Chapter 31: A Hunting Trip with Family and Friend
In the general store of the Town of Lily Corvo, the owner, an NPC named Jim, known as the Old Man, was having a cheery day as he usually does. Sometimes having a hearty conversation with his customers, the players are known as "adventurers". Sometimes, sleeping on the job whenever no one's around in his store.
Having been resetted by the devs when his AI bugged, his current self has no recollections of the event that caused it. Regardless, he was happy.
That is until... "she" came.
Walking through the door of his store was a Dark Elf woman of great beauty. Her smooth, silky, long black hair; her alluring purple eyes; her mouth-drooling dark skin; her beautiful young face; and her mature voluptuous body. The many traits she possesses would make any man fall for her, regardless of age.
And yet, before such an individual, the old man began shivering with fear. As if some unknown memory in his programming was alerting him to the lady's presence.
He had not met the woman before. At least, as far as he could remember. Despite that, he felt like he knew her somehow.
"Hey, old man. How's business going?" the Dark Elf woman asked. Talking to him as if they were friends.
"It's doing well, lass." the old man decided to play along, acting as if he knew her. "Need something from this geezer?"
"Yeah. Just some potions." the woman replied. "Can I get, let's see... 200 HP Potions and 500 MP Potions?"
"You sure that's all you want, lass? I got plenty of them in stock, you know."
"Yeah, it's enough."
The Dark Elf woman then paid the amount for her purchase, and left the store promptly after that. Waving the old man goodbye.
Once she was gone, the old man dropped to his knees as soon as he relaxed.
He had no idea why he was feeling that way. However, he prayed, hoping that he would never see that woman again.
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After restocking on my potions, I made my way back to the fountain to wait for Hikari and Himeji.
For some reason, the old man back at the store looked pale when I last saw him. Making me wonder if he was alright. However, considering that he is a NPC in the end, I did not think about it and carried on my merry way.
I'm sure he's fine.
As I arrived at the fountain, it would seem that Hikari and Himeji were not here yet. So, I took a spot by the fountain and sat there for the time being until they arrived.
During that time, I was playing with Lampy by having it do tricks.
"Up."
"Hop."
"Rollover."
"Spread wings."
"Fly once around me."
Lampy performed all of those tricks well as I patted it afterwards as a reward.
"Good job." I said, inciting a happy reaction from Lampy as it flutters its wings with joy.
I wonder how long Hikari and Himeji are going to take...? I began asking myself as more time passed.
Because for some reason, I seemed to be getting eyes on me from other players around me.
"Hey... is she perhaps the one?"
"I don't know, man. There are plenty of Dark Elf players. Maybe we should ask her first."
"I didn't know you can perform tricks with a Lamp Bug."
"Looks kind of fun. I might try it with mine...."
They all seemed to be whispering something while looking at me and Lampy. And I have no clue what they're talking about. Although, I can see some of them pushing their friends, telling them out loud to "go talk to her," or something along those lines.
Am I going to get hit on again...? I started speculating what these players are thinking about.
Then, a group of them came approaching me.
"Hi. Excuse me. Are you alone right now?" one of them asked.
So I am being hit on!
"Sorry. I'm waiting for my friends at the moment."
"Oh. Is that so? Well, sorry to bother you then." the man said, then he turned to his friend. "Come on. Let's go, man."
"Hold on. We still haven't asked her if she's—" the friend tried to argue about something, but was cut off by the man who whispered something into his ear.
"Dude. As if she's Yoru. Yoru is a solo player, remember? No way that chick can be her since she's with a party. It's gotta be some other Dark Elf chick."
"Come on. Let's go do some grinding." the man said to his friend, as they both left the area.
Shortly after that, Hikari and Himeji finally arrived.
"Sis! Sorry for the wait!" Hikari yelled, waving her arms as she and Himeji ran up to me.
"HimeHime and I needed to sell all of our junk items first to clear some space in our inventory." she explained her reason for being late.
"It's alright. Shall we get going then?"
I opened my party window and invited both of them to my party. I'd also sent a friend request to both of them while doing so.
Hikari and Himeji. Or should I say, Lumina and HimeHime are now in my party, as they proceeded to lead me to the hunting spot they had told me about earlier.
The hunting spot we went to was called the No Man's Farmland.
A place where the monsters are all mutated animals that looked like they would appear in a Fallout game.
