Chapter 25

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 blame 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 member to our usual two-man party adds to her unusual behavior. Not that I'm complaining since a cute angel is basically half-hugging me.... but still!

Meanwhile, on my right, Liz pulls on my hand like I'm some sort of wagon. She seems very eager to help me in any way she can to show gratitude for the 'debt' she still thinks she owes me. 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 something 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 became 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 sometimes) but we still chose this place to be our grinding spot even though we're grossly under-leveled because we have someone boosting us. Sure, Clarissa is getting some 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 someone 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 game 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 me 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 time. This is mostly thanks to Liz just killing every mob that comes 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 time I use it. To top it all it only has an effect time 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 me how her followers were literally begging her to feature me on her streams again since her last stream with me on our scrim matches was well received.

It just made me 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 agreement that I would not dodge her if she tried to hug me 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 time 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 extremely fast learner.

We garnered a lot of attention from people who were also grinding in the same Forest as us, which made me 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, some 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 implemented 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 gamers 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 become nonexistent if they enable too many servers for grinding. Some 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 same server as each other. That is why joining a guild is required if you want to survive in the later stages of the game, that is unless you are incredibly skilled and can survive solo. CoA is a competitive PvP-based game after all so the devs do whatever they can to promote conflict between players.

Our grind repeated a couple of times for about 3 hours of continuous grinding while taking quick small breaks mostly for Clarissa's sake. We leveled just 5 times making me 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 game. 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 games, mental exhaustion is a different matter. Especially if the said person is not used to playing VR games for a whole day like us 'gamers'.

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 me a resolute look... which was extremely adorable if I might add.

Although I'm worried she might be pushing herself too hard.

As I was contemplating what to do, Liz chimed 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 met a while ago. As expected from an extrovert, meanwhile it took me 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 somewhat 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-time use and disappears after a set amount of time 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 me 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-game wealth often so I forget that she is somewhat of a big shot in CoA by the normal standards. Also a ranker and accomplished streamer to boot... I said I'm not jealous!

"Come on sit, sit! Let's rest for a while," Liz forcefully suggested.

I got onto the ornate bench first to encourage Clarissa. After seeing me 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 me 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 me 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 come 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 me 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 melodious 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 someone 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 messaging me to not waste both of our time.

Then it clicked on why she seemed so familiar. 

She was a former acquaintance of mine from my previous guild.