Origin ARS 3 (Origin A.R.S.) (6 page)

“Only forty-five hundred?” asked Scott. He knew that he received more experience than she did when fighting beyond his level, but that was ridiculous. If he’d killed them all on his own, he would have earned over forty-two thousand experience points. He could have increased his level four, maybe even five, times.

“Yes, what about you?” asked Rhea. She already knew that he would have received a lot more experience than she had. Humans were the fastest leveling race in the world if they were able to overhunt. Of course, that ease of leveling usually meant that humans did not spend as much time on their stat grinding. So, things often evened out in the long run.

“A little over fourteen thousand...” said Scott.

Rhea looked like she was going to be sick for a moment then shook her head. “Such is the nature of humanity.”

Neira looked at Rhea then back up at Scott. The sorcerer had not put her down yet, not that she would complain... “You two, like, get along so well.”

Scott smiled down at the pretty fish girl. “Usually, it’s hard not to like her.”

Rhea’s face took on a slightly pink tinge. “He’s not too bad, either.”

Ero giggled inside the sorcerer’s mind.  She was about to say something
interesting
to Scott about the relationship between her BFF and his elven sort-of girlfriend. However, she was interrupted before she could.

A soft pitiful cry emanated from a wooden pit-cage nearby. “N-Neira...?”

“That voice...!” Neira’s eyes widened in surprise then she looked up at Scott. “Please take me over there!”

He complied with her wishes and carried the mermaid to the source of the voice. It was hard to see in the darkness of the pit, so Rhea helped out by pulling out a torch stone.

The torch stone revealed a dynamic feminine form. The girl in the cage was another mermaid.

“Kiley!” cried the Neira. She immediately thrust her arms down toward the pit but she could not reach it from her position.

“Neira!” cried the girl in the pit.

Rhea unlatched the crude prison then pulled the girl up with ease. Her attack strength might not be equal to a creature that was sixteen to twenty levels higher than her, but she was certainly strong enough to pull a girl out of a pit.

The mermaids clasped each other in a tight embrace. For a moment, Scott thought that they were sisters. However, the sudden embrace soon turned into a hot and heavy series of kisses. Somehow, they did not seem like sisters to the man anymore.

“Wow, Neira. You, like, found Me.” said Kiley with wide and disbelieving eyes.

“Totally!” said the girl. She kissed her friend once more.

Scott glanced over at Rhea then back at the mermaid make out session. “Not to be rude, but... Should I put you down?”

He had been holding her the entire time. Neira looked up at him and blushed sweetly. She leaned in and kissed him on the cheek. “You don’t have to if you don’t want to, right?”

Rhea’s eyes narrowed slightly but she said nothing. She did not like the casual way that girl treated her sort-of boyfriend. Of course, she was also not too keen on how she had snuck in a far too sensual kiss earlier when giving her the sea blessing. She had no particular hang-ups about gender preferences, but she was not comfortable with foreign tongues in her mouth.

“Wow, Neira. When did you find us a boyfriend?” asked Kiley. She smiled sweetly up at the sorcerer then lashed her tail a little. Tonight was certainly looking up!

“He is,
so
, not my boyfriend. Though, he is cute for a boy.” said Neira. She never bothered to answer Scott’s question about putting her down, however.

“Scott. I think you can put her down now.” said Rhea, casually.

Neira smiled at Rhea then looked up at Scott. She pouted at him briefly then smiled once more. “It is fine, I guess. Thank you both for helping me find my fiancé.”

“Fiancé?” asked Scott.

“Yes! We’ve been together for, like, decades!” cried Kiley.

“Yah, totally.” said Neira. She fanned her tail a little then snuggled against Scott. She was a complex creature. She preferred girls, but did not seem to mind snuggling a man clad in a banana hammock.

“Let’s get you girls away from this pit. We can loot this place afterward.” said Scott.

Rhea smiled thinly, and then nodded. She leaned down then gripped Kiley tight. The mermaid girl cried out in surprise when the elf girl slung her over her shoulder in a casual manner.

