Morbid

“Welcome back, adventurer.” Helena said as Arnold appeared in front of her.

“Thank you for waiting.” Arnold said and chose the 'kiss on cheek' personal action.

Helena only glared at him for a second. “Why do you keep taking such small liberties with me?”

“Do you want me to take a bigger one?” Arnold asked, completely misunderstanding her complaint, and she didn't answer. “My girlfriend is coming here to meet us to help me level up.”

“If she is a much higher level than you, she can take you on a more dangerous quest to gain a lot of experience.” Helena said. “But be warned. Quests increase in difficulty the more people you have.”

“Does the experience increase as well?” Arnold asked and she nodded. “Will you stay with us to give advice?”

“That will depend on who is meeting us.” Helena said. “I may not be needed.”

There was a knock on the room door and Arnold opened it.

“Hi!” Kelly said and chose 'enthusiastic wave' as a personal action and her character waved exaggeratedly. “I'm here.” She walked into the room and chose 'kiss on lips' next and chose Arnold as the target, then their characters kissed.

“Welcome, Fervent_Wish.” Helena said and stood. “You are of a sufficient level that Morbid does not need my advice while you are adventuring together.”

“What?” Kelly looked at Arnold and then at Helena. “I thought you were staying with him?”

“My company is not necessary now.” Helena said and gave a slight head bow to Arnold. “Be well and be safe, adventurer.” She said and her glow intensified.

“Thank you for your help.” Arnold said and stepped close and chose 'hug' and then 'kiss on lips' on the personal actions list and his character gave the game guide a hug and a kiss on the lips. Helena faded away with a look of surprise on her face.

Kelly burst out laughing. “Okay, that was funny!”

“She asked me why I only kissed her on the cheek and I asked her if she wanted something more.” Arnold said. “She didn't answer.”

“She probably couldn't.” Kelly said. “I doubt they programmed her for responses to personal questions. In fact, I bet they never expected her to ever answer personal questions. Or interact personally with players. Or come into the full game out of the tutorial.” She laughed again. “I can only imagine the error reports she's generating for them after meeting you! Ha ha!”

After a few moments, Kelly calmed down and asked Arnold to take out all of the small jewellery items that he had gathered from Brad's loot. They sorted through them all and kept half a dozen rings and necklaces and put them in inventory in a specific spot. He couldn't equip them until he reached a certain level, then he would be able to benefit from them. The rest of the small items were class specific and he couldn't use them.

“Are you sure you don't want to choose a class?” Kelly asked as Arnold stored the rest and then brought out some of the small armor related items, like boots, belts, bracers, gloves, shoulder pads, and hip guards.

“I looked at them and they all have bonuses and drawbacks.” Arnold said. “Fighters are strong with high Vitality and can fight with close combat weapons. They are also terrible at acrobatics and magic. Archers can shoot at long range and do lots of damage. They are also terrible in close combat and have low Vitality. Magic users are great at both offensive and defensive spells. They are also terrible at any kind of physical combat.”

Kelly couldn't refute his observations, since that was the point of the classes. You get major advantages for what you're specializing in and you accept the flaws that all character classes have built into them.

“You're not going to find a lot of equipment that doesn't require a class.” Kelly said and waved at everything on the bed. They were all class specific and Arnold couldn't use them.

“After we go adventuring and level up, we can look for the crafting places you told me about.” Arnold said.

“I don't think you'll be able to learn much if you don't take an appropriate class.” Kelly cautioned him, then she chuckled. “Then again, I didn't know that you could touch the game guide or get a horse before starting the game. So, I'll follow your lead and we'll see what happens.”

Arnold chose the 'kiss on lips' action and his character kissed her, then they kept sorting his items.

It took another fifteen minutes to finish sorting everything and Arnold had gifted several magic items to Kelly that she could use immediately. One of the mechanics of the game was that different classes occasionally found items in their loot drops that other classes could use. This promoted interaction between players and sparked both cooperation and camaraderie.

