Chapter 5

Grinding

All character do not belong to me, they belong to their rightful creators. :) Higuchi Tachibana-san is benevolent.

Experience points washed over the party after their thirtieth consecutive win against a pack of wolves. While the experience was not as much as it had been the first few bouts, it was still experience.

Mikan lifted her wand up in the air: "Cure." The healing wind she summoned circled around Kuroneko's character. His light wounds from the fight earlier had quickly mended, with his HP on the rise.

EagleEye's health happened to be several points off from his max, but it didn't mean he needed a healing spell. Cool_Blue_Sky had full health, mostly due to her hiding behind Kuroneko when she casted her spells.

It wasn't as if the girl was useless in battle. Far from it. Cool_Blue_Sky had offensive magic that affected the pack of beasts just as any sword, arrow, or bullet wound. The only ineffective one in this party happened to be Mikan, but healing took priority when their tank took the brunt of the damage.

Before they left Mydalr, they were merely level 6. Currently they just reached the cusp of leveling up to level 12. They only needed a few more battles with the wolves to bump them up to the next level. Their enemies were level 7, which made training difficult at first.

It was a team decision to decide not to use up and divide their skill points into the skill trees for their classes just yet. They wanted to get to level 13 before officially dropping points into skills. This actually gave them more time to get used to their character's powers and abilities before adding more on top of it.

EagleEye had finished gathering the hide material from the wolves pack they battled while Cool_Blue_Sky took the gold pieces to stash in the communal purse. They would split the earnings evenly once they were back into town. In the meantime, they would have one person in charge of items and the other in charge of money.

Mikan was deemed too clumsy to carry the money, as she lost over 100 gold coins over a cliff when she panicked over a wolf chasing her around in circles. This was the deciding factor on who they could trust to hold the money while out in enemy territory.

"We have about 31 swatches of hide from the wolves, 16 wolves teeth, about 2 tusks from a ferobear, 12 carrots, 4 oranges, 8 tomatoes, and plenty of raw meat." EagleEye organized the inventory before he also listed their other items. These were the typical items anyone would see in a RPG, like potions, hi-potions, and a few ethers.

Kuroneko's triangular ears twitched. He interrupted his friend with a quick reply. "There is something coming. 9-o,clock."

Mikan shifted her attention over to Kuroneko's left where a pack of three wolves jumped out. They were snarling, snapping their jaws to their company. Kuroneko jumped in front of the group, his cutlass out and gun displayed. He would have initiated the battle, but the wolves had the advantage.

Kuroneko missed his first attack, leaving Cool_Blue_Sky open for an attack. She had already started to cast a thunder spell, but was interrupted when the wolf tackled her. She held her arm up to block the wolf from biting her face off.

EagleEye had shot the arrow from the bow once the wolf tackled the young black mage. The arrow slammed into the wolf's eye as blood trickled down it's matted fur. Yelping in pain, the wolf bounced off of their mage, giving Kuroneko all the time he needed to dispatch the other two wolves with his sword.

Mikan looked over to Cool_Blue_Sky and noticed she had taken 14 points of damage from its attack. "Cure!" She raised her wand, and focused her healing art entirely upon Cool_Blue_Sky.

Before Kuroneko could deliver the finishing blow on the wolf attacking him, EagleEye swooped in for the kill. He aimed one of his powered up arrows, shooting one into the lunging chest of the wolf. A piercing cry from the wolf was all it took before the red HP bar whittled down to zero.

Mikan felt the rush of experience points flow through them and then she heard Yuu Tobita's voice in her head. Congratulations on making it to level 12! I've added some new tutorial combat books in your help menu feature. Mikan felt her console chime once again as three new pages popped up. Battle [Nighttime], Battle [Chained Boosts], Battle [After Battle Effects and Boosts].

"I've exhausted all my mana." Mikan replied in an exasperated voice. She found a log to collapse on. Her butt hurt when she landed, but the mental exhaustion lingered more than the physical pain.

"Eat this." Cool_Blue_Sky tossed Mikan an orange. A small description window popped up explaining the health benefits of the orange.

Orange

A sweet and tangy fruit refreshment. Heals up to 30 MP points after consumption.

