There wasn’t much to say about the battle between the players and the mountain bandits, it could basically be summed up to ranged-attacking players launching an unstoppable barrage towards them.
Even if the mages that had just enough time to put up a magic shield and survived the flurry of spells the players had cast, they would still die from a Backstab by the players who had reclassed into Shadow Rogues.
Of course, the players didn’t come out of it completely unscathed, an unlucky Shadow Rogue couldn’t help his curiosity while he used his Backstab ability and aimed right at the mage’s chocobo’s ass. The kick he received left him more than just a little scarred.
After all, if we were comparing leg strength alone, these monsters that donned the appearance of cute birds were multiple times stronger than a horse on Earth.
The dumbest thing was that after the guy was sent flying, he was clutching at his stomach not in pain, but in laughter. “F*ck, so b*ttholes aren’t weak points?”
The other players laughed at the situation as well.
“Hahaha, you only found that out now?”
“I already knew that.”
“But I think attacking the balls counts as a weak point attack, it shows red damage.”
“What the heck are you guys doing up there…”
“Why do you all sound so experienced?”
Seeing the players react in such an unprecedented manner, the mages that survived and wanted to take out the heavily damaged player backed off, fearing that the group of maniacs might still have some tricks up their sleeves, hurriedly hobbling away on their half-dead chocobos hoping to flee.
But of course, they were wiped out when the other players with movement abilities rushed towards them all at once.
After the fight was over, Jom and Terry both let out breaths they had been holding since their battles had first begun, slumping down into the snow-covered ground.
While players were in still in combat they had the help of the Rule of Skill, it didn’t matter how badly you were hurt or if you lost a couple limbs, as long as you still had a drop of health left in your health bar you could continue fighting as if you were completely fine, but situations like these were incredibly mentally taxing, so after leaving combat, it was naturally that they felt like they were completely wrung dry of energy.
“Whew, it’s a good thing Mr. Edward and the rest of the players made it here in time, if not we’d really have to wait the whole three days to revive.” Jom downed an entire health potion in one go, the carbon dioxide and sugar entering his system left him shuddering, he was starting to feel a little better.
“But is this really okay?” Terry’s voice sounded muddled, as if he was almost fast asleep and was starting to babble nonsense.
“What?” Jom’s mind was still foggy from fatigue.
“In your post earlier, you said that after the quest was complete, everything in the village would be up from grabs, right?”
“… Oh.”
After being reminded by Terry, Jom remembered, he did say something along those lines.
But back then the villagers had already left, who cared if the village was plundered clean, worst-case scenario they could just blame it on the mountain bandits. No the villagers had not only come back, they even helped out slightly, raiding their homes right after saving them didn’t feel quite right…
“Yo, you guys good?” Edward didn’t go with the others to clean up the battlefield (read: pick up drop items), and instead went over to Jom and Terry.
He glanced at the coke bottle on the ground and then back at the two boys. “Looks like I don’t need to worry.”
“Thank you, Mr. Edward, for coming over to help us.” Although the church of the God of Games didn’t currently have any sort of honor system, out of respect towards the earliest players and church believers, Jom thanked Edward sincerely.
“No need to thank me, I’m glad we made it in time. Remember to invite me along the next time you have quests like these.” Edward gestured with his hands.” Plus the mage enemies here are much weaker than the guys that attacked the frogmen village, it wasn’t that difficult…”
“It’s natural that we made it on time, we spent more than a few pennies to borrow that stingy Uncle Marni’s convoy.” Gou Dan shook his head from the side. “And while we were on the way here we used quite a few movement spells, one of the legs of the sled even broke off. I hope Uncle Marni won’t mind too much.”
“I can’t believe you’re making even more trouble for the old man…” Jessica sighed with her hand on her forehead. “He already has enough going on.”
“As long as we give Uncle Marni a cut of today’s spoils it’ll be fine,” Joe said excitedly, “Oh right, is this the village that you said we could loot.”
Jom went pale when Joe mentioned their reward.
He was cracking his head thinking of how he could make everyone happy in this situation.
Edward and the others didn’t notice Jom’s expression and continued chatting. Well, even if they did notice, they didn’t pay it any mind, probably just assuming that he hadn’t recovered from their previous battle yet.
Jessica: “Come to think of it, did Uncle Marni not come?”
Gou Dan: “When I borrowed the carriage from him at the Gray Fjord Point he was busy being dragged underwater by a man-eating Cameroceras.”
Joe: “And you stood by and watched?”
Gou Dan: “I wanted to save him, but the problem is I can’t swim, my arrows couldn’t reach him either. Plus, after I told him the amount we were paying him, he just gave me a satisfied look and a thumbs up while he slowly sank into the sea, his body covered in tentacles.”
Edward: “…”
Even Jom felt bad for Marni.
The villagers started to gather closer to them, but after the insane showcase of power the players just gave, they were a little terrified of them, making sure to keep their distance.
If this went on, something bad was definitely going to happen.
It wasn’t that Jom doubted his players’ integrity. After all, most of them came from pitiful beginnings themselves. They often extended their kindness to those in need, and when compared to the lives of the villagers, the players were definitely much more well off, if you actually placed these villagers’ items in front of the players they would most likely decline.
But collecting rewards after quests was what players were used to, even getting some garbage was better than getting nothing at all.
The players didn’t have any ties to these villagers either, if one of the players started spouting something rude (a very likely occurrence) and caused the villagers to think they had come to raid them too, the war that would ensue would be inevitable. The fire that had just been ignited in the villagers would take some time to cool off, and the players looked like they hadn’t had enough yet too.
If the two sides were to fight, the extremely under-leveled and poorly equipped villagers would definitely be wiped clean off of the face of the planet.
If one wrong word from him caused an entire village to be decimated, Jom wouldn’t be able to live with himself.
Then, Jom saw a chocobo surviving on its last breath, inspiration struck him.
“Wait a minute, Mr. Edward, what do you think of those chocobos just now?” Jom asked.
“What do you mean?” Edward didn’t understand what Jom was implying.
“What I’m saying is, If I could get you a herd of well-trained chocobos, what are your thoughts?” Jom persuaded.
“Chocobos, huh…” Thinking about having a mount, and the insane kicking power a chocobo had at just Level 8, Edward was definitely swayed.