I'm currently in a pickle.
I might even literally be getting pickled right now.
You ask why?! Because on my left side, Clarissa clings onto my shoulder like a very cute koala. I can't really bla her though. She is likely scared of the creepy dark forest atmosphere we are situated in. The fact that she's still likely shy about having a new mber to our usual two-man party adds to her unusual behavior. Not that I'm complaining since a cute angel is basically half-hugging .... but still!
anwhile, on my right, Liz pulls on my hand like I'm so sort of wagon. She seems very eager to help in any way she can to show gratitude for the 'debt' she still thinks she owes . I always remind her that I did what I had to do so she doesn't have to feel that way. Being an underleveled officer is the reason sothing like that happened in the first place so I'm just assuming full responsibility.
I know I should be delighted by this current scenario cause' it feels like I suddenly beca a normie going out with close friends. It feels like we're walking to a karaoke place or a mall, which I admit I had very little to no prior experience whatsoever with. That's fine and all, but the thing is, we are really not in an area that can be considered a 'friends hanging out' type of place.
We are currently in the Nightshade Forest in the demon continent famous for its grinding spot for levels 70 to 80 leveled players. It is located northwest of the city of Cindersoul, the demon continent's capital city. I'm currently level 67, four levels higher than Clarissa who is still just 63 (mostly because I grind solo sotis) but we still chose this place to be our grinding spot even though we're grossly under-leveled because we have soone boosting us. Sure, Clarissa is getting so of the XP but I calculated that bringing her won't make that much of a difference in the long run because of the party bonus for a larger number of parties. I also don't want to leave her too much behind in terms of level so it's a little biased on my part. We could've even gone for a full four-man party to grind with if we could find soone who won't slow us down and is still in the level 60s. Sadly, those types of people are hard to find since we cannot be sure of other players' skills in the ga just by identifying them.
The ambiance in this dark forest is quite dreary though. The trees are so tall and thick that any light that might've managed to break through the treetops is completely muted once it reaches the ground. A heavy silence fills the air, broken only by the rustle of leaves and birdsong. Even my own footsteps seem quieter here as if the forest is sucking the sound out of the air. There is an unsettling feeling of being watched, but even when I glance back, the only thing behind is even more darkness.
It also feels like I cannot dodge at all if an enemy decides to ambush us because I'm sandwiched between these two.
I know that nothing really poses a threat against us now that Liz is accompanying us but I'm not used to my dodging instinct being suppressed.
We are currently walking to the next grinding spot to conserve stamina. Our grind is going smoothly, having just finished clearing two grinding sites in less than 10 minutes is quite a good use of the ti. This is mostly thanks to Liz just killing every mob that cos into view with nothing but a single precise critical strike with her rapier.
I can also do that with my unique staff by casting the 'Blood Curse' weapon skill to drastically boost my damage potential but it's risky and has the inconvenience of waiting for 5 min every ti I use it. To top it all it only has an effect ti of 30, seconds making it impractical for repeated uses.
One big upside in all of this is I managed to convince Liz to not stream for today.
She was against it at first, telling how her followers were literally begging her to feature on her streams again since her last stream with on our scrim matches was well received.
It just made more motivated to not let her stream today, and after a couple of back-and-forths, I finally managed to convince her... just barely though, and with a heavy price. She got out of the agreent that I would not dodge her if she tried to hug for the whole day. It's a fair trade I guess.... probably.
We continued grinding and clearing up the level spots. It takes a while for mobs to respawn so we always move from one grinding spot to another after wiping out all the mobs that reside there. The enemies we face are mostly dark elves of different variants like knights, archers, and mages. I mostly just try to protect Clarissa and buff Liz while she does all the hard work. It's the quickest and safest play if we are to grind effectively for long periods.
There are a few close calls where Clarissa almost died but I always manage to heal her on ti or parry a fatal arrow or dark ball coming her way so our grind remains smooth and uneventful. It also helps that she is talented in her own way. Her basics are impeccable and her intuition is on point. I know I'm probably biased because I'm her teacher but anyone seeing her rate of growth would have to admit that she is an extrely fast learner.
We garnered a lot of attention from people who were also grinding in the sa Forest as us, which made feel a little bit sorry for them because we always get almost all the XP from the surrounding mobs.
Most of them gave us a look of displeasure, so death stares, but none called out to us nor made any trouble for us mostly because they saw Liz. Having a ranker in your party does that, it serves as a deterrent for people especially if they think there is a chance of getting PKed by the said ranker. Though I'm pretty sure Liz won't resort to that, not if she can help it.
Higher-level hunting grounds have limited servers so as not to fluctuate the prices of materials. Although cross-server instances have been implented in low-level grinding spots, it is still regulated in higher-level ones that drop valuable materials for high-level crafting.
