by M E Robinson
Goblins are humanoids, and most likely would prefer to make camp near a source of water, Eric reasoned, choosing to follow the brook as it wound its way north through the trees. Stopping occasionally to check his direction, Eric fended off monsters, dispatching overly aggressive rabbits with a single well placed stone arrow.
[Evasive Shot has levelled up to Beginner 2!]
Smiling, Eric dismissed the notification before looting the pair of rabbits that had charged him. He was pretty deep into the forest now. The sounds of other players hunting rabbits nearby had long since disappeared, replaced only by the sounds of insects, the bubbling of the brook, and the occasional howl.
“Strange how I haven’t run into any wolves yet,” Eric muttered, nocking an arrow to his bow to be safe. Ever since being stabbed by that rabbit, he’d been far more cautious, giving the woods the respect they deserved. No sooner it seemed had the words left his mouth when with a savage howl, a wolf appeared above him. Its outstretched claws ready to tear him apart as it leapt through the air.
Whipping around, Eric activated Evasive Shot, loosing the arrow he had prepared and dodging to the side in a single movement. With a meaty thud, the arrow buried itself into the animal’s upper shoulder, causing it to emit a loud growl as it bared its fangs at him. Grabbing another arrow from his quiver, Eric backpedalled quickly but failed to fully avoid the wolf’s follow up swipe, the wolf’s claws catching him in the leg as he retreated. Hissing at the sudden pain, Eric watched as his healthbar appeared, more than ten percent of his health vanishing with the strike.
Cursing, he stopped trying to pull out another arrow, instead ducking down and throwing himself under the wolf’s second lunge. This time, the wolf sailed overhead, its claws hitting air only inches above him as he readied another arrow to fire. Spinning around, he brought up the arrow to his cheek, feeling the coarse goose-feather fletching rub against his nose. As the wolf reared for another strike, preparing to bite into Eric’s soft unprotected thigh he loosed the arrow, watching as it penetrated deeply into the wolf’s throat.
With a low gurgling sound the wolf collapsed to the ground, the last of its HP bar disappearing as it fell. After looting it and moving a few hundred meters from the corpse, Eric found a mossy rock where he sat down to review the fight.
Unlike with the Demonic Rabbits, Red-maned Wolves were much more violent and cunning. Where the rabbits were fairly simplistic, only attacking if the player intruded upon its territory, the wolf had actively sought him out and planned a sneak attack. Had he not been prepared, then it could have been him left lying on the forest floor.
The wolves were also much more varied in their attack patterns than the rabbits had been. With only the horn upon their forehead as a true threat, the demonic rabbits were limited to a fairly simplistic attack pattern which consisted purely of charging in a straight line directly at their foe. Simply moving to the side was enough to avoid most of their attacks. The wolves on the other hand could use both their powerful jaws as well as their razor sharp claws to attack. Not being forced into gathering enough speed to make their charge lethal, the wolves could thus change directions mid-combat and catch a player attempting to avoid only the initial charge in order to allow for a follow up attack. Very tricky. And wolves were supposed to be easier opponents than goblins, at least according to Alistair.
Bringing up his notification window, Eric was surprised to see the number of skill levels he’d gained from the fight.
[Evasive Shot has levelled up to Beginner 6]
[Basic Evasion has reached Beginner 8]
[Basic Archery has reached Beginner 10!]
[You have learned Charged Shot!]
[You have levelled up to level 2! Stats have been updated]
All Stats +1
Health +10
Mana +10
[Charged Shot] - Beginner 1
Active Skill
Common
By taking extra time to aim and draw the bow back to its full potential you maximize the damage dealt to your target. Increases power and accuracy of the shot in exchange for increased stamina usage.
