♫I caught a bullet heyyyy, right in my left side, are you wounded too heyyyy my soulllll!♫
What did eleven mean? I had missed the reward by a hair's breadth and become the biggest loser; it wouldn't even be hard for me to find a solid rock and bang my head against it until my health points hit zero.
Oh Hell, oh... how intensely you made sinners experience negative emotions. If you didn't count the fact that I slapped myself until my mind cleared enough to form this sentence, I hadn't survived this trauma too badly.
Looking on the bright side of things, I had learned that the system didn't just punish, but also rewarded players for reaching various milestones. I admit, I had a slight pang in my heart for not getting reward equipment right away from slaughtering Fallen, but I couldn't get hung up on that and stop chasing new goals.
"Big Bro Sukrucuk, did you learn the attributes of your armor?"
"I also reached Tier 2!"
However much my tongue resisted forming that second sentence, even I couldn't quite make out what I said; my party members must have caught the sorrow in my voice because they didn't ask any follow-up questions.
"I'll tell you, Max. I gotta confess, I was pissed at its name at first, but once I put it on and my fear of death vanished, I actually liked this armor a lot."
Good lord, what a sharp U-turn this was. After Sukrucuk's words, my curiosity about the equipment skyrocketed.
"We're listening, Big Bro!"
But this guy's pauses were going to drive me crazy one day; whenever he stopped while explaining something, he wouldn't continue without being prodded.
Child of Sorrows Armor
Level - 0
Defense Points: +5
Health Points: +5
Strength: +5
Endurance: +5
20% of incoming Physical Damage is added to the User's Health Points. The User absorbs 50% of the damage taken by the Sinner with the lowest Health Points in the Party.
Lord have mercy, I'm fainting here! I had been falsely comforting myself thinking it would just be something that over-boosts one stat, but for the love of God, look at this armor!
If someone came and asked me what a low-level tank armor should look like, I probably couldn't have thought of anything more than this; it was as if they dumped everything necessary right into the equipment.
"Big Bro, this gift thing turned out great! You wouldn't even flinch if they fired a cannonball at you for a long time now!"
"Now you can go to Rimel. If you slaughter Fallen together, you can level up together!"
When I finished my words, there was a three to five-second silence. I guess someone didn't like my suggestion.
"Max, maybe I should go up one more level here first!"
When Sukrucuk finally spit it out, I sadly realized my fear had come true. No matter what, I couldn't back down right now.
"Big Bro Sukrucuk, you're the oldest among us, you're practically our big brother, you're even old enough to be some of our fathers!"
I made my intro by lining up the first thoughts that came to my mind. Taking a deep breath in the couple of seconds I bought myself, I readied myself for a long guilt-tripping session.
"We are but miserable sinners beaten down by fate, condemned to be blown around like sand here in the exile lands of Hell!"
"We somehow found each other in these days of sorrow. And now you, the person who should be taking three youngsters under his wing, are you turning your back on us, Big Bro?"
"Since that's what you want, so be it. We'll just say we once had a Big Bro, and bury this pain in our hearts, man!"
I had to try really hard not to finish my speech by saying "D-d-d-drama FM." It was so weird for mischief to cross my mind right when I was firing my last bullet.
Fortunately, the response I was waiting for came without delay. The sound of a slight sniffle was accompanied by words formed with a trembling voice.
"You're breaking my heart, Max. Is this how you see your Big Bro?"
'The subject has taken the dose, doctor, shall we begin the operation?' Inside my head, Sukrucuk was lying on an operating table while a sexy nurse next to me was saying this. My brain had turned into the set of a cheap music video.
"I'm coming over to you right now, my girl, Rimel!"
The operation was a success. I could start normalizing our relationship without laying on any more thick drama.
"Thanks, Big Bro. Now everyone repeat after me!"
"Pin the Experience Point Bar to the top right of my vision!"
They all said it in unison after me. This was quite pleasing news for me. Following that little incident, the fact that they did what I said was proof that I was the leader of the party, and at the same time, I was going to learn something else.
"Brother Max, nothing changed for me!"
"Yeah, Big Bro Max, there's no bar appearing in my vision either!"
The ones speaking were none other than Rimel and Toraman. Looking at the Experience Bar winking at me from the top right corner, I thought the snobby thing didn't give the time of day to people who hadn't leveled up.
"I guess it didn't show up for you guys because your level hasn't increased, but it's not a problem. I'm heading over to Rimel's side too, we'll quickly get everyone to tier 2."
"Hooray!"
When Rimel's joyful cheer rang out in the party chat, it became blatantly obvious how happy she was about this decision. Oh, poor little girl, she didn't know that if it weren't for her, we wouldn't be able to do anything in the future.
"Toraman, you can stop using your skill and just start slaughtering Fallen too!"
The whole party had to reach Tier 2, so we might have a chance to prevent an unfortunate accident when trying to grind mobs together.
"No way, this can't be happening!"
While a few dozen foxes were running around in my head without tangling their tails, a familiar voice made me jump right where I stood. It was Rimel, the one I fawned over and who had the capacity to be our party's healer, yelling.
"What happened, please don't tell me you died!"
I panicked quite a bit. This time my fear wasn't about wasting time; I was worried the young girl's psychology would be ruined as a result of the torment she would suffer.
"No, I didn't die, I think another item dropped!"
"I see it too, I had just killed a few of them and something glowing bright appeared!"
We had been struggling on our own for hours, but we hadn't been able to drop a skill book or an item. Somehow, the moment two of our party members came side by side, they immediately scored an item.
"One of you pick it up immediately, let's see what our party's first loot is."
I remembered the time I set up the party settings. I let out a deep sigh of relief the exact moment I remembered choosing leader for item distribution.
While I was patting myself on the back, an image slowly began to appear in front of my eyes. The shape of the item, which was blurry at first, was getting clearer by the second.
What stared back at me was a simple sandal made of gray leather. Before I could even say 'what is this,' the system's announcement rang in my head.
Hermit's Sandals
Level - 0
Health Points: +1
Endurance: +1
Increases User's Speed by 1%
After Sukrucuk's reward, the Child of Sorrows Armor, seeing the attributes of this new item didn't excite me at all. The difference between the two pieces of equipment was like night and day.
"What the hell is this, out of everything that could drop, we got this crappy thing?"
I guess there were others in the party who shared my opinion. In this way, I also learned that dropped items were open for everyone to examine, not just the leader.
Toraman had suddenly blurted out what he was thinking. I couldn't thank him enough for this.
"I don't need this item, and Sukrucuk has his armor. I was actually thinking of giving it to one of you two, but since you don't like it, I'm sending these sandals to Rimel!"
Because of the speed attribute, it was more appropriate to give the dropped item to support characters. There were two people in the party who fit this description: Rimel and Toraman. Since an argument breaking out over the very first piece of loot was a very common occurrence, I was slightly tense. But thankfully, the big guy made my job easier with his big mouth.