Midsummer Feast

The birds were chipping happily, the critters played, some stopping to watch the event happening in the forest, or rather had happened. Before the tiny creatures had arrived, so had Merie found a group of, five, bandits who had hidden in some undergrowth. Probably thinking about attacking the next person walking the road, who would’ve been her, if she only had the slightest habit of using roads when she was setting out for hunts. But instead, so did she found them first and made sure their asses were all thrown over the ground, in more or less liquid form.

Soon the calm was broken once again, this time but Merie as she cursed her own stupidity. First thinking about that she should’ve questioned them before killing them. Which maybe could’ve helped her find their hideout faster. But after her small outburst, and knowing it wouldn’t lead anywhere, so did she drop another heavy sign. Rapidly setting out to find some more of those bandits, and this time make sure to get the information she wanted. Still making sure to take every possible way than the paths, as it seemed the path was the only way the bandits suspected to find someone.

It didn’t take long before Merie noticed the forest was empty of monsters, which could be due to the bandits, but she wasn’t so sure. Sure, she’d seen bunches of different monsters fighting against one and another, but then there would be signs of that, which there were none. She was sure there wouldn’t be a chance a group of bandits could exterminate every single monster in a forest. Especially thinking about how dumb those bandits had been who thought Merie would head down the road. Not that she spent much time thinking about it before she tried to sharpen her senses and set off hunting bandits again. Sure she could hear a bunch hiding in the surrounding, carefully heading toward them. Climbing a tree from time to time as she came closer, till she finally could see them from the top of a tree. There were only three of them, two of them looking strangely weak. So the best option should be to kill the strongest one and interrogate  one of the weak ones. But only looking at those pathetic-looking bandits, so did she get a feeling they all were just a weak as the other.

Luckily, so did the bandits soon leaving their hiding spot and heading in her direction. More directly, so could she make out that they thought about taking a nap under the tree she was hiding in. Jumping them as soon they were below her, crashing down on the large one, nimbly landing, turning her attention to the two other ones. Leaping forward, swinging toward his face, the curved blades got stuck, Merie kicked the stuck asshole backwards, ripping a large part of his face. Ignoring the screaming, turning toward the next, who seemed to search through his bag for something. Not that Merie anyhow would let him find whatever he searched as she leapt toward him, close enough she jumped and hit his face with a flying knee. Following his to the ground, using both her claws to rip his face off, once again surprised by the sudden burst of particles. A mistake she’d to stop repeating, but on the lucky side, so wasn’t there someone attacking her. Sure the latest target was dead, she turned toward the two others, the weak one dead on the ground. And the large one, curled up in a whining mess on the forest floor? Begging Merie to spare him, repeating it like a broken record player. “I heard you did attack a village a distance from here and kidnapped a bunch of men. And I would like you to bring them back so I can deliver a message.” Merie had felt more heartless a couple of minutes back, but she couldn’t help but to soften to the pathetic man-baby. Killing him like that wouldn’t be more different than killing a terrified hamster. And as long as she did get the information she wanted, so could she let him run and get himself get killed on another date. “I promise that it isn’t like that. We did go there and created a mess, and those men we kidnapped are our brother in arms, who we came to help escape.” The guy couldn’t be honest. It sounded too idiotic to be true. But at the same time, so didn’t she feel as if he was lying, so she should give it a shot. And in the absolutely worst case, spend some time with her friends in the party and taking part in the mass slaughtering of newbies. “So… Can you make sure I get a chance to speak with the leader, and one of the guys you kidnapped, named Hans?” Merie had no interest in the leader and would only meer him because she suspected Hans would get suspected of something. “I can’t promise anything, but I’ll see what I can do for you.” The guy sounded more confident and slightly stronger after Merie started to look down at him, giving her the chills, in a bad way.

The guy had led her to a cave, close to a lake, and during their walk so had other bandits joining the two of them. Not in a way to express their dominance, but as they expressed it, because it was boring to walk without someone to talk with, and to top it off, so was Merie a new face. The guy had headed into the cave, alone, to speak with their leader. Leaving Merie outside with three other bandits, and since she didn’t have anything better to do so, “You seem like quite nice guys for being bandits.” They weren’t quite fitting the typical stereotype of how bandits should act and behave. Sure, they still seemed to rob people and things like that, but it wasn’t as bad as it often was told in stories. “Well, we’re bandits. But we ain’t criminals. We’re employed by God, and are only robbing those deserving it.” If Merie never had heard about a religious psycho before, so would this be an excellent pick. And she could guess that the god they were “employed” by, was the developers.

