"Woohoo!" Lucy raised her arm and cheered as Worm leaned against the wall behind her, a light smile on that girl's face. Both were missing a limb, but she laughed it off and brought her singular hand forward.
"Goodjob! High five!" She said.
"Ah, mhmm, y-yes," Worm matched her stance and replied in kind, "Good job."
Lucy exhaled a breath and sat upon the floor. There was a glowing circle before them, but she decided to check their loot and her newly gained skills before they left. Anticipation building, she checked the recently unlocked skills first.
[Sword Mastery]
—when wielding a sword, physical strength increases by 10%.
{Activation Cost: 30 Souls
Requirement: None
Type: Passive
Consumption: None}
[Stacking Flow]
—for the next five seconds, each successive hit of your blade increases the next's strength by 5%. This stacks up to a final hit of 25% extra damage.
{Activation Cost: 30 Souls
Requirement: Sword
Type: Active
Consumption: 15 mana points}
[Armor Breaker]
—your next strike breaks the opponent's physical defense, decreasing it by 10% for 30 seconds.
{Activation Cost: 30 Souls
Requirement: None
Type: Active
Consumption: 15 mana points}
[Ethereal Blade]
—for the next 2 minutes, all of your attacks deal magical damage instead of physical. Scales based on your magic strength.
{Activation Cost: 30 Souls
Requirement: Sword
Type: Active
Consumption: 20 mana points}
3 were active skills and 1 was a passive, yet each were costly. Lucy's eyes widened at the sheer realization that she could only afford one of them with her measly 33 Souls. If she wanted to activate them all, she would have to kill 99 more monsters at her level.
"These developers are evil!" She almost wanted to cry.
"You can say that again. . ." Worm furrowed her brows, staring at her own Traveler's Book. She too had reached level 10 and unlocked some skills. "We even require Souls to upgrade our raw stats and revive without losing experience points or our strength."
"These developers are evil!"
Lucy sighed and purchased then checked its next upgrade cost to see that it needed 60 Souls. With 3 as the amount she now had, she was broke.
"These developers are evil. . ."
"Mhmm mhmm. . ."
The two speechlessly moved their attention to the loot list. The first thing was. . .
"The heck is Goblin Spice. . .?" Lucy asked.
[Goblin Spice]
—a concoction of different spices that goblins like to sprinkle on boar meat. It's palatable even for human consumption.
". . .this was a boss drop?" She asked.
Worm shrugged. "From what I found. . .Eclipse's drops, at least for humanoid monsters, are based on what they either had on them or were currently using at the time of death. The commander happened to have it on his person at the time. Please, you can take it, I insist."
"Why thank you for your generosity." Lucy rolled her eyes and transferred it to her inventory.
Worm merely chuckled as they shifted to the other items.
[Goblin Commander's Longsword]
—an extremely high quality bronze sword that once belonged to a Goblin Commander.
+13 to physical strength.
+4 to speed.
+3 to physical defense.
[Goblin Commander's Leather Pants]
—a pair of leather pants that once belonged to a Goblin Commander. Are you going to put it on right away, or will you wash it first?
+10 to physical defense.
+5 to magic defense.
[Goblin Commander's Leather Gloves]
—leather gloves that once belonged to a Goblin Commander. Certainly better than going bare.
*10% chance to increase speed by 10% for 3 seconds after successfully dodging an attack. This can only be activated once every 30 seconds.
+10 to speed.
+5 to physical strength.
Lucy whistled. "My god. . ."
". . .they are all amazing pieces of equipment. . ." Worm said.
"I call dibs on the sword. You want the gloves, don't you?" Lucy looked at her companion with knowing eyes.
"Indeed," Worm shamelessly replied, "I'll take the gloves. With its stat bonuses and modifier, it fits me."
Lucy nodded. "Figures, should we roll or bid for the pants then?"
"No. You can have it." The girl half-smiled. "Think of it as thanks for going along with my mechanic testing in the middle of a boss battle."
Lucy raised a brow. She thought the girl was a bit strange but nodded. She might be rich, but even she didn't say no to a genuine, freebie.
The two equipped their new items, Lucy replacing her previous sword with the new one, realizing that it felt slightly heavy in her grasp. She supposed Eclipse based the ease of carrying and swinging weapons on your physical strength in relation to its grade.
