"Tsk... this stupid thing is so hard to break! Inferno Blade!"

Pepper yelled as he smashed his sword onto the golem's face yet again. Despite being defeated, the body of the golem remained as insanely tough.

Finally, the cracked exterior of the face gave way, crumbling away. Inside was a grey core the size of Pepper's fist. He quickly pocketed it. Next, he undid the straps for the golem's armguards and stashed them away as well.

"Phew! Finally done. I still can't believe we beat that thing!" Pepper grinned widely.

Hearing that, Mei was slightly embarrassed. The whole fight, she hadn't contributed in the slightest bit! Not because she got scared of how fast and ferocious the golem was, it was definitely because she wasn't sure how to help... yeah...

"The golem is dead." Emerr typed into the party chat.

"no exp for me T-T. btw pep didnt u say you have trouble with those guys? dont we deserve a reward for helping u win?" Alzeth sent a message.

Pepper felt like Alzeth was so shameless and direct! The main reason they won was obviously because he sacrificed his rare MP potion. But honestly, he was thinking of giving them something to them as a form of thanks anyway. A heart moss golem's superior core was worth as much as twenty normal moss cores, which was enough to buy a few rare potions if he sold it.

He thought a while about what he should give... aha! Didn't he have tons of arm guards from the normal moss golems? He could give one of the lower levelled ones that didn't get greyed to them. They didn't sell for much in the pawnshop despite being Rare anyway... probably because too many people traded them in.

"I was lucky enough to find ungreyed armguards from a golem while I was farming. Lv20, Rare. Do you want it?" typed Pepper.

"hell yeah!" replied Alzeth, unaware that he was getting 'discount goods'.

"Alright, take this and hand it to him." Pepper took out the armguards and handed them to Mei.

"Oh... thanks," said Mei sheepishly.

The one who Pepper should have passed them to was Emerr, not her! But Mei didn't blame him, he had no way of knowing.

"Here," said Mei as she handed them to Emerr.

"Thanks," said Emerr.

"I'm sorry but I'm going to have to go to the Dwarven City to get my sword repaired. I won't be able to help you guys out in grinding or whatever you're here for."

"That's fine. There's nothing worse than having a rare sword accidentally broken!" Mei nodded, able to relate.

She remembered once when she forgot to check the durability of her rare weapon in a PC game. It broke, along with her heart.

"once i respawn i'll summon you all so no need to run all the way back" messaged Alzeth.

"That's not from another online guide, is it?" sent Mei.

"whut! that's just common sense!"

"I'm kidding ;P" Mei chuckled.

~~~~~

"Ooohh! These look really awesome!"

Mei, Emerr and Pepper had teleported to Greyland town's portal area with the help of Alzeth's summons. Pepper said "Bye!", left the party and teleported to Dwarven City.

Alzeth held the two armguards in his hands and examined them from every angle with delight. The armguards themselves were made of some sort of grey metal with small purple crystal shields attached. The shields were a bit flashy for his taste, but he thought to himself about how a quick paint job would fix that.

"Alzeth can I scan them?" asked Mei.

"Sure," said Alzeth as he passed them to her.

Crystal Armguards

Type: Armguards

Rarity: Rare

LVL: 20

5,000/5,000 DUR

Effects

+1000 DEF

Blocks 1000 Damage

Armguard Passives

Kinetic Absorption: The Crystal Arm Guards restore 1 MP and 1 HP for every 20 damage blocked.

So the whole time, the golem's overpowered healing powers came from its passives? Mei was somewhat surprised. She handed them back to Alzeth.

"Huh, didn't expect the healing passive to come from the armguards. That's pretty neat!" Alzeth seemed surprised too.

He suddenly decided to check the time, something he had forgotten to do earlier during the excitement.

"It's already eleven twenty! Emerr, let's go for lunch. Zera, you should also prepare for lunch too."

"Huh?" Mei was confused for a moment. "Oh, that's my username!"

"Haha, it took a while for me to get used to people calling me Alzeth too! Alright, we'll be heading off."

"Bye," said Mei as they logged off.

Mei decided to log off too. Playing solo wasn't as fun if you asked here. And as they said, lunchtime was nearing.

Her eyes opened, seeing the ceiling of her room. Urgh, she could feel sweat covering her body. Was it because her body thought she was exercising while she played the game? Mei took a quick shower and bathroom break, then decided to watch one of the streamers she liked to watch playing the same VR game.

The area he was in was flooded with players who had teleported to his location to join him. Well, he definitely wasn't going to have issues getting into a party.

She watched him for around 20 minutes before suddenly getting a message from her phone.

Dad: Mei, its lunch. Bring your vr gear downstairs too

Huh? Why was her dad asking her that?

Mei: y tho

Dad: You'll find out later ;D

That didn't sound ominous at all. Mei had a few unpleasant thoughts flash through her mind. Was she somehow in trouble for something and her dad was going to take the VR gear away? No no, she definitely didn't do anything wrong. No reason to worry.

Slightly nervous, she finally went down the stairs and into the kitchen holding her VR gear. What greeted her was a horrific sight. Almost every single plate on the table was filled with different vegetables! And on her plate was a rainbow assortment of vegetables of all kinds. Not even rice was on the plate!

Mei felt like running away. Sure, she was fine with eating one side of vegetables along with her meal with some nudging from her parents, but not a mountain of them!