A few minutes before dawn, deep in the Emerald Forest...

Rose managed to get the Ursa stun locked, the twirling animations of her scythe techniques flowing from one attack into another in a near-seamless dance of death. Truthfully, she wasn't fighting the same way she fought when she farmed Grimm alone. She was being watched. One could forgive her if she wanted to show off a little.

With one final sweeping motion, she felled the Ursa. The mob's explosive death animation played followed by a brief notification about the amount of exp and money she received from defeating it. "I think that's the last one we're fighting for the night," Rose said, propping her weapon on her shoulder. "Or morning, I guess," she then added, noting how the sun was already rising.

She turned to her party. "How are we looking on levels?"

She received a slew of answers but they all said basically the same thing: They had gained levels.

"Alright then. Let's head back."

Two days prior, on the morning after the second Root dungeon raid, Myrtenaster held an assembly to discuss the third Root dungeon raid. Everyone who had a high enough level and were willing to fight had come, totaling to just under fifty players. With the help of Torchlight, they compiled a list of details about the dungeon and the boss and tried to strategize around them. They managed to come up with a number of plans but none feasible enough to go through with. In the end, they decided to all spend the next few days grinding and would reconvene once they gained a few levels and thought on the issue a bit more.

And grind they did. Over the course of the last two nights, Rose and company had leveled up several times, with the person who leveled the most being Myrtenaster whose level increased from 37 to 46. Rose herself had leveled twice, sitting at a nice and even 58. It was an incredible amount of progress for less than 16 hours.

And yet, Rose didn't feel satisfied. She wasn't sure what it was, but something felt wrong to her ever since she started grinding with her party. She wasn't losing sleep over it, but it remained in the back of her mind every time they were on the hunt.

When they were maybe an hour's walk from the city, Milou and Myrtenaster changed their pace to walk next to Rose. "Something on your mind? You look deep in thought." Milou asked.

Rose smiled politely, though she was sure it looked as fake as it felt. "I'm fine. Don't worry about it." Milou's look of worry and Myrtenaster's unamused scowl were obvious tells that they weren't convinced. Rose sighed. "Fine. Something's been bugging me. I just don't really know what it is..."

After a brief explanation, Myrtenaster seemed sufficiently puzzled while Milou was nodding thoughtfully. "I feel similarly, Rose. At the end of the night when we compare our levels, I can't help but feel like our numbers are off."

"I'm not following," Myrtenaster said. "Off in what way?"

Milou frowned. "It's hard to describe. It's like... there's something missing... like we're getting less experience than I expect to get..."

Rose went wide-eyed as she remembered the time when she gained ten levels in less than a week by grinding creatures of Grimm for a few hours longer than she did before. She had been, what, level 46 at the time? In that week long period, she reached level 54 without much trouble - and that was after the balance patch that lowered exp gained from killing Grimm.

Myrtenaster had a much lower level which meant that the experience reward was still relatively large for her. With the amount of Grimm their party had killed, Myrtenaster should have gained at least 12 levels. Instead, she gained 9. The same was the case with all the other party members.

There was no doubt about it. They were receiving much lower exp rewards than they should be. The question was why.

Rose blinked, suddenly realizing that she was glaring into space. To her side, she saw the worried looks of Myrtenaster and Milou. She smiled apologetically. "I just remembered something I gotta do, actually," she half-lied. "I'm gonna go on ahead and take care of it."

Myrtenaster and Milou exchanged a glance but made no comment. "Good luck with that, then," Myrtenaster said, changing her pace once more to walk next to Gambol and Wilt who were at the back of the group.

"Stay safe," Milou said, waving goodbye.

Rose nodded and waved goodbye as well. "Laters."

With that, she broke into a run, activating [Nimble Feet] as she did so. She began blasting towards the city with a destination already in mind. Torchlight's got some explaining to do...

Later, Emerald City, Torchlight's headquarters...

Rose looked on in bewilderment. "An undocumented patch?"

Torchlight raised an eyebrow. "Is there an echo in the room somewhere? Because my words are being repeated." Rose shrunk back at the sarcasm and muttered an apology.

"Why didn't you tell me this earlier?"

"You didn't ask," Torchlight replied, crossing his arms. His answer was exactly what Rose expected. "And I almost never give information for free, Red. We've known each other since the beta. How could you not know this?"