It also sparked a lucrative market for rare items that could only be found by high level players.

Kelly thought about refusing the items and Arnold told her that he was going to sell them because he couldn't use them. “All right, I'll take them.” She said and equipped them. “If I find anything you can use, I'll give it to you.”

Arnold nodded and they left the inn. The stable hand came out with the old nag and Arnold pet it. It neighed at him and Kelly shook her head at how easily he had acquired such a valuable travel companion.

“We need to head to Langport to sell those items.” Kelly said and Arnold helped her up onto the saddle. She sat in the same fashion as Helena did, side-saddle, and Arnold climbed on and shook the reins.

“Langport.” Arnold said and the nag was covered in sparkles, grew the large translucent butterfly wings, then they took off and flew to the large port city.

“It's the best place to sell everything you have, rather than trying to sell some in one place and some in another. You can offload all of the items you can't use and get a fair price for them.” Kelly said. “Depending on the item, it's actually worth the fast-travel fee to go there to sell it.”

“Like most of my stuff?” Arnold asked and she nodded.

“We'll also be close to one of the main quest hubs.” Kelly said. “I'm tempted to accept a dungeon dive, just so we can progressively level you up the deeper we go... but, we're working on a time budget here. We need lots of experience fast.”

“What do we do?” Arnold asked as they flew over the countryside.

“We take a huge risk.” Kelly said. “We should stop at the inn here and set our spawn points, because I'm pretty sure we're going to die the first time we do it.”

Arnold nodded and the old nag landed right in front of the inn. He paid for the night and for the horse to be put in the stable, the both of them set their spawn points, then they went to the shop where Kelly said he could sell everything for a good price. She had been right and the shop owner was delighted to accept so many new and varied items in a single purchase. He paid very handsomely for everything Arnold had for sale and Arnold received just over six thousand gold for everything.

“Okay, let's shop around and see if we can find some generic armor and weapons for you.” Kelly said.

They walked around and quickly inquired about what Arnold would need. Almost everything they had required a level, except for things that didn't give any extra stats at all. The sword was dull. The bow and arrows were weak. The armor was only thick cloth and not even leather.

“Wow, this is horrible.” Kelly said. “I didn't realize how class dependent everything in the game is.” She said. “I was wondering why the tutorial items were so good. It's because there's nothing else like them. Almost everything else requires a class to either buy or use.”

Arnold bought the items and the good thing was that they were dirt cheap. He equipped the armor and stored the weapons, then made sure he had on everything he had received in the tutorials.

“Okay, I guess that's it.” Kelly said and took his hand. “It's time for us to go kill ourselves.”

Arnold raised his eyebrows, which was his version of a shout, and Kelly laughed as she led him down the street.

“I know, I know. That sounds bad. It's what we have to do to level you up enough to use some of the better equipment and items you have.”

“I'll level up by dying?” Arnold asked, confused.

“You get bonuses for fighting something dangerous, for being an under-strength party, and for being stupid enough to try it before you're ready for it.” Kelly laughed. “Since you're only level one and I'm level seventy-nine, we're probably going to be sent to fight a level sixty something creature.”

Arnold tried to do the calculations in his head for the math needed for that.

“It takes into account our stats as well as our levels.” Kelly said and he nodded.

They walked down several other streets and entered a small one storey building that only had a desk with a woman behind it and a glowing circle in front of it.

“Party of two and give us the big one.” Kelly said.

The woman looked at Arnold skeptically then did something on the desk.

' Notice: You have joined a party consisting of (Morbid) and (Fervent_Wish).

Adventure rating of A initiating. Please step into the glowing circle. '

“Don't worry. We know what we're doing.” Kelly said.

“I've never heard that before.” The woman behind the desk said and laughed. “See you in a few minutes.” She said and completed the spell, then Arnold and Kelly disappeared in a flash of light.