Mikan peeled the skin off and sighed. This would be her fifth—scratch that—sixth orange that night. While RelicPetals seemed fine with the repetitious food, it didn't seem to have the same impact as the beef stew had.

"We covered all the side quests and trained up to level 12. Were you serious about training to level 15 Kuro?" EagleEye wiped the sweat from his face, waiting for the call from their tank. Kuroneko rolled his neck back and forth until he felt a soft pop. Then he went to stretch his shoulder.

"If we're good on supplies, we should keep training. The nighttime is good for active battling and experience boosts." Kuroneko wasn't wrong about the night time fighting. They learned if they continually had a successful battle and kept the chain going it would effectively boost their level.

The problem with this line of thought happened to be sleep, or lack thereof. Mikan finished her orange before tilting her head up to look at the night sky. "Can we just call it a night and pick this up in the morning? It's what—past 1 now?"

Cool_Blue_Sky chuckled at Mikan's response. "Are you not used to playing all night?"

Mikan sighed, "No, that's not it. I just feel like we should be fully rested for the next thing. The Earth Gemstone is all that we need, but what if there is a boss battle. You know these games have those types of things." She hoped logic would play a hand in their next course of action, but that was not to be the case.

"She's one of those gamers." Kuroneko replied in a disdainful voice, mostly to mock her from her previous statement about him. "Instead of trudging headfirst, she turns tail, runs back to save, sleeps in a tent, saves again, and then tackles the boss."

"Okay, fine I am that type but is it that wrong to play on the airs of caution?" Mikan retorted before shuffling her cat feet. What else was she supposed to do?

"Welcome to Origin, the game that doesn't care what style of gameplay you've done." Cool_Blue_Sky said with little to no emotion. "It will challenge you with endless hours of torture and fun."

"That is if you can figure out how to logout." EagleEye said and they all frowned. "You know, this is a terrible way to promote a game. I wonder what our parents would say."

Kuroneko smirked, "Sucks to be you?"

"Wow." Mikan replied to the black haired cat.

"My parents totally told me that." EagleEye answered truthfully. "Although it was because I missed the black Friday sale for the re-release of Vinyl Vantasy VII."

Cool_Blue_Sky had been tinkering with her menu console. Mikan ignored the two boys in the party and decided to see what she was up to. She looked over her shoulder and noticed she was on the Character Growth page. "Distributing points already?"

"Something like that. I was branching off my magic toward lightning and fire spells. Shouldn't you do that same?" Cool_Blue_Sky offered her a seat next to her on the log.

"Yeah I suppose you're right." Mikan tapped on her own Character growth page and noticed a slight increase in a majority of her stats. While she had lower physical points, she had fairly decent points in magic and wisdom.

"I can unlock an aero spell." Mikan smiled as she continued to set her points where she deemed it would be necessary. The last of her points remaining would either stack upon the next level up, or she could just spam one of her level 1 spells to get better potency.

The auburn cat look at her avatar's build and applauded her own efforts.

Their conversation about distributing points finally caught the attention of the two males. "Weren't we waiting until level 13?"

"We're level 12, and honestly six levels of backlog is tedious as it is." The girl with amethyst eyes glowered before closing her menu. "You may be used to distributing points left and right, but I'm not."

Mikan chuckled.

EagleEye waved off her concern. He tapped onto his menu before clicking rapidly on where his points were going to be placed. What took the girls 20 minutes, took him a mere 5 minutes. "Why don't we call it a night after we get the Earth Gemstone? We go into the cave, grab the stones we need, and by the time we're done we should be at our respective levels of 15. Hopefully."

The male feline Halfling shrugged. "As long as we're 15 before we leave Mydalr."

"That settles that." Cool_Blue_Sky said to Mikan, and the auburn could only agree to disagree.

They found the cave with relative ease. The monsters did not pose any real threat to the party after the group had hit level 14. Many of the monsters in the forest ranged from level 7-10. The only thing that happened to be near level 1-3 were the blue slime globs in the opposite direction.

Natsume had performed as the tank for the whole night, taking hit after hit while he trusted their healer to do her job. When she was low on MP, she actually announced that she was starting to get low. There were plenty of times on MMORPGs where he'd be playing online and their healer would forget to mention they were out of MP.

