Mixing It Up (The World Book 2) Read online

  Staggering to my feet, I threw my back against the blackened wall blasting charred Goblins with my Flurry spell left and right as they charged me shrieking in rage looking like melted horrors left over from a wax museum fire. Each crispy Goblin took only one or two Flurry blasts to take down as I mentally thanked the designers for including friendly fire in the game. As the fourth Guard dropped, the intense pain suddenly left my body in a golden glow as my Hit Points, and Mana shot up to a 100%. Feeling the power of full health flooding into my limbs, I began laughing like a maniac as I continued blasting Goblins dead. After another two Guards dropped, I saw the same golden glow from the rest of the group light up the other side of the room as the rest of the team leveled up a second later.

  I heard Sarka’s triumphant yell and Tinyr’s woot as Yun started attacking the Goblin his wife was fighting with Frost Blast after Frost Blast, burning the mob’s health down in ten seconds. As the team switched to the second Guard Sarka had pulled, I struggled to burn down the last three Goblins that were still mostly at full health. Shield Bashing the Guards back, I repeatedly blasted my Flurry spell at point blank range to finish off the last Goblin and immediately turned to help the rest of the team. Another two Flurry blasts ended the fight two seconds later. Seeing no live enemies; I slowly slide down the wall to sit on the floor in exhaustion as the rest of the team slowly made their way over to me. Well, everyone but Tinyr who’d already started looting gleefully.

  “I think I wet myself,” Sarka said sitting down next to me with her head leaning back against the wall in exhaustion.

  “Dude, what the hell happened back there?” Yun asked plopping down next to his wife. “One second you were at full health and the next you were almost dead. I thought for sure we were going to wipe.”

  “There were two Goblin casters at the back of the squad that kicked the shit out of me,” I said with a grimace. “Well, technically only the fire mage had a chance to fight back. I burned the shaman down before he ever got a chance to attack.”

  “That Sneak Attack was sick, man,” Tinyr called out from the other side of the room where he was looting.

  “Thanks, Tinyr,” I yelled back giving him a clenched fist before turning back to Yun.

  “Why didn’t you take the fire mage out first instead of the shaman?” Yun asked confused. “Aren’t shaman’s just another type of healer?”

  “In most MMORPGs I’ve played, shamans have major attack spells along with group healing abilities. I didn’t want to have to worry about something like Chain Lightning knocking out the entire group with just one spell or the Goblin Guards being healed up before we could take them out.” I said with a frown.

  “Yea, that would have completely sucked.” Yun agreed thoughtfully. “I guess it’s better to go with the bad shit you know-“

  “Then the bad shit you don’t know.” I grinned, completing his sentence. “Still, I almost shit myself when that fire mage first blasted me. Nice heals by the way.”

  “Says the guy that tanked ten level 20 Elite Goblins by himself,” Yun replied back shaking his head. Still, I saw him smile at my praise.

  “Nearly by myself.” Catching Sarka’s eyes, I gave her a nod. “Good call on pulling those two Guards.” Seeing the uncertain look on her face, I gripped her shoulder. “I mean that seriously.”

  For a long moment, Sarka held my gaze, before grimacing in frustration. “I can barely tank two of these mobs with the rest of the team backing me up, and you take out ten by yourself while you’re being blasted to death by a fire mage. It’s just frustrating at times.”

  “Then see if they will let you take the P&M exam,” I said with a shrug. “Hell, it’ll be easier for you since you won’t be going for a Nightmare start.”

  “Nightmare start? You took a Nightmare start?” Sarka asked sitting up abruptly.

  “Yea, so my stats are basically boosted an additional 70 levels,” I said sheepishly.

  “Plus the 75% to all pain thresholds,” Sarka said looking at me with new respect. “Those fireballs must have hurt.”

  “Yea, tell me about it. At one point it felt like my skin was melting off my bones.” I said shaking my head as I remembered the mind-searing agony. “They hurt like freaking hell.”

  “At least I don’t feel like such a chump anymore,” Sarka said in relief.

  “Hey, don’t get me wrong but it’s not all that awesome,” I said rolling my eyes. “Seriously how much does a +50 in Spirit and +76 in Charisma help in a fight.”