Rose sighed. "Payment before information. Yeah, yeah. I remember."

"Well, if you're done having a fit, may I now continue?"

Rose awkwardly scratched her cheeks. "Uh, go ahead..."

"As I was saying, the numbers on Party experience sharing were tweaked in an undocumented patch some time between the launch of the game and clearing of the first Gate Dungeon. You're aware of what the experience share did before, right?"

Rose nodded. From what she remembered, experience points gained by each party member for a defeated mob would be equal to that of a solo player - essentially multiplying the total amount of experience gained from the mob by the number of players in a party.

"Well, that patch made it so the experience sharing capped at four party members. A party with more than four players will receive a total amount of experience equal to that of a party of only four players. It's the general consensus among those in the know that this change was to reduce the mindless power leveling that large groups of players did to cheese their way to a high level back in the game's beta."

Rose bit her lip. She felt mildly conflicted about this information. On one hand she felt a little better about grinding solo for the past few weeks. On the other hand, she was trying to level a party of seven and the sharing cap was slowing down their progress.

"Uh... thanks, Torchlight. Is there anything else I need to know was changed in that undocumented patch?"

Torchlight grinned. "I'll tell you for 50 lien."

Rose rolled her eyes. There were times that his cheeky greediness were endearing but this was not one of those times. "How much for you just telling me all the other changes in the patch?"

His grin widened. "Now you're speaking my language."

Meanwhile, Myrtenaster's cottage...

"I'm sorry for asking for this so soon after our nightly grinding session. Blake never has an opinion and Adam...well, I don't trust his opinions"

"It's fine, it's fine. I'm glad I could help."

Milou sat down at the small table in Myrtenaster's living room, taking in how much the place had changed in just a few days. She remembered when she was scouting the place out and how bare bones the furnishings had been. A two bedroom cottage with exactly two beds, two drawers, two chairs, and one table. Even an inn room had more than that. Now, it had the same kind of furnishings as was in the clock tower from before they moved out - minus the large spinning gears.

"This place is a lot more cozy with all your stuff here," Milou commented. "Though it is a little cramped."

There was an annoyed groan from the kitchen area. "Uhhhh. Tell me about it," Myrtenaster said, approaching with a tea pot and two cups in her hands. "The amount of rearranging I had to do to put everything I want in this room was actually harrowing after the ordeal passed the twenty minute mark."

Myrtenaster continued complaining as she laid the cups onto the table and poured the drinks. Milou could only smile politely. "I can imagine."

The heiress sat across Milou and brought her cup to her lips. There was a notably sour look on her face that she quickly suppressed. She then looked at Milou worriedly. "Tell me what you think. I only recently started leveling my [Cooking] subskills."

Milou picked up her own cup and stared thoughtfully at the dark liquid.

She was well aware of Myrtenaster's worries. In real life, the heiress was not a very good cook mostly due to the family cooks being in charge of her meals and the outright refusal of her father to hire her an instructor. She had to learn on her own through tutorials on the internet and by experimentation. Milou was her unfortunate, if usually willing, guinea pig for most of those experiments. Not a lot has changed between then and now.

Milou pulled the cup close and breathed in, a familiar aroma filling her lungs. What exactly was the drink in her hands? Only one way to find out. She tipped the cup slightly and took a long sip.

There was a moment of silence as Milou nodded along, trying to process what she just drank. "Well?" Myrtenaster asked, leaning forward on the table.

"It's good. Tastes a little like coffee," Milou said, an somewhat proud smile on her face. "Brewed lightning root?"

Myrtenaster nodded. "The recipe asks for lightning root, water, and stuff like sugar, honey, and milk. You just boil the root for five to ten minutes, pour yourself a glass, and then drop the sweetener and milk into your glass and stir for thirty seconds. It's a lot like making a cup of tea in real life, now that I think about it - though it's a little ironic that it tastes like coffee..."

"That it is."

The two shared a laugh as they enjoyed cozy warmth of their drinks and each other's company.

Milou set her cup down. "Be honest with me, Weiss. You didn't request this visit just so I could try out your cooking, right?"

Myrtenaster smiled, slowly shaking her head. "You know me too well, Pyrrha. To just come out and say it, I also needed some purchasing advice. I'm looking into buying a shield."

