RavensDagger - Black Apron - Max Level Archmaid - Chapter Fifty-Two - Slugs

Hi! smaller chapter again? Yikes!

Oh, look, Sloth art!

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They camped early that night under a sea of stars. They were nearing the end of the foothills and flatlands at the base of the smaller mountain range east of Markarfljot. Or so she suspected? Rosario looked at a map and tried to match their location with the mountains she could see. 

If she was right, they had walked about a third of the way to Forgingburg. Not quite as far as she wanted to be, but not altogether bad either.

Lucky set up their camp. She was becoming quite efficient at it, planting pegs with quick taps of a small mallet and digging a firepit with quick strokes of a small spade that Rosario had carried in her inventory for the purpose.

Lucky went out and gathered some stones to line the firepit, then dug out a second, small hole next to it to turn their fire into a smokeless one, or at least one that produced less smoke. Then she was off, digging their latrines a good ways downwind.

“Could have used about twenty hardworking girls like her back in my caravaneer days,” Cricket said.

“She has a fantastic work ethic,” Rosario said. “Do you think she’s leveling quickly?”

“Hm? Five levels in under a week is very quick, yes. It’s just the first levels, so I wouldn’t say that it’s unheard of,” Cricket said. “Maybe the pace of any truly determined person? I think it took me a couple of months to reach level five of [Clown] and longer to get my first five levels in [Jester].”

“Hm,” Rosario said. She glanced over at Lucky who was a little ways off, but the girl’s ears were definitely twitching in their direction. “I’m proud of her pace. But it could be faster. We’re travelling through four more cities. I’ll be upset if she’s not at least level ten by the time we make it to Dawntown. Fifteen would be better, and finished with her [Soldier] job would be best.”

“Wah!” Cricket said as she flopped backwards onto the grass. “Crazy elf lady. I wouldn’t want to be poor little Lucky!”

“Hmm, and you ought to be level 50. Don’t you want to see what comes after? What options you have for your third tier?”

“I’d rather die young but unburdened by the knowledge that I worked myself to the bone!”

Rosario sighed rather theatrically. “Sad. I always loved a hard-working woman.”

Cricket bounced to her feet, leaping off the ground as though it were a springboard. “Cartwheels! Woo!”

Rosario giggled as Cricket wheeled around the entire camp. That enthusiasm did bring her own pace into question. She wasn’t levelling anything as she traveled. Certainly not her [Scullery Maid] and none of her combat jobs either. It was wasted time. 

Maybe she could pick up another job? Something for the road? But then... the completionist in her was already annoyed that she had several job lines that were incomplete.

A few days of not training anything wasn’t so bad, right?

She slept rather fitfully that night.

The next morning, after their breakfast, they hit the road again. “No training this morning, Swordmaster Thorn?” Lucky asked.

“It’s just Rosario,” Rosario replied. “And not yet, no. I was actually considering taking a new job.”

“Really?” Cricket asked. “Don’t you have enough strong jobs?” She bounced along, then started to walk backwards ahead of Rosario.

“Sure. But I scrolled through the list of available jobs I have, and one of them stood out. [Trainer]. If it does what I think, then perhaps it’ll help me assist both of you.”

“Do you have enough free jobs for that?” Lucky asked.

Rosario blinked. Free jobs? Ah, right. In the game there was a limit to the number of jobs a player could have active. “I take it that you can only have ten unfinished jobs?”

“Unfinished?” Lucky asked. “I mean, yeah, you can’t ever have more than ten. It’s usually bad form to get there too fast. Lots of easier early levels, sure, but then if you need to change careers later on, you’re out of luck.”

“Of course,” Rosario agreed.

Cricket was giving her a look again.

So, it might not have been common knowledge that completing a job, either a crafting job at the end of third tier, or a combat job at level 100 of the fourth tier, actually unlocked a new potential job slot.

