“So, did we receive the quest?” Dem asked.

“Hell yeah! I am tired of level E or D quests!.” Victor added. “With a cleric on hand we can tackle any quest.! Haha”

‘Where did that confidence come from!!’

“It is true that our battle strength has increased by many times since we have a balanced party now, but level C is for someone around lvl 50 or above in a party. I don’t think we can tackle it yet.”

‘Level 50??? I have come across C quests 2 times!! So it is for level 50!!!? Tantalus is a trouble bringer!’ I cursed in my thought for the certain bullying group that gave an overly hard quest to me.

Meanwhile in Trisia

“Achoo!!” Ragnar sneezed. “Stella, it is kind of cold isn’t?”

“Really? I don’t think so.” She said while wearing a white shirt and light blue skirt. Her normal attire.

Back to Riri

“Screw it. Even if we die it is fine. We just need to hire some stronger soldiers. Or even share the quest with them. I am getting tired of those cookie cutter quests.” Victor added.

“Let’s vote. Who is in for the quest?” Hasega asked.

Everyone except Riri raised their hands.

“What is it Riri?” Dem asked.

“The quest is hard right? And the black bears.... we might not make it.”

“Well, I do admit that the quest might be hard. But according to Fira, black bears range from lvl 22 to lvl 25. Those poisonous bears were an exception. They might be lvl 30 or 35. But I can assure you that is not the strength of lvl 25 monsters. Even boss monsters aren’t like that even though they would have more HP” Hasega answered.

“Okay. I am in” I hesitantly raised my hand. Having a taste of 2 level c quests made her realize how hard the quest is. There must be a catch.

“Well, let’s return for the time being. We need to restock and enlarge our supply. Learning from experience, we can’t be overly prepared.” Hasega answered.

“Alright. Health potions. Here I come.” Victor said.

“And mana potions as well. Though we might hardly need them. Our supporter needs them.”

“They can go buy it themselves.” Victor said.

“Well, we can always make them indebted to us.” Hasega blinked.

‘He is evil inside!’

“Uhmm. I will buy my own mana potions.” I answered. I can’t let a debt force me to play by their rules.

“Well, how about you?”

“Just buy it. I will ask when I need it, but I will pay no more than I use. And don’t even think of raising the price.” Fira made a sharp remark.

“Don’t sweat it Riri. We were just joking!” Hasega laughed.

Back to Trisia

“Okay. Meet us at central square in 2 hours. Here is your share Riri. 35 gold.”

“Eh?” 35 gold means all of the money.

“Ahh, well, we get the loot, you get the gold. You need more cash right? Use it to buy new equipment. You might get attacked once or twice during this quest” Hasega looked at Riri. His assumption is that Riri has no money at all. So he decided to give Riri the money. He assumed that even if Riri got the loot, she wouldn’t have enough money to process it at the blacksmith or tailor. And if Riri sells the loot, being a beginner with no knowledge of the prices of loot will lead her to be scammed. Little did they know that Riri has almost 140 gold with a rare complete set of lvl 20 equipment. If he only shifted his sight to her hand, he might change his mind immediately because of the rare rings on it.

“Don’t worry, the mana potions are on us. “ Dem and Victor said.

“Ahh, but..”

“Okay. 2 hours! Don’t forget to mark your time. And add Riri as a friend.”

Victor, Fira and Dem have sent you a friend request. Do you wish to accept?

“Umm accept.”

Then the group disbanded.

Back at Tantalus, Riri decided to store all of her equipment in her room except the elven cleric set, her rings and her beginner’s clothes. She then made a report to Stella about her progress and what she is about to do. With a hug Stella welcomed her. She then made a few pointers.

“You see, performers aren’t real clerics so they don’t have to be so far from battle. Your action in the cave was correct if you had been a real cleric. But instead of this mage that switched with the axe guy, it should have been you. Your multitask ability allows you to chant while moving. Your dexterity is also similar of that of a thief. Just a bit lower. You see, the mage is unable to do anything when she confuses the enemy. Only after the warrior is healed, she can start chanting the spell again. This almost led to the death of the mage and the thief right? Since the battle took longer and mage is very vulnerable in close battle.”

