Ascension

by B F Rockriver

  As pressure built in his chest, the burden he now bore surfaced. Then he thought of Aida and what would happen if he died, became an NPC again, or got deleted. She would most likely vanish with him, and she would die. His transition into an adventurer brought with it a new being into consciousness, one that he was responsible for. Eli knew that she was artificial, not necessarily real, but that term no longer made much sense. What is real at this point?

  He thought about his past, his memories, Alyssa, his family, the people around him. Is any of it real? Who decides what is real and what isn’t? To him, everything that came before, and everything he was experiencing now was part of his story. There was nothing else, no other world to escape to. At any moment, the system could erase him. The void no longer worried him; in fact, he welcomed it. What was important was Aida, Don, and helping the Wolffen. He could not count on them being saved by some other adventurer.

  The thought of some noble hero walking up to save the Wolffen or help Don find a cure for his Blight was laughable. Most of the people who came to Entarra just wanted to kill monsters, save a princess, explore dungeons, and slay dragons. They wanted to play with magic and forget about the problems of their own reality. None of this mattered to them. He had dreamt of the same things when he was a child, and often still did. Hurling fireballs and calling down lightning always fascinated him.

  Eli chuckled, realizing that he was stuck. There would be no fabled hero or god appearing from the heavens. He would be the one to help. He had to be. With his mind made up, he started moving his feet once more. As he approached Don, he smiled and clasped the man by the shoulder.

  “We’ve got to get going if we’re going to have any chance of making it through the woods,” Eli said in a hushed tone.

  The Turta nodded quietly, while he finished mending the wounds of the elderly Wolffen man. Now that he was closer, Eli could see the source of the man’s problems. The guards had whipped him, nearly to death. The wounds on the man’s back closed, and his breathing grew steady as Don healed him, but the fur did not grow back where the lash had torn flesh from his body. Eli wanted to do something, anything, to put an end to the atrocities being committed by the leaders of Dawnport, but knew his duties were elsewhere. Seeing that Don had finished his work, Eli squeezed his friend's shoulder once more, signaling that it was time to go.

  Eli and Don held a steady pace out of the dingy slums and headed straight west towards the Wildwoods, down the same path that led towards Eli’s former home. The silence was heavy like a weighted blanket that enveloped them both in awkwardness. Eli had no words to say. The man he traveled with had shown him more loyalty than his closest friends, yet they barely knew one another. Most adventurers caused only pain and suffering. After all, to them, this was just a game. They are all the same; he remembered telling himself. All they care about is loot and fighting. At first, he expected Don to stab him in the back. Yet here he was traveling beside him, in silence, trying to find a cure for a possible world-ending disease.

  Not wanting to get trapped in a cycle of questions, he looked over his gear. He wanted to understand his situation better. He had to if he wanted to survive as an adventurer. Clicking on the small backpack icon in his vision opened his inventory. Its spatial magic was amazing and extremely useful, but Eli struggled to understand all of its functions.

  As he opened it, a transparent cube with three sections appeared on the left side of his vision. The largest of the boxes was segmented into small squares, forming a grid. In the grid, he found miniature versions of each item he carried. The first thing he saw was a roll of bandages that had a small number ten overlapping it. The number of bandages the roll contained. Next to it was five slices of jerky, his rations. There was also a bedroll, a waterskin, the potion William had given him, the salves from Alyssa, and a quiver with fifteen arrows. He didn’t have much, but it would have to do. What he found strange is that the boxes accounted for items he wore, like the quiver and bedroll strapped to his back, and what he had in his pockets—looking over the grid, he did not see his armor or weapons, which worried him.

  Then he glanced at the second largest section, which sat off to the right of the first. Within its borders, he saw the outline of a formless humanoid. Several small boxes sat scattered over the figure on its feet, legs, wrists, waist, shoulders, hands, fingers, head, and two on the torso. Three more sat on either side of each hand. Displayed in the area, were small versions of his current equipment. His bow, belt knife, axe, and armor all filled boxes in their respective locations. On his neck was his new necklace. Focusing on his feet, which held a simple pair of leather sandals, forced a smaller window to appear. A larger representation of the sandals sat at its center, with a block of text below it.

  *Simple hide sandals*

  Armor: 1 | Durability: 6/10 | Quality: Trash | Rarity: Common

  A novice leather worker crafted these sandals out of scraps of hide from an unknown creature. While they protect the bottoms of your feet from harm, they offer little protection from the elements or other dangers.

  After inspecting the rest of his armor, he found that it all shared similar qualities except for slightly more protection or durability, depending on the piece. His pants and vest had five and seven armor while his gloves and bracers offered two each. What interested him the most was the bow and belt knife. He had managed to re-purchase his old iron axe from the Wolffen vendor, but the rest of his gear was of poor quality.

  *Cracked Ashe Bow*

  Damage: 10-12 + arrow damage | Range: 100yrds (-50% accuracy over 50yrds) | Durability: 5/10 | Quality: Trash | Rarity: Common | Effects: Cracked - 25% chance of breaking when used to shoot farther than 50yrds.

  This bow was made from the low-quality timbers of a dilapidated building. During its creation, a hairline crack formed around a small knot in its center.

