Midsummer Feast

The Highland was one of the places she suspected Pois would be. Which not only fit into the pattern she’d been following earlier, but also looked as if it would be a gorgeously wonderful place, from what Merie could read from the map as rivers slittered between the hills as a silvery snake. At least it should be if the developers thought as Merie did.

The Highland was far calmer than Merie had thought, no monsters which would pose a threat as far as she could see. Or, at most so could the deer-like creatures push newbies around. But it was about it, and it wasn’t as if she would be threatened by that.

The area was almost as she’d thought it would be, with the exception that the river wasn’t looking silvery, but slightly darker, maybe something like steel. But either way, so shouldn’t she pay it too much mind as it still was a beautiful place. Probably fine enough for Pois to stay there, but it was just to search through the area so would she get an answer to that.

Searching the area, it didn’t take long before she found another lovely place, a field packed with red and reddish flowers. Thinking of it, maybe an area she should show Anlie if they ever went on a date again. Anlie had, after all, liked the other site, so she would probably like this too. If it wasn’t that Anlie only had said it to humour Merie, but it really didn’t sound like anything Anlie would do. So there should at least be some truth to her words. And it wasn’t as if Merie should spend much time thinking about. She knew she’d better things to do, like seeing if she possibly could find Pois before it got too late.

The deer-like creatures were watching her as she was searching through the area, more and more of them joining as time went on. And when she finally thought she was done, so wouldn’t she have been surprised if it turned out that every one of that creatures was watching her. Which she only could suspect would mean bad things, as it shouldn’t be anything monsters would do normally. But because it could turn out to be a disaster, so did she remain there and glared back at the creatures. Giving the possible event a chance to start. But the only thing seeming to happen was that the deers came closer, almost close enough to touch, giving Merie the hope that she maybe could gain something if she let them come up to her.

At last so did she get what she asked for, something. Or rather a headbutt, rapidly answered with a kick and the escape of all those two-faced monsters. And then left the wounded one behind as she set off to the next place.

No matter how much she cursed and hated their act, so didn’t she feel it should be right killing those beautiful creatures. As it not even could protect itself from her. Not that she could deny the same thing would’ve gone for the rabbit she, Anlie and Opiom had killed, but it’d been a while other matter. Back then so had Opiom asked for help, so it hadn’t even been Merie making the decisions. But it was yet another thing she honestly didn’t need to care about as it all was happening in the game, so nothing was really injured.

The next spot Merie should try to find Pois at was close to a lake, and just like the first place, so was it beautiful. Sure not as beautiful as the Highland or where she first met Pois, but it would probably still fit the bill. A clear lake, some critters running around, and a nice open area with a couple of spots filled with flowers. The only annoying things were black-greyish humanoid creatures stalking the area, possibly for prey. Those frustrating humanoids were Forest-Ferish. (Ferish was an offspring between fairies and imps, at least according to old lore.) Hunters which wouldn’t hesitate to hunt down and attack any unsuspecting player or players, almost in the same manner as Merie and the others. But even though they might’ve some similarities, so didn’t she think any better of them as they still were a hell and a half to handle. And even though she could handle them herself, so did she prefers to have others helping her as she wouldn’t need to hold her ass clean just as much. Not to mention that she wouldn’t be the only one they would target.

Holding cation in the highest regard, she started to search the area. At the same time she tried to keep as healthy distance from the Ferishs as possible. She could do much better things with her time than fight them, even if they would bring her quite a good amount of EXP. But it wouldn’t be worth it now. She could do that later on if she only felt for it. Tiptoeing and occupationally hiding in treetops, as those monsters came too close, the search continued. Taking slightly longer than she thought it would take, and even worse was that she was starting to get tired. So it wouldn’t be surprising if it was starting to get late. But it shouldn’t stop her quite yet. She wanted to see if Pois was in that region or not.

After, what felt like, a long search so did she find a tunnel, going deep into the ground. And in the hope that it maybe could be a hidden place, like where she and the others fought the Goblins, so didn’t she hesitate to search it through. Which after a cramp and dark tunnel led her to a corpse, which she didn’t waste a second to search through. Hoping it would be something like a quest, but it rapidly didn’t seem to be the case. She found a book at the body, but didn’t get any information that it belonged to a quest. And it wasn’t as if the book was of any use to her as she didn’t have high enough intelligence, which also didn’t even let her see what the book granted. But maybe she would let Opiom check it for her, and if Merie, afterwards, didn’t find it interesting, so could she surely sell or trade it. But with that done, so should she maybe get some sleep, and continue everything in the morning? The last day of her intense gaming.

