FOUR: ALLIANCES
(Tyrone Lee)
The Toxic Girl, whose name Alex told me was Jenny, was crying her lungs out. From what I could gather was the guy who sacrificed himself was her brother, Vades. I couldn't care less about the crying, but I was also regretting the decision. Vades had an unique Skill, it would have been useful to form an alliance with him.
The muscle guy sat at a distance, crouching with his head buried in his knees. Alex sat with Jenny, trying to comfort her. I waited while sitting on one of the chairs which survived.
The Goblin Chief was still alive, because we didn't get any mission complete notification. It was truly admirable how he could stay alive even after five minutes of being split in two.
Unable to take the tension anymore, I slowly walked over to the muscles guy and dropped down next to him.
"Hey."
He looked up and greeted back. I asked him, "What's your name?"
"Nolan Witshire."
"I'm Tyrone Lee, nice to meet you. I was wondering if you would like to join me and that kid, Alex. You have a physical advantage, and we also have our own abilities, so it would be mutually beneficial if you joined us. What do you think?"
He looked at me like I was speaking another language, then he spoke slowly, "It's nice of you to ask me to join you, and since I'm the only one left from my group, I might as well join you. But I should tell you I'm not at a very high level yet. I'm barely Level 5. My Skill Strengthen is of Level 2 so far."
"That's okay, I'm only Level 6, and my skill Pyrokinesis is of Level 3 so far."
DING!
Finally the messages popped up. I looked around and saw Nolan reading through his own screen, Jenny was still sobbing but she seemed to have calmed down enough to read it. Alex on the other hand, was reading with a look of both excitement and disappointment on his face. I looked at my own screen and started reading:
[QUEST COMPLETE]
PLAYER Tyrone Lee has completed Quest #1. Player has slain a total of 588 Goblins and contributed to 38% of the Conclusion.
REWARDS:
588 Goblin Hearts
+3 Levels
Mana Infused Spear
Well, that was some awesome haul. I asked the System for information about the Hearts. The info said, the Hearts were useful in making potions or spells for Mage Class Players. They could also be sold in the Shop for a cheap price of 15 Shards each.
I decided to sell off a hundred of the Hearts. I called upon the Shop but:
SHOP feature is available for Level 10 or above Players.
Oh? Sadly I could only store these stuff in my inventory for now I guess. I looked around again and saw Alex standing right next to me, staring with pleading eyes.
"GAHH! WHAT THE FUCK, KID?"
"Sorry, I didn't mean to startle you, but I have some more problems. I'm so sorry to just dump my problems on you, but since you're my Guard-"
"Just spit it already," I rolled my eyes.
"The System is saying that I cannot sell Goblin Hearts to the Shop or even use Shards. So I was thinking if you could buy and sell stuff for me when you unlock shop..."
I sighed deeply and said, "Alright, alright. Just chill out man, okay?"
I had a more pressing matter at hand. I wanted to get Jenny to form another alliance with us. We could use her Toxic abilities. But I had no idea how to do that. I was staring at Jenny and Alex talking, as I thought about my next course of action. Alex seemed to have gotten friendly with Jenny. It would be nice if he could ask her to join us in my stead.
Wait! He CAN do that!
I sent him a message through the System. Since I was his Guardian, it allowed us to have a private chat. I told him: Ask your little friend to join our team, I got Nolan, the huge dude, to join us. Get Jenny too. She could use a friend right now and staying here alone is dangerous.
Alex looked at me with grateful eyes, and nodded. Then he pointed at me and told something to Jenny. After a few more moments, the two of them made their way to where me and Nolan were sitting.
Jenny spoke, "Lee, can I call you Lee? Alex had been telling me how you have helped him since the Selection Quest and how you wished me to join your group. I'm really glad for the offer and would like to say that I'm honored to be fighting alongside you."