"Why not just send me a message?"

Myrtenaster fidgeted. "I also wanted you to try my cooking. It seemed convenient to just do them both."

Milou nodded, understanding. Moving back to the topic of shields, she said "Well, I'm not sure if I'm the right person to ask about this but I'm willing to listen. What would you like to know?"

"Hmm." Myrtenaster pushed aside her cup, materializing her Tailor's Tail and lowering it onto the table. "Rapiers were weapons used in 16th to 17th century Europe and were typically paired with daggers, small shields, or a second sword. They even told stories of heroes who wielded a rapier with a buckler in their off-hand. They were called swashbucklers. This game has custom fighting styles for players who equip certain pairings of weapons, right?"

Milou nodded once more. What Myrtenaster said was true. In Milou's [Armed Combat] skill menu there was a list of skill-sets for specific weapon types. There was also a separate list of skill-sets for when weapons used in tandem with each other. In that list of weapon pairings, the only visible skill-sets were [Spartan] and [Tribal Warrior] for her shield and spear load out. The list only became visible when her weapon skill level for both weapons were high enough.

"You think a thrusting sword and small shield is one of the recognized weapon pairings?"

"Logic, intuition, and hearsay make me confident that it is."

Milou scratched the back of her head. "You already seem knowledgeable about this. What exactly do you need my help with?"

Myrtenaster took a moment to reply. In that time, she de-materialized her weapon and began staring at her hands on her lap. "I've never gone about buying a shield so I don't know what stats I should look at," she mumbled. "How do I figure out what's good?"

"Mmm." Milou repressed an amused chuckle. Failing that, she shook her head and thought about the question seriously. She was displeased to find that she didn't have a lot to say that was helpful.

"Medium and small shields have different stats to look out for. For a medium shield, you look for physical damage reduction, durability, guard stability, and weight. All of those are to aid in blocking. I don't really need to explain damage reduction and durability. Guard stability and weight work in tandem to determine how easy it is to block attacks. Low stability means your guard is more easily broken. High weight means the act of raising your shield is slower."

"For a small shield, though..." Milou frowned. "I'm not sure what stats you need to look for. I'm sure they have the same kinds of stats but they might do different things. At the very least, I know for sure that physical damage reduction won't be your focus. Small shields aren't really made for blocking anyway."

"I see..." Myrtenaster leaned forward, resting her chin on her palms. "What about scaling?"

Milou blinked. "Now that you mention it, medium shields have average scaling to strength and poor scaling to agility. That might very well help determine how well a shield performs. Try to look for a high-durability, low-weight small shield with good agility scaling."

"Hmm..."

"That's all I can really say. I'm sorry I don't know more."

Myrtenaster waved away the apology with a reassuring smile. "It's fine, Pyrrha. I was going to ask Torchlight anyway. I just wanted to know what you know so I could save some money. Though, after saying that aloud just now, I have to admit that it might be a little rude of me."

"I take no offence."

Milou tipped her cup and drank what remained of her drink and stood up. "I'd hate to just show up for a drink and leave but it's already eight and I'd like to get some sleep. If you'll excuse me..."

"Have a good rest, Pyrrha. Stay safe on your way to your inn room."

"I will. You have a good rest as well, Weiss"

With that, Milou exited Myrtenaster's cottage and set off to the inn she was staying at.

Late morning, rooftops of Emerald City...

Gambol Shroud sat crouch at the edge of a rooftop overlooking a city street, the light of the sunset casting long shadows at her feet.. On the roof of the building on the other side of he street stood Wilting Blush, arms crossed authoritatively. At his side was Rose, awkwardly trying and failing to not fidget every time she glanced in Wilt's direction.

"What are we doing again...?" Rose asked, scratching her cheek.

"Tag," Gambol and Wilt said simultaneously. It caused Rose to wince upon hearing it.

"R-right... "

As someone who was trained to become a bodyguard at a young age, Gambol was adept at pursuing an escaping target and disabling them. A game of tag was effective enough practice for if she ever found herself in a situation where she needed to do that. Its mechanics involved was exactly what was just described, minus the act of disabling.

