Merie could really taste the bitterness from the addition of beggars, but could at least find comfort in that the developers hadn’t added something like starvation. Or, she didn’t see it now and hoped that she never would need to see it.
“Can you please help me, Miss!” A beggar almost threw himself toward Merie as he suddenly begged her for help. Instinctively Merie jumped backwards, shocking the man. “Don’t throw yourself at me, please.” Merie didn’t think she would need to point that out, but considering the NPC looking distressed, so maybe there was a reason he acted as he did, “What is it you want help with?” And since it was an NPC asking for help, so could Merie almost already see that she would help him. “My son went out to try getting some meat yesterday, and he hasn’t come back yet.” Merie could already see where this was going. “So I would want to ask you to bring him home. I beg you. I need him to survive.” The man’s request sounded as if it would be one of those new quests, which only one could finish. “I’ll see what I can do about it. But may I first ask where he should be hunting?” If she would find the boy, so would it be for the best that she minimises the area she’d to search through. “He said he should hunt rabbits, as they’re easy targets.” The son hadn’t been wrong, the Snow-rabbits were easy targets. “Does he has any experience when it comes to fighting wolves?” If he had no such experience, so wasn’t it sure that he even had reached his destination, if he’d thought about going to the area with the highest spawn of Snow-rabbits. “I haven’t heard anything about his fighting wolves before. But does that question mean that you think he’ll hunt wolves too?” The beggar couldn’t be serious? Why did he think the boy should hunt wolves if he’d no such experience? “I don’t think he’ll do something like that, but I’ll go and search for him now. I’ll be back when I’ve found something out.” Considering how dumb the beggar acted so didn’t she even want to talk with him, sure she would make better use of the time if she just started to search after the boy.
Leaving the village and heading toward the area they’d hunted the Snow-rabbits. She hadn’t been wrong to suspect it from the beginning, as she’d checked the quest info and found a map. So she knew the way there, to some extent, and maybe could be lucky enough to find the boy on the way. Maybe hiding from wolves, trying to slaughter him. Meeting only one other player heading toward the village, which she ignored with all her might when he whistled after her. As if she would be something to look at.
Howlings in the distance, tons of it. It hadn’t taken long for it to get the same feeling as the previous quest. The monster spawn seemed to have increased again. And this time so could the monsters be quite worse than the last time, mainly because they were slightly, much, more of a pain than a bunch of Goblins. But she was sure she could handle it, and even though she didn’t like to use her PK weapon when she wasn’t hunting, so was it probably in her best interest to use them. She’d, after all, already got killed once too many times, thanks to those bombing assholes.
The howling grew closer, and soon so could she also see the wolves coming her way. Their beautiful white pelt almost melted in with the snow. If it shouldn’t be because they would try to kill her, so would she never have laid a hand on them. Dropping a sigh, but was glad that it only was a game. Otherwise so would she never been able to live with herself.
The first wolf, reaching her, threw itself at her. Merie smoothly sidestepped it, using the claws and ripping its side wide open. Sure it was enough to kill it, she did prepare for the next one to attack. This one was attacked over the head, and she felt a pull on her arm as the claws got caught in the skull, rapidly regained her balance and forced it down to the ground as she pulled the claws free. Not even looking up, feeling that she got bitten in her arm, elbowing the naughty wolf, shoving her other claws into its mouth and forcing it open. Loudly thought of what an idiot she was to not pay more attention to her surrounding, but it should be the last time that happened. Taking her distance from the wolf, sharpened her senses, and she was ready to go again. She’d honestly not paid any attention to her health yet, but she felt she’d more important things to think about. Sure, she’d a weak build, but she knew that she could take a couple of hits and still survive.
“Dancing” and slashing the stupid creatures, there were honestly too many of them for her to handle alone. And even though she couldn’t deny that it was good training, so did she risk getting killed if she missed one single beat. Still it wasn’t as if she wanted to contact the others to involve them, if it would turn out only one could finish the quest. “Wind of a Goddess.” Soon afterwards, so did she feel she could outmanoeuvre them, but it didn’t take long before they caught up with her again. Which she only could see as if they were playing with her. Which was a new behaviour by any monster, but was it only for this quest or could monsters do that all the time with the update?
