Chapter 16: Level and Stats Are Not Everything.

It was the full moon night again. The time had come for me to help the trios I’d met back then. A promise made on a whim and with a sense to test one of this game’s hardest type of event; Field Active Time Event or known as, FATE.

By this time, I had levelled up to level 18 while the other two were at level 21. I had equipped Elly with proper equips this time; an additional shield and also some accessories that boosted up her attack and defence rating and also her maximum HP. During the time, she had increased her Shield Bash and Chaotic Strike to Level 2. For Rose, she could not be equipped with anything but her stats were still very impressive. Her Max HP was above 3500 HP and Max Mana was more than 1500 MP. In addition to being the one with the highest HP and MP, she had some ‘naughty’ skills, especially the one called ‘Kiss me, maybe?’. A confusion skill that not only disoriented the enemies but also saps their HP and Mana at the same time.

For me, whether it was just my fate or otherwise, I ended up being the supporting cast. Equipping myself with a wand, a proper magician robe and accessories that raised my Max MP and Magic Attack Rating, I was the party healer. Elly was designated as my main tanker and attacker and Rose was my main debuffer, mobbing and kiting expert. I now acted like a proper pimp minus the bling; ordering two girls into the battle while I looked from afar and cast Heal and Respite anytime they needed it.

We had ventured into a few maps beyond the City of Asgardia and the monsters level here was quite low. The highest was a level 20 medium sized furry creature; a Toopie – a large squirrel that carried a club on its tail. Extremely fast, agile and packed a mean whack. If it was not for Rose’s abilities, Elly would face more troubles than she needed. I joined those two from time to time but for now, my role was to coordinate our attacks. Using the aforementioned strategy and role, we progressed quite well. We could advance into higher level farming fields but it served no purpose for now. Besides, I still had my earlier promise to fulfil.

We continued to farm at nighttime when the night buffs came into the effects. During the day, we were free to do some fetching item quests, fulfilling basic requests by the NPCs in the city or killing the low-levelled monsters. And of course, earning ourselves some coins. After spending on the best equips for our levels, I was now left with a little more than 8 gold coins.

And I gained a couple more skills at basic levels which Mimi has taught me before she left with her husband to the Royal Capital a few days ago. I needed those skills to grow Rose better, she said. However, before I could check the progress of all my skills, I was interrupted suddenly by a shout calling for my name.

*****

“Ghost!!” Sophia ran towards me at full speed. Followed behind her was the other two, Miranda and Alviss. She took a moment to compose herself before uttered her words. “I’m happy that you came.”

“Took you long enough. I was tired of waiting.” I teased Sophia. But she mistook my words as a reprimand as she apologized to me profusely. Amidst her apologies, Alviss was the one who spoke next. “You are way too early.”

“Good! I wanted to discuss our strategies before we enter the FATE.” I gave my reason but his response was not what I was looking for. He just laughed at it and said to my face “I remembered what you said back then. That we must be level 40 and above to do this quest.”

Did I say that? I did not think so. He must have misheard or misunderstood me.

“So, all of us came here, now level 40 and above.” He thumped his shield on the ground; tripled the size of Elly’s. What seemed likely to be an act of visually measuring the size of his shield against hers, he then gave out a condescending look and snorted.

“I see.” I might know what he wanted to say next. Something that every player would always say. Arrogance had no boundaries, after all. Another poor attempt at dick measuring contest. I had seen it both in war and in games.

“Since we are now well equipped compared to last time, we can handle this.” He sneered at me, much to my displeasure and Sophia’s. She came to my defence at once.

“Don’t you say that. He helped us once.” But Miranda quipped her immediately. “That was in the past. Now we are stronger, we don’t even need his help, right Alviss?” She then laughed for a while before continued, “Look at his attire and that girl. Looked like a proper poor low-levelled player.” She then turned her face in disgust. Just 3 weeks in game-time and now the two of them acted like a bunch of high-class prissies.

“Hush, Miranda. Don’t say the truth that might hurt them. Though they look like poor low-levelled players, they could be of great use… as bait.” The two of them laughed out loud. “Perhaps they can’t even be a proper bait. Not with that shabby armour that girl wear.” Miranda continued to mock us.

“Yeah, but of course, if he still wants to join us, I’ll always welcome him. I’m a Holy Knight after all. Besides, our future Guild Master was nice enough to let us help him…” His voice was full of sarcasm and contempt even though his words might have seemed to others as a model of benevolence and paragon. He must have burnt the memory of me disgracing him in front of the girls. And Miranda too was delighted by Alviss’ words. Like him, she too held a petty grudge against me. All except for Sophia who tried her best to pacify us.

