Robert roared, “Did you see that? I dropped him like a toilet seat.”

  They congratulated their obviously excitable teammate until Elgar said, “Something is wrong with the XP.”

  Everyone was silent for a moment. It did look off to me. We had just killed a level eighteen mob in a party of four. XP should be based upon my level since I was the highest level. It looked like we got more XP, but then I remembered LoS had implemented an XP bonus for teams. So, in a team of four, we got a 50% XP bonus prior to splitting it into four equal shares.

  The system made power leveling others possible but also guaranteed that you still had to fight things that earned reasonable XP for the one doing the power leveling. It also encouraged teams rather than single hunters. No one liked to watch a druid kiting monsters across the zone. It messed with other hunting groups and sometimes caused trains of monsters.

  “It looks good to me, Elgar.” I used their names every chance I got to make myself seem more like a person than some AI scripted monster. “I got 9 XP. I know it isn’t much, but that was ridiculously easy. If you want, we can skip single pulls and see about handling a few more.”

  “I got 9 XP also, but I should have only gotten 2. How did we get more than four times that much?” the wizard asked.

  At that point, I was confused. The XP formulas were not released but had been tested and worked out unofficially. That much should have been common knowledge for most players. My confusion probably came through in my words. “It is a standard XP award based on twenty-five XP per kill then modified for my level, our group and divided evenly between us.”

  “Yeah, but when they transitioned from closed beta to open beta, the XP went from a base of 25 per kill to 10. The company announced that it would make the struggle to rise in levels mean more, as well as causing players to be careful about death penalties,” Elgar explained.

  “Hmm… I didn’t know that. I just know that all the ogres in my village get XP based upon 25 for killing a monster of the same level.”

  “Yeah, really no reason that he would know,” Tauri said. She stared at Elgar. I noticed how pretty her piercing green eyes were. She was clearly trying to signal something to the wizard, but I just let it go. Then she looked at me, “You may be my new best friend if you get us a fat XP bonus.”

  “Okay, think you can get two this time?” Elgar asked, ignoring whatever facial expressions Tauri had been making.

  “Sure, if they are all this easy, we will clear out the nest in nothing flat. I feel so freaking strong and fast with these buffs.” Then the rogue streaked off. A short distance from us, she activated stealth and was gone from sight, just like that.

  We killed pairs of beetles a few times. Most of the time, I rooted one in place and Elgar blasted it to pieces while Robert and Tauri chopped up the one that made it to the tank. The final time, they told me not to cast anything but healing so they could see how handling multiple beetles in close would go. It went just as smoothly as expected.

  When this portion of the hunt was over, we had killed nine beetles and made a whopping 81 XP. This was definitely a big slow down, but I hoped to be able to speed it up once they trusted me more. The next pull Tauri brought four of them back with her. I managed to root two of them before they closed to melee range, while Robert had no problem holding the agro of the other two as Tauri killed them.

  Elgar blasted one of the rooted beetles, so I took it as my opportunity to do some blasting of my own. Frostburn didn’t pack the instant damage punch that the wizard’s spells did, but watching his mana bar convinced me he must have only a fraction of my mana. But given his Mind score couldn’t have been much above fifty, that wasn’t surprising. In the end, it killed just as effectively as I channeled extra mana into the DoT effect.

  Tauri squealed as she said she was super close to hitting level sixteen. For my part, I hoped the cautious Elgar would be ready for some bigger prey. But I would wait. I didn’t want to push them too fast. They were an interesting mix of personalities, and I wanted to learn more about how they worked.

  A dark and terrifying thought occurred to me at that moment. I was a Hybrid Intelligence now. Did that mean that part of my curiosity about this team’s dynamics was the AI’s desire to understand humanity better? Normally, I would push much harder, even with a pick-up group. So, was it me being cautious because of my situation, or was every decision I made being subtly influenced by the AI’s objectives?

  “So Tauri, do you think you can get a hill giant alone?” I asked.

  Robert’s eyebrows shot up and Elgar started to say something, but I cut him off.

  “I don’t mean one of the warrior kinds, just a bearherder. I can handle those by myself, surely the team can do the same.”

  The wizard said, “We have a way that we normally…”

  This time, it was Tauri who cut him off. “Yeah, yeah. We know. Slow and steady wins the race and all that, but we have the firepower now. I say we try it.”

  “Easy for you to say. You aren’t the one who has to take the hits from those things. Even the bearherders will pound Robert for hundreds of damage per hit,” Elgar pointed out.

  Robert spoke slowly, “With my self-buff and Oog’s buff, I am at 3,500 HP. So, if he can heal me, we should be able to take one down. Besides, what a great story that will make.”

  Elgar didn’t look convinced, so I added, “Tanking it really should be a secondary option. I will root it and slow its attacks. Then, between our speed and the debuffs, we should be able to blast it or rush in for hit-and-run attacks. The only thing will be making sure we coordinate when you are going to blast it.”

