They didn't push the topic of Sean's self-proclaimed 'overleveling' further, but asked him to leave some more Gremlins for them next time – since he had apparently killed most of the crowd. Otto used his Cleric skill to restore Sean's armor to functional condition: not brand new, but the holes magically patched themselves and some blood washed itself out. Literally magic, he concluded.
The in-game economy made a lot more sense to him – a few coppers for a spell cast or two seemed sensible, possibly even overpriced. Then again, they apparently had to replace parts of his leather armor, and the Jack of plate was messed up after the sewer fights. Simple repairs were likely cheaper.
When they were preparing for another pull, Arvid asked Emma how she got her phone to work in here… She merely shrugged with a "Humph!" – which seemed to end that conversation.
Sean went to the courtyard again, but it became clear why only eleven creatures attacked them the first time: others were scavenging and now ran away, just like the first two from the alley had attempted to do. Some here carried piles of junk in their arms – materials for their makeshift weapons and armor. They took whatever they could salvage from the area!
Suddenly, he took an arrow to the knee from a retreating Gremlin archer – before the beast fled with the others into a wide passage across the open space.
This time the injury hurt like hell! Pursuing was not an option – Sean winced and limped back to the group for Otto and Emma to heal him. It felt insane all of a sudden that he had simply shrugged off the pain earlier: both that arrow in the chest and all the stabs and bites that he had suffered before. And to pull the arrow from between his ribs as if it was nothing! And yet, in that moment, it felt fine? Maybe stung a bit…
In any case, he was healed and explained that the Gremlins had fled. The Swedes remarked that the creatures would do that a lot: smaller groups ran away instead of fighting, so the quest was rather annoying – he assumed it was one of the reasons for the high payout. But with the courtyard empty, the five guys decided to clear other houses by themselves. Entering from the back and blocking the escape route was much more promising.
Sean wasn't sure how many more Gremlins he and Emma needed, so they simply went the other way. The courtyard was relatively small: around sixty feet by maybe twice that, and had two dozen doors lining it – if not more. Should be enough for everyone. Except the first building they ventured into was empty – other than piles of debris everywhere. Presumably either already looted or never contained anything worthwhile.
He heard sounds of fighting and shouting in Swedish from wherever the other team had gone, so he figured they should also keep going. He asked about it, and Emma nodded while staring at her phone.
The second house was poorly lit. Sean heard some movement, so he decided to investigate.
"How can you even see anything in there…" Emma remarked from the doorway behind him.
"What?" he asked, but realized that the place was completely dark – the only light came from the back door. The previous structures had simple fireplaces and holes high in the walls – presumably for both ventilation and lighting. This place had none of that. Maybe windows on upper floors, but no light came down. The layout was also different: a much shorter hallway and no large room deeper inside.
Emma continued, "It's like pitch black and there's no way–"
"Shush! Something's coming…" he cut in and braced for combat.
Three Gremlins charged at them, but they were weak and poorly armored: Sean took care of two with ease, and Emma pitched in with magic attacks to finish the last one. They ended the fight without a scratch and – most importantly – one of the Gremlins had been carrying a lit torch, which didn't go out as it fell. Surprisingly sturdy for the low-quality gear they used.
"Here you go, as requested – courtesy of Gremlins." He picked up the torch and offered it to Emma.
She sighed and complained, "That's not what I said. Let's go somewhere else with more light and… is it just these things all over?"
Sean kept the torch for himself – it might come in handy. He commented, "Yeah, what else? I mean, it was supposed to be the Gremlin quest. Or event, I suppose." She gave him a flat stare, so he examined the three corpses: it seemed the weakest creatures were scavengers and shied away from combat. Maybe only fighting when cut off or ambushed? The groups that attacked them earlier were stronger and clearly more eager for it – and the big one was something else. Some kind of mini-boss, perhaps? Or at least a local leader of sorts. And wielding twin daggers, too…
"Let's check the next place – hopefully not so dark," Emma complained and left the building.
He couldn't hear more noises from this one, so he didn't argue – but he held the torch out to her and suggested, "You should carry this. In case there's another dark house or even– What? You'll manage to carry it if you pocket the phone while we're fighting! You can stare at your screen on the way back or something…" He raised his voice because she was already giving him an annoyed glare.
Emma hesitated, then stashed it in her robe and complained, "Fine, whatever." She took the torch in her left hand – moving the staff to her right.
"Actually, might as well check how the candles are doing," he stated and retrieved both from his pouch. He reached out to light them from the torch. One was already burning blue, presumably signifying quest completion – while the other flamed toward the passage the Gremlins fled through. There were clearly other mobs in the buildings around the courtyard, so he finally confronted Emma: "Okay, what quest did you take?"
She rolled her eyes, then scoffed, "The Docks event – Gremlins or whatever. The good-paying one, like you said."
"No, not whatever …" He paused to collect his thoughts, then hinted, "Has it occurred to you that you have to be specific? Like what if it's to kill Gremlin archers? Or whatever that big one was – and now we're stuck with one candle that's done, and another leading who knows–"
"It's just a stupid quest!" she interrupted.
