The group approached the forest, with Madeen taking the lead. Rage was still slightly nervous but being around his friends made him feel safer.
"So before we start, let's go over a couple of things" Sensei cleared his throat, stopping the group from going any further.
"Just to make sure, everyone kept the skill they had from the class change, correct?" he questioned.
Madeen crossed his arms, leaning his back on a tree before he pulled up his status window, "Seems like it" he answered, reading the description of his skill.
Rage looked at his status window:
UNIQUE SKILL: DEMONIC AUTHORITY.
PLAYER CAN SUMMON COMPANIONS THAT ARE LINKED TO THE PLAYER.
COMPANIONS: 1/4.
CURRENT COMPANIONS: VARON.
COOLDOWN: 8 HOURS.
"Looks like I can summon Varon" Rage said, not looking up from his status window.
"Wait, that's good; he can just power-level us" Jimmy replied.
"Then you won't be able to do shit when he isn't around; you need to learn to use your body" Sensei scoffed, looking past Jimmy at a lone wolf stalking him.
Sensei dashed past Jimmy, leaping at the wolf while raising his sword. With a swift strike, he dug his blade straight into the wolf's skull as it whimpered before drawing its final breath.
DEFEATED WOLF LV.1 +25XP
The experience points were shared equally between all clan members.
"Wait, I remember that EXP share did divide the total EXP on all party members. Shouldn't we get around 4EXP each?" Sensei questioned, looking at the rest of the group for assurance.
"That would be me" Rage replied.
"When I was prompted to choose my phase 1 reward, I had two options, a clan buff and an individual buff" He continued.
Earlier...
PLEASE CHOOSE YOUR PHASE 1 REWARDS.
CLAN BUFF: BIG GAINS.
HUNTING IN PARTIES NOW GIVE FULL EXP SHARES INSTEAD OF DIVIDED EXP SHARES.
PLAYER BUFF: DOUBLE TROUBLE.
THE PLAYER NOW GAINS DOUBLE THE EXP FROM ANY MONSTER KILLED BELOW BOSS LEVEL.
Rage looked at both options and chose the clan buff without hesitation; not only was it efficient, but his friends were also more important, he also knew that he would be hunting alongside them most of the time anyways.
"Aww, what a real bro" Madeen said sarcastically, rubbing Rage's hair.
"If you think about it, it is also way more efficient than the individual buff" Jimmy started explaining, "If we talk numbers, say a player manages to kill ten wolves an hour, which adds up to 250EXP, Rage chose the clan buff, which means if each of us kills ten wolves an hour, that is 1500EXP, he chose x6 the EXP instead of x2" He continued.
"Don't forget Varon since I can summon him" Rage added.
"All in all, that is very smart. I can see the other buff being handy for someone like Scarlet or Arcanix since they are solo players" Sensei said, leaning his back on the same tree as Madeen.
After seeing Sensei easily kill the wolf, Rage gathered some confidence. He is the clan master and had to act as such; his friends have always put so much trust in his command, and he had to take responsibility and guide them.
"Alright fuckers listen up" Rage raised his voice, trying to grab everyone's attention.
"We'll hunt in two parties to maximize efficiency as usual; Party one will be Jimmy, Phoenix, and Hunter, Phoenix you'll take the role of the tanker while Jimmy and Hunter will do the DPS; Party two is self-explanatory" he continued.
"You heard the boss" said Madeen, resting his scythe over his shoulder.
"Before we go, let me try something" Rage said.
He held his hand in front of him; he closed his eyes and concentrated his energy on his hand. "Demonic Authority!" he yelled, a hint of embarrassment in his voice.
The group looked at him intently, waiting for Varon to appear or anything to happen.
A moment passed, 10 seconds, but nothing happened. Rage opened his eyes to look around, trying to see if Varon had been summoned successfully.
"So, uhhh.. was something supposed to happen?" Madeen asked, looking around.
"Lemme look at the skill description again" Rage said, opening his status window.
He went through the skill description once more, but there was no hint of how to use it; after looking at it for another minute, he looked at an empty spot in front of him, holding his hand up again, "summon Varon" he said calmly; suddenly, a purple glow materialized at the once empty spot, with Varon appearing in the same place a moment after.
Varon looked around in confusion; he didn't seem to notice them standing at first but he turned his head to see Rage standing there with the rest of the clan, all looking at him.
"I-I greet the lords" Varon said hesitantly before bowing his head before Rage.
"Easy, Varon. I know you're confused; I summoned you; it's a new skill I obtained during the advancement ceremony."
"If you have summoned me, I naturally have to answer, my lord."