Well, I did not mind playing a pacifist… for 2 seconds. I gave out a mischievous grin. Pausing for a little while, I then extended my hand for a shake and once Alviss grabbed mine thinking that I agreed to him, I pulled him closer to me and said, “Over my dead fucking body!” Then I head-butted him out of pure spite.

That took him by surprise as I shoved him away and made towards the deeper part of the forest with Elly and Rose who hid in my breast pocket. “See you in the FATE.” Sophia chased after me but I stopped her immediately. “Help that Holy Knight and the archer. I had three in my party, so you don’t need to feel pity for me.”

The FATE was about to start as the sky now turned red into the twilight. I looked at the trio and then smirked. “Tell you what. Why don’t we make a bet?”

Alviss looked at me, rubbing his forehead and then to the rest of his parties before nodding at me. “What do you want to bet?” He asked while snorted in disgust. I should never have saved these people in the first place anyway. Such a petty fellow.

“Easy. Whoever kills the most monsters and got the most points out of it in the FATE, win. The mobs worth 10 points each and the Boss 50 points. The losers will do anything the winner tells him. If I win, you will crawl below my legs and then howl like a beaten dog.”

My challenge was met by surprise from all of them. “Of course, you don’t have to take it if you all are cowards like the other day I helped you. Run with tails between your legs. Hahaha!!” I exaggerated my loud laugh to taunt them further. Alviss was shaking with anger and he looked straight at me.

“You got it, arsehole.” Hook, line and sinker in record time. What an idiot. Didn’t need much effort to tip this guy to do silly things. Anyway, the kill count was easy to keep in check. As I found out from players and NPCs, the pack came in a group of 7 each and the Dire Wolf led 3 packs. And the number of the wolves we need to dispose of would appear on our quest screen.

Initially, I was quite surprised the PCs reception of this quest. They told me that the FATE had nothing to do with any job quests. Asking around, I found it to be true. There were job quests that one could take to advance further but none involved this particular FATE. In fact, there was no one else that was here except my party and Alviss’. In other words, this FATE was kind of abandoned, not just because it was quite impossible to be accomplished but also unrewarding at best. The last party that tried and was successful belonged to the city’s currently governing guild.

Something did not add up and I wanted to ask them. But before that happened, Alviss and Miranda decided to mock me. Not that I care what they said but then again they needed some hard lessons and I had nothing better to do than playing an arse-hole and delighted myself a little. I was not some guy with halos on my head. The promise they made to me was soon forgotten and they removed their names from my friend-list except for Sophia. Not that we talked any but then again, I found those other two to be nothing but petty. Fortunately, I found Sophia; for all her time spending levelling with these people, pleasant enough though she was much on the apologetic side.

“Cool, let’s get started,” I replied coldly as the FATE system message appeared not too long after.

*****

“You two still remember our plans?” Elly nodded while Rose extended her roots upwards, caressing my cheek. We had been practising the routines for quite a while leading to the FATE whether in the Practice Hall or the field. However, the unexpected turn of events had slightly altered my original plans.

“Good girls. We will now let those three become our meatshield, especially that Holy Knight. We would make his knightly dream come true with his holier-than-thou attitude.” I snickered. Knowing them, they would have some plan revolving around the Holy Knight charging towards the front, the archers sniping from afar and the mage to support and heal them whenever necessary. Typical but would also mean the death of them.

“Remember Elly. Keep your aggro lower than that pretty-boy as much as possible. And Rose, pull one of them towards the circle I make when I say so, not before, alright?” We were going to killsteal them. The bet was who killed more, anyway.

“Understood!” The two of them answered simultaneously with excitement. Rose gave me this weird salute with her long arms. She looked like a talking ginseng with a couple of leaves on her head more than a rose plant and when she did that salute, I could not help it but to chuckle a little. Somehow it did make me feel proud. Guessed they were not deterred by the level difference and the night buffs.

I then proceeded to make a couple of wide circles with 10 feet radius using extremely flammable items made of a combination with sulfur, nitrate, potassium and ammonium. In a layman term, I used fertilizer mixed with gunpowder. Readily available in NPCs store as part of farming and botanical needs.

