That should slow down the mana drain rate as well, giving me plenty of time to meditate.
Feeling smug and extremely pleased with myself for finding a method to grind three skill simultaneously, I closed my eyes again.
“Shut up Vic” I grunted and resume meditating.
This time, I used more advanced exercises, manifesting mana spheres outside of my body, making them spin around, and absorbing them back; repeating them again, and again and again.
I lost sense of time. I didn’t know if it was still daylight, or next morning. All I knew was the feeling of relaxation and utter self-control. The game made it possible to reach a meditative level that was unattainable on the outside in real life.
A jarring hit to my head broke me out of my reverie. I found myself sprawled out on the ground, dazed, exhausted, and empty of mana.
I struggled to sit up as the campsite swam in my vision. I blinked a few times and saw Vrick and his warriors encircling me. Each had a training spear in one hand, and a small coin in the other.
What the hell is going on?
“Where is Guba?” I demanded of Vrick, “What are you doing?”
He grinned at me, “Guba was bored and tired of hitting you, so she called us. We had lots of fun throwing coins and hitting you. So far I managed to hit you the most.” He said proudly.
I frowned and checked the internal clock. Two hours had passed. It was already past noon, and everyone was present at the campsite, just finishing eating their lunch.
I eagerly checked my character sheet, foregoing the Traits section, and felt giddy when I saw the results.
Mana Manipulation was now level 8, increasing my mana pool to 200, and my mana regeneration rate to 30. Mana shield had reached level 14. And thanks to the Prime badge, Lucky Bastard was level 11.
Damn, that was four hours well spent.
Lucky Bastard had jumped to Apprentice rank too. Unfortunately it seemed to be the skill’s limit, or cap, for this type of training. I opened the details window for Lucky Bastard to see what the new rank bonus did.
Lucky Bastard [passive, monster race]
You are simply naturally lucky, bastard!
Current level 11: Apprentice: Dangersense; You can now sense the aura of especially dangerous creatures or locations. Don’t blame Luck next time you fall into a bottomless demon pit of despair.
Effects: +11% chance for luck to work to your favor.
Prime badge: As the first player to unlock this skill you have a 50% increased rate of growth and can teach it to others.
I wondered how Dangersense would work, what shape it would take to alert me of possible danger. Still, assuming it worked as described, it could prove quite useful.
I stood up and stretched.
Time for some food, I thought, as my belly complained loudly at being neglected.
Guba wordlessly handed me my portion of meat and potatoes stew, and I ate in silence, considering my skill grinding options.
I needed to level my main attack spell, Drilling Arrow, and do it quickly. It had been inadequate against the enemies we’ve encountered so far; the Ogre especially. I knew the effectiveness of the spell would increase significantly once it reached the Apprentice rank, it was just a matter of getting it there. But I couldn’t think of an effective way to level it outside of combat. Casting it again and again against a training dummy would produce little progress, and it would cap out quickly. Training under duress was the fastest way to increase a skill level, and that meant actual battle conditions.
There’s no helping it, I sighed. Tomorrow I’ll have to leave the valley and look for some monsters to fight.
“Zuban,” I addressed my chief builder, “How is the Chieftain's Hut going?”
“Quite good, Esteem Totem” he bowed respectfully. “By this time tomorrow we should be finished.”
I nodded. “Vrick, have the warriors guard the perimeter during the night. I want one of them awake at all times, watching both the cave entrance and the path from here to the forest.”
“Yes, Esteemed Totem,” Vrick replied immediately.
“Tika, how are you progressing with the Thornthistle seeds?” I questioned the huntress.
“I finish, Totem.” She replied with a shy smile.
I was startled. “Already? That was quick!”
She nodded, “It is like I hunt. I know where go, what to do”
I guessed she meant her Forage skill contributed to her planting task, allowing her to complete it more quickly.
“Good job Tika” I complimented her. “Tomorrow, we’ll go hunting together, so make sure you rest well tonight.”
“Yes Totem” she nodded, fidgeting.
Everyone went back to their work, leaving myself, Guba and Tika at the campfire. I continued grinding Mana Manipulation and Mana Shield. I asked Tika to hit me this time, without the coin since it would no longer contribute to Lucky Bastard’s growth.
By the time everyone returned for the night, I had raised the levels of Mana Shield once and Mana Manipulation by 2.
The first day in our new homeland had been exciting and productive. Tired but optimistic about the future, we bedded down for the night, with the goblin warriors keeping watch over us throughout the night.
I woke up early the next morning, got out of my warm furs and stretched, feeling the warmth of the morning sun.
New day, new opportunities. I thought and rubbed my hands together.
“Tika, get ready, we’ll be leaving in a few minutes.” I called to wake the still slumbering goblin.
To pass the time waiting for Tika, I approached the cave.
As I stood watching the cave, my earlier feelings of unease had changed. Now I felt a distinct sense of foreboding emanating from inside.
The new Dangersense at work, I surmised.
