Instead of returning immediately after the quest, Alric, Thor, Reina, and Jess decided to explore a little bit and ended at the small patch of forest found just a little ways from the starting field. It wasn’t their intention, but in the course of having fun, they drifted within and decided to level up as much as they can.

That was how they usually played; their party liked to grind levels whenever they can. It wasn’t enough for it to be called grinding per se, they just wanted to stay on their toes before plowing on to higher level terrain. Their system usually consisted of trying to kill at least twenty of each kind of monster in the area. Apart from the needed number of monster to be exterminated, they also killed more than what was necessary. Then, when they had time, they also explored the vicinity.

They were about to call it quits when they heard growls coming from a particular area. Thinking that it was another adventurer or maybe an NPC that needed help, the group ran towards that direction without hesitation.

And so Alric and the group came upon a clearing within a forest which had a lake that flowed downstream.

The source of the noise came from a pack of wolves, about six of them. One of which looked bigger than the rest stood in front and was about to attack someone.

Or was it something?

Basing on the height, and how the wolves poised for attack, the monsters’ target seemed to be something real small.

“Yuyuyuyuyuyuyuyuyuyuyuyuyu!” a small squeaking sound was heard amidst the howling and growling.

“What’s happening?” Reina intoned as she tried to see the cause of the commotion, being the last to arrive at the scene.

“Something is being attacked by those wolves!” Answered Alric with a sense of urgency.

“Jess! Do you mind?” Thor yelled as he poised himself for battle.

“No need to ask me!” The green haired girl replied. Her back emitted a glow and an instant later, her wings burst forth with a shower of white lights. She unfurled it and hurriedly flapped them. The winds grew from the pressure as the featherfolk soared upwards.

It was one of the tactics that Thor came up with during the group’s strategy meetings. It has been particularly useful during rescue missions wherein they did not have any idea where their target is. The featherfolk ranger stopped after flying for about twenty feet to survey the situation.

“I’ve got visuals on seven wolves and their attacking…wait a minute…” Jess blinked a few times and even activated her [‘Hawk Eyes’] skill which allowed her to see at a further range. “They’re…little creatures!”

“We know they’re creatures! What kind!” Thor yelled as he readied his equipment. The wolves have already noticed their presence and shifted their attention towards them.

“I don’t know! It’s the first time I’ve seen them! They look like jelly Pillsbury doughboy-looking creatures!” Jess yelled back exasperated before lowering her altitude and settling on a tree trunk up high where she can freely snipe their enemies.

“Gotcha! [‘Lion’s Roar!’]” Thor activated his provoke skill, ultimately getting the attention of the monsters.

Alric stayed behind to protect Reina, while the mage started casting her spell. Before the first wolf was able to pounce on their tank, Reina already launched her attack.

Flurry of Ice, [‘Snowflake Assault!’]

This time, Alric was in closer proximity to hear Reina’s chant. Three snowflakes flew towards the first wolf, it froze some of its body parts, making it howl in agony. Thor followed up with a cross slash to finish it off.

The second and third wolf took this chance to attack Thor while he was busy but a spell and arrows from the back thwarted their advance.

“Devour! [Sea Serpent!]”

“[Triple Arrow Shot!]”

A stream of water shaped like a serpent and three arrows flew towards the approaching monsters. The two attacks split and launched towards different targets. Both successfully hit their intended mark, but the results were the same with the first wolf, the damage wasn’t enough to instantly kill them. One of the wolves quickly recovered and jumped sideways; its attention shifted to the player who dealt the damage.

“Don’t generate too much aggro! Alri—“ Thor was about to tell Alric to take care of the wolf which got away from him but the next instant,

“Eviscerate thine enemies! [Ice Lance!]”

Reina let loose another spell which pierced the wolf cleanly, the long projectile entered the mouth and exited out of its behind.

The wolf didn’t even have time to react; it plopped dead on the ground. From the way they succumbed to the attacks, it was apparent that the creatures weren’t that high leveled. If any player ventured to make a guess, the monsters would be around three or five. The leader of the pack was a different thing though. Unique monsters tended to be above the average levels of the monsters of their kind. Some were just a few levels above while others had as much as ten.