“Ahh, I see. But.. thinking I would have to charge the bear. And what about aggro?”

“Hmm, that is the use of fist fighting I mentioned earlier. Performers can do fist fighting at an earlier stage. But I guess that doesn’t suit you does it?” Stella smiled “Well, even standing in front of the monster is enough to aggro them. Just annoy them with a kick or the like and the aggro should be pulled to you. This is also why we have acrobatics. To dodge enemy attacks.”

“But we can equip heavy armor.”

“We could. Performer is a such a wide class isn’t it? Instead of a mage or archer class that are bound in long range spells and skills. Or warriors who are bound to close range combat, performers can choose for themselves whether they want to be close range or long range. Speed type or tanker type. I chose to be a close range speed type. What about you?”

“We can’t choose all of them?”

“We can. We can be more adept in any situation that way. You see, I have sword mastery as well as magic mastery. But in a specialized area, we are weak if you choose to be like that. I have sword mastery but my magic mastery is higher. So when I battle I mostly use magic. The sword is mainly for parrying or small counterattacks. I have several songs too like a bard. But I rarely use them in battle. It is more like a hobby than for battle. Even being jack of all trades, we can be at least be a queen or king in one area. Though we are not aces.”

“O-Okay. Thanks.”

“Two hours are almost gone. Okay. See you. Don’t forget to meet me if your magic mastery has reached intermediate. Ahh, I just acquired this for you. Might as well give it to you now.” She give Riri a fireball spell.

“Learn!”

Skill has been learned.

Fireball

Creates a ball of fire and launches it at the enemy

Damage 40 (-36 class restriction)

Mana cost 100

“Huh?”

“You don’t have to charge at the enemy to aggro it but with your class restrictions it is hardly useful. Well, if you target it’s eyes it might notice you though.” Stella smiled while pointing at her eyes.

“Okay. See you.”

10 minutes later at the central square

“Why haven’t you changed your gear, Riri?” Fira asked.

“Umm, I could not find the store in 2 hours.”

“Khukhukhu. Hey Fira, is she like that in real life? I can tell that attitude isn’t fake.” Victor chuckled.

“Umm, sorry.” I replied. Fira just sighed.

“She is a cleric from head to toe alright! Hahaha.” Victor laughed followed by Dem and Hasega’s chuckles.

”Well, we can’t waste anymore time. Let’s head straight to the quest. Have you found the location Fira?”

“Yes. It is north of here. Close to the central kingdom of Haven.”

“Ohh, I feel like I rose in rank already.” Victor whistled.

“Well, either we get a good rank or we die with honor. Hahaha” Hasega said. He seemed excited.

“Alright. Let’s move.”

6 hour later in the middle of nowhere inside a forest.

“Holy crap. This is far as hell!” Victor complained.

“Did that warrior really run this far?” Hasega asked.

“Well, we got a little lost.” Fira said.

“Thank goodness we have our little health supply depot here or else we would have been out of health potion already.” Victor blurted out. Is he treating me as a tool?

“Spare us your whining Victor.” Hasega said. “Ahh, don’t stand at the back too much Riri, you might get ambushed. We are not in a cave.”

“Well, we are not really lost. The black bear is there.” Fira pointed to her east.” It is just that I can’t find the stinger bee’s nest. I assume it is somewhere near the bear’s nest. We can get back to Trisia in 4 hours.”

16 hours later circling the vicinity

Due to walking dexterity increased by 1 and stamina increased by 10

“At last we found the stinking bees!” Victor swore at the swarm of bees flying around a human sized nest.

“That’s the bee?” Dem asked while looking at a human head sized bee with it’s stinger protruding like an icepick.”

“Let’s try one. We don’t have an archer so Fira will have to do it. Fira, bait one of the mobs.” Hasega said.

“Okay. Fireball. “ Fira said while aiming at the mob that seemed alone.

But against to our expectation all the bees’ red eyes were glaring at us.

“Not good.” Victor said.

“Run!!”

The entire party ran with all their might. However the bees caught up to Hasega and Victor. Being the warriors with heavy equipment.

“Everybody. Keep running. I will stall them.” Hasega said after analysing the situation.

“Huh, but..”

“Just run! And chant a light blessing and phoenix regen on me Riri.” Hasega shouted.

