Boy Meets Ai

Chapter 11

Chapter 11

Seiko looked at himself in the mirror of the shop. The tailor and shop owner smirked behind him, very impressed with his own handiwork. The cloak was quite impressive. It's hood was lined with the Gryphon's lion fur while the body was composed of its feathers. Talons adorned the collar like onyx jewels. Seiko wasn't typically one to dress flashy but even he had to admit, he looked good. Besides that, he was more than a little excited about the new garment's abilities. The gryphon's hoard cloak was a rare+ class Item. It granted the wearer a very unique power. The first 3 times you died while wearing it in a day, your loot stayed in your inventory. Most players were unable to craft the cloak because it required the gryphon's hide to be in pristine condition. Under normal circumstances, this was impossible as the monsters were very difficult to kill. This new advantage was all thanks to Oaklee. By only using one arrow, binding the gryphon, and trapping it under the ice of the EisTod, they were able to preserve the hide. Even Seiko had to admit, she had made it possible, not only to gain this valuable piece of equipment, but also to level up from killing the beast. After paying the tailor, he was confronted with a choice. When reaching level 50, you got to choose a specialized sub class tree. The ranger class opened up to 3 subclasses, the hunter, the strider, and the marksman. Hunters specialized in tracking, trapping, and camouflage. Striders were made to specialize in pvp, using crossbows for rapid mid ranged attacks along with powerful sword skills if you ever needed to get up close and personal. Lastly was the marksman which prioritized accuracy, patience and planning for the pay off of high damage at a safe distance. The UI hung open in front of Seiko as he considered the strengths and weaknesses of each skill tree. Oaklee watched over his shoulder with curiosity. After a long moment of silence, he clicked the marksman icon.

"Pretty confident in your aim then I guess?" Oaklee asked.

"More so confident in yours." He replied.

She put out her hand in protest, blushing in a show of fake modesty. Oaklee had also leveled up and was faced with a similar choice. Cultists could upgrade into necromancers for more crowd and field control, dragonhearts for higher single target damage or acolytes for illusory and manipulation spells. As a caster class, she would be restricted to certain spells at the beginning due to the mana requirements. Mana was the energy used to perform magic within the Ether. You could spend it flexibly, boosting a spell's effectiveness based on how much mana you allocated to it. Oaklee recognized that they didn't have time to wait for her to level up and increase her mana pool. She needed a subclass that had the best starting set-up at the lowest cost. She settled on necromancer as it didn't require much to cast spells and it boosted her ability to manipulate the battlefield.

With their new subclasses selected, the last item needed was a new bow. Seiko's short bow had low poundage, not really suited for sniping. The marksman class demanded something with a bit more oomph. It took a little bit of searching around but they eventually came across a weapons shop. There, Seiko was able to purchase the Drake Killer. The great bow was almost as tall as him and it's arrows were more like spears. It was made of light sturdy material that allowed for quick positioning. From the shop, the two exited the town to train the new skills they had acquired.

Seiko used his new radar ability to pinpoint a pack of giant poison toads. Perfect fodder for the new and improved duo. He unleashed a powerful shot that ripped one of the toad's legs clean off. Oaklee followed up with a large cloud of necrotic magic that siphoned creature's life force. It crumpled into a pile of gore in a matter of seconds. This persisted for a few minutes as Seiko and Oaklee got familiar with their new powers. He turned to the Ai after the last toad exploded. Since the gryphon, he had been coming up with a way to combine their skills.

"There's something I want to try. "He said.

Seiko used his dagger to carve targets into some trees, then he and Oaklee hiked to a hilltop that was central to the ring of marked trees. The closest one was about a mile away. The best way he could see to improve their potential was by combining his reflexes and bow skills with her strategies and calculative mind. After a few awkward minutes, they were able to start working something out. They were slowly devising a system that leveraged their individual strengths to create a powerful killing machine.

"You have to be quicker! Otherwise, this won't work in a battle setting." Oaklee ordered.

"It takes a second to think about it. I only have a human brain!" They were practicing callouts that were based on a grid and pivot system. Oaklee would give him a rotation position based on the classic clock callouts.

12 o'clock for straight head, 6 o'clock for behind and so on. That was easy enough for Seiko, but the grid system was taking longer to get used to. They devised a 5 by 5 point grid where each point had a letter and number designation, similar to how a chessboard is set up. The difficulty came from trying to memorize each bow position and do it the same way every time. Even though it was hard, Seiko didn't feel discouraged. The more they practiced, the more fluid the motions became. He could feel himself improving.

"No, that's G1. You need to be at F1."

"Got it." He said.

Oaklee smiled as his great arrow smashed through a tree 7,000 feet away.

They stayed at it for hours until sundown. Oaklee was impressed at how quickly he picked up the system. There was still some work to do to make it perfect, but they were off to a great start. She was frankly taken aback when he proposed the idea. The other users she had been assigned to did little more than order her around. They never put themselves in a position to take orders from her. Seiko seemed completely fine with it though.