  The wizard ran his hand over his chin. It was covered in a well-trimmed beard. I couldn’t help but wonder if that was a mannerism the player had from the real world. Except then again, this was my real world now.

  “Okay, but we will do hit-and-run attacks alternating with spell attacks,” Elgar said. Tauri and Robert nodded along in agreement, so he added, “And you have to listen for my calls. If I tell you to back off, then you better listen.”

  “Yes, dad,” Tauri said. She drug out the last syllable like some petulant teenager.

  Then she was off, scouting ahead of us as we moved back to the other side. She steered away from the hill where all the drakes had been. It didn’t seem likely they would be there feasting on my kills still, but why take the chance?

  We found a nice open area on the side of one of the hills. The slope was gradual enough to allow for good mobility and wide enough to allow us to ping the giant around between us. Tauri was back within a couple minutes, shouting her warning about incoming. She only said hill giant, so she must have successfully pulled just one.

  The giant came lumbering over the top of the hill and I hit him with Root at maximum range. I was pleased to see that she had found a level twenty-nine. It should provide good XP even with the party split. Root was followed by Walking Sleep. As soon as he saw the roots in place, Elgar fired off a lightning bolt. I had learned that was his longest-range spell, if not his hardest hitting. His style seemed to prefer fire or force effects, which was an interesting combination.

  My third spell was Frostburn. I didn’t channel extra mana into it like I would have if I was soloing. It was important that I not do too much of the damage. We needed to see how well the others would fare against a monster that was more than ten levels above them.

  I stood back and watched as Robert ran forward and landed a slashing blow with his sword to its leg. He seemed to have an endless supply of weapons and chose whichever one worked best for the situation. In this case, he seemed to think that was a lighter sword that he could make quick strikes with. A thin line of blood appeared as even the glancing blow pierced the giant’s thick skin thanks to Robert’s enhanced Strength.

  A second later, the creature spasmed as Tauri appeared from stealth with a backstab. The blow went deep into its lower back and must have caused it a great deal of pain. Because of the debuffs, she was long gone when it finally managed to swing its staff around. Force missiles sprang from Elgar’s fingertips and I got close enough to cast Flash of Light. It didn’t blind the giant, but it would take away a bit of its accuracy.

  Then it was melee time again. Not wanting to be left out, I charged the last few feet and thrust my spear into its side at the same time that Robert landed a blow on the other side. Both our attacks triggered Arctic Blast at the same time, and the creature was dead before Tauri even got her second attack in.

  The paladin and I stood there staring at each other. It was wild the way both the frost spells blasted out at the same time. Then he broke into a wide grin. “That was freaking awesome.”

  A faint glow appeared around Tauri as we could all see her leveling up. She must have been really close since the 45 XP we got from the kill was enough to push her over. She was clearly enthused by the level gain and asked, “Ready for more?” before the glow had even faded.

  Elgar nodded, and she was off again. The next time we got a trio of bears, but I rooted one, fought another and let the three of them finish off the third. By the time I had killed mine, they were almost done with the rooted one.

  “Sorry, I had to clear them out to get the next giant. After this pull, I think we will need to move. The next hill over had at least three giants on it,” Tauri said. By now I was getting into the flow of it and it seemed the rest of the team was too. We all just nodded along.

  The next giant we let Robert tank just to see how well he could hold up. One of the key distinctions between players and me became clear. Robert could get hit for over five hundred damage and barely grunt in pain. Their pain settings must be at 10% like they had been in the closed beta. Lucky me, as an NPC I get to feel it all. Maybe it was more than that, though. Maybe it was my higher level of integration into the game. Either way, I would have preferred to feel less pain.

  I had to keep a stack of regeneration spells on him, but we kept Robert at or near full health throughout the fight. It wasn’t very mana efficient for me, but it proved it could be done. Once again, this giant fell to an Arctic Blast. This time from Tauri. Her higher attack speed gave her more opportunities for the spell to trigger, and she was loving it.

  “I could get used to this. I wonder if I can get the ice thingy to go off twice at the same time if I’m dual wielding daggers,” she mused.

  We all smiled as we took a break for mana regen. I listened to their banter. More than anything, it reminded me of what I had lost, but also gave me hope that there might be a future for me where I didn’t have to hear the grunting of ogres all the time.

  “Earth to Oog… are you listening?” Robert said.

  I realized he must have been speaking to me and I simply hadn’t heard. “I’m sorry. I was lost in thought. But what did you call me?”

  “Oog. I thought it was better since you don’t seem to like being called Oogliefrank. I mean, I get it is what the other ogres call you and all…” his voice trailed off then.

  I was blown away by the fact that he was trying to be kind to me. I was just an NPC to them. While Robert was the kind to wear his heart on his sleeve, it was definitely a positive sign. “No, Oog is great. I appreciate it, actually.”