At least they had plenty of time to prepare since Petals had half a brain in strategic planning.

"Hey, I'm running low!" RelicPetals yelled over to EagleEye who brandished an arrow from his quiver. He pulled out a vial of glowing dust before sprinkling it on top of the head. It sparked up into a flame, and then he went to aim.

"Give me two clicks and a shot." He positioned the bow where his arrow aimed at the center mass of their intended target.

The intended target was none other than an angry Ferobear, larger than the typical ones they saw outside. There were two baby cubs behind it, but still attacking them when they got the chance.

Cool_Blue_Sky finished chanting her fire spell, unleashing a vortex of fire to appear beneath the first bear cub. It writhed as it made a critical. Fire damage happened to be this enemies weakness.

Natsume surged sword in hand, as he went to slash at the injured cub. The technical attack he made caused a critical to occur, and it's HP to drop below zero. It was in this moment that EagleEye changed his target to attack the other baby cub.

The Mama Ferobear roared in anger as it realized both of her cubs had just died. A burst of energy formed around the angry Ferobear, almost like a red aura, circled and encompassed the animal. RelicPetals was still waiting for that ether EagleEye promised, so she performed a quick scan while she waited.

She could see the details of the bear, but also its status effect. "Hey, guys this Ferobear is enraged. Attack power has doubled."

EagleEye tossed her that ether she had been waiting for and she chugged the contents down. She noticed her MP bar go significantly higher, but not maxed out. She still needed about 40 more mana to official cap out at max.

"How about its health?" EagleEye yelled as he brought out three arrows. He quickly laced it with his fire powder while Natsume yelled for Cool_Blue_Sky to support him with spells.

"It has about a quarter left. We can do this, let's go guys!" RelicPetals cheered out.

Natsume yelled over her cheer though. "Enough chit chat, focus your attacks on it before it unleashes it's fury swipe. Petals, primary focus on heals. Eagle, distract the enemy enough for Sky and I to attack it with fire. Ready—go!"

They moved in sync, Cool_Blue_Sky chanting an enhancement spell upon his cutlass. The sword glowed a crimson red as he readied for a series of slashes and strikes. When the spell was complete, she signaled to EagleEye. "You're turn Eagle!"

The blonde shot a series of fire volleys to the Ferobear and watched at it crunched down on its HP. It was mere moments away from having less than zero. Natsume took this opportunity to strike.

"Soaring Fire!"

The critical attack was enough to knock the Ferobear over, which led to the final drop of HP. The boss disappeared from sight, leaving only the materials and money behind. RelicPetals prepared her heals for Natsume, and then they continued to the far side of the cavern.

Glowing green and brown gemstones were discovered embedded in the wall. While they only needed one, they didn't know exactly which one would be good enough. Natsume could only prod and pick at the wall until they managed to get three decent sized gemstones.

"And that's a wrap." He replied and noticed the missed announcement from Yuu Tobita. Congratulations on reaching level 15! I've added Battles [Boss Battles] to your tutorial help menu.

"I feel like we have a cheerleader on our side. After every level up we get more knowledge and encouragement." EagleEye replied as he stared down at the chibi version of Yuu Tobita with its dialogue box.

The dialogue box disappeared and another notification popped up.

Main Quest 1: Report back to Mydalr, and hand over the three materials.

After a vicious battle with a Mama Ferobear and her two cubs, you and your party have finally obtained the last material you needed. You decided to get some well-deserved rest at the Inn. The Earth Gemstone, the Ferobear tusks, and Hides from the wolf now need to go to Vormud.

Natsume read the quest and imagined it being read aloud by Yuu Tobita. "The story line even sounds like he is typing it out himself."

RelicPetals pondered, "Well, isn't he supposed to be Chronos' secretary or something? Perhaps he is keeping track of our journey so that Chronos knows how we are faring." She flexed her talon claws when she put away her wand.

"In either event, let's do as the log states and go to the Inn. I'm tired." Cool_Blue_Sky yawned and stretched out her back.

