23. Resonance of the Sea pt. 1

  I kind of envied Warrior. There was something so satisfying about the back and forth violence that goes on as a tank. Because of how the Anger mechanics worked, it was sometimes better to stand still and soak damage than to try to avoid it. As long as you could survive it, at least, and had a healer following you around.

  I liked magic, but I wasn’t certain I liked being a mage. I had initially planned on turning [Warrior] into a [Duelist] and the [Duelist] into a [Spellblade]. Now I was thinking I might wait on that decision, and turn [Mage] into [Spellblade] instead. I don’t think it mattered what route you took to reach your class, so I was starting to think I might keep one of my classes a tank.

  I was sitting in the open aired cafe across from the Adventurer’s Guild and drinking a shaved ice with Thornberry, blackberry, and appleberry chunks mixed in. It was refreshing in the hot day as I waited for the group to fill up. I had already managed to pass off being group leader to a Soldier who was very excited to tag along for my Elite Quest. They, of course, didn’t have the required quest item, but the quest text insisted that completion would count for anyone in the party and not just the one who charged Eliyenia’s comb.

  Someone suddenly joined the party, interrupting my reverie.

  It was another DPS. I opened up Party Chat and said “I think we’re full on DPS now. We should get another tank and healer, or another two tanks. This quest is going to be challenging and I don’t think that--”

  “Ignore this noob. Or kick him. Nobody does ten man challenges with three tanks, that’s stupid. We barely need one at level 25,” someone interrupted.

  I was silent for a moment. Then I said “Okay, yeah, I’ll drop group.”

  I did that, and I took another sip of my iced drink. Thirty seconds later I was re-invited, and we were down a DPS.

  “I’m so sorry about that,” Nefeline, the [Soldier] I had passed party leadership onto, said. “Everyone, this is Hagi’s quest. He unlocked it. He’s the only one who has the quest item that we need to finish it. We need him more than he needs us, because he can always just log out and do this another day.”

  “Or we can figure out how to unlock this super rare questline of his and get the quest for ourselves,” a voice said through the party chat.

  “Good luck doing that,” I said.

  “Want me to kick you too, Polix?” Nefeline asked.

  “I’m just saying. Even if he did unlock a new elite quest for the first time, it doesn’t make whatever he found exclusive. I’m all for getting the first time completion bonus, but who even is this kid? He’s not in a guild but he’s Iron Ranked, shows up out of nowhere with an Elite quest nobody’s heard of, and apparently has you on a leash,” Polix challenged.

  “Just because he’s not in a local guild or we’ve never heard of him doesn’t mean much at this level,” Nefeline pointed out. “I mean, it’s only by chance that I saw his request when I was leveling my alt.”

  “Hey, kid, why do you think we need extra tanks or heals?” Polix asked.

  “Because I’m expecting the quest to get harder the further along we go,” I explained. “I’m really not sure what to expect, but I don’t think it will be easy, and from what I’ve read, it’s pretty standard to bring an off-tank or extra healer in a ten-man challenge.”

  “Yeah, it is,” Polix said. “At level one-sixty. When the off-tank or healer can actually do some side DPS when they’re not busy.”

  “If I’m wrong and we take an extra tank or healer, then the challenge takes slightly longer because we’re low on damage but high on not dying,” I argued. “If you’re wrong and we go with six DPS, then people are going to get a death penalty and possibly miss out on a unique experience. But whatever. I’m just doing this to get to level thirty. It’s pretty easy for me to find unique experiences like this, so I don’t really care that much about this one. I’m done arguing about it.”

  I put them all on mute and went back to my shaved ice, waiting quietly until the party filled. We had three tanks, just as I’d suggested.

  We gathered just outside of Eldertide to ride out together. I chatted amicably with the others, getting to know them on the way. Polix was less confrontational face to face than he’d been in party chat, although I think that was largely thanks to Nefeline chewing him out while I hadn’t been listening.