"Well, gee. Thanks for those sweet words. Anyway right now its- " I took a glance at my watch, "-about midnight, and I was thinking we should step outside and find some more effective weapons."
Nolan spoke up in his deep voice, "Lee, I know of a warehouse in Warrenton where they stashed lots of guns and bombs. Perhaps we could check the place out?"
I grinned at him, "Brilliant, so Warrenton it is! Let's go team!"
Nolan and me cleared out the rubble from the doorway, as we made our way out to the mall. We were on the third floor. As we descended we saw a few more people who were still fighting against creatures or dead bodies lying around, human and otherwise.
One group was fighting wolves which had steel teeth, while another group was floating and fighting against metallic creatures, which looked a cross between spiders and octopuses. We all had different quests and some had finished earlier than us.
Some groups were resting, or helping other groups with their Quests. I guess you still got XP, even if the creature wasn't from your Quest. It was tempting to charge in and fight the grass monsters near the exit, but another team had it handled. We didn't have enough time anyway.
We stepped outside in the cool night air. The air was refreshing to breath in. The city was abandoned, and one could see the occasional survivor running across street. We made our way to the parking lot in silence. Jenny seemed to have calmed down now and was no longer sobbing.
There were so many empty cars in the lot. I chose a blue Sedan, and told everyone to hop in. I sat behind the wheel and asked, "Who here can drive?"
Nolan and Jenny raised their hands.
"Okay let's see, Warrenton is about a three hour drive from here. We're already all tired and exhausted. We need to sleep, so we will drive in shifts. I will drive for the first hour or so, then Jenny can take over, and finally Nolan and drive for the last hour, sound good?"
They both nodded in approval. I hot-wired the car and got it started. It growled to life. I drove it out of the lot and put my foot down, as we shot into the night.
My drive was pretty uneventful, there were a few other cars. They all seemed to be trying to get out of the city or to go home to their families. The radio stations were down and I drove to the sound of the low breathing of the others as they slept.
I was Level 9 now. I pulled up the Pyrokinesis info page. It had gone up to Level 4. Now I could control fires up to a larger range and protect 3 people. I had 3 points left. I decided to save them for the next Quest. Alex had an useful skill, and Nolan's strength would surely come in handy. Compared to those two, Jenny was pretty useless. She had ranged attacks and could infect enemies, but I could just as easily burn down more.
Another thing that intrigued me was the Class. Would we get to choose a Class? Or was it assigned randomly? Anyway, I hoped I got something useful.
Soon my shift was over and I woke up Jenny and asked her to take over. She was quite skilled as a driver. We were going at around 120 in the empty road. Soon I fell asleep from the exhaustion.
***
DING!
I woke up to the sound of a notification. Jenny lost control for a while at the sudden notification, but collected herself quickly. The notification read:
QUEST #2
Golden Blades
Difficulty: D
Possible Rewards:
Leprechaun's Pot
XP
[???]
Briefing: Evil Leprechauns will spawn for the next Seven Days. Although weak, their numbers back them up in a fight. Send these Leprechauns to Hell and prove your place on this planet.
Wait, a week? A week long Quest?!?!? What the fuck were they thinking? We barely survived two hours with an E level Quest. We had to deal with one week of D level Quest?
Nolan seemed to be fast asleep with not a worry in the world. Alex looked at me from the back seat. Jenny was giving me a side eye, while she drove.
I chuckled nervously and said, "Let us get those guns first and hope to run over any of these little beasts if we come acro-"
SCREEEEECH!
Jenny skidded the car to a stop. Nolan bumped his head on the roof and groaned awake. Alex swore loudly. I asked, "Why the fuck did you stop now? We are nearly there!"
Jenny pointed ahead and said, "You mean run over those little beasts?"
We could see a swarm of at least a couple hundred Leprechauns marching our way, while giggling and throwing around gold. They seemed innocent creatures at first glance. As they got closer, I realised they weren't throwing around gold. It was the leftovers of the people they killed on their way here.