"Fake realism huh. . ." She muttered.
For a while, she would likely need both hands to swing the thing. If one was dismembered, oh well to her.
She sheathed the clean blade and stepped into the glowing circle on the floor with Worm in tow.
Thankfully, the game was generous enough to regenerate all of their health and mana as soon as they appeared within the forest. Standing before the tree trunk again, the sky shades darker than before, they gazed at it and contemplated their next actions.
"I initially didn't want to as I'm usually a solo player but. . ." Worm spoke first, "It was fun partying up with you. In its own way."
Lucy nodded, arms crossed. "Suffering fun."
They both chuckled.
"Well, huh, great teamwork. . .see you around?" Worm glanced at her through the corner of an eye. "I was, umm, never good at goodbyes."
Lucy rolled her eyes. "I know you're more technical than emotional but don't tell me you're a tsundere too?"
"Wha—what? Don't call me that!"
"Oh oh so you're a weeb too."
". . ."
She turned to the girl with a pair of confused, sunset eyes and grinned. There was a faint blush of embarrassment on her companion's face, which she thought was a bit cute. 'Kinda makes me want to tease her more. . .' Lucy thought.
She shrugged.
"If you're not being a tsun, then why end there?" She asked, "Why not continue the game as a team? Like you said, we work well together."
Worm's orange eyes widened momentarily. Then mellowed as she smiled.
"That would be lovely."
"Good!" Lucy said, checking the time to realize it was now well past 5 pm. "Let's grind!"
As gamers do when faced with a dungeon with loot that they had just beaten, they both turned to reenter Acron's Goblin Outpost.
A clunk rang, and they found themselves stopped in their tracks.
"The heck?" Lucy touched the barrier in front of them.
[You have already cleared this dungeon today. You may wait until tomorrow or, if you wish to enter immediately again, each party member must spend 10 Souls to. . .'Revive the Monsters'.]
". . ."
". . ."
The developers of Eclipse were evil. Improving stats. Activating skills. Reviving without penalty. And now reentering a dungeon? Everything seemed to need Souls!
LotsChrono
Discord Server: https://discord.gg/vwKhVUR
Want more interesting stories? Check out my profile.
"Woohoo!" Lucy raised her arm and cheered as Worm leaned against the wall behind her, a light smile on that girl's face. Both were missing a limb, but she laughed it off and brought her singular hand forward.
"Goodjob! High five!" She said.
"Ah, mhmm, y-yes," Worm matched her stance and replied in kind, "Good job."
Lucy exhaled a breath and sat upon the floor. There was a glowing circle before them, but she decided to check their loot and her newly gained skills before they left. Anticipation building, she checked the recently unlocked skills first.
[Sword Mastery]
—when wielding a sword, physical strength increases by 10%.
{Activation Cost: 30 Souls
Requirement: None
Type: Passive
Consumption: None}
[Stacking Flow]
—for the next five seconds, each successive hit of your blade increases the next's strength by 5%. This stacks up to a final hit of 25% extra damage.
{Activation Cost: 30 Souls
Requirement: Sword
Type: Active
Consumption: 15 mana points}
[Armor Breaker]
—your next strike breaks the opponent's physical defense, decreasing it by 10% for 30 seconds.
{Activation Cost: 30 Souls
Requirement: None
Type: Active
Consumption: 15 mana points}
[Ethereal Blade]
—for the next 2 minutes, all of your attacks deal magical damage instead of physical. Scales based on your magic strength.
{Activation Cost: 30 Souls
Requirement: Sword
Type: Active
Consumption: 20 mana points}
3 were active skills and 1 was a passive, yet each were costly. Lucy's eyes widened at the sheer realization that she could only afford one of them with her measly 33 Souls. If she wanted to activate them all, she would have to kill 99 more monsters at her level.
"These developers are evil!" She almost wanted to cry.
"You can say that again. . ." Worm furrowed her brows, staring at her own Traveler's Book. She too had reached level 10 and unlocked some skills. "We even require Souls to upgrade our raw stats and revive without losing experience points or our strength."
"These developers are evil!"
Lucy sighed and purchased then checked its next upgrade cost to see that it needed 60 Souls. With 3 as the amount she now had, she was broke.
"These developers are evil. . ."
"Mhmm mhmm. . ."
The two speechlessly moved their attention to the loot list. The first thing was. . .
