Chapter 8 - 8

Cain exits first, sword at the ready, but Golems away. Use of combat skills is prohibited in the city. The others aren't there, the only person around is the man who helped power level him in the first dungeon.

"Rough day was it?" The man chuckles. Don't worry, it's safe to come out. The Start From Zero Guild cleared everything up, but you and your friend might be a little famous for a while." He laughs.

Cain motions back that it's safe for Misha to exit and turns back to talk to the friendly adventurer. "So what happened?"

"They were caught instantly by a Start From Zero Guild member when they exited. He called in his guild to subdue them. Their policy is to take everything, gear, inventory and even coin, they loot criminals dry and then turn them in for reward, making them start all over without even a place to stay. They're a big guild, you'll find them almost everywhere." The guy chuckles at the memory.

"The Joop42 guy tried to say you attacked them and stole a Grade A aura book from them, but all three were Red Flagged as the aggressors. But that means a lot of people know one of you got a spell book today, even if they don't believe it was Grade A" Cain curses under his breath and Misha sighs softly.

"Well, maybe we can keep clearing it just the two of us?" Misha suggests "That way we don't need to worry about getting turned on in the dungeon again?"

"Why don't we sit and talk? I've got a suggestion, if you two are game?" The big man suggests, pointing towards an empty coffee shop.

Grabbing coffees and snacks, they all had to a back corner both, well away from the doors. "I'm Cixelcid, but you can call me Cid." He smiles, knowing he got taken in by the gamer tag trap.

"Misha and Cain" Misha responds helpfully making him laugh at their very normal names.

"Have you told her about your aura?" Cain shakes his head and motions for him to continue.

"Well, Cain here has an EXP buff granted by his class, I was with him when he first grouped and found out it existed. Now, if your party members are to be believed, Misha got the damage reduction aura?"

"So that's why we leveled up so fast" Misha says to herself, nodding that she got the aura.

"I'd like to take you both on a few runs with my guild mates. You met the rogue, Stubby and then there's a Succubus species Sorceress named Lickity. Both are crafters by preference, but the higher end crafting abilities are level locked, so I'm going to power level them to 20, and it would be great if you could help."

"I don't see why not. You helped me when you found out my ability, and didn't try to be a douchebag." Cain smiles.

"Excellent. Just, um, try not to speak about Lickity's outfit. You two might not know, as you're fairly new here and haven't tried on much, but the transfers are cursed to only use class specific items"

"Yeah, I tried wearing pants and a hoodie and I physically couldn't put them on" Misha says. "Something stopped me"

"Good, you understand then. A Succubus species clothing options are all leather and lace, pretty scandalous. The Sorceress class gets a bit more clothing than most, but she's sensitive about it and makes herself the least revealing options."

Cain can only imagine what she might be suffering, most game systems have Succubus as a borderline R18 option. And she has to live with only those clothing options.

"So she's a tailor? I've got a bunch of materials to make an upgraded robe, but couldn't find one in town" Misha is getting excited.

"We can talk to her, I'm sure she'll help out between runs." Cid assures her "Myself I picked what everyone calls the blood tank. The vampire race gets 3 percent of their damage back as healing, and I picked berserker class, which can also get healing on damage, at a random chance on hit. It's a DPS class without defensive skills, but if you luck out and get a book or two you can do it well."

"You picked a Surprisingly sensible combination" Cain laughs. "Who does that in the situation we were in?"

"It's my favorite combination. Self healing dps class. Plus, I was drunk and thought I'd bought a new game"

Cain is almost in tears at this point "That's exactly what happened to me. But I thought random character creation was a Gatcha spin and then couldn't turn back"

"Is that why you're so big?" Misha asks curious. "The berserker class?"

"Yup, not every species can take the class, but the ones that can they're always huge. This is nearly minimum size for a vampire berserker, as vampire race increases your height."

"At least it didn't make you drink only blood or burn in the sunlight" Cain chuckles.

"I get a debuff in direct sunlight" Cid shrugs, "But there's no blood requirement, thankfully"

"So you're good to meet the group in the morning?" Cid asks and they both shake his hand. "Great, see you here just after first light. With luck we can do two in a day, I'm level 34 now, and my damage is high"

"Sounds good. I'm up to 4 little Golems and a big one now that I've made level 20"

"The Sorceress gets a crow, it's not much use, just scouts around, but it counts as a construct, so it should activate your ability"

"Care to explain this ability?" Misha asks once Cid is gone, so Cain turns off hidden and lets her see the buff notification.

"20 percent for every party member and construct? That's insane. At the higher levels you'll have a small army, and they'll all buff you."

"Not just me. Everyone in the party. This seems to be the speed run companion class." Cain smiles, looking forward to tomorrow.. 220 percent bonus experience is going to rock.