Chapter 46

-POV Jeffery-

The cave floor is cold and I can hear the dripping of water further in. We are all still together and that’s what matters, but I don’t know how we’re going to get out of this situation. I look at the narrow entrance of the cave and see a large reptilian eye, surrounded by green scales, just staring at us. Above it says

-Forest Lizard- Lvl 43

If it were only tier 2 or 3 I think we could take it. I’m third tier in my Virtuous Paladin class, Dad is second tier still in some thief class. He said he used to like playing assassins in tabletop games, but his class hasn’t given him anything that’s been useful against the monsters we’ve been having to go through. Mom is also second tier still, but her healer class advancement has been much more useful. My uncle is third tier like me, in some kind of berserker class. It’s geared towards a large spear he found that the lizard managed to snap in half with its tail. I still have my shield, but Uncle Stan can’t exactly punch the giant lizard to death. I’m pretty sure it’s tier 4.

I look down at my quest arrow, the quest arrow that’s been there for months now. I see the quest tracker saying we only have a few more miles back to our hometown. This damned lizard, we’ll have to think of something. We checked further into the cave, but it just ends a dozen yards in. Since the lizard is too big to get in we’re safe for now. We have water dripping into the cave from above somewhere, but we don’t have any food. We’ve been in this cave with a lizard staring at us for a day now, so we still have time to think of something before we starve to death.

I think back to a few months ago when all this started. We got a call from Uncle Stan saying he was released from prison finally and needed a place to stay. He had always been my favorite uncle, but got caught with a bunch of weed back when it was still illegal in the state. Of course my parents told him he could come stay with us, so we packed for the car ride out to go get him. I was so excited they had finally let him out, that I forgot to tell my girlfriend I wouldn’t be back until later the next day. I hope she’s still okay.

It was late at night when we finally picked him up, so we got a couple rooms at a local motel for the night. We wanted to get back as soon as we could the next day, so we all went to bed early. My dad woke uncle and me by pounding on our door loudly. He then showed us the news of some meteor and pieces crashing everywhere. I was worried about my girlfriend so I convinced everyone to pack back into the car quickly… too bad we got the first message from the system then. After the message the car wouldn’t start and all of our electronics died.

Uncle and I picked fighter for our first class, which was good because we had to beat some large rats to death with a tire iron and my steel toe boots. They attacked us after killing the motel owner in the office. After that, we all got a quest to return home. One of the first things we learned on our journey back was that we couldn’t just take the roads. We walked right up to some monsters sitting in ambush. They looked like morbidly obese little children, but purple and angry. The name above their heads said they were -Slob- but dad barely survived the encounter thanks to mom’s healing.

It made sense that if monsters existed and wanted to kill and eat us, that they’d wait in places we were more likely to be. So we walked in the direction of Maternus, just staying away from the roads. We got other quests along the way, but mom and dad didn’t always want to participate. It cost them levels they could have gained, but it’s hard to ask them to fight more when their classes aren’t geared for it yet. As we got further along the monsters got stronger along with us. Not as a whole, but here and there we’d run into a stronger group or singular monster. There were still low level tier one slobs running around, but our journey didn’t magically get easy just because we gained levels, tiers and second classes. My kind uncle somehow managed to get a berserker class, and it was just surreal seeing him apologize to a troll he was in the process of disemboweling. I got my class Virtuous Paladin because I had been using a shield to block hits for him and the system recognized my will to return to Cindy.

“Do you think we could use the edges of your shield to whittle down one of these stalagmites and I could use it to stab the lizard?” Uncle asks. Well I guess it’s better than no idea, so we go to a good looking one and try to snap it by pushing it over. It works, but it falls over and shatters on the cave floor. I think I remember learning these things are fragile now. “Ok next plan.” Uncle says not yet having that next plan thought of.

Suddenly we hear a loud chirp from the giant lizard and it’s head hits the narrow entrance. We see it move it’s head away and hear thuds, most likely from its tail hitting things, I remember that sound from before uncle’s spear snapped and we hid in the cave. I also hear yelling from feminine voices and realize people are fighting it, so I position my shield in front of me and charge out of the cave.

After my eyes adjust to the bright sunlight, I manage to get my shield up in time to take a hit from the tail, it’s still painful. Painful is better than dead though, and I roll to my feet again. I see about a dozen pale women in matching cloths fighting the lizard. One of them with bright red hair is close to me and I see the tail swinging for her, but don’t make it in time to block the blow. She’s sent flying with a loud thud into a thick tree. I expect to see her body broken against the tree, but instead she simply stands back up and charges the giant reptile again. Are those pointy ears?

