Chapter 0064

Sylphie’s POV

“Well, this exercise in teamwork is an epic failure.” Sylphie said after they camp on one of the lower ledges after killing the [Frenzied Salmon] for several hours.

The silly little Priest was sitting in front of the fire salivating over the salmon soup stewing over the first to care about Sylphie’s assessment, but a certain loud mouth took exception to Sylphie’s statement.

“I think we did pretty well. There was no death nor any wipes. All in all, a great first endeavor.”

“You really think so?” Sylphie asked pointedly.

Erica thought about it a bit, “Yes.”

“Then let me enlighten you on your failures. Since you volunteered, let start with you Erica.” Sylphie turned to face a disgruntled Erica, “You damage is good on a one on one situation, but you misjudge the radius of your AOE spell, World of Dancing Sword and pulled several [Gigantic Brown Grizzly Bear] and nearly cause a wipe. Then not only didn’t you learn your lesson, you continued to use the spell and broke the mob held in place by my Thorns and Brambles spell. Once you hit level 34, you underestimate your damage and pull aggro on numerous occasions. I had to warn you several times to reduce your threat but ignored my warnings. Teamwork is about coordination and cooperation. I saw none of it with your fighting style.”

“Nobody died.” Aetharious spoke up for Erica. During the farm fest, little Aetharious and Erica got along splendidly. Seems like Erica had a soft spot for children and Aetharious viewed her as another sibling.

“Nobody died now because the [Frenzied Salmon] isn’t a high-level mob and it has limitations placed on it, namely, it can’t leave the water for long.” Sylphie countered, “And don’t think you are off the hook since you’re just a little boy. Throughout the fight, you contribute as little as possible. You spent most of the time in the air observing the group. I don’t mind you being a spectator when we first started. Observing the enemies is a sign of a good leader. Sitting out the fight and watching other as they try to down the mob is plain laziness.”

“Aetharious-”

“Has to shoulder his burdens just as you have to shoulder yours.”

“-is a little boy.” Egarious faltered under Sylphie’s intense glare.

Everyone knew they had a role to play when fighting the mobs, yet Aetharious disregarded his assigned role is lieu of watching the fight from above. It isn’t wrong if he was a bystander or if they were fighting on their own, but Sylphie specifically told them they were here to assess their coordination as a group. There is no coordination standing, or in this case flying, to the side and watching fight.

“Although, I have to admit, you did well, Egarious. You picked up the mobs after Rayael had taken a dunk in the deep end of the river. You also did well switching over to healing when I had to tank with Ayrez. Your skills and abilities make you an excellent partner to have in a group, if you didn’t spend most of the time watching over Aetharious.”

No one said anything towards Sylphie’s dress down. She was correct in her analysis. Everyone here can function well on their own, but they don’t know how to adjust their playing style to fit a group setting.

The lack of trust fostered by Leviene didn’t help any. Although the spoiled brat didn’t do anything outright to the siblings, she made no move to allay their fears. Her erratic actions cause further misunderstanding among them.

“What about Leviene? How would you assess her actions?” Erica didn’t want to dwell on her failure, so she tried to redirect Sylphie’s attention towards the only available target.

“From your perspective, Leviene is a ticking time bomb that does what she wants regardless of the situation. She is the cause of the group’s dehiscence because her unpredictable actions cause you to react contrary to my expectation. Am I correct?” Everyone nodded except the Priest in question who is still drooling over the food.

“Have you ever considered Leviene is covering for your weakness instead of throwing a tantrum? When you pull aggro Erica, Leviene change into Rayael to hold the threat so the mob doesn’t kill you. When Egarious is paying attention to Aetharious and not doing his job properly, Leviene takes over his role. She switches between tanking and dealing damage because it is what we need at the time. Our group has more healers tha dps, which is good because it will be hard to wipe, but it also takes forever for us to down the mob. Leviene fills the holes we leave open. I’m not defending her since she was supposed to tank in the first place but she does a decent job in the role she plays.”

“If she was playing the role of either tank or damage dealer then why was she on her Priest?” Erica didn’t want to let it go. She felt Sylphie was completely bias against them. Admittedly, they all made mistakes. They weren’t nerds staying in the house all day playing computer games. How were they supposed to know what to do? Yet Leviene was able to get away with a scolding, how fair was that?

“Mana.” Leviene said after a mouthful of salmon soup.

As an excuse, it was pretty good. Without mana all they can do is auto attack. Leviene going on her Priest to deal damage is acceptable, much to everyone’s displeasure.

“You’re eating already?”

“I’m hungry.”

“Save some for everyone.”

“There’s plenty more. No need to complain.”

“Ever heard of manners?”

“Not when I’m hungry.”

“Damn selfish brat.” Erica launched herself towards Leviene. With a slight twist mid launch, Erica was able to grab Leviene’s soup for herself.

“Hey.”

“As you said, there’s plenty more.”

“How rude.”

“Not when I’m hungry.” Erica tossed Leviene’s word back to her.

Sylphie waited for them to settle down before getting to the issue at hand. “With our team work right now, we won’t be able to kill the boss of the area, the level 52 Black Wyvern.”

“I gotta question? Is it better to go after the boss of the area or attempt to clear a random dungeon spawn?”

Leviene’s question is completely off topic and irrelevant to their current situation.

First of all, the boss of an area are elite mobs that patrols their defined territories. They are higher levels than the mobs in the area and have the freedom to move around, making them harder to find, but they are by no means difficult to kill.

Dungeons are divided into instances, mid tier instances and raids or 7 man instances, 15 man dungeons and raid respectively for the maximum number of players that can enter the instance at one time.

Instances are generally low level dungeons created for a group to test out their teamwork and for players to farm better than normal gears. Mid tier instances have better gear, but it requires the effort of more people to complete the instance. Raids are generally end game instances made to challenge big guilds. Raids are the measuring stick used to measure the strength of a guild. The first guild to down a boss in a raid instance are generally acknowledged as the strongest guild on the server.

Random spawn dungeons can be any types of dungeon. The main difference between random spawn dungeons and instances are their portal location, difficulty, repeatability and loot drops.

Instances and raids have their portal in a static location. Players can beat the instances then wait for a period of time for the instance to reset and attempt the instance again and again. Since players can repeatedly attempt the instances as often as the reset timers allow, the loot are good for the level but it isn’t the best.

Random spawn dungeons spawn in random area. It can be anywhere on the map like a remote island at the edge of the map accessible only to the races with flight capabilities or deep in the middle of the ocean where only the aquatic races can enter. Random spawn dungeons can only be attempted once, therefore, it has stronger mobs and better loot than its static counterparts.

“Why do you ask?” Sylphie eyed Leviene knowingly.

“When I fell in the water fighting the [Frenzied Salmon] I saw a portal to a random spawn dungeon.”

Yep, Laurie’s luck struck again.