Despite having only fought a single wolf, multiple skills had levelled up. Including his Basic Archery which had been stuck at Beginner 9 for a little while now. What confused him was that he’d also gained multiple levels for Evasive Shot and Basic Evasion. Despite this fight being less dangerous than the fight against Seryllia, he’d gained more skill levels as a whole in this fight. This could mean one of two things, either fights against other players didn’t give as much skill experience to avoid abuse, or that perhaps there was some other modifier that affected skill leveling apart from danger. Perhaps the execution of the skill itself mattered? No matter the case, it was certainly much more effective to fight wolves than it had been murdering those poor innocent rabbits. Well maybe not so innocent, Eric thought, glancing at the bloody hole that still gaped open on the side of his pants, revealing the freshly healed flesh underneath.
Moving on from the issue of skill levels, Eric was thrilled to see that he’d finally hit level 2. It seemed that Beginner 10 in a skill really was a prerequisite for leveling up. Interestingly, it appeared that leveling up had unlocked the stats system. Unfortunately, even after searching through his status window, Eric was unable to discover just what his stats were. While having stats was a hallmark of standard RPG systems, the omission of actual numbers was a little shocking.
With a shrug, Eric got up and dusted himself off. No matter what, whether or not stats were omitted, fighting players gave less skill experience, or if beginner 10 affected a player’s ability to level up, none of that really mattered right now. The only path forward was to continue to kill, grind wolves to level up his skills, gain levels, and meet up with the group so they could attempt to kill bosses or run dungeons together. Worrying about the most efficient way to grind would only paralyze his decision making; for now, he could leave that to the forum theorycrafters. He would focus on repeating the same skills over and over against the wolves. Focusing on leveling Evasive Shot and Basic Evasion would benefit him in the future. Plus he was interested to know what would happen once he got a second skill to Beginner 10.
Stretching quickly, he began to venture deeper into the forest. Alert for even the slightest sound of movement. Occasionally, he passed rabbits, staring out from their burrows with mistrustful eyes. Most of these he avoided by giving a wide berth, but those that charged him regardless received a swift arrow, permanently ending any aspirations they may have held of further tearing his pants.
Whenever he encountered a lone wolf, he would attempt to perform as many evasive shots as possible, always aiming to both perfectly dodge and land arrows in critical spots. As a result, his Evasive Shot skill was now Beginner 8, and his Basic Evasion had also reached Beginner 9. His Basic Archery was still stuck at Beginner 10. But he felt that it should level up soon.
Eric hadn’t forgotten that his ultimate goal for now was to create a Rare Skill. Whichever person created a Rare or higher skill would become the leader of the guild which meant that if Jun created one before him, he would forever be the lowest rank possible in the guild. He had to create a rare skill before Jun!
Unfortunately, he still had no idea what was required to create even the most basic skill. Let alone a skill with a rare rank or higher, he thought absently as he ducked underneath a wolf’s claws, loosing an arrow at point blank range into its abdomen as he did so. With a howl, the wolf fell, the fury in its eyes at being unable to land a scratch on this half-elf slowly being replaced by the milky whiteness of death.
[Red-maned Wolf has died]
[Basic Evasion has reached Beginner 10!]
[You have levelled up to level 3! Stats have been updated]
All Stats +1
Health +10
Mana +10
[Evasive Shot has levelled up to Beginner 9]
[Basic Archery has reached Apprentice 1]
With a grin, Eric opened up his event l
og. Sure enough, it seemed that reaching Beginner 10 in a skill was indeed related to levelling up. Whether or not every skill would allow a player to level up once reaching Beginner 10 or not remained to be tested, but it certainly seemed likely given that both times he’d increased a skill to Beginner 10 he’d gained a level. Interestingly enough, there was no new active skill learned for reaching Beginner 10 with his Basic Evasion skill. Perhaps only your first skill rewards you with a new active skill? Eric wondered as he checked the notifications.
His archery skill had also advanced another level; however, it was no longer rated as beginner but instead as apprentice. Wondering idly if the level names changed every ten levels, Eric closed the event log. While he was certainly gaining quite a lot of skill levels hunting wolves solo, the wolves were no longer too much of a challenge. Or at least individual wolves were not. Perhaps it was time to stop avoiding pairs of wolves, or even start hunting for the goblins Alistair had mentioned? With a smile, Eric looted the wolf and set off. It was time to test whether or not these iron arrows he’d purchased had been worth the price.
