After Rick dispatched the first wolf to appear, two more creep out from the shadows of the tree line. Rick holds his huge weapon aloft while Tiss takes a defensive stance with her daggers ready Elyssia holds no weapon, but I can feel a pressure emanating from her. Balls of white light spring up from the ground at her feet and dissipate before reaching her knees. Is this magic?
I'm useless right now so I can't do anything but watch and keep my distance from the wolves.
Suddenly, a new wolf makes an appearance. It snuck closer to us and leapt at Rick from his blindside.
[Tiss] "Myriad Stringer!"
Tissela punches one fist towards the wolf as it lunges, her grip still tight around a dagger. Blueish light appears in the shape of an orb and then spreads out along the back of her fist into a shape like a small crossbow. In rapid succession, Tiss fires a volley of magical arrows at the wolf. It's body is riddled with holes. The force of the attack slams its corpse against a tree and it slumps to the ground in a puddle of its own blood.
In that moment, the other two wolves charge us. Rick lifts his greatsword with both hands so that its vertical above his head.
[Rick] "Challenge!"
As Rick shouts, orange energy burst out of his body and then creates a field of energy around all of us and the wolves. Both beasts leap and focus entirely on trying to tackle Rick. The moment their feet leave the ground, Rick swings his blade downward, cleaving one of them from its snout to its tail, blood spraying into the air.
[Elyssia] "Flash Freeze!"
The air grows so cold that crystal of ice apparate from the moisture in the. In only a second, the wolf is encased in a prison of ice and plummets down. As it hits the ground, Rick swipes his greatsword through the frozen canine and shatters it into an icy mist.
Silence. Nobody moves a muscle for maybe ten seconds. Then all three of the trio breathe a sigh of relief. Tissela and Rick store their weapons in their own inventory and then they all turn their attention to me.
[Rick] "Learn anything, Wade?"
Frankly, that all happened so fast that I really didn't absorb too much. I watched every action, but gleaned fairly little from their actions.
In my past life, I was always a solo gamer, even in VRMMOs. I only ever joined a party to clear something that required it. When I fought with others, I only ever focused on my own actions and learning an exploit for the game I was playing. Because I usually used tricks and exploits to min/max my effectiveness, I also rarely needed allies.
[Wade?] "Well I learned that you're all really strong and work well together. I didn't get much else from that."
[Rick] "Then let's walk and talk. We've got a couple miles until we reach the lake."
The trio turns around to leave, but my gamer instincts begin to flair up.
[Wade?] "Oh, are you not going to take any materials from these wolves? I bet the pelts are valuable with that color. And what about the meat?"
[Elyssia] "Hmm... There's nothing really worth taking though. There's no real demand for the pelts, and the meat isn't very tasty, even with a good cook and plenty of seasonings. We won't use them ourselves so if we leave their bodies here, then the other monsters in this forest can eat them. They won't go to waste if we leave them for the world to reclaim."
Huh... I guess I still have a lot to learn about this world. I normally would collect as many items as I can from them and sold them off either on the market or an NPC shop if I had junk items.
But... I have the power of my System! Everything I gather and harvest from monsters will be the highest quality. So if I harvest the pelt of one of these wolves, I can maybe have it made into some sort of armor. I'll have to find someone to craft it so I don't turn a wonderful thing into garbage.
[Wade?] "Can I collect one of them? I want to try to find a way to make something out of the pelt."
[Elyssia] "If it's for yourself, then go ahead."
Seems that it's okay to loot monsters, even after her explanation before. I guess these three just have no need for them.
When I look at the corpse in my Nearby window, it reads
After collecting one corpse and storing it in my Item Box, the four of us continue along the path. That whole battle just before had barely lasted two minutes so we didn't lose much time at all. It's still early in the day.
Along the way, we encounter a couple hostile monsters. First, a large bird with four wings and a long tail. Apparently it spat fire, but Tissela shot it out of the sky with her magic arrows before it could get close enough. After that, we encounter a snake with two heads. It blocks the path towards the lake and waits for us to enter its strike range. Elyssia freezes it solid and we walk by without a care.
By noon, we're at the shore of the lake. Tissela immediately takes off her boots and runs into the water. She stomps and splashes around, calling for Elyssia to join her, who just giggles to herself and watches. Rick leans up against a nearby tree and stares into the sky.
[Rick] "It's really a lovely day, isn't it?"
[Elyssia] "I'm so glad you both agreed to come with me! Once we relax for a bit, then we can search for some bunnies!"
Ugh... I forgot about the bunnies. Maybe I can sit that part out.
[Tiss] "Hey guys...? What's that? In the sky!"
We all look upward to see an orb of pure darkness appear in the sky above the lake. It grows to a size that we can all clearly see. It's writhing, pulsating, almost glitching out. The orb is so dark, it seems to absorb the light around it. Then we feel a pressure as it pulses violently once.
What kind of new bullshit is about to happen?