Back at home, the mood of everyone has been high all week. Especially for Nathaniel. His rapid increase in levels lately has given him a whole lot of skill points, and with advice from the Graska Hall, he has built his skill tree into a path the Dwarves call the War Cleric. There's a Class by the same name that some get by random draw, but if you take this skill path you can choose it at level 100 during the first chance at advanced classes.
The skill path gives him extra mace damage, the ability to use a shield and a big STR and CON bonus. No longer will be be a wimp beside Morgan, the half Orc who has claimed him as her own. The pair might now be the physically strongest cleric and Mage around. Though a few Dwarves might still contest that.
Morgan is so overjoyed to see her beloved getting strong that she doesn't even snap at her brother Ghaz for calling her Mork. Nothing can bring her down today.
Not only have their battle skills brought them renown, having so many crafters over level 80 has made them celebrities. Wealthy transfers and Nobles have been lining up every morning, pleading for Lickity, Misha and Dimnys to upgrade their armor. Candia has snuck under the radar so far, only selling a few pieces of jewelry, but that likely won't last long.
With the loot from the Naga Raid she's been on a roll, getting incredible bonuses on a number of pieces. Even the Skilled Creation Amulet Cain got back in his first weeks here has been exchanged for a piece with nearly twice as much Summon Damage Added. The old one has gone to Kone, turning her Bears into a formidable melee damage dealer as well as a tank.
Mixing fashions from the various dungeons has become Char's hobby. Not on herself, but the Shaman is quite the Fashionista and has the whole guild looking runway ready, discarding the usual mismatched hobo style that makes most transfers so easy to identify.
Everyone is happy to have her repertoire at hand, they've been the talk of the town all week, and Cain seems to be the only one immune to the gossip. Everyone else has become hyper conscious of the fact they're being talked about. He still didn't escape a make over though, he just got a more minor update to his fashion sense.
Even the Cold War between Misha and Nemu has died down. Though that might just be because Misha has been so busy Tailoring she doesn't have time to fight with the Felian. Her clothing is not only popular in Sunnybrook, it's a huge hit in Graska and Peaceful River as well.
Cixelcid and Alina, their quietest Elven cleric have taken up the duty as the Guild's in house merchants, delivering the day's goods for sale through the Demon Dungeon. Being able to Summon Demons to assist them now has made the journey an easy one. The Lamia Scourge Casters are a favorite, being decent both at range and in close, and with only a 30 minute cool down they can use them both ways on their journey.
"It's like having you with us every trip. So many fighters in the group that it doesn't even feel like we're in danger, way better than clearing packs with the two of us." Cixelcid explains when they come back from the day's journey.
He's got a point, being a tank and a Healer means they can just bring out a Horde of damage dealers and finesse through the dungeon.
Cain has been focusing on the Raids, doing both Demon and Naga Raids daily with whoever wants to accompany him. Both for the experience, and to gather enough supplies to keep up with demand. It seems no matter how much they gather it's never enough.
Tomorrow has been declared a rest day. No customers, even the tavern will be closed, everyone is just taking a day to recall the time when they thought they might actually get to take every other day off. Instead, they turned the Guild into the Beginner Valley's premier trading company by accident.
Peaceful River, contrary to its name, is a front line fortress city, constantly under attack by Ogres, even more so than Sunnybrook, which has been calm all week. As such, they always need more gear, and more recruits. To the point that everyone in town serves a term in the defense force. Those not physically capable of fighting do logistics and paperwork jobs, but everyone serves.
What they don't have is easy road access, so the supplies Cixelcid brings every morning now are snapped up in seconds. Initially they were going to buy a Guild House there and link it with the other two, but being a fortress city, none are available. Every transfer strong enough to keep up goes there for the abundant quest experience.
For the day off, Cain and Misha intend to recreate their date in the park. The theater is showing a new play 'King Dippuz', the story of the Orc King best known for having 50 sisters and no brothers. Being the youngest of 51 from his father's harem it seems he had a rough time of things while growing up.
