Jake was nervous as he entered class that Monday and it had nothing to do with the start of the week's test. His source of both joy and nervousness showed up right before class was to start, oddly late for her. Her gaze locked on him and she walked straight toward him with such a serious look on her face several classmates thought there was going to be a fight. Jake stood up from his chair out of habit and was just as shocked as everyone else when she kissed him. It was just a quick peck on the lips, but it was a kiss… in the middle of class… in front of everyone. It was such a shocking event not even Tom or Micky said anything.
Cass flashed him a brilliant smile and simply said "Good morning." Then went to sit down.
Jake was saved by the sudden flurry of questions from Tom and Micky by the teacher showing up. They ate lunch together, both ignoring Tom and Micky as they chatted about the test. Cassandra casually asked how his talk with his father had gone after she left his house Saturday night. That comment caused Tom and Micky to almost pass out in shock and excitement before rudely asking for details as if Cass wasn't there. Jake did notice Gerri, who had sat with them didn't seem all that surprised.
Jake walked Cass home after school. It seemed the right thing to do for your girlfriend. That thought made him grin. He had a girlfriend!
When he asked her about the kiss and stuff like mentioning her coming over Saturday she got defensive. "Are you embarrassed by me?"
"What? No! I just… maybe you wouldn't… I…" He stuttered and rambled looking so worried that Cass couldn't help but laugh.
"I just don't want any of the other girls that like you getting any ideas. One Ella was enough." Cass finally answered.
Jake snorted. "No other girls like me." She stopped walking and turned to look at him, one eyebrow raised.
"Wait… are you saying there are other girls that like me?" Jake asked and earned a glare.
"Er, not that I care. I have a girlfriend." He reached out and took her hand, only feeling slightly awkward at the new affectionate mannerisms.
"That is the correct answer." She smiled as she gave him a peck on the cheek and they resumed walking.
When Jake got home and logged in the others were all already online. That day they split up the groups. Gadget and Aero went their own ways. Aero could cover long distances with his movement boosting spell. As he pointed out he needed such a rare mutagen he got less out of farming and his offensive spells were tailored to larger fights.
Gadget in turn could use a scout configuration of her drones to scan large areas at once. She too needed a mostly rare attribute. Jake really wished he had saved the intelligence ones from the Dread Spitters but secretly was starting to believe his test scores going up despite his study time going down was because of it. He knew it was silly to think that but he more and more found himself thinking it.
That left Jake, Cass, and Ella to do some roaming farming. They would share out a portion of the credits with the other two also. This way the group could get more than normal exploration done while still earning some resources. Since this game didn't have experience as long as they shared the loot there was no loss to the party members doing stuff like scouting.
Jake was worried about being alone with Ella and Cass but things went well. Even better than well they went good. Now that a clear boundary had finally been set, Cass and Ella seemed to somehow get along. Ella didn't hang off Jake or try anything and Cass didn't flaunt her status as the girlfriend in return. The two actually got along really well now.
When they met up that night with the others before logging out. Jake had answered Gadget's worries by explaining that. The older girl just gave him a sad consoling look, like she was looking at a man walking the gallows. It was not what he expected.
"What?" Jake asked nervously.
Gadget just shook her head. "If your current and ex girlfriend turn into friends, it is never a good thing for the guy." She said it so seriously it made him nervous.
"She isn't my Ex!" Was all he could say.
This happened for several more days. With the trio farming while the others searched the region for another big target to raid. They were again gathered together to go over their findings and split up loot when a group approached their table.
This wasn't unusual. It turned out that Gadget's drones could record video. She apparently worked making commercials for a living so was very good at splicing videos together. She had taken all the video, mostly that from the shield drone following Jake, and made a mini film. To Jake's embarrassment, she had made him the focus. With skillful editing, she had made him seem far more amazing than he actually was, at least he thought so.
She had been showing it around to others, using a drone set up as a projector to show off her film. The actual full fight hadn't been very long and once edited down turned into a wild fast paced action film, starring Merc the Murder Machine. Her naming hadn't caught on though.
Most of those around were used to calling him the D rank. Someone had said "He might be a D rank but he fights like a Demon." Thus the title D rank Demon caught on better than Merc the Murder Machine. Gadget wasn't happy but there wasn't anything she could do. She had told the group she was going to start using that title in future films. Jake's horror at the idea of her making more left everyone laughing.
