Chapter 258: Weak Spot

Chapter 258: Weak Spot

Ill keep them focused on me. Try to find their weak spot, okay? Aegis asked Lina, and turned to see her nod back hesitantly. Despite her change in demeanor, he could still see the fear in her eyes. Hey, its okay - I wont let them hurt you. Aegis tried to reassure her, and she nodded back again, with slightly more confidence.

As the creatures closed in, both of their tails reared back and their fanged maws opened wide, smiling at Aegis with their uncomfortably circular eyes. Once close enough to strike him, Lina shadow stepped away into the shade of the trees around them and Aegis jumped backwards, allowing the tails to pierce into the forest floor and melting small acidic craters into the dirt upon impact.

Lina reappeared around them in several different spots, striking at them with her mithral daggers. Aegis could see them getting distracted by her movements and losing interest in him, so he lunged forward and bashed one in the head with his shield.

Challenging roar! He shouted, though not thinking itd do much to get their attention due to the enemies being elite. It did have some effect, though, as despite being stabbed on various parts of its body, the female sounding one ignored the strikes in favor of swiping at Aegis with its claws while the one hed shield bashed on the nose retaliated by chomping out at him. He avoided both of their strikes with great difficulty.

Their bellies are taking extra damage. I am dealing a lot of damage to them. Lina called out as Aegis was forced to block the chomp with his shield, and the swipes with his guard.

You take 14,332 Slashing damage.

You take 15,193 Slashing damage.

You take 12,775 Piercing damage.

Greater heal. Aura of Healing. Aura of Beauty. He called out quickly after blocking the strikes, casting the heal on himself while erupting his auras outward from the heels of his feet, both of which easily encapsulating Lina and granting her the effects. Good, keep it up, Ill try to handle their attacks. Aegis said in response to Lina.

Shadow Dance! She cast a familiar spell to Aegis. She began rapidly teleporting around the manticores and striking at their stomachs - anytime one looked to be drawn to her movements, she swapped targets. Still, not fast enough to completely avoid them as one managed to eventually predict one of her jumps and sting its tail out at her. Aegis reacted by projecting his shield in front to absorb the blow with the protection, however.

You take 10,932 Piercing damage.

You take 5,989 Acid damage.

Jeez. Aegis groaned while quickly healing himself. I thought, given how much weve trained with each other on PvP movement, that monsters would become a joke. Not only are these things incredibly fast, but theyre keeping up with our movements too. Aegis commented in disbelief as he was forced to dodge and block several more strikes.

Well Lina began replying, but paused as she jumped around. Her voice started coming from random directions, echoing off the trees as she rapidly teleported mid-response. Monsters in this game have stats like ours, and in higher levels they begin to scale to superhuman levels. That is why the majority of players who handle higher level content need to do it in a group. In addition, dont forget that they are AI that are a part of the game in which we are inputting commands. The AI can cheat a bit and read our input, making it easier for them to predict what we are going to do next and react to it.

Ah. Yeah. I guess that makes sense. Aegis nodded as he pondered her words. Tch. Cheating creeps. Aegis shook his head disappointedly at the Manticores.

I aint no cheat, partner. The second Manticore replied in his heavy southern accent.

Sure you arent buddy. Aegis grumbled back at the beast as it swiped its claws at him with incredible speed. Still, to keep up with shadow dance isnt that the fastest movement possible in the game? Aegis asked, trying to confirm something hed researched.

Mhm. I mean, Im not fully buffed, so I could still go faster. Lina replied.

Could we fully buff you? Aegis asked curiously.

Nope. Need a bard and a support-type wizard, and some elixirs. But this is okay for these guys. Lina replied.

Got it. Aegis replied, nonchalantly dodging another tail strike. It took a bit of time, but eventually he fell into a rhythm of dodging their strikes when he needed to, and once hed done that, he began blocking their strikes on purpose. After 10 minutes of fighting, the two Manticores went down due to Linas massive damage output on them.

Level Up! Shield Mastery has reached Level 156!

Level Up! Greater Heal has reached Level 153!

Level Up! Leather Armor Proficiency has reached Level 152!

Level Up! Aura of Healing has reached Level 152!

Level Up! Aura of Beauty has reached Level 152!

Almerak Manticore x2 Slain!

You gain 1,125,730 Experience!

Damn, Quinn wasnt joking. Those two alone granted about 5% of a level Aegis said with wide eyes as he looked at the notifications that had popped up in his peripheral vision.

Mhm. Now imagine we had a small guild helping us killing them, and letting us get all the experience for ourselves. Lina replied with a smile as she eyed a pair of item orbs that rolled out of the bodies of the Manticores.

I guess thats how Feng and Makaroth are the highest levels in the game, huh? Aegis asked, with no attempt to hide the resentment in his voice.

Yeah Lina answered weakly. Aegis walked over the orbs and tapped them as the pair watched two strange chunks of blue jagged stone pieces roll out.

Thatd be great, thanks. Aegis answered her with no hesitation, causing Pyri and Rakkan to chuckle.

One day. Someday, maybe, well be able to just have a nice, relaxing, easy going grinding session. Darkshot grumbled as he began eying the surrounding forest for more Manticore tracks.

