As they made their way out into the forest Dan waved them ahead and took the chance to resummon his Raile. Breathing deeply he started the minute long spell and slowly the mixture of blood and mana that made up the spell leaked from him, though the spell felt far more controlled than his first time using his health to resummon something now that he wasn’t in the thick of things he realized how much easier it was. While it certainly hurt to lose so much health and mana it felt almost… controlled in how it poured out of him.

Skill Increased: Mana Coalescence(Novice IV): More dangerous spells mean bigger increases! Be sure to constantly be on the edge of death with your spells!

Before his eyes the cloudy vapor of red and blue began to take shape and turn into a hazy figure. Slowly a rocky head poked out from the mist followed by the floppy ears and a neck. Taking considerably longer the mist built the Rabbit’s body and legs. Finally with a wiggle the fluffy rocky tail poked out and the rest of the mist was absorbed into the Rabbit.

Dan didn’t notice any of this however, despite not feeling nearly as much pain as he should have, presumably because of his Fool’s Frontline title, but he was feeling completely exhausted and had a pounding head from the lack of mana. He felt like the Raile had just stepped on his head and kicked him around. Slowly as his regeneration passive kicked back in, Dan’s body began to regenerate his lost health and mana as he lay on the ground. Dan slowly became aware of his Raile nearby snacking on a Rabbit. Cringing away from the sight Dan saw he had a new notification.

Your familiar has reached level 4.

That was a good thing. Dan wondered if that was a delayed notification from his Raile killing things before it died the night before, that only showed up since he had resummoned it. Or perhaps it’s just from the Raille’s fresh kill right now. Either way having a pet twice his level is always a good thing. After a few minutes Dan reached full mana and facepalmed himself several minutes later as his health reached full since he forgot he had spells that could have been using instead of waiting for his natural regen.

Dan then slowly began to use one of the spikes on his shield and skinned two of the less mangled rabbit corpses before taking two more full corpses, from his Familiar’s hunt, and shoving them into his bag for later use. Avoiding the packs of roaming Rabbits Dan made it to his team picking off individual foxes at the edge of the territory. They saw him approaching as they finished off their most recent pull and Alicia pulled her attention from her fresh kill, apparently not the healer like Revon said she was, and noticed the Rabbit behind me.

“Look out! There’s a Rabbit trying to kill you!” As Alicia began running at me, or rather the Raille behind me, Revon caught her arm and her eyes took on a faint red shade as an almost palpable sense of wanting to kill radiated off her. Holding her closer in a hug Revon began to whisper in her ear and pat her back as Greg and I looked away from the uncomfortable scene. Eventually she calmed down and looked at me properly again.

“Hey uh, Dan sorry about that. I am the healer of the group, though I happen to have a Cursed title from failing my Druid teacher and now I am forced into a battle rage if I fail to completely control myself. I’m hoping to specialize into something at level 10 that helps control my rage but that’s three levels away so I understand if you decide not to run with us.”

That was a mighty revelation… our healer was apparently also a berserker. While Dan did have my own personal healing Rabbit that might cause some problems if she aggroed mobs. But at the same time having three damage dealers instead of two would help us immensely and she was close to specializing apparently. I didn’t have to stay with them after that as there would be nothing forcing me to but at the same time it didn’t seem there were too many people looking for more people to join groups, especially someone at level two like himself. And there was also the biggest thing being that this was a game! He’s supposed to have fun!

“Abyss it all! You seem like some wonderful people to group with! Who needs a healer when you have a tank as good as myself, right? Let’s team up! I still need more Rabbit furs for my quest so let’s get out there and kick some bunny bottom!” The others smiled and let out a small cheer at my words as I led them back to the Rabbit zone.

As soon as the group started fighting in the forest Dan realized the problem with their plan to test out hunting rabbits… his Bunny Lover passive prevented Rabbits from attacking him. So they would all just hop around him and hit his team unless he could somehow manage to hit them before they just jumped around his shields. Though the rabbits made easy prey for his Teammates at least. And his Raille was having a veritable feast once I left the bodies I couldn’t skin to the side, though it didn’t take long to get the ten pelts needed for my quest. By the time Dan was halfway to level three from just killing Rabbits we had all decided we would press onto the fox area to better test my abilities. And there it seemed that he was useful.

Dan would charge into the groups of five foxes first and smack a few with my smaller shields before expanding and letting the dumb animals run straight into them. As they would recover and begin to run around the shields Dan’s team was there the kill slice them down as they divided around the edges of the makeshift wall, his Raille guardian the team from one end while he would let go of the shields and use his body as a wall for the other side. He really needed to get a backup shield for situations like this.

It seemed that Alicia only really went into a berserker rage if she thinks a teammate is in trouble or an enemy in her vision doesn’t die for a long enough time. So as long as we made sure to kill the Foxes fast enough we didn’t run into any issues, especially with the Glitterflit as a secondary healer he would summon before every fight. Unfortunately right as we hit our stride and he hit level three as Raille hit level five the sun began to set and we decided to pack it up and head back to town. Sadly he had to leave his Raille outside the wall again.While the team walked back into team Dan realized he needed to turn in his quest to the Blacksmith so he made a detour before he forgot.

“Hello Dinton! I finally returned with the Rabbit furs you wanted me to get! It took longer than I thought but consider your quest complete!”

As he said that he began to pile the Rabbit pelts onto the counter, making sure to leave the dead ones

“Why hello there Dan! My aprentiche, you just missed him leavin actually, weas beginnin ta think tha’ you weren’t gonna come back! Ya seemed like a good lad so I’m glad tha’ you returned! We’ll thank ya mightily for these Rabbit furs! And get started on some new Armor for you tonight! Come by in the mornin to pick it up!”

As Dan walked out he realized that perhaps he could increase his armor in a different way. Letting out a sigh he walked back in and put the twelve Fox pelts he had managed to collect that day, onto the counter to the surprise of the Smith.

“These are for your apprentice when you see him next. Tell him they were a gift from me as I plan to keep coming here for armor in the future! Even though I may have… lost my last set it was wonderful! I think my team is planning to hunt wolves tomorrow so I’ll hopefully get some pelts to give to you then. In any case have a good night.” The smith was stroking his beard as he looked after Dan when he left his shop. Eventually he closed down the shop and picked up a few of the Fox pelts to get to work.

On the way back to the Inn that his group was using he spotted a man who looked like a rejected Musketeer with a long blue overcoat, holding a book to his side. Sam locked up as he looked at the terrifying man. He had no idea how or why, but he knew that if this person ever found out about his bunny summoning powers he was dead. There was nothing but primordial Rabbit like fear as Dan tried to hop his way out of sight of the monstrosity.

Finally Dan managed to find the bank and take out a few silver for the fee of a night at the inn. After eating a quick meal Dan decided that he was going to sleep in the virtual world that night, so he finally closed his eyes and let Morpheus take him as he went to sleep.