Dreya Dae
Human Female
Level - 1
350/1200
Health 120/120 Aura 280/280 Endurance 120/120
Class – Warden – Wardens gain a 10% bonus to skills associated with nature or which have natural effects
Specialization –
Mastery –
STR - 12
CON - 12
DEX - 14
INT - 12
WIS - 12
CHA - 16
Abilities
Ignore Armor – Your next arrow will ignore a portion of the target’s armor. Cost – 20 Aura. 1%
Stun – Your next arrow has a chance to stun its target on hit. Cost – 20 Aura. 1%
Spells
Skills
Bow – 12%
Critical Hit – 8%
Armor – 1%
Medium Armor – 1%
Perception – 10%
Environmental – 13%
Identify Enemy – 4%
Identify Person – 3%
Subterfuge – 3%
Stealth – 4%
Manipulation – 7%
Persuade – 8%
Barter – 8%
INVENTORY
Encumbrance 47/120
Clothing
Recurve Bow, (50)
Short Sword, Simple (25)
Leather Chest Guard (15)
Leather Tassets (7)
Leather Bracers (1)
Leather Greaves (2)
Leather Boots (2)
Leather Gloves
Quiver
19 Arrows
Camp blade
Belt pouch, common:
10 weak health potions, 3 red crystals, 1 cure disease potion, 1 cure poision potion
Coin pouch, Soul Bound:
16 Silver Marks, 22 Silver Bits 170 Copper
Backpack 50 slot, 50% weight reduction
I had only made minor gains in my Perception skill tree since my last look. This was not surprising, as there was not all that much to be perceived in this quiet little town. I didn’t bother opening the tab for my backpack either. I knew what was there, and it was nothing special.
I noticed that my common coin pouch was now labelled as a Belt pouch, and recalling Marli’s words, I experimentally tried to place a few coppers in the pouch’s single empty slot. However, they refused to go in; instead, the coins simply fell to the floor at my feet. That answered that question—it was an either/or proposition, the common pouches would hold coins or potions, but not both at the same time. With nothing more to do, I gathered up the fallen coins, left the room, and locked the door behind me.
Following the road out of town, I soon came to the spot on my map where Marli had indicated the trail to the farm would be. The trail was sparse but clear, and I was able to follow it easily. Once I was sure I would be able to track its course, I left the narrow path and made my way into the undergrowth.
From that point, I traveled slowly, making efforts to remain as quiet and stealthy as possible. Tuning my senses to the forest around me, my eyes filled with the rich greens and browns of the foliage, while the songs of the birds played musically through my ears. The sights, sounds, and smells of the forest came to me in an overwhelming rush of sensations, and completely overloaded my senses.
I froze in place, briefly stunned by the sheer intensity of what I experienced. Slowly, I adjusted to the sensations that threatened to overwhelm me, and eventually regained my composure. There was no lessening in the brilliance or clarity of what I was perceiving; it was just that I had finally adapted to their input. While this world was always hyper-real to me, when I actually focused my Perception ability, it had simply become too much to bear—I obviously needed to practice that transition more. Hopefully, it would become less severe as I became more accustomed to it. Finally, after taking a few moments to recover, I began moving forward again, walking slowly towards my destination.
Moving cautiously as I worked to train both my Perception and Stealth, I gradually approached the location of the farm. After several hours, the forest finally cleared, revealing an open pasture with goats grazing in the fields.
The details of the map I had gotten from Marli had integrated with the mini-map in the lower left of my vision. So, even without focusing on it, I could see the mark she had placed on the map for the farm, and since I was now practically standing on that mark, I assumed that this must be the place.
As I walked towards the goats, I came upon the farmer and waved a friendly greeting to put him at ease.
“Hello,” I said, making my introduction. “My name is Dreya—Marli sent me to help you out. She said you had a problem with something killing off your herd?”
“I see,” he drawled. “Needs her stuff, does she?”
“I don’t know anything about ‘stuff,’ she just asked me to help out a friend of hers.”
We talked for a while, and I questioned him about the attacks. He told me that all the attacks had happened at night. After the first few, he had penned his goats up in the barn overnight and kept close watch over them by day. Unfortunately, among the first few casualties were his prized breeding does, and he could not afford to lose another. Once he pointed out the locations of the attacks for me, I set off to begin my investigation.
I examined each of the areas he indicated, but too much time had passed for me to detect any useful signs. Remembering what he had said about penning up the goats in the barn overnight, I decided to look there next for any indications of the mystery assailant’s presence.
Inspecting the front and sides of the barn yielded no clues. However, rounding the back, I saw some promising signs—something had clearly been prowling around. The ground was too soft and muddy to retain clear prints, but it had obviously been disturbed. As if that were not enough, rough scratches marred the side of the barn. Something had been trying to find its way inside, and judging by the height of those scratches, it was something large as well. Staring up at the deep furrows, I noticed that they began above my head and gouged their way all the way down the wall to the muddy dirt.
Ding!
Oh, nice. Looks like I got something there.
Unlocked skill discovered! You have discovered the Survival skill tree and the Tracking sub-skill.
