“People, like Rose, like Olaf and even me, don’t like to be called Minions,” I explained.
“But you all laughed earlier?” Vision protested.
“Because it was funny earlier, but when you say things like that too often, it can hurt people’s feelings,” I tried to explain to him. “You need to learn to pick your moments. Even if calling me ‘Minion Number 2’ was funny, it is not something you should do often. Understand?”
“Not really, grownups are so confusing,” Vision said with a huff.
“Yes, we are,” I said. “Now, who told you it was a good idea to call us ‘Minions’?”
“Babies Breath, she said it would be really funny and that everyone would like it,” Vision answered.
I tried not to laugh. I really did. It was just too funny that Baby was the one instigating the trouble just like Micaela said. If I were a betting man, my money would have been on Heath. “Sorry, I shouldn’t have laughed. Baby is trying to cause trouble. I don’t think she counted on Rose getting so upset by the joke.”
“Oh, did Babies Breath trick me?” Vision asked.
“A little, yeah,” I answered.
“I no longer like, Babies Breath. I do not care how good her petting is,” Vision stated, his lip snarling a little.
“Now stop that,” I said, Vision’s ears lowered instantly. “Baby may have tricked you a little, but it is not something so bad that you should lose a friend over it.”
“But what she did was wrong,” protested Vision.
“Then trick her back,” I said, feeling a little devious.
“How do I do that?” Vision asked.
I grinned, “Let’s try something like this,” I started as I laid out a simple yet effective prank on Baby, one that would use Baby’s own prank against her.
With our plan in place, I went to join Rose and Baby with a contrite looking Vision.
“Hey Rose,” I said, getting her attention.
“Yes, Jack?” Rose replied.
“Vision won’t be calling anyone a minion anymore,” I said.
“That’s good,” said Rose, leaning down and scratching Vision behind the ears a little, reassuring the little guy.
“Fairy Overlord, it is okay if I do not call them by their minion numbers anymore, right?” Vision asked, his eyes wide, looking up at her as innocently as he could.
“Wha . . . wha . . . what?” Baby asked, wide-eyed and shocked.
“Baby, is this true?” Rose asked, turning sharply to look at her sister.
Baby looked panicked, clearly unprepared to be caught. “I’m going to go scout ahead,” said Baby, shooting into the air.
“Not going to chase her?” I asked, seeing Rose staying put.
“I’ll pay her back later,” said Rose, smirking a little.
“I think Babies Breath should get a week of no petting. It hurts me more than it hurts her, but she needs to learn her lesson,” said Vision, trying to sound tough but the slight quiver in his voice gave him away.
Rose knelt down and gave Vision a vigorous scratch behind the ears. “Don’t you worry little guy, anytime you need petting you can come to me.”
“Promise?” Vision asked, looking at Rose doubtfully.
“Promise, and if I’m not around, there is always Jack,” Rose added, volunteering me without asking. However, this was one time I didn’t mind being volunteered.
“Great, there are two more bears over there,” said Vision, pointing once more with his muzzle.
Rose grinned. “Well then, what are we waiting for? Olaf, Micaela, first one back to the wagon wins.”
“Wins what?” Micaela asked. “Are we betting on this? What are the stakes?”
“A Gold to the winning team from the losing team?” Rose offered, seeming to like the idea.
“Deal,” said Micaela. “Lead the way, Vision,” she ordered her pup before I could, losing our scout.
“No fair,” protested Rose.
“My spirit wolf,” said Micaela, grinning from ear to ear.
I suppose that meant I needed to put my ‘Perception’ subskill ‘Beast Tracking’ to use. Honestly, I think I was leaning on Vision too much for this kind of thing anyway. My ‘Perception’ skill wasn’t nearly as high a level as it should be, and this was the perfect opportunity to level it up.
I focused on the ground ahead of us, looking for tracks, any tracks. It didn’t take long to spot a large print with five digits and a claw with each digit. It was bigger than a wolfs by a large margin. “I see the tracks, Rose, follow me,” I said, following the glowing pawprints into the forest.
“Your ‘Perception’ skill strikes again,” Rose said with a laugh as she followed right behind me.
It didn’t take long before we heard growling and then something scraping on wood, most likely claws.
“I see it,” said Rose, rushing ahead then blurring from sight only to reappear with her shoulder buried in the back of a
It was a little boring and repetitive to cast the same spells over and over again as I slowly killed the bear, ‘Lesser Holy Fire’, ‘Lesser Holy Shock’, ‘Justice Strike’ and ‘Holy Smite’ until the others were off cooldown.
“Hey, heal me, Jack!” Rose called out, breaking my pattern. I had forgotten Baby was with Olaf and Micaela. My lapse in judgment had cost Rose 72% of her health if my user interface (UI) was to be believed.
I quickly shifted gears to healing her, repeatedly casting ‘Lesser Heal’, staying ahead of the damage she was taking from the bear much more easily than I thought I would. Once she was back above 90%, I resumed damage on the bear, making sure I healed Rose back up whenever she dropped below 70%.
