024 Mana Crystal
James stood up and walked over to the snake together with Mercury.
Mercury took a wild guess about what half of the snake to attempt to loot.
* Ding *
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Loot Style: Party Leader Distribution
Loot:
40 silver coins
22 Snake Scales (Fine Quality)
2 Bolts of Snake Skin (Fine Quality)
1 Snake Fang
1 Average Mana Crystal
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Mercury's brow furled and she wiggled her nose with displeasure. "That's all? The snake was an elite"
Unlike Mercury, James was excited! [A mana crystal! I can finally overcharge my mana again! I can attempt to create more spells once again!]
"It is not all that bad, the crafting materials are of the [Fine] quality. We can earn a little more silver that way. The Fang can probably be crafted into some sort of dagger which could have the potential to start a bidding war since it came from a level 25 monster."
Mercury raised an eyebrow. "Oh? You left out the mana crystal. Are we not going to sell it?"
James's eyes darted around looking guilty.
Mercury put on a fake annoyed look and walked slowly over to James. She wanted to tease him some more.
She used the crook of the wing on the polearm's sigil to pull his head down once again.
She brought his face close to hers. Seeing her annoyed look made James sweat some.
"Well? What do you know?"
James stumbled over his words, "Well, ah, you see, about the crystal…"
Mercury got closer to his face, "Don't keep a girl waiting." She whispered into his ear.
James felt a shiver run down his back and he got right to the point. "I need the crystal"
Mercury was happy that he told the truth. She released his neck and James stood up straight.
"I don't know," she teased. "Mana Crystal, it sounds expensive. I don't think I can just give you something that may have a sky high price." she continued.
James felt desperate, he really needed that crystal. "You can have everything else the snake dropped. I only want the crystal, I believe that is a fair deal."
Mercury had an amused smile as she wrapped her one leg around James and wrapped one of her arms around his waist. "Hmmmm, I suppose I could let you have the crystal. She said in a sultry voice.
She put her other hand on his chest. "But first you have to tell me why it is so important to you." she continued.
James had a small blush on his face due to how close and intimate she was being. "It is for my class…" James said as if he was a child explaining why they wanted something to their parents.
Mercury giggled at his response. "That isn't very convincing, what makes it so important to your class?" She was now using a finger to draw circles on his chest.
James felt helpless against her flirting. "As my class's name vaguely suggests, I am able to create spells. I made those leeching spells; but to make more spells I need a lot of mana. The crystal can supply me with more mana."
She was VERY interested in what she heard. She stood up on her tippy-toes and wrapped her hands around his neck. "You made those spells?"
"Y.. Yes" James's heart was beating rapidly.
* Ding *
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Party leader has distributed the items,
Gained 1 Average Mana Crystal
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.
James was momentarily shocked. He was about to speak when Mercury started before him.
"Don't think that I'm giving you that for free. The cost is another great one. I know you are good for it.", she winked.
James blushed as she continued, "Now show me, show me how you craft spells."
James hesitated, "I… I can't right now."
Mercury showed obvious displeasure. "Why not?"
"Well, I need to learn more runes to create the spell I am working on. I have most of everything learned and planned but I am looking for something specific to complete it."
"Runes? Why would you need runes to make spells, don't they just enchant items?"
James paused for a moment before he started talking, "Well you are not wrong. They can be used to enchant items but in reality spells are made by creating spell matrices of different runes to create the desired effects."
Mercury did not speak, she just continued to look into James's eyes. It was as if she was reading his very soul to see if he was lying. She hopped off of James and spun around.
"Very well! I can wait. What spell are you currently planning to make?" She had determined that he was not lying to her.
James relaxed when she believed him. "Well, I want to improve the [Fireball] spell that I am currently using."
Mercury turned back to face James, she tilted her head slightly to the side in confusion. "It is just a beginner spell, why take the time and effort to improve it?"
