"How am I supposed to dodge like that?!" Lena wailed, waving her arms dramatically. "I don't have your mystical future seeing dodge powers! My dodging experience is limited to dodging responsibilities, queue, and my family! And that one time I dodged a flying symbol! A bad symbol with many sides! It's like… swash swash swash! But that was pure luck!"
"You're not supposed to dodge like that." Lumi said simply. "A magician's most important spell is teleport. Use it whenever you're about to get hit. It's not about physical agility, use your spatial awareness and repositioning."
Lena squinted suspiciously. "But you didn't use your teleport thingy! Not once! You just started dodging so good you could dodge rain!"
"I didn't use it to save mana. I can dodge without it. You can't, so you should teleport."
"That's discrimination against the dodgingly challenged!"
"It's being practical. Teleport is a magician's primary movement tool. Master it."
Lena puffed up her cheeks. "Fine! But I refuse to accept that I can't dodge! I have the grace of a swan! A swan that's been drinking! A whole bottle of Jack Daniels! Nom nom nom! And then it died! But still a swan!" She raised her wand toward a fresh group of Dark Stone Golems that had wandered into the area. "Energy Bolt!"
The bright projectile struck a golem's shoulder, chipping stone but not doing significant damage. The golem turned and noticed her, beginning to charge alongside five others, their footfalls creating a minor earthquake.
"Oh no, I've made them angry! Angry rock friends!" Lena tried to sidestep the first golem's grab, moved directly into its path instead, and got backhanded across the clearing with a sound like a gong being struck.
[-43 HP]
"Ow ow ow ow!" She scrambled to her feet, spitting out dirt. "Okay, maybe I'll be teleporting! But I want it on record that I'm doing this under protest!"
The next golem wound up for a haymaker. At the last second, Lena vanished in a shimmer of light, reappearing three meters away in a completely different direction.
"Ha! Take that, geological jerk! Your rocks can't touch this!"
She fired another Energy Bolt, this time aiming for the core Lumi had targeted. It wasn't as effective as Light Shower against the darkness element, but it still did respectable damage, sending cracks spreading from the impact point. The golem staggered, its movements becoming erratic.
Another rock sailed toward her head with deadly accuracy. She teleported again, appearing behind her attacker. "Sneak attack! Energy Bolt! Bet you didn't see that coming! Because you don't have real eyes! Just eye holes! That's probably really limiting!"
[EXP +27]
"I got one! Lumi, I murdered a rock! I'm a geological assassin! Should I feel bad? Can rocks have families?"
"Good. Keep moving. And no, they don't have families."
The two fell into a rhythm. Lumi's movements were still pure efficiency, devastating entire groups with carefully aimed spells. Lena's approach was more chaotic, teleporting in random patterns, sometimes appearing in worse positions than she started, but gradually learning the flow of combat.
"Energy Bolt! Energy Bolt! Teleport! Energy Bolt! If I use Energy Bolt enough it'll work! Energy Bolt!"
[EXP +29] [EXP +28]
Twenty minutes in, she was starting to predict attacks, teleporting just before impact rather than after. Her mana management was still questionable, but that was the entire reason Lumi had bought over three hundred basic mana potions earlier. Even he had taken a few.
[Level Up! 10 -> 11]
"Level up! I'm stronger! Fear me, rocks! Fear the mighty Lena! I am become death, destroyer of minerals!"
Forty minutes in, Lena's combat rhythm had transformed. She was already anticipating the moves of the enemies. Each teleport was used to much greater efficiency, and her teleport usage died down as she did so. No longer did she teleport from danger to danger.
[EXP +30] [EXP +26] [EXP +28]
[Level Up! 11 → 12]
"Lumi, I'm becoming one with the void! The teleport void! Is this how you feel all the time?! Are we all just teleporting through life metaphorically?!"
"Less talking, more casting."
"I can do both! Watch! Energy Bolt! See, I'm multitasking! I'm a multitasking goddess! Oh yeah I'm multitasking it! I'm multi-ing it! I'm multi-ing all over the place!"
An hour in, their coordination had evolved beyond simple parallel farming. Lena would gather large groups with calculated aggro pulls, and Lumi would penetrate through them with his magic.
[EXP +27] [EXP +31]
[Level Up! 12 → 13]
Each golem fell faster than the last as they optimized their pattern. Lena's positioning of the golems allowed Lumi's spell usage to become even more economical, sometimes taking down four or five golems with two casts through clever positioning that forced them to line up.