The scarcity of the materials drives up the value of it in the market. Having a high demand from the millions of active gars playing CoA and a low supply of crafting materials boosts the market price after all. Conversely, the price of the materials on the market will inevitably beco nonexistent if they enable too many servers for grinding. So people will just hire players to spam farm loot 24-7 if that is the case. The CoA team manages it very well, making the price of the materials fairly decent creating a stable market of the materials.
The result of this is that guild skirmishes often happen between guilds that happen to be on the sa server as each other. That is why joining a guild is required if you want to survive in the later stages of the ga, that is unless you are incredibly skilled and can survive solo. CoA is a competitive PvP-based ga after all so the devs do whatever they can to promote conflict between players.
Our grind repeated a couple of tis for about 3 hours of continuous grinding while taking quick small breaks mostly for Clarissa's sake. We leveled just 5 tis making just past level 72 and Clarissa at level 68.
I am reminded again of how hard it is to level in the later stages of the ga. At this rate, I won't even get to level past 70 before the qualifier starts. It could've been a whole lot slower, but thankfully, we had Liz boosting us so I'm not complaining.
After a while of even more grinding, I noticed Clarissa was getting exhausted. Although getting physically fatigued is impossible for VR gas, ntal exhaustion is a different matter. Especially if the said person is not used to playing VR gas for a whole day like us 'gars'.
I paused for a second to check up on her.
"You alright Clarissa?" I asked worriedly.
"I-I'm fine, I can still go on!" she gave a resolute look... which was extrely adorable if I might add.
Although I'm worried she might be pushing herself too hard.
As I was contemplating what to do, Liz chid in.
"Let's take a break for now, I'm exhausted!" Liz made a mock yawn while stretching her arms upward like a cat.
A pretty charming gesture that I would love to have a stolen picture of. Wait what are you thinking Katherine!? You already stalk her streams, let us not get any more degenerate than that shall we?
"My shoulder is getting numb with all the strikes I did," Liz made an excuse to convince Clarissa.
"...Alright," Clarissa gave in.
She perfectly knows how to handle Clarissa even if they just t a while ago. As expected from an extrovert, anwhile it took a couple of days to handle her personality. How unfair. Extroverts really are built differently... but I'm not jealous or anything!
Liz summoned a sowhat luxurious bench and a fireplace, making a comfortable resting spot in the middle of the enemy territory. Summoned items like this cannot be used inside dungeons nor in battle mode. It is also a one-ti use and disappears after a set amount of ti so it is not an item that can be used willy nilly. It is only used for luxury purposes and is quite a bit costly in terms of materials for crafting it.
It made recall that Liz is 'the' guild leader of a high-ranking guild, my own guild leader at that. She just doesn't flex her in-ga wealth often so I forget that she is sowhat of a big shot in CoA by the normal standards. Also a ranker and accomplished strear to boot... I said I'm not jealous!
"Co on sit, sit! Let's rest for a while," Liz forcefully suggested.
I got onto the ornate bench first to encourage Clarissa. After seeing sit, she quickly sat to my left and then latched on to my arm just like before.
Liz looked at us for a little bit with an unreadable expression before scooting over to my right side and copying Clarissa by latching onto my other arm. Although the big difference is my whole arm is trapped in softness personified... I'm really not jealous at all!
She smiled at mischievously while I gave her a look of utter defeat... what are you, a kid?!
We sat in comfortable silence. Clarissa was never much of a talker to begin with and Liz was leisurely enjoying the ambience. The scent of wood smoke hangs thick in the air, an added effect from the luxury item. It makes a practical type of person like appreciate its worth in materials. The calming fire crackles and sparks in the crisp night air. In the dim light, the shadows of surrounding leaves seem to co alive as they dance and sway in the subtle, cool breeze. The peaceful sound of a running stream nearby adds to the already serene ambiance. Coupled with the cozy high-class bench plus the snuggling sensation of the two brings closer and closer to dreamland.
After a few minutes of resting, we prepared to continue our grind. As we were about to head out, A lodious high-pitched feminine voice caught our attention.
"So you guys are the ones greedily occupying all the grinding spots in this forest." she declared in a self-righteous manner that broke off any doubts of being in the wrong.
The girl seems a year older than us judging by her build alone. Blazing red hair. A furred cloak that embellishes her regal look. An aura of authority that matches her striking face, and 'assets' that can even stand up to soone like Liz.
The thing is, this girl seems familiar.
I identified her
Ariadne
Hp: 100%
Mp: 100%
Lvl: 95
Guild: Paragons Guild (Vice Guild Leader)
Duel wr: 73%
Wins: 1617
Matches: 2215
Team Rank matches wr: 81%
Wins: 3967
Matches: 4898
1v1 Rank matches wr: 73%
Wins: 3937
Matches: 5394
id#:***********
Introduction: Our guild is not recruiting right now. Do not bother ssaging to not waste both of our ti.
Then it clicked on why she seed so familiar.
She was a forr acquaintance of mine from my previous guild.
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