Looking for Group - Alexis Hall Page 0,86

Nifelbard, home of the Asbjorn and the Cult of the World Serpent. He hopped aboard and waited for it to depart.

Unlike the journey from Minea, this one was fully animated, at least for a little while. He had just enough time to grab a Dr Pepper as the old world faded into the far clipping plane. Drew was slightly surprised by how nostalgic he was as he rocked up on the shores of Ursa’s Spear. Arriving in that zone after the expansion launched had been the first time he’d felt like he was playing the game everyone else was playing, not ahead of the curve yet, but definitely not behind it either.

It hadn’t aged so well, but Drew was weirdly comforted by the rough cliffs, the snow, and the northern (or he supposed technically southern, if he remembered the world map right) lights. He was here for a quest chain that had been legendary back in the day and was only accessible if you’d achieved Exalted reputation with the local population of crazy warrior bears. Drew had only ever done rep grinds that led to gear he needed for raiding, and this happened to have been one of them. He was totally loved by violent teddies, and that meant he could purchase an [Invitaton To The Althing] which took place in the Frostharrow Woods, and eventually, when he had completed several bizarre quests—including digging through bear droppings, disguising himself as a bear, and stealing sandwiches off other bears—culminated in the hard-won reward of an [Enchanted Picnic Basket].

By the time Drew had accomplished this, he was exhausted and had a slight headache, but had dropped into that kind of Zen space of farming and grinding. It was also late enough that Ialdir had come online.

Ialdir has invited you to join a group: y/n

Ialdir is now group leader.

Heurodis has joined the group.

[Group][Heurodis]: whats this about jacob?

[Group][Heurodis]: hello drew

[Group][Orcarella]: hi

[Group][Ialdir]: Much as it pains me to say it

[Group][Ialdir]: Help us Bjorni-Wan-Kenobi

[Group][Ialdir]: You’re our only hope

[Group][Heurodis]: what do you need?

[Group][Heurodis]: uncle bjorn is here

[Group][Ialdir]: Do you still have the [Bejewelled Music Box] for MC?

[Group][Ialdir]: I junked mine years ago

[Group][Ialdir]: Bank space crisis

[Group][Heurodis]: of course i have

[Group][Heurodis]: ive been playing since vanilla

[Group][Ialdir]: I had no idea

[Group][Ialdir]: You never mention it

[Group][Heurodis]: so why do you want to get your hands on my box

[Group][Orcarella]: i’m trying to get the ruby golem thing

[Group][Orcarella]: i want to craft it for Kit

[Group][Orcarella]: to say sorry for being a dick

[Group][Heurodis]: you must have been substantially cocklike drew

[Group][Heurodis]: if you have to go to the second-worst raid in vanilla

[Group][Heurodis]: to get the recipe for the most needlessly inaccessible vanity pet in the entire game

[Group][Orcarella]: yeah kinda :(

[Group][Ialdir]: Say it with [Diminutive Ruby Golem]s

[Group][Heurodis]: okay im in

[Group][Heurodis]: lets make this fast

[Group][Heurodis]: i hoped id never have to set foot in that place again

Your group has been converted to a raid.

[Raid][Orcarella]: i thought vanilla raids were best

[Raid][Orcarella]: i thought they didn’t make them like that any more

[Raid][Heurodis]: are you cheeking your elders andrew

[Raid][Heurodis]: your elders who are doing you a favour

[Raid][Heurodis]: also i never said vanilla raids were better

[Raid][Heurodis]: i just said they were harder

[Raid][Heurodis]: and that we are better players because we beat them

[Raid][Heurodis]: you scrubs with your "fun"

[Raid][Heurodis]: and your "interesting mechanics"

[Raid][Heurodis]: back in my day a raid was 40 people

[Raid][Heurodis]: 32 of whom you did not like

[Raid][Heurodis]: 28 of whom would disconnect immediately

[Raid][Heurodis]: and 6 of whom would die the moment they stepped into the instance

[Raid][Heurodis]: b/c they had not farmed a full set of fire resist gear

[Raid][Heurodis]: as they were told

[Raid][Heurodis]: many times

By the time Bjorn had finished ranting, they’d basically arrived. Magmarion’s Caverns were located in an abandoned dwarf fortress up in the mountains near the human capital of Whitepeak. Drew had vague memories of questing in the area when his human myrmidon had been around level forty-three. He’d wandered down the wrong tunnel and been instantly splabbered by a level sixty elite dragonspawn. This time he just rolled right over four of them on his way through the instance portal.

Ella appeared between two shattered statues of what Drew guessed were probably dead dwarven kings.

[Raid][Ialdir]: Oh come on

[Raid][Ialdir]: This place isn’t so bad

[Raid][Ialdir]: If every raid hadn’t had a dragon at the end it might even have been cool

[Raid][Heurodis]: perhaps

[Raid][Heurodis]: but they did

[Raid][Heurodis]: and theres only so much stay away from the breath and the tail you can take

[Raid][Heurodis]: and all the other bosses are just guys with swords

[Raid][Ialdir]: Yes the encounters are a bit dull

[Raid][Ialdir]: but the lore