The other wolf that was hit finally recovered and tried to attack, but Thor intercepted and slashed twice which ended its life.

Down to four, Alric intercepted another wolf which also ran past the group’s tank. He ran towards it and used his momentum to jump in the air, holding his staff on one end and bringing down the other end swiftly on its skull.

The monster yelped in surprise as the maneuver kept it pinned on the ground. Taking advantage of the time that the monster was sprawled and defenseless, Alric rotated clockwise. He withdrew his weapon and split it into two. Using the momentum, he brought down the right stick followed by the left, ending the three-part combo. The wolf twitched and drew a few breaths before it finally died.

The thought of killing a creature that looked like something from real life didn’t even cross the party’s minds. Yes, it was too realistic, and the sight of the razor sharp fangs instilled fears in their hearts, but the need for survival prevailed. Plus, their instinct to save helpless creatures won them over.

“Doing good guys! Keep it up but don’t overexert-Aghh! Jess watch it with your arrows!” Thor yelled as an arrow flew past him, missing him by an inch.

“It’s not my fault! The wolves are moving too fast, and an aiming assist system doesn’t exist in this game!” Jess yelled back in return. The two of them always found something to fight about and an ongoing battle didn’t stop them from bickering.

The only good thing was, Thor and Jess never got distracted anymore. They were so used to it happening that it was second nature for them. Not that it was something like an achievement.

“Look lively you two! The leader is already making its move!” Alric informed them as he intercepted the remaining two wolves which ran past their tank. “I’ll take care of this Thor! Delay the boss as much as you can!”

~*~

It’s always been like this with him. By now, he’s already used to being in these kinds of situations. Ever since he was born, or ever since he could remember, he had already received such treatment. From the time when he was abandoned as a spriteling, up until now that he was near his coming of age, all his kind avoided him and treated him like a parasite.

A cursed sprite.

That’s what everyone called Hakuryuu.

It was easy to guess why Hakuryuu would be called as such since he did not possess what most sprites had. He lacked an element. Instead, his type was named as null, meaning having no element. A null sprite.

There are different kinds of sprites found in Infinitia. The first category was split into two, the domestic and wild sprites. Domestic sprites thrived with civilizations. They were found in homes, shops, inns and wherever they are needed. For example, fire sprites stayed in smithing shops. Water sprites often populated wells or aqueducts. It was normal for households to have more than one sprite with a particular element as they made chores much easier. Wild sprites on the other end are caretakers of nature. They ensured that flowers bloomed, trees grew, the waters and air remained pure.

A sprite without an element is no help at all, another reason why they’re considered useless.

Many stories have been attached to null sprites. Being cursed and signs of disaster were just some of them. None of which have ever been proven. Still, rumors had a mind of its own. It spreads faster than wildfires in dry forests. It was nasty enough that it could ruin the reputation of someone or something just by existing.

The Sprites usually alienated those who do not possess any element. Since null sprites were rare in the first place, the stigma grew as time passed. That’s how it usually is when someone out of the norm springs up and causes confusion. Not that it was intentional. You can’t find fault in their rarity as it was a known fact that null sprites do not live long.

Typically, normal sprites born with an element absorb the surrounding mana associated with their element. It’s a good reason why their habitats were next to their birth elements. You are likely to see water sprites near bodies of water while a volcano would have an abundance of fire sprites. Null sprites, on the other hand, are unable to get nourishment from the surrounding mana. That could be attributed as the main reason as to why they die out. Null sprites eventually ceased to exist and faded out of existence.

And so here they were stuck in this tribulation. It all started as an innocent stroll. But it quickly devolved into this mess when his curiosity, on what spritelings were doing outside the village boundaries, got the better of him.

Wolves, who were naturally sensitive to elements, noticed their presence and preyed on the two troublemaker spritelings. They were about to get devoured when he swooped in, brandishing a twig and placing himself between the spritelings and the wolves.

