Grey ripped the arrow out of his chest. As he had expected, the Nexis Suit was very sturdy. The fact a similar material covered his feet had helped him several times already now.
Unfortunately, the starter weapons were also made of very good, sturdy material as well. It was the reason Grey had chosen to stick with the longsword for now, but it was also the reason they were good enough to rip through the sturdy Nexis Suit anyway.
Grey didn’t know how many arrows Fitz got, but regardless, the ones that Fitz started with were of great quality.
Luckily, the Nexis Suit was still good enough to block enough of the momentum that the end result was just a flesh wound. Grey had to thank that old rusted bench and barbell set his gramps got him for his twelfth birthday—otherwise, he might have nicked some bone.
Though, Grey was a bit of a madman, so he had used it for probably three times as many leg days as he ever had upper body days.
It was just like his granddad had always said: the difference between real men and wusses was how far they dared to take a squat set to failure.
’Something is wrong with this.’ Grey looked at Ray’s suit and could just feel that something was off. The feeling he got from touching it felt different.
Which was odd, because he didn’t think that he had ever gotten any particular feeling from it before.
’Let’s move. This isn’t exactly the best look.’
Grey could see the mess that was May’s corpse right now, and he didn’t want to get caught with his pants down hanging around here.
’Am I really going to do this again?’
He knew what road he was heading down. It could very well end the very same way it always had.
But May was the only suit he knew to have some compatibility with him.
While he could hope that Fitz was the same, he didn’t have time to check one and then come back if it didn’t work out. By then, other people could be spawning in.
And then what would he do?
Grey took a breath.
’If they want me to be a menace, I’ll be a menace.’
Grey unzipped his pants and pissed all over Fitz’s corpse.
"Fuck you, you piece of shit."
This bastard had killed him twice, and it was because he always killed May that he kept falling into this same trap again and again.
He deserved what was coming to him.
Wagging his member around with one hand, Grey pointed a middle finger to the sky. When he was done, he picked up Ray’s longsword and made a move to disrobe Fitz. Once he finished that, he moved on to May.
’Hm?’
Grey finished peeling the Nexis Suit off of May and was about to leave when he paused.
By now, this wasn’t the first time he had pulled the clothes off of this poor girl, so he knew that that necklace hadn’t been there any of the other times.
A flash of realization overcame Grey as he quickly took it off of her.
’I need to go.’
Grey dashed away.
Just as he was vanishing around a corner, another light descended as a trio of individuals appeared in the square.
"Who’s that?" Joaquin’s head turned toward the vanishing shadow of Grey, but all he caught was the tail of what looked like a blade vanishing around the corner.
A scream shook him from his thoughts.
The only woman in their group pointed toward the corpses in horror. One of them was decapitated, and the other was badly mutilated. May’s body looked like someone had taken a blade continuously to her face and neck area. She was completely unrecognizable.
Joaquin slapped a palm over her mouth, silencing her.
"Be quiet," he hissed into her ear. "We don’t know if there are other threats here or not. What are you doing?"
The young woman collapsed into a sob on Joaquin’s chest.
There was a flash of annoyance on Joaquin’s face, but he ultimately pressed it down. At this point, he felt that she was too useful.
...
Grey exhaled the breath he was holding only after he had managed to snake through another three intersections. He had sensed a change in the city square just as he was leaving, so he was fairly certain that he was just barely on time.
It couldn’t be helped. He needed to prove a point, and he was hauling too many things.
He wasn’t sure if it was a mistake, but he had taken Fitz’s bow and arrow. The reason he wasn’t sure was because he hadn’t felt the same familiar jolt when he touched it as when he touched other weapons.
It seemed that his Goblin Warlord Spirit Mental Enhancement wasn’t useful on long-ranged weapons.
’But it lets me throw things, though... is it maybe not high level enough?’
Grey had no idea how he even managed to get this Mental Enhancement in the first place, let alone how to level it up. He could only assume something about melting his flesh together with the Last Goblin had caused it, but that was completely his own headcanon.
What he did know for sure, though, was that without a Nexis Suit, he probably wasn’t going to be leveling up anything—at least not until he could complete the introduction for the ring on his pinky finger.
And for that, he needed May’s Nexis Suit.
It was a risk he had to take no matter what. So long as he was inside of the Technician’s shop, other players wouldn’t be able to enter without being registered. If he could manage to finish and figure out how to build the vessel Prometheus needed before they returned from Registering, he would have more options then.
And even if he didn’t, he would have more options for protecting himself.
No matter what, Grey felt like this was the right choice.
He skidded to a stop in front of the gnome’s shop once again, looking like a hoarder hauling his wares over both shoulders.
’Come on. This has to work. ’