  “Are you trying to say I suck at tanking then?” Sarka curtly asked, cutting me off as her face turned suddenly serious.

  “No … no … no. I didn’t mean that at all. I just was trying to say-“ I stuttered trying to retract what whatever comment had just pissed her off.

  “You were just trying to say your +70 attribute levels didn’t help with how good you can tank mobs.” Sarka continued in the same tone as her volume steadily increased. “So basically that means I must suck at tanking then.”

  “Ugh, I seriously didn’t mean it that way,” I said flustered when I heard Sarka suddenly giggle.

  “God, your sooo easy,” Sarka said punching me hard in the arm.

  “Ouch!” I yelped holding my arm as she laughed even louder. “Really?” It wasn’t that Sarka’s punch really hurt. After being nearly burnt to death, the hit barely registered. I was having fun making her laugh.

  “Just for the record. For having a +76 to Charisma, you look like crap.” Sarka said wiping the tears of laughter from her eyes as she took a long look at my burnt, charcoal colored armor.

  “Yea, I don’t even think that shit’s repairable. Time to consider some new armor.” Yun said laughing along with his wife. “Some boots wouldn’t be bad either.”

  “I’m never going to hear the end of this +76 to Charisma thing, am I?” I asked, squeezing the bridge of my nose.

  “Nope, not ever man,” Yun said still chuckling.

  “I guess I’ll have to take a look at the Goblins’ gear then,” I said with a sigh. “Too bad the fuckers don’t wear boots.”

  “Don’t worry; the Goblin stink is only a +20 or so to Charisma.” Yun chimed in.

  “I’ve got some bloody boots here,” Tinyr said from across the room as a pair of boots hit the ground in front of me with a squelch. “They’re only -10 to Charisma.”

  Picking up the dark leather hesitantly, I nearly puked at the trickle of reddish, sticky goo that poured out of the boots as soon as I tipped them upside down. Clamping my jaw closed, I did my best to clean the insides with some water before sliding the feet into the slick leather as Sarka suddenly turned away making gagging noises. Forcing my thoughts away from where the boots had come from, I hopped to my feet and checked out the stats.

  Blood-soaked Elven Boots

  Item Quality: Superior

  Item Type: Crafted

  Slot: Feet

  Defense: 101

  Armor Type: Light

  Durability: 141/200

  Weight: 3.0 kg

  Not bad. Except for being disgusting, the ‘blood-soaked’ part didn’t seem to affect the boot’s overall stats in any noticeable way, regardless of Tinyr’s taunt. I stepped down hard with each boot to force out as much of the bloody water as possible using my body weight, before heading over to the pile of dead Goblin guards to look for more gear.

  “You’re a killjoy Tinyr,” I said with a shake of my head.

  “Naw man, I’m funny as hell.” Tinyr continued to laugh as he looted.

  “You’re not actually going to wear those nasty things, are you?” Unalia asked looking green around the gills.

  “Is it any different than being covered in blood?” I asked with a shrug of my shoulders. “I almost can’t remember the last time I haven’t been covered in blood since I started this game.” Seeing Unalia clutch at her mouth and gag, I took pity on the poor woman. “It helps to not think about where they came from.”

  Tinyr was funny as hell, but this was
more guy humor stuff, even if I was the one wearing the bloody boots. Yun climbed to his feet trying not to laugh at his wife who was still trying not to puke as he followed to give me a hand with stripping the gear off of the Goblin corpses. Surprisingly enough the whole process wasn’t as disgusting as you’d think. I’m not sure if that was because deep inside we all knew this was just a video game or if gamers over the years just became desensitized to a point. Either way, we made quick work of the looting, especially with Tinyr’s help. Within short order, we had the gear stacked in a pile as I began picking out the best four pieces I could find for tanking. The four pieces of gear I ended up taking were around three times better than my first set of armor, at least AC wise.