20 minutes after

“What a show off. That guy.” Dem said.

“No, knowing him maybe he wants to measure the bee’s strength while letting us go.” Victor said.” Ahh, here he is. I will log out first. I got a call from him. Guard my body okay.”

In Royal Road you can link your phones to your capsule so you will be notified when you get a text message or a phone call. And while you log off in a monster infested area your body will linger for a while to prevent escaping from a monster by logging out.

40 minutes after

“He is taking a long time.” Dem said.

“It is just 10 minutes in real life!” Fira answered.

“Alright.” Victor woke up. ”So, here is the report. The wasp is no more than lvl 20 in strength and health. But it’s dexterity is above that of lvl 25 monsters. It gives the impression that it is a quick bug. It deals low damage but has a low rank poison in it. Somewhere around 1 HP per 10 second. But it is stackable with the poison from other bugs which is why this bug has the behavior to come in massive packs. He will try to look into Royal Road forum to find a method to deal with this bug. He will call me again when that time comes. Probably around 2 hours in real time.”

“So what should we do for 8 hours here?” Fira asked.

“Well, we might go on hunting. Let’s take down a few of those bears okay. Ahh, Dem. Don’t forget to pick up Hasega’s loot. The bees are supposed to be gone now.” Victor said.

The black bear was surely different from those in Trisia cave. It deals a fifth less damage with almost a third less of its speed. It is like the ones in the cave were like the strongest bear in a berserker state. In addition to that it was easy to pull. Sometimes they came in groups of three, but since their aggro was focused on Victor and Dem, we managed to beat them.

#Ting

You have leveled up

I gained yet another level after 4 hours of hunting with the rest of the group. The pace has become quicker since we are now used to the opponent. Now it only took 2 minutes to kill each bear.

“Ahh, wait. Here is a call from him. He is quite fast.” Victor then logged off in a safe spot with us circling him to guard his body.

‘Hmm, I am already level 20 now. Should I use my new equipment? Ahh, but the shoes will get in the way if it is like this. It gives 30% penalty on movement. Should I equip the other? Statistically speaking it is better but this set is too eyecatching!’

Riri made a calculation between wearing the set or not for an hour while waiting. In the end she decided not to use it since it might cause suspicion about where she got such a set.

“Alright.” Just as she finished making her decision Victor came again. ”Whew. He really is a nerd alright. So this is the information. The bees that we are looking for are the correct ones. It carries an enchanted honey that can increase our stats by a large margin being the first to try it. It is hunted by several guilds which is why we have had a hell of a hard time finding one. We should consider ourselves lucky though since there are reports that the guilds usually take 2 whole days to find one.”

“And the method?”

“Same as always. Send a group of players above lvl 50 when they find one. That way the bug will only deal 1 HP each hit. But some also use an experienced archer to deal with them. 1 hit killshots won’t attract them. They just keep killing with arrows until all of them are dead.”

“So, what are we going to do?”

“Either we hire an archer or..”

“What?” Fira asked.

“That Hasega had some crazy idea. He said if we do not hire an archer, we might use bait to lure the bees away while we ransack their home.”

Everyone then looked at Dem

“Huh? Are you telling me to die here?”

“Not necessarily. According to him, the bees speed is almost the same as or a little less than yours. You might actually get away. Moreover with Riri’s blessing you might get a head start.”

“But what prevents them from returning to the nest when we attack?” Fira asked.

“That’s the hard part. So, we let this thief go to the furthest reach of the bees’ range. Just at the moment the bees are about to return we ransack their homes. We have only got around 5 or 7 minutes he said.”

“That’s crazy! The bees would not leave their homes empty. Even if most of them are away, at least some of them must stay behind. Not to mention the queen!”

“well, it’s true but I like that plan. Hahaha. It is rare for him to make a plan like this.” Victor laughed. ”Well, to answer Fira’s question, Hasega said that we only need the honey. We don’t necessarily need to defeat the bugs. So, we can just charge down there, with this cleric girl’s regen and light blessing, I aggro the monsters. Then we steal the honey and escape.”

“Can we escaped from their range in time?”