"Well, it's paying for gear and repairs – and probably a lot of other useful stuff too," he countered. She only shrugged at this, which irritated him even more.
The Swedes came out of a door a few houses over, and Sean looked at them longingly. They were discussing something among themselves. As annoying as they had been – their antics were nowhere near as much of a chore as dealing with 'detached-Emmo' .
Emma followed his gaze and noticed the other team as well. She commented, "I should've gone with them – at least they weren't as tedious…" She didn't finish.
But the implication frustrated Sean further, so he complained, "Am I being tedious? And that's coming from you…" He shook his head.
"What's that supposed to mean?" she asked, squinting angrily.
He exhaled tiredly and began, "After all the drama with–"
Arvid loudly cut in from some distance away: "You two are arguing like an old couple!"
He turned to them: the Swedes were still there, seemingly preparing to enter another building. Sean started to protest, "But we're not–"
"We're already divorced!" Emma interjected.
He frowned at her, but she just stared at the candle. Sean glanced at the other guys, and they were laughing and joking… in Swedish, but he assumed it was about him and Emma.
She suggested, "Why don't we go find out what the candle is pointing to?"
Sean looked at the candle and thought about it. Maybe it wasn't a more difficult quest or even any stronger Gremlin variant. For all he knew, it could be his candle – there was no way to distinguish the two. Or perhaps it was merely a kill or two away, even if the math wouldn't make sense. He finally stated: "Fine – but if there's any sign of trouble or we're about to get swarmed for whate–"
"Then you'll just one-shot it, Mr. Overpowered – whatever!" she broke in.
He wanted to ask what she meant by that but decided to deny it first: "I'm not…" He stopped to check if the Swedes were still there, but they had gone into another house. He looked at Emma and explained, "I only said that I was overleveling, so they didn't kick us out – for a moment there it seemed like they were readying for PVP."
"Uh-huh, so then you also single-handedly killed most of the Gremlins – so they wouldn't think you're too weak?" Emma observed.
He frowned again, harder… he had gotten carried away in that fight. He started, "But I didn't–"
"Totally have – like that Tank dude was having trouble with just one…" she raised… actually, a very good point.
The worst part was that Sean didn't even know why he had. He tried, "Well, they kinda were newbs, weren't they?" Emma raised an eyebrow at this, so he added, "What? It's true!" He glanced to make sure they weren't listening… the door was closed, nobody eavesdropping. Hopefully…
"Because they're foreigners?" she pressed.
"No, because…" He paused to come up with some excuses, then began, "For starters, they respecced recently – in case you weren't paying attention to the conversation?"
Emma rolled her eyes at this, then countered, "Wasn't that Cleric guy at level seven? And I got to four only at the end of that fight, so wouldn't you still be at three?"
"I went on another quest yesterday, so I've been level four this whole time," he explained, then realized he should've bluffed higher. She narrowed her eyes, so he added, "What? It's not like we're exclusive or–"
"No, but seven is still like… more…" she remarked, then asked, "How long have you been playing since I left?"
"Just one quest – and leveling early on is pretty quick," he admitted – and it was true, for the most part. Technically, the 'one quest' was Aiden's and the lvl-10 player breezed through the dire rats with ease, but it was still factually true. He added, "Also, what do you even care? And I don't think there's that much difference between levels – plus their team composition was pretty lousy. I mean, using a Cleric for healing… and Arvid openly admitted that the class is shit for that spell."
Emma merely measured him with a skeptical look.
He listed more clues: "The Tank was full of himself, sure, but he was also super lazy. And having two Mystics for DPS? What a joke – they're supposed to be the caster support and not–"
"Yeah, they were kinda lame – even my spell hit harder…" she interjected.
"See? Also, a Hunter without traps – that class was supposed to specialize in those rather than pure ranged attacks like, well, like Ranger presumably? And I don't know if they had any grafts, but the ones we got from Bruce must also be helping…" Sean concluded his list. Half of them were guesses… he had no idea if they were true – but his explanation sounded smart.
Emma sighed and remarked, "Fine, whatever. But I'm not sure about these 'secondhand grafts' ."
"Why, did you hear something?" he asked. Sean didn't want to bring up the Dread-Bruce, but he realized that he had no idea how the grafts worked in the first place.
"No, but they were gross," she commented.
He speculated, "So you just… what, left them?" She shrugged, so he shook his head and added, "And then you went out in Earth-clothes despite all the debuffs and–"
"How was I supposed to know!" she cut in.
"Maybe because everybody kept telling you that?" Sean mocked. "Even the shopkeeper NPC gave us a discount, so you could finally wear 'proper clothes,' you know…"
Emma fumed for a moment, then said, "Shut up. And if anybody asks – you're not carrying me…"
"What?" he asked, confused.
"You told these guys earlier– Whatever! Give me that thing…" she hissed and moved the staff to her left hand. Sean wanted to warn her to be careful, or it might catch fire from the torch – but she snatched the quest candles from his hand and ventured into the passage where the unfinished one led. Sean gripped his axes and followed, but the idea of PVP was slowly growing on him.