The picnic goes flawlessly, and the play is a riot. They got the same private balcony at the Cheap Theater again, but this time the lower seats were packed with Orcs from Ghaz And Morgan's family Guild who have come to watch the comedy. Three hours of the proud King being coddled, forced to play dress up and deal with suitors for all his sisters was a great way to pass the evening.
Cain totally understands where Megan gets her attitude from now. It seems that her level of possessive and overbearing is normal for green Orc women. Nathaniel is in for quite the journey if he stays with her.
Since they've got enough raw materials and equipment to reform over the next few days, Cain decides it's time to go back to the Beastkin dungeon and learn some more forms. Both Golem and Supporter type additions to his arsenal can be found there, but they're all counted towards Nemu's upgrade.
Who knows, maybe once she reaches Epic she will be less like a possessive house cat. Misha might never forgive him if the Felian gets more territorial though.
The next morning Cain sets off for the Beastkin dungeon with his trusty sidekick Kone. She's beyond excited to try out her newly upgraded Bears in this dungeon, she's only had the opportunity to try them in the Naga Raid since Cain got that new necklace and passed his old +300% Summon Damage piece to her. They're all higher level than the Naga Raid now, by a fair bit and the groups are mostly small making it hard to tell who is doing what.
But surrounded by Beastkin, it should be very obvious how much damage the bears can do one on one. The ones from the clones of her that Cain summons as Supporters should be extra ridiculous though, as the Cloned Advanced Supporters get the benefit of her equipment, plus the bonuses from his own.
The usual friendly guard greets them at the security gate "remember about the Demons." He says with a laugh and waves them through.
What seemed like a horrendous mistake at first is now a central part of their battle strategy. Let the scent of the Demons pull everything in and cut it down as they go. They're strong enough now they can clear the swarm, so the plan is to move around to areas they haven't seen yet and try to collect more forms. Beastkin should be even easier than Demons to complete, everything from fur pattern to class specialty seems to be a different recording, so the number of possible combinations is incredible.
Not just the 250 forms for Epic, the thousand different recorded Beastkin for Legendary might actually be possible. Cain has been collecting all he can in the Demon Raid every day, but he's still got a very long way to go on that one before Vala can upgrade again.
Nemu is ecstatic to find out she might be upgraded to equal Vala. The Demon likes to tease her about the fact she's not worthy of being called Epic, getting the Felian all worked up as a form of entertainment whenever she's feeling bored. Cain can't really blame her though, teasing Nemu really is a lot of fun. She's nearly incapable of letting anything pass without a response.
As usual, when they step inside they are charged by every resident of the dungeon within a few hundred yards. With a few levels advantage and Pestilence though, they're able to keep up with the flow and still move about at a reasonable pace.
There was a town looking area where the enemies got stronger that they couldn't explore earlier, but today the goal is maximum species count, so they're going to head the other direction first and pick up as many easy gains as possible.
Turning away from the swamp moves then through a dilapidated village full of every imaginable variation of cat people. Nemu is happy to see so many kinds of feline Beastkin, forming grand plans of how the summons could be reworked to be all Cat People plus Vala with a neko ears headband.
It's definitely possible, but none of them so far can match up to the tank options he has as Greater Golems. Her suggestion is to find Kone a summoning option for Lions instead of bears, but none of the others are convinced Lions would make good Tanks.
Something is off about the residents of this zone though. There's a pair of shirtless Siberian Tiger pattern Berserkers in leather pants following them. Not to attack, but posing provocatively and rubbing up against buildings.
Kone realizes what's going on a second before Cain does "Hey Nemu, you've got admirers. Are you sure you're not going to go say hello?" The Druid giggles.
"Those two? They're barely even grown, still juveniles. Send their big, strapping fathers around and I might be interested." The Felian says with scorn and the two slink away.
How do you even tell their age anyhow? They're covered in fur. They looked strong and capable to Cain, but they're definitely sulking at Nemu's rejection like a pair of high school jocks who lost the big game.