That being said, it was incredibly convenient that, when challenging someone to a duel, "Combat Tag" was one of the possible duel parameters. Within a given area, one player would be "It" and would attempt to tag other players, either by hitting them in a vital spot or dismembering or disabling their legs. The other players would use any means necessary to avoid getting tagged, be it by stealth, evasion, or by attacking the player who was It. The game would end after all the players were tagged or after a time limit was reached - whichever was sooner.

"The extents of the playable area shall be a radius of 100 yards from where Crescent Rose and I are standing. Five minute time limit. Use of skills and weapon techniques are allowed. Use of techniques with high critical hit chance is not allowed. The game begins in ten seconds."

Rose nervously brandished her death scythe and Wilt pulled out his scimitar. Gambol too unsheathed her katana. She crouched down, tensing her legs, waiting for the count down timer to hit zero. Every second ticked down in slow motion...

The starting sound rang in her ears and all players sprung into action.

Much to Gambol's surprise, both she and Rose jumped across the street in each other's direction. In the split second where their collision registered, Rose activated a weapon technique to pinwheel forward with with her scythe outstretched. Gambol gracefully twisted her body in the air to dodge the attack, the serrated bone of Rose's weapon merely grazing her elbow. They both landed on the rooftops on the opposite sides of the street.

Before Gambol even turned to look at Rose, she was already running away, the subtle blur effect of [Nimble Feet] activating as she leaped to a different rooftop and out of her vision. Gambol bit her lip and jumped in pursuit.

A glance at her mini-map showed the red player arrow of Rose flitting around over a black and white grid of the city streets. Wilt had obviously dropped down to street level and was attempting to conceal himself in the crowd of players and NPCs. Rose would be easy to find and chase down. Wilt might take her the whole duration of the duel to find if she left him alone. She knew what her priorities were and switched targets.

Gambol stopped on a roof overlooking a street corner and activated [Detection]. She reflexively took in a sharp breath as a wave of sensory inputs hit her hard, though not as hard as the first time she used it in the city. She quickly filtered away the information she did not care about and found Wilt's cursor, standing among the crowd congregating around a player merchant's shop.

As soon as he was detected, Wilt went on the move, dashing out of the crowd and into the streets. When Gambol dropped down at the entrance to the central plaza, he was waiting for her, weapon ready. Knowing full well that he was better at real-life combat than her, Gambol engaged him.

It didn't take even a minute for a circle of onlookers to gather around them. No doubt the bystanders could see the message box floating over them as they clashed which said [Duel In Progress].

They locked blades. Wilt's higher strength easily pushed Gambol to her knees. "You're running out of time," Wilt said. Gambol noticed how there was just over 90 seconds left. "Find a way to end this now or you will lose."

Gambols mouth was a razor thin line as she continued getting pushed down. She bared her teeth and kicked Wilt in the groin. The man recoiled, allowing Gambol to push him back. She then swept her katana across the ground cutting off Wilt's feet at the ankles. A brief notification told her that she had successfully eliminated him.

Once again feeling the sudden rush of senses from her active [Detection], Gambol located Rose on the far side of the plaza. She wasn't very far but was moving quickly in the opposite direction. Rose must have tried to see where Gambol had gone when pursuit had ended and only started running away when she got the notification that Wilt was out of the game.

Gambol resumed her chase.

The distance between them was closing, slowly but steadily. Rose had a higher agility stat and maxed out [Nimble Feet] skill but was slowed down by the weight of her scythe and the red cloak she was wearing. By sheathing her Brightscale Blade and activating her own [Nimble Feet] skill, Gambol would able to catch up before Rose disappeared into a side street.

Right as she reached the red hooded reaper, Gambol reflexively dive rolled forward. A blur of bone passed over her as she dodged through Rose's weapon techniques. Rose went wide eyed as the ending animation lag for a missed attack left her wide open. Gambol smiled slightly as she pulled out her Beowolf Fang and stabbed Rose in the chest.

Right then, the timer reached zero and the duel ended, returning all players' health to full.

Gambol lowered Rose to her knees and gingerly pulled out the knife. "Are you okay?"

Rose nodded timidly, touching her glowing stab wound as it faded away like it was never there. "That was the first time in a long time I was stabbed like that," she mumbled. "I forgot how uncomfortable it is."

The two then returned to the central plaza where Wilt was waiting for them.