  Goblin Boiled Leather Chestguard

  Item Quality: Poor

  Item Type: Crafted

  Slot: Chest

  Defense: 160

  Armor Type: Light

  Durability: 5/10

  Weight: 7 kg

  Goblin Crude Leather Leggings

  Item Quality: Poor

  Item Type: Crafted

  Slot: Legs

  Defense: 154

  Armor Type: Light

  Durability: 7/10

  Weight: 6 kg

  Goblin Braided Leather Belt

  Item Quality: Common

  Item Type: Crafted

  Slot: Waist

  Defense: 41

  Armor Type: Light

  Durability: 9/10

  Weight: 1.05 kg

  Goblin Dirty Rotten Gloves

  Item Quality: Poor

  Item Type: Crafted

  Slot: Hands

  Defense: 89

  Armor Type: Light

  Durability: 8/10

  Weight: .08 kg

  Even with the poor quality of the craftsmanship and the reduced durability, my armor class would go from 223 to 572, which was nothing to sneeze at. I’d miss the bonus to stealth that Miya’s set had given me, but since I was mostly tanking it wasn’t that big of a deal. As I hurriedly stripped down to change out of my gear, I suddenly heard a whistling catcall from behind me as Sarka made a loud comment about the absence of tan lines and how that gave a +76 to Charisma to Unalia as I blushed crimson down to my toes. Seeing my red face, Yun just laughed harder giving me an unconcerned shrug as he began changing too. Tinyr wasn’t any help either. Holding up his hands defensively, he simply stated, “It’s not my wife.” Rolling my eyes at both of them, I just changed into my new-used leather duds as quick as I could. It was one of those things that only women could get away with. If any of us had done this the same to either of the women, we’d have been castrated on the spot.

  It wasn’t that I was particularly shy with the ladies, I didn’t want any problems with either one of their husbands, so I figured it was best to play along. Still, I couldn’t help but chuckle as the girls wandered over as we were squeezing into the last pieces of armor. Everything was too tight and too short, which probably had made for quite a show. I was actually looking forward to seeing the girls in the tight fitting leathers. Seeing Sarka eye the pile of blood-splattered gear with a frown, I arched an eyebrow in her direction giving her a quick grin as I silently passed one of my water bags over to her. Giving me a ‘put out’ look, she directly pointed me towards the doorway at the far end of the room.

  “Don’t even think about turning around.”

  I didn’t trust myself to make a comment, so I just picked through the rest of the loot with Yun and Tinyr as we all turned our backs to the room. Surprisingly the looting and gear-up went relatively quickly for the girls. Probably due to the fact that The World didn’t have anything like makeup or hair curlers. We did end up getting some interesting loot off of the mage and shaman. While the Darkwood Rod that the shaman dropped didn’t help anyone’s stats or skills with its +5% Damage to Nature Magic spells and +4 Spirit, the mage’s Branded Rod of Flame with its +3 to fire Magic held some interesting possibilities to at least help level up my fledgling Fire magic skill for later on. Since no one wanted the Branded Rod of Flame, I went ahead and took it. The Heavy Copper Band that gave a +5 to Stamina went to Sarka, and the Lead Band with +7 to intelligence went to Yun along with the Flashing Bead Talisman that gave a +20 to all heal spells.

  The rings and talisman were pretty cool drops since that was the first rings and necklaces any of us had seen as loot in the game. Luckily Tinyr and Unalia were cool with just taking the Darkwood Rod to sell. Thankfully, the upgraded equipment put us in good shape for the dungeon. Quicker than I’d have thought possible, I was creeping down the corridor that the Goblins had come down with Tinyr at my side with the rest of the team about twenty paces behind us.

  The corridor led to a small guardroom that was currently empty. Waving the rest of the team forward, Tinyr and I quickly looked through the gear. There were only a handful of fetid furs that had probably been used as bedrolls, two tables with several flasks of the same horrendous liquid I’d found earlier on the Goblin Raiders and pieces of bones that looked to be part of some gruesome game. In other words, nothing worth looting. In quick order we were moving once again, passing through the only other doorway at the far end of the room. This passageway was much shorter and emptied out into a three-way intersection guarded by a squad of seven Elite Goblin Guards, except this time they were all level 25.

  Frowning at the level difference between the Goblins and the rest of the team, I quickly did the math for approximating the mobs Hit Points and how much damage would be needed to take them out. I had just enough Mana to almost take four of the bastards out single-handedly, but that still left three of the Goblins to deal with melee-wise. With these high-level mobs, we’d have to play this smart. Signaling for Tinyr to follow, we fell back to the rest of the team, and I quickly laid out my plan for attack.

