They spent the next hour or so luring individual rats, sometimes two at a time. Sean began making a pile of rat tails at a safe distance from the road and the nearest beasts. Each round yielded two or three quest items and took a few minutes: two of seeking targets and fighting, then five of regrouping and resting, give or take. They weren't talking much, and Emma was on her phone most of the time. The rats were becoming sparser where they operated – it seemed that the bulk of the action was happening by the city wall, most beasts coming out of the river around there and players camping the walls. Still, there were many that slipped past the group, and they hung around farther away.
It was getting late, and Sean counted eighteen tails. He had failed to recover a few when they were forced to retreat in a hurry, at risk of being surrounded or overrun – but the rats preferred corpses over armed prey, so relocation was safe enough.
"Okay, two more and we should be good," he remarked after counting. Emma didn't respond, so he explained, "I'm not sure how quests work – I took one to bring ten rat tails, but since we're a party of two, then–"
"Whatever," she interjected, then frowned a little.
He continued, "I figured twenty should be good enough in case it's counted for the whole party." Emma just kept typing, so he asked, "Aren't you at all interested in the quests and earning money here?"
"Sure, fine. Sounds like a plan," she commented.
"Okay, two more then…" he concluded and looked around.
The sun was low on the horizon, and it would get dark soon. The player crowd was slowly thinning, and the rats were pushing back – Sean figured fighting overnight would be a bad idea, since he had no clue about sources of light in this world. The two large moons were high overhead, but would they provide sufficient illumination? Only time would tell…
"Maybe this way," Sean suggested and pointed at two rats some distance away. He started heading there, and Emma followed. It seemed simple enough: lure one in, then deal with the other – or both at once if they came together. Or run if more were attracted. Just as they had done a couple of times before – or three, if counting the messy start right out of the gate.
The two rats spotted them and charged, so he directed, "Can you target the one farther away? I'll deal with the–" A projectile had already passed by him, aimed at the straggler. Good hit. The beast staggered and the other kept advancing. Easy as pie.
Sean slashed it from the side to stop the assault, then used Fighter's 'Blunt Blow' – not the most apt name to use with axes, but it worked just fine. It was also the weakest of the three melee attacks he could use, since he didn't want to show Paladin's Smite in the open and the Berserker's skills wouldn't work. Sean suspected he was wearing far too many clothes for the latter.
He missed and cursed under his breath. Focus! The rat charged and chewed on his left shin protector, so he kicked its head with the right boot. A chunk of leather guard tore off, but Sean followed with his tried and tested Twin Strike and finished the beast off.
Suddenly his ears rang with a cacophony of… ringtones? Bells? He glanced up, then around – but nothing had changed! The sun was still low, other players fighting in the distance, Emma on her phone. He asked, "Did you hear– What was–"
She glanced at him and exclaimed, "Look out!"
Sean looked ahead, and the other rat was in front of him. It bit into his left leg and clawed at the armor, but the bite pierced through the leather pant leg and sank deep into his flesh. He yelped in pain, but forced himself to fight. He kicked with the right leg, but the rat didn't let go and kept clawing at the other.
The failed kick made him lose his balance and fall back. The oversized rat leaped to assault his legs, but got hit by a magical projectile and squealed. It was enough for Sean to slip out from under its forelegs and kick the head again, this time pushing it back. He swung one axe, but lost his grip and it flew to the side.
Sean got up and struck down with the other one a couple of times, keeping the beast at bay. He was too panicked to use any skills, so it was only Emma's third magic attack that finished the rat off. She actually approached him this time, a worried expression on her face. He winced and said, "Thanks for the help, but– Shit, it hurts!" He tried not to put any weight on the injured leg.
"Yeah, I told you they were pretty nasty," she reminded him.
"You think I don't know– But come on, some healing? Maybe?" he asked. She didn't reply and stopped four steps from him, so he insisted, "Any minute now? You are a Healer, right?"
She frowned hard at this, but then sighed and remarked, "Okay, just…" She concentrated, closed her eyes, and aimed the wand-staff at him. Another projectile flew out and hit him in the chest. The leather chest piece absorbed most of it, but he still felt pins and needles at the point of impact – though nowhere near as bad as the leg wound.
"What the hell was that for!" Sean exclaimed. "Am I that annoying?"
"No, it's– I confused the two…" she tried to explain.
"Just focus, come on," he pleaded, then looked around. Some rats had noticed the commotion and were approaching cautiously. Four, five, more… there was no way he could outrun them with an injured leg. He tried to advise, based on his own skill-learning efforts: "Just think healing thoughts, say it out loud if–"
"Okay-okay, I got it!" Emma cut him off, visibly annoyed. The beasts were getting closer. She focused again… nothing happened.
"Maybe say heal out loud to channel it?" Sean offered. That was how he had mentally linked the attack-thoughts to the melee skills.
She complained, "But that Australian dude said–"
"To hell with it, just do it," he broke in.
Emma took a deep breath, concentrated, and said, "Heal… heal-heal…" – and his leg felt perfectly fine now. Must've been a light injury that the basic spell fixed – but he had no time to examine it!
Instead, Sean took a step toward her, just to make sure the leg was fine. It seemed so. He said, "Now run!"
She started, "What? Run from–"
"Just run!" he shouted and grabbed her hand, already pulling her away from half a dozen beasts.
He wanted to head back to the gate for safety at first, but the other players were much closer, and they had been handling larger groups of rats before… He glanced back, and there were a lot more rats – but no time to count! Some stopped at the carcasses, but others kept chasing. And they were catching up to them!