"First and foremost, spells are very difficult to create. While there is seemingly no limit to what can be created there is. Runes, they are the foundation of spell matrices. I want to make the fireball explode on impact and if possible make it apply some sort of burning effect. The explosion should increase the damage greatly and change the spell to an area of effect attack. It would make farming normal monsters faster. The burn effect would further help with both single and multi-target battles."
Mercury tilted her head to the other side while she was thinking. "I think I understand what you are talking about. What do you need to learn?"
[Does that mean she wants to help me?] James wondered.
"I need to learn the rune or runes that make something explode or cause burning effects. One of my abilities let me see the runes and spell matrices of magic around me; that is how I can learn new runes. That is how I was able to see that your name was hidden."
Mercury thought about the topic some more then turned around and started to walk in the direction of where the wolf should have fallen.
James started to follow her. Instead of following directly behind her, he was walking right next to her. He was starting to feel more confident being around her.
She noticed this change. [Hmm, he seems to have started seeing himself as an equal rather than a captive. I was starting to worry that he was a beta.]
Not letting him get too comfortable, she turned to look at James. He looked back at her.
"I will help you find what you are looking for."
James smirked, "Let me guess, but it won't be cheap?"
Mercury had a smile on her face, this time it was not to tease him but was a genuine one. She was happy.
"You pick up fast. You are in quite a bit of debt to me. Can you still afford it?"
James was also smiling, "Hhumph, who do you think I am? I am the richest player in the game! I can afford any price!"
They were both laughing as they continued on their way to their prize.
They walked another ten minutes before they found what they were looking for. At the base of the cliff there was the humongous wolf corpse. Above the dead body was a timer.
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Despawn Timer
00:03:34 Remaining
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.
"Looks like we made it just in time" James made a quip.
Mercury only looked in his direction and rolled her eyes.
* Ding *
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Loot Style: Party Leader Distribution
Loot:
1 Gold coin and 20 Silver coins
8 Wolf Pelts (Rare Quality)
1 Head of the Guardian of the Forest (Party Quest Item, see the Huntsmen)
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Now they both were annoyed.
"What a ripoff!" they said at the same time.
Looking at one another they started to laugh.
"I may have been hanging around you too much" James laughed while clearing a tear from the edge of his eye.
"Get used to it! You'll be paying me back for quite some time!" she rebutted. "Nothing too special here so we will split it half and half."
James was unhappy at the split. "No, you caused it's death. I only had cast a needless spell; you would have been able to do that even if I did not interfere. Besides, I stole some of your experience. That is fair enough."
Mercury looked at James with squinted eyes. "This isn't going to help pay off your debt, you know."
"Not a worry. I plan on properly repaying it."
She took all the loot for herself like James proposed.
Seeing that she listened made James happy. "So now where are we going?"
Just as she was about to talk the duo heard a battle nearby. They both turned their attention to the sound off in the far distance.
James saw a devious smile form on Mercury's face. He felt cold chills from seeing it. It seemed like she was more bloodthirsty than the battle with the twins.
She was just about to take off running when James grabbed her arm. "Wait!"
"What!" She responded angrily.
"It might be an opportunity for me to see more spells and runes! Let's not jump right into a fight right away. It will be easier for me to learn that way."
She calmed down, "Humph! Fine, we will do as you say this time. You said [Let's] not jump into a fight, does that mean you plan on joining?"
"Naturally! We are a team right now!"
Mercury was lost in thought, [No one had been able to distract and stop my bloodlust since I became an Apostle of Apollo… Is this a good or bad thing?] She was looking James in the eyes during her inner monologue.
He started moving towards the battle. "Come on now! Now look who is falling behind!"
"Ha! You are one to talk! You can't just walk up to a fight like that, you have to be sneaky! If we are caught they might chase us off. Then you won't get to learn a thing! Follow my lead!"
She quickly got in front of James and showed him how to safely approach their prey.
They made it just outside of the battle zone. They climbed a tree nearby so that they could get a good view of the fight.
The first thing Mercury noticed was an assassin with red hair. "Scarlet is here!" she exclaimed.