"Congratulations on your victory," Wilt said, though not very cheerful. "That was very resourceful, how you ended it." He then took hold of Gambol's shoulder and leaned close to her ear. "But if you ever do that to me again, I will make sure you regret it."

Gambol managed to keep a straight face as a chill ran up her spine.

"We're going again," he announced. "Crescent Rose."

Rose flinched. "Yes, sir?"

"Will you be joining for the second round?"

She looked conflicted for a moment before answering. "I... uh... I'll join..." She smiled in Gambol's direction. "It was a fun time."

Gambol responded by closing her eyes and nodding.

Round two began after a few minutes.

Early afternoon, Emerald City suburbs...

Myrtenaster felt surprisingly pleasant as she walked through the streets of Emerald City. For someone who only had 16 hours of sleep over the course of a week, that was certainly unusual.

She supposed it was because, for the most part, things were going her way. She had gained the most levels in her party's nightly grinding sessions, no longer the lowest in terms of level thanks to multiple acquisitions of the last-attack bonus. She had used her weapon enough times that she reached a weapon proficiency milestone, granting her a number of new techniques she could use. And perhaps most importantly, she had leveled her [Cooking] skill high enough that she could get a decent cup of coffee. Even in a video game, coffee made her day waaay easier to get through.

That being said, Myrtenaster walked away from the city market feeling just a tad bit irked.

On her hip was a plain grey metal disk roughly the size of a dinner-plate. The center seemed to have been pushed outward to form a metal dome. It was called a [Steel Buckler] and was the best small shield she could buy. All the other ones were either too low in durability, too heavy, looked too terrible to ever use, or some combination of the three. In a peculiar twist, the item that all NPC weapon smiths sold was the most appealing option. Of course, the buckler she bought was still player-made since she wanted more than the two upgrade slots and 100 base item durability.

Before she bought it, she tried testing it out, swinging it via the dedicated [Parry] weapon technique. Since she wielded Tailor's Tail with her left hand, she held the buckler in her right. Swinging felt just a little bit awkward. Of course, that awkwardness went away when [System Assist] took over but it was still a big deal. The parry technique had an extremely short cool down and low starting lag but the starting motion left her wide open for attack. Failed attempts at parrying could get her killed.

I supposed I just need to practice, Myrtenaster thought. And it's a good thing that's exactly what I'm about to do.

Based on experience, she knew Rose would be in the southeastern suburbs of the city at around this time. Sure enough, the red reaper was sleeping peacefully on the grass under the shade of an oak tree. Indeed, as Rose once put it, she took naps. Myrtenaster sat down next to Rose and waited.

After a few minutes, Myrtenaster was looked away from her messaging screen to find Rose stirring.

"The zombie lives," Myrtenaster quipped dryly. "Good afternoon."

"Hey, Myrt," Rose greeted with a yawn. "You need something?"

Myrtenaster raised an eyebrow. "You just woke up and that's the first thing you ask me? I suppose I'm not complaining, but..." Rose shrugged in response. Myrtenaster shrugged as well. "Fair enough."

"I bought a buckler. I need some practice."

Rose blinked in surprise. "Really now? I've never used small shields. I'm a bit turned off by using shields in general, actually. I'm more of a dodge and weave kind of person." She sat up and stretched. "Small shields are actually PvP items, you know. They're only really effective against humanoid enemies that use melee weapons - like player characters."

"I am aware. I don't really care for shields either. I just want to level my [Small Shield] proficiency high enough that I can get the [Swashbuckler] fighting style."

Understanding dawned in Rose's eyes. "Oooh! Makes sense." She jumped to her feet and began scrolling her menu. A few seconds later, Myrtenaster received a notification that Rose was challenging her to a duel.

"Sparring Match," Myrtenaster said, reading the duel parameters aloud.

"During a sparring match, all damage received by fighters is reduced to 20%," Rose explained as she equipped her weapons. "Experience gain is halved but skill-point gain for active skills and weapon proficiencies remain the same."

Myrtenaster's hand hovered over the confirmation dialogue for the duel. Since using weapons outside of combat didn't really help you gain skill points, grinding your weapon proficiency involved either fighting mobs for a few hours or fighting in a duel. "Why can't we just fight mobs?"