It took longer than I would have liked to kill the bear but when it died, I felt a bigger sense of accomplishment than I had on the previous bear. My nearly empty MP bar just reinforced that. A quick check of my system messages agreed, more levels to all the spells and the one skill I used during the fight.
“Jack, check your messages later, that took way too long. We need to hurry and drag this guy back to the wagon,” said Rose, already picking up one of the bear’s front legs.
I moved quickly to grab the other. Together we dragged the bear back to find Baby, Olaf and Micaela were waiting for us, looking very satisfied with the dead bear at their feet.
“Fine, you won this one,” said Rose, dropping her load of the bear’s weight. She flipped a single gold coin at the waiting trio before moving to lean against the wagon with her arms crossed. “No more bets. Jack’s magic is junk.”
That hurt a little, not going to lie. Even if she was right, she didn’t need to be so mean about it. Clearly something was bothering her. Rose could be brash, but she had never been outright mean.
Seeing as only Olaf, Micaela and I had the ‘Scavenging’ skill, we started to work on the two bears, doing Olaf’s kill first.
Just like Ash had done, we rolled the bear over. I used my utility knife to cut a line down the middle, so we could get to the guts. It was messy, and the knife jerked to the side a few times when I didn’t want it to. Before I got to the end of the cut, I felt a hand grip my wrist.
It was Ash, he looked annoyed again. He pointed to his eyes again, then me and back to the bear. He overlaid his hand on mine and guided my hand to make the cut. It was so much smoother and easier with his guidance. Then he mimed for me to dig out the offal, a truly cringe worthy task.
“Ash, could you teach me,” I requested, seeing it was so much easier with his help.
Ash grinned, rubbing his fingers together, making the universal sign for money.
“How much?” I asked, eager for the help and the instruction.
Ash held out 10 fingers.
“10-Gold?” I confirmed.
Ash nodded then pointed to each of us, Olaf, Micaela and me.
“10-Gold each?” Olaf burst out.
Ash nodded once, firmly then cross
ed his arms, waiting for an answer. Also making it clear he wasn’t interested in negotiating.
I paid him, handing over the 30-Gold for all three of us, it was lucky I had the gold to spare and if we could make some significant gains in our ability to use ‘Scavenging’ then it was worth it.
What followed could only be described as magic. With Ash guiding us, we managed to clean and part that first bear in no time at all with all three of us working on it together, destroying very little of the meat or fur, something that would have been impossible without the wagon driver’s help.
The most shocking part, in the hour and a half it took to clean both bears, I gained 113 levels to ‘Scavenging’, shooting straight into Rank II. It made me wonder just how much difference it made to have a qualified instructor as opposed to trying to puzzle out skills from a book.
Scavenging II
Level: 18
Experience: 16.47%
Skill Effect (40 Stamina): Scavenge useful materials from dead animals and broken machines. Chance to successfully scavenge something useful 11.80%. Chance to successfully scavenge something more useful 1.18%.
So very nice.
Chapter 5
With the wagon filled with 8 prepped and wrapped bears, it was time for us to return to the city to unload and to possibly extend our rental. Six hours were gone, and it was at least a 40-minute trip back to Hammerton and another 40-minute trip back.
In addition to the 8 bears, we killed three more rock giants, though we were no closer to figuring out how to capture one. A little careful math calculating the rate Rose took damage blocking all those attacks, and the amount of mana expended healing her between the giant running out of mana, showed we probably wouldn’t make it half way to Hammerton. It was becoming clear just why Mardi threw a temper tantrum when she found out the ingredient requirement.
Still, not all was bad, my spells had leveled up, though not nearly enough and with the bears levels ranging between 7 and 9, it would be a long time before my spells leveled up enough to satisfy my needs.
The biggest improvement was my ‘Scavenging’, the skill skyrocketed thanks to having a master training us. By the time we finished with the last bear I was up to ‘Scavenging III’ and well on my way to ‘Scavenging IV’.
Scavenging III
Level: 74
Experience: 16.47%
Skill Effect (60 Stamina): Scavenge useful materials from dead animals and broken machines. Chance to successfully scavenge something useful 37.40%. Chance to successfully scavenge something more useful 3.74%.
Ten gold seemed like a lot at the time, but now, as far as I was concerned, it was money well spent.
The only other good news was the level gains to my combat movements skills.
Shift
Level: 100
Experience: N/A
Combat Movement
Range: 2.00 yards
Skill Stamina Cost: 5 per move
‘Shift’ and ‘Acrobatics’ both stopped at level 100, meaning they were most likely prerequisite skills, though I had no idea what they were prerequisites to.
Acrobatics
Level: 100
Experience: N/A
Combat Movement
Dodge Chance: +50.00%
Skill Stamina Cost: 5 per second
It left me working on ‘Body Control’, trying to increase the boost it provided, which was awesome. I kept it simple, using ‘Sudden Boost’ to give myself one or two points of strength every 5-seconds, just enough to keep up with my SP Regeneration of +65-SP per 10-seconds.