“Even if we die it is not certain that the honey will drop. So we can still finish the quest 4 days later.“

“Isn’t it safer to just hire an archer?”

“Yeah, but the risks later would be greater. As the honey can raise our main stats like strength, dexterity, intelligence, wisdom, and vitality, it is highly desirable among players. Do we have an experienced trustworthy archer on our friend list? He said we might get Pked on our way to central kingdom if we let an outsider know about this.”

“Alright. Better lose now than later. I am in your crazy plan Victor.” Dem said.

“Umm. Alright.”

“Whew. What am I gonna do tomorrow while waiting for the banning period to end?” Fira said.

“okay, Dem. Throw some knives at our opposite spot and run like hell.”

“Light blessing.”

“Godspeed Dem.” Fira cheered.

“I feel scared now. May we rethink our plan first?” Dem whined.

“No.”

“Alright!. I will start running now.” Then Dem ran to the designated spot, like planned, he threw 2 knives at the bees. Just as predicted the bees aggroed and chased Dem with all their might. Dem being a lvl 30 thief is actually a lot faster than the bees. But the terrain was full of bushes inhibiting his movements. But just like Hasega predicted, he managed to stay ahead until he was out of our vision.

“Dem, report.” Fira asked.

“What the hell is there to report!! I am still being chased alright!. They are freaking fast!.”

“So, among 200 or 300 bees. 15 or 20 were left behind. Think we can handle this?” Fira said.

“Alright, when we get the signal from Dem, we charg in. Riri stay behind. Me and Fira will break through. I will be doing most of the attack so they will aggro me. Then, you steal the honey Fira.“

“Won’t their target chang to me the moment I get my hands on the honey?”

“Give the honey to me. It will solve the problem, aarg! Forget it. I can just take the honey and run outside. You cover me with your magic okay. Then after that we run outside. Cast phoenix regen on me Riri. And go hide just in case we drop the honey, you can pick it up if the bees do not take it.”

“Okay. Light blessing, phoenix regen.”

5 minutes later

“Alright, they pulled back! See you in 4 days guys. I got more company. Whoa, a rhino, beetles, snakes, even eagles. I hate being famous.”

“How far did he go?” Fira muttered. Dem must have caught the aggro of other monsters in the vicinity of his path. Since a lot of different creatures are chasing him.

“Charge!” Victor yelled.

The other 20 bees then reacted as Victor came too close to their nest. They charged towards him but he forced his way through swinging his 2 handed axe wildly. 3 of them were dead in few of those hits. It is true that the bees have weak health. The bees’ nest was proportional to the bees with over 3 meter in diameter was sitting on a huge tree.

Riri continued to watch. Victor Hp is still above 90% while Fira still had full Hp even with the reckless assault. But his face was starting to darken because of the poison.

‘Don’t worry, he has an antidote with him. He can drink one when he gets outside. He also carries many health potions right?’ Lily thought. While seeing Victor climb the 5 meter tree to the bees’ nest.

The bees were getting more violent but their numbers were no more than 10 now. Fira has fired a number of fire magics and almost depleted her mana. However most of their aggro was still on Victor, him being the closest to their nest. When Victor reached the nest, he readied his stance and fought while it was now Fira’s turn to climb. His HP was at 60% so he might make it.

He then plucked flasks from his pouch and dipped it into the honey in the nest. There was a buzzing sound larger than the other bees now. A human sized bee appeared from the nest. The queen bee! Seeing this, Fira charged toward the beast with all of her fire magic. But it only took 10% of it’s HP being a boss monster, it can’t be defeated that easily. But just like Victor said before, we do not need to defeat it. The pair was now jumping away from the tree. Fall damage occurred but it was better since bee reinforcements were already in sight. The bees that Dem had lured away were back. But Victor and Fira were running already while gulping an antidote and a health potion.

“Cleric girl! Follow us slowly from behind okay. And keep yourself hidden. Open your map and we will tell you where we are.” Said victor in a whisper channel.

`”Umm. Okay.”

#Ting,

you got a new skill

Sneak beginner level 1

Hide your presence in from others.

Movement speed decreased by 70%

Rou are harder to detect

Increase this skill level to decrease the movement penalty and increase efficiency.