Thanks to the little film though, the group and particularly Jake had gotten some fame.
The group that walked towards them were all tech faction. Their equipment looked to be custom too, which made Jake drool. He was saving up for a custom set of armor. Right now though his main problem was the lack of crafting core. As expensive as it was to get the gear made, crafting cores were so rare he couldn't even find one for sale. The four people in front of him all looked to have both armor and weapons custom made.
"Hello, you are Merc, right? The one they call the D rank Demon?" The speaker was a man in his late twenties. He was huge standing several inches over six feet. Heavily muscled with a thick beard that made him look even older than he was. His armor was a set of fatigues with a heavy plated tactical chest piece. The seems of the vest glowed as if an LED light was sewn into them. Jake had seen this kind of armor before, it was player made from a pattern. Much better than the store bought basic armor but not as good as a full custom job. It was popular with gun based tech classes since it had built in magazine pouches.
On his back was a long rectangle object. It looked to have a mass of six barrels each as big as Cass's rifle had. They were shorter though and clustered together to jut out of a box section. Instead of having a grip like a rifle or a pistol it had two handles at the top as if one was to simply hold on to it like a briefcase.
There was another mid teens similar to Jake's age. He was a short and stocky looking Asian youth. He also wore the same type of armor as the speaker. Over his shoulder hung a long rifle, equally as long as Cass's but it had no barrel. Two long metallic prongs stretched with a gap between them along the length of the gun. It looked like someone had taken the barrel off Cass's gun and stuck a very long and narrow tunning fork into it.
There was a girl that must have been in her mid twenties. Jake noticed she wasn't very pretty, her face a bit too angular. She was tall, almost as tall as the bearded man. She was just as flat as Ella but somehow her height made her look even skinnier. Almost stick like. She wore the same armor as the others but carried no weapon that Jake could see.
The last member was a Hispanic looking guy around Aero's age. He was shorter, only about Jake's height but had a grin plastered to his face just like Aero. Wearing the matching armor he had a shotgun slung over his shoulder. Jake blinked, it looked like any pump action shotgun he had seen in movies plenty of times. But this one had lights glowing in places and other small features that left it looking more "futuristic".
"Merc is fine. I hate that title." He glared at Gadget. He swore the more he complained about the title the faster it spread. She looked away whistling poorly.
The bearded man chuckled. "Fair enough. They call me Killgore. I'm the unique class Flak Cannon Gunner. This is Spider she is the unique class Technomancer." He motioned to the tall woman. "Piercing Heavens here is the unique class Rail Gunner." He motioned to the Asian kid. "Black Dog back here is the unique class Plasma Shotgunner." The Hispanic guy's grin grew bigger.
Jake and the others nodded to each in turn. Killgore turned back to him. "You are the unique class Power Claw." His gaze turned to Gadget ignoring everyone else. "And you would be Gadget. You have the unique class Droneomancer."
Gadget smirked at him. "You two should ditch these common fantasy scrubs." He glanced at Aero and Ella only briefly, he made a face as if he had smelt something foul. "And join my guild. The Uniques. Every member has a unique class as you can see." He motioned to the others.
Jake just blinked. "A guild?"
"It is like a party only bigger. A way for a lot of people to stay connected who share common goals or just want to hang out. Not something you want to join up if it is full of factionist jerks." Ella glared up at the man who ignored her as she spoke.
"Yes, a guild. I'm B rank so have access to forming a guild. I've stayed on this level to recruit as many unique classes as possible. With my power at its core, our guild has been progressing rapidly. We all have player made armor, we have a contact that does it. Plenty of skills and we focus on improving everyone's attributes. Did I hear you really have just D rank attributes? Probably having to give away the bulk of your loot to weaklings you are carrying. Ditch them and let us show you what it means to group with skilled players for a change." Killgore grinned through his bushy beard and held out his hand to Jake. "You to Gadget. Your unique class is wasted on these scrubs. Healers are almost as rare as melee classes."
Killgore's eyes had a hungry look as he glanced between the two. Completely ignoring the angry looks of the others.