That would certainly come in handy.
I had left the farmer still tending his herd, and quickly decided against going back to inform him of my discovery—it would just be a waste of time anyway. Even though he seemed unaware of the danger to his herd, having not mentioned the state of the barn, I was about to end the problem for him anyway. As I looked around the muddy mess, I began searching for a decent trail to follow.
It didn’t take long to find clear prints leading away from the barn and towards the forest. The fact that the massive paws had been covered in thick mud when the tracks had been laid only made my task all the easier.
When I approached the edge of the woods, I drew my bow and nocked an arrow. I was, after all, tracking a large and dangerous animal. Judging by the size of its prints and the height of the scratches on the barn, this was not a beast to be taken lightly. Once under cover of the trees, the tracks soon became difficult to follow, and I quickly lost the trail. Fortunately, the animal had been moving steadily in one direction, never veering. I took a chance and proceeded along the same path.
Once again using my Stealth and Perception, now in conjunction with Tracking, I slowly moved forward. As I did so, I cautiously searched the forest with all my senses, alert for any hint of my adversary.
I don’t know if it was my Perception, Tracking, or just dumb luck, but I suddenly noticed a large flake of dried mud on the ground before me. I reached down to inspect it and found that it had several strands of thick, gray-brown fur stuck to it. The fur reminded me of a dog’s coat, but much coarser. I had a sense that it was from a beast like a dog, but something more primal—a wolf perhaps?
The tracks I had been following, when they had been clea
r, did resemble a dog’s footprint. These tracks, however, had been so much larger than any dog I could imagine that I hadn’t considered any sort of canine as the maker of the prints.
So, my target was perhaps a dog or wolf-like creature, but on a scale beyond what I could have conceived. Great. Totally awesome.
Discarding the dried hunk of mud, I pushed ahead and continued heading in the same direction I’d been traveling, only now I was even more alert than before… if that was even possible.
Even traveling at my very slow pace, and being as cautious as I could be, I almost fell on my face when I came abruptly upon a large rent in the ground. Stopping suddenly to avoid tumbling in, I took a moment to quickly scan around. While I could see nothing, I definitely heard something… snoring? Was that snoring? Yes. Something near, very near, was snoring rather loudly.
Tuning in to the sound, I could tell that it was coming from below, inside the gaping fissure in the ground beneath my feet. I was confident that I had managed to stumble upon the den of my quarry. And I appeared to be in luck because whatever it was, it was sound asleep. It made sense, as the beast had been observing a nocturnal schedule when it made its attacks on the farm.
I slowly crept along the edge of the small ravine, seeking the source of the harsh snoring, and the creature finally came into view as I cleared a small clump of underbrush. Based on the tracks and claw marks, I knew the beast I sought was large, but I was definitely not prepared for the monstrosity that lay before me.
The thing was gigantic—wolf-like in appearance, but also bearing a resemblance to a hyena, the beast was curled up in a corner of the ravine, resting from its nighttime activities. It was hard to tell from the position it was in, but I guessed it would stand over six feet at the shoulder and with its head raised, would easily add another foot or so to that impressive height.
While its body seemed to possess the grace and dimensions of a wolf, its neck, head, and wicked jaws were far thicker and more brutish. This beast could not only run you down but also easily tear you to shreds once it did… at least when it was healthy.
Examining the creature, I was able to discover the reason for its raids on the farm. One of its hind legs was clearly broken and jutted out at an unnatural angle from its body. No longer able to capture wild prey, it had obviously taken to snatching the farmer’s sleeping goats.
I felt some pity for the beast, but it would clearly be a menace, not only to livestock but also to any travelers it might manage to catch unawares. Having a moment’s luxury to plan, I came up with an idea that would hopefully end the beast as quickly as possible while keeping me safe from its vicious maw. My positioning was already good, so I drew back my arrow and let it fly.
My plan relied heavily on my newly earned Ability, Stun. At a cost of a mere twenty Aura, and with a pool of two-hundred and eighty, I should be able to fire enough Stun-enhanced arrows to keep my quarry out of the fight until it was over.
My first shaft hit the beast in the exposed joint of its uninjured rear leg. Although clearly woken from its slumber and now wide awake, the creature was dazed and unable to move. Perfect. I continued to place Stun-enhanced shot after shot in its prone body until it began to resemble a pincushion.
After a while, I became concerned. Not only was I starting to run low on arrows, but my Endurance bar looked to be down to less than a third—and this thing was still not dead. Rethinking my initial plan, I changed tactics. Instead of just rapidly firing in an effort to maintain the stun effect, I began focusing on doing the most damage possible instead. I slowed my rate of fire and began to carefully aim my shots at its most vulnerable points. After three more arrows, I could clearly see the difference in the damage I was doing. Blood began flowing from its mouth and leaked freely from the beast’s body where I had managed to hit an artery—now it would only be a matter of time.
I decided on trying one last shot to end it quickly. If I missed this, I would simply wait and hope that the beast would bleed out; there was no longer any need to take risks.
