Outside the town, the shouts of players calling for teams in the surrounding fields, where large white rabbits the size of toddlers hopped around eating the grass. Plenty of players were already out in the fields, most in groups of 2, while some brave or foolish players ventured alone. The duo moved past the crowded entrance, making their way towards the open fields to find a place to farm XP.
"I know you're not that experienced in the fields, John, and I know these are just Level 1 rabbits, but don't underestimate them. If they hit you, it will hurt. Let's aggro one at a time to start and test the waters. Stay back, but don't get too close to other mobs. We don't know their aggro range or attack patterns," Tommy advised. John nodded in agreement. "You're the pro here, Tommy. You take the lead."
With that, the two headed out, looking for their prey. It didn't take long to find a lone rabbit. John held back as Tommy slowly advanced towards it, shield raised in front of him, ax in hand. He took note of the aggro distance of the beast, which was 10 yards. The rabbit looked up towards Tommy.
"10 yards, John. Let me gain aggro on this thing and then you can jump in. Are you going to try to tame it?" Tommy asked. John thought about it for a moment and shook his head. "No, it's too busy here. I don't want to attract any attention. I'm not sure how it works. Let's just grind up some levels and find somewhere with no one around."
As John finished saying this, the rabbit suddenly used a charge skill, reaching Tommy instantly. Its head slammed into Tommy's shield, causing a damage number of 8 to appear above his head. Worse yet, a stun icon appeared above his head. Reacting instantly, John fired his notched arrow as soon as it was away, reaching for the next one. The rabbit bit Tommy, causing a further 3 damage. The arrow hit the hind leg of the rabbit, resulting in a critical hit damage of 20. Looking at the attack log that he had set up, unobstructive of his viewpoint, John assessed the situation.
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Rabbit uses charge.
Rabbit deals 8 damage.
Silverback stunned for 1.2 seconds.
Rabbit deals 3 damage to Silverback.
Mugs deals 20 damage to rabbits.
Rabbit tendon severed.
Rabbit mobility -5%.
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The rabbit looked towards John and limped towards him, clearly losing mobility. Before it could take two steps, the stun had worn off and Tommy used his skill Intimidating Shout, causing all enemies in a 10-foot radius to gain a 5% attack debuff and receive the provoked debuff for 30 seconds. The rabbit turned back towards Tommy. John fired another arrow but missed the rabbit and almost hit Tommy, who dodged out of the way. Tommy launched an attack on the rabbit as it slowly turned to face him. His ax sliced down into the rabbit, causing 10 damage to appear above its head. Its health bar was now halfway full. The rabbit had finally turned to face Tommy and launched another bite attack. Tommy, fully expecting this, had his shield raised and blocked the attack, resulting in a miss. John drew another arrow, talking to himself.
"Calm down, John. Focus. Aim. Breathe. Pull. Fire."
He let another arrow go, aiming for the rabbit's head. The arrow flew through the air, missing the rabbit's head and going clean through one of its ears before lodging into its other hind leg, causing 13 damage. It was not a critical hit this time, but it still took a chunk out of its health bar. John judged the rabbit to have around 20 HP left as he circled around it to get a clean shot, being mindful of keeping a minimum distance of 15 yards and staying away from any surrounding mobs. Tommy launched another skill, Shield Assault, hitting the rabbit three times with his shield. Damage numbers of 2, 2, and 2 appeared. The damage was small, but the rabbit was on its last legs. John could feel the fight coming to an end, the adrenaline rushing.