  “Okay,” he said with a grin, “I was just asking if you were ready to move. I know you had to use more mana keeping me healthy that time.”

  “Yeah, I’m definitely ready. Bring on something big.” Of course, me and my fat ogre mouth. I should have learned by now to be careful what I asked for.

  Chapter 31- Rotten Core

  The next couple of hours went very well, and we eventually stopped to eat. I could tell being stuck in the game was worrying them. It would have been nice if I could have commiserated with them, but I kept my big ogre mouth shut. No use risking life as a sewer rat.

  We had cleared hill after hill and gotten to the point we were killing a hill giant every couple of minutes along with a few bears. All in all, we had gained another 3,352 XP, so I was pleased. We were now killing at a pace that was earning me XP at least as fast as I could do so on my own. It had been necessary to refresh Wolf Spirit on everyone along with Scale Skin and Snake Spirit on myself, but the Talisman still had almost two hours on its timer.

  As we ate, we discussed their recent upgrades. Tauri was the one with the most questions because she was still level nineteen. “So, spill. We have time to talk now. Get anything good at level twenty?”

  Robert was, of course, the first to answer. “I haven’t chosen my affinity yet. I was going to specialize in Divine Defender, but the way I have been fighting today opened my eyes to the fact I may not be best suited to be a tank.”

  “Oh, really. What are you thinking then?” Elgar asked.

  “I love this Strength and the extra damage I can do with it. I am considering going with the Holy Might specialization.”

  “That would work well in this situation, but there are times we will need a tank,” the wizard replied. “What about you, Oog? Think you are gonna want to keep fighting with us?”

  “Probably as long as you will have me, but I do have some things to do at the village and I know you won’t always be in the game. Honestly, I wasn’t sure if you would want me around.”

  “I don’t care if you were a big, green troll. With this XP bonus, we are gonna become raid ready in nothing flat,” Tauri said.

  “Glad I could help and good to know you are just using me for my XP bonus,” I replied.

  That got a laugh out of them. Robert even said, “I swear, Oog, you may be nothing but an AI construct, but you seem so real.”

  Not sure how to respond to that, an awkward silence came over the group until Elgar said, “So I think I’ve decided on my focus. I’ve been torn between fire and force. But after seeing how well Oog does with other effects, I’ve decided to go the force route. It doesn’t have as much info on the web about it as the optimal path for fire, but it seems like it will be more fun.”

  We asked him a few questions about what he got from it and essentially there weren’t huge boosts now. His mana regen rate went up and he got a couple of new spells, one of which created a floating sword of force energy. At this stage, it was only defensive, but later he said it would be able to attack.

  Then it was Tauri’s turn to talk about her path. She wasn’t there, but from what I had seen of her, she had probably been thinking about the upgrade she would follow for a long time. “Will you guys be freaked out if I take the Poisoner affinity?”

  “It’s your build. What do you like about that path?” Elgar answered.

  “Just like you said, I’ve watched Oog, and he gets a ton done with his buffs and debuffs. I like the idea of being able to contribute more than a knife in the back. With it I can add poison effects to my attacks, but I will also eventually be able to create poison traps and bombs as well as cures if any of you get poisoned.”

  “That may shape some of the spells that I take. One path that shamans can specialize in is Plaguebringer, which focuses on poison and disease. But even though I didn’t pick that affinity, I can still learn poison spells, which might work well with your poisoner abilities,” I added.

  “Oh, that is interesting to hear. Shaman is an NPC only class, so we don’t really know anything about it,” Elgar said.

  Playing along, I said, “Not sure what NPC means but, I was born as an ogre outcast. From there my paths are shaman or oracle. Shaman is by far the more common, and I don’t even know any oracles. Then, at level ten, we get to pick our affinity. I have been blessed by the spirits with a dual affinity in Hex Warden and Pack Caller. When I reached level twenty, I became an elder of my people.”

  Elgar cocked his head slightly as he stared at me. He paused for a second before asking, “That is very interesting. I am curious why you haven’t leveled up yet. Does it work differently for monsters? We humans and half-elves level up every time we earn a 1,000 XP, so you should have leveled up at least three times.”

  “Ogres can choose to save their strength. I am storing up XP and will level up when the time is right. By not leveling, I make sure that you all gain the most XP possible.”

  “Wait? So, you are holding back from leveling so we can gain XP? That is amazing, bro, but don’t you miss out on gaining stats and stuff,” Robert asked.

  “It’s all good as you say, bro.”

  For some reason, that made Tauri laugh. Then she said, “I’m ready for more if you are, but we’ve killed most of the giants around here. Do you think it’s safe to head into the center of the zone?”

  I didn’t want to offer any opinion. Whatever that necromancer had done to cause the breach still had me confused. I needed to figure it out, or I was gonna go crazy. There was something more under the surface, but I wasn’t ready to confront it again.