Neira giggled at her lover’s plight for a moment. However, it did not take long before she acquired a slightly jealous expression. She would have preferred to be carried by Rhea, even if Scott was a nice boy.

They moved toward one of the fires and sat their burdens down next to each other. The mermaid girls immediately began to cuddle with each other then started to whisper back and forth. They traded a series of sweet kisses and seemed to be quite content.

Scott overheard only a little of their conversation, but Rhea’s superior hearing allowed her to pick out several ‘likes’ and the occasional, ‘whatever.’

The elf girl smiled at Scott when he walked over to her and reached out his hand. Her smile brightened further when he said, “Milady, would you give me the honor of helping me loot the place.”

“Why, my good sir, I would be delighted.” She curtsied gracefully and he kissed her on the hand.

Rhea’s face darkened slightly, but her smile never left her lips. Scott was being playful again, that was a good sign as far as she was concerned. The man had been moody of late and distant most of the time.

They walked hand in hand over to the various crates and assorted cages. After they searched through everything they found a few hundred Fayth and several pearls.

“Hey, did you gain a level from that fight?” asked Scott.

Rhea frowned. “No, I came so close, too.”

“How much more experience do you need?”

She groaned softly then sighed. “Twelve points...”

Scott could not help but laugh at her plight. The girl had come up just a little short.

Rhea pushed at him. “Neira’s wrong. You’re a mean boy.”

“Well, she’s also right. You’re a pretty girl.” said Scott, casually.

Rhea snorted at him but did not deny what he had said. If nothing else, the girl knew how to take a compliment.

“So, did you enjoy carrying her around?” asked Rhea after a moment.

Scott turned to the girl and saw that she had turned her head. She now looked down toward the ground. Her hair lightly covered her face and made it impossible to see her expression from his angle. Scott, still excited from the gleeful murder of so many fish-men for fun and profit, decided to give in to one of his many temptations.

The man leaned over and scooped her up. Rhea cried out in surprise then started to squirm. “What are you doing, Scott?”

He kissed her softly on the cheek then smiled. “I’m being a mean boy.”

Rhea’s face turned bright red and she looked down. “When do you plan to put me down?”

Scott laughed a little. He was sometimes an unintelligent moron but even he was not clueless enough to miss the subtle way she had said that. She had not asked for him to put her down. She had asked when he planned to do so. “When I feel like it.”

She smiled gently then leaned her head against his shoulder. She closed her eyes softly then released a long slow breath. She breathed in once, gently, and then said “Mean boy...”

“Pretty girl...” whispered Scott. He was not sure where his playfulness was coming from at the moment, but after fighting off that small horde of monsters, and reuniting two lovers, he felt lighter. Some of the weight on his chest had lifted. He had operated under a cloud of fear and frustration for days, and now he could see a glimmer of light in that emotional darkness.

“Am I really that pretty?” she asked sweetly. She looked into his eyes and searched for signs of a truthful answer.

Scott leaned his chin against the top of her head. He started to say something goofy, but for once he decided to be blatantly honest. “Yes, I think so.”

“Scott...” Rhea pulled her head back and looked him in the eyes. She could sense the sincerity in his tone.

He leaned forward and kissed her gently on the side of her nose. “I’ve been a butthurt asshat of late.”

She shook her head, but did not deny it verbally. Instead, she said. “That was a bad situation, but we can move past it.”

Scott nodded once, slowly. “We... Yeah,
we
can...”

Rhea’s eyes widened a little. Was, was he actually saying
we
? “Scott...I...”

He silenced her with a kiss, this time on the lips. It was a critical hit to the heart that did massive damage to the walls of the prison of doubt and fear that surrounded it.

Her eyes widened further then slowly closed. She reached her arms around her sort-of boyfriend and held him close. For the first time in days he had taken a bit of initiative. He had given her hope for a future where they might be together.

They broke apart, but he continued to hold her in his arms. The girl’s eyes began to shimmer as tears started to form.

“I... I love you, Scott.” said Rhea. She had not openly said that since the first few days after they had met. Every time she had said something similar it had seemed to force him further away.

