Loran looked up at Soze. “So what’s up? I’m guessing you just woke up?”

“A little while ago,” he said as he sat down. “I just went back to get some food, and I wanted to talk to you.”

“About what?”

“I was wondering if you would be interested in this,” he said, pulling a smooth blue crystal out of his inventory.

Taking the crystal, Loran’s eyes widened as he realized what it was. “Holy shiii-” his eyes flicked over to Maya, who was very much within earshot. “-iiiooot, shoot.” He turned the crystal over in his hand, moving it slowly as if it would shatter from any careless movements. “Where did you get this?”

Soze’s brow furrowed. “You didn’t hear about it?”

“I’ve been stuck sitting here for hours now. I heard some people talking about how you were carried back to the village, but that’s about it. Did you get this from the Demon Bear?”

“Yeah. It managed to escape from the initial fight, and by the time we tracked it down it had been given a name.”

“So, named monsters can give rewards like this,” Loran said to himself as he turned the crystal over in his hands. “And you’re giving it to me?”

“If you want it. It gave me three of them. I gave one to Yang, another to Alexx, I would be giving one to Zed but he was acting out again and nearly caused a lot of trouble, so he can forget it.”

Loran nodded slowly, curious about what Zed did but more focused on the crystal in his hands. He seemed deep in thought for a moment before sighing. "Alright, I guess I have to."

Soze scoffed at Loran's answer. “Wow, you sound like I'm making you do it.”

“It’s definitely a powerful Skill, but I really want to focus on magic right now. If I want my magic power to reflect my actual Level then I can’t go spending more points on non-magic related things.”

“But it's one AP, and you have tons of EXP right now."

"Yeah, which is why I'm taking it. I just feel a little stupid for telling myself to focus only to immediately grab something like this."

“Alright, whatever you say kiddo,” Soze said while shaking his head.

“Why don’t you use it?" Loran said, holding out the crystal. "You killed it, didn’t you? Take some rewards for yourself.”

Soze grinned. “Who said these Tough Hide Crystals were the only thing I got from it.”

Loran’s eyes widened. “There’s more?!”

Soze quickly explained the [BURNING RAGE] Skill Crystal and pulled out the Monstrous Helm for Loran to look at. Just as before, Loran looked over the helm like he was holding a priceless artifact.

“This is insane.”

“Yeah, I’ll probably share it with others, but overall I’m saving that for myself. Can you imagine me sneaking into a huge group of enemies and putting that on?”

“...” Loran said nothing, his brow furrowing as he continued staring at the piece of equipment.

“...What are you thinking?”

“I think we can use this to start Level boosting people.”

Level boosting, power leveling, whatever you wanted to call it, was a common practice in MMORPGs. It was the practice by which a high-Level player would group up with a lower-Level player and take them into high-risk areas. By letting the high-Level player do most of the work, the low-Level player could reap massive EXP rewards and grow stronger at an accelerated pace.

“You’re thinking of using the Iron Ants.”

Loran nodded. “This thing can easily shut down the Drones. If Alexx, Zed, and I can take down a hundred Drones with only a group of Mountain Goats as support, a group of players with this thing and the right weapons could do the same.”

Soze thought for a moment before shaking his head. “It still sounds risky. Coming across any variants could turn into a massacre.”

“That’s true,” Loran nodded. “I think Soldiers are limited to Level 20, but even if they are and get stunned by the Skill their momentum could carry them into their target. Even if the weapon misses that much speed can be deadly.”

“Then there are the Warriors and Guardians…”

“Wait, Warriors and Guardians?” Loran was surprised, to hear those names. He knew about them because he dug through the patch notes after the version update, but he hadn’t mentioned it to anyone.

“Right, you headed west when they came back.”

“You mean Yang and the others right?”

“Yeah, they found this place called Ziege Basin up near the Iron Ant territory and it got attacked by a massive army of ants. There were hundreds of goats living in the basin who did most of the fighting, but those three helped and managed to fight some of the new variants.”

Loran’s eyes widened as Soze gave more descriptions of the new variants and of the basin itself. “Sounds like one hell of a time.” His eyes narrowed as he began thinking. “It also sounds like an even better place to power level.”

“Okay, I’m going to have to veto that one for sure,” Soze said quickly. “Those three were nearly torn apart in that battle. There is no way anyone is ready for that, even with the helm for support.”

“Obviously not yet, but once we get a decent number of people into the high twenties it should be manageable.”

“Why are you so interested in this?” Soze asked, feeling like Loran was pushing for this dangerous plan.

Loran shrugged disinterestedly. “I’m not, but the more we explore the valley the more it seems like we’re surrounded on all sides by high-Level threats. There are Iron Ants to the north, Demon Bears to the West, impassible mountains to the east, and I don’t know what’s to the south but it can’t be good.”

“Actually it seems like there might be a player village to the south,” Soze said before explaining what Zed claimed to have seen during their expedition.

