Free The Bathrobe Knight by Charles Dean, Joshua Swayne Page A

was kind of a cheater’s way to warp back to town if you were in a dungeon several hours away. None of the players had really needed to use this trick before because most of them had only farmed within half an hour’s reach of their starting towns, but this time she was happy for it.
    She had bet a lot on killing the Minotaurs and gone with the 8th Legion against the advice of most of the top players. “Minotaurs might not have armor or high health but they can kill you in one or two swings, and the smallest aggro group is going to be at least three Minotaurs.” It was a fact that had turned out to be true as she had been forced to watch entire groups of NPCs and PCs decimated by the wild Axe swings. She had known it was a calculated risk, but even divided 10 or 100 ways, the EXP had been worth it. The contribution bonus from killing ‘enemies of the Kingdom’ certainly didn’t hurt. The sheer number that were present on the field at any given time had been more than enough to tempt even some of the freshest lowbies out to the front lines. Especially Kass.
    She smoothed her white Dress and found the nearest Blacksmith to sell her goods at. 1600 Gold for the lump sum of her ridiculous number of Axes. The Minotaur loot wasn’t great, but it was definitely much better than you were supposed to get in a party of two this early on. This probably makes me the richest girl on the server! I wonder what kind of magic Staves I can get, or if I can get any accessories to boost my Damage. I should go find Darwin before I start shopping though, I bet that clueless old man doesn’t even know what accessories are. Tiqpa Map.
    She brought up her map and looked for the blue dot with Darwin’s name on it to show where he was. Huh? He’s in the tavern? Why is he still there after turning in the quest? He isn’t one of those fully immersive role-players who spend hours on a video game talking to people in taverns instead of playing, is he? Ugh, if he’s in the tavern all the time, who will I leach experience from?
    As she made her way to the tavern, she couldn’t help but overhear bits and pieces of gossip from the other PCs hanging out in town on the way. “Hey, did you hear what happened to Greg’s group? It got toasted by ‘Flesh Wound.’  It’s like the tenth group that’s been slaughtered by them in the last day.”
    “Yeah. I hear they are all around level 30 now. I bet they came here just to get some cash though. A full week of grinding alone wouldn’t have helped them afford that much black dye.”
    “Nah. I don’t think that’s the case. They really take pleasure in it. You should have heard what they did to one of the runners.”
    “The mage? I did. It’s only a VR, and the pain sensors are extremely dulled, but that poor guy is already booking it south. Doesn’t want to risk it twice.”
    “They’ve definitely got everyone looking over their shoulders now when they leave town, that’s for sure. Its making it hard to get a good group for farming. No one wants to risk farming for too long for fear of getting rolled out.”  
    Crud. I knew when the 8th Legion got toasted and the Guards stopped patrolling for Red Names, things would go south, but I didn’t think it’d happen this fast.
    “Maybe we could try to get a group together and do a dungeon. If we log out at the end and wait an hour, then the PK’s won’t be able to get us because it’ll respawn us in town.”
    Kass kept her ear trained for more rumors as she made her way through the market, but all of them were the same. Flesh Wound this and Flesh Wound that. Even the NPCs were showing signs of fear. It wasn’t until she was almost at the tavern that she heard anything different.
                  “How did that guy get a Bathrobe? I didn’t even know they sold that item in the game. He even had matching Slippers.” Ugh! NO! He better not try to keep that Bathrobe forever. I don’t care how strong the set bonus is, I’m still