by Rick Scott
I don’t like where this is going. Sounds like parting advice. From someone who thinks she’s about to die. I want to tell her she’s the one who doesn’t need to worry. That I’m going to make sure she’s okay. I’m going to make sure everyone is okay. “I . . . I’ve got some plans I’m working on.”
She doesn’t look convinced.
I give her a smile, and she finally leaves.
* * *
After breakfast, I log back in.
I’m shocked to see that I have 13 new subscribers on my streaming page. How the heck did they even find out about me? I also see a couple messages they left on my board.
Riley: Man, you are a leveling machine! I’m going to tell all my friends about you, dude! GG
Evertonthefirst: Cool moves! ^_^
Selle: Definitely no Aiko . . . but not bad.
The messages are unexpected and motivating all at once—except for the last one, maybe. I’m sure 13 subscribers isn’t going to net me much, but it’s a start. I check for messages from Gilly next. None. But I do see a ton of hate mail from Aiko’s followers that I send straight to the junk bin.
I check for Gilly herself and see that she’s online. I send her a message and am happy when it goes through.
Me: Hey, can we talk?
There’s a long delay before I get a reply.
Gilly: I don’t want to talk. I’m embarrassed by the whole thing <:(
Her response is much better than I’d hoped it would be. At least she’s not totally ticked off still. I check where she is in in-game and fast-travel to see her in person. I materialize in Swifttide and find her hanging out in the Smith’s guild, which is a close cousin to Miner. She’s wearing a thick leather apron and is working over an anvil. I can’t tell what she’s crafting, but she’s slamming a piece of red-hot metal with a hammer. Her green eyes dance with the light of the sparks that go shooting off with each bang.
“I know what you’re going to say,” Gilly says, still working. “And you’re right. What I did really sucked. I’m sorry.”
Bang . . . bang . . .
“Gilly . . .” I feel like moving closer to give her a hug, but the flying sparks keep me at bay. “You don’t have to apologize.”
She finally stops hammering. “Yes, I do. It was your big moment, and I . . . I got stupid and messed it all up for you.”
I open my mouth to say that she didn’t, but my raw feelings from that night get the better of me. “It’s fine, really. So much has happened since then. Honestly, I barely remember it. Besides, I know how you feel about Val Helena.”
“It’s not just her,” Gilly says. “It was everyone else, too . . .”
I see what look like tears forming in her eyes. “You okay?”
She shakes her head. “I’m an only child, remember? I’m not used to sharing things.” And then she pauses to look me in the eye. “Especially my only friend.”
Her words make my heart skip and melt all at the same time.
“I know it sounds stupid. But when they all came rushing in there, I felt replaced. Like you’d moved on. Like you had better friends and didn’t need me anymore.”
“Gilly, no one could ever replace you.”
She sulks. “You sure about that? Not even Val Helena?”
“Val?” I laugh. “She’s not like that to me. She’s like my . . .”
“Friend’s hot mom?”
I laugh again. “I was going to say mentor.”
She shrugs. “Anyway, I’m sorry.”
“Hey,” I say and tug her toward me by the crook of her elbow. “It’s in the past. Water under the bridge.”
She relents and lets me give her a hug, but then she stiffens in my arms. “34?”
“Huh?”
She steps back and gives me a shocked, almost hurt look. “When did you hit 34?”
“Oh . . . yeah, a lot happened last night.”
She folds her arms, looking deflated again. “So I guess you don’t want me to go adventuring with you anymore, either.”
“What?”
“We need to be within 3 levels of each other to share XP.”
“Gilly . . .”
“Never mind, it’s okay,” she says, looking down at the ground. “I was only doing it for you, anyway. I’m just happy I was able to help you get this far. If you want to move ahead, I understand.”
“It’s not that I want to, Gilly. I have to now.”
“Right, your mom. I get it.”
“No, not just for my mom. Something’s changed. I need to be able to afford the operation in just a couple of days now.”