EagleEye led the group while Natsume, Cool_Blue_Sky, and RelicPetals trailed behind. When they exited the cave, they heard a loud shrill cry in the sky. A piercing sound, like an eagle's call in the distant area, enveloped the area.

"Is that the Eagle you mentioned before?" RelicPetals asked to the blonde avian male who looked up to the sky. The trees obscured the view, but that meant they were hidden from view from the Eagle if it happened to fly over above.

"Might be. We should be fine if we do run into it." He shrugged before moving along. "Let's keep moving."

Natsume slept like a log. The room they rented had all four of them together, but at this point it saved them money. One room cost 300 gold coins, and they altogether possessed over six thousand gold pieces. There was no point in spending extra money for rooms for the male and females. He awoke with the sun, despite only having a few hours of sleep, and felt revitalized.

EagleEye awoke before him, attending to his equipment and cleaning the string on his bow. "You up?"

"Yeah. How long?" Natsume inquired about the time which EagleEye immediately comprehended.

"About three hours. Girls are still out."

Natsume looked over to the curled up ball of Cool_Blue_Sky wrapped in her blanket, and then over to RelicPetals who merely clenched her pillow to her body. She laid on her side, her back facing the entry of the room.

The ruby-eyed male stretched his arms up over his head, feeling the crisp cool air touch his bare skin. His clothes were in tatters after the fight, so he threw them away and called it a night. The only thing that he deemed necessary to keep were his pants and underwear.

"Suppose I should go clothes shopping." He mumbled and EagleEye chuckled. Unlike the Halfling feline with ruby eyes, the Eagle Halfling had escaped with his clothes intact. Cool_Blue_Sky's clothes had some cuts, but nothing that crazy that merited them to get thrown away.

"I'll keep watch if you want to go. You can borrow my mantle by the door to cover up." EagleEye suggested and Natsume decided it was for the best. "I'm taking our funds with me. I won't use more than 1000 gold."

"Do what you need to do." EagleEye commented and waved him goodbye.

The trip to the clothing store wasn't terrible. He found some decent shirts with an additional defense stat boost worth less than 500 gold. When he looked at his pants, he figured they would be fine and went to make his purchase. He brought the shirt up to the front clerk who smiled at him.

"Welcome, what can I get for you?"

"This shirt."

"That'll be 450 gold."

Natsume procured the pieces of gold and gave it to the lady. She counted the coins happily and then offered him a spare room. "If you'd like to change your clothes in the back, you're more than welcome."

He nodded in thanks. He entered the space and put on the shirt. There were no tags to take off, he just had to put it on. When he was finished, he picked up the dropped mantle to reposition back onto his shoulders.

The shop bell jingled, indicating another person had come into the shop. The woman up front said: "Welcome, what can I get for you?" and effectively stopped when the other voice interrupted her.

"Poison resistance armor?"

Natsume could hear the shop owner quibble through her voice. "Uh—n-no sir I don't have those goods here. Maybe in the next village over?"

Nothing more was spoken before the chime of the door and then silence. Natsume opened the back curtain to see the shop clerk shaking in fear. "Are you alright?"

The shop clerk stopped her shaking when she was reminded of her previous customer, and tried to smile back. "Y-yes, how does the shirt fit? Too tight, not too loose?"

Natsume agreed that it fit fine.

"Who was that person earlier?"

The woman waved off his concern. "Oh—nothing, it was one of the adventurers. He—he has some business with Vormud. Should be concluded in two more days or so." The shop clerk merely smiled as if everything would solve itself. "Don't mind me, just a bit tired. Enjoy your day sir!"

Natsume quirked an eyebrow, as his whiskers, tail, and ears perked and twitched. Something did not sit right with him about this. Nothing about the situation seemed right.

"Right—have a good day." He remarked and left the shop. The male Halfling looked up and down the main street to see if someone was nearby, but only he was present. "Strange."

It was then that he remembered about all those side quests Cool_Blue_Sky and EagleEye picked up.

"Might as well do those quests while everyone's still sleeping."

T.K. here!

Thank you for reading this far into my story! I appreciate your time and consideration! It's kind of one of those slow burn quests that take a LONG time to fulfill; but then again this is the same group that took forever on one part of the tutorial. LOL. I hope you enjoy and we'll see you next time!