What the null sprite did was nothing short of heroic, to be more accurate, it bordered on suicidal. One look and you would see that the sprites were in grave danger. Aside from getting outnumbered, there was no way they could probably escape these monsters.

“Yuyuyuyuyuyuyuyuyuyuyuyuyu!”’Run! I’ll try to hold them off!’ Hakuryuu seemed to say to the spritelings. And yet none of them moved. They stayed rooted to where they were and kept shivering from fear.

The courageous sprite was about to lose hope, and he resolved himself to the fact that they wouldn’t return unscathed from this event. There was no silver lining in this situation. If they were lucky, at least one of them might survive, and being on the forefront meant it wouldn’t be him.

Hakuryuu closed his eyes, waiting for his imminent death. He hoped that it would come swiftly. That’s when he heard the sound of incoming footsteps running towards their direction.

“What’s happening?”

“Something is being attacked by those wolves!”

“Jess! Do you mind?”

“No need to ask me!”

Hakuryuu opened his eyes and saw humans running towards their direction. His labored breathing normalized a little as the attention of the wolves shifted. Still, he remained vigilant and didn’t let his guard down, uncaring whether he’ll be able to do something once the wolves indeed try to attack them.

It happened so fast. The large wolf, the leader of the pack, seemed to break free of the tank’s provocation by besting him. The muscled man fell on his butt as the wolf tackled him head on. Instead of helping his remaining wolf pack members, he rounded up and turned his attention back on its primary prey.

The world seemed to slow down for Hakuryuu; all sounds muffled as a huge shadow loomed over them. He could practically see the rows of sharp teeth descending towards his direction. Wanting to fly away as far as he could and yet his body won’t move, none of his limbs followed his command. Bracing for the inevitable, he closed his eyes and waited for the end.

A few seconds past, seconds which seemed like a lifetime, and yet Hakuryuu still felt…alive. Was he eaten whole? That was the first thing that entered his mind, and so he slowly opened his eyes fully expecting to find himself inside the jaws of the wolf. What he saw made his eyes widen in surprise. His button-shaped black eyes blinked a few times to make sure he didn't see an illusion.

One of the humans who helped the sprites, the smaller of the two men, intercepted the wolf’s attack. The wolf had its jaw embedded on the guy’s shoulder.

“Yu?...” Hakuryuu muttered in shock, at a loss of what to say, nevermind the fact that the human probably won’t understand him. But he was surprised at what the human did. It was the first time in his life that someone did something for him.

~*~

Alric made a grave miscalculation. Yes, he was able to fend off the attacks of one of the wolves somehow, while Reina and Jess took care of the other.

But between all that, the leader of the wolves switched tactics. It anticipated that Thor would be defending with his shield. The wolf shifted mid-attack and opted for a head-butt which propelled the hulking tank of his feet.

Alric realized a second too late that the wolf intended to attack the small creatures instead of advancing towards him. He summoned all his strength and dashed towards the creatures. ‘Damn it! I won’t make it in time!’ Mentally berating himself, he did the only thing he could think of at a time like this. Using his staff as a throwing projectile would be useless as it neither had a point nor enough weight to make it an effective throwing weapon. It will be like throwing a bark of a tree.

Aiming to defend using the staff wasn’t an option either as Alric didn’t have the time to set up his footing. It will just end up with him being endangered more. Dismissing the idea of using his arm to fend off the attack as he was still unsure if it was possible to lose an arm, with the knowledge of how realistic the game is, he opted for the next best thing.

“Devour! [Sea Serpent!]”

Alric’s hand outstretched and directed at the predator. The attack made the wolf drawback for a second, but it resumed its intent once the magic projectile sailed past it.

Alric succeeded in creating a time lag; it was all the leeway he hoped to achieve. Making it just in time; he felt the sharp pain of several sharp objects piercing his skin. His mind flashed white as the jaw closed in, blood sputtering everywhere as the jagged teeth of the wolf sank into his shoulder. He groaned in pain, as he was left momentarily immobilized.

“Alric-kun!”

“Alric!”

