10 Power Leveling Some Noobs

Reaching the town centre Jose caught sight of the entire group huddled together. They were currently explaining their skills, which they obviously made sure were different. Hayley got the skill Double Shot, a skill which allows for one arrow hit to count as two. While Maddy, on the other hand, got Long Shot, which is a skill that increases damage dependent on the distance the arrow travels. It's quite a powerful skill but is only good in the right hands.

Luke got the tank skill Might Howl, an aggro skill which is highly useful in early games and can be swapped out later with a much powerful aggro skill. As for Harrison, he got the same skill as Blitz, Mighty Charge; a skill which gets the user to charge 10 metres forward with their shield up. Any opponent in the way will experience the pushback effect and there's a slight possibility of them getting stunned.

Dylan and Blake, on the other hand, decided to go with the same skill as each other. Cross Slash, a skill which Jose was already seen before. Where one slashes twice in front of them in the shape of a cross, this will form two cross blades in the air before firing it forward.

Adam, as the assassin got chose the skill Backstab, which is actually one of the less used skills. Entirely due to the other option, that option being Stealth; where the player disappears from sight and observations skills on the same level. Backstab, was as the skill's name entails, a skill which doubles the damage when attacking the backside of the opponent.

It was a highly complicated skill that one would attempt to get after they acquire the skill Stealth, not the other way around. However, Adam was extremely confident in his abilities in getting around the environment and getting behind the enemy. Which is the reason for his choice.

"Alright, now there's a number on the corner of your screens, say what that number is," Jose ordered with a stern voice. He needed to know everyone's current playtime, it was extremely important to their future plans until they're able to undergo the injection of the serum.

"I have 7 hours and 30 minutes left," Luke answered with a bit of pride. He had heard from Jose before that his playtime was only 6 hours, so he took some pride in being able to have more playtime than his captain.

"Ha, that's all, I still have 8 hours and 4 minutes left," Harrison responded arrogantly while staring at Luke with a wide grin. "Seems you haven't continued your muscle training, disappointing indeed." Harrison shook his head in disapproval at Luke whose eyebrow twitched.

"I still have 6 hours and 6 minutes left,' Adam responded. His total playtime coming up to a total of 6 hours and 36 minutes.

"I got 5 hours and 55 minutes left," Hayley replied. Her total playtime coming to 6 hours and 25 minutes.

"I have 5 hours and 20 minutes left," Maddy answered. Her playtime coming up to 5 hours and 50 minutes, just ever so slightly below Jose's playtime.

"Ha seems all of you need to join us bald bros in our daily training," Luke said as he wrapped his left arm around Harrison's neck. Harrison responded similarly, with an arrogant tone. "Indeed bald bro, seems the rest of our group is severely lacking in comparison to us muscle men."

"Suppose you muscle men wouldn't mind me coming over to your capsule and popping a cap in your heads," Hayley responded in annoyance. Her eyebrow and lip twitching with slight anger at the sight of Harrison and Luke getting all buddy, buddy.

Jose faintly chuckled. "Well, it seems even with age your twisted personality still won't change and I certainly don't think it'll be changing any time soon."

"Huh, obvious not, it's through this twisted personality of mine that I was able to climb the military ranks so easily. After all, that force was pretty tough on a young female like me," Hayley explained as she gave her best puppy eyes. "If I didn't use vulgarities, I would have probably still been a low rank military personal when the squad was formed."

"Ha, that would have been better," Harrison chimed in before getting a death glare from Hayley. He swiftly shut his mouth before retreating a couple of steps. He felt as though there was a cold and piercing gaze locked onto his body, specifically targeting his forehead.

"Hey now, calm down," Maddy quickly rushed in front of Hayley and attempted to calm her down with her smooth and warm voice. "There's no need to get violent, you know their personality after being together for so long, they were only joking."

"And so was I," Hayley responded before turning away.

"Alright, calm down. As of now, we'll begin our first task as a group. Remember, we won't be partying with each other, so you'll get the full experience of what you kill. However, due to this, once outside the city you'll also be able to attack each other. Treat this as real life and don't do that," Jose explained. He would take charge of weakening the monster before getting the rest of the group to finish it. It would be the most effective way to level up these guys.

"And Hayley, no matter how much they annoy you, you're not allowed to shoot them understand?" Jose stared at Hayley with cold eyes. Her personality was a problem when they were a squad, he didn't want it to continue being a problem even now as well.

"Alright, I'll save the punishment for once we're out of the game," Hayley said as she flipped her hair out her face. Luke and Harrison felt a cold shiver got up their spine.

"Good, not follow me," Jose said as he gestured for them all to follow. Fortunately, although their group stood out amongst the rest of the players. Because there weren't many people in the town as of now, they didn't get too many odd glares. Not to mention that it wasn't the first time seeing something like this.