Suddenly, the rabbit reared up on its hind legs and brought its front paws crashing down into the ground. The ground around the epicenter trembled, and Tommy was stunned once again. Before John could react, the rabbit bit Tommy's thigh, causing a big 20 damage to appear and taking him below 50% health. They were in trouble. John had to make his next shot count. Pulling back the bowstring, he took aim at the rabbit as it was preparing to bite down on Tommy. The arrow launched through the air, racing to finish off the rabbit before it could do anything else. But suddenly, a figure appeared out of nowhere. A dagger flashed out, slicing between the ribs of the rabbit and causing damage of 20 to appear, taking away the last of its health. John's arrow passed through the air where the rabbit had just been. Before he had any time to react, the assassin spun on his heels and launched an attack at Tommy. John watched in slow motion as the dagger aimed for Tommy, who was still stunned for 0.5 seconds. He could do nothing as the dagger plunged into Tommy's heart, resulting in a critical hit damage of 27. John screamed, seeing Tommy die, and fired his bow in rage. The arrow missed wildly. The assassin calmly picked up the loot, looked at John, and said, "Trash," while sprinting away and entering stealth.
John stood there, his rage boiling over, vigilant in case the assassin was still around. After a few minutes, he started to calm down and checked the battle log to see what happened.
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Rabbit uses charge.
Rabbit deals 8 damage.
Silverback stunned for 1.2 seconds.
Rabbit deals 3 damage to Silverback.
Mugs deals 20 damage to rabbits.
Rabbit tendon severed.
Rabbit mobility -5%.
Silverback uses intimidating roar.
Rabbit under the effects of provoke.
5% attack debuff.
Silverback deals 10 damage to rabbit.
Rabbit misses Silverback.
Mugs deals 13 damage to rabbit.
Silverback deals 6 damage with Shield Assault.
Rabbit uses stomp.
Silverback inflicted with unsteady.
5% defense debuff.
Stun debuff for 2.8 seconds.
Rabbit deals 15 damage to Silverback.
Sniddy Steve deals 20 damage to rabbit.
Sniddy Steve gains 10 XP.
Mugs misses rabbit.
Sniddy Steve deals 27 damage to Silverback.
Silverback dies.
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Sniddy Steve. Everything had happened so fast that John didn't even have time to pay attention to the name. John promised himself to find Steve and make him pay. The call icon flashed up, indicating that Tommy had revived and was calling him. John picked up the call.
"That son of a bitch piece of trash stole our kill, killed me, and I Lost 5 coppers. Tell me you got that bitch John!. You're not around the temple, so I guess you survived." John explained what happened, and Tommy was heading back to meet him. With nothing to do but wait, John decided to take a rest and took a seat on the ground.
Meanwhile, not too far away, Sniddy Pete was checking his loot. He had just grabbed everything and ran. No need to get greedy. Two kills and the loot was a good harvest. Opening up his inventory, he let out a gasp of shock when clicking on the item description.
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Beginner's Health Potion
Upon consumption, heals 10 HP points.
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As far as he knew, giant rabbits never dropped anything other than coppers. And he was not a solo player. He was part of a guild called Blood Forge. There were members sharing info in the guild's Discord channel. Not everyone in the guild was able to join on launch, but there were 30 of them, all out fighting these rabbits. None had reported anything more than 6 coppers dropping, with 1-2 being the average. A beginner's health potion sold for 7 coppers. He also gained 9 coppers from the loot. Feeling like today must be his lucky day, he headed back towards town.
Tommy got back to John around 15 minutes later. After spending time ranting about what happened with each other, they agreed that hunting him down was not worth their time. If he was around here, he must have come from Elderville, a small town. They would find him and deal with him soon enough. They went back to grinding mobs, finding single rabbits separated. With the knowledge of the last encounter, things went a lot smoother. Tommy had a skill called Inciting Strikes that interrupted an enemy skill. Using this skill to interrupt the rabbit's stomp skill, all Tommy had to worry about was the charge skill. But with a low proc rate on the stun and John's Trick Shot skill, the rare time Tommy got stunned John had it covered, the duo slowly grinded the giant rabbits. Two hours later, they had slain six rabbits, each gaining 30 XP, 2 beginner health potions, 2 beginner mana potions, and 30 coppers. There were no leaderboards to show how they were doing compared to others, but they felt confident