The murlocks were confused. Normally their enemies wouldn't stand a chance. The murlocks had experienced a range attack before but once their females sang, it was suppose to mean an assured victory for the murlocks.
Smoke had this all planned out. On his first attack he would spread out his arrow attacks inflicting poison damage on all of the enemies. After that he would target the enemy nearest to Adder, leaving only enough HP to last one more hit from Adder's mantis blade.
Surprisingly the murlocks only had a little more life than the powersaw crickets. Once Smoke did a focus attack on an incoming murlock, its life bar would only indicate (2,131/14,000). Just enough for Adder's 2,200 damage.
Everything was going according to Smoke's calculation. The murlocks in the back realized that they were gonna die if they continued on fighting. Desperately they tried to escape to the deep waters but their path to escape was blocked by Smoke and Adder.
All the murlocks could do was run. After running for about 3km they saw a waterfall, the murlocks ran into the waterfall. Smoke saw that the murlocks were retreating into it.
There were only about 200 murlocks left, as the escaping murlocks were all shot down by Smoke's poison arrows. Smoke could already feel the last family token in his hands.
Adder stopped before the entrance of the cave hidden behind the waterfall. He waited for Smoke's instructions. Smoke signaled him to proceed carefully and to stick close to him. Smoke's 'Cunning of the Dire Fox' has a range of 220 meters.
The pathway from the entrance of the cave was long and narrow. It took about 10 minutes until they reached a cavernous space. The underground cavity looked like a huge spherical chamber of about 3 Kilometers in diameter. There were some small cracks from the ground above that allowed some sunlight to illuminate the cavern.
The two of them were at the upper part of the cavern. At the bottom there was a lake with a dangerous looking whirlpool. Smoke couldn't sense any enemies nearby but he saw some of murlocks besides the lake.
They saw some sort of path leading downwards. Adder took the lead while Smoke readied his bow. They covertly reached the bottom of the chamber.
The murlocks showed no signs that they sensed Smoke and Adder's presence. They were huddled near the front of the lake.
Smoke immediately did the same attack pattern. He targeted all of them with his poison arrows. Seeing the arrows fly, Adder dashed forward to slaughter the murlocks.
They were down to their last 20 murlocks when a series of water balls and a glacial spike attacked them from behind. Smoke and Adder relflexively turned their heads towards the direction of the attacks.
Behind them was a conclave of murlocks and water lamias. The monsters had been hiding from the hundreds of hidden chambers within the enormous cavern. The water ball attacks came from the water lamias and the glacial spike came from the water lamia boss. A dark blue water lamia that was about 2 meters tall.
Their numbers could easily reach 2,000. Smoke was stunned, he realized that they had been lured into a trap. He tried to rack his brain to come up with a way to come out of this alive.
Smoke's brain was trying its best to think of a solution, when his ability 'Cunning of the Dire Fox' indicated that a group of murlocks were rushing towards Adder. He drew his bow and targeted all of them with the intention to kill each one of them.
With Smoke's back against the conclave of water lamias and murlocks. The monsters launched their magical water attacks against Smoke.
Adder tried to signal Smoke that he was being targeted but without the ability to communicate he only managed to serve as a shield for Smoke and took on the onslaught of water balls.
Smoke knew that if he died he would only lose a level. Then after 24 hours, he would respawn again in Nanahuatl Village. However he didn't know what would happen to Adder in the event of his death. Scared of the unknown, Smoke tried his best to protect Adder's life.
Adder being a loyal warrior to Smoke, defended him without the fear of death. The water lamias were holding their ground. Relying on their ranged magical attacks. Since he was without a shield, Adder desperately tried to slash all of the incoming water balls.
Smoke finally managed to defeat all of the murlocks near the lake. As he turned to face Adder's side, he saw an incoming glacial spike towards him. It was clearly aimed for a fatal strike.
In the next split second he saw Adder's left arm try to block the glacial spike, hoping that it would somehow change its trajectory. The glacial spike cleanly severed Adder's left arm. Adder fell down backwards, and tumbled towards Smoke.
Smoke felt his adrenaline rush. He saw that Adder’s life bar was only (20,974/79,504 HP). As he was out of ideas on what to do next. He instinctively picked up Adder and carried him on his back. He ran towards the whirlpool in lake.
He ran with all his might. Never looking back at the incoming magical attacks. Smoke with Adder on his back, gambled on the deadly looking whirlpool and dove into it.
The Realization
Since Nash started being a pro player in Zectas, he has saved up an amount of $80,000. He hasn't even touched the savings of $108,000 for his brothers' education.
Confident that he could maintain the high number of views, Nash decided to buy a house worth $400,000. He payed the 20% down payment in full and only needed to pay $6,100 a month for the next 5 years.
The family immediately moved to their new house. Their house is a detached two story house, it has 4 bedrooms, 3 toilets & baths, has a small front yard and a separate garage. Nash gave the master bedroom to his Mima Daphne, which has its own toilet & bath.
Their new house was somewhat far from Seth and Donny's old school. So Nash opted to transfer them to a closer School. Seth and Donny didn't have any problem with the move because they loved their new house.
Now each of the three young Smoaks has a room of his own. Seth was the happiest one. He was now 13 and wanted the privacy of his own room. Donny would make a mess of things and always clutter his side of the room.
