Chapter 6

Aimee’s Class

The rewards for Cosmos’s participation in the architect’s quest were 2 levels worth of XP and an ordinary-looking backpack that was surprisingly light.

Handy Haversack

This backpack can hold up to 1,000 pounds in weight or 100 cubic feet in volume, but it always weighs only 1 pound.

For Slither’s part he gained 1 level and a rucksack, upon inspecting it he exclaimed. “Wow this bag can hold up to 200 pounds in weight or 20 cubic feet of items but never weighs more than a pound!”

So the rewards are contingent on how much we participate, Cosmos thought, that’s good to know for future group quests.

After everyone claimed their reward and Kenneth disband the party Aimee confided to Cosmos that she planed to become a caster class. “So, knowing that, I’m sure you’ll forgive me for spending the next three and a half weeks reading in the library.”

“That surprises me, I thought you were going to choose an archery class the way you took to your new weapon” Cosmos replied.

“Well it did feel right but I was too limited in what I could do, clerics and wizards both have some nice traits that would fill my needs but I’m as yet undecided on a class. Casters don’t have to be lacking in melee qualifications they just almost always are.” Aimee explained but they both knew she wouldn’t be able to do nearly as much damage with a bow & arrow if she didn’t choose a class that supported it.

Most classes chose to wield a sword at some point in their career but seldom get the +50% damage with swords and only swordsman professions ever go the +100% damage with swords. Anyone whom picked up a sword and used it long enough could generate the sword mastery skill that gives a +% to damage and attack speed based on your mastery level but having the +100% damage on top of that makes a world of difference.

It was the same with archery most shaman classes and some rogue classes get +50% damage with bows & arrows but only archer classes get +100% so most rogues stick to their daggers whilst shaman prefer a staff or wand with some sort of totem or focus item in their offhand.

Slither’s ear noticeably twitched and he came over to them. “Well your performance in archery sold me. Even with my 5 health regeneration every 6 seconds and natural armor from my racial stats I nearly died many times. So I’m going to become a hunter, or beast-master, one of the archery subclasses that use a bow & arrow for their main weapon.”

Cosmos thought that the facial ticks must be a side effect of contracting lycanthropy. Something to look out for now that those players will start spawning in this city, not to mention NPCs will likely contract it as well, he decided.

Cosmos had no intention of spending three and a half weeks contained in the library, but Aimee made him promise not to go grinding levels or questing without her, so he decided to focus on raising vitality.

They both added Slither to their friends list before parting ways.

There were a number of professions that generated a lot of vitality fisherman, architect, sculptor, and gardener just to name a few.

Cosmos thought that he would probably like to try one profession for each of the weeks he and Aimee were apart.

He started with fishing because there was a nice place he read about inside the city. The Black Lake District was the wealthiest part of the city not counting the kings palace. Only the most well to do merchants and nobles lived there. The scenery was unmatched a panorama of colors and sounds put you at ease. The landscape resembled a multi million dollar golf course complete with duck-ponds and sand-traps.

The outdoor sculptures were mostly abstract but some were very indecent or “beautifully lewd” as a pair of women he walked past described them. They reminded him of an outdoor sculpture park on Jeju Island in South Korea that featured over 140 sculptures representing humans in various sexual positions.

This game was created by Koreans after all I guess it is only natural that large parts of their culture crosses over. Cosmos thought sitting on a mermaid bench that was distracting to say the least.

You have looked at ‘Water Nymph’s Temptation’

For 24 hours you will receive

+15 agility

+25 vitality

+500% on stats gained from fishing

The first of each fish type you eat will permanently raise your vitality by one point

This effect will not stack with other sculptures

It cost 5 gold to get into Black Lake District and minors were not allowed. Most people that paid the hefty fee were successful artisans coming to raise their art stats but there are a few of a much larger variety throughout the district.

Cosmos rose his vitality by over 50 points that first week and agility by nearly 25

Next he went to a greenery called ‘The Four Seasons’ and used all of his remaining money to buy a sack full of fast growing blessed seeds. You could literally watch them grow after planting and watering the fruit trees would bare fruit the first week after planting them.

He chose a place to the west of the city to plant them that only took two days. Then he spent the next three days building a low quality shack inside his orchard.

There were also a few mines outside the west of the city Cosmos spent a week and a half digging in them. He raised his strength by 25 and his vitality by another 10 there, the work was exhausting. He would have dreams of working in the mine and wake up fatigued. Cosmos met a barbarian axe wielding warrior named Little Tom in the mines whom said he got 50 strength and 50 vitality before mining stopped giving stat points.