At the moment, she had five incomplete jobs. [Rogue], [Gardener], [Seamstress], [Generalist Enchanter] and of course, her prized possession, [Scullery Maid].

Obviously, as soon as she was able she’d be working to level that up, but... that wasn’t for a while, was it? 

Rosario decided to put a pin in the entire idea. “I’l think on it. I do have [Gardener], but I don’t think helping your growth alone would count for levelling that job in particular up. Maybe if we come across some tenacious weed monsters I’ll switch.”

Lucky giggled. “I didn’t expect that job from you.”

“Hmm, I had a plan to grow some of the magical plants necessary for enchanting,” Rosario said. “But the job was half-baked.”

They continued to walk and talk, and Rosario was happy that Cricket was along because the woman could talk for three. She couldn’t abide any long silence and she had a thousand stories to tell, or she was just gifted at making up somewhat-plausible but always funny stories on the spot.

It was an hour shy of noon when Rosario finally saw what she wanted. She squinted ahead and used [Inspect] before nodding.

[Great Plain Slug] - level 28

The slug was a little on the smaller side. Only a Greater plain slug, as opposed to the third-tier ones, and this one in particular was shorter than Rosario herself. 

“Lucky, draw your blade. No, the sharp one.”

Lucky did as she asked, only staring at her once the sword was drawn.

Rosario made a mental note to have Lucky spend a walking-day drawing and sheathing her sword. She didn’t need to learn Iaijutsu but she really ought to be a little faster on the draw. Rosario reached over and pinched the blade between two fingers, then cast a couple of spells.

The sword glowed a faint green, and when Lucky moved it, it left sparkles in its wake.

“Let me enchant a few of your knives as well,” Rosario said to Cricket. “Unless you have another weapon?”

“Nope! Sadly. I’ve always wanted a comically oversized hammer, though.” Cricket batted her eyes. “Apropos nothing at all, thou ought to know that mine hatching day comes upon us soon?”

Rosario gestured, and Cricket summoned some of her throwing knives.

“As much as I appreciate the added sparkliness of my weapons, what is this?” Cricket asked as she waved a knife around, almost as though trying to work the magic off.

“It’s an enchantment. The temporary sort. There’s actually a [Swordmaster] skill that lets that kind of enchantment remain on blades you enchant yourself last longer and work better. In any case, you’ll need it for killing that.”

She pointed ahead. The slug she had picked out was still far enough that she imagined that it was only a blur to a lower-levelled person. Still, they were walking quickly, and the slug was... slugging its way towards them at its own pace.

“Seriously?” Lucky asked. “That’s a second-tier!”

Rosario nodded. “Good experience, then. Cricket is a couple of levels higher, and your weapons are magical enough that they won’t melt. You, however, will if it gets its acid onto you. Fight with that in mind. You have until we reach the slug to figure it out.”

Lucky and Cricket started planning rather furiously, and she listened in. Their plan was terrible, but she didn’t correct them. She supposed that they were going to learn.

And learn they did.

They started the fight with Cricket throwing some knives into the slug, promptly losing those and barely dealing any damage to the large... was a slug an animal? She supposed it was. 

Lucky ran around it, then attacked the slug from behind, but it kept stumbling up and away from her, and her slices weren’t strong enough to really cut deep.

Fortunately, the slug was a slow enemy, and they were able to outrun it.

Unfortunately, it could spray acid all over, which neither was ready for.

Rosario shot forward, carrying Lucky in both arms and grabbing Cricket by the scruff to drag her along the grass.

Fresh acid sizzled and burned in a wide circle around the slug, turning grass brown and sending up small plumes of smoke. 

She dropped both of them on the ground and stepped aside. “Keep it up,” she said. “Until it’s dead.”

“You’re not going to make this easy, are you?” Cricket asked. 

“I made it easy by stopping you from being melted,” Rosario said. 

“... fair enough, I suppose. Come along, most luckless of horsegirls! Let’s kill this faux-bug!”

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