Midsummer Feast

Surrounded by plain sand and hills, nothing as far as the eye could see. And in the middle of it, freshly green vegetation, surrounded a small lake. The location had sounded far more beautiful than it truly was, and Merie found it highly disappointing. Worse was that Pois was nowhere to be seen, but at the very least so was there a slight silver lining in it all. Almost all the herbs growing there had fire attributes, meaning that she could use them for her bombs, which she could have gathered at many other places too.

Opening her menu and writing s private message to Anlie, “BORED! SEND HELP!” All in a stupid hope that Anlie would come up with something interesting to do. But minutes passed without any reply, until Merie noticed Anlie had turned offline. Meaning all that hope was gone. But with nothing to do about it, so did Merie set off and headed straight forward into the desert. Knowing quite well how easily it was to get lost there, but if worse would go to worst so did she have a teleport-stone so she could return to the last town she visited.

There were three kinds of monsters in the desert, Desert-wolf, Ballbug and Desert-worm. Merie could handle a few of them at once, more of the wolves, as long the Ballbugs weren’t too many. As the fucking crickets just had to push her around with their only attack, body slam, while being in their ball-form. Which also let them move effortlessly in the sand. And the fucking shell protecting everything but their belly was too hard for Merie to penetrate. Making it the worst fucking enemy of the bunch.

Merie was still doing the best out of the situation, training her footwork as she at the same time tried to keep a better eye on her surrounding. Concentrate on placing her enemies better, all based on the sound they were making. And she’d some struggle, with the exception of placing the worm, as it moved in the ground and the sound it made sounded more direct than the other noises.

She was pushed forward by yet another attack she missed, by the Ballbugs, barely able to move as she fell to avoid a wolf’s jaws. Using her hands to break the fall, pushing herself further to the side to get some distance from the wolf. Not that Merie got far away from the wolf, but far enough to give her space enough to get up. “Wind of a Goddess.” Activating her ability to give herself slightly more time to react to incoming attacks. At least if she was lucky, but she didn’t feel there were any guarantees for that.

After some more training so did the signal of a notification sound, either meaning that someone sent a message, or that it was something levelling up. But considering that she couldn’t just stop ignoring the monsters, still attacking her as crazy, so did she’d to wait a while before checking, so she could escape. In the end so didn’t she think she’d any other choice than to escape as the notifications continued like a hyperactive drum. Dodging the last attack and setting off, running with all her might till she was sure she was alone, and then checking it. Noticing directly that the signals weren’t anything out of importance, sure one of the signals had been because of leveling up Senses, but otherwise so had all the messages been from the party chat. Sighing and opening it up, indeed so hadn’t it been out of any larger importance. Still, it wasn’t anything like that it wasn’t out of interest. Adu had created her tribe and had decided to mention it to the rest. “As the base for the tribe now is created, so did I also notice I’ll be able to pay extra for a small area none will be able to steal from me. Which I, of course, did. It’ll be in the middle of the deepest forest, in the section of wild chaos. Do you have any ideas of what I need to build and what NPC I’ll need to make the best use of the natural resources nearby? All bits of advice are welcome~.” Opiom had been writing frisky with her, giving her some suggestions in a far more serious manner than usual. Of course after she expressed her surprise that Adu still was a part of the party even after creating a guild, which honestly also slightly surprised Merie. “I think you shouldn’t forget about making a place for medicine and poison, Adu. Even if it’s better if you create them yourself, so can a hut like that help them who later on joins you.” Merie thought Adu had made great use of her poison when they had been out together, so she could suspect that it could be even better use of it if four people all poisoned the target. “It sounds like a good idea, and it’s maybe something I might need to prioritise as I’ll let the NPCs set out to gather material.” Would the NPCs be like everyone else, or would she be able to create them as if other tribes had joined her, with style and all that? “If you would need help with gathering heavy material, so do I suggest you also make sure to ask both Anlie and Lart, as they might be able to do a faster job out of it than many NPCs.” Opiom was probably right. Not even Merie could deny that the two of them might be the strongest in the party. “And just mention it if you happen to need help with handling a stronger kind of monster, so am I sure we, who can, will you and hunt the fucker down.” Merie couldn’t say that she did much about the monsters in that area, as she never had set her foot there, but she was sure they all could handle many strong monsters if they just worked as a team. “I’ll keep that in mind when it comes up. And I can warn that I might come back to this party to ask for advice till I get some other leaders in the tribe.” Adu didn’t have to warn them, as if it should be something bad. Which it truly wasn’t. Merie was sure that even those not being there also would be thinking the same. “It’s no need to warn us about that, we’ll take it as it comes and send the bill as the time is right.” And Opiom was a right again, even though she could express herself better. “I think we don’t take much for helping. But do we know where the money goes, as I’ve seen nothing like wages.” But since Opiom had started it, so couldn’t Merie help but to follow the stupidity. At least since she was feeling like it this day. “Wait… Do you mean they should use those money to pay you? What do you think Anlie is, a white person?” Did Adu really have to turn the joke into racism? “Wagize?.. what’s wagize?..” Opiom’s following would work better if it hadn’t been because it was as text, but at the very least so did Merie understand what she wanted to say.