When Cosmos told Little Tom he gained more vitality than that after only one week fishing in Black Lake District he blushed scarlet and started counting his money then left right away. Insisting “of course I’m only going for the status points it’s not like I want to see lewd statues.”

They added each other to their friend’s lists and promised to go questing in some nearby dungeons soon.

~I can leave the city now and I got a quest to receive a hidden class meet me at your shack in the orchard. ~ Aimee whispered to Cosmos early one morning just as he got to the mine.

~Ok I wasn’t looking forward to digging today anyway. Congratulations what is your class going to be! ~ Cosmos asked intrigued and anxious eager to be fighting again.

~It’s a Shaman variant class called Holy Sear~ Aimee replied happily.

~Like ‘Gaea The Holy Sear’ responsible for summoning all the travelers to this world? ~ Cosmos asked with great interest.

…..*_*

~It seems so….. Big sis was disappointed that you asked for me to have a body here, and she doesn’t want us wandering off doing our own things separate from each other. So this is her way of keeping balance you’ll understand after we complete the quest. One last thing; allow these people that I’m bringing with me to believe that you’re an NPC for the duration of the quest. ~ Aimee said the last part with a sorrowful tone she clearly didn’t like asking him to lie for her.

~I could pretend to be a monk serving a vow of silence if that would simplify things? ~ Cosmos offered.

~Would you really be willing to do that for me? ~ Aimee asked timidly

~Sure, why not~ Cosmos replied simply he didn’t like leading people to believe things that were not true but this felt harmless.

~Ok I’ll get some monk robes for you. Any requests on colors or styles you want them to be? ~ Aimee asked companionably.

~Any thing is fine use your own judgment keeping in mind how hot it has been these last few weeks.~ Cosmos said hopeful that she wouldn’t bring some thick heavy woolen robes.

A half hour latter they met at his shack she gave him a light monk robe that was really just some baggy gray pants with a thin orange stripe around the waist and ankles and some matching baggy gray shirt sleeves that had a cloth strap spanning his shoulders behind his neck and another in front of his neck over his collarbone. There was no material over his chest stomach or back.

They were outside talking a short while latter when the rest of her party arrived.

What was surprising was that four of them were clearly necromancers you had to be at-least level 200 before you could class change too necromancer.

A fifth member looked like a normal civilian she could have easily passed for an NPC vendor. She was short, with light brown hair, tan skin, wearing a small white skirt, a brown vest over a white blouse with short sleeves, no noticeable weapons, and bare feet; that made Cosmos smile mischievously he liked having a girl at a disadvantage.

…..-_-

On second thought he was barefoot and weaponless to but he still felt that there was some how an exotic quality to barefooted women.

“Enchantress Kora please give him the necklace I asked you to make with your best quality jewel crafting skills” said Aimee.

She pulled a gold necklace with many large dark gems on it out of her belt-pouch walked up to Cosmos then standing on her tippy-toes leaned against him putting it over his head.

He blushed as her vest parted leaving only a thin layer the cloth from her blouse separating her breasts from his naked chest. Kora smirked thinking him an NPC she put a finger in her mouth then placed it against him dragged it down his chest before returning it to her mouth stepping away teasingly.

Cosmos’s mind was wandering he didn’t even hear the name of the necromancer whom Aimee instructed to teleport them nor where they were going.

It was hot far hotter than the area they just left his feet were burning in the sand. The desert he guessed that they must have traveled some 4,000 miles south.

Even after the teleport they had to travel for 12 days using the stars as their guide. It wasn’t easy to get where you wanted to be with the teleport skill unless you were going somewhere you had already been. The scenery was unchanging for miles in every direction making navigating much harder.

They were sometimes attacked by creatures that burrowed under the sand, snakes, giant scorpions, whatever the creature may be it was quickly killed then turned into an undead minion.

The hardest foe they fought by far was a giant sand worm; they felt minor tremors then it burst directly up in the air knocking every one of them to the ground with a mighty quake. Its first attack against a necromancer took half his life Cosmos’s attacks were doing no damage. He finally got a lucky hit in between its scales.

Critical Hit 1 Damage!

