“I’m Bob,” Bob said, showing his many pointed teeth to Marysue. “Don’t mind him. He does surprisingly well as a sponge.”
Alburet was about to reply when he saw a goblin running towards them, “Next one is up.” He threw a Fire Blast as the goblin closed the distance, having just enough time for a second one before the goblin was in melee range. “Two shots in. Light him up, Bob,” Alburet called out as he parried the first attack from the goblin.
The next half an hour went smoothly for the most part. Alburet was all but reduced to tears a few times when he was hit in the head after failing to dodge, until Marysue healed him. She finished getting her five supplies while Alburet had just gotten his second and found they didn’t stack.
“The supplies don’t stack? What a farce,” Alburet said with a sigh.
“That’s why it’s only five for the minimum quest,” Marysue replied. “Most of us only have the default twenty slot bag still.”
Alburet chuckled, thinking of his hundred slot backpack. “Yeah, that can get interesting if you have other stuff in there already.” He looked into his dusty satchel which had no more room and sighed as realized that he’d forgotten to sell the crap from the prison. The extra set of ragged leather from a goblin and a rusty short sword had filled up the rest of the bag. “Anyway, if we could find an actual tank we could see about pushing into the fort.”
“Mary,” a deep voice boomed.
Alburet looked over to see the romance novel hero, complete with tight leather armor jogging towards them. The newcomer’s long blonde hair fluttered in the light breeze as he came towards them. Alburet noted the kite shield and sword the guy had in hand.
Marysue looked over, smiling, “Hey Gerald. Took you long enough. What happened to being here this morning?”
“Yeah, sorry about that,” Gerald said as he came to a stop next to them. “I forgot to set my alarm. Did I miss anything?” Gerald turned to Alburet while taking a half step towards Marysue in a slightly possessive way.
“I’m Alburet. I was helping her survive since you hadn’t turned up and she was being chased by the goblins.” Alburet said, sighing inwardly as he crossed Marysue off the possible fun times list. “Now that you’re here, we can think about heading into the keep and staking out a corner. A group that came out earlier said that the armbands drop inside.”
Gerald eyed him for a moment before smiling, “Well, thanks for helping her out. I’m up for going inside the walls, as a Defender I can tank with the best of them as long as Mary backs me up.”
Mary blushed slightly, “Oh stop. You’re a much better tank than I am a healer. Let me toss you an invite, and if we can get another two DPS we can even try the dungeon once we hit level eight.”
Alburet perked up, “A dungeon? There’s a dungeon here?”
Laughing, Gerald nodded, “You must not have done much in the beta. Goblin Fort is the name of the area as well as the name of the dungeon. The entrance is the main doors of the main keep building. In fact, since me and Mary are level seven already we should just grab two more DPS now and grind the interior walls until we can step into the dungeon.”
“I’m close to seven, but not there yet,” Alburet added, “I like the idea though. Let’s do it.”
Mary turned to the field and raised her voice, “Need two DPS to level to eight and try the dungeon.”
The ten closest people who weren’t actively engaged in a fight came running over shouting that they wanted in. Mary took a step back, holding up her hands as they bore down on her. Gerald stepped into the way speaking up, “Calm the fuck down, damn it, or none of you will go.” That brought the players up short but they still tried to talk over each other.
“Yo, one at a time. Our healer has final say,” Alburet said, using his command voice which shut the people up. “Better. Let’s start with you,” he tapped the player nearest him.
Each player introduced themselves, stating their class and level as Alburet pointed to each. Once they had run through the ten people who wanted to go, Mary took the level eight Elementalist Dwarven male, Rocksure. She also took the level seven female Lunari Berserker, Fluffball as the fifth party member to round them out. “Sorry folks, that fills us, but we might run it multiple times. If we do I’ll cycle different people in for the quests, okay?” Five players had already left, in various degrees of huff as soon as she’d chosen the initial party members. The three players left readily agreed to be on standby for their chance.
Mary laid out the ground rules for the group, “All loot is round robin. I do suggest if it is an upgrade for one of us that we hand whatever it is off to the one who can use it most. Once we hit the dungeon, remember boss loot is based on group composition and we should each get a drop from the end boss. If the other bosses drop stuff we’ll go with need before greed with a random roll to see who wins either of those categories. Any objections?”
Alburet took in the info silently but smiled when no one objected to the loot distribution. “So, we ready to rock and roll? Oh, Gerald, before we pull let me hit you with my five minute buff.”
Gerald nodded, “Okay, let’s head over to the gate.”
Fluffball fell in beside Alburet with a shy smile, “You know you’re playing the weakest class, right?”
Rolling his eyes, Alburet looked over at the tiger stripped Lunari, “I’ve heard that. I didn’t want to put up with the smell of rotting flesh like like the necro, but wanted to be a pet class so here I am.”
“Rotting flesh smell? You playing full immersion?” Fluffball asked with wide eyes, “Doesn’t that hurt?”
Laughing darkly, Alburet nodded, “Oh yeah, which makes me so happy we have a tank now. Even with the magic healing it still hurt like hell when I got cut.”
“You a masochist then?” Fluffball asked, glancing at him sideways.
“Normally closer to the opposite of that,” Alburet chuckled. “Let’s just say that I play fully immersed for a reason I can’t disclose.”
“Interesting,” Fluffball said as she licked a hand and smoothed out her fur next to her ear like she was grooming.
Alburet snorted, turning his head away, “Fricking cat.”
“Hey, no making fun of me grooming if you play with full pain enabled while tanking mobs. After all, I’m just role playing,” Fluffball said, her skin under the fur tinging red.
“Lunari can blush?” Bob spoke up for the first time since the group had filled.
“Holy shit, your imp talks?” Fluffball exclaimed, looking back at the imp.
“Better than he does at times,” Bob laughed.
“He is a right pain in the ass is what he is, but he helps,” Alburet replied.
“Helps? Who has killed more mobs since we joined up? Me, that’s who,” Bob replied, strutting slightly.
Rocksure glanced back, “Dude, you let that thing talk to you like that? The other Summoner I know has his muzzled, he got tired of it talking back.”
“I bet that imp doesn’t rock like I do, then,” Bob said, smirking.
“Whatever. Summoners suck anyway,” Rocksure sneered as they approached the gates.
“One incoming,” Gerald said, spying a Goblin Scavenger exiting the gates and heading for them.
Alburet stepped up, casting Retribution onto Gerald by slapping his back to finish the spell. “You’re good to go,” Alburet said, prepping his Fire Blast.
The fight was over in seconds, with Alburet and the others being able to focus on doing damage. Gerald sighed, “So weak. Let’s get in there.”
The group hurried through the gate and hugged a wall once they were inside. Alburet caught sight of over thirty goblins, all running around the interior along with two other full groups of players in the back corners, pulling steadily. They came to a stop in one of the front corners and Gerald nodded to them, “Alburet, your spells are the weakest so just pull them in one at a time to start with.”