“Alright, but that doesn’t mean there won’t be more threats past them. Player Levels have been limited since we’ve been trying to avoid overhunting, but now that we have that helm why not make up for lost time?”

Soze was still hesitant, but because of the recent Demon Bear attack, he couldn’t dismiss the idea outright. While the beast had likely followed Loran’s scent back to the village they already knew that bears would sometimes explore outside of their territory. Furthermore, they still weren’t sure if the increased spawn rates would impact those borders. If the Demon Bears moved east or if the Iron Ants pushed further south, fighting them could become a regular occurrence. At their current Levels, more players were reaching the point where they could try taking on Iron Ant Drones in small numbers, but overall the chance of fatalities was going up.

The ants were also a significantly greater threat in this regard. They already knew that the Iron Ants could and would organize large-scale assaults on particular targets. The village could easily be subjected to the same raids as Ziege Basin was in the coming months, and unlike the Mountain Goats, the players didn’t have the terrain advantage or a super-high-Level entity like The Guardian Elder to defend them.

‘There’s no pressing need for us to do this, but that just means we have the time to be cautious about it,’ Soze eventually decided. “I’ll look into organizing some large attacks on the Iron Ants, but I’ll want you to be there. You and the others are the ones with the most experience fighting these things, and you have the best tools for the job.”

“Presumably. By the sound of it, I wouldn’t be as effective in those large battles as Yang, Alexx, or Zed.”

“Even with your magic?”

“Magic damage doesn’t get around armor, so that’s still an issue.” Loran hadn’t fought any Iron Ants since the version update, but while he expected magic to give him a new advantage over the large bugs he didn’t expect it to be as effective as the others were with their weapons. “I suppose I could kill them pretty easily if I can score consistent headshots, but I would definitely run out of MP too quickly when facing a large horde.” His eyes narrowed. “What I need is an AOE spell.”

“AOE?”

“Area of Effect.”

“Ah.”

The biggest weakness Loran’s magic had at the moment was being limited to attacking single targets. For most games, spellcasters specailzed in effecting large areas, such as with the classic fireball, but so far the only attacks they had discovered were projectiles that either pierced their targets or dissipated on contact.

“Still, you’re one of the only people with a positive track record with these things. A few hunting parties have run into Drones while exploring the woods and have barely managed to take them out. Before we do any big raids I want you to help with some smaller operations, okay.”

Loran groaned. “Fine, but I won’t like…it…” Loran’s brow furrowed as he became distracted by some passing thought.

Suddenly his eyes widened. Holding out his hand, a bead of mana appeared and began to flicker as he started concentrating on it. After a moment, the bead burst outward with a loud snapping sound and a shower of sparks like a firecracker, and Loran began to grin.

“Di- did you just figure out an answer immediately after talking about how much of a problem it was?” Soze asked, stunned by his friend’s talent.

“Worse, I actually figured that out a little while ago,” Loran said, rubbing his face. “But I was so focused on finding a healing spell for debuffs that I ignored it.”

Soze didn’t know whether to be impressed or disappointed. ‘...So less talent, more forgetfulness.’

“How did you do that?!” Maya asked, dashing over with starstruck eyes. “It was like a little firework!”

“It’s another shape transformation,” Loran said, amused at Maya’s enthusiasm. “Just take the mana and make it all spiky.”

“Are you sure you should be teaching her that?” Soze asked, concerned as Maya quickly created her own little firecracker.

“It should be fine,” Loran said with a shrug. “I was planning to teach her some combat spells anyway, may as well start here.” He quickly turned to Maya and added, “but try to be careful with that spell in the camp, don’t use more than one mana for it unless I’m with you okay?”

“Oka-ow!” Maya jerked back as her finger was caught by the blast of mana.

“Let me see,” Loran said, calmly casting a healing spell. “And this is why you need to be careful, okay?”

“Okay,” she said, a bit less spirited.

“I’ll ask again, do you really think you should be teaching her this stuff?”

“She’s always playing with mana, it’s better for someone to teach her than for her to discover something dangerous on her own. Besides, she has the highest magic stats in the village, she may as well learn some self-defense.”

“Self-defense?” Maya asked as Soze became baffled at the casual mention of Maya's strength.

“Like…” Loran paused to think of a good example. “Like if some monsters get into the camp and you can’t find anyone.”

“Oh!” Maya said, eyes lighting up with understanding. “Like the zappy remote!”

“The what?” Soze and Loran said at the same time.

“My big brother gave me a special remote that he said I should use if any strange adults do something that makes me uncomfortable. I think he called it a… tay-sir?”

Loran and Soze shared a glance, and Loran mouthed “What the fuck?” at his friend.

“Yeeeeeah, like that,” Soze said, deciding not to pry into Maya’s living situation at the moment. The young girl remained oblivious to the confusion of the two older players, happily summoning up another firecracker spell.