- Chapter Twenty-Nine -
Elite
Panting hard, Eric dodged the claw that was hurtling towards his face, throwing himself backwards in the nick of time. His bow lay abandoned to the side, next to a red-maned wolf with four arrows sticking out of its side. Its companion continued to throw itself at Eric, disregarding the numerous cuts and stab wounds that now riddled its body courtesy of his bronze dagger.
Cursing the uselessness of the tiny dagger, not for the first time this fight, Eric found himself wishing he hadn’t bought those iron arrows. If he’d instead opted to purchase a sword or spear from Tom, this fight would have been over. Instead, his health was now blinking dangerously low as the wolf in front of him threw itself at him again.
Attempting to cast a spell, the wolf's paw flashed towards his hand, forcing him to abandon the cast. It seemed that this wolf was determined to keep the fight at melee range, which was not exactly his forte.
Looking at the wolf's healthbar which was nearly depleted, Eric gritted his teeth. Grabbing the dagger in both hands he met the wolf’s charge head on, swinging his dagger like a baseball bat and smashing the blade into the wolf’s exposed ribs. Undaunted, the wolf snapped its jaws at Eric, attempting to drain the remaining few points of his healthbar even as its own emptied. With one last weak nip, the wolf fell to the ground dead and Eric collapsed beside it.
This was the closest he’d come to death so far since entering Fate. His healthbar blinked slowly, indicating that he had only a hair more than 10% of his hitpoints remaining. Had the wolf landed even one more good swipe, he’d have been sent back to the revival point.
I’ve gotten cocky, Eric thought to himself as he struggled to sit up. Everything had been going fairly well so far: he’d defeated demonic rabbits, survived a fight with a player killer, and soloed wolves with ease after only a few hours in the game. He hadn’t expected fighting two wolves to be so much more difficult than fighting one had been. Looking up at the darkening sky, he reflected on the fight.
He’d seen the wolves first, feasting on the carcass of what appeared to be a small furred animal. Using Charged Shot, he’d taken away almost half the hitpoints of the first wolf before they were even aware of his presence. Until that point everything had been going well. He’d landed first blood. He had the range advantage, and the wolves were heavily injured after his first shot.
Unfortunately, it was from there that everything had gone to shit. The wolves had used the trees to their advantage, darting between the trunks and avoiding his arrows. Unwilling to lose his expensive iron arrows, he’d held his fire. Waiting for a clear shot, by the time he’d been able to line up a second arrow, the wolves had been nearly upon him.
Luckily, he’d managed to take out the first wolf with a few more well placed arrows. But not before the two wolves had combined to take down almost 70% of his healthbar. Unlike when he’d fought a single wolf, the two wolves had worked together, flanking him and preventing him from getting critical shots off. The second wolf had on two different occasions taken arrows meant to dispatch the already injured wolf, causing the fight to drag out and giving the two wolves more chances to claw at his exposed flesh.
In order to take out the first wolf, he’d been forced to expose himself to the second, sacrificing his flesh in exchange for the life of his enemy. And unlike the other wolves he’d fought, this wolf had cunningly attacked his arm, forcing him to drop his bow. The wolf had then prevented him from retrieving it, forcing him into melee combat with only his dagger for the duration of the fight.
Really, the AI in this game was way too good. A mere wolf had realized that his bow was the biggest threat and nearly managed to kill him because of it. Staring at the wolf’s corpse in annoyance, Eric kicked at the beast half-heartedly. It appeared he couldn’t rely solely on archery and magic if he wanted to survive. At least for now while he still had no real skills. Without his bow, and lacking the ability to form the runes to cast spells quickly enough in the middle of combat, he desperately needed to find a way to defend himself should the fight descend into a melee. Or find some nice people to be his meatshields, he thought with a small grin.
