Chapter 67: Campfire Talk
The horrific sound of a vibrating phone on a glass table dragged Janette out of her dreams. She slowly opened her eyes and listened to the noise for a few seconds but the bastard did not stop calling. Some early light was sneaking under the heavy curtains of the hotel room and Janette slowly made her way to the table cursing the caller and herself for putting it there. “Unknown Number”, it said on the screen and 6:57 AM.
“Yes, hello?” Her voice sounded like crap, this early in the morning. “Good morning Janette, it is me Marcus.”, her brain only slowly processed the sounds that came out of the phone but eventually she said “Why the hell are you calling me this early? From where are you calling? And again, why are you calling this EARLY?”. “I’m in Korea right now. And sorry I think I messed up the time zones a bit.” Marcus voice said but Janette’s brain did not make it beyond Korea. “The heck are you doing in Korea? How…” And then Marcus explained in a few sentences what happened and Janette sighed. “That crazy bastard.”
Marcus did not make it back to the HQ until noon next day and as he walked into the estate he could see Achara training hard with Grace. She is already here, Marcus thought. He stopped and watched the two women and it was clear that Grace was pushing Achara hard. Basic training, sword fighting, nothing fancy but Grace seemed to have a problem with basically everything Achara did. “How can you even think about mastering a new ability if your sword style is this unrefined and faulty! Your attacks are predictable and your footwork inefficient! I don’t need some fancy ability to knock you out, a piece of wood is enough.” Grace shouted and for sure she was wielding a small tree branch and harassed Achara with it. Marcus watched Grace, the drill sergeant, and poor Achara for some time. “They are at it since the morning.” Kou’s voice came from behind him. He had a bag of fresh bread and other groceries and was pushing an electric bike. “Hi, I hope Achara is okay with that.” Marcus said, already worried that the newcomer might cause problems. He wished he had been here to introduce Grace but circumstances (Kim!!!) screwed this up.
“Oh she loves it. She finally has somebody who can teach and fight her properly. Fighting you is “unsatisfying” she told me.” Marcus felt hurt but could understand why Achara felt that way.
“Hungry?” Kou asked with a smile, Marcus confirmed the question and they went into villa. The day went past with all matter of small duties and questions, that Marcus had to solve. In the evening everybody came together for a large feast and Marcus used the opportunity to inform everybody about the events in Korea and “Carapace”.
“I will concentrate on developing Carapace from the ground up. That also means I will need some help.” he explained. Grace and Janette looked far too eager to “help”, for his liking. Besides that, Marcus was happy to see how well Grace integrated into the clan. Candis acted as a natural counter weight to the rough girls and as long as she was around they behaved quite well. Overall Candis seemed to enjoy being in charge of a bunch of young people. “It keeps me busy, there is always something happening.” she said.
As a group, they discussed tactics and the changes that Grace would bring to their combat formation. For now Grace would act as a second tank and the rest would dynamically react to the situation. Candis would stay in the background but they all agreed she had to follow them around not only for the healing but also that she could level up. She had by far the lowest level, a common problem for healers and supports. As the evening progressed they got to know each other better, well they got to know the real Grace better. They exchanged stories and heard from Grace’s exploit including the horrific “dragon” raid on London.
From her point of view she got far too much credit for the events. In the end she got famous for being a hot blonde at the right time at the right place. But Marcus did not fully believe that, Grace did fight bravely and risked her life to bring down that large beast. She did not do it alone of course and the media ignored the hard work and sacrifice of others, but Grace was the real deal. He had experienced that with his own body. When Grace learned that Janette was married to the Queen of Hearts she did not want to believe it until Janette showed her some of the wedding pictures. “How are you people connected to such big names?” she said and took another shot from a German Schnaps. Marcus had gifted it to the clan even so he himself did not get anything out of drinking alcohol. His high vitality had made it a very short experience anyway but since he got his regeneration, alcohol did nothing for him.