  The others were all interested in where I’d discovered the quest chain to unlock the Elite Quest I was sharing with them while I played innocent. The rewards didn’t list my personal reputation, just normal system rewards, so I don’t think they had any clue that House Jeoran was involved at all. Shadow drew some attention, but black horses weren’t so uncommon that he was enough to unmask me.

  In the party, there was Nefeline, the soldier who was leading this Lair Busting mission, even if she didn’t realize that’s what we were doing. The other tanks were Stolit, a standard warrior tank, and Deeprum, a Dwarven Legionnaire. Deeprum wasn’t the only nonhuman in the group, as we also had an Elvish Feybinder and Ranger, as well as a Goblin Marauder. Marauder was a curious class, as it allowed the Traveler to bind up to four goblin Natives to assist them in combat. This Marauder, named SprockleFritz – although we just called him Fritz for short – had three goblin ambushers and a goblin mage with him. I was looking forward to seeing how this would affect the party dynamic.

  Aside from the Feybinder, the second healer was an Acolyte. Our final member was a drow rogue. Technically his class was an [Elf Stalker], but it was effectively the rogue class with a few movement techniques and a tracking feature that they shared with Rangers.

  It was overall a well balanced party, and I was looking forward to completing this challenge with them. It took us a while to reach the Lair; the eastern side was slightly closer to Eldertide than the Shallow Pools had been, so it wasn’t quite a ten mile ride. None of us had been here before, so we all attuned to the Nexus Point on the border which would allow us to return whenever we wanted.

  Nexus Points vary in size and intensity, but until they’re attuned they look like swirling black tornadoes of energy. They attune just by getting in range of them, and their actual size can be extremely large, as the one in the eastern side of the lair was. The nexus points in towns and cities are usually much smaller and require directions to find, rather than being visible from a mile away or more.

  The lair was a saltwater estuary filled with two types of enemies. The first type was Nagas, with long snake-like bodies topped by a human torso, and the second type a snail-like enemy that shot elemental blasts at us. The Nagas were smaller and weaker than Shleshenal of the Depths, the elite rare Naga I had fought what felt like ages ago, but that battle was actually not too far in the past. These nagas were a completely different shade of blue, and their heads were more humanoid than the snakelike Shleshenal had been.

  The Naga’s attacked in packs, while the snails usually ambushed us by disguising themselves as boulders until we’d half passed them. Fortunately the snails were easily dealt with; hitting them with an opposing element would crack open their shell and leave them vulnerable. With both Polix and I to exploit their weaknesses, we made short work of them.

  The Naga Packs were more tricky, but this was supposed to be a five man lair so we rolled right through them at first. It was too easy, and the experience was less than a quarter what we would have gotten in two five-man teams, but at my insistence we stuck together until I found the first Lair Stone.

  It was a large white crystal, the size of a melon, in the middle of an enemy’s camp. The others didn’t seem to recognize it as anything important at all, but I knew what it was the instant I saw it. I called for the others that I’d found one of the locations to charge the comb. I didn’t even bother waiting for them to finish clearing the camp before I set the comb on the ground next to the Lair Stone and picked it up.

  “Huh,” I muttered. This was the first time I hadn’t needed to find all of the lair stones to destroy the lair. I only needed a little more than half of them.

  “I think some Elites are about to spawn,” I warned everyone, and I selected the option to destroy the Lair Stone. It crumbled to dust, and for a moment nothing happened. I picked up the comb, casting [Spark] on it to make it glow.

  “Look, the comb is resonating,” I said, and I’m certain it was the worst act in history as I attempted to draw attention away from what I’d done with the stone. “Be ready for anything.”

  “What was that?” Polix demanded. “Did you just crush that rock?”

  “No, the comb sucked its energy,” I protested. “Oh look, Elite spawns.”

  I wasn’t lying, as charging at us from the distance was a group of fifteen elite level 29 Naga. They were coming in fast, and my party members didn’t have time to question me further as we prepared to receive them.

  ?