Starting from Zero

Book 3, Chapter 15

My Personal Nurse

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When I've walked for quite some distance, Clark caught up. "Here."

"My cape?" I took the cape from Clark.

"It may be dangerous. My wife repaired the cape using her crystal threads first and asked me to take it to you."

"Many thanks! Trust me, I will bring the other materials."

We marched for three days while grinding on the way, during which we all reached level 193.

When we came to the foot of a mountain I asked Lucky and was told that we have to climb past the mountain to reach our destination. I scouted a bit. The common monsters here are something called Snow Wolf, level 280, no special abilities. Which means good training target. And there are a lot of them.

I summoned my whole team then went into the fray myself. Our levels are 100 below the wolves but my companions are all superior beings, so we managed to hold our ground. The only problem is my stock of meds went down fast. Seems buying a lot of them was a good choice after all.

After another two days' effort, we reached 212. When I decided to move on, my private chat suddenly popped up.

"Ziri..." A timid voice went over.

"Rose?" I recognized her as Crimson Rose. I was wondering why she hasn't contacted me in all these days. "Need my help?"

"Yep! I met some problems."

"Position?"

"xxx,xxx"

"I'll be right there!"

From Rose's viewpoint, she heard "I'll be right" from the chat but "there" in front of her. Everyone around the site, including Rose, looked at this sudden newcomer in shock.

I realized there are actually a lot of people there. 13 people formed up a circle around us.

"You seven, keep her pet busy. The rest of you, on her. Split them up!" Someone, probably their leader, ordered.

I'm quite certain that there's no way I can win a 1 Vs 13 fight. Plus my level is lower. So I just grabbed Crimson Rose and teleported.

We re-appeared at where I was grinding. I aimed for a tree so now we're standing on a branch.

"You alright?"

Rose struggled a bit to get out of my arms. Yes I did that on purpose.

"I-I-I'm fine..." This innocent girl looks somewhere near 18. Maybe even younger.

"Why were they attacking you?"

"I kinda, killed their leader in one hit!"

"What??"

Yep, her name is red.

"What's your class? You said you were like level 200 or something, you can one-shot people already?"

"210 now. I'm Half Angel, a full-time Resurrection Wizard."

"Resurrection Wizard is...a side class right? How did you...?"

"My case is different. My Resurrection Wizard is not side class, but a 'Unique' class. I don't have side class or main class. This is my only one. The system told me it's a hidden class. Apart from reviving players, I got combat skills too."

"That sounds neat. Can I see your skills?"

"Sure!" Rose turned her skill bar visible to teammates. She got Resurrection Wizard's common skills, like [Revive] and [Life Link]. But she has something else too. One of them is called [Life Burn], damaging the target by igniting their life force. The skill ignores Defense, if my understanding is correct, this skill can burn anything to death, given enough time.

I saw another skill too, [Praise of Life]: Heal multiple targets in a wide area, and fast!

But I didn't find any skill that can insta kill people. There are many handy support skills, however. I got to keep her around. She can help me in so much situations!

"How on earth did you kill him? I don't see any useful skills for that."

Rose's face flushed hard, and answered: "That man kept telling me...dirty words. So I...stabbed him...in his...there, with this."

She took out a green dagger.

Now I got it. The dagger only has one special characteristic -- [Corrode].

Imagine, that thing got stabbed, and corrode...I don't believe any male buddy can survive that. Let's mourn for that poor bastard.

"You're not NPC right?" She suddenly asked.

"You're not silly right?" I dodged the question.

"Well I did get confused for a moment. But I figured it out when I logged off. That's why I didn't ask you for anything till now."

"So why are you needing me now?"

"I don't have a choice. I can't beat so many people!"

"It must be fate."

"Fate?" Rose asked. "What fate?"

"I just remembered I've seen you somewhere in real life."

"You...seen me outside?"

"Umhmm." I smile but didn't explain.

"Lemme see your face!" She literally lunged at me. "I have a strong memory when I see something. If it's true then I definitely know your face!"

