Chapter XVI: Save Lady Beauvale! Kill the Bandits Part 1
According to the time, it was just after one in the morning when we returned to the Infernal Forest. Looking at my friends, I was surprised to see that they were holding up well.
For a hardcore gamer like me, staying up all night was no challenge at all, but none of them seemed to be that kind of gamer. Amos played a lot of games, but he didn't strike me as the type to stay up well into the night. He was a kid with parents, he didn't have the opportunity to throw his life away.
Yet Amos didn't seem to mind. Even Euphie, who had no prior gaming experience as far as I knew, didn't seem to have any trouble staying awake. I wonder if it had something to do with us moving our bodies as we fought. We weren't sitting down in front of a screen, we were moving.
Moving virtually, anyway.
I wasn't about to look this gift horse in the mouth. If they could stay up and keep playing, who was I to tell them to stop? Deeper in the forest, we countered more Frenzied Bucks, and even Frenzied Boars and Frenzied Wolves.
The frenzied monsters offered more experience points and better drops, but they were harder to kill. Especially if they moved in a pack. Unlike the Wolves, Boars, or Bucks, the Frenzied monsters didn't drop any meat. When I hit level five, I got a fourth skill slot, and I added cooking to Search, Acrobatics, and Slash. Still only one seed skill slot.
When we got enough lyre and items, we returned to the city and bought a chest. It was a small chest, but for a party where most of the players were level three, it was enough. We purchased an inn room for three days and dropped out chest off. Chests could be put in inventories, but in doubled the eight of everything in the chest to do it, putting whoever carried it at a disadvantage.
I caved and bought a shield on the way back to the forest. I was going to get a Duel Sabre skill when it dropped, but until then a shield wouldn't be a bad idea. Especially if I had to block attacks. I had to go to the NPC blacksmiths once to restore my Small Sword's durability. Since the Small Sword was so weak, I couldn't do it again. I would have to buy a new one when the time came.
"If we head west, there's an area full of bears. They have a lot higher attack power, more defense, and more life, but they offer good rewards. The only problem is those are normal bears. If we run into a Frenzied Bear, that thing might kill us-"
"AHHH!" a scream echoed off the trees around us. There was no mistaking that scream of terror and worst of all, it sounded like a little girl.
As a beta player, I had spent two months getting used to fighting in the virtual world. I had separated this world from reality, but this was my friend's first time diving into a full VR game. It was night and despite how well they were holding up, they might not be firing on all cylinders. Couple that with moving their bodies to fight for the first time in their lives and they might forget for a moment that this was a game.
That little girl, no matter how scared she is, was in any real danger. That didn't stop Amos from yelling "come on!" and running off into the words. Kanade and Euphie weren't far behind him.
I cursed and kept up with them, but unlike my friends, I was able to keep a cool head. Some stupid kid probably decided she could play solo and now she was paying for it. This wasn't Sword Art Online. Dying in here didn't mean you died in the real world.
When we got to the scene, I was stunned. If it had been me, I would have left the little girl to die and respawn back at the cathedral. Let that be a lesson learned. And I would have been wrong.
The scene in front of us wasn't some little kid who bit off more than they could chew, but a quest. The first thing that clued me in was the dead bodies. When things died or items lost all durability, in Primal Vale, they shattered. There were no dead bodies. The only exception to this rule was quests and events.
The second thing that clued me in was the carriage. Later in the game, you would be able to ride horses and other animals and beasts with the right skills. You would also be able to buy a carriage or carts, but nothing as elaborate as the gold-encrusted carriage as the one that tipped over.
The last thing was the most important clue. The girl that was bleeding on the ground and crying was dressed like the fantasy version of a medieval noblewoman. She even had a name over her head: Lady Mireille Beauvale... Beauvale.
Beauvale was the house that ruled over Lutetia. There was no way this was a coincidence. This was a quest.
I was the one who made the party, so I was the party leader, so a quest screen popped up in front of me: Rescue the Lady Mireille!
Lady Mireille is Marquis Alphonse's youngest child and the one people say he fawns the most over. Her carriage was ambushed by former soldiers and her guard has been slaughtered.
Her few remaining guards were slaughtered by opportunistic bandits who are set on kidnapping Lady Mireille.
Quest! Protect Lady Mireille and kill all the bandits.
Blow the information was a blue O and a Red X. Below those letters was a one-minute countdown. That's how long we would have to decide.
I explained it quickly. "What do you think?"
Kanade notched an arrow. "What are we waiting for?"
