"Frei?"
"Emmi!"
Blue like ice, red like fire. The two girls wrapped each other in an embrace. Though their "elements" were opposing, they were perfect together.
The three other party members looked a bit bewildered, but since "Emmi" was the party leader, they decided the two players that had shown up were friendly.
*I guess they really are sisters... And her name is... Hearth Ember??*
Jisha stood there, dumbfounded. One of her plans was to connect with high-level players from her past life, and one such player was in front of her now!
In the past, Hearth Ember was one of the first players to reach Tier 7. There were 9 tiers in total, so on paper, she wasn't far from the peak. However, she suffered an untimely death in the real world.
Being on Synergy's forefront meant that countries would covet your skills for war. So, Hearth Ember was contracted by a country called Arsen. She was dragged into their political schemes and was forced to fight an impossible battle. Her fiery passion had always resonated with civilians, so her death was a blow not only to Arsen, but the entire Northeastern region.
Hearth Ember became a case study on how to waste potential in the worst way possible. She was one of the world's most skilled players at the time, yet she was only in her early 20s. If given several more years, how far could she have gotten?
"Uh, Fae Sol? Fae Sol to ground control?"
Jisha realized this martyr-like figure was currently speaking with her!
"Ah, yes?"
"I can't thank you enough for taking care of Frei... I wish I had a way to thank you."
"Don't worry about it. Why don't I add you as a friend? That'll be enough for now."
"Really? I'll find something for you later, otherwise it won't feel right."
"If you're going to offer a free gift, I won't hesitate to accept. But I'm serious when I say adding you as a friend is enough for me."
*>System message: Player "Hearth Ember" accepted your friend request.*
"... Alright. I promise to make it up to you in the future, though."
*Adamant until the end about this, huh?*
Everything that Jisha had done thus far was going to be done anyway if she was alone. Her companionship with Abandoned Snow was simply happenstance. Though she complained about it, it honestly made the journey slightly more entertaining. At the end of the day, it wasn't the biggest deal in the world.
*And, while I'm at it, I'll add Snow as well.*
*>System message: Player "Abandoned Snow" accepted your friend request.*
"Frei, I'm glad you're safe, but why did you make your username "Abandoned Snow"? That is definitely not what you told me it was going to be..."
*Ah, so that's the cause of the confusion earlier.*
Obviously, if the username you were trying to find didn't exist, it would be a bit difficult to add that person as a friend.
"Um, I forgot."
"Hmm... Did you *really*?"
Hearth Ember scrutinized her sister's facial expression - Abandoned Snow shifted uncomfortably under her glare.
"Haaah... Well what's done is done. What about the spawn point? How did you get that one mixed up?"
"Um... Uvan ham..let?"
"No, it was Evon Hamlet..." Hearth Ember lightly facepalmed. "Well, it doesn't matter now. I'm just glad you're here." She couldn't help but give her sister another quick hug.
"So, Ember," Jisha said, eager to continue forward. "What brings you over this way?"
She was confused as to why a party of four would be headed in this direction. The only surefire way to progress in the game was to move closer to the center of the continent. Jisha had glanced at the map to locate Evon, and if anything, Uval was slightly further away from the center. Yet, this party was here.
"If I remember from the beta correctly, there's a stronger monster over here somewhere. It's not quite a boss, but it drops something I really want to get my hands on."
*Oh?*
"Makes sense. You wouldn't mind an extra player on your hands, would you?"
"If you're willing to help, I'll gladly accept."
It was a mutually beneficial trade - Jisha would get more XP from a "strong" monster than she ordinarily would grinding solo, and Hearth Ember would receive a valuable item she sought.
Hearth Ember sent a party invitation which Jisha unhesitatingly accepted.
*>System message: You have joined player "Hearth Ember"s party.*
*>Hearth Ember: Great, we can talk like this with party chat now. Fae, did you play the beta?*
Jisha hadn't actually played the beta. In her first life, she hadn't heard about the game until about a week before its launch. However, was there a more convenient excuse for knowing a slew of Synergy trivia?
*>Fae Sol: Yeah, I have.*
Using the party chat was a bit strange if you'd never done it before. There was no keyboard; the "typing" input was simply your mind. It was a silent form of communication, almost like telepathy with subtitles. So, Jisha replied using this feature to demonstrate she didn't need a tutorial.
*>Abandoned Snow: uuuuUUUuuuuuuuuu*
*This girl, on the other hand...*
"Frei, stop. Only send what you would say out loud."
*>Abandoned Snow: Uhmmmm okaaaay...*
The party members couldn't help but giggle when they saw this unfold.
"Ok, everyone, listen up," Hearth Ember said with a lighthearted yet commanding tone. With two loud claps, everyone fell silent and directed their attention towards her. "Just so Fae and Frei are aware, I'll quickly go over this again. We're searching for a creature called a 'magma slime'. I couldn't tell you why it's even called that, considering it doesn't even look like one... Regardless, it'll be extremely obvious when you find it.
"We'll be splitting into two groups of three. It's strong, but not so strong that we need 6 players to defeat it. Naturally, I'm taking Frei with me. Icurus, you come with me as well - we still have things to discuss."
