Keeping an eye out for any more groups of Terror Chicks we started meandering in the direction of town. Even after getting another crest from the Level 5 Terror Chick we still only had 8 of the Crests that I needed to complete my Quest, so we weren’t quite ready to turn in for the day. Especially since it wasn’t even quite mid-afternoon yet, so we still had nearly three hours before the Terror Chicks really started to get active.

Spotting a sleeping Terror Chick out of the corner of my eye I signalled to the others and we immediately crouched down and crept closer so that we could get a better look. This group of Terror Chicks had three Level 3 Terror Chicks in it making one of the more dangerous groups that we had found so far but after fighting the Level 5 Terror bird we were pretty confident that we would eb able to handle them if we were careful.

This time we sent Fern on ahead, only one of the terror chicks were awake and we were hopeful that if Fern hid in some bushes nearby before Katy and Evie attacked, she would be able to launch a surprise attack on one of them.

As soon as Fern was in position, I started running towards the Terror Chicks and not long afterwards the usual arrow and blue energy bolt shot past me. The arrow struck the Terror Chick that was awake in the neck while the bolt of energy slammed into its back. With a squawk of rage, it turned towards us and charged at me.

Hearing the squawk, the other two Terror Chicks slowly opened their eyes and blinked sleepily before turning towards me as well. When they spotted me, their sleepiness turned to looks of rage and they chased after the other Terror Chick that was charging towards me Fern tripped one of them up with a branch before leaping upon the fallen Terror Chick’s back and stabbing it over and over again.

As the lead Terror Chick closed in on me I activated my Barrier Skill directly in front of it and when it smashed through it and tumbled to the ground I fired a Jolt into its body that stunned it allowing Katy to use her Rapid Shot Skill while it was still down. Meanwhile Evie fired crimson and azure bolts of energy from her weapons at the only Terror Chick that was still on its feet before she was forced to stop when I engaged and switched her target to the one that Katy was peppering with arrows.

Now that I had spent quite a lot of time fighting the Level 5 Terror Chick, I had learned a lot about how they could fight and could handle a weaker Terror Chick even easier than I could before. As such it barely took me a minute to finish off my opponent which allowed me to check up on Fern who had been thrown off of the back of the Terror Chick that she had pinned and was carefully circling it. As I watched she easily side stepped an attack and slashed its neck as it recovered causing hot blood to splash the ground at her feet as she activated her Laceration Skill.

Nodding to myself I turned back towards the other Terror Chick that I had knocked down earlier just in time to deflect an attack with my Ward. I smirked at the Terror Chick as it hissed at me irritably. It obviously hadn’t been expecting me to be paying attention to what it was doing but as it had found out I certainly had been.

I smile crossed my face as I attacked the Terror Chick that had attacked me. I knew that I could rely on the others to take care of the other Terror Chick while I fought this one. This was obviously the method of fighting that we usually used since we didn’t have a tank right now but that was because it worked.

Soon Fern and the others had taken their target down and we worked together to finish of the badly wounded Terror Chick that I had been fighting.

“That seemed easy,” Evie mentioned making me cringe. Usually when people said that something would go wrong literally a second later but this time nothing jumped out at us, so I decided to let it go for now.

“Yeah, we’ve gotten used to fighting them,” I replied as I looked around warily just in case. “It’s hard to believe that I struggled so much fighting just one of them on the first day. Evie didn’t even have to heal any of us.”

“Well you do have better gear, higher Stats and more Skills than you had back then,” Fern pointed out as she looted the Terror Chicks. “Not to mention us helping you out.”

“My gear isn’t that much better,” I replied. “But other than that. Yeah you’re right.”

“Having two ranged attackers also helps,” Fern continued. “Even if Evie is actually a hybrid healer and damage dealer.”

“Yeah, this game is definitely supposed to push you into making a hybrid build, or several actually,” I noted as I recalled the equipment switching system that we were supposed to unlock at some point. “By the way Katy at what Level do we gain the ability to switch Equipment Sets?”

“You get one slot for another Equipment Set at Level 10 and another at Level 25,” Katy replied. “But that’s all. At least for now.”

“Okay,” I nodded as I decided to check my Status and Soul Links to see how much further I had to go before Levelling Up. As it turned out I was about halfway to Level 5 and both my Spellglove and my Glaive Core only had a few more Soul Points to go before they Levelled Up again to go before, they Levelled Up again.

“Well then we should definitely keep looking for more Terror Chicks to hunt,” Fern nodded. “We only got one Crest from this group anyway.”

