slow process and takes far longer than it should, but that’s the downside of playing as a summoner class with no access to healing. My underlings may be strong, but they would be next to useless in a drawn-out battle. When they are finally done regenerating, and my Poisoner is done collecting the remaining two tail tips, we resume our walk down the tunnel.

We take extra care to avoid rushing into another close encounter, so I have my Cutpurse activate his stealth ability and walk on ahead. It shifts our formation, but with a forward scout, I no longer need both of my Hoodlums to stay upfront. We don’t have to walk for more than fifty meters or so until my Cutpurse turns around and heads back. Halting our advance, I wait for my Cutpurse to catch up to us.

“How many enemies are there?” I ask him. While the underling doesn’t really speak, I learned they can use basic sign language rather well. He holds up a single finger. One enemy, that’s good. “What level is it?” I ask. The Cutpurse raises both his hands, showing me six fingers.

Damn… That’s a tough enemy. I frown. Luckily, it’s only one of them, but the level difference might be too high for me to make a quick kill. The level difference actually matters quite much in this game as the mobs’ skill levels don’t work quite like the skill levels of players. I suppose adding individual status windows were either too taxing on the game system, or it was too difficult to balance, so the developers added a feature where the skills are exponentially more powerful on mobs compared to their opponents level. I don’t have the exact numbers in my head, but what my level three underlings might consider a tough fight versus two level five enemies, might just be impossible versus the same mob that is just one level higher. A level six enemy has three levels on them after all, even if my underlings are well geared.

Personally, I’d rather avoid getting close to the enemy in this fight. Since I haven’t invested a single point into Endurance, my character is super frail. I only have fifty health points after all. That could be enough for me to get one-hitted if the mob uses a powerful ability. Therefore, I decide to hand my crossbow over to my Spotter. I’m a fairly useless shot since I don’t have any skill points invested into it, and my Spotter has a compatibility with all ranged weapons. He should be able to make far better use of it than I.

With our preparations completed, I order my underlings to advance at a cautious pace. I put my Spotter upfront, intending for him to initiate the combat with a surprise hit with the powerful crossbow. After a few steps, a small creature comes into view.

“That’s not a rat...” I mutter, squinting my eyes. “Is that a slime?”

Up ahead in the tunnel is a small green gelatinous blob the size of a beach ball. There’s a thin transparent film that protects a body consisting almost entirely of a green liquid. It looks like a cartoon warning-label of what toxins should look like. When it moves, the entire body jiggles the same way jelly does when you poke it with a spoon. The only noticeable anomaly is a solid black sphere moving around inside its body. The slime core. I inspect the creature.

[Lesser Slime(6). HP: ???/???.]

Ouch. That’s a tough one…

I have fought slimes before. They are tough foes to fight, as their entire body is acidic, meaning just making contact with it will cause your health points to plummet. They are also prone to launching themselves short distances, attempting to pin their prey to the ground while slowly dissolving their bodies by drowning them in acid. This means that fighting one of these things is incredibly dangerous for any melee-oriented player.

The slimes have three weaknesses though. While their bodies are immune to physical damage, their core is the real weakness. It functions as the only organ in their bodies, which is what allows the entire blob of acid to move as one. It’s solid, so shattering it will cause the creature to die. It’s also weak to magic, or any alchemical reagents that can alter the composition of the acidic fluid that makes up its body. Unless it’s using a leap ability, the slime is also pathetically slow, which means that concentrated ranged fire is my only bet to safely take them down. That’s exactly what I’m going to do, but it is going to take a long time, especially since I only have one unit capable of inflicting ranged damage and the slime has a veritable mountain of health points to sustain it for a long time.

It’s a battle of attrition. Either my Spotter manages to wear the slime down, or the slime forces us into a corner or catches a stray underling unprepared with a leap. Luckily, I learned how to effectively hunt slimes when I was grinding monsters deep inside the Tal’Shalg forest when I was playing as a Necromancer. The best trick is to surround the slime, having my minions alternate between drawing the monster’s aggro, allowing my ranged minions to safely shave off its health points from a relatively safe position.

My Spotter takes aim and shoots a bolt at the slime. The bolt flies true, penetrating deep into the gelatinous body, impacting the core within. Jiggling in surprise, the slime starts gliding towards us.

“Go around it.” I order my veteran Hoodlum and Cutpurse. They immediately react, splitting up to either side of the tunnel. The Cutpurse takes the lead as he rushes off to the side, hugging the rightmost wall. Sensing his approach, the slime retracts its body, shaking for half a second before it bursts forward, launching itself towards the running Cutpurse.

Expecting the attack, the rogue dives forward, using his ‘Evasion’ skill to narrowly dodge the slime’s body. The slime crashes into the wall, splattering acid in every direction. The Cutpurse gets a few drops on his arm and thigh, and I can see him wince from the pain. The acid isn’t enough to do any major damage, but it should still hurt.

With the slime occupied on one side of the tunnel, the Hoodlum effortlessly slips past by the leftmost wall. With the slime successfully surrounded on both sides, the battle of attrition can truly begin. The Spotter loosens another bolt, once more shaking the slime’s core.

This process continues for a while. My Spotter fires bolts whenever he can, each and every time shaving off a few health points from the slow slime. He does miss a few times, but it only postpones the inevitable. The slime keeps trying to close the distance towards the Spotter, but every time it moves too far, either my Cutpurse or my Hoodlum steps closer, tricking the slime to try and leap backwards. There are a few close calls, but my underlings are capable of gauging the correct distance rather quickly and can safely backstep whenever the slime is about to leap.

It takes about fifteen minutes or so, but the slime’s core is eventually shattered, causing the slime to shudder once before it deflates into a puddle of smoking acid. This causes the familiar combat notification to appear, showing the massive experience gain I receive for killing such a high-level creature.

[You have slain Lesser Slime(6). Gain 75 experience.]

As soon as the slime dies, my Poisoner moves forward, quickly conjuring a glass vial from gods know where and starts scooping up the liquid acid. With the vial almost filled, she turns around and hands it over to me.

[Vial of Weak Slime Acid. Common Alchemical Ingredient.]

Nice, another ingredient. I grin as I rub my hands together. Who would have thought farming mobs in a sewer with an NPC Poisoner would produce this many ingredients? I’m starting to think these next few hours are going to be quite lucrative.