Calculated Trust

The quiet mountain top glistened with fresh fallen snow. It blanketed the trees and rocks. This high up, the air was thin, Seiko could see his breath curl and whisp with each exhale. He sat on a fallen tree, hands stretched toward a crackling fire. Oaklee stood on the edge of a sheer drop, looking at the sky with binoculars. She counted in her head. Ten minutes and forty-three seconds to convergence. Her calculations shifted and revised constantly, accounting for air pressure, wind, gravity, velocity, drag, etc. Oaklee bent down, using her finger, she drew two footprint sized holes in the snow. She called Seiko over as her internal timer hit the three minute mark. Seiko put his feet in the holes as she directed.

“Could you be a little less theatrical and just tell me what we’re doing?” Seiko said.

Oaklee didn’t respond. She was intensely focused as she checked her binoculars again.

“Draw your bow.”

“What? Why?” Seiko asked.

“Just do it! It’s coming!” Oaklee barked.

Seiko pulled out his bow and knocked an arrow. The ai tilted it upward to just the right angle.

“Ok, now hold there.”

“What am I shooting?! There’s nothing here, we would hear it coming.”

Again, she ignored him. Oaklee stretched out her hands toward the bow. Red energy bloomed from her palms, like living vines, the red light wrapped around the arrow. The shaft began to glow the same crimson. Next, she clasped her hands together, chanting arcane phrases to form a spell. Greenish blue mist fell from her mouth as she spoke, pooling around her head.

“Acceleritas!” As Oaklee finished the enchantment, the smoke seeped into the bow. At that moment, Seiko felt the string dig into his fingers. It felt as if the force he was holding back had tripled or even quadrupled! His arm shook slightly trying to maintain the draw.

“Fire in 4…” Oaklee began counting down.

Seiko looked confused. “Fire at what?”

“3…”

“What are we fighting?” He growled.

“We aren’t. 2…”

Seiko sighed in dissatisfaction.

“1… Fire!”

The ranger let the arrow fly. While doing so though, he didn’t take his eyes off of Oaklee. It was a pointless shot anyways and he wasn’t aiming at anything.

The arrow tore through the sky at incredible speed. It was like a bullet from a gun. Air built up at the tip and exploded with a BOOM! as it broke the sound barrier. Oaklee held out her binoculars to Seiko. He looked at where she pointed. The little Ai was filled with a deep smugness as her partner’s face went from confused to completely shocked. It was hard to see because of the distance, nearly a mile away, but he could see a flying beast through the scope. It was humongous with the head and wings of an eagle and the body of a lion. A Gryphon. It flew over a distant frozen lake.

“Thats EisTod Lake. It magically freezes anything that touches its waters.” Oaklee said as she stamped out the campfire.

Seiko watched in disbelief as the arrow he fired slammed into the monster with the force of a truck. Red tendrils exploded outward from the point of impact, constricting the gryphon’s wings. The beast plummeted from the sky, wounded and entangled. Seiko followed it with the binoculars as it plunged down to the lake, through the ice, into its freezing depths. Oaklee threw her hood over her head and started walking down the mountain. He followed her in a daze, not noticing the giddy expression on his own face.

Seiko looked at himself in the mirror of the shop. The tailor and shop owner smirked behind him, very impressed with his own handiwork. The cloak was quite impressive. It’s hood was lined with the Gryphon’s lion fur while the body was composed of its feathers. Talons adorned the collar like onyx jewels. Seiko wasn’t typically one to dress flashy but even he had to admit, he looked good. Besides that, he was more than a little excited about the new garment’s abilities. The gryphon’s hoard cloak was a rare+ class Item. It granted the wearer a very unique power. The first 3 times you died while wearing it in a day, your loot stayed in your inventory. Most players were unable to craft the cloak because it required the gryphon’s hide to be in pristine condition.