The others nodded so we all moved out and started searching for more Terror Chicks to kill. Sure, enough we found a pair of Terror birds that were actually awake a few minutes later. They were only Level 2 and looked like they were about to keel over from starvation, so we made pretty quick work of killing them.

As we looted their bodies and receiving two more Crests which raised our total to 11, I looked around worriedly. It was still pretty light out and according to Jameson Terror Chicks were nocturnal so finding two wandering around in the middle of the day made me a little nervous.

“We should keep moving. If that was a patrol there could be more,” I said as I brought up the Level Up selections for my Spellglove Core.

Congratulations your Basic Spellglove Core has reached Level 4!

Please pick an upgrade from the choices provided.

Repulse: Creates a wave of energy that knocks back anything in 1m of the user. Cost: 25 SP. Cooldown: 30 seconds.

Increase SP regen by 0.5

Soul Points: 2/100

Selecting Repulse, I turned to the others who were watching me interestedly.

“I just unlocked a Skill that will create a shockwave around me,” I explained quickly as I gestured impatiently at them. “Let’s get going.”

“Fine,” Fern nodded as she got to her feet. “Did you choose that Skill for when your friends get here tomorrow?”

“Yeah,” I nodded. “I don’t think I’m going to get much use out of it today. I mean I guess we could use it to create a bit more space so that Evie and Katy can get a clear shot. But it’ll be much more useful when Julian and Sarah get here. I just hope that Julian actually chooses to play as a tank this time.”

“Yeah, you did say that he doesn’t always choose to play as a tank,” Evie said as we started moving again. “What’s the plan of he doesn’t?”

“Well, I guess I’ll probably end up being the tank,” I replied with a shrug as I looked around for more Terror Chicks. “But since this game is so well set up for hybrid play styles the likelihood of him not choosing to play as some sort of tank character is low. He might do something a bit different like what I did though.”

Spotting another pair of Terror Chicks walking towards us I hissed a warning to the others and we quickly crouched down behind a bush and checked that we weren’t going to be ambushed by another group of Terror Chicks that we had missed.

As soon as we had made sure that we weren’t going to get attacked from behind Fern and I started to creep forwards. Once again Fern’s ability to move silently put me to shame and I was the first person to give away our position. Luckily, we had both been prepared for that to happen and I stood up and fired a Jolt at the two birds while she continued to get into position behind the Terror Birds while the other two also added their projectiles to the mix.

Vaulting over the bush I engaged the two Terror Birds. This time only one of them was Level 2 and the other was Level 3 so this fight should be slightly more difficult than the last one. As soon as I was certain that Fern as in position, I started leading the Level 2 Terror Chick towards her by lowering my guard slightly which meant that I took a bit more damage but allowed Fern to launch a devastating surprise attack. From the looks of things, she used her Laceration Skill with her left-hand dagger and her Stab Skill with the right-hand dagger.

Blood sprayed the ground once more as Laceration’s bleeding effect started draining its HP away slowly. Glancing at Fern who was backing away and trying to make some space I dove under an attack from the other Terror Chick and activated Repulse. With a loud thumping sound, a shockwave burst from around me and slammed into the two Terror Chicks on either side of me like a freight train sending then flying several feet away from me.

“Well that was more effective than I thought it’d be,” I muttered to myself as I looked around at the Terror Chicks which were struggling to get to their feet. They hadn’t actually been injured by the Skill itself but much like when something ran into my Barrier Skill or was hit by my Jolt spell being hit by Repulse obviously had other effects based on the realistic physics of this world which made it a much more useful Skill than the description had suggested.

Fern nodded at me as she kicked the Terror Chick closest to her so that it was sent sprawling once more which allowed Katy and Evie to get a few more shots in while it was still down. Turning towards my own target I tripped it with the haft of my naginata before activating Slash and brining the weapon crashing down on the fallen Terror Chick which screeched in pain as the blade bit deeply into its flesh. Not letting up I ripped the weapon free only to swing it down once more and then again. Each time I swung my naginata the monster’s struggles grew weaker and about thirty seconds later I finished it off. Once I was sure that it was actually dead, I turned around to see that Fern had already looted the Terror Chick that she had been attacking and had just been waiting for me to finish off the one that I had just killed.

After looting the body of the Terror Chick that I had killed and receiving another Crest which brought us up to a total of 12 unless Fern had received another one from killing her Terror Chick so I turned towards Fern and raised my eyes as I held up the Crest that I had just looted. Fern shook her head, so I shrugged and put the bright red feather away in my Inventory.