Struggling to his feet, Eric quickly looted the two wolves and fled. Not wanting their corpses to attract more wolves. Even with his natural health regeneration kicking in now that he was out of combat, he was still below 20% health. Nowhere near enough to safely fight wolves or any other creatures attracted by the scent of blood.
Escaping the scene of carnage, Eric quickly fled the scene. Fortunately, Fate sealed his wounds fairly quickly after taking damage so long as the bleeding debuff was not applied, so he didn’t need to worry about leaving a trail of blood behind him. He also hadn’t noticed wolves or other monsters tracking him through the scent of blood on his clothes so far, so hopefully that was another game mechanic designed to help promote game balance over realism.
After stealthily moving through the forest for a few minutes, he’d gotten almost a kilometre away from the two wolves carcasses. Excitedly, he looked at the event log which was giving off a brilliant light. If killing single wolves had provided him with fairly large gains so far, what would a fight that was more than five times as dangerous reward him with? Sitting down on a nearby stump, he opened the event log, the light from the status window gently illuminating the darkness of night that had befallen the forest.
[Charged Shot has levelled up to Beginner 3]
[Basic Archery has reached Apprentice 2]
[Basic Evasion has reached Apprentice 1]
[Evasive Shot has levelled up to Beginner 10!]
[Basic Archery has reached Apprentice 3]
[Red-maned Wolf has died]
[You have dropped your Fine Yew Longbow]
[Your left arm has been crippled for ten seconds!]
[Militia Swordsmanship has reached Beginner 6]
[Casting Arcane Strike has failed]
[Sword Technique - Guard has levelled up to Beginner 4]
[Militia Swordsmanship has reached Beginner 7]
[Red-maned Wolf has died]
[You have levelled up to level 4! Stats have been updated]
[You have received: Militia Badge]
Eric whistled, the haul from the fight was pretty big. Multiple skills had levelled up significantly and he’d gained another level thanks to his Evasive Shot reaching Beginner 10. Unfortunately, he’d once again failed to receive a new skill after reaching Beginner 10 in a skill. It seemed that players only received a skill for their first skill to hit Beginner 10, Eric surmised. Dismissing the thought, Eric was about to close the event log when a line at the bottom caught his eye. Opening his inventory, he spied a small silver pin, covered in blood and other matter but otherwise identical to the one he wore on the left breast of his wool doublet. Taking the badge out of his inventory, he examined it.
[Militia Badge]
Description: A s
mall silver badge fashioned in the shape of a leaf-bladed spear. The symbol of the Novanalba militia. This badge appears to have belonged to a former militia member. Bring it to a local militia captain to find out more.
[Quest received: Militia Losses]
Deliver the militia badge to a militia officer. Perhaps they’ll be able to tell you who it belonged to, or give you other clues to the owner’s fate.
Reward: ???
Staring in surprise at the quest that had just appeared, Eric regained his composure and put the militia badge back inside his inventory. It would appear he was not the only militia member who’d had trouble fighting those wolves. And it appeared that the previous fighter had not been as fortunate as he’d been, Eric thought grimly.
Checking his healthbar, which was back above 70%, Eric stood up. Before he went back to Tonbura, he wanted to hunt a few more wolves. His main objective now was to earn enough coin from this expedition to purchase a new weapon that he could use in melee combat. His trusty bronze dagger just wasn’t going to cut it in a real fight.
Plunging deeper into the forest, the dark canopy overhead slowly began to dim as the trees grew thicker, clustered together as they all fought to receive the meager rays of moonlight that made it through the canopy above. Recalling the map that Alistair had shown him, Eric realized that by now he was very deep inside Stillwood Forest. The branches above had gotten thicker, with dark moss hanging from dead boughs. Clambering over fallen trees and skirting mossy boulders, he decided that he would continue onwards for another ten minutes before turning back, not wanting to forge too far into the monster-infested forest. The sounds of the forest were also slowly growing dimmer, with the occasional screech or howl causing Eric to freeze in place, nocking an arrow to his bow as silently as possible.