"Who?" James was confused. He knew of the name due to the leaderboards but never saw her before.
"Scarlet! The assassin with red hair! She is an annoying wrench who doesn't know her place. She got nearly all of Oblivion to hunt me down!" Mercury said while obviously being annoyed.
"What? She had a whole guild hunt you down?" said James in a surprised voice.
"Yeah, they always failed in the end." She started to laugh. She continued with a tone with absolute disdain, "It was thanks to her and her mindless drones that I was able to easily complete my hidden class change quest."
"How did she do that?" James's interest was piqued.
"I had to kill thousands of players to complete it." She had to calm herself down before she continued. She was laughing so much she had tears in her eyes. "She and her guild accounted for most of the kills!"
"Wow she must be hateful if she spent so much time trying to mess with you."
"Absolutely, women are spiteful creatures. Men who have issues with one another can throw fists at one another one day then be best friends the next. Women on the other hand, hold grudges for a lifetime."
[Thank god I didn't provoke her then.] James thought to himself. "I guess we will have to get more revenge for you then!" James had a determined look in his eyes.
Mercury saw the look James had and felt flattered that someone would actively want to get involved with that would cause problems later down the road.
"Absolutely! But first, look to see if you can find what you are looking for; there are quite a few mages in the backlines." Mercury got into a comfortable sitting position and patiently waited.
She saw James's eyes turn into that breath-taking ocean teal color. She caught herself staring at James and turned away in embarrassment. She was relieved that James had not noticed. He was fully focused on the fight.
The guild was battling a giant bear. He looked closer at it and saw it was a violent monster. [She was not kidding about the difficulty of this kind of battle. We got lucky that we were able to cheese that wolf.
He took out the magic notebook that his Teacher gave him and started jotting down as many notes as he could. The notebook interested Mercury for a minute. She took a look at it's contents and saw it was filled with drawings of runes and all kinds of notes. She was not able to make heads or tails of any of it so she returned to just watching the fight.
They watched the fight for 30 minutes before James found what he was looking for. An [Earth Mage] had just casted a spell that was yet to be used in the fight yet. It looked powerful.
He shot out a boulder the size of a beach ball at the bear. Just before it was going to hit the bear it exploded and caused shrapnel to assault the bear.
"THER…." James had started to exclaim. Mercury had covered his mouth so that she could not talk any longer.
To cover his mouth she had moved behind him and her chest was pressed against his back. To prevent herself from falling off the branch she had wrapped one arm around his waist and used her free hand to cover his mouth.
"Shhh, do you want them to discover us? Scarlet would command everyone to stop their assault on the violent just so she could kill us." She spoke in a hushed tone.
Knowing that he almost screwed up he was grateful that Mercury stopped him from cheering too loudly.
Seeing that he had calmed down she removed her hand from his mouth.
"I'm sorry, I got too excited." James apologized.
"Don't worry about it too much, just do not forget for next time. Did you get everything you needed?"
It was James's turn to put on an evil smile. It had caught Mercury off-guard.
"What is with that evil smile?" questioned Mercury.
"I came up with an idea. You might find it fun." James spoke with a mysterious voice.
She was curious now, "What is your idea?"
"They are hunting powerful monsters, right?"
"Yeah, they are probably powerleveling Scarlet."
James chuckled evilly, "Follow me." James climbed down the treat and headed off in the direction that he guessed they would head next.
Mercury was very confused but jumped down anyway.
"Hey! This is not what we agreed on earlier. You said we would attack after you get what you needed. I disagree with thi..."
James had spun around without notice and put his hand over her mouth, "Now, now, now. Don't get too upset, you might alert them." James looked back to make sure that no one noticed them.
He took his hand off her mouth just to pull her closer to him by grabbing her waist and pulling her in.
Looking Mercury in the eyes he made a cryptic statement. "If they are trying to explosively increase Scarlet's level, why don't we help give them some explosive results.
After he finished talking he let Mercury's waist go and instead grabbed her by the hand and dragged her along. She was busy trying to figure out what he meant.