The Smoaks have only been living in their house for one week. It’s just been one day since Nash failed miserably against the murlocks. When Nash got a call from the arcade manager telling him to get his check from the Game Center. His latest video upload only got around 7 million views. Which meant that his check would only amount to $10,000. This is still a pretty big amount but is no longer enough to support Nash’s expenses.
With Mima Daphne's medical bills, their daily living expenses, the mortgage of their new house, and his brothers' educational fund, Nash needed at least $14,000 a month. His latest check would mean that he would need to skip out on his brothers' educational fund this month.
He had never skipped making the monthly deposit before. But he had to make this sacrifice, otherwise they wouldn't have any food to eat.
The sixth video upload that Nash did was of the time, when he and Adder tried out using military hand signals and hunted monsters in total silence. The users got confused on what was actually happening in the video. While others continued to review the video trying to catch if there was any kind of secret that was hidden in the video.
However, the main reason why his views was so low was actually because of another video. The video was about 'Amahan', the current highest level player in Zectas. Amahan is currently at level 140, he has a hidden advance job of an Exorcist. A fighting priest that specializes against the Undead.
Amahan shared the location of the unexplored northern Kingdom of Aquilomentl. Amahan together with his elite guild the 'Decane', ventured into the uncharted lands. The moment they entered the vicinity of the kingdom, they were ambushed by a horde of zombies and ghouls but all of them were wiped out in a flash of light.
Tristan's guild was said to be the strongest in ZECTAS because of their numbers. However the 'Decane' is considered to be the super elite. 'Decane' consisted of only ten members. Its lowest level player, full support Arch Bishop 'Hilot' has a level of 130. A few levels short of Tristan who was level of 132.
Amahan's video spread like wild fire. Everyone in the Northern Kingdoms headed towards the location that he showed in his video. That video garnered the 2nd most views in all of the official videos in ZECTAS.
After making breakfast Nash called down his younger brothers to join him and their Mima. Seth was the first one to arrive at the table, while Donny sluggishly followed wearing a baseball cap. He was trying his best to hide his face.
Mima Daphne told Donny to remove his cap as they were about to eat. Donny obediently followed and showed the reason why he was wearing the cap. Donny had a huge black eye on his right eye. which caused Mima Daphne to raise her voice.
"What in the world happened to you?! Who did this?! That boy's gonna get it good."
"No Mima, don’t. I was the one who threw the first punch."
Nash was shocked to hear that Donny threw the first punch. He was enraged. Was Donny becoming a bully?
"Donny?! What could have been a good enough reason, for you to punch someone?"
"Ummm... Nash... You see... Since we got into a new school, I've been trying to make new friends. Eventually the topic of ZECTAS came up and I... I just had to tell them that the supernovice is my brother."
Nash looked at Seth, he was expecting him to take care of his brother at school. In spite of the situation Seth looked calm and didn't seem to mind what Donny did.
"So you punched a kid because they wouldn't believe you, that you're the supernovice's brother?"
"No no no. It wasn't like that. I couldn't care less if they believed me or not. Andrew and his five friends just kept on saying that the supernovice was lame, that he was stupid, that he was a joke and that he was a total loser. I tried asking them why but then they just kept on repeating the same things over and over again. I tried asking them to stop but they started circling around me and kept on repeating the same things. I don't know what came over me but I just couldn't take it anymore and I just punched Andrew in the nose. After that they ganged up on me. If Seth hadn't seen what was happening from across the yard, I don't think I would've ended with just a black eye."
"So you saw this Seth? Did you fight against those kids as well?"
"No, of course not. I just separated Donny from those gang of bullies. I didn't know the reason of their fight. But if I had known. I would've knocked out everyone one of those punks."
Nash understood that his brothers were just looking out for him. He knew that it wasn't right to start fights. But he wasn't gonna let some kids mess with his brothers as well.
"Donny, I appreciate what you did for me. But you shouldn't be throwing punches whenever someone talks bad about us. Just don't mind them. There are a lot of idiotic people in this world and you shouldn't stoop down to their level."
"Yeah, I guess. I get what you're trying to say Nash… Oh, by the way. Now that you know about the fight. I think I should also tell you that you have to go our school, to talk with our principal. I think I broke Andrew's nose."
"Good for you, Donny! That kid deserved it."
"Mima, don't encourage him. Donny, I'll talk to your principal and try to sort this out. Okay, you guys should start eating, I just need to make a phone call and this may take a while."
Nash stepped into their living room while talking to someone on the phone. Ten minutes passed and Nash finally came back to the dining table.
"All right, it's all set. Seth, Donny, everyday after school I want you to head to this address. I know this person from the time when I worked at the diner. He delivers our fruits and vegetables."
"Why would you want us to go to this place? Are you punishing us? Are you making us do vegetable deliveries or something?"
"You would think that I should punish you right? But you will know once you get there this afternoon."
After school Seth and Donny headed towards the address that Smoke gave them. It took them 30 minutes to reach the place.
It was a fruits and vegetables shop. Seth and Donny looked at each other and understood that they were gonna be busy doing deliveries for the next coming days. The two brothers entered the shop.
"Excuse me. I'm looking for Mr. Cacoy?"
An Asian man that looked like he was in his 50s greeted them.
"Mr. Cacoy huh? Just call me Cacoy. You must be Nash's younger brothers. I’ve been expecting you."
"Yup that's us. So where are we gonna make our first delivery?"
"Delivery? What delivery are you talking about?"
"Didn't Nash send us here to work as your delivery boys?"
"Nash didn't mention anything about that. I think you must have misunderstood your brother. Come follow me to the back."