He was almost out of breath when he heard a swishing sound. Then a few more. Then some magic projectiles flew at the rats, and even two armored players stepped in to block the beasts chasing them. Sean looked back and there were more than ten rats advancing, but arrows rained down on them from the wall and a few casters kept sending offensive spells as well – nothing spectacular, just various glowing orbs and effects. The last three beasts that got through were stopped by the melee players, and Sean only then noticed that he had dropped his other axe as well.
It lay at his feet, so he picked it up. Emma was also panting. The melee players were both wearing heavy armor, thick steel-padded leather by the looks of it. One of the Tanks walked up to them and asked, "What the heck were you doing out there by yourselves?" The voice was clearly male, but they couldn't see his face inside the helmet. Not with his position against the setting sun.
"It felt… like a good idea… at the time…" Sean said between breaths.
"Sure thing, dude," the young-sounding man commented, "but we were already making bets on when you're gonna get swarmed…"
Emma groaned and stared at Sean with scorn, but he ignored it and said to the other guy, "Thanks for the save! Is that– Wait, was it so obvious that we'd–"
The other Tank had stopped by them as well. It turned out to be a dark-skinned woman – though it was only noticeable when she raised her visor, the thick armor covered everything else, head to toe. She cut in, "No shit! But took you long enough, congrats!" Then she turned to the guy and stated, "You owe me a silver, by the way."
"Hey, they did get swarmed in the end!" the man complained.
"You said 'in fifteen minutes' like an hour ago," the female Tank reminded the guy. "Look at where the sun–"
"Alright-alright, you win, alright!" he cut her off and walked away.
The woman looked at Sean and said, "And a Warrior yoloing like that?"
He tried, "But I thought it would be–"
"No kidding, newbie syndrome…" she interrupted, shaking her head – then added, pointing a finger at him, "We're wrapping up soon, so don't do this again!" He just nodded and she left as well.
Sean was left alone with Emma, though other players were still nearby. It felt like they were snickering and glancing in their direction – he wondered how much money would change hands over that stunt. The Tank guy did say 'bets' after all, plural.
Emma just shook her head.
He noticed that and began, "Phew, quite an adventure, huh? But all's well that–"
"Don't." She stopped Sean, also glaring at him and squinting a little. "I'm gonna… I think I've had enough excitement for the day. Let's head back, okay?"
"So soon?" he asked. "Wait, what time is it? Is that showing on your phone in here?"
She squinted more, but then looked at her phone and said, "Three forty." A small pause. "But that's probably Central."
"How do you mean– Wait, so you're not from San Francisco? I thought the portal– The facility…" he trailed off, since he had no idea how he even got here in the first place.
"Apparently not," Emma remarked.
Sean glanced at the sky – the blue slowly darkening. The sun was about to set… he figured the world must be in some European time zone, since all the architecture and flags were like that. Or however this place worked.
Sean looked around for a few seconds, then nodded to Emma and confirmed, "Okay, let's go back."
They headed to the west gate, and he took a moment to calm down. For some silly reason, he grew slightly attached to the phone-obsessed Emmo-chick . He didn't want to just part ways, but what else… A meal, perhaps? He didn't even want a date, nor had he found her emotional detachment alluring – but they had been partying for a while, cooperating to some extent, and he was eager to discuss some details about the lecture too – or maybe just joke about it if she hadn't been paying attention back then. But, for the most part, he just longed for some human contact – even if it meant hanging out in whatever Omegan abomination of a medieval-style world this was.
So he asked while walking, "How about a quick dinner, then? Shouldn't be too exciting, and I'm starving!"
"I'd really rather not," she replied dryly.
"Why not, do you have other plans?" he pursued.
"No, but– I mean, yes. That would be–"
"Now I'm getting mixed messages," he cut in, then smirked and tried, "Come on, not a date, but… I don't know if it's adrenaline talking or just– Anyway, do you need to leave the game soon? Or…" – he barely stopped himself from asking whether Emma's parents had to pick her up at a set hour. That would definitely ruin any chance for dinner.
She sighed, "I don't have any 'local currency' ."
Sean was confused and asked, "Oh… what about that gift from Bruce? I don't think he was a very good instructor, but at least–"
"I lost it," she broke in.
"Ouch, umm…" he started and checked his leather pants pocket. The coin was there, along with the two grafts they had received. "Tell you what, I'm buying," he offered and smiled, then joked, "To clear up the spell mix-up."
Emma studied him for a moment. He shrugged, trying to appear non-threatening – but it only made her eyes narrow a little more. She finally snorted and said, "F**k it, fine, whatever."
Sean raised an eyebrow – this was… definitely different. But he didn't want to comment so as not to ruin the moment. Instead, he simply nodded and offered, "Okay, let's go grab the tails for quest rewards and–"
"I'm not going back there," she interjected.
He slowly nodded, then looked out into the field. Some rats were still there but dispersed, and their chosen retreat-spot was empty. It seemed safe enough, so he suggested, "How about you just wait for me at the gate – or not, if you change your mind? I'll go and pick up the quest items and… I guess, if I don't come back alive, then one less annoying dude to worry about, right?"
"You'll respawn," she commented dryly. It made him laugh.
"Yeah, but…" he tried to say while still chuckling, "I don't know where or when… And even then–"
"Whatever, just…" she cut in and exhaled wearily. "Fine, go get them – I'll wait for a bit." A small pause. "Knock 'em dead."
Sean smiled and turned to the field, but tried to clarify first, "You mean the already-dead rat tails?"
"Whatever!" she exclaimed, clearly exasperated.
So Sean ventured forth, glad she didn't wish him to 'break a leg' or anything like that, and dead-set on learning all the healing skills from his glitched classes – because Emma was an abysmal Healer. He should've done it sooner, but the melee skills felt more important in the testing room. Funnily enough, the Berserker attacks seemed to work back there…
…could there exist a way to glitch his clothes?