I drew back one of my three remaining arrows and sighted in on the small target that was the beast’s heavily lidded eye. It looked back at me, and I knew that it understood its fate. I also saw in that eye an intense hatred and a keen desire for revenge. I knew if I got too close and gave it the opportunity, the beast would try for one final lunge at my throat.
With my Endurance nearly depleted, I released the arrow and watched as nearly the entire shaft buried itself in the monster’s skull. With little more than the fletching sticking out from its ruined eye, the beast convulsed violently for only a second before it slumped over dead.
I let loose a deep breath that I did not realize I’d been holding. This was my first quest—my first solo battle—and I had succeeded. I felt a sense of accomplishment and pride. Even though I was alone, I knew I could prevail in this world. I felt that my goal of growing stronger was absolutely possible and had no doubts that even though there would be setbacks and failures along the way, I could do it. With my sense of confidence renewed, I climbed down into the ravine to recover as many of my spent arrows as I could and to get a closer look at my fallen foe.
When I finally got close enough to retrieve my arrows, I realized that the beast was truly tremendous. If anything, I had underestimated its size. As I began to pull the shafts from its corpse, I wondered if it had dropped any loot.
Bingo! I guess that while I had been retrieving one of my arrows, I had also been touching the beast’s body sufficiently enough for its loot menu to pop up. However, the loot options were much different than I had seen before.
With the goblins, I had simply been able to claim the loot from the menu and it automatically moved over into my own Inventory. Of course, I could also do the whole process manually, but using the loot menu was so much less ugly than fishing around in some dead thing’s pants. With this beast, however, the process was not the same.
The loot menu came up like before, but I couldn’t take anything from it. It showed a pelt and both of the beast’s large canines, but I couldn’t transfer them to my inventory.
I suddenly realized what the problem was. Shit, this sucks, I thought. This wasn’t a person with pockets you could rifle through. This is a creature, and I had to actually harvest it. Ugh, this was going to be gross.
I finished recovering all my arrows before attempting to skin the thing. Wait, it’s not a thing, it’s a… worg!
Ding!
Shit. I should have known that earlier. I was familiar with the concept, but this worg was unlike any of the ones I had seen depicted before. Oh well, at least it seemed like my belated realization had earned me a skill or something. But with the task of looting the creature’s body still to be done, I would have to check on that later. Reluctantly, I turned to the job of trying to skin the huge hunk of dead worg.
I knew very little about skinning animals—let me correct that, I knew nothing about it. I thought I had some possible ideas about how I might maybe remove at least some portion of its hide.
I took out my camp knife and began by cutting circles around the skin just above its huge paws. Then I made an incision along the inside of each leg until I reached its body. I sloppily slit the worg down the middle of its chest and connected all my prior cuts together as best I could. I was slowly getting the hide off the worg’s body, but I was also doing a terrible job of it, and I knew it.
I started to peel the thick skin away from the flesh below, but the process was agonizingly slow. I had filleted and skinned fish before, and I tried to apply those techniques, but with little success. Eventually, after an excruciatingly long time, I had a huge roll of filthy, bloody hide and fur that one might generously call a ‘pelt.’ Using the same camping knife, I then carved out the worg’s two long canines. Once I managed to stuff the pelt and canines into my pack, I started to leave.
Ding!
Tired and somewhat frustrated, I wasn’t even excited about my most recent notification. It could wait
with the others. Instead, I wiped the blood and gore from my hands as best as I could and made my way back to the farm. Exhausted, and sure of the path ahead, I didn’t even bother practicing any of my skills.
The farmer was ecstatic when I showed him the pelt. He then confided in me that he didn’t know how much longer he could have kept up the constant tending of his herd. He had been ignoring a great number of necessary tasks in order to keep them safe, and the situation had presented quite the quandary for him. Leave the goats and risk losing his livelihood, or protect them and abandon other, equally important duties. He was very clearly relieved to have this threat finally removed. The farmer motioned for me to wait as he ran inside his house, and then returned quickly with a finely made quiver full of arrows.
“Now, if I know Marli, and I do, she’s offered you some small reward for this that’s nowhere near worth all the trouble you’ve been through—not to mention the risk you took,” he said.
“I don’t have much to offer, but I’d like you to have this,” he said, handing me the full quiver.
“Thank you,” I said. “This is a very nice-looking quiver.”
“Ha!” He laughed. “That it is. I had wanted to let you examine it first. But it’s clear you aren’t able to identify it, so let me help you. Hand it back to me so I can formally give it to you, as it is a soul-bound item.”
Now, even more impressed with the quiver, I handed it back to him respectfully.
“I give this to you of my own free will, without reservation,” he said, as he passed the quiver to me once again.
As soon as it touched my hands, a message flashed before my eyes, telling me just what I had been given.
Never Ending Quiver of Arrows
As long as at least one non-magical arrow is in the Quiver, the Quiver will regenerate duplicate non-magical arrows over time until it is full. All arrows created will be of the same quality as the best non-magical arrow currently in the Quiver. Arrows in the Quiver are immune from warping or other ordinary damage while in the Quiver.
Second Skin- Fractures Page 10