“You moron!”

Came the responses from his friends.

“It’s my job to get hurt! Don’t go stealing other people’s roles now!” Added the furious tank who was masking his worry by sounding pissed.

Thor felt responsible for what happened, he let his guard down and failed to read the movement of the enemy. As a result, he was unable to perform his job flawlessly. It was the tank’s job to intercept attacks and in worst case scenarios to take damage for the team. Best case would be that no one from the party aside from him took damage.

The tank wasn't arrogant; Thor knew that it was normal for unpredictable things to happen in battles. And yet he couldn’t stop himself from feeling guilty.

“[Shield Bash!]” Thor yelled as he maneuvered himself to the side and thrust out his shield, knocking the wolf off of Alric.

“Flurry of Ice, [Snowflake Assault!]”

“[Triple Arrow Shot!]”

Jess and Reina followed up with attacks which gave Thor ample time to support Alric into a standing position.

“Are you alright?” Thor checked his friends HP bar and found that it decreased considerably from the attack.

“Don’t worry about me…let’s just finish this off…” Wincing, Alric raised the staff once more.

“Alright, let's make a pincer attack. Jess! Keep sniping it with your arrows! Reina-chan! Finish it off with your ice lance spell!”

“Gotcha!” “Will do!” The two replied simultaneously, all of them understanding Thor’s tactic.

The plan right now was to overwhelm the wolf boss, and it will be easy to execute since their positions allowed for the best tactical advantage. Jess and Reina were at one side, Thor standing between them and the wolf while Alric stood on the opposite side, protecting the creatures from their assailant. The wolf had to be wary of attacks from the front and back.

A few seconds passed, and the two men moved in sync, rushing forward to attack simultaneously. Jess chose the right time to let loose a few arrows which hindered the wolf’s movement. Failing to dodge, it received the full brunt of attacks from the two melee characters.

Reina had her right arm raised and her eyes closed as she muttered an incantation. She was using a passive skill of hers that allowed her to multiply the damage and effects of her spells. The spell didn’t require an incantation but being the otaku-chuuni that she is, she felt it was a waste not to do anything while her spell activated.

“Envoy of frost, emissary of darkness

I call upon thee, great wolf of destruction

In accordance with our blood covenant

Destroy the boundaries of space

Magic thrummed in the air as Reina continued her chant. A light blue rune circle appeared beneath her; it grew bigger as she continued to gather magical energy. The mist formed into small particles of snow which then grew in length. At first, the size was the same as the ones that Reina usually released, but with her continued release of magical power, the ice lance grew three times its size.

Grant thy wish, son of Jötunheimr

Turn this world into a frigid wasteland

Show mercy to thine unfortunate souls

Eviscerate thine enemies! [‘Ice Lance!’]”

The huge wolf tried to evade the relentless attacks raining upon it. Eventually, its movements became sluggish as it accumulated damage after damage from the incessant barrage of attacks.

Once Reina shouted the release of her spell, Alric and Thor jumped to the side in a practiced way. Clear evidence that they were no stranger to these kinds of tactics borne from years of playing together.

The wolf got caught in surprise at the sudden retreat of its opponents that it failed to notice the ice lance heading its way. In a split second, the sharp edge bored into the wolf’s chest area and continued its trajectory. The whole length of the weapon completely embedded into the monster with both ends sticking out on each side. It appeared as if the whole monster got struck by a huge barbecue stick; only the pole was made out of pure ice.

The monster looked almost majestic, with its larger than usual build signifying its status as a pack leader of fearsome monsters. His great head raised to the heavens as if in supplication, one of its front paws poised to strike. With the ice lance, his form was locked into place, ice starting to eat at the surrounding flesh. Blood spilled on the ground and around the area, the liquid slowly froze as the spell spread out its effects.

“Everyone alright?” Thor, being the party leader, made sure that everyone was alive. Or at least not in the brink of death.

“We’re okay!” Answered Jess as she flew down from the branch she perched on during the entire battle. The ice mage ran towards Alric with a worried expression, her actions a response in itself that she was also alright.

