Levels And Games

Holy shittt, 7 levels at once is a really nice feeling. We focus on finding out what the loot is first, before we take a look at the levels we’ve all gained.

We exit the raid and grab Olivia and Mia, making sure they’re okay.

Ivy begins her process of healing the two of them, while we enter the raid once more, to open the chest and enjoy our hard won spoils of victory.

The first thing I pull out from the huge chest is a nice stack of gold coins, that disappear into my inventory in monetary value. The coins seemed to be just symbolic of the value, they don’t have the actual value of the money that appears in my account: another $11,000,000 all up, which feels pretty insane.

The possibly more insane part of that, is that the number really doesn’t mean much, since I don’t have anything to spend it on, and already have just about everything I could ever want in my life, in my Kingdom barrier.

We also pull out in quick succession, the heavy mace, and a couple of buckler shields and light crossbows. None of them are useful, except perhaps the small buckler, as a possible replacement for Emma’s shield. As far as I can tell, the buckler would be usable at her level.

In the uncommon category, we get a rapier, two Balder Cloaks, but no Tower Shield. The Balder Cloaks are red, and have enchantments for agility and not getting in the way of their user. I give one to Mia, who could definitely use the agility boost, and can easily wear it over her armour.

I offer Belle the other one, but she declines it, saying she doesn’t want a cape. I store it in my inventory for now.

In the rare category, we get a few sets of knight armour that really don’t work for any of us here. The only person in our guild with a vaguely knight style build is Emma, the rest of us need to be able to move quickly, and get much better bonuses from our current equipment anyway.

At least Emma will have lots of choice if she ends up more powerful than she is now.

We manage to pull in a couple of Vibranium shards and a Vibranium chunk. At this point, I’m building up a small pile of the stuff inside my inventory, and while that’s really cool, I can’t actually do anything with it.

My Craft skill isn’t good enough to do anything with the powerful metal, only combine the shards and chunks into ingots (when I have enough). With one small kilogram ingot (which is a small amount, as the magical metal is quite dense), and a few lumps left over, I’m not even sure if this is enough to forge anything useful with.

Maybe once this whole ordeal with Mathias is over, I’ll be able to find somebody who can make it into something useful. For now, I keep the valuable metal in my inventory, and move onto considering levels and stats.

Finishing the second segment of this raid has been a big boon to us all, as Mia and Skylar have both hit triple digits. Skylar hit level 100 exactly, while Mia went up to level 101. I’m very happy for her that she has a potential beyond the mark of love’s hard cap, and she seems pretty pleased with herself at this.

Paige meanwhile has hit level 90. Belle got up to level 146, and Olivia levelled up all the way to level 149. The power gains for everybody who participated are therefore pretty significant.

Ivy and I have hit level 142, and as I consider that, I realise it means several interesting things. For me, it means 42 statpoints directly into my agility stat, finally getting me over 200, and making me ridiculously fast, all things considered.

For Ivy, it means we’re only 3 levels away from hitting 250 Intellect. I’m looking forward to seeing what the next milestone holds for her.

And for both of us, level 142 means we get to make the decision of which class level to go into next.

At the repeated insistence of Ivy, and after making her promise that we’ll do the Summoner class at level 150, I finally put the class perk into the Warrior class.

It’s barely worth considering which one I want, because I’m already certain immediately. I do at least give a few seconds to think about the other two perks before I pick Warrior Of Speed.

Both the Strength and Fortitude options could be seen as useful from the context of patching up my weaknesses. From that perspective, the Strength perk would probably be more useful in that area, as it’s the physical stat that I have the lowest investment in (currently only sitting at 50).

However, I’m not really interested in doing that. I feel like I’ve patched my weaknesses enough for the immediate future. I’m not going to get completely wrecked by a low level person who has a different stat spread than I do.

I have enough endurance to keep up for the moment, and the mana to spare to save my health. I’ll probably be increasing my strength stat anyway soon, but only up to 100.