But enough of that, so did Merie return to her training. Ignoring the frequent signal from the chat. She’d a feeling she knew where she came from, and could’ve returned to where she had trained before. But she could think she would get the same result wherever she went, so she continued further into the desert. Keeping her senses high for any possible monster coming her way, and it wasn’t as if she had to wait long as only a few minutes after starting walking, so could Merie see three worms coming her way. The sand was bulking upward there they’d their heads, only making it slightly easier to see them during the day.

Merie waited with even trying to attack until they showed their ugly faces, knowing well that she wouldn’t be able to attach them through the sand. Slicing the first one as she sidestepped its attack. Directly ready to strike the other one too, as it made the same mistake as coming up from the ground. Of course she knew she wouldn’t be able to kill the monsters with one strike alone, so she kept her senses on high alert, in case it would try to do her over. But luckily so were the worms sluggish, compared with the monsters usually trained with. And better was that they couldn’t attack her while being buried.

Merie couldn’t say that it honestly was taking long before the training felt mind-numbing, being far less challenging than with the usual monsters she hunted. Not that she could deny that she was better EXP from the monsters in the desert, but it was only the Desert-wolf, themselves,  challenging her, as she didn’t want to include those disgusting Ballbugs. Which would’ve put up a good fight if it wasn’t that they were so damn difficult to kill. Still wasting her time killing those monsters, she saw someone running in the distance. Soon noticed that the person was followed by a group, of players? The person was still too far away for Merie to see, but if it was so could it mean that the chased one was a PK. And even though Merie could consider helping a fellow PK, so wouldn’t she do it in this case as the group surely would be too much to handle. And she didn’t expect the PK to stick around and help her out. Barely dodging and countered an attack, only spending a second not looking at the hunted player, but as she looked again, so was it clear the player led the group Merie’s way. And looking at the group, so did she got sure that the hunting group wasn’t players, but monsters wishing to tear the player apart.

“STEP ASIDE! I’M COMING THROUGH!” The player, looked like a woman, screamed at the top of her lungs. A kind act, and it wasn’t anything she would need to ask her twice about. Guessing where the woman was about to run and moved out of the way, but no matter where Merie stood so did the woman to change direction. “ARE YOU TARGETING ME?” Merie wasn’t sure, but she got the feeling of it, and as the woman was close enough for Merie to see the ugly smirk on her face, so did she get the feeling that it really’d been the case. “IN HONOUR, JUMALA!” The woman sounded excited as she screamed, maybe think about killing the mob of monsters? Or… The woman disappeared in a small puff of smoke. Surprised by the strange development, Merie thought about what it all had been about. Soon finding it out as she was sent flying backward.

At a loss of better wording, so was she cursing the shit out of the fucking count. Merie was less than pleased that she’d been left to fight the mob the bitch left, which she knew beforehand that she wouldn’t stand a chance against. And it wasn’t as if she even would’ve the time to get out her teleport-stone, especially not since the monsters had her surrounded. “Wind of a Goddess.” With no chance of escaping, so should she at least make sure to pull down as many as she with her. In the very best case composition the EXP she would lose when she died.

Dodging one bite, moving in to respond but forced to back as another one bite after her. Holding her claws tight, pushed forward by a Ballbug. Passionately hating those critters as they messed with her at the wrong time. It was tingling in her hand, noticed a dumb wolf biting the hand she hit with. Both of them losing a portion of their health, the wolf more. Still it wasn’t good, Merie wanted to kill more of them before they did her in. If she only would’ve gotten time to prepare for this, so should she’ve picked out a whole lot of bombs and used them as much as she could. A rapid stabbing, killing the wolf. Barely letting it turn into a burst of light particles before she was ready for yet another attack. Hearing one from behind, turning to face it. A single step to the side, and a long slash along its side. Even if it might not have killed it so was she satisfied with that she’d heard it coming. Hopefully meaning that she was getting even better at it, if it didn’t turn out she only heard it because of the enchantment she got as Senses levelled up. And, she got pushed again. Rapidly catching her balance, she avoided a worm’s mouth.

Dancing at a far faster pace than she was used to, getting almost no time to attack. Still, she was still alive, and it’d been far longer than she’d thought. Sure, she’d been using a couple of potions she’d prepared as in the worst case. But even those were running thin, in difference to the monsters. But as some said, as long there was life, so was there hope. And the hope in this case so was her hope simply to kill as many of them as she possible before they killed her. Claws were pulled along her back, forcing her to move on and check her surrounding even more as she already was doing. Not that it was possible, but it could maybe make a difference if she really believed it made a difference. Her health was still acceptable to go for another while. Seeing a Ballbug rolling her way, she made sure to move to the side. Having learned that the Ballbugs needed some distance to direct their direction. And even though she couldn’t deny that it was quite some extra movement, so couldn’t she deny that it made more good than harm. As she wouldn’t get pushed into another monster. A jump as a worm came up from the ground, trying to check the surrounding in the air. The wolves were still staying tight around her, and probably would till she or they were dead. Which happened earlier than expected. Only getting the time to place both her feet on the ground before a wolf came out of, apparently, nowhere and snatched her by the neck. Draining all the remaining health.