“What?” Her mouth drops open, and her brow creases with concern. “Oh no, Reece! Did your mom get sick?”
“No, no . . . it’s not her. It’s my brother.”
“What?”
“It’s hard to explain, and I can’t really do it here.”
This has her brow furrowing even more. I want to tell her so bad. About what I overheard that night. About the surface and my brother and the Builder. And I would if we weren’t on the net. Maybe there’s another possibility . . .
“Were you serious about wanting to meet in real life someday?”
She swallows. “Well . . . sure. I guess. Were you?”
“How about today?”
She goes dead still for a second, like maybe she’s just fallen out of her rig or something. Finally, she reanimates. “Today, today?”
“Yeah . . . I have a lot of stuff I want to share with you, Gilly. And it’d probably be better in person.”
“You really want to see me?”
I nod. “If you still want me to.”
She pauses a moment more, but there’s a smile on her face now.
“Let me go ask my mom,” she says, and then her eyes go unfocused.
I’ve got butterflies the size of eagles soaring through my stomach now. I just asked Gilly to meet in real life! Sure, it was for serious reasons . . . but still. This will be the first time I’ve ever met anyone like this before. Just the thought of seeing her has me worried about what she might think of me.
“Do you want to come for dinner at six?” she says, retuning.
I swallow back the lump in my throat. “Okay.”
She laughs nervously. “Wow. Okay!”
“So . . . where do you live?”
“Oh!” she says. “L322A, number 12.”
322? “Wow . . . that’s like . . . really far down.”
I never gave thought to what kind of economic status Gilly was in, but living that far down, her family must be pretty well off.
She just shrugs. “My name is Jill, by the way. When we meet. It’s my real name. It’s Jill.”
“Ryan,” I say. I feel like our relationship has just taken a major step forward into reality. “You can still call me Reece if you want to, though. I respond to either.”
She laughs at that. “Ditto.”
“I like Jill. It’s pretty.”
She blushes a bit. “Thanks.”
“Do you still want to come help me level? You might not get XP, but I could always use a nice heal, or maybe even a raise now and then.”
“Today? Oh no. I gotta go do stuff.”
“Huh?”
“Yeah,” she says. “Like stuff to prepare for when you come over. And . . . stuff.”
I laugh. “Okay.”
She grins like a little kid before jump-tackling me with a hug and kiss. “I can’t wait till tonight. See you at six!”
Gilly then promptly logs off, leaving me there to scratch my head. Six o’clock is like ten hours away. What on earth could she be doing that would take her 10 hours to prepare for? Buying something to wear possibly? Maybe I should consider doing the same. I’ve never been on a date before, so I don’t really know. Times like this, I wish Mike and I were on normal speaking terms. He’s had plenty of girlfriends, and not the online kind.
Still, even with something as important as this, I can’t afford to waste the time. I’ve got ten h
ours of uninterrupted play time ahead of me. And I need to max the heck out of it.
Chapter 24: Solo
I might not have time to gear myself up in the real world, but on Crystal Shards, it’s now embarrassingly imperative that I do so. I’ve gained 34 levels by backstabbing with a Level 1 weapon. There’s no way I’m spending another 50 levels doing that. If I never see another dockworker again, it will be too soon. And unfortunately, while high in XP, dockworkers are, unsurprisingly, quite poor. I pool the total drops I’ve received from killing them all night and have what barely amounts to 5k credits.
I check my balance after my Thief gear has sold.
You have . . . . . . . . . . . . 29,175 Cr
Leveling is going to have to come at the cost of making money, because to upgrade even just my katanas is going to set me back 7k apiece! There’s a whole bunch of other gear I could use as well, but I can’t afford the credit hit. A Ninja Tekko Glove with +5 Dex and a Scarf that has +2 Evasion catch my eye. I buy the scarf because it’s only 2k and looks really cool. At 10k, the gloves will have to wait. I finish with a Level 30 black silk gi that gives me crap Defense but has +4 points to Dodge.