"I agree!" Amos declared. "It's time for the great sorcerer Sage to display his mystic powers!"
"You're... Ah, really taking this whole magic thing seriously," Kanade muttered.
He laughed.
Euphie held her scythe at the ready. "Let's go, Chevalier Phénix!"
I clicked the blue O with twenty-eight seconds to spare. As soon as I clicked it, the bandits all turned to look at us. Each one of them had the name Bandit over their heads, except for the one in the middle.
They were all lightly armored, but the one in the middle had more armor than the rest of them. He had better gear overall and above his head was the name Bandit Leader. An X by his name marked him as a quest boss.
Bandit Leader pointed his sword at us. "Well, well, well! What do we have here? Would be Robin Hoods? KILL THEM ALL!"
"How do you want to handle this?" Euphie asked as the bandits sprinted at us.
"As long as the boss doesn't attack, kill his minors first."
Which was easier said than done. The bandits were each weaker than a Frenzied Buck, the problem was there were ten of them.
"Sage, use the Red Light scroll!"
"Red Light!" The scroll he held up burned away, casting the spell.
A light red light appeared over the bandits as they ran. Red Light was a debuff spell that would decrease their speed and strength for one minute if the enemies were the same level as the caster or lower. Thankfully the tell-tell aura of red light lingered around the bandits, meaning that none of them were higher than level three.
"Namikaze, take Sage and find a place far from the bandits. Keep attacking them, but make sure none of them hurt Sage. Sage, while she does that, keep an eye on Ghost Lantern and me. If our health drops too low, heal us. If you see any status effects, cure!""
"Right!" they both said.
As they broke off, I drew my sword. "I'll take the five on the right, you take the five on the left."
Euphie nodded, though she looked nervous. "Do you... Do you think we can kill all of them?"
"As long as we got Sage watching our backs... And if he doesn't run out of MP."
The first bandit ran up to me with a scream. I yelled "Slash" and cut through his waist. Half of his health bar dropped, but he turned around with a vengeance and swung at me.
Avatar as level one started with 250 HP. For each level, 150 MP was added. As a level five, I had 1000 HP.
When the bandit cut me, my HP lowered to 973/1000. My slash was on a cool down, the timer counting in the left-hand corner of my vision, so I just slashed the bastard. I wanted to kill him before his buddies arrived, but he didn't die.
Thankfully, Euphie seemed to be keeping half of them busy, so there were only five after me. Unfortunately, they all surrounded me and started swinging.
My HP started to drastically decline. A flash of white struck the bandit I was trying to kill easier, and he shattered into pieces. That left me with four of them.
When my health hit 500, Amos started to heal me. Lesser Heal only restored 10 percent of the target's overall health, but he cast it four times, so I was back up to 700. I could see the healing light hit Euphie. I wondered if he just had a lot of MP, or if he was using a potion to restore his mana.
When my Slash cooled down all the way, I cut through one of them. This time the bandit in front of me died in one hit.,
That left three and I turned around and ran. None of them were at full health because I was cutting back, and Kanade was shooting, but I didn't want to be surrounded again. So I ran, stopped to cut a few times, and then ran again. Kanade shot. I used slash.
I filled all my bandits first, though Euphie still had three to deal with. I ran over and distracted one of them. He was below half-health, so one Slash killed him.
When all his minions were dead, I thought the boss was going to charge, but instead, he pulled out a black necklace. "Raise Corpse!"
Three of the bandit's bodies rose as zombies. God damn it!
"Sage, start healing the zombies!"
"What?"
"They're undead now! Healing hurts them! Go!"
"Lesser Heal!" Amos shouted. The bandit zombie he hit screeched and I used Slash after him. He still wasn't dead, so I started cutting him.
Killing the zombies was harder than the normal bandits, but the boss did us a favor and just watched. When the last of his undead minions fell, he screamed. "Gods damn you all to burn in the Underworld!"
"I haven't heard that one before," Amos yelled.
"What's he doing?" Kanade asked.
The boss started to growl and breath heavily. "He's getting ready," I said.
I took this chance to look at my sword. Because of the shield, its durability hadn't fallen too much yet.
"I'm going to agro him," I decided. We didn't have a tank in our party, so my shield was the next best thing. I was also the highest level and the fastest. My acrobatics skills were also the highest leveled. "He should be concentrated on me. Sage, keep healing. Ghost Lantern, Namikaze, keepsattacking him. I'm going to run."
When no one voiced opposition to the plan, I sprinted at the huffing and puffing bandit boss. One slash* from the sword was enough to agro him.
***
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