Accept!
Alex almost immediately accepted this request, he actually didn't expect it to come so soon!
"Oh wow," he mumbled as he turned his head toward Alice, just to see her grin.
"Your spells are good, Alex," she nodded, "I'm sure that with you, I should be able to snipe my enemies easily!"
"...Right," he nodded back.
Ding!
[Party has been formed!]
[2 members: FateBreaker and StarPillow!]
When inside of a party, the experience you get from killing monsters is distributed equally among the party members, whether they participate in the kill or not doesn't matter.
This would slow down Alex a bit, but he trusted Alice's abilities, and it didn't matter anyway, since he would soon enough be able to participate in the S-level quest.
Alice had died exactly two weeks after the launch of Universal Descent, but Alex was confident her abilities were good enough to survive if someone else was there with her.
The first attack of 'beasts' on the real world wasn't actually a real attack, it was quite literally only three novice monsters that entered the Starfield family's home and killed her since, well, powers from the game weren't transferred to reality yet.
The guards of the family immediately were able to kill all three monsters with guns, but it was too late, and thus Richard had become a full-time player of this game, abandoning even his business to become stronger.
Alice's mother had passed away when she was young, so Richard just wanted to avenge the only person he cared about, something Alex respected.
But, what would happen if Alice survived this encounter with monsters?
Alex planned to help, as an ally with an SS-level talent was greatly needed.
Fireball!
Alex suddenly cast a spell, hitting a [Wild Boar] that was behind Alice.
"Second time I save you, you owe me," Alex smiled.
"Heh... maybe some day," she chuckled.
Alex sent yet another Fireball, killing the wild boar.
[Killed level 3 Wild Boar, gained 12 experience points.]
And as expected, the only got half the experience, which meant that Alice got some of it too.
Star Shot!
Fwish! Boom!
The beauty shot her bow at a level 4 green snake who was trying to bite Alex, killing it instantly.
"Just for your information, I saw it," he smirked.
Eventually, Alex reached level 5, granting him more stats that he put into spirit.
He now had x2 [Poison Rings], which reduced poison effects by 10% and one [Bear Claw Dagger] that he got from the bears, he had picked those since they were the only good items.
"What the hell?" every time he got an item drop, Alice's face grew with more surprise than before, thinking: how the hell is he getting this many items?
Even when she asked Alex, all he would answer was "trust the process".
This continued for an hour, and by then Fireball had reached level 4 and Red Crystal level 3,
[Fireball Level 4; Deal 60 points of damage to target + 100% of spirit to target; consumes 10 mana; 3-second cooldown.]
[Red Crystal Level 3; Deals exactly 100 damage to target; consumes 15 mana; 5-second cooldown.]
At this very moment though, Alex finally saw it.
One of the trees looked slightly different than the others, and once he approached it, he saw an X engraved in the trunk by a blade.
"Found it," he smiled as he looked up, "Alright, Alice, let's do this!"
"???" she was confused as there was nothing in their surroundings but when she looked from Alex's, position her eyes widened: there was a small cabin in the tree, concealed in a way that you wouldn't see it except from this very precise angle.
Fwish!
Alex headed to the other side of the tree, and as expected, a ladder the color of the trunk was there, almost invisible.
He immediately took it, climbing and entering the cabin after a few seconds.
Alice quickly followed as she didn't want to be alone in the forest, and if Alex was this confident, then there was no reason to be scared.
She climbed up and opened the small trap door that served as an entrance, and once she opened her eyes to check out what was inside the wooden cabin.
All she saw was... a burly silver-skinned human holding her flank, blood pouring out from it as she coughed out blood too.
A magnificent golden mage staff was beside her, and she seemed in extremely bad shape.
Alex smiled as he saw this scene: this was the S-level secret quest of the novice village, he had actually found it!
Of course, he hadn't been the one to do it in his previous life, but knowing it now was also an advantage.
"Hello?" Alice was quite considerate for people, so she immediately tried to reach for the silver-skinned human.
"Don't approach me, fool," but she totally rejected her, grabbing her staff and pointing it toward her.
"What's your current reputation with the silver-skin?" Alex asked her with a wide smile on his face as she stepped back.
"Uh... 50, since I did the first quest," she titled her head, looking adorable.
"Yeah, I knew it."
And this time, once it was Alex who approached the silver-skinned girl, she actually let him pass, dropping her weapon on the ground.
"Player, I need your help," she said, panting.