“Okay so we have twelve now,” I sighed. “I think we should keep taking out these wandering Terror Chicks until about 3 maybe 4 PM before we start heading back since that's about when they start to become active. It seems like the best course of action for now.”

“What if we get spotted by one of the other groups?” Evie asked.

“Well that’ll depend on the specific circumstances,” I replied. “If we spot another group close by in advance then we might skip that pair and try and slip by them or if we get caught by surprise then I guess that I’ll just have to fight the new group while you three finish off the ones that we attacked. I’m sure that we’ll work something out.”

“Yeah,” Fern agreed. “We can handle a couple of Terror Chicks by ourselves. But I’m more worried about what would happen to you in that particular situation. After all that Level 5 terror Chick nearly managed to kill you by itself.”

“Well then, let’s be careful not to get caught by surprise,” Katy said before I could reply. “Now let’s get going before we actually do.”

Glancing at each other Fern and I nodded. There was no point in continuing that particular conversation further. I knew that she was just worried about what I would go through if I ended up holding off a group of monsters while they were doing something else. Hell, I had seen what the Terror Chicks had done to the guy who had tried to fight them before I had created my character so I couldn’t blame her for that. Especially when I considered that she had seen me nearly get killed by a powerful enemy several times in the past two days.

Evie also looked like she agreed with what Fern had been saying. While it was a little irritating that they seemed to have lost a little faith in my abilities I decided to take it as a sign that they didn’t want to rely on me all the time when we got in over our heads which was actually a good thing if it was actually true.

While we walked, I brought up the Levelling options for my Glaive Core.

Congratulations your Basic Glaive Core has reached Level 4!

Please pick an upgrade from the choices provided.

Lunge: Launches the user in a certain direction dealing 120% of weapon damage +10% per metre travelled up to a maximum of 10 metres. Cost 30 SP. Cooldown 1 min.

Increase Constitution by 1.

Soul Points: 1/100

“Well that’s an easy choice,” I remarked as I selected Lunge before turning to the others. “I just unlocked Lunge which will allow me to close in on an enemy quickly and deal a fairly significant amount of damage depending on how far I travel. I’ll have to test it out to see how effective it actually is, but it should be pretty useful.”

“Well at least it should stop you having to follow me around when I’m trying to sneak up on things,” Fern snorted. “Don’t get me wrong you’re not as bad as some people but I can tell it’s just not your thing.”

“Ah, yeah,” I chuckled. “I’m definitely nowhere near as good as you. But I’ve definitely played with rogue types who are worse than me at moving stealthily. It’s kind of embarrassing.”

“Like I said,” Fern replied. “You’re not as bad as some people.”

We started quietly trading little stories about some of the bad players we had grouped with over the years. Even Evie had a couple of good stories from her time playing Legends of Garemia. In fact, I actually started to feel a bit guilty that Katy didn’t have any stories to tell until she started talking about a game that she had played which almost made me trip over my own feet.

“Oh yeah that’s right, you had access to the internet, didn’t you?” Fern asked causing me to blink as I realised that this was true and there was actually no reason that she couldn’t have played games. “Wait, did you ever play with Zeke in other games?”

“Once actually,” Katy admitted making me nearly stumble again as I looked at her in shock. “And before you ask; yes, he was like this back then.”

“Uh, what game did you play with me in Katy?” I asked trying to mask some of my surprise at this revelation.

“Midguardians,” she replied referencing a game that I had played for a few months just after I had pre-ordered Soul Core Online. As the name suggested it was a game based around Norse mythology and I had played as a Skald which was a rather strange type of caster that used either Runes carved onto stones which had to be prepared in advance but could be cast instantly or song magic (which was quite irritating to use because I had a very average voice) which had a continuous effect. “I ran a dungeon with you as a berserker. I was the blonde one that you saved from the Jotun.”

Berserkers were on of the warrior classes in that game and had high HP and Strength but

“You played as a guy?” I asked as I attempted to recall the incident which was a bit fuzzy after all this time. I vaguely remembered the event that I thought she was talking about, but I had saved so many people’s asses from Jotuns in that game since they were one of the more dangerous enemies.

“Yeah, it was only a couple of months after I was created so I hadn’t actually settled on what gender I wanted to be yet,” she replied with a shrug.

“Okay, yeah I think I remember you,” I nodded. “You were attacked by a Frost Jotun and I used one of my Dragon’s Breath Runes to save you from getting your head caved in with the giant icicle that it was using as a club.”

“That’s right,” she replied happily. “I’m surprised that you remembered!”

“Yeah, well you were actually one of the better players that I grouped with in that game,” I said with a sigh. “You just got unlucky that time.”