Everyone but Cosmos pulled back to attack with ranged skills he easily evaded its attacks but moved to far from it once so it went underground removing their curses and degenerative affects and even evaded a dark spear throw. When it came up again it knocked them all down and attacked another necromancer. Luckily not the same guy or he would have died but with two party members at half life things were looking grim. Cosmos attacked it some more and they all moved back again this time he made sure to stay near the giant worm and after sometime they managed to kill it.

They all rushed to cast their spells each wanting to be the master of such a minion. The first two failed they had insufficient skill to raise such a minion the third succeeded; from the look on his face you’d think he was a proud father of a new born baby.

“I think I’ll call her Nelly, this is the first minion I have raised that’s health didn’t degenerate over time. So I won’t have to use 'blood of the master' every few hours to keep it alive.” He said imperiously the others were clearly jealous but Aimee, Kora, and Cosmos were the only ones who congratulated him.

Their rivalry was very competitive one of them acquired a half dozen minotaurs from an encounter another got a sand drake. Anything smaller they would let die not wanting to share their health points with them.

Cosmos wondered why Aimee didn’t get a balanced group one necromancer would have been plenty. He figured it must have something to do with her quest so he didn’t even ask her with the whisper chat ability.

They arrived at the place that should have been the dungeon entry but it was just a slightly bigger sand dune than those they had been crossing over for days on end.

After some debate they decided to check the far side of the dune they all feared the same thing that the wind covered the dungeon with sand.

When the giant undead sand worm tried to move through the dune it caused mountains of sand to cascade down revealing sandstone caverns. Its master cooed at it saying what a good minion it was and that he regretted that it couldn’t come inside with them. “Now Nelly be a good girl and guard the entry.”

The minotaurs barely fit and the sand drake had to wait out side as well though it would probably die again before they returned and its corpse likely wouldn’t be exploitable a second time.

Cosmos wished that the minotaurs had stayed outside as well all that time in the unbearable heat caused them to rot the smell was awful.

Cosmos was level 41 now and still not satisfied with his vitality score but neither was he willing to spend attribute points from leveling up on that statistic. All his attribute points from leveling up went into strength and agility equally though his strength was currently a little higher because of all the time spent in the mines.

They used area of effect skills to wipeout swarms of scarabs the same guy controlling the worm also took control of two patrolling mommies. A few death-knights were killed but the undead were the only ones able to get hits in thanks to the narrow corridors.

Entering a room with a fired up brazier and an altar they left the minions behind. Around the altar were four pedestals that said in runes on large carved tiles Death magic, Curses magic, Soul Reaping, and Blood magic. The necromancers all looked at each of the pedestals inspecting the book that rested on each of them before situating themselves at their chosen podium looking inward towards the altar. On the altar were two very rusty blades Cosmos recognized them as fencing dualist weapons the dagger was a main gauche and the sword a rapier.

Aimee instructed Cosmos to grasp the blades on the altar he wanted to refuse because they had spindly needles protruding from their grips.

Kneeling before it he grasped their grips as hard as he could blood dripped into a brass plate that the blades were resting on. The necromancers each started chanting spells from their prospective books. The enchantress Kora came up behind him and touched the necklace with dark gems only now they were glowing red.

Aimee came up to Cosmos and grasped his hair with her left hand then she unsheathed her ornate dagger and rammed it into his heart three times followed with a slash across his throat. His blood poured into the brass plate filling it up he was down to 10% health and it was going fast.

You Are Bleeding!

What kind of quest requires you to kill a teammate? Cosmos thought bitterly

“Unsummon Deadly Assassin, Cosmos!” Aimee shouted anyone seeing the anguish in her face would have known this caused her great sorrow.

The necklace lost its red glow and Cosmos vanished into black smoke.

As the necklace fell-into the blood filled brass plate it absorbed all the liquid and regained its glow.

You have lost a level due to death the last five stat points you placed will be removed.

-12% to skill mastery

You have been Soul-Bound!

You need not wait 24 hours to log in if you are summoned with the use of the enchanted item you dropped.***James got out of the capsule walked to the sink and washed his face then grabbed an apple and headed to the basement to hit the punching bag for a short time.

Android A7 012 was sitting at a desk behind the capsule drawing the scene that just transpired from Aimee’s point of view. In the picture the avatar that looked just like James had three holes an inch apart from each other one above the next in its chest. His head was held down by a small hand in his hair so that the blood spraying from his neck would go onto the sacrificial altar.

The android ripped the paper free, crumpled it, and tossed it into a nearby wastebasket.