(Luca)

Lord Zack never returned last night. Everyone else fell back asleep, but I stayed up, hoping to see him return. Even Kit fell asleep, after chasing Max away. For the sixth time. And then I bopped Max on the head, so he went up to his bed and went back to sleep.

Right now, I'm fixing myself breakfast, because everyone else is asleep. Blueberries, grapes, strawberries, sausage slices, cheese slices, crackers, bananas, and a mango. I found a mango, and it looked strange, so I bought it. And now I'm going to get to try it.

I finish setting up my breakfast, then remember to grab some milk to drink, too. Everything ready, I dig in. The mango is alright. I bet it'd taste better with some of that delicious, sweet cream Lord Zack makes. I smear it on all of my fruit when he gives it to us.

Maybe that's why he doesn't give it to us much? He says it's meant for fruit, but then rarely gives it to us when we have fruit. Something about it having too much sugar in it. I don't get that, the fruit already has a lot of sugar, doesn't it? He said that when he said the cream had too much sugar in it.

As I eat, Sir Nik shows up, but he doesn't have Lord Zack this time. Strange. Usually, if Lord Zack isn't here and Sir Nik shows up, Sir Nik is carrying Lord Zack. So this is very strange. And why does he look so amused?

"Good morning, Luca," Sir Nik greets me from the entryway, and I wave at him. "May I enter?"

I nod as I shove a handful of grapes in to my mouth, then bite off a piece of strawberry for some extra delicious flavor.

"Zack is at the Dark Temple," Sir Nik tells me as I chew. "He's taking a two-day break from training and is helping do other stuff in that time, to help rest his body a bit."

I bet Sir Nik had to tie up Lord Zack to get him to take a break, but he's not telling us that Lord Zack is tied up because that would be weird. Did they draw on his face, too? I drew on Max's face.

"So," Nik says. "You guys won't be seeing Zack for a couple of days."

Yeah, they definitely tied him up and drew on his face.

I bet he'll wiggle his way out, then draw on their faces. Because he's Lord Zack, and that's the sort of thing he'd do. He might even tie them all up.

"Luca, dampen down your imagination for a few minutes," Sir Nik tells me. "As you won't be seeing Zack for a few days, the four of you are free to do as you please, but we do recommend you're careful about what you do if you leave Maelnor. Can you pass that on to the others?"

I nod as I shove some crackers, cheese, and mango into my mouth and start chewing.

"Thanks," he says. "Enjoy your couple of days without Zack, Luca."

Nah. It probably won't be as enjoyable as it would be if Lord Zack where here.

I wave at him, and he leaves. I wash my food down with some milk, then resume eating. After I finish eating, I wash out my cup, then decide on what to do for today. I want to train with my new Class, since I'm sure I'll gain some decent Levels in it.

Yeah, I should do that, which means going out into the fields. Should I go up against some slimes? Or should I go into the forest and battle some goblins? The forest also has wolves and spiders, though, so I'm not sure. Well, the wolves and spiders live deeper in, so I should be fine.

Okay! I know what I'm doing!

After checking my Inventory to make sure I have enough food for today, I head out. I feel like there was something I was supposed to do before I left, but that's okay. I'll figure it out if it's important, and if not, well, there's a reason I forgot it in the first place.

I leave Maelnor through the South Gate. Most of the money slimes here are already dead, so they've been repopulating with the normal variety of them. Perfect! I make my way to a secluded section of these fields, ignoring the slimes that want to fight. They give up if I run fast enough.

The best section for me to train without others noticing me is near the furthest southern edge of the fields, by Lake Naelmar. It looks pretty, and if it weren't so chilly, I bet I'd want to swim in it. Sadly, it's full of monsters.

Lord Zack could probably swim in it and get ignored by all the monsters. They'd all flee to the other side of the lake just when he showed up! Yeah, he's awesome. I want to be like that, so I need to train!

After making sure my cloak is fixed on right, I adjust my grip on my staff, then look around. Found a Flame Slime! Level 1, too. I hold out my left hand, and a ball of water forms, then blasts forward, slamming into the Flame Slime.

Insta-kill. Damn. I need to fight something stronger.

Oh, right. Flame Slimes receive double damage from water spell Skills. Duh. Water Slime! Hah! That one took the attack and tried absorbing it, since it was made of water. Sadly, I still killed it in just two attacks.

Oh, right.

151 Intellect is a fair bit more than a Level 1 normal slime variety, even if the attack only does twenty percent of that as damage. I suppose I could go after the Level 5's. Found one! I blast it, and it takes more than two hits hits to kill. Nice! Ooh! More are coming my way! Yay!

I use Water Jet to blast the monsters, remembering a bit too late that I need to Level Water Ball first. Water Jet is already at Level 4 because of me using it in Talorn, and so I can hit Tier 2 of Elementalist once I get the Experience for it and Water Ball is Level 3. Heck, I don't even need to Level Water Jet until I'm reaching for Tier 4, since Tier 3 needs it at Level 3.

With that in mind, I return to using Water Ball at every Slime I can, regardless of its Level. I have plenty of Mana to use, and it recovers nicely. Even if I run out, I'll be able to use a new Water Ball every ten seconds. Less than that, but I'm not Lord Zack or Max, I can't just do decimals in my head when figuring out stuff like that.

Plus, I still have potions leftover from Lord Zack's supply of them.

He probably stole them all.

That, or just looked at the alchemist or shopkeeper and just got shoved a few crates of them. How many did he get, anyway? I got the feeling he had plenty more leftover after the Candy Beast, since he shoved a bunch on Gold and Aurum when he thought we weren't looking.