We continued talking in low voices for a few minutes until we spotted another pair of Terror Chicks and were forced to stop so as not to alert them too early. This fight went even smoother than the last one now that I could use my Lunge Skill which turned out to be particularly effective when I used it on a Terror Chick that was charging at me. The blade of my naginata went almost completely through its neck in a single swing and it was quickly finished off by Katy and Evie as I turned my attention to the other one.

Once we defeated the last Terror Chick, we quickly looted the bodies before moving on. In the end we killed a total of 9 more Terror Chicks before we decided to call it a day and head back to town to hand in the Crests that we had collected. Unfortunately we only managed to loot a total of 18 Crests in the end but from the cawing sounds that we had heard in the distance the Terror Chicks were waking up and none of us were interested in getting caught by a flock of them like I almost had been on the first day.

When we got back to town Jameson happily took the Crests from us and handed me my reward.

You look like you can handle yourself (Part 2) Complete!

Rewards

Access to the next part of the quest, + 100 reputation with Ponson’s guards, 5 Silver and 500 Exp

“So, I should let you know that the Adolescent Terror Bird has grown into a mature Terror Bird, has a mate and they are starting to lay eggs,” I told the massive man who slowly turned pale as I spoke.

“Well that’s really not good,” Jameson said. “They won’t be fully grown yet, but it sounds like they’re well on the way if they’re laying eggs.”

“Wait how do you know they’re not fully grown?” Fern asked. “The strongest one was Level 23. Just how strong do these things get?”

“An Alpha Terror Bird stands twice as tall as I do and could quite literally kick down the town walls if it wanted to. The strongest one that I have heard of was over Level 65,” Jameson replied. “They are some of the most dangerous monsters that live in the Kingdom of Issaronia.”

“Well shit,” I remarked. “And you sent me to hunt their young? What if the parents had come back?”

“Oh, the army took care of their flock before you arrived,” Jameson replied. “These were just the ones that they had left for the town guards to clean up since they had another mission.”

“Okay and then when the other outsiders started to arrive you decided to send the more capable ones to try and take care of the other Terror Chicks before they started multiplying again,” Fern guessed.

“Right,” Jameson nodded. “I don’t blame you for not being able to decrease their numbers before now. Even the weak ones are fairly nasty opponents at your Level.”

“Well I still feel like I’m at least partly to blame we could’ve gone and hunted them yesterday, but we decided against it,” I replied.

“No, like I said it’s not your fault we should’ve just dealt with them ourselves,” Jameson disagreed. “In fact, I’m going to ask some of my men to join you tomorrow and start lowering their numbers before they grow too numerous.”

“Actually, some friends of mine will also be joining us tomorrow,” I replied. “So, we should be able to take out quite a few of them if we’re careful.”

“Sounds like a plan,” Jameson nodded. “So, what we’re going to do is form a hunting party and take out as many members of this flock as we can and at the very least drive them away. Hopefully we can kill the breeding pair, but we’ll just have to see. You will all be paid for every Terror Chick or Bird that you kill.”

As he said this a notification appeared in front of all of us making me blink in surprise.

Quest Updated!

You look like you can handle yourself (Part three)

(Uncommon Ranked Chain Quest)

Despite your best efforts the numbers of Terror Chicks have only increased. As such you and you party have been asked to help them out before they become too powerful.

Success Conditions

Kill as many Terror Chicks as possible.

Rewards

Reward money dependant on number and Level of the Terror Birds that you kill with a minimum of 1 Silver per kill. Experience. Reputation.

“Well that seems fair,” I said once I had finished reading the notification. “What do you think guys?”

“Agreed,” Fern nodded. “I hope we still get paid for bringing the Crests in though since we seem to have the same Quest that Zeke does.”

“You will,” Jameson nodded. “The gods of this world make sure that we fulfil our promises. I will also give Zeke’s friends the same Quest if they want it.”

“Really?” I asked before anyone else could speak. “They’ll be starting from scratch you know.”

“I highly doubt that’s true,” Jameson chuckled. “You weren’t unskilled when you arrived, and I have no reason to believe that they will be any different.”

“Well I’m happy with the arrangement,” Fern said, and we all nodded in agreement. “When should we get here tomorrow morning?”

“As soon as possible,” Jameson replied. “You’ll have to miss out on training I’m afraid.”

“Don’t worry about that,” I replied. “We’ll see you tomorrow.”

Saying our goodbyes, we got up and headed back to the inn where we ate a quick meal and went to bed for the night. We had a big day tomorrow.