Suited up, I actually start to resemble a Ninja, though a very broke one. Literally so, since I’m now down to 10k after my shopping spree. My resolve wavers a little as I wonder how I’m ever going to turn that into 3.5 million.
Level, I tell myself. Get out there and kill stuff!
I have no idea where I should be going to next. I’m about to shoot a question to the guild chat when I remember something. That message Val Helena sent me.
I check my messages and find the one she sent on my first day as a Level 1 Warrior. She said she had prepared me a guide of sorts. I open it up and see it’s roughly just that.
Level 1-10 WestWood
Level 11-20 Murky Swamp
Level 21-30 Goatoa Plains
Level 31-40 Yughatha Jungle
Level 41-50 Andor Steppe
Level 51-60 Beaucille Glacier
Level 61-85 Mao Desert
I guess it’s to the jungle I go. Wherever that is. I spend a few minutes studying the in-game map, and then pick my closest spawning point to the jungle and head out. It takes me around twenty minutes of traveling from the edge of the Murky Swamps, where Gilly and I had our first date, and through the rolling plains of Goatoa. I see a lot of other players there, partying in groups of five or six to take on the large white hippogriffs that roam the plains. I’m tempted to give one a try myself, but they’re only Level 20. I can’t be wasting my time on stuff like that.
I travel on. Soon, it begins to get hotter, the grass taller, until finally, the terrain shifts into the steamy jungle of Yughatha. The trees here are humongous, wide like buildings. Their branches tower over a hundred feet high and spread out in an umbrella-like canopy that produces enough shade to produce an eerie twilight beneath. Thick vines and leafy plants fill the spaces between the massive trees, giving rise to a pungent aroma of decay from the rotting undergrowth they leave behind.
I work my way through the dense foliage, following a narrow pathway. I pause when I feel the presence of something else in the jungle with me. I take a second to cast Shadow Copy. I take a few steps more and something big and black comes charging at me from the side.
I blow Active Dodge and my body becomes a blur as the claws of something pass right through me.
Your Awareness increases by 0.4.
Skill Up! Your Awareness is now 32.
Your Dodge increases by 0.7.
I then recognize what nearly hit me—the huge paw of a giant panther. And it’s clawing back at me for a second strike. I use Retreat and flip backward into the jungle. The wildcat, as big as a horse, pounces after me. Crap!
I find my footing among the mass of tree roots on the forest floor and leap to the side to avoid the panther as it snarls and claws wildly at me. I’ve never fought anything so quick before. I force myself to get in the zone, to study its movements and anticipate its attacks. I lose my Shadow trying to gauge the rhythm of its bites and swipes, but get a real Evasion when I finally predict it’s about to strike my head and successfully duck beneath it.
Your Evasion increases by 0.3.
Skill Up! Your Evasion is now 52.
I calm down a little with the success. The big cat doesn’t seem so scary anymore. I jab into its thick black fur with my kunai blades and take off an amazing 10% with each hit. I then get a double attack and land four blows in a flurry.
The panther whines and winces with each hit, and I roll out of the way of its pounce when it retaliates. I use Charge Strike, closing the gap again, and give it another blender-like hail of slashes from my blades. I get a satisfying round of critical hits, doing double damage, and the panther expires.
You defeated the Jungle Panther!
You gain 12000 experience points!
You find a Panther Fang.
You find a Panther Fang.
My heart is still pounding with adrenaline, and it feels like I’ve finally had a decent fight.
I check to see how much these fangs are worth. They go for about 1k each on the auction board. Not bad, I suppose. Not huge money, but the XP is okay. I trek further into the jungle and discover another panther. This time, I use Sneak to move undetected and maneuver myself behind it.
I open combat with a Backstab!
The panther roars as I take an instant 25% off its Health bar. It whips around to claw my stomach, but I avoid it with a quick hop back. I charge in again and work down its HP with five or six quick slashes, dodging a snap from its jaws in between.
