Sleepover

"Ironhide wolf's fangs, Ironhide wolf's eyes, Ironhide wolf's hide. Woah, three materials dropped from a single rare. Dude, you are lucky. You can get three quests and three amazing items from these if we return to town." Mark picked up all the loot and handed them over to Ryan.

Ryan shoved everything in his ten-slot inventory which was mostly empty. He did get some drops before but all items of beasts level 10 and under were worth literally nothing. So he did not bother picking them up.

Though he could probably earn some ten or twenty dollars from them, it was just a waste of time and he had bigger fish to fry at the moment. However, this one he did not want to let go. "Do you think I can sell it for 100 dollars or something? These items?"

"Ugh? Huh? Yes. Sure." Mark hesitated. "Then you should sell them without turning them in for the quests. That way they will sell for a higher rate."

"Alright." Ryan nodded. "Let's get out of here fast. Your guild members might come back any time now."

The two of them quickly left the area. They only stopped running when they had put quite a good amount of distance between them and the group.

"Huff. Huff. How are you not tired?" Mark panted, leaning over his knees, catching his breath. Ryan, on the other hand, seemed barely affected, his undead nature affording him stamina and resilience far beyond that of a normal player.

Ryan glanced back, a smirk playing on his lips. "Perks of being undead. I don't tire like you humans do."

Mark straightened up, rolling his eyes. "Must be nice. Here I am, about to collapse, and you're ready to run a marathon. Alright, what are we doing now?"

"I need to practice some skills and do some grinding."

"Why? I can simply carry you. We can both be level 30 by the end of the day. Trust me. I know all the ins and outs of this game."

Ryan's face twitched. "Right. Like the guild run you took me on?"

Mark chuckled shamelessly. "Well, I could argue that it was because of me you got everything."

Ryan gave him an even stare which immediately made his friend laugh again. "Ok. Ok. No more carry offers. I get it."

"It's not that," Ryan explained. "I need to use the skills and improve my fighting. I also need to upgrade my skills the hard way. So I will end up leveling up anyway. If I don't then I will ask for your help. It would be best if both of us are high-leveled when dealing with the Chieftain beast."

"Ah… the Chieftain beast…" Mark laughed awkwardly. Cold sweat dripped down his back just at the mere mention of the beast. "This will be extremely difficult. Probably the toughest challenge. I would have to be level 50 even to solo a level 10 chieftain beast. Also, sighting one is… sigh."

"Hmmm."

"Don't worry. You continue with your grind. I will comb through my guild forums and see if I can get hold of some information. I will stay in the guild for some more days until this whole thing is resolved. Should be of help." 

Mark found a good spot nearby and sat down. "I will be here if you need me." He then buried himself in the guild messages system panel.

Ryan did not waste time and he immediately made his way to the spot where he had last seen a bunch of wolves. He used his nail to slit his wrist and then started the grind.

[Blood Swipe]

[Blood Swipe]

[Blood Swipe]

…

…

…

The next few hours went by eventlessly when the sunlight gradually disappeared and the cool breeze of the moonlight replaced the harsh heat of the sun.

"Dude. Sorry. There is absolutely no news about a rare or a chieftain." Mark sighed tiredly as he walked over. In front of him several wolf hides were strewn about, drops that had been left unpicked. These clearly indicated how busy his friend had been in the past few hours.

"Dude, you need to rest." Mark's face turned serious. "Shall we log out?"

Ryan paused as he killed the last wolf of the pack. He then turned to his friend. "I think I need a favor from you."

Five minutes later, Mark started shaking his head vigorously. "No. Nope. No way. I am not covering for you. I am definitely not covering for this."

Ryan silently looked at him.

"Come on, man. You cannot ask me to do this." Mark pleaded.

But in the end, he let out a sigh and nodded in agreement. "Just this once okay." The next second, he silently logged out and walked out of his apartment. He then knocked on the next apartment's door and a tired-looking woman greeted him.

"Aunty, Ryan wants to do a sleepover. He is feeling a little down. He doesn't want to see you right now, he said." He awkwardly tried to mumble some nonsense.