The first fight was pretty straight forward, but they did find out a couple of the twists that had been added. The Warden could summon up a small circle of ten-foot tall ice around him and a target, excluding others from it. The Snowmaker had a new ability that would freeze a person into a solid block of ice that had to be damaged for the person to be freed from it. The Oracle didn’t show off any new abilities, but they figured that might be because it was all alone in the end.
“We can do this,” Gerald chuckled. “Stacia, you make hunting humanoids so much easier.”
“I do me best to make me master proud,” she replied simply. “Iffin Marysue was nay here, we be havin’ real issues. All me ability to control them would nay matter much iffin no one was healin’ ya.”
“Right?” Karen laughed. “The healer should get the praise. That said, though, Stacia you are still making life way easier.”
“Let’s see about fulfilling these quests, then,” Alburet cut in. “If we can knock this out, we can head back to turn in the couple of spider quests we have, too.”
They spent the next four hours walking through snow that sometimes came close to being a full on blizzard. They only found one cave with doubles, which proved to be a bit more challenging but was still very doable with the group working together.
They traipsed back to the fort to turn in quests and collect their rewards. Snoweye returned their salute, then started to stacking bags of coin on his desk.
“Very well done, Alpha Company. I can see why everyone’s talking about you.”
Guild Achievement: Clear the Goblin Town
They all blinked as the achievement popped up. Stacia pulled out her Guildstone to congratulate the group that had cleared the dungeon.
“I look forward to seeing you back out here to Purge the Yeti Cave, when you grow a little stronger.” Snoweye informed them as they collected their gold.
“We will be back, sir,” Alburet informed the Lunari sergeant. “We need to go turn in quests from the Webbed Wood still today, though.”
“That place is a nightmare,” Snoweye groaned. “I hated that place so much when I did my year there.”
“The webs stick to everything,” Fluffball commiserated with the sergeant.
“Exactly,” Snoweye nodded at her. “I wish you all the best until we meet again.”
They stopped at the shop inside the walls to sell the loot they’d picked up. It mostly consisted of pelts and teeth, but still earned them a good number of silver per item.
“Back to Stormguard, catch the portal over to the Webbed Woods to turn in. After that we’re free for the rest of the day.” Alburet looked at the others, “I’m probably going to wander around some and check in with some of the guildies again.”
“That sounds like a good idea,” Gerald agreed. “Marysue and I will check in with some of them too.”
“I need to see Lilith again tonight,” Fluffball informed them.
“I will be along for tha’,” Stacia added. “After dinner?”
Fluffball nodded, “Yes, after the evening meal.”
“Okay. Let’s portal, turn in quests, then break for the rest of the day.” Alburet said. “Tiny, Bob, we’re done hunting for a while anyway. I’ll call you when I head out to check on the guildies.”
“Yes, master,” Tiny rumbled and vanished.
Bob hesitated, looking uncertain and nervous, “Umm, I might have good news by then.”
“Ya will be fine, Bob,” Stacia told him, giving him a quick hug. “Go find out where they stand.”
Taking a deep breath, Bob nodded, “Here it goes.” He vanished in his usual puff of smoke. Gerald glanced at Marysue, reminded that the two of them had an interesting conversation ahead of them still.
“After dinner,” Marysue told him, having caught his look. “I promise.”
Chapter Eighteen
Turning in the quests from the Webbed Woods was enough to push them all up a level. As they left the fort, Alburet groused a bit about how slow the experience gain was. “Quests from three zones and a lot of killing netted us only a single level.”
“They wanted it to take time for people to hit max level,” Fluff replied. “Alpha World has only been out for a month, after all.”
“True,” Karen added, “but even that much was with us really pushing at it. This isn’t nearly as friendly for the more casual person. If you could only log in, say, two hours a day, it would take forever to gain even a single level.”
“Is that such a bad thing?” Marysue asked. “Part of it is mindless grinding, sure, which while not ideal isn’t horrible. It’s not nearly as bad as if you were staring at a screen or even using the old VR goggles. Here, you are living and breathing the world. It might not end up keeping twenty million players, but if it keeps even five then it will have been wildly successful for being the first of its kind.”
“Makes me wonder what they have up in the queue next,” Gerald added as he took Marysue’s arm. “We’re going to head out to the Goblin Village area.”
“I want to pop out to the Cursed Woods,” Alburet told them. “We still need to do the quests in both of those zones, but most of our recruits should be in those level ranges. We all good with meeting up after Gerald’s meeting tomorrow?”
Everyone agreed, saying their goodbyes and trading hugs before they headed off. When Stacia and Alburet appeared in front of their home, Wilbur almost bumped into them. Alburet grinned at Wilbur’s shocked expression, “Hey, Wilbur. How are you doing?”
“What in the name of Justice happened to you?” Wilbur asked after a moment.
“I was given a boon by the Dark Lord,” Alburet replied. “I’m now a half-blood Infernal. Kind of like becoming a noble, but without having to deal with so many assholes all day.”
Wilbur’s lips twitched up, “Surrounded by beings that would rather knife you in the back even while speaking civilly towards you, or being despised by people for your blood? That is maybe eerily similar.” He looked at Stacia, “You as well?”
“Aye,” Stacia replied simply.
“I see. Is Erin in?”
“She should be. Kim has been out all day. How did the signing go?”
“It went well. Would it be okay to take Erin from your employ tonight instead of tomorrow?”
Alburet glanced over to see that Stacia’s skin had the same red tinge that his own did. He blinked once before turning back to Wilbur, “Sure, as soon as she closes up for tonight. Just have her drop the key off when she gets all of her things moved after the big reveal.”
“Of course,” Wilbur nodded to them, stepping into the archway and towards the guild hall.
Alburet ushered Stacia into the house before asking, “What is going on with your skin?”
“There be nay such thin’ as a half-Succubi. All known Half-bloods have the red tinge to their skin. This be fine, I can change me skin tone easily enough.” Her skin shifted back to normal, “It nay be any difficulty, an’ it will help keep up appearances. It will also help pave the way for when ya become a Demon Lord in the future and I can show me Succubus form to them all.”
“We don’t know that I’ll find the other pieces of the set. So there’s no guarantee that I’ll be able to transition to a Demon Lord.”
“Have faith in the way of the Dark Lord, master,” Stacia told him as she leaned her body into his. “After all, he led us to each other.”
Alburet tilted her head back and kissed her softly, “I will not gainsay your faith, Kitten. But I like to think I found you all on my own, before you captured my heart.”
“Iffin I recall correctly, it was nay ya heart I captured first,” Stacia purred, her hands going to his waist. “It was this part of ya.”