One of those animals started charging at us the moment we engaged with it. Which is a giant mutant cow called a... Giant Mutant Cow. A very description name...
Himeji was at the front with Hikari right behind her. Meanwhile, I'm at the rear, ready to provide support fire when I can, but am mostly at that position to observe their fighting style as requested by the both of them who wanted me to watch.
"Fortress!"
Himeji planted her shield down and used a skill which enlarged her area of defense, resulting in the giant mutant cow to be repelled, the moment it collided with her shield.
In that brief moment of opportunity, Hikari swooped in and went for the kill.
"Iai Stance, First Form: Flash."
Gripping the handle of her sword tightly, she drew her blade in a quick, singular motion. Splitting the mutant cow into two after she puts it back into its scabbard. Very anime-ish.
And like that, the first monster was dead. However, it was only naturally easy to kill since... it was only a level 10 monster... facing against two level 20 players and a level 23 player who is me.
The poor thing...
Once the monster was dead, it surprisingly did not vanish into black mist like the other monsters I've come across. I wonder why?
"So, what did you think of our playstyle, sis?" Hikari went up asking me, while Himeji seemed to be doing something with the mutant cow's corpse.
"You mean your individual way of fighting, or the teamwork you two had just displayed? It's cool either way, but kind of unimpressive when the enemy was just a weak monster."
"Yeah. Well, wait until we face a stronger monster. But for now, most of the monsters here are just low levelled fodders since their drops are mostly the low ranked crafting materials." Hikari explained, as she handed me the meat from the mutant cow she just killed. "Here sis. Hope you make some good stuff later."
"Thanks. Although I'll need to try out the cooking mechanic in the game first, since I don't know what it's like."
"I don't know either. I heard the crafting mechanics in the game are quite tricky to handle. But ah... If it's you, sis, I'm sure you'll manage."
"Well, if you say so." I then changed the topic, looking at Himeji and asking Hikari. "So, what's HimeHime doing over there?"
"Oh, she's eating the monster's corpse."
"What?"
"Yeah... Apparently, you can get some skills from them if you eat a number of the same species." Hikari stated. "I've tried to eat them once, but the taste was so bad I ended up not doing it again. Hime though? As you can see...."
"She's eating it..." I looked at her, baffled. Thinking about what kind of a player would do such a thing? And what kind of developer would implement such a feature in their game...?
Well, the first answer was obvious. The second? Kind of not.
"Also, how come the corpse did not disappear when you killed it?" I asked my sister.
"Because it's a regular monster, duh." Hikari replied. However, a few seconds later, she'd realised that I have no idea what she meant by that.
"Bro. I mean, sis. Have you only been facing the umbra monsters?"
"The what?"
"So you have." she then cleared her throat and started lecturing me. "Basically in this game, there are two main types of monsters. The ones you've fought against so far are the umbra monsters; creatures born from the Umbra Lords' powers according to the game's lore. And all of these ones here are regular monsters; enemies born from standard means. Thus, their corpses won't disappear like the umbra monsters do when they die."
"Uhhh...." I was stunned. I was shocked. I was completely dumbfounded by what I'm hearing right now.
"Why was this only being explained to me now!? We're 31 chapters into the story, you know!"
Also, that's born from standard means!? How the hell did a giant mutant cow be born from "standard means"!?
"This makes no sense..."
"I know, right? Like... there's a monster called a Cockbird which looks like a regular monster, but is actually an umbra monster. It's pretty hard to tell which is which until you've actually killed them."
"So Boneys, Draugrs, Acid Jellies, Scrowlers, Ghasts, Shadow Titans. All of them are umbra monsters, huh?"
"Yeah. I guess so."
"Even The Jacksons and the Fallen Knight, Gaius?"
"All boss monsters are umbra monsters. So, yeah. And who's Gaius?"
"He's the dungeon boss I fought in the Hidden Dungeon called the Underground Catacombs."
"Ooooh! That dungeon. Come to think of it, I remember seeing your name pop up in the World News announcement about it and YOU CLEARED A HIDDEN DUNGEON ALONE!?" Hikari suddenly bellowed.
"Yes. Did I not—"
"No! You didn't!" Hikari then frustratingly took a deep breath in and out.
"OMG, sis. You're insane."
"Umm... thanks?"
"You're welcome! Now, let's go hunt some more cows. I want to see you fight next."
"Sure... why not. Lead the way, sweetie."