Sugar to a Bitter Step

Luckily, just as I came up with my plan, the ghost ran out of weapons to lodge at us momentarily and was gathering everything again. As it did so, I stood up and turned around to face it. With my back facing the other members of my unit, I told them the gist of my plan.

"From this point out, I'm going to be a little bit selfish. I'm going to give it everything I got. My goal won't be on protecting you both, but to kill the ghost. If protecting you inconveniences me at all at any point, I simply won't do it."

"B-but that's your job! If you don't protect us with everything you've got, We'll all die!" Box cried out.

I looked back at him with a devilish grin and said "Then you guys better make up for your subpar tank! Maybe if you all stay real close to me, my instincts will kick in to help once in a while."

As I made another dash to the ghost, the two were close behind me. I was half joking when I told them to stay close to me, but I guess this works. If there's anything that I've noticed about the Bloodfallen class, is that every aspect of it encourages the player to attack. Even the passive skill entices the player to try and do as much damage as possible.

So in that case, why don't I do just that? I'll prove here and now that Bloodfallen isn't a tank with DPS-like elements, but a DPS with tank-like elements!

I got within melee range of the ghost and began hitting it with a barrage of attacks. The ghost retaliated by dodging some, but he couldn't dodge them all. While I was busy hitting brawling with him, he attempted to send multiple weapons flying towards Rose, but Box used his speed to shield her from it. From that point onwards during the fight, Rose stuck to healing to Box more, which I was completely okay with. With this our playstyle consisted of me doing a considerable amount of damage, Box, who was second to me in damage, and Rose, who was barely but surely keeping Box alive.

It took a while, but after half an hour, we finally ended up killing the ghost. As I delivered the final blow, the ghost face puffed up. That's when I realized his entire body was bloating as well. A blue aura starting to surrounded it that enveloped the entire room with light.

I tried scanning the room for possible solutions to our problem. Are there any shields in the area I could use? There isn't! What about the tables?

Even if we were to use every table in this hall to brace ourselves, I don't know if it'll be enough to survive this explosion! Damn it! I don't have a single skill that could save us from this! This may be it!

"Ian. Now's a better time than ever to tell you...I think we should break up." Rose dropped to her knees.

"You say that every other week! We'll make it out of here just fine-"

"No...I can't do this anymore!" Tears began to fall down her cheeks. "I entertained your dangerous ideas over and over again to come up with our rent, but this is too far! We're going to die! So before we do, I'll make it clear here. We are through-"

That's when Aegis stepped in between us and brandished a watch he had on his wrist. It looked like an expensive gold watch. I guess he was able to find it among the dead bodies.

Aegis simply presented his watch to the ghost as it began its explosion. It erupted in a brilliant chain of blue explosions that engulf the room. It engulfed everything except for the area around us. This must be the work of his red item. So it's just a shield? That's not that special.

"My red item is called Shapios. It's not just any other shield. It's an invisible shield that shapes itself to my will." As the explosion finished and the smoke around us cleared, he explained his item.

"Don't you think you've done enough explaining today?"

"Sorry. I spend a tad bit too much time on this game and I don't really have that much people to chat about lore stuff with. Speaking about having someone..."

Aegis looked over to Box and Rose. The two didn't even want to make eye contact with each other. Aegis put his arms around the two, pulled them close, and said "Don't give up on each other. Rose, Box is trying his best with his current skillset to provide for you IRL. I understand if you want to quit the game, but at least give him another chance."

"I promise I won't force you into these type of things anymore! You can handle our financial situation your way-"

"You don't need to explain yourself, I understand how hard it is. Let's just talk about it when we log off, ok?"

Now that I think about it, this is a good chance to show the paladin salaryman up. Besides, I'm all about adding value to my death.

"If you guys need money so bad, I can send you guys a million."

...

"You're joking." Box said.

"Why would I joke about that?" I snapped.

"THANK YOUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU!" The couple got on their knees and prostrated before me.

"It's not that big of a deal. G-GET UP!" I almost started kicking as they began to kiss my shoes.

Once the two made up, we exited the manor and notified the butler that we got rid of the ghost on the way out. He legitimately wore a face of shock. It was as if he thought we were going to die there. I don't blame him. We almost met his expectations.