Under normal circumstances, this was impossible as the monsters were very difficult to kill. This new advantage was all thanks to Oaklee. By only using one arrow, binding the gryphon, and trapping it under the ice of the EisTod, they were able to preserve the hide. Even Seiko had to admit, she had made it possible, not only to gain this valuable piece of equipment, but also to level up from killing the beast. After paying the tailor, he was confronted with a choice. When reaching level 50, you got to choose a specialized sub class tree. The ranger class opened up to 3 subclasses, the hunter, the strider, and the marksman. 

Hunters specialized in tracking, trapping, and camouflage. Striders were made to specialize in pvp, using crossbows for rapid mid ranged attacks along with powerful sword skills if you ever needed to get up close and personal. Lastly was the marksman which prioritized accuracy, patience and planning for the pay off of high damage at a safe distance. The UI hung open in front of Seiko as he considered the strengths and weaknesses of each skill tree. Oaklee watched over his shoulder with curiosity. After a long moment of silence, he clicked the marksman icon.

“Pretty confident in your aim then I guess?” Oaklee asked.

“More so confident in yours.” He replied.

She put out her hand in protest, blushing in a show of fake modesty. Oaklee had also leveled up and was faced with a similar choice. Cultists could upgrade into necromancers for more crowd and field control, dragonhearts for higher single target damage or acolytes for illusory and manipulation spells. As a caster class, she would be restricted to certain spells at the beginning due to the mana requirements. Mana was the energy used to perform magic within the Ether. You could spend it flexibly, boosting a spell’s effectiveness based on how much mana you allocated to it. Oaklee recognized that they didn’t have time to wait for her to level up and increase her mana pool. She needed a subclass that had the best starting set-up at the lowest cost. She settled on necromancer as it didn’t require much to cast spells and it boosted her ability to manipulate the battlefield.

With their new subclasses selected, the last item needed was a new bow. Seiko’s short bow had low poundage, not really suited for sniping. The marksman class demanded something with a bit more oomph. It took a little bit of searching around but they eventually came across a weapons shop. There, Seiko was able to purchase the Drake Killer. The great bow was almost as tall as him and it’s arrows were more like spears. It was made of light sturdy material that allowed for quick positioning. From the shop, the two exited the town to train the new skills they had acquired.

Seiko used his new radar ability to pinpoint a pack of giant poison toads. Perfect fodder for the new and improved duo. He unleashed a powerful shot that ripped one of the toad’s legs clean off. Oaklee followed up with a large cloud of necrotic magic that siphoned creature’s life force. It crumpled into a pile of gore in a matter of seconds. This persisted for a few minutes as Seiko and Oaklee got familiar with their new powers. He turned to the Ai after the last toad exploded. Since the gryphon, he had been coming up with a way to combine their skills.

“There’s something I want to try. “He said.

Seiko used his dagger to carve targets into some trees, then he and Oaklee hiked to a hilltop that was central to the ring of marked trees. The closest one was about a mile away. The best way he could see to improve their potential was by combining his reflexes and bow skills with her strategies and calculative mind. After a few awkward minutes, they were able to start working something out. They were slowly devising a system that leveraged their individual strengths to create a powerful killing machine.

“You have to be quicker! Otherwise, this won’t work in a battle setting.” Oaklee ordered.

“It takes a second to think about it. I only have a human brain!” They were practicing callouts that were based on a grid and pivot system. Oaklee would give him a rotation position based on the classic clock callouts.

12 o’clock for straight head, 6 o’clock for behind and so on. That was easy enough for Seiko, but the grid system was taking longer to get used to. They devised a 5 by 5 point grid where each point had a letter and number designation, similar to how a chessboard is set up. The difficulty came from trying to memorize each bow position and do it the same way every time. Even though it was hard, Seiko didn’t feel discouraged. The more they practiced, the more fluid the motions became. He could feel himself improving.

“No, that’s G1. You need to be at F1.”

“Got it.” He said.

Oaklee smiled as his great arrow smashed through a tree 7,000 feet away.

They stayed at it for hours until sundown. Oaklee was impressed at how quickly he picked up the system. There was still some work to do to make it perfect, but they were off to a great start. She was frankly taken aback when he proposed the idea. The other users she had been assigned to did little more than order her around. They never put themselves in a position to take orders from her. Seiko seemed completely fine with it though.