I looked at the sight a little further from us, about 70 feet away while preparing my team. The other party was busy fighting the wolves as I predicted, taking the whole aggro of no less than 10 wolves at once. As soon as they saw the first pack of the wolves, the Holy Knight charged on right away. I could not help but to shake my head and let out a sigh as I stood in the middle of the circle. Rose was next to my leg and Elly stood in the other circle all alone. I had casted Stone Skin on all of us prior entering the circle.

“Pick that one, Rose!” I pointed to the furthest wolf that was surrounding them. Immediately, Rose launched an underground attack; Thorn Vines and struck the wolf cleanly. Getting a free hit from the back meant it was a critical backstab and we had earned ourselves an aggro. That wolf, together with the one beside it came towards us. As soon as they were within Elly’s skill range, I called out her name. She responded splendidly.

“Shield Taunt!” Elly screamed, changed her stance and then bashed the front of the shield with her sword. The two wolves suddenly changed their direction towards Elly. As predicted, the Shield Taunt skill worked well. It did not just only increase the enmity and hate on her, but also served as a buff to increase her defence and attack rating although the increment was still on the lower side. Once the wolves entered her circle, I immediately lighted it up with fire and that created a flame wall; sealing off Elly with her two foes.

“Rose, now!” I instructed the Alraune to stop one of the wolves’ movements with her Vine Hold skill. An AOE attack that trapped enemies’ movement with viny tendrils from the underground. Struggling to get free initially, the wolf now became an easy target for us to finish it off. Elly would tank the other one as Rose would attack the moving wolf from afar. Vine Hold could last quite a while and was pretty durable, so we needed not to worry about the enemy that was trapped in it. At most, we could seal its mouth and twisted the legs in an unnatural way, pointing outwards thus locking the joints. And I only needed to Heal and Respite Elly alternately. And added to that, I casted Poison, Rot, Eewww! on both of the wolves. The flame wall was created to stop the other wolves from entering our attack range thus making it hard for us to concentrate. We knew our limits. Since there were just three of us now, this was one of the alterations of the plan I had to do for now. I’d to improvise as we go further in.

And it did not take long to put both of the wild animals down. As Elly dealt the final blow, I looked towards how was the other trio were doing. They just took one down, but their conditions were not so good. The wolves were concentrating their attacks on Sophia who had pulled the aggro because of her healing skills. That pretty-boy was no use at all. Not only he failed to pull the aggro, but he injured himself too much for Sophia to cast her healing skills nonstop. And judging by the amount she had healed, I’d hazard a guess that she was more offensive type rather than healer type. Any healer worth her salt would know damn well not to pull aggro when healing.

And the archer’s attack was quite useless as she missed more than she hit. High Dexterity did not mean accurate and precise attacks at all time. It helped to increase the chances to land an attack by adjusting the game mechanism but it did not mean that it would definitely be a 100% hit. There was no such thing as an auto hit in NPO. Without proper skills, techniques and talents, using any weapons would be difficult. Especially using a ranged weapon like a bow. And a fast, agile, dexterous and deadly foes were any archers’ worst nightmare. They were wrong to choose an archer into the FATE in the first place.

And the wolves were not going to surround them and then did nothing. Each with five attacks and coming from no less than 4 of them at a time, those three were looking at 20 attacks simultaneously.

“Rose, another round and this time, I’ll aggro.” And then we began again as I changed my equips. This time, we took 3 wolves towards us. Well, it was a little hard for me but with Elly and Rose’s help, I could manage anyhow.

*****

“Ghost, aren’t you going to help them?” Elly asked as we put down the 5th wolf. She was still concerned about the other party, but I rejected her request stone-cold. I just walked off from the place and moved on toward the second pack. We had pulled five from the 10 that was attacking them. If they could not handle the balance, perhaps they might really lose the bet. That would teach them a little.

I gave out a snicker. Rose quietly hummed inside my breast pocket as I pulled Elly’s hand towards our next destination. “I’ll help them if they needed it when they needed it. For now, let’s clean up the next pack.”

Averaging at level 30, those wolves were no pushovers. For the next pack, I needed to divide and defeat the foe separately. Taking the whole pack would stretch Elly’s tanking abilities and then mine to heal her. Luckily for us, the next pack consisted of 5 wolves. I would take three wolves and Elly two. Rose would help her first as I could actually scatter my targets with Eewww! skill and then ‘Kiss me, maybe?” from the little Rose Alraune. The wolves cooperated quite well in their attacks. So, separating them was paramount to our victory.

“Ready?” Elly and Rose nodded. I bellowed out my next order. “Let’s go!”

