They headed back into the riverside alley. There were other buildings on both sides, but the large warehouse up ahead was clearly the main loading point. Only one ship was docked at it, with a lot of room for more. The East Docks seemed to center around that location, and a gentle bend of the river provided ample space for docking and maneuvers.
The sky was still heavily overcast, hence the lighting was poor – but Sean noticed multiple covered walkways leading up to the ship's deck, with frantic activity going back and forth. He remembered the people in the other queue mentioning something about storming the ship and wondered if they had conquered it already.
Sean wanted to investigate and, as they got closer, it became clear that some players were still waiting in line for the entrance, but the procedure here was different: individuals ventured inside instead of one party camping the entrance, and there was clear coordination going on between various groups. Many casters were waiting away from the queue… as if they weren't at all interested in going in. He thought he noticed a bunch of spell-casts flying to the side. He wasn't sure, but 'questing' in Erea was getting weirder and weirder.
When they reached the first groups just hanging around, he scanned the crowd for somebody to ask about what was going on here. He didn't want to interrupt ongoing conversations – some people were even sitting down and playing cards! But the casters had their staves and wands at the ready. Strangely enough, everyone here was rather short… an odd coincidence? Sean stood a head taller than most, if not all of them. He noticed a familiar face and headed that way. Emma tailed him with her eyes glued to her phone – he hadn't found a suitable excuse to split up without drama yet.
"Hi! Rebecca, was it? How's the new class working for you?" he started as the caster seemed to be barely participating in another conversation, and Sean wasn't sure if he had changed her to Mage or another caster class – back at the orb-thing… felt like forever ago. There was no player tag over her head now. Come to think of it, he had no idea how he even remembered her name – was it another hallucination?
The young White woman with light brown hair turned to him, clearly puzzled, then started: "I'm sorry, do we know–"
"Sean," he cut in, then reminded, "surprise jogger-hobo from the lecture, rings a bell?" She was taking a moment to process it. Somebody from the side raised an eyebrow, someone else chuckled – but he ignored all that and added, "Or have I confused you with–"
"Right, no," Rebecca broke in and stepped closer. "Yeah, I remember – but huh, I didn't recognize you!" She looked him up and down.
"Well, makes sense after I ditched the hobo-outfit for something more… useful, I suppose," he half-joked.
"Yeah, yeah! Totally?" she bubbled. "Right, the class… it's great – thanks for the change, by the way." She leaned closer and whispered, "Much more convenient than priests and queues, right?" Sean nodded to that with a smile.
"Did you go Mystic DPS like the others?" Emma asked from the side. He frowned at her bluntness and wrong assumption…
Rebecca turned to the Healer and took a couple of seconds to recognize her, then corrected, "Arcanist, actually. Not much for hype-trains myself." She turned to Sean and added, "But yeah, it's pretty great – Mage would've been fine, but– Anyway, what brings you two here?"
"The quests, obviously," Emma answered.
"Among other things… but say, how does this place work?" he asked. "Is this just one sprawling queue or– Yeah, what's going on?" He looked around. The line was further ahead and the casters were purposefully sticking to the other side of the alley, by the looks of things.
"What? The…" Rebecca replied, confused.
Sean turned to her and explained while pointing back: "Some alley that way had players waiting in line to camp the entrance, so has the META changed since like an hour ago? Or is this place just organized differ–…" He trailed off as the casters around them started raising their weapons and casting spells.
He instinctively ducked a little, but the projectiles weren't aimed at him – they instead went up and to the side. He glanced there, and a gargoyle was taking off from the warehouse roof… except it was hit by a dozen magic attacks and disintegrated into a pile of rocks and gravel on the spot. In the split second Sean had to observe it: this specimen seemed much better-formed than the one they had fought – including large, symmetrical wings, a less improvised head, an actual tail for flight balance, and an overall orderly shape.
"Darn it, too late…" the Arcanist complained, letting out a light sigh.
"Well, that's one way to deal with the 'kill gargoyles' quest…" Sean commented.
"Right?" Rebecca gushed. "And yeah – they're animating or summoning them inside. The gremlins are, I mean. But then the gargoyles either go out the door or try to fly through a window. Either way – easy money."
"As long as you're paying attention…" he added and glanced at the Healer, who by then was already scrolling. She either didn't notice his teasing remark or pretended not to.
"Yeah, also that," Rebecca explained, "and the queue's for the gremlins. Maybe they're killing some gargoyles in there too, but I don't know…"
"How come they aren't getting swarmed inside?" Emma asked out of the blue.
"What? No… I don't think so, anyway," Rebecca answered. "Though sometimes they're taking losses, so maybe that happens too – but it's much safer outside."
"Much more boring, though," Emma threw in.