*Pling*
She got a message of another kind than the chat, at all the wrong time. She could suspect that it was an ability levelling up, but she’d to wait until later before she checked it. Dodging another bite and answering with a violent scratch, waiting for the next one to attack. Even though the wolves had caught up with her, after “Wind of a Goddess”, so was she feeling optimistic that she would be able to win this. And the feeling grew stronger with every monster she killed as they finally were decreasing. Even better was that if the first wave was this short, so was the other hopefully also shorter than the waves during her first quest.
Thanks to that no new wolves arrived, so didn’t it take long before Merie was able to handle it without any problem, and then even less time before she was working on the last few of them. Getting more aggressive, finishing them off as soon as she could.
Satisfied with her deed, she opened her menu to check what she’d gained from the fight. At the same noticing the message she got earlier. A depressing FUCKING message. The quest had got cancelled since someone else finished it before her. Meaning that the damn beggar already had sent someone else out when he begged her for help. But since that asshole didn’t seem to be an ill-willed character, so did Merie suspect it was an oversight by the developers. Who honestly should’ve programmed it so players got to know earlier that another player also had picked the quest. A simple thing like that could spare the unknowing players from wasting hours on a quest they thought everyone could do once.
She turned around and started to return to the village with defeated steps, thinking about how she would handle the situation. She honestly wanted to crack the NPC’s head open for not warning her, but since she couldn’t injure NPCs so would she’d hunted some players instead. Which wasn’t a good idea, since she’d no idea of what the update had brought. There could be far too many things working against her, and just like before, so didn’t she want to be exposed as a PK.
On the way back, she noticed a monster she hadn’t seen in the area before, or even heard should be in the area. A Goblin-looking creature, but with a slightly darker skin tone, longer and pointier ears and longer nails. Gremlins, a bothersome little fucker. They were only slightly stronger than Goblins, but they were better at working as a team, and they could use a larger variety of weapons.
Luckily so hadn’t it seen her yet, as she’d come up from behind it. Still, she backed off and hid. Hoping that it would turn out that she was just as lucky as she’d been when she sneaked up at the Goblin-scout, that it would lead her to another hideout. Once again with a boss they would curse at before they finally defeated it. But minutes passed, and it was watching something, from what Merie could hear, light. So it was most probably not a player. And it was fingering at its club the whole time, so it was probably not scouting. Meaning that it most likely was a plain and boring Gremlin, and there wouldn’t come any good out of just watching it. Which in its own term would mean that she just wasted time watching it.
Just to make it quick, she was more careful than usual as she sneaked up to the creature. One a few steps away from it, so did it turn, facing her for a second before trying to crack her head open with the club. An easy attack to sidestep, reaching out for its throat and scooping it out. This time averting her head to avoid getting those particles all over her face, again. Luckily so wasn’t it necessary with much more force than that to wipe its sorry ass out.
Once again, continuing her walk toward the village, still feeling a slight urge to get back at the old fuck. But she was sure it would be better use of the time to search for anything else going on there, and if she couldn’t find anything else so would she simply leave and search somewhere else. Anywhere she could find a quest or now information which could help either her or her party, “Mein Skitter”. Thinking of it, so maybe she should take a small break from the game, at a kinda good time, and see if there’s any information about where Pois is. Sure, she might need to level her Potion-craft, but it wasn’t as if she knew until she tried. YES! It sounded like the right thing to do, so that was what she would do. And she could as well start already, as it wouldn’t be far too long time until her parents would come and interrupt her. Opening the menu as soon she reached the village, logged out and preparing to set out at an adventure on the grand internet.
Well. It’d been much of a waste to search on the internet about Pois. Since the update so was there none paying an NPC like her any attention, which she couldn’t blame them for, but she still found it highly annoying. Still, so had there been talk, earlier, about how she was moving. And looking back so could she see that some of them had been right. But only partly, as Merie noticed, they’d been right in which direction she was heading, but it was often not until a later time she moved like that. But Merie had found a pattern which seemed to fit with her movement, and she’d some suspicions of some locations Pois could be. And she would head off to the location she thought was most likely, and then go on her other guesses. And hopefully, so would she sooner or later find the girl.
Midsummer Feast 
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