"Varon, I need you to grab me the heirloom chest from the chamber at the clan house."
"Your orders, my lord; I will grab the chest once you send me back and prepare for your next summon."
Rage's eyes widened as he looked at the rest of the group, "Uhh.. Fuck.." .
"Let me guess, you don't know how to send him back" Jimmy sighed disappointedly.
"It's not like I have a pocket dimension for my summons" Rage said with a hint of annoyance.
"FAN-FUCKING-TASTIC!" Jimmy yelled before kicking a small pebble on the ground in frustration.
"We'll figure it out; the equipment we received is more than enough for now. Let's just split and hunt. Meet back at this spot in two hours" Rage said, trying to get over the subject.
"Varon, we don't know anything about this area. Scout ahead and try to locate a town or a village nearby; do not interact with the locals, and try to stay out of sight; report back here in two hours".
The group split into three; the two hunting parties went their separate ways while Varon headed deeper into the forest, looking for a village or a town to report back as he was commanded.
Rage's party headed east, for some time there were only a few wolves scattered around the forest but they didn't found any groups or even the den.
Sensei took the lead, with Madeen and Rage following close behind.
After several minutes of searching, the group finally stumbled upon a pack of wolves who were hanging around a small lake.
"Jackpot" Madeen smirked, grabbing his scythe before Sensei put his hand up stopping him.
"You're not level 400 anymore, so calm down."
"Ah, don't be dramatic. They're just wolves, and we have some OP gear compared to this area's level" Madeen said, dashing past Sensei towards the group of wolves completely ignoring him.
The hunt seemed to go well initially; Sensei was taking most of the hits since he can mitigate most damage while Rage was more focused on gathering the wolves in one spot for Madeen to execute them with his AOE.
YOU HAVE LEVELED UP
YOU HAVE LEVELED UP
YOU HAVE LEVELED UP
Madeen seemed to enjoy himself too much, not taking the hunt seriously.
Usually, he would get scolded, but there was no immediate danger, so Rage let it slide for now.
"Looks like that was the last puppy" Madeen said as he pulled his scythe out of a dead wolf's head.
"Well seems li-" Sensei was interrupted was a huge figure towering over Madeen, his shadow completely enveloping him as Madeen turned around slowly.
Behind him was a giant wolf twice the size of a normal one, it flashed its teeth and growled loudly before taking a slash at Madeen.
He leaped out of the way, spinning his scythe overhead to collect his aura for a soul shackle; after a couple of spins, Madeen remembered that he regressed and didn't have soulshackle anymore completely removing the confident look he had a minute earlier.
"Well shit, Uhh.. Sensei?" He looked back at Sensei with an awkward chuckle.
"Come on, it's just a wolf" Sensei replied with a smirk.
"This isn't the time to joke around, you bastard!" Said Madeen, landing a couple of hits but not leaving a single scratch.
Sensei jumped between Madeen and the Giant wolf, holding his shield up, "Get back, you idiot" he yelled to Madeen as he bashed the wolf with his shield.
"Looks like it's the pack's Alpha; it wants Madeen since he has the most blood on his hands" Rage called out, positioning himself behind the wolf.
"World boss right at the start? We're fucked" Sensei said, blocking another slash from the wolf before being knocked back.
"Each boss has a vital spot" Rage said, scanning the wolf's body, "Madeen, take aggro, you rested enough."
Madeen leaped into action, slashing the wolf's back with his scythe taking the aggro off Sensei so he can rest for a minute.
Rage scanned the wolf's body once more, "Fuck I can't find it, just beat the shit out of it!" Rage yelled before he dashed towards the wolf, landing two slashes at its back.
The wolf whimpered in pain stepping back, shifting its aggro towards Rage.
Sensei jumped on its back, trying to stab his sword into the wolf's head like what he did with the first wolf.
HIIK-
He grunted as he tried to plunge the sword into its head; it only left a shallow wound before the wolf threw Sensei off its back, slamming him into a tree.
"Here, puppy" Madeen said, pulling one of the wolf's legs with his scythe.
"Shit!"
Madeen's strength wasn't enough to pull the wolf's leg, it pulled its leg, throwing Madeen away alongside his scythe.
"Focus!" Rage yelled, "Stop thinking you're as strong as you used to be; treat it like you treated Gorthak; get back into formation."
Sensei pulled himself up, positioning himself at the front; he wiped the blood off his mouth and held his shield up as Madeen and Rage stood directly behind him, facing the wolf.
"Let's dance little puppy" Madeen said, smirking through his bloody teeth.