Sure, Merie had thought about meeting up with Opiom. But she’d thought about it for another day, until Opiom wrote a message and asked for some help to finish a quest. She’d expressed it as if it would’ve been easy, but she hadn’t said shit about the goblins, they would be fighting, using poison and sleep enchanted weapons. Which Merie learned the hard way, by herself, when she suddenly noticed she was poisoned.

They were fighting their way through a cave, leading downward and Merie couldn’t in any way say that she’d much space to move. Which only made it more difficult, but on the bright side so wasn’t there and goblins coming from behind. An ice-bolt came flying from behind, passing her head with only a few millimetres. “CAN YOU PLEASE BE MORE CAREFUL WHEN YOU’RE FIGHTING WITH ME, OPIOM?!” Merie wouldn’t forgive Opiom if she hit her with an attack from behind, which most probably would result in a certain death. “BUT YOU’RE MOVING SO MUCH THAT IT’S DIFFICULT TO KNOW WHERE YOU ARE!” Opiom wasn’t wrong that Merie was moving quite a lot, but it was all for good reasons. She didn’t want to get hit by the Goblins as she would be cursed with a status effect, and she would need to laugh herself happy if she only would be poisoned. Jumping backwards, as she dodged a cruel dagger, leaping forwards again. Sinking her claws into its neck and throwing it to the ground before finishing it with a stomp to its head. One was killed, but there were still hundreds of them remaining. Slashing another one, followed by some more, dancing and spinning as much as it was necessary. “CAN’T YOU USE BLIZZARD OR SOMETHING, OPIOM!” Thinking of it, Opiom wasn’t using any spells that injured more than only one. And she was sure things would go much smoother if she only used a bunch of spells like that. “SORRY, CAN’T DO, CUTIE! THE QUEST WILL FAIL IF I USE ANYTHING OTHER THAN THE BASIC SPELLS!” So Opiom had her reasons to why she didn’t use those kinds of spells. Probably so was even she cursing the developers, apparent, sadistic side when they created this quest. But with no other options, so did Merie continue her performance. Sure that it would be an end to those fuckers, sooner or later.

“HOW MANY HAVE WE KILLED THIS FAR, CUTIE?!” “HOW DO YOU THINK I SHOULD KNOW?!” Was Opiom really thinking that Merie should count the trash they killed? As if she didn’t have far better things she needed to think at. It was a full-time job just to avoid getting hurt, so there was no chance in the deepest hell that she had time to think about that. But even though Opiom’s dumb question, so was the situation looking brighter. Merie couldn’t say for sure, but she got the feeling that the number of goblins had shrunk, so the end of it would be there soon. “BY THE WAY! WHAT ARE YOU SUPPOSED TO DO IN THE QUEST?!” Thinking about it, so hadn’t Opiom said a thing about that, only that she needed help to kill a shitstorm of monsters. But if it would turn out that there was a boss waiting for them, so could it be that the shit really would hit the fan. “THEY SAID THAT I WOULD FIND A ORB IN HERE, WHICH THEY WISHED TO LAY THEIR DIRTY HANDS AT. SO I SHOULD FETCH THAT ONE AND DELIVER IT!” “AND IF YOU’RE SCARED SHITLESS THAT THERE WILL BE A BOSS, SO DOESN’T I THINK OR HOPE SO. BUT IF THERE’S ONE, SO WILL I PROTECT YOU.” How could Opiom sound so sure about protecting her when she couldn’t handle the normal mobs by herself, which shouldn’t be anything like a boss? Merie tried to suppress her thought about it, continuing to kill the Goblins as before.

There were still small waves of goblins attacking, but they weren’t more than around four in each wave, so they weren’t doing more than slightly slowing them down as they continued further down the cave. “I know our first date was filled with dead rabbits, but I didn’t expect our second date to be this similar, Cutie.” ‘I wouldn’t call it a date, but sure.” Was Opiom seriously seeing this as the same thing as a date? And had she even been thinking of the rabbit and wolf slaughtering as a date? If she did, so would it mean that she was very different from Anlie, which probably had a little more common sense when it came to that.

“By the way, Cutie. Are you still making powder, like the one increasing my agility? Because I would want some more of that, and maybe some of those unidentified things you’ve.” How could it come that Opiom thought about those things all of a sudden? Not that Merie was bothered about it, but she couldn’t see where it’d come from. “I still have some of the speed thing, but I’ll probably need to create more. And I’ve some kinds that I don’t know what they do, so you can get them too. As long as you keep your eyes open so I don’t get killed while sending you them.” Thinking of it, so would she need to get starting creating those things and potions more often. Not that she could blame herself for putting it secondary during this important weekend. “I’ll do. And I think they can be out of some good use if there might come a larger threat further down the tunnel.” Opiom wasn’t wrong about that, and if that should be the case, so could it have been good if Merie also kept some for herself. But considering how similar it was to real drugs, so could she honestly not see herself using it. No matter how much it could help her.