He looked at her for a moment. A series of complex expressions crossed his face.

Her heart began to beat faster due to the tension in the air. She wore a complicated expression of her own for a moment when he leaned in like he planned to kiss her. Wasn’t he going to say something?

Scott did say something. He slipped past her cheek then softly whispered into her ear. “I don’t want to be in this world without you,
Origin
.”

Her face began to heat rapidly. Her entire body began to burn as far as she could tell. He had not told her that he loved her too, but he had used her real name and admitted that he would not want to be here without her! That was an incredible step forward as far as she was concerned.

Scott kissed her on the ear and Rhea squirmed against him. Her sudden movements caused him to lose balance and they fell back against a sand dune.

The man was hopelessly pinned by her gaze a moment later. The goddess in elf’s clothing looked at him with shimmering eyes and softly parted lips. There were no more words after that. Rhea pressed her banana hammock clad man-candy against the sand dune and kissed him sweetly on the lips.

Inside Scott’s head a single word resounded. “
Interesting
...” Ero had born witness to their moment and she had taken notes.

Silvery forms darted through the water at great speed. Their razor-toothed smiles were wide and friendly in a way that was quite disturbing. The creatures tore into the flesh at any opportunity, blood permeated the water in response to their aggressive and voracious attempts to devour their opponents.

Cut and torn, a masculine hand slammed forward at the last moment. “
Howling Gale
!”

Scott had discovered something interesting a short time ago. The howling gale spell could operate underwater! The
razor-tooth finnies
, a species of aquatic monster similar to overgrown piranhas, were blown back by the powerful tidal current that the sorcerer had created.

Dozens of small red numbers floated upward from the school of finnies. The attack did little damage but it encompassed a wide area and proved quite useful when faced with a mass of underwater monsters.

The best part was that the sudden shift in the flow of the water caused disorientation. Kiley and Neira used the moment in an opportunistic manner. They unleashed their discordant magical music to further weaken and confuse the creatures.

Rhea slipped into the area and used her arcane sword skills to deliver lightning based damage to her opponents. Unlike a directly cast spell, the electricity from her blade did not cause her problems. It did, however, greatly damage the underwater enemies she faced.

It was not a perfect strategy. The finnies were not powerful monsters, but they moved in large schools and they were highly aggressive. Scott had decided that they were the grass rats of the sea. However, they were within his level-range.

Another school of the silvery scaled monsters appeared. Thankfully there were only a few dozen of them this time. Rhea slashed into two more of the aquatic monsters, and then retreated. The group that she had fought against had begun to regain their coherence. The battle pattern would need to be repeated.

She drew the new school of monsters toward Scott. The sorcerer waited till she swam past him at all possible speed, and then he released his spell once more. “Howling Gale!”

He managed to capture most of the finnies within his area of effect, but six of them escaped to the side. They continued to move forward at great speed, while their fanged smiles gleamed in the light.

The mermaids went ahead with their part of the plan. They sang out once more. Rhea returned to battle the school of feisty fish monsters that had been battered by her love interest’s underwater tornado. Scott focused his attention on the six fast-swimming finnies. He knew that he would be able to handle six of the beasts despite their agility in the water.

The sorcerer drew back a little and waited for the monsters to group together enough that he could use his spell again. Out of his four current spells, howling gale was the most useful underwater. He had used it heavily at this point.

Scott unleashed his spell then raced in toward the swirling mass of fish. He angled his movements to the side and repeated the process. Soon, he had corralled the fish and returned them to the rest of the monster swarm.

Rhea drew back and worked her sword magic against her many opponents. Each strike was enough to finish off a finnie due to their weakened state and her lightning enhanced blade. The methodical method of undersea battle repeated itself many times that day. Several hours passed in this fashion and the group withdrew back to the shore. They had gained a large amount of experience and many ability points from the battle. However, that fight had just been to increase their strength and underwater combat experience while they waited for their real opponents to return.