"Well, this was what we did back in the beta. If you ever wanted to use a new weapon type, you sparred until your proficiency level was high enough that you could use your new weapon for regular level grinding. That's what I did to level my scythe level."

"But I'm not saying we can't just fight mobs. It's just that it's not really convenient for where we are. There are practically no humanoid mobs in this region."

Myrtenaster blinked as she remembered how the miles of forests around the city had mostly wild life and the only humanoid mobs would fight with bows and arrows. "Right... Forgot about that..."

With some reluctance, Myrtenaster accepted the challenge. She and Rose began their sparring match soon after and proceeded for most of the afternoon.

Late afternoon, corner cafe near Central Plaza...

As she sipped on her glass of brewed lightning root, she couldn't help but wonder how she managed to cram so many obligations in one day. When Rose awoke from what was her fifth nap that day, an event notification had popped up in her vision reminding her of her meeting with someone. It'd make it the sixth time she went to meet someone in just that day alone.

Her first meeting was her impromptu visit to Torchlight to bargain for some information. She took a quick nap and then proceeded to Junior to have her equipment repaired. She had another nap, then played some tag with Gambol. She then proceeded to a restaurant to eat and happened to meet Gun and his boys there. The boys were accommodating and invited her to have lunch with them, an offer she gladly took. Shortly after lunch, she took yet another nap and awoke with Myrtenaster at her side, asking her for help grinding a weapon proficiency. It was a good way to kill time without taking a nap and it gave her an excuse to level her her spear proficiency since it was her backup weapon. And that did indeed kill enough time that one last twenty minute nap allowed her to wake up just as she needed to meet with someone.

Rose, leaned forward over the table and rested her cheek on her palm. A sigh of boredom escaped her lips. "After a day of stuff to do, this is how it ends: waiting in a cafe for my date to show up."

She was right on time at their meeting location. Her "date," however, was running late. Twenty minutes late, in fact. It was enough time that Rose could go run an entire lap around the city and would still be waiting on her date when she got back. It was both annoying and just a little concerning.

"If she's not her in ten minutes, maybe I should message her?" Rose wondered aloud. Her mouth upturned into a frown. "No, she probably wouldn't reply anyway."

Releasing another tired sigh, she raised the glass to her lips, noting how little of her drink was left. "Bottoms up," she muttered, throwing her head back and downing the rest of her pseudo-coffee.

Her glass shattered on the floor as she stood from her seat in surprise. "Ah! Neo, when...!?" Sitting across the table from Rose was Neopolitan, an ever present smirk on her face. Rose pouted and sat back down. "That wasn't funny."

Neo merely closed her eyes and chuckled. Even with Rose's limited interaction with Neo in the beta, she knew enough to recognize when the girl in pink was being cheeky. Rose was almost certain what she was saying "But my dear Rose, it was funny."

Rose sighed. "Okay, maybe it was a little funny," she conceded in a mutter.

The two ordered a round of drinks. Rose got another brewed lightning root and Neo got a lemonade. Once the drinks were served, they got to business.

Rose leaned forward, hands on her lap. "Did you do the thing?"

Neo closed her eyes and casually cupped her hands around her glass. As she pulled the drink to her lips and took a sip, a trade window appeared in front of Rose. She scrolled through the list of items nodding slowly as she read the descriptions for all of them. Sure enough, everything was there.

Rose inputted the agreed amount of lien and confirmed the trade.

"Thanks, Neo. Thank Torchlight for me too," Rose said, leaning back in her chair. Neo smiled slightly as she continued sipping her drink.

That morning, she had hired Torchlight to answer a question that's been burning a hole in the back of her mind for a good week now. Remnant Online had a magic system, but only one person knew how it worked - a certain major quest NPC. Torchlight certainly delivered...

Rose guiltily skimmed through the documents transferred to her quest log. They were about Oobleck, magicians, and magic in general. The files for the last two were really short and didn't say anything she didn't already know - that magic existed and that magicians used to be more common before some catastrophe that split the planet apart. The files for Oobleck, though...

It was a little overwhelming and just a tad bit creepy. There were two separate files, one detailing his lore, another detailing his stats, equipment, and what looked to be his patrol route through Emerald City whenever he wasn't out on a Root Complex expedition. The amount of detail crammed in the walls of text was toeing the line between thorough and creepily obsessed. Rose knew for a fact that Torchlight didn't write the files so it had to be one of his contacts. Who were they again? Why'd they write it in a way that was so uncomfortable to read?