"But boring is good," Sean argued. "Steady cashflow, no need for costly repairs, and low risk-to-reward – all the good stuff."
"Yeah, that…" Rebecca added.
"How does that work, the camping?" he asked. "Does whoever lands the killing blow get the quest progression?"
"I don't know, actually…" Rebecca remarked, then turned mid-thought to the side. "Hey guys, do you know if–"
"Nah, it's random, eh?" a Canadian guy cut in, or at least he sounded that way.
"Wasn't XP weighted by DPS?" somebody else offered. A figure in a flowing robe – Sean wasn't sure of the gender, since a large hood also covered their head. But it felt like everybody was listening in!
"Yeah-yeah, but the kill-shot is random – apparently, right?" the Canadian added.
"Even when not in a party? Or is it– Oh! Another one!" Rebecca suddenly pointed her wand and cast a spell to the side. Sean looked there casually: two more gargoyles crawling onto the other side of the rooftop. Other casters around them joined in the assault, and the Arcanist fired three projectiles in total – though the last one was clearly too late. Even Emma retrieved her staff from her back.
Once the combat interlude was over, the conversation continued for a few more exchanges, and the consensus emerged: when not in a party, the XP was distributed by damage dealt and proximity to the monster, but quest-kills were randomized in some way – and the kills in a party were apparently attributed at random, disregarding the DPS. The party XP was split by some elaborate calculation involving classes and relative levels. The casters kept arguing about the last detail to no end, quoting different theories and experiments, Reddit posts, generalized or weighted means with various exponents, and other algebraic concepts.
Sean gave up and motioned aside. They stepped away from the discussion, and he asked Rebecca, "Is it always like this around here? Or have you arrived recently too?"
"Oh, it's a little crowded already… it was much better in the morning," she recounted. "We were doing quests up in the Lobe, then we noticed people gathering here and disbanded. I've finished one gremlin run and two gargoyle sets already – yeah, easy money!"
Sean nodded and calculated quickly: almost a gold coin – this event was very profitable… if started early. And no wonder queues started forming! But it wasn't his question, so he clarified, "I meant, do they always argue like this?"
Rebecca glanced at her group, then shrugged lightly to Sean and commented, "What else to do while waiting? And you can learn a few things…"
He smiled and followed up, "That long, huh?"
She frowned lightly and nodded, then remarked, "Which reminds me, I should check…" Rebecca pulled out a candle from a side-pocket and lit it with her wand – it caught Sean's attention, but she blurted out first: "That's a bummer, not done yet."
The quest candle was flaming toward the warehouse, which gave Sean an idea of another thing to check – but he started with: "Is that a spell of some kind? To light the candle?"
"What? Oh, no it's…" Rebecca paused, blew out the flame and re-lit it with the wand. "It's just a thing you can do. Or the casters can, the offensive ones anyway. No clue about Healers and other– Have you stayed Healer, by the way?" She then put out the candle again – Sean realized: how convenient!
"Uh-huh," Emma replied, then asked, "How do you know that? It wasn't in the lecture…"
"You ask people, or see what they're doing," Sean half-teased, "rather than just scrolling through your texts all the time…" Emma rolled her eyes.
"That too, but our lecture wasn't very… thorough," Rebecca commented. "I heard a 'proper' introduction takes most of the day. Five-to-six hours with an instructor, and they take a tour of basic player areas, assist in the first quest, give hints and all kinds of advice. A lot more than we've–"
"That Australian jerk…" Emma interjected and sighed.
There was a moment of awkward silence, during which Sean considered how rude it would be to ask whether he could swap Emma for Rebecca – or maybe how to phrase it better.
The Arcanist gushed, "But hey, at least we've got a little reunion here! Maybe we could bring everybody together after a week or so? See how they're doing, find out how all those Mystics have worked out, who's given up… Maybe Bruce could join too?"
"No, it's better not, uhh…" Sean hesitated. He figured it wasn't the best idea to bring up the 'Dread-Bruce' rumor. Maybe it had been just a name-coincidence, but he quickly added instead, "High-level players are probably very busy."
"Oh yeah, that's so true!" Rebecca chirped.
He nodded and promptly changed the topic to his other test idea: "Actually, if you could quickly light mine…" He retrieved his quest candle and held it out to Rebecca. She pointed her wand and lit it up. The candle flamed slightly sideways – or rather: into the alley running alongside the warehouse. He added, "Huh, that's odd…"
"What's odd?" she asked.
"I thought the quest would point to the gremlin-warehouse and not…" He trailed off, wondering if it was maybe leading him back to the courtyard. If anything, wouldn't it point back to the narrow alley? Was it finding the shortest route? He speculated, "Maybe the lower-level gremlins are in another section…"
"But what do you mean by 'point to' ?" Rebecca pressed.