I stared into the dark opening, trying to pierce its darkness, but to no avail.
“Meh, I’ll deal with you soon enough” I muttered under my breath, and went back to camp.
Tika was already waiting for me, she wore her simple hunting leather clothes and shouldered her shortbow. A quiver full of arrows on her back.
We walked toward the forested part of the valley, where the entrance was hidden, following the path through the clearing, past the Chief’s Hut and into the passageway.
I’d forgotten Vic was still with me, until he suddenly yawned in my mind.
I ignored him as we walked past the opening of the valley’s gorge, and into the deep forest.
I looked for tracks while we walked. There were tracks from small predators; foxes, badgers, and the like, but I left those alone. I needed something challenging to level up my skills quickly. After another hour of searching, I found a large clawed footmark.
“Hey Tika, come over there, I think I’ve got something,” I called to her.
She checked the footprint I’d discovered and frowned “Tis’ big bear, danger. We not hunt.”
“Nonsense,” I declared magnanimously, “You are accompanied by your benevolent Totem, he will keep you safe.” I grinned at her.
She tilted her head, confused by my bravado. “It’s ok Tika, I’ll look out for you. Let’s track this bear down.”
We followed the animal’s trail. The tracks led past some trees with claw marks on them. It looked like the bear had sharpened its claws about an hour ago. We were gaining on it. The trail led us to a small river bend. As we emerged from the trees, we saw our target. It was a medium sized bear, the size of a very large dog, easily five times heavier than either of us. I used Analyze on it.
Dire Bear Cub, level 8, 123 hp
This was just what I was looking for; a challenge, but not an overly dangerous one.
“Ok, Tika, climb up that tree, but don’t attack unless I tell you so.”
“Yes, Totem”.
>
I activated my Mana Shield, and walked slowly toward the bear. It was lapping at the water noisily, and didn’t notice my approach. I summoned a Drilling Arrow and started charging it. I was ten meters away when it was fully charged, and I launched it at the bear.
Drilling Arrow hit Dire Bear Cub for 26 damage, [Sneak Attack +5 damage]
The bear roared in rage and pain. It turned and, seeing me, charged straight at me in a running gait. Tika started shooting at it from the tree. I landed two more Drilling Arrows on it, doing 19 damage, before it closed the distance between us, Tika’s arrows sticking out from its hide.
The bear reared up, and landed two heavy claws on my Shield, each causing 12 points of damage that were easily absorbed by my shield.
The bear stupidly kept pawing at my shield while I continued hitting it with Drilling Arrows, and Tika riddled it with arrows. I finally landed the killing blow.
Drilling Arrow Skill level increased to 3
Level up! You have reached Character Level 7. You have 1 ability point to allocate.
Happy with my progress, I bent down and collected 32 pieces of raw meat from the bear. That was an amazingly good haul. Though the fight wasn’t particularly challenging, my mana pool was almost depleted. I wasn’t too worried, in a few minutes it would be fully regenerated, then we could resume hunting.
Or so I thought.
An earth shattering roar split the air, and another bear appeared, coming out of the treeline. This one was HUGE.
Dire Bear Matriarch, level ??, ?? hp
It was taller than the Ogre we’d fought a couple days ago, and probably ten times heavier. It charged straight towards me awkwardly but as fast as a galloping horse.
I was screwed.
I couldn’t outrun it, and the idea of fighting it was ludicrous. I had seconds before it reached me. I did the only thing I could.
“TIKA! RUUUUNNNN!!”.
Then the gigantic beast was on me. A paw the size of a dinner plate shattered my Shield with one strike consuming all my remaining mana. The attack was hardly blunted at all, also removing half my hit points. The next paw-strike rent me apart from limb to limb.
You have died. No permanent death penalties as you are below level 10
Well, it had been a while.
11 - Fight Easy
You have respawned.
Death Debuff I: -20% XP gain, duration: 70 minutes
Death Debuff II: Disorientation, duration: 7 minutes.
I heaved a sigh of relief when I awoke back in the valley, in the new cemetery just where I was supposed to. I was lying on the uncomfortable stone floor of the overhanging shelf above the cave.
But something wasn’t right. I frowned, looking around me.
What is going on?
It was dark, stars were out in the sky. It was nighttime. When I checked the internal game-clock the time was midnight. But when we fought the bears it was mid-day. I had respawned hours after my death.
Is my character buggy? That was really worrisome. I had to find out.
Tal would probably know something, but it had only been three days in-game since we talked, meaning six hours had passed from his perspective. I wanted to give him a longer break from my worries, but this was serious, I had to know what was happening to me. I opened the admin messaging tool and composed a short message.
New Era Online [Internal messaging service]:
To: SuperWolf#23
Subject: Question from your green pal
Hi Tal,
Something weird happened… I died in the game, and instead of respawning instantly, it took about 6 hours. I don’t have any memory of the time passing. Any idea what that’s all about?
Could it be another bug?
