Chapter 78: The flock

Back in the Dwellings of the Living Trees, Safo received the last piece of the armor set. Bark Armor - added 1 Defense point, plus the whole armor set gave the wearer the Bonus of 1 Strength. Making Safo total Strength points - 4 at level 10.

As soon as Safo put on his Bark Armor his Boots also turned into boots made of bark, while his leaf turned yellow as an autumn leaf fell from the tree straight to Safo's head.

"Great, finally, we are done with your needs. Now we need to get equipment for me and Luna, only after that we shall go after the Secret quest of the Creator." Miloud didn't know what waited for them in the depths of the volcano, thus he wanted to be in the best shape.

"I don't care. I want to fight monsters. That is all. Let's find something for Luna then. What is the best choice for her?"

"Let me tell you what options you have first, then you can choose." Miloud started his lecture about the game structure.

The Cube consisted of Nine Cubes, Four of them had mandatory requirements for the ascension.

In Cube 1 players needed to obtain a weapon, Tier 1 or higher to pass the gates to Cube 2. Cube 3,5, and 6 also worked in the same way.

Cube 2,4,7,8, and probably 9 gave a player options to choose from five items. Three items of the armor set, a pet, or a profession.

Miloud informed Safo and Luna that he already planned his game. In Cube 2 he decided to get the profession of an Assassin. Its perks were essential to him.

Safo had no choice, he could only unlock the hidden item and be graceful. While Luna had the freedom to choose everything, starting with her equipment and ending with her future pet and profession.

"I want a pet." It didn't take long to make her mind. "What pets can I get?"

"I have no idea, to be honest. I never had an interest in pets. You can research that, meanwhile, we will get a set of armor for me and you based on Agility." Miloud and Luna were both damage dealers in their team, so both wanted armors to boost their perception time to move faster.

"I know what we need. It is almost the copy of Safo's armor, but with Agility points instead of Defense. It will give us 3 Agility points and 1 Strength, which is great to deal damage. It will be enough before we obtain our Tier 3 armor." With that, The team teleported to a village in the desert.

Kharhbatum Settlement - was the hottest village that Safo saw so far. He couldn't sweat but felt the heat as much as he could in real life.

Sand structures looked fragile while in fact, they were strengthened by the Skills of the builder NPCs. Luna and Miloud received their three quests to gather the armor pieces from in the settlement.

Help to dig out the roads that had been buried by sand after the sandstorm. Hunt down 10 Sand Jackals, and the third quest was simply to pay money for the piece.

Equipped with shovels, the team went on to clean the area designated to them. Half a day took to finally take care of the first quest. Luna and Miloud received their leather armor along with one extra Agility point. With their Boots that they already bought, they were way ahead of Safo in terms of moving.

After buying some health potions, the trio went towards the location with Sand Jackals.

On the way, they fought against yellow lizards with impossibly long tongues. Small monsters used their tongues as a whip. Luna and Miloud with their newly acquired Ability points had no problems with the nimble creatures and their lashes, while Safo had to catch the tongue with his forearm covered with God's gloves and then pull the confused creature to him.

Lizards hadn't much of an HP or an EXP but it was fun to fight different opponents with a variety of ways to attack. Safo gained more and more combat experience, which made him less and less unconfident.

Miloud sensed it but couldn't tell if it was for good or bad. Overconfidence never helped, it could lead to more mistakes which would lead to death.

Another half of the day took to get to the area with Sand Jackals and when the battle began the trio was a bit exhausted. Still, in no time, both Luna and Miloud had finished their quests. But instead of going back to the settlement, Miloud suggested choosing a detour. He was sure that they could encounter a Magical monster.

The chance of gathering their Mental orbs seduced Luna and Safo so they found themselves walking deeper into the desert.

After hours of walking, their HP started to decrease, the burning heat started to affect them. It was then when they heard a barely perceptible sound. A faint noise of a rumble or something similar to that.

"I see two dots over there. Luna, could you catch a glimpse of them?" Safo and Miloud were both staring trying to differentiate anything valuable in a desert full of mirages.

"Hold on, I will use my skill." Luna had a character perk that allowed her to watch her vicinity as if she was a bird flying high in the sky. "I see two people... and... run!"

She started to run.

"What? Why?" Safo and Miloud couldn't understand the situation but they did not doubt Luna's words. They were next to her asking what she saw.

"A giant flock of red-eyed ostriches chasing after two adventurers. They will just run over us. I saw the end of the desert and the beginning of the mountain region. We should climb it if we want to live."

Luna pushed herself to run as fast as she could and swiftly took the leading position. Miloud was right behind her while Safo without his extra Agility points was at the end of the race.

After several miles of running the two adventurers caught up with Safo, while Luna and Miloud turned into two dots on the horizon.

"Run man, run." Said one of the two.

It was a character with the appearance of a wooden doll. All of his joints were connected with robes and his body was polished to the level that it was reflecting light.

The wooden doll's companion was a ceramic woman in a white evening gown embroidered with golden flower silhouettes. Both a wooden doll and a ceramic lady were not as young as the usual player of The Cube.

"Why are they after you, bro?" Safo slowed his pace to be in line with the couple.

"She had a secret quest to get married in the next of the Red-eyed Ostriches. We couldn't even get to the place. Haha, this game is fun." The wooden doll didn't look upset about the chase, on the contrary, the couple seemed to be enjoying the race.

"If we keep running this way, we will get to the mountain area where we can be safe." Both Safo and the wooden doll had to yell their sentences due to the noise made by the flock behind them.

"Yes, we know. We made an escape plan in advance in case of failure, like this. Haha... By the way, my name is Koprt, this is my wife Vlouda." The wooden doll didn't stop smiling, the ceramic lady turned her head and smiled at Safo, greeting the comrade in misfortune.

"My name is Safo Nur, nice to meet you. Do you feel like dining with us after the end of the race?" Safo laughed.

Both Koprt and Vlouda agreed, never stopping running.

By the huge dust trailing the angry ostriches, Luna and Miloud knew that Safo was within 5 minutes' run from them. They already climbed high so that the ostriches couldn't get them even if they could jump high.

Koprt and Vlouda were level 16 with a bit higher Agility points than Safo, thus they ran a bit faster and Safo had been left alone once more.

"Go, go don't worry about me." Safo encouraged his new friends. In reality, he was one step from collapsing on the ground. Only the fear and embarrassment of being killed under the flock of birds kept him on his foot.

Luna sensed Safo's fatigue and began her arrow rain towards the murderous birds. But it didn't help.

Safo's speed was slower and slower with each step and soon he was buried under the flock.

"Safo!" Luna cried his name and raised her speed of shots. Four, five, six were killed by her bow, but hundreds more came following.

When all of the flock stopped before the vertical rock formation Luna had more accuracy to fire her elemental arrow. Safo was nowhere to see due to the dust that the flock created. it would take more than 10-15 minutes before she could see clearly.

"I'm alive?!"