Two hours later, long after the sun had set, a giant portion of the ruined forest had been decimated. A large, roughly 100 square meter area had been cleared of all trees and ruined structures. It was littered with craters of sizzling acid, and corpses of manticores.

At the very center of the clearing was Aegis and his party, eagerly sitting and standing in a circle. At the center of the circle was a pile of blue stone fragments, and the group was quickly shuffling through them.

Im missing 32. Anyone got 32? Darkshot asked.

Here. Lina pulled it from the pile and handed it to him.

Thanks. Darkshot replied excitedly as he took it from her and placed it in his pile of fragments. The group was each taking on a numbered range of fragments and were then attempting to puzzle them together, but it became clear after a short while that they were still missing a good number of them.

Do you think we need to kill more manticores? Rakkan asked as the group gave up for the time being and began adding the fragments to their inventories.

Nah, not likely. A lot of them didnt even drop a fragment. I bet some are just laying around the ruined buildings. Aegis replied.

Okay, Ill start searching. He answered with enthusiasm. In an instant, he created several echoes of himself and headed out of the clearing and back into the overgrown ruins.

Yeah, I think Im gonna take a break and get some rest before the match. Level 153 aint bad, right? Darkshot asked.

Nope. Thats not a bad idea though. Weve been going non stop for awhile now. Pyri replied while eying Aegis specifically. Once their eyes met, Aegis nodded along.

Alright, yeah. Im just gonna harvest all these manticores and cook them, then Ill take a rest. Aegis replied to her.

Good. Im going to hop out of the Simbox for a shower and a real meal, then. Pyri said as she began fidgeting around with her interface. A few seconds later, she vanished from the game world.

Later, Darkshot waved.

Cya tomorrow. Aegis answered.

Bye. Lina smiled, and Darkshot promptly logged out as well, leaving the pair alone. Should I make a campfire for you?

Thatd help, thanks. Aegis replied as he pulled his harvesting knife from his inventory and got to work on the manticores. He counted the corpses as he made his way around the clearing, totaling 83 that the group had slain. In the end, he managed to hit level 152 but was close enough to 153 that he was sure hed get it in the morning.

Level Up! Creature Harvesting has reached Level 157!

Once hed finished, he had several manticore flanks that he brought with him back to the campfire where Lina was seated on the remains of an acid-melted log, watching him curiously as he eyed the meat in his hands.

Its got really strong recovery properties, but I dont think its going to be easy to cook. Aegis said as he sat down on the log beside her without thinking. After hed pondered a few ideas on how to cook it, he handed the flanks to her to hold for him without speaking, and she took it with no complaints despite the gooey texture of the meat on her hands and the strange clear liquid dripping out of it. With his hands free, he took out his cooking tools and began setting them out around himself, near the fire.

By the time hed finished, the meat goop had covered her knees and hands, and she was looking down at her armor uncomfortably.

Oh, sorry, Aegis quickly took the meat away and placed it on a large cutting board that hed brought out of his inventory. I just made you hold it without thinking.

No, its okay. She smiled as she stood up and started wiping the goop off of her salamander leather leggings. Im happy

Youre happy I handed you goopy meat?

No She chuckled as she caught his awkward smile at her. Im happy you handed it to me without thinking. Like were a pair. My mom said that when you really like someone, you dont need to talk as much Lina explained herself, but as she did she got flustered from her own words.

Oh. Yeah Aegis awkwardly broke eye contact. I guess thats true. He turned away and began cutting the meat into smaller slices so that it'd fit on the tiny grill of his cooking toolkit that he had brought out. Weve been playing together for a few months now, so I guess I feel really comfortable around you. I trust you. But I shouldnt just plop goopy meat on you.

No its okay, you can plop your goopy meat on me whenever you want. She replied eagerly, but afterwards repeated the words to herself in her head as Aegis let out a chuckle. Ah, I mean She anxiously began to fidget as her face went bright red. Thats not what I meant. You know, I only meant, manticore meat is okay to give to me, definitely not the other thing. She continued, but Aegis lack of immediate response caused her to go over her words again. Ah, I didnt mean definitely not the other thing, though, because, well She got stumped and stopped talking, letting out a nervous sigh.

Hah, its okay I know what you meant. Aegis turned back and smiled at her, trying to reassuringly calm her down as he saw her cherry-red cheeks. She avoided eye-contact, though, and instead sat back down on the log and began fidgeting with her fingers. Once hed gotten over the cuteness of how shy she was, her words and what she was saying slowly sank in.

His eyes, almost against his own will, wandered down her body, following her female form as it was concealed in tightly fitting salamander leather armor. Her black hair, tied back in a pony-tail with the bangs hanging over the front of her face as it tilted downward. He paired this image of her beautiful avatar character with her real body, in the real world, which he thought equally beautiful, and suddenly his heart began to beat faster within his chest.

At the mere suggestion of it by Lina, hormones thatd been suppressed by Aegis due to his focus on his goals began to bubble up inside of him, and he quickly broke eye-contact from her to focus back on slicing the manticore meat, while breathing heavily for no particular reason.

Ooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooh. Hae-won let out an extremely long drawn out, whispered cheer as she watched Aegis expression intently through Shinjis camera work. Cmon Aegis, be a man! Hae-won shouted at the display of his livestream from within her broadcasting simulation, the chat zooming past her with random heart emojis.