Sean explained the candles' directional-flaming mechanic, or how it seemed to work at least – but it was fairly consistent and made sense.
"Oh, yeah – clever that!" the Arcanist chirped.
Emma inquired, "But how were you doing quests until now?"
Rebecca explained, "Go with the team – they know where the mobs are, right?"
The Healer pressed, "Why did you think they were flaming in specific directions, then?"
"I don't know, maybe wind or a draft?" the Arcanist shot back with a smile.
"Actually, Emma – could we check your candle, too?" Sean suggested. The second part of his 'test.'
"But why?" she countered.
"If you could humor me? Just a little experiment…" he insisted.
They lit hers up as well and it flamed directly at the warehouse – exactly as Rebecca's candle had. Then a quick combat interlude, but both Emma and Rebecca were late: the gargoyle was destroyed before their projectiles reached it. More like extermination! Sean estimated maybe forty casters spamming any monsters popping their heads up. Pretty low odds of getting the kill with such a crowd… and many of them might be higher-lvl, so presumably more damage.
Emma put out her candle and pocketed it, then asked, "What was that 'experiment' supposed to accomplish?"
Sean answered, "Well, when you told the NPC 'the same' – he must've given you a repeat of the quest you had before… so more gargoyles."
"But that's not– I wanted the same, as in: what you took," she said.
"I told you to be more specific – remember the 'whatever quest' that led us to the sewers?" he argued, and she rolled her eyes while groaning.
"What is with you two?" Rebecca asked. "Do you know each other from Earth?"
"No, it's just…" Sean started but trailed off. How to explain all the drama?
"Whatever." The Healer shrugged and resumed typing on her phone.
"Good idea, Emma – maybe you should just stay here?" Sean finally suggested. "Camp some gargoyles safely… and you'll have plenty of time for that thing !" He pointed at the screen. She glared at him with scorn and pocketed the phone.
Rebecca asked, "But what's your quest?"
"Gremlins – the generic version," he explained. "They're easier to find and still pretty nasty… plus the payout is decent enough regardless." He didn't want to admit that the weaker scavengers were much easier to defeat, and they probably wouldn't count for the lvl-5 'kill combat gremlins' quest. He added, "So I'll check out the queue here, maybe some team could use a Tank – or I can just go elsewhere."
"Or maybe we could go back?" Emma proposed. "This time with a proper DPS , if you could join us?" She looked to Rebecca and added, "And Arcanist is a proper DPS, right?"
"But go back where?" Rebecca asked, confused.
"Now wait a minute. First of all…" Sean complained and glanced to the sides to check if anybody was listening in. He leaned toward Emma and whispered, "Maybe don't blab about that place to everyone, could you? And I'm not sure I even want to–"
"Uh-huh," Emma cut him off and stepped next to Rebecca. She quietly explained how they had found that secret place with gremlins and a side-entrance to the warehouse that was seemingly unattended. Thanks to his enhanced senses, Sean could hear it without hovering over them.
He wanted to complain that going back there with Emma wasn't exactly his plan – but how to phrase it without making a scene or looking like a jerk ? He would've preferred Rebecca over Emma day and night, but they would still need a Healer… and also he was kind of curious about how Arcanist's different attacks compared to Healer's spell damage. Not to mention he wanted to kick that smug gremlin-mage's butt – and he could get the sixteen kills for his own quest on the way, too…
"So you can stay here and hope to land a hit, or come with us… and we'll see how it goes," Emma concluded.
The Arcanist was unconvinced. "But isn't it dangerous? Just the three of us against a gargoyle… Did you really kill one?"
"Oh yes!" Emma assured and leaned closer to whisper into Rebecca's ear – barely audible to him: "Sean's a very good Tank – nothing to worry about!"
He realized that it was probably the first time Emma had complimented him, and she tried to conceal it too – she even held her hand up to shield her mouth from him! A bit of a bitter-sweet feeling about that compliment , at best…
Rebecca mulled it over for a moment, then looked at another commotion – but the gargoyle was already dead from two dozen magic attacks. So she nodded and chirped, "Alright! Might as well give it a go!"
"Wait, hold up!" Sean finally protested. "Shouldn't I get a say in… I don't remember ever agreeing to go anywhere?"
"Don't you have these gremlins to kill?" Emma reminded. He frowned, then she added, "Also, the sooner we get these gargoyles – the sooner I can pay you back for the robe!"
He glanced at Rebecca: she had one eyebrow raised and was playfully smirking. Sean exhaled tiredly – Emma had really driven him into a corner. He started, "Fine, but if there's any sign of trouble, or even–"
"Sure-yeah, let's go!" Emma cut in and took two steps, then looked around – clearly unsure where to go. Sean merely shook his head…