The other consideration is that although strength is technically the measure of how much damage I do, my agility stat plays a big role in that too, because of physics. The faster I can move, the more force I can generate behind each of my attacks. Even at my current strength, a punch thrown with 100 Agility vs 250 Agility would have a very different impact force.

And besides the fact that I don’t feel I need to patch up my weaknesses much more anyway, neither the strength or fortitude perks harmonise with my build. I’m not trying to swing heavy weapons at Mathias, or tank all of his attacks. I’m trying to move as fast or even faster than he does.

At 202 agility, and with a 10% buff, I’m definitely getting closer to being just as fast as he is. I’m hoping if I have to face him while he is faster, that my ice magic can help make up the difference.

With all of that in mind, I pick the Warrior Of Agility perk choice, and bask for a moment at the massive increase in speed I’ve just gained. In percentage terms, in the past 20 minutes, I’ve gotten about 30% faster than I was before, which is a really cool feeling.

With the perk picked, I turn to follow the others inside, enjoying the rush of number-go-up and easily definable progression in strength.

And as I walk through the door, I get a shock I wasn’t expecting at all, when litres of water suddenly get dumped over my head, soaking me completely.

I stand there frozen in surprise for a few seconds, having no idea how to react, with the moment punctuated with the giggles of Lena and Mia, happy that their prank worked.

I shake my head in exasperation, shaking out some of the water from my arms. “Do you two have anything original?” I ask, trying and failing to keep the amusement from my voice.

Ivy hands me a towel from her inventory, as Lena stops cackling for long enough to answer. “Who needs something original when this keeps working?” She laughs.

I roll my eyes. “Screw you, now I have to go change!” I complain.

“You can screw me.” Mia smirks, and I chuckle.

“Later.” I promise, and she winks at me.

By the time I come back downstairs from a quick shower that I needed anyway after the day of training, and wearing a fresh change of clothes, Lena and Mia are setting up Mario Kart 8.

“Hey Gem! Wanna join us?” Emma asks, sipping on a hot chocolate.

Ivy holds a mug out for me, and I take it gratefully. She kisses me on the lips as I sit down on the couch next to her.

“Sure. Who’s playing?” I ask as she hands me a controller.

“Just the four of us.” Emma replies, indicating me, Lena, Mia and herself.

“Well it’s nice of you to give me a chance to get you both back by beating your asses at Mario Kart.” I say, grinning at Mia and Lena.

“Hey! I’m better than all of y’all!” Lena says.

Emma snorts. “In your dreams.” She replies.

“Whatever, just pick your characters.” Lena says dismissively.

Me being who I am, I pick Cat Peach.

Mia and Lena fight over who gets to be Rosalina, while Emma picks Daisy, shaking her head affectionately at the two of them.

Lena triumphantly gets her way and picks Rosalina, while Mia settles for normal Peach instead.

We unanimously decide on the the Special cup, almost entirely because it has Rainbow Road on it.

The first race, Cloudtop Cruise, counts down and starts, and we all set about playing our hardest.

Well, Emma and I do.

Mia and Lena both seem to decide at the same time that they’d rather try to disrupt the two of us.

So Mia stands up and sits on my lap, trying to block my view of the screen.

“What are you doing?” I giggle, moving so I can see around her.

“I’m not doing anything.” Mia denies, feigning innocence as she very deliberately tries to block my view again.

I hear a yelp from Emma as Lena tries to tickle her. “Stop it! No no stop!” Emma laughs, trying her hardest not to mess up the race.

Mia keeps moving her body between me and the screen, and I can’t stop from crashing into a wall in-game.

Using my momentary distraction and slowdown, Mia picks up an item box and sits behind me. As I drive off, she fires a red shell towards me, speeding past me and cackling as the blasted thing hits me.

“Are you two teaming up to mess with us?” Emma accuses.

“No.” Mia denies.

“She’s smiling, they definitely are!” Ivy points out, watching the whole thing with amusement.

“Ugh!” I groan, throwing Mia off and laughing. “Assholes!”

The two them cackle as we keep playing the game, the pranksters proud of their antics.

I exchange a look with Emma, and I know that neither one of us would have them any other way.