She looked up to ask Neo, but said girl was already gone. Where she once sat was instead an empty glass on top of a handful of metal cards - she had left some lien as compensation for the lemonade that Rose had payed for.

Rose hummed appreciatively at the consideration and downed what remained of her own drink. While she was still eager to read those files, she knew better than to read it somewhere as public as a cafe. She got up and left.

REMNANT ONLINE

Character Stats and Equipment

Stormflower Lv 49
Lie Ren (19 years old)

Stats

Health: 61
Defense: 48
Strength: 60
Agility: 72
Luck: 48

Equipped Weapons

Forest Hunter Twin Daggers (+5)
Attack: 42
Block: E
Crit: A
Parry: A
Scaling: Strength E / Agility A
Weight: A

Oak Longbow (+5)
Attack: 24
Crit: A
Range: 100
Scaling: Strength E / Agility B
Weight: B

Equipped Armor

Leather vest
Bowman's leather glove
Forest Hunter Trousers
Farmer Boots

Recently Acquired Equipment

Myrtenaster Lv 46
Weiss Schnee (19 years old)

Steel Buckler

Attack Damage: 26 (+60.46 combined strength and agility scaling bonus)

Block: E
Physical Damage Reduction: 16 (+4.6 defense bonus)
Guard Stability: 16 (+4.6 strength scaling bonus)

Crit: C
Damage Bonus: +100% (+7.96% combined strength and agility scaling bonus)
Critical Hit Chance: 10% (+3.75% combined strength and agility scaling bonus)

Parry: A
Parry Window: 0.5 seconds
Damage Threshold: 80 (+75 agility scaling bonus)

Strength Scaling: E
(+0.01 attack per level)
(+0.1 guard stability per level)
(+0.01% critical damage bonus per level)

Agility Scaling: C
(+0.8 attack per level)
(+1 damage threshold per level)
(+0.1% critical damage bonus per level)
(+0.05% critical hit chance per level)

Weight: B
Equipment load rating: 30 (-4.85 combined strength and health equipment load bonus)

REMNANT ONLINE

Holy crap, this is a long chapter. It's not my longest chapter, true, but it's definitely longer than the norm.

I had maybe three separate drafts for this chapter that had completely different structures from each other? They all had similar enough scenes but many things had to be switched around, from little details in one scene being put in another to the entirely rewriting a scene because I decided I wanted it to be morning scene instead of an afternoon scene. It was annoying trying to make sure everything I wanted to happen still happened throughout all those rewrites.

Observant people will find that there were certain little details at the start of the story that were retconned later, mostly due to my own forgetfulness. I'm confident to say that they're all small things that I didn't feel were worth bringing attention to. Of course, I'm bringing attention to them now but that doesn't really matter. I wanted to explain the party mechanics a little more and the other changes were just convenient to put in.

More irl stuff with Myrtenaster, as well as a convenient tangent involving shield mechanics. The letter grading for Block and Parry are simplified versions of the weapon stats so it's best that it's explained in more depth. And of course, the cooking is basically the same as irl cooking depending on the dish. More on that in a future chapter.

The combat tag scene was just there to develop Blake and Adam's relationship in this story. As I stated before, this story basically stopped following the original show by Volume 3 so the characterization of Adam being an obsessive abusive ex to Blake is not relevant. That's right, folks, I'm ignoring canon.

Finally, there's that stat sheet at the end. I don't really need say much for the first one but for the second one...
It took me a while to explain what all those letter gradings meant for the weapons and stuff but better late than never. Everything is slightly less detailed than I'd like it to be but it should be enough to infer what everything means. As for the parts that weren't explained they are as follows:

*Equipment load is 100 and every item carries a weight rating that decreases that number. The lower the equip load, the higher the movement penalty. Less than zero will prevent movement entirely. Strength and health will lower the weight rating of all equipped items by a flat amount.
*Defense increases physical damage reduction.

All of that will be explained in-universe in a future chapter of course. I'm just putting it here in case someone asks.

Anyway, I hope you all enjoyed. I'll see you all in the next chapter