[Eighteen of Fifty Five Grade D Intelligence Mutagen absorbed successfully]
"Ugh. This ratio is crap. I should have asked Ella how many you need to raise your attribute a rank." He checked his status and found his Intelligence was still D ranked.
[Skill: Survivor's Fury absorbed successfully]
Jake checked and found his very first skill in his menu. It read all the same as before only this time it had an extra line. Simply stating.
[Cooldown: Twelve Hours]
The only other good thing was the C ranked core was worth one hundred credits. A jump of ten times from the D ranked. With the forty four D ranked cores and the one C ranked plus the ten credits he had already that brought him up to five hundred and fifty credits. Enough for one more piece of gear.
Debating between the helmet and the boots was hard. The boots seemed more useful. Extra speed would let him close in on enemies better as a pure melee. It would also help with dodging attacks like he had earlier.
Despite that he found himself eying the helmet on display. It showed a smooth helmet that completely covered the head and face. Looking at it he wasn't sure how it would go on, in the holographic display it looked to go all the way under the chin even. Then he remembered how his gloves shape changed.
Ella had pointed out a number of times how useful the extra interface options she got from her earring was. It allowed her to see the health bars of enemies, and even some basic information once they were in the bestiary. Also, it allowed the bestiary to update as you killed enemies, giving even more information. Plus she mentioned there were more help menus and information.
Jake got the boots. As useful as all the other stuff sounded. The extra speed would help him farm faster. Then he would get the helmet next.
Mutagen absorbed, painfully he still noted. New boots bought. They just looked like regular military style boots, only made of metal. They didn't seem to do any shape changing, although the upgrade menu made it sound like they might once upgrade.
Logging out for the night Jake found he passed out quickly. He was as exhausted when he logged out back to the real world as he had been in game. "That sucks." He yawned having hoped to have felt more refreshed after logging out. After all he had been laying in bed for hours.
In the morning Jake crawled out of bed late. Way later than he normally got up. It was almost noon. Leaving his room he found his dad wasn't home. Or maybe left already. After wolfing down not one but two sandwiches he headed back to his room. His plan was to study some for the test Monday. Since there was no point in denying it to himself at least he did kinda like the idea of finally beating Cassandra. But thinking about Cassandra reminded him of meeting Ella at first yesterday. Which made him think about the game. That and maybe a little bit about when they split up at the end.
With a sigh, he walked past his desk and the unopened school books on it and moved to set up the game.
**********
Jake actually expected Ella to be online when he got on. He cursed himself for buying the boots instead of the helmet last night. One of the things it would provide was a social menu. Allowing them to party up and to add each other as contacts. "It wouldn't have mattered anyway. You have to add each other in person. Bleh. We should have set a time or something." Jake headed out towards the watering holes.
Ella wasn't there. So he made his way over to the magic faction's starting building. Walking inside he was greeted by a short three foot tall man with an oversized head… made of stone. Strange mystical looking runes were carved in it as it stood on top of the counter. It greeted him in a friendly manner with a gravely, literally, voice. The counter had several crystal ball looking objects that when he interacted with projected an image very similar to the holo display of the tech faction. A little less sharp looking and with a hazy glow that sorta made it feel more mystical than a hologram.
He could even inspect the items for sale. All of which were similarly priced. The armor read like Ella had said. Claiming elemental and status resistance where his offered a shield against physical damage. There was a warning that popped up though declaring that it would not be compatible with his boots. It seemed he could wear either magical or tech equipment. At least it didn't say his gloves wouldn't work. But between the two he would rather the physical protection. "Maybe Ella should just buy tech stuff."
With no idea how long until she showed up. Jake went exploring.
He found lizards that looked like camiens, slender lizards with a body length of around three feet. They also had a very slender tail that stretched twice again the length of their body. Their two front legs ended in massively oversized clawed hands that reminded him of his own gauntlets. They used them to dig through the rocky ground and seemed to be eating something.
When he closed in to kill a solo one he was shocked when the tail whipped out faster than he thought possible. It slashed against his chest draining nearly a third of his shield in a single hit. Then snapped a second slash faster than he could react, draining another chunk of his shield. In a panic, he dove forward and smashed down with both fists doubled up. The huge mallet his doubled up fist formed smashed the lizard into the hard ground.
[Whip Tailed Rock Eater added to beasteary]
Jake was a little surprised it had died so easily. Gutting it he recovered a D rank core and an orangish red strength mutagen. Grinning he pumped his arm. "Jackpot." He eyed the lizards mostly spread out gouging up stretches of the desert and chomping down on things they dug up. Watching closely he saw they were actually eating what looked like rocks. Though it looked like they used their narrow snouts to shuffle through to pick out specific rocks instead of just everything. Only the rocks all looked the same as every other rock. Shrugging he moved to the closest one.
The Whip Tailed Rock Eaters turned out to be more trouble than he expected. They attacked too fast for him to dodge. Several times he tried to catch their tails but it was like they could adjust them on the fly. They would snake around his grasping hand to slash at him. Plus they hit hard. One of them had even hit hard enough to take half his shield in one hit. They also were fast when moving. While they at first ignored him. After killing a few they stopped digging and hissed at him while watching him. If he got close after that they charged.
Their swaying gate was crazy fast compared to what he expected. Worse those oversized claws did more damage than the tails. They tore into him ripping through his shield twice actually causing his health to drop. After the second time, he decided to call it quits for now. His only saving grace was they didn't attack as a group.
For his trouble, he ended up with a total of four D grade power cores. He did also get two strength and two speed mutagen making them the best thing for him to hunt he had found so far.
Leaving the rock eaters he made his way back to the chain of watering holes with the ranged monsters they had fought previously. After checking each watering hole and finding more Dread Spitters but still less than yesterday he again trekked over to the magic factions tutorial building. The strange little rock man greeted him with his gravelly voice in a friendly manner but Jake couldn't get anything out of them about Ella.
Stepping out of the building he sucked in a huge breath before letting out a long drawn out sigh. Again he thought about how they had parted and wondered if he had really messed things up by accident. Maybe he should have made a bigger effort to explain he hadn't done it on purpose.
Jake let out a little yelp of fright as something landed on his back and wrapped around him. Spinning around he tried to get free and only half succeeded. Ella was clinging to him, hugging him from behind. He half turned in her arms and half flung her around.
Suddenly she let go and hopped back. Her previous grin was replaced with a very serious expression and a glare. "Whoa, I almost forgot who I was dealing with. Don't get any funny ideas Mr. Handsy. I know what you do when I get too close."
Jake's face flushed with embarrassment as he tried to stammer out an explanation. Ella's face twisted as she tried to keep from laughing. Ended up snorting loudly as a laugh started to escape. Which just launched her into a wild fit of laughter.
"Oh my god. Your face." She sucked in a deep breath, half choking from laughter. "You are so red." She snorted a laugh again. "Like you would be ballsy enough to cop a feel."
She finished her laughing while Jake felt his face burning with embarrassment. "Maybe I did do it on purpose! I didn't think you would notice."
"Ouch. A flat joke really?" She rolled her eyes. "So you did it on purpose? Gonna try again?" She actually took a step forward, putting herself within reach. Her eyes dared him.
Jake gritted his teeth. 'Stupid girl!' He raised his hands as if he was going to reach out to her. Her eyes actually flashed with surprise as he reached forward then turned into a smirk when he pulled his hands back looking nervous.
"HA! Knew it." Ella smirked at him and then slapped him on the bicep. "Come on let's get to hunting. I'll show you where we can get some strength monster essences to make up for teasing you." She was already skipping away.