Alburet laughed, “You’re the best meat shield I could have chosen, Tiny.” Turning to Karen he went on, “Apparently my little speech was enough to bump Tiny up to Respected as well.”
“You should really put that info up on the forums. Maybe that way people will stop thinking your class is so weak.”
“Naw, they can figure it out on their own. I always thought the best part of games was figuring things out.” Alburet stopped and considered just how fast Tiny had caught Bob in happiness, after a moment of thought he put it down to how much fighting they had been doing.
“Any idea how long until we see the action we’re here for?”
“Nope. That single tree over there should be the rendezvous point. Both Orc and Goblin Messengers are known to stop at it periodically. So, now we just have to wait. Your friends are on the way anyhow, don’t want them to miss out.”
“Point. We have been waiting a bit so they should be well on their way,” Alburet said, grabbing his Mindstone and tossing Marysue a message to see if she had any idea how much longer they would be. A minute later he got a reply and informed Karen, “They should be here in half an hour or so. They’re crossing the grasslands now, I bet we’ll be able to see them in fifteen minutes or so.”
“That’s good…” Karen start to reply but got cut off by Tiny’s rumbling voice.
“Next pack is coming,” Tiny rumbled.
Alburet chuckled as he buffed Tiny up again, this was the best kind of grinding he enjoyed. The nice easy packs that came to you one at a time with a decent break between, “Back to the grindstone.”
The pack was put down with minimal difficulties, only Tiny taking any damage as was normal. Karen stretched and sighed, “This is boring. If it wasn’t for this quest I would say let’s jump a bit and try something dangerous.”
“We can always do that after we’re done here,” Alburet said, looking back the way they had come and seeing a group killing Orcs. “I think those are the two I told you about.”
Karen looked where he pointed and nodded, “Could be. Well once they get here hopefully it won’t be long until the messengers show up. After that we have a few hours before the rare shows up.”
Ten minutes later Marysue and Gerald came running up. Gerald spoke up first, “Hey, Alburet. I wondered what quest you were doing and when you told me to meet you here I hoped it was the messenger quest chain.”
“It is, Gerald,” Alburet said, then made introductions all around. Karen added them to the group as Tiny called out another group of Orcs inbound. “Tiny, take the warg and one orc. Gerald can tank the other two orcs.” He then slapped buffs onto the tanks as the mobs got closer.
It was over quickly. Gerald looked disappointed, “That was just sad. Why were you holding back, Alburet?”
Alburet held out his maul, “I pull aggro if I don’t.”
Gerald blinked after tapping the weapon, “What the fuck? You can’t use that at this level. Hell, I can’t use that at this level.”
“My gloves have a bit of a cheat to them, I can use any weapon regardless of strength required.” Alburet shrugged, “Just one of them things.”
“It is good to see you again, Alburet,” Marysue interrupted. “Have you seen Fluffball lately?”
“Naw, she took a few days off I think.”
“Oh, that’s too bad. I was hoping to group with her again.”
“I think she said she’ll be on tomorrow if I got the days right. I was hoping she would make it for the quest as it means good loot.”
“Master, I see two larger groups moving towards the tree,” Tiny rumbled to them.
“Good timing, you two,” Karen chuckled. “Those are the groups we’re waiting for. We need to kill them all. After that we’ve got a two hour wait before the rare shows up to investigate.”
“Okay. Once they meet up Tiny will tank the goblins, Gerald tanks the orcs. DPS burns the orcs first and then the goblins?” Alburet said looking at the two groups, each numbering ten strong.
“It’s going to be a bit messy, but yeah that would be best,” Gerald said.
“I have a mana potion so I’ll be able to keep the heals going,” Marysue stated.
“Alright. That’s the plan,” Alburet said. “We have a bit of a walk to get to them, so once they meet up we’ll run to them and start things off. Once we’re there I’ll buff first since I need to wait to damage them anyway.” In agreement, the group watched the two packs of mobs come together then set off toward them at a run with Tiny and Gerald leading the way.
They got to within a dozen yards before the mobs seem to realize they were there, so intent were they on talking. Alburet cast his buffs onto Tiny, once those were in place Tiny charged into the ten goblins with fervor. As Gerald engaged the Orcs Alburet slid in behind him and applied the two buffs he could. Once he had buffs in place he targeted the Goblin Shieldbearers and cast Sap Strength on them to make them lose the shields. He did the same to the one orc with a shield, but it didn’t drop it. Shrugging, he hefted his maul and stepped into the fray. As planned, Tiny had the full attention of all the goblins and Gerald all the orcs. Demonic Retribution kept them fixated on Gerald.
Karen picked out the caster and appeared behind him, her backstab taking away a good chunk of its life. Gerald didn’t have good aggro on it, yet, so it turned to face the Assassin. Alburet, seeing the orc turn, joined in and hit it with the maul to the back of the head. The critical took off over four hundred health and almost killed it. Karen’s next attack dropped it dead.
“No more caster,” Karen chuckled, joining in one the mob Gerald was attacking.
Bob spoke up, “Master, Tiny could use a hand with his caster.”
Alburet dodged over to the goblin group and with three hits killed the caster there before rebuffing Tiny with Demonic Vitality. Then he stepped back over to the orc group and set about damaging them. The fight, while long, wasn’t exactly hard with Marysue there to keep Gerald healed. The only one who came close to dying was Tiny before Gerald was able to AoE taunt the goblins off of him. Once they were all dead, the group looted up and recovered health and mana.
Quest Completed: Stop the Goblins and Orcs meeting in the southern province
Receive: Twenty gold and increased reputation with all Stormguard Guard factions.
Return to the Commander to receive the coins.
“Not hard, just long,” Gerald laughed. “Your minions are way more useful than people give them credit for. Thanks for inviting us. We also got credit for the quest. Oh and ding, I leveled.”
“Me too,” Marysue chimed in, “level fourteen now.
“Grats you two on the level. As for my minions, it’s because I have a good relationship with them,” Alburet replied. “Bob and Tiny both view me with Respect which means 50% increases to their stats and main utility, damage for Bob and health for Tiny.”
“Oh, is that how that works?” Marysue chimed in. “I’ll let my friend know. He was having issues with his demons and just became an Angelic Summoner instead.”
Bob sneered, “Fracking halo wearing assholes that they are.” The whole group turned to look at Bob in surprise. “Seriously, why can’t they just let beings do what they want? No, it’s always do this or don’t do that. Fracking hate those Angelic assholes.”
“Don’t hold back Bob, tell us how you really feel,” Karen piped up with a grin.
“Belay that order,” Alburet interjected, shaking his head. “I won’t be switching teams, Bob, so you’re safe with me.”
Tiny rumbled, “I’m glad.”
“Anyway, we going to just roam and kill stuff for the next few hours while we wait for the rare?” Gerald asked.
Everyone agreed that this sounded like a good idea. The group started roaming the grasslands, killing every group they encountered for the next hour and a half before coming back to where they could keep an eye on the tree.