As we walked down the steps back into the lower reach, the atmosphere of the group gave off a different vibe than the one we had when climbing the steps. This time, Box and Rose were walking in front of us, completely silent. In order to distract ourselves from the awkward atmosphere, Aegis asked me about what happened back at the manor.

"So you decided to be selfish after all? It may have worked for you for the most part, but your unit members will pay the price if you don't do proper tanking."

"But here's the thing: you can't have too much of one thing. Selflessness could become a flaw. If your willing to put your life on the line at any given point, you'll die before doing anything noteworthy. That's why you need a little bit of both to be a good tank. Besides, Bloodfallen isn't a traditional tank. In fact, I would call it more of a DPS with tank-like elements."

Aegis stopped in his tracks and when I noticed, I looked at him to find a look of surprise on his face. That's when he facepalm and laughed as if he found the answer to something obvious.

"Now that I think about it, I guess you're onto something. I'll tell you what: I'll acknowledge your skill as a tank if you invest in a shield. It couldn't hurt to have one. I'll even pay for it!"

"You're being awfully nice all of a sudden..."

"Don't you remember? That's my whole shtick!" He gave me a smile as we began walking down the steps to reach the lower reach.

===

"50 gold!"

"I said 100 gold. Did you really try cutting the price in half? I run a business, not a charity. I should charge you double for that."

After we got our reward from the guild for completing the quest, Aegis took me to a blacksmith and we did a bit of looking around. The blacksmith had all kinds of weapons and armor of all types of quality. When we began to look at the shields, we found a silver one that had extraordinary defense. It had the quality of a purple item. Apparently humans can only craft up to purple items. Red and yellow items can only be found in the world or crafted by demons. Aegis saw the shield's potential and began haggling the blacksmith for it. He had a large scar over his right eye and a mean look to him. It was very obvious that he wasn't going to budge.

"You guys are gonna take forever. I'll just help pitch in halfway. 50-50. Sounds good?"

"No, I got it! I will find you out of town and murder you myself if you spend any money on this shield!"

"Jokes on you, I'm into that." As Aegis and I butted heads, he gritted his teeth in frustration while I showed a fierce smile.

I ended up letting him pay for it and on our way to the guild hall, Aegis grabbed my attention by asking a question.

"I need to chat with you about something."

"Go ahead."

"I've been searching for people to rerun the forest of beginnings' Demon General, Anya of Solitude. I've been looking for willing DPS heroes, but everyone wants to take the easy route of questing. I'm certain now that Lucia recommended me to you because she knew of the potential of the Bloodfallen class. She knew that it had the capability of filling the DPS role. So I'll ask you: could you please play the second DPS when we do the rerun?"

I'm assuming that reruns are just demon general battles but you're able to fight the demon general again. The me from not even a couple of days ago would go headfirst into that kind of battle hoping for my death to come. But something changed in me ever so slightly. I found myself fantasizing once of a specific scene: Lucia calling out to me saying "Matthew, I need you," me rushing to her side, and the two of us preparing for whatever challenge lies ahead of us. But does a parent-killer like me even deserve to dream? Regardless, if I can become a high-profile member of Diligence, I'm certain that'll bring more value to my death than where I am now. This is a good offer that I'll take.

"Sure thing. Where should I start to get prepared?"

"The shield I bought you is efficient up to level 10. Level 10 is best, so just keep grinding to get there."

I looked at my level and realized that I just leveled up to level eight. I was even a third of the way to level nine. It's crazy how much I leveled up from just one fight. I'm confused on the sudden spike, but thankful for it nonetheless. Aegis could see how confused I was getting and explained.

"At first, the ghost was a level three quest that would give a tenth of the XP to level. Due to the amount of heroes dying to it, it jumped all the way to level eleven. Because it was dishing out the XP for level eleven, you got the XP that a level eleven hero would get for completing the quest. You still need two more levels though. Monster-hunting is great and all, but the best way to level up in a short amount of time is-"

"Questing!" Faye popped in front of the two of us and I groaned loudly.

"Don't you worry, Aegis! I'll make sure that he's properly leveled in a week's time! I'll also make sure he understands all the fun that comes with questing!" Faye saluted the Paladin.

"I appreciate it, Fairy!" Aegis saluted back.

I don't really fear anything in this world or the one I came from. I don't even fear death. But one thing that certainly doesn't sound fun to me is questing.