They ran all the way to the north. The bees except the queen bee were still tracking them. A few mobs looked their way.

20 minutes later.

“whew. We are alive.” Said Victor.

“They chased us almost double the range with Dem. But in the end they still can’t leave their nest alone.” Fira said.

“Okay, you are still alive right, cleric girl?” Victor whispered.

“Umm, yeah. I am heading your way. Umm, It might take another 20 or 30 minutes.”

30 minutes later

#ting

Sneak is now level 2

“Okay. So, shall we go straight to the alchemist or should we wait in Trisia and go together?” Fira asked.

“Let’s go straight to the king. It takes 2 weeks to get there by foot. If Dem and Hasega rent a horse. They can catch up with us on time.” Victor said. “I will log out and report to him. Guard my body okay.”

2 weeks later we finally arrived in the central kingdom of Haven. Hasega and Dem already met us with their horse 2 days earlier. Seeing the state of the horse it seems they overworked it a bit. We met several mobs ranging from lvl 30 to 45. But, none of them were in a pack so we managed to get rid of them. we avoided the dangerous forest and took a clear path that is usually used by merchants. This way, we also lowered the chance of meeting mobs that were high in level or in packs.

“So, where is the alchemist?” Victor asked.

“Good question. We can just ask where NPC alchemists are located in this town. If we find more than one, we can just ask which of them needed the honey.” Hasega answered.

“What if they lie?”

“The quest might tell us. Besides, we will get a reward regardless if they lie or not and we have enough enchanted honey to satisfy 2 or 3 alchemists right?”

“Ahh, nice thinking.” Dem answered.

In the end we only found a single alchemist store.

http://www.royalroadl.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=350&t=3256&p=21530#p21530

http://www.royalroadl.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=350&t=3308

__________

author note

- as usual comments and suggestions are welcome.

- special thanks to obsidian for PR my chap ^_^

- here is the usual mc stat

Spoiler : Status windowNameRiriclassperformersHealth2125mana1275fame200Level20Titlemanagerjobtantalus performer[Health regen/sec7mana regen/sec9.4Strength68(+2)dexterity111(+2)Wisdom92(+2)intelect49(+2)Stamina240(+2)vitality83(+2)art52(+2)charisma20(+32)leadership20(+32)charm50(+32)fighting spirit20[(+2)/tds][tds]faith10(+2)Magic Resistancefire0%water0%earth0%wind0%thunder0%ice0%light0%dark0%unused points50Bonuses- fighting spirit increased by 20%

- all stat +10 except dex and charm

- Dex +50 charm +40

- Stamina +40

- Magic will be reduced by 90%. unless you meet normal requirement of 300 wisdom

- weapon will be reduced by 90% unless have blacksmithe at intermediate

- Leather armor will not be penalized

- Iron armors will have it’s movement speed reduced by 30% and increased stamina consumption by 20%. Only if you meet the requirement

Here is our mc items

Spoiler : [tr]bag 1skillssubskilllocked- - Water canteen

- Water canteen

- Rye bread (6)

- Ring of mana(E)

- Ring of leadership(E)

- Staff of white cleric

- Circlet of purity.

- White high heel shoes

- White dress of purity

- Autographed Beginner’s cloth (E)

- Beginner’s pant (E)

- Beginner’s shoes (E)

- Silver coin (10)

- Gold coins (130)

-

- here is the skill of our mc

Spoiler : bag 1skillssubskilllocked- - Speed reading beginner’s lvl 2

- Speed reading beginner’s lvl 2

- Manage beginner’s lvl 4

- Magic mastery beginner lvl 2

- Acrobatic beginner lvl 2

- Multitasking beginner lvl 4

- Sword mastery beginner lvl 4

- Ambidextrous beginner lvl 2

- Bullet deflector beginner lvl 3

- Sneak beginner level 2

- here is the sub skill of our mc. sub skill is a branch of skill such as spells level or sword technique

Spoiler : bag 1skillssubskilllocked-

*magic mastery

- light blessing beginner lvl 2

- light blessing beginner lvl 2

- phoenix regen beginner lvl 2

- cure paralysis beginner lvl 2

- cure poison beginner lvl 2

- healing hand beginner lvl 3

- fireball beginner lvl 1