Focus, Luca! Back to work!

Eek!

Something hit me in the back!

I turn around and glare at the slime. Oh, it's an Elite Fire Slime. Time to die, punk! No shooting me in the back! Holding out my hand, I begin blasting it with Water Ball after Water Ball. This is my turf, you stupid slime! No attacking me!

The Elite Flame Slime doesn't just sit there and take my attacks. It moves around, shoots fire at me, even throws a few Fireballs, too. But my cloak is pretty protective, and I can block most of the ones going at my face and hands.

Hehe. One just hit me in the face. It only took out 10 Health. That's awesome! I have 166 Willpower, so that means it only has around 150 Intellect! That's around the same as me! A real fight! A battle of the mages! Time to die!

We continue shooting attacks at each other, the Elite Flame Slime moving in a circle around me. A Heal Slime shows up and heals it a bit, but I kill that with a Water Jet, then return to attacking the Flame Slime. Mostly, I just turn in a circle. Whenever my Health drops to half, I use Heal to bring it back up. I only have 220 Health, so that's over-restoring.

It takes me almost four minutes to kill the stupid thing. Stupid, stupid thing! But I got some nice stuff from it. What the heck is a Fire Shard?

I pull it out of my Inventory. It's about as long as my middle finger. The one on my left hand. It's about half as thick as my finger, and tapers off a little towards the ends. The Fire Crystal is a bit like a crystal, as its name implies, and it's reddish and orangish at all once. It's also warm to the touch.

I use Appraisal on it, so I can read its information. Yay! It's showing up!

Fire Shard

A shard of a flame crystal, which can be used to imbue items with a flame or heat enchantment, or fused with other Fire Shards to make a Fire Crystal.

Is it edible?

No, it's not edible. It also nearly burned my tongue.

Hm. Maybe I should try to get a Water Crystal? Or several Water Shards to make one? That sounds like a lot of work, though. But I want a Water Crystal for a new staff. Put it at the top, and boom! A proper wizard's staff! Those are in the stories Lord Zack tells us. That, and ones Sir Travis had for me to read while we were training.

Boo-ya! Killed another slime! Mwa-ha-ha-ha-ha! I am the master of this region! Everything must die!

Eeek!

That's definitely a Bounty Beast! It's named! And it's looking right at me! Eeek! Run away! Run away!

As I run, I remember something. Water Ball now does sixty percent of my Intellect as damage, while Water Jet does one hundred percent. But if I give myself a Blessing of Intellect… I will do even more damage! Hah!

Blessing of Intellect! Now… Water Jet!

I spin and use Water Jet, blasting the Bounty Beast slime. It continues advancing, and I allow Water Jet to run for the full eight seconds it can with it being at Level 4. When the attack stops, I look at the damage notification.

Target -0 Health

Noooo!

Abort! Abort!

I take off running again. Ruuuuuun!

(Gavin)

Where in the Boundary did Luca run off to? Kit was sleeping when he woke up, it seems, and I don't think Zack returned – Max said he can't smell Zack's recent tracks. I'm assuming that means he can't pick up a scent from Zack newer than the last time we saw him.

Max did manage to track Luca's scent a little, but then he lost it because Luca traveled through a pretty well-traveled area, and people have been moving around through it since Luca passed by. That disrupted the trail, I guess.

"I think I know where Luca went," Braden says.

"Where?" I ask, then follow his gaze. It's towards the southern portion of the City. Towards the walls, actually. "What's that way?"

"Fields," Braden answered. "And a place where we wouldn't go to train. I think Luca's working on his new Class in private."

"Oh, no," I realize.

The three of us look at each other as horror sets in, then we take off running through Maelnor, getting to the fields as soon as possible.

"Luca!" Max exclaims, dropping to all-fours and taking off.

"Wait up!" I exclaim as he advances far ahead of us.

I have to use Dash, but can't keep up with him. He's got five or six times my Agility. Braden does, too.

Suddenly, I find myself hoisted up by the ranger, who slings me over his shoulder as he follows after Max. His breathing gets heavy fast, but he sets me down once we reach Max. Braden bends over, resting his hands on his knees as he catches his breath. He's not that strong, even if he's strong. Running with weight is different than simply running, after all, and he's not used to that.

We look at Max, who is staring at a pile of slimes in confusion. There are around forty of them just piled up on each other twenty yards away, a giant Earth Slime just sitting there behind the pile, staring at it.

Su'Numal Level 25 Health: 9,472 Mana: 12,863

"Uh…" I say. "Let's not get any closer."

"Max smell Luca!" Max points at the slime pile.

"What?" I ask.

"Luca!" Max points at the pile.

"I think he's saying Luca's under that pile," Braden says.

"Yeah!" Max explains as horror fills me again.

"Luca has that cloak," Braden says. "Those are all regular and regular elemental slimes. Nothing too powerful. If he's wrapped himself up completely in the cloak, he's safe. Only the Bounty Beast poses a threat to him, but it looks like it's annoyed by the others jumping on top of Luca."

Why was Luca on the ground, though?

Unless he tripped or something. He doesn't have much stamina, so he must have just collapsed while running from Su'Numal. That thing has got to be a lot more powerful than us.

"What should we do?" I ask.

"Easy!" Max exclaims excitedly, pulling off his tunic and sending it into his Inventory. "Get messy!"

He charges forward, running with just his feet as he holds his right arm back, hand cupped as if holding something thick.

"Flame Lance!"

A lance of fire forms over his palm, and when he takes another step forward, Max flings the lance forward, and it soars straight at the Earth Slime, which notices just in time for the lance to pass over the slime pile.