Body Control
Level: 59
Experience: 71.96%
Subskill: Sudden Boost
Strength Boost: +1.59-Strength to a specific muscle group for 5 seconds (additional stacks reset timer)
Skill Stamina Cost: 20 per boost
Subskill: Pacing
Stamina Cost Reduced: 1.59% Reduced Stamina Cost to all skills (excluding Body Control Subskills)
Subskill: Amped Up
Strength Boost: +1.59-Strength (additional stacks reset timer)
Skill Stamina Cost: 100 per boost
Subskill: Sprint
Run Speed Boost: Increase Running speed by 20% for 5-seconds.
Skill Stamina Cost: 20 per boost
And much to Rose’s irritation due to how slow it was, I spent time working on ‘Stealth’. There were times where it was a very useful skill to have and leveling it up was a good idea. Rose was less irritated when she picked up ‘Stealth’ herself after trying to imitate me. Once she learned it and started to train it right alongside of me, she changed her tune. Rose was even happier when she learned ‘Ambush’ for the extra aggro it generated.
Stealth
Level: 27
Experience: 6.47%
Non-Combat Movement: Speed reduced by 73.25%
Chance of Being Revealed: 57.30%
Skill Stamina Cost: 2 per second
Subskill: Ambush
Critical Strike Chance: 100.00%
Skill Stamina Cost: 20
All that training while hunting had the added bonus of capping all my physical stats except for stamina, which was improving but not quite there yet. Hopefully, it would top off by the end of the day’s hunting excursion.
Level:
10
Experience:
32.62%
Class: Initiate Warrior Priest of Issara
HP (Health Points):
2,500/2,500
MP (Mana Points):
2,000/2,000
SP (Stamina Points):
1,380/1,380
Strength:
115
- Melee Damage Modifier
+115
Dexterity:
135
- Melee Critical Strike Chance
13.50%
- Hit Chance
66.75%
- Dodge Chance
13.50%
Endurance:
250
Stamina:
138
Intellect:
200
- Spell Critical Strike Chance
20.00%
Wisdom:
120
Charisma:
112
Health Regeneration per 10-seconds:
135
Mana Regeneration per 10-seconds:
70
Stamina Regeneration per 10-seconds:
69
Holy Spell Damage Bonus:
235
Holy Spell Healing Bonus:
190
Carrying Capacity in Lbs.:
575
All told, I was pleased with my progress though Intellect, Wisdom, and Charisma still had quite a few points to be earned, despite the nice boosts I was receiving from my equipment. I would be looking for a library later for the simple fact that reading always seemed to boost two of those three stats faster than anything else I had encountered.
Much as I loved all that improvement to my skills and stats, I can’t say my magic improved to the same degree. Twelve levels to ‘Holy Smite’, five levels to ‘Lesser Holy Fire’, and two levels to ‘Lesser Holy Shock’ and ‘Justice Strike’ each. It was frustrating to be technically over leveled for this province, I just wasn’t getting the experience to my spells and skills that I really needed.
Olaf and Micaela volunteered to go with the wagon back to the city to unload, leaving Rose, Baby and I to continue hunting. Hopefully, we would be able to kill and prepare two or three more bears before they returned.
“I’ll go scout ahead,” volunteered Baby, zipping into the sky before I could protest or argue.
“Get tracking, Jack,” Rose ordered, making funny faces as she tried to figure out the ‘Beast Tracking’ subskill for herself.
“Hey Rose,” I started. “Are you okay?”
“I’m fine,” Rose snapped at me.
“Yeah, because you always bite my head off when I ask you how you’re doing,” I replied, the sarcasm
probably wasn’t necessary, but she’d earned it at this point.
Rose huffed and frowned, focusing back on the ground.
Accepting that Rose wasn’t ready to talk, I returned to scanning for bear tracks.
“I’m frustrated,” Rose said, breaking the silence.
“Me too,” I said. “My spells just aren’t leveling well against the bears. Their levels are just too low.”
“No, not about that . . . well, a little about that,” Rose amended. “I’m frustrated with . . . with me.”
“What do you mean?” I asked. As far as I could tell, Rose was doing her job and doing it fantastically well. Plus, her new spell was leveling up pretty quickly from what she had said. So, I said as much.
“Not with that . . . it’s . . . I failed,” Rose finally said, after seeming lost for what she wanted to say.
“Bull,” I replied instantly.
“Stop, it’s true. I failed. When those players attacked when we first arrived, when you, Olaf, and Micaela all died. I failed. I am supposed to protect you guys and I couldn’t. I couldn’t do anything,” Rose explained.
“That’s garbage,” I said, feeling a little angry with Rose. Why would she think something like that about herself? “You kept Mardi alive. That was the most important responsibility you had.”
“I know that, I do, but still, you died,” Rose replied. “I know it’s completely irrational, I know that, but I can’t help feeling like I let you and the others down. So, I’ve been . . . not nice. My therapist calls it a self-defense mechanism where I push those around me away. If I push you away first, then you can’t hurt me by pushing me away. It doesn’t work as I usually end up hurt anyway,” she finished, looking vulnerable.
World Tree Online: The Mountain Valley War: 2nd Dive Concludes Page 8