  Getting a quick nod from everyone that they were ready, we headed back down the corridor with the team close on our heels. As we approached the intersection, Tinyr and I silently began picking up speed as we raced down the corridor running on the balls of our feet. By the time we reached the intersections, we were sprinting full tilt as we sprang our Sneak Attack.

  Flying out of the passageway, we crashed into the first Goblin weapons first as the force of our impact bowled the mob to the ground as the rest of the Guards jerked around to face us. Yanking my blades free, I slammed both weapons down once again as the Goblins exploded into action. Throwing myself out of the way of the second Guard’s attack, I rolled to my feet as the Goblin Squad Leader’s clawed foot smashed me in the face. The jarring blow threw me to the other side of the intersection as the jarring impact momentarily broke my concentration. Struggling up to one knee, I faced the enraged Guards as my Frost Nova spell suddenly ripped from my body in a freezing wave covering everything, except for Tinyr, in its path with a layer of ice.

  Switching my hand axe to my shield hand, I blasted the Squad Leader with my Flurry bolts as Tinyr began Backstabbing the stunned Guard beneath him with a flurry of blows. The first Flurry blast freed the Squad Leader from its frozen prison. The second removed a noticeable chunk of health as the Goblin started for me cursing in its harsh, brutish language. The third blast hit just as the rest of the team crashed into the room and began attacking Tinyr’s Goblin as it struggled to stand back to its feet. With a shrieking yell, Sarka Shield Bashed the Goblin back to the ground as my fourth bolt brought the Squad Leader’s Hit Points down to less than a quarter of its health. As the enrage mob bashed at me with its jagged sword, I caught the blow high on my shield and blasted it one last time. As the mob collapsed to the ground dead, I began blasting the next Goblin closest to me. Just as my third blast dropped the Guard’s Hit Points to below half, Yun’s Frost Blast washed over the room in a well-timed icy wave.

  Finishing off the Goblin on the stone floor, Sarka began hacking away at the next Guard in her path. The Goblin bashed her aside with each blow literally lifting her off her feet, but relentlessly she threw herself back in the mob’s way as
Tinyr, and the rest of the team focused their attacks from behind while I began blasting my next target. Yun’s freeze broke as my target crumpled to the ground, which released the last three Guards. In a bellowing rush, the Goblins laid into me with their swords and shields. The intensity of the mobs’ rush was nearly overwhelming as I ducked, dodged and parried as I fell back around the close quarters of the intersection. The Goblins’ blades tore into my arms and legs and slashed through my armor as I fought to hold their focus away from the rest of the team. Even though my skill for one-hand edge was near skill level 20, fighting three higher level targets at the same time was too much as I took steady damage.

  The health on Sarka’s target had barely moved as the Guard’s blows smashed through her defenses with every strike as Yun cast heal after heal to keep her alive. About all that the team could manage do was hold the mob’s focus, since they were now fighting a target nearly 15 levels higher than their current levels. Normally the differences in level for most MMORPGs between mobs and players were high just after five levels and major after ten. Anything beyond than that was nearly impossible for a normal player to take down, whether they were on their own or in a group. The difference in levels, skill, and Hit Points being simply too great to overcome. Add an Elite difficulty on top of that, and it made these mobs entirely out of the rest of the group’s league.

  My situation, on the other hand, was quite different. For me, these mobs were only five levels higher than my current level. On top of that, my bonus attribute points from the P&M exam gave me an edge of approximately +50 levels. So, even though my fighting and magic skills weren’t higher than that of a regular player’s, the increase in stats allowed me to more easily go toe-to-toe with mobs that were a much higher level than that of my own. Also, I’d started the game out fighting mobs much higher than my own level. Hell on my first day, I’d fought Goblin Raiders that were ten levels higher than my own. Still, for those fourteen seconds left before my Frost Nova popped again, I fought a retreating battle with the sole goal to conserve my Hit Points. As soon as my spell’s wait time ended, I blasted Frost Nova out again.