"The heck is Goblin Spice. . .?" Lucy asked.
[Goblin Spice]
—a concoction of different spices that goblins like to sprinkle on boar meat. It's palatable even for human consumption.
". . .this was a boss drop?" She asked.
Worm shrugged. "From what I found. . .Eclipse's drops, at least for humanoid monsters, are based on what they either had on them or were currently using at the time of death. The commander happened to have it on his person at the time. Please, you can take it, I insist."
"Why thank you for your generosity." Lucy rolled her eyes and transferred it to her inventory.
Worm merely chuckled as they shifted to the other items.
[Goblin Commander's Longsword]
—an extremely high quality bronze sword that once belonged to a Goblin Commander.
+13 to physical strength.
+4 to speed.
+3 to physical defense.
[Goblin Commander's Leather Pants]
—a pair of leather pants that once belonged to a Goblin Commander. Are you going to put it on right away, or will you wash it first?
+10 to physical defense.
+5 to magic defense.
[Goblin Commander's Leather Gloves]
—leather gloves that once belonged to a Goblin Commander. Certainly better than going bare.
*10% chance to increase speed by 10% for 3 seconds after successfully dodging an attack. This can only be activated once every 30 seconds.
+10 to speed.
+5 to physical strength.
Lucy whistled. "My god. . ."
". . .they are all amazing pieces of equipment. . ." Worm said.
"I call dibs on the sword. You want the gloves, don't you?" Lucy looked at her companion with knowing eyes.
"Indeed," Worm shamelessly replied, "I'll take the gloves. With its stat bonuses and modifier, it fits me."
Lucy nodded. "Figures, should we roll or bid for the pants then?"
"No. You can have it." The girl half-smiled. "Think of it as thanks for going along with my mechanic testing in the middle of a boss battle."
Lucy raised a brow. She thought the girl was a bit strange but nodded. She might be rich, but even she didn't say no to a genuine, freebie.
The two equipped their new items, Lucy replacing her previous sword with the new one, realizing that it felt slightly heavy in her grasp. She supposed Eclipse based the ease of carrying and swinging weapons on your physical strength in relation to its grade.
"Fake realism huh. . ." She muttered.
For a while, she would likely need both hands to swing the thing. If one was dismembered, oh well to her.
She sheathed the clean blade and stepped into the glowing circle on the floor with Worm in tow.
Thankfully, the game was generous enough to regenerate all of their health and mana as soon as they appeared within the forest. Standing before the tree trunk again, the sky shades darker than before, they gazed at it and contemplated their next actions.
"I initially didn't want to as I'm usually a solo player but. . ." Worm spoke first, "It was fun partying up with you. In its own way."
Lucy nodded, arms crossed. "Suffering fun."
They both chuckled.
"Well, huh, great teamwork. . .see you around?" Worm glanced at her through the corner of an eye. "I was, umm, never good at goodbyes."
Lucy rolled her eyes. "I know you're more technical than emotional but don't tell me you're a tsundere too?"
"Wha—what? Don't call me that!"
"Oh oh so you're a weeb too."
". . ."
She turned to the girl with a pair of confused, sunset eyes and grinned. There was a faint blush of embarrassment on her companion's face, which she thought was a bit cute. 'Kinda makes me want to tease her more. . .' Lucy thought.
She shrugged.
"If you're not being a tsun, then why end there?" She asked, "Why not continue the game as a team? Like you said, we work well together."
Worm's orange eyes widened momentarily. Then mellowed as she smiled.
"That would be lovely."
"Good!" Lucy said, checking the time to realize it was now well past 5 pm. "Let's grind!"
As gamers do when faced with a dungeon with loot that they had just beaten, they both turned to reenter Acron's Goblin Outpost.
A clunk rang, and they found themselves stopped in their tracks.
"The heck?" Lucy touched the barrier in front of them.
[You have already cleared this dungeon today. You may wait until tomorrow or, if you wish to enter immediately again, each party member must spend 10 Souls to. . .'Revive the Monsters'.]
". . ."
". . ."
The developers of Eclipse were evil. Improving stats. Activating skills. Reviving without penalty. And now reentering a dungeon? Everything seemed to need Souls!
LotsChrono
Discord Server: https://discord.gg/vwKhVUR
Want more interesting stories? Check out my profile.