Sometimes people would see even more extreme cases. Where a high-level guild master would power level some of the newbies despite being many times stronger. Granted, that was the case for smaller guilds, larger guilds would be able to hire people to power level their new players if they couldn't do it themselves.

Jose swiftly led them outside the city where they were greeted by a couple of spiders. Jose cast Earthquake and heavily weakened them, he made sure to not instantly kill them as it wouldn't give him any Exp even if he wanted it to.

The group rushed to see who would get the first kill. Hayley managed to get it, with her quick shot from behind everyone. Her arrow just narrowly missed the others at the front, barely grazing past their hips as it shot straight through the spiders head.

"Huh, doesn't seem so hard," Hayley said before pulling out another arrow. The archer class worked quite differently to the others as their method of attacking took up a physical item. Fortunately, the game developers were too harsh on the archer class. Archers would spawn with a quiver which created a basic arrow every 10 seconds. Which, although slow, could be upgraded with better versions later. Sometimes a boss monster would drop a quiver that created arrows with special effects such a poison. Now those were heavily sought after.

The group made their way through the Forest of Spiders, Jose would cast an Earthquake every now and then, giving the team some breathing time before they continue fighting. Luke and Harrison worked together without any issues, they would constantly get the aggro and tanks the hits from monsters while the others might finish the monster off.

Adam could be seen constantly hopping around in the trees above, his abilities were incredible. Every now and then he would hop down from the tree and stab a spider in the back of the head. Activating his skill Backstab, while getting a critical hit from hitting the spider's vital spot. Unfortunately, Backstab had a 5-second cooldown which was quite long for someone skilful like Adam who could make use of every second in a combat situation.

Hayley and Maddy were sticking near the back of the group along with Jose, shooting their bows through the team, narrowly missing them as they nail their targets. Unfortunately, Maddy's skill Long Shot wasn't useful in their current situation. Usually, someone with that skill would stand much further back along with a tank or swordsmen. But currently, both those classes were preoccupied.

"HA!" Blake and Dylan shouted in unison as they sliced through a spider with ease. Their teamwork still at the peak of performance, making quick work of any spider they come across. They didn't see a single problem in their way of fighting while every now and then they would use their skill, Cross Slash together as well.

"Blake! Dylan! Work together with Luke and Harrison. Adam! Scout up ahead for any large gatherings of spiders! Maddy and Hayley! Stop shooting so close to your teammates, one mistake and it might cost one of them their lives!" Jose shouted out his commands. Maddy and Hayley both covered their ears from the shout since they were right next to Jose.

"Yes!" They all shouted before getting their act together and listening to Jose's commands. It was by instinct that they listened to Jose and trusted his words, after all, that's how it's always been. Even in the craziest of situations, he would lead them to success and survival, that's just the kind of man he was.

It didn't take long for Adam to come back. "Jose, there's a gathering of 10 Giant Spiders roughly 30 metres ahead to your 3 o'clock. There's also a large gathering of 30 Sneaky Spiders to your 11 o'clock at 50 metres away!"

"Good, let's head for the Giant Spiders first before making our way to the Sneaky Spiders!" Jose shouted as Luke and Harrison charged forward with their large bodies. Ramming into the spiders with a mighty force which pushed them back before Maddy and Hayley shot them in the head.

Blake and Dylan were now working together with Luke and Harrison. The twins were funnelling the spiders into the bald bros' line of attack. Getting them to gain the aggro of the spiders before the twins went in to finish them off without any resistance.

The group worked in sync without any issues in their formation. After many years of working together, it didn't come by any surprise to any of them that they worked together so well. After all, it only took one of them to change the plan slightly and they would all follow suit and create a new plan based on the change. With Jose being the one in charge of the changes with any new information.

The group continued killing monsters for another 3 hours, their experience all reaching Jose's level. Jose clapped his hands to get everyone's attention. "Alright, seems everyone is at my level now. Suppose we should create a party before continuing. But, first thing's first, what do we call the party."

Although unimportant, the party name was still something everyone recognised. After all, some parties were complete menaces to the servers. Most of the parties being filled with player killers and monster trainers, they would work hand in hand to kill as many players as possible. Usually, there would be no one guild responsible for any of these parties as they remained solo.

"Why don't we just go with our squad name, Silent Murders?" Luke and Harrison asked in unison with a curious facial expression. Everyone else with at least half a brain shook their heads and facepalmed.

"Idiot, that sounds like a player killers' party name," Hayley replied in an arrogant tone. "Let's go with the name Blood Flowers, maybe even Blood Locust. Some beautiful and cold at the same time."

"Are you serious, that also sounds like a party full of player killers. How about we just go with a simple party name, Skilful Noobs," Jose said as he shook his head to all the current suggestions.

"What does the term Noobs mean?" the group asked as they tilted their heads in confusion.

"It simply means new player," Jose replied. In reality, he himself had no clue as to what it actually meant. He just remembers hearing players calling new players noobs, so he just assumed that those two things correlated with each other.