Chapter 64: 64 Preparations

Arnold spent the next twenty minutes gutting the creature and ignored its mewling sounds. It died at some point during that time as he was harvesting the crafting organs. Arnold saw that it wasn't entirely accurate and it didn't contain everything that should have been inside the creature. He retrieved both his short sword tied to its leg and his sword that was still stuck in its eye.

With his experience skinning the rabbit in the crafting simulator that Kelly had him train on, the last thing Arnold did was take the pelt. Since the creature was so large, there was almost no way for Arnold to mess it up. He stored the organs and the pelt, then he stepped back and waited. After a few moments, the carcass shimmered and faded away, then left a huge pile of items behind.

Arnold stored everything and walked over to the wall where Kelly had died. A few items were there in a pile and he retrieved them, then he walked back over to the circle they had originally appeared in. After a brief flash of light, he reappeared in the small building in Langport.

“Arnold!” Kelly exclaimed and her character took him into a hug and then kissed him. “I'm so sorry!”

“I can hear you now.” Arnold said.

“I know. I wasn't sure why they blocked external sound until I checked the forums. In one of the latest patches, they wanted to make combat more realistic and stopped people from hearing each other in real life if someone dies.” Kelly shook her head. “It was something stupid about not giving advice or telling others where the creatures are located, because they can watch the battle until the end without being there.”

“I have your things.” Arnold said and took out the items she dropped.

“Thanks.” Kelly said and accepted them, then she went quiet for a few moments. “Arnold, I... I'm sorry that...” She sighed. “That scene was... I'm sorry you saw me be... being...”

Arnold chose 'pet hair' and his character reached up and pet her hair, then chose 'pet cheek' and he stroked her cheek.

“Step forward, please.” The woman behind the desk said. “I thought you would have been the first back, not the last.” She said to Arnold and did something on her desk.

“I tried to berate her for sending us after that ridiculous creature and she didn't react and said it was our bad luck.” Kelly whispered, then she gasped at the popup she received.

' You have successfully completed the Class A adventure Elder Giant Tasmanian Devil.

You have gained 83,775 Experience and 1,000 gold.

Because of your heroic sacrifice in saving your fellow party member, who subsequently defeated the monster, you have been awarded a bonus of 50,000 Experience. '

“Arnold! I got a ton of experience and 1,000 gold!” Kelly said. “What did you get?”

Arnold chose the 'share info' option and Kelly gasped again.

' You have successfully completed the Class A adventure Elder Giant Tasmanian Devil.

You have gained 675,900 Experience and 10,000 gold.

Because of your ingenuity in using the creature's own strength to defeat it, when you had no ability to defeat it yourself, you have been awarded a bonus of 150,000 Experience. '

“Oh, Arnold.” Kelly said softly. “I gained two levels and I'm eighty-one now. How many levels did you gain?”

“Fourty-six.” Arnold said.

“Oh. My. GOD!” Kelly yelled and hugged him. “Arnold! That's amazing!”

“Are we going to keep going?” Arnold asked.

“Do you want to?” Kelly asked. “That last thing... seeing me be...”

“Let's only take the medium level instead of the top, since their calculations seem to be off.” Arnold said.

“Oh, I'm going to message the developers and I'm going to give them a piece of my mind.” Kelly said. “Putting us up against a creature like that for the first time was ridiculous!”

Arnold stepped back into the circle and Kelly went with him.

“Equip your equipment that only had level requirements.” Kelly reminded him.

Arnold's character changed when his thick cloth armor was replaced with a chest plate, knee guards, bracers on his arms, and two shoulder pads. He also equipped a necklace to give him bonuses to his speed and two rings to give him boosts to his Strength and Vitality.

Kelly smiled at him. “Better.” She said and looked at the woman. “Party of two. Medium level this time.”

“See you in a few minutes.” The woman said with a smile and Arnold and Kelly disappeared in a flash of light.

Arnold and Kelly fought two more large creatures and fended them off for a few minutes while Arnold tried to find their weaknesses. Once he had, they attacked with purpose and both large creatures were disposed of after fifteen minutes, gutted and skinned, then looted. Arnold gained five more levels and Kelly just barely gained another level herself.

“That's an hour.” Kelly said. “Let's take a break.”

“Okay.” Arnold said and they left the building and went back to the inn and went into their room, then logged out. Arnold put his controllers down and took off his headset, set them on his desk, and he was taken into a hug from behind. He slowly turned around and looked into his mother's eyes that were at the same height as his.

“Seeing a virtual Kelly being eaten was a horrible, horrible thing.” Annie said. “Are you okay?” She asked, her voice full of concern.

Arnold nodded and hugged her back.

“It really was horrible, especially when we couldn't talk to you to tell you that I was okay.” Kelly said and let out a sigh. “We couldn't touch you, either. You were moving around and we didn't want to distract you or get in your way.”

Arnold let his mother go and walked over to Kelly and took her into a hug. She was a little shorter than him and she tilted her head up slightly. He took the cue and kissed her.