In the next moment, they appeared in something that looked like an old ruin.

' You have entered the lair of the Elder Giant Tasmanian Devil. '

“Oh, crap!” Kelly said and her character took off to the right. “RUN!”

Arnold ran after her and easily caught up to her, thanks to his high speed and the bonus from the boots.

“Dammit, I didn't think we would qualify for this!” Kelly said and they both heard a loud crashing sound behind them. “It's a level ninety! My magic is barely going to hurt it!”

“What do we do?” Arnold asked as they approached the wall.

“There's a small series of tunnels around here somewhere. I've seen videos of it and of the creature.” Kelly said and ran along the wall with Arnold right beside her. “I hope we can make it to the hiding...”

A large stone column thirty feet away burst apart and showered them with rock shards and dust as a creature the size of a school bus barrelled through it and ran towards them. Its clawed paws dug ten foot long furrows into the ground as it scrambled to get to them as fast as it could. Burning red eyes and teeth the size of a shovel chomped angrily, then it lunged at them.

“ARNOLD!” Kelly yelled and pushed Arnold's character out of the way at the last second.

Arnold was easily tossed aside by her and he didn't see what happened; but, he heard the sounds of something being mulched and stone being crushed. He landed on the ground and looked up to see the creature's muzzle was half-buried into the wall.

Right through Kelly's body.

' Party member (Fervent_Wish) has died. '

“Kelly?” Arnold asked as he stood. She didn't respond, because the game blocked all external communications during combat and they could only talk if they were in the game together. The giant creature pulled its muzzle out of the wall and what was left of Kelly's lifeless torso fell to the ground with a splat. The creature shook its head from being stunned, saw the morsel in front of it, and scooped it up into its paws and started to chew on it.

Arnold felt that protective feeling he had felt before as his eyes watched his girlfriend being unceremoniously eaten in front of him. He knew it was pointless to attack with him only level one and the creature level ninety; but, he calmly walked over to the creature and took out his dull sword. He climbed up onto some of the debris the creature had broken from the wall, jumped up onto the bloody muzzle, and plunged his sword right into its eye.

The creature screeched from pain and didn't really suffer any damage. It was just blinded by something being stuck in its eye. It shook its head to try and dislodge the thing and Arnold was flung off and hit the ground and rolled for almost twenty feet. When he came to a stop, he had lost nearly all of his Vitality.

When Arnold stood up, the creature had given up trying to unblock its eye and started to eat Kelly's mulched legs. Arnold took out his bow and arrows and cast the level one spell Boost on it. It gave him an extra twenty-five percent to hit, on top of his bonuses for having a high Accuracy. He was still only level one, though. When he shot an arrow into the creature's other eye, not only didn't it do any damage, it actually bounced off.

Arnold thought about hiding inside the hole that the creature had made in the wall, then realized there wouldn't be much point. He stored the bow and arrows and took out a short sword in one hand and a dagger in the other.

' Dual Wielding Weapons is a Rogue Class skill (Level 10) and is not available. '

The dagger disappeared and Arnold shrugged as he walked over to the creature. He knew where the most vulnerable places were on animals, since he had studied so much about them, and he climbed onto the creature's back and used the short sword to poke and prod the thing all over.

It didn't notice what Arnold was doing and finished its meal, then it licked up as much of the blood as it could. It turned around to look for the other bit of food it had seen and all the hairs on its back stood up. It knew it was in danger of some kind and whirled around to look behind itself. Nothing was there and it still felt threatened. It took one cautious step and felt a sharp and burning pain near its rear leg, right at the side of its crotch.

The creature let out another screech from the pain it had never felt before, and it tried to run and jump away. It's Vitality dropped to half as the short sword dug into its innards. Arnold had tied the sword to its own leg and let the creature hurt itself when it moved. With a large grievous wound torn on its underside, the creature collapsed and started to bleed out.

“It looks like I have my first specimen.” Arnold said and took out the dagger.