I see arrows stick into the monsters side and so does uncle, who jump onto it, pulls out an arrow and starts stabbing it. He’s gripped onto a scale pretty tightly, when the first arrow snaps he grabs another and goes to town again. The lizard charges another one of the women, going for a bite, but I get my shield up in time to block it. I see a white bolt of lightning fork past my head and singe the side of the lizard. She must have a mage class. The lizard lets out a pained chirp again, and tries turning to swat her with it’s tail, but I’m still covering her so I’m able to take the hit. I feel healing and see mom outside the cave now, she’s standing at the entrance, probably so she can duck back inside if she’s targeted. Which is smart, it gives me less people to cover.

It’s not just us fighting this time though and the lizard is hit by spells, arrows and weapons from all around. The women attacking the lizard in melee range like uncle seem to be able to take heavy hits, so I focus on protecting the back line mages and archers. I see one get swiped where I can’t get to them, but they just shrug it off too. I wonder what tier these women are. They all have -Guard- above their heads, and only one of them doesn’t have pointy ears. I’m pretty sure they are elves, but I can’t exactly ask them in battle. I cover the one without pointy ears for the first time and she says “Could you cover me, everyone else can take hits since their Opal’s kids.” I decide to trust her, and notice she’s a fire mage of some kind. Sure enough, over the next half hour of fighting I see them get smacked by a tail or swiped. Some of them ask for healing and get it, but they don’t take nearly as much damage as expected.

The fight ends with the woman sporting bright red hair stabbing a long sword made of blood into its skull a few times. Dad was given a spare bow partway through and was able to land some well timed arrows. Maybe he’ll get a better option for his next tier. The fire mage behind me speaks up “You are good with that shield kid, thanks for the cover. We got a quest to come invite you all to join our camp.” Well she’s pretty forward, and they did just save our butts, but I hope we don’t have to commit until we finish our own quest and see their camp. So I speak honestly “We are almost back to our hometown after so many months, and we’d like to see the situation there before deciding, if that’s okay.” I then put my hand out for a shake “My name is Jeffery by the way and thank you all for coming out here to help us.” She takes my hand and shakes it. “It’s not a problem if you aren’t sure about us yet. Are you headed to Maternus by any chance?” she asks and mom has walked up to us and answers “Yes, you look familiar but I can’t place it.” The woman in front of us looks mom up and down and then yells “Miss Taylor?! It’s me Stephanie I was in your class 6 years ago.” Mom’s eyes get big and she looks at the woman closer. “Oh my god little Stephanie, you caused your mother so much trouble because of that stunt you pulled at prom.” They both laugh and hug each other quickly before separating, then mom yells to dad “Honey! This girl is one of my students.” Dad walks up and says hi, but is short about it. He knows better than to get in between women talking about the old days. I spot uncle talking to the red haired woman and decide to join him.

“Oh Jeff, this blood covered woman is Ruby, she’s apparently an elf, isn’t that great?” Uncle says and it’s easy to see her blushing with such eerily white skin. “She says they can help us get to town for our quest, but we’ll have to wait for after her mother’s wedding which is happening soon.” he finishes and then she speaks up “You all are welcome to come too, Mom loves meeting new people, and the whole camp will be there. She even has frogmen coming.”

I remember seeing a lot of frogmen the past couple weeks, all of them are aggressive except for the white ones, who leave us alone. They are scarier though, we think they dominate this area of the forest. We saw a group of 3 dozen of them ripping apart a giant snake and eating it. If frogmen are going to come and not try to eat the other wedding guests, then it’s probably them. So the elves and frogmen are allies?

With everyone healed up we finally head towards their camp. We decided to take up their invitation. They will make it easier to reach town without uncle’s spear, and after we finish our quest it might be a good option for a safe place. When we get close I can see their camp is circled by a wall made of logs. A figure jumps from the top of their gate and is soon followed by another. The first woman runs up to the red haired woman Ruby and hugs her, making the woman who took a giant lizard tail to the face cough. Above this woman’s head is -Guardian Mother- Lvl 42.

She stops squeezing Ruby and apologizes “Oh sorry sweetie, mom forgets her strength sometimes. How was the quest?” the strange woman then turns to me and says “Oh a male Player, this must be the family from the quest, good job Ruby. You all should come to the ceremony it’s going to be fun. Probably.” the other new woman walks up next to her and she’s perfect. Her orange hair cascades down the sides of her face, framing her beauty just right and… wait, I have a girlfriend, I have a girlfriend, I have a girlfriend. After my internal mantra the angelic elf serenades me with her voice “This is Opal, and my name is Amber and we would love for you to come to our wedding.” she breaks my heart, but I have a girlfriend so I’ll recover.

-POV End-