  *Simple Iron Axe*

  Damage: 10-15 | Range: Melee | Durability: 8/10 | Quality: Poor | Rarity: Common | Effects: None

  Crafted by the journeyman blacksmith Wayland Smith, for the homesteader Eli Miller. This simple double-bit logging axe was made from average quality iron, then hardened to resist wear. A maker’s mark can be found on the haft and shoulder of the weapon.

  *Rusty Iron belt knife*

  Damage: 2-5 | Range: Melee | Durability: 9/10 | Quality: Poor | Rarity: Common | Effect: Rusted - Will lose one durability per day until repaired and free of rust.

  The serrated blade of this knife is made from common iron and shows signs of rust. While still sturdy, it will slowly lose durability with time unless properly restored. Its handle is made from bone, hidden beneath strips of aged leather.

  His armor was ragged sure, but that merchant had sold them weapons that wouldn’t last longer than a week in their current condition. “That fucking snake sold us garbage,” Eli said while looking over his gear. “When we get back, I’ll have to get in touch with Wayland to-” his words trailed off as he remembered the disheveled corpse of his friend he left to rot in the woods. “Dude, you’re just now looking over the gear I bought for you?” Don’s words barely reached Eli as the memories of the battle with the reanimated corpse of the blacksmith flooded back to him.

  “Yeah, and it’s almost worthless. Hopefully, we can get something better from the temple.” He said, forcing the sight of Wayland's disfigured body out of his mind.

  “What you’ve got now should last until we finish this quest, at least. At least I hope so; this quest is a little more than I signed up for. If not, we can always try to find more in a dungeon or something. There are usually chests and sweet rewards.” Don said, his words calmer than Eli expected.

  Tall Redwoods, oaks, and pines came into view, the tips of the tallest trees scraping dense autumn clouds like claws. The Wildwoods were a cluster of ancient deciduous forests that sprawled over the southern half of the Island of Scorn. They spread from Daggerfang Keep at the island’s southernmost tip to the Clutches, a series of jagged, claw-like mountain ranges t
hat divided the northern and southern sections of the island.

  The forests were home to beasts and monsters alike. Wild boar, deer, and small game animals made up a majority of the population, but more insidious creatures prowled the night. Few ventured deep enough into the woods to learn how to navigate them. Even less were as crazy or desperate as Eli and his family.

  Within moments they were at the forest’s border, which slowed their pace slightly. Eli’s knowledge of the woods and his instincts allowed him to lead them through game trails somewhat quickly. They needed to make good time and find a decent place to make camp, or they might be in trouble. Luckily, it was still about an hour past midday, and they had some time to make it further in.

  The monotony of the trails allowed Eli to distract himself with more of his heads up display, as the system and Don called it. His next icon was his notifications.

  *You have accepted the quest: Protecting the Pack.

  After checking his notifications, Eli moved on to his character sheet.

  Character Sheet:

  Name: Eli Miller

  Level: 3 | Class: None

  Hitpoints: 170 / 170 | Stamina: 140 / 140 | Mana: 100 / 100

  Attributes:

  Strength: 16

  Dexterity: 16

  Constitution: 14

  Intelligence: 10

  Spirit: 10

  Charisma: 10

  Luck: 11

  Available attribute points: 3

  Skills:

  Combat:

  Archery: 19 / 100

  Axes: 20 / 100

  Clubs: 1 / 100

  Daggers: 7 / 100

  Swords:15 / 100

  Tactics: 18 / 100

  Throwing Weapons: 5 / 100

  Unarmed: 10/100 | Subskill: Brawling: 10/100

  Improvised Weapons: 1/100

  Light Armor: 14/100

  Crafting:

  Lumberjack: 10/100

  Fletching: 5/100

  Survival & Misc:

  Medicine: 6/100 | First Aid: 6/100

  Perception: 11 / 100

  Stealth: 10/100

  Survival: 15/100 | Tracking: 5 / 100

  Willpower: 10 / 100

  Insight: 1/100

  A lot had changed since he had first seen the screen. His stats had increased, along with skills and his standing with the people of the slums. After digging into it further, he found that he had lost a substantial amount of reputation with the city of Dawnport itself. Losing reputation with a the city would be a hindrance, but there was nothing he could do about it. What sparked his intrest was the addition of first aid. It was strange; it didn’t appear as a skill itself. It was listed as a sub-skill of medicine.

  “Hey, Don. What’s the deal with subskills, why aren’t they just all listed as individual skills?” Eli asked through labored breaths.

  “Think of main skills as the trunk of a tree, with sub-skills as the branches. There are a specific amount of skills. Some estimates are upwards of one hundred. Certain skills are hidden, hard to get, or just unorthodox, but their common factor is that they count towards your skill cap and contain sub-skills that don’t.”

  “The amount of sub-skills is mind-boggling. There are standard, non-standard, and unique sub-skills. Standard sub-skills are your basics; an example would be parry. Parry is a sub-skill of nearly each weapon type, including unarmed. Once you learn to parry with a certain number of weapons, it becomes a non-standard subskill and becomes more of a general skill that applies to all weapons you use and can parry with.”