"Roger that."
"Vadium, Euphrates and Fae Sol will make up the second group. Any objections?"
"Nope."
"No, ma'am."
"This should be obvious, but let me remind you three just in case - let me know when you kill it! You three can take the XP if you manage it on your own, though. Fae, think of this as a thank you gift."
"Huh. You sure?" Jisha was a bit surprised to receive a "gift" so soon.
"Of course. I just need one of the items it drops. Anyway, good luck and happy hunting!"
---
"..."
"..."
"..."
After several minutes of walking with her two new partners, Jisha yearned for Abandoned Snow's presence. Of course, her occasional blunder still came up once in a while in the party chat, but it wasn't the same as traveling alongisde her.
Neither Vadium nor Euphrates had spoken a word thus far.
*Are they just DM'ing each other?*
And Jisha, who was unable to make small talk with strangers, was silent as well. The only thing they could do was wipe out monsters together.
*>+1 Slimeball*
*>+1 Copper*
*>System message: Level up!*
*>Name: Fae Sol*
*>Level: 1 -> 2 (+1)*
*>Class: Ranged+*
...
*>+1 Clay*
*>+2 Copper*
*>+1 Twine*
*>+1 Copper*
...
"Hey, can you stop?"
Euphrates, the other ranged unit in the group, suddenly broke the silence. And since he had been silent this entire time, it wasn't a mystery who he was addressing.
"Hmm? Stop what?"
*We've only been monotonously grinding this whole time. What did I even do?*
"Stop taking so many kills."
*Ah.*
Naturally, Jisha was landing more shots than the other two in her group. Did they consider her to be a kill-stealer?
"I'm only hitting ones you guys aren't targeting. Don't worry about me."
"That's not it. You're clearly hogging all the XP. Leave some for us."
*Interesting.*
In many games, kill-stealing was a tactic that was frowned upon. If you spent all your effort whittling down a boss only to have the last hit stolen by someone else, how would that feel? Especially in games where only the last hit counted, it was quite literally stealing. Theft. Robbery. There was no sugarcoating it.
As Jisha wanted to maintain a friendly relationship with Hearth Ember, she obviously wouldn't kill-steal from her party members. But now, Euphrates was accusing her of this crime.
"You think I'm stealing your kills?" she asked.
"Of course," Vadium, who hadn't spoken until now, responded. "Did you think we would sit quietly and let it happen?"
Naturally, Jisha understood why these two were upset. However, she really wasn't kill-stealing... by the most well-known definition of the word. If Vadium or Euphrates engaged a mob in combat, she would not target it.
She was simply one-shotting the weak ones that Euphrates, the other ranged unit, couldn't even reach. Since one of her ongoing goals was to level up as quickly as possible, she would probably kill a mob if she saw one.
*Hmm...*
The only reason Jisha was even considering entertaining their request was because she didn't know how tight-knit Hearth Ember's party was. If she and these two were close friends, Jisha wouldn't want to risk offending them for a couple of low-level mobs.
So, she conceded for now... but not without shooting Heart Ember a direct message.
*>Fae Sol: Are you close friends with Vadium and Euphrates?*
*>Hearth Ember: No, I just met them in my starter place. I needed a party of at least three for this hunt, and I'd only spawned with Icurus because... You know. Anyway, I was advertising that I was a beta player and knew where things were, and those two showed up. Since the two were friends, I had to accept both of them into the party. Why?*
*>Fae Sol: Do you care what happens to them?*
*>Hearth Ember: Well...*
...
*If even the warm-hearted Ember hesitates to answer this question, something's definitely up.*
*>Hearth Ember: Don't scare them off. You'll need them to kill the magma slime.*
*>Fae Sol: I probably won't need them.*
*>Hearth Ember: What? It's a level 5 rare monster, and it's got around 200 HP. Its attacks are a bit strange, too. There's no way you can take it out by yourself.*
*200 HP?*
*>Inventory*
*>Ranged+ Pellet: 50*
...
Each of these pellets would do around 10 damage. With Jisha's skill, it wasn't likely for her to fire an "imperfect" shot in the game's infancy. So, with 50 ammo, she could deal up to 500 damage.
200 HP was well within tolerance.
*>Fae Sol: If it only has 200 HP, it's as good as dead.*
*>Hearth Ember: ... If you're that confident, do whatever you want. To be honest, those two give me bad vibes. I really didn't want to send you with them, but I have something important to discuss with Icurus.*
*>Fae Sol: Alright :)*
*>Hearth Ember: I won't play favorites, though. I do appreciate you looking after Frei, but I don't know where your confidence is coming from. Ideally I'd like the three of you to work together. If they ask me what to do with you, I'll probably give them the same response I gave you.*
*>Fae Sol: Haha, so we're on our own... is what you're saying?*
*>Hearth Ember: I guess so. If you find the magma slime, either let me know where it is or get its loot for me. That's my main priority.*
*>Fae Sol: Roger.*
*So it's free reign. That's refreshing - there's nothing better.*
Now, there was nothing to worry about. A smirk unwittingly crept onto Jisha's face. She was going to take as much XP as she could. If these two had a problem with it...
*They'll just have to deal with me.*
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