“I’m fine…nothing a little potion won’t cure.” While Alric was reaching for the potion from his pouch, his gaze drifted to the little creatures whom they saved.

The gray colored one seemed to have calmed down, although the gaze it was giving him appeared to be a bit intense. After a while, it turned around and went towards his two friends.

The two little creatures, one colored bluish green while the other is sky blue, have stopped shivering by now but they were still sitting on the ground.

The gray colored one reached out a flabby little appendage, which can only be considered an arm, to help the two.

What happened next surprised their so called “saviors”. Instead of accepting the outstretched arm, one of the creatures stood up and slapped the arm away.

“Kikikikikiki! Kiki! Kiki!” The little blue-green thing intoned, the pitch of his voice getting higher as he talked hinting that it must have been screaming.

The sky blue one followed suit and stood up. It picked up a little stone and threw it towards the gray one. The only thing the poor creature could do was cover himself with his tiny hands.

“Hey!” Alric interjected, worried at the ongoing conflict.

“That’s not very nice!” Reina called out, just behind Alric’s comment.

The two little things flinched from being called out. They hurriedly floated up and fled towards some bushes where they vanished from sight as if they were sucked into a portal of sorts.

The gray creature was the only one left by this time, and the little thing looked deflated. It turned towards the group and stared at Alric once more.

Alric’s head tilted to the side, unsure what would happen next. And yet he didn’t break eye contact with it. It stared at him with a look full of respect before it slowly bowed its head as if to show its gratitude. Before long it slowly hovered in the air before it also disappeared in the same place where the first two creatures entered.

“Alric-kun, you really should drink that potion. I think the wolf’s bite had a bleeding effect…your health is still decreasing.” Reina intoned in worry, peeking at her friend's yellow health bar that indicated he received considerable damage. Enough that put the bar to less than half, about a third of the normal health left.

Infinitia Online wasn’t like other RPG’s where health points and mana points had a numerical coefficient. Instead, players referred to the health and mana bar through percentage.

So how did players measure their overall vitality and mana expenditure? Through experience. Not the kind that you earn from defeating monsters, but actual practice in battle. It relied on the player’s skill to monitor these values. That was why it was important for healers, mages, and tanks to be vigilant.

A lot of factors played a part in determining these, but the only confirmed ones include level, race, passive abilities, chosen class, equipment, and titles. Usage is also a primary reason since tanks which always took damage seemed to possess more health whereas mages possess a higher mana capacity. True, people can say that status is directly proportional to health because always using your magic points and constantly being wounded directly increased their primary status, vitality, and intelligence. Then again, some bonuses or upgrades directly affect the health and mana without adding to vitality and intelligence.

And although rare and hard to come by because of the rarity of its ingredients, status raising potions is also a factor.

Aside from the confirmed factors, there were also unconfirmed rumors circulating. The most prominent one is that “state of the mind” and “state of the body” affects the health and mana bar. It doesn’t necessarily add to the overall total but in the usage. Regarding the “state of the body” rumor, it's said that if your character was “fit” within the game, then it would give a positive effect on damage mitigation. It seemed as if it were tailored to real life wherein physically fit people tend to have better health. The “state of the mind” pertained to how focused and psychologically healthy you are which translated to how faster and more efficient the brain processes information. With this, spells seemed to require less mana to cast and the casting time became shorter compared to being preoccupied or psychologically unhealthy.

Alric obediently drank the potion he fished out of his satchel. As he drank the potion, the sharp prickly pain he felt started to dull. His eyes weren’t on the health bar on the upper left of his screen. His attention was drawn to the equidistant deep gashes in the shape of thick teeth around his shoulder area. The wound stopped bleeding the moment he started drinking but seeing the wound close up, the muscle and skin regenerating until the injuries were no more than just pink round shaped spots where the wounds initially were, was a thing of wonder.

What bothered him now was that his beginner equipment was already damaged. Pretty soon, he’d have to have it fixed or maybe upgrade it to something more suitable for his level.

