Mad Thunder

"But what a coincidence meeting you here," said the "Little Brat" whose player tag exposed the words Mad Thunder. He wore gear that made it obvious that he was a Berserker.

Of course Xu Chao knew he would meet him here sometime, but he thought that Mad Thunder would still be out grinding monsters.

"What are you doing?" asked Xu Chao while walking towards Mad Thunder.

"I got a Silver-ranked quest from the Village Chief to exterminate a wolf that killed his child and he couldn't retaliate. He's been grieving ever since," said Mad Thunder, who had just about finished his preparations and was about to head out.

'Oh, I do remember him getting a quest that helped him get ahead of others,' thought Xu Chao.

"Can I join you on your quest?"

"If you aren't afraid to die, you are a blacksmith after all. The enemy isn't weak."

After hearing those words, Xu Chao thought, 'I was still considered a decent fighter in the future and I have seven more years of experience than most people. I should be fine.'

"I assure you I won't die that easily," said Xu Chao while showing off the fact that he was at least level 1, which was still much better than a good majority of players.

"Alright, I'll share the quest information so join my party."

Quest: [A Pesky Wolf] (Silver)

Objective: Kill the level 4 Elite Forest Wolf that has been causing trouble for [Red Rock Village] (0/1).

Reward: 2500 EXP, 5 Silver Coins, and 1 ??? equipment

Monsters could also be separated into several tiers. Most monsters were without any labels but some were considered Elite, which meant that they were stronger than those from the same species. There were also Named Monsters, which could learn and grow much faster than normal, and Unique Monsters, which were either extremely rare or one of a kind. You could even get Unique-Named Monsters which were mostly eliminated as soon as they were found, for fear of them growing stronger.

There are some tales of madmen parties finding a Unique-Named monster, like a rare slime, and training it until it became unstoppable for the majority of players and a large guild had to intervene and still suffer large casualties.

"It would be safer for you to level up once more and get some more gear," said Mad Thunder while dragging Xu Chao off along with him.

"I'd like to sit in the front of the bus," said Xu Chao

"I can kick you out of the party and force you to work instead."

There were two ways experience sharing worked. If you weren't in a party, you would get half of the experience based on the percentage of damage you dealt, and the other half would be given to you as long as you damaged the enemy and stayed close enough. If you were in a party, the experience would just be given fully to everyone.

"Fine, I'll work. What are we farming?"

"Let's get some more quests first and then grind."

Quest: [Monster Hunting 1] (Common)

Objective: Kill 30 Rabbits (0/30), 45 Stone Rats (0/45), and 60 Breeze Birds (0/60)

Reward: 1000 EXP and 1 Silver Coin

Quest: [Bird Exterminator] (Common)

Objective: Kill 30 Breeze Birds (0/30)

Reward: 500 EXP and 75 Copper Coins

"Wow, those are some juicy quests," said Xu Chao after seeing the rewards.

"Yup."

After breezing through the Rabbits and Stone Rats, because they could easily individually kill them and count for both of their quests since they were in a party, they went to the forest where screeching noises could be heard.

"Okay, the birds will dive bomb you every once in a while and will shoot wind blades at you while resting in the air, so you have to wait. They can also shoot the blades as a distraction and attack you, " explained Mad Thunder as he had already fought with them.

Suddenly, 12 crescent-shaped blades appeared, glowing green, and slashed through the air. 3 red birds also appeared and dove at the pair.

Mad Thunder quickly threw a rock he had in his hand and hit one of the birds in the eye, causing the bird to momentarily stop and slowly fall down. He then slashed away 4 wind blades and slammed his axe forward, striking a different bird. When the next wind blade came at him, he parried the shot and launched it into the already injured bird, causing it to fall to the ground. While the other bird was still regaining its focus from the rock attack, Mad Thunder finished off the bird on the ground.

In the meanwhile, Xu Chao had dodged all of the wind blades aimed at him and hit the one bird which went after him. He then punched its head, knocking the bird into the ground and stabbed and slashed it a few times to finish it off.