*

Brad and his friends sat around the living room and watched the football game. It was only a pick-up game and didn't have any real importance except for stats for the players, so none of them were very invested in the outcome, even though their favorite team played.

To Brad's surprise, his cell phone on the coffee table beeped at him. It was odd, because all of his friends were there, except for Eric. No one would be texting him anyway, so when it beeped again and again, he reached for it. In the next moment, all of the phones his friends had beeped at them, too.

“What the hell?” Brad picked it up and he saw an angry text. It was shocking, to say the least, since most people at school weren't stupid enough to piss him off. He had forgotten that he was no longer in school or had easy access to the people he had bullied over the years.

“Oh, man!” One of his friends exclaimed. “It's out!”

“What is?” Kevin asked and checked his own phone.

“What we did!” The friend responded. “There's a video of us ambushing Arnold!”

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“Send me the link.” Brad said and then watched the video. “That fucking bastard!”

“You don't know it was him. The video was posted anonymously.” The friend said and then laughed at his joke, as did the others. They all knew that the point of view was from over virtual Arnold's shoulder, which meant only he could have shared it.

“Our phones are blowing up!” Someone else said as the beeping continued and turned off notifications. “How did they get our phone numbers, anyway?”

“Once they saw us in the video, it would be easy to find someone with at least one of our numbers.” Kevin said. “When you have one...”

“We gotta do something about this.” One of the others said. “We're being dragged through the mud online.”

“Do what? Apologize?” Brad asked with a laugh. “Or maybe give him another invite and give him even more stuff?”

“We blew most of that junk up! Ha!” Keven grinned.

“I bet he was as disappointed with that as we were for not being able to kill him.” Brad said with satisfaction, then his phone beeped and he gave it a pointed stare and turned it off.

“What are we going to do?” Kevin asked, because he knew that look.

“Does anyone know where Arnold lives?” Brad asked with a grin.

*

Eric sat behind the wheel of his car on a large hill that overlooked the whole town they lived in, when his phone beeped at him and he sighed. 'I wasn't there.' He typed in response. It beeped again. 'Look at the video. Not me.' He responded.

“Just turn it off.” Heather said and leaned against his shoulder. “They are going to believe what they want to believe no matter what you say.”

Eric nodded and turned it off. “You're right. It's not worth my time to respond to it.”

“I'm a little surprised that Kelly wasn't there with Arnold in the video.” Heather said.

“Kelly.” Eric let out a sigh that was full of regret.

“It's fitting, isn't it?” Heather asked. “You liked Kelly and I liked Arnold. Now they are together and so are we.”

Eric turned his head to look at her. “Is that why you're so relaxed today?”

Heather thought about it, then smiled. “Actually, yes. I think that's it. We're both jealous of the people with the ones we love and we are as close as we are going to get to them by being together.”

“There's no chance to get them for ourselves, is there?” Eric asked.

“None at all.” Heather said, a little sadly. “We both destroyed any chance of winning them back.”

Eric thought about that. “Since when has a consolation prize been better than the actual prize?” He asked with a smile.

Heather was offended for only a second about being called a consolation prize, then she realized what he meant. She smiled back sexily and leaned in to give him a kiss and to start the make-out session they had gone there to do. Her phone beeped at her and she broke the kiss to check it.

“Is it your mom?” Eric asked.

“No, it's Brad.” Heather said. “He wants Arnold's address.”

Eric took a deep breath and let it out. “Well, you have two choices now. You can ignore him and hope that he doesn't come looking for you to get the address... or you can tell him and hope that he doesn't do anything stupid like actually going there to call Arnold out.”

Heather chuckled. “Arnold's not even there.” She said and gave Brad the address. “He's working at the college all summer.”

Eric chucked, too. “Okay, that's smart.” He said and gave her a kiss. “Are you going to warn Arnold?”

“What for?” Heather asked. “He's gone for however long a masters degree takes to get.”

Eric turned his body slightly and took her into his arms. “What if Brad asks you where he really is?”

“I can tell him that I don't know, since I don't.” Heather said and put her phone down and hugged Eric back. “I dumped Arnold before I found out any of the details.”

“You know, you're even sexier when you outsmart people.” Eric said in a whisper.

“I must be dripping with sexiness, then.” Heather whispered back and he chuckled. They looked into each others eyes for several moments as the mood shifted from joking around to being more serious, then they kissed and their make-out session began again in earnest.

*

“Ha! The bitch came through!” Brad said loudly and held up his cell phone. “I've got Arnold's address.”

“I'll get the toilet paper!”

“I'll get the eggs!”

“I'll grab the compost!”

Brad and Kevin sat on the couch and looked at each other.

“Baseball bats?” Kevin asked.

“No, we can't go that far, even though he deserves it.” Brad said. “We'll just have to settle for pounding him with our fists.”

“That's fine with me.” Kevin said and rubbed his hands together. “I'll hold him and you can go first.”

“Thanks, buddy.” Brad said and they stood up when the others came in with several plastic bags full of stuff.

“This is going to be fun!” One of the guys said. “We haven't razzed a house in forever!”

They all laughed and left Brad's house, piled into Brad's car, and headed over to Arnold's place.

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