166 Fortune I (1/2)
A small square patch of soil covered by marble pathing lay invitingly in front of Li, a nice little pit already dug out for the seed in his hand.
”Like, is that all we get? Going through a whole-ass hidden dungeon and fighting a gauntlet of endgame bosses including annoying ones like Helios, Kaguya, and Skoll and Hati, we get one seed? We legit got scammed,” said Oceanmaster.
Oceanmaster's character gesticulated wildly, his hands made of flowing water undulating with his agitation. He was a water sprite for his base race and now that he had been maxed out at level 100+, he had gone through being a water elemental, high water spirit, and now was an Ocean Vein, meant to embody the vast strength and scale of the great ocean tides themselves.
His body was a humanoid shape of flowing water, his eyes two flashing dots of yellow that could change color to depict his mood or health state.
Right now, his eyes were a light shade of red to mimic annoyance. Around his body of water was an iridescent rainbow aura, the type you would see after rain, and adorning his chest, arms, and head were shining pieces of Celestial gear even though the first expansion to release Celestial gear had come out just two weeks ago.
Oceanmaster was an exceptional player, quite a bit stronger than Li in most scenarios, but he had a bad habit of constantly complaining and voicing his laziness, though when it came down to it he was still one of the most reliable people that Li knew.
”It wasn't that bad,” said Li. ”All bosses we fought before. Dungeon wasn't too bad either. Based off the hints the devs gave about the hidden area, I had an idea that we'd be fighting sun and moon related monsters.”
”Yeah, sure we didn't die and lose our stuff or get ganked, but doesn't mean we should get basically nothing for it. Besides, we only got out with our skins intact because you've got an insane PvE sense. Imagine if a party went in there without it, like, oof, I don't even want to imagine getting through so many random traps and ambushes.”
”PvE? That's what you're good at. I'm more just a curious guy with a lot of spare time and money on his hands.”
”Sure, I'm really good at actually fighting the monsters in dungeon dives and raids and challenge bosses and whatever, but you're the one that finds all this stuff out, man. You've got like this, crazy fifth sense or something, you know? Hidden content isn't even hidden with you around.”
”Fifth, sixth, eighth, whatever,” said Oceanmaster as he crossed his watery arms. ”I'm just saying, if you're gonna be using your detective tier insight, you should get paid for it, right? One seed isn't enough.
Detectives do get paid, right, //BEAST//?”
”I am not a detective,” said //BEAST//. Her feli ears twitched – the only sign of annoyance visible with her crossed arms, stiff and straight posture, and neutral expression.
”You're some kinda police or something, though,” said Oceanmaster proddingly. He pointed a finger to Li. ”He's the one that figured it out, too. Realized you were logging in from timezones that had batshit crazy things like bombings or serial killings happening in them.”
”I don't think she wants us to pry into it much more,” commented Li, and Oceanmaster understood Li's tone, the kind laced with just a bit of authoritative push that he used when directing his party through dungeons, and backed down on the topic.
”Okay, I'm just saying we should get more than this,” said Oceanmaster.
”This is Celestial-tier,” said Li. He held up the seed towards his two trusted party members. It was the size of Li's palm and shaped like the pit of a peach. It looked almost like a jewel of crimson, but within, there were visible sparkles of gold that popped like tiny little firecrackers every so often before fading.
”Nobody except you would complain about getting a celestial-tier item.”
”Alright, you've got a point, but, like, we don't even know what it does.”
”So we'll find out,” said Li simply.