The target of the farm.

The rest of the walk into the forest only took them a few minutes. Rave and John were chattering happily during the whole walk while Victoria, who bore an expression between discomfort and amusement under a surface of neutrality, only answered when spoken to. “So why did you want to join us?” John asked on one occasion. “I already said that: I am curious about your power.” Victoria answered. “Nothing else?” “Isn’t that enough?” She shot back in a confrontational tone. “Go easy on John.” Rave intervened and smiled in an attempt to cool down the sniper, “He is always questioning things.” “He won’t always get answers that he likes though.” For some reason, she put emphasis on the always.

Afterwards John refrained from addressing Victoria for the most part, keeping to light topics like the weather. ‘I can guess why her Charisma is so low…no wait wouldn’t she behave like that because her Charisma is low in the first place?’ John asked himself as they took a few more steps into the forest. “I guess this is deep enough.” John said and opened his menu.

He followed up by selecting the ‘Create I.D.’ Skill to look on the details. “Mhm, no new Ghost Species. Can’t cheat the elemental weakness anymore, sad news.” He broke it to Rave. “Oh well, maybe we can fight something that punches back for a change. So what do you have in the fitting level bracket?”

Now is as good a time to speak about the changes to Create I.D.. As you can see John received a flashy new select screen, which, albeit pretty cheesy (Get it, because it’s full of holes?) will make presentation in the future easier and more immersive… ehem I of course mean will make the ability easier to navigate for John.

First off the Tier-System. Any given Tier of Monsters contains a stronger bred that has a range of five levels. To put this into number Tier 0 has enemies from level 1-5, Tier 1 from 6-10, Tier 2 from 11-15 and so on. The names of Dungeons cleared will be displayed as WHITE, this means that either the Boss Monster was slain or, in the case of Tier 0 Dungeons where there is no Boss, that the CRUELTY Achievement was earned (e.g. Seedling Stomper).

For what lies beyond “The Gap” I will remain silent until John himself finds it out, for the above the Gamer found it by Gaia graciously giving him a tutorial for once. Trust me, he didn’t enjoy it. It was text based, clunky and had involved a lot of clicking ‘Next’ and the ‘Can you repeat that’-Button changed sides every time he was through. Also, it was mandatory. BACK TO THE ACTION!

“So, the strongest thing I can create are Treants, they should be on average 5 levels higher than the Ghosts.” “That puts the strongest of them at your Level.” Rave mused, “Sounds boring.” “Well, I like boring when diving into the unknown.” John scratched the back of his neck. “What do you think Victoria?” from a pure level perspective she, together with Aclysia, were the bottom end of this party.

“As long as I can shoot it I am fine.” “So that IS a weapons case?” Rave blurted out, “I couldn’t believe it.” “Yes…but how do you know?” “I had a hunch yesterday, you know, when you bought the bullets.” John quickly lied. Thankfully his high Wisdom Stat made him quick to think of believable lies, unluckily though his ‘Okay’-Charisma made him not exactly the best presenter. Victoria seemed to buy it though, “And you told her about that?” “I am his girlfriend, in case you didn’t notice, of course he would tell me.” Rave playfully sulked but also shot John an annoyed gaze for whatever reason, “I see.” Victoria just dropped the topic and turned back to John. “So, Treants it is.”

“Mhm, dumb question but if I blast them with sunlight do you think they will get some kind of **** rush from it?” Rave pondered in a nonchalant tone. “I think they will burn actually.” John laughed “But maybe it will be like they overdose of cocaine or something.” “I wonder if you can smoke Treant leaves while we are at the topic of ****.” Rave continued her non-sensical questions. “Has been a while since I smoked.” “You had weed before?” John was a bit more shocked than was necessary, he just didn’t think of Rave as somebody who smoked. “Well, a bit. I didn’t dislike it but I also wouldn’t go out of my way to get some….Ya looking at me funny.” “Just a bit surprised is all.” “I was offered some at a party. Never met the guys again.” “Same party where you demolished a table?” “Nah, that was after that, fun fact the club I went too…”

“Would you please, in her damned name, stop talking?” Victoria stepped in, her accent became quite heavy as her anger was apparent. “I thought we were here to “farm” or whatever you call it.” “Wow, calm down there Winter-Sniper.” Rave jokingly reprimanded. “We are sweet talking here.” “You are taking too lo-“ “Who do you mean?” John interrupted.

It wasn’t like him and he felt uncomfortable suddenly interjecting like that but Victoria had said something that peeked his interest. “Mean who with what?” “You said ‘In her damned name’, who do you mean? Who is ‘her’?” Victoria was baffled for a moment. Did she say something she shouldn’t have said? “You know, Gaia.” She quickly answered. John wasn’t convinced, the words were slurred and if his Wisdom Stat gave him one thing it was Wisdom.

‘That sounded way better in my head.’ John thought, “Can we continue now?” Victoria forcefully changed the subject. John let it pass, there would be plenty of times to ask again, no need to rush things.

“Yes, yes.” John said and closed the I.D. window. He then stretched his arm to the sky and held the word Treant in his head. That was usually enough. The woods went silent as the Barrier became active. “There you go, all nice and…where is she?” John was confused to not see Victoria around. A moment later she appeared. Had she not been auto-transported because she wasn’t a member of the party? “Happy?” John asked as he pondered over that. “Yes.” Victoria answered with her stoic expression, she slid the guitar case of her shoulder and opened it.

John couldn’t see what was going on, the cases lid blocked the view, but the fact that Victoria vanished halfway in the ground before pulling out what seemed to an **** rifle told him enough. ‘Well, Gaia probably just wanted the Alliteration in her title when Gunner would have been a more apt description.’ He thought as he pulled Aclysia back out of his inventory.

“Where are we?” She asked in tiny voice, with her tiny body. “In the forest, we decided to farm Treants.” “What are Treants?” “Plant based monsters, I need you to grow to what we will from now on refer to as ‘normal size’, which is about as tall as I am, okay?” “As you wish, Creator John.” Aclysia started her transformation.

“So what is the quota? We fight until we are tired, until the boss spawns? Gimme a goal!” Rave said and stretched a bit. “My Quest says I should kill 25 Treants and the Boss for the Bonus Reward, so let’s aim for a Boss Kill.” John explained, “Do I aim to protect you as per usual, Creator John?” Aclysia asked, now up to his collarbone. “Yes…wait you remember that?” Normally he had to instruct her every time what to do. When he brought it up Aclysia looked as confused as he did. “I…I do?”

“Nice, say, could you decide whether you want to call me Creator or John?” “Whatever would you prefer?” “Honestly I don’t care.” Aclysia tilted her head. “You taught me names are important.” “Well, yes, they are, but whether you call me ‘Creator’, ‘John’ or ‘Newman’ isn’t exactly important” “Why Newman?” “It’s my family name.” “What is a family name?” “Exactly what it sounds like, the name of your fami-“