Rapid Fate Online Chapter 52: Grind Them Slugs, Baby

That afternoon, in RFO, you and Butterfli3 busied yourselves with the last of the unpacking and just generally playing ‘house’.

Since it was a new home you hesitantly tried the new oven… and almost burnt the place down. But Butterfli3 came to your rescue and quickly extinguished the fire.

“Ok, this oven is the spawn of satan. How come it doesn’t work like my old one back on level 1?” you asked as Butterfli3 removed the charred remains of whatever it was you were trying to cook, from the oven.

“This is a level 22 oven. You need to upgrade your cooking stats so that it matches this oven.” He kissed you on the cheek on his way past you to the front door and emptied the charcoal remains onto the grass outside.

You pouted a bit then shrugged.

“Guess it can’t hurt to upgrade?”

Butterfli3 came back in and sat down at the kitchen bench opposite you, sitting the dustpan and brush down on the bench.

“I’ve been thinking, too, we should make plans for this trip to beat the level 44 boss.”

“Oh! Yes! What did you have in mind?” you asked excitedly, turning to face him.

“Well, it sounds like it’s gonna be a hard boss to beat so I was actually considering putting a party together to beat it.”

“Oh really?” you said with surprise, “you usually like to single though, right?”

“Yes, that’s right but if I have people with me that I trust then I don’t mind fighting as a group.”

“I see. So who did you have in mind?” you asked as you leaned down on the counter top.

“Actually, I was thinking of inviting our neighbours Asuna and Kirito, and B/F and

Mirio… if we can find Mirio, that is. That makes a team of 6 if you include you and I,” he said thoughtfully.

“Ooooh, what a strong party! That’s sounds awes— hey?! Woah, hold up a second. Did you just say me fighting as well?? Me? Fighting?!” You said with a horror stricken look on your face, “what am I gonna do?! Stab the dragon in the titty with my puny ass dagger? Throw a shit tonne of Mahi at it? I’m useless!”

Butterfli3 chuckled. “No, no, you’ll be a blacksmith by then! So you can get yourself really good equipment to fight!”

“No. I can’t fight! I’d prefer to just maintain your and everyone else’s equipment!” you replied, still mortified by the thought of having to fight a level 44 boss.

“Ok, we can work out the finer details later but what do you think of the party members?” he asked.

“I like it! I’m happy with that group,” you said with a smile.

“Ok good, let’s focus on getting your blacksmith class sorted and train you up a bit first before we look at doing anything else,” he said with a smile

“Perfect! Umm, so how am I going to train as a blacksmith? Do I do an apprenticeship?” you asked.

“Well, I was going to ask my blacksmith on level 30 if he would mind taking you under his wing for a bit, he has amazing smithing abilities so I would like for him to teach you his ways.”

“Sounds good to me! Do we travel to level 30 then?”

“No, it will just be via teleportation because it will be just you and I,” Butterfli3 said with a smile, “no adventures for a bit, just grinding.”

“I liked our adventures,” you moaned playfully  with a pout.

“We’ll get to adventuring again soon enough,” he reassured you, “now let’s get you a class change!”

…………………………………..

Over the next few months you worked hard to get your smithing skills up. You were now a qualified blacksmith and a pretty terrible one at that but you were hard working and determined to learn, and Butterfli3 couldn’t have been prouder of your efforts.

His personal blacksmith, Grid, was indeed an amazing smith and was happy to teach you all that he knew.

Little by little you improved, until you felt confident enough that you knew what you were doing and after work one day you asked Grid if you could make something special for Butterfli3.

“What did you have in mind?” he asked as he packed a few last swords away.

“Umm, I don’t know really. Something that might be useful in a boss fight? Let’s just say the boss is a dragon…” you said, trying to think as practically as possible.

“Does the dragon breathe fire?” Grid asked.

“Umm, dunno, maybe?? I’m pretty sure it would…” you replied vaguely.

“Ok, well, some kind of water element item would be super helpful,” he said, pulling the sign outside of the shop, inside for the night, “a water aura bracelet?”

“Oh my gosh! That sounds amazing!” you said excitedly, “how do I make that? How does it work?”

“First you need to get two items. Water crystals and wind,” Grid stated plainly.

“For the water crystals you have 3 options on where to get them from. One: head to level 25 and fight a llama farmer or a giant lama itself. Two: go to level 28 and farm some sea slugs till you get enough crystals, or three: go to level 32 and take on the giant sea serpent that lives there.”

“Wow…” you said, shocked, “ummm, ok, so I don’t like any of those options. Are you sure there’s not some nice person that will just casually give me the water crystals?”

“No, unfortunately, you gotta work for it,” Grid said with an amused smile.

“One question though, why would a giant llama have water crystals?” you asked with bewildered look in your eyes.

“The farmer up there feeds his llamas water crystals to improve the quality of their fur so you can either take him on, or go for one of the llamas to get what you need,” Grid said. “Farmer has a gun too, might I add. He’s an NPC.”

“Ok, gotcha, avoid the demon llama farmer with gun,” you said with a thumbs up, “I don’t like the idea of a level 32 sea serpent either so I guess sea slugs it is.” You grimaced and your whole body shuddered.

“They’re not that bad,” Grid said with a shrug. “Some squirt water. Some squirt ink, but you’ll be fine. Just stab them with your dagger a few times and hey presto, monster drop.”

“Easy as pie, huh?”

……………………………………

20 minutes later you were up on level 28, grinding sea slugs.

“Imma kill Grid when I get back,” you growled to yourself as yet another sea slugs squirted ink right in your eye, “this is, the fucking, 20th giant ink slug I’ve picked today and all I’m collecting is slug slime and ink for poison potions.”

You stood back and wiped ink from your face, scowling menacingly down at the lump of sea animal.

Another brightly coloured sea slug slid into the rock pool that you were standing in and you lunged at it, screaming death threats at it as you shot towards it.

You stabbed the poor thing mercilessly until it exploded into crystals; and stood there panting loudly, your breaths coming in short sharp bursts as you held the dagger in hand.

Suddenly, you were aware of eyes on you and you looked up to see two terrified fishermen sitting on the rocks nearby.

“Don’t make eye contact,” you heard one whisper to the other, “That fox looks deranged.

“What’s a fox doing here hunting sea slugs anyway?” the other whispered back, “Man, these RFO glitches are getting worse.”

You groaned and turned away.

“All I want are some water crystals is that too much to ask?!”

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Rapid Fate Online Chapter 53: Slugs And Hummingbirds >>>