eFate: An MMO Story Chapter 68: Time Skips Along

Over the next few days, Eric, Griffin, and Mark spent much of their time hunting monsters and doing quests for the residents of Tonbura Village. As they levelled up, learning new skills and doing their best to master their old ones, the rest of the group slowly made their way to Tonbura Village.
Jaime, the tank that Rob had found, was a Dwarf with an enormous beard and a penchant for two handed weapons. Despite his insistence that he was a tank, Eric found that his style of tanking relied heavily on the mantra of, 'A dead enemy poses no threat', which was to say that Jaime preferred to simply beat things to death, going hit for hit with his opponent until one of them dropped dead.
Needless to say, as the groups healer, Mark was not overly impressed with him, especially since Jaime seemed to think that healers were endless fountains of healing, something that could not be farther from the truth in Fate. However, despite Mark's reservations, Jaime's attitude was rather refreshing, as his endless optimism and vaguely psychotic breaks in the middle of combat helped to alleviate the pressure the group felt in tense combat situations.
For his part, Eric spent much of his time solo, exploring various caves and other landmarks throughout Stillwood Forest. Whenever his friends logged off, he would do his best to make his way back to Tonbura, where he holed himself up in Lucy's library and devoured the knowledge contained in the books within.
True to her word, Lucy refused to teach Eric new combat spells, instead teaching him various spells meant for everyday use. While some of these spells came in rather handy such as the Ball of Light spell, which summoned an orb of light above the caster's shoulder, others were less so, such as the Pointer spell, a spell which merely shone a thin beam of light from the end of the caster's wand or hand.
Despite Lucy's refusal to teach Eric new combat spells, his magic was still improving by leaps and bounds. As he made his way through the library, Eric learned the concepts of magic that Arthal had been unable to teach them. As a result, his knowledge of basic magic theory had grown. His spells were becoming harder and harder to interrupt mid-combat, as he learned more about mana circulation and the fundamentals of magic itself.
While the levels of his various spells such as Wind Dart, Wind Blade, and Arcane Strike all remained stuck at the apprentice level, only occasionally leveling after a fight, the level of his Arcane Magic was soaring under Lucy's tutelage.
The rest of the group was getting stronger as well. Griffin had become Tom's apprentice, working alongside Seryllia and two other players to develop his blacksmithing techniques. Interestingly enough, blacksmithing training had also increased his skill as a tank, as he learned to better utilize his armour and weaponry. Tom also occasionally imparted some bits of knowledge from his past as a mercenary, stating that a true blacksmith should understand how to use his works, not just how to make them.
Mark continued to visit Maria at the church and would occasionally join Eric in studying at Lucy's. Unlike Eric who'd managed to take Lucy as his teacher, Mark simply paid for the occasional lesson, stating that he was better served donating his money to the church to increase his favourability with Maria and Leralitas. He'd managed to learn a few more healing spells, and was on his way to becoming a devotee of Leralitas.
For his part, Rob had already taken on a magic teacher by the time he'd arrived at Tonbura Village. Unlike Eric, Rob's teacher was part of a group of Novanalban mages called the Rimestone Circle. The Rimestone circle appeared to be one of the most popular mage organizations for players in Novanalba to join. After paying a flat fee, they were taught various combat magics with a heavy focus on earth and water magic.
Also unlike Eric, who had to visit Lucy in order to receive tutelage, Rob could visit any member of the circle and be taught magic. Although there were no members of the circle in Tonbura, there were several representatives in various towns and villages nearby. As a result, Rob often left Tonbura, heading for a nearby village where he and many other players were taught magic.
Jun was primarily concerned with hunting monsters. Perhaps as a Korean, he had a natural inclination towards grinding, but out of their entire group, Jun spent by far the most time travelling around Stillwood Forest, murdering any monster he encountered. His archery skills had levelled up significantly, already in the higher stages of the Journeyman level according to him; he'd also become close friends with Craig, who appreciated his enthusiasm towards archery, as well as his willingness to spend vast amounts of money on good arrows.
Ryan spent most of his time accompanying Jun on his expeditions. His skill with swords was improving, and he'd recently joined a group of swordsmen on the forums who were intent on mastering the sword in Fate. This meant that any time Ryan wasn't out hunting with the group, or accompanying Jun into various dangerzones, he was practicing swordsmanship with a few other individuals in the fields outside Tonbura. While Eric hadn't actually confirmed it, he was fairly sure that most of the group were anime fanatics, given the remarkable number of players dressed in long black coats and using two swords.
Gio was as lowkey as ever, simply leveling up and accompanying the group on their quests. Somehow, he'd managed to obtain quite a few hidden quests from the various women of Tonbura village, and he'd even been admitted into a group of all-female players who frequently invited him to go hunting with them, a fact which made several members of their group extremely jealous.
As for Jaime, Eric had no clue what he got up to. Apart from doing his best Leeroy Jenkins impression whenever he came questing with the group, the man was an enigma. Mark claimed to have met him on a few separate occasions in the village pub, and Griffin said that he was often salivating over various oversized and overpriced weapons hanging in Tom's forge, but apart from that the group knew nothing else about him. However, so long as he was a passable tank, none of them really minded.
Just like that, a week passed.

Chapter end