"For real?" I questioned while trying to block her attempts.

"Of course! I finished all my collage courses in one year just because of this talent!" She still tries to lift my hood.

"I can show you... On one condition!"

"Tell me!" She finally gave up on achieving her goal using violent measures, and sat back on the branch.

"We'll stick together and level up from now on. Those support skills of yours are just so good. If you had any powerful attacking one you would have gone above 400 already."

"Deal! It's such a pain to grind alone anyway. And those annoying dudes...I hate them!"

I put a hand on my hood. "Technically, I am a 'dude' too."

"You? You're like an apple in a box of rotten apples. Started to rot but is still eatable!"

"What is that supposed to mean??"

"Are you going to show me or not?" She looks tempted to go violent again. She's like a totally different person compared to that timid girl just now!

"Sit! I'll do it."

I put my hood down.

"Ahhhh!! Big sis!!"

"Ouch! No don't--"

"Oof!"

"Argh!"

"Ohgodohgodohgod"

"Help!"

"Ugh!"

"Awwwww... Why the hell did you jump at me?" I rubbed my back and tried to turn my body, causing my bones to crack. "You trying to murder me?? It's fine if you can't recognize me but you don't have to kill people!"

When she saw my face she flung herself at me. She used too much force and knocked both of us down from the tree. It's a good thing that we didn't climb high. However a very unfortunate Snow Wolf got crushed into a pie.

I dragged Rose back onto the tree. Too many wolves are coming and I don't dare to chit-chat amongst them.

"Be careful alright? A girl needs to watch her manners! You don't have to be so excited when you see a handsome face!"

"Hahahaha! Sis you're funny! Oh right, sis, where did you get your cape? If I have one of these I can hide from those guys!"

"Hold it!" I interrupted her. "Do you recognize me as you said? I altered my appearance, just you know."

"Of course I remember. There are minor changes but I won't forget the face of such a pretty sister!" Her face is full of delight now. "I didn't lie when I said I got camera-eye. You are that big sis who saved me on the day of game launch right?"

"Oh, nice memory indeed. But your eyesight is a little...off."

"Um, huh? Eyesight?"

"Now pay very close attention, I hereby announce to you: I'm male. Male! A guy!" I said that while solemnly holding her shoulders.

She nodded hard. "But sis? You look nowhere like a man...?"

Oh I'm gonna lose it!!

"Again! I, AM, MALE! Call me brother or something but not sis!"

"But sis--"

"Brother!"

"Um ok. Brother! ...You really are a man right?"

If this goes on I would really like to "show" her my gender.

"This is the last time, I'm male! Call me sister again and I'll make you regret it!"

I spent the whole morning clarifying my issue with her. In the end I even planned to-- But thank god she finally admitted the fact. Why would I need to deal with such problem every time?!

After that, we set up schedules to level up together. I have to admit that bringing a super nurse around is really convenient. We simply rushed to the mountain top, which is populated with level 300 Yetis. These things don't have any brains. They got muscles but they all attack us from afar, by throwing snowballs. The snowballs are pretty deadly, however they would never hit their mark, unless we stand still.

I would command my team of companions to charge ahead with me, while Rose sits at a vantage point, casting healing spells at whoever got hurt, or several enhancement spells now and then. With Rose's help I attained 10 levels in the afternoon.

Night Shade got enough levels for me to ride now. I planned to try that out to satisfy my long-waited cowboy wish, but gave up in the end, since I can't go horse-riding on top of the terrible slopes on a snow mountain, obviously.

Rose claimed (with excitement) that she reached 219. Plus she never leveled so fast before. As she said, her skills can make a level 200 player fight like a 225, but can't do anything on herself. She could only fight monsters 20 or 30 levels below, that's why she never managed to get higher.

"Will you continue after dinner?" I asked.

She considered. "I may keep this up till 0 at midnight."

"Good. Wait for me here when you get online. We can try to break for level 225 today!"

"So you're off for now? I'm going too then."

"Later!"

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Only 1 chap, or best 2 chaps, for this week. I still got a job you know : /