“What do we do with these?” Asked Reina, looking at the wolf carcasses littered around the area.

“We collect it and either sell it whole to the butchers, or we get their fur for equipment or their meat for food.” Thor answered, using previous knowledge from online games.

Looking at the wreckage left by the intense battle, Alric still can’t believe what happened. It was a good thing they grinded levels a bit with the gummies. He had full confidence that they somehow won the confrontation just because they earned a few levels and some ability points.

The new skills and spells demonstrated by his party mates were the fruit of that labor. They each gained enough points to create them.

Thor opted to get an ability involving offensive shield usages, thus taking Weapons Mastery: Shield. It is an ability that is different from Shield Mastery. The former focused on weaponizing the shield to be useful in battle while the latter aimed at increasing it’s defensive usage. Then his first skill Shield Bash was born, plans included adding a staggering or dizzying effect when hit by his shield bash.

Jess, on the other hand, focused on enhancing her damage and aim with the bow through Bow Mastery. The first bloom she took in this ability was Ranger’s Grip. Her skill lessened the trembling of an archer’s aim. Automatic aim assist skills did not help in aiming for monsters. That would defeat the purpose of having a long ranged weapon, and it would also become overpowered and unrealistic.

Their ice mage chose to use the supplement skill she created from her character core. Overcharge, a passive skill that allowed the caster to enhance the damage or effects of the spell by not releasing it immediately. The mage's continuously poured in mana into the spell and only released it once they’re satisfied with the strength of the spell they want to unleash. Most spells only grew in size or numbers, but in rare occurrences, the spell changed form and created a much more powerful version.

Alric really needed to step things up and figure out what he wanted to do with his character. That was the only way he could be of more help to his team. “There’s still time, why don’t we train our levels more before going back?” Everyone gave their affirmative, and proceeded to hunt wild boars they found populating the area.

~*~

Alric found himself smiling looking at how he and his friends moved naturally as a team. Just like how Thor envisioned it, everyone had their roles to fill, and they moved as if they have one and the same body. While this may sound trivial, team dynamics isn’t something you can learn overnight. The biggest contributor is still team battle experience.

By now, they could read not just the body language of their teammates, or flawlessly follow the issued orders of Thor. Instead, they have learned to read the atmosphere, the status of the battle they are in and react to the situation.

But still, that wasn’t the reason why they played games together. It was the unspoken reason that they enjoyed each others company.

They killed a few more mobs even after hitting their quotas before deciding to call it quits and head back towards the quest giver.

The NPC thanked them graciously and gave them their reward of one hundred silver nuggets. Apparently, that’s what the currency is called within the game. Although the currency is named as such, it didn’t look like real silver nuggets. In fact, it looked like coins that had symbols on each side. Thinking that the name sounded like chicken nuggets, Alric felt his stomach growling.

The effect was instantaneous.

Alric’s companions had startled reactions as they looked at him. “W-what? What’s wrong?” He thought it was weird that his friends had baffled looks.

“That’s weird. This game didn’t have that kind of system before. I didn’t hear that hunger or satiety system will be implemented either.” Mentioned Thor who had one of his hands on his chin.

Things started to look up…or so Alric thought. It was just on his luck for this thing to eventually happen. It was him, of course, things were bound to take a turn for the worst. All his life he’s been guarded and came up with an understanding that fate just wasn’t on his side. That was why he was always vigilant for these things; it was always like he was waiting for the other shoe to drop. Just when he thought that things would be alright…

Alric’s friend, who always dealt with things lightly and laughed out loud, had a brooding expression. That in itself caused them all to worry.

“Hey! Thor! You’re scaring us…maybe you just didn’t hear about it. There’s no reason to—”

Panic.

That was what Jess wanted to say but before she could finish screams erupted from within the town. It was mind boggling because it was loud enough to reach their ears. They were already outside the city walls, but it was still overwhelming.

Up until the present, Alric couldn’t erase in his memory the sounds of the wails of despair and the shouts of anger made by the players of the game that reverberated all throughout the town. The noise was loud enough for even adventurers outside the gate to hear them.