I owe you another round of beers.
Oren
I sent it off with a mental click.
I stood at the edge of the stone shelf and looked out over the dark valley below. I could see my clan in camp, sitting around a large bonfire. The light from the fire overwhelmed my low light vision, so I couldn’t see into the unlit parts of the valley.
I climbed down the rope, carefully avoiding the front of the cave mouth, and made my way toward camp.
Tika noticed me first and ran to me.
What the hell?? I was astounded as she threw her arms around me. What is going on?
“Oh, Totem, I afraid you dead. For good.”
I tried to extricate myself from her embarrassing display of emotion.
“What happened? All I remember is that a great bear attacked me.”
She nodded. “Big mother bear. Angry. Kill you. Then…” she hesitated, “eat you. I wait, bear eat, I run to clan” she finished shamefaced.
“It’s ok Tika, you did the right thing,” I tried to console her. “I’m fine, completely healthy. Corgoram has brought me back.”
“Hmph!” Guba snorted angrily. “Good thing you gotten that cemetery going ‘afore you went an’ got yerself eaten.” Despite her rigid demeanor, I could detect a sense of relief in her voice.
Was she worried about me? That was kind of touching.
I checked my inventory. I still had the meat I got from hunting the bear cub. As all of my recent deaths had occurred while I was still below level 10, I didn't lose any item items. Lucky. Lucky Bastard, that is.
I tossed the meat into the general pile.
“Vic, give me a rundown of the clan's inventory, please.”
He didn’t respond.
I turned my head, looking behind my shoulder, meaning to glare at him. Only then did I realize Vic wasn’t with me.
Oops! I completely forgot about him, he was killed by the bear matriarch too, but instead of respawning, he had to be re-summoned.
I concentrated and used the Soul Companion ability. As before, magical strands of blue and red came out of me, and reformed the spherical mass that would contain Vic’s consciousness. I was significantly stronger than when I had first summoned him, so I kept the flow of mana and health drain longer. I invested a total of 200 mana and 100 health, about 90% of my total. It made me extremely vulnerable, of course, but I was at my base camp and as safe as any of us could be at the moment.
“Well, It's about damn time!” Vic’s attitude made a reappearance almost before his body did.
He seemed bigger now, more robust. He had been about half my size before, now he was almost my height.
Probably the extra mana and hp, I observed.
“Sorry Vic.” I cocked my head. “It’s the first time I’ve died since we bonded. I guess I’m still getting used to our partnership.”
“Whatever” Vic replied gruffly. “Just don’t take all day next time we die.”
He changed shape, transforming into his Vicloack shape again, and settling around my shoulders.
“Now, would you mind giving me a rundown of our inventory?”
Thank you.
Well, we were off to a good start. Though the hunting ended in my tragic death, it did wonders for our dwindling food supply. That should give us some breathing room, and allow us to concentrate on establishing the new settlement.
That made me realized something. Zuban was supposed to finish the Chief's Hut today!
“Zuban, how’s the construction going?” I asked eagerly.
He shrugged “I’d barely call it a usable hut. But it’s finished. You can check it out whenever you like”.
“Excellent” I beamed at him. Finally, we were making some progress.
I wanted to go over everyone’s character progress, but our War Party disbanded when I died, I no longer had access to their details. I considered re-establishing it, but decided
not to. When it was active it kept me on the edge of my seat, making me feel like I was about to go into combat at any moment. It was mentally exhausting. It was relaxing to view only my own information.
I could always re-establish the War Party later, if I needed to.
It had been a long day and tomorrow would be even longer. I called it a night and went to sleep.
***
I woke up early in the morning surrounded by my clan. Most of them were sleeping huddled together, a tangle of legs, arms and a couple of bed furs thrown in for good measure.
I yawned and went to the nearby pool for a drink of water.
I had big plans for today; today was the day I would officially establish my new settlement. I was eager to get on with it.
I left everyone still sleeping and made the short trek back to the woods, nodding to the guard as I passed by him. When I reached the clearing, I saw a structure had been added to it; my brand-new Chief’s Hut. I could see Zuban’s point, it was a primitive and shoddy building. The frame of the domelike structure had been made from bent tree limbs. Animal skins were stretched over the top as a ‘roof,’ and the walls were made of thin, flexible branches woven through the supporting members. A goblin size ‘doorway,’ faced up the trail towards the valley’s entrance, the direction our enemies would come from. It was more a permanent tent than a proper hut.
Inside the hut was a chest made of rough split-logs. Flat lengths bound with rope formed the lid of the chest, with rudimentary leather-strap hinges and a rope tie-down. Adventurers opening this chest would likely be rewarded with splinters before gold.
Damn, it’s cruder than I thought it would be. But considering the available resources he had, Zuban came through for me. The important thing was that it served the purpose it was made for; it was a believable decoy. Any self-respecting player that stumbled on it, would shake his head in contempt, and leave to look elsewhere for more rewarding prospects.
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