Planning Strength

We take a bit of a break after we’ve beaten the boss. It was a pretty high intensity dungeon, so we could all use a rest. The loot is interesting, and Olivia is extremely surprised and pretty happy that we now have some shards of Vibranium. We even got a Vibranium chunk from the boss. The shards are about 10 grams each, and the chunk is 100 grams.

The description on them says that once we have a kilogram of the stuff, I can use my Craft skill to combine it into a small ingot. I file that information away for later, as Vibranium is an extremely powerful magical metal, and can be used to make powerful weapons.

At least, that’s what Olivia says. We didn’t get any interesting loot other than the Vibranium, but because that’s such good loot anyway, I don’t mind.

I’m pretty happy about the level up from the siege dungeon. All of these new dungeons seem to give about one level per run through, which means I’ll be levelling pretty consistently for the next little while. I put my points into endurance and Ivy’s into intellect, noting happily that I’m close to reaching 100 endurance.

After the loot and point distribution is taken care of, I check in again with Mia to see if she’s okay, and to ask what happened when she got hit by the archers. She brushes me off again, and asks me to drop the subject. I oblige, although I’m not happy about it. If she doesn’t want to talk about it, I can’t make her. I can only hope that whatever it is, she’ll be able to move past it.

Olivia and Belle have managed to tear up a few trees with their sparring. They tell me they’re doing well with relearning how each other fights, which is good to hear. I ask if they want the damage restored, and they tell me to leave it for the moment.

The smile on Belle’s face as she spars with Olivia is a really nice thing to see. It seems like she’s really enjoying spending time with Olivia, and I’m happy that she’s happy.

Checking in on Lena and Emma, they’re taking a break from training with each other. Emma is getting tired much more quickly than Lena, which is to be expected from the difference in levels. Elsa’s been having fun watching them all train. She says it’s really interesting because she hasn’t actually seen too much fighting before.

I catch a glimpse of Paige on a walk in the forest, away from everybody else. She looks deep in thought. I’d like to go to her, to hold her and tell her everything is going to be okay. Skylar is pretty insistent on giving her space though, so I go back inside instead to relax.

The rest of the day, we manage to get through another two siege dungeon runs, both on the templar dungeon. We get some more Vibranium shards, no more chunks though. The most exciting part is the two more level ups, leaving Ivy and I at level 125, and me at 100 Endurance, giving me a bonus to my HP scaling, as well as a synergy bonus with Agility.

Having gotten to Endurance 100, I need to figure out what to aim for next in terms of levelling up, which is how I end up talking to Olivia, Belle, and Ivy. “I’ve got no opinion on this, I dunno what you’re on about.” Belle says, starting to walk away.

“Please stay? Talking about this stuff is important.” Ivy requests.

Belle stops walking.

“You are an important member of this team. That means talking with us about subjects such as this.” Olivia adds.

The redhead groans, and retraces her steps. “Fine. But only because you asked.” She says, indicating Olivia. I don’t miss the blush on her face as she says this.

“What’s the issue?” Belle asks, looking to me.

“I’m trying to figure out which stats I should invest in for the fight with Mathias.” I remind her. She gestures for me to keep talking.

“We need to figure out what our strategy is actually going to be for when we fight him. That’s why I need your help.” I say.

“Can you give us an idea of how strong they all are?” Olivia asks.

I nod. “When we met Mathias and Max the other night, all the people they brought with them were between level 50 and 75.”

“As long as the others in our guild have their teamwork down, and Paige, Mia and Skylar have all reached level 100, they should be able to handle them.” I explain.

“Max and Mathias were easily the two most powerful people there. Fighting them will primarily be a job for the four of us.” I say.

I grab a pen and paper out of my inventory, and write down the stats and levels of Mathias and Max for easy comparison to Belle and Olivia.

“From a stat and level perspective, we’re all still weaker than the two of them. Unless we can get powerful enough to outmatch them, our best chance is teamwork. We’ll need help from the others to win. But, if we try to take them all head on, Mathias and Max could easily stomp over the less powerful members of our guild. We can’t let that happen.” I lay out.