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As the clock ticked beyond midnight they became all philosophical and Kou brought up an interesting topic “What is the class you would most hate to face one on one?” he said. “For me it is actually a true Hawkeye like Janette. Can’t get away from her, can’t dodge her, can’t out-range her. She has a good chance to get a first attack in too. Janette is like the perfect counter to my class.” Kou went first and Janette looked mighty smug. “Interesting.” Grace said and went next “There are many bad match ups for a Paladin, which is not a surprise with 162 classes, but the one I personally never would want to face is a Phantasmal Mage. Paladins are flexible and can react to a lot of circumstances but the ability of a Phantasmal Mage to instantly create threats and to attack with lethal force from any distance or direction feels completely unfair.” Everybody nodded, there was a reason the Phantasmal Mage was forever rank 2 even so other ranks have changed over time. A powerful PM like Cherry was basically a one man army. They can create and move their phantasms with their mind and these “real illusions” can become extremely deadly as the power of the PM rises.
“Alright, I will go next to balance things. My worst enemy is a Titan.” Janette said and Marcus looked surprised. “Really?” he said but Janette nodded with a serious look on her face. “Right now I have still the upper hand but I can see how, down the road, a Titan becomes so tanky that I can eventually no longer kill them. Does not matter if I get all hits in, all the time, if the Titan can out tank and heal it. The only hope I have is that you never get anything that helps you move faster or better that I can kite you forever. Well until I ran out of ammunition.” She explained and it made sense.
“Now it is your turn Marcus.” Janette said with a smile. “Well, generally there are a lot of classes that are scary but my worst enemy are those with powerful crowd control abilities, like the Spatial Mage. But on the top is definitely Onmyoji (rank 11). They are incredibly skill based but if you meet a really smart one, there are so many ways they can mess you up with their talismans.” Marcus said. “True, have you seen that viral video some months back of that Onmyoji girl who killed the twenty level higher Berserker without as much as a scratch?” Grace said and they watched it just to confirm how scary that class was. With their ability to cause a wide range of effects on things their talismans touches you need to be constantly on the look out for those talismans. Miss one and you might be dead meat like that Berserker who stepped on one and was paralyzed.
Last was Achara, because Candis did not want to fight anybody ever. “I don’t have a singular class that I find most scary but anything that can cause large scale aoe attacks with fire I truly dread. I hate the idea to be burned and my invisibility does not protect me against it. If I ever get Phase Walk to work it would be a lot better but things like the Paladins Channel Light or the Firelord’s burn effect can’t be avoided.” Achara said and Marcus could understand that. “With so many classes every class can be countered in some way. That is why we need to work together.” Marcus said and Janette reacted with “Hear, hear, the wise words of the clan leader.” When the laughter died out Grace spoke up once more. “Besides other classes there are of course monsters too. Have you ever heard of a double evolution monster?” and a lot of head shaking followed.
Grace vanished into her new room and came back with a tablet. She searched for something and finally showed everyone a picture of a terrifying monster. The closest thing Marcus could compare it too was a bone dragon from one of his old computer games. But it was not bone instead it had a skinny body made from dense white flesh, it also lacked wings. The eyes were glowing purple and it was surrounded by an air of death and destruction. “That thing alone wiped out a full 20 man raid team. Everybody level 80 or higher. Happened two months ago in an underground ruin on a ghastly ice planet.” Marcus felt cold fear grasp his guts. “Does that mean evolved forms can evolve again? How often can that happen?” Achara asked and Grace shrugged her shoulders. “So far this kind of thing is the worst we have seen, but I would bet it is not the end of it. If class holders can become as strong as the Protector, I bet the monoliths and their creators have made things that can stand up to them.”
Marcus fully agreed with Grace. They often talk about how powerful a level 100 class holder was but out there were things that could rip them apart like wet paper. It reminded him of the Undead on that horse a while back. “Grace what do you think about the Undead?” He asked. Grace thought for a moment “What ever they are, they are no monsters, they are intelligent and they have purpose. From what I have heard from rumors there have been several more encounters that have not been made public and the Undead are extremely tough. According to one rumor the Chinese have actually destroyed a foot soldier type by bombarding it from long range. But they completely exhausted several level 100+ class holders and that thing was trapped at the time. So, my opinion? They are an absolute nightmare, maybe worse than the monsters.” And on that note they disbanded the meeting and went to bed. Marcus still lay awake for a long time thinking of Undead riding on the back of bone dragons.