Whether it were NPCs or players running this area, so did Merie understand that the governing body was paying the bandits for making a ruckus and to eliminate any possible competition. “So you’re bandits, who’ll get punished if the guards catch you after doing something bad? And you’ll get executed? And you send most of the money back to the state, so they can continue working in god’s favour?” Merie had to make it clear, because no matter how she looked at it, so didn’t it seem the slightest fair. And honestly so couldn’t she think of any worse way they could’ve been used. And as they indicated that she had been right, so didn’t she hesitate to show what she thought about it.

After a bunch of complaining and honest thoughts about the situation, so did that whiny guy coming back out again, followed by another one. Who Merie soon was told was Hans, so she didn’t waste a second before giving him the letter. “I see that it’s my brother sending some information, and I’m grateful for the delivery. But if he’s promising you any payment, so do you need to talk with him about it.” Hans didn’t seem to care the slightest about it, and could be lying when he said the other one had to handle it. “Can you please leave something as evidence I’ve delivered the letter, please?” Without knowing if it possible could happen in Rocking World, so could Merie almost see how some NPCs could trick some players like that. And she wouldn’t have it, not for a second.

Thankfully so didn’t she even have to fight with Hans to get what she asked for, maybe it’d been the right decision to ask for evidence. And as soon she got it, so didn’t she feel it was worth spending more time there, before leaving, asking the guy how she could contact him, in case she might want to share some information with him. Sure she both could fuck up things for other players, and as well getting information about potential hunting grounds. She was heading straight to the village, where she should’ve found Hans. Both to give the worried women a piece of information and to check the teleportation. Or at the very least, so did she give them a twisted version of the information, simply that they were bandits and had decided to abandon them to protect them from the possible threat.

–

Done with the quest, Merie once again opening her menu at looked at the reward from the quest. She’d got one Ability-potion, level 2, which was something she never had seen before.

“This potion grants an ability with the power out over the usual, so use it with care.” It was what the discretion said about the potion, and she was sure she should drink it. But she didn’t know anything more than that. Opening the menu and starting the party chat, “I got an Ability-potion as a reward from one quest. What do we know about them?” She didn’t know when it was best to use it, and honestly wanted to know that before she even considered when to drink the potion. “I haven’t heard anything at all about potions like that, but only from the name, so so I get a feeling it’s a special reward. So may I ask how you got it, Cutie?” At Opiom’s question so didn’t Merie hesitate to write what she’d been doing, giving both locations and how she’d been searching and pointing out that she wouldn’t be surprised if there were other quests like that. “I found a quest which gave me an Ability-potion too, and I used it on the spot. If you do, Merie, so will you get a menu with abilities which you can choose one to go with. I don’t know if you’ve to decide on the spot, or if you can close the menu and come back when you’ve decided.” Adu had also found a quest like that? But as she’d explained her quest, so was it clear it was as different as it could be from the quest Merie had done. “I get a feeling that our savage beast might get more dangerous than our, almost, nude berserker.” Opiom maybe was more sure about it than Merie. Sure, both of them could be extremely dangerous, but both were in different ways. And, “Do you really have to call her a savage beast, Opiom?” Merie couldn’t see it as anything other than bad, no matter from which direction she looked. “But I’m a savage beast from the bushes, and I do have a pride in it.” Something was wrong with Adu. There had to be something wrong with her for seeing herself that way.

After chatting for a while so did Merie decide to leave for another adventure, soon noticing how exhausted she was. Checking the clock, and seeing that she’d been playing for far too long. She didn’t have anything special to do, but she knew fully well what the recommended time spawn was, and she’d passed it with high tolls. Not to mention that it’d gotten too late, probably even too late for her to sneak into the kitchen and grab something to eat. So she might as well just log out and return after a couple of hours of sleep. And some breakfast. Maybe she also might need to warn her parents that she might be just as bad player the following day as this day. But just to make sure her health didn’t crumble, so maybe she could ask them if they could eat at a set time, just so she wouldn’t go hungry as this day.