“As I see it, our best strategy is to divide and conquer. Take Max and Mathias away from the rest of their guild and keep them occupied. Leave our guild to fight theirs, and keep the two of them from helping. Then use our numbers to overwhelm them after that.” I say.

“Mathias will have a healer. If he is able to absorb other people’s power, he is probably a healer himself. A man as smart as him would not be taking any chances.” Olivia points out.

I nod in agreement. “I think so too. That’s why we have to focus our strategy around keeping him occupied until the others can pull through and help us.” I reply.

“You’re putting an awful lot of trust in your guild. Are you sure they can win?” Belle asks.

I look at her and give her a sad smile. “Not at all. I don’t even really want to let them try. I would rather try to handle this myself, than put any of them in danger. Especially after what happened a few nights ago.” I say.

“But in the absence of power, the only way we stand a chance against them is if we’re all working together. So I have to trust that they’ll be okay, and that they can win.”

Belle nods, looking dissatisfied with the answer, but accepting it nonetheless.

“So, Olivia. Those stats I wrote down for you are your stats in your Tetramand form. In game terms, your stats are redistributed whenever you change forms. With your recent increase in power, your Tetramand form is almost equal with Max. There’s 120 points difference in strength, 50 points difference in agility, and 130 points difference in endurance between the two of you.” I point out to her.

“I think you should focus on keeping him occupied. If we can get you enough power in the coming couple of weeks, do you think you can handle him for long enough that the others can come help you?” I ask her.

“Why are you not looking for weaknesses that we can exploit?” She asks point blank, with a disapproving stare.

“Because keeping him away from the others is more important than defeating him quickly. If you kept your distance and fired spells at him with your Aeroray form, you’d probably be able to beat him easier, but you’d also risk giving him space to go after Mia or Skylar or Paige. I can’t risk that.” I tell her.

Olivia concedes the point, also not wanting to risk the lives of her friends.

“Then yes, I think I could keep him occupied long enough for the others to help. I will need all the power I can get though.” She warns.

“Good. Belle, that’ll leave Mathias to you and me.” I say, turning to the redhead.

The Scarlet Witch cracks her knuckles happily. “Leaving the hardest fight to me. I like that.” She says.

“Us. I’m leaving it to us.” I remind her.

“Yeah yeah whatever.” She waves off.

“We can’t match him in strength. He has stronger magic than either of us. He’s also a bit of a glass cannon, from the way his stats are weighted. He can do a lot of damage, but can’t take as much in return.” I break down.

“You’re also not too far away from him in terms of agility. If we both work on getting faster, I reckon we could probably match him there. Combined with my ice magic, which is pretty useful for slowing people down, and I think that’s our best chance to keep him occupied. If we’re as fast as he is, and I can slow him down a little, we might be able to dodge his hits and spells, and keep his attention on the two of us.” I say.

“Sounds fun. Let’s kick his ass.” Belle says, grinning.

“Ivy, you’ll need to be providing support to us all. We’ll need to look into getting you more powerful magic. That might mean investing into the summoner class a bit.” I say.

“Invest in yourself first!” Ivy protests.

“I can do both. You deserve power too.” I say, with a cheeky smile.

“Fine.” Ivy concedes, kissing me on the cheek. “You’re sweet.” She says.

I smile happily.

“Is that all we needed to talk about?” Belle asks.

“I think so. If you’re happy with that strategy and working on getting faster.” I reply.

“You’re not a complete idiot, I’ll give you that.” Belle says, the corners of her mouth twitching upwards. She spares a glance at Olivia, then turns around, walking away from the three of us.

“Give her time. She will warm up.” Olivia says. She squeezes my shoulder gently, before turning to head off in the direction of Belle.

The quest listed on my character sheet taunts me with the fact that Belle joining my guild would mean an immediate class level and skill evolution point. Hopefully one day soon. I close my character sheet, and head off to relax with Ivy.