[Level Up! 13 → 14]
"We're an unstoppable force!" Lena declared. "An immovable object meeting an unstoppable force! Wait, that's not right. We're the force, they're the objects! Unstoppable us versus movable rocks!"
More golems fell. The experience notifications became a constant stream, their levels climbing steadily.
[Level Up! 14 → 15]
And as they leveled, skill points were inputted. At three skill points a level, this left Lumi's Light Shower at level 16/20 now, given that he had dumped it all in his primary attack skill. He didn't need options. Not yet. Same with Lena, her Energy Bolt at 16/20. After an hour and a half of non-stop grinding, Lumi's friend list chimed with a notification.
[ToraX: "Yo! Just hit the ruins entrance. Where you at? These stone boys are everywhere! Don't see you guys nearby, gotta ask!"]
Lumi finished off his current target with a well-placed Light Shower. "ToraX is here. Let's go grab him."
"But I was just getting good at rock murder!" Lena protested, then brightened immediately. "Oh! New friend! Does he smell nice? Is he allergic to teleporting? Can I sniff him?"
"Please don't sniff our party members."
She put her hand on his shoulder. "I was joking." She replied, seriously.
"You were joking?" Lumi replied, raising an eyebrow at her strange tone.
Lena nodded. "Sorry, it was a bad joke." She gave him a light hug, "I only ever want to sniff you. I'm not going to cheat on you."
"..."
They backtracked through the ruins, Lena occasionally teleporting unnecessarily just because she could. "Look, Lumi! I'm teleporting up stairs! That's just walking with extra mana! I'm revolutionizing vertical movement!"
"You're going to run out of MP doing that. Just walk up the stairs. Though remember for vertical movement, mana jump is the key. You didn't use it earlier. I didn't comment because it truly wasn't of use yet, but never forget your spells."
They found ToraX at the entrance. The man was enormous, just built like someone had decided a human needed to be tank-sized and then added extra for good measure. He very blatantly chose the absolute biggest character settings imaginable.
"Lumi! My man!" ToraX spoke surprisingly soft given his size, "And this must be the famous Lena! First to get a class, respect!"
Lena immediately circled him like a curious cat. "You're very large. Like, concerningly large. Do you eat other warriors to gain their power? Is that ethical? Does it count as cannibalism if they respawn?"
ToraX laughed. "That's funny! Maybe that's a plot point somewhere! Sounds like one."
"Follow us," Lumi said, already heading back. "We're grinding Dark Stone Golems while we wait for everyone. They're perfect for our level range."
As they traveled, ToraX peppered them with questions about the experience gain, drops, and tactics. They were professional questions from someone who knew their way around an MMO. Lumi replied with as much as he could.
When they reached the Dark Stone Golem area, Lumi immediately demonstrated by pulling a group. "Light Shower!"
The spell carved through three golems before they could even begin to react, their cores all damaged.
"ENERGY BOLT!"
At the same exact time Lumi sent his attack, Lena had followed up with Energy Bolts, finishing them off.
[EXP +19] [EXP +20] [EXP +18]
The experience was reduced with a three-person party, but still excellent for their level range.
"Holy what!" ToraX's eyes went wide as saucers. "You just deleted them! What kind of damage are you putting out?! Is that normal?! Are mages broken?!"
"It's elemental advantage," Lumi explained, already dodging a retaliatory strike from a fourth golem. "They're weak to light. My class specializes in it. Also, our equipment is top class for our level."
"And I'm normal magic, so I don't do as much!" Lena added helpfully, "But it's fine, they die well enough!"
ToraX readied his polearm and shield, grinning like a child. "Well then, let's see what physical damage does to these boys!"
The three-person party settled into their new dynamic quickly. ToraX fought straightforwardly, blocking hits and thrusting into their stone cores. Lumi dealt devastating damage, his positioning now incorporating ToraX's presence to create even more efficient kill zones. And Lena was Lena. She helped gather golems, and she finished off any injured golems, taking them out of the equation.
"This is insane!" ToraX shouted over the sound of stone crumbling. "The experience rate is nuts! How did you even find this spot?!"
Lumi just smiled mysteriously, firing another Light Shower through a perfectly aligned group that ToraX had gathered.