For the next 20 minutes of real time, we managed to defeat all the five wolves. A little tougher than the first pack, but we had coordinated our attacks flawlessly. This time, Elly only taunted 2 of them at most while I maintained her healing level. Each of the other three was trapped inside another flame wall I’d made earlier. It worked perfectly as it sealed off the wolves from joining forces with the other two that we were taking on first.

I wished I had magic that I could cast instead of manually doing since it would be faster and easier. But I could only do what was given to me at this time. Alviss’ party came too late as Rose dealt the killing blow to the last wolf. I looked up at him and sneered. “It’s 10 versus yours 5. Be prepared to crawl under my leg.”

The look on all their faces was priceless. Sophia was on the verge of tears as she came to me. “Please Ghost, help us.”

I smiled and patted her head. “I did help you right? I cleared the mobs for you, so now you are left with the Dire Wolf and his pack, most likely to be around 7-8 of them.” I turned my gaze towards Alviss and Miranda. “But judging from the way you fight earlier, I guessed that you three would be killed before you could reach the Boss.”

They looked away at disgust. Seemed like I was right.

They thought the level and stats were be all and end all; having a higher level and higher stats meant everything would be solved by pummeling numbers and rates onto the hapless enemies. But how wrong they were since NPO was not that sort of game. This was not just a hack and slash game where the enemies’ AI was dumb enough to stand there and did nothing or to actually repeat the same skill over and over again. It reminded me a little like LIXXO but with more realism and real combat situations. Honestly, LIXXO was way, way, way easier. But I never felt more alive than being here right now. I relished the challenge.

But speaking of levels and whatnots, I had now levelled up to 20 after receiving the EXPs plus some item loots dropped by the wolves; wolf pelts, fangs and claws. Elly’s level was 24 and Rose was 23.

*****

I make an exaggerated sigh. I looked at Elly and then winked at her. Immediately she beamed with happiness. I had reasoned out with her during the earlier battle just to put her at ease. I could feel that Elly was judicious but not to the point of being snobbish. Though she would help those who were weaker than her, I had the veto power. However, I found it odd that her job was a thief with a ‘?’ instead of a knight. She won’t look out of place beside those knightly sort players at all.

I then looked at Sophia who had slumped her shoulder. I beckoned to her immediately. “You can join me.” My words suddenly jolted her a little as she stammered her words, “B-But… what about…”

“I don’t care about the other two. If they wanted to join, they have to admit that it is their loss and then they have to crawl under my legs and howled like a beaten dog.” I still had not forgotten my bet with them and if they were to lose anyway, might as well as they lose now. Prolonging their defeat would be more painful for them. Alviss and Miranda gave out a painful expression. They immediately knew that they had been driven into the corner. They needed this FATE and no one else would want to do it except me.

“I… I will not lose!” Alviss replied though he lacked the conviction. His pride was bigger than the success of the mission. Well, whatever.

I just shrugged my shoulder. “Very well. You people better keep up because the next one would be the Boss’ pack.” I gave out a hearty laugh. “But this time, I could give you the first lead.”

“And you would killsteal us later when the Boss is weak? No thanks!” Miranda snorted. I looked at her and grinned. “Whatever, little girl. If you are so afraid, just stay put and watch us instead.”

I had prepared well for the Boss fight. Whether it was with 6 people or 3 people, we could do it. However, this time Sophia decided she had enough and joined us. Elly played a part as she whispered my intentions to her. Her decision took Alviss and Miranda by a major surprise.

But how could they not be? The pretty-boy Holy Knight was reckless and the archer was basically shooting the ground, not the enemy. The hardest worker in the group was the mage cum healer as she not only had to heal the other two and defend herself but unfortunately, she took the aggro for the party too. Besides, I could do with an extra healer on my team and that would free me a little so that I could really tag Elly when needed.

Sophia looked angrily at them. Finally, she had snapped as she hissed a little. “So, are you two coming or what?!” Looked like they finally relented; without choice nor means to defeat the foe. Losing her was the final nail in the coffin of their pride.

I just laughed out loud. “Good, now crawl under my leg, you two. Then only I will work you like a bunch of pussies you are.”

I could see their tears as those two crawled under my legs and howled like a beaten dog. What a sight indeed. Though they were reluctant at first, their fate was sealed and then delivered right under my leg. Elly and Sophia looked quite troubled from a short distance away as I laugh maniacally. I might have seemed like a bully, but a bet was still a bet. There was no way that I would never collect my winning bet.

Once everything was over, I looked at each of them straight into their eyes. “Clean your ears and listen well, you little whelps!”