Mad Thunder had already gotten rid of the other grounded bird by the time Xu Chao had finished up.

"How was I?" asked Xu Chao who was looking for approval.

"You're alright. At the very least, it won't be detrimental to me keeping you here."

Keeping that style of fighting, they easily killed the birds and finished the [Bird Exterminator]. After killing a few more Breeze Birds, Xu Chao leveled up and once again invested all of his Stat Points into Strength. They also replaced some gear and were doing fine until one bird screeched, causing 17 Breeze Birds to arrive. A cluster of blades instantly filled the limited space.

"Are you alright!" yelled Mad Thunder out of concern for Xu Chao. Personally, Mad Thunder was dodging and blocking everything perfectly fine.

"Nope! I've lost more than 1/5 of my HP already!"

"Well, the blades are almost over, so take as many as you can down before their cooldown ends!"

Mad Thunder managed to hit 5 Breeze Birds with some well-timed swings and finished them off while Xu Chao managed to kill 2 Breeze Birds and injure another while eating some bread to regain his HP.

"Would be really nice if we had a ranged class right now. Do you know anyone whose nearby and can help us later?" asked Xu Chao, annoyed.

"Nope, so just keep throwing those rocks and slowly knock them down," said Mad Thunder who had managed to get one to the ground and then killed it.

"Since we're still doing this, I'm going to ask some questions. Have they set up the chatting channel yet?"

In Mystic Realm, the chat was separated into many different sections which allowed people to talk to people in specific areas or globally. They could also create private channels without a limit on the number of players. This resulted in the Experts of the game to invite everyone they wanted into a specific channel so they could more effectively get their information and not deal with spam or other such things that may happen in public chats. They also made separate sections in the chat for different topics.

"They said they're setting that up a few hours after the game's release, but now's not the time for that, you're still hurt right?"

"Well with the reduced number, I should be fine. I also had my bread which regens my HP."

"Alright, well get ready because they're shooting off already."

Mad Thunder repeated his dodging and parrying once more and finished off 6 more birds with the significantly less number of blades while Xu Chao managed to get into the rhythm of things and finish off the remaining numbers.

"And we still need to kill one more Breeze Bird, that's annoying."

"Just think of it as extra loot and experience."

After that, they finished off the quest and Mad Thunder leveled up to level 3.

"Hey, I'm ranked 84th Globally for levels! That's pretty good," said Mad Thunder after looking at the leaderboards.

"How do you people grind so quickly?"

"I don't know, I just do it naturally. Spam quests maybe?"

Through their grind, Xu Chao got one piece of equipment to wear while Mad Thunder got lucky and managed to get a level 3 Bronze piece of equipment.

[Feathery Pants] (Common)

Requirements: Level 2

Defense +5

Durability: 8/10

Description: Do you think this would be effective for tickling?

[Wind Chestpiece] (Bronze)

Requirements: Level 3

Defense +11

Strength +2

Endurance +1

Durability: 50/50

Description: Armor made from Wind Blades, forged into one piece.

"You ready to fight the boss?"

"Yup."

They both sprinted to the dot placed on the map and found a 3-meter tall dark green wolf sleeping in a cave.

"Its aggro range should be around a meter from here so rush in when I signal."

"Now!"

Xu Chao quickly launched a strike before the Forest Wolf could awaken itself fully and Mad Thunder followed shortly afterward.

-14, -17.

"Wow, that did barely anything."

[Forest Wolf] (Elite)

Level 4

HP: 1469/1500

"Howl!"

"Did it just lower our attack and defense by 10 percent!" exclaimed a surprised Xu Chao

"Yup, so it's going to be even more annoying to kill it. Oh yeah, did I tell you that in Mystic Realm, monsters regen 1% of its HP every 10 seconds, at least when aggroed?"

"I already knew that!"

"Okay, just making sure."

After that brief chat, the Forest Wolf launched a swipe at Xu Chao and he could only move part of his body away in time.

-46.