With the big, bad wolf slain on the ground, Venja, Menja and I were done with the quest. But it would have been rather impolite to simply abandon the other two, letting them fend for themselves. Before that, I needed to regenerate what I had spent in the fight, so I pulled a crystal from my inventory, noting that I had depleted half of my stash, and looked into the log to see what I had gained in the fight against the big boss wolf. The wolf itself had merely given eighty-four EXP, double what another wolf in the area would have given, but still only a little more than what a normal mob on the level would have given if I had killed it alone. But in turn, it had increased my abilities by a good chunk, making up for the lack of experience-points. I would have to experiment with the efficiency of levelling using normal mobs against attacking elite-mobs while in a group, and contrast it with the gains I made in my abilities. But before that could happen, there was loot to be picked up.

When Dworf picked up the bag that the boss had turned into, I noticed that I could have done so as well. Before, the person who could loot an enemy had rotated through the party, each of us looting in turn, but now, at least two could have done so. A moment later, I knew why when a blue window opened and told me that I could roll for a magic item, in this case a cloak that added attribute-points in Agility and Endurance.

“How are we going to do this?” I asked, wanting the item but also not wanting to get a bad reputation for greed this early in the game.

“If you need it, roll for it. It really won’t matter, in a couple of levels it’ll be exchanged anyway. I certainly won’t roll, the cloak I get for the quest is better for me anyway.” Menja stated, causing me to mentally click the button to roll for the item. So did Venja, Dworf and Gareth.

A short moment later, the system announced that I had rolled a 29, Gareth had rolled a 45, Dworf had managed a 86 and Venja a 75.

“Lowest roll wins, right?” I asked cheekily, causing the others to laugh. The system had already assigned the cloak to Dworf who equipped ir, right then and there. And I had to admit, I might have to kill that wolf a few times in the future, simply to get the cloak, at least if there was a way to use it as a pattern, allowing me to get the same look but with better attributes.

Dworf now had a hood, shaped like a grey wolf’s head with the rest of the pelt hanging down his back as a cloak. It didn’t fit his clean-cut Templar-aesthetic but it certainly would have fit my rough and tumble barbarian-look.

“Say, is there any way to copy how gear looks?” I asked the others, mainly Menja and Venja.

Both of them looked at the new look Dworf was sporting and back to me, before nodding, almost in unison.

“There is, you can give the equipment you want to copy to a crafter and they can dismantle it to learn the pattern. Sometimes even the pattern for a complete set so if you were to give away your armour, you know, that imperial stuff you are wearing, a smith might be able to learn how to craft more pieces of it. And the skill of the smith and the materials used would determine the attributes of the newly made gear.” Menja explained, causing my eyes to widen. That was a rather interesting mechanic and I made a mental note to find out where to learn a profession after turning in the quest, it seemed that at least some crafting was very much worth my time. I didn’t consider to go fully into crafting, I liked to hit things too much for that, but the ability to make my own gear was intriguing.

But as quickly as I got the idea, I discarded it, making my own gear would be foolish if I could just as well buy it from a dedicated crafter, who would do a better job of it. No, I decided after a moment of contemplation, either gathering or crafting consumables, that was a much better way to go.

“Anyway, Dworf, Gareth, how many more wolves do you guys need?” Venja asked.

“Three more, then I’m done.” Dworf answered, to which Gareth nodded.

“Let’s go down the mountain, I’m sure we will run into more than enough wolves on the way.” I suggested, to which the others nodded and we started back down. Luckily, I had been right and on the way to the bridge, we found and killed the last few wolves.

“So, this time you are taking the bridge?” Menja asked, when we walked up to it, causing Venja to laugh.

“What do you mean?” Dworf asked, sounding curious.

“That one over there, she thinks bridges are for trolls.” Menja laughed, “You see, Venja and I had already started killing wolves and made our way a little further north. But Missy Orc over there, she decided that she’s a strong and independent Orc who doesn’t need no bridges. Or maybe she had no idea there actually was a bridge.” he stopped for a moment, to build suspense.

“So, what does an Orc Barbarian do with a problem that can’t be hit? Obviously, she uses the straight-forward approach, going into her rage, taking a run-up and using her charge-skill to get enough speed to friggin’ JUMP over the stupid stream.” he shook his head, as if disapproving of my actions.

“Now, here I am, minding my own business, healing Venja while she knocks around some overgrown puppy with bad manners. And all of a sudden, I hear something, not quite sure what it was, and look around. Only to see a black-furred something, glowing with red rage, flying towards me.” he continued, happily overdramatisising my entrance.

“And does she stop there? No, that would be boring ,she barrels past me, drops her pointy stick and tackles the wolf, I wasn’t quite sure who was the monster and who was our teammate but luckily, I can’t accidentally heal monsters, so I guess I healed the right being. But once the wolf was dead, that one over there calmly stands and says hi, wolf-blood smeared all over her face like a toddler who had icecream for the first time.”

“It did work, didn’t it?” I merely asked in response, causing laughter to erupt all around.

“That it did. We’ll have to play together again sometime.” Menja agreed and a window opened in front of me, telling me that Menja had sent me a friend-request. I accepted and moments later, Venja sent one of her own which I accepted as well.

Once we crossed the bridge and were out of the area the wolves were occupying, Gareth said his farewell, soon followed by Dworf, Menja and Venja. The group had come together to complete the quest and now that the quest was done and we were back out of the woods, so to speak, we split. Such was the fate of pick-up groups.

I made my way back to Kangur, to turn in the quest. Once I approached, he looked at me and there was a smile on his weathered face, making me feel good about myself. If I could make the bald dwarf smile, I must have done something right.

“It is done, Kangur. Old Grimclaw is no more.” I told him and the quest-completion window prompted me to pick my reward. I could pick between a ring, a necklace and a cloak, each a magic item of similar quality to the cloak that the wolf had dropped. I looked the items over and realised that they were designed with classes in mind. The cloak increased Intuition and Intelligence for spellcasters, the necklace had Charisma and Dexterity, maybe made for crafters and scouts or something like that and finally, the ring was increasing Strength and Vitality. I instantly picked the ring and, as soon as I did, I gained a nice chunk of two-thousand EXP and the ring was shifted into my inventory.

“Very well done, young Orc. You have proven yourself a friend of us Dwarves and we Dwarves have a long memory. The help you gave us here in the valley solved quite a lot of problems, problems that otherwise would have required warriors to be pulled away from other tasks. Yet, there is more to be done and Glonar, one of the leaders of Grey Quarry, asked that you come to his office.” Kangur told me with a solemn look on his face and a blue window opened, telling me that I had a new quest to do.

New Quest offered.

Leaving the Valley

Kangur, your Trainer in the Grey Quarry Valley, passed you a message from Glonar, one of the leaders of Grey Quarry. You are asked to meet him in his office. Rewards: EXP

I accepted the new quest, smiling as I did.

“Thank you, but before I go to meet him, could you tell me where the famous craftsman of the dwarves ply their trades? I would like to learn.” I asked, deciding to add learning my professions to this little errand. Kangur frowned for a moment but afterwards, he quickly explained where the local profession-trainers were located. I would have to decide which to pick, but I could do that on the way to Glonar, the trainers were mostly in the cliffside.