  Lost in his explanation, he stumbled over a raised branch. “Shit. Uh, where was I? Oh yeah! When you get it as a non-standard sub-skill, it levels up with use regardless of what weapon you’re using.”

  Low branches and thick roots became more prevalent as the forest grew thicker around the two. The game trails of the Wildwood weaved around large trees often leading through overgrowth, making it more difficult to navigate. The once bright daylight now trickled in as small streams that created visible pillars of light and swirling dust.

  “Nonstandard sub-skills are different in other ways. They can be created by having a bunch of similar skills at a certain level. An example of this would be my Martial Arts skill. It’s tied into my Acrobatics, Anatomy, and Unarmed Combat skills. After getting to level five in all three skills, it unlocked. It increases my unarmed damage, critical hit chance, and gives me a chance to stun or disable opponents while fighting without a weapon. I still use a staff, especially if I have to fight a bunch of enemies, and when I get to a certain level, weapons like staves and throwing weapons will also tie into my Martial Arts Skill. Unique skills and sub-skills are often given out by completing quests, taking part in world events, or doing something awesome. There’s this theory that taking over a place of power gives a person access to unique skills that are associated with that area, but no one has done that yet. But, for the sake of explanation, let’s say that you take over a large city or some magical place, you need to have the skills and abilities to run the place, right? So the system gives you a way to do it. Kind of like your party management ability, but for cities and such. At least that’s what people assume, because how else would you be able to mess with something like that?”

  They had covered nearly twelve miles in the three hours that they had been traveling. Blisters formed on the bottom of Eli’s feet, and his legs burned. Don didn’t look like he was holding up any better, and he didn’t seem to share Eli’s nearly perfect vision in the now dimly lit overgrowth.

  Noticing just how dark it was getting, Eli interrupted Don’s explanation with a quick hand gesture. He knew that traveling at night was dangerous, and the lack of noise from the surrounding woods made him nervous. There’s only one reason a forest goes quiet; when predators are nearby. “We’ve got to make camp. And we’ve got to do it now.”

  Chapter 20

  With their previous conversation at a standstill, the two searched for a small clearing. Dense underbrush, anthills, and root systems made the task difficult, but not impossible. After searching for nearly twenty minutes, Eli found a patch of lush grass in a natural clearing. The ring of broken saplings and matted foliage sparked a sense of danger in the back of Eli’s mind. His instincts screamed for him to be on guard, and he knew that stopping here was unwise. Not sensing any immediate threats, he ignored the dread rising in his belly. Traveling further, in complete darkness, would be much more dangerous than making a temporary camp.

  “Be alert. This may be a resting area for a small group of animals,” Eli said, kneeling to inspect the area, his hand brushing against a tuft of thick, coarse fur attached to a broken branch. The scent it let off was foul, like rotten cabbage and spoiled meat. “Or a really large one.”

  *Congratulations you have improved your survival skill*

  Survival:6/100

  *Congratulations you have improved your tracking skill*

  Tracking: 7/100

  With their campsite found, they made a plan. Don would stay in the clearing and prepare the area while Eli searched for firewood, sturdy branches, and soft ground cover to use under bedrolls. His improved senses allowed him to navigate at night more easily than his companion. Luckily Don had the foresight to buy a thin sheet of waxed linen to use for a lean-to. As he pulled it out of one of his belt pouches, it seemed to appear out of nowhere and was much larger than the pouch itself. Without mentioning the appearance of a large tarp from a small sack, they got to work.

  The dark corners of the woods held an unwelcome silence that filled the air with tension. There should be noise, something to rustle the leaves Eli thought to himself while he searched. His arms were already full of kindling and small branches for the fire. A few large branches, laid next to a fallen oak near the clearing. He would grab those later to make shelter. Right now, he had to get back to camp, his arms, and inventory too full to gather much more.

  A cool breeze caused Don to shiver, and he was very aware of just how alone he was
while Eli was looking for wood. He steadily unfurled his tarp and tamped down an area of grass to make room for their bedding. As he circled the area, he removed small rocks and snapped twigs to make room for their campsite. His motions slowed as the wind carried new scents through the trees, those of death and musk. Something was near. He picked up his pace, as Eli silently crossed the threshold of the treeline, seeming to appear out of nowhere.

  Eli crept forward, being sure to remain as silent as possible while making his way towards Don and a quickly forming fire pit. Slowly he lowered the pile of kindling and branches next to the ring of small stones and built up the fire. After a few failed attempts to get the somewhat damp sticks to catch, small tendrils of flame burst from a small nest of dried bark.

  Motioning for Don to get close, Eli whispered, “I don’t think we’re alone.”

  Don nodded before sparking his firestarter into a second bundle of wood shavings, causing it to flash to life. With the fire growing, and no threats making themselves visible, they got to work on the rest of their camp. Setting up the lean-to, bedding, and clearing the area gave both adventurers a level of survival, with Eli gaining an increase to leadership for showing Don how to identify where an animal had slept. The notification prompted Eli to restart a previous conversation. While he didn’t want to alert any other players or bandits to their location, he knew the sound of voices might keep animals away.