After Akiol woke up and did his morning routine, he logged on. Pulling up the group chat he read through some of it's messages.
Yielya: Why do I have a bounty?? I'm a priest! What am I going to do? Heal them to death?
Kan'na: Tilia and I are going questing together, you're welcome to join.
Yielya: Yes please! I do not wish to spend today running as well.
Tilia: Hurrah! Meet us in Silverflight.
Wrock: When will Akiol get on? I am oh so alone...
Kan'na: Heh, perhaps you should message him.
Wrock: I will when he gets on.
Akiol chuckled, he felt a bit bad for leaving Wrock waiting but it wasn't too much.
Akiol: Worry not Wrock, I am here!
Wrock: My savior from boredom, now where are you? I want to fight those mercenaries you were talking about.
Kan'na: "Mercenaries"*
Wrock: That's what I wrote!
Kan'na: Akiol called them "mercenaries" with the marks. Do explain that though Akiol.
Akiol: Sigh, I could only show you. Wrock will see soon.
Wrock: I will once you tell me your location!
Akiol: Sorry, it's Goldlight.
Wrock: On my way!
Akiol made his way to the Adventurers Guild, after sitting at a table he started to hear chatter around him.
"Isn't that the guy with a 500 gold bounty?"
"I think so, he matches the picture."
"To think he still stands fine even with such a bounty on his head."
"Killing him we easily double my current gold."
"That's because you recently bought some gear though."
Akiol slowly turned out the chatter. At most it was just the common talk of players. Except now he was the common talk. Akiol never took any of them seriously, unless someone upright came and challenged him. He wouldn't be provoked by talking.
Wrock soon entered the Adventurers Guild, sporting Akiol he jogged up to him. With a greeting he said, "Hello! Now what are we doing, I have been itching for combat recently."
"Haven't found anything to challenge yourself?" Akiol asked.
"Compared to our world this place lacks consequence. It's hard to really push myself like that."
"Fair enough I suppose, I will let you choose the quest then."
Wrock hurriedly went towards the quest board, searching carefully. Many players were shocked to find out that another player with a decently sized bounty was at the same place! Teaming with the first no less!
Wrock came back and sent a party invite. Accepting the invite Akiol took a look at the quest.
[Defeat the Ogres!]
Some ogres are getting too close to civilization, take care of a few.
Time limit: 2 days
"Let's go then." Akiol said as he stood up.
The two walked out of the Adventurers Guild and headed towards the quest objective.
. . .
The two had made it almost a a third of the way when six players jumped out in front of them.
Wrock excitedly asked, "These them?"
Akiol didn't have to look carefully, for the group had posed in front of them. Akiol sighed, "Yep these are them. Let's go shall we?"
Wrock readied his fists, a pugilist had an arsenal towards martial arts, however Wrock always used his fists. Akiol drew his sword and took a stance.
The priest ordered, "There is another one! However that means more money! Stick to the plan boys!"
With that everyone charged forward at once. Akiol truly didn't understand these guys, why would everyone attack at once? Why the classes made for other specialties were charging as well?
Wrock didn't seem to mind though. He commented, "These guys are pretty straightforward!" and charged towards the group.
Akiol shook his head and joined him. The eccentric mercenary group started off with a barrage of attacks. Seemingly with no real purpose. Akiol and Wrock dodged through easily. Akiol slashed a warrior and the archer dealing some quick damage. Wrock let out a kick at the defender, pushing them back, while also grabbing the thief by the face and throwing them.
As the thief went flying a certain direction, screaming, the priest shouted, "These guys are crazy! Go full power!"
The warrior asked, "Are you sure?"
The priest snapped back, "We won't win if we don't give 100% effort!"
The group shouted a war cry and their faces suddenly had strange markings appear. One of them shouted, "We shall defeat them with the shaman's blessings!"
The groups attacks became more ferocious, they were fast and more powerful. Akiol barely had enough strength to block the warrior's attacks. Wrock and Akiol quickly backed off.
Wrock happily said, "This is more like it!"
Akiol watched them with a bit of interest. Had he not been with Wrock he wasn't fully sure if he could get out of there. He was confident with [Aura Boost] he could take care of them, but now he wasn't sure how much of a boost they got.
Akiol asked, "You got any powerups?"
Wrock laughed and responded, "Nope! However I do have something I can do. I need you to send me above them."
"Easy enough, I sure hope this plan of yours works though."
Activating [Aura Boost] in strength he threw Wrock above the party. The priest saw this and warned, "Above!"
The group looked to the sky, Wrock had just reached his peak height and would soon fall. However he let a spin kick towards the ground and shouted, "The Beast's Roar!"
A huge shockwave was formed from the tip of Wrock's foot. When it reached the ground a large 'boom' sounded and the group went tumbling outwards.
Akiol shouted, "Hey nice! When did you learn that?"
Wrock landed on the ground and regrouped with Akiol, grinning he replied, "After the golem incident I figured a large area ability would be useful like that. While it didn't finish them off I thought it had a neat effect."
"So you can get skills like that whenever you want?"
Wrock shook his head, "I'll explain when we are finished with these guys."
Akiol looked towards the group. They had already recovered and regrouped. Akiol sighed and charged towards the eccentric group.
With his strength buff he didn't have to worry about the attacks that made their way towards him. He simply parried and with his superior strength they took a bit of damage from the parry.
Since the group took a decent amount of damage from Wrock's attack it didn't take long for them to kill some of the members.
The priest attempted to heal but it was no use. Akiol and Wrock had already defeated most of the enemies and now only the priest was left standing.
The priest stammered, "B-but we get things done on at least the second try!"
Akiol didn't bother with them and simply finished them off. Now with the battle finished Wrock stretched and praised, "They were good, I feel a bit satisfied now."
Akiol commented, "I feel like that praise could also be an insult."
"Meh, I got to use my new move so it was deserved I guess."
Akiol folded his arms and said, "Now explain the move thing."
Wrock waved his hand, "Don't feel like it."
"Hey, you said you would explain after we dealt with them."
Wrock sighed, "Fine, I challenged the two pugilist mentors to a fight. Since I won they wanted me to fight the higher leveled mentors. However, since I said it would be unfair since they were significantly stronger than me, they decided to have a match to where their strength would be equal to mine. I, of course, won the battles. The mentors claimed there wasn't anything they could really teach me, so I got an unique class called 'Martial Founder'. I can create a skill once a week. However the name, cost, and cooldown is all on the game."
"That's pretty neat! Did you make any other skills?" Akiol asked.
"Nope, I only got it this week. So only one skill so far."
"With that much creative freedom you could probably recreate a few things."
Wrock shrugged, "It's hard to replicate those kinds of techniques with the restrictions."
The duo continued on their way towards their quest. During the silence of travel Akiol realized he didn't have an offensive skill.