The Shar-Shar were a goldmine of experience right now. However, the real reason that they needed to fight more of them was that they still needed a few more items in order to be complete underwater battlers.

Rhea pulled out a few of her Fairy’s Cure tonics and passed them around. She had nearly run out of them, but that was fine. Their time on this island would soon be done, and they had several tents left.

Each of them drank a tonic, and then Scott and Rhea picked up the mermaids. They carried the fish-tailed girls to their shore-side camp. The Shar-Shar would not spawn directly around the sanctuary area, and they used the place to rest between battles.

“I’m getting a little sleepy, Scott.” said Ero. They had not rested since the night before and it was close to dawn. The poor little fairy was barely able to keep her eyes open.

“Alright, Ero. We can sleep at dawn. The Shar-Shar don’t like to come on land during the day.” said Scott.

“OK...” said the Fairy girl, before she unleashed a loud and reverberating yawn within his mind. She had been alert for hours, but she had also been quite bored during that time. Scott had not needed to call upon her powers, but the need to remain aware and alert had drained her stamina a bit.

Kiley snuggled up to her fiancé then smiled at both Scott and Rhea. “This is kind of nice...”

“Right.” said Neira. “It’s like we’re on a double-date.”

Scott smiled at the girls then reached over and clasped Rhea’s hand. The elf girl looked at him for a moment and then sighed in a soft, content, manner. She leaned against him and then smiled a little as well.

“Wait, something is wrong, isn’t it?” asked Ero.

Scott blinked then thought about it for a moment. “Hey, you’re right!”

“Who’s right?” asked Rhea. She looked at Scott curiously.

“The battle music has not changed back into normal music.” said the sorcerer. They had not completed their last battle apparently.

“Ah, there is probably a finnie in the water nearby or the Shar-Shar are respawning.” said Rhea.

Scott nodded to her. That was probably the case. The entire point of hunting the finnies was to kill time while they waited for the Shar-Shar to respawn. He was about to respond when he noticed something strange.

His eyes lit up and his lips quirked into an amused smile. He pointed to a silvery gleam on the beach. “Well, maybe that’s the problem.”

Rhea looked over then laughed a little. One of the finnies had flopped onto the beach. The hungry little fish-nugget strove mightily to reach them, despite the fact that it also continually had to stop while it gasped for air.

Such single minded and sincere devotion should not go unrewarded. Scott hopped up then strolled over to the aggressive little fish. It was smaller than the others that they had fought. Though, smaller was relative. It was still about as long as his arm.

The man waited until the fish hurled itself into the air with a powerful flop. He performed a flip-kick that caught it from underneath. It flew higher into the air and gave him room to show off a little.

He performed a powerful jumping spinning upper-cut that finished it off. The overly dedicated little fish had lost health steadily while it was on the shore, and it had absolutely no ability to defend itself outside of the water. The futility of its efforts both disturbed and amused the party.

Scott idly wondered how the monster knew to continue toward them since they had reached the tent previously. Perhaps it merely suspected that its prey was still ahead of it, and it was determined to reach it? Maybe it was just stubborn and refused to give up even if its prey had disappeared? It was impossible to know the answer.

Either way, the saga of the little finnie had come to a violent conclusion, though the plot was full of holes and there was no satisfaction in how the heroic fish’s journey had ended. Alas, sometimes the hero simply does not win against the
final boss
.

A few seconds after the fish burst into motes of light the music changed back to its soothing and festive island beat. Scott could not help but smile at the tune. Every time he heard it, he wanted to sing the song,
Under the Sea
.

A battle report popped up and he grinned from ear to ear. That had been a highly productive hunting session, even if he was dog-tired.

<<<
Battle Report
>>>

Victory!!

Your party has defeated four hundred fifty-six razor-toothed finnies! Due to the fact that you defeated so many monsters in a single battle, you will receive additional rewards.

+ 0 EXP

+ 37605 Fayth

+456 Ability Points.

