Ella explained how just as Jake had guessed once her first attribute had hit C rank she had been transported out of the tutorial zone. She had tried to catch him but he had already logged off. She expected him to arrive in the same town she had arrived in and had stuck around until she finally gave up. During that time she had met up with Aero and Gadget. Unlike Jake and Cass, they had focused on larger groups of enemies instead of the roaming monsters.
She had explained all this while dragging him along by the hand until Cass eventually pushed between them. Ella and Cass shared more glares before both turned on Jake when he did nothing.
"So are you his girlfriend then?" Ella asked straight out.
Cass glanced at Jake but mumbled that she wasn't. Her face turning red.
Ella just grinned and returned to explaining about the Grim Village.
The group had been moving between the Hub towns looking for more of these larger targets. Gadget added in that they had also been looking for Ella's mysterious handsy boyfriend who she had thought didn't exist. Her comments made Ella quickly get them back on track.
Grims were humanoid monsters. Intelligent enough to work together to form functional groups, ferocious enough to be a danger. While one might run into scouting or raiding parties running from five to even twenty or more. They had found an entire village with so many that even the three of them felt they needed more help. They had gotten into the town where they met Jake and Cass late the night before and logged in early in order to look for party members.
Once outside of town Jake and Cass found out how the group had been covering the seemingly vast distances between hub towns without a vehicle. Aero raised his staff, the gems starting to glow before they began to move. Slowly they rotated around the staff turning from a dotted line of light to two solid circles. They began to move. The glowing circles moved towards each other until they formed a single circle, then parted to make an X again. This cycle repeated faster and faster until the top of his staff glowed brightly.
Wind gathered around his staff like a tornado that rose up from the end. It split into five slender whirlwinds that stretched and arched towards the party. Each of them was engulfed briefly then… everything ended.
Jake bounced a few times, he felt light on his feet. More so when he did bounce, instead of coming right down he seemed to float down the short distance. "Wind Walker reduces your weight and increases your run speed ALOT." Ella grinned acting as if it was her spell that had been cast.
Jake eyed Aero and his magic staff as the gems stopped spinning and then faded back to normal. 'Man, Why couldn't I have been a caster.'
Ella led the way across the barren wasteland. Reddish brown dust billowed in their wake as the group of five rushed across the land. "I wonder how fast we are going!" Cass asked, the thrill of the magic temporarily overriding her annoyance with Ella's sudden appearance.
"Currently we can hit fifty miles per hour." Aero said. Despite them rushing along at high speeds, there was no roaring wind. They could hear each other easily.
"If I get enough spirit or better find a skill upgrade this will turn into a flying spell! I can't wait to fly through the air." He added.
Jake and Cass shared a look. Neither of them knew anything about skill upgrades.
Even at their speed, it took several hours to get where they were going. Jake wanted to stop and fight several of the new monsters they ran into but the others let him know that once they slowed down the spell would end. It had a rather long cooldown so they didn't want to stop.
When they arrived at their destination, despite the ease of running while under the effect everyone was panting hard. Except for Jake. "How… much have you raised your stupid vitality?" Ella grumbled.
"It's still D rank." Jake said. Then added. "All my attributes are still D rank." He figured they should know now rather than find it out later.
"No way. Still? How did you get out of the tutorial zone?" Her eyes shifted to Cass.
"I piggy backed him out." Cass confirmed between wheezes. She was covered in sweat again. Jake took a long drink from his water sphere and then passed it to Cass who drank from it without hesitation. Ella looked between the two, her face unhappy. She couldn't help but remember when she had teased him about their indirect kiss.
Jake looked around. The terrain had changed. It was less flat and now rockier. Ridges of rock were everywhere as if a great number of creeks or rivers had once cut through the land. "The village is that way." Aero pointed towards a steeply rising ridge that suddenly dropped over leaving what lay beyond blocked from his view.
Together the group headed to the top of the ridge and peered down below. The ridge dropped down twenty or so feet into what looked like a large dry lakebed. Small humanoids moved about the lakebed in such numbers it made Jake think of an anthill. There was a short stone wall circling the village, but only a few crude buildings and pens for animals. Squinting Jake thought the pens had something that looked like chickens the size of cows. Four legged chickens at that.
There were several large dark holes that further made it look like an anthill. The Grims were coming and going from them. He watched one come out of the hole lugging a rock that it carried to the small wall. It added it to the crude defense.
"They don't look very big but there sure are a lot of them. I can't see much from here." The lake bed was huge. Hundreds or maybe even thousands of yards across, the far side was a distant horizon. The village looked to be in the middle of it.
"Here Merc." Cass stood next to him and held up her rifle so he could use the scope. Ella noticed she didn't unsling it from the strap or hand it over. Forcing him to lean in close. More annoying was that he didn't get flustered as she expected. Had he matured that much in the short time they were apart or was he just that comfortable with this girl? Ella even began to wonder how well she had known the boy she met back in the tutorial zone.
'Maybe it was just a stupid crush.' She found herself thinking. 'Ugh, why did I tell everyone about him and talk like he was my boyfriend. Great.'
Jake unaware of Ella's worries looked through the scope, his mind only slightly distracted wondering why Cass smelled just as good in game as she had in his room. Even after sweating so much.
The Grims were short spindly limbed humanoids that looked to be mostly between three and four feet tall. Their skin was a dark orangish brown and wrinkly as if they had too much skin. It sagged and draped off their face and bodies. They wore crude toga or loincloths made of animal hides. Combined with their thick sloping foreheads it reminded him of cavemen.
"There, the big one." Ella pointed, when Jake glanced at her he noticed her eyes were golden in color and fully dilated.
Filing that information away for later he focused on the one she pointed out. It was tall for a Grim but small for a human standing only five foot tall. Unlike the others, it wore what looked like a heavy hide poncho and even had on what looked like pants. It appeared to be shouting orders at some of the smaller ones while waving around a stone bladed sword. A long jagged piece of stone that looked like flint with a hilt made of wood and leather. When it swept its gaze around Jake saw it had three eyes. The third one was right above its right eye.
"The number of eyes a Grim has depicted how strong they are. With more eyes, you can expect them to be stronger physically and smarter too. After they get four eyes they can even use magic." Aero was kneeling beside them. He had his hands raised as if he was holding a telescope only they were empty. The air swirled around the end of his hands. "I see five three eyes still. No four eyes."
"Learn to count." Gadget snorted. When Jake looked back she was wearing a set of thick goggles that reminded him of welding goggles. "I see seven, one of them just went into the hole there on the northeast side of the village. The other is squatting in the shade of that hut next to the Cricken pens."
Jake keenly felt his lack of both gear and skills. Ella had only been on this level a few weeks longer than him.
Gadget's dark lenses spiraled open letting them see her eyes enlarged by the now clear lenses. "So, she has a big ass gun so I'm guessing long range damage. Ella kept going on about how her boyfriend." Cass tensed and Gadget smirked. "Was this melee tank type. But never gave us many details about your skills. What are you packing?" Her gaze overtly dipped to his waist as she snickered.
"Um, I can punch things." He didn't know how to handle Gadget. Not on top of Ella and Cass's passive aggressive attitudes.
"Yeah, we heard that. What skills have you got." Gadget asked annoyed he hadn't gone for her provocation.
"I don't have any active skills." He knew exactly what they were asking, it was the same thing everyone asked. Sadly, melee skills were rare, to the point he wasn't sure they existed.
"Good lord. That is it? No wonder you chose the class of gigolo. You need women to take care of you." She snickered and Jake decided he didn't like Gadget.