You defeated the Jungle Panther!
You gain 12000 experience points!
Kill chain x 1. You gain 6000 experience points!
You find a Panther Fang.
This one felt like it went down a lot easier than the first. Perhaps because I could already anticipate its attack pattern. Or perhaps the surprise attack of the first one threw me off guard and gave me a false impression of how hard the beasts truly were. Whatever the case, I recast Shadow Copy and go hunting for more.
I keep fighting jungle panthers for about an hour, and after a while, they really don’t seem all that hard at all. I blow another hour chain killing them to reach Level 40.
Congratulations! You have gained a Level!
You are now Level 40.
You have learned the new passive ability: Wall Run.
Wall Run
Your advanced training allows you to traverse vertical surfaces while sprinting.
Whoa! I have to try this out. I fix on one of the building-sized trees and dash toward it head-on. I leap onto the massive trunk when I get close and keep on sprinting. The world tilts as I charge up the smooth tan bark of the tree and dart from side to side to avoid the branches that extend from its flanks. I get a third of the way up before I feel myself tire. I aim for one of the branches and hop onto it for a rest.
When I land, my lungs are burning from both exhaustion and exhilaration. I can see the entire jungle expanse below me, trails weaving through the undergrowth like tiny streams. Birds soar above the treetops, calling to one another with loud caws and whistles. I breathe out a sigh of pure amazement and delight. A sight like this is almost reward alone for hitting Level 40 Ninja.
But I’m still only halfway to the goal.
It’s been a few hours now, but compared to last night, the pace is slow. The panthers seem easy enough to kill now, but I’m having to kill more and more of them to level each time. Maybe I need to think bigger. After all, I was going toe-to-toe with those dockworkers at Level 20 with noob gear on. Maybe that was the key. This guide Val Helena gave me works when playing it safe, but if I want level fast like I did last night, I need to start punching way above my weight class. I need to play like I’m rolling Gambler’s Boon.
And with Shadow Copy, I think maybe I can do it.
The Steppe of Andor is next on the list. I prepare to fast-travel there, s
ince I already have the spawn point unlocked, but I won’t be staying. My true destination will be the ice fields to its north and the Beaucille Glacier beyond.
I’m just about to travel when I notice something large moving through the jungle below me. It’s a panther, but where the normal ones are as big as a horse, this one is more like an elephant! I focus to see what it is.
Sheeba
Legendary Monster
Level: ???
The great huntress of the Yughatha patrols her territory without mercy. Beast-men and the races of men fear her alike. It is said that her fangs are sharp enough to pierce the strongest Mythril plate, and her roar is so powerful that one may die just from hearing it.
Affinity: Thunder
Adrenaline spikes my blood as I consider the possibility of trying to fight it. But there’s no way. I’m not 85 yet. Then again, this is a lower level area than the mines. Maybe it won’t be as tough as Gruzug. I decide to do something I rarely do. I pull up another window and search the net for any information I can find on Sheeba. I pull up some guy’s page with a whole list of LMs on it.
I find his entry for Sheeba.
Name: Sheeba
Approximate Level: 45
Type: Panther
Normal Attacks: Claw and Bite
Special attacks: Savage [Hold + Critical + Bleeding]
Tail Swipe [Stun for 3 seconds]
Thunder Roar [Massive AOE]
Drops: Sheeba’s Fang [Used to craft Sheeba’s Dagger
Level 45 . . . that’s not so bad. Is it? Maybe I can do it. That dagger looks pretty darn amazing. I look up the fang on the auction house to see how much it’s worth.
Sheeba’s Fang In stock: 0…………….. Last trade: 192,000 Cr
My heart hits my throat. Holy cow! This is the kind of big win I’ve been waiting for. As I close the window and contemplate giving Sheeba a go, I notice a group of players trekking through the jungle toward her about a hundred feet away. There are at least two parties, and they’re all in the same guild, most in their high 20s and low 30s. A raiding party. They’re definitely going for her.