Item(s) Acquired:

Silver Scales X 312

Fish Eye X 97

Fish Tail X 456

Finnie Teeth X 36

Swim Bladder X 3 [
Rare
]

<<< * >>>

Scott could not help but feel like he wanted to dance a little. Working in a group had allowed them to easily defeat a larger number of monsters. He could never have fought that many finnies by himself. He would have run out of mana long before he could have killed even a fourth of that number. Actually, if he were honest, without the crowd control effects of the mermaids he would have been devoured.

He checked his survival lore ring experience and his eyes lit up. “Sweet, only thirteen thousand experience to go!”

Scott trotted back to camp to tell Rhea the good news but the elf girl was already up and speaking excitedly. “What’s going on Rhea?”

She whirled toward him then revealed a bright smile. “I just reached level nine!”

“Really? That’s great! Two levels in a day. That’s really good for you, isn’t it?”

“That’s amazing for me! I rarely hunt in groups, so I don’t get this sort of chance often.” said the elf girl. She had gotten the lion’s share of the experience since she did most of the actual killing.

Unlike the battles with the Shar-Shar, she actually earned more experience per battle than Scott did. The finnies were roughly the same level, or slightly lower-level, than Scott. He did not receive the absurdly highly experience bonus for killing them. If anything, his experience rewards would have been slightly lower than normal if they did not kill enough monsters to warrant a small bonus.

“Great job! Maybe we should stay here until you reach level ten? You would be able to receive your stat upgrades and first tier profession bonuses. That would help a lot when we go to free the rest of the mermaids.” said Scott.

Rhea looked toward Neira and Kiley. The mermaid girls glanced at each other and then back at their new friends. Neira spoke up. “The Shar-Shar probably won’t, like, hurt our people too much at the moment. The full-moon is almost a month away. We can wait a few days, maybe, if you really want to keep hunting.”

“Right.” said Kiley. She nodded at them and then smiled. They did not receive anything from the fights with the finnies, but they did receive ability points and loot from the Shar-Shar. Helping their friends grow stronger was useful and they could increase their own abilities a little in the process.

“If you’re sure...?” asked Scott. He wanted to go save the mermaids, but the entire event smelled terribly of an impending boss battle. He wanted to gain his survival skills and acquire whatever that goblin soul would grant him before moving on. If rhea could manage to reach at least level ten that would help a lot.

The mermaids looked to each other once more and then nodded. Neira looked at Scott and then said, “We’re, sure.”

“Alright, we’ll spend a few days doing a lot of hard grinding.” said Scott.

Neira’s eyes lit up and then she leaned forward in order to give him a view of her fishy cleavage. “How aggressive.”

Kiley placed her hands to her cheeks and then squealed, “Kyaa! So bold!” 

“Huh?” asked Scott intelligently.

Rhea laughed at his dumbstruck expression then took the confused man by the hand. “Come grind with me a little.”

“Uh, OK...” Scott’s confusion faded after he thought about the situation. He snorted and then rolled his eyes. He had not meant it like that at all.

Ero woke up a bit then slipped out of Scott’s mind. She fluttered near him for a moment then yawned loudly. “If you’re going to grind, I want to help.”

Scott blinked at the little fairy. Her eyelids had started to droop and she fluttered around erratically. “Maybe we should just get some rest? Since we’re going to stay here until at least tomorrow morning, now, we might as well get a little sleep.”

Rhea tugged his shirt then pouted at him a little. “You don’t want to grind with me Scott?”

He shook his head at the girl. “Beauty sleep is pointless for you, but I need as much as possible.”

The elf’s pout shifted into a brilliant smile for a moment, but then she thought about what he said. “Hey, that was meant as a compliment, right?”

Scott grinned at her and then kissed her on the cheek. “I’ll take first watch.”

“That’s not an answer, Mister...” said the girl in a dangerous tone of voice.

Scott kissed her on the other cheek. “I can answer questions or I can kiss you.”

Rhea blinked then closed her eyes and puckered her lips. Scott laughed at her sudden personality shift then leaned in and